My brother-in-law Paul is a character. The first time we met was at my home for a Sunday dinner. We were both standing in the kitchen, getting ready for dinner, looking out the window when he casually said, "Jim, there's nothing like a cold beer and a thick, juicy steak, and this is nothing like a cold beer and a thick, juicy steak." It cracked me up.

Recently Paul and I were standing next to each other at the wedding of his brother, Hyrum. Neither of us knew the bride very well. When the minister said, "Sandra, do you take Hyrum......" Paul turned to me and said, "Sandra, I thought her name was Debra?" We both broke up laughing and sustained many sharp looks.

Right now Paul is living on a farm out in southwest Salt Lake County and going to the University of Utah full time. His wife works and the responsibility to take care of the farm animals has fallen to him. They haven't lived on this farm long, but Paul seems to like it. They have horses, chickens, ducks and who knows what else.

A few months back one of the ducks decided that she wanted to live indoors and started pecking at the back door. Paul let her in and ever since she is part of the inside family. Recently she became a mom with several little ducklings following her around the yard. And into the house. She has taught them the joys of being house ducks. Even more bizarre, these baby ducks have adopted Paul as their parent, too.

This situation has complicated Paul's life. When he leaves them alone they "freak out" according to Paul. So he doesn't like to leave them for long. Attending school became problematic. What to do with the ducklings? Paul's sister, Lilly, works at the University in the tuition department. Her job doesn't require interaction with the public. Paul convinced her to watch the ducks while he attended class. They fit into a box and she kept it under her desk. As long as the ducklings could see her legs, everything was fine.

Paul is also a qualified EMT. As he drove through the University Campus a while back he noticed a gathering of people on the side of the road. He stopped, grabbed his EMT bag and approached the crowd. He asked what was going on.

Well, it seemed that these people had witnessed some ducklings that had fallen into a storm drain. Paul said, "l just happen to have some ducks in the car." So, he grabbed his little duckling family and threw them into the storm drain. They rounded up the other ducklings, found an exit and performed a rescue. All the little ducks came to Paul, including the strays.

Paul was not greeted warmly by his sister that morning when he arrived with 11 ducklings. Lilly's reaction was, "Paul, this has got to stop!" He explained the situation and was given one more day to make "other arrangements."

This summer the ducks have grown considerably. I saw Lilly yesterday and she said that the morning of the eleven was the last time she saw the ducks. She told me that Paul has adopted three more ducklings, bringing the total to one momma duck and 14 babies........
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