Emma Thvedt, 1910-2006

This photo must be about 40 years old. Neither Mom nor Dad could identify the occasion nor even the location.

Reading the credits

I secured control of the remote while on the treadmill the other day, and to the chagrin of my fellow plodders, I surfed channels until I found an old Gunsmoke episode on TV Land. I was just in time for the opening credits, and was reminded of a silly little weekly ritual we had when I was a child.

We'd wait impatiently as the credits listed Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty, Ken Curtis as Festus, etc. Everybody wanted to be the first to say "And James Arness as Matt!"

I don't know why.

After weeks of this, or perhaps months or even years, somebody came up with the brilliant idea of getting the jump on everybody: "And James Arness as Matt for next week!" Then that became the new ritual. I'd be willing to bet that if today you said "And James Arness as Matt" to each of my brothers or sisters, two or three of them would reply with "for next week."

Ava's hat

Darfur

Jambo reminds us of the horror in Darfur. Please read the piece, and write to your representatives. Thanks.

Snow

The first big winter storm of the year is passing through, and this morning, the weather guys at KELO-TV could hardly contain themselves. They really enjoy storms. They're like little kids.

When I was in about the third grade or so, I remember the first snow of the year. We were in school, sitting at our desks, and some kid happened to look out the window. He yelled out "Snow!" and everybody rushed the window to look. I remember thinking "What's the big deal? It's just snow, and we're in class here, people! You can't just get up and... You know, the teacher didn't say... Oh, OK..." I followed the crowd to the window, all the time wondering why. Resistance to peer pressure wasn't my long suit.

Meanwhile, back in the present, the worst of the storm missed us. The 8 to 12 inches of snow in the forecast turned out to be about an inch. It's blowing like crazy, though, and I'm happy to be indoors.

The Picture-takingest Place on Earth

We spent the day at Disneyland with cousins Andrew, Eric, and Paul, and Uncle Joel & Aunt Patricia, too. It was a long day, but the kids had tons of fun.

We were there for around nine hours, and saw a small fraction of the park. That place just goes on and on and on. I can see why they offer multi-day passes.






It was a big advantage having the locals along with us, since they knew all of the good stuff.


We were a little worried that our little kids and their older cousins wouldn't find things to do that would please them all, but Andrew, Eric, and Paul were very patient with us.

Mission Beach pics

Our hotel in San Diego is about one mile from Mission Beach. We walked there this morning, and spent most of our time just playing at the edge of the water. There were several surfers taking turns videotaping one another.

Johanna slipped and fell into the water and was drenched. She seemed pretty pleased about it!

Ava was covered in sand from head to toe. Is there anything little kids like more than sand?

After supper, we walked back over towards Mission Beach, and played in a park for a while.