Perfect Day

I finished reading The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. I really liked this book, but I don't know how practical it is for me. I would love to sell all my stuff and just take off to someplace in the world where I could volunteer and help people. I would love to not have to work a "normal" work day. The problem is that I have bills to pay and people to support.

After I finished the book I started thinking about what my perfect day would be. I think it would be great to start my day at eight o'clock in the morning. Wake up and drop Meg off at school. Come home and do some sort of exercise. I would prefer if I lived in the mountains on a lake. It would be great to take a kayak out on the lake every morning. A good jog or hike would also be spectacular in the morning.

After returning home and taking a shower it would then be time to get to work with whatever I would be doing. This is the part that gets a little fuzzy for me. I don't know what I am passionate about. I know that I want to do something that I love so work does not feel like work. I have thought about becoming a professional photographer, but I don't know if that is my passion. I really enjoy it when I am doing it, but I go weeks without picking up my camera. I also don't particluarly enjoy photographing people, but maybe that is because I am not good at posing people.

I would then pick Meg up from school and help her with her homework. At that point I would either do some more work or other projects that I like to do. I would exercise again in the evening after an early dinner and go to bed about midnight.

I know I have a lot of holes to fill in this perfect day, but it is a start.

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My Photography Hobby

I read a blog post or article somewhere in which the author was talking about the number of photos he took last year. That prompted me to start digging into my own photo activity. This reminded me about my first digital photos that I lost due to a hard drive crash in 2002. I started taking digital photos in 2001.

That was the year Meg was born and the year I bought my first digital camera. It was a little HP point and shoot camera, but it did the job very well. That was the start of my photography journey.

When Meg was first born I took a photo of her every day wearing an outfit that was bought for her. I was in between jobs at the time, so I was home every day. That was actually a blessing in disguise as I was able to spend a lot of time with her and The Queen after her birth. I was also able to stay with her in the hospital when she went back in because of jaundice.

I am glad that I now back-up all of my photos to an external hard drive. I should really put it in my fire safe, but I don't do that yet. I was burning them all to DVD, but I stopped that when I got the external hard drive last year.

Here is a breakdown of the cameras I have used through the years:

2001-2003 - HP (Some more in 2005)(I also used my work FujiFilm in 2003)
2003-2006 - Sony DSC-F717
2006-2010 - Canon Digital Rebel XT
2008-2010 - iPhone 3G (3G, then 4 in 2010)
2010-Current - iPhone 4 (using Hipstamatic a lot)
2010-Current - Canon 7D
2010-Current - Diana F+ medium format film camera

Here is a chart of my photography numbers through the years (These numbers to not include all of the work photos I have taken using a FujiFilm and then Canon PowerShot G9):

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Slow Start to 2011

I have been a little busy so far this year. I had a wisdom tooth removed Monday and have been out of commission a little so far. I really intend to be more regular in my postings for 2011

A few weeks ago my dad pulled out his old Polaroid Automatic 104 Land Camera. I ordered a battery and film for it online. I just got the film yesterday and decided to take my first photo. It is a black and white image as you can see below.



I ordered both black and white and color film for the camera, but decided to start with the black and white as an experiment. I think this photo turned out OK, but the second one I took turned out a little dark. I thought I adjusted for the darkness of the first photo, trying to make it a little lighter, but I failed. I will play with it some more soon to see if I can perfect my process before moving on to the color film.

I think this is just a continuation of my obsession with photography that started at the end of last year. I really like the results of using old film cameras. I am about to send off a bunch of the film that I have used in my Diana+ as well. I can't wait to see how those photos turn out.

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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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I Like Dynamic

I have been working with a new advertising agency for the last few months and I have come to realize that I really like dynamic designs. I don't like printed materials that look static. I want to see movement conveyed in the design and any photography that is used. I just feel that static-looking designs are dated.

The problem is that I am having trouble communicating this to my agency. I don't have all of the answers for how they can achieve the look I desire. I expect them to come up with the ideas for that part of the work. I just want them to be a little more creative with their designs.

I am creative enough and involved enough in the work that is created for my company that I think I can be a pain for an advertising agency. I may be difficult to work with because I have somewhat of a vision of what I am looking for and I definitely know what I like and dislike. I always wanted to be an advertising executive because I feel that I have good taste. I can make good decisions on what is a good design.

This is what makes me a bad customer for a graphic designer or advertising agency. I can't change, but I can work on better communicating my thoughts with the people I work with. That is my challenge.

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Brainstorming Change

The Queen works for a school in a low income area of town. Many of the parents of students are involved in gangs. Many parents are not home very much, so the kids are on their own a lot of the time. There is a church that is located in a an upper middle class area of town that supports the school with whatever they need. They have one person who is there every week.

This church inspires me. They really support the kids and families of this school in everything they do. If they kids need something, all the school needs to do is ask and the church does there best to get those items for the kids. For example, every year the church supplies many, if not all, of the students with back packs and school supplies. When one of the teachers started a Saturday academy for the kids, he asked the church for shirts and they provided them.

Last year The Queen had this girl in her fourth grade class who was behind in every subject. She could not read or write, but she tried really hard and wanted to learn. Everyone thought she might have some learning disabilities, so they tested her. It turned out that she did not have any disabilities, but was affected because her family moved a lot when she was younger. She was just always behind so she never learned the things she was supposed to. I really wanted to help her and mentioned it to The Queen a few times, but I never acted on it.

Last night we were sitting in one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants and I told her that the book "Linchpin" was really motivating me to do something. I told her that I would like to volunteer in an after school program at her school. We were talking about it for a while and she told me that she thought something involving computers would be good. I said that was fine, but I would like to make it very unstructured so that the kids could choose what we did.

I mentioned that it would be great if we could get a company like Apple to donate some laptops and maybe a company like Canon could donate some cameras. We could then have weekly assignments for the kids to look for. They could find their own solutions to problems like intersecting lines. I think it would teach them to look at their world in a different way. It would show them that beauty can even be found in their own neighborhood. I got really excited about this idea. Now all I have to do is find some way to get some laptops and cameras so I can move forward with this idea. I think this is too much to ask of the church.

I also mentioned to T-Bird that we can't rely on teachers alone to run after school activities for the kids. We need to get the community involved. We need to get local graphic artists to come in and teach the kids about art. We need to get local business people to come in and talk to them about entrepreneurship. We need to get the local college to come in and talk to them about opportunities for education. We need to try to open their eyes to the possibilities that are available to them.

Now comes the hard part.

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Yosemite

It had been a while since we had visited Yosemite. We used to try to go every year, but when The Queen started school full time we found it much more difficult to go. They last trip we made was when one of her classes took a field trip there. Meg and I took my parents there for their first time. That was about four or five years ago.

We were due for a trip to Yosemite and I wanted to try to stay in Yosemite Valley. We had never done that before. I started trying to book our stay in February. I really wanted to try Housekeeping Camp, but it was booked so I opted for Curry Village. I didn't know much about it before we got there. All I knew was that it was located near the Vernal Falls trail head and that we would be staying in tent cabins. The tent cabins have a wooden floor, frame and door and canvas walls and roof. As our trip got closer I read online that they include cots, linens, towels and pillows as well as a bear locker.

When we arrived on Friday, we were greeted by our neighbors almost immediately. They told us that the night before there was a bear sitting on our bear locker. That got us a little excited, but I did not completely believe them.

We saw six deer in the meadow just outside our campground on Saturday evening. They did not care that people were all around them taking photos. When we returned to the campground, The Queen and Chels saw a bear walking through.


The view of Half Dome from the Curry Village parking lot.

This is Lower Yosemite Falls.

On Friday evening we watched a presentation and slide show given by Lewis Kemper, a photographer who worked with Ansel Adams. It was a great slide show that really made me think about light and composition. At the end he mentioned that between eleven and twelve o'clock that night a moonbow would be visible at Yosemite Falls. I decided to try to photograph it. He also mentioned that he would be leading a photo tour the next morning at eight-thirty.

I went out that night at about eleven-thirty and had absolutely no luck seeing the moonbow. I went back to our tent cabin and decided I would go to Lewis's photo tour the next morning.

I woke up in time and got ready to go. I ended up leaving later than I wanted to because I was talking to The Queen. I drove out of the parking lot and searched for the Ansel Adams Gallery to no avail. I just did not know where I was going. I gave up and decided I would take the tour on Sunday morning instead. We found the gallery on Saturday afternoon and I signed up for the tour.

On Sunday morning I woke up in plenty of time. I decided to take the free shuttle to the gallery. I had a long wait of about twenty minutes. Some of the deer were back in the meadow, but I resisted taking more pictures because I was running low on memory card space. The shuttle finally arrived and got me to the gallery in plenty of time.

Canon in the park was working the tour in conjunction with the Ansel Adams Gallery. They were allowing people to try their camera bodies and lenses free of charge. I decided to try the Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-105mm lens. I was very impressed with the camera.

The tour was just around the meadow near the gallery, but I think I took some great photos. At the end of the tour they let us print a few photos for free and then let us know that they would email us all of our photos. I can't wait to see them all.

I love Bridalveil Creek and Bridalveil Falls. The area is just picture perfect. The only downside is that it is the first waterfall you see when entering from the South so it is always busy. It is a very easy hike to the falls and to the creek. I usually get pretty good photos in this area, and Sunday was no exception.

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New Lens for Mexico

I have been looking for a new lens to replace the kit lens that came with my Digital Rebel camera. The Wednesday before I left for Mexico I stopped into my local camera shop and they recommended a lens to me. I ended up buying the Tamron 18-270mm lens from Amazon because my local camera shop was sixty dollars more expensive and they would not budge on price. They even quoted me a lower price on Wednesday and then when I went back in on Thursday they told me they gave me the wrong price and told me a higher price. They have always been dificult to deal with.

I rushed to purchase the lens after reading reviews on line because I wanted to use it on my trip to Mexico. I thought I might have time to take a tour to Teotihuacan and I wanted to try out the new lens. Here are some photos from the trip.

This is where pulque comes from.





The Avenue of the Dead. Notice all of the people trying to sell items to tourists.

Detail in the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

I bought some obsidian figures of the sun and moon that this man carved.

Piramide Del Sol.

I climbed all the way to the top of the Piramide Del Sol.

View of the Pyramid of the Moon from the Pyramid of the Sun.

I ended up at the Pyramid of the Moon.


This was a great trip. I would recommend Teotihuacan to anyone who is planning on visiting Mexico.

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Teotihuacan

As long as I have been coming to Mexico there have been two places I have wanted to visit, Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. I can now cross Teotihuacan off my list. As I posted yesterday, I took a seven hour tour to Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan was the largest pre-Columbian city with a population of more than two-hundred thousand people. All of the records of the city were destroyed by the Spaniards when they conquered the area, so nobody knows exactly who the people were who inhabited the city.

Our tour started at the Citadel. Our tour giude gave us a brief introduction to the site and then set us free to explore for two hours. I made my way to Templo de Quetzalcotl, or the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It was only thirty-nine steps to the top, but at more than seven-thousand feet above sea level I was breathing hard when I reached the top. Archeologists were working around the temple, which was very interesting.

From there, I started my 1.6KM journey down the Avenue of the Dead to the Pyramid of the Moon. After going up and down many steps, I was approached by at least one hundred people trying to seel me something. I finally gave in and purchased obsidian carved figures of the sun and of the moon from the man who claimed to have carved them. They are carved out of the same local obsidian that I wrote about yesterday. It is not pure black, but has a goldish tone to it.

I walked up and down many more steps before I reached the Pyramid of the Sun. I was taking many photos along the way. At the Pyramid of the Sun there is a ramp at the base and then two-hundred and forty-five steps to get to the top. Actually, you do not reach the top until you walk up a mound that is about five feet in height. At that point I tried to take a picture of the view and found out that my camera battery was dead. I switched to my iPhone at that point. I was very dissappointed that after all of that hard work I could not even get any photos. I guess that means I will have to go back.

I walked back down all the steps and headed back down the Avenue of the Dead. The structures along the avenue were much more intact between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. It was a great experience walking down the avenue. Our tour guide told us that we would not be able to walk to the top of the Pyramid of the Moon because archeologists are excavating inside of it. I still had to walk up as high as I could, which turned out to be forty-eight steps. I could not even get to the halfway point of the pyramid.

Archeologists are excavating inside the pyramid to see if they can find anything that will give them clues as to who built Teotihuacan. They have also left the lower fourth of the Pyramid of the Sun on the north side covered in grass the way it was found. It is interesting to get a glimpse of what the site looked like before it was excavated.

I really enjoyed my trip to Teotihuacan and would recommend it to anyone. I really made me want to visit Chichen Itza though.

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Final Track Meet

Meg had her final track meet on Friday night. We invited my parents, my sister and neices and Unk Timmers to the meet. They all made it and were very supportive of Meg. I was scheduled to help time events.

Meg did not act like she was into her event very much before the meet. She did not ask me any questions. I gave her some advice and she was not very receptive. The one thing I told her that she paid attention to was to not let the tall girl from her school pull away from her again like she did the last race. That really sunk in.

I ended up having to time her race. For some of the races each timer took a lane and for the other races we took a finishing place. For Meg's race we ended up taking a finishing place because there were so many boys and girls running. I ended up timing for the fourth place girl.

Meg got off to a pretty rough start to the race. I did not see the actual start, but by the time I looked for her she was kind of lurching back because there was such a crowd around her. She struggled for ten seconds or so and then started to run her race. She has always run her eight hundred meter race at a good pace. It shows me that she has really practiced well.

She ran a really good race and as she got to the final straight section of the tack she really picked up her pace. She finished strong and ened up passing another girl to move into fourth place. She was almost sprinting as she crossed the finish line. I ended up being the one who timed her race. I met her and gave her the time for her race and told her that she finished in fourth place. I told her that she ran a great race and told her I was proud of her.

I had to keep timing races, so I did not get to spend much time with the fam. I texted them all her results. I never heard the announcement of the results for her race. We all went out to dinner when I was done timing. At dinner the fam told me that they announced that Meg got third place. I told them that she actually got fourth, but the person timing the second place finisher did not time them. It was a real mess trying to figure everything out. We don't know what ribbon she will end up receiving. I guess we will just have to wait until tomorrow to see what she brings home.

Meg's principal was in charge of receiving all of the times for the races and recording them. He was a somewhat passive person, which really surprised me. That was the first time I had any interaction with him and he was not what I expected. I guess I am used to take charge people in the business world and maybe the leaders in the education world are just not that way. Or maybe it was his first time performing that job at a track meet and he was just a little over his head. Either way, I was surprised.

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Daylight Saving Time and New Exercise Routine

I hate Daylight Saving Time. I lose more than an hour when the time changes. I get so tired this time of year. I think it may be due to allergies, the time change, and the weather change all together. I usually struggle to wake up and get to work at my normal time for a few weeks. This year I wanted to change this.

I decided that I was going to start doing my exercises in the morning. The only problem is that this change was going to coincide with the time change. I decided to press forward and use it as a way to let the time change affect me less.

I woke up yesterday at about three o'clock and could not go back to sleep. I just laid in bed until my alarm went off at four o'clock. I finally got out of bed about five minutes later and got ready to exercise. It was tough to wake up this early and be ready to exercise, but I struggled through. I yawned almost the entire hour.

I felt good after I was done, but I was tired most of the day. I started getting groggy around ten in the morning. It was a real struggle to make it through the day. I picked up Cheeseball at her after school program and headed for home. I thought I might fall asleep and even asked her to wake me in time to make dinner if I nodded off. It didn't happen even though I was very tired. I made dinner and had every intention of doing some abdominal exercises, but I got tied up paying bills and doing some financial work.

Today is day two of my new exercise plan, and I must say that I am extremely tired. I woke up this morning at about a quarter after four. I felt more tired than yesterday, but I did not yawn through my exercise. I guess this means that I will be able to stick to my routine.

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Summer Camping

I have tried several times to book a tent cabin in Yosemite for a summer camping trip. In past years, I was just never able to book it. I tried a few times this year to book one for this summer and did not have much luck. I looked on the website today and it show availability, but I was unable to book it. I called them and finally had some success. I am very excited for this trip and cannot wait until June.

Yosemite is a beautiful place to visit. I have made several trips since graduating from college. Interestingly enough, I never visited the park while growing up less than three hours south of Yosemite. I did not make my first visit until I moved to Fresno a few years after graduating from college. And even then, I did not see much of the park and only remember a long hike on a very wide trail through the trees.

I did not really get to see the park until The Queen and I started dating. She loves to hike in the park, so we have made many trips over the years. I even proposed to her on a trip to the park for her birthday.

Yosemite is amazing to visit when the waterfalls are flowing during the spring. This year, they should be flowing very strong with all of the rain and snow we have been getting in the valley. My only concern is that most of the runoff may be gone by the time we get there at the end of June.

Last year we took Cheeseball camping for the first time. It was not in Yosemite, but rather in Sequoia National Park. She loved it. She has asked me many times since then when we will go camping again. My father-in-law has talked about taking most of his grand kids camping this summer and I told him I would go with him, I just don't know what dates that will be.

I love taking photos of the park. I am really drawn to the Bridalveil Creek area. It has a wonderful shaded woodsy feel to it and there is a great bridge to photograph. I have not taken very many good photos over the years, but I keep trying. My skills and equipment have improved over the years, so hopefully I can get some good photos this year. I just can't wait.

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At a Crossroads

I am starting my second week of P90X, and I just don't feel like I think I should at this point. I ended up skipping 3 of the workouts last week due to sickness and commitments. I substituted a 2 mile run for one of the days, and really struggled after not running for a week.

I just don't feel like I have gotten the aerobic workout I was hoping for at this point in the program. I also feel like I am not losing any weight, but I know I need to give that some time. I am going to keep up with the workouts this week and next and then reevaluate it again.

I am at a crossroads, because I was really disappointed that I struggled with my run on Saturday. I had to walk for part of it for the first time in a long time. Although the walk was because I ended up tweaking my shoulder, which may have been due to the P90X workouts I did last week. I don't know what the cause of the injury was, but I felt really tight just before it happened.

I spoke to a friend of my father-in-law's last night who is a runner and he said that I was probably tensing up just before the injury happened. He said it happens to him sometimes and he just needs to drop his arms and loosen them up sometimes to prevent it from happening.

Maybe I should wake up a little earlier and run a few miles in the morning and do the P90X workout in the evening. That would be the best of both worlds and would probably do me the most good. I guess I will have to give it a try starting this week or next, depending on how I feel after my second week of workouts begins.

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The Start of My New Hobby

We received the catalog for the services offered by our city parks and recreation department in the mail over the weekend. I browsed it and noticed an acrylic painting class at the senior citizen center. I am intrigued, but I was thinking that it might be awkward to be the youngest person in the class. I am not the most social person as it is, so if there was nobody in the class near my age it would not be much fun.

I am a very fast learner, so it is very easy for me to get bored in a classroom setting. I have painted in the past and I think I remember enough that may allow me to be at the top of the class as far as pure painting skills are concerned. I may not be the student with the best art skill, but I should be close to having the greatest technique.

I used to draw all of the time when I was growing up. I drew in class when I was bored. I drew at home when I had some down time. Remember, I grew up before computers and at about the time home video games just started to be introduced. I did not have many indoor distractions other than TV and I just did not watch very much. If I wasn't drawing, I was usually on my bike somewhere around town. I am not saying that I was great at drawing, but I could hold my own.

I haven't drawn much in years. Every once in a while, Cheeseball or Chachi will ask me to draw something for them. It is very awkward to start again, but I usually end up with something that is passable for the object i am drawing. I think this will translate to painting well. The only thing holding me back is that I often question my decision making when it comes to color. I rarely colored my drawings and I have very little experience with color choices. Most of the time my color choices in the graphic design work I do can be considered very boring. I really need to work on that.

I don't know yet if I will take the acrylic painting class or not. I need to make a decision so that I can enroll in time if that is what I decide. It is just a two-hour class one day a week, so it would not be that big of a time commitment.

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A Whirlwind Weekend Comes to an End

Wow! After the Seattle Seahawks fired their coach on Friday, rumors started to spread that Pete Carroll had accepted a deal to be their new coach. I took everything with a grain of salt since the media and Internet posters are all trying to break news. Their was no word from Pete or USC. The NFL has the Rooney Rule that requires all teams to interview minority candidates for jobs and at that point it appeared that rule had not been satisfied.

The one minority candidate they had targeted told them he would not waste his time to interview if a deal was in place. The Seahawks convinced him to interview on Saturday morning. On Sunday, Pete called the group who enforces the Rooney Rule and told them that he had not done anything to be out of compliance with the rule.

Monday morning it was officially announced that Pete was leaving USC. It was later made official that Pete had accepted the job with the Seattle Seahawks. I was glued to the Internet all day Monday. There were rumors about who would be the next coach at USC. There were rumors about who had been offered the job and who had turned it down. It appeared that the front runner, Jack Del Rio might make a decision on Today.

After meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars owner earlier today, Jack told the media that he was staying put. Another mini meltdown happened on all of the USC message boards. Who was next in line? Nobody knew. I certainly didn't know.

At about 6:15 today an announcement came out of left field. Lane Kiffin was named the new head coach of the USC Trojans. Lane was a backup quarterback at Fresno State. After a few coaching stops he was hired by Pete Carroll at USC. He started as a wide receivers coach and quickly worked his way to offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

Kiffin was hired as the Oakland Raiders head coach in 2007 and fired by Al Davis in 2008. Two months later he was hired by the University of Tennessee as their head football coach. He started making waves in the SEC immediately. He was calling out other coaches and just generally being mouthy. He also had some recruiting and player issues while head coach at Tennessee. He had assembled a pretty good coaching staff with his dad, Monte Kiffin, ad defensive coordinator and Ed Orgeron as recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and defensive line coach.

Kiffin is bringing both his dad and Ed Orgeron with him to USC. Ed coached at USC and was the recruiting coordinator prior to being hired as the head coach at the University of Mississippi. Kiffin was Ed's replacement as the USC recruiting coordinator. It is great to see coach Orgeron coming back to USC. He has a fiery personality and is a great recruiter.

The rumor is that USC is in negotiations to hire Norm Chow back as the offensive coordinator. That would go a long way for recruiting. He was a great quarterback coach while at USC. He has struggled in his more recent stops, but maybe he can bring that magic back with him. We will have to wait and see.

I don't know how I feel about Lane yet. I will have to wait to see how the team does before I pass judgement. I guess I am excited about change right now. Fight On!

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We Made it to the Snow!

We finally made it to the snow yesterday! Tina and I called around on Wednesday to find some snow chains. We found them and ended up paying more than we wanted to for them, but we had to do it. I could not imagine trying to make it to the snow again. Meg's dissappointment would be unbearable.

I woke up early and made some chorizo, egg and potato burritos. I wrapped them up for the trip. One the way out, we stopped to get some donuts since Meg doesn't seem to like the chorizo very much. When we got to the gate to Sequoia National Park, there were two long lines of cars. Of course, our line moved the slowest. When we got to the Ranger, I asked her if we needed chains. She told me that we did not. Just my luck. After paying too much for chains, we didn't even need them.

Tina and the girls had a snow ball fight when we first arrived at Lodgepole. They had a lot of fun while I was taking some photos of them and the surroundings. Then they started making the snow man you see in the photo above. While all this was going on, Homie Gnomie had wondered out of the car and was playing in the snow himself. I found him making a snow angel. This was his first trip to the snow and he really enjoyed it.

He got in a little over his head, not knowing that he would sink in the snow. I had to pull him out and get him back to the car. Once we were there, Tina gave him some hot chocolate to warm his little body back up. We were all having a lot of fun in the snow and decided to try to go down by the river where we camped this past summer.

We drove into the camp ground and found a little trail. The girls started down first as Tina realized that they were very close to the river. We warned them to stay on the foot prints that were already in the snow. At one point, we were all standing in the snow over the river.

We all had a lot of fun. And it seems we now know how to control Meg's car sickness. That should make our mountain trips a lot more enjoyable for her. When we got home I asked Meg if she wanted to go to the snow again. She was a little hesitant. We bought the annual pass, so we can go as often as we like.

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AP Athlete of the Year?

Jimmie Johnson was named the AP athlete of the year. In order to be an athlete, you must participate in a sport. Auto racing is not a sport. It is a race. It is a past time. It may even require sportsmanship, but it is not a sport.

An athlete is someone who uses their physical abilities in an athletic pursuit. In my opinion, the majority of the effort has to be exerted by the "athlete." in the case of auto racing, the majority of the work is done by a machine. I am not saying that driving a race car does not require skill or endurance, but skill and endurance does not mean you are an athlete.

Poker players have both skill and endurance and are not athletes. Chess players need to have skill and some endurance, but they are not athletes. And even construction workers need to have some skill and endurance, but they are not necessarily athletes. So why are auto racers considered athletes?

I don't have the answer to that question. I just don't agree that they are athletes.

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Mexico City Here I Come...Again.

I am off to Mexico City again tomorrow. This will be my third trip to Mexico City this year. This trip, like the other two, is for business. The only difference is that this time it is just a quick trip for a meeting.

I will arrive in Mexico City late tomorrow night. Stay at a hotel connected to the airport for 2 nights and then fly home on Thursday, getting back home after midnight. A whirlwind trip for an early morning meeting on Wednesday. I would love to have more time in the city, but unfortunately I will not get it on this trip.

I really hated Mexico City after my first visit. I stayed at a hotel in an industrial area and spent all day in a trade show. All I saw of the city was that almost every space was covered in graffiti. I did not have any free time to go anywhere.

On my second trip, I found the city much more interesting. I stayed in a better part of the city. I could walk around the area and explore the restaurants, shops and Chapultapec Park. I drove by the famous golden angel and got to see much more of the city on this trip. I even made it downtown to Templo Mayor and got a tour of the city. I was really impressed.

I am sorry I will not have any time on this trip. I just can't wait to get back when I will have some free time to explore more of the city.

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Parent-Teacher Conference

I am so proud of Meg. Last night was her parent-teacher conference and her teacher had nothing but great things to say about her. She said that Meg is a quite leader and that she is really well behaved and scholarly. Wow! I was about to tell her teacher that she acts totally different at home, but decided not to.

I told her teacher that Meg is still interested in math and that I want to help her keep progressing before she learns to hate it like most kids. I asked her how best to do that. Her answer was not what I was looking for. She mentioned a website to go to that has math games and that was about it. Meg has played those games at school and seem uninterested to do so at home.

I am going to have to really start working with her on her times tables. Then, we need to keep working on her addition and subtraction. I really want all of it to be second nature to her so she does not get frustrated and start to hate it. I wish I had worked harder when I was younger so that I was faster with my math. Helping her should also help me, so it is a win-win situation.

Meg is very strong in the language arts. She really likes to read, has great penmanship and likes to write. Her teacher said that is her strongest area, and I agree. We need to keep encouraging her to read so she loves it like Tina does. I go throug reading spurts, but I would not go as far as to say that I love it. I wish I did, but I just don't. More on the book I am currently reading in a later post.

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Training Has Begun

Meg and I have started training for the Visalia Emergency Aid Race Against Hunger. It is a 5K run that will take place on the morning of Thanksgiving day. This will be my second 5K run and Meg's first. She is pretty excited.

Our first day or training was Saturday and she did very well. Soon after we started, she complained that her side hurt and she walked for about 30 seconds. I got her to run again and she did very well. I was helping her work on increasing her stride and running properly. About half way through our 2.2 mile run, she asked me when we were going to walk again. I told her we were not going to. A little while later, she was walking again.

I let her walk for about 30 yards and then got her to run again. She made it all the way home without having to walk again. She complained that her legs were frozen, she needs some sweat pants of some sort to run in. She then got undressed and laid in bed. She fell asleep in no time at all. She did very well for her first time running that distance. I think she might even be able to place in the 5K run.

The last time I was running, I had a lot of ankle pain. There were times when I had to stop and walk in the middle of my run. I took about 2 months off to let my ankles heal and I think that did the trick. I did not have any pain on our run or the next day. My legs are a little sore, but nothing major.

Tonight will be our second training day. We are going to run the same distance every day this week, then we will extend our run to the 3.1 mile distance.

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