a war of the seas

Little did we land dwellers know that a fierce war has been declared under seas by the Jellyfish. They have decided that to long have invertebrates been second class citizens of the ocean. Now they are rising up. Last week off the coast of Ireland a jellyfish battle group struck out against the local salmon highway during prime commute time and killed millions. Yesterday they struck out again this time going for the young salmon by attacking a North Atlantic school for juvenile fish.

What will the fish do? Can they stand by idly while the jellys massacre them? If they really have a spine then they'll do something! And what about us? Do you believe the Jellys will be content with the sea or will they strike out against the vertebrates on land as well.

I don't know about you but I find this news very troubling.

(this is not (entirely) a joke. jellyfish swarms have killed millions of north atlantic salmon on two occasions in the past week. the second one was a school of young fish and the irish fishing industry is in economic danger. Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it.)

Thanksgiving

So, my uncle Fred in Utah has a project under way and invited the family to come to Thanksgiving and help. (this sort of thing is a Pinnegar family tradition but I usually associate it with Memorial day or 4th of July or Labor day, one of the warmer holidays) My dad decided he would go, but indicated he would leave the option open to all of his older children. David decided that he and his family would do a Thanksgiving camping trip, because the had wanted to go camping all year, but with being pregnant/ having a new baby this was the first chance to do so. Devon chose Utah and when the logistics were worked out so did Jeremy.

I had to think long and hard about this. I knew I would be scheduled to work Thanksgiving unless I requested it off well in advance. I also plan to request considerable time off in December so I didn't feel I could afford to take the whole week off. I decided I would not go to Utah. I thought about joining David for a night and day, but that also proved unrealistic without requesting time off.

In the end it was decided that I would watch the house and do Thanksgiving early in the day with Grandma.

We decided to go to Mimi's Cafe for lunch. The food was not as good as mom's but it was good (except the sweet potatoes which they did wrong) and it was nice to spend some time with grandma. after lunch we sat and talked for an hour or so and then I went in to work where everything was quite and uneventful.

I have never done Thanksgiving without a family around (on the mission it was not my family but there was a family around) and it was odd. I enjoyed being with Grandma but I missed the noise and smells of a busy holiday kitchen, and the greetings and visiting with people you may not see often. It was a bit weird for me to eat out for a holiday diner and I missed the left overs (Genvieve helped out there, and invited me to left over lunch the next day and sent me home with some turkey) I think I understand better now why the holidays are a hard time for some people and feel even stronger about sharing the holidays with those alone.

Said well in song

I heard two songs today and they made me think about what I want from life and my relationship.

Danny's Song by Kenny Loggins

People smile and tell me I'm the lucky one, and we've just begun,
Think I'm gonna have a son.
He will be like she and me, as free as a dove, conceived in love,
Sun is gonna shine above.

Chorus:
And even though we ain't got money, I'm so in love with ya honey,
And everything will bring a chain of love.
And in the morning when I rise, you bring a tear of joy to my eyes,
And tell me everything is gonna be alright.

Seems as though a month ago I beta chi, never got high,
Oh, I was a sorry guy.
And now a smile, a face, a girl that shares my name,
Now I'm through with the game, this boy will never be the same.

(To chorus:)
Pisces, Virgo rising is a very good sign, strong and kind,
And the little boy is mine.
Now I see a family where there once was none, now we've just begun,
Yeah, we're gonna fly to the sun.

(To chorus:)

Love the girl who holds the world in a paper cup, drink it up,
Love her and she'll bring you luck.
And if you find she helps your mind, buddy, take her home,
Don't you live alone, try to earn what lovers own.

(To chorus:)

and the other was
Bubbly by Colbie Caillat

I've been awake for a while now
You've got me feeling like a child now
`Cause every time I see your bubbly face
I get the tinglies in a silly place

It starts at my toes makes me crinkle my nose
Where ever it goes I always know
That you make me smile
please stay for a while now
Just take your time where ever you go

The rain is falling on my window pane
But we are hiding in a safer place
Under covers staying dry and warm
You give me feelings that I adore

It starts at my toes make me crinkle my nose
Where ever it goes I always know
That you make me smile
Please stay for awhile now
Just take your time wherever you go

But what am I gonna say
When you make me feel this way
I just...mmmmmmmm
[Bubbly lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]


It starts at my toes makes me crinkle my nose
Where ever it goes I always know
That you make me smile
Please stay for awhile now
Just take your time
Where ever you go

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da dum
Bom bo da da da da da da da da da bom
Mmm mmm

I've been a sleep for awhile now
You tuck me in just like a child now
'Cause every time you hold me in your arms
I'm comfortable enough to feel your warmth

It starts in my soul and I lose all control
When you kiss my nose the feeling shows
'Cause you make me smile
Baby just take your time now
holding me tight

Wherever, wherever, wherever you go
wherever, wherever, wherever you go

Oh wherever you go I always know
'Cause you make me smile just for a while

Talk

I gave a talk on Sunday in the Carmichael 1st ward on gratitude. I talked about Lehi's family and the brass plates and the different attitudes of gratitude that they had. I am trying to transcribe it and then I will post it so stay tuned.

What did you do today?

If someone asked me the question "what did you do today" they would no doubt be caught off guard if I said

Today I did battle with Satan for my soul, after he attacked me and intended to take me captive. The battle was fierce. Satan tried to wear down and get inside my defenses but time and again I called for back up and with help repelled the assault.

He chose to attack me because he hates me and fears what I can do.

I must always remember his goal is my utter destruction and I must fight him and help others to fight him and always seek the defensive position of higher ground.

But every day that answer would be accurate.

Ah, breakfast

Saturday morning I got to take Ryann out to breakfast.

The plan was that I should arrive at 9:00 and by that time she would be awake and prepared to face the day. Although she was awake and dressed, Ryann was not prepared to face the day at 9:00 so we started slow: we took the dog for a walk.

Ryann's grandparents house backs up to a pleasant little park and we went out through their gate right into the park. We spent a little while watching the small children play soccer on fields reduce to their scale, a thing which alway amuses me. We then sat on a cold park bench for a few minutes and dealt with the socialization of dogs in parks. By the time we got back to the house Ryann was ready for breakfast.

We chose to walk rather than drive the two blocks to the neighborhood diner, since it was such a pleasant fall morning. We arrived shortly and were seated in the busy little breakfast shop. Ryann had French Toast and I had scrambled eggs with biscuit and gravy, we were both very content after our meal and the walk home was most pleasant.

I am a big believer in the efficacy of breakfast dates, and this one was combined with one of my other favorite dates: going for a walk. It was a most enjoyable morning.

How can a day not be good when you get to skip rocks?

Friday was a very good day.

I woke up after a night of troubled sleep and went to my parents to pick up a few needed things, and then went to pick up Scotty. T. Scott Rowan is in town because of a concern he played Thursday night and so I get to hang out with him.

We start out by going to the 8:30 temple session, which was great as always. When it is over Scotty says to me I am hungry can I buy you lunch. This is a proposition to which I am completely amenable, so we go to Beech Hut Deli, where I get my favorite sandwich: The Woody. Tim had one of their open face BBQ sandwiches and enjoyed his as well.

Then I drove us out to the Salmon Falls trail head, for our plan from the very beginning had been to go on a hike. But, somehow, in stead of the trail we gravitate towards the river (having dismissed rappelling from the bridge as an option) and of course my eye turns to the shore in search of flat round stones. I find one! I pick it up and carefully examine it. I grasp it between my thumb and index finger, I cock my arm back and let fly. The stone stuck the water and instead of sinking (as stones most often do when they have an intimate encounter with a body of water) it skipped back up into the air. It came done again a few feat away, and much to my delight, it skipped back up again. This time, however, nature took her course and the rock suck tragically to the bottom of the river. My revelry at this wondrous event is soon interrupted with a CAHHHCHUNK noise and a splash. Scotty has Throne a large rock into the smooth water and has a look of exuberance on his face.

For the next hour we repeat this course of action. Sometimes throwing smooth small stones so that gleefully skip across the water and sometimes throwing large rocks that make fun noises and send the displaced water flying to impressive heights. Meanwhile we talk of this and that: what we have lately read and what turns our lives have taken since we last spent time together. After about an hour we concluded that we were done at the river and would go see Devon, but before we left there was a thing that must be done. We each selected as large a rock as we felt comfortable carrying and strode up the path to the bridge and with child like delight we dropped these rocks from the bridge into the water from a height of at least 50 feet. Even now, recalling the slash as my stone struck the rippling translucent surface brings joy to my heart.

Next the two of us drove to Devon's work where he treated us to a free race. He however had to go to Costco and could only chat for a moment. I was very pleased to discover that RPM has new racing karts with adjustable seats, because the thing that has limited my enjoyment of the RPM experience in the past has been a lack of leg room. My best lap was 23.7 seconds and Scotty's was 27 point something, I think. At this point Devon was gone and Thus we quietly snuk out the back door, since it was getting to be time for me to go to work.

Before heading to work proper, I had been asked by my boss the day before to come into the office. Since the company office is on the way home from RPM I asked Scotty if he would mind waiting while I went in and saw my boss. He indicated to me that he would rather be rolled in shards of broken glass and then dipped in boiling lemon juice, so I went to the office.

I am always apprehensive when I am asked to go to the office, that is just how I perceive bosses in general and has nothing to do with either my current boss or my behavior at work. So when I arrived and the only people there were the GM, Todd, and the owner, Bryon and Todd said do you want to tell him or should I, I freaked out, just a little, on the inside. Then Bryon had me come into his office, frowned at me and said, "Is there anything you want to tell us(Todd had come in as well and shut the door behind him, even though there was no one else in the building)"

My mind raced, had a client complained about my driving to fast, had I missed something important and obvious on patrol, were my site times wrong, had a automatic stoplight ticket been mailed in (not that I make a habit of running stoplights, but one can never know.) these and other thoughts raced through my head as I gave him a puzzled look and said, "No".

He replied "Good" and then proceeded to tell me that they had decided to promote me to Captain, (to which I tactlessly responded good because I had been thinking about asking for a raise). They then briefly filled me in on my new responsibilities, which I feel will be easy enough, and then sent me on my way with a generous "cash bonus" for coming into the office.

I then took Scotty to my parent's and proceeded to work where nothing happened that could have in anyway reduced the goodness of my day.

crazy workin'

Friday I worked from 3:30pm to 3:30am and them had things to do so I didn't get to bed until almost 6:00 then had to be up at 7:30 to be at the church to give maps to people headed to apple hill, and fulfill my calling then I took Sarah Hunt to work then I went home and got a few more hours of mediocre sleep before I had to get up and go to work again. Once again 3:30 to 3:30 this time there was daylight savings to mess with my schedule so it was a 13 hour shift. Once again when I got off work there was stuff I needed to do for my calling and I was not in bed 'til about 5:00.

Last night I went to bed early and slept like the dead for a good 10 and a half hours.

Harry Potter.

I often wait for the hype to die down a bit before I do something. I don't usually go to a movie on opening night for instance. This habit has held true for the Harry Potter books I didn't even start the series until Order of the Phoenix was out and I have waited a few months before getting around to each of the subsequent books. Thus, last week I finally came to the conclusion of the series. I have enjoyed the books. I particularly enjoyed that Rowlings writing progressed with each book as the young readers who found her early own developed their reading skills.

I will not spoil the ending but I will say that I found it suitable but was wishing that fewer characters stayed dead.

lunch with mom and dad

On Friday I took my parents out to lunch. We went to the Oak Cafe which is on campus at ARC. It is the practical lab for the culinary arts program, each week they have a different menu depending on what the students are working on. Our Menu was an Italian menu developed by Kirt Spataro a big name chef here in town. For appetizers we could choose fried calamari or a vegetable soup (mom and I had calamari dad had soup) for entre the choice was hand made ravioli filled with fresh greens and ricotta (me and mom again) or Aqua Pazza a seafood dish with clams and halibut and potatoes (dad's choice) and for dessert there was Panna Cotta or Quince Crostada (we all chose the latter)

It was a good chance for the three of us to just sit and talk as well as a chance for me to support my school. While we waited for our seat dad and I watched Parker's blacksmithing class and over lunch I asked what was going on in the lives of my various siblings.

All in all it was a most enjoyable lunch.