Traffic for 2010 October

Fri Oct 01 2010 08:09 for the kids: Yesterday Maggie wanted a bite sized Reese's cup. I told her she was big and could unwrap it on her own. When she came to hand me the trash, the chocolate already in her mouth, I discovered she had unwrapped the foil but missed the brown paper, since it's the same color as the treat, and hey, why does candy need two wrappers anyway? I asked her if she liked eating paper and she said no. I wonder how many complaints Reese's has had over this.

Yesterday when I got up to go to the gym, Maggie told me "no daddy, don't go running; don't go anywhere." She used to wake up with me and tell me she wanted to go to work with me. She's cute, but I can't wait to not share a room with her anymore. It's too hard going to work with those kinds of sentiments being thrown at me.

I can't believe it's now October. The leaves are changing, and our faux India jaunt is at its half-way mark. Before we know it we'll be celebrating the holidays, ringing in a year new, and doing it all over again. Were it not for the wonderment of watching the kids growing up, it sure would be redundant, and therefore bland.

Dalton turns one in just a few days. Lately he's been daddy's boy, clinging to me and not wanting mommy, or even the popular Aunt Erin at times. He and I seem to understand each other and have a special bond.

And then there's Kyli, whom we babysit during the week. She smiles like the dickens, and is giving us lots of practice regarding having another child. Though it's overwhelming to let the kids outnumber the adults, it is doable, I've discovered, and that is comforting.

(1) Tue Oct 05 2010 09:18 reading rainbow: I teased my 11-year old nephew about the HP7 movie coming out this fall, and asked if he was sad that Harry Potter died. He didn't believe me that Harry died, so what did he do? He went to the library, checked out the book, and verified this information for himself. Whatever it takes to get kids to read....

I also got my 16-year old nephew The Hunger Games for his birthday. He still hasn't read it, because he's too busy listening to metal and sexting on his phone, but his little sister read it in one day! Also, my SIL read them all too!

Now I'm reading The Kite Runner. I highly recommend it, even though it's more depressing than was Le Mis. It amazes me to read about the Taliban circa 2001 in Afganistan, the same year the big W decided to invade Iraq. The older I get, the less sympathetic I am to that egomaniac I shamefully voted for. Though in my defense, I only voted for his second term, since I was living in the Kong during the first election.

Speaking of election day, my company is sending me, and about 3,000 other people, to Orlando that whole week. I wonder why they would schedule a conference over election day?

Sun Oct 17 2010 13:28 half weekend: Since I've been en route to Chicago all day today, we only got Saturday to spend together. As such, we packed it full of fun activities.

With fall promising to come to UT eventually, we decided to try one more hike this summer in our newly-acquired, new fangled hiking shoes. We chose Lake Mary because it's only a mile hike; had we known it was a mile straight up, we may have changed our minds. We got lost at the very beginning (how lame is that) and saw an older gentleman trotting up the path. Susie went to ask him directions, and turns out, our older gentleman was none other than President Uchtdor, Second Counsellor in the First Presidency of the LDS church. He's a native German and was otherwise speaking German to his family. I always knew we were headed the right way if we could hear German coming up the trail behind us.

Susie and I were too shy, after we figured out who he was, to go back up to him and say hi or shake his hand or do some other such gesture that he's probably relieved we deprived him of. We also didn't bring the camera, which he also probably appreciates, and when I asked Maggie if she wanted to shake the prophet's hand and she said no, we left if at that. But it still feels slightly like a rock star sighting.

Well, I'm off to teach the future of the accounting profession a thing or two. Wish me luck.

(1) Mon Oct 18 2010 19:45 ipod shuffle: Today I went to dinner with the other EY instructors, so that we could compare notes on our acedemic counterparts (each of us is co-teaching with a college professor) and on our kids. I shouldn't call them kids; they aren't kids. But I'm 30 now, so anyone's a kid, right? Some of them are barely 21....

I'm actually co-instructing with my old BYU professor. There are three BYU professors here this week actually, all of them my old teachers. I'm really enjoying the teaching, feel pretty connected to my students, and actually know all of their names, but I suspect I may only know their names associated with where they are sitting. My feet, however, ache from standing up for 9 hours straight, and my voice is slightly strained.

After dinner tonight we went to the on-site pub. I got questioned about my non-drinking by a real NYC upper west side semi-orthodox Jew. He didn't know much about LDS, we so swapped stories. I found it interesting that he is leaving early Friday to get home before sundown. He refrains from TV on Sundays but does use electricity, something I didn't know could be considered a no-no to some of the community.

I also got rangled into playing shuffleboard. Normally I avoid sports, any sports, including half sports like pool and karaoke, but they needed another player and I couldn't deny them. I played AWESOME! I think I knocked their socks off and really surprised them with my skills. I still claim beginner's luck, but it could also be related to the various inebretation levels. Although, now that I hang with the older folks at the firm, the drinking level has dropped from reckless to responsible. All in all, thus far, it's been a lot of fun.

Sat Oct 23 2010 10:52: I drank the Kool-Aid all week training the new hires and surprisingly didn't get sick.

Sun Oct 24 2010 12:54 riddles in the dark: Against my better judgment, Susie & I attended a ghost hunt at the Daughter's of UT Pioneer building, across the street from the UT state capitol.

I normally don't like ghosty things, and will pull the covers over my head at the things that go bump in the night, generally speaking. But something told me I should go, since about 90% of my family was going. It wasn't peer pressure; I suppose it was more curiosity mingled with needing a Halloween adventure in the post-Bangalore fiasco. We all now what curiosity did to the cat; nevertheless, not being feline and having but one life to give, I courageously grasped my flashlight and entered the abyss.

We are pretty sure we made contact with two different ghosts/spirits/whatnots. We tried to confirm that the second spirit was not the first spirit following us around. There certainly was some adrenaline in the room when you talk to nothing in particular in the dark, ask a question, and see the flashlight on the floor turn off and on. But, surprisingly enough, it was not scary at all. The scariest moments on the night included a display case of pioneer dolls and a ghost with a sense of humor. My nephew Justin can't hold still and was constantly banging into things. His brother, Chad, asked the ghost if we could borrow a straight jacket for Justin and the ghost turned the light on! We also sang the ghost "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" and some Christmas carols, which seemed to liven things up. I also asked the ghost if he were unhappy and he said yes. I didn't care to ask any follow up questions. We also asked the ghost to touch any outstreched hands. I quickly shoved mine in my pockets. I have no desire to take the experience that far.

In the end I was tired and could have fallen asleep on the floor; that's how unscary it was, even though we had an eventful night. Part of that was that there were 16 of the living in our company, greatly outnumbering the others, I would imagine. Also was the fact that the museum had many sensored lights we could not turn off. Lastly was the fact that this haunted museum was in the middle of downtown and not on some ill-begotten freeway in the badlands. And we were on surveillance cameras the entire time as well, being monitered by UT's finest law enforcers, including my BIL Dave who was packing heat.

I'm glad I went. It was fun and not scary. But I probably won't be volunteering again anytime soon. I'm curious to see what the EVP picks up.

Links to various stories on the museum include the following:

Deseret News article on young woman we read about in the museum but did not encounter

Another encounter