Thanksgiving

For a change this year the Frost family held their annual Thanksgiving feast at the Bates in Sandy. We were spread out all over the house but I think everyone had a good time. There were 32 of us for dinner. In 2005 the first time I had Thanksgiving with the Frosts it was a pretty calm affair with no children and just a few teenagers.

Gathering for prayer before the meal

This year we had 10 children under the age of 9 but no teenagers. It was great to have all these children running around and providing entertainment.

Susie and ElRay enjoying the conversation

After dinner with the extended Frost family we drove to Orem to have pie with the Roper family. I must have been pretty full because I could only manage a small piece of pie with some whipped cream and ice cream. It was a very nice Thanksgiving and fun to spend time with extended family.

Delwyn, Mom, and ElRay. Great Traditions!

p.s. We took 10 chairs to the party and came home with 12. Evidently we had left some chairs there from a previous gathering.

Cougar Basketball 2015

Yes, another basketball season is upon us. With the renovation of the Marriott Center our season tickets have moved from row 9 in section F (in the South East corner) to row 25 (seats 11 & 12) right on center court on the west side opposite the score keepers and team benches. I really like these seats even though we are quite a ways from the floor the seats are padded, roomy, and because we are in the middle no one climbs over us to go to the bathroom or get snacks.

Just like being home in front of the big TV

The Marriott Center has a very large, new, video display over center court. I have to remind myself to watch the game on the floor and not on the large screen TV. One other advantage to our seats is that we are right below the cameras so we will never be on the big screen. The cougars show lots of potential this year. Hopefully it will be a successful season if they can learn to shoot foul shots.

We still 'Hit Turbulance' and have the big 'Y' flag at the last time out

Always Something

A few months ago I noticed that the lights on the front porch seemed to be sagging out of the wall. I kept putting off doing something about it until a couple of weeks ago when the light on the east side of the porch basically fell out of the wall.

The west fixture was starting to fall out too. No photo of the bad east light.

At that point I realized that something had to be done. After inspecting the fixture and the electrical box I realized that the electrician had installed a very heavy light fixture onto a box that was only attached to the styrofoam wall covering. The box was not nailed to a stud. The fixture was way to heavy to be supported by foam and stucco. I removed the fixture and set about getting replacements.

Susie and I looked at some light fixtures on line and settled on a smaller, lighter fixture that would not put so much stress on the wall.

New fixtures, not as elegant as the old ones but much less stress on the wall

This morning I removed the other fixture and worked to get the electrical boxes reinstalled and the lights wired. As usual this project took much longer than it should have but in the end I prevailed and we have functional light fixtures on the porch again. Now I need to decide if I want to change the fixtures on the garage. I think for now those will wait.

Painting

With Chelsea's move to Salt Lake City we have been doing some painting. That bedroom needed to be painted since Kyle moved but there was never time. So two weeks ago Kevin and I started working on the room. We moved the furniture and painted one half of the room at a time.

Once that bedroom was finished we moved upstairs and started on Susie's office. It has always been a different shade than the rest of the upstairs. We removed all the photos and repaired the holes in the walls. I even filled the hole under the wall outlet where they cut the hole too large for the box.

Painting Susie's office. Quite a contrast in color.

Both rooms look much better than they did before. Now the next project is to put tile in the entry in the downstairs bedroom and then replace the carpet.

Vienna Boys Choir

Tuesday evening after returning from Indiana I took my Mom to see the Vienna Boys Choir at BYU. We started the evening with soup and sandwiches at Zuppa's. It was perfect because it was a cold, blustery evening.

I took this photo after the concert had finished so it is sort of legal.

The concert was very good. I have always wanted to see the Vienna Boys Choir. The music was different than I expected. They performed songs from around the world and the concert was 80 minutes long. Their conductor, Bomi Kim, from Korea was very energetic and could really play the piano. Too bad Susie had to miss this concert but it was fair since I had to miss the BYU Men's Chorus while I was in Florida.

Long Road Trip

On November 3rd I started a long business trip that combined with Susie's attendance at the National Conference on Family Relations would have us apart for 12 days. Too long.
On Tuesday the 3rd I flew from Salt Lake City to Orlando Florida then drove to Vero Beach for our annual data review meeting with the Biological R&D team. The data review was scheduled for Thursday and Friday but our team had a termite control strategy meeting on Wednesday morning.
This was originally scheduled to be a team meeting but I was the only member of our team in attendance as Clay Scherer has left to start his work in Basel Switzerland and Nicki Gallagher had surgery and wasn't able to attend.

My colleagues, Steve Cosky, David Cox, and Mark Coffelt. Steve and I joined ICI in 1986!

The meetings were productive and it is always enjoyable to spend some time with my colleagues from the R&D side of the business.
Friday evening I flew from Orlando to Indianapolis in order to help set out a rodent control trial in West Lafayette on Saturday morning. Syngenta is looking at a new, soft bait, for rodent control and because it is so new I needed to make sure the product was applied correctly.
Saturday morning I met our researcher Grzesiek Buckzowski in West Lafayette and we drove north west into the country side to two farms where we were setting out the trial.

Mouse hole chewed into foam insulation in equipment barn

The buildings had been pre-baited to determine the level of mouse infestation. We then loaded the bait stations with the new product and put the stations out.

Weighing Talon soft bait into bait stations

One of the trial sites was in the top of an older grain elevator. We had to climb about 20 feet up a shaft in the elevator. I had to stuff the loaded stations into my jacket so we could climb the ladder. I've never done that at work before.

We climbed up this shaft to put out bait stations. I love rodent work!

We were done around noon so we stopped for lunch then I was off to Maren's for the weekend. The grandkids were subdued in their greeting but they seemed happy to see me. Their family room still resembles a call center with all the kids on their own computers or taking a little break to play on the floor.

Saturday evening we went to eat at the new Cheddars restaurant in Lafayette but there was a 45 minute wait so we went to our old standby, Tapanyaki grill.

Tess, Cole, and Spencer enjoying dinner at the grill

The food was OK but all my grandchildren think it is the best place in town to eat. Friday evening after I arrived at Maren's I started listening to the BYU vs. San Jose State football game. I slept through most of the first quarter but then I woke up and was wide awake so I listened to the rest of the game that didn't end until about 3 am. So Saturday evening I decided to watch the BYU basketball game against Alaska. It was not a great game but at least I could watch it on BYUtv.

Sunday I attended church with the Madsen's. The Madsen children were pretty well behaved. They must be growing up. After church we returned home to eat popcorn and watch episode 1 of the Star Wars series preparing for episode 7 that opens in December.

Cole and Maren making the pop corn

Unfortunately Maren was sick while I visited and Josh was not feeling well on Monday so we didn't do much that was exciting. I stayed home with Josh and Tess while Maren went to the doctor.
Tuesday I was back at the airport to fly home to SLC. My flight arrived in Salt lake at 1:50 pm. Susie was also at the airport but her flight left at 1:45 so we just missed each other. Susie was on her way to Vancouver. I got home about 5 pm and unpacked and prepared to take my mom to the Vienna Boys Choir concert.
Wednesday morning I was packed and on my way to Portland for a trade show. I had a brain lock moment when I went to catch the train to the airport. The schedule said the train left the Provo station at 1:50 pm but somehow my brain interpreted that as meaning 10 minutes after 2 instead of 10 minutes before 2. Luckily it takes less time to drive than to take the train so I drove to the airport.
Portland was cold and wet. The trade show was very good and I got to spend some quality time visiting with Dr. Roger Gold who recently retired. I was back home Thursday evening at about 9 pm. That was a long business trip.

New Calling

On Sunday October 11th I was released as the Young Men's President in the Edgemont 12th ward. I have served for over 6 years with the young men and it has been an enjoyable assignment. I was without a calling for about an hour. Right after Sacrament Meeting the Stake President asked me to come to his office where I was called to serve on the Stake High Council.
Sunday October 15th I was sustained to the High Council in all the wards in the stake.
This morning I attended my first High Council meeting which is actually called the Stake Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting. After the meeting I was set apart by President Chris Crow, First Counselor in the Stake Presidency.
My responsibility is to be over special Welfare Assignments for the stake and to work with the priesthood leaders in the Pleasant View 4th ward. This is a real change of pace from working with the young men. The timing was good because of all the travel I have this fall that will keep me away from home during the week.