How I love my new iPhone 3GS. I finally replaced my three year old Palm Treo. I can do everything with my iPhone. While I was out of town for work I was able to do all of the following with my phone.
- Kept up with email from work
- Was able to accept meeting invites and reject them
- Used the GPS to find my hotel
- Used Urban Spoon to determine where to eat dinner
- Checked the weather
- Took pictures of the stores I was visiting
- Took notes on everything I saw and emailed the notes to myself
- Updatedy Facebook status and checked the newsfeed
- Checked my 401k perfomance and the market
- Did online check in to my flight
- Played games on the airplane
- Listened to my iPod tunes
- Checked pricing on a DSL modem on Amazon
And I am even typing this entire blog entry on my iPhone! It’s just too cool.

We’ve been back for nearly 4 weeks now, but I finally got all of the pictures posted to Flickr.  We spent a week in Lake Tahoe for family vacation during the week of the 4th of July.  We’ve never been to Lake Tahoe before so it was all new and we had a really good, relaxing time.

We stayed at The Ridge Resort.  It wasn’t down on the lake, but instead up at the top of a mountain overlooking Carson Valley.  It was a really nice resort.  The room we had was great and they had a lot of activities to keep the kids busy: swimming, hot tubs, raquetball courts, miniature golf, etc.

We did a lot of hiking and saw some great scenery.  The lake is huge and blue… I mean really blue.  We rented a power boat for a half day and crusied around the lake, with the kids (and myself) taking turns being dragged around in a tube.  Lunch while floating in Emerald Bay, it was great.  We spent another day driving the entire route around the lake, making stops along the way.

We all liked it and I’m sure we’ll go back sometime.  Probably not over the 4th of July next time though.  The beginning of the week was great, but it did get a little crowded on Friday and Saturday.

So all the pictures are posted and you can see a slideshow on Flickr.

Elena an I had our traditional late night viewing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on opening day last week.  We put the girls to bed, left the boys in charge, and went to the 10:30 pm showing.  Then over the weekend I went to see it again while I was in California.  Yep… seen it twice already.

So what did I think?  I thought it was great!  Did they cut some stuff from the book, yes… had to.  The movie is 2 1/2 hours long as it is.  Going into it I wasn’t too sure.  There were plenty of rumors around the net that it didn’t stick to the book and strayed too far.  But I didn’t think that at all.  In fact, I thought it was really close to the book.  I’d even go so far to say that this is my favorite of the six so far.  Knowing that they are splitting the last book into two movies I’m probably going to have to go read the book again.  I can’t think of a good place to stop a first movie to force a second one.  We’ll have to see.

Word of warning… don’t let the PG rating fool you — I don’t think this is for the 10 and under crowd.  But I guess if they’ve read the book then they already know what’s coming.

And a final comment on Utah theaters.  I would like to declare that the Megaplex Theatres here in Utah are the best anywhere.  Theaters in California were $11 for admission, whereas here they are only $8.  The seating arrangements in the Megaplex theaters are better also, you’re not miles from the screen.  And there are two things that I always miss when seeing movies in other theaters — digital projection and reserved seating.  The digital projection makes a HUGE difference.  It’s a lot clearer and you never get the stupid film artifacts in the image.  And reserved seating is awesome.  Every theater should do it.  Go online, pick your seats, and purchase your tickets.  You only have to get there a few minutes before the movie begins and then walk right in to your seat.  It just can’t be beat.  So there you go, my free advertisement for Megaplex Theaters.

I had to hurry and blog this before I forgot.  I’ve been sitting at my desk in the office at my house and Maren and Emma have been playing nicely, for the most part, in the living room right outside the office.  All of a sudden, some kind of argument breaks out, the screaming starts and Emma concludes the argument with “Fine!  Then I’m going to throw all of your Littlest Pet Shops out the window!”  (Littlest Pet Shops are toys that they like to play with.)

So I pull them both into the office and ask why they are arguing.  The conversation then goes like this:

Emma: “Maren won’t let my Littlest Pet Shop have super powers!”
Maren: “Littlest Pet Shops don’t have super powers!  They are pets!”

I stopped the conversation right there and told both of them to play nicely or they will have to get ready for bed.  And they turned and went back to playing.  Ten minutes later there is screaming from the living room again.  I pull them in again and get the following explanation:

Emma: “Maren says my Littlest Pet Shop can’t have heat vision, but it does!”
Maren: “Emma won’t give me back the pink hat for my kitty — and her Littlest Pet Shop can’t have heat vision because that is a boy super power and her pet is a girl!”

At this point I just turn around and suppress my laughter.  After I compose myself, I quickly remedy the situation by having Emma return the pink hat, and explaining that heat vision isn’t just for boys.  Problem solved.  I am the best problem solver in the universe…

The flags in Tomorrowland at Disneyland should be flying at half-mast.  Today the great Captain EO, a.k.a. Michael Jackson, has made his final walk down the lighted sidewalk in the sky.

Truly the end of an era.  Mr. Jackson played a big part in my early childhood.  I can’t even count how many times we watch the Thriller video as kids.  And even though I knew it was cheesy, I saw Captain EO several times.

So as a final huzzah!, I give you the following:

Elena’s parents were kind (i.e. brave) enough to take both Maren and Emma down to Lake Powell for the weekend.  I took Friday off from work and we spent the entire weekend together.  At first we thought of going somewhere, either a long drive or a plane ride, but instead we decided to hang around town and save some money (kind of).  It was great.

We spent all day Friday in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons.  I haven’t been up there forever.  We went on a two hour hike up the mountain from Hidden Falls.  Then we hiked up to Donut Falls.  Then we drove up and around Brighton and had lunch at Solitude.  It was beautiful.  There is so much run off water from all the rain and snow that the rivers are moving really fast.  You couldn’t get that close to Donut Falls unless you wanted to get really wet.  And from the top of the peak that we hiked to you could see waterfalls down the canyons.

Then we went over to Snowbird.  We went there because of the Grill on the Hill BBQ event.  Honestly, that was very underwhelming.  But we did ride the tram to the top of the peak.  I haven’t done that forever.  There is still quite a bit of snow up there (not enough to ski on though).  It was such a beautiful day that we could see forever.  Then we came back down and rode the alpine slide.  Not as great as the one in Park City, but still fun.  A great first day.

Saturday morning we played a round of nine holes at Eaglewood Golf Course.  I’ve never played a round of golf with just my wife.  It was great.  A little bit of rain, but we did finish before the down pour.  As for the scores… well, I don’t play for score.  :-)  Next up was the Chalk Art Festival at The Gateway.  The rain ruined the atmosphere of the whole thing.  There was still a lot of good art work, but I just felt terrible for the artists who had to work under tents and keep covering the art with plastic.

Then we went and saw The Proposal .  Typical romantic comedy, but it was fun.  Then dinner together at Z Tejas.  Overall an excellent couple of days.  I was looking forward to it all week and it did not disappoint.  Makes me feel like once the girls are old enough to watch themselves that Elena and I will never be home!  Ha!  Probably not… couldn’t afford to do that all the time.

Up

We went to see the latest Pixar film Up over the weekend with Tim and the girls.  Yet another home run for Pixar.  It was very funny, but also, in Pixar tradition, a great and touching story.  The girls thought it was hilarious.  They kept freezing and suddenly saying “Squirrel” for the next 24 hours.

Pixar has made ten movies now, since 1995.  It made me wonder how I would rank them.  I realize its kind of a silly question because I think I would give four stars to all ten of them.  It’s like asking me to pick my favorite child — wait… maybe I could do that… kidding!  Anyway, if I had to rank them they would be as follows:

1. Toy Story
2. Toy Story 2
3. The Incredibles
4. Finding Nemo
5. Up
6. A Bug’s Life
7. WALL-E
8. Ratatouille
9. Monsters Inc.
10. Cars

Admittedly, I don’t think anything could move Toy Story from the top of the list.  It was just so amazing when I first saw it, being the computer geek that I am.  So the sheer fact that Pixar had the guts to make it and start the whole computer generated animation movie trend will keep it up there forever.  It also doesn’t hurt that the story is still one of the best ones as well.  Can’t wait for Toy Story 3 next year…

I’ve been reminded by a couple of people that I haven’t posted anything for a while. So I’ll use the old standby for content — some reviews of movies I’ve seen recently.

Star Trek
Yes!  This is an awesome movie… so awesome I’ve seen it twice!  It’s really just a lot of fun.  There’s just one plot hole that really took me out of the movie for a moment.  I mean really, they cast Kirk out and he just happens to land on the same planet, in the same place, running into the same cave as that other guy?  That one did make me scratch my head, but I forgive them because the rest is just a lot of fun.  If you’re not a Star Trek fan then I think you will still like it.  And if you have ever seen a few episodes of Star Trek, then it just makes it that much more fun.

Angels & Demons
I read the Dan Brown book just a few weeks before seeing the movie, so the book was fresh in my mind.  As far as adhering to the book, it does a fairly good job.  There are a few plot threads that are removed, but it helped the movie to do it.  But as far as a general “who dunnit” thriller, it works OK.  It’s hard for me to tell because I knew the ending, but on the big screen it just seemed rather so so.  Saw it at a matinee, so it was worth it for that.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
We took the girls to go see this one.  It’s a good family film to go see, especially if the kids liked the first one.  But to me, the “magic” was gone.  The first one was mildly original and inventive.  This one just seemed to be a rehash of a lot of the old gags.  (I admit… there is more monkey slapping in this one and it was still funny :-)  ).  I also found myself doubting the plot synopsis since we just got back from a trip to D.C. last year.  For example, they leave the Smithsonian  (short on time) and suddenly they are in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  I thought to myself “Dude… anyone who has been to D.C. knows that there is no way they got all the way from the Smithsonian to the Lincoln Memorial that fast on foot.”

We have a new addition to the family, thanks to our neighbors and my easily lost resolve.  Our neighbors cat had kittens about eight weeks ago.  Elena and the girls went over to their house several times to play with the kittens.  There was a never ending onslaught of “oh Dad, they’re so cute! Please can we have one!”.  To which my answer was always “in order to get one, you have to get rid of one of the two we already have”.

I consider cats to be a consolation I have learned to deal with in order to have the pleasure of living with my wife.  (Love ya dear!)  Elena grew up with cats and they are definitely a part of her life.  I on the other hand never had them because my mom is allergic to them.  So naturally, I should be allergic to them as well, right?  Well, at least that was my excuse during the first few months of marriage.  That is, until we got one and it had no affect on me.  Ack!  My feeble plan was foiled!  Since then, we’ve almost always had a cat in the house.  I tolerate them, but draw the line at trying to give them any encouragement that they should come to me for some kind of comfort.

So how did I get suckered into cat #3?  Elena calls me at work, the day before Maren’s birthday, and says that the neighbor is taking the cats to a parking lot to give them away to anyone that wants them.  She pulls the “it would be the perfect birthday gift for Maren to let her choose one” tact.  Suffice it to say, my two little girls often have me eating out of the palm of their hands.

So now there is a new kitten in the house.  Maren has named him “Ninja”.  The neighbors had simply referred to him as “Mr. Scratchy Biter-man”, named by their 4 year old son.  It is only now that we realize how well their name fit.  Kittens are always cute, and good for entertainment.  If only they wouldn’t grow up to be cats.

Whoa!  Haven’t posted anything for quite a while, have I?  I must work harder…

So this post will be about the only TV series that I watch consistently… Lost.  Oh how I love the Lost.  I am so wrapped up in that show that I end up debating with myself over what may or may not be happening.  The last two episodes - “The Variable” and “Follow the Leader” - were great.  I loved both of them.  The producers really have started to answer a lot of questions, but at the same time, a few new ones creep up.  I think it frustrates my wife, but to me I think its great.  The ultimate ploy to keep you watching a show.

Next week is the 2-hour season finale and I am anticipating a real cliff-hanger (hard to imagine, right?).  In the meantime, here are just some of the thoughts I’ve had recently:

• Is Faraday really dead?  You can’t ever dead when “dead really is dead” on Lost, but for some reason I think we’ll see him again.
• What is up with Richard Alpert?  Why is he the only one that is the same through all the times?  And I love the way he looked so surprised to see Locke.
• Locke’s true purpose to see Jacob?  I knew it.  I always thought there was something fishy with Jacob.
• Sawyer just can’t escape Kate.  I have a bad feeling Juliet is going to become a “tragic casualty”.
• Ben is evil, but he makes me laugh.  His conversation with Richard where he proclaims very matter-of-fact “why do you think I tried to kill him?” was very funny.
• I could watch Miles and Hurley debate with each other all day.  It’s hilarious.
• I’ve lost all confidence in Jack.  He’s headed for disaster.  Does anyone else see the relevance to Jacob being evil, Jacob manifested as Jack’s dad, and now Jack trying to blow up the whole island?

Oh… so many other questions.  I could go on forever.  If you haven’t been watching Lost, it’s too late to get into the current series, but I highly suggest you pick up the DVDs and watch them.  Then you’ll be all set for the next and final season.