A short conversation in our home.

Patrick: Georgia! Why did touch that! What did you do with the little steel thing Georgia?
Georgia: I don't know.
Patrick: Georgia! What did you do with it! GALLL!
Georgia: Maybe it's down the vent.
Patrick: Georgia!
Me: Patrick who opened the Kit before we were ready to work on it.
Patrick: Me.
Me: Who put it on the table where the baby can get to it?
Patrick: Me.
Me: Why are you so mad at the baby.
Patrick: Because she lost the little steel thing.
Me: Move it some place!
Patrick: (moving to someplace where the baby can't get it)
Me: The coffee table Patrick? She can't get it off the COFFEE TABLE!
Patrick: Ok.
Me: Move it up high.
Patrick: Moving it up to the Kitchen counter.
Georgia: I can get to that.

Are you Happy?

Oh, I knew I liked Michael Medvid. This article on Happiness makes a whole bunch of sense. Clearly nobody can be happy all the time. Life is way to difficult for that to be. However, if you focus on yourself, and believe you have the ability to in choose to be happy, than you can be much of the time.

Don't hire me as a mechanic.

Ever take your car in to the shop to have it worked on, and the mechanic replaces something but it's not the right something that made you bring it in to him to begin with? So then he replaces another something? Maybe he gets it right the second time, and maybe he doesn't. This story isn't really all that familiar to me, I've always had a great mechanic in Utah (Caesar there in Provo). Unless I'm doing the work myself.

Suzi was complaining of horrible squeaking coming from the cars brakes. Metallic, grinding, painful to listen to inside the car. However, I never ride in that car so it's been easy for me to put it off. Finally I agree to get it done, run down to the parts shop pick up the new front brakes($24), and drive it into my buddy Mike's garage. He and I spend the night working on the car. It's nice to do something like that and save a bunch of money. Get a little dirty, use some tools that I haven't used in a while, pull out the tool box, drink some sodas, you know kind of manly stuff.

I thought by the sound of things I would have to replace the rotor, but it looked fine, felt fine, and I didn't really feel like doing it. We put the new brakes on with little to no problem. Goes fairly quickly except he and I are chatting and farting around while we get the job done.

We complete the job, and I backed the car out of the garage. Ahhhh, there's that feeling of accomplishing something kind of manly, you know working on your car getting dirty, and saving a ton of money. Like I said before. Hands are dirty brakes work good.

So he and I pull out of the drive way, and pull out on to the road. I speed up then hit the brakes to feel the new and improved brakes that I and Mike put in. For some reason brakes feel better when you put them in yourself. So I put down the petal hard and hear grind, scrape, and feel a little that little vibration through the brake petal that tells you something ain't right! Of course I'm thinking what the blankey blank is that!? Didn't we just fix that!? Mike says laughing "that's not coming from the front, that's coming from the back." We pull over look at the back right rotor and yep there's the problem. Yeah, the back.

Has anyone ever had to replace brakes in the back. I mean really, of course someone somewhere has, but how often....... Ugh. Well, it's this logic that got me to replace the wrong brakes.

Mike promised not to tell anyone that I had made this wrong diagnosis. It really wasn't a diagnosis, more of a wrong asumption. Anyhow, really you make a simple mistake like this on a kind of minor manly task, and it could hurt your "manlyness credibility" right. I'm just waiting to hear it from Suzi. She's problably gonna say something like "What do I need to fly my mom out here to teach you how to work on brakes." You know something low when it comes to my manly pride.

So he promises to keep it a secret, but to be honest it's after midnight here and I'm fairly certain he's called a couple buddies already to tell them.

I don't blame him. It would be hard not to.

Innocent until proven guilty?

I hate to put up this issue. So serious, but it's so fascinating to me. The whole race thing drives me nuts. It seems to be a never ended thing in this country, and I think that alone would make a good blog. This article from SI.com touches on both sides of the issue pretty well. Leaves out some big points, such as that the DA is possibly running for Mayor in this city. If you examine the demographics of the city it makes me wonder what else could possibly be going on here.

I will say that when this thing first broke I remember thinking this could go either way. It's was easy for me to picture both possibilities being true. The possibility that she could be a liar, or that they are dirt bags.

That makes me wonder why people get so far into one camp or the other right out of the gate. I'm curious did you jump to one conclusion, or the other? What makes one so sure of something without really having all the facts?

Read on:

Duke suspends accused lacrosse players, source says


Wednesday, April 19, 2006; Posted: 10:48 p.m. EDT (02:48 GMT)


Duke lacrosse players Collin Finnerty, left, and Reade Seligmann face rape and kidnapping charges.

DURHAM, North Carolina (CNN) -- Duke University has suspended two of its lacrosse players who were arrested Tuesday on rape and kidnapping charges, a source familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.
The suspension is effective until the case is resolved, the source said.
Reade Seligmann, 20, and Collin Finnerty, 19, are charged with raping an exotic dancer the Blue Devil lacrosse team hired to entertain at an off-campus party on March 13. Seligmann and Finnerty are each charged with first-degree sexual offense, first-degree forcible rape and first-degree kidnapping. (Watch what neighbor says about suspect -- 2:26)
Attorneys for Finnerty and Seligmann have maintained their clients are innocent.
Each has posted $400,000 bail and has been released, according to The Associated Press. (Watch as defense attorneys give a timeline of the night of the alleged crime -- 2:45)
Finnerty's attorney, Bill Cotter, said his client had returned home to New York, and police have searched his dorm room.
A student living in Finnerty's dorm said police came to Finnerty's and Seligmann's rooms Tuesday evening.
A woman in the Duke press office would not confirm the suspensions, but said, "Historically, it has been the university's practice to issue an interim suspension when a student is charged with a felony or when the student's presence on the campus may create an unsafe situation."
According to a Web site that Duke set up to address questions about the case, when a student faces serious criminal charges, the university can wait, usually at a student's request, to implement its disciplinary process until the case is resolved through the court system. The site adds, "In such an instance, interim actions may be taken."
Prosecutors had hoped for a third arrest Tuesday, but District Attorney Mike Nifong said "the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that."
Finnerty and Seligmann are scheduled to appear in court May 15. The prosecution must hand over its evidence to the defense at that time.
Sources close to the investigation have said that the two men are innocent and that they weren't at the party at the time of the alleged assault.
The defense will present evidence that a cab driver took one of the students to an ATM, where his photo was captured on a security camera, and that the other lacrosse player was at a restaurant, the sources said.
A medical examination of the 27-year-old woman showed signs consistent with sexual assault, but DNA samples taken from the players failed to match material collected by investigators, according to court documents and the defense lawyers in the case.
The defense attorneys also said photographs taken at the party show the woman was injured before she arrived.
The university has canceled the remainder of the lacrosse season, and head coach Mike Pressler resigned after 16 years. Duke last year reached the national finals, losing 9-8 to Johns Hopkins University.
Pressler stepped down amid comments by university President Richard Brodhead, indicating there was a "history of boorish behavior and underage drinking" among players.

Global Warming

I read this article somewhere, and I find it thought provoking. We humans tend to think a lot of ourselves, and our ability to affect the earth's climate. There are a couple things this article makes clear for me:

1st That a 25 second bit of news really doesn't truely inform a person on an issue.

2nd I clearly haven't been educated on both sides of this discussion.

I know for myself that global warming is something I have heard about for many years. I think it is well accepted "fact" many people that man has a great effect on the current global warming. I have also learned recently that Mars is possibly expereincing a global warming of it's own. Do we really know what what is going on, even when something is widely excepted as fact?

Here is a interesting unpopluar discussion regarding global warming:


An Inconvenient Fact
The other day - shortly after Al Gore gave his global warming speech in New York City on the coldest day ever - an article by Geoffrey Lean appeared claiming that shortly Britain would be plunged into a new ice age and become unlivable - because of global warming. In the name of fairness the same people who are today decrying global warming were - in the 60's decrying global cooling.
Which theory is right? I suppose it depends on which theory is most fashionable and usually which idea generates the most money. The Bucks and Euros are certainly pouring into the warming theory at present.
However, there are some inconvenient facts which deserve mention.
The author of the piece correctly sites that 12,700 years ago (10,700 B.C.) the Gulf Stream abruptly turned off, plunging Britain (and the rest of Europe into a very cold spell. This period is called the Younger Dryas by geologists. The author neglects to mention two important points:
According to traditional evolutionary and anthropological theories, humans were still 'living in caves' in Europe. Somehow, in the course of warming themselves they managed to emit so much pollution that they stopped the Gulf Stream, plunging Britain and Europe into -10C winter temperatures.
Since point one above is clearly preposterous, what did stop the Gulf Stream? Now as a kid you might contemplate damming your local creek, but never would you imagine damming the Mississippi River. The Gulf Stream is orders of magnitude large, however. But something stopped it abruptly, like a dam would.It just so happens at about this time 10,700 B.C. North America and Canada sported an ice cap - not a glacier. A glacier, no matter how big, is just a blip compared to an ice cap. This particular ice cap's southern edge stretched from Alaska down to Washington State, across to Wisconsin, and then northward to Newfoundland, Canada. The northern boundaries covered all of Canada and into the Arctic Ocean.
The ice caps worldwide had been melting in drips and spurts for the previous 6,000 years. At this particular time a portion of the ice cap around Newfoundland-Labrador had probably become undermined by friction-generated melt water and was unstable. It began to move, gathering speed as it slid down the enormous ice cap. It was a long way down, perhaps four kilometers vertically and many more horizontally. When the one and a half kilometer thick block, encompassing 750,000 square kilometers (one third the size of Canada) struck the Atlantic Ocean, it was moving at nearly 600 miles per hour.
To say it made a very loud and a very big splash would be an understatement. Probably one would have to have been there to truly appreciate it. That big an object striking the ocean's surface at such a huge speed would have been driven straight to the ocean's bottom, generating a standing wave many kilometers high - probably sweeping over Britain and Europe to the Ural mountains. Naturally, the spot the ice cap portion plunged into was directly in the path of the Gulf Stream - instant dam - and thus, the Younger Dryas began.
It would seem to make sense to say that the next 2,700 years were initially much cooler. Eventually the weather turned warmer as the ice dam eventually disappearing altogether - melted by the warm Gulf Stream. This gave rise to the geological period we are in today - the Holocene - beginning around 8,000 B.C. (10,000 years ago).
Now unless I missed something, there is no ice cap today to slide into the ocean and block the Gulf Stream. I could be wrong. I've been living in this cave in isolation for a long time. Things could have changed out there in the real world. However, on the whole I must say the above mentioned article sounds more like a fund-raiser than any attempt to predict future climates.
But which argument is right? Is the Earth's climate warming or cooling? There are three major cooling periods recorded in the geological record:
The Precambrian (750-550 million years ago),
The Carboniferous-Permian (320-270 million years ago) and,
The Late Tertiary-Quaternary (2.5 million years ago -10,000 years ago)These periods of ice-age events lasted several million years each. Each event goes through stages lasting 20,000 to 100,000 thousand years. During the last event, there have been some 50 stages of global cooling. Of course the cooling stages are relieved by warming ones, like today.
So what is likely to happen in the near-term? Our climate will probably get warmer. And in the long term? It will likely get cooler. On the other hand...
Were does heat come from anyway? No, its not from your furnace. A small portion of the heat which influences climate comes from the Earth's core. This rising heat influences ocean temperatures and currents. Another mechanism created by the rising heat either pushes the Earth's surface apart or pulls in down, depending on were one looks. Still another mechanism pushing heat into the atmosphere are volcanic eruptions. In turn, these mechanisms have an effect on air temperatures, causing climatic effects.
However, most of the heat comes from the Sun. Does the Sun put out more heat? Then our climate will likely warm. Does the Sun put out less heat? Then the climate may cool.
What about man's effects? This is the big bugaboo today. Consider that just one middling volcanic eruption puts more 'pollution' into the atmosphere than all of man's since the so-called 'Industrial Revolution' began in the late 1700s. most people will immediately think of Mount Saint Helen's eruption in the 80s as an example. However, geologically speaking, that eruption was tiny.
Did humankind's activities cause Saint Helen to erupt? Of course not, and no one would make that ridiculous claim. Below are the major volcanic events. All others are relatively insignificant.
Appalachian Mountains, U.S. - 500,000,000-250,000,000 B.C.
Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, 200,000,000 B.C. - 2.7 million square miles of magma (lava flow)
Deccan Traps, India - 65,000,000 B.C. - 2,000 cu. km of magma (lava flow)
Amazon Basin, Brazil - 965,000 square miles of magma (lava flow)
Siberian Traps, Russia - 250,000,000 B.C. - lava flow - Permian-Triassic extinction
Yellowstone (super-volcano), USHuckleberry Ridge - 2,000,000 B.C. - 2,500 cu. km ashLava Creek - 600,000 B.C. - 1,000 cu. km of ashIsland Park - 1,300,000 B.C. - (smallest eruption)
The Roza Basaltic Flow, Columbia River Basin, US - 14,000,000 B.C. - 700 cu. km of magma 6,000 million tons of aerosols(Homo sapiens, sapiens (us) arise - 148,000 B.C.)
El Hierro, The Canary Islands - 120,000 B.C. - volcanic slide causes land-wave tsunami 40-50 meters high, smashes into Bahama Islands, leaving 2,000 ton boulders behind.
Mount Toba (super-volcano), Sumatra, Indonesia - 72,000 B.C. - 800 cu. km ash, 1,000 million tons of aerosols, six years of relentless volcanic winter, coldest 1,000 years of the Last Ice Age. Most of humanity wiped out.
Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - 536 A,D. - 300 million tons of aerosols
Tambora Plinian, Sumbawa - 1815 A.D. - 20-50 cu. km magma, 200 million tons of sulfuric acid aerosol, "The year without a summer"
Laki, Iceland - 1783 A.D - 14 cu. km magma, 100 million tons of sulfur dioxide aerosol
Krakatau, Indonesia -1883 A.D. - 50 million tons of aerosols
Mount Pinatubo, Luzon, Philippines - 1991 A.D. - 30 million tons of aerosols
El Chichon, Mexico - 1992 A.D. - 10 to 20 million tons of aerosols
Agung - 1963 A.D. - 10 to 20 million tons of aerosols
Santorini, Greece - 1,650 B.C. - 30 cubic km (7 cubic miles) of ash
Saint Helen, Washington, US - 1981 A.D - 1 cu. km ashAs you can see, what most of us think of as a huge volcanic eruption (Saint Helen) is a very minor historical one indeed. All of the great eruptions proceeded human time. Only one - Mount Toba - is believed to have had a significant impact on humans. The others caused some deaths, and disruptions, but nothing more.
Thus baring a Yellowstone eruption (overdue, but some time in the next 200,000 years) or a collapse in the Canary Islands (some time in the next 200 years), we should not see any disastrous (Mount Toba scale) effects on humans or climate from volcanic eruptions.
In the long term, climate and its effects on us and the world at large will be determined by the Sun, not by anything man does, not even nuclear war would have greater effects than a sudden large increase or decrease in solar output. If the Sun when out, then the Earth would freeze over. If the Sun went nova, then the Earth would burn and melt.
In the end, either climate theory could turn out to be correct. But in either eventuality who's right or wrong won't matter - an inconvenient fact.

I'm Serious, I'm losing weight, until dinner gets here.

So my buddy mike and I are having lunch today at the usual place we have lunch, Chipotle. He says I need to lose some weight, we should go on a diet together. I say sure, sounds like a good idea. I kind of like the buddy system, works better for me. Kind of a team sports kind of guy.

We set some goals, and off we go. Couple hours later I call Mike about some other issue, and talk about the diet as well. I mention a web page called Sparkpeople. Free weight loss help page. All kinds of free tool. Great stuff.

Following that phone call I stop by a local Starbucks to pick up some Double Chocolate Chip frosty treaty treats (No coffee in them, relax) for a client. None for me though. I'm on a diet, remember. Committed to the cause. Here we go, I promised to lose some weight for Suzi's 20th HS reunion, and dog gone it I plan to do just that.

I drop by the clients office, and drop them off, and I have one left over. "Well it will be my last one", I reason. So I start sucking that bad boy down as I pull out of the parking lot.

I was sucking that thing down like I'd been on this diet for months, and had been fasting for 3 days. Not driving more than 30 yards, I hear a car horn and see some guy hanging out the window yelling at me, "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!!!" He wasn't talking about my driving, it was Mike. My phone started ringing 3 seconds later, and he lets me have it. He says "You couldn't even see me waving at you because you were too busy sucking that frosty thing. I had to honk and hang out my window you were so focused on that drink. How long did that take you? 15 minutes after we talk last?"

See why I like the buddy system. It works. BTW 179 is the goal.

Robinson's Tae Kwan Do Easter Egg Hunt

Suzi told me yesterday we were taking the kids over to the Easter Egg hunt at the Jr. High school here in town. She loves doing the whole civic thing. Parades, egg hunts, city runs, loves it all. So of course I'm game.

We get there and Patrick is the first to read the sign "Robinson's Tae Kwan Do Easter Egg Hunt", and he starts laughing. I see it, and I say to he and Sam you two are going to get you butts kick while trying to collect eggs. Sounds fun. It was a good laugh.

I will say the Easter Egg hunt to remember was when Sammy was a tiny guy and we lived in Lehi. We went to the city park there and they had a little section for 1-2 year olds. I told Sam "you're on your own here pal. You can do this". However, we the hunt started there were mom's dragging their children by there arm's to the location of a egg, and then the mom's would scream "PICK UP THE EGG!! PICK IT UP!! PUT IT IN YOUR BASKET!!!" I was horrified. I have no idea why every kid involved wasn't screaming their heads off! Sam just kind of wandered around getting an egg, maybe watching a mom yank a kid over to an egg he was close to finding. No biggie for Sam. Me, on the other hand 6 years later and I'm still wondering what that was all about. Maybe a little more talk about the resurrection, and a little less screaming at the child "PICK UP THE EGG!!! Works for me.

Easter Bunny Busted

Georgia (my four year old, the littlest, and the one we call Baby her picture is down further) walks up to me while I'm reading and sits on my lap looking very serious, and asks "Did the Easter Bunny just leave candy in your room?" "What do you mean?" I ask trying to play stupid, and trying to think of an escape route to avoid having a conversation I just don't want to have. However, I already knew when this conversation began, that she knew how it was going to end. It was the way and tone she asked that first question. Like she was a wrestler shooting for the kill right as the match begins. She asked me a question that had specific information in it, that I knew I didn't have enough information to answer without getting pinned, nailed, caught.

So she answers my question "there is bags of candy that are on your bed, that is in my basket." This is not good. This is the kind of mistake Suzi has been warning me about for years. The mistake can also be made at Christmas time, when the same gift wrap is used to wrap Santa's gifts, as the parents gifts. I laughed at Suzi the first time she told me of this, no kid would catch that mistake. Maybe I should have said, I as a child would have never caught that mistake. My children seem to catch that kid of stuff.

So I answer, "that's my candy, can't I have some candy that's mine?" Well unfortunately she has already won this debate, she has out smarted me. It may not be clear to all why that maybe, but it was clear to Georgi, and I. See she, and I know the answer to that question even before I finished it.

She says "no it's not." I insist "sure it is". She shakes her head in the negative fashion with very short quick shakes like she does when she's positive she's right. A very confident shake. "Why not?" I ask. And she answers "You don't like candy". This is the truth, she knew it, I knew it, everyone in the family knew it. If I was going to keep treats in my room is sure is heck isn't going to be Easter candy, Christmas candy, candy candy, cotton candy, or any other kind of candy. I haven't liked candy since I was a kid. It made my tooth ache one day, and I haven't touched the stuff since. It was a horrible experience, and I've never been the same. Sure you wouldn't know by looking at me, but I tend to stay away from the sugar stuff.

So where do I go from here? The four year old is kicking my butt in a verbal joust so far, and I haven't found a way out of the conversation. So I ask "dear what are you asking me?" "I know who the Easter Bunny is" she states. We all know what she's going to say here, so I decide to go with the "lets just get it all out in the open, so I can mock the idea" approach. It's never worked before, so maybe this time where it does. Probably not really good reasoning, but you know I'm losing to a four year old here. "And who might that be" I ask. She pokes her pointer finger on my forehead. "What? What are you getting at sweety?" "Dad are you the Easter Bunny?"

Patrick (my eleven year old) is standing close by with Sam and Hannah, and he being the good boy that he is trys to change the topic, offer a reasonable excuse for why the candy is on my bed, but she doesn't even give the theory a chance. I've got a question, why the heck was the candy on the dag gone bed? It wasn't there when I when to bed! Wasn't there when I got up. Wasn't there when I was getting ready for church. Wasn't there when I got home. It's magical candy. Magically appears, and makes me a retard. Why not Mom, why can't she be having this discussion. She wouldn't have had this thing all wrapped up by now.

Anyhow, so all the kids are standing close by, and I lean in really close to Georgia, and I whisper in her ear so the others kids can't hear, and I say "Georgi you are by far the smartest, and most brilliant of all my children. So smart, so beautiful, so brilliant, and so young" She leaned back and smiled at me, and I kissed her on her cheeky cheek. She slide down off my lap grabbed Hannah's hand and took off to some where else. And she was ok to leave the conversation just where it was, and so was I.

I'm Dangerous with a Q-Tip

Are you kidding me? Listen everyone knows I took off the tip of my finger with a hedge clipper right? I can't be trusted with Q-Tipping my own ears because I go way to deep, and just about rip out my ear drum everytime I touch one. Something tells me to just push a little deeper, it's ok the little voice say. Your ok, just a little more, and then WHAM!. Ever come close to your ear drum with a Q-Tip? It will put you on your knee's! Extremely painful. I've come to learn that ear drums are not to be touched except by sound waves.
You have got to see this website. I just about fell apart laughing when I was reading it. Here is a quote from the website: "The Scal-Pal™ is actually two lasers in one! First the Scal-Pal™ femtosecond laser cuts a small flap in the cornea of your eye. Then the excimer laser vaporizes a tiny section of the lens without damaging the surrounding tissue. The whole procedure takes only a few minutes and is virtually painless.*" I should not be using a tool on my self that vaporizes anything! Certainly not "cutting a small flap in my own cornea."

Oh that sounds easy. And safe especiallyly doing this to yourself with a hand tool! My hands are very steady, not. I can't even make it from the sink to the table without spilling water all over the place.

The best is part where it describes the four easy steps. You have got to see those! Look at how it says don't blink, and there is smoke coming out of the eye area if you should happen to blink. Yeah that looks safe, and I'm suppose to shine that thing in my eye? Shoot, why not go get two laser pointers down at Office Max, and let your buddy take a crack at improving your eye sight.

What's next home vasectomy kits? Home liposuction? Little pills that prevent pregnancy?

Manti

Thirteen years later I can look back and say that it was a long drive, it was snowing, the sealing was early, and it didn't have a visitor center like Salt Lake for my family. Not very considerate for all involved. I love Manti though.

When it's the kids turn to get married (many years from now), I'll talk them into getting married a little closer to home. Who knows how much influence I will have on the matter.

Grammar

So my wife (and genius boy Patrock, oh sorry misspelled your name Patrock) reads my blog, and tears into me about punctuation, spelling, run ons, and so on and so forth. "I can't even understand the point your trying to make here."

I'll be the first to admit I haven't had a blog for a long time and I'm new to this thing. However I also didn't know I was going to be turning it in for a grade at some point. I didn't know my wife would be the teacher, and I would forever be in her class front row, center seat, in front of her desk.

With that, please take note, save it. Write your own blog Roger and Ebert.
XOXO
Dad

Yard Trash

I remember in Kansas that everyone seemed to have this same piece of yard trash. It was a board that was painted to look like an old woman bent over and your looking up the backside of her dress while it looks like she's doing yard work. It seems a little bent to me now that I look back at it.

You really don't see much of that here in Lodi. Yeah there is some, but it's a tradition that's dieing. It's a real shame. I'm not saying I like the stuff, but I must admit, when I'm driving down the street I stare into those yards with the windmills, and the 4 foot tall deer, and the 8 foot tall Elk (got a guy here in Lodi who has those), the Knomes, and all that kind of stuff.

When I moved into my current home there was yard trash all over, knomes and all kinds of stuff. A great big alligator in the back yard with red eyes. That thing must have been 50 pounds and 3 feet long it was huge. I got rid of all the little stuff, but I kept him around. He scared me, and I was afraid to throw him away. Those red eyes.

So one day it struck me, he could be happier else where. I could move him from my back yard to someone elses front yard. But who would want him? No one. So I thought, you know what would be great is I could hide him in someones front yard. So I thought of a lot of people. I could hide him in their bushes, but that wouldn't be right, I need to hide him where he could be seen! That doesn't seem to make sense, but it does.

See a lot of people around here don't do their own lawns. They have lawn services, everyone except me that is. So I thought I could hide him in a place where he can be seen by people passing by, but hidden in a place where the people who live in the home can't see him.

I found the perfect spot. I have this buddy Dennis who has a great front yard. It' s beautiful. I hid him in the front left corner of the yard right next to the sidewalk ready to snap up any little dog that wanders off the sidewalk and into the flower bed. The front door and garage are set to the right of the house, and he went un-noticed for a couple of weeks. I remeber driving by and chatting with my friend Dennis's boy Brian, and the alligator was a foot behind him. I felt safe in my car, but should alligator have wanted to he couldn't have taken Brian's leg off.

Eventually he was found. But to my suprise he became a bit of curiousity of sorts. People like him, and months later he's still there. Dennis has his home up for sale, and I'm wondering if he's bold enough to leave him in the yard. If so is the next home owner bold enough to leave him there.

This gave me a good idea for a game. So Suzi, myself, Mike, and Wendy took 8 pieces of yard trash that I bought at the dollar store, and we scattered it in friends front yards. They won't mind, I promise. If they do deny it, even if they read your blog deny it. With the same idea as before, hide it in plain view. See which peice of yard trash can make it the longest undetected. Last trip by the yards only one of the 8 people have found their trash. The other seven huge copper lady bugs, and huge copper dragon flies are still in place. It's been over two weeks.

Makes for a good cheap date. And I think it would be great if yard trash became popluar again. "Oooh look at the Jones's yard, they put a swan with a hole in it's back for a plant right there in their yard", but the Jones's have no idea it's in there.

A box spring. That's all.

So I need a box spring. I start calling around, and searching the web and I get options like these: Sealy Posturepedic Amethyst SE Ultra Plush Euro Boxtop Twin Box Spring II, Sealy Beddington LX Firm II Twin Box Spring, Spring Air Extended Life® Twin Foundation, Sealy Beddington LX Firm II California King Box Spring, Spring Air Extended Life® King Low Profile Foundation. I'm not lieing look these names up.

Would you please re-read the names of these box springs. Oh my gosh these names are absolutelyly stupid. I have never in all my life seen anything with a longer names, ever. I thought these were just the things that go under your mattress. Maybe to lift your mattress up a little higher so it's easier to climb into bed, or possibly to lift up your bed high enough to keep your kids off of it. Oh no, I've got it all wrong, go talk to the mattress sales guy (or girl you tard) and he'll make you think you will never sleep ever again if you don't spend at least 2 billion dollars on a box spring. I kid you not. I think they should be called box springs, and if they want to get fancy, how about "a couple of boards with some steel springs". That would be shorter and more descriptiveve of what they actually are. Here's something neat as well, I did some reading on box springs and guess what; they are all made by the same company. One company makes all the box springs for all the big name mattress manufacturers. Basically there is nothing to them as well. How stupid is the whole thing. Sure this one company makes a range of box spring products, but I still think I made my point. Don't ask me about the price. It'absolutely ridiculous.

So I'm talking to this mattress sales guy (about mattresses, not a box spring, I'm illustrating a point here about mattress sales people), and he says " you really get what you pay for when it comes mattresses". I said "really", and he says "yeah". So I say, "So you think this (insert 16 word long name for mattress here) 1500 dollar mattress is better than this 850 dollar mattress". He says without thinking, "absolutelyly" and starts in on all the great features of the more expensive mattress. After he finishes, I say "so was the 850 dollar mattress was much better last week before it went sale from 1700 down to 850". He just stared a moment at me before he started in on "well.....(messes with price tag for a second) we're getting rid of that model". I was done with him.

I tried buy a box spring in a store close to my home on Saturday, and the sales guy wanted to charge me $300. Are you kidding me. I know it maybe a "Super Longnight Pillow Allington Extra Thick XPL III Fast 2 Sleep Honeycone Design Reinforced Steel Spring Sweet Dream Foundation" (Foundation sounds better than box spring), but I'm just not willing to pay 300 for what 5 cinder blocks and a piece of plywood could do for 20 bucks. Call me a hick from Placerville, fine. I'll take it. I'd rather be a hick from Placerville, than stupid from Beverly Hills.

So anyhow if you happen to have a cal king box spring call me.

I Ordered My New Ride

I have four wonderful children, and that magic number rules out a lot of optionswhen it comes to car choices. I wish they would go back to the bench seat in front row of cars. Those were cool, and they added an extra seat. But as my brother Jimi use to say they added some birth control to cars by removing those and putting in bucket seats. Suzi Choose the car, and I got to choose the color. She might not know I ordered black. Our Current 2005 Grand Caravan is Silver. So I had to take it up a notch. You know it's hard to be tough in a minivan. It has the word mini included right in the title. Mini is not good. Please, I don't want to hear about how hot black is in the summer time, and how hard it is to keep clean, and that it's hard to see at night, and that there is black and there is white and there isn't any gray, and that you have a black mold in your shower and you can't get rid of it and that's bad, and that the bad guys in the old movies always wore black and they were the bad guys so that's bad, and that black holes are black and they certainly aren't any goodso that must be bad, and that there are black markets where you could purchase a kidney from some kid that was drugged in Vegas and had his kidney stolen from him and he was left in a bath tub full of ice with a note to call 911 and that's bad, and that black jack is a game where people lose a lot of money gambling and gambling is bad and by buying a black van I'm endorsing gambling and that's bad, and that when you were a boy you had a little black book but you didn't have any names in it because you were a loser and that's bad. I just don't want to hear any of it, so save it.
I happen to like the color.

My Beautiful Date

Another picture from the Daddy Daughter dance. I let down the tie a little by this point so clearly starting to heat up on the dance floor. Still not a mess yet though. I think this picture camera seem to add an extra 45 pounds or so. Funny how camera's do that. Didn't seem to have the same affect on Hannah though. Weird. 

Mi Casa from Space

That's my house right there in the middle. The one with the blue grass. It's actually not grass it a pool. If they had taken that picture about 3 weeks ago it would have looked like I had grass in the back yard because the pool was dark green. A nicer color green than my lawn, which I want to let my friend in Utah know I've mowed a couple of times already this spring. I think your lawns are still under snow. Sam said he would never swim in the pool again it was so dark green. I'm suprised we never found a shark, or some koi, or at least a duck in it. Man it was dirty. So I drained it, cleaned it, and filled it back up. Nice color of blue again. Haven't asked Sam if he'd go back into it, hopeing he forgot it was once a shade of green that for some reason repulses the boy. The picture must be a few years old. If you look to the right side of my drive way facing the house there are some rose bushes there in between my drive way and my neighbors drive way. Pulled those out, and put in grass. Used a truck to pull those nasty ol rose bushes out. Using a truck is kind of a manly way of doing things. Could have dug them out, but truck seemed way cooler, and faster. Cooler mostly, and faster. One big difference you might find interesting is that the words globeXplorer actually isn't all over my nieghborhood. Nope, that's just the place I got the picture. Go there to get a picture of your home. I know some of you have new homes, so they might not have pictures of yours yet. You could see the dirt that was once there where your home is, and how you've gone and covered it all up with you big ol home. 

I Love My Toothbrush

I was reading a buddies blog, and he was talking about the things he loves. One of the items was his toothbrush. http://www.radiustoothbrush.com/ That's it there. Nice handle.

I just recently bought a new toothbrush too, and I love it! You need to pick one up. Ahh the simple pleasures. http://www.sonicare.com/products/elite/7500.asp
Mom my got one a long time ago and she was ranting about it. I thought "nice mom likes her toothbrush". I thought maybe she was telling me something. Then Dougie got one, and he and Angie loved theirs. So I got mine at Costco with a bunch of heads. Everyone is brushing their teeth like crazy around here.

Tri what? Not today thank you.

I love sports. I really love sports that involve talent, speed, endurance, power, and a ball. Not sure why the ball, but I like a ball being involved. Soccer, football, basketball, hockey all great sports. I realize a puck is not a ball, but it works for me.

Tri-athlons, sure I guess it's a sport. I think it's a sport with all the fun stuff striped away. I realize that many crazy people enjoy them.

A buddy of mine puts them on, and I think I'd enjoy that more than participating in them.

Check it out:

www.triutah.com

Daddy Daughter Dance

Hannah had looked forward to this night for weeks. She reminded me every night it seemed for two weeks. She had bought a new dress, and did her nails, and had choosen the jewlry she was going to wear. It was her first dance, and it was like she knew everything that she needed to do to be ready for the dance. It's like it was programed into her at birth.

Hannah and I had so much fun that night! I don't think there is anyone who likes to dance more than Hannah, and I. Not even Suzi could keep up with Hannah and I, we danced all night. One of Hannah's little friends commented that "Hannah Dad was sweating everywhere."

We started with dinner at String's Italian restaurant with our buddies Doug and Corey, and their daughters Alli and Emma. Next we headed over to the pictures at the dance where I saved my buddy's Juan's life from the falling backdrop. It certainly could have caused some messed up hair had I not caught it. From there it was straight to the dance floor, until closing time. Hannah was a machine, and some how I was able to stay out there with her. Of course, to wrap up the we ended up in an Ice Cream parlor.

A perfect night for both Hannah, and I. I remember during the last dance looking at all the Dad's and Grandpa's dancing with all of their princesses, and listening to John Mayers song "Daughters". It really was one of the most beautiful things I have seen.

Christmas 05

Georgia makes a good mary.