Happy Cows having a Happy Breakfast

Clayton, CA

As the sun rose over the Clayton hills, this herd joined for breakfast.

that white fluffy stuff

Many people have heard me complain about my dear desire to be in a snow environment. I miss the crisp air and the sledding and the way a fresh snow quiets the birds and cleans out the air. I love how gently it falls and how it coats everything in a wintry wonderland. I love how you can get creative in snow just like a 4 year-old and his side kick tiger. However, I wasn't exactly sure what it was about snow that I truly miss the most, until tonight.

I ate too much sugar last night and then stayed up watching Little Miss Sunshine into the wee hours, so I ended up sleeping most of the day and not doing a whole lot of anything. On days like today - I tend to drink a lot of water and watch TV on my computer. As that water processes - I become over hydrated.

Tonight as I was emptying my bladder it occurred to me what I miss most about the snow. No matter how hard I tried tonight to write my name in the bowl with my stream - there just wasn't any lasting effects. But when you are in the snow (as long as you were taught cursive in school) you can spell a lot of different things. You can draw a heart and write cursive initials. You can bad mouth the president of the United States. You can even stream out your list of favorite beverages. All of this can be done with a full bladder and a fresh powder of snow. And I have decided that that is what I miss most about the snow. I miss being able to express myself in white and yellow.

New Couch

Antioch, CA

Well...new to me anyway. My dad gave me his old white couch so now we have more seating in our apt. Now if only we had an X-box...

Chocolate

Antioch, CA

Tonight is the Temple Hill Tech Thank You Dinner/Potluck. I made Tater Tot Casserole and chocolate chip cheesecake. This is the glaze that goes on top of the cheesecake.

(BTC)

Home Depot Whore

San Jose, CA

That's right - for just $19 an hour you too can get the Home Depot Whore. This old girl has given more men rides that anyone else. She'll let you ride her and drop off a load as long as you can pay her the $19 an hour. And she don't discriminate either*: young guys, old guys, and even guys that are riding something else that just can't handle their load. This is one equal opportunity whore. She'll even let a team of guys ride her, as long as they pay for $19 an hour.

*No fat guys - 3000 pound limit

Winking Sea Lion

Lodi, CA

For my birthday I thought it would be fun to go to the Zoo. I preferred to go to one without animals on the attack, so I went to the Micke Grove Zoo in Lodi.

As you can see from the beyond the cut pictures, This guy was nice enough to turn his head and wink at me. How could any other picture be PAD except a winking Sea Lion.

BTW - Post #200

(BTC)

Resolutions

It's that time of the year again. It's time to make resolutions. My resolutions for this past year were the three basic (eat right, exercise, and read more) and then the two additional ones (graduate and get a job). I managed to do all of those but the exercise one. (Though, I recently found out that I'm back down to 190. Who would have thought that a seditary lifestyle would help me lose weight!!)

The year before was to write to my grandmother more, which thankfully I did because she passed away before 2006 was over.

This year I'm trying to figure out what my goals should be. I will of course add the obvious three but I'm trying to figure out who I want to be by Jan 1 2009. This is a hard process. I have no expectations for this year. I don't know if I'm staying where I'm living or if I'm going to become a gypsy and move around some more. I don't know if the job will work out and I'll have reasons to stick around. I don't know if I will find a girl that likes me for me and I like her for her and we can get married. I just don't know what the year holds, so I'm not sure what goals to set. I think I can go as far to say that I don't know my level of devotion to 2008. I was semi dedicated to my goals in 2007. I was very strongly dedicated to my goals in 2006. But what to do with 2008 - I'm just not sure. Am I dedicated to 2008 enough to have lofty goals (become a better Mormon, get rock hard abs, or cure cancer) or do I need more simplified goals (eat salad three times a week, read A book, or post a photo a day for all of 2008)? I'm just not sure.

So for now I will just be sure to commit to 2 goals:

Eat right
Exercise more

Maybe as the year progresses I'll be able to tell you more.

Ducks in flight

Contra Loma, Antioch, CA

I'm not sure who'd scared who more. I scared them out of the reeds I was photographing. They scared me as they rustled out of the reeds I was photographing. For not having an SLR, though, I'm pretty happy with the pic of the birds in flight.

Sirius from Santa

Fremont, CA

When I opened my gifts from Santa this afternoon, I found that he brought me a much needed Satellite Radio System. Much needed because I have friends in San Jose, Fremont, Antioch, Fairfield and also in Utah, Idaho, and Wisconsin. I need a radio station that covers all of those areas. And now, I do.

Presents

Antioch, CA

Merry Christmas!!

8 hands on 2 Grands

Oakland, CA

For some reason my camera only wanted to give me blurry pictures tonight. What you can't see is 4 women playing on two pianos for the last concert on Temple Hill for the Christmas season.

theater chairs

Pleasant Hill, CA

I went and saw a movie tonight. Who would have thought teen pregnancy could be funny (and sappy)?

Stone cold woman

Pittsburg, CA

This half nude woman is part of old down town Pittsburg.

Playing Santa's Helper

Antioch, CA

Tonight I helped Santa put together a kitchen play set for a three year old that lives, part time, two doors down from me.

scenic spillway

Black Diamond Mines Park

I went on a hike with John today.

A day in the life of Sean

This was my day. I started out by waking up late, but in time for the FedEx guy to show up with my new phone from Verizon. (I have a new number by the way)

Then I went to work on making cookies. For the holidays my mother used to make several types of cookies. Today I wanted to make two of those types. The first is a sugar cookie.

The second type is a Candy Cane Cookie. While the sugar cookies dough was chilling in the fridge, I make the Candy Cane Cookies

I had a hard time twisting the dough.


After I was done with the Candy Cane Cookies, the Postman came bearing gifts. I got a Christmas card and the books I ordered using my Fancy Simple Gift Card.
Because the sugar cookies still needed more time to chill, I went out and took pictures of the rain for PAD.
Finally the sugar cookies had chilled enough that I was able to roll them out and start cutting them. I made cut-outs of bells, trees and snowmen...mainly because those are the only winter holiday cookies cuts I own.
I was going to use the family recipe for my frosting, but I knew one of the people I was making cookies for was allergic to milk. So instead I used store bought frosting. I wasn't able to find my black food coloring so my snowmen all have blue hats and blue dots. Hopefully they won't be made fun of at night.
I packaged up some plates to take with me tonight.
I gave some of those plates to crew members of the Oakland Temple Hill Technical Staff, which they ate as they set up for a performance.
There was a guy I knew growing up who was a political refugee from the Philippines. Every Christmas him and his wife put on this show. This years was entertaining, but not well rehearsed. He uses the show to celebrate the freedoms of religion that we have in the US.
After the show was over, I gave a massage to this girl and her 20 year old younger sister. They are both members of Temple Hill Tech.

It was my night to cook, and I forgot, so I used McDonald's and got some breaded chicken I was craving.
As soon as I'm done publishing this - I'm off to bed. Today is the first time in two weeks that I didn't make my bed. Oops!
And there you have it - that was my day.

Post Script - I went to read blogs tonight before going to bed and am now switching between two songs. This one and this one

meow

We were supposed to have a ROAR of a storm today but it felt more like a meow.

Searching My Records

Antioch, CA

I have a physical on Wednesday for my new job. Because my new job involves working with kids, I have to prove I don't have TB and that I've had all of my immunizations. I am searching my medical records to find out the answers to all of the medical conditions I've had. These are my records from age 2 - 18. The pile is 3 inches thick.

An Apple a Day

Antioch, CA

My massage therapist wants me to eat more fruit - so I bought a bag of apples.

Power Soccer

Berkeley, CA

Today I was a line referee for a few Power Soccer games. I only got ran over once this time.

table decorations

Dublin, CA

I had dinner with my dad tonight.

John's Tree

Antioch, CA

Figuring Melinda and Bonnie posted Christmas pictures today, I thought I would too.

Snowmen at night

Antioch, CA

Someone sent me a book in the mail today. I don't have a clue who it was, but it is someone who knows me and loves me. They knew me enough to know that I didn't have Snowmen at Night and that it was my second most favorite children's book.

Snowmen at Night

This is an open letter.

To Whom ever it may concern:

Thank you for your precious gift. I'm not sure who you are but I have my suspects. I received the package in the mail today and was over joyed to receive it. I just wish I knew who sent it.

Thank you,

Sean

Warm Water

Antioch, CA

My prize

In case you are a "Little Life" reader only and not a PAD reader - my Fancy Simple Prize came today and it wasn't lipgloss. Check out PAD to see what it was.

What a Sado!

So I have been trying to ward off the negative Christmas Spirit I have. I'm just not really into the holidays as much as I used to be.
To try to ward off that negative feeling, I've been listening to Christmas Music. Today I was listening to the 12 days of Christmas when it suddenly occurred to me that this "True Love" was quite a jerk. Where the heck was she supposed to store all of this crap? Let's assume that the lady singing lives in a suburb. A pear tree might be able to be planted in the front yard (if the city gives the permit, that is). So I can see that. And I can see the 2 turtle doves sitting in the tree with the partridge.
Then comes the increase of poultry, and, honestly, what are you going to do with all of those live birds (Calling birds, French Hens, geese, & Swans)? Furthermore, does the poor woman have to dig a hole, build a pool and let the swans go swimming or are they all supposed to fit in the tub? What is to be done with all of the eggs the geese are laying?

Fouls aren't the worst of it, though. 12 drummers (each one trying to out drum the other, and one of which is the different drummer some one is dancing to the beat of), 11 Lords (who are nothing but legs. Tall skinny long legged leapers), 9 Pipers (Let's hope they are the piccolo type and not the bag pipe type), 10 ladies dancing, and, lastly, 8 maids who are milking (and unless they are milking each other, they probably each brought an orgasmic cow...). If you add it up - this poor woman has to find housing for 50 people. And they probably didn't carpool so that's 50 cars lining up the street ticking off the neighbors.

I bet what really happened was the True Love forgot an anniversary. This women said he could make it up with 5 gold rings, but instead this jerk thought that unloading all of this other crap on her would make her happy. What a jerk!

Fancy Simple

Antioch, CA

My Fancy Simple Prize came on Saturday. It went to my PO Box in Fremont so I didn't get it until today.

Medi-Vac on Highway 4

Pittsburg, CA

I was on my way to Oakland to night when suddenly the freeway came to a dead stop. Over head we hear the CHP helicopter. As we are sitting there it flies in over head and lands right in front of us. A Ford Taurus station wagon had rolled over (I'm not sure how many times, but about the distance of 40 feet), and they were Medi-Vacing people out. It was quite the sight to see. In my 12 years of driving I have NEVER seen a copter land on a 5 lane freeway. Make sure you check out the beyond the cut pictures for more shots.

(BTC)

Fed Ex Air

Oakland, CA

I occasionally volunteer for a theatre in Oakland. On Friday night the theatre's $24000 light board fried on the inside. At 6 AM the manufacturer bought a cargo space on Southwest Airlines and sent the theatre a new light board. Being the only guy on crew with a truck, I got to drive out to Oakland International to pick it up today. I was this close to some really big planes.

Contrast Clouds

Pittsburg, CA

I was having shutter problems tonight, so this is the best you get. Sorry.

Missing

Let me first start out to say that I am particularly proud of myself. I'm not what you would call "pro Gay." In fact, I belong to the Mormon church which is pretty anti-gay. But somewhere along the way I managed to pick up gay and lesbian readers. One of then even called me a gentleman. Who would have thunk that my little life could transcend the binds of sexual orientation.

So to my newly acquired homosexual readers, Welcome.

Now onto a little more saddening statement. For those of you that have been longtime blog readers, you know that my first year of blogging dealt a lot with me trying to get over KNJ. When my second year came about, I made a promise to my readers that I would comment less about KNJ. I feel that for the most part - I've kept to that promise. Tonight I'm going to sway from that a little and talk about my hole in my heart.

Some of you know that Nina and I broke up, got back together, just to break up again. We spent the two weeks being together arguing. This was an emotionally hard time for me and I eventually just had to break it off with her. We had very different perspectives in life and while I could bad mouth her - I won't.

Breaking up with Nina was particularly hard because it was the first time in 3 years that I felt safe enough to open my heart up to a girl. I was willing to fall in love with her and start to build a life with her. To fail at love again was painful. But in the end, it was unavoidable. We just weren't meant for each other.

Which then turns my heart to the one I was meant to be with. I miss more than anything in my life, my old friend KNJ. I have never met anyone quite like her. she was her own person that they broke the mold after her (speaking of breaking molds...). I have never loved so deeply someone that wasn't family like I loved KNJ. Losing her is one of the biggest regrets I have in life.

While Nina and I were dating my thoughts occasionally turned to KNJ. As I would open up that heart of mine to Nina, the old wounds that I had merely stitched over came back to the surface and exposed a love I still had for KNJ.

--
Tonight I was on temple hill helping John run Live Nativity (a five minute reenactment of the birth of Christ). While on the hill I got to see young couples with kids. cute kids ages 6 months to 4 years old. It was a site that just made my face smile and my heart yearn. I look forward to the day where I can be in love again. More than anything though, I wish that day involved KNJ.

Heroes

Tonight I watched about 90 minutes of the Heroes marathon on CNN. Some of the stories were close to being tear jerker events. Other stories were kind of that, "Aww. That's nice."

But through the course of the evening I quickly came to the conclusion that there were two types of heroes. There were the heroes that dedicated their lives to heroic acts. One guy went to Kenya and established a way to feed hungry school children so that they could stay in school. He managed to get the drop out rate down from 50% to less than 1%. Another person has spent several years developing a system of letter recognition that involved using the keys on the piano. She developed this program to help out her cousin who has autism. The last guy I remember was working to save gorillas in Rwanda.

Then there were the people that were heroes for just one day. There was the story from Virgina Tech student that barricaded a door that saved the lives of several of his classmates. The guy who rescued a guy having a seizure from getting hit by a new york subway train. The boy who saved his mom from a fire. And so on and so forth.

It got me thinking about what type of hero I'd want to be if I was ever a hero to anyone. I've decided I would rather be the type of hero that is a hero for a day. I don't think I have the dedication in my life to rescue thousands, but I bet I could rescue one person. I think I would be just fine, though, jumping in on a moment's notice to do something great.

Oh, and while I'm thinking of it, if you want to be a hero for just one child, here's an idea.

Round Valley

Brentwood, CA

It rained again today so I went to go take pictures of Marsh Creek. But the creek still didn't even have a trickle. so here are some trees on a hill for you instead.

(BTC)

A Park in Fog

Oakley, CA

This is my first time seeing fog in several years.

(BTC)

7 Random Facts

I have seen this floating around on various Fancy Simple websites, but no one has yet invited me, So I'm just going to list them myself. By the way, if you are reading this, you are invited to list 7 random facts about your self if you'd like.

1. I don't often watch shows that have a laugh track attached to it. I don't like being told when to laugh or being told when something is funny. Come to think of it, I don't watch too many shows that are funny except Family Guy.

2. Even though I worked in a theatre for 10 years, I'm not a big theatre kind of guy. I love the designing, building and taking down of sets, but for the most part, the running of shows bores me. I like the construction aspect the most.

3. I've had pneumonia 12 in my life.

4. I've been driving for 12 years and I've never had a ticket.

5. I rarely see movies while they are in theaters.

6. Every time I watch an M. Night Shamalan movie I keep all of the lights on in the house.

7. I don't like camping on the ground, but love the idea of camping in a trailer out in the wilderness.

Rain on my rose parade

Clyde, CA

(BTC - 1)
(BTC - 2)

potted row

Antioch, CA

Nativity

Antioch, CA

This is in response to Melinda's Introduction to Christmas post.

Civil war

Antioch, CA

They call this game "The Civil War." It's between U of Oregon and Oregon State. And the whole North west side of the state shuts down when this game is played. The game went into over time and I don't know what happened after that. I had to go to work in Clyde.

Bird on a Fence

Clyde, CA

I just want to confirm - this is a bird and not a grasshopper.

You have done well Grasshopper

Gun Point, CA

(BTC - Like a flip book)
(BTC - Casper)

Birds of a Feather

Walnut Creek, CA

(BTC - Snow Fight)

(Song stuck in my head all day)