John Adams

There is a series on HBO right now called "John Adams" which is based on the book by David McCullough. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney play John and Abigail Adams and they do an excellent job. There are seven episodes and four of them have aired. The series documents John Adams' life from his participation in the Continental Congress through to his death. When this becomes available on DVD, I would definitely recommend renting this.

It's so interesting to see how religious the men that founded our country were. Although they wanted a separation of church and state, the political views they held and the decisions about the government they made were surely influenced by their faith. That's not to say that these men were saints, but they had a clear understanding between right and wrong and taught and were taught about God their whole lives. It's sad, but maybe the lack of religious conviction is the reason for many of the problems we have in our country today.

Anyway, this series really makes me proud of my country and the immense sacrifice it took to build it. I truly believe that the men that helped found our country were inspired by God and it would be nothing without Him.

I'm going to Portugal!

Jacob hasn't even been home from his mission for a year and he already wants to go back. I can't really blame him though because my parents didn't go to pick him up like they did my other two brothers, so he didn't get to travel around Portugal. Instead, he, Emily and I are going over there at the end of April after he finishes finals at BYU.

We're flying to London first, which I'm really excited about. Unfortunately, we are only spending a day there so we can't do much. I can't complain though because I lived in London for two months when I went on a BYU study abroad program. I love London and would love to go back and live there for a while. Anyway, we are flying from London to Madeira. Madeira is a Portuguese-owned island that is 400 miles off the African coast. Jacob served there for about 6 months and from the pictures he took, I can tell it is really beautiful. Jacob and I are planning to go scuba diving while we're there and I'm sure we'll go hiking too.

After Madeira, we will fly to Porto, Portugal. This was the center of Jacob's mission and it is in the north part of the country. We're going to rent a car and drive down to Lisbon. We'll spend the majority of our trip in Madeira and Portugal, but will also visit Madrid and Paris for a day each. I'm excited for this trip and it will well be worth the unpaid days I'm going to have to take off work!

Just for fun, here are few pictures I took while on my study abroad in London. All of them, except for one, were taken in England. Can you tell which one wasn't and where it was taken? If you want, you can guess where they were all taken. Some of them are pretty obvious, but others will be hard. Have fun and I will let you know how you did!

Mary Nicole Zurcher Dec 22, 1975-Mar 16, 1995

It's hard to believe that it has been 13 years since my sister passed away. I often think what it might be like if she had not died. She would have been 32-years-old. I think she would probably be married and have a few kids. I wonder what she would have majored in in college? Maybe creative writing because from what I remember, which isn't a whole lot, she liked to write. She also liked to play the piano. I remember when she got the sheet music to Bette Midler's "The Rose." She played that song all the time. We still have that music downstairs by the piano.

Every year, as a memorial to Mary, we go to the Holladay Memorial Cemetery to put flowers on her grave and then we come home and light yellow (her favorite color) luminarias that line either side of our driveway. We let the candles burn throughout the night. Every now and then, one of the candles will still be burning in the morning when we go to clean them up. So this Sunday, if you're in the neighborhood, come drive by our house. It is always really beautiful.

Here's a picture I took a couple of years ago. Just don't look to close because it's a rather blurry picture. I needed a tripod!

the Coke side of life

I was talking to Laura, my friend at work, the other day and she was telling me how much she likes the original Coca-Cola. I got to talking to her about how much my dad likes it and I thought that since it's a kind of funny story, I'd share it with you all. If any of you know my dad you know that he has loved Coke his entire life. He loves it so much that he has honed down the drinking of Coke to an art.

We have an old refrigerator in our garage where we keep food that won't fit in the fridge in our kitchen as well as the sodas we drink such as Diet Coke, Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Root Beer, etc. Well, my dad has a little fridge out there too that is solely dedicated to his Coke. I guess he wants to keep his Coke pure and not have to share refrigerator space with inferior drinks. He keeps this thing well stocked all the time.

He ideally likes to drink it a certain way. First, he likes to drink it from Styrofoam cups. He says he can never find the size and width he likes at Costco, so he just collects them from the restaurants that have them. The reason he likes Styrofoam cups is because it insulates the drink and the ice doesn't melt as fast. Second, he likes to drink it without a straw because he likes when the ice clinks against his teeth and he says the liquid is colder coming right from the top where the ice is. Third, if he has to drink from a straw he will only drink from a thick straw. Because not all places have these thick straws, he keeps a supply of them in his car that he's collected, just like the Styrofoam cups, from restaurants that have them. Rarely does he drink from the can, but if he buys Coke that comes in the glass bottles, he will only drink from the bottle.

I know my dad won't mind me posting this because he's good humored and is use to his kids picking on him. My dad isn't the only one with an obsession like this. We all have our little obsessions and idiosyncrasies and it would probably be a rather dull world without them!