Marriage

Marriage, even to the best of partners, doesn't make you wise, strong, elegant, efficient, sexy, patient or honest. What it can do is teach you how to love, and maybe how to be loved. It really helps if you bring those other things in with you.

Oops

Our instructor in High Priest Group today told a really funny story. I believe it was a story that came from one of the General Authorities.

There was a woman at the airport waiting for her flight. She was hungry, so purchased a bag of cookies from the convenience store. Of course being inside the airport she had to pay a premium for them.

In the waiting area there was a bank of seats facing another bank of seats with a table between them. There was a man sitting across the table from her.

She took a cookie from the bag which was now on the table. The man also took a cookie. She was miffed but didn't say anything.

She took another cookie and another cookie, and each time she took one the man also took one. She started to get really angry. How dare he!

Finally there was one cookie left in the bag. The man gestured for her to take it, which she did. But by this point she was so angry that she got up and stomped over to wait in line for her flight.

Once aboard the plane and situated in her seat, she opened her purse.

There was her bag of cookies.

King Herod

This is my "palace" (the Primary room) at our ward Christmas party last night. I had a blast; the ward members went from room to room on their "Walk Through Bethlehem". I had a little speech about how wealthy I was because I was greedy. I explained that I had sent the Wise Men to Bethlehem but they never sent me word. Then I gave them a ring pop to remember me by.

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

Sally and I rarely watch television, and in fact don't even have a useable set. The only one we have is hooked up to the Wii. So we watch a lot of movies on the computer, thanks to Netflix, Hulu, Fancast, etc.

It came to me that it would be fun to review some of what we watch. What you will read here talks more about me than it does about the movies, of course, but that's the point of this blog anyway.

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain was a complete delight and something of a surprise. I don't know wat I was expecting, though with Hugh Grant as the main character Reginald, there is generally going to be a "gentle soul" who may or may not also be a klutz.

Well he is not a klutz, and is in fact a cartographer on tour with his boss fixing up map problems for Her Majesty.

They stop in a small southern Welch village whose claim to fame is Ffynnon Garw, reputed to be the "first mountain in Wales". Only an earlier survey missed the fact that the peak is 16 feet less than the 1000 needed for mountain status.

The village is incensed and under the impetus of the local pastor and "Morgan the Goat" (played by Colm Meaney of Star Trek fame) the townsfolk decide to add the missing 16 feet, and 4 to spare.

Betty from Cardiff (played by Tara Fitzgerald) is set in Reginald's path to entice him into going along with the plan and eventually they fall in love, though TEWWUAHBCDAM is not exactly a love story. Well it is a love story, but more the love of the local citizens for their village and their mountain.

What I liked best about this movie was the was the whole town came together despite obstacles and long-running feuds. I highly recommend it.

Eldred G Smith

Eldred G Smith was the last functioning Presiding Patriarch of the Church and as such was a direct descendant of Hyrum, the brother of the prophet Joseph.

While at BYU one Sunday evening I went to a fireside where Elder Smith was the speaker. I was fascinated by all that he knew and by the things he talked about that I had never even read about. Of course as a relatively new convert (this was after my mission, so I had been a member for about 4 years), all this stuff that everyone else had grown up with was intriguing.

I remember he was talking about the box that Joseph had commissioned to keep the plates in and safe while he was translating them. Joseph described it as being a wooden box, or chest, with a lid and a lock.

Then Eldred Smith reached down under the podium, brought something out and put it down in front of him and declared "This is the box".

I was so moved by the experience that I have never forgotten it. I even went up afterwards so that I could see it. It was plain and worn with age. And it had held the golden plates.

Bekah kept me awake

Every year, like clockwork, we piled the whole family into our 9-seater VW van and made the trek to Utah.

We had learned that the 12-hour trip went faster and easier if we went at night so that the kids slept. I'm sure millions of parents have done this over the years.

Well the problem was, of course, my staying awake. We solved that by having a designated talker - Bekah - sit up front with me and keep me from dozing.

She was the perfect choice.

Tomato Soup

I don't know why I don't like tomato soup. I never have, maybe never will.

I remember that when I was in grade school before we moved to Paris (I went to Hill School in Novato, CA) I only got to buy my lunch every once in a while.

You guessed it, almost every time, lunch was tomato soup.