Last year I went with my oldest daughter to Girl’s Camp.  Back then I thought it was for her.  I felt that it would make it easier for her to be away from the family for a whole week.

Let me explain, in the LDS Church many there is an organization for the teenage girls.  It is called the Young Women’s organization.  It’s primary focus is teaching the girls the gospel of Jesus Christ.  But the “young women” often learn life skills and have fun.

Each year as part of the learning about Christ, and having fun, and learning life skills, each local organization hosts a camp out.  It is simply called “Girl’s Camp.”  However, in our local church group, girls who are 13- and 14-years old have an extra opportunity to go to Oakcrest.

This camp is filled with crafts, hikes, games, and a night out under the stars.  there are lesson on life, religion, family, and more.  I have never been so I have only a small figurative peak at what they do, but from most girls I get nothing but rave reviews.

Well, if you follow my twitters, then you know that PandaMae left our home for week to go to Oakcrest.  She was very excited and couldn’t wait.

While I sensed some hesitation at the drop off, I knew that she was happy to go.

However, as I think it over, I suspect that the hesitation was mine.  I didn’t want her to go.  I miss my little girl.  Even though she is very quiet, and sometimes she can be in her room for hours and no one notice she is gone, something is different in our home.

Something is missing.

Today she comes back.  And I can’t wait to get home and see her.  I can’t wait to hear about her adventures.  See her pictures, and hopefully get a glimpse at a testimony that has grown.

It’s funny.  My wife is the one who can’t stand the thought of our children growing up and leaving the house.  I often comment on how much I can’t wait tell all the birds have flown the coop.  Yet, it is my wife who has been stellar.  She seldom comments on PandaMae’s absence.  While I don’t think a day has gone by without my mentioning her as gone.

I will probably be the won crying at her wedding too.

Reflecting back to last year, and to the hesitation at the drop off for Oakcrest.  I think that it is me who is more worried about these adventures.  My little girl that used to wake me up with her respiratory alarm at 3 months, the little girl who used to ride her big wheel in the balcony of our apartment, the little girl who used to think that I could fix anything including the credit card in the 3.25″ floppy drive is not my little girl any more.

She’s my big little girl now.

Welcome home PandaMae, I hope you had a fun time.

I have been giving Chris Cannon the benefit of the doubt these past few months. I wasn’t willing to vote for him, but I was willing to give him the respect that should be given honorable people.

However, that respect is all over. No more.

I can’t believe it, but Chris Cannon has called me and those who joined me into voting for Jason Chaffetz “harsh” and “boorish.” Maybe the fact that I didn’t know what boorish meant is a sign that I am. But it is just plain rude to refer to people as such.

The sense that I am getting is that Republican leader ship is disconnected from it’s voters. Cannon’s comments are only a part of it. Apparently, as the article suggests. Bennett and Hatch are disconnected too. Oh, but that was a given.

However, LaVarr Webb agrees stating that these are only localized issues. If they are so localized how come President Bush has one of the lowest ratings in history, and why isn’t Cannon the first incumbent this year to lose his seat.

It’s time for the Republican Party to wake up. They need to realize that it isn’t just the far right wing of the party that is tired of their antics. It is the average citizen that wants to get back to the truly conservative values.

Before I close this, I have a couple of other thoughts. First, what is this that Chris Cannon is saying about not knowing who Jason Chaffetz is? If that is true, then no wonder he lost the race. How can you run a campaign against someone and not do your research? That is either an out-right lie, or Cannon is a complete idiot.

Finally, is it me, or does Chris Cannon sound like he is supporting the Democrat candidate? Maybe he is trying to imply that a vote for Chaffetz made it easier for a Democrat to win (which is true). But it doesn’t guarantee them a win.

I thought that Cannon had class. But it is obvious, that if he did, he lost it when he lost the race in the primary.

As with many of us in the grassroots initiative that helped to secure Jason Chaffetz the Republican nomination yesterday. We are on a high and very excited to see our candidate win. Like Jason, I thank Congressman Cannon for his years of service. Although Cannon didn’t represent me in everything, he did a good job in many ways.

Over this past weekend, I have been thinking about what Chaffetz win means. A lot of these thoughts were sparked by the Bob Lonsberry endorsement that I read on Saturday.

This column by Lonsberry really got me thinking that Chaffetz win could really mean a return to conservative
principles by the Republican Party. This is what I want. This is what we need. Our constitution has hung by a thread long enough. It is time that we start fighting for it in a real way.

Chaffetz’s win could be the start of this movement.

The Republican Party won in the Reagan Years because of our adherence to the core conservative values. Since then there has been a move to the center. I have assumed it was because they felt the centrist position will win. But it hasn’t done us well.

Chaffetz’s win send the message that we the party realize that. We want a more conservative front. We need to get back to the Constitution and fight for our freedoms.

Now is the time to take the Party (especially here in Utah) back to its conservative roots. The movement has started, let’s keep the ball rolling.

Yep today I am the big 30 something.  That means today you have an excuse to give me a gift.

So, what am I asking for.  I simply want you to do your civil duty.  I simply want to you play a part in this great nation and help to make a difference.

I am not asking you to vote for any one candidate.  Although if you have been around here for any length of time, you should already know for whom I would like you to vote.

But that isn’t my request.  My request is that you take at least 15 minutes.  Look over the candidates (if you haven’t already) and then go to your polling place, and case your vote.

If you aren’t a Republican, but feel strongly one way or another about which Republican Candidate you want to run for office, then I encourage you to register as a Republican and vote.  If you aren’t interested in the Republican party and live in the “old” Jordan School District, then remember that there are elections for your new local school board.

Thanks again for your Birthday present.  I know it isn’t much, but it means a lot to this nation, so it means a lot to me.

Below is the text of my initial reaction the the debate between Jason Chaffetz and Chris Cannon on the Bob Lonsberry Program.  You can list to the debate via MP3, and see what my reactions were as I heard them.  Understand that I was at work when making these comments, and sometime work got in the way of blogging.  Can you imagine.

The Debate Begins

8:10am

Cannon asks Chaffetz to share his experience.

Chaffetz gives an excellent resume.

8:15am

Cannon says to vote for me because I am ugly (rough paraphrase). Does Cannon really think that people are voting for Jason because he is better looking?????

8:22am

Chaffetz brings out the first issue oriented question.

Cannon stumbles through in answering the question. And turns it to a different issue that he feels he is strong on.

Lonsberry gets Cannon back on track.

8:25am

Cannon tries to make Chaffetz look soft of immigration.

Chaffetz points people to the facts on himself.

Cannon implies that Chaffetz is inexperienced. Then implies that his temporary permit is a permanent
stay visa. And Cannon is wrong.

8:28am

Chris, if it is hard to get immigration laws passed, then maybe this job is too hard for you. Time to put someone in who is willing to fight for it.

8:29am

Things got really heated. And fun for the listener.

8:40am

At this point the candidate are given equal amounts of time to present their final arguments and rebuttals.

Chaffetz calls out Cannon on his record. While there are similarities. Chaffetz shows how they are different.

• No Child Left Behind
• Immigration
• Personal and Federal Financial responsibility.
• and more

8:50am

Cannon tells us about the “Fair Isaac” Bill that he passed. Don’t know much about it, but it is interesting how much Air time the Cannon has sought in the past few weeks.

What things are you going to do??? He just says that there are things he would like to do. But he won’t tell us what they are.

Cannon claims to be consistent. However, his early years have shown him to be far more liberal in his attitudes towards illegal immigration.

Then he gets back at Chaffetz who isn’t running in his district. Something that Chaffetz has already called to the table and said is a non-issue.

If energy has been one of your issues, then why are we paying $4 a gallon. Shouldn’t we blame you for this, because you have claimed to be fighting on energy for 12 years.

Concluding Thoughts

I know that I am biased in this election.  But I honestly feel that Chaffetz was the most concise and clear on the issues.  He presented himself very well.  Chris Cannon didn’t do as good a job.  Usually he handles himself better than this.  Anyway, my final conclusion is the Chaffetz won this debate.

After yesterday’s post, I don’t know if I should be eating crow or claiming bragging rights on this. But Bob Lonsberry on Monday will be making an official endorsement of Jason Chaffetz on Monday through his web site and I am sure even on the Radio.

This has renewed my faith in Bob. I am not sure what brought about the change. But his article might give some clues:

Jason Chaffetz is a Ronald Reagan conservative. Chris Cannon is a George W. Bush conservative.

And that distinction is the difference which has divided and diffused the Republican Party and the conservative movement. A brief season of power corrupted the Republican Party and has now cost it both its influence and its soul.

…

Chris Cannon is part of the regime that failed.

And while he could easily serve out the rest of his life in Congress, and do useful work on a variety of issues, he would do so as just one more of the Washington compromisers. His infatuation with the process of governing has drowned out his commitment to cause.

It’s not that he lacks the courage of his convictions, it’s that he has grown unsure of his convictions. That suits him very well to fit in in Washington, where he is indistinguishable from the big-name Republicans who have endorsed him, but it leaves him oddly out of sync with patriotic and passionate work-a-day Americans in his district.

Chris Cannon is a Doug Wright Republican. Jason Chaffetz is an Ezra Taft Benson Republican.

Chris Cannon is a good man.

But Jason Chaffetz is the better choice.

As the Republican Party prepares for a season in the wilderness, Jason Chaffetz is a voice to cry in the wilderness. He is the man to stand in the well of the House, even if he’s only speaking to a C-SPAN camera, and preach the truth.

As much as I want to produce more of this. I really don’t have permission to print this much. I just use it to show that Bob has finally seen things the way that I do. While Chris Cannon is a good man. While he has served us well for the past 12 years. It is time that we get right of the Bush Republicans and return to the Reagan Republicans of yesterday.

This is awesome news for me. I hope that this is enough to get those fence sitters to realize like Bob and I do that this is about returning the party and this country back to what made us so great.

So, what made Bob change his mind. I honestly don’t know. I am inclined to believe that after interviewing both Jason Chaffetz and Chris Cannon yesterday (MP3), that Bob realized that principle mattered more than anything else.

My wife insists that it was because Bob read my post yesterday and I swayed him. I am inclined to denounce this assertion, but my stat counter makes it seem plausible.

	Num	City	Region	Country Name
	20	Salt Lake City	Utah	United States
	8	Mapleton	Utah	United States
	7	Orem	Utah	United States
	6	Orangeville	Utah	United States
	5	Rochester	New York	United States

Bob Lonsberry lives in Rochester, New York. So, these could very will be his visits to my site. Or more likely, it is a visit from one of his fans in New York. But it does cause me to wonder a bit.

What ever the reason, this is good news to me. I can listen to Bob now without feeling that he has compromised himself. Something, up until this week, I didn’t think that Bob would ever do.

Further, I am glad that the man I support for Congress has the support of one of the men I like to listen to on a regular basis (or as Bob likes to call us “friends”). I look forward to Tuesday’s vote. Because I believe that Chaffetz can win this.

I am a huge Bob Lonsberry fan. I have listened to him since his first time on the air here in Utah. I remember when I first heard him, I thought that he was some 70-year-old retired guy that 570am was giving a shot.

Bob won me over when he started talking about the LDS church in a positive way. For as long as I can remember I never understood why Utah television and radio seemed to want to alienate 70% of its audience. And Bob finally opened up to this audience, and I felt welcomed.

I own one of Bob’s books, and I really want to get copies of the others. But I want them autographed like the first one. So, I haven’t been able to get to a book signing where I can buy them and get them signed at the same time.

However, I am deeply concerned with a stance that Bob has taken lately.

Bob has stated that he is supporting Chris Cannon. I almost lost my mind. I can’t believe that Bob has that short of a memory. I can’t believe that Bob feels that Cannon represent Utah (or more specifically the Third District).

But I believe that I know why Bob has sold out. Unfortunately, I don’t have any written proof, but I have audio. So, please forgive me for linking to a large MP3 file. But it’s the only thing I have.

About a week ago, Bob Lonsberry did and interview with none other than Joe Cannon, editor of the Deseret News and brother to Chris Cannon. Listen to the MP3 for a good interview. But the kicker is within the last few mintues of the MP3. At roughly 22:00 minutes into the Interview Bob mentions that KNRS and Bob Lonsberry are working on some sort of “relationship” with MormonTimes.com (a branch of the Deseret News).

Since this interview and even before, I have noticed a lot of “kissy face” (to use Bob’s words) towards the Cannon family. Bob has always been a little standoff towards Jason Chaffetz. I think part of it is that Jason really doesn’t do well on the radio. I don’t know why, but I have never been really impress with Jason’s interviews on the radio.

At first I suspected that Bob was turned off from Chaffetz inarticulate nature on the radio. However, I now have a new insight. Why would Joe Cannon finally be working with Bob Lonsberry. I know from listening to Bob for almost 10 years now that Bob has always wanted to write for the Deseret News. And now during this political season Joe Cannon shows interest in Bob.

Bob you are being played. And as hard as it is for me to believe, you are falling for it. Wake up and get out of bed with the Cannon’s. Not that they are bad people. Just understand that Chris Cannon has done a lot to get air time this past year. Something that he wasn’t interested in over a year ago.

It is frustrating to me. I like Bob Lonsberry. But part of the reason, that I like him is that I always felt like he was sincere. This is the first time that I can’t see the sincerity. I am just at a loss for understanding on this. Because the only reason I can see for Bob to support Cannon is that he is playing “kissy face.”

For Father’s Day my wife more than took care of me. Actually, if you ask me, she went a little over board. But, I finally have some items that I have been wanting for a very long time. So, I forgive her.

I received two things that I really wanted. The first was a Camp Chef Dutch Oven Table to make it easier to cook. Now I don’t have to bend over and risk hurting my back.

The other thing that I wanted was Charcoal Lighting Basket (I didn’t get the one pictured, but you get the idea). This will hopefully help me to get my coals to cook more evenly, and thus have a better cooking experience.

Finally my wife got me something else that was on my list, but not as high as those two. She got me a second 12″ Round Dutch Oven. This will be especially nice when I want to cook two things at the same time.

So, that’s what we did. Yesterday, we cooked up a roasted chicken. Nothing special there. Just clean a whole chicken, season it (we use seasoning salt), and then cook it in your oven.

But we complemented the chicken with some fresh homemade rolls. My wife for years has been using the “refrigerator” bread dough recipe. It will keep in the fridge for up to about a week. So, you can have fresh bread almost all the time. Just let it rise, then bake it.

FRIDGE DOUGH

1 Pkg. Yeast (abt 2-3 tsp)
1 cup cool water
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup Hot water
About 6-7 cups flour

1. Mix Yeast in 1 cup cold water
2. Mix eggs, sugar, salt and shortening
3. Combine ingredients of 1 and 2 and Hot Water.
4. Mix in flour until dough is no longer sticky. (Dough will not be firm, but not sticky)

Store covered in a large greased container. Dough will raise some in the fridge so be sure to allow room for growth (Use within 10 days or it will get to tasting a little ripe.)
Makes about 3 recipes worth.

Sandy mixed all of the ingredients, and placed them in a tinfoil lined Dutch Oven. Then we let them rise in the heat of the sun for about a half-hour to 45 minutes.

Then we cooked them in the Dutch Oven. It should have taken around 30 minutes, but my coals were damp, and they didn’t get very hot. I think I have finally learned my lesson to bring my unused charcoals into the garage to stay dry.

I was really nervous that the rolls would be burned on the bottom. But they were, They were just shy of being perfect on the bottom. The top, however, wasn’t done as well as I would have liked. Yes, they were very edible and the flavor and texture was just fine. The only problem was that they didn’t brown on the top. They were as pale as when they were put in the oven.

So, I am going to have to research and figure out the best way to brown bread on the top in a Dutch Oven. Otherwise, the meal was fine (accept we ate late again today).

So, it has been a week since we got back from our camping trip and I am finally reporting on it. Things at work have been too busy to spend time clacking away on the computer tell you all about our camping adventures. Then I had the past couple of days off from work, and was busy with yard work and trailer cleaning to sit at the computer to tell you what happened.

So, you will get this report a week late.

We headed out of Thursday shortly after I got home from work. We had a few last minute things to pack (one of them wasn’t packed at all), and then we were off.

Okay, I have been told that it is different pulling something behind you, and I knew to expect something, but I didn’t know what. Now, I know. That trail back there is like a whole different vehicle to drive. Part of it is the extra weight, part of it is the extra length, but there is something else there, that I don’t know can be put in words.

Perhaps, it’s just the nagging thought that it could fall of at any minute. For me, this was a white knuckle drive from Riverton to Payson, and up the canyon to the lakes. We made it just fine, and didn’t have any real troubles. I am thankful for that.

However, when we got to the camp, it was cold. There was still snow in the shady areas under the trees. But we didn’t let that get to us. Not until we couldn’t start a fire. After over an hour of trying, and using lighter fluid, and paper, and blowing, and more lighter fluid, and more blowing, then more paper, we finally, decided that we would just cook our hot dogs on the camp stove, and call it a night.

But before we went to bed, we tried to play a game of cards. However, the trailer was too cold, and I hadn’t figured out how to get the heater working. It was simply blowing the cold air from out side, into the trailer. So, eventually we turned it off.

After my total domination of Scum, you can just call me President, we decided to call it a night. The night was cold. I don’t know if it was because I was on the outside of the trailer or because I refused to get up and use the facilities, but I tossed and turned all night. But, after years of tent camping, I was used to not sleeping at camp, and found it pleasurable to have a soft cushion beneath me and not a hard rock or root.

Friday morning was beautiful. After some coaxing, we finally got a small fire started and were able to warm up, either because the sun was out, or because of the fire. This camp was starting to look up.

After breakfast, we headed out on a family hike. Some research on the Internet helped me to find out about this grotto, that we had driven past several times over the years, and I figured we should go for it. Besides, there was a geocache near by.

So after a brief detour to find a cache placed by Sandy’s cousin, we headed up the grotto. For the most part this was a nice little trail. The forest service placed the small log bridges (with the top flattened for walking on) at placed where the river needed crossing. This was a little scary for Miss Kay and Capt. Z, but it was worth crossing three times to get them over.

We finally got to the waterfall, and it was awesome in the biblical sense, with a hint of modern awesomeness too. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was a rush of spring runoff, that was magnificent.

While, I was taking pictures, Miss Jo decided that she would climb up above the falls and look down on them. That was a great idea, I got a couple of good photos of the falls, and it might help people picture it better. However, we failed to calculate the descent from this little trek.

Coming down the muddy hill was quite the task. Especially with three kids under 6. Flash started to cry in his carrying pack, and Miss Kay didn’t want to go any further. It took a lot of patience and prayer to finally get down safely, and the bottoms of some jeans are permanently stained with red mud.

We returned to camp with muddy clothes and tired kids, to have some lunch and relaxing. We found a few more caches that were near camp (these were one’s that I found last year, but none of the kids were with me, so I went so they could find them the first time. We also spent some time playing cards and other games.

We also realized (as I hinted to earlier) that we had forgotten our Dutch Oven. Yes, that’s right. My dream method of cooking was not there. While packing I told myself several times to put it in the trailer, but I didn’t do it. I guess, I wanted to make sure it was accessible for cooking. Instead, I made it impossible to use for cooking. We had to improvise on a few meals, but we still ate well, thanks to the wife’s excellent ability to improvise.

When it started to get dark, i took the older kids, PandaMae, Miss Jo, and BO out for some night caching. there are three night caches in the area. But we headed out before dark, so we grabbed a couple of regular caches. They were fun, but not as notworthy as the one night cache that we found.

When hunting for the first night cache and last cache of the evening, we were a little confused. I have done several night caches, and usually they cache placer puts the coordinates on the web page near the start of the series of reflectors. Which in this case would have been near the Maple Dell Micro Cache. Instead the coordinates for the Maple Dell Night Hike were about 200 feet from the final location.

So, when we started for the cache from the Maple Dell Parking Lot we figured the cache hunt wouldn’t start until a tenth of a mile hike. But when we got to the top of the hill there were no reflectors. After 10 minutes of looking, and realizing that we were running out of time, we decided to bag the cache and try another one.

However, when we got done near the micro cache we saw a reflector. Then we located another, and followed the exact trail that we had hiked up and back down, until finally we located the cache. So, we did twice the amount of work for this cache.

We were limited on time, because the gates to the camp ground closed at 10:00pm, and it didn’t get dark until just before 9:30pm. So, we didn’t have a lot of darkness to night cache in. If we had, we would have gone for the other night caches in the area.

Instead we went back to camp and had another night of restless sleep. Only to wake up to the rain. Which eventually turned into snow. Again we were trapped in the trailer. Eventually, I realized that being in the wet snow was probably better then trapped in the trailer, and I started to putter around out side.

The worst part of the weather was the it discouraged me from taking a personal hike that morning, and from placing my own cache in the mountains. And there is a couple of good trails that are begging for caches. Oh, well, I will have to fit it into my next trip.

The snow lead us to packing up a little early and coming home. Despite the weather we had a good time. And because of the weather, we will always have a memorable first camping trip.

Well, since the beginning of the year, I have been on Facebook. You may have noticed the little picture and logo on the left side.

And honestly, I don’t know that I understand it.

Okay, it has been nice to connect with a few old friends. But that is about the extent of the fun of facebook for me. All of the games on facebook are dumb at best. And there doesn’t seem to be any really useful.

So far most of the “spam” that I have gotten through facebook is from people who want me to rate them and tell them how much of a friend they are to me. While some of these have been in creative ways, none of them have interested me.

Honestly, if your sense of self-worth comes from someone else’s evaluation of you on facebook, then you need to get a life.

I am sure that there are other applications on there, but none of them have found me. I haven’t spent much time looking into them. But what I have found just seems pointless.

Am I missing something here? Are there any facebook junkies that want to show me the rope? Because except for finding a few old mission friends and old neighbors and friends, facebook as proved to be fairly pointless for me.

Again I find myself using a title that isn’t completely accurate.  Some one is going to take me down for violating truth in advertising laws.  The title just seemed witty and I couldn’t not use it.

I recently decided to give in a get a Twitter account.  I had heard about it before, but I really didn’t see much value in the application.  So, I just let it be.

However, recently some cohorts expressed a desire to communicate with me using twitter.  After a couple of days of thinking about it, I decided that it couldn’t hurt.

Here is where the deception in the title gets revealed.  Twitter is okay.  It is nice for doing an occasional update on what you are doing.  And maybe if more people who I cared about used it more often, then it might be worth my effort.

But for right now, it is a fun toy.  Something that I will play with for a while, but I am sure eventually it will go by the wayside like my old Geocities account from almost 10 years ago (before it was owned by yahoo).

Anyway, if you can’t wait to see what my latest adventures are, then check me out on twitter.  If you want to share more of your life with me, then let me know and I will follow you.

If you have followed this site for any time you know that I love the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.  I also eagerly anticipated the release of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  So, I had similar anticipation of the release of Prince Caspian.

Just like with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I couldn’t wait until the dollar theater to watch this one.  I am incredibly cheap, and the dollar theater is too much for me.  However,  I am willing to sacrifice for what I hope are great shows, and the Narnia series qualify.  Also, my daughter asking to watch it as a birthday present helped too.

I was tempted to reread the book, because I can’t remember which book Prince Caspian was.  Unfortunately, I didn’t make time to reread the book, and now having watched it, I regret that.  One review implied that the
movie was loosely related to the book.

However, after further study (excluding the rereading of the book), there was only one part of the movie that didn’t stick to the book.  And I will have to give that.  But I could be proven wrong.  Adamson did a great job with the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I can’t imagine that he would make such a mistaked with this movie.

However, I was a little disconnected with this film.  It seemed that Adamson sacrifice dialog to include fight scenes.  There was one point in the movie, that I didn’t fully understand what was going on, because there was only a brief dialogg leading up to why Lucy had to go into the forest.  And I just wasn’t clear.  Sure if I had the book fresh in my mind, then I would have understood it.

The fight scenes were a little to intense for my liking.  I get that battles are rough.  I understand that war is not pretty.  But in my opinion this movie pushed the limit for me.  I would have personally given it a PG-13 rating.  Which might have kept me from watching it at all.  Maybe I was a little too sensitive because I had two (three if you count the baby) kids that this was probably a little over the top for.

When it comes to the CGI, it was better than the first.  Alsan was more realistic and he appearance didn’t bother my as much as the first Narnia movie.  However, Aslan was not in the movie as much as the first.  So, there was less chance to annoy me.  However, other aspects of the CGI didn’t seem to bother me either.  So, I would say that they got that right.

I have also heard complaints that the Christian themes were dropped in this movie.  However, that was wrong.  It was wonderfully done, and I appreciated the way it was done.  Lessons of temptation, forgiveness, repentance, and faith were wonderfully represented.  I felt inspired from this movie.  Lessons were learned by the Pevensie children as well as the audience.

I can’t find it on the Internet, but Michael Medved gave the move a 2.5 star rating.  And while I agree with him somewhat, I would probably lean to a 3 or 3.5 star rating.  It could have been a 4 to 4.5 if the battle scenes weren’t so intense.

Michael Williams posted about his opinion on whether local governments should have the right to fine people for unkempt yards. And while, I think that a lot of these city ordinances are getting out of hand, I generally agree with him.

Simply put I like to divide the government into Macro- and Micro-level roles. The Macro-government is the federal government. The micro-government is typified by cities and towns.

the level of control they should be allowed to exert is directly related to the level at which they govern. The feds should be primarily worried about military, economy, and interstate relations. Their concern should be about the larger issues that truly effect our nation as a whole.

Cities can worry about such things as lawn length, dog licenses and neighbor relations. While I think that their should be some very significant checks on many of these ordinances, there is some room for them to consider such laws.

Another level that could be considered is Mid-level government. Counties and States have a concern for more mid-level laws like education and roads. Again we are looking at those items that fall between the federal government purview and the local government.

That is a very oversimplification of things. But I have been wanting to post about this for a while, so I appreciate the unintended encouragement from Michael Williams.

Okay we all know that the Deseret News’ cheif editor is Chris Cannon’s Brother, Joe Cannon. And we are all confident that Mr. Cannon would never let his paper show bias towards any candidate, right? (wink, wink, nod, nod).

However, their recent news article on polling shows that bias again in two ways. As with all polling done by Dan Jones and associates, their polling numbers are outrageously low.

For this politcal survey Dan Jones managed to poll a whopping total of 203 potential voters. To see this total look at this lovely graphic and read the parenthetical phrase at the bottom. It is interesting that nowhere in the article do they mention the 203 number.

I will give them credit for sharing the +/- 7 percent with us. But what few people understand is that +/- 7 percent is directly related to the number polled. Had they polled another 200 or even 800 individuals the could have had a +/- 5 percent or +/- 3 percent, respectively.

Sure if the results would have remained 39-37 (for Cannon), then it would have still been too close to call. However, we won’t know because the polling was incomplete.

The second issue is that they polled independent voters and said that would be the key to Chaffetz winning the race. While the numbers here are still suspect. That isn’t the key problem for me. The problem I have is that they fail (complete neglect) to mention that Utah has closed primaries. This is something the Mr. Bernick is aware of, because he wrote a piece about this 2 years ago. Ooops. This point is mute moot. I completely missed it in the article. But I am still suspicious about the stats.

If you are an Independent voter, you need to register as a Republican. Why would Bernick and his editor not mention that in their article? Perhaps, they don’t want the independent voter to register to vote. Perhaps, They would like to keep the status quo.

If you are an independent and you want to see Chris Cannon out, don’t wait for the general election. It is very likely that our next Congressman will be decided on June 24th and not in November. Register yourself to as a Republican, even if you feel like you have hold your nose while you do so.

If you are an independent and you want to see Jason Chaffetz win, then now is the time to act. Go to your county clerk’s office or website and register as a Republican. It is the number one way that you can show your support for Mr. Chaffetz.

To me this is just another blatant example of poor politcal reporting by the Deseret News and another example of the main stream media trying to influence the vote. Don’t let their lack of reporting this properly influence you and your decision.

Salt Lake County Voter Registration

Utah County Voter Registration Q & A (form - pdf)

Juab County Clerk’s Office (email)

Sanpete County Clerk’s Office (scroll down for voter information and this form - pdf)

Millard County Clerk’s Office (Just use the same form as the other counties)

Sevier County Voter Registration Information (form - pdf)

Beaver County Clerk’s Office (form -pdf)

Okay, the title to this post is a little misleading. Because last night’s meal was nothing great.

I guess, I felt that because I had been home all day that I would have enough time to start some dutch oven. But I didn’t start until 5:00 in the evening. And we had kids that needed to be to various church activities. So, I was thinking that this would have dinner done well before 6:30pm.

I was so wrong. At 6:30, the chick was still raw and the potatoes were crunchy. It really wasn’t ready to eat. So, we fed the kids a small amount of left overs and sent them to their activities.

Pride having set in, I decided to keep them on the coals for another half hour or hour. But somewhere in there, I knew that I needed hotter coals. So, after the hour had expired, and American Idol was half over, I broke down and put them in the oven.

I know, it’s horrible. We were hungry and needed to eat.

After another half hour, it was finally good enough to eat. Still some of the potatoes and carrots weren’t fully cooked, but the were still edible.

So, after that disaster of a dinner you my be wondering why the title of this post. I call this recipe “The Great Chicken Dinner” because it was perhaps one of my first exposures to dutch oven, and the chicken usually tastes great. So, here is the recipe:

1-2 lbs. of bone in chicken (last night we did legs and thighs)
1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup of flour
2 tbs of seasoned salt (to taste)
10-12 small potatoes cut into about 1/2 inch slices
1 lbs bag of baby carrots (medium carrots cut into baby carrot size is okay too).
1 small onion sliced
1 can of cream of chicken soup

First of all start melting the butter in the pan. Then remove the skin from the chicken. In a large bowl or plastic resealable bag mix the flour and seasoned salt. Coat the chicken with the flour mixture then brown in the melted butter. After both sides are browned, leave chicken in dutch oven and top with potatoes, carrots, onions, and cream of chicken soup.

Looking over the recipe, and after a pleasant comment from my wife, I realized that I had forgotten the cream of chicken soup.  There wasn’t enough moisture to cook the potatoes and carrots properly.

Also, the charcoal that I used had been slightly moist from all of the rain that we had yesterday.  Combine that with the wet ground, and I don’t think that my coals were hot enough to reach the needed 350 degrees.  So, yesterday was definitely a learning experiences.

Two and a half years ago, my wife and I moved into our new home. After that move, we had one goal. That was to get rid of our consumer debt.

We started out by paying $700 extra on the one consumer loan that we had. It was a student loan that totalled somewhere near $32,000. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. Somehow, I managed to ignore the fact that I was that deep in debt.

I also started this process by reading Dave Ramsey’s book “The Total Money Makeover.” While reading it I felt pretty good. I had not car loans. Our credit card was paid off every month, and I felt that I was on the right track.

Then came the section on Student Loans. That when it hit me hard that I was not different than other people. Sure, my interest rate was less than most. But the reality was that it was still that terrible four-letter word, DEBT.

Eventually, through pay raises and some other tightening of the proverbial belt, we started to pay $1000 every month towards the student loan. We also used the tax refunds and part of a company bonus to help us pay down our debt.

Finally on April 15 2008, I made my last payment on the student loan. I was debt free (at least on the consumer side, I still owe on my home).

I say was, because I then did something sort of stupid. I bought a new computer that cost almost $1000 dollars. I did this because I knew that buy the time the credit card bill came due we would have the money, and because our last computer was literally on its last leg.

Thus, I am waiting until today to officially announce that I am debt free. I paid of the computer and other credit card balance (like I do every month), and I can honestly say I am debt free.

Our next step is to build our financial reserves and my wife and I are adding food storage.  But we need a break from discipline.  So we are buying a few wants over the next few months.  These include a tent trailer (already purchased), a new computer (also purchased), a new washer and dryer, some furniture for our family room, a safe, and some other incidentals.

I just hope these next few months of “frivolity” don’t have us regretting our decision.  But starting in January, we will get really serious about our financial and food stores.

Just as a final note. Dave Ramsey does not condone the use of credit cards, and for the most part I agree with him. However, after 14 years of discipline has shown, my wife and I can handle credit cards. We don’t use them, unless we have the money to back up the purchase, and we always return to a zero balance at the end of each month. I only recommend credit cards if you KNOW that you will pay them off each month, and will use them wisely.

Well, I had to skip the last couple of week in my attempt at a Dutch Oven meal every week for the next few months.  It wasn’t because I was busy.  It wasn’t because I am tired of Dutch Oven cooking.  Nope it’s because I ran out of charcoal.

Fortunately my wife sent me to the store, and I remember to pick up some charcoal.  So, when I got home I had to use it.

The recipe was pretty simple.

1.5 to 2 lbs. of Round Cut Steak
1 to 1.5 cups of BBQ sauce (what ever your favorite is)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of water
1 medium onion sliced into rings

Basically, through it all into the dutch oven, then bring the sauce to a boil.  Then cook for about 1.5 hours at about 325 degrees.  However, I think that I would have been better off to go for a 300 degree oven.

The steak was a little tough, but the flavor was good.  My wife made some corn bread and potatoes to compliment the meal.

I know that it is well passed. And this post is probably going to be boring to most, but it concerns me greatly. So, I need to write about it.

First of all, from what I can tell there are supposed to be roughly 1200 delegates at the convention from the third district. And I understand that sometimes it is difficult to fill every position, but I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t fill 120 of those positions.

That is 10 percent of the positions went empty before the voting even started. Only 1080 delegates voted in the third district and this is amazing to me. I haven’t been to convention before, but it seems to me that this is either a sign of why grassroots doesn’t work, or a sign that the Republican Party is struggling.

More frustrating to me is those who had their credentials and left. I understand that there are some who had very good reason to leave. And perhaps these fall down numbers are within that range. But simply put. We need to have more dedication to our party.

For the second round, the delegates who voted dropped to 1046. We lost 34 delegates. That’s roughly 3% of the original 1080. Now maybe most of those were the Stone Fonua and Joe Ferguson crowd. If so, that tells me that they really aren’t party people but candidate people, and their precincts need to be more aware of who they elect.

Then for the third round we had drastic drop of 12% from the original voting total. I would have to assume that the major of these people were Leavitt supporters who were too upset to vote for either Chaffetz or Cannon.

How can you do that? You represent your neighborhood. You hold a responsibility to vote for them. If 24 of you would had stuck around and voted for Chaffetz, he would have won. If all of you had stayed and voted, then Chaffetz would have needed 85 of your votes to win.

Sure, I am not sure that Jason could have got those 85. But when people think about it. If they didn’t wanted Cannon over Chaffetz, then they almost handed Chaffetz a win. If 15 more people who supported Cannon in the last round had made the same decision as those who left, then Jason would have won.

I just can’t believe that there were 126 good reasons to leave the convention early. I had to get home to my family and take care of things at home. I know of at least one candidate who had a dance recital he needed to take his children too. But both of us stayed for the last vote.

I guess, I shouldn’t be too surprised about this, but the second district had 368 people drop out.  That is 35% of the original 1046 who showed up to vote in the first place.  I just don’t understand it.  We need people who are more dedicated.

Okay, you can criticize me for having left after the third round and not staying to deal with the bylaws of the party. But I had to draw a line somewhere. If I didn’t have so much going on these next few weeks, and had more time with my family I would have stayed. Not a good enough excuse, but at least I stayed to make the decisions that I believe my precinct was interested in.

I will do my best to be to the 2009 meeting and vote on all of the bylaws and other issues that are presented before us. I just can’t understand how 126 people couldn’t stay for 1 more hour.

Posted without comment from me, but please feel free to discuss.

Well, I know that this is a couple of days old, but I had such a good time at the convention, that I want to record my experience for future reference. And I am hoping that it will be enjoyable for everyone else to read.

5:20am
My day started with a simple question from my wife. “What time are you planning on leaving?”

“5:00.”

“You better get up then.”

I jump out of bed skip the shower, get dressed an head out the door. Stopping only because I forgot my Chris Cannon Breakfast pass.

6:00am (or there about)
Meet up with several people from the Chaffetz campaign who are there to put signs up. By this late time, most of it was done, so I did a lot of standing around. Until they finally opened the doors to let people into the halls.

I placed a couple of signs, but not really much. Eventually, I met up with a few campaign volunteers and I helped to put up a few large triangles to create a larger presence. It was good to see so many people involved and excited about the campaign.

7:00am
I was really starting to get bored at this point. It didn’t seem like there was much going on, so I decided to take my t-shirts and start waiting in credentials line. My first impression was the poor kids who were handing out bags to the delegates for David Leavitt. No one seemed interested in their bags.

I myself didn’t even bother to get one. Perhaps I should have had pitty on them, but I really didn’t care to carry the bag around, and I didn’t care for the “stuff” that was in the bag.

7:30am
Despite the fact that the credentials were supposed to be open at 7:00, the line didn’t start moving until around 7:30. Once I got to the front of the line I realized that I (and a few of the men in front of me) was in the wrong line. Fortunately, the lady guarding the wall between the two areas had pitty on us, and let us in.

I quicking picked up my credentials and I almost walked out without my ballot, because the men checking me in forgot to give it to me. They caught their mistake before I got to far, and I received a ballot before leaving.

7:45am
Picked up a few more t-shirts and a few flyers to help hand out at the door. Most people were pretty receptive to receiving the information, but a few were rather rude. But so be it, I was happy to put up with a little crap to help support Chaffetz.

I really didn’t like one of the flyers. Some of the statements seemed risky. But it appears that they were well substantiated (or verifiable). But it was an interesting statement about where David Leavitt stands on immigration. And if immigration is an important issue to a delegate, this could help them to make their decision.

9:00am
It’s starting to get cold, and I am getting hungry, because I haven’t taken advantage of the Cannon pass. However, the Huntsman booth was within sight of were I was, and the appeared to have some good stuff. So, I handed my flyers to some fellow volunteers, and I went to have some breakfast.

At breakfast, I had some good conversation with some fellow delegates on various candidates, and it was fun to talk to them. I also stopped and talked to Kent Winder from my old Stake to see how things were there. He didn’t remember me, but he did recognize me. That’s okay, because I really didn’t have that much interaction with the Winder Family while I lived in the Stake they lived in.

9:30am
Went inside, because I needed to warm up. I manned some of the booths and helped hand out more t-shirts, button, and flyers about Chaffetz. It was great to see the group of delegates huddled around Chaffetz, asking him questions and learning what he stood for. You could see that there was a genuine interest in what Chaffetz was saying. Whether that interest translated into votes was soon to be shown.

This time was also the first that I heard about the possibility of Chaffetz to garner 60% in the convention. That struck me as a little ambitious, but I was hopeful to see it happen. Because based on past primaries, Chaffetz will have a tough time against Cannon.

10:00am
Found a seat in the Salt Lake County Section of the floor. I found a few Chaffetz supports to sit with, but I didn’t know any of them, but they were friendly enough to sit with.

Eventually, they got to the point that I was eager to get too. We separated into our separate districts to hear from the candidates and to start casting ballots.

Stone Fonua was interesting. I can sum up his talk with one word. “Peacemaker.” Ummm… Interesting talk, and not very inspiring. Seven minutes felt like a half hour.

Joe “NPC” Ferguson (can someone tell me what NPC means) was at least better to listen to. But frankly, you could tell the he was a one issue candidate, who didn’t offer much in the name of a well-rounded candidate.

David Leavitt started with a syrupy video about dreams, values, family, and hope. Then he gave his “I am a Statesman” talk. That made one wonder if they had accidentally arrived at a Barrack Obama campaign. If one were to vote strictly on emotions, then they would have to vote for Leavitt. He really did a lot of work to pull at heart strings. But as usually there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of substance to his talk. Just like all of the balloons that he dropped from the ceiling. Trust me the balloon drop was very anti-climatic.

Jason Chaffetz hit several balls out of the proverbial park. He started out very strong. His talk was by far the most issues based talk. He covered all of the bases (to continue to baseball metaphor): illegal immigration, fiscal responsibility, our national security and more. The audience was clapping and generally showing a lot of support for Chaffetz. The energy level went from a hum to an all out party during Chaffetz’s speech.

Chris Cannon was better than Leavitt, but he couldn’t compete with Chaffetz. Like Leavitt, Cannon started out with a video, but it wasn’t sugary sweet. It was mostly filled with endorsements from various individuals included President Bush, Senator Hatch, and others. When Cannon spoke from the pulpit, he addressed a few issues, and did an okay job.

Round One Voting (Sorry, but I really started to lose track of time, but this was around 12:00pm)
I headed up the stares to cast my first ballot. It was obviously cast for Chaffetz, and I was great to place a ballot for someone I can honestly support.

The interesting thing about the voting was that after I had dropped by ballot in the box (I was little shocked to see that we are still using dangling chads), I walk directly passed Chris Cannon. He was talking to some reporter; I really wasn’t paying attention to who. He stopped his conversation with the report, and turned to me and said, “When Chaffetz is out, I hope that I can get your vote.”

Not grasping the full extent of what he said and being a little taken a back by any comment from Cannon, I stupidly replied, “We will have to see.” I wish that I could have said something more along the lines of. “It won’t come to that.” Or better yet, “I hope that when you get out of the voting, that you will vote for Chaffetz.” But it’s too late now.

The wait for round 1 results, was bearable. There were several other candidates and issues to study up on and look over. However, it was starting to get hard to sit and wait. Especially after they announce the results:

It was exciting that not only did “my” candidate win the first round. He had a whopping 43% of the vote. The rumors that I heard about 60% were starting to look more realistic.

Round Two Voting
After hearing from candidate for the other offices, and make some informed (and some not-well informed) decisions. I cast my ballot again for Jason Chaffetz, and for the other varied candidates who I thought would do a the best job.

I was forced to walk by the concession stands, but I didn’t give into temptation. I eventually went through the hall that didn’t have the balloting booths, and there I found Chris Cannon dishing out Pizza. Thanks for the slice. It was good, and still very hot.

After the slice, I went over by the Chaffetz booth (which was close to one of the Leavitt booths, and I couldn’t help but notice the face of dejection in the volunteers for Leavitt. I even saw Leavitt himself, and he too was cast down. He was trying to hold his head up, but you could just see that he couldn’t believe the results.

I also took this down time to look up so old friends. I knew that KH was going to be there, so I asked several people if they knew her, but to no avail. Then I looked up at just the right time and found her. So, I made my way across the section of chairs, and we had a fun little how have you been chat.

I also saw some people who lived in my ward while growing up (then lived in my stake a few years back). So I took a moment to say hi to CP, LP, and DP. I couldn’t help but notice that they were wearing David Leavitt t-shirts, so I boldly asked them to vote for Chaffetz, if Leavitt didn’t survive round two. LP agreed that she absolutely would. Because she was completely against Cannon.

The wait to hear the results of round two seemed twice as long as for round one. But I gather that it really wasn’t that bad. Just sitting through the debates about party constitution and bylaws was boring.

Fortunately, the monotony was broken by the violation of floor rules from Leavitt or Cannon or both. As has been well published on the Internet. Approx. 100 teenage volunteers from the Leavitt campaign came out onto the floor carrying Cannon signs. They were reminded of the rules, and then escorted politely off of the floor. In my opinion, it was a gross display of Leavitt’s lack of statesmanship.

I was willing to give Cannon the benefit of the doubt and assume he had nothing to do with it. But that benefit was quickly removed when I saw Cannon and Leavitt walk onto the floor side-by-side shaking hands and I am assuming encouraging people to vote for Cannon. It was then that I was sure Cannon had shot himself in the foot, and I knew that Chaffetz had 60% of the vote.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, they announced the results of the the second round of voting: