Saints vs. Colts: Superbowl XLIV for the innocent bystander

-Well, it’s that time of year again, though the storyline this year has been a little more interesting than it normally has been. This year could be described as the Year of the Quarterback, with the four finalist offenses being led by outstanding quarterbacks (Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Mark Sanchez). This has made the games even more entertaining than usual, especially if you’re a defensive back.

As we enter the week preceeding this master of television ratings, numerous stories emerge, many of them being extremely interesting and highly publicized and not worth putting in this article. Numerous questions emerge on Twitter and Facebook (ex: Will Dwight Freeney play on his hurt ankle?, or How did Dwight Freeney get such a weird name, anyway?). To gain good perspective on this massive event, one must learn to see through the smokescreen of obscure blogs and online publications and peer into the inner sanctum of Pro Football. That’s right: take a look at the Meaningful Questions.

There are two questions for the first-time Saints, the first one being how they are going to try and contain Peyton Manning, who is at the top of his game and is hungry for a second superbowl ring. Peyton is arguably the best quarterback under pressure in the NFL (or National Football League, for those of you who really have got no clue whatsoever.) Peyton has never been sacked more than two times in his two playoff games this season behind his fortress of an offensive line. He was sacked(tackled) twice by the Jets in the first half, then got up, shook off the dust, and won the game for the Colts. Said a teammate of his determination, “He just won’t let us lose.” Peyton is known for his ability to battle through games.

The second question for the Saints is how they’re going to take advantage of Dwight Freeney’s recent 3^rd degree ankle injury. The Colts lost one of the league’s best blind-side pass rushers (guys who the quarterback can’t see who run up and tackle him just for kicks.) His injury will likely open the game up to the long-ball loving Drew Brees, as it will give him much more time to get the guys he likes to throw to down the field. Because of this, the running game will be a bit looser as well, mostly because the Colts will then have the long passes to worry about, decreasing the number of guys to plug the holes(gaps between offensive linemen that running backs like to run through). The best way for the Saints to take advantage of Dwight (if he plays) is to test that ankle. You’ll probably see an obscure 300-pounder attempting to pound him into the dirt at some point in the upcoming game.

There is only one major question for the Colts, this being how they are going to reconfigure their defensive game without Freeney. He is virtually irreplaceable, and even if they do play him, they are going to try and route blockers and dangerous hotspots of activity away from his bum ankle and the pain it causes one of their star players. The Saints’ running game has been known for its no-name running backs, and blocking them may prove difficult.

In conclusion, I’d just like to say that the Superbowl is going to be worth watching this year- and now, with your newfound knowledge, you can sound like another one of the experts.

Seth's Prediction: Peyton guns it out from behind his huge O-line, but the Saints take advantage of an unhealthy Dwight Freeney and the Saints trample all over the Colts’ D, racking up the yardage. Saints 45, Colts 38.

The Christmas List(s)

-Once again, time for the Christmas season. Loot, Jr. High teachers' good sides, and a dabble of politics are on my main list, but there's other stuff, too. Right now, I feel like I'm pushing a large steel block in a Shopko cart with no wheels, although we all remain ever-hopeful. Jr. High has ground to a complete halt halt, except for Mr. E.(english), who will soon be boxed up and shipped off to Japan with a teacher's degree and five bucks, as he told us in class on Friday.

-Today in P.E. we started basketball, which, of course, is the high point of everyone's day. Temperatures are expected to skyrocket on Monday, with highs of over six degrees, and, needless to say, we'll all be out in force with naught but two of our bulletproof winter coats and naught but one pair of Sno-Rangers. Scandalous, as Mr. E. would say.

-The winter months are here, which (along with uncle Tom) reminded me of times long past when I used to blog every week on Saturday. Maybe I don't have quite that amount of time anymore, but I think I'll try to be at least semi-monthly.

-There's a Fox Trot strip where it shows school getting progressively harder and harder until Paige ends up with all D's and F's. When I look back on my Lena Whitmore Elementary days, I can definitely see where the artist is coming from. From a very unmerciful standpoint, this would mean that I would have an overall GPA of 0.0 in college, but Things are Looking Up right now, and they say that middle school is the Worst Part of grade school. My grades don't come close to as bad as in the strip, either, but it does seem like I'm the only one sometimes.

-In English, we got an assignment on philosophy. Right now, I'm trying to think of how to explain to my teacher that Mormons think that man is half bad, half good. Any ideas?

Vacation!!

-Our delayed vacation has come and gone, and, for the most part, it's been fun, although our van blew out in the middle of the church parking lot and

(insert sound of annoying buzzer here.) This blogger has made an error, and shall now be terminated via Chinese water torture.

Sorry about that. What I meant to say was, our van blew out in the middle of the church parking lot and we had to borrow the Wacker's Sprinter (Very nice of them-the manager @ the Jetty Fishery told us she'd never let her sister borrow her brand-new sprinter.)

-Twitter-mania seems to be the thing right now, so I decided to make an account(BrotherofJared). I love the idea of the character limit- it seems like they should increase it, but I'm sure we'd run into the same problem, which is very frustrating sometimes.

-I also rebuilt both of our computers last weekend. I am proud to say that I have nursed the family computer back to health, although I still think that we should save clippings of the Dell ads.

Today is my first relatively un-busy day in a while, so I thought I would blog about the past couple weeks:

First, I thought I'd blog about different members of our family's highlights of the reunion-My dad's favorite parts were, not uncommonly, the broom hockey and the dunes. My mom's: the Mine were probably just hanging out and playing sports- that and going to the dunes(seeing uncle Tom jump into a bush made just about everyone here's day). Jared's favorite part was the treasure hunt. We all loved that- thanks for the hard work, Jonathan! Miri's favorite part was the morning activities with her group, and Caroline's was the girl party w/ Aunt T. Jacob liked playing with his fellow banana slugs, and Julia enjoyed just about everything, with the exception of sitting still. I have no idea what Paul liked, mostly because he has yet to start talking. That wraps it up for the reunion- I think this one has been great for all the kids, since the adults worked with them so thoughtfully. Thanks to everyone for a great reunion!

I recently had an "epicoectomy"( a great name for what I would call "Let'sjustchophimupandripthedarnedthingout-ectomy.") on my gums. For most of it, I was on anesthetics, so I was just sitting there, looking around at things I had never noticed were even in the room. There are 2,049 little holes in the ceiling speaker, 394 dots on each of the floor tiles, and 125 little pieces on each side of the zipper on Dr. Cole's coat. That pretty much sums it all up, although it's nice to have it all over with.

Bellingham is beautiful at this time of year, and it was great to spend time w/the Mumfords, even minus Al. I went on my first real mountain biking trip, and was finally convinced that it's just as fun as-or more fun than- road cycling. All thanks go to the Mumfords for letting me into their house!

busybusybusy

-In my opinion, this is the only time of the year that can compete with Christmas time for all-around business, since most people are making summer plans and trying to keep up with increasing homework loads (at least I am). This is my excuse for the large blogging lapse that I've been having. Anyway, now I've started again- I hope you have fun reading!
-Baby Julia just discovered the ticket out of nursery, which will work like a charm on any nursery teacher- the "Gotta Go Potty!" trick. There is never any way to tell whether or not they really do need to go, since most mere mortal primary workers are not equipped with lie detectors. Needless to say, taking Julia potty was a prime object in Mom and Dad's Sunday.
-Our family just discovered Mythbusters, and last night we watched the episode where they try to fool different security devices. The best one so far is the one where they hop into the giant whirlpool to see how dangerous they really are. It's easy to see why Nigie likes this show so much, although I can't quite guess what his favorite would be.
-This is the last post before our English projects get turned in, and I just realized how much work it would take to do one if I didn't have this blog. But, luckily, I do, so my grade isn't (hopefully) about to plummet through the floor- after all, the project is worth a hundred or so points.
-This should be an interesting reunion(cousin camp), since everyone has a part in it-we will now also be building potato guns from ABS and BBQ sparkers- they're supposed to shoot up to 200 yards, although this may only be Urban myth.
-That should be all for now, but be prepared for (roughly) weekly posts from now on! (oh, and remember to comment, too-!)

PS: In Spokane on Saturday, we saw a sign in front of a store that said
"Surly Staff
Poor Selection
High Prices
Terrible Quality". We had a laugh about that, but couldn't figure out the reasoning behind it...

17 days left till the end of school...16...15...

-The time has now come for our whole family to begin the countdown until the end of summer. I am having suspicions that this only makes the waiting seem longer, but hey, it's tradition.

-Today, among other things, I passed frozen sacrament bread.It was funny to see the faces of the priests when they realized that they didn't have any bread. Someone came rushing in with some bread, and the priests strained at the bread, barely able to break it. It was also funny to see the faces of the people in the crowd as I passed it. There were a lot of kids whispering in their moms' ears. I'm sure it went something like this: "Mom, why is the bread so hard and cold?"Anyway, that helped us to remember that life's a farce, no matter what we try to do about it.

-Bye, and remember to comment(remember that I wait for you to comment before I blog again)!

-After a small dry spell, I think it's time for something from me, although this might be a much smaller post. Anyway, bear with me while I get this off my chest.

-first, a random thought: Have you ever watched a timer go by, and thought about the time you're spending uselessly spiraling into space? It's kind of depressing at first, but then, when you're doing something worthwhile, you can kind of get an out-of body experience (for example, what I'm doing right now would be pretty satisfying).
-Now, after eating half a bowl of Oreo filling, I can finally conclude that fat is not good for you. I can also conclude that one Seth Dixon will never be able to eat another Oreo for the space of ten to twelve years. After that, I just might be a hobo in a box, but if I am, I'll be trans-fat free.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for clicking on the button down there that says 'Comments'!

more snow =^(

-I just know it's no coincidence that it started to snow the same day my mom put away all the snowclothes, saying that at least now we knew we didn't have to worry about snow. Now we have to skid around on ice in the mornings and trudge through slush in the afternoons. Not that I'm being un-optimistic about the snow or anything.

-I think I should probably give you guys an update on the teacher list since I've known them a lot longer. By the way, the art teacher did turn out to be a bit crabby at the end of the semester, but I definitely like the second half of 7th grade better than the first. It seems like I was really disoriented in the first half, but maybe that's just me.. Anyway, here goes:


#1: Mr. Q.(Quesnell) is definitely my favorite teacher (I'm not just saying this because he will soon be grading this blog), mostly because he's very funny- and usually lenient(not if you get yourself on the bad list, which is flexible, too, but I'm off the hook as far as that's concerned-I think.)

#2: Mrs.Q(Quesenbery) I said earlier that she's strict, which is still true, but she's also funny, and her brand of strictness is fair to everybody, so I'm not complaining!

#3:Maestra Huett: she's a student teacher for(you guessed it)Spanish. She's really nice, and, being fresh from History class, she has great facts for every subject we talk about.

#4:Mr. Arlint is the P.E. teacher . You may have noticed that he has moved up from last, and he's tied for third w/Maestra Huett.

#5: My word processing teacher is an avid golfer and coach of the team here in Moscow.

#6: Mr.Lawton is the science teacher, and is still pretty strict.


-You may have noticed that my mom isn't on there, which is due to possible bias.

-Thanks for reading my post, and please comment!

The name's Paul.

-I just realized that I need to keep moving on the old blogosphere, because my English teacher told me that this blog could count as the big end-of-year project we'll all have to do. I don't really have any ingenious insights or performed any strange and complex surgeries- but then again, I can always talk about sports, as ESPN seems to have realized long ago. Anyway, here goes:

-It's a boy! My Mom was hoping to have me here to babysit for when the baby came, but I now know that it would either have been when I was gone skiing or during the Dawg game, so I'm glad it was when it was. There were many forces at work on the naming front, all working for their own cause( I personally favored the name Stu), so my dad decided to name him something no one was rooting for at the time, specifically the name Paul Perry Dixon.

-Uncle Tom and Gpa took us all skiing at Bluewood(Thank-you's to everyone who made that happen, by the way!) last Thursday, and I went from the beginner's slope to a black diamond(an easy one, that is). I also found out that I really love skiing, and that I will be devoted to this sport for at least 20 years more(after that, who knows what will happen?).

-The snow is gone at last! This is the first time in the last four months that I haven't been able to see snow from our front window. We put up a break-away rim on the neighbor's backboard, and now we can't blame any of our bad shots on a broken rim(the last one was broken in two places, and hung limply from the backboard). I did feel a sense of foreboding, though, when I saw the first hornet of the year crawling around.

-I think that'll be all for now, since I can hear my homework calling from my binder. Thanks for reading- It really helps to be able to dump all my thoughts on you guys once in a while!

Snow, snow, everywhere-!

-I just got to the thirteenth chapter and the umpteenth page of a Mark twain biography(the pages take about ten minutes each to digest with the 'olde English' typeset they use in the book), so look for enhanced knowledge and wisdom in my bumbling insights!

-There is a lot of snow here in Moscow. You could call it a winter wonderland- or you could call it a desolate wasteland, it just depends whether the cup is half empty or half full for you. We've had pretty much all the fun we can have in the snow- snow caves(we made the old ones bigger), snow castles, snow men , snow women, snow cats, snow dogs, snowball fights, iceball fights(we were desperate, and it still only lasted a minute until Mom came out and started yelling), and anything else I can think of to do in 2 feet of snow. Yesterday, I overheard Miriam praying, and it was the last omen to me. she said, "Heavenly Father, thank you for the snow days, but I think you should wait until next year for more of them. I, personally, am also all done with the snow and ready for some good and soggy Seattle weather-anything but snow!!

-We couldn't go to the game on Thursday, due to Mom's stomach pangs(she said she didn't know exactly where the said organ was, only that it hurt.), but we did decide to hog the slingbox and watch the game. It was very exciting, especially Rochestie's three that never went in-I personally think it was a couple hundredths of a second sooner than they did, but, as Mom says, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit- although Jared is always the exception to this rule. I also thought that Cowgill and Banes wouldn't have gotten in foul trouble(both fouled out) if Kevin Love hadn't been so arrogant. I was laughing hard when he missed the two free throws, though the look on his face remained the same. Overall, I think we played the Bruins to perfection- until two of our main men fouled out.

-Thanks for listening to my now-monthly ravings, and yet again, please comment!

On the Road Once Again

-Well, I know everyone has been quite clear that they would like a D.C. blog(everyone I've been in contact with has at least mentioned it, maybe just to make me feel socially substantial) so here it is, though my last blog about my travels was waay too long and confusing, so I'm not going to go into detail and go through each day like last time, I'm just going to go through my assorted thoughts(we do have a wide variety here at Bumblyburg's Emporium of Seth's Thoughts & Dreams) and then conclude with the feature presentation.

-Thanks for the comments- those are my only signs that you're not all dead, since no one's blogging anymore(yes, I'm talking to YOU.). And, if anyone in my acquaintance would like to state that they've completed the 'Ten Blogs in Ten Weeks' challenge, I'm ready to bite their heads off.

-It's been a boring week of soccer- Manchester United finally climbed back back into their throne, mauling poor little teams on the way back up to the top. Liverpool tries to maintain their dignity, Manchester City loses theirs, and Everton is gaining momentum once again. Liverpool's owners once again try to maintain the poker "no fire, no sell, no nothin'" face, even with whole governments trying to get dibs on the up-n-down Red Devils.

-A few interesting moments: today when we were going to church, My mom was talking about Miri's talk in primary. Miri listened to Mom's advice to talk loudly, since the kids would be rather rowdy by the time they got to Sharing Time. With a burst of Miri-brand perfection, she turned the volume up a few extra notches and executed the carefully planned, rather complicated talk better than many older than she(me included). "hi, it's nice to see you today! In Helamen chapter 12, verses 7 through 12, we read..." You can imagine my mom's amazement. She did better in primary. Another moment, though not so sweet and angelic, was in Sacrament meeting when Jacob found out that he could stick a pencil in the place where his tooth got knocked out(if you haven't heard about that before, I'll just have to say that that's a whole 'nother story) and make it stay there.

-Now, about the trip: I'm going to go through the highlights in order from good to sorta good.

-By the way, I had emailed the 'honorable' Senator Crapo(NOT pronounced crapp-o- trust me, I learned the hard way.) three months beforehand, not knowing that a simple e-mail- said to be all I needed on the website- was not enough. It had to be accompanied by a letter, signed by at least five supporters and one big-time supporter, saying that if he did not reply, he would be left in the dust. Otherwise, it would be tossed into the overloaded 'important' bin- right next to the one labeled with a dollar sign. After long weeks of no reply, I had Grandma write her congresswoman(she did it in the correct way, landing it smack dab in the middle of McMorris's honourable pie-hole. It was completed in days, much to the amazement of many onlookers, including Crapo's drowsy aide, who got right to work but still lost the race. Anyway, here are my favorites:
-#1 was the bureau of Printing & Engraving(The five foot stacks of 16-piece sheets of fifties made me feel rather rich.)
-#2 was the Capitol building- it's amazing how much work it took to paint the rotunda. Also, our guide pointed out the disgruntled artist's face splotched onto one of the trees in the circular mural.
-#3 was the Air and Space Museum, which was gigantic and had everything imaginable about flight and space travel. You could spend a whole day lost in it's depths, as in the Museum of Natural History.
-#4 was the Museum of Natural History- my favorite part of it was the geology section.
-#5 was the Lincoln memorial
-#6 was the Washington Monument, since you can see an enormously important building out of each of the eight windows.
-#7 was watching Mythbusters
-#8 was the Jefferson Memorial, more memorable since our guide mentioned the stonemasons engraved the declaration on the side of the wall wrong.

-Thanks for reading my blog, and remember to comment!


-here's a tossed-together video of the big snow fort we made in our yard. It's about one and a half times as big as it looks in the video.

vague recollections

-I have an absolute ton to write about today, so if you don't have time for this, please refrain from reading this, since I don't want to be responsible for anything bad(actually, I don't really feel like being responsible for anything in my tired, jet-lagged, sorry state- I very much would like to go to bed, especially after I almost fell asleep where I stood while passing the sacrament and had to regain what was left of my composure in front of what I'm sure were many mental "boo, kid- BOO!"'s.). As you can see, this might also prove to be too weighty and dull for anyone to read.

-On that cheerful note, I would like to continue going through the motions. Thanks for all your comments, by the way- it's always been a little frustrating to hear that someone read your blog,but didn't know what to say, hence obliterating all proof that they actually took anything in after all. Even if you have nothing to say or think you might have something to say but fear that it might be terribly insulting, you can always just give it a try and see just what my reaction is. And, even if I am terribly insulted, chances are that I appreciate it anyway and do not quite want to throttle you, even if I do tell you that I'm never talking to you again.

-I know you've all been waiting for an editorial on my trip with Uncle nige(or at least everyone I've seen lately wants to hear)Also, keep in mind that I haven't written much for a long time, so this is really just me getting it all out of my system. Here goes:

On Thursday, I get home needing to do the route, homework, and also having not thought a single bit about packing or preparing for the trip. I rushed through the route, my homework, and then got to the packing. I had to copy an entire chapter out of my health book, and another 20 or so pages of Saxon math. I then proceeded to find all of my clothes, toiletries, and miscellaneous junk. I had been talking to mom earlier and she had told me that luggage that you checked was likely to dissipate, so I packed my homework, my books, the contents of my underwear/sock drawer, all my toiletry stuff, and my suit into my little backpack- I didn't know that suits wrinkled prior to leaving and Uncle Nigel let out a gasp of horror at what I had done(luckily, the suit is pure polyester and almost bulletproof) to my poor suit. The suit was fine, and I am sure that that was the least of it's overall ordeals. I then stuffed all my clothes that were fit to wear in public into the little suitcase that I got from Grandma when I was just turning 3. I had to jump on it to get my Sunday shoes in. Then Dad puts my vacuum-packed baggage into the car, and we zoom over to Grandma's. Grandma, Grandpa, and I take the Highlander to Spokane for the night and get a hotel room there. We wait throughout the night for 4:45 A.M. to come around.
On Friday, I go to the airport, register along with the long line of grumpy people, take all my stuff off, get patted down by a groggy-yet-gruff customs official, and...sit for half an hour. Then, I fly to Rochester. I'm skipping an entire day here, so I will tell you the most interesting part of the day, this being when an elderly African-American man took me to the basement. I sat in the basement while two other elderly people chatted with him in an unrecognizable language. Then they took me to an abandoned bus on the flight ground and drove us all to my gate. It was a strange experience, being on the flight ground, although it did not make me want to work there- it looked extremely boring. Come to think of it, it also looked like there was nothing actually going on, just a bunch of people driving around and yelling at nobody in particular about nothing in particular. When I got to Rochester, it was just having it's first snow and looked pretty, especially from the airplane when we were on the final approach. Uncle Nigel, gillian, and Jonathan were waiting for me at the airport. We drove to Aunt Gillian's, and I thought they had a great apartment, according to my experience with apartments, which is closer to nil than I'm usually willing to admit. I slept on the couch.
On Saturday, we went to all the church history sites. I don't really have much to say on this topic, except for that I wondered how there could be any sweet birds singing in the sacred grove- it's pretty darn cold there. Otherwise, the only things that they don't all talk about s the printer's shop. They made me realize there that printing just one book was extremely tedious, painstaking work to be doing- especially in the hot summer hours.
On Sunday, we realized that we needed to get out on the roads ASAP to beat the snow. We do, and listen to the first Saturday session of last General Conference on the way to Vermont. I really don't remember what we did after that, so I'll skip to the next day.
On Monday, I waited at home while Uncle Nige did his interview at Dartmouth. Then, we went to the Dartmouth campus, looked at where he interviewed, and then went to a chocolate store nestled into the side of a mini mall. It turned out that the lady's family had been running chocolate stores in England for generations. We got some chocolate, then went to Ben & Jerry's. Then, we went to go find an art school to see if there was an attached museum- there wasn't. after that, we went to this rather enticing store called the Price Chopper. It lived up to it's name, selling seafood dip for only 99 cents and shrimp for only six bucks a dish. We bought up to half our limits, then brought it all home and chowed down while watching half of Gettysburg. I was too full to eat my shrimp, but otherwise we had a great time.
On Tuesday, we drove to Portland. We went to the hotel, which had a marginal view of the sea, among many other perks. We went outside to case the joint, walked stiffly around, and then went back inside. After that, we simply crashed onto our beds for the night.
On Wednesday, we went to the art museum right next to our hotel. It had a variety of things, including Picasso and a little Monet. When we were done there,we walked again out into the wild dirty white yonder. We walked all the way to the waterfront, then walk(again, very stiffly because of overpowering wind and cold) into the restaurant. It was a great place, with plenty of business even in the off season. I named the lobster Bob, after our server. Our server was very friendly, and was the one who showed us how to eat lobster. I ordered shrimp, and Uncle Nige got two lobsters, one Bob and the other remaining anonymous as it was the one I had to eat. We ate the lobster, which I'm sure was the freshest lobster you can get. I liked it and the shrimp, although it's hard not to look at poor Bob as you're chewing. Afterwards, we were walking home and happened upon a Cold Stone Creamery, one of those places where they add in all the condiments right in front of you. It was great ice cream, even if it did taste like Bob. After eating our monster-sized Bob-flavored ice creams, we walked home in the slush and fell asleep.
On Thursday, we drove to Burlington, Vermont after Uncle Nigel's interview at Maine Medical center. We also went to dinner with the current residents in Burlington. I learned much in the way of residency that night, and also found out that I like Cajun spices on chicken.
On Friday, Uncle Nige went to his interview. By the time he was done, it was already the afternoon.We started out driving at about noon, visited the Joseph Smith Birthplace-did you know that the largest polished pillar of granite in the world is located there as a monument? And that they put it up in 1904?- we then drove for a while more, ate, and drove again to Rochester. On the way, we saw a city sign labeled, "Scott's Sweets" and "Stewart's candy". We laughed a bit about that once we got to the Bowman's house, then I said goodbye and went to bed.
On Saturday, I got up at four and went over the whole ordeal once again. My parents picked me up, zoomed me over to Pullman, gathered all the kids together, attended Eric's baptism, then rushed to Moscow to make potatoes for the Ward Christmas Party. We went to the party, dragged ourselves back while half asleep, and whit the sack completely exhausted.

-So there you have it- my entire week, laid out in front of you. It was all a bit hazy in my head, so it's not in perfect chronological order, but I'm sure you're too tired of my writing to really care. Thanks for reading my blog, and again, please comment!

The Uncle Nigel Trip: BOOM, BOOM, BOOM

-Sorry about that small(large) lapse in blogging- I've been working overtime for my mom, who has turned out to be an evil employer, hungry for poor boys that need money, in disguise. I've been having a great time during thanksgiving weekend, especially since we won the rose bowl. I also think we were all pretty happy when we found that the Campbells would be coming and that we would not, after all, have only 18 people attending the Thanksgiving feast at grandma's. We(Campbell kids, Mumford kids, & Dixon kids) are also proud to say that we unlocked 2 party games while waiting for the Apple Cup.

-I'm on what is known now as 'the big trip', and am having a good time so far. As it turns out, Delta has a program for unaccompanied minors that has people to escort you(rather forcibly) to the next gate. My mom thought that the personnel would be a bit too overloaded/stressed and might forget all about escorting somebody. They went against all doubts, however, and were there waiting for me, smiling their special tight-lipped airline attendant smiles and ready to go. It seemed like they weren't doing much of anything and the reason that they were stressed was nothing in particular, but since I'm just an ignorant layman, I'm sure I missed something. The Bowmans seem to be doing well over here in Rochester, and I'm having a good time, too. It looks like I'll be traveling more these three months than my mom has for quite some time. Well, I'm glad I've been able to blog right now, so hi from Rochester & I'll end with a jaunty tip of the hat. Toodledoo!

Winter

-Ah, winter, the season of Costco replacement snow tires, exploding pipes, frozen paperboys who forgot their coats at school and are consequently skidding down the Jones' hill at high speeds in their dad's old sweatshirt with holes in the pocket, collecting injuries & cops with ordinance fees as they go, and(sigh) it's also the time of year when we rush around in a frenzy, dumping our money into large pits(our friends, neighbors, & people with lots of money that we hate but would like to make a good impression on) in the name of spreading joy to people that don't even notice because they're too busy spreading joy to other people(or they're on vacation in Jamaica). After Christmas is my favorite time of year , since you can kick back & relax with all your Christmas stuff, with not a care in the world but going to whatever Wazzu basketball games there are, hoarding/eating/stealing candy, and planning cool things to do on New Year's Eve/the rest of the time we'll be staying at Gma & Gpa's house- which will be a whole lot less cramped with the banquet room, I'm excited to see what it will be like with it.

-On an entirely different note, Jared has now become closely acquainted with the feeling that comes- whatever that feeling may be- with having close to the same experiences as Donald Davis(if you've never heard his tapes, do so- they keep kids quiet & they are, at times, immensely funny.) which is to say that he had the words, 'he's gonna have to have... braces... save your money for...braces...' coming from tooth specialists all around. As it turns out, Jared is just one of a long line of class 2 bites- which means...braces...for Jared.

-Sorry I'm late to blog- it's just that I had strep throat yesterday and had to retire to the sack early.

- Today, I started Art(an elective that comes automatically with shop- I did it for the art half), and I think my art teacher would be third on the list that I posted earlier- though as John Bytheway says, sometimes they start nice and get meaner later on. I also am entering the second quarter, and am happy to report that so far in the quarter I have straight A's. I am so good!

Trunk-R-Treat: Halloween Game 1

-Well, I guess you could say this is a very up-and-down season for the Cougars, and I'm sorry I couldn't come to the Big Game- though this was, of course, due to all the LHWB(Long Hours of Work in the Backyard)- to supply a flash funding for what has become known here in the Dixon household as the Uncle Nigie Trip- and also due to the Trunk-R-Treat cardboard maze(more on that later). I also regret that I won't be there to watch the Cougs play the Dawgs in the Rose Bowl- though I will be doing the third best thing, which is listening to it on the radio.

- Just a random thought from the Seth department: Isn't it strange how all the bad stuff that happens to the Deacons while passing the sacrament that everybody seems bound to notice just slips right over your head when you're 1-11 years old? I think it is, anyway.

-Back on subject now. This All Hallows Eve(don't you love to say that?), the Deacon's Quorum carried out on something- a very rare thing, since most things on the calender actually happen a month later(I'm the secretary, I should know)- and made a 30 square foot cardboard maze complete with dead ends, flashing lights, strange gooshy things scattered around the maze, a Dummies' Grave(a passage that goes in a circle), little doors on the top to reach in & grab the people coming through, and places for us to hide & scare little kids(we did this in just 2 hours- we had a pretty good turnout on that). I called it Game 1 because it really does seem to be made up of rounds, made up of costume parties & the like, and a knockout round(Halloween) after which the parents snap and take away the costumes & loot until next year, when they are feeling better and the memories have faded. Then, the whole thing starts all over again.

-Thanks for reading, & I should have some good stories next time- As Uncle Nigel says(and maybe others, though I have no experience of this), stay tuned.

The Reds win again

-Well, a pretty brutal game from Everton(one yellow card, two red cards) but a better one from Liverpool, I guess- although to see the article, you would've thought that Everton won. The author is obviously a fan. Here's hoping this is a break to all those ties...

-Anyway, I was thinking(on my route, of course- that's also the time when I ponder the mysteries of the universe, though I have not come up with any theories.) and I decided not just to include my opinions in this post, but also try to work in some of my life. We'll see how this works. I guess a lot of my free time is spent either playing outside or following the Reds, but this week the Deacon's quorum is making that spook house I told you about two weeks ago. As it turns out, we are very, very, very lucky- the leader has an in-law with property right next to the parking lot where we're doing the Trunk-R-Treat- and who has kindly obliged to let us set the cardboard contraption(we're using about twelve refrigerator boxes and five wardrobe boxes) up there. I'm also helping with an eagle project today at nine(am- whew!) and my dad is probably also hoping to incorporate me into the big dig(the drainage system to stop the basement flooding again) today, though I don't think I'm going to do it this week for want of watching the Liverpool game that Aunt T has recorded.

-I've also been thinking about towels(great subject, huh?). Caroline is a nut on decision-making when it comes to towels, as is Miriam and my mom. They think a good towel shows your personality- Dad's, a GAP towel, sports his college days; Mom's towel, a fuzzy purple one, shows her indifference to money beside comfort(at least, this was the case three years ago); mine, varying from towel to towel(I just grab one out of the towel drawer), shows that I really don't care; Jared's is an NFL towel, obviosly stating the fact that he is a fanatic; Miriam's is a white princess towel, as is Caroline's(I really can't put my finger on what this means); etc., etc. Well, I guess that was a sort of dumb subject, but I had to get it out.

-And now te comic relief- Jacob. This week at the store, he had two quarters to spend. You know the Shel Silverstein poem- the casheir gave him three pennies back, and later, my mom overheard him later, saying that "I tricked that funny man at the store. hee, hee."

-This week in Hellth, we learned about phobias, such as hydrophobia- the fear of water- or octophobia- the fear of the figure eight. I just thought it was funny that someone can be afraid of that stuff. If you know any that are funnier than that, please tell me.

-And I'd just like to say thanks to Grandpa & Grandma for 'Kon-Tiki'- it's really helped in terms of reading goals and my English teacher's good list.

-Also, on the link title for Jared's blog: Jared has eight blogs, seven of which he has no password for. End of story.

strange questions

-Hello, and welcome to Seth-land! I hope you will enjoy my latest thoughts that I've just now written down and broadcast all around the world. Here we go:

-I shall now report the two funniest things that happened today from funniest to least funny. First, I stapled my finger. Really. I was sitting around, being an absolute nuisance, when my mom thought up something for me to do. "Hey, Seth,"she yelled. "Could you fix this stapler?" I looked at the stapler. It was jammed. "OK, Mom," I said, opening it up, popping the staple out with a pen, and promptly putting my finger over the output and closing the staple compartment. There's this one really, really, really dumb thing about staplers that you see and then laugh about because it could seriously injure you someday, and that is that to close the staple compartment, you have to push the metal thing all the way down- and a staple comes out when you do. End of story. It's surprisingly painless, until it starts hurting. Second, I found a note in our recycling bin -when about to take the recycling/trash stuff back into the garage- along with a bunch of those big Costco animal cracker jars-one of them squished and mangled. Fearing that our trash man had developed anger issues and needed to be referred to a counseling center, I read the note. It said, "Sorry, won't fit in truck". Har, har! Funny, huh?

-After numerous debates among various members of our family on what the new baby's name should be, I am here to stop the madness. Anyone know a really good boy name that neither my mom nor my dad will not completely hate? Any name that I haven't thought of would help.

-Hey, out there, could you comment on my blog? I know it seems like a waste of time, but I need something to do-though if my mom has told you about the cute way I check on my blog every 2 seconds, I don't need something to do quite that badly.

-I've been thinking lately, and I've come up with a few strange questions that I can't come up with answers for. Here they are, along with small editorials here and there:

#1: How did our primitive ancestors come up with smoking? As John Bytheway puts it, maybe it went something like this:
'Hey, Bill,' yells a primitive ancestor. 'Hey, look at this plant.' He takes a bite of it. 'Hey, I feel funny!' He then sets it on fire, carves a pipe for it, and puts it into his mouth so that he can 'feel funny' all the time.

#2: When and under what mental incapabilities did someone invent a bad word for poop and a bad word for pee? You might as well say 'poop' instead of getting in deep trouble just to be tough at the same time as stating that you must use the porcelain.

#3: Why do we lie? All it does is make us more and more cautious, and then you can't do anything at all, including talk, while you analyze what someone just said to see if you think they might be telling a whopper. It also makes us so darn mad at each other-! I think being mad is turning into one of Satan's most successful tools- as my mom points out during scripture study, look at what happened to the Lamanites when they got mad- their population is decimated, they retreat into the depths of the Land of Nephi, and they are nice and humble doing their little wicked things over there until somebody comes to stir them up again. Same story with the Palestinians- stop being too mad to think and leave that desolate little piece of land to the Israeli's and move somewhere else, for heaven's sake!

#4: How does a speedometer work? Okay, okay, this one is a simple one- compared to the rest- and no, I do not want a lecture on this one. In fact, if you're tempted to give me a science lecture, just pretend I never said it and I'll probably delete it in time.


From here, it only gets worse, so I'm cutting it off at that! (As I say, applause is appropriate at this time.)

goodwill

- Hi, folks! I'm back-yes, that guy you keep hoping will forget to blog- Almost as much as you hope that one guy named Al with 8671/2 pierces stuck into his right ear to forget to come to your party. Moooovving on...

-Today Jared and I were tossed downstairs to do a deep clean of our room. I must say, this subject has been rather mired down by advertising jingles, dumb jokes, and homework poems/stories, so I won't dwell on it long. We proceeded to take down our mattresses and dismantle the bed frame so we could take it out of our room. We concluded that we didn't really need to move the bed shortly after the frame gave an unsettling crack and a screw protruded out of the wood. After putting it more or less together and pounding in the unruly screw, we looked at the bed and decided to have 2 beds- that way, I wouldn't have such a long way to fall and Jared didn't have an ominous weight hanging over him. Anyway, we cleaned the room thoroughly, waited for the unruly buggers to sneak out of the trash bags and buckets of 'put-away stuff', and cleaned the room thoroughly again, this time putting everything into the Goodwill pile. Take one look at the pile, and you know that the Goodwill people must have an awful lot of goodwill. I am now waiting for the smart unruly buggers to mess everything up again.

-I'm glad to be the first to spill the beans: My mom is having a boy! No more Barbies! No more Polly Pockets! Above all, no more uber-expensive crappy plastic designer clothes;^)-! I swear, you can just hear Mom's budget sighing in relief.

-I must report that I am saddened at the Cougars performance on the football field, though I guess I have no control whatsoever over that. However, as Uncle Nigel said, it's a good thing we're a basketball school.

-Today, I took another step towards that far-off notion of becoming a grown-up: I just now figured out that the real fun of Halloween is not in toiling up the hill to old Mrs. Hicks' house, It's in staying home and making a spook house for the Trunk-R-Treat. That way, you can just eat your favorite candy that your parents bought anyway and make little kids hide in their candy buckets(they're big enough; I once saw a kid whose costume was a candy bucket with 2 holes drilled in the bottom for his legs and duct tape holding it up.). It's 'fun'.

Lawnmowing and Mr. Ugly: the unaccredited farce

-It looks like I'm back. My last blog was sort of pointless, so today we have an actual story for the title story. I think I'm getting the hang of Blogging, so my blogs will probably become increasingly duller and duller until one of you guys works up the nerve to tell me that I'm getting a little rusty. Anyway, see what you think:

-We are still trying to include Kai in our prayers, and all of us are hoping. Again, don't give up hope, Scott & co.!

-I shall now try to begin to explain to you in plain words(I wanted a live video feed, but my dang mom shut the whole operation down with my mouse over the button labeled 'BUY*'. The total cost -yes, camera and everything- would have cost (L)2,569.99.Okay, maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration and okay, maybe I'm going a bit overboard with this, but there you go. Anyway, here it is:



-8:30 and time to coax Mr. ugly out of his lair. I crawl slowly through the uber-expensive equipment/cheap junk piled around this holy grail of ugly lawnmowers, talking calmly and reassuringly, saying things like 'Mr. Uuugly...' a growl issues from the center of his fortress. I find him. Though I have witnessed this sight many times, I can not resist shuddering. Grease-n-grass encases the entire upper half of him, while the bottom consists of a large bowl-like metal thing with a blade in the middle. The wheels are screwed to the outside of the bowl, and the motor is screwed to the top. The handle sticks out at an unlikely angle, and there are many other battle scars he has from what he likes to think is pursuing evildoers at astonishing speeds of 2+ mph. Like I said, he has many battle scars, but from his point of view, that's not a big deal for what he accomplishes- He does effortlessly behead over 500,000 enemies weekly. Anyway, I carefully dragged him out of the garage, thinking thoughts of gigantic gory battles with Mr. Ugly in the middle of it(I swear he can read minds... Oh, well, it's worth a try.). I yell "RESUME CHASE!" and yank the cord. Mr. Ugly belches, coughs, and roars to life! Despite his need to be shaken every half pass, he does have a surprisingly powerful engine. I sigh with relief, and start mowing. Though you do need to be careful of the fact that he has only 3 wheels(both physically and mentally), the hard part is over-! After mowing, I cruise into the garage, leave Mr. Ugly at the outside of his home(he doesn't like escorts) and go do whatever. Whew!

-It looks like that's about all I can say, so I guess I'm going to go do whatever. Bye for now, and good luck with everything!