Microsoft Cruise Days 2 & 3

Every night I got my bed turned down and the room attendant leaves a towel origami on the bed. I thought this puppy looked pretty good.

Disney has two cruise ships. The Disney Wonder (the ship I was on) is in the foreground and does four-day trips to the Bahamas. The Disney Magic does 7-day trans-Atlantic trips. Hurricane Noel did made a mess on Disney's private island and the the Magic couldn't go there as scheduled so they diverted to Nassau. This is the first time in three years that the two ships have been together at the same time.

I rented a bike for $6 and rode around Disney's island "Castaway Cay". We docked there for a day. We were there the day after the Magic was supposed to be there. By then they'd cleaned up a bit, although the water was pretty cloudy from all the waves, so I didn't do any snorkeling this time, although I did rent a Hobie Cat for a couple of hours and had a lot of fun.

I saw this really pretty shell on the ground, and when I went to pick it up, it crawled! It was a hermit crab in the wild! The crab walked right across my path and then over to a tree and started climbing it! Here is the exciting video: it's at least as exciting as Jarom's buck. Here is the crab on the ground.

Here is the crab climbing the tree.

Microsoft Cruise: Day One

I'm off on another gruelling assignment with Microsoft. I thought I'd update my blog as we leave shore.

My stateroom. We signed a contract for a certain number of rooms and since we didn't have enough people sign up, the Microsoft ADEs all got our own rooms. The queen-size bed will be very welcome!




This is the mandatory lift-boat drill.


Hurricane Noal is soaking the Atlantic, and we received a bit of rain doreckside during the day. This picture was taken of me just minutes before the boat pushed off. Notice the rainbow!

The New TV

Last week we set up the new TV. Mom gets the credit for finding the cool stand that didn't cost a fortune. Notice the ghetto rabbit ear antenna. Credit the ultra sharp picture to the fact that (1) Fox transmits in both analog and digital formats, and (2) our new TV can receive digital. We are watching Channel 31.1 . Mom and Seth are watching the Colorado Rockies get their trash kicked in Game 1 of the World Series. Game two was almost as depressing as the Rockies couldn't seem to get anything going. The bad pitching calls by the ump didn't help. Interestingly, Mom has watched both games until she had to go to work, most of the time on speaker-phone with Staci in Boston, who helps us understand all the subtle nuances of being a Red Sox fan and Fenway Park.

Seth's First Homecoming Dance

Thunderridge High School held their homecoming dance on Saturday, September 29th. Most of Seth's seminary class attended, and since only a few are dating age ie: 16, they all went as a group. They met beforehand at a friend's house (Chris Chambers) for dinner and then had a "fondue" afterwards at the same place. Seth's opinion of the dance itself was so-so; it's hard to get into a dance where almost all of the music is rap. Here are a few pictures of the big night.

Seth in front of the car that (a) he wished we owned (b) he was old enough to drive (thank-you John and Traci!)



Seth's Jeesh (from left to right: Cameron Babcock, Austin Hansen, Christ Chambers, Jeshua Barnett, Seth Guthrie)

Group photo of the seminary class attendees:

The Ladies (from left to right: Abbi Rossberg, Jessica Gibbs, Tenille Stucki, Devon Hansen, Emily Isakson)

Redecorating the Living Room - Jane's Big Adventure
We recently learned that Randy gets REALLY nervous when Jane starts thinking about redecorating, so while Randy was in Japan, Jane got busy. The results are pretty pleasing (we think). We even picked out some new furniture that will arrive early next week, and which will be the subject of future posts. In the meantime, we share with you the new look, and invite suggestions about curtains, room arrangements, etc.

Stair treatement looking towards family room.


Piano corner looking from front entryway.


Front entry way from piano


Black furniture brought up from the basement. Notice new TV that Randy won from work for answering three questions correctly on a web site (still in box- will go in basement family room). What do you think?


The jury is still out about the love seat in front of the window...


Here is a pan shot of the living room so you can see more of the new paint & windows in a broader context. We're still trying to decide what window coverings to get. We've seen some really gorgeous stuff that costs $$$, we're trying to be pretty without spending more than we did for the furniture :)