Dinner fit for a royal family

Sunday dinners tend to be special. We use the stoneware plates we got from our wedding. We have time to prepare something nice, and there isn't normally anything that is make us rush it. Often we'll even open a bottle of sparkling cider just to increase the special-ness. Tonight Kanga even said that she was pretending to be a princess during dinner. The conversations were, "Sire, would you pass the butter please?" Princess Kanga, I would be delighted to." We were a proper royal family.

What I found very entertaining about the whole thing is that we made tinfoil dinners, as known as "Hobo dinners." So as we forked out carrots, potatoes, turnips, and chicken out of the tinfoil wrappings on our stoneware plates we chatted like affable gentry, enjoying the meal and the wonderful weather (as seen through the windows).

It was a very nice day. We spent parts of it outside: swinging, reading, and talking to neighbors. I'm glad the kids enjoy playing outside. I went to fly Skippy, but the batteries in the remote needed to be charged. I'll have to fly him later. All in all, it's been very nice.

A learning Weekend

This week was spring break at the university and in preparation for it my boss encouraged us to take time off. I decided to take her up on that offer so Thursday and Friday found the kids out and about with their old man. Thursday we dropped Angel off at a conference I'm Salt Lake and then visiting the Natural History Museum  at the University of Utan. I remember going there as a kid and though that they would enjoy it. We spent just over 4 hours there, including eating a packed lunch in their dinning area. They had lots of stuff there for all ages and the kids did really well. Tigger was not as fond of the dinosaurs as he thought he would be. They freaked him out. But there was lots of other things that he enjoyed.

This recreation of a first people's home was one of their favorite. Kanga would tell me what the different holes were used for and what the people did where in the home. I don't know how she knew what they were used for, but she sounded very clear and assured of her statements. They played in a stream, built walls to examine erosion, enjoyed the different colored minerals, drooled over chocolate (and it's history), enjoyed looking at the sun, and put a cell together. They were very mobile and interested in all of the hands on stuff (which was very good).

The next day my dad and brother came up and we went to a local attraction, The Bear River Bird Refuge. My father had enough binoculars for everybody and we spent the afternoon watching great blue herons, coots, geese, pelicans, a cormorant, and red winged blackbirds. There were other birds as well, but we were unable to identify them. The kids weren't too sure what to think but they enjoyed themselves in the end. My dad, as a scoutmaster, has taken scouts there before - I've been twice, but that was thirteen years ago. Since then they have built a very nice visitor's center that we stopped off at first. It was well furnished and delightful to show the kids the different birds we would see.

All in all we did a lot this weekend. The kids asked if we could go to the museum again, and I hope I can take them again as they get older. As my dad said while we were looking at birds and the Kanga asked if we could go home, "You have to work them into it." I'm glad they are patient enough with their old man to let him try to "work them into" nature, science, museums, and wildlife preserves.

Book Review - City of the Saints by D. J. Butler.

A couple of weeks ago my dad and I were talking books and City of the Saints by D.J. Butler was one that I borrowed from him. As a historian I have a curious relationship with alternate history, particularly when I'm moderately familiar with it. I loved Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series and Corriea's Grimnoir Chronicles. But what Butler had was an alternate steam puck history of my own religious history. I loved the idea of it and I enjoyed the book too. What was also entertaining was that it pulled characters of literary history as well - Sam Clements (better known as Mark Twain) and Edgar Allen Poe - as well as a famous British explorer - Sir Richard Burton. Oh, and did I mention that John Moses Browning plays a pretty extensive role as an eight year old? The book was quite extensive on its deviations from history and historical technology. Air ships with giant ray guns and clockwork horses are all rather far fetched, but it made for a fun read.

Plot: The United States is headed towards civil war and both the US Army and the State of Virginia are desperate to get the best help possible. That means heading to their mutual western neighbor the Kingdom of Deseret lead by the incomparable Brigham Young. Armed with futuristic technology developed by Orson "Madman" Pratt, the Kingdom is in a position to lead any side it joins to victory.What's more, the Queen of England has heard of Pratt's airships and wants a piece of the pie. With only one way into the Kingdom Sam Clements of the US army, Edgar Allen Poe of the US army (of Virginia) and Dick Burton of Her Majesty's special service all end up traveling the same road, but with conflicting aims. What they don't know is the Kingdom has its own problems and its own agenda.

My personal favorites: I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this book, both the historical and the fictional. Poe as a spy, Clements as a diplomat, and Porter Rockwell as himself (he couldn't have been anybody else). They each had their own assistants that were fun to follow as well. I also liked the direct references to historical Salt Lake City, and the culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. While 95% of what was shown was "adjusted" (my word) there were great tidbits - such as the assignment to guard the pass into Salt Lake being rotated through the elder's quorums because the high priests were caught sleeping on the job. The action was well written and compelling without being tedious and I found myself caring for the characters quite a bit. I also found the language to be inventive and creative.

Considerations: This book takes plenty of liberties with some figures in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints that are well loved. Elisa R. Snow, Brigham Young, George Q. Cannon, and Heber C. Kimball all make apperances - Brigham Young and Elisa R. Snow having a lot of focus on them. People may not agree with their portrayals and find the book unpleasant. For me the alternate history was so far out there it wasn't hard to imagine them portrayed in a similar "way out there" fashion. There is plenty of action and some mildly gruesome violence, but graphic descriptions are kept to a minimum and were not over the top. I did mention that Porter Rockwell is an active player but unlike the before mentioned people the portrayal of him is pretty close to truth. Granted, the only thing that wouldn't be true is if he was a calm, mild-mannered, non-violent philanthropist.

City of the Saints was a fun adventure read. If you enjoy speculative fiction and want to experience a rather insane ride through the desert in the back of a steam truck what airships float above you - enjoy the ride. The novel weighed in at right around 450 pages.

Hobby Flight

Sundays are days that my family hold dear. For one, we enjoy singing in the church choir and attending our church meetings. Angel and I work with the nursery child (ages 18 months to 3 years). I say child because at the moment there is only one kid that age. We get three more in May and we are really excited about it.

Religious services aside for almost a year Sundays were the only days that we could spend as a family as Angel worked on Saturdays and got Mondays off. As such, we try to enjoy activities together as a family. We play games, read books together, and enjoying playing outside. We have since started another Sunday afternoon tradition. Watching me bounce Skippy around the living room. "Who" you may ask, "is Skippy?"

This is.

Skippy is the gyropter, not the phone. I named him after MHI's Helicopter pilot. That and he "skips" across the floor on a regular basis. He's indoor only, if there is a draft it plays havoc with him, but he's a fun little birt to fly. Our twelve foot ceiling in our living room is great - as long as I avoid the ceiling fan. He's pretty well built, but I've had to do some patching. Unfortunately, I broke a rather important part not long ago and had to order in a replacement. I got them and was able to fix Skippy up. We made his usual Sunday afternoon flight with minimal problems and the fewest crashes yet. The kids really enjoy watching the helicopter and constantly tell him not to crash. I don't have the heart to tell them that I'm the one driving. I'm pretty sure they know thought.

Rain

I love Sandra Boynton's song "End of a Summer Storm" from her Frog Trouble album. I also like William Joseph's song, "Sanding the Storm." Both of these songs just invoke a good rain storm, with or without thunder and lightning. The drive in to work today was a persistent rain, not a drizzle or a downpour, just a stead rain with dark clouds and somewhat foggy conditions. A wonderful day. It will probably break before noon, but it reminded me of a dark and stormy night my freshman year of college.

I had a night class (GEOG 1000) on Tuesdays. I actually enjoyed the class, which made it easier to go. The professor was good and I liked the subject material. My dorm was a good twenty minute walk from the rest of campus, but I had no problems with it. I enjoy walking, day or night, sun or snow, doesn't matter. It had been chilly so I had worn a coat to class in preparation of my walk home. When I got out of class it was a night a black as pitch. The rain was falling heavily - although I wouldn't call it a downpour. The clouds were low and inky. There was no wind to move them. It seemed that light was being sucked out of the very air. I remember walking to the windows in the lobby of the Biology - Natural Resources building (where our class was) and looking out at the blackness that was the night. I then stuffed my coat in my backpack, took off my shoes and socks, and rolled up my pant legs. With nothing other than my t-shirt and jeans and carrying my shoes I set off for home. It was warm - because rain will actually heat the air, a fact I learned in that very class - and no one was around. My feet were tender I don't normally like to go barefoot, but I picked my way home, in the rain. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I have a distinct memory of following the lines of tar in the patched parking lot. I don't remember seeing anyone. I'm sure it's because no one else was as stupid as me. When I got home I took a hot shower and changed into sweats and relaxed. I haven't done anything like that since, but I often think fondly on that dark and stormy night, carrying my shoes, and enjoying the rain.

Picnic at the school

Today our child care provider fell through so I took the day off to watch the kids. It turned out that Kanga didn't have school today either, so we had a picnic lunch at her school playground. We only live a couple of blocks from her school, so she rode her bike while I pushed Tigger in our big stroller. He could have walked, but I needed something to help me carry everything, so I was cool with it. we had sandwiches, apples and some left over pineapple sheet cake I made for yesterday. The weather was mild, cool but not cold, and there was another little boy there whose older brother was playing baseball with friends. I took a book, but didn't get a whole lot read as the kids were having fun and asking me to watch their latest achievements. I was okay with that.

I'm glad that we live in an area where we can do picnic lunches fairly easily. I've taken a couple of days off of work next week to spend with the kids. We're planning on hitting a museum or two as Angel will be at a conference. She's not too hip on museums. I enjoy them a lot and like watching the kids learn. It should be fun.

Audible Book Review - Dead Six by Larry Correia and Mike Kupari

I am a big Larry Correia fan. I own all of the Monster Hunter books and the Grimnoir Chronicles trilogy. I've been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Dead Six and was hoping to find it on Audible when when I first signed up, but they didn't have it. Then came February 4th. In one day Audible released Dead Six, it's sequel Swords of Exodus, and two other of Larry's books not previously available on Audible. I knew right where my next credit was going! Co-written with Mike Kupari, who has a ton of military experiences and was in Explosive Ordinance Disposal training for part of the writing the story is well thought out, exciting, and very tense. I can't say that I've read too many collaborations, but I do know that different authors do them different ways. Correia and Kupari did this by each writing a different character's view point. This made the two characters distinct from each other and allowed the authors to have fun with their characters. Dead Six takes place in an alternate or near future world where the political landscape is just a little different and the world is a lot more messed up then now. Hard to believe, I know, but they did it. Here is the link to Audible's page for the books. It was narrated by Bronson Pinchot and he does a marvelous job.

Plot: Michael Valentine is stuck in a rut. After the independent military contractor company, Vanguard, he worked for was declared illegal and disbanded he got a job working security. His life is straightforward and he hates it. Then one of his old friends from Vanguard calls him up out of the blue and tells him a bout a job offer. It pays $25,000 a month and that he will be serving his country and be able to use the skills he honed in the military and Vanguard. He's worried about the job. He doesn't even know what organization he's working for. But the money's good and he secretly enjoys that kind of work. He signs up and is off to the Zubarah in the Arabian Peninsula to declare war (unofficially) on the terrorists living there. In Zubarah at the same time is Lorenzo, international super thief, has just been told by the head of a very powerful crime family that he is to steal the impossible or all of his family will be killed in horrible ways. He and his crew have spent six months putting things in place in Zubarah that will save them and their families from Big Eddie's wrath. As the months go on, Valentine and Lorenzo find out about each other, mostly when Valentine ends up killing the person that Lorenzo needs to talk to. Neither one of them likes the position they are in, but are stuck where they are and have to make things work despite the damage they are each doing to each other.

My personal favorites: The action in this book is intense! It was well written and with two gun experts and one author with years of military experience you can bet it was accurate. To ramp up the intensity is the fact that some of the action is between the two characters that we are cheering for. When you are hoping that they both win without killing each other. Also, the story was compelling and while I saw some things coming, I certainly didn't guess it all. Valentine and Lorenzo were very compelling characters, unsympathetic in their occupations (stealing stuff and killing people) but very likable in their own right. I also loved the narration. The way that Valentine's Calm was done made for a very unique style of seeing the action.

Considerations: I must give a STRONG language content on this. There is A LOT of profanity in this book. I find it hard to recommend. But unlike Redshirts the language was used right. There was weight to it. Certain characters would use it more than others, it didn't pull me out of the story. It felt natural. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of swearing and unpleasant terms. I would say the level of gore is less than Monster Hunter and not gratuitous. There is a very unpleasant scene involving a sadistic murderer, but again, the actual description, does not dwell on the details. There are also three scenes that a movie review might describe as "sex is implied." Nothing sexual takes place on the page, but there are some brief references.

All in all, Dead Six delivered and incredible action ride with some real thought and accuracy in the narrative. I love the characters and cheered and despaired with them. I was heartbroken with them when they lost somebody and I wanted to strangle their enemies as much as they did. I was sucked into a world that was both terrifying and exhilarating. I'm glad I've got Words of Radiance to tide me over until I can get my hands on Swords of Exodus. The total length was just under 21 and a half hours.