Album cover of 'dos guitarras flamencas en america latina' courtesy of Amazon.comWhen Cassidy got back to the states several years ago after serving an LDS mission in Spain, he brought back with him a taste for Spanish music, including Spanish flamenco guitar. Since then, he has repeatedly exposed me to the music, and it's grown on me. His cruelty in playing the music over and over around me while at work recently culminated in my recent...

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My sister, Janna, came to St. George today to visit, and to rescue my car.

Yesterday evening on a whim, after picking up a Mach Burrito at the new Del Taco just off the Washington exit of I-15, I decided to drive out through the Washington Fields and eat there. I meandered slowly down the road, across the bridge over the Virgin River, past Shinob Kibe, a large hill east of the bridge, then around the eastern base of Nichols Peak (that's the hill in the Washington fields with a house perched on top). A little further south, after turning right on to another road heading west, I pulled off and ate, the evening sunlight bathing the verdant alfalfa fields around me. It was a pretty spot to eat.

After finishing off the burrito, I...

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Good ol' Horsey did it again, with another excellent topical article. Check it out at:

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2004-02-15-1.html

I have personal knowledge of the fundamental nature of family, traditional family, as the keystone of society, because I grew up in a wonderful family, with parents who loved and still love each other, who loved and still love all of their children and grandchildren, and with brothers and sisters who are friends with each other and fiercly loyal to one another. It's a marvelous blessing.

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Okay, I've got to link to David Rachlis's web site. Hey, I he gave me a copy of his cool book about Zion National Park. No, not in exchange for a link, but because of his generousity. I think I came out the winner in the deal...

Last week while visiting at my folks' place in Hurricane, where my sister and her two boys were visiting from Colorado (my parents were in the Provo, Utah area following my dad's recent back surgery), I was chatting with her, asking for music recoommendations and looking her suggestions up on Apple's iTunes music service.

On a whim, I looked up Norah Jones since I have her Come Away With Me CD and love it. So imagine my delight when a new single, Sunrise from her new Feels Like Home CD was available for download at 99 cents.

It was a no-brainer. Clikkity-click! It was downloading. A moment later I was listening. Very nice!

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Google's search page this morning was decorated with some fractal art. I took a short tangental web journey and came across some interesting pages:

http://www.superliminal.com/fractals/bbrot/bbrot.htm
http://www.superliminal.com/fractals/bgram/ZrZiOut.htm

Cool! Beauty from pure mathematical structure!

Yes, it's Groundhog Day! And that meant that I absolutely had to continue my personal tradition of watching the comedy, Groundhog Day on DVD today.

This evening, at my folks house in Hurricane, Utah...

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The setting sun's final rays illuminated the needles of the this cactus along the trail.One afternoon, my brother Kendall and I decided to get our exercise hiking the Hurricane Canal Rim Trail. We started in the late afternoon, parking near the trailhead. Since I had a digital camera with me, that meant we paused often so I could snap shots. I sometimes get a little snap-happy with a camera in hand.

Here are some of the things we saw, some of the spectacular desert scenery, and some of our own craziness. I believe the pictures are in order as we hiked the trail.

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Tonight, since I was in Hurricane visiting at my parents home, I knew I still needed to get my daily exercise in. It was too late to drive to St. George and go to the St. George Recreation Center's Family Fitness Center where I usually go, since they close at 10:00 PM. What was I to do?

Not to worry! Fortunately my folks' home has a basement. That means stairs. I decided I would climb up and down the thirteen stairs between basement and the main floor over and over. That should let me work up some sweat. So I began.

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Apple did it! They came out with a windows version of iTunes, Apple's user friendly music application for ripping, burning, managing play lists, and downloading music legally on the Internet earlier today (Thursday, 16 Oct. 2003). As soon as I heard about it, I downloaded a copy on my laptop, running Windows XP. Nice! The application is as easy to use as I'd heard it was on the Apple Macintosh. I'd never had a chance to use it before.

It wasn't long before I had to try out the iTunes store. And once I'd signed up for an account, it was only a matter of a few short seconds before I was downloading my first 99-cent song. Holy cow, that was easy, and convenient! Compared to my earlier nightmare experience with an online music store, this was heaven.

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