Jag kom hem från Salmon Arm, British Columbia på Mondag efter vistas med min brör och svägerska för en vecka. Det flyg var bra utan förseningar eller turbulens.

Jag hade mycka roligt med min släkt. Tony tillagade en stor mängd rökt lax en kväll och Jenny förberett en fantastisk potatissallad. Båda var de bästa jag någonsin har haft. Vi gick till en driving range, till en powow, till Revelstoke, och vi gjorde mycket shopping. Vi också spenderade tid i samhället på lokala butiker, på torget, och på restauranger. Mer än så dock, vi pratade, ibland fram till två på morgonen. Jag haft inte sett min brör för tio år även om vi naturligtvis har talat i telefon. Jag haft inte sett min kusin Greta för fyrtio år ock jag haft aldrig träffade sin make Gustav eller hennes son Tony. Det fanns mycket att ta igen.

Det var mycket trevligt att se min brorson och brorsdotter igen. De haft blir härliga ungdomar.

Jag ser fram emot att se dem alla snart igen…

Tony, Jenny, Greta, Gustav, från Finland.

Perry och Kathy.

Min brörsdotter Katrina med sin pojkvän Ryan.

Ryan, min brörson med Kathy, min svägerska och Katrina, min brörsdotter.

My son visited Shanghai over Christmas and Christmas symbols of the season (Christmas trees primarily) were prominent in his photos. It was hugely exciting for him, for his girlfriend, and, vicariously, for me. I’m thrilled that he has the opportunity to travel and was able to meet his girlfriend’s family.

 

The kids are back to school and so am I. This year our second oldest child is a senior and his sister is a sophomore. Our youngest daughter is in sixth grade and our oldest child is beginning his senior year at Cornell University. I’m in my second year of a four year distance MBA through Colorado State University.

Fall in Phoenix is the promise of six months of weather to die for. We’ve suffered the triple digits since May but the decline in temperatures has begun: by October the AC will be turned off and the breezes will actually feel cool! I grew up near Vancouver, BC. in Hatzic. My wife grew up in Edmonton AB. I’ve lived in temperate, extremely cold and now, extremely hot climates–I think I like temperate best.

My first course this academic year is ”Leadership and Motivation” and one of our texts is the book by Jim Collins, ”Good to Great,” about exceptional leaders who were instrumental in leading good companies to be truely great companies. Collin’s methodology alone is fascinating reading. His thorough research lends credence to his findings concerning what he calls ”level 5″ leaders. I won’t spoil anyone’s read but for those involved in leadership the book is a must.

It’s another rare drizzly, dreary, day in Phoenix. For the first time in years we’re approaching normal, annual, precipitation.

Since it is the perfect day for hot soup, fine music and a good book but my reading is limited to the IT Management text for my current course I’ll have to settle for fine music and entrust my stomach to whatever my better half prepares for dinner. I’ve been slow to catch on to the vocal work of Cecilia Bartoli but she is really amazing–well worth a listen!

Today was also the day for our permanent residency interview in Phoenix. Our petition was approved.

It’s another rare drizzly, dreary, day in the desert SouthWest For the first time in years we’re approaching normal, annual, precipitation.

Since it is the perfect day for hot soup, fine music and a good book but my reading is limited to the IT Management text for my current course I’ll have to settle for fine music and entrust my stomach to whatever my better half prepares for dinner. I’ve been slow to catch on to the vocal work of Cecilia Bartoli but she is really amazing–well worth a listen!

(edited at the request of the ubereditor)

Wow! It’s almost Christmas!

Well, practically… December anyway.

”Put up the Christmas tree, put up the Christmas tree Daddy,” chants Hannah, my ten year old daughter plaintively (or is that relentlessly?).

Went for a couple mile walk this evening with my daughter and son. It’s been raining for the whole weekend and the clammy, chill was invigorating–one of those special treats when you live in the desert. I carried an umbrella, my daughter skipped in the rain clad in sneakers, a kangaroo jacket and gym shorts. My son ran most of the first mile in the opposite direction until he finally met up with us again and we then we walked together through two blocks of densely illuminated Christmas displays–everything from Snoopy to the Three Wise Men. All in all, a moment with a unique magic of its own. ya-had-ta-be-there!

My accounting course is winding up. Earlier this evening I finished up a lecture on GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and on the scope and implications of the Sarbanes Oxley act. Pretty interesting stuff. SOX as Sarbanes Oxley is disaffectionately known, was mostly lopped off at the knees as it never addressed the prime issue of corporate dysfunction–shareholder’s signing over voting proxies to management who are thusly empowered to drive their own agendas including appointments to respective boards of directors who are in actuality supposed to be, mandated to be, holding management’s feet to the fire in the interest of the shareholder–right! Instead we’ve got mountains of minutia about internal controls even though internal controls were never the central issue with World Com or Enron or Qwest or —————-(supply corporation name here) debacles. They did hit on the issue of auditor independence though which is promising.

(By the way, the CEO signing off on the financial report thing? — no biggy. They were alwasy accountable. This requirement may help establish a slightly more direct link of accountability but it’s no innovation.)

Anyway, the foregoing comprises half of my answer to one of the questions on my final exam concerning the SOX act. Good for 18 points!

It’s still drizzling outside. Sometimes I wonder why I ever left Victoria! Oh well, if I hadn’t I never would have met my lovely wife and had the blessing of raising these exact, 4, wonderful children. Sometimes though I wish I could rope them all into a comfortable, fireplace-warmed, lodge on the North Shore of Vancouver or Greater Victoria and enjoy drizzle, snow, and cedar scented breezes for the remainder of my natural life. Maybe when pigs fly.

end of blog.

My son (see elliottback.com ) nagged me last night for an update so here it is! What do you say when you don’t think you have anything to say? I guess you say it so that readers can have the privilege of forming that judgment for themselves.

Ah, what a delightful textbook!

I purchased the softcover, imported from Singapore for half of the American price. Why oh why doesn’t a digitized copy come with textbooks today? There ought to be a public demand for the advantages of ”cut n’ paste” notetaking; ”easy highlighting” etc.

I’ve tried to keep my own copy of this text in pristine condition in the hopes of a quick resale after the course (providing they don’t change the text) but as the covers (soft, remember) have begun to crinkle and curl I suppose I might as well give in and ink it up a little.

Now, being new to blogging, I wonder, is rambling permissible within this genre? How about tangentiality? Overinclusiveness? Or, are all the sins of thought and speech fair game?

I took two days off this week to get re-fingerprinted for the final process of our I-485 (green card) petition and to get caught up in my reading and lectures for my accounting course www.biz.colostate.edu/mba/distance/distance.htm. A week’s worth of lecture arrives a few days after the Monday evening class at CSU and I am two weeks behind (including homework). Our group project has just been announced and I need a clean slate to begin with that on Monday. Sufficient to say ”TTFN.” I’ll deliver a progress report at the beginning of the week!