Father Daughter Dance

Hannah is very excited.

Can you blame her?

I can't.

Not even a little.

Pictures should post on this site (it I can figure it out) after the grand to do.

Surgery

Abbey has surgery today and she'll do great.  It's sinus surgery on BOTH sides.

See... Abbey was a preme back in the day and her sinuses never fully developed.  She had nasal cavity widening surgery before we met because of the constant sinus infections, but that has only recently come back to haunt her.

We have to be there at noon.  Pray for us if you think about it!

I took off work for the rest of the week to be Mr. Mom and take care of her.  We had two friends offer to make dinner for us and a babysitter is coming over when I have to go teach math class.

I'll keep you updated.

Family Game Night?

So, it may be a bit premature to do "family game night" but we are going to incorporate this during upcoming nights as the girls get older.

I was told by Abbey that the Stedje-Larson's bought "Monopoly Junior" for Olin and Anna and they LOVE IT.

I doubted that VERY seriously, but bought the game this afternoon in my trip to the Exchange for thread, a new black belt, soap, and a gift for one of Hannah's church friends.  We ended up looking at board games for her, so I thought... what the heck.

It's WAY easy for a kid who has a concept of buying/owning and it's a good precurser for early math skills at the K or 1st grade level.  Not that I'm the expert there...

The game is played similarly to Monopoly, but once you buy a ride (property) you put up a ticket booth of your color (it's done in a amusement park style) for the ride and charge the amount you bought the ride for.  Remember it's for young kids so it's really simple.  There are a few other nuances to the game, but you eventually run out of things to buy and the game goes until one person runs out of money.  The winner is also declared at that point by adding up the money you have, without regard to rides owned.  REMEMBER IT'S FOR YOUNG KIDS so it's really simple.

Hannah LOVED playing it until she lost all her money... and cried her little eyes out.  It was pretty funny as well as feeling a teeny bad for her.  She has my competitiveness but she cares like Abbey does.  Not a great combo, but typical of the type A.

We decided to play a few games of UNO.  It took 3 games for Hannah to finally win one, but we quit at that point to end the night on a good note.

Update for the week: my running sucked but I did better than last week.  I don't think I'll get to 50 miles this month but I did more than 60 last month so it's pretty realistic to get to 750 miles this calendar year.

Dear LA Lakers

Dear Los Angeles Lakers,

I want you to know I hate you again.  Yes.  Hate.  It's not a word I use a lot.  I've thought long and hard about this and I'm probably going to get some season tickets to cheer for your opponent.

This anti-devotion started way back during the 99-2000 season.  See, I'm really a San Antonio Spurs fan.  At the time, I thought the addition of Tim Duncan would bring many titles to San Antonio.  It has, but not in the way I thought.  Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and timely 3-pointers from Robert Horry.  Damn you.  I had to watch every game and curse every move you made.  All because I wanted my Spurs to be the best in the West.

As it turns out, 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007 were good years for the Spurs.  But in-between 1999 and 2003 were 3 seasons ending in defeat for the Spurs and NBA Championships for the Lakers.

The hate continued.

Lately I haven't been watching the NBA.  Your Laker teams have been an absolute mess.  I loved it!  Kobe thought he was the man.  He wasn't.  Phil Jackson came back to be the saviour.  He wasn't.  You drafted very well in hopes to resurrect the magic of the early decade.  Nope.  Come on... Kwame Brown and Lamar Odom?

But then...

Very recently you traded for one of my favorite "young" players for some time.  Pau Gasol.  You traded the absolute rock of a struggling franchise and added a perfect compliment to a triangle offense.  Only Dallas Maverick Dirk Nowitzki would have worked out better.  He shoots well.  He runs well.  He rebounds well.  He passes well.

He passes to Kobe... Kobe Bryant.  2 years ago Kobe was NOT the best player in the NBA.  He demanded to leave LA and I loved it!  What value did anyone on that team have that would be worth anything now?  This isn't AAA baseball.  In the NBA it isn't as easy to "grow" farm players while being THAT competitive.  But you traded expiring contracts to Memphis who lately seems to be throwing in the towel and starting over from scratch.  Now Kobe has a few pieces to the puzzle that is Phil Jackson's triangle offense.  PLUS he can create his own shot.  I mean, Andrew Bynum?  He's a true 7 footer!  Sick.  And to think the "only" way you could get options for Kobe would be to trade one of the true centers in the NBA.  He has worked out VERY well for you LA.

Now Kobe is the best player in the NBA.

Now you are competitive.

LA, I want you to know that I hate you again.  You made me watch the NBA again.  It's the best thing to happen to fans in a long time.  Brilliant.

Thank you Lakers.  I love you hate you.  You are the best!

Sincerely,

Josh

Still ignorant...

Yes... no pics.

Findings and Resolutions

Ok, most that have logged on to read this have given me a bunch of crap.  To that I'll say if you can teach me to put pictures on this... then maybe some pictures will be posted.  If not... then there will be ZERO pictures.  Sorry.

As for resolutions I also want to brag about my reading.  My New Years Resolution was to run 750 miles this year and to read 3 classic novels.  Totals to date are below (again please teach me so I can put this crap ON the blog and not write it in the narrative).

Mileage: 68.5 this year

Books: Dracula (counts as a classic), I Am Legend, Salem's Lot (not realizing I had a whole vampire thing going), Wicked (currently reading)

I figure to read AT LEAST 3 more this year.  Last year my total books started was around 8.  I only completed 2.  No matter how you shake the numbers that's not good.  I am going to read "Alice in Wonderland" after Wicked.  I think I want to see if the whole "tripping on mushrooms" thing is all that it's crapped up to be.

Lastly, if Andy and Bo would like to comment... I would be ecstatic.  Not just an impertinent reply but some solid criticism.

My goal is to be as good as Jess.

(all blogs are located within, see if you like them!)

California Dreamin'

Finally done! Wow... what a week. We worked "half-days" this week and to most of you that means "half work days" or 4 hours if you do the typical 40 hour week, 8 hour day kind of thing. In the military that usually means 7 to 7. Yes, I showed around 6:30am to prep for the Captains so they could work 7am to 7pm. Brutal. Now, that was good because we had a successful board for the EDOs and I was impressed with the outcome.

I probably should explain how these things work too. We had 73 AZ and IZ's. To break it out there were 35 AZ's and 38 IZ's. Plus 67(?) BZ's. The BZ's just get a "look" and then it's see-you-later-aligator. Mostly because when they become IZ's they will get scrutinized and have their turn. Anyway, the promotion rate was 90%. Which is good. But remember that's 90% of the IZ's. Which can be bad. 90% of the IZ's was 34, so if an AZ or BZ gets picked then the rate of IZ's goes down. Clear as mud? If so, please call and I'll explain it to you.

Anyway, we had some great records that did well and others whom should have probably gotten picked but those are the breaks. Since the SECDEF says I can't say any more, DON'T ASK!

I'm still in TN, but will fly out tomorrow. That will be fun. The girls are flying out today. I really missed them this week and I'm glad we were able to come out. We bought the tickets before Christmas so I hadn't been on my Dave R plan yet... so it's like a benefit, but there won't be anymore until we save up the money and buy with cash!

I only ran ONCE this week... pathetic! I did impress myself with the run. 34 minutes for 4 miles. That's pretty good. 8 and change per mile. Wish I could download it on my Nike+. I think it would really show a huge downslide there. In fact I know it will.

Christmas in Millington!

So... It's been a bit of time, but I'm alive (promise). I went to Millington, Tennessee for work for (probably) two weeks. Good news: it's a break from the "hell" job and my parents live around 30-45 mins away. Bad news: the first week is a pretty mind numbing part of the job.

What happened was... I was selected for this years O-5 selection board as a recorder. In a nutshell, I scrub the records of about 100 O-4's whom are all "in-zone" for the possibility of being promoted for O-5. Then, next week when all the admiral's come to actually make the selections... I'm allowed to take copious notes in the tanks where they vote each and every officer's record for promotion. I think there are about 4500 officers total, but some of them are above or below zone.

Zone is simply math on when you are up for promotion. It's a big math game that I can explain later if you are so inclined to learn.

The reason I'm stating "Christmas in Millington" is... when scrubbing officer's records, I've found MANY MANY errors. I'm unaware of how much these guys really care... but, if there was ANY indication that an officer had an award, you put it in their record. That's good, especially if there are mistakes. When you give the guy the benefit of the doubt (because you can't prove it wrong...) it's CHRISTMAS again!

I flew to Memphis last Sunday so I only saw the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. I heard the commercials were good.

I've NOT listened to any Dave and only run twice. BAD WEEK! My runs were only about 4 miles each.

By the way... I'm reading "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King. Scary as hell.

In case you are an avid weather person... yes, the tornados that struck Tennessee and Mississippi early this week were RIGHT smack in the middle of where I was. It was neat.

3.5 miles and FNL

FNL is "Friday Night Lights."  As I've stated before... awesome in pure form.  It was really a set-up show so the plots or story-arcs (as most people think this is the cool way to say it now) didn't really do anything except set up for later.

EXCEPT FOR LANDRY!  He finallly got together with Tyra, but at the expense of some new girl Jean whom he crushed with 8 words.

Very exciting for the show.

It's a big deal.

Otherwise Matt is depressed and Coach Taylor pushed him in the shower and Smash is VERY upset for having been suspended for the final 3 games of the season.  What makes that a big deal is that TMU (Texas Methodist, I think) rescinded his scholarship for "questionable character."  Gaius Charles did an amazing job in the final scene.  He wasn't the normal cheeze I expected of a guy trying to act like he cared about high school football.  It was really good.  REALLY GOOD.  Even Abbey believed him.  It was a great performance.

Wouldn't you be?  Upset I mean... the reason he is suspended is a rather long story as most evening soap operas are, but in a nutshell he was suspended for assault on another kid in the movies.  He assualted him for saying some pretty nasty things about Smash and then about Smash's sister.

I think I would have acted in the same way.  I can't blame him, but neither can I excuse the behavior, but I can't blame him.  Yeah, can't blame him at all.  Can't blame him.  It was his SISTER man!