i've been practicing some new songs that i recently aquired. whilst i do this, b & h have to grab my kazoos and run around the house while the sound of buzzing do-do-do comes out of their instruments.

what is nice though? e loves listening and watching as i play, so i normally get on the floor next to him while i strum. he kicks and laughs, smiles and eats his fists. it is great being a daddy. . .

first of all, i want to say happy birthday to my brota. don't be too busy to enjoy it.
______
with that said, my dad is having surgery today. it's from an old surfing injury that he incurred when he was my age. i was out surfing with him and he got thrown into the sand onto his neck/shoulder. i guess it is starting to give him problems now. he is going to be out of work for about 6 weeks, but now my mom has jury duty for the entire month of februrary. so, while he is home, she has to serve.
______
on a lighter note, erin and i were at walmart yesterday. i had a cart for all the tadpoles and erin had a cart for groceries. i was pushing along when all of a sudden:

zap!!!

the cart shocked me. then another and another.

what is this?!?!

so i start looking around. is someone playing a joke on me? nah, can't be. so i tell erin.

"my cart is shocking me."

her response? "mine too."

ok, to weird. is this a practical joke? i bet there is someone upstairs, concealed in his little room with his lights off. laughing so hard he is peeing his pants.

zap!!!

jeez, not another one. let's hurry up and get out of here. . .

beach in cienfuegos, cuba

please don't push the big red button. . .

the other day, i was driving through our parking lot and saw an object in a tree. "that's weird" i thought to myself. after a few hours, i headed over to the coffeeshop to get something to drink and decided to check out the "object". lo and behold, it was a bird's nest. funny how i never saw it before. . .

nothing to write about right now. busy with taking pictures of our recent renovation of our new building. hopefully i will be able to get some good shots to post later on. until then, here is a pic to tide you over. . .

°°°

took these pictures today on the way in to work. . .

ok, i don't do this...but i really like this song. it is "breathe you in" by thousand foot krutch. below are the words to it. the song is streamed on their website. go here and click skip intro if you don't want to watch the flash. if you listen to the intro, it'll be a harder music for some of you, but don't let that scare you. "breathe you in" is more of a love song without the hard music. once you get into the site, the words thousand foot krutch will be on the left side. below that, the words back play stop next which you can click on. hit next 4 times and "breathe you in" will appear and start playing. it is really a cool song. check it out. . .

taking hold, breaking in
the pressures on, need to circulate
mesmerized and taken in
moving slow, so it resonates
it's time to rest, not to sleep away
my thoughts alone, try to complicate
i'll do my best, to seek you out
and be myself and not impersonate

i tried so hard to not walk away
and when things don't go my way
i'll still carry on and on just the same

i've always been strong
but can't make this happen
'cause i need to breathe, i want to breathe you in.
the fear of becoming
i'm so tired of running
i want to breathe you in

i'm going in, so cover me
your compass will, help me turn the page
the laughing stock, i'll never be
because i won't let them take me

took awhile to see all the love that's around me
through the highs and lows there's a truth that i've known
and it's You

°°°

my bonsai is blooming. . .
my bonsai is blooming. . .
my bonsai is blooming. . .

well, you probably guessed it. . .but, my indoor bonsai is finally blooming. as you can see from the pictures, they are white star shaped flowers. i thought that it was a ficus, but now, i'm not so sure. i'm still trying to figure out what genus of tree it is. if you have an idea, let me know.

samson and daisy finally getting along. . .

we received our bill for sanitation, and our garbage charge doubled. so i called the department to find out why. they said that they just do the billing for the sanitation department, but they can transfer my call over to them. "sure", i said. "that would be great."

so i gave my info over to them as well. the lady on the other side said that she can't find any information regarding our account, but if i could give her my phone number, she could call back. ok.

i left for work and as soon as i drove into my parking spot, my cell rang. erin was on the phone. the department had just called and gave her the rundown of the bill. i already knew that we had some extra cardboard boxes, so that wasn't any shock to me. but apparently if the garbage man has to get out of his comfy, cozy truck, it costs me an extra $3.50, just for him to get out of the truck. oh, by the way, we are on automated trash pickup. after he gets out of the truck, if he has to close the lid, $1.50. for him to physically throw something into the truck, another $3.50.

so, you can rake up a pretty hefty bill if you aren't careful. when we were put onto the automated trash pickup, we were told that if it happens occassionally, then there won't be any charge, but if it is a chronic thing, then we would be charged another trash can.

yeah, i'm a little torqued about this. we have to pay extra for the garbage men to actually do their job? does that seem right?

°°°

two pictures taken after our recent snowfall on sunday. not much came down and the majority of it melted away by the middle of the day.

i think we all need a sign like this for our lives in general. isn't life just one big playground? the swings are just your ups and downs in life. the hills and the valleys. the higher you go, the faster you come down and the longer the descent. the playground bully. don't get me started on that one. everyone has had a bully. even the bullies have bullies.

the tire swing. spin faster and faster. the sicker you get. the monkeybars and the balance beam. some of us may have had fun at the playground whereas others just sat and ate sand. still others kicked the chainlink fence.

the icecream man always had the bigsticks for a quarter. those always sold fast, due to the quality and quanity of a icecream bar for 25¢. with your treat in hand, you would head over to the jungle gym and would climb that mt. everest of the playground and roost at the top, watching others scramble around the green grass and clay dirt.

the popular girls always hung out together, swapping their containers of lip gloss and calling the "unpopular girls" names. there were the uncoordinated, non athletic boys that sat on the benches, constantly tying and retying their laces, looking busy, hoping that they would blend into the scenery. waiting for the recess bell to ring so they could go back to the safety of the classroom.

tetherball always had a line forming. you lose, back of the line. the toughest, littlest girl was the #1 player of the school, and if you could beat her, you were something.

we watched as team leaders formed kickball teams, waiting to be picked and hoping we weren't the last one. you knew that you had a chance when the science geek came to play, because his teacher told him to.

"we get the geek with the glasses. you guys get granati."

then a bellow of sighs and curses. "no, we had him yesterday. you get him today."

the recess monitor always seemed to be the meanest, toughest teacher the school had. you dreaded that shiny, silver whistle of hers. if she looked at you, you looked away and tried to ignore her glare. she had a clipboard and pen, anxiously waiting to take down a name. mine, it was always written down. and it always had two checkmarks next to it. . .

at left is one of my favorite pictures that was taken in cuba, near cienfuegos. cienfuegos means 100 fires. all i know is that it is hot there. it's near the ocean on the southern side of the island.

anyway, i was uploading this picture (along with others) to my flickr account and i got this message:

"whoa! you have used up 100% of your uploads for this month!"

well, doesn't that just bite? so now, i either have to pay to upgrade my account, or i just wait for february. just when i start learning new things, the brakes slam this thing down to a halt. i guess i'll just wait. it's not that long anyway. just 19 days, 13 hours, 10 minutes and 50 seconds left. 49, 48, 47, 46, 45 . . .

erin's parents called this morning at about 8.oo (which would be 9.oo pm in india). everything seems, but i think some of her family is getting home sick. i think erin was glad to get a call from her parents. her dad has been in touch byway of the internet. the internet is a great way to keep in contact: via e-mail and blogging. i didn't think my blog would be a way for them to stay in touch with us, but, whatever works, huh?

they have been in imphal, manipur for the last week(?) and they leave for siliguri tomorrow, for about 10 days. that's where i went when i was in india. the hotel we stayed at was the "hotel heritage" which was our home away from home. the first night we were there, it was pretty, um, how should i say it...? well, i'll explain it. you make your own descriptive word for it.

our beds were slabs of plywood with a blanket. hahah. lovely sleeping arrangements. the pillow was a sheet and a little filling. we had to take it and fold it 1/4 of it's size to be able to even feel it. so i wound up taking my sweatshirt and used that for my headrest. the bathroom and shower where all in one (which is typical for 3rd world countries), so when you took a shower, the rest of the bathroom was incased in water. puddles on the floor. at least we had a western toilet. again, typically for 3rd world countries, they use squatty potties. don't understand how to use it? i'll explain.

there is a hole in the ground with two divets on either side of it (for your feet). then you squat. when you fly through singapore, you get your choice of western toilets (thank you so much) or if you are feeling lucky, the squatties.

there were also (we liked to call them "atomic") cockroaches that were about 6 to 9 inches long and fast. we only had one in our room. we were able to catch it and flush it, but it wound up doing the backstroke and climbed out of the toilet. it climbed up wet porcelain, over the lip on the inside of the toilet and under the seat. so we had to catch it again and make sure it went down the toilet hole. i guess we were the lucky ones. one woman that went with us woke up one night and a cockroach was sitting on her face. so everynight after that, we had to pull out our flashlights and search the room for "unfriendlies".

in front of the hotel was an open sewage canal, which didn't move. i kicked a rock into it one day to see what would happen. it fell into the canal and sat on top of the greenish-blackish slime and after about 30 seconds started to sink down. nasty.

but i do have to say that after a couple days, when you are extremely tired, due to everything that you are doing, that slab of wood does start calling your name. and we probably slept better than a lot of the locals.

the locals are poor. i don't know if the amount has changed or not, but their currency is/was 43 rupees to the dollar. in kolkata, i can't recall how many people i saw that were sleeping on the street/sidewalk. but, they had their precious cell phone. those that are poor in india are working off their bad karma, and it is considered bad karma to help them as well.

and i am thinking of going back. what is wrong with me. . . ?

if you want to check it out, i've started posting my pictures on flickr.com and have a photo book going on. click here if you want to see it. the link is also under "my other projects" located to the right --->

hilarious blonde joke
_____

i don't get it...ok, really, i do. . .

last night, the calm before the storm, i took this picture in the backyard. we had a lot of rain during the night. this morning, we had a lot of wind. our backyard is sorta like a wind tunnel. the front yard can be calm and nice, but the back sounds like a freight train.

erin's family left for india on wednesday. just so you know, india is 13 hours ahead of pacific time in the states. their traveling from spokane to lax to taiwan to singapore to india. 21 hours of flight time. that's not counting layovers. india is a hard flight . you hit the ground running and you don't stop until you come home.

when i went last year, we traveled through japan and had a layover in singapore for 12 hours. when we got to india, we stayed in kalkuta for a night and then went to siliguri. that evening, we went and visited some house churches and it was so hard to stay awake. the evening was hot (about 90°f with a nice breeze coming through). there were no lights, except for that of one lightbulb, so it was basically an invite to close your eyes and drift to sleep. you did what you could to stay awake. shifting back and forth, stretching out your legs, arching your back. i came this close to start smacking myself, but that would have looked bad to the indians.

i'll have to post some pictures and words about my india experience. i was gone from home for i think 2 weeks. exciting stuff. hopefully, i'll be going back this spring. i don't know yet. the cost is about $3500.

on the way home, we had a 24 hour layover in singapore. singapore has to be probably one of my favorite countries outside of the u.s. singapore is where east meets west. i am totally into asian culture and i would love to visit japan and china. i've told erin that if we had unlimited funds and we could live anywhere in the world, it would be singapore (or japan).

anyway, i got 5 hits from singapore while her family was waiting in the airport. erin received a comment from her dad on her idaho native. even dfo got a couple comments to his huckleberries post "buh-bye ex-mariner" by ts, erin's dad.

so, if you are reading this (ts and the rest) let me know. i sent you an email. i know the dial-up is non-existant over there, but if you feel you need some american contact (hahah), you know where to find us. see you in 19 days (not that we're counting. well, maybe erin is). . .

i just got done ordering some new stock for some new bonsai projects. they won't get mailed out until planting time for our zone (it is zone 5, for the curious) which is april 15 to early may. the picture above is that of my ficus bonsai casting a (ok, 8o's time here) rad shadow. i've been looking for a japanese flowering cherry (yoshino) and i have finally found one. i ordered a total of 14 trees. here is a listing of the plants and what they look like. just click on the name and it will link you to the image:

japanese flowering cherry (yoshino)
japanese maple
trident maple
red maple
sugar maple
scarlet oak
red oak
sweetgum
silver maple
white flowering dogwood
washington hawthorn

one dark day, in the middle of the night,
two dead boys woke up to fight.
back to back they faced each other,
drew their swords and shot each other.
a deaf policeman heard the noise,
and went to rescue two dead boys.
if you don't believe this tale is true,
ask the blind man, he saw it too. . .

for those of you that don't think you aren't cool enough, here is some help.

today i had to take erin's parents to the airport. they are going to be gone for 3 weeks and are headed for india. their plane left at 6 this morning. they were suppose to be at my house by 4.15 and so i got up at 4 to get dressed and brush my teeth. a feat that takes about 5 minutes. i checked my watch and it was 4.35 and they still weren't there. if i would have known that, i would have gotten up at 4.30 but they finally showed at 20 till.

last night, we went and got samson, "my" dog that erin's sister took with her to seattle. now erin's parents have him. it's a long story. we took him home, since they are going to be gone. when we got into the house, our cat freaked out. her back arched up and the fangs started showing. then she started swatting at samson. i told b to stay away from daisy and i got samson away from her. i picked daisy up and tried calming her down, but, she scratched my arm and bit into my thumb and took off running. that was the clincher for why i am a dog person and not a cat person. i went to go wash my wounds and clean them out. then i used some peroxide.

this morning, when i went to let daisy into the house (she sleeps in the garage, or does whatever she does at night) she wasn't wanting to come in. "fine", i think to myself. she's going to throw herself a pity party. "i don't care." hopefully though, she will get along with samson and warm up to him. . .

ok kiddies, i'm b-a-a-c-k...

our office was closed for 10 days and so i took the opportunity not to do any posting as well. to sorta recharge. plus, it was a hectic week. i hope everyone had a great christmas and new year. we did as well. last new year's we were in california for a week, but this year we stayed home.

this week we really didn't do anything. but, it was busy anyway. we were finally able to buy a garage door opener and so we put that in on wednesday. took 6 hours to complete and i still didn't have the wires tacked down. i finished that the next day.

it was nice to be able to stay home and take care of some things. i still didn't get to do other projects either, but soon, i will. we went and saw "narnia" on tuesday. i know that it is a kid's book, but the movie was awesome. i'm into c.s. lewis, so i was glad that we were able to go and see it.

thursday was h's birthday, so we went out for dinner to celebrate it. we aren't going to have a party for her until june. we figured since her birthday is right behind christmas, we'll celebrate her half birthday so she gets a special day anyway.

well, i've got programs to edit. . .