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Charge conference was Monday night. It is the meeting that members of the church decide on officers for the coming year.

Cari and I sat one row back from the front. We each already had our names on the page for different positions. As the district superintendent read the list of positions and names, he came to a place with three blanks listed. This is for the committee on Lay Leadership. He instructed the group that we should nominate three people and at least one should be a person under thirty years old. He emphasized that point several times before taking names. Cari and I were the only ones in the room under thirty. I put my head down and focused on the floor. That is a tactic you use in school when you don't want to get called on, so I thought I would try it again.

The room was quiet for a minute, then I heard the voice of my friend, Bill.
"I'd like to nominate. . .", I heard him start.
Inside my head, I was screaming, "WHY ME?!"
Bill continued, ". . .Cari."

I looked up. My tactic had worked. I glanced over at Cari and saw the look in her eye. I started laughing to myself. She should have focused on the floor if she didn't want it. She shot a look over at Bill.

As soon as the meeting was over, Cari ran up to the Pastor. "What did I get nominated for?"
He explained the position briefly, then Cari headed straight for her nominator.
Bill was already in the back of the room laughing. He knew she would be looking for him. I ran up and shook Bill's hand. Cari said, "Why didn't you pick Ed?"
"I knew what I was doing.", he replied.
He must know the rule about staring at the floor.

So long, California!!!

California irritates me. Nothing good comes out of California. I've sent an official request to the army corps of engineers to go and cut California away from the continent. I don't expect a response until they have fixed New Orleans.

I'm not alone in my hatred of California and it's crazy inhabitants. If they wanted to break away and become their own country, there would be no civil war. We would all just wave goodbye and close the border.

I've never liked California or the things that come from there. The rulings that come from their courts make me sick. The latest ruling is what prompted me to write this.

From the WashingtonPost:

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the law requiring the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional and said he was ready to issue an injunction to three California school districts to halt the daily reciting of the pledge.

"Under God" is the reason for this ruling. The one, divorced, father that is atheist decided to stop this patriotic pledge.
"One nation, under God", is not forcing a Christian belief. It is not forcing a Jewish belief, or Muslim. The major religions in the United States all pray to a single God. The only person that wants to complain is the ONE guy who believes in NO God. When I was in school, we would stand with our hand over our heart and recite the pledge every morning. I believe there were two students in the school who remained seated and did not participate. They were not ridiculed, they were not singled out, and they did not complain. The pledge is NOT a prayer or a pledge of your religion. It is a patriotic statement. No matter what religion, or lack of religion a person claims to be, we are ALL Americans.

Want proof that I'm not alone? I found this on CNN:

Outraged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blasted the ruling as "outrageous," "nuts," and "stupid." The U.S. Senate was so outraged by the decision that it passed a resolution 99-0 "expressing support for the Pledge of Allegiance" and asking Senate counsel to "seek to intervene in the case."

Here's another from CNN:

"Our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves. This is the worst kind of political correctness run amok," Bond said. "What's next? Will the courts now strip 'so help me God' from the pledge taken by new presidents?"

Even the President:

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said President Bush believes the ruling is "ridiculous."

here's the link to that CNN article.
I could go on all day, but I will spare you.

Maggot

My favorite cat, Maggot. Cari found her as a kitten in the parking lot of a grocery store. When Cari carried the kitten into the house she (the cat) was filthy. Later that night, Cari named the kitten, Maggie. The last thing I wanted, was to keep this animal. I affectionately REnamed the kitten, Maggot.

Falling Apart

Wow! What a day. Things are falling to pieces.

exhibit 1:
Walked into the kitchen to see that this plate had crashed to the floor. Earlier in the summer I was playing with the camera and took some close up shots of the flowers on the plate. It used to sit on a shelf in the kitchen area. The boy must have been jumping around upstairs and caused it to fall. It was the first fatality off that shelf.

exhibit 2:As she was walking on the walkway in the backyard, she tripped and fell face first onto one of the patio stones. The band-aid is covering up a big bruise/lump on her head. She screamed for about two hours. Well, maybe ten minutes. It was loud enough that my ears were ringing for two hours.


exhibit 3: is this enough yet? I've had a rough day.

This WAS an Oak Cutworm. Death by auto. He was making his journey across my driveway after devouring one of my oak trees. That's one less moth I'll deal with next spring.

Mr. Home Improvement

Earlier this week, I introduced you to my friend Rick. Rick reminds me of Tim Taylor from the now expired, "Home Improvement" show.

If something needs to be done, Rick will do it. If something at his house can be upgraded, it will be done. Need a gadget invented to assist you in life, go see Rick.

Rick's wife went out one day and left Rick in the house alone.
When she came home, he had cut a hole in the wall of the spare room. As she walked into the house, she saw him tossing construction debris out of this hole. AND he was enjoying it. This was not a planned project. Just a Rick moment.

I'm the other side of the story. If something needs to be done, I'll acknowledge it. If something at my house can be upgraded, Cari will do it. Need a gadget invented to assist you in life, go to Rick's house.

I need deadlines. Trash needs to be taken out? How soon do you need that done? Sometime in the next hour or sometime today? The water that flows over our front sidewalk after a heavy rain can be fixed by adding some drainage under the walkway. It hasn't rained in over three weeks, why waste time fixing something that isn't a problem? Randy wants his bed turned into a pirate ship. Add that to the list.

Recently, Rick has seemed to make it his mission to point out the projects I do not complete in a timely manner. Keep in mind this is the guy who cut a hole in house for fun. I'm going for a bike ride when I need fun.

Writing this blog was on my list of things to do today. My list just got shorter.

Have faith?

Cari and I started to watch "Science of the Bible" on the National Geographic Channel.
The first episode last week was about the birth of Jesus. It's a very interesting program and we look forward to seeing more of it.

They are out to prove the stories in the bible with science. Some of the first episode they talked about the birth place of Jesus. We all picture this pretty manger with horses and sheep in their stables. The program tells us that people in that time did not keep animals in a separate building like the image we have created. In many towns, the people built split level homes and the animals were kept on the lower level. It is in a space like this that would be more likely.

They point out discrepancy in some of the gospel. They also point out in at least one instance, that history at that time was written for a purpose and not always completely accurate.

Not everything in the bible can be proven with science. That's why you have faith. You will not find a physical presence of God, but you have faith that God is there in the way that you believe.
If you can get the National Geographic channel, I recommend you try and watch this. I found it very interesting.

Diablo Maximus!

Hurricane names are too friendly.
Some of the hurricane names for 2005 are (were) Cindy, Katrina, Maria, Stan, Tammy, Wilma, Dennis, and Gert. These names do not clearly portray a deadly storm. If I were to live in a coastal area and you told me that hurricane Maria was headed right for me, I would say, "ok.". Hurricane Maria? Ha!

I think that these harmless sounding names are affecting the safety of people. Seriously, I would NOT evacuate for hurricane Gert. What the hell kind of name is Gert? Gert is not going to even blow a shingle off of my house.

Here is the solution I want to propose.



Give storms scarier names. Tell people that Hurricane Diablo Maximus is headed straight for them and they will evacuate two states inland. There would be chaos. People running in the streets, "Run for your lives, Diablo Maximus is coming!!"
The guy on channel two would stand in front of his map tracking Death Storm 2005!

Now, to prevent a wimpy small hurricane from achieving such a prestigious name, rules would have to be implemented. Storms that do not reach above category 2 would not be named with the "scary name" system. That rule would help cut down on false alarms.

But for now, we still use the "friendly aunt/uncle" naming system. I'll tell you, if they ever use my name, I hope it's one heck of a storm.

You Stink!

I was laying on bed after church yesterday. The four year old came into the room, looked at me, sat on the floor, and started crying. I turned on my side to face her but did not sit up. What in the world could she be crying about? Cari came into the room to investigate the screaming child.
"What did you do to her?", she asked me. WHY do I become an instant suspect? I was laying in bed peacefully and I became the victim.

"I didn't do anything to her.", I claimed. It was the truth.
Cari turned to Meredith and asked her, "What happened? Why are you crying?"
Meredith said she wanted to watch a movie in my room. I was still confused (and tired). I turned my back to the two of them and closed my eyes. Cari continued calming Meredith, and the girl continued to cry.

Cari picked her up, "You can watch a movie in here, dad is just laying down. Do you want to sit with dad?"

Meredith sniffed a bit then replied, "I'm crying because dad is stinky!"

Welcome to Rick's World!

I told Rick the other day that he must live in an alternate reality.

It's all about perseption. Rick and I can watch the same movie and after, tell two different plot lines.

Welcome to Rick's World!
He makes some great carrot cake that he says is WORLD famous. That is quiet a claim. I asked what makes it WORLD famous. He told me that if people from different areas have tasted his cake, and those people spread word, then surely news of this great cake has traveled the world. (I suppose I'm only helping on his claim here).

Rick is in a weight loss contest. After one week he was up two pounds. He still swears that he is REALLY down four pounds. This after multiple people have witnessed the scales. He doesn't dispute his weight, just his weight change. Enjoy your stay in Rick's World!

I was in the office eating some WORLD famous cake. After I finished my piece, I sat in the office and talked with Rick a few more minutes. That's what friends do, right? Well, he offered me another piece. I told him how great his cake was, but declined to take another. A few minutes pass and he offers again. Again I declined. On the third offer, I took my second piece.

Later that night, Cari had seen Rick. She came home and said, "Rick tells the story of you getting two pieces different than you tell it." He basicaly told her that I begged for a 2nd piece. That I lingered in his office, tapping my fork to the plate until I got more. Welcome to Rick's Alternate Reality.

Welcome to the FUTURE!

Gillette unveils five-blade razor

It seems like just a few years ago I was using a razor with only three blades. How primitive!
It's hard to believe the rate that technology progresses in some fields.
What will they think of next? A six-blade razor?! I don't see how that would be possible.

My morning

"The computer won't on.", she said. I was sleeping. Sleeping soundly. It was early.
I hardly opened an eye, "huh?"
"I can't get the computer to turn on. It has power, but the screen is blank.", Cari explained.
I replied in my sleep, "turn it off and turn it back on again."
The next time I remember her coming back she told me, "It won't turn off."

At this point I realized I was getting up. The computer was working at two AM when I went to bed. Now at 7:30 it was not. I staggered over to the desk and turned the computer off and on again. Just as she described, blank screen.

Cari was in the kitchen getting the kids ready for school. I glanced in her direction as I headed back to bed, "Memory is dead."

I woke back up at around nine when Cari asked what was going on with the computer. She was starting to have internet withdrawal. I told her one of the RAM chips had failed.

After I had my cup of coffee I opened the computer and took one of the two chips out. Turned on the computer and nothing. Put that chip back in and took the other out. Computer started just fine.
I held up the offending chip, "this one is dead." The sticker on it says, "ValueRAM".

ValueRAM has NO value at this point.

We went from two 512MB chips to one. The result, large programs run slower. Simcity 4 will crawl with a large city. Cari's eyes lit up at that.
"I have traffic to fix in my city!", she told me as I purchased a new chip online.

Two Picture Tuesday

Meredith dancing
to the Booty song.

















Don't smell this
flower too closely,
or you may get a
surprise!

Dirt Track Racing

Racing on the dirt. Nothing I found can beat it. These guys slide through the corners, pushing on each other until they see the next straight. Then they floor it and bang on each other down to the next corner. Two guys started to get sideways as they came out of turn 4, pushed each other into the infield, and they both floored it. Racing down the infield straight, they both jumped the hill just as they turned hard into turn 1.

Click the picture for my 2nd video:

The music in the video is by Tim Wilson. They played the song during intermission at the track. In fact they played it twice. Many children and some unashamed adults went to the fence and danced to it. My friends and I couldn't stop laughing.

SEPTEMBER 11

2001
2005

Cowpizza

A creation of Randy's. This started as a pencil drawing last Sunday. To help keep Randy quiet in church, I wrote four sentences on the back of the bulletin. He had to draw the four sentences.
After church, he recreated his drawing in full color with his markers.
I'll let you figure out what the four sentences were.

Learning about myself

Today I learned something about myself. I knew this has always existed in me to some degree. This afternoon it hit me, and I really thought about it.

Today I pulled out the ten dollar bill reserved for my lunch and made a purchase. I walked out to the car and called Cari.
"I bought myself a present with my lunch money.", I admitted.
She asked with curiosity, "what did you get?".
"I'm too embarrassed to tell you. I'll show you when I get home.", I replied.

It's something I normally only think about in the dark. Sometimes when I'm driving home, I think about "it".

"It" is my fondness of flashlights. I have four, 4-D Maglight flashlights in the house. Each a different color. These are great flashlights, and HEAVY. Good for whacking bad people in the head. Thankfully, I have never had to test whacking people. Maybe that is because they see my cool maglight and get scared.

I also have an old military flashlight. This one holds different filters in its handle to change the color of the light. This is not as bright, but fun to play with.

The flashlight I got today was on sale. That is what prompted my interest at first. It is a cordless, rechargable light. It can be charged in the car or at home. The reason I was embarrassed to tell Cari what I bought is because I already have a flashlight in each car and three sitting on my desk. She would not understand the importance of this really great deal.

This new flashlight puts out 1,000,000 candle power!!! That's a bright light. It says it will light TEN times the brightness of a car headlight. Did I tell you it is a MILLION candle power? That's a lot of candles. I wonder if they measure that with tea lights or the big jar variety. Maybe the testers use scented candles. A million scented candles would probably knock you out. That would be a tough job. I'm not sure I could get a million candles to light at the same time.

THAT is why I need this flashlight. With this light there is no worry about lighting candles.

I'm still on the look out on one of those flashlights with no battery. Some you shake and there are others that have a crank on the side to wind up some energy.

My new favorite sign

I'm scared of that sign. Mostly because I don't want my car to do that. It must be done with some kind of inflatable hump that inflates like an airbag as your car speeds over the zone. With a poof, your car pops into the air. Sounds like fun, but probably isn't.

The Fly Hunter

Randy came into the room the other day holding a fly. I couldn't figure out how the boy caught the thing. Click on this picture to learn how he captured his first fly. After Cari and I showed some interest in his skill, he made it his mission to catch any house fly by hand. We are currently on the catch and release (outside) program. There was one mishap while he was perfecting his technique. He came to me with a fly yesterday and in a very serious tone, explained that some of the fly's legs had been removed.

Now if we can get him to clean his room with the same enthusiasm.

Return to Twin Falls

After dropping Meredith and Randy at school,
Cari and I headed for twin falls. We had been
there once before. The first time we went it was raining. This day we had beautiful weather.


Standing on the observation deck is not good enough for us. We wanted to get up close with this water.








As we got closer, the air got much colder. There was quite a bit of wind coming from the falls. I reached in and felt the water rushing past our feet. The water was freezing!






We must continue toward the base of the bigger falls.













We got to the bottom! It was cold, windy, and extremely loud.

Always wanting to go further I suggested we get INTO the falls.

Cari did a time check and realized we were ten minutes behind schedule going to get Meredith at school. Swimming in the falls will have to wait until next time.

Don't pick on people bigger than you.

I woke up yesterday morning to water being flicked at my face. I opened my eyes. I think it was still dark out. I saw a toothbrush, at very close range. Randy had his finger on the bristles, spraying water in my face. He was laughing. Then he climbed up and sat on my back. He proclaimed that I was his couch. That's how my day started. After being up until two AM, waking up at seven.

At three o'clock I went outside. Randy's bus would be pulling up any minute. I sat in a white plastic chair next to a row of bushes on the driveway. In my left hand. . . a garden hose.

The bus pulled up, and Randy started up the driveway.
I stood up.
"Hey!", I shouted. "Remember this morning?"
Before he could answer he was being soaked from head to toe. He dropped his backpack and lunch box. Water continued to soak him. I would stop for a minute, then get him again.
I didn't get any water sprayed in my face this morning.

Never before

Completely unbelievable to me. But it is happening.

Shooting at people fleeing a hospital.
Shooting at rescuers.
Rape and beatings INSIDE the convention center.
Dead bodies lay uncovered on the streets.

I've found this to be the best source of information from New Orleans.
http://www.wwltv.com/

You can watch live feeds from that station also.

Complete anarchy.

CRISIS!

We are having an emergency here. I'm not sure how much longer the town can survive.
Signs all around town are starting to look something like this:
The problem is gas stations are running out of #3 signs. I've seen several signs with 1/2 a number three. I don't think any station owners ever planned on using that many three's on their boards. Hardware stores can not keep up with demand. There were a few reports of 3's missing off of mailbox sides.

While we are talking about gas stations, I'd like to say thank you to Mr. Spinx. Spinx owns a chain of gas stations in the area. He went on TV last night telling people there would be a shortage of fuel for the next seven days. No deliveries to the area. This caused some panic yesterday. Prices went up sixty cents. Customers would fill their car and every empty container they could find. Many gas stations in town are already out of gas. Thanks again, Mr. Spinx for causing unnecessary panic!

If anyone needs a #3, I've got five under my bed. They are selling for $25 each.