Sorry

OK it has been a while, but with a new baby time seems to have changed completely. The past couple of weeks have been very busy between visiting with family and taking care of the baby. All is well and Bella is the star of the family and loving every minute of it. She is growing too fast, already out of newborn clothes and her bassinet. I put together her crib, putting one more thing in our tiny room. She looks so small in such a big bed though I know that won't last long.

We are now down in Southern California (taking only 10 hours!) visiting more family and friends and having a shower/meet the baby party on Saturday. As always Bella is being a champ sleeping well and adjusting great to the new place. She loves her Grandparents already. On the exciting side, she got a travel bed with a mobil that she absolutely loves. She will lay there are just watch the animals go round and listen to the music. She also received a swing that she is not too sure about just yet.

Anyway I am going to go post some pictures over at booterbabyblog. If you want to see our little champ you can go there.

Thanksgiving

I love this time of year. The weather is changing, the holiday season puts people in a good mood, and there is lots of good food and family. This year for Thanksgiving Colette's grandparents and are passing through town and taking us out for dinner tonight and then breakfast tomorrow. Plus it gives them a chance to meet there great-grand-daughter (that is so cool). Then we are having Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's new house. They are very excited to host the family meal at their first home. Friday is shopping, though we are broke and are done with christmas shopping it is still fun. Then Saturday night is dinner with Colette's grandparents yet again and breakfast on Sunday morning. Later on Sunday we are going to have another Turkey dinner at my parent's house in celebration of my birthday.

So my week is going to be filled with family and amazing food. What are your plans the holiday weekend?

The joys of parenting

So far I am having a blast with our little Bella. She is amazing and is being such a great baby. So at risk of jinxing how great she is doing I will brag about how great my baby is.

She hardly every cries. It is rare that she cries for no reason. The first few weeks we were thinking she was finding her voice and the crying would start later. "They" say that it takes a couple weeks to really start the crying. Now that we are going through our third week, she still doesn't cry that often. The only time that she really does a lot of crying is when she is starving to death and let's be honest, I cry because of that too.

She is a great sleeper. We had our mind set that we would not keep the house quiet when she was napping. We wanted her to be able to sleep through noise and she is doing great. We have brought her to church where 2 out of 3 times she slept through the entire service. She came to one of my concerts and slept through 2 1/2 hours of live music. And most exitingly, she sleeps about 6-7 hours throught the night. As soon as well left the hospital we started letting her sleep as long as she wanted, no waking her up every two hours to feed. So for the past week or so she slept from about 10 or 11 at night until about 4 or 5 in the morning, eats then goes back to sleep. Very nice.

She is also a great eater. She loves the boob and is also ok with a a bottle and has taken one from a few different people.

So now that I posted this, it will all change. But I had to brag a little. She is just too perfect.

Baby Booter Blog

Colette and I have a lot of family and friends that live far away from us. Because of that we opened a blog up just for our little Bella. We aren't going to be sitting her in front of the computer and letting her type. She wouldn't have much to say, at least that we could understand. We are going to be posting a photo a day. Thanks Bre for the idea. So go to Bella's blog and check out how cute she is.

Welp see ya later!

No I am not leaving the blogging world. I know I had you all worried. This post is about ending phone calls and emails. I can't do it to save my life. Brody knows what I am talking about and has even made fun of me on occasion. The time comes to say good bye and I am clueless what to do. A friend of mine used to just hang up and not say good bye. I tried that with him, just hang up no messy good bye. He said good bye, so once again there was the awkwardness of him saying good bye and me just hanging up on him. So I am almost 26 and I cannot say good bye on the phone without sounding like I don't talk to people often.

Then with emails, I always feel like they are just getting cut off. I blame this on school and writing essays. There has to be a conclusion. but with personal emails, what am I going to do, recap the point of the email? that might be funny the first time, but not the second time. I hope I am not the only person to struggle with this social ineptitude. (wow, I'm smart, unless I used those words wrong) So tell me your saying good bye problems. (is "good bye" hyphenated? I think so, but I am not going to change them all, deal with it).


conclusion:

1. I can't say good-bye
A. Phone
B. Email

(Not even funny the first time).


bye

Paycheck Friday

Playing in a bar on paycheck friday can be a good thing. At our show on friday, a patron of the bar decided to pay us a large some of money to have his friend play three songs at the end of the night. The only condition was that I play with him on percussion. I certainly wasn't going to turn down the money, so up the the man came. At first I was a little worried, you never know how good they are going to be. (Can they actually play guitar and/or sing or are they going to clear the place out?) Then he grabbed the guitar and slowly started fingering out the chords. I was thinking this could be a long few songs. Once he started the first song I knew we were going to be all right. Folsom Prison Blues. He nailed the song and went on to play two other country songs that he also nailed. All in all it was a lot of fun. At least I had fun and the crowd seemed to be having fun as well.

So thanks for the good times, and for paying me to do it.

Pet Peeves

There are a lot of things that just drive me crazy. Getting hit in the back of the head is one of them. It doesn't have to be hard (obviously that would bug anybody), a light pat will do the trick and instantly drive me crazy. For this reason I could never play football. You do something cool, you get hit in the back of the head. No fun.

Yesterday in Target I heard another thing that drives me crazy. "Libary" I think it is just ignorance (not that I am super Smart) or maybe incompetence? Saying library incorrectly just screams "look at me I am stupid!" Now I realize this is very hypocritical. There are plenty of words that I say wrong or things that I do wrong that I could care less about, or that I just don't correct, but "libary" just bugs me.

What bugs you?

Show tomorrow!

So my band is playing tomorrow night at Paradise Grill in Roseville. they have super good food and dessert. We start at seven so I recommend coming for dinner or just dessert or just music. Anyway they are located on the corner of East Roseville and Sunset. see you all there...here is a nifty flyer. Ok no flyer blogger is being stupid.

She is here!

So this post should have been here several days ago. Sorry for the delay and not telling you all sooner. As you may have guessed by know or if you read Colette's blog you already know, Bella Ruth is out and about. She arrived Tuesday November 4th at 11:55 pm. She was 7 lbs 9.2 oz and 19 3/4 inches. She is doing great and has turned into a great eater and sleeper. I could probably talk for hours and bore all of you so I will end here and put up a few pictures. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.



These are my favorite and they were taken by our friend Jason.

ok sorry there aren't more photos but I have to go to work...more will come later.

Not much to say

So it has been a while again. Sorry, there is not much going on other than work and waiting to have this baby. Colette and been experiences contractions throughout the night, but then they go away as the day comes. Sort of annoying. Not much else is going on. Hope all is well with you guys.

Update

I have been motivated by Brittney to give an update on what is going on in my life. Since it has been a while since I blogged (sorry about that) I am going to steal her simple yet effective format.

Kyle ~ I am finally getting work so I am officially out of retirement (mixed feelings about this). I am not getting a ton of work but I worked two days last week and will finish this week with a total of three days. That is unusually slow, but it is much better than nothing at all. When I am not working I am busy getting ready for the arrival of Bella. That means a lot of laundry, organizing, and purchasing of important things like a car seat and stroller. And not to lie, Colette has been a big help in all of this as well. I think we are officially ready with all of the "necessities" (i.e. clothes, bed, diapers, car seat, boobs(no purchase necessary, conveniently Colette came with them)).

Colette ~ She is still a hard working girl making us the "big money" plus she is feeling more and more ready to have this baby. She doesn't complain (even though I know her back hurts) and has been a great help getting everything ready for our little Bella. She is planning on November 1 being her last day at work unless we have Bella before then. We are down to basically weekly/bi-weekly appointments with her doctor and he says though it may not be soon we could be having our baby any day now. I am thinking we should have the baby Saturday around brunch. That sounds good to Colette and I hopefully Bella agrees.

P.s. she just started another blog, that hopefully she will use.

Bella ~ She is 37 weeks on Saturday and stills shows a great heart beat, great size, and is head down ready to be born. Not much else to say right now, but hopefully soon there will be lots.

Retirement

Tomorrow was going to be the first day that I worked in the last few weeks. The job was all the way down in Elk Grove but I was excited to actually be working. About 30 minutes ago I got a call that the job was cancelled. So much for working. So here goes to a happy retirement even if I can't afford it.

I'll take two

I just saw this news story. It intrigued me enough to follow the link and actually read the story. Anyway some lady just bough a house off of eBay for the large some of $1.75. There wasn't much of story, the sellers couldn't be reached, probably because they felt like idiots for letting that happen. But basically she was the high bidder and owes about $850 in back taxes and needs to clean up the lot plus the house is pretty much an abandoned wreck. even still at $851.75 can you really go wrong?

James Taylor - Covers

Ask and you shall receive.

I am thinking of trying this tactic more often.

Advice Needed

So most of you know I am having a baby in about 6 weeks. People are saying now is the time to pack that all important back of stuff to bring to the hospital. Now of course we have all sorts of books and magazines telling us what not to forget, but I am curious what (those of you who have been there) wish they had been told to bring or something you brought but didn't need. So this is probably the first and last time I will ask for "parenting" advice from so many people. Let me know, I wouldn't want to forget anything important like the car seat.

Good Music

This came out today... my birthday is December 7th.

Disaster Not Averted and how will make my millions

I love watching Television. However I don't love sitting in front of the t.v. for a couple of hours to catch my "favorite" show. Thankfully the wonderfully smart people created DVR's. You tell it what to record and it does it. We have one of these set to record all of our favorite shows and it keeps track of new episodes and only records those. These past few weeks I was excited that some of the new shows were going to be coming back. But nothing was getting recorded so I figured maybe I was off, after all I never really checked. Last night I realized that the DVR was not working right. It no longer recognized upcoming episodes so nothing was getting recorded. But don't worry everything is under control. We reset everything and "my shows" will record as planned. Now I just have to find the first episodes to all of the seasons that I missed.

By the way, I think that somebody should invent a DVR type thing for the radio. I don't think you could record specific songs. But it could record the last half hour so you could rewind a favorite song, or rewind it all the way back and fast forward the commercials and/or songs you don't like. And now that this is posted on public domain, I will get no money for my wonderful idea.

Change the World

This is a great opportunity to help a lot of people. A couple of families are trying to adopt some children but are lacking the funds. One family is raising funds by selling prints of photographs he has taken. I took a look at them and they are amazing. They are only $35, that is really cheap. The second family is raffling away to vacations. I don't remember all the details, but Brody blogged about this opportunity and has links to all of the information. I am going to help out. If you can help out, you will changing lives for the better.

Nicknames

Brody just posted about nicknames... this really has nothing to do with that.

My 4 year old nephew who is constantly talking came up to me the other day asking if Bella had a nickname. I told him that we call her Bella Boo, but other than that no. He didn't like that one and told me that I needed to have one by tomorrow. He then offered up the suggestion, Alligator Shark Tooth. What do you think?

Broken Pens

First, I think that title needs to be the title of an album or a band name. But getting to what this post is really about...

I am not sure why I do this, but I am getting better I promise. I grab a pen from the pen drawer or wherever they are found and the first one doesn't work. But do I think this pen doesn't work I should throw it away? No I put it back. Why do I do this? It drives me crazy. What is worse there are pens that I know don't work. I look in the drawer and think "no, not that one it doesn't work." Shuffling through the pens until I find a pen that I am not sure about, I grab it and hope it works. Eventually I find one, wouldn't it be better to just have one pen that works than 20 or so that sort of work and one that does?

Does anyone else do this?

skörInc does it again

a good friend of mine just got a new website made by the genius over at skörinc (thanks james for teaching me how to make the ö). Elijah Stephen. i would recommend checking out the site, and sticking around to read the blog of Eli. He is smart, funny, and i promise you entertaining. If you haven't heard his music I would do so immediately, you have been missing out.

oh, the internet

The problem with the internet is that you can pretty much say whatever you want. here is just a little proof that you can find what you want to find.

www.hfcsfacts.com

worse than sugar

My Life of Crime

Don't worry I haven't done anything illegal... yet. I recently beat God of War (finally) and started my next project, Grand Theft Auto. I know, I know the game is evil. All that evil stuff aside this game as taught me that I am not a very good gangsta. In fact I should never really try any life of crime. Maybe by the end of the game I will be ready to shoot up some bad guys. I will let you know, or you will see me driving a new Cadilac.

the internet knows I am dumb

you know those little captcha things (the random letters that keep spamers from mass commenting on your blog)? (I wonder if that is really what they are called? or if I am just making things up?) Without fail i usually type it wrong the first time. Even if I take my time and type it slow, I don't get it. But the second time, I get some easy one that is only five digits long and a couple of letters repeat. The internets way of judging my intelligence. But I am not offended, I am just glad the internet realizes that I am a little slower than the rest of the world, so it should just make it easier for me.

(when the internet takes over the world like in iRobot, it won't think that I am smart enough to be a threat).

Finally Friday

I realized that I only worked one day in the past few months but I am glad it is Friday. Tonight I am going shopping for baby stuff, then I am heading over to Jericho Coffee to catch Elijah Stephen play a open mic they have over there.

What are/were your plans for the start of the weekend?

First day of work

Today, well this morning at 6:15 my phone went off. Both Colette and I could not believe somebody would be calling me this early in the morning. Then we both remembered that my new job would be calling me at 6:15 in the morning. So I answered and accepted a job teaching P.E. at Rocklin High School. I was not thrilled since P.E. tends to be a class for kids to goof off in. This means less respect given to me, making may job much harder. Though I must say I am used to teaching in less than desirable areas. I was hoping it wouldn't be that difficult.

My first class, I walked into the gym and was surprised to find that my class would be the only one in there. (They have other gyms for the other classes). Good I thought, then I realized that my students were already lined up and sitting down in the places waiting for me to give them direction. I was amazed and extremely happy. The rest of the day was just as easy.

If this is any indication of how subbing will be in this district I am going to love my job.

Job News

I finally was hired at Rocklin Unified School District. yea! Now I just sit and wait until the jobs start picking up and I start getting called.

Colette got exciting news that her company will be moving her up as soon as she comes back to work after the baby. Which will mean more money and eventual something one could consider a career. I am thrilled since this was sort of the idea of her taking a paycut to take this job. It may suck now but it will be better in the future. The future just maybe sooner than we had originally thought.

The Art of Whimsy has a new blog

I finally took the time to move The Art of Whimsy's blog over to wordpress. I consider it one small step in to moving the blog to our website. Anyway the new link at the moment is... http://theartofwhimsy.wordpress.com/

Been Busy

Sorry I have been gone the last week or so, I have super busy (as the title suggests) with The Art of Whimsy. You can read in more detail what I have been up to these past two weeks here, but a quicker version would be lots of late nights playing shows and getting up the next day to play again. Plus we started recording again this past weekend.

I am so excited about this project. We are recorded with a man that knows what he is doing and his style is right in line with our style. Recording instruments like the mandolin aren't a guessing game, he knows what he is doing. He is also giving us total creative control (I guess that could be a bad thing, he he he). But truly means it when he says it is our project so do what you want. Normally we get people saying that and then when we want to try something odd of different we get, you don't want to do that, don't do it. It is going to be interesting to see how the project turns out. Oh yeah and he has a wide variety of instruments for us to play around with to get different sounds.

Anyway that is what is going on in my life right now.

P.s. I just got a hired in Rocklin as a sub. I just have to be cleared by the Placer Country Office of Education on Wednesday. Hopefully nothing crazy as happened in the past couple of years that would put a block on that.

LeRoi Moore 1961-2008

If you don't know who that is, he was the saxophone player for Dave Matthews Band. I am a little shocked and saddened to hear of his death. He was an amazing musician. I am sure he will be missed by a lot of people.

Read about it here.

I finally did it...

I don't think I told you guys this already but that title has been used before. MMM... Anyway, this time after much wanting and debating Colette talked me into getting my electric mandolin. A few days ago it came in the mail and I was so excited. I tuned it up and was excited to play around only to find out that it needed some work. I took it in to Guitar Center and the repair guy said that my problems came from a hump in the neck. So tomorrow I send it back and hopefully the next one will be perfect.

Shamwow

Have you seen this commercial? I hate it but I love it. Every time it is on I watch it and laugh.

Any commercials you love to hate?

I don't like running

Today I had to take my new car into the dealership to get some stuff done to it. (No it didn't break down). And since it is only about two miles from my house I decided to walk home. After about half a mile of walking I got a call from Colette. I had the key to our other car which she needed to take to work. To keep her from being too late a decided to run. While I didn't run the whole way home and ran a little over a mile. (Out of curiosity I checked the distance while driving after picking up the car). My legs don't like running. My feet don't like running barefoot. But I like Colette getting to work.

No more truck

After a little bit of debate Colette and I decided to take the plunge and by a new car. We thought about it and since we are living at my parents house we now have the opportunity to throw at least rent every month into a car. We are sure that this opportunity will not be coming again in the near future, so we are taking advantage of it now. So we went to our local Hyundai dealership and bought a car. Since my parents have two hyundai one of which they bought at that dealership they gave us a bit of a break on the price. So we spent or are spending a lot of money but we now have a car that will be reliable and will last a long time. I haven't taken pictures of car but if you go here you can see what we bought.

We bought an '08 Elantra with the "popular package."

Tonight!!

A pleasant reminder that tonight The Art of Whimsy is with Silver Service at Cooper's Ale Works in Historic Nevada City, Ca. The show starts at eight o'clock, and we promise a good time.

SkörInc and Phil Wickham

If you haven't gone to Phil's blog and downloaded his latest live album for FREE, I suggest you do so. Even if you haven't heard Phil Wickham or haven't decided whether or not you like him. Go and download the album, it's FREE. As well the people over at SkörInc are trying to change the way the music industry thinks. The success of this FREE download will tell the industry that SkörInc knows what they are talking about and they should be listened to. So go get the album, listen, and help build a community.

Remember two things

First tomorrow night the art of whimsy is playing with silver service at Cooper's Alehouse at 8:00 o'clock. So it is easy to remember 8-8-08 at 8:00.

Second


So download the album for free listen to it, tell phil how good it is then come to our show and tell us how good it is.

Oh well

This morning I woke up bright and early to take my potential truck into the mechanics to get checked out. An hour later I was given the bad news, I shouldn't by the truck. The mechanic said that there were a lot of things that made him feel uneasy about the purchase of the vehicle. On the bright side, I didn't buy a truck that would only cost me more money and soon, and I found an honest mechanic. I think that I trust him. Which is the first time that I have said that about a mechanic.

So the search continues...

Bella's first stuffed animal

A few days ago Colette and I cashed in some build-a-bear "money" and got Bella her first stuffed animal. We looked around for about two minutes and both decided that the elephant would be the best choice. (We tend to agree on things, which makes shopping easier). We did the whole stuffing thing, gave it a "bath," found sunglasses for Bella but they had no UV protection so we didn't them, and then named our Elephant. Jokingly I said that we should name it "Bellaphant." The name however, is too good not to choose. If today wasn't Lazy Sunday maybe I would show you a picture. Instead all of you need to go to build-a-bear and look for yourselves. If you don't care that much then did you really want to see a picture anyway?

A Lazy Sunday

This has been a really long week and next week is going to be even longer. If I was cool I would show you a picture of my calendar so you could marvel over how much I do, I'm not cool. This is where your imagination comes into play. Visualize something that will keep you up late into the night every day until next monday, and something that will get you up early. So today Colette and I are not getting out of bed. We slept through church. Maybe Kratos would like me to lead him closer to Eres today? Maybe not.

My lazy sunday has get me thinking though. In three short months, sleeping all day will not happen again for about 18 years. Stupid birth control.

I'm buying a truck

So I know that I talked about getting a scooter and I still really want one, but I decided to buy a truck instead. I will miss my scooter, even though I never got one, but it makes sense for us to buy a truck. We were super close to getting our dream truck for a super good price but it was already sold. The guy lost his job and needed quick cash so he was selling his toyota tacoma for 3,000. Oh well, but we did find a ford ranger with only 60,000 miles for 3,000. It has an extended cab and a camper shell. I am getting it checked out by a mechanic on monday and after that if all checks out I will be the proud owner of a new truck. Colette is super excited to get a truck. She has always been a truck girl, it was her first vehicle after all. Once I own the truck I will post some pictures so you can all be jealous.

I finally did it...

For quite a while now I have been too lazy to get a "reader" for all of these blogs that I read. I continued with my being lazy and took the first one that I found which happened to be google's reader. I am not even sure if that is what you call them. But if not, I don't care that is what mine is called. Anyway I am now curious what reader thingy do you use and why should I use that one (cause I know that there must be a better one out there). I might even do the extra work to get a better reader. Though it must be noted that I will not pay for it so it has got to be free. (:

The trouble with migraines

The worship pastor at the church I attend gets terrible migraines. He is not really sure why or what causes them, but he gets them. This last weekend I was playing on the worship team and in the middle of the second service on Saturday night he started to get one. He went home early and the last service just didn't have a closing song. Sunday morning came and he was feeling fine again. The team was excited since him being out with a migraine means a lot of scrambling to find someone to lead and not a lot of practice time. But at the end of the first service he turned to us and said that his migraine was back and he had to leave immediately. Oh boy. So with out any practice the youth pastor stepped up and led the set. He knew all of the songs but one and had about 5 minutes to learn it. The set was a little shaky as we weren't sure if he played to same stops and starts and he just plays a little different. So props to Justin for stepping up and taking charge and doing an amazing job.

Playstation 2

Every since college my video game life has ended. And that is a good thing because I tend to get obsessive and do nothing but play video games. It is really a wonder that I graduated with decent grades, hehehe. On Sunday my brother Ryan gave me his old playstation 2 and a stack of games. Right now I am playing God of War and want to do nothing else. The good thing is that I have matured enough to make sure that I get done what I need to get done first and then I play video games. I just need to make sure that I don't forget that I have a wife as well :)

Do any of you play games and if so what are you addicted to right now?

One Day as a Lion

Spreading the Love

On the release date this album will be free on his blog... yes free. You can't pass up free especially when it come to music. So people go to his blog now and you can get a sample of what will be given away.

passwords removed

I just pushed the wrong button and instead of deleting a wrong password, I deleted all of the passwords that my computer was saving for me... oops. This could be a problem.

What is your opinion?

Recently the issue of homosexuality has been coming up in Colette's and my conversation with each other and others. The debate has been over whether or not you can be saved and still be gay. I think that I have my opinions but I would love to hear what you guys think and then I will tell you what I think... So what do you think? Can you be living a gay lifestyle and still be a "christian?"

Ipod Mishap

A long time ago the screen on Colette's Ipod broke. I did a bit of looking around and found a site that would fix it for about one hundred dollars. So I decided that we would get it fixed when we really needed it. After all, we were using my Ipod what did we need two for? Anyway at the advice of this guy, I decided that I would fix it myself. It was supposed to be easy. Well it is, that is once you know what you are doing. Took me a little while, but I did it. I replaced the screen and it worked like a charm. Then it randomly started turning on at night and by the time we got up and went to use it, it was dead. I swore I did something wrong. Some wire must be touching some other wire or something stupid like that that I would have not way of figuring out. Once again a did a little research trying to figure out the problem. I broke it so maybe I could fix it. I read about some guy who had a similar problem. His answer: his alarm was on. So I checked Colette's Ipod. Turns out that several months ago when Colette used it last, she had an alarm set. So Ipod is now working like a charm once and again and I am amazing.

Link Love

So I am really really lazy about this, but there really isn't reason to be... So if you hang around here every once in awhile laugh at my bad grammar and bad spelling and I don't link to you let me know. The whole point of this thing is creating a community and I am failing miserably at this point. So let me know and I will throw a link up to you, and then I can read your blog and we can have a great time together. Thanks

I feel dirty

I just spent a couple of hours looking for photos and videos of the pussycat dolls. they are really trashy. I never really knew that much about them. Now I know they are young sexy girls who act slutty and have no problem being that way. It really sad.

Oh it was for a video project about where as christians we should draw the line at one we listen to. I think that I decided that as christians there really shouldn't be a line between secular and sacred music. It can all be pleasing to God. The only thing that we should stay away from is music that in one way or another degrades a human being. As well if there is something that causes you to stumble then you shouldn't listen to that either.

What do you think about the issue?

Positive Post Tuesday

Last night my church took part of an event called The Gathering Inn. There are 27 churches that provide 50 or so homeless people a good meal and a place to sleep for the night. The ministry revolves between churches to avoid one church getting burnt out. But still there are countless individuals who take the time to run this program. They understand the heart that God has for the poor and the least these and have taken it upon themselves to care for these people. It was an honor to take part in this event for just one night and I have great admiration and respect for the people who take part in this ministry full time. All the work that goes into the setup and as well looking outside your own struggles and life and taking the time to love people that just need love.

Fight at Oscar's

I mentioned on the The Art of Whimsy's Blog that a couple got into a little fight in right in front of us at Oscar's so here is the story.

Pauly, Nathan and I we all gathered around a grand piano playing music. On the other side of the piano there was a bar attached to the piano, sitting there was a girl and a guy. Didn't really think anything of it, they seemed to be enjoying themselves just fine until he slapped her on the butt. She went from happy drunk to pissed off I am going to kill you drunk. She got up to leave and he grabbed her wrist to not let her go. She ripped her hand out of his grip and stormed out the front door. He just sat there shocked for a little bit, then got up took her glass of wine she had just bought and wandered around for a little bit. About two minutes later he was back at the piano talking to me (during a song I might add). During this time the lady walked back in and went to the bathroom. I then became the lookout. The guy asked me to look over his shoulder and make sure nothing happens. REALLY! I am playing music, not getting involved in your fight. For the next 10-15 minutes he looked in shock that she was mad at him and she paced around the bar looking like she was going to kill someone soon. After that they were joking and having a good time again. Stupid drunk people.

This girl also told me a funny story. She came up and said that she had been at the Street Concert so we talking about for a little bit. I asked her if she had a good time. Her response: "Yeah, I only got in one fight." Oh, that is how my fun scale fun works. The more fights the less fun. The reason for the fight is the good part, a real classy guy. She was hanging out with some guy she just met having a good time when he went and bought her a drink. About half was through the drink he took it back and gave it to another girl and ditched her for the rest of the night.

Free Music

This site was just launched today I believe, but it is a place to get music for free. Derek Webb has an album on there along with his wife and several other people that I have not heard of. But like I said the albums are free. You have two ways to do it...you can either tell three people about the album, by providing an email address, or you can pay what you want. A very cool and cutting edge idea that you know you want to take part of.

NoiseTrade

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 55% The Flash 55% Spider-Man 50% Robin 45% Green Lantern 45% Supergirl 40% Hulk 30% Catwoman 30% Iron Man 30% Batman 25% Wonder Woman 25%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz



There seems to be too many girl options. And I said I don't like wearing capes or push up bras...

KY (the State not the Jelly)

Here is a quick overview of my trip thus far....

Flew all night getting two hours of sleep.
Lost baggage.
Short short nap.
Got wrong baggage dropped of at Pauly's house.
Radio Interview.
Correct baggage.
Dinner.
Blogging.
Practice yet to come.
Precious precious sleep.

If you want more details read here.

Bella Ruth

We went to the Dr. on Tuesday and Colette and I are happy to announce that we will be having a little baby girl on Nov. 8th. Here are a bunch of pictures that they gave us. As well we can now official stop calling her an "it" or "shim." She is now Bella Ruth. If you don't like the name I don't care, it's my baby.


The Skull and a bit of the face.


Conveniently labeled "girl" for those of you who couldn't tell what you were looking at. Probably the only time I will post a picture like this of my girl.


Side profile shot. She likes to sit in that position.


See another side profile.


Her arm and hand.


Another good shot of her arm or maybe her leg... does that make me a bad parent?


Another conveniently labeled picture. If you can't read it, it says hand.

Kids

My and my family are sitting around watching some television when a commercial comes on talking about a guy who wanted a cool car but got a crappy car because his credit was "whack." My 6 year old nephew then says "It doesn't matter what your car looks like. What matter's is what is on the inside." We were all were sort of taken aback by his rather wise remark. Then he finished it with, "Like a television."

Happy Father's Day (belated)

I hope you all had a happy father's day, I did.

Whoot Whoot!

I am not sure if you care but I do, the Celtics just proved to me why they deserve to win the championship. After the first quarter they were down by 21. That lead was carried on through the end of the first half. But the Celtics were able to rise above their struggles and play the game that brought to this point. They ended the third quarter on a 21-3 run to close the gap to just two points. They finally took the lead with only four minutes left in the game and from there the Lakers were in trouble. Time after time the Celtics were able to hit the big shots and keep the lead. When all was said and done the Celtics and won by a final score of 97-91.

You can read a real reporter talk about this here.

Who do you want to win?

My Wife the Monkey

I just have to say the my wife is awesome and she makes me laugh. She made this "card" for me at "work" today. She also made me a father's day card that is awesome. I will show that on Sunday, so be patient.

Window to the Soul

My mom just told me that when she was talking to my 6 year old nephew about finding out what sex of baby we were going to have. Jerod said the way to tell is that you just have "to look at the eyes." That is stinking cute on so many levels.

(Thanks brittney, i am saying stinking)

Scootin'

I have decided to buy a scooter, now I just need to settle on a brand and all that good stuff. I think I found one, they seem decent enough. They are a little cheaper which worries me, but I found a dealer that does all the work necessary on them. Plus they come with a warranty. Plus I am going to get mechanical and fix things myself. I am going to be so cool. I will instantly get so many more friends. Not that I need any, I will just get them.

A day at the park

Our friends Brittney and Danny were down from Portola this past weekend and had some free time on sunday so we got to hang out with them. We met up for lunch at chipotle and decided to go to a park to eat so that their daughter Sati could roll around and play. Also parks are always much nicer than eating inside. Anyway we had a great time eating, talking, and throwing an enormous frisbee. We then came back to my place and made some dinner and then they left around 9:30 at night. They had quite a drive ahead of them. Somehow we always lose track of time and hang out with Britt, Dan and Sati for a really long time, but it is always a good time. They are cool people and their daughter is so cute, really I just want to see their daughter, but they are a part of the package ;) Anyway good times and I think that catches me up on my blogging...woohoo!

There are no pictures because we didn't bring a camera, but next time...

Vietnamese Wedding

My father-in-law got married to a wonderful lady from Vietnam. So they had a what has become a Vietnamese wedding. They had some cool traditions that I think are super cool. The first was that instead of presents, everyone just gave a you envelopes full of money. Another tradition that we sort of do informally, is that the bride and groom go around and to each and every table and talk to everybody, and the groups from the table present their gift of money to the couple of give then best wishes. Also the bride and groom each give a little thank you speech to the people that came, instead of a best man speech.

and what I think is clearly a recent tradition, they had karaoke. Which Colette and I were forced to do. We sang a Jackson the Johnny Cash and June Carter duet only to find out that the song is supposed to be dedicated to the couple. If you don't know the song, it is not appropriate for that. And also I was introduced as a professional musician. If only they knew the truth, and that I don't even sing. Oh well, I don't think over half the crowd spoke English anyway.

A weekend "tour"

A couple of weekends ago The Art of Whimsy took a short little trip down to Visalia to play a bunch of shows. We played five shows in three days, which I must say was a lot of fun but at the end of the last show my brain no longer worked. As proof, I tried to leave the gas station with the gas hose still in my car. Fortunately, It was not pumping gas at the time but it was coiled up on the ground as I walked in to tell the place what happened. Needless to say I was fairly pissed, then the guy could not understand was I was saying. Go figure someone who doesn't speak english working in a gas station. So after the fifth time of telling what happened he just sent someone out with me. They took all sorts of information from me, but as of yet they haven't contacted me to make me pay for anything. So other than the dents in my car, no damage was done... to me anyway. Like I was saying playing shows was a blast, but this was not the ideal ending.

Moving finished

After spending much of the last month packing and moving stuff into storage it is finally all moved. Longer than I had hoped and as always it seems I had more stuff than I had thought. Why do I have all of this crap? I don't know, but I get more and more and never seem to get rid of any. Anyway we are officially living with my parents (yes I am that guy) in Rocklin, Ca. and loving the fact that I don't have to drive back and forth to Sacramento 4-5 times a week. Thanks to Joel and Chrissy for the help and for letting me borrow is truck for about a week. And Tony for letting me borrow is vehicle whenever I needed it and for helping me move stuff as well.

Moving

If you haven't heard Colette and I are moving. I hate moving, but since Colette started her new job we don't get to see each other, quite literally. So we are moving closer to her job and I will just have to find another one. But we will get to see each other again. People tell me that is good for a healthy marriage.

Blogging while tired (BWT)

So I was tired at the time of my last post, much like this one.

"I finally got off my butt and purchased the CD and it has become one of my albums."

Apparently, I wanted to make sure that you understand the properties of ownership, when you buy something it becomes yours.

and sorry Jordan, I did mean to say that if buy the album you WON'T be disappointed not will be.

shame on me.

The Jordan Emmans Band

I know that I have talked about this CD before, but I have to talk about it once again. I finally got off my butt and purchased the CD and it has become one of my albums. The entire album is great and I can listen to it from start to finish. This isn't one of those albums with 5 or 6 (or less) good tracks with the rest being filler tracks that you really don't listen to. At times I am reminded of Jimmy Eat World other times The Waiting; both great bands in my mind.

Track 6, Ice Princess, has easily taken it's place at the top of my favorites. A song with great flow and dynamics. Lasting around 10 minutes the song does not feel long. I have always thought a song should leave you wanting more and Ice Princess does just that. I want it to go back through the entire song again, and usually I do.


So if you have not taken my advice and purchased this album yet... click here do it. I know you will be disappointed.

Have you seen my wife?

I have not. And that is sad.

The Weekend

Since Colette's new job has started she has been busy working so our time together has lessened. Which sucks but as soon as we move up to the Rocklin area, we will have our time back together. So we decided that this weekend we were going to spend this weekend together. So on Saturday we went on a little breakfast date, went shopping, and then relaxed. Today we went shopping again and we were able to find a cute onesie for our baby and some maternity clothes for Colette. It was a great weekend hanging out and relaxing with my awesome wife Colette.

Ultrasound

On thursday, Colette and I went for another doctor appointment. We were exciting to see our baby again. Which is the coolest thing ever. Our baby is 12 weeks old now, which is oldest to actually look like a baby. It is only like three inches long, but we were able to see arms, legs, fingers, the spine, the brain, the contours of its face. It was amazing. We have a good photo that I am going to scan in probably tomorrow that I will post on here. The baby was kicking around, which right now doesn't really hurt, but was super exciting to see.

For parents out there, what do you remember about seeing your babies for the first time. (even though this was our second time, it was the first time it looked like a baby)

I thought this was amazing

With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. She hit her first home run, which cleared the center field fence.

But it looked like the shortest of dreams-come-true when she missed first base, started back to tag it, and collapsed with a knee injury.

She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch-runner could be called in, and the homer would count as just a single.

Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned their home crowd in Ellensburg by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count - an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.

Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, the all-time home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could help Tucholsky.

The umpire said there was no rule against it.

So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace put their arms under Tucholsky's legs, and she put her arms over their shoulders. The three headed around the base paths, stopping to let Tucholsky touch each base with her good leg.

"It was the right thing to do," Holtman told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Thursday. "She'd hit it over the fence. She deserved the home run."

"It's kind of a big blur at the moment," Tucholsky said to Chen. "I didn't really realize what was going on -- I've had people tell me -- until I actually had time to reflect on it."

"The only thing I remember is that Mallory asked me which leg was the one that hurt," Tucholsky said. "I told her it was my right leg and she said, `OK, we're going to drop you down gently and you need to touch it with your left leg,' and I said `OK, thank you very much.' "

"We started laughing when we touched second base," Holtman said. "I said, 'I wonder what this must look like to other people.' "

"We didn't know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run," Wallace said Wednesday. "That makes the story more touching than it was. We just wanted to help her."

Holtman is a business major from White Salmon, Wash., who hopes to study sports management in graduate school. She said she and Wallace weren't thinking about the playoff spot and didn't consider the gesture something others wouldn't do.

As for Tucholsky, the 5-foot-2 right fielder was focused on her pain. "I really didn't say too much. I was trying to breathe," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"I didn't realize what was going on until I had time to sit down and let the pain relax a little bit," she said. "Then I realized the extent of what I actually did."

"I hope I would do the same for her in the same situation," Tucholsky said.

As the trio reached home plate, Tucholsky said, the entire Western Oregon team was in tears.

Central Washington coach Gary Frederick, 70, a 14-year coaching veteran, called the act of sportsmanship "unbelievable."

For Western Oregon coach Pam Knox, the gesture resolved the dilemma Tucholsky's injury presented.

"She was going to kill me if we sub and take (the home run) away. But at same time I was concerned for her. I didn't know what to do," Knox recalled.

"It's a great story," Knox observed to Chen, "something I'll never forget -- the game's about character and integrity and sportsmanship, and it's not always about winning and losing."

Tucholsky's injury is a possible torn anterior cruciate ligament that will sideline her for the season, and she plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in business.

Her home run sent Western Oregon to a 4-2 victory, ending Central Washington's chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman said. "It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

American Idol

I don't watch the show, but I heard about this and I think it is awesome. You don't have to watch the whole part, just Paula makes a fool of herself yet again.

God made dirt...

I imagine that you know the rest, right?

I am curious what you guys think about hand sanitizer. Do you think it is good, bad, overused, underused?

These days hand sanitizer seems to be the easier alternative to washing your hands. People don't wash their hands with good old fashioned soap and water. They pop out their bottle of Purell and away they go. It seems convenient but are there costs that we are not seeing. I tend to think so. I haven't done any studies and probably never will, I will leave that up for the scientists. But I did do a little research I didn't really find anything that I would trust my life with but some interesting facts.

Children growing up need to be exposed to all kids of germs as they are growing in order for them to have a strong immune system. So if we are constantly sanitizing everything that our children are touching, what are we doing to their immune systems. Are we dooming our children to weak immune systems. People that need to live in a germ free world, which we know isn't going to happen.

The food and drug administration says that hand sanitizer should only be used when washing you hands with soap and water is not possible. Also hand sanitizer should not be used if the hands are visibly soiled. Now in my mind, there are not a lot of places where you cannot get to a sink to wash your hand with soap and water. On this same vein of thinking, there are studies that show that the only way to effectively sanitize your hands is to wash them with soap and water.

In the long term, a concern is rising that bacteria, which are known to mutate, will become immune to anti-bacterials creating super-bacteria. That sounds bad and I don't want to get one.

One more thought that I have on the subject...Isn't the purpose of these products to cut down on sickness? People that I know who use hand sanitizers get sick just like me that won't use hand sanitizers. This doesn't make sense to me, does it to you?

Tell me what you think.

Open Mic Night

The Art of Whimsy was just asked to host an open mic night at a cool little wine bar in Colfax called Basement Wines. We used to play there about once a month last year, though they stopped the music over winter. The whole town just sort of shuts down. So once a week on Tuesday (I know odd day) we are going to be hosted the whole event, making sure it runs smoothly, and playing in the blank spots. Hopefully we will be able to make it something cool, and get some good acts in there. We are trying to come up with a cool name other than Open Mic Night. But I think that it needs to let people know what the event is. I don't want to call it Grapes of Wrather because people will think that it is a book club. You get the idea right. So I am asking for you to help out with the naming.

So if you have any great thoughts let me know......

p.s. I also want some sort of logo/picture type of thing

Homemade Pizza

Last night Joel and Chrissy came over to our place (yay no driving!!) and brought over the fixins for homemade pizza. We had mushrooms, bell pepper, tomatoes, pepperoni, cheese, sauce, and homemade dough. We got to use our pizza stone, a wedding present we hadn't used yet. The result was amazing. The pizza was super delicious. We also had some fresh corn on the cob, and root beer floats for dessert (the floats not the corn).

And because they are super cool friends, they got us the movie "Juno." Which if you haven't seen it, I would go watch it tonight. It deals with teen pregnancy in a honest yet comedic way. It may be too much for some people to handle, but I thought it was genius and hilarious.

Martian Child

If you missed this movie I would recommend watching the movie. It is typical and mildly predictable, but what movie isn't these days? It is the story of a science fiction writer who adopts a boy that thinks he is from mars. Like all good stories these two main characters both need help and they are there to provide that help. I won't say much more than that because I don't want to spoil the movie. So if you missed it go watch it.

Percussion Sunday

I can't believe that i forgot to talk about this sooner. I was so excited about, so much that I didn't say a word about it.

This past Sunday, I was playing for the worship team and on Thursday we went to practice and realized that the we had a percussionist but we also had two more people who play percussion. So instead of having bass and mandolin we thought we would try out three percussionist instead. I played cajon and other various little "toys", another played djembe and some "toys" and the last player had a djembe and a doumbek. It was an absolute blast to have so many layers and not have to worry about filling in everything with one player. We each would hear something different, play it, and then we would work around each other. It was nice that we all had different sounds, even the two djembes had different tones; the parts that overlapped still sounded distinct and didn't turn to mud.

I know I had fun and would love to do it again, but a lot of people of the congregation also said that they really enjoyed the sound and hope to hear it again.

Passover

I know passover was on Saturday, but on Sunday evening, Colette, my parents and I went to a passover sader. The event was at our church and was put on by a great guy named Steve who happens to be Jewish and is much in touch with his Jewish side. Anyway the main purpose of the event was to celebrate passover in a traditional Jewish sense but also to show how the passover pointed to Jesus. The food was great, we brought a bunch and they also provided matzoh ball soup. It's delicious if you don't know. We read a little, danced a little, ate a little, and sang a little.

The part (about Jesus) that stuck out most to me was this...At the beginning-ish of the celebration, the leader of the passover takes a "bag" with three pockets in it each one containing a piece of matzoh. (There is some question as far as what the three pockets stand for, but the sake of this we will say, "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit"). Taking out the middle piece of matzoh, or the Son, he breaks into two pieces. The larger piece he wraps up in cloth and hides somewhere in the room to be found later for a prize. The other piece he puts back in the "bag." The thing that makes this even more cool is the appearance of matzoh. First the matzoh has a bunch of holes poked through it (think saltine crackers). After it is cooked it has a stripped appearance. So get ready for this...

The matzoh (which Jesus later identified as his body) is pierced, stripped, broken, wrapped in cloth, hidden for a short while and to the person who finds it they are given a prize.

I thought that was interesting.

Uh-oh, oh, oh, oh, Uh-oh, oh, oh, the right stuff.

In case you haven't heard...

"After months of speculation and rumor, the Kids are coming back. A well-placed source tells PEOPLE exclusively that New Kids On The Block are indeed getting back together.

The band's Web site, www.nkotb.com, which had been dormant, is now back up and running in anticipation of the official announcement, which the source says will be made in the next few weeks.

The site currently features a television graphic with a fuzzy, flickering photos of NKOTB in their heyday, and a link inviting fans to sign up for info.

The boy band, which made legions of tweens swoon in the early '90s, selling more than 50 million albums, became a worldwide phenomenon before calling it quits in 1994.

Eighteen years later, they're still "Hangin' Tough." The oldest "Kid," Jonathan Knight, now a real estate developer, will turn 40 later this year. Since the band's demise, former members Donnie Wahlberg, 38, and Joey McIntyre, 35, have seen acting success, while Danny Wood, 38, has worked as a music producer and Knight's brother, Jordan, 37, has continued to record."

New Sweet

So on accident I just ate a couple of jelly beans with a M and M. It tasted like orange chocolate or some sort of fruit and chocolate combination. So if you like fruit and chocolate and want to cheap alternative, you should try that cause I loved it.

Revolution Wines

The Art of Whimsy just had a show this past saturday at a place called Revolution Wines. It was a lot of fun to get back up on the stage and play some music again. Anyway my parents and brother came out and drank some wine and ate some baked potatoes, with all of the toppings to go along, and of course listened to us play. I had a blast and afterward Colette, Ryan and I went out to eat and got some delicious food. I don't remember the name of the place, but it was good.

New Job

If you didn't know, Colette was looking for a new job. Her current company is being stupid and is possibly going to be cutting back benefits that make the job worth it. So about two weeks ago she started looking for a job at various companies that are more in her field of study (psychology). Well yesterday she had an interview at a place and then went back to check out what she would be doing and was then offered the job. She still needs to pass a background check, but that won't be a problem unless she has a secret life that I don't know about.

For her new job she will be working with autistic children, from 18 months to high school. Basically, she helps them learn out to interact with other people. What is appropriate, what is not. We are excited and it seems that God had a large hand in this.

This also means that in the next few months we will be moving up to the Rocklin area, which is also something that we were hoping to do at some point.

Racism

In light of Brody's post about racism I thought I would share this little story.

I was just starting my 5th period class when the teacher came in and announced that some of the students would be leaving to attend an assembly. He named off the students and they quickly raced out of the room. After the students left, the others where feeling left out, and were wondering why they didn't get to go. So it was explained that they were attending an assembly to discuss their standardized tests. After about thirty seconds the students realized (as did I) that the only people who were called out where the African American students. One students asked after this realization, "Hey! Are they being racist?"

As it turned out teachers are trying to solve the problem that certain groups (races) perform lower than other groups (races). In an attempt to solve this, teachers gave sort of race specific assemblies to talk about the tests and to urge them to do their best and to talk about their importance. This may not really be a racist thing to do, since they are trying to help all students do better, but it does send the message to the students that different races are different.

I'm not sure if there is a better way to solve this problem...

Aloha now ATA

Aloha Airlines announced today that it will be shutting down its inter-island and transpacific passenger flight operations. Aloha’s last day of operations will be Monday, March 31, 2008.

And...

ATA Airlines has discontinued all operations and cancelled all current and future flights. Following the loss of a key contract for our military charter business, it became impossible for ATA to continue operations. Unfortunately, we were not in a position to provide our customers or others with advance notice.

Job Search

This really doesn't have much to do with the fact that we just found that we are going to have a baby, but it might be time for Colette to find another job. As much as we love her job and love the flexibility and the benefits of this job, the bad my soon out way the good. So pray for us and Colette looks for another job. We have some ideas that would be great and we would love for them to work out, but God is really the one in charge. Besides we would much rather have his plan for our life than ours, He is much smarter than we are.

Side effects or pregnancy (Good and bad)

1. Tired
2. Hungry
3. Losing weight
4. not being able to change the cat litter (really, I know, who knew?)
5. being really cuddly (yes!)
6. extreme back pain

There are some others, but you don't get to know them all.

Rebel

I saw my baby yesterday. The tiny little thing 1.23 centimeters long. Too small and underdeveloped at this stage to really see any shape other than a blob. Yet even at such a small size the heart is formed and beating. It was such an amazing experience to see the twinkle of my baby's almost microscopic heart beating.

I think that the fact that I was going to have a baby had finally settled down and became "old news." Seeing my baby certainly took this reality to another level. I can feel my attachment and love for this life growing with each stage and each day that goes by as we approach the day of its birth. Again, I can't wait.

Driving home yesterday I was struck by the awesomeness (not said in a surfer voice) of God. As I drove, watching the sunset, I couldn't help but think that the same God that created the universe that has sunsets of purple, blue, green, yellow, pink, orange, almost every color found in nature, is right now forming my child. Hair and eye color, its body type, its shoe size, will it be artistic or not, the size its feet will be, its personality. Carefully and with great intention, He is creating a plan for this child. I can only hope and pray that I will direct my child to its creator.

Wait...nevermind

So we were wrong. When we went to bed last night I noticed that my night stand had been gone through. Upon closer inspection I noticed that my headphone case had been opened at the chords taken out. I know I did not leave them like that. I cherish that gift and take good care of them. Also the drawer was then reclosed leaving other cables and charger on the floor. So we checked Colette's night stand to find that my watch was missing. We were a little confused seeing that all of our expensive items that we thought would be the target were passed by for an Ebay purchased, cheap watch. We assumed that they were kids after drugs or money. Which we have neither. Then this morning Colette noticed that a month supply of birth control was taken. (Not a big deal she is pregnant).

So we think that they were here for something other than stuff they could either pawn or sell for money since nothing valuable was taken. The only other thing we can think of is that Colette has been working for American Express the past couple of months and is taking expired gift cards off the shelves and mailing then to AmEx. Maybe the perpetrator saw us bring in bags full of gift cards and wanted a piece of the action. Unfortunately for them, they were all in Colette's car at the time getting ready to be mailed out. Plus even if they were stolen, not one card is activated. So basically they are worth nothing. A piece of plastic and nothing more.

It sucks that we broken into, but thank God that nothing important was taken. We lost maybe $50 worth of stuff. A watch, that I really didn't wear (battery was dead) and birth control that costs us $5. Oh well. I have always tried to keep in mind that all that I have is a gift of God, if he wants it he can have it back. I guess yesterday I was supposed to have it still. Thank you Jesus.

The Break In

Today at around three o'clock I get a call on my phone from a number that I don't recognize, so I don't answer the phone. The person leaves a message and I quickly check to see who it was. It was my landlord saying there was an emergency and to call him back right away. Seconds later Colette's phone starts to ring and I tell her to answer, there was some sort of emergency.

I can tell by the way the conversation is going that our cat has escaped from our house and the screen is off of the window. Instant panic set in because we didn't leave our window open, so even if the screen was off our cat would still be in house. Though we though maybe he pushed the window open and tore the screen open. Now the landlord was walking to our place, since he called as soon as he heard about "the break in." When he arrived and saw the screen he said there is no way a cat did this to the screen. It is all bent out of shape and was completely off the window.

When we heard all of this we thought somebody broke in to our place and we are two hours away from home. There is not much we can do from here so I guess we will finish what we were doing and then head home. We asked the landlord to at least let our cat back in to the house and close the window; we would figure it out when we got home. So he entered our place, shut the window, and got solomon back inside the house. (By this time we were made aware that it was "the big cat" that got out).

About three hours later we arrived home to check out the damage and see if anything was stolen. We first saw the screen which was completely bent out of shape and not tore like you think a cat would have done. One corner looked like someone took a screw driver or something and pried the screen off. We unlocked the door and walked in, ran around the house and found that nothing was in fact missing. It had to have been Solomon that had some how managed to open the window wide enough to get through and somehow force the screen out of the window. We think that he saw another cat on our patio and that was not going to happen (he is very territorial these days). So he did something about it. So now we have a broken screen and a dirty couch from the cats coming in and out of the house.

I have a picture of the screen on my phone, but that is way over of the other side of the room. You will have to use your imagination.

Babies!!!

Tonight as i walked over to help Colette with the dishes I noticed our bearded dragon Skippy was sleeping a little awkward. She had her head on the ground and her back half lifted off of the ground. I called for Colette to come over and see the odd sleeping position. Then I noticed she wasn't sleeping, she was laying eggs. As of an hour later she has laid 12, working on 13 eggs. She can lay up to 40 or so. She is small so hopefully that won't happen, this is also her first time so some of her eggs might not be fertilized.

So for the next 60-80 days we will be incubating bearded dragon eggs, hopefully to a success.


Funny note for Colette and I: Colette is about 6 weeks along and Skippy most likely was "fertilized" 4-6 weeks ago. Apparently romance was in the air.

Hernia

You may remember that my cat was in heat. Well last Tuesday we took her to a clinic and got her fixed. She had a little incision on her belly that she had to be careful of for a while. A couple of days later (thursday) she had a golf ball sized lump on her stomach at her wound. We called the vet and they said to bring her in the next time they are open. So on tuesday we brought her back in to the clinic to find out she had a torn the stitches on the inside and her fat was sort of sticking out. Basically, she had given herself a hernia. So they put her under and fixed the tear. Now we have to keep her locked up in our bathroom to keep her from tearing out her stitches again. Stupid Cat.

When's That Baby Due?

On friday I found out that I am/going to be a dad. That is right Colette is knocked up and I did the knocking. This is much sooner then we had planned but we could only do so much being that abstinence was and is not an option. It is weird to think that I am going to be a parent. That is something that old people do. As well this is going to be a part of my life for the rest of my life. I now have a new definition of who I am.

Anyway Colette and I are both very excited and can't wait already. If you want to know, we are calling "it" Rebel. Basically, because "it" didn't listen to our timing, so we are off to bad start with this one. Hopefully "it" will learn to listen better later in life.

I wonder what this means...

RATM

My top 4 bands/artists of all time are Garth Brooks, James Taylor, Caedmon's Call and Rage Against the Machine. I know that last one sort of stands out from the others quite a bit. Through the years I have seen Caedmon's Call so many times I have lost count. I am amazed that I can say that. I have had the opportunity to see James Taylor twice now and am amazed that I can say that. Several years ago Garth Brooks retired from music and at the time I had never had the chance to see him play. This past year he started doing a show here and there and Colette and I spent too much money but had the fortunate ability to get tickets to a show at Staples Center. A long time ago now, Rage Against the Machine broke up, and much like Garth Brooks I have not had the opportunity to see them play. But recently they started to play again. RATM played Cochella Festival which I was unable to make it to. Now they are doing a world tour. Heres to hoping that I can see them in the near future...

Starbucks is invading The Art of Whimsy

You know that little icon thingy to the left of the web address you are at? For blogger it is a little B...sort of. Anyway on The Art of Whimsy's website, which I pretend to create, that little icon turned into the symbol for Starbucks. I am not sure how this happened, I don't even know how to change it. Oh well, I guess we are sort of supporting starbucks even if we don't want to.

New Header!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for all of the exclamation points, I got a little excited. I have been trying to put that picture up for months and months. Finally it worked. I am excited. Sad that is doesn't fit, but I can't really fix that right now and I don't want to take the picture down and not be able to put it back up...bye

Flight of the Conchords

If you have not seen the show, any of their videos on youtube, or heard their songs on the radio you are missing out and you need to watch this video. If you have seen or heard them then you will watch this video because you know it is freakin' hilarious. (Yes it is that funny). Actually I think I shall put two videos up. These are my favorite. Just as a warning the humor is dry.

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros



Business Time

The Experts

I was listening to talk radio today, and the program was in the vain of call me and I will answer your questions. Sometimes these can be interesting because you get to hear what an actual "expert" would tell you to do in a given situation or what something means. (At least I find them interesting, but since I graduated I have had a desire to learn. Where was that desire for the first 21 years of my life?) But on this show, there were two speakers one guest and the host, every answered question started with: "I'm no expert and you should check to make sure what I am saying it true but..." Isn't that the whole point of me calling you? If I am going to have to go do the research to ensure that you told me the truth, shouldn't I just go to the research and not waste my time calling you?

That is just my thought on the situation.

Why I Love My Job

I probably talk about this way too often, but I am a guy and in case you didn't know, guy's tend to define themselves by what they do. If you don't agree with me you are wrong. Anyway, for the second day in a row I showed up for work at around 11:00 and was done by around 3:15. The thing that makes with great is that I get paid the same amount of money. There are a lot of jobs that boast short hours, but then your paycheck suffers. Not mine...

Plus (I should talk about this side of my job more), I get to hang out with JR. High, and High School kids all day. Some times they are terrible and have no respect for, adults, peers, and even themselves. But the majority of the time they are people just like everybody else. Show them a little respect and they will show you that same respect. I find this works the best with kids.

I think that too many adults treat teenagers like they are still 8 years old. Granted there are times when they still act like it. But they think they are mature and can make decisions all on their own. If you give them that respect or rather make them think you are letting them make adult decisions, teenagers will respect you so much more. The key to this situation is not letting them make actual adult decisions.

p.s. this program has more options on windows explorer than safari...

Woke up too early

So i got up this morning at 6:30 and went to work. On the way I called to make sure I was going to the right school and discovered that I didn't need to be there until 11:15. So Colette turned the car around and we came home and are now watching Curious George. I'm drawing the line at Clifford the Big Red Dog.

I wish that I was still sleeping, but such is life. Oh well...

All My Exes Live In Portola

On Saturday night Colette and I went and hung out with my ex Brittney and her husband Danny. It is sad but there are a lot of people who couldn't imagine hanging out with ex-girlfriends or boyfriends. I wasn't sure either, but over the last few months Colette and Britt have been "Myspace Buddies," so hanging out seemed like the next logical step. Despite any nerves or fears, I don't think things were weird or akward at all. Everybody got along great. Go figure we are all sort of similar people.

I will say that this all worked is because Britt is a very forgiving person. I may have been a complete ass for a little while after we broke up. Sort of that angry stage of grief (wow that makes me sound like a wuss...I am) taken out on her (feeble attemp at apology...again). But I think even despite of everything said and done and the past that we can have a normal friendship. Plus Colette and her seem to get along great. And not to leave her hubby out, we seemed to get along just fine and enjoyed each other's company (and that makes us sound gay).

So it seems that Colette and I made "new" friends and now we have to go visit them at their house three hours away. What I really want is friends that live within like 20 min of my house. That would be great. And for revenge, we will make them come over to our house.

Technology

I know that I am really not old at all, but I can't help but thinking that "kids these days" are so lucky with their educational oportunities. Today I subbed for a class that was a "technology" class that taught them how to use Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks. The amount of knowledge that they have gained in such a short time is amazing. Today they were using Dreamweaver to create a webpage, and their pages look just as good if not better than anything I could come up with. Sometimes I wish that I had learned all of this information when I was a kid. Although, I must say that I probably wouldn't have taken advantage of that opportunity.

New Toy

I bought a new toy today. It isn't that exciting but I am excited. I got (Colette and I got) a 320 GB external hard drive. We have all but officially filled up the harddrive on our laptop and needed some more room. The cool part about this harddrive is that it is powered through the USB drive. So I don't have to plug the thing in. That is my favorite part. Apple makes an external harddrive that is wireless. That is much cooler but twice as much money. I am not rich. If blogger was cool I would show you a pretty picture, but it won't let me upload a picture. Stupid website.

Garth Brooks

Ok, if you don't like country, that is fine. But I do. Growing up my favorite artist was Garth Brooks. Before I got to go see him live, he retired. That was a sad time. The man has won entertainer of year 6 times in 9 years. He must know how to put on a show. He is also the highest selling solo artist of all time. Again, he must know what he is doing. So when I heard that he was putting on a show in L.A. I had to go and was going to spend almost any amount of money to go. Tickets went on sale and in five minutes he sold out Staples Center. So they added another show, five minutes later, another, another. After it was said and done he sold out five shows at Staples Center in five minutes a show. I didn't not get tickets. So I paid a lot more than I should have and bought my wife and I tickets.

Needless to say, but I am going to say it anyway. The show was amazing. I couldn't imagine a better show. The coolest part was watching him absolutely loving his life. His love a performing and playing music was so clearly seen, it was contagious.

Another cool story: After he left for the first time, he came back about one minute later, saying "you never know what is going to happen. I was backstage and this lady on break, said that she always wanted to meet me and asked what it is like being me. I have always thought that the best way to learn is to jump in with both feet." At that he asked for (i forgot her name we will call her lupita) to come up on stage. This little old lady come out. He had the crowd cheer for her. He then sang her a song and had the crowd sing to her. He then had anybody that brought a camera to take it out, and snap a quick picture of the two of them together. The place lit up. It was crazy. And to make sure she never forgot this moment. he gave her his hat.

I know the stories are much cooler, being there, but I thought I thought I would tell them anyway.

I'm Back (said like that creepy girl in Poltergeist)

Really I have no excuse for my lack of blogging in the last three months. Well, I guess I have one, it is just a bad one. I am lazy. For whatever reason, it started feeling like homework. (Wait I have a good reason, lent). But homework that I didn't really have to do, so I didn't. Anyway I am back, I had tons of things to blog about but didn't. I would try to remember them, but that is an impossible task. I will just have to start over. Sorry friends, but I also have no idea what is going on in your lifes. So if anything really important happened let me know.

As a side note: my cat, is in heat. She goes crazy rolling around on the floor, every once in a while, and will not shut up. She keeps us up at night, and screams all day. i think she is calling all the boys over. Our boy solomon is just confused at why she is acting so strange. he is neutered.