Cerebrate Good Times

With the beginning of the new school year, it's time to reflect on the kids and how they're growing. Sam started seventh grade. He's finally decided to dress a little nicer than warmup pants every day, so that's nice (though a bit more expensive). It's taking a little adjusting for him to get used to a schedule of different classes at different times, but I imagine he will learn some time management skills which he sorely needs. He's definitely growing up and has been especially helpful lately playing with the younger kids when we need help getting things done. Allison is in third grade, and this will be her first year without Sam there at school too. She's always concerned about other kids and was talking this morning about helping kindergarten kids know when the bell rang so they could get to class. It seems like she's rising to the responsibility a bit, and we've been working on having her treat Clara extra nicely. When she would react poor

I used to watch football a lot when I was in high school. (This is American football I'm talking about, of course.) I enjoyed the strategy and the brute force involved. I loved the Miami Dolphins and Dan Marino, who of course never won a Superbowl. (This was in line with my Utah Jazz fandom and the Stockton/Malone finals teams that could never get past Michael Jordan.) After my mission I never managed to get back into it. I went to BYU and occasionally watched their games, but it never became rabid fandom. These day I really dislike football. I hate what it does the the players' health, I hate the culture of violence and the enmity between rival teams, and I hate that we are so focused on it rather than dealing with more important things in our country (notwithstanding the protests during the national anthem, which I wholeheartedly support) . The whole idea of putting your team's flag in your yard or whatever is just weird to me. I mean, I like pasta, but I don't put

I am supposed to receive email notifications when people comment, but for some reason that hasn't been working. So I just published a bunch of comments from the last few months. I'll be more vigilant about that now.

A couple weeks ago we went down to Utah for a few days. My sister was in town for her daughter's third birthday, and my parents were hosting a party. We were sticking around for a few days after to see friends and do some fun things. My niece is a cute little thing who has a bit of a challenge relating to people. I haven't ever gotten her to interact with me directly, which is understandable since she's only seen me a handful of times. If I look at her she runs away (which is admittedly not an uncommon reaction among females). But she and Clara played together really well, and I think my sister was very surprised and pleased. When I was a kid we often went to Lagoon on my birthday. In case anyone lurking here doesn't know, Lagoon is a local amusement park in the vein of Knott's Berry Farm. It had been a long time, so we decided to go to Lagoon on my birthday again. And it was a lot of fun. Sam finally went on the Colossus with me, and he loved it. I got to ride