Walking

We keep practicing every night, and Julia's record is now up to 12 steps with a maximum range of about 6 feet. Her attempts regularly reach 5 steps, and about 1 in 4 gets at least 8 or 9. She hasn't yet shown much interest in walking unaided other than between me and Shannon. Even then it is hard to get her attention sometimes. Or, if she gets to giggly, she starts falling over a lot more. I guess we'll need some more videos soon. Or, if you've got a webcam, you can now call us and watch. (I suppose officially you don't even need the camera, we have one, and that would be sufficient, but not much fun for us.)

Super Shopper

Shannon is quite the bargin shopper these days.  She gets lots of coupons and then does fancy sales where you buy lots of stuff and get big rebates and what not.  But what this means is that when something goes on sale, we end up with a lot of it.

And so, I present to you: the Yogurt Shelf.

New Calling

Thursday evening I got a call asking me to go meet with a member of the Stake Presidency on Sunday morning.  (side note: I don't think I can ever be in a Stake Presidency or Bishopbrick,  I just can't get up that early on a Sunday.)  So, Shannon and I spent a few days doing the obligatory speculation as to what it coudl be.  Certainly high profile callings come to mind, but that isn't always the case.  About 2 years ago we were asked to go meet with our old stake presidency.  Speculations abounded in our private discussions.  In the end, we were called to be a Ma & Pa for a pioneer trek (which I really enjoyed), something we would never have suspected.

Unfortunately, no pioneer treks for us this year.  Instead, I will be the new 2nd councilor in the Elders Quorum Presidency.  I've never been in an EQ Presidency before.  I've never even taught EQ before.  Should be exciting!

Extreme Sweeping

I'm pretty good at minesweeper.  I'm fast, and pretty sucessful, though the game doesn't keep stats for you, and I haven't yet stooped to that level myself.  All it keeps is best times, which after a time, get harder and harder to beat.  Some games in minesweeper are only winnable by guessing, and others are easier to complete quickly than others.  Anyway, my best times for beginner, intermediate and expert are down to 5 seconds, 35 seconds and 119 seconds, respectively.  I just don't know how I'll ever improve upon those much, if at all.  So, I've recently resorted to extreme minesweeping.

What I've done is taken the standard expert sized grid (16x30 with 99 mines) and increased the mine density.  I've completed as high as 115 mines on that size, though 120 mines is proving very difficult.  It's not for the faint of heart.

Read me like an open Google

Inspired by the things that Tyler likes to do, here is what you get when you google "Clark likes to":

1. Clark likes to think that every year at the turn of midnight on his birthday, the whole world celebrates, everyone kissing everyone else and cheering. (This is actually very, very far from the truth.)
2. Clark likes to play his tuba. (I don't play the tuba, but I wouldn't mind learning.)
3. There are several insurance rating services, and the one Clark likes to suggest you use is A.M. Best. (I've sold out to corporate endorsement.)
4. Clark likes to keep fit through regular visits to the gym and has a passion for hiking and cross-country skiing.
5. Clark likes to emphasize that he's a poor Southern boy trapped in Los Angeles. (Wow! Google does know everything!)
6. Clark likes to delve into different worlds in her crackerjack novels of suspense; but while the milieus change, her stories are always . . . (remember folks, I have many milieus. You might say I have a plethora of milieus.)
7. And, as Clark likes to point out, everyone has ... (yes, my point exactly)
8. Clark likes to tinker with computer sounds and a capella renderings of drums. (also: a capella renderings of papers and coloring.)
9. And, as Clark likes to point out, everyone has health care. (Health care crisis solved! All it took was for me to point it out!)
10. Clark likes to use the term, "at the end of the day," as in "when we get to the bottom line," or "when it's all said and done,"

And, at the end of the day, that's what the internet thinks of me.

Wild Ride

About 10 days ago, someone in St. George who works at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream plant was late to work. So he raced down the road at approximately 70 miles per hour. And apparently tried to take the final corner before arriving at work at about that speed. The road he was turning on to is a nice wide road, but not wide enough for those speeds. So, he got sideways, and hit the curb, taking chunks out of it with 3 of his 4 rims, and headed into the gravel landscaping. He managed to miss the large rocks (large suitcase size) in the landscaping, mowing through about 20 feet of gravel and up a 5 foot rise, throwing the rocks across the parking lot. He then left the gravel, and went out of control another 30 or 40 feet across the parking lot, before coming to a resounding stop when he crashed into the building I work in. His Honda Passport was totaled, and his un-seatbelted self we probably lucky to escape with nothing worse than a big cut on his head. First aid was administered by one of my coworkers who heard a noise and stuck his head outside to discover a car wrecked into the wall. If he had hit the building 5 feet over, he would have gone right through a big roll up door and started taking out equipment.

Moral of the story: slow down, wear your seat belt, and if you're not going to do to that, at least do it somewhere that I won't have to spend a bunch of time sweeping up rocks from the parking lot!

Parade

We're going to the Parade in St. George this week! Yay for parades! Clowns, and candy, and horses pooping on the road and furniture, and large patios, and . . . walk-in-closets? Yes, it's the parade of homes. It's actually quite entertaining, particularly the over the top gaudy homes. I'm not sure who buys 15,000 sq. foot homes with indoor basketball court, rock climbing wall, golf area, raquetball court and 2 story weight room. Maybe they're just wealthy people trying to stimulate the economy.

You can see me

Because we're so darn awesome, we now have a webcam. So if anyone really wants to see Julia, they now can. (I suppose there is a chance that even if you don't have a webcam, but do have a microphone, you could still make it work? We just wouldn't be able to see you?) We have thus far made one phone call to my sister via Oovoo. We also have Skype. As it turns out, we have family that use each of them, so we're at least starting out with both. If one is clearly superior, maybe we'll try to get people to switch. We should be look-up-able on both, should you care to say hi.

Empire

I'm catching up some of the books I've read lately.

Empire, by Orson Scott Card

Yeah, I read a lot of Card’s books. The premise behind this one is interesting, though. It’s set in the not too distant future in which some crazy people decide to over throw the government and start a revolution that is based on right vs left ideology. Now, before you start trying to guess who it is that ends up being the ‘bad guys’, I’ll remind you that Card, in addition to being LDS is also a registered Democrat. Basically, the book is about a big conspiracy theory which leads to shots being fired and rival governments being declared. While I’m not what I would call a big conspiracy theory sort of guy, that doesn’t keep the book from being entertaining, which is why I do most of my reading. I view the book like I would a Tom Clancy novel; it’s interesting and draws on various facts, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a work of fiction. Card invents a presidency and all his characters, as well as other specifics.

Killer Angels

Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara

I don’t know about you, but I can’t begin to count the times that I’ve read a book, and then, upon seeing the movie, felt disappointed because they left out so much detail and, often, plot. Well, if you’ve read Killer Angels and then seen the accompanying movie, Gettysburg, you won’t have any such feelings. You might be feeling a bit of de ja vu, however.

The 4 hour 15 minute movie and the 368 page book are so similar, at times I wondered if I was reading the script. The dialog is the same, often times word for word. I remarked to Shannon that the book is what you’d get if someone watching the movie were to describe it to you as they were watching, and they have a good vocabulary.

There are, of course, minor differences. The book has a few more maps that make it easier to understand the tactics of the whole situation, and the movie has a lot more explosions.

(I just found out the book was written in 1974. I hadn't figured it was that old.)

Made in Brazil

We went to Made in Brazil for dinner last night, and various people have mentioned they wanted to know how it was.

Here's the part where I remind you that I not only lived in Brazil for 2 years, but I lived in the part where this style of food comes from. The comparison I use is that me living in St. George and having been a few times to Famous Dave's Barbecue doesn't make me a good judge of authentic American barbecue. I'll leave that to people who have been to the South and experienced backyard slow cooked barbecue and been to the small, local barbecue restaurants. Same thing with the Brazilian food. Just because the meat is on a stick, doesn't make it authentic.

Authenticity:
Brazilian places like this don't really have a menu. You get the buffet of sides and they bring the meat to you, but they still have a small drink menu, which they gave us. And right at the top, it says something to the effect of "This is a churrascarria (pronounced "choo-ras-ka-REE-ah") . . . " Wrong! Right of the bat, they had two problems. First, it's spelled churrascaria, and secondly, it's pronounced "shoo-hahs-ka-REE-ah". But from there, things improved greatly. Guarana is a well known Brazilian soft drink, and they have two brands. Antartica is more familiar in the US, but they also have Brahma on tap. Brahma is evidently the second best selling guarana in Brazil and has a very different taste, but it's still good. Guarana is no more specific than "cola"; not all colas taste like Coke, and that's ok.

Churrascarias (a place where you get churrasco ("shoo-hahs-ko") which is the meat) always have a buffet. The point of the buffet is to trick you into eating less meat. A traditional churrasco will have a few sides. Some rice, some beans, a potato salad, tomatoes, bread, cucumbers and that's about it. But when churrascarias come to the US, they feel a need to fancify things up. So we end up with (last night) pickled potatoes, crab salad, broccoli salad, green olives and a variety of other things offered. I don't mind them adding these things, but I don't eat them, because I'm going for an authentic meal. Made in Brazil did have a nice selection of more authentic foods, which included: fried yucca (excellent!), fried bananas, fried rice balls, rice, beans, stroganoff, and farofa (yucca flour).

The meat was good. It wasn't perhaps as salty as I would have liked, but it was still good. They had a good variety (which is smaller if you go for lunch, but lunch is cheaper) including chicken hearts (which they cooked just for me), grilled pinapple (I realize this isn't a meat), sirloin, chicken wrapped in bacon, and other yummy things. Shannon even tried a small piece of chicken heart. You'll have to ask her about it.

Service:
I thought the service was excellent. They were friendly, but more importantly, the people the brought the meat around remembered what we wanted. When we mentioned to one that I was waiting for some chicken hearts, he even told the other guy. Interestingly, one employee came and started talking to me in Portuguese. I asked if he always assumed people spoke Portuguese, and he told me he could tell that I did based on what I was eating.

Ambiance:
Nice. It wasn't at capacity, which helps, but I liked it. It was clean, etc.

Price:
Churrasco is never cheap, as it focuses on meat which is brought to your table and cut just for you. But the price is reasonable for a churrascaria. I think the dinner is 18 bucks. Lunch is less (15ish?). We won't be going back often, but birthdays only come back once a year.

In Conclusion:
I'd go back often, except for the price. This is why we don't eat out anywhere very often. I'd love to go again, and enjoy taking people and telling them all about the foods. So, if you want to hire me to spruce up your Churrascaria experience, I'm available.

Birthday

It's my birthday. Wee!

To catch up a bit: the picture in the previous post is indeed Joseph Stalin. Good ol' uncle Joe. Too bad anonymous chose to stay anonymous, so he doesn't win the prize. The prize instead goes to the second closest answer which would be KC and his guess of "Antonio Bandito" which, I'm pretty sure, is a childhood nickname for Stalin. I thought it was pretty interesting that communist leaders start out life looking very un-communist dictator-y. Not that this should really be surprising though.

Else where in life, I haven't been blogging much. I guess I'll have to work on that during my 28th trip around the sun. Today completes the 27th trip, at some time around 11:08pm. (What with all the leap years and other small adjustments it would be difficult to say exactly when this year's trip will conclude.) We are going to the new churrascaria in town to celebrate tonight, and at work, I got a gallon of chocolate milk as a gift! (Someone here at work apparently knows me well.)