Saturday, March 25, 2006

Norwich City FC

OK I don't come on here and mope but Norwich City lost Friday and with it went any hopes of reaching 6th place which would have put them into the playoffs for the final spot for promotion into the English Premier League. One more year at the Championship League level.

I have two words that only City fans will get: WORTHY OUT!!!

We reached the Premiership last season and floundered. Going into the last match we controlled our own destiny. Win and we stay. Lose and we go down. We lost 6-0.
This year started poorly and every time we had a few matches that lead to points, Worthington would make some drastic changes and we'd go on a nice little losing streak to teams we should have wiped the floor with. They let Ashton go to West Ham United. They get a guy named Earnshaw who does more for us than Deano was doing and we start winning again, giving some fans hope for a playoff run.
Then today he starts with a 4-5-1 position and sits Earnie on the bench. Surprise, we lost 0-2 and bye bye playoffs. The man is doing all he can to get fired so he can go back to Sheffield Wednesday where he was some sort of hero of a player back in the day.
OK now I've vented. I can relax and enjoy the rest of my weekend now.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

odd thing...

You know how in cartoons sometimes, the artists draw a little black cloud that follows a character around and it rains on only them?

Well this morning Victoria and I witness at least a solitary black cloud all by it's lonesome and REALLY low in the sky (almost fog). As we passed over the bridge onto I-56 south from westbound Highway 56, there sat this long flat cloud. It was completely black, didnt' seem to be caused by any smoke but it was VERY black. All the clouds in the sky were silvery white and here's this pitch black cloud sitting there and seemingly not caused by anything. Not from a factory or construction vehicles or a fire. Just sitting there by itself, floating in open space about 300 feet or so off the ground.

Anyways just thought it was odd and worth sharing.

Y'all stay shiny. I'm havin' a great day myself.

Condolences needed...

My wife...is a sci-fi fanatic. I'm kidding about the condolences part.

She's a fan of Firefly (nothing wrong there), Battlestar Gallactica (not a fan, but it's not horrible), Dr. Who (never watched it myself). She also likes Farscape but says it's not as exciting as the other three. She doesn't watch Star Trek or Stargate so she's at least picky on what she will watch but...That's 4 established sci-fi shows that she likes to watch. Definitely more than I would have ever guessed when I married her.

Firefly...just so you all know...is one of the best shows ever put on TV. This is coming from someone who really detests most sci-fi shows. Don't think so? I dare ya to watch three episodes and NOT agree that it's good. REAL good. One of FOX's worst mistakes ever.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Last Two Weeks

OK well maybe not the whole last couple of weeks. My memory isn't that good.
So my hair is now a dirty blonde color (sort of). It's normal enough that I don't feel weird at church. It's got a greenish tint to it but only in certain light. I gotta cut it so I can try bleaching it again. My hair is just fried right now. Too many color changes in too short a time span.

The last couple weeks were adventurous. More mentally than anything else. As you might have guessed from my last post, I wasn't too happy a few weeks back. Had a rough week at work, nearly lost my mind and just fizzled out. I have a ton of insecurity. I've noticed that everyone does but each person sorta handles it in different ways. My way is to get really down on myself, focus on all the things I'm doing wrong, the stuff I should be doing and then just sitting there and wallowing in it without actually doing anything. Stephanie was the same way. Rachel not so much...so I wonder where we got that trait from? My mom's parents of course, right Dad? Heh.

Anyways, so I pulled myself out of it and the last week was really good with every day being better than the day before it.

We started Monday with some new personal procedures at work. They're designed to help pin down my priorities and my focus for the day and to help me get past this little wall I have. At home I've been more action and less talk. Victoria's back has been bothering her and that has lead to more opportunities to serve the woman I love the most.

Saturday we found a great place to eat breakfast called the Golden Egg Omelet House in Escondido. It's a sit down place but they have something like 88 different omelettes on the menu and if you don't see a mix you like, if they have the ingredients they'll make any omelette you can dream up. I think I like Kono's better overall but this is closer to the house, less crowded and it's garaunteed that whatever I'm in the mood for, I'll get. I had the biscuits and gravy with sausage. Great stuff.

Sunday we had dinner with a few families from the ward. First off, I'd just like to say that one day we will own a house like the ones in the 4S Ranch district of San Diego county. Checking a few realtors in the area I found that homes range anywhere from $595k-1.8 million. I have no idea how much the Johnson home is (and really it's none of my business) but I'll just say it's nice.

We had ten adults and ten children. That means plenty of noise and not all in one language, as is the case in many San Diego homes. What isn't normally the case is that the two languages were English and French. Victoria and I have determined that since the Johnsons speak French to their kids and Matt Romney served a mission in Paris, that we're gonna brush up on the French we took in high school and maybe one day have a dinner with them in French. What an exciting thing that would be!

Anyways, food was great. Pot roast, smashed potatoes with tons of sour cream and butter, a GREAT salad and roasted brussel sprouts. Renee must have just watched the last Barefoot Contessa. Minus the stuff tomatoes and switching the meatloaf for pot roast, that's exactly what she made. ANYWAYS the brussel sprouts were amazing. I never thought I liked 'em. Maybe it's just that I've never had them cooked for me by someone who knew how to properly roast them.

The conversation was great. I can't go over everything we discussed but topics ranged from BYU, primary class and Education Week to Steve Roach, immigration and the Romney-Kennedy race of 1994. It was great hearing Paul and Matt discuss their missions in France and their favorite cheeses and pastries. I walked out of there feeling like I'd learned new things. Like now I have no idea who I'm voting for in April for Duke Cunningham's seat. Bilbray and Kaloogian are the known names. Busby's the liberal. Uke's the grand extreme conservative. Roach is the BYU Alumn who is sorta the outsider in this. I almost want to vote for him to help him gain a name for himself but really...I'm gonna read up on all of them and vote for who I agree with more and who I think will do a better job. With Roach running on his own money alone and no outside sponsers whatsoever, that has me leaning a bit his way. Special interest groups are the kryptonite to the Superman that is the American government. Without them, I think this country would be run a lot more efficiently.

I also hear there's some uproar locally about some initial plan or idea to make 4S Ranch High School into a non-sports, non-arts High School Academy. You cannot have a High school without sports and especially without arts. With sports, students learn personal discipline, physical fitness, teamwork and problem solving skills. The arts help to sharpen minds and it's been proven that those who participate in music, art and/or drama classes or groups tend to have higher test scores in history, math and english. SO, if they want their academy to graduate students who are ready to head to 4-year universities, I believe it's imperative that they include sports and the fine arts in their curriculum. In fact, I'd like to see those things required. Some kids aren't good at sports but at least SOME form of physical education should be taught. I didn't get that in high school and look at me now. Proof that Marching Band shouldn't count as PE.

Anyways so we had a great time last night.

Now...onto today.