Blogger Grrrrr

I know, my posting has been spotty of late but it's really not my fault. Blogger keeps messing with my layout and eating posts and then I forget how I worded something I hate having to recreate being witty because it just isn't as good the second time around.
Is anyone else having that problem and if not, how?

This is me and I am not liking the new interface.

Aquarium

In keeping with the week's theme of what LBO wants to be when he grows up, we went to the aquarium yesterday. Don't they look excited:

As we've all been there before and none of us is four, there was very little running from tank to tank screaming "Nemo!" and "Dory!" This is as effusive as LBO ever gets really:

Mostly we took pictures of the fish:

This is a cleaner version of where we were on Monday:

Tarzan's favorite were the sexy fish:

I liked the one trying to evolve:

The sea horses:

And dragons:

Jellyfish:

The stingrays were interesting:

The birds that would eat the fish if they could:

Sea lions that do get to eat fish regularly:

Do you think it's kosher for the local aquarium to serve fish in the cafeteria:

It was good, no fault there, it just seemed odd.

This is me looking at some fishes.

Vroom

Yesterday the boys went to play. This is an annual trip Tazan and the young men of church take together at the end of the summer and sometimes brothers and cousins get to go too as was the case this year. I didn't get to go - male bonding you know - but Tarzan remembered the camera this year and no one died so I am sure they had fun.

This is me and I went to the grocery store instead.

Scuba Luv

My youngest brother, LBO, came out this week to spend a few days before his and Tarzan's summers are over and because Tarzan found a cool local adventure for us.
You may remember Tarzan and I taking a little trip earlier this year to an island just off the coast. This same island has apparently kept in contact because Tarzan came home one day waving a flyer, all excited about how we should do this. So yesterday morning we climbed in the car; front seat:
Back seat:And headed to the ferry:Once we landed we grabbed some breakfast at Joe's:And headed down to the beach to find the Scuba Luv shack. Scuba Luv offers a number of water adventures, scuba obviously, snorkeling, snuba and others:LBO wants to be a marine biologist when he grows up and seeing as all thee of us wear glasses and I am not the greatest of swimmers, we chose the SeaTrek excursion. We wet-suited up:They towed us out to the float - about 100 feet off shore - gave us a helmet and we climbed 25 feet down a ladder to the ocean floor. And we walked around inside our own little air bubble helmets. It was pretty fantastic. And for the first time in my life I could see! All other times I have been in the water I've had to take my glasses off and it's been one big blue/green blur. This time I could see the fishes and the coral, the sea cucumbers - which were way freaky to touch - the abalone, the seaweed. Several fish came up and looked me right in the face. We spent about an hour down there and it was awesome. Worth every penny.
My camera is not waterproof so the only images we have are the ones our guide took and we have to sell our first born to pay for but here you go. Pardon the "PROOF" sign across our faces. We are numbers nine through twelve. (People have been kind and say I am exaggerating, but how can you look at those and not notice that I have no neck?)
After we changed out of our suits we went for lunch to Mi Casita which looked okay enough. Casual Mexican food. The portions were enormous and though I wasn't a fan of the house rice & beans which came with everything, the fish tacos were excellent and they served THE BEST HORCHATA EVER. Seriously.After lunch we chilled at the beach for a while:Wandered around the island and eventually took the ferry home again.

This is me and that was a cool day.

Glee Project

Okay producers/writers/dreamers/makers-up of the spin-off television show known as The Glee Project - you people are weak. Clearly not reality television quality judges. I mean, really; they ALL win? What's the point of that.
I think they got attached to the performers - as only the audience is supposed to do - and didn't have the guts to send another one home.
That or they like the feeling of having all these people beholden to them. It was hard on the "professionals" the week Cameron quit. It was apparent they did not like having the power taken away from them.
I only watched the thing because ATL made me. She's a Thunderhead don't you know and she was only going to watch until Damian McGinty got voted off but then the dude ended up winning - apparently they're ALL winning - so I got invested and I hate that about reality TV. Because forever after I will be bitter that Marissa got sent home. She was awesome.

This is me, watching more scripted reality.

Truth Via Facebook

It's interesting the things that get passed around Facebook.
This is the latest, posed by my uncle.
THE SOUTHERN TEN COMMANDMENTS
(1)Just one God
(2)Put nothin' before God
(3)Watch yer mouth
(4)Git yourself to Sunday meetin'
(5)Honor yer Ma & Pa
(6)No killin'
(7)No foolin' around with another feller's gal (or 'nother gal's feller)
(8)Don't take what ain't yorn
(9)No tellin' tales or gossipin'
(10)Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff. Now that's plain an' simple.

This is me and I am amused.

Newsweek Revisited

I have tried very hard to recreate my masterpiece of a response to Newsweek's article of a few weeks ago. It is not to be, so I will list only the salient points.
Dear Newsweek,
Regarding the LDS church,

WE ARE NOT POLYGAMISTS!! That practice went out years ago - shortly after it was instituted in fact. And that was one hundred and twenty-one years ago. Just because some weirdo with six wives claims to be of our faith, does not mean he actually is. It's like being barefoot. If you're wearing shoes it doesn't matter how much you claim to be barefoot, you just aren't.

Stop associating our church with that musical. Yes, it is named after one of our sacred books of scripture but we didn't sanction the thing and from all accounts, it gleefully mocks the faith and it's people. And how does any of that deserve a full page spread in an article about Mormons when NONE of the people in the picture are members of the church?

Lastly, the church is often the first organization to respond to a disaster, anywhere in the world and we most certainly do help any and all people in need. We do not restrict our help and assistance to only members of the faith.

This is me, not yours truly,
Jane

The Graduate Cometh

I know, I know, I've been promising this post for weeks - literally weeks, gah - but I've been...I hesitate to say busy because that's lame - who isn't? - or occupied, that's too vague. Lazy might be more accurate but I'm not laying around watching television or playing Frontierville all day - really, I'm not - and I don't think I'm lacking motivation - it was a really great trip and we had a surprisingly good time. I want to share! (This missing post has been bugging me since we got back.) Maybe it's my lack of specific pictures.
Yeah, let's go with that.
And it's true in a way. I took a lot of photos, but not the ones you would think of. As it will become quickly obvious where we were I will save time trying to think of a cute name to disguise the town we visited. QC graduated in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday, July 23rd. We flew into SLC Friday morning - we left at the ungodly hour of 4:30AM - again - why do we always DO that? - the ceremony and celebrations were Saturday and we came back Sunday afternoon. So there was time for sightseeing and relaxing which is a rarity on our vacations.
We stayed at a hotel that was literally across the street from Temple Square:

So I have a few photos of that building: Though it's smaller in real life than I thought it would be: I took a lot of pictures of Tarzan:
Tarzan with his Lebanon cedar tree:
He searched all over for this tree, having heard of it's notoriety - apparently it came from Jerusalem and once got trimmed incorrectly which created a wiggle in it's trunk - but not sure which of the many trees in the area it was. He asked every person who looked like they weren't tourists, scared a number of sister missionaries with his intensity and finally found the answer from a dude, dressed for the 100th anniversary of the Hotel Utah and who might have been around when the hotel opened.
What's fortunate is there are a lot of pictures of the actual graduation ceremony and since that was ostensibly the reason we went, I'm happy about that.

Rather wordy sign on the sports arena stairs:On the way in:

Gimme some tassel:Takin' my diploma:

All done graduatin':

After the ceremony we walked around Temple Square some more - there are a billion things to see there - randomly ran into a friend from school and his son:

And toured the conference center. It's ENORMOUS (This is not my picture):

I was impressed with the feat of engineering that enables every seat in the place to have an unobstructed view: That's right, no columns:
During one of the gallery walks, PhatFiddle, Liezel and Fuzzy (in utero):
In another huge space with pretty things on the wall, SBB (with Abe in utero), QC and MusicMan:
After all day interviewing, graduating, walking around and everything, he soon settled down in true QC fashion: Then came the feast of celebration wherein we all ate more than was probably healthy:On the way back to the hotel where we passed out this was the back seat:

Tarzan and me:

QC photobombing us:
Sunday the family was leaving at various times. Tarzan and I, having left our house at the most ridiculous hour we had, we did not rise with the dawn to go home. Again the proximity of Temple Square drew us in and we were able to see Music and the Spoken Word, which is broadcast every Sunday morning. I've heard it dozens of times but I have to say, nothing prepares you for the experience in person. This video is of the organist practicing the closing hymn the day before:

This is me and in all seriousness, Congratulations QC!

Yoga

As seen on my parents' living room floor yesterday and Friday morning:
This is me and two flexible siblings.

Pizza

What is it about cold pizza?
The first bite is fabulous and you figure you could eat the whole pie by yourself.
In fact, most of the first half of the first slice is excellent and you wonder why you don't eat your pizza this way all the time.
By the time you reach the crust, it's okay and if the bread is good, you finish it and it was nice.
The second slice isn't nearly as good and by the time you get to the end of it you don't feel well and can't stand to look at the other pieces in the box. So you wrap it up, put it in the fridge and hope that your husband will finish it before you have to see it again.
And then you burp pizza all night long.

This is me and it's much better in theory.

The Internet Returns

Aaaaand we're up and running again. Woot!
I guess the router just got old and died. We called the DSL people and they rushed out a replacement and it started right up so we're good.
I haven't forgotten the travelogue - it's in the works - and our project in the back yard is almost done - we're waiting on a few more pictures.
Is it sad that I have nothing to report after five days without Internet? You know how some people are SO! AMAZED! at how much stuff they got done when the cable/Internet/TV etc. was broken?
Not us.
Either the Internet doesn't matter or we don't do that much in the evenings on a regular basis.

This is me, connected again.