labarum8.mp3 (25:29, 64kbps, 12M)
labarum8-lo.mp3 (25:29, 32kbps, 5.8M)
The topic was obedience and the artist was John Chevallier. In-booth guest Kim Delis and call-in from Jacob Delis (he plays for Chevallier, I think).
Peace out, Mormons!
The last day of spring break proper included a road trip and a birthday. There are plenty of pictures for those so inclined.
This morning Dad, Mark, Matthew and I departed in my dad’s Buick Le Sabre to drive to Commerce, Texas. (“Le Sabre” is french for “the sabre”.) It’s a three-hour drive.
Thank you Mary for talking to me about life and stuff. Dad had the radio turned down special so we could have our conversation.
Once we got to Commerce we rolled over to the Texas A&M campus and did some climbing on their spectacular climbing thingy. It’s not made of rock, and it’s not really a wall. It’s an artificial column of climbing fury. Whatever it is, it is cool.
Thank you Lorraine and Chloë for singing to my voicemail. I was on the climbing wall and didn’t hear my phone ringing.
Then back at my sister Heather’s house we watched Just Like Heaven, which was a good movie. But then I needed some fresh air and light, so I slipped outside for a bit while dinner was cooking.
Oh, what a dinner! We had super-tasty lasagna. That pasta could have won a prize, or a medal. The salad and bread were also delicious. Then out comes an incredible cake covered with coconut and twenty-four on-fire candles. Cake was eaten with my new favorite ice cream: English Toffee from Braum’s. It’s authentic French ice cream! Somehow.
My family gave me the stars for my birthday. We went to the planetarium and I felt like I was in fourth grade again. I want to go back, it was so fun. I might even be able to find the North Star on my own now, so that dream of sailing the ocean is one step closer to reality.
Thank you Eric for your message. I was in the planetarium and my phone was off. Thank you Sarah, Rebecca and Eric for singing to me live. It was tender.
You’ll never guess what I did today. I dug holes again. Have a look at the pictures.
Mom went to the temple in Dallas today. She left before I was out of bed. The yard work challenge of the day was to remove a tree from the back yard and replant it in the front yard.
The first hole Matthew, Mark and I dug was the original tree position. It wasn’t a very big tree, but we had to dig around roots, and that made it difficult.
Hole number 2 was the first candidate for the new location of the tree. Unfortunately, I uncovered a sprinkler pipe. Lucky me. Hole 3 was two feet away from hole 2, and it was the final resting place of the tree.
All the dirt (and tree) that used to be in hole 1 is now in hole 3. All of hole 3’s original dirt is in hole 1. Let’s just pretend hole 2 never existed.
Then we three [hole-digging] kings went to the bowling alley. We are all bowling wizards: Mark scored 92, Matthew scored 136 (by cleverly bowling three balls per frame), and I scored 174 with four strikes in a row.
For all the visual learners in the audience: there are a few more pictures for today. Sarah found them before I even wrote this.
Mom got to once again perform some meaningful service elsewhere, but this time it was in the morning, so I was left in charge of my two shorter brothers during the yard work. I’m such a lenient taskmaster, though, and Matthew and Mark were incredibly helpful. We finished all the work we needed to do today before Dad left for work.
When Mom got back she decided that we needed to clean the garage. That was a great idea. We moved some things around and got rid of some trash, and cleaned up so much we were able to fit a car in.
Only someone who has lived at my house can really appreciate the fact that we actually put a car inside our garage. That happens maybe once every five years. Maybe.
Yes, the garage door closes with the car inside.
Today’s round of yard work was particularly nice. I used the edger — some call it a “weed-whacker”, but that sounds uncivilized — to fight back the advancing grass on one side of the driveway. I was telling Mom about how I thought this activity matched my personality well. There is a nice straight line at the edge of the concrete, and the grass must stay off the line. The boundaries are distinctly drawn. I like that.
After work, Mom got to go give some meaningful service somewhere, so I was in charge of taking my younger brothers to the cinema. First, I underestimated the popularity of the dollar-theater during spring break. Second, I underestimated the running time of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The line for tickets was long. Matthew wanted to watch Chicken Little. Mark didn’t. Mark watched Harry Potter while Matthew and I watched Chicken Little. When our film was over (including all the credits), I poked my head into Mark’s theater just in time to see the four Triwizard champions barely starting on the second task.
There was no way Mark’s fifty cents was going to buy him more screen time than me, so I watched the rest of Potter, too. Good film, that.
And then there was video games.