new things for my future too...

buddy, the turk who runs california grill here in whittier has been bugging me to work there lately. from what i hear, the money made by servers there is much greater than what i make at polly's. i'm considering his offer, as it might help me to get the blockbuster entirely out of my system. i think blockbuster will be like grains of sand after going to the beach, that still cling to you even after thorough showering. i will forever be vexed by that horrific eyesore of a video store. maybe that's dramatic. anyways, i was also thinking of doing some free-lance food serving. i also accept referrals.

p.s.-i wish you the best glen! best policy governator that i know...

New things for my future

Today we found out from a press release that MEDA did not receive a grant award that we had applied for to fund then next 17 months of Capacity Parntership Project from the Department of Health and Human Services. This means that my position ends on October 14, 2005 since MEDA does not have any other work for someone in my geography.

My first choice next step is to be a free lance consultant specializing in governance for community and faith-based organziations--you can see my web site www.capactiypartnership.com and the corresponding Governance Consulting Blog. I have two clients right now with about 6 days worth of work. I am accepting referrals.

Princess Brianna

Feeder Fish

These are the feeder fish in our small pond.

Pigtails

Brianna now has pigtails. What a smile. I will get to see her in the morning with her new pigtails.

A weekend of birthdays

As Beth must have been winding down her birthday celebrations, a gathering at Harvard yard was beginning a celebration of Jeff Barneson's 49th birthday on Saturday morning.

The weekend of celebration included special recognition by the Harvard Graduate School Christian Fellowship on Saturday evening where Jeff serves as a chaplain and an open house on Sunday.

I have a photo of Jeff and Tara greeting and giving folks a tour of the house. I need to remember to take one of the boys, Zack and Ezra.

Kruiser Kat

Follow this link to one of my birthday presents this year. It is one of my all time favorite gifts! Shannon and I saw it aboard the cruise ship this summer and noticed the street sign. http://en.easyart.com/art-prints/prints/Don-Roth/Kruiser-Kat-42370.html

Lance Watch California

Lance Armstrong and Maria Shriver were interviewed this morning on The Today Show. They are promoting the "Get Healthy, California" campaign to encourage Californians to eat well and exercise. Evidently 50% of Californians are obese, costing the state $48 billion in medical costs.

Anyway, at the end of the interview, Matt Lauer asked Lance if he was going to go for an 8th Tour de France win. He replied, "Highly doubtful." This is your "For What It's Worth" reporter signing off.

Feeder Fish

We are now the proud parents of feeder fish. On one fateful day they moved from BFC (Bottom of the Food Chain) to TFC (Top of, or really 2nd to the Top of, the Food Chain). I am ignoring the fact that there are only 4 of 10 left that I can see, but they will now come to the surface of the water when I add fish flakes to their environment. I am glad to be able to protect the least among us. Just hope the raccoons don't finish off the rest...That's the latest from Beth and Steve's Cat/Feeder Fish Ranch.

Since we are adding cartoons.

I created a water garden in a pot. My friend Jeff Kennedy gave me several plants. Jeff has a large Koi pond, and a number of water gardens in pots. He sells many of his plants on Ebay. I like the fish fountain. The sound of it is very relaxing. So far the feeder fish have lived thourgh on Raccoon attack. 

When the phone rings

When the phone rang this am and a voice asked me for mom I became puzzled. To make a short story longer, the mom they needed to talk to was Beth. Seems one of her son's lost his cel phone and one of the stored numbers was titled "mom". I was about to put her on a plane to find the missing owner, but it turns out that the owner of the phone had not met with foul play as she imagined. I think we will all program our phones with the"ICE" phone numbers now that we know someone will use them, even if it doesn't involve injured persons.

Steve's Comment on Travel

Many of the family enjoy travel. Beth planted a seed long ago about Christmas in Puerto Rico. I have a proposal. Let's consider an every-other or every-third-year Christmas time family trip. Skip the presents. Let's go explore somewhere together. The trip could last 3 - 7 days. Perhaps the days between Christmas and New Years for whoever is game. Friends welcome, too. Maybe something simple like Mammoth or exotic like Puerto Rico or anything in between. Each time, a different part of the family would be responsible to start the plans: suggest a place, make housing and activity suggestions. Then we'd book our transportation, etc. That sounds fun to me. I'd suggest we start in 2006 or 2007. Any YES's to this?

I'm Back...

Haven't blogged in a while. Start of school year has been demanding, and the inconvenience of my faithful 1998 G3 computer have given me bloggers-block. It is slow and labored, but every working. It is also located in my office. When I am there, I am usually working and don't find the time to blog. Now I have a new computer, and I even have it prior to a major old age crisis with my vintage Mac previously mentioned. I'm "wireless," now, too. Very convenient. Hooray for Apple's teacher discounts and specials. I guess we in this house need to just plan on replacing one of our computers (we own two...and have two on loan) every 2-3 years, since technology is advancing so fast. It is just hard for me to spend big amounts of money on anything besides travel, I guess.

lance unretires

I saw on the new that Lance may unretire because he is upset about the charges in the French newspaper. We will see if he is serious.

Red Cross--no passport required

Red Cross's Rio Hondo Chapter here in Whittier had an orientation for volunteers to be deployed to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama this week. I went. Three hours later I am oriented and ready to be called and deployed as soon as I tell them the date I would be available. Deployments are 9-21 days long.

Will I go? My current work contract with MEDA ends on September 30--so if I am free starting October 1, that's my deployment date.

Here are some of the things they said at the orientation: Whatever you think it is like there--it's a lot worse! Until this week, 9/11 was the biggest disaster that the Red Cross has ever responded to. Hurricane Katrina is many times greater than that in terms of the thousands of square miles, millions of affected people. The relief agencies divide up the work:

Red Cross buys food from Sysco and delivers it to the Southern Baptist convention's men's club which has hundreds of mobile kitchens that were driven into to affected area as soon as the roads were cleared.

I was amazed at the logistical challenge they and other relief agencies face. They have deployed 6,000 volunteers already, have opened 367 shelters in less than a week including the Astrodome in Houston which houses 15,000. The mobile kitchens are serving 20,000 meals every single day.

Get your hepatitis A vaccination and a tetanus booster and let's go! Next orientation meetings are at Wednesday, September 7, 2005, at 6:00 p.m. and again on Friday. For more information in Whittier, clike here.

Brianna spends the night

Brianna spent the night with us. She dressed herself without anyones help. It is the layered look.

Information and responses emerging for hurricane relief work

Our church will take a special offering tomorrow and send that to the Red Cross. Willow Creek Church in Illinois is researching local churches to in the affected area to send funds from their special fund for response to the hurricane situation on the gulf coast.

CNN has a list where folks can let their loved ones know where they are
. Cindi has a cousin and his wife who evacuated themselves from Slidell, LA to Akron, OH.

National Geographic in an article about the Louisiana wetlands published an article in 2004 about the potential of a catestrophic hurricane with so much detail, you'd think they wrote it about this storm sometime in 2006.

In November 2003 I went to New Orleans for a conference. Here are some photos: Bourbon Street, French Quarter, the Mississippi turns. --now all is changed.



And last night at Downtown Disney and New Orleans Square in Dinseyland:

busy in p'ville

We are busy up here in the hinterland. Brianna is at our house in the early am on tuesdays and thursdays. Steve drives Kyle to Sac State on mondays and fridays. Beth days are full with teaching and battling construction workers. Kyle is at Sac State all day on tuesdays and thursdays. Steve continues to squeeze in clients. Can you tell we are looking forward to three days off.

No pictures but our friend Jeff put his first koi fish in his pond last night. We celebrated with him and did the fish watch. Will receive daily update on the condition of the fish. If it lives more fish will join him. Sitting by the pond listening to the waterfall and watching the koi swim around was very restful.

Be safe on this labor day weekend.

Living free in the back yard

This, along with his siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and whatever other relatives that spiders have, are either making a sequel to the arachnophobia movie--or there are a whole lot of flies to be eaten in our back yard. The love the night time--notice the time stamp on this post. I took the photo a few minutes ago.