What we did this summer - Idaho

On Pioneer Day (July 24) we drove to Idaho. Our primary mission was for me to have an informal interview with the econ department chair at BYU-Idaho where I would have loved to get a job offer. I did get a formal interview later but as of this point the answer is not this year. It was very nice of the chair to make time for me.



Idaho is also where Joy's father (DeWayne Lazenby) and the grandfather I'm named (that would be Derrill One) after are from. After visiting Rexburg, we drove a couple hours to Albion where her father is buried. Albion, population 267. In case any others of Joy's family visit the gravesite, there are some pictures to help you find the plot below the fold.



The cemetery is next door to an emu farm, so that's a good clue.


We were surprised to find another relative there next to DeWayne. Joy's best guess is that DeWayne's adopted stepson, Michael, had a son, David Lazenby 1996-2011, and buried him next to DeWayne. We're not positive, though.




Joy sat next to the grave and told the kids some stories about her father and the happy times. We left him some flowers we picked up next to BYU-I.

We pulled in to Snowville afterwards but I already told you about that, so I'll spare you.

What we did this summer - Timp

Way back in July, we took the family to Mount Timpanogos to go hiking through the caverns. It was a perfect day to take off. In the canyon it is at least 10 degrees cooler than in Provo/Orem, and of course in the cave it's down in the freezing temperature range.

I had checked Google maps and found out how long it took to get there. We left with oodles of time. We arrived only to discover that Google map only takes you to the entrance to the park. It's another half hour's drive to the ranger station! We drove on in and were told we'd have to book it to make our scheduled tour and that all the tours for the day were packed full so if we missed it they couldn't fit us in later. It's a mile and a half walk (not bad...) straight up (stink...).

"Oh, and you can't use your stroller."








Aack. That's going to make this whole two-year-old-with-us thing much more difficult.

A very traditional Thanksgiving

Left to right: cole slaw, cranberry sauce, some bird,
apple pie I mistook for meat pie, carrots, wait-that's-not-chocolate-
it's-a-cinnamon-brownie!, rice that's hotter than the hot sauce,
and some kind of crumble that was too hot for me.

The last two years, I think I've done better at celebrating Nostalgia Day than Thanksgiving Day. While still being thankful overall, I thought a lot about what was missing, what was unusual, what was uncanny, and especially what was just Wrong about Thanksgiving in Nigeria. Much of it isn't even Nigeria's fault - I mean, in order to be a Traditional Thanksgiving, it has to be at my aunt's house, the one they sold more than 20 years ago. Some crowning foods just don't exist here.

I wondered what traditions and nostalgias my little boy was picking up, celebrating American Thanksgiving in Nigeria. Would I some day read his blog post titled "It's just not Thanksgiving without jollof rice and bleached cabbage"?

Ah well. We do the best we can. We are grateful for what we have, not for what we don't, right? Of course right. AUN is a wonderful institution for even planning a big celebration.

Today though I realized I am actually celebrating a Very Traditional Thanksgiving. In some ways, you can't get more traditional than to celebrate Thanksgiving as an expat.

My four pilgrim forefathers who were there on the Mayflower were wanderers in a strange land, a tiny and very opinionated minority in a land of people who looked and spoke differently and who ate strange foods. The first two years were very hard. They watched as friends left one by one - in their case to death and in mine to other jobs in other lands. Finally they threw off their socialist ideals, embraced private property, and enjoyed the bounties of the land with new friends. As far as Hallmark versions of the holiday go, I think I've done this just about right!

I leave for home in two weeks. 14 days. I am thankful for the number 14.

The Passive-Aggressive Professor

On Thursday one of my classes was decidedly empty - only 2 students showed up, and both of them were more than 10 minutes late. I was ready to leave.

Today there was no one there at 8-10 minutes late and I was getting mighty frustrated. Finally most of the class showed up. There was a quiz today and they did not have much time left to solve it.

Because most of the class was not there on Thursday, I decided to be a very nice guy and hold some extra class time after our normal class to review what they missed. When normal class ended, I told them they were free to go and, if anyone wanted, I would quickly review what we did last time.

When someone grumbled about not wanting to stay for an extra hour and a half, I told them I needed to catch my bus too; this would be mighty fast. And then I said something in all sincerity:

"I'm just doing something nice to be of service and help. Don't feel that you have a responsibility to stay."

I meant that. I was not providing a burden of guilt.

I wanted them to feel that I was being helpful, and if it wasn't helpful, they should go do something else.

But as soon as the words were out of mouth, I heard a different prof with a different voice use those exact same words to mean the exact opposite. "How dare you be so ungrateful! Here I am busting my chops, taking all this extra time so you lazy ...." ouch.

So if any of you are my students, just know that I meant what I said sincerely and please don't take it the wrong way.

What we did this summer: fireworks

One of the nice parts of living in Utah this summer was fireworks. These are two pictures from the first time we got them out on July 4.

Superstar was rather concerned about them at first and it took a lot of coaxing to get him to hold the sparkler. (Careful daddy is happy - this will keep him safe. Funloving daddy is sad - he was really missing out.)

Princess took her cue from Superstar. After trying out some sparklers and a few small-grade fountains during the day, the kids were clearly not up for more.

So Joy and I lit off most of them at night while they were in bed. Ha ha! See what happens when you don't enjoy the special treat we prepare for you.

By Pioneer Day (July 24), though, the kids were rather more interested and we did some more together. Even though we got back from Idaho very late at night, we let Superstar stay up to watch some more with some neighbors and we finished off our very large box.

Successful dieting

Nigeria on the whole is good for my waistline. Summers in the US are ... not. Despite every effort I can think of I tend to gain a pound a week* each summer I went back home. Simply returning to Nigeria this year took off 6-10 pounds in ONE week.**

Delicious camel eyes

To get the rest off, I set myself a goal to lose a pound a week. Any morning I was below my target I could eat whatever I wanted within reason. Any morning I was below I had egg and toast for breakfast and dinner and a great many fruits and vegetables for lunch at the cafeteria.

As of this week I've officially returned to my pre-summer weight and can now enjoy contemplating knocking it down another 5 pounds or so before I return for Christmas, potentially tying or surpassing my lowest recorded weight in the last 10 years. If I were to keep this up through next semester, I would be within 20 pounds of my ideal weight. Now that would be something!

The other great thing is that this is something I can keep up in the US.

This is also to say I've had a great many days of vegetarian eating, if not veganism.*** I picked eggs because they give me some proper protein, my body metabolizes cholesterol gloriously, they are cheap, and I really like eggs and toast. I haven't gotten tired of them yet. The lack of variety around here to begin with is quite helpful in sticking to it.

The Words of General Conference, Oct 13

Last week was the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My internet connection was significantly better than in conferences past, so I was actually able to not only listen to but watch most of conference. I was very happy about that.

To summarize each talk into one short phrase, personal conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ and joyfully enduring to the end were emphasized most heavily. We were warned repeatedly to get our priorities in order, particularly the two great commandments and the second of the 10 commandments. We had three talks each on women and the priesthood, reactivation, and missionary work. Two talks each focused on the Atonement, healing, and priesthood duties. Of other commandments, we were told to be humble, pay tithing, keep the Sabbath day holy, and honor our bodies as the temples of our spirits. We were also encouraged to listen to General Conference, learn the Articles of Faith, and be better teachers.

Last April I did a post on the words used at General Conference. I'm largely going to ignore the words that were used about the same between each conference and focus instead on what was different in this conference from the last. As before, I'm only using the words said at least once per talk (more than 34 times), of which there are about 115 instead of 99.

Princess' favorite books

One of the best parts of my day happens about 6:30-7:30pm when I spend lunch time with Joy and Princess on Skype. Yes, they are the ones having lunch, not me. When Princess is all done eating, I get a chance to read her a story before quiet time.

Her two most favorite books that I still have over here are Hop on Pop and Owl Babies. She asks for each of them regularly if I don't try to shape her choice. She also goes for The Bus for Us, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and The Tawny Scrawny Lion that I used to enjoy as a boy. She never asks for it, but always enjoys it when I pull out Shel Silverstein.

I gotta say, some books are a lot easier to read on Skype than others. I essentially have to turn the pages completely away from me so she can see them. Both of her favorites are easy. In the case of Hop on Pop, it's because there are very few words on a page, so I can look at the words very quickly and know what to say while I show her the book. Owl Babies is very nice because the words are on one page and the pictures on the other, so I can bend the book in two and just show her picture after picture. By now I have all seven verses of Itsy Bitsy memorized, so that one is simple on my end, except there are very few words on each page so I have turn them pretty quickly while I sing and the poor video connection doesn't always give her time to see the picture clearly before it's time to move on.

Princess gives a cookie to a dragon. Om nom nom nom.

Tawny Scrawny isn't bad - there are a lot of words on each page, but thankfully the pictures on the wrong page generally work very well for the words on the page I'm reading, so I can cheat. But the Toy Story 3 drawing book is terrible because the interesting words are on the interesting page and because it's a mammoth board book I can't bend it. The Bus for Us is very repetitive and when Skype shows me the miniature picture of what I'm showing her, I can identify the truck and give the right line.

It's really cute to see what parts she likes to read too. Her favorite parts are still hopping on Pop and Mr. Brown being upside down. She just picked up that her father can read big words too, like ... "Constantinople and Timbuktu," which is adorable out of a two year old's mouth.

You knew I was coming back.
I knew it, said Sarah.
I knew it, said Percy.
I love my Mommy, said Bill

Sometimes I think about Owl Babies while I'm reading it. This is dangerous. I think about a little girl who loves her daddy, but he's not there. I love to testify that Daddy will come home again. I was daydreaming this week of hopping on a plane or four after class Thursday and just showing up at their door Friday evening to spend a long weekend during fall break. They would jump up and down and scream in their surprise. Then I might say in my best owl mother voice, "What's all the fuss? You knew I was coming back." Then they would think (all my owl children think a lot). Maybe one of them will say, "I love my Daddy."

Like Father, Like Son: Cheesy Rice

Superstar's stomach has not been the happiest member of the Watson household in the last month. He's had more morning sickness lately that Joy has in all her pregnancies. In all our searching for solutions, Joy mentioned to him one day that when my stomach is upset, I really like to eat rice with melted cheese, "cheesy rice."

Superstar thought about that idea. He loves cheese. He likes rice. Maybe they might taste good together. Maybe. Could he try some please?

So Joy made him some cheesy rice. He loved it. He loved it so much it has become his favorite food in the world. He would eat cheesy rice every meal if he could. And it does seem to be helping his stomach a little.

I have often wondered if and when Superstar and I could share a favorite food. So far his eating patterns and mine have been so far apart it seemed hopeless. So for him to find a similar favorite food is a very pleasant thing for me. As I sit here eating my own cheesy rice (plus taco meat and salsa) while writing a macroeconomics midterm, I'm thankful and thinking of my far-distant son.

Mencken on Democracy

Henderson and Mingardi shared some Mencken quotes last month about Democracy that I'm enjoying a little too much as I teach my Public Choice class.

Democracy is the theory that the common man knows what he wants and deserves to get it, good and hard.
If x is the population of the United States and y is the degree of imbecility of the average American, then democracy is the theory that x*y is less than y.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.