Tag: Jesse

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Star Trek Review and Weekend Recap

We went Saturday morning to catch the new Star Trek movie and were surprised at the number of people also taking advantage of the $5 first showing price. The movie recounts the childhoods of Kirk and Spock and how they came together on the Enterprise. It also has that great Sci-Fi trick to tell new stories, time travel. This isn’t the first time that Star Trek has used time travel as part of the movie franchise. Captain Kirk time traveled to meet Captain Picard in Generations. Kirk and the entire Enterprise crew traveled back in time to modern day San Francisco to retrieve some whales in the The Journey Home. Lastly, Picard and the NG crew traveled back to foil the Borg in First Contact. In this movie, Future Spock played by Leonard Nemoy travels back in time with a rogue Romulan named Nero. The movie is action packed and goes by very quickly despite being over 2 hours long. The stories of the two main characters are told well and the inclusion of the original Spock is also done well. I recommend it and would go see it a second time.

As for the past weekend, we watched the Get Smart movie on DVD Saturday night. It was ok, but not great. Some to the classic lines were funny as were some of the new takes on an old series. Sunday morning, I bought donuts for Mother’s Day and we took Renee out to eat for lunch. We went to the new Buffalo Wild Wings at Renee’s suggestion to try it out. It was ok, but more of a sports bar atmosphere and the food wasn’t that impressive. I worked in the yard that evening tring to get some of the neglected yard work done. Monday was Jesse’s birthday so Renee got up early to decorate with baloons and a banner. He was his usually bright cheery self(NOT) after taking a shower. He opened a few presents and a card. He got a Pistols for Pandas t-shirt and some Strong Bad E-mail DVDs. He and I then went to the pst office to pick up his birthday card from my mom. We stopped by Napa Parts and he bought some replacement turn signal bulbs for his truck. We went to Nick’s for the lunch buffet and stopped at Stater Bros. for him to reluctantly select a cake. Jesse retired to his room to continue watching the DVDs and I went to work on the weed jungle that was our backyard. A busier weekend than most, but Mother’s Day/Jesse’s birthday always tend to be.

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What has happened since February?

A month with no blogging and now twice in a week. Go figure. On the 13th, we celebrated Renee’s birthday. I got her a Bluebell T-shirt and plush since we don’t have any Bluebell Ice Cream in CA. We took her to Mimi’s Cafe for dinner and then had some cake and ice cream when we got home.

Her parents arrived from TX the following Sunday and then the rain came down. We ended up taking them to the Route 66 museum in Victorville on President’s day. We drove Route 66 to Barstow and ate at Idle Spurs. The next night, Renee and I celebrated our 19th anniversary with her parents at Dinapoli’s Firehouse in Apple Valley. A few days at the house was enough for her folks so I took the rest of the week off to drive them around. On Thursday we went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theater. We even got back through Cajon Pass before traffic got bad. On Friday, we went to Calico Ghost Town and stopped for an early dinner at Rosita’s. Saturday we drove them to the airport and I caught my pinky in the door as we unloaded. OUCH! I quickly wrapped it in some napkins and we saw them to the terminal.

On the 24th, I got older. Enough said. Renee insisted we go to dinner so we went to Mama Carpino’s in Apple Valley. Last weekend, Jesse and his youth group went to camp in the San Bernardino Mountains. With him gone, Renee and I enjoyed some Chinese food which he doesn’t like and finished her Columbo DVD. If you want to see any photos, join Facebook and friend us.

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Goodbye to the blue mohawk.

Jesse decided he no longer wanted his blue mohawk so this weekend Renee took the clippers to him. He now has a buzz cut and looks like he just reported to basic training. Funny how I never wanted my hair cut short growing up, but was told it would be cut anyway. He has the choice and chooses to have it all cut off.

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Back from Photoshop World in Vegas

I had a great time at Photoshop World in Las Vegas and I especially enjoyed having Jesse attend as well. We heard about the newest version of Photoshop coming out soon and attended lots of classes on how to do more with the version we have n0w. We also met up with several members of the NAPP forum and had a lot of fun. Back to work now after being away almost all of last week.

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Fourth of July Rewind

Mondays after a long weekend always are the toughest to get back on track. After work on Thursday Night, I mowed all the dead/dry weeds in the back yard and back pasture to reduce their becoming a brush fire should someone decide to shoot fireworks toward them. We didn’t do much on the 4th itself as Jesse was off to camp still. We sat in the back after the sun went down and watched fireworks across the valley from Adelanto to Victorville to Apple Valley. Saturday around noon, we got a call from Jesse saying he was back from camp. He had a great time and seemed to have enjoyed himself. That night we went to my boss’ place in Silver Lakes for their fireworks which proved to be far better than the previous year. We ate a lot and had a great show over the lake. Yesterday, we just hung out at the house and watched a dvd in the evening and Jesse tried to teach Renee the card games he learned at camp.

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Return of the mohawk

After being shaved off at the start of the school year, the blue mohawk has made its return to the top of Jesse’s head. Another shearing, bleaching and dyeing has been done and Jesse couldn’t be happier. It’s not quite as long as last year due to having his hair shorter for school, but there is no hiding it either. 6 ft 2, blue mohawk. Way to blend in with the crowd, son! He is definitely easy to pick out when we go somewhere.

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I’m a lumberjack….

On Saturday, Jesse and I made the trip to Barstow to take care of a tree that fell at my brother’s house. Recent winds toppled it over and it was blocking part of the driveway. It was a little draining since we got there around 3 pm during the hottest part of the day. We worked for about an hour and brought home several souvenirs from the experience. Scratches and cuts don’t take that long to heal.

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Extended Memorial Day Weekend

Click for larger version

We began the weekend seeing Indiana Jones on Friday Night. It was an ok movie, but Jesse thought it was cheesey. Saturday morning Renee & I painted the porch and prepared it for laying outdoor carpet. That afternoon, Jesse and I were off to watch and photograph the ORAF 500 in Johnson Valley OHVA. After watching a little off-roading, we headed for home. Sunday we were up early laying carpet on the porch before the wind got too strong. Monday was spent around the house with a little BBQ. Yesterday, we took Jesse out of school to go to Disney. Our annual passes expired yesterday so we took a final trip through California Adventure and the Magic Kingdom before heading home ahead of rush hour traffic. It was a good 4 days and we managed to get some work done at the house as well as enjoy some relaxing.

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Weekend Update

We had a pretty full weekend. Saturday was spent working on the porch. The plywood decking was rotting and needed to be replaced. Getting the old wood off was a challenge as it was nailed down every 3 inches. Between the rusted nails and rotting wood, it took great effort to get the old plywood off. Jesse helped with the first piece of plywood and Renee helped with the remaining 3 pieces. Thankfully, after much toil and effort, the new plywood was in place and screwed down instead of nailed.

Sunday began with taking Renee to breakfast for Mother’s Day. When we returned, Jesse opened his presents and later cut the cake for his birthday. He was pleased with what he received and is now 15 years old. As Jesse spent his iTunes gift card, we went to a new grocery store in town called Winco Foods. It’s a GIANT warehouse grocery store. The prices were great, but the aisles stretched forever and it was quite crowded. I think I will stick to the smaller store we usually shop at. We ended the day with dinner at Jesse’s choice, Nick’s Pizza.

It was a pretty busy weekend and muscles are still recovering from the porch rebuild.

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These boots were made for walking…

Yesterday, we made a trip to the Military Surplus store to get Jesse some new boots. At the beginning of this year, he asked for some black boots and I rummaged through my closet and came up with a pair of arctic mountain boots from my time in Alaska. He was excited and took them as his own. Less than a year later, he has now outgrown them thus the trip to the surplus store. He got the largest size they had and hopefully they will last him at least 6 months.