Friday Flashback- Halloween

The year is 2003. Liam is 6 months old, Duncan is almost 2 years old. We were living in El Monte. This was taken at the ward Halloween party.

What the boys are wearing are actually pajamas. They got to wear those more often than just Halloween.

Anna made her costume. She sewed it all herself. She recalls making it in the summer because that's when she would have the time to make something like that.

As for me, the wig is something my dad had laying around, and the shirt and tie too. Maybe even the jacket and pants. He's got all kinds of that stuff. I did my own makeup. This would have been a few years after I had a theatrical makeup class at PCC. It's a lot more detailed than when I did my Halloween makeup as a teenager.

Hope you have a fun Halloween.

Be Safe.

Doooooughnuuuut...

Here's the link.

2 1/2 days

The jack-o-lanterns are already very wilted. It's only been 2 1/2 days since we made them. It's got to be due to the very high temperatures during the day. Both Tuesday and Wednesday were in the 90s, and that afternoon sun hits our front porch big time. Today was in the high 80s.

I thought I read somewhere, to keep your pumpkins fresher longer, to soak them in water. I'm assuming that doesn't mean submerged. So we put the pumpkins in pie tins full of water yesterday. It doen't seem to be working.

Here's what they look like today...

Happy All Hallow's Eve Eve.

Un-Prop-ular 8

I've been inspired by my friend Colleen to blog about my thoughts on Prop 8. My brother in law, Josh, has too.

This is a really tough thing to write about. I've started and stopped and deleted a bunch of times already.

It's tricky enough just to talk about it, but writing about it seems so limiting to me. It's one sided, there's no rebuttal, and you may read it in a total different way than I intend it.

I guess I can't worry about those things.


I think marriage should be between a man and a woman. For centuries that has been the understood and accepted definition of marriage. Why tamper with it? Do we think we're so much better than all the other people that lived before us?

If it's about rights, don't same sex couples have all the same rights and privileges as Domestic Partners, as do married couples already? Isn't the state of California the national leader in Domestic Partnership rights? They are treated the same under the law. No one is being denied civil rights.

What happened to "It's just a piece of paper."? I guess it's not just a piece of paper after all. It does mean something, and it's important.

Important enough to defend.

The "No on 8" people say it won't affect education in California. How do they know? If it's happened in another state, why can't it happen here? It probably won't happen over night, but who's to say that somewhere down the line, someone doesn't decide that they think it should be included in elementary education. We won't get to vote on that. I don't like the that thought.

I don't want same-sex marriage to be taught as being the same as traditional marriage. It's not that same. An alternative lifestyle is just that; alternative.


Even after all that mumbo jumbo, for me the biggest reason to protect the sanctity of marriage is to avoid the eventual consequences down the road that we can't see, that will probably not be good for society. There are people that have guesses as to what those might be, but I don't know that they can truly know. Maybe there are other countries that have legal same-sex marriages, and we can see the difficulties they are having, and prepare and plan for those, but maybe not.

Maybe ultimately, it's not marriage that turns out to be a big deal, but it's the path that it starts us on. Maybe it's the door that, once opened, opens other doors we don't want opened. We don't know.

As a member of the church, this is what it boils down to for me. If the brethren that lead this church, who I believe to be men of God, who I've sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators, ask me to defend and protect the sanctity of marriage, I will do it. I trust in their leadership, and have faith that they would lead us down the path we should go. Even if it's unpopular with the rest of the world.

Prop 8 has gotten ugly. The arguing over it has not been good for either side. It's pitted neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, brother against brother, etc.

I hope you choose to vote Yes on prop 8. Either way, I'm reminded of something my brother Kyle wrote recently, "I think it's important to note we all want the same thing: To make this world a better place. We just have differing views on how to accomplish that."

Kyle has a way with words; I'm working on it.

Pumpkin Carving Family Night

Our activity for family night last night was pumpkin carving. The cheapest place we found to get pumpkins this year was Stater Bros. Pumpkins were only 19 cents a pound. The biggest pumpkin I got was over 16 pounds, and less than $3.00.

Getting Started. (Guess no one said to say "cheese".)

We let the kids draw their own face designs on their pumpkins.


Duncan did his most detailed pumpkin face to date.


There's Jennan's.

Tegan waiting patiently.

After everyone had their faces drawn, Anna and I helped the younger kids hollow out their pumpkins and carve out the faces. And by helped I mean, we pretty much did it for them. After I cut the bottom out of Liam's pumpkin, I had him pull out all the "guts". I also cut out the bottom of Duncan's, and had him do the same. They were both a little timid about getting their hands all gooey, and it was too "stringy". So I got a scraper and scraped their pumpkins for them, but I left all the guts inside and had them pull it out. Again they were a bit timid, so I grabbed their hands and put them way in the pumpkins, my hand was behind theirs, and helped them curl their fingers to grab a big handful of guts. Then I pulled my hand out and told them to not let go and pull the guts out. They did. They each pulled all the guts out of their pumpkins.

I cut out Liam's face, trying to stay as close to his lines as possible. After I cut out a piece, I had Liam get the piece out. Duncan on the other hand wanted to get started right away, so I gave him a pumpkin cutter and he went to town. He had no real help doing his. (After he finished cutting a piece, I would go through his cuts again to make sure they were connected.)

Also at this point, the batteries in our camera died. We have no batteries to replace them with, bummer. But then I remembered our video camera has a "photo" setting, and has a full battery charge, so I got it out. The quality is no where near our regular camera, but it did the job.

Here's Jennan and her finished jack-o-lantern.

Liam with his completed jack-o-lanterns. The little one is from his field trip. The face is just drawn on. I think he tried to copy his big pumpkin. He did a good job if he did.

There goes Duncan, carving like a mad man! At one point he said his arm was hurting from all the cutting. Anna showed him how to "shake it out", and he kept at it. He was very determined.

Duncan's still going, but everyone else is done. Tegan got the draw on her pumpkin too. She was happy with that.

Anna and I didn't get a chance to carve our pumpkins during family night. We spent that time making sure the kids were enjoying their time making jack-o-lanterns. And we all had a good time.

After getting the kids to bed, we did carve our pumpkins.

Here's Anna's.

And here's mine.

Here they are all together.

It was a fun family night.

FREE Taco

Looks like Taco Bell is giving away free tacos today because someone stole a base in the World Series.

Get your free taco between 2pm and 6pm today only.

Here's the page with the details.

Lame.

Someone took our Yes on 8 lawn sign.

I don't like that.

Monday Music

Here's what I've been listening to this week:

The Vines, "Highly Evolved"

Good CD. I can listen to it from start to finish without wanting to hit the skip button. There are songs I like better than others, but it's still a solid listen.

Here's some of the ones I like...

"Get Free"


"outtathaway"


"Mary Jane" (audio clip)


*Bonus*
This song's not on the "Highly Evolved" CD, but it's one of my favorite Songs from The Vines...

"Ride" (I heart this video)


I think one of the reasons I like the Vines is due to their use of harmonies. That led me to the other band I listed to this week-

The Beatles "Rubber Soul"

"You won't see me"


"Nowhere Man"


"In My Life"


"Norwegian Wood"


*Bonus*
This is Norwegian Wood as done by a band named Cornershop, from their CD, When I Was Born For the Seventh Time. (btw- an excellent CD)

He's singing the words in Hindi.

Well, that's it for this post. I intended to scale back on Music Mondays' post size, but that didn't seem to happen.

Do you think these music posts are too long?

Let me know,

Thanks.

UFC: Last Week, and This Week

I realised that I didn't put up my results from last week end's UFC fights. Well, I'm happy to report that I received a personal best of 194 points! Not too shabby. I successfully picked 7 out of 10 winners. In two of the fights that I did NOT pick the winner, I had all the other things correct (round, time, and winning method).

Even though I got a personal best score, my ranking has been higher in the past. With this score, I got a ranking of 90 (tied with all others that got the same score). My best ranking was 73 (twice).

All in all, the fights last week were pretty good. Most of the non-main event fights were better than the main event ones. The two main events both went to decision. So they were a little drawn out. I was bummed to hear that Bisping's game plan was to get a unanimous decision. That means he only wanted to do enough to stay ahead on points, and avoid any real fighting. It worked, but still lame. I felt Brandon could have won just as much as Keith, but the judges didn't see it that way. I'm glad we got to see those fights on Spike TV, and didn't have to pay for them.

On to tomorrow's fights...

UFC 90!

I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly Anderson Silva beats Patrick Cote. I chose a first round knock out win.

I have Thiago Alves winning by unanimous decision. I think he'll be too strong for Koscheck, and keep him on the defensive. If all Kos can do is defend, he can't win. But I do think Kos will be able to keep from being finished before the fight end on time.

I'm pulling for Rich Clementi to win over Gray Maynard. I know Gray is strong, but Clementi is crafty. I think it will go back and forth. I think Clementi will try for a lot of submissions to finish the fight, but I think this will go to decision. I picked split decision for Clementi.

A pretty exciting heavyweight fight is on the card. Fabricio Werdum vs. Junior Dos Santos. Werdum is a big guy, and very strong. Dos Santos is just as big, but looks really fast. He's making his UFC debut. Werdum is the favorite to win, but I think Dos Santos will pull out the victory. I even have him winning by TKO.

Sean Sherk will fight Tyson Griffin. I think this will be a fast paced stalemate fight. I think they'll cancel each other out for the most part. They're pretty much the same fighter. I think it will go all 3 rounds, and Sherk will probably win by unanimous decision.

I think Thales Leites will beat Drew McFedries by decision.

I'm hopeing Shannon Gugerty beats Spencer Fisher by a choke submission.

Same for Dan Miller over Matt Horwich.

I think Hermes Franca will win by decision over Marcus Aurelio, and that Josh Burkman will win the same way over Pete Sell.

I see that I've chosen a lot of fights to end by decision. That usually means I think they're pretty evenly matched. One of the great things about MMA is anything can happen during a fight. I hope the fights are exciting, and that the fighters give it their all. I'll let you know how I do next week sometime.

Friday Flashback

Here I am, Halloween, 1988 or 1989. I believe this was taken either my junior or senior year of High School. I would be 16 or 17. The reason I think that is because of the shirt I'm wearing.

I had a couple of really good friends in High School (band), and we all liked The X-men comic books, so we called our selves The X-men, mostly just to ourselves as well. We even assumed some of the characters names. I was Nightcrawler, my best buddy, Agustin, was Wolverine, and our friend Steve was Cyclops or Colossus (I can't remember). We were the three main guys in the low brass section.

Anyway, Agustin had these tshirts made that had our names, our X-men names, and the character on the back. They were very cool. I want to say that I didn't wear mine for very long. Either it had gotten a big stain on the front, or I didn't like how it fit, or something like that.

Enough about the shirt.

The make up job here is one I did for many years. Especially the black around the eyes, the black on the lips, and darkening the cheek bones. I think I repeated the bullet hole a couple times too. I would usually wear a black hooded cloak with it.

I want to say that I had this picture taken because I was particularly happy with how it turned out. (I still think it looks pretty good.)

That's what I remember about this picture.

It's the Great Pumpkin (patch), Liam!

Liam's kindergarten class went on a field trip to a real pumpkin patch yesterday morning. Anna was able to go with him (she took the day off), and took these pictures. Here are some of my favorites...

Lining up to get on the bus to go to the pumpkin patch.

On the hay ride.

Liam got to choose a pumpkin.

The straw castle.

The petting zoo.

So many pumpkins!

The ride back to school.

At this pumpkin patch (in Yucaipa), you can either go to the field and pick/cut your own pumpkin, or choose one that's already been picked. There's about a dozen different varieties of pumpkins and gourds you can get. They are on the pricey side though. Here's their website.

**Looks like this is my 100th post! Seems like I just started doing this.

Oh the time that's been spent on this little endeavor...

I better go do some chores!**

More Time Than Usual

We went to Disneyland yesterday because we would have more time than usual.

There are a couple reasons why we would have more time. Liam's class had a field trip planned for that day, so Anna took the day off to go with Liam's class. They would be back at the normal school ending time, which for Liam's class is 12:15pm. Also, the track Duncan is on has been on half day schedule this week for parent-teacher conferences. That means he's done at 1pm.

When Anna and Liam were back from the field trip, they just hung around till Duncan was done and came home. In the mean time, I got everything packed up and ready to go at home. I think we left the house at about 2pm. That's 2 hours earlier than the usual time we leave.

There wasn't any slow traffic, so we got there in less than an hour. Plus we didn't stop for any food before hand because everyone already had lunch, and it was too early for dinner. I packed our dinner instead. This means that we were actually going to be able to go to Disney's California Adventure. It closes earlier than Disneyland, and we don't get there in time to go in. So we were happy to get to spend some time in Ca. Adv.

We walked straight to the new Toy Story Midway ride. It was our first time going on that ride. The wait was a little less than 30 minutes. I thought it was pretty fun. I had Tegan with me, so the first half of the game, I was using my right hand to steady her in the seat next to me. So I only had my left hand to aim and fire my shooter. Once I saw that I only needed to steady her when the ride was moving, using two hands was way more fun than using just one. Everyone really liked that ride.

Anna and I talked the boys into getting on the California Screamin' roller coaster, but they're still too short. Liam was bummed, Duncan was relieved.

We walked through the Mission Tortilla factory thing. They were making flour tortillas, so we told the boys they could get a tortilla and trade it for a fruit snack once we were outside. Know what's better than one warm and fresh flour tortilla? ... Two!

We watched part of a parade as we ate our tortillas and fruit snacks, then headed over to the Bug's Life area. Anna, Duncan, Liam and Jennan went on the ladybug ride twice. There was no line. Then I got to go with Duncan, Liam and Jennan on the bumper cars. There was no line there either, and the ride worker let us switch kids through the exit, so that was cool. Then Ca. Adv. was closed. It closed at 5pm.

We ate some of our dinner. Pumpkin bread (yes, GFCF for the boys), potato chips, bananas, and juice.

In Disneyland, the boys went with Anna on the Tarzan Tree House. We all went on Pirates and the Haunted Nightmare Before Christmas Mansion ride. Both less than 5 minutes of waiting. Then we made our way over to Buzz Lightyear (short line), and Autopia (about 20 min. or so wait in line). They still won't let Tegan on the ride. She's too short. So we did a swap. I went with the boys, then when we're done, Anna and Jennan go on through the exit so they don't have to wait in line. Lame to have to still do that, but whatever. Then we did Nemo, and our day at Disneyland was done.

It wasn't too crazy crowded this time. It was still more than what there was in September, but not as bad as the last couple times.

Fun stuff.

Standing in line at the new Toy Story ride.

Tortillas, yum!

Fruit snacks, yum!

Guess we didn't take any pictures at Disneyland. Maybe next time.

ZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzz

It must be tiring to have such a fun dad like me.

Save Money!

Sports Authority has a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $25 or more.

Click HERE for the page to print the coupon from.

It's only good this week! The last day is Saturday.

Music 2.0

This is a continuation from Monday's music post.

These are some of the songs on that mix CD I made years ago called "Oddities and Rarities".

This song is titled "Medicine" and it's by a band named Orbit...



Here are The Flys and their song "Got you where I want you". A young Katie Holmes is the lead in the video. Looks like there are clips from a movie too.


Next is Imperial Teen, and their song "yoo hoo". It was featured in the movie "Jawbreaker" with Rose McGowan, who is also featured in this video. It is an oddity for sure...


Here's a song by Supergrass called "We Still Need More (Than Anyone Can Give)". Looks like it was featured in a movie called Dead Man on Campus. I don't know that I've seen that movie. Might have to check it out.


Liz Phair with "Supernova" (I think Liz Phair, and Anna's sister Eva look alike)


Soul Coughing, "Super Bon Bon"


Stabbing Westward singing "Save Yourself" Here.

There's more, but this pretty much gives you an idea of what's on there. I saw that I have another mix CD I made that I haven't listened to in a while that I used to take on snowboarding trips. Looks like I called it a "heavy" mix.

Anyway, that's some of the music I've listened to this past week.

Monday Music

This week I listened to a variety of music. Well, maybe not a "variety", it was all pretty much alternative music, but it was from various artists.

I listened to "Kid A" from Radiohead. There are a lot of songs I really like from that album. It came out quite closely to "OK Computer", and is very similar in sound and style.

(Don't forget to pause the page music at the bottom of the page)

Here's the first track on the CD. It's titled "Everything In it's Right Place"...(fan video)




The next one is titled "Kid A". I think I like it because there are so many different musical layers all happening at the same time to create it. (fan video, and only a portion of the track)



This is another one I really like, it's titled "The National Anthem" (live)

I like how the bass and drum remain constant through all the chaos.

Anyway, I better move on or I'll end up putting the whole album up here. Kid A is one of those CDs that moves so effortlessly between songs, that before you know it, it's over.

In a completely different direction musically, I also listened to 311 this week. I listened to "Sound System" and "Evolver".

From Sound System, I think my favorite song is "Flowing". Here's a live version...

To see the actual video, you'll have to click HERE.

I like this one too, it's called "Sever"


The main single off the album is called "Come Original"...

Again, to see the actual video, you'll have to click HERE.

As for Evolver, I found that there were aspects of each song that I kind of liked, but once I heard it, I was ready to move on. I think I listened to the first song all the way through, but I skipped through the rest. I consider myself a 311 fan, but that's not their best work. Not sure why I own that CD.

Other than that, I listened to a mix CD I made many years ago. I titled it "Oddities and Rarities". It was fun to listen to. I'm kind of out of time for this post, so I'll try to get to it in a future post this week. (or maybe later today, we'll see)

Friday Flashback

Today's Friday Flashback is a picture of me and my sister Kristi. She might be able to pin down when this was taken, but I can only narrow it down to somewhere between 1995 and 2001. Probably closer to 95, but I'm not sure.

If I recall, Anna and I were still living in Altadena at the time, though this picture was taken in front of my mom and dad's house, facing the street. This is shortly after Kristi had shaved her head. It was in that middle stage, and I believe she colored it to distract from the awkward length.

I also want to say that this is from a time that we didn't see Kristi all that much, so it was a rare treat to get to take a picture with her. Especially with such "crazy" hair. These days, Kristi rocks a head full of black dread locks, which she's had for many many years. They're down to her waist.

I still maintain a short cropped cut. When I "tune-up", I cut it down to about a 1/4 inch tall. I also maintain extended sideburns. I haven't had the beard and goatee look (seen in the picture) for quite some time. Though I do compete in the annual Mr. Sasquatch competition. But that's different.

Anyhow, that's the flashback this week.

Fun stuff.

UFC 89 This Saturday...

The next UFC event is this Saturday. It's UFC 89, and it's free on Spike TV. The fights are taking place somewhere in the UK.

Here are my picks for a handful of the fights...

The main event is Micheal Bisping vs. Chris Leben. This should be a great fight. Both of these guys like to get after it right away. They both have a fast pace, and like to control that pace from the get go. Since they both like that style, it might come down to whom ever has to bend their game plan first will make the first mistake, and that's all it takes to lose a fight. With that being said, I think Bisping will keep his mental edge longer. It's his home crowd and his will to win will be strong. On the flip side, that could be a lot of pressure, and Leben could capitalize on that. I have Bisping to win, TKO in the 2nd round.

The other big fight on the card is Keith Jardine vs. Brandon Vera. Both of these guys have huge wins, and both have huge losses. Brandon had a string of wins early on in his UFC career, but has lost the last few. Keith just hasn't been consistent. He'll win a big fight, and lose the next to a lesser opponent. He's got to string a few wins together to be a contender. I think they'll work hard for 3 rounds, and go to decision. I have Brandon by unanimous decision. Should be a great battle.

Luiz Cain vs. Rameau Sokoudjou. Sokoudjou I guess, used to be a big name fighter in Pride, but has yet to be a big threat in the UFC. Luiz Cain is newer to the UFC but has been impressive in his fights. I have Juiz Cain to win by TKO in the 2nd.

Paul Kelly vs. Marcus Davis. Paul Kelly and Marcus Davis are both coming off losses. Paul had a 3 round battle loss to Paul Taylor, and Davis had a 3 round battle loss to Mike Swick. For both of them, this is their redemption fight. No one wants two losses in a row. I think Marcus will be better equipped to win, but Paul will be tough to beat. I have it going 3 rounds with Marcus winning by unanimous decision.

Paul Taylor vs. Chris Lytle. This is a tough one to call. Both guys give it their all inside the cage. But I think Chris can out work Paul, and if he stays busy and pushes the pace, he'll pull out the win. I 'm going with Chris to win by unanimous decision.

After that, I don't really know the fighters that well. I'll have to wait and see if they get some air time so I can remember them for the next time.

I noticed that about half of my fight picks are ended by decision. I guess when it's so hard to figure out who has the edge, I figure they'll go back and forth to the end, and the judges will get to pick who they thought won. I don't mind fights going all 3 rounds as long as both guys are still trying to finish the fight. If one of them is just trying to hold on till the end because they think they have an advantage on the score cards, that's what makes for a "boring" fight.

Anyway, just wanted to get this done sooner rather than later. I have a busy weekend ahead of me.

Monday Music

I didn't get a whole lot of music listening time this week, but I did get some.

I popped in Nine Inch Nails' "With Teeth". I was going to say it was a newer CD, but it's already 3 years old. I know NIN has released a CD or two since then. Or at least it was Trent that put out a solo album too. Anyway, "With Teeth" is the newest one I own.

I like it pretty well.

This is probably my favorite song on the CD. It's titled "Only". I think it's the drum part that puts this song over for me. **the bad words are edited out of this version**



This song is a close second... maybe even tied for first with "Only"; It's titled "Everyday Is Exactly the Same" (no bad word version)


The main single from the album is called "The Hand That Feeds", and the embedding is disabled, so here's a link to see it: The Hand That Feeds

That's the only CD I recall listening to this week.

There is a song on the radio I like pretty well; it's called "Wild International" by a group called "One Day As A Lion". It's the singer from Rage Against the Machine, and I guy from the band Mars Volta. I like the sound of it, but I haven't been able to put my finger on most of the lyrics. Here it is... (audio only)



Toodles.

Shnazzy Sunday...

Sunday morning we got ready for church, and all the kids looked great! Anna took a few pics.

That's it.

Friday Flashback

Today's flashback photo...

This picture was taken in October of 1993. I was on my mission and serving in Hopewell, VA. We lived in an upstairs apartment above a house. Pretty much a converted attic. Our stairs were on the outside of the house. I think I saw the people that lived under us only once or twice the whole 4 months I was there. We had a car, but our allotted miles were so low, we were usually on bike.

As you can see, after almost two years of predominantly Utah missionary companion service, my personal style was faltering... slightly pleated and stonewashed jeans and a tucked in t-shirt... shame on me. My edgy So. Cal. style was almost gone. Luckily, a couple months later, I was home, and snapped out of it.

Today's Submission...

I learned a new sumission. (Ok I really just learned of it.)

It's called a calf-slicer or calf-crusher. Also, some call it a calf-splitter.

Looks like it hurts.




I think there are a couple variations too. This one is called a Twisted calf cutter.



Now go practice...

Stuff and other stuff...

Well, it's been a couple days since I've put anything here. Here's what's been going on over those days.

Monday we went to Disneyland again. Only because I needed to go pick up some shirts from the wholesaler which is only a couple miles from Disneyland. So if I need shirts, we pretty much go to D-land to make it worth the gas/trip. This particular Monday, Disneyland was BUSY! Way crowded. Probably as crowded as a Friday. It reminded us why we like to go Wed. and Thurs. But we did get to meet up with Josh and Sara and family, so that was fun. Especially for the kids. We'll have to try and get together there more often.

Also Monday, I began getting a cold. Duncan and Liam were both sick last week. Tegan was sick last weekend. Looked like it was my turn.

And I cleaned a bunch of my screens for a that tshirt order.

That was monday (in backwards order).

Tuesday:
I cleaned more screens. Anna's geology club at school has a fundraiser this Saturday, and having their club shirts for it would be really helpful, so they put a rush on their design. I figured I had enough screens. I would coat them and "burn" them later after mutual.

I spent a bunch of time tuesday with tissue in my nose.

I also planned and put together the troop meeting for the scouts at mutual. That always takes more time than I expect. I need to get the scouts doing that, so I don't have to.

Scouts went fine. Just as we finished up, the Bishop came in and told me one of my newly assigned home teaching people was in the hospital, and needed a blessing. He wanted me to do it sometime during the week. I knew that would be difficult, so I asked if he could go with me right then. He said yes. I raced home, changed clothes and headed back to church. We had some rough directions to the hospital, so we missed our turn. I called Anna for better directions (I knew she was on the computer). We found the hospital, gave the blessing, and got home. By this time it was kind of late to be doing anything with my screens. That put me behind a day with my schedule, but I figured it would be fine.

Wednesday:
The sinus headache that started the day before was still there. That makes it hard to focus on things that need to be done. I decided I wasn't going to let it keep me from the chores that I neglected the day before. I finished the laundry, did all the dishes, and began picking up the front room, but the headache didn't give up either, and I had to sit down and take it easy for a while. Soon Liam came home. Fed the kids lunch. And still felt like crap.
Anna and Duncan were home a few hours later. Anna went straight to finishing up the design her geology club came up with. I felt rested enough to help Liam finish his homework, and Anna and I made dinner. Once dinner was done, it was haircut and bathtime. While Anna bathed the girls, I coated all the screens, and they began drying. I cut Duncan's hair short, and only trimmed Liam's, then gave them a bath.
Once baths were done, and the kids were in bed. I began the "burning", or exposing. The screens are coated with light sensitive emulsion, to they need to be handled in low UV/light. So "burning" them is exposing them to light with the design blocking the light. Then they're sprayed with water till the part that was blocked from the light washes out. The first screen worked no problem. Then the second screen had issues, so I had to do that one over. The second attempt worked. Went on to the third design, and it took until the fourth screen till it turned out. The first design was for the job I have (1 of 5 needed), and the 2nd and 3rd were for the geology club. Since I had so many screens not work out, I wouldn't be able to burn all the screens for the job that night. That put me another day behind on printing the job, but the geology club will have theirs.
I unwound by watching The Ultimate Fighter. It was midnight, and time for bed.

Today so far, the sinus headache is a little less. I had to take care of some scouting stuff. And there's plenty of things to come: I still need to clean last night's messed up screens to coat and burn tonight. I still need to print the geology club shirts (waiting to know what sizes to print). Still have rooms to pick up, the sink is already full of dishes that need washed, etc. Later tonight I have a roundtable (scout leader) meeting. I'm avoiding some of that for the moment though by blogging here, but now I'm done, so off to work I go...

Monday Music

This last week I guess I got a little tired of the quirky indie music and female lead pop-rock, because I ended up listening to some much heavier stuff (sort of).

Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page.

I was in the mood for this one song last week. I think it was because I have it in the stack of CDs that are in the kitchen. (The CDs in the kitchen are there by chance, they weren't selected to be there.) It's called "Stupid Girl" and it's by a little known band called "Cold". I think I just really like the sound of that song. Anyway, I can't embed it to the blog so you have to follow this link HERE.

I also listened to Chevelle's CD titled "Vena Sera". It's a pretty solid listen from start to finish. The CD I have is actually an import copy, and it also has some of their other popular singles from some past albums on it.

Here's the first track on the CD titled "Antisaint" (fan video)...


Here's another track titled "SaferWaters" (audio only)...


Here's one of my favorites called "Well Enough Alone"...


Here's a fan "video", actually it's just the audio. The real video gets a little racy, so this is probably better...


There are some other good songs on Vena Sera too, but this is gives you a pretty good idea of the type of music you'll hear.


I did actually also pop in Radiohead's OK Computer this week. It's a great CD.

Here's the first track called "Airbag"...(audio)


This one is called "Subterranean Homesick Alien"


Here's a fan video for "Let Down"


Here's the last one I'll post for Radiohead's OK Computer. It's called "No Surprises"...


There's other good songs on that CD too, but this music post is getting a little long. I realised that the Chevelle CD is 5 years old, and that OK Computer is 11 years old (?!). That's crazy to me.

Friday Flashback

Here is today's Flashback photo...

As you can see, the year is 2003. That's Duncan and Liam, 5 years ago. That makes Duncan almost two years old, and Liam is almost 7 months old.


We lived at the Foutz compound at this time. We were in the rear house behind Kevin and Dawn. We would have been there less that 2 years at this point. We moved in the week before Duncan was born.


We don't have that couch anymore. The two bouncy seats we used for all of our kids. Still have that stereo and the entertainment center it's in, though the stereo doesn't work as well as it did back then. Once the kids new what button opened the CD tray, it didn't play CDs too well after that. It still works with the DVD player though. We still have that blanket, and those toys.


Two kids seemed like such a handful back then. How would I ever do anything?... Now, if I ONLY have two kids, it's no big deal at all. In fact, it's kind of a break sometimes.


Anyway, they grow up fast. Thank goodness cameras were invented, so we can see and remember the past.

It Was About That Time Again

It had been a couple weeks, so we decided to go to Disneyland yesterday. Plus Anna said she could use the distraction from thinking about work. So it was a welcomed break for us all.

For some reason, Duncan was in a "take a picture of me" mood. Liam and Jennan wanted in on that too.

Duncan saw the candy corn letters outside of California Adventure and wanted a picture of him "eating" the "A". Anna got all the kids out for this one.

Disneyland was a bit more crowded this time than the last time we were there. Still not even as bad as summer time. We headed straight over to the Haunted Mansion. It's already converted over to The Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Duncan was very apprehensive about going on the ride, but he still went. When we were done, he said it wasn't scary after all.

As we were walking to the "Jack Skellington ride", Duncan had his Disneyland map out and said he wanted us to go to Toon Town. So after the "Jack" ride, we made our way over there. On our way, we stopped at the sword.

We were recently at my sister Kim and her family's house at the Foutz compound (where Kevin and his family used to live), and she put on "The Sword and the Stone", which we don't have, and the kids liked it a lot. We told Duncan that the sword is at Disneyland, and that he could try to put it out of the stone next time we went. Well, this was that time. He gave it a tug, but no luck.

Liam didn't care to be king, so he just posed for his photo op.

So did Jennan.

Then we got on the carousel. But I forgot to grab the camera before we got on. oops.

We made it to Toon Town. There weren't very many people there, and it looked pretty closed up, but we went in so the kids would be happy. It's actually quite nice without all the other families and people there. The kids got to climb on, and play with all the fun things in Toon Town almost all by them selves. We eventually made our way to the back corner where "Gadget's Go Coaster" is. Jennan is tall enough for that ride now, so Anna took Duncan, Liam and Jennan on the ride. There was no line! I guess Jennan didn't like it too well, because when they got off, and it was my turn to go with them, Jennan didn't want to go again.

Hard to see, but that's the "boys" stopping for a quick photo while making our way up the path to the ride.

Once we did that, we walked through the Disney character houses. I didn't realize that leads us to an extremely uncomfortable photo op with Mickey. It almost felt like a trap. Duncan's not a fan of the "live" characters at all. Even when we just see a character in the distance, we hides his face. So this was going to be a "face your fears" moment for him. Surprisingly, he did quite well, even giving Mickey a hug. Jennan went along with it all, but I think she was a bit unsure about it.

It was a nice trip.

We brought some mini corn dogs for the kids to eat in the car on the way there, and got some In-N-Out fries too. The boys used their shirts as napkins, so they were the dirty kids at D-land. We'll have to work on that.

Oh, October...

Wow, it's October?!


September went by so fast.


When it's October, it's time to dust off our copy of Nightmare Before Christmas. We pretty much run that movie from October through December. It also works well with Disneyland transforming the Haunted Mansion into a Nightmare Before Christmas ride.

October means that I'll stop ignoring the Halloween isle in the stores. I might actually have to take a look. Those isles are pure chaos most of the time though, and I don't particularly like that.


In October I start realizing that I haven't started any homemade gifts I may have planned on giving.


I'm very much looking forward to the weather cooling off during the day. The nights are already getting very comfortable. On our scout overnighter last weekend, I actually had to pull on my sweatshirt in the evening. It was quite cozy.


I think I would have to say that fall is my favorite season. I don't know if it's because the summer heat finally gives way to cooler weather, or if it's because of the holiday trifecta of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas? Fall signals the beginning of the rugby preseason, and though I'm not currently playing, it brings to mind the great memories I have from it. It's probably a combination of all of those things, and others I will most likely remember later, that make this time of year such a joy.

Happy October!