Immortality, inc

Immortality, inc. by Robert Sheckley

Thomas Blaine dies in 1958 to wake up in a different body in the year 2110. This book focuses on the consequences of having a corporation with the ability to guarantee survival after death and the effect knowledge of an afterlife has on society.

This book definitely has some of the feel of a 50's sci fi classic.
Things I loved:

• the exploration of the afterlife in a completely different way
• Questioning the relationship between body and mind
• Exploring the legality of murder in the new society

Things I didn't love:

• The main character's tendency to philosophize about the topics. It was very heavy handed.
• 
  

I have some mixed feelings about this book.

Pinterest challenge

I'm a little late in coming in on this, but Jannsen, Merrick, and Landen have been doing a Pinterest challenge that inspired me.  So, better late than never, right?

Here is my attempt at a banana pop.  Actually it turned out pretty well.  I only had strawberry greek yogurt, but I like strawberry banana, so that was fine.  Then, I rolled it in chocolate-peanut butter granola that Kevin had made this weekend mixed with a little extra coconut (yes, my husband is awesome).
Also, I like to use coffee stirrers as kebab sticks for the girls because they are cheap, come in bulk, and are not pointy.  So, I just used what I had for the banana pop (but they're a little flimsy for this).

My version of the banana pop.

The next one is like double-doing-a-pinspiration.

I did a t-shirt refashion into a jersey pencil skirt, inspired by the millions of tshirt refashions and realizing that you could have a pencil skirt made out of jersey.  Really?! I love knit skirts, but it never occurred to me that you could have a knit pencil skirt.  I thought they had to be well-fitted, with a zipper and a kick pleat to be a pencil skirt.  Thus, I have only made one, ever, and it was in sewing class.  (Confession: I hate zippers.  I hate wearing pants and skirts with zippers, and I especially hate sewing anything with zippers. It is irrational, but there it is.)

So, I was first inspired for the jersey pencil skirt by this pin, but I put off doing it.  For a really long time.  Then, I realized that a) I had lost 30 pounds and nothing I own fits, b) we don't have a new clothes budget, even with my pants literally falling off of me, and c) everything I own is black, anyway.

Then, again, Merrick taught me that you can sew on knits without a lot of expertise or even a serger. (I was looking for a link to post, but I can't find one specific one.  Really, though, read the whole blog.  Merrick is awesome, and I've never even met her.  Isn't the internet weird that way?)

 Anyway, long story short, I also ended up making a fashion pinboard and decided I had to refashion my way into it.  I can sew, I just don't.  I'm easily distracted and am notorious for having half-finished projects. So committing to refashioning a wardrobe is a pretty big deal, but then, so is being naked, and that's my only other option right now.

I don't have any jersey fabric (and fabric is another thing I don't have any money for right now), so I took refashioning into my own hands.  I decided I wanted a stripey skirt, a la this pin, so I made it out of a striped shirt that did not fit me.  It was not long enough to make a whole skirt, so I took a solid shirt in a matching color and pieced together a stripey-blocked skirt.  Voila:

Stripey-block skirt in progress

 And, here is the double-doing a pin: Not only did I refashion tshirts into a skirt, in a non-neutral color, I styled it, too.  Look at me, wearing a coordinating outfit.  It was inspired by another pin, and although my blouse isn't peplum, I think it works.

I am not wearing any black.  Those shoes are grey suede, my friend.  This is the dawn of a new day.

So, I teach 7th and 8th grade and have been making an effort to put myself together more.  Now, my 8th grade girl students will ask, "is this a Pinterest outfit?"  Because they can totally tell when I stole my style idea from a pin.  (It's pretty obvious, because I am wearing something other than slacks and a blouse.  Pinterest is slowly teaching me how to do layers.  And belts.  We'll get there.)

And, to top off my refashiony-bloggy thing going on here, I took pictures while I was making my skirt so I can make a tutorial.  So watch for it, because I made a waistband out of sleeves, and it fits like a dream.

Valentine Scripture Bookmark

Here's a Valentine Freebie!

Print on cardstock, cut out, and laminate to make bookmarks for Valentine's day.

View in my TpT store

You can use this image, just link back to it!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween week was a lot of fun.  The girls were Ariel and Sleeping Beauty, and they enjoyed a few nights of unabashed princessing.

Thursday night was the Sentinel School Carnival, where Grandma S works.  The girls spent the night there after the carnival, while Farmboy and I drove in to Phoenix to go to the Mesa Temple and then pick up our sister in law, who was coming to town for a visit.

Sunday was the Primary program, and Pea had two speaking parts.  In the first, she told about how her scripture hero is Queen Esther (who she picked herself), and the second was about how scriptures are 'inspiring messages' written by prophets.  It was hilarious watching her.  She is a natural ham.  Strawberry had a very minor part, as she is in the nursery (not yet being 3).  The nursery kids did get to join in on one song, "I am a child of god."

Finally, today was trick-or-treating.  we drove around the neighborhood, visiting mostly houses of people we knew.  We stayed out about 45 minutes, which was plenty for us.  It's a lot slower with little ones, but they sure had a blast.  They didn't get as much candy as I anticipated, probably because of how slow they walked between houses.  We probably only made it to 8 or so houses, but it's not like they needed more candy anyway.  Everyone told them how cute they were, and they loved it.  The neighbors were "awww" inspired whenever Strawberry would tell them, "I Sweeping Beauty".

What cute girls, and a fun week.

My Trip to Hawaii

I am going to tell you about how wonderful and amazing my trip was, and then you can be jealous.  Heck, I'm even a little jealous, and I was there!  It was just so wonderfully peaceful and beautiful, and we were just feet from the ocean.  I think the best part was that we were in the non-tourist area, so it wasn't really ever crowded or loud.

First of all, our accommodations:

Sunrise, as seen from our balcony

Our condo was in the best imaginable location.  We were on the southernmost point of the island, so both sunrise and sunset were over the ocean.  Our balcony faced east, so we got to see sunrise every morning.


We did some really fun things:

Kevin and I at the Mini Golf Botanical Gardens

I wanted to go to one of the many botanical gardens, but they are fairly expensive as a rule.  We found this garden on the North Shore, and it was a garden with a twist: it's a mini golf course.  As you go from hole 1 to 18, there are plants arranged around the holes that show the botanical history of the island.  Thus, we start at hole 1 with native plants, there before anyone came here, and go through the polynesian, plantation,  asian, and current plants.   I took one picture at every hole, leaving me with a photographic history of the island.  I'll post them in a separate post.

At Kilohana Plantation

Apparently, Kauai used to be a big plantation island.  It isn't so much any more, but there are hundreds of fallow fields all over the island.  Because the island is so mountainous, the plantation owners employed terrace farming, so there are rock walls and overgrown fields in lots of hidden, out of the way places.  A few of the plantations are still open to the public for touring, and we went to Kilohana Plantation to do just that.  It has some shops and a train that goes all around the grounds, but we didn't do the train.  There is also a luau in the evening, but we didn't do that either.  Can we say expensive?  We walked around the grounds on our own, and they had some fields of sugar, papaya, and tapa root.

 Of course, we did other things, like shopping, sight-seeing, and snorkeling, but I don't really have any pictures of that.  I was too busy!

Sunset from our condo

And to top it all off, here is a picture of the sunset from some benches downstairs at our condo.  I love this picture.  It just reminds me of the waves, the cool breeze, and the smell of the ocean.  Aahhh.

Crafty Mamas

We made little stuffed birds today for our Thursday crafternoon.  I made one for Pea, one for Strawberry, and we made several more for the other kiddies.  It was lots of fun and a joint effort.  I think they turned out really cute.  This one is Pea's; Strawberry's is purple, and she wouldn't give it up to have a picture taken.

Danelle was one of the moms over today, and she made this.  She was going to a wedding this weekend and made this as a gift.  The tutorial for how she did it can be found here. Enjoy!

Busy, busy, busy

It has been nothing but crazy over here lately.  I got a cold, which turned into a sinus infection, that I have been battling all week.  I'm definitely on the upside, but I still sound gross and am all snuffly, plus I seem to get worn out somewhat quickly. Then, Emily was sick for one night, miserable with a fever, which I thought was because she had gotten what I had.  Instead, it turned out she was getting four teeth in (all of her canines).  Poor baby.  She's fine now and has a mouthful!

In spite of this, it's been a really busy week.  I have started doing yoga this week, and have done three days thus far (I skipped three due to illness).  It's kind of kicking my butt, but I guess that's a good thing.  As of yesterday, I'm down 2 1/2 pounds.  Not bad, not bad.

Also, I've been cleaning and organizing trying to get my house back into some semblance of order.  Not an easy task, might I add.  Too many vacations and other events where I had stuff packed up and never really unpacked, lots of laundry in piles that I wasn't willing to wash, and a giant explosion of a toy room.  But it's mostly done now, and we can actually *live* in our house again.

And now, some pictures that never got posted during my summer hiatus:

Doorway Puppet Theater
Strawberry hasn't really figured out to keep her head down behind the curtain.

I made this SMU pillowcase for my brother,
who is attending the university  beginning this semester.

Monster Hunter Alpha

Monster Hunter Alpha
by Larry Correia

8 out of 10
Adult Science Fiction / Horror

This is book three in the Monster Hunter series.  Larry Correia does not disappoint.  Incredibly well-written and well-paced.  His books thus far show the promising trend of improving with each new release, leaving readers excited for more.

That was really more of a review of the author than the book itself.  But to be honest, I would read anything Larry Correia puts out and have yet to be disappointed.  Caveat: this is NOT young adult fiction.

That being said, this book didn't receive higher marks for one reason: it was missing my favorite characters.  Learning more about Earl was really awesome, and I agree that showcasing Earl precluded having Owen be the main character.  The fault was neither the author's nor the book's; I think the problem is that I have developed a teensy crush on Z.  Of course, as a glasses-wearing sci-fi fan who likes to imagine herself as being as rockin' as Julie, I suppose it was inevitable.  Now Correia comes along and makes Earl as awesome as Z, and what's a girl to do?

Update! And Invites!

Okay, so much has been going on in my life, and I haven't been blogging at all.

First of all, a status update:
I am NOT teaching at Antelope this year, although I am volunteering in order to help Kurtis out with Calculus.  I have been staying at home, and I somehow seem so much busier!

On Wednesdays, we go to the library for storytime, then our friends who meet us there come back to our house for snacks and some preschool activities.
On Thursdays, we have a Ladies' Craft Day, in which I pick a craft I have been wanting to do (or one of the other ladies suggests), and we get our craft on.
Fridays and Saturdays Kevin is home, so we do family things.  Meanwhile, I also have started a Mary Kay business, and I do a lot of appointments on those days.
Sunday, of course, is church and family day.

Also, I have two activities I would like to invite any of my blog readers to.
1: Online Book of Mormon Book Club - This is going to be a combination discussion group and institute-like class.  I will be using the BoM Institute manual (at least, the one they had back in the day when I took it) as well as some supplementary articles.  It will have an emphasis on Hebrew, historical, and Biblical connections.

2: Artist Trading Card Club - This is not my brainchild, but I read about it and thought it would be a really fun thing to do for kids.  Each Art Trading Card is 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", and they can be decorated in any way imaginable.  Then, cards are traded and collected in much the same way that baseball or other trading cards are (but not sold!)  I think this could be a really fun alternative to penpals, and a great way to keep in touch with other kids, both friends and family.

Note: I am considering an ATC for adults, too: favorite trading cards would make great gift tags or could even be added to the front of a blank card for great handmade cards.

If you're interested in doing any of these activities with us, let me know (comment me!).

As for my writing group, plan on starting back up September 1st!  Summer is over, let's get to work!

Memorial Day

My littlest brother loves the armed forces. His entire room is decorated in camo. He takes it very seriously, though. To him, being a soldier isn't just about shooting people and having fun in battle (which I imagine any real soldier would agree with). He believes it is a duty to protect the people and the nation, and he honors and respects any who put their lives in the way of danger to do so.

This is a picture of the mirror in his bedroom, and I think it says a lot about his personality. I don't know who the trooper is in the picture, but Jared was proud just to be in a picture with a soldier.

I am proud of my brother, and I am so grateful to all the soldiers. I know I'm a little behind on posting, and it's not Memorial Day anymore, but I still want to post my thanks to all the soldiers who have laid their lives on the line to save mine. There is a special place in heaven for these men and women.

Book Reviews--Children's Edition

We got some new kids' books in the mail this week and had a great time reading together.

Freight Train
by Donald Crews

4 out of 10

In spite of this being a Caldecott honor book as well as a Mulberry book, I didn't really love it.  I didn't particularly dislike it, either, but it was just blah.  We read it once and I feel no great desire to read it again.  It's a train.  Each car is a different color.  The end.  Not so exciting or interactive.

 

In the Town all Year Round
by  Rotraut Susan Berner

9 out of 10

This is a wonderful look-and-find book.  It's large enough that one girl can sit on each side of me and feel like they have plenty of book to look at.  Many of the characters are named, and my four year old especially likes to make up stories about them.  There are lots of silly things, like a magpie who likes to steal interesting items and hide them in her nest. The pictures follow a pattern, which makes it possible to make up sensible stories with beginning, middle and end.  My two year old gets quite a kick just trying to find some of the funny things, like a penguin hiding by a nun or a motorcyclist who turns out to be Santa.




Jump!

by Scott M. Fisher 

10 out of 10

This is such a wonderful book.  We love it.  It has a great rhythm and is really fun to read.  The story falls into a pattern, so the girls can guess what is coming up.  They get very excited when it is time to shout, "JUMP!" and, of course, jump up to say it.  There are great sound words, really cute illustrations, and it's just so much fun. There are also a lot of rhyming words, which is something we're working on.  Both my two year old and my four year old love this book. 

A Flower Garden for You

This is a card inspired at this site, which gives instructions on creating lots of neat things.  I used KR Floral Color Me 2 font to make and print the flowers, which I then cut out and colored with pencil.  The card was made with paper scraps cut according to the very good instructions previously mentioned.  It's been a while since I made a pop-up anything, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Stained Glass Tutorial

A few weeks ago, my niece was baptized shortly after her eighth birthday.  I like to make something special to commemorate the occasion, and I stumbled upon the perfect idea a few days before the baptism.  I found this tutorial for making stained glass windows out of glue and acrylic paint.

Unfortunately, I was out of clear glue (read: I didn't even know they made it).  So I mixed some watercolor paint  with watered down white glue.  That being said, I'm going to tell you how you should do it, because it will turn out better.

Step 1:  Before you get started, prepare your materials.  You will need:

glass and frame (aka cheap photo frame)

white craft glue (elmer's type glue works great)

clear glue (again elmer's clear glue)

acrylic paints in desired colors.  You need black.

White paper and pen/pencil.

Craft knife (you only need this if you're sloppy. I needed it)

Small paintbrush

Step 2: mix black acrylic paint in with your white elmer's glue until it's black.  This is the only color you need white glue for.  It needs to be in the bottle because you will want a fine tip for the black glue.

Step 3: Mix other desired colors in a muffin tin or on disposable plates.

Step 4:  Clean your glass.  You need some clear glass and a suitable frame for it.  I took a dollar-store frame and removed the back for mine.  Perfect.

Step 5:  Get out some white paper and pencil.  Now, draw the line art for your stained glass.  I drew some watery waves, a dove, and some light shining on the water as a representation of baptism.  You could do any number of drawings.  My 4 year old has requested a mermaid stained glass for her birthday.  

Step 6: Now place the glass from the frame over the line art.

Step 7: With the black tinted glue, carefully trace over the lines.  If you make a mistake, don't worry.  You can use a craft knife to clean up any smudges once the glue is dry. Allow to dry completely, preferably over night.

Step 8: With your tinted clear glue,  brush a healthy amount of the tinted colors where desired.  I should have taken a picture of this step, but I was having too much fun.  If you use the clear glue like I didn't, then your finished colors will be more transparent and shinier. I went out and bought clear glue for the mermaid.

Step 9: Again, allow to dry completely, probably overnight again.  Slide the finished product into the frame and glue in place.  Hot glue will probably work, I used E6000.

Step 10: Done!  You can place a suction cup hanger on the back to hang on a window or just prop it against a window.  The type of hanging you do will depend on what kind of frame you choose.

Not bad for a first try, but I'll be trying again.

Awards

Tonight was the Academic Awards banquet at the high school.  First of all, I would like to thank whoever came up with the idea of combining awards night with dinner.  Also, I am very proud of all of my students who were honored tonight.

The teachers had reserved seating up front, but I decided to sit next to my friend/aunt whose son was being inducted into the National Honor Society tonight also.

And it's getting late now, so I'll have to post more later.  Night, y'all.

Though your sins be as scarlet

Today I taught the primary lesson for Sharing Time.  We talked about repentance and how the Savior takes away our sins.  I had a glass of water that they could all see.  I added a drop of food coloring, and they watched it swirl until the water was blue.

When you sin, your soul is stained.  As one of the kids said, "It's blue because you're sad."

Then, I added bleach to the water.  The water got lighter, but it was still kind of blue.  So then I talked about the steps of repentance.  When we sin, we feel sorry.  Then we ask for forgiveness and try to make it right.  Finally, we don't do that sin anymore.

I let the kids come up with some examples. "It's like if you accidentally break something your mom really needs, and she comes in and asks, 'who broke this?' And you say, 'not me,' that's lying.  And you should repent.  Because lying makes you sad.  So then you say sorry to your mom and pray 'please forgive me' and then you have to tell your mom the truth.  Because if you lie, then you have to tell the truth.  And don't lie next time."

And Pea offered this insight:  "And if you break the counter on purpose, you should be sorry.  And you'll have to fix it, because that's how you make it right."  I'll remember that next time I feel the desire to break the counter.

By the time the kids were done talking, the water was totally clear.  I held it up and said, "That's right.  Our water was blue from when we sinned, but then we added the bleach, which is like Jesus.  Now, there's no blue left in our water.  It's just like we never put any blue in at all.  When we repent, it's like we never sinned."

And I got an uproar of "that's so cool!"  That's right.  Jesus IS cool.

And when we got home from church, Pea told daddy all about the "Spirit-mint" (experiment) we did today at church.  "Mom put some blue in the water, because when you sin you get sad, and then when you add  (aside to me--what was Jesus again? ) when you add bleach, it goes away!"

I'll take that.

I Don't Want to Kill You

I Don't Want to Kill You
by Dan Wells

9.5 out of 10
YA Fantasy/Horror

From my recent book reviews, you may get the idea that I read a lot of horror.  I don't.  As a matter of fact, these series represent almost the sum total of my horror genre reading, with the notable exceptions of classics such as Frankenstein and Dracula, only one of which I have read in the recent past.

You may also get the idea that I read a lot of fantasy.  That one is true.  I do read other books, but I prefer fantasy.  Young adult, middle grade, adult, military, or post-apocalyptic; if it has fantasy, I'm drawn to it.

This series, of which IDWTKY is book 3, falls in the young adult category.  It's intense, though; not for readers with delicate constitutions.  I remember reading book 1 alone late at night...I had to crawl in bed with my three-year-old.

Amazingly enough, the series gets better with each installment.  By the end of book 3, which is, as far as I understand, the end of the series, I'm ready to read the next twenty books.  It had twists and turns I never saw coming.  John has some real stand-up-and-cheer moments, and as a reader, you just ache for him.

It's an amazing, horrific fantasy full of adventure, psychology, and drama.  Now that all three are out, don't wait.  If you haven't read any, start with I Don't Want to Be a Serial Killer and go on John's journey with him. You'll want to have all three...the wait was a killer.

Mmmm...smells good

I decided to try making my own line of Aromatherapy products.  I ordered some essential oils and bath/body bases.  They came when I got home from school today.  Very excited.  After all the other things we had to do today, I opened that box and got started.  I got five different oils, which I tried in various mixes until I had a few recipes I liked.  Then, I got busy making stuff.

The shower gel is in my first scent, which is a fresh, earthy, invigorating blend of citrus and mint.  I'm not spilling my secret recipes on here.  I'm planning on selling my products as I get better at blending them.  So far, so good.

The hand soap is in my second scent, which I'm calling my 'kids' scent.  It's brighter, with a higher ratio of citrus to the other scents.  I think it's a little mintier than I would like for hand soap, but Rebecca likes it.  Next time, less mint.

The shampoo is actually a men's shampoo, with lower notes and only a tiny, tiny hint of the mint.  We'll see tonight if Kevin likes it.

I dabbed on a bit of the oil mixture from the first one to see how I liked the scent, and I really love it.  I think it's very promising as a perfume, but I'm not so sure about it as a soap.  I'm trying it tonight, and I'll report back later.

Application

Okay, so we talked about principles at church today.   The lead-in example was about scuba diving and the principle of buoyancy.  Some things that affect buoyancy are the type of water, your weight, and the weight of your equipment.  How much weight you put on based on your circumstance will affect your dive.  If you have too much weight, you go down too fast, but if you don't have enough, you will not go down at all.

An important principle in the gospel is faith.  When Jesus heals people, it is through faith.  "Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole." Faith has great power.  We talked about a lot of aspects of faith for a long time.

The thing that struck me, though, was this.  You can know everything there is to know about a principle, but if you don't apply it, it doesn't do you any good.  You can be able to calculate the buoyancy of your suit and weights precisely, but if you don't put it on your dive suit before you jump in, you're not diving.

It's the same with faith.  You can know about other people who have faith.  You can read about the miracles Jesus performed.  If you don't have faith yourself or don't know what to do with it, it's not doing you any good.  Do you know that Jesus is the Christ?  The very Son of God?  That He lives?  That's something you should have faith in.  If you do, what do you do with that faith?  Live like Him.  If you have faith, your life will show it.  You will want to do as Christ taught, which was to be like Him.  Love others, serve others.

Monster Hunter Vendetta

Monster Hunter Vendetta
by Larry Correia

9.5 out of 10
Fantasy/Horror

Still not suitable for young persons.  I have recommended this book to some of my seniors, but not to any freshmen.  The violence is a little graphic, though I'm sure they see worse on their video games.  Language and sex are pretty clean, but I wouldn't read this book sitting in a church pew.

Now, if violence scares you off, let me preface this by saying I hate violent movies.  I don't watch horror shows or war movies.  I don't enjoy watching people get hurt.  That being said, the violence in books doesn't bother me as much.  I used to skip battle scenes when I started reading mil SF, but I've come to realize that reading about blood and guns and whatnot just isn't as graphic.  Though props to Larry, it's very well described.

I bought this book recently when I went to a conference in Phoenix.  I wanted to get this book since before it came out, but (if you followed my blog previously, you know this) we were pretty broke.  So I put a hold on book buying, online ordering, and any non-necessities.  Now that we're jobful again (that obviously being the opposite of jobless), it was one of the things on my immediate to-do list.  There was a Borders bookstore right by the restaurant (which as an aside, I am very sad that they are going out of business, but very happy at store-wide clearance), and I told my colleagues as they pulled the car up--"I'll be RIGHT back.  I know exactly what I'm getting."  That was the fastest I've ever been in and out of a bookstore.  Ever.

Anyway, the book was totally worth it.  Larry Correia is my third-favorite author, the first two being John Ringo and Brandon Sanderson, and the order switches around depending on whose book I'm currently reading.

This is a follow-up on my review of Monster Hunters International, the first in this series.


Owen Pitt has become more butt-kicking than ever.  After pissing off a majorly evil multi-dimensional being in book 1, Pitt is now the target of a fanatical cult led by an evil necromancer.  Agent Franks has been assigned to 'keep him safe,' and, as you can probably imagine, nothing remotely safe actually occurs in the course of the book.

My favorite parts:  the zombies and gnomes.  But, as far as I know, no zombie gnomes.  But the best part, most definitely, was the penguin.  I still pick my book up and turn it upside-down every so often just to get a smile.
Least favorite: the troll.  It was a little over the top.  But then, I suppose that trolls are.

I love this book.  There are so many things about it I absolutely loved.  I could go on and on.

I hate telling too much and giving away spoilers.  So, rather than have me tell you the plot, just let me tell you this:  you should read it.  But read book 1 first.

What a Wonderful Weekend

Wonderfully, we went westward where we welcomed warm weather without wandering waifs.

I was just feeling randomly alliterative.  At any rate, we went to San Diego for the weekend sans children.

Friday we went to Seaport Village, which is a collection of shops on the shoreline that are ridiculously overpriced but very fun to go to.  They have a couple of art galleries, and one of them had the artist painting while we watched.  I particularly liked the paintings there by Walfrido Garcia, but it was neat to get to watch an artist painting.  He was really nice and introduced himself to everyone and stopped to answer questions.   I liked his style, but he does a lot of paintings of buildings, and I prefer landscapes.

Anyway, after the Village, we went to Coronado Beach, which is located on an "island" in the center of the bay. I say "island" because there's a road out to it that they keep build up (and it's not a bridge), so technically it's a peninsula.  With a very skinny isthmus.  The cool part was that on the north side of the island is the Coronado Naval Air Station, and the flight path lines up right over the beach.  It was like going to an air show.  Very cool.

Our hotel was the Sheraton, and it had a really nice pool.  It had lots of other nice things, too, like tennis courts, a gym, and probably lots of other stuff, but we only used the pool.  Also, it was technically a marina, so it did have a walking path right on the edge of the bay where you could rent boats or sign up for a whale-watching tour.

Saturday we went to Balboa park, which is where the San Diego Zoo is.  We did not go to the zoo.  Instead, we went to the Fleet Science Center, which has tons of hands-on science exhibits.  It was one of those places that you go on a field trip, but it was really fun going as an adult, too.  Pea would have enjoyed it, and I couldn't help thinking about that as we were there, but the twinge was only momentary.  Fleeting, as it were.

The best part was the Hubble IMAX show.  Ostensibly, the show was about repairing the Hubble telescope, but it was really an excuse to watch AWESOME images of space on a GIANT screen.  This here is the Orion Nebula, which the Hubble took.  The movie took us inside the cloud, navigating around it and viewing deep inside.

Then, we lazed around the park, going through the gardens and exhibits, watching street musicians and various other entertainers.  We passed three Tarot card readers, one of whom was a very non-mysterious-looking guy, which in and of itself was very mysterious.

Saturday was rather uneventful, but I will say driving in San Diego is  miserable.  The roads go up and down hills, turn suddenly into one-way streets, and are an all-around pain to navigate.  We tried to go to a nearby stake center for the Priesthood session of Conference, but rather than being 5 minutes late, we drove around in circles and were half an hour late.  Oh, well.  It's not like anyone there knew who we were or is ever going to see us again.

We made it home by 1am.  Sunday we went to Grandma's farm to watch the rest of Conference on the TV.  Pea and Strawberry were very good and neither wanted to come home.  Due to a babysitting glitch, Pea is staying with Grandma for the rest of the week.  Strawberry was very upset that she had to go home but Pea got to stay.  She did seem to enjoy the one-on-one attention yesterday, though.