A Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On

We recently experienced an earthquake here in So. Cal. All the extended family in the area seem to be fine. It hit fairly close to my parents' house and my mom said that there is stuff all over the 2nd story. Everybody is safe though, so you can stop worrying about my recently acquired Ponch picture.

Update:

Per someone's request, you can find more details at CNN here: CA Earthquake

The epicenter is said to be near Diamond Bar, which is a few miles from my hometown of Walnut. It was 5.4, which translates to moderate. My mom was outside when the quake hit and was grateful for that because a lot of stuff fell out of cabinets, bookshelves, and even the attic. I am currently at work in Pasadena and it started off as a mild rumble and then we felt a quick jolt. After that the office tower swayed for a little bit. At first I thought to myself that we were having a small earthquake, but the jolt caused me to actually get out of my chair and move to a doorway. Like I said before, the Kelley Family is safe, and that is what matters most.

My New Best Friend

One of my co-workers went to Comic Con down in San Diego last week. I noticed that Ponch was going to be signing autographs and told him that he shouldn't pass up the chance to meet one of the greatest people in the history of the world. When he related this to his wife she made it her mission to meet him. When I got to work this morning, this was waiting for me:Sorry Sara, but I think I have a new best friend. You could always arrange a meeting with Ponch to win my best friendship back.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday. One of my favorite things about wikipedia is that you can search for a date and get a whole bunch of information about what happened on that date. It's cool because you can see what historical events occurred on your birthday, or who shares your birthday. When I searched on July 22nd I found something that makes a lot about my mother more clear. As I scrolled down the list of birthdays I saw the name Mike Sweeney.
If you know anything about my mom, you know that one of her favorite things is Mike Sweeney. She talks about Mike Sweeney all the time. She has loved Mike Sweeney as long as I can remember. She makes it a point to see Mike Sweeney whenever she gets a chance. She even owns miniature replicas of Mike Sweeney. After seeing his name on the birthday list, it makes so much more sense. Anyways, Happy Birthday Mom! Hopefully you and Mike Sweeney can celebrate together.

FOR SARA

You know how sometimes you will do something for someone else, even though you won't be able to witness their reaction? For example, you are at someone's house and you change the T.V. to a Spanish channel, turn the volume up really loud, hide the remote and then leave. No?

Well, when I was a young buck my brothers and I would sometimes slide things under each others' doors. Sometimes we would do this when they were in their rooms with the door locked, or sometimes we would do it while they were gone. It was always something undesirable. A lot of times it involved sports cards. They were usually cards that weren't worth anything and featured either an unpleasant picture or a funny name. One prime example of this were John Wehner cards.I'm sure that Jed and Kyle would be happy to know that John Wehner still pops up
in the news every once in a while. They probably would also like to know that his nickname is Rock.

I still carry on this ritual today. Not with John Wehner cards (although I would enjoy receiving some to distribute), but with other items. In particular, I will rip out pages from magazines. I will then place them around the house for Sara to enjoy. The above picture of the cat doing the pee pee dance is one of a variety of cat bladder problem advertisements that have recently made the magazine rounds, and have been shared with Sara. After strategically placing the ads throughout the house I often sit and chuckle about what the look on Sara's face is like when she opens the bathroom cabinet to get her toothbrush and is greeted by an ad for breast pumps.

Does anybody else do something like this? I sometimes wonder if these acts aren't as funny as I imagine them to be, but I bet they are actually more funny. Anyway, I hope Sara likes the cat picture.

Go Listen to a Show

For those of you in the L.A. or San Diego area, or who might be sometime this summer, there is a great concert deal going on tomorrow. Starting at 10 a.m. and ending at midnight, or when tickets run out, livenation.com is offering $10 concert tickets. There are some great shows available. I would recommend checking out Bootsy Collins, A Tribe Called Quest at Rock the Bells, Cameo, Eddy Grant, or When in Rome. Click on any of this message for a link to the promotion. You will have to register for the site, which you should probably do before 10 a.m. tomorrow, but that's no hassle. If anybody wants to treat me to a free ticket for providing this information, I will accept.

Scenes of Summer

I've Said it Before, But................

I hate Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. I would seriously consider punching them in the gullets if they ever crossed my path. Thank goodness I know Spanish.

Independence Day

I like the 4th of July. I'm not sure exactly why. I don't really like fireworks. Maybe it's because The National Anthem is one of my all-time favorite songs(Sara knows that it is one I want sung at my funeral). Or maybe it has something to do with my time spent as a Boy Scout. Perhaps it has something to do with relatives who have served in the military ( A little known fact is that I was ready to enlist in the Marines after high school. They wouldn't let me serve my LDS mission in the middle of my military service, so that was a deal breaker. It turns out that the military isn't into making compromises.) Maybe it is because the 4th usually means that we get together with family and enjoy warm weather and a BBQ. Or it could simply be that I look forward to an extra day off of work.

This past Independence Day I was reminiscing about a trip my family made to The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was an awesome experience. One that I rank as one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Here is a video of the changing of the guard. If you have never witnessed it, you need to put it on your bucket list. The video doesn't do it justice. It really makes you proud of the people who defend our freedom.



Our 4th went smoothly. I started off the day with a fishing trip with Jed and Jonas. We went to Santa Ana River. Jonas must have thought it was a water park as much as he was diving in. Except for Jed leading us through a meadow of stinging nettle, the trip went well. We caught quite a few fish. We stopped keeping track, but I am pretty sure I tripled the number of fish that they caught. I was pretty sore and tired from playing basketball the night before, but I was fine (except for sleep driving on the wrong side of the road on the drive back).
It was my first time playing again since "the injury". To make a long story short, it wasn't the most pleasant experience. I realize that after 7 months I am really out of shape and it will take time to get back into shape, but it just felt different. I couldn't jump and my defense was terrible. I don't know how frequently I will be playing, but it currently isn't fun like it used to be. I won't make a final decision after the first time playing though. I'll have to wait and see.

So, after getting home from fishing I helped Sara with the finishing preparations for the barbecue we were hosting. It was a fairly small gathering with just local family attending. Knick was Grill Master General and he did a splendid job, which was great for me because I hate to barbecue. We had the typical barbecue items of hot dogs and hamburgers, but Sara had Knick grill some pineapple to put on the burgers. It was scrumptious. Along with the barbecue there were things for the kids to play with and I dominated the other brothers at lawn darts. We lit some fireworks and had an overall great day. Here are a few more pictures of the festivities. There are many more in my photobucket album.


This one is my favorite from the day. Skyler actually took it. She is becoming pretty good at taking pictures, but doesn't really know what she is doing. It is kind of like me playing Halo. Anyway, it is Grandma McAlister in front of somebody's awesome sunflowers. One thing that I would like to do on a future 4th of July is attend a baseball game. It would be like the ultimate American thing to do. Go to an early game and then get home and eat some burgers and end the night with some fireworks.

The Creek May Be Dawson's, But Pacey Has Water Rights

I recently finished Season 2 of Dawson's Creek. I found this season to be just as full of unbelievable vocabulary for sophomores in high school. The acting really is entertaining for how bad it is. Joey is by far the worst, but everyone seems to have their moments. Everyone, except for Pacey. I don't know the intentions of the creators of the show, but Pacey seems to be the only decent person of the whole bunch. And his acting is reasonably believable. Dawson, on the other hand, just keeps getting more and more whiny and irritating. I can't decide which bothers me more, Dawson's self-pitying mope fests, or Joey's weird facial twitch. I won't go into details (so as not to spoil it for future viewers), but this season featured Joey and Dawson breaking up twice, somebody going crazy, the death of somebody that nobody could stand to be around anyway, and somebody coming out as gay (which I think is the modern day jumping the shark).

Here is the dialog of one of my favorite scenes from season 2:

Dawson: [drunk] Time to make a wish, okay...let's make a wish. I wish..I wish that my mom never slept with her co-anchor. I wish that my father would stop talking about actually getting a job and go out and get one! I wish the two of you would stop your petty bickering and at least pretend to be the adults around here! I wish that my friend Pacey would just end this transformation of this A-student, do-gooder, all-around sanctimonious angel and would go back to what he does best which is make me feel good about my life when his is supposed to be worse. And then there's Jen Lindley with her drunkenness and her revolving boyfriends and her wild, wicked ways. I want to party with you! Ah, and then there's Jack McPhee. Jack McPhee who likes guys but doesn't mind stealing my girlfriend! Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, starring in his very own version of In & Out. He's in, he's out! He's in! He's out! In, out! Nice hair by the way. And then, of course, there's my Joey. My sweet, precious Joey. The only 16-year-old in the world that needed to find herself. But you know what? That's okay. I accept it. You need to find yourself, and I accept it. So Joey! Joey? [looking everywhere, under tables, around people] Excuse me? Where's my Joey? Joey! There she is! There's my Joey!

That's right, Dawson said sanctimonious while he was drunk. This might be a good time to point out that if you double click on words in the blog, answers.com will give you more info on definitions and things of that nature. Here is the scene that preceded that lovely performance:



So, I decided to get season 3(how could I not after that awesome display?) and it took a while for it to get to me. I was being tempted to check out details about season 3 online, but luckily resisted long enough. I have the feeling that Pacey and Joey are going to get together in this season. I popped in the first disc of season 3 and this is what I saw:



What the damn is this? I'll admit that the "I don't want to wait for our lives to be over" song does get irritating, but at least I can associate it with Dawson's Creek. Now they want to poison me with some other crappy song? I hope they have learned the error of their ways for next season. I already have seasons 4 and 5 in my possession, so there won't be a torturous wait between seasons.