Picture Day

Yesterday was picture day at school. We won't get the proofs back from the 'real' photographer for a little while yet, but these are some shots I got at home before chauffeuring our young professor off to school.

Some people home-school their kids. Me, I home-barber mine. It's a good thing I am starting to get better at it, or I would feel bad for charging the wife $10.00 per haircut.

Next week his class goes on a field trip to visit a pumpkin patch. We're pretty stoked about it in my household, as the wife and I will be accompanying as chaperons.

Welcome to the Club

             

Yesterday was the wife's "American" birthday, as this was the day that she stood with 1,179 other people from 86 different countries and took the oath and became a United States citizen. Most of the people who stumble across this web journal do not know much about my beautiful wife; this is by design as I avoid putting too much information out on the web about my family. But today I will take exception, as I feel the need to tell the world just how very proud I am of her.

She was born in the Philippines, on the largest southern island. Her parents are down to earth hard working people, who have gone to great lengths to provide good opportunities for their children - My father in law even spent over ten years working in Saudi Arabia when local job conditions were so poor that he would not have been able to support his family. I don't think that my wife has ever forgotten her father's sacrifices, because by his actions he opened her eyes to life's possibilities, if one is willing to step outside of their comfort zone and leave home.

She finished high school at 16 and enrolled at a local college, which she completed in four years with a degree in computer science. At age 20 she found herself in the same depressed local economy that had pushed her father out of the country. Acting on her mother's advice she relocated to Manila, with the plan to live there until she either found a job or she ran out of money. She went through a season of living out of her suitcase, moving from relatives house to friends house and in and out of boarding houses. Each day was spent walking the streets of Makati, knocking down the doors of every business, looking for someone who would hire her. She was rejected too many times to count and did not acclimate to Manila well at first - On one occasion she was even accosted by a street thug, who ripped a gold chain right off of her neck as she was riding in an open air jeepney.

Twice a week she would call home crying, begging her mother to let her come home. Time after time her mother would reply that God is faithful, and that he would provide for her. Finally a company expressed interest in her and hired her. Not long after she was recruited for a position in Singapore, where she spent almost a year before transferring back to Manila.

One day she received a call from an American recruiter, who had a copy of her resume from her Makati days. It seemed a rather large company in the U.S. had a problem with several of their computer systems and there was a shortage of American programmers fluent in the original system language. In September of 1997 my future wife set foot in Minnesota. She has only been able to get back to see her parents one time, and has not been back to the Philippines since Christmastime of 1999. She misses her parents a lot and still talks to them at least twice a week. Her parent's faith and sacrifice has paid off, as her sister is also here in the U.S., living in Los Angeles.

In December of 2000 we met and fell in love, marrying in 2002. Our son was born in 2003. In the time since we have been together I have been at her side as she went through processing for both her green card and naturalization. It boggles my mind the sheer amounts of paperwork, the money spent, the hoops jumped through and the lines waited in, just to obtain something I got for free just because of an indiscretion by my parents.

So baby, congratulations on this payoff after all your hard work - Enjoy your day in the sun, because you have without a doubt EARNED this!

Alien Invaders

I guess I'm always a month behind the times. I report this incident now, that actually happened in August. For those of you who know and love the BWCAW, The bizarre behaviors perpetrated by the pseudo-humans described below is alien and unimaginable.

It seems that five 'men' and a juvenile from Ely have been accused of terrorizing campers in the BWCAW.

The six suspects are accused of shooting off fireworks, firing guns, using abusive language and threatening to kill campers on Aug. 7 on Basswood Lake.

One family described how they were hiding in the woods, terrified that several men were going to kill them. At one point, they said, the men appeared to come ashore, where they threatened to kill the father and rape his daughter.

The Lake County District Attorney announced that 79 charges have been filed against the men, including felony, misdemeanor and gross-misdemeanor charges for damage to property, theft, possession of stolen property, reckless discharge of firearms, underage drinking and harassment.

Confiscated items included cases of beer, a bottle of schnapps, mortar-like fireworks, a Russian-style, semi-automatic assault rifle, a .45-caliber Glock semiautomatic handgun, a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, a .22 caliber handgun and a .22 rifle.

Here are some sources I found for this report... All of my information is regurgitated from these sources (Remember, shoplifting is stealing)

• Pioneer Press (Click to see a couple of pictures of these clowns)
• Duluth News Tribune
• The Lake is the Boss (Personal To-do list item: check this guy's blog out)

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Friday Video 09-14-07

There was lots of music to listen to in the 80's. If you veered away from the crowd once in a while you could find some really good bands. Bands that played music that is not currently being heralded as "80's Classics." Bands that played the music that you can actually remember listening to - You can even remember where you were or what you were doing, even if it was nothing you thought was important at the time. That is really what mainstream culture is trying to cash in on, every time you hear a radio station play some awful tripe and attempt to market it as the 'music of your youth.'

It's the bands that never made it big, who were at right place at the right time, exactly when you were ready to listen, whose music means the most. When you listen you can be sure that your memories are your own, and not some marketing plan that was uploaded to your brain by the mothership.

For me, The Rainmakers were one of those bands.
If I owned a Delorean that could travel through time, I would go back and see these guys in concert. Enjoy.


Title: Downstream
Artist: The Rainmakers

First Day of School

...It happens to the best of us.

Fair Play

Unlike last year this year we went to the Minnesota State Fair. The wife won free tickets to see Prairie Home Companion, performed live in the grandstand this past Friday night. It was a great show, with a lot of really good music (Including a guest performance by Patty Griffin) and of course all of the extras that come with the MSF - Overindulgence of food, a fireworks display, the odor of the beer garden, etc.

One of the more amusing portions was the disbelief the wife experienced when she found out that we had to pay to get into the fair in order to redeem and enjoy our grandstand tickets. I forget sometimes that she's not from around here. Yesterday while we were driving I noted a pedestrian and commented, "That guy looks just like Willie Nelson." She looked at me blankly and asked, "Willie WHO?"