hello big bald head aka Charlie Brown?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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 th
e 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.
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.
