Proof of Salamanders' Existence

The little critters have been skittish as shot-at-doves, but one of them finally crept out of his hole long enough to let us take a picture.

We are sure there are at least two.

What I've been reading

1. Maphead: Yes, by that Ken Jennings. Really enjoyed it.
2. Cryptonomicon: Required reading for the mathy, computer geeky, libertarianish, economist crowd. Fantastic.
3. A Conspiracy of Paper: Would you like to read about a Jewish pugilist-turned-thief taker in 1719 London? I would. Did I mention the plot revolves around an asset price bubble? Awesome.
4. Codex: Meh.
5. The Magicians: Wonderful wonderful writing, but I couldn't finish it. I liked the first 1/3 of this book as well as any book I have ever read, and then I slowly started to hate it. I skipped to the end to see how it finished and was glad I didn't bother reading it all.
6. The Guarden: I was reading this last time I posted what I was reading and I'm done now. It was worth reading.
7. Miss Peregrine's House for Peculiar Children: I wish the sequel was out already.
8. Flip: Body switching but with death and existential angst as well as comedy. And it's British. Enjoyed it.

Y'all tell me what you've been reading now.

Salamanders

To our utter astonishment, we have discovered a family of salamanders in the window well in front of the living room.

So nice to have pets again.

Mom's New Favorite Candy

Just in time for Halloween...

Baby and Grandmeme

Jackson and Grandmeme! More pictures on our site.

More Family Pictures

Dad

 Mom and Dad
 
Kids

Stephen

Molly

 Ian

Us

Best Picture of NARB ever!

Seriously.

This Just In

USU and the LDS Church have completed negotiations for a land swap which will transfer ownership of the venerable "Golden Toaster" to USU in exchange for a portion of the nearly-abandoned USU trailer court. USU owns all of the property around the Toaster already, and Stan Albrecht can't wait to start planning.

No matter what replaces the Toaster, it won't be quite as good.

That Box Spring You Just Bought? Waste of Money

I am working on a new patent case at work, and the patents at issue relate to a device used in manufacturing box springs. It's been kind of interesting to work on this case, as many of the names that are tossed around in various documents are names that I am familiar with from my childhood hanging around at U&I Furniture--Serta, Sealy, Simmons, and so forth. I think that Dad would probably get a kick out of some of the information in the case, if only for nostalgia's sake.

But I digress.

The true revelation that I've come to discover in working on this matter is that, over the past 5-6 years, mattress spring technology has improved so much that box springs are now literally useless in terms of support and functionality. In fact, there is only one reason that box springs are even made and sold anymore: American (and some European) customers are used to a certain "look" in a bed, and they aren't yet willing to go without a box spring.

How have bedding companies responded to this belligerence? Well, they have transformed the old box springs into--more or less--empty shells that still "look" the same. Effectively, they have cut out 90% of the cost of the box springs by removing all of the inner workings, and just staple fabric to the foundations in order to look the same.

People you do not mess with

Let's just start a list of people you do not mess with, so we are all prepared.

1. Jim Slim
2. Raylan Givins
3. Veronica Mars
4. Katniss
5. Edmond Dantes
6. Jack Aubrey (afloat)
7. Stephen Maturin
8. DCS Foyle

People you can go ahead and mess with

1. Jack Aubrey (ashore)
2. Howard Wolowitz
3. Dwight Schrute
4. Maurice Moss

Others?

These are my people(?)

I mean, this is the prayer I say every night before bed, but it is a little weird to hear it out loud:

Tobin's storm

Here is a video from the storm Tobin and Hallie got caught in last night. There is alwas some dork out filming it. There are a few videos on You Tube of it. There was hurricane strength winds and nearly a complete white out. The ball park lost power after this guy decided to stop filming. Of course it is hard to tell from a video how bad it really was. I guess after the storm died down a bit, two girls went and slid on the tarp covering the field and got arrested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug4LrdGEqNU

Bananas

We often have Mom's bananas and brown sugar for dinner. Adelaide has always refused to eat it, although she will happily eat a regular banana. Yesterday she put one on her fork, dipped it in a mixture of ranch and ketchup and declared it the "best ever." She ate more than her share of the bananas this way......

Summer Pics

We have been to quite a few baseball games, and at the last one they had a team of Navy Seals drop onto the field and do a few drills for us.


Hallie has lost so many teeth we don't know what to do with her. No corn on the cob for her for the next month or so!!

We do lots of stuff together!! It has been an adjustment having Hallie home all day, but a good one. We spend lots of time at the Botanical Gardens, the Zoo, reading for the library reading challenge, and we are getting ready for the girls to start swimming lessons again in a few weeks!

our summer

We play in buckets, pick peaches from the highest heights!

We raft/tube down wild dangerous rivers and spend hours picking up garbage for the GAO Clean the Bay Day!

Minimum Security Prison

Seen here is the installation of a minimum-security facility made of chicken wire, stakes and plastic ties. It extends from the garage to a spot just east of Pepper's grave. The north end of the prison was constructed of an old patio table and two plastic lawn chairs. Any dog could have escaped from this in about two seconds. Any dog, that is, except Memphis, who happily stayed put for several days.

Old Ephraim's grave

I went on a most wonderful hike to Old Ephraim's grave today with the Ladies. Beautiful, but long (12 miles). The flowers were spectacular.

What I've been reading

So, I think we should make an effort to start the blog back up. Because I want other people to tell me what they have been reading and offer recommendations, the golden rule suggests that I do the same, (although I have been told that I have peculiar tastes).

Everything is Obvious: Interesting book on what Social Science can and cannot tell us. Lots of commentary on the best of recent (and not-so-recent) research in economics, sociology, psychology, and more. Suggests that a lot of "common sense" is actually stupid.

Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Book by public choice economist Bryan Caplan. Basically, he argues that parents (especially wealthy, high-achiever types) tend to overestimate the costs and underestimate the benefits of children. Basically a rebuttal to the happiness research that suggests kids make people less happy.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Written as a history of British magic. The Amazon description makes this book seem light and fun, but it is full of darkness and madness as well.

The Great Stagnation: Tyler Cowen's debate changing short book arguing that our current slow economic growth rates have simple causes that we simply can't fix in the short run. A must read if you want to be conversant about the current economic debate.

The Guarden: Still reading this book, I'll let you know what I think when I finish. Sort of like "Hunger Games", I guess.

Adapt: I am loving this book. Very eye opening. Only about 2/3 done with it.

Popular Crime: I simply cannot put this book down, although it is one of the weirdest books I have ever read. There is an excellent article on Grantland that will give you the feel. Favorite quote from the article: "sometimes seeming like the most intense 10th grade book report the world has ever seen".



Also, I'm posting this picture because I like it:

Unfortunate Accident

Ryan & I got a good chortle out of this small news item, tucked away on the back page of the HJ.

Glendale, OK. (AP)
"Leflore County authorities are investigating the death of a deer hunter who was found dead in a tree stand near Glendale in southeastern Oklahoma. Undersherrif (?) Donnie Edwards told KHOG -TV that initially police thought the 46-year-old man, who was discovered on Saturday, may have died from natural causes. But Edwards says the state Medical Examiner's Office determined that the man had a gunshot wound below his waist, and the bullet lodged in his neck. Edwards says it appears the man dropped his gun and it fired up at him. The gun was found at the base of the tree."

And all this time I thought "shooting yourself in the*#!@" was just an expression.

Blogging vs. Facebook

Does anyone feel like this blog has become somewhat superfluous in light of Mom's arrival on Facebook? While acknowledging that Dad is still a hold-out on that scene, I kind of feel like a family "group" on FB is a better, less cumbersome way of accomplishing the same things that we have been using this blog for:

1. Pictures of our children
2. Snarky commentary on various aspects of our lives
3. Links to interesting things on the Interwebs

The new Group functionality on FB does each and every one of these things more easily. Other things equal, I prefer communicating with people through fewer sites, and since we all already are on FB, why not just streamline it all?

Your thoughts?