Travel Plans

Hey everyone. I wanted to post our holiday travel plans for your reference.

Arrive (Southwest):
Thursday, December 22, 7:35 PM

Depart (Southwest):
Wednesday, December 28, 2:25 PM

We are looking forward to seeing everyone!

--Nathan

Judith and Holofernes

I'm a bit surprised I've received so few comments concerning Nate'’s claim that I have “a thing for severed heads. Unfortunately, I can'’t completely deny that statement. There are many interesting myths involving severed heads that I (for some strange reason) like to research. I will try to somewhat explain this odd fascination.

The story that Nate mentioned is the apocryphal tale of Judith and Holofernes. Judith was a respected and beautiful Israelite widow of the town of Bethulia. Bethulia was besieged by the Assyrian general Holofernes, and Judith volunteered to save her town from destruction. She then dressed in her finest apparel, enlisted the help of her maid, and marched to the enemy camp. There she told Holofernes she knew Bethulia was lost, and, in hopes that she would be spared, she would inform him of the town'’s vulnerabilities. Because Holofernes was entranced by Judith'’s beauty he allowed her to stay in the camp and made plans to seduce her. While dining with Judith, Holofernes became incredibly drunk, and in this state Judith beheaded Holofernes, and escaped with the head to her village. Without their leader the Assyrian army was in chaos and abandoned Bethulia. Judith was declared a hero and revered for the remainder of her life for single-handedly saving the village from the Assyrians.

The story of Judith and Holofernes is interesting because although Judith saves her village and is declared a hero, the victory is accomplished through the ambiguous means of seduction and deceit. As you can imagine, artists struggled with how to depict Judith. Who was this woman that was capable of murdering a general? And perhaps more importantly, what does a male artist make of a woman capable of beheading a man?

Here's Botticelli's Judith. Her maid carries Holofernes' head . Does this elegant, graceful Judith look like she has the strength, not to mention the guts, to kill Holofernes? Not really - maybe that's what made her such a threat.

Here's Michelangelo's Judith and her maidservant from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. There are some obvious similarities between the story of Judith and Holofernes and the story of David and Goliath. I think Michelangelo plays up that comparison with the inclusion of an enormous head.

Caravaggio's Judith Slaying Holofernes is one of my favorites. I think her childlike innocence and ridiculous stance are Caravaggio's attempt to tame Judith. In this image, Caravaggio seems to say that Judith is incapable of violence unless she is guided and nearly completely controlled by her God. I had to include one of Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes. What makes this violent image (and this isn't even her most gruesome depiction) so interesting is that it was painted by a woman, and her Judith definitely looks like more of a threat.

All of the images that I've posted so far are from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. But the story of Judith and Holofernes has a long life. Just image what Freud does with this story in the early 20th century. I'll conclude with this very interesting image of Judith slaying Holofernes from a Gothic manuscript. I love Judith's angry face. And so, yes, I get excited every time I discovery a Judith and Holofernes I've never seen before.

Them's fightin' words

Normally, I would respond to a blog post with a comment, but this is Cheerios, which happens to be one of the best cereals out there. What are your alternatives? Basically it comes down to Grape Nuts (a.k.a. Quarry) and Shredded Wheat. So if you would rather eat one of those cereals, be my guest. Cheerios is a lot better than those Captain Crunch Berries that Aaron always ate, or Coco Roos that Jenny lived on while at the Elms. They have been around for 50 years! I went onto the web and here is what I found:

Cheerios -- the #1 cereal among toddlers -- has been trusted by moms and loved by toddlers for generations.

Trust Cheerios for your toddler

Cheerios...

* is recommended by 4 out of 5 pediatricians who recommend finger foods for toddlers.
* has only 1 gram of sugar per serving.
* provides 8 essential vitamins and minerals, including iron and folic acid.
* has no artificial colours or flavours.
* is made with whole grain oats and is a good source of fibre.
* helps develop motor skills because the O's are easy to pick up, firm and resist crumbling.
* tastes great and is fun to eat!

You can feel good about serving Cheerios cereal to your toddlers and your whole family. Visit Good Nutrition Building Blocks to learn more about the importance of eating right from the start.

Cheerios: Food or Foe???

I had a funny experience today...
I was waiting in line at the Home Depot & Savannah, as always, was climbing all over the shopping cart. I grabbed a couple of Cheerios (plain, not honey nut, mind you) from my bag & handed them to her.
The lady behind me mumbled something and, after realizing she was talking to me, I asked her to repeat herself. She proceeded to tell me that I should stop feeding my child these "metabolic disturbers" and start feeding her REAL food.
So, Nate, I don't know what kind of "food" you've been eating every day for breakfast for the last 10+years, but you may want to rethink the disturbing effect it may be having on your metabolism...

Entertainment System

You may have heard that Jim has an incredible entertainment theater room in their basement. It's a fairly large room, all painted in maroon. The back half of the room is on an 8 inch raiser that holds three chairs. The front half of the room holds a huge futon. They have a video projector that projects movies onto the maroon wall, which works surprisingly well. A maroon curtain hangs against the back wall where the DVD player, VHS player, and receiver are housed. You can access the equipment and the wiring from the utility room behind the theater room. They have the three front channels, two satellite speakers, and a subwoofer. The whole system really is fabulous. They're currently having problems getting the component video to work. The blue channel isn't working and it's either due to the DVD output or the projector input. I couldn't figure out which. In the meantime, they're using standard coaxial video. Peggy made us popcorn, and we turned the sound up nice and loud. It really makes movies a lot more fun to watch.

Minneapolis

We're back from a long drive to Minnesota to see the cousins. We had a great time this weekend, and Jim and Peggy are great hosts. Here is what to look forward to when vacationing at their home: (1) Sleeping in until 10 am; (2) nights watching movies in the home theatre (3) followed by relaxing in the hot tub; (4) one of the coolest guest bathrooms on the planet; (5) free art museums; (6) good eatin'; (7) and their total undivided attention. To Peggy, Jim, and family, should they be reading this, a huge thanks for a great weekend!

We didn't get a ton of pictures, but here are a few. We found a great McDonalds, on the way. It was voted one of the nicest in the heartland. Not to worry, though, I stayed away from the McNuggets.

It really was a lovely McDonalds (if you're into fireplaces and Greek columns and that kind of thing.)

Charlotte posing outside the art museum.

Charlotte and her Care Bears listening carefully to conference.

Did I mention that JoLee has a thing for severed heads? No, really. We found this painting of Judith and Holofernes at the art museum in Minneapolis. JoLee wrote two papers about this apocryphal story while she studied at BYU. Yikes!

New Home

I think by now that everyone knows that we put money down on the lot and signed papers for about an hour. We're both feel good about it. I went up and saw the lot again and the trenches were cut for the foundation. It's fun to see exactly where it sits on the lot. When we can figure out how to post pictures on this blog we'll send them as things develop.

The completion date is March 10 and they have yet to meet a date-so it should be done by April 1. I like that better-we're not sure when to market this house and still have handyman stuff to do.

Sounds like everyone is having a fun conference weekend. We've had a great rest. I love conference and love all of you so much. What a wonderful family. All of you inspire me.

Goin' To Minnesota

JoLee and I are off to Minnesota today to visit uncle Jim. We'll be back on Sunday with plenty of pictures to post.

In other exciting news, Mom and Dad have found their new home, and it looks like it might be for real/rills this time. That means that this Christmas would be our last in our current home.

Apple Nano

I made a recent post regarding the coolness of the new Nano. Well, it turns out that many users are having problems with the LCD screens of their new toy. Specifically, the Nano is prone to scratching. I imagine that a recall is in the near future.

This isn't the first time Apple has had problems with the iPod. Some years ago, users found out the hard way that the battery in their first generation iPod was irreplacable. That meant they had to replace the whole unit instead of only the battery. It just goes to show that the latest and greatest is sometimes merely the latest.

Popular Blog

Hey everyone. It's been fun to get all these posts on the Blog. I'd like to welcome Jenny to the contributors list. I just wanted to mention here that we have now reached the point where we have posted more material than will be displayed on the blog. To access old posts, you'll have to use the archive links. Currently, there is only one archive link (September 2005). It is located at the bottom of the links section on the right hand side of the screen. Happy trails...

We're in California!

Hey Family!
Rod, Savannah & I are in California right now, having a BLAST!!!
When we arrived in San Francisco, Rod commented, "I forgot how nice weather can be!" So true...it's just great here.
We had a fabulous time on Sunday, celebrating Aaron's birthday with Brooke's family.
Yesterday, we visited Mamoo, Dad's office, "the property", and, of course, Sunflower Drive-In.
We had Savannah's pictures taken last week. If you want to see all of the proofs, you can check out www.yourkidsreally.com. Click on "your photos" and type in jennifer hinze. The pictures are pretty cute. I'm posting my favorite one here for you all to see. To me, this picture is SO Savannah. She seriously is the funniest kid ever.
Love you all tons!!!

Hoops and Yoyo

I just got out of a meeting with Yoyo from Hoops and Yoyo. He was hilarious. He showed us the first animation of H&Y. It was very, very simple. He made it in his basement in 2001. It was initially called the Yellow Bunny, but he said that he liked all the O's in Hoops and Yoyo.

I didn't get to meet Hoops. He has the more creative voice. Some of the ecards are done without any rehearsal. It's just made up on the spot. In the meeting we got to see H&Y out of character. There were some animations where they were mean and violent. They had us all laughing.

Anyway, if you ever want to learn more about them, here's the link: www.hoopsandyoyo.com.

Goodnight

I just want everyone to know that Savannah has broken the mold for perfect children. She is so much fun and has THE BEST parents, (and aunts, uncles and grandparents) of any child I know.
Seriously, I mean it and I am being totally unbiased.

Aaron was celebrated to the point of exhaustion. We had one last hurrah at Lake Natomas on Family night. Happy 33rd, Aaron. #32 was a banner year for you-with a nice, complete ending.

The Amazing Omaha Zoo

Before we went to St. Louis Nate and I took a trip to Omaha (yes, we are all about visiting mid-western cities). This was our end-of-summer trip before I went back to school. In all of these picture we are at the Henry Dorley Zoo, which just might be the coolest zoo in the country, and I've been enumerating its wonders ever since we got back.

In this first picture, Nate and I are standing in the horribly long line waiting to get into the zoo. The long wait was not a waste because we had a nice chat with the group behind us in line. They happened to be from Overland Park too, and they were at the zoo with their grandsons. They were kind enough (understatement - they were from Kansas the niceness capital of the world) to take this lovely picture.















The Omaha zoo has a huge collection of cats. Here I am being watched by a lioness.




















The zoo had a really great penguin exhibit with many species of penguins. They had Little Blue Penguins from New Zealand and Blackfoot Penguins from Africa, but the best was the large exhibit of Arctic penguins. The penguins featured in this picture are King Penguins. They are the second largest penguins; only the Emperor Penguin is larger. (FYI: After watching the penguin movie I became a little too curious about penguins. I was rumored to have been looking up websites about them in my spare time.)















The zoo also has a pretty cool aquarium. Here I am with all the jellies.




















The Henry Dorley Zoo has the largest indoor rainforest in North America. It's divided into Asian, African, and South American sections. Here I am in front of a waterfall. Props to Nate for taking such a nice picture. We saw a lot of animals in the rainforest, but I decided not to include the picture of the sloth.

Our favorite part of the zoo was the Nocturnal Exhibit, where it was too dark to take pictures. The animals' day and night cycles are reversed so all the animals are active during the day. We saw lots of bats, a bunch of wallabies, and tons of alligators. Also, we never knew that beavers could be so cool.

If any of you are interested I'm ready for another visit.

St. Louis

I told Nate that I would post some pictures from our temple trip to St. Louis. It's a really nice temple and we had a good time driving with fellow ward member Lexie Lockrow. She kept us very entertained discussing everything from Il Divo to the BYU Mustache club.















Obviously, it's a beautiful September day.















In front of the Temple (and the fountain.)




















We're on our way home.

Hope all of you are having a good time in California!

JoLee

The Hot New Toy

JoLee and I stopped by our local Apple store while walking through the Plaza last Friday Night. We wanted to check out the newest iPod which is called the Nano. I was wooed by it's design and functionality. If you haven't seen it yet, you're going to, because it's one cool toy. Here's an article that I thought hit the mark on their assessment of the Nano. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/19/BUGBPEO73N1.DTL

Posting a Profile Picture

Some of you have not yet linked an image to your profile. If you want to, you'll have to be tricky about it. Here's what you do.

1. Post a picture of yourself on this blog or some other blog.

2. After posting the picture, go to the blog and click on the picture. This should show a page with the PICTURE ONLY.

3. Copy the URL in the address bar. (It may look something like this: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/478/1589/1600/Top29-1.jpg)

4. Go to the dashboard and click on "Edit Profile".

5. Scroll down to the Photograph section and past in the URL.

6. Hit the save profile button.

Note: After you have posted the picture you can actually go back and delete the original post from the blog without loosing the linked image. This is because that web image is not deleted when you delete the post.

--Nate

Hi From Kansas

I just wanted to say hi since I'm the only one not part of the party this week. I hope everyone is having a good time. JoLee and I are looking forward to the holidays with you.

Bedtime

I guess it's time for me to go to bed. I've been pretty excited to see Rod, Jen and Savannah-haven't been able to sleep the last 2 nights. Welcome to California! Rod is the trooper -flying solo with Savannah. However I have to admire Jen for packing-sounds really hard. We are looking forward to visiting this week and it just is NOT complete without Nate and JoLee.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

A big Happy Birthday to Aaron! It looks like you had a grand time going through your old stuff. I've got lots of old stuff in the garage-anytime-you are all welcome to browse.....(my little pony junk, dead computers, tyranno-toes, law school blue book tests,).....ANYTIME!