25 December 2011 - Christmas

The evolution of a ball-and-burlap Christmas tree:
Stage 1-Get an 8 foot tall, 300 pound Douglas Fir into a water-tight metal wash basin and get it inside the house.  (Protect carpet with towels and tarp.)

Stage 2-Leave the country for a week right before Christmas and let the girls decorate the tree.

Stage 3-Wait for Santa to leave Christmas presents under said tree.  (Mission accomplished.)

Stage 4 will be documented for the next week or two.  This phase includes un-decorating the tree, removing it to the garage at night and driveway during the daytime for the next week or so to acclimate the tree to being outdoors, then planting it in the backyard.  We'll see how this goes but we're going to do the best we can; it would grieve the lord of this vineyard to lose this tree.

In between all the decorating, the girls made a gingerbread village.  Here are the various pieces for the houses.

They're much more creative than I ever will be.  The stones lining the steam (blue frosting) are honey roasted peanuts.  The Christmas trees are small waffle cones covered in green frosting.  We enjoyed looking at it for a couple of days, and have enjoyed eating it since.

Joanne has been getting crafty again this holiday season.  Here is a quilt she made this month.

As things get more competitive, there's less time off, even during the holidays.  Here are the girls at their most recent meet, where Madeline was selected to swim in a relay in addition to her other individual events.

On Christmas Eve we went to our Elder's Quorum President's house for snacks and a live nativity.  Though he has five boys, the two families together resulted in an equal number of boys and girls, so our shepherds were all female.  The part of Baby Jesus was played by baby Jared who was born in October, and was quite content to hang out in a laundry basket, which his mom informs us is not a terribly uncommon event.

After the Nativity was over, the ruckus began.  This consisted of the adults eating more cookies and Chex mix than necessary, while the little kids wrestle-tickled Jessica.

When the ruckus was over, we came home, watched a movie and then went to bed to wait for Santa to come.  He came through in fine fashion.  Jessica got a new scarf, hat, mitten combo, and the final few dollars she needed to save up to get her long-desire iPod touch.  It has been ordered and should arrive soon.

Emily also received some money toward a future iPod, and a stack of Judy Moody books, which went over well with her.

Madeline got some fabulous Harry Potter accessories -- namely Luna Lovegood's Spectra Specs and wand. Oh, and also a little cash to add to the savings for an iPod.

Santa was likewise good to Joanne, bringing an extra-large griddle and a new purse.

Not pictured: Matt, who received a number of tools, and a new, skinny belt to hold up pants.  We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and hope you did as well.

18 December 2011 - Conference in Singapore

This small Buddhist temple was right next door to my hotel in Singapore.  Though small, it was in a fairly residential area and thus was quite busy.  Consequently, the hotel smelled a good bit like incense from the many daily prayers offered.

The conference was actually held at the Hotel Fort Canning, a few subway stops up from the hotel I stayed in.  Fort Canning was a British military headquarters for much of the 1800s and 1900s until the Japanese conquered Singapore in World War II.  Though Singapore was returned to the British after World Ward II, the Fort was turned into a hotel and within a about a decade, Singapore became its own sovereign nation.

You've heard the rumors about Singapore......well......they're true.

The Hotel Fort Canning is a very classy place.  It is a popular place for weddings, galas, and even geeky computer conferences.

On the grounds around the hotel (Fort Canning Park), I found this sculpture with the inscription: "Love and Kindness are Never Wasted."

Here's a bit more traditional sculpture at Fort Canning, part of a fountain that was off for cleaning and repair.

Here's a view of one of the conference rooms.  I didn't have someone take a picture of me during any of my presentations, I get nervous enough as it is.  So I took a pic of an empty room during one of the breaks.  My talk and several discussions about my forthcoming data mining book went very well.

As part of the conference, we got to take a bus tour of the city.  I found Singapore to be somewhat like Houston in terms of its downtown -- there wasn't really one downtown, there were several clusters of high rise office buildings.

This building is a combination of hotel, shopping and business.  It is on the harbor front.  The bridge across the top of the three towers is called the Skywalk.  We were supposed to get to go up there as part of the bus tour, but when we got there we got some lame explanation from our tour guide about why we weren't going, so I only got to take a picture.  The white balls floating in the water are peoples' wishes or prayers for Christmas and the New Year.

When Joanne and I were in London about nine years ago, we rode the London Eye, which at the time was the largest Ferris wheel in the world.  It has now been surpassed twice, once by a giant wheel in China, and then in 2008 by the Singapore Flyer, seen on the left side of this photo.

Like any good city, Singapore has a Chinatown where cheap goods are hawked to tourists anxious for a good deal.  I did my part, bringing back ear rings for all four of my girls, and Angry Birds pencil cases for the younger ones.

We went to a Buddhist temple during the bus tour.  I liked this Buddha.  He presides over the fifth circle of Hell, where children who are disobedient to their parents are sent to be punished.

After a week in the Orient, it was time to come home.  It's a 24 hour trip, so I did a lot of sleeping and watched a number of movies.  I also had some grading to get done and worked on my writing a bit.  When I arrived home, the girls had decorated our tree.  This year we went with a live tree, a Douglas Fir in burlap.  The goal is to keep it alive in the house and then plant it in the backyard after it has served its Christmas purpose.

We wish you all a wonderful and restful week leading up to Christmas.

11 December 2011 - Malaysia and Indonesia

This week, classes came to an end and I had the opportunity to travel to Singapore for the International Computer Science Education conference.  Since it was much cheaper to fly in before the weekend, I found myself there with a few days to explore before the conference began.  Here is a view of Singapore from the train platform.

Near my hotel, I found a place where I could sample the local cuisine.

Here's another restaurant near my hotel.  The clarity of the owner's advertising was lacking.  I wasn't sure if this was a place for Muslims to go eat, or where you go to eat Muslims.  Maybe that confusion is why I didn't eat here.

Speaking of advertising, each day when I walked from my hotel to the train station, I felt like I needed to buy some paint.

Singapore's fine bakeries were simply no good for my diet.

Singapore is not really very big -- it is an island nation surrounded on one side by Malaysia, and across the straits on the other side by Indonesia.  I spent my first free day in Malaysia.  Here is a large mosque I found.

It is a mosque that is not to trifled with.

While I was exploring, I found a little shopping district that was decorated with traditional Chinese lanterns.

To get to Malaysia, you take a bus across a short causeway bridge.  This is a view of Singapore looking back across the water from Johor, Malaysia.

Malaysia is primarily a Muslim country, but is tolerant of other religions.  This was a particularly ornate Buddhist temple I found on my walkabout in Johor.  It's the rainy season over there right now, so when the afternoon rains came, I headed back to Singapore to my hotel and went to bed for the night.

The next day, I took a ferry boat to Batam, Indonesia.  This shot is looking back toward Singapore as we left the bay heading toward Batam.

Here's the boat that brought me to Indonesia.  It was about a 30 minute boat ride through one of the busiest shipping channels I've ever seen.

This is one of the first places I saw when I got off the boat.  There was this very pretty, lily pad covered lake with a walkway around it.

I rented a motor scooter to cruise around and check out the island.  My scooter was like the little ones pictured here and cost me $3.10 for about an hour.  Indonesia was much dirtier and more impoverished than Singapore.

Another mosque, this one in Batam.

After a day in Batam, it was time to head back to Singapore to get ready for my conference.  At the boat dock waiting for my ferry, this water taxi guy with his pink parasol made me laugh.

Back in Singapore, it was pretty easy to get to sleep.  Not only had I spent most of two days walking and exploring, the time difference was also 13 hours from Eastern Time, so I was all out of whack.  I was glad to get back to my hotel and crash for the night.

4 December 2011 - Swim Meet

The other night, I was cleaning up in the kitchen, and I looked out and saw a stunning sunset.  I had to take a picture, even though a picture doesn't do it justice.

On Saturday, Madeline and Emily participated in the first swim meet of the year.  It was Madeline's first swim meet ever, and here is a shot of her as she won the 25 yard freestyle heat for her age group.  She was very excited.

Here is Emily on the starting block.  She also did very well in her events.

Jessica was not able to participate in the swim meet, because we had a youth temple trip to Columbus.  Our appointment at the temple was very early Saturday morning, so after we finished we took all 12 youth who participated to this indoor water park where they played until late afternoon.  We had a blast.

Joanne and the younger girls arrived back at the house just five minutes after Jessica and I got home, so our Saturdays, in two different places, were long and tiring, but fun for all.

27 November 2011 - Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, Jerry and Danae came to visit from New Jersey.  Since our ward didn't have a Turkey Bowl, we had our own in the yard.  It was sunny, but we've had so much rain that the ground was very sloppy.

Eden enjoyed blowing bubbles with the girls and playing in the playhouse.

After a couple of hours working up an appetite, it was time for Thanksgiving dinner.

Joanne and Danae made sure that we had some excellent pies to follow dinner (a couple hours later).

After five days, it was time to say goodbye.  We never like parting, but the blow was softened for Calista and Eden when they  received Pillow Pets from Aunt Joanne.

We hope you had a happy, healthy and yummy Thanksgiving.