Obama!!!

A boy in the family!

Finally, we have a baby boy in the family! Females are greatly overrepresented in my family. My parents had to wait for grand-baby number 6 to see a Y chromosome! Not that I ever had any complaints, but a baby boy is a nice change. I absolutely adore this mother-infant gaze.

Welcome to the world, Lucas!

Sparky's Blog

A few of you have heard me rave about a friend and mentor who is near and dear to me. For anyone who has not: Meet, Sparky. Among many other things, he is a professor, psychologist, and a poet. His blog is now up and running and I am sure he would not mind the traffic. http://sparkytheminddoc.blogspot.com/

Shrapnel Wounds

Today I saw a man pick out a small shard of shrapnel from his skin that had worked its way out from deeper tissue. The wound was months old. He did it without veering off topic or changing the rate or rhythm of his speech. Without even wincing, he picked at his skin for a few moments and then teased out a piece of metal. He then placed it on the table next to us as we finished our conversation. No further discussion on the metaphor is required.

Rock Hard, Ride Free!!!!!

I have been preparing for the Priest concert for the last few weeks, which accounts for my absence. The planning, studying, and meditation is very time consuming. Yet, a requirement nonetheless (kidding! I've just been too busy). The show was great! Rob's voice was strained and he did not even attempt to hit the high notes. However, the band made up for this by playing flawlessly. The shinny thing in the middle of the picture is Rob riding out on his motorcycle. Hell bent for Leather!

Heaven and Hell (Early 80's Sabbath with Dio) put on a great show. Their music reminds me of rusted out Monte Carlos and the smell of pot smoke. Tony Iommi looks more like Tommy Chong now a days, but played beautifully. Dio's voice has not aged at all. Oh, the winged creature on the tree in the picture exhaled puffs of smoke and had red flashing eyes during the show. So metal!

Of course Motorhead was a huge crowd pleaser. I have no idea what in the hell Lemmy was saying during his dialog. At one point he either said, "It's great to see all of our fans again" or "I ate grits, seaweed and half a can of gin." Neither would surprise me.

The cool thing was how chill the scene was. The fans were nice to one another. I talked with people around me between sets. There were kids with parents. Naturally, there were a lot more bald and gray heads in the audience. However, we held up pretty well. I really hope these kind of shows don't fade away too quickly. They are sooooo much fun!!!

Ouch!

I have been taking a break and only running 3-5 miles every 2-3 days, because of knee pain. This killing my training!!!!

Big Sister's Tooth

Big Sister Lost her First Tooth.

"Let me get this straight. We lose our baby teeth, and a fairy takes them and leaves us money under our pillow? Um, please tell that she always waits until they fall out."