Tear

It was fitting that tonight was our good-bye dinner for Charlie. She leaves tonight for Arizona, then in a few days heads to Georgia and after that it is off to Iraq. She will be gone for 12 months. I am glad to have had the chance to hang out with her for a few days.

See ya later Charlie Ballzy Spires.

Charlie's in Town

Charlie, Morg and I headed up to Magic Mountain for some good times and fast rides on Sunday.

Our first stop via request from Charlie was In-n-Out.

Even though the park was crowded trying to get in and everything the lines for rides weren't bad at all. The longest lines of the day were the hour + wait for the water rides.

Here is Charlie in front of Viper
Morg picking Goliaths toe
Cyn practicing her paintballing skills. 30 shots, only missed 3. Woot!

We also went on the Granny cars.

BGG gets tattoos

Byrd, Triscuit, Ballzy, Itchie

Pug Bowling!!!

Houston, we have a problem...

This picture was taken from a tv news story on parents who are protesting the fact that their kids aren't allowed to walk at graduation due to not passing the high school exit exam. It's really sad. I'm sure the parents did all they could to help their kids study for it too.

What song best describes Hillary Clinton's campaign?

Hillary Clinton is holding a contest to pick the official song of her campaign. The finalists are:

"Suddenly I see," by KT Tunstall
"Rock This Country!" by Shania Twain
"Beautiful Day" by U2
"Get Ready" by The Temptations

The U2/Hillary combo would really leave a bad taste in my mouth. What song would be more appropriate?

Weenie Roast recap...

On Saturday, Cyndi and I slept in a bit, then got some lunch before heading out to Irvine for the Weenie Roast. On the way there they announced on the radio that the Killers had canceled due to the singer's illness. Since that's who we were looking forward to seeing the most, it was not a good start. It continued to go downhill when it took almost an hour to go the last mile on the freeway only to find that parking had filled up long before we got there and they were sending people out. It was very frustrating. We finally found a field where a bunch of other people were parking so we left the car there and hoped it would still be there when we got back.

When we got up to the gate, security not only opened our sealed bottles of water to "make sure it really is water" but they then threw the caps away and said they weren't allowed in. So much for saving it for later when we really wanted it.

Once we dealt with the nonsense of getting in the place it was a lot of fun. Here's a rundown of the bands...

• Tim Armstrong -- We walked in as he was finishing his set on the side stage. He played a couple of songs from when he was with Rancid..."Ruby Soho" and "Timebomb". I've seen him before so I was ok with just hearing a couple of songs.

• Tiger Army -- I really enjoyed their psychobilly set. I was surprised how many people in the crowd knew their songs besides "Forever Fades Away". Hopefully they'll stick around for a while.

• The Bravery -- I've never paid much attention to them, but again I really liked their set. I would have liked them to have a little longer set.

• Rise Against -- Bathroom break. We got back just in time to hear them close with "Prayer of the Refugee" which I like. That really got the crowd going just in time for...

• 30 Seconds to Mars -- ...to kill it. I was looking forward to this set, but it turned out to be the worst of the day. Jared Leto should stick to acting and not doing concerts. Lots of delays from the band, and Leto assumed that if he ran through the crowd holding out his mic that everyone would sing his hits for him. I guess the instrumentals were ok. The 5 minutes of dancing with mariachis to start the set didn't help either.

• Bad Religion -- Luckily Bad Religion knows what they're doing and got the show back on track. It was a very tight set and their new songs were as impressive as all the old hits. They made me want to see a full show from them someday.

• Queens of the Stone Age -- Dinner time. I didn't care about them before, and I still don't. I hear they were good. Probably not as good as my teriyaki bowl.

• Interpol -- They don't move around on stage at all, but they sounded good. Unfortunately their guitar broke so they had to cut the set short. Because at a festival with 15 bands, there is only one guitar there.

• Incubus -- Since Brandon Flowers of the Killers was sick, Brandon Boyd of Incubus filled in. It wasn't the full band...just vocals and one guitar. I wasn't too happy when they came out because I'm not a fan. However, the stripped down version was actually listenable and they sort of won me over. From this point on, the crowd was on their feet the whole time.

• Social Distortion -- I first became a fan when I saw them at a Weenie Roast 10 years ago. They put on another great show as always from "Mommy's Little Monster" through "Story of My Life". Maybe this year I'll finally manage to get to one of their House of Blues shows.
  

• Korn -- I never knew how much of a Korn fan Cyndi was until tonight. She was going wild, knocking people around in the pit. She was also quite impressed with the girl we saw who had a 6 inch tall Korn logo tattooed across her back. I'd be shocked if Cyndi doesn't get one to match any day now. She'll deny it of course, but I know the truth. We knew it was going to be loud when they came on with 3 drum kits. I loved seeing "Blind" performed live.

• Linkin Park -- They really surprised me. Maybe they were just trying to keep up with all the other rock-out bands, but Linkin Park seems a lot harder in concert than on their cds. A good mix of the old and new, redone versions of older songs, and all on a pink Hello Kitty guitar. I don't think I'll be seeing them by themselves any time soon, but the hour plus set here was a lot of fun.
  

Back to camp...

Last week I finally got some vacation time. And what did I do with it you may ask? I went to work. Good old Camp Maranatha needed some extra workers since they had a pre-summer full week camp in so I volunteered my services from Monday to Friday.

To me, working at camp really doesn't seem like work. It probably would if I was there year round, but spending a week with friends and revisiting my high school/early college life is very relaxing....even if I'm doing dishes half the day.

The only bad part was that Cyndi still had to work and couldn't be there too. Otherwise it would have been a perfect week.

The trees from my 5:30 am nature walk/devotion time.

View of the gazebo and camp from the new hiking trail.

Playing disc golf with Lucy and Bowden.

Hitting golf balls off Inspiration Point with Josh.

Washing dishes....I've still got it!

We may be the tiniest bit blog-obsessed...

For the full picture go here and here.

Note To Self

Do not smoke pot across the street from school 10 min. before school.

It will end with a ride in a police car and a suspension from school.

21

Somewhere between day 49 and day 30 i stopped counting the days until school was out. I think that is a positive thing. I only know how many days are left now because I have it written on the board for the 8th graders to know how many days till graduation.

We've enlarged our house by two!

If you look really close you can see a baby fishy. On Friday I was looking at the tank and saw something small floating around and I thought oh no one of our fish died. But to my suprise it was a baby fish swimming around. The following day I was looking for the baby and instead I saw two! Don't know why but I am very excited about it. Hopefully they grow up in to happy healthy fishy's

Flashback

So a few weekends ago on a lovely Saturday we headed out to the LA Arboretum. They were having the here is my idea for a cool back yard and plant sale. We took the whole day to just walk around and enjoy the many different garden areas.
I would love to have any or all of these in my backyard some day.

Paul and I stopped to take a few photo opportunities. Here are a few of the animals we ran into in our travels

Long Day

Today was not a good day in my room. The students had a the worst day they have had in a long time. Then, I stayed after school to help with Boys and Girls Club power hour. Then I went home to grade some papers, print out missing work and eat dinner. Then it was back to school to see a play put on by some 8th grade students. They did very well and it was enjoyable. Finally at 8pm it was home again and I watched Grey's... I wont spoil anything for those who haven't seen it yet but HOLY CRAP! I want next season to start now. Well that is all for now. I am off to watch CSI and get some sleep. I am yawning already.

Tonight

Eatin good - I made myself a salad, corn and a steak for dinner.

Revived - For the first time in two months I posted on my other blog. If you have forgotten about it you can click on the Cyndi link under family on the sidebar.

TV - Knowing what I already know before watching Crossing Jordan... I am not going to like how it ends. Bones was good and OTH was decent although I am a bit angry that the season is now over after making me wait so long for the last few episodes.

Where you at?

FYI this post may be discombobulated, sparatic, and/or fragmented.

Love: My love has left me for the week. Of course it is for a great cause. He is up in Idyllwild helping out the camp as they were in need of workers. Paul was granted time off from work (for good behavior) and was able to travel up on Monday morning and will be staying through Friday night. It is weird to be in the apartment alone. I am not sure when the last time it has happened was other than 6 years ago when I moved in here two months before the wedding.

Work: I am still alive. No one has tied me up and locked me in a closet yet. Although not for lack of trying. It has been an interesting road getting into the swing of things. I have been at my new position for 27 working days. I have officially passed the half way point as there are 26 days left of school. I began with 16 students all boys... at one point I was down to 9 boys now I am at 13 boys and 2 girls. The girls just showed up this last Wednesday. It has stirred up the classroom a bit. As challenging as this is mentally, intellectually and emotionally I am glad that I took the position. Knowing that others applied for the position and they choose me tells me that there is a reason I am here. Some of the boys who have been here since the beginning are starting to open up to me about some things going on in their lives and my hope is that I can make a difference in their lives by the end of my time with them. Please be in prayer as I am going to talk to the principal about continuing this position in the Fall. My contract is up as of June 22nd but I would really like the opportunity to continue and try to get this program really up and running next year.

Life: Pretty much non-existant. I have been staying late at work everyday. One day I didn't leave until after 6pm. My work day technically ends at 2:45. Today I managed to get out by 4pm and treated myself to a movie. I was down in SD over the weekend for Mother's Day. My mommy and I hung out went out to dinner and a movie together. We also tried to get some chores done but did not get much knocked off of our lists.

Family: My aunt is still at home on hospice care. My uncles, mom and Robins best friends have been taking different weekends to go up and visit her so that she is not overwhelmed with so many people at once. The visits are an hour at a time or less because she gets tired fast. It is difficult for her dealing with the emotions of knowing she won't be around and wanting to know the every day stuff that is going on or plans that others have for the future. Continue to pray for strength, understanding, and acceptance for all family members and of course comfort. My mommy is going to have surgery on her legs to try and ease the constant pain she is in. We are trying to find a time during the summer that would be best as she will need help for 3-4 weeks on and off.

Summer: I am looking forward to three and possibly four trips this summer. The first is happening in July going to Vegas with Moe and Curly. The second is in August with my Bubba for our 6th anniv. and my 27th birthday (Holy Crap I am going to be 27) we have yet to determine our destination. My third trip will be at the end of August early September out to CO to visit my hommie TK and celebrate her daddies retirement from the Navy. The fourth trip would be with my mommy if we can figure out a week and a location.

I think that is about all I can remember right now about what I have been up to and planning.
I did my best to go back and forth between the areas of my life since my thoughts are running all over the place, hopefully it made my post more readable for you my viewers.

Round 1...Fight!

This game is pretty addictive. Well, maybe it was just because I suck at games like this so I had to keep playing until I beat at least one level. It's Mortal Kombat with Bible characters. I finally beat Eve when I had Noah send in a herd of animals to trample her. I couldn't seem to get Jesus' special moves down....maybe someone else can.

Problems in Iraq explained...

Hey Tate...

Ready for round 2? Didn't think so. Seeing as how you have an amazing 3-22 record in the last 25 meetings, we'll go ahead and throw you a softball with Tavarez.

Woohoo! Got our tickets today!

Lost....part deux.

Well, we finally get the answer. Lost and ABC have agreed to a deal to end the series after 48 more episodes (not counting the few left this season). We're going to get 3 mini seasons of 16 episodes each running non-stop from February to May of each year. I like the fact that they have an end point now which should allow the writers to answer some of the big questions at a good pace. Since each season has a theme to it, all 16 episodes will need to be devoted to the story so we should be done with all the filler episodes. The bad part is that we now have to wait 8 months between seasons. I think I would have preferred two 24 episode seasons instead. Oh well. Overall it should be good for the story.

12:34 on 5/6/7

Where were you?

I was lesson planning for next week

Yeah...not so much.

Dear 'Lost':

Why are you so good? Why do you only come on my tv once a week? Season 3 is by far better than the last two. Although to be fair, I haven't finished season 1 yet.

Hmm...

• Mitt Romney's favorite book is a bizzare and poorly-written work of fiction by a cult leader. No, not the Book of Mormon. That other one...