Family Reunion Photos

We had a good time visiting this past weekend with those who came down. We had dinner Friday night, had breakfast together Saturday morning, visited, and then had lunch and went bowling. We then came back to Deric and Debbies house to visit and go over some things that Dad and Mom wanted to discuss about their time shares. Wish more of the family could have come!

Do you really want an answer?

I know that we post questions on this blog and sometimes we may be surprised at the answers that we receive. My advice is don't ask any question you don't want an answer to.

Legion of Merit Medal

The speed and timing of the Army is a bit slow but I finally got my retirement award. I was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal which is the 5th highest in precidence of the Army medals. The order of precidence for the top 5 medals are 1)The Medal of Honor. 2) Distinguished Service Cross. 3) Distinguished Service Medal. 4)The Silver Star. 5) Legion of Merit. It will look good next to the Bronze Star and the Meritorious Service Medals in my display case at home.

Unintended Consequences

It has occurred to me that perhaps the current situation in Iran is a result of unintended consequences of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both nations have thrown off dictatorial leadership with the aid of the United States and both nations have held internationally recognized free elections. Iraq in particular has come together with a functioning government, whether it ends up being a competent government remains to be seen, but it appears to be functioning for the benefit of Iraqi citizens, including Shiite, Sunni, and Kurds. So why are the Iranians up in arms now? Certainly they have put up with sham elections in the past. I think an important factor is that the Iranian people have seen these free and valid elections in neighboring countries and the Iranian people have decided that the deserve such elections as well. Whether the current protests produce immediate change or not, the status quo in Iran has changed. The trend toward more free and open elections is inevitable, if not now, then in the future. I don't think any leader, Republican or Democrat, foresaw changes in Iran as a consequence of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Iraq was indeed unpopular, but it is pushing Iran toward a more open democracy, something akin to Turkey perhaps. The current situation is suggesting that 'unpopular' does not necessarily mean 'wrong'.

Is the President handling the Iranian crisis correctly?

I personally think he is doing an excellant job in staying neutral and letting the Iranians work out their own election problems. The time may come where he needs to be more vocal but at this point we don't want to appear as if we are trying to be the world's puppet master. I'd be interested to hear what you all think.

Family Reunion Coordination

For those of you who are coming to the Family Reunion, can you please respond and let us know when you plan to arrive in St. George and when you plan to leave so that we can coordinate activities (meals, etc.). For example, if you are coming on Friday, when will you plan to be arriving so that we can see about dinner together or if we need to plan on just starting Saturday morning. Also, if you are coming by car or if by plane so that if you need a ride from the airports etc. Thanks.

We've almost covered the globe!

As best as I can tell, this is where our family has traveled be it leasure, military, missions, business... Interesting.

English or German?

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru! Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas. If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Interesting photos for the week.

Fabienne's visit to Brussels with her boys Steven and David. We went to the atonium where we also got to see a group from Poland who were there to educate the world that the fall of communism began in their country, before the wall came down in Germany. They are the group in the gold, shiny suits. They looked like aliens and the atonium was their mothership.

Graduation day

Elise graduated and earned two great awards as follows: She received "The Arthur Denyer Award" which is given in memory of the founder of ISB, this award is presented to the student who has most consistently demonstrated genuine internationalism in attitude and action, exemplifying most clearly the global spirit of the International School of Brussels.

Then she was given "The Charles Besterman Award". Charles Besterman was a gifted actor and director, and one of the founders of the American Theatre Company in Brussels. This award is presented in his memory for outstanding achievement and is given to a talented and gifted drama student. We were so proud of her and so happy for her to recieve another incredible award. She really made her mark in this school in the short two years that she was here. Congrats to Elise!

United Football League

A new professional football league is on the drawing board.
The United Football League is planning a short season of six games between four teams starting in October. The four teams are Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, and San Francisco.
Salt Lake City being considered for expansion in 2010.
I hope this new league does not die like the USFL, the XFL, NFL Europe, and Arena Football.
The League's new (and somewhat clunky) website is http://www.ufl-football.com/home
There are some big names associated with the new league, including a big Wall Street Investor, Nancy Pelosi's rich husband, Mark Cuban (2010), and several former NFL coaches and players.

Geocaching outside Zion's

Today after work (and yes Kim and Alan, I do work) we went Geocaching to a VERY remote site outside Zion's and Katie found both of the caches that we had set out to find. Good thing we had Debbies SUV because the terrain was really rough getting to the top. But, we got to the top of both Mesas and looked for the caches WITHOUT GPS's! We found them and just had a great time looking out over the edges. We love the beautiful places outside St. George.

Fun day at Zion's National Park

We just spent the day at Zions National Park having a picnic, playing croquet, and swimming in the ice cold river. It was a fun get-a-way. Things going great here in St. George. Dad and Mom will be leaving to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on Friday ( the 5th) for a week so they won't be available. We had dinner with them and set up Mom's new iPod for her. It's nice to have them in town.