1989-2001

185 pounds

june 2002

203 pounds

nov 2002

185 pounds

dec 2002

177 pounds

2003

195 pounds

2004-2005

205 pounds

july 2006

215 pounds

august 1 2006

209.5 pounds

august 3 2006

212 pounds

no riding this morning as i was a bit wiped out, and then i found out that the time trial i had begun to [mildly] train for was cancelled because of our nutty rains filling the dips on our course with far too much debris. oh well. so i'm guessing that this might be my real weight, the lighter weight resulting from water loss. that means my first time trial of the year [not counting kitt peak, which is a miserable hill climb, something i should do poorly] will be the state championships. that means nothing to me other than it should be packed.

i asked a teammate about the sponsors on my jersey and most were sensible [energy stuff, massages, photographer — you get one of something a year] and at the very end of the sheet was my favorite from ASARCO which is a huge mining company nearby.

Members are offered a free rock. When visiting any ASARCO mine you are allowed a rock of your choice from anywhere on the grounds. Must be small enough to be carried off the grounds by one individual.

yessssss! a free rock! i love people that are funny.

august 4 2006
[corcor turns 11 today]

[weight not sampled]

last night there was some hubbub at the church so i went as energy catalyst man. i invented a game with a bouncy red ball that had to been more than 2 feet in diameter [but less than 3] over couches in a row. the trick was to lightly get it over the couches like tennis. we had 3 to 4 people on a side, and heading the ball was odd as the ball seemed to envelope your head. good fun, especially with good crosses leading to headers. i ran like a puppy. later we played volleyball and i'm in good shape other than weighing too much/not having a jump as well as having lost my timing.

not really attached to this was a comment from a friend and a church leader conference. he brought up how at evangelical protestant conferences they have worship music before the talk, usually 20-30 minutes at a time. we’ve called it «using worship as a transition» just like prayer is often used — get you from milling around in the hall and focused. it may be more than a transitional device — it may be spiritual foreplay. it is all about getting everyone hot and ready [possibly similar to george’s trifecta]. i’m not sure what i think about that — do we need Jesus Dancers up at the front in hot pants to get the crowd whipped up and ready?

ah well. time to go home and see the green pool and a tired out wife from watching kids all week [extra ones] and a big fun dog, too — and ticks in the house and on corcor [who turns 11 today!]

august 6 2006

[not taken]

when i talk/lead discussions, i rarely quote parts from the bible. i have a hard time using it as a place for theorems to reside. eg, if i went out and did a backflip, it wouldn’t count until i could prove via scientific papers that a backflip was possible. true, i am being facetious, but that is what it feels like. it doesn’t work until i prove it. so i experience God daily — do i need to find line in the bible that supports that argument? i’m not sure. if i can give my theory, i would say it is because most people really aren’t experiencing God so none of this resonates with them. they don’t/can’t hear God in any of it and the things that connect are the ones they can wrap their brains around [and not their experiences and/or intuition/spirit]. did we get this all backwards? farmers don’t do what they do because a book says they can [though shared information/wisdom sure can help]. ah well. i suppose i’ll start using the bible to prove things [not to mention how many things people take improperly]. can i be fiesty and give a piece and then find another piece that is supposed to support my argument, but have it come out the opposite? so which is it, this or that? grace or justice?

i would think if people would just try what they say they believe, the results would be very different.

august 7 2006

212 pounds

i have a hard time believing i was only 212 this morning. i went on a long hard ride [neither of which is my norm] with a group [also abnormal] and had fun. i am in far better shape than i thought, but i still see that i’m at the very base of my riding. i out-noodled everyone up picture rocks, then led most of the way down. i probably should have pulled off and let someone else lead, but i mistakenly thought rodney was behind me — he would have come around me. we stopped for a bit and people made comments so maybe it was good that i really didn’t crank it up [i did try a new intimidation trick: whistling while riding]. later i had to pee and a car parked behind me so i had to get back on the bike and go further down. then i chased and chased and chased and finally got back on as a girl took off. i jumped up to her and then i hurt as i didn’t have alpine gearing. a few of us pulled off to regroup and then it hurt again. later rodney and i chased and passed everyone and then had fun heading home. it was a good ride, though still not a great distance or a constant effort. and then i ate and ate all weekend.

for those that are keeping track, sarah and i have been married 14 years today. woohoo!

august 8 2006

212 pounds

plenty of things to write, maybe none all that interesting and about stuff, but we’ll see.

helping out with the 20-30 crowd, it is fun to see them all get excited about being a part of the church. it used to be that the younger group would step on the older groups toes as they would undo what they have done [sorta] but i wonder if that will hold true? what has my age group done? what part of the church have they been & built? i'm not sure all that much. you can’t complain about something you haven’t put time into. also, jehn wrote « i want to find out [together as a group] what it really looks like when people follow Christ, because it just seems that a while back we stop living christianity and just started to study it]». i wonder if that is why?

next part: i took corcor to her middle school registration and it is in the ’hood, so to say. it is probably the poorest part of tucson, and the school is right in the middle. i know the white-cake friends from choich would be appalled — many of them don’t think public schools are good in the first place, so a school here — oh my! ah well, it’ll be great. in the era of declining band size, her school runs 250-300 musicians, the whole school is a giant mural on the inside, their track team wins every year [a few hundred trophies on the walls in the cafeteria] — and teachers that want to work with the kids. kids from all over tucson are bussed to the school, and i do believe many from the neighborhood are bussed out. on top of that, corcor’s gifted teacher from last year is sending his daughter there and his wife is a principal — i think they know how good the school is. it’ll be good for corcor, but i did give her defensive plans such as «your home room is at the end of the 6th grade hall [they keep them separate] right near the 7th-8th grade halls AND the girls bathroom. if girls pick on you, move down the hall, stand with friends, or even go into the library» and so on. she is small, but she is no dummy and has good self confidence. i hated middle school.

more: corcor planned an anniversary surprise and got some other friends of ours to help. we were blindfolded and driven to la paloma to swim [where we had gotten married] and then after a few hours taken back to our next door neighbors as dinner wasn’t ready. the kids were crazy excited about it all, and we had a great candlelit dinner while our kids hovered around us like impatient bees. corcor has raised the bar on herself — if she gets us a card next year, we’ll be dissapointed [heehee]

august 9 2006

[not taken — too sleepy to ride]

tonight we leave for san diego for one last hurrah before school starts on tuesday. at this time tomorrow [10.08am] we should be at seaworld. friday we should be at the beach [hopefully with boogie boards] and who knows what next. it’ll be good to get out again. i’ve never taken as much time off as i have this summer, and it feels good even though the rest of our life has been crazy. it’ll be nice when all this nuttiness stops.

oh yes, tomorrow is jehn’s birthday [here too — go write something] — terminator jehn, but dumbtarded? ah, no — hair-in-the-face-as-always jehn.

her photo in this blog is her birthday present [i'm chintzy]. that is what you get for having an evil targeting eye.

august 14 2006

211 pounds

my whole body hurts — riding this morning was just an easy spin. i don’t think my body is lined up properly. too many nights on odd sized beds and plenty of beach time. today is the last day of summer vacation for the kids and tomorrow they start up the long bus rides. i, of course, enjoyed my last day of school-zone free riding on my way to work. before i cover the trip [and the trip before], let me start with saying that i believe i have saved around 2,250 pounds of CO2 emissions this past year by not driving my car as much. yes, a ton of waste. go figure [literally «go figure» — the green calculators go up to 26 pounds per gallon of fuel where others stick with 20 pounds. they also can’t do math — they said i was making 4 pounds a mile. yeah, sure, if i was getting 8 miles to the gallon. silly people.] i must look up how much energy i use to ride my bike [seeing how 2/3rds of the cost of food is transportation?] so i'll get to that later. off to san diego:

we drove out wednesday at 6pm and i was watching the storm down the interstate move closer and closer towards our path. the dust storm looked crazy-dangerous, but we missed that — we got the rain instead. driving 80 in a car wash would have been easier. i kept up with the semis ahead of me so that i could follow their taillights when visible. it was insane. we had all slowed down to 20mph and i entertained the evil wish of a small fender bender up ahead so that we would all have to stop. i had enough and pulled over [but not as the last car - i pulled over in the middle so that i wouldn’t be hit] and we waited for 15 minutes as the rain rocked us from the right. the rain seemed to have let up some so we pulled into traffic and it was the rain only pausing to change directions. it was worse than before as we edged along with white knuckles, dodging a massive tree branch filling our lane. i was tempted to pull off at an exit but kept going and it was a good choice — the road was flooded — we would have gone nowhere. we pulled off on the on ramp [hey, smart choice, eh?] right behind a cop where we waited another 10 minutes. we then drove like crazy [i'm guessing 2-3" of rain] and all the way through yuma and into el centro we had storms everywhere but the 90° behind us. fabulous lightning storms. on the way back we saw a lot of those sheets hung from beneath clouds, some of their sides evaporating before the rain reached the ground. to paint it would garner criticism «clouds don’t rain like that» as they looked like tall mushrooms. needless to say, i was exhausted as we arrived at 1am [even after a redbull and another drink].

thursday was sea world, and that wasn’t much different than last time. oh wait, there were probably 75% less people. that made it great. parents and brother were very good about going early and saving seats so that we were closer to the big beasties. spencer loved it — he ran into sea world yelling «woohoo!» i’ll get the photo from my dad on the atlantis — trevor and allie’s faces are priceless. interesting note: we never got those little extras as a kid, and here was my dad spending $10 for a photo. good times. my sister in law and i took the kids up the observatory/spinning needle and that was good too. when someone asked spencer «what did you see?» he answered «see down» — what a smart kid. we skipped a few things but it was far more enjoyable than the last trip [crowds in the aisles at superbowls are more sparse] and we fed the seals and the dolphins again. at the end of the night is a spoof show where the seal and otter show makes fun of all the other shows — that will be a must-see every visit. the lady spouting off inspirational mumbo-jumbo while looking through a slowly rotating frame almost made me cry, as did the blonde wigged cheerleaders named [looking at my wrist for the name] bambi was great, too. very enjoyable, and then in and out burger for the ride home.

i forgot to mention that our family slept out in a huge tent in the backyard [and i would water their palm tree each night]. that was a lot of fun, too. [my parents had flown out earlier that week and were inside].

friday we went to a beach in the morning for at least 4 hours. it was a great surf day as it was mostly non-existant. the kids could go further out and there was no power in the waves. i was taking the kids out on body boards and was tossing them forward to catch the just-breaking waves. maybe someday they will learn to do it themselves. the water was often glassy, too [the great pacific lake?] and we built sand castles. i struck a rock that peeled back a fingernail and packed it full of sand. oh, the pain. i spent a lot of time trying to get that sand out, and it is still half there. we returned home and opened the garage door where the kids spent hours riding the skateboards down the driveway and then down the sidewalk [they are on a hill]. trevor had a great fall and then they spent their time sitting/kneeling/laying on the boards. there was also a large electric jeep in their garage that spencer fell in love with so we plugged in the battery to charge it for him [takes 14-17 hours] but that didn’t stop him from looking at us with eagerly expectant eyes, «done?!?» — sorry little man, not yet.

saturday we went to mission beach right in front of the roller coaster and played for several hours [again] but this time the surf was rough and the kids got hammered. i was able to body surf and catch some waves this time, and then we went to roller coaster area and rode a few rides [none of our kids would ride the roller coaster]. we headed back home and my in-laws headed off to a wedding and we ran up to sarah’s brother & wifes house [i took my parents to the airport with spencer and we saw coast guard helicopters]. we grilled at their condo and i fell asleep twice sitting up so i asked to be dismissed. all 4 of our kids were laying head to head in pairs, and i woke up to find sarah sleeping on the tiny day bed with me facing the opposite direction. it was small — i had to lay on my side and poke my feet through the slats [remember the start of this blog where i was sore? there you have it].

sunday we took a while to get going and headed to a great surf restaurant which had become packed and we waited and waited. the pancake[no s] was far larger than the plate. good stuff. we drove down the 101 [beautiful and full of cyclists — not related] to torrey pines beach and spent less than an hour there but it was a good send off. the tide was high the waves crashed right on the beach. the tide was a whole lot higher than this — you walk from the parking lot under the bridge and that white dot north of the bridge is the life guard shack on the rocks. the beach was 30 feet wide. we drove back, put the bags in the van and left. on the way home, spencer [having learned this trick last time] said he had to pee a lot — just to get us to stop. we held out until we knew he had to and he did. later he had to poop and we said no, to which he replied «poopoo says yes!» and at gila bend [i heard a girl say gee-la bend, like j-lo but more like geegaw or geek-law without the k. it is prounounced he-la] he did poop quite a bit [and once again he believed he had more, but i think that was the huge vaccuum in his gut where all his organs were retaking their normal positions. we got home before 9, and sleep sleep sleep.

through all this, i think i have discovered why i have always like the beach — you become a participant and you can’t be still. there is no way to be out in the water and be still. it is as if you have chosen to put yourself in the path of a tornado. you will move and be moved, you will struggle against the flow and go with it. most everything else you have to keep going yourself [okay, river rafting] but the surf brings it to you. i like that a lot. someday i would love to live on the beach.

addendums:

i held spencer up to the top of the shark tunnel so that his face was 6 inches beneath a grinning shark. spencer loved it.

all the kids loved the beach, and trevor will have his hair grown out like a little surfer — his hair is everywhere.

i saw a man riding a segway in the bike path [in tucson]. first segway sighting for me. i saw a bajillion bicycles on the pacific coast highway. i must take my bike out there and ride next time.

while at dave’s place corcor ran off and the dogs chased her [we took rex with us] and they caught up to her and tripped her head first into a column. the konk was massive and she was not happy.

spencer was dropping his pants and attempting to pee whenever he could.

i found a tick on spencer the first day after the tent [we may have brought it along] and one on allie as well. i have never known ticks until this month. ever.

while in the huge playground at seaworld, trevor had disappeared and i was off to look for him with spencer in tow. we climbed the cargo netting and spencer hopped into a long tube made out of webbing [the thick squares]. i ran around the other side and waited for him and he was in the middle of a 40 foot section backing up traffic. i couldn’t see what he was doing so i ran around to the exit to check on him. i caught him as he was forcing his second shoe out of the mesh netting. his other shoe was 20 feet below in the walkway [i wonder if he beaned anyone]. i raced down to get his shoe [it was a long exit] and he chose a different exit. as i ran up onto the ship an employee saw me with one shoe in hand and said «the other shoe just ran that way». goofy kid.

spiders are everywhere. i'm used to tiny spiders low to the ground, but there were spiders suspendeet above the ground with the top of their web 12 feet up. spencer saw them everywhere [even where they weren’t].

[i had orignally typed that first line as «spiders everd 6 feywhere» — i think it makes a good rallying cry — «spiders everd 6 feywhere! feywhere!»]

my toenails are painted metallic purple with a french manicure white tip — i got plenty of people noticing in lines at seaworld and then whispering to the person next to them.

uncle dave caught two sharks [a mako and a thresher] the week before we visited and he pulled some out of the freezer. they were disks like stool tops, over a foot in diameter and 2+ inches thick. trevor talks about them and soon says, «but God didn’t make them to be eaten.» poor little shark boy.

august 15 2006

213 pounds

i didn’t ride today as i was still tired [very tired] and this was the kids first day of school. we never got the bus schedule for corcor but the middle two were off at 7.15. sarah bought plenty of snacks for the kids and they enthusiatically made their own lunches and chose one sweet snack, one salty snack and some fruit if they wanted it. they laid out their clothes for today and i worked with trevs on tying his shoes this morning [c’mon boy, it is time]. he should have it tomorrow. i should teach him the ian knot — i had to think a bit to remember the old bunny knot idea.

i had more fun dreams last night [i usually always do] and they were more detailed than moulin rouge [which we finally watched. i cried.]

dream #1

there was one where the side of the house next to clay and erica's was on top of the garage and a floor above that which was part of an old ship [the bathroom, mostly] so it was 3 stories tall. jehn had come over early and it was raining [she also had long amy grant hair and was wearing black and brown - ha] and it rained and rained and the other side was the whole house [we had lived on the ship part while we fixed up the house]

clay's friends left in a jeep but they had an accident leaving and drove into our yard and it was a bog so they sunk backwards a bit, wiping out the oleanders [there were 6 guys in the jeep] and rain and lightning everywhere — they got stuck by our bedroom window/shed, and there was more space there, like they had backed in next to the shed

sarah was having fun in the huge house as the 2nd floor extended clear across and was one long room with sections coming out of it. i don't remember the kids at all

dream #2:

the other was me walking past a auto parts store and i noticed they sold bike tires so i went in to buy a tube and i came out with it and it was a shrader valve, not a presta so i went back in and the guy took me to the open elevator which was not much more than 3 walls of wood and a floor and it was wobbly as if it was on a pole vault pole to the 3rd floor and got out but the walkway around the edge of the warehouse was a 4" pipe with cloth hanging off it. i said no and the guy tried but slipped and fell to the 2nd floor and came back up

we walked around the other way which was decorative rock like you'd find in a yard and was about 4-6' wide. there was a section on the far wall where it was lighter rock and nothing beneath it - just floating there. he said we couldn't walk on it as one of the register ladys had put a plastic flower there and if you touched anything the register ladies did then you would get fired. just then the lady came over and i said "is this yours" and she replied "yes, but i hate it" so we used long pipes to beat it to death and walked over it for the attachment but it wouldn't go on and i think we stripped it out

i tell jehn this and she replies:

yesterday there was an old ship across from the tulsa airport. stacy showed up last night, and her hair has gotten really long, and i called it amy grant hair, and she was wearing black pants and a brown shirt. i went to oro valley bikes yesterday and bought a tube, grabbed shrader then realised it and had to go back and get presta. i dreampt last night about the old vintage elevator i saw in ok - just sitting in someones yard.

and when i got home last night jerms friend was laying decorative rock outside my door

august 16 2006

[not taken]

«actually» — i hate its usage. it pops up everywhere, like «nicole kidman actually wears a wig the entire movie». what, were they [actually] lying before? it has become a fluff word, similare to «like» but not quite the same. it has gotten so ingrained in our conversation that i am [actually] finding it in news articles and from reporters.

i just found out that they are making a sequel to jim henson’s «dark crystal» – i’ll wait in line to see that one. i have the argentenian’s voice of «roxanne» from moulin rouge in my head — way to belt it out, big guy. what a crazy day of rain and stuff in my head, too. last night we discussed restlessness, and though good, i would think it will take further dialogue to uncover more of the restlessness in our lives.

spencer has branched out from helicopters to drawing our dog rex:

and the kids on their first day of school:

august 17 2006

[not taken — how is it that i am still so tired?]

this letter i wrote when i got to work sums up my morning ride rather well:

just an fyi, vantran vehicle #957 clipped my left side around 7.45-7.50 going south on swan just past 29th. i heard the van and felt the air so i sucked in my side and the van just brushed me, not hit me. as i looked up the van still had its right tires going down the bike lane stripe, which i believe the van side hangs over a bit further. i'm fine, but the driving was a far cry from the legal 3 feet to pass as well as not being able to stay in their own driving lane. maybe someone should make a note of that. thanks - dann

crazy driver. i could have added «lucky for you i’ve got good bike control» and «lucky you didn't clip me harder so that i jerked the handlebars or that you hit the handle bars» — i think i would have been fine, though — i’m pretty squirrelly on a bike. still, just nutty.

sarah and i watched «v for vendetta» last night, and i very much enjoyed it. i also think some of bush’s staff are similar knuckleheads, but that we will have to see later. «remember remember, the fifth of november…»

since this is knuckle head morning, i can’t stand ann curry from nbc’s today show. crazy over-[re]acter/actor. to take a line from futurama: i’d like to toss her in a bag, toss the bag in a river, and toss the river into space. she annoys me to no end. chill out lady — too much coffee or crank in your life. let natalie morales do your job, you jumpy starter dog [ie, one of those tiny little dogs that keeps jumping all over the place, a little dog you get when you aren’t sure if you want a dog].

august 19 2006

[212]

today 3 of the kids and i ran errands and as we left on shop we were parked in front of lutz’s swiss bakery so we went in. i have always wanted to as i miss going to the bakery with my mom. granted we always went to the holsum bakery outlet for sandwich bread and hamburger buns, but i still enjoyed it. it is tiny but some good stuff — i know where to get treats now. it was rather fun to shop locally — i did the same with neighbor clay later at the comic book shops. i could buy it for 10-15% less at amazon, but this money was staying with a guy trying to make a living. i think this might be the generous that is in the bible — i could save a buck at someone elses expense, but i could spend just a hair more and someone makes a better living. that is a good kind of generous.

corcor took the activity bus home from school [she is going out for volleyball, so i plan to be out at the school behind us working on passing] and she got home just before 6. what a long day for her, but this should be fun. i'll be the tall dad when i go to her first game [sarah always gets to be the shorter mom].

good old california school mascots: ucsc slug, uc irvine anteater — one day there will be a new california school and their mascot will be one of the care bears, such as UC El Centro Do-Your-Best Bears. [ that one does exist.]

august 20 2006

[none taken]

xian t-shirts you’ll never see #1 [but ones i want to make]:

and #2:

yes, today is international circumcision day!

august 21 2006

[212]

last night i had two great dreams, though now i only remember one. i dreamt that i was gravel skiing again, and that makes me wonder — i think i gravel ski in real life, but i can't think of how or wear. maybe i just ski down carpeted stairs in my flip-flops/socks — i do not know. am i losing it? but the dream was cool [gravel skiing is sliding down a hill with a thin coatting of gravel — yeah, go figure. probably not as cool as couch ball]. there were huge crowds and the mountains were vertical like the alps and i shot off the cliff that was like monsterous stairsteps, 5x taller than the width. i was doing flips and jumps and all thatdreamt i gravel skiied again [do i do that, or just dream it].

sarah and i watched «brick» which took me 2 days to decide if i liked it, which i did. an adult detective drama with high school kids and setting [the kingpin in a minivan, his mom giving him cookies and a kiss — good stuff].

august 22 2006

[rained out]

first of all, this is one of the rainiest monsoons in several years [basing this view off memory, not fact]. there are standing ponds of water in the desert, and so much deep green-blue mold on the ground, too. i love it. the desert is a brilliant, lush green. our citrus trees are phenomenal — so much new growth that i couldn’t get because i can’t see dropping that much water in the ground during the summer [i need a rain basin]. the tree across the street has new leaves near the top, some forty+ feet up. hooray rain!

last night as i was putting spencer to bed he turned to me and said «no daiper — unnerware» and proudly showed off his underwear under his pajamas. i sat down with him to read a book and sarah had heard him and said «good, but that means no more chocolate milk.» he gives me a questioning look and sits and listens as i read. he quietly states/asks «choppit mnilk?» and i reply «yup — if you want to wear underwear to bed, no more chocolate milk before bedtime or on your nightstand.» we continue reading and he again asks/states «choppit mnilk» and i tell him «sorry, not tonight.» we read another minute or two and he stands up commanding me with «stop reading. wait» and goes over to his closet to get a diaper and comes back so that i can put it on him. choppit mnilk is an evil master.

this site graphs out websites as fun little images. the image below is of this site:

august 23 2006

[209]

jehn dreamt that i died [is dreamt a word?] early this week, which is spooky and odd [in her dream she did come back to help sarah with the kids, which i suppose is nice if you dreamt you offed me].

last night the el tour de tucson folks called and asked if i had any cycling poster ready to go — their artists fell through. i spent some time last night thinking and doodling, and then spent some time making some color comps you can now find here. we’ll see what happens, and you can check out their other posters here [and see if you can find which 6 are mine. i’ll post the answers tomorrow].

august 26 2006

[207]

went for a hard ride with some friends after i had done a hard ride yesterday. lots of hills and i think i am getting some form. at one point as we raced down a long and windy road we came to a massive hiccup that seemed to go straight up. i jumped around rodney and let out a huge «weeeeeeeeee!» the whole way up until i was sucking wind. good times, and i think dehydration counts for the low weight.

in the afternoon we took the whole family + erica and the dog maggie to go play in the rillito river. we parked at one of the 3 springs in tucson [that happens to come out of a pipe now] and walked into the wash. once again i forgot that this was the southern branch [the pantano] and we had to walk to where they merged which was 3/4 of a mile and the only water on the way was some crazy gooey mud made of super fine silt. once we got to the bridges i walked back on the roads to get the van. there was no way we could walk the kids back up the sand. i started counting steps in the heat and decided to count in groups of 50 and wondered how i could keep track of that many sets. should i use bent fingers? crossed fingers? no — i used binary and counted to 31 on one hand. pretty cool i hit 32 sets of 50 as i got to the van, so 1,600 steps to get the van [and i put my head under the spring pipe and soaked my hot noggin.

the big wedge/island is covered with dead trees. 100 years ago there was always water in the washes.

august 28 2006

[210]

i went out and bought paint to finish the unpainted bathroom [yes, it has been months] as well as painted a few more sharks/fish/planes in the boys room including two lighthouses. spencer likes lighthouses. he calls the tall tower at sea world a lighthouse. i also purchased a 14 foot long extensible pruner/branch cutter and cut up some of the silk oak that is trespassing in the grapefruit tree as well as the piracantha. the kids helped me with the last one. i would grab the branch and call out «pull!» to where they would pull the rope and cut the branch and i’d call out «slack!» to give me the ability to slide to the next branch. i also got up on the roof and cut some wayward branches from our cyprus trees. now they are all clean.

i asked jehn to make a bong out of apple/soda can for tomorrow night. i've never smoked anything — ever. one time i said that and beau asked «not even pot?» — i had fun with that one, eg «what part of «never smoked anything would leave pot as a possibility?» good times. with that, a friend of mine was talking about his sheesha which is a mildy amusing read if you are into those things — also known as a hookah and some others, but i really liked the hubbly bubbly. what a great name. after looking at the photo, i realized that maybe nasa didn’t name the hubble telescope after the astronomer after all. look at this propaganda they put out, too. you can get all the supplies at a local hardware store... oh my!

now that i think about it even more, i remember how the optics of the hubble were all «blurry» when it first got sent up. i betcha the nasa guys could see it just fine — was it because blurry+blurry=just fine, or was it because the nasa engineers couldn’t tell if anything was blurry as the built it. either way, they had to make «corrections» to the lenses so that it was crisp for everyone else. oh yeah, crisp...

august 29 2006

not taken

i get to do my the el tour de tucson jersey which should be fun except that it will be all vector, and i’ll find out about the poster next week. we also watched my brother in laws dog yesterday and at night he wanted to sleep in our bed. around 1.30 both dogs got up and wanted to do something, and bailey [the other dog] keep resting her head on the mattress and sighing, then wagged her tail to shake the bed, then sighed again. we slept horribly.

spencer is also attending preschool a few hours a day and it is hard on him. he enjoys being with family. this is an excerpt from and instant message yesterday:

10:20:12 AM I went to take Spencer to pre school... and you could tell he was trying to be brave and not cry.. so I stayed for a few minutes.. and ended up bring him home with me... we were both loosin it by then. I told him he has to go tomorrow. you should have seen his face love... it was heart breaking!. I can't handle seeing him so sad and so then I think I will work from home and have him here but... what about those days it would be better to be in the office.. then I am stuck! I don't know what to do

and then today:

3:53:35 PM and then Spencer and I grabbed our van at the office and he wanted to get a happy meal and sit in mcdonalds... so we went and he ate his happy meal. he is cute.. we could not pick it up.. had to go in and sit.. and then when we pulled up in front.. he said thank you mommy

august 31 2006

210

210 and that was after a super hard workout [though i don’t feel like i sweat much]. i can see that my body is reshaping [i had lost a lot of leg muscle - i think] and my face/arms are a bit leaner. so i’m losing fat but gaining muscle so this month comes out as a wash.

today crazy marcoso is not at work so i am listening to music. this morning is old REM day and i enjoy their sound. nightswimming just came on and i got misty eyes. i don’t know why. i don’t know the lyrics either, so how does that happen? i think their sound can nail a certain feeling more than other groups [just postulating — this is my blog, i can say what i want].

so much for august.