A basketball game. (Warning: this is a sports post.)

Tomorrow night, BYU and UNLV will play each other in men's basketball.

I got my B.A. from BYU, and my J.D. from UNLV.

I grew up a mild UNLV fan.  I enjoyed their basketball team.  I always thought I would go to college there.  I remember going to a few UNLV games as a kid.  I have a vague memory of a football game, and I have clear memories of going to UNLV basketball games, including the one in UNLV's championship season where Greg Anthony broke his nose or cheekbone, or whatever it was, and had to wear that clear mask the rest of the season.  In a biography I wrote about myself in fifth grade, I even mentioned how proud I was of the championship team (Kelsea has made fun of me for this.)

I grew up hating BYU.  My cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in Utah were all BYU fans, which was fine with me, but it bothered me that they just assumed I was a BYU fan too.  I didn't have any particular problem with BYU, I just didn't see why I would be a fan of a school in another state that I had no desire to attend.  I looked into it my senior year of high school when I decided I wanted to leave home for college, and it had the lowest tuition, some of my friends were going there.  I figured that if I had a terrible time, I would at least know somebody on campus I might possibly hang out with.

I really enjoyed BYU.  I had great roommates, and met some really amazing and fun people there (as well as some crazies and nuts).  I wasn't much of a sports fan, but bought into the excitement of going to the games.  I remember going to the homecoming game against UNLV with conflicting loyalties.  I had never been a UNLV football fan, but it was those comments about BYU football that had so irked me earlier in my life.  (I remember some comments about Ty Detmer in particular, and in my memory, I picture my cousin saying "Isn't he so dreamy?")  Anyway, I also went to a BYU-UNLV basketball game my freshman year, and cheered for UNLV (though fairly quietly, as I was in the student section).  It was easy then: UNLV was bad at football; and BYU was bad at basketball.

By the time I graduated, however, BYU had started doing a bit better in basketball, and my loyalty to BYU sports, and to BYU, had grown.  On the other hand, I was tired of the college town feel of Provo.  I was a little tired of the Mormon (over-)saturation of the culture, but I could deal with that.  It was the fact that it was a small town with a big school in it that was getting to me.  So I chose to move on to UNLV Law School.

UNLV students got in free to UNLV football and basketball games, so I went to a few.  They were fun.  Being a married law student at a football game is very different from being a crazy freshman at a football game.  But I became a UNLV football fan, to a degree (I can only pay attention to so many terrible games a season).  They're still bad, but I am a fan.  I am remained a fan of UNLV basketball.  Those are fun games to go to.  I love yelling things at the refs, talking to the players and coaches like they can hear me, and getting into the game.

When BYU and UNLV play in football, I expect BYU to win, but I don't cheer much.  When UNLV and BYU play in basketball, I generally expect the home team to win, but I can barely watch.

Now, BYU and UNLV are both ranked in the top 25, and I want them both to win.  Since that's impossible, I hope they both beat San Diego State, and everyone else in the conference.  While it will be a relief that they won't play each other as much after this year, it's also disappointing, as the MWC was just getting to be a really good conference.

UNLV is favored by 3, and I think they'll cover.  But I'll be disappointed either way.

Copying

I learned some things about Holly yesterday.
I have to be careful how I put it because it won't be long before she figures out the internet and starts reading every blog entry I've ever written.  (You might think that's an exaggeration, but time is relative.)

Anyway, Holly is the kind of kid I was, and the kind of kid her mom was.
Yesterday was library day, and when Kelsea got to school to get Holly, she was sitting on the balance beam, reading her library book.  Kelsea tells me that other kids were talking to her, encouraging her to play with them, but she was too excited about her book "Pinkalicious," about a girl who ate so many pink cupcakes that she turned pink.  Kelsea immediately thought about the youngest kid on the show "The Middle,"  who is named Brick, and who reads during everything.  (We recommend that show for anyone who has kids or has ever been a kid.)
So that was the first thing.

The second thing has to do with the title, which I'm sure you were wondering about.
Also yesterday, Holly got a progress report.  Usually, I don't see those, but I get input from Kelsea about any problems.  Yesterday, though, I was sitting at the computer when Kelsea had Holly bring her progress report to me.  She had all "A"s and "B"s, and I pointed out her highest percentage was in math.  I said something like "you're the best at math."  Then she told me that sometimes, a classmate copies her work.    Kelsea told me that Holly told her teacher about it, so Holly and the girl who copied her work aren't friends anymore.  Holly added that the copier gets moved around now, so that she can't copy Holly's work.

It made me a little sad to know that Holly told on her friend, but I had to be positive since she was only trying to do what was right.  It made me think about what I had done as a kid.  I never let anyone copy my work, but I don't think I ever told a teacher, either.  I was proud of Holly, and sad at the same time.  Cheating is wrong, but I wish she had told that to her friend, not the teacher.  Maybe that's a lot to expect of a first-grader, though.

He's doing much better now

On Sunday, Jay wasn't feeling well.  He was having some trouble breathing, and his albuterol wasn't helping as much as it usually does.  After a full day of waiting and hoping he would improve, I called a nurse help line, and was advised to take Jay to Urgent Care (they said he didn't sound so bad that he had to go straight to the ER).  

At Urgent Care, they gave Jay more Albuterol, Oxygen, and a steroid shot, but it didn't seem to make any difference, so the doctor said she was sending us to the hospital.  Jay and I rode in an ambulance to UMC's children's hospital, and they took a chest x-ray which showed that he had slight pneumonia.  They figured it was only slight because he was probably dehydrated, so they expected it to get worse once they started him on an IV.  Fortunately, it was gone the next morning, but Jay had to stay at the hospital for just under 48 hours, and was doing very well by the time we left.  

He hated the cage-like bed he was supposed to be in, and got frustrated if his IV, oxygen tube, heart monitor, or pulse oximeter lead got pulled on even slightly.  We were able to find a few small things to make him happy for short amounts of time while he was there, though.  Such as a balloon.

And a Popsicle.  

And a little tykes car that I was able to push him around the pediatrics floor for a little while, until a nurse took his blood pressure in it.  He also enjoyed the play room, but they close it at 5 pm, so we were only able to go once.  

He had a hard time falling asleep, since he hated the bed so much, and generally hated being in his room.  We got him to calm down a few times, and he did sleep a little bit.   

He's still a little traumatized by the whole thing, being a little more clingy and grumpy when he's tired, but when he's rested, and can find something to play with, he's back to his usual self.  

Catching up with pictures

Enough ties for you?

Half the total

The rest.

Installing some Linoleum. 

Partially finished bathroom.

With different lighting, the paint color sure looks different.

Eight years of wedded bliss.

My favorite joke when people say something about how long I've been married is to say that it feels like it's been forever.  It's partially true.  Eight years isn't really that long, but it's long enough that you feel like your life has always been together.  And for me, it's been great.

Kelsea and I went to St. George for our anniversary, and saw the Tuacahn production of Tarzan.  We stayed at a bed & breakfast called the Seven Wives Inn.  Despite the apparently true connection the house has with polygamy, I think the name and theme of naming each room after a supposed wife is in poor taste.  I'm sure they could think of something equally clever, but less controversial.

So other than the name of the place, we really enjoyed staying there.  It is an old house in St. George's historic district, right across the street from Brigham Young's winter home.  It was a very nice house, with some cool little antique (-looking) furniture and smaller details.

For dinner, we weren't very hungry, but needed something to eat before going to the show, so we stopped at Jazzy's Rock 'n' Roll Grill for some very delicious hot sandwiches and sweet potato fries.  The light fixtures were made of brass instruments.  We were the only people there at the time, but I would guess it fills up, and gets very loud, later.  There was a performing area, and ads for local bands, and an open mic night.

Tarzan was pretty entertaining.  I'm kind of a hard sell for most things like that, but they have a few little tricks that they incorporated into the show to keep it interesting.  And some pretty good acrobatics.  Tarzan is a good story, and this one is based on the Disney movie.  The program mentioned that the earlier versions were much bloodier, which of course made me wonder what happens in other versions.  Maybe I'll look it up sometime.

In the morning, Kelsea and I had an excellent breakfast, though Kelsea's croissant french toast was bathed in too much jam.  I looked through the complementary newspaper and, oddly enough, we decided to drive past a few yard sales.  We didn't stop at any, and it was terrible weather for yard sales anyway, but it didn't eat up too much of our time.  We went to the outlet stores after that, and got some fun things, and joked about decorating our house, or my office, with a moose head.  I still think it's a good idea.

Before leaving town, we walked around the temple, and I even took a picture for a couple that was apparently not happy with their self-portraits.  We packed our own camera, and thought about taking pictures several times, but we couldn't find it in our bag.  So after I took the picture for that couple we though it would be funny to ask strangers to take pictures of us, then give them an email address to send it to.  Just to see people's reactions, and to see if anyone would actually send them.  But we didn't do it.

We got home late in the afternoon, and picked up the kids from my parents' house.

Maybe my next post will have some pictures.  Maybe Kelsea will get back to posting.  No promises.