New Trick I'm Treating Myself

Today was Halloween, but you probably/hopefully already knew that. I was reminded it was Halloween when I went to the bank. The sign on the door read, "please remove your masks before you enter the bank". I thought this was silly, until I remembered it was Halloween.

As a young boy, I never had the privilege of celebrating Halloween. I never dressed up, or went trick or treating door to door. I was finally able to have this experience disguised as helping out my sister. While taking her door to door, I was able to wear a costume. It was fun. One of my highlights of the day was getting insider tips from fellow TOTers, which houses were "good" and where lots of houses were. I felt so alive. I almost think Halloween is more for the adults than the kids.

Oh, and one more thing. Do not start trick or treating at 4:17pm. It is too early. Kids are barely home from school, it is nearly dinner time, and so on. Do not knock on my door. I don't care if you are trying to set a new world record or something, not cool. No candy for you.

Go Golfing Go

Today was my father and my semi tri-annual day out at the golf course. Why is it tri-annual? I'm not exactly sure, that is just how it works out. It was glorious. Nearly perfect weather, the smell of rotting fish in the air, birds flocking above, the green waterer guy on the tractorish apparatus waiting for us to finish, yes, it was perfect.

Nobody was in front of us to slow us down. Actually, more like there was nobody behind us to pressure us. Who cared if we took a mulligan or two, or every once in a while, three. Yes, it was splendid. I even got par on a hole for the first time in my life I think. Well, perhaps technically it wasn't par, but it my mind, it was.

It was a par three. You tee off from a little bluff above a stream. My firs shot cleared the stream, but sliced vicsiously to the right. I took another shot, a mulligan some might say. Oh no, it wasn't even going to clear the stream! But wait. Somehow, almost miraculously, it hit an unseen object down the "cliff" and bounced almost onto the green. I tapped the ball within 5 feet for my unofficial second shot, and tapped it in for par. Glorious.

I also finally got to try out my "new" golf club on a course I got about 1/2 a year ago as a gift from my dad. It worked really well, or maybe it only worked well because of its master. I prefer to think the latter of the two. I only lost 5 balls today, I am not sure if it is a new record on the high or low end. Actually, I found one ball, so it is more like I lost 4. And they weren't truly "lost", I could have probably maybe found them if I felt like it. Basically, it was my best golfing day ever. I can't wait until I go again. Well, actually I have to, it will probably be many a month before I ever hit the links again.

Enslaved While Free

Today, I had a big test in Spanish. It took up a lot of my weekend studying for it. It actually took up all of my weekend just thinking about the test. All the time I wasn't studying, I felt like I should be. It made everything not nearly as enjoyable as it should have been. But wait, the test was today. I don't have to worry anymore. Well, that is true about Spanish class. Now, I have a History test tomorrow to worry about. Oh the irony. I am enslaved in my free time.

Wrath of Grapes

Tonight, I made a mistake. I ate too many grapes in a short amount of time. Note to future self, and past one if ever applicable, don't eat so many grapes. They create intense discomfort, which is not fun. Not fun at all, and not worth it. It definitely negates all the fun you/I have eating them.

Super or Sleepy Saturday?

Today, I actually got up before 1:00pm. It was amazing. Well, actually the only reason I got up so early, was because my little sister wouldn't let me sleep in. She woke me up for a nice breakfast cooked by my mom. I am glad I didn't sleep in too late, and was actually able to get quite a bit accomplished on a Saturday. Yes, a Saturday!

Sleepy Saturday

Hopefully, I don't beat my record. Or maybe, to put it better, hopefully I do. The past two Saturdays, I have slept in. Really slept in, as in past 1 pm. I hope tomorrow I wake up before that, but I probably won't.

Seventy-Seven is Sweet

Today, something amazing happened in Spanish class. We were studying for our big chapter test tomorrow by playing a game of concentration. We would select two of the cards in Spanish numbers. Then we would have to use one of the words we chose in a sentence. At the very end of class, my sister choice 77. Now, this isn't that special of a number, but it ended up being magical.

The word was Por Que, or why in English. Her sentence in Spanish, Por que hay el examen manana? Clever, very clever. It basically says, why is there a test tomorrow? A very clever question, but sincere. After thinking about it, and discussing it with the class, our teacher moved the test to Monday. Sweet! I now have the entire weekend to study. Moral of the story, don't be afraid to ask questions, especially in Spanish. Also, number 77 is the best number in the world.

Birthday Buffet

Today, I felt a little bit sick. I had a stomach ache, sore throat, and stuffy nose. And that was before I went to the all you can eat Chinese Buffet. The food was really good. We were there with both sets of my grandparents celebrating my father birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! I am feeling a little better now, probably because I didn't go crazy at the buffet. Note to anyone reading, when feeling sick, an all you can eat Chinese Buffet is not the best idea for dinner.

Anonymously Attacked

Today, I was walking under a covered bridge when I got attacked. Who was/were my silent assassins? I will probably never know. I was walking under a covered bridge at the college. I heard a loud thud on the metal roof and saw a pine cone bounce off. Wow, that was loud. Seconds later, boom. Only this time, it was much louder. My attackers were no longer using pine cones. Then another one. I quickly walked to another area. I like to think it was a tribe of angry squirrel council men attacking me, but I will never know. Next time, I'll be ready for them though.

Perfect Pumpkin Pursuit

Today, I went with my dad's class to the pumpkin patch. It was a really nice field trip. It didn't even rain. I wore these huge boots, in case it was really muddy, they mainly just made me look ridiculous. The patch had a quite a few pumpkins. It is my philosophy that you don't find the perfect pumpkin, it finds you. Maybe the one you trip over, the one that gets thrown at you, or even just one you didn't see at first. After searching the entire patch, I just couldn't quite find the perfect pumpkin. It either wasn't round enough, the right color, or had some bizarre growth on it. I tried my best though. Maybe next time, or maybe I should just buy one at the local grocery store.

Baby Steps

Tonight, I took the first step. Quite literally, I went on a walk. For quite a while, I don't really feel like saying how long, I have been telling myself I am going to start exercising, and eating better. Finally, I would say tonight was the first step, even if it was just a baby one. Hopefully, it is the dawn of a new age.

Cookie Creation

Today, my youngest sister tried to bake some cookies. This might have worked, but she made them with her own recipe. After a little prying, her "secret" recipe was brown flour (I think that mean whole wheat flour), sugar, and water. She actually baked them in the oven. They even kind of looked semi eatable when they were done. They tasted disgusting though. I just wish she would have used some nonstick spray when cooking them. I have kitchen duty, and let me tell you, it was hard to clean the junk caked onto the pan. Maybe one of these days I can help her make some "real" cookies.

Figure Eating Too Much

Today was a great day. First off, I drove to school. Always exciting, well, not too exciting. Then, in Spanish, we had a fun day. It reminded me of elementary school all over again. We listened to music, and played along with different Spanish instruments. At the end of class, our teacher had an enormous amount and variety of candy she was giving away. I'm not sure why she was, but oh well, it was very nice of her.

Wow, what an exciting day, and it only gets better. My friend had a birthday a while back, and to celebrate it, he invited us on an adventure. Why was it an adventure? Well anytime you take someone ice skating who had never gone before, it is is an adventure. But first, we went out for dinner. This was not your ordinary dinner either. It was a semi-fancy Mexican restaurant. You know, the kind of place where they bring you a plate of chips, and beans and salsa before you even order. I was happy with that. I thought we should just leave and not even order anything.

I did order something though, a double burrito meal. Now, ordinarily I would have no problem consuming two burritos. But tonight was different. First off, I was so impressed with the chips, and especially the beans, that I was stuffing myself on them. Literally, and when I found out if you emptied the plate before the meal they would refill it, I kicked it into overdrive. Lets just say by the time my meal finally arrived, I wasn't very hungry. But the meal, oh the meal! It was amazing. It was two of the biggest burritos I had ever seen, surrounded by rice and beans, covered in gooey cheese. Glorious. I tried my best to eat all of it, but I just couldn't. Well, I probably could of, but my sister reminded me that our next stop was the ice rink. I stopped just before the point of no return, thankfully. I think everyone involved is thankful that I did.

We got to the ice rink. Now, I was the only one who had never gone skating before. How was I supposed to know you shouldn't wear shorts? I mean, come on. The managerish guy offered me a helmet, but I didn't think I would need one, maybe I looked like I needed one. Actually, I thought I might, but wanted to try at first without one. What was I thinking? I didn't need a helmet. I was half Wayne Gretzky half Michelle Kwan out there. I was amazing. I could do figure-0's, jump in the air, skate backwards, the list goes on. One of my favorite "tricks" as I like to call my moves, was the power slide. Basically, it is a nice way of saying falling down on purpose at incredibly high speeds. I would get up as much speed as I could, and slide as far as I could. It was fun. According to my sister, one time I fell on accident. I don't remember this, and don't think it happened. Point of this story, I was pretty decent at ice skating, especially considering it was my first time.

Today was a really fun day. I even learned a few lesson along the way. One, that Mexican restaurant was good, too good. Another lesson, do not stuff yourself before you are going to go ice skating. And lastly, unless you want to look like an oaf, don't wear shorts and a tee shirt to the skating rink.

Monopolizing My Life

It pains me to admit it, yet it is true. I did get sucked in to the McDonald's Monopoly Game, but it was only for a day and a half. I know, it is sad. I rarely go to McDonalds, but I did the other day. I got some of the game pieces, and was amazed I only needed one more piece to get a million dollars, or 10,000 dollars. Just saying it now, I hear how foolish I was. Anyways, the next day, my sister went to collect the free McFlurry she had won. Then, I thought of something genius. I would buy a few things, get a few more pieces, and win a lot of dough. I was going to beat them at their own game. Sadly, I didn't get any of the pieces I needed. This is when it very slowly started to dawn on me, how hard is it to get these pieces?

I wasn't ready to give up yet. I had a great idea, I would look on craigslist. Turns out, everyone was also looking for the same pieces. How could this be? I know, I'll look on eBay. On eBay, I could buy a word document that would tell me the secret to getting lots of free game pieces. No, I didn't want to buy this. This lead me to look at just what the odds were for getting these hard to find pieces. I found a site that says only 3 winning tickets for the hard to find million dollar pieces are printed. Three in the entire world! How am I going to get that piece when millions of people stuff themselves at McDonalds everyday? Odds are the person who finds that piece isn't going to know its value and throw it away, or not even peel the piece of the package. The moral of this pathetic story, I hate McDonalds. But, if you have any extra monopoly game pieces, I need them for the online game. I'm serious. Please.

HOMEnotWORKingout

I am so tired right now. I've been trying to finish up some Spanish homework, it has been taxing my energy and patience. I fear I will start to have nightmares in Spanish, and not be able to understand them.

the Blog of the Century

Today is my 100th post. Wow. I had no idea when I first started this blog that it would reach 100 posts. At first, I wasn't sure if it would make it to day two. Yet, here I am. I am really enjoying this blogging phenomenon.

A few interesting things about the number 100...

It is the:

-sum of the first 9 prime numbers
-sum of the first 4 numbers cubed
-number in degrees Celsius of boiling water at sea level
-largest denomination of bill in the US, with Benjamin Franklin on it
-police number in Greece, Italy, and Israel
-record number of points scored in a basketball game by one person, Wilt Chamberlain
-minimum number of yards required for a par three on a golf course

Stacking Up

Today, I worked for my grandpa. We filled the back of our truck with branches to take to the wood recycling place. Now, I thought I was pretty clever. I put branches sticking up on the sides so we could stack more in. I thought we fit quite a few branches in, and I was proud of our work. That is, until I saw the other truck. Later that day, I saw another truck also carrying branches. Only this truck's branches were stacked above the cab roof. It was an amazing work of art. I have never seen branches stacked so nicely and high in one load. It must have reached at least 6 feet up in the air. It put our stacking job to shame, yet I am still proud of the work we accomplished.

Toying with the Shoppe

Today, I restrained from one of my greatest passion and worst enemy. The Toy Shoppe. You know, those machines with the claws that grab the stuffed animals. I love them, yet at the same time, despise them.

For years, I have been addicted to the Toy Shoppe. I won a lot, yet tried a lot too. It was costing me, and/or my parents, a lot of money. Yet, I couldn't stop. I needed to win those cheap little stuffed animals. I would never pass the Toy Shoppe without feeding my desire a dollar or two, never more than that. Well, usually not more than two dollars.

Slowly, I began to despise the thing I had so dearly loved. I won in less frequent intervals, my strategy and planning no longer worked. It was as if the machine had beat me into submission, yet try as I might, I couldn't stop fueling my addiction. Until one day, I stopped, I no longer felt the need to use the machine.

Yes, I still dream and remember the glory days when I walk past the machines. But I no longer let them rule my life. Today, I walked to the Toy Shoppe, my intent was to try it just one more time. The claw was calling me, beckoning me back. My eyes fell on the perfectly placed turtle stuffed animal, an easy target. I was about to put 2 quarters in the machine when I stopped. Was it really worth it? No, take back those quarters! Resist the evil that is the Toy Shoppe. Today marked the end of a long bout with the machine and my own inner monsters, this time, I really won.

Scheduled to Imperfection

Today, I decided to try something new. Most weekends, especially Saturdays, I don't accomplish anything. So today, I decided to live by a schedule. It was a strict one. How well did it work? Did I actually follow the schedule? Well, I did my best. I did a lot of the stuff I had planned. I really liked having a schedule, and I will probably start to live by them more often. Just next time, I won't try to plan out my day to the exact minute, it is really hard to follow.

Silly Syllabi

I reaffirmed a good life lesson today. Here I was sitting in Spanish, our class was studying for our first test on Monday. The teacher didn't say anything about notes, so that basically means you can't use them.

I was confused, well more confused than usual for spanish anyway. In the class syllabi, I had read about using notes on one test. So, after class, I went up to the professor, professora more correctly, and asked her. She seemed confused. What was I saying about notes? I showed her my copy of her classes syllabus. Turns out, she didn't mean to put that in there. She had no clue it was in the syllabus, she had been copying and pasting from another syllabus. So the moral of this story, read the syllabus, especially if you are the teacher.

Green Pizza?

Today, I took my friend and my sister to Bagel Brothers after school. It was to celebrate my friend's birthday. The best thing in the world, well from Bagel Brothers, is a pesto bagel pizza. Oh man are they good. It took a little convincing for my friend though. Yes, green pizza looks unnatural, but it taste unnaturally good. Mmmmm... pesto pizza. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. And happy birthday Eric.

Free at Last

I didn't really know what I'd been missing. Now that I finally have my license, it is all different. I was able to drive to school, and therefore, get home from school sooner. Sister needs a ride to soccer practice, no problem, hop in. It is a new phase in life I am really enjoying.

The very first time I drove by myself, it felt weird. Where was everybody? For two years people would have to be in the car with me. Who was I supposed to talk to? Well, that wasn't a big deal, I could talk to myself.

Passed at Last

I passed! Yeah, I finally have my drivers license. It has been a long time in the making. I don't really want to go into the details right now, but let's just say that passing the test wasn't as easy as I first thought. More on this later, maybe. But, I passed!

Test Squared, not Scared

Today was a day of preparation. Tomorrow, I have two important tests. A history test over the civil war, and my drive test. Which one am I more worried about? Which one have I studied harder for? I don't really want to answer those questions right now. Let's just say one is two years in the making, while the other is two weeks. You make the call.

Costco Food Court Etiquette Revisited

Today, there was a rather bizarre occurrence at Costco. Now, most of my readers, whomever you are, will probably not remember a previous post. It was my second post of all time, and maybe one of the most profound. It also is one of the more controversial. Click here to read it. Basically, I said I didn't agree with reserving tables at the Costco food court.

Now, maybe I should elaborate. I don't agree with saving tables when it is crowded, and you perpetuate the problem. Today, my grandma was reserving a table for our group. It was not crowded, and was no big deal. Or so I thought.

Apparently, someone had tried to save the table she was sitting at by parking their cart next to it. Okay, that is bogus. Have you ever been to the food court? Everyone parks their carts next to the row of outside tables. I guess the lady got mad my grandma "stole" her table even though there were plenty of other tables. I guess I need to add one thing to my Costco food court rant, no saving tables with carts left in the general vicinity. That is crazy. And absolutely no smack talking at my g-ma.

Responsible For Lost or Stolen Things and People

Today, some very strange things happened. So strange, you may find them hard to believe. But let me tell you, they did happen, but yes, they were strange.

After feeding some friends cats while they are on vacation, we decided to find a spot I could practice parallel parking. That is the decision that sparked the inevitable event. Instead of turning left toward home, we went right. On any other day, this would have been no big deal. Besides, they live on a large loop, both ways lead towards our house. But this was no ordinary day.

Anyways, I was driving when I saw him. It was a man curled in the fetal position, by a power pole, in the rain. A very strange sight indeed. We decided to go back by, and see if he was okay. It looked like he was dead, no joke. We pulled over, and my dad went out to check on the limp figure.

The following, is what I saw from the car. My dad approached the man, yet he still didn't move. I thought for sure he was dead. All the sudden, the man bolts to life. My father and him have a discussion for what seems 5 minutes. During this discussion, the man gets up. Well, he tried. My dad had to brace him from falling over, and set him back down on the ground. I then see the man offering what looks like some money to my dad. Finally, as he is heading back to the car, the man hands my dad an object.

By now, I had no clue what was going on. My dad gets back to the car, and explains what happened. Apparently, the guy was passed out, and surprised by my father. He has been lying there for an unknown amount of time. He had tried to go to a lady friends house, but she had wanted nothing to do with him. All he knew is he lived on the Indian Reservation. And his name was Louis. He was able to tell this to my dad in a rather "out of it" way. He didn't know exactly where he lived, but all he wanted was a ride home. He had offered money to my dad for some reason. My dad said he would give him a ride, but first wanted to know if he had any weapons. He slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a switch blade, said "I don't want to hurt anybody", and slowly handed it to my dad.

My dad told him to wait where he was. He was going to drop my youngest sister off at home, and return in a few minutes to pick him up. Neither of us had our cellphones with us, and even then, did it warrant a 911 call? We stopped by the house and dropped my sister off. When my dad was trying to explain the situation, my mom worriedly said, "is he here?". It was funny.

Now, is when it really got strange. We returned to the spot. The man was gone. It had only been 10 minutes. The mans black case was still lying where it had been when we left him. We looked inside for maybe some ID, all it had was some music cds and deodorant. We were very confused. Where had the man gone? And how could he have gone anywhere in his drunken stupor? And why did he leave his belongings?

We drove all around. We saw a van stop by where the man had been. Were they looking for him? We followed the car. I felt like a private investigator. The car stopped at a house and the lady left, she apparently had nothing to do with our missing man case. We continued to drive around. Suddenly, a police car with lights went by. I thought for a second they were pulling us over, I guess I felt like I was doing something illegal, following cars around, picking up other peoples cases, looking for a drunken man, and so on. So, we followed the police car. Sure enough, it led us to our friend Louis. There he was with an ambulance, a medic SUV, and two sheriff cars. He had somehow managed to make it about a 1/2 mile away. He was literally across from the house where I was feeding the cats where we decided to make that fateful right turn. We handed the switchblade to a medic person, and told them our story. He said, "okay". I was disappointed, I thought he would at least take down our names, and our story.

In the end, we had just been trying to be good citizens. It felt weird/illegal to be driving around looking for a drunken man, guarding his switchblade. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. I think our reviving him is the catalyst that sparked him to flee the scene. Why he left I'll never know. He probably didn't even know what he was doing or where he was going, he'll probaly never know/remeber. All I do know, is that he must have really been booking it to make it as far as he did. Thinking back, the smartest thing would have been to call the police. He could have needed medical attention. It was all just quite bizarre. When we got home, we tricked my mom again. We opened the door and asked if she had any plans for dinner, "Louis is hungry." We were just joking, although, I don't think she thought it was very funny.

This could have been the end to a rather strange day, but it wasn't. Early that day, my mom had found a twin mattress at local thrift store at the 1/2 price Saturday sale. Usually, I would have to say gross to such a find. But it was a nice, clean, comfortable mattress for a really good price. Besides, it is for my sister. My mom had been looking high and low for weeks for a twin mattress for my sister's new bunk bed.

My dad and I went to pick it up. We looked all around for it at the store, but it was gone. Apparently, it had been stolen. It said sold all over it, so nearest as we can tell someone acted as if they were the person picking it up, or took off the sold sticker and purchased it for themselves. As I said earlier, it was that nice of a mattress. I was dumbfounded. How does someone basically shoplift a twin mattress, with box springs I might add? With all that time taken up by the whole Louis situation, someone had time to jack our bed. To quote my dad, "I hope they get a good nights sleep tonight". We were refunded our money if that is any consolation.

Today has just been a bizarre day. It has hard to put into words just how strange it was. I think I am going to go to bed right now before anything else strange can happen.

Lisents?

Today my youngest sister wrote me a note. It is really special. I remember when I would leave notes for her to wake up to before she had school. Tonight, she spent a long time and made me a very cute note. To quote part of it... "You are the best brother evera! Wen are you geting your lisents?" As for the best brother ever part, I think my older brother and I tie for that. The lisents part, hopefully, this Tuesday, better be this Tuesday. Thanks for the note sis.

Quiz Quandary

Today I had my first Spanish quiz. It went better than I thought it would, I did spend a lot of time studying though. I felt pretty good about it. I had been feeling rather over me head, but today made me feel a little bit better. Maybe, if I study enough, this Spanish thing just might work.

Danny El Tiredo of El Spanisho

Today, I've spent way to long working on my Spanish homework. I am tired, and want to go to bed. Actually, it hasn't just been today, I've been working on Spanish the last few days. I am getting better at it, but it is still a rather foreign subject. It doesn't help that my sister and I are probably some of the only people in the class who have never had a Spanish class before. I fear I shall start to have nightmares in Spanish, and not be able to understand them. Well, time to go back to studying for our first Spanish quiz tomorrow. Hasta manana.

Ferocious Fan

Tonight, I went to my sister's soccer game. A parent from the other team was yelling at a player on my sister's team. This bothered me. First of all, no matter what, you shouldn't yell rude things towards anybody. Second, if you are, at least yell things that actually make sense. If you don't know anything about soccer, don't yell and try to act like you do. It was despicable, and made me mad. By the way, Sarah played quite well.

Bus a Must

Today, I had to ride the bus at 6:20am this morning. That is early, too early. But, it is a way to get to school, and only cost a dollar. Back to this morning, I almost didn't make the bus. I was woken up at 5:25, that is plenty of time to get ready for school. I thought it was more than plenty. I almost fell back asleep, and had to hurry and get ready in 15 minutes. Next time, I need to get up when I wake up.