Hopefully this shows up

New Blog. http://oneheadinjurytoomany.wordpress.com/

I Warned You.....

If you read my New Year's goals post you may remember that one of my goals was to raise money to help other people by exploiting my friends. Well, I didn't forget. In fact I have a couple of thank you letters that I have been trying to show to everyone who donated to our annual New Years run. If I haven't shown them to you yet remind me the next time I see you. I have them in my truck. One is from a student who received a new pair of shoes, and the other is from the principal at Walter Douglas Elementary. They really got me thinking about trying to help someone else, but school is almost out. I did a little brainstorming (both brain cells working at maximum capacity), and talked with a few of you. This is what I came up with. Caitlin is going to a dance intensive, and summer school at the U of A where she will live on campus for an entire month. It is going to be expensive. Fortunately we (read Amy) are really good at saving money just for this sort of thing. We are also fortunate enough that we have jobs, and have not been affected to badly by the economy. That means we can afford it. I got to thinking about kids that might not be going to have such an exciting summer. I know one young boy who is a new climber who's family has not been as fortunate to survive the economic downturn. He doesn't have any plans for the summer so I figured why not send him to a week of summer climbing camp at Rocks & Ropes gym. I talked to someone close to him, and she said he would love it, and she would help. We need to raise $200 to send him to climbing camp. I have been trying to think of ways to generate the money so if you have any ideas I'd love to hear them. Several things I thought about were stunts I could perform, and you could pay to watch me humiliate myself. Maybe I could get a paddle, and sell swats. Ultimately I figured that would be a bad idea. Some of you would probably give me exactly what you have been thinking I deserve for a very long time. I also thought about auctioning off a day of climbing here locally. Maybe a day of multi pitch at the summit crags, or just cragging where I could belay slave or rope gun if you are not a climber who leads. Ultimately none of these sound like great ideas so help me out, and let me know if you have an idea. *I know I am behind on posts. I have many things that I need to catch up on, but blogger is not working well with my browser. I am trying to get it fixed, but am not sure that this post will even show up on my blog. Please excuse all of the typos and gramatical errors. I can only read parts of this post. I may have to switch to another hosting site, but I promise to get it figured out soon.

Kids and Drums

Brett's oldest daughter takes piano lessons with my mom on Thursday afternoons. Michelle brings her to her lesson, and then has the three younger kids to entertain while Rebecca has her lesson. I sometimes walk or ride the longboard down to my mom's, and get the younger kids to come play over here. I normally push all three of them back on the longboard. I forgot it this last time, and got scolded. I probably won't do that again. I enjoy having people my own age (developmentally that is) to play with, and they don't seem to mind to bad. I think it also gives Michelle a 45 minute break where she can just relax. That's the idea anyway.

If you remember, one of my goals this year was to learn to play the drums. I  found a used kit fairly cheap, and I've been teaching myself how to play from Internet videos and out of a couple of books I got used at Bookmans. The kids seem to like them too.

Tyler will surely be playing in a Metal band before to long. He has a kind of Romaine Goulon style.

If Disney had a drummer princess Meagan would be it. I think she was afraid she might hurt the drums if she hit them to hard.

Erin was slow and steady. No need to be flashy. Just keep time. It has worked for Phil Rudd forever.

To me this has been the best part of owning drums so far. Learning to play can be frustrating. Especially when my arms and legs don't do what I think I am telling them to, but watching the kids play really is fun.

Another Thank You Note

Thank you again to all of those of you who participated in our little fund raiser, and fun run this year. We had a great time putting it on, and  I feel like we did some good that we can see the results of directly. And a big thank you to Lara for her hard work and donation for finisher's awards. She is rad.

Way Behind Again

Anyone know who is in the picture above? I do. That is one of the best friends I have ever had. That is Stayc Webb. I  hate to say Stayc is my oldest friend because I have friends that are older although they are 50 also (oops, I just let the cat out of the bag), but she has been my friend the longest which is what I mean.

Stayc just had a birthday, and I have been wanting to post about her. I have been lazy though. I have reasons why it has taken me so long, but ultimately I am just lazy. We went to dinner with Stayc and her husband Porter so I finally got the picture I needed.

Here are some things about Stayc.
1. She is the most loyal friend anyone could ask for.
2. When she is your friend count on it being for life. Even is you are as lazy as I am at being a friend.
3. Stacy is married to a man who adores her, and I think she likes him OK too.
4. Stayc makes art out of almost anything, but has taken up welding to make iron art.
5. Stayc loves Andy Warhol, and David Bowie.
6. I have never known one of Stayc's friends to be in need of something when she did not offer to help.
7. Stayc and I became friends at UPS. She claims I was a jerk until she showed me the name on a package that had broken open, and was full of gay porn (thanks for only showing me the label, and not the contents). The name on the label was "Mark Muchmore". We both remember it to this day, and I was not being a jerk.
8. Stayc taught me that "the Russians love their children too."
9. Happy belated birthday Stayc. I love ya.

Here is one of my excuses for being so late on Stayc's birthday post. Not just the TV, but how we ended up with it.  It all started out by deciding we would paint the living room, and move the mountain bikes and drum kit (that will have to be a completely separate post), into the family room. Amy hated the first thing everyone saw when they walked into the house to be a bunch of bikes. So now we are using the original living room again, and the family room I added is bike storage. 

Well, after we finished painting we moved our furniture in. It didn't look great, but it would have to do. Then we moved our 17 year old $7 yard sale entertainment center with the 16 year old TV in it, and that would not do. Especially after I broke off some of the plastic while trying to dust the TV.

Long story short, we ended up with a 42" TV, Blu Ray player, and a new TV stand. What I  thought was funny is the night after we got it I looked up and noticed that Amy was reading her Kindle, the kids were reading books, and I was reading a magazine. Nice to know it won't change our habits too much.

I've been thinking about having a contest for the most unique use for your BB&S, Team Brenton fun run finisher's award. This was sent to me anonymously, and is probably the winner. If you think you can out do it send me a picture.

Happy Birthday Ironman

Today is my friend Kent's birthday. He is 50 years old today. Kent has been one of the most influential people in my life. I've written about him here several times before so I won't go through his bio again. Below is a list of things that I think make Kent great.

1. He always stays in shape. Even with a tough surgeon's schedule, and a family to raise you will never catch him unable to keep up with the group.

2. When Kent makes decisions he first decides what the kind thing to do is.

3. After deciding what the kind thing to do is he does it.

4. He decided to become a surgeon because he wanted to help people.

5. Kent is his wife Janet's biggest fan, and she is his.

6. Kent never wastes money, but truly enjoys the money he spends.

7. Kent donates time traveling to other countries to help under privileged people, and training other doctors.

8. Kent has climbed Denali, and many other peaks.

9. Kent overcame gear addiction. That must not have been an easy one.

10. There is no one who doesn't look up to Kent when they get to know him. Me especially.

Happy Birthday Ironman!

Crappy Day

Yesterday was the crappiest day I think I have ever had, and I've worked for a plumber before.  As you saw in a previous post I took Philip to his new job cleaning horse stalls. I helped him get started, and showed him the pace he should be moving at. If you have a teenager you will understand that. They have one speed. I call it "barely perceptible forward motion." To many years at UPS have made me impatient with anything less than a brisk pace while working.

Once I got him going I went over to talk to my dad and Bill. I started helping my dad work on a chicken coop he was building for Bill's wife. Bill was trying to unplug a sewer. I went over to see if I could help. I won't describe it, but you wouldn't have wanted to be there.

Philip finally finished his job so we headed home. Already feeling like I had bathed in a cesspool I decided to clean out the chicken pen and coop. That I'm getting pretty used to. Because my wife has chickens she gets eggs. I get to clean up after them.

I went into the house only to find another plugged toilet. Fortunately I was able to plunge it. I took a nice long shower, and went for a short run to make myself feel better.