A New Leaf

Seriously...

2010-06-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with this man? Let's face it, none of these judges are completely without their faults. But this Adam dude is quite possibly the most annoying human I've ever seen.

Please, if any of you out in cyber-land have a DVR, and you record SYTYCD, and you DON'T skip past his commentary every time he opens his mouth, speak now. I expect no comments.

Goosebumps

2010-01-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

I'm usually not one to flaunt my feminine side, but holy cow Lea Michele ROCKS! I love Glee. I love the music, I like the acting. Ok, the plot sucks, but the music is so good that I keep watching anyway. Half the reason I watch is for Lea Michele and her incredible set of pipes! (I'm talking about her vocal chords). The other half is for the other incredibly talented people (ie the chubby chick that has an amazing voice, the teacher, and cheerleader chick, not to mention the gay kid that is incredible at singing but hurts to watch/hear sometimes... I'm horrible with names on TV)

I couldn't find just the clip of her song anywhere, so you can just watch the first 2:45 and get the gist without watching the rest. I love Barbra Streisand, and am always amazed at how incredible her voice is. Then I watched Lea Michele perform this and I had three thoughts:

1) She performed it as well as Barbra, IMHO.

2) I can't believe how well she imitated Barbra's style while keeping it her own!

3) My old hollywood crush has officially been upgraded to Lea Michele. (Don't worry, Kate knows!)

The show was on a few weeks ago, so I hope this link lasts for a while. Enjoy!

Avatar, mmm mmm good.

2009-12-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

It's not very often that I rave about a movie. I love movies, but usually hollywood just entertains me for a couple hours.

I'm not going to spoil anything. I'm not going to make a big long post about how wonderful the plot and visuals are. All I'm going to say is this:

Go see this movie at a nice theatre... soon.

It was simply amazing!

And props to Michelle Rodriguez "Yeah, you know what that is." Best line in a movie I've seen in a long time.

My cute wife

2009-12-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

Kate is pretty awesome. It's not just that she's hot, funny, and easy going. She's also smart, frugal, and optimistic. She's everything I hoped I would end up with. And more.

One of my favorite things about Kate is her one liners that sometimes sneak out of her mouth before she thinks. For example, a few years ago she cut into a grapefruit for breakfast, and cut it vertically instead of horizontally. With a look of complete shock on her face, she turned to me and said "This isn't a grapefruit!", showing me what looked to be an orange, I assume.

Well sometimes her one liners are so funny I have to share them. Tonight at Walmart I had to use the restroom in a bad way. #1 was on it's way and I was dancing by the cashier deciding what to do. We had two kids with us, and Kate didn't have her wallet, so I decided to wait it out and go as soon as we checked out.

By the time we bagged everything and were on our way, the feeling had subsided so I just decided to wait until we got home. I breezed right by the bathrooms on the way out to the car, and Kate exclaimed, to me and the shoppers around us, "Honey! You need to use the potty!"

In all fairness, our 4 year is potty-training right now. I'll cut her some slack on this one. :)

I love my wife.

Motab

2009-12-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is absolutely amazing. It might be one of the few aspects of the church that even the anti-'s can say we do well. They are perfectly on pitch and, now that they are more youthful, sound crisp and right on beat.

And when they sing something from the Messiah, with that HUGE pipe organ and an orchestra as a background... well it just doesn't get better than that.

And to stack on top of that, Kate allowed me to hookup my huge speakers from college to the TV for the first time in years, so we could hear the highs and feel the lows.

Amazing!

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!

2009-01-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

At the end of each day, I start my 35 mile commute knowing I'll have to wade through traffic and horrible drivers for the next hour. I look at the time and just sigh to myself that I now start my commute about two hours after I usually got home at my last job. I try to find a good radio station, but all the stations happen to be on advertisement breaks at the same time (funny, during rush hour? Go figure.)

I make my daily calls to all the people that make my commute feel shorter. Luckily I get free minutes on my work phone. Thank goodness for Kate, Kathy, Aaron, Dave, Van, and Forrest. They make the commute seem like 10 minutes instead of 45 minutes or an hour. Sometimes they don't answer, and I end up contemplating how traffic comes to a dead stop in the left lane of a freeway. Ugh.

As I cross the bridge over to Washington, I make the call to my wife. I always save her until last because I like driving up to the house and saying "I'm here, I'll be right in!".

Then comes my favorite part. I pull into the driveway, grab my laptop, lock the truck, and head up to the door. No sooner does my key turn the lock than I hear my two boys shout "It's Daddy!!!", and a storm of footsteps heading for the front door. They both jump in my arms and hug me like I've been gones for weeks (which isn't far from the truth sometimes). Then I go in and give my cute little wife a huge hug and a kiss.

What a great way to start any evening.

I love my life.

Cute Kids!

2009-01-04T23:31:00.000-08:00

My 3 year old is such a cute little kid. He is autistic, and doesn't speak well, yet. He is learning quickly, however, and I learn new things about him everyday.

Today I was reading a pamphlet about autism and learned about "pop-up" words. These are words that suddenly appear in an autistic child's vocabulary, sometimes sentences, and seem as though they have been practiced a million times. Then they either disappear or stick in their vocabulary, could go either way.

Today I was spinning around on the floor in the kitchen trying to make him laugh. I hit my elbow really hard on the fridge handle and yelled "ouch!"

Korben didn't miss a beat. He gasped and said "Are you OK?" with the most sincere voice he could. This seems like a small thing to most people, but to me it was a huge step in Korben's speech progress. He was concerned, and asked the most appropriate question someone would ask in the moment, and I had never heard it before. We didn't teach him that. Apparently it was a "pop-up" sentence.

I love that little guy.

Starting Over

2008-12-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'm grumpy. And I've been grumpy for too long now. I'm sick of it. When you find yourself being grumpy because you're sick of being so grumpy, it's time for a change.

I can pinpoint exactly when it happened. I'm not going to point fingers, because it's mostly my fault. No one else can make me grumpy, right? It's still my choice. But I know what triggered it, and I know exactly when it was.

Well, I'm not going to be grumpy anymore. I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm starting over. I'm going to focus on things that make me happy. I'm going to focus on my blessings and the good things in life. I have so many great things that I take for granted.

So, here we go. This should be a fun ride.

And if I ever get grumpy again, I hope someone will let me know... with tact. :)