A new game for long drives

We have a card game that we revised the rules for. Each card has a character, a place, an event, or some other element of a fairy tale story. In our version of the game, you are dealt a random hand of 4-7 cards depending on the age of the person and a "they lived happily ever after card" that gives them a goal. The person's job is to come up with a story using all those cards to reach that ending.

I modified that game further. Instead of using the cards at all or generic fairy tale inhabitants, I made a list of characters from fictional works we five Watsons know, a place, and a mission. With only those few elements, we come up with a story.

On a recent long drive, we told the tale of:

• How Legolas and Christoff escaped from the Hundred Acre Wood
• How Sir Robin the not-quite-as-brave-as-Sir-Lancelot and Jiminy Cricket escorted a princess from Uluru to the Sydney Opera House. (It involved a lot of running away!)
• How Princess Buttercup and Bashful the Dwarf stopped the evil wizard of Motunui.
• How Molly Weasley met up with her old flame, Jafar, at WalMart one day and they forgave each other for the misunderstandings and heartbreak that marked their time at Hogwarts (before Molly met Arthur, obviously).

My favorite was Superstar's insightful tale of how Mother Gothel and the young Tom Riddle traveled to the year 2323 to obtain a powerful device that would grant them immortality. They only found one seed that could grow the medicial herb that would cure any ailment, including old age. So Gothel betrayed Tom and sent him back to the orphanage, escaping with the golden seed. And it is because of this story that Tom Riddle was so obsessed with avoiding death and becoming immortal himself, setting him up to become You-Know-Who!

Judging from the kids' reactions, this new one is a harder game, but they enjoy the stories we do come up with more.

My random number generator tells me the next stories will somehow involve Abu the monkey and George Jetson finding a lost dog (Astro?) in Paris, France. We may also learn about how Grand Moff Tarkin and Aragorn sail to the promised land (South Africa?)

We went to DisneyWorld in Feburary 2022 - a conversation

<Each paragraph begins with the name or letter of whoever says it. If there is no introductory letter, then it's me, Derrill>

My dad speaks at a regular pension conference in Orlando, Florida each February. That has become a convenient opportunity for him to take some or all of his family with for some Disney World fun. We hoped to go up in 2021, but couldn't for obvious reasons, but made it this year.

To prepare, we went back to the very beginning, Snow White, and watched all the animated Disney movies up to around the 1980s before the trip happened. This was a project we spent many months on because we watch movies so infrequently.

Joy: We also watched Youtube videos about some of the rides. The kids enjoyed that. They made a list of rides they wanted to go on at each park. We also prepared our Disney points

By spending money on our Disney credit card to get Disney dollars back

Joy: So we could spend them at the parks.

Since we had also managed a trip to DisneyLand in the summer of 21 when Aunt Virginia died, that also helped the kids, and JT especially, get ready for the larger park and get some of our favorites done in the same year at least. My brother's family joined us for the trip to Disneyland, but couldn't come for Disney World.

Superstar had been to Disneyworld and Disneyland as a toddler, but had no memory. Princess had also been to one but didn't remember. So these trips were the "first" times going to Disney for all the kids!

Pop, Emie with baby Lucy, Steve, Princess and A
JT, Grandma, Joy, Superstar, and Derrill

Codex Boturini as read by a Latter-day Saint

Back in the mid-1700s there was a fellow named Boturini who traveled through Central America gathering historical writings about the Aztecs and other native peoples. The Codex that bears his name depicts the story the Azteca/Mexica people told about where they came from and some of their history. Here is part of the first page:

First I'm going to quote the Wiki article on Codex Boturini, then I'm going to reread it the way it sounds to me.

The codex depicts the events of the Mexica migration from Aztlán and their history from the years 1168 to 1355 AD.^[3] It begins with a priest leading Chimalma, fabled ancestor of the Azteca, from Aztlán via a boat.^[18] Once they arrive at the shore, near Colhuacan, they build a sheltered altar for their god, Huitzilopochtli, who ordered this migration.^[19] There they also encounter eight tribes that desire to accompany the Azteca.^[20][d] The Azteca agree and the nine tribes set out under the leadership of the four god-bearers, Chimalma, Apanecatl, Cuauhcoatl, and Tezcacoatl, each carrying a tlaquimilolli.^[21]

Over folios 3 and 4, the Azteca are transformed into the Mexica when Huitzilopochtli chooses them to be his people and teaches them to sacrifice blood to him. He also instigates the split of the Mexica from the other eight tribes ... . An Aztec (left) carries out Huitzilopochtli's instruction to break from the other eight tribes in a nighttime discussion. ...

What I hear:

It begins with a priest named Lehi, traveling from Jerusalem via a boat [1st Nephi 2-17]. Once they arrive at the shore, they build an altar for their god, Jehovah, who ordered this migration [1st Nephi 18]. They also encounter other people who accompany them, under the leadership of his four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The Lehites are transformed into Nephites when God chooses them to be his people and teaches them to sacrifice [animal] blood to him. He tells Nephi to split from the other tribes [before they kill him]. Nephi and the righteous flee in the nighttime [2nd Nephi 5].

For a mostly-oral tradition passed down over 1000 years until it's drawn up in the Codex, I find the parallels between the journeys more than coincidental. I found Boturini from reading Elder Moses Thatcher's pamphlet, Divine Origin of the Book of Mormon from the 1880s. 

The Articles of Food

(A parody of the "Articles of Faith" by Joseph Smith that the children and I worked on at the dinner table tonight.)

1. We believe in the use of forks, knives, spoons, cups, plates, tortilla shells, sandwich bread, and so forth.

2. We claim the privilege of eating healthy foods according to the dictates of our own tastes and allergies, and allow all our children the same privilege, let them avoid meat, dairy, or whatever else they will.

3. We believe that a man will suffer for his own poor eating choices and not for those of the person sitting next to him.

4. We believe that all mediocre food may be saved by application of the condiments and sauces of the kitchen.

5. We believe that the first condiments and sauces of the kitchen are: first, salt; second, Lawry's; third, immersion in ketchup; fourth, laying on of cheesy white sauce.

6. We believe in the literal gathering of ingredients.

7. We believe that a cake must be made by Mom by yumminess and by the laying on of ice cream.

8. We believe in being polite, chewing slowly, not talking with our mouth full, maintaining pleasant conversation, and in blessing the hands of the person who made the food; indeed we may say that we follow the recipes of Alton Brown: we eat all cuisines, we have learned many recipes and hope to be able to learn all the recipes; if there is anything yummy, healthy, of artistic presentation, or praiseworthy, we seek after these meals.

For the record, we do not believe in the same diet that existed in the pre-historic days, namely the Paleo Diet - in case anyone wondered. We also recognize that some of these things we believe in are aspirational in nature. :)

Moscow 2 - assorted architecture and art

I enjoyed my walks from the hotel to the metro and then to the university. Aside from the Christmas decorations I mentioned in my last about my January trip 10 months ago, I enjoyed the architectural motifs, the murals, the statues, and other works of art around the area. Here are some of the pictures I took that fit in that category:

Moscow State University's admin building. It's worth googling to see some amazing shots!

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed - I was interested to learn that St. Basil's is only one of the domes here, and not even the largest.

Kazan Cathedral, also on the Red Square

This building is undergoing construction, so they put a screen up on it and at night this was projected on/through it. During the daylight I never knew this was the building I was passing.

A mural of Napoleon's defeat in the subway station

I stood staring at this building for a long time, noticing at every moment yet another decoration engraved on its surface. Doesn't look like much from this size - click to enlarge.

I appreciate the significance of a mural of people being watched under a magnifying lens in Moscow.

The church by the hotel

Of course there are many stalls and stores willing to sell things to tourists on the Red Square (capitalism!) and I was quite taken in by this display. Faberge eggs have long been a favorite in my family going back generations.

Falliage

 We enjoyed driving through the Stephenville foliage after church. No, it's not upstate New York foliage, but it's nice in its own way. One of our favorite trees was ours. Here are pictures of each of us trying to climb our tree. Happy autumn!

Moscow's Christmas in January

My side-gig these days is as a short term consultant for the World Bank to assist the Eurasian Center for Food Security in Moscow, Russia. The World Bank and ECFS hire researchers to produce case studies about food security in Eastern Europe/Western Asia. I came out in Nov 2016 to help the first cohort of case study authors learn how to adapt their case studies so they could be used by teachers and demonstrate to interested faculty and students at Moscow State University how to teach with case studies. I gave a couple presentations that were very well received, but didn't hear anything else about it for a long time. 

In 2019 the World Bank asked if I would grab a colleague (Jim Gentry!) to run a week-long all-day intensive training program for professors in the area to learn how to teach using case studies. It was a wonderful experience, and it occurred to me this week (for reasons that will become clear in a future post) that I never blogged about that wonderful experience.

So I spent the last week of January in Moscow! Russia celebrates Christmas later than we do, on January 7 (blame the Gregorian/Julian calendar switch). That meant the Christmas decorations were still up when we were there. Here are some pictures and videos of Christmas in Moscow:

An Unexpected Journey, part 4 - The Voyage Home

After the funeral, we picked up some more ice cream from the Creamery across the street and some Tiny Spicy and joined the other kids at the park.

Princess @I liked the swings because I got to play when I first got there. After that I ate some lunch and I played with my cousins. It was really fun.@

Superstar ~At the beginning I was just walking around, not really doing anything. I ended up playing a little bit with JT on the playground set and then pushing Princess on the tire swing. There were other small kids that joined the tire swing, but all of them left dizzy.~

Takes after his old man.

S: ~It was sad when we had to say goodbye to all the rest of our family. I also got to dip my toes in the really cold water on the really hot day.~

John-Thomas #During the park, I did this amazing thing. I didn't know how to get down. I was stuck. But then I found a cool way to get down: I could jump! The first time I jumped, hoping I would land on my feet. When my feet slammed into the ground, it was so hard that I had to use my hands. I tried over and over and I finally made the point where I jumped off and I didn't have to use anything to get down. So I showed Superstar and I think I showed Princess, and then I did it a couple more times. And then we left.#

Joy: "We sat by Dustin and Christine. It was nice to spend some time with them."

Friday after dinner at the park we drove 5 hours into Colorado and stopped at a hotel in Grand Junction. I brought in the luggage and carried my sleeping children to the room. When Princess woke up, she felt very grateful, because she knew I must have carried her into the soft bed.

S: ~In the hotel, they s a i d they served breakfast.~

My future football players, tired after a hard game

One of the biggest impacts of Covid to our trip was the devastation of the hotel breakfast bar. Our Grand Junction hotel at least made an attempt. There were empty bowls for fruit, and some pomegranate juice, but there was also a nice lady who would drop a premade omelets and some bacon into a paper box for you to take with you. Princess and I got a couple. That was something at least.

S: ~When we [S, JT, J] came to her, she had run out of omelette, so we only got a little bacon and I'm a vegetarian! At our second hotel, they had a bag with an apple - just an apple, not cut up and stuff - and a granola bar and a bottle of water. I was expecting, like, a waffle bar or something, but it was all closed because they didn't want anyone touching their stuff. I don't know why they couldn't have cooked the waffles for us. It was really frustrating.~

JT: #Why? They gave us food.#

We stopped by my Uncle Sherm for brunch and a game of Uno. His kids were in town, but most had left again before we got there. We all needed to sleep in after the week we'd had.

S: ~At Uncle Sherm's we got to have Eggo Waffles for the first time. They go in the toaster and come out as nice little cooked waffles. We played Uno three times: I won one; Princess won one; and Sherm won one.~

Then we drove up the road a piece to visit my Aunt Virginia near Aspen. We met each other halfway and had lunch. You may remember the post about things my kids said and the episode with the elk burger. That was here. That was fun. John-Thomas ate a lot of chips.

JT: #Yeah :)#

S: ~I got to show Aunt Virginia some magic tricks, like she picks a number on a clock face and I guessed what number she ended up on. I got to have noodles with Parmesan cheese and french fries.~

It was very nice to spend time with Virginia again. We're hoping to drive out and see her a couple more times this summer.

J: "I love Aunt Virginia. I'm so glad she felt well enough to come see us. And I was overwhelmed by her gratitude and how much she loved us being there."

We drove the rest of the day and night, finally stopping just inside the Texas border on Sunday. This part of our journey was really hit by Covid. We had discovered just before the funeral that my white shirt was missing. I had borrowed one from Fran's husband, Casey, for the funeral, but I didn't have one for Sunday. So we tried to stop at a WalMart in Colorado. There were police officers at each one, waving people along because they were closed. The website claimed they were open until 8:30 and we had plenty of time before then! We asked one of the police at the second WalMart what was going on, and CO had declared WalMart needed to close at 5. Here it was 5:15 and 5:30, so we just missed it. :(

Then we needed gas and potties along the road, and the gas stations and restaurants were a lot less willing than usual to let people use the facilities. We had to stop several times just to find a bathroom - for paying customers only. We were good and had worn our masks most anywhere we got out along the way, but that road is no longer traveler-friendly. Plan on shorter driving days or else leave a lot earlier in the morning. We were fortunate to have a little kids' potty in the car.

Sunday we decided the bishop had given us permission to have sacrament in our home, and our home that day was the hotel. So we took the sacrament, trusting that God will accept the good intentions and drove the rest of the way home. We almost made it on just the one tank of gas, but not quite. I had forgotten about the time zone change, and if I had remembered we would have stopped a little closer to home so we could make it in one tank. We listened to scriptures and conference talks and played the Ungame and gospel trivia as we drove. The last day's drive didn't take very long and we made it home around dinner time.

J: "It was nice to stay in hotels on the way back even if they didn't have a breakfast. I appreciated a comfy place to sleep, and happy children during the day."

JT: #I really like driving. I get to play DS! I don't like squishy beds. I'm glad I'm home and get to have my normal bed because I'm six years old.#

S: ~Driving on Sunday was pretty hard because we don't get to do the things we normally do on drives. And there was only one movie we got to watch: Fantasia 2000. And at the end of every song, we had to stop and talk about what it meant. A lot of looking out the window took place then. And my iPad managed to stay at 1% the entire drive because I forgot to charge it that night and it stayed on that line between alive and dead without crossing over the entire drive. That was a nice miracle.

All the kids are really good travelers. They are much better behaved as a rule on the road than I was as a kid, or than they are at home even, so we enjoy these long trips. And the next few days, everyone is so thankful to have more space again that we have greater peace than normal.

J: "It was really nice, driving out to visit my mom because I feel more in control when I'm driving than flying. It was nice after my mom died to feel like I was in control. I appreciate, Derrill, that you would just let us drive through. I was sorry for the kids' discomfort, but it was nice for me to be able to just drive through until we got there."

An Unexpected Journey, part 3 - Speaker for the Dead

Aunt Coralee offered to host a picnic get-together before the funeral. We decided that having the kids run around at a park before time to be reverent was not the best strategy, so we sent Joy by herself as a family rep.

Joy: "My sister Fran offered to take me so that I could leave the car behind. I'm glad that she decided to come with me. She even stayed for a little while. It was great to see some of my mom's family. My mom's family always used to get together for Thanksgiving and a family reunion in the summer, but after my grandma died it's mostly been for funerals and maybe special birthdays. So it was really sweet to have Coralee invite people to get together, like old times.

"My aunt Carla was there with Jackie and her daughter, . Brent and Howard were there and Howard's daughter that's Christine's friend. My uncle Dennis and his wife and her daughter were there. My aunt Wendy and my uncle Blair came. I haven't seen either one of them since they got married, or nearly so. It was really nice to seem them. I had felt really close to them as a kid. I had hardly recognized Aunt Wendy. Actually, I saw Aunt Wendy on my way out to Pennsylvania; I stayed overnight in her house in Ohio."

"My aunt Carla passed out family group sheets and she visited my mom every week in Ogden before Covid happened. She had told me that she felt like she was standing in the place of my mom's Mom, who would visit her that regularly if she could. It was always on Sunday. My aunt Rose came. I've always really loved my aunt Rose. Her husband is not doing well, and stays in their home all year long. I got to hear about that because I told her to remember to tell him to behave and be nice to her because he always used to tease her in public."

"My aunt Nonie was there with her new husband. It was nice to meet him - seems calm and reserved. I'm sure that's why they suit each other. Nonie's kind of quiet. But anytime I tried to talk to him, he was very eager to talk to me."

Sounds like me!

"And of course Dustin and Christine came with their children. Christine expressed a desire, quite persistently, that she wanted them to come and visit us in Texas. That just made me so happy! She even talked about doing so this year. :)   I'm going to need to follow up. I really had a good time visiting with the people I love in my mom's family."

DeWayne, Doug, and Dustin - sons
Christopher, Jude, Superstar, Sammy, and Anna - grandchildren

Superstar ~ I got to be a pall bearer for the funeral, which was very exciting. ~

"Jake and Amy came for the funeral" even though they are on your dad's side of the family. "I think though it has to do with Doug making such close friends with people. He had some friends there from high school!

There was a canopy set up outside at the gravesite. It was a hot day, so most people either congregated inside the canopy or in the shade of the trees around. It was quite a good turnout, with maybe 10-20% wearing masks for Covid.

Uncle DeWayne conducted the service. It was recorded on a webcam and is preserved for posterity here*****. Uncle Doug gave the official talk about life. He took Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead" as an inspiration, trying to tell a deeper truth about life and Mom - not glossing over the hard times and human foibles, but still in an attempt to honor their mother. I was particularly impressed with the rhetorical flourish near the end, when he shared something along the lines of 'She didn't teach us responsibility, but she taught us independence. She didn't give us _this___, but she gave us __that_____.' It was very poetic.

Dustin, Fran, Joy, Doug, DeWayne

His talk gave others permission to also be honest yet kind. He and they mentioned the poverty she always lived in. We heard about how the family didn't have food some days, about needing to move from place to place often, about the judgment they faced from others in the community. And yet despite it all, she was loving and kind and forgiving; she held firm to her love of Jesus and the gospel.

John-Thomas # I liked the broom talk. That was really fun. Like, "Ahhhh! I'm coming for you with the broom!"#

Uncle Doug told a favorite story of his mother. He, DeWayne, and Joy were sharing a room in the attic. DeWayne and Joy were asleep, but Doug was running and jumping around until his mother called upstairs to get him to stop. He didn't. She warned that she was going to come upstairs with a broom. Li'l Dougie poked his head around the corner and saw her marching up the stairs with a broom.

Uhoh! Quickly he jumped into bed and pretended to be asleep. His mom entered the room, looked around at three "sleeping" forms and announced, "Alright! Who's really sleeping and who's just pretending?!" Then she took the broom and WHAPPED DeWayne multiple times. Doug laid in bed, silently laughing to himself. Until his mother left the room and DeWayne returned the favor, that is.

JT #That one was funny.#

They had some time for anyone who wanted to to come up and share thoughts and feelings and memories about Grandma Joy. Superstar and Princess both did.

S ~ I spoke about how we went to Grandma Joy's nursing home and they had some of the yummiest hot chocolate there. I always looked forward to going there to have the hot chocolate because I was 8 the last time I had seen her. At the end I got to place the pall-bearer flower from my shirt on the casket. ~

In his closing remarks, DeWayne mentioned that mom was not very good with the Rules of the gospel, but she taught her children to Love the gospel.

J: "Mom always took us to church. Some people who get excommunicated don't come to church anymore, but my mom never stopped going."

For those who don't know, Mom did come back into full fellowship and died in the faith. Many people praised her acceptance and non-judgmental attitude. I had thought of sharing about how she accepted me with open arms, but Mari and Amy gave very similar accounts of how welcoming she was already, and I wanted to leave more time for people actually related to her.

Sister Paige, who led music and was a close family friend, was there and shared some very interesting family experiences "in a big white van." Aunt Coralee accompanied the congregation on the mandolin, singing "You Are My Sunshine" and "I Often Go Walking". So overall it was an interesting graveside service. My favorite line was one of her brothers saying, "Elona always loved men" and describing how as a toddler she would follow just about any male around. She would get into strange men's cars without them knowing about it. She was too young to know her address, and so the folks just took her to the police station. The police would give her a cookie and call her folks to say Elona was there again. "She thought that was a great time." We've occasionally had one of our kids wander off, but never for more than 15-30 minutes. We can't even imagine how much we would freak out if, Princess say, decided to wander into strangers' cars. "Eek!" Some people will say that life is different today, but I tend to think that people haven't actually changed that much - most people are decent. We just hear a lot more about the scary things. Anyway.

J: "DeWayne ended by talking about forgiveness. That week I decided to practice forgiving at a deeper level as well."

Things my children have said (mostly JT)

Someone reminded me recently to make a copy of these somewhere other than Facebook. So here are some fascinating things my kids have come out with in the last month or so.

June 14 - Superstar was examining his cargo pants for the first time. Together we wrote a parody to the tune of "Hinges"

I'm all made of pockets, cause everything opens

From the top of my pants, way down to my toes.

I've pockets in front and I've pockets in back.

If I didn't have pockets I wouldn't have pants!

June 10 - John-Thomas says, "Fear me, for I am cute!" He also says, "Happily ever after happens when you get married, and not to the wrong person. And when your life is over."

June 7 - As we drove through Colorado on Saturday, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. I was talking to JT about whether he would like a regular burger or an elk burger, and explained that the difference was that one of them he was eating an elk and the other he was eating a cow.

JT: I want a regular burger. Don't kill the innocent animal!

Superstar, our resident demi-vegetarian, quickly leaned over and informed him that cows are innocent animals too. But this had no effect.

JT further explained: When you kill the innocent animal, you shed its blood and you shouldn't eat the blood.

June 1 - As we drove up to UT we were playing a religious trivia game.

JT said, "Come on, brain! Tell me the answer!"

We asked him, "If President Nelson died, who would become the next prophet?" He answered, "Daddy!" Terrifying thought, really, though it's nice to know I have his vote of confidence for now.

May 24 - Overheard at church: Jesus had to suffer and die, and you have to eat the crust.

May 20 - I wish I could remember what originally prompted JT to say "That warms my heart," but he has learned that we think it's cute so now he comes out with it at random moments. Looking through his schoolwork for Kindergarten, he occasionally announced to Joy, "This is my greatest creation!"

May 18 - Princess declared during dinner: "Chicken are almost fish. If only they were a bit more curved and didn't have a beak and had a tail instead of legs and scales instead of feathers."

Superstar suggested they might need gills too.

"Gills come with the scales!"

May 16 - My favorite part about introducing Raiders of the Lost Ark to Superstar was when they started explaining the ark was the ultimate weapon, that any army that carried it into battle couldn't be defeated. Superstar blurted out something like, "No! It's not the ark that's a weapon! Come on! It's keeping your covenants with God that gave the Isrealites power, and when they broke their covenants they lost!"