Goodbye January

January has been, on the whole, mild. The weather has been more like it ought to be in April, to be frank, meanwhile in Germany the above happens. My mother blogged (I am rubbing off on her I suppose) about the beautiful snow over there. I could blog about the nasty dirty slush in Utah, but I will refrain for the sake of everyone's illusions. To be fair to our creator, I will tell you that the weather we have been having is gorgeous- clear blue skies, warm breezes etc. I feel like a criminal saying it, but every once in a while I secretly give global warming a teensy thumbs up. No I don't! Who said that?! Not me. Global warming bad. Disney says so.

On a serious note: Haiti. Our ward did our part by throwing a bake sale. Which basically meant that we donated money and celebrated such my eating fancy treats. I used the opportunity to use my brand spanking new cupcake tier tray, complete with home-made (from scratch, thank you very much- none of this "add oil and eggs" rubbish) cupcakes, individually decorated. Flavours included chocolate orange, strawberry topped, jam filled, cream filled, chocolate chip, pecan topped, sprinkled, etc. Noteworthy baked treats include the above featured. A special shout out (yes, I am shouting out) goes to Sean Southerland who made HOME MADE ICE CREAM. Consider me officially topped in any sort of home-making. Though I did not congratulate him in person, I was impressed, to say the very least. And hope, if he reads, that he will one day show me how to made ice cream.

I went to the BYU/Utah Basketball game. BYU and Utah, for those of you that do not know, are perhaps the most rivaled schools in the Mountain West Conference. So this game was jam packed and quite a big deal. It was a close game and some fists were even thrown (the fists were, of course, those of the Ute's). Nevertheless, BYU players such as Jimmer Fredette (a personal fave) led us to victory. Of course. I was glad also, for personal reasons, to see the Utes defeated and humiliated. Which is probably not very Christ-like.

A couple of thoughts I had while sitting in the stands:

a) when the opposing team has the ball the crowd would jeer, which struck me as something relatable to the great and spacious building, spoken of by Lehi.

b) once upon a time, just as many people would get together and cheer/ get excited by gladiators killing each other and/or wild animals.

Both of my thoughts were not really entertained by the people I was with, but I really think they have merit, hence my blogging them.

Meanwhile in Frankfurt, Connor eats snow. The number of times I did this as a kid are uncountable- though I was never bold enough to get a bowl and spoon. Does everyone eat snow?

Also, you should know about Logan and Connor and their sportishness. Connor plays on the rugby team and took his very first "business trip" to Brussels to play the international team there. Logan continues to be the star of practically every physical feat at his school, this semester on the Basketball team. I bet he could play for BYU if he wanted...

In other news, We ought to all take a moment to recognize the passing of perhaps one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. J.D. Salinger passed away this week. I would post a picture but I think he would have seen that as an invasion of privacy. Salinger wrote a number of short stories and the ever unpopular (but ultimately VERY popular) "The Catcher in the Rye". It was the only novel published, after which he retreated to a life of relative solitude. Heaven only knows what treasures are in his New Hampshire home, waiting to NOT be published. The biggest disappointment I have is the nobody ever got a decent interview out of him. But perhaps this is a good thing: too many things are no longer a mystery these days. So. If you haven't already, read "The Catcher in the Rye" or at least Wikipedia it.