Vegas Vacation - Part II

So on Saturday, after lounging around Karrissa & Joe's house for awhile, we took the entire family to see the 'Bodies' exhibition at the Tropicana. I had previously seen the exhibition when I was in NYC earlier this year and loved it. So we got to see the 'insides' of all sorts of bodies. (If you have a chance you really need to see this)

We walked over to the MGM for some lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe - I think Karrissa liked to color more than McKinley. Then Karrissa wanted to go to the M&M store...
After some naps in the afternoon - Jill and I read our books... Joe and I headed over to the Sam Boyd stadium - on the total opposite side of Las Vegas... to watch the BYU vs. UNLV Football game. It was quite enjoyable, and the Cougars easily handled the Rebels - actually the score could have been much higher.


Jill, the girls and Ryan went shopping - go figure... shopping, football, shopping, football... I chose Football with Joe.

Las Vegas - Family Vacation - Day 1

I had a couple of minutes while everyone is napping... so I thought I'd upload some stuff.

This weekend the family all came down to Las Vegas to be together for the 'Fall Break' in Alpine School district. (This used to be called UEA) - Well, all but Brent. He has a BYU Lacrosse game on Saturday.

So today we went to a couple of exhibits (Joe was in Dental School) - First was the 'Shark Reef' at the Mandalay Bay hotel. We were able to see lots of aquarium stuff. McKinley can 'sign' for fish and enjoyed watching the fish behind the glass.
Then after some lunch at the food court - we headed down to the Mirage to see another animal exhibit. This time it was the Dolphins (and the sad White Tigers and old White Lions)

Then after a long day of walking around - returned to Karrissa's house to rest up for a nice dinner out tonight at the Cheesecake Factory (the entire reason Ryan came with us ;-) )

Tomorrow - More fun planned - Stay tuned for more Family Fun.

Books Read Last Couple of Weeks

My Sister Janet posted her books... so here's mine. Actually, I think this is a good idea to capture, share, and archive a list of books as I read them.

Here goes my first attempt at a 'Table' in Blogging.

Date	Title	Author		Price	Notes
14-Sep	Nikon D40 - Magic Lantern	Simon Stafford		$19.95	Beyond Nikon's instruction Manual
16-Sep	iPhone - The Missing Manual	David Pogue		$19.99	How to use the iPhone
16-Sep	The Nikon D40 User's Guide	Ken Rockwell		N/A	PDF Download - nice instructions
23-Sep	Bolo Brigade	Keith Laumer		$7.99	Two old Bolos
24-Sep	Old Soldiers	David Weber		$7.99	The 'final' story of Bolos
26-Sep	Bolo!	David Weber		$7.99	Four Bolo stories
28-Sep	The Rough Guide to iPhone	Peter Buckley		$10.99	More iPhone Usage
12-Sep	Dawn of Empire	Sam Barone		$7.99	Great epic - ala Bernard Cornwell - river Tigris - BUY Sequel!
5-Oct	The Unconquerable	Keith Laumer		$7.99	Bolos - Book 2
30-Sep	Honor of the Regiment	Keith Laumer		$7.99	Bolos - Book 1

The table worked, well kind of, but the cover art didn't come across so here are the covers.

Uber-Geek - WiFi Shirt

Ok, I don't wear t-shirts... but if I did, I might be tempted to wear this one. Right up my alley!

Here at ThinkGeek we're pretty lazy when it comes to technology. We expect our gadgets to do all the busywork while we focus on the high level important tasks like reading blogs. That's why we hate to have to crack open our laptops just to see if there is any wi-fi internet access about... and keychain wi-fi detectors, we would have to actually remove them from our pockets to look at them. But now thanks to the ingenious ThinkGeek robot monkeys you can display the current wi-fi signal strength to yourself and everyone around you with this stylish Wi-Fi Detector Shirt. The glowing bars on the front of the shirt dynamically change as the surrounding wi-fi signal strength fluctuates. Finally you can get the attention you deserve as others bow to you as their reverential wi-fi god, while geeky chicks swoon at your presence. You can thank us later.

It will show the current WiFi Signal around the wearer - see ad above. I might have to get some of these to give away in my WiFi classes!

Yes - I am a geek... as if you didn't know that already.

Week in DC & Conference Weekend

This week was spent in Washington DC, well actually Sterling, VA - where I was teaching the first AM-105 class - it went very well, with 13 students attending. No plan ever stays the same after entering the 'fray' - but the course outline I worked up seemed to work pretty good this week, only about 1 hour off on Wednesday's class (inserted the first hour from Thursday morning) and the rest worked very well.

Home today to a BIG list of "To Do's" - that's what Saturdays turn into when I'm gone all week. But it does feel pretty good to do the 'check off' as I finish up items from the list.

Jill is working this weekend, but the Boys are coming with me to General Priesthood meeting tonight, then will be here tomorrow for Conference - then off to Grandma's for dinner tomorrow afternoon.

It sure feels good to be back in town and have an entire week NOT on the road, ok... we are driving down to Las Vegas this coming weekend to see McKinley, oh, and Karrissa/Joe as well as the BYU-UNLV football game.

One of these weeks I'll spend and entire week sleeping in my own bed...

Family Weekend - Yea!

This weekend started with Dinner at the Foundry Grill up at Sundance for Grandma Parsons birthday - G&G as well as Jill and I had an enjoyable meal.

We then went to attend Timpanogos' Homecoming Football game (they lost to PG 24-21 - a fairly close game) and got to watch Alysha do her Cheerleading thing. She is definitely good ad it!



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Then on Saturday after finishing the development work on my latest class - we got to go and watch Brent play in his first BYU game against cross-town UVSC (no contest at 20-4) in the new IPF (Indoor Practice Field) - there were actually quite a few people watching the game from the sidelines. The 'real' season starts in the spring, but they are holding three practices a week, plus weight training three times as week as well. The coach mentioned to me the change he has noticed in Brent's physique with all this working out.


Brent is ranked #5 on the defensive line - and currently is slated to play in 'man down' situations, but at the game Saturday got in more than a quarter's playing time and did a good job. I'm just thrilled that as a freshman he gets any playing time at all! Quite the proud papa I've become.


This was a great chance to try out my new birthday present, a Nikon D40 with an 18-200 VR Zoom lens. The lighting in the IPF wasn't great for capturing 'stop action' photographs... that and I'm still trying to learn how to use this new camera... but I did get a couple shots of Brent's first outing for BYU Lacrosse.

BYU's Lacrosse took 1st place in their Lacrosse League in 2007 - and made it to the cover of Inside Lacrosse Magazine!

Jill and I are looking forward to being the 'supportive parents' and traveling to watch Brent's Lacrosse games this year. First trip - Virginia and Maryland in two weeks!

Finished AM-105 Course Development!

Whew! - Finally, after about 6 weeks of on-again, off-again work I completed the new 5-day training course for AirMagnet that covers all of their latest products. This is a combination/upgrade of a couple of classes I've been teaching awhile - but it was a pretty intense week getting all the over 650 slides in the PowerPoint presentation, as well as a 42-page lab exercise manual all completed.

I'm now on my way to DC for the first teaching of this new class - With lots of 'stuff' - I'll have 4 black pelican cases full of classroom equipment plus a box of all the student binders - quite a load for my little rental car in DC.

FCC Radio Certified - Call Sign KE7OXL

Well - I've achieved a 'life-long' goal. Every since I was a little boy in Sacramento California, listening to my small crystal radio at night (When I was supposed to be sleeping) - I wanted to be FCC Certified to use HAM Radios. (but that 5 words per minute in Morse Code looked to be way to difficult for something I'd never really use) But this spring the FCC changed the rules to no longer require Morse Code - I now had a chance.

Last weekend I went to a 'cram course' on Saturday morning at the BYU Law School Library all morning, then finally took and passed the FCC Technician Class license exam! - Good thing I've been teaching RF in all these WLAN classes for a couple of years - that was a tough exam.

Here is my FCC Approval

I just received notification of my 'official' Call Sign - KE7OXL - I think this might be a nice hobby to get into. There are volunteer HAM operators that work with the Utah County Sheriff's department - perhaps I'll get involved there, or with the emergency preparedness folks in the Stake to provide emergency communications.

Now I have to learn how to use my radio transciever! They are no longer simple little walkie-talkies...

My goal of getting 50 professional certifications by the time I'm 50 is going strong. This one makes #49... just one more to go.

Now I need to get working on visiting 100 countries before I die...

It's your birthday... It's your birthday...

Well, I'm now 48 - what an Old Man. At least I'm not bald... yet...

I remember when I got baptized in Norway all those many years ago the Mission President said to me something about "being alive in the year 2000" - and I calculated I'd be like... 40... an Old Man - and here I am at 48 and still kicking!

I received MANY text, e-mail, voice mail, cards, and phone calls wishing me a Happy Birthday - thanks to you all for remembering.

After flying home from Minneapolis last night - Jill, Alysha and the Boys were all home waiting for me - with gifts and a nice Key Lime Pie! - Janet got me a BYU tie, and Jill showed her thoughtfulness and had picked out some books and a DVD collection - All of which I would have picked out for myself. I guess living with a guy for 25 years lets you know what he likes!

And the best gift of all came from my son Brent - lets just say I'll have many many years of continued laughter on my future Birthday's remembering his phone call to the Insurance Company...

One year older and wiser too...

Eight Habits or Facts - Tagged by Karrissa

I was tagged by my daughter Karrissa to write eight habits or facts about myself. (Ok, not tagged explicitly - but the implication was there)

Here they are:

1. I have to 'pat' the right side of the airplane door opening with two taps - on the way into each airplane (kind of saying to the plane, I know you are there and please take care of me) and then again on the way out to say "Thanks" - always with the right hand.
2. When I drink from a water fountain I have to count to Seven.
3. I like to sleep in the WAY DARK - and then if I wake up to go the bathroom in the night, I pride myself to make it to the bathroom without turning on the lights. (think how many hotel rooms I've been in...)
4. I can only do creative work in the morning - after lunchtime I can only do things - not any think.
5. I sing out loud when I'm driving somewhere alone. It's usually multiple renditions of the same tune, in different keys, with different voices. Each voice challenges others to sing it better.
6. I can't help myself from crying when things touch my heart - so I have a hard time telling anyone what I feel.
7. I really like to eat Pork and Beans (with the little pieces of pork fat removed) with Ruffles potato chips like little spoons.
8. I hate to talk to people on the plane - up in First Class the people understand this 'rule' and keep to themselves. It's a big reason I like to get upgraded to First Class - well, that and the flight attendants bringing you drinks and snacks and the wide seats where you don't have to the people next to you touch you.
9. I like the challenge of holding a conversation with someone more intelligent than myself.
10. Just about every day I think of a thought, or wish to capture a picture, or remember a joke to share with my Wife - but I usually forget.

Ok, so I came up with 10 - now the gauntlet is down...

Like Karrissa, I too don't know who to tag so if you read this, consider yourself tagged. It is fun to think of eight weird things about yourself and even more fun to read them about others!

Tomorrow's My Birthday -

Tomorrow is just another day of teaching. I'm in Minneapolis teaching one of our Wireless Hacking courses... oh, sorry, that is Wireless LAN Security Assessment Toolkit courses.

The town has lots of great architecture. Downtown as well as here on the East side of the Mississippi river. Some famous architects have done quite a job here. Though over the years the architecture has NOT stayed very consistent. Each generation continues to change.


I'm teaching in the Alumni Building - Wow - with over 6 miles of wood lined interior, walls sheathed with over 75,000 feet of beaten copper sheets, and a river and waterfall inside. But outside is a 'weird' look.

They have the Red Cross inside taking blood donations today - and it reminded me that I can't give blood any more and how the 'silly' Doctor wouldn't let me give any more platelets to Lynn while he was dying of leukemia because my blood had traces of Hepatitis... Sometimes I miss having a brother to share stuff with. Having my boys around has been a great substitute though.

Well, I'm back home tomorrow night!