You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog

I've been told I need to blog more often but I guess I've been waiting for the right moment. Last Saturday my work had it's big end of the year Gala and the theme this year was Casino Night. They rented out the banquet room at a hotel and had an open bar for a bit and a nice dinner, guest speakers, dessert, card tables, etc. After dinner, we walked around for a bit and mingled and watched others playing blackjack. They gave everyone pretend money to cash out for chips if you chose to play. They had a raffle where you could redeem your chips for tickets and try your luck. Each ticket was worth $250 so you can play for more chips and more tickets and better your odds. We watched a blackjack table for a while and decided to play for a bit. It was pretend money, so why not? I played for a while and Becky watched. I kept urging her to join in since there was an open spot on the table next to me and she finally decided to go for it. Silly me for thinking that my offer of a couple of $5 chips were enough to get her started. Nope, she snagged the other $500 bill in my shirt pocket and cashed it out for herself. So there she is jumping into the game and she was on fire right away. Call it beginner's luck if you want but she had the hot hand. When the night was over, she ended up nearly doubling her hand with over $900. We combined for about $1700 total and got 6 raffle tickets for it. The grand prize was a trip for 2 to Vegas, there were a couple iPads, and various gift card prizes. We ended up scoring a $100 gift card to Nordstrom. Not bad but I think it will only buy you a left shoe at that store. Not exactly the type of place you would find us at normally but free money is a nice temptation to get you to go places you normally wouldn't go. We had a good time but there was something that really made the night fun.

To go along with the Vegas/casino theme, they hired an Elvis impersonator. He came out in his powder blue jumpsuit hair and all and of course, sang a couple songs. As you watch the video below, you'll see that we sat to the right of him. That was a bad move. If you've ever seen Elvis perform you'll know that his right leg is his power leg and it's usually out forward more than his left leg. That's where the problem came in. His jumpsuit was spandex or some similar material and, well, spandex is just never flattering. Had I zoomed in at all, I would have been forced to apply an "Under 18 Not Admitted" warning label on this blog.

At first I figured that this was just a job or maybe a hobby, but this is him. We were walking through the lobby as we were on our way out and he was coming out of a dressing room. He was carrying his suit in a suit bag and he was mumbling to himself. As we walked past him he was still talking in his Elvis voice. On stage is one thing but walking through a lobby of a hotel? Really? Maybe they hired him for a few hours and he was still on the clock? I don't know. But regardless, he was a complete fruitcake to me. Judge for yourself...

Starting to Respond

A few weeks ago, Bella started finally giving us smiles... you know, the real ones that are not gas-related? But we have finally moved on to giggling. This is the first recorded video of the event. I was trying to do this with my phone in one hand while leaning my head in to tickle her tummy. Working on trying to get a better, and steadier video, of the next event. Stay tuned...

It's Already Starting...

This happens to be Ally's first homework assignment. Not anything hard, not really a big deal. Hey, she's in kindergarten. What is pretty impressive about this is the very bottom. If you read the very last line, it says "Signature of grown up helper." The signature reads "Mom." Somehow, I don't see Becky signing off on checks with "Mom." The freakin' kid is already forging signatures on school documents. Ingenious. I didn't start thinking about that until at least Middle School. I can't stop her, I can only hope to contain her.

Quick Tidbits...

Driving down Kiely Blvd. yesterday on the way to Safeway we saw something that totally freaked us out for a minute. We had just finished eating dinner and were plenty stuffed, but in a matter of moments we almost lost our dinners. As we were cruising, pulling up alongside us was a hearst... or so we thought. A dark vehicle passed us on the right and we both held our breath. But low and behold, it was not a hearst but a Lexus IS 300. They may look completely different on the outside, but have you ever seen another car besides a hearst with curtains?... black curtains?... and gathered in the center? I think all 4 people sitting inside this car were alive as the curtains were gathered. I'm sure they'd be pulled closed had there been an actual corpse in there. This was a freakin' Lexus... with curtains! The only other time I can ever remember seeing curtains near a Lexus was when they unveiled there was a Lexus behind curtain #3 on The Price Is Right.

======

Bella started smiling this week and they've come at random times. While mom was changing Bella's diaper yesterday, the kid decided to let fly an air biscuit. This one stunk a bit and was accompanied by a smile that lasted for quite a while. The entire time mom was complaining about the smell, the kid just kept smiling. I couldn't complain. In fact, I was quite proud of this prized pupil. Wouldn't you find it humorous if you had just let off in someone's face and they couldn't walk away from it?

======

Something to think about... why did the geniuses at Toyota design the Prius to top out at 20mph? And why does there have to be so many on the road that I always end up getting stuck behind one... going 20mph on the freeway?

Let the Games Begin

It used to be where Becky would come home from school with some funny stories about the kids. Now that we have a kindergartner of our own, we're bound to hear more stories. And the first one has come with a blast.

In our house, we don't use the term "fart" for fear that the kid will be walking around in public saying something like, "who farted?" So we started using the term "buffalo" as a code word for a human be-bop. Now that you have a little background, you'll understand the story better. While in the car on the way home from school earlier this week, the conversation between mom and child went something like this...

Ally: Mom, someone was stinky in my class today.
Mom: Oh really. Did someone do a buffalo?
Ally: I don't think so. I didn't hear anything.
Mom: Well, sometimes when people do buffalos they don't make noise and you can't hear them.
Ally: Not in our house!

And now our brand new car is in the shop. Not really, but that just goes to show how good of a driver Becky really is. I love my kids...

No More Lumps

When we bought our house we noticed a couple of things that would quickly have to change; 1) The shower head in our master bathroom ("master" bathroom which is about the size of a porta-potty) and 2) the chandelier in the kitchen were unusually low. The first couple of tries in the shower resulted in me getting down on my knees to rinse the shampoo. Even Becky would have to bend down. Didn't take long for us to replace the shower head with a detachable head. Not necessarily ideal but at least this way we didn't have to rip out tile and redo anything. The chandelier in the kitchen came down to about my left armpit so you can imagine how many times I bumped my head on that thing. I think something was trying to tell me that helping out with the dishes was just bad for my health. We should have known things would be bad when the neighbor across the street told me the previous owner was only about 4'10". Something had to give...

Today was the day that something was finally done. We got us some ceiling fans recently and my brother-in-law Vidal was on vacation this week and came and helped me install a couple. Neither one of us is an electrician by trade but he at least has done this before in his own home. Me on the other hand... I'd probably be smart enough to go and do some wiring while stepping in a puddle of water. So I stuck to the screws and the blades of the fan. We made a great team and got 2 of the fans installed. We still got 3 left to do but those will come later this week. At least for now I can have my oatmeal lumpy and not have lumps after my oatmeal. Life is good... and a little cooler these days.

New Neighbors

We figured when we brought baby home that Coach was going to have a little bit of a tough time adjusting to his new baby sister. We still don’t know if he’s adjusted yet or not. The first couple of days he would circle around us and bark but he’s been pretty quiet the past few days. Our neighbors behind us have been making quite a bit of noise in their backyard all summer and he’s been out there quite a bit barking at them. He’s been out there even more this past week. All he’s been doing is pacing along the back fence from one side to the other.

A couple of weeks ago we could hear a bunch of noise coming from their yard. They had all kinds of power tools going but I didn’t pay much attention as their 3 boys (ages 4-10 or so) are noisy power tools themselves with all their arguing and fighting. It gets worse when Mama Banshee comes out and starts yelling at them in their native tongue.

I went to get Coach out of the garage the other morning and heard some yapping coming from their yard. It wasn’t the kids this time but instead it was some Mighty Mouse-sized mutt. I took a peek out of curiosity but couldn’t see the pint-sized pooch as it was enclosed in a 6’ high cardboard box. As I looked over the fence, that’s when I saw the little cottage against the fence. They had built themselves a freakin’ chicken coop. Everything is starting to make sense now:

• All the power tools went into building the coop.
• Coach paces along the back fence following the chickens around.
• The Census in our area was done a few weeks ago… prior to the coop being built and the new tenants moving in.

I’m wondering how much rent they’re paying for their little cottage? With the economy tanking, egg-laying doesn’t sound like a bad gig right now. You can work from home and get all the fresh air you want. All I know is if I hear a rooster crowing early in the morning, I’ll be singing me some Zac Brown: “You know I like my chicken fried/ cold beer on a Friday night/ a pair of jeans that fit just right/ and the radio up.”

Latest addition... for real this time

We added the new car to our family on Memorial Day and have now added the latest addition to our family: baby Isabella. Here is the birth info of the critter:

Isabella Jeane Caetano (kay-ta-no) Pereira

July 19,2010 @ 10:56am

8lbs. 12oz.

Here is the first photo of the kid after we brought her home.

I did say she was a critter, didn't I? Alright, alright. We have yet to bring her home as mom and child are scheduled to be released on Wednesday morning. Ally is pretty excited to have finally met her little blame-taker. We brought her in last night and she was all smiles and was eager to hold her. She's been practicing at home with our 17lb. supposed-to-be-Pomerainian-but-is-twice-the-size-a-Pom-should-be-wannabe-lapdog Coach. Both mom and baby have been doing well and things are off to a good start with health. Mom's bruised butt-bone is even feeling better. Who knew that the one-shot diet would help relieve so much of the pain she felt on her tailbone. But things are healing fine and mom is getting back to normal as well. Here are some actual pics of the new kid for the world to see. I was kind of thinking of calling her Blanket and shielding her from the paparazzi but then I remembered I'm nobody and it wouldn't matter. Enjoy...

New Addition to the Family

We weren't expecting to add to our family until July, but Christmas came a little early this year. We know that nothing goes according to plan as often we'd like as we never know what life will throw at usalong the way. We figured baby would come in July and we had time to plan things out but things didn't turn out quite that way.



We spent this morning like most Memorial Day mornings: we got up and washed the Ford Escape and drove over to the church for the annual Memorial Day Breakfast. We left the clean Escape at home and took the dirty Jetta instead. Ally left with Grammy without saying goodbye and we figured we had a free playday... or at least a few hours. So we decided to go out looking at cars, not necessarily expecting to come home with one. We at least wanted to check things out and see what was out there. One thing we knew for sure was that with 2 kids we would need something bigger than the Jetta. This is the last time we saw the Jetta...We stopped at a dealer and started looking and found something that we thought we liked. We both took it for a test drive and liked it and decided it was what we wanted. We both had our eye on the Chevy Equinox and had been looking into it a bit. We liked it enough to leave the Jetta behind and walk away with our new addition. So here it is...
BUT... we wen't the only one who got a new set of wheels. Good ol' Uncle Ben got himself a new bike. I'm not sure if he was planning on getting rid of his old one but this one seems to suit him. I love how he's going for what he calls the "on-deck": wearing the helmet over the baseball cap. Gotta give him credit for respecting the mandatory state law of wearing a helmet while on a bike.

At the Speed of Life...

It's been quite a while since our last blog but that's what being busy gets you. A number of things have happened since then and here's just a few:

• Feb. 7- Ally loses her first tooth before the age of 5. Shouldn't be a surprise since she got her first teeth at 14 weeks. 3 weeks later she loses another. She then loses #3 in April and is in the process now of losing #4.


• During Becky's week off in February, Joe took the week off and we headed to a couple places for a quick family outing. We first headed to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield and Ally had a great time... eating jelly beans. We also headed off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Ally got to see her fish and we used the trip as a good excuse to check out Rosine's (shameless plug). The food isn't great but this place is all about the deserts. We walk in and see a display of cakes about 12" high. We were going to get a couple slices as we couldn't decide which to choose. We noticed a cake with quite a chunk cut out and asked what the size of a slice was. "You see what's missing out of that cake? That size." Needless to say, we stuck to a single slice and it was great! We'd been hearing quite a bit of this place and we're anticipating the next trip.


• March- we find out that baby #2 is another girl. We're calm as we realize that it will be cheaper this way since we saved a bit of Ally's things. Prior to finding out we asked Ally if she wanted a baby brother or sister. "I want a baby sister. We already have Coach (the dog) so I already have a brother." Precious. It's a good thing Coach's training class graduation diploma lists his name as Coach Pereira. I'm not sure we're allowed to have a baby boy to carry the name otherwise thanks to Ally's selection process.


• April- we got the "Avatar" Blu-Ray... awesome!


• May- Ally turned 5. We ended up getting a much bigger cake for her than we thought so we had a couple people over to help us eat it. We asked for no gifts but of course no one ever listens to me. Ally was opening her gifts and when she got to Grammy's, everyone asked "what is it?" Ally nonchalantly grabbed the bag and before loooking in said, "Clothes, of course." Sure enough, it was clothes. She got the bike she's been wanting and then asked what kind of bike she was gonna get when she turned 6. And we decided to have another girl?

That's been the major events over the past couple of months. Too many little things in between but little time to sit and blog regularly. Maybe one day when we have nothing better to do. At least tomorrow is Memorial Day and we both get to enjoy a day off. Much needed.

Making Connections

Who says that kids have short attention spans and don't pay attention? Ally dropped a couple things on us today that really left me speechless. Kinda hard to do really. For those who are not familiar with it, there's a song out by Jay-Z called "Empire State of Mind" that features Alicia Keys. Part of what Alicia sings goes "New York/ Concrete jungle where dreams are made of/ There's nothing you can't do." That song's been stuck in my head so I happened to be singing that part a couple times here and there. Ally heard that last part and cut me off. "Remember in Princess and the Frog when Tiana asked Naveen if he knew how to cut mushrooms and he said 'I can do anything?' That's like the song." We watched that movie back on Christmas Eve and never once until today has she mentioned that scene. How does she do that? Later on tonight we were reading about someone from the Book of Mormon named Moroni and we showed her a picture of him. He was wearing a helmet with a feather sticking up from it. Of course that caught her eye. She then drops with "Hey, he has a hat like that guy in the song who was riding on a pony." Of course, she was referring to Yankee Doodle Dandy. How does she do that? We still have to help her connect the dots in those kids' puzzle books and yet she can connect something like that? Next thing you know she'll be connecting the Raiders to a Super Bowl in the near future.

Maybe We Should Eat In

Over the years we've had a certainphrase regarding our dinner choices. Every Sunday we head to Becky's folks for dinner, Monday-Thursday we would eat at home, and Friday-Saturday we would head out to dinner. With a kid and a mortgage, we've tried to cut the eating out to just Saturdays. During the week we would ask "What's for dinner?," and on the weekend it would be "Where's for dinner?" Apparently the where's part is getting out of control. One place that we normally go to is Chili's. It's local, fast, reasonab le prices, good food... nothing to really complain about. So we were there last night and Ally ordered her normal thing: chicken platter with a side of mandarin oranges. Most kids grow up on french fries, she's grown out of them. She's never been normal, what can I say. She loves oranges and we always end up asking f or an extra side of them for her. Need proof that we've probably eaten out way too often with her? Once she finished her first side, she turned to Becky and said, "Mom, when the girl comes back and asks 'how was our dinner?' and we say 'fine,' can you ask her for her some more oranges?" I can only imagine how much her kindergarten teacher is going to love this structured little bossy one.

Who Said They Grow Up Too Fast?

We knew we were in for a bit of trouble when Ally started developing very quickly in various ways. One thing that came quickly were her first teeth at 14 weeks. It's been a while since we've read her old newsletters but I'm pretty sure she had all of her teeth before she was 2. Now the real fun begins. Last Sunday in church she asked for a snack and had her mouth wide open. Becky looked over and noticed something unusual. As she looked closer, she realized that there was a newtooth coming in. One of her bottom teeth is wiggling and a new tooth is coming in behind it. Does this have to happen this soon? I was hoping if anything that it would be her 2 front top teeth so we wouldn't get her kindergarten picture next year with a hole in her mouth. We worked so hard to try and be clever about Santa Claus for Christmas and now we gotta figure something out about this whole Tooth Fairy business. The Rock may accept a load of cash and dress up in a tutu and wings but you won't catch me doing ballet.

Vegan Pooch

I've heard that if you eat too many carrots that your skin starts turing an orange hue. I didn't realize that you would turn green from eating lettuce. Our dog is wierd, that goes without saying, but the dude likes eating vegetables. We were having salad with our dinner recently and I dropped a piece of a carrot on the counter. Counters weren't terribly clean and I didn't feel like eating it. I was turning to trash it and he was looking at me quite eagerly. Naturally I thought, "I wonder what would happen if..." So I threw him a carrot and he ate it. Then I threw him a piece of cabbage and he ate that too. Then I tried some lettuce and he ate that too. It's funny that we've never given him any meat or any other table scraps but we give him veggies!! We refer to him as Ally's brother so if he's my son then it makes sense as to why he's a bit odd.

Alright, so eating his greens isn't really turning him green, but he is green nonetheless. I had just finished mowing the lawn and ran the sprinklers to make sure they were all working right and the dumb dog went running through. Mix in a little bit of water and freshly mowed lawn and voila! You end up with a green thumb. Don't ask me how we got him to sit still long enough to snap these. We must have been bribing him with a carrot.

I wish I had more time to blog but I just don't have the kind of time that allows me to sit down at the comp and do this all day long. A full-time job and a 4-year old don't allow for much. Not to mention that hockey season has started... game on! Let's see, what is going right now? Kid has the flu with a high enough fever to keep her from going to preschool. That caused me to leave work early on Monday and stay home on Tuesday. Because of that, I returned to work today only to find a load of emails to respond to. Most of the time, I'm copied on emails just to keep me in the loop. Not this time. Most of the emails required my response and I had to spend too much time dealing with all of that. Mix in a few meetings and my day was much longer than I would have liked. What do I get the rest of the week? Thanks to my boss being on vacation for the next 2 days I get to spend most of my time in more meetings while also trying to make a deadline tomorrow afternoon. Do I love it? The job has its perks so I won't complain. But in the meantime... argh!

One thing that I don't have to worry about at least is the backyard. We're happy to say that we are done with it finally... well almost. We got the last of the grasses (no, we're not growing that grass) a couple weekends ago and got them planted. Now that the planting is done, I can get the remaining sprinklers for the drip system done. I had never really done a drip before so it was definitely trial and error. There were certain types of sprayers that I tried at first but because of the amount of water pressure we get in certain areas, they didn't really work. Then there was the issue with the type of drip hose I was using. I decided to replace the original with a different kind to reduce the amount of water needed per cycle. Now that I got some things figured out, it seems to be working alot more like i had planned. Hey, plants are growing, that's all I know.

Are we excited about it? I know the dog is. The other day Coach and I were back there and I was digging some more trenches for the rest of the drip and he kept following me around. He started running his laps and started getting winded and just plopped down. I sat next to him and then laid face up on the grass. He just rolled over on his back and we just hung out for a minute just enjoying the new lawn. Now if only the kid wasn't sick I'm sure she'd be out there with us. Oh yeah, that and the storm that just came through.

Here are before, during and after pics. We have more pics of the finished product that are yet to be taken. We kinda wanted to wait until all of the plants were in before we finished our album but just haven't had the chance to do that as of yet. I tried to get some pics of the same side of the yard so that you can kinda see the dramatic difference. What do I love most about having the yard done? Not having to worry about sitting around and watering it. I love having the sprinkler system and the timer that goes with it. Do you know where I can get some gadget that does the same for kids?

Backyard Update... 7/25/09

One of the things that attracted us to our house when we were in the market was the fact that we had endless possibilities witht he backyard. The house itself was in good shape but there was nothing out back but dirt and broken concrete. For the last month now, we've had one project after another in the yard. We started by redoing the patio concrete, then moved on to the patio covering, and are now working on the lawn area. We've mixed in some painting here and there and are coming along nicely. The best part is that it's been a family affair. Here are a few pics to show some of the progress:

We had a couple of huge truckloads of dirt delivered the other day and I've been out there shoveling some into a wheelbarrow and going back and forth. It's been quite the workout and Ally's been pitching in with her shovel as well.

We've had a great time doing this so far even though working outdoors is just not that fun. At least it's been breezy over the past couple days, that's made a big difference. Just this morning we had a crew of a few over that were helping shovel in some of that dirt. We started with about 10 yards on Thursday and I was able to do one by myself. But we must have knocked out about 8 cubic yards today with the crew we had. Now that was a workout. In fact, I'm so impressed with how hard we worked and what it's done for me physically that I just had to brag a bit. Hope you enjoy the following real-time pic of me as I can't guarantee that I will keep this up for too long. After the project is done with, I'm going to need a break.

Yes, that's really me, I promise!!!!!

Train Your Kids, Please!

I'm not sure if it's because Michael Jackson has dominated the news over the past couple weeks, but I've noticed a trend with my last couple of posts being about some pretty whacked out people. Here's the next in line...

It was around 90 degrees on Friday afternoon. What else are you supposed to do when you are in a home equipped with A.C.? Why, leave it turned off and go out to dinner, of course. This isn't a multiple choice exam so please keep up. We began deliberating on restaurant choices (i.e. scouring through our stack of coupons) and decided on Sweet Tomatoes. This is far and away Ally's favorite place to eat and it's a place loaded with salads and things that are kept cool. Logical choice on a hot day. Did I mentin they got all you can eat frozen yogurt? Yep, Ally's favorite place to eat. Everything was fine as we were sitting there enjoying dinner and conversation when the distraction came.

I stopped chewing the moment I looked up and saw a kid standing behind Becky. This kid must have been about 11 years old or so and was standing there licking himself. I noticed he had chocolate all over his face, his arms, hands and shirt. I wasn't sure if I should feel bad for him for whatever may have caused that mess or for the family that was sitting at the booth where he was standing. I thought of 2 ways to describe what he was doing: 1) Have you ever seen a cat licking the back of its paws and then proceed up the length of its arms? 2) It kind of looked like a sci-fi movie where a a deformed alien pops out of someone's stomach and is trying to pry its way out. OK, so maybe that sounded a bit gruesome but so was this kid. He was standing right next to this poor family licking himself clean and it was disgusting just standing there watching him. A few minutes later, he came back with his mom behind him. I can overhear her say to him, "Now do you see why I kept telling you to tie your shoes?"

OK, now that really set me off. I started piecing 2 and 2 together and thought of something that made this kid even more disgusting than he had already presented himself to be. He was carrying a bowl of ice cream when he tripped over his shoelaces. As he fell, I envision him putting his hands out and falling face first but using his hands to cusion his fall. Instinct would tell you to do that. Another thing your instinctswould tell you to do is to go to the nearest bathroom and clean yourself up. Nope! Dude came back still smothered in chocolate and licking off the same hands that had just landed flat on the floor. Like I said... DISGUSTING. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse...

Well, they might have but I couldn't look anymore. Once the kid returned with a bowl with his mom, he sat and began to eat it. I looked over once and saw him sitting with his elbow on the table. His arm was in an "L" shape with the portion from hand to elbow being vertical. This was the hand he was holding the bowl with. He was holding this bowl at an angle with ice cream about ready fall out. Every time he stuck his spoon in, he do so from the other side of the bowl which caused the ice cream to get ever closer to falling out. I chose to look away at this point because I didn't want to see him licking the table clean. That's why they hired busboys, dummy. I had to look away because I fully expected him to do just that.

I'm not sure that's what mom means when she tells everyone that she has a sweet little boy. What do you think?

Street Performer.... Literally

This is more of a blog for ourselves so that we don't forget perhaps the funniest thing we've seen... possibly ever. We were heading out for some Cold Stone on Wednesday night and were driving along Old San Francisco Road... aka Reed... aka Monroe. Why California streets change names every 2 blocks has never made sense to me. There can't be that many important people around to name a street after. Anyhow, we're driving and we see this guy riding a bike with a backpack on. Becky mentions that she noticed he had a microphone in his hand. I quickly peeked in the mirrors to catch a glimpse but couldn't tell. Who said the Lord doesn't have a sense of humor? Right then the light turned red and we had to stop long enough to let this biker catch up to us again. I turned my radio off and rolled down the window and I can already hear him while he was still a few feet back. Call this stereotyping, I don't care because I'm sure everyone would have thought the same thing. This guy had dreads longer than my arms and a mic in his hand and I'm expecting him to be rapping. Nope! He came riding by singing, or at least trying to sing. And let me tell you- he SUCKED! But I gotta hand it to him tho, he kept right on crooning. He too had to stop at the light and had to put his left foot down to balance. He happened to have the mic in his left hand as well so he'd sing a line, hold the mic in the air, and start rocking out. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he tried singing out loud but he couldn't hear himself with them big ol' headphones he had on. It's safe to wear a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads and other safety equipment whlie riding a bike, I get that. What I don't get is why you would hold a mic in your hand with a wire. Wireless mic? Sure. But there was a freakin' wire attached to the bottom of this thing leading to his backpack. I haven't seen a show that entertaining since... since... since... well I guess since Grammy and her cousin Spencer performed their duet at Grampa Great's bday party. We considered a some possibilities of why he was doing what he was doing:

1. He was recording a demo.
2. He was rehearsing for his upcoming audition for American Idol.
3. He realized that summer television sucks with reruns and baseball as the only sport on TV and knew that we had to get our cheap entertainment some other way.

I'm shooting for #3. I've been eager to drive along Monr... Ree... Old San Francisco Road at 6:30 the past couple nights just to find out guy. The only thing he was missing was a tip jar but I'm not sure there was enough room in his backpack for the jar and his karaoke machine.

Busy Summer... and we're only a week in!

Over Father's Day weekend, we made the trip out to New Mexico just as we did last Father's Day. Last year we simply made the trip as a vacation. This year was to celebrate Becky's grandpa's 90th b-day. Since I never knew either of my grandpas, I've adopted her grandfolks as my own. So off we went to the b-day party/family reunion. This was the first time I'd met most of the relatives on her mom's side of the family. We spent weekend in Virden, New Mexico and chances are you've never heard of it. It's a very small town that's about 45 minutes from the nearest anything. But there's alot of history there nonetheless and I've heard many stories about the mischief that took place there. The party started with a roast of Grandpa that included some of his own mischief that he was responsible for in his early days, capped by a once-in-a-lifetime performance by my mom-out-law and her cousin Spencer. I'm glad I got a video of that and I'm sure I can use it as blackmail when necessary. Who says in-laws can't be fun?

The only drawback about living in Cali (besides the fact that Cali folks forget how to drive at the first drop of rain) is that we don't get the Arizona sunsets. The pic above was taken at the Virden cemetary. It must be appreciated when you consider what I had to go through: We had just finished eating dinner and I was loaded with shredded beef tacos. [Thank you aunt Laurie and uncle Dale for some great munch!!] Becky's bro wanted a pic of the sunset as well so he and I ran off to get the pic as the sun was setting. We ended up running part of the way including uphill with all that food in us. I'm still not quite in shape yet so this wasn't easy. Then came the problem with finding the right spot to snap and I hope I found it. We made it with about 12 seconds to spare. You want to know what the hardest part about chasing the sunset was? Missing the Will Ferrell Saturday Night Live performance. I tried to youtube it so you would get a better idea but if you can remember the skit he would do with some lady where they would play the guitar and sing old folk songs... well we were treated to that same thing. It was something. I'm just sad I missed the performance but the Yamaha keyboard was in full effect.

I've put a couple pics up of our buddy Coach before and even he's made news lately. Because he's part pomerainian he tends to shed a bit with his long hair. Since summer's upon us and he's quite hairy, he was in need of a haircut. I don't think either of us realized that he was gonna be buzzed. Poor thing looks more like a chihuahua than a pom now. We're getting used to the new Coach and we think he actually looks kinda cute now. I'm not too sure what he thought of it as he wanted nothing to do with us that first day. I went to get him out of his room and he wouldn't even stand up for me. But he's back to normal now and dive-bombing on me when he gets his chance.

Now comes the fun part... the groundbreaking in our backyard has begun. We got back into town Sunday night and I took Monday off as our backyard is now under construction. Our contractor came out with his Bobcat and started dismantling the old piece of junk slabs that we had before. When his guys took off to dump the first load, they left the keys in the ignition. Big mistake because I was 5 years old all over again. I got a bit giddy and hopped in and went for a spin. I drive a forklift all the time at work so it didn't take me long to get the hang of this. And once I did I went for it. I've had quite the entertaining weekend doing things I'd never done before in my life (not everything can be discussed on a public blog). The concrete is now completely gone and the framework is underway. More pics will come in the future as it shouldn't take more than a few more days to complete. The lawn will be installed in mid-July. The guys are bringing the Bobcat back tomorrow to do a little more work with the dirt. I guess I know where I'll be going on my lunchbreak...

Is this for real? Seriously?

I could not believe what I saw on television the other day. I was watching the Eastern Conference Finals last week between the Cavs and Magic and I saw a commercial that I thought I would never see in my life. They talk about the Super Bowl ads and the ridiculous amount of money paid for those 30-second spots. Could it get more ridiculous? It can, and it did. Not that it cost more to run an ad during the basketball game or anything but rather what was aired during the basketball game. Now mind you, I don't watch much basketball anymore. I've been a Laker fan since I first started playing ball but I've never a fan of Kobe. The way he screwed Shaq out of L.A. and hasn't won since didn't help. So rooting for the Lakers but not wanting Kobe to win a ring kind of defeats the purpose of getting into it. So I don't watch much basketball on T.V. anymore. Now I know I'm not supposed to watch basketball on T.V. anymore.

During the game, a commercial very similar to this one, but better, came on. I was at the computer and heard Becky tell me that I had to rush out and see something. So I rewound for a bit and sat there with my jaw to the floor. It takes a lot to leave me speechless and this did it for at least 2 full minutes. I could not believe what I had seen until I checked the website myself. I know someone meant this to be serious but this has to be about the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. If anyone is offended, watch it again and tell me that you didn't laugh at some point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-_1xM9zucM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFmAsiY21K4&feature=related