Happy 30th Anniversary!

30 Years ago today... The our wedding day actually started the night before. Ron Williams and I were up until about 1:00am putting brakes on my Mustang in preparation for our (Jane and I) 5-day honeymoon trip from LA to San Francisco. Ron and I spent the night at my apartment sleeping on the floor, then we got up about four hours later and got ready to go to the temple. The plan was for Ron Williams (my best friend/best man) to drive Jane and I to the temple. When we got to Jane's house, she was not ready, in fact, she was throwing up sick. I remember the ride to the temple, Ron was driving my Mustang, I sat on Jane's left in the back seat, Jane sat in the middle with a bucket in her lap, and her mom (Pearl) sat on the right. I don't remember who was in the front seat with Ron; probably it was Jane's cousin Iris. Once we arrived at the temple Jane calmed down a little (it turned out to be nerves). In 1978 women that were going to the temple because they were getting married generally did all of the preparatory ordinance work on the day they were married, so we had to be there early. I don't really recall much of the stuff prior to the marriage. There are many sealing rooms in the Los Angeles temple; we had the largest, and it was totally packed. My mission president, Royden G. Derrick, who at that time was a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, sealed us. Because he had a Stake Conference he was presiding over in Long Beach, he offered to seal us (actually his wife, Sister Allie O. Derrick made the offer and then asked him...). But because it was going to be a rush job in between conference sessions, he didn't change into whites (he didn't have them with him on this trip). I know that bothered Jane for years that he ruined her dreams of an all white wedding.

After we were married and took pictures outside, we went home to Jane's and I think we had some kind of lunch and then took a nap on Jane's bed. The reception was at 6:00pm at the Crescent Avenue building in the gym. We (mostly Jane and Pearl) sent out 920 announcements. We guess that we had over 600 people at the reception. Compared to most people's receptions today, ours was pretty modest. I think we served cake, nuts, and red party punch. The reception line extended out into the parking lot; we had no idea this many people would come! I think we greeted guests the entire time. I'm sure we had music, but there was no dancing. I think we left around 9:00pm.

We spent our wedding night at a local motel near Disneyland that was owned by Earl Garr, a fairly well-to-do church acquaintance, who gave us our wedding night for free. I recall getting to sleep before midnight, and waking up around noon with the maid knocking. We had slept in much longer than we thought. When we went to check out, we discovered that we had left our room key stuck in the outside of the door all night! Because Jane insisted that I carry her over the threshold, the door closed behind us and I forgot the key. I'll write about the first day of our honeymoon tomorrow, and add pictures once I get Jane to tell me where they are.

Pictured left to right in back: Larry Williams, Brad Carey, Jason Guthrie, Ron Williams, Randy Guthrie, Jane (Peters) Guthrie, Iris Baadsgaard, Annette Peters, Holly Guthrie, Lorna Nakumaru, Pam Peters. In front: Amy Guthrie, Rachel Guthrie, Paul Peters

Graduation Day!

Cue Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No. 2......
Just for the record, today is my official graduation day from Claremont Graduate University. I printed the following from the student portal. My friend Jeff Ranck once referred to my list of graduate degrees as "more education than any decent person should have". I heartily agree. The actual diploma will take a while to receive. My plan is walk in commencement in May. Date and time to be determined. I'll let family know about it, but quite frankly, I wouldn't wish attending on an enemy, let alone family. Cue Brahm's Academic Festival Overture......


Warning!! The following information has been known to cause drowsiness and loss of consciousness. Do not read while driving or operating heavy machinery!

Abstract of the Dissertation


Audience Directed Models and Software Design: How Developer Mental Models of Users Influence the Design of Enterprise System Features

By

Rand Weston Guthrie

Claremont Graduate University – 2008

Information science research frequently seeks to discover the means by which practitioners can use information technologies (IT) to accomplish their goals. From an organizational perspective, the goal of IT is generally presumed to be an increase in individual and/or organizational performance. A successful implementation of an information technology can therefore be thought of simplistically as one in which the use of the new technology improved performance. Prior research has shown that one determinant of improved performance is how well the functionality of an organization’s information technologies fits with the user’s tasks. Theories relating to IT acceptance, adoption and success suggest a positive relationship between the task the user needs to accomplish and the task the software was designed to accomplish, but little has been done to explain how the IT artifact makes design intent apparent to the user.

This research examines a possible relationship between design intent and fit: namely, how the designer’s mental model of an enterprise system’s intended use influences the design of the functionality and appearance of the application’s component features. Using a positivistic case study methodology, mental models of intended use held by seven teams of enterprise system software developers were identified and classified. These models were then related to the developers’ statements about their specific design decisions. The results confirm that developers’ mental models influence the design of software UI in ways that are apparent to the end-user, and supports theories that suggest that software has a “spirit” that consists in part of an intended use. The research contributes to our understanding of the source of that spirit, and identifies specific ways in which software developers bias features towards a specific type of use.

Medical Procedures Report

Medically speaking, it has been an eventful week. It all started last Monday, when I got a colonoscopy. Jarom was a huge emotional support as I tried to drink two liters of lemon-lime flavored laxative before it all hit. I ended up drinking too fast and threw about half of it up; all while Jarom and Melissa are laughing at me on speaker phone. Apparently it worked enough because as you can see in the photos below, there are no "foreign objects" or as Staci might say "shooting stars" in the picture. At the end of the "procedure" they gave me some color pictures that they took which I gladly shared at first but by popular demand have removed.


Four days later I had surgery to remove all the hardware in my leg from last-year's Christmas "break". After I went skiing two weeks ago the hardware was killing my ankle ie: grinding into the inside of the skin on my ankle, so the very next business day I was in the doctor's office scheduling the surgery to have it removed. They took it all out last Friday January 4th. The picture below shows it all. And before anyone says anything funny; No, the coins were not part of what they removed. I put the coins in the picture to show the scale. Its been 5 days now and I had the stitches taken out yesterday and I can walk on it with only a minor limp. They basically went into the same incisions (there was one on each side of the ankle) so I am dealing with a flesh wound, but the bone is strong and the ligaments are all in place so I can put my weight on it. The plate and seven of the screws was on the left side of my ankle, and two of the screws were on the right side.

Holiday Break

Well the big news was that Levi and Chelsey came to Colorado to visit us between Christmas and New Years. And the biggest news is that they have now joined the blog universe and have their own blog. Check it out at: Levi and Chelsey's Blog. Other family bloggers can add the link to your "friends" lists. We gave Levi his own camera and took pictures at every opportunity. We tried to cram as much fun into two days as we could in hopes to make the best impression. I guess we succeeded because Levi told Chelsey (referring to Jane and I) "they weren't always like this".

Here is our scary family picture in front of the tree.

Levi and Chelsey in front of our Christmas tree in the family room

Chelsey called this the "prom" pose

This is a video of Levi and Chelsey opening a Jane-type present ie: lots of little presents inside the fake-out big present.

We got a new XBox game called "Scene It", which is a variation of the movie-trivia board game, but with special controllers. Here we are in the basement family room mid-game.

While at our house we set up a video call link with Allie and her family.

One of Levi's favorite foods used to be shreaded-beef tacos, so in his honor we made tacos. Here is photographic proof that Seth in fact DOES eat tacos now. Levi didn't want to be left out of the photo.

Boxing Day: Fun and Games

This evening we were invited over to the Chambers' house for games and snacks. While in Boston, Molly has gotten used to eating healthy, almost vegetarian types of meals. As you can see in the following, she is quickly reverting back.



One of the games we played involved completing a challenge in order to advance to the next level. The Challenge cards in the game give you a choice of about six different challenge activities. Molly chose the one where you had to hold a pickle under you nose without hands for one whole turn.



Another game we played is some kind of Karaoke game where you have to sing along and you get scored on how in tune you are and how well you sing like the original performers. This game has been popular at Jason & Leslie's house and Jarom had a bunch of fun videos on his blog from last July 4th. Here is Seth and Molly going head-to-head on a Cold Play song. You will notice that (1) Seth is definitely a bass, and (2), he can actually hold a tune and sounds pretty good! Molly on the other hand appears to be suffering from too much junk food.

White Christmas in Denver

December 25, 2005 - We woke up this morning to snow! It started about 3:00am, and as of this writing (3:30pm) it hasn't stopped yet. It hasn't been really heavy, but it looks like we've received about 6 inches on the back deck patio table. Our day started with a call from Staci, then Allie & James via the webcam, then Jarom, then Levi, then Staci & Andrew on the webcam. Here was our agenda for the day:

1. Phone call from Jarom
2.Video call with Allie's family
3. Creamed Eggs on Toast w/Bacon for breakfast
4. Family Home Evening
- Song
- Poem about what to put in Jesus' stocking
- Reading of this year's Christmas book "Christmas Oranges"
-Opening of presents under the tree
5. Individual Activities
- Jane watched a movie in bed on Randy's laptop
-Seth set up and loaded music on his new Zune music player
-Randy shoveled snow from the driveway and sidewalks
-Molly took a nap
6. Phone call from Levi
7. Video call from Staci & family
8. Molly making cookies

Since we don't have any family close, and the roads are no doubt a mess with the snow, it is quite likely that we'll stay home and in the house today.

This is a view from the loft window as of about 7:30am

Jane, Molly & Seth on a video call with Allie's family. We got to see all their kids display all their new fun stuff

And then there was the traditional Guthrie family Christmas breakfast: Creamed Eggs on Toast [English Muffins]. We cooked the bacon in the garage so keep the smoke/smell out of the house. Now the garage smells like bacon...

This is Seth diggin' deep for the presents...

Molly is overcome with emotion upon opening an electric blanket. Apparently her basement accommodations at Staci's house in Boston lack sufficient heat for her California-borne tastes.
Molly and Seth pose by the Christmas tree in the family room

Jane and Randy pose on the fireplace.


Seth received this stocking cap with ear muffs that is reminiscent of either Pippi Longstocking or Wendy, the hamburger chain trademark

Seth and Molly enjoy a lazy Christmas Day; Seth is figuring out his music player and Molly playing "Command and Conquest - Tiberian Sun" computer game

This is the winter day out of the living room window, with the new furniture in the foreground

Here is another view of the living room with the Barbara Keyworth "Precious Moments" manger scene on the coffee table, a glass crèche triptych on one of the end tables and the glass Christmas tree on the other note: we haven't figured out what to do about pictures/art yet....can you tell?

Molly bustin' out some amazing cookies...just the thing for a snowy day. Add a mug of hot chocolate, a good book or movie, and we're set!

The deck patio table as of about 4:00pm...

Ski Season Officially Starts in Colorado

Yesterday, Seth and I attended Scout Days at Copper Mountain. Tickets cost $20 we both went. The day was COLD. It was +5 degrees at our house when we left, and I'm sure it was closer to -5 at Copper Mountain when we arrived. It was so cold that skis and snowboards didn't work. The snow wouldn't melt from the friction, and so on anything less than a blue run you couldn't hardly move. Once it warmed up (about noon) thing were better. So I didn't have any problem with the broken leg as far as strength was concerned, but those screw heads really dug into my skin; not while skiing, but while on the chair lifts. On one long run it became excrutiating. So tomorrow, I'm going to make an appointment to have them removed. It hurt so bad that I thought maybe they had cut through the skin.

Here is Seth at the lodge during one of our warm-up breaks



Randy and Seth at the top of Lumber Jack (notice Seth's neoprene face mask)