A horn players blog

Recent Happenings...

2010-04-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

In this day and age where it seems like no one is updating their blog I decided it would be a good idea to set an example and update mine, even though I don't have much to talk about.

So what has happened in the last several months, well, for one thing, I became an uncle again for the sixth time now. My newest niece Carolyn Louise was born to Aaron and Marcia back in November and will actually be five months old tomorrow. Ok I have to admit, if you know anything about me that is really old news.

Today I took what is hopefully my last college exam, I should find out the results from that test and the one I took last Saturday within the next three weeks, and if I did pass both of them that will fulfill my requirements for my bachelor's degree. It'll be nice to finally have college over and done with.

It's now been a little over three months since I got laid off from my job that had me traveling quite a bit, but I did get hooked up with a company this last week that could be giving me some contracting work. We'll see how that all works out.

I'm still working on my flight training and am hoping to have my Private Pilot certificate by sometime in June, depending on how open my schedule is, i.e. whether I'm working or not.

So I guess in a brief summary that's what has been going on with me for the last couple of months. I did also have a chance to go skiing in Colorado in the middle February but other than that it's been a quiet couple of months. Hopefully I'll have something more substantial to post in a couple of months. :)

Oh, and on a side note, it's also a week away from my 29th birthday. Kind of scary just to think about it. I'll soon be entering the last year of my twenties. I now feel like I'm really getting old, though some people still say I'm just a kid when I say that.

As always, thanks for stopping by. ;)

A long overdue update

2009-11-11T13:21:00.001-08:00

To start off I want to apologize to my loyal readers, (Ok, I'm not sure who I'm kidding with that comment) but it has been a month and a half since I posted anything and SO much has happened in that amount of time I hardly know where to begin.

I guess I could start by saying I flew my first solo!

Here is a picture of me standing next to the plane I flew solo in.

And here is a video of me on my first solo landing. (Gotta love it when your instructor surprises you with stuff like this) :)

I also went on a trip to the state of Oregon, and yes, it was my first time ever to that state.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of Mt Hood while I was there:

I also followed up my first solo with my first solo cross-country flight! (Just to clarify, that is a flight of over 50 nm to another airport, and back. I didn't literally fly across the country.) Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that but it was an unbelievable experience!

That pretty much sums up the last month and a half or so. Off the top of my head I can't think of anything else exciting that happened. And now I'm sitting here at the OC airport waiting for my flight to Denver then to Albuquerque after a three hour layover. (sigh) Maybe I'll get lucky and my first flight will be delayed. :)

Anyhow, thanks for stopping by! Hope you weren't completely bored out of your mind reading this. If you have any questions for me feel free to post a comment. Or even if you don't have a questions for me feel free to post a comment. :)
(I'm sensing a pattern here...) Have a great day!

I'm off to Montana for to throw the hoolihan!

2009-09-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm not really planning on doing any roping while in Montana but it did sound like a cool title (Too bad Stephen Bly already used it). Well, right now I'm sitting in the John Wayne airport waiting to fly to Billings Montana for a few days. Sound exciting? That's what I thought. I'll have to remember to take some pictures this time as Montana can be very beautiful.

So what else has been going on in my life since the last time I posted? Well, I'm still taking flying lessons, in fact I'm very close to being ready to solo. I actually have a test I have to take prior to my next lesson that is required for soloing. I'm also working on studying for my next test for school, which in this case is Statistics. After that class (test) I'll have three more classes (tests) to finish for my Bachelor's.

With the coming of fall I've also started playing horn again in orchestra and band, in fact we had our first orchestra concert last night.

Oh, and for you tech savvy people out there I just recently took and passed the Cisco CCNA Voice exam so I now have another certification to credit to my name.

Does it sound like I've been busy? You have no idea. Right now my plan is to finish my degree, get my private pilot license and get at least two tests taken toward the Cisco CCVP certification by my next birthday. Ok, so I'm hoping I get all that done long before my next birthday but we have to keep things realistic, right?

By, now you probably realize this post isn't really going anywhere but thanks for sticking around and actually reading it. If you weren't bored out of your mind by reading it feel free to post a comment. Thanks for stopping by!

Flying lessons!!!

2009-08-04T09:03:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to actually have an opportunity to do something you've always wanted to do? Well, pictured below you can see a picture of me doing something I've always wanted to do, take flying lessons!

And pictured below is the plane I flew in earlier this week.

I'm still fairly early along in my flight lessons, I've only had about 4 or 5 lessons so far, but I've already learned the four fundamentals of flight(Straight and level, turns, ascents and descents), done some stalls, done some slow flight and I've started some traffic patterns and landings.

So that's just something that's been happening with me lately, hopefully not too boring to read about. Thanks for stopping by!

It's a mistake!!!

2009-07-28T00:23:00.001-07:00

After a recent trip to DC I realized that my state maps I have been posting are inaccurate. I actually have been to Ohio!!!

Ok, so it was just a short layover in Cincinnati when I was flying to Tennessee one year but that counts just as much as my short layover in Minneapolis-Saint Paul for my one visit to Minnesota.

So with that all cleared up here is my now accurate visited states map. :)

Ok, that was kind of a dumb boring post, but then based on how many comments I get on this blog I'm beginning to think no one ever reads this anyway. In a way I feel like I'm just venting into the infinite world of cyberspace. But then there's always hope that someone, anyone might just happen to stop by and find it not completely dull.

Ok, can you tell I'm tired? It's after midnight and I'm posting a meaningless blog post. (sigh) Perhaps these frequent business trips are starting to take a toll on my head.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and reading my rambling. And go ahead and post a comment if you feel so inclined. :)

A Busy Weekend

2009-06-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

Hmm, spending a weekend in Washington DC with nothing planned, what to do...

Yep, you guessed it! How about visiting a few states that I haven't been to yet. (5 to be exact)

After leaving DC the first state I came to was Maryland...

After Maryland I came up on our nation's first state, Delaware.

From Delaware I continued on to New Jersey.

And from New Jersey I went on to Pennsylvania.

And last, but not least, the state of West Virginia.

So what does that raise the total to? A total of 31 visited states! And of course I had to add an updated map to show the 5 new visited states! :)

Now that was Saturday, today on Sunday I took a tour of DC!

The tour started out by visiting the White House.

And here's a picture of me with the White House in the background.

Just up the street is the guest house for foreign dignitaries. You can see it here with an American flag hanging from it. (It's the white one in the middle) When someone is visiting from overseas they hang the flag of where the dignitary is from instead of the American flag. The tour guide told us that until World War II they would actually stay at the White House. But apparently Winston Churchill wore out his welcome when he would walk up the hall and wake up FDR at 2 am to discuss different matters concerning the war. Mrs. Roosevelt apparently didn't appreciate that and so ever since the guest house has been where visitors stay.

We then drove by the Washington National Cathedral which sits at the highest point in Washington DC. President Woodrow Wilson is the only US president buried here, but other famous people like Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan are also buried here.

The next stop was the US Marines Memorial. The depiction of the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima is the main part of the memorial but if you look closely, around the base of the memorial it lists all of the wars that the US Marine Corps has been a part of.

We then stopped by the US Air Force Memorial. The memorial pictured here with the three spires represents the Air Force's core values: Integrity first, Service before self, and Excellence in all that we do.

The sign below marks the entrance to the memorial.

After stopping for lunch we next visited what they called the big three memorials. They call them that because they are located very close together. They include the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. Pictured below is a depiction of soldiers going through harsh terrain.

And we must never forget that Freedom is rather costly...

At the memorial they fly the American flag as well as the POW - MIA flag to remember those who were either prisoners of war or were missing in action.

We then moved to the Vietnam War Memorial. Depicted here are the three American races that were involved in the war: Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Caucasian Americans.

The majority of the memorial consists of the wall pictured below with the more than 58,000 Americans who were either killed or were MIA (Missing in action).

And finally we came to one of favorite parts of the day, the Lincoln Memorial!

Inside the memorial the larger than life statue of Lincoln.

And here's another picture of me with Lincoln in the background.

From the Lincoln Memorial there is a great view of the Washington Monument. Here you can see the reflective pool with the Washington Monument.

And here by looking at an angle you can see that directly behind the Washington Monument is the Capital building.

The next memorial we visited was the Jefferson Memorial, here from the back side you can see it resembles Jefferson's home at Monticello.

Inside the memorial is the statue of Jefferson.

And here is a view from the front of the Jefferson Memorial.

Amazing how often this happens. From the Jefferson Memorial there is a split in the trees that gives you a view of the White House.

We also stopped briefly at the World War II Memorial.

The memorial had 50 pillars, one for each of the 50 States. Pictured here is the California pillar.

There are also two main entrances, on the near side is the entrance with the title "Pacific" commemorating the Pacific theater of the war. On the far side the entrance is listed as Atlantic.

And finally, our last stop of the day was at none other than the US Capital!

Here is a shot from directly in front of it.

And here is a self portrait with the Capital in the background.

And here's a view of the Washington Monument from the other side.

The Capital rotunda is quite a site to see in person. I hope to have a chance to visit here again someday.

Now I did take a whole lot more pictures than I posted here. If you would like to see more of the pictures I took you can see them at http://picasaweb.google.com/kevinhornplayer.

Thanks for stopping by!

Off to the Nation's Capital!!!

2009-06-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

Well, here I sit in the airport getting ready to board a flight to Dallas and then from there to Washington DC. Admittedly it is a little sooner than I had anticipated going after my flight on Sunday got postponed, but it will be fun to visit our nation's capital again, albeit on a business trip. Thankfully this time I'm not fighting a severe cold like I was last time I was in DC, so things should hopefully go better with work. I am scheduled to be for about a week and a half so hopefully this weekend (assuming I'm not working) I may get an opportunity to see something of DC this time. I'll try to take some pictures if I have an opportunity and post them later.

I was hoping to post something before this about my recent trip to Missouri as I had an opportunity to site see in St Louis and visit the Gateway Arch. Perhaps I'll post some of those pictures along with any pictures I take in DC.

This may seem like a rather short post but I only have a limited amount of time to write before my plane begins boarding. Hopefully my next post will be a bit more substantial.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wyoming, I ride...

2009-05-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

Yessiree! Scratch another state off the list I have now added Wyoming to my visited states and even have the picture here to prove it! Now what was I doing in Wyoming you may ask? Simply surveying telephone systems for the Forest Service. I had the opportunity to visit five Forest Service offices on my trip and below are the signs of the offices I visited.

The Shoshone National Forest Supervisor's Office in Cody, WY. This was my first stop on my tour of Wyoming.

The Cody Interagency Dispatch Center (IDC) also located in Cody, WY. This was more of a quick side trip as this was a rather small office.

The Wapiti Ranger District Office, once again in Cody, WY. (Yes I did spend a bit of time in Cody, WY) My last stop before heading south into the central part of Wyoming.

The Washakie Ranger District Office located in Lander, WY. After visiting this office I turned west and had the opportunitiy to drive through the Wind River Canyon which was quite a spectacular site.

My last stop before heading to Jackson, WY to catch a flight home. The Wind River Ranger Station located in Dubois, WY. After visiting this office I got to drive through the Grand Teton National Park!

Not the greatest quality since it was taken from a camera phone, but this is a shot of the mountain range known as the Grand Tetons taken from the Jackson Hole airport.

And another shot with a slightly wider angle.

And of course, I had to add an updated map of my visited states. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

An updated map

2009-03-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, call me obsessed if you want to but I've decided to update my map now that I'm here in DC (via Virginia). Perhaps a bit early to be updating it since I may in fact visit a few more states before I leave a week from Friday but as I'm sitting here sick in bed I decided to just go ahead and update this.

This map may not look much different than the previous one, but if you look carefully, you can see Virginia is now colored in. And if you look very carefully you can see that DC is also colored in. :)

Ok, so the DC one might be too small to actually see, but it is colored in, trust me.

One unfortunate thing to note in this update is that in the last couple of weeks I just missed going to Oregon and Wyoming, however I am hopeful that I will get to visit both of those states sometime in the near future. In fact I'm hopeful that someday I'll have a chance to visit all of the 50 states, though that may be a few years down the road.

Anyway, until next time, thanks for stopping by.

The curious traveler

2009-03-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered what a map of the US would look like with just the states you've been to highlighted? I have, on many occasions. Well now I don't have to wonder any longer thanks to this website I found. You can use it too by following the link below. And just for fun I added a world map as well since I recently went on a short term mission trip to Chile with a layover in Colombia. Believe it or not that was my first trip ever outside the US.

create your own personalized map of the USA

create your own visited country map

I'm actually scheduled to go to Wyoming in a little over a week so I can update my map after that happens. With all the traveling I do for business I hope I can continue filling in more blanks. Well, hope you enjoyed that long overdue blog post. Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

A New Car, Exercise and Catching Up...

2008-07-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! It really has been a long time since I posted something. I usually am good about getting one out every 3 months but it's been practically 4 months this time. I wonder if people have been checking this blog for the last 4 months hoping to see something. Well, if you have been and you're here now, please accept my humblest apology, I've been very busy and the few chances I may have had to post something, I probably just didn't think of it at the right time.

Anyway, the most recent thing to happen, (Ok, so it technically happened on Memorial Day, but who's keeping track anyway?) I got a new car! Yes, I'm afraid I crashed that little white car for the last time on my way to a CT scan up in LA and... well, let's just say it was too much to recover from this time. (i.e. the cost to fix was greater than the blue-book value so it was "technically" totaled) So I went car shopping online and came across a very nice car for a decent price at Carmax. It's a 2005 Chrysler Sebring 4 door sedan with less than 25k miles on it. (or it least it did when I bought it) But as I'm sure you're dying to see what it looks like, (well, maybe not dying but you know what I mean) without further adieu, here is a photo tour of the new car.

Here it is nice and clean after a recent car wash!

And here's a little closer look.

And now a view from the other side.

The front console complete with CD Player, Cassette Player, Air Conditioning, MPG (Miles per gallon) tracking, Cruise Control and more!

The front seats along with a little compartment for CDs between the seats and even a little spot to keep my shades! (Very handy)

The back seats with my CD case in the middle.

Oooo, look at the shiny wheels! (I did say I just went to the carwash didn't I?)

And last but not least my new license plate that I just got about a week ago, complete with my new license plate cover. I know, it's changed, but speaking of running I'm getting ready to run in 2 5k races on July 19th and July 26th. Doesn't that sound exciting?!? No??? Ok, I realize not everyone is in to running, I just happen to be into it right now because... well, let's just say it has to do with health reasons and no I'm not trying to lose weight! Quite the contrary actually. Take a look at the picture of me running in my last post if you need confirmation on that.

So what else has been happening since I last posted. Well, I changed jobs for the second time in about 6 months, I nearly had surgery, I've been playing in several concerts lately (there'll be three this week including todays) and I started a new diet and exercise program. Again let me emphasize, I am NOT trying to lose weight, I am on this new diet to try to help heal my digestive tract. The exercise (running, biking and just last night I added swimming) is to help build my body up into better shape. But why biking and swimming you may ask... Well, I am considering possibly competing (ok, maybe not competing, more like participating) in a sprint triathlon on Catalina island this November. It involves a half mile (open water) swim, a 10 mile bike ride and a 5k run at the end. Crazy!!! Probably, but I figured if I can get myself into that kind of shape for this fall it'll also help my body in recovering from this disease. If you would like to track my progress as I train you can visit my new training blog I just started at kokid.sweat365.com/ Why the nickname KO Kid? Don't ask. It's a long story as it's a nickname I picked up at work.

Well, I think that's going to do it for this post. As always, thanks for stopping by! And leave a comment if you feel so inclined. Until next time! (Hopefully sooner rather than later, but you know how I am with posting) :)

Too much physical activity

2008-03-07T14:20:00.001-08:00

Is it possible to have too much physical activity? (rhetorical question) Perhaps my body is just telling me I've been doing a bit too much lately. So what happened? Well lets see... On Saturday Feb 23rd I ran in my first 5k.

You may notice the watermark on this picture, I decided not to pay $30 to get a digital copy of it. Instead I used a creative screen capture application to get it. And unfortunately the camera caught me just before I smiled, (see the grin on my running partners face?) so I ended up looking like I was half dead. Oh well, I never was very photogenic.

The following Wednesday Aaron, Brian and I went snowboarding. This was only my second time snowboarding, the first time was several years ago, so I didn't do very well.

Here's the three of us riding the lift up to the top of the mountain.

Here's one of Aaron and I.

Now that is one beautiful view of the lake.

Me giving a thumbs up sign from my knees.

At the end of the day I tried to go skiing and found my legs were just too dead already. So much for having fun skiing after a hard day of snowboarding. (sigh) Oh well...

On the way home my legs started cramping something fierce and later in the evening I could feel some pretty intense cramps in three different places in each of my legs. Starting to sound like too much physical activity yet? Ok, well I have one more for you then.

Last week I signed up for a gym membership and this evening was my first time working with a personal trainer. (no pictures with this one) One of the exercises he had me do was push ups. Now I already knew my arms were extremely weak, but somehow I only managed two! (how embarrassing) He also had me do several other more interesting exercises and as a result just about my whole body feels worn out. He also wants me to up my calorie intake to 1000 a day and my protein intake to 100 grams a day and to do this resistance training 3-5 days a week. Ouch! And I thought training for a 5k was hard!

Ok, I realize for some of you that may not seem like a lot of physical activity, but I can tell you, it's a lot more than I'm used to. :)

If you feel so inclined you can post a comment or else just keep poking back in to see when I update this again. (it may be sooner than you think)

A trip to Arizona

2008-02-21T16:15:00.000-08:00

No you're not hallucinating, I actually am posting an update. This week I had something worth posting about. Ok, I'll let you decide if it was worth posting about. And if you post a comment I'll assume you came by and survived the heart attack of seeing an update.

Anyway, if you hadn't already guessed by reading the title I'm in Arizona this week, on a business trip no less. Unfortunately as business trips oftentimes go Murphy's law was in full effect and our first day onsite was a 14 hour day. Thankfully I was able to get about 9 hours of sleep last night so I'm feeling much better today. One thing I will say about Arizona, the scenery is much prettier than California. (though not quite as pretty as Colorado) So without further adieu here are a couple of pictures we were able to take...

Here's an example of that beauty, you can kind of see the red in the soil with the mesa in the background. We actually did see a sign on this trip for an exit called Table Mesa, talk about redundant. :)

A picture taken at daybreak, unfortunately I didn't catch it while the sun was on the horizon, which was much prettier. This picture still doesn't do it justice though.

Our handy GPS, which kept us from getting lost when we were driving in the middle of nowhere.

Yes there was snow, at least at the higher elevations, there was quite a bit in Flagstaff actually. Hopefully the storm they're predicting won't cause a problem friday when driving back to the airport.

Beyond the stop sign warning sign you can see a lovely horizon with the National Forest in the middle. We are working in the Apache-Sitgreave National Forest and it is actually quite beautiful.

Our destination at last, the Black Mesa ranger station. This was our view when we arrived.

A lovely view of the forest near the ranger station.

A typical information center like you often see at rest stops and ranger stations off of major interstate highways.

And I thought they only had these in the Northeast, like in Vermont.

A view of the entire tree. (almost)

A very nice tribute to a man with a very good name. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to ask about who he was.

The only "fast food" in town. I guess maybe that's why Subway is the largest fast food chain in the US. (that's our Infiniti M35 parked out front by the way, it's a very fast car!)

Why does my co-worker JT look so happy? Perhaps it's because we're getting ready to leave at a little after 4 instead of a little after 11 like the night before.

Here's a little better view of the stuffed bear in the lobby of the ranger station.

I couldn't resist getting my picture taken with it. :)

A double warning about the ice.

The name says it all, though I think perhaps trimming is in order here.

A lovely view of the ranger station as we leave.

As we drove back through Holbrook on our way to Winslow I snapped a shot of this place. Don't see too many of these anymore.

A couple pictures of the clouds, though again, the pictures don't do that sunset justice.

Now just in case some of you took offense at what I said about Arizona not being as pretty as Colorado; here are a couple of pictures that I did take while in Colorado that will hopefully give you somewhat of an idea of why I said that.

Ok, so two pictures may not seem like much proof, so I guess you'll have to take my word for it.

With that I'll conclude this post. Until next time, (hopefully in less than 2 months) thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed it!

A Saturday in San Diego

2007-11-07T09:08:00.001-08:00

Ok, I realize I've been really bad about posting, given the fact I haven't posted anything for over 2 months, but hopefully this one will kind of make up for it.

Last Saturday (11/3) we went down to San Diego for the day to practice brass for Nov 18th, when we are going back down to play on a Sunday. While we were there we also had a fun day at the park, (see pictures below) playing volleyball and football. After that we went back and practiced our Men's Chorus singing, also in preperation for the 18th. If you need any further detail on what we will be playing/singing my brother Justin has it all outlined in one of his previous posts. A link to his blog is located on the right, in case you don't already know how to get there.

And with that we will start with the pictures, I apologize that they aren't the greatest quality but I'm still getting used to my new camera. Also I didn't take all of them, as evidenced by the fact you can actually see me in a couple of them. (Andrew, where are you when I need you!) :)

Right after lunch some of the guys started out by throwing the football around for a little bit. Here's Jonathan getting ready to throw the ball to somebody.

Here's Kyle launching one.

And another one of Kyle as he gets ready to launch one.

I think Justin had a little too much too eat for lunch. But then I can't blame him, I did too, it was really good!

Jonathan gets ready to launch one.

Justin catching the football.

Kyle looks so relieved to catch this one. :)

Jonathan celebrating ... something.

The frowning photographer.

And here's a couple of shots while we were getting ready to play volleyball.

And finally the game starts, I think...

Ok, those last several pictures weren't that interesting, but here you can see where I just crushed the ball. (at least that's what I think happened) :)

And here's a different angle on the action.

And that'll do it for this post. In case you're wondering, the date listed is the date I started the post, talk about procrastination! Almost three weeks later I finished it. Well, the upload process for the pictures was very time consuming and I had problems with it a few times. Hopefully I'll have something new to post soon. Until then, thanks for stopping by.

A night at the symphony

2007-09-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

A little over a week ago I had an opportunity to take my brother with me to see the Pacific Symphony play a tribute to John Williams. It was a really neat concert.

Here is a shot of the stage before the concert started.

Here are a few shots of the actual concert.

And here is a shot of Aaron during the intermission.

And a shot of your's truly during the intermission.

For the last piece (Raider March) there was also a fireworks display.

Here's the orchestra during the final piece.

And more shots of fireworks!

I really liked how this shot turned out with the blue colors!

After the concert was over, while we were on our way out, we ran into a couple of interesting characters!

As well as a very interesting looking car!

Here you can see the difference in colors between Aaron's camera phone and mine. Personally I like these next two pictures better, but I may be biased. :)

Here Aaron decided he wanted to have his picture taken with the car!

And that's all for this time, thanks for stopping by!

A Day at Sea World

2007-08-20T22:12:00.001-07:00

Here's a post for all you animal lovers out there!

I got to spend the day at Sea World yesterday and the following are some pictures I took.

Starting off, we got some great views of the polar bear(s)!

Then from the underwater view we got to see a Walrus.

And a Beluga Whale!

Since none of the pictures inside the Penguin Encounter turned out, here's a few of the South American penguins outside!

Here they are in line to get fed!

But what's this! An intruder pulling the towel off of the fish pail!

And now he's stolen a fish!

Here he is taking a peek to see if the trainers have noticed his sneaky stealing!

Apparently so!

(Believe it or not, that actually happened!)

Here's a few shots from the Shamu show!

And the Dolphin show!

Actually this is a pilot whale!
(In the dolphin show, go figure?!?)

Another Dolphin, this one jumping for the flag!

And here's the rest of them!

And that concludes this post, Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for stopping by!

A long overdue update

2007-08-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

Considering it's now been over a month since I posted anything,
I decided, since I had a few free minutes, I would post an update.

Ok, since I am calling this a "horn players blog"
I decided I should post a picture of a horn,
or more specifically "my" horn.

So here is my horn!!!

And here is where I spend most of my evenings,
and if you think I'm kidding just ask my family.

And when I'm not practicing horn
this is usually where you'll find me.

Here's a memorable moment that happened in the last month.
I got to meet and get my picture taken with "Coach" Wooden!

What else happened this last month?

Well, other than working a lot of long hours
and starting a new treatment, not much.

July actually went by rather quickly
and now we're a week into August already.

I'll try to use my camera a little bit more this month.
If anything exciting happens I'll post something new.

Until then, thanks for stopping by!

4th of July Park Day

2007-07-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! I'm finally getting this up a day late since I was completely worn out after all of the activites of the park day. There wasn't quite as many people there as we sometimes have so some of us got a little extra exercise, and unfortunately I'm still feeling it a bit. I guess it's a sign I'm getting old...

But enough of an introduction I'm sure you're more interested in seeing pictures than hearing me ramble.

The pastor (my dad) pitched the entire game again for both teams!

Sometimes I wonder how he does it.

Here's Aaron putting a charge into one, I'm not sure if that's the one that ended up over the fence or not.

Here's the other team, watching as someone bats.

Jonathan must have really gotten a hold of that one!

Justin putting one into play.

These next two were "borrowed" (sorry) without asking,

though it's kind of hard to ask after 10:30 at night.

Here's Steven really laying into one!

Here's me, probably popping it up to Andrew out in left field. He seemed to be catching everything out there!

After softball was over a couple of us went to play volleyball.

Here's me getting ready to set one for Aaron.

Here's me again serving one. (I never realized how awkward I look when I do that!)

Ok, I'm either getting ready to hit the ball or I'm trying to keep the sun out of my eyes. Considering that I'm wearing sunglasses it's probably the former.

Jonathan looks like he's getting ready to crush the ball, while I get ready to attempt a block.

Please tell me he's not higher than me!

Jonathan and I getting ready to receive the serve.

Aaron attempting to hit over Jonathan's block.

Jonathan really got some air on that serve!

And Jonathan pounds another one!

If you saw the last picture on Andrew's blog post, this is the other side!

Unfortunately there wasn't much else to do, but the girls didn't seem to mind too much.

And they actually did get to play in a game after all!

After all that excitement I was pretty exhausted, and I look it too.

But overall it was a very fun day, and I'm glad I was able to make it instead of spending the day in the hospital like on Memorial Day. If you enjoyed reading this please feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for stopping by!

Beach Volleyball & Brass Practice

2007-06-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like a nice sunny day at the beach,

perfect weather for beach volleyball!

Once my feet couldn't take anymore of the heat from the sand I took some pictures from the side. Here's me with the Huntington Beach pier in the background.

And here's just a few of the better shots from the game:

A few shots of Aaron...

And here's a few of Jonathan...

After we left the beach we went back to the church so Aaron and Jonathan could practice their prelude for tomorrow with Lisa.

I had to turn pages so I didn't get any pictures of them actually playing.

Not really anything too exciting in this post, hopefully next time I'll have something worth reading.

Thanks for stopping by!

Starting a blog and back from vacation

2007-06-28T22:02:00.001-07:00

It's now been almost a week since I got back from vacation and somehow I got the idea of starting a blog. Hope you enjoy it!

Here is shot of the four brothers back in Tennesee at the reunion.

(I'm the tall skinny one on the right)

We had a good vacation back in Tennessee and we got to meet some relatives that I'd never met before as well as see some I hadn't seen for quite a while.

Here's a picture of all of the younger cousins, seems like someone was always looking away from the camera.

We also got to see lots of wildlife...

These are just two pictures of the one deer I got to see, my dad said he saw about thirty the whole time we were there. (Too bad he didn't have a camera)

And of course no trip to Tennessee would be complete without a round or two of Golf!

That's me in the shadows getting ready to tee off on the first hole.

Here's me again teeing off on my first ever water hole!

(Thankfully I missed the water!)

Well, I just spent the evening figuring out how to build a blog and post to it and I missed my horn practice for the second night in a row :( , Thankfully I'm not playing for anything anytime soon so I have lots of time to get back with it. Hopefully this wasn't too bad for a first blog post, I'll try to post again as soon as I have something worth posting.