Monday, June 22, 2009

Insect Wars

When Ryan called to wish me a Happy Father's Day, he related a story about stepping on a yellow jackets' nest while mowing his lawn, and got stung several times.

I claimed to be one-up on him, because when I put on my muddy garden sneakers last week, I discovered a family of wasps had built a nest in the right shoe and nailed me several times before I could extricate my foot. My toes and the balll of my foot were swollen and itched like mad.

Ryan retorted that HE, in fact was one-up because one or more wasps flew up his shorts.

Lacking photographic proof, and not really wanting any, I leave it to the family to settle this matter. Please vote in the associated poll.

A Preference Ranking of the States

Note: These rankings are “ceteris paribus”—holding income, family, friends and other attributes constant. Yes, California appears twice, once for weather and recreation, and once for being California.

Charges that I suffer from Confirmation Bias and Choice-Supportive Bias are obviously ridiculous.

Great places to live:
1. Idaho
2. Montana
3. Oregon
4. New Mexico
5. North Carolina
6. Colorado
7. California

Wouldn’t hate it there:
8. Washington
9. Utah
10. Wyoming
11. Maine
12. Massachusetts
13. Arizona
14. Tennessee
15. Virginia
16. Texas

Looking hard for a new job:
17. Georgia
18. Nevada
19. Delaware
20. Vermont
21. Connecticut
22. Rhode Island
23. Hawaii
24. Alaska
25. New Hampshire
26. South Carolina
27. South Dakota
28. North Dakota
29. West Virginia

Please get me out of here!
30. Wisconsin
31. California
32. Florida
33. Illinois
34. Michigan
35. Pennsylvania
36. Indiana
37. Kansas
38. Maryland
39. Iowa
40. Minnesota
41. Missouri
42. Nebraska
43. New York
44. Ohio
45. Oklahoma
46. Louisiana
47. Alabama
48. Kentucky
49. Mississippi
50. New Jersey
51. Arkansas

Friday, June 19, 2009

Miscellaneous thoughts on girls' camp

1. I can hike just as fast and easily as 15 year olds

2. Nasty, cold store-bought (Western Family no less) syrup is no better on French toast than on pancakes.

3. There's no point in trying to explain No. 2 to anyone

4. 5 inches of rain in a week does not ruin a camp; in fact, we had no flies, bees, wasps, or mosquitos. However, we did have 10-12 inch long night crawlers in abundance.

5. I wished that I remembered the funny song Rosann Stanko used to teach fourth graders about mud - Mud, mud, mud, what a glorious thing is mud. It ------ between your toes, it gooshes, --- we could have all sung it and laughed!

6. 23 girls and five adults had a great time!

Preference Rankings: Family Members

Best:
Scott

More or Less Awesome:
Mom
Dad

No Strong Feelings:
Alison
Ryan

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

GAO

Here is a look at what Tobin does.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/06/12/ldt.sylvester.gao.good.job.cnn?iref=videosearch

Preference Rankings: First in a Series--NBA

Preference Ranking of NBA teams:

Like:
1. Utah Jazz

Kinda like:
2. Memphis Grizzlies
3. Charlotte Bobcats
4. San Antonio Spurs

No strong feelings about:
5. Boston Celtics
6. Indiana Pacers
7. Milwaukee Bucks
8. Atlanta Hawks
9. Phoenix Suns
10. Minnesota Timberwolves

Hate:
11. Oklahoma City Thunder
12. Sacramento Kings
13. Los Angeles Clippers
14. Golden State Warriors
15. New Jersey Nets
16. New Orleans Hornets
17. Washington Wizards
18. Orlando Magic
19. Miami Heat
20. Toronto Raptors
21. New York Knicks
22. Philadelphia 76ers
23. Portland Trail Blazers
24. Detroit Pistons
25. Cleveland Cavaliers
26. Chicago Bulls
27. Dallas Mavericks
28. Houston Rockets
29. Denver Nuggets

Really Hate:
30. Los Angeles Lakers

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Greatest Thing EVAR!

In the event that you haven't seen it yet.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

The mountains of North Carolina





Here are a couple of pictures of the western part of North Carolina. The pictures don't really show how beautiful the mountains are. It really is mountainous, something this westerner never thought she would admit. The picture of Dennis and I is at a place called Blowing Rock. The other three are at Grandfather Mountain. Dennis, Ryan, and Ian are three of the people already at the top of the mountain while April and Molly are climbing over the rocks.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Graduation


Congrats Tobin!! Thanks to everyone who came to Norfolk for our special day.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day

Mom, we love you, we are grateful for you, we appreciate all you've done for us.

Even Especially when you made us run down to the stop sign and back because we were misbehaving.

We are so grateful for your loving, kind, and gentle influence on us as children, and now also on our own children.

Happy Mother's Day!

Love,

Ryan, Alison, & Scott


(Ian, Molly, Hallie, Adelaide, Henkka, & Salla, too)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A Southern Friday Night

So, this is a little out of date now, but it's hard to fight off two kids who want to type. (And there is nothing legible that comes out of their help.)

Last Friday night we went golfing with Ryan. He played and the rest of us rode in the buggy—much to Molly's delight. We stopped in at the snack bar for something to tide the kids over. (We reached the course at 5 pm, when the twilight rates started and hadn't had anything to eat yet.) When we came out, Ryan noticed that his driver was missing. It seems that someone stole it out of his bag right in front of the door to the pro shop/snack bar building. Audaucious.  

Six holes later as we were enjoying the view of Ian's favorite hole—a little lake where a heron is often seen—Molly stepped in a fire ant's nest. Oh the agony! She had on her Mary Jane crocs and it took me a second to get her shoe off her foot.  Her poor foot was swollen so big she had to wear shoes several sizes too big. I felt so sorry for her that I finally broke down and asked my friend who has all sorts of home remedies if she knew of anything, and for the record, I am absolutely convinced that her baking soda paste worked. As soon as I put it on Molly's foot she giggled—very good sign since just a little while earlier she had flinched at the hydrocortisone. Then she asked for some and rubbed it on the bites scattered up her leg and more on her foot. It took the red out immediately and by the next morning she could wear her own shoe. 

Ryan played a couple more holes and we bailed on the eighth when it became aparent we were going to have to wait on the foursome ahead of us who were waiting on the people ahead of them.

So we went to our favorite snowcone place, which happens to be across the highway from the turn off to the little race track that they have here. We happened to follow a couple of cars on trailers and decided to check it out, since the kids had both had good long, late naps and would be up anyway. So, we took our snow cones to go and grabbed a plate of barbcue from the fund raising group in the parking lot and headed over to the race track. We had a great time watching the practicing. Ian loved it of course, but Molly did too. She kept laughing and pointing at the cars and pretending like she was driving. We even saw one wreck happen right in front of us. And we saw the tiny version of a stock car that sounded like it runs on a lawn mower engine and was driven by a little kid. We didn't make it to the race...but an hour of practicing was fine. 

When we got home Ian had a sharp eye out for lightening bugs while Molly and I listened to the crickets sing. It's been a long time since I noticed them. It may have been the first time they were out for the summer. Wish ya'll coulda been here with us!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

There has been some unusual disagreement over the best chocolate chip cookies in the Bosworth kingdom of late. No less than a month ago, Mom and Dad showed up on our doorstep in Irvine touting what they claimed was the new replacement to my special variation of the Bosworth chocolate chip cookie.

Now, our own uncle and brother--one Tom Rich--has offered this recipe as a possibility. I was skeptical at first, but any recipe with sea salt sprinkled on top deserves consideration.

I suggest we all put forth our best efforts and put this game to bed: What is the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies?

Monday, May 4, 2009

Our Turn

Here is what we have been up to.
Tobin-Putting off every possible paper until the last second. He is SOOOO done with school. He starts his new job on May 27th. Graduation is this Saturday....YEAH!!
Me- Playing for Stake Choir again. Trying to read books. Enjoying lots of sleep...Adelaide sleeps about 8-10 hours at nigh, although that will probably stop now that I said it. I am actually enjoying having two kids....didn't think that would happen.
Hallie- Miss Drama Queen. She only will answer to Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White...depending on the day. Tobin is always the handsome prince, and I am Ursula, or the wicked queen. NICE. She is busy with swimming/pre-school/ and playgroups.
Adelaide-seems to have found her voice and enjoys screeching just to hear herself. She has a very pleased look on her face all the time when trying to sneak her fingers into her mouth. We love our little chunk.
We are excited to see most of you this weekend. We will be thinking of the California folks!!

What we've been doing of late

I had planned to up my blogging on this site after stopping my old one, but that has not really been the outcome. Reasons for this:

-Lots of overtime. My company is expanding and adding new employees this week because we're just too busy. Not many people in the business world can say that of late. We're really fortunate to be in the position we are.

-Kids. Salla has been in and out of teething/sniffles for weeks now, and has been a terror with regards to sleeping. Of course, this makes everyone at home cranky. Also, Henkka has truly come into his own in the past two months or so as far as will-power is concerned. I am beginning to wonder how Mom & Dad ever survived me as a child without packing me in a box and shipping return-to-sender.

-B's photography. B has been getting just enough photo gigs to keep her (and us) slightly more busy and exhausted than is deemed optimal. However, it's been fun (for me at least) to see her developing a bit more reputation for photography and to see a rebirth in her interest (after pregnancy, etc...) toward photography in general--she's carrying a camera around much more frequently lately. Check out her flickr photostream here. I think you have to be a registered user/contact for B to see some of the images, so let me know if nothing is visible.

I went first, now it's your turn: What have you been up to?

Monday, April 27, 2009

Autocross Video

I finished 6th (out of about 20) in the Street Tire class. Below are videos from my DNF run (I lost control and went into the grass) and from my final run.



Fun going fast

Here are some pictures from my day at Virginia International Raceway.





Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Happy Birthday
















Look who is 4!!!!!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Easter Candy

The Best:
  • Cadbury's Mini Eggs
  • Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs

The Meh:
  • Jelly Beans
  • Robin Eggs

The Worst:
  • Peeps
  • Cadbury's Creme Eggs

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Scott

I miss your blog....ahhhh (sigh...).

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Spring











For you Mom, enjoy your snow!!!