June 29

All right, I’m going to be mean for a minute. A catcher should be able to catch. Now that I got that out of my system, I’m sad to announce that the Rockies lost today. It was a very good game. We were tied at 2 and we had our chances. In the bottom of the eighth, we had the bases loaded with only one out. Then, Wiggy hit into a double play. We were so close. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, our closer Huston Street gave up two singles to start the inning. He struck out the next guy and they had runners on first and third. The next batter was about to strike out, but he got a lucky shot out into right field. Seth Smith caught the ball and fired it back in to home plate. The throw was right on. They had at least four or five steps on the base runner. It should have been an easy out. But Chris Iannetta, our catcher, missed the ball. The run scored and we couldn’t recover in the bottom of the ninth. In all fairness, the ball landed right at his feet and took a crooked bounce. Chris is a great catcher. It was just his turn to make a flub. Unfortunately, it cost us the game. I wanted the win, but I wouldn’t have been disappointed if we got the win in extra innings like yesterday. So, we have to play the White Sox again tomorrow in the afternoon to see who takes the series.
It was so hot today I had to use the air conditioner and the fan to stay cool while sleeping. I woke up about noon and it was sweltering. I had such a headache, I turned on the fan and just tried not to sweat. It was hard going back to sleep, but my wife and daughter were nice and quiet when they got home and let me sleep. Usually whenever anyone comes home I wake right up. I was thinking about staying up in the morning and then trying to sleep in the evening, but then I would have to try to go to sleep in the afternoon sometime and I think it would be too hot. So, I guess I’ll just keep going like I’m doing now.
I was fleshing out a new book yesterday and I decided against doing it. I had some good characters and a good beginning. But, the ending just wouldn’t come. I’ll keep it on ice in case something comes up. But for now, it’s not going to happen. I’m going to work on Gremlin Planet tonight. I’ve been wanting to give the River of Magic a little time, so I might throw down a few pages towards the end of the day if I’m still up for it. We’ll see.
I’m putting some Cars, Eagles, Dire Straits, and Dio into the playlist for background music. So, it’s time to get going.
-Thom

June 28

Man, I am soooooo full. We went to Long John Silvers to eat because it was on the way home from picking up my daughter. She stayed the night at her cousin’s house. It was good, but I ate too much. I’m at work now, and I just don’t want to do anything because I am so stuffed. So, I am going to blame my lazyness on the game. It is still on. The score is tied, 2-2 and we’re in the bottom of the twelfth. We have a man on second and only one out. The big man, Jason Giambi is up to hit for the pitcher.
This morning I had a dream about a new book. It woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep thinking about it. I have to finish a little bit of the Great Detective, but after that I think I’m going to throw down a few pages of this new one to see how it plays out.
Giambi moved Blackmon to third, but was out at first. They walked Carlos Gonzales to get to Chris Nelson. So, there are two outs with runners on first and third.
My granddaughter came over today. She got a little thumb wrestling toy in her kid’s meal. It was kind of fun. It consisted of a mask with a cape that fit over her thumb and my pinky. Then, there was a little board that looked like a ring with two holes in it. After donning the toys, we stuck our fingers in and wrestled. We did it all the way home. Since I was playing, my youngest daughter drove. She didn’t have her permit on her, but we need to get her some driving time before she gets her license. She did pretty well. She still needs some work on parking and staying steady in her lane. She drifted a little several times.
Well, Chris Nelson swung on a pitch that would have been ball four and struck out. We are still tied at 2-2 in the thirteenth. Rex Brothers has taken the mound.
Our cable box is messing up. Almost none of our channels come in clearly. But, we have been reluctant to change out the box because we have a bunch of recordings that we haven’t watched yet. So, I watched the new series Falling Skies. The first week’s episode was getting good until the recording started messing up. It skipped so badly and was so distorted halfway through that it was unwatchable. I deleted it and watched the second episode. It was pretty good. Going back, most of the shows we were holding because we wanted to watch them are messed up. I think we’re going to change it in very soon.
It’s the bottom of the thirteenth now and we are still 2-2. We have Todd Helton coming up and the front middle of our lineup. COME ON ROCKIES, WE NEED A WALK-OFF HOMER.
Last night, my wife sent me a white Pegasus in Farmville. I have a large black dragon, a little red dragon, a purple Pegasus, a phoenix, and a griffin. I think I’m going to make a little area for magical creatures. I saw a few others, but I didn’t have the FV dollars to buy them. And, I refuse to change real money for play money. But, eventually I’ll save up enough to get them.
The White Sox walked Tulo and Tie Wigginton just hit a little blooper into shallow right field. Tulo never stopped. He went from first to home to win the game. We have our first walk off win of the season.
Well, I better get started. I’m putting Poison, Tesla, and Guns and Roses in the playlist for background music.
-Thom

June 27

Well, we fell under 500 again. After winning the first game, the Yankees took us to town for the remaining two games. It was made worse by the Yankee fan we have working at the office. Then today, we dropped a make up game to Chicago. It hasn’t been the best three days. On Sunday’s Yankee game, we stayed neck in neck with New York, but they took it with a two run homer at the end. Very heart wrenching,
I went and saw JJ Abrams Super 8 movie today. It was very good. It was funny and it had a great monster. I don’t want to give the ending away so I won’t tell you what happened. All I’ll say is that it was worth watching. Next week is Cowboys and Aliens. But, I won’t be able to see it for two weeks. It looks like I’m going to do a little overtime during my movie watching time. Bummer.
I also took the wife and my youngest daughter to the movies on Sunday. We saw the Hangover II. It was pretty funny, but I think I liked the first one better.
We got a letter from my daughter in boot camp. She’s doing very well. She even said that she was having fun at some of the obstacle courses. The only thing she said she didn’t like was getting up early to do PT. She had her first PT test and she did fine, but she said she will do better when she gets used to getting up so early. She also said that it was 102 degrees when she was running. I bet that sucked. I didn’t want to tell her that it will probably get even hotter as summer progresses. I sent her a letter today. I hope she gets it this week. I can’t believe that she has been there for two full weeks already. Today starts her third week. I hope it is going as fast for her as it is for me.
We had a power outage on Saturday. It started in the early evening and lasted until three in the morning. Without the fans, it was really hot. We were outside for a while watching the police and fire department driving up and down the streets. I guess they were looking for the problem. After a while, we went back inside and lit a few candles. Then, we played spades all night. Yes, I was the champion. I trounced my wife and daughter. We tried playing again on Sunday after the movie, but it just wasn’t the same without the candles. I still beat them, but we didn’t play for very long.
My wife had to work some overtime on Saturday. I had a bunch of things planned out that I wanted to do since I had the house to myself. But, I didn’t do any of them. I don’t know what happened. I guess I’ll have to squeeze them in during the week.
Well, I better get started or I won’t do anything today either. I’m going to put the radio on today. I don’t feel like going through all of the songs to make a playlist. I’m going to work on the Great Detective Sequel and Gremlin Planet again today.
-Thom

June 24

The Rockies spanked the Yankees. Giambi and Tulo both hit homers and Ubaldo pitched a very good game. He was a little wild at first, but he calmed down and went seven innings. Street closed it out for the win. It was a great game, all the better because we have a Yankee fan here at work. I didn’t rub his nose in it too much. (At least I didn’t make him cry) We have two more games against them this weekend and I’m off, so I get to see both of them. It should be a really good weekend. We are officially one game over five hundred and we are third in our division. Can you believe the Diamondbacks are in first? Well, we are only five games back. We’ll catch up.
I was very disappointed when J.K. Rowling made her announcement yesterday. I was expecting a new Hogwarts book if not a Harry Potter book. But it was only some interactive online thing. Oh well, she’ll wise up sooner or later and make some more.
I woke up late today. Usually I get up when my wife comes home from work at three. But today, they went to the movies. I didn’t wake up until after five. I’m well rested, but it felt weird waking up without anyone being there. Then, I tried to call and no one was answering. I thought something might have happened, but they didn’t answer because they were at the movies. (Understandable)
My youngest daughter is going on the Walk-a-thon tomorrow and my wife has to work, so I’m going to have most of the day to myself. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll figure something out though. But, I for sure won’t sleep in again. I don’t want to miss the beginning of the game again.
Well, I better get started. I’m working on the Great Detective sequel again and Gremlin Planet. I’m putting Meatloaf, Cat Stevens, Bread, April Wine, and Jim Croce into the playlist for background music.
-Thom

June 22

Well, it’s Wednesday. I guess that’s about all we can say about that. Nothing really good happens during the middle of the week. Along that line, the Rockies lost today. We took the series, but lost the last game. We have tomorrow off and then it is off to New York for the Yankees. That’s the series I’m looking forward to watching.
My daughter’s boyfriend came over today to show me some of the pictures for the graphic novel. They are shaping up pretty nicely. He is still working on the characters and hasn’t started any of the panels yet, but there isn’t any hurry. I did ask him to make a picture to put up on the website. It is going to be a three phases of the main character. It should come out pretty nicely. I would like to put up more than one, but I don’t want to swamp him with work. He still has regular work to deal with and practice for the sports teams he’s a part of for school. Actually, I’m surprised he has any time for drawing.
Well, in less you want to know what I ate for dinner, that’s about it for today. I told you this was a boring Wednesday. So, I’m going to liven things up here at work with a little Ratt, Scorpions, Cinderella, and Twisted Sister in the playlist. I’m going to work on Gremlin Planet and the Great Detective sequel. (It doesn’t have a name yet)
-Thom

June 21

Let’s see if this will work today. I was halfway through pounding out a blog entry when the computer crashed. It wasn’t very fun. We spent half the night without music and all of the night without the internet. Of course, I probably don’t remember what I said and now I’ll have to come up with an entirely new blog.
So, let’s start with my daughter. She started boot camp last week, but they didn’t begin training until yesterday. The previous week, they just filled out paperwork, received their uniforms and waited until all of the recruits showed up. The only good thing about that was that she was able to keep her phone. She called every day and let us know what was going on. But, Monday morning, I received a call from her saying they were getting ready to collect the phones and she wouldn’t be able to call for about three weeks. When I was in boot camp, we didn’t have cell phones. They let us call once at the beginning of boot camp and once about a week before it ended. But, that was the Marines and twenty some years ago. Since she is on the east coast, when she called, I was still asleep. My wife was up, but she was in the shower. That’s very important, because I was still half asleep when I answered the phone. Looking back, I should have gotten up and taken the phone into the bathroom so that my wife could say good bye to her. But, I’m not that quick that early in the morning. I just told her that she was in the shower and I talked to her for a while. I let her know that I loved her and missed her and was very proud of her. But she didn’t get to say good bye to her mom. Well, next time I’ll be more prepared. I wrote her a letter yesterday. As soon as she sends us her address, I’ll send it. I don’t know how slow the mail is these days, but she should get it before she has a chance to call us again.
I didn’t get to see the Rockies play Sunday or Monday. Sunday I worked the whole day and Monday I was asleep. We lost on Sunday, but took the series from the Tigers. We took Monday’s game against the Indians and then we won again today. We are back over 500 baby. Woo Hoo!!! Today’s game was really close. Chacin pitched a great game. He got into a little trouble walking three straight batters in an early inning, but then bounced back. They took him out when we were up three to one. The Tribe battled back and ended up tying us. Then, Seth Smith smacked in his second homer of the day. The Tigers came close in the ninth, but our closer Street struck out the last batter giving us the win. It was nice. We play one more game with the Indians, then a day off, and then we take on the Yankees. That’s going to be a good series because we have a Yankee fan here at work. It’s going to get interesting.
I went and saw the Green Lantern movie on Monday. It was awesome. There was a storyline quirk in it, but the special effects were amazing. They were the best I have ever seen. Since the movies started all coming out in 3D, I’ve only really seen two, Avatar and Clash of the Titans. Avatar’s effects were great, but Clash of the Titans sucked. I hope that means that the next 3D movie I see is going to be bad. Because, there are some really good movies coming up. I don’t know if they are 3D or not, but I’m looking forward to seeing Cowboys and Aliens, Transformers, and Harry Potter. There are some more out there, but those three are the only ones I can remember on the spot like this.
I had to work from 6am to 6pm Sunday on Father’s Day. It sucked. My wife’s side of the family had a barbeque that I couldn’t go to. It was also the Gay Pride Festival downtown. So, they closed off Broadway, which is the major street running through town. So, it was difficult to get to work and even more so leaving. At least at six in the morning, all of the partiers weren’t out and all over the place. Nothing bad about gay people, I know several actually, but I have never seen so many of them all at once all crowded together. Most of the guys were wearing practically nothing. I’m not sure what it is about very short white shorts and suspenders, but that was what a lot of them were wearing and nothing else. There were a lot of people dressed up in costumes. Some of them were pretty good. My youngest daughter and my oldest daughter’s boyfriend spend the day at the festival. They got pictures of themselves as both boys and girls. They didn’t dress up or anything. They were using those cutout things where you place your face through the hole. The pictures came out pretty nice.
My granddaughter came over several times this weekend. She even spent the night on Saturday. She really likes playing on the trampoline. There are also a lot of little cousins hanging around over here for her to play with. She likes it so much that she doesn’t even want to stop playing in order to eat. We keep getting her food, but she only eats a few bites before she is out the door playing again. I bet the kids are thinking we are starving her because she is always hungry when she gets back to their house. She also doesn’t really want to go home. Lately, when it is time to go, she starts crying. It’s heartbreaking, but it doesn’t last. After we get her into the car and start driving, she is mad for a few seconds and then she is back to her normal self. She invited me to come stay the night next weekend so I can take her swimming. But, only me, grandma wasn’t invited.
I was helping my daughter and her grandpa move some stuff today. We were at her school and we had to take it across the soccer field. The soccer team was practicing and my eldest daughter’s boyfriend, who is one year behind her, was out there practicing. I didn’t expect to see anyone I knew, so I wasn’t really paying attention. I don’t know how long he was waving at me, but I suddenly spotted him and waved back. I hope he didn’t think I was ignoring him. I was just focused on what I was doing and not paying attention to anything else. He’s coming over tomorrow about five to show me some of his drawings for the graphic novel. My daughter said that he has been working hard on them and has quite a bit for me to see. I’m going to get him to make something that I can put up on the website. I’m going to devote a whole page to the graphic novel. It’s going to be nice.
Well, either nothing else happened over the weekend or I can’t remember it. So, I’m going to put Boston, Journey, and Rush into the playlist for tonight. I will work a little bit on Gremlin Planet, but I’m also going to start a sequel to the Great Detective. When I was in the Corps, I used to write short little detective stores from Japan and send them home to my brothers. They knew it was me sending them, but I would only put the Great Detective as a return address. They liked them, and now that my daughter is in the Army, I think I’m going keep it alive. I collected all of the other ones into the first Great Detective novel. It’s out in book and ebook forms for anyone that wants to read it. I’ll keep the ones I’ll send to my daughter and put it out as a sequel.
-Thom

June 17

Everything is coming up Rockies. We slaughtered the Tigers today, 13-6. The tigers did have a grand slam, but that was about all they had. Our bats today were electric. We were hitting everything. It was one of those days you wished you were at the ball park. It’s one of those days that you wished it was tomorrow so that you could see them wipe up the floor with them again.
Although today was a great Rockies day, it wasn’t a great phone day. Yes, my phone broke. It was one of those older phones that flipped open and didn’t have touch screen technology. So, it isn’t a huge loss, but now I don’t have a phone. I don’t use my phone very much. Usually, it is just for telling the time. Since we switch back and forth every hour at work, I do need to know the time. So, my wife pulled out one of the old phones we seem to collect and charged it up. It is saying that it is 6:17 which isn’t good, because it is really 10:09. I don’t know what I’m going to do tonight. Oh well, the Rockies won. I’ll figure something out.
It was kind of a pain getting to work today. The Gay Pride Parade is scheduled for this weekend and they always close down Broadway, which is the main thoroughfare through town. It is also the street where I work. So, I have to go several city blocks out of the way and thread an obstacle course just to get to work. It will be worse this weekend. And, yes, I do have to work on Sunday. It is a 6am to 6pm shift. That means that when I get off work tomorrow morning at 6am. I have to go to sleep for a few hours. Then, wake up early so that I will be able to sleep at night in order to wake up in the morning and go to work. My whole weekend is blown. But, it’s ok, the Rockies won.
Well, I better get to work. I think I’m going to put in a bunch of one hit wonders into the playlist tonight. I think it is time for a little variety.
-Thom

June 16

Wow, don’t you hate it when there isn’t a baseball game. The day just drags. Not a whole lot happened today. My wife went out to dinner with one of her co-workers. She had been in the hospital for pneumonia. For a while, she was critical. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and now she is recovering at home. My wife said that she looks much better and is anxious to get back to work. I know that I always say that I would love to stay at home and not have to go to work. But, I’m sure I would get bored after a few weeks. And, I wouldn’t want to be sick either. I don’t know when she’s coming back to work, but I am sure it is going to be soon.
My daughter called from the army again today. She got her uniforms, but she still hasn’t started doing anything except filling out papers and getting medical checkups. They are going to start PT before the weekend, but the army training isn’t going to start until Monday.
I didn’t really see the other kids today. Even my granddaughter didn’t come over. So, I caught up on a few of the recordings of shows I’m three or four weeks late in watching. I saw the season finale of Castle. It was really good. Kate was shot at the end, I didn’t see that coming. I’m going to try to clear out some of the other stuff I’m supposed to watch. I need to get ready for Falling Skies. That looks like it’s going to be a great series. It stars Noah Wyle, the guy from ER. I’m sure they’re not going to call him Carter, but it’s going to be hard for me to call him anything else. Actually, they are going to call him Tom Mason. I’ve checked out the online comic and it looks pretty good. I hope the show is as good. Speaking of new shows, there is one coming up next season that I saw a commercial of while at the movies. It’s called Alta Nova. It looks good too. There are dinosaurs in it. You can’t go wrong with dinosaurs.
Well, there isn’t much else that happened today, so I better get to work. I’m putting Yes, Tom Petty, and Prince in the playlist today.
-Thom

June 15

I tried to close my hotmail email account today. Somehow, someone hacked into it and is sending everyone on my contact list a bunch of emails for Viagra and stuff. It is an old account that I barely use, so I figured I would just get rid of it. I logged in and chose the close my account option. I went through the steps and at the end, it said that I couldn’t close it because I was logged in. So, I logged out and looked around for the close my account option. Guess what, it wasn’t there. The only way to close it is to log in, but you can’t close it if you are logged in. I guess they don’t really want anyone to close their accounts. So, I’ll just do it the old fashioned way and never use it again.
My eldest daughter called from boot camp today. It looks like she is going to graduate on Aug 26th instead of the first week of August. It also means that she won’t have the week off between boot camp and her job training. It’s her first time away from the family and she was looking forward to that week off. Unless something changes, she won’t be back until mid January. That’s a long time without seeing everyone. So, either way, my wife and I are going to be at her graduation. So, if worse comes to worst, at least she will get to see us. We might even drive out there so that we can take her from S. Carolina to Georgia. But, since they changed the graduation date, they might change the enrollment to her job training class. We’ll see when it gets closer and they post her orders. She gave us her password so we can view them online.
The Rockies beat the Padres again today, so we took the series. That puts us only two games under five hundred. We’re slowly but surely clawing our way back out of the hole. We are currently only nine games out of first place in all of baseball and six games out of first place in our division. So, we just need to get on a little winning streak and surpass everyone.
My youngest daughter started volunteering today. She’s been having a boring summer so far. She even wrote on her facebook that it sucks so far. I tried to get her to go out and look for a summer job. That would keep her busy at least and give her some extra spending money. But, no one listens to me.
My son is looking for a new apartment. Their complex was bought and whoever owns it now is raising everyone’s rent when their lease is up by $100. So, he has four months to find a new place. So far, he’s been looking at houses to rent. He’s found some nice ones, but they are very expensive.
My granddaughter didn’t want to go home today. She comes over nearly every day and plays with her cousins. Their mom works out of town and the kids stay with their grandparents. They play on the trampoline and get wet with the hose. She has so much fun with them that she doesn’t even want to eat. I think she thinks that she will miss something. So, when it is time to go, she puts up a big fit. She was crying today and trying to get out of the car before we could close the door. But, a few minutes after I drove away, she settled down.
I didn’t get much done yesterday. (Or for several weeks for that matter) I’m going to blame it on work, but somewhere in between work and writing I managed to put together an online puzzle. So, I’m going to stop goofing off today and get down to business. I’m putting Deep Purple, Lynyard Skynyrd, and Joan Jett into the playlist for background music.
-Thom

June 14

It happened again. Yesterday, my daughter left for boot camp. After arriving, she found out that her connecting flight was canceled. So, she was stuck the night in our nation’s capital. The airport gave her a motel room so she didn’t have to stay overnight in the terminal. She woke up early in Washington DC to make sure she got a flight to boot camp. Everything was going good. She had a few hours to wait around at the airport, but she got her flight at ten their time. She found the army bus that would take her to the camp. She called and let my wife know that everything was ok. On the trip to the camp the bus broke down. Needless to say it hadn’t been the best start on her journey to start her adult life. But, it is going to make for some great stories when she gets married and has kids. She called again later on in the evening. They put her and the other recruits in a barracks for the night, but the mess hall was closed by the time they arrived at the camp. So, she only got breakfast today. Tomorrow will be her first whole day as an army recruit. Go Baby!!!! (I’m not supposed to put her name in my blog)
The Rockies beat the Padres today after a disappointing loss yesterday. The score was 6-3 and baring yesterday’s performance, our bats have really heated up. Let’s hope that trend continues. My granddaughter keeps asking me when I’m going to take her to another game. She had so much fun last time. I’m sure we can get some cheep Rock Pile tickets.
I think I’m going to have work a little overtime tomorrow. It isn’t on the schedule, but we had one of our guys break his leg. He can’t work with a cast on, so they have taken him off the schedule for the last two or three days. But, he is on the schedule for tomorrow. Either they have forgotten to take him off that day, or they forgot to put his replacement on. Because he is off for the next two weeks. I guess we’ll just have to see who shows up in the morning.
Well, I’m going to get started today. I think I’m going to work on Gremlin Planet instead of the River of Magic. I tried working on it yesterday, but either I wasn’t feeling it or I was just too tired and it wasn’t happening. I’m putting in Ratt, Scorpions, Twisted Sister, Cinderella, and Dokken in the playlist tonight. It’s one of those rocking nights.
-Thom

June 13

Well, today was the day. My daughter left for boot camp. We woke up early to take her to the recruiting station. From there, they were going to take her to the airport. We stopped off at McDonalds to make sure she got something to eat. Everything was going fine. We arrived with four minutes to spare. Everyone said their goodbyes. My youngest daughter cried. It was hard seeing her go, but she is doing something toward her future. I’m very proud of her. So, the day goes on, I tried texting her during the day, but she was in the air and her text didn’t go through. When I picked up the wife, she said that my little soldier girl called her. She was in Washington DC and her connecting flight to get her to the army base was canceled. So, she was stuck in the nation’s capital. There were several other army recruits that were also stuck there. The airline put all of them on standby, but none of them got a flight to South Carolina. So, the airline put them all up in a motel. (Probably because they were in the army, I bet if it was me, I would be sleeping in the terminal) She called this evening and everything was ok. She ate at the airport restaurant so she isn’t hungry. She sounded sleepy, even though she said that she slept on the plane. I asked her if she was going to do anything, but she was just going to go to sleep and get up early in the morning to see if she could get a new flight. I assumed she would be in a army cot tonight, but she’s in a motel bed. At least she’s safe.
I went to visit my mom today. We decided to take in a movie. That’s two weeks in a row. Last week, we went to see the X-men movie and today we went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, to get a little history before we get into this. I am a comic book guy. I have 13,000 comic books in my collection. I haven’t collected in like ten or fifteen years and I haven’t kept up on any of the storylines. But, I still like them and I like the continuity to be accurate. I know there is license in movies. I know they change things when they make movies. You can’t read a book and then watch a movie, because they change more than half of the content. But, keeping all that in mind, I liked the X-men movie. Yes, nothing was historically accurate. Angel wasn’t a girl and didn’t have little dragonfly wings. Havoc was in there instead of his brother. The Beast was the only original X-man that was in the movie. But, it was still a good movie. Now, the Pirates on the other hand, it was an awful movie. The storyline didn’t make sense. They had some good action in it and they had some good special effects. If it wouldn’t have had Jack Sparrow in it, it would have been an ok pirate movie even with the bad storyline. But, they completely changed the Jack Sparrow character. In the other movies, he was a swashbuckling pirate. His only concern was his ship, his drinking, his wenching, and his treasure. In this one, none of that mattered to him. In this one, he was self-sacrificing for a woman and they tried to turn him into a hero. They should have kept the Will Turner character. (Orlando Bloom) It would have worked and made more sense for him to play the scenes Depp played. Then, they threw in a love story between a mermaid and a Christian trying to save everyone’s souls. It didn’t really have too much to do with the movie unless they are going to make this a trilogy like they did with the first three and have that part of the story line continue. But, it didn’t really fit. Then, to top everything off, they had the Spanish catch up to everyone at the Fountain of Youth. Instead of capturing it, they destroy it. That didn’t make any sense at all. In the movie, to access the fountain, I don’t want to give away the story, but they had to get some things from Ponce De Leon’s ship. Ponce De Leon was commissioned by Spain to find the fountain in the first place. Why would the Spanish come in there and destroy it if they were paying to go looking for it in the first place. And, even if they did, what king would give up eternal life. I don’t think so. So, to make a long story short, go to X-men First Class instead of going to Pirates of the Caribbean if you have the choice.
The Rockies split a series with the Dodgers this weekend. We took the first two and they took the last two. The two we lost were really close games even if the scores didn’t reflect it. On Saturday, we had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and when the hitter slapped it out into left field, the Dodger made a miraculous diving catch to get him out. If he wouldn’t have gotten it, we would have cleared the bases and won that game. Then, we had a slow start yesterday even with the three run homer in the first. We were rallying late in the game, but our pitching wasn’t helping us. They kept allowing the Dodgers to get hits. Ubaldo, who hadn’t allowed very many home runs this year allowed three in the game he pitched. It wasn’t pretty. But, at least we heated up our bats. Today, we had a game delay because of the rain. At the moment, it is the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes on Jason Giambi. We’re down a couple of runs. We need Jason to hit right now. Or a walk. That was good. I’m going to stop here and listen, because it is getting good.
-Thom

June 9

What a good day it was today. I was able to sleep in to start with, that’s when you know it’s going to be good. I woke up to a phone call. My wife had taken the girls out to eat and forgot her card. So, I was going to bring it to her. Instead, I went with them and we had an enjoyable dinner. My granddaughter was with us, so I played with her while we all talked. Then, when we got home, I turned on the game. It was getting sticky there for a while, and I have to say that I was getting a little concerned. So far this month, we have been going back and forth with wins and losses. Since we won yesterday, and took the series from San Diego, I was getting kind of discouraged. So, at nine, I put my granddaughter in the car so I could drop her off on the way to work. It was the seventh inning and we were up. And, what a seventh inning it was. We ended up we took the lead, but the most fun part was me and my granddaughter cheering while we listened to the game. My granddaughter is only three, but she knows most of the player’s names. She doesn’t really know what’s going on in the game, but she gets excited when I get excited. Every time we got a hit or a run, we would whoop and shout and cheer. My granddaughter doesn’t quite get the fact that the teams we play change for each series, so all of the bad guys that play against the Rockies are all Pirates. I took her to a game and it was against the Pirates and she kept wanting me to point them out to her, so now, everyone we play is a pirate. By the time we got to her house, the bases were still loaded and the coach put in Giambi, that’s her favorite player. She didn’t want to get out of the car, so she could hear him get a hit and we could clap and cheer for him. It was very funny. The game is over now. We’ve officially won back to back games and started this series against the Dodgers off with a bang.
To top off the day, I stopped off at the store and found the medium bags of M&Ms, 2 for $4. I picked up two bags and I can already feel my stomach hurting because I’m going to eat too many of them. But, I haven’t had anything chocolate for months. Then, when I got to work, one of the guys showed me a video of the security footage of what happened outside in the building I work at. It was in the middle of the day and a lady dropped her bag, looking around suspiciously. Then, she quickly whipped her pants down and took a dump right up against the building. Without wiping, she pulled her pants back up just as a security guard came out to confront her. She tried to get away, but he made her come back to clean it up. So, she pulls some Tupperware out of her purse and scoops up the mess. It was pretty disgusting, but very funny. The security supervisor comes by after she had scooped it up, and it was like she walked into an invisible wall of funk. She tries to move closer, and the guard beside her is holding his nose, but they can’t move forward even an inch. They both eventually turn around and walk the other way. I can’t wait to see what else is going to happen tonight.
Yesterday, we took the bike my daughter hit to the bike store. The guy she hit couldn’t have just had a cheap bike, no, he had to have one of the most expensive ones they make. So, we had to shell out 2500.00 on a bike for him. But, it is better than having my daughter go to court and miss going into the service. If she would have had to go to court, the Army would have postponed her enlistment and who knows what could happen in a few months. It might have hurt the pocketbook, but she is still on track. She’s leaving this Monday and will be gone for a little over two months. Then, she comes back for a week and leaves again for just over four months. Then, she’s back and the Army is paying for her bachelors and her future. I think I can spend 25 hundred on that.
Since we’re going to have a little cash flow pause, I’m going to have to tell my daughter’s boyfriend that I can’t hire him to pencil the pictures for my graphic novel. I just won’t have any extra money for a while. I’ll let him keep the supplies and stuff. But, it’s time to put the graphic novel on the shelf for a while. Don’t worry, I am going to get it done, it will just have to wait about a year or so. (Hopefully, the ‘so’ will be less than a year)
I’ve decided to put in a little work on the River of Magic. I haven’t done any writing for about two weeks because I was outlining the graphic novel. But, since that’s on hold, I better bet back to it. I was going to keep working on Gremlin Planet, but I had an idea about River of Magic, so I’m going to incorporate it in. So, I better get busy. I’m putting Styx, Beach Boys, White Lion, and Foreigner in the playlist for background music.
-Thom

June 7

The big news today is the accident. My daughter was driving her grandpa’s van out of the alley so she could park it out front. As she exited the alley, a guy on a bike came riding down the sidewalk and she hit him. The guy had some scrapes on his elbow and calf, but he wasn’t really hurt. My daughter was really shaken up. When I arrived, there was an ambulance on the scene. The guy refused medical treatment. He was more concerned with his bike. When the cops showed up, he asked all of us what we wanted to do. None of us wanted tickets or anything. The guy said that he was just concerned about getting his bike fixed. We agreed to help him get it fixed or get him a new one. We took my daughter home and she was still crying. She had never been in an accident before. Everyone tried to comfort her and let her know that everything was ok. It could have been much worse. The guy on the bike could have been a kid or he could have been seriously hurt. But, she is still upset.
When I got home, I looked up the make and model of the bike on the website of the store he bought it from. And, I found out why he was so worried about his bike. The frame alone cost over twenty five hundred. I don’t know where we’re going to come up with money for a new bike like that. I was hoping that the frame wasn’t bent and we could just have the other one fixed, but there is a severe bend next to the back tire spoke. I don’t think it is fixable.
The Rockies won yesterday’s game, but it doesn’t look too good for todays. It’s the top of the ninth and there are already two outs on us. It’s been a very quick game, it’s just over two hours now. And, there was the last hit, it was a popup out of bounds that was caught. Bummer. We threw a shutout yesterday and they threw a shutout today.
We didn’t get to take the kids skating today. The only times that the rink was available were in the daytime. So, the girls took all of the little kids while I was sleeping and my wife was at work.
I was starting to look like a clown again. The sides of my hair grow much faster than the rest of it. So, I tried trimming it before I remembered why I don’t cut my own hair. So, I ended up shaving it all off again. My wife hates it, but at least it’s cool. The weather has been so hot lately it’s nice to feel the breeze against my head.
I finished outlining the first graphic novel for Centaur Planet, I was going to start on the next one, but I think I’m going to take today off or maybe part of it. I’m just not in the mood. So, I’m putting something loud in the playlist to wake me up. I think I’m going to throw in some old Metallica (Nothing after Master of Puppets), Dokken, Twisted Sister, and Tesla.
-Thom

June 6

It was a great weekend. My daughter’s graduation/going away party went very well. There weren’t as many people as the last party, but it was still very fun. Like always, my wife said that we would only serve food from 4 – 6 or 6:30, but people were eating all evening. We had a bunch of food, so it wasn’t a problem. My daughter’s godfather showed up. We haven’t seen him in like ten or fifteen years. He’s married now and has a fourteen year old daughter. There was loud music and dancing. We stayed until about one in the morning, but the party still went on until about three. We usually stay until the end, but we were watching the baby so the kids could drink and not have to worry. (Kids doesn’t mean kids, my son is 21, but they’re still my kids) They were supposed to stay the night, but they didn’t. One of them drove home. My daughter and her boyfriend were staying the night also. I went in the morning at 7:00 to pick them up. Her boyfriend had to be home by 8:00 so he could participate in the People’s Fair downtown. He was representing their high school at the sidewalk art portion of the fair. Anyway, when I got there, I found the boyfriend and another graduate that stayed over, but I couldn’t find my daughter. I had tried calling her before I left and along the way, but she wasn’t answering her phone. So, I looked all over my brother and sister in-law’s house and she wasn’t anywhere. I woke up her boyfriend and he didn’t know where she was. I was growing a little concerned until we found her several minutes later down in the basement. She has a basement room at our house, and she must have gone down there automatically. She found a bed off in the corner and was sleeping on it. She has less than a week to go before setting off to boot camp. So, she is spending as much time with the family as possible. We’re going skating tomorrow and we’re going to try to get them to Eliches Six Flags before she goes. We’re going to get my youngest daughter a season pass and they come with coupons. There are a few coupons to get someone in for free. Hopefully she can do that before she goes.
The Rockies were flip flopping in the win column over the weekend. We lost yesterday, but we won the day before. The game is still going on right now and it’s the bottom of the 8th. The score is 1-0 Rockies. Hopefully we can keep that lead for two more innings. We’re still in third place in our division, but the margin isn’t that big. We need to get a few more wins under our belts.
I get to see some of the preliminary drawings tomorrow for the graphic novel. I’ll finish the outline for it tonight so that I can give it to him tomorrow also. It looks like it is going to be three graphic novels with the last one a little longer than the others. The first one is looking like 40 pages. I’m up to the 35th page right now. So, I should be able to get the last five pages cranked out. I’ll probably finish the outlines for the other two and keep them until all of the artwork is done for the first one. I don’t want to overwhelm him with work.
It has been incredibly hot this last week, so we broke down and bought a portable air conditioner for the window. I hope it works because it gets reallllllly hot trying to sleep in the daytime.
The game is coming down to the wire, so I’m going to post this and start paying more attention to it. I’ll put Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Boston, and Rush in the playlist after the game and get that graphic novel finished.
-Thom

June 2

Happy Graduation Day to my eldest daughter. She walked the walk of the educated today. It was a nice ceremony. She was even mentioned in one of the speaker’s speeches, and led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. The ceremony started at seven this evening, but the doors were scheduled to open at six. We wanted to get there when the doors opened so that we could get good seats. When we got there, there were about a million people. Luckily, we had forgotten to get batteries before we arrived. It was lucky because I didn’t have to fight my way through the crowd. I went to Safeway and picked up the batteries and a bouquet of roses. By the time I got back, there wasn’t any line, but there also weren’t very many seats left. My wife saved me one or else I would have been standing along the wall with about a hundred other people. If there was one bad thing to say about the event it would have to be that the person who was in charge of turning on the air conditioner decided not to show up. It was burning hot in there, but I bet the graduating class didn’t notice. My daughter and the others were all smiles and having fun. My youngest daughter was also in the program. She was in charge of leading a row of seniors on and off the stage.
We tried to be the loudest when my daughter’s name was called, but there was some very stiff competition. Leading up to the graduation ceremony, it seemed like we had to fight for tickets. But, there were some kids that had about two dozen people in their cheering section. Even though I got batteries for the camera, we didn’t get very many pictures of the ceremony itself. There were so many people crowded up front, it was more prudent to just stay where we were sitting. That way, no one was able to swap our seats. Besides, it was very dark and the camera didn’t get that good of a close up. And, my daughter was hidden in the back. All of the kids up front were all kinds of tall. So, the only opportunity to get her in a shot was when she was at the podium or when she was walking to get her diploma. But, we made up for it in the parking lot. We got pictures of her with everyone and some of just her in her cap and gown.
Getting out of the auditorium was nearly impossible. All of the millions of people were trying to leave at the same time and meet their graduates in the room outside the door. Of course it didn’t occur to anyone to move out of the way. I knew I should have brought a couple of linebackers to plow the way so we could get through. When we finally made it outside, it was wonderful. There was a cool breeze and it was only half as crowded as inside. We managed to meet up with my daughter out there. Surprisingly, they were serving snacks. I don’t remember my high school serving anything when I graduated. Of course that was like twenty five years ago, back in the olden days where they didn’t know what food was. When I graduated, all they wanted to do was get us in and then get us out. I think they even locked the doors halfway through handing out the diplomas so that when we left, we couldn’t get back in.
Over all, it was fun. My daughter looked great in her cap and gown. I’m very proud of her.
-Thom

June 1

Ubaldo is going into the eighth inning with only seventy five pitches. He is being awesome today. We are 3-0 right now and hopefully we’ve put May behind us. Yesterday’s game, the last game of the month was disgusting. We dropped the game 8-2. Wow, I just typed that one short portion of a paragraph and the Rockies have already gotten the Dodgers out. It was two quick hits to the shortstop Tulo and then a quick one to second base, Johnny Herrera. That was nice.
Today was my daughter’s awards ceremony for graduating high school. She got two awards. The first was for being one of the four or five students in the school that didn’t get a referral. I’m glad she didn’t get in trouble at school, but her second award was much more satisfying. The JROTC Commander put all of her ribbons and metals on a plaque under glass. It looked really nice. Before we left for it, I took the memory card out of our camera and put it inside my mom’s. I have it because I was downloading her pictures onto the computer. Her camera is better than ours, so I figured I would borrow it and get some good shots of the ceremony. So, I bring it down to the car, and yep… that’s where it stayed. I forgot to bring it in and didn’t realize until everything had started. So, we only have phone pics. I’m sure they came out pretty good, but I won’t know until I can see them.
My granddaughter and I were paying attention during the ceremony, but we also had fun with a little pink stretchy squeeze toy she brought. They served food, so we gorged on cookies and carrots. It was pretty good. She really didn’t want to go home after the program was over. She was crying and crying. She really wanted to stay the night, but I had to work tonight and the wife has to work in the morning. We wouldn’t have anyone to watch her. So, she’ll probably stay the night on Friday. Actually, she might not. Saturday is my eldest daughter’s graduation party. We’ll probably be busy getting things set up for that. We’ll see.
I didn’t get to work on the graphic novel yesterday, work got in the way. So, I’ll start on page seventeen today. I still haven’t seen any of the artwork yet. But, that is probably because my daughter’s boyfriend and my daughter are spending as much time together as possible before she has to leave for boot camp. Well, it’s the bottom of the ninth, so I’m going to sign off for now. I’m going to just put the internet radio on after the game, I just don’t want to go through all of the songs tonight.
-Thom