The Festival Of Colors

     Imagine 40,000 people gathered together in the spirit of companionship and celebration of nature.  Add to that live rock music, people holding "Free Hug" signs, absolutely ridiculous traffic, and enough multicolored, lavender scented chalk powder to block out the sun.  You've pretty much got it.
     The Festival of Colors (or Holi) is a Hindu holiday whose origins lie in ancient Bengal.  It is a celebration of spring and the devotion (as legend has it) of Prahlada, a demon prince, to Lord Vishnu.  The largest celebration of Holi in the western hemisphere is held in Spanish Fork, Utah, at the Lotus Temple. 
     Yours Truly did indeed attend this year's festivities.  It was pretty crazy!  Some friends and I drove down through Springville, through heavy traffic, and were lucky enough to find a roadside parking spot only about two miles away from the festival.  As we were walking towards the temple, we passed groups returning from it.  I got quite a few handfuls of chalk on my clothing from fellow revelers even before arriving. 
     Although quite a bit of color flies between official throwings, the actual throwings (held on odd hours) are absolutely spectacular (and make it rather hard to breath).  Pix below:

This is at the actual festival.  You can see how many people there were and this photo is only of those in front of the Lotus Temple.

Right after the throwing; unfortunately, the colors had already begun to blend together when I snapped the photo.

This is how our shoes looked after a little while.

And my hat.

A picture of Beno and me taken from the top of a trash can (for photographer's effect ;).

     Yup, I'm definitely going next year!

-Drew

Birthdays, Eagles, Homework, and... Werewolves?

     It's been a long time.  My excuse, when my ambitious self told me to go and post and I refused, was that I didn't have anything fun or interesting to say/post.  But, looking back on it, a lot has happened so I'll just try to hit a few highlights.  Plus, I'll be changing my blog's background just for this post.

1st off: my birthday!
     I had, as usual, an awesome birthday.  I love birthdays in part for the presents, but also for the time that I get to spend with the fam.

I requested a dinner of Avos Benedict (Eggs Benedict with avocados).  Needless to say, it was excellent.

And, naturally, the blowing of the candles (what did I wish for)?

Excellent fun, and even Grandma and Grandpa came down from SLC for the event.

2nd: Mother's birthday (January is a great month).

Another fantastic birthday meal of cheese fondue.

3rd: The kitchen.

The rumors are true: our kitchen is being redone.  Notice, however, that this didn't stop us from making fantastic kebabs.

4th: Eagles all.

Yes, you can believe your eyes.  This is an Eagle court of honor.  These guys worked hard to earn the highest award in scouting: the Eagle.  Great job guys!

This is a shirt that was given to Grandma for her great mentoring.  She truly supported and helped them to achieve this high honor.

5th: Andrew's homework.

Math homework.

Luckily, my niece comes over at 4:00 most days to keep me in line.

6th: Oh dear!

 That's right folks, the rumors are horribly true.  Werewolves are stalking the streets of Provo.  Not to worry though, Yours Truly is doing well, and is perhaps even a bit more handsome than usual (scar, please stay).

Next Time: El Cheapo.

-Drew

Christmas, Family, and My Mad Photography Skillz

      I guess I owe an apology to the regular readers of this blog.  Yes, it has been a while, but you know how it is with the holidays.  Mine have been choc full of excellent food, good music, relaxing afternoons, gifts, late nights, family parties, school work (that was a joke ;), shooting retired Russian sniper rifles (that wasn't), and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.  All in all, it was a fantastic Christmas.  But that's skipping ahead.

      First off: my mad photography skillz.  I was recently bragging to some family of my great skills with a camera and these awesome pictures I took of winter scenes.  Megan asked why I hadn't posted them on my blog.  Well, actually, I have posted one of them.  It's the background of my blog!  Yes, that is an original photograph taken by my own digital camera.  For the benefit of those reading this after I change the background image I will include the photo below.  And now, my fantastic photographs.

Trees of Stillness.

Holly Berries of... Love.

Oregon Grape With Frost.

Okay, thank you for humoring me.  Taking background photos is a bit of a hobby for me (strange I know).

There was so much that happened during the break that I can only highlight a few, so I guess I will just put in the pictures and you can follow the captions.  Picts below:

This is at the ward Christmas program/party.  Dad was asked to dress up as Peter and read lines from the podium.

This was when my uncle, Richard, came to visit with his boys.  I still love building LEGOs.

Yours Truly with Uncle Richard.

Getting our Christmas tree very late this year.

On Christmas Eve, in addition to eating Indian food, we put on our own little pageant.  It was a lot of fun.

Christmas morning breakfast.

And more breakfast.  Mmmm.  So delicious.

I was under the impression that Santa didn't allow anyone into the front room until Christmas morning, but I found this picture on my dad's computer.  Mom?  Are we getting coal next year?

A little nephew carrying on the age-old tradition of peeking at presents on Christmas morning.

The excitement of opening stalkings for the first time.

And my present?

A fantastic pair of skis from the parents,

A season pass to Sundance from Janssen, Bart, Heather, Spencer, Bron, Ron, Mom, and Dad,

A gift certificate for a pair of ski boots from the parents,

An awesome pair of bindings and poles to match the skis from Meg and Roger.

And an astronomical laser from Doug and Gina!

I'm stoked!!  Thank you so much everybody.  I will for sure enjoy those!  What fun!

Merry Christmas!
-Andrew

New Mexican Thanksgiving

     Ahhh, so much to tell-and so much space to do it in... wait a minute... that's perfect!  Well, the title says it.  I spent Thanksgiving in New Mexico.  I seem destined to spend Thanksgiving abroad (last Thanksgiving was spent in Venice).  In fact I went out for gelato with my parents and Beno Seely to commemorate that great event.  I have to say that my Thanksgiving break from school wasn't the most relaxing as I was suffering from a deep lung infection and a serious cough :(  On the bright side I was able to watch all three LOTR movies in one day which was so epic that I had to pause them on several occasions and take a 30 minute nap to recover my strength so that I could continue watching.  After finishing all three movies I found my emotions totally drained and laid on the couch in a dull stupor for a long time afterwards.  And then I slept. 
     After a few days of wonderful antibiotics I was feeling ready to make the trip to Los Alamos where my brother and his family currently live.  I always love this particular road trip because southern Utah has some absolutely amazing scenery.

I had a fantastic time:

Reading to my nieces.

Clobbering everyone while playing Mario Kart Wii.

Discussing jobs, science, business, and other matters of importance over the Ping Pong table.

Cooking in the kitchen.
("Andrew," you say, "is there something wrong with your hair?" well no actually, I'm simply wearing an improvised hair net.  I'm a Dapper Dan man ;)

Puzzling over frustratingly hard mind games at the Science Museum (this one we never solved).

And practicing particle acceleration (again at the Science Museum).

Here is all of us including the newest addition whose blessing we were fortunate enough to attend.

What an amazing week!  If I hadn't started throwing up the night before we left it would have been perfect but, even considering that misfortune it was pretty near the mark.

On a side note:

Remember that southern Utah scenery?  This photo is from an amazing art/photography exhibit at the Los Alamos local library.

My driveway looks beautiful in autumn.  As you are walking up it and as the dappled sunlight dances on your face sometimes you can hear distant bells...

And doesn't Timpanogas look gorgeous with a fresh cloak of glittering snow?  What a beautiful place Provo is.

And now that you've been duly informed and inspired, auf Wiedersehen and goodnight.

-Drew

Our Venetian Thanksgiving

As many of you know, we spent our Thanksgiving holiday in Venice!  Thanksgiving morning we hopped on the tube and rode out to Stansted Airport to catch a plane to Venice.  We arrived in the afternoon, checked in to the hotel, and our time in Venice had begun!

This is the hotel that we stayed at.

For our thanksgiving dinner we first had a couple courses of gelato.  My first course was lemon, chocolate, and stracciatella (chocolate chip).  I then went in for a second course of lemon and maro (blackberry).  The maro, while still good, was not quite up the the standard of the others.  The chocolate was divine and tasted like brownies.

We were lucky to get to the gelato place when we did because thanksgiving was the last day before they closed for the winter (the sign says "Last Day").

Then we went out and had pizza for desert.  I had artichoke pizza (yum yum yum).  This pizza is what caught our attention.

This is a nice picture of one of the bridges spanning the canal in Venice.

And, of course, there was a Hard Rock Cafe (that we didn't go to unfortunately).

This is a picture of me, Dad, Beno, and Bro. Seely standing by the statue of the *Tetrarchs.

This was a the window of a shop that we found.  Venetian glass is very famous and glass shops are one of the three types of shops to be found in Venice (glass shops, mask shops, and clothing stores :) ).  These are tiny glass sculptures of insects.  On the other side which you can't see in the picture were cute little hippos and elephants and all sorts of other kinds of animals.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the shop again, or I would have bought some.

Then next morning, it was raining like crazy, and we were warned that the water would be past our ankles in some of the streets.

  Fortunately our hotel provided Wellies for all.

Brellies and Wellies

It turned out that the water was indeed up to our ankles, and beyond.

St Marks square is the main square in Venice.  That day, it was more like a pond than a square.

Mom and Yours Truly.

Here is Mom on one of the many duck boards erected for those who didn't wish to wade in ankle-deep water.

More duck boards

Sloshing around in a shop.

A cute little kid.

The **bell ringers

San Giorgio church located on a little island.

View of Venice from San Giorgio bell tower

The place to lodge complaints anonymously (mouth).

The next morning sported a welcome blue sky after the floods of the previous day.

An impressionistic shimmer on the canal

Dad, Beno, I, and Bro. Seely went to a church while the girls shopped.

Another nice shot of the church interior.

And more glass.

A beautiful blue sea to greet us.

In Venice there are police and fire boats as well as ambulance boats like the one shown here

Glass blowing on Murano island.

The grave of Igor Stravinsky on San Mishele island.

Another impressionistic scene.

And after the day was done, we bid farewell to Venice.

*Probably the 4 co-rulers of Rome in its last days.

**These were the first robots to kill someone.  Someone was up there working in the 1700s and they knocked him off.