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Kyra is pretty happy today. She’s been wearing braces for over a year, and during the past two months she’s had at least four appointments with the orthodontist where she was scheduled to have the braces removed. Unfortunately, on each visit they found another reason why she needed to keep them on. They were fine-tuning her bite, and removing the braces early would mean her teeth would shift back to their old positions.

Today was her lucky day, though, and the braces came off.

Here’s Kyra in the morning, looking sad (or attempting to do so) because once again we weren’t sure whether the orthodontist would actually do it.

And here she is this afternoon, with her pearly whites visible to the world, and no wire grilles. Yay!

This afternoon I taught Alex and Kyra how to drive a stick shift. They’re both pretty comfortable driving– after all, Alex has been doing it for almost two years now, and although Kyra only has four months under her belt, she took to it pretty easily. But as anyone who’s done it knows, learning to drive a manual transmission is a whole new ballgame.

I remember how rough I was when I first started: constantly killing the engine or grinding the gears. I figured the same thing would happen with these guys, so I was hesitant to take them out. After all, I love my car and would hate to listen to the poor gears grinding. But Kyra really wants to learn to drive a stick, and Alex sort of accepts it as a useful life skill and thus worth learning.

To my surprise (and joy), both of them did pretty well. Kyra was a little smoother as she started from a stop; Alex tended to release the clutch too quickly and kill the engine. But in general, they did pretty well and we enjoyed an hour circling a parking lot while a few neighbors and dog-walkers watched in passing.

We’ll keep practicing, of course, and at some point we’ll have to do The Test. When I was learning, mom decided that I’d only be “officially” good at a manual transmission when I could pass The Test, which was a stoplight at the intersection of Willott and Jungermann Roads. The light was at the top of a steep hill, meaning as you sat at the light you were a couple of feet in front of the next guy, ready to slide backward if you didn’t get into first gear smoothly and quickly. I passed (although nervous) and haven’t looked back– all of my cars have been manual, and I love driving that way.

I wonder how long it will be before we’re ready for The Test…

Ahh, Songza… a nifty music service that Thom showed me. When you first arrive, it suggests different types of music depending on the time of day. There’s always something about “working” (we all know web developers need music while coding) and usually some off-the-wall category as well… often “Music for drinking gourmet coffee”. Well, just now it’s “Music for entertaining cool friends”.

I have no idea what kind of music I’d want to play while entertaining cool friends, but I’m going to find out.

There’s a haunted house in Canada called the Nightmares Fear Factory. They’ve been in business for many years, and apparently the “show” is pretty terrifying. There’s a part right at the very end, after the patrons have spent the last 20 minutes being scared over and over, when something absolutely amazing happens. It’s not clear what– I haven’t been there, nor will they “reveal” what it is– but at the very instant it happens, there’s a flash camera that captures the moment.

Who knew terror could look so funny?

Halloween at Zing!

Tonight I played in a Halloween ultimate tournament. We were under the lights at Sandstone Ranch, which has some really nice fields. Since it’s the day before Halloween, everyone was encouraged to come in costume. About half of the players did. I pulled out my “peace and love” jeans, an obnoxious green big-collar shirt, and my gigantic afro wig… a reprise of last year’s costume. I learned that playing ultimate while wearing an afro can be problematic.

The temperature was about 35 degrees, but with long sleeves and some wide receiver gloves, I was plenty warm. It was kind of cool to see fog on the field, and of course you could see everyone’s breath as they ran around. Our team struggled in the first game, losing 13-0. I scored the first point in our second game, putting us on top for the first and only time all night. We stayed with the second team pretty well, but eventually lost 13-10.

All in all it was a good time, and nice to get some exercise as the weather gets cooler. This is the part of the year where I tend to gain five pounds because I’m not running as much…

Apparently ultimate players, in general, are smart. According to 2006 a study at the University of Washington:

Ahh, Kevin Chang. King of the yearbook quotes.

This is Lyons, Colorado.

Last weekend several hundred volunteers from church went up to Lyons (it had just been re-opened to traffic) and worked at various locations where flood cleanup was needed. I worked at a small farm with maybe fifty other volunteers. The St. Vrain River is behind those trees in the background, and the mix of mud, sand, and rocks used to be a huge grassy yard. There were trucks half-buried– we excavated two of them and managed to pull one free of the mud; the other was too big for a pickup to pull with a tow cable. We emptied mud out of sheds, tore down chain link fences that had been twisted into wild shapes, and collected literally tons of equipment and belongings that had been destroyed by water and mud. Sadly, after hours of work, it hardly looked like we’d made a dent. There’s a long road to recovery for the people in this nice little town.

It was inspiring to see so many volunteers helping, though. In addition to nearly five hundred Mormons from Longmont, there were several hundred volunteers from an organization called Samaritan’s Purse, and I saw a huge group of other people wearing matching shirts (but too far away to know who they represented). There were hand-painted signs around town proclaiming “Lyons Strong” and “We are no longer a community– now we’re a family”. Although the extent of the disaster is staggering, it’s nice to see it bring out the best in people.

Tonight we went to a big Halloween party. I was Waldo. Laralee was… Laralee.

The jokes about “I found you!” started even before I got through the front door. I counted six in the first ten minutes… no surprise.

Of course I photo-bombed Kyra and her friends (Hannah, Alex, and Chaille).

And then we decided to do a nice “Where’s Waldo?” photo of the whole group. Can you find Waldo? What about the cowgirl (Chaille) or Barbie (Kyra)?