The Life of a Packer

Sleep

2011-12-16T11:23:00.003-05:00

We are having issues sleeping. By "we" I mean bobo. By "issues" I mean he won't. We are hopeful that it might just be a phase he's going through, but who knows. If he'd just hurry up and really pick up language, he could tell us what is going on. He is consistently waking up several times a night for what appears to us to be no good reason. I've had family and others tell me that you just need to let him cry it out and that he needs to learn to put himself to sleep, and while I understand that logically, when he is cracking glass with his screams, it is harder to put into practice. Last night, Lisa and I were discussing this and she mentioned that she thinks we should try the Ferber Method. When she said this, my immediate thought was, "wow, Lisa's family has a method for putting kids to sleep!" (Lisa's maiden name is Faerber.) It was only later after she had employed the "family" method the first time that my eyes were opened to the true meaning and origins of the Ferber Method. We had a good laugh at my expense, which is not an uncommon occurrence in the Packer home. So how do you get your kids to realize that good grief, take advantage of all of the sleep time now, because it is just downhill from here?!

Oh, and he has to get glasses.

No-vember

2011-11-04T14:17:00.009-04:00

It's not that I'm against fighting cancer, or other good causes springing from the Movember movement, it's just that I'm against mustachioed people. Sorry mom, but that means Tom Selleck as well (on the bright side mom, I'm 309% positive that dad still has/wears at least 13.5 pairs of shorts like Tom from his Magnum PI days). To alleviate any fears less you think that my bias and judgement is not universal, it's not anything specifically against men, I'm against women cultivating their upper-lip hair as well. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can move on to more important goings on, like what we have been doing since you last tuned in.

Our moms came and blessed us with their company a few weeks ago. The good thing about having the little fat in our lives is that our family wants to see us more often and so makes the reverse trek out east to do so. Fun was had, food was eaten, fall things were done (no one fell down, we did things associated with fall) and the bobo was thoroughly loved by both grandmothers. I won't write too much else about it because you were there mom. You got to experience it firsthand.

Halloween was passed without a zombie apocalypse, so we considered it a total success. That and we made candied apples and contributed to the state sponsored subsidizing of dentists everywhere by handing out enough candy to ensure that all the neighborhood kids consumed the FDA's yearly suggested sugar intake in one night. Good Times. Also our son was voted cutest kid on the planet by our pollsters (both grandmothers - sorry to our other nieces and nephews, at least you know where you stand). Sorry to all of the other contestants, but this is what first place looks like.

hi

2011-10-03T22:17:00.003-04:00

Don't worry. Even though I haven't been updating this blog on a regular basis, life is still going on. We didn't just hit the pause button after the festivities surrounding the Fourth of July in my last post. We did lots the rest of the summer. If you really want to read about what we did, check out Lisa's blog, I am not feeling in the mood to rehash it. The biggest things that happened; football started and we got a dog. She's a puppy. Mostly good. Smack dab in the 'I'm going to chew on everything, including you' phase. Is learning not to use the house as a toilet. Her name is Piper. She's a mini schnauzer. Thanks to Piper, the little fat has really gotten the word No! down. He's also added Down! Sit! No Bite! and Ouch! to his repertoire. Those are the new dog words. The other words are cooler. Go Cowboys!! and Yeehaw!! are his best. Yep, he's being raised up good and proper. Other than that, life has been fairly hectic. We are trying to put our house in order before our recertification as foster parents and the arrival of our mothers for a visit the end of October. The bathroom is still not done. We're coming up on a year. I think Lisa would gladly fire the contractor at this point, but it's not like I can leave. I'd still be hanging around. Avanti.

Honestly, who wants to be bothered by pants.

Happenings in our most exciting life...

2011-07-06T21:33:00.004-04:00

This past holiday weekend was most definitely a good one. The skies were blue, the sun was shining, and life was grand. Good food was eaten. Fun was had. On Saturday, we tried to go to a big fireworks show in Penfield in spite of the fact that his royal fatness usually goes to bed at 8pm. Alas, fate conspired against us. At the strike of 9pm, a group of girls attracted his attention, mostly because they had a bunch of balls that they were kicking around and bobo wanted in on the action. While running through the grass towards the gaggle of girls, he face planted in the grass and shortly devolved into full on meltdown mode. We managed to see a few fireworks on our way out.

On the 4th, we went over to our good friends the Cubiottis to partake of their goodness and swimming pool. It was divine. We swam. We soaked up sunshine. We ate. We swam some more. The fatticus loved it. Since my loyal fan base knows how much I think of food, I do have to mention the exquisite morsels that were shoved into my mouth on and off throughout the day. We made a tres leche cake, covered in homemade whipped cream, and strawberries and blueberries to replicate the flag. There was also fresh salsa, hamburgers, sausages, macaroni salad, potato salad and drinks galore. Awesome.

The only downside to all of this, was that I had to go back to work today. Happy times.

spernacchiare

2011-06-28T21:39:00.004-04:00

I've determined that CPS (child protective services) exists to drive me up the wall. Ridiculous just wouldn't even begin to do it justice. If I were a journalist, I might be inclined to say, "Here's the scoop." We were called last Thursday to take a two year old girl for three weeks while her regular foster parents went on vacation. Fine. We had already decided that we would reopen our home to a second child, especially a baby child. Even though two does not equal baby, we thought that this would be a good test to see how we handle two crazies at once. She was supposed to come Monday (since I used 'supposed to' you are probably able to guess that she didn't) but didn't. We were called right before close and just before she was supposed to come and told that she was having an overnight visit with her birth mom. They would contact us on Tuesday (today) to set up drop off and give us more info, oh and by the way, there is court tomorrow (today) and she (baby girl) might be discharged from the system and returned to her birth mom. So they called us today and said that she was being discharged. That is great for her, and I know, you're probably thinking, "Yeah!!! The system served it's purpose..." and it did. That isn't my gripe. They had to know this when they first contacted us on Thursday. This just didn't come up. Let us know. Keep us in the loop. I know that we are only the lowly foster parents, but come on.

OK. Enough whining. At least for my part. There is enough of that going on in our house. Bobo has been a whining machine for the last week or so. His molars are coming in and every so often he just needs to flop on the ground and whine. I know. He has good reason to whine. But man. He also has lost his sense of balance. Today he managed to knock a chair over, fall over and hit the ground before the chair and make sure that said chair smacked him in the face as it landed. That's my boy. Talented.

...and turns

2011-06-01T22:33:00.002-04:00

She was pregnant, but now is not. Who needs Soap Operas? Life is crazy enough. Speaking of crazy, here's our crazy boy, showing how hip he can be. He gets that from me.

As the World Turns...

2011-05-23T20:38:00.004-04:00

...These are the Days of our Lives. At least, that's how I think it goes. The latest in soap opera news is that on Thursday we were told by CPS that fatling's birth mom is three months pregnant. Then on Friday, when we tried to get more information, we were told that birth mom denied being pregnant. Honestly, I'd give the odds at about 50/50 as to who's right. Sad as it is, I'm not sure that birth mom knows much, nor is able to tell fact from fiction, or fiction from fiction, or even fact from fact. We could go on, but tune in later this week for what is sure to be another exciting chapter in this great saga we call life.

Dear Prudie

2011-05-16T23:07:00.003-04:00

I am somewhat ashamed to admit to the fact that I might just could be ever so slightly addicted to the advice columnist Dear Prudence on Slate. She conducts a live chat on Mondays, and writes her regular column for Thursdays. No worries though, as with most things, Lisa makes fun of me for this obsession of mine. I won't try and explain away my fascination with any sort of analysis, I just think it's entertaining. No excuses. That is all.

Like Father. . .Like Son?

2011-04-27T16:55:00.002-04:00

The little man and I were in the greatest grocery store on the planet the other day and this lady commented on the general adorableness of my son. I really wanted to just say "I know", but was able to attempt a modicum of humility and say thank you instead. After a brief pause she continued by saying that when I had my curly hair, she was sure that my son was just the spitting image of me. At this point, humility went out the window and I answered that he sure was. I then had to go home and tell Lisa who burst my brief bubble by confirming that no, Bobo and I look absolutely nothing alike. At all. Not that there was really any doubt.

Discovery

2011-04-22T22:29:00.003-04:00

The little fat was taking a bath last night and stumbled upon a startlingly new and exciting discovery. He's a boy, with boy parts. As he made the discovery, he looked up at Lisa with this amazed look on his face as if to say, "Holy Cow . . . did you know that this was down here! This is amazing!!! I have a new toy!!! Has this thing always been there?! Do I get to keep it?!"

Lisa's response was slightly less than enthusiastic. "Great, what a boy."

Chocolate, kind of

2011-04-20T15:26:00.006-04:00

Who knew, Forrest was right. It is like a box of chocolates.

Every once in a while I get the urge to follow random blogs and read the doings of other people's lives. While it is interesting to see what is going on in the lives of friends and complete strangers as well as seeing how these individuals present themselves to the world, I tend to come away feeling that either a) my life just doesn't quite measure up in a number of areas, from the happiness quotient to cool things that I have managed to accumulate to how unique everything is in my life, or b) a lot of these people are full of male cow excrement(that has to be a record for long sentences). I in no way want to rain on anyone's parade, and will be the first to admit that life is great, but it is most definitely not all happiness and sunshine and rainbows. No, life is not a Care Bear's movie, where you are able to counteract anything that is not virtuous, or is ugly, or of ill report, or not praiseworthy with happiness incarnated shot from their chests (yes I am able to admit having watched on more than one occasion a Care Bear's movie, although I can't remember any specific titles and I think that the above mentioned phenomenon is called the "Care Bear Stare!" but I could be mistaken). I'm not necessarily trying to make any point with this. I realize that if I honestly look at my own blog posts, I will probably see myself trying to put maybe not my best, but at least a better foot forward for the world to see. Alright, I lied. There is a point. The artificiality that social media, whether it is a personal or family blog or Facebook or even Twitter, affords us is not real life. Real life is great, but it is also terribly hard at times. No one's life is perfect. Sorry if I have burst your bubble and you thought that your life was definitely different from everyone else's life. I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't celebrate life's great moments nor even share those moments with everyone on your friends list. Nor am I saying that you need to be a Debbie downer (not really sure who Debbie is) and complain publicly about how life has thrown you nothing but curve balls and you have never developed the necessary hand-eye coordination to hit said curve balls. OK, so maybe there really isn't a point after all, just an observation on my part. Life is just life.

That being said, it has been an "interesting" (I'll say interesting instead of the more honest, boy am I ever glad that's over) last few days. Lisa had surgery last Friday for fertility reasons, and while everything went well, it was definitely more complicated than the doctor expected. That in and of itself wasn't such a big deal, we were able to utilize daycare and friends to watch the fatman while we spent time in the hospital. Even afterward, Lisa has been much tougher than I and is doing just fine in recovery. I'm going to lay the blame squarely on the guilty culprit. Little fat. He decided that Saturday would be a good time to manifest a stomach bug and try and get rid of it through explosive bowel movements (with emphasis on the explosive part). This happened off and on all day Saturday and throughout the night, but most frequently when he was supposed to be sleeping. So he didn't sleep. Instead he was busy perfecting his new found powers to launch his personal waste to such far away places as the top of his head or the floor next to his swing (I'm not sure how he managed either feat, and if not for the grossness factor assaulting multiple senses, I would have taken a picture for proof as well as future blackmail purposes). Talk about impressive. In a weird and more than somewhat sick kind of way. I now know that the shower was in all likelihood invented because there are certain instances in a child's life when even the cumulative cleaning power of all wipes combined would not be enough to vanquish the evil that will henceforth be known as an explosive diarrhea bomb. Ugh.

Long story short. Our little cheerful guy was slightly less than cheerful throughout the weekend. He didn't sleep well. That meant I didn't sleep well. I think that Lisa slept well, but that was helped along by our good friend Senor Percocet. I realize that both Lisa and I have been unduly spoiled by Bobo while he has been with us. We hear that it is normal for babies and even young toddlers to not sleep well. Usually that is the stuff of myth for us. Fatticus generally takes a bath and goes to bed around 8pm. In the morning, he tends to rouse himself sometime between the eighth and ninth hour. That is how life is supposed to be. But when it is not so, such as this last weekend, and having to do things mostly on my own, it throws off the balance of our life. No fun. We are close to being back to normal, except for the tick that I have developed in my left eye (in case you see me, no I am not winking at you). Bobo has returned (mostly) to his normal routine and is feeling better, meaning that all is once again right in the universe. Lisa is doing great and will soon be back to normal which is fabulous because I'm just not tough enough to be a mom.

Good thing this kid is so cute. Plus he calls me dada and gives me hugs. I think we'll keep him around.

Weekend Splendidicity

2011-04-10T21:38:00.003-04:00

This last weekend was good. I think that about sums it up.

Leaves were raked. Sticks were picked up. The outside was played in. And it was all done in the glorious sunshine. One little tidbit of info for those of you blessed with more hair on the top of your head than someone say, like me, put on a hat in the sun. Just take my word for it. Be good.

Sweet Pea Designs

2011-04-06T22:56:00.007-04:00

My wife is cooler than your wife. Lisa has started down the path to being my full-time sugar mama!! She just recently started an Etsy shop to mostly give outlet to her creativity. It probably comes as no surprise that I am not much of an outlet. Go figure. Anyhow, go and check out her shop here or just click on the title post. As a completely biased individual reporting on what she's done, she's pretty awesome. She is also looking at opening up a booth at a local Co-Op/Antique/Craft store nearby. I'm sure all of you that know me are still asking yourself why this amazingly talented and beautiful woman married me. I wonder that too and just do my best to make sure that she doesn't ask that question. Happy trails all.

hello world

2011-04-05T23:52:00.004-04:00

It has been a little while since I have posted anything. I know that my reading public has been anxiously waiting for the latest news in my life. Sorry Kimball. My life seems to still be consumed by the same things. Between foster care, work, and church, there isn't much time for anything else. I think that I tend to say that a lot.

Foster care has been living up to its craziness these last few months. After Christmas, birth mom was doing well in her rehab program and was doing well with her visits (definition of good = bobo doesn't die during the visit) and so court determined that birth mom should get two overnight visits during the month. That lasted for a couple of months, because none of the overnight visits (actually any of the visits) went very well. Bobo would tend to come home and take three days to recover. Because of those struggles, the court decided to stop overnight visits (a full on miracle) and finally recognized that even though birth mom has stayed sober in rehab since last June, she still struggles to do little things, like feed her son and put him to sleep. At the beginning of March, birth mom moved to a new rehab which gave her a little more freedom. After a couple of weeks there, she relapsed the last weekend in March and left rehab. This all came as quite a shock because as far as her sobriety, she had been doing so well for about 9 months. Since she took off from rehab, everything has changed. The visits were scaled back drastically and were moved to the county visitation center. The biggest change though is that we haven't seen birth mom since the fallout of her relapse and leaving rehab. She hasn't come to any of the visits. While this is definitely a positive for us and bobo staying with us, it bodes all sorts of not good for birth mom. It seemed even before this that the county was saying that birth mom was running out of time since bobo has now been with us for going on 14 months and birth mom has not made any improvements in giving the little fatling even the most basic of care. So to sum it up, things are moving well for us, but we are conflicted because we don't want birth mom to be where she is.

Our lives do include more than just living the dream called foster care. We were able to take a much needed break from reality and travel out of the perpetual cold called "Rochester" to the sunny delight of Gilbert, Arizona to see family and relax during the middle of February. I won't try and recreate the magic that happened there. Lisa captures it well here and here. All that I will add is that fun was had and good food was eaten, but I'm fairly certain that if you know me, then the good food part probably doesn't come as too much of a surprise.

February was a rather big month for us. Besides the trip to Arizona-land, we also celebrated our 7th anniversary. This was our 6th anniversary celebrated here in Rochacha. Crazy. I remember meeting couples that have lived here for 25-30 years and they'd talk about how they moved to Rochester for school 30 years ago and ended up staying. Little did I think that we'd still be here at this point in time. Don't get me wrong, we really like Rochester and have made good friends here, we are just far from family. Scottie just needs to hurry it up and figure out how to beam us wherever we want, when we want.

The last big to do in our shortest month has to do with our beloved little fatticus. On the tenth, we danced around like fools (that was mostly just Lisa, I would never do anything like that) and celebrated the fact that ciccia nostra had been with us for a year. Lisa wrote about it here.

Life continues to move forward in spite of all of our efforts. Lisa and I both love the stage that bobo is at right now. He is getting into everything, has started walking (and thus falling and testing the strength of his cranium and other facial features) and has grown quite the head of hair. It is funny and interesting to me how much of a personality bobo has developed. He thinks it is the funniest thing in the world to play peekaboo as well as to have you chase him. He will run/walk/fall/crawl from you, stop and look back to make sure that you see him run/walk/fall/crawling away and that you are planning on chasing after him. He then will take off again, looking back to make sure that you are following. I know this is riveting information for all of you. In other news, the cow jumped over the moon, just read that and wanted to share. My reading material has changed of late as well as my music selection. I tend to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" or some other hip hop tune for the entertainment value that it gives to Lisa.

Now that I'm caught up, I can hurry up and wait another couple of months before I put fingers to keyboard to record our most precious moments and memories for future posterity, friends, and the occasional random Internet stranger/blog stalker. Happy times.

Things I learned last year

2011-01-19T21:13:00.006-05:00

This last year has been a good one, up and down and lots of different things going on. Here are some of the top lessons that I have learned in the last year, in no particular order.

- When the baby is screaming in the middle of the night because he has bad diaper rash, make sure that your wife doesn't put the sunscreen in the same drawer as the butt paste. Just an FYI in case you didn't know, sunscreen on a bad diaper rash doesn't help, it actually makes things worse.

- Be careful tossing a baby up into the air right after him downing a bottle. It could all come back up, on you.

- Even if you are more calm than your wife while the kid is screaming, it does absolutely no good to point that out to her. Not sure why.

- It's pretty magical to hear the words da-da while getting a bear hug and the side of your face licked.

- You have about 3.2 seconds from the time the diaper comes off to get him into the bath before the pee starts flowing.

- It's a good thing kids are made of rubber.

- Babies in the hospital don't make for happy parents, even for something not too serious.

- The feeling of helplessness that has come quite frequently this last year is rather humbling, which I think is the point. That doesn't make it easier.

- We have lots of great friends and family all over the world, and it's perfectly fine that they are more interested in the little fat than in us.

- I think the slogan "Be prepared" was originally coined by mothers talking about the fact that one can never have too many wet wipes.

I've actually learned quite a bit more than that this last year. It has been a good one full of lots of love and laughs. I'm grateful for all of the great blessings that I enjoy, more than I rightly deserve. Happy 2011 all, may your days be full of this.

hmmm

2010-12-10T15:50:00.004-05:00

These last few weeks have been...we'll call them challenging. I realize that everyone has challenging times, in their own way. It is interesting that I think we all tend to get so self-absorbed that somehow OUR challenges are unique and hard in such a way that NO ONE else can understand. Of course that isn't true, but that's how I've been feeling. Life really is good, but sometimes it is definitely difficult to remind yourself of that fact and remember it when you feel as if you were at the base of this.

Have a great Holiday Season. Be good, remember who you are and don't let it get you down.

Body Parts

2010-10-18T12:42:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago, Lisa was asked to speak at a Friday night Fireside with a visiting General Authority before she was released as the Stake Young Women's President. She spoke about unity and as usual was very insightful and did a wonderful job. Whenever she is asked to speak, her subject matter tends to be our topic of conversation until said talk is done. A couple of nights before the fireside, we were talking about the scripture in 1st Corinthians that states that we are all a part of the body of Christ, and and how everyone is different and contributes differently, just like the various parts of a body contribute to the whole. Then she turned towards me and said with a straight face, "And you're the butt cheek." At least I know where I stand . . . or maybe sit?

Consumer Chris strikes again

2010-10-06T10:28:00.004-04:00

On Monday night I ran a few errands, got some groceries, and stopped by Blockbuster to get a movie for family night. Lisa has been wanting to see this new documentary, Babies, and I was hoping to be able to surprise her with it. 6pm on Monday is a slow time for Blockbuster, as there was only one employee (whom we will call Dufus) and one other customer in the store. I walked around looking for the show, couldn't find it, so went and stood in line to talk to Dufus and ask to see if it was in and I was just dumb and not able to find it. He finished with the other customer, but before I could ask him anything, the phone rang. He answered it and was like, "oh dude, yeah, I was totally going to call you..." No exaggerations or Packer factor going on here. He held up his pointer finger to me, which I took to mean that he would be just a minute. No problem. I listened to a good five minutes of Dufus talking on the phone with his friend about all sorts of stuff, and hope and pray that I never sounded that dumb (I know I did, my family will attest to it, but I was 12). I tried to butt into his phone call to ask if they had the movie, and he got this annoyed look on his face, put the phone on his shoulder and said, "Hey man, I'm on the phone." I apologized, pulled out my phone and dialed the manager's number that was prominently displayed on a sign at the front of the store, asking for customer feedback. No one answered and so I proceeded to leave a message with my name, number, and citing that Dufus was standing right in front of me and that he refused to help and was talking on the company phone with friends. Then I hung up. So did Dufus. He wasn't happy. At all. That's OK, neither was I. He wanted me to call the manager again and take back what I said, I wanted him to look up the movie for me. Again I learned that life isn't fair. Neither of us got what we wanted.

Opposite World

2010-09-16T14:37:00.003-04:00

I've decided that I live in a parallel dimension that looks like ours, but does not function like it is supposed to. Since becoming a foster parent, I've learned lots about life, from which I had previously been sheltered. PFC (Pre Foster Care) everything worked properly. People did what they said they would. The law was on my side. The world made sense. I've now entered one of Calvin's opposite zones, where all is not as it appears.

AFC (no this is not football related, surprisingly enough, AFC = After Foster Care), I think I find myself like the above cartoon. If only my problems could be solved thanks to a 1-hour photo developer. It doesn't matter what kind of a parent bio-mom is, she just has to meet minimum requirements. Government funded housing. Food stamps. Public Assistance. Quick disclaimer. I'm not knocking any of these programs, because there is a need for them. That being said, I think they are being abused left and right and there is a lot of work that needs to be done with the welfare system of this country, but that is a different discussion. It is my thought that bio-mom should be able to take care of herself before being asked to take care of someone else, especially a little someone else. In this, our judicial system (and overall our government) disagree. In their mind, they can take care of someone who is then able to take care of someone else. They obviously don't know who Captain Moroni is, or what his thoughts are on the matter.

The other beef I have is that as much as we were told that doing Foster Care is all about the children and helping them, they fed us a line of male cow manure. We are really the only advocates for little fat, and we have the power of maybe a well aimed burp (or possibly even some good old Dad, early morning, going antelope hunting, windows rolled up because of the cold, onion....you get the idea). Everyone else is about the process and meeting mom's needs. Under the law, the child has no rights, as it is assumed that the best interests of the child will be looked after by the parents. In the ideal world, I would agree with that statement. Last time I checked, we weren't living in the ideal world. Don't get me wrong, mom is worthy of help, everyone is. But at what point do you continue to help and push for mom's rights even though it hurts someone else's? I recognize that that is a rather difficult line to draw in the sand and am fairly biased right now.

I've reached the conclusion that my parents were right all those years ago when I would throw a tantrum at something and decide that it wasn't fair. Their response? Life isn't fair. Sorry to burst your bubble if you didn't know that already. Maybe I should have put up a little spoiler alert for those of you still reading and thinking that life turns out exactly how you want it to. oops.

Not to leave you all with the impression that I'm so far down in the dumps that I can't see the good things around me; I do have a wonderful family...that I don't get to see because I'm still working all day everyday. For those of you saying I should be grateful to have a job, I am, I just wish that since they are expecting me to work twice as much, they should pay me twice as much. That would be an ideal world.

Go Pokes

2010-08-31T17:05:00.003-04:00

That blessed time of year has arrived. Go Pokes.

August...die she must

2010-08-31T16:13:00.005-04:00

Summer is slowly fading, and life as we know is about to get better (thank you college football, crisp air, apple pies, pumpkins and fall leaves). This last month has passed too quickly, but not without good adventures. Little Fat started crawling and refusing to take his bottle unless he was fed a higher quality of food first, such as mashed bananas.

We took the little nipper on his first overnight camping experience as well as hiking in Stony Brook State Park to see the local scenery. I think he did better than both Lisa and I, however, no one was carrying us and he had much more padding for a bed than we did.

Stony Brook

Bobo along for the ride

he was so tired he left a good mark on his face from the pack

Out Cold

We also went to a Rochester Redwings game to eat Simply Crepes and enjoy a perfect evening out. Bubba really liked the game and got pretty excited at everything going on around him, but still managed to take a nap halfway through.

Frontier Field

I've been really busy trying to finish up a quality project at work. It has seriously made me an absentee father/husband, working 12-13 hours a day. Lisa has been great in picking up my slack though and doing everything. It has also been fun to see the slobber monster grow. Not only is he able to produce copious amounts of saliva at the drop of a hat, he is mobile enough to spread the love all around the house. He has a hard time sitting still and really doesn't care too much for his toys, he is much more interested in what you have. The best part is that when he gets really excited, he does the most amazing impression of squealing like a girl. That's my boy. Talented.

funny

2010-07-22T13:36:00.002-04:00

I like dumb jokes. They make me laugh. I was in Lowe's the other day and this older gentleman that was working there asked if I needed some help and then asked if I would like to hear a joke. Here's what he told me.

"The receptionist at a dentist's office interrupted the dentist while working on a patient and said 'Dr. Smith, there's an invisible man in the waiting room that is very insistent on seeing you right away!' The dentist replied, saying 'well you'll just have to tell him that I can't see him!'"

I laughed all the way home.

hello world

2010-06-26T20:21:00.006-04:00

Sometimes it's amazing to me to think that in spite of my lack of blogging, the world still goes on. Wow. Here are the top ten tidbits of knowledge and priceless wisdom that I have managed to add to my arsenal in the last several weeks since you have last heard from me.

1. No matter how you try and plan for things, life has a way of throwing you for a loop. There is so much that I have no control over whatsoever, and that is more than just a little bit frustrating.

2. Little Fat has the best schedule ever. He eats, he plays, he sleeps, he plays, he eats, he plays, etc... I'm jealous.

3. After getting recycled baby food all over me, pulling out mystery gunk from the drain is no big deal. Yeah, I'm cool.

4. I've yet to master a balance between work, church, myself, and my family. Anyone have any answers?

5. No matter how bad your day, when your kid gives you a lopsided grin and grabs at your face when you see him and pick him up, life is good. As my older sister would say, big cheesy sandwich.

6. Life is happier in the spring and summer. New life blooming is contagious.

7. An entire nights sleep, uninterrupted, is priceless.

8. It seems that there is always going to be something to look forward to, but enjoying the here and right now is also a good thing to take part in.

9. There is nothing like fresh, homemade salsa. Yummy.

10. Life is good.

I know. Surprising knowledge. Take it for what it is worth, and remember to smile.

Explosion at 36,000 feet

2010-05-12T20:44:00.004-04:00

The title is slightly misleading. This isn't about an action/adventure flick, although there is some action and adventure, both of which were quite dirty.

This last week we traveled to Laramie to witness one of life's great events, a UW graduation. Lisa's youngest sister, Erica, was graduating and most of her family was going to be in attendance. Thanks to the recent addition to our family, we were deemed worthy of an invitation to the occasion. The real action/adventure occurred as we were high over the heartland of America, traveling from Newark (hidden jewel of the East) to Denver. His royal fatness was busy being as cute as normal when suddenly an aroma akin to the south end of a north bound skunk was detected wafting through the cabin. Upon further review, the stench was found to be coming from Bobo's hinder parts. Yeah.

I drew the short straw and got to wedge myself into the bathroom and change stinky pants. That is when the main action/adventure took place. Out the back. Up the front. Out the sides. Greenish/brownish/yellow sludge oozing from places that shouldn't be oozing. All over. Literally. Awesome. 45 minutes later, he was clean, I was dirty and we managed to squeeze out of the bathroom and back into our seats. Adventure over for the time being. Unfortunately, little fat got a little sick and shot liquid gross out of both ends all weekend long.

The trip was a success. We got to see family and friends and enjoy the wonderfulness that is Wyoming. And more importantly, on a scale of 1 to 10 in the traveling department, Capo got a solid 9.5 out of 10, being docked points solely for the incident mentioned above. Really though, how can you hold such disgustingness against a face like this?

And just because he's styling, here's the little flirt again.

blue

2010-04-14T15:51:00.002-04:00

Sometimes, life is blue.

ci si va avanti

2010-04-02T22:31:00.003-04:00

I sometimes feel that in order to post something on my blog, something special or amazing needs to happen. It's a good thing that my life is fairly extraordinary and has allowed me to post so many amazing things up until now. I actually do think that my life is rather ordinary and am thankful for that. I am grateful for the ordinary boringness of daily life. I find that I do better with a schedule and although I do sometimes get tired of the same old routine of work, family, church and little bit of other things thrown in there for some added spice, I like it. It's like one of your favorite dishes. There's a reason you eat it a lot, that's because it tastes good. That is how life has been lately. Just good routine. Going to work, which has been busy because I took a new job with lots of new responsibility, but that has been challenging and new and even fun. Church is also good, Lisa and I have been serving in the same callings for the last three years, which is the longest either of us had ever served in one calling. It has been good for the both of us and forced us (or maybe given us the opportunity) to stretch some to serve in those callings. Family life has been quite great lately. I think that I'm naturally a homebody and just like to be at home, so throw in my wonderful, amazingly talented and gorgeous wife and a little bundle of smiles, diapers, and puke, and it makes it more difficult to want to go and do anything else. Life is good. Boring and normal is great. Nice.

la vita è bella

2010-03-04T15:21:00.002-05:00

lessons learned & gratitude

2010-02-23T20:33:00.005-05:00

It's been two weeks since we got the call to pick up our little guy. Oh, how much our life has changed in that time. For starters, my TV viewing has drastically declined, while my baby viewing has increased exponentially. I'd also like to think that as a fledgling father of uncertain duration, I have added a few new abilities to my meager skill set. Those of you much more versed in the child raising process might not even give a second thought to some of my recently accrued knowledge, but I find it valuable for the time being.

Lesson #1: Wake a sleeping baby only at your peril, especially from a deep sleep. This ranks up there on a badness scale of actually believing your wife when you ask what is wrong and she says, "nothing."

Lesson #2: A baby can take a simple thing, such as milk and turn it into a monstrously disgusting tidal wave of green sludge that explodes from the diaper to cling to every little fold of baby skin. If you smell something funny, hand the baby off.

Lesson #3: The baby sleeps when you are awake and wants to be awake when you want to sleep. I had heard this for a long time, but it is one of those cases where the reality of it is a lot harder than the theory.

Lesson #4: I have a wife? I know that there is another person that lives in our house and helps to take care of the baby, but our interaction doesn't go to much beyond that. How do you find that balance between, baby, husband/wife, work, personal time? Or are husband/wife and personal time a thing of the past at this point?

Lesson #5: The amount of projectile vomiting is proportional to the number of burp clothes and items of clean clothing available to the baby. If one burp cloth is within reach and everything else is in the laundry, then the baby will produce enough regurgitated formula to cover approximately half of a football field. Truly one of science's many mysteries.

My other thoughts right now run towards gratitude and humility. We have seen an amazing outpouring of love from so many people it is truly amazing. From people at church feeding us for more than a week, to people at work donating money to help as well as food and gift cards. I've never been the recipient of service like this, and it has been surreal. We are surrounded by ministering angels.

The whole process is somewhat frustrating for me in that I have no control whatsoever over the situation and I struggle with that. I do however take great comfort and strength from all the prayers offered on our (and more importantly the little guy's) behalf. Thank you and I would hope that you would continue to keep us in your prayers.

and then there were three.......and no sleep

2010-02-11T13:49:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was quite the day. I was minding my own business, working diligently in my office, when my phone rang. I'm making this sound quite ominous aren't I? It was foster care calling and they said that they had a four week old boy coming into care either that night or the following day and wanted to know if we would be willing to take him. After extracting my heart from my throat I said I'd call my wife and call them right back. This was actually our second call, from foster care. About a month ago we got a call asking us to take in two children and neither of us felt good about it, so we said no. As we talked on the phone yesterday, we both felt pretty good about everything, we said a little prayer over the phone, still felt good, so we decided to take the plunge. I called back, said yes, we'd love to take the little grunt in, what was the plan? The plan was they were still out looking for him and that they would let us know as soon as they could whether it would be the same day or the next for pick-up (sounds like a pizza delivery). At about 4pm, I got the call saying the baby was in and that they closed at 5pm so we needed to get going to pick him up. Both Lisa and I ran home, pulled out the car seat that we had purchased about two months ago and Lisa drove to the drop-off (again, sounds so un-baby like) while I fiddled around in the back seat trying to become smarter than the car seat (more difficult than you might think...maybe not for those of you who know me well). The pick-up was the best part, it was like curb side to go. I called when we were about ten minutes away and said we'd be there right at 5pm. The caseworker said she would come downstairs with the baby and meet us as we drove up. We drove up to the curb, she walked out with a tiny little baby

Here's the captain

and a couple of garbage bags of formula, clothes and diapers, and we were off, both of us wondering how that had just happened. To make a long story short, we spent the rest of the evening (and most of the night) staring at this strange little being that has entered into our home at least for a few weeks.

Is this for real?!?!

Very strange. But also very good. We'll call him the captain, since he is already in charge of everything and running our lives. I think that we'd gladly keep him forever, but we'll see what happens. Life is good, if a little more tiring than it was a day ago.

Lisa has a new target for her camera, Captain beware.

Shallow Chris

2010-02-01T16:13:00.003-05:00

While we were out and about in the bubble for the celebration of the coming together of two families through wedded bliss this last Christmas, I went and watched Avatar in 3D with my dad, brother, brother-in-law and nephews. We thought it was great. What an amazing science fiction adventure on another planet with great effects and technology to make it all work. I liked it so much that when we got back to Rochacha, I took Lisa. She even liked it. Recently, I have seen several posts and reviews slamming the show for it's anti-American rhetoric. It mostly had to do with portraying the awful soldiers who embodied the death and destruction of their home planet earth as American Marines. I was a little confused and felt a little dumb maybe, because to be honest with you, that thought never crossed my mind. It is quite possible that I'm a little simple in that I don't think too deeply, especially when entertainment is involved. If there are hidden agendas and messages, they are lost on me, because as my wife could tell you, if you don't club me over the head with what you want me to know, it just won't sink in.

Is this how I come across???

This also made me think of The Golden Compass that came out about a year or so ago and how it caused an uproar among the conservative Christian groups because the author of the books upon which the movie is based is a professed atheist and wants nothing more than to spread his vile message of we are all alone-ism, there is no god belief (according to those groups). I have two thoughts about this, the first being, I read the books and really liked them. I never got any whiff of anti-God feelings in the books at all. The basic story line is good vs. evil, with the evil appearing mostly in the form or the Magisterium, or church. That means he hates god and wants us all to feel the same way? Does that mean that books like The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons are awful and fuel for the atheist bandwagon because the tend to put the Catholic church in a bad light? I don't think so. Again, this could be another case of Chris being too shallow to pick up on those subtle clues that don't just jump right out and announce themselves with banners and neon lights. So the second thought I had was, OK, if he has an agenda to spread his message of science over religion....who cares? I spent two years working to bring religion to people and don't I believe that others are free to act according to their beliefs and even try and convert others to their beliefs? If you don't want to watch it/read it, don't. When people didn't want to listen to me in Italy, they didn't. Fairly simple.

Since I am confessing my simpleness and some of the things that I have enjoyed entertainment wise, I guess I should lay it out there that I have read a series of books involving dark evil magic, full of witches and wizards and even children. I think the most atrocious thing though is that the children even performed magic. I know. Horrendous. But even worse......I liked them. Maybe there's a support group for that. Has anyone heard of HPA? Harry Potter Anonymous?

The point of all of this silliness is that I think you find what you looking for. If you are looking to be offended, you will be. If you are looking for the bad, you'll find it. That is all.

the famcation...

2010-01-03T22:04:00.011-05:00

The happy new couple

We took a big break over Christmas to travel and be with family. It was fun, but we are in desperate need of a vacation from our vacation. We flew into the middle of the bubble and spent three days running around like crazy getting ready for Katie's wedding.

Temple Square

We did get the chance to visit with family and try and get to know our new brother-in-law, Jameson amidst the madness of pre-wedding hoopla and craziness. Anyway, they got married. Most importantly, centerpieces were made, food and flowers came together and there was dancing. Yeah.

The whole gang

After the wedding, our traveling adventure took us to the great state of Wyoming. It was good to be back in the homeland, where it's so incredibly cold in the winter that it makes your boogers (or dried nasal mucus according to wikipedia) freeze the instant you step outside. We went up with the entire Faerber family to Louis Lake and stayed in the cabins for a few days over Christmas.

Penelope, crazy sledder

It got even colder when we got up to 9000 feet, but we had lots of fun in the form of eating, sledding, eating, snow-mobiling, eating, reading, talking, snow-shoeing, eating, cutting down 30 foot Christmas trees and eating. We had fun.

Dutch oven turkey and stuffing in sub-zero weather

il Giorno di Ringraziamento

2009-12-02T22:40:00.003-05:00

We had a great turkey day. As always, Lisa did a fabulous job of documenting the occasion. We had family come (it's great to have family within driving distance) and got to enjoy a good weekend of eating and relaxing. I think that is almost the perfect combination, food and relaxation. While everyone was taking it easy, I got to sneak away and fish in the rain on Irondequoit Creek, it was great. Here and here are some of the great recipes we tried this round of bird eating. Hope you all had a good one.

La pazienza è la virtù dei forti

2009-11-18T15:37:00.003-05:00

Now that we have done everything we can for foster care, it's out of our hands. I find myself struggling with this. There is nothing for me to do, so it has become a game of waiting. I sat staring at my cell phone today for a good 20 minutes, willing it to ring. It didn't work. I am in dire need of patience. Let me know if you find any.

avanti . . . sempre avanti

2009-11-15T23:09:00.006-05:00

It seems that in spite of my best efforts, life continues to go forward. We have been fairly busy with work and church and getting ready for certification the last few weeks. We finally had our last home study done on the best day of all, this last Friday the 13th. Good thing neither of us suffer from triskaidekaphobia. Here is the nursery.

We had our annual service auction in the branch on Saturday. Food was eaten, fun was had. In that food and fun debauchery, we also managed to provide enough food for at least 15 families this coming Thanksgiving. I managed to score a photo shoot from a friend, Scott Kipphut (check out his Facebook site), and donated a five course Italian feast to be cooked by yours truly. The great part is that I would have cooked it anyway, and now I get to do it with friends.

Lisa has quite a bit going on with the stake young women. With super Saturdays, young women in excellence and other things, I sometimes get to see her, if I go to young women's activities. Life goes on. It is good. Even though it seems as if our life tends towards the non-stop cool and not-so-cool action, we have fun. What can I say. As fall fades slowly and gradually into winter, here are my words of wisdom for the day. Don't eat yellow snow.

The Happening

2009-10-26T15:35:00.007-04:00

Don't let the title fool you, the trees have not staged a full-scale revolt in the Rochester area by releasing harmful toxins into the air and overriding man's natural survival instinct. Sorry for the spoiler. The trees actually have been changing, however in a more benign fashion.

A little over a week ago, Lisa and I voyaged through the beautiful, bucolic setting of western New York and eastern Pennsylvania on our way to the big city. The leaves were pretty, like this one, except that there were lots of them.

While we were in the city, we were able to engage in two of our favorite activities. Lisa got to shop and I got to eat. We are quite the team. We also met up for the day with Paige Hobby, Kimball's wife, who was visiting her family in western Canada (I'm a little vague on exactly where, so I'll say Calgary) and some cousins in NYC. We laughed a lot. Made fun of Kimball a lot, and wished that he was there to hear us making fun of him.

I'm the big bald one in the middle.

I've reached the tipping point of more hair on my face than on my head. I wonder if there's a support group for that? I like this group's motto, "If you can see skin, you're in!" I digress. I think we walked about 30 miles in one day, and it was on Dan speed (that was Kimball's cousin's husband, who was gracious enough to act as tour guide all over the city, wearing his hardcore Vibram shoes, that propelled him at slightly less than race car speed down the sidewalks) but that was good, because it helped burn off the 10,000 calories that I consumed during the day. Fun times were had by all, as we cruised through central park, Washington Square Park and too many stores to name. Thanks Paige for traveling more than 10,000 miles to see us. Wow. I used 10,000 twice (now three times) in a couple of lines. One was hyperbole, the other was me being a dork to look up how far it was from Sydney to Calgary to NYC. I make my wife proud.

In other news, Wyoming is 4-3. I think they'll knock off either Utah, BYU, or TCU. Here's to hoping it's BYU. That is all.

A Packer Conference Weekend

2009-10-05T15:19:00.002-04:00

Lisa and I had been looking forward to this past weekend for quite a while. I used to love conference weekend just for conference, but now I love it because it also means a weekend off from our typical Sunday duties. It's like a vacation from church, but without missing church. We should have conference more often. That's what I say.

On Saturday we were driving around in the pastoral (that one is for you Kimball) Finger Lakes area of western New York enjoying the brilliant blue sky and the beginning of changing leaves. The very definition of relaxation. It wasn't until we got home that Lisa put the weekend (at least up until that point) in perspective.

You see, we had gone dancing the night before at a country western bar with some friends, because we knew one of the members of the band and wanted to go and support. On Saturday as we traveled along the scenic Seneca Lake, one of my motives was to visit a few of the many wineries on the lake. This one is our favorite. We've gone there the last couple of years to get some of the best grape juice (and yes I do mean grape juice and not "grape juice") that I've ever had. While on this scenic tour, we also got some pumpkins, homemade candies, cheese curds, fabric for some quilting projects and some wine.

After our adventurous day, Lisa made the comment that I had treated her to a first-rate conference weekend so far. On Friday we went dancing at a bar and Saturday we spent part of the day at wineries and bought some wine. What a great way to prepare for spiritual feasting. When put that way, I think it paints a not so flattering picture of me and what I put my wife through, although to be honest she was a willing participant. Truth be told, if given the chance to redeem myself, I'd probably do it all over again.

And just so you don't think too many bad thoughts about me, I did buy the wine solely for cooking.

I promise.

My Life

2009-09-21T22:52:00.003-04:00

We bought a crib. It is already set up. We have no idea if/when we will ever obtain some type of offspring to put in said crib. My hopes however, are high.

It was a good weekend of sunny-ness and being outside and BBQing. We served in the temple Saturday morning and then served as chef and chef-ess at some friends' laid-back reception. We cook a mean hamburger and hotdog. Sunday was equally as beautiful. Leaves starting to change. Bright blue sky. Church meetings at the Hill Cumorah. Then even more BBQ goodness. White hots. Yum.

Naps were taken, relaxation occurred. Life is good.

What I did this summer

2009-09-08T14:50:00.002-04:00

Lisa has been giving me grief for not writing anything for a couple of months, and my excuse has been that it's summer, I'm busy doing things that I will then be able to write about for the rest of the year. So, to back that up, and in honor of kids everywhere returning to school and reporting on what they did for the summer, here goes.

We worked over the kitchen, see Lisa's post here, because I'm too lazy to write one myself. We refinished cabinets, fixed some walls, moved appliances, painted, put up wallpaper, refinished light fixtures, put in a new light fixture and replaced old blinds. It ended up looking good, and was more work than I thought it would be.

We went to Cape Cod, but you already knew that, because that is the one thing that I did post about. It was fun.

We went camping with 20 teenage girls in the Adirondacks and called it Young Women's High Adventure/Drama. I have learned that if you put that many teenage girls together for a long enough time period, drama is a natural consequence. It's kind of like when you mix two hydrogens with one oxygen, you get water. Maybe I could write an equation representing this phenomena and patent it. Again, because I'm too lazy, here is Lisa's version of the events, with lots of nice pictures. It was a fun time, I got to fish and be outside in the mountains (hills) of the Adirondacks. The day we went on our long hike (10 miles) our big group splintered into three smaller groups of slow, medium and fast paced. Lisa stuck with the slow group, not because she is slow, but to encourage and push them on. I went with fast group, which consisted of three girls who were all runners. They wanted to run. The whole way. Up the the mountain. I made it to the top with them, but I could hardly walk the next day, and it took me a good week to be back to normal. What happened to the days of playing basketball for five hours and getting up the next day and doing it again?!

We made a quick trip to Utah for my grandma's memorial service. It was good to be able to see lots of family, especially on my dad's side, that I hadn't seen in 15 years, and some for even longer. It was a nice, simple service. I also got to meet and try and intimidate Katie's boyfriend Jameson. I know what you're thinking. Very intimidating. It looks like he will be a permanent addition to the family, so I was mostly nice. We had a lot of fun with my whole family together, which doesn't happen too often as we are all spread out pretty good. I also discovered on this trip why red eye flights are cheaper. They're awful. We left SLC at 1am going to Atlanta. Airlines already pack you in like sardines, and I'm not the smallest sardine in the can, so trying to catch a few minutes sleep was no small accomplishment. We finally got back to Rochester about noon and promptly crashed for the next six hours. Red eye flights = yuck. Again, look at Lisa's post.

We started the mandatory training courses (30 hours) to become foster/adoptive parents in New York State. It has been an interesting journey, leading up to the point of even starting this process, and then in the classes as well. The classes have generated lots of good fodder for many discussions in the Packer home as we work through wanting children, not being able to have any right now, and how we are going about trying to rectify that. We should be certified by the end of this month, so there are possible big changes coming to our home.

I've read lots of books this summer, gone on walks with my wife, tied flies for the upcoming fall fishing season, gone to baseball games, and spent a lot of time at work and at church, or church related functions. We've had a lot of BBQ, planted some new flowers and tried to get the grass to grow better under the maple trees. I'm open to suggestions on that last one.

It has been a satisfying summer, although I must admit that I can't believe that it is already gone. But that's OK, because the greatest season is now upon us. College Football Season (also known by many as fall). Besides football, I'm also excited for fall leaves/scenery/food. It's going to be a really busy fall for us, with a plethora of church activities awaiting, but we are looking forward to a trip to NYC the third weekend of October, and then maybe some family visiting for Thanksgiving, before we head back to the land of promise for the holidays. Lest there be any confusion as to where the land of promise is (although I'm not sure how anyone could mix this up), it's Wyoming.

Cape Cod

2009-07-07T20:37:00.006-04:00

We were able to take off a few days and forget life and have an actual vacation. We camped on Cape Cod, at Paine's Campground. Nice. Quiet. Peaceful. Loved it. We were able to do lots of sightseeing, relaxing, and soaking in the beauty of the area. We rode our bikes around, went to the beach,

Cahoon Hollow Beach

Chris & Lisa on the beach at Cahoon Hollow

Lisa walking along the beach at Cahoon Hollow

and made tinfoil dinners the first day. Then on the fourth, we saw an old light house,

Lisa at the Cape Cod Light

whales, interesting people, walked in the Provincetown Bay and found shells, ate incredible fish and chips and watched fireworks from the beach.

Chris in the bay at Provincetown

Looking out over the bay at Provincetown

Fireworks from the beach - life is tough

On the fifth, we mostly just relaxed and laid on the beach, played in the water, saw some seals, caught fish out of the ocean, and watched a picture perfect sunset. The only bad part of the whole trip was that unfortunately, we had to come home.

Chris fishing in the bay at Wellfleet

Sunset from the bay at Wellfleet

We now have to get back to the normal flow of life. We met with the home finding service for foster care/adoption in Monroe County last week, and we start with our mandatory classes this week. We have ten weeks of classes and lots of paperwork before we can be certified, so we will see what happens. It is exciting to think of having a child in our home by the end of this year. Maybe that is pushing it a little bit, but we'll have faith. Life is good.

Sunset through the grass at Wellfleet

Update

2009-06-17T17:46:00.002-04:00

It has been a fairly busy month for me. Between the usual suspects, work, church and the house, there hasn't been too much free time. The idea of having a refinished kitchen is great. The actual doing part that comes with that however is not quite as great. Some of the highlights beyond the fun times in the kitchen have been a weekend spent on the SUNY Brockport campus with several hundred youth age 16-18 for priest/laurel conference and starting some landscaping in the backyard. I never went to youth activities as a youth. I was never really interested, plus I always had something else going on. That lack of youth activity involvement has more than been made up for in the last couple of years with Lisa serving as the Stake Young Women's President.

Work has also been rather intense for me as late. In trying to be more economically minded, there have been many new projects added to what I was already managing. That means a lot more work. That is a good thing, but if anyone ever figures out where to pick up extra time, I could definitely use some. That has been my life lately. All in all, pretty good.

Good Samaritan II

2009-05-24T00:05:00.002-04:00

I think that I have been redeemed for the Bloody Mary incident last week. Lisa went to a baptism this morning at 10:00 and I was going to meet up with some friends to go and watch a movie. As I was getting ready to go, the door bell rang, I answered and saw a older gentleman and a young man dressed up. They introduced themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses and asked if they could read me a scripture. I said sure, thinking back on the many conversations I'd had with people on my mission and the fact that it didn't hurt me to talk for a few minutes on a beautiful, sunny day. They read their scripture to me, out of the gospel of Matthew, and asked me a few questions. They also said that they had an article in a magazine that helped to explain what the scripture meant, and asked if they could leave me a copy. I said sure, but then said, only if I could give them something in return. I ran back into the house and grabbed two pamphlets about the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I said that I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints, and that we had a pageant in July, had they ever heard of it and would they like to come? They quickly thanked me and left. Way to go Chris.

Good Samaritan?

2009-05-16T23:37:00.003-04:00

I ran to a local grocery store late tonight to get a few things that we needed for dinner tomorrow. I had just come from the adult session of Stake Conference in which we had heard about letting our light shine, and I was feeling inspired and uplifted from the meetings. As I was checking out, there was an older, run-down looking gentleman in front of me buying some groceries as well. The cashier told him that his food stamp card had insufficient funds, and so after waiting a few moments, he said that he'd just leave everything behind. Without thinking, I said that I'd pay for his groceries as well as mine. He tried to object and say that it was too much, but it really wasn't that much and I said that I was happy to do it. He graciously accepted, I paid, and we went on our separate ways. As I left, I was feeling quite good about myself. I was letting my light shine, I was helping my fellow man. I got to my car, got in, and put my groceries in the seat next to me. In my delight with myself, I checked the receipt to see what great goods I had purchased for this down-on-his-luck gentleman and saw that I had just paid for several bottles of a Bloody Mary mix. Way to go Chris.

Communication

2009-05-08T23:12:00.003-04:00

Lisa and I have different styles of communication. I'm just starting to realize this after more than five years of marriage. I know, slow. I will now ably demonstrate the extremities of my slowness. In college I took a course titled "Interpersonal Communication" or something similar to that which fulfilled an unavoidably important requirement, moving me one step closer to the mythical land of graduation. In the course, we studied and learned all about different ways in which we communicate, such as verbal and non-verbal cues. We practiced doing speeches to refine our presenting and apparently eliminate the sound, um, from out repertoire. I got an A+ in the class. Possibly my only such grade in all of collegedom. That high scholastic achievement however, does not necessarily indicate that I am a great communicator. Anzi*, it means that I am a great talker, and there are many people in my life, willing to testify to the fact that I like to tell stories and hear the sound of my own voice (If you don't believe me, just check out the length of this post. I'm talking as I'm typing.). What I don't remember learning in my A+ class education is that part of communication called listening. I'm sure that there was talk of listening, and it's role in communication. Probably even several classes on it. I guess I just didn't ever listen.

So I think they should have an entirely different course about listening. Not only would this help to facilitate the general increase of communication skills of UW Alumni, but it would also be an extra class that the University could require and force people to take, meaning more $$$. Had I taken such a wonderful course, then I would be much better prepared to face the rigors of daily life and actually listen to the people around me, instead of simply hearing the words coming out of their mouths. I don't mean to imply that I have absolutely zero skills in listening, I can occasionally muster up my powers of hearing beyond the spoken word to accomplish what is commonly known as "reading between the lines". As Lisa can attest to, it doesn't happen often.

This leads me back to the original intention of this blog post. I need to listen better. I will go out on a limb and say that a lot of couples are like Lisa and I, we occasionally argue. I know, hard to believe, but it is true. We disagree about things, and then when we talk (sometimes more loudly than others) about them, I think that I am right, at least that is how I feel. I tend to think that if I could just explain to Lisa so that she understood how I felt, and why I did something the way I did, then enlightenment would be reached, the argument would dissolve and the bliss often referred to as wedded would once again descend and cover up my imperfections. If she just understood, all would be well (I once made the mistake of telling my dear sweet wife that she needed to be more understanding. That did not go over well. If anyone out there is ever tempted to say something similar to your wife. Don't.). I need to listen. What I want others to do for me (try and understand my thinking) I typically don't think to reciprocate until it is too late. I know. Not really a mind blowing conclusion that I've reached. Other people want understanding too, just like me. I think this is the root cause of 80% of the arguments that I get into (which tend to be with Lisa, no one else is around me enough, also 42.7% of all statistics are made up). The other 20% of the arguments occur because I stop listening and start trying to fix. That is also a mistake, and a whole discussion in and of itself. I'll save it for another time. So the moral of the story is to take a course on listening in college. If you have already graduated from college or have never attended college and don't plan on it, I don't know what to tell you. Good luck.

*teaching you Italian one word at a time

Gettysburg

2009-04-24T21:31:00.004-04:00

When I was in high school I read Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, about the battle of Gettysburg, and have been amazed with the stories of the men who fought. Men such as General Lee, Longstreet, Armistead, Hancock, and Chamberlain. When Lisa's parents came to visit a couple of weeks ago, we went down to Gettysburg and spent a few days walking the battlefield and enjoying the coming of spring to that part of Pennsylvania. It was a unique opportunity to visit and walk the same ground that had been the site of such devastating destruction the first days of July in 1863. We also spent some time in the Finger Lakes, doing some hiking and enjoy the reasonably decent weather for early April.

We stayed at this great B&B on Seneca Lake on the way down to Gettysburg. The Fox and the Grapes was a beautiful old house that we had all to ourselves while we were there.

While in the Finger Lakes, we took a quick hike to Taughannock Falls, a beautiful falls of 215 ft. No picture of the falls, just Lisa, Steve and Vera walking along the trail.

Outside the Gettysburg Museum.

Lisa overlooking the field through which General Pickett and his men charged the center of the Union line.

Little Round Top

This is close to the area where the 20th Maine made it's stand at the far left flank of the Union Army and held.

The hole in the barn is from a canon ball.

We found this covered bridge just outside of the city.

Shameless Self-Promotion

2009-04-15T21:38:00.005-04:00

I just started another blog to record and catalogue most of the recipes that I like. You can find it here, or look for the link on the side of this blog, Ricette Mie. I know, original. I'd appreciate your thoughts, or if you have your own favorites you'd like to add, let me know and I'll post them. I love food, so why not write about it and share the wonderfulness with everyone? Buon Appetito.

Venezia

2009-04-15T18:14:00.004-04:00

The last stop on our fun filled tour of the beautiful country of Italy was Venezia.

By the Piazza San Marco with all of the gondole

We spent a few hours on a very packed train to get there, and then hauled our luggage onto a vaporetto and then dragged them through the streets to our little B&B, the Ca' Riccio. After we changed, we grabbed another boat and went out to visit the islands of Murano and Burano,which are known for their glass and lace work.

The islands are in the background

It was great to walk around and see all of the little shops. We continued our streak of shopping success, managing to pick up a couple of hand made vases, some linens, and a little blessing dress.

Lisa in the back "alleys" of Venice

That night we got a good dinner recommendation and had a fabulous meal of gnocchi and tagliatelle all'aragosta. After dinner we walked around the Grand Canal and the shops by the Rialto Bridge.

Lisa at the Rialto Bridge

There is so much to see and do in Venice that it was hard to try and cram it all in, in only a few days. We went through a few markets, walked through la Piazza San Marco,

Here we are in the Piazza San Marco

saw the Doge's Palace, walked over many bridges, but most notably il Ponte dei Sospiri. I think the highlight of that day was our ride in a gondola through the back streets and down the Grand Canal. It was amazing to see all of the old buildings that have had to vacate the ground floor due to the water levels. Our gondoliere was great to point out the different styles of architecture and interesting facts about the buildings as well. A gondola ride in Venice, what a great way to end our trip.

Our gondola ride

We started our long trip home from Venice, and from when we checked out of Ca' Riccio, we spent about the next 48 hours traveling. We took a vaporetto to Lido, then a bus/ferry to Pellestrina, and finally another vaporetto to Chioggia. There we were met by Nadia and her daughter Elena and spent the afternoon with them. It was great to see Elena, who was 7 months pregnant at the time, and her husband Cristian. All too soon it was time to depart and they drove us to the train station in Padova where we said goodbye and then waited for our overnight train to Rome. The next morning from Rome we caught our flight home to Rochester via JFK in New York City. Now all we can talk about it wanting to go back. Anyone wants to pay, we'll be tour guides!

Looking out at the Venetian Lagoon

Verona

2009-03-27T22:24:00.007-04:00

After a fabulous week in Monza/Milano/Como, we said goodbye to Nadia and Emanuele and took a train to Verona. We were met at the station by Mr. Gaspari, who was to be our host (along with his wife) while we were in Verona. His daughter had moved to Rochester for a post-doc position at the University the previous year and he had come with her for a month to help her settle in. She just happened to move into an apartment a couple of blocks from us, and our bishop had asked us to check in on them. We got to know them fairly well and when he invited he said that if we were ever traveling to Verona, let him know and could stay with them. We thought, yeah great, one of those things you never think is really going to happen. Well, we did go to Verona, we let him know and he really was thrilled to host us and take us around for a couple of days. Anyhow. He took us to their little apartment and got us settled on a small fold out couch in their living room. They had a nice little meal of rucola, parmigiano reggiano and bresaola. Yummy.

After dinner, we piled into their tiny car and drove out to a tiny town, Borghetto, and just enjoyed the evening walking around, taking pictures and shopping. Lisa got a little bag and we bought some gelato.

Lisa at Borghetto

It was a very nice evening, and got rather funny on the way home. We weren't too far from Verona, but it was dark, and the Gaspari couple was a little older and he had a slight problem seeing in the dark. He was getting mad at the other cars that were driving around us and talking about how awful the other drivers were, and it was really him. He was driving so slow and really couldn't see where he was going. It was sad, but also kind of funny. He left his brights on to help him see and all of the other cars kept honking at him to get him to turn them off, and that just made him madder and yell about the lack of respect from other drivers. Again, kind of sad but also funny. He was a nice old man to be so good to us, I hope we didn't wear him out too much. We finally got home after several hours of driving around and taking wrong turns and trying to figure out where we were. About 1:40 am, the TV suddenly came to life for seemingly no apparent reason and it was REALLY loud. Random.

Lisa and Signore Gaspari looking at the hills north of Verona.

The next day, we walked around the entire city with our gracious host acting as a tour guide. It was really amazing, he gave us a running narrative about everything we were seeing, from how the city was constructed, when, why, and by who. There is quite the incredible history to the city. Part of Verona's fame comes from Billy the writer and his story of star-crossed lovers.

Lisa with Juliet's Balcony in the background.

We made a stop by Juliet's house and saw her balcony and her statue. Her statue was kind of interesting in that her breasts are very well polished because it is supposed to be good luck to rub them. Can't say that it has worked.

Juliet, in all her glory.

After our fabulous tour, we headed back to nap and get ready for a great night out. One of the big attractions to Verona is the Arena di Verona, and we were visiting right in the peak of opera season.

View of the Arena di Verona from outside.

The Gaspari family had gotten us tickets to that night's performance of Il Nabucco by Verdi. Wow. How do you describe sitting in a 2000 year old stadium, watching an opera written by one of the most famous composers ever? You don't. All I can say is it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I think that the most incredible part for me, was the performance of Va' Pensiero. It was one of my favorite moments of the entire trip, and an incredible finish to our stay in Verona.

Lisa and our wonderful hosts, the Gaspari family.

Looking at the crowd in the Arena di Verona.

Lisa overlooking the center of Verona.

Modern Medicine

2009-03-24T19:28:00.004-04:00

My fairly normal life was interrupted this last week by my throat. We were eating mashed potatoes, beans and roast. Half way through the meal, the roast just stopped going down. By now we have the routine down pat, so we hopped in the car and went to the ER at Strong. The one good thing about the night was that we didn't have to wait at all in the ER. Long story cut short, I had to have an endoscopy. They had to give me three times the amount of sedative, and it still didn't do too much to put me out. I have several not so fond memories of being held down as I'm gagging on a tube that is continuously forced down my throat while someone is telling me to try and relax. I was pretty sore for the next several days, and Lisa did a good job of babying me. There was one humorous moment during the evening. Before starting the endoscopy, the ER tried some drugs on me to help me relax and allow the food to pass. One of the drugs they gave me through the IV was Valium. I'm not sure exactly what I did or said, but I know I made Lisa laugh.

The next day, Thursday, I had an appointment with Strong Orthopaedics where they took x-rays of my left knee which has been really bothering me lately. It was taking me several days to recover from playing basketball or something similar, so I finally went in. They couldn't tell anything for certain, so I went in the next day for an MRI. I get to go back in the next couple of weeks in order to see what is wrong and what will have to be done.

It was definitely a week in which I gave generously to the medical establishment. You're welcome, all of my doctor friends. Just doing my part to keep the medical industry up and running smoothly in spite of the economic downturn.

Como

2009-03-16T15:29:00.006-04:00

During our stay in Monza, we utilized the Italian public transportation system to grab a quick train up to Como and it's splendid lake, early in the morning, for a day trip. We got off of the train and walked a few blocks to the lake front and caught a boat tour of the lake. It was extremely relaxing to sit and watch the small towns along the shore, all of the beautiful villas, mountains and scenery. We got off at the jewel of the lake, Bellagio (the real one, not the Vegas imitation) to shop, eat and explore. While our culinary delights might not have been as fantastic as in other places, we nevertheless feasted upon what was available. It was certainly tough to make do with our fresh mozzarella di bufala, prosciutto crudo, ciabatta and olive oil sandwiches. Then to have to eat pasticcini and wash it down with aranciata. Life is indeed rough. What a day.

Lisa on Lake Como going up to Bellagio.

Approaching Bellagio from the western leg of the lake.

Lisa on the streets of Bellagio.

Lisa and I from a park in Bellagio looking north along the lake towards the Swiss Alps.

Lisa on Lake Como.

The magic of Italian pasticcini and me.

Lisa on the trip home.

Milano/Monza

2009-03-08T21:05:00.004-04:00

Returning to my old stomping grounds. It was pretty fantastic taking the train from Vernazza to Milano Centrale. I can't remember how many times I went in and out of that station as a missionary. The time that we spent in old areas of mine was truly incredible, especially to be there with my wife. We caught a connecting train to Monza, and called Nadia to pick us up when we got there. It was fun to see her again. She is my Italian mother and took good care of me for the better part of a year while I was in Italy. She's great. Better than great. Fabulous. Her and Emanuele fed us food to die for the whole week we were there and treated us like family. Plus they loved Lisa.

We spent one day in Milano with me playing the tour guide to Lisa. I think my favorite part of being with Lisa in Italy was just how excited she was to see and hear and yes, taste everything. We spent most of the time in Milano running from site to site.

We started in the Piazza del Duomo and walked through the Galleria, a huge shopping center before going over to the Duomo di Milano and walking in, around and up to the top of it. It has some pretty spectacular architecture and quite the history. We took lots of photos and had some beautiful views of the city with the Alps in the background. For lunch we went and ate at Luini's. How does one explain the magical amazingness that is known as Luini's? Luini's sells panzerotti, the original pizza pocket, like a mini calzone. Just think of homemade dough, great cheeses, meats and sauces all rolled up into one and then baked. Drool. We used to the love eating there as missionaries and I wasn't disappointed when Lisa and I went. Panzerotti and aranciata sanguinella (blood red orange soda). We ate our exquisite cuisine overlooking La Scala before meandering off to Europe's most expensive street, Via MonteNapoleone. We were quite appalled at the expensive fashion on display in the windows. I think Lisa's favorite was a handbag in one of the windows, but she was out of luck as the price tag was 12,900 Euro. The rest of the day was spent walking through Castello Sforzesco, Parco Sempione and shopping on Corso Buenos Aires.

During our stay in the center of the Po River Valley, we talked and talked and talked with Nadia and Emanuele. Nadia was baptized while I was serving in Monza and she kind of adopted me. Her husband, Emanuele never joined the church but was really supportive of Nadia. It was somewhat surreal being there with Lisa. I have so many memories inside of their home, and with them, that are tied to being a missionary, so it was strange to be there and experience that with Lisa.

Nadia spent a day with us, as a guide to the fabulous city of Monza. We went to the Villa Reale in Parco Monza and walked through the city center as Nadia gave us a running history of the area. It was great just to be there and see familiar sites. It is not the prettiest part of Italy, not by a long shot, but it is my Italian home. I love it in that little city north of Milano.

Vernazza

2009-03-05T21:58:00.018-05:00

About a month ago I posted about our time in Cinque Terre, the fifth stop on our magical Italy tour (all Beatles songs performed in Italian). As we embarked from Florence to go to Vernazza (one of the five towns comprising the Cinque Terre), Lisa was treated to an authentic Italian train strike. The cool authentic experience involved lots of sitting around in the train station in Florence, trying to figure out how we were going to get to Cinque Terre.

Vernazza and the back of Lisa's head.

We stayed in Vernazza, and divided our limited time while there among eating, hiking, sitting and watching the waves, eating some more then hiking again so that we didn't feel too bad about eating yet again. I won't bore you with descriptions of the food that we ate, I'll just say again that it was the best I've ever had.

Lisa loves hydrangeas and saw them all over Italy. She even learned how to say it in Italian, ortensia.

One neat experience occurred as we were sitting on the rocks overlooking the waves and eating gelato. The waves were particularly rough that day, and there were some large breakers crashing down on the rocks and concrete dividers protecting the little harbor in front of the city. These three local guys came out to entertain all of us tourists by going out on the concrete divider, waiting for the waves to recede, and then leaping off into the ocean! It was rather amazing to watch. They would ride the waves as the water level at the divider would fluctuate by about 10 feet or so, and then when a really big wave came along, they would ride it right back onto the divider, seemingly walking out of the wave and back onto the concrete. I apologize for my lack of ability in describing the spectacle, because it really was incredible to watch.

Some of the great waves breaking just inside the little harbor.

Vernazza so far is my favorite place in all of Italy, and if I had to choose just one place to go, it would be Vernazza.

A slightly off-kilter view of the backside of Vernazza.

Here I am at sunset, at the opening of the little harbor.

Vernazza from the water.

This is another great shot of Lisa. It's very similar to the one from San Gimignano, except that we changed the background for this one.

San Gimignano

2009-03-02T21:21:00.006-05:00

Our second medieval hill town that we visited in the fairytale-esque Tuscan wonderfulness, was San Gimignano, town of 100 towers. Well, there used to be 100 towers, now there are only 14 or so.

The towers of San Gimignano.

We took a bus from Florence and arrived on market day, which has been happening in the same spot for the last 1000 years. We continued our shopping excellence in San Gimignano's market, buying linens for our mothers as well as for Lisa.

Lisa at the market.

I also managed to find some local artisan honey for my dad. Great stuff (assuming you like honey). As we meandered the town, we found several fun shops. Lisa lost me for a little while as I happened upon a small place full of cheese, wines, and vinegars. I struck up a conversation with the owner and he offered me a taste of fresh pecorino (as I think of that cheese, I'm doing the Homer Simpson drool face with accompanying sounds). He had me hooked. He then introduced me to his balsamic vinegar supply and a very happy fool was soon parted with his euros. He had me try several different years, and the 15 year old taste was the best. So I got some, along with some of the pecorino. Drool.

Me finishing off my pecorino. I think Lisa got one bite and then it was gone!

San Gimignano is a tiny town, all cobblestone with tiny narrow streets. We wandered around and shopped and generally just enjoyed the beautiful sites, sounds, and yes, tastes. We found a great little park full of olive trees, with wonderful views of the town as well as the surrounding countryside.

San Gimignano and Tuscany.

While shopping, we found a fun little shop that recycled old roof tiles and painted Tuscan scenes on them. They were perfect for Lisa's dad, so we got him one. About an hour later, the normally sure-handed blogorific me, dropped the tile, breaking it beyond repair. Luckily, the shop had one more of the same style, and they even gave me a great deal on tile number two, along with this sage advice, "don't drop it." I'm happy to say that the tile is hanging in my in-laws home in Lander. All in one piece.

Lisa looking out over San Gimignano.

This is one of my favorite pictures from our entire trip. Lisa framed with Tuscany in the background.

Five updated

2009-02-28T17:25:00.003-05:00

Sorry, another post breaking up the line of Italy greatness. We went to dinner and a movie last night and had quite a bit of fun. It was the first time that we had gone out like that in quite a while. The one little blip in joyousness of the evening started as we were leaving and culminated right before the movie.

As we drove down to Victor to go to dinner, we hit a huge-mongous pothole in the road. We took stock of everything briefly, all was still in order, so we went on about our evening. We stopped and got tickets to the movie, and then went to dinner. It was great, I have a soft spot in my heart (and stomach) for P.F. Chang's chicken lettuce wraps. After eating, we walked around doing some window shopping, and burning time waiting for the movie to start. We went out to the car and happily found the right rear tire flat as a pancake. Apparently, all was not well after the wheel was introduced to the pothole. Luckily, the weather was freezing, it was raining slightly with a fair amount of teeth-chatteringly cold wind. I don't know what we would have done had it been nice out. As I was enjoying the beauty of the evening and playing with the jack and getting the small tire on, Lisa was nice enough to snap some pics of me in my nice clothes, stretched out on the pavement. Check one of them out here.

We got to the movie just fine and then we got home fine. The car went to the doctor today and has been made better. All is well in the world now, thanks to Benjamin and his friends.

Five

2009-02-27T11:51:00.005-05:00

I apologize to my reading faithful who tuned in expecting to read more about the wondermicity and splendiferousnous of Italy. Come back tomorrow for an update on the next city in our fabulously fun and amazing tour.

This post is for Lisa. Today marks five years of marriage. To quote my lovely wife, "It seems like a whole lot longer than five years." I'll take that as a complement to mean that she can't possibly imagine living without me.

It is rather amazing to look back on the last five years and think of the growth (both physical and other, but mostly other) that I have gone through. Five years ago I was fairly naive in regards to my thoughts and views on marriage and what it takes to make it work. I have matured and learned in that time period, and hope to continue to do so. I feel that I am just now beginning to understand Lisa and who she is and what motivates her. I feel like when we got married, I knew absolutely nothing about women. Now I can proudly say that I know next to nothing, one step up from where I was.

With all of life's twists and turns that we go through, I'm glad I get to face them with Lisa.

Siena

2009-02-25T14:53:00.013-05:00

Of the five days we spent staying in Florence, two were dedicated to traveling the Tuscan countryside enjoying some of the famous hill towns. We spent one leisure filled day soaking in the sights, sounds and of course, tastes of Siena. From Florence we took a train and then a bus to reach our destination, with the time and effort spent being very much worth while. The area through which we traveled is simply beautiful and the trip getting to Siena was quite enjoyable.

Once we arrived, we wandered narrow cobblestone streets until we came to the famous Piazza del Campo, where the Palio di Siena is held twice a year. The campo was a spectacular sight, with all of the shops, people, and the Torre del Mangia towering above everything.

We braved the heat, the lack of elevators and some rather narrow stairs, in order to climb to the top of the tower. After a little bit of sweat, we were rewarded for our efforts with unbelievable views of the surrounding countryside, town, and Duomo.

We also managed to throw in a little bit of shopping during our day in the medieval city. We picked up a few pictures, a hand-painted towel and a carved olive-wood spoon.

Siena

And of course, what would an Italian post of mine be without mention of food? We found a great little place to eat right off of the campo, in the basement of an old building. We were some of the only diners in there, and the food was simply divine. Lisa had gnocchi with eggplant and goat cheese, while I had pici noodles with arugula , tomatoes and spicy sausage. Yummy. . .

Fabulous food!

View to the top of the tower. Fun stairs.

Claustrophobia anyone?

Siena/Tuscany

The Campo as seen from the top of the Torre del Mangia. The fountain was designed by Michelangelo.

More of Siena/Tuscany

Lisa and I with a view of Tuscany from the top of the Torre del Mangia.

Firenze

2009-02-21T15:43:00.004-05:00

We found a nice B&B in Florence for a week right in the center of town that got us close to everything. Our time in the Renaissance city was split fairly evenly between shopping, eating, and museum visiting. All three activities were rather incredible. I thought Lisa was going to die when she had her first bite of real four cheese pasta. We did some antique shopping, leather shopping, shoe shopping, as well as shopping shopping. We arrived in Florence with two suitcases and left with four. We were good shoppers.

Chris in the market.

While we were in the fabled Tuscan city, we also went to the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Accademia di Belle Arti. It was pretty amazing to see such famous works by world renowned artists. The statue of the David was awe inspiring and remarkable. To think that someone actually carved that statue in such exquisite detail out of a piece of rock is somewhat mind-boggling. Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto, Botticelli and Da Vinci were inspired in the work that they did.

Florence

We also took time to wander around town and sample the variety of life around us. The Duomo was beautiful, and we walked to the top of the Campanile di Giotto which offered an amazing view of the city, Duomo and the surrounding hills. As we meandered about, we explored il Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

which spans the Arno River and is known for it's gold and silver shops. We finished the our time off in Florence with a mouth watering meal at Trattoria la Burrasca. Ahhh, good food.

Lisa and I standing on Ponte Vecchio.

Florence

Roma

2009-02-18T13:09:00.014-05:00

About a week ago, I really enjoyed going through some of our Italy photos and posting about a portion of our trip in Cinque Terre. Having said that, I think that I will spend the next several posts outlining our trip through the Italian countryside. So if you have an aversion to things Italian, stop reading and don't check back for a couple of weeks. And really, if you don't like Italy, we just might not be able to be friends.

So here is Rome, in Italian, Roma.

We flew in and took a train into the middle of Rome and started our adventure. It was fun for me to see Lisa so excited and amazed at everything. We raced around the city in just a few short days, seeing everything from the Colosseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill to the Vatican, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. In between all of that, we also ate a lot of good food. That was a constant in our trip. Honestly, that's a constant in my life. Like one of those formula's you learned in high school or college that has a constant in it. If my life could be summed up in a formula, there would be a figure in there called Packer's Constant, where Packer's Constant = Good Food. Sorry for the tangent.

We also took a really fun night walk starting in Piazza Navona and wending our way past the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and finishing at the Spanish Steps. We ate some good gelato, bought a small water-color from a painter in Piazza Navona, and generally had a great time. It was an incredible introduction to Italy for Lisa, and a great way to re-acquaint myself with il bel paese.

Me outside the Colosseum.

Lisa inside the Colosseum.

Lisa and some other people at the Trevi Fountain.

Sunset seen from the Colosseum.

Lisa overlooking the Roman Forum.

Lisa in the Vatican City.

Lisa overlooking Rome with St. Peter's Basilica in the background.

Disclaimer: Lisa is in most of these photos, because she looks much better than I do.

Learning

2009-02-13T15:17:00.004-05:00

In our search and efforts to become parents, I feel like I have traveled, or maybe better yet voyaged to a better understanding of myself. While this process of learning more about myself has been good overall, it has been disappointing and frustrating as well, to me and my wife. I think we all have a self image, a certain way in which we view ourselves, or the person that we think we are. When presented with a hypothetical situation, we like to think the best of ourselves, like, I would be the one to run back into the burning building to save someone else. That is an extreme example, but I don't think it's easy to admit to ourselves (that is three "ourselves" in a very short period of time, surely I could have written that better/differently) that maybe we're not as good or heroic or faithful as we think we are. Maybe we run screaming from the burning building. That has been my experience at least.

When we have challenges with which we are faced, it tends to be rather difficult, at least for me, to see beyond the challenge, and myself, to the world around me. I think it is a daily struggle for me not to be selfish and think that the world should concern itself with my troubles and worries and fears. Fortunately for everyone else, that isn't how it works. You all have your own struggles and worries and fears, why should you be bothered with mine. And I guess that is one of the aspects of the gospel that I appreciate the most. We can be bogged down with life's daily woes, but as we put our trials aside and seek to alleviate the burdens of those around us, we realize that our problems may not be nearly as bad as we thought. We gain perspective and understanding, that indeed we are not alone. We can be united in our trials, even though they may be individual and personal. I fear that too often I refuse the power of the atonement, because I make the same mistake as the Israelites of old. I stumble over the rock that was placed in front of me for stability, while looking for the expected miracle up ahead.

Going back to the parent thing. My struggle right now is about having enough faith to step into the darkness, to move forward not knowing the end from the beginning. I'd like to think of myself as a good, faithful person, but when faced with the reality of life, in this situation, I find myself lacking. I'm scared to go forward into the dark. I want assurances. We have been talking more and more about adoption vs. fertility and which direction to pursue at this point. I have conflicting emotions with regards to both topics. Add to that the fact that I have the capacity to think something to death and then think about it some more before making a decision and that is where I have been stuck. Lisa has accepted where we are much quicker than I. She is more willing to trust in a loving Heavenly Father's care that everything will work out. I know that it will work out, I just want to know what that "work out" ends up being. I do believe that things will be great. It is called the Plan of Happiness for a reason. But there is a difference between saying that and actually living that, and that difference is faith. The wonderful Italians have a great saying for this, "Fra il dire e il fare c’è di mezzo il mare."

Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief.

Mark 9:24

Dreams of Italy

2009-02-11T12:44:00.007-05:00

I was looking through some photos the other day that we had taken on our trip to Italy a few years ago, and started dreaming of going again. One of my favorite places in Italy is Cinque Terre (the five lands) on the Italian Riviera between La Spezia and Genova. I apologize upfront for the wordy story that I'm about to embark on. You've been warned.

As we were waiting out a train strike in the Florence train station, I made some calls to B&B's in Vernazza hoping to find some deals and get us a room for the next couple of days. The last person I spoke with was a gruff old Italian guy who said his wife, Barbara, was the one who ran the rooms and he didn't want to be bothered with it as she was out doing the shopping. He said he thought that they had a room available and that I should call back later. I told him to tell his wife that "Cristoforo" wanted a room for two for two nights, and that I would try and call back later. We soon boarded a train and headed out. During some of the stops, I tried more phone calls, but to no avail. I wasn't too worried however, as I thought that we would be able to get to Vernazza, a tiny town of about 500 and ask around for a room for a couple of nights. When we finally got there around 7pm, I had Lisa sit with our luggage on a bench just below the train station while I went in search of lodging. I asked several people about rooms and was directed all over the tiny town, but the only thing I found was a room for one night, and then we would have to renew the search the next day. As I trudged back up the road (it was only about 100 yards long, so there wasn't too much trudging that transpired) I saw that Lisa was surrounded by a group of the town gossips (older individuals) who were all talking to her. Before I could say anything about my failed attempt to get us a good deal, she said that one of the lady's there had a room that we could use! She thought it was pretty funny that I had run all over looking, but she was the one to find us a room just by sitting down. Go figure. So we walk with this nice lady through fabulously narrow streets to their apartment up a set of steep stairs.

After dragging our luggage up, she showed us around and it was quite nice. The location was fine, it was really clean and best of all it was private from the rest of her apartment with our own lock and key. We gladly said yes to the deal and set about signing her little contract and paying for the room. As we were winding down, I asked for a recommendation to eat that night and she sent us to an exquisite little place right up from the water. As we were walking down the stairs, she called out after us what our names were as we hadn't properly introduced ourselves. I said that my name was Cristoforo and my wife was Lisa. The lady let out a yelp and said, "I'm Barbara!!!" We confirmed that she was the same lady I had tried calling earlier and that her husband had indeed said that Cristoforo had called and wanted a room. She said that when she talked with my wife she was hesitant at first to give us the room because she felt that it was semi-reserved for Cristoforo, but since she hadn't heard anything else from him, she didn't want to lose out on a sure customer. As fate would have it, she was able to get the walk up customer, us, and fulfill the semi-reservation, also us. She called it destiny, we agreed, had a good laugh and walked out to dinner.

While in Vernazza, we did a lot of sitting on rocks looking out on the Mediterranean, eating gelato, focaccia, juicy peaches and hiking, all interspersed with picture taking. Our last night there, we went to another restaurant recommended by our destiny believing hostess, but they were full and so directed us to a sister restaurant the just happened to be situated in a tower on a rocky promontory overlooking the sea, at the bottom of which, there were waves crashing conveniently for dramatic/romantic effect. At the top of the tower we were seated right in the middle, with absolutely no view of anything except the other diners. After taking our orders however, or waiter came over and asked if we could be bothered to move to one of the tables with a dazzling view of the ocean and waves and coastline, because the couple currently seated there were nervous about a seagull that was perched close by.

He also mentioned that they would be sure to compensate us for the inconvenience and again apologized for bothering us. Oh how dreadful to be moved closer to the beautiful scenery and smells and setting sun. We made the best of the situation however and suffered through it. Our compensation ended up being a free dish, the house specialty that we had originally wanted to get but didn't because of a desire to have money to eat for the next few days. It was a spaghetti dish with a very light sauce and covered with that morning's catch of clams, mussels, and shrimp. It was easily the best meal either of us has ever eaten and we still talk about it to this day with sighs and "...Oh wouldn't that be so good right now..." thoughts.

Our short time in Vernazza seemed touched with magic, and looking back was simply amazing. Incredible. I want to go back.

It's a little fuzzy, but I love this picture of Lisa our first night in Vernazza with all of the lights and the little harbor behind her.

Packers

2009-02-03T19:35:00.004-05:00

Here is the Packer family in all of it's glory.

Freaky Friday

2009-01-21T20:42:00.014-05:00

This post is not for the faint of heart. It is long. I whine. Sorry dad, but I think that this is something to whine about and yes I would like some cheese to go with that whine. That being said,

LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH'INTRATE

After about a week, I can laugh a little about Friday. The day just started out wrong. We were traveling to Logan, Utah for my grandfather's memorial service that started Saturday at 11am. We woke up at 3am (1am Logan, Utah Time - LUT) and got ready and drove to the airport for our 5:30 am (3:30 am LUT) flight. Because of the need to get the tickets somewhat last minute and searching for a reasonable deal, our travel plans literally had us going all over the US. Rochester - Philadelphia - San Diego - Salt Lake City - then a nice drive up to Logan. Just a side note, when we left Rochester it was a whopping 1-2 degrees. Really cold. It was great to see the palm trees in San Diego and quite depressing to leave them again just 50 minutes (and a tasty California Pizza Kitchen original BBQ Chicken Pizza) later.

After nearly an eternity (10 hours and 46 minutes total travel time according to Expedia.com) we arrived in Salt Lake City and went to pick up our bag. I remember thinking as we checked in that Friday morning was the first time I'd ever had to pay for a checked bag and wouldn't it be ironic if that would be the first time I'd lose my luggage while traveling. Thank you Alanis Morissette. So you have probably already guessed that our bag didn't arrive when we did. So after waiting about an hour in hopes that the bag (with all of our clothes for the memorial) would magically appear, I went to the Delta Baggage office and politely asked the nice lady what the $%@# had happened to my bag. She said that it hadn't made the connection in San Diego and that it would be put on the next flight and get to SLC by 4pm LUT. When she said this, it was about 3pm LUT. We were promised that the bag would be delivered to Lisa's sister's apartment in SLC by the time my sister picked us up to take us to Logan, at about 7pm LUT, blah blah blah (this is called foreshadowing, thank you Mr. Forsythe).

So Lisa's sister Jessie picked us up and took us to their apartment and we had fun seeing them and talking and playing with their daughter Penelope. I called the baggage claim area to make sure that my bag had made it in and was indeed shipped out as promised. Jimmy answered the phone (we became friends over the next 7 hours - more foreshadowing) and said that the lady we had been so lucky to speak with earlier had basically been lying through her teeth until her shift ended. At least, that was how it felt. He said that there was no way we would get our bag before we left for Logan, and that in fact the bag hadn't left San Diego for SLC yet. Great. We decided to make the most of our time and head to Cafe Rio (there is a distinct lack of Tex-Mex type food in the Rochester area, we constantly crave it). At this point in the story, please refer to my previous post, item 87. Near the end of munching my enchilada style pork burrito, a sick, sadly familiar feeling came over me as I tried desperately to wash down the latest bite. It wouldn't go down. I won't go into details, but I tried everything that I could to get the food out of my throat. For those of you that are wondering what I'm talking about, I have a esophageal stricture and my throat reacts like it is allergic to the food even though that it is not, causing it to clamp down. Shut off. Nothing goes down. Food Impaction.

So now we don't have our luggage, I can't swallow, and my grandfather's funeral is the next morning at 11am LUT. The throat thing has happened to me four other times and every other time, an endoscopy has been necessary to remove the food from my throat. The first time that this happened was quite the event that involved a male nurse throwing up and passing out while trying to pass a tube through my nose, down my throat and into my stomach. Not fun (thanks for being there Rose). I was really looking forward to the rest of the evening at this point. The only question was whether to go to the hospital in SLC or Logan. We opted to go to Logan because besides the constant heartburn feeling in my chest and not being able to swallow - anything - including saliva, I was basically fine.

Katie picks us up and off we go to Logan. The drive was nice (except for the not being able to swallow part) and it was good to talk with my sister. We got to the motel and we said our round of hello's before heading off to the hospital in Logan. At the hospital, the poor guy entering our info in the ER was having lots and lots of trouble typing in names and numbers. Maybe it was just late or maybe he was just new, but poor Ethan was struggling. I should mention at this point that Jimmy from Delta baggage was phoning me on a regular basis giving me updates. None of them good. It appears that the bag went off of the grid in Philadelphia and he had no idea where it was or what had happened to it. He also wasn't very positive about being able to locate it's whereabouts until it was scanned again. Yippee.

We are at last admitted to the ER and I am getting myself mentally ready for the IV (Please see item 2) and an endoscopy. I was glad that Lisa was there, as well as my mom. We were all laughing because by this point we had reached the punch drunk exhaustion stage, where movies like Dumb & Dumber become funny for normal, mature people (I think that it's funny all of the time). When the ER doctor came in, I tried my best to talk him into skipping all of the tests that are usually run and jump straight to the endoscopy, after all, we now know that I have more than a little experience in this department. Well it turns out that the doctor had some experience as well, probably more than mine, and didn't listen to me. He said he thought that they could relax my throat and force some water down to clear the impaction site (sounds important). However, a lack of endoscopy didn't save me from a needle. The medicine was given through an IV, but that was OK, I had already mentally prepared for it. What I hadn't prepared for, was after the nurse said, "You'll feel a little pinch," I felt some digging as well. Because it helps me to look away, I was looking at my support group as they watched the nurse search for a vein. Their facial expressions let me know that the pain I was feeling in my arm wasn't normal (in Italian, hanno fatto una smorfia) and that the nurse was struggling. Mercifully a vein was found and the blessed drug was administered to relax my throat. I was also given a nitroglycerin pill to open arteries. After about eight minutes, they had me drink two big glasses of water, my throat opened up like the Red Sea and the impacted food made it to the promised land. Hallelujah!

We checked out, with a copy of exactly what the doctor had done (minus the needle digging in my arm part) so that as future battles against my throat occur, I will be better armed for combat. Jimmy called and said that our long lost and most beloved bag had just arrived in San Diego. We were told that after spending the night in the beautiful San Diego weather, our bag would catch the earliest flight into SLC and they would deliver it to the front desk of the motel in Logan, but no way would it be in time for the service. On the way back to the motel we decided that our best bet would be to seek out the blessings of retail giant Wal-Mart and purchase new clothes and bathroom essentials for the memorial service. That way we wouldn't look or smell too funny, especially as I going to be singing with my siblings in front of everyone. Finally arriving back at the motel around 1am LUT (having been up for 24 hours at this point) our fateful day was ended and we crash landed into slumberville.

EPILOGUE:

In the end, it all turned out reasonably well. We got our luggage on Sunday morning at 9am LUT and we discovered a better treatment for my weird throat. It was also great to see family and be together. It was the first time since July 2005 that the entire Packer family was all in one place. I'll post some pics of us all later. Thanks for reading.

I Want To Talk About Me

2009-01-13T11:07:00.060-05:00

My wife did this and has been telling me I need to do it as well. I'm not sure if I can come up with 100 things about me, but I'll try for some random things that most people probably don't know about me. For those of you who don't think that I can come up with 100 interesting things about myself. . . your probably right.

1. I have a slight obsession with the Wyoming Cowboys.
2. I have a more than slight fear of needles - especially for giving blood. It isn't about the pain, but just the thought of what is happening. It gives me the heeby-jeebies.
3. The last knuckle of my left pinkie finger doesn't bend.
4. I love being able to speak Italian.
5. I miss mountains.
6. I miss my dog Alex.
7. I have a minor fear of flying. But I guess if I was ever in a plane crash, it would probably be a fairly pain-free way to go.
8. I don't like bugs.
9. I pop my knuckles.
10. I used to have the best "horse" shot in basketball at the old Institute Building in Laramie. Off the wall, off the ceiling. . . nothing but net.
11. I like to sing along to songs that I know. I have a hard time just listening to music.
12. I like lazy Saturday mornings.
13. I like the number 13.
14. I'm lactose intolerant. Other than that, I think I'm fairly open minded.
15. I think that I'm funny when I tell dumb jokes or say dumb things.
16. I want to live in Lombardia.
17. When I was a little kid, I wasn't cute, but I had lots of "character". I've managed to increase that character over the years through good quality character building experiences.
18. I know all the words to "American Pie" - the song, not the movie.
19. I miss playing sports competitively.
20. I'm a bookworm. If you know me, you already knew that. It started out with Louis L'Amour westerns, then morphed into SciFi/Fantasy and has now moved on to anything that interests me. So if you have suggestions, I'm open to most everything.
21. I say funny things like "used to could" or "more funny" and it sounds right.
22. I can't ice skate at all. Not even a little.
23. I once told my wife that she has no hand-eye coordination, and she still loves me.
24. I don't really like board games. Just not my cup of tea. I think that I get too intense and a little too competitive when I play them anyway.
25. I think that I make better Italian food then most restaurants I've been in.
26. I'm married to Miss Congeniality. Really. I'm not lying. She was. Our friends the Kenyons have seen the video. If you don't believe me, ask Lisa. I'd offer to let you watch the video, but when I mentioned it to Lisa, she nixed the idea rather quickly.
27. I married up.
28. I think that because I have a needle phobia, I go to the hospital more than most people. I've had weird medical things happen to me, especially in the last five years. It's not my fault either, they just happen to me.
29. I read Pride and Prejudice and thought that it was really funny.
30. I don't think that I'm squeamish, but I don't like the sight of blood too terribly much. Every once in a while, we'll be watching TV and Lisa will pause on the Discovery Health Channel just as they are eviscerating some poor mother to get the baby out. I have to cover my eyes.
31. I'm glad I'm a guy. I'm not tough enough to be a girl.
32. I've had three concussions. . . I think.
33. I'm a homebody and have turned my wife into one as well.
34. I still think that I'm about 18-19 years old.
35. My body knows that it isn't 18-19 years old.
36. I have hand-stitched a quilt.
37. I like food. A lot. All different kinds of it.
38. I wish I could play the guitar.
39. I once ran down Grand Avenue in Laramie (at least for a few blocks) with my tennis shoes on. Try not to let your imaginations run too wild.
40. I like my job, most of the time.
41. I shot spit wads in Jr. High School gym class. Sorry Mr. Berg.
42. There is not much better in life than hitting the sweet spot on a bat, throwing a perfect spiral, or pulling up and hitting nothing but net on a jump shot.
43. I've learned that the secret to fishing is holding your mouth right.
44. I know you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
45. The only speeding ticket I ever got was with Brandon Ross, coming back from the temple.
46. I couldn't sell home security systems to save my life.
47. If given the choice between real food and dessert, I think I'd choose real food 90% of the time.
48. I carry on conversations with myself in my head, in Italian.
49. I wish I could read music. That would make piano playing so much easier. Right now I have to memorize everything that I play.
50. I'm proud to be from Wyoming.
51. I would like to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese and Farsi. Maybe Japanese as well. Arabic anyone?
52. I wish that I had the means and the time to travel wherever I so desire.
53. I really want to be a dad.
54. I'm rather proud and think highly of myself. I have this problem in that I always think that I'm right, except for once when I thought I was wrong, but I was actually right (another classic example of me thinking I'm funny).
55. I've thrown passes to a Belitnikoff award winner.
56. I think that I'm a quick learner.
57. I have mad ping-pong skills.
58. I once drove a golf ball 375 yards with a typical Laramie tail wind helping.
59. Speaking of golf, I once drove the green and eagled a par-5 on the back nine of the Lander golf course. It was during a warm spell in December about seven years ago, so there was no snow on the ground, but the pond was frozen over. I bounced the drive off of the ice and on to the green.
60. I come from a good family.
61. I've cried many times in my life, most of them because of some sort of sporting event.
62. I like Deep Thoughts.
63. I think that it is rather sad that I can quote random dumb movies better than I can quote scriptures.

64. I wish that Calvin & Hobbes was still going strong.

65. I think my wife is great. I also think it's great that she thinks I'm great.
66. My favorite holiday is Christmas.
67. I'm not a huge fan of eating fish, except for sushi. Weird.
68. Sometimes I think that I'm too laid back for my own good.
69. I'm allergic to animal dander.
70. I've never been cow-tipping. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the state-sponsored sport of Wyoming.
71. I'm not a fan of the authentic, Rochester-only garbage plate.
72. I'm not a big texter.
73. I'm somewhat scared of the dark.
74. One of the things I like best about owning a house is mowing the lawn.
75. I have a rock from the top of Wind River Peak that sits on my desk at work. It surprisingly is not a great conversation starter, mostly people look at it and then give me a funny look.
76. I know that I weigh more than I should, but I'm working on that.
77. It has taken me nearly three days to come up with this list so far.
78. I think that in general I am a happy, easy-going person. It is pretty rare that I really let something get to me. I think that I have been blessed with the ability to assume the best of people, even when they probably don't deserve it.
79. I think that I could talk for five days straight about Italy.
80. Tack on another three days if the conversation turns to Italian food.
81. I'm full of dumb sayings (gathered from Brandon Smith) that just tend to come out. When that happens at work, I get some weird looks. It seems like I get weird looks at work quite often. I guess I'm just the weird kid from Wyoming.
82. I might be the only person in Rochester that doesn't think winter is that bad. I mean, I spent five of them in Laramie. That should have prepared me well for anything, and not just education-wise.
83. When I get bored at church, I count things. Ceiling tiles, bald people. . . if it can be counted, then I have counted it.
84. My wife doesn't like it when I wink at her while I'm sitting up on the stand during church meetings. I think it's funny.
85. I like happy endings.
86. I wish that I had done a musical in high school.
87. I've had five endoscopies in the last six years. It's been 18 months since the last one. I'm due. Sorry Lisa. Maybe I could talk to the hospital and I could get a punch card, like buy nine and get the tenth for free.
88. I like to be in control, or at least feel like I have some grasp on any given situation. I have a hard time just letting myself go.
89. I think that I could still pick up a recorder and play "Hot Cross Buns".
90. One of the talents that I have been given is to be able to sleep on command. I know this drives Lisa nuts sometimes because I can just put everything out of my head and go to sleep at the drop of a hat. More than a few people have said that in this regard I am like a dog. I take that as a compliment.
91. Speaking of sleep, I can go from dead asleep to completely coherent in about .0001 seconds. This seems to mystify my wife. She can get up in the middle of the night with me snoring away (more like a bear at this point than a dog, at least that is what I've been told) and .0001 seconds later, I ask, sans sleepy voice, "Are you alright?"
92. In my office at work, I have a picture of Wyoming mountains, a picture of the 1996 Wyoming Cowboy Football Team, a Wyoming Cowboy Banner, a photo of my grandfather Packer's WWII bomber, and three pictures of different areas of Italy up on the walls.
93. I love learning Italian. I can sit down and read an Italian dictionary and count that as a good time. My wife would tell me at this point that I'm a dork.
94. I'm not the most organized person, but Lisa is. Don't worry, I'm slowly bringing her over to the dark side.
95. I have been snipe hunting. I have also been a guide for those hunting the elusive creature.
96. I think that I could write a book. In fact I've started several.
97. I've been accused by several people of liking the sound of my own voice. Alas, it is true.
98. I could easily spend an entire day doing nothing but reading a book.
99. I'd have to say that an insalata caprese is one of the most simple yet tasty treats in existence.
100. I occasionally have dreams that I'm still playing football. It is somewhat disappointing when I wake up and realize that I'm not.

Holidays

2009-01-07T18:52:00.005-05:00

Over the holidays, Lisa and I drove to Washington D.C. to visit our friends the Kenyons. It was great to see them, and even though it had been three years, it seemed as if no time had passed. We spent some marathon days being tourists in our nation's capital and catching up on life.

Here are the Kenyons and I with the Jefferson Memorial in the background. This was right after Michelle got some good quality bird fertilizer on her sister-in-laws nice leather coat.

Lisa at the base of the Washington Monument, looking towards the reflection pool.

After we got back to our beloved Rochester, we spent some good quality time in relaxation mode, not accomplishing too much. In all of our laziness, we did manage to paint our bedroom and start rearranging three other rooms. It's a work in progress, but it looks good. Happy New Year all.

Christmas Shopping Slendor

2008-12-22T18:51:00.003-05:00

On Saturday Lisa and I went to a wedding reception for a couple from the branch out in Palmyra. Since we were out that way, we figured that we would go to Eastview Mall down in Victor to finish out our Christmas shopping. The Eastview Mall is rather large and this time of year it is particularly crazy. We figured that we could go in fast, get what we needed and get out without too much trouble. What we hadn't factored in was all of the snow that fell the day before, and all of the snow that was supposed to fall the next day. Combine that with the fact that this was the last weekend to shop before Christmas, and people were trying to squeeze it all into one day. We got in, got what we wanted, even made a stop at Yogen Fruz. The problems started when we wanted to leave. . . similar to the Hotel California. We got into the car at 5:15 and following the route in red below, we got to the main highway at 7:00. As we were cruising past Macy's, I even had time to run in for a pit stop due to the lengthy commute getting out of the mall parking lot.

Calvin or Chris???

2008-12-10T09:40:00.009-05:00

I think my wife would agree that this cartoon could very easily be about me instead of Calvin.

Addendum

2008-12-10T08:47:00.008-05:00

It should be noted that on the post from yesterday, it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that I ask my wife a question like she thought I was asking. Just thought I'd throw that semi-retraction out there to all of my dedicated readers because my dear wife brought to my attention that by virtue of me being me, I've given her quite a bit more material of this sort to work with in our five years of marriage than the other way around. Furthermore, if I were to continue on in this same vein, she would be left with little choice but to start bringing up things about me.

I would lose that fight. Badly.

Running on Empty

2008-12-09T14:00:00.003-05:00

Lisa has left me for a few days to go to Cortland, NY for a conference/training for work. Neither of us got a lot of sleep last night, hence the title of the post, and it has already started to take it's toll, especially on Lisa. She just called me on one of her breaks, and I asked her if she was learning anything. There was a pause on her part, and then she asked, "What kind of question is that??!!?" That drew a blank from me, until she said, "What do you mean, am I wearing anything?! Of course I am!" One positive side effect of sleep deprivation is that it makes everything much funnier. That's my random story for the day. Probably not as funny if you're names aren't Chris and Lisa.

Fall Pictures

2008-12-08T19:22:00.007-05:00

We had some pics taken professionally this fall. While the pics look fine on the internet, except for my big bald head (which was supposed to be in color, lessening the baldness effect), the quality of the final prints was somewhat less than what was expected. That being said, here they are in all their glory.

hello big bald head aka Charlie Brown?

Birthday

2008-12-06T11:36:00.006-05:00

Thursday was a busy day full of work and two doctor's appointments, it was also Lisa's birthday. I remember the great awakening for me (when I fully realized that the world didn't stop to enjoy the special day that I was introduced to the world) happened when I turned 19 and had three mid-term exams in college. Didn't they realize it was my birthday! Granted, that realization should have come to me much earlier in life. That being said, we did have some fun on Lisa's day. After all of the hecticnesses of our life had run their course for the day, we drove to Park Ave. All of the businesses were open late for open houses with lots of decorations, lights, treats, ice sculptures. We stopped in at Magnolia's for some hot cocoa and a piece of turtle cheesecake. The highlight though had to be Lisa winning some birthday money from the instant cash lotto tickets that I got her.

Blogging @ despair.com

2008-11-23T00:35:00.006-05:00

Here is some food for thought. If you want to check out more uplifting thoughts, click here, and select the demotivators. Enjoy.

Snow

2008-11-19T22:43:00.003-05:00

It really snowed last night for the first time this year. Shoveling snow is less fun than raking leaves which is less fun than mowing the lawn.

Lisa took this photo this morning, and while it is fun to see the freshly fallen snow, it is with heavy hearts that we must now say goodbye to the sun until next April or May. Good thing we have digital cable.

Time & Learning

2008-11-16T19:21:00.003-05:00

Time is something that I haven't had a lot of in the last couple of weeks. Between work, church, and life in general, it seems that my spare time has been severely limited. In the midst of all of the craziness that has been going on in my life, I've had the opportunity to learn a few things. Here are a few of the more important life lessons that have come my way recently.

I love the fall leaves of western New York, this fall especially has been fabulous. We have two beautiful maples in our backyard. There are extraordinary trees all over our neighborhood. However, it's not nearly as fun to pick those leaves up off of the ground, and at that point, they aren't that pretty either. I know, earth shattering revelation.

I play in a flag football league on Monday nights at 11pm with four other guys ages 21 - 22. So starting off, there are two big red flags against it. 11pm is just not a great time for me to try and function at much other than zombie level. Add to that the fact that I'm ten years older than these guys with my mind determined to run my body like it thinks it should, and nothing quite reacts like it is supposed to. Anyhow, my body is just now finishing the recovery process from last Monday night, and I will be playing again tomorrow night. Major mind altering revelation number two is that my recovery time in between even pseudo sports has lengthened. Before you know it, I'll have to rest a month in between chess matches.

Alex

2008-10-28T21:43:00.002-04:00

My dog, Alex, was put to sleep today around 4pm, and I must admit to shedding more than a few tears for him. I guess I should say that he was more my parent's dog than mine, but I always say that he's mine. We got Alex the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in high school, and he immediately became a part of our wacky home. Until I went away to school, Alex slept on my bed, and in fact when Lisa and I got married, she joked that I was just upgrading who I slept with. I have many fond memories of my little friend Alex, and will miss him quite a lot. One memory that really stands out in my mind is the day I came home from my mission. We had all speculated as to whether or not Alex would remember me after being gone for two years. When I walked into the house and sat down, he came running up to me and started sniffing, and then rolled over and started whining. Maybe he started whining because of my smell, but I would like to think that he remembered me and was welcoming me home. He was definitely the baby in our family and treated as such, and we will all miss our little dog Alex. Bark Bark.

Meanderings of my mind

2008-10-27T20:14:00.003-04:00

Halloween is upon us once again, which means that soon the last of the leaves will be down on the ground = lots of raking. It also means that the official holiday season is coming, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Winter is great during this time, but as soon as the holidays are over, I'm ready for winter to be over as well. I don't want it to drag on until the end of March or even April, yet that is what it will do. I've taken to complaining about the weather now, I can't complain about the Pokes, they're too awful to whine about. I can hear my dad asking me if I want some cheese to go with that whine, and the answer is yes.

I also have to confess to being addicted to Facebook. It helps me to remember how many people that I know, and (sorry) might have forgotten about, and it has been fun to reconnect with people from different stages of my life. At one point in my life I did more than just get up and go to work and then go to church meetings, and do chores (sometimes). I guess I'm just living the dream.

So I got a call from one of the high school coaches in Lander about an awards ceremony for all-time football records for the high school. They wanted me to come for the game between Lander and Riverton, which would have been fun, but just not possible. It was funny to think of that time in my life and it made me get out some old pictures and it seems like a completely different life to me now. Fun to think about and fun to remember. Ciao.

New England Fall

2008-10-20T21:52:00.009-04:00

In spite of our busy schedules, we managed to make it out for a few hours on Saturday to enjoy a beautiful day full of sunshine and colorful leaves. We drove out to Sodus Bay and stopped at a few apple orchards and road side pumpkin stands. All in all, a great day.

The pic really doesn't do it justice. The colors in the background were phenomenal.

I'm bald but my wife loves me anyway.

Amazing colors.

At last count, we now have 13 (thirteen) real pumpkins in our house at present.

Packerishness

2008-10-12T23:59:00.002-04:00

My parents came to visit us this last week, so we got to go and do a number of fun things. It has been a beautiful week weather wise, and we got to enjoy a lot in the great outdoors (as great as that can be in the Rochester area) especially the spectacular fall foliage.

My dad loves Wegmans. We came to the Pittsford Wegmans store like three or four times in the week that they were here. It is a pretty fantastic store. It helps to keep me in my authentic Italian cheeses and breads and meats, as well as all the other great foods that I love to eat.

We went to the great Letchworth State Park (the Grand Canyon of the East - they obviously haven't seen the real thing) and had fun enjoying all of the beautiful leaves and waterfalls and hot air balloons. Lots of fun.

It was fun to see the balloons out over the falls.

We went fishing on a charter boat out on Lake Ontario. We had a great time and of course, I caught the biggest fish.

We also took the boat up the river trying for some salmon. No luck with the salmon, but we had some great views of the river gorge and the foliage.

On our last day with my parents here, we went to the Powers family farm for some pumpkin fun. It really made Lisa happy and it was amazing to see so many pumpkins all in one place. Plus I got to get some good sour apple licorice. Hmmm. Life is good.

Un Tempio Romano

2008-10-12T23:43:00.005-04:00

dal passato . . .

al presente

Non riesco a esprimere i sentimenti provati questa settimana passata quando è venuto annunciato il tempio romano che sarà costruito. Questo tempio sarà una benedizione veramente grande per il popolo italiano, e so che è davvero una concessione di tante preghiere. Quanto sono grato al Signore, e devo confessare di essere super-stra-arci emozionato per quest’evento molto anticipato. Ora devo cominciare i preparativi per poi andare a Roma per quando verrà dedicato il tempio. C’è un inno italiano nel quale la prima strofa incomincia, "Mandate voci di gioia all'Eterno" e ora mando la mia voce all'Eterno con tanta gioia.

ci si mangia

2008-10-02T20:45:00.004-04:00

I love food. I don't want to weigh more than I should, which I do. I feel that in order to not balloon out 15 and a half dozen sizes, I half to really watch what I eat, and severely limit the foods that I like the most. I also realize that in the whole scheme of things, this is probably not that big of a deal. It is a constant struggle for me, good vs. evil, with a rather blurry line between the good and the evil. As of this minute, and my writing this, I couldn't say which is which.

This is my favorite pasta. I have just found it in the US, and am rather thrilled, though conflicted, which explains my current rant. Besides pasta, cheese and bread are also high on the villain list of evil foods that have combined to make my taste buds explode, as well as my waist line. This isn't a new thing for me either. I don't know if I will ever forget a past friend telling me that maybe I shouldn't buy the good mozzarella. Notice that the adjective used to describe said friend is in reference to the past, as in not present. Bottom line, I like good food, but am worried about wanting to be in shape and wanting to look good. Please feel free to weigh in (no pun intended) with any of your own culinary thoughts.

Phone Fun

2008-09-30T19:02:00.003-04:00

I had two experiences with telemarketers this past weekend. I'd like to think that I'm a little more patient than most, and feel somewhat bad for hanging up on people even though they are extremely annoying. That being said, I somehow managed to irritate both of them to the point that they hung up on me. Maybe they'll spread the word and I won't be getting any more calls from telemarketers. I won't hold my breath.

Among my other thoughts, both of my teams, the Packers and the Pokes registered L's for the weekend. UW was especially pathetic.

Other things

2008-09-21T22:51:00.002-04:00

This post is just to prove that I do have a life outside of football. I write this however as Green Bay is losing to Dallas. Two days, two losses. Maybe I can't post unless sports are involved. With that being said, here are my non sports related thoughts for this coming week.

1. I'm excited for this coming weekend and the grape festival down in Naples. I can already taste that fantastic grape pie!

2. I like/dislike Sunday evenings. It's nice because they are generally relaxing, but I usually put off going to bed until late because I really don't want Monday morning to come.

3. I really like my job. I like working with numbers and statistics. Does that make me a nerd?

4. I'd like to either take a class/buy a book to learn PHP programming. I think that does make me a nerd.

5. My wife wants to put wallpaper up in the kitchen. I think I'm ok with that as long as it's not too busy. There you go Lisa, on-line proof that I am resigned to the fact that we'll be putting up wallpaper.

6. I really like autumn, but it is somewhat bitter sweet. I really like the leaves and the sports (that doesn't count as a sports comment) and the feeling in the air. The bitter part of it is that winter comes right after fall. Icky, not the shuffle, but the adjective.

7. Lisa is taking a quilting class through a local quilting shop. That makes her happy. Lisa happy makes me happy. Broken down, my life is like a very simple mathematical equation. If my wife is happy, so am I. If not, I'm not. Very simple. I still manage to mess that up sometimes.

8. Did I already mention that I'm excited for this coming weekend?

9. My parents are coming in a few weeks to visit. Part of the great thing about living so far away from family, is that it's always good to see them and they are always excited to see you.

10. Even though the Pokes showed their school colors running down their legs, I still can't help but cheer for them. Sorry, couldn't help putting in one comment about Wyoming.

Buona Notte.

Manure

2008-09-21T21:25:00.009-04:00

Manure is the most polite word that comes to mind when I think of the horrendous event now known as the BYU vs. UW football game. I didn't have any real hope that Wyoming would win the game, but there is (or maybe was once upon a time) such a thing as Wyoming Pride. It just didn't appear anywhere yesterday. Maybe the pride was left at home to make room for all of the offensive firepower in the poke playbook. Not only did the pokes lose in such an ugly fashion, but I was forced to watch the game among the cougar faithful. Because the game is played on the Mountain Network, it is not available anywhere outside of the inter mountain west. Last weekend, we found out that all of the senior missionaries serving at the sites in the Palmyra area got access to the Mountain Network in the basement of the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center. So Lisa and I went and watched the game with all of these die hard BYU fans, who spent the whole game trying to "convert" me to cheering for BYU. They just couldn't quite grasp how I could possibly cheer for Wyoming, and there were some that thought I was almost a heretic for suggesting the bad guys won the game. Little did they know that even though it was several degrees south of awful for the pokes, I would rather suffer through hundreds of games like that than cheer for the Y. That being said, that was just a plain sad game for Wyoming. I mean, how hard is it to generate some offense. To date, Wyoming has scored 40 points through four games. That is a whopping ten points a game. It also must be said that 16 of those points come against a team playing in a lower division. Given that, the pokes are averaging eight points a game against FBS division teams. I don't think that Joe Glenn has been quite the rescue in the coaching department that so many had hoped. This game almost ruined my day, thank goodness it was Saturday, and I got to go to the temple with my wife.

The Resort at Louis Lake

2008-09-15T20:51:00.001-04:00

Right after I graduated from the great and wonderful University of Wyoming, I worked for the family owned Resort at Louis Lake. Talk about a great job. I worked up in the mountains all day, and as soon as the work was done, I went fishing. Not that the fish in the lake had too much to fear from me. It was a great summer, and not only because I got to butter up my future in-laws and trick them into thinking that I would be a good catch for their daughter. In all of my great times during those halcyon days, one experience takes the cake. I come to this story as a follow-up to a recent post I made about quality customer service. This story is from the other side, dealing with customers and the amazing things they think they can get away with.

I was up on the mountain on a fabulous Sunday afternoon, holding down the fort and sitting on the porch, reading a book. I don't think I could script a better afternoon if I tried. As I was sitting there, a car pulled up and a lady got out with her young teenage son. She wanted to look the place over and possibly stay a few days. So I gave her the tour and started up a conversation about the area. During the conversation, she mentioned that she was from out east, specifically New Jersey and was enjoying a vacation with her son. She asked me where I was from and said that I was born and raised right down the mountain in Lander.

She turned to her son and said, "Look, (insert some goofy looking boy's name here) a real live Wyoming person!" I didn't quite know what to say, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt, I mean, she was from New Jersey. We continued the tour of the resort and looking in the different cabins, and she asked how old I was. I responded that I was 25 and she quipped, "Well have you graduated from high school yet?" Honestly, how does someone have the gall to say something like that?! I said that yes I did indeed graduate from high school, and thought she was back tracking as she said, "I mean, you don't sound like your uneducated." Nope. I wonder if I just looked dumb because my jaw was sitting on the ground! Wow. I had never been treated like that, not even as a missionary. I was beginning to be rather vexed, and so I said a few choice words to her in Italian. She didn't like that one bit and gave me a death look while hissing at me, "What are you saying to me?" So I said a few more nice little things, and that really got her ire up. She started shouting at me, so I said quite simply that where I grew up, we were taught different languages to help us understand other cultures better. I went on by saying something along the lines that when you understood other cultures and people better, you could be more patient with those not quite as educated as yourself. It was almost like baiting one my sisters growing up. She went off like a rocket. She got the owner's number (I gave it to her quite readily) and said that I would be out of a job by the end of the day, and didn't I know that the customer is always right, and how dare I treat her that way and insinuate the things that I did. It was great. I told her that I was sorry, we didn't have any vacancies, and so she would just have to get into her car and leave. You could track her fumes for miles. I told my boss later that day, and just warned him he might be getting a call from a crazy irate woman who would chew him out for employing such a mean spirited person. He thought the whole thing was pretty funny. She never did call.

il bosco sacro

2008-09-15T19:43:00.007-04:00

We had a really great Sunday yesterday. We are quite lucky to live where we do, and so we took advantage of that and had a great sabbath with some guest speakers in the sacred grove. We then went to the Hill Cumorah and had lunch. Very nice. I think the highlight for me was singing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" in the sacred grove.

Quality Service

2008-09-12T22:40:00.009-04:00

We had someone give us a gift certificate to the Olive Garden (thanks Debbie) and so Lisa and I went and decided to make an evening of it. We weren't expecting too much, I've been accused of being a pasta snob and have turned Lisa into one as well. The food was pretty much what we've expected, the pasta was overcooked and the sauce was kind of blah. The best part of the meal is the salad, but it is pretty hard to mess up a salad. While we were prepared to put up with the so-so pasta, we weren't ready for the sub-par service. After we had finished our meal, we sat for a good 25 minutes before someone came back to see if we were doing ok, and then when Lisa asked for another Dr. Pepper (you have to feed the addiction) the waitress came back 5 minutes later with the bill and no drink. As we were walking out of the restaurant, it made me think about some of the more stellar customer service experiences in the food industry that have transpired in my lifetime. I must confess that I don't have too many bad experiences in this department, but there are two that come to mind.

The first happened to me when I was in high school and dining in the fine establishment known as Wendy's in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I don't remember if we had already ordered or if we were waiting to order, but what I do remember, and what I think about every time I step foot inside of a Wendy's to this day, is that the manager and an employee got into a screaming match the spilled out into the dining area. There were four letter words flying all over the place. I'm guessing that Wendy's marketing division probably would prefer a different technique than the one employed on that occasion. I think my poor mother still might be scarred.

The other occasion was a one of a kind occurrence, I hope. We were living in Provo, Utah and went out to dinner with our great friends (who we still miss and can't believe that they are unwilling to move across the country to be around us, come on Kenyons, get with the program already!!!) the Kenyons, although from the statement in parenthesis, you should have already been able to guess that. Richard wanted to take us to a sushi place, and so we ended up going to the Happy Sumo. Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this story, I should throw it out there that I've since eaten at the Happy Sumo, and it was great food, but I guess the quality of the food was never the problem to begin with. As I sit here typing, I realize that this is a rather lengthy post, but I digress. We got in and seated and placed our orders. We ordered a variety of sushi to try as well as some other dishes. It was my first experience with sushi, and I really liked the tuna. So we sat and talked
and ate the other dishes as they came out, one at a time with about a 20 - 30 minute wait in between each dish. Lisa says that I'm not doing the story justice, we were eating mostly raw food, how much time does it take to prepare? The tempura veggies were great, but we were getting a little hungry waiting for the main courses to arrive. Finally after waiting for close to 90 minutes (I kid you not, there is no Packer factor involved in this memory) everyone's entree arrived except mine. So I tried to exercise some more patience, but it was getting worn a little thin. After waiting close to two and a half hours for my main dish, the waitress finally appeared and left us with the bill! I was flabbergasted. It was one of those situations that you just aren't prepared for, because you really can't imagine happening, and so you don't know how to react. I stammered something as to the whereabouts of my meal, the response that the waitress gave has become a classic line by now in the Packer home, and probably the Kenyon home as well. She said, and I quote, "Oh, were you still hungry, I didn't think that you wanted it anymore, and so I cancelled it." To which I said that I realize I'm a larger guy (I really didn't say that part, but the next part yes) but I hadn't really eaten anything yet except for a few sushi samples and appetizers off of everyone else's plates! Of course I was hungry, to which she stated, "Well I could have the kitchen fix it up for you real quick." We had already waited for almost three hours by this point, and were questioning their definition of quick and so I politely asked to speak to the manager. The waitress agreed and left to find the manager, but not before explaining to us, "Yeah, the manager will tell you how it is." Exactly how was the manager going to tell us how it was? She came up and explained that she was sorry for the delay, but they were short a chef that evening. To make up for the mishap, they would give us a discount on the dinner. We then explained to the manager that the reason I was still hungry is that I had never received my order because the waitress had canceled it. She paused for a second with a look of shock upon her face and then kindly explained that she really was so sorry and that the whole meal would be on the house, and to please not judge the restaurant by that one night. So in the long run, it was good because we got our meal for free, but I think we stopped at a drive thru on the way home so that I could get something to eat. Chris didn't leave the Happy Sumo, a happy sumo.

Randomnicity and other such splendiferousnesses

2008-09-10T19:52:00.013-04:00

Here are my ten random thoughts for the day.

Wyoming needs an offense, or at the very least, someone to lead the one that they already have. From the first two games, it seems that their defense is good, but that old saying that your coach always told you "Defense wins championships" is worth about the same amount that I get paid for writing these posts, if you can't put any points up on the board.
Lisa really likes Project Runway, which is actually pretty funny (the show is funny, not it's funny that Lisa likes it, well maybe it is a little funny that Lisa likes it). In fact, she is watching it this very minute as I type away. My complaint is, who came up with this, and better yet, who did they get to back their idea, because I have a ton of them. Anyone out there with lots of money they don't know what to do with, because I have some great ideas on how to spend it for you.
How can the Yankees not win the World Series every year when they are spending the combined GNP of several third world countries on an annual basis in order to staff the team with the best of the best?

Speaking about money spent on professional athletes, how do they look themselves in the mirror on a daily basis when they pull in $30M a year, and there are people barely scraping by on minimum wage (about $19,000/year and that's with an average of 20 hours of overtime a week). That's roughly 1600 times greater. Even loving sports as much as I do, how can you justify that? How is anyone worth that much money? The really disgusting thing is that the everyday Joe, you and I, are the ones that are financing it. We buy the tickets, jerseys and other paraphernalia, pay for the tv access, etc... Sad.

The college and professional football seasons are barely under way, and we are already hearing news about the upcoming basketball season. One thing at a time please. We all know (especially my wife) that I don't multi-task well. Let me enjoy the wondermicity that is football season before throwing in the boring basketball season. Everyone knows that the only good things about basketball season are a. march madness and b. the NBA playoffs, which occur in JUNE. Let's enjoy football while we can.

I want to find a job in Italy. Anyone know of someone who would pay me good money to work in Italy for a few years. I know that it's even farther from family, but all the more reason for them to come and visit.
I don't like the BCS. I'm not going to even start on the whole playoff vs. bowl game discussion. It's just in a year like this, when the MWC is easily better than the ACC and probably the Big East, we get no recognition unless someone runs the table. It's all about the money.
Lisa wants to put wallpaper up in the kitchen, and she tries to rationalize it by saying that it's just going to be one wall, and she loves fabric and wallpaper is like fabric on walls. I just keep thinking . . . 1970s.
I'm a pansy. My wife wasn't feeling well last week as she was taking massive amounts of hormones and getting ready for youth conference and going to the doctor twice and getting blood drawn. It was a rough week on her. Oh, I forgot to mention a busy week at work. I probably wasn't as sympathetic as I should have been. So I've been feeling sick the last couple of days, and naturally feel that the world should come to a screeching halt because I'm not well. It doesn't, and I'm not sure why. Lisa was working all day and had meetings at night, so I was left to fend for my poor, sad, helpless self. She didn't complain nearly as much as I feel like complaining. She is just tougher than I am.

Back to project runway. I don't get fashion. I don't get "cutting edge" fashion ideas. I mean, you just can't go wrong with jeans and a t-shirt, or jeans and a button-up shirt. Notice the consistency of jeans. I've yet to see anything with jeans on project runway. Hmmm. I guess that's why they don't ask me to be on the show.

Anti-Labor Day

2008-09-08T21:16:00.005-04:00

The title of this post might be somewhat misleading. It is not meant to say that I am against this fine holiday. Au contraire. It is meant to say, that is how I spent the day. Not laboring, I was doing the exact opposite of laboring. I was anti-laboring. It was great. The only negative thing that I can think of about that weekend was that it had to end, we had to come home, and everything that we had run away from was still waiting for us when we returned. Go figure. Anyhow, we found a little B&B it the town of Spencer, NY, and it was just far enough away to escape. If anyone is in/around the Spencer area, check it out, it was very nice and relaxing.

We went from not doing anything over the Labor Day weekend, to having to hit the ground running. We spent this last weekend with the stake youth, and it might be the first time that I have ever really felt like an adult. Staying up late and chasing kids back to their tents, telling them to put cell phones away and to pay attention, then mumbling under my breath when they had a smart remark to say to me. That was a response that my dad would have. Good grief.

Fall = Football

2008-09-03T11:54:00.009-04:00

In moving to upstate NY, I have been able to somewhat atone to my wife for the almost unforgivable sin of not having our wedding in the fall. Lisa has always loved this time of year and the colors that accompany it, and those colors and beauty are quite evident around us in our new home of Rochester. That being said, I love the fall for a completely different reason. Football. Greatest of all sports, with the power to make grown men cry (honestly, of all of the times that I have shed a tear in my life, it is quite feasible that half of those occasions were sports related). There is something about the crisp autumn air, the heat of the game (my mother would say the stink of the game, but that is another story), and the sound of bodies crunching in ways that probably are not very healthy in the long term, but sure is satisfying in the here and now.
What really gets me excited about football this time of year, is the Wyoming Cowboys. I would say that most people who know me, are aware of my outspokenness for all things Wyoming, but most especially for the pokes (for those of you uneducated in cowboy isms, cowboy = cowpoke = poke). What makes my love for the pokes even that much greater, is the fact the I am almost utterly and completely alone in my poke adoration and must fight off the tide of blue that will forever surround me, thanks to religious associations. And that sea of (quite often self righteous and even sometimes oblivious) blue will always and forever be loathed (key the Wicked music, you know the song, but instead of blond, it would be blue - you all know that Galinda/Glinda is definitely a big haired with many highlights, overly tanned and now orange, happy valley girl) at least athletically (that clarification is necessary, because I actually do have friends that attended BYU, not to mention my wife, and the fact that I even lived in Provo for several years, not to worry, whenever I was on campus, I wore the beautiful colors of God's country - brown and gold!). Even in my optimism for Wyoming football, who barely managed to pull off a win at home over a not too terribly great Ohio team, I don't turn a blind eye towards reality. I am well aware that Wyoming will realistically finish somewhere between 4th and 6th in the MWC, unless a miracle occurs on offense (miracle meaning that Wyoming somehow manages to obtain an offense). I am also aware that BYU has a shot of winning the conference yet again, and possibly playing in a BCS bowl at the end of the year. Add to that the fact that Wyoming has to go to BYU and play, I don't have too much hope that the brown and gold will pull out a W at the Y. That doesn't mean I won't talk trash with the foaming sea of blue I interact with on a regular basis, nor does it mean that I won't be cheering my heart out in hopes that UW ruins the possibility of a perfect season/conference championship/major bowl game for those that bleed blue. It just means that I'll have to resort to some other means in order to try and weaken the blind faith and adoration of the cougar nation that is heaped upon all things BYU. That being said, nothing would make me happier than to see my beloved pokes waltz into happy valley and terrorize it's inhabitants. Have a great day.

In Search of Children

2008-08-26T22:23:00.001-04:00

So Lisa and I have a pretty good life. We really can't complain about too much, we could, but it would mostly just be complaining to each other. We both really want kids, and after several years of "trying" it is still just the Chris and Lisa show in our house. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of fun together and enjoy our freedom to be able to pick up and leave for the weekend whenever we want or do any number of things on the spur of the moment. Things that would be much more difficult with kids. So we finally broke down and went to fertility specialists at the end of last year and it worked out so that the doctor that Lisa went to is male, and my doctor is female. Of course. And it turns out that we both have fertility "issues" that needed to be addressed. Because of our "issues" our doctors told us that basically we would never conceive on our own. At least the odds were so slim, it would be better to put money on the Lander Jr. High School 7th grade B team winning the next Super Bowl than on us producing offspring by more traditional methods. Not good. Without going into too much detail, we have since gone through a number of different procedures that haven't worked, and we don't have too many options left for us to conceive. All of this has been hard on us and quite emotionally draining at times. One of the things that has helped as we've gone through this process is that we've at least been able to laugh about it and make fun of the situation, especially Lisa making fun of me. It seems that I'm easy to make fun of, whoever would have thought of that?

So, having gone through what we have, and getting ready to go through even more, there is one question that keeps coming to mind...

... are they really worth it?

Ode to Lisa

2008-08-25T00:10:00.001-04:00

Lest it be thought that I was complaining about my wife in any way, shape or form in the last couple of posts (and so that I don't sleep on the couch), I just wanted to throw this in. I love my wife. I wouldn't be where I am today if not for her. She has pushed me to not only be better, but to do better, and do so much quicker than I would have done on my own. She is very driven, which drives me. Without her desire to always be moving forward and her encouragement to me as I tried to do so, I know that a lot of the great things that have happened to us in the last four years simply would not have taken place. She is the best thing in my life, and she makes each day an adventure. And finally, after all of the nice, gushy things that I just said (and honestly meant) about my wife, she is drop dead gorgeous!

Callings and other random thoughts...

2008-08-24T23:24:00.001-04:00

Right now, much of my life revolves around my job, my wife, and our callings in the church. Lisa and I were floating along quite peacefully, or so I thought, a few years ago in our church service, both of us serving with the youth in our ward. Life was good. I got to play with the young men every so often and feel as if I were magnifying my calling, and it was fun. Then (and I do blame this on Lisa) Lisa decided that we weren't doing enough, that we should be doing more, that we were just floating along and could be "stretched". I don't necessarily disagree with that thought, but I was enjoying the small little bit that I was doing. This is one of those stories with the moral saying you get what you ask for, because not long after that, I was called to serve as a counselor in a young single adult branch, last thing that I expected, and changing the fabric of my Sundays and many other days quite a bit (see the previous post). This made Lisa quite happy and she looked forward to being able to serve with the sisters in the branch and getting to know them. She thought that we needed to do more, and here was our opportunity for us to do more (with the we and us part of the relationship really being me). I forgot to mention that this story is also a good example of irony, because less than a week after receiving this calling and Lisa feeling content that we were on our way to more service and not floating along, we were called back to the stake president's office where Lisa was called as the stake young women's president. Oh how I wish that I had a camera to have been able to capture the look of pure shock/horror on her face! Little did she realize that while this calling was being extended to her, it was also in a way a punishment/opportunity for repentance for me. I can count on one finger the number of stake youth activities that I went to as a youth, and if memory serves me correctly, I went with my younger brother, we showed up for five minutes and then went to the movie theatre to watch a movie. I would have rather cut off my ankle with celery than go to a stake youth activity when I was a youth. I have now gone to more than I am able to count on my two hands, thanks to being my wife's lifetime counselor to anything that she is doing. It's just kind of funny how life happens. Five years ago, I never would have guessed that I am where I am now, doing what I'm doing. For example, a few weeks ago, I got to go on the young women's high adventure that we did in Letchworth state park. We went hiking, rafting, and did a ropes course. I would have to say however that the most interesting time of the trip was spent around the campfire. Never having had the chance to go on a campout with a group of girls before, I was not quite prepared as to what to expect. Well, all I can say is that it was once again reaffirmed to me that girls are different than boys. Boys don't sit around the campfire singing songs and giggling while talking about the opposite sex, and boys don't sit and braid each other's hair as something fun to do to pass the time. Girls do. Man it scares me to think about having girls. Alright, enough of this rambling post for right now.

An Evolution of Sundays

2008-08-24T23:10:00.001-04:00

I had a little bit of free time this Sunday (with emphasis added on the words little and this) and thought a little about how my Sundays have progressed or digressed in the last few years, depending on how you look at it. When Lisa and I first moved to Rochester, we enjoyed church that started at 9am. It was fabulous, getting home early in the day, eating lunch, and then taking a short little nap of about 2 hours or so. That, thought I, was how one was supposed to properly enjoy a sabbath day. It truly was a day of rest, and oh how I looked forward to those days. Now because of church callings, Sundays quite often end up being one of my busiest days of the week. No complaints on my part, but it isn't quite the same day of rest as it was before. I still end up rested, but it's definitely not a physical rest, so in trying to look on the bright side of things, we'll call it a spiritual rest.

The Pack is Back!

2008-08-19T19:23:00.002-04:00

So it has been almost two years since my last post, I apologize, mostly to myself, because I think that I'm the only person who really reads this or looks at it besides my wife, and she knows everything that has been going on in my life. In the off chance that there is anyone else out there that is reading any of this, I'll give you an updated account on what has happened the last two years. After graduation in June of 2007, I accepted a job at Xerox and so we became real New Yorkers. We embarked on a three week tour of Italy in June and early July of that year, before I started work, and it was an AMAZING trip. We saw so much and had so much fun. I think the best part of the trip was that Lisa loved everything and was incredibly excited about it all.

Lisa took a job as a parent educator with a local non-profit group in November of 2007 and has loved working with families in the area. Jumping forward just a little bit, we bought our first house this last May and love it! We both work a lot and spend a lot of time in our church callings, but we also have a lot of fun together. That is all.

2006-10-26T22:22:00.000-04:00

We have finally made it through all our visitors. Lisa's old companion, Lisa Conley, was here the beginning of this week and left yesterday evening. Although it was very nice to have so many visitors, it got to be a little overwhelming. Anyhow, we decided to have some fun tonight. When I say fun, I mean fun for myself and my wife, not necessarily fun for other people. In fact some might think me a tad weird. So last weekend, after my freezing camping experience with the stake young men, Lisa and I went to a farm in search of pumpkins. It was really fun. We got to ride behind a tractor in the mud, through the apple orchards, out to the pumpkin patch in search of the great pumpkin. We had planned on buying just two, but Lisa is rather enamored of pumpkins, we bought four. Now coming back to the present, our fun that we had tonight was carving the pumpkins. No, we didn't just settle for the typical Jack-O-Lantern faces, we got fancy, as you can see from the pictures. I think that I scared Lisa just a little from my gleeful giggles as I tore out the pumpkin guts. Anyway it was fun. Happy Halloween to all.

2006-10-19T20:13:00.000-04:00

We had a fun visit this last weekend from my old roommate Brandon Smith and his wife Natalie. We were able to see a lot of beautiful fall leaves in upstate New York, first at Letchworth State Park and then at Palmyra when we saw some LDS Church Historical Sites. We finished up the visit with a visit to Canada. Staying in Toronto one night and then Niagara-on-the-Lake the second night. In Toronto we visited the St. Lawrence Market and then went up the CN Tower, the tallest building in the world. After that we walked around down town and took some fun pictures. We spent the next couple of hours looking for a place to stay. We ended up at the Sheraton Four Seasons right on Lake Ontario. After a good Italian meal we got some much needed rest. The next day saw us spend part of the day in Niagara-on-the-Lake(enjoying the maple fudge), and finding a good B&B to stay the night at (we learned our lesson from the night before). We went to Niagara Falls that afternoon and it was a beautiful day. Overall it was a fun trip although Brandon and I do tend to be just a slight bit goofy when we get together. Our poor wives had to suffer through our weirdness.