Such a Day as This

Today the University of Utah celebrated ‘Employee Appreciation Day’. They decided to show us how much they appreciate us by spending a great deal of money on a party at the Olympic Park on the south end of Rice-Eccles stadium.

I attended the event with my good friend Coby and his employee Wade (also a friend). Right inside the first gate we found a new game. It consisted of two basketball backboard that were back to back. Two people would shoot baskets, facing each other while competing for 20 seconds. At the end of the 20 seconds the loser would get showered with water. I couldn’t step down from Coby’s challenge, so I stepped up and beat him by one basket.

After seeing Coby get drenched, and listening to him complain about baskets that he made that were not counted, we headed down to the field to kick a field goal. My kick was horrible. It peaked at about six feet before hitting the ground before it even reached the end-zone. I took solace in the fact that Coby’s kick was even more pathetic. After seeing our field goal kicking skills Utes coach Kyle Wittingham offered us full ride scholarships. He said that we were no worse than what he has currently. We politely declined before walking to the north end of the field to kick a soccer goal.

My goal clanged off of the left pole. But again I was no worse off than Coby, who sailed his shot well over the crossbar. Coby took a second shot and scored, but I decided not to re-kick. I had to let my friend beat me at something.

Before we made it to the food line for some pizza Coby challenged me to a rematch in the basketball. Once again he found himself soaked. I explained to him that a shooting contest with me is a losing proposition. We Shirleys are all endowed with soft shooting hands, except for Jeff, who couldn’t carry my jock. Still, Coby would grizzle about losing to me for the rest of the day.

After work tonight my friend Elisa and I went over to the Eccles broadcast building and volunteered to KUER’s fund drive. Our department has selected several service projects to support, and this was one of them. Our staff have volunteered for shifts taking donations by phone during the next week’s fund raiser. I had never been in a radio station, and had a great time.

KUER is the local source for NPR with such programs as Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me and Car Talk. We sat in a room adjacent to the broadcast booth, and could hear the hosts.

Steve Williams, who hosts Nighttime Jazz on the station came out to visit with us before taking over the boards. The subject of RadioWest tonight was strange baby names, specifically here in Utah. At the end of the show, the producer, in her last pitch for pledges thanked us volunteers by reading our names and ending with “…and Chris Shirley, who has informed me that in regard to baby names he wanted to name his first daughter Laverne Ann.” It was nice to hear her mention me over the air, but I hope that wasn’t my fifteen minutes of fame, since it only lasted 10 seconds…

Here are some recent family pictures that we had taken. All I have to say is: what a handsome bunch!