Sister, Sister...

...and brother-in-law and future brother-in-law.

Last night and today was an enjoyable family time for me. Not only did I have my usual family members, Pam and Andrew, here in Escondido, but also Chris and her fiance, Mike. (Note: Chris made fun of me for not posting on my blog, hence, this post to show her I still remember the password to log in.)

The weekend started last night (Friday) around 9:00pm with a phone call from Chris letting me know they were close to arriving. I left a friend's house to meet them here at the house. I gave them the grand tour of the clean house (thanks to Mom and Dad for that). We spent an hour around the house and chit-chatting and then left for Pam and Andrew's apartment.

We pulled up to Pam and Andrew's just as they were, so we sat around and chit-chatted some more. Such topics of conversations included The Simpsons (no surprise), flying, weddings, church, pets (I'm really only doing this to spite Chris, so if you're bored by reading this, read on, it gets better).

Today the plan was to stay in Escondido for the morning and early afternoon. We decided it would be fun to tour the Stone Brewery in Escondido, a local brewing company with great tasting beer. We began the tour with a guide that had claimed to be drinking his fourth beer during our tour, which started at noon. The tour took us around their brewing facility, showing us the ingredients they use, the fermenting tanks, the fridge room (a cool 38 degrees), the bottling line and the best part, free samples at the conclusion of the tour. Four samples were on tap for us, the Stone Pale Ale, the Stone Smoked Porter (my favorite), the Stone IPA and the Stone Arrogant Bastard.

We then ventured over to my place of business because we were in the area and there was an interest to see where baby brother works ever day. For those of you who don't know, I work at Superior Ready Mix in Escondido.

After checking out work, we headed out for lunch to Chipotle. I had never been, but Mike and Chris were raving about their food, and I'm always open to new things, especially if it consists of Mexican food, otherwise known as my kryptonite. I had the usual, a steak burrito, and I must say that it was quite delicious. The restaurant has a similar set up to Subway where you get to see them prepare your food right in front of you and you can choose which add-ons you want.

And that was my short weekend that I was able to spend with Pam, Andrew, Chris and Mike. Ther remains two family member who haven't visited Escondido. We're now waiting on John and Mary to make an appearance in Paradise.

A Tradition Unlike Any Other

The Masters.

This week is my favorite week in all of professional sports. Thursday is the first round of the 2007 Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

The first weekend in April is my favorite professional sports weekend of the year. Each year I look forward to four days of professional golf. Golf that is just...golf.

This is not commercial after commercial of Budweiser advertisements during EVERY Super Bowl commercial break.

This is not the glitz and glamour of the NBA playoffs which has turned into a presentation of pro athletes at the mercy of David Stern trying to drain the almighty dollar out of every sponsor.

This is not the MLB playoffs that depend too much on John Cougar's "This is Our Country" song. It also isn't played in sub-freezing temperatures in the middle of October.

This is not the NHL. (Since I know next to nothing about the NHL playoffs, please insert your own negative comment about the NHL.)

Each year CBS has the sense of mind to find a sponsor to provide limited commercial interuption. Four rounds of pure golf. Four rounds of the highest levels of mental (and slightly less physical) competition.

A tradition unlike any other, The Masters. Watch it, you'll love it.

Lunch Break Excitement

So, the other day, Thursday, I took my lunch break at the local Jack in the Box fast food restaurant. This has become at least a once a week occurence for me for the last couple of months. Until yesterday, nothing over the top exciting has happened.

I order my usual, an Ultimate Cheeseburger value meal with an upgrade to Curly Fries, a must at every Jack in the Box I visit. I pay the Hispanic employee, fill my beverage cup (Dr. Pepper) and take a seat at a table.

I'm waiting eagerly to devour my curly fries when I look out the front of the restaurant and see a police car pull into the driveway, stop abruptly and a police officer get out of his car. I then look to the front door of the restaurant and see a Mexican (I'm guessing in his 20's) wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt ready to walk in. I see him turn his head and a look of despair overcome his face. He turned around (away from the front door) bent down to his knees and placed his hands in the air.

At this point I turn to the Toyota of Escondido mechanic at the table next to him ask, "Are you watching this? This guy is getting arrested!!" Only seconds later there are two more Escondido police cruisers blocking the driveway. One officer is holding back his German Shepherd police dog, who is, thanfully, held tightly by his master.

The Escondido PD are able to handcuff and search Jose (a name I gave him because its a common name) without a problem. They sit him up in front of the door and begin to ask him several questions.

It is at this point that I realize two things:
1. I can't lip read. I desperately wish I could.
2. Jose is crying.

I feel bad for him, but I also wonder why he is in this kind of predicament. If you say, "This is a perfect case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," well then, I say this, "If you don't put yourself in the wrong place in the first place, you can't be caught there at the wrong time." I speculate that he is responsible for some sort of drug use/abuse because the Motel 6 next door to Jack in the Box is known for drugs and prostitution.

My curly fries are gone now and I have begun to take bites out of my favorite fast food burger. They continue to ask Jose questions, they stand him up and escort him to one of the now four police cruisers on site. The excitement indoors has now died down.

It was a good thing for Jose that he never made it indoors for one reason: I was ready.

If called upon by the Escondido PD, I was ready to spring into action and be all over Jose like Mexicans on the U.S./Mexico border fence. Who knows what would have happened to Jose if he had made it indoors, but I can confidently say one thing: I would be holding the "Key to the City" for Escondido and would be recognized at a public press conference as a Hero for the people of Southern California.

I finished my delicious burger and made my way back to work excited that I had the opportunity to witness something very serious and also very thrilling.

The Land of the...Seeing

It has been over four years since my last visit to the eye doctor, I decided that it was time for a checkup to see how bad my eyes have become. I will chronicle yesterday's visit, nay, adventure, below.

A fellow employee recently started using contacts for the first time in his life instead of his reading glasses. He had nothing but good things to say about contacts. This encouraged me to shcedule an appoitment for myself and explore the opportunities of contacts.

I scheduled myself an appoitment on Saturday morning at 9:20am. After frantically searching for my most recent prescription (which I didn't find) I headed over to Lens Crafters. After exchanging pleasantries with the receptionist, I was taken into the pre-testing room where I underwent the basic eye tests. Cover your right eye and read the letters aloud as far down as possible. Repeat step coving left eye, etc.

Kelly, the very helpful girl that was testing me, then opened a book to see to what extent I can, or in this case, can't, see colors. This so called color blind test has been only one of a couple tests that I have failed miserably in my lifetime. I'm not exactly sure of the reason for this test and how it applies to testing my vision. A part of me thinks that this was Kelly's attempt to spend more time with me.

You can find a similar color blind test at this website. View the 6 circles at the top of the page to see if you can see the colors, then scroll down to see the answers. For the record, I could make the top left circle, showing a 25. I could just barely see the middle right circle, showing a 56. Scrolling further down you will see the answers and the description that I am red-green colorblind. I failed with a 33%, ouch.

The second test at the bottom of this page is another common test. If you're red-green colorblind you will see a 2. If you have normal color vision you will see a 5. I see a 2.

The book that Kelly showed was about 8-10 pages of these circles and numbers, I could only make out the number on page 1. Following this test, Kelly proceeded to laugh and say, "Wow, you are really color blind." Yeah, no kidding, why don't you pour some more salt on a 23 year old open wound?

After completing the grueling rounds of tests, I was finally able to see the eye doctor himself. We talked for a few minutes about my glasses and that my vision has worsened to the extent that I need to wear them all the time. For me, the alternative was to start wearing contacts. My vision is around -1 in my left eye and -1.75 in my right eye. Lucky for me, they had these contacts in stock (even for my right eye with mild astigmatism).

The next step was for Kelly to explain to me how to care for my contacts and how to put them in and remove them. Having watched all of my siblings wear contacts since I was young, I felt ready to tackle this challenge. I sat down at the table, managed to get the contact to set properly on my right index finger, then proceeded to use the middle finger of my left hand to open wide my right eye-lid. I then used the middle finger of my right hand to pull down my lower eye-lid. Through this process, each step has been easy enough for me to accomplish. However, gradually moving my right index finger holding the contact to touch my eye is where I struggled for a couple of minutes. I eventually was able to get the contact in and repeated the steps for my left eye. All in all, not a pleasant experience, but one with definate rewards.

After completing all of the paper work and purchasing my 2-week disposable contacts I left the eye doctor a happy man. I can see more clearly at a distance and without the need to be wearing glasses.

The tell-tale sign that contacts were a good life decsision for me: I went to the bank to deposit some money at the local Wells Fargo. The bank teller and I made small talk while the transaction was processing. She was going out with her friends that night, I was playing a couple of church league basketball games. I told her that I had just come from the eye doctor and am wearing contacts for the first time. She has been wearing them for years, she said that I would be happy with them, and I quote, "You look good."

In other news, my church league basketball team had our first victory last week Saturday. It was a close game, but in the end the five of us were able to hold out for the victory against the four guys on the other team. Yes, they had four players, not everyone showed up, but we still played and we still won. A "w" is a "w" no matter how you get it. Yesterday, however, we were not as fortunate. We had 2 games in a row, and lost both, by 3 points and by 16 points.

You bought what?

So the other night I was in a spending mood. I sat down at my computer to do one of my favorite things...internet shopping. Last week I bought a factastic pair of slippers. A pair of dearfoam slippers with memory foam, couldn't be happier with them.

Tuesday night I decided for something different. Music. I went to my i-Tunes music store and pondered what I was in the mood for. Well, I searched for a classic by Rupert Holmes, "Escape, the Pina Colada Song" could only be purchased if I purchased the entire soundtrack to "Bewitched" with Will Farrell and Nicole Kidman. Screw that, I'm not spending $9.99 on an album to listen to one good song. I then moved on to a search of country music, not necessarily my favorite genre, but some artists/songs are alright to listen to.

One song has been on the radio quite a bit lately, "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood. I searched for Carrie, found the album Some Hearts and listened to the 30 second promos. I ended up buying the album without much consideration. I haven't had time to listen to the whole album yet, but I'm sure it can't be that bad, right?

So far, I'm a lot more impressed with my incredibly comfortable slippers. $18 well spent. Kudos to me.

Rough Start

Our Church league basketball team is off to an 0-2 start, precisely how a good season doesn't start off. Originally our team name was supposed to SBTB, standing for, of course, Saved By The Bell. However, the schedule refers to us as the "Young Guns."

I attribute our shortcomings to the incorrect team name.

Our team is made up of 8 guys, ages 23-27, with varying levels of competitive basketball under our belts. Me, each year from 3rd grade on, to Robert, 2nd year of Church league ball. Robert, strangely enough, also wins the award for shortest and tightest shorts on the basketball court, every game.

Updates will be coming soon...maybe after we win our first game. So, keep checking back, could be Saturday, could be next season.

Seattle

This past weekend I had the opportunity to help your friend and mine, Aslan's Mane, move to Seattle with his wife, Jessica. Luke, Aaron, Jessica and myself left Friday morning headed for Seattle. Between the four of us, we drove a moving truck towing a car and their other car. A 1300 mile journey along I-5 through California, Oregon and Washington.

We got to see a lot of interesting sites along the way, starting in the Grapvine north of Los Angeles, the ever fertile Central Valley of California, Mountain ranges in California, Oregon and Washington.

Along with that I saw some sports arenas. Arco Arena (Sacramento Kings) in Sacramento, Rose Garden Arena (Portland Trailblazers) in Portland, Key Arena (Seattle Supersonics) in Seattle, Oregon (Eugene) and Oregon State (Corvallis) football stadiums, University of Washington (Seattle) football stadium, the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners stadiums.

Also the Space Needle, the Pike St. Market famous for throwing fresh fish after they are sold, and the first ever Starbucks in downtown Seattle. We were also able to visit the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. We briefly visited the Visitor Center and the Company Store which sells Microsoft programs to employees only for dirt cheap. Can you imagine the entire Microsoft Windows XP program for $40 and the Microsoft Office Suite for $50? I can now.