Maui, Day 1

So Jennie and I got up at 3:00 am. Yep, you read that right. 3:00 AM! We changed the sheets, and got ready. Luckily we were smart enough to pack the previous few days. We woke the boys who wanted to say goodbye. They got up. We woke Ame to say goodbye and she hugged me from bed and crashed back down. :) Off to the airport in the dark, getting some gas, and then realizing we were both tired and hungry. We got to the Airport, checked in, and found we had a problem. I was on the MOST WATCHED list on account of my nefarious past. Or, because of my common nefarious NAME. They checked me over thoroughly and then said I was okay. But then in the security line, a fat guard about 300 pounds pulled out a pair of gloves and said, "Sir, I'm going to have to pat down your buttocks!" Luckily he didn't actually use the gloves for anything other than a gentle pat down. He found a small wad of kleenex in my back pocket which apparently sent the sad pathetic homeland security people on a bender of worry and apprehension! Holy shit he might be a terrorist. Can I say the Homeland Security division is itself a bunch of shit? Yes? Good, because I'm going to say it. It is a pathetic bureaucratic time waster all in the interest of 'saving lives', but isn't everything the government does about helping us and isn't almost everything they do utter shit? I know there are a lot of you out there who believe in the government. I'm not one of them. They do somethings okay, but not much.

Okay, we landed at LAX, then switched planes. Amazing thing here, the next plane was TWO GATES AWAY. Can you believe that? And I was all prepared for the cross airport run that would damn near kill me.

The plane was delayed because the morning pilot had forgotten to turn off the lights, and he killed the battery. Took about 30 minutes, but then we were on the runway. There, we got stopped against because the delay caused the tower control system (again run by the federal government) to lose our flight details. So they had to resubmit them in ATLANTA. Took another 20 minutes, but then we were safely on our way up into the sky. I looked down on Malibu and Zuma beach, my old stomping grounds as a child as we flew off into the air.

Luckily the flight was mostly empty, so I adroitly skipped across the aisle and took 3 seats, watched 6 episodes of Arrested Development on DVD, then two episodes of the Final Season of the Shield (also, coincidently enough, on DVD), and then I read a bit of a book Jennie recommended for me, Strong Father's, Strong Daughters, which pretty much made me feel like a loser of a father, but did motivate me to spend a HECK of a lot more time with Ame, and not just time with her, but time PAYING ATTENTION and listening to her.

I also drank my customary can of Tomato Juice, had cookies, bagels, salt, crackers, and pretzels. I also slept stretched out on three chairs. OH YEAH!

We landed in Maui and it was WARM! Windy and warm. Luggage came right out, took bus to Alamo car lot, got oversized car because midsized were gone, and off we went. Jennie drove and when Jennie drives in a new place and is confused you should watch out. She gets CRABBY. I should have driven. We passed the Costco that Brandy told us about (we would return the next day) and headed out on 380 to 33 all the wait to Kanapali and the Westin, which had the most amazingly good rates, even though we have a MOUNTAIN view. For only$500 a night we could move to an ocean view! (Duh, who cares about a view when you hardly ever spend time in the hotel???)

Talked with Peggy and Ame, texted with Riley, then off we went, walking the beach. Jennie's first time in Hawaii or Maui, and her first assessment was: "I could live here!" It's great to see her relax into her feminine (don't tell her though) and enjoy the place. She's such a go go person, it's great to see her relax from her work day supervisor at ARUP routine.

Me? I'm loving it. It's warm. It's beautiful, and I'm concentrating on relaxing and finding my center. Finding me in the swirl of all this feminine energy. There sure is a relaxed atmosphere here and a LOT of pretty women. Jennie and I have both noticed it. Women are so 'unhooked' from their usual masculine posturing. It's nice to see men be men, and women be men. Though most of the men are kind of relaxed and unfocused too.

Jennie challenged me to let go of my nervous energy (hard not to think about the business) and focus on her and on the trip and be calm in my body, mind and soul. It was a good challenge.

We walked up to Whaler's village, bought some flip flops for me and a little purse for Jennie, and then walked all the way down the beach to the Hyatt, then came back. I think we stopped somewhere along the way for a little dinner. We hit the hotel at 7:00, exhausted (it was 11:00) our time, and we crashed early! Day One in Maui was COMPLETE!

I leave you with a good picture of Jennie and I on our first day in Maui! Notice both my new hair cut and my new glasses.

Ame's Grades

Ame's Third Term Grades are in:

P.E. - Pass (You either pass or fail)

Keyboarding - Pass (Same thing)

Math - A

Media - Pass

Music - Pass (She plays the trumpet now, switching from the French Horn)

English - A

Reading - A

Brass - A

Science - A

Social Studies - A

How about THAT? Not a single A minus in the group! Straight 4.00 grade point average through the ENTIRE year. Let's encourage her to keep going and take it home in the 4th term with a perfect year! She DID slip in her citizenship grades. You either get a Honor, Satisfactory, or Unsatisfactory in citizenship. She had straight honors, but got Satisfactories in Math, English, Reading, and Science. Teacher says she likes to talk too much... :)

On another note I took Asher to his 10th Grade SEOP conference in which the parents join with the teachers to chart out the child's future. The gave this great presentation about JOBS, and WORK WORK WORK, and GRADES that just made me smile and grin from ear to ear! Then we looked at Asher's grades, his grade point average, and his class schedule for the future, and his ACT scores. I will tell you this... the results were surprising to me. I'll leave you with that and come back with some details! VERY interesting!

Red Iguana

On Sunday March 14th Paul and Jen flew in from Vermont (where they live and work) for a vacation here with the folks, and we all stopped as is tradition at the Red Iguana, only this time we ate at the NEW one, which is 1 block from the old one . The old one is still there too though!

Here are some photos!

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Today Jennie took the day off of work and took Riley out of school for a day and took him skiing! That is awesome ! Tom and I are here at the office building shelves. Want to see a photo? Sure, I'll go take one! Or even two!

And here is Tom helping!

March 16th, 2010

Haven't blogged in a while though there are a lot of things to say! So I'm going to start catching up a little at a time here. Today is Tuesday, and we are building new shelves in the store, and this is exciting. Ame was sick yesterday, but is better today and I took her to school. She forgot her soccer stuff though. Asher and Riley stayed late to work yesterday, but didn't do their work, so they are grounded for 7 days each. They don't know this yet but will find out when they get to work. Let's see. Jennie and I took Riley to Canton City last night for his birthday dinner, which was really nice. He talks a lot, but it was comfortable and fun. I am getting new computer for the office and/or home. Got it at Best Buy. Jen and Paul (Paul is Jennie's brother) are in town from Vermont on a ski vacation. We had dinner with them at the Red Iguana on Sunday night (and I have photos of that I should put up soon!). We should see them again a few times during the week! Okay, that's that for now! Requests?

Cut my Hair

After 10 years of long hair, I finally cut it today. Weird. Jennie likes it. I wish I had a photo for you to see, as it is kind of meaningless unless I show you. I will have to see what I can do about getting a photo!

Weekend

So tonight I'm cooking chicken poppers and Chicken Masala. I know... they don't necessarily go together, the poppers are EXCELLENT and hopefully the chicken will turn out good. It is simmering on the stove for a while.

This weekend the kids went Skiing, and their Aunt Susie came up to visit them. Jennie and I took a relationships class, and it was awesome. Challenging? Yes. But cool. And then last night we all watched the Super Bowl. Did that suck? Yes it did. I'm a Colts fan, and so even though I like the Saints, I didn't want them to win. Oh well!

So the weekend was tiring, but invigorating, and I can tell you I'm exhausted and excited and scared about life. It's just a never ending wave!