One smart (and fit) cookie!

Congrats to my beautiful (yet almost toothless) daughter Chloe, who finishes first grade this week and received an award for "A" Honor roll for being a straight A student all year, and receiving a Music Award (she takes after her daddy on that one), a National Fitness award (I can't take any credit for that one, but boy was I impressed when she got that because they have to do a bunch of stuff I haven't been able to do in a loooong time), and she also got a Citizenship Certificate (which I guess means she can vote now??)

Anyway, way to go Chloe!

Reader Beware (gruesome content below)

I did something horrible, something disturbing. Something straight out of a Stephen King book, and it's probably something I'll remember vividly for the rest of my life. What did I do? Oh, I am going to some kind of purgatory/hell for this one.

Yesterday I was cutting the grass in the backyard, which had grown to a pretty sizable height because I hadn't cut it in 2 weeks. I was going along well, almost finished, when I saw two tiny objects shoot out from in front of the mower. I thought it was a couple little field mice at first because they were so small, but after I stopped the mower and looked closer, I noticed they were little baby rabbits. Very tiny, very young. They were terrified and had both frozen in their tracks. Oh my God, I thought, did I kill them? Then, they took off a couple more feet and froze again. Okay, so they weren't hurt, but where did they come from? I looked down and right behind me there was a tiny little hole in the ground, not even a hole really but a little divot that they had dug out and decided to lay low in. And then I saw it...a headless baby rabbit that was still trying to run away, despite his lack of a cranium. His death thralls only lasted a few more seconds, and I was horrified by the gruesome sight. Where did his head go? I never found it. And then I saw that underneath the dead baby rabbit were 3 more rabbits, snuggled together in obvious terror, frozen to the point I thought they were dead, too. I stopped cutting the grass for a few minutes, and went inside and confessed to Heather what I had just done. She was grossed out of course. I felt like such a murderer. But I had to finish cutting the grass, didn't I? So, I went back out there and pushed along very slowly, hoping not to chop up the two babies that had run off, one of which I could no longer find. I don't think I killed any more, and a little while later, while I was cutting the front yard, the remaining rabbits that were laying underneath their decapitated brother ran off somewhere. I could only find one, still frozen in the same spot he was in when he first ran from the mower. The poor thing, I hope he found his family sometime during the night. And if things couldn't get worse for him, we had bad t-storms and heavy rain last night, so if dodging a giant spinning blade wasn't enough, he had to dodge lightning and rain. I guess I'll go out there and check if he's still there later; besides, I have to bury the dead one and fill in the divot so it doesn't happen again.

See, Heather, this is why we need a dog, to keep the rabbits out! Yes, he may poop where we walk, and he may dig holes...but the rabbits are going to keep digging holes, and hiding in them, and I just don't think I can take chopping up another cute little bunny!

A little update on things...

Well, where am I in regards to my book? I haven't heard back from a few of the people I sent e-queries to, and I guess no news is bad news in this instance. I still have a list of agents that I need to send snail mail queries to, and I've been procrastinating for some reason. The whole idea of self-publishing has become attractive. It costs a little bit of money, but you can make it up real quick because your royalties are much higher than that of the big publishers. Instead of making .50 a book it would be more like 2.50 or 3.00. I guess I'll still try the agents but if nothing happens, I'm going to use some of my tax refund next year and get this book out by summer of '09. I need to start writing the sequel, so if the first book does okay I'll do the same thing with it. I'm not really all that concerned about selling a whole lot of books right now; I mean, it'd be nice, but really I just want to get this out there and get a little bit of feedback on it. Self publishing offers some pretty neat perks, like putting the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com, having the book available as an e-book, having your own website, etc... And I would have total control over everything, from content to the cover to the rights to sell it later if a publisher is interested. So, maybe that's the way I'll go.

Right now, I've got other things on my mind. Refinancing the house is harder than I thought it would be. But on a good note, Heather has another interview at a place where she would be happier and make some more money and not have to deal with kids 24/7. On the other hand, there's the possibility that she may be offered a job as a Children's Minister at a church here in town. Hopefully something will work out.

And I'm getting close to moving back to day shift (finally!). I have to go to Orlando for a conference from June 8-12, come back and work the 13-15, then fly to California for vacation from the 17-25. And then hopefully, I'll start day shift right after the 4th of July. I am SO tired of working nights. Three years has been long enough.

Well, that's about all for now.

Trip to Birmingham Zoo

Can you guess who the "real" monkey is?

Happy Birthday to me!

32 and don't feel a day over 60! And now, I'm off to work...

American Idol goes all Jesus and stuff

Okay, I watch American Idol. Let's get that out of the way first. I held out until like season 4 when Bo Bice was singing, and since he's from the county I live in, I had to at least check him out. So anyway, I've been hooked ever since, if only to see all the losers in the first few weeks that somehow think they have talent. So, I'm at work last night and Heather calls me and tells me that they're singing Shout to the Lord on American Idol. I knew I had to have heard wrong, because this is American Idol we're talking about. But sure enough, I watched it off the DVR today and there they were, singing a Hillsong song that just about every modern Christian in the Western Hemisphere knows (and of course our friends in Australia where the song came from). And I was flabbergasted and befuddled...in other words...WHAT?!?! Why in the world are they singing a praise song on AI? It's not like it's a song that some religious-minded artist sang, something like Psalm 40 by U2...no, this is a straight praise song, meant as a praise song, sung exclusively as a PRAISE SONG! So...my question stands...why?

Now, if you watch the show, you know this was "Idol Gives Back" week, where they have dozens of celebrities on the show trying to raise money for various causes around the world. I think that's great. It's nice to see people care. They gave something like 16 million dollars for poverty and AIDS in Africa and poverty in America. So maybe people were just feeling religious after all the giving and decided to break out into worship? Is that it? Somehow, as nice as that sounds, I don't think that was it. I can't see a major show on a major network getting all "Jesus" all of a sudden, considering we live in a world where mentioning the name Jesus in an adoring way gets everyone's panties in a twist, and then words like "radical" or "judgmental" get thrown around in regards to Christians. I'm at a loss. Maybe I should just let it be. Maybe they really were just feeling extra spiritual after giving so much. Maybe giving is a natural path to feeling close to Christ. If so, then this is a huge lesson for the church to learn. Maybe instead of standing around in our churches condemning the rest of the world, we should get involved and start giving back. If giving of ourselves is the way to make people see Christ, then charity may be the new way to witness in this postmodern world. It's not really a new idea though, is it? Didn't Jesus give everything? Weren't the first Christians in tune with the idea of making sure everyone was cared for? Somewhere along the line the Church forgot this idea and became a club for Pharisees. Maybe now, we can break through and show the world that Jesus is not the head of some crazy cult.

Why did American Idol feel it necessary to sing Shout to the Lord? I doubt most of the contestants even understood what they were singing, or the buzz it would create. Whatever their reason, millions of people heard a song that blatantly worships Jesus. And while part of me is still uncomfortable with it, I don't know how it can be a bad thing for people to hear about Jesus, when they never would have otherwise.

California Dreamin'

So I've got 3 plane tickets from Birmingham, AL to Orange County, CA and I can do nothing but sit here and look at them, at least for now. I've got my vacation time up on the calender at work and I'm just counting the days now. I've already bought the tickets to Sea World, S.D. Zoo, and the Wild Animal Park, but I still need to get the tickets to the Monterey Aquarium. I guess I can just get those the day we go, but it's nice to hold them in my hands.

I'm pretty excited to be going "home", even though I'm spending most of my trip in So. California, instead of San Francisco. It's not the same going home anymore. My parents are in a retirement apartment, where they barely have enough room for us to visit, let alone stay there. So we have to pay for 8 or 9 days of hotel rooms, which is enough to make us seriously consider not going at all. My sisters, who live in Half Moon Bay, offered to put us up, but I don't think we'd be comfortable staying there. We're on vacation, and I don't want to worry about whether we're keeping the place clean or if we're bothering them by coming and going a lot. Besides, I'm not really all that close to them. I was adopted into the family at a time when they were leaving home and getting their own lives. Although I have a brother and two sisters, I'm basically like an only child. But, it would save us $600 or so if we stayed there, and that's an attractive option.

Heather can't come with us this time, because she has to fly to Phoenix that week to take a class, and since I had to take that week off anyway since she'd be gone, I decided to just fly out to California while I was off and Chloe was out of school. It kinda sucks, actually it really sucks that she can't come. She's going to miss a good time. And I'm really stressing about the whole potty thing...I mean, if we're at the zoo, and I have to go to the bathroom, (which is going to happen), do I leave the two girls outside by themselves? Or if Rachel has to go, I've got to take her into the boy's bathroom and leave Chloe outside. You see my problem? It's a stressful thing to think about, but I'm sure we'll be fine.

So we're flying out June 17 and going to the Wild Animal Park and Sea World on the 18th, and then the S.D. Zoo on the 19th. Driving up to the S.F. area the 20th, and seeing my family until Monday. On Monday, driving to Monterey with a stop in Santa Cruz and will go to the aquarium. Staying in Monterey that night, and then Tuesday, taking our time driving down the coast, and letting the girls see the beautiful coastline. Some time that evening we'll make it back to Orange County and then fly back the 25th. I hope to see some friends I never get to see anymore (Brian I want to see that baby!) All in all, it should be fun, maybe a little stressful having the girls by myself so far from home. Rachel will miss her mom and will probably be distraught after so long without her, but we'll make do.

How many more days until we go?