This is a Wednesday night that actually feels like it should be a weekend already. We’ve had winter weather for the past week — except we haven’t had the snow and rain that comes along with winter. A few flakes will fall and nothing more. Dang. If we’re going to have the weather, I’d just as soon have the rain and snow that goes along with it. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of writing at work. Policies and procedures and such. Consequently, I’ve been neglecting the blog. I actually need to write in the blog much more often as it is quite theraputic. I’ve also been quite caught up in the Wheel of Time series from Robert Jordan. I’ve just started Book 10 and am still enjoying the series. These are all huge books (800 to 1000 pages each) and they all take some time to read. As a result, I haven’t been writing very much and I’ve also got several thousand e-mails unread from the Prop Wash Gang. These are folks that have been involved in the Air Force reconnaissance program as I was some forty years ago. Most of them were Russian linguists. A few were Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese lingusts. A couple are Arab linguists. The commentary and stories are quite interesting. So I can’t just delete the e-mails, I do want to puruse them. I’ll catch up one of these days!

I’m listening to a podcast as I write this. Richard lives in Japan (works in Tokyo and lives about two hours north of the city not far from Tsukuba) and has put out two podcasts. The URL for his blog is www.herroflomjapan.com. Both of his podcasts so far have featured a “soundscape” from Japan. He has a couple of binaural microphones that look like earphones. He plugs these into his mp3 recorder and walks through neighborhoods in Tokyo. In this case, he’s walking through Kabukicho which is the red-light district on the west side of Tokyo (I’ve never been there). It’s quite interesting listening to all the sounds and action as he walks along, records the sounds, and comments on what he’s seeing. Sounds just like the Japan I remember.

All of the birthday cards have arrived. It was indeed fun getting a whole stack of birthday cards and all who were assigned came through with their assignment. Very cool. We’ll be going to some Chukars baseball games, buying some more books from Amazon.com, and enjoying goodies. A very nice birthday and thanks to all. My dad will have his 85th birthday in a couple of weeks, so it’s time to plan a birthday party for him. Birthdays are still good — as the unattributed quote says, “the more you have, the longer you live.” Keep ’em coming.

Nina has been struggling with a lousy cold. We’ve got some very good friends from Colorado Springs arriving tomorrow evening for a short visit on their way to Salt Lake City for General Conference. In about 9 days Nina’s sister from Ohio will arrive for a two-week stay. A few days later, Nina’s niece (daughter of the sister from Ohio) will arrive for a week. Then Ashlyn heads back up to Rexburg to start her next two semesters at college. Ashlyn’s been away on Spring Break and got back this evening. We miss her when she’s gone and will miss her when she leaves to go back to school. She’s a lot of fun to have around (and I’m sure that a couple of old farts like Nina and I make life interesting for her as well!). Ashlyn also came home with a cold. I’m doomed. So far I’ve gotten through the winter with no cold and no flu. My luck looks to be running out. But, I’ve written in the blog!

I don’t think there is anything about birthdays I can say that hasn’t been better said by a bunch of other people. For instance:

• No wise man ever wished to be younger (Jonathan Swift).
• Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative (Maurice Chevalier).
• A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip (unknown)!
• Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live (unknown).
• For all the advances in medicine, there is still no cure for the common birthday (John Glenn).

I’ve now had sixty birthdays. It was only a few years ago that I thought sixty was really old. I now certainly hope not, because I don’t feel “really old.” I should easily have another twenty birthdays and with the advances in medicine perhaps even thirty or more. That actually has a nice sound to it: thirty more birthdays. That’d mean I’ve still got a third of my life left — plenty of time to get a few more things checked of the list of stuff I want to do before I die.

Since today is my birthday, yesterday was Nina’s birthday. One day of the year we’re the same age. Then we go to bed and I wake up a year older but she only wakes up a day older. I guess there’s some poetic justice in that…. However, since my birthday was one of those “major milestone” birthdays, our kids have all ganged up to send me sixty birthday cards. Most have arrived, some are still on their way. It’s been fun opening and reading all the cards. The variety of cards is very interesting and also reflect a lot of the personality of the person sending the card. I’ve enjoyed getting all of them. They’ll get eventually into a scrapbook as they make a very nice remembrance.

There is a potential problem if I buy anything close to my birthday or before Christmas. Since Nina knows my wishes and desires pretty well, she will use them as a guide when buying presents. This birthday was no different. I’ve been re-reading the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series and am close to finishing book 8. I don’t have book 9, but I do have book 10. So, Nina bought a copy of book 9 for my birthday. However, on Friday I got an Amazon.com gift certificate from our daughter Heather. She and the grandkids came up on Friday and stayed over to today for our birthdays. Further, her oldest daughter (and our oldest grandchild) is coming up on her sixteenth birthday and is learning to drive. She needs forty hours of supervised driving practice, some of which have to be at night. So, I asked Stephanie if she wanted to get in some night driving and she could drive me over to the Pine Ridge Mall. Of course she wanted to go! Not only could she drive, but we were going to the MALL! There is a rather poor bookstore in the mall. I checked there to see if they had book 9 in stock — they didn’t. They had one copy of all the other books in the series, but not book 9 (that should have been a clue…!!). When we got back home, I proceeded to order the book from Amazon.com.

When I told Nina later that evening that I had ordered the book, she didn’t say much. She later talked with Heather about what to do, and Heather (always wanting to avoid making someone uncomfortable) suggested just taking the book back to the bookstore for a refund and not saying anything as there were other presents. Nina wanted to give me the book anyway just so I would know that she had been thinking of me (and perhaps also to remind me to not buy things just before my birthday). This morning Nina and I talked about it again, and decided that we would give Heather a hard time. Nina would give me the book first as though it was the only present. I’d open it, and she would make a big deal about my already having bought the book. That’s what we did. It went off perfectly and Heather was quite put out when we told her it was a planned act! I guess I made her pretty uncomfortable … Sorry, Heather! (and Stephanie). Maybe sometime in the future it’ll be funny (I hope).

This afternoon we drove to Soda Springs and spent the afternoon with my folks. Mother made a lovely dinner and we had a very nice visit. Dad talked about how he learned he was a father. It was WWII time, he was in the army in Germany and received a V-Mail from mother that mother was going into the hospital to deliver the baby. The day he received the V-Mail was the day his unit crossed the Rhine River. About ten days later he received a second V-Mail letting him know that a son had been born, that he was indeed a father, and that mother and son were doing well. News travels much faster today. I was reading a while back in the newspaper that a father-to-be in the army in Iraq was on the phone listening to the activity in the delivery room as his wife delivered a new baby daughter. One of the services some birthing centers provide (for a fee, of course) is a web-camera feed of the delivery room and the newborn baby. Anyone with an invitation can receive the feed over the internet and participate long-distance in the event.

The day is almost finished. Another decade has begun. This one should see momentous changes in our lives as well as the world around us. Sometime in this decade we’ll hopefully have sufficient money to retire. We’ll serve a couple of missions during the coming decade if our health holds up. We’ll do some traveling and see parts of the world as well as this country that we haven’t seen before. We’ll spend time with our family and grandchildren, present at as many of their major milestones as possible. In ten years the internet will look nothing like it does today. Will these musings still exist somewhere in the ether? I hope so!

I’m so tired of trackback spam. The online poker sites are the worst of the lot. A trackback is intended to say that someone has linked to my weblog. They have written something and put a link in their blog referencing my blog. The trackback then shows up as a comment on my site giving a link back to the person who referenced me. The trackback spam is just bogus trackbacks intended to put a link in the comments for a particular post back to the online poker site. Well, I’ve been getting anywhere from five to ten of these trackback spam messages a day. I’m tired of deleting them. So, for the time being, I’ve turned off trackbacks. Sometime in the future when the online gambling sites have forgotten about me, I’ll turn them back on (maybe). Why is it that these places take something good and turn it into crap?

Jared made his way up from Salt Lake to spend a couple of days with us. He’s moved out of Denver and has been staying for a couple of weeks with his brother Daryl. On Monday Jared heads northwest planning to stop around Seattle. Then comes the fun part of finding a job and an apartment. This is a good change for Jared and we wish him great luck in his new adventure. He’s excited and energized. An occasional change is good for the soul.

I’m writing this from my new Apple Mac Mini. It finally arrived. Assembly occurred in Shanghai, China. Perhaps that’s why it took so long? Dell doesn’t have much to fear from Apple in the build-to-order and deliver-immediately categories. I ordered Nina’s new Dell computer on a Monday evening and it arrived the following Friday. However, the computer works well. The iPhoto program is very easy to use — until it came time to set up the picture so I could upload it to the blog! I’m missing some kind of a step in that process as I couldn’t get the picture to compress small enough. I found a round about way, but there must be a better method. I have the computer hooked up to a very old 17" monitor and will look to see if I can somehow put this into the computer room and hook it up to my normal monitor. The Apple mini wants a USB keyboard and mouse. My KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch is all set up for Intel-based computers — that is, PS2 type connectors. There are PS2 to USB converters, so I’ll try that out to see if it’ll work. If so, we can use the Mac Mini in the computer room. Otherwise, I’ve got to find another place to put the computer! There aren’t many choices, either, not with a monitor this big and bulky.

That wasn’t the only new toy for the week. For a long time I’ve wanted a digital camera that uses real lenses and works more like a film camera. I’ve had Minolta film cameras for about fifteen years and own their top-of-the-line film camera. Meanwhile, Minolta and Konica have merged and kind of lost their way in the digital camera world for a while. They have finally come out with a terrific digital camera completely compatible with all the Minolta lenses. I finally bought the camera body and it arrived on Wednesday. It’s a great camera and I’m very satisfied with the purchase. Now I need to sell off the other cameras to help pay for the new one! We’ve had just outstanding weather this week and I’m looking forward to doing a little picture taking over the weekend. Who knows, more pictures may end up on the web site!

The disappointing part of the week has been how long it has taken for the motorcycle shop to get the oil changed and the bike checked out. When I called on Monday, they said to bring the bike in and they would get to it as soon as possible. It’s now Thursday and they haven’t started on the bike, yet. Maybe tomorrow?? Next week’s weather is forecast to be much colder with possible snow on a couple of days. That means the bike will stay in the garage and I’ve missed this week of being able to ride it. However, I really don’t have much to complain about, do I? Toys are Great!

I like quiet weeks and this has certainly been one of them. Last Saturday I drove down to the Salt Lake Airport and picked Nina up. We stopped for lunch in Pleasant View on the way back to Pocatello. That area has changed — so much so that the small town feeling has about disappeared. Our house there has become quite dilapidated. I’m hoping we would have taken better care of the house and the yard. The day was bright and sunny with about a fifteen degree temperature differential between Salt Lake City and Pocatello. Nina had a great visit with Jaelene, Scott, and family but it is always good to be back home.

In an earlier post I wrote that Jaelene and Scott “seemed” to be getting along OK. Scott has (rightfully) taken exception to the word “seemed”. I’ve edited the post and fixed the wording, Scott! You and Jaelene are doing very well.

I got an e-mail from another fellow who works at the same company where I work and who is in Oudenaarde, Belgium for a period of time. He’s Japanese and wanted to know where the Chinese Restaurant was that I wrote about in one of my posts. He was doing a search on the internet about restaurants in Oudenaarde and found my web log in the search. I wrote him back with the name and address of the restaurant. Hopefully he had no ill effects! I haven’t been that sick in many years.

In yesterday’s e-mail I received a couple of comments on blog posts I made when Nina and I were in Chandler, Arizona over New Years 2003-2004. Her name was Nina, her husband had worked in the Pocatello area, and they also are interested in the Hanger Cafe at the Chandler Airport. Interesting coincidences. The Google search robots land on my blog a couple of times each week, so just about everything I’ve written in this weblog is searchable on Google. Several other robots stop by on a regular basis, but Google indexes the website more often than anyone else.

The twins are hanging in there! They also now have names: Casey and Devlin. Mo and Pete have put up a Yahoo Groups website with information about the boys and some mind-boggling pictures. Here’s some excerpts from Mo:

Devlin and Casey were born at Yale New Haven Hospital on 23 Feb. at 1:04 and 1:05 AM. Casey beat his brother into this world by 1 minute…. Casey was 1 lb. 5.5 oz. 12 1/4 in. Devlin was 1 lb. 7.5 oz. 12 1/4 in. We FINALLY settled on their names a day or so after they were born. Both of their names are Celtic in origin and both mean brave and fearless. We felt that the symbolism of these choices were important.

They’ve made it for eight days in this world and that means their chances of survival are pretty dang good. This is great stuff. Hang in there, guys! If anyone wants to know the website address for the updates on these two guys, send me a note and I’ll pass it along in a private e-mail.

News Flash! The twins were born last night, very unexpectedly. Mo went in yesterday for a checkup and all was normal, including the ultrasound. Last night about 10 p.m. eastern time she went into labor and by 11 they were at the hospital. Shortly aftewards Mo was bundled into an ambulance and sent to the Yale Hospital in New Haven where both boys were born in a c-section. The boys, currently named Twin-A and Twin-B, are OK for being born three months early at about a pound and a half apiece. They’re in intensive care and things are very touch and go for them. This is a tough start to life. Peter is hanging in there like a trooper and says that Mo is doing well. Our prayers are with you all.

On Tuesday we went to the mall. Phoenix is definitely a shopping mecca. Compared to Pocatello it is probably more like a shopping heaven! Monday afternoon Nina and Jaelene dropped me off a Frys and I toured the store for about two and a half hours. I made it about 2/3’rds through the store as I walked up and down every aisle. It was a lot of fun and I didn’t spend very much money, actually. Tuesday was the day for the mall.

We were definitely on a schedule on Tuesday. The boys had school and we were going to the mall while they were at school. Colten had a birthday party starting at 4:30 and a big play-place and he needed to be neither early nor late for this event. I had to be at the airport to catch a 5:19 flight back to Salt Lake City. Consequently, Jaelene had everything timed down to the minute. She told me that we’d arrive at the mall at 12:15 p.m. and would have to leave there by 2. At 12:05 we still weren’t out the door and I told Nina that there was no way we’d be there at 12:15. My prognostication ability was proven unreliable once again as we pulled into the mall parking lot at 12:14. On the other hand, Jaelene definitely pushes the speed limit….

I had two destinations in mind — first was the Apple Store in the mall. Then over to Barnes and Noble to check out the books and magazines. The Apple Stores always look empty to me. There isn’t much product out; the middle of the store is mostly empty; and there are usually twice the number of employees as customers in the store. For some reason, none of the Apple Stores seem to be hives of activity (unlike Frys which was as crowded and busy on Monday as it was on the previous Saturday). I thought this might be to my advantage because I was curious about the new Apple Mini and what capability it had. I was finally able to get the attention of a very soft-spoken store employee who showed me a little of the standard software intalled on an Apple Mini. The computer itself is very small and quite stylish. I could easily see this box becoming part of an entertainment center. However, unless I wanted the stripped down standard, basic version, I couldn’t buy it at the store. The basic unit is not quite enough. It needs more memory, a larger hard drive, and a DVD burner. All of these are available — but it has to be purchased from the Apple website. There are none of these units available in the store. In fact, not much other than iPods were available in the store! Even though I was ready to plunk down cold, hard cash (well, in reality a warm credit card — warm because it was in my back pocket), I couldn’t buy anything that I wanted. Apple, that’s just plain dumb. Two other people left as I did — empty handed and disappointed. That’s a lot of unspent money walking out the door to be spent somewhere else.

I was much more successful at Barnes and Noble, and it cost me a whole bunch less money.

I’ve managed to get a few digital pictures on the pictures! page (see the link on the right — or click here). Perhaps as the week goes along I’ll get some additional pictures taken and up on the website. I’ve got a few pictures of Jaelene and Scott’s house for anyone who is interest.