Grand Canyon and Flagstaff

Last night we got back from a 3-day trip to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. When you have friends come from Germany, going to the Grand Canyon is kind of a must. The trip was fun, although it was super cold. Yesterday morning as we started our day, the temp was 2 degrees Fahrenheit! For you metric users out there, that's minus-17 Celsius! And that doesn't account for the wind chill.


The Canyon was as beautiful as ever. The Germans were really blown away by the sheer size of it, and rightfully so. It ain't called "grand" for nothin'.


When we got back to Flagstaff on Thursday, during dinner, we got the voicemail messages that Steve and Laura had their baby! An 8 lb. 6 oz. girl, whom they named Seren Skye (Seren is Welsh...it rhymes with Karen). To see a picture of the wee one, check out the link to Steve's blog, or for those too lazy to look for the link, click here.

Friday, the kids wanted to go sledding, but we were only out for about 30 minutes before the two younger ones, with their boots full of snow, were crying to go home.

Yesterday, on the way back to Phoenix, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle, an ancient cliff-dwelling. I found this great spot for a picture and I set the timer on my camera to get a group shot. We all leaned or sat on a rickety, wooden fence and waited for the picture to snap. Just as the flash started to go off, the fence gave way and started to fall backwards. So the picture is a real action shot with various degrees of terror and anxiety recorded for posterity. I wanted to take another one because the spot was such a good one, but everyone was ready to go, so this will have to do:

Christmas Day

The Christmas dinner the night before Christmas went off perfectly. It was a bit later than we had wanted (we sat down to eat around 7 pm) but the food was great.


The next morning, we opened gifts with Marion and Harold. I got Cristina a new popcorn popper (the old fashioned stove top kind...bigger than the one she had and made of stainless steel). Cristina got me an alligator with 3 baby gators on its back (I had seen it at her toy store and told her I wanted it for my desk at school). The kids got various crayons and games and beeswax and stuff.


After a big lunch of leftovers, we walked down to the park and threw a football around. We took Vivien as well. She wore her jacket.

By the way, the dog on the right belonged to the guy whom we asked to take our picture. He lives in the neighborhood and happens to teach German at South Mountain Community College (the guy, not the dog)

Overall, it was a great day. After the kids were in bed, we watched the first half of "Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End" and then picked Jarue up from the airport at 11:30 pm.

Christmas Eve on Sunland Avenue

Cristina is working today, so I'm kind of doing the big meal alone. That's okay. I'm making a 19-lb. turkey, homemade dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, and for dessert: pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and apple pie (all pies from Costco). Your basic Thanksgiving meal.

I haven't blogged in a while and I need to. Sometimes just posting comments on everybody's blog feels like blogging!

The news to report is that Cristina's friend from Germany, Marion, is visiting us right now. She came a week ago with her boyfriend Harald.


Cristina's mom arrives tomorrow night. In preparation for having 3 house guests, we finally got the computer room turned into a legitimate guest room. We assembled the antique bed that we used when we were first married. We bought a new mattress for it, as well as one of those cool mattress bases from IKEA that has storage.

An actual guest room!

The upstairs loft is finally a usable sitting room!

The dog and cats are doing fine. Vivien is having less accidents. Not sure if it's because she's learning to prefer to go outside, or if we're just being more vigilant. Probably a bit of both.

Dogs and cats living peacefully together is a nice change

The cats love to sleep on our bed. They look so cute curled up on the soft, down quilt that I can't resist taking pictures of them. Ah, to be a cat.

Sofia's piano recital

Today Sofia had a piano recital at school. Check it out!

Sofia's Story

Sofia just finished writing a story for school. Enjoy!

“A Strange Week in July”

by Sofia Eury

“Mother, don’t die,” cried Lorelei.

“Go find your triplet sister and I’ll be fine,” said their mother with her hair pale with death as she faded away.

The next day Lorelei and her twin, James, were by a lake and quiet. James quietly skipped stone, then suddenly, he threw with all his might but the third stone came skipping back. Both children stared with astonishment. The stone floated in the air in front of them but as James reached out, the stone went forward a little bit. That happened a few times when Lorelei said, “maybe we’re supposed to follow it”.

“Then lets follow it,” James said with excitement in his voice.

They ran over a bridge and climbed half way up a mountain when suddenly Lorelei stopped.

“I don’t want to go on a journey!”

“Think of mother,” James said “ we have to find our triplet! But if you want to we can stop for the night” he continued, his blond/brown hair hiding his disappointment.

“No, we can go for a little while longer,” she answered, seeing her brothers disappointment.

They traveled a little while longer than stopped at the top of the mountain where the stone magically moved some branches to make a place for them to sleep.

The next day they decided to explore and have fun after quick breakfast of wild bird eggs the stone had found and magically floated them to a small fire to cook them.

First they found cool things like feathers, rocks, and leaves and then they saw something different. It was a sled.

“Even though its summer, with the mossy ground we can use the sled,” squealed Lorelei as her long, brown, hair flew up as she tried the sled for the third time.

For the rest of the day the two children played with the sled and explored.

The next day Lorelei lead them on, first sledding down the mountain in a joyful ride they would always remember, then they walked through the woods where James got stung by a bee. After the sting, Lorelei gathered some mosses and other things she knew would help his sting and calm him down. Then for the rest of the day they rested in the shade of a big oak tree and ate the honey they had found.

The next day the stone lead them on like the first day. After a small hike they came to river where the stone stopped. James and Lorelei caught on that they were supposed to find something and after some hours work they found it.

“Hey, it’s a small rowboat!” James said.

“And here are the paddles!” Lorelei said a little while after.

They picked up their belongings, which were the stone, the sled, and other cool things they had found, and they got in the rowboat, which was just their size.

James started the rowboat down the river with the stone at the stern and then asked for help. When they were tired they took a nap or got out and explored. While exploring, Lorelei got a surprise.

“Ouch!” she screamed, waking up her brother.

“It’s a crab,” stated James as he tried to pry off the crab from her leg. They pulled and finally they pried it off.

“Oh no, my leg’s bleeding,” exclaimed Lorelei with pain.

The children got in the boat and the stone magically controlled the paddles.

Lorelei’s white dress was now torn and had bright red blood on it. James’s green shirt and brown pants were ragged and had some specks of blood on them.

Finally, they came to a castle. They hurriedly got out of the boat and went to the castle door. After what seemed like a long time at the door, a beautiful girl answered. Her name was Gabriella.

They all went into the castle. First they helped Lorelei and then they told their story of the journey. While the story was being told, Gabriella kept looking at them. Finally, she stood up.

“I think I know who your missing triplet is,” Gabriella said. “ I think it’s me.”

Exactly what she said was true for, sure enough, when they stood up, the girls were a mirror image, and James was their perfect match.

All the children stared and smiled because it was very true and now they were done with their journey.

Lorelei’s green eyes shone with light and happiness, the most of the three children.

That night, they ate with Gabriella’s foster parents and told them of the journey, at the end asking if they could live together. Her foster father answered the question by saying that he would discuss it with her foster mother.

Right before bed, they decided they must live together so if her foster father says no, they will run away.

That next day they were waiting to here from him so they went outside. When outside, they showed Gabriella what they had found on the journey.

First, of course, they showed her the stone and all of its great powers. Then they showered her the sled and walked back to show her the rowboat. Then they just showed her some other cool things they had found.

Finally they saw Gabriella’s foster father coming. They all gathered around him.

“Well?” they asked.

“We have decided that since you are triplets you should live together so we can live together here.” He said.

They all shouted out with joy.

“Hey, I have an idea since we don’t have extra rooms,” Gabriella said. “We can divide my room in half so the girls can have one half and James can have the other half.”

They all agreed.

That night they all smiled in their sleep, thinking about their new life that was just about to start.

Another story

Wow. Several people liked the Jane and Freddy story, and I thought that one was kind of weak. You've inspired me to write down some of the stories I've told the kids over the years that I think are a little bit better and actually have more of a story to them. So here's your story for the day. I know I've told this one several times over the years, but I can't remember who I told it to. Maybe Sofia, but I think definitely Alex. Not sure if Bella ever got this story, but I'm sure she'll hear it now that I've finally written it down...

The Spider Who Caught the Sun

Once upon a time, a spider named Chloe lived in a forest. She loved watching the sun rise in the morning. She marveled at how the sun beamed down brightly throughout the day. And at night, she was always amazed at how such a big powerful thing could gently lay down behind the far mountains.

One morning, before the sun came up, Chloe made a big decision.

“I’m going to catch the sun!”

She found the biggest clearing in the forest that she could find and she started making the biggest web she could possibly make. It took her nearly an hour just to get one thread of silk across the entire span of the clearing, which must have been at least six feet wide. But she was determined, and she kept at it.

After a while, a frog hopped through the clearing. He stopped and looked up at Chloe working away.

“What are you doing, spider?” he asked.

“I’m making a web to catch the sun,” Chloe said. The frog wrinkled his brow and frowned.

“Are you kidding?” he asked. “You’ll never catch the sun. It’s way too big. You’d need a web ten times this big to catch the sun.” And he hopped off.

Chloe never stopped working. She just kept building her web and making it stronger.

It was around noon when a small deer stepped into the clearing, munching on grass. By this time, the web was big enough for most animals to easily see. The deer, with a mouthful of sweet grass, stared at Chloe with boredom.

“That’s a big web, spider.” he said. “Trying to catch an elephant or something?”

“No, I’m going to catch the sun.”

For the first time the deer looked amused. He almost choked on his grass with laughter.

“Ha! Now that is funny! Don’t you realize the sun is way too hot to catch? It’ll burn up your web when it gets caught in it. It would probably even burn up this whole forest.”

Chloe heard the deer, but she just shrugged and kept making her web. The deer snorted with another laugh and walked off, searching for more grass to eat.

It was late afternoon when Chloe finally took a break. The sun was starting to come down so she had to hurry. While she took a drink of water, a butterfly fluttered to a nearby flower. When the butterfly saw the web, she had to ask.

“Why such a big web, spider?”

Chloe wiped her mouth and sighed. “I’m going to catch the sun in it,” she said.

Unlike the frog and the deer, the butterfly thought deeply about Chloe’s statement before answering. The butterfly stared at the web and rubbed her chin.

“And what are you going to do with it when you catch it?”

Chloe hadn’t really thought this far ahead. So now she had to think a bit before answering.

“I think I’ll just look at it and enjoy it. Then I’ll let it go.”

The butterfly nodded a few times, still contemplating this idea. Finally, she sat up to leave.

“Well, be careful. Goodbye!” And the butterfly fluttered off.

Chloe finished her web.

It was spectacular. It was perfectly round. The lines were straight and even and it looked big enough to catch the sun nicely. Chloe was pleased.

The sun went down behind the far mountains.

As the sun went down, the frog, who was still in the area, remembered the spider and smirked. He knew Chloe would fail. The deer watched the sun go down too and chuckled as he thought of the foolish spider. The butterfly watched the sun disappear and she thought of Chloe’s huge web, sitting there in the dark.

Chloe curled up at the edge of her web and waited. She soon fell asleep.

In the morning, the frog and the deer wanted to see Chloe and her web. They wanted to prove that they were right and that she was silly to want to catch the sun. The butterfly also came to visit Chloe and see what had happened. The sun was just rising up into the sky.

When the frog, the deer and the butterfly got to the clearing, they gasped. They could hardly believe the beautiful thing they saw in Chloe’s web.

Along every tiny silk thread in the web clung thousands of drops of morning dew. The entire web was glistening and shining as if it was covered with a million sparkling diamonds. And when the sun peeked up over the trees, the rays of light hit the drops of dew. Every tiny drop of water reflected the sun, creating a rainbow on the surrounding trees and on the ground. As the sun rose higher and higher, the web glowed brighter and brighter, until the animals had to look away from it because it was so bright.

Chloe smiled as she watched her web glow. And she knew she had succeeded.

She had caught the sun in her web!

{Copyright 2007 Wayne Eury}

I'll be signing copies of my book at Barnes and Noble in Tempe on Saturday. Hope to see you there! Ha ha.

Tebow wins Heisman

Our Gator quarterback made history last night when he became the first sophomore to win the Heisman trophy! Go Tebow!

Jane and Freddy

I recently received a long-lost travel journal (pre-blog days) from our 2002 trip to Costa Rica. I thought I had lost it forever after a combination of my laptop getting stolen years ago, an assortment of fatal hard drive crashes, and a stubborn failure to back-up my files on CD or DVD. But luckily, I had emailed it to a bunch of family members and friends, and luckily my mom found it. So she emailed it to me about a week ago.

As I read through it, I was struck by how detailed I had been. I even went so far as to record what bedtime stories I made up for Sofia or Alex. That's pretty cool, because some of those stories are fun, but there's no way I'd remember them if I didn't write them down.

With that in mind, last night I was putting Bella down, and she requested a story. I didn't feel like telling a story, but I summoned something off the top of my head. It wasn't great, but it made me think of that journal. I thought as soon as she's asleep, I should write it down so I don't forget it. So here it goes...

Jane and Freddy

You know how many arms an octopus has? Eight. And do you know how many arms a spider has? Eight also. But you probably don't think of octopi and spiders as being friends, do you? Well, I know a spider and an octopus that were best friends. And here's their story.

Freddy was an octopus that lived in a tide pool. He lived in the warm sea water amongst the rocks and shells and critters. Beside the tide pool was a tall palm tree. It was so big and tall that it leaned out over the tide pool. At the top of the tree was a little gray spider web. And in the middle of the spider web sat a little gray spider. Her name was Jane.

Jane would sometimes let a long line of silk out of her spinneret and drop down towards the tide pool. She'd go all the way down until she was right above the water. And if the tide was out, she'd sometimes land on a rock and crawl around. She liked to look at all the stuff that was in the rocks and nooks and crannies. One day she was walking around like this and stepped on something soft. She looked down and saw that she was standing on something wet and squishy and she saw suction cups and an eye looking at her.

"Who's walking on me?" a voice asked. It was Freddy the octopus!

"Oh! Sorry," Jane said as she crawled off of Freddy. The two talked for a while and soon become good friends. You wouldn't think that a spider would have much in common with an octopus, but Jane and Freddy, apart from both having eight arms, both loved polka music, both had three siblings, and both their mothers were named Greta! Can you believe that?

So for years and years, Jane and Freddy would meet at the tide pool and talk about what was happening in their lives. And they were happy. The end.

{Copyright 2007 Wayne Eury}

I wish I could say that when I finished the story Bella was sound asleep. She wasn't. I asked her if she liked the story and she was kind of noncommittal. Oh well. It at least satisfied her desire for a story and she then got busy tossing and turning for 30 minutes while I fell asleep.

When I woke up an hour later, she was asleep, and I really didn't feel like doing anything, especially writing down a story. But today...I made a point to record it. Someday Bella might be glad I did.

Sofia's music

I've been meaning to post these videos of Sofia practicing piano and trumpet, but it took me a while. I think I made these videos about 2 weeks ago.

Ling Ling and Vivien

This was going on while I was making breakfast. Luckily I was able to record some of it. Ling Ling is obviously playing, because if she wasn't enjoying herself, she would have gone through the cat door. Coco would have never hung around for this. He'd have been out that door in a flash.

It's amazing how quiet they were.

Now if I could only get the kids to play that quietly...

RIP Dr. Cade

From Jack Stripling of the Gainesville Sun:

Dr. Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade and a University of Florida professor, died Tuesday morning, his family confirmed. He was 80.

Along with a team of other scientists, Cade created the popular sports drink in 1965. Since that time, Gatorade has become a boon for UF, generating $150 million in royalties for the university and helping to establish UF as a premier research institution.

Dr. Jim Free, who worked under Cade in the creation of Gatorade, said Tuesday that Cade was first and foremost a kind man who made it his mission to spread knowledge.

"His contributions were so multiple that it's just hard to cover them," Free said. "His main contribution is that he was a very nice, decent, generous person, and that he was dedicated to education. He was a real educator, a real researcher and a real academician and held a real place of honor at the University of Florida because he spent his whole career there teaching and doing his research. The things he's accomplished have been amazing."

The story of Gatorade has become the stuff of legend, in both the worlds of sports and business. The drink was produced to help Gator football players deal with the sweltering Gainesville heat, which was leading to intense dehydration. It became much more than one team's secret beverage, however, and is now the "official" sports drink of the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and several other significant professional sports groups.

Of late, Cade has been the recipient of many honors bestowed by the university. He was inducted into the Gators' athletics hall of fame recently, and just this month a plaque was erected on campus proclaiming UF as the "birthplace of Gatorade."

Back to work

After spending a nice Friday with my aunt and uncle and cousin, we got all packed up and were ready to leave Saturday morning. In fact, we were in the van, waving goodbye, and backing out of the driveway when my uncle noticed a large puddle of fresh oil. For some reason, our van had developed a bad oil leak. It didn't leak too badly when the van was off, but when the engine turned on, it was like opening a faucet.

Saturday of a holiday weekend is not the easiest time to find a mechanic, especially out in the boonies. We did find a Pep Boys in Albuquerque that had a mechanic on duty until 8 pm. The next step was getting the van towed there. It took a couple of hours, but finally we had the van at Pep Boys getting looked at.

Uncle Doug and I waited around till they did the oil leak diagnostic. There were 3 leaks, and all 3 required special order parts. Then came the big blow: they couldn't get the parts until Monday. I called Cristina and discussed it, but we really had no choice. We would have to stay in Tijeras until Monday and hopefully get back to Phoenix late Monday night (actually, early Tuesday morning). I'd miss at least one day of work, the kids would have to miss school, and Cristina would miss her first day of work at a toy store (that's another story...stay tuned).

Uncle Doug and I got back to their house in time for the second half of the UF-FSU game, which Aunt Lynn was recording on DVD for me. I didn't really miss that much because the previous game, Tennessee vs. Kentucky, went into 4 overtimes. They weren't even airing the Florida game till that was over. I'll have to download the game to catch the first half.

After the game, Uncle Doug had an idea. They were already planning to go to Tucson in a few days. He said we could drive one of their vehicles to Phoenix on Sunday. They would pick up our van on Monday and drive it to Tucson. Then, at some point later in the week, we could arrange to meet halfway between Phoenix and Tucson to swap cars. It was an incredibly generous offer which we decided to take him up on.

So here I am at work now. Monday morning (well, it's actually 12:30). Pep Boys should have the parts by now and be working on our van. I hope it all goes smoothly for my aunt and uncle to pick it up this afternoon (or evening).

It was a fun trip and I'm having a hard time getting my head back into teaching. But that usually happens the day or two after a holiday break.

Thanksgiving in New Mexico

I'm trying to think. In all my adult years, I don't think I've been anywhere where it snowed for Thanksgiving. I've spent Thanksgivings in Florida, North Carolina, Arizona...even New York City and Costa Rica. But I think this might be a first. We're in Tijeras, New Mexico right now, and there's about an inch and a half on the ground.

We're staying with my Uncle Doug and Aunt Lynn, as well as my cousin Mark. We left Phoenix after work on Wednesday and arrived at their place about 2 AM. We thought they'd be in bed, but they were up, playing dominoes.

Thursday was, of course, cooking and eating day. I made the mashed potatoes and corn casserole. Mark made mashed sweet potatoes. Sofia and Aunt Lynn made the cranberries and green bean casserole. Uncle Doug cooked the turkey. It was kind of nice to not be responsible for the turkey for the first time in 5 or 6 years! Uncle Doug's dressing was excellent. Here's what my plate looked like:

It was so good, I had another plate of seconds just as full as the first. I should have been a bit more moderate, because afterwards, I felt way too full. In typical Thanksgiving fashion, I snoozed a little bit while Uncle Doug was showing us his digital photo album.

We had pie a few hours after the meal. Aunt Lynn had baked 3 pies: pumpkin, pecan, and apple. I overdid that as well, having a small piece of each. Later on, the kids had a small dinner of leftovers, but I was done for the day.

We're staying till Saturday morning. Today, the kids have been playing in the snow. Our friend Tara bought Vivien a coat and little boots, so we've been using those here in the cold weather. The boots don't stay on very well, and she won't walk very much when we've got them on her, but the coat is great. I won't say that she likes the coat, but she certainly doesn't mind it. And it does keep her warmer.

When Bella wakes from her nap, we're going to drive into Albuquerque and go to some museums.

I hope everyone is having a nice Thanksgiving!

Playing Uno

The New Cats

Cristina was at the vet's office last week to pick something up and she saw a flyer for 2 free cats. One of the employees at the vet's office, Charley, just got married and it turns out her husband is allergic to cats. So she's looking for a home for them. They are about 4 years old, house broken, great with dogs, fixed, full shots,...the whole works. She thinks they are brother and sister. They were found together about 2 years ago, either lost or abandoned and, if I'm remembering the story correctly, someone turned them in to the vet's office. Charley wound up taking them home and would have kept them if her new husband wasn't allergic (they didn't know till he moved in).

We had thought about getting two cats this time around anyway. Since we go away for long periods of time, it would be nice for there to be 2 cats to keep each other company. I'm sure Coco went a little stir crazy by himself when we'd leave for 6 weeks. We figured we'd probably get a couple of cats from the humane society, but that would still cost at least a hundred dollars a piece. And these were free. Hmm...

What made this seem like destiny is that Charley also has 2 French bulldogs. So these cats are completely used to that breed of dog. That boded well.

We went to see them last Friday and we brought them home.

There names are Ling Ling (the girl) and Cash (the boy). We liked the names and decided not to change them. Besides, if we had to give up a pet, it would be painful to know that his/her name was going to be changed. Charley teared up a little when we loaded them into our van, and when I told her we were keeping the names, I sensed that that made her feel better.

Here's the kids letting them out of their carriers for the first time in our living room.

Ling Ling


She supposedly comes when you call her name in a high pitch


Cash (named after Johnny Cash) likes sleeping in the garage


Actually, he likes sleeping just about anywhere

Evolution of a fan

Most of you know that I’m a big Gator football fan. But many of you who have known me for years also know that wasn’t always the case. In fact, there was a time when I didn’t care that much about football at all. So, as Cristina often asks, what happened to me? How did this happen?

Sounds like great material for a blog.

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought the past week and I’m ready to analyze my evolution as a Gator football fan.

First of all, it didn’t happen overnight. And it wasn’t just one thing, but rather a combination of many things (at least 6).

In high school, my friends and I went to football games as a social activity. We sometimes watched the games and enjoyed them. I especially remember a homecoming game when Dom’s now-brother-in-law, our quarterback Joe Kane, made a big play that electrified the crowd. I don’t remember the play, but I know it was a big deal. Maybe he scrambled and ran for a touchdown. Something like that.

But in high school, I didn’t watch much college football, and the only NFL games we watched were Super Bowls. Going to high school an hour from Gainesville, though I wouldn’t have called myself an outright Gator fan, I had a little bit of Gator stuff (a Gator sweatshirt and a Gator blanket). When I chose the University of Florida for college, the football program had no bearing on my decision. I got accepted to UF, USF, and UCF, and I picked UF because it had more prestige.

My first year at UF was coincidentally also Steve Spurrier’s first year as head coach. Throughout my 4 undergraduate years, I was mildly bewildered at the Gator football frenzy. I went to a few games, but usually just observed from a distance. In fact, I remember hearing the roar of the crowd in the stadium from my dorm room, less than a mile away.

So let’s break down the pivotal factors that transformed me.

• Being immersed in the culture

Living on campus during the excitement of the dawn of the Spurrier era didn’t immediately transform me, but it had an effect. In fact, I lived on campus for about 7 years total (1 year in Trusler Hall and about 6 years in Married Student Housing). Just through sheer osmosis, I soaked up a lot of Gator football.

• My father-in-law

When I married Cristina in 1993, I became a part of a family that included a major Gator fan. Ramon was a UF student in the late 70’s, so he was an old-school fan from that great run in the early 80’s. Cristina remembers her dad taking them all on a victory cruise down University Ave. in 1984 when the Gators first won the SEC (the championship was later taken away due to NCAA violations). Frequently throughout the mid 90’s, we would be at my in-laws’ house while a game was on and I would watch the games with my father-in-law. In doing that, I started to become more familiar with players, Spurrier’s offensive genius, and the storylines that transpired week to week. By 1996, I was pretty much hooked. Not yet a full-fledged nutso, but hooked to the point that I desired to watch the games. Or at least the big ones.

• National Championship 1996

Here’s one indication of how my viewing habits were evolving. I remember being in North Carolina for a funeral in November and watching the UF/FSU game in our hotel room. UF had been undefeated, and with agony, I watched our potentially-perfect season be tarnished by our arch-rival by a slim margin. I don’t remember whose funeral it was exactly (it was one of my grandparents, but 3 of them died within a short period of time, so it’s all kind of a blur) but I remember that game.

I remember vividly watching the Gators win the SEC the following week (which was almost a foregone conclusion by that point…we pretty much owned the SEC) and then the rematch with FSU for the whole enchilada.

Winning the National Championship, and all the hoopla that goes with it, further pushed me over the edge.

• UF vs. LSU, 1998

I was slipping further and further into my Gator addiction, but I was still somewhat of a closet fan. Cristina didn’t realize how serious it was getting. To her, I was still the disinterested non-fan that she’d met in 1992.

When we hosted an exchange student from Germany for 4 weeks in the fall of 1998, I decided it would be a cool experience to take her to a Gator football game. I mean, if you’re only in the States for 4 weeks, going to an SEC game in the Swamp with 90,000 crazy fans is an experience to remember. I got tickets from another teacher at GHS.

She had a great time, and though it wasn’t my first game, in a way it was. It was the first game I had attended as a bona fide fan. We had pretty good seats. I soaked in all the traditions in a way I never had before. I screamed till my voice was gone. Jesse Palmer broke his collar bone, but it was a great win. I wasn’t really sure how to get tickets, but I knew I wanted to go to more games.

• GHS football

By now, you can see that many factors went into my transformation, but this is the one that Cristina blames the most. In 1997, during my first year teaching at Gainesville High School, I was approached by the head football coach. He asked me if I’d sign on to videotape all the games. I would technically be on the staff as an assistant coach, and I’d be compensated as such, but my duties would only involve taping every game (including JV) and making 3 or 4 dupes right after each game.

I did this job for about 4 years, and it happened to be a stretch of time when GHS was extremely good. These were the Clinton Portis, Ian Scott, Vernell Brown years. I was exposed to a side of football that I’d never been a part of before. I shot the games from up in the coaches’ box, where I was often side-by-side with the assistant coaches. For certain away games, I would sometimes be in the locker room before and after games. I saw players getting taped up, getting treated for injuries, sometimes even crying after tough losses. I heard the usually mild-mannered coach’s fiery pre-game speeches during the playoffs. And of course I witnessed lots of the camaraderie and fun that goes hand-in-hand with a winning program.

As the team videographer, my duties extended to making highlight tapes for team banquets, as well as for players to send to colleges. I made Clinton Portis’s college tape. When Vernell Brown was the quarterback, he’d come to my classroom every Monday after a game and get his own copy of the game to study. I saw these young men not as faceless players on a TV screen, but living, breathing, emotional young men doing amazing things on the field every week. My respect for them, and the game itself, grew a lot during those years.

And, of course, my passion for Gator football grew exponentially.

• Gainesville sports talk radio

This last point may seem insignificant, but it isn’t. When I started getting more and more interested in Gator football around 1997, I started tuning in to AM sports talk radio when I was in the car. I’d never been a fan of radio (music stations) in Gainesville, so I usually listened to NPR. But on Mondays after games, I would listen to the local sports pundits break down Saturday’s game. Before long, from August through February, I almost exclusively listened to sports talk radio. Eventually, it became my year-round, dominant, in-the-car-alone programming of choice. And in Gainesville, 90% of the sports talk radio is devoted to college football. Gainesville is a college football town, plain and simple, and people who listen and call in to these shows just don’t care much about baseball or hockey. In the spring, talk would drift a little to Gator basketball (and my love for that grew as well) but you could always hear some Gator football talk, 365 days a year.

When you listen to sports talk radio, you naturally become a bigger, more-informed fan. It gets you thinking about things you wouldn’t have thought about otherwise. It keeps you updated on injuries and how practice went. It allows you to memorize players’ names (and how to pronounce them). It gives you insight on opponents and what the perceptions of other teams around the country are. Then it’s a snowball effect. You get more knowledgeable from listening to the radio, so you have a broader interest in other teams and games. And the more other games you watch, the more you want to listen to the analysis in the radio. It’s a cycle that gets bigger and bigger. So when something happens like Appalachian State beating Michigan, I don’t need a TV commentator to tell me how huge that is. I know it because I know about the different college divisions, the national championships of a school like App State, and the tradition of a powerhouse program like Michigan. I can look at that score and be flooded with the deep implications that the score evokes. And then, even more, I enjoy listening to the pundits analyze the bigness of it all.

The cumulative effect of listening to more and more sports talk radio is that it pushed me from avid fan to complete college football nut.

I remember when my cousin Eddie and I first “came out” to each other that we were both diehard Gator fans. I was helping him move to a new apartment in Gainesville, and I had sports talk radio on in my car. I sort of sheepishly turned it off and explained that I mostly listen to that. He said enthusiastically that that’s all he listened to also. From there, our relationship blossomed with a newfound commonality. And to this day, we still chat and text each other on game days. When I got an extra Gator jersey when the team was here for the National Championship in January, I sent it to Eddie. When we move back to Gainesville, I look forward to going to some games with him, even if I need to drive down to Tampa to pick him up. He’s my cousin by blood, but he’s my Gator brother.

When I moved to Phoenix, one of the big disappointments was how the sports talk radio shows here spend so much time talking about the NFL, the NBA, and baseball. That kills me the most. I can handle some NFL and NBA talk (in fact, it’s made me a bit of a Phoenix Suns fan) but they’ll spend entire shows talking about major league baseball. My eyes gloss over and I usually change to NPR. My apologies to my baseball-loving readers, but the only thing more boring than watching a baseball game is listening to people talk about baseball.

Phoenix is a big sports market. I guess it’s comparable to Tampa, in that it has the big 4: professional football, baseball, basketball, and hockey teams. But as such, college football gets little airtime. And even then it’s mostly Arizona State and the PAC-10. Yawn.

So I guess that’s it. I didn’t mean for this to get so long, but now hopefully you understand how I got to be the way that I am. And even Cristina has accepted the fact that I am a college football junkie. She still wishes I wouldn’t watch so much TV on Saturdays, because it causes the kids to be rowdy and sometimes keeps us from doing things as a family. But she’s gotten more and more tolerant of it. I try not to give her a hard time about her Oprah, and she tries not to give me a hard time about my college football.

It’s kind of funny, but I probably know more about the Gators now than my father-in-law. He lives in Costa Rica now, so he’s even more out of the Gator nation loop than I am here in Phoenix. So that’s weird sometimes. I’m not saying I’m a bigger fan than him (he taught me the wonders of Wilbur Marshall after all) but I probably know more about the team right now. For example, does he know who Percy Harvin is? I’m sure he does. But does he know how to get Percy Harvin’s autograph? No! Heh heh.

And though I didn’t give it a bullet point, having children has probably added to my fanaticism. As soon as Sofia was a few years old, I had a great excuse to go to Fan Day and get autographs. When she was about 6, I took her to her first game at the Swamp. In 2003, we had reached a new milestone: the entire family went to a Gatopr game together. It’s only happened once. This was before Bella, of course. All 4 of us went to the UF/FAMU game. It was pretty cool. When we go back in ‘09, I hope all 5 of us can go to a game. Hopefully it will be Tebow’s senior year (fingers crossed).

And one observation I must acknowledge (though Cristina might deny it) I’m slowly converting Cristina. Evidence? She went crazy buying Gator gear this summer when we went to Gainesville. She agreed to getting our annual family portrait taken in Gator gear. And she probably knows more about Tim Tebow than she ever knew about Wuerffel, or Johnson, or Brindise, or Palmer, or Grossman, or Leak. She’s the one that talked me into sneaking into the trophy room at the stadium this summer, for God’s sake. I love that woman.

Enough. I could go on and on. How else to end a blog like this but with these two words:

Go Gators!

Time to change

Last week, we got a notice from our health insurance company that our premiums are going up $100 a month. The same week, we got a notice from the same health insurance company that some blood work Cristina had gotten done (to the tune of $600) was "under review" and we needed to give them some further information before they could process the claim further.

Meanwhile, we had received Michael Moore's Sicko in the mail and had yet to watch it. Last night, we finally watched it.

We need universal health care in the United States.

It is crazy, infuriating, and embarrassing what we deal with here in terms of health care. I knew it was bad, but the movie really brought it home. It's an excellent film, too. Accessible, very funny at times, and very moving. I hope everyone who reads my blog will do me the favor of at least renting the film.

There is a bill for universal health care that is gaining strength. Think about this: we've spent almost a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq. It will cost about 100 billion a year to give every American free health care. If we can spend the money to fight a war, we can spend the money to keep our citizens healthy. And it's so much more than just keeping healthy. Peoples' lives get destroyed by medical bills in this country. Some people can't get needed procedures because they can't afford them. People go bankrupt because they have accidents or illness. Our system is sick and inhumane.

See the movie. That's the least you can do. But if you are willing to do a little more, write your representatives and ask them to co-sponsor this bill, H.R. 676. Don't know who your representatives are? Well, then you're like most Americans (including me). But Michael Moore's website makes it very easy for us.

Click here to see who your representatives are and whether or not they already support H.R. 676. If you want to write them, there are links so that you can easily send each representative a note, either asking them to co-sponsor the bill or thanking them for supporting it.

And click here to fill out a simple petition that will be sent to your specific Senators and district Representative. There's a place to write a few comments, but even if you just send it blank, it will help.

Today, with the Internet, it is so easy to write your representatives. Remember the old days, when you had to find their addresses in the front of the phone book (assuming it was recent enough to still be valid) and then hand write or type your letter, and then address an envelope, put a stamp on it, and stick it in the mail? What is our excuse now for not writing? It costs nothing and can be done, literally, in less than 5 minutes. We're willing to spend hundreds of dollars a month for insurance premiums but not a few minutes to achieve something better?

Why do we put up with this crap?

Even in a great democracy such as ours, people are controlled by fear and hopelessness. That is exactly what our current health care system creates. Fear and demoralization keep people from voting, which is why we have such a low voter turn-out in supposedly the greatest democracy in the world.

And to the health care professionals in my family who may be reading this...please see the film. It does not denigrate your profession. In fact, it will hopefully make you just as fired up as I am.

I want a better system for my kids. I shouldn't have to plan a move to Costa Rica to seek medical treatment if a catastrophic illness happens in my family. We can do better.

Alex's School Photos

A few weeks ago, Alex had his school photos taken. He requested to wear a tie. Since he doesn't own a tie, I gave him one of mine. We don't buy school photos, since we're very good about getting professional portraits taken on our kids' birthdays. But the proofs were so cute, I had to scan them before returning them.

Sad Realization

The day I came back from Florida, Coco got out of the house, which is not unusual. He's always been an indoor/outdoor cat who loves being outside. We always brought him in at night, and only on rare occasions would he spend a night outside. In fact, he has never been gone longer than a day in all the 8 years we've had him. So after two days of not seeing him, we started to get worried. I put up "Lost Cat" fliers on the mailboxes, we talked to neighbors, we checked the pound. No sign. We drove through the neighborhood, looking for Coco, dead or alive. Nothing.

It's been 10 days now. And as sad as it is, we've kind of given up hope. It seems that Coco is gone.

We've lost several pets over the years. Our first two dogs died from getting hit by cars. Sofia's hermit crab died. But Coco had been our rock. He was our first family pet and we'd had him the longest. He was hitting middle-age, so we were starting to think about the fact that we would only have him another 8 years or so, at the most. This loss was certainly unexpected.

In a way, 10 days doesn't seem very long, like we shouldn't write him off yet. But he's never been gone this long, so my internal realist is telling me to let him go.

And I don't blame it entirely on getting a new dog. Sure, Coco didn't care for dogs, but he lived with Lily for about a year. And he was getting along pretty well with Vivien. One time I had Viv in my lap and Coco came up beside me to be petted. So I don't blame it on the dog.

Strange thing, none of us are too emotional about this, even though we loved that cat more than anything. I think because we don't know for sure what happened, the emotional impact is lessened. It's far more disturbing to find your pet dead in the road than to just have them mysteriously disappear.

It would be easy to blame ourselves: we shouldn't have let him go outside. But the way we see it, we gave him the best of both worlds. He loved being inside with us, and he loved enjoying the outdoors. Yes, maybe he would still be with us if we had never let him go out, but we know he's lived a far happier life for the past 8 years having it both ways. 8 years of blissful life are better than 16 years of cooped-up unhappiness.

Instead of assuming he's dead somewhere, I think I prefer to think of Coco as moving on, like when a kid leaves for college. Maybe he wanted to see the world. Maybe he found another life that gave him something we couldn't. But I'll always miss our big fat Coco, his big flabby boobies, his dog-like affection. He was my sole companion in the moving truck on our 3-day trek from Florida to Arizona, and didn't complain despite his disdain for riding in vehicles. He often slept on our bed, curled up in the crook of my arm on cold nights.

Yep. He was special. I doubt there will ever be another cat quite like him.

Family self-portrait, taken in bed one lazy Saturday morning

Home

Okay. Some of you have heard rumors of major life changes for us. Others may have just sensed that something was different. We’ve been keeping our plans mostly to ourselves, but I think we’re solid enough in our decisions now to go ahead and go public. So here’s the big announcement:

We’re moving back to Gainesville.

There’s no problem or emergency. No one is dying and we need to be close to them. I haven’t lost my job and I do actually like teaching here in Phoenix. So let me explain. It’s kind of a long story, so bear with me.

You may or may not remember the reason we moved to Phoenix. Cristina has been a stay-at-home mother for the past 11 years, and while she loves that job, she knows that our children will eventually grow up. She has had aspirations all along, interests she is passionate about, things she’d like to do professionally when the kids are all school age and she is ready to rejoin the school/career world. For many years her dream was to become a naturopathic doctor. There are only a handful of schools in the country that are accredited, highly reputable schools for naturopathic medicine. After researching the schools, she decided Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Arizona was the best fit for her. She started working on her pre-requisites in Gainesville…and then we unexpectedly got pregnant. All schooling went on standby. Then my parents needed to sell the house we were living in, so we decided to take the plunge and go ahead and move to Phoenix. It was a smart move. It gave us a few years to get settled, figure out the kids’ schools, and establish a network of friends before she started the program. Plus, teacher salaries are better out here, so we were able to buy our first house.

Isabella is now 3, and next year she will begin pre-school. During the past 3 years though, Cristina has had a lot of time to think about her future and, more specifically, the trade-offs that will naturally occur when starting up full-time rigorous school again. She’s been nervous, and at times a bit depressed, at the thought of what going back to school and then working full-time would do to our family dynamics. The schooling is intense, basically like medical school. There are even statistics on the high percentage of divorces that occur during naturopathic medical school. Scary stuff. It’s not that we think our marriage may not make it through 4 years of medical school, but the writing is on the wall: it’s a huge lifestyle change that can have positive or negative repercussions.

Those of you who have kids may be thinking, “Well, my wife works and our family is fine. Cristina shouldn’t be afraid of what-ifs.” I hear you, but it’s not so much about being scared, as it is a preference or priority thing. And I can relate to it, because I’ve lived it. Why have I been a teacher for going on 12 years, instead of doing something in the TV/film industry, which is where my passions were in college? It’s quite simple, actually. I stick with teaching because I love the hours and what that affords me with my family. Of course it helps that I actually enjoy teaching (most of the time). Cristina and I have often discussed whether there’s a different career path I would like to pursue, and every other thing that interests me requires such a significant sacrifice of time that I’m not willing to do it…yet. Nothing is set in stone, but while the kids are still so young, I like having, essentially, the same hours they do.

This summer, when we traveled all over the country, I think it really hit Cristina that her heart and soul belong in the east. As her desires for Southwest College have waned, her desire to move back east has gotten stronger. (I’m just glad she came to these decisions before we got into more major student loan debt, since Southwest College tuition is about 20K a year!) I don’t mind what she does as long as she’s happy. We’ve survived for 12 years on one teacher salary. We can just keep the status quo until she figures out what she wants to do. I’m fine with that.

A few weeks ago, when everything seemed to be coming to a head, we had a long, heartfelt chat and we came to the tentative decision that Cristina would not be going to Southwest College. Not in the immediate future anyway (never say never). We sat on it for a few weeks to see if, given time, that decision felt right or wrong. So far, it has felt right. Cristina says it’s like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders. I must admit, I kind of feel that too.

There are some other natural healing things that Cristina is very interested in getting trained to do, which don’t require the same type of commitment and sacrifice that Southwest College does, so she’s in the process of exploring some other options. She’s currently slotted to do training next year in Jin Shin Jyutsu, which is an ancient energy therapy. Stay tuned.

With Southwest College out of the picture, there is no compelling reason to stay in Arizona. Alex goes to a Waldorf charter school here, which we would have to give up if we went somewhere else, but other than that...we're ready to go back east. We hadn’t really come to any decisions about where we might move. With the housing market temporarily on the decline, we knew we’d need to stay in Phoenix a few more years until we could sell our house for a better price. Plus, the kids are in great schools and we don’t want to pull them out immediately. Our old master plan was that after Cristina finished naturopathic school, we’d move to Chapel Hill, NC. We like that area, it’s a small college town (our favorite type of town), just a few hours drive from most of my family, plus Cristina has extended family in the Raleigh area. So the natural conclusion would be to move to Chapel Hill.

Then I went to Gainesville last weekend with Alex. And I guess I had a kind of epiphany.

It didn’t really start until Sunday. I went to see Jim Owens, a teacher friend of mine from GHS, and a real kindred spirit. I meant to just pop in for an hour and say hello, catch up, that sort of thing. Nearly 4 hours later, I finally left and suddenly had this strong voice inside me saying that maybe we should come back to Gainesville. It’s not like Jim did a sales job on me…he just answered some questions I had about things like retirement (whether my years in Arizona could be applied to my Florida retirement), and what’s been going on with the TV Production program at GHS (it’s practically dead). We talked about all kinds of stuff, and while we talked, we walked from his house down to a little gyro restaurant near campus. Maybe it was a combination of the beautiful fall day, and the walk through the heart of Gainesville and campus, and imagining the really strange concept of returning to GHS to rebuild my program… But the more I thought about things, the more excited I got. Every angle that would have been a deterrent to coming back seemed to have a silver lining. For example, there’s no Waldorf high school in Gainesville, and Sofia is at a really good academic/fine arts 6-12 charter school now. But… what if she went to GHS? They now have the Cambridge Program, which is a magnet like the IB program. She could do that, get an excellent prep for college, and also have access to some things that her current school doesn’t offer, like sports and art and…TV Production. And it would be awesome for her to take Jim’s Humanities class. The thought of her going to the school that I teach at is appealing too. As you all know, I have some experience in this area, having gone to a high school that my own dad taught at. It can be handy at times (riding together), and at the very least, comforting to know that a close family member is right there, everyday.

Monday morning, before Alex and I flew home, I went by GHS to see a mural that one of Jim’s students had painted on his classroom wall. It was also a good excuse to see him one more time and say hi to anyone else there that remembered me. I hung out in Jim’s class for about 30 minutes while he was teaching. Just observing his class made me long for those kinds of students. Attentive, hard-working, obviously from well-educated families. Like I said, I like teaching in Phoenix, but it can be tiring to teach inner-city kids from low-income, immigrant families. I’ve never really thought of it as all that hard to do, but the fact is I just don’t connect with them as well. I don’t share their lives or have much in common with them. It was different at GHS. The kids I taught there were more like me. And that can be comforting and comfortable, if that makes sense.

On a whim, I popped in to see the principal. It’s the same principal who was there when I left, so he knew me (even remembered my first name after 3 years, which is always a good sign). I don’t know why, but a briefly spilled some of my thoughts and things that we’ve been going through in our plans. And he said if we come back to Gainesville to give him a call. A great sign.

There have been a lot of changes at GHS, many for the worse, and I doubt I’d get a full-time TV Production program again. At least not at first. After my replacement ran the program into the ground, the administration scaled it back to one class. The guy who teaches Web Design, a friend of mine, has been kind of stuck with it, though it’s not his baby and he’d be more than happy to give it to someone else. I imagine that I’d teach English at GHS and maybe 1 class of TV Production. I’d be fine with that. Sunday night, I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking of ways to build the program back up. I’ve done it once, and I’m totally comfortable and confident in doing it again. All I need is money, and I’ve got some ideas already on how to get that. But I digress…

Of course, in coming back to Gainesville, I could apply to any high school. Buchholz is the “nice” school in town. But I still have a lot of friends at GHS, and it has special meaning for me. I taught there for 7 years, and they were the best, happiest years of my teaching career. I can’t imagine moving back to Gainesville and not teaching at GHS. It just wouldn’t feel right. And, oh yeah, Cristina graduated from there. How cool would it be for Sofia to graduate from the same high school her mother did?

For the first time in years, maybe ever, I feel like Gainesville is where I want to raise my kids and live indefinitely. I know I’m not that old, but I feel comfortable with the notion of buying a house there and just settling in, not on the lookout for where we might be in a few years. And though it may seem trivial, these thoughts occurred to me too: though I like Chapel Hill, and I’m from North Carolina…I don’t want to go to Tarheel football games. I want to go to Gator games! If I’m going to live in a little college town, I want Gainesville and all that goes with it! If we moved to Chapel Hill, I know part of me would always be longing for Gainesville. So why not just give in and move there to begin with. Those that really know me know that it’s a fact: I’m nuts for my alma mater.

I didn’t used to think I liked Florida that much. But living somewhere for 23 years, the most formative years of your life, has an effect. Yes, the humidity is unpleasant. The bugs are annoying. The pay is low and people drive too slow. But it’s home. And after living in Phoenix for 3½ years, I realize that more than ever.

I’ll miss being just 5 minutes from a major airport, that’s for sure. I’ll miss good old Trader Joe’s. And I’ll miss the cool, sunny, crisp winters here. I won’t miss the 115 degree summers. I won’t miss the blazing sun with no rain in sight for months. I crave those Florida summers where it thunderstorms every afternoon. I love the idea of being a 30-minute ride from tubing down the Ichetucknee River. I look forward to being just a day-long road trip away from my family again. After driving 7000 miles this past summer, the thought of driving from Gainesville to Asheville seems like nothing. Living across the country can give you some perspective like that. And I know I can speak for Cristina on this one: I miss trees. I haven’t said that too much during the past 3 years, because I knew it would only make it worse for Cristina, but I do miss trees and greenery.

There are always trade-offs when you move somewhere, but sometimes being away for a while helps you appreciate things even more. To recycle a cliché, if you love something set it free, and if it comes back to you it was meant to be…well, Gainesville set us free for a few years and I realize my love now. I’m ready to come back.

So that brings us to present day. Here's the plan so far. I’ll teach here at South Mountain for the rest of this school year and the next. We are tentatively planning to move back to Gainesville summer of 2009. That gives us about 18 months to pay off some debt and allow the housing market to rebound some (hopefully). Even if the value of our house doesn’t get to where we want it by then, there is the possibility of renting it out when we move and then selling it later.

We also need those 18 months to pay off some debt. I’ll be taking a significant pay cut to come back to Florida, so we need to trim our expenses back to a minimum.

With a summer 2009 move, Sofia would be about to start 8th grade, Alex would be ready for 3rd grade, and Isabella would be ready for Kindergarten. I’m not sure where Sofia would go for 8th grade (P.K. Yonge is always a possibility, and there are other charter schools we might explore) but no matter where we live in Gainesville, she could come to GHS for 9th because I’d be teaching there (thus, a zoning exception). Plus, since the Cambridge program is a magnet, she’d have a zoning exception for that too. Alex and Isabella could go to Expressions Learning Arts Academy, where Sofia went for Kindergarten and 1st grade. It’s a good school.

Cristina will get some experience practicing Jin Shin Jyutsu while out here and can hopefully take that experience into the Gainesville market. Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioners typically earn $60 to $120 an hour, depending on the market. That would help balance the lower teacher pay, for sure. So there it is. Those are the updated, earth-shattering changes that have been coming for a few months now. If you’ve actually stuck with this lengthy blog to the end, you are either really vested in our lives, or you are really bored! Whatever the case may be, you may now comment at will.

Toddler Dialing

Isabella has a habit of playing with my cell phone.  This morning I got this
email from Burt, in Florida:

at 7 am your time, i kept getting calls from your cell.  nobody talked
on the other end - but i was driving and ended up leaving the cell in
my car to work out.  there were several calls logged from your cell
with 3 voicemails with no data.  i ran it through a
full-voice-spectrum analysis and discovered a little mumbling from
someone identified in our databases as "Bella"....

haha - I've heard of drunk dialing - but never heard of toddler
dialing.  So I figured this was one of several possibilities:

1.  wayne has lost his voice and had Bella with him.  he was trying
morse code but could not remember the code quick enough for the
message.
2.  wayne fell asleep with the phone on his hip kept rolling over onto
the redial or send button and once he rolled over onto Bella.  This
made her mumble during one of the calls.
3.  Bella set her alarm to get up before everyone else so she could
jump on the cell and call a few friends.  strangely enough one of her
friends' numbers was similar to my number, and she kept getting it
wrong.
4.  Bella found your phone and was intrigued with the "send" button as
your call to me was the last one made before her early morning
shenanigans.

haha.  good stuff.  I am just glad the time swing comes this way and
not the other way!

Sorry bout that, Burt!  Too bad she didn't at least have a conversation
with you!

Weekend Close-Out

Sunday morning after breakfast, I went over to Jim Owen's house. Jim is a friend of mine from Gainesville High School, and really the only GHS person I've kept contact with since moving to Arizona.

I decided to leave Alex with his grandmother, since he would just get bored while Jim and I talked.

The plan was to chat with Jim and his wife Claude for about an hour, then return to Jarue's to run some errands. After about an hour of chatting with Jim, though, he suggested we walk up to a gyro restaurant and grab some lunch. It was such a nice, crisp fall day that a walk to campus sounded great, especially since we could chat and continue to catch up.

During our walk and lunch, we talked about all kinds of things...the reader's/writer's workshop that I've been teaching, changes in Gainesville, the people who are still around at GHS and in the district, our new dog, Cristina's plans, the kids' schooling...

By the time we got back to Jim's house, I realized that I'd been gone more than 3 hours. As I was getting on the bike to come home, my phone rang. It was Alex, wondering where I was. Jim had wanted to show me a mural on his classroom wall that a student had painted, but since time was short, we decided he'd send me a picture instead. I finally said goodbye to Jim and Claude...and then the bike wouldn't start. I had left the lights on and the battery was dead. Luckily, I was now a pro at jumping motorcycles. Jim had cables, I hooked it up to his truck, and it started in no time.

Back at Jarue's, Alex was ready to run errands. I had considered using Jarue's car, but Alex really wanted to ride on the motorcycle, so I agreed. Without a full-face helmet or a windshield, riding the bike for any significant distances is not the most comfortable ride for me. Anything over 35 mph and I'm squinting severely due to wind. Tears flow freely and my face gets all red. But I'll take one for the team.

My errands consisted of delivering DVDs of our summer pictures to 4 people. I had phone numbers for them, but only 2 of the 4 answered. We delivered those 2, and then went to the house of one of the others (Cristina had given me directions). Though they weren't home, I left the DVD on the wreath on the front door. Alex swinged on their swing a little bit, helmet still on. It looked funny, like an overprotective parent sending their kid to play with a helmet on, just in case.


Because I had unclear directions of where the 4th person lived, I gave up on them. We returned home.

Elena had requested that I cook something for them while I was there. I asked for requests, and she asked for quiche. I had made a shopping list for them, and when I returned, they were ready for me to cook. Elena could do some of the prep work, so she did a lot of the chopping and cooking while I was gone. Her boyfriend Jamie was there as well as her friend Leigh. We were going to play Scrabble while the quiche cooked.

Scrabble was fun. Though Alex can't read yet, he busied himself with tile distribution (he tried to help me cheat once by handpicking a letter I needed, but the others caught him) and he helped me with a few words. The quiche finished right around the time the game did. I think Jamie won.

The quiche was pretty good and I made 4 of them, so there was enough for everyone to eat their fill. My biggest complaint about ordering quiche at restaurants is that the portions are always so small, and quiche is not exactly a very filling entree. So I prefer to make a bunch of it at home and pig out. Elena made brownies, too, which were yummy.

The next day, Monday, was packing up and flying home day. After breakfast, though, I decided to run up to GHS to give Jim that last DVD that I hadn't been able to deliver. I hadn't planned on giving him one, but it seemed pointless to take one back home. Plus, he would probably enjoy it.

I got a visitor pass at the office (still a weird concept) and went to Jim's room. He was surprised to see me, but he was glad to be able to show me the mural, which was a spectacularly nude rendering of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Jim teaches Humanities). I asked if I could hang out for a little while and watch his class. They were wrapping up a documentary on Vietnam and then analyzing the lyrics to Springsteen's "Born in the USA" (which, when you really pay attention to the words, is not the patriotic-anthem-used-to-sell-bluejeans that you might think it is). He asked his class if any of them had me or knew me. Only one kid raised his hand and asked if I had been the golf coach (I had). I had coached his older brother. Pretty wild.

I gave Jim the DVD and said goodbye again. Before heading home, though, I wanted to see a few other GHS people. I popped in on Wiley Dixon, the principal, who was happy to see me. I chatted with Mary, the secretary, for a good while, as well as Ruby Baker (my old department chair) and Shari Shaw (the media specialist that had once taught TV Production there before I came). Finally, I headed home and packed.

Alex and "Wita"

Alex requested to play at a park, and knowing that we had about 10 hours of traveling ahead of us, it was a great idea. So we went to Westside Park for about 20 minutes. While there, I saw one of Cristina's old friends who had moved away but is now back in Gainesville. I got her contact info for Cristina.

We met Elena at Ward's Supermarket, because I wanted to get a couple of things to take home and on the plane. As if Gainesville wanted to make one last point that my connections there ran deep, I saw yet another former student of mine as she was getting into her parked car right beside ours. I couldn't remember her name, but she got out of her car when she saw me and we chatted.

Elena arrived late, so we had to get out of town quickly. I wanted Zaxby's one time before leaving, though, so I grabbed some from the drive-through and ate it while I was driving. It was delicious. No Zaxby's in Arizona.

I failed to do two things during this brief trip to Gainesville: get some Krispy Kreme doughnuts (the closest KK to us is Las Vegas...a 6 hour drive) and eat at Maui Teriyaki (a request my sister Mary had made). Oh well. Other than that, though, the trip was a complete success. I pretty much did everything I'd set out to do, and then some.

From the time I got on I-75 at 39th Ave. to the time I stopped at the departure gate was 1 hour 45 minutes. That's pretty good time, If I say so myself, and I didn't get a speeding ticket! Despite a long security line, we got to our gate with time to spare. I didn't know if this flight to Cincinnati was oversold, but just in case, I told the guy that if it was, we'd volunteer to get bumped. He looked relieved and asked "Are you the two heading to Phoenix? I've already been working on an alternate route for you." So instead of flying to Cincinnati and then Phoenix, we got 2 $200 travel vouchers, flew to Atlanta, and got to Phoenix only 30 minutes later than previously scheduled! A perfect bonus to the perfect weekend.