The Memphis Blues

Andy, he thought he had found his way
Back to his happy home
He thought he had paid the price
And was free to continue on
Dancing free and easy with his lover
Were the thoughts he focused on
Not knowing he had read his map
Upside down and wrong
When the brick walls he smashed into
And the pit falls he did drop
While he thought he was singing the right song
But now he understands
And is a bit more humble too
As he starts over one more time
And deeply regrets this last tattoo

Oh Mama, Can this really be the end?
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis Blues again

(My apologies and thanks to Bob Dylan for writing such a great song and unknowingly letting me make it my own. It seemed appropriate at last to identify and have an understanding of a Bob Dylan song)

Harding Family Update

It has been a while so an update is in order. Life is good for me and my family. Constance and I are still working through our stuff to build our family. We have not gotten married yet but are working towards it one step at a time. We will let you know when we have date!

Larisa is doing well at Juanita High School. She was recently in her first play, "Check Please," performed at her school. She loves her Japanese class and is constantly giving us interesting little Japanese tidbits like songs, words and cultural tips to make our lives better.

Bryan is enjoying Finn Hill Junior High and has lots of friends who like to hang out before school and text each other after school. He and I recently went on the Klondike Derby. Bryan was his patrols cooking czar and was responsible for the Chili Cookoff. He did a great job getting all the assignments made and cooking the chili in a dutch oven in the cold!

KJ is tons of fun. He is so interested in the world around him and in communicating his thoughts with each of us. His smile brings joy to our hearts and reminds us that there is a lot of good in this world.

I left my job at Microsoft and went back to an old employer, BSquare, out of Bellevue, Washington. This is a much better fit and am really enjoying consulting in the Windows Embedded space again.

Love you all,

Andy

Andy's Last Blind Date

My friend Susann called me up about 4 weeks ago and spoke those dreaded words, "I have someone I want you to meet." I had decided that I was not going to go on these anymore but something told me that I should give it one more try. I decided that I would go to be nice. So I put on my nicest U2 t-shirt and headed on over for my Valentines Day adventure.


I had fun that night and did not want to leave but there was really no sparks, just a very comfortable evening at Susann's house. We had a giant heart shaped brownie that was yummy and a great time playing Uno (yes, this is living la vita loca). As I watched her drive away I felt hope in my heart and a nagging voice telling me that I had not gotten her number.


I never would have guessed that 19 days later I would be sitting with her in the Celestial Room of the Seattle Temple with the Spirit burning so strongly in my heart that I was looking into the eyes of my Eternal Companion. Miracles do happen; I watched one that Tuesday evening as our hearts changed, our vision cleared, and I heard the song of my Beloved for the first time, again. So now I am engaged to Constance, my world has turned on a dime, my life is a bit more cliche but I will take this great miracle any day. In fact, I have been searching for this miracle for the last six years. I can hardly wait to see what great things come next!

Not Such A Long Day After All

I had one of those days today. I had a bunch of things to do, more than I could do, and I was sure I was going to miss something important. I got up and picked up my kids at 7, took my daughter to school, played Pokémon with my son, got him ready for school, got me ready for work, dropped my son off at school and drove to work.

I got to work in the middle of crunch mode with three top priorities with no clear "most important" thing to do. I had planned on working late because there was just too much to do. I was stressed out by some of the political things going on. It really bugs me that I cannot vote in a primary or a caucus because I will not affiliate with any party. It bugs me that my boss does not know what I do most of the day and I cannot seem to explain it to his satisfaction. It drives me crazy when people change all the stuff I am working on but do not tell me so I find out later, when I am already behind. It is very hard when the things that I want most in this life are incompatible with each other and so I go without many things that I really want for the other things that I really want.

I did end up getting some stuff done and I do feel very blessed but I was tired. At 5 o’clock I was ready to go home and so I left after talking to my friend Dave for an hour so he could not go home early either (Sorry Dave, thanks for listening).

But when I got home I found this:


And it was not such a bad day after all. I had my Family Home Evening with just me, watched Alison Krauss and Robert Plant on CMT, and ate my pudding. Now I remember why I love my kids so much. Thanks for the pudding Bryan!

Pistachio Bread

I am very excited to post my first recipie! This is not actually mine, I got it from one of the ladies at the temple but it was yummy and I wanted to pass it along.

Pistachio Bread

1 box Yellow Cake mix (this is a great start)
1 small box Instant Pistachio Pudding (yum)
1 cup Sour Cream (trust me, it works out)
4 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup water

Combine the ingredients and pour into a bread pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until it passes the poke something into the bread and it comes out clean test.

The original recipie calles for 1 small bottle of chopped up marichino cherries but I decided to pass on those. My kids and I considered putting more pistachio's in as well but decided to go with the simple method first which turned out very green and very yummy!

Donughts With MoJo

My friend Kevin and I made a trip to Portland last month and had a great time. Portland was Kevin's old stomping grounds so we had a place to crash and some exciting things lined up.

We were heading down to go to a Mid-Singles dance organized by Erika that was great. We had tons of fun dancing and met some very groovy folks. One of our friends from Seattle, Kellie, also came down and boogied the night away with us. After the dance was over we were all chatting Kellie mentions this donught shop that is open from 9pm to 6am. When she mentioned this my Junk Food senses were tingling. Then someone else mentioned that they had a maple bar with bacon on it and my Junk Food senses went crazy!

Kevin knew how to get there so we were on our way. It was a cold night but the thought of deep fried dough covered in flavored sugar kept my blood warm. When we did finally find the place around 1:30am there was a line so I was encouraged. My mind was trying to decide if it was disgusted at the thought of bacon on a maple bar or excited. Unfortunately I never got the chance to resolve my internal conflict over the maple bacon bar because they had all sold out. The well pierced lady helping behind the counter offered me a VooDoo doughnut as a replacement. It was a donught shaped like a gingerbread man covered in chocolate with a pretzel stuck in it's chest and filled with rasberry filling. The donught turned out to have enough MoJo in it to assuage my angst over the loss of a maple bacon bar and I was very impressed. If anyone is in Portland late at night and has a craving for a strange doughnut from a mildly raunchy but very funny donught shop I highly recommend VooDoo Doughnuts in Portland. Thanks Erika, Kevin and Kellie for a great time!

The Mystery of the Missing Socks

We have this recurring mystery at my house, the mystery of the missing socks. I would love to hire the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency because I suspect Mr. Jenkins has been dressing up as the Creeper and stealing my sock but I cannot prove it yet.

So, while I am waiting for Scooby to show up, I went and did a bit of detective work myself and ventured into my kids rooms. My sons room was not too messy except for the socks laying all over the place. My daughters room was a different story. After digging through all of the socks she has mixed in with all the other stuff on her floor I found it hard to take good notes. I resolved to gather all the socks into one spot on the stairs so I could gather all my thoughts together. It was a very stinky job. I was wondering where Mike Rowe was and if I should have called him first. At least the job would have some witty comentary to go with the stinky messyness of it all. If Scooby were doing this he would have found a big sandwich and a scary monster by now. I was not making nearly as much progress but I kept working.

After I got all the socks I could find I felt that I could start collecting the rest of my thoughts and figure out this mystery without Thelma's super powered brain. Way back in the back of my head there was a thought buzzing around saying I should look at the stairs. I crushed it with the memory of all the yuckyness of the last little while and continued to collect my other thoughts.

The buzzing thought continued to come to the surface of my conciousness though and so I had to do something about it or I would not get any of my work done. So I went to look at the stairs and there they all were. The mystery was solved for now. Thanks brain! You get all the credit. And Scooby, if you are reading this, you should still come over. I have a couple of giant sandwiches and I think that Mr. Jenkins is up to no good!