Life · Happens

Actually, there is.  Quite a bit of it, too. 

I am referring to an old song, which presently describes my current state: my wife is gone to New York City.  She is coming back on Monday, but I am left alone with the two youngest. 

Yeah, I am both mommy and daddy, and wondering how the rest of the single parents get by.  Personally, I am doing good at getting by, but not much else. 

Strangely enough, I am actually getting some writing work done.  Part of is going to McDonalds to use their Wi-Fi connection.  While I work, the kids play in the Play Area. 

When I told my daughter we were going there again today, she says:  "Not again".  Clearly, any blessing done too many times becomes a curse.  I'm wondering if instead of fire, in hell, everyone just gets messaged...to death...everyday. 

Oddly enough, I think I've been getting by pretty well.  However, I notice my temper can be quick with my children.  The situation I am in does stress me out.  Especially with my son not being toilet trained.  Sometimes he is like a bomb, but there is no red numbers that tell you when he's about to go off.  In fact, he went off three times in one hour.  I'm sure no one feels worse about it more than him, though. 

While at home with my kids, I did something unexpected.  I beat a game that I have been playing since a month ago.  I fully intend to put my Metroid Prime 3: Corruption strategy guide on the web soon.  I am quite surprised, since I wasn't certain if I was going to finish that by the end of this month.  Now I'll probably finish it by the end of this week. 

Even though I'm doing all right taking care of the kids, me without the wife is just not good.  She will be back tomorrow, and hopefully I'll see her before she gets in. 

In the meantime, I'll maintain the fort. 

Last time I mentioned that there was not much variety in my days.  Usually I just go up to campus, do writing work, tutor some students, go home to my wife and kids, and maybe do a little work or TV before bed. 

Last week, I found out that someone at the Writing Lab left a terrible review of my job.  Unfortunately, my supervisor called me into his office, which he never does if I do a good thing.  Usually, it's bad, and something tells me that a few more bad reviews might cause me to lose my job. 

This is one of the reasons why I don't work at a regular day-job.  It always feels like once I get used, they begin the discarding process.  I realize how negative that sounds, and I tried to word that as euphemistically positive as I could.  However, this seems to be a pattern I've seen in my work history. 

That was bad enough, and the next day my laptop computer crashed.  I could not find the recovery disks, and had to order them specially.  Fortunately, much of stuff was saved on a memory stick, and the lack of laptop is only a moderate trouble.  There are computers here on campus that I can continue my work. 

However, losing my laptop had a very, very adverse effect on me.  I began to realize how I really feel like I've worn out my welcome in this town I live at.  I have been here for over fifteen years now, but there really isn't any reason for me to be here anymore.  I work on campus, but it isn't like I am staff or a professor.  I can easily be replaced, and probably will here pretty soon.  That is why I'm probably going to finish out the semester and call it quits up at the University. 

I might even want to move, but I don't know where.  I've been thinking about finding some house in the middle of nowhere.  Some place where I have to go 100 miles to get groceries.  However, I have to think about my kids, and how they would adjust to that kind of life. 

Well, there is some good news.  I found someone who sent me lots of stuff, and I can keep it.  The only stipulation is that I write about it, which I would do anyway, really.  We got a huge box of stuff, and I'm going to get even more.  I found another place that will give me stuff to review as well.  Oddly enough, I found a place that is willing to send me books for nothing, and I will review them too.

In other words, I have a lot of work that I need to do, but I'm not certain where I can do it. 

I really haven't written much here on this live journal because I've discovered that my weeks are becoming very alike. 

That's right, my last week of working and trying to get by is pretty much like the other one.  Who knew?  Big Shock!

Fortunately, I have discovered a new way to make some more money.  Lately, I have been begging for more work from my Carlsbad contact, and she has been giving it to me in spades.  Hopefully, I'll have at least five articles every week, which translates into some nice moolah. 

I've also started this weird habit where I write about a new gadget, then I send an email to the company asking them to send me the product so I can write about the product personally.  I received a cool Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse last week, and got a pair of goggles from this one company that I had a hard time hooking up to my computer. 

What I hope to do is eventually get some new gadget every day until I have ebay sales. 

Who knows, maybe I can make enough to pay for the monthly payments for a house. 

I finally finished the last Harry Potter book.  I had to admit, the plot was a mix of the Da Vinci Code with Lord of the Rings with The Chronicles of Narnia along with a little Young Sherlock Holmes sprinkled in.  However, I think I polished off the last hundred pages very quickly. 

Harry Potter is one of those series that really is about faith.  I realize Christians just blasted this thing in the late nineties, but clearly, this is not the case.  If anything, this increases your faith.  I can't really say any more than that.  If you look at magic as a symbol of faith, then Harry Potter is about as inspirational as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. 

I think it is time to get my own masterpiece out there.  I will have more on that this month.

Not much has been happening that has been out of the ordinary.  Last week, I had a revelation that was not really something that I wanted to see, but kind of had to see. 

I did a journal entry on "tearing up the timecard", where I discussed how I can treat my children sometimes.  The other day, I wanted to leave the house so I could have some fun with my friend at another friend's place, and my daughter didn't want me to leave.

I felt bad for that.  You see, the day before that, she and I spent an afternoon working on a Lego car.  I think she wanted me to stay at home and play with Legos.  I regret to say that I went to the library that afternoon and got some work done, what little there was to do. 

That incident made me realize how little time I spend with my kids.  I usually see my daughter and oldest son in the morning, before I go to work.  That can be difficult, because they usually require a lot of attention then.  I have to juggle between playing with them and waiting for my ride to come. 

By the time I get home, it is 5:30.  I usually try to get them to bed at 7:00, and they usually fall asleep by 8:00.  This means that they really get less than fifteen hours with their Dad during the weekdays. 

I have decided to use the hours of 5:30-8:00 as some serious Daddy time.  I have sworn off going to any meeting during that time that I do not have to go to.  That way, I can maximize on my time with my children.  If I work that evening and need to go out, I am going to wait until the children are in bed. 

In short, the kids need their Dad, and I need them.  Lately, my daughter and I have been working on this Lego dinosaur, and it's been a lot of fun.  I was worried about my oldest son getting involved, and then having them get in fights, but he seems to be working well.  In fact, when he wanted to play, all I could think about was how much of a mess that could be made.  I felt like Adrian Monk from that TV detective show who has to have things in their place.   I seem to have found some patience and now we like to play.

Especially since it has been getting colder, and we need to do some more indoor activities.  I've got to leave the heat on at night, or the kids wake up with hold fingers and feet.  I remember what it was like to wake up in the cold cruel when I was a kid, and I swore that that wouldn't happen to my kids.  I suppose getting up to a cold morning is just part of the human condition. 

Lately, I've learned how little rules can apply at times.  The other day I was working at the writing center and a student came in who wanted copies.  I told him that we weren't a copy center, and we couldn't make copies for him.  I suppose that is the law, but I still got talked to by my supervisor.  The issue wasn't the rules, but that a student needed help.  The worst thing I can do for the writing center is make them look bad, but that was what I did. 

I have another student who has apparently been a burden on the Writing Center.   He writes for the Evergreen, and wants his op-ed columns looked at by several people.  I guess I must have impressed him, because he was looking for me.  Despite the fact that his work was already published, he still wanted to look at it.  I told him he could come back, so I look forward to seeing him again. 

In the meantime, I am still working on columns, and found a way to make some extra stuff on the side.  What I do is write about a product, then find out the company who made the product.  I then contact the company via email and tell them that I'm willing to write more about the product if they send me a free sample of their product.  This way I get some stuff and they get some press.  Everybody wins.  I've been kind of going crazy with this, and really been pushing for freebies.  I got a Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse in the mail the other day, and we really needed them. 

As I have said before, I am presently doing a lot of tutoring up on campus, and so I have a lot of chances to look at a lot of writing.  Lately, several of my students have been doing these very deep papers where they discuss events from their lives. 

I learned the other day that one of my students had two of their friends commit suicide, while the other ended up dying in a car accident.  I learned that another felt home on a ranch, despite the fact they worked harder than anything.  I learned that one of them was a great basketball player, but a rare injury knocked them out of the sport, perhaps for their entire life.  I discovered that one of them had found someone to love at a time when she really shouldn't have. 

I could not help but be touched deeply by their personal stories.  I then realized that all of us experience so much tragedy, but are endowed with such life as well.  We all feel victory and defeat, and we all walk as if we live in the non-existent neutral. 

I was walking on campus and was suddenly struck by the fact that everyone has been made by God as special.  And we cheapen that every time we try and oversimplify someone with a label of any type.  No matter who we meet, whether at their worst or best, has been made fearfully and wonderfully made. 

I used to think I was special because I experience hardship as a child, and out of it learned how to write what I believe to be many a great story.  However, every person could write stories, every person suffered hardship, and everybody finds a way to shine through it all, for the sake of nothing more than an average life.  However, the average is always superior. 

My only regret in this life is that I simply do not have the ability to learn everyone's story.  I believe that I have the ability to change the world, under the assumption that it wants it.  I don't want to see everyone's negative aspects anymore, and would prefer to pretend it never existed than to use it as ammo or material for condemnation against them. 

Today I cried for the first time in a long while.  It was not because I was sad, but moved to tears by my daughter.  I'm not even sure what it was, but as I tucked her into bed, I could not believe how overjoyed I was by her.  I began to realize what a precious gift my family is, never to be taken for granted, but made to be loved, cherished, for as long as life will allow. 

I fully intend to live my life to its absolute fullest, and to do that, I have to insure that those around me live their lives to the absolute fullest.  That starts with getting to know their story. 

On an unrelated note, you know that today's September 11th, and the sixth anniversary of a very tragic event.  I wrote about that and posted it on one of my sites.  I can't believe that they wouldn't pay me for it, but I believe it is my best work, and would have done it for free. 

Read the Article here!

Those of you who know me know that I both work and relax at the same time.  I call it We-lax.  Just do it, when you don't want to suffer through it, We-lax, just do it, when you want to work.

My little take on the old Frankie Goes to Hollywood song.  I have no idea who Frankie is, or why going to Hollywood is particularly important, but my work is total, 100 percent We-lax.  I am slacker, in the sense that I only work as much as I have to.  However, that doesn't make me a loser. 

Generally, I have a movie or music going on in the background while I am working.  That is, when I am writing. Lately, it has been Lost reruns.  To be honest, I'm not getting much out of them the second time, but Lost is so well written and enjoyable, who cares?

As I mentioned last time, I don't have my job with the athletic department, which frees up my evenings.  However, nature seems to have compensated for the lack of salary and given me twelve 102 classes.  Dang. 

So far, I'm getting some positive people in my classes, and there's the usual tracking of people down who don't show up.  That means a lot of emails, phone calls, and various other busy duties. 

In the meantime, I've been writing various articles about the Penny Arcade Expo, as well as other things.  I've been given very little work to Hubpages, which I am required to write fifteen articles per month.  I found subject matter for about one, and will need to crack it out next week.  I'm thinking that if I write seven per week, that will be twenty this month.  That, and I still have thirty more articles that I need to complete before the month out.

I recently wrote something regarding my feelings toward 9/11, and I think it is some of my finest work yet.  As soon as it posts, I intend to link it here on this site. 

In the meantime, I'll be working hard and spending time with my wife and kids. 

As many of you know, I pride myself in having severed my ties with "The Man" in becoming a full-time freelance writer. 

For example, I just got back from a month-long vacation.  Actually, it was only a half-vacation for me, since I was able to accomplish some work.  Much of this work was stuff that I could easily do on my laptop. 

I haven't had any assignments this week except those that were related to the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) which I visited last weekend.  At first they told me that six articles were due Thursday, but they changed it to Monday for some reason.  I didn't complain, because I really wanted to have some time to relax at night.  I finished all but one on Friday, and the only reason why I didn't complete the last was due to waiting back on information.  It was information that I never received, so I just submitted the article and to heck with it. 

For about a year now, I have been working with the athletic department at the nearby university.  I just found out that I won't be coming back.  It isn't because I was fired, but they had hired someone who could fill the time a little better, and was staff.  They told me this last June, but I didn't know I was not coming back for sure until Monday.  I was upset that they didn't tell me, but not really upset that I won't be returning.  That job cost me every evening from Sunday through Thursday, 7-9 PM.  It was a good time to get caught up writing work, and I would have to say that only 20 percent of the time was helping students. 

In other words, I've got my evenings free and I'm going to take advantage of that.  I don't really worry anymore about not making enough money, but I can make enough to get by.  In fact, I don't think I've had any "didn't make it" months since last year.  Not bad. 

As for English classes, I am tutoring for ten classes this semester, plus four open lab hours.  Dang!  On Tuesday, I discovered that I work seven hours straight.  That's a lot of money, but it feels like I'm working for The Man again.  I have just been informed that we're getting raises, so that is terrific news for me.

For the most part, the days are going to be pretty "normal" now, at least until Thanksgiving.  I also learned that my wife is going to take a trip to New York with her best friend.  Got to plan for that as well. 

I haven't done any journal entries lately.  Most of my days have been spent at the library catching up on as much work as I can. 

The last biggest event of our month-long vacation has occurred with the Penny Arcade Expo.  For those who don't know it, it is a huge convention held every year in the Seattle area that is one of the biggest gathering of gamers in the nation.  And when I say gamers, that means video gamers, online gamers, card gamers, dice gamers. 

I was a little nervous taking Metro to get there, but I took the 122 Express directly to downtown Seattle.  Unfortunately, I had to take the early bus to get there, since my mother had to go to a golf game and that was the only time I could go.  There wasn't much to do 1:00, so I was hoping to find an access point and a place to work.  Unfortunately, there wasn't an outlet and my laptop battery is limited.  However, I had always wanted to visit the Science Fiction museum.  Since I had a few hours to spare, I had the perfect window of opportunity.

I had to walk a mile, but I got the map via MapQuest and actually found a shorter way walking than by driving.  I even made it there with time to spare.  The museum was actually two museums, and the Sci-Fi one is just a wing of the Music Experience. 

The Sci-fi museum had very little interactive exhibits, but there was mostly movie props.  For example, guns used in Blade Runner, Aliens, Starship Troopers, and other things.  They even had the "Pit Bull" hoverboard from Back to the Future II, as well as the jet-pack from Minority Report.  Most of these were pretty fake looking up close.  The costumes from Lost in Space looked just as bad.  The coolest was the Alien from Aliens, who looked super scary up close.  I tried to take a pic of it with my cell-phone cam, but it doesn't do it justice. 

The Music experience was all right, and I got to play an electric guitar for the first time.  If I had tried that as a youth, I am convinced I would have tried to be a rock star instead of a writer.  I only spent one hour in the Music experience, but two in the Sci-fi museum.

From there it was on to the Expo, and man, the Exhibition hall was full of more games than I ever wanted to see.  The big three console games were located near the entrance.  There were a lot of other games there, and I played some, and interviewed others for the company who I was assigned for. 

There was a lot to see, and I got tired real fast.  I took time to see Wil Wheaton's keynote address.  I'm sure you know Wil as Wesley Crusher from Star Trek the Next Generation.  He is now a celebrity blogger, and he is by no means a has-been child star.  His speech on gaming made me think about what it means to be a geek.  You'll be hearing more on that in other blogs. 

The next day, I had an interview and talked to people about games.  It was a pretty boring day until the evening, where I went to dinner with some people from Wizards of the Coast.  They were very friendly, and I got a gourmet meal at Ruth Chick's Steak House.  I met a lot of nice people there. 

I waited in line to get Wil Wheaton's autograph, and talked to him about video games and playing them with your kids. 

Sunday was a little overkill, and I left early from the convention.  My wife and kids wanted to see my sister for one final time before we left for Pullman the next day. 

Trip to San Francisco

 

I realize that it has been about a week since I have updated this here blog, so I’d better do my part to get it on schedule.

 

I don’t know if I shared this before, but my wife and I went to San Francisco with our three kids, as well as my recently retired mother. 

 

Day 1 

 

I think we woke up at 3:30 or 4:00, and I haven’t woke up that early since I worked for “The Man” at SEL or Wal-Mart.  I took the first shift, and the kids were pretty much quiet until about 7:30.  The drive out of Seattle was very quick and yet slow.  I listened to some good tunes on the way there, but I was pretty tired by the time we reached the town of Sutherlin, Oregon, where we had lunch at a Subway that hadn’t even been in business for a week. 

 

We got a few good views of Mt. Shasta as we entered into California.  We stayed on I-5 and had dinner at some Pizza Place that was pretty good.  Fom there, it was 100 miles out of I-5, and we had to stop at a rest stop for my wife to feed the baby. 

 

At this rest stop, we were visited by one of the plagues of Egypt as we discovered that twenty or so flies decided to make their home in our van.  We were stuck with them, and my mother and I played this game where we would roll down our windows when the flies came to close.  Somehow, I think the rushing air created a decompression that took the flies out. 

 

The last 50 miles were terrible as my youngest, who is only 3 months old, started to cry and would not stop.  He cried louder then the day of his birth, and it was tough to take.  Worse yet, the drive was fettered with turns and it seemed like we would never get there.  It was about 9:45 PM by the time we got there. 

 

I still had to do some work that evening, and I can’t believe I did. 

 

Day 2

 

We awoke pretty late that day, and we were prepared to go to my wife’s half-sister’s place.  We had to Mapquest to it, and I was glad when we got there.  We got to pass under the Golden Gate Bridge, which I still think is one of the most greatest landmarks, ever.  I suppose that’s why they charge to go on it. 

 

We got to meet my wife’s half-sister’s boyfriend, his mother, aunt, and sister.  Even though I didn’t know them, they welcomed my wife and kids with open arms.  We even had a little barbeque with hamburgers and hot dogs. 

 

This get-together was what I needed, a chance to relax with family as my kids played with the new relatives.  The kids even got some new toys from their auntie. 

 

We were hoping my wife’s father would show up, but he wasn’t available. 

 

I guess we thought we could use the MapQuest to go back, but it wasn’t like that.  We ended up going the wrong way, and ended up near the Bay Bridge.  However, we followed the road, and it eventually ended at the Golden Gate.  It was pretty frightening, though.  I hate being lost. 

 

Day 3

 

This day, we spent at the place where we are staying.  I had some work to do, and I completed it by six o’ clock that evening. 

 

I took the kids swimming at ten, and my daughter did a lot of the swimming game.  That’s when she swims on her own, and her dog paddle is coming along well.  She didn’t want me to let her go, but when I did, she went to a scream to a hey!!!

 

She’s a little fish in the water, and I had a good time in the hottub.  My wife and I spent some time in it, but it was hardly romantic, since we were not alone. 

 

Day 4 

 

We started out by going down to my wife’s half-sister’s place.  We got there late, but she had some pizza ready for us. 

 

I took my daughter swimming at a nearby pool.  The water was pretty cold, and she did some jumping.  At one time, I let her head go under water, but she did not like that much. 

 

The evening was spent at a Mexican restaurant with my wife’s father and wife, and I had the sampler platter.  It turned out to be the biggest thing on the menu, so I frugally saved it for tomorrow. 

 

Day 5

 

Today was a tourist day as we got off once again to a late start and entered into Pier 39.  It took a while to find a parking space, and it was pretty expensivo too.  We had to park on a parking garage roof, but it had a great view of the city that made the price worth it.

 

From there, we bought ice cream cones and walked down to see the World Famous Sea Lions.  I managed to get a few shots of them as they swam close to us. 

 

My daughter and I then got a chance to ride the carousel.  She had a great time on that. 

 

From there, it was back to my wife’s half-sister’s place and waited for another dinner with Kris’ father.  We went to TGI Fridays this time, and it was also good, with the leftovers. 

 

Day 6

 

At last it was time to leave our place in Windsor.  After the long trip on Day 1, we decided to split up the trip into two halves, and so we stayed a night at a Motel 6 in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

 

However, the Motel 6 was pretty cheap.  I had to go outside in a parking lot to get a WiFi connection.  I used the downtime to finish StarDust by Neil Gaiman.  I don’t recommend the book, and I think I’ll rent the movie. 

 

Day 7

 

Most of this trip was quite slow due to traffic.  By the time we hit Portland, there was nothing but traffic jam after traffic jam. 

 

However, there were some highlights.  We stopped at a rest stop with two chocolate Labrador puppies.  There was also a really cool rainbow by the time we reached Tacoma.  Things like that are worth the long car rides. 

 

I was very glad to get back to my Mom’s place. 

 

 

 

 

This week has been a constant juggle of working and wearing my kids out.  The past two days we took my mother and the kids to some concert of some type. 

Yesterday, it was country music at some old folk's home where my grandmother (my mother's mother) used to stay.  It was pretty fun, and we had ourselves a barbeque burger there that actually had chili that I ate.  What I really liked is these giant dill pickle slabs, which I could really munch on right now.  It had a bouncing area and face painting for the kids, and they just loved it. 

The day before that, we went to a nearby park where they played some blues/jazz/hip-hop music.  There was a playground nearby, and the kids played on it all day while we watched. 

The daytime has, for me, been spent in the library catching up on as little and as much work as possible.  At night, I've been dining on good food and television.  At ten, there are two episodes of Seinfeld in a row.  At eleven, there is the Simpsons or Futurama.  In other words, a lot of mental and physical rest is occurring. 

By the way, I'm trying to make a Simpson version of myself on www.simpsonizeme.com.  Anyone else doing that?

Yesterday, I checked my email to see if I had any assignments I had to do.  Sure enough, one appeared with a big fee, but a lot of work that had to be done in the next two days. 

Today, I spent the entire day at the library to do this assignment.  This one was pretty unique.  My supervisor wanted me to posted questions and answers on her forum sites.  In fact, I had to post five questions and answers on ten sites.  Doing the math, it was about one hundred little thoughts.  I just finished, and I am wiped! 

In order to post these thoughts, I had to create ten login user ids.  I decided to name them after characters in my sci-fi series.  While I'm on that subject, I received a notice from Thomas Nelson publishing saying they are not interested in my sci-fi series.  That's a real shame, that one.  Now I've got to find another venue for it. 

Meanwhile, my wife and my mother took my kids to the Seattle Aquarium, where I am told they had a great time.  Even though I saved some money by not going myself, I really wished I could have been there.  Darn you, deadlines. 

This might become a habit of trying to juggle work and recreation.   Last year, when my family and I did this month long trip, I didn't have much as far as work was concerned.  Now I may have too much.  In fact, I just received an email that could give me even more.  Not sure whether I want to take this, but sometimes, you snooze, you lose. 

I guess I probably won't have any vacation but the relaxing I did on our anniversary, but I think that's all I need.  In the meantime, I'm going to go home, and look at some aquarium pictures that my wife took. 

Well, we have been in Seattle for the past few days.  It has been tough to keep my blog up to date since the only Wi-Fi hotspot is in this one corner of my mother's living room that is, at best, inconsistent. 

On Friday, we went to lunch at my mother's workplace.  The food was good, and it was nice to see my mother praised for all her work.  She is retired as of now, and so she has plenty of time to spend with us on this vacation we are on. 

That night, we sort of crashed her party at Anthony's Home Port, a fancy restaurant down by the dock.  We had a nice time taking a walk and enjoying the sights there. 

Sunday was Mom's big retirement party after church.  While I'm on that subject, I am amazed at how much my mother's church has changed.  It almost feels like the non-denominational one we go to in Pullman.  The Presbyterian one my mother attends used to have an organ, with hymns that were centuries old.  Now the organ has been hopefully donated, and the songs of the hymnal are, at most, decades old.  There is a band with praise singer that is really kickin' me into the Presence of God, I'd have to say.  I was hoping to bump into some old friends of mine at that church, but I never saw any.  Oh well. 

Mom's retirement party was at her golf club, and I saw some relatives that I hadn't seen for a while.  That was a lot of great fun, and everyone really loved my kids.  I was grateful for one of my aunts, who bought them some toys that they really loved to play with. 

Most of the rest of the time I've concentrated on trying to get work done and wear my kids out at the same time.  It's enough to wear me out. 

If you have been following my blog, I spent the 1st celebrating our ninth year anniversary. 

I woke up the next day at the hotel, and we got ready to leave.  From there, it was getting ready for the next phase in August, the trip to Seattle. 

To give my wife some time to pack for this trip, I took the kids to the park.  We saw the flowers, and I had a fun time watch my daughter pretend like she was in my Legend of Zelda game, fighting dragons in a shady forest.  It was kind of cool, and wished I could have stayed a little longer.  I've talked about how I don't like taking my kids to the park, but they always love it. 

However, I have this thing about traveling where I just want to "get there".  I usually just want to get the kids in the car and on the road, obsessively so.  There are way to many distractions along the way, and I just want to get on the road and eat up the miles.  Especially on the Seattle trip, which I have done so many times, it feels as routine as a work day.  That is, it goes by so fast, you just forget that you even lived it. 

We did get to see some beautiful sunsets in Snoqualme Pass.  We usually don't get to see that.  I'm also glad that our youngest son stays quiet in the car, provided the vehicle is in motion. 

I was very tired when we got to Seattle, but the kids were not.  In fact, they were driving around tricycles and Big Wheels in grandma's basement.  Fortunately, they got to bed, but, as usual, I have to snuggle with my daughter in order that they play "the quiet game" and fall asleep.

After that, I noticed my mother's place had a weak, yet working, Internet connection.  However, it didn't hold.  Looks like I'll be siphoning Wi-Fi off of Libraries in order to get something going. 

Well, in case you don't know it, my wife and I are celebrating our anniversary today.  It has been nine years and three kids.  Dang. 

To celebrate, I took my wife to a surprise location.  First, we went to a park in Moscow.  Actually, it was sort of a secondary location.  You see, I had intended to take her to where I proposed to her, but there was some signs telling me that I couldn't park there.  Wasn't a problem nine years ago.  Still, we had a good time eating food that we ate on our honeymoon: sub sandwiches, Dr. Pepper, and Jelly Belly jellybeans.  I guess you had to be there, and thank God you weren't. 

After that, I put a blindfold on Kris and took her to our surprise destination: the Holiday Inn Express.  I took her up to our room, and then tried to tell her we were in Lewiston.  We spent our honeymoon night in Lewiston.  She looked outside the window and saw that we were in our hometown. 

Well, you can't blame a guy for trying. 

I suppose that I don't need to tell you what happened next. 

Well, like the ad says:

Hotel Suite at Holiday Inn Express: a wad of cash.
Ninth Year Anniversary: Priceless

I got to go, my cliche detector went off. 

Every once in a while, you find yourself caught in a moment where pictures aren't enough to record it.  A few years ago, my wife and I went to San Francisco, and we took a Boat Cruise that took us directly under the Golden Gate Bridge.  I knew that we were going to go through an entire roll of film as we passed under.  These are the moments that take us by storm and we wish we could record every aspect of. 

This rafting trip that I took yesterday was one of those moments.  From the moment I got up and saw the sunrise at 5:30, I saw that it was going to be a great day.  This rarely happens to me.  I'm not a morning person.  In fact, only the promise of fun made me get out of bed before the roosters.  In fact, I even heard roosters crowing on my way to church. 

At church, I met with several friends as we gathered for the trip.  It is about a three-hour drive to Riggins, and it was pretty fun the whole way.  When we got there, we had to split the cars up so we could meet each other when we finished rafting, but that was great in its own way.  During that time, two of my friends went up on this bridge, and then went swimming in the river. 

The trip itself was great, but I would have to say there was a lot of hard paddling and the rapids weren't exactly life-threatening.  However, there was giant rocks and all sorts of scenery along the Salmon that was simply breathtaking.  There was smoke in the air due to a fire in Whitebird, and you could see the sun's rays break up through the trees.  It was pretty amazing. 

After the trip, we drove to a restaurant, and I saw the most gorgeous red sunset.  Unfortunately, I  left my disposable camera at the restaurant. 

Still, I've got the memory, and it is amazing.  I had so much fun that I wore myself out.  Surely this is what life is all about.  I fully intend to have this type of life for the entire month of August! 

Today I did something that I haven't done in a while.  My kids like to go to this one park, and my daughter once made a friend there.  She has since named the park after her friend. 

I don't know why I put off taking my daughter and my son to the park.  They love it, and I almost didn't go.  However, once I got there, and saw the kids playing, I played a little myself and had about as much fun as they did.  Of course, it wasn't easy getting them to leave, and my daughter had a slight meltdown, but that isn't the point. 

The point is that I put off something that brings me joy simply because it is mildly inconvienient.  It reminded me of the time when I used to play fetch with our dog.  Then I would do it, and couldn't figure out why I was putting it off. 

Why do we put off the things in life that are good?  What is it that we are embracing?  A lifestyle of utter mediocrity and routine, that's what. 

Last week, my daughter and son went to not one, but two Vacation Bible Schools.  They got out of the house, and went to bed exhausted.  Seems like I do my best to wear out my kids.  I suppose it's because I don't want to hear them yell at each other before they sleep. 

Actually, I think the reason why I did it was because my daughter wanted to go out one night, and I was too tired to take her to the park or anywhere else.  She said to me: "I hate being in this place all day."  That is the first time that I remember that my daughter used the word "hate". 

Needless to say, I can only conclude that life is made for us to go places.  However, we buy nice houses so we can practically drown in comforts.  Television sets fill out mind and remove creativity so we do not have to strain ourselves.  All so we can be safe, and we put off what we really want to do. 

Last night, I went with some friends to see the latest Die Hard movie.  To be honest, I remember not wanting to see this movie.  After all, Die Hard had been literally done to death, especially with that so-so one with Samuel L. Jackson. 

Thank God I went, and it was definitely worth the price of admission.  To be honest, I don't know how these guys could make a picture better than the original Die Hard (Number one action film of all time, according to Entertainment Weekly), but they did.  Every scene just gets bigger and better, and ends up with the "Yippee-Ky-yay" line which I won't say all of here. 

However, one of the things that made this film work was the idea that this could happen.  As far as I could tell, this film credits a novel for its main source, and I'm guessing someone looked at the plot and said: "we need to Die Hard this book". 

The premise is what one of the characters calls a "fire sale".  It is essentially when someone hacks their way into traffic controls, the financial district, and eventually utilities.  It's called that because "everything must go". 

I watched this and began to realize that we have essentially set ourselves up for something like this to happen.  Are we crazy into thinking that making everything online has made things better?  Maybe it's made things easier, but it's a little too easy to screw it up. 

Fortunately, John McClane is on the job.  I had to admire how 20th Century Fox updated Bruce Willis' character for a post-911 world.  Considering it's been twelve years, it is nice to know that brute force and a little perseverance is all it takes to survive a terrorist situation.  In fact, when the first Die Hard film was released in the late 80's, terrorism was something that we only applied to the Middle East.  Now we have something to relate it to. 

John also teaches that being a hero is a thankless job.  Not only that, great men aren't heroes, they are just the ones who do the job because no one else is.  In many cases, this is true, and people follow after guys like these, right or wrong. 

I realize that this is an action movie, and I probably shouldn't revel in it so much.  However, when you really give it your all, you end up being someone like McClane, who can do all sorts of things.  I mean, he takes out a helicopter with a fire hydrant and a car!  For crying out loud, that is the kind of all out drive we need to face problems. 

Essentially, it's living hard so that we may one day die free. 

In high school, I read a novel by Chinua Achebe called Things Fall Apart.  It was for a class, and the book was about how missionaries to Nigeria had essentially ruined the indigenous tribes.  At the time, I was a Christian, but I was not saved.  That is, I said I was a Christian, but truly did not live it.  I was just trying to survive, really. 

I suppose that is worth another entry, but Things Fall Apart seemed an odd title to this book.  I remember seeing that a friend of mine was reading it and said: "Have you heard about the sequel?  It's called Things Come Together".  I have told a lot of bad jokes in my time, and that one must be one of my all time lows. 

Still, I digged on the title.  Things Fall Apart reminded me of a line from Wild Wild Life, a song by the Talking Heads:  "Like sitting on pins and needles, things fall apart, it's scientific."  Clearly, when we are on pins and needles, we come to a crashing down sooner or later.  It is not only scientific but painfully obvious. 

Things Fall Apart the book does paint Christians in quite a negative light.  One missionary goes so far as to whip the Nigerian Tribe and main character Okonkwo into submitting to the gospel.  Even though I thought I was a Christian at the time, I knew that tactics like that are clearly not Christian.  I remember I had a discussion over a decade ago with a man from Nigeria whose name was Joshua.  He told me: "there were missionaries who did that, and there were missionaries who brought the gospel".  Honestly, Christianity should not have any sect, denomination, or other sub-group being characterized as "bad Christian".  What is this?  Good Christian and Bad Christian?

But that isn't my point for today.  The point is that Things Will Fall Apart.  I guarantee that every thing that we do needs some sort of maintenance.  Your car needs its oil changed.  Your house needs cleaning.  The dishes need to get done.  Ignore these for any reason, and it just piles up and then things begin to fall apart.  Sometimes things will fall apart without you even knowing. 

The other day, both my TV set and Air Conditioning went out at the same day, Friday the 13th.  Thank God I don't believe in bad luck, nor the Almighty carrying a personal grudge.  To be honest, I was slightly upset.  I didn't exactly throw the TV out the window.  Still, it bothered me.  Especially the next day, when the heat was getting intense. 

However, I found someone who was willing to fix my swamp cooler, and he charged nothing but the parts.  In fact, he refused to be paid any more.  As much as I would like to say that this is an answer to prayer, I will have to admit that I don't remember praying for this in the first place. 

Maybe I just have some reserve battery of faith that kicks in when things go wrong.  I hope so.  Maybe I just knew that things would work out.  For the most part, they have both generally and specifically.  I have a small TV set that I borrowed from a friend.  I may not be able to play NIntendo Wii or watch DVDs or cable on it, at least it plays VHS.  Maybe we have a lead on getting another one.  If we don't, who cares, it's only TV.  I'm sure this little TV thing I got now would be a sign of wealth in some impoverished country. 

My point is that things do come together, eventually I would have to say it was because of Christian charity that my swamp cooler works.  I'm definitely grateful for it.  Personally, I clearly do not deserve it. 

For those of you who remember, I wrote the other day about how I was tearing up the timecard when it came to my kids.  That is, an acceptance that I am a father 24/7, and therefore must live up to that commitment 100 percent.  Just like a fireman, or cop, when emergencies happen, they are always "on duty".  That means putting themselves outside their comfort zone. 

The moment I wrote that journal I was tested on it with two kids who did not sleep for the life of them.  I finally had to put them in separate rooms, and they tend to be scared of my wife and I's room, for some reason. 

I put my daughter, and then just snuggled with her for a while.  I then asked her about her dream of dolphins.  My daughter has stated on many occasions that she has dreams where she sees dolphins.  In some cases, she has said that the dolphins were mean.  Part of the inspiration, for lack of a better word, may come from a pattern that we have on our shower curtain.  I have seen my daughter not want to see this pattern, and be frightened of it. 

It is amazing what frightens us when we are children.  I remember this sketch on Sesame Street that had an orange that came from a fruitbowl and sang opera.  I have no idea why this frightened me so, and I remember having nightmares about it.  I suppose it sounds funny, but I honestly say that I have a hard time joking about this.  I think if I were to see this sketch on Sesame Street today, I think something deep within me would probably still react fearfully.  That, or I would probably crack up laughing wondering how I could be scared at such a thing. 

My daughter is afraid of bugs, and will panic screaming out of the room when a fly is seen.  As a parent, I can't help but feel slightly helpless of my children's discovery that the world is a fearful place.  I know why my children can't sleep without the light on, because they really fear something otherworldly lives in the dark.  To children, fear is very real and very frightening. 

However, so is their sense of wonder.  I asked my daughter about her dreams, because they carry with them an inherent sense of imagination.  My daughter seems to think that she is riding dolphins in her dream, and she waves to her mother, brother, and me.  I would like to see her never give up on her dream of riding dolphins, because it represents a dream of something seemingly unattainable. 

My point is that we should make promises that are hard to keep.  It is when he hold steadfast to our commitment that we truly learn something great.  This observation with my daughter is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.  It will help me as I raise my two sons. 

This weekend I definitely squeezed as much quality time with my kids as possible.  On Saturday, I took them to the park, where we had a picnic lunch and went on a trail.  Then we went to an indoor play area at a local mall.  Then we went home, and we had a friend over who really played with our kids.  Basketball, soccer, you name it, it was played, all in 100 degree weather. 

Today, I took my kids to church, which can be a lot of exercise for them.  They tend to walk all over the place.  I then took one of them home, and took one on a drive to Spokane to pick up a friend of mine at the airport.  From there, we went to this little fair called a free-for-all where the kids did all sorts of things.  Dang.  They are sleeping quite peaceably now, I'm sure.