Positive Experience

When Pepetonio was about 8 years old, I showed him how to tie a necktie (single Windsdor, like the real men). He asked me to show him again, and I did so slowly, with him following along. Pepe has been tying his own tie ever since, with no further instruction or demonstration. I commended him on his rapid mastery of the discipline this morning, and he sat back in my chair, reflecting. He said, "There have been a couple of times when I messed up and it turned out pretty weird, but overall I've had a positive experience with it."

Pepe is unique in his combination of both acting his age (10) and closing the gap (athletically, intellectually, etc.) between he and his much-older siblings. This is a boy who laughs at the "all-American" Budweiser commercials during the olympics because he knows Anheuser-Busch was recently acquired by a Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate. This is also a boy who regularly asks which of his stuffed animals we think he should sleep with tonight. This is a boy who can identify, either by sight or by sound, more birds than anyone I've ever met. This is a boy who told me that at his football game yesterday, he put the first kid he blocked on his back, but that after that, "he knew I was coming."

Hanging out with Pepe has been one of my favorite parts about living at home this summer, and I'll honestly miss him when I go back to Provo in the fall.

Don't Hassle Me, I'm Local

I normally don't read local newspapers, because nothing really happens in Utah. After reading this article in the Deseret Morning News recently, I have decided to change that policy. Pardon the unprofessional article presentation.

Please note the cause of the scuffle.

Nomenclature

One of my siblings (I'm not telling which) is going to have a baby in December. The gender of said baby has not yet been determined. There have been many suggestions as to the name of this child, which I will put forth here, under their respective subject headings.

Christmas Names
Wenceslas
Tinsel
Scamper (after the penguin)
Ebenezer
George Bailey
Tiny Tim
Kris

Names from my Work
Doug
Don
Bruce
Garth
Kathy
Vivian (Viv)
Enrique
Mary Lou
Ursula

Names from History
Sacajawea
Boo (as in Boo Radley)
Hercules
Ramses
Oprah
Mohammed
Bronco
Florence
Knute
Draco

These are just a few of the ones we've been considering. Additional suggestions, however, are most welcome.

Loridan

Yesterday morning, I realized that my house is not on the way to anything. Unless you are headed to one of the houses on our street, you'd better turn around, because this street won't help you get there. I like this. It means that my home will always be a destination, not just part of the journey, and the attraction will always be the people who live here because there are no other major attractions up this way! Because my home rests upon roads less traveled, I cannot come here on a mere detour on the way to something bigger and better. Coming home means, at a minimum, a purposeful pause in my journey. I may have other places to go, eventually, but for now I've come home.