Scott Chester

I’m not sure I really like the idea of the kids going back to school. It seemed that there was a lot more traffic on Whitewood this morning, before I left the house. It was really the noise that was getting to me, maybe the wind was just blowing this direction or something. I did see a bit more traffic on Whitewood than normal, but it wasn’t the first time I had to sit through an extra turn at the intersection of MHS.

Work went well today. I was busy most of the day just trying to stay on top of things while Tara is gone. I found myself getting pretty impatient trying to get tracking numbers for things that should have shipped days ago and I probably enjoyed bugging people for tracking information too much. I did get a lot done though and need to work some on my actual job tomorrow and hopefully can keep moving forward there.

I went over to the Rodriguez’s for dinner and crashed their party with the Dunagan’s. As always, that ended up with doing something technical, in which case we ran a ethernet cable and then I started working on setting up computers for networking. Of course, one is xp home and the other is xp pro, so they don’t want to talk and I have to deal with tons of software getting in the way. Oh, there was also the router from Verizon FIOS that was resolving the name of one of the computers to an ip address that it was no longer at. I don’t think the second router was helping that problem and probably needs to go so we don’t have any further problems down the road. I still need to finish up the printer sharing which will involve making home and pro play nice together.

Larilyn poses this question here about the things that someone would have to essentially get over in order to deal with us.

I’m a freak and you’re a freak with me: What’s your personal paper cut?

I don’t think you can have something that someone has to overcome alone. I think it has to be in pairs. For example with Michelle, if someone loved BYU Cougars as much as she does, that wouldn’t be something to overcome. It wouldn’t be the papercut.

See, Edgar had the problem, although I guess that would be with anyone, but maybe there was only one he was willing to face the problem for and he would give in to the others. I think searching for something that someone is going to have to get over isn’t going to help because it will be different depending on who that other person is.

Does that make any sense?

I’m kind of enjoying doing Tara’s job at work lately. It’s fun to have little projects that I have to research out constantly to find out where this order is or what is holding this up and so forth. I don’t think I’ve done any of my work though lately, so I definitely see the need for her to return at once.

I had a nice quiet evening at home tonight. Nobody came over and I just sat and watched a movie. I chose College Road Trip since it seemed like the one that no one else was interested in watching. I enjoyed it and enjoyed pondering the days of raising children and how hard it is going to be to let them go probably. It is going to be interesting raising kids and trying to incorporate all these LDS activities and so forth that I know nothing whatsoever about. I’ve never held an FHE for my family. We came close at BYUI, but it won’t be the same. I’ve never gone to seminary, so I don’t know what it will be like. What the heck is mutual and all these other random things? What if my kids don’t want to go to BYUI where I’m presumably going to want to send them? That will be far away, but I know they will be safe and be nurtured there. After being raised in an LDS family, are they going to want to rebel and go to some party school? Am I going to be disappointed when they don’t want to go to school or don’t do anything with their schooling?

Man, I’d better stop pondering this before it gets really crazy. And, since this morning went so great with being up a few minutes earlier than normal, I’m hoping to get to sleep and be able to do the same tomorrow.

P.S. It is beautiful outside. I got downstairs down to 73 before closing the windows. It might even be a tad bit chilly in the morning which will be great!

Things went pretty darn well today! I was able to get a lot of bills paid this morning. I think I mailed 27 checks which is like outrageous!

Things were fairly busy in the office today and I didn’t get a chance to get anywhere near caught up on my emails from the weekend. We had some good meetings today and I think we are moving forward.

I have so much to write about, but I so need to get some sleep. Lauren came over last night which was great. I miss that girl.

Alysa’s baptism went well last night. The spirit was really strong and I’m glad I could attend.

Church and meetings went well today. Home teaching went terrific.

I got to talk with Allison yesterday afternoon which was great. She sent an email saying she was in So Cal and she wanted to meet up. I called right after I got the email, but it didn’t sound like they had time in their schedule to actually meet up. I asked her to plan better next time and plan on spending the night or something here.

I’ve been working on family history like crazy - pretty much all day yesterday and some of it is actually starting to make sense. I have to find documents for everything as what I have so far is just what other people have written down or what someone else had already done.

I made it down to Fallbrook tonight for dinner, tritip of course. It actually worked out well because I wanted to get down to Fallbrook to take a look at the genealogy files he had and get started on some family history work. I started getting things inputed while I was there and then came home and kept going. I was able to get one of the lines back to early 1800s mostly from information my dad had already collected. The real work will begin here once I get through the info that he has and actually have to get going.

I was really interested to see that one of my ancestors had like 12 children, three of which died at a young age. Three of them were with his first wife and the other nine with the second. It was also crazy what information I could find in family search and then how there seemed to be gaps or many duplicates of the same person. I’m sure by Sunday I’ll have lots of real work for Sister Dowden. I was also impressed to see some of the temple work had already been done, so that is great.

I finally got Sib over here tonight. It nearly involved kidnapping her, nevertheless she came peacefully. We started talking about ideas for painting and she realized what a big job it is going to be. With dinner and then being rushed to go home teaching, we didn’t get anything settled, so we will have to finish it up another time.

Work went well today. Time seemed to fly and I can’t really pinpoint what exactly I was able to accomplish. My desk is still a mess…

Sister Dowden, Larilyn, Kenny and I went to the temple Tuesday night. I hadn’t been in a really long time - I think she the last time I went with Sister Dowden a few (two-three) months ago. It was good and so was the Cheesecake that followed. I got home way too late though and have been having a hard time getting up all week. I’ve barely made it to the office on time and haven’t had the leisurely time in the morning I like to have. That also means I haven’t had a chance to dive deeper into scripture study.

Larilyn was over last night and made cheesecake. Lauren and Michelle came and helped us eat the ground beef tacos that needed to be gone ASAP. Again I was up too late.

I was thinking tonight on the way home from home teaching that I could get to sleep early. Then I decided that this was my only chance to carpet clean Geoff’s room before he moves in, so I decided to do that. Then the hallway outside the garage. After the third time I filled the machine up, I decided it was time to call it a night! I’m glad I did it though because it appears that it pulled a lot of dirt out of the carpet. I need to work on doing a room a night or something so I can get the whole house done.

Geoff is moving in tomorrow, so my peace and quiet may be gone. I’m thinking that maybe I’ll start actively looking for more roommates once I’ve got him settled in so I can bring in the cash to keep working on the project list. Sib told me tonight not to get married, just so I could keep both sides of the closet! Oh the joys of sharing…

I’ve got dinner plans with the family tomorrow night and am hoping to get some family history done at the same time although I understand Tom won’t be home. Then I’m hoping to get the first movie night in this week and we’ll see what fun projects the weekend brings.

We had a great home evening lesson tonight on the scriptures. Alyssa shared how she has been able to better connect with the scriptures on a daily basis and I was just thinking recently how I’m doing my daily reading, but not always getting much out of it. I tend to have a hard time focusing and I think I need to spend more time pondering after reading. Maybe if I wasn’t so rushed to get the reading done and get on with the morning it would go better. Alyssa said that she started underlining different parts in different colors. I’ve never been one much for marking things in the scriptures, but maybe I need to try this out and see what I can learn. Maybe I just need to go back to writing about what I read like I was doing at BYUI.

I worked a full day today, and didn’t even leave the office till almost 5:30. We got wrapped up in meetings and such at the end of my day. Things were kind of slow, but good. I tried to spend some time clearing out some things that had been sitting around and finding my desk again. I need to get ready to take on the extra load from Tara being gone when she leaves for Boston on Wednesday.

I got some more entries into familysearch tonight after getting through the mail and other junk. I emailed my dad to see what info he already has so I don’t spend time trying to duplicate work that has already been done. It sounds like a lot of the stuff is hard copy, so I may have to make a trip down there to see what I can find.

I talked with Geoff tonight briefly about moving in. It sounds like he is really just looking for a quiet place to crash which is what I’m looking for as well! I need to ponder on it and come up with the house rules so we are all set from the get go and get him moving in.

Well, I think I’m going to try and get some sleep early here so maybe I can get up on time tomorrow and not be so rushed for my scripture reading. Good night to all!

From the Wicked News today:

TICK TOCK! THE CLOCK OF THE TIME DRAGON SAYS THAT
THIS IS THE FINAL SUMMER FOR WICKED IN LOS ANGELES!

Yes, Fellow Ozians, the Time Dragon has brought to our attention that this is the final summer to see WICKED at the Pantages Theatre before it flies off to the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. The Los Angeles production of WICKED will play its final performance on January 11, 2009, ending its record-breaking run at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Upon closing, the production will have played 791 performances and 12 previews. The WICKED company will then travel to San Francisco beginning performances later that month at the Orpheum Theatre.

Producer Marc Platt states, “WICKED has been one of the biggest hits in Los Angeles theatre history and we are thrilled that theatergoers here have embraced the musical and welcomed us so heartily. Our run at the Pantages has been a joy for the entire company and will place WICKED alongside only two other shows in recent memory that have successfully called Los Angeles home for an extended stay - The Lion King and The Phantom of the Opera.”

There are definitely arguments on both side of the renting fence. The major one for renting is that it could give me the money to do the projects that I would like to do to the house. The biggest downside would be some loss of privacy and having to find the patience to deal with others on a day in and day out basis. I think someone who is a hermit would be a great renter. I would love someone who essentially stayed to him or herself in his or her room. I don’t want to deal with entertaining people each and every night and I don’t want to have people over here who I’m not entertaining hanging out and getting in my way. I’m probably too protective of my stuff and wouldn’t want anybody and everybody loading my dishes in the dishwasher or putting something in there that isn’t dishwasher safe. It seems like the money from renting would be great, but does it outweigh the costs of renting?

If I rent one room for $500 or $600/month, what is that person going to cost me in lost sleep, stress, food, extra heating and air, water, etc? What is the liability I am going to have to assume for having someone in the house with access to everything I own? Some help with chores would be great, but am I going to become to go to person when their car breaks down and they need a ride? It almost sounds more attractive to be renting more rooms so that those people could essentially deal with themselves. The problem I see though is that the more people I get in the house, the more I am outnumbered and the less often I am going to be able to use my own living/family room, etc.

I really want to help Geoff out, I just don’t know what to do! I guess I could set rules for what kind of entertaining and such they can do, but I don’t want to be a rule crazy landlord either. This should be fun and simple for everyone involved. I probably need to find people that are mature and understand my desires. Maybe I can sit down with Geoff and figure out what he is hoping to find in a place to live.

Today went quite well. I was actually able to catch Grandma Chester on my first attempt phoning her for her birthday! That essentially made my day and we were able to talk for a while. We had good meetings today all throughout the day. I started working on family history for Sunday School today. Now that I see what needs to be done, or at least I have started on it, it seems like I can do most of the work myself from home and maybe just go to Sister Dowden when I need help with something. It really didn’t help that I didn’t have much information to start with, but I got a good orientation to the program from Larilyn.

Break the fast went well and there was tons of cornbread. I kind of felt bad for cutting mine into such small pieces when there was so much and none of it was really all that good. I’m sure it was because it was all made days or hours before and had been sitting in trucks for hours or such. That, or maybe mine just wasn’t that good since I don’t have the hang of the oven here yet. Nonetheless, I wasn’t impressed with any of the other ones as well. Now, the fact that I’m talking about cornbread for such an extended period of time simply indicates that I need to get to sleep!

We had a baptism tonight and we are going to have another one Saturday! Alysa is finally getting baptized Saturday, and Shelly (who I don’t know) entered the waters this evening. We had way more people than would fit in the relief society room tonight so I was really impressed. We talked a lot about the marriage initiative, proposition 8, today. It sounds like this is going to be an ugly battle, and we have already been asked to do whatever we can to support the initiative. I guess I need to start reading up on exactly what is at stake, but the basis is that we are not against gay’s here, we are just trying to protect the definition of marriage as being between a husband and wife - a man and a woman. President Mattson even shared that one of the designers working on his house is gay and has had a partner for 18 years and was in favor of protecting marriage. We aren’t against the rights that gays have for tax and domestic partnership advantages; we are just worried what our children will be taught in k12 schools if teachers can’t talk about mommy and daddy.

Sister Dowden and I are going to try and make it to the temple Tuesday night if anyone wants to join. I haven’t been for probably at least two months, which is way too long. I think the last time I went was when we went to Denny’s and I was asked to seal my mouth by Maegan. That seems like it was even longer ago, so maybe it was closer to three months. In any event, we need to go - and we need to go ASAP. We’re probably going to shoot for the 7 o’clock session and are open for suggestions beyond that.

Speaking of marriage, I was getting the pressure last night. Grandma & Grandpa were talking about needing to get me married, I think Ron and Kathy mentioned it, my grandma asked about it this morning - or at least the girls in my life, Sister Lee asked if I had gotten any proposals yet with the house (I think she thinks people will marry me for my Kitchen Aid mixer) and it seems like there was even more. I guess I need to start working a bit harder on that front.

I called all my home teachers today and all the people I am home teaching now. None of the teachers called me back to tell me that they had been successful in fulfilling their callings. I’m worried that none of them are actually doing the job and am hoping that some monitoring from me will help motivate them. I guess I just need to start calling each and every week just to see if they have gotten anywhere. Otherwise I’m going to have a lot of home teaching to do myself! I’m anxious to start working with some of these less actives I have now and am hoping that I will have the chance to be instrumental in their lives. I pray that God will be able to use me to do his will and I will be a blessing to them. I know that home teaching can do wonders, we just need to find a way to make it really work in this incredibly dynamic branch. It seems that once you get to know someone, they leave or your assignment changes. We’ve been working hard on it, so hopefully we can instill some positive change.

I probably need to actually get in bed and enjoy some of this air conditioning to sleep…

I was happy with the turnout today for the housewarming party. There were some notable people that didn’t show. I’d still say there was about 50 over the course of the day. It was great to see Taugher, although I didn’t really get to find out anything about her - and also Hauser as I haven’t seen them in a long time. Ron & Kathy made the drive down which was great, and we didn’t get a chance to talk either! I’ll have to start having random people over once a month or something for a get together a little of the quieter side.

On the bright side, I got to try out my new carpet cleaner tonight. We managed to get chocolate on the carpet just outside the kitchen where there were already some spots. I ran the cleaner over them and it all seemed to come out just fine. The water was really disgusting, so I’m thinking that the carpet really needs to be cleaned as I had originally planned. I think I figured out that I could do a room before I went to bed and although it wouldn’t be the best time to clean it, it should give it enough time to dry out overnight and then I would barely be on it before leaving for work in the morning.

Geoff expressed some interest in renting a room tonight and we are going to talk about it tomorrow. I’ll have to start developing the rules for housemates so everything is clear from the get go. It certainly will be different with permanent house-guests, but I really could use the money to put toward the other projects - like landscaping - that really need to be done. Dean said we need to do the next BBQ here and Taugher said she’d drive up, so I guess I need to get started on something out back and a BBQ.

I was also really looking forward to seeing Lauren P, but she didn’t make it. I called her on it and she said something came up. She suggested a movie next Saturday. I’ll have to see if I can make that work and actually get her up here.

My plan of taking the day off to get the house ready for the open house tomorrow really didn’t work out. Not only did I have to go in for payroll this morning, but after coming home in the early afternoon, I had to go back after regular hours to meet a customer. I did get some baking done and some cleaning, just not the huge scores I was originally hoping to get done. I should be able to accomplish the vacuuming that should be done tomorrow morning and I would love to clean the rest of the windows if possible.

There really isn’t much too report from today. I talked to Ryan for the first time in a long time today and he actually came over this afternoon to check things out since he may not be able to make it tomorrow. I finally finished Fools Gold tonight as I was eating dinner (at 10 o’clock mind you). I thought it was pretty good - I don’t know exactly why no one else wanted to watch it.

Well, I think I’m going to call it quits there and see if I can get some sleep tonight. I’m not sure that it is going to be cool enough to have the a/c off tonight, but I’m going to try it. In the worst case, I’ll just get up, close all the windows and turn it on, right?

P.S. I don’t suggest doubling the dot’s blondie’s recipe, unless maybe you do it in a really large pan as it gets too think to really cook well. It still tastes good though, just extra gooey!

I finished the sales and use tax paperwork this morning and paid the bill.  I’ve just been out of things at work this week and have been having a hard time concentrating. I’ve found myself making a few stupid mistakes, like forgetting to put everything in an envelope before sealing it and such like that. I think I’m going to work a short day tomorrow so I can spend the afternoon cleaning the house and getting it ready for the housewarming. I need to start baking the goodies as well, which I guess means I need to come up with a full plan of what we’re going to have.

I’m thinking we may need to serve dinner since it is such a long thing, but I have no clue who is going to be here or when really. I’ve received a few RSVP’s and am hoping that more people show up than have responded. It seems like some people don’t even know about it, so I’m not sure if the invites didn’t make it to them or what.

I was happy I got to go to Institute tonight. We talked a lot about the sacrament and the offering that goes along with it. We learned that we bring ourselves, an imperfect offering and that we receive Christ, a perfect offering, and the blessing to try for another week. It was interesting thinking about how the offerings have changed over time. Sometimes I think we really have it too easy here, but then I realize all the temptations of the world we have today that may have not been so prevalent back in old testament times and maybe it is all fair. Or maybe we just don’t have as great of faith as they did in the old testament.

I still can’t find the remote for the DVD player. Kenny even came over tonight to help look for it. I’m wondering if it somehow wound up in the trash or someone’s purse and will never be seen again. Maybe I need to find myself one of those crazy universal remote controls finally.

I got the electric bill today; it was only $160 for almost a complete month. Some people had been scaring me into thinking it was going to obscenely high. I’m not sure if it is really worth it or not, but I’ve got the windows open tonight and am hoping it will cool off nicely so I can sleep. It is still 78 in the house and about 68 outside, abut five degrees above where I would prefer it to be.

Oh well, I’m off to sleep - or at least to try and get some sleep before I have to go back to work in the morning.

OK, I want to know what happened to my remote control. I can’t find the one for the blu-ray DVD player which makes it nearly impossible to watch a movie. Nathaniel was able to program the remote for the set top box to get the DVD going, but it is missing almost all of the functionality of the full remote. I’m sure it is hiding somewhere and it will show up as soon as I stop looking for it. Maybe that is just a big sign that I need to work on cleaning up the house so I can find my misplaced remote. The funny thing is we all are nearly certain it was on the top of the couch earlier this evening and now we can’t find it at all. What the heck?

Today went fairly well. I started working on the sales tax return which is due tomorrow. There is nothing like the pressure of waiting until the last second to do things like that. I think I have most of the hard work done now and just need to transfer numbers after checking them over to the appropriate form.

I had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. Lauren decided we should make Parmesan Chicken. It turned out good again tonight, although I could have used more spaghetti. I guess for next time now I know that one package that is supposed to serve 8 only serves 6 really at best. After dinner they taught a quick lesson, mainly for pyro and batch. After they left, we watched National Treasure 2. It was pretty good and kept my interest throughout the movie.

Dinner tonight:

Parmesan Chicken - Allrecipes

It turned out good when Maegan and I made it last week, let’s hope we can do well again tonight.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Flatten chicken to 1/4-in. thickness. In a shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and basil. In another bowl, beat the egg. Dip chicken into egg, then coat with crumb mixture. In a large skillet, brown chicken in butter and oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.