Sailing in the San Juans

Well I'm back from my sailing adventure - we had a great time! The weather could have been better but all in all it was not bad, besides I don't care what the weather is like, sailing is fun no matter what.


When sailing it's good to look like this is something you do every weekend. I figured the ridicules hat, camo shorts and XXL "Terminator Stout (beer)" hoodie made me fit right in with the million dollar yachts and the rich folks at Roche Harbor.


Craig (port) and I (starboard) on the bow of our sailing vessel. See, I can talk all nautical and shit.


One day we raced our friend Roman (the Russian) - it was just Roman in his boat and a crew of five of us in our boat. Roman was beating us for a while, then later, being the well oiled (alcohol) machine that our crew had become, we finally overtook him.


(Most of) the crew of the SS Jack Daniels (I can't remember what the actual name of the boat is). In this picture (from left to right - Roman, Craig, "Skipper" Fred and Ryan (not pictured - Ken and I)) I think the "crew" actually gives the illusion they know what they are doing...almost.

Great, great time. I hope I can do it again someday.

Ahoy!

Lucky me - I get to go sailing next week in the San Juans! Whoo hoo, can't wait. Here's some pictures of the boat we'll be on, these were taken last Sunday when we took it out for a test run.

Skipper "Fred" takes out for a cruise (I'm the one wearing the orange hat and black shirt).

I discovered that the trick to piloting a sailboat is to always have a beer in your hand.

Hoist that jib!!

The galley...aw, life is rough.

I'll write a blog about the trip when we get back. Something tells me there will be lots to write about.

Olympics

I like the Olympics, I really do. Watching the best athletes in the world going for the gold can be thrilling. But of course, as I usually do, I'm gonna focus on what I don't like.

Synchronized diving - what the F? Who decided this should be a competitive sport? Regular diving - sure, but this is just silly.

Swimming - Superb athletes, no doubt about it...but as far as I am concerned they could eliminate the breaststroke, butterfly - even the backstroke races. I mean really, that's just about three events too many. Now if they did the dog paddle for 400 meters, that would be something to see.

Women's Beach Volleyball - Gee, I wonder why this has the highest TV ratings of all Olympic events? I'll give you a hint, it's not because of the thrill of competition.

Skeet shooting - Probably fun as hell to blast orange plastic things out of the sky with a shotgun. Not gonna replace Monday Night Football anytime soon though.

Fencing - Who does this? I mean really?

Race Walking - Obviously a sport that takes years to develop a good technique, like when you were 12 and the bigger kids at your junior high were always trying to steal your lunch money.

Okay, I've got more I'm gonna add to this list but right now Paraguay and Argentina are starting the second set of the Women's Beach Volleyball playoff for 10th place and I don't want to miss it.

Breests

Well the house buying is going agonizingly slow (typical). It looks like next week is when things will finally start rolling (with all the mortgage paperwork). My best guess at a move date is now somewhere around the 22nd (two weeks from now).

Yesterday was my son Jake's 10th birthday. We celebrated his and his brother Trevor's (8) B-days together (their B-days are about a week part) at this place called "Super Jump Zone". The place has three big inflatable things for the kids to play on - a "boxing ring" where the kids don giant boxing gloves and wail on each other, a obstacle course and a giant double slide. There were about 20 kids total that attended and by the end of it they were all just a sweaty mess. They loved it.

We brought a couple of the boy's friends back home with us after the party and as I was driving home with them they, like young boys do, were getting obnoxiously silly. At some point one of them starting talking about "boobs" and I finally had to say "Alright - enough of the boob talk!". Trevor then spoke up and in a serious voice he said "Yeah, and you guys are not calling them by the right name - they are called "Breests". I started laughing to myself because I realized he must have been reading one of the "Where did I come from" books I had given Jake (after he had started asking some questions) and came across the word "Breasts" and he was mis-pronouncing it "Breests". The more he said it the more it was cracking me up. Finally I said "They are called "breasts" Trev and he said "Ohhhhhh, breasts...well what are "man-boobs" called then?"

My eye's were watering from laughing so hard I could barely drive.

The New House

It's looking more and more that I will be moving into my new house soon. Still have to go through all the mortgage stuff but the owners of the house have accepted my offer and we've had the appraisal done and it came in at a good price (slightly higher than the asking price on the house) and I had the house inspection done Thursday and the house passed with flying colors. SO now it's just a matter of jumping through the usual mortgage hoops.


A little about the house I am buying: It's 1920 "Craftsman" home that was completely rebuilt from the foundation up in 1989. It's in outstanding shape and everyone who sees it immediately falls in love with it. The yard is full of really cool plants and tons of fruit bearing trees (Cherry, Apple, Pear). Quit honestly the yard scares the hell out of me - I love a nice looking yard, but I just don't have time to work in it everyday. The owners insist it's established enough where there is not a lot of weekly maintenance (beyond mowing the grass), but it'll take a couple of weekends of "wacking" to get some of it knocked back to a reasonable level (It's a tad overgrown in my opinion). It's an awesome yard though and like I said I just love the house (I love older houses...especially older houses that have been totally updated). I'm hoping to be in by the 3rd week in Aug.

The boys are excited to check it out the new house (I will have them evey other week). The neighborhood will be perfect for them. It's one of those neighborhoods that it seems time has forgot...neighbors are friendly, everyone keeps their yard looking nice (without being forced to by a local covenant) and you actaully see kids out riding their bikes and people jogging or walking their dogs - and there are sidewalks! (and it's all very flat). We even have a nice park nearby where I see families or other large groups of people having BBQ's almost every weekend (I even saw a wedding going on there the other day). And get this - from time to time the local Highschool marching band will march through the neighborhood to practice. I swear to god that June and Ward Cleaver will probably bring an apple pie by when I move in.

This is very different from the current house, where the neighbors are all spaced apart on large acre-plus lots and walking on the streets in the area is not recommened because of the hills, no shoulders, no street lights and cars that go flying by 100 mph (in a 25 mph zone). I always liked the privacy of the house, but I kinda feel the boys have been jipped (sp?) from not growing up in a neighborhood - granted that can bring problems too. But hey, I still hang out with my friends from the neighborhood I grew up in from when I was my son Trevor's age (he just turned 8). So I think it'll be great for them.

The Lord of Suburbia has found a new kingdom to rule over...or make fun of anyways...

Divorce

I have not updated this blog in quite some time due to the fact that I did not want to shock any family or friends who had not yet heard that my wife and I are in the final stages of getting a divorce. I will not use this blog to talk about specifics of my divorce, though I may from time to time discuss how much is sucks.

Going forward it's hard to tell what the lies ahead in the future. Anytime kids are involved in a divorce it just makes things that much harder...much, much, much harder. But as difficult as it is we will all survive, though the scars will remain forever.

Right now it's just a day to day struggle. With my mother dying this past spring followed shortly by the reality that I would be getting divorced, to say I am "a little stressed out" would be the understatement of the millennium. What's worse is that I am now in the process of trying to buy a house, and as anyone who has purchased a house before can tell you that alone is enough to send most people over the edge. It's a good thing I am bald because if I did have hair it would surely be gone by now. But I try to take it day by day and not let it overwhelm me or get me down. If there is one thing my mom taught me it was to never dwell on the negative and always look to the positive. If she can do that while facing terminal cancer I can surely do this.

He's Dead Jim

I have had a really hard time thinking of anything worthy of blogging about lately. I'm just bored silly with the whole Barack-Hillary thing. I feel like if I post something about how much I hate the weather I think people will begin to think I have a weather obsession (I do) and I'm sure people are tired of me talking about my boys…but unfortunately that's all I can think of to write about so here goes:

Our neighbors bought our boys a "Tinker Toy" set for Christmas last year and just like "Legos" the damn things tend to get scattered everywhere. The other day I found a pile of them in our living room and because I was bored I grabbed some of them and started building "something" with them. Jake (9 year old son) came into the room just as I had finished putting all the pieces together and he asked me "What is that?" and although I had no idea what it was supposed to be I quickly said "It's a shield to ward off evil powers". Jake grabbed it out of my hand and turned it over and inspected it from all sides and then said "This is all wrong". Offended, I said "What do you mean it's all wrong!?" and Jake said (very seriously) "See these holes here? An evil death ray would just slip right through that…you would be dead in seconds". Then with an almost imperceptible air of superiority he handed it back to me and walked out of the room.

The real problem is - if he thinks I'm dumb now, wait until he's a teenager.