Blogging During Priesthood Meeting

Bruce, David, and I went to the Priesthood Session of General Conference together. We went to the Sterling Chapel and sat in the last row -- it has more leg room. We used my BlackBerry to capture our running commentary. Included here for your entertainment.

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Oliver: I'm shocked at the number of men here who are not wearing ties. I shaved today because, last time when I hadn't shaved, I felt half-dressed.

David: I'm shocked at the number of men not wearing white shirts. Ha ha.

Oliver: This is a white shirt. It just happens to have stripes on it. And it's the closest you're ever going to see to me wearing a white shirt.

Bruce: I shaved, too. I didn't want to, but I knew that I would feel weird.

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Oliver: This is an incredibly accessible talk for Elder Wirthlin. Usually they are very hard to get into.

Oliver: Oh, and they have put the make-up on thick tonight. It is noticeable because the guy who said the opening prayer had quite the shiny pate.

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Bruce: It is torturous to ask men to come to a meeting at 6:00 MDT on a Saturday.

Oliver: Why?

Bruce: Saturday is a work day, even if you watch both of the earlier session. ...Then you have to dress up to go to Church. You really have to plan to make sure you are ready for the Priesthood session. But...by now you should be used to it!

Oliver: The real problem with Priesthood session is that we have already had four hours of conference today. It's hard to sit and listen. I'm feeling restless.

Bruce: Ditto! I have to make sure I come with someone, like you two, to make sure I come. Colter is old enough that I need to be a good example.

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Oliver & David: Legumes.

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Oliver: References to great literature have definitely decreased in recent years.

Bruce: It has. I haven't heard a quote from C. S. Lewis for a while. Dickenson it okay, but for a while it seemed that Lewis was being quoted every other session.

Cousins Dinner

Back in the day, when half of the family was attending BYU, various groups of cousins would get together semi-frequently for cousins dinner. Dinners included first and second cousins, spouses, occasionally roommates and friends, and were pot-luck in nature. As family members have spread throughout the country cousins dinners happen in various cities. We, the DC contingent, have never been too frequent in our dinnering, but our schedules finally worked such that we had a dinner today between sessions of conference. In attendance were one of my first cousins and four second cousins with assorted spouses and offspring. It was a grand time with grand food. There are a ton of pics to post, so here goes.

Lisa's sister, Marci, was in town with her husband, Matt, and son, Sam.

Marci & Lisa; Sam & Matt

Marci & Fam flew down from Boston for a few day's visit and are staying with Bryce, Lisa, and Sophie. Sophie is incredibly mobile and enjoyed crawling all around and attempting to attack her third cousin Clara, seen here attempting cannibalism on her dear father's hand.

Between Sam (above), Sophie, Clara, and the fourth offspring present, Nikolai (below), the play area was well used. Nikolai especially enjoyed the blocks, while Sam and Sophie constantly sought out my second cousin Kate's husband, Chris.

Now would probably be a good time to bring up food. In a first for me, I was the king of the grill, which included my first even preparing the charcoal. In the past, I've allowed the resident pyros to get the coals going (Bruce say what?) but this time I hadn't anyone around, so I stepped up and made some mighty nice coals if I do say so myself. We grilled these great burgers that Lisa brought, Hebrew National hot dogs, and Boca burgers for the vegetarians in the group. For sides, Kristin made her potato salad, which we ate for breakfast Sunday morning; Chris made this amazing roast corn salad that included mini mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes, and cilantro and was topped with balsamic vinegar, my dinner Sunday night; Mary, Nikolai's mom, made a green salad; and Jane, my first cousin, brought a fresh fruit salad. Oh, we need pics of Mary and Jane.

Steve played the role of tired father quite well! After a while Nikolai got into the act and you can see the results of that to the right. Steve enjoyed the reading area with Matt, who, at one point, had a sleeping child in arms.

Sam is one of the most photogenic children I've ever met. Just had to throw that in.

Other fun photos from the afternoon:

Clara jumping into a picture of Chris and Kate; the successful Chris and Kate photo

Clara and Mom; Clara hating it up with Dad

Kate and Marci (Kate be glad I didn't include the other one where you're making quite the face); Kate and Chris in discussion (for the record I wasn't the photographer, but whoever was kept taking pictures of Kate and Chris)

One thing you'll see in the picture below, but about which I have not blogged, is our recently rearranged middle floor. During the winter months it was too cold on the first floor (old home of the television and black couches) to have Clara without full-on outside winter clothes. So, a few weeks ago, with the help of Bruce, David, and Brigham, we moved everything to the middle floor. I think it looks rather nice.

This last picture is Psycho Kitty. He/she deserves his/her own post. I love me some Psycho Kitty.

Dinner was topped off with brown bottom cupcakes and peppermint cupcakes, all courtesy of Marci and Lisa. At the end of the evening, Sophie was on the stairs and went for the last of the food.I think the cousins dinner can be best summed up with the following: Food was eaten. Plates were cleared. A good time was had.

Sorry. It's conference time. Had to get my Monson on.

Out, Sand, Out I Say! -or- Now I'm a Suburbanite

We gave the house a quick cleaning to prepare for the Cousins Dinner today. The entryway on the first floor has been a mess for some time. No matter how often we vacuumed, dirt would quickly appear. I couldn't tell where the source of all the dirt was until I took two steps into the garage without my shoes on.

The door to the garage is right off of the entryway. This winter we've had a bit more snow and ice than normal, and the department of transportation has dropped a ton of sand. A fair amount of that sand ended up in our garage and, in turn, our entryway.

I figured if we wanted to have a clean entryway we first had to clean out the garage. So last weekend I emptied out the garage, swept out about three pounds of sand, WD-40ed the garage door tracks, and even moved the Christmas decorations so they wouldn't get smashed each time I pulled too far into the garage. I do believe that cleaning out your garage is the sure sign that you've become a suburbanite.

Look What I Can Do!

Today I played in my exersaucer for the first time (thanks Aunt Melissa and Uncle Justin!). Mommy had to use a blanket to help prop me up since I can't quite sit up by myself yet, but I had lots of fun anyway. Here's a video Mommy took:

Don't Make Me Hit You Mr. Subway-Man

I go to Subway almost every day for lunch. I have a standard meal I get so I know exactly how many points it is. I usually go with my co-worker Sonja. The guy who starts my sandwich knows me and knows my order. That lady who puts veggies on my sandwich greets me with a warm smile and "How are you today?" With a track record like that you'd expect that the guy who rings me up would be equally kind, especially since he's taking my money.

Sadly, he's not. And he's so about to get hit.

Every day I say: "Six inch, honey-oat, ham and turkey with American cheese."
And Bread Guy smiles.

Every day I say: "Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pickles, salt and pepper, and a little honey mustard."
And Veggie Lady smiles.

Every day I hold up my bag of Cheddar & Sour Cream Baked Lays (holy freaking heavens they are soooo good) and, when Cashier Man asks "Chips and drink?", I say "Just chips." Every day the order comes to $4.67. Every day I hand over my credit card and say, "I don't need a receipt." And what does Cashier Man do?

He stands there, waiting for the charge to go through.

Now folks, if I'm buying a computer, if I'm buying a piece of jewelry - the two items that were purchased on our credit cards when they were stolen a few years ago - I expect you to make sure the purchase goes through. We're talking about thousands of dollars that can have a big impact on your business. Heck, I even understand when it's a $50 order of groceries. Even if you've never seen the client before, I'd expect you to wait for the validation to go through.

But I go there every single day. Why can't you be like Chipotle and other fast food restaurants who just swipe the card and let you go on your way? Am I a flight risk? Are you worried that you couldn't recover from losing my $4.67 if my card was denied? Am I a shady character who's never purchased anything from you before? Is not getting my $4.67 the end of the world?

Sadly, I doubt I'll ever be able to stop going to Subway. I'm too hooked. And until I get up the nerve to whack Mr. Cashier Man upside the head I guess I'll have to content myself with the mental image of him spending an eternity waiting for a credit card approval to go through. Now that would be kharma.

Did someone say April 20th? Oops, I mean pot-ter.

Big Harry Potter updates for you all. First, it has been announced that all three kids will be back for movies six and seven. Would love to know what they're getting paid. Read about it here.

Other HUGE news: cover art has been announced for the books!!! Our first insight into the story. Check out the U.S. Cover:The cover art spreads around the back and onto the sleeve. Full art seen here. I'm guessing that would be the final scene.
Also, we have the U.K. children's cover:And the U.K. adult cover:Click all pictures to see larger versions. This look so insanely cool!

Grandpa Dick

At 1:30p Pacific Time yesterday Grandpa Dick lost his 14-year battle with cancer. He was 67 years old.

I first met Grandpa Dick in 2000 on my first trip to Portland. Dick was a kind, gentle man who looked for the best in everyone. A devout Christian, he believed his life was in God's hands, that every minute here on the Earth was a blessing meant to be used humbly in service of others. Countless times he and Grammy spent their vacation travelling long distances to build churches is other communities. He had always hoped to bring the RV out to Virginia for a visit.

I remember when he took me to visit the telephone company where he worked the majority of his professional life. It was amazing to see the systems that result in the phone company's near flawless up-time, as well as to understand how they combined existing technologies to create ISDN and DSL lines. We patched into the line that provided service to his house, Barn Haven, and said a quick hello to Grammy.

Yesterday, as I sat comforting Kristin, she remarked that there is mercy in his passing: His battle and pain is over. Yet the victory is a bittersweet one. Clara will be making her first trip to Portland in two week's time. How I wish she could have met the kind and gentle man that was Grandpa Dick.

It's Love. Really.

Our good friends David and Bonnie have a son, Michael, who is two weeks older than Clara. Long before they were born (right around the time we all had mid-pregnancy ultrasounds) we decided that arranged marriages really are the way to go and betrothed Clara to Michael.

Clara's reaction upon hearing the news? See for yourself:


Doesn't my daughter have an awesome pouty face?

Well, today during church Clara decided to exercise her prerogative as a woman and change her mind. She and Michael stared at each other for quite some time, and once he started smiling and laughing at her, she made eyes and smiled right back at him. Maybe she just needed time to adjust to the idea.

Mark your calendars - Michael and Clara to wed in December 2027.

Click Inflation

As some of you may know, I work for a news website. Any time there is a major news event, traffic to the site jumps. What is curious is that after the jump traffic will drop, but not all the way down to the previous level. Some of the people you acquire via the major news event will stay and become regular visitors of your site.

Such was the case with this little blog and Clara's birth. People kept coming back and reading stories about the little one, her parents, and their happenings in this strange world. And as they kept coming back I began to obsess about my Google Analytics.

I've posted about Google Analytics before (and before). A few months ago while tracking our site's statistics I noticed that each time someone clicks to view the comments on a post it was going to blogger.com. While on that blogger.com page the user would lose the nifty look of our blog and, devastatingly so, the pageviews wouldn't get recorded in Google Analytics because the domain wasn't kristinandoliver.blogspot.com.

People were viewing the blog and I don't get to know all about it. BAD KHARMA. I have to know how many people come, have to track how the numbers go up and down over time, to see how posts on different topics impact pageviews, frequency of visit, depth of visit, etc. I have to know.

So I changed the "Comments" link to point to the individual post pages. This way comments are viewed in our template and Google Analytics records the pageview. Sigh. What a nice thing to have happen.

Another great feature in Google Analytics is the ability to track from whence our visitors cometh. We've had visitors from twelve different countries (United States, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Singapore, Ireland, Germany, Zimbabwe, Guyana, Greece, Korea, Australia) and from thirty-eight of the fifty states. I found a site that creates a map showing all the states you've visited. In my case, it shows the states from which we have had visitors. If you know anyone in one of the grey states below, feel free to pass our link along!


Create your own visited states map.

Saturday Night with the Boys

I'm my ward's Deacons Quorum Advisor. For those not familiar with the lingo, this means I work with the twelve and thirteen year-old boys at church. Of late the boys haven't been very reverent during class. I think it's partly due to the time change (we just moved from 1pm to 9am church) and partly due to the fact that they are twelve and thirteen year-old boys. You've got to expect a certain amount of rowdiness.

To encourage them to be better behaved, Zachariah and I instituted a points system. You get one point for bringing your scriptures. A second point is awarded for wearing a tie. Three more points are awarded for reverence. Every time you do something irreverent you lose a point. Every other month we tally the points and each boy with a 4 average or better gets to come to a video game party.

We had our first party tonight at Zachariah's house. A new flat-panel TV and a PS2 made his house the obvious choice. One of the boys brought an Xbox and another brought a Gameboy Dual Screen. We played a bunch of different games and I even tried my hand a few times and mostly lost. The boys seemed highly pleased with the party and reverence today at Church was amazing. When one boy lost one point for taking off his tie - okay, he had taken it off and retied it three or four times, we only took off the point after the fourth time - he was devastated. We assured him that he could make up the lost point with reverence next week.

After two hours of semi-teenage boys and video games I was ready for the quiet peace of my house. I think two hours every other month is a worthy sacrifice for reverence each week. We'll see how long the system works.

A Fine Topic For A Friday

I wish I was less socially inhibited. I know, I know, this is coming from a person with very few social inhibitions. Here I mean I wish I was willing to carry a camera around and stick it in random people's faces and take their picture. Why you ask? Because every once in a while I catch someone out of the corner of my eye during my commute that, despite how surreptitiously I scrutinize, I just can't answer the question: Is that a man or a woman?

Now I'm not talking about effeminate looking teenage boys with long hair or transgenders just starting hormone therapy. I'm talking about people that, even after staring for a few minutes, you just can't definitely say either way.

I was with a friend earlier this week and ran into someone who, even after five to ten minutes of interaction, I couldn't tell. At first both my friend and I guessed man but then I switched to woman. Maybe someday I'll be brazen enough to say, "Hey, you a dude or a chick?" or to carry around a camera and take a picture so I can get other people's opinions. But until then I'll just have to live with the uncertainty.

Oh my golly gosh!

Is it really happening? Check it out:

Folks you have waited patiently for a number of years and Fairfax Connector is happy to announce that SmarTrip will be here in Summer 2007. Many of you already utilize SmarTrip technology and know how convenient it is to use. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the technology, SmarTrip is like a debit card which allows you to pay fares electronically, which will also keep track of transfers, without the need for cash or paper transfers. SmarTrip-enhanced fare boxes have been around Fairfax County for a number of years, operating within Metrorail and Metrobus systems.

Fairfax Connector is making final preparations to have these new fare boxes installed. The Fairfax Connector has planned to install the SmarTrip fare boxes in the southern portion of Fairfax County first, then shortly after installation will take place in routes serving North Fairfax County. We hope that our customers are in no way inconvenienced by the installation process. Please check back for future updates.

Thank you for your patience and understanding while the region's transit providers coordinate this implementation to enable an easier payment option for you.

Rock on! It is finally happening. Wait. Is the Potomac turning to blood? Do I see locusts? Ooops. Wrong biblical reference. I want signs of the apocalypse.

Full update here.

Should take me less than 24 hours...

As we have discussed ad naseum, Harry Potter seven is soon to be upon us. Now, from the true news source, we have length:

784

Click here for the full article. It also includes something about trees. You can read about my feelings on that topic in a post titled A convenient truth.

MUST READ.

Okay, I hate Bob Dylan as much as the next guy - he's always seemed a little too pretentious for my taste (Brigham, who is sitting over my shoulder, said, "A little too Minnesotan") - but don't let your feelings for the guy (who desperately needs a makeover) deter you from reading this post on my cousin Kate's blog:

Times when Bob Dylan isn't such a Good Idea

Happy 1/4 Birthday to Me!

I'm three months old today!


To celebrate I learned a new trick. When I'm laying on my back I can bend my legs, put my feet flat on the floor, and push off so I move backwards. This morning when Mommy went to make my breakfast she put me down on the floor in the family room. When she came back I had made it halfway off my blanket. It made her laugh, but I could tell she was a little sad too. I think she wants me to stay little forever...but I don't want to do that. I like being able to move and sit and talk and laugh. Oh, and I especially like to kick my legs like crazy when Mommy tries to change my diaper now.

I'm trying to get Mommy and Daddy to catch up on some more blog posts about me. So many things have happened and they are being very bad blogging parents. Maybe I'll be a good girl and nap for awhile so Mommy can edit some photos. Bye-bye!

Houston, We Have a Problem

Well, not really a problem...more a harbinger of things to come. Clara has decided that the horizontal view of the world she has experienced for most of the last three months is no longer acceptable and now demands to spend more of her time upright. She's really working those ab muscles as she tries to pull herself into a sitting position at every available opportunity (we think she's considering making a baby version of Abs of Steel). Yesterday I decided to see how she would fare sitting propped up in her Boppy, and she loved it. Of course we had to document the event:



In other news, Clara had another appointment with her pediatrician yesterday to follow up on the persistent colitis she's had for the past eight weeks, and it looks like Neocate is doing its job - no more blood! She gained 25 ounces in three weeks and is up to 13 lbs 3 oz, so hopefully we've seen the end of this particular problem. It does mean she'll be on Neocate up until around her first birthday but it's a small price to pay. Well, not literally, but you get what I mean.

If Any of Ye Lack Wisdom...

Another week gone by, and no blog posts to show for it. But we do have good excuses. Honest.

We spent five days travelling to Boston last week (details and photos to come), and the day after we got home I finally had my wisdom teeth removed. Today is the fourth day post-surgery, and I think I'm starting to turn the corner. One of the teeth was impacted, and that's the one that has been causing the most pain and swelling. I've been taking Motrin and tried the Vicodin the dentist prescribed, but it actually didn't work as well as the ibuprofen. All it did was make me feel light-headed and sleepy. The swelling seems to be going down, and although it still hurts, it doesn't seem as bad. And since last night I've been able to eat foods other than applesauce, pudding, and milkshakes.

I've been trying to lay low and let myself heal and my house looks like a tornado blew through...so it may be a couple more days before I get a chance to update. Hopefully sooner than later. Oh, and since it seems to be my habit of late to toss a couple of unrelated photos onto the ends of my posts, I thought I'd change it up a little. Here's an unrelated video instead:

Where Does the Time Go?

I just realized it's been a week since our last post. Bad us. So here's a little Clara report to fill the void...

It's been a little over a week since we started giving her Neocate, and after a few tough days of adjustment (she HATED the taste at first), she seems to be doing well. Now our challenge is finding the right way to thicken it; it's about the consistency of skim milk and because it's so thin her reflux became much worse. The GI specialist recommended using rice cereal so we've been trying that, but it's less than ideal for her. He also suggested a product called Simply Thick, a food thickener made for people with swallowing problems. It's often used for reflux babies in an attempt to keep their food in their bellies. Our first shipment of the stuff is on the way today, so hopefully it will work better for her.

One positive thing about the new formula - ever since we started her on it, she's been sleeping for one six or seven hour stretch almost every night. Joy! Maybe this sleep-deprived haze I've been living in for 10 weeks will start to lift.

She's becoming much more interactive with us, "talking" and smiling a lot. She's even starting to laugh a little, especially when she's being tickled. She's also developed the coordination to knock her bottles out of the way when she decides she's done. If you try to push it on her, she gets this look of outrage, yells, and swats at you. Never one to have opinions of her own, this child of mine.

I just heard her making noises upstairs, so my time is up. Here are a couple of photos for your viewing pleasure:

Tummy Time Fun














During tummy time one of three things usually happens: 1) she cries and won't do anything else, 2) she lays there licking her hands and won't do anything else, or 3) she falls asleep. Here is evidence of #2:














Oliver might kill me for posting this, but this is what I saw one morning when I walked into Clara's room: