Happy Halloween

I have in my possession the 'Atta Boy, the plaster-o-paris, unwanted white-elephant gift from a 1990s P&G Christmas party that somehow became the department's coveted trophy. You have to redecorate it before passing it on. Not sure how I'll remove "Count Dogula's" acrylic-paint pants.

Manny Is the Man

For a year, Spencer's mission president was a Foreign Service Officer in Djibouti (JIB-BOO-G). He was also the only member of the Church in the tiny African nation. I got to interview him for a story. This is a snippet of what mission presidents are made of (you'll have to turn your volume way up).

It's a Cade!

Spence's sister Emily texted us a pic of the newest nephew all done up in Boise State blue (they start 'em young :). Wish I could get it off my phone to post it. A bad photo of a text will have to do. We can't wait to meet the little guy!

Power Rankings

So this semester some of my stats buddies and I decided to form an intramural soccer team. We didn't sign up early enough so they put us in the upper division. Maybe it's not common knowledge but a bunch of math geeks are not exactly what I would refer to as "upper division material." So the Daily Universe (the BYU School newspaper) does power rankings each week for each intramural sport and guess where the "Statistical Outliers" ended up? Click on the title of this post to see the rankings or you can trust me that we came in at dead last. Yep that's right 186th out of 186 teams. I guess our team name now has a double meaning.

To say that we are bad would be a gross understatement. One week at half time the refs came up to us and asked us if we just wanted to call it at that point instead of enduring another half. The next week the goalie of the opposing team got so bored that he came out of the goal and subsequently scored three times. Last week we put in our first goals and had our best game of the season and still ended up losing 9 to 3.

Anyways, I sure got a good laugh out of that. On the bright side we did finally put in our first goals so we've broken through that glass ceiling. Things are looking up!

Still Dancing

I told my grandpa we have a layover in Denver on our way to Costa Rica. He responded in kind:

Please send us the details of your soon visit so we can pick you up at the airport and take you dancing. Colleen and Gaylen can come too! Maybe Fred and Kris and Kip and Vern and Sarah and Dave and Jace and Holly will want to come, too. Might as well have a real party!

Love, GM&GP K

Kosovo Serbs Are Like Teenagers

Working on a piece about alumni in the foreign service. Just talked to an alum who is Obama's Europe guy on the National Security Council. In the middle of our conversation, he says, "I just got an urgent note from General Jones. Can I call you back?" Sure.

He calls back and goes on to explain how rationalizing with Kosvo Serbs is like rationalizing with a teenager. Fun interview.

This week or next, I get to interview Spencer's mission president, who just e-mailed me his Foreign Service resume:

"I provide briefly my previous assignments:

FOREIGN SERVICE
1979 - 1982.....American Embassy Panama.....Director of Human Services
1982 - 1984.....American Embassy Costa Rica...Director of General Services
1984 - 1987.....American Embassy Bolivia......Counselor to the Ambassador for Administrative Affairs.
1987....Nominated for the "Leaman R. Hunt" -Manager of the year Award
1987 - 1989.....American Embassy Spain......Director of General Services
1989 - 1992.....American Consulate.............Counselor to the Consulate General for Administrative Affairs.
1992 - 1994.....Washington D.C. - Department of State...Director of Career Development for Administrative Officers.
1994....Received the "Manager of the Year Award", by the BYU Marriott School of Management - MPA.
1994 - 1995.....Selected to the "Senior Service Seminar".....15 Senior Diplomats send throughout the United States via Presidential Airforce 1 and military aircraft to assess our military capability to handle mulitple wars at one time. In addition, we met with local community leaders in various states to determine the affect of U.S. policies on our local economies.
1995-1997.....American Embassy, Kenya....Counselor to the Ambassador for Administrative Affairs.
1997 - 1999....American Embassy Panama....Counselor to the Ambassador for Administrative affairs. Also Representative for the Ambassador to the Government of Panama for Development of Secondary Educational Facilities on the Panama Canal for American Embassy children.
1999 June..... Retired from the foreign service.
2000 January - September.....State Department requested I return to be deployed to Dijbuti, East Africa for a special assignment as Counselor to the Ambassador.
2000 September - December....State Department requested I represent them at University Forums for Career Opportunites. I recruited for the State Department.
2001 - 2002 ... State Department requested I go to Abuja, Nigeria for special assignment as Counselor to the Ambassador for Administrative Affairs.
2002 - November.....Church contacted me in while I was in Africa. Issued call as Mission President effective June, 2003

Church Assignments as Missionaries:
2003 - 2006....Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints send me and my wife to Costa Rica as Mission President.
2006 - 2008....Served as the CEO of "Key Group Security Professional Services" and as member of their board of Directors.
2008 -2009.....Sent to Belize, Central America as"Leadership & Reactivation" Missionaries for the Church. (Mission was originally for 23 months, however the Chuch curtailed our assignment by 4months to serve in Mexico City)
20010 - 2012.......Our present Assignment for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Director of the Mexico City Temple Visitor's Center, in Mexico City.

My Uncle Made the New York Times

. . . “Together we could look at things nobody else was looking at,” said Colin Henderson, an associate professor at the University of Montana’s College of Technology and a member of Dr. Bromenshenk’s “Bee Alert” team.

We're Coping

From a BYU colleague:

Subject: Football Tickets for Saturday

I have tickets available to Saturday's homecoming game so let me know if you
would like a couple of them.

Maybe this will be "the game" where everything changes, the season turns
around, and the world becomes a happier place. Or maybe it's the game where
you will discover the joy of the Cougar tail (perhaps the world's largest
maple bar donut)... or meet a new friend or finally learn to appreciate the
Cougarettes and the flag team. You never know.

Nielsie's Newbie

Look at Niels's little trainee.

I will write Niels this weekend. I will write Niels this weekend. I will write Niels this weekend. . . .

Love My Statistician

Your "Farkle" or "Five to Stay Alive" probabilities, if you play the game, thanks to Mr. Rogers. This is how he will shelter and feed our future family.