A few things ...

1. My knee doesn't move and so I still can't walk. I have to wear this as long as I can while I sleep ... sleeping doesn't happen very well because it puts a constant, mild stretch on my knee and it is NOT comfortable. There is a possibility that I'll have to do what is called a manipulation surgery where they put me under and then crank the heck out of my knee. I'm guessing it will hurt when I wake up but at least my knee will move, right? I think they will decide on April 25th.
2. Made it to the temple finally. Angela and I went to the Draper temple tonight and I was able to attend with my crutches. You know how temple workers are always nice? Well, try going there with crutches, they are extra, super nice. It was a good experience. I'm a bit behind on my goal to attend every temple in Utah in the year 2011. I'll have to go more than once a month since I missed March and there are 13 temples in UT. I can do it.
3. Millie took some photos of me last week. Here are some of my favorites:                            
4. I went bird watching last Saturday on crutches in the snow and thoroughly enjoyed myself. We saw 37 species of birds! To see which species we saw, go HERE.
5. I've come to grips with the fact that I will most likely not be doing any races this year and possibly won't be able to golf (keep your fingers crossed that I will). But hey, I can drive a cart! 
6. My nephews, Tyson and Luke, were in the "King and I" at their school play. Luke played Louie and sang his solo perfectly: "you can be as brave as you make believe you are."
7. The Bean Museum represents in BYU's Divine Comedy's Harry Potter parody ... 
8. Ann Dee's baby boy is coming soon and I'm excited to meet him. I hope he is as funny as his brothers.
9. I miss my mom.
10. I think my dad is amazing and I'm really thankful that he helps me almost every day take things down to my car in the morning. Oh and he goes grocery shopping for me too.

Karma - Thanks CJane

Monday night I had FHE with Ann Dee's family and Kathy and River at the Bean Museum.

Afterwords I talked them into getting ice cream at the Cougareat rather than the Creamery on 9th ... so much less busy on a Monday night. So there I was at the ice cream counter looking like this:

and the girl in front of me was about to write a check for $1.25. I stepped in and paid for her purchase. I wasn't being nice, I just didn't want to wait for her to write the check cause I really wanted my ice cream. I put it on my signature card which comes out of my paycheck so it was like free money anyway, right?

Well ... a couple of days later, I ran into my good friend Courtney (CJANE) at Days Market and we walked around the store together chatting. I needed to buy a cake for a birthday party I was hosting that night and Courtney insisted on buying the cake for me, which by the way, cost more than $1.25. KARMA. What goes around comes around, so they say. Well I agree.

THIS CAKE IS SPONSORED BY CJANE

It was so nice and I told her in return for her kindness, I'd blog about the experience and let all my readers know that this cake was donated by cjanerun.com ... cause you know, I have lots of readers and she needs help in that department. ;)

In other news, tonight I went on a walk with Jewel. As I was helping her zip up her coat I said, "just be patient, I'll get the "bugger." She laughed and then said "well, if you're going to use that language, you might as well go all the way." So then I said, "ok, I'll get the s**&^#$d." We both laughed hysterically. It was a beautiful night for a walk.

Change the world

Last week I got a parking ticket for parking my scooter outside the museum in this spot. At the time it did not have a sign up and the curb things were not painted. This has always been, however, the place to park motorbikes. I was a bit upset at the time ...

Here is what happened:

• online appeal
• fine decreased from $20 - $10
• argument with appeal judge
• name dropping
• explanation that I was not a student but a FTE who works all day in the museum
• no backing down from either of us
• phone call by an influential co-worker
• citation voided
• sign posted
• curb things painted
  

Museum visit

Yesterday these guys came to see me at work. They got to ride in this tractor all the way from their new house.

They got to eat some candy corn and touch some live animals.
This picture is of Van and Cuddles.

I might be obsessed with this mountain

Often when I leave the Bean at 5:00 PM, I see this and it makes me happy. I took this with my phone.

Take This Survey For the Bean

We are going to start having special "date nights" at the Bean Life Science Museum.

Please take this survey: https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1ZCa80k2GmvsUIY&SVID=Prod

It's only 5 questions, come on --- please!!!

Just in Case...

anyone wants to know what I did today. If you don't then close your browser or navigate away from here.

My day began with a GREAT birding trip with MW and the Bean. You can read about it here. I drove a van that belonged to BYU.

Then I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with these guys (again, I drove a van) ...


First we went to lunch...


Then we went to a museum and met the famous artist JKR


and enjoyed the chocolate fountain


and some of us got our picture taken in front of a dragon painting

Later Karen and I went to see this movie:

It's been a good day.

And Soopy was his name OH

When I was a Freshman at BYU I took an oil painting class and one of our assignments was to paint something from our childhood. I painted a picture of Soopy - my most vivid memory. I would walk home from Wasatch Elementary and this dog would stand on the balcony of my neighbor's home and bark at me. I was too scared to walk by him so I would turn and walk all the way around the block to avoid him.

This painting hangs on the wall above the toilet in my guest bathroom.

The following exerpt was taken from my personal history that I put together for my mom and dad for Christmas:

When I was little there was a girl who was two years older than me that lived across the street named LB. Ann Dee and I played with her and she would always have this dumb little dog with her named Soopy. Soopy was not her dog, it was another neighbor’s dog and I was terrified of him. I hated Soopy and he would always bark at me. LB thought it was funny and so she would say, “sick her” all the time and I really thought that Soopy was going to "sick me". Whenever we played with LB, I’d make Ann Dee go over there first and then call me at 377-9083 and let me know if Soopy was there or not. Then I’d go over if it was safe. My mom used to make Ann Dee and I take some meat cuttings to Susan Ream’s dogs. She lived on Briar and that was seriously the scariest thing in the world to me because although she never let her dogs near us they would come to the door and bark when we rang the doorbell and they were BIG dogs. I HATED HATED HATED doing that but my mom was all about facing your fears.

The other morning on my walk with Larry these two dogs were let out I'm sure to go pee or something and they came running over to me and started barking and jumping up on me. I froze, closed my eyes, grabbed Larry by the arm and started saying, "Save me, save me". I was terrified.

That very day at work my student employees at the museum (the ones who give the live animal shows) were joking about how they were going to sneak a snake into my office. I overheard them and I proceeded to give them a big lecture about being sensitive to people's phobias - I even told them the story of my walk with Larry and about the dogs that jumped up on me. I could tell that they didn't really relate.

When I was a missionary, the first thing I always told my new companions was that they were responsible to keep the dogs away from me whenever we went into a home with dogs. Luckily I never had a companion that was as scared of dogs as I was so this plan worked.

This photo was copied from Naomi's blog

My favorite all time movie is the Sound of Music. I think I like it so much because I could always relate to the song "My Favorite Things". Remember the line ... "when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad ...".

It was months before I finally went over to Sam's house when they first got their dog, Roxie.

I'm starting to wonder if this is a problem that I need to face. I have a hard time feeling compassion for people who are sad about the passing of their pets. I mean they tell me that their dog was a member of their family but I really just don't get that - it's a dog. I know this is a controversial subject so please don't be offended. When Vega died on Halloween and I sorta joked a bit about it at a work meeting, I could tell that some of my student employees at the Bean (the hard core animal lovers) did not appreciate my humor. It seems that I need to be a bit more sensitive too.

One of my friends told me recently that I needed to get a dog so I could learn to be more affectionate. While this plan may work just think how gross that would be. I might learn to be more affectionate but then what? I start hugging everyone while I'm all covered in dog hair? SICK!

Remember that being offended is a choice especially when no offense is intended.

Do I have a problem?