Meet Butler Bulldog

Two new additions to our household: a new computer to replace the one that got stolen and Butler the Bulldog! He is three months old, weighs about 20 pounds, and is wreaking havoc due to teething!

Warm and cozy or environmental nuisance?

Donny's been making good use of our fireplace this winter -- we bought $150 of wood for the fireplace and the fire pit in the backyard. I enjoy the coziness, but then the New York Times goes and posts this article about why it's so bad.... Hope we're not making the neighbors ill!

A trip to the surreal

So we drove all the way to San Jose, CA to see Roger Waters perform The Wall. It was the fastest trip possible, except for the driving parts. One day driving there, one day in San Jose, drive back the next day. The concert was surreal , except for the drunk Indian lady who kept shrieking during most of the concert, and picking fights with her boyfriend or whoever was with her. She even tried to pick a fight with us when we asked her to please quiet down.





In the afternoon before the concert we went to The Winchester Mystery House. If you've never heard of it, it is a huge 160-room house built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of one of the Winchester rifle heirs. After the untimely death of her husband and child, she visited a spiritualist who told her the souls of people who died from being shot by her family's guns were haunting her and the only way to appease them was to continually build a house -- nonstop construction, 24/7, for thirty-some-odd years until she died. She held seances to get building plans every night.

A day with the big spenders

The BYU Athletic department often brings new recruits by to Special Collections for private tours, and they said thank you for my tour-giving with free seats in the loges and wristbands to the hospitality tent. It was a gorgeous day for a football game, and from higher up you could see all the fall foliage really well. I haven't gone to a BYU game since I was a freshman -- I think they've changed things in the stadium around a bit.

The hospitality tent is for people who buy "Legacy Seats" to all the football games. They cost enough for the university to give them a catered lunch before the game and snacks during halftime -- $1300 for a season ticket. This is Don acting like he fits in while we're eating. Since we didn't have major BYU Cougar gear it was probably pretty obvious we weren't supposed to be there normally.

My heart's in the highlands

We're back from our UK trip. My research at the British Library didn't go as planned -- but after some retooling I think I'll be able to write a paper on the manuscript I was looking at. While in London we went to the Tower of London, the new Supreme Court buildings, a concert at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, and to the British Museum.

We spent most of our time in Scotland, seeing the Highlands, Loch Ness, and Edinburgh. The National Library of Scotland and National Museum of Scotland were both amazing and highly recommended. We also took a tour of the underground vaults which was not really scary.

We only spent a day in Dublin but that was long enough to see the Book of Kells and a cathedral and walk around the city. The place we stayed at was near the waterfront so we walked down to the ocean after dark.

We already want to go back!

Inaugurating our awesome new fire pit

Our friends Jed and Karen and their four kids came over for dinner and helped us test out the fire pit with s'mores last weekend. Now we need to have a full-on cookout.

Deep thoughts

A friend sent this to me -- made me a bit nostalgic for Texas. All the Protestant churches have message boards like this.