Replay at Bernie's

Friday night was the Improvables' annual Valentine's Day performance, aka the Battle of the Sexes. I was joined on stage by Brianne, Bryan, Charlotte, Erica, Keenan, Lorin, and Willis. We had the rare opportunity to perform on the CenterPoint main stage for this show.

One of the highlights of the night was this video, which captures Brianne, along with "dolls" Charlotte and Erica, in "Replay at Bernie's."

Basketball Time with Kylee

My 16-year-old niece Kylee made it on the Layton High School sophomore girls basketball team this year. The team has been doing very well, having lost only two games all season.

I finally made it to a game Friday afternoon, which was also Valentine's Day. The Lancers beat the Northridge Knights by a score of 56-26. Though Kylee is not a starter, she got about five minutes' playing time, shooting 2-2 and scoring four points. She also added a couple of steals and generally played very well and aggressively.

After the game, I snapped the above photo of her alongside her dad, my brother Mike. She wears #5, which was also Mike's number when he played sports.

Day 45: Singles' Awareness-ness

When I was over at Mike and Jana's place the other day, I snapped this picture of their front porch, which had been decorated in anticipation of today's holiday.


Happy Valentine's Day, you knuckleheads.

A Valentine's Greeting from Mola Ram

You know the part in Indiana Jones and the Temple Doom when Mola Ram, leader of the Thuggee cult, reaches into the chest of a sacrificial victim and rips out his heart, laughing as it bursts into flames in his hand while the poor young man meets a horrible, painful, fiery death?


Dating is a lot like that, except in real life, you don't go unwillingly but instead give Mola Ram permission to do it.

Happy Valentine's Day, folks. May your flowers wilt, may you choke on your chocolate candy, and may you get paper cuts from the card(s) anyone sends you.

Just kidding - partially.

A Valentine to My Ward (and One from My Niece)

Hey! It's Valentine's (aka Singles-Awareness) Day.

I just wanted to get that out of the way.

The people in my ward are truly amazing. Many of them are among my closest friends and associates. They never cease to amaze me, to entertain me (just visit one of our fast and testimony meetings, and you will quickly see what I mean), and to inspire me to be a better person.

Last night, I attended our stake's annual Valentine's dance along with a few dozen of my fellow Millstreamers. It's the fourth year in a row that I have been to the dance, and it is always an enjoyable evening.

Every year, the people in my ward by far represent the largest portion of those in attendance. When it comes to doing the "Electric Slide," no ward is better represented (or has better moves!) on the dance floor. Add to that the fact that once the dance ended, I would have to say that easily two-thirds of those who stayed to help clean up were Millstreamers.

In addition to this, one other note: My parents were recently called to be in charge of the stake's volunteer tutoring program at Hannah Holbrook (my alma mater) and Meadowbrook elementary schools, and they have been enlisting the aid of people in the stake to help out. Today, I glanced at the list of all those who have signed up to assist, and of the 48 names collected from the stake, 21 were from the Millstream Ward alone. That's 21 names just from my ward, and 27 names from the eight other wards.

These are the kind of people I associate with on a weekly and basis, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

By the way, since that Valentine's word came up earlier, I should state for the record that I did receive a Valentine today, and it came in a great package.

I was sitting at home when a tiny pair of six-year-old arms threw themselves around the back of my neck and kissed me on the cheek.

I turned around to see my niece McKenna standing there, along with a Valentine's card and a package of Sweettarts.

All in all, I'd say today was a great day. Happy S.A.D. to all, and to all a good night.

My Love Song, Not Fancy or Fine

Unless you have been living in a cave, you are no doubt already aware that another Valentine's (aka Singles' Awareness) Day is fast approaching.

Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that, in the past, I have often endured rather than looked forward to or celebrated. A large part of that is due to the fact that there has rarely been someone else with whom to celebrate the holiday. Even so, I try to be cautiously optimistic each new year and hope it will be the exception rather than the rule.


I know I'm not the only one who doesn't look forward to Valentine's Day. I can see why a lot of people look at it as a reminder that they're alone, they're missing somebody, and/or they are not with somebody. In the last few days, I have heard far more people make reference to the fact that the next week includes Presidents' Day (and, therefore, a three-day weekend) than I have heard talk about Valentine's Day and getting excited for that.

Then again, maybe I have been part of or have been eavesdropping on the wrong kinds of conversations.

All kidding aside, I have recently been reading a book titled Uh-Oh by Robert Fulghum. (You may remember that name; he also wrote All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.) Like his other, more-famous book, Uh-Oh contains a series of vignettes and short stories about everyday life - Chicken Soup for the Soul-type stuff - as observed through the eyes of Mr. Fulghum. In one of the chapters I came across recently, he relates a handful of love stories that he has observed or been part of over the course of his life. None of these stories is particularly earth shattering or worthy of a Lifetime movie, per se, but, rather they are all tiny tidbits and subtle moments, such as the lady who smiled at him from across a crowded diner.

I don't know that I've experienced what anyone might call a love story - at least not in the sense that a movie might portray. I'm in my 30s and am still single, and I haven't come close to being engaged. (Then again, you may get a different response if you ask one or two of the girls I've dated.) But, if you use Mr. Fulghum's definition of love stories, then I guess I've been lucky enough to witness a few.


For one, my parents have a picture of me, back when I was five or six years old, with my arm around a cute little girl about my age. I don't know who she was, what has become of her, where the picture was taken, or why my arm was around her, but I have to smile whenever I think about it. (If I can find the picture, I promise I will scan it and add it to this post.)

In elementary school, one of my first crushes was a girl named Anne, who was in my class. I loved to play jacks back then, and I remember finding excuses to play several games of jacks with her - sometimes letting her win.

In Peru, my companion and I taught the discussions to a man named Julio Gonzales - as we sat in the back seat of his taxi cab. His girlfriend, Melinda, referred him to us in the hope that he would join the Church. Flash forward a few years, and, out of the blue, Melinda calls me on the phone one night, obviously crying with joy, because she and Julio have just been sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

There is also the girl I dated one summer who worked in the Lion House kitchen and would often bring me leftover/extra pieces of cheesecake. It was through her that I learned that the saying that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" has some bona fide merit to it.

A few years ago - and I promise that this is the last story, for now - my bishop spoke in elders quorum and invited all of the single elders to pass out Valentines to the single girls of the ward. I took his advice and, on Valentine's Day, spent several hours visiting several girls in the ward, some of whom I hadn't even spoken to before then, passing out Valentines (I think they had Mickey Mouse on them or something). No, I didn't find anyone to date due to this experience. But I did make a lot of new friends.


Well, I've bared my soul a little bit today, and, honestly, it feels pretty good.