Baseball, Cucumbers, Pioneers, and The Dark Knight

Big week this week, and fortunately lots of pictures. Starting at the beginning Carrie and I went to the Royals game on Monday and had some great seats. My company rented the Dugout suit and it felt like we we right on the field. Sadly, that was the nice the Royals were blown out 19-4. Still, I we had a great time. Now the pictures. view from the suit.
another suite view
File this one under ," I never win anything so when I win something no matter how small I make a big deal of it." The Royals had folks throw out T-shirts and I caught the one that was thrown into our dugout. I like to think it was because I completely charmed the girl throwing out T-shirts, Carrie thinks otherwise and since she isn't writing this post her viewpoint will remain silent.

On to the next subject and that's Cucumbers. I was out picking them from our garden the other day and I had noticed that one cucumber had escaped my usual harvest for several weeks, and got just huge.

Yup, that's 12 inches of home-grown cucumber.
And there goes 12 inches of home-grown cucumber.
Those were the three cucumbers I harvested that day and how large they are in relation to Cami...who wasn't really certain what Daddy was trying to do.

No general Cuteness. We celebrated Pioneer Day with the family this week by eating hot soup and walking in the blazing heat. What better way to commemorate those who suffered so much for the gospel to go out and voluntarily suffer a little ourselves. Seriously, we did have a good time and some good pictures.

This has nothing to do with Pioneer day, but Cami has started playing with her Doll House and it's really cute.
Cami's first taste of Watermelon...she's a big fan.
Cami with cousins Ethan, Madison,Spencer, and Peyton. This is about 1/3 of the actual Cousin photo but it's the only one on our camera so here it is. We have tons more pictures from Pioneer Day because Cami was in a particularly good mood. I'm sure those will be posted as soon as we get them off the other camera.

So that about wraps up the week, but before I wrap this up I want to say a few words about, "The Dark Knight". I have some minor spoilers in here, very minor, so if you want to go in with a fresh take don't read further. I went on Friday and It's now Saturday and I'm not sure what to think. In a sense I loved it, it was a perfect action movie, the pace was quick and it moved rapidly from one awesome scene to the next. It had me sucked in from the first minute.

If I have a problem it's that the acting was almost too good. The Joker is perfect, everything you've read is true and more. The only question I have is is the Joker a character worthy of a perfect depiction? Comic book villains are one thing, but I believe that this Joker was actually a twisted mass murderer with no personal motivations other than fulfilling his own twisted sense of fun through murder and general chaos. It bordered on disturbing, so I am left conflicted as I am in awe of how "real" they made this otherwise cliche villain but horrified that someone could even think of an individual so twisted.

What really surprised me about the movie was how much I liked Harvey Dent, and how much his fall to become Two-Face was disheartening. I thought his performance was on par with the Joker's. Couple that with Christian Bale turning in the same sort of performance as in the first move and this movie was really well acted, but almost too well acted because of the subject matter. Even though this is a movie about a comic book the subject is fighting crime in a city riddled with corruption, and how that fight can escalate to incredible levels that it only reaches in comic books.

This is not one for the kiddos, but it's not a bad movie. Just go expecting an action/suspense/horror movie because this movie contains elements of all three. If you're not in the mood to watch all three than go see something else, If you're looking for a traditional Superhero movie go see Iron Man. But if you are in the mood for a triple threat movie that is as well done as it gets, even if you are not into Superhero movies than this is the one to see.

Family update

We have been a little short on Cami pictures that don't involve swimming. Here is a small sampling of what we've taken lately following by a breif family update. Cami has been growing so fast, we figured driving was the next logcal step.
Cami and Mommy, awww.
Cami with her friend Tommy. Sleepy babies.

During one of her many attempted jail breaks.
Daddy does try to feed me sometimes.
go ahead, hide behind the flower. I see the mess you made.

Fourth of July, sometimes you realize that either Mom or Dad is taking all the pictures and you need a decent family photo.

Cami loves her freedom.

Whew. That makes me feel better. Most of the time I feel pretty bad about filling our blog with line upon line of text when we have perfectly good Cami pictures to post which of infinately more interesting. Anyway, Here's the quick hit update on what the Diggins Family is upto

What We're doing: Clipping Coupons and Square Dancing

Carrie has been learning how to clip coupons like a champ! I've kind of gotten into it myself, there are all kinds of blogs and Web Sites on how to do crazy things like feed your family of four for under $1000 for the year. I love the concept, although I'm pretty sure that that family of four LOVES Raman noodles. Still I'm pretty impressed with the deals so far, $3.25 for a case of paper at Office Depot ( a whole 10 ream case) and then $30 coupons redeemed at our last Target trip. It's not bad for starters and most importantly it's been kind of fun to try and see where you can find savings.Square Dancing was a brief moment at our ward Pioneer Day party where we were able to have someone watch Cami for a few minutes while we enjoyed some good country fun! Not much to report on here except it's nice to have a moment to dance with my wife uninterrupted, even if the dancing is mildly ridiculous.

What we're reading: Various

I finished The Foundation this week and started in on Foundation and Empire by Isacc Asimov. Halfway through the book it is not quite as clever as the first book. The Foundation series deals with events over a long period of time so it comes off as more of a collection of short stories around a theme than a series of novels. The first book had some really clever twists that I never saw coming but the second book hasn't matched the first , even though I am enjoying it. Concurrently I am also reading "The Ten Day MBA" by Steven Silbiger. It's a nice overview of the sorts of things they teach you in buisiness school, the kind of book where you have to check how many pages are left in the chapter while you are reading it and reminding yourself that ,"I really want to read this book". It's more of an exercise in self improvement than a pleasure read. It is a ton of information to digest but I am getting some good things out of it like thinking more critically about my business, realizing that I don't want an MBA, and probably never again trying to read an glorified text book for fun. For all of that I am grateful. This week Carrie started a book called "The purrfect murder." a book about a cat that solves crime. Carrie only picked this up because the books by the mystery auther she wanted were out and I handed this to her as a quick ssubstitute. It soon both dawned on us that this is the kind of book crazy people read just before the cops bust in and arrest them for keeping 100 cats in there 600 square foot apartment. Needless to say she put it down about 25 pages in and went on to more worthwhile purrrrsuits ( get it...crazy book about cats, purrrsuits...I am so awesome).

What we're watching: Picture This! the made for TV Movie on ABC Family starring Ashley Tisdale of High School Musical fame. I think I just lost most of you after that sentence. Every couple has some querkie things that they do and we watch bad made for TV movies, primary the ones that involve high school related plots. It must stem from our mutual love for Saved By The Bell, but needless to say we were expecting a bad movie and were not disappointed. I weep for today's youth. A mostly good bunch of kids that has to endure this type of crap from the media telling them that this is what they should act like. Here's the plot summary, every bad high school related movie you've ever watched on this one centers around camera phones. It's like some producer at ABC family came up with the bright idea that if they actually wrote the plot around enough LG phones then the company would pick up the tab for the movie and they wouldn't even have to pay the Tisdale girl the insane money she's asking for. As an informertial the movie worked ( I actually liked the phones) but as a movie please do not approach unless you are out to make your kids noticably dumber or you share that same complusion we have to watch bad High School movies.

Stuff Chris Likes....

Right now Carrie is taking a nap and I am watching the baby in our computer room thinking," gosh I haven't blogged in a while." Since It's critical that Cami stay in this room and away from our poor recovering Peaches* I figure I'll let everyone know a few things that I've really been liking lately.

*Important Side note - Peaches was hit by a car this week. For those of you who are not familiar with our cat Peaches his life has been all sorts of complicated over the past year. After the move and the birth of Cami, Peaches has been living in our garage as an outdoor-only cat with access to the garage via a little kitty door. He has adapted well for the most part, he's become friendly with the neighbors and only sits outside our door and meows for attention on occasion. Regardless, this Wednesday we came back from Dinner at Carrie's folks to our neighbors letting us know Peaches was hit by a car. Carrie found him in some bushes fairly bloody and dragging his left leg behind him. So I collect Peaches, put him in his kitty carrier, and drive him to the emergency pet clinic thinking he's about to be put down. Well, a couple of hours go by and apparently Peaches has no broken bones or vi sable organ damage, so we decide to leave him overnight as see where he's at in the morning. Long story short - three days with the vet and he's really bruised up and limping but has no broken bones or damage that won't heal on it's own. So Peaches is back inside and looking better everyday, just as long as we keep a certain very mobile very curious 8 month old as a safe distance. Anyway...slightly sad story with a little bit better ending, not the best way to start a post about things I like...oh well.

1. Science Fiction - Yup that sound coming through your computer is the nerd alert. Don't be alarmed, it went off for me for a few days when I started this crazy science fiction habit but I've since learned to ignore it. Carrie and I have recently discovered the wonders of the public library and have had a blast taking Cami and getting new books. I started out by renting a Golf book, Tales from Q Schools, a fairly manly topic. But then my eyes caught a glimpse of Ender's Game and I realized I had not read that one and I had been meaning to. So I started reading that one and it began a chain reaction that is still going. In the last three weeks I've plowed through Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow ( Brad Fellows, If you're reading this I still have your book buddy! Give me a call.) ,Dune, A Brave New World, and I'm half way through The Foundation. This may not be many books for some, but for me this is practically a new record. Right now I'm just sucked into reading Science Fiction classics, I don't know how far this addiction will carry me, but I will let you know how it ends. (BTW here are 3 second opinions - Ender's Series - LOVED Them, will read sequels to both books, Dune - Amazing, stunned by the level of detail,will read sequel, A Brave New World - Horrible, I don't like any of the characters and WAY too preachy/pseudo-intellectual. The Foundation - So far so good.)

2. Cucumbers - Our Cucumber plant is the first in our garden to really start churning out the Veggies. Our Garden is doing about 100 times better then I thought it would. Still, after harvesting the first couple of cucumbers and eating them with some Ranch ( ohhhh yeeeaaaahh) It occurred to me that I don't regularly buy cucumbers and I might have too many for our purposes. That was until I found the best cucumber recipe ever. They call it Hungarian Cucumber Salad, but if I had to rename that sucker, and I will, I will call it Quick Pickles!

Here's what you do, take two medium cucumbers, skin them, and slice into rounds as thin as you can get them. Place rounds evenly over a plate, sprinkle with salt ( If you have to layer then sprinkle each layer with salt) Then take another plate and place it on top of your plate of cucumbers, put a 5 lb weight on top of the new plate. Set for 40 minutes ( This is to drain as much water as you can) Before removing the top plate drain the water. Then pat your cucumber slices dry with paper towels.

In the Meantime, prepare in a bowl 1/2 Cup water, 1/4 cup Vinegar (white), a pinch of sugar and a pinch or garlic powder. mix briefly. Put your dry cucumber slices in the vinegar mix quickly and refrigerate for 2 hours.

This is very simple but VERY tasty and takes our excess cucumbers and turns them into a nice snack that tastes like a light pickle. It's also a nice side dish for a BBQ or ward pot-luck if you have a ton of cucumber.

That's about all for now, I also really like the new American Gladiators, Our Ice Cream Gun, and Swimming but I will spare your the blog on those. I hope everyone is having a great summer. leave us a comment and let us know how you're doing. Take care!

More Swimming Pics

This week, Chris took a couple of days off and we went swimming at Grandpa & Grandma Rowe's house. Cami LOVED splashing around in the water & we thought it was very cute. She also like playing peek-a-boo with Dada as he went under the water and popped out. Here they are! In the second one, you can see her little teeth really well.