First Day of After School Care

Yesterday was the first day of after school care for K. She did not know that I was taking her someplace to stay, so she was surprised when we pulled up. She was a little shy while I was there, but that did change later. When I got there to pick her up, one of the kids told her that her dad was there. She came right over to me and asked me to pick her up.

When we were leaving a couple of the girls told her goodbye. She told them bye in return and we left without a problem. I asked her how it went and she told me that I should have picked her up a few minutes later. That really made me feel good.

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First Day of Soccer

Last night was the first day of soccer practice for B. She was excited to start playing and was greeted by the assistant coaches daughter by name. That should have made her feel good.

About half way through the practice the assistant coach asked me how long she has been living with us. I told him that we picked her up on Wednesday. He asked how long she would be staying with us and I told him that as far as we know it will be permanent.

I asked him how she was doing so far and he said that she is not playing like someone who has never played before. I was watching her play and she was playing pretty well. I think the biggest adjustment for her will be running all the time. She seemed to take it easy as often as she could. But then again, most of the girls out there do the same thing.

I think soccer is going to be good for her.

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Finally, New Additions

We just got a call and The Queen is picking up two sisters within the hour to come live with us.

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Commitment

I understand commitment. I guess my understanding of it is different than that of other people.

Meg's soccer coach emphasized that everyone should be at practice by 5:30 yesterday. Not 5:45. Not 6:00. We got to practice a few minutes early and started kicking the ball around. The team mom got there a little later and said that none of the coaches would be there. I told her that I have no problem with coaching the girls, but a little notice would have been nice so I could prepare some drills.

The team mom asked me to coach and I agreed. I waited a while and the assistant coach for the other team showed up and took over. I asked him if his team was going to scrimmage, like they normally do and he said they were. I told him that when they do I could take the younger girls aside and work with them.

When it came time for the scrimmage I took over and set up a little scrimmage between the six girls that were there. They were disappointed that they did not get to scrimmage a real team. I was very sympathetic to them. The older girls scrimmage every practice and they never do. It seems that they older girls are the priority to the coach.

I had the girls scrimmage for a while and then I stopped them and taught them what off side is, how to handle the ball if they are the goal keeper, strategy for each position and strategy for throw-ins. They were all messing around quite a bit, but that is expected because of the way their coach runs practices. There is usually so much down time in between drills that they naturally mess around.

Near the end of the practice, they assistant coach from the older team told me that picture day was on Saturday. He said that he did not know what time, but asked me to hand out the order forms. I really came away from this practice disappointed in our coach.

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New Weezer Album

I have listened all the way through the new Weezer album, Hurley (Deluxe Version), once and it is a catchy collection of songs. There are some really good songs on the album and some that are not as good as with most albums.

Their sound has evolved again. There really is little similarity to the Blue Album that first made me love the band. Hurley sounds like it will be more accessible to the masses. We will see if Weezer will gain more commercial appeal with this album.

I need to listen to it more, but so far I do like what I hear. I just wish they would go back to the early Weezer sound on a future album.

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Decisions, Decisions

We all make decisions every day. Some are good decisions and some are bad. Some are much worse than others. It is how we make these decisions and how we correct the bad decisions that matters most.

I know a couple who are having some problems. One of them made a bad choice and they tried to work through it. Then, the person who made the bad decision left. This person would then come back from time to time and expected everything to be back to normal. When it wasn't, this person got upset. They did not work hard to try and make the situation better. They did not try to win their spouse back.

The real problem is that the spouse just waited for them and accepted them back on their terms. The spouse did not make them change at all. The spouse just accepted them back when they were ready to come back. That was all.

I know this post is a bit confusing, but I think it brings up an interesting point. The spouse I reference above has low self-esteem. They have no drive and no ambition. It was just easier for things to go back to normal, however bad that is, than embrace change for the better. I think it was a poor decision and sets a bad example for their kids, but it is what it is.

I can tell you that would not happen in my relationship. First of all, we would never get to that point without talking to each other. If I was unhappy, I would tell The Queen and I know that she would do the same. We would work on the relationship with all of our energy before just giving up. Life is not always going to be perfect, so it will be what you make of it. We choose to make it the best we can. Not everyone feels this way and that is sad.

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Dinkey Creek

The Queen and her family went to the mountains on Friday. I got a call from her around one o'clock that afternoon telling me that she reserved a campsite at Dinkey Creek for the night. I rushed to finish as much as I could at work and then went to the grocery store to get some supplies. I got home and packed everything I could think of and then hit the road.

It took me longer than I thought to get to the camp ground. Once I got there I just felt relaxed. It felt great to be in the mountains. As soon as I got there I stated setting up the tent with The Queen's help. Her dad took all of the kids on a walk so we had some time without interruption. We got the tent up pretty fast and just in time. The kids got back almost as soon as we finished.

Little Jaime went crazy by putting several different types of chips on the BBQ. They were all really good after being heated up. I imagine that is the closest you can get to taking them straight off the line where they are made. The next morning we even put a banana and chocolate donut on the grill and made s'mores with the banana, donut and a marshmallow. The Queen and Lisa thought they tasted pretty good. We really had a lot of fun.

The next morning The Queen and I went on our standard hike of the creek. We do the same hike every time we go and it never gets old. We went back to the campsite and took all the kids on the longer version of the hike. They had a lot of fun. We got back just in time to pack up and then we headed out to the Dinkey Creek bridge. We stayed there for a while.

The kids had a lot of fun rock hopping. Meg just kept leading them farther and farther up the creek. Little Jaime and Eric followed her wherever she went. We stayed there for at least an hour and then we headed for home. Overall this was a great trip. The Queen handled the camping very well and even said that she could have stayed longer. She is looking forward to doing it again next year. I can't wait!

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Low Fidelity

I am obsessed with lo-fi photography. Several years ago I started playing with fact TtV using Photoshop. I really loved the results of this process. Last Friday I received an old Kodak Brownie that I ordered from ebay and I took my first test photo on Saturday. It turned out horrible, but I see the possibilities.

I have been scouring the web for any information about lo-fi photography, especially as it applies to the iPhone. We went camping overnight on Friday and I really went crazy taking pictures with my iPhone. It is just really handy to use. The quality is not great, but if you are going for a lo-fi look it is fabulous. I guess I am now obsessed.

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Do Politicians Affect Our Lives Personally?

I was watching the news this morning like I always do and I saw a commercial that I have seen once before. It asks if Barbara Boxer has affected your life personally in her 28 years as a politician.. I think it actually asked if you could name three things she has done to affect your life personally. Whatever the question, it made me think this morning.

Is it the job of a politician to affect our lives on a personal basis? I don't know if it is. What I do know is that most people are so blinded by politics that they could not even notice if a politician affected their lives on a personal level. The only time they do notice is when it hits them in the wallet in the form of a tax increase. Most people don't even give politicians credit when a new park is built or when their roads are repaved. And they really don't even want to notice when politicians make decisions that better the lives of those that are less fortunate.

I don't know if Barbara Boxer, or any other single politician for that matter, have affected my life personally. I would guess that they have many times, but I could not really name them. I think the better question is if politicians should really affect our lives personally. I think they work for the greater good which means that most times it may be difficult to determine what they have done to affect us on a personal level. Is that even their job?

I think this commercial is just trying to create fear in the voters. Fear that one of their elected officials has been in office too long and that she is not really doing her job. I don't know if this fear tactic will work, but this is now the status quo in political commercials. They rarely talk about positive items any more, instead focusing on the negative in order to create fear. I hate it!

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