1 times 2 equals 4

One iPod Shuffle times Two sets of ear buds equals Four entertained kids. Hey, whatever works on a boring Saturday afternoon!

Frozen toes to go

Went to lunch and never came back. Ended up snowboarding with Roger up at Bogus instead. Was a beautiful day with no wind, but it was a tidy 5 degrees F. Totally frozen nose, but still better than going back to work.

Final 2006-'07 season BSU post (I promise)

A friend gave me a couple of excellent videos on BSU football yesterday, so I stuck them on that darn in-ter-net so I could share them with everybody else. They are both pretty long, but totally worth the wait (like most things in life).

Click here to see why the future is bright for BSU (Ian Johnson is a sophomore!). This video summarizes the 2006 season with highlights from each game.


Click here to see an agonizing compilation that starts with Zabransky's pick 6 at the end of the game and really conveys the uphill battle of the entire game. Ending of course with a proposal to the Head Cheerleader. Doesn't get much better than that for the little guy.

Congratulations to the AP#5 Broncos, the only unbeaten team of the 2006 season.

Mia and Cooper do the (iPod)Shuffle

The fact that they are both listening to the same song with different reactions speaks volumes about their two unique personalities. Or Coop is just a clown.

Rack it

Made major progress toward being Baja Ready this weekend with the addition of a Yakima roof rack to the Tacoma. I was a little nervous about drilling holes in that nice Leer shell, but amazingly I got through it with nary a mistake. Take note, Dad, that it actually does make a difference to have sharp (and straight) drill bits and a tape measur that had never been broken, discarded, found, and then 'fixed'.

That thing on top is the Loadwarrior basket, with the optional extender. The great thing about the raingutter towers and sideloader brackets is that when the rack is removed, all that's left is a little 6-inch by 1-inch strip of black metal bolted to the shell. This is important to Shanna because she doesn't like driving around looking like a 'neck....

Boise State wins out!

Unless you live in a cave, you've surely seen the following info, so this only applies to those of you that do: Unbelievably, Boise State has run the table for the first 13-0 season in history with a huge win over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. FOX Sports has a bunch of video here. One of the coolest things about the win is that we went toe to toe with OK and played square football right up until the end, then switched into trick play mode to come from behind for the win. What a great way to end a perfect season (literally).

2006 Year Review

For a 'Year End Newsletter', I thought I'd just link to some of the more memorable events in 2006 that ended up in this crazy blog. Feel free to poke around a little if anything piques your interest. We are looking forward to an adventure filled 2007, and I hope you and your families are too....Happy Holidays!!

Bass fishing in the spring
Shanna catches her first salmon
Memorial Day at the Oregon Coast
Joel and Cheryl come to visit (1) (2) (3)
Fourth of July spent boating, of course (1) (2)
Sam and Shanna's first bass tournament
Mia turns six!
Mia learns to ride a big bike
Sally comes to visit in August
Cooper turns three!
Labor Day in McCall
Shanna gets fit
Sam takes a road trip in search of the Salmon (1) (2) (3)
Thanksgiving in San Diego

Family pictures

While in San Diego, we got the whole crew coordinated for some family pictures. These are not the "official" pictures because those are in Andrea's nice new Canon EOS 30D , but they will give you a little preview of things to come anyway. I'll make an album when she sends me the CD (hint hint).

Yes, that is Matt making the 'rabbit' face for the kids...

Kenrick and Mia being very normal.

We spent most of the time staying clear of the errant wave!

Somebody call a plumber

At 12:06a on the day before Thanksgiving, I walked outside to greet Steve as he arrived from San Francisco. Not only did I find a Steve, but I also found a river of water running down the street, over the curb and into the ocean. So we went searching for the source - and we found it promptly: not 10 minutes before, someone had driven their car quite carelessly over the curb, the street sign, and finally the fire hydrant. Busted that bugger right off clean. I always pictured a lot of water coming out of a hydrant that was busted off in the middle of the night before Thanksgiving, but the reality of this one far exceeded my expectations. There was a column of water shooting easily 30 ft in the air (I remember noticing that it was twice the height of the nearby light pole, however high that is). The firemen, police officers and pajama clad onlookers were just kind of standing around doing nothing. I believe they were waiting for some utility dude to turn some valve somewhere because when we brought Dad back a few minutes later, it was dwindling rapidly......yes, I woke him up, because yes, he would have been mad if I didn't.

The Full (of turkey) Report

Sally invited the whole crew to San Diego for Thanksgiving this year - of course no one even considered turning her down! Even Steve, who isn't technically family but Uncle Steve nonetheless, made an appearance.
We (the spambananagrits crew) decided to drive instead of fly for some reason that has since left my reasoning. The drive actually wasn't too bad, but it took about 10 to get to Las Vegas and then another 5 to San Diego, so needless to say it was still a lot of time in the saddle. We stopped at Bass Pro Shops on the way through Las Vegas both times to stretch our legs and shop around a bit. Highly recommended if you've never been - even for non-fisherman.
Matt and Sally's place is just a touch too small for 13 people so we rented a house on the beach for the week, which worked out just splendid. Sally stocked the fridge with a ton of groceries, so we just ate and played and ate and played until everyone was fat and sandy.
Activities for the week included eating at the beach, surf lessons, Sea World, eating on the roof balcony, nightly family photo/movie reviews, kid crafts, eating in the front yard, snorkeling, football on the TV and on the beach, and as many fruit smoothies as we could eat. Wow, no wonder I came home tired, sore, fat and sunburned.
Here is the full album. Sorry there are so many pictures, but I started with almost twice as many so consider yourself lucky....be sure to poke around a little because there are some real gems that I need to retract later when certain spamily members complain...

Never fear, we're not dead

We've simply been pre-occupied with Thanksgiving dinner......
I'll get some info together in the next couple of days. Nice to be back home too!

YouTubed

Got bored and started YouTubing around from the other day. I came across a couple of gems.

I would have loved this sketching series as a youth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us8xpwzszW4

This compilation of flight data is very interesting. But I will admit, this is one of those ones that you either love, or think is stupid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPv8psZsvIU

Interesting concept in custom furniture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA8CLON9BwE
For those that want the Cliff Notes, an artist draws a piece of furniture in space while a computer tracks the pen. Then the 3d model is output to some type of stereo lithography machine that generates the drawn framework as physical structure.

I voted, in spite of myself

Man it's annoying having nothing but a bunch of sleazeballs to pick from. And these electronic voting machine problems - answer me this: How is it possible that the casino industry can make billions of dollars a year off video slot machines that are deftly operated 24/7 by people that aren't smart enough to understand the odds, and we can't make a simple electronic vote box work reliably for a single day, once every two years. Give me a break.

Cartoon links to/property of Daryl Cagle's Cartoon Index

The Johnny Appleseed Solo

Mia had a Fall music program at school tonight, and she was selected to sing a solo part of the Johnny Appleseed song. She did an excellent job! We had to sit way in the back so my picture has a funny perspective. Thank goodness for that long zoom...Click on the picture to see the movie (caution...15mb)

Boise State is now 9-0

Beat Fresno state last night 45-21 on ESPN. Would have looked even better if Fresno wasn't a 1-6 team. But Shanna says to stop griping about the soft schedule and start talking BCS. So here we go - if BSU wins out, they definitely deserve to be in the Fiesta Bowl. Only San Jose State(5-2), Utah State(1-7), and Nevada(5-3) to go......soft schedule.....