We had a very lovely weekend. The weather was warm and sunny. It was good to be outside and even though I had to make two trips to Home Depot to get all the parts necessary to fix a couple of sprinklers, Saturday was a good day. Sunday was a little bit windy but still a delightful day. For once we got the summer on the weekend! Today, however, was a return to winter. It has been cold along with rain, freezing rain, and snow all day long. It’s forecast to continue through tomorrow evening. So I got the sprinkler system tuned up and running just in time for enough rain to come so that the system isn’t needed. It’s uncanny how often that kind of thing happens.

My sister-in-law Pam from Ohio has been visiting here for the past couple of weeks. She liked the idea of a blog, so I’ve set her up with one. She’s put a couple of posts in it. Now I just need to encourage her to write on a regular basis. Writing is good therapy for me, even when I don’t have much to say. I just ramble along and whatever falls off the fingers is what ends up on the blog. A couple of years from now I’ll enjoy looking back at what was happening in our lives at this time. Two years ago I started keeping an online journal. I wrote a small piece of software for this purpose and used it for a couple of months. By that time I had discovered some real software for doing online journals, which were by then called weblogs and often abbreviated to blogs. I’m now on my third generation of software and have been able to post stuff to the blog on a fairly regular basis. I’ve certainly learned a lot about this whole world of online journals. It’s a good method of talking to myself!

Just about everything has come together for the trip to Manila. I’ll leave on Saturday and arrive about midnight Manila time on Sunday evening. I’ll take my digital cameras with me along with my iRiver voice recorder. I might find some interesting sounds to record while I’m there. Our neighbor, who also works at the same place I do (and is the new High Priests Group Leader in our Ward) will be in Manila for one of the weeks that I’m there. It’ll be fun to do some things with him. His youngest son is headed out on his mission this week. He’ll get the boy to the Mission Training Center, spend a few days with his wife as an empty-nester, and then head for Manila.

I’m enjoying the Mac Mini computer. It’s got quite a bit of capability and some of the things are just so easy to use. I took a number of pictures over at the luncheon for dad’s birthday party. I plugged the camera into the Mac Mini which immediately recognized the camera and downloaded the pictures. I selected 16 of them and dropped them into iPhoto. Some needed a little touchup which turned out to be very easy to do. I told it to make a slideshow out of the pictures and about seven minutes later I had a slideshow complete with music and Ken Burns effects. That is, the show panned across the pictures giving them a kind of a motion effect. The program automatically imported some music from iTunes and laid that down as a soundtrack. It was about a fifteen minute job to get a great slideshow onto a DVD. I was quite impressed.

So, if it is so easy to do that, how hard is it to put a monologue to the slideshow so I could talk about what was happening in the pictures? It took a couple of hours of a lot of trial and error, but it did work. I could probably do it in about 45 minutes now. The longest part was slicing up the recorded audio. I used the iRiver to record the monologue. I tried to put it through Garage Band to slice up the little bits of sound, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that. I finally ran it though the audio mixer program I use on my Windows XP box — audacity — and used that to slice up the monologue and convert it to mp3 format. I then put the mp3’s onto a USB flash drive, took that to the Mac Mini, and imported the mp3’s into iTunes. From there it was a piece of cake to drop the audio clips into the iMovie sound track and line them up with the picture transitions. Anyhow, it all came together very nicely and I’ve given a DVD to dad in honor of the event. It was a lot of fun and educational besides. It opened up new ideas for what I can do with the pictures I’ll take over the next three weeks from Manila. Maybe I should take the camcorder with me as well?? That might also be interesting. We’ll see how heavy the suitcase gets! While the weather is trying to figure out whether it’s winter or spring over here, there’s no question what the weather is like in Manila: HOT and HUMID. Lovely. I just might be wishing for winter by the time May 12th comes around.

The sad news has arrived. Casey departed this earth today to join his brother Devlin who passed away on March 16th. It’s been clear for a few days that nothing short of a major miracle would make it possible for little Casey to make it. He was a fighter to the end but the odds were just too great to overcome. May the good Lord bless and keep you, Casey. You fought a valiant fight.

Casey was born on February 23, 2005 in the Grace New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. He was the firstborn by less than a minute. On arrival he weighed 1 pound 5.5 ounces and was 12 1/4 inches long. He lived 52 days on wild rollercoaster ride of big ups and major downs. Casey, know that you were loved. Your mom and dad are special people who will carry you and your brother Devlin in their hearts and heads for the rest of their lives. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and family friends put all of the fervor of their prayers and wishes on your behalf. Parents should not have to bury their children, I know, but life does not seem to differentiate. You and your brother can now watch over mom and dad and help them to slowly bring a semblance of normalicy into their lives and continue on with the business of living in this world that now to them feels like a dark and dreary place.

Pete and Mo: know that we also love you and deeply feel your sadness, anger, and helplesness. Nina and I have also lost two children. Nothing prepares you for that devastating moment when a child is suddenly ripped from your lives and the hurt and anguish continue for a very long time. Having it happen two times likely seems more than you can bear. If we could we would somehow take away the hurt and the anger and the helpless feelings, but we cannot. All we can do is offer our heartfelt sympathy and love along with the knowledge that, while our losses are different than yours and your pain is different than ours, we do know a little bit about what you are feeling. May a feeling of peace somehow find its way into your hearts.

I’ve just finished filing my federal income taxes. We do get a refund — which is much better than having to pay. For the past several years I’ve used H&R Block’s TaxCut to figure out my taxes. I made the switch from Intuit’s TurboTax back when Intuit implemented a very buggy registration system in an effort to prevent more than one person using a particular copy of TurboTax. The company lost a huge portion of their customer base with that move and I’m one customer that they haven’t won back. For the first time, however, I’m not particularly happy with TaxCut!

Last year we lived in Colorado until May and then in Idaho for the rest of the year. Consequently I have to file state taxes in both states. When I bought TaxCut I also bought the state tax software and installed that for my Idaho return. I then bought another state tax package from TaxCut, downloaded it, and installed it as Colorado. After I finished my federal return (and filed it electronically), the program went on to do the state tax calculation. It went through Colorado just fine. It started the Idaho tax process and then sweetly told me that the program couldn’t handle part-year tax returns and that I had to go get the forms and figure out my taxes on paper. What kind of idiocy is that, I ask!

If I can figure it out on paper, it seems obvious to me that a computer program can certainly be written to figure it out. Now I’m out $25 because the program doesn’t do the job and I still have to go find the forms and do the paperwork. I would suggest this is pretty crappy customer service. Are you listening H&R Block?

I’ve just spent the past couple of afternoons in an overview of labor laws in Belgium. That was quite an education. The tax rates, particularly for their version of social security, are pretty steep. Makes it a bit more difficult to complain about the amount of taxes I have to pay each year, I guess. One of the people in the class remarked that we could have the same social services setup here as long as we were willing to pay the taxes for it. I think not. The money works much better when it’s in my pocket rather than when it’s in the government’s pocket and they’re trying to do something to help me. Meanwhile, our federal taxes have been filed electronically. The Colorado State taxes have been printed so I can mail them in. All that is left is to track down the Idaho forms and work out those numbers. I was planning to be done tonight, but no such luck.

On another topic, due to a health emergency with a manager in Manila, Philippines, I’ll be making a short-notice trip to Manila at the end of next week. I’ll be gone, it turns out, for three weeks kind of filling in for the recovering manager. Stay tuned for pictures and commentary from that part of the world. It should be interesting!

I’m sitting here at the computer with my iPod mini plugged in using the trademark white earphones listening to some absolutely incredible music. A new Sarah Brightman CD arrived to day from Amazon.com (this might just be a post of advertisements!!?!) called La Luna which turned out to be hard to find anywhere except on Amazon. One of the channels that’s turned on quite often on our Dish Network satellite TV system is the Sirius classical favorites music channel (it’s channel 6086 on Dish and channel 86 on Sirius). There often isn’t anything we’re interested in watching on TV, so we’ll turn on channel 6086 and let it play through the home theater system. Great music and good to have on while we’re doing something else. Anyhow, the other day they played Sarah Brightman’s recording of Scarborough Fair. It just blew me away. Finally someone has made a recording that trumps Simon and Garfield’s recording. I went right to the computer and searched for the recording, then where I could buy it. My first look was on Apple’s iTunes. It wasn’t there! I then called the couple of places that sell music in this One Horse Town to verify that the CD was not readily available. Amazon does well by our house. The CD arrived today and Nina thought first it was the book she had ordered the other day from Amazon. Then she saw what it was and her first question was “Can I rip it for my iPod as well?” Of course. For me, however, there were two tracks absolutely worth it. The Scarborough Fair track and another titled Figlio Perduto (Lost Son) based on a melody from Beethoven. It is also excellent. The CD is now on my iPod and these two tracks added to my “Most Special Music” playlist. I may wear these tracks out before the night is over!!

A lot of music that Sarah Brightman records isn’t all that exciting to me. However, when she gets into the full soprano mode and lets it all come out, it is great music. So what’s all on my “Most Special Music” playlist? I’ve made this playlist up of a number of pieces of music that I currently really enjoy. Music moves in and out of the playlist depending on whether I’ve decided something else must be there. I limit the playlist to twelve songs. So right now, this is what’s in the list:

• I’m On Fire (Live) by Bruce Springsteen
• Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane
• White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
• White Rabbit – featuring Esthero by Blue Man Group
• Night Ride Across the Caucasus by Loreena McKennitt
• Greensleeves by Loreena McKennitt
• My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys by Waylon Jennings
• Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
• Prelude in C# Minor from Classics Regrooved
• The Erlking from Classics Regrooved
• Scarborough Fair by Sarah Brightman
• Figlio Perduto by Sarah Brightman

I took out Standing Stones by Loreena McKennitt and Overture: Die Hedbriden (Fingal’s Cave), Op 26 by Mendelssohn to make room for these two Sarah Brightman pieces. I’m finding that a lot of the music I want isn’t available on iTunes. Napster’s not really an option as it is a $15 fee per month and you can only listen to the music for as long as you continue to pay the fee. That model doesn’t work for me. RealRhapsody isn’t much better. It charges about $10 a month plus $0.79 a download. I don’t buy enough music to pay a monthly fee. So, on the rare occasion that I’m looking for music, if I can’t find the music on iTunes, then I’ll buy the CD. It’s still cheaper than paying a subscription.

Well the night is rapidly coming to an end. My ears are sore from the earphones. I need to put some gas in the car tonight as I won’t want to take time to do that early tomorrow morning (I’ve a seven a.m. meeting). Time to put this on the blog.

I just finished an AOL Instant Messenger (IM) conversation with my brother in Green River, Wyoming (a link to his blog is on the right). I heard a podcast the other day (I do not remember which one, just that it came from IT Conversations) about a person who regularly posted IM chats on his web log. I thought it wasn’t a bad idea, so here’s the first try. It turns out to be very easy to do!

Perry: Good afternoon.
Roland: Hello, Perry!
Perry: How are things in your neck of the woods?
Roland: Pretty quiet, actually. Watching conference and filing stuff that’s piled up on my desk.
Perry: Do you still have company?
Roland: They left after the first session.
Perry: They weren’t there very long, were they?
Roland: They got in about 11 on Thursday evening and left today. They wanted us to go with them to Kaysville and attend conference tomorrow at the conference center. We were more interested in staying home!
Perry: How is Nina feeling?
Roland: Much better but very tired. She’s having trouble staying awake this afternoon!
Perry: Nap time? Sounds good to me!!
Roland: Enjoying conference?
Perry: I have to admit that I haven’t watched very much so far. I watched Pres. Hinckley’s opening talk and then we went to R.S. and got home in time to watch the sustaining of the G.A’s.
Perry: Are you enjoying conference?
Roland: It’s been a pretty normal conference. Nothing I’d consider to be out of the normal course of a conference.
Perry: Are you going to Priesthood Meeting?
Roland: Yup, I’ll be going. It’s over at our stake center and I plan to get there about 10 min early. I’ve never attended psthd meeting here. We were on the river cruise last October.
Roland: By the way, cute grandson!
Perry: Thanks. I found a roll of film the other day and was not sure what was on it. So, we took it to Wal-Mart today and got it developed and put on a CD. Turns out it was more pictures from the Alaska Cruise. Mainly from the glacier and where ever it was we went to later.
Roland: How fun! Were any of them any good?
Perry: Not too bad, next time we come over I will bring them with. I have never seen the pictures that Nina took while we on the cruise, and would like to do that also when we come over.
Roland: I’ll let her know. Are we still on for April 30th?
Perry: Yes, Apr 30 is a go. Have you decided what to get dad for his 84th birthday?
Roland: Haven’t even thought about it, yet. There might be something at Harbor Freight he doesn’t have???
Perry: I doubt that. If there is it is because it hasn’t come in yet.
Roland: Well, one could hope!
Perry: Are you having a party (?) for his birthday?
Roland: I haven’t talked with Nina about it since we were there because she’s been sick.
Perry: I can understand that. Glad that she is on the downhill side of that!!
Roland: Me too. Now she just needs to get caught up on sleep.
Perry: Before I forget, Apr. 30th is Hannah’s birthday and Mindy is planning some sort of birthday celebration. She knows that you guys will be over here and as such she is planning the party after we get done blessing the boys.
Roland: Sounds good to me.
Perry: Her birthday parties are usually over fast. She did say something about cooking some burgers and such.
Roland: It’s still OK. I thought we’d pick mom and dad up about 10 a.m. That’d put is there about 1. All we’ll need to do is get them back by Dad’s bedtime.
Perry: That is what I had in mind also. Hopefully all will go well. We will make more plans as it gets closer. I still have to talk to mom and dad about the date. Sure it won’t be a problem for them.
Perry: I will call after conference is over today.
Roland: Sounds good to me. I’ll let Nina know.