Category: Uncategorized

Dominion is my favorite board game (well, card game), and with Kyra off on a mission, I don’t have a worthy opponent to play against. Luckily at Gen Con, Dirk caught the bug and decided he loves Dominion as much as I do. Unfortunately we live 800 miles apart, so we can’t get together often.

Enter Dominion Online, which is a web-based version of Dominion that does a great job with the game mechanics. Of course it’s not quite like playing face-to-face over a table, but it’s about as close as you can get. So Dirk and I have been spending a few Saturday mornings here and there playing against one another.

Today we connected via Google Hangouts (after trying Discord, which had horrible echo problems), so I was able to see his thoughtful expression as he considered what to play.

(He admits his webcam is terrible, which is why he looks all blurry.) It’s fun to taunt one another during the games, or scream occasionally at a really good– or really bad– turn. Both of us have sons who spend time in video game chats where they do exactly that.

Unfortunately I can no longer crush Dirk in every game. The padawan has learned much from the master, and now we’re more evenly matched. That’s more fun anyway. I should point out, however, that in the worldwide Dominion rankings, I’m in 6,364th (level 43 player, whatever that means) place while Dirk languishes back in 13,170th place and level 39…

This year for Halloween, I was stumped. I couldn’t think of a great costume, and since I love dressing up, it was kind of unnerving. I toyed with the idea of being Han Solo, but I’m blond. I thought about being Death, but don’t have a scythe (and they don’t sell them on Amazon). And I re-considered being Kevin Flynn of Tron fame, but the costume simply becomes too expensive when you put together all the glowing LED strips.

In the end, I decided to do a reprise of the Dread Pirate Roberts costume from four years ago. I still have all the goods, so it was easy to bring it together.

In a stunning coincidence, one of the teenagers in seminary also dressed up as the Dread Pirate!

I say “stunning” because I’ve found that most teens not only don’t recognize my costume (which I think is a pretty good likeness), but don’t even know who the character is. They’ve never seen The Princess Bride, or they’ve forgotten it. Even adults tend to mistake me for Zorro, which is inexcusable since Zorro always wears a hat.

Zaque grabbed a bedsheet and a couple of pillowcases, and masqueraded as a disciple. Here he is with Jesus:

Continuing tradition, my fellow seminary teachers and I all came to class in costume. Lyle was a pioneer farmer, and Jodi was an identity thief (get it? she’s clever with those puns).

I think the concept of What3Words is fascinating. It’s a simple, memorable way to define geographic locations with high precision. The entire planet is divided into 3×3-meter squares, and every one of those squares has a three-word “address”.

For example, my address is endearing.sunflower.subculture. Bam.

The goal of the w3w organization is to use their mapping algorithm and technology to provide a new way to accurately locate points on the earth. The use cases are myriad, from self-driving cars to package delivery (by truck or by drone) to simply giving directions. I’m curious whether it’ll “catch on”. In the meantime, maybe when someone asks for directions to my house I’ll just tell them to head over to “endearing sunflower subculture”.

Today as I left seminary, I was treated to quite a light show as the sun rose. Here’s the view from the church:

And from my car as I waited at the stoplight:

And a little while later, as I drove to work:

I guess getting up early does have some benefit!

In about a year, Laralee and I are going to sell our cars (and maybe give one to Kyra) prior to heading out on our mission. Then, a year and a half later, we’ll need cars again. So we’ve been thinking about what we might drive.

Of course we’ll need something to haul a pair of jet skis, and maybe a sailboat, so I’m leaning toward a Honda CR-V. Dad has one, and it’s really nice. It has plenty of towing capacity, and it’s not a huge SUV. I agreed to drive the “practical” car, since Laralee’s been stuck with the practical car for 20+ years while I drive the sporty coupes (if one can call a Saturn SC2 and a Honda Civic EXL “sporty”). So it’s her turn to have something with a bit of pep.

Today Zaque and I were driving home, and I noticed a nice-looking Lexus parked in a garage. I snapped a photo:

Mom has a Lexus that’s pretty sweet. I headed over to the Lexus web site to see what’s available, and was immediately drawn to the LC model:

I’m not sure if that’s what I saw in the garage (possibly a different model year?), but it sure looks like a fun car to drive. Unfortunately I noticed the sticker price: it starts at $92,000 and goes up from there. The hybrid model– which would probably be my choice– starts at a cool $98,000.

Alas, perhaps we’ll forego the Lexus and settle for another Honda Civic. Laralee says she likes the sporty look of the new models.

A few days ago in seminary, I was talking to the class about choosing leaders and influencing laws, and I mentioned the voting process. Since none of them are eighteen yet, they’ve never voted and likely only have a high-level understanding of the process. I brought my mail-in ballots, as well as the booklets sent by the county and the city that explain the ballot measures.

They were astounded. “You read all of that?” The booklets are probably around 80 pages in total, and of course there’s a heavy dose of dense legal language. Yep, I read all of that. It’s important to be an informed and educated voter, right?

Anyway, the discussion reminded me of the importance of understanding the power we have as a people, and exercising that power. I’m frequently frustrated or disappointed in our government, but I do my part.

The fall Longmont ultimate league ended last night. Although it’s sad to think this was most likely my last fall league here, my team was absolutely awesome. We had so much fun together. Our team name was Final Fancy D, a play on the video game Final Fantasy (video game team names were our theme this season).

In the tournament, we squeaked out a victory in the first round by scoring the tiebreaker “universe point” after the final horn. It was a great game, back and forth the whole time. We went on to the semi-finals, where we faced the top-ranked team, who had only lost a single game all season. They were clearly the favorites, and even though we gave them a run for their money, we couldn’t beat their super-fast athletes and their long hucks. They went on to win the championship, cementing our third-place finish.

One of the women on my team, Jordan, brought a couple of glittery skirts and asked if anyone wanted to wear them. Although men wearing skirts was “a thing” back in the early days of ultimate, I admit I’ve never done it. Until last night. I donned a sparkling pink thing, and Kyle took the red one. It was hilarious, and the three of us posed after the game.

Then Kyle explained to me and Jordan that we should try posing with facial expressions that were “aroused and afraid”.

Unsure of what that meant, she and I tried it.

Kyle looks like he was suffering an aneurysm or something.  Jordan and I were still confused, so he attempted to explain it.

Then he thought it would be good to do some weird touchy thing.  Jordan remained perplexed.

Suddenly I felt like a victim.

But in the end, we all stayed friends.

While I joked with the team that they were “definitely one of the top twenty teams I’ve played with”, in truth they were in the top two.  We may not have won the season, but we sure had a good time together.

My friend Kyle just returned from his mission to Brazil. I talked to him on Sunday to welcome him home, and then he left town Tuesday to live in Utah for a while before returning to school at BYU.

I was surprised to get a text message Tuesday night with this photo:

That’s Kyle on the right. And of course that’s Alex in the back seat.

Apparently Kyle and his mom, Rocio (on the left) were driving on the streets of Provo, Utah in the dark and saw Alex on the street corner. They shouted at him, he jumped in the car, and they drove around for a while reminiscing. The two guys haven’t seen each other in over three years, because Alex is a year older and left on his mission before Kyle left for his. But I’m thrilled to see they caught up again. Small world!

Today as I was driving around town, I glanced over at the things hanging from my rear-view mirror. Of course I always see them– they’ve been there for years– but normally I just look past them, paying them no mind.

But apparently today I was in a more reflective mood, because I saw each of them, one by one, and thought about them for a moment.

– A tassel from my high-school graduation (black and gold, with a golden “90”)… reminding me of the amazing friends I met in high school, and still hang out with today.

– A second tassel from college (also black and gold, with a golden “95”)… reminding me of the many people and experiences that, in many ways and over the course of five years, shaped my life.

– A little globe, taken from a seminar I attended in college… reminding me of the fragility of the earth, and also of relationships. The seminar featured a powerful speaker who told a group of ambitious, eager, not-too-mature college students how they could enrich their lives, deeper their relationships, and care for the earth and all that’s in it.

– A set of car keys… reminding me of a couple of dear friends who helped me to grow as a person.

– A string-and-bead gecko… reminding me of Kyra, who made it for me when she was very young. The string has stretched a bit over the years, and the beads aren’t quite as shiny and vibrant, but in a way that little gecko represents a daughter’s love.

– A tiny llama… reminding me of Alex, who picked it up when he was serving his mission in Peru because he thought I’d like it. Indeed I do. He’s always been a sharp, strong, steadfast young man, and even now as he navigates the tricky waters of college, I have no doubt he’ll go far in this world.

Some people might see all this stuff hanging from my mirror and wonder why I have such junk impeding my view. But these little reminders, infrequent though they may be, help me remember how lucky I am.