May 18th

27 years ago today, this happened:

Mt St. Helens erupted blowing off its top 1800 feet or so and totally destroying the area for miles around:


It used to look like this:




Here's what it looks like now:



From Silver Lake (where we spend a big part of summer in the Rock) it looked like this a few days before I moved to AS:

The last few days have been cool and rainy. Right now is just perfect for sleeping- 79, raining and breezy. I went jogging (slowly of course) in the rain today and it was great. Sometimes when you run in the sun it is almost too hot and humid to handle.

Sorry to disparage The Unit, Brian, but it does kind of suck so far. I've only watched the first couple episodes, but the new guy and his wife on there seem pretty unlikable and incredibly stuipid so far. For example, they wouldn't have breifed them on how things are going to be prior to joining The Unit? She's shocked that this is secret stuff? Come on. Why would terrorists jack a plane in the middle of Idaho? Why did they have to parachute into the airbase when they could have just driven up like everyone else that was there? And the episode where they get ambushed by the Taliban after kidnapping a guy... come on!!!!

Nothing terribly interesting has happened at work this week, and that is good.

Having internet is just great! Listening to M's games and The World is wonderful. The only bad thing is that Morning Edition is over by the time I'm getting ready for work.

Here's a video of Meg and Adrian doing the Hasselhoff at Black Sand Beach in Western Samoa.


(I guess it didn't like the format, sorry)

Let see, here's a picture of Ed in front, Stinky Petunia on the right, and Grandpa in the back. Grandpa is on my shit list for partially ruining my garden.


This is a picture of one of the many blowholes on the walk to Airport Beach:


Stink level today was zero.

I found some good tomatoes today and had 5 for dinner tonight. They're hard to find so it was a rare treat.

Well, it's 945p, so it is past my bedtime.

Any picture or info requests?

Lion's Park

You know in the Lion King when the hyenas take over and you can hear them barking and fighting all night.

That's kind of like it is here; sort of. Since our houses are sans walls, you can hear the things going on outside. The things that are going on outside right now are a ton of dogs barking and fighting.
In the Lion King, eventually the lions take back over. Despite the fact that this neighborhood is called Lion's Park, there are no lions to keep the dogs rounded up.

Monday and Tuesday usually are mostly sucky. This wasn't really an exception. Per request, Monday was slightly stinky in the morning and cleared out in the afternoon and Tuesday was clear (of stink not clouds). The stink never gets close to Lion's Park- so that is a bonus.

Jeff Weaver is "hurt". That's probably the best solution. He can just do rehab starts all season until he pulls his head out. Being able to listen to the M's games when I get home is really nice. Neihaus was in especially rare form Sunday for the Yankees game. I think he enjoys announcing when Putz is playing more than any player since Edgar.

I have found a solution to my spending too much on long distance cards and still running out of time too fast. I signed up for Vonage. So, at some time in the future, I'll get my Vonage equipment and then will be able to call the mainland all I want at no per minute charge. This also provides sort of a fix for anyone on the mainland that wants to call me. I'll have a 206 number so it won't be international rates. But, the drawback is that I'll have to be home in order to get me. I'll let you know the number once I get the equipment.

Movie reviews:

Rocky Balboa: Pretty good. We're not talking Rocky IV here, but still pretty good. Above average: 6.5

Blades of Glory: Also pretty good. There were a few parts that were really funny. I'd say it is about as good as Anchorman, not as good as Old School of course, but I liked it much, much better than Ricky Bobby. 6.5

TV shows:

The Unit: Nate downloaded some episodes of this one.... why?
It isn't terribly boring, but it is pretty stupid and several parts don't make much sense at all. 3

For tonight, I'll leave you with this: Some of you have probably seen this picture on your email:



It certainly looks fake or at least altered. It's represented as real (kind of like how if you post enough comments on tonight's posting, Bill Gates will give you a free Xbox). Anyway, Adrian thinks it is fake for sure and sent this even more incredible version back to the people that sent it to him:




I thought that was hilarious, um, I mean incredible. But then I found this even MORE incredible picture:

Happy Mothers Day

Hi Mom, I hope you had a great Mothers Day.

Friday we played poker at the Keyser residence again. I got 2nd, but I had to rebuy to do that.

Saturday we played sloshball. It was another exciting end. This is the 2nd game in a row that came down to the last at bat, but this time we won. Great success!

Notice how it looks like it just rained since we're all wet? Some of that is beer, but most of it is sweat. It is incredibly humid here.

Then, we came over to my place and hung out.

Ed and Jeff were tired.


Once Jeff passed out, Ben and Ed pulled the switcheroo on him.

After being there for quite a while and some harsh games of red, black, high, low, we went to the bowling alley.



There, I demonstrated that my dancing skills have not improved since moving. No surprise, but I shamed palagis by assoiation anyway.

After the bowling alley, apparently we had not had enough dancing, because this happened:



Now I'm headed over to little Argentina for some hanging out at the pool and video games. Very nice.

Jeff Weaver must go! (to Tacoma)
Weave, is this your fault?
He is on his way to being the worst starting pitcher in the history of the Mariners. That is definitely saying something since they didn't make the playoffs for the first 20 years of their existance. I think Ken Cloude has the record (and at least at one time I think he had the major league record) for worst ERA of a season-long starter. But that was around 8.00 or so as I recall. Weaver (Jeff) is on his way to destroying that record. Through 30 games this season, Weaver has 6 starts and a 14.32 ERA. He also has 6 losses. Take half of those away and the M's are in 1st place. There is only one other pitcher with at least 4 starts that is even within 5 era points of him, and he's a distant second. If Hargrove starts him again he should be fired immediately. If he remains on the major league roster past today, Bavasi should be fired tomorrow morning. (I have since learned that Felix may come off the DL on Tuesday, so if Weaver hangs around til then I guess it is ok. Might as well bring somebody up for those days though like Morse or Campillo).

Today's weather is a cool, pleasant 82. It has been raining most of the day. But if I had to sum it up in one word, today's weather is stinky.
Maybe one time a month, you can smell the tuna canneries at my office. Today it isn't that bad, but you can smell them at court. That's still not next door though so it is worse than partly stinky.

I got out of court about 115p today. Now I have to put together a program to teach the police academy about evidence for tomorrow morning. Should I make it like a law school class?

Andy- I finally got into watching Entourage. Now I'm addicted. I'm up through the part when they fired Ari. I need to know what happens next!

I got some decent sleep last night, so I think I'm on my way to being cured of my illness, hopefully tomorrow.

I have an exciting evening of laundry scheduled for tonight.

Yay! I have internet

I finally got internet at home. Now I have no excuse for not updating.

So, what has happened lately? Meg and Adrian came out here for a week leaving last Thursday. They got to meet Randy on his last weekend in town. It is really too bad that Randy and Emily had to leave. I only knew them for a few months, but its a big loss to the island and the Association.

Meg and Adrian got in around 10pm on April 26. So Friday, they walked down to Airport Beach from my house. I've been there before, but I haven't taken the walking route from my place which is the garbage walk.




So after most of the day there in the sun, Adrian was pretty red.



I was stuck late at work, so they were forced to occupy themselves by walking to Maliamai, which is a bar/restaurant at the end of the alternate trail to the beach. While they were waiting for me, they had a couple torpedoes of Vailima. Torpedoes not only taste like shit but they have something like 6.8% alcohol.




So I picked them up in my girlmobile (I'll get to this on a later post) and took them back home where Adrian proceeded to sample all the island's best: Red Horse (also malt liquor), San Miguel, and of course other alcohol. That along with his singlehandedly trying to absorb all the radiation the sun had to dish out that day did him in. By the time people finally rolled in around 9, Johnny T had about had it. Soon after, he passed out and pissed his pants:


He didn't really piss his pants, but he was sabotouged into looking as he did. He did actually take an involuntary nap pretty early though.

The next day we left for four days in Western Samoa. Once you are here for a couple months, Apia is something to see because they have stoplights, bars that people go to, and a few buildings over 3 stories. It does however have far less bars, tall buildings, and stoplights than Longview, so it isn't too impressive for those with access to real cities. So, we just went straight for the sliding rock.



I missed most of it but this crazy local guy, probably about 60 was doing crazy things. He was sliding down the top two slides on his feet, which is completely insane. Then he did somersaults down the last one:



Then we went to Lalomanu and stayed there for three nights. We'd stayed there during my previous trip to WS. It is a great place. Fantastic beach, stay in a fale right by the water, $25 per person for lodging and your meals.




The next day, black sand beach and hanging out in the waves.

There's this series of giant holes in the ground that we visited. They are connected by underwater tunnels to the ocean and to eachother. You can walk down some stairs and swim from each hole to the other and also out into the ocean. It did look a little less than safe though, so we passed on the swimming part.


Also, we stopped by to check out some falls:



We also checked out Aggie Greys which is a luxury resort on the north part of Upolu. I don't really know why anyone would stay there. The beach there is unspectacular as is the resort in general. But, the rooms are around $300/night. Lalomanu is the way to go for a beach, and if you want to stay in a real hotel, stay at the Manusina- Maximo's place.
But, we found some of these nearby Aggies:



We came back to this island on Tuesday evening. I worked Wednesday while they went around the island.




Then Wednesday night we went to a traditional Samoan dinner at Tisa's Bar. It was a full moon and perfect weather out. Not even terribly hot.



Thursday, I worked and they went snorkling and saw some turtles.

I think they both enjoyed it here. It is pretty nice; you all should think about coming to visit.

This weekend, we went to a Cinco de Mayo event Saturday night at the yacht club. That was very nice, plus $8 buckets of Corona.

So I'm sick now (thanks Meg).

Movie review:

Children of Men: Not too bad. Kind of a dark movie, but entertaining and interesting. 6.7

Also, I finished F&F, Tokyo Drift. Total crap throughout the second half as well. 2

Jeff Weaver sucks at baseball.

Sorry for the long delay. I've been really busy at work, and then I've had no time outside of work either becuase I had to prepare for being gone for a couple of days and for Meg and Adrian visiting.
I got a call today telling me that they will have internet hooked up at my home soon, so that will fix this problem.
Anyway, in the meantime:
Meg and Adrian made it here fine and they have seen most of this island, snorkled at a few places here, been to a few of the "good" restaurants here (one is actually good). We also had 4 days in Western Samoa, which was great, just like last time. I think they enjoyed that. They got to hang out with my friends here for a party last Friday and then a little bit last evening. Right now they are snorkeling at a place that has a high turtle concentration supposedly. Tonight, they fly out at 11pm to Hawaii and they have a couple days there before returning home.
Ha, I just checked the weather in the Rock- it is 49 and raining right now. They'll not be happy to get back to that.
OK, I'll provide a far more extensive update with pictures: by the way for the picture requesters (Keysers), I don't see many updates at all on your blog. What's up with that?