Getting a drink

Actually Cindy and I are stopping to get green tea fraps after just
getting out of the movies. We just watched Dark Knight. Wow! What a
great movie! And Heath Ledger deserves some kind of award doe that
performance. It was outstanding.

Now to go shopping for the makings for dinner.

Checking out the construction

We are checking out the work this week. The boys like it.

Still at the camp

The boys are showing us around their camp. They both had a great time,
and the go carts were a big thrill foe them both.

Picking up the boys

The boys have been at camp this last week. Ben stayed all week while
Alan was just a day camper until Friday when he got to stay the night
as well.

This picture is in the chapel where they are having a final worship
time. They have a rock band providing the music, which the kids just
love of course.

Picking up dinner

This BBQ place near my work is great, so I'm stopping to grab some to
take home for dinner tonight.

I'm still not feeling very good. The drugs are working well enough for
me to get through a day of work, but only just barely. I am very glad
to be heading home.

I'm in pain

My back has been hurting for over a week now, but it got really bad on
Saturday while we were at the air show. Sunday I tried to rest my back
as much as I could, but Monday at work was a really uncomfortable day.

By Tuesday morning, after getting up and taking my shower I knew there
was no way I could go to work. I rested all day, trying to keep my
back from straining, and visited the chiropractor. That gave me some
relieve for a few hours, but by the evening I was right back into the
pain.

During last night I ended up waking up with cold-sweats and had to run
to the bathroom and retch. It wasn't pleasent! I do think it was just
the pain though.

Today I visited the chiropractor again, as well as getting a 50 minute
message. One of those deep tissue-works out all the knots type
messages. The kind that hurts in all the right ways! But now, a few
hours later, I am right back into the pain.

I have a regular Dr appointment tomorrow. Until then I am going to try
some leftover pain pills my wife has... Hydrocodone. Hopefully it will
help.

I feel horrible. I have little appetite and can rarely even get
comfortable.

At the mall

Killing a Sunday afternoon at the local mall. Had to go shopping for
Bibles for the boys. They are going to camp this week and had to have
them. They only had children's Bibles, so we got them something a bit
more mature.

We also picked up a book called "The Uncensored Bible". It describes
all the naughty parts. It is really funny and eye opening. Just
couldn't resist buying it.

Air show at McChord

We are at the air show on McChord AirForce Base. Still just walking
around and enjoying all the "static" displays.

More photos to follow, I'm sure.

Heading home

Just leaving work. Can you see the mountain in the distance? That's
Mt. Rainier. Another reason I love living here - I get to regularly
see visions like this.

After a long day at work it helps clear the head to beautiful vistas
like this.

What's this?

We are curious what this plant is. It is a volunteer in our garden. Is
it a weed?

Stuck in a meeting

Well, today (and apparently tomorrow also) I am stuck in a management level meeting. I normally do mostly computer/network/software development technical work. I normally support a couple short management update meetings each week, but each of those is only an hour or less each. This meeting is different.

This is a two day high level briefing of my managers, manager level. He is going through all his teams and parts and each is briefing their efforts. My interest and concerns (and my team's) are so small and technical that this meeting is painful! There are more "Dilbertisms" here than I have seen in a long time!

Hows this one: "Establish framework for integrity of command media."

Huh? What the heck is that.

Or how about: " The evaluation was 'incomplete', not a 'failure'"

No it wasn't - it was a failure!

Anyway... I am having no fun at all. At least I finally got internet connectivity back.

But we didn't kill this

With all our neglect we still couldn't seem to kill this climatis
(spelling?). The flowers are really pretty. Maybe we can even keep it
alive?

Weeding on a Sunday afternoon

Large parts of the yard around our house has gone to weed. Cindy and I
are just not the greatest grounds keepers. Today we decided to do a
little weeding though and some pruning. In this picture you can see
the Corsican Mint ground cover (smells great) that we planted a couple
years ago from a single 3" pot. It has grown and spread just like we
wanted, but the weeds are threatening to choke it off. So this is a
rescue operation really.

First cement

Since they poured the first cement for the new addition to the house
we had to sign it. No one will ever see it, of course. Its on the
footer and so will be buried under a few feet of dirt then a slab of
concrete. But we will know its there.

Grammy (Becky) wasn't here to add her name. And with her bum leg she
couldn't get down there anyway.

Watching a movie

While we all were eating dinner tonight we finished an episode of Get
Smart (a 1969 episode) then started one of my favorite movies: Tomb
Raider. I know, I know, it isn't exactly great cinema, but it is a lot
of fun. I love the action and the concept of a female Indiana Jones
character (Raiders of the Lost Ark also being on my favorite list). It
is out on Blu-Ray, so it looks and sounds better than ever.

July 4, 2007

Here we are last year. See, same spot! But we were all younger.

Waiting for fireworks

Here we are all planted and waiting for the show to start. It is the
fourth of July - Independance Day - here in the USA.

The fireworks show doesn't start until sundown, but we have to get
here early if we want good seats. We have sat in this same spot (or
close to it) for the last few years. Traditions are good.

Our home the construction site

A view of our backyard. They put in the forms for the foundation
footings yesterday. Inspection of these should be this morning, then
they will be pouring concrete.

It is raining this morning. First time in a week or more that it has
rained. Sure hope it doesn't mess up the construction process!