I hate CBS

Every year I feel frustrated for the same reasons during March Madness. Now it is clear that some of that frustration stems from the seemingly annual disappointment of a BYU first-round loss. But I also am frustrated because of the unskilled production of the whole March Madness TV experience. It drives me crazy when I have to watch a game, ANY game, that is far from being over when there are other games that are coming into the final minutes or that are much closer. It seems that I get stuck watching some blowout when there is a better game happening because CBS has decided that the blowout is my "local" game. Last night this scenario repeated itself. I was stuck watching the Kansas game, which was not terrible, but was not the game that Stanford-Marquette was. I only got to see the last 10-20 seconds of regulation and again in over time, while instead I was forced to watch Kansas toy with UNLV. Granted the UNLV game was closer than I thought it would be and I was probably more bitter about the game since I feel strongly that BYU is better than UNLV, but I think that any fan would choose to see the end of a close game rather than more of the dominated one. Why don't they have focus groups telling them this? March Madness is one of my favorite sporting events, and I have clear early memories of watching games with my dad while we (mostly he) stripped wallpaper in my room. I remember that BU lost that day. I also remember watching Josh Grant, or someone like that, and the U beat Steve Smith and Michigan State. I remember seeing Laettner's amazing shot to beat Jamal Mashburn and Kentucky. Call it biased childhood memories, but I don't remember my father yelling at CBS like I do now- "Change it to the other game!" He probably did.

I made cookies last night for the first time since the last week of my mission. They turned out pretty good, though I think I will use less flour next time. It doesn't taste like anything so I will use flour as little as possible. The key to my cookies is that I cook them as little as possible. On my mission I would mix the ingredients in our sink because we never had a bowl big enough. I mixed the ingredients with my hands because we did not have a mixer, and I doubled and tripled the recipe which made using a spoon a very slow process. I never worried about germs and I gave these cookies to everybody. I would buy Fazer chocolate bars and cut them up with a butter knife and use them as chocolate chips. Those cookies were really good, and I am sure angels were busy getting the germs off of them before I gave them to people.

My wife is wonderful. After a wonderful afternoon of church we returned home, and I could feel basketball games calling to me once more. After about 5 minutes of basketball Carrie suggested that we watch church movies she bought the last time we were in Utah. And while those movies have sound and picture that are about half a second off from each other, I definitely feel good about watching them. We have three DVDs of movie snippets that give the history of the church. My favorite "snippet" would have to be the one about the three witnesses with David Whitmer as the main character. Not even the awkward acting and poor camera angles that expose Whitmer's bad make-up job can overshadow a great story. I find it so interesting that the three witnesses all fel away from the church for some time, but none of them ever denied the story of the Book of Mormon.

Extra! Part II

Here is a like to yet another article that features Tony. He was interviewed by the local paper while walking across campus this week.

MSU raises tuition 3.9%

His picture is on the far right side.

Extra!

Anthony is in the news. Check out this article from today's Salt Lake Tribune.

Colorado incident: A few bad seeds or a need for more missionary training?

"Um...my sister's in love with your husband."

That is what one of my primary kids told me in class last week. This girl (younger sister of my primary kid) may be too young to really know what love is--she's 5--but it cannot be denied that she has an affinity for Anthony. Today during Sacrament Meeting she tapped him on the shoulder to give him a hug. I think this happened about three times. Previously she has played with his hair and smiled and batted her eyelashes at him. Looks like I've got some competition.

Tony is making LOTS of friends in our ward's primary. Last weekend both of us baby-sat for two boys in the ward, ages five and six. They both LOVED any attention they got from Tony while I was just 'the girl.' One of the boys has a bit of a problem going to primary--he hates it--so while I was teaching my class Tony went with him to Junior Primary. He clearly made a big impression because this week kids all over the place were saying hi to him. When we walked down the hall by the Primary Room/Nursery after church it was like walking with a rock star. Not really, but there were a few kids who waved and made sure he saw them too.

Anyways, I'm just glad I've got nearly two decades on most of these kids. But who can blame them, what's not to love?