Human Sling Shot

A couple of years ago at one of Stacy's company parties, the festvities were concluded with Stacy's introduction to the human sling shot. At an undisclosed location, in a canyon in Springville, Stacy was willingly tied to a bungee suspended between two telephone poles and shot into the sky. I honestly feel this was the result of spending the whole afternoon at a work party that did not include a drop of alcohol. Crazy Mormons looking for cheap thrills.

I saw this video on the internet and showed it to Stacy. While this is not a video of her, this is a video of what she did and where she did it. This video is currently on the top 100 list at video.google.com. Stacy still claims that she had fun doing this, but I don't think she would ever do it again.

What the video doesn't show is how close to the canyon wall the victim gets. Or how close to the trees. Or the creek. Stacy had much better form reminiscent of Superman.

The "Bird Dress"

Anyone that has talked to Alayna on the phone has heard mention of her bird dress. The description usually continues like this:

"It's blue, with a big bird, he's a flamingo and he's pink, with a flower in his mouth-beak, and it has yellow flowers and white 'cocoa-dots."

And finally, a picture taken today of Alayna, in her bird dress.

Birthday Cake

This blog is a little late, but I just had to brag up the gluten free birthday cake Stacy made for me. Not only did it look like a normal fluffy, yummy cake, it tasted great too. So many of the gluten free foods are "alright" tasting, but this cake was great. The recipe also makes good cupcakes. Alayna got to help build this cake and had a blast. She was so excited about it she almost couldn't wait for dinner time. The cake didn't last long. Leftovers were quickly demolished.

Duck, Duck, Duck. . . .

GOOSE!

Thought we could share a bit of our neighborhood with you. Stacy and Alayna go on walks around the big lake in the middle of the neighborhood almost every morning. The ducks and geese are very friendly to the point of taking bread right out of your hand, whether you are holding bread or not. But they look good from a distance.

Friday Night Backyard Adventure

Friday was quite an eventful day. Stacy started things off with a bang by having shortness of breath and some little contractions. This happened a couple of times with Alayna and Stacy's Dr. made her check in to the hospital for observation and prescribed some muscle relaxants. So we were not in a panic for this trip to the hospital, and I was glad for an excuse to leave work early. The new variable this time is that Stacy has very low blood pressure. So a muscle relaxant would only make her more faint than she already is. Luckily all is well with Stacy and Cavell, no drugs were administered, and Stacy was told to eat a diet higher in salt. Who would have thought?

When we returned home it was time to fulfill a promise I made to Alayna and myself. We set up the tent and had a Daddy/Daughter campout in the backyard. Of course we didn't get a single picture taken of this adventure.

Since we were "roughing" it, we ate bbq bratwurst and oven baked tater tots in the tent while we watched The Incredibles on the laptop with virtual surround sound. The movie was over at about 10pm and Dad and Daughter promptly fell asleep. I woke up repeatedly expecting Alayna to be cold or scared by strange sounds. She slept like a baby until 7am when she woke up and stated, "It's light outside".

We did get some pictures of Friday night, but they had nothing to do with the tent, dinner, or watching the movie. I noticed that my arch nemesis the Southern Black Racer had left me a gift in the form of a skin shed. He is getting huge. I think he is taunting me now.

Click on the above photo to zoom in and see the snake skin. I drew a line highlighting the length of the skin. Below is the skin against a piece of cardboard. It's nearly 5' long.

The next three photos are of a poisonous Coral snake Stacy spotted in the backyard while we were setting up our backyard adventure. He is small, maybe about 18" long. He is very brightly colored. I stepped on his head and held him to the ground while Stacy retrieved the shovel from the shed. Stacy took a little longer to get the shovel than I expected and this little varmint started climbing his tail up my leg. I was afraid to lose control of his head so I just stood there with a poisonous snake trying to wrap itself around my ankles. Kind of icky.

According to what I have read about the Coral Snake it is nocturnal and rarely seen. This is the second snake I have dispatched in my own yard during daylight hours. Maybe I'll think twice about the next backyard campout.

Another threat to the safety of my little kingdom has been vanquished. Thor named his hammer Mjolnir meaning Crusher or Destroyer. Maybe I should name my mighty shovel?

Outer Darkness Delight

Warning. I am not a food photographer. The fact is, this cake doesn't have to look good, it just tastes good.

New York cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of flourless chocolate torte smothered in a cream cheese chocolate ganache frosting.

This thing is way beyond decadent. It's worse than sinful. It's awful close to dangerous.

The cake took three days to make. The time is more of a factor of the lack of multiple spring form cake pans than anything else, but even if we could cook it all on the same day, it would take most of a day to build.

As good as this thing is, I still have a few ideas to make it better. Next time I make it I will increase the ganache so that I have enough to make a well on top to hold a pool of mixed berries.
And then on top of that I'll balance a great big dollop of fresh whipped cream. Oh yeah.

We took this beast to the ward Pig Roast and dessert bake-off. Our cake was the first to be devoured. People with eyes bigger than their gastronomic capacity took huge hunks of cake but were only able to consume small portions at their table. Walking around I saw alot of partially eaten cake on tables being shared by everybody at the table. This cake should serve 36 people. I would be surprised if 12 people got a slice of this cake.

Unfortunately, we did not receive the adulation that should have accompanied such a feat of baking prowess. The missionaries judged a clearly inferior banana pudding, cookies, and the Bishop's pound cake to take the prizes. But we are not sure if the judges actually had an opportunity to taste our entry, it was gone so fast. The winning entries were still being thrust into the hands of the people that left the dinner before cleaning their table area. I think as a punishment.

Wildlife
A small glimpse at some of the fauna found in our neighborhood.

This little bugger was nearly 4ft long all stretched out. He has been around the house for a while. Last year he lived in a hole in the bricks in the bathroom window sill. He would sun himself right outside the window and Alayna would watch him. This year he got big, ventured out into the yard and took up residence under the shed. He has been seen all over the yard and startled Stacy and Alayna on the front walk. He also found a friend about his same size and I saw them get into a fight. There is at least one more snake living under the shed. It is actively being stalked each weekend.
This turtle was found on the road just down the street from the house while Stacy and Alayna were on there morning constitutional. A neighbor moved the turtle to the grass to protect it from oncoming traffic. Alayna was a little intimidated by the turtle and wouldn't have her picture taken with it.

The turtle survived.

It Had to Happen

We purchased a toilet paper stand for Alayna to give her a little more independence in the bathroom and to give us a break from participating in every visit.

Alayna thought the new stand was too much fun. Not only did she completely unravel the roll, she kept on going and started rolling the paper back up in reverse. It was kind of cute the first time.
The second time was definately not cute. I got an angry "Do you know what your daughter just did" phone call at work.

The third time was the charm. No more toilet paper independence.

Easter 2007

Alayna had a busy easter this year. The ward had an activity that involved making an easter bunny goody bag, dyeing eggs, and an egg hunt in the baseball field.
Of course Alayna had too much fun. She held her own against the bigger kids and came back with a full basket.
The day before Easter, Alayna was invited to a birthday party for a friend that also included an egg hunt. Again, she did very well picking the brightly colored eggs out of the wild Florida bush.
But she had to be kept on task during the egg hunt. She was much more interested in digging in the sandbox. She dug a hole next to the dump truck and kept going until the dump truck was completely hidden with sand and she was digging in moist sand. Very persistant.
Mom set up a small egg hunt at our house on Easter Sunday. Alayna found some more eggs filled with candies that Dad decided wouldn't be safe for her to eat.

She also discovered chalk eggs and the joy of drawing on the driveway.

Automo Bile

I saw this at the dollar store. I love imports. I used it as an example in my international business class that I am finishing up this week.