21 May, 2005

The server room move (from 16th Ave. NW to 29th St. NE) went well. We began at about 5:00 PM on Thursdsay evening preping.; by 7:00 PM the 17th Ward group had shown up to elp us move equipment. We packed the equipment and arrived at the NE Columbia center at about 10:30, and we were completely unpacked by 11:00 PM.

The boys left, and we decided to press forward, mounting the UPS's and servers. We got everythigng that need to be up and running mounted into the racks, (and the rest put into storage) and we powered up the servers successfully at about 4:00 AM. We were satisfied with our testing and ready to go home by 4:30 AM. We were all back on the job by 9:30 AM on Friday morning (only 5 hours later), and we had the network functional and Columbia centres up and running by lunchtime. Overall the move was successfull. I'm really pleased with the skill and effort of my team. I work with committed, very smart, talented people. This was the single largest risk item I've ever worked on -- it was also quite possibly the most successfull.

Erin is feeling the effects of pregnancy more and more. She's doing quite well though. This morning she commented that about what the baby would look like. Gracie looks like me, and Matt looks like her... who will number three look like. Erin goes in for her first ultrasound on Tuesday morning.

Matt has really begun to speak in phrases -- and I'm noticing that he's becoming less and less frustrated (no surprise there -- we've always know that his frustration comes from not being able to express himself in a way that we can understand him). His phrases are really cute -- he's really cute. He's started to go to bed a little better. Erin bought a crib tent for him, so he's not getting out of bed anymore. At first the tent angered him, and we still had to lay in his room for 30 mintues to get him to fall asleep; but he's getting so that he's not so bothered by it now.

Gracie went to her kindergarten orientation this week (at Marion Carson elementary school). She had so much fun. It's really too bad she's got to be shipped all the way to Varsit. Erin and I are both a bit nervous about putting her on the bus -- she's becoming a little bit sensitive to being left alone lately.

I think it started when we went to Utah, and put her in primary with a class and teacher she didn't know. I dropped her off, and with a kiss, started to leave the room. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that she was feeling nervous. By the time I made eye contact with her, I could see plainly that she was very uneasy being left alone. I smiled and continued to walk to the door -- I could see that she way trying to be brave, but the more she could see me look at her, the more her eyes welled with tears and her lip trembled... until finally she bowed her head into hands and cried. It was so sad. I ended up sitting with her for all of singing time, then we went back to Brad and Amy's place instead of going to class. Ever since we've been back from Utah, Gracie has been very reluctant to go to class. She insists we check on her frequently during singing time, and from time to time I have to stay with her in order to keep her there.

This behaviour is very unlike her -- her nature is to be very free spirited and somewhat un-attached. She's hasn't had trouble with babysitters, or visiting in the homes of families she doesn't know. Erin and I have both been confused at this recent behaviour. When Erin took Gracieto her kindergarted orientation, she started to get a little nervous, but Erin quickly put her at ease by pointing out all the fun things to do. Erin said that despite some momentary hesitation, she did quite well.

Practically Assailable

Dad gave me an audio book commentary on Moby Dick. It's been enjoyable. I read Moby Dick in 1996 (almost ten years ago now) -- and I'm interested all over again. To this day I haven't read fiction as stirring as this:

That intagible malignity which has been from the beginning; to whose
dominion even the modern Christians ascribe one-half of the workds; which the
ancient Ohites of the east reverenced in thier statue devio; --Ahab did not fall
down and worhip it like them; but delirioulsy transferring its idea to the
abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated against it. All that most
maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with
malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle
demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly
personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the
whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole
race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his
hot heart's shell upon it.

May 7, 2005

Spent part of the day at work today -- not doing my regular IT duties, rather I helping with the renovations to the NE Columbia Centre. I learned how to to inside wall framing with metal studs (not that it was really hard). I'll feel pretty comfortable doing my basement, when the time comes.

I framed out the new server room, my new office/the IT area, and Dave's office. I find this kind of work very relaxing... it's nice to do manual labor, good for the mind.

Came home at 4:00 PM, and took Erin and the kids to Market Mall. Gracie was hoping to buy a mother's day gift for Erin (actually three gifts: a necklace, a ring, and a dress) -- but we couldn't find any jewelry that we thought she'd like, nor did we thing that we should buy her a dress, given that she's pregnant.

After a couple hours shopping (interrupted by a 20 minute stint in the play area), we abandoned our original gift ideas, and decided to get some new tablesettings. Erin couldn't decide what she wanted, so we left the mall empty handed. Honestly the best give I think I can give her, is just being out with her and the kids for an afternoon.

We went out with Sean and Libby Haslam last night. We had dinner at the Outback, then went to the new movie, "Kindom of Heaven". The dinner was great, the movie was decent. We always have fun going out with the Haslams.

The World Factbook

While researching Wikipedia today on the "Gaza Strip", I came across a reference to the C.I.A.'s World Factbook. This thing is really amazing (see Wikipedia's description).

May 2, 2005

Cathy's birthday today, we all went to Joey Tomatoe's for dinner. To be honest, I really don't like that place; I think the food is way overpriced... and it's good, but not that good.

Matt appearantly had to major breakdowns today. Erin tells me that at one point he was actually foaming at the mouth. Poor kid.

Matt has taught me a lot about parenting -- mostly that I should never be critical of a person's parenting skill (or appearant lack of it). I suspect most of what I previously would have judged as poor parenting, is more likely than not the result of a very frustrated parent who's doing thier best. Matt is so cute when he in a pleasant disposition, but he's very difficult to deal with at other times.

May 1, 2005

Stake Conference today; an interesting one. It was the first "satellite broadcasts" stake conference, transmitted from the Foothills Stake Centre in Calgary to 93 other chapels in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and part of Western Ontario. Elder Marlin K. Jensen who conducted the meeting pointed out that even a small congregation in Yellowknife was watching. President Monson, Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Jensen came to Calgary to conduct and speak at the conference.

The conference was given in two parts, a Saturday priesthood leadership meeting, and the Sunday general session. The Saturday priesthood training went from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM (an hour longer than scheduled), but it felt no longer than about an hour and a half. All three gave very good instruction, but I was particularly inspired by Elder Bednar's comments (at both sessions).

Elder Jensen conducted both sessions, and spoke only very briefly (about 10 minutes) to open the priesthood session. Elder Bednar spoke next for about 45 minutes, then President Monson for about an hour. There was a 20 minute break, then they all spoke again.

Elder Bendar is the newest of the Twelve, and by far the youngest. He's got a very accessible speaking style, yet very doctrinal. He's an excellent teacher. He told us of the process of being ordained an Apostle, and taught about priesthood keys in a very clear, insightful manner. He taught about how priesthood keys should be used, and how they should be received. Several times he spoke about how "with God, nothing is impossible."

During the general session, he used a theme (developed by Elder Maxwell during a previous General Conference) about how the individual brush stokes of a masterpiece painting are unremarkable when viewed by themselves; but after the painting is completed, and the individual brush strokes are viewed collectively, the masterpiece is revealed. He taught the family scripture study, seminary attendance, family prayer can be likened unto the brushstrokes, and that for most of us, there likely will not be one prayer, or one seminary or Sunday School lesson (i.e.: one single brush stroke), that we can "point to" that made the masterpiece (so to speak) -- but that after the years go by, and all the brush strokes are viewed together, then the masterpiece is revealed. To illustrate he pointed out that his children may not remember a single morning's scripture study, but they remember that they had scripture study every morning.

At the close of his Priesthood talk, Elder Bednar gave his witness of the Saviour. I'm not sure why, but there was something different about hearing him bear testimony of the Savior in person, than hearing all the Prophets and Apostles bear testimony at general conference. I can't really explain why, but I was more real, more honest than others I've heard.

Overall it was an uplifting conference.
P.S. The production of the conference was quite remarkable. A large semi-trailer was driven up from Salt Lake, with all the camera, sound and satellite equipment required to perform the broadcast. Technically and logistically, it was amazing.

April 23, 2005

We went for another hike through the ravine last night, this time Erin joined us -- and we had rubber boots for both Gracie and Matt (Matt wore Gracie's old boots that didn't fit very well). The kids had a fantstic time spashing in the water.

I was really surprised how well Matt did; I expected him to fall into the water on the first or second crossing. He actually made it to the fourth or fifth crossing before filling his boots with water and eventually falling right in. A couple of times he teetered, but managed to keep his balance. By the end Matt was completely soake, and I scooped him out of the water and rushed him home (ahead of Erin and Gracie) before he got too cold. We both decided that if Matt was going to have any chance at staying dry, he'd need new boots... we remedied that today (he got new boots from Wal-Mart). I put Matt down for bed, and as I've been doing the past few nights, I laid on the bed in his room. I fell asleep with him at 8:30 for the night. Sweet!

Tonight,after going to Wal-Mart we went to Peter's drive through for dinner and stopped off at the Melchin's for the evening. Sean was preparing for his priesthood lesson tomorrow, and we had an interesting discussion on the "key to the knowledge of God." We've been taught previously that the key to the knowledge of God is the covenants and ordiances of the priesthood, and Sean is going to use President Faust's talk from the October 2004 priesthood session of general conference. Sean is gives a very well prepared, uplifting, inspired lesson. I look forward to it.

I've been reading the "Miracle of Forgiveness" by President Spencer W. Kimball. It's the classic LDS book on repentance and forgiveness. The more I read the book, the more I'm interested to learn about President Kimball, he must have been a very pure, humble person. Tonight Cathy described him as being "without guile".

April 22, 2005

Grandma Wolff surprised us with a visit to Calgary, and she and mother stoped in to see us last night. It's good for Gracie and Matt to spend time with her -- we don't go down to Cardston very often (certainly not as often as we should). Gracie was so interested to show grandma Wolff her Barbie dolls. I took some pictures of the visit, and as usuall Matt became obsessed with the camera to the point that we had to put him to bed. It is such an effort for grandma to come to Calgary, I'm quite surprised she came -- but very happy she did.

April 19, 2005

Work is really busy lately -- I'm having a hard time staying on top of everything.

After dinner this evening, we took the kids to Leavitt's Ice Cream Shop. Dad, Kevin and Mason met us there. On the way we took a detour to the top of Canada Olympic park. I parked the car, and Gracie and I walked out and looked out over the city from the top of the hill. It was fun.

Lara has had a bit of a scare with her pregnancy, but fortunately everything is fine. Erin seems to be getting over her constant tired/sick feeling -- thankfully.

I had to stay with Matt for about 35 mintues this evening in order to get him to bed. I just sit and read in his room.

April 18, 2005

J.D. Taylor came over for dinner this evening. His wife and kids have been in Utah for the past couple of days. We had pizza and talked about building a deck -- he's got some great ideas!

Friday morning of last week, Erin was woken by the sound of someone downstairs in the kitchen. It was Matt. He climbed out of his crib, opened his door and started roaming around the house.

He gets out a night too. He's decided that he doesn't like to go to bed anymore, so I've been putting Matt to bed for the past week or so. Up until last week, Matt would gladly go down -- his bedtime ritual consisted of turning on the humidifier, and turning off the lights. Now I've got to stay with him and rub his back, this process now takes about 15-30 minutes.

Mom and Dad, Kevin and Mason came over for dinner on Sunday. Elise stayed home with Porter who's significatly improved, but not well enough to leave the house yet. Erin made Chicken Taco Pie, everyone loved it.

April 17th, 2005 -- (Terry Fox)

This week marked the 25th anniversary of the commencement of Terry Fox's run across Canada. I shamefully admit that until this week I didn't know much about him... other than he tried to run accross Canada in an attempt raise money for cancer. I know alot more about him now.

At age 21, Terry Fox began his "Marathon of Hope" in St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980. When he began there were only a few people who knew him or his cause; 143 days later most everyone in Canada knew him. Terry had a type of bone cancer, and his leg was amputated well above the knee.

I saw Terry's brother Darrell on TV this week -- Darrell pointed out something remarkable. He said that most people who run a marathon will train for months, and will take weeks to allow thier body to recover. Terry Fox ran the equivalent of a marathon everyday for 143 days. He did it with a prosthetic leg -- and cancer.

He ran over 5000 km's (more than half the distance of Canada), and eventually stoped outside Thunder Bay, Ontario because the cancer had spread to his lungs. To date, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised over 360 million dollars for cancer research.

This week I've seen lot's of archived video tape of Terry Fox, and what impresses me most is that hope, and optimisim seemed to radiate from him.

Terry Fox is a hero.

"Some people can’t figure out what I’m doing. It’s not a walk-hop, it’s not a trot, it’s running, or as close as I can get to running, and it’s harder than doing it on two legs."

"I'm not a dreamer, and I'm not saying this will initiate any kind of definitive answer or cure to cancer, but I believe in miracles. I have to.”

"If you’ve given a dollar, you are part of the Marathon of Hope .”

--Terry Fox

April 10, 2005

My computer has been down for the past several weeks, so I haven't made an entry recently. It's should be fairly telling that I haven't had time in the last 45 days or so to fix my computer -- infact for the past three weeks I haven't even turned it on (I've been bringing my notebook home from work however).

I got a modest bonus from work (a pleasant surprise I wasn't expecting), so I used part of it to replace the mainboard and hard drive on my home machine. I also added another gigabyte of memory. Kevin mentioned to me this evening that when he at WestWorld Computers before leaving on his mission (1996) the fastest computer processor was a 33 mHz, and the absolute most memory you could put in a computer was 32 megabytes. I now have two gigabytes of RAM in my computer -- which in 2005 is uncommonly large, I suspect that in five or ten years from now 2 gigabytes of RAM will be uncommonly small (if we use RAM at all).

Enough about computers...

Here's a brief recap of the past thirty days: We leased a van, we drove to Utah, we found out Erin is pregnant.

After thinking about it for some time, and doing a fair amount of research, we decided to lease a 2005 Pontiac Montana. It's quite a nice van (as far as mini-vans can be nice). It has a built-in DVD system -- which was a non-negotiable feature for Erin, and an automatic sliding passenger door. The rear seats also fold down. While driving, Gracie becomes quite engrossed watching DVD's (her current favorite is The Incredibles) -- Matt on the other hand couldn't care less. He sits with arms raised, and hands behind his head most of the time. Matt is extremely determined to do things for himself. For instance, he insists on buckling his carseat himself -- which is tough, because at his age he doesn't have the strenght or the dexterity to do it. Needless to say, getting in and out of the car has become moderately frustrating.

One of major influences in the decision to get the van was that we had decided to go to Utah to visit the Ritchie's and to attend general conference. We had assumed that the van (or better said, the DVD system) would make the 15 hour trip more palatable for the kids. The trip back to Calgary was better, but the trip to Utah was nigh unto unbearable. The DVD system did nothing for Matt, and Gracie kept getting frustrated because she couldn't fall asleep in her carseat. At one point all four of us were yelling. On the trip down, we learned a some things about the configuration of the van (ie: tilting the seats back to promote comfortable sleeping), and the trip home was much more enjoyable.

Utah was fun. For the first time I felt like I could live there. The weather was great -- the community that Brad and Amy live in seems really nice, everything just seemed good. The kids had fun with thier cousins. Gracie and Annie got along quite well. Gracie was over-stimulated most of the time, and was frequently given to tears -- but she had a good time nontheless. Matt did quite well with his afternoon naps but struggled a bit with nighttime. The sun was up early and shone into the room we stayed in, waking Matt up at 6:00 AM the first few mornings we were there.

Almost all of the Calgary group got sick while in Utah. It started with Lara, then Erin and Melinda, then me, then the kids.... We were introduced to a cold remedy called "Airborne", which seemed to work quite well.

While in Utah, I worked on a website for Brad for a couple of days, and on Thursday we skied Brighton. I was almost at the peak of my sickness on the Wednesday before, and had decided not to go, but when I woke up to 47" of new snow in the mountains, and a perfectly blue sky, I reconsidered how sick exactly I was. On Friday, I paid the price. The skiing was great, some of the best I can remember.

Conference was nice. It's really something to be in the Conference Center. I attended the Saturday afternoon and Priesthood sessions. This is my third time attending conference in the Conference Centre, and it still impresses me. It's quite remarkable to hear the hum of 20,000 people come to a complete silence at the first appearance of the prophet. The sound of 20,000 folding seats -- closing almost instantaneously -- followed by utter quite, is quite unique. I can't think of any other place or event where that many people can be that quite, and show that much respect. The congregation rises to it's feet, and becomes silent before the prophet can make more than two steps into the room.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to spend some time with David Stratton Waite. We met him for dinner on Tuesday evening at the Macaroni Grill. It was great to see him again. He tolerated the noise of the kids, and the constantly interupted conversations for about an hour, then we finally gave up and determined to meet again another night without the kids. So, on Thursday after skiing, David and I went out for dinner and got a chance to catch up. Getting together with David is quite intersting -- he's got a way about him. I can't explain it, but somehow even though we don't get a chance to speak to each other more than once or twice a year, and even though we don't spend time together in person more than every three or four years -- somehow, when we are together, it's like we've never been apart. I've often thought that the bond we created as missionary companions, is somehow stronger than all the time we've spent apart. We spoke about family, work, books, church, future plans. It was great. David is great.

Lastly, Erin is pregnant. Though I hadn't planed on an exact date, nor had Erin and I really spoken about it, I've been feeling like it was time for us to have another child. Number three is kind of intimidating, but I'm sure it will be great. Erin is starting to become quite ill -- moreso than I remeber with Gracie or Matthew. She's nauseated and tired most of the time. I hope we can all make it.

ASP.NET Forms Authentication Gotchas

I had some problems with ASP.NET forms authentication recently. I came across this article that basically outlined each of the problems I had (in sequence) and addressed them.

http://theserverside.net/articles/showarticle.tss?id=FormAuthentication

February 27, 2005

Little Porter is doing somewhat better this week than last. His kidneys are starting to perform thier proper function, his brain hemorage is heaing, and the blood is draining from around his brain. Today at dinner Kevin pointed out that only one nurse was tending to him now -- not four like previous days. The ward fasted for Porter this week. I've had many people inquire after him, and Kevin & Elise. Our ward has been very kind.

We had ward conference today. The stake presidency spoke, Rick gave a very nice talk (as usual). To be honest, the most noteable part of the day was sitting in Sunday school with Erin. We haven't done that for well over two years. One of Erin or I are out with one of the kids (or teaching primary). Matthew stayed in nursery by himself -- remarkable! He got a little homesick near the end, but genrally speaking he did pretty well. Hopefully this becomes a trend.

We went over to the Freibergs place tonight to celebrate Sommer's seventh birthday. I can't belive she is seven years old. I remember very clearly the night she was born. Erin was over at her folks place, and I was studying for an accounting exam that I thought for sure I was going to fail (but didn't). Sean, Rick and I had a nice Sunday evening discussion while the girls watched the Academy Awards.

February 20, 2005

I'm really sad today -- to be honest, I can't remember the last time I've felt this way. My heart is aching for Kevin and Elise, and little Porter.

On Tuesday of this week (Feb 15), Elise was admited to the hospital after her water broke in the middle of the night. The next day she delivered Porter Bryce Wolff, roughly two months early. The baby weighed just over 3 pounds. Initially everything looked well (given the situation), but sometime Wednesday evening the baby was transfered to the neonatal intensive care unit, and his health got steadily worse.

We were initially told he contracted pneumonia as a result of being born with strep, and that he wasn't producing enough white blood cells to beat the illness on his own. As is the case with many pre-mature babies, he also wasn't breathing on his own. Over the past few days he's had all sorts of trouble. His kidneys aren't working properly and he's having siezures regularly. Despite all this (and with the aid of life-support) he's hanging on to life even now.

Elise and Kevin are really hurting -- there have been alot of "lows" over the past few days. Our family has shed many tears over this situation, and we've prayed alot. Kevin and Elise are wrestling with the decision to instruct the doctor to remove the life support systems. We were with them over at mom and dad's house this evening, and talked about the decision with them. Kevin says that he feels some measure of peace when he thinks about discontinuing life support, but the very thought of it is extremely difficult. Erin and I can only imagine.

Erin and I went to the temple on Saturday with the ward. I had a hard time concentrating. We read "The Peacegiver" in the car on the way there and back. I was touched by the authors description of the several facest of the atonement of Christ -- very touched. It's quite hard to put into words, but I learned (among many other things) somewhat of how the atonement heals heartache and pain, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about this, especially in light of Kevin and Elise.

I'm sure Kevin and Elise have fasted and prayed as earnestly and sincerely about this situation as anything they've ever fasted and prayed about in thier whole lives. Kevin told me this evening that he feels no strong revelation over what to do. Grandpa Melchin once taught us that when the Lord doesn't reveal to us what we should do, perhaps we should be asking what we should learn from bearing the burden. What are Kevin and Elise to learn from this? What am I to learn from this? I'm not entirely sure, but I have certainly seen remarkable growth in Kevin over the past few days. He is growing in a way that comes only those who suffer this type of heartache. Tonight he said that he's learned what's important in life and what's not. By observation, I've learned this too.

I wish I had happier things to write about tonight. I wish that Kevin and Elise were doing thier normal Sunday evening family visit routine. I sincerly hope that we all can be changed for the good because of this.

More than once, while feeling sad, I've had the thought that there are worse things that are happening around the world today -- more hurtfull, more painfull things even than a very sick infant. After reading The Peacegiver I am reminded that Christ not only suffered the pain of sins of the world, and also for all of the pain caused to others because of these sins -- but He also suffered all the heartache of mortality -- and becasue of this suffering, He, and He alone, has power to heal our hearts no matter what mortal pain we suffer.

May He heal Kevin and Elise's heartache.

February 9, 2005

Yesterday was Erin's 29th birthday. Everyone in the house has been sick, so we didn't do much to celebrate. (Erin took Matt's temperature before putting him to bed last night -- 104 degrees.) Gracie was very concerned that we didn't open any gifts or have any cake -- she's at the age where birthdays = parties with lots of kids.

Grace has figured out how to lock and unlock all the interior doors in the house. Evertime I go into a room, I'm stopped by a locked door. She's very excited when I ask her to come unlock the door. To be honest, it's starting to drive me crazy. She's so cute though.

We've been looking pretty seriously at a minivan recently. Since August we've had only one car, and it's been very tough. We'll be going to Salt Lake for general conference in April, and we'll be driving, so we have to have a minivan by then. I never really know wheather it's better to lease or buy -- so far I'm kind of looking a buying a used Honda Odysey or Toyota Sienna. But leasing a new vehicle definatly has its benefits also.

Last weekend (February 4-5) I went on a bit of a skiing "get-away" with Sean, Jeff Shipley and Dustin Thompson. One of Sean's patients kindly offered Sean his ranch home just outside of Radium. The place was fantastic. We skiied Kicking Horse the first day and Lake Louise the second day. The snow was pretty good both days, but the visibility at Kicking Horse was definatly poor. That said, Kicking Horse had great terrain and deep snow. It was fun to get to know Dustin and Jeff a little bit better.

February 1, 2005

We had a very warm weekend -- something like 12 degrees. That's quite warm for the end of January.

Erin and I stayed in on Friday evening. We played with the web camera, Melinda and Micheal were on the other end. I couldn't make my computer microphone work, so M&M couldn't hear us, but we could hear them. Rick and Cathy stoped by to drop off one of Rick's broken work computers for me to look at. Cathy was amazed at the web camera.

Saturday afternoon we looked a mini-van's. They're so expensive. I'd really like Erin to have one -- it's been very tough to share a car these last few months. I hope we can get everthing in order to get a van for Erin. Gracie and Matt sayed with Rick and Cathy while we looked at vans. When we returned to pick up the kids, Gracie was quite teary. In the car on the way home she complained of a hurting ear, then of a hurting cheek, then hurting nose. She cried a very painfull, confused cry that only young children can cry when they're hurt and they don't understand why. It was so sad.

Saturday evening we went to the Gedlaman's place to celebrate Mike's thirty-ninth birthday. The same group of people were there as have been there for the past three years: Brad and Shelly Harker, Larry and Liana Kearl, Derek and Julie Kearl and Erin and I. I really enjoy Mike's birthday parties -- one of the few social outings I actually look forward to. Mike always prepares a very high end cut of beef, and Serena makes a tasty desert.

Sunday was a sick day -- for me included. None of us went to church. I got up and went to my early meetings then came home and had a nap. I woke up in time to go to Jesse Potrie's missionary farewell in the Rockyview ward. He gave an excellent report to the high council and a very good talk in sacrament meeting. Jesse is a young man who has been very well prepared.

A Personal Productivity Toolkit

I've been wanting to increase my work productivity time recently. While wasting time today, I came across this article, and immediately got back to work.

January 25, 2005

Quite a bit has happend since my last post. Most noteably, I've been to Toronto to meet my new work coleagues and Gracie celebrated her 4th birthday.

Gracie's party was quite fun. She invited 16 of her closest friends -- it was a hectic gathering to say the least. 16 four and five year-old's in the same room for an hour and a half proves quite tiring. I have to admit... I had a lot of fun though.

Gracie is becoming such a little girl. She is maturing, and quite fun to be around. I took her ice skating the other night -- she had so much fun! Lately she's discovered how to lock and unlock the bedroom/bathroom doors. Every door in the house is locked.

I've been very disturbed with the images I've seen in the news and conjured in my mind of all the loss and personal suffering undergone by the survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami. I've come near to tears on a couple of occasions when I think of all the four year old girls who are now withought parents. I find myself hugging Gracie and telling her how much I love her many times a day.

Shane Lethaby and Scott Wolff.