If everyone else does it, will you too?

Og over at the Neanderpundit challenged his readers to pull out their pocket knife and post a picture of it.

I've been carrying the same tool around for over 35 years. I've never really thought of it as carrying a knife. It was always just a tool in my pocket. Through the years I've used it to cut rope, string, thread, tape, cardboard, paper, plastic, plants, etc. I've dug splinters out with it. Used it to sort small parts, temperarily tighten screws, clean crap out from between keys on a keyboard, scrape gum off gym floors, clean my fingernails, and hundreds of other things that have slipped my memory through the decades.

Here's what lives in the bottom of my left front pants pocket:



Its a Camillus made Buck Cadet.

Current Events Quiz

I scored a perfect 11 out of 11, but honestly had to guess on a couple questions. At least I was able to narrow the guesses down to two choices which increased my odds.

Current Events Quiz

World Traveler?

Ok, so I haven't done too well at the world traveling stuff.


visited 3 states (1.33%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Details of Canada travels -


visited 5 states (38.4%)
Create your own visited map of Canada

My lack of world traveling is not due to lack of desire. Early on when I had the time and opportunity to travel - I couldn't afford it. Later when I could afford it I was so busy traveling (around the US) for work that the last thing I wanted to do with my spare time was get on an airplane. Now, there just doesn't seem to be enough time. I have so much going on here at home that running off around the world just seems silly.

However there are places I would love to go see:
1. Norway
2. Rome
3. Egypt
4. Alps and Pyrennes areas of France (during the Tour de France)
5. England
6. Budapest
7. Rotenburg, Germany
8. Switzerland
9. Antartica
10. Israel
11. Kenya/Uganda
12. Tibet

Traveling

I did at least two thirds of this traveling before I was 23 years old. You drive a bus or equipment truck for a drum corp for a couple summers and you end up covering a lot of territory. Especially when the vehicles keep breaking down and you get left behind with it. You find some different routes around the country in order to catch up to the drum corp caravan that kept traveling without you.


visited 49 states (98%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I guess I should get in gear and plan a vacation to Alaska soon. Do you think I could get Sarah Palin to take me polar bear hunting?

I'm Not Dead Yet!!!

With apologies to Monty Python - "I'm not dead Yet".

Sure it may seem that way since I only seem to be able to post on this blog about once a month. I want to write more, really I do.

So why don't I write. Its not like I have a lot to say right now. Its just that most of what is going on in my head is so jumbled up that it never makes sense when it shows up on the screen in front of me. The rest of what is going on in my head is stuff that I really don't want to talk about here.

There is so much I could be ranting and raving about politically that I don't even know where to start. I am so disgusted by what is happening in this country that I can not adequately express myself about it. Every time I start talking about our socialist president, his facist race baiting staff, and elitist self serving progressives that have taken over congress I start ranting and raving and end up sounding like some radical whacko. So I try not to talk about it too much. First off not being able to control my emotions about this makes me sound silly or stupid. Also I am in so many ways so depressed at the damage being done to this country. We are hemmoraging freedoms on a daily basis. Unfortunately the blame for this problem is spread pretty evenly between both political parties. There are many days that I think the only way to stop this death spiral that we are in is to clean house - every single elected official in Washington has to go. The democrats have an agenda that is going to lead to the destruction of everything that made this country great. The Republicans are not serious about stopping them.

So I have been avoiding writing about politics. I have avoided reading many of the political blogs I used to read, I avoid the news since they have sold out what little integrity they had when they stopped reporting the news and started trying to make the news.

My other favorite topic to write about here was my volleyball club. But late in the season this last year my team of 7 girls gathered around me during a team meeting at the end of a tournament - then encouraged by their parents they unloaded on me with a long list of complaints about me as a coach, then they all quit.

I have struggled a lot with this. Three of those girls are three of the original 8 girls that I started this club for. I know that we had some trouble this year. It was a tough year for most of my players. They weren't little girls any more and they really struggled trying to make the transition from little girls who just play volleyball for fun and athletes who find their fun in playing volleyball well.

Since they all quit I have been riding a roller coaster of emotions. One day I am ready to get back out of the court and start coaching again. The next day I start thinking that I should just walk away from the game and never coach again. If I can push girls who loved playing volleyball as much as those girls did to quit, then why would I ever walk out on the court with another group of young athletes.

Things are getting really bad now, the middle school season volleyball season starts again in a few weeks and I am not sure how that is going to go. I asked the Principal to find another coach to take my place this year. But she didn't so I am in a situation where I have to either leave those girls without a coach for the season. Or I stick them with a coach that they may be much better off without.

I have a lot of friends, family, coaches and other club administrators who all are very quick to tell me that what happened was not my fault. But that has not been much help because not one of those people have ever experienced something like this. Sure every coach has to deal with athletes that quit, or leave the game. But I don't know of one that lost an entire team before. If these girls had left because they didn't enjoy the game, or had other interests or such I would be a lot better off. But the only complaints they had were personal ones about me.

So there, I wrote a lot more about that than I ever wanted to. So I am trying to listen to my friends and let my head make the decisions here. But my broken heart keeps getting in the way and right now my head isn't ready to over rule my heart.

I guess I could start writing about our new family hobby. About 6 months ago my daughter started cowboy action shooting. Then three months later my son started. Last month I finally got my rear in gear and gave it a try myself. We have been having a lot of fun with it. So I'll try and write more about it later.

Catching Up?

Wow it has been almost two weeks since I last wrote something. At least since I wrote something here. I have been busy. The club volleyball season is in full swing and trying to be a good coach for one team and a good director for two others is keeping me very busy. This last weekend I had to substitute coach for the 16s team on Saturday and then coach my team on Sunday. It was fun spending time some of the players on the 16s team who played for me last year. I miss those girls. On Sunday my team played in qualifier no. 3. We didn't have the best of days but still managed to finish 2-1 for a second place finish.

There has been so much going on the country that I want to write about but my feelings on the economy, politics and stuff swings wildly from irate rage to stunned dispair. One minute I am feeling so angry at what is happening in our country that I can barely think, yet alone try to put those thoughts into a coherently written blog posting. Then the next minute I am depressed, sad and disillusioned. there is a big difference between thinking that our new President and our idiotic Congress is going to destroy the American I grew up in. But it is a lot different watching it happen before my very eyes and being powerless to do anything about it.

I used to write here to try and organize my thoughts and to deal with things that were irritating me. But I just don't seem to be able to do that these days. I can't type fast enough to get the thoughts out of my head and onto the page. When I try to slow down and rationalize things I end up ranting and raving. So instead I have been avoiding thinking about it. I watch TV, I read, I go the range and shoot, I listen to podcasts, and I muddle through the day at work. Mostly I concentrate all my efforts on my volleyball club. I do anything I can to not think about what is happening in the world. Unfortunately not thinking about things also means that I haven't been writing about them.

So I think I'm going to try and not write about politics here for a while. I'm going to try and write more here, but it might be kind of boring. Because right now my life is my boring job, my family and my volleyball team.

You've been warned.

Potpourri

Mostly Cajun had this up, and I'm looking for an excuse to put off working on my volleyball club website. Which I need to do, but am just having a hard time getting started.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:30 AM
2. Diamonds or pearls? Other than my wedding ring I don't wear jewelry. But my dear wife is partial to diamonds.
3. Last movie you saw? Soldier of Fortune with Clark Gable and Susan Hayward is on right now.
4. What is your favorite T.V. show? Firefly. Favorite that is still on the air? - Mythbusters
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? A bowl of cereal.
6. What is your middle name? I haven't been in enough trouble lately for anyone to use it.
7. What food do you hate? Hate? None, but I'm not too fond of Macaroni and Cheese and I don't care much for brussel sprouts.
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Boston's first album.
9. What kind of car do you drive? Dodge Magnum stationwagon (I didn't get the hemi engine - too expensive)
10. Favorite sandwich? Pastrami with brown mustard and onions.
11. What characteristics do you despise? Loud, pushy, arrogant.
12. Favorite item of clothing? sweatshirts
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? Norway, Egypt or Israel, but I certainly wouldn't go to the last two these days.
14. Favorite brand of clothing? Whatever fits good and is comfortable when I am forced to shop for clothes. I don't look at brands.
15. Where would you retire to? I would love to retire to the mountains anywhere outside of California. Preferably the Black Hills, Wyoming or West Virginia. But I'm not ready to leave my volleyball team yet so that will all have to wait.
16. Favorite birthday? The next one.
17. Favorite sport to watch? 1) Women's court volleyball. 2) The Tour de France 3) NFL
18. Furthest place you are sending this? My hosting service is in Utah. So I'm sending it there. After that I'm not sure where it will be viewed from.
19. Person you expect to send it back first? No one.
20. Are you a morning or night person? Night
21. What is your shoe size? 12
22. Pets? Absolutely not. I don't like house pets. I like dogs as long as they are not in my house or yard and they belong to someone else.
23. What did you want to be when you were little? older
24. How are you today? older
25. What is your favorite candy? I have a horrible sweet tooth so just about any candy will do. Favorites are Reese's Peanut Butter cups, Almond M&Ms, Chocolate Covered Cherries.
26. What is your favorite flower? Anything that will bloom in this desert we live in.
27. What are you looking forward to? Time to keep up with all the hobbies I keep starting.
28. What are you listening to right now? Were you not paying attention to No. 3.
29. What was the last thing you ate? Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies (my stash from last year is almost empty)
30. Do you wish on stars? No
31. If you were a crayon what color would you be? ???
32. How is the weather right now? Cold, windy. Well at least cold for the desert.
33. Last person you spoke to on the phone? The father of one of my volleyball players.
34. Favorite soft drink? Grape Soda, sometimes root beer.
35. Favorite restaurant? Mama Maria's but it has been closed for years. Right now it would be In-n-Out. I would eat at Prejeans in Lafayette LA or the Parson's Table in Jonesborough TN any day.
36. Color of hair? Clear
37. What was your favorite toy as a child? Books
38. Summer or winter? Never liked winter, but summers here are just way to hot to like. I'll take what passes for spring and fall around here.
39. Hugs or kisses? Kind of partial to both.
40. Chocolate or vanilla? Milk Chocolate
41. Coffee or tea? Coffee
42. Do you want your friends to email you back? No, just leave a comment.
43. What is under your bed? Shoes, extra leaves for the dinning room table, my dear wife's wedding dress (archived in a sealed box), dust godzillas and some sort of monster that nibbles on toes that hang off the edge of the bed at night.
44. What did you do last night? School Advisory Council meeting, helped out at a volleyball practice, updated the club's website while watching a little TV.
45. What are you afraid of? What kind of nation are we leaving for my kids? Am I being a good Dad? Am I being a good husband? Am I being a good coach?
46. Salty or sweet? Some of each, but usually not together.
47. How many keys on your key ring? 8
48. How many years at your current job? Less than a year. I've been working at the same place for over 23 years and haven't had any single job last more than 5 years.
49. How many towns have you lived in? Madison, Rapid City, Hot Springs, Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Brookings, Amarillo, Ridgecrest.
50. Favourite seafood? Crawfish ettoufee. But since Louisiana is so far away I'll settle for shrimp, crab or scallops.
51. Do you make friends easily? I make acquaintances easily, friends take a lot of time and effort that shouldn't be rushed or wasted.
52. How many friends will you send this to? I'm not sending it to anyone.
53. How many will respond? Check the comments to see for yourself.

Great Movie Quote

Over at Curmudgeonly and Skeptical there is a thread discussing favorite comedy movies. One early comment pretty much describes my opinion of my movie theater experiences the last 10 years or so:

I got tired of spending the entire contents of my wallet on a small popcorn and two hours of Suck. - AWM

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2009! Does it look, feel or smell any different than yesterday? Other than your hang-over, I mean?

My 16 year old daughter had a New Years Eve party last night. She had 7 friends over, two of which had to go home before midnight. So five of them slept over. My dear wife and I stayed up till midnight to welcome in the new year, share some bubbly and a new year's kiss. Then she headed for bed. I ran herd on the party to make sure they didn't stay outside making too much noise for too long. Then I finished up some volleyball scheduling I was working on, then headed to bed. The girls were all settled down to watch movies. But since they were watching them while laying down with their heads on pillows and snuggled under blankets I don't know how long they all lasted.

Yep, that was it, the wild New Years times at our house.

However getting through the early evening I was reading a lot of blogs. The one common thought I found all over the internet last night can be summed up as:

"Thank God this horrible year is over."

and

"2009 is going to be so much better!"

Say what? The only thing that ended last night was the functionality of your 2008 calendar. Our economy is still tanking, the recession is still gaining momentum, our elected officials are still incompetent boobs who think they are smart enough to fix our problems, as a nation we are exchanging freedom for socialism, our retirement accounts are still worth only 60% of what they were a year ago.

So what has changed? Overnight, in the last 24 hours what really changed?

The answer is NOTHING!

Yeah, Personally 2008 wasn't that great a year in many ways.

- I turned 50
- I ended up in a job that I really hate.
- My savings and investments aren't worth as much as they used to be.
- Gas was $4.50 a gallon.
- I didn't bowl well in the city tournament.
- I didn't get to go to the state bowling tournament.
- I finished the summer golf league with a losing record.
- My club volleyball team tore itself apart off the court and didn't play well at Nationals because of that.
- My middle school club team followed up three years of local championships by finishing fourth this year.
- I think our new President and the administration is going to lead this country down a path to nanny state communism that we may not be able to recover from without another civil war.

But there were a lot of good things that happened this year also.

- I turned 50. Hey, 20 years ago I wasn't sure I would make it this far.
- I hate my job, but it pays the bills, and it is necessary work, even if it does bore the living crap out of me.
- Sure the market tanked and my savings and investments aren't what they used to be, but at least I have some savings and retirement left, for a while at least. But more importantly, I'm still able to support and provide for my family.
- Gas was over $4.50 a gallon but now it is under $2 a gallon.
- I didn't bowl well at city, but at least I got to bowl.
- OK, missing state sucked. No silver lining there. Except that I missed it because I was with my club volleyball team. I can't think of a better reason for missing something I love doing other than to do something else I love doing.
- Yeah, I lost more matches than I won golfing this summer. But I still got to golf. And at 50 years old with my 60 year old ankles and 70 year old knees I can still walk the course, carrying my clubs, in 100+ degree temperatures and still be competitive in most of my matches.
- Yeah, I screwed up as a coach - I let my club team's off the court problems effect their on the court performance. But we still finished tied for 5th at Nationals which I thought was pretty good for a first time club team with a first time club coach.
- Yeah I screwed up again in middle school. I wasn't able to get my 8th grade team that had more 6th and 7th grade players than 8th grade players to compete well enough to beat all the other 8th grade teams at our end of the season tournament. But we had fun that season and we did finish higher in the other two tournaments we playing in than our previous teams ever managed. I have been complaining for years about the level of volleyball competition in the middle schools in town. Well I finally got my wish. The other schools in town don't roll over and play dead for us anymore, and that is a good thing.
- I am going to try and be optimistic that our new government won't be as bad as I think it will. But I'll give them credit for one thing. I have wanted to buy several different guns for many years now but just never got around to it. But with the pending gun bans that are going to happen I finally got in gear and bought the guns I wanted. So far my son, oldest daughter and I have had a blast at the range shooting them.

So let me wish you all a happy new year. You know what the new year really means don't you? For the next four weeks most of you will be writing year old checks.

Automaker Bailout

Our lovely spend till your ears bleed congress is nearing a deal with the Detroit Automakers. I don't know why this bailout pisses me off more than all the other bank bailouts Congress has been dealing out. But it does.

I have always owned American made cars, mostly Chrysler products. I started my driving life with a used '51 Oldsmobile. From there I worked my way through a used '67 Plymouth Fury III, a new '82 Dodge Challenger, a used '84 Chevy Impala, a new '87 Dodge Ram 50 pickup (which is waiting for my daughter to start driving), a new '97 Dodge Grand Caravan that my wife drives and I just got a new '07 Dodge Magnum.

I don't know what it is about Dodges that I like. It may be genetic, I have an old picture of my Great Grandfather sitting in his '20s era Dodge truck.

Eventually my family will have to replace the Van and the pickup. But this whole automaker bailout has me so pissed off - first at the incompetent managers in Detroit that would allow their companies to get into this position in the first place, secondly that they would reduce themselves to groveling before congress asking America to bail them out of their stupidity. Third at Congress for their blatant attempts to use this opportunity to Nationalize the Detroit auto industry.

So what can I do about this? Not much except rant and rave here for a while and this: I have bought my last Chrysler, Ford or Chevy vehicle. Detroit can go to hell for all I care. When we need to start replacing our vehicles we will replace them with a Honda or a Toyota.

Sto0pid Test?

Mostly Cajun started it....

Bail-outs

I'm not an economics expert. I slept through freshman economics in college. The first day the professor told us "The most important thing to remember about economics is that there is no such thing as a free lunch."

I believed him, took his advice to heart and tuned out most of the rest of the class. I grabbed a nice nap each day. Payed a little attention occasionally and managed to get a B in the class. Most of the test seemed to be pretty much common sense. The stuff that wasn't so common was probably the stuff I slept through.

Regardless of all that I grew up trying to maintain a pretty basic set of personal economic principals. I don't spend more than I make. I pay my bills, then myself (savings), then if there is anything else, that can be used for play and fun. I try not to buy on credit except for large things like cars and houses. Everything else I don't buy it until I can play for it. Sure I use credit cards. But that is for convenience. I never charge anything I can't write a check to pay for in full at the end of the month, and then I do just that. I have been carrying credit cards for 26 years now and I have paid a monthly interest charge exactly 8 times. Five of them were the first five months I had my first card. When I discovered how much I hated paying that extra money I swore I wouldn't do it again. The other three times were one emergency purchase and twice that I screwed up and didn't get the check mailed in time.

This all brings me to all the bailouts that are being slung around by our elected officials in Washington DC. As a general rule I don't like it. Maybe there is some large overarching economic principals that I don't understand that make some or all of these bailouts necessary. But if we, the American taxpayers have to help these businesses out of the jams they are in I think there should be some simple rules put in place before we give them a single penny.

1. To the CEOs of these companies - If your corporation is in such bad shape financially that you need the rest of us taxpayers to bail you out, then you have obviously failed miserably as a CEO. Every member of upper management (top 3 or 4 tiers of managers including the board of directors) of any company that receives a bailout must be fired. No pension, no golden parachute, no bonuses, no recommendations. If you are this bad at your job perhaps you should try selling french fries at McDonalds. I'm sure there are plenty of good young businessmen out there that could do your job. At their worst they could probably do no worse than you did.

2. All contracts with any union that works for that company are immediately null and void. If those unions wish to continue working for that company they will have to renegotiate all contracts with the new management.

3. The idea that a company is too big to fail should be eliminated from our thinking. Any company that is too big to fail should not be too big to be broken into smaller pieces. Granted my thinking may be rather simplistic here. But would it not be better for our economy to depend on a hundred smaller companies each with a CEO who make a million dollars a year, than one huge company with a CEO who makes 100 million dollars a year. Take a lesson from the internet. Instead of one big router, the internet depends on thousands of interconnected routers. So if one of them fails the rest of them can keep working. Would this not work just as well with banks?

4. Finally before they give out even more dollar of bail out money, Congress needs to figure out that encouraging, forcing, blackmailing, or legislating banks to lend money to people who cannot afford to pay it back is what got us into this trouble in the first place. Continuing to do so will not help but will just hurry along the destruction of our great nation. Banks need to be free to determine who to lend money to on the merits of the borrowers ability to repay that loan without interference from the morons in Congress. To that end, Congress, as a whole, every single member has to stand up and say "I caused this problem and I am going to fix it." They they have to immediately change the rules to stop government meddling in the way our financial institutions do business.

That's it. Plain and simple. Maybe too simple, maybe too plain. And I doubt that any of it will ever happen. The morons in charge who think they are so much smarter than the rest of us will never see it my way. Unfortunately I only have one vote to try to change their minds by changing their jobs. And apparently a large portion of our country doesn't agree with me either because they keep right on voting these morons into office.

Civics Quiz

I didn't pay much attention in my civics class in high school. But that was 32 years ago and I have read a bit more since then.

I scored a 32 out of 33 on this quiz - 96.97% I missed question number 31. I blame that on sleeping through Freshman Economics in College. The prof told us on the first day that Freshman Economics boiled down to "There is no such thing as a free lunch." I believed him and started napping. Hey I still got a B.

The average results on this test are pretty bleak - Their average score for November is 77.3. In a test case of 2508 people the average score was a 49%. Lets hear it for our education system!

More on Gas Prices

I gassed up in Victorville this evening before coming home for $3.29 a gallon at AM/PM. The Valero station was at $3.39. Several other name brand places were in the same price range. Even the places out by the highway all by themselves were under $3.40.

What makes this even worse was when I was in Trona yesterday the gas there was $3.73 when the cheapest place in Ridgecrest was $3.77. I can't remember a time in the last 23 years that I have lived here that gas was cheaper in Trona than here.

Better yet, if I am careful, and I top the tank off on my way back into town on Saturday I may be able to get through next week without buying gas locally so I can gas up again when I go out of town the next week for another volleyball game.

I know its kind of silly but for me the longer I can go without buying gas at these locally inflated prices the better.

But it is all depressing seeing as how they are paying only $2.75 a gallon in Idaho. But then they don't have to deal with our idiotic California Legislature.

Carrot Sneeze

It is slowly becoming fall around here. That means that there is something in the air that is making me sneeze. It's not a lot of sneezing. But several times a day I really let loose with a series of loud, usually unexpected sneezes.

I discovered something yesterday. Sneezing with a mouth full of freshly chewed carrot is messy. Well, not as messy as it could have been if I hadn't gotten my hand up in front of my mouth in time.

There, never let it be said that I don't occasionally supply more information about my life than any normal decent person should ever know.

and yes, I did wash my hands.

Vocabulary Score

Not bad for a guy who got Cs and Bs in English in high school. Maybe all the reading I have done in my life has been good for something after all. Even if I do waste my time reading all that Sci-fi and fantasy crap.

Your Vocabulary Score: A+

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

700

According to Blogger this is my 700th entry into this blog. Considering that when I started this I could only think of about 20 things to say I guess that since I managed to ramble on for 680 entries more than that must mean that I have a lot more crap floating around in my brain that I thought was necessary to share with you than I thought I would.

Now the depressing part. 700 blog entries since March 11, 2005. That is 700 posts in 1225 days. Which works out to one an entry every 1.75 days.

Which doesn't really make me very prolific. Now my critics will tell you that me not being prolific is a good thing. My response to those folks is if I bore you, piss you off, or insult you, don't click over here any more. If that doesn't satisfy you than I can shorted it to "Bite Me."

If you like what I write here and want me to write more, be patient, I am trying. My life has changed a lot since I started this blog. My kids are older and while they don't seem to need more of my attention, they do need more of my time. Gone are the days when I could sit at the computer and work with a bundled baby laying on my lap or on the desk between my chest and the keyboard. (try typing like that some time. It will do wonderfully horrible things to your wrists and shoulders. But it kept the baby quiet so my dear wife could sleep.)

I am now a volunteer volleyball coach for 8 months a year instead of just 2.5 months a year. This takes up a lot of my free time. I described to a friend a while back that coaching this club team was like having 13 kids. Three of my own, and 10 extra daughters that I only get to see 3 days a week on the volleyball court. But in between the practices and the games there is a lot of other stuff to do. Practice plans, travel plans, newsletters for parents, pictures, paperwork, etc. But as time consuming as this has been, I can't imagine not doing it. My one regret is that I waited so many years to start doing this.

I have a new job that is not as flexible with my hours as my older job was. This doesn't really cut into my blogging, but it is an handy excuse that I have been using for other things way too often lately.

Well it's late and needed to be in bed a couple hours ago. I have to get up and go to that new pain in the neck job early in the morning.

Quiz

All my kids were making and taking this quiz. So I got badgered into making one also.

The link to it is here -

Coach's Lame Quiz

One Word Meme

Mostly Cajun had this up when we got home and it seemed like a good chance to unwind from the long car ride, so here goes...

In a Word:

1. Where is your cell phone? table

2. Your significant other? sweetheart

3. Your hair? gone

4. Your mother? memories

5. Your father? Cheyenne

6. Your favorite time of day? nighttime

7. Your dream last night? volleyball

8. Your favorite drink? rootbeer

9. Your dream goal? complicated

10. The room you’re in? messy

11. Your ex? nonexistant

12. Your fear? failure

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? retired

14. What you are not? thin

15. Your Favourite meal? steak

16. One of your wish list items? gym

17. The last thing you did? drove

18. Where you grew up? mountains

19. What are you wearing? casual

20. Your TV is? off

21. Your pets? imaginary

22. Your computer? laptop

23. Your life? good

24. Your mood? tired

25. Missing someone? Starlings

26. Your car? Dodge

27. Something you’re not wearing? shoes

28. Favourite store? hardware

29. Your summer? hot

30. Your favourite colour? varies

31. When is the last time you laughed? today

32. When is the last time you cried? week

33. Your health? acceptable

34. Your children? sleeping

35. Your future? confusing

36. Your beliefs? solid

37. Young or old? older

38. Your image? unknown

39. Your appearance? round

40. Would you live your life over again knowing what you know? sure

Home Again

It seems like I just got home last week from a four day volleyball tournament in San Diego and here I am on the road again.

The family and I left for my sister-in-laws place in Pleasanton CA, up near San Francisco. My oldest has been up there for two weeks and is ready to come home. Actually her mother is ready for her to come home. She misses her baby. I do to but don't tell her that it will go to her head.

So we drove up to the Bay area Thursday evening after work. We spent Friday hanging out and doing some shopping. Today we spent more time with the family and eventually loaded up the van and headed for home around 5:30 this evening. We made pretty good time, and arrived home right around 11:30 tonight.

The rest of the family has headed for bed, and as soon as my caffine high wears off, I'm headed there also.