Way Too Cool!

Ok, this is just way too cool. I guess I'm easily amused by Rube Goldberg machines. Click Here for the Best Lego Rube Goldberg

Maybe not quite as good as Baby Monkey Riding on a Pig, but pretty close

Prom

When I was in High School and a dumb teenage boy, Prom didn’t seem to be that big of deal to me.  You figured out who you were going to ask, and after weeks of trying to get up the courage, you finally picked up the phone and dialed her number.  After almost hanging up three times, she would eventually get on the line and you would blurt out “the question”.  Once that few moments of sheer terror were over, you were done and you had a date to the prom.  You never needed to worry about anything until the dates of the guys you were going with made you try to figure out what the group was going to do that night.

Since I’ve had girls, I’ve realized that Prom is a much bigger deal.  First there is the anxiety of who is going to ask who out.  Then there is the dress and the shoes and the planning and the nails and the hair and the makeup and the list just goes on and on.  Becca’s prom had all of that and maybe more since she couldn’t find a dress in India to fit that she liked.

While Michelle and I were in the states, we went to the store and took lots of pictures of dresses and sent them to Becca.  The women in the store was interested when we told them we were helping out daughter who was home in India try to find a dress for Prom.  Her words: “Best Dad Ever”.  Becca, are you paying attention?  Best Dad Ever.

The dress and shoes made it home, the nails and hair and makeup were finally finished.  Becca looked amazing.  Finally it was time for pictures.  Everyone looked great and it was nice to meet the parents of all the kids.  The only part that wasn’t fun for me was waiting up until much, much past my bedtime to welcome Becca home.

Now I Know Why Grandparents Drone on About Their Grandkids!

Have you ever wondered why grandparents drone on and on about their grandkids?  I know that I would rather sit next to the huge, sweaty Harley Rider on an airplane than a tiny grandma with a wallet full of pictures of her grandchildren.  They are just waiting for you to glace over or look at them so they can engage you in a conversation about their grandchildren. One glance and you can forget about a nap or anything else – no matter how long the flight is!  However, after the last week, I think I’m finally beginning to understand – not that I want to ever sit next to a grandma with a wallet full of pictures yet. 

We were absolutely thrilled when Chloe was born (January 19) and we passed into that almost mythical status of grandparents.  I always wondered what that would be like to be a grandpa.  Would I feel old?  Would I be old?  What would having grandkids be like relative to having children?  Would I have to get a wallet so I could carry around pictures?  Would I finally get the senior discount at Waffle House?  (Not sure that Waffle House has a senior discount, but if not they should.  Two words: Pecan Waffles.)

Well, so far, I still don’t feel old (except after my Saturday bike rides – 34 km today!).  I don’t think I’m old, but who am I to judge.  Having grandkids is both more wonderful and less wonderful than having children.  I don’t have a wallet, so no pictures yet.  I still don’t qualify for any Waffle House senior discount – if there is one. 

All this new grandpa-ly knowledge has come from the week Michelle and I spent in Provo for Chloe’s blessing.  Let me tell you – one of the best weeks ever!  We are absolutely thrilled that Jameson and Becky held off until we could come to the US for the blessing.  I know that it was a really stressful week for Jameson and Becky, but they were fantastic hosts and brought everything together for a fantastic blessing.  Baby blessings are one of the most spiritual events.  Here is this little child, so recently here from Heaven and so innocent and trusting.  Add to that the power of the priesthood, a father and mother that love her so dearly, a circle of worthy men who gather to help, and family and friends come from far and wide who have come to share the experience, and you have a spirit filled experience.

It was great to see all the family and friends who attended.  We had about 30 people or so that came to blessing including my Mom, Lynda, Randy and June from Las Vegas, Michelle’s sister Dena, her husband Earl, as well as one of her daughters and husband (and children) from Bountiful, Becky’s Mom and Dad from Seattle and Becky’s Mom’s friend Rebecca (Becky’s namesake), Janet, Alan, Dianne and many others.  What a special time.

Here’s Chloe in her beautiful white dress (it was the dress that Becky was blessed in!).

Grandpa Beau taking a few minutes.

The happy Mom and Dad

Great food!  Thanks to all the cooks!

Great Grandma Ranck talks to Chloe.  The hat is really an owl.  I think it looks like a frog.

Parents and Grandparents and the little princess.

It was great to see my Mom, brother and sisters!  (Still learning how to use the new camera.)

See, this is why grandma’s talk about their grandchildren.

Of course, Chloe spent time with Grandma Ranck

And Grandpa Ranck.

And she’s even picking up Granda Ranck’s habit of grabbing the M&Ms!  (That id Dad holding her, not grandpa!)

A genius is just some dumb kid with a grandma.

OK, Get off your duff and blog!

Sorry there haven’t been any updates since Christmas!  Four months!  Brenton came for the holidays and after he left, I got real lazy and was always going to get to that post tomorrow.  Well as Shakespear said:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, . . .

and if we don’t pay attention, before we know it, time has slipped away and we can’t figure out what happened.  So here’s a first update with more to come – I promise.

First off, some housekeeping.  I finally figured out how to get the RSS feed working, so you can now actually subscribe to the blog through RSS and read it in your favorite reader.

Stay tuned – real updates coming.

Welcome to the New Year

Welcome to the New Year! I love the new year. Although I am sad to see the holiday season go, I look forward to a mark in the year when I can assess things that I want to change and do better. Of course, deciding what I need to do better and actually doing them are two very different things. I have been thinking of this for the last few weeks on and off and have decided that if there was ever a time in my life when I should/could succeed at some of those 'perpetual' new year's resolutions, that now is the time.

With the move to India, our lives are totally changed from what they were a few short months ago. I have a lot of flexibility in my schedule, perhaps more now than I've ever had in my working life. I have no yard to take care of and few chores around the house. My life mainly consists of 1) Work; 2) Church; 3) Family, with few distractions outside of these areas. When I think about those areas of my life, I have huge challenges at work and need to develop some new habits to make sure that my efforts succeed. I have a tremendous opportunity to serve in the Church and do some real good here in India. I also have a changing family life. Rebecca is headed off to college in a few months and Michelle and I will be here alone. A perfect opportunity to renew some habits that I have gotten out of since we were dating in college.

So how to go about all this change and be successful? I've been reading a lot about habits on a blog called ZenHabits.net and LifeHacker.com. Click the links and search for habits and you'll have more to read than you can do in one sitting. I think one thing I need to do is not get too anxious and try to make too many changes at once. (Click this link to read a theory about that.) That is going to be hard, given the number of things in my life that can be changed and improved. Still, I'm going to start a few things, but spend my time focusing on one habit at a time for a few months. I'm also going to use this nifty habit list, which hopefully will help me see how I'm doing.

So maybe this will be the year to make some very permanent changes. It is going well so far! :)

You Can Now Subscribe to the RSS Feed

Some folks have told me that they forget to come check my blog. I'm shocked! Absolutely shocked! Shocked that anyone could forget to come check out my blog! But I guess there are some folks that have a hard time remembering that they like us, or that they are related to us, or that we have such a cool blog that you need to check back almost daily to see if anything else has been posted.

For those that have no idea what an RSS feed is and want to find out, click here. Basically, it lets a program go out and pull in blog posts and other stuff so that you can read it in one location without having to go check each website. Of course, for those of you that only follow my blog (and I'm sure that there are literally ones or twos of you), you still have to remember to check the RSS reader, so you might as well just check here.

To subscribe, I think all you should have to do is click the subscribe to gadget link on the side panel here.

Merry Christmas to All

Christmas is less than one week away and sometimes it is hard to remember that Christmas is so close. Living in a country where Christmas is not celebrated as a national holiday or a religious holiday by most of the country is an interesting experience.

On the one hand, retailers are not trying to convince you that the only way to show someone that you love them is to spend more than you can afford. On the other hand, no one is talking about Christmas or discussing their plans. The little signs of Christmas, like lights going up, Christmas trees appearing at the local market, and Christmas music on the radio are absent. You are left to create your own Christmas spirit.

I am reminded of one Christmas on my mission in Taiwan 30 some years ago. I was serving in a very small Branch way out in the country. The Branch had all of five members, any two of which might be missing from Sunday services since they were fighting with each other. I remember that the only Christmas decorations my companion and I had in our apartment were two small plastic wreaths of Christmas lights hung above the desks we used to study and write our reports. There were no signs of Christmas outside our apartment, only a few things inside, but we had the Christmas spirit anyway.

Unlike that Christmas so many years ago, we have so much to help us remember the Christmas spirit here in India. We have a lot of Christmas inside our home. There is our Christmas tree:

And our stockings, just waiting to be filled by Santa:

We have our advent tree that gets an ornament hung each day until Christmas:

We even have our book that we read a Christmas story out of each night:

We also had our ward Christmas party. The building was decorated wonderfully:

Each auxiliary put together a small performance of something. The primary sung several songs, the young women sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Holly Jolly Christmas, Rebecca and her friend Ganae Osorio sung a wonderful duet of Winder Wonderland. But the Oscar performance goes to the young men who wrote and performed an original play entitled Santa Meets the Missionaries. Watch by clicking here.

Michelle and her friends made gingerbread houses. Of course, gingerbread and all the traditional US candies were a bit hard to come by. So they substituted crackers and Indian candy. Still it looks like they had fun!

But most of all, we have our family and friends. Brenton will be here on Tuesday evening and we are so very excited to have him come. Although we know that our other family and friends will not be joining us here in India, know that our hearts are with you all. We look forward to talking with everyone this weekend, so get on Skype or at least call our phone!

Some Cool News

On Wednesday, I received an email from Rebecca's school. Basically, Rebecca's art project was accepted for the front cover of the school curriculum guide. It was a pretty amazing thing and Rebecca had no idea her picture was being considered. Needless to say, she is very happy and we are very happy for her.

Here's the letter:

Rebecca :

I am writing with a message of congratulations. Each year as we enter the process of updating our curriculum guide for the following school year, the Art Department submits numerous pieces of art from all of the different classes for review, only one of which is selected for the cover.

I am happy to inform you that the digital image you created of AES (attached for your parents to see, too!) has been selected for the cover of the SY11-12 Curriculum Guide. I realize that you will be graduating in May, but next year's guide will be handed out to all continuing students during the registration process in February of 2011. So you'll still have a chance to see it all around the high school anyway.

The team that agreed on your piece of work found your color combination dynamic yet soothing. We also agreed that the AES theme was perfectly suited to the cover of the curriculum guide.

Congratulations, also, on a successful completion to your first semester here at AES. Inbound seniors often experience a more difficult transition than younger students, and yet it seems that you have managed this transition well. Have a wonderful holiday.

Best regards,

Ms. Miller-Manchester

Beth Miller-Manchester

High School Assistant Principal

American Embassy School - New Delhi

And here's the picture:

The Happy Artist:

Another Biking Video

So I'm realizing that I am not posting to the blog as often as I should. I'm blaming Becca for always working on homework and not letting me have time on the family computer. At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

One of the things that I love about living here in Delhi is the sun all winter long. Although we are well into 'winter' here, the weather is chilly at night (say in the 40's) and pretty warm in the daytime (60's or 70's) with sunshine every day. No grey skies, no rain, no drizzle, no snow. So although the days are short, the sun comes out and it really is beautiful weather.

Mornings are often foggy/smoky/smoggy/whatever and the sunrise is more like a round orange ball behind a curtain. Still, it is fun.

One of the things the great weather lets me do is go for bike rides every Saturday morning with the biking crew. We tend to go for a longer ride, leaving sometime between 6 and 7, depending on where we are going, and getting home between 11 and 1, also depending on where we are going. Sometimes we just head out from the house and into the 'bush'. Sometimes we drive in the cars to another area where we can head along the river, or out into another wilderness area. Sometimes we just head down and ride the streets of Delhi and Old Delhi. It is always fun and always an adventure.

I've put together a short slide show of some of the pictures I've taken while out riding in the bush. Hope you enjoy it. Watch by clicking here.

Diwali - still trying to catch up

There is so much to catch up on and tell everyone about. This is a post that I should have completed in early November, but never got the video edited.

Diwali is the biggest holiday in India. It is really fun and is sort of like Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July all rolled into one. It is the time for exchanging gifts, getting bonuses, and celebrating like there is no tomorrow. This was our first Diwali in India and we had a hard time figuring some things out - like how much of a bonus we give our housekeeper, driver, the guards out front, whether to bring a gift when we went over to someone's house, where to buy fireworks, and a million other things. Thank heavens for good notes left by Marty and Donna, the folks that were here before us!

As to why folks here celebrate Diwali, read the Wikipedia link above. I asked many people and no one could give me a really good answer. Rather, everyone I asked gave me a different answer. I guess it depends on what part of India you are from as there are several mythologies that go along with the holiday. I just decided to not really worry about why it was celebrated, and just join in and enjoy the experience.

Leading up to the day, there is a general sense of excitement. Everyone seems excited and you can tell there are lots of preparations going on. Around the city, lights get strung and things start looking very festive. Some flats and houses around the neighborhood get strung with lights like at Christmas. Markets get busy and light up really pretty.

We were invited to a friend's home for Diwali. Lakshmi and his family are from southern India and they celebrate with a brunch, which they were kind enough to invite us to. At the brunch they served traditional southern Indian food, modified a bit for us westerners. In south India, they tend to eat with their fingers. A banana leaf is the traditional 'plate'. In deference to us, we had a large platter type plate, and they gave us silverware. Of course, all of them ate with their fingers. :)

The food was good and varied between too spicy for me to eat and very mild. Since Lakshmi and his family are vegetarian, the whole bunch had only vegetarian dishes. In south India, the staple of the diet is rice, so that featured prominently in the meal, with plain rice, coconut rice (really, really good) and tamarind rice (a bit too spicy for me) all served at various times. There was a great potato dish and some flat bread as well along with more food than I can remember. All I can say is that I ate until I couldn't move, and then ate a bit more for good measure.

We then came home to prepare for our own Diwali party. The house was decorated, and looked very festive. (I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, but I sure can't find any!) We had lots of friends over, and the food selection was pure american. Like Thanksgiving, we again ate way too much, but it was absolutely wonderful.

After dinner, we headed up to the terrace and watched and listened to the fireworks. It was like nothing I have ever seen. There are absolutely no restrictions on the type of fireworks you can buy here in India. There is everything from the huge rockets that you see at Disneyland to things that sounded like they were dropped out of a military aircraft. If you were just listening, there probably isn't a lot of difference between a military invasion and what we saw from the roof. Just imagine, 14 million people in Delhi, with absolutely no restrictions on the type of fireworks that people can buy and you'll get a pretty good idea of what it was like. (There is an expat that rides with us on Saturday sometimes. He works for a concrete company. He said he showed up to one job site and there were a ring of workers standing around seeing how high they could blow a 5-10 kg (11-22 lb) block into the air.)

At one point, we could tell that a pretty good fire was burning a little ways away from our flat. A couple of us headed out to see if we could find what was burning. We never found what was burning, but saw lots of people throwing huge fireworks around the street. I think that next year, I'll just watch from the terrace!

The fireworks continued all night long and for several days after.

Here's a short video that I cut together to give you a sense for what Diwali was like. Click here to watch.

Thanksgiving in India

Well, here it is the day after Thanksgiving and I'm having a real hard time getting into the holiday spirit. It is interesting living in a country where Thanksgiving and Christmas are not celebrated. I'm not sure if it is the weather (which really feels more like mid September than the end of November), the lack of Christmas music wherever you go, the lack of Christmas decorations around the house, the fact that we don't have all the TV commercials reminding us to go buy that perfect gift for that special someone, or exactly what. However it is clear that the whole holiday season thing hasn't really sunk in yet for me.

Michelle and Becca are gone to the market to purchase a Christmas Tree (artificial, of course) and we'll start decorating later today or tomorrow. We didn't bring our Christmas decorations (see the previous post about the interesting things that come when you move around the world and the things that get left behind), so we are missing the tradition of redecorating the house with the turn of the season. So I figure the lack of the holiday spirit is a temporary situation that will be remedied soon.

While Michelle and Becca are gone, I put on Christmas music, gathered all the photos we took yesterday, and figured I would sit and write about our Thanksgiving yesterday.

We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with our friends, the Cleggs. So even though we missed our children and all of our family and friends in the US, we had a place to go and share our Thanksgiving. It was a really wonderful event and we are really thankful to the Clegg family for hosting the event.

After a morning where Michelle baked pies, a turkey, cookies, and rolls, we headed out the door. When we arrived, we saw some traditional Indian festive decorations.

Strings of flowers on the gates and a walk lined with fragrant flower petals.

Large decorative bowels with floating flower petals and candles.

But once you came through the front door, it looked (almost) all like a traditional American Thanksgiving. Friends hanging out in the kitchen, kids all over the place, conversation, food. It was a wonderful time! One thing that made it even better, the Clegg family had a caterer set up tables, bring (and wash) the dishes, decorate, bring flowers, provide the juice and clean up everything after it was all over. Laura Clegg said it was the best and easiest Thanksgiving ever! The cost on the caterer was about double the cost that we paid for our turkey. Caterer ~ $180, turkey ~$70.

Carving the $70 turkey!

Friends in the kitchen. From left to right, Teresa Osorio (good friend), Sister Ann Jackson (the Mission President's wife and good friend), Laura Clegg (good friend)

Almost all the kids - there were so many, I'm sure there are a bunch that aren't in the picture.

The tables and chairs that the caterers set up.

Yummy!

Why do we always take pictures of people eating? They really aren't very flattering.

It's Amazing What Moves when You Move

By now everyone has heard that all of our stuff finally cleared customs and has been moved into our flat. In fact, as I type this, Michelle is unpacking the last box and helping me organize the stuff that moved over for the office. I have to say, I LOVE sleeping in my bed, rather than the air mattress.

Remember one of my first posts pondering the question about why we have so much stuff? Well, I thought we had made some good headway before we moved by getting rid of a LOT of stuff that just didn't seem that important anymore. I think we actually did make some good headway. But we still kept things that we weren't quite ready to part with. Stuff that held memories for us, things like that. We marked those type of things for storage, because it was clear to us that we didn't need them with us here in India. But it didn't seem to matter much.

Things that got marked for India must have gone somewhere else, because they didn't make it here. Things that got marked for storage did end up here. We got a big chuckle out of some of the things that made it to India. Michelle took a picture of some of the things that we just couldn't live without -- apparently.

In the front row you can see Michelle and my graduation tassels, two from our High School graduations, the others from our University days. Then we have 'burn baby' the doll that Rebecca carried when she was a very little girl. (Ask her to tell you why she is called 'burn baby'. It is a good story.) On the back row we have art projects from Rebecca (the tall green figure), Jameson (we think - the brown clay thing with three cups) and Brenton (the clay square cup), Michelle's Barbie and Ken dolls, and Brenton and Jameson's arrows of light from Webelos days. I don't think we could have made it for three years without these things so I'm really glad that they got shipped here by mistake.

So what should we do with all of these treasures while we are here? Remember the travel photos with the garden gnome? Maybe we should have the "adventures of Burn Baby in India" or something similar.

On the other hand, all the toothpaste that our Dentist prescribed for us all seems to have gone to storage.

Isn't moving an adventure?