Balcony of latest house

The Chicken House

Well, we made another offer on a house today. I think this is the 5th offer we've made. This is by far the largest house we've looked at. It is huge with a 3 car garage, 5 bedrooms, 2 on the bottom floor. It has a sun room, attic storage, large rooms, huge windows with great cross ventilation and A/C as well. The house is traditional, not as fancy and modern as most we've been looking at, but we just haven't been able to get into any of these. This house is by far the best investment as its size alone will send it way up once the market turns around. We'd never even be able to think about a house like this if the market weren't so awful right now.

This house is a La Mirada, zoned for horses area. These few houses that can have horses have huge backyards. They are much more rustic, meant for animals. This house only has chickens, which we personally really like. I had chickens when I was a kid and so did Connie. It's nice having those fresh eggs every morning. The house also has an aviary for parakeets. We aren't very interested in having that, but we might turn it into a large dog kennel. It is plenty big, certainly bigger than the kennels and dog runs we've thought about in every other place. Also nothing for the dogs to bark at here! It's so big.

In the back yard there is a pool that needs some work. And a few other things, mostly some cleaning up. But it will be great for having a vegetable garden. It has over 25 fruit trees! Yum. So, at least the grocery bill will go down.We made a serious offer today. Hoping they will take it.

Fireworks Get Us Again

We had our annual fight with fireworks and Aslan last night. He did
better than usual. Didn't destroy the bathroom like before. We know
better now. However, eventhough we drugged him pretty well, he broke
the gate to his kennel. I think this is # 3 for him. Guess we'll be
shopping for a new one today. They don't seem to make any that are
stronger than him.

4th of July

We are at the park getting ready to eat. Connie, Liz and her friend
Mayra walked off to buy some grub. Lots of local non-profits sell food
here. I should check into how our church or school could do it next
year. They must make good money I imagine.

La Mirada does such a good job at community events. There are thossnds
here but the park is 91 acres, so it isn't crowded. They have police
patrolling on horseback, segways, and bikes. There's a very good live
band as well. They have games set up for the kids like 3 legged races,
wiffle ball, and sack races. Then, of Cousy will be a great fireworks
show. It's always good. I don't think La Mirada does anything that
isn't good, sometimes. They plan so well.

Elizabeth at park

I took Elizabeth to a park near the house we are currently looking at
buying. She was happy because it has swings. It has two play areas,
one for toddlers and one for bigger kids. It is .3 miles from the new
house.

Kitchen

I like the kitchen. It has the stove in the middle. Connie liked the
double oven. Lots of counter space! Finally I can use my green thumb.

Front of latest house

This house has a 3 car garage. I could have one section for a ceramics
studio. Yes! It has 220 in the garage somewhere so I can fire up the
kiln.

The house is 5 bedroom, so we have a place for mom if she ever needs
it. That bedroom has an attached bathroom, which she'll like.

It has a gorgeous backyard with a gazeebo with built in barbeque and
sound system. Also a balcony off the master bedroom.

It has a good sized room I'll use as an office. The kitchen has the
widest counters I've ever seen. Its a good sized living room with a
formal dining room on one side and a kitchen eating space on the other
side.

Almost no grass so I can cut the lawn myself. Mostly just plants along
the side. Has one lemon tree and I think an orange tree.

View from home

Still looking for a new home. This is the fanciest yet, but also the
most beautiful. Has a view of Catalina island on a clear day. Once a
year. LOL

He's Off!

The eagle has begun to soar. Zack left at about 2:30 yesterday with Sargent Torres. They were off to do his run, his last qualifying event-an 8 minute mile- and then they were going to the Raddison for the night and he will ship out today or tomorrow. The hardest part is that we will have no contact with him in boot camp. He can write us letters but that is all for a few weeks and then he'll be allowed a 5 minute call on Sundays, but I don't think every Sunday.

Zack seemed mostly excited and a bit nervous. He was excited about the physical part, but then he saw some stuff on TV about the Marines and got cold feet for a while, but I think he'll be fine. He is pretty much into competition. Much more so than I was. I think that will give him extra umphh. He always does great if there is a contest of some kind and usually will win.

So, no news on him for a while I guess. Pretty quiet here now. We'll keep you posted.

Bob

Summer vacation week one

First week of vacation has been all over the place. Took Elizabeth and Tyler to Splash on Tuesday. Mayra was a no show. Then Mayra took Liz on Thursday with Jacqueline. Zack has been busy looking at army stuff. He can’t seem to break an 8 minute mile, which is a requirement. He’s passed everything else. Says this will stop the whole thing if he can’t do it. sigh. Taking Aslan to get meds for fireworks. He goes nuts. Don’t think Sheba will be a problem though unless she decides to copy Aslan.


House is not going to so well. I really like the one on Olive Branch. Probably my favorite. Now, it looks like we’ve lost it because the son got a hold of it and redid the whole stinking contract. So, we’re looking at another on Grovehill, right across the street from the one we liked so much in the beginning. It looks very well kept up, but a lot plainer. But we won’t know until we get inside. Backyard borders the tennis courts, which my daughter will love. Might make for a less private backyard though. Have to see if we are on a hill or something so they can’t look at our backyard. Imagine the dogs would be a real pain about it though.


We’ll see it tonight. Probably see Wall-Eee tomorrow. Have no idea how it is spelled. Should be fun. Zack is supposed to leave on Tuesday afternoon.

Graduation

Well, this is the last week before the school graduation. Lots of work to do. I went and paid for the tickets for the event. Our school rents a very nice facility called The Ritz Gardens. They cater the entire event, decorate, and provide a very nice room. I'm really looking forward to it, but there's so much work to be done, yet. I have to make all the certificates still and come up with our final numbers on honor roll, GPA etc.

But it sounds like it will go well. We have over 110 going to the event, so that's a pretty good crowd for our little school.

It's June

Well, I haven't written in a while. I had a series of birthdays and events and I cheated too much and gained back about 4 pounds. Now, I find myself back to at a 43-44 pound loss. I keep wavering in between, but haven't broken that barrier yet. I've hit the point where I'm just so tired of the HMR meals. I like the shakes and the protein bars and even the soup and breakfast. Those are all fine, but the meals themselves have become so repetitious it's hard for me to get them down. I only like one of them, the stew. The lasagna is ok, the rest really aren't things I care for very much. So, I started cheating a bit by having the lowest calorie Lean Cuisines for dinner. They are much better tasting, incredibly so, so that's my reward. Most of them are only just 40 more calories, at least the ones I've tried. But at least they aren't tomato based. My stomach just doesn't do well with all that tomato. Just too much acid for me.

So I've sinned by going out of the box. I just wish there was a bigger variety. I see the other companies that have so many choices you don't repeat anything in once month. I'd do better that way. After months on the diet I just say "ugh" when I pull another one out to eat. The next 2 weeks are very stressful for me because of getting ready for our school's graduation and my other job at the adult school is having an accreditation type review next week, adding more requirements for that week. Then it's over and maybe I can be better at all of this.

I still think HMR is a very effective diet, I just don't have the time to augment it with more variety to change the taste of the entrées.

Thanks for the comment Janet. Let me know how you are doing. Are you blogging about your HMR experience. I hope you are doing better than I with the meals.

Jicama Salad Recipe | Simply Recipes

I found this recipe that sounds good and should fit in the HMR diet. I love Jicama and it has hardly any calories. You have to zip it up with something, though. I like it with a dash of lime and a light sprinkle of red pepper. Gives it a nice zing.

<cite>Jicama Salad Recipe | Simply Recipes</cite>: "

* 1 large jicama (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled, then julienned or cubed (easiest to work with if you cut the jicama in half first) * 1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced * 1/2 yellow bell pepper, finely diced * 1/2 green bell pepper, finely diced * 1/2 cup chopped red onion * 1/2 a large cucumber, seeded, chopped * 1 navel orange, peel cut away, sliced crosswise, then each round quartered * 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro * 1/3 cup lime juice * Pinch of cayenne * Pinch of paprika * SaltOptional * 1/2 avocado chopped * 2 Tbsp olive oilMethod1 Toss together the jicama, bell peppers, red onion, cucumber, orange, and cilantro in a large serving bowl. Pour lime juice over all. Sprinkle with a pinch of cayenne and paprika. Season generously with salt.2 Let sit a half an hour before serving.Serves 4.

"

Dr. Visit

Went to my regular MD today. I've lost 42 pounds. He was astonished. You should have seen his face. I hadn't been there in a while. He was very happy and excited. He said,"If you knew how hard I have to work to get some people to lose just 2 pounds, you'd know how happy I am about your weight loss."

That made me feel pretty great. He was very encouraging. He is a big believer in HMR and was glad I was doing it. (I went thru a different doctor than my regular MD for HMR, so this was the first he knew about it.)

I left feeling pretty good, but knowing I still have a long way to go.

I Broke 40 pounds!

4 bags of potatoes! Where did all those lumps go? I lost 41 pounds. That was a big goal to get over for me. Now I head towards 50. Went to Home Town Buffet yesterday and ate all their salads and veggies. They have a no fat/no sugar ice cream soft swirl, so I had that for dessert. Didn't seem to be too dangerous and I lost 2 more pounds. Of course, I don't really feel like eating in this hot weather. It was in the high 90s yesterday. :-( Hooray for me!

HMR Works!

Well, I told you all about my doctor visit and how pleased he is. Well, this morning I weighed myself and I lost 39 pounds now! That's exciting because I really want to break 40 pounds. I never get past 30 pound weight loss on other diets. So, now I have no pants that fit me!

Connie Fell

Oops, we had a big boo boo yesterday. My wife, Connie, fell while moving stuff downstairs. She was carrying down some blinds with Zack, they are really long ones, and she missed the last step. She had on flip flops and so she had no support on her food. She twisted it when she fell and sort of landed on it that way. Our friend Mary was here at the house, so she watched the kids and I took Connie to the Urgent Care. Turned out to be a bad sprain. They wrapped her up and she has to stay off of it a couple of days at least. We got ice on it right away, there goes my bag of peas and onions. :-)
So, there wasn't much swelling.

Dr. Visit

Well, I went to the doc today and got a good report. Blood pressure down, sugars down, weight down, my spirits up!

However, we've found that my kidney stones have nothing to do with the parathyroid. Instead, I have the basic kind caused by calcium. Doc had no advice to give me on this. Each doc says different things. Do drink milk, don't drink milk. Very frustrating. But, this diet is eliminating other problems like salt intake. My ears are doing better, the ringing has gone away a lot. So, maybe they'll help control the calcium intake as well. Cuts the fat down to hardly anything, so I guess there will be many other benefits. We'll see.

He strongly pushed me to stay on the HMR diet. He was very excited to see what it had done for me in all areas. Wants me to lose at least 100 pounds, though I figure 125 is more like it. He has just started up the HMR program in our local hospital. I beat him to the punch and started without him, saving myself a bundle. Hey, I can read!

He thinks I will be non diabetic soon because my numbers fell so much already. And cholesteral is dropping too. Nice to get the boost from him on this. Now, if he would just pay for new clothes. I had just spent a bunch on new dress pants before starting this diet. I guess I'm going to a tailor to have them taken in. Should be cheaper than buying new pants. I had spend $600.00 on them! I never do that. Sheesh.

Going Forward

I'm mostly blogging on my diet because that's what things are all about right now. A friend gave me a ton of fruit and veggies the other day. I've got to figure out what to do with the eggplant. All I've ever done with Eggplant was Eggplant Parmigiana. I suppose I could get away with tomato sauce spiced up since that's a vegetable. But I don't know what I could do about the cheese. Boy, I miss cheese the most of everything, I think. But I also got pineapple, cucumbers, squash, broccoli and much more. Got to eat it fast.

I've now lost 37 pounds. I'm pretty excited about that. I've strayed out of the box a few times for special occasions. I know I'm not supposed to, but I still feel pretty dumb taking my little food packets to a barbecue. So I ate some great Tri-Tip. When I break 40, I'll be very happy. I don't think I've done that before. When I break 50, that will be really big. Cake and Ice Cream to celebrate! Yeah!

HMR Secrets I Don't Know Yet

Well, I've started looking for other people who are blogging about their HMR diets. I've found a few and they were interesting reading for me. One posted this recipe on her blog:


Anyway, to make pumpkins bars, I mix 2 vanilla packets, 1 tablespoon of cheesecake sugar free instant pudding, 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 2 tablespoons of the pumpkin syrup and 3 tablespoons of cold water. Then I bake them in a muffin tin (I make 6) at 375 for 13 minutes. You can eat them warm from the oven or chilled.

I don't know where you get pumpkin syrup though. Hope Barbara stops by and lets me know.

I also read about her making chicken soup crackers, lemon bars and chocolate cookies using HMR stuff. I'm missing out here. But I don't take the classes, so maybe that's why. I'll go look at the recipe book again, but I don't remember seeing any of those type of things. Would love to try making them. I'm a good cook and Connie is a great baker if I can get her the recipes.

The Little HMR Tricks I have found

Ok, here are my secrets to share with anyone on HMR. I hope some more HMR people will find my blog so we can interact more. That would be fun.

Strawberry Dip: I take some nonfat sour cream and put Splenda in it until it gets sweet. It's wonderful on Strawberries. I dip them in it. Sort of like yogurt. By the way, is nonfat yogurt allowed? You can also make some of this up and put berries in it. That's very good as well.


Strawberry/Banana Shake: Ok, so not too orginal, but sure is good. Just add frozen strawberries and half a banana to the vanilla HMR 120 Shake. Oh, so very good and thick!

Zesty Salad: Take a green salad. Add onions, fresh mushrooms, bell pepper strips and whatever other veggies you like. Top with Trader Joe's peach salsa for a real zip. Use instead of a dressing. Mighty good stuff. There's also a pineapple salsa that is great.


My original HMR counselor told me I could have air popped popcorn, so I bought one of those microwave types. I make my popcorn, spray with the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray that has no calories per spray, though I use this lightly, and then I add garlic powder to it and mix. Pretty good.

Forgive me HMR, for I have sinned!

Well, taking my Doctor's advice, I took my wife out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in town, Clearman's Northwest Inn. They have the best filet mignon I've ever had with a big old baked potato and salad and rice stuff I actually like. (Not a big rice lover.) So, wife didn't want to go because it would force me off my diet. However, my doctor told me, my regular MD, that I should not let a diet deprive me from celebrations like that, so I ate the whole meal. Good news, I didn't gain any weight! Yea for me! I'm now down 33 lbs. It's slowing down, but that's expected. I am still losing 2-3 lbs a week and that's pretty good. In a few years I will disappear all together!

I appreciate Barbara's posts because I'm not involved in the meetings. I'm doing this all on my own. They won't counsel me on phone because I'm a diabetic. There aren't any classes in my area, but there will be soon. But, they aren't at a convenient time for me. But I don't really think it would make a big difference to me. I mean, this isn't very hard to follow. Eat the stuff in the box. Well, that's the diet! Not too hard. The fruit and veggies is what gives you your fun and change you need to keep going.

Keeping On

An update on the HMR diet is about due by now. I had cake and ice cream for our 1 celebration of 4 events, Liz's birthday, mom's birthday, Becky's birthday and Connie and my anniversary. So, I only cheated once for all of those! Anyhow, I survived it and didn't gain any weight. Pheewww. But I seem to have plateaued a bit at 32 pounds lost. Not that I'm complaining. But I've been there a few days now. But, I usually have trouble passing the 30 lb. weight loss area. But I shall persevere. :-)

So, I'm trying to find ways to help this diet along. A few things make a big difference to me. One that I have read and heard about the most is the magic of Trader Joe's. They have the most incredible salsas around. I've bought a pineapple, peach, bean and the best - a CORN salsa that is out of this world. If you add these to plain beans, on top of a salad instead of dressing, you've got a great meal. I spice up my meals with the veggies for the most part instead of the en trees themselves. Though I'm going to start working on that.

The other nice surprise is making my own Hummus. Just take a can of chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) and drain them. Put them in a food processor and let 'er rip! When it's about the consistency of mashed potatoes, add some flavor you like. I used a Green Onion dip, but I've also tried Garlic powder. Probably some of those salsas would be great too. I use this as a dip or put it on my more bland foods. Sliced cucumbers have become my green "chips" for snacks. The hummus is very low calories. It's just beans, but smack full of protein. Give it a try even if you aren't on a diet.

HMR Diet

Well, some of you may know by now that I've started on the HMR diet. It's a serious weight loss diet for people who need to drop 100 lbs. or so. Whooopee! Well, it works sort of like Jenny Craig or Nutrasystem, but it's more medically oriented. You buy meals, shakes, protein bars etc. from them. You only eat what they make except for fresh fruit and veggies. The food is not very good, I must say. Everything they make is tomato based, probably because that's the lowest calorie count sauce, but I'm very tired of tomatoes by now. But, it really works. I've lost 27 lbs. so far, 15 on this diet in the last 3 weeks. It's forcing you to eat very filling, but small portions. Whenever you get hungry you can have anything they make. While the meals are pretty crummy, the drinks are really good as are the protein bars. So, I'm in this for the long haul. The cost is high, so that's an incentive to stick to it as well.

I'll keep posting my progress here.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter today. We had a good service this morning with a lot of involvement from our Youth department. Lots of special music, that's always nice. And we ended it all with an Easter Egg Hunt in the front lawn of the church. Kids were happy as could be.

I'm struggling with allergies. Been with it since Friday. Hoping to feel better for the upcoming week as we are on vacation from school. I can use some rest.

Bob

Where Have I Been?

I haven't blogged for a very long time. It's not intentional, but there's been a lot going on. I've been very involved in Mike Huckabee's campaign for President. I've become a moderator on his forums, www.hucksarmy.com as well as working some in his grassroots campaign. I've convinced a lot of people to support Huckabee. Why do I like him so much? Well, he's a conservative Christian for one. He's a former pastor in addition to being a very successful governor of Arkansas. Time magazine named him one of the top 5 governors in the country. He's also got a lot of unique ideas.

He's for the Fair Tax, which is a consumption tax. You'd pay when you buy something new at the retail level. The IRS would be eliminated. :-) You would no longer be penalized for saving or investing your money. Plus he just has the greatest personality. He's very funny and he's a great speaker.

If you'd like to know more, leave me a comment with an email address. But you can also find me on Hucksarmy. Also, Mike has a great website found at www.mikehuckabee.com

If you go there you can read his position papers, see his videos and much more. Take a look. On Hucksarmy you will find me by the name bobrocky.

well,we got through the wedding yesterday. It was on the roof of a recreation center. At rehearsal it was very cold and windy and most of us thought it wasn'tgoing to work, but on the day of the wedding it was bright and sunny and not windy. So the view was gorgeous. It was a huge park.

I thought the ceremony went well. They had a guitarist formusic and he was excellent. The reception was downstairs and was very good BBQ beef and chicken with all the trimmings. It was so great to see Paul and get toknow Heidi. I got to spend a lotog time with my old friend, Priscilla, Paul's mom. Her 5 sisters were there as well, making it quite the family reunion.
I always referred to Paul and his sisters as my kids because we spent so much time together. Yesterday, Elizabeth said I was a grandpa with 4 grandkids now! Holy smokes! To quote Heidi. :-)

our trip to Alaska

We havehsd a great trip so far. We first went to Fairbanks where we took a great paddleboat ride down the Chena River and toured an Alaskan Village and saw how the natives made their homes, clothes and food. We saw the Susan Butcher family. She was the champion Iditerad runner for many years. She recently passed away at age 51. We bought a signed book about her favorite sled dog, Granite.

Then we took a trip to where they dredged for gold at a gold mine. The fun part was panning for gold. We all found a bit in our pans.

We then took the train down to Denali. We toured the park and saw moose, carribou, eagles,Dall sheep and Grizzly bears!

Now we are in Anchorage to see the Hurleys and do Paul's wedding.

Mom's Fire

Well, I had a scare yesterday. Around 4:00 p.m. my mom called me to tell me she had an oven fire. I was having a hard time getting the details. She kept saying there was a big fire in her oven that wouldn't go out. Her roommate was broiling some steaks and the oven went up in flames. I figured it to be a grease fire from the meat drippings or something, but mom kept saying it was plastic melting all over the oven.
Since the story wasn't real easy to clarify, I told mom to call the fire dept. But her roommate kept shouting in the background, "No, no, it will be so embarrassing!" I was getting a bit ticked that they were arguing about this so I rather DEMANDED that mom call the fire dept. and said I'd be right over. I only live about 5 minutes away, so I figured I could get there before they stopped arguing about what to do.
I got in my car and headed over there as fast as I could. As I got on Santa Gertrudes, the main street between my house and my mom's house, I saw police cars pulling out in front of me from everywhere, lights flashing and going oh so ever fast. I prayed they were going to Mom's, but I didn't know. By the time I got to the turn off into Mom's neighborhood, I could see no police cars. When I turned the corner to where I would be able to view Mom's house, there were about 6 police cars and 4 large hook and ladders. I couldn't even find a place to park and of course there were neighbors everywhere. Mom has lived in that house since 1963 and everyone knows her.
I got to the house and mom and her new roommate were standing outside by the garage with policemen standing with her and talking to her. Well, here's the low down. When I hung up, my mom did call the fire dept. and got the process in order. They must have gotten there almost immediately because I couldn't have taken more than 4 minutes to get there. The police took Mom and her roommate outside and wouldn't let them back in. (They were staring at the stove) The fire dept. got there next and got the fire out, put up fans to clear out the smoke and removed the grills, which were very hot. Turns out that someone had taken a plastic cover for the Microwave and put it in the top of the oven to get it out of the way. But, of course, didn't remember to remove it later. That's what caught fire and the plastic was in flames, dropping through the oven into the grill.
It was all over pretty quickly. I was ever so grateful for the police and fire dept. to get there so fast and they were all so nice and helpful. A police woman was there and she helped calm Mom. I'm glad La Mirada is small because it makes response time so fast and they are adding a new fire station on the other side of the city, giving our little place two fire stations. It should never take more than 5 minutes for them to reach anyone's house in La Mirada when that is finished.
So, I'm glad it wasn't anything more serious. Good to see the community support and know my mom is in good hands in an emergency.

Corky and I in Iraq

I didn't have anything to do today, so I took Corky with me on a trip to Iraq. We had a ball. What a fun place!

I didn't have anything to do today, so I took Corky with me on a trip to Iraq. We had a ball. What a fun place!

Chula Vista Here I come!

I haven't posted in way too long. Sorry, you've all probably given up on me. Well, my summer hasn't been very productive. I'm home most days watching the kids. Zack got a weekend job, but it only lasted for 2 weekends. Not sure if they'll use him anymore. He was one of those sign holders with the big arrow. Got the job for Verizon by our house. The pay was good, at least.

I'm off to Chula Vista tomorrow. Taking Zack and Liz with me. Connie will have a peaceful night. It's for a school training program on our new upgrade of software. It's good to see what is new. Remembering it all is the problem. We're staying in a motel and the kids always think that is neat. So, at least they'll get to go swimming, like they don't do that at home very day. Well, that's about it for now. In a couple of weeks we'll be off for Alaska! Can't wait.

Alaska or Bust!

In 1991 a family moved next door to me. The next time I went in my back yard three little heads popped up and said hi. They were Paul, Katrina and Emily. They were Eskimos! The second time I saw them, Emily asked me if I would be her dad. But we were very close and eventually they attended my church and school. There was no dad. The parents were divorced and dad stayed in Alaska. It had a very harsh effect on the children, especially Paul.

I took Paul under my wing and he truly was like a son to me. We did everything together. I took him on vacations with me, even to go up north and see Connie! Paul was one of my groomsmen in my wedding.

Well, after I married Connie, the family moved back to Alaska. I recently heard from Paul and he's getting married. He's marrying a gal who won $240,000.00 on Deal or No Deal. Not bad, eh? They've asked me to officiate the wedding.

I probably should have gone alone and come right back because of expenses, but we've decided to hock our lives and go for it, so the whole family is going on a 12 day trip to Fairbanks Alaska. While in Fairbanks we'll go on an 8-hour tour. See the city sights of Fairbanks, visit Gold Dredge No. 8 and cruise on an authentic sternwheeler riverboat. Includes a miner's lunch. Then we're taking the train down to Anchorage where the wedding will be. We're taking the Denali Star Train

We'll be on a relaxing trip to Denali National Park, on the the Denali Star. The scenery and small-town history along the way will bring you back to a different place in time. The best way to see Alaska is on the Railroad with award-winning service, comfortable seating, and knowledgeable tour guides are part of the fabulous rail experience. The scenery is world-class. (from travel agent)

We'll be at the National park there and see it all and then continue down on the train to Anchorage. Somewhere in there we are also going to go on a Steamboat paddle boat Sounds like too much fun to me. The timing stinks because my income drops in half during the summer, but we'll make it somehow. We always do.

I found out last night that neither Cingular or Verizon work in Alaska, so we'll be cellphoneless®. But, I just found out that the hotel has wireless so my iphone should work just fine! Yea!

Bees, Bees, Bees!

Speaking of bees, this morning after church was over, someone came to me telling me I had to go outside immediately. There, right in front of the church in a small tree, was a very lively bunch of bees swarming around a new hive. We've had a few since I've been there. Unfortunately, this one is very low. Any child could reach it with a stick and a teenager could just touch it easily. So, church is over for us, but I've got the Cambodian church coming in next in a few minutes. I find Pastor Tuy and take him over to the hive and tell him to make sure none of their kids get near the hive. So, he tells everyone to stay away and of course they all go right to it to look. But lookings ok. The bees were friendly enough. It's the touching I'm worried about.

So tomorrow, we have to cut the yard space in half to keep our precious kids away from the hive. I'll try to take some pictures. But, I was happy that so many of my congregation were aware of the recent bee problems we've been discussing. Someone gave me a number for a beekeeper who will simply relocate the hive instead of destroy it. I would have done that anyway, being a bee/honey lover. Maybe I should be paid for the hive instead of being charged for taking it away. I think it was about $100.00 last time we had to do this. It was neat to be so close, however. I've never been very scared of bees. We used to catch them all the time when I was a kid.

An Evening at the Theater

My wife got to use her nursing skills tonight. We went out to the theater to see a play called Greater Tuna. While we were in the lobby awaiting the play to begin and elderly lady collapsed and was having a very hard time breathing. She turned gray and began perspiring and couldn't catch her breath. Connie took her pulse, which was 110, not good. It appeared she might be having a heart attack. Unfortunately, she wouldn't answer Connie's questions, wanting everyone to leave her alone, but her friends who brought her and the theater management certainly did want her around until the Paramedics showed up. They got there quite quickly and took over. I was really proud of the job Connie did taking care of this lady in very difficult circumstances.

Technorati: Connie theater

Quick Scare

When we drove home today from church we saw that the doors to the house and garage were wide open! I did what any Maclectite would do and rushed to my office to see if my Mac was there. It was. That's how I tell if we've been robbed or not. Anyway, nothing was gone, but the door and screen door were both wide open. The garage door, the small, not the large door, was open too, but nothing gone that I can tell. We finally decided it was just the wind and the doors must not have been closed all the way when we left. It's been VERY windy here the last week. I'm thankful everything was all right.

Connie Home and Doing Fine

Forgive me for taking so long to get this up. I have been pretty busy taking care of Connie and trying to take care of the school/church stuff at the same time. Anyway, Connie is doing great. Thanks for all your prayers. The Dr. removed a mass about the size of a soup spoon ladle. It had nerves wrapped around the mass, which he had to peel off. Doing that caused some numbness to Connie's right side of her face. She can't complete a smile or raise her eyebrow on that side, but that will come back as the nerves reattach themselves to whatever they attach themselves too.

There's not too much pain. The worst part is that Connie can't move her head from side to side for 2 weeks. We don't want her to tear open anything. The Dr. gave her permission to go to church on Easter Sunday. Originally he said no to any travel in the car. So, she has to promise not to hug anyone! That will be hard for my wife. She hugs everyone at church.

We thank you for your prayers. We have seen some spectacular healings in the last couple of weeks. God is good.

Different Perspectives

Yesterday Elizabeth came into the house from the backyard all upset. "What's wrong?"I asked her.

"There's something in the pool moving around!" she cried.

Of course, I already knew what it would be. She had found some mosquito larvae in the pool. (Hmmm, who's not putting enough chlorine in?)

But my mind raced back to when I was a boy. Finding mosquito larvae was great stuff! I could usually talk myself and any other boy into believing they were baby tadpoles. Or I'd get a fish net and grab a bunch of them to feed to my tropical fish. A jar made a new wiggler aquarium. They were so fun. Boys and girls, never the twain shall meet.

Connie's Surgery

As many of you know, Connie will be having surgery on Monday, April 2. She has a growth in front of her ear that needs to be removed. She has had a biopsy on it and was told it was benign. She'll be going in for surgery around 9:30 a.m. I'll be taking off from the school for at least 2 days and we'll see how it goes from there. Mom will be watching the kids for us. Don't know what we'd do without her. Pray it all goes smoothly. They say it will take 4-5 hours for the surgery.

Bob

Puppy in the Pantry

My friend, Stephanie, has a Bull Mastiff. I think this is such a cute picture of him hiding in her pantry that I wanted to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy.

Many Faces of Bob Video

Well, my friends should get a kick out of this. An admin on my website, Maclectic.com, made this up. Quite a surprise and a lot of silly fun. Take a look.

Deanne's Birthday

Today was a very special day at church. Deanne Schenk celebrated her 85th birthday. Her granddaughter, Colleen, decorated the fellowship hall so beautifully and prepared a luncheon celebration following the church service. It was a great time.

Sammy the Wrestler

One of our teachers, Mrs. Stephanie, bought a puppy recently. It's a Bull Mastiff, so it's going to get very big. I love this picture. He's on their trampoline wrestling a wrestler doll.

Elizaabeth Trying to Put Aslan to Bed

I seemed to have lost the sound to this on the upload, but it's still pretty funny.

The Big Button

The big silver button is just an experiment I'm working on. Just ignore it if you wish. If you click on it and view it I make a few cents.

Bob

Boy Marks Powerbook with Sharpie

Connie's Health

Most of you know by now that Connie had quite a scare recently. She called me at home as I was getting ready to take the kids to school. She had something happen to her that seemed like a mini-stroke. She became very dizzy and her face went numb. Her co-worker immediately got her into ER (She was already at work when it happened.) Well, she seems to have recovered that and there haven't really been any other episodes, but when the did the MRI and the Cat Scans, they found some growths in her neck and on her thyroid. Tomorrow she will be getting a biopsy on her neck. There's a lump on her gland, right behind her ear. You can feel the lump with your finger. What's on the thyroid, we have no idea. They'll be doing an ultrasound for that. The biopsy is tomorrow morning, Monday, Jan. 29.

Your thoughts and prayers, mostly your prayers, are coveted at this time.

Thanks. We love you!

Bob

Oregon vacation

Hi everyone. I'm on vacation in Oregon. If you'd like to read about our trip, go to this URL. (Sorry, you'll have to copy and paste it into your browser. Blogger seems to have eliminated the ability to place clickable URLS for some reason.

http://maclectic.com/trip/


Enjoy,

Bob

Elfin' Bob

Okay, some of us need some cheering up. If this doesn't do it, I don't know what will!

Take a look and see

http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=91e4c17c6f3513d53c337c1G06121614

Connie in the Hospital and Back Home

Most of you know by now that Connie was admitted into ER last Friday morning. I received a phone call that morning from Connie that she was in ER and had a horrible headache and half her face was numb. I rushed to the hospital and stayed the day and night there. After CAT scans, EKG, and MRI tests, they found nothing. They think it might have been what they call a TIA, which is a very small stroke. The doctor did say she had slurred speech as well.

She has made a complete recovery and seems fine. Her boss gave her the week off, so she's resting. We go on vacation soon, so we're hoping she's up to it by then.

Corky's Accident

Something awful happened last night. My in-laws were all here. We had just finished dinner and were sitting around the table chatting. My sis in law got up to talk with Corky and she was just having a blast, so when she sat down, I decided to let Corky out of her cage so they could see how fun she was to hold etc. So, Corky was on top of the cage playing around and talking, playing peek a boo with Cathy. I got up to get Corky. Now, there is quite a psychology with handling parrots, especially African Greys who are much too smart for their own good. If the parrot is above you, the bird is superior, your boss, and you must bow down to it. If the bird is on the floor, he loves you, will kiss your toes and do your bidding. In the middle, depends on the bird's mood. But Corky's new cage is quite tall, so to get Corky off of it is very hard. I'm almost 6 feet tall, but I can't reach across the top of the cage because it's so tall and deep. So I basically wait until Corky's near an edge and sort of do a quick sweep of my arm across the top of the cage, making Corky step up and get her that way. If I go too slowly, she'll just decide to fight it out.

So, I do my thing and sweep the top of my arm and Corky steps up. But, being a fairly clumsy bird, she loses her balance, gets all in a tither and flutters down to the table. Normally, that's no biggy, but apparently she bumped her head on a glass coming down. When I reached for her, she was horribly disoriented and appeared to have a concussion or something. She was contorting her head backwards with her beak open and moving her head in ways I didn't think possible. It almost looked like her head was on backwards. I was a basketcase. Corky is as near human as any pet I've ever had and she was in such pain or distraught.

I picked her up and she kept doing this exorcist things. Oh, it was so scary. I held her close and kept petting her and reassuring her, but she was out of it. I really thought she was dying. She didn't seem to be able to breathe. I finally took her head ever so gently and while saying a little prayer for her, tried to stop her head from weaving and get it back into position. All of a sudden she just stopped, looked around, looked up at me and said, "Corky" and whistled like she always does when I pick her up. Then she seemed fine. I held her a long time to see if she was ok, and she appeared ok, but a touch wobbly. I put her back in her cage, once I felt she'd be able to stay on her perch without falling. She seems ok this morning. Wow, I don't ever want to go through that again.

You'd have to have an African Grey to understand all of this. They are very, very smart, on par with dolphins. They know what's going on and they really communicate with the family and love to make you laugh. Corky is 15. She should out live me, if she doesn't keep bonking her head on stuff.

I loved this cartoon. heh heh

Bob the Brownie

Tonight I have 12 Brownies coming over to finish their ceramic project from last week. They're just going to glaze them. I had to run a full kiln 3 times last week because of the school ceramic class's trip to "Our Way Ceramics" The school class started glazing their stuff today, but it will be a long process because their pieces are much more detailed. Hopefully, I'll post some pictures of all this at some point.

After the Fact:

bobrocky
I survived the Brownies last night. Actually, it went pretty well. One of the girls has Cerebral Palsy. She has fair motor skills and understands, but can't talk. I was happy to see she could paint the glaze on. I had to touch it up, but she was able to do it.

There was also a big portion of trust involved in this because the glaze was an ugly grey color, but is supposed to turn out to be a splash of fall colors. I wasn't able to test it, though I saw it in the store I bought it. They seemed fine to go for it. (It had better turn out right, or my name is mud.)

Then the leader insisted I bring them in person to the next meeting so the girls can thank me. That's 3 Bob the Brownie meetings in a row! What is happening to me?

Field Trip

Today we took our students who are in the Ceramics Class to Our Way Ceramics in La Habra. They got to see how a mold is poured and taken out of the mold. Then there was a tour of the Kilns and molds. They have 16,000 molds!

Afterwards the children were each allowed to buy one or more molded object to take back to school and cleanup and glaze. They bought so many different things. Some bought Christmas presents for their parents. Some bought things they like like animals etc. I was glad to see how much they enjoyed getting these very nice items.

I'm going to be firing that kiln up a lot in the next few weeks!

I'll publish pictures later.

Corky Moves

In 1991, when I bought my first house, I decided I wanted a new type of pet. I've always had a lot of pets over the years, but I wanted something a bit more exotic. I went to a pet store in Cyprus that had some really neat birds. In fact it only sold birds. As I was looking at all these baby birds on their perches, I heard the theme song from the Andy Griffith show on the radio. I thought that was strange because you don't usually hear it on the radio. A bit later I heard it again. But this time I realized it was coming from this parrot near the cash register.

I started talking to the salesperson about that bird. It was an African Grey parrot. As I talked, I learned it was the best of all the talkers and considered the most intelligent of all birds and was up there with elephants, dogs, monkeys and dolphins in intelligence. I decided this was the bird for me. So I bought a baby, named it Corky, and the rest is history.

Corky has delighted my friends and family over the years. She can say so many things. She mimics all of us in the house and she even rings herself on the phone, has a complete conversation and hangs up the phone! She calls the dogs, tells Zack to clean his room and says she loves me. ahhh.

Anyway, it's been some 15 years or so that I bought Corky. She's been a great pal. She's never been sick a day in her life and she has brought me a great deal of joy. Her cage was getting pretty ratty and we decided that it was time to splurge on a new and bigger one. I went back to where I bought her and Zack and I managed to get a new, bigger cage into the van. (It wasn't easy)

So, we bring it home and fix it all up with Corky's old toys and she outright hates the thing. She doesn't want to go in it. When she's in it she shivers like she's deadly ill. A friend on Maclectic found me a blog article about the same thing happening to another African Grey. They don't like change, it seems. It took a few days, but she's calmed down a bit now. Here are some picture of her new cage and Corky herself.

Back from vacation

Well, Connie, Zack, Elizabeth and I have returned from vacation. We were in Big Bear last week. Have a lot of catching up to do with school, church and email. Some of you may know that we were robbed a second time right before I left on vacation. They took our second tier of equipment, leaving us with almost nothing. Insurance just hasn't kicked in anything from the first robbery, so it's rather sad for us.

But vacation was great and surely needed. We had fun swimming, playing ping pong, horse shoes, air hockey, and billiards. We went horse back riding as well through the mountains. We took the kids fishing and they each caught a fish. Elizabeth caught the biggest trout. We BBQed them that night for dinner. They were great. We also found a new restaurant called the Backyard BBQ. Oh, my it was good stuff. Meat was smoked for about 14 hours. I never had such tasty food in my life.

You can view a few pictures on my Maclectic Gallery here and the next page:

http://maclectic.com/B2/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=118&g2_page=3

Well, got lots of things to catch up on now. Post later.

Feeling Down

It's been a lousy couple of days for me. Our church was broken into once again and all of our sound equipment and music equipment that was in the sanctuary was stolen except for the piano. Thankfully, they didn't vandalize the room. They jimmied the door with a crowbar or something and broke the lock open. This is the 3rd or 4th time they've done this since I've been there. I discovered it almost by accident. I went in my church office and noticed my file drawers were open. There were a few papers thrown about. Then I realized the petty cash was missing and it got worse from then on. The police were cool. THey really feel bad when a church gets broken into. Nothing should be broken into, but it just seems all the worse when people would stoop so low to break into a church. At least it does to me.

I guess I should get used to this by now, but I never will.

Bob

Biola Swimming Lessons

We decided that it was time to get Elizabeth swimming lessons. Having a pool, we've always been concerned about water safety. Zack could already swim well when he came to live with us. Elizabeth was swimming by about 3 years old. Maybe 4, can't remember, but she basically dog paddles. Neither Connie nor I are great swimmers. So, we signed up Elizabeth for lessons at Biola University, which is just about a mile from our house. Today is day 3. She is learning a lot, but she's not crazy about diving. Her instructor pushed her little fanny yesterday to just make her do it. She didn't like that! But she took it in stride. I was waiting for tears to come, but they didn't. Here are some pictures. She in the purple and black swim suit.

Birthday

Well, it's been way too long since I've blogged anything. My apologies if anyone is even still looking. I've been so busy working on my website, Maclectic, that I've not paid much attention to my blog. I just had a birthday. Had to work on my birthday and even stay late at work. But when I got home, Connie, mom, Becky were waiting for me with dinner. Connie has learned how to make my "birthday dinner" which consists of cheese enchiladas, fideo, refried beans and a green salad. It was very good.

Got some shirts, a neat headset so deaf old me can finally hear the TV set, some money, gifts certificates to the Apple Store and today I bought myself a graphics tablet so I can do better at drawing on the computer. Been wanting to try that out for some time now.

Bad news is I lost my cell phone yesterday between work and home. Have no idea what happened. Hope someone will find it and return it to me.

BobBlog

Today is my mom's birthday and tomorrow is my sister, Becky's, birthday and tomorrow is my 9th wedding anniversary. Boy, do we know how to bunch 'em up or what?

Fever Again

I'm staying home with Elizabeth today. It's raining and she's been fighting a fever for about a week. It seems to come and go, but got worse last night. We prayed for her yesterday and put her to bed and she had no fever throughout the night.

She's in better spirits today. Just made her lunch. She loves Pea Soup, so that's what she got. Soups good when you're sick on a rainy day.

That's about all for today.

Bob

Update

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been very busy getting my website up. It is up and running and I'm very excited about it. This is the forums board I have had since 1986. It's been renovated throughout the years in many forms, but this is my favorite version. The address is Maclectic

Since I last wrote, ScooterPie, who I now call StupidPie, broke his leg again. Or, more correctly, he chewed off his entire cast and we had to get the whole thing set all over. Luckily, this time it was during the day and I was able to take him to see my regular vet and was charged much less than the first time.

Also, some rather exciting news for me. One of our city councilman, Steve Jones, who I used to work with at the Adult School when I taught high school subjects, called me to ask if I would be interested in serving on the Community Services Foundation. It works within the city helping non-profits raise money and I believe also dispurses money to them. I'm very interested, but I have to find out more about it, what night it meets etc.

School is going pretty well. We're about to add some new playground equipment. I'm very happy about that.

Well, that's all for now.

Bob

Broken Puppy

To add to our hectic couple of weeks, last Friday night, we heard the dog crying very loudly in the backyard. That's ScooterPie, the little guy. Everyone went to the back patio door and there was ScooterPie sitting, holding up a broken front paw. It had a clean break above his 'wrist' and was just dangling there. It was horrible. We found a local Vet who would come back and open up his clinic for us and he set it.

We went back on Sat. morning and picked him up. He had on the weirdest contraption I had ever seen. Here's a picture.

Update

I haven't blogged here for almost 20 days! But things have been hectic. We have rotated some kind of virus throughout the family for a couple of weeks. First I got it and missed 3 days of work. Then Elizabeth got it bad with high fevers, but just for 24 hours and then Connie got it bad and she's been sick since Sunday night. So, we just stayed home yesterday and Connie isn't working today. She'll probably be fine by Wed. we're hoping.

BobBlog

Well, I'm working from work on Windoze, so I guess that's why it's not working. You'll have to cut and paste, I guess.

www.maclectic.com

BobBlog

Link didn't show up in last post. Hopefully, this one does.

Bob

BobBlog

A friend of mine, Rich, and I have been working hard on getting Maclectic back up. For those who have known me a long time, you'll know I had a website called Maclectic BBS in the 1980s. It's still going. It has been reinvented many times and in many forms.

My friend and I are getting it back up in a new format that I think people will really like. The front page is similar to what I had last time, but there will be more features. We hope to have a shoutbox, where people can carry on conversations in real time with each other. Also, we're trying to get a Wiki on line, which will allow us to store important information alphabetically, like Wikipedia. One of the things we've not liked in the past has been losing important and informative posts that help people out with their computers.

I'm also very excited about the wordprocessing features of this system. Users have really great abilities to modify and structure their posts, inserting links and pictures quite easily.

You can view Maclectic right now and read up on Mac information. But the forums are not yet open, neither is registration. We have more work to do.

Maclectic is not limited to Macintosh. We cover many other areas such as humor, entertainment, politics, religion and much more. Here's the site to look at so far:

I Wonder if Jonah Knew About This?

Blog: Beachcombers strike gold with whale 'vomit'
January 24, 2006 11:15 AM PST
They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. But in this case, one whale's bile is man's perfume.

Ambergris is a fatty excrement spewed by whales, and it can float for years in the ocean before washing ashore. The foul-smelling bile can solidify over years, soaking up the sun and ocean breeze to eventually turn into a sweet, smooth lump of perfume. In fact, it is used as an ingredient for perfumes and medicines.

An Australian couple walking on the beach found the rare substance recently, and not knowing what it was, turned to the Internet to investigate. An ecologist finally deemed the rock to be ambergris, or what some scientists and scavengers call "floating gold." According to a report from the BBC, the couple will net $295,000 from the discovery.

Still, ambergris is banned in the United States under endangered species legislation. Wouldn't it be great if cat's vomit was worth the same?

Posted by Stefanie Olsen

Our La Mirada

Here's Debbie's La Mirada site address. Have fun exploring.

Bob

http://www.ourlamirada.com/

La Mirada - My Town

Believe it or not I've started yet another website. In conjunction with a dear old friend, I'm now working on documenting the history of the City of La Mirada, where I live. La Mirada is a wonderful place to live. Just 17 miles from Los Angeles, out at the farthest edge of L.A. county, lies La Mirada. It's a quite town with little crime, friendly people, and a true community spirit. I've lived here since 1963.

My friend Debbie has started a website called Our La Mirada. She is posting some great pictures of times past. In fact, if you have any pictures that reflect La Mirada's past, even if they are just your kids playing in the park, let Debbie see them. Email them to her or at least tell her about them and she just might add them to her collection.

I've been taking pictures for her of places that have remained the same in our fair city. However, it became obvious that we were really creating a lot of work for ourselves, so we decided that I would cover more current events and post pictures of what La Mirada looks like now, while continuing to try and find new resources for Debbie. She now lives in Indiana, so it's a bit tough for her to scrounge around down here.

I've even talked to the city proper and they've been very supportive so far and seem glad this is happening. It appears that they are also in the midst of collecting photos for a new book, so perhaps we can all help each other out.

I'll post the websites here soon for you to look at. I'm at work right now, waiting for the last child to be picked up, so I don't have access to the URL at this moment. Debbie even has some old pictures of me on her website. You'll have to see if you can find me.

Have a great day.

Bob

Rain

It's really raining today. First time in 50 years it has rained on the Rose Parade. Glad I wasn't there. Most people just go once to that parade. It is SOOOO cold, standing there in the morning, waiting for it to start.

I was coming home from Sam's Club. I had just bought food for the school's snacks and a tree had fallen over from Creek Park on Santa Gertudes and was blocking 2 lanes of traffic. Luckily, hardly anyone was dumb enough to be driving in the storm. Except me, of course.

Cell phone lodged in woman's throat

If you can't say something nice....

The Kansas City Star

A Blue Springs woman was taken to a hospital emergency room early today after a cell phone became lodged in her throat.

The woman was in an argument with a boyfriend when the incident occurred, said Sgt. Steve Decker of the Blue Springs Police Department.

Decker said police were told that the woman tried to swallow the telephone because she didn't want the boyfriend to have it. However the case is under investigation.

Police responded to a call about a non-breathing person about 4:50 a.m. in the 3000 block of Southwest U.S. 40, Decker said. Police arrived and found that the 24-year-old woman was having trouble breathing. Her identity was not released.

The woman was taken to the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital in Blue Springs. She still had the telephone in her throat upon arrival at the hospital, Decker said.

A condition report was not available.

ScooterPie

We got Elizabeth a dog for Christmas. She has had him a few weeks. This is the year for early Christmas presents for some reason. The kids computer died, so Connie and I got them a new Mac Mini for Christmas, but gave it to them early so they could use it in the meantime. Zack needs it for school work and Elizabeth has quite a few fun sites she like to work on.

My sister, Robin, had two dogs a neighbor was trying to give away. Mom took one and we took the other, which is the runt. He's a cutie and doing pretty well. I always forget how much work it takes to train a dog, but Connie and I are both pretty good with animals. He's going to do fine. We finally let him meet Aslan, our Golden Retriever. He acts like his regal self and pretty much ignores Scooter, who is jumping all over him most of the time. But at least he is kind to Scooter. Could easily have him for lunch if he wanted to!

Yesterday, Connie went to get Scooter to bring him back in the house and he was all wet! he had fallen into our pool. Poor thing. Good thing I run 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the world. I cuddled him and got him warm again. See, I'm good for something!

Christmas Show Pictures

Here a few pictures I promised from yesterday's Children's Christmas Program at my church.

In the first picture you see our choir. The children did great. They sang 6 songs. The little girl in the front by the mic stand, the blond, is my daughter, Elizabeth.

The second picture is my son, Zachary, who was narrating the story of the shepherds.

The third picture is my daughter, Elizabeth, performing her first piano solo in church, The Waltz of the Christmas Toys.

Christmas Sunday

This morning we had our Christmas program with the school children. I was rather disappointed as 5 of our students were no shows. That was about 1/3 of our choir. But the remaining students did a great job. They sang 6 songs. We had 3 instrumental solos by the children and a narration by my son, Zachary. Had a pretty good crowd as well.

The program was followed by refreshments. All in all a very nice day. I'll post pictures when I get them loaded onto my computer.

Christmas Stuff

Christmas is close at hand and I haven't bought one present, haven't decorated, haven't bought a tree and that's just okay with me. Been so busy lately. Made several presents and I'm pleased how they've turned out so far. Hope the recipients are pleased as well. That's the hard thing about making gifts. They can't take them back for refunds!

Our Christmas program for the school is on Dec. 18 @ 9:30 a.m. if anyone wants to attend. It will be the school children performing for the church and their parents. That usually gets us a good sized crowd.

I've taught the children 6 Christmas songs. Some of them are not as popular as what you usually hear on the radio, but I like them. The kids liked them and that's what's important. I think it will be a nice program.

How I did

I didn't realized I never posted about the ceramics show after the fact. First of all, I am glad I did it. I got to see reactions to the type of things I made. I learned that people liked my regular stuff much more than they did my Christmas stuff. (Sure glad I crammed in so much Christmas stuff the last few weeks.)

People liked my ceramic roses the most. They also seemed to like my handmade stuff better than the molded stuff I just buy and glaze. I sold more of my vases etc. than any premade things I just glazed. So, that made me happy too.

I made enough to pay for my space and buy a few dinners. I guess I can't complain about that. I had a nice gal next to me and we were both first timers, so we had an interesting time figuring out what sold and why. A ceramic instructer next to me sold nothing. I felt kind of bad because she does this for a living and I sold more than she did.

Anyway, it was a good experience. I'll do it again next year and I'll start looking for other shows. I heard that there's a very good show in Lakewood. I'll have to try to find out about it.

Ceramics Show Tomorrow

Wow! I can't believe how much stuff I have made for tomorrow's show. I hope it isn't a bust. I must have 6 large boxes of stuff. Lots of stocking stuffers, plus some good sized vases and bowls and much more. The hardest thing is selling pieces I really like, but I can't keep it all and I can't give it all away, either. I've spent a lot of money buying the kiln and slab roller and potter's wheel. (Well, my dear wife bought me the slab roller.)

Some of my newest work is pictured below. That juicer has been popular in that color. I suppose yellow is a kitchen color. The head started out to be Santa Clause, but then it didn't look like him to me and I decided it was Jack Frost. Then when I put the glaze on it and fired it, as I was taking it out of the kiln, I decided it was my friend, Wayne, from church! (Don't know if he'll think that is a complement or not, but I really like it.)

The slab vase is an experiment using stains instead of glazes. It's very rustic and I'm pleased with it.

I love the last one. It's much more organic than most of my work. It sort of looks like a lava flow if the lava was guacamole! :-) Anyway, it's a very different candle holder and I'm very pleased with how it came out.

Samples

Here are some samples of some of my work I fired yesterday. Most of this will be at my shown on Saturday.

Correction

In the previous post, I wrote that the Santa's Workshop was behind the La Mirada Library. Actually, it is on the other side, near the fire station. You want to go in the back entrance, facing the park. I will be in booth 20. There's supposed to be food etc. sold there as well. I've never gone to one before, so that's about all I can tell you. But it should be an interesting day. Elizabeth is in a parade the same day for Brownies! So, Connie will be there part of the time. Zack will be there to help me out, however.

Ceramics Show

I'm going to be selling some of my things at the Santa's Workshop on Saturday, Dec. 3, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. I'll be selling mostly my smaller stuff. They want stocking stuffers, but I'll bring some of the bigger things for presents. Elizabeth has a parade on that same day. Wish I could see that, but Connie can go to that while I do the Show. I've got Zack to help me set it up as well. Should be a fun experience. I've not had a show yet.

I had thought of joining the La Mirada Arts Colony, but when I called for information, the guy I talked to really talked me out of it. He said I'd be the only potter so I could never compete and made it sound really boring. So, I'll opt for a local show now and then instead, I guess.

Anyway, if you're able to come by on Dec. 3, I'd love to see you. It's on La Mirada Blvd., north of Rosecrans and south of Imperial behind the library in the new Activity Center. I think part of it is inside and part is outside.

Thanksgiving

Getting ready for Thanksgiving. Everyone is coming to our house this year because we can seat the most for dinner. Here's who is coming: Mom, Connie, Zack, Elizabeth, Robin, David, Tyler, Mary, Becky, Tony, Anthony, and ME! I'm cooking the turkey, Connie is making her wonderful pies, and the rest will make the rest.

We have a BIG surprise for Elizabeth tomorrow. Early Christmas present. I'll post picture here tomorrow, hopefully.

Bob

Mom

Had a scare the last couple of days. Mom was at home, a friend was visiting her. The friend noticed Mom didn't seem herself. Mom was dizzy and seeing with blurred vision. So, the friend insisted on taking her to the Dr. who put Mom in emergency. Her blood pressure was 209. So, she stayed overnight and came home yesterday afternoon around 4:00. Her BP had come down to about 150.

Andre Again!

Well, I think I'm being stalked by Andre Crouch! Just kidding. But I went to a wonderful play called "Carnegie's In My View" and guess who was there? Yup, Andre Crouch. His cousin is a friend of a man in my church and she saw me and took me down to meet him and we chatted about his reading my article about him and then his calling me on the phone and ended up talking about pastoring and how hard it is. He's a very down to earth man and it was exciting for me to get to talk to him once more.

Space Cadets-This is just too much fun

Space Cadets hoax out of this world
By This is London
16 November 2005
A new reality TV show is aiming to pull off the biggest hoax in TV history - by persuading a group of Britons that they have been blasted into space

The new Channel 4 series Space Cadets has been under wraps since the idea first came about 18-months ago.

Nine people will be told they are set to visit the final frontier as space tourists and that in preparation they will undergo intensive training in Russia courtesy of the Space Tourism Agency of Russia, but in reality the groups will be "trained" for space in a disused airbase in a secret location in the UK.

Unbeknown to them, their shuttle will be a Hollywood creation, made originally for the film Space Cowboys.

A giant custom-built screen positioned just outside the shuttle will, it is hoped, provide the illusion of a view of Earth from space including a hurricane over Mexico and a glimpse of the UK on one day when cloud cover parts.

The launch sound has been created by a Hollywood sound specialist while the shuttle will tip and rock in the process.

Channel 4 admits that the joke could be on them if the participants, who are currently being selected from a group holed up in a secret location with no contact with the outside world, cotton on to the stunt.

Three actors have been placed in the group and will be able to report back on whether there are any suspicions.

What's Happening Now

Didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. I've been quite busy with school completing the first quarter and giving finals, grading papers and getting ready for Parent Teacher Conferences.

I don't think that I've mentioned that I have entered into the La Mirada Christmas Craft Show on Dec. 3, 2005, in the La Mirada Activity Center. I hope to have more info on that soon, but if you're in the area, I hope you stop by and say hi. I'll be selling mostly smaller ceramic things I've made. They asked us to emphasize stocking stuffers, so I'm making a lot of Christmas pens. My sister in law is sending me back some of my things have haven't sold as well as some of her craft items for me to try and sell for her. Hope we'll both do well.

I'm going to be taking some Christmas Pots, pins, magnets as well as some of my freestyle hand work. I've got some interesting vases and the like to sell. I've got some Christmas ornaments in the works and I hope to have some candles ready by then as well.

I've tried hooking up with some other candle makers to use my pots for candles, but it hasn't worked out yet. I may just end up learning how to do that myself. Turns out Elizabeth has a Brownie parade in Whittier the same day, so I think it will be Zack and me selling in the first half of the day, at least. I made a jughead that was supposed to be Santa, but it doesn't look much like Santa, so I think he's now Jack Frost! Wasn't that easy? The license we artists take. :-)

Texas Pastor Electrocuted During Baptism

I have watched in terror many times as pastors did this. It finally happened.

WACO, Texas

A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning after grabbing a microphone while partially submerged, a church employee said.

The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in water up to his shoulder in a baptismal at University Baptist Church when he was electrocuted, said Jamie Dudley, a church business administrator and wife of another pastor there.

Doctors in the congregation performed chest compressions for 40 minutes before Lake was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, Dudley said. Police said they weren't called and the hospital referred calls to the church.

The woman Lake was baptizing was not injured, Dudley said.

Pastors at University Baptist Church routinely use a microphone during baptisms, Dudley said.

"He was grabbing the microphone so everyone could hear," Dudley said. "It's the only way you can be loud enough."

About 800 people attended the morning service, which was larger than normal because it was homecoming weekend at nearby Baylor University, Dudley said.

Lake, who had a wife and three children, had been at the church for nine years, the last seven as pastor, Dudley said.

Ho Ho Ho

After teaching my cermics class how to make jugheads, see picture below, I was inspired by my wife, Connie, to try something for Christmas. I'm considering entering into a Christmas show in La Mirada. Connie suggested I try making some jugheads that look like Santa Claus. So, I started last night and almost finished it. (I think it looks like a Mexican Santa.)

I'll post a picture when I'm done, but it's rather interesting. It looks like a very old fashioned Santa. Almost reminds me more of Jack Frost. But once it's glazed, I think it will be pretty cool.

The one I made is pretty large, so I'm thinking of making some much smaller. The boutique I may enter is asking for vendors to sell things on the small side. Most of my stuff is probably bigger than they want. However, my sister-in-law, Cathy, is probably going to send most of my ceramics back to me because they haven't sold that well at the fairs. (Nothing much is selling there.) So, that will give me a lot small stuff to sell.

Eagle Trophy

This year at school we are letting students have a small eagle to keep at their desks to show they are the student of the week in their class.

For Student of the Month, I am making a large ceramic eagle. Then I take it to a trophy shop where they mount it on wood and put a brass plate on it with the student's name and month they won the award.

Here's a picture of it. I just sold one for $50.00 to someone who wants to give it to their pastor.

New Ceramic Items

I'm been playing around with some new techniques and items. Some are quite fun. I'm posting some pictures. One is called a jarhead or a jughead. They were used for scaring kids away from stills in the mountains. They are kind of scary looking!

The other picture is of some crystals I designed. Simply a piece of art, no function. There's always a raging debate amongst potters about form and function. I'm starting to lean more towards form. Function requires so much perfection and you should be able to duplicate it successfully. I'm not really there yet. But form is always different and hopefully beautiful. Well, can't say beautiful about the jughead, but it certainly is different! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Decisions

I'm thinking of joining the La Mirada Arts Colony. They have memberships for the entire family that are quite reasonable. By joining, I would have some venues for showing my work. So far, that just hasn't happened. They are having a show in November, so it could be fun. It will be something I have never done. I need to get more information. I try to make several pieces a week, but with school and work, it's not always that easy. This seems to be a very small group and they don't currently have any potters in the group, so I guess that helps me out as well. Won't be any competition in my field.

It's not my fault!

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/18/051018164658.5t5yxs3t.html

I just found out I am not overweight. I just have a virus. Read the link above!

Bob

Here I Sit

I've got After Care duty again today. I was lucky Monday was a holiday, so I didn't have to do it then. So, here I sit, glad to have the internet to keep me busy.

The good news is that we have the whole computer network up and going. We now have the Distance Learning ready to go, so people can connect to our school computers even if they live out of state or even in another country. So, if you know someone wanting to home school, but feel the need help, we might have the solution because all the curriculum is on their computer and they can work with a teacher live, asking questions and getting things graded immediately. I'm excited about that.

On the ceramics front, I'm trying to connect with a friend of my sister Robin, who makes candles. I'm trying to get her to pour candles in some of my small pots. Her candles are much more fragrant than most. My thinking was that when people finished their candles, they'd have a pot for a plant or a bowl to use as they wish. What do you think of that idea?

I'm hoping people will buy some of my things for the Christmas season. I have some nice gift items. We'll see. I need to update my online studio site.

Best Fund Raiser Yet

Our school is always needing more money. Maybe this is the way to go. If I could just find an overweight pastor...

FATHER Pete Colapietro, known as the "whiskey priest" for reasons completely unclear to me, is going through hell for a heavenly mission.

"Knocking off the occasional mild restorative called bourbon is a breeze, but sacrificing pasta, now that is tough," said Father Pete, 57. "But let's all remember that all suffering is temporary."

The good shepherd of Holy Cross Church on West 42nd Street and the guardian of the Holy Cross School at Times Square is going through a painful diet for the cause of his students.

It started in the Hamptons Aug. 6, at an annual fund-raiser for Father Pete's school when someone came up with the idea that was going to put him through great anguish and self-denial.

"Lynn Wiegand, a great lady of Manhattan and Quogue, a charity maven of some status, figured I was too fat," Father Pete recalled with a sigh of resignation.

"Lynn organized 40 pledges from local friends. Collectively, they paid $2,000 to the school for every pound I lost. Most of them were $5 pledges per pound but there were two or three who pledged $100 [per pound]." The money is for the school which has 400 students starting at pre-K to the eighth grade. Some students come from as far away as central New Jersey. More than 90 percent are minorities and 30 percent are non-Catholics.

"It costs parents $2,000 a student per year, but truthfully it costs $2,900 to educate each child, so somehow we have to make up the rest from charity and just people's good hearts," Father Pete said.

When Father Pete started his "diet for God" regimen, he weighed in at 317 pounds.

The diet is being monitored by a doctor, and Father Pete weighed in on Friday at 293 pounds, a loss of 24 pounds, putting the pledgers on the hook for $48,000 in contributions to the school.

"Settling day is on St. Patrick's Day next in the rectory, and I want to get down to 250 pounds even if I have to have my right leg amputated," he laughed.

Glazes

It was months ago, during the summer, that I was given 2 vans full of glaze materials. The problem was that I had no idea how to use them, but I knew I had been given a great gift. Well, after reading a ton of books and researching on the net, I finally figured out how to make glazes. (The measuring is chemistry, weighing everything in grams etc.)

Anyway, I fired my first home made glaze yesterday. It was a simple clear glaze. Looked like mud when I brushed it on, but it fired beautifully. A very nice clear glaze. Now it's time to start messing with it to get some other colors into it. It was a big step for me. I have done a lot of different things lately. I will have to post pictures of my new work. It's quite different from what I had done previously.

The Pictures

The top picture is of Zack and Elizabeth at Neff Park. They liked this old tree with the huge roots and wanted to climb it. (Notice how tall Zack is getting?)

The next picture is Neff House. It and the George House are the oldest two houses in La Mirada. Mr. Neff and Mr. MacNalley owned this property. It was a working ranch and very famous for the olive groves. La Mirada still has a lot of olive trees in this part of the city. Mr. MacNalley is of the famous Rand/MacNalley, the famous Map makers. If you look at a Rand/MacNalley map of California, you'll see that La Mirada is show much more prominently than you'd think for such a small city. I've heard it was an agreement that was contracted into the company many years ago.

The next picture is of a lady who was demonstrating lace making. It was fun to watch. They move those little spindles back and forth, creating the lace. It was fascinating to watch.

The last picture is a beautiful quilt. Connie loved it so we bought some raffle tickets to see if we could win it. Many of the groups at the park were demonstrating something and trying to get interest for their various organizations. They did a great job of it.

Neff Park Pictures

Here are a few pictures I took while at the Neff Park Celebration.

What's a Neff?

What's a Neff? was the cry of all the students at La Mirada High, where I went to High School. Neff High was our rival school. But the Neff family was the founding family of La Mirada with the McNalleys of the famous Rand/McNalleys who make maps. Anyway, it was the 29th anniversary of the park that has the original Neff House, George House and the Neff Barn, all of which are the oldest buildings left standing in my town.

Our whole family went there and there were many booths with crafts, various civic groups, and of course, FOOD! We had a nice time, stayed about 3 hours. They had a baking contest. I had told Connie she should make a pie, but it was a busy week. Anyway, we didn't see even one pie there! So, she would have been an instant winner I guess. I'll post pictures of that soon as well.

All Fired Up

Have a load in the kiln right now. We have 13 children in our new ceramics class at school. I'm teaching kids from Kindergarten through 11th grade and all together, mind you. It actually works quite well. I find with crafts that kids are having so much fun that they tend to just help each other. I also have 2 teachers in the room with me and one parent, so it's pretty tame in there. Anyway, I'm firing at least 13 coasters, which was their first project. They also made some things with pinch pots, so they are being fired to bisque. (the coasters are now glazed and being fired.)

But I am excited about a few things I did myself. I made a face jug. I've always liked these. It's a jug as in "little brown jug" that has a face sculpted on it. The original idea was to make scary faces on them to keep kids afraid of going near moonshiner's stills. They, the jugs, were placed in trees and bushes to scare kids away. I think this one will be pretty cool when it's done. I might make a lot of them. A good gift for your boozer friends. (Just kidding)

I am also firing a new glaze called Apricot crackle. Can't wait to see what it is. It is a discontinued glaze and I got a whole gallon for $10.00, which is VERY cheap for glaze. Bought 4 others that I haven't tried out yet. I'll post pictures when I'm done.