The Car that I wanted...

You might have noticed that I wanted to buy a Festiva. A GEO Metro was not even on my list - a three cylinder engine is something to be merely tolerated. But the price was right and it ran reasonably well, and a quick look under the hood showed that it was reasonably clean, but not so clean that somebody was trying to cover up something (cleaning up the damage), so a test drive later and a bit of an assist from Berserk in picking it up, and I have a Metro.

Now, looking under the hood, there's a four cylinder engine (like a Festiva), in fact a 1.3 liter engine (like a Festiva). The engine compartment is a knock off for a Festiva. The biggest difference that I see is that the Festiva was made by Mazda for Ford and the GEO Metro was made by Suzuki for Chevy.

Hidden Mouse's Survey

Place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not. Answer the 30 questions at the end.



( ) Gone on a blind date

( ) Skipped school

( ) Watched someone die

(X) Been to Canada

(X) Been to Mexico

(X) Been to Florida

(X) Been lost

(X) Been on the opposite side of the country

(X) Gone to Washington, DC

(X) Swam in the ocean

( ) Cried your self to sleep

(X) Played cops and robbers ... not very recently

( ) Recently colored with crayons

(X) Sang Karaoke/Tried

(X) Paid for a meal with coins only

(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't

( ) Made prank phone calls

( ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose

( ) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

( ) Danced in the rain

( ) Written a letter to Santa Claus

( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe

( ) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about

(X) Blown bubbles

(X) Gone ice-skating

(X) Been skinny dipping outdoors

(X) Gone to the movies



1. Any nickname: nope

2. Mother's name: yes, but not on the internet

3. Favorite drink? Squirt

4. Any Tattoo's? No

5. Body piercing's? No

6. Do U love your job? Yes

7. Ever seen or been in a tornado? Yes

8. Favorite vacation spot? Family History Libray

9. Ever been to Africa? No

10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? yes

11. Been on TV? No

12. Ever stole a traffic sign? No

13. Ever been in a car accident? Yes, rear ended

14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? Generally

15. Favorite salad dressing? Bleu Cheese

16. Favorite Pie? Round

17. Favorite number? 13

18. Favorite movie? Mary Poppins

19. Favorite holiday? What ever's next

20. Favorite dessert? Ice Cream, Vanilla, French

21. Favorite food? Gum drops

22. Favorite day of the week? Not really

23. Favorite brand of body wash? No

24. Favorite Toothpaste? Crest

25. Favorite smell? The absence thereof

26. What do you do to relax? Do?

27. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Almost retired and still having fun

28. How many siblings do you have? 2 and 3 halfs

29. Furthest Place you will send this message? Not being sent

30. Who will respond to this the fastest? No clue

The Stake Conference that Wasn't A Stake Conference

So I received an invitiation a few weeks ago to attend a Field Training Meeting last Saturday morning from 8-noon - a training meeting for all Stake Presidencies and Bishops in our mission (9 stakes all together). Training us were Elder David A Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elders Jay Jensen, Bruce Hafen, and Tad Callister of the Seventy, and our local Area Authority Seventy. While they were in the neighborhood, there were also special meetings called for the missionaries, young single adults, and one for everyone in our Stake.

Everyone in the Stake knows that we have one of the largest two Stakes in a multi-state Area and that our Stake Presidency has been serving a long time - - and that we have a regulary scheduled Stake Conference in November, so RUMORS WERE FLYING! The Stake's going to be divided (the Stake next to us has 6 units, we have 12); attendance was at an all time high. People went home because there was NO PLACE TO SIT and HEAR. (Chairs were set up in the hall!). And as to the changes: ABSOLUTELY NONE! They really came, as they said, to visit with the members while they were "in the neighborhood".

A couple of highlights from the Saturday Training: 1)don't take copious notes - they distract from what is being taught and what you need to learn. What you learn may be totally unrelated to what the teacher is talking about; listen for those promptings that are unrelated (Yes, it's okay to zone out a bit and follow a train of thought). 2)when teaching, don't put people on the spot playing that "guess what's in my head" game: "Brother Jones, would you name the parts of the [fill in blank]?" As soon as a question like that is asked (especially by an Apostle), Brother Jones can't even remember his own name, let alone guess the three or six parts that the teacher is thinking about. That was from the first 15 minutes; and then it got better. I didn't take copious notes.

The Special-Stake-Meeting-that-Wasn't-a-Stake-Conference, was (except for not conducting Stake business - sustainings & releasings), suspiciously like a Stake Conference. We arrived at 9:20 for a 10:00 meeting - cars were already lining the neighborhood streets, the lot was fairly packed, and there was one spot on the street outside my office that we could parallel park in (I drive a small car and I CAN parallel park with relative ease). We walked in, I walked up to one of the ushers and asked for "a table for two", saw that the chapel was already full and went out to the opposite foyer to visit before heading back to the stage for a long distance view of the proceedings. The usher, I'd talked to then snagged me and said that there was room for two on the second row! C&MJ arrived at 10:30 (Jack-Jack was not awake in time) and got the no-room-in-the-inn, chairs in the hallway, and related issues that made it impossible to stay.

A couple of highlights from Elder Hafen's talk: he noted how we have moved over time from a culture of thrift to a culture of debt, reiterating the counsel to get out of debt. He also, referring to the difference between the hireling and the good shepherd (the hireling saves his own skin; the good shepherd saves the flock), said that too many marriages today are between partners that are hirelings - they cut and run at the first sign of trouble; and that we need to be good shepherds to one another.

Other cool stuff, but this post is a day late and too long already.

Mileage: 8.5 Conf; 6.5 EPrep

Baby You Can Drive My Car ...

The search is over. It runs well, and could use a little body work on the rear fenders. It's not a Festiva, but the evil cousin the GEO. We took it out for a test drive, and it runs well and even does highway speeds. The owner came along for the test drive and was impressed that I didn't kill the car. Evidently not too many people know how to handle a manual transmission.


Wed Mutual 8.5 (the older youth went to the People's Republic on a site seeing tour, but I stayed at the Church with the rest); Thurs 8.5 (council at Church); Sat Field Training Meeting 19 mi; Crew Social 45 mi; Sun more later... MTD 409

And the search goes on..... the search goes on....

There are too few Festivas, so I'm now also searching for Aspires, Justys and Swifts. I've found two Aspires. (Samara really loves the one - from what she's seen of a cell phone picture. Both have body damage. One's an automatic, the other a 5 speed. The automatic has a cracked window; both have a good deal of wear in the passenger compartment.

Wed: MIA 8.5; Sat Bldg Cleanup 8.5; (Thurs - forgot Aux Training 0 mi). Sun Church & Delivery: 26 mi; Mon: Crew 40 mi; MTD 328

Anyone got a good slightly used Festiva for sale?

Samara is itching to get her license. It's time to get another car. She's been looking on Craig's list and I get to follow her leads.

Tues: Temple 74 mi; MTD 255

The Long and Winding Road

So we went to the camporee... the FALL camporee, or so it was billed. It was COLD. If there had been snow on the ground to start with, it would have qualified as a Klondike Derby. The trip to the camp involved driving across town to the meeting point, heading up the highway to eat pizza, and then coming in the back way (70 miles from front door to camp). The trip home was considerably shorter: 40 miles. Between the snow storm (we ditched a little earlier on Saturday night than we had anticipated because the road is only plowed once a day in case of snow and didn't want to get stuck), and the fog (once we got down to lower elevations), it was a white knuckle drive.

The camporee was otherwise quiet; I've posted other comments about the trip (and post trip activities) on Berserk's (Awake and Unafraid) and Scooter's (most rediculously unbelievable day...) blogs, so there's not much more to say.

Mileage: Fri/Sat 110 mi; Sun 18 mi; tot MTD: 181 mi

Old Timers.... Not us!!!

Scooter was telling us about an old couple that had come into the restaurant to celebrate their anniversary. They were getting up there in years... it was one of those "milestone" anniversaries. Why, they must have been married for 35 years!!! (that's when mom got the offended look on her face... and explained that we were coming up on our 32nd and that we weren't old!!!). We were all laughing so hard that it took a bit of time for Scooter to finish the story. But it ended with a good tip!

Disney II

Another wonderful weekend. AND I got to go to two attractions that mom hadn't been on before (well technically one, because the other she'd been on with a passholder sneak preview):

1-Canada - the new film in 360 degree surround video. Martin Short makes what was once a very dry film worth seeing. Kind of like Soaring, without the motion - and standing instead of sitting.

2-Toy Story Arcade (ok - that's probably not the name, but you get the idea). After waiting in line for about a half hour, the ride was closed for maintenance... but we got back there JUST IN TIME - it was opening up and the line hadn't yet gotten long. Standing in line is part of the fun - the line follows a CandyLand board and has all sorts of neat toys to look at, with typical subtle humor - eg. US $4.95, $500 Canada. (and no, I didn't slip a decimal point). There's also an interactive Mr. Potato Head (which we didn't get to chat with, as the line was short when we went past).

I have enough days left on my pass for Jan 2010, so I guess this is my last trip for a while. Maybe I'll have to look at EuroDisney sometime in 2009.

Miles: Sun 28 8.5 (total for Sep=436); Wed 1 Mutual 8.5; Thurs 2 BpricTrng 8.5; Wed 8 Mutual (airport hangar) 36 mi. MTD: 53 mi