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.