Oklahoma

Sunday evening my work called me to see if I was able to go down to Oklahoma on Monday and drive a bus up with a few other guys, just like I did last week from IL. I was able. So I was at work at 3AM Monday and we piled into a cha
rter van like this one, but ours had an AC unit on the top back-->
A lot of reading and sleeping. Somewhere around Iowa and Missouri we entered triple digit temperatures. The van was our inverted oven. The windows were very hot to the touch from the outside temperatures.
We arrived in Oklahoma at around 4PM. The bus manufacturing facility was huge. It was an old military bomber factory in its history, I guess. Paperwork was processed and we ran down a checklist on our brand new buses. If it was over 100 degrees outside, imagine what it was inside the buses!
We were on the road at about 5pm, but then it took over an hour to fill all 7 buses at the very first diesel station. Eventually we got going. Drove for about an hour and a half to Joplin, MO to a hotel our leader was familiar with. Got in at about 7 and finished paperwork and logbooks at around 8PM.

Comfortable Hotel. I roomed with 3 other guys while another room held 3 more. 7 in total. Mark, Marty, Josh and I in one room. Dave, Steve and Kirk in the other.

We had a very good breakfast at about 6 and headed North just after 7. Somewhere in Iowa three of the fellas kind of took off ahead lead by the grumpy Mark. He wasn't excited about following anyone else's bus- even when I was leading most of the way. Someone passing him lead to him trying to one-up them and they went on ahead.

When the van needed to refuel, Dave just had us remaining three fill up our tanks which made us good for the rest of the trip. He drove off to go find the other jokers so they could have means to refuel- I believe they would be waiting for him in Albert Lea, MN. That left Marty, Josh and I to make our way by ourselves.

We decided to stop at the last rest stop in Iowa- a two level barn which was very nice. Once we had our rest we got back onto 35. As I passed the exit for Albert Lea, Mark fell in right behind my bus. He stayed there all the way back to base. The other two jokers were about 5 minutes ahead of us.

With a few stops for stretching and one for fuel we made it back to the Twin Cites at about 6:30 to 7pm.

It was a good trip. And a good bus.

Willis weekend

Mom and Dad came up to see Jack Elliot (like they did when Simon was born). They stayed at David and Darlene's house. The plan was to have everyone (including Greg and Mandy and Simon) come to our house on today, but...

We lost power last night storm.

So we met for a short time at David and Darlene's house and then continued on to Greg and Mandy's and spent the day/evening there. Very good time. Cogs and Eddie are great and adjusting to Simon very well (except for Cog's need to dominate Eddie occasionally).

Went to Illinois for work

7 of us rode a bus to Hastings, got on a different bus to Sycamore IL to pick up newer buses for Monarch. 4:30 AM to 9:00 PM. I lead the convoy.

The one we rode from Hastings to Sycamore had seats in the front half. The rear was nothing but mattresses. Strange.

The buses we took up to MN are not brand new, but they are very nice. AM/FM radios, tinted windows. Nice ride.

We were nearly at the end of Small Group and our power went out.

Jack is doing great.

Bopper has become Jack Elliot Willis

He was born at 3:00 AM this morning with a very quick delivery. 22.5 inches and 8lbs 15 oz. Big boy. Momma and baby are doing great.

Cara had some contractions last night at about 11:15 or so. She went for a walk and took a shower. Around 1:45 AM her contractions were strong enough for her to say "Lets go!". Woke up Leesha and went to the hospital. We arrived and got set up in a room for the delivery. Leesha called both sets of grandparents to let everyone know. At about 2:45 the contractions were regular and strong and Cara said she felt the need to push. Everything seemed accelerated from here until the end. Leesha was sent out to the hallway to wait. 15 minutes later a boy came out. Cara needed very little assistance- no painkillers (not that there was time for them).

See the Jack Elliot show here.

Bopper is 1 week overdue, but they say we can induce tomorrow.

No Bopper, but Barriss

Still no Bopper.

I found out that the girl who played the Jedi Padawan, Barriss Offee, in STAR WARS Episodes II and III is a Christian according to this interview with her at STAR WARS celebration IV. I found her email address from her website and sent her a note. She wrote me back today:

Hello Nalini,

I am a STAR WARS fan and I really like the character you portrayed in the prequels. What I'm writing about is- I just saw the interview you did with Kelly from Weekendgamer.com on youtube and I wanted to say... You are great for being so bold with your faith. Praise GOD! I am also a Christian and I was so excited to hear your testimony. Thank you for your strength and God bless.

Jeffry

------------------------

Jeffry,
Thanks so much for the email, it can be so hard to remain faithful at time to Jesus, the world gets in the way, but if it weren't for emails like this reminding me then it would be so much harder.
Thanks and God Bless.
Regards
Nalini

She seems very cool.

Bopper is due today. Still waiting...

Mom and Dad are in MN
Mom and dad were in town to see Simon. We went out to breakfast with them today before they took off for home.

Spud started his own forum and I closed mine down. Spud also allegedly is opening a coffee shop in Eagle River.

I am fully into STAR WARS lately. I think I've forgiven Lucas for the quality of the new trilogy.

Goodbye Goldie

Leesha's goldfish died today.

Mom and Dad are in town to see Simon

Simon
Simon Lee Willis was born today. Mandy went through over 40 hours of labor with him.

Eric's dad died today.

I am a certified RTA with YTB!

Today I attended a class to get my certification with Your Travel Business. It was highly informative and I feel motivated. This company is remarkable. Starting my own business for $500. Best system out there by far.

Last Day of School. Kind of sad.

I got new glasses today. It was also Leesha's last day of school.

Sadie

I am surprised at my level of mourning for Sadie. Her health has been dropping fast and today she couldn't get out of her bed. So Matt and Krystin are taking her to the vet to put her down. She is gone.

Mourning is an interesting thing. I feel that I gave her the love a dog is due. I adored that little girl. I pray that the dogs I own in the future will be as good hearted as she was.

Dispatch called select drivers to see Don after routes. I was not one of the names called. Worried. After the day Don signed my time sheet and told me about a meeting on Thursday morning (even though I wasn't called). Not about Summer routes. Worried.

Full Full Weekend

Friday, Eric brought a lot of stuff for another garage sale. Put up signs after dark

Saturday, set up for garage sale. Went to get eye exam and new glasses. Came home to help with garage sale. Our neighbors, Mike and Amy, hung out with us. Sky got dark. Hustled everything into the garage. Eric and I sat down and listened to Leesha's and Dah's new mix CD. Then we hung lights in bedroom. Cara was gone. Worried. Called. She came home mad. She went to church with out a word. Had a talk.

Sunday Went to church. Hung out with media crew- Fritz and Rob. Greg Boyd's 50th birthday skit. Eric came to pick up garage things. Helped get grand table into basement and get air conditioner in window. Packed up his truck. He got called into work.

Memorial Weekend

Friday night we went to Willis West (Greg and Mandy's house) where we grilled out and ate in. It was a very good time visiting and playing with the dogs.

Saturday we slept in. Cara and Leesha went down to Ikea with Darlene to shop. Called me and I went to down to transport a cabinate. Pre assembled. Door open so took my time going home. Stopped at Hot Comics and found Uncle Sven's which the Source recently purchased. Hans was working there. We dug out Identity Crisis and marveled at how well it portrayed Deathstroke the Terminator. Found a bunch of Challengers of the Unknown comics for $.50!

Cara and I watched the first episode of the current season of Doctor Who before she went to be and I watched SNL.

Sunday we met at Uptown Bar and Grill for gyro omelets. We picked up Darlene at her church and went to Uptown to meet Greg and Mandy and Mom and Dad.

After that Mom and Dad followed us to our house and we all went to work on Bopper's room. Had sandwiches. Leesha slept in the living room while mom and dad had her bed. We went for a walk and sat outside and talked.

Memorial Monday we had some breakfast and shortly after that, Greg and Mandy came over as well as Trelevens. We spent most of the day in our back yard.

Steve & Holly to MN

My folks are coming to town today

Dah has ITP.

Garage Sale

Cara sold that old blue car at our garage sale! Also sold the couch and chair and also the old cat-smelling air conditioner.

I played D&D with Rob, Paul and Pat at Pat's house. Left early to do lights at church. It was the new youth pastor preaching, Seth his name is. His 2nd time preaching and I've worked both times. He's great.

McKeever writing Teen Titans!

Sean McKeever (who is now exclusively writing for DC Comics AND has been assigned to write Birds of Prey AND on the writing team for the weekly Countdown title) is now the new writer for Teen Titans.

Beechen’s move to the new miniseries does come with a cost – he had to give up Teen Titans, where he was recently named as the series’ new writer, stepping in for the departing Geoff Johns. Moving over to that series will be another member of the Countdown team, Sean McKeever.

McKeever will join Johns, Marv Wolfman, Mike McKone, George Perez, Todd Nauck and other creators for August’s Teen Titans #50 “jam issue,” and then head off on his own with September’s #51 with artist Randy Green.

“Sean’s is able to write in that great younger voice that the Teen Titans book really needs and a great sensibility for the characters, and again, like Adam, with his time working on Countdown, he was able to learn a lot about the interaction between them. When Teen Titans came free, Sean just seemed the most logical choice. Sean will be writing two of our team books now, with Titans and Birds of Prey, and he brings a great voice to both those books.”

You can read the entire article here. If you don't know who Sean McKeever is, then here is some context. He is a friend of mine from from back in high school. We became friends over our mutual interest of comics. I worked for his dad at the hardware store where Sean had his own comic shop set up. He helped with many of the video projects Greg, Orion, and I would do. His house became a haven for many of us. Sean is one of those really good friends you have. I'm so excited about his success.

The Girl Who Cried Wolf and Free Comic Book Day

Just before we left for Ms. Laura's graduation party, Leesha says her stomach hurt again. She was sick from school yesterday because she threw up on Thursday night for unknown reasons. I responded by telling her to lie down for a while which she protested about. It turns out that she happened to not want to go to the graduation party so she was making up an excuse. This upset me very much.

I'm finding it difficult to believe her when she complains about stomach aches or whatnot. I hate 2nd guessing her all the time, but this is what she's left me to do. The night before, she was at Jeremy's house and he said she was up late crying. Her reason for being upset were different for everyone she told. She told Jeremy one story, me another and Cara a third story. How can you believe anything she says? It is a thing I'm struggling with.

We all ended up going to Ms. Laura's graduation party at Como park anyways. Ms. Laura is the bus aid on my Murry Jr. High school bus route. She and I have gotten to know each other and discovered that both our families attend Woodland Hills Church. She has been studying to get her license in special education and invited us to celebrate. Leesha ended up having a blast and even cracked open the pinata!

After we left Laura's party we went to the Source for Free Comic Book day. The Source ran out of free comic book comics and ended up giving away cheap regular comics. They gave one bag to each of us- Leesha, Cara and me. Leesha's was 'screened' for younger fans. In her bag was a 1976 issue #1 of Kobra from DC comics. SCORE! I took that one for myself.

Micro Con

Today I geeked out. Cara and I went to church last night which left the day wide open for me to go to a local comic book convention and spend my bonus on comics. My mission was to raid the cheap bins ($.50 or $1.00) for all the G.I. Joe comics I could find that I didn't already have.

I found nearly 50 comics, most of all G.I. Joe as well as some other titles.

I came across Greg's co-worker and friend- Jessie. He was with Greg and Curtis at the last comic convention we went to in the fall. Greg couldn't go today because he had some birth class to go to after church.

Baby talk contract

Two days ago I made a contract with Leesha. Cara and I get very annoyed when Leesha speaks in a childish baby tone. We've been trying to encourage her to not do this. This was one way I attempted- with a reward:

Choose one of the following:

1. I, Leesha Faith, agree to not use baby-like-talk from 4/26/07 to 5/26/07. Upon achieving this, I will receive $5.00 from Dad. If I do use baby-talk, I lose the chance for the $5.00 reward.

X____________________________________________

2. I, Leesha Faith, agree to not use baby-like-talk from 4/26/07 to 5/26/07. Upon achieving this, I will receive $10.00 from Dad. If I do use baby-talk, I lose the chance for the $10.00 reward AND I will pay Dad $5.00

X____________________________________________

She chose the 2nd one. Today she failed it (I even gave her two gimme chances). She owed and paid me my due.

Must figure out a different way to curb this annoying thing she does.

Taxcut Rally

Going to the State Capital today for an anti-tax rally. Beautiful day.

Ran into Mike Dougherty there. He saw me.

Mike pointed out to me that I'm in this picture! Just right of exactly center is me in an orange sweatshirt and a green hat. See me? (look for the red circle)
It was pretty fun. Scary, to hear how much we possibly could be paying in the near future. But, because of rallies like these, maybe we won't have to.

I went for a run today. I'm not kidding.

...I've been dizzy all day because of it.

Greykell emailed me!

Greykell is the sister of Keith Baker. Keith Baker is the creator of Eberron. Eberron is a campaign setting for the role-playing game- Dungeons & Dragons. Keith has written a few novels and a comic book set in this world, some of which star a character also named Greykell. I really liked this character so I did a google search for her and found that Keith based Greykell on his sister.

I wrote him and asked him about that, but you can read about that here.

Today I got an email from Greykell, herself!

Here is what she said:

Hey there,

Just wanted to say hi.. I was vanity googling and found your post
where you had found MY post about my brother Keith writing "me" into
Eberron.

I've bookmarked your site so I can read more about your life.. after
all, if you like Greykell you've got to be cool *grin*.

Cheers,

Greykell (but not the one from Eberron alas, just a very proud older
sister!)

I thought it was awesome that she wrote me. Thank you, Greykell. Maybe you'll find this posting next time you vanity google.

Down to STL, MO

We had the CRV checked out before our trip down to St. Louis to make sure the clutch was ok (see below). My folks set us up in a fancy hotel in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, using my site. The trip down was fine. Traveling with Leesha has improved since last time we did this. She's growing up.
Leesha's privilege -
She's growing up so much that she had a privilege on this trip. The privilege was - She can stay up as late as she wanted to, her decision. And go to bed when she felt tired. And get up as early as she wanted to. However... if she started to whine (because she was too tired), she immediately loses the privilege. She did very very well with this. She made it all week and mantained the privilege.

Mom and Dad are doing great. They're house is so warm and welcoming. They're kicking arse with they're home business.

Dog Museum- The Dog Museum is something I've been trying to visit for nearly 10 years. This trip we finally made a point to go and it was fantastic. It was well beyond any expectation I had and we all were deeply pleased with what we saw (except for Leesha who found it rather boring, but didn't complain). www.museumofthedog.org

Comic Book Shops- I managed to get away and check out a couple of the local comic book shops. Dad took me out to the 'Uptown-esque' area for the first one- Star Clipper. I didn't like this shop. It was nothing like more traditional shops. This one felt like an uppity coffee shop where one should wear a scarf and a beret. The 2nd one was in Kirkwood and it was small and uncomfortable. I missed the Source of MN.

Grandpa and Grandma are doing ok. Grandpa is falling into dementia and Grandma is a trooper dealing with it. At one point in the day Grandma was out with Leesha, so it was dad, mom, Cara and me with him and he started to refuse to eat his lunch. It was alarming because it seemed that he never took a stand like this before. He seemed to be better when Grandma returned. I discovered that Grandpa was deeply in to comic strips- namely Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. This is meaningful to me, because of my love for comics. It gives possible explanation for why Greg and I never caught on with the hunting and fishing of my dad's youth.
Business encouragement
trip back.

LOST

Cara's folks came over for dinner tonight.
I crawled around on the roof cleaning out the gutters with David's help.
LOST was fantastic on cd. We don't watch it on TV anymore. On cd (our DVD player can read DVIX files) its widescreen, clearer than our reception and no commercials.

The Very Long Day

We had a Safety Meeting which means I don't get to go home in the morning. Bummer. Makes the day long. In the meeting they used my accident from the beginning of the year. Changed some of the details (or got them incorrect) but made it anonymous. The lady giving the talk said "It was a first year driver mistake, but they're still with us and doing a VERY GOOD job even today." After the meeting, she said she hoped I didn't mind that they used my accident- of course I didn't mind. I told her that I appreciated what she said at the end. They like me.

My activity route (that means after school stuff) was drastically changed. They removed over half of my students to add two different ones. These two new girls are alarmingly well behaved. Not sure how this bit of fortune fell on me, but I thank God for it.

And now for what made my day REALLY long:

Last night Laura Beth's car died before small group- way over by University Ave and 694!. We got things moving FAST - within 15 minutes, Jon and Lara were on the scene. They took care of the car best they could and brought her all the way to our house with them. After small group, Eric, Jon and Lara went with Laura Beth. They managed to get her car home with her. But the car wasn't fixed.

Today they determined that the car was going to need some major repair. Laura Beth needed a car. Eric suggested she take the Mazda sitting in our driveway (the one we're trying to sell). However, she doesn't know how to drive clutch AND the Mazda isn't very safe brake-wise. So it was decided that she'll take our Honda CRV. So Almost as soon as I got home tonight, I went out again with the Honda. I found her house and had her take me to Cara's parents house (from there I'd go home in Darlene's car since Darlene was out of town and didn't need it). So between Laura Beth's house and Cara's parents, I gave Laura Beth a crash course (pardon the pun) on how to drive a clutch. I was getting nervous because I could smell the clutch burn as she was getting (or not getting) the hang of it. She managed with difficulty.

Prayer started out as - "let us not have to spend much money"- this prayer didn't feel good. Felt wrong.
Changed to - "what ever your will, Lord. If car is totalled, so be it. you will provide."
felt great about that version!

Garbage Pail Kids

We had a great bible study tonight.

After small group, I usually walk out with Eric to take the garbage out when he leaves for home. Tonight the garbage was not there. How strange. So I set it down and went back in. Three minutes later the doorbell rings and it's Eric. He says he found it down the street among others strewn all over some one's driveway. He took me down there and I went up to their house. The house was full of high school aged kids. I asked them if they've made any enemies lately and showed them their mess. They said "I guess we have". I took our bin home.

Snow and Baby Sonar

I finally got my Jeep up the driveway and into the garage!

This started yesterday after work. Work was stressful because we got more snow than I remember ever getting here in MN. And driving a 30 foot big yellow vehicle all around St. Paul with trying to keep to a schedule is just not relaxing.

It took an hour to get home. Its ironic that the bus handles better in this weather than my jeep. Its probably all about weight. Getting home, the driveway was nearly a foot deep with snow. NO WAY this jeep is getting up there.

Took over an hour with my neighbor's help- Mike and Amy, they came over with shovels and a snow blower! Mike even tried pushing my Jeep with his Jeep. No go.

Cara and Leesha weren't home last night. They stayed at her folk's house so they could make it to the appointment this morning, ok. So I went to sleep all by myself.

Before I went to sleep, I did get the news that St. Paul closed schools for today. Thank you, Lord.

Got up and immediately started shoveling again. This time because a plow trapped me in.

Here's the REAL news.
I met Cara, Leesha and Darlene at the clinic to see Bopper! We had a scheduled ultrasound. Everything looked good to the tech and it was hard to recognize anything without her help, but what a fascinating thing!

Pee in a Cup
Today was a rough go. My precious me time every day between 9 and 11:45 was destroyed by chance. My name was selected at random again for a drug test. I had to unsettle myself from my computer and go pee in a cup. Altered my whole day. Didn't eat until after my noon route and got comics early. I'm tired.

Its snowing.

Bopper
We had a rough weekend and this was the day that made it worth while. We heard Bopper's heart today.

I wanted to get up earlier than normal to get a head start on the day anticipating the roads, but I overslept! Cara woke me up realizing that I was still in bed. Forgoing my morning routines, I still manaaged to get to work very early and out of the yard before the big exodus of buses.

The roads were good and bad. Main streets were effortless, but many side streets hadn't been touched with plow. Over the radio it sounded pretty bad, but my routes went almost as easy as any day.

Snow

We got a ton of snow all yesterday and last night.

I shovelled most of the driveway so we could get our car on the road. Cara is very concerned about how the pregnancy is going and she wanted to go to a clinic today. After she talked with someone they told her to stay home and drink a lot of water. That doesn't seem very good. She became very worried.

Later Cara has calmed down and said she felt fluttering in her. So I guess she's ok.

We gave Catan card game a try. Kind of overwhelming at first, but we sort of got the hang of it.

I just finished shoveling most of the driveway for the 3rd time.

David and Darlene brought us Chinese for lunch.

The Yu-Gi-Oh Caper

Had to dissolve a high tension Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card dispute on the bus this morning. In the end I found out who this kid, Willie, really is. I don't like it. My friend Davyon (who has caused much trouble in the past) was involved. But in the end, I like him even more. He is a good kid who sometimes makes bad choices. Willie seems more like a bad kid who stays under the radar more often than not.

Dominoes

Small group was very small. Jankoviches Kummers and Lara didn't come. So that left Eric, Jon, Laura Beth, Cara and me. We played Dominoes. Jon brought a boxset of Led Zepplin for Eric and we listened to it all night.

Mom and dad signed up a customer of YTB under me today!

And I got Eberron: Dragonmarked book from eBay. One of the Best WotC books I've read.

Lighting and Climbing Trees When Goblins Attack!

Yesterday, gamed at Pat's. They took me off of switching at church and now I'm running lighting. There are a lot more things to be aware of when doing lights. We'll see how that goes.

Lights at church again for both Sunday services. Got home and...
nap
After that I whipped up a quick session of D&D with Cara and Leesha. We ran the encounters in the small town so it was almost all dialog role-playing. Leesha is still trying to get the hang of how to play this. I noticed that anytime I have the characters encounter anything dangerous or resembling combat, her character - Noel, hides or climbs a tree. I'm re-thinking the combat angle and thinking about completely altering the module to a puzzle and riddle fairytale campaign. We'll see.

I finished my book today. That's always a great feeling.

Cara's folks were here for dinner tonight. Leesha was a pill because she's not totally back to normal from being sick and she was hungry.

Kids and their Boundaries

Got 192 back. I love my old bus.

On the Murray route, this morning, there were no girls except for Miss Laura- the bus aid. All boys.

Leesha and Cara were home when I got here. My me-time was less than private. Leesha is feeling much better. She's also reacting favorably to having those boundaries again.

Leesha was very well behaved, tonight. I believe it all has to do with boundaries. See, for the last couple of days she's been with Grandma. Grandma kind of lets Leesha decide what she wants to do or what she wants to eat. This leaves her in a most unpleasant state. She becomes a real pill. Its strange how once we crack down and tell her how it is, she's great.

Ordered Melaleuca.

David Sorley returns home today. He's been out east taking care of his mother, giving his sister, Mimi, a break. He's been gone for about 2 weeks.

LOST wasn't finished downloading before it was bedtime. We'll have to watch it tomorrow.

The Better Bus and No Boundary

Sub bus, but not the one from yesterday. Bus 46. This one was almost impossible to steer. After it warmed up it was manageable. The seat was better than yesterday's bus, but it still wasn't as good as my regular bus- 192.

Cara was home when I got home. Left almost right away.

My honey made Valentine's kringle!

I was waylayed on the way home. Just north of St. Paul south-bound traffic on 35E was backed up to a complete stop. So I parked. Sat there for about 20 minutes. All traffic was stopped on the other side as well. There were no cars moving at all on 35E. Two firetrucks came squeezing through on our side, we could see another firetruck maneuvering on the other side. 20 minutes later, traffic moves again. I was expecting to see a huge crash or something, but there was nothing. Not a single hint as to what caused this.

Leesha was in bed by the time I got home. Cara said she was a pill when she was picked up from Grandma's. Grandma give Leesha vast amounts of choice. Leesha doesn't know it, but she really wants boundaries.

Unable to watch LOST again because of reception. We'll download it. It'll be clear, letterboxed and minus commercials.

I couldn't find any report on any of the local news websites as to what caused that traffic delay.

Babies, Buses & Buca's

We were supposed to get a ton of snow today. I got up and out early for it. How much did we get? None. And they can predict Global Warming? They can't even get tomorrow correct.

Cara and Leesha were home when I got home after my morning routes. All was much less peaceful. They were in a whirlwind to get out and deliver some documents for our health insurance. We're trying to get covered through government programs, but they keep giving us the run-around. Cara is bringing requested documents in person (and taking our sick, contagious daughter with- if they would've accepted everything the first time like they said... hey, they gave her no choice. Poetic Justice). I guess some of the documents are some we already gave them. The whole thing is confusing. Leesha is looking and acting closer to normal. Yesterday's abundance of sleep did magic.

After the ladies left, Greg called to tell me they're having a boy!

Just as I was about to go make lunch, work calls and said they want bus 192 back at the shop for repair. I'll be eating later again. AAARRRGGG

This temporary bus sucked. The seat was basically a bench that leaned to the right always dumping me toward the door. I hated it.

Dah got written up twice today. Not really. She was going on and on about her tooth getting pulled out with a lot of blood. Ignored. Yelled.

Went right to Cara's folk's house and changed clothes. Shortly we left for Buca's

Buca's was great. After everyone was seated the waitress places an empty ketchup bottle with two roses in it- one blue, one pink. This was a message. They no longer are trying to catch-up with Rob and Laura (who have a baby- Oliver) and Cara and me (who are 18 weeks pregnant- Bopper). Eric and Keesha are also pregnant! Of course the food was wonderful, as well.

Dah is back

Rob called with promising news about an entry level position at Accenture. This is promising news.

Leesha stayed home and is at Jeremy's house today. She probably has the flu. Cara has been exposed.

Leesha, Keesha and the Gallifreyan Doctor

We met Darlene for church. After church we went out with Pfeifer's small group to eat. Eric gave me a great Doctor Who reference today. I'll explain what that means on Tuesday.

Leesha came home in a mess. She really isn't feeling well and this is probably why she's been acting out so much, lately. She had a bite to eat and went strait to bed.

Later, Cara and I watched my favorite episode of Doctor Who yet - The Girl in the Fireplace. The funny thing about this episode is when it was over, we decided to see what was on TV. The channel that was on when we turned was tpt (Twin Cities PBS). A movie starring the same actress was on. Sophia Myles played Reinette in Doctor Who and Lucy Westenra in a BBC production of Dracula. Kind of cool coincidents, don't you think?

Leesha, Catan and 2006

Cara asked that I make breakfast today, which threw me off at first, but OK. I made scrambled eggs with tomatoes, ham, cheese and black olives. This sent Leesha into the biggest fit I've seen her in since she turned nine. She made an absolute fool of herself over stupid olives! Much of it was due to her being hungry and some of it was because Cara was rather emotional and that made Leesha a bit uncomfortable.

Listening to Sir Paul Vol. 1&2 from my brother. I'm enjoying the 2nd disk of Paul McCartney much more. I still keep coming back to the conclusion that Bowie is much more unique than McCartney. The reason for the comparison is I've been working on a two volume mix of Bowie for him.

Cara defeated Leesha and I at a nice regular game of Settlers of Catan.

Today, Cara asked me to help her with our family newsletter. I played around with the layout and added pictures. It occurred to me that this newsletter pretty much covers a segment of time that this blog is missing. So here it is:

We thought it might be nice to share some highlights from our lives since we got married, so here goes-

JUNE 2005

• The 11^th - Our Wedding Day!

• It was wonderful! The rain started as we were wrapping up pictures and stopped before our reception at the park.

• Cara's brother and sister were both able to come with their families for the event as well as her parents.

• The 12^{th -} After our gift opening (when our nephew Nathaniel got a nice gash on the back of head from the proverbial coffee table incident), we headed over to Little Wood Lake, WI to Cara's Aunt and Uncle's cabin for a week of relaxation. Caryn and her family came up with Leesha for the last day.

Summer

• Lots of time with Cara's family.

• Lots of adjusting to married life – like Jeffry's human being nature vs. Cara's human doing nature, her desire for “us” time vs. his desire for “me” time, as well as the organized person and the not-so-organized person dilemma. But we think we've figured it out at this point.

• August – our friends Rob (Jeffry's former roommate and landlord) and Laura got married.

SEPTEMBER

• We bought the newest car either of us has ever owned (mile-wise), a Honda CRV.

• Hosted a Couple's Shower for our friends Eric and Keesha.

• Spent time with some former Rosslyn-ites (Cara's old High School).

OCTOBER

• Saw Serenity!

• Time with family, including a trip to Missouri where we visited the City Museum (we highly recommend visiting it if you've got the chance).

• Eric and Keesha's wedding.

NOVEMBER

• Thanksgiving with friends!

• Leesha's concert at the Mall of America and Craig and family return to Kenya – both on the same day.

DECEMBER

• Cara ran out of gas in the new car!

• Saw Narnia!

• KSTP party and a night at the Hilton where Cara proceeded to get a terrible cold.

• Time with family – on both sides.

JANUARY, 2006

• Jeffry's sleep study and diagnosis for Sleep Apnea. Just try and take the CPAP away from him!

• Jeffry played broomball when it was super cold out, or didn't get to play due to lack of ice (thanks to Global Warming).

• Cara ran out of gas again!

• Leesha turned 8.

FEBRUARY

• Got to watch our dog-phews Cogswell and Eddy.

• Played Settlers of Catan with friends.

• Kitchen sink at mom and dad's found to be malfunctioning resulting in a sopping wet mattress in the basement.

• Leesha had an accident at school and broke off about 1/3 of one of her front teeth.

MARCH

• Leesha got a snow day!

APRIL

• Jeffry and Cara went on a date to see Triple Espresso (another recommendation).

• Spring Break – Cara and Jeffry took an afternoon trip to Stillwater, MN and test drove a Wrangler.

• Celebrated Easter with friends.

• The 26^{th -} We had a showing at the first house we could actually “afford” and decided to sign the purchase agreement that night.

MAY

• We took classes on homeownership, etc.

• A visit from Jeffry's parents!

JUNE

• Mortgage application (ugh!)

• 1 year anniversary!

• The 15^th – learned that we got the house!

• The 23^rd – we closed on said house.

JULY

• Visit to a cabin in WI with friends – more Settlers, lots of food and fun.

• Painted, cleaned, packed and finally moved.

• Rob and Laura celebrated Oliver's birth (6 weeks early) and on our way to visit them, we got a call from Cara's friend to come get their dog since their baby was on the way!

• Dog-sat Sadie! (a highlight anytime)

• Cara turned 31.

• Fridge in new house died.

AUGUST

• Visit from Cara's mom!

• New fridge arrived! And later, new furniture!

• Jeffry trained to be a bus driver.

SEPTEMBER

• Jeffry turned 32.

• Went to the Bluegrass Festival.

• Leesha started 3^rd grade at North Heights Christian Academy.

• Cara mowed a lawn for the first time in her life.

• Leesha got her first ear infection.

• Mini-reunion with friends from Eagle River, WI (where Jeffry grew up)

OCTOBER

• Dog-sat Sadie again!

• Got more settled in to work, new house, new job, etc.

• Visit from Jeffry's parents.

• Halloween party.

• Started the approximately 280-day venture towards becoming parents.

NOVEMBER

• Dog-sat Sadie again!

• Visit from Cara's friend Anu.

• Thanksgiving with friends again!

• Leesha's dad Jeremy got married.

DECEMBER

• Jeffry told his parents they'd be grandparents again!

• Leesha performed in the school musical.

• Leesha got a bad abrasion on her knee. Due to Cara's failure to park the CRV appropriately, it rolled back down the driveway and into the neighbors yard. When it hit the curb, Leesha, who had been getting out of the car before it started to roll, was jostled out of the vehicle, but thank God for making the car stop before the tires rolled over her.

• Dog-sat Sadie again!

• Leesha got to ride along on the school bus with Jeffry

  one day.

• Time with Jeffry's family.

• "Whoever is in here will make you a big sister"

  Christmas morning - Leesha learned she is going to be a big sister.

• Vacation for all of us from work and school.

• 
  

JANUARY 2007

• Cara's parents return from 36 years in Africa and hear that they're going to be grandparents again!

• Time with Cara's parents

• Leesha turned 9.

We finished watching Rob's movie Fearless (which he thought was one of the best movies of it's kind he's seen or something like that). It was ok, but I thought Hero was much better. After that we watched an episode of Doctor Who and then Saturday Night Live.

Jobs, Naps and Nadia

Rob called saying to get my resume ready. There may be an entry level job available at Best Buy through Accenture.

I get to listen to the first hour of the Rush Limbaugh radio show while I get lunch and ready to go back out. Today there was a guest hosts- Mark Belling. Of Rush's guest hosts, Belling is my favorite.

Even though it was not much above zero degrees, the sun was out and made for a nice and tolerably warm bus. My nap was, perhaps, the best one this week.

The first window on the passenger side of the bus always falls down. Always has since the first day of school. And now with the extreme cold, it's worse. Worse in the worst way- since it's so cold out! Today I finally taped it closed with my duct-tape. Done and done.

Cara ate and went off to work (which I didn't even know she had to do), so it was just Leesha and me tonight.

We finished the Nadia: Secret of Blue Water movie which was really disappointing. The show was SO much better.

After that, Leesha and I watched the first two episodes of Haibane Renmei. This is one of the highest quality anime I've seen. It pleases me to see Leesha recognize quality anime, as well. I think Rob would like this show if he could only get past the fact that is a 'Japanese cartoon' because its a bit of a Limbo or Purgatory story.

The Day I Finally Ate and LOST

There wasn't any cereal left this morning, so I finished off the banana bread and had a banana. Wasn't as much food as I'm used to having. By the time I got home I was starving. Sat down to check email and before I know it I'm called in to take bus from home to base to change a tiny light bulb. Aaarg!

So I drive the bus back. They said I'd be back out in five minutes. I was back out in about 55 minutes, on my way to the noon route and no food in me. AAarrg!

As soon as I was finished with the noon route I went to Wendy's and slorked down some fast food.

The sun was fully out today which made for a comfortable nap shortly after filling my belly.

Leesha was pushing the line tonight. Cara said she was doing so over at Grandma Darlene's house, as well. I think she's looking for a fight to define a boundary, because every time this happens, she will make scene about something and it will boil over and she'll get in trouble. But after that everything is great- because she now sees the boundary. Kids are strange. Cara wasn't helping this situation. She was giving in to Leesha's stupid demands. Cara sometimes lacks that resolve in the afternoon before she has food in her.

After Leesha went to sleep we watched the brand new episode of LOST that aired last night. Its amazing that one can miss a show, download it, burn it on a disk and watch it the next day. Its wide screen and NO COMMERCIALS! Its pretty much better than watching it on TV. Very cool episode. Resolved some things. I just have no memory of how Sawyer knew Alex's boyfriend's name was Carl.

I finally got our small group debriefing out. Next week we're not studying. We're all going out for dinner at Buca's in St. Paul.

The Man in Black Fled Across the Desert, and the Gunslinger Followed

An accident on 94 over the radio caused me to take a different route to my first stop today. Got there with 3 minutes to spare. I took Jackson street all the way downtown, cut over to Robert and all the way up the hill across the river.

Best comic I've read yet this year- in a few years, actually. Dark Tower is based on Stephen King's Gunslinger series. Amazing comic. The novels (which I've only read the first 3 of 7) are incredible and often called King's magnum opus. There are threads throughout the series that, in small ways, tie into almost every single other novel King has written. The series most clearly ties in with The Stand as the Man in Black is the antagonist in both the Dark Tower and The Stand. Reading the comic caused my hands to sweat and my heart to race a bit. Best comic I've read in years.

I had a guy do an evaluation and ride with me on the Wellstone route this afternoon- rather unannounced and suddenly. The guy's name was Steve. He displaced Davyon's regular seat so Davyon sat one seat back, in the 2nd row. Through out the ride Steve started chatting with Davyon and what was really interesting was Davyon was on the defensive right off the bat. And Steve kept pushing! Davyon was getting really upset, started dragging everyone else down including me, saying I wasn't so innocent on the bus. It was very strange.

Glenn Beck had an amazing guest. Ayaan Hirsi Ali may have become one of my heroes tonight. Her stance against Islam has made it so clear to me how the thought of opposition to Islam being politically incorrect is completely ironic. Islam may very well be the most politically incorrect set of beliefs and traditions on this planet, currently. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a death sentence for saying the things she says.

Cara's mom was over when I got home. David is out of town for two weeks (he booked a flight on some other web page).

LOST resumed tonight, but since we don't have good reception and Cara's mom was here we didn't watch it. I did manage to start downloading the episode before going to bed.

Snow

It snowed today. Made for an interesting morning taking kids to school. I managed my routes very well, I must say. Felt good to do well. Worst case I was about 7 minutes late to each school.

I got around to posting some photography on Deviantart.com. We don't have to start our buses every 30 minutes like yesterday- thank God. That was quite irritating.

Saw a guy walking a big Great Dane. The Dane barked at me once. Good boy.

The fortune on the roads continued this afternoon. All went very well as compared to others according to what I heard over our CB radio. However, it seemed like all the stop lights on University Ave were extra long. I happen to cross University several times which really slowed us down.

Small Group - Matthew 25. Jankovich's didn't make it to group tonight because Laura and Oliver weren't feeling well. I was going to suggest that they not come, anyways, because of the road conditions. It was a good night for study. Matthew chapter 25 is completely red text- 100% words of Jesus.

After group Eric had me burn a couple of episodes of Blake's 7 season 2 for him. I love that show. I hope that the recent revival of Doctor Who kick starts a new Blake's 7 series.

On my way into work today, I heard Tom Barnard of the KQ Morning Show introduce Duran Duran- Hungry Like the Wolf. This song has no place on KQRS. I love Duran Duran deeply- my favorite band for many many years, but I don't listen to KQ expecting to hear that. When did this start? Is KQ moving in a new direction? Will I hear Peter Gabriel on it? Threw me for a loop.

COLD

-14 degrees today. What this means is while I'm parked out at home with the bus every 12 hour I have to go out and start the bus and let it run for 10 minutes. Not as much fun as not doing that.

On the way in to work my Jeep didn't warm up at all. That's not normal.

Had to do a load count for the Wellstone Route. Bad day to have me count the students, quite possibly the lowest total number of students I've ever hauled.

No one was home when I arrived tonight. Kind of had me worried for a minute. Leesha had to go strait to bed as soon as they did get home, which was very shortly after I did. She kept getting up out of bed to 'go to the bathroom' (testing boundaries is what she was really up to, stalling going to bed). Had me thinking of guidelines for Grounding.

• No iPod
• No Gameboy
• No Radio Disney
• No Friends house or Friends over
• one week duration- if she does something that would cause her to be grounded while she is already grounded, add one day to the duration.
• Duration = 1 week.

Cara thought this was a bit steep. Then I thought

• 1st offense = 3 days
• 2nd offence = 5 days
• 3rd = one week
• adding a day beyond the one week

Watched a South Park episode dealing with the Nentendo WII and Atheism. Fantastic stuff. Also watched an episode of Torchwood. Interesting episode. Kind of slow.

Luke 4:40

Oh was it ever cold! Church today. The service was rather convicting. Luke 4:40 through 40-something. Jesus goes away from everyone else to be with his Father in Heaven. Message was that we should really be doing this. And I don't. Not very regularly.

After church we went to Olive Garden with Eric and Keesha and Cara's mom, Darlene. That was a nice time. Lots of laughter and food. Cara went off with her mom after to go shopping. I went home.

Leesha was dropped off with the ladies. I started watching Sarah Jane Adventures. Not too bad so far. Only got about 17 minutes into it before the ladies got home.

I found my book!

Dungeons and Doctor Who Spin-offs

Patrick hosted today's session of D&D ran by Robert. Rob was saying that he heard the fellas at the Source saying they don't expect the Eberron Campaign line to survive based on the lack of sales they see there. This news makes me sad since I've recently thrown my D&D flag in that world. They do have 2007 already mapped out as far as releases go, so I'm thinking (and hoping) it was just talk.

I didn't go right home after the game. I explored Plato Road a bit. Found myself along the river- the other side of the river from Shepard Road. Very nice drive.

I'm pissed that I cannot find my book. I think I forgot it at Pat's house.

Cara was working tonight so I had some me time. I watched an episode of Torchwood and loved it. Torchwood is Doctor Who's younger vulgar brother. Its much more dark and they swear all the time. Paul was telling me that Sarah Jane Adventures has started over on the BBC. Sarah Jane Adventures is another Doctor Who spin-off, like Torchwood. I'm going to download the first episode tonight.

Very cold day.

Groundhog's Day

Today is Groundhog's Day. I used to blame winter on that stupid groundhog when I was a kid. This is the coldest day of the year. And the coldest day I've ever driven a school bus in. Because of the cold there was a sundog today shortly after dawn.

I sold my Palm Pilot on eBay today. I also sold a book.

It was too cold to nap on the bus, so I went to Schinders and burned up some time there. Found last month's Dungeon magazine.

Flipping through radio channels, on my way home, wishing I could listen to my David Bowie CD, when all of a sudden Golden Years STARTS on KQRS! Great song. That happened earlier this week with Peter Gabriel.

Got home, had dinner and Cara flew out the door for work. Leesha and I had the evening. She went to work cleaning her room. I went on inspection. I asked what if I found something in her closet?- it was fine. What about under her bed? She had confidence that it was going to pass as well. But I said "Hey, what about this?!" and pulled out a comic book I was hiding in my pocket and threw it on the bed. She had a reaction of a little bit 'how did I miss that', 'wait... I haven't seen that before', 'hey! this must be my reward' and she flew to it and started paging through. She was well behaved. Next I had her take 5 pennies out of her bank and I went down and grabbed 5 toys from the pile of toys Cara and I get whenever she leaves toys in her pockets from the laundry. 5 pennies vs 5 toys in a Connect-Four challenge. She wins she gets a toy. I win I get a penny. She decided to walk with a tie- 3 to 3. We finished off the night with an episode of Dungeons and Dragons cartoon I downloaded.

5, Ariel and Trash

I had to return to base with the bus, this morning, because a headlight was out. It took 10 minutes to replace. I was still a little pissed (that time at home means more to me than I realized). So, as soon as they were done, I took bus to channel 5 to say hi. Saw Jason, Seth, Danno, Hammer, Trish, Swifty, Vineeta, Pickett, Patrick, Terry, Tommy, Jim, Kevin, Schmity, few of the producer girls- Becky, Allison, Amanda. Everyone was excited to hear about Bopper. Nothing changes in that place- except for the faces. Didn't get to see Monica.

I wasn't able to come home for lunch, so I ate McDonald's.

I did get to nap today, but I had to keep the bus idling.

Super hungry when I got home.

Sorting through my email very quickly, it looks like I got in trouble with YTB because of eBay. I also got an email from eBay and thought I was in trouble on eBay because of YTB, but ended up being a phishing scam (thank God I didn't click on the link!). Strange timing on that one.

Felt like as soon as I got home we ate. As soon as that was done I was out of the house again.

Went to Mike's for a couple episodes of Firefly. Mike's house is great. Totally a bachelor house. The place is a shrine to Mike's past. All Star Wars and Indiana Jones and Dodge classic cars decor. I clearly see what he means when he talks about always working on the house. There is much much more work to do on it, but its a good house to start with. He has a nice yard all fenced in for a dog. We watched the Firefly episodes: Ariel and Trash. Fantastic show. It was fun, I'd like to do it again sometime.

feels like the day is slipping away from my memory

The Further Adventures of My 30 Foot Yellow Car

They washed my bus last night!

The timing of my route went too well, yesterday. Plus I forgot to hand in the results. So I figured I could do it today to get more accurate results, but today went just as well- if not better.

Dah is back to school. She had a birthday present for Leesha. Then I had to explain what generous meant.

This computer is starting to die, I think. It took almost 15 minutes to boot up. This started me off in a foul mood for my 1.5 hours at home. On top of that- the phone ran more than ever in this period of the day. Grumble grumble. Oh, I have it so bad.

The Noon route went rather well which brought be back around. Those kindergartners are so darn cute.

Then I went to the Source for comic books. I was happy after that. I picked up an old AD&D comic from DC from way back in the late '80s and a new comic for Leesha.

I have been selling a YTB company profile document on eBay for $.01 for the last few weeks just to get company information in the hands of people. I sold many. Most people purchased them for the sake of trading feedback, unfortunately. That wasn't my motive, but it was a nice side effect. It caused my account to surface on eBay admin radar and they pulled the remaining auctions off. Then they removed every feedback I received for selling those. I guess that didn't work out. I thought I was onto something there. BLAST!

Today I had a stupid song stuck in my head. I cannot recall what it was and I'm not putting any effort into trying. It had been irritating me so much that I figured programming KTIS into my Jeep's radio, on the way home, would help. It took 1.5 songs before I was searching again. Then I found Solsburry Hill by Peter Gabriel and right at the beginning of the song, too! That was the best way to see the day out.

The Adventures of My 30 Foot Car (not really)

The new stop on the Murry route was already removed. Never even saw the kid.

However, new kid on 2nd route was there, and everyone on the bus already knew him. Apparently, he just moved to a different house.

Boqua came to school in spite of yesterday. Boqua and Dah are no longer the first kids on and the last kids off the bus.

There are time issues almost every morning on the routes as scheduled so dispatch had me write down the times that I arrive at the stops so the school district might have an easier time changing things. Well, of course all ran almost too perfectly smooth and there was no timing issue today.

I had a hard time trying to decide what to do for this afternoon. I figured it was too cold to nap, but it was sunny out. I figured I could just go try it and if it was too cold, I could let the bus idle while I took a quick nap. Well, it turned out to be warm enough on the bus to nap without the engine running. Of course, I parked in my usual spot to take advantage of as much sun as I could and surprising enough, the greenhouse effect overcame the windchill.

Small group was goofy tonight. We kept laughing about everything. I think half of the crew were too tired and were getting slap-happy.

Eric stayed later and we talked geek stuff like Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. Looks like we might go for Mike's invitation on Thursday.

World of Warcraft and Don't Puke on the Bus, Please

There were changes on both routes today adding students (and time) to each. Yet, neither of the new students were there when we went to pick them up.

Its cold, however, very pleasent, today. I don't know if its lower humidity, higher humidity or what but something is different and its great.

The first pick up for Wellstone used to be Dah, her brother- Boqua, and their cousin. Today it was only Boqua and he returned my CS Lewis Prince Caspian CDs.

When I returned home I watched South Park episode about World of Warcraft that I had been downloading lastnight. WOW is an online computer roleplaying game. You make a character, pay a monthly subscription and play. Everyone you encounter in the game is someone else also playing the game. I've heard its pretty cool. Anyway, this episode of South Park was probably almost half produced using computer graphics from the actual game. It pointed out how people who have no life are obsessed with this game. "How do you kill something that has no life?" "Gentlemen, this may mean the end of the world... of Warcraft". Again, South Park hits a home run when it comes to truth.

The Wellstone route home, today, Boqua was walked out to the bus by a teacher. She informed me that he vomited about 10 minutes earlier and may need to use the bus' bucket. Great. I see, now, why no one else was at his bus stop. Boqua is the very last student to be dropped off. I figured I'd just run the route backwards, run it the same way I do when picking the students up for school. See, the last students picked up in the morning are the first ones dropped off in the afternoon. In the end, Boqua made it home without a problem. I suspect this is why Dah and her cousin weren't on the bus this morning. And I don't expect any of them tomorrow.

There were only three students on the after-school route. That made things easy.

Rob called to chat because he was on call till after midnight and was bored. We chatted for a while till I went to bed.

How this very cold day went

As usual we went to the 11:00 service at Woodland Hills. It was a very good message entitled Kingdom Healing and was about how Jesus healed vs how Christians today go about healing ministries. Based out of Luke 4:31-40. Best line from the sermon was a quote from St. Francis of Assisi:

"Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."

I've made this quote my signature on my web forum.

Our small group coach, Mike, wants to have Eric and I over to watch an episode or two of Firefly. We're thinking Thursday if it happens this week.

Apparently, during the service, Eric got called to work for some heater issue. After church Cara and I went out to lunch with Keesha. We were hoping to hook up with Eric after he was done, but his job took too long. Keesha recommended the Grand Buffet down on Robert St. south of St. Paul. It's been a long time since I ate at an asian buffet. It was quite fulfilling. So we took Keesha home since we didn't have Eric. She didn't have keys to get in either, so we left her on her porch to wait for Eric (who was done by then and only a couple of minutes away, so she lived... I hope)

Cara and I headed over to Leesha's dad's house where he was hosting her birthday party. They were in the middle of a movie in the movie room (that room was very cool, by the way). I didn't feel like watching so I made my way back out to the lobby to read my new novel (see last post), which I was clever enough to bring- suspecting something exactly like this. Leesha's party looked like it went pretty well. She had a flock of girls from her class over for that movie and then they played Twister. Her dad's wife, Bri, has twin sisters who were also there. They're twins with each other, not with Bri. Leesha's half brother, Zech, was also there and perhaps a mite overwhelmed with all the girls there.

This evening I came across a website during a Google search for 'Christian D&D gaming'. The site is called Aquela.com and is the site for freelance writer James Wyatt who contributes a lot for the D&D Eberron campaign setting. How about that?! That's what I've been reading lately. Wyatt was a Methodist Pastor for several years.

By the way - Eric came home about 4 minutes after we dropped off Keesha.