MacGyver

An uneventful week really. Did, however find out when my cousin Brandon is going to be in town. Brandon, who is in the marines, is leaving Iraq and visiting us on his leave time next month on May 17th for three days. It is going to be great to see him again, he has never seen Triton except of course in pictures, and I have never met his wife. They are both coming to visit for a bit and then he will be off again.
Oh I guess I can update you on Triton's speech evaluation. Back in December, Triton's doctor suggested that we get him in to speech therapy at age two if he hasn't started spitting out three to five word sentences by that time. He is not quite two yet, but Sheri wanted to get him in early just in case it could help his advancement. We took him in last Tuesday and the first session is all about evaluation and seeing how far along he is or isn't. The lady visited with us and Triton, of course he was preoccupied with the toys that were in the room, she must have been okay with where he was because she said that she wasn't too concerned at this point. She said he was a bit behind, but nothing too drastic and too bring him back in six months to see how he is going then. So, you booger, you have six months to start spitting out new words. Basically one new word a day. She gave us some helpful hints on how to coax him into talking more, so hopefully that will do it.
Onto the MacGyver story. Yesterday, Sheri had a meeting to go to at church before our actual time to go to church. She left and Triton was being a jerk. He is hardly ever fussy when alone with me during the weekdays, and in the past after Sheri has taken care of him on the weekends he would regress and I would have to get him back on track Monday morning. This hasn't happened for quite sometime, and Mondays he has been pretty good. This weekend something must have happened, because Sunday morning he was being a fussy monkey. He is always way more fussy when around his mom, so I was hoping once she left for her meeting that he would settle down. He did not, so I decided to give him some alone time in his room to let him cool off. He is almost climbing out of his crib now, so we have been locking a gate in the door jam. If he climbs out of his crib fine, but his room is upstairs and I don't want him falling down the stairs. He can go downstairs just fine, but waking up all groggy I just don't want to chance it. I put him in his crib, locked the gate in place and decided to slam his door a bit to show him how unhappy I really was with his attitude. As I was shutting his door on top of locking the gate I had a small thought in my head, why am I closing his door? About fifteen minutes passed when I decided to save him from his prison. He stopped crying basically the moment his door shut, but I wanted him to cool off maybe get a short nap in before Sheri took him to church. I returned to open his door and discovered that it locked. I knew that he was in his still in his crib, and that the door must have been locked when I shut it. Triton hasn't yet climbed out of his crib, so there was no way to lure him over to the door to try to unlock it. I wondered if his window was locked, if it was unlocked I would be able to get in that way. I decided to try the old credit card through the door knob trick. I of course didn't use a credit card because the door jam/molding was in the way. I paused and thought of something that might work. I trucked downstairs and looked through my tool box and was delighted to find these small flexible blades that attach to a saw, they are about 14 inches long. I figured they would flex around the molding and I would be able to jimmy the lock and open the door. It wouldn't flex enough so that idea was flushed. I really didn't want to break the door or the handle in order to get in, so I thought of scaling the wall outside to see if his window was indeed unlocked. I decided to seperate the molding from the wall and get to the lock that way, it worked I was able to get the flexible blade in between the molding and the lock, but wasn't able to jimmy it enough. I never panicked, those who know me can believe that I hardly ever panic. Sheri did return home though and after a minute or two started up the stairs. I hurried to the top of the stairs to stop her. She asked what I was doing, and I told her not to worry about it and to go back downstairs. After she started back downstairs I informed her that Triton was locked in his room. I checked the lock on the door downstairs to see how to tackle the situation and found that I was trying to get the lock from the wrong side. For those who don't use a dead bolt on your home, you may want to start. After discovering how simple the problem was, I returned upstairs with a simple compact disc "CD". It literally took 3 seconds to break in after discovering how to attack the lock. Start using your dead bolts in your home, if you don't have one get one! His window was indeed locked so it was a good thing I hadn't tried that.
Even though it really wasn't my fault, I am figuring on catching some crap from family and friends for this one!

Finally

Well, today is my Friday and in two and a half hours my weekend will begin. Last week we learned how horrible a lane condition Burley's bowling alley has. I was excited to bowl league night on Friday. It was going to be on a lane condition that actually uses oil, it was going to be in my hometown, and it was going to be at the bowling alley that I grew up bowling at. Walking in the bowling center I learned that we were going to be on lanes 11 & 12! Yikes! Those lanes are the worst in the house. I have only bowled on good game on those lanes in my life, that being a 290. It was some 9 years ago maybe? Lanes 11 and 12 always seem to cause havoc. If you know anything about bowling, you know that hitting the pocket is the place to attack the pins. Well, it seems 11 and 12 do not understand this theory. To me, they have always left me with pocket 9 pins, pocket 8 pins and pocket splits. I knew for certain that I have never bowled a 700 series on those lanes and have been rewarded when bowling good.
Burley really upset me the week before. On the drive home I decided that I might not even want to bowl a league at all next year. This piece of crap bowling center in some po-dunk town forced me to doubt the joy that bowling sometimes brings. It made me doubt any hint of talent that I thought I had, and it also made me think that my new style of bowling wasn't going to work. So, back to hometown bowling and oil on the lanes. My first game was a 217, nothing too great, but over average on the worst pair in the house so I was pleased. Game two was a bit better, had an open after missing a ten pin, but managed to score a 245. The guy that I was bowling against on the other team was probably bowling his best all year, but was mad that I was winning. He wasn't expressing his displeasure to me, but I over heard him talking with his team about it. On this league (handicap) I had to beat him by 20 pins a game in order to capture a point for my team. The first game I beat him barely and the second game even though I bowled the 245 I had to strike all three in the tenth to beat him for he had already posted a 221. He struck in the first frame of the last game and I spared. I then overheard him tell his team that if he bowls a 300 I couldn't beat him. He fell way off the pace and I strung together 4 or 5 strikes and going into the tenth frame I needed a strike and a spare or a 9 spare and strike to get my first 700 series of the year. I struck my first ball and needed only 9 pins to get a 700. I needed 9 pins in two attempts of throwing the ball. I hit the pocket and left a ten pin, finally with three weeks left for this year's winter league I hit a 700. I picked the ten pin and hit a 239 for a 701 series. I had been close three other times before during this crappy year shooting a 694 and two other 697s. Friday night gave me hope that my new style might work, and maybe just maybe give me incentive on bowling another league next year. We will have to see how I feel after Nationals in July?

Escape From The House

The sun has finally melted just about all the winter snow in the valley. Triton has been trapped indoors all winter. This crazy spring weather has only allowed him 1 or 2 days outside for a short amount of time. Monday I decided while Triton was taking a nap that I would setup the trampoline. He had never been on a trampoline, so I was quite stoked to see his reaction. After he woke up from his nap I fed him like always and then dressed him to play outside. I setup the tramp and moved it to the back of the house where the sun won't beat down on it very much and hopefully where the neighborhood kids won't have enough guts to try to kill themselves on it. I knew that Triton would walk around the side of the house and I wanted get his reaction on film. He knows that there is still a bit of snow in the back yard, thus he would have to walk right by the trampoline to get there. I captured the little scenario on film, but he didn't even care about the trampoline? He saw it and walked right on past it, on his way to the snow. We still have a small pile of snow where the garage roof was shoveled off and the sun hasn't melted it all. He uses the pile of snow as a tee for his golf balls and tries to hit them with his golf clubs. I was disappointed that he paid the trampoline no attention, so I figured that if I showed him what it did then he would be excited to do it as well. I jumped a few times, but he made no sort of acknowledgement that he wanted to do the same. I then placed him on top of the trampoline, he wanted to take his golf club up with him, but I only allowed the golf ball to go with him. He played on it for only about a minute and decided that the snow was more fun. The video above was probably his third time playing on it. He thought that he was way cool or something, because just before this video when the camera wasn't on, he was half jumping/walking and then strutted over to me to give me a high five. We call it slapping hands. He will respond to that saying more than gimme 5. So, he does his little cool thing and slaps hands with me. I turned the camera on in hopes that he would do it again, and he did. He also gave the camera a kiss and if you can turn up the video loud enough he says "ah oh, spaghettios". He has only been saying "Ah Oh" for the past two weeks, so I became sick of hearing that a million times a day, so I started adding on the Spaghettios in hopes that he would learn more words and stop with the one saying. He did pickup on it, but of course cannot pronounce it, but it is way cute nonetheless.

Watched three movies this week, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Bedtime Stories and Yes Man. All were okay and rentable if you had the desire to do so? Bedtime Stories and Yes Man are classic Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey movies. Nothing special, but for sure not horrible either. Out of a ten I would rate them a 6. The Day The Earth Stood Still was better than I thought, because I had heard it sucked, but it too wasn't that bad. Somewhat short in length with the story line and content, but it wasn't terrible. It too is probably a 6. Triton really like Bedtime stories though. He usually only watches Little Einsteins or Sesame Street for more than 10 minutes at a time, but he watched probably the first 40 minutes of Bedtime Stories with me, gave up and became a bit fussy and finished watching the last 20 minutes again with me. So, Triton probably gave it an 8?

Bowling, not good...

Well, no 300 for me, high game was a 226 and averaged 190. Saturday I awoke just before my alarm. Of course I thought that I had slept in since I didn't wake up from the alarm itself, gotta love that feeling. I laid there, hadn't checked to see what time it was and a minute later the alarm chirped. I get ready, drive over and pick up Mikey J, and we are on the road by 6:15. It had snowed a bunch the day before and I was a bit worried about the roads. They were actually dry and we were able to maintain the speed limit until just about 30 miles before Burley. Then the roads were nothing but ice for maybe 10 of those remaining 30 miles. Speed dropped to 50 at times, and I thought I might have felt the car slide just a bit this one time, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure. We arrived at the bowling alley at about 8:15 and our other teammates pulled in just about 5 to 10 minutes later. Barbara (Uncle Henry's wife) asked if we had seen the wreck? Puzzled, I responded negatively. Come to find out there was a rollover that had happened with that little 5 to 10 minutes of time that we were ahead of them on the road! More scary! Mike gave me a little tap on the shoulder and issued his gratitude for delivering him to our destination safely.
So, back to the bowling. It was the worse lane conditions I can honestly say I have ever bowled on. It was as if they didn't even want to make the shot challenging like you see on TV. They just didn't put out a shot at all? There was no oil on the lanes at all. Obviously I am not going to be cashing a check from state. We drove back after finishing our 9 games (3 games for team, 3 games for doubles, and 3 more for singles) and arrived at home about 7:00pm.
Sunday, I decided to go golfing since Henry had a tee time. I have only been able to go once this year, so I jumped at the opportunity. I golfed like crap, couldn't really drive the ball all that well, and for sure couldn't putt, scored an 86 with 3 birdies and took $2.00 from Henry. I felt bad, beating him all but 3 of the 18 holes, because I guess he was sick the night before. After returning home from state championships, I guess Henry was throwing up. He thought that it was either food poisoning or the flu. I doubt that it was food poisoning, because we ate at Burger King and I had the same thing he had, but you never know I guess. I almost had my first ever eagle on number 9 at Sage Lakes, just didn't hit the putt hard enough and it stopped about 2 inches short of the hole, center cup! I felt like Phil Mickelson, because I had 5 three putts. The first putt on each of the 5 holes was longer than 5 feet, so I didn't mimic Phil in his exact style.
Okay, my turn to retaliate from my wife's one and only blog. Okay no retaliation, just an enhancement on the whole reading thing and my college English teacher's remarks. That is a funny story, and I am glad that Sheri brought it up so I can document it. I haven't finished college or anything like that, and didn't attend for many years after high school. When finally going back, I of course was scared of finding out that I was retarded. I am retarded, but that is besides the point. So, it was mid terms and in our English class, we had to meet with the professor one on one and talk with her about any concerns and find out how we were doing. I was doing well, either an A- or a B+, can't remember exactly. I do remember the meeting with the professor though. She wasn't concerned with my performance at all and gave me grade up to date, and that was all she basically had to say to me. She did ask me if I had any concerns or questions. I explained to her that I didn't know how to write! She had a bewildered look on her face and questioned my statement. I informed her that I didn't know how a sentence was formed, as many of you reading my blog can probably see. I told her that I understood basically what a verb is and maybe the subject of any given sentence, but I didn't understand anything else. I still don't understand and she wasn't any help at all. I mean, I go to college to hopefully learn something, and when I am thinking that I might learn something, I receive no help at all. She responded to my concern with the best statement/question ever. She says "you write so well, I don't understand how it can be that you don't understand anything, you must read a lot huh"? At the time, I might have read maybe a dozen books in my lifetime. I agreed with her, and she sent me on my way telling me it really doesn't matter if I didn't know anything as long as I keep writing the way I do! Sad, huh? I haven't read that many more books, since, but I do read a lot. I read a few blogs online. I read poker books/magazines, and other such periodicals, so it isn't like I can't read or don't want to. As a matter of fact about a year ago, my mom asked me if I had gone to the theater and seen The Ruins. I informed her that I hadn't and asked her why. She said that she had read the book and it was one of the most scary/gross books that she had ever read. My mom doesn't like gore at all, but like me relishes scary movies and books. The movie wasn't due out for video release for like another three weeks, so I drove to Barnes and Nobles to purchase the book. I read it within a week, so there, it isn't like I can't read. About the book and the movie, the book was of course better than the movie, but both sucked. I knew, while reading, the parts that grossed my mom out, but to me they were lame. I am pretty much immune to gore because of watching Saw and other such films. Had to tell my mom that she was a wanny after I read the book. She did finally watch the movie and said that it too was pretty gross, but nothing like the book. Thus, don't waste your time with either.
We took Triton swimming tonight and he was being a brat. He has been whining a lot lately if he doesn't get what he wants. He was cute though and actually started kicking his feet on his own for the first time.

Sheri "talking"

I guess it is about time I write something. The main reason I haven't written before is that Jason does such a good job with the blog and has time at work late at night to write. He had a college professor say to him, "You write really well, you must read a lot." To anyone who knows Jason very well might laugh at that, like we both did when he told me what the professor said, because he reads very little. Not that that is a bad thing. It just made us both laugh. He did very well in that class. He just has this way with writing. One of the talents he was blessed with. I think another reason he writes well is that he isn't a big talker unless you know him really well and even then at times he is quiet. His has always preferred to write when he can instead of talk.

One of the reasons I decided to write now is that for the second time since Jason started this blog he told something not exactly right that made me thing I should write to correct it if you will. It isn't actually a correction just that no two people are going to tell a story the exact same way. I don't remember what the first instance was but the second was in the spider story. He did a pretty good job telling the story for someone who wasn't there. It didn't happen exactly like that but you get the idea. There was one thing I felt I needed to rectify if you will. It is true that I hate spiders, but not all of them. Jumping spiders for example I have no problem with. I don't want them killed inside or outside the house because I have been told they aren't harmful to people yet are an enemy to the Hobo. It is just the know dangerous spiders that I despise and am fearful of, and the scary looking ones that I don't know if they are dangerous. I still wouldn't purposely touch any spider, but there are some I wouldn't freak out about if they happened to touch me or see them around.

On a different topic we are going to schedule Triton to see the speech therapist that his Doctor told us about. We waited because his doctor gave us the referral early as the wait time to get in can be long. And he had 6 months to make more progress from that appointment with the doctor. One of the things that could be a factor is that Triton isn't around other kids very often. Jason is able to watch him during the day. Which we felt had more advantages and why not if Jason is home anyway. He is saying a few more words than the last time Jason wrote about this topic, but he doesn't quite finish off pronouncing them. He is smart though, at least it seems like he is to us considering he isn't talking much and not saying any three word sentences. But he is our first and only child so we don't have anything to compare it to, so maybe other kids his age can talk and do these other things that make us feel he is smart. For instance he understands a lot of things that we say to him like, you need to go and put that back in the cupboard. That isn't the best example, but all I can't think of a better one right now. He also recognizes pictures of some animals. When reading a book and we turn to a page that has a dog or bird I will ask him where the animal is and he will point to it on his own. We aren't worried that he won't figure it out, he is just taking his time with it that is for sure and may need a little boost.

In other Triton news, he has been whining, fussing and crying a lot the last three evenings. The picture above is a little snipet of that. Not sure what is going on with him, but I am having one of those parent moments of this needs to end. Part of it may be that his eye teeth are coming in. They broke thru at least a week ago, but they may just be tender right now?? He will be two in June so maybe it is just the onset of the terrible twos as the saying goes. One thing he does that is way cute, is when he says, "No, no, no" as he shakes his finger. I know at some point this will change, but for now it makes me smile every time he says it.

I think he is ready for winter and cold weather to be over; as are a lot of people in this area. He loves playing outside and when a lot of the snow melted he started trying to get to the front yard. And the few days he got to play outside so far has definitely fueled that desire. The weather for next week looks promising right now. I am crossing my fingers.

Well that's all for now. Not sure when I will write again, but you can count on hearing from Jason soon.

Time For Bowling

Well, hate to say it but, Seven Pounds too was a disappointment. Will Smith was of course great, but the movie promotes something that I don't agree with. Those of you who have seen it will agree with me on my opinion. Can't tell you what it promotes because it would give away the ending. It really wasn't that much of a mystery either. I had seen an interview on some show with Rosario Dawson and she said that it was mysterious in the first hour of the movie and by the end everything is wrapped up. Well, hate to tell you but the beginning gives away the end?? I just don't know if scripts now days are underestimating the intelligence of the American audience, but nothing is a mystery anymore. The last movie that actually sparked some sort of thought was The Prestige.
Sheri and I debated back and forth about whether or not Christian Bale's 2 parts in the movie were him as a twin or a clone? I thought that he was a clone, because his twin didn't have a part in the beginning of the movie. Also when his twin/clone was buried alive and Christian was forced to give Hugh his secret of the illusion, he gave the name Tesla. Hugh's character then tracks down Tesla, and that is when he discovers Tesla invented and made the machine that clones animals, objects and people. Sheri's argument which is a valid one is why would Christian's character surprised when Hugh is able to pull off the same illusion after visiting with Tesla? I still don't understand the premise of that movie?
As for Seven Pounds, you really don't need to waste the time or the money. I just don't understand why people say a movie has a surprise ending? It ruins a movie for those who are going to see it, by first telling them to expect the unexpected, second by having them look for what the mystery of the movie is instead of just letting them enjoy the movie itself! Seven Pounds wouldn't have been any more entertaining or any more of a mystery had I not watched that interview with Dawson, so I wasn't bothered by seeing her interview at all. I don't usually care for Rosario Dawson as an actress either, but she was pretty good in this film.
Today is Friday and it is my last day of work for a few days. I am off at 8:00 in the morning, get to go home and take care of Triton, he will maybe give me a two hour nap from 11:00 to 1:00. Go to the doctor for a visit/checkup at 2:30, hope to then get a nap before league bowling tonight at 7:00. Go to sleep after bowling. Wake up at 6:00 and drive to Burley to bowl from 9:00am until probably 4:00pm and drive back home. Going to be a busy next couple of days. Just hoping to get in enough rest to bowl good. Usually after my last day of work I am drained after catching up on sleep, so hopefully I will not get too much sleep that it drains me? Next blog will hopefully indicate that I bowled a 300? Yeah right, I am on to a new style of bowling that is going to make me more consistent, I am just hoping the pins fall if I am as consistent as I hope to be. As many of you know I have bowled 2 perfect games in my life, but those of you may not know that for almost 4 years my ability to bowl good left me. Honestly, it is the weirdest thing! I watched a program about professional athletes who just wake up one day and can't perform. This is what it felt like. Example might be, I can't remember his name, but there was this great baseball player who woke up one day and wasn't able to throw the ball to first base. This happened to me with bowling, I woke up and wasn't able to throw the ball correctly. It was
after I married Sheri, dang women anyway, right? Just kidding, I am sure it was a combination of a couple things. One being that I woke up one day and had a crinked neck, I bowled anyway, and it messed up my timing. Reason number to was having someone else drill my ball. I had a local gentleman drill up a new bowling ball, and he threw in his two cents about drilling the ball this new way I tried it and hated it. So, with those two things my average went from a 216 to 175! I was so mad this one day after bowling horribly in this tournament that I almost threw my 300 ring out of my car window while driving. Those 3 1/2 to 4 years of bowling like that sucked so bad. It finally started coming back within the last couple years, but there are those nights that I feel that I don't have a clue. Hoping this new style is going to click and I can be much more consistent.

This Week At The Movies

I just finished watching two movies that were released on video this week. Slumdog Millionaire and Marley and Me. Let's start with Marley and Me, it was okay, really nothing special. You would think it to be a cute movie about a dog right? It really wasn't, it was basically about life, and that just seems boring to me? It is a good movie for young teens to watch. Young teens in love who think that life is going to be a cake walk just because they are in love...cough my brother Zack and his fiancee Elaine...cough. Excuse me there, heehee... Just kidding, Zack isn't that way. I know that even though he hasn't graduated high school yet, he knows what he is in store for. He is aware of how cruel life can be, he has had to take care of my dad for heck sakes.

Slumdog Millionaire was a great movie. It was superbly filmed and the story was terrific, but it too lacked something. Why it won picture of the year has to be the fact that people are looking for hope, and this is what this film offers a ton of hope. I guess with a lack of movies to compete with ought to be the real reason it won picture of the year. Nothing really stood out this year in movies, aside from Ironman or Black Knight, but how often do big money making movies win? Titanic has to be the last movie was a huge blockbuster that won best picture right? Slumdog Millionaire was a good movie, don't get me wrong, it just didn't wow me? The story and the directing was the best part of the movie. I love movies, and I have grown to look at a movie through the eyes of the director. I admire the way a movie is filmed, camera angles, sounds, music etc. Thus, movies that a lot of people hate, I think are great simply from a directing point of view. If Slumdog Millionaire won best picture of the year for that, then great, it probably was the best picture of the year.

Another movie was released yesterday, and it is a movie that I have been wanting to see for some time now. We rarely make it to a movie, the wife and I, so we are forced to wait for their release on DVD. This next movie is one that I of course wanted to see in theaters, but wasn't able to escape to see it. It is Seven Pounds with Will Smith. I am hoping to view that today and am hoping not to be disappointed with it. Not sure if I will get in trouble for soliciting, but if you ever want to check on a movie to see if it is appropriate for your children, or even sometimes yourself, visit kidsinmind.com. It will tell you ratings on violence, sexual content, and profanity. It even counts out the number of certain three and four letter words in the entire film.

On a more heavy topic, my mother went in for her 1st round of chemo this last Friday. She had a tube installed so that she might be fed the chemo week to week. She is also taking pills and with all that happened on Friday I didn't hear from her until an email on Monday. I called her Sunday to see how she was doing and no answer, called her Monday again and no answer. I then receive this email that says this chemo and/or pills she is taking caused her much irritability, so it might have been a good thing she didn't call. I do not want to have to argue and yell at sick person!! Joking of course, sorry mom that you were grumpy butt! You can call anytime, maybe call just to have us put Triton in front of the web cam, he might be able to cheer up a grandma who isn't feeling well. We love you and hope you are feeling better as the week goes on.