August 19, 2004

Another couple months roll on by, time to update the site. I have been busy with so many things lately. Construction for the bathroom (in the hopes it would be done in time for the family reunion) continued to be delayed as different things kept coming up. Chris had to work a lot, things would not quite work as originally planned, people got sick, etc. We were putting up tile with fevers. Ugh! Not the most fun time. We were so busy with construction and preparing for the family reunion. Then Lars came to visit. Despite how busy it was, I asked Lars to come before the reunion, and rightly chose that time. After the reunion has been so busy, I haven't had a lot of free time to do much. So Lars came to visit at the end of June, and that was a very nice break from construction. He and I got to play some games, mostly Warcraft 3 and Ghost Recon. We also played a card game called Illuminati and got to go swimming together. It was good to have him there and be able to talk. It sounds like he is still not going to get married until next summer, after he has already moved on to grad school in Pennsylvania.

Lars' visit was shorter than I wanted, but that's because he's such a good friend. Afterwards, people started arriving for the family reunion, starting with Liz and her children. Unfortunately, her husband, Doug, was too busy in Oregon. Michael was too busy in Arizona, too. Otherwise, just about everyone came and most of them were staying in the same house together. Unfortunately, the weather turned hot, right about then, and even with window A/C's running full time duty, it was hard to cool the house down.

Highlights of the family reunion included a Rutherford clan history, done by me, a family olympics, organized by Christina, a financial planning training class by Gary and a natural health class by Dad. Actually, there was so much more that happened. We filmed the showing of old slides and home movies and made commentary on them, so that they could later be burned onto a DVD and watched without pulling out the big projectors.We had water fights with big water guns supplied by Gary. Some of us went on a tour of the conference center in Salt Lake. Some went to watch Spiderman 2. There was a baby picture guess, there was singing, there was a lot of Starcraft played (yes, I participated, along with Jon, Josh and Caleb, but I didn't inhale). A good amount of time was spent just talking. I think that, even though everyone was tired and hot, they had a good time. Elijah had it hard, though. He wasn't used to sharing his toys and sometimes bumped personalities with the other toddlers. Ah, well. He has recovered, now. Despite what people saw, he usually is a cheerful and fun little boy. It was just a difficult time for him.

In the aftermath of the reunion, there is a little to report. Elijah was cranky for a while. It took him a while to adjust to normal. Nothing has happened on the bathroom that we were working on since before the reunion. We ended up with a lot of pictures. A lot. Maybe someday, I'll post them on the web. Also, we also started moving our office downstairs. Yes, we are preparing for a baby. The time is coming up very soon. Kari is getting into the nesting mode. It's really cute to see her go. Both our desks are downstairs, along with the computers and file cabinets and a sewing machine. We finally completely took over the room. I even have a table in there to do my projects and homework. Sadly, the office is out of the way and it feels like I'm hiding when I go down there. Ah, well. We have made trips to the storage unit to get out baby stuff we used with Elijah that we can use again. We've gotten the crib and the basinet and the baby tub and a whole bunch of good stuff. Now all we need is a baby.

Another nice thing that happened was when my friend, Ken, came from Tucson to visit. Actually, he was up here for some family reunion of his own, but got to break away and spend some time with Kari and me. Aside from the little family I have in Tucson (Heidi and Ryan), Ken is one of the only people left in that town that I care about at all. He only got to visit for one evening, but we had a great time. I thought we might play some lan games or something, but we ended up talking for most of the time. Sadly, I learned that someone in Tucson that I used to care for has gone down strange paths and has made choices that alienate her from the person she used to be. I won't go into detail here, but it is sad to me to see her ruin her life in this way.

Since Ken has been here, he started an online writers' guild that includes him, Lars and me. We get on there and discuss story ideas and talk politics. We represent three very different political views, Lars on the left (socialist), Ken on the right (republican), and me in the center (libertarian). It is good to be able to stay in touch with these good friends in a meaningful way. The discussion board is here, but unfortunately, you may not view it unless you are approved by the group. Privacy and protecting intellectual property and so forth. Ken does the final approval.

Well, school has started (on the 25th) and life has been busy already. I have a lot of reading, but the classes don't look too bad. I went to an orientation the week before classes started (the 19th) and found I'm the only male in my cohort. Hey, this should be fun. I mean, I grew up with mostly females in the home, most of my best friends have been female, and I'm not threatened by being surrounded and outnumbered by the opposite sex. The classes I'm taking are: advanced statistics, counseling theory, counseling skills and diagnostics. I'm not looking forward to statistics, but did all right when I took it as an undergraduate. We shall see how my first semester back in school since 2000 goes.