It has been so long since we last wrote on our blog, partly because I am out of habit and partly because there is not much happening other than work. We are finally growing our jungle on our balcony. So far we have 9 orchids, 1 bromeliad, 2 palms, and 2 pothos. Of course this is only the beginning. Patricia is organizing the interior design part of it. In other words, everything must be more than functional but beautiful. Once we have things more organized, I'll put up some pictures of our balcony jungle.
Also here are a few pictures from Disney World and Yuma.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Patricia goes to the temple!
Patricia will receive her endowments this Saturday, 13 December. She is so excited about every aspect of the temple. After our bishop interviewed her today, he came and said, "good job". When I said thanks (not knowing why), he said "No really good job helping her get prepared. She is the most prepared new member I have ever seen." I must say that I was happy to hear that, but she is the only one who receives the credit for preparation.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Viscaya Museum
On Saturday we went and visited a house built in 1914 by James Deering who was the owner of International Harvester, the largest company of agricultural machinery
at the time. The estate took 2 years to build at a whopping price of $20 million. 1
000 workers worked on the house 
dail
y, which was 10% of the entire Miami population. Once the house was finished, he had a crew of 130 people to take care of the house, estate, and the farm where he produced his food.
The house was massive with 75 rooms that were decorated with furniture purchased from European castles and in some instances the entire room including walls and ceiling were brought over from European castles. He never married but had 10 bedrooms for his constant stream of guests. He lived on the bay, so people could arrive at his house either by ship, train or by car. Just imagine his lifestyle required the employment of 130 people!
Just for those interested in agriculture. the company that James Deering owned was International Harvester, which merged with McCormick.
Later in the 1980s the company split into Navistar (trucks and buses) and Case International (tractors and farm 
machinery).
at the time. The estate took 2 years to build at a whopping price of $20 million. 1
000 workers worked on the house 
dail
y, which was 10% of the entire Miami population. Once the house was finished, he had a crew of 130 people to take care of the house, estate, and the farm where he produced his food.The house was massive with 75 rooms that were decorated with furniture purchased from European castles and in some instances the entire room including walls and ceiling were brought over from European castles. He never married but had 10 bedrooms for his constant stream of guests. He lived on the bay, so people could arrive at his house either by ship, train or by car. Just imagine his lifestyle required the employment of 130 people!
Just for those interested in agriculture. the company that James Deering owned was International Harvester, which merged with McCormick.
Later in the 1980s the company split into Navistar (trucks and buses) and Case International (tractors and farm 
machinery).
Saturday, November 22, 2008
First time for everything
Patricia and I have been together for 15 months, and we went to the theater for the first time. I thought pretty crazy that after we have bee together 15 months we finally watched a movie. I guess we are not movie goers.Patricia wanted to see it because all the young women at church and their mothers were talking about it (She is in the young womens' presidency). I knew nothing about the movie except a few reviews that I read that said that it was the biggest sensation among teenage girls and their mothers. I, not being part of either group, was rather reluctant to see this chickflick. I figured that I would be one of the sad group of men forced to accompany wives or girlfriends to the theater. However, the movie was not all that bad. I was glad that it was not overly sappy or stupid, and not satanic like many vampire movies are.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Word to the wise
No matter how mad you are at your computer, so do not hit it with your left hand while wearing a tungstun carbide wedding band. You only are left with a cracked computer monitor and wedding band broken in two.
Yes tungstun carbide is one of the hardest substances on earth next to diamond, but as I found out the hard way it is extremely brittle. Fortunately the place I bought replaced it. Whew!
Yes tungstun carbide is one of the hardest substances on earth next to diamond, but as I found out the hard way it is extremely brittle. Fortunately the place I bought replaced it. Whew!
Patricia's taking piano lessons!
I have not written for a long time because I don't think people want to hear about ecology, teaching, and writing papers. But what can I write about when that is all that we did for the last few months?
However, I do have new news today. Patricia started piano lessons! Patricia loves music. She always wants to sing songs. We sing a hymn in the morning when we get up. The most important part of the Family Home Evening is the opening and closing hymns. Now every time we drive in a car it is singing time. We practice and memorize hymns. (We memorized "I'm a child of God", "how firm a foundation", "love at home", "families ca
n be together forever", "teacher do you love me?", and "morning breaks". I'm not really into music, but I am dragged into all the hymn singing. She is shocked that I grew up in a church and still do not have the common songs like "I'm a child of God" memorized, so she is compensating for this "slacker" attitude.
She wanted to learn how to play the piano, so that she can play the hymns. Also she would be able to teach our kids how to play piano some day. At first I didn't think she was serious about playing piano, but she practices all the time. We bought her a keyboard, practice music books, the church hymnal, and the primary music book.
However, I do have new news today. Patricia started piano lessons! Patricia loves music. She always wants to sing songs. We sing a hymn in the morning when we get up. The most important part of the Family Home Evening is the opening and closing hymns. Now every time we drive in a car it is singing time. We practice and memorize hymns. (We memorized "I'm a child of God", "how firm a foundation", "love at home", "families ca
n be together forever", "teacher do you love me?", and "morning breaks". I'm not really into music, but I am dragged into all the hymn singing. She is shocked that I grew up in a church and still do not have the common songs like "I'm a child of God" memorized, so she is compensating for this "slacker" attitude.She wanted to learn how to play the piano, so that she can play the hymns. Also she would be able to teach our kids how to play piano some day. At first I didn't think she was serious about playing piano, but she practices all the time. We bought her a keyboard, practice music books, the church hymnal, and the primary music book.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Kayaking and a random cattle show
I found some pictures that I took in May when we went to the Miami Cattle Show and kayaking in the Florida Keys.
Kayaking through the Keys
As a wedding present, our then branch president gave us a kayaking trip (click on pic to see album) and dinner at an excellent all-you-can-eat seafood place. Patricia and I used his two-man, which means that I kayaked two people. Patricia helped every once in while. The kayaks had an interesting design; they had fins underneath that were leg powered. One can row, too, but the leg-powered rowing alone was very fast. We both really enjoyed the trip, and now a sea kayak is on our special list. You know that special list of things we would like to some day buy when we actually have money.
A little Florida Keys history
Our branch president is a Florida history buff, so he picked keys to kayak to that had historical value. On one key we saw an old village that was there until 100 years ago. Then we went to another key where there was an old village established by a wealthy ship wrecker. Ship wreckers were the people who would salvage ships that wrecked in the shallow waters around the Keys. They would take the crew ashore and then gut the ship. This was completely legal activity, and ship wrecking made Key West the wealthiest city per capita in the world.
A rich man's son Jacob Houseman from New York stole one of his Dad's ships and ship wrecked in the Keys. He soon saw that shipwrecking could be a lucrative business. He convinced the ship wrecker who salvaged his ship to hire him. He then sent out fliers all along the East coast, saying that anyone wrecked in the Keys should let Captain Jacob Houseman wreck their ship because he would give the captain 50% of the wreck. This was important to the captain of the wrecked ship because after wrecking a ship he would never have another job opportunity again. The owner of the cargo was covered by insurance, but the captain was out of a job for life. Half the cargo was a good retirement fund.
Jacob Houseman quickly became the wealthiest ship wrecker in the Keys. He bought and settled on Indian Key. During the Seminole Wars he became very worried about Indian attacks, so he employed a rather costly private army. After exhausting much of his financial resources on the private garrison, he decided to take a cheaper route of paying a bounty on Indian scalps. However, that which appears cheapest sometimes turns out to be the most expensive. The Seminoles became infuriated with the bounty and attacked the key. Most people on the key were killed, though Jacob Houseman and his family escaped. In the attack Houseman lost everything and soon after lost his life, too. He went to work for a ship wrecker and fell (probably pushed) between 2 ships and was crushed to death.
Pig racing and bovines
On the way home one day I saw an advertisement for a cattle show (click on pic to see album) close to our apartment with free admission. Free and close, I couldn't resist. Because Patricia was with me, she was dragged along as well. Patricia had almost no experience with animals outside of her dog, so this was all rather new for her. For instance, she had never been close to a cow, let alone touched one. She finally got up the courage to touch this Maine Anjou bull (thank goodness it humored her).
The cattle show had a pot-bellied pig race that was pretty funny. The announcer was excellent and made it sound like these pot-bellied pigs were the most elite racing animals in the race of races. In reality, the pigs jogged for the first 10 feet then dawdled around the back stretch.
All of a sudden one pig took off running as fast as its fat little legs could carry it. It was a good 40 yards ahead of the other pig when he stopped (no joking) six inches in front of the finish line. He stayed there until another pig almost crossed the line in front of him. Nothing more exciting than seeing pig win by only a snout.
It was interesting to see what Patricia found most interesting. One cow as we walked by started peeing, Patricia just looked at it wide-eyed, amazed. She could not believe that so much urine could leave any animal at one time. Afterwords she wanted to photograph a cow peeing, but unfortunately cows don't pee on cue.
Kayaking through the Keys
As a wedding present, our then branch president gave us a kayaking trip (click on pic to see album) and dinner at an excellent all-you-can-eat seafood place. Patricia and I used his two-man, which means that I kayaked two people. Patricia helped every once in while. The kayaks had an interesting design; they had fins underneath that were leg powered. One can row, too, but the leg-powered rowing alone was very fast. We both really enjoyed the trip, and now a sea kayak is on our special list. You know that special list of things we would like to some day buy when we actually have money.
A little Florida Keys history
Our branch president is a Florida history buff, so he picked keys to kayak to that had historical value. On one key we saw an old village that was there until 100 years ago. Then we went to another key where there was an old village established by a wealthy ship wrecker. Ship wreckers were the people who would salvage ships that wrecked in the shallow waters around the Keys. They would take the crew ashore and then gut the ship. This was completely legal activity, and ship wrecking made Key West the wealthiest city per capita in the world.
A rich man's son Jacob Houseman from New York stole one of his Dad's ships and ship wrecked in the Keys. He soon saw that shipwrecking could be a lucrative business. He convinced the ship wrecker who salvaged his ship to hire him. He then sent out fliers all along the East coast, saying that anyone wrecked in the Keys should let Captain Jacob Houseman wreck their ship because he would give the captain 50% of the wreck. This was important to the captain of the wrecked ship because after wrecking a ship he would never have another job opportunity again. The owner of the cargo was covered by insurance, but the captain was out of a job for life. Half the cargo was a good retirement fund.
Jacob Houseman quickly became the wealthiest ship wrecker in the Keys. He bought and settled on Indian Key. During the Seminole Wars he became very worried about Indian attacks, so he employed a rather costly private army. After exhausting much of his financial resources on the private garrison, he decided to take a cheaper route of paying a bounty on Indian scalps. However, that which appears cheapest sometimes turns out to be the most expensive. The Seminoles became infuriated with the bounty and attacked the key. Most people on the key were killed, though Jacob Houseman and his family escaped. In the attack Houseman lost everything and soon after lost his life, too. He went to work for a ship wrecker and fell (probably pushed) between 2 ships and was crushed to death.
Pig racing and bovines
On the way home one day I saw an advertisement for a cattle show (click on pic to see album) close to our apartment with free admission. Free and close, I couldn't resist. Because Patricia was with me, she was dragged along as well. Patricia had almost no experience with animals outside of her dog, so this was all rather new for her. For instance, she had never been close to a cow, let alone touched one. She finally got up the courage to touch this Maine Anjou bull (thank goodness it humored her).
The cattle show had a pot-bellied pig race that was pretty funny. The announcer was excellent and made it sound like these pot-bellied pigs were the most elite racing animals in the race of races. In reality, the pigs jogged for the first 10 feet then dawdled around the back stretch.
All of a sudden one pig took off running as fast as its fat little legs could carry it. It was a good 40 yards ahead of the other pig when he stopped (no joking) six inches in front of the finish line. He stayed there until another pig almost crossed the line in front of him. Nothing more exciting than seeing pig win by only a snout.
It was interesting to see what Patricia found most interesting. One cow as we walked by started peeing, Patricia just looked at it wide-eyed, amazed. She could not believe that so much urine could leave any animal at one time. Afterwords she wanted to photograph a cow peeing, but unfortunately cows don't pee on cue.
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