Dad and Ty Skiing in Denver

Tyson and I went skiing at Keystone today. It was really a lot of fun. Actually, he skied and I boarded. Up and down all day. My thighs are getting pretty thrashed now and tomorrow will be the fourth day of boarding for me. Tyson was flying down as usual, got some pretty good air on some of the jumps.

Afterwards we went to Boe Jo's pizza. I love the stuff, Tyson seems to be withholding judgement.

Pretty icy conditions right now, but not bad for early season.

We head out again in the morning and then fly home tomorrow night.

Looking forward to seeing the girls after the long trip.

Tyson and I have a few more inside jokes now.

Out of sync government signs, contaminated precious bodily fluids, and tight turning radius!

You'll have to ask him what they're all about. :)

Heard around the house: Water Buffalo

Sarah: "Daddy, do water buffalo fly south for the winter?"
Dad: "Only the skinny ones."

Cake... Mmm

Jenny wanted to bake a cake and decorate it. This is the final result. Looks yummy, doesn't it?
Jenny is becoming quite the cook. She knows how to make crepes, pancakes, popcorn, home made tortillas, cookies, spaghetti, eggs and now cake.
Can't wait to taste this.
Just looking at it and I get a cavity. :)
Great job Jenny!!!

Morning Walks: Dash Point

This morning, after dropping off Lindsey at a friends house to head back to school, I took a drive. I went down to Dash Point and walked around on the beach for a while. This was one of my favorite places when I first lived here with Kate and Mardy while getting established at Microsoft and the family was still in Salt Lake City. It's almost always deserted on Sunday mornings. This morning the tide was really high. Higher than I'd ever seen it before. It's very peaceful here. You can hear the big ships off the shore, the water lapping on the beach and birds calling to each other. The fog was really heavy. The northwest is such a mystical place sometimes.

Rouladen, Pfeffer Nusse, and Knodel... Mmmmm

Went to the German Delicatessen today and bought all the fixings for rouladen dinner. Just browned the rouladen and put it in the oven. It smells so delicious. Thought we'd have a nice dinner with Lindsey before she heads back to school tomorrow.

Growing up in Germany, mom picked up a bunch of recipes and used to cook them for us. Traditionally, around the holidays, we have german food. Rouladen is a roll of roast sliced thin rapped around pickles, onions, mustard, carrot, spices, browned and baked in a gravy. When it's all done, it's extremely tender and very flavorful.

I've been cooking rouladen now for a few years and love the smell of it cooking in the house.

Pfeffer Nusse is a ginger bread cookie that's got a thin, crunchy icing on it. Mom used to have them around the house all the time during the holidays. None of the kids seem to really care for them, but I do. The flavors bring back fond memories.

Knodel is a potato dumpling. Put a Knodel on your plate next to a rouladen, and cover the lot with gravy and add some cheese green beans with a fresh pretzel roll.

Oh, and don't forget the Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider...

Mmmmmmmmmmm

That's to die for.

:)

Denver : First runs

For all the trouble it was getting into Denver and getting settled, it was worth it. The first runs down Keystone were incredible. Having gotten in shape better this year, I was ready. Plus, it's nice coming into the season ready to board this year instead of just having learned. Finally, it's a heck of a lot easier to put on the bindings without the gut in the way. :)

Ti Jefferson went with me this time. She's the Release Manager for my team otherwise known as my right arm. She's one of those people who just gets things done. What I call a sleep at night contributor. If Ti owns it, I can sleep at night knowing it's going to get done.

Check out those argyle pants, it wasn't hard spotting her on the slopes.

Not a lot of snow out quite yet, but we had one good run that was a little over a mile long. Must have done that run 20 times. What a blast.

Heard around the house: Salad Fork

Christine just bought some silverware for the formal setting and was putting it away.

Tyson said "How do you know which one is the salad fork?"
Kirk said "That! My son, is the age old question which men have asked for eons with no forthcoming answer..."

How does one know which is the salad fork?
Isn't it the one on the outside?

:)

Denver

Well, got to Denver all right, but I must be really losing it. I didn't reserve a car, didn't reserve a room at the hotel and I forgot my helmet in the airplane. So, I turned around, fortunately remembered before leaving the terminal, got a security pass, went back through security and retrieved my helmet from the gate where the plane was parked.
Got to the Avis shuttle and no reservation. I've been doing this sort of thing lately. They also didn't have any cars available. So much for being an Avis "First" customer. I ended up walking next store to the Budget Rent a Car place and getting a not so budget car.
Anyway, got to the hotel, no reservations... By now, I have a dent in my forehead from where I keep slapping it. Fortunately, I stay at Marriott enough that I have status. They booted an old grandma out of her room for me. (Just kidding kids! :) They had a room for me, not my usual one with a king sized bed, but with two queens. At this point, who's counting?

I'm just glad to have a place to lay my head tonight...

The Book: Rough Cuts

Well, here's the first look at the book.
http://safari.informit.com/9780768687255

Woot!
Now the fun begins. :)

Movies : Quantum of Solace

The new 007 flick is out. Went to see it tonight. It's been getting bad reviews. I don't know why. This Bond is the deepest, most real, most complex and interesting of any. Anybody remember the horrible mannequin Bond that was Roger Moore? The pretty boy Pierce Brosnan? Sean Connery still rocks, but the movie making of his era just doesn't stack up.
Much has been said of the quick cut action scenes. I can't say that I care for them much. They work in the Bourne movies, but I didn't care for the style in this one. It wasn't so bad as some critics have made it out to be, but it was a bit distracting.
In the end, Quantum of Solace was the best Bond ever in terms of the actual hero. There's so much more emotion, regret, pain and energy there. It's as much fun trying to figure out his emotional state, his motives and purpose as it is trying to figure out the plot. I didn't care for the cinematography so much in this one, although the story seemed much more realistic than the average bond. There is a gut wrenching scene of someone passing away that really got to me.
Bottom line, if you liked the first Daniel Craig Bond, you'll like this one. He's more of the same and better. Don't get too wrapped around the axle on the cinematography and you'll really enjoy this movie.

The Book: Author Reviews are DONE

Woot!
From here out, most of the work is simple and fast.
I get the first draft of the book all put together in book form soon.
Wha!

Favorite Hymns : Be Still My Soul

This one resonates with me lately. Maybe my all time favorite.

Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: The hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Sunday Drives: Joy to the World

On the way home from church, I piled into the old truck (Suburban still in the body shop) with the three girls. Somehow we got to singing Joy to the World. The girls love to sing together and I enjoyed singing with them. We sang Joy to the World a few times and then I sang "Something in the Way She Moves" to them. Sarah doesn't like it when dad sings to them. She'd rather play a road game, but I sang anyway over her objections.
Occasionally, we have to swerve drastically to miss the mythical water buffalo around here. Only I can seem to see them. The girls say they can't but I think they're just trying to pull one over on me. They seem to dart out into the road at random times and I have to swerve to miss them squeezing all the squeeling and screaming girls to one side with me on top of them. Today I saw at least 4 water buffalo. We barely missed them all in the big white truck...

Heard around the house: Economics

When you think of the things that 17 year old young men talk about, what comes to mind?
Eric, Tyson's cerebral friend came over last night and hung out for a while.
These are two guys that really know how to get into a discussion.
I happened to catch part of it.
Tyson said "Social Security is a tax that relies on an ever increasing population for it to remain viable."
Eric said "Yeah, and Japan is having troubles right now because of their shrinking population"
...
more of the same. :)

I usually tune out pretty quickly but it cracks me up. If it's not economics, it's physics, cosmology, math or you name it. Yeah, occasionally it's XBOX. I suppose it's sort of refreshing given what most boys at this age talk about like sports, girls and gross stuff. Instead of sounding like Sports Illustrated or ESPN, they sound like the Mcglaughlin Report or CSPAN.

It's pretty cool.

Heard around the house: I'm Skinny

I took off my shirt and said "Look, I'm skinny"
Sarah ran out of the kitchen screaming.
Amanda followed her out.
Jenny looked over and said, "It's OK. It's not as bad as when he was fat!"

A Little November Wake Boarding Anyone?

Scott Stout called me and asked if I wanted to go wake boarding. Somehow, that sounded like just the ticket. We had the lake to ourselves. It was amazing water, but a bit cold. The dry suit helps, but still. My phalanges were freezing!

Neither one of us had very long runs, but it was fun nonetheless. Something about getting out on the water in November. :)


I taught Scott how to board way back when. He blames it all on me.



Now he's better than I am. Although, I have to admit, boarding with 45 less pounds was a very different experience.

We're talking about making it through the winter now. February boarding anyone? :)

Get your fleeces boys!

Short lived weather

Yesterday was clear and sunny. Today it's raining cats and dogs. There's a river running down our driveway right now as I sit here and try to focus on the dreaded author reviews of chapters. I've finished 11 chapters, 17 to go. I haven't talked a lot about the effects of writing a book. Although, the pain is different and the results not nearly so miraculous, I think writing a book must be something like giving birth, at least in terms of the way it effects your memory. When in the middle of doing it, I promise myself I'll never ever do it again. But, when it's all done and the sense of the accomplishment and the excitement of seeing it in print emerges, those feelings of dread seem to melt away. In a few months, it seems reasonable to talk about writing another book some day. Now I'm remembering the dreadful part. Endless reading, re-reading, commenting, updating, fixing, and rewording. Uggg
And so, I do things like blog incessantly, go for quick rides on the motorcycle and write nonsensical blog entries as a distraction to get away from the real work of finishing the book. See how that works? Well, that's how it works for me anyway. Write a little to break writer's block. Sometimes what I write doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sometimes I read something a great writer has written to get inspired. Sometimes I think of something or someone special to me and that inspires me to go on. I'm just writing a technical book that a few data weenies will think valuable. But, hey, it's something until I have the wherewithal to write real prose. See, there I go again, blabbing just to pass some time and delay the inevitable focused editing sessions...
Alright, Jack, back to work...

Let the ski season begin!

Oh, man! I've been waiting for this so long...
If only you were there with me. :)

· Arapahoe Basin: Now open! (since October 15)
· Keystone: THIS FRIDAY, November 7
· Breckenridge: THIS FRIDAY, November 7
· Vail: Friday, November 21
· Beaver Creek: Wednesday, November 26

Paradoxical Observation: Jack

Ever notice where the name Jack shows up?
Jack O Lantern
Jack and the Bean Stalk
Hit the road Jack
Jack in the Box
Jacks
Car Jacking
Jacked up

I like that name Jack...
If I'd have written Mobey Dick, I'd have started it with the sentence "Call me Jack."
If I was named Jack, people would tell me things like "Go see a doctor, Jack." or "Jack, get to work on your book." or simply "Have a nice day, Jack" and it would seem natural.

It's not like the name James. "James, take me to the club.", "James, find foofy for me." or "Hold me James!" See the difference?

James is a great traditional family name. But, I really like Jack.

A Fall Ride

It was a beautiful fall day, cool, sunny and clear. I took the bike for a quick ride. Amazing how refreshing and mind clearing a ride can be. Something about accelerating to 50MPH in just two seconds really gets the blood rushing. This bike is particularly comfortable for the really long rides and versatile too. It fits me perfectly. Today I only had time for a quick one though. On my way back home I saw Jenny getting off the bus and gave her a ride to the house. I like how she squeels when I give it a little bit of gas. I let her off and she took this picture.

My Weight Project: 245

Another Patent: Graceful Load Failover

Found out today that another one of my patents came through. This one is for Graceful Load Failover. Basically, if the application tries to load the file and there are components in specified in the file that are not installed on the machine, most applications would just barf. With Graceful Load Failover, even third party custom components can participate in a system that allows the application to simulate the component and complete the load while providing enough information to diagnose the problem. This is one of about 25 patents I have pending right now. :)

Here's the abstract:

"Systems and methodologies that facilitate real time recognition of missing and/or invalid objects in a component based framework, via employing a graceful load fail over engine that can self heal a component based application that has missing or invalid references, to be properly read, validated and executed on a user's machine. Information about the various components installed on a user's machine can be stored to reference a package backed up to a persistence state, and/or dummy objects or stubs can be provided to represent the missing object, and typically assure proper validation and/or execution of loaded object models."

A Perfect Scene

No TVs,
Only snow skis.
Walks among the daisies.
Home amongst the trees.
Warm through the leaves,
a gentle breeze.
Mutually trying to please.
Giving warm so you don't freeze.
Velvet hands moving at ease,
craniosacral therapies,
The bee's knees!

A Little Whitman Anyone?

Have been reaquainting myself with Whitman...
I always liked this one.



Among the Multitude

Among the men and women the multitude,

I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,

Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband,

brother, child, any nearer than I am,

Some are baffled, but that one is not - that one knows me.


Ah lover and perfect equal,

I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections,

And I when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you.

O you whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you.

As I walk by your side or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,

Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.

Muddy Soccer Game

Jenny had another game today. It was raining and muddy. They seemed to enjoy it though and I didn't hear any complaining. In fact, I think they enjoyed it a bit more. Jenny was in a mud puddle more than once.


They finished the game tied up, 3-3.

Amanda, Singing the Star Spangled Banner

Amanda was one of two chosen from a large group of girls to sing the Star Spangled banner at her school functions this year. Amanda loves to sing and perform so we're excited for her!
Congratulations Amanda! You're great!

Tyson, Student of the Month

Tyson was recognized as Math student of the month this week by the Rotary club of Issaquah. His teacher recommended him. There were three other students recognized as well. Tyson was the only Junior, the rest were seniors. When we get pictures I'll post them here. He's supposed to be in the Issaquah paper.
Tyson's in the AP Calculus and AP Physics classes as a Junior. Apparently that's quite unusual as most of the folks in those classes are seniors. We're not sure what he's going to do next year because they run out of advanced classes.
Congratulations Tyson. You're awesome!

Beauty Queens

Linz sent this to us. They were beauty queens for halloween. Can't argue with that now can we? You are beautiful, girls!

Missing Lindsey

One of the things I miss about having Lindsey around is her music. There always seemed to be piano or flute music in the house. Now that she's at college, we don't hear that and I miss it.
Looking forward to having you come home for Christmas Linz! :)

Was looking back through the blog and found this one. I remember this service. The church was quite large so the flute sounds lyrically floated throughout the church. Was very cool.

We miss you Linz.

Dad Gym

Jenny at home

Jenny wasn't feeling well today. She's got soccer injuries and her stomach wasn't feeling so well.

She can always take some of dad's french toast though.

They won their game again yesterday 5-1. Jenny hit a head shot that went halfway across the field apparently. She's such a stud athlete.

Mt. Rainier Profile

Once again, lousy camera, but this is the scene when I landed last night flying in from Denver.

You see some of the most beautiful sunsets from the air sometimes.

This one sort of reminded me of Norway. Magical almost. Norway's sunsets and sunrises seem to surround you entirely.

Christine and I were talking last night. Ever notice that when something isn't available or possible you want it so much more? The converse is also true. When you have something, you take it for granted even if it's something that those around you can see is of great worth. Nothing new here really, but extended starvation from that system member that is needed or desired creates a disfunction in other system members around what is missing and tend to grow to compensate and attempt to balance it out. This is true in muscular function, social interactions, and human relationships. To truly fix the problem, you have to fix the disfunctioning member, not continue to strengthen the over compensating members. In the case of my crackling knees, I'm going to probably need knee replacement surgery when I'm an old coot. In human relationships, someone has to change. That change is often so difficult, especially if the relationship has existed for years. Breaking the mold of interactions, dependencies and expectations formed by long years of tendencies turned to habits is extremely challenging, especially if the member is moribund, attrophied beyond recognition or never existed in the first place.

A day in the life...

Daisies and orchids
Old memories and new
Pain and frustration
Doctors orders
Tradeoffs, decisions and questions
Hugging, Tears and Prayer
Log cabin in the woods
Common ground and common ailments
Smells, touches and sights
Laughing, sharing, teaching, learning
See Ya, but not goodbye
One happy day in a long life
There's time...

TGI Fridays

Last night I had a voracious appetite, so after the show Amanda and I changed clothes and went out to eat. We grabbed the closest place right across the street, TGI Fridays. I had some sort of salad with chicken and Amanda had the Chicken Caesar and some fries.

Dad - "You sure you don't mind hangin' with your old man?"
Amanda - "No, I got fries!"

The Vanilla Bean Cheesecake wasn't bad either.

:)

Day two

Went to Battery Park today. Wanted to go over to see Lady Liberty but the line was over 1.5 hours wait. So, we resolved to come another day and just view her from the park. We ate lunch at the restaurant right in the park called Battery Garden. Food was good, service was lousy. We wandered around and saw some great street performers, Amanda bought some souveniers and as you can see we took some pictures...

Love this sculpture.

I'm starting to grow into New York. It has its charms.

Phantom was great. Amanda seemed to enjoy it. I saw different parts than I remembered. It was funnier than I remembered and more tragic. Just my current state of mind maybe? I don't know, but thoroughly enjoyed it.

Amanda says "It was amazing!"

Favorite part "When Christine and Raoul were on the rooftop because it's such a pretty song."

My favorite part is when Christine kisses the phantom when she realizes how much pain he's suffered for so long and has empathy for him. Well that and when she sings "Think of me".

Off to New York

Amanda and I are off to New York. I have a conference, she has some exploring and shopping to do!

Hanging out in the Alaska Airlines lounge waiting for the flight to board...

Dad - "You don't mind hangin' with your old man?"

Amanda - "No, I got pretzels!"

Well, now I know how I rate...

:)

Rowing hands

I used to row with the Wichita State University Crew team.
Lately, I've been spending a lot of time back at it. It's a great workout and works everything from the shoulders down to the calf and feet muscles. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed rowing and my hands have forgotten how much they hate it. :)

My Kids

This morning before I left for my morning de-stress session (a little after 5) I went into Tyson's room to wake him. He was already up and kneeing by his bed in prayer. My kids are my example...
These kids get up in the morning for seminary, carry heavy loads in school, work through their special projects and remain faithful and strong through it all. They are my inspiration...
A truly choice generation...

Munch...

Ugh! We just got her patched up.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt...

Lunch with the guys

Had lunch with some of the guys from my old team today. From left, Sergei Ivanov, me, Mohammed Shatnawi, Mark Durley, and Matt David. Sergei and Mark are on my current team. Mohammed used to be my lifting partner. He's huge and a Electrical Engineering PhD candidate. Mark and I have worked together on four different teams. He has guns, lots of guns. He's also Canadian, eh. Matt is the technical editor for my books and probably the best developer I've ever met. He's also a 2nd or 3rd degree black belt in KillYouFast. Sergei was the youngest developer to ever work at Microsoft. I think he started when he was 5 or something. :) It was good to connect with these guys again.

That's my bike we're leaning on. It was a great day for a ride. Sun was out, cool, and mostly dry.

Sorry for the bad picture. I like everything about my new phone but the camera...

Six pack

Amanda - "Dad, you look wierd.
Dad - "Why?"
Tyson - "Cuz you're wearing jeans."
Amanda - "You're not rolly polly anymore."
Dad - (pulls up shirt) "Check out the six pack."
Amanda - "Oh, Dad!"
Tyson - "I'm leaving the premises!"

The Phantom

This post is just for Amanda.

Are you ready?

The Phantom of the Opera
Saturday, October 18 at 8:00 PM

Majestic Theatre

247 West 44 Street

New York City

Grove of Patriarchs

This is Jenny in the trunk of one of the fallen trees. They're huge.




Fall is in at Mt. Rainier National Park. Definitely the colors are out.
This tree is about 10 feet in diameter.


The three girls taking it easy Northwest style with 10 layers on top and flip flops on bottom.




Jenny clowning around.
The two trees behind the girls are 1000 years old and barely still alive.
Would that I was doing so well at 1000. :)



Shot from the rope bridge. Typical Washington state view really.

Jeans

This morning I was sitting on the couch listening to music on my Zune and Jenny came down and sat next to me. She had a funny expression and kept eyeing me with a quizzical look.
Dad - "What's wrong?"
Jen - "I've never seen you where jeans before."
Dad - "Oh. Yeah, I haven't been able to where these for 10 years."
Jen - "Did you lose a lot of weight?"
Dad - "Yeah, inches really."
Jen - "Are you going to lose a lot more?"
Dad - "Four more to go."
Jen - "You're going to be skinny. I won't recognize you."
Dad - "No, I'll be that guy that wakes you up with kisses and hugs."
Jen - "And gummi bears."

Jenny's game

Jenny's soccer team won today (5 to 3) in a close game. Best I've seen them play yet. Jenny was aggressive and poised. She's starting to hit the ball with her head now under control. They're passing and attacking as a team.
Watching Jenny play is so fun. It's hard not to get the body english going. She played keeper the first half and left defender the last half. Their team only had 9 players so they couldn't substitute and the team they were playing was quite good.
It was impressive to see the girls gut it out like that.
Their athleticism is really starting to shine through too.

Tyson and Carter's Eagle Project

This afternoon, after a whole lot of work and planning, Tyson and Carter Murch got the first of two signs up. They did a great job on these signs and the quality shows.

Took these pictures with my camera phone, so they are really terrible. But, hopefully you get the idea. The signs are for the Mirrormont (where we live) community for communicating community activities and other announcements. The Mirrormont community has clean up parties, Christmas, Halloween and other activities. These signs are for telling everybody about those activities.

This is Brett Dean who was the advisor and is the architect for Mirrormont who has worked with the boys for some time to get to this point. He's cleared roadblocks and broken down barriers and done a lot to help them. Great guy!

Of raising girls, Pride and Prejudice

For all my friends who are guys reading this, don't. This is not a guy post. I can already tell you this is going to be a hard read for you. Give up now guys. Besides being disappointed in me, you'll just hate it. :)

A few years back, Christine and I were watching Sense and Sensibilities. I was trying to be the good guy and watch a chick flick with her. About twenty minutes in, I couldn't stand it any longer. It was painful to watch. I stood up and with a giant groan said "Ahhh! I can't stand it any longer!" I don't think Christine was surprised. I went into another room. After a few minutes, guilt got the better of me and so I returned to endure the movie some more. After another few minutes, I apologized to Christine and dismissed myself for good. I physically could not stay in the same room with that movie playing. Even now I get the edgies. Christine was relieved because she could finally watch the movie without me nervously shifting and fidgeting every minute.

And so, when another Jane Austin movie came out, "Pride and Prejudice" with Kiera Knightly, Christine said she was surprised that I wanted to watch it. Something intrigued me about it though. Maybe it was because of the movie "You've got Mail." I guess I wanted to figure out all the references to Elizabeth and the incomparable Mr. Darcy.

Long story short, I absolutely loved the movie. In my mind, it's one of the most beautiful and insightful stories ever told and one of the most beautiful movies ever made. It reminds me a lot of a Sydney Pollock movie, Out of Africa, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way we Were. Tragic, but in this case, with a happy ending.

Today Amanda asked me what was so great about it. I'm no movie or literary critic but I know what it means to me and told her we'd watch together and I'd tell her what I thought is so powerful about the story.

I think the movie is all about love. It's about the different kinds of love that people experience and the kinds of influence that people exercise over others because of that love. Paternal, fraternal, trivial, passionate, displaced, controlling, submissive, enduring and others.

The movie does such a great job of showing the subtle but unmistakeable cues and miscues through which people communicate their emotions and how easy it is to ignore, misunderstand or totally miss those cues and outward expressions because of the influences of people who inject their prejudices into the mix.

It's also about the pride that keeps people from expressing those feelings that had they been expressed early and often, would have averted emotionally catastrophic eventualities.

It's about how two people can feel so drawn to each other in a supernatural way and yet be pulled apart and totally miss the mark because of misunderstandings, influence and lies.

Amanda asked about Mr. Darcy on several occasions. Why did he burst into the room that way? Why didn't he say anything? If he likes her, why doesn't he say so? The answer isn't always easy, but in real life, guys generally have too much pride to express their deepest emotions and are afraid to look weak. Yet, the subtle cues are almost always there, in the eyes.

Explaining it to Amanda, I found deeper and deeper meaning and relevance to my own life and experiences.

Highly recommended...
Even for guys.

Oahu

Christine reading on the bed with the balcony open and breezy.

Shot from the balcony. Ahhh, I want to go back...

The Hawaii temple. It's quite beautiful. They are closing it for 18 months to renovate it. We were glad to have visited before it closed in December. Temples aren't always understood by people not of our faith. But they are beautiful places where we can enjoy quiet, reverent and peaceful reflection. A place of promises, learning and spiritual renewal. Ask me about them sometime. I'll tell you all about them.