2007 Coming to an end

So, Christmas is over, the decorations are down and it is time to look back on 2007 and reflect.

Enjoy.

Part 2

Happy Birthday Mr. Weave!

Today is my hubby's birthday! Happy Birthday Babe! We love you!

Dr. Evil Prarie Dog

Thought this was great.

Fun Birthday

We decided to take Mrs. Weave to Chevy's because when you go there for your birthday they give you a stupid hat. Here is a picture of Mrs. Weave in her stupid sombrero. Happy birthday honey.

!!! Happy Birthday Mrs. Weave!!!

Today is Mrs. Weave's birthday. This one is for you sweetie.

Kudos for my pal, Dan the Man

Today, as with many days, as I was sitting at my desk wondering what to cook for dinner, I asked Mr. Weave (his first day of Christmas vacation) if he would like me to make clam chowder. He said, "YES!", so I pulled out an email with a recipe attached I had received from my pal, Dan, for his version of Clam Chowder. I printed out the recipe, collected all of the ingredients and started cooking! I have to thank Dan on two points in this blog (although I can think of many more reasons to thank him and his family...like what great friends they are...what great softball coaches and teammates they were...what great babysitters they raised...the list could easily go on and on), this is the BEST clam chowder I have ever tasted...let alone made and thank you for making me be like Remy in Ratatouille and actually taste the seasonings until they are what I like. (I usually follow a recipe exactly, but Dan made me season it to taste). Anyway, just needed to send out kudos to my pals, Dan and Laurie, whom I and my family miss very much!

2007 is almost over

School is out and we are on vacation for 3 weeks. Mrs. Weave is done with both of her classes (got an "A" in both) and she only has one more class until she enters the workforce. Every year at this time I go through all of the pictures for the year. I found this gem from our recent trip to the coast. The quality is kind of sub par and looks like it was taken with a cell phone. That is because I took it with my cell phone. BTW, yes... those are actual tentacles.

Fun Time

Christmas is in the air and the kids are getting into the spirit. Mrs. Weave and our youngest have been working on a gingerbread house while the oldest has been buried with homework, his science project and a book report. I am sure he is looking forward to Christmas break.

Lag Time

So, water polo is over now. The year in review movie is done. The 50 copies have been burned, printed and distributed. Thank you letters/photos are going out to the sponsors and the 2007 season has been put to bed. What this means for me is that all of a sudden I have some extra time on my hands. The big question is... will I use that time wisely? Will I return to a regular routine of going to the gym? Will I go back to doing the Bible study with my wife and not just rely on her to "get it done for both of us"? Right now, not so much. I just ate half a bag of chips and drank a Coors. I am sitting here trying to decide if I should go outside to rake leaves or take a nap. As they say in Mexico, manana!

Merry Christmas

Here is something funny.  http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9601909527 Enjoy

Turkey for me, turkey for you!

A thanksgiving favorite. Wishing you and yours a wonderful turkey day.

Vacation Time

Polo is over and the family was ready for a vacation. We are staying at Mrs. Weave's parents trailer in Morro Bay. When we got done setting up the trailer on Saturday (and we put out the fake front grass) The oldest said "Man, this is living". I guess we have done a good job teaching him to appreciate what he is given but maybe there needs to be a lesson on what is living large and what is considered the trailer life. Dang that reminds me, I forgot to bring our garden flamingos and collection of Elvis ash trays.

Today we went to the beach all morning and part of the afternoon. I went out surfing and the kids played in the surf while Mrs. Weave hung out on the beach. The surf was pretty big and I took a mean wipe out followed by 3 subsequent waves holding me under. The best part was when a small pod of dolphins swam right by me. When it was all done, I was spent. Overall it was fun but I definitely have some bruises from being hit by my board. Maybe more pictures of that to follow.

Tomorrow if I still have the guts, we plan for one more day at the beach then it is home on Wednesday.

Sad Dayz

Total sadness. Last night we lost. #5 upset us. More about this later when I am ready to talk about it.

On another note, back on October we were going to take a short vacation to go to the ocean and surf. We could not go because Mrs. Weave's dad got really sick. He is better and we are going on Saturday. Time to check the surf report.

Quarter Finals

Today is the day of the quarter finals. A win today takes us to the semi's. A loss and it all ends. In addition to coaching, I make a video for the team every year. This started in 2000 with a slide show of digital pictures shot from one of those Sony Mavica cameras. (Remember those, the ones that used floppy disks? I don't think the members of this years team know what a floppy disk looks like.) Well, every year it has gotten bigger and better. It is kind of a nice way to force me to grow as a filmmaker. The finished product will probably end up to be 15 minutes. Here is the best 60 seconds.

Playoffs and Pressure

This last Sunday I found out that my water polo team did well in the rankings. We have won our league for the last hand full of years but that usually just means besting one competitive team. Two years ago it was San Joaquin Memorial, this year it was Fresno High. But the rankings for C.I.F.; well that is an entirely different thing. A panel of coaches voted our team 1st in the central section. Because of this preferred ranking, we have an easier path to the championship game. Our first two tournament slots were byes. Our first game is this Saturday Vs the 8th or 9th place team, depending on who wins later tonight. Right now, we are just trying to get the kids to concentrate on what is right in front of them. If we can't win Saturday, we are eliminated. It seems like a lot of pressure and it is. I sure hope the kids do well. I still remember my own competitions in high school. I sure hope that this years seniors will come away from their last season, win or lose, with a good memory.

Holy Crap!

I was totally amazed to see this. One of my bestest buds in the world is a die-hard, tried and true California Angels Fan. If you know about Angels fans, they really don't like the Yankees. (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and root for the Yankees.) He has pretty much been a life long fan. He even likes the outfield extravaganza. His boy's school allowed the kids to dress up for Halloween as long as they dressed as a person from American history. His boy dressed up as that American great, Babe Ruth. It might be snowing in hell this week.

Pumpkin

Here is what Mr. Weave and the youngest did while the oldest and I (Mrs. Weave) made albondigas (Mexican meatball soup).

New Tech Team

Well, today I worked my first shift on the tech team at our new church. It was really weird. The lead guy had me meet him really early (6:30am) and spent about 10 minutes going over how my station worked. I spent the next 90 minutes just kind of sitting around and chatting with the other tech people who were there. Speaking of my station, I was the "switcher" for the service. What that means is that I am the sole person who controls what content goes up on the two jumbotron screens and all of the various TV sets around campus. If this were TV, that position is called the director. In case I didn't mention, this was my first shift at this new volunteer job.

Next, we had a tech meeting and amazingly; the head pastor attended. The whole idea of everyone meeting first to prepare and make sure we were on the same page was foreign to me. I though that was really cool because if I wanted to, I could ask the pastor questions about his sermon before he began.

I do have some experience doing this kind of work, but at another church and on very different equipment. I kind of thought the head guy would spend his time hanging around and checking up on me. This is the part where today kind of felt like my first day of student teaching. (My first day of student teaching went like this... Master teacher: Class this is the new student teacher Mr. Weaver. Mr Weaver, this is your new class. See you in June... Mr. Weaver: Uhhhh?) Well, the head guy, who by the way is named Randy had enough trust in me that he spent much of my busiest time working on his fantasy football league. I really was not sure if this was because he believed me when I told him about the work I did at my previous church or if he is just that laid back. It was kind of nice in a way because at my old church, any small mistake made by any volunteer or paid person was likely to result in an instant and public chastising by the head pastor or the lead tech person. Come to think of this, today was kind of nice in that regards... just strange.

Here is a picture of me and my buddy Ryan doing tech stuff at my old church. I sure do miss all the people at my old church but I sure don't miss being yelled at in front of 1,500 people.

The new phone books are here.

Today I was the first one to arrive at school and I was so happy to discover that the new phone books had arrived.

Shooting Stars

Here is something I saw this weekend that was funny.

Bad Weekend

This weekend was supposed to be spent surfing some nice head high or bigger waves and dining on lots of fish and chips but instead it was filled with sadness. Mrs. Weave's dad ended up in the hospital. (Yesterday's post) We have been putting off getting a dog for the kids and decided to get one this weekend since we were not going out of town anymore. We went to the pound and picked out a nice looking mutt. When we got her home she was cute and lovable but had one big flaw... she could not help herself around our Koi pond. We tried and tried to keep her out. I put her in the kids play area and she promptly ate a 12 inch hole in the wood fence, got out and went after our fish again. We tried and tried but she was very adept at escaping. In the end, we decided that since we could not supervise her 24/7; we had to take her back. The kids took it ok but I was very sad. The weekend ended on a couple of good notes. Mrs. Weave's dad is doing much better and may be able to come home in a few days. Today I sat in with the tech crew at NewCov and was very happy to be behind the scenes again.

Here is something cool I found that made my day better.

Summer Fun

Here is something I did this summer when the kids were bored. I taught the oldest how to edit and then he did all of the tedious rotoscoping for the special Fx. I helped him clean everything up and then we both added sound.

Strange Day

Today just as the shrimp was coming off the barbie, we got a call. Mrs. Weave's dad was not doing well and mom needed help. Long story short and an ambulance ride later, he was in the hospital. The prognosis looks good but what an experience that was.

After my hospital visit tonight, I have decided two things. One, almost everyone who is a customer at the hospital emergency room likes to smoke. Tonight as I was just hanging around while Mrs. Weave and her mom were in the room with her dad, I watched people carry their barf basin outside so they could puff away in between puking their guts out. It makes me wonder how much smoking is tied to why they are in the ER in the first place. Two, I am glad that I never did become a doctor. The whole place was just sad. Everyone was sick. Some were moaning. Kids were crying. That would be a tough place to work.

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