Most weddings that I have attended have been joyous occasions, but the wedding that I went to with my family was perhaps the nicest occasion ever.

The wedding was held at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. The day was supposed to be a little cool with wind and since it was an outside wedding, the wedding party was a little worried. Not this time. The weather was quite warm. It was probably 84 degrees, but felt like 94. Because the guests were seated in the sunlight, there were parasols available to shield the sun. Tucker and Ryan really liked their umbrellas. The wedding was officiated by the brides brother and added a great personal flair to the wedding.


As nice as the wedding was, the reception was something that people will remember for quite awhile. The bride and groom are really fond of children. Because of this, they insisted on inviting all the kids of their guests. Because of the number of kids, they set aside a special room that looked like a candy store for the kids to play in. They hired childcare for the kids and had tons of activities for them ranging from a Balloon Sculptor & Caricature Artist to Play dough and Coloring. It was quite amazing and many people went in the room to check it out.



Dinner was great along with the wine selections. The party favors were a Do-it-Yourself Candy Bar. Like the kids room, this was a large table with jars filled with every type of candy you could imagine. All you had to do is grab a bag and start filling up. Our boys loved this one.

The wedding made 7 hours feel like 7 minutes. We all had such a great time!

So if you are in the vicinity of Santa Clara can you please check the street to see if my ass is somewhere? That's right, I lost my ass.

I usually fair pretty well when playing poker, but something was off tonight. The cards just weren't coming. It could be that I was out of practice, since I haven't played in over 6 months or it could just be that I was gun shy and wasn't betting correctly. Regardless, I sucked big time tonight. So if you happen to see an ass on the side of the road, it might just be mine.

If there is a silver lining to this cloud, it is that I will hopefully now start getting invited back to some poker games. Winning at poker is great... great for you. Nobody likes to play poker with someone that knows how, so if you win, you aren't on the top of the list. Hopefully tonight, I will move up the list a little.

Every once in awhile you do something that just makes you feel good. A couple of weeks ago, I made the decision to give my old Diamante to my niece Jenee. She just turned 16 this past January and needed a car. Coming from her, it was that she needed a car that didn't have a stick or wasn't called "Shrek." I just love that name.

Anyway, my old car was just sitting in the driveway doing nothing. Gina and I swore that we would drive it until it died. A year and a half ago, we broke that promise and got a new car for Gina. So there the Diamante sat, lonely, undriven for 18 months. The old car seats were still in their places in the back seat. Junk from years gone by were in the trunk. I purchased the car in 1995 and it still had some stuff in there since then. GROSS!!!!

Cleaning out the car was a fairly easy task. Everything in it was throw away stuff, in my book. We hadn't used anything in that car for 18 months, so we probably didn't need anything. It took me a couple of hours to clean it out and wash it. Oh yeah, then came the part about trying to start it.

Before it was sent down to the minors 18 months ago, I just purchased a new battery. The problem with a car battery is that if you don't use it, it can go bad. It did just that. I lifted the hood to jump start the car and what did I find? I found my worst nightmare. I found a damn wasp nest. I flipped, ran into the garage and got the bug spray and sprayed a whole can on it. I think the smell killed every yellow jacket within a 30 mile radius. Those things were dead. There were about 20 dead wasps on the ground when I was done and about a dozen more in the nest. I finally won... So, I jump started the car and got it running. I was amazed at how smooth it still ran, considering the gas was that old too. I drove it around a bit for old times sake and I had forgotten how smooth the ride was too. For a split second, I thought to myself. I could just drive this car again and save a million dollars per year in gas. (I drive a Yukon XL) But nope, this car was for Jenee. She's a good kid who has done a ton of babysitting for us over the last year, so she deserves it.

She picked up the car this weekend and drove it home to her house in San Leandro with her mom. Today when she went to register it, she needed some documents that I neglected to get. I actually lost them, although there is a family dispute of who has possession of them. I just know I don't and since it's my blog, I will say that I am right. Because of her not having the correct documents from me, I had to act fast because the car was useless to her if she couldn't drive it. When I heard from her mom, my sister, I downloaded the forms, filled them out and took them to get notarized. I drove up there tonight to drop them off. So, hopefully she will by this time tomorrow be the proud owner of a Black 1995 Diamante.... and get a job!

Wow, 2 posts in a day... What gives?

Ok, here's what gives. I just got through with perhaps the grossest of gross duties in the entire world. Cleaning out a septic tank would probably not be worse that this.

Tonight I had the wonderful task of cleaning out the freezer. Although I really don't mind cleaning out freezers and refrigerators in general, this was a little different. You see, a few weeks back, the power went to our freezer and refrigerator in the garage. Since we don't park our cars in the garage, we didn't really notice what was going on until we smelled something funny upstairs. We thought something had died, quite possibly the squirrel who occasionally likes to take shelter in our roof. We hadn't heard him this year, so why not?

One night we decided to investigate where the smell was coming from. Gina went out to the garage and got blasted with the smell. We still thought that something was dead in the house, but since the smell was in the garage we were thinking skunk, rat, raccoon, anything but what happened next. As we were looking for the source, Gina happened to open up the refrigerator and didn't really notice anything accept that it wasn't cold. We don't really keep much in there, but bottles of beer and cans of soda. Since they are sealed, there really wasn't a smell. Then, she opened the freezer door and "Holy Shit!!!!" There was blood from the meat in the freezer mixed with a frozen lasagna mixed with a bag of ice (now bag of water) mixed with ice cream mixed with now rotten chicken. It was absolutely disgusting. The look on Gina's face was classic. It was kind of like the look on Jim Carrey's face in "Dumb and Dumber" when he saw his friend riding of with his girl. To make a long story short and on to me (selfish plug), Gina ended up cleaning that freezer that night. Boy was I ever thankful. I did everything I could to help the cause by getting her bags, spraying air freshener, etc.... Then after she finished cleaning up, she still noticed a fairly strong smell. She then opened the main freezer, which was right next to the refrigerator. Guess what she found???? A FREEZER FULL OF ROTTEN CHICKEN, MEAT, FISH AND VEGETABLES!!!! <--That's where I come in.

I figured that there was no way I was going to clean it that night. It was already almost midnight. I did what every man in my position would do. I found a way to get power back to the freezer so it would freeze everything up and get the smell back down to normal. Guess what, it worked!!!! (That's a tip I am going to remember forever) Anyway, fast forward to a few more weeks and we have tonight. D-Day! Garbage pick up is tomorrow, so I figured I should get it cleaned up before our big party on June 30th.

Even though I knew what I had to do, I kept procrastinating. I BBQ'ed tonight (Jamaican Jerk Pork Ribs, Lavender Chicken and and plain chicken...yummy!!!!) That took up a few hours. I was more than helpful getting the kids to bed tonight. Around 9pm I figured it was time to see if I could get Verizon to get my DSL speed up to where they promised it should be. Then a voice came to me. It said, "Quit stalling, you need to get out there and just do it!" I stalled for just a few more minutes and then said, "Ok dear! I'm going out in the garage. Wish me luck."

I turned off the power to the freezer and began the task of removing all the spoiled contents of the freezer. I pour a glass of hot water over the top and got my trusty hammer and screw driver working on the most disgusting crap in the world. I even wore a surgical mask to help with the smell. It didn't work. As I was hammering and pulling stuff out to put in the garbage, I couldn't help but wonder if this is what a serial killer must go through. If so, it is definitely not for me. I like my profession quite nicely, thank you! I thought about some local coyotes or mountain lines running into the garage because of the smell of rotted flesh. Of course it probably would smell bad to them as well.

Many times I gagged and about 3/4 of the way down, I realized that what I was pulling out was bacteria at it's worst. I started freaking out about how I might get really sick and what would happen if I touched the doors in the house and the bacteria got on one of the kids. I know, I'm a little paranoid, but it was a stressful moment. Anyway, in my paranoia, I asked Gina to go get a bottle of bleach so I could clean off the remnants of bacteria from any place I touched. She didn't want to, but could see that I was freaking out, so she did. (That was very nice) Anyway, I finished around 11:05 and even got to clean out the freezer with bleach. I forgot about the effects of breathing bleach in an enclosed surface and almost passed out. That would have been a perfect ending to my evening.

All in all, I feel good about what I did tonight. I accomplished the things I set out to do, like procrastinating long enough until I was ready and actually cleaning out the damn stinky thing.

Now that I have wash my hands with bleach and finished this entry, it's off to the showers and then to bed. I'm beat.

So I had to write this before I forgot about it. Today at lunch we watched as the Parking Ticket lady gave out about 20 tickets to people in the parking lot across from our office on San Fernando and 2nd street. She gave a ticket to anyone who was over the line. Now I guess that I can make some sort of sense of that if it is impossible to park in the space next to the car in violation. These cases, for the most part, were different. There are two lines on each side of a parking lot. My take on it is that you need to park within the outer most line. She wrote a ticket to anyone who was over the inside line. Just a fraction over the line was enough to get a ticket. I was fuming inside and was waiting her to give me a ticket, since I parked there today. I was waiting so I could fight it in court and take pictures of different cars who were ticketed and weren't ticketed. I know the city is hard up for money, but this is ridiculous. In surveying the parking lot, I only saw 2 vehicles that were in clear violation. They were taking up two spaces. The rest of the ticketed cars were not impeding anyone elses ability to park in the space next to them and there was no safety hazard associated with their parking job.

Sometimes I just don't understand the reasoning behind when or when not to give a ticket.

After work today, Gina and I took the boys to Nick's biological fathers house so we could meet the two girls that were going to be hanging out with Nick over the summer. I can't say the babysitter word... Anyway, they seemed like normal girls and even after I did my normal investigation of them, I didn't think anything other than positive things about them. That's a first, considering the ones we had talked to. It's a relief to have that taken care of.

So, I can't tell you lengths I go to so I can make sure my family is safe. I've turned into quite the investigator and can pretty much tell you anything about anyone these days. All I need is an email address (could be old), Full Name, and general area of where this person lives. From this I can pretty much tell you everything about them. It's a talent that I pretty much keep to myself.

Maybe it's just me, but the kids seem to be listening a little bit more these days. It's nice. It could also be that I'm mellowing out a little bit too...

There is something about Monday's at work that I can't get enough of. I know that most people really can't stand going back to work on Monday, but I rather enjoy it. It could be that I just love my job so much that I can't get enough of it. I'm not quite sure about that one, but I do know that it's reaching those micro goals throughout the day that really makes my workday a fun one. I guess this is why I do what I do and will probably do it until the day that I die...

Everyone was pretty tired this morning. We had a really busy weekend and you could see the tiredness in the boys eyes when they woke up. Nick is with his biological father, so it was just Ryan and Tucker that I had to tend to this morning. It was quite an easy morning compared to every other morning. I think it had to do with a couple of things. One, I was up around 6:30 and ready by 7am and another was that they were just too tired to put up a fight. We were out of the house by 8:15, but if I pushed it we could have been out by 7:30. I was quite suprised that not only was it easy, the boys didn't even get into their brotherly fights of who gets what sink, what stool and gets their shoes on first. Ryan even went on to offer to share his toys without even been asked. Amazing... I know!!!

I got into work by 9:15 and cleaned up some stuff from the weekend before heading into the weekly corp. meeting. It's a great, open and upfront meeting about the state of the company, what we have done, what we are doing and absolutely anything else we feel needs to be covered. With a small <20 ppl company and a very, very close knit group of employees, anything and everything can come up. I wouldn't have it any other way. My co-workers rock!

Meeting is finished by 11am and back to the grindstone, helping out some rather amusing customers and putting together some things to help all our customers. Then off to lunch with the gang. Everyone at the company eats lunch together in the lunchroom. We all go out and get our lunches at different places in the vicinity, then bring it back to the lunchroom for a great time. It is here where everyone becomes so close knit. Just like our company meeting. Anything and everything is brought up here. I almost feel sorry for new employees just starting out. It is quite an experience, but they usually get up to speed rather quickly. Sometimes this can be a test for an interview candidate. We hope that we don't scare them off too much.

After lunch, it's back to our desks for more work. The day ends around 5:30 for most, then we are all pretty much back online at home working around 8pm until 11pm. There is tons of stuff to do in a startup and you can never do it all. You can, however, keep yourself up to date with all that's around you and your marketspace.

So after I got home today and ate some dinner, I did a little bit of clean up in the yard. We are having a large family party on the 30th of June. Roughly 40-50 people are coming to our house for swimming and a BBQ and a few drinks. We used to have it on the 4th of July, but people travel to our place and quite frankly I don't blame them if they don't want to have to drive home late at night only to wake up early the next day for work. I want them to stay as long as they want at our house, relax, have a drink and leave when they want.

So back to the cleanup... The wind was blowing so pine needles and god knows what else was flying in to the pool. Instead of using a skimmer (the manual stuff), I was lazy and just turned on the pool sweep and filter. I know, I know, I'm wasting energy, but I had other things to do.. Other things like pulling these weeds that were choking some of our plants around the lawn. I've never seen such a thing. These weeds had weaved themselves in some fo the bushier plants and were litterally strangling the flowers. It was odd. Also, I had to dig up one of my favorite plants in the Patio Area. It had just gotten too big for the patio area and was taking over. It didn't helps its own cause by having dead flowers on it either. It's a spring plant and had hundreds of flowers at one point this spring. They are all gone now and the plant just looked ugly. It took awhile to get it out and I broke a crappy shovel in the process. Once that was done and I was mauled by a few hundred mosquitos.. Okay, I'm lying, it was just one or two, I started to clean the BBQ. I figured I better start now as I am going to be cooking about 10 racks of ribs on that puppy come June 30th. I leave that BBQ solely for rib smoking and use the other BBQ for the sausages, chicken and anything else that I'm cooking that day. Gina uses the two ovens and stove for the rest of the cooking. We love to cook.

So as I was doing that, Gina was brushing Sammy our dog. He started blowing coat today and he was absolutely a mess. We could literally pull chunks of hair off of him with our fingers. We collected two plastic grocery bags of hair from him today. As Gina said, "It would have been nice if I had thought about changing out of my work clothes before starting this." Looks like she will have some dog fur work clothes.

The kids were still great tonight. Tired is more like it. They watched Willy Wonka (the Gene Wilder version), barely ate any food and then went right to bed. Gina and I should have done the same, but we are suckers and feel that we at least need to do some work before we go to bed. This ends up taking us to the midnight hour wondering why we were such fools to stay awake and work.

This brings me to the end. Gina just said she is off to bed, so now I have an excuse.

Good Night. One of these nights I'm going to write about the nightly routine that Gina and I have. People think it's a little twisted. It might be, but it works well for us.

Until that time.

Wow, what a day.

After a night of semi-partying with some good friends, I was able to sleep in on Father's Day. Sleeping in for this household is around 8am. My wife told me to go lay back down after I came downstairs to the smell of a great breakfast. Who was I to talk back. That's exactly what I wanted to do. I got antsy around 8:30 and came down to eat. Yummy!!!

After breakfast, I took my mom back to Hollister and visited my dad in the hospital for awhile. He's looking better, but you can still tell that something is obviously wrong. He goes through terrible mood swings, but doesn't really know that he is. He lifted his hand to my mom today after she dropped something of his. My mom just blows it off and pretty much tells him to kiss her ass. He really doesn't have a clue as to whats going on. One thing I found about him since he got out of ICU, is that he hates to talk. He will say Yes or No to questions, but he doesn't really want to talk about anything. It's a sad situation. He pretty much wanted all of us kids and mom to leave. I cut out of there early, because I had a Father's day BBQ to go to.

I got home around 2:15 and then Gina and the boys got home around 2:30. We took off to my sister-in-law's house for the BBQ. We had a great time and the boys went nuts with a water slide that my wife bought for all the kids to play with. I got a lot of sun, but had a really good time. Since we've gotten back, I've been fighting off sleep, but it's looking like it's gotten the best of me. After checking my work email, I think I am going to sleep.