Tundra goes down for the count

Once again, the fuel regulator in the Tundra has failed. It was just a couple weeks ago that after spending $400 on new brakes and other repairs we had to turn around and spend another $200 getting the fuel regulator problem fixed.

Today while Vickey was running errands the truck died at the post office. So we ended up spending a couple hours with the truck, getting lunch, and waiting for a tow truck to arrive and take the Tundra back to the dealer.

I was home with the kiddies, doing usual Saturday chores, when Vickey called with her S.O.S.

We’ve got a few more afternoon hours then we’re headed to the CCSN Foundation Gala at Caesars Palace. It’s an annual fancy fund raiser for my client. Should be a fun night out for Vickey and me.

Well, we just got a call from the dealer that the truck is fixed. It was some type of hose that came off and wasn’t letting air into the engine, or something like that. So, there went about 4 hours of our Saturday for just about nothing.

Perhaps I should take an auto mechanic course so I can spot things like loose hoses or malfunctioning fuel gauges. Then again, perhaps not.

LANDesk acquired by Avocent

Yesterday my brother’s employer announced their acquisition by an Alabama based company named Avocent.

If you care to read it, here’s the press release.

Too bad Brian wasn’t one of the founders of LANDesk, he could take care of the whole family’s retirement.

MoTab Choir marks 4,000th broadcast Sunday

Believe it or not, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been on the air since July 15, 1929.

On Sunday morning it will air its 4,000th broadcast. Music and the Spoken Word is the world’s longest-running continuous network radio broadcast.

Sunday’s broadcast will include a taped message from President George Bush.

President Hinckley will make some remarks as well.

And to help celebrate, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman today declared April 30, 2006 "Mormon Tabernacle Choir Day." I'll have to dust off my black velvet suit and bowtie in honor of the special day.

Read the story in today’s Deseret News.

Smell the desert flowers

I promised Grandma Codella I’d post some images of the flowers she planted during her visit last spring. It took a full year for them to grow and bloom and they’re sure pretty this year.

Thanks, Grandma!



Also, you may notice that Eliana’s wearing her new princess shoes. These were her reward for sleeping through the night for five nights. It took her a couple months to make it that long. There’s another prize, a flute, waiting for her once she repeats the same feat. We’ll see how long it takes the second time.

American Idol: results website

Want to know how the voting went after last night’s American Idol?

ZabaSearch claims to have the voting results.

I’m not sure how they get the numbers, but they say Taylor, Chris and Paris are this week’s bottom three.

We’ll see who goes home tonight and if they’re right.

Girls have bad aim too

Vickey’s at a Pampered Chef retreat this evening (some of them are spending the night, but she’s not) and I just returned with the kids, the dog and the Coglianese kids (along with their babysitter) from a walk around the neighborhood.

Eliana has an hour to get ready for bed and watch some of her movie de jour and snack on popcorn (her almost nightly ritual). In the process of getting ready for bed, she went to the bathroom. When she was done, she came out and asked me to ‘come look at something in the bathroom.’

There I found a quarter cup of yellow liquid on the floor and running down to the base of the toilet. I have never understood why sometimes when she pees it goes anywhere but into the toilet. I thought only boys were capable of such misguidance.

Speaking of misguidance, as I took my obligatory leak upon arriving home from my workday, just as I was finishing up, the button on my pants fell off into the toilet. I had to fish it out with a slotted spoon from the kitchen. I won’t describe the spoon so you’re not grossed out if you’re ever over for a meal and the same spoon is used to serve your vegetables. Don’t worry, I’ll sterilize it in the dishwasher.

I’m keeping my pants on now using a safety pin. If I relied on Vickey’s willingness to sew the button back on, I’d forever be wondering when the safety pin would fail and pierce me. But not to worry, on my mission I overcame the fear of the needle and thread. Guess that’s something they don’t do in Fiji (where Vickey served), only in Ogden.

And for when Vickey reads this and feels it necessary to defend herself, I’m not being critical. I’m just offering an observation of who’s willing and capable of repairs involving needle and thread.

I’m sure there are plenty of things Vickey could site that she does and I don’t.

Anyway, if any of you have any suggestions for teaching a girl how to aim into the toilet instead of towards the toilet seat, floor or wall, I’d be much obliged.

Birthday wishes

Happy birthday to my nephew Carter and my office partner’s son, Mario. They share the same birthday, although they’re three years apart.

Carter, sorry we can’t be there to celebrate at Chuck E Cheese with you (but honestly, I won’t miss the food or noise).

Mario, we’ll look forward to the pool party tomorrow, especially Eliana.

Italian pastry mystery solved … kind of

Okay, so my mom emails (she’s a blog comment posting virgin) to say that Cappiello Dairy is the source for the much anticipated sfogliatelle. She usually makes a stop there before catching the Southwest non-stop flight from Albany to Las Vegas (yeah! Southwest). Believe it or not, frozen pastries wrapped in newspaper survive the 5 and-a-half hour plane ride quite well.

At any rate, I was excited to find Cappiello’s online only to discover that their online store really only sells mozzarella cheese at this juncture. Ugh!

I’m going to have to contact them to ask that they update their website. Maybe when I call they’ll kindly offer to ship my favorite pastry even though I can’t conveniently order it online.

Then again, if I searched, there are enough New Yorkers in Vegas that I’m sure I can find a pretty good local alternative.

He is Risen

Happy Easter!

Today in church we participated in the choir program about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was a good experience and ever so humbling to realize after all we can do we’re saved through the grace of the Savior of the World.

Here’s a link to an online Easter multimedia presentation from the LDS Church.

We are grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and all he has made possible for us to receive and benefit from.

Sfogliatelle: a family favorite

For those of you who have celebrated holidays and special occasions with the Codella extended family, you probably know of our affinity for Italian baked goods.

My brother has tried, unsuccessfully, to re-create Sfogliatelle.

Our favorite is from an Italian bakery in upstate New York (I can’t remember the name, maybe my parents can enlighten us).

At any rate, my uncle found this recipe and my aunt just forwarded it to me. It’s from the Food Network. The pastry isn’t the same, but I’ll bet the filling is.

But it’s the thin, crispy pastry that I really love. Maybe someday I’ll discover the secret. Until then, this may be a good homemade substitute.

Check out the Food Network recipe for Traditional Neapolitan Pastry Horn: Sfogliatelle.

Photo Op

Here are a few random photos from last month.

Eliana and Dominic wearing fire fighter hats Ellie got when she toured the Henderson fire station with her preschool group.


Grandpa Snow and Dominic take a snooze.


One of Eliana's cute looks.


Dominic at Grandma and Grandpa Snow's, clearly not happy at the moment.

FOX News: LDS Church grows in northeast

FOX News recently aired a segment on the growth of the LDS Church, one of the world’s fastest growing faiths, and reported on its 100% growth in the northeast U.S. over the past 20 years.

View the video online (click the link to view “Word Spreads”).

Apostle Russell Nelson marries

Elder Nelson married a BYU marriage and family therapy professor yesterday in the Salt Lake Temple.

Her name: Wendy Watson.

Elder Nelson’s first wife, Dantzel, died in February last year.

This is Watson’s first marriage.

It seems odd to see elderly folks getting married, especially for the first time.

But I say, if it makes them happy, good for them!

You can read what the CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City reported online.

And here’s a link to the Church’s official announcement.

Sommer remodeling

Some friends in our neighborhood, the Sommers, have created a website to display the progress of a large remodeling project they’ve undertaken this year.

The website is so outstanding that I just had to link to it. Check it out if you want to feel inferior in your amateur web design capabilities.

The Sommer Resort 2006 Expansion Project

The gardens at Bellagio

While both sets of grandparents were here in March to see my show, we took some time out to make a trip to the Bellagio gardens — a favorite stop when visitors are in town. We weren’t disappointed with their latest creation using pieces of a giant swamp tree from Florida along with hundreds of flowers and live butterflies. It was very cool!

We returned last night from a trip to visit family in Salt Lake. Vickey and the kids and Tank spent a week at the Snow’s in Holladay. I flew up for the weekend. We spent Saturday at Brian and Melissa’s and witnessed the transformation of their kitchen from white to green. In between conference sessions we had a little birthday celebration, complete with a Carvel ice cream cake for my mom, me and Carter (March/April birthdays within a month of each other), and played some games.

Then Sunday at the Snows we had another birthday celebration for Murriel (her birthday was yesterday) and me. We shared a delicious Normandy Café chocolate cake. And by the way, the Café de Normandie in Holladay (zip: 84117-5264, phone: 801-277-5244) is one of my all-time favorite bakeries. Actually, all their food is pretty amazing!

A highlight of the trip was the visit of Gordon and Murriel’s neighbors, Ted and Katharine. I was guarding Tank, trying to keep him off of the guests, and was told by them it was okay, that they were used to dogs and I could let him go so he could sniff them and say hi.

Innocent people frequently say it’s okay to un-restrain Tank because they’re used to dogs, but what they don’t understand is that they’re not accustomed to Tank and he’s very overzealous when it comes to saying hi.

At any rate, Katherine was seated in the rocker in the front room, holding Tank’s collar with her left hand and petting him with her right hand when all of the sudden Tank decided to leave her side and say hi to Ted. We all watched as Katherine refused to let go of Tank’s collar and began to be pulled out of the chair. In slow motion the chair gradually tipped over, scraping up the wall, and Katherine methodically sprawled out on the living room floor. But Tank was undaunted. He was leaving her to see Ted.

She finally got unhooked and was able to verbalize that her large wedding ring had got caught under Tank’s collar. She couldn’t get her hand free, and like I said, Tank didn’t mind. He just kept going.

Once the shock of watching an elderly woman be pulled off her rocker and halfway across the room by a weimaraner wore off, and we knew Katherine’s finger was still attached to her hand, we all began laughing almost uncontrollably, including Katherine. It was a surreal moment; a real-life situation lived out in slow motion.

Of course after that, I sequestered Tank (that lasted for about 3 minutes until he scaled the 3-foot fence and trotted off up the street) so we could visit in peace and everyone could stay in one piece.

On our drive home yesterday we had another episode that involved Tank rampaging through the Sequoia and me loosing my temper with him. But we won’t go into the details of that episode.

I’m coming to the realization that Tank needs some professional help or we need to find him somewhere else to play.

Of course, my in-laws gave me a birthday card (it’s Monday if you’re planning to send gifts) with a picture of a weimaraner on the front. The dog’s so good looking, just like Tank. I put it on my desk at work and was reminded today of all the positive reasons we keep Tank around.

So, although I can’t guarantee the future, I’d say Tank’s home is still pretty secure … as long as he shapes up and listens up.