Haunting Halloween

Well today's the day that the Pirates of old come alive at our Halloween house. Stay tuned for pictures.

Happy Halloween.

My Big Week

This will be a big week for my family and I.

1- Halloween. K is coming home for our Halloween block party. BMO and I are getting the house scarey for the Trick-or-Treaters. Avast ye maties...ye olde pirates are invading the 'hood.

2- I'll meet my cousin at Balboa Park for lunch on Monday.

3- I've got two days of work on Thursday and Friday.

4- NaNoWriMo begins at 12:01 am on November 1st.

5- We'll be getting wood for the new wood floors coming in very, very soon. Ye ha...construction.

Big Game 4 Sparty

Will MSU go bowling this winter? Their bowl bids are on the line for 2007. This could be the last chance for Michigan State to become bowl eligible. They're favored over the Iowa Hawkeyes but the game is out there between the cornstalks in Iowa. I'm just hoping MSU brings their "A" game today. Can the darlings of East Lansing move thier record to 6-3?Can coach Dantonio find a way to pull a win out of his magic bag? Can the Spartans become bowl eligible for the first time in years?

The remainder of their season will be Michigan, Purdue and Penn State... no easy wins there. As much as I want to beat Michigan this year- it doesn't look like a real possibility- Lloyd Carr and the Wolverines are coming on fast after early losses to Appalacian State and Oregon State.

Firestorm 2007... five things.

Well we survived the recent Santa Ana fueled Firestorm 2007. The last fire (in 2003) threatened and almost burned down our rental home in Poway. Just like last time it started on a Sunday morning in late October. This time we were evacuated on Monday morning and spent that day and the next at my cousin's house in Point Loma. Thankfully, no fire damage occured in our immediate area and we were allowed to come home. I just thank the good Lord that he listened to my prayers and those of the many family and friends out there. Live will soon return to normal for us- but sadly for some the next several weeks, months and years will be difficult. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

I understand that they have caught some arsonists in Orange County and LA. These guys are even lower than the smelliest whale dung at the bottom of the ocean. Life in prison or the death penalty is too good for them. Perhaps for this type of crime... a deliberate act and not an accident, that results in the death of others... hmmm... life is too precious to allow others to take it so maliciously. If I ruled the world then these arsonists don't have place on my planet. Burn 'em...literally.

My five thoughts for today:

1- When you have twenty minutes to pack only one car with your most important possessions- what do you chose to take? Think about it now- before it really happens.

2- Thank God for good friends and family. Thanks especially to my cousin A.W. and her son V. for taking our family in and giving us shelter when we needed it most.

3- Thank God above for watching over my family in this time of crisis.

4- I started four batches of wine the morning the fire broke out (Sunday) and am happy to say they are all happily fermenting along. We brewed up 3 gallons of Elderberry, 3 gallons of Blackberry, 3 gallons of pear and a gallon of blueberry.

5- BMO got his haircut... he went from long and shaggy to a lean and mean buzzcut. He looks much better.

Wildfire Season

It's a Sunday...just like last time... I remember that day- it was October27, 2003- very vividly. Hopefully the fires stay away from our town this time. One of BMOs pals (Tim) who is ironically visiting our house today,had that fire burn down his family's house.

As of this moment there are roaring fires in Malibu (far northwest of us), Ramona/Santa Ysabel (SR 78 on the way to Julian) and Petrero/Tecate (near SR-94). The cats are hiding..fearful of the smell of smoke. We've closed all the windows. The whole area smells like campfires and smoke. Stay tuned.

Free-Free-Free

Here are a few good links to some useful (and did I say free?) software. I've tried them and like them- but make no claims as to anything other than I'm posting the links are here... (that was non-legal talk for... I'm taking no responsiblity if they mess up your computer- therefore try at your own risk).

Q 10 http://baara.com/q10/

rough draft http://www.salsbury.f2s.com/rd_overview.htm

cayra http://www.cayra.net/

y writer 3 http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html

evernote 2.1 http://www.evernote.com/en/



There they are; five programs that I've downloaded and find useful in my daily writing life. Check them out and see if they can make a difference for you. (Michigan 17 Illinois 17 with 2:09 in the 3rd Quarter).

My Nano page

Five things...

Whats going on? Here are five things to tell you what's going on at our castle in the sun:

1- The grape wine finally has settled down and it will be time to bottle next weekend.
2- The Poway Titan High School football team is 6-0 and played on national TV last Thursday.
3- It actually rained twice this week. What a nice change.
4- We'll be putting in wood floors in a few weeks--- yahoo!
5- Michigan State beat Indiana convincingly last Saturday... but they play the Buckeyes next.

I am a participant in 2007...

...and here's the proof!

Five Things...

1- I received my Dragon speak software and headset. I'm looking forward to talking and dicatating to my computer... just like Mr. Scott on Star Trek!

2- We still have 5 gallons of concord grape win that just won't quite fermenting. I thought it was done... teice now... and tried to stop the fermenting to bottle. Well we're still waiting because it hasn't stopped fermenting.

3- I just downloaded an easy and fun "old-school" word processor for NaNoWriMo called q10. Here's the link if you're interested: http://baara.com/q10/

4- Feeling green? Here's a site for all the "three-huggers" out there: http://www.treehugger.com/

5- How about that George Steinbrenner? He called out manager Joe Torre with a "win or else" ultimatum during the Yankees-Indians playoff series. Well, the Yanks with thier bilion dollar lineup got beat. Will the Boss be a man of his word and actually "can" the most successful Yankee manager in recent memory? Stay Tuned.

Bonus... This just in... Michael "Dog Killer" Vick was ordered to re-pay $20,000,000.00 in bonus money to his former employer, the Atlanta Falcons. I'll believe that when I see it. Better get the $$$ now Falcons, Mikey is going to be going away for a long time after the judge sentences him.

NaNoWriMo 2007

Well it will soon be that time of year--- National Novel Writing Month is fast approaching. 50,000 words in 30 days in the month of November. Does it sound easy? Try it... that's 1,667 words per day... and no days off.

This will just be a quick "drive by" note as the Charger game is starting on TV and even though thewy are sucking so far this year and all my teams (MSU, UCLA, RCHS and the Lions) have lost this weekend I'm looknig forward to the Chargers playing the Broncos. Who knows maybe they'll find the "Norv" to beat them?

Welcome to October

Well it's been a long and hot September and we're all looking forward to the cool of the fall. I worked way too hard this past month- but was rewarded with a nice trip to SF for the ADA convention. I attended some lectures and... it made me really happy to be out of the school environment. Whew... those lectures were long and sometimes painful.

So... what's new with me? For starters: we sure are getting jazzed about Halloween. We bought a second fogger and are ready to bring the pirates of old back to life on Oct 31. We're going to build a ship, have smoke burning buildings and we'll shiver the timbers off those little trick or treaters this year.

News in the neighborhood: Our long time neighbors to the East (whom we loved), moved to Kansas City today. They were such good freinds and a pleasure to live next door to. We'll miss the Easterners terribly. A new family will move in over the next several weeks. By all accounts they're a nice family and we're looknig forward to meeting them.

The "other" neighbor, to the West, abandoned their house and had it foreclosed on. I heard this in the morning and was stunned. I was away for nearly a week and getting this news floored me. They were the "not so good" neighbors... with the dirty yard and the howling dogs and all. Losing the Westerners was no great loss... but they left the house in a shambles. The back yard has an old couch sitting in it along with bags of garbage and old screen doors. Rumors abound, but everyone says the inside is worse- if that's possible. It looks like a house in the burned out part of Detroit. How soon until it gets cleaned up and has new owners? Who will they be?

That's about it. We've been stunned by the news and only time will tell. So I'll drink a glass of red wine (good for the heart- you know) and contemplate life.

On a more emotional note.. it sure has been quiet without the barking dogs all night long... so good frigging riddance! Here's a toast to getting rid of a crappy and inconsiderate family.