She's growing up

She went to school today, but she's done that before. Yet, it was different

She wore a uniform, minor change.

All day, every day, major change.

She will always be my little girl, but today; she is a little less of that, and a little more of a big girl. She belongs more to the world now, and a little less to us.

Cuz Shelby "Tagged" me

A~attached or single~ attached
B~best friend~Wife, Alan, Greg
C~cake or pie~ French's Bakery White Cake with Strawberry Filling or Dutch Apple Pie (Tie)
D~day of choice~ Friday
E~essential item~ Family
F~favorite color~ Red
G~gummi bears or worms~ bears
H~hometown~ Granada Hills, CA
I~indulgences~ Hunting and Fishing Trips
J~january or july~ July
K~kids~ 2 a 7 yr old boy and a 6 year old girl
L~life in incomplete without~ friends and family
M~marriage date~ 03/01/01
N~number of siblings~ 1 sister
O~oranges or apples~ oranges
P~phobias or fears~no irrational ones
Q~quotes~ bite me
R~reason to smile~ My family
S~season~ Christmas/Winter time
T~tag someone else~ yeah right.
U~unknown fact about me~ I have John Denver songs on my Ipod
V~vegetarian or meat eater~ Top of the food chain for a reason.
W~worst habit~ not cleaning up my stuff
X~ x-rays or ultrasounds~ makes no difference, so long as it doesn't involve barium and a tube
Y~your favorite food~ Steak and Ice Cream, not together
Z~zodiac sign~Gemini

Paige's Night Out

I know that I haven't finished writing about the Fishing trip, and I missed the 4th of July too. But tht's what happens when you have to go into the hospital for surgery, a few things slip through the cracks. I'll post about those things later...

Paige, and he mom, are heading to the Honda Center tonight with some friends and neighbors to see The Jonas Brothers. Paige really has no idea what she is in for but her friend Abby Goad is going so Paige thinks it must be cool to get to go. Honestly, Paige will go to the Honda Center anytime just so she can get something from the Dessert cart.

Our next door neighbor Susan is taking her daughter, and her daughters friends to the show too. Meghan and her friends all made shirts to wear tonight, and they made Paige one too.

The Trip

Last Monday Trey and I left on a 5 day camping trip in the Eastern Sierras. We went thanks to the invitation of a good friend of mine who had made this trip the previous year with some other friends of his and their sons. Prior to this trip Trey thought camping meant parking the Motor Home at an RV park, so this was a new experience for him, and we were looking forward to it with much anticipation.

Leaving day finally arrived and at 6:00 AM on Monday the 23rd the little man came bounding into my room and said "Is it time to go yet" and so off we went. We had to go over to my office hitch up the tent trailer and finish our packing. Right as we were done with that we got a phone call from Mom who was shocked to find out that we were out of the house by the time everyone else had woken up. I had set a goal for an 8:00 departure, but it was her feeling that she would be forcing us out the door at 10:00. Boy was she suprised. Once we were packed up and hitched up we returned home for goodbye hugs and then we set off from home at 8:20 and headed for the East Fork Campground in the Inyo National Forest.

It's a long drive, about 337 miles according to the GPS. Trey found a few different ways to pass the time.

Me, I just drove. The drive up was very uneventful. The only excitement we had was watching a water dropping helicopter fly up and down Highway 395 while fighting a fire near Kennedy Meadows. We could actually see some of the "Hot Spots" from the Highway. Gas in Lone Pine ($5.19 a gallon for Diesel!!); Carl's Jr. and and ice in Bishop and we pulled into the campground at around 2:30.

Mark and Andre had already set up their tent in space 88, and had managed to save space 90 for us, so we backed the trailer in, unhitched and set up our home for the week.

The next morning, Tuesday, we headed up to the Rock Creek Lake Resort store to rent a boat for the day so we could do some fishing.

When we got on the water we noticed that there was a great deal of fishing going on very near the boat dock. So. after getting the slightly tempermental engine on our boat going, we went no further than 100 yards from the dock and dropped the anchor in about 6 feet of water (good thing to, because the anchor lines on the boats are probably only 25 feet long). The water was "gin clear" and cold to the touch.

We had heard that "Flourescent Red Power Bait" was the hot ticket, and I wanted Trey to catch his first fish, so I rigged up one of my rods and his rod with a slider, swivel, some leader, and a treble hook; placed a gob of bait on each of them them and cast them out. I handed Trey a pole and went to work on stringing my other pole with a lure. After a short time he said "I got one" and eagerly reeled in his line. The only thing on it was the bait. I explained to him how fisheman have to have some patience ( a line he would repeat back to me later in the week when I asked him to do something a little quicker than he was) and he cast his line out again.

About that time I noticed my pole bending up and down, so I told him to put his down and grab mine and reel. He did and was rewarded with his first ever fully self hooked trout, the smile on his face was absolutely priceless.

I love the second picture in that series. The one where I told him to reach in and pick up the fish and hold it. He thought about it, and then asked if I could just take a picture of it in the net. I was smiling and laughing so hard that I did, but I cut his face out, which is what picture three is. I finally got him to hold up the fish, after I put it on the stringer.

Notice the "walkie-talkie" in his left hand. We could see Mark and Andre fishing on the shore, and they had the other one and Trey could not wait to tell Andre about his fish.

More to come later. but I wanted to get these pictures up now....

Love is...

So, it's late on a Thursday evening, but the kids have no school the next day. It's past bedtime but I (we) let them stay up and watch a little Noggin. Paige falls asleep in the sofa in about 8 minutes. I carry her up to bed, and go back downstairs to check on Trey. He's sitting watching TV, not paying attention to anything else. So, I go in the pantry and get out the hot air popper.

Sneak to the kitchen, melt some Nucoa and turn on the popper. Wham-o into the kitchen comes a manic 6 year old, eyes as wide as saucers and a look of bewilderment on his face. "POPCORN?!?!" he shouts. As I nod yes, his face breaks into one of the the biggest grins I've ever seen. He blurts "Man am I ever lucky to be up this late" and then he breaks into a happy dance that looked sort of Snoopy dancing to Vince Guaraldi.

So, we're chilling on the floor and asks for some cold apple juice. I stand up and think "I know what would make his night" so, instead of apple juice I head to the garage fridge and grab 2 diet 7-ups. I come back in, hold up the can and say "Will this do?" and he just giggles and nods yes. It was like I had offered him the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He stits down next to the popcorn bowl, with his soda and says "man, this is the life".

Later we had climbed up into the recliner and a little girl came on tv. Someone off camera asked her what love was. Her reply was something to the effect of it's when you like someone more than anyone else. The narrator asks like whom, and she replies with the usual "My mom, My dad, My sister......" Then Trey looks at me and tells me she's wrong. I asked him why does he think she is wrong to which he replied "because that's not what love is". So while sountracks of 1980's pop rock ballads burn through the syanpses in my brain He replies...

"Love is when you really want to kiss somebody"

"

Superdelegates or the Supreme Court

There has been lots of talk lately about the "Superdelegates" of the Democratic Party and the effect that they may have on the upcoming Democratic Convention. It seems to me that allowing these people to make up their own minds about who should be president is the equivalent of allowing the Supreme Court to make it's own decisions in the 2000 race, and we all know how that turned out.



MSNBC has an article on the Superdelegates here. You can sign a petition asking the "Superdelegates" to support the Popular Vote Winner here.

As the title implies...

As the title implies, any and all ramblings posted here may seem to be Purely Pointless to some.