Some Pictures

It's true what they say "A Picture tells a thousand words".  In my experience, those words are typically "What is going on there??"

I was going through my pictures on my phone deciding which ones to delete (I'm trying to free up some space so I can purchase season three of Avatar: The Last Airbender.... For Blake of course)

I realized that there were several that I hadn't shared. So here's a little catch up:

Blake and I walked in the Children's Miracle Network 5k.  And when I say Blake and I walked, I actually mean Blake walked 1 block of the 5k, and I carried him the rest of the way.  I wish I had a picture of this, but when he gets tired and doesn't want to walk anymore, he bends over at the waist and lets his arms hang down in exhaustion.  It was a good time nonetheless, and despite Blake's aversion to walking, he still got a medal, which made him happy.

 

Last week, I went with some friends over to the Coyote's Ice Den for some Curling lessons.  Now, when I watched Curling during the most recent Winter Olympics, I specifically remember saying to myself "Not much of an athletic sport.  These people call themselves Olympians?"

The next day, both my quads, my hips, and my upper back were eating my words. The above left shows the furthest I can go without falling over.  But I'm nowhere near how low the veteran Curlers get.....Props to them.  We had a 45 minute lesson on the history of the game and some basic verbiage.  Then we spent an hour on the ice falling over, learning, and falling some more.  After that we concluded with an hour match.  We played "4 Ends" (basically 4 rounds).  A professional match goes 10 ends, and I'm not sure I could walk after doing 10 rounds, so I'm glad they only had us do 4.  The important thing is that we won 6-0.

The other night, I walked out of my room to go downstairs, and found Blake just laying there.  I didn't hear a loud noise, so I knew he hadn't fallen.  Plus he wasn't crying, so I was curious as to what he was doing.  When I asked him, he replied "I'm just taking a break".... well there you go.

Tis the Season... for Martinelli's!!!!

You can always tell when Fall is moving into Winter.  Days are shorter. Halloween decorations give way to Turkey's, Pilgrim's and Stalk's of multi-colored Maize.  Some select few are even playing Christmas music already.... which, I'm ok with actually.  But for me there are two things that really let me know that Winter is upon us.  College Basketball starts.  And grocery stores start displaying case upon case of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider!  (And the Multitude rejoiced)

You see, for many years, I've had an affection for Martinelli's Sparkling Cider (to be referenced as MSC for the remainder of this post).  Sparkling Apple, Apple-Cranberry, Peach, Mango, Grape, Raspberry, Wildberry, you name it.  Combine it with Apple and throw some bubbles in there and we're good to go. 

I remember celebrating my first Holiday Season in the Mission field.  I loaded up on Martinelli's.  It was comforting to me.  At night, after planning, I would sit, looking out into the cold Northern California Mountains, and sip som MSC while the Mormon Tabernacle Choir serenaded me with Christmas Hymns.

I also remember a time, not so long ago.... before I moved out of my Condo.  I had stopped by the store on my way home and picked up some Martinelli's.  Before I went to bed, I remembered I had told my sister I would record "Dear John" and put it on a dvd for her.  I came out of my room and went to the dvd player to check the disc before finalizing.  I started it at the beginning and then hit fast forward to ensure I got all of it.  while it was fast forwarding I went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of MSC.  I didn't even turn the lights on in the front room-why bother, I was just going to be there a few minutes.  I just sat there, using an empty Cooler as a bench, watching a Cliff's Notes version of Dear John, while I downed a bottle of MSC.  Occasionally I would play it back at normal speeds just to make sure I got the audio... or to gain more understanding of what I was watching (It can be a confusing movie to watch in double time with no sound).  Below is a picture I just drew to help illustrate the scene.  I drew Channing Tatum in green because he was in the army, or marines or something.  The girl was blonde I think, so she's shown in yellow ( I don't know what's more sad about this story.  The fact that I knew Channing Tatum was in it, the fact I don't know the name of the girl that's in it, or the fact that I watched it in the dark, while sitting on a cooler and drinking a bottle of MSC?  Definitely not the latter.  Drinking the MSC was the best part).  the red box is the cooler.  the bottle next to me, is...well self-explanatory.  I drew squiggly black lines around to give the "dark room" feel.  my bedroom light is on, which provided the only light during this experience outside of the lights from the Screen.  In anticipation of my Oscar for set design, I'd like to thank Blake for letting me use his crayons.

So, Children, the moral of the story is this.  No matter where you are, or who you're with.  Things will always be better if you add some Martinelli's Sparkling Cider.