It's Been a While

Lots to update but first I want to share my favorite traffic sign with everyone.

Its a "WARNING - Juggler on Unicycle ahead" sign.   You can even see the heads of the folks in the audience.

(its actually a sign that they put up when they repave the roads.  Its to warn motorcyclists that there are groves in the road - It still looks more like a juggler on a unicycle to me)

It makes me smile everytime I see it.

So what do you call them?

This is one of those random thoughts.


What do you call these?

In Hawaii they call them slippers.  My kids call them flip-flops.  

I grew up calling them something else.   My kids cringe and/or laugh when I use that word.   I know them as "thongs".   Apparently that means something else to them.   I will says something like  "Has anyone seem my thongs" and the girls go nuts.

Well, I was at our local Calgary Co-op the other day and look what I saw.

  

The sign says they have Camo thongs on sale - I couldn't find them.

(This was for you Wilma - the only other person in the world who will think its funny)

  

If Calgary Co-op refers to them as thongs - they must be thongs.  I'm not as crazy as my kids think I am.

  

I did some research.  Here is what I found.
  

Did you know that thongs were inspired by the woven Japanese zori?   (Aren't the Japanese great?)

They are called flip-flops because of the noise they make when you walk.  They are thought to have been invented in New Zealand.  Flip-flops are also known as jandals (japanese sandal) in New Zealand, chappel in India, slip-slops in South Africa, go-aheads in some South Pacific islands, ojatas or chancetas in Spanish speaking countries and chinelos in Brazil.  

And they are still called "thongs" in Australia, Canada and the United States.  (So I'm not alone)

Trivia: On July 19, 2005, some members of Northwestern University's national champion women's lacrosse team were criticized for wearing "flip-flops" to the White House to meet with President George W. Bush. The women pointed out that their shoes were not "beach shoes," but were dressier thong sandals. 


   

Where's the Takahashi?

Here's my version of Where's Waldo - Stake Youth Conference Version.

In each picture try to find Jenelle and/or Jamie and/or me.

On the weekend our Stake had Youth Conference.  On Saturday we went to a local Boy Scout camp for the day.

It started with a delicious and nutritious breakfast.

  

The breakfast club.

  

They brought in a guest speaker.  (There were more youth than it looks like in this picture)

  

Waiting for the guest speaker to begin.  Both Jamie and Jenelle are in this picture.  Can you find them?

  

After the speaker they broke into groups. 

  

Find the tourist who thought he was in Banff - He lost the rest of his Japanese tour group.
 

Jamie and Jenelle were in the same group.   Their first activity was lashing.   I didn't have any pictures of them getting lashed.  Not pretty.   In reality, they had to lash together 3 pieces of wood and use it to transport teammates out of Jerusalem - like Lehi and his family.
 

The next stop was archery.  They first talked about the story of Nephi and his bow.
  

  

Then it was time for lunch.

The yellow group table.

  

The theme was Be One with the Believers.  They all got a t-shirt.

  

After lunch they tried to hit Samuel the Lamanite with water balloons.

Learning the finer points of the water balloon launcher

  

Getting ready to launch

  

Who's launching in this picture?  (Hint - if you zoom in you can see the color of her shorts)

  

They took a turn trying to protect Samuel the Lamanite.

  

Someone just took a bullet for Samuel.

  

Next was a battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites.   The swords were nylon stocking filled with flour.   If you hit someone it would leave a big white mark and they were "dead".

  

  

Then they had to cross the waters on dry "ground" like Moses crossed the Red Sea.

  

 

They had to walk a tight rope.

  

They found that if they sat on the "rope" it took out the slack and it was easier to cross.

  

He's attempting a back flip.   He succeeded.

  

The last stop was the tug of war and beach volleyball station.  No scripture story for this one.

  

I think that everyone had a good time at the youth conference.   

I got to go because the bishops and other youth leaders were all invited to attend.   It was strange for me to be there without Judy.  For the past 6 or 7 years she was always at these events.  First as the Stake YW Camp director and then as a counselor in the Stake YWs and then as the Stake YW President.  Erika commented that she did not go to a Stake activity during her YW experience without having her parents there.  

  

I've been attending these Stake Youth Conferences since Candi was a youth.  I used to do a video of the activities that they would show at the Saturday night dance.  That was before digital cameras and easy video software.  I would use a video camera - I would have to digitize it in real time and then edit it and render it back to video.   I would start in the afternoon after the activities.   I can't believe I would do it in time for the end of the dance.   With digital cameras it because easier just to take lots of pictures and do a slide show.

  

 Since I've been the bishop they haven't asked me to do the pictures but on Friday night I noticed that there was no one taking pictures so on Saturday I brought my camera.   Pres Stephen also brought a camera and between the two of use we took over 1000 pictures.   On Saturday night I picked about 100 pictures and I set up a slide show that ran during the dance - just like the good old days.

  

It grows on trees

I was listening to talk radio as I like to do while driving in the car.   There was a story about the toilet paper shortage that Cuba is experiencing right now.   Apparently Cubans are paying the equivalent of 2 days pay for a roll of toilet paper if you can find it.  The average Cuban makes $20 per week so that would make a roll of toilet paper worth $8.   That's like flushing money down the toilet.    This shortage has started a new industry in Cuba.   People are rushing out and buying as many newspapers as they can every morning -  for only 7 cents.   They in turn resell them as toilet paper for 70 cents.

Well we don't have that problem here.   We found out that toilet paper grows on trees and we just happen to have the right kind of trees in our yard.

They seem to blossom at night but there is no way of knowing what night.    A couple weeks ago Judy and I were "waiting up" for everyone to get home on a Saturday night.

(A picture of me "waiting up") 

There was a loud noise that woke both of us up.   It sounding like something had fallen down.   I went upstairs but couldn't see anything out of place - then...

 I looked out the window - and what did I see?

(You could sing this to the tune of "Popcorn Popping")

Toilet paper growing on our crabapple tree

  

The trees had brought me such a nice surpise

  

TP growing right before my eyes.

  

It was about 2 or 2:30 am when we discovered that the trees had blossomed.  Judy and I spend the next 1/2 hour harvesting the crop.    We had enough to fill 2 large garbage bags.

  

This last Friday was the first night of our Stake Youth Conference.   I came home around 11pm  and the girls came home just after midnight.   In that time our trees had blossomed again.   The girls came home to discover another crop of toilet paper.   We didn't get any picture of the crop before harvest but we did get some of the girls harvesting the crop with some friends.   This was a much bigger harvest than the last one.

  

Jenelle and Jamie trying to harvest the toilet paper high in the tree

  

The crew with the harvest.

  

Inspecting the harvest.

  

A close up of the harvest. 

  

  

So we went to bed only to wake up to find out that a tree can produce 2 crops in 1 night.   

  

We woke up on Saturday morning to this:

Yet another crop of TP on our tree.

  

As impressive as this crop looks, the crop earlier was even better.

  

That's me harvesting the TP high in the tree.

  

I counted the rolls on this one.  35.   

  

Who ever did this should have sold it to Cuba.  At  $8 a roll they could have sold it for $280.   And this was the smallest harvest of the 3 crops.   

Just think - assuming that the other crops were the same size - maybe slightly larger - if all our crops were sold to Cuba - we could have made close to $900.  

  

Now I know where toilet paper comes from.