Nerf Wars

Wow that Nerf gun I got for Christmas as a stocking stuffer morphed into an all out arsenal build up. Nerf guns rule.

My First Snyder (Wilson) Christmas

Well Christmas is not what it used to be for me. I had my first FULL Snyder (Well actually Wilson as my future mother in law's family always made a huge deal out of Christmas she has done the same for her daughters. It was huge, even Jim, Debbie's boyfriend was shocked and awed.) Christmas. I headed over to Lemoore on Christmas eve, my Altima was loaded like Santa's Sleigh. I get there and Jim helps me bring in presents.... I am serious there were like a TON of presents. You see part of the Christmas at my inlaws is that you spend a respectable amount but you also get a lot of different gifts for people, and you wrap them in different boxes and not as is. Thus the fun. So I about added a good third of the gifts. Jim was in shock. We had a meatloaf dinner. Watched A Christmas Story (My future sister in law's fav) a bunch of times as it ran 24 hours on TBS. Then after dinner we drove around Lemoore and looked at lights. Then off to bed.

7:30am we get up and our stockings are full of goodies and a nerf gun... so we open stuff up and have a nerf fight. 7:45 roughly Debbie plays santa, hands everyone ONE gift and we all open and admire. This goes on until 11:30. Jim comes over, and gets his gifts as well. He is still in awe.

Then we played with our gifts and cooked and ate dinner then played a little more than Jim and I left. I am now home with the Cat. Flick is happy.

Well my gifts this year includes:

6 Ties (Dodgers, Donald Trump, Monopoly Money, Chinese Menu, Binary (Think Geek), and Dinosaurs).
3 Dress shirts (one Donald Trump)
3 Build a Bear outfits for my bear.
3 Wii games (party Games, Sonic Tennis, and Rubrik's revenge)
1 CD (Enrique Igalious' greatest hits)
5 DVDs (Dark Night, A Christmas Story, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Mama Mia, and Dark Night)
3 Star Wars Bobble heads (Clone Trooper Wal-Mart limited edition, Vader, and Holiday yoda)
49er Gear (Freezer Mug, Sweater, and Ornament)
Towel Set
PJ Set (Mickey Mouse)
Wall*E plush
Candy
Ninja launcher
Dead Fred Pen Holder
a Clock from Vonda
Swiss Army Knife
Ticket to see Jeff Dunham
Bamboo media holder
Hooded Zipper Sweater
4 T-shirts (2 from Woot, Vader, and an Ed Hardy)
A Cashmere Sweater and matching shirt from Old Navy
2 cook books
1 coffee Table Book
Art of the Samurai Book
Wooden Bouken
2 Star Wars Book
Twilight book
An Authentic Super Bowl Flip coin limit edition and 75th anniversary from the Super bowl that the Niners creamed the Chargers.
30 inch Deer for my lawn next Christmas
Me and my Fiancee got a "Our First Christmas" ornament
Nerf Gun
Dread Pirate Roberts action Figure
How to Survive a Robot Uprising Book
Nerf Wii Sport accessories
Fossil Watch
Fossil Wallet
Black and Decker drill and Drill bits
Push Lawn Mower (not gas, push powered)This was a big gift
and my big gift from my Fiancee.... Gas Grill!

I was overwhelmed, and I think I got it all on this list... it is some list.

The best part was spending it with my Future In Laws. Christmas is huge on their side, a lot bigger than on my side. I don't think we do much anymore. I get a gift card (not complaining just stating) every year and that is that. It is a much bigger thing with her family. This was the first Christmas I felt like a kid again and I'm friggin' 30. This is the Christmas everyone deserves I suppose. It is not the gifts, but the family and togetherness. Oh I also got Yellow Fin Tuna, but that wasn't a Christmas gift :)

2008 Recap

Well a lot has happened in 2008.... and it was the year of the neglected blog.... I need to work on that. Well, I ended my first year at carthers, started my second, got engaged, moved into a new house etc.

hmmmm this may end up as my one blog for the month, but we will see.

Flick is confused

My cat Flick is confused.... he is wondering why I have been home the last two days when I should be at work. It is fun to confuse the pets. Though Flick doesn't mind the extra snuggles and the new toy, (that will be the next post)

In other news, I will be posting come select wedding pictures from T-Bone's wedding. It was a fun time. I will have those up soon I hope.

Worst Best Man Ever!

Worst Best Man Ever @ Yahoo! Video

LOL I am glad I didn't do that! I ruled as a best man lol No ring error here.

The Fleet Admiral's Wedding

This was just amazing. So much to blog about! I need to sort through the pictures and stuff. But I am so happy for my Bro and his bride. They make such a great couple and I was glad I was able to be a part of their ceremony. It was a fun and tiring trip. Their banquet was amazing, the Dim Sum the next day was amazing. The Rear Admiral Lower Half and My Fiancee had a fun time as well. Also got to know some of the other Groomsmen better. Be back later with more posts

My Best Friend's Wedding

One of my Best Friend's is getting married this weekend. I am the best man and I am just like Wow. I am so happy for him and his fiancee. This is the Fleet Admiral and His Heather. From the first time He told me about her, to when I first talked to her on the phone (when he was helping me move) to when I first met her, there is no doubt in my mind that they were made for one another. It's been a long road to marriage for them and I wish them the best.

More on JEP

This will be my third blog post on Jeremy "Elvis" Pearce (JEP). Again I want to say that JEP is thee best Elvis Tribute Artist (ETA) out there. I learned about ETAs on his website. Again his website only works in IE 6.0 or better, Firefox and Crome users too bad.

What makes JEP so good? First he can sing like the King. He can move like the King, the units who have seen Elvis in Vegas even say that with his shades on, he is a dead ringer. HE has that special something that just entertains and captivates. Finally he remembers his fans. As noted on this blog earlier, ol' JEP remembered me, TofuNinja. he even summerized my blog post more or less. He mentioned that I was eating a Tri-Tip Sandwich with the Admiral and his fiancee. WOW! Combine off of these and you have one really great ETA.



Having watched him twice now I have to say with the band, the JEP Band, he rocks out and was better than the year before. I know that is hard to imagine. But he was. It added something cool and new to the show. It truly was special.



JEP's show is a super one and I am hoping that we can fit him into our budget for our wedding somewhere.



Also he always makes time for his fans. After his show he makes each fan, me included, feel like we were the ONLY one at the show. I hope to see him next year at the fair and as stated the previous year, he is the ONLY reason I really go to the fair. True I had to work the booster booth, and I go to see some of my students' work, but man Thursday night with JEP is a big big plus.



This is JEP with the boys. We are all smiles because he shocked us about reading my blog and he put on a kick butt show. He got the Fleet Admiral (Tyler) and Big John to Smile too!!! JEP was so good he made a fan out. John is a hard person to impress and he loved the Ghetto song..... too bad it wasn't until JEP sang the Ghetto song that he realized it was an Elvis song..... but hey.



Here is me and JEP taking one for the Blog!




Me and the Fiancee enjoying the show. She had only seen him perform once at a hockey game and only one song. She was super impressed with JEP. I remember after seeing a show at Roger Rockas asking her if she was interested in Elvis... she said no at the time.... I asked her a day after and she is all for it. JEP won her over too!


Here are a few bonus pictures because well, this is some of what I do at school. I am not the best at photoshop, but I do have a few trick up my sleeve so here are two I call, the King of Kings, best ETA in the Universe and American as Elvis!





Have a good one!

Can slobs build good houses?

Apparently they can. Walthen-Castonos, who built my house and is an incredible house builders, are slobs. In my hood, the European Grove, they are still building houses, this would not be a problem if they would just pick up their trash. My yard and the yards of others have been littered with trash from the workers. Not only do they NOT pick up their litter, we are told to deal with it that in buying our homes we signed a construction waiver. I haven't found it, but oh well. I would not mind as much if it wasn't for the RAZORS and NAILS and the likes that they LEAVE on the street. I even found a nail my driveway this morning....IN MY DRIVE WAY, a NAIL... that is BS. I have even gotten a flat tire and when I reported this to the sales office who are Walthen's reps here on site they told me to deal with in. They I had signed a waiver and I could try to call their CS department but it wouldn't help at all. He then asked for the door screw that punctured my tired and PROMISED to call me the next business day... NEVER HAPPENED! and he took the evidence, stupid me. Furthermore there have been more nails and more razors in the streets so things have not improved and this was a month ago that I reported it. I am not the only one to get a flat, the head sales rep said that many others have and that they had done jack for them.

What this shows me is that Wathen-Castonos doesn't care about the people who bought their houses. Why should they? They already have our money. Business is business. Screw your buyers. Well I am sure hat because of how they are handling and handled this situation that I will think twice about buying from the best home builders in Fresno again. Seriously. I mean what if a little kid (there are some that live here) picks one and slices himself with it, I am sure we will be told that we signed a waiver and the kids injures are unfortunate. What if a dog eats a nail and dies, Wathen-Castonos will say we signed a waiver and losing our pet was just unfortunate.

I love my house, I just don't like the way Wathen-Castonos does business. That is unfortunate.

Ninja Cat

LOL just saw this online for the first time. Cute.

The One Ring(s)

Ok so there are two rings involved... so yeah, hard to call them the one ring, but oh well. Well about a month ago I was proposed to and I said yes. My bride to be gave me this ring.

It is a simple 14K yellow gold band. I like it. she got this simple one for me so after we get married I can have the dates of our engagement engraved into the ring to make it more meaningful.

Her ring is prettier. She pretty much picked it out at a bridal show. We went to the jeweler and she immediately zeroed in on the same ring. So we got it. We saved a lot of money because my mom gave us her dad's diamond to put into the ring.

Some of the shots are a little blurry. But my Fiancee was so glad to finally get her ring, it had to be made, for several reasons. The first is it's pretty and represent my love for her and hers for me. Second she said she was getting strange looks at places because I had a band on and she didn't..... hahaha who know. I guess several means two :)

In Lemoore today

Well I will be in Lemoore today, I suppose I could bring my laptop and attempt to blog, but I won't have all my pictures.....so I will blog more tonight hopefully if I am not too tired.

What's in a name.......oh the shame.

Ok yesterday I found out that the best Elvis Tribute Artist (ETA) in the whole world, Jeremy Elvis Pearce (JEP), read by blog, I'll post pictures later. But when he asked me if I was TofuNinja I was floored. I admit I was a bit confused. How did he know my online screen name?!?!?! Even my friend John was thinking that it was just a joke until JEP summarized my blog post about me eating a tri tip sandwich with the Admiral and his fiancee..... I was happy and in awe. JEP read my blog!! Well then I got to thinking how in the world did JEP find my blog.....

Well there are certain things that you don't do. You don't tug on Superman's Cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger and You don't ask JEP how he found your blog.

This mystery was solved and I was shamed. You see I did a search for Jeremy Elvis Pearson, which is how I spelled his name in the original blog post... I was in shock that it was the very first result in a Google search. I was like booyeah! Then I realized that his own personal webpage was not in the results....... uh oh..... upon further research, I found that I indeed put the WRONG name down for the best ETA in the world.... oh the shame. It is not Jeremy Elvis Pearson, it was JEREMY ELVIS PEARCE.....

I am still not sure how he found it, but I am betting that Ol' JEP from time to time does a search for common or possible misspellings of his name and found my little ol' blog. Even classier was that JEP did not mention that to me. This just adds to the fact that JEP is not only the best ETA, he is a classy guy too. Thank you for not pointing out my grave mistake JEP! You truly are awesome, you took those funny pictures with the Admiral's fiancee pushing your booty and now this. You truly love your fans and we love you.

I just had to clear up the name mistake, even if it is a year late. Also check out his website: http://www.jeremyelvispearce.com/ Just FYI his site is best viewed in Internet Explorer. Mozilla firefox just gives a bunch of broken links... haven't tested it in Chrome..... but yeah IE works best.

IF you get a chance to see him live, do it. If you get to see him with the JEP band.....See it twice! I can not say this enough, I never saw the King himself, but having seen my share of other ETA, JEP is truly a King of Kings. Can't wait until next year... I might just have to catch him at a none Caruthers Fair gig.

Huge Blogging spree later tonight

That's right I have a lot to catch up on.... I am like a feast of famine here. But yeah. expect a feast over the next few days or just tonight I am not sure. For example, I will go into more detail later, but I'm recently engaged, coaching the Girls Tennis team again, started my second year of teaching, enjoying hanging with my friends, one of my best friend's father fell and hit his head last night, saw the best damn Elvis Tribute artist in the world AGAIN last night (With a cool surprise on that one too), and another one of my best friends is getting married in TWO weeks... WOW! But today I am off to work the fair boosters booth with my girls I will take pictures I hope. And I want to go to Costco to purchase stuff to sell in my class.

Baffled

There are only a few areas that I have considerable knowledge, pet care or above basic pet care is one of them. So it baffled me today to see two employees of Banfield the Pet Hospital, an organization that I used to work for, buying Puppy chow.....why does this baffle me.... let me get out the bullet points

1. Puppy Chow is like junk food, ANY one with any knowledge of pets know this. Yes it is cheap, but in the long run no because your pet will have to eat more of it do get the nutrients they need....

2. They complained about their two big dogs (one german) eating like 10 times a day... again see above.

3. Unless it changed Banfield has a great partnership with Royal Canin, which is one of the best foods out there. They would get it 50% off retail at Petsmart.... I used this all the time... it is great. More expensive then puppy chow... yes... but better food, their dogs will eat less and yeah....

Sigh.

De, wait for it.... nied! Denied!!!

Well after pondering for awhile if I wanted to replace my 80 gig iPod that was stolen with a 160 gig I finally gave myself the green light. Hey I wanted to start converting all of my CDs to MP3s and store them on my iPod and then sell the bulky CDs......plus it might come in handy at my wedding. So I head down to Costco, pick up the little plastic thingie, pay my money, and well..... denied.... even though they had the tickets on the floor, they did NOT have them in stock. I think this is the world's way of telling me NO iPOD for YOU!!!!!! Fair enough. So I will live with my first gen 2 GB Nano and my 8 GB Touch.... one day... one day I will beable to put ALL my music on one iPod :)

So yeah I am doing good. School started up again and things are busy. The Mr. Mar is back to his strange antics on campus much to the delight of his students. However they are a little surprised at the added degree of stritchness. But that too will pass.

I had to miss the Blue and White scrimmage yesterday, bummer because I really wanted to be there, but with 106 degree dry heat and bad air quality......I went home, ate some tacos and caught up on much needed sleep..... I actually went to bed at 8:30pm.... woke up at 1:30... debated staying up, and went back to bed. Flick enoyed the extra snuggle time before he patrolled.

Speaking of Flick he is fine, I have to put up some cat hat pictures soon...... I love my kitty.

River the Guinea Pig is good too, still being a piggie!

And yes you read right, as of last week, I am engaged. I am very happy! I love my Fiancee and she me. Everything has been easy, we compliment each other very nicely. We had talked about getting married and both agreed that we are ready for the next step. But I had requested that rings be involved to make it official. Well on the same day we went and looked adn purchased HER ring, she purposed to me. I said yes. Now since we are looking at a April May 09 date the planning has started!!! I am super happy.

Oh and because sooner is better than later.... some pictures.

Me and my Fiancee at Grover Beach, The Unit's beach house with Quinn



Mom with Quinn on her lap.... she adored Quinn... I think some other puppies will get jealous.


Flick giving me the I kill you eyes in his NEW Jester Hat, purchased at PetSmart


Flick trying to look dignified.......


Flick with a bowtie and angel wings also purchased at PetsMart


French Flick


Nonja Flick


And finally one more Angel Flick cause he is SOOOOOOOO cute. After all he is the International Sexy Cat.

Me wants a passport, I need to get on that.

I really enjoyed this Video. This makes me want to grab a passport and do something like it. Wow!

Where the Hell Is Matt?

Flick eats Tofu

I don't think he liked it lol. His fault for asking me for a bite.

So Hawt! Not Me, Fresno.....

Whoa, it is suppose to be 111 today according to my yahoo it is currently 97 and hazy. I hate the hazy part. Makes it hotter than it really is. I know I know I keep promising pictures and yet I have not gotten around them. I have some good ones, like Flick and tofu. hahaha They are all on Flickr and ready to go... just need to get motivated to do so.

My birthday week was a busy one. I know I am repeating some of these. It started on the Saturday before. The Units took me out and Melody (my lovely GF) to Tahoe Joe's for Dinner. They do not sing....yes. When the brought out the cheesecake and read me a quote, and I blow out the candle the old couple across the way also cheered and wished me happy birthday. That was nice. I got money from the units for ceiling fans (I'll get to that later) and the new WWE Rock DVD set from Melody.

On my actual Birthday, which fell on Date Night, I got a sprinkling of birthday wishes from my students via my Mr. Mar myspace page. That was nice. I got a call from my sister, Big John came over and bought me Pizza for lunch and we played Guitar Hero. Always fun. Then Melody came over, locked me in the computer room and went about setting up a TON, and I mean a TON of presents. We then went out to George's Arminian food and had dinner. I was surprised when Melody was able to eat the Lintel soup. She is a super taster and well there are things she can not eat because the flavors are too strong. There is a good They Might Be Giants Song called John Lee Supertaster that kind of explains it in simple terms, "A pear taste like a million pears" which means that she can taste things that we can not taste.... seafood is bad on her.

After dinner we came back and I opened presents and got a lot of stuff to make my "bacholor pad" look more homey. Tableclothe, placemats, napkins, pillows, and a throw blanket to better match with my futon. It's awesome. I also got a watch from her Mom and Sister and some Build a Bear clothes for Chase, who is currently in scuba gear with his friend Rogar Federbear.

The Next night Melody and I met up with Aunt Debbie and Dodie and her family for our weekly family dinner. Every week I have dinner with the Units. I thought since it was Aunt Debbie's birthday we should have the whole extended family over, everyone but Little Tyler was there. It was nice. Melody got to meet the other half of the family and they adored her. That means she is good to go as far as family goes. My dad's side loves her (she hasn't met Uncle Gerry and family) and my mom's side loves her.

Thursday I had Lunch with T-Bone (Tyler) at a Japanese place. It was nice that he remembered my Birthday this year as he tends to forget and is also the main player in one of the biggest BD disappointments in my life, but that is water under the bridge (curiosu that I brought it up though). He took me out to Edo-Ya we had a filling lunch. I also got my official Wedding invite from him.

Thursday night I talked Big John into watching Wanted. He came over, we played more Guitar Hero and WWE and then watched Wanted. He had put up intial resistance but I broke through it and it was good. My streak of movies I force him to watch that he loves extends. Kung Fu Panda is next for him lol.

Friday two more movies in Lemoore with Melody. First we watched Hancock, then I helped her and her sister and mom put up a canape (tent like thing) in the back yard, grilled chicken for them, and had dinner, watched WALL E and watched the Pyrotechnic show that Melody's Sister Heather put on. Melody's neighbor across the street joined the fun and brought sparklers. We also watched the dumbass boys from across the street light some fireworks and play with fire and aerosal cans.... lame. With the two movies watched, I have seen 8 of the top 10 movies, only two I haven't seen and won't see are Kit Katridge or something like that and Sex in the City.

On Saturday, Melody joined me as we went to my Aunt Dodie's 25th Annivsary celebration. It was just the wedding party. Everyone was amazed at how big I was (tall and belly I suppose) We had a blast at Max's Bistro. Good times. Melody hit it off with Uncle Rod's parents Mr. and Mrs. Lee and afterward she told me I have an amazing family. She really likes it having all this family as it is new to her. I love her so.

Sunday, I bought ceiling fans, three of them, and Heather came over with Melody and Quinn (dog) and we put them up. Heather is an amazing handy woman. THen I cooked dinner for them Tri Tip and Mashed Tators and grilled corn. We also played Wii.

Monday, John came over and helped me with my new 47 in TV, I needed his truck to transport it from Costco. Then we set it up, watched some HD even, I made Gin Ge Yuk and we played some more Guitar Hero.

And yesterday (long post) Melody came over for Date Night and we enjoyed the TV, I made Yaki Soba and we played Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, and Marval Ultimate Alliance.

That is my birthday week......wow. I know. Busy.

More Birthday news

Well when I had posted the last blog it was before I got a call the next day from T-Bone. He called and we had a belated birthday lunch at a Japanese Place on Thursday. All my close friends, except the one in Europe at the time (he can't be expected to remember) had called. It felt great. My loving GF, my best friends, and my family. All there for my Birthday.

30 Years of TofuNinja!

That's right, I hit the big 30 today. I had a GREAT birthday. I had many of my students and former students wishing me a happy birthday. I also had Big John call and wish me a happy birthday and we had Birthday Costco Pizza and played some WWE and Guitair Hero! My sister over at Spindles and Spice called and wished me happy birthday as well. Best of all was how my GF spoiled me. I will post pictures later, but she brought in gifts galore. It looked like Christmas. Seriously. I got books, decor for the place. Which I love and works off what I already had :) Looks less like a bachelor's pad now. Flick seems to like it too, he is under my table thinking it is a tent with the table clothe on it. I got Pillows and candles, and a blanket. She got me a cake that is a dragon. Since she playfully refers to me as her Chinese Dragon. hehehe. She also took me out to one of the three George's. Great medetirian food. I was surprised when she tried and LIKED the Lintel soup........ WOW! This has been one of the best birthdays I have had in ages. Between being spoiled, and John actually remembering my BD I was on cloud 9. The wishes from my students also helped.

Post more tomorrow.

The rest of the week is looking good too! Tomorrow is a family function at the Unit's with the Aunties and.... my GF is coming!!!! YES! Friday will be in Lemoore for 4th of July, maybe I can get the GF to watch Smackdown. Then on the 5th, I have a 25th Wedding anniversary party to go to for my Aunt Dodie. Busy week! And I want to get into Caruthers to check out my room.... and see what I can do for a work order on the nets for Tennis.

Stay tuned as my blogging seem to hopefully be getting back on track.

Sweepstakes!

Well one half the the Parental Units is now addicted to sweepstakes. Yes it started innocently. This Unit would sign up for Freebies on the web. Then she started to do sweepstakes. Well this unit has won at least three big things. A Martha Stewart gift basket (it had DVD, book, recipes, die cuts, etc), a 50 dollar home depot gift card, oh a t-shirt, and the Three disc box set of Indiana Jones on DVD.

So, this Unit, in retirement, has become a professional Sweepstakes person......

A day in the life of Flick (up to 3:22pm)

Garage cleaner and organized

Well through this heatwave I have found the time to organize and finally unpack all my stuff. I gained 25% of my garage back!! YES!!!! I have toted up like things and have stored them in the garage on racks. It looks great. Even my lovely GF liked it and was impressed. I still need to get rid of a few things but will have to wait until next week as my recycle bin is all full..... sigh.

Kung Fu Panda

Move over Shrek there is a NEW hero in town.... Kung Fu Panda. After seeing this movie with my lovely GF I will make this bold statement, it is better than Shrek. Don't get me wrong, it is very close, Shrek 1 and 2 were GREAT movies, but man, Kung Fu panda was great. I didn't laugh out loud too much as my GF pointed out, it was the internal laughter that hurts because you don't want to laugh out loud just in case you miss hearing the next one liner. This film rocked. It's awesomeness will blind you! Go See it if you dare!

Pink Donald Trump Tie

IMG_4889
Originally uploaded by tofuninja559

Well on a trip to Macy's I found a wondrous thing.... Donald Trump Ties. Now I am not sure if I will get more Trump Ties, but for my first one, I had to go with his trademark Pink tie. It's nice. My GF doesn't like the color. This is me before heading to Roger Rocka's in Fresno for a the dinner show, Annie Get your Gun. That play was awesome. I met up with my GF, her mom, and her mom's friends Amy and Bill. I had a great time, ate some good food, saw a good play. And I also got picked on by one of the Junior Company players. Her name was Kristen, she was singing a song I suppose about a guy who did something to her and how she wanted it to rain on him (they sang weather related songs). At one point right before the bitter chorus she ran across the stage and stop in front of our table and pointed right at me.... and blamed me (part of the song) I was a little shocked as I didn't think she was pointing at me... however she was and she had this horrid glare to go with the finger...... my GF said the girl smelled the teacher on me... hahaha I say it was this damned pick tie.

Practice Swatch #2

ok, so it's been like 6 months since I Knitted. I took finally unpacked my knitting stuff. What I found horrified me... well not really. I guess I had put my needles away in the middle of a row. I had no idea what direction I was working... so I removed the needles. I know that is bad..... but hey. So my WIP because a finished project just like that... no casting off... sad huh. So here is a pic of my finished practice swatch. lol


Of course since this was my first finished project in ages I had to have Flick and River model this bluish bacon like swatch.

Flick was not impressed at all, he just yawned at me..... sigh.

Even when I wrapped it around his tail to show him it could keep him warm, he yawned at me.


He did take time out from yawning to give my swatch a sniff, he told me he picked up hints of catnip and sun spots.


When draped over his head like this he looks like a British Judge.

And now the furmiliation is complete. This will teach Flick to yawn at my finished projects no matter how sad they are.

I thought I might have more luck impressing River.......

River, being a Guinea Pig, automatically assumed that this was some kind of blue food. He gave it a test nibble.

Having failed the test nibble, she gave my swatch a sniff and a close look.

She decided that this was a good swatch to hide her face from... here she mugs with just a Guinea Nose.


River thinks that this swatch would make a good drape for her piggy hut.

I think it looks good as a mini piggy blanket. Well River didn't like it. Not sure how I was able to get her to stay still for this shot. River seemed quiet amused and accepting of my swatch. She knows how to make Daddy happy. Flick on the other hand........

Is NOT amused.

Summer Break

Ok, so I've been uber busy, and now summer break is here. I did kind of just chill last week, but this is week two. I've undertaken clearing up the boxes in the garage, I am 90% done with that. The other 10% consist of me going through the remaining boxes in the house and then storing them in the garage. I'll have pictures up later I suppose. It looks nice and I am thrilled. I put in some rack and they fit all the totes I used when I moved from OC.

On other fronts I am super happy as well. The GF and I are going strong. We went to our second WWE show, this one was the taping of Smackdown she got for our six months. I have pics too. I love her more and more each day. I really do. She gets me. I get her. we are seeing a movie, most likely Kung Fu Panda tomorrow and a play, Annie get your Guns with her mother and friend on Saturday. She also shared with me her fan fiction that she is writing about Harry Potter. Interesting stuff.

Flick is fine. Him and River are doing just fine in their first Fresno Summer. True the heat waves are coming, but they seem to be coaxing. Oh I also have pictures from two play dates that Flick had with Quinn, my GF's dog. cute!

All in all things are good. However I did find out that I have way to many CDs.... I mean TOO many. I think I will be slowly ripping them on to my iPod and then selling them......

I'mbeing bad... I am running the AC right now... Flick really needed it.... yeah that's it.

More to come later and pics too...... I've been saying that huh.... when I do finally get around to blogging all that I have wanted to blog, it will be many mini blogs instead of a super blog... I like running my blog count up.... or something like that.

Monthly teaser check in

hahaha! yes I've been uber busy and haven't had time to dedicate to my blog..... but I will.... maybe tonight, maybe not tonight....... a lot has happened too.....yesterday was me and my lovely girl friend's sixth month anniversary. I got her a lovely jade pendant, I'll post a pic later, and she got me WWE tickets (I won't post a pic later). Apparently she had a lot of people in on it.... First her and her co-worker brainstormed as to what I would like..... (WWE is coming to town and she knows I like WWE so that was her idea). Then before she could buy them the thought that I might already have tickets popped into her head.... so she emailed my Aunt Margie and got the Parental Units home contact info.... however they were at the coast.... so on date night, she sent me off to the mailbox (it is not right out side my house) and went through my cell and found Dad's cell... she wrote it down and called him later. First the Unit was confused, he told my GF to ask me... then when she explained it was a surprise gift for our 6 months, he understood. So he called John. John then called me, asked if I wanted to hang out that night, we had tacos and he worked in WWE and then asked about the tickets.... with no tickets in my future he called the Unit, who called my GF and she bought the tickets. Pretty good seats too... third row up from Ringside....Not ringside, but better as it will be up a riser so I can get pictures more than likely. I will also be wearing a belt if they allow it as will the GF.

As my Dad put it, I have found a special lady, it is not just any girl that buys her man WWE tickets lol.

Yawn

The time we have during the test is not really that much. I've only read a little of my books. Still thinking of fun romantic things to do with the girlfriend. I want to do something special on date night. Something better than just movies and food.... but I haven't figured it out...... But I will.... oh I will. Well time to read my book, which is currently Darth Bane, Rule of Two it's a starwars book.

Poor neglected blog

Wow I haven't gotten around to blog in awhile. I will do so tonight before I sleep. I suppose there is a lot to talk about, but I just haven't done so. School has been keeping me busy and getting my BTSA stuff in order is hard work. I may blog at school while students are taking STAR test as I have to proctor it for my Freshmen SSR class.... ....

So I will have a better blog post out soon with pictures I hope.

Oh, Flick has learned a dreadful new trick, not on purpose I believe. He has learned how to collect static electricity. I have been shocked more than once while attempting to pet his furry little head.... he even shocked me with his nose.... now I suppose it could be me, but I don't think so as when I was playing PS2 today, Flick rubbed up against me and shocked me. I was sitting still...... Heaven forbid my cat has evolved into a Pokemon.........Flickachu I choose you!

Flick wanted me to remind you that he is not amused.... no picture this time.

Guitar Hero, Chicken Kiev, and a Green Thumb

So the day came when I finally had to mow the lawn... well I saw mow... but I really just needed to weed whack it, it is sooooo small. I hope I did a good job, I can tell it is a bit uneven.... but I will deal with that later.....

Also I bought my first veggie plants....I need to find some full sun areas on my patio.... I figured out why they did not cover it... I get barely any sun on my patio... which is nice I suppose. but still would have been nice to have a cover so I can leave chairs out there... sigh.... So here are the cute little plants.


This is curly parsley. It was bought just for River... she loves it and it has Vitamin C, which she needs.


This is Sweet Red Bell Pepper. High in Vitamin C for River and for cooking.


This is Japanese Eggplant.... yum. This is for cooking


This is Roma Grape tomato. For River and for cooking


This is Mr. Stripey. Heirloom Tamatoe. Cooking and ummm yeah cooking.


Here are the happy plants enjoying a sun spot that would make Flick insanely Jealous.

I finally got around to getting a second guitar for my Wii's Guitar hero game. Meaning I can now do battles with friends... I did this with the GF, and Co-op mode with friends. I did this with the GF and The Rear Admiral Lower Half.

Here are some pics of the Rear Admiral Lower Half and myself (Upper Half), can you guess who is playing bass and who is playing lead?








So the other day I asked the GF what her favorite dish was... her answer surprised me. Chicken Kiev. I thought she was going to say stew heh heh heh. So I told her I'd make it for her and set off. I foudn three recipes that I kind of liked, one from Best Homes book, looked it over and discarded, one from Joy of Cooking and one from online America's Test Kitchen. I used half of the later two. My only scare was I thought the Butter I had seasoned was a bit too lemony.. it was lemon strong at the end, but not as bad as the butter itself, so it cooked out. I did have trouble butterflying the breast and then pounding it.... but it turned out ok. I think I need to bake it in a lower pan next time..... I did have butter leakage too.

For those who do not know Chicken Kiev is chicken breast that is pounded flat, rolled with a stick of seasoned butter in it... well more like a finger, breaded and either fried or baked (I baked). I was surprised when we both cut into the chicken to find that butter either exploded out (mild) or oozed out.... again just a bit to lemony... but edible. She liked it and was impressed that I could make it as it is very labor intensive.... things one does during spring break.

Finally I have noticed that Mr. Flick likes to roam from sun spot to sun spot. He tends to sleep either on my bed (why not it is a nice pillow top, he's never had one but utterly loves mine), and the Futon. Ah the life of a cat.

And as always.......


Flick is NOT amused.