Summer....

Is in full swing.

New job is in full swing.

Looking for new house is in full swing.

Volleyball is in full swing.

Softball is wrapping up...and I'm looking for a soccer league.

It has been sweltering hot here, we happen to have both heat and humidity.  The beach can make it tolerable though.

My piano lesson book happens to have some good Irish music in it.  I've been playing it.  Found Auld Lang Syne a few chapters ahead, but I didn't have any problem playing that at all.  :-)

Went to see Sister Hazel at the beach tonight.  Always a good time.  I wish they would play more from their Absolutely album, but I also have a feeling that most of the songs there are too emotional for that type of scene.  However, they did play "This Kind of Love".  It is a piano song and one of my favorites.  They mentioned they had the sheet music for sale...so I bought it at the exorbitant price there...  I don't know any of the band members names, and I wouldn't know any of these people if I met them on the street, but I ran into some recent new friends, Stacey and Marissa, and they were standing in line to get their picture taken and shirt signed by the lead singer.  So I got in line with them figuring it would be neat to get my sheet music signed...and I got a picture below.  Stacey and Marissa are below that...

Books and adventures...

Just to let you know...SGG LOVED the book I made her for her birthday.  Basically it was this blog from all of 2009, with all the pictures we took in 2009.  She kept saying that she wanted to get a bunch of the pictures printed and  put into an album, so that is essentially what I did.  The book really turned out amazing.  The surprising thing is that the three boys seem to like it more than anyone!  They are always flipping through it.

It appears that the book has made some enemies for me though.  I have lost nearly every male friend I have.  The conversations usually go something like this....

Girlfriend of SGG: "So, what did Mike get you for your birthday?"
SGG:  "He wrote a book for me.  He wrote about all the things we did in 2009 and put in all the pictures.  It is a huge coffee table type book."
Girlfriend of SGG: "Wow!  That is amazing!"
Significant other of Girlfriend of SGG: "You SUCK dude.  It is guys like you that make the rest of us look bad."

I'm really not kidding about that.

My son has joined the Boy Scouts and is involved with  a really active troop.  In the last month he has been on two weekend trips and has really had a great time.  One of those was a two night camp out with several hikes that SGG and I went out to as well.  It was a great weekend of hiking and fun for all.  This was over Mother's day weekend...Both hikes are fairly easy and offer great scenic views.





My son also had his 13th birthday this past month!  Five more years.  :-)  We had a great Pizza party for him and one of his favorite pizza places where they also have free video games.  He got to have a very special ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery as well.  He gets two parties every year, one with me and one with his mom and both were great this year.

SGG and I went on a short kayak trip Sunday morning since all the kids were gone this past weekend.  In addition to a lot of cool birds we happened to startle and were startled by a mother deer and her fawn.  The fawn was so small that it didn't look like it was more than a day or two old.  It had a hard time getting out of the mud it was in, and it's mother LEFT it.  The little deer was left bleating out for it's mother as it had no idea where she went.  Not wanting to be a part of some comical news story about a couple being attacked by a deer, we left rather quickly.

So another school year is closing out.  Two more weeks and the kids all leave for at least most of the summer.  :-)

Beach volleyball is starting again and softball has already been in swing.

Step by Step...

Not every step is a step in the right direction.

Not everything broken can be fixed or patched.

Sometimes you have to let go in order to keep moving forward.

Learn from past mistakes and find a way to avoid them in the future.

Pain and problems are persistent, but so is joy, hope, and happiness.

On May 7th my son had a major meltdown at his daycare provider.  Probably one of the worst ever.  Step by Step, Tear by Tear, we get through it.  We talk about people, their reactions and perceptions, his reactions and perceptions, and try to set the clues and actions that can be considered in the future...he knows the conversations and finishes my sentences for me.  He knows what I'm going to say and why.  He is remorseful, but we both know that the next time it happens he may still not be able to change course.

Stress at my current job hit an all-time high recently, and a conversation with a manager convinced me that this was the end of the line...no more solutions possible.  I build various philosophical sayings based on situations with my job...it helps me to remember the obstacles and the paths around them.  Apathy never goes unpunished.  Until you forget what you think you know and what you think is possible you will never know what is truly attainable.  Don't believe everything you think.  You can't fill a full cup.

On June 1st I start a new job.  So on to new obstacles and challenges, and hopefully less stress.

Interesting new scam....or maybe not new...through services like Craigslist

Here's the deal.  I'm out of the country, visiting Nigeria on urgent business.  I can't be there to have you sign a lease, but I need a renter right away.  You send me the first months rent, $800, to my address in Nigeria and I'll send you the keys to the house.  When I get back, we can sign the lease.

This is a bit of a new twist on a classic scam.

I was talking to a real estate agent today and this is what he told me.  Sounds crazy right?  But he gets calls about his properties all the time from people that saw an add on Craigslist for a property at about half the going rent.  They drive by to look at the house and then see his sign.  They call the agent/property manager, fortunately, and not the number or email in the Craigslist add.  They've been duped, almost.  Some are not so lucky.

The Internet is not nearly as safe as you think it might be.

A Blurb in the Life of a Single Father...

At risk of SGG seeing this before she gets back from Sacramento, since I am apparently in a writing mood, I published the 2009 posts of this blog, and all my favorite photos from 2009, into a book on Blurb.  I called the book "Life, Laughter, Love, and Lunacy in 2009".  Right now each of those words feel redundant as if they are all the same all rolled together.  The book is 234 or  so pages long.  SGG doesn't know I actually published it yet.  My son was amazed at it and loves it.  He thinks SGG is going to flip over it.  I hope so.  It was a lot of work.

I like it so much that I think I may do the same with the rest of the blog and pictures.  I got the largest version of the book and it turned out fantastic.

SHHHH!  Don't tell SGG!  It is a secret.  It is for her Birthday.

Spring is in the air....

....and up my nose, all over the house, the blue car is now yellow and the yellow one is more yellow...so on and so forth.  The back yard needed major work so Brandon and I tackled that Saturday.  I feel like dirt and pollen is still caked in all my air ways.  Were the water warm enough, I would have headed straight to the beach to get cleaned up.

Sunday, today, is brisk with blue skies and no humidity.  It reminds me of Monterey, California...and absolutely no chance of fog.

I am going to jump around for a bit here...so hang on.

My son made 1 A and 4 Bs for his fourth straight Honor Roll report card.  :-)  All indications are he will do even better this last quarter.

We had an IEP eligibility meeting a few weeks ago.  They changed his IEP from Emotionally Disturbed (ED) to Asperger's.  This is a good thing.  All the faculty agreed that Brandon was doing incredibly well.  It was in fact the first time that I had met any of his teachers this year....which is a welcome change as I usually know them all pretty well by the end of the first week of school.  Brandon will be going back into the AVID program next year too!  He is VERY excited about that.

I've been working on the Atkin's Diet and exercising more and more.  I feel great and there are some areas I can't believe the difference in.  I like to play sports and one of the first things I noticed was how much easier it is to sprint in softball.  Another thing is jumping in basketball.  My legs feel like they used to.  I love the Body For Life workout and right now the diet and exercise is just what I need.

I'm feeling sort of Kindle-y all over.  After hearing from a couple of friends first hand about the Kindle, I finally got one.  After reading the manual, and yes I always read manuals (manuals help me understand how I can put the product to use in ways that weren't imagined by the maker), I grabbed several classics that I always intended to read and Isaac Asimov's "Foundation".  Rather interesting to be reading that for the first time in 2010 on electronic ink and electronic paper, i.e. Kindle.

Sad as it is...it has taken me two weeks to complete this post.

Volleyball is just about here again and I can't wait for that...because that means summer is here again.

Happy Pi Day!

3.14 and then some.....an infinite decimal with no repeating patterns that we know of yet.  The ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter.  At least that is what the paper says.

I went snowboarding with some friends from work on Tuesday of this past week.  It was amazing.  64 Degrees, slushy snow (good for snowboards), and no lines.  While we went all over, we spent most of our time in the terrain park doing jumps and things.  One of the best snowboarding days ever...and one of only a hand full of times that I've been with more than one person.

The weather magically went from being nearly or below freezing every night and highs averaging 45 during the day (for over two months) to being about 50 degrees in the morning and up to 70 or so during the day.  EVERYONE (SGG and three kids) is a lot happier.  :-)

Happy Fat needs to go...and it has.  I had a friend tell me once that during the first year of a relationship both participants gain 10 lbs of "happy fat".  You go out to eat a lot, etc.  Due to one injury or another, sickness, etc my exercising hasn't been as consistent as it needs to be.  In January I read this about visceral fat.  That moment I started the Atkins diet.  The weight has been consistent in coming off, but I haven't been as consistent with my exercising.  A lot of stress at work isn't helping my moods and motivation when I get home either.

I have been doing much better with piano practice and lessons though.

I have a huge drive and desire to learn additional languages.  I don't know why.  I took three years of German in high school and I enjoy reading and speaking it when I can.  For some reason, reading it is no problem, listening and speaking is a problem.  I started working on Spanish a few years ago when I was going to Mexico.  I need to get back to that.  I also want to learn Japanese, Chinese, and French.  Really, I just want to be able to understand a little of the structure of the language, and be able to hold a simple "Hello, how are you, how much, where are the bathrooms, I don't understand, Excuse me, I'm sorry, thank you, you are welcome," etc type of conversation.  I doubt I'll ever be fluent, but give me a little bit of the code and I can unravel a lot more when exposed.  I've thought about spending a month at home where my son and I learn and talk as much of a certain language each month, and rotate through.  Saying "Guten Morgan", "Wie Gehts", "Aufwiedersehen", "Wo ist es?" "Wie viehl?" "Guten abent" "Schlaf gut" "Es ist sehr gut" "ich habe hunger"  "ich habe durst" "Ich weiss" "Du weist es nicht".  The last two being the bulk of conversation between my son and I lately..."I know"  "You do not know".  SGG laughs hysterically whenever I try to pronounce anything French.  :-)

The Lighthouse....

SGG and I were both childless Sunday morning.  We had a nice breakfast at IHOP and then headed to the north end of VA Beach for hike.  We hiked out to Fort Story/Cape Henry and up the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse.  It was a beautiful day and I wish I had brought one of my real cameras.  All I had with me was my droid.

After going up and down the lighthouse, we walked on the beach back to the car.  Along the way we found a treasure trove of shells.

 

  

All the way around it was a great hike and a great day.  We still can't believe we found so many shells.

A very nice end to a bit of a hectic weekend.

PHOTOS

Out of the mouths of teens....

Comes, amongst a host of other things, drama. While mine is not quite yet a true teen....he is close enough.

It is fun to watch as his world views change. He is gathering information here and there and applying it. He makes conclusive judgments about this world and the rest of us in it. He is certainly passionate about his views and willing, unfortunately, to defend them. Often his timing for discussion and the subject is off, which makes him a little more frustrated and gets him into trouble.

His most oft uttered embittered war cry is "You never listen to me!" I hear this several times each day. The reality is that I have heard, processed, understood, and subsequently disagreed with his premise and evaluation of whatever he is talking about. What he is really trying to say is that he is correct, I am wrong, and because I didn't agree with him that I must not have been listening.

Sometimes I don't have the time or energy to explain why I say no to some of his requests. The other day this happened again and he became very angry that I wouldn't let him go somewhere and I wouldn't take the 30 minutes needed to explain it and get through HIS process. I understand this, but he also needs to learn some patience and sometimes trust that things will work out in his favor. Escalation will often ensure that things definitely will not workout in his favor.

So I told him to have patience. To which he responded:

"Patience? I don't have patience. I want answers to my questions. I need to have those answers. I have YOUR intelligence! I have my mother's impatience! I have BOTH of your attitudes!"

And being that I couldn't refute any of those statements, I conceded that battle to him....but he still lost the war.

:-)

Droid...

Not a long post...but my Droid continues to be useful and amazing in many ways.

I have an xbox game called Rally Sport. When you are driving, it has a small window in a corner that shows you what the next turn is. It lets you know how sharp it is, etc. It gives you a couple of seconds to prepare for it.

When driving to WV to go snowboarding the other weekend, we had to leave at night and drive nearly 7 hours to get there...arriving around 2am. The last 2.5 hours of the drive is all switchbacks in Blue Ridge Mountains of VA and WV. Up, down, curves, some ice, some snow, lots of salt and sand. The entire western half of VA was still under snow from the recent snowfalls.

My Droid had loaded the maps and was providing turn by turn directions to get to Timberline, WV. So after midnight, on a road with no lights, my only real indication of what was coming came from the Droid. It showed me what was coming up, how sharp the turn was, where the straight-aways were...essentially I was driving by instrumentation...it was awesome! :-)