Wall-E

This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. I keep half expecting Pixar to release something that does not stand up to the measurement of their catalog. This was not the one. With almost no true dialogue, Wall-E was already setting a fairly high mark to try to keep kids and adults engaged for the 100 minute running time. But what this movie came down to, at the core, was a story about the quest for companionship and someone to share your life with. As a testament to the animators skill, and the skill of Ben Burtt in creating life like sounds for the title character, this movie is a better love story than anything since Field of Dreams. Not only that, but Wall-E is also a broadside against several different areas of society today. From big box retailers, to crass consumerism, to 'social' networks and beyond, Wall-E holds up a mirror to our culture and doesn't skimp on the reflection. But that is all in the sub-text. The driving force of the movie is the relationship that one robot forms with another, and the lengths to which he will go to find that happiness and that joy that comes from sharing your life with someone else. Wall-E does all of this with precious little traditional dialogue and without the need for 'clever' catch phrases or juvenile humor. Wall-E is a great accomplishment for Pixar and Andrew Stanton, it tells a neat story and gives us great characters, all of this in a movie that is made for kids.

Best. Father's Day. EVER. Part II - The Pictures

The view from the KOMO Suite
The kids' teacher, Mrs. Rena Mincks, and the voice of the Mariners, Dave Neihaus
The kids posing with Dave Neihaus and the Washington Dairy Ambassador
The kids doing their cheer on the radio pre-game show with Shannon Drayer.
The Moose came by in the third inning and got crazy.

Zack, Max, and yours truly
Tycho and Olivia looking for Pokemon in the game program, they didn't find any.
We came, we saw, we acted cheesy.
What a day!

Special thanks to Mrs. Mincks and all the great kids in the class that came up with the winning cheer!

Best. Fathers Day. EVER!

Background...Max's class entered a contest for the Washington State Dairy commission and the Seattle Mariners to create a cheer for the M's that included several dairy product mentions...Well, low and behold Max's class was selected as one of two winners! So we got to go to the Mariners game on Father's Day and sit in the KOMO luxury suite. Other than the result, the M's got swept over three games by the Washington Nationals, it was a great experience. The kids got to meet the voice of the Mariners, Dave Neihaus, the Mariner Moose, and do their winning cheer live on the radio during the pre-game show. All the kids had a great time and so did the parents.

Pictures and video will be posted later this week. Right now I am going to bed after driving 600 miles between last night and right now...

The Shroud of Bohler?

So...I'm walking down to the basketball offices yesterday and this imprint catches my eye. Near as I can figure, some highly evolved bird was flying between the Physical Education Building and Bohler Gym and failed to take the breezeway into his flight plan. This picture was taken with my phone, so some of the finer points are lost, but you could see every detail of his wings, head, belly, and even his feet. It was bird in perfect relief.

Please forgive the lateness of my reply...

...bonus points if you know where I stole that quote from...

Things have been crazy over here for the last couple of months. I was snowed under with school work, lots of reading and lots of papers to write, and then there was the whole thing where Amy and I were coaching the boys soccer team for the spring season. My reintegration into the whole college experience went better than I expected as I got an A- and a B+ out of the two world history classes I was taking. I mean, I knew most of the stuff we covered but I had to re-learn how to put that knowledge down on paper in an understandable and acceptable format. I am in the middle of four weeks off and then I'll start up with Geology 101 at the beginning of June. We all enjoyed coaching/playing soccer this spring, it was a challenge trying to keep seven 5-6 year olds focused on the tasks at hand but it was fun. The highlight was playing a kids v. parents game in the last practice, all the kids and their siblings loved it. The parents had a good time too.

Other highlights over the last couple of months include;
1 - Celebrating Max's 7th birthday by letting the kids run around a gym at the old elementary school. That totally brought back memories of Dad taking me and my friends to Ardmore and letting us have the run of the gym while he graded papers.
2 - Our splash and dash trip to Seattle last week, seeing as many people as we could and getting the kids into the Build A Bear Workshop to spend all the gift cards they had gotten. That was too much fun.
3 - Getting a clean bill of health from my oncologist for the sixth straight year. Whereas I do not worry myself before each time I see Dr. Goodman, it is still always nice to hear that I am fine. Dr. Goodman put it best when he said, '...at this point, these visits are primarily social...' Here's to another year of health!

I'll have another update, with pix and stuff, in the next few days...Days that are going to be over 90 degrees in Pullman!

Got Bike?

Call me a little geeked out right now and indulge my storytelling...

As you may know, I have been riding the same mountain bike for about 17 years now. I have been dreaming of getting a new ride since before Mr Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999.

Since relocating to Pullman, this fever has kicked into high gear since my boss is an avid cyclist and there is a ton of good and challenging rides around here. Alas, with three kids and the cut in pay to come here I thought I was fresh out of what the French call luck.

My boss walks into the office last Friday and asks if I have seen the Lemond Poprad they have at the local shop (B & L Bicycles, very cool shop). I hadn't seen it, since I avoid that place like a recovering drunk avoids the corner bar. He coaxed me into checking it out at lunch, since there is a good (and cheap) pizza place right next door. We get there and I drool over it for long enough to make my cycling mad boss a little uncomfortable. It's in awesome shape, it's a 2007 and it only has about 300 miles on it. I swallow hard and look at the price, HOLY MOLY it's $1000! This bike goes for $1700 new, and it looks new for gawds sake! Oh wait, I do the stand over (certainly the top tube will be cleaving my block and tackle in half)...uh oh, the basics fit....

I play the really pathetic puppy dog with Amy over the weekend, helped I'm sure by the diesel powered flu that hit me Friday night.

She said YES!

I call Bryce and put a hold on the bike and I picked it up tonight, I'll be riding it to work tomorrow morning! The particulars; 2006 Lemond Poprad Disc, Shimano 105 components (46x39 upfront and 10 speed 12-27 in the back), Bontrager Satellite carbon forks, Bontrager Select Disc road Race wheels, and AVID BB7 disc brakes. The frame is set up to accept racks and fenders if I so desire, with prethreaded hooks in the back and on the forks. It's a US made steel frame and should be able to handle the dirt roads and trails all over the area.

I think, and I may be crazy thinking about the 4'+ of snow we had this winter, that this will be a year round machine. Thanks for letting me geek out and I will be sure to let you know how the ride turns out to be...

Schweitzer Trip 2008

First things first, the two days after I posted those pictures of our house and all the snow, we got another 25" of snow...Crazy...

So here are the pictures from our Schweitzer trip earlier this month. It's funny, but it was on this trip last year that Amy and I decided to make the move to Pullman. One thing this move did, was put within three hours of this awesome ski area. Paul, Karen, and Cooper flew up from Tahoe and Mom flew over from Seattle to join us this year. After the first day of skiing in a marshmallow, the weather turned around and we had a ball. The kids had a ton of fun at KinderKamp, Max and Coop skied together a lot and Tike was ready to join them by the end of the trip. We can't wait for next year, when Annika gets to learn how to ski!

Tike getting used to skiing with his Dad. GO COUGS!

Paul pretending to be an aeroplane

Max catching big air

Coop catching big air

Amy enjoying the view and the weather

Phil enjoying the view of Lake Pend Orielle

Hail, hail, the gang's all here

Skiing takes a lot out of the little fellas