Sunday, November 21, 2010

Movie Night


Last Friday night LaRue and I went to see Unstoppable. We hadn't been to a movie in quite some time. And this is the only one that even looked interesting. Plus it had been playing for a least a week so we thought there wouldn't be that big a crowd. And we figured everyone would be at the new Harry Potter movie instead. As it was, the theater was pretty much full.

Here's the official description:

Inspired by actual events, "Unstoppable" is an adrenaline rush fueled by director Tony Scott's signature mark of propulsive action rooted in the reality of ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances.
A veteran train engineer (Denzel Washington) and a young conductor (Chris Pine) race the clock to stop an unmanned runaway train - effectively a missile the size of a skyscraper - and prevent disaster in a heavily populated area.


It is a tense, action packed movie from the very beginning. At no time did the story drag or feel slow.

This is one movie we will purchase as soon as it is released. Great fun.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

New Roof

If you've been following this blog for any length of time you'll remember that for the last two years I have had to cover the roof with plastic to keep out the rain and snow during the winter. No more. This last week we had a new metal roof put on the house!

Here are some pictures of the process:












Sunday, September 5, 2010

Liz Birthday Weekend

** First of all - there are a lot of images with this entry to load in.

This last Friday, September 3rd, was Liz's birthday. LaRue and I went to Provo to help celebrate and to take Liz and Gary to a program as part of the BYU Performing Arts series - a concert with Brian Stokes Mitchell. He is a Tony Award winning performer and has been dubbed the "last leading man" on Broadway.

The afternoon began with some shopping. LaRue, Laurie, Asher and I took Liz to Bath & Body Works to let her pick out some items.

Here are Laurie, Liz and LaRue (in the background) checking out some of the merchandise:



Then it was on to Build-A-Bear where Liz picked out a monkey to build:



Asher had to pull all the stuffed cars from the shelf and line them up on the floor:



LaRue and Asher. The earrings LaRue is wearing were made out of buttons from a red winter coat that belonged to her grandmother:



LaRue and Liz at the mall:



Here is one of the tickets from the BYU Performing Arts:



Here is the cover of the program featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell:



I took this picture of the stage right after we got seated. There are empty seats at this point, but the program was completely sold out.



Here are Liz and Gary:



After the program Brian Stokes Mitchell took a couple of hours to sign autographs and take pictures. Here is LaRue getting an autograph and then posing with Mr. Mitchell. He also signed a program for Liz and wrote her a personal message wishing her a happy birthday.





Here is the autograph he gave LaRue:



After the performance we all went to Andy and Laurie's house for a little birthday celebration. Here is Liz's cake and a couple of presents:



The cake reads "Brite and bracing". That phrase along with the bottle of Coke refers to a vintage Coca Cola commercial that Andy and Liz found on YouTube. The announcer in this old commercial referred to Coca Cola as "brite and bracing".





Liz with her completed Build-A-Bear monkey:



She really cracked up at a Halloween decoration LaRue and I gave her:



Here's the birthday cake all lit up:



Blowing out the candles:



The next day LaRue and I went to see Andy at his work. He is at the BYU Broadcasting building. He told us that BYU is presently constructing a new broadcast center. When completed it will be second only to CNN for state of the art tech.



Andy at a console doing some editing. He is currently editing an episode of the Generations Project:



Saturday evening LaRue and I drove to Salt Lake City. We spent the night there and got up early Sunday morning to attend the televising of Music and the Spoken Word. The program has been airing every Sunday morning since 1929. It is the longest running program ever.



This is the program for Sunday's broadcast:



Here is LaRue at one of the fountains at the Conference Center waiting for the program:



Inside the choir and orchestra were already practicing:



In the center is one of the control stations:



On either side of the stage hang these enormous screen:



By the time the program was ready to actually begin all these seats were taken:



The program was amazing. I found it fascinating to watch the cameramen moving around the stage and seeing how the different shots were done. The program was broadcast live and ran flawlessly.

Then LaRue and I took a few minutes to wander around the Conference Center. I took a few pictures including this really nice bust of Christ:



This was on the third floor. We could see ourselves in the mirrors on the opposite side of this opening:



And when you look down this is the view:



This is an amazing statue. We hadn't seen it before. It's a statue of the First Vision:



Finally, a really nice stained glass piece:



After that we drove back to Vernal.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend.