I’ve been enjoying summer so much that I forgot to blog! Now where to start…

The biggest thing we’re doing this summer is remodeling a bathroom. Originally I had dreams of remodeling it all by myself…but now we’re looking at maybe half the work. A friend’s dad will be tiling a new shower for us, and then I think I can do the rest. We went today to look at new vanities and countertops (oooh, quartz is pretty), and I might try my hand at tiling the floor. I had dreams of redoing both bathrooms this summer…but we might have to settle with one. We’re doing the bathroom in Luke’s room though, so once it’s all done we can start on our own. We’re doing that tile on the walls, a smaller 6×6 inch on the floor of the shower, and I’m going to try and put in an 18×18 on the floor. The glass/mosaic tile we’re going to use to make a stripe horizontally in the shower, and then also to make “diamonds” in the walls. Big thanks to Amanda and Kurtis for helping us pick it out!

Over the fourth of July we drove down to San Diego with Andrew and Sarah to see the Dodgers beat on the Padres. It was also the night Manny came back from his suspension, which was really interesting. Felt like we were witnessing a part of history. Every time he came up to bat the entire stadium was on its feet. It was half cheers, half boos. It was fun to spend a night away without the baby (thanks Grandparents!).

I’ve also been playing a game called Evony a lot. It’s an online, flash based game, but it’s far more advanced than you would think. You run a city (or multiple cities), collect resources, amass troops, and can attack other people. I’m in a great alliance with some other people, so it’s fun to protect each other and attack our enemies. If you want to sign-up, go here! I’m on world 5, in lower lorraine.

I have to put some Luke in here! We went a couple weeks ago for his 15.5 month check-up. He’s now 25.5 lbs, and 32 inches long. The kid eats like crazy…it’s like he’s never full. Our favorites are bananas, watermelon, strawberries, cheerios, goldfish, ritz crackers, cheese, and chicken. Come to think of it…he eats whatever we give him. He’s also letting us enjoy our summer mornings by sleeping in. The kid will go from 8pm when we put him to bed, and won’t wake up until 9am! Here’s some recent pictures.

Otherwise we’re taking it easy and enjoying summer. Stacie is headed to Las Vegas for two nights on Sunday, so it’ll be me and the boy! Should be fun, and tiring. Stacie’s going to put $20 on the Dodgers while she’s there, so Luke and I will watch the game and cheer them on.

In case you’re wondering, that caffeine counter is still accurate. Haven’t had any in two months now. Overall I wouldn’t say I have more energy…but I feel more balanced out. There are no highs and lows, just a nice normal all the time. I miss my friends Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper, but they’ve been replaced by Sprite. But somedays I have a couple sodas and then I feel gassy all day, so I might give that up too, haha.

That’s all for now. I’m promising a super cute video of Luke very soon!

We went on a cruise before the roadtrip, and I never even made a post about it! Here it is.

Right after Andrew and Sarah’s wedding we took a short, 4 night cruise to San Diego, Catalina, and Ensenada. The sights weren’t very exciting, but before spending the big bucks to do a European, Alaskan, or some other expensive cruise, we thought we’d try out a shorter one first.

Overall we had a good time. I was really impressed with the quality of the food in their dining room. It was fancy, elegant, and actually tasted good! The buffet room that is open almost all the time wasn’t very good though. They had a pizza bar that was open most of the time also, and that was tasty.

And now for some pictures!

This is our boat, the Monarch of the Seas. It was a Royal Carribean cruise.

This is at the Wrigley Botanical Gardens on Catalina Island. I made Stacie walk the whole way to the top, but I was nice and we took the trolley back. It wasn’t very exciting, mainly a bunch of weird cactus and a burial site. We saw this on Huel Howser’s show, haha.

Every night they would present your towels in some cute way. Can anyone guess what this one is?

Now I’m going to go through the pictures from the roadtrip. There are only about 1000 of them, but I’m sure I can trash quite a few.

The Wedding last night was spectacular. I’m sure there will be a gazillion pictures in the future, but here is one to get it started.

It was a great evening and I think Sarah and Andrew had a wonderful time. It was an honor to be there and celebrate such a special occassion with them.

We’re off in a couple hours to go on our first vacation of the summer. We’re taking a short cruise to Catalina, San Diego, and Ensenada. I’m really excited to see all my homies in Ensenada and can’t wait to throw back some Tecates with them. Not really, but I am looking forward to everything else.

See ya at the end of the week.

I want to post, but I don’t have anything specific to talk about. Ever since the last election I really haven’t cared about politics that much. I still have opinions, and I still love talk radio, but I just don’t care enough to post on here and try to convince anyone. Maybe I need some big issue/topic to come around that really lights a fire beneath me, but that hasn’t happened yet.

I’m working on my novel idea, and it’s an amazingly big project. Granted I’ve never written a 100k+ word story, so this is brand new territory for me. I started with a central theme which I could tell you in one sentence, but that has to turn into numerous characters and a lot more detail to be a full story. It’s been a slow process with lots of changes, but it’s gradually taking shape. I’ve done a lot of reading about port security and nuclear weapons, but that’s all I can tell you right now. Typing about it makes me want to go work on it, so I should finish this up.

MRI is moving to San Diego! Congratulations!

I played Wario Ware the other day at a friends house. It was actually pretty fun, but not for $50. If it comes down in price I’d get it.

Heroes on Monday was downright SICK! I believe that’s the new cool word for, well, “cool.” It’s so SICK, I bet it would even be cool in regular non-hdtv.

Ok, I’m outta here.

This is a recurring short story that I can write in spurts. There is no real beginning or end, but will simply chronicle the mishaps of a pizza delivery man. It is most certainly inspired by my time as a pizza delivery truck driver, but as you will see, the similarities stop there.

    A couple of shady looking characters walked into Mancini’s Pizza in Santa Monica. The elderly lady, and what appeared to be her granddaughter, were obviously up to no good. They approached the counter. The owner, Mr. Biagio Mancini, waitied warily behind the register. He’d seen their kind before, and at the tender age of 74, he was suspicious of everyone.
    “Excuse me sir,” the old woman asked in a frail voice, “But could you change our dollar for quarters?”
    At least five times a day this happened. The parking outside, save for two spots reserved for Mancini’s Pizza, were all metered. People like these two sorry beggars were the bane of Biagio Mancini’s existence.
    “What? I’m so so sorry. You think this is a bank, no? Down the street, you go the bank.” Mr. Mancini’s aged voice had practiced this line countless times.
    “Oh, no sir, we just needed change for the meter and wondered-”
    “Yes, yes, you and everybody else. No change! You go now!”
    “But just four quarters sir…”
    Mancini’s Italian accent grew thicker with his anger. In a whisper the woman could barely hear he said “Get out of my store.”
    “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
    Mancini reached for the long metal pole used to reach deep into the pizza oven. Using both hands he held the pole like a warrior headed to battle.
    In a slightly louder voice he said again, “Get out of my store.”
    The woman looked downright confused and began to back away from the crazed grey haired man.
    “Get out of my store,” Mancini said, now slightly louder than the average speaking voice.
    “What a sad old man-”
    “Get out of my store!” he said, now at yelling volume. He muttered Italian curse words of the foulest nature under his breathe.
    The old lady and her granddaughter hastened their pace and left the store without quarters.

continue reading…

"Please don’t build a fence. Guatemala doesn’t want uneducated criminals!"

Apparently Mexico doesn’t want the fence, and because they don’t want the fence, it has reinforced my beliefs that a fence would be good.

"Mexico pleaded with President Bush on Monday to veto a Senate proposal to build a fence to keep illegal immigrants out, saying it could backfire by making the border less secure." Less secure? How on earth could it be less secure? Unless Mexican citizens take up arms and storm the border by force, I really don’t see how this could make things less secure.

"This decision hurts bilateral relations, goes against the spirit of cooperation needed to guarantee security on the common border, creates a climate of tension in border communities." I would love to see a list of all the measures Mexico takes to prevent it’s citizens from illegally crossing into our country. As far as I know they’re too busy helping people cross the border.

"Hundreds of Latin Americans, mostly Mexicans, die each year crossing perilous rivers and deserts separating the two countries, and tougher control has increased fatalities." Maybe they should stop crossing then?

Border Wall Volleyball

If you didn’t notice, there’s a new link to the right for my image gallery. So far it only has San Diego pictures in it, but I’ll be sure to add more soon. Check out the program here. If you get really into you can use a program called Gallery Remote. It lets you upload and resize files from a handy program. Makes the whole process unbelievably easy.

Before my unfortunate run-in with the mysterious wild beast, Stacie and I had spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. They’ve got so many cool animals, it’s just awesome. Check this guy out…

The polar bears were probably my favorite. Amazing and gorgeous animals. They were only active in the morning, so we made sure to see them early. This next picture is Stacie with a pretty purple plant.

If you’ve seen the Lion King you’ll recognize this little fellow. He’s a Meerkat that was just chillin’. What a life!

Overall it was an awesome day.