last night, about 8 o'clock, i received a call. it was a survey about how i get my news. what i read or watch. i figured, "ah, a couple questions...no biggie." so the girl on the other end starts asking the questions in a monotone "i hate my job" voice. very exciting, eh? meanwhile, my daughter, h, was wired with caffine and basically jumping off and on the couch, climbing the table and other mischief.

now the operator is asking these questions and i can barely hear her. so i keep asking, "what was that" or "can you repeat that". i can tell that she is getting bothered with the noise on my end. i decide to put a stop to this survey, so i ask, "how many more questions are there? i have to get my daughter to bed."

her response: "this survey usually takes 15 minutes. is there a better time for us to call you so you can finish this?"

"hahah....hmmm," i think to myself. "what day am i not going to be home?"

happy winter solstice. december 21. the long, bleak dead of winter that is upon us. the skeleton's of trees showing their branches. just think...march is only 3 months away and soon spring will be here. so, in honor of the great season of revival (and warmth), here is a pic of one of my climbing roses.

first of all, no jury duty. got canceled. so now, i don't have to worry about it for another 2 years. i called on sunday night to see if i had it or not and it got moved to tuesday. so i called last night and the recording said that my panel was excused and that my service would not be needed. sweet!

saturday, i went riding with erin's brother jeff, his friend barry, and their youth pastor jeremy. it was a fun day. we got there at about 9 and the parking lot wasn't even half full. by 1, the parking lot was half of what it was when we got there.

oh, and btw, with windchill, the temperature was -20°f. yeah, it was cold. i think i even got frostbite on my toes.

every run we took, we always hit the boardpark. early afternoon, we rode up into the mouth of the park and there were about 2o other boarders sitting down, watching the jumps, waiting to see who was going next. like lemmings, they followed suit. trying to go bigger and better. i wasn't going to be that crazy. the snow was like cement. on one jump i took, i caught my toe edge on the kicker and somehow spun around and landed full force on the right side of my butt. it hurt like you wouldn't believe. all i could do is lay there, hoping that the pain would subside.

so, instead of hitting the kicker again, i stayed on the bench slide.

jeff's strap came undone, due to a screw coming loose, so we had to go get him all fixed up. we decided it was time for lunch. i don't think anyone was hungry, just cold. so we headed in to get ourselves warmed up.

after lunch, we hit the runs again and it seemed like it was warming up. nope, not really...just if you were standing in the sunshine. it was a clear day, so the sun was bright and big. but, it started descending and our warmth was leaving us.

we were hoping to get at least 20 runs in, and we were at 15. "gotta step it up a notch" was the running saying. by that time it was about 2 and it was getting colder and colder. we ran run 16 with no stopping and screwing around. got on the lift, got to the top, got off, strapped in and down the run we went. got to the lift and decided "ok, one more, then let's go. it is too cold." at the top of the mountain, we decided to meet at the yukon and everyone took off. that had to of been the coldest one yet. plus, the light was flat.

all in all, it was a great day. . .

no eye candy today...trying to get my workload lightened in case i'm at jury this coming week.

well, i've been duped. i thought this was going to be an easy little game. i've been shown a puzzle by erin that is apparently "sweeping the world". it is called sudoku. here's a screenshot for you to see it. the way you play is:

there is one big square with 9 boxes inside that larger. in those 9 boxes, there are 9 smaller boxes. each box will have a number from 1-9. the goal is to find where each number goes. each number can only be used once per line (horizontal or vertical) and box. sound easy? sound hard? my fastest time is 21 minutes. try it and see how fast you can do it. i suggest you try it on easiest first.

forgive me, but i kinda liked doing this. i know, i know...it's stupid, but hey, so am i. copy and paste it to your blog and answer the questions. send me your url so i can check it out...

granati from a to z:

age: 29
best friend in high school: big seth-0
chore(s) you hate: um, car maintainace
dumbest thing you've done: playing ding-dong-ditch and getting caught by an off-duty police officer. hey, i was 12.
essential start of your day item: alarm clock
favorite color(s): blue and orange
gold or silver: titanium (woot)
height: 5'9"
instrument(s) you play: guitar and djembe
job title: audio/visual department
kids: 3 great tadpoles
living arrangements: yes...oh wait, wife and kids.
music: trance/house/beat. indie/emo and normally anything else but country
never: give up
overnight hospital stay other than birth: nope...had to go to the emergency room with b. got home at about 2 in the morning. that's the latest.
phobia: don't have one
quote: "sin makes us stupid; and fear destroys faith"
right or left handed: right
siblings: a brother and a twin sister
time you woke up today: 7 am
unique habit: taking pictures (all the time)
vegetable you hate: raw onions. nasty!!!
worst habit: hahah, where do i start?
x-rays you've had: no x-rays, but i've had an ultrasound done on my chest.
your most valuable gift/possesion: my salvation
zero to 100 (favorite number): 76

i had some rad pictures that i had taken this weekend. i also took some christmas pictures for my sister and her family. there were some christmas pictures of our kids too. i went to dl them from the memory card. corrupt. i went to take them straight from the camera. no pictures found. i went to review the pictures on the camera. they were there. went back to dl them from the card. corrupt still. camera; none found. aaarrrggghhh. this is the first and only time that this has happened. i don't know why. and of course, it had to do it with important pictures, too.

so now, i had to format the sd card and take some test shots...and, tra-la-la, it works. stupid, stupid, stupid!!! well, i lost all my pictures and i have to retake them all. even the ones that were totally random. . .

danni boatwright won $1,ooo,ooo and is the sole survivor...w00t

i received my summons for jury duty a couple weeks ago. my tenitive duty date starts the 19th of december. the last time i had jury duty (which was a couple years ago), it was around the same time, but, i got out of it because it was the week of (uh-oh, i'm not going to be pc here) christmas. i don't know if that is going to happen again this year. i don't know what i want to happen though. i've never served on a jury before. it's always been cancelled. so, now, i'm trying to get ahead with my work in case i'm gone for a week.

erin has served twice, and it seems like it would be an interesting process. but, i can also understand why it is a big pain in the butt to some people as well. time will tell if i go or not, so, i'll just have to wait and see. . .

i just got a new phone today. aaarrrggghhh...i hate having to set up a new phone. putting in all those numbers from my previous phonebook to my new phonebook. it took me an hour, a full hour, just to type in those numbers using that tiny numberpad. fingers aching. eyes squinting. figuring out how the freaking thing works. at least i'm going from a nokia to a nokia, so the operating system is the same.

now, i get to find a new, decent, irritating, annoying ring tone that drives people crazy. a ring that grates it's fingernails down the chalkboard. you feel it starting at the base of your neck and it slowly drives down your spine, heading towards the small of your back. a ringtone that i find irresistibly funny to play over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. i think i may have found it. um, nope. mabye this one? uh-uh. ok, here it is, the perfect one. gotta test it.

hey josh, c'mere. . .

RIP

here's another picture taken during the snowstorms we got last week. our temperature for today is:

day temp = 18°f
evening temp = 8°f

we've been getting some pretty good snowfall these last couple of days. here are some pictures that i took today and yesterday. hope you enjoy. . .

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when i was coming home tuesday night, b was with me. it was snowing pretty good and she started asking me questions about the snow.

b: "is that snow?"
me: "yes."
b: "why?"
me: " 'cause that's what it is called."
b: "where does it come from?"
me: "the sky."

we were traveling on the freeway, and came up to some streetlights. if you have ever seen snow falling at night, you can see the snow glitter very well in the streetlight. you don't see any snow in the dark night, but it reflects the light, and it looks very cool.

b: "does the snow live in the light?"
me (stifling a chuckle): "um, no. it falls from the sky from the clouds and falls to the ground."
b: "oh." she sits there and ponders my answer for a while. then, "why?"

now i know what my parents went through with me. no matter what the answers to the questions were, always that one word escaped my lips, just like b's;

why?