The Dahl Clan: Now Showing in HD!

Lately, if you ask Mark how he's doing, he'll tell you that he's feeling rejected! (Not by me, of course!) He's been receiving rejection letter after rejection letter in the mail from the law firms he's applied to and even interviewed at. He's beginning to worry that he won't even find a job for his second summer internship. So, on Friday night, we decided to go look around at Target and see if there was anything that we could buy that would make him feel better. (We would've gone for a walk, but it was raining!) So, we ended up buying a box of Whoppers for Mark, but that didn't quite seem to do the trick to cheer him up.

We thought about going out to a movie, but then I said that we probably shouldn't spend money on seeing a movie unless it was a matinee showing because it's just expensive unless you can wait to be able to rent them. So we wandered over to Best Buy, and lo and behold, after much deliberation- convincing back and forth on both parties, we left the parking lot with a brand new Samsung 46" LCD HD TV. Yep, we totally broke-down and bought one. Mark has been wanting one for a long time...say, the last 2 years...and I kept telling him that we couldn't buy one. Turns out, I was the one that was trying to convince him to buy it in the end.

So, Friday night we got it all set up, with the help of our neighbor Heather Stoutenburg...and we were able to throw a really awesome BYU Football party for the game against UCLA. It would've been better if all the couples that said they would come were able to make it...or even if UCLA had actually played in the game and made it worth watching. Granted, we were happy that BYU won...even totally creamed their opponent, but we were expecting it to be a good game- not a blow-out! 59-0

While at Best Buy, we saw they had a new product called a DVD Upconverter. It takes the DVDs that you already own, and converts them to "near HD quality." I was a little skeptical, but it was less than $80, so we bought one to go with our new TV. We didn't want all of our old DVDs to go to waste with the new HD TV. Honestly, we're really excited about our purchase. So, after the game we watched a movie with those few who didn't feel the need to leave yet. I tell you, it really does make a difference.

I should also mention another very significant bit of history that Mark and I were able to participate in. Frankly, it may not affect us by the time it's completed, but it's still very exciting for the Church in this area. Saturday morning we attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Stake Center in Cambridge, MA. Within that last 25 years, the Church has grown from one ward to about 3 stakes. It's been a huge growth, especially among different ethnicities in the area. So it was quite a treat to be there, sing in the choir, and shovel the dirt (instead of jack-hammer the concrete of the parking lot where we were) to celebrate this event. By the drawings, we can see that this building will be pretty big- 2 levels of underground parking, and an extra smaller chapel upstairs for the Spanish Wards.