Homie Gnomie Vacation Video 2009

Our gnome had a great vacation in Hawaii. I really wish we had all been able to go. Enjoy the video.

Read more...

Gnome Sweet Gnome

Our gnome, Homie Gnomie as the kidnappers named him, is home again. Meg found him hiding in a nativity seen in Dinuba on Christmas day. It was later revealed that Tim and Sharon were in cahoots on the kidnapping. Luckily, our gnome was unharmed in the ordeal. He actually got a vacation out of the kidnapping. Tim took him to Hawaii with him and his two friends on vacation. He stayed at Sharon's house and had some fun on the beach. We were given the vacation photo collage, which I am having trouble uploading but here is one of the photos.
We all had a lot of fun with this kidnapping. On our drive home, Tina mentioned that we should continue the adventure and take our gnome with us whenever we go on trips. I agreed. Meg does not want to put him back outside yet, even though she said that he watches over our home.

Read more...

All I Want For Christmas Is...

I wouldn't say that it is all I want for Christmas, but I would like to get our gnome back. He has been missing for quite some time. I have not heard from him lately and I fear something bad has happened to him. Maybe he is bound and gagged by his kidnappers?

Christmas is a special time of the year and we can't imagine not sharing it with our garden gnome. I look for him every day when I leave the house and then again when I return home at the end of a long day. His being gone leaves and empty place in our hearts.

If you have seen our gnome, please reply to this post so we know he is OK. We just can't imagine losing him forever.

Read more...

Where Is Our Gnome?

It has been a while since we have heard from our gnome. We have really missed him. I hope he will be home before Christmas. I really feel like the longer he is missing the less the chance that he is returned.

Meg accused Uncle Tim of taking him on Thanksgiving. He was unusually quiet and had a fishy reaction. Is he the kidnapper? At this point, we just don't know for sure. It could be him or could just be some other random person.

Gnome...we miss you. Come home. Come home. Gnome...we miss you. Come home. Come home.

Read more...

This is Getting Out of Control

So I got another message from my gnome-nappers last night after my reply. They even sent a couple more photos. One of our gnome by an elevator and the one showing above. Here was their reply, "Don't worry i got away from them. They were mean. I am back closer to home having fun with some real friends.

Your Gnome,

Homie"

They are now corrupting our poor little gnome with alcohol. What is going through the minds of these sick people. Everyone knows that even a little bit of alcohol can kill a gnome. Their poor little bodies just cannot handle it. I sure hope that they did not give him too much. We really do hope to see our gnome again by Thanksgiving.

I really doubt that our gnome was even in Tulare at all. I think he may have been vacationing on an island in the Pacific. Ah, yes. I hope he liked the view from the balcony of the condo.

BRING OUR GNOME HOME!

Read more...

Gnome Update

I got another email message supposedly from our gnome. The text was, "Tulare is scary." It was accompanied by the photo you see here. This is just sick! Here is the text of my reply, "We just want our gnome back. Please don't hurt him and don't torture him anymore. We need him back for the holidays...in one piece."

I don't know what is going through the mind of this sick kidnapper. Why would you torture a harmless little garden gnome like this. Perhaps the kidnapper was tormented in elementary school. Maybe they were picked on by everyone else in their class and now they are just taking it out on an innocent gnome. Whatever the reason, this person is twisted.

I just hope our gnome is returned to us soon. We would hate to be gnomeless for the holiday season. Senseless violence against gnomes is a hate crime and will be treated as such when I testify against the kidnapper.

Read more...

Where has my Garden Gnome Gone

I have not heard anymore from the kidnappers of my garden gnome. I have not received a ransom letter. I have not been sent any photos of my gnome in Paris. Where is he?

I find it hard to believe that someone would kidnap my gnome just to torture my family. We are finding it more difficult to carry on with our boring lives with each passing day that our gnome is missing. I don't know how much longer we can go on. We have chosen not to get law enforcement involved up to this point because we don't want this to get messy.

As I have said before, we have a history with our gnome. We have had a lot of good times together. The kids have played with him in the back yard. He has watched Meg grow up. These are memories that you cannot replace.

If the kidnapper is reading this blog, please return our gnome! Our family does not feel complete any more. We can't imagine celebrating the holiday season without our garden gnome.

Read more...

Garden Gnome Still Missing

My garden gnome is still missing. I replied to the email I received, but my gnome has not been returned to me yet. Garden gnome, we miss you, come home...come home. Garden gnome, we miss you, come home...come home.

Read more...

Halloween Recap

We spent our first Halloween in our house and I am exhausted. Because Tina's mom is in Mexico for Dia de los Muertos, we decided to do Halloween night at our house. We also decided to have a friend birthday party for Meg at our house in the afternoon.

The afternoon friend party went off without a hitch, but Meg's friends are a wild bunch. I see why she likes them. They played hide-and-go-seek, bounced on the trampoline and just ran around the house playing. The parents picked up their children at almost exactly 3:00, so we had some time to rest before the night crowd started showing up at 5:00.

Everyone started gathering around 5:00 and the kids were ready to go trick-or-treating by about 6:30. I wasn't sure what to expect since it was the first year to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. Some of our neighbors went all out with decorations. I would say a little more than 50% of the people were home. There was a pretty good crowd of kids walking through the neighborhood. The trick-or-treating at our house was over by about 8:30 which was surprising since it was a Saturday night.

Meg was the daughter of Captain America, I was Nacho Libre the monastery cook and Tina was Sister Encarnación. My parents showed up dressed as Superman and Supergirl. Kathleen and Lisa were both dressed as witches and Jaime was a vampire. Most people did not get who I was, but that was OK. It was a long night.

The Halloween song playlists I prepared disappeared into the background, which I thought would happen. They did help to set the mood.

Read more...

New Addition to the Family

We picked up our new baby this morning after Meg's soccer game. We opted for a mixed race bundle of joy, a 2010 Toyota Prius. We ended up getting the Barcelona Red one and the reason is because it makes me laugh. I just find it very funny to have a little hybrid car that is race car red.

This car is made for tech geeks. Their are so many little gadgets in the car that there is more than one owner's manual and even a DVD. So far, I have just read up on the features I will need immediately, like the bluetooth handsfree calling and the navigation system.

I will be reading a lot in the near future

Read more...

Can you do this?

Senator Al Franken can draw a map of the United States from memory. I don't even know if I could remember all 50 states, let alone remember where they are on the map and what shape they are. I think this is great! Click here to see him do it.

Read more...

Republicans Oppose Health Care Reform but Support Petcare Tax Deduction

I can understand why Republicans may oppose Obama's Health Care Plan. They are conservative and fear government involvement in their daily lives. They don't want the government to ruin their current medical care system, because the government does ruin a lot of what they touch.

I am scratching my head over a bill that was introduced to the U.S. House by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich. The bill is a tax deduction for "Qualified pet expenses." Now this is something that I can get behind, especially since I don't own a pet. Why use government funds for human health care when we can just use if for our pets. The goal of the bill is to "Make it more affordable for people to provide the care their pets need and to make it less likely that pet owners who are suffering during the recession will abandon their pets." Noble goals, but is this really necessary? Why don't we just fund the cost to spay or neuter our pets?

You can read an article about the bill here. Why are Republican politicians bad? This is one of my favorite quotes from the article, "How about this idea? If you can't afford the real cost of pet ownership, don't get one."

Read more...

Kathy Griffin

We went to see Kathy Griffin at the Saroyan Theatre in Fresno last night. Wow! Who knew there were so many gays in Fresno? Her people were out in full force. She puts on a pretty good show, focusing much of her time on stage on current events such as John & Kate, Michael Jackson's death and other items in the news. She is very funny. I think she must have ADD because she is all over the place and very unorganized, but always funny.

It was easy to get into and out of the theater. There were several bars, but the only beers they served were Coors Light and Corona. The only other problem I had with the theater was that it was Africa hot in there. I just could not get comfortable for the entire show, which lasted for almost two hours.

Before the show, we went to El Torito and had some drinks and ate. I ordered a michelada with a Tecate Light. The michelada was very good. So good that my wife decided to drink it. She left me with the left over Tecate Light, which was a nice light, easy drinking beer.

Read more...