Good Movies at Home

Friday night, Cara and I went to the McDonald's Red Box to see if we could rent Transformers. It was not in, but Casino Royal was!

Casino Royal was a fantastic film. I already knew it was going to be. This is such a fresh way to portray James Bond. Maybe the best since the whole franchise began.

We've had Elizabethtown on our shelf for probably 2 years. I got it from Rusty Gatenby when I was working at KSTP. I think he got a bunch of copies as screeners or something so he just gave me one. Had no interest in seeing this chick flick.

We watched it last night. It started off very good. Not too far into the film, I was hooked. There were many things about the film that had an extremely familiar feel to them. One thing was the soundtrack was extraordinary. Films usually don't have such a strong selection of popular music. It wasn't music that was big at the time of the release. Another familiarity was the realness the film had. Characters were more ordinary and quirky than most chickflicks or dramas. I felt very at home in this movie. Something else that was comfortable was the narration. Some of my favorite movies also used a very similar technique. One odd thing was that there was no opening title or credits. The movie just starts.

Then the movie ended. It was a wonderful tale. And the credits rolled. And it was a Cameron Crowe film! This answered all of the hints and feelings I was recognizing all throughout the film. I had no idea it was a Crowe movie going into it. But it sure felt like one. A great movie and the best way to discover it. I'm glad I have this movie for I WILL be watching it again.

Its interesting to note that both Elizabethtown and Casino Royal had a lot of plot development involving cellphones.

Mr Mom

Cara worked at Linens and Things today so I was the stay at home dad. There is no school today or tomorrow so I can catch up on things.
WRONG! I have a new respect for Cara. Pretty much if Jack was sleeping all my attention was on Leesha. The only moments I had to myself were when Leesha was entertaining Jack and when I was on the can.

Its a Jeep Thing

Yesterday I was trying to work on our cars with little luck. Seems I actually made the Jeep worse. Trying to open the hood, I broke the hood latch cable. I've been trying to figure out a way to close it safely so the hood doesn't fly up when driving. Here's what Cara suggested:

I think its going to work.

Interesting Evening

I spoke with my grandmother on my commute home, today. We discussed Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sweeney Todd and Jack Elliot.

Cara went to work this evening, leaving Leesha and Jack in my care. As Leesha finished her dinner, which always takes her too much time, I fed Jack a bottle. As I'm feeding Jack, Leesha cleans up and hops in the shower. Still feeding Jack and I hear Leesha finish her shower, but then I hear a familiar sound... she comes out and confirms my suspicion. She puked in the toilet. So I had her lay down and take it easy. I figured it must be the large bottle of water I had her finish before she left the table (she's been coughing and we figure water would help with that), but it could be bad food. So now my stomach feels uneasy. I hate that. Jack falls asleep. Cara returns from work- they didn't need her, I guess. As she's taking care of Jack, I go to dump a bucket of mop water outside. That was enough to send me over the edge and I let my stomach go. I figured it was get it over with now or fight it all night. I don't think there was anything wrong with the food. It was just in my mind, but oh well. I felt fine after anyways.

At the convention, last Sunday, I picked up some Tom Strong trades. Man, these are good. Alan Moore is a genius.

Monday Monday

After school activity routes started today. Mine is very long. Longer than all of my other routes! However, the first half of stops were dead.

Craig and Tracy came over for dinner tonight. Adults with no kids running around. The kids were the topic of most conversation. We managed to keep environment and politics out of any conversation.

It became a late night.

Fallcon 2007

Greg, Jessie, and I all met up at Fallcon again this year. The convention was how we celebrated Greg's 31st birthday. This has become our affordable, miniature Wizard World comic convention tradition (Jessie did have Keep Coming to America in his head the whole time!). Really, its just as good. Probably better. The difference is there is no hotel or very late night drinking. Better. However, there also isn't a Sean McKeever.

The regular costumes were walking around, but this year we got footage of them. You will be seeing that soon. I didn't buy as many comics this year. One reason was I am not looking for as many comics these days and another reason is the list of comics I'm searching for was lost early on my hunt.

One of the coolest things about this one was that they held a chapel before hand which I attended. Hans from the Source mentioned it (and gave me a ticket for the con, which was incredibly nice of him. Thank you, Hans) so I asked some questions and, boom, there I was. It was ok, not real heavy, but just the fact that they do this is cool.

After the convention I met my family at a model train shop on Marshal ave for Nathan and Aaron's birthday. That was kind of neat. Miniatures are always cool and so are shops dedicated to them.

Lots of birthday stuff today.

I'm trying to get a feed all the way from Google Documents to Blogspot and then to Conk.com

Lets see if this post worked.

I have a decision to make.

I currently and happily drive school bus routes for St. Paul for my main income, these days. This is the 2nd year I'm doing so. Last year was great. I made friends with the people I work with and the kids I transported. Last year one of the routes I drove had a bus aid that rode along with the kids. We became friends and quickly discovered that we went to the same church. This year I got the same route, but she was assigned a different bus to aid. The guy that is the aid for this route, this year, also happens to be from my church!

Now, both of them are telling me about a job opportunity at the school (Murray Jr. High). Laura (from last year's route) has said all along that I'd do well in this position. David is encouraging me daily. He says the chances are very good that I'd get the job if I tried for it.

The job would be a teacher's aid with the special education department of Murray. The pay is greater than what I'm doing now and there are benefits. It seems like a very good deal. I figure I could apply and if, for some reason, I don't get the job then nothing was lost. But, if I go for it and end up not liking it... then what? I suppose I could drive a bus again, but I'd lose this route.

I am going to submit my resume. See what happens. Usually, when I'm indifferent about a job is when I'm sure to get it. Its when I really want the job that I don't. So, if that's true, this job will be mine.

I guess I'm writing this for some feedback and just to get it out on 'paper'. Please share your thoughts on the matter.

We celebrated Craig's 40th birthday last night by going to Fasika's Ethiopian food for dinner (which is right next to Big V's which I popped in to say hi to BJ but he wasn't working yet). One of the dishes they served was goat meat. This was the best I've ever had at Fasika's.

After that we had ice cream cake at Cara's folk's house. Craig, Tracey, Nathan and Aaron are staying there while they are here in the US (they live in Kenya while Craig works his ministry working with the environment).

Today is a rare time of getting things caught up. I've been looking at different ways to promote my business and at the same time save money on the cars. Both of our cars have the engine light on. For the Honda its been determined that there is a misfire going on. Jeremy and I spent Tuesday morning replacing the plugs and the wires with no progress. I'm wondering if the same thing is going on with the Jeep. We're going to get auto repair manuals from eBay today so they can be worked on soon (by me!).

Wednesday, I spent my birthday money on the new Battlestar Galactica RPG book. I wave my geekflag high. This is a very well made game. Margaret Weis Productions improved their production since they released the Serenity RPG. This book seems more conceived and clean. The rule system has been refined as well. Great product. Its been a fun read and has gotten me back into the franchise. Too bad there won't be a DVD for season 3 until Spring next year.

Seems like its been a three day full moon.

Monday
Train parked across Como Ave.- The train was dead and there was no going around. An engineer helped me back the bus up. I was 10 minutes late for all the stops after that.
Puker on the bus from Wellstone- There was a bad smell right after picking up students at one of the stops. We dismissed it as another funky odor from the Somalian kids. After we got to the school a boy was complaining about someone puking on his backpack. Apparently a Somalian girl puked, but no one said anything to me (which was fine, because we were already late). Not much we could've done anyways. I drove the bus home and hosed it out and sprinkled baking soda all over. Smell lingered for another day, but not nearly as bad.
Released with not all the kids in PM- Loaded at Wellstone after school and all was fine, routine. The kids were a little crazy so as soon as I cleared downtown St. Paul I pulled over (into the parking lot of Sears right by the state capitol). I called into the base to let them know I was stopping. Got the kid moved to the front (I bet it was the same Somalian girl who puked) and called into base that we were moving again. They said OK, but that I had to go back to the school to pick up more students that were left behind. WHAT!? Its the teachers that clear us to depart. So we went back. It was only Dah and another girl, Wendy, that heard dispatch tell us to go back. So we decided to not tell anyone else and see how long it would take for them to figure out we were going back to the school. We were by 6th street before someone piped up!

Tuesday
worked on cars- fixed nothing! Jeremy is Leesha's bio-father and he is a bit car-savy. It could be a lot more awkward hanging around with my wife's ex-boyfriend/step-daughter's father, but its not too bad. He has changed his attitude about Cara and Leesha and we've found common ground to actually be friends. Jeremy had some nice things to say to me about who I am and who Cara ended up with. As for the car work. I think he messed up the spark-plug wires and tried to hide it from me and to make up for it he put 110% effort into the work that morning. We also topped off the transmission fluid, which he purchased for me. It wasn't bad hanging with him. The only bad part was it took up the time I usually spend chilling. So I lost some 'me' time.

Wednesday
actual full moon.

Today was all about the Zoo. We were a large clan: David, Darlene, Craig, Tracy, Nathan, Aaron, Cara, Leesha, Jack and me. We met our cousin, Melanie who works at the zoo. She let us in for free!
We saw all the standard stuff plus a 3D movie about dinosaurs which was really good. The gibbons were disappointingly mellow. Watched the dolphin show from the underwater window. I think that may be the best way to see it, actually. Also saw the bird show. Jack stayed awake the whole time. Thank you, Melanie.

Last night, just as I turned out the light in our room I heard the chain-link fence between our yard and the neighbor's. So I went to the window. Our room was completely dark. I watched three guys moving through our yard right by the window that I was looking out. I waited for the first guy to get right next to me and then I yelled "Hey! Get out of our yard!" Ho ho, how that guy jumped! He kind of said something like "Eh!, Sorry, sorry." and they RAN. I couldn't stop laughing.

Cara and I have been watching the 3rd season of MillenniuM. This has always been one of my favorite shows (even before it aired). One major reason is Lance Henriksen. He is amazing in anything he is in. Another reason is this series deals with spiritual warfare. There is a lot of dark truth through-out the show around that aspect. And the secret society/conspiracy always is a winner if done well- which this is.

Since Leesha and I finished ROBOTECH, we started a new series called LAST EXILE. I've seen this show in its entirety and its pretty good. This may be pushing her to try to understand some more mature sci-fi concepts for this show is a bit intellectual. I think she's up to it. Of the shows I've shared with here I think she'll identify with similarities I saw in NADIA
- Secret of Blue Water, which was the very first show we shared.

Leesha and I finished ROBOTECH. This is interesting timing since there has been notable ROBOTECH news lately.

Could the following news mean the end of Tobey Maguire in the role of Peter Parker? The Hollywood Reporter is (fittingly) reporting that Maguire has acquired the rights to ROBOTECH, a classic anime series from the eighties. Toby will be producing and is looking to star in the film that takes place in an alternate universe where "Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle." They then use this technology to fend of a bunch of alien invasions. Basically Toby will be strapping into giant robots and blowing up a smorgasboard of shit.

After the success of TRANSFORMERS, I'm sure most studios are looking to get into the giant robot business (in this film they're called mechas) and Warner Bros. is thinking franchise with this one, which like I said, could spell the end of Tobey as Spidey. Too bad Topher Grace was wasted on Venom, because he easily could have been the next to suit up.

Extra Tidbit: Tobey's production company is called Maguire Entertainment. How modest/creative of him.

Link

Last night Leesha and I watched the 2nd to last episode of ROBOTECH. One more to go. Probably finish off the series tomorrow.

I started tracking the LCTs Leather Clad Trucks today. Here is more information on what that's all about.

Jack is 6 weeks old.

First day of school - went very well. Its good to see many of the same kids from last year. Seems most of the trouble makers on the Elementary route graduated last year. Yay!

Really good bible study

Best birthday since #9.

T's, Willis West, Capital Ws, CaraJoy's folks. Greg made me two t-shirts- one of Dr. Midnight and the other was Snake-Eyes vs Storm Shadow. Very good Birthday

Jack is a month and a day old.

Took him to the MN State Fair, we did. Eric, Cara and I. Saw the old KSTP crew: Zack, Swifty, Schmitty, Char, Katie, DT, Glen, Becky, Amanda, Dave Dahl, John Mason, Leah McClain and Tommy. Felt strange not helping them do the news.

Mowed the lawn today for the first time in a very long time. Not that the yard needed it. Its been very dry all summer until this last week. Nothing but rain, almost.

It has been many weeks since our road had pavement on it. Jack and I watched them finish the job this morning. Well... I watched. Jack watched me.

We had our 2007/2008-School-Year-Is-About-To-Begin-meeting today.

The company is expanding so much that they didn't have room to hold the meeting at the base. So it was held at the owner's other business (or one of the other businesses), the top floor/meeting room of Premiere Bank. Everyone hopped on a bus and was shuttled there. I took my own bus because I had a YMCA charter after. As soon as I parked the bus near the bank and walked in, I was informed that my charter was canceled. Oh well.

Lastnight Jon and I played HALO till the wee hours of the morning. What a fantastic game.

Tonight I watched Leesha and Jack all by myself. Let Leesha watch a movie (Spirited Away) and gave all my efforts to Jack to keep him satisfied.

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?