Cesar Chavez Day

Today was a holiday and I got the day off. I can't say that it was too exciting, but a day off is always good. I'm getting used to wearing my new contacts, I'm seeing the world with a clear view. I'm now spotting wildlife like Owls left and right. Well actually when I came out of the post office this afternoon I noticed some people looking up at big a cactus. There was an Owl in a nest with 2 chicks. It was really neat to see.

This is a pic from Saturday, the girls were enjoying the beautiful Spring day outside.

Robby Boy

Last night I got a call from Rob and he told me about some big news. He was 1 of 5 outstanding students selected to represent his department at the Digital Media Advisory Committee meeting next month. School officials, faculty members, and business leaders from the community will be there. Robby will give an introduction about himself to the group, and will be doing an interview with the newspaper. There will also be a breakfast where he will get to mingle and possibly make some business connections, or at least get his name and face out there for future opportunities. This is exciting, I'm really proud of you, keep up the good work Rob.

Weekend Visits

My NCAA bracket isn't looking too bad. I picked 35 out of 48 correctly so far. My picks for the final 4 are all still in it.

Louisville vs Memphis........Duke vs North Carolina

.
Louisville vs North Carolina

.

North Carolina

.

Dad and Ellen were in town this weekend. They stayed at my house so I got to spend some time with them.

.

Sunday I went out to see Em, Nate, and the boys at their new house. The house is great, it's big and there seems to be plenty of room for everyone to run around. It's in a really nice subdivision and the community park is only about 1 1\2 blocks away. Yesterday we walked over and played until about dark.

Sunday Afternoon

Fun with the Fam

Yesterday I went to the Ostrich Festival with Em and the boys. Yes, I said ostrich. We had a good time, we didn't see any ostriches but we saw lots of other stuff including a food vendor selling ostrich burgers. Mom and Mike are in town this weekend. They were out looking at houses so they didn't go with us. I went out to dinner with them last night, we went to Gardunos for some mexican food. Nate was all ready to go to the Ostrich Festival too, but before we left he got a call and had to stay and take care of some last minute paperwork stuff for the new house. There were lots of things to see at the festival (I've already said ostrich 5 times, I'm not going to say it again). There were carnival rides, pig races, camel rides, clowns performances, sea lions, pony rides, daredevil performers, a spiderman bouncy thing, a petting zoo. Umm what else, oh yeah there were those big giant flightless birds. We were ready to go before we made it over to see them. I guess they race them and people ride them. I had fun spending time with Em and the boys.

Week in Review

It was a pretty good week. It was my flex week so I had Monday off but the other days were long. Wednesday Kurt Warner and the Cards were finally able to agree on a deal. He signed a two-year, $23 million contract. It was a little stressful because on Monday he went out to San Fran and met the the 49ers. Kurts the man, I'm glad he's going to play in Arizona for two more seasons.

On Wednesday I got into the Facebook thing. It's been pretty fun seeing and re-connecting with old friends and people I haven't seen or spoken to in years. I sent out several invites to be a "friend" as it's called, and I have had lots of people see me now on the grid and invite me into their friends circle. It has really snowballed just in these couple of days. It has really brought back a lot good memories from my days growing up, my 20's years, and also my 30's years.

This morning I had an eye appointment and got a new prescription for glasses and contacts. During the exam and after doing the fine-tuning with all the different lenses and getting it to where I could see perfect, he showed me the the view that my glasses give me right now and then back to perfect. What a difference. The doctor fitted me for contacts and I wore them in the office for about 20 minutes, but before I left he took them back out. I have another appointment to go back in 10 days because the person who needs to show me how to put them in and take them out myself doesn't come in on Saturdays, and will be at another office all next week. I guess I'll have to wait. The other day I saw little gold flakes in R's brown eyes. It was probably that the sun was shining in on her just right, but I wonder what else I'm not seeing like I should because of my dang less than perfect vision.

I was finished with my eye appointment at 10am and I decided to drive the back way to Anthem. I saw some things that I haven't seen before. I stopped off at Reach 11 Sports Complex. It's a big City owned park with 10 soccer fields, 15 planned bike or walking trails around the park and through the desert, and there's a Dbacks sponsored little league baseball complex there too. I saw the sign for it and pulled in to check it out. I was familiar with it because at work we had some mapping issues with the place and I had a couple guys go out and do some GPS work there. I sat out in the sun and watched a soccer game for about an hour. As I continued to drive home I saw a big cemetery with only a tiny bit of grass, the rest was desert landscaping I guess.

I drove around some more and found this place where people were flying remote controlled airplanes. I saw it from the road and went over and checked it out. There were a dozen or so people hanging out with their planes. There's a paved runway, one landed and two took off while I was there watching. It seemed like it might be a private club or something, they all were keeping an eye on me. I think Bella and the boys would like going and checking it out sometime. I'll have to try and look it up online and see if it's open to the public or what the deal is. It was pretty cool though.

Padres vs Brewers

I had plans to go to a Spring Training baseball game on Saturday with friend of mine but he had to cancel. I really wanted to go so I drove over to the stadium in Peoria where the Padres play. I was pretty surprised to see how packed it was. It was the first weekend game of the season so everyone showed up I guess. I decided not to go, it might have even sold out by the time I parked and got up to get a ticket. Well today is my flex day and I saw that the SD Padres were playing this afternoon so I decided to go try again. I was thinking how busy can a Monday afternoon be. As it turned out, it wasn't busy at all. I bought a $12 ticket and went in and found my seat.

I could see pretty good and there weren't too many people around me. In the bottom of the first inning the usher for our section told us we could move and find some shade if we wanted to. A guy asked if we could sit anywhere we wanted and the usher said yeah after the first inning they don't look at your tickets when you go to a seat. I went and got a couple hot dogs and a drink then went and sat in the 4th row behind the Padres dugout. The old guy was right, the usher for that section just said hello to me as I walked down and sat wherever I wanted. Pretty sweet seats.

They're Back

Em, Nate, and the boys moved back to AZ from PA. They have only been here for a week or so but Nate's already getting settled into his new job with SRP. Malakye is doing full day kindergarten at his new school in Queen Creek. Emily has been busy dealing with closing the old house in Pitts and closing the new house in Mesa. Yesterday Ryan, Bella and I went out to Gilbert and met them over at Aunt Ninas house. We had a nice long visit with Aunt Nina. She looked good and seemed to be doing ok. Emily noticed a painting hanging in her living room, and recognized the scene from a photograph she has seen. I guess one of Nina's friends is an artist and painted it from a photo that Nina had displayed in the house. It was a birthday present for her. The painting was of a woman and 4 kids outside by a little stream. Grandpa Tony was the little boy and the girls were his sisters and the lady was their mother. Pretty neat. I thought it was neat that Em recognized it from the photo she had seen before. I should have taken a photo of the painting and emailed it to mom. Next time. After the visit we all went to a park, then got some dinner. It was a sunny day and those guys are still adjusting to the weather here. Malakye got a sunburn on the back of his legs. Everyone had a good time.

Harleys

There is a girl that I see sometimes in the morning who rides the bus with me. She is really small, well petite, she looks about 25 or maybe younger, she has bright red hair. She brings this luggage thing with wheels with her. You can always hear her coming because the wheels on that thing make a lot of noise on the pavement. I have been next to her in line a few times and we've said good morning or hello to each other but that's it. She seems really bubbly, smiley, and friendly all the time. Last Friday as I was walking through the parking lot going over to wait for the bus, I heard and saw this white Harley. The rider looked tiny on it. The bus pulled up and people in line were getting on. The Harley was going around the lot looking for a space. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to see who the rider was so I didn't get on the bus. I started a new line for the next bus. The motorcycle finally decided just to park in the bicycle and motorcycle area. The girl got off the bike and took off her helmet and it was that little redhead girl. Wow, I wouldn't have guessed her in a million years. By the time she got over to the line she was like 10 people behind me. After work I saw the bike was still parked there. I sat on a bench and waited for the next bus to come by and drop people off. I wanted to talk to her and tell her that I just got my license and was shopping for a bike myself and whatever. She wasn't on that next bus so I left. I still want to talk to her, the reason I waited around Friday is because this week is my flex week and I take a much earlier bus then this girl takes, I won't see her. I want to find out how long she's been riding and if she learned on a smaller bike or if she started off on the Harley. Before I left I took a picture of her bike.


Saturday I went to a couple bikes shops to look around. This blacked out Harley was parked at one of the places I went. Man, how sweet is that? I didn't notice at the time but this guy, or girl, must be a bad-ass. Look how the pickup is parked in a handicap spot. The bike is parked in the painted space that is there to be used by anyone who uses the wheelchair ramp.

.