And you thought it was expensive to park down town....

As many of you have noticed, on the left hand side of the page are links to various news articles that I find interesting regarding topics that I like. On of those was of particular interest, that of exorbitant parking tickets in Norway, the following article (written by the AP and found here http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hA0sHY0Q9UE8AjEY0JBPhcOtmcbQD8TH9RLO0 ) reads as follows:

Norway Parking Sticker Shock: $148,000
2 days ago

OSLO, Norway (AP) — When it comes to wiping out a bank account, forget holiday shopping. Just parking their cars cost some Norwegians between $37,000 and $148,000.

At least 26 motorists were left baffled and broke when they used their bank debit cards to pay for street parking in municipal spots in the central Norwegian city of Trondheim last week.

Because of a computer glitch, the machine dispensing windshield parking permits multiplied the amount of time they bought by 10,000, and automatically deducted it from their bank accounts, the city-owned parking company said Friday.

Motorists who parked were charged between $37,000 and $148,000, parking official Steinar Myhr said on state radio network NRK.

For many, the withdrawal of the vast sums on Wednesday left their bank accounts spectacularly overdrawn, and their debit cards frozen in the middle of an already hectic Christmas shopping.

"This is a very stressful situation in the middle of the Christmas rush," one of the unlucky motorists, Marthe Stork, was quoted as saying by the newspaper Adresseavisen.

She said she tried to buy some groceries Thursday, but her bank card was rejected because the account was overdrawn.

"I can understand that it caused problems," Myhr said. "I'm sure some saw the humor in it."

He said banks were racing to correct the erroneous transaction, and the parking company said it wanted to compensate the motorists.

Fun with Grace

These are just some movies that we took of Grace. She loves the snowman, and this is an attempt to capture her reaction. Also, she has learned to clap, that is what I was trying to get her to do in the other.

Duke Chapel

Kathleen and I went on a date to Duke Chapel to hear the choir sing some Christmas songs. It was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed hearing all of the fun mucis, especially the weird Ukranian song that is the original to the Carol of the Bells:

Shchedryk, shchedryk, a shchedrivka [New Year's carol];

A little swallow flew [into the household]

and started to twitter,

to summon the master:

"Come out, come out, O master [of the household],

look at the sheep pen,

there the ewes are nestling

and the lambkin have been born

Your goods [belongings] are great,

you will have a lot of money, [by selling them]

if not money, then chaff: [from all the grain you will harvest]

you have a dark-eyebrowed wife."

Shchedryk, shchedryk, a shchedrivka,

A little swallow flew.
Lyrics to Carol of the Bells:

Decorating for Christmas

Soon after Thanksgiving, we started decorating. I think the house looks great. Here are just a few of the things.

Some pictures from Thanksgiving

Benjamin, Lily, and Kathleen getting the celery filled.
Grace with her Olive right of passage
Shot one of the pies (the green one is my avocado pie)
Some more pies (sorry about not turning it)
Grace after the pies

We wanted to show some of our fun stuff with Thanksgiving. We had some friends in the ward over. It was a lot of fun, and the pies were definetly the center piece....a Boster tradition. I even got into the act, with my contribution of an Avocado pie. Grace seemed to like it, a lot.

Pictures of the Kids

Benjamin at Duke Gardens, looking at the lake
Kathleen showing the kids the turtle
Lily bundled up for the cold
Preppy Grace with her bottle
Benjamin looing good just before school
Lily at the Garden
Our kids at this really cool tree
Grace playing with the leaves
Ben and Lily playing on rocks

Garce and I contemplating

I am done with two of my grants now, so I decided to throw a few pictures up here. We have been really, busy, but I am trying to catch up on some of these things.

Biking and Hiking

Kathleen looking sporty
Jeff is now staring in " Men in Tights"
The Flash is running away from the bears
I am pointing out a tree. You don't se very many of these in the forest

Kathleen set up an awesome date for us. We went biking to the Eno River Park, and then went hiking for awhile. The leaves were really cool, and it was a very nice day. The drivers on the road were crazy, but we all survived. We topped it all of with Sushi....good form Kathleen, good form.

Grace's Face

Grace, since getting her teeth, has begun to do this little lip thing. Kathleen got a few really good pictures of it. She just sits there, and makes as much noise as possible with that little lip covering her top lip. I know that I am biased, but isn't she cute!

Clogging and Colors

Kathleen has been teaching dance to Lily, Benjamin and a few girls from the ward. This is them in their "studio". They have fun out there, and the weather allows them to not be to cold right now. It is pretty fun to watch them. The trees are changing, and the leaves are gorgeous these. Are the trees in our neighbors yards.

I have, once again, been tagged....

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
5 THINGS I WAS DOING 10 YEARS AGO:
1. Getting used to being in cold Utah after being in hot Brazil
2. Starting school again
3. noticing that Tiffany had stolen all of my clothes while I was gone
4. trying to find a job
5.playing sports
5 THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST TODAY:
1. Change media on my islets
2. Split my 293 cells
3. Clone the STK6 gene
4. Revise my Grant
5. Eat Kathleens wonderful cooking
5 SNACKS I ENJOY:
1. Pretzels
2. Green Apples
3. Nutella and Tortilla
4. Meat and Meat products
5. Pork Rinds (sorry, bad habit)
5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE:
1. Pay Tithing
2. Good bye student loans....
3. ...Hello new house!
4. Mission for Kathleen and I
5. College fund for the Chillins
5 OF MY BAD HABITS:
1. Cuttin' muffins
2. yelling bad words in portugues at the people who cut me off when I am biking
3. Chewing my fingernails
4. Sarcasm
5. Staying up late
5 THINGS I WILL NEVER WEAR AGAIN:
1. Ginormous shirts, My arms will never be that muscular and I hope my gut never is that big
2. Bermuda shorts that are so bright only color blind people were safe from a coma
3. Collared shirt (tucked in), belt, slack like shorts, and a tie.....I don't know, the influence ofVan Halen?
4. Clothing that arrived at our house in a giant garbage bag
5. Pegged pants (maybe I would wear those again)
5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1. Lindon
2. Rio de Janeiro Brazil
3. Provo, UT
4. Denver, CO
5. Durham, N.C.
5 JOBS I'VE HAD:
1. Dish room supervisor/pudding launcher
2. Bouncer/Peace Keeper/Linebacker at a psychiatric hospital
3. TA/ Lab technician
4. Tutor
5. Postdoctoral fellow
5 THINGS PEOPLE PROBABLY DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME:
1. I like the taste of pickled pigs feet
2. I am down with evolution....ask me why
3. I think I might like the Broncos (this has only happened after leaving Denver)
4. everyone of the BabySitter Club books that my sisters had would be hidden in my room for an extended amount of time while I read them. I was trying to find out what women want
5. When Kathleen is watching pride and prejudice and she falls asleep, I leave it on
I am tagging the Bosters (put it on your facebook page or something): Benjamin, Joseph, Jonathan, Jenny, Andrew

Just some pictures of the kids

I just wanted to post some pictures of the kids. They are having fun, even thought the weather is turning colder. No snow yet, although we have heard that a few years ago they had 20 inches in one shot. Benjamin and Lily wanted me to post the final picture of them and their new invention. It is called the rollerskate chair. You take one chair, four rollerskates, and a person. You add all of those things together and then put it on top of a ramp, and walla, rollerskate chair going down the ramp with the person. I think they need to invent a seatbelt as well....or a rudimentry lathe.

Dinner in a pumpkin

Some friends had us over this week, and they served us "Dinner in a pumpkin". It was really good, and so I have tried to find a recipe for it. They told me it was from mormonchic.com , so I hope that I found the right one:


DINNER IN A PUMPKIN
Clean out 1 medium pumpkin big enough to hold 4-5 cups.

Sauté 1 onion in 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.

Brown 1-1/2 - 2 lbs. hamburger meat, drain.

Add:2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 (4 oz.) can sliced mushrooms
1 (10-3/4 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup
1-1/2 cup cooked rice1 (8 oz.) can sliced water chestnuts.

Place inside pumpkin and cook on a cookie sheet at 350°F oven until pumpkin is tender, about 1 - 1-1/2 hours. To test tenderness, a knife will insert easily into the pumpkin.
Recipe from Melanie, Wakarusa Valley Ward, Topeka, KS Stake.

Try it, it is good

Halloween with the Chillins

Grace looking outside

Benjamin (Batman), Lily (Diva girl), and Grace(Sugar plum fairy) ready to go out to the neighbors

Benjamin and Lily with their "haul" of goods

We took the kids trick or treating. It was a lot of fun, and a surprizinly good way to meet all of the neighbors (and to find out who we like, and who we aren't quite sure about). Grace liked playing with her purple dress. I think she would wear it all day long. The kids had a controlled amount of sugar that entered our home, and the best part was meating the college students at the end of the steet who didn't know it was Halloween, and decided to give the kids a dollar each (notice the pile). I thought we should have sent them back multiple times.

Rocket Boy

Benjamin's birthday kept getting better and better. Bestemor and Bestefar sent him a rocket, that is an air powered rocket. That is compared to the propellent/fuel/jetfuel powered rocket that they had intended to send in the mail. I guess, for some reason, the U.S. Postal service has a policy against sending surface to air missles in the mail. I can only imagine Bestefar arriving at the front desk to mail a rocket, I think the scenario would have gone much like this (dim, the lights, open the curtain, action):

Bestefar: Hello, yes I would like to send a package to North Carolina.

Postal worker: That is fine, where is it sir?

Bestefar: Right here in my bag, let me get it out...

Postal worker: Um, excuse me is that a surface to air missle?

Bestefar: Why, yes, yes it is. Do you get much of these sent in the mail?

Postal worker: Um, no, flamable material and weapons are not allowed to be sent by post. Do you have an accent?

Bestefar: Yes, yes I do, I am from Norway...

Postal woker: I thought Norwegians were peacable and our friends...

The end

I hope you enjoyed that little mind play. I keep getting a laugh from it, and I hope everyone did too. Especially my Mom and Dad who I think are the awesome bunch of awesome people in the world. Oh, and Benjamin loves his rocket!

Graces two teeth

Gracie got two teeth a few weeks ago. We finally got pictures of them (she doesn't like fingers in her mouth, so it was quite lucky that Kathleen go the picture). Anyway, just wanted to share her two little teeth. If you make the picture bigger by clicking on it you can see it more easily

Seventh Birthday for our boy

Benjamin is 7 years old, and Grace is impressed
Lily watching as Benjamin shows his new Junie B. book
Benjamin unveling his science kit
The kids singing happy birthday
I think he was excited by the gift!
Benjamin using his microscope to discover the world
Beautiful Kathleen, getting ready for dinner
The children look hungry
Grace waiting patiently
Benjamin and Lily with the pizzas.

Kathleen getting the birthday cheese cake ready
Benjamin blowing out his candles while the other kids waited.

Benjamin turned 7 on Sunday, and we had a lot of fun celebrating it with him. He got a microscope and science kit which he had fun during the day discovering things with. We had a nice dinner of pizzas (pesto chicken and beef with crushed tomatoes). We finished off the day with the Birdnos and the Turleys coming over for cake and some games, cheese cake none the less. Benjamin made all of the choices. Quite a high palet this young man has. Happy Birthday buddy