Sabbatical Watch 2008

After six long years at Genentech, Ken has finally earned his six week sabbatical. Ken took the first weekend and drove to BYU-ID graduation with his brother, Scott, and Zad and Sage. Unfortunately, they forgot to take the camera with them, so there are no pictures of their visit with his parents and grandfather from Chicago. His sister Katy drove over from Boise, and even his globe trotting brother, Todd, managed to make it all the way from Japan. Two general authorities spoke and the men were asked to wear white shirts and ties, so the whole thing felt more like stake conference than a graduation. Besides attending the ceremonies they were able to take in some exciting Rexburg nightlife. You know, a trip to the local frozen custard shop.

Beyond the graduation, the trip had plenty of memorable events. The air conditioning on the car went out in Nevada, and the battery warning light went on somewhere in Idaho. They managed to limp into Rexburg and change out the battery on their own, but it didn’t help. The auto parts store said the alternator was out, but there were no mechanics open on Saturday. They drove by a repair shop and saw that there were people inside and begged them to fix their car. They were really nice and fixed the burned out alternator belt in an hour and apologized for having to charge extra because it was Saturday, but were pretty sure it would have cost more than the $90 they charged including parts and overtime labor.

Number two, don’t speed in Idaho; we’ll leave it at that.

Not all of the excitement was unfortunate, however. They all got to meet Eric’s fiancée Lacy and her family. We now look forward to seeing the whole gang again in the fall at the wedding. Let’s all hope with a little less car related drama this time, especially since this time we’ll be taking my car.