Uncle David came for a visit

dinner

aaron & jenny simultaneously evaded facing the camera.
the kids were more receptive.

Con

Cade

washing my car

I washed my car today.  It doesn't happen often enough.  The orange Lotus guy who chased me down on Lorane said he remembered seeing a car like mine in town that "needed a bath".  That was definitely mine.  

The wheels get especially dirty.

As I was washing, this lady walked by pushing a stroller with another child walking along side.  She stopped to admire my car, asked me how long I'd had it, where I got it, etc.  

Then she said she'd been in Europe a while back and chased an Elise down to get a better look. She liked the car so much she named her daughter after it!!  So there was an Elise standing next to my Elise.

seasons

It was cold when I went out this morning but I inhaled deeply for some reason and the air seemed really fresh.  Like spring maybe, except it's fall.  

I don't know what spring and fall are supposed to smell like.   We don't have those seasons in So Cal really.  Like the guy at the party last night said, you pretty much get spring and summer there.  If you're from California, then you call it summer and winter.  But if you're from Eugene, it's clearly never winter in So Cal.  

But the air smelled really clean and crisp and clear.  And even though cold is not my thing it seemed really inviting, like I could smell posibility.  Like each molecule in the air was connected to the next and they were little lines in a big web leading in all different directions.

night shift

Yeah, for working at night!!!  Way better than in the day.

Marcelo Garcia Seminar

The Marcelo Garcia seminar in Olympia, WA was awesome.  Best one I've been too yet.  For some reason his style made the techniques easy to remember.  There were a lot of people there but he was open to answering all questions and rolled with as many people as he could at the end.  I'd totally do another seminar with him.

I rolled with a couple people there, one of which was Cindy Hales.  I'm not sure I was rolling "with" her so much as being rolled all over by her.  But that's ok, it was a good experience anyway.  I got a good shin to the nose when she did this technique that we had just done in the seminar.  That was no-gi on day one.  

Day two was gi techniques.  I rolled with another girl at the end of everything.  She was very ridged and explosive.  The match started with me getting a pretty good knee to my eye socket. Once I could see again we started over and she later hit me in the mouth and split my lip.  It was the most violent match I've had in bjj, including all the guys I've rolled with.  Not really bjj style I don't think.  Oddly I didn't get a black eye.  There is definitely a bruise on the eyebrow bone - I can feel it - but you just can't see it.  Must have hit just right I guess?

I should have some pics that we took with Stormy's camera soon!

Lucinda Williams - Unsuffer Me

Unlock my love
And set me free.
Come fill me up
With ecstasy.

Surround my heartbeat
With your fingertips.
Unbound my feet.
Untie my wrists.

Come into my world
Of loneliness,
And wickedness,
And bitterness.

Unlock my love.

Unsuffer me.
Take away the pain.
Unbruise,unbloody.
Wash away the stain.

Anoint my head
With your sweet kiss.
My joy is dead.
I long for bliss.

I long for knowledge
Whispered in my ear.
Undo my logic.
Undo my fear.

Unsuffer me.

Unlock my love
And set me free.
Come fill me up
With ecstasy.

Unsuffer me.
Take away the pain.
Unbruise,unbloody.
Wash away the stain.

Surround my heartbeat
With your fingertips.
Unbound my feet.
Untie my wrists.

Come into my world
Of loneliness,
And wickedness,
And bitterness.

Anoint my head
With your sweet kiss.
My joy is dead.
I long for bliss.

I long for knowledge
Whispered in my ear.
Undo my logic.
Undo my fear.

Hear it on YouTube

where did I go?

So confused.  

vagabond peacocks

There was a peacock in the middle of the road today. I slowed down and stopped - in the middle of the road - and it just wondered up the middle of the lane for a while before meandering off into the brush. I followed it for a ways up the road. I think they're used to the sound of my car now.

If you click on the image you'll see the blue in the neck is pretty brilliant.

post birthday breakfast?

dreams

Last night I dreamt I was part of some giant evacuation, like from a natural disaster or something. I had to coordinate everything because there were a lot of people and everyone else was completely incompetent. 

Flamethrower cake!

Thanks Mel!

A stranger just bought me ice cream!!!!!!!!

Without even talking to me first. She was in there ahead of me with a friend and she turned around and smiled and I smiled back. And then she told the girl at the register that she wanted to pay for whatever I was having as well. So I told her it was my birthday. She asked how old and I told her 32. She said I would probably look 30 when I was about 50.

I saw something in her eye when she turned around and smiled. She was probably going to buy who ever came in behind her and ice cream. But it was fun to be the one that happened to come in behind her. And especially fun since it was my birthday.

So yeah for me. And thank you again whoever you are. You've made this birthday very memorable ;-)

the onion

I added a "gadget" to my google home page for The Onion and came across this link in the feed this morning (ok, really it's afternoon, but it's still morning to me):

Woman Always Really Excited To Be In Whatever Relationship Status She's Currently In

After reading that I clicked on this slideshow with headlines and photos.  I'm not sure if the initial article set me up for it or what but I was laughing pretty good at the headlines.  

I'm not sure about the actual stories but I thought the captions were great.

morning is the time

is the time you have to resist the urge to get up early. It seems easy. You're awake. You could get stuff done.  

Yes, it seems easy.  But don't do it.  Then you'll be tired at night. You'll want to go to sleep instead of work, to break your schedule.  

So in the beginning you have to resist the urge.  Pattern change.  It takes a little time to set in. So go ahead, sleep in.  Really.  Lay back down and close your eyes. That's better.

It's actually been hard to sleep in the last few nights cause I keep waking up at 8 instead of my intended 11.  It will get easier I'm sure. But right now I'm more used to waking at 8 so it just keeps happening and them I'm having to then make myself go back to sleep, several times.  

It helps to have really good curtains ;-)

sleep vs. work: part 2

Work wins!  

Getting a lot more done this way.  Just finished another project.  And, as anticipated, it's not that hard to stay up now that I'm on day 3 and in the flow.  The first two were a bit of a struggle.  But it gets easier.  

Everything's like that, or lots of things are.  Once you get into a pattern it's easier.  But if you break the pattern you're screwed.  Ok, not always.  But sometimes it seems like it.  Especially when you're trying to get back to where you were.

Once you've done it a few times you know you'll be able to recover.  Still, it's easier if you just stay on track.  

Sometimes that's not possible.

Looks more like a birdcage to me

SciAm: Listener Anticipates Speaker's Word Choice

Functional MRI shows the brain in action, anticipating the next word a speaker will say based on context and the first part of the word sound.  

60 Second Podcast here.

This magazine perpetually interesting!  It's crazy how fast our mind processes information.

more php

Just finished my 2nd php project!!  

The error messages in php suck. ColdFusion error messages pretty much tell you what went wrong where.  And, as Paul said, php error messages are more like: "you messed up, hahaha, guess where?".  

Which is especially fun at 2 in the morning ;-)

SciAm: Are a Popular Doping Drug's Effects All in the Mind?

Athletes who take human growth hormone may be getting duped by the placebo effect.

Try the generic alternative: beleive in yourself.  It's infinitely cheaper and has no negative side effects.  Although the posative side effects are known to bleed into the rest of your life.