A Young Fish Swims into a Bar ...

... and the bartender asks "Shouldn't you be in school?"

One of my favorite experiences was when Mom discovered that her cousin had a missionary in Taiwan. That was a neat experience for me. We second cousins made sure we got together before we came home. (He married a church member from Taiwan and is a physician in Cananda now.)

Today at work, signs in the lunch room encouraged us to download the FamilySearch Tree app to our phone. (It is best if you turn GPS on). There is an option to see relatives that also have the application nearby.

President Nelson, Pope Francis and Rabbi Yahuda Krinsky Walk into a Bar ...

... And the bartender asks "What is this? Some kind of joke?"

Some kind of joke, yes.

Esther is 5 today! Gideon was able to visit and attend her party, and it was fun to see him. 

A Young Recovering Alcoholic Just Out of Law School ...

... resisted temptation and passed the Bar.

Way to go Dad! I edited it slightly, but I love it!

Quick note for Isaac: I just heard that Kori Anne Dryer just received a call to serve in the Italy Milan Mission.

Testimony meeting was really good today, and maybe the best part was that Miriam not only stayed for the entire meeting but also bore testimony. In fact, she was sitting with the Haruch family, and stood up at exactly the same time Andrew did to bear testimony. Way to go, Mirkat!

Small Town Boy

I found this short video about the how BYU is actually able to do volumetric imaging now -- super, super cool stuff. It is the next step beyond a hologram: like the image of Princess Leia that R2D2 displays.

Does anybody recognize the featured professor?

A Banana Walks Into A Bar ...

... full of ice cream, cherries and nuts and says "I think I better split."

That is a DVB original!

News items:

Missing Two Men

I have more "[enter person or thing here] walks into a bar" jokes, but I will skip it for this.

I thought I should pass a long the news that Keith Steindorf passed away Monday. I don't know if you remember him or not. He lived next to the Damitz family. He was a very nice fellow and I enjoyed talking to him the few times I did. I think Lucy rode one of his horses for Activity Days.

He had been in a nursing home for awhile, and just wasn't the same Keith.

A Tectonic Plate Stumbles Into a Bar ...

... knocking things over, and quickly apologizes, "Sorry! My fault!"

You're welcome!

Speaking of earth shattering news: I forgot to share a photo embarrassing myself. For the Nielson family candlelight Christmas party (which is what they usually call it every year, even though we typically leave out anything to do with candles), the theme was to dress as a favorite Christmas character:

Champion of the Whirled

I forgot to report on this, but Rachel's team won the Layton Tournament for her age group. Her team was remarkable in that most of the players understood what was going on, and about three or four of them were really good shooters. 

Rachel didn't contribute much, but she did contribute. In fact, in the championship game (which was pretty close) tiny Rachel came up with a couple of key rebounds, stole the ball once and played pretty good defense.

When Large Objects Collide

Last week the Fryers gave us an old refrigerator. Last Thursday, I borrowed the bishop's hand truck and walked it from Fryers to our house. Our old garage refrigerator leaks condensed water inside, so we thought we would replace it.

Andrew walked in front of me to help me stay on the sidewalk. I pulled the hand truck, resting the fridge mostly on my chest. Gideon stabilized and pushed coming up the hill. 

Christmas Plunder Part III

Argh! Tain't frustration free packin', matey!

Christmas Plunder Part II

Is Hannah showing me her gift, or trying to give it away?

Christmas Plunder Part I

I should share some photos from Christmas morning. My tease this year was that Santa's reindeer were all sick so Santa wouldn't be able to come. I thought it was believable because there is a 24-hour flu-like illness that has been slowing going through the family. Joshua was the latest victim, throwing up just yesterday but feeling fine today.

Andrew was super sick the day before Christmas with the aforementioned bug. Isaac and I gave him a blessing, and I blessed him to recover quickly, but not long after the blessing Andrew passed out in the bathroom and banged himself up a little bit before we could unlock the door and get him out. Kind of scary! 

So a Dung Beetle Walks into a Bar ...

... and asks, "Is this stool taken?"

You are welcome.

Not having a missionary out makes me lazy(er). There are a few news items I should share, and I will, I think, split them into two or three emails (and blogs), for easy consumption.

Images You Might Want to See

This took Andrew awhile to draw.

Hardware Wars

First a Sith Dishwasher, and now a Dark Lord of the Furnace. I am glad we are OK financially. If this continues, we won't be!

Dishwasher Death Wish

This is soooooo not worth a picture. But, I am sending one anyway. 

Do you recognize this space?

UPS Man, UPS Man

UPS Man

UPS Man

UPS Man hates Person Man

They have fight

UPS wins

UPS Man

Halloween Pics, Miriam's Birthday, Plus Some Non-Spooky Stuff

Unsolved Mysteries

1. What does Rachel think about this birthday present?

Education Incentives

First, I am sending this email to my newly revamped blog to see how it posts. It is the old Benge family blog that we stopped using years ago.

I have invited, Gideon, Isaac, Hannah and my wife to post on the blog if they wish. I simply ask that you only post things that 1) you want family to see, and 2) that you won't be too embarrassed about in the future. You may not want to ever post anything there.

Should I invite my younger children?

Also, I get a request to download .swf files every time I open it. Do you get that, too? Reply here or make a comment.

Anyway, I saw this today and my mind didn't separate these two businesses, which made me laugh at myself: