Craters of the Moon!

We went to Craters of the Moon today. Amazing prehistoric lava flows exist here at this National Park located in central Idaho. The actual park was closed so we parked on the side of the road and hiked back in about a mile or so.

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Brent and Jake standing on a rock formation that looks a lot like an eagle's head.

Cool lava formations.


Pretty blue color in the rock.

Penny and Jake sitting on interesting prehistoric lava flow.

Cool flower in the middle of the pumas.

Jake with an interesting rock formation.

Spring is in the air and... WHOA!! LOOK OUT!!!

I'm not gonna lie: I hate these birds.

One Froggy Evening: The best cartoon ever!

ONE FROGGY EVENING!!

This 7 minutes cartoon (directed by Chuck Jones) is in my opinion the best cartoon ever made. Chuck Jones was a genius who directed and/or animated most of the Looney Tunes cartoons. I'm not sure why this cartoon has appealed to me over the years, but it has been my favorite since the very first time I watched it as a kid.

If you have buffering problems with the video (because it is long) press play, then pause and let it download completely before watching (then hit play again!).

Do you know how many shoes you could buy with a TRILLION DOLLARS!!!???

Many of you have seen this on the world-wide super-information highway (0therwise known as the internet). It's worth copying and presenting to the Daily Item readers. The info came from this site: http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html


A billion dollars...

A hundred billion dollars...

Eight hundred billion dollars...

One TRILLION dollars...

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.


Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.


While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...


And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...




Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros..

You ready for this?

It's pretty surprising.

Go ahead...

Scroll down...

Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...



(And notice those pallets are double stacked.)

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.

Ticket, Tumbling, Ticked off Lady and the Taco Bell Arena

Last weekend I won tickets to the first and second round of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. The games were played Friday and Sunday. The tickets were won in a contest of skill. The skill was "Mental Telepathy." This means that the names were drawn out of a box and I "willed" my name into the drawer's hand.

Pretty easy really:

• Guy reaches into box -
  
• I concentrate really hard with both eyes squinting and pointer finger on right temple -
  
• Guy pulls name out of box -
  
• Guy reads my name -
  
• As I snatch the tickets from the guy's hand, I respond with, "yeah right, it's mental telepathy, whaddya think?" (ala-Napoleon Dynamite)
  
• Presto! Tickets.

This telepathic talent works once in every 1,222,998 times I try it.
So: Kind of a talent.
Luckeeey!

Center court at the Taco Bell Arena located on the campus of Boise State University.

Wisconsin player goes up hard with the left hand.

Wisconsin cheer squad on Mountain Dew.

This lady sat in front of me. I accidently sneezed on her (my bad).

Best White Guy Dunk Ever

Many of you probably saw highlights of this the other night. I decided to run it here on the Daily Item because it is quite spectacular and I am a hoops fan. The guy dunking looks like a good kid.

That was too close!!!

This is how I drive when it's the last day of the month and my "Home Teaching" isn't done.

Skiing like a Banshee!! "Penny wait for me!!"

Today, Penny and I were able to get out and ski Dollar Mountain in Sun Valley. Dollar is an excellent place for beginners of all ages. Penny bombed down every single run and had a great time. Make sure you watch the video at the end!

Here's Penny with Sun Valley's Bald Mountain in the background. Penny has been to the top and skied all the way down Baldy with out falling! Mad skills.

Penny with the town of Sun Valley in the background.

Taking a break!

Dad's skis on the left, Penny's skis on the right while on the chair lift.

Shadow of Penny and her Dad.

-=Press play=-
Radical video of Penny hosting a "yard sale."

Wow! It's been a long time! I was looking at an old picture of ABBA the other day and....is it just me or do I resemble those dashing Swedes?

Twin Falls Idaho: The Sushi Capital?

Ruth and I ventured into Twin Falls yesterday and attended the Temple. Afterwords I jokingly said lets go get some Sushi. A quick search of the GPS revealed several (several???) Sushi restaurants in the immediate area. Befuddled Ruth and I drove to "Sushi Ya" for their all-you-can-eat Sushi special. Admittedly we were worried. I mean, we are in Potato Country for goodness sake. Not only that, there are sugar refineries everywhere in this Snake River Basin. What does that mean? It means it smells 10 times worse here than it ever did in Tacoma. Ask my brother Jeremy about the smell. He knows a little something about it, living in Nampa and all.

I am glad we live in the mountains!!

Anyway, we went into the restaurant and we were immediatly pleased. We were taken out of this windy Idaho farm town and transported to Japan someplace. The ambience was great and the food was fantastic boasting all different kinds of sushi and sushimi. Service was excellent too! This place is on the list. Come visit us and we might take you here.

Felix and Thomas and Mexican Travis

I have taken the liberty (and photos from Jessica's blog) to show pictures of my sweet grandsons. Below you will see pictures of Felix, Thomas and their crazy dad: Mexican Travis. Many people can not tell by looking at Travis if he is the real Travis or the Mexican Travis. I will disclose the secrets of that discernment later in this post. For now I will tell you some subtle differences between the Mexican Travis and the real Travis.

Real Travis likes - The Beatles
Mexican Travis likes - to eat beetles
-
Mexican Travis puts the seat down after his business
Real Travis.....Does not.
-
Mexican Travis is not a bad driver
Real Travis drives real bad
-
Mexican Travis will eat all of your Captain Crunch cereal
Real Travis will all of your lunch meat (we've had both Travis's at our house)


Here's a delightful picture of our newest Grandson Felix Norman Hatch! Let's all give him a big Daily Item round of applause. That smile is so cute!

Now here's a good big brother: Thomas kissing Felix.

Keep this boy stocked in Oreos and there will be no behavioral problems. Just look at the good boy.

Many people don't know the difference between Mexican Travis and regular Travis. Giving it away with a swarthy sneer we can easily see that this is Mexican Travis. Thomas is very happy in this picture because in his little mind he is thinking of me.

Dreaming dogs are the best!

This sweet dog is named Bizkit. Bizkit's owner has several video's of Bizkit dreaming and doing things like running and barking in his sleep. I'm a big fan of dogs and the personality that they can possess.

For more videos of Bizkit click HERE.

Mr. T or Not Mr. T, that is the question.