XBOX 360 PREMIUM 4 Sale? ...

I have one, what should I do with it? It is a brand new Premium Edition, with Project Gotham Racing and an Extra wireless controller.

Nothing beats a ....

1993 Brown Dodge Dynasty with knock off spinners that don't spin.

That is just awesome, there is nothing else to say about this lineup except maybe they could have left nadasurf off the bill and let everyone else play an additional five minutes.

Have you ever felt like you were on an island all by yourself? Had so much on your mind that you wish you could just talk to someone but there is no one there that you trust, feel you could confide in, or would understand what you are going through. I am on that island.

What else should I be
All apologies
What else could I say
Everyone is gay
What else could I write
I don't have the right
What else should I be
All apologies

All Apologies ~Nirvana

Has anyone ever had one of those days that start out bad, continue to suck and then get even worse? Yeah you know those days that I am talking about. Well I had one of those days today and it just doesn't really seem anywhere near getting better. Maybe it never will get better. Who has seen that show Breaking Bonaducci? I think I am going to pitch my own version of the show to Fox titled Deconstructing Donovan, they will air it, they play anything. I don't really want to talk about the major thing on my mind, not at this time, I am not ready. But I did make a mistake in telling the superintendent to please stop cross talking during our meeting today, it wasn't right for her to be doing especially about complaining about everyone else doing it at a previous meeting but I was out of line commenting on it. It was one of those moments where the words came out of my mouth before my brain thought. I will also share the icing on the top of the cake, my brother received the CHP report from his accident today and the CHP is recommending that he be charged with involuntary manslaughter, so last thing I had heard my brother disappeared and no one has any idea where he is at. I tried to call him earlier but his phone just went to voice mail. I just hope that he doesn't do anything crazy.

Am I going crazy?
Am I going insane and dazed?
Am I too lost to face this?
And what will it cost to escape?
Nothing is right.
I am so scared.

Am I Going Crazy ~Korn

WHY?

Why is it that some of us work so hard to do the right thing when the wrong thing often goes unconsequenced? Why is it that the only person you can count on in life is yourself, because everybody else will eventually let you down in some way or another?

You think your head’s achin’, I’m not finished yet.
I won’t be mistaken, how soon you forget.
Take back what you said and I’ll spare you pain.
Then you can spare me all your lies.
I can’t wait to get away.
I ask you twenty more times, don’t you hear a thing?
You’re testing my patience again, careful for your sake.
Take a walk with me there, and I’ll show you pain,
But who said you can open up your mouth?
I can’t wait to get away.

Stress ~Godsmack

I Need A Camera...

I always talk about my blogs that I come up with while driving, I guess that you have a lot of time to think about random stuff as your mind wonders. Today, while driving to work I wished that I had a camera with me, I would have become the Litter Police. A BMW 540 sitting in front of me while getting on the 41 south at Friant decided to flick his cigarette from his window. The funny thing was he tried to be so sly about it, you could tell by watching him. I guess he doesn't want to dirty up the ash tray in his nice car so the jerk decides to dirty up the streets. Since I didn't have a camera to take a picture of him doing it I deceided I would post his liscence plate number to humiliate him in front of my two readers. 5CCP469. If you know this person please tell him he is a jerk.

I also saw an original Pimp Daddy standing on the side of the street while driving down Jensen today, words really can't describe it, I wish I had a camera but since I didn't please just try to picture this. Black Dickies, A Purple Shirt, A Gold Chain, A Pimp Hat, and A Big Fat Cigar in his hand.

Until next time...

More Amusing Things...

• Taco Bell has a commercial on the radio for their new Grilled Chicken and Steak Nachos. The funny thing was the disclaimer stating "All white meat chicken available in United States only."
• Terrell Owens is suspended for the season, what a surprise, did anyone expect the primadonna to actually be any different than he was in San Francisco? Did we all forget how childish he was in demanding a trade to Philadelphia after initially being dealt to Baltimore?
• Today is an election day, does anyone actually know anything about what is on the ballot?
• For anyone needing some websites to check out, look at the following: Mole Station Nursery at molestationnursery.com and Who Represents at whorepresents.com

Until next time...

SOME SAY I NEVER UPDATE

So to appease all of the unsupportive people who openly criticize my lack of new posts I will add a pointless entry. Have you ever wished that you could post to your blog telepathetically? I have, sometimes I will just be driving along and think of a great blog entry but by the time I get home, I will have either forgotten about it completely or get busy with other things and not update. I have some wonderful pictures of our trip to Great America with Austin this past weekend which I will have to post once I get home, I also have the mandatory Halloween pictures which will also be posted later today.

But since I am here I may as well talk about some things that bug me:

• The 180 / 41 Interchange - This thing is backed up every day, and I hate the people who instead of getting behind the traffic in the left hand lane, go flying by everybody so that they can merge in at the front of the line.
• Boring World Series - Even though I can't stand the Yankees or the Red Sox, at least if they are in it I have somebody to root against and the game matters, nobody outside of Houston or Chicago cared about the teams playing and that why it was the least viewed Series in history. What made it even worse is that all of the channels ran repeats and alternative programming because they didn't want to compete against the series. I can not wait for the return of Arrested Development, My Name Is Earl, and House, three of the best shows currently on television.
• Clothes that have fake pockets, enough said.
• People who call and then don't leave voice messages, my days of returning calls based on missed call lists are over.
• People who don't understand what it is like to have children, they expect to do things at all hours of the night and make plans last minute.
• Did I mention fake pockets on clothes.

Well until next time...

MOVIE REVIEW: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

From the reviews that I have read about this movie it seems that people either love it or hate it with very little in between. I must say that after viewing the film I am definitely in the loved it catergory. One of the major complaints is that the movie is slow developing. Sometimes, it is refreshingly nice to see a movie that develops slowly over the typical hollywood action fare which I think after reading reviews of those who hated the film, that is what they were expecting. The movie does move along at a slow pace but there is enough going on that it keeps your attention, I did not find myself zoning out thinking about other things as I often do when watching movies, instead I was focused on the screen the entire time. My biggest complaint about the movie was the sexual scenes that could have been toned down a little in my opinion but when you think of a movie about violence, the explicit sex scenes do tie in well. I was disturbed to see a 8 year old child walking out of the theater when the movie ended as the film is definitely not for children. My one other desire for the film would have been that the character of the son was looked at just a little closer, it was an interesting role that just kind of got lost and forgotten after the shotgun scene. Many people I am sure disliked the ending of the film, as Americans I think we are taught that movies must resolve themselves in the end, which this film clearly did not. Many people in the theater were clearly upset at the ending of this film because it was no where near resolving itself when it suddenly ends when Viggo Mortenson returns home from Philadelphia and quietly joins his family at the dinner table, with his daughter giving him a plate a son passing him food and his wife praying, yet no dialogue which I think is what bothered most people. In all, I thought the film was great but obviously it is not for everyone.

UPDATE: PICC LINE REMOVED

I had my follow up appointment with my GP today and my blood work looked good as all my numbers were within normal range. I informed my Doctor that the GI had said that my GP could have my PICC line removed if my bloodwork came back good and I tolerated the solid foods I got to start eating on Friday. My GP left the exam room and made a call to the GI to confirm this information and when he returned to the room he placed an order for me to have my PICC line removed. He wasn't even sure of the procedure for having them removed at Kaiser which was kind of scary but after conferring with a nurse he learned that he had to send me down to the infusion center.

It was kind of scary walking into the infusion office because as you walk down the hallway to get there you see on the same sign infectious disease center. I had a hard time figuring out where somebody got the idea that the two of them should be put together. Lets take our patients with IV's and have them go to the same department with those who have contracted TB. Yeah, thats a good idea.

Well, it was funny walking into the house after my appointment and seeing Austin run past Jamie which he never does, to look at my arm and declare me normal again. He was very excited, as was I. Well he wants me to go and play a game with him, so until next time...

DRY: Augusten Burroughs

After reading Running With Scissors, I was determined to read the second memoir by it's author Augusten Burroughs. Over the summer while in Pismo I found the book at the outlets for $4.99 so I quickly picked it up. Needless to say while you are laid up ill you have a lot of free time to do some reading so I read the book. I must say that while I finished the entire book it wasn't quite the book that Running With Scissors was. In fact in terms of addiction and recovery it pales in comparison to Oprahs recently selected Book of the Month A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Having read Running with Scissors it is obvious that Burroughs was predisposed to addiction however his lack of strength in relapsing and lack of common sense in choosing a Crack Addict from group therapy to get involved with really disappointed me, I guess I expected more from him. I also did not like the point at which the memoir concluded, after taking this entire journey through rehab and relapse you get a five page chapter concluding the memoir that basically informs you Augusten has one year sober and that his friend Jim now has 90 days and thats the conclusion. Highly dissapointed. To sum things up read Running With Scissors but if you are looking for a good book on addiction and recovery stay away from Dry and instead pick up a copy of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces.

UPDATE: GI APPOINTMENT

I had an appointment with Dr. Collarian yesterday who is my GI at Kaiser. He was pleased with my lab results and is going to let me start eating solid foods tomorrow. If everything goes okay through the weekend then I get to have my IV removed when I go back to see my GP on Tuesday morning. Things are starting to look up as I am hopeful that my life can return to normal next week.

Solitude: Two Weeks in a Kaiser Hospital

My ordeal began Late in the afternoon on Friday September 2nd. That morning I attended a workshop at Alvina and felt fine and from there I went to Hanford to meet with four students before picking up Christian at football practice. The moment I walked into the Hanford office the pain began. As I knew from experience I was having trouble with my Gallbladder which in the past has led to Pancreatitis for me because Gallstones can get stuck in the Pancreatic duct. Sometimes these Gallstone attacks last as little as 30 minutes and sometimes they have been known to go on for hours on end, this particular episode started at 3:30 PM. I somehow acted as I was in no pain long enough to meet with my four students and then I drove to Lemoore to pick up Christian, on the way back from Lemoore the pain had still not subsided so I drove myself to the Kaiser Emergency Room where I arrived at 7:30 PM.

Of course with my luck Friday night at a Kaiser Emergency Room is worse than trying to get a table at The Olive Garden. I was hoping at one point that they had those little pagers like restauants do so that I could go outside and get some fresh air since when you are having abdominal pain the last thing you want to do is sit still for extended periods of time. Jamie brought Austin and Madison down and they joined me for a while but as the night dragged on and it seemed like I was nowhere near being called in I had her take the children home so that they could go to bed and I waited on my own. At one point around 11:00 PM I asked if I could at least be given something for the pain if I wasn't going to be called in anytime soon and so I was given something. When the triage nurse called me in to give me the pain medication he said so you've been waiting for almost 3 Hours, I laughed, because at this point it had been closer to 4 hours but then I learned that they don't actually start the clock when you walk into an ER like we do, they wait until you are seen by the triage nurse before starting the clock, that way they can lie to themselves about how long it actually takes them to see patients in the ER. Finally, close to midnight I was called in and given a bed, the nurse drew labs and gave me some pain medication which put me to sleep. Hours later, what time I can not be sure of a doctor finally came in to see me. Apparently, there was only one doctor working the floor and he seemed to be an intern at that, I watched him on multiple occasions go into another room and confer with an attending. Around 5 AM I was moved from the room I was in into another room within the ER because they had a patient coming in by ambulance that they needed to monitor and all the monitor equipment was in my room. About 7 AM Jamie came back to the hospital and joined me in the ER. I was given a huge bottle of disgusting stuff to drink and told I was going to have a CT Scan and then they would wait for a GI consult. Well after all that was completed I found myself taken to a room where a mouthpiece was placed in my mouth to hold my mouth open and I was put to sleep. I don't remember anything else from that weekend or much from Monday either as I spent the time asleep. I can remember waking up briefly and seeing various people visiting but I can't remember any conversations I had during the time.

On Tuesday as I finally started to come through and spent more time awake I learned that they were shooting for Thursday to remove my Gallbladder. As Thursday came and went the still did not perform surgery due to my pancreas still being inflamed. I think it was Wednesday, that they finally approved of me having a clear liquid diet, which I had on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday they moved me up to a liquid diet but that only lasted for breakfast and lunch, by dinner they switched me back to NPO due to running fevers. At this point I still had not had my surgery that was originally scheduled for Thursday but they finally gave the approval on Saturday for me to have the surgery to have my Gallbladder removed. Prior to surgery I was informed that I would be able to go home either Sunday or Monday. After awakening from surgery the time frame changed to 2 to 5 days due to what appeared to be a growth on my pancreas, this really depressed me because I was looking forward to being able to go home after spending a week in the hospital. On my second Monday in the hospital I had another CT Scan which revealed that there was no growth on my pancreas but that my pancreas was still enlarged. So the NPO would continue. Finally Monday evening I recieved some good news, if my infection continued to go away and I did not run any more fevers they would send me home on Wednesday. However, the catch, I would be on Home Health Care for anywhere from 1 - 3 weeks possibly even more and in 15% of cases like mine a cyst forms on the pancreas that later has to be drained by needle. So on Tuesday I had what they call a PICC line, which is a semipermanent IV placed in my arm whihc would be used to administer my antibiotics as well as my TPN which is bagged nutrients for the coming weeks. Wednesday came and I finally was discharged from the hospital.

My stay in the hospital was certainly not without its own drama:

• I had three doctors caring for me, and I doubt they talked very often because they would each come in every day and tell you different things making for a very confusing time in the hospital. Why the GI did not take the lead and my primary care physician took secondary is beyond me since this would be the GI's area of expertise.
• Next was the nurse that on two occasions broke down and had fits in front of either my family or myself. I asked here one day about something the Dr. Said and she basically got upset and said "We don't know anything, the doctors don't share things with us."
• After surgery they had some orange leg contraptions that pumped up your legs back and forth to prevent the risk of clotting I guess. Well during the day when I would get up and walk they would take them off and then put them back on at night. Well one morning I had a nurse come in and tell me that they had been but on the wrong legs by the nurse the night before, which honestly doesn't surprise me considering I had to call the nurse back after she put them on me because she forgot to turn them on as she left my room.
• I was a very difficult stick for the nurses to start an IV. At one point I was stuck five times before they finally got the IV started on the sixth effort. Another time a nurse came in to start an IV and brought the blood draw caddy by accident, so she had to go back and get the IV caddy, upon returning to my room they attempted twice to start the IV and after failing walked out saying she would have someone else come in, leaving both caddies behind, six hours later someone finally came back in and yes the caddies stayed there the entire time.
• I called for my nurse to come in because I lost an IV when my vein collapsed and instead my nurse I ended up with the blood pressure lady who didn't speak very clear english, she took my vitals and then left turning off the nurse light in the process. Finally after some time later I called for my nurse again and she finally came in unaware that I had called earlier. She looked at my IV and said you should have called earlier, I told her I did and explained the situation and she looked at me and says, "Sometimes we have a language barrier around here."
• When I got home from the Hospital and Saint Agnes brought out supplies for my home treatment they did not bring the Antibiotic I was supposed to be on. Somehow this was missed at Kaiser and never ordered.

I know this isn't everything that happened but it is the stuff that is clearest on my mind at the time. On Wednesday the 14th I was finally discharged, but I was discharged from Kaiser to Home Health Care. Home Health Care was suppposed to come out at 5 PM that night. After talking to the nurse she told me she would be out at 7 PM. Finally, at about 9:45 PM the nurse finally arrived. I was already nervous about the situation but as she had to look at all of the supplies closely to figure out what was going on I became even more nervous. I guess when you have a nurse come into your home you expect them to know exactly what is going on. Come to find out that Home Health Care means they teach you how to push your own IV's and then they come out for blood draws and dressing changes only. The first night I had a bad reaction to the antibiotic and became very clammy and drowsy. Once it was done I immediately started feeling better. So starting on day two I had to have Benadryl injected prior to the antibiotic infusion. Home Health Care came out for 4 days and then the task of connecting IV's became my poor wifes who not only now had to care for our two small children but also had to play nurse to her husband. One of the things we learned during the process is that the main difference between an LVN and an RN is about twice the salary and that an RN is allowed to push IV's while an LVN is not. Ironic isn't it that an RN spends years in school to be able to push IV's yet people are trained in four days to push their own IV's. It makes you wonder where the responsibility falls in cases where people have accidents while trying to start their own IV's.

Well I finished my last antibiotic last night and today I return to see the GI at Kaiser at 4 PM. I am hoping that my lab draws from yesterday all look good and I can have my IV removed but I don't know whether that is even part of the plan today. My diet that began on Saturday of Jello, Chicken Broth, Water and 7Up is kind of getting old so I am hoping that will change. I may have to do another week on the IV since I know when they originally ordered it, it was for two weeks. I am happy that I think the Benadryl and Antibiotic treatment should be complete. As my energy level starts to return I hope that I am soon able to return to work as I feel I am falling behind with things that need to be done, I have never been medically held out of work for any length of time like this before. In fact prior to this I had never been hospitalized except when I was two years old and had tubes placed in my ears. To this day I still even have my tonsils.

I feel sorry for the poor boys who were scheduled to have their birthday party the weekend I was admitted to the hospital, but Austin has been a very good sport about the ordeal. He is just happy to have daddy back home with his family. I am upset about Christian though because through the entire ordeal I never heard from him until my mom called his mother and told her I was still in the hospital and it would be nice if they called. He called but really didn't have much to say, then his mother said she would keep him and travel with him to his football game that coming weekend, I sure hoped she would since there was no way I would be able to do so. The ironic thing is the falling day we recieved a phone call from her and she had Chrsitian in the emergency room to have his hand x-rayed because he hurt it at football practice. Jamie went down to see him and then was asked to take him in for the w-ray because Martha had her infant and another infant she sits with her. After his x-ray was complete Christian asked where I was and Jamie told him that you can come up and see him. Martha quickly came up with the excuse that he couldn't because her father was waiting for them in his car, another 10 minutes would not have hurt him, especially since they had to come back to Kaiser in 30 minutes to get the results of the x-ray, so needless to say Christian did not visit me in the hospital. I don't know if I will ever forgive her for this, I can remember taking him to the hospital at her request to see her parents after they were in a car accident however she refuses to allow him to come up and visit me even though I am in the same hospital that they were at.

Well, I think that is enough for now. I have my appointment in a few hours so wish me well, and hopefully life will continue to return to normal over the next few days and beyond.

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Nahele Mauli

What's your Hawaiian Name?

Your Musical Tastes Match: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

See his whole playlist here (iTunes required)

What Celebrity Matches Your Taste in Music?

Busted...

"I have never used steroids, period." so he says. Ralfael Palmeiro, accused by Jose Canseco of using steroids, swears to congress he has never touched them, becomes the first big name baseball player suspended for using steroids. The debate will begin to rage as to whether Palmeiro with 3,000 + hits and 500 + home runs, belongs in the Hall of Fame. If Pete Rose, a gambler does not belong in the Hall, neither do any other known cheaters (i.e. Ralfael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, etc.).

Football Schedule Released...

Christian will again be playing football this year for Lemoore, below is a list of dates, locations, and times for his games.

August 20 Carnival @ Coarcoran Noon
September 3 @ Tulare 2:00 PM
September 10 @ Lemoore 5:00 PM
September 17 @ Woodlake 5:00 PM
September 24 @ Lemoore 5:00 PM
October 1 @ Reedley 4:00 PM
October 8 @ Lemoore 5:00 PM
October 15 @ Lemoore 5:00 PM
October 22 @ Visalia 1:30 PM
October 29 @ Lemoore 5:00 PM

I'm Back....

~ Been away for a while but I finally decided it was time to return to posting. Posted a recent picture of me with the children. Don't they all have such beautiful smiles.

~ Returned to work this week at West Park, have never left work at the Group Home, however I did take a week off in July which was nice. Jamie and I went to the coast where we stayed at Sycamore Mineral Springs in Avila, it was nice but I would have thought the rooms would have been a little nicer for what they charge. We moved into a house in June which has a separate living room and family room area, so we purchased some home furnishings at Welcome Home which has a store at the Prime Outlets in Pismo to go with the new sofa we had purchased in June.

~ Learned today that a Cheesecake Factory is heading to Fresno, this will go nicely with the ClaimJumpers that is getting ready to open. Fresno is finally heading into the 21st Century, if we could now just get a Dave & Busters.

~ Austin wants to see the new movie Sky High, so I have promised to take him to see it this weekend. It will be nice to do something with him, he is such a mommies boy so we are going to leave mommy behind on this one. Its okay though because mommy gets jealous because Madison is a daddies girl.

Until next time...

Where to start....

ADP sucks, they messed up my payroll, they messed up my Workers Compensation when they were asked to do it. Does anyone use anybody else and can make a good recommendation? It was so bad yesterday that I had to cut checks for employees personally, if I am going to do that why should I pay ADP.

We have had two residents leave our program so far for various reasons. We ran into the first one who left at a doctors office one day. The second child who left showed up back on our doorstep less than 10 days after leaving. Imagine the shock of hearing the doorbell ring, answering it expecting it to be payroll delivering checks (see above) and it being a former resident.

While spending my day Monday in Hayward at the courthouse because a couple of residents had 6 month reviews I met and shook hands with Keyshawn Johnson, WR for the Dallas Cowboys, he was on his way to a civil trial. I don't know why I shook his hand other than the fact he hooked me up one year in a fantasy football league where receptions were worth a point a piece. Because I really don't respect over paid athletes who are inmature, pout on the sidelines, and threaten people.

Congratulations, to the new American Idol, Carrie Underwood, although personally I was rooting for Bo Bice I think that she did well and deserved to win, I know it made Jamie happy. And honestly, from what I have seen from Bo, I think he was not hurt by the fact that he did not win. He will probably be better off down the line for coming in second, Clay did better than Ruben, remember. A rocker does not want to be the American Idol, it would not be good for his image in the long run. What I do not understand is why the news in Fresno feels like it is neccessary to go to a restaurant and interview people about the results, was there really nothing else to report. I am sick of Fox and its cross promotion considering this was the news immediately after the results show airing on Fox. I saw way too many stars for Fox series in the crowd during the season, not to mention Ruben on Life on a Stick. GIVE ME A BREAK!

So, went out looking for a house to rent. Found a couple, now don't know which one to take. Moving is such a pain in the rear. I don't know if I am really looking forward to it. But it will be nice to have a yard for the kids to play in and more space.

Thats all for now folks.

The new Pope has joined the world of blogging. Please make sure that you visit his website for your daily blessings.

Pope Donovan

Two weeks later...

It looks like two weeks after the fact my comments on the catholic church have finally struck the nerve of some people. It shows how often people actually read what I write, "Oh about every two weeks." That is about how often I felt I am listened to as well, but that is another story for another day. Since it looks like maybe I finally have some worthy opponents for some open debate maybe I will post more often. It was getting boring posting to no response.

Answer me this, why is a woman not eligible to be pope? Are they not worthy of the holy throne? Isn't this the 21st century yet the Catholic church still believes that a woman is not worth of leading their people. Mother Teresa was a fine individual yet she would not have been acceptable to lead the church. Ratzlinger, however a former Nazi is an acceptable leader? Maybe you can explain that to me. And what is wrong with being Pope Ratzlinger the 1st? Why in the world do Popes feel it is necessary to take another name? Where in the bible does that come from? And the continued existance of the Catholic Church? Well it is the Roman Catholic church, which means it was a part of the Roman Empire, which at one point spread throughout the world, however it is only one interpretation of the bible, obviously the jews interpreted it completely different. Wasn't Jesus himself a Jew, and the Jewish faith lives on. So shouldn't we all be Jewish?

Media Strikes Again...

Watching the news last night I heard about a tragic accident in southeast Fresno where a truck ran over a 4 year old girl. Very unfortunate and I have no problem with the media reporting on it. What I do have a problem with is the people they choose to put on television, do they not review their footage before airing it. They had a guy who was somewhat angry who said the following, "Pedestricans always have the right ofway, this guy was a truck driver, he had a class "C" license, he should know that." OK, first of all, people don't have the right to just walk out in to oncoming traffic and expect cars to stop for them, that is why we have stop lights and crosswalks, but I am not even saying that is at issue here, I do not know the details and am not defending the driver in the least. Second of all, if this guy had a class "C" license maybe that was our problem. We all have class "C" licenses if we are licensed to drive, however this guy, as a truck driver is required to have a class "A" license which hopefully he did. Which bring me back to the point, does the media not prescreen the footage they get on location before airing it and if they do was this the best Fresno has to offer.

I'm Running for Pope...

I don't know how you officially get yourself nominated, but I think if I can win the papacy I can really make a difference in the World. Approximately 22% of Americans identify themselves as Catholics. However with the media coverage of the Pope's passing I would have thought it were 88%. Of the 65 million Catholics in the United States I wonder how many are actually practicing Catholics. The funniest thing I find is the people who state "I am Catholic," yet you never see them attend mass, but for some reason they always feel like it is neccesary to send their kids through catechism and communion, etc. I think there are more non-practicing Catholics then any other religion. It is a religion that is based on obedience, one that you do things because you are told you do them, nobody really knows why they do the things they do, they just do because they were raised that way. It is tradition. Obviously, everyone can see my great love for the Catholic church. I am having a hard time understanding why millions of people are expected to flock to the Vatican to see the Pope's body, all you have to do is turn on the television. Explain to me how the pope is a divine person? He is a person just like you and I that after 30 elections a bunch of old men finally compromised and said well I guess we will make him the leader of our church. 30 elections does not make divine leadership, 30 elections means a compromise because people just want to go home. This Pope is a man chosen by people, like the President, not by God. Most Popes in the past have typically been Italians. Why are Italian's any more religious and divine than anyone else in the world?

So that brings me back to the fact that I am running for Pope. Since it is an election then I want my name on the ballot. Where do I sign up. However, I heard an interesting one in the media the other day. There was speculation that they would elect an older Pope kind of as an interim Pope, one that to put it bluntly would not be Pope for a quarter of a century. Isn't that funny, people have selection criteria and agendas in selecting a Pope, so I guess that makes me ineligible for this election since I am hoping to live at least another 25 years. That is too bad because I was hoping to be able to change my name as well. Why in the world was the past Pope called John Paul II? That as we all know by now was not his name. Where in the bible does it state that you have to change your name to be Pope? I think I want to be Pope David Matthew VII if elected.

911, Can you help me?

My favorite radio show played a clip of an actual 911 call today from Los Angeles. During this call a lady sitting in a Burger King drive through calls 911 and asks them to send a cop down because Burger King has failed to make her hamburger correctly. My description does not do this clip justice, so please follow the link and listen for yourself.

An Open Letter To Professional Athletes...

To all of the Barry Bonds and Mark McGwires out there. I don't think I have a problem with the fact that you used steroids. They were not illegal in your sport at the time and being professional athletes I am sure you want every competitive edge you can get. Performance leads to compensation and job security and the need to perform at a high level could possibly justify your decision to use a substance that your sport had not deemed illegal. Being the best at what you do not only translates into performance pay but also endorsement deals which supplements your lifestyles and support your familes. I understand that. But believe me, a guy who supports his family on $40,000 a year lacks sympathy for the millions you make which lead me to this.

We know you used performance enhancing drugs, the truth is out. I, along with many of millions of Americans will respect a person who comes out and admits to his past indiscretions and takes responsibility for his actions. The problem is when everyone knows that you used the substances and you continue to deny so. It reminds me alot of the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky incident. Everyone knew the president had inappropriate relations with the lady, yet he lied under oath about doing so. When our public figures fail to tell the truth when in the national spotlight and under oath what are we teaching our kids? Just as guilty in all of this is Marion Jones. i have watched several times as Marion Jones has denied knowing Victor Conte, yet he has produced evidence that she knew who he was and had met with him on many more instances then she could recall. Again, be truthful and maybe I would have sympathy for you, however when you continue to tell lie after lie I doubt you will see overwhelming empathy from the public.

I used to be a huge Mark Mcgwire fan. I saw tape of him from the congressional hearnings and he came off looking pretty bad when he refused to answer any questions about past use. Typically, as everyone knows, if you don't have anything to hide you typically will answer questions. McGwire however would not give a yes or no answer to any question deling with past use.

I think the biggest issue I have with this situation as well as many things shown on television these days is that we seem to give the perception to people that it is okay to lie. For my children's sake, i want them to learn that telling the truth is okay and when the people that they look upto can not tell the truth, why should they bother telling the truth.

All I want is for my children to learn that you are better off

What has he thinking?

I just finished watching an interview with Tom Sizemore on Geraldo. Can anybody tell me they actually feel sorry for this guy? First of all he can off as a total prick during the interview and was more worried about losing 18 million dollars than his addiction problem. Second he was worried about being blacklisted and not being able to work. What I really want to know is where did he get the idea that even dating Heidi Fleiss would be a good career move. He made the decision to date a convicted felon and then after his decision turns out to have been an unwise one he wants us to feel sorry for him and talks bad about her in the interview. Did he not know who she was when he made the decision to date her? Why does he think he can use poor judgement and then blame the consequences of that poor judgement on others. I hope after seeing this interview that he never again works in Hollywood, because he does not seem to take responsibility for the bad decisions he has made. Unfortunately, we live in a society that ignores poor behavior by the elite.

If I had to choose a political party I would refer to myself as a Republican. However, I doubt whether I really see the significance of congress, Republican or Democrat. After seeing first of all that whether or not steroids is being used in baseball is a matter of national inerest, I started to lose any of the little faith left I had in congress. The rest of the faith was lost tonight when I watched the House of Representatives debate and then vote on the Terri Schiavo case. Congress needs to realize there are more important issues that they should be dealing with. The reason that congress chose to take up the Terri Schiavo case, I think we will soon learn is that it fits the Conservative Pro-Life agenda and any court victories won in this case may be used to push for a complete ban of abortion. Please do not take me wrong, because I do sypathize with her family, I just do not feel that it was a congressional issue. Congress is over stepping its boundaries in both of these situations.

I thought I was going to win $10,000 with my NCAA bracket at ESPN.COM, however I have come to the realization that it is probably not going to happen. I can say that all four of my Final 4 teams are still alive, which at this point buts me way ahead of quite a few people. Currently, I am ranked at 99.2% or 21000th place, to be that high out of millions of entries and still have all of my final four teams alive is actually quite an accomplishment and means I still have a shot at the money but I was feeling better yesterday when I was at 100% and in the top 1200. I know my chance of winning is 1 in some odd million but I can dream until I fall out of the top 2% of overall entries.

Wow...

A substitue teacher decides to smoke Marijuana with 7 students at a Fresno High School, during class.

Michael Jackson shows up for court an hour and a half late, in his pajamas.

Rapper 50 Cent makes up with rapper The Game less than a week after both rappers crews got into a gunfight leaving someone injured.

A cat shot a man. A man while cooking dinner left his loaded 9mm on the kitchen table, the cat jumped onto the table, knocked the gun off, and it discharged upon hitting the ground, hitting the guy and sending him to the hospital.

New Star Wars movie to recieve a PG-13 rating. Let's just eliminate the population that actually enjoys these movies. I haven't liked one of these movies since Return of the Jedi, but then again I was 7 at the time, maybe that is the problem.

Bruce Willis and Lindsay Lohan.

Barry Bonds left off the congressional subpoena list for steroids in baseball.

Stacy Johnson-Klein...

In the wake of all the controversy going on at Fresno State over the Stacy Johnson-Klein situation, I have just a couple of comments to make on the matter. First of all I do not think that anything she did was any worse then what Fresno State went through during the Jerry Tarkanian era. However, I felt that Jerry Tarkanian should have been let go long before he was, so in that regard I do support the firing of Stacy Johnson-Klein. Let's not get to the point of being on 60 Minutes again, we have already been there.

To those in the community who think that she has done so much for the Women's Basketball program I would like to point out that we were nobodies in the Women's College Basketball landscape before she got here and outside of a few dreamers in the central valley, we are still nobodies. If you look at ESPN.COM on the day of and day following her firing you will realize that it did not make the headlines either on their home page or on the Women's College Basketball Home Page. However, I would like to point out that 4-23 St. Louis did make they front page of Women's Basketball for firing their coach. 4-23 and they deserve an article. Fresno State with a winning record however was not so worthy.

The Price of Gas and Other Insignificant Observations...

I recall when I first started driving at the age of 16 that I would pay typically between the price of ninety cents and a dollar for a gallon of gasoline. I was disgusted yesterday when I paid two dollars and twenty-eight cents a gallon for gas. Something has to be done about the price of gas. I just heard on the radio that they are now expecting the price of oil to rise to eighty dollars a gallon. As oil continues to rise so will the price of gasoline, I can't wait to see where gas is come Memorial Day or the Fourth of July when prices are typically higher anyways.

Education Conferences sure can be boring things at times. When your program director is complaining about the conference you know it must be boring. I am beginning to think that this E-Learning summit I am attending in Clovis is more about district self-promotion than technology. This conference has pretty much been about Clovis showcasing itself and talking about how they see themselves as leaders in the field of technology use in education. They boast about their laptop program, however, laptop programs are dictated by SES. If you have money and attend an affluent school you can join the laptop program. During more student teaching at Miramonte Elementary I quickly learned that Miramonte did not have a laptop program, because I had hoped to be placed in a laptop classroom. So this conference starts with self-promotion and then moves into more self-promotion. Of the three panelists, one is a Clovis Unified Employee, one is the daughther of a Clovis Unified Employee and former Clovis Unified student and one I have yet to hear how he was actually qualified as a panelist. Supposedly he heads an organization which has more than 200 products on the market for education. Can't tell you the name of his company or a single thing they do because they really did not qualify this guy as an expert other than saying he heads a company. So this guy, Tom Greaves was a poor mans Bill Daggett. I heard Bill Daggett speak at the High School Summit in Sacramento in October, and Bill Daggett was substantially more knowledgeable and a much better presenter. The conference is sparcely attended, in my approximation, after subtracting vendors and people directly related to Clovis Unified there are probably a total of 30 people in attendance. Last year I attended the CUE conference which remarkably as one of its strands covered the same information that has been covered here and did a much better job at it. When you present breakout sessions you should invite other presenters to host sessions about what they are doing at their schools instead of monopolizing the time. In the session I attended yesterday, the presenter went as far as putting people in groups and having them complete tasks and jigsawing. All groups were done and just chatting and he was just chatting with a group, wasting time that did not need to be wasted. When I go to workshops and attend sessions I want to hear about what others are doing, not brainstorm as a group how I would have done it if I were to do the task, I felt like I was in a class myself. I can do that anytime I want. You should also have vendors from competing corporations present and not just the ones that your district has partnered with. Unfortunately I can say that instead of this being a California E-Learning Summit as it has been titled, it is instead the Clovis Unified Technological Showcase. And unfortunately the price of admission is far greater than the value of the material presented.

Picture 5 

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Here are the pictures from the ultrasound. 

After a week of no posts, I guess I better post something...

Professionalism. What is professionalism? Everybodys definition of this differs, and I am sure there are going to be many people whose opinions differ from mine. My biggest pet peave about professionalism is appearance. There are somethings that just should not be acceptable: (1) Old men wearing earings; I was at a professional workshop the other day and a guy in his 40's who is a principal for an unnamed school somewhere in the central valley had an earing. If I were a parent with a child in this school I would have an issue with this. There are schools that don't allow boys to wear earings period and then there is this school with a middle-aged man wearing an earing. If this guy so chooses to wear an earing, honestly, that is his perogative and i m not going to judge him. But it s something that just does not look professional and should not be worn in the workplace. (2) Old men with gray hair who have pony tails. Come on, it is unattractive for old women with gray hair to still have long hair and pony tails, why would a man think it is okay. Again, it truly is his decision, I however do not feel like it is a professional look for someone who is in education and supposed to be a role model.

Anyways enough ranting and raving on that issue, let's move on to Workers Compensation. What a joke. We have now been licensed for approximately three weeks, however, since we can not get our Workers Compersation in place we can not take kids. We did find out today that the former supervisor at the Boot Camp is now in charge of group home placements for Fresno county. This is a good thing because Jad was the one to contact her today and she remembered him. Hopefully this will pan out into some placements for us. Only time will tell, if we are ever able to get Workers Compensation.

We had a 3D ultrasound on Saturday. Unfortunately, Madison did not want to smile for the camera so we were unable to get any pictures of her. Luckily, since we did pay over $100 for the appointment, the tech offered to have us come back to re-do the ultrasound Wednesday. The next five posts or so will be the pictures we got from the ultrasound. I hope everybody enjoys them.

This was my actual favorite though, all I can say is that this was the side of my shower. Other than that I am speechless. 

I can not believe people have not started using Rustic Orange drains in showers at home. I didn't think I would be a fan of the new design, but after experiencing it first hand, I think you will see them in Home Depots by the end of the month. 

This is a classic hole in carpet design, used primarily in Souther California hotels. This design should be making its way across the country shortly. 

Here is an example of the new Duct Tape remodeling that is done in four star hotels. I thought at first that the Duct Tape was to hold the lamp together, but then I realized that it is the latest design fad. 

Finally, Back in Fresno...

I think I am the only person to visit San Diego and say, "I can't wait to get home to Fresno." I was given a hard time by some of the people in my training. San Diegoans have this aura to them that they think their city is so much better then Fresno, after visiting there I would have to disagree. With the exception of the heat, I think I would take Fresno over any over crowded city any given day.

I almost didn't tihnk I was going to make it back to Fresno, as I sat in the San Diego airport the 6 PM flight from San Diego to San Francisco had to return to San Diego and my flight was delayed for two and a half hours due to weather, but finally the delay was lifted and we actually made it to San Francisco about 10 minutes behind schedule. If the delay had not been lifted I would have missed my flight out of San Francisco to Fresno. I was having flashbacks to The Terminal, as I feared I may be stuck at SFO for the night.

So how did the training in San Diego conclude you ask. Well, it was fine, I met some pretty cool people that I will be able to network with in the years to come. Our team was probably the best team in the course as we had a well rounded group that liked to chat and kept things interesting. We did however have one individual that let his pride get the best of him and after attending four days of training chose not to return for the fifth day, thus not completing the training. I hope that his job was not dependent upon him completing the training and becoming a trainer, but I have a hard time imagining any employer being happy with wasting $900 to send someone to a training.

I attempted to contact my aunt on Wednesday to see if she would like to meet for dinner, at her request that I contact her. She did not answer so I left a message. I then text messaged her on Thursday to see if she was interested in meeting or not. Unfortunately, wasn't courteous enough to call back and at least say she couldn't make it to dinner. It is funny when someone tells you, "Oh you need to come and visit, blah, blah, blah." However, when you do make it to the area and attempt to do something with them, they have every excuse in the book for why they are unable to meet you, then don't even bother to return telephone calls. I really wasn't expecting my aunt to come through, because it would be totally opposite of her track record, but, I made the attempts anyway so that I could be done with her.

So since I was unable to go to dinner with my aunt, I instead chose to go to Dave & Buster's. Probably, a better choice anyways as I had a good time at Dave & Buster's. I wish they franchised because I would buy one and put it at River Park in Fresno. Then I could retire early.

I watched the All-Star game tonight. I think it is the first time his season that I have actually watched a complete NBA game. It wasn't very exciting, Allen Iverson, Whom I do not like as a player won the MVP award. Nobody scored over 20 points in the game and with the exception of Vince Carter throwing the ball off of the backboard and dunking in the first half, there weren't really any exciting plays.

I have still been listening to my Three Doors Down CD that I bought while in San Diego. So far I must say it is pretty good, but there really isn't anything on it that they haven't done on their previous albums. Isn't that was music is all about anyways?

I know that I promised some pictures of my lovely hotel so I will post those individually after this post is complete.

I have begun working on the Core Conditions Web Site and have placed a placeholder on the site until the site is completed and ready to be published. We are still awaiting information from insurance brokers that we have requested some information from. I am somewhat disappointed because, even if they still do not have any information you would think that they could have at least called and said so. I have not heard from either in over a week now.

Tomorrow, I get to go through what remains of the office so that we can begin getting the room ready for Madison. I promised I would do it when I got back from San Diego, and so far I have been a complete bum since I returned. Well, that is it for now.

A New CD, Interesting Information, and Major Boredom...

How else do you describe an undesired trip to San Diego? After three days of class, I have finally surpassed the half way point, I can not wait for Friday at 4:30 to come so I can make my way back to the airport and board my 7:00 PM flight. It will be so nice to go to bed beside my wife in my own bed on Friday night. The bed in my room is very uncomfortable, but what else can you expect from a GhettoTel. On Tuesday after class I thought I may get caught in gang crossfire as three classic g-rides pulled into the hotel parking lot and raced after each other at about 45 miles per hour. I was waiting for multiple law enforcement vehicles to pull in after them, but I guess they must have been afraid of the area.

Well finally today we completed the third day of training which meant that we actually finished the presentation of material. Tomorrow individuals must demonstrate their knowledge through peer teaching. Today, our lead instructor Lorraine Fox was out so the other teacher took class for the entire day. Nothing against Kevin, but I actually missed Lorraine as I can now honestly say that she is the female Rodney Dangerfield. It is definitely amusing to watch and listen to her teach. Tomorrow completes the crisis communication and evaion portions of the class and we will be certified to teach that portion, which is a 16 hour training. Friday will be the restraint portion of the class which is an additional 4 hour course that can only be taught to those who have completed the 16 hour course.

I went to Best Buy tonight after class just to kill some time. I went ahead and bought a CD after listening to several different selections. Among the selections I previewed before making my decision were: Kenny Chesney, Kelly Clarkson, Gavin Degraw, Modest Mouse, Good Charlotte, and a couple of others that I can no longer recall. After deep consideration I finally decided to purchase the new 3 Doors Down CD. I am presently on my fourth time through the disc, I have copied if to WMP (WMA) and am listening to it on my laptop. I am not use to using WMA so I thought I would try to record something at 64kbps to see if you lose anything in sound quality. So far, I can not notice a significant difference, which is good because I think I am going to purchase an IRiver 512 MB MP3 player to use while I am working out, that way I can fit roughly 20 cds on my IRiver.

This coming weekend is a 3 day weekend and I have done a couple of things, first I have committed to spend the entire weekend with Austin and Jamie, I have missed them so much since leaving and was very busy prior to leaving so they probably think that I was neglecting them. I have promised Austin that I would watch SharkTale with him and he seems to be very happy about that. I also promised Jamie that I would clean the office so that we can start getting the room ready for Madison. I had said that I would have it done prior to leaving but I did not get around to it.

As my eyes are staring to get heavy I guess it is important that I get some rest to make it through the next couple of days, but I promise I will be back to add more later.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday and then Monday

Well I fell asleep at 6 PM on Sunday so needless to say I missed the end of the Pro Bowl. However, I don't know that that is really a bad thing. I can not remember the last time that I actually watched the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl is about a bunch of players vactationing in Hawaii and playing a few minutes of meaningless football. The Pro Bowl possible would be more exciting, at least from a fan stand point if they rotated the location of the game each year so that fans would have a chance to gou out and see the best players play, instead of it being in Hawaii where it is costly just to get to the island.

Falling asleep also prevented me from seeing the Grammy's. I was slightly disappointed until I woke up this morning and learned that Ray Charles, who if he were still alive honestly probably would not have been nominated for any awards, won 8 Grammy's. Every year this show gets worse and worse. Green Day who released arguably the best album of 2004, only received one Grammy, explain that one to me. There is no explanation to it other than the fact that that Grammy's are awarded based on an inherently flawed voting process. I also can not believe that Bill Clinton was awarded a Grammy for reading his book so that people could listen to it on tape. Spoken word has to be the stupidest award catergory ever created.

The plane ride to San Diego was somewhat annoying. Why you can not get a flight out of Fresno directly to San Diego is completely beyond me. So instead of having an hour and a half flight in which he can get a little bit of sleep, you are stuck with two flights, one from Fresno to LA which takes 45 minutes. By the time you are in the air and actually able to fall asleep it is time to get off of the plane because you are in LA. You have a one hour layover in Los Angeles, which again is not long enought to actually get good sleep, and then you get on a plane for a flight to San Diego which takes all of thirty minutes, again not long enough to sleep. However, the scarry thing is when you are on the ground in Los Angeles preparing to fly to San Diego and your pilot opens the cockpit and down the steps. Hope he hadn't already had too much to drink for his 7AM flight.

Upon arriving in San Diego and getting my rental car, I decided I wanted to find my hotel so I began my drive. Thankfully I found it without too much trouble, but upon noticing that there was an adult bookstore and two strip clubs right across the street I became somewhat concerned. Had I been traveling with my family, I would have never chosen to stay at such a fine establishment, but I guess you get what you pay for. You will have to wait for a description of the lovely rooms though, because I was not able to check in until 2 PM, so this left me with a good five hours to kill while being completely sleep deprived in a town I am very unfamiliar with. So I picked up the phone and called my grandparents who live in the San Bernardino area and invited them to meet me in Temecula at the half way point for lunch. We met at Denny's at noon, which meant since I arrived in Temecula at 11 AM I had a full hour to explore the town long enough to determine I would have no need or desire to ever return to the town. Lunch was nice, we spent quite a long time at Denny's just chatting since it had been quite a while since we had seen each other.

After lunch I made my way back to the ghetto of San Diego, where I was finally able to check into my room. Oh and what a room it was. I have actually taken some great photos of the room for everyone interested, but since I failed to bring my memory card reader you will have to wait until I get back for me to post them. A couple of the great qualities though included, a hole in the shower, I don't think I have ever seen a hole in a shower before. I also had a nice rusty drain in the shower, it made me feel real good about showering. The lights above the bed were very difficult to turn on. To turn them on you actually had to fiddle with the switch, but maybe that was caused by the ducktape that was holding the lamp together. The beds were great too, I was impressed that instead of using fitted sheets they just used a second flat sheet, classy choice. The bed spreads were really nice as well. This hotel which I stayed at was the Good Nite Inn - Sea World. The funny thing was waking up in the morning and going into the hotel lobby where I asked the attendant how to get to SeaWorld since my training was near SeaWorld. When he told me that he didn't know how to get to SeaWorld I almost lost it. Then he tried to tell me to drive back to the Freeway and follow the signs. Why he would ever tell me to back track makes no since what so ever, except for the fact that he was an idiot. All I had to do was go three lights down and make a right, travel two miles north and I was pretty much there, he wanted me to back track and make a 2.5 mile trip a 5 mile trip.

Well I guess that brings me to my training. Day one: long day, Lorraine Fox is actually teaching the class, I have seen Lorraine speak before at a couple of workshops and she is very knowledgeable in the area. But what is hard to understand about the whole training thing is why do they take 40 hours to teach you how to teach the material. I guess I can understand how thorough they want to be, but since quite a few people are from areas outside of San Diego and staying in hotels you would think that maybe they could do something like 8 AM - 6 PM for 3 days, keep breaks and lunch short and let people get back home to their families, jobs and lives. If that were the case I would probably complain less about the training then I am. I can not wait to drive back to the airport on Friday evening and board the plane to return home.

The Los Angeles Lakers are currently in 8th place in the Western Conference in the NBA. I will be so happy if they fail to make the playoffs. It would suit Kobe right.

Mary Kay Letourneau or whatever her name is, the same teacher who had a child with her 12 year old student, is now recently released after seven years in prison engaged to the student. They are registered at Macy's for anyone who would like to purchase them a gift. Make sure and hurry, their wedding is scheduled for April 16th, 2005.

Well that concludes this installment of random rumblings. But check back soon for more, especially the exciting photographs of my 4 star hotel room.

As We Grow, Things Must Go: A Story of Dissappointment

I am going to tell a little story. A story that is 27 years in the making. As I prepare to depart for San Diego tommorrow I have reaffirmed a conclusion I made long ago. Several years ago I decided I really didn't need anything to do with my biological father's (Nick) side of the family. I have had my share of falling outs with Nick and the remainder of his family, who have never made an effort to include me in their lives. The only exception to this rule would be my Uncle David who during my adolescence woud open up his home and allow me to visit when no one else seemed to really care if I visited or not. Well I guess I can't say never, because I feel like Grandma and Grandpa did years ago when I was the only grandchild, but as that changed, so did they. For years I did not talk to any of them, I lived a busy life and they never seemed to attempt to contact me. The only contact I typically had with them was on a holiday when Nick was with them and he would call and then pass around the phone. Otherwise I recieved a card twice a year, at Christmas and on my birthday, more out of obligation then desire.

I have made several attempts over the years to be in contact with this side of my family, yet i do not feel like I am being met half way. In 2000, when I graduated from college I had a graduation party that my parents had for me. Not a single member of Nick's family attended. Every single person had an excuse why they could not attend, Grandma and Grandpa could not attend because they could not make the 4 hour drive due to Grandpa having a doctor's appointment on Thursday of the following week. They could have come down that day Saturday and drove back Sunday but nope. No can do. Aunt Vicky, who lives on the coast in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego couldn't make it either, apparently money was tight, this coming from the woman who golf's three times a week at the country club, lives on the beach, has an rv, and travels regularly. But a 5 hour drive north was just out of the question. Nick also could not make it. I am sure this had to do with the tradewinds, because he could not get a load out to Fresno, or some lame excuse that he has become known for.

In April of 2001, I married my wife. We decided to get married in Lake Tahoe and keep the wedding small. I chose not to invite Grandma and Grandpa Donovan because we were keeping it small and their track record did not indicate they would show anyways. I also left everyone else in Nick's family of the invitation list because they wouldn't have come even if invited. I did however, invite Nick, you would have thought that he would have set everything down and appeared for the wedding of his only child, an event he will never again get to see. He said he was coming, then last minute he backed out because he could not get a load to the area to make it up there. Never attempted to make other arrngements, just no showed to his only son's wedding. To this day I have not, nor will I ever forget that. I really have not asked for much from him over the years, but I did ask that he attended my wedding, only to be let down. What made the situation even worse was the fact that he called me and told me that I needed to invite his parents to the wedding, the wedding that he didn't even have the decency to attend himself. He has apologized since for not being there and our relationship has improved as time has went on, but I have learned to not count on anything and just be thankful for what I do get from the relationship.

In May of 2003, I attended my Uncle David's wedding in El Paso, Texas. Everyone seemed to be able to make it out for his wedding with the exception of my Aunt Kelly. After 2 years of marriage Jamie finally met my Aunt Vicky and Grandparents. It was a pleasant experience for the most part and everyone seemed to get along. I did seem to get agitated with grandma pretty quickly and had to put her in her place on a couple of ocassions. This was going to be a catholic wedding and being that she was catholic she had quite a bit to say about religion etc. This is the same lady I can honestly say that I can not recall ever attending church. She was also kind of bossy during the trip which annoyed me pretty quickly, maybe she had always been this way, I just had not spent much time around her in several years and it wore on me quickly. My Aunt Vicky commented on how we should come down and visit and bring the kids so she could meet the kids, etc.

In August of 2003 I was in the San Bernadino area just around the corner from Grandma and Grandpa so I called them and asked if they would like to go to breakfast. We had breakfast and i got to see my Aunt Kelly and her children who I had not seen in three years so it was nice.

In December of 2003, everyone in Nick's family was getting together in Carlsbad for Chritmas, Grandma and Grandpa, all the siblings and all the grandkids. We talked to Nick and decided that we would go as well to celebrate Christmas with his familt and to see Uncle Dave who was coming in from El Paso. our plan was that we would drive down, celebrate Christmas with them, stay in a hotel, and then drive to Simi Valley to visit Jamie's best friend Traci. Well aparently, Aunt Vicky assumed we wanted to stay with them and Rod said no, nobody ever bothered to communicate with us and next thing we knew, they were having Christmas but we were not invited. So apparently, it wasn't a family Christmas, because the black sheep wasn't invited. Finally, after I am sure some long arguements with Nick we were invited, however by this point we were so disgusted by the situation we chose not to attend, obviously we were not wanted, who wants to drive 5 hours to attend an event that you are not wanted at. But Vicky again gave the spill we would love to have you at a better time when you can stay with us, not in a hotel.

That brings us to February, 2005. I am attending a training in San Diego, 30 minutes south of their residence. I contacted her to see if I would be able to stay with them and then just make the drive each day into San Diego. I could not be given an answer at first, she told me she would have to call me back. My family, the people that I refer to as family that I have grown up with here would have said sure, without a second thought. She did call me back stating that she had a friend coming in from Vegas since Rod was out of town and that I would not be able to stay because they were going to be going to Los Angeles for a couple of days, she didn't want to miss an opportunity to visit her friend because she just does not get enough opportunities to visit her friends, however she appeared she could care less about seeing family that she never gets to see. My family would have said, well I am going to be out for a couple of days but you are more than welcome to stay at the house, I will show you where there is a key and how to lock up. So, next I decided to make the offer to get together at least for dinner while I was in the area, at first this was a yeah but call me a day or two before you come. I made that phone call yesterday, and the trip to Los Angeles has now become a trip to Big Bear to see another friend and they plan on staying until they get kicked out, so needless to say, she doesn't know whether she will be able to have dinner but she is hoping to.

Needless to say, no longer will I hold my breathe or expect anything from this side of the family. I have done my fair share of making attempts to contact and visit, however they all seem to go for nothing. Maybe it is because I am too functional to be included in their dysfunctional inner web that they have established. But that my friends, is a story for another day.

Rate Set - Another Step Completed

Yesterday, I faxed off our facility profile along with some additional information that had been requested to Sacramento to the Foster Care Rates Bureau. I must say they are awesome because today I received a phone call from Carrie Salisbury, and she was just finishing up setting out rate. She faxed a copy of our rates letter to us. Another step in the process that can be checked off of our list.

Licensed

Today we had our pre-licensing inspection. It really was more informal than I figured it would be. But all that matters was at the end of the inspection we were licensed. We were told that we would receive our facility profile sheet by fax on Wednesday which would show us having a provisional license.

What is next you ask. Well we now must send that facility profile off to Sacramento and wait for our rate to be set. This determines the amount that we will be reimbursed each month for each kid that we have in placement. I will be attending a crisis management training next week in San Diego and we have to get our workers compensation and liability insurance in place. Finally we have to begin hiring staff, and get them trained, then we can begin taking kids.

Slacking! I was told I was slacking because I have failed to update this page for my three readers. Things have been really hectic as of late but I promise some new photoshop creations, and updates as soon as our licensing inspection is complete next Tuesday. 

"Wacko Jacko," I have found a great web page to share with everybody and it comes to us courtesy of our good friends at The Smoking Gun. If you have never visited their web site it is a must visit, they have some great things available, including mug shots of all of our favorite celeberties as well as court documents from famous cases and some articles documenting everybodies favorite topic, stupid criminals. So when you have a few minutes to spare and want to see an interesting site, give them a visit. However, to save everybody time I will provide you with a link to a page they have entitled "The Case Against Michael Jackson" take the time and review the page, it is very interesting and sick at the same time, I would love to hear everybodies comments on this one. Be advised this is probably not safe for work.

Oh where, oh where have I been. Obviously not posting any new co-worker creations. Haven't really had the time or drive to do any photo editing. Things are really starting to come together in the world of non-profits and group home development. I recieved confirmation of my registration for the crisis management training in San Diego in February. Now I must decide what to do about accomodations in the area, not exactly my idea of a good time, but I guess you can say I am taking one for the team this time. Spoke with the IRS this week, no I am not being audited, we are awaiting our 501c3 determination from them. The specialist has closed our file and forwarded it to his supervisor for approval. Hopefully we will get our determination in the mail in the next two weeks. We are wating for licensing to contact us to schedule our interview which should also happen here shortly.

Returned to work this week. I went to the county office and registered with them on the 18th of December and recieved my temporary credential while I am awaiting a responce from the state. It actually feels good to have my actual credential now and not have to worry each year what is going to happen with No Child Left Behind and whether my emergency credential will be renewed.

I feel terrible for everyone whose life was disrupted by the tsunami. It is a tragic event that has ended the lives of a lot of people. However, I do have a problem with a few things surrounding this tragedy. First of all, and this not only applies to the tsunami but also to the war in Iraq. Quit giving us the death toll every five minutes. I understand that people lost their lives but I don't need to hear every day how it keeps rising. We know hundreds of thousands people may have lost their lives. Let's finish the clean up and then if you want to give us a number then fine, but death should not be comparable to web counters or odometers, and that is what it has turned into. The media feels inclined to give us a new number every time it changes. They do the same thing with Iraq, we are at War, unfortunately people die at war, however it is not necessary to report every single death. "One more dead today in Iraq," " Three dead today in Iraq," honestly, I am getting tired of hearing it. I would love to see media coverage of World War I and World War II to see if the media was as obsessed with numbers as they are today. Why don't they try and report on positive things for a change. The next thing I have a problem with is famous people attempting to turn donations into personal publicity. I, as an average Joe did not decide to base my donations to relief efforts on the miles I drove on a given day or the students I saw on a given day, I do not know why Kobe Bryant and other NBA players felt like it was necessary to base their donations on the points they scored on a given day. At last check with 3 minutes left in the game, Kobe had 27 points which means he should donate somewhere in the neighborhood of $27,000 dollars. Is that all that this multimillionaire can afford for such a nobel cause? Why did he waste our time? All for the publicity, and that is probalbly all he actually could afford since he is constantly buying his wife kiss up gifts, preparing to pay the alleged victim an undisclosed sum of money and no longer marketable. I found it humerous that Kobe has almost fallen out of the top 100 in jersey sales. Michael Schumacher, a race car driver has donated $10 million and Kobe wasted our time with his little self-promotion, see I am not really a bad guy stunt.