So we have now been out here for several days and are having a great time. I spent a hour or so this morning riding the boogie board, which brought back a lot of memories. My brother Brian and I did this all day when we were kids out here, but this is the first time I have done it since then. Mason now seems to be slightly frightened of it, but I'm hoping I can get him back into it again. The pool at the house has been a great second swim for the kids. My sister threw a bunch of little foam balls in the pool today, which sent my brothers and I into a bean ball competition. The rest of the family joined in and the danger level at the pool increased by 100%. Makiah started to get out of the pool, stand on the side right next to me, and pelt me in the back. I was hit numerous times in the head, back and chest, with these little balls. I was worried that I would take one in the eye and have to come up with a really good shark story, instead of a little foam ball truth. The house has worked out perfectly, plenty of room to sleep and to hang out. I haven't used the pool table yet, but have enjoyed the roof top deck. There is a good view of the ocean and the surrounding neighborhood. We are hoping to do a little shopping and maybe a game of miniature golf, which will make Mason happy. I realized I didn't bring my cable to transfer pictures, so I'll have to post a bunch when I get back.

Still alive

We have made it to NC and spent last night and most of today on the beach. Our hotel room is right on the beach, we open our door and we are standing in the sand. The one thing I had forgotten, or blocked from my memory, is the amount of sand that you end up carrying in your ass crack, among other places. It's stuck all over your legs and the shower they give you outside the building couldn't knock a leaf off your shoulder let alone knock the layer of sand I just hauled up from the water. There are wildfires in western Carolina which means the smoke is blowing east to the beach area. When I went out this morning, I could really smell the smoke. The biggest problem with the fires is, they have displace millions, perhaps billions, of these little black flies. They don't bite, but they buzz you, which is annoying. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just outside, but they are in our room as well, which is kind of gross. We are all sucking it up and putting up with them for one more night. I don't think they are having the same problem at the house we are staying at, so hopefully we will be done with the bugs tomorrow. The boys are doing great, only a little fighting. Mason spent this morning riding a boogie board and loved it. If you don't know what a boogie board is, its a half surf board that you lay on and ride waves with. Mason isn't going very far out, but was riding some pretty good waves. He got dumped once, while he was down trying to stand up, he got hit again causing him to tumble and go under, but he staggered to his feet only to put one foot on the board which slid out and he fell again and had another wave crash on his head. I figured he would be done, but he shook it off and started laughing. He went right back out. Makiah is getting in the water a little more, but there is no chance in hell he is getting on the boogie board any time soon. He is finally getting into the water more than ankle deep, so we'll see if we can get him on the board before the week is over. Max stays pretty much one foot from as high as a wave washes. If the water washes up near him, he takes off running. I've walked him in a few times, but he wants out after just a few waves. The ocean can be a little intimidating to a guy who can get washed away by the wake of a duck. These waves could send him into a terrible tumble. I had told the boys about these little "bugs" that my brother and I use to catch when we were kids. The first thing they wanted to do, was catch these things, I'm told by my sister that they are called sand fleas. When the wave washes out, you watch for them to swim out. You can either grab one or you can see where they dig into the sand and dig them up. We were swimming for about and hour before I saw my first one. I think Marcy caught the first one, she isn't afraid of things like that once I told her they don't bite. Over the next hour or so, Makiah caught several and I caught some. I'll try to get a picture of one and post it. Right now we are resting, Max and Marcy are asleep and the the other boys and I are watching some bad Nick show and swatting bugs. We are hoping to go climb a lighthouse in the morning and maybe take the ferry to Ocracoke Island. We get into the house at 4pm and will spend time doing laundry and swimming in the pool. I hope to blog more and I will try to get pictures on soon.

Day 1 and 2

So far, the trip has been great. The kids aren't complaining, too much, and the aquarium we went to today was pretty cool. It was in Newport KY, which is right across the river from Cincinnati. The whole waterfront area was really neat and the aquarium was surprisingly stocked with cool stuff, including several big sharks we got to watch them feed. It was just like you see on Discovery channel, grabbing the fish and swinging their heads from side to side. Only difference was, the fish were stuck on the ends of poles instead of alive, not exactly wild kingdom in the old days, but pretty cool. We were right in the front, stood there for 20 minutes to be sure we got a good view, but it was worth it.

I saw this bus on the way down. If you see that white patch in front of "Bus," it said "Short." The picture didn't take, but you get the idea. It was full of kids that looked like they understood the "short" thing, but weren't actually in need of the small bus.

I'm also surprised at the number of Hooters down here, the restaurant, not the other things. There were 2 in Cincinnati and 2 more from there to Corbin, KY, where we are now. One of them was on a barge, that looked pretty cool. Marcy thinks I have an unusual fascination with them, and she could be referring to either thing at this point. I guess I just didn't realize there were as many as there are. I figured there was one in each big city and that would be it. Not the case. It appears you need 150 residents to get one. Hope to post again soon.

One crappy day!

So my trip back from LA was the nightmare I hear so many people talk about. To start my day, the shuttle driver, who is from LA, went the wrong way after he picked me up and had to turn around, bad sign. We made it to the airport and the lady in front of me at security complained about just about everything in our 30 minute wait. She found a little bag of pills that was obviously lost from a bag that was being scanned and insisted the security lady figure out whose they were, out of the thousands that had been through that morning. Seemed a bit of a challenge that Mrs. Security wasn't about to attempt, which pissed off Mrs. Optimistic. How she figured the owner could be located, I don't know. My plane that was to take me to St. Louis, was 2 1/2 hours late from Dallas into LAX, which meant I would miss my connection to Des Moines. I tried to get someone who "worked" for American airlines to help me figure out if I could get home. They have a little area that says "Customer Service," which I mistakenly believed would be a good place to get some service. I waited in front of the desk for about 5 minutes until an American employee told me that this little booth wasn't manned and I would be waiting until a certain place froze over. They suggested I ask an employee at a gate to help, which I tried next. They told me I needed to ask a gate person at the gate I would be leaving from, but since that was still 4 hours away, there wasn't anyone at the gate. I decided to call the 800 number, who proceeded to tell me that they could book me on the morning flight from LA to DSM if I wanted. I told him that I could make the flight to St. Louis that day and wasn't going to put my trip in their hands in hopes that they could complete the same trip I missed today, tomorrow. I wanted to fly to St. Louis and see what I could do from there. They booked me on the morning flight from STL to DSM, so I had that lined up if I needed it. They tried to get me on another airline and different cities, no go. I hung up and called our corporate travel agent and she looked for me. She found me a flight on Northwest that left at noon that would get me home, but I would have to either go without my suitcase or try to get it, leave the terminal, find the Northwest terminal, go through security again and get to my gate in 15 minutes. Didn't even entertain that as a possibility. I had her rent me a car, which I could drive from STL to DSM in about 6 hours. You might ask why I would subject myself to such a trip, well, I had been out of the office for 4 days and Friday was my only day in the office for 2 more weeks, since I leave for NC on Monday. I landed in STL, requested my bag, got it pretty quickly actually, rented my car and headed for home. The route I took home was flooded out just days earlier. I know this because I drove down a highway that had a sandbag levee that came right up to the solid yellow line on my right, making my lane quite narrow. I drove through Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, home of my inlaws, and was tempted to stop and sleep, but was feeling pretty good, so I figured I could make it home. Just north of Mt. Pleasant, I almost got to see my father-in-law, but not by choice. He drives an ambulance and a large deer jumped in front of me, causing me to stomp the brakes, which caused the SUV I was driving to fishtail a little. I released the brake and turned to go behind the deer, which took me a bit off the road, but remembered that you should go to where the deer is, staying on the road. Leaving the road not only is more dangerous for you, but if you wreck without hitting the deer, you have no evidence there was a deer. They say it is better to hit the deer than crash your car in the ditch, even though that deer is going to mess your car up. I kept it on the road and missed her ass by about a foot. That woke me up pretty good, had me ready for the 2 1/2 hours left in the drive. I made it home at 3am, got some sleep and was able to get to work well before I would have if I had waited for the morning flight that was supposed to get me home at 11am. I've always been very lucky with my travel, when I've had flights canceled, I've always been able to get other flights to get me home on the same day. I guess the thing that sticks out to me the most, was the lack of help I received at the airport. There didn't seem to be anyone that would help. The money saving cost cuts have put the people that are there in a bind should something go wrong. Of all of the people that I tried to get help from, the lady at the STL airport and the people in the customer service area, even thought they we're telling me they could help, we're the nicest and most helpful. The rest of them need to find jobs in the garbage industry, so they don't have to work directly with people. Now we are packing and getting ready for our trip to the beach. The boys are REALLY excited and I'm getting a little excited myself. The trip out should be fun, I'll post when and where I can.

I forgot to mention

Oh, I forgot, I saw a dog lift his leg and then poop on a concrete post. That was a first for me.

New things learned

I learned some new things today:

1. My son may be able to read the word bitch, so I shouldn't use it on my blog. (SHIT, I did it again) (Dammit, that was worse)

2. The temperature can go from 76 degrees on the beach to 101 degrees at the warehouse that I got to spend 2 hours outside banging on the sides of railcars. The warehouse is in Chino, which is an hour north east of Dana Point. It was a little sweaty today.

3. I know there are 114 steps from the street by the harbor to the hotel grounds, straight up. I was a bit winded when I got to the top.

4. I now know the guy I'm here with is very hairy. I saw him at the pool and thought it was a bear. Turns out it was John, so I called the front desk and called off animal control.

Here are a few shots I took, not very good though.

Then I saw this little guy.

My phone doesn't take very good pictures, but since I was all ready hauling a computer, Ipod and GPS, I didn't want to have another thing to carry in my backpack. I realized that I usually end up giving you a menu of what I eat, and that probably doesn't excite you. Then I remembered that since my memory is fading, this will help me recall things that might get squeezed out of my brain with that pesky work stuff. Last night, I had my first Chilean Sea bass, which I had always heard good things about, but never wanted to spend the money. I was told by John last night, that I WAS getting the Sea bass, and who am I to argue. WOW, that was good stuff. That was the most tender fish I have ever eaten, really glad he twisted my arm. The Mahi-Mahi was good the night before, but this might have topped it. We ate at a local pizza place at the harbor for lunch and I had a pizza that had chicken, carrots, bean sprouts, peanuts and cilantro. They could have left all of that off except the cilantro and I would have been happy, but it was really good. It reminds me of a Thai chicken pizza I've had somewhere in DSM. When I asked John what he was getting, he said "a regular pizza." I had no idea what that was, so a little later I tried again, but he just said regular again. When he told it to the waiter, he didn't act like he thought John was crazy, he just said "cheese." You notice there was no question mark at the end of that, so I guess that meant he knew what John was talking about. Hey Joe, is that how New Yorkers order a cheese pizza? I've never heard of that before, but maybe it's a NY thing. Tonight is my last night in CA, it will be a long day tomorrow getting home. I have a shuttle picking me up at 6:30am, I hope I don't over sleep.

THAT BITCH!!!!!!!!

So I'm hanging out in beautiful California and have been quite impressed with the weather, the friendly people here at the Marriott and how well the traffic has moved along, despite the horror stories I have heard. I will say that the motorcycle riders are nuts here. They fly down the highway and squeeze in between cars, riding on the painted lines in between lanes. If one car decides to change lanes, they are toast. It's a little scary to have a motorcycle 2 inches from your side view mirror, while going 70 mph. Speaking of side view mirrors, I was informed by my wife that a car drove up on our lawn and hit my mailbox, which just happens to be a 4x4 post, cemented 3 feet into the ground. This little move cost her a side view mirror that the WDM Police are now in possession of. A few of my neighbors saw her hit it and leave the scene, so they called the cops. Now my mailbox is laying in a pile on my lawn, which means I won't receive any mail until I get it fix, which is difficult to do from LA. I asked Marcy to run to Lowes and get the cheapest mailbox they have to put into the ground until we get back from vacation and I can do it properly. I'm not looking forward to digging that concrete ball out of my lawn, but the good news is, I'll all ready have a hole in which to place the new post. The best thing about this is, she did a hell of a lot more damage to her car than to my mailbox, expense wise, so I'm not too pissed. Plus, if my neighbors see the car, and they think she lives in the area, I'm confident they will follow her and get her address and turn it over to the police. Why she didn't just stop and offer to pay for it, I have no idea. Now she has the police involved and I can only hope they drag her from her car and beat her unconscious. Ooopps, that's not nice, I forgive her. I did eat at an In and Out burger yesterday. Our minister always talks about them, they are his favorites. I'll say that, for fast food, they are really good. I'm a B-Bops fan, but these might be a little better. They also cut their own fries, so they are fresh and good as well. I'm off to dinner, later!

I love LA (Randy Neuman)

My travels to LA were fairly uneventful. My flight out of Des Moines was delayed, so I had to run in Dallas to my next flight. I was one of the last people on board, but then we had to wait for 45 minutes for a mechanic to do something. It wasn’t that it took him 45 minutes to fix what ever was broken; it took him that long to get there and 1 minute to fix it. I was able to get to my rental car, they told me my car was in M16, but when I got to the exit gate, they said I had the wrong car. I see the customer service in LA is the same as in Iowa. How can you not park the right car in the right spot? Seems like that would be day 1 of your on the job training. The drive to my hotel was a little over an hour, but the GPS I bought awhile back worked perfectly. If you don’t have one of these, and you travel at all, get one. I paid a little over $100 and it was worth every penny. I’ll be using it on our trip to NC in a week or so; hopefully it works just as well. I got to my room around 8pm CA time and ordered some supper. Since I did my OJ Simpson impression in Dallas, I didn’t get to eat and the sandwich they were selling on the plane, although tempting, got the pass. I never saw a place to exit the highway to get something to eat. I was afraid that any exit would be followed by the inability to re-enter the highway and I wasn’t going to put my faith in the GPS, since I wasn’t sure how it was working. I didn’t know that until it actually got me to the hotel. I had a room service BBQ pizza that was either really good, or I was so hungry that it wouldn’t have mattered. I decided to go to sleep at 10pm, 12pm Iowa time, but unfortunately got up at 4:30 CA time, which was actually sleeping in at home, 6:30am. I have a pretty good view of a marina off my balcony, but it was so foggy this morning, you couldn’t really see much. I have a great view of the pool, but that is of little use to me. Unless it heats up some, I won’t be in the pool anytime soon. My boys would be all over it, even though the temps are in the 70’s, but that is still a little cold for me. I spent most of the day running around in 2 huge buildings looking for inventory that doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason as to why its in its current location. You would think that you would keep all of the like material together, but this theory has bypassed the people in my CA warehouse. They have the same material spread out between 2 buildings and 5 different locations. It makes counting so much more difficult. Tomorrow, I get to bang on the sides of railcars to see if they are full or empty, jealous? I’m here with an Inventory guy from CT, same guy I was in Houston with. We went to an oceanfront restaurant for dinner and I had a very good piece of Mahi-Mahi. Now I’m working on trying to figure out what I just spent 8 hours counting. Here is a pretty crappy picture off my balcony.

That is the ocean, way at the top, and just short of that is the marina, but you can't tell from my phone picture.

Fathers Day

I'm posting this today, because I will be on a plane for Fathers Day, going to LA and my cheap ass hotel:) Fathers Day, like Mothers Day, is both a happy and sad day for me. Happy because I love my boys and I'm proud to be their dad. I could never see myself as someones dad, still have trouble swallowing that now. I still remember when we brought Mason home and I kept asking how in the hell they could let us leave with him. I knew Marcy would be able to handle it, but I wasn't so sure I could. He was in his car seat, which I set on the couch and just stared at him. He was way premature, so he was even smaller than most. I could basically hold him in the palm of my hand with very little hanging over. Now I look at him and see how big he is and listen to how smart he is. He might not ever be the best athlete, but he will make millions with his wit and imagination. When we brought Makiah home, it was a little easier, but still wondered what they thought I might have learned to allow a second one to come home with us. I guess they figured I hadn't lost the first one and he seemed to be fairly normal, so have another. Makiah is much more athletic than Mason, but has no interest in team sports. On everything he brought home from school at the end of the year, he always put that he likes school because he gets to play. Maybe we can get his brother to share his love of learning. Now Max is a whole other story. I was happy with 2 kids, and didn't think I wanted or needed a third. Marcy talked me into it and I couldn't have been happier (doesn't mean I want a 4th Marcy). Max is starting to talk a lot more and some of his words are so cute (don't all parents say that) The word he says that makes me laugh, is "actually." He'll say, "I want some milk." "Actually, I'll have some water." That sounds funny coming out of a three year old, or at least it sounds funny to me. I love my boys and thank God for them everyday, even today when they all three were whining about wanting water and we were know where near a drinking fountain. They feel that if you say "in a little while", that a little while will come faster if you repeat your question 100 times with each one getting a little more high pitched and pouty. Dad yelling through clinched teeth had no affect on the number or frequency of requests. We were at Mason's last baseball practice, where the kids played the parents in a game. It was fun, but I was a little hesitant in letting loose with the bat. I figured line driving a ball into a 7 year olds face would put a damper on the parent vs kid game. Plus, I'd have to decide if I go ahead and run the bases or turn and get in the car and leave. Neither sounded good so I popped out the first hit and grounded on the second, but made it to first. Yeah for me! The sad part about Fathers Day for me, is of course, my dad is no longer here. Dad died back in 1998 and it still seems like yesterday. I was fortunate to be with him when he died, with all of my brothers and sisters. Seeing as how we were just all together a year earlier with my mom when she died, we were getting way to familiar with the whole death thing. Now I know that all the tears I shed, weren't for them, but for me. I'd loose the ability to see my dad until the day we meet again, but hopefully, that won't be anytime soon. I almost never spoke to my dad on the phone, we just never seemed to have anything to say, but when we were together, we always shared a lot. My dad was a good man, hard working and loving. I learned a lot from him and will always be grateful for the lessons he taught me. He told a story about a guy that worked for him in one of his restaurants. I won't try to tell it, you'll never think it's funny without seeing him tell it, but bare with me as I give my brothers and sisters a laugh. "He MAAAAAASHED it down." Thank you. I believe that he is watching me and I hope I make him proud. Love you dad, and I miss you!

It's raining, it's pouring!

So the rain in Iowa is still coming down. There are many streets that are under water and unfortunately, many houses. Basements are being flooded with both rain water and sewage, backed up through the pipes we rely on to take that away. I heard my sump pump working for the first time since I bought this house, 8 years ago. I was working in the basement, carpet gets delivered and installed on Friday, and was on my stomach under my stairs trying to add wood to close the gaps for carpet. I decided to open the cover of the sump pump, just to be sure it works, seeing as how so many people were having trouble. I was happy to see that when I pulled up the float, the pump came on and emptied the pit of water. There wasn't any water running in, so all was good. That was Saturday, now move to Sunday and I'm back under the stairs to finish the work and I hear water pouring into this same pit. The pump kept it out, but since this is the first time since I've lived here that it has had to work, gives you pause to realize how high the water table actually is. I'm excited to see my basement with the new carpet, and hopefully it doesn't become a sponge. There is another issue that arises with the extra water, although I'm under no illusion that it is anywhere near the problem of having poop in your basement, but the grass is growing incredibly fast. I mowed on Saturday and last night, I figured I'd better mow before the rain that is coming now and threw the end of the week. From my Saturday mow until my Tuesday mow, the grass had grown an inch. I leave for California on Sunday, so I'm sure the grass will be over the house before I get a chance to mow it again. On the California note, here is a link to my dumpy hotel I'm staying at.

http://www.lagunacliffs.com/

Don't be a hater, just be happy for me. I wish Marcy was going with me, it looks like it could be a very romantic place, and the guy I'm going with just isn't as cute as Marcy. I'm not sure why they insist on us staying at hotels that are typically used for weddings and honeymoons, but I guess I can suffer through. I leave Sunday, fly into LAX, rent a car to get me to my hotel where I drop it off. Then, on Thursday, I rent another car at the hotel and drive it back to LAX. It's sad that it's cheaper to rent 2 cars than it is to pay 2 taxi's. I'm not looking forward to driving in LA, but what are you going to do? I can't spend an extra $100 on cabs, I have to save that for my $239 a night room.