Another Great Conference

Another General Conference has come and gone.    I felt like many of the speakers were speaking directly to me.   Now I need to relisten to them and read the transcripts.  In the past I would download the conference talks onto my iPod and listen to them when I drive or run.   It was great to listen to the talks over and over again.   Unfortunately I have lost my iPod so I'll have to figure some other way of doing it.

In the Sunday morning session the closing song was "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet".   I am thankful that we have a prophet.   During the last chorus they showed some pictures of President Monson with different members from around the world.   One of the pictures was of my nephew Brent's wife Amber and their kids (and his mother-in-law) at the dedication of the Twin Fall's Idaho temple.

I was able to capture the picture.  Amber's mom is the one in the black dress holding Carter.  Amber is next  holding Brooklyn.

General Conference Weekend

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this is a special weekend for me.   Twice a year our Church holds a General Conference in Salt Lake City.   At this conference we hear talks from our leaders.   There are 5 2 hour sessions that are broadcast throughout the world.   We are watching on the internet.  You can check it out at www.lds.org.

The first session was this morning at 10 am.   President Monson was the first speaker.   He presented the name of the newest Apostle - Neil L. Anderson.   Elder Anderson filled the vacancy created when Elder Wirthlin passed away.    I've been fortunate enough to meet both of these Apostles.   Many years ago when I worked for Novell I was in Utah for work and I stayed at Wilma and Dave's place.  There was a Church satellite broadcast for something.   I went to Wilma and Dave's Stake Centre to watch.  To my surprise 2 Apostles were in attendance at the Stake Center.  Elder Nelson and Elder Wirthlin.  Both were in that Stake.   I was able to visit with Elder Wirthlin for a few minutes after the broadcast.   He told me that his wife said they had to leave and that now he was waiting for her.   Lives of the Apostles would be so different then ours in some ways, but in other ways they are the same.

Last August there was a special leadership meeting in Calgary where all the bishops and stake presidencies in the Calgary area were invited to attend.   At that meeting President Eyring, Elder Holland and Elder Anderson were in attendance.   It was a wonderful meeting.   What an opportunity to be taught by 2 Apostles and 1 person who would be an Apostle in less than a year.  

At conference time I like to read about King Benjamin's address in the Book of Mormon.

(Mosiah 2:1-2, 6-7)

• 1 And it came to pass that after Mosiah had done as his father had commanded him, and had made a proclamation throughout all the land, that the people ^agathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the ^btemple to ^chear the ^dwords which king Benjamin should speak unto them.
•   2 And there were a great number, even so many that they did not number them; for they had multiplied exceedingly and waxed great in the land.
• 
  
•   6 And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his ^atent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them;
•   7 For the multitude being so great that king Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, therefore he caused a ^atower to be erected, that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them.

The people of the time were gathered together for their General Conference.   In our time many gather in Salt Lake City - Candi and Alana and their friends attended the session this morning in the conference centre.  In verse 7 it talks about erecting a tower so the people could hear his words.  We have erected towers today so people throughout the world can gather in Church buildings to watch signals broadcast from those towers.   

In chapter 6 it mentions that they could remain in their tents and hear the words of King Benjamin.
For years we have been fortunate enough to watch conference in our "tent".   The local cable company would broadcast it one of those community service channels.   In the last couple years we have watched it over the internet.  

I love General Conference.

Back into Training

It's time for me to start training again for another run. Its been a year and a half since I ran the St. George Marathon. The question is finding the right run.

There are some fun marathons I would love to run. Calgary has a great marathon where you run through the zoo and along the river. Edmonton and Red Deer have marathons. You can run the Disney Marathon and run through Disneyland - or the Disney World Marathon and run through all the Disney parks there. You can run down the Strip in the Las Vegas Marathon or run through 5 boroughs in the New York Marathon. There's the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego where they have a band playing every mile. There are all kinds of neat runs out there.

The problem is that they are all on Sunday. That's my day to go to Church so its not even an option for me.

When we were in Saskatoon, Michael told me about the perfect race that he thought we should start training for. Its on a Saturday in March in North Carolina.

Its one of the fastest growing runs in the USA. It started in 2004 with 12 runners. In 2009 there were over 5,500 runners. ESPN referred to it as the "most difficult race in the country".

Its not a marathon, but I think it will take as much serious training as a marathon to complete.

I'm going to accept the

In this race you have to run from the North Carolina State University Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme 2 miles away. At the Krispy Kreme you have to eat a dozen donuts and then run back the 2 miles to campus.

When I was training for the St. George marathon my philosophy was Exercise More - Eat Less. The problem was that I kept on getting it mixed up it with Eat More - Exercise Less. Finally I've found something that I can train for where it doesn't really matter. Either way I'll be training for one aspect of the race.

My training plan is to pace myself. Don't start running too far too quickly and don't eat too many donuts too quickly. Maybe a donut a day and then do the long run equivalent of a dozen on the weekend.

The challenge here will be finding Krispy Kreme donuts for my training. They closed the only Krispy Kreme in Calgary. I guess I'll have to train with Tim Horton's donuts. But it should give me the advantage because Tim Horton donuts are heavier. (plus its Roll Up the Rim to Win time so maybe I can win a car while training).

The only question now is "Am I up to the Challenge?"



For the ESPN coverage of the 2009 Krispy Kreme Challenge click here.

Click for the Krispy Kreme Challenge official website.

Notes:

12 Original Glazed Krispy Kreme Doughnuts contain:

• 2,400 calories (1,200 fat)
• 144 grams of fat
• 36 grams of saturated fat
• 60 mg. of cholesterol
• 1140 mg. of sodium
• 120 grams of sugar
• 24 grams of protein.

But NO Trans fats - They must be healthy

• Those calories are enough to burn a 60-watt bulb for 125 hours
• You'd have to run 32 miles to break even.

Saskatoon Road Trip Final Report

It was a great weekend. It was fun getting to know the other girls and their families better. They should have these trips at the beginning of the season. It was a great bunch of girls and their families are wonderful.

After the Championship game we all went out to celebrate at Tony Romas.

We hardly recognized the girls as they went from this....

To this....

(they clean up nicely)

Here's the place we stayed at.

Do the words "Budget" and "Luxury" go together?

When we drove up we had our reservations and started to talk about some of the dives we had stayed in through the years. Plus it was in an interesting part of town. (the dad who booked the place admitted that when he saw it he thought that he was going to be in trouble with all of the other families - this was the only place in town that had rooms available when he tried to book - that's not a good sign either)

But to our surprise it actually quite nice inside. The rooms had been renovated and it was a completely smoke free building.

Its the first place I've stayed it that had LCD TVs.

We were worried when we got our room because it had the outside door. I thought it wouldn't be good for our kids to be running outside to go from room to room especially where were we. Our door was on the back of the building and when we checked in there was a guy dumpster diving not far away. But to my surprise when we opened the door we found that there was an inside door as well. Its the first room I've had that has had a front and back door. It made it easy for loading and unloading because we could park right by the outside door.

Jamie by our "Front" door.

We went to Church in Mike and Petrea's ward. It was small version of some of the churches in Calgary. It was a nice meeting and it was nice to see Mike and Petrea once last time before we headed out. Next time we see them they will be Mommy Petrea and Daddy Michael.

Now for the drive home. I need to set this up.

All you Canadians have to agree that there's something about Canadian TV that makes it look Canadian. I don't know what it is. They can film movies in Canada but they don't look Canadian, but you film a TV series in Canada there is something "Canadian" about it. I can't really explain it but I'm sure you all know what I mean.

That wasn't my point - Let me try to get to the point. There is one Canadian TV series that I really enjoy. Its Corner Gas (www.cornergas.com). Its about a gas station in a small town in Saskatchewan. I like it because I grew up in a small town in Alberta - lots of similarities - plus everyone knows someone who is like the characters in this show.

I'm still not to my point - but I'm getting there. The Corner Gas theme song - Not A Lot Goin' On, starts with the lyrics


You can tell me that your dog ran away
then tell me that it took three days
I’ve heard every joke

That's referring to a classic Saskatchewan joke. My friend Gord grew up in Saskatchewan. He used to say that Saskatchewan is so flat that if you stand on a chair you can watch your dog run away for 3 days.

Ok - here's my point - its NOT a joke. We took pictures on our drive home from Saskatoon to Calgary. (Judy said it was like driving between Picture Butte and Granum - for 6 hours)

I think you could easily watch your dog run away for 3 days. You be the judge.

These following pictures were taken on the drive home at random times - even though it may look like it - they are NOT all the same picture . (Sorry about the dirty windshield.)

I didn't expect to see this. We were driving through a small town and I actually turned around to take the picture. I wonder which Iron Chef runs this place.

Had to take a picture of this - a curve in the road

There was more snow as we got close to Calgary. There was about 6 inches on new snow in Calgary on Sunday morning.

The girls watched movies and slept so the drive went quickly (as quickly as 6 hours can)

A very nice weekend with a nice souvenir