More Yup than Hip

I'm writing this from the passenger seat of the Rocket Van as we speed down I-5. In a few hours we'll be at Cindy's mom's house, spend tonight and tomorrow there, then get up Saturday and head on up to Disneyland! Good times, for sure.

But how did we get here?

Most of you had heard our plan: "We're gonna be hippies and sleep in the van!"

Well, we've learned some things about ourselves. One of those things is that we're more Yuppie than Hippie. Of course, a little pre-planning would have helped figure this one out. Key to our hippie plan was putting our air-mattress in the back of the van so we'd have somewhere comfortable to sleep. Oops, at 10 pm Christmas night, I finally got around to taking the seats out of the van and putting in the air mattress... which was a good 14 inches too wide. So we brought a couple extra sleeping bags to use as padding. Good, right? Well... we also have a couple suitcases, a case of water, a snax bag and some Christmas presents along for the ride... which leaves not a whole lotta space for sleeping. Plus, the floor of the van has these holes where the seats latch in. Looks very uncomfortable to lay on. Perhaps we're not cut out for this hippie thing...

But we're also not quitters, so we jumped in the van yesterday morning and took off anyway! Both Washington and Oregon had some snow on the ground in places, but nothing that impacted driving at all.

Our big fear was Mt. Shasta, which is where we got stuck three years ago when we tried this same trip. But we blew through the entire Siskiyou range without so much as a slushy spot, and even got ol' Shasta to pose for a picture.

Stay tuned for more insight and tales from our California Adventure!

Friday Funny!

(click the picture to see it full size)

We've Been Elf'd!

Yeah, we know... Those are the two best-lookin' elves you've ever seen! But a still shot really doesn't capture the full glamour of the Merry Christmas Dance we will perform for you when you click here!

Or, you could watch our four little elflings copy our dance here...

Please Fasten Your Wrist Strap!

It's been a while since I've found a good nintendo related video... This Wii parody is one of the best I've seen yet. Now, if only those airfares were actually that low for anywhere I wanted to fly!

Your Commute Just Got Less Boring

When these kids grow up, I have full confidence that we'll finally have flying cars and hovering Jetsons-like cities! But for now, that train ride home sure is thrilling...

Pumpkinfest 2007

It's here! Pumpkin carving time arrived yesterday afternoon, and it was so cool!! All four kids are finally big enough to to nearly all of their scooping and scraping by themselves. And their design skills have also matured at least another year since last time. Case in point, Ellysa, who combined the skills she's learned in her 9th grade Art Class with her love for the Nightmare Before Christmas, and working from a small printout, did a freehand sketch that turned into the masterpiece you see to the left!

Next up on the tour of gourds, is Andy's latest. He decided to star in his own pumpkin this year, and anyone who played his hit Halloween game this year, or has read any of his many comic books starring "Andy" will recognize the face. Excellent Effort, Excellent Results!

Kaylee and Tyler went with pre-made stencils, but chose, attached, poked and cut them all by themselves. And Kaylee added the ears on her wolf/cat all by herself, as they weren't included on the stencil. That's Kaylee's on the left, and Tyler's is on the right.

Which brings us to mine. True to form, I picked out a green one this year, and it tried to thwart me by turning orange while waiting to be carved... But one side of it was still sufficiently green to differentiate itself. And for my design, I went with influence from my childhood... A Sleestak from the Land of the Lost. We've got one huge pumpkin left that I would LOVE to turn into Jabba the Hutt, but I don't know if I'll have time to or not. If I do, Jabba will get hooked up to the smoke machine this year. If not, it'll be a smoking sleestak! Stay tuned for the full spectacle that is trick-or-treating at the Brinkerhoffs!

Friday Funny!

Taking a break from escaping ghosts just long enough to post this... Another tragic toy recall, due to obvious safey concerns...

Halloween Contest: Game On!

Okay, so Andy's Halloween Game proved to be quite popular... Which inspired him to announce a contest for the highest score, with the winner receiving an all-expenses paid Bag o' Candy Corn! But then I discovered a couple of "sweet spots" in the game that enabled you to walk away and let the score climb, climb, climb, without end, amen... And that just wasn't right!

So, I convinced Dr. Videogames himself to re-write the game, making it more difficult, and I think we're ready to launch the contest for real! So here are the Totally Official Rules:

1] Contest is based on playing Andy Brinkerhoff Productions' new game, "Andy's Dad In His Own Nightmare", which is downloadable at the end of this blog post.

2] Without pictures, it didn't happen. So if you want to submit a score, send in a screen shot! To do that is really quite simple. When the game ends, hold down Shift and hit the "PrtScrn" or "Print Screen" key, typically located at the top of a standard Windows keyboard. Laptops often require you to hit their function key... Then open Paint, or even Word, and hit Paste. It's that easy! If all else fails, there are a number of screen capture utilities, and our friends at Google could easily help you find one. If it's too much work, then NO CANDY CORN FOR YOU!

3] All high score submissions must be sent in by email, to contest@mikeymix.com.

4] Deadline for submissions is Thursday, October 25. That gives two weeks and change to master the game, so give it your best shot!

5] Fun must be had!

So there ya go. To download the game and get started, click here!

Another Hit On The Music Mafia

Well, less than ten days after Amazon's mp3 store debut, an executive at Yahoo! Music is declaring war on DRM (in case you forgot, that's digital rights management, a nice way of saying "strangling restrictions").

In fact, he's taking a stand many of us had hoped Apple's Steve Jobs was about to take when he made his famous "Open Letter To The Music Industry" last year. Unfortunately, business as usual continued at Jobs' house. But Ian Rogers at Yahoo! is making a stand for convenience and consumer friendliness. Here's an excerpt from a speech he gave last week, the transcript of which is now posted on his blog, complete with the slides he used:

I’m here to tell you today that I for one am no longer going to fall into this trap. If the licensing labels offer their content to Yahoo! put more barriers in front of the users, I’m not interested. Do what you feel you need to do for your business, I’ll be polite, say thank you, and decline to sign. I won’t let Yahoo! invest any more money in consumer inconvenience. I will tell Yahoo! to give the money they were going to give me to build awesome media applications to Yahoo! Mail or Answers or some other deserving endeavor. I personally don’t have any more time to give and can’t bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value. Life’s too short. I want to delight consumers, not bum them out.

If, on the other hand, you’ve seen the light too, there’s a very fun road ahead for us all. Lets get beyond talking about how you get the music and into building context: reasons and ways to experience the music. The opportunity is in the chasm between the way we experience the content and the incredible user-created context of the Web.

Very well said, Ian. I highly recommend reading the entire post by clicking here. It's good to see that there are still some people with vision in places of power and influence. I really do pray that their vision will succeed and bring us a bright future where the ability to listen to, discover new, and above all else, LOVE music will be greater than at any time in history.

YAHOO!
(thanks to gizmodo for featuring this story)

Booooooooooooooooooo!

Halloween time is here! To celebrate, Andy (age "almost 15", 9th grade) made up a Halloween game starring his dad... also known as... ME! He's been making video games for a couple years now, ever since we got him a video game maker as a reward for a good report card in 7th grade. And he's made several games with it, with varying degrees of success. But this one stands apart, and it's NOT just because it stars me... It's all about good gameplay! Like Bloxors, which I mentioned a couple weeks ago, this is a very simple game. And like Bloxors, it's addictive and gets more and more difficult! The objective is simple. Avoid the ghosts. Points are awarded for avoiding the ghosts. That's it! No boss levels, no power ups, just avoid the ghosts. Click here to Download it! Play it! Have fun with it!

My high score is 1466 - if anybody beats it, post it in comments!!

ALERT: Check the comments section! Andy has decided to make this a contest!!

Crunch All You Want - We'll Make More

Meet Sam! Sam is a Seagull from Scotland. Sam likes Doritos! (really, who doesn't?) Unfortunately, Sam doesn't have much pocket-money, so he has to resort to the time honored tradition of stealing to get his chip fix. It's real, you can check it out on snopes, and here's another video of Sam in action.

Friday Funny!

It's been quite a while since the last Friday Funny, but this one was good enough to revive the tradition!

The Moral: Never Kiss A Dog!!!

Episode IV - A New Hope

Those of you who know me, will likely also know that I am NOT a fan of Apple's iTunes/iPod empire.

I will shock some people here and admit that the iPod is a cool gadget. I'll even grant that the mp3 revolution was fueled in fairly large parts, by the iPod.

But....

From the very beginning, Apple's plan was to sell you music from its iTunes music store. And that music was laced with DRM, or "Digital Rights Management", a sugar coated way of saying "We will control what you can do with music you buy." And to top it off, no other digital music player is compatible with Apple's DRM. Not because other player manufacturers don't want to be, but because Apple wants it all for themselves. So you buy your player from Apple, you buy your music from Apple, and you can't play that music on other players, so when your iPod breaks, or you run out of room and need another one, your choices are to either jump to another brand of player and re-purchase all your digital music (or burn it all to CDs and re-rip in an open format, which is enough of a pain that 90% of the public doesn't know you can do it, or wouldn't bother to do it), or just shell out the cash for a new iPod, which allows you to easily move your iTunes music library over. People have hassled me for many years for my anti-iPod views, and I don't think I've ever actually spelled out my argument so clearly. In any other medium, that kind of closed-marketplace wouldn't fly. But thanks to the fact that they were the first mainline digital music player, Apple has been given a free pass by the public to fleece them at will.

Okay, now that I've established my gripe with the iJuggernaut, let's take a quick look at the LEGAL music download landscape.

1. iTunes, with lots of selection, but also restrictions.
   
2. WalMart, Buy.com, Many other stores offering music with the Windows Media DRM - which is supported by a huge variety of players, but is still DRM, and has earned my wrath through its ridiculous limitations.
   
3. eMusic, which sells all their music as mp3 files, which have NO DRM. Oops, but there's really not much on there that you've ever heard of. The mafia that is the recording industry likes to sell you the same music as many times as possible, so they hate un-restricted music sales. eMusic has lots of independent groups, which is cool in its own way, but largely useless to me...
   
4. (well, really 3 and a half) EMI, one of the big four mafia -oops- music companies, announced that they would offer their music in open, DRM-free form earlier this year. Apple made EMI and a few other product lines available DRM-free, but still used their .aac format that isn't supported by many players outside of the apple universe. Walmart and the other Windows-based stores also started selling un-DRM'd files, even going a step further and offering them as universally playable mp3s. But shopping for them was confusing, since they had the crippled tracks available alongside them, and I just KNOW that there have already been people thinking they were getting one, and winding up with the other. If only a major player would step up and do it right, offering mp3 files from the big guys in an easy to navigate way.
   
5. (really IV) Amazon unleashed their long-talked-about download store today, offering everything in mp3. And they're even using high quality mp3s, the kind that I'd be happy to welcome to my media server. I've browsed around a little this morning, and their selection is better than I've found on the hybrid DRM/mp3 sites, and their prices are great - 89 cents a song for most songs, and albums averaging $8.99.

Amazon is big enough that hopefully this will be a success, and more record companies will agree to sell their catalog through their site. Until then, I've actually found music I've been looking for on there, and I intend to support this venture! Viva la Revolution!

(click here to support sensible legal downloads)

Brilliant Advertising

Check out this new ad for the Citroen C1 - I actually didn't realize Citroen was still around, but apparantly not only are they around, they're making amazingly cool ads for their cars.

I think it would be great to have a follow up ad where the invisible hands turning the cube turn out to belong to a 6 year old who gets frustrated and decides to pry the cube apart in a final effort to solve it...

Now I REALLY Want A Pool!

I've always loved backyard swimming pools. Growing up, I spent a lot of time in eastern WA, where summer actually means "HOT" and as a result, a good percentage of homes have pools in the backyard. Luckily for me, most of my relatives are part of that good percentage. However, I now know that there is a downside to having a wonderous backyard oasis. But again, lady luck smiles on me, by providing the solution along with the problem. It appears that when you have a delightful body of water behind your house, it not only attracts all your local (and not-so-local) relatives, friends and neighbors. Yes, apparantly in addition to all those generally welcomed guests, the local pigeon population also likes to visit. But they don't want to swim. They want to foul your little slab of paradise with pigeon poop!! But now that this ingenious homeowner has shown me the way, I will fear no pigeon in my pool... When I do finally get my pool, that is.

Monday Diversion

You're looking at a new flash game. It's called Bloxors. It's addictive. It starts so simple - all you need to do is get the square block into the square hole - then before you know it gets so hard that it leads to obsession... I've just spent about 45 minutes playing it, and got to my personal end point... Might actually need to read all the directions, but I'm pretty sure I've gotten how to play it. Anyway, if you're looking for a "simple to learn, impossible to master" game, click here to check it out!

If Summer Must End...

Tomorrow, our kids start school. (well, except for Andy... we're still waiting for the Tacoma school district to stop proving their superior stupidity so he can start another year at Internet Academy.) It is so incredibly hard to believe that he and Ellysa are going into *gulp* 9th grade this year. HIGH SCHOOL!! Woah. Still odd, but not as hard to swallow, are Kaylee and Tyler, in 5th and 4th grades respectively. Naturally, we wish them all great success in this school year. Also naturally, we look forward to having some good solid routine back in our lives. Finally (and naturally), all the kids are excited to get back to school again, even though some show it less than others. Good to know they're all okay with it.

BUT...

I'm not ready for summer to end!! This has been such a weak summer weather-wise already, that it feels like we're still in early June, not early September. But as if in an effort to soothe my angst at the flittering away of the lack-of-summer, a few little gifts have popped up. I already mentioned the first gift, school starting again... (heehee!) But finally, some of the garden items I've been patiently waiting on are starting to reward me. Today I picked the first two tomatoes of the year - apparently they like SUN in order to ripen - and Cindy popped them in her mouth, so they must have been good. And the sunflowers that have been creeping taller and taller against the front of the house are finally starting to open up. Here are a few shots I took yesterday evening. Something about a nice sunflower provides a good, smooth transition from summer to fall.

(click the pics for the full size version)

Nice, huh? Just makes everything seem okay. But there was one more gift, hidden among the sunflowers. Many of you know that I've had issues with bees over the years. Well, a very industrious spider took the real estate mantra of "Location, Location, Location!" to heart, and built a web right across the face of a nice, big sunflower. That little spider is gonna be a big fat healthy spider with all the bees he's catching! Here's a pic of last night's haul...



Warm, sunny sunflowers and bees falling to spiders... I guess all really is right in the world!

Of Poultry and Hens

Those of you who not yet acquainted with the newest members of our flock, meet Floppy. At the time we got her, she had just molted, and really looked like the chicken equivalent of a train wreck. Neither her comb (the red pointy thing on top of her head) nor her wattle (the red wattly things below her beak) were very red, she looked anemic, she was missing feathers. Floppy got her name because her comb was very floppy, even partly covering one of her eyes. (but she really has a great personality, trust us!) Well, she's been with us since mid-March, and has now assumed her rightful place as "least pretty hen in the flock." But remember, she's got that personality!! And she really does. Our beautiful chickens that we raised from day-old babies run nervously to the opposite side of their yard when we come in, even though we nearly always have food of some kind. But Floppy and her sister Layla (thank Kaylee and Tyler for the names) are always right there, underfoot like cats, waiting to see what wonder and joy and joyness we have for them.

They're also smart enough to have learned that when a shovel goes into the ground, worms often come up. So as I was working on the backyard project detailed earlier, I'd only been digging for a couple minutes, when who should come walking up, but Floppy. Now, I know what you're thinking! You're thinking "but wait - the chickens are all fenced in to their own yard so they don't get out and trash YOUR yard" and you'd be right. However, a couple of them are quite skilled as escape artists. Traditionally Ginger has been the lead escapist, but she's beginning her first molt, and doesn't appear to be all that spunky right now. So Floppy is more than happy to take her place, and slips in and out of their yard at will. And with a shovel working the ground, her will was definitely to get the heck out there and find some worms!! I just laughed as she started helping me dig. For once, she wasn't underfoot like she usually is, she would wait until I dumped a shovel-full of dirt, then shred it up, snacking all the way. As soon as I was done with the shovel, she hung around a few more minutes, then went back to her yard like a good little hen. I'm sure the next few eggs she lays will have extra high protein from all her extra snacking!

Oh, and what was Ginger, the former queen troublemaker up to? Well... Like I said, she's not feeling too hot right now. But from looking at her, I'd say she was pouting.


She used to always be so pretty, and full of herself... And she used to lay eggs too... But her beauty and production should (aka BETTER!) return soon. Then it'll probably be a whole new round of hen-pecking with Floppy to reclaim the Queen of Mischief crown.

For Labor Day Weekend: Manual Labor!

BEFORE:


Our poor, beleaguered back yard. While it looks approximately 3,000 times better than it did when we bought the house, it's still a bit of an eyesore. And the vegetable garden on the outside of the fence, that just seems wrong. Plus, that whole outside the fence area is completely overrun by weeds. We'll clear it out, and two weeks later you'd never know it! Perhaps there is a relatively easy solution to this problem... Perhaps a couple pallets of landscaping bricks from Home Depot would help! Yeah, and since it's a long weekend, perhaps Mike can carry (we're told the correct term is "hump", but that's just too wierd to say) those bricks around and make a retaining wall...

DURING:

Let me just say: Bricks are heavy.

AFTER:

Wow, it's a wall! And despite the obvious challenges that could have caused it to be a disaster (for example, the fact that I was building it), it turned out really quite nice! How does this solve three different problems? Well, next year the garden will be planted in the new raised bed. It'll even have its own built-in sprinkler system. Woo! And on the outside of the fence, we're going to bulldoze all the weeds and nastiness (one of the perks of working for a construction company, no doubt!), and plant grass along that strip. With a nice, thick, healthy lawn out there, the weeds won't stand much of a chance. And those that do, will be mowed over on a regular basis! Ultimately, we also plan to put some fruit trees out there as well. This is the first of many property improvement projects we have in the works... When they're all done, our back yard is going to be a place where we'll intentionally choose to hang out!

One Amazing Night

The crudely pasted panorama you see above was taken a few weeks ago, before the reality of aging parents and the downside of the circle of life took over. In fact, it was just a few days before that all happened. August 7, 2007 was the second (and final) day of our church's leadership conference. Over the two days, we had awesome teaching from John Maxwell, Matthew Barnett, our own Kevin Gerald, and the awesome United band from Hillsong Church in Syndey, Australia. Then, to wrap things up on Tuesday night, we headed out to the Puyallup Fairgrounds and had a Night of Worship with United.

Now, I had been a little nervous that we wouldn't fill the place up. I know that most churches that feature contemporary music do a lot of Hillsong songs, but would the general public come out to the fairgrounds? Well, my fears were very unfounded. We drove out there, and before we even got to the parking lot, we could see a huge crowd of people lined up outside the gates. Excitement! Extra cool because as conference delegates, we got advance seating. Walked right up to the gate, flashed our badges, and were whisked inside! Once inside, we heard that the people outside had been lining up since 11:00 that morning!! There were already way more people inside than I thought there would be, and about half an hour later they opened the floodgates and the place filled up. Completely. Look to the left and the right in that pic at the top, and you'll see it! We were so thrilled to be part of a church with the vision and ability to put on something like this. I don't know the exact capacity of the grandstand, but it had definitely been met. And when the music started, everybody was swept up in worship and praise, and it was an A.MAZ.ING night.

Family Reunion

Tuesday was quite a day. It was the day my siblings and I bid farewell to our father, lent support to our mother, and it was also the first time since 1991 that all eight of us have been in the same place at the same time. Even though we had an official family reunion two years ago, only seven of us were there. This time, everyone made it, and it was great to have all of us together. To celebrate the occasion, we got together for a group picture. First, just the 8 kids and Mom, then one with our respective spouses. (All except for Kathy, whose husband Tim couldn't make it) Here's a slideshow of the group shots, as well as others from the day.


Cindy and I would like to thank all of you for your incredible support over the past week. We feel truly blessed to have so many people in our lives to care for us. You're all awesome!!

Jesse Reed Brinkerhoff, Rest In Peace

Yesterday, August 11, 2007, my dad passed away. (at 11:48 am, to be exact)

We hadn't always had the closest relationship, but it's still very hard to wrap my brain around the idea that I don't have a father here on Earth anymore. I'm sure after enough time, it will become normal - God built us as amazingly resiliant beings, who can absorb the shock of life's events and keep on going. Definitely one of my favorite design features.

Dad had been sick in some form for nearly a decade. It started with a surprise announcement that he needed to have a quad-bypass open heart surgery. But while the surgery was called a total success, it took several weeks before he regained any sort of normality to his life. After what seemed like an endless battery of tests, an in-operable brain tumor was discovered. Sadly, that brain tumor pretty much defined the last years of his life. It had pushed up against various glands in his brain, throwing off the delicate balance of chemicals, amino acids, nutrients and minerals. For the most part, he rode the wave well, and even the most shocking downturns were quickly followed by a nice, comfortable "back to normal."

But last Wednesday I got a call from my sister that things had taken a bigger nosedive than ever before, and immediately I could feel that this one would probably be the last. Still, we debated wether to head over to the Tri-Cities right away, or wait it out... As of Friday, we had decided to wait. Saturday morning, I woke up with a feeling that I needed to be there, so we hopped in the car and headed east. About 90 minutes before we got there, the call came in that he had passed on to be with the Lord. Odd silence for the next few miles, accented by tears... Then gallant attempts to put it in perspective and be happy that he's not suffering any more... By the time we got to my parents' home, his body had already been taken out. The funeral's this Tuesday.

Please pray for my family. Particularly my mom, who is lost and alone, without her husband of 53 years. Pray for me and my siblings, that we will have peace in our hearts and remember that he IS in a better place now, with no pain and is finally rid of that tumor!

Finally, I'd like to say that my dad was brilliant. He was an ingenious inventor, who developed a sonar system for the navy back in the '70s, and in the mid-'80s, a dimming system for fluorescent lights, which was impossible up until then, but is now in use in supermarkets, warehouses and office buildings all over the world to save electricity by not running the lights at full power during the night time when you don't even notice that it's not as bright. He also could fix ANYTHING with some duct tape and a few paperclips. Yesterday as we looked around his home, we saw countless items that had been enhanced by my dad's inginuity. We're hoping to get a photo gallery, and if we remember the camera, you can be assured that some of the best examples will be showing up here!

Love you, Dad. Hope you had a great trip!

Friday Funny!

OK, so I've known for a while that there's a BBC America cable network... I've even caught a few episodes of the import version of "Who's Line Is It Anyway", but they've always been already in progress. Since I've never actually set out to tune in at a set time and watch something on BBCA, I've missed this little gem that was brought to my attention by a friend with much more refined TV viewing habits.


It's nice to see that they admit they talk funny, and their futile dig at reminding us that they were once the boss of us just gives me an extra chuckle! You Go, Britain! You SO used to have power and stuff! =)

New CD Released!!

Faithful readers of this blog will undoubtedly remember that back in January, we invited all of our friends to come to a special night at our church, when we recorded our second CD and DVD of home-grown Worship music...

It was a great night, and now here we are six months later, and the project has finally made it out of post-production and was officially released tonight - and it's a GREAT disc!! From explosive anthems of praise to reverent, passionate worship, it's on here, it's all good, and it was all written by members of our church here in Tacoma!!

It is so awesome to be part of a church with not only great vision, but also so many committed members driven to see that vision fulfilled. There's already talk of our third album, and I have no doubt that it will continue down the path of excellence we've established with the first two.

If all this leaves you feelig inspired to pick up your own copy, just click here! Otherwise, just hang around us long enough, and you'll undoubtedly hear it playing loud 'n' proud!

Friday Funny!

Leave it to Japan, truly the nation where if you can dream it, you can also find it for sale somewhere. Case in point: For all the times you've looked at your ordinary cat, your non-hello-kitty, and wished that he/she/it were MORE Hello-Kitty, you can now make that dream a reality!! Just buy the new Hello Kitty costume and dress that finicky kitty all up. Of course, for some reason, the cats shown wearing the costume don't look all that happy about it... Not so much saying "Hello!" as they are saying "WHY?" or even "I will cut you deep!"

First Swim Meet Of The Year!

The shocking image to the left is the latest thing in high performance teen competitive swimwear. I don't recall if they had a specific, catchy name, but Ellysa mentioned that they make full body suits for girls, and although she didn't explicitly ASK for one, it sounded like she would love to enhance her racetime wardrobe... :)

Aside from the cutting edge fashion on display, our swimmers did an awesome job. Not surprising, since they've both been little fishies since ummm... well, pretty much forever! But, while we expected their mad swimming performance, there were some unexpected surprises... Right before the meet officially began, the whole team huddled up and began to chant... Well, it was sort of a chant, but more of a cheer. Like the kind that cheerleaders would do. In the '50s. With pom-poms. I am not making this up! In July of 2007, approximately 20 kids from 8 to 18 huddled up and repeated a cheer that included several Oh-Cha-Lock-Ahs, a Sis-Boom-Bah and slammed it home with a rousing "Fircrest, Fircrest, Rah Rah Rah!" Now, I love my town. I really do! Cindy and I often describe it as very Mayberry-like, and this morning, Mayberry was down at the pool, pumpin' up the home team! Next time, I'm totally bringing the camcorder to get audio-visual proof of the cheer that time forgot!

Then the meet was on! Kaylee was up swimming breast stroke first, and quite effectively whoop'd the competition!

Ellysa's best event - literally, the one she was born to compete in - was the backstroke. You could tell from her game face as she stepped up on the starting block, that something big was about to go down. Sure enough, once in the water, she shot ahead of the rest of the pack, and by the turn-around point was a full body length ahead of everyone - even the boys!

Great times, and they both did so well! We are VERY proud of our little aquagirls!

They did it again...

...And this time I got the camera out!!

Yes, our renegade chickens have done it again, and we discovered a rogue nest with 14 eggs in it tonight. I wasn't actually very surprised, because we'd been noticing a severe lack of the Green / Blue eggs for the last week or so.

Kaylee actually found the nest this time, and the thing that made me go "D'oh!" was that it was in an area of their yard that I *knew* would be an appealing spot for a nest... In fact, I'd checked there periodically many times, so many times that I finally quit looking. Which was apparently what they had been waiting for!

As usual, it's Ginger and Babs who are the ringleaders, although there was one small brown egg, indicating that Marzipan had at least visited the nest once... So now we know where to look, and we'll just hope that they don't go making a NEW new rogue nest.

Anybody want some eggs?? =)

Vroooom!

We got a new toy!! As we settled back into the post-vacation life, it occurred to us that now that we have our handy utility trailer (it was truly essential to the successful camping trip!) we don't really need the truck anymore. Add to that that the truck is paid off, and the idea was born that since both Cindy and I would prefer a sporty car to a truck or a *cough* minivan, we should see what our options looked like...

Well, they looked good! Our truck had done a far better job of retaining value than I expected it to, so I started looking into just what sporty cars would look good in our driveway. The first and obvious choice was a Dodge Daytona, since that was the first car I ever bought, and I loved (really loved!) it... I also had a second one, which was my car when Cindy and I first got together. Problem is, they quit making them back in 1993, meaning that every one I found listed either had prohibitively high miles, or prohibitively high levels of "project" required to make it into the car we would want it to be. Bummer!

So we started looking at newer stuff. Given unlimited funding, I'd be all over the new Dodge Charger. That's my "someday" car. However, they're still far too new to fit into our plan. Plan? Oh yeah, I shoulda mentioned that! These were the ground rules we set up:

#1 - NO CAR PAYMENT!!
#2 - Newer, Nicer, Sportier
#3 - Will Last 10 Years Or More

So I realize that #3 depends at least as much on OUR maintenance of the vehicle as it does the vehicle itself, and I'm willing to put that effort out. But #1 and #2 were absolutely immovable.

So I decided to look at the various models that replaced my beloved Daytona in Dodge's lineup. The first Avenger was extremely bland looking... Not sure what they were thinking, plus it wasn't reviewed all that well... The Stealth was hot hot hot at the time, but like the Daytona, there aren't many good ones to be found. The NEW Avenger is hot hot hot now, but completely incompatible with ground rule #1. Ahh, but in between was the Stratus... Not the midsize sedan, 4-door, wants-to-be-cool-but-falls-short stratus, but the 2-door fraternal twin of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Stratus. Mmmmmm, Tasty! Found a couple, they look great, and the pricing is more in line with what we expected to get out of the truck.

Then I decided to widen the search to include the Chrysler version, the Sebring Coupe LXi. And bingo, up popped the picture above! After a test drive, we knew it was our new car... well, even before the test drive, when I sank into the rich corinthian leather seats, I knew. It's good good stuff! One of the best things about it, was it was at the Lexus dealership, and those people know how to treat a customer!! The trade value of the truck was exactly the price of the Sebring plus Tax, so we ended up doing a straight swap - it was completely surreal to drive away in our new sporty car, without having gone through the pain of the haggling, the financing, payment manipulating, etc. Still kinda feels like "did that really happen?" But when I got up this morning, there it is, in the driveway, waiting for us to come drive it!

And drive it we will.

VACATION!

So why is it that a week can take forever, when you're doing some (most?) things, and yet as soon as you put that magical 'V' word in front of the same number of hours, they fly by as if somebody hit the FF button on the big remote of life?

We were on vacation this past week. Above, you see us on Day 1, aboard a state ferry heading to the San Juan Islands, and specifically, Orcas Island. We camped (yes, camped - with tents!) at Moran State Park on the island for four days and nights, and had an incredible time!

Some highlights? Well first, Cindy and I were very relieved that our new utility trailer not only fit all of our gear inside, but also held together for the entire trip! (we'd only built it one week prior, and hadn't driven it more than around the block before)

Then there was the hiking... Us lazy suburbanites hiked approximately 10 miles in 2 days, and that's WITH Cindy suffering from Plantar Faschiaitis. The first day's hike took us up to Cascade Falls, and as you can see, it was well worth the hike!

Day two brought us around Cascade Lake and the Rosario Lagoon, which was another great one. Some would argue that it was even better, since it was (1) shorter, and (2) more level. Anyway, there was some more awesome nature to enjoy along the way, including this totally cool tree that was growing out over the water. I had envisioned a picture of the kids up in the tree, above the water, but then Cindy started talking about making backup plans in case they fell in, and suddenly nobody wanted to leave the safety of the lower trunk. Still, it was definitely a Kodak moment. (ummmm, I guess technically, it was a Panasonic moment...;)

A little further in our loop around the lake, we came across a bald eagle perched on a log in the lagoon! We were able to get fairly close - much closer than we had been the day before when we saw one soaring above the swimming area of the lake... but I wasn't close enough for a good pic. I did get a "kinda okay" pic though... (that's it on the log)

Our last day of venturing out saw us driving up to the top of Mount Constitution, the highest point in all of the San Juans. From the top of the mountain, you can see all the other islands as well as cities in both the U.S. and Canada, mountains, and really gorgeous deep blue water. But if that wasn't high enough for ya, there's also an observation tower that gave even more specactular views!

So the hiking was great! But there was more... Cascade Lake has a swimming area that the kids spent every afternoon in! We'd bought a little blow-up raft, and they never got tired of climbing in, flipping it over, wash, rinse, repeat!

And in addition to our cool bald eagle sighting, we also had some "Woodland Creatures" come to us, visiting our campsite. Some, like this young buck deer, were an awesome reminder of just how close we were to nature!

Others, like the thieving raccoons that trashed out camp in the middle of the night, eating anything with a high carb count (no bread or chips left... luckily, they didn't seem to like chocolate very much) just seemed to remind us that even though we were on vacation, Raccoons are still horrible creatures. Oh well, at least our chickens were safely locked in their coop this time!

Then, as suddenly as it began, it was Friday morning and time to tear down our tents and leave our beloved Campsite #85.

It's Saturday night now, and I just can't seem to accept that it's over... Gotta go back to work and the normal routine after just one more day... Ahh, sweet vacation memories... TAKE ME AWAY!!

Oh, and if you're one of those types who actually enjoys looking at other people's vacation pictures, just click here to go to our photo album!

Feel Better About Your Own Looks

You are looking at "Elwood" from New Jersey, the winner of the 2007 "World's Ugliest Dog" contest.

And yes, he is ugly. Quite.

I just can't believe that there's a contest for this kind of thing! And looking through the photo galleries, every entry listed was a "Chinese Crested Dog", a breed which appears to have been created specifically to win Ugly Dog contests.

So look at Elwood.... And feel better about yourself! It's been my pleasure to provide this public service.

Summer Fun in Slow Motion!

Last summer the Mentos & Diet Coke Geyser was a staple of back yard fun... We even did it at the ol' Puddle Jumpers Day Care... Well, for all the people with eyes that are just too slow to see what's really going on, here's a super-slow motion video of the whole process! Enjoy, and happy Summer!!


Slow Motion Mentos Geyser - More amazing video clips are a click away

Amazing Coincidences

We've all had amazing coincidences happen in life... It's one of the things that really makes you stop and look at how the world looks, and how intricate the weaving of God's creation is. Well, I had one the other day that blew my mind so bad that I'm still trying to grasp it all. Here is my mind-blower, in timeline fashion:

Sunday, June 10
At church, Pastor Kevin gives a brilliant message called "God Said, Gone Wrong" about how people do all manner of craziness under the blanket of "but God told me to!" One of the points he brought up is that God nearly always talks to us in very subtle ways. An example he used is that if you find yourself thinking about a friend or relative you haven't seen or even thought about in a long time, you should pray for that person. Made sense. I locked it away under "Useful things I learned in church and will hopefully have a chance to use before I forget." (one of my favorite mind-folders)

Monday or Tuesday, June 11 or 12
As I'm diligently working away, keeping all the servers serving and networks networking, my best friend from high school, Scott Brown popped into my mind. Now this was a particularly odd person to pop into my head, because as strange as it sounds, I had actually forgotten about him the last time I tried to remember highlights of high school. (this was as I was justifying skipping out on my 20 year reunion) I remembered lots of other people and events, but forgot Scott, who was nearly always with me as I celebrated getting my license by driving every waking minute of the day, running the old diesel Chevette out of fuel and learning how hard it is to start a diesel after it had run dry, and so, so many other life-shaping events. The really scary thing is that I'd forgotten about the events as well as the person!

Anyway, it was shocking and appalling to me that I'd ever forget the only person who ever had to get stitches because of riding with me, and in light of what I'd just heard in church, thought I should try to look him up. (and of course, pray general blessings in his direction!) So I went to classmates and created an account, and looked for him. Now, I've got quite a few gripes against classmates. They're rather un-ethical in their "auto-renewal without asking if you want to auto-renew" methods, and even when you pay for their "Gold" membership, you still get at least three lines of spam mixed in with each screen of names when you're going through your class lists. As I browsed through, I didn't see his name, so I quit looking and figured that maybe someday he'd sign up and we'd reconnect. *sigh*

Saturday, June 16
I'm playing bass at church tonight, and am about to leave, when I hear my blackberry do its "Hey! I just received an email for you!" chirp. Instinctively, I grab it and look at my messages. I then proceed to almost drop it, as I see a message from classmates saying "Scott B Has Sent You A Message!" Now, knowing that I need to leave the house within a few minutes to get to sound check in time, I still ran to the laptop and pulled up the email. I clicked on the link. I logged in. I clicked on the message from Scott.

ENTER MY SECOND GRIPE ABOUT CLASSMATES

And I'm greeted by the annoying "Pay now to read this message!" screen. You're kidding me. I'm not trying to be cheap, but really?? I can post my profile for free, but to get any benefit at all out of it, I gotta pay?? AND THERE ARE ALL THOSE @#$%& ADS??? Wow. You guys suck. I'm going to church.

So I go, and I gotta say, we rocked the house. Then I got home, and told Cindy about my amazing coincidence. And that I was going to be paying for a short-term classmates membership so I could get my message. And I did! And then I discovered that Scott had been at classmates all along, (apparrantly hidden amid the ads to find love online) so it wasn't QUITE as amazing as I'd originally thought, but still... the timing of it all was pretty amazing.

So I wrote back, giving a brief update of who and where I am in life.

Sunday, June 17
Playing bass at the Sunday services too, so I'm up early, but check my mail, and Scott had replied. Cool. He jogged more long forgotten memories, and I'm really enjoying getting re-acquainted! My great dislike for classmates isn't fading, but it's really great to reconnect with someone I spent so much time with 20+ years ago!

P.S. To Classmates: (since I'm sure you read my blog regularly) When somebody pays to be a full-fledged "Gold" member, DROP SOME OF THE ADS!! MAN!!! I mean, if you don't make enough off membership fees, here's a suggestion: RAISE YOUR RATES! Or - and I know this is earth-shaking - maybe have "Gold" actually MEAN SOMETHING! You could have a "Bronze" or "Silver" level that lets you access messages and such, but still has the ads. The word "Gold" connotates that you're at the top! And at the top, I'm quite certain there aren't a constant barrage of garbage from True and Match.com. I expect that crap when I'm on cheesy low-end sites, but you guys have been around long enough to have worked out your own existence. I'd consider renewing my membership if it didn't mean I was still subjected to all that crap. Fo'real.