Ben Harper Rocks

I went to the Ben Harper concert on Thursday with my friend Victoria. It was such a great concert. Man can that boy play the lap steel guitar which I have been calling a dobro. It turns out that a dobro is a brand of guitar that is very popular with lap steel guitarists but I digress. Ben and his band, the Innocent Criminals really played well. I loved his rendition of Whipping Boy, Into the Dusk, Say You Will and almost every other song he played. We spent almost half of the concert on our feet dancing to the music. It was an excellent time. I think I would rate this as my second favorite concert of all time, after the Grateful Dead.

It is amazing what you can find on Wikipedia. For instance, Ben Harper is three days older than I am, he is married to Laura Dern, is part Cherokee, African, Russina and Jewish, and was born in California. I think you can expect more Wikipedia links from me in the future.

Another Great Birthday Present

Just as I thought I understood how great my birthday was Jacob surprised me with another great birthday present <--

It is a new Palm Centro! It is a great phone. This is my first Palm device so I am excited to see what if it lives up to the hype. So far I am very happy with it. I really love how it organizes me text messages and I am getting pretty good at the tiny keys. I love having a full set of keys again rather than just the number pad. I might even be able to keep up with Kellie and Victoria (a man can dream).

Also, for those of you who are concerned, please notice the picture is not on the right hand side, it is on the left. Thanks for all your comments. Eventually this will be a great blog but there are a lot of little details to work out!

Another Red Letter Day

We had another fabulous day here in the occasionally sunny North West. To celebrate I spent most of the day sitting in my office typing on my computer! We really know how to live it up here in Seattle.


When I got home I realized we had not gone shopping yet so we ran out and got all the fixings for hamburgers. Of course Larisa does not eat meat so she got a vegi-burger. Bryan and I decided we wanted cheese burgers but we wanted to mix the cheese in with the burger. Needless to say we got some crunchy cheesy burgers which turned out to be fabulous. I liked the action shot of the burgers with the cheese mixed in --->


Then we all hung around watching "Trick my Truck" and "Mobile Home Disasters". For dessert we had a tube of chocolate chip cookie dough and laughed our heads off as we watched other red necks around the country have a good time eating sushi and hanging out at country music festivals. What a great country we live in!


For scriptures we read the parable of the sheep and the goats and talked about how it is good to help people get a new mobile home or even be nice to our siblings. Larisa finished her math after Bryan went to bed and life is good.

Fruit Fly Update

I have received numerous requests (Thanks for reading Jacob) for an update on the fruit fly situation. Right now the fruit flies are under control but they are not completely gone. I did make the mistake of buying another bunch of bananas because they are so yummy on my cereal in the morning. They did stage a comeback with then but I countered by eating them all with my kids. I think I might have to try Cindy's approach with leaving a very ripe banana in the oven overnight and then closing the oven in the morning and cooking them all. We will have to see if I have enough gumption to give that one a go. I do have a few relatively large fruit flies hanging out in the bathrooms. I might have to clean those too. Life has interesting ways to get us to clean our houses for sure.

Ben Harper is Coming

I have another great event to look forward to in my life, Ben Harper is coming next week! And I have a beautiful date who is coming with me! In anticipation of this great concert I have been listening to Lifeline, his current album and have been enjoying it immensely these last few days. I had purchased it of iTunes a month or two ago and had liked it but it did not really stick out. However, now that I am listening to it again it has blown my mind away. It is more subtle than some of his previous albums that I was not used to but I really like it now. There are some amazing lyrics and some beautifuly crafted sounds. Give it a listen when you get a chance. I highly recommend it.

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

For those of you who have never seen the elusive pumpkin pie with birthday plumage I happen to have proof of it's existance right here. This is an excellent specimen with 38 candles in the rare doublled up pattern making this look like it was intended for someone who was turning 19 when in fact it is intended for someone twice as old. This trick of biology is rare, in fact I do not think you will ever see another one so you had better enjoy this peek. The candy corn border is also exceedingly rare and makes this an even more exotic specimen. Eye candy as well as mouth candy! Does life get any better than this? Maybe topless pumpkin carving with temporary tatoos, a dash of bacon salt, or the last Robert Jordan book but those are probably the only things that can compare.



As I accept the award for the coolest birthday pumpkin pie ever I feel I would be ungrateful if I did not thank my Mom and my Kids for coming up with such a great birthday pie. Could this birthday get any better? The answer, if you have a family as great as mine, is absolutely!


Here is my present from my parents, my own man chair. Life does indeed get better. You should note the cushiony goodness of this recliner in it fully relaxed mode. Can you imagine yourself sleeping in this chair while you are staying home sick from work with a head cold? Could you see yourself reading a depressing and uplifting book while you are staying home from work with a head cold in this chair? I sure can. I should try that someday...


So you might be thinking that I have reached birthday nirvana at this point but you would be wrong. Things do get even better. I got a call from each of my siblings (except one who we are excusing because she is cute and very far away) who told me they loved me and are glad that I am their brother. Life is very good indeed!