Dinner With Mom and Jim

Last night I went out to dinner with Mom and Jim. We went to Islands and I tried to pick out something healthy to eat. Mom let me try her pineapple soft taco (can't remember the name) and it was fantastic. I think I'll have that next time.

We talked about our Thanksgivings and I got to bore them with stories about my new bicycle. They were very jealous that I had just got back from visiting with Micah. Oh, and Wendy and Jeff... ;)

I've noticed that people don't tend to take pictures unless it's a special event, so I wanted to make sure I got a picture of us at dinner even though I see them somewhat often.

A few years ago I noticed that everyone has pictures of Wendy and Jeff, but not very many of me. I realized that it's because when Wendy comes to town, everyone gets out the cameras. So I'm going to try to start taking pictures more often so that I have lots of good memories, of everyone all the time :).

Fun With Karen and Cameron

Besides staying in playing video games, we also went out bike riding on Friday and Sunday. We brought our new bikes with us to San Jose (we bought them the Tuesday before we left). At first, I wasn't so sure that buying new bikes was a great idea, but after riding for awhile, I've decided that I absolutely love my new bike and that the money was worth it. :)

Because we got new bikes, we now have two extra bikes, and we also got another set of roof racks, so no one has an excuse for not riding with us (and we can all go in the same car). All that will be needed is a helmet.

Visiting San Jose

I had lots of fun visiting with Wendy, Jeff, and Micah. Micah is getting much more animated and showing personality. I also got to see the entire Budd family although I didn't get many pictures. I was definitely slacking, but it's hard to remember to take pictures when I'm staring at the baby the whole time. :)

No Pictures Just Yet

Jake borrowed my SD card reader so I don't have any of my pictures to post from this weekend. I'll try to post something tomorrow.

The Rat Dilemma

The decision on the rat was made for me. I came home and the gardener had come by to mow the yard and had dumped the grass in that trash can. It made me feel a little better, since I suppose that would have finished him off if he wasn't dead already.

Veteran's Day

On Friday, Alex asked Jake to come to his school for a Veteran's Day event. The kids sang a song and basically thanked the veterans for everything they did/do for our country. It was actually very cute and touching.

They gave every verteran (I think there were about 60) a chance to introduce themselves and to say what they did or currently do in the US Armed Forces. It was really interesting to hear everyone talk. There were lots of different areas represented: Marines, Air Force, Army, Navy... and also many different jobs: Missle Defense, Pilot, Scout, Cook... and many different wars: Desert Storm, Iraq, Vietnam, World War II (yes, that person was very old)...

Some of the verterans said they had never before been thanked in an event like that and that they appreciated what the school was doing. Some even got a little emotional. It was kind of a cathartic type of experience and I was glad I got to attend.


This is a picture of the stands where people were sitting.


This is a picture of one guy talking (I remember that he was a cook and everyone kind of laughed. Later, a guy who had been a Baker picked on him about people liking the baked goods much better than the regular food served by the cooks. :) You can see Jake behind him.


And this is a picture of some of the Veteran's on stage.

Seven's Presents - Rats

Two days ago, Seven left me a nice present - a very dead rat by my car. Yesterday, she left me another present, a live rat by my car. The poor thing had been punctured and I'm sure played with, and couldn't walk away, but was still alive. So I put them both in a trash can and left.

Now here's the problem, I couldn't stop thinking about this live animal stuck in a trash can with it's dead friend. It's probably in pain, but I'm not sure how long it will continue to live. I thought about trying to kill it, but I don't think I could. It gives me a sick feeling. In fact, I thick the rat gave me a pleading "help me" look when I picked it up to throw it away.

So here I am today, assigning the animal human feelings, thinking of it suffering while lying next to his buddy, although I admit to placing them as far apart as possible in the trashcan just so he wouldn't be too freaked out.

So should I check on him tonight and try to kill him if it's still alive, or should I let nature run it's course and wait for him to die naturally? This whole thing really bothered me.

Out Dancing

Emilio let me download the pictures he took when we went out dancing a few weeks ago. We had a great time. I hope we continue to go out every once in awhile. I'm starting to feel a little bit old. :)

I Love Ebay

I forgot to mention that only a week or two after bleach ruined my pants on the fishing trip last month, I found the exact same pair in the same size on ebay for only about $20 total. I love ebay!

Seven

Just for fun, here's Seven, basking in the sun. It's kind of funny how you can see me taking a picture with my phone in the shadow.

Friends, A Day Off, and Too Much Internet

It turns out that Alan's new apartment is only a couple blocks from a lighted disc golf course. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of us out throwing discs around an eerily foggy course at 2:00am last Saturday, but I do remember having a lot of fun. We even went on the playground. :)

But here are some pictures of the day after. We ended up at a really good mexican restaurant that morning.


This coming weekend should have been a three day weekend for me, but it turns out that we have a special event on Saturday. But I'm very excited to have tomorrow off. I hope to have time to sleep in, hem two pairs of pants that have been waiting (probably won't happen), and try to relax a bit.

This week has been especially stressful with student registration taking place, but today is the last day. Thank goodness! I haven't felt like I've had time to do anything - like blogging. Of course, I suppose I shouldn't be using work time to write on my blog. :)

One problem that I've had lately is that I get caught up reading internet articles any time I need to look something up on line. I can easily spend 30 or more minutes clicking on link after link reading interesting stories, but it's a total waste of time. I'm trying to catch myself and not read too much. I've developed about 5 stacks of stuff around my office that need to be sorted, and I'm contributing to my stress by not getting more important things done. That's defintely an area that has room for improvement, but I'll continue to work on it.

Seven's New House

When I came out of the house this morning, I found Seven sleeping in her bed which is inside of her new house that we bought her. I was excited because now she has her bed and her food in an area protected from the weather.