My more serious side

On the way to work this morning I heard the story about a man in Gilbert who was driving under the influence of alcohol and T-boned a 17 year old boy at 75mph without braking. The 17 year boy died upon impact. Although this is a tragic occurrence and should never happen to a young boy with so many important events in life ahead of him; what is causing me to write this blog is what transpired after. Gilbert Mayor Steve Burrman wrote a letter to the court stating that this man who committed the offense was a personal family friend and felt very remorseful for what he did. He mentioned also in the letter that the offender has made no excuses but feels very sorrowful for his actions. He then proceeded to plead with the court in his letter to only give the man probation and no jail time, and if they were to consider jail time that they be lenient toward him.

What is our world coming to when our elected officials decide that they can try to persuade those who enforce punishment on law breakers for actions that are clearly against the law. This was the offenders 4th DUI and obviously first to kill another human being. Our Mayor has chosen to publicly back this man who has lacks responsibility, respect, and self control of his actions.

I understand that the Mayor and this man have been very close friends for 20 years and I even understand the Mayor coming out publicly and saying what he knows of him is that he is a good man at heart. But to plead with the court that he walk free from jail time and have probation is out of line, is bad politics and shows really poor character.

Somersaults

I thought I would add this video that was taken of the Jones children (Staring Susan and Katie Bella Jones) we played with when we were in San Diego...they are sooo cute....watch little Susan at the end try and copy me and do a backwards somersault.....kids are so observant!

FUN TIMES IN SAN DIEGO

Life has treated me very well this past week. I have made some new friends, visited old friends, and have been visited by old friends. The greatness of my week started off in San Diego....actually on the way to San Diego where I got pulled over by a highway patrol officer going 18 miles over the speed limit. As I rolled down the window he asked me if I knew how fast I was going and I preceded to say 85 mph...he then said I clocked you at 83. I told him that I had honestly thought it was still 75 and didn't realize that the limit dropped to 65 though this area (darn Yuma). Anyway, he went back to his car and got his clip board out and wrote on it for a good 15 minutes. My friend I brought on the trip was surprisingly calm through the whole ordeal. He returned to the car and only gave us a warning.....

wahooooo...She thought it was because I have a sticker that says "I support the Arizona Highway Patrol" but I am pretty sure her beautiful smile had something to do with it.

The weekend only got better after that. We made it to San Diego and went to eat at a place right on the beach where we were able to watch the sunset....no green flash though. I was exhausted from waking up early and driving 5 hours so we almost called it an early night that night. Then I found out they do fireworks over Sea World...so we took the car mats out of my car and used them as blankets to lay on the grass and watch the fireworks. Don't worry I just had them cleaned that same day. She thought I was crazy but a boy scout is always prepared. We then went and got her favorite ice cream, Rainbow Sherbert, and sat and shared some ice cream as we watched these crazy roller coaster rides go round and round. I was probably on the biggest sugar high I have ever been on at that point. On the way home we had the music blasting and were singing at the top of our lungs (note to the story...not sure if she was singing too but I definitely was)!!!!

What an eventful night Friday night ended up being. My friend ended up sleeping in the guest bedroom on the soft nice blow up mattress and I had given her the fan so she was able to stay cool during the night (a lot of homes in SD don't have air conditioning in them). I slept on the couch and didn't fall asleep until 2am then woke up again at 3am from being too hot. I had the brilliant idea of opening the sliding glass door to let air in when I then observed a swing/hammock on the back porch....AWESOME!!! I took my sheet and my pillow and wrapped myself in it and curled up in a ball (because I was too tall for it) and fell asleep. It was like camping, soooo much fun.

Saturday was filled with laughs and good memories. We went bike riding on the board walk where I did like 3 wheelies and crashed a couple of times.... We met some really cool people that become our friends, like John the fleet car salesman from Scottsdale or Simon the security guard at the mall who liked my shirt, or Blanca the Latina waitress at CPK (where we ate the best Waldorf salad), or our purposefully unnamed friend with really neet glamour shots to die for. So we were sitting there at CPK and I said, alright I know what I want....then she said I do too. And I said O.K. on 3 let's both say what we want....and we said the exact same thing...it was soooo funny. There are a lot of things on that menu to choose from. After some shopping and being in the sun all day we were both ready for a much needed shower (I had forgotten deodorant....note to self...when with a girl bring deodorant). As we walked in the Jones family home their little girl Susan (almost 2 years old) had my electric toothbrush vibrating in her mouth (ironically enough she was sitting right next to her dad who was on the computer)....I was like "Susan, how did you get my toothbrush"....So I took it from her and she kind of had a face expression like "am I in trouble" she didn't cry but was kind of confused. So I gave it back to her and said "Susan can I please have my tooth brush back.....she then handed it to me. I learned a really good lesson about being a parent with that situation.

I could go on and on about my desire to learn how to be a good dad but I don't know if there is enough space in this blog or if the reader cares to get into that much detail....ANYWAY....

Saturday night we walked around Balboa park. I had really hoped we were going to be able to get into the museum's and art exhibits. I have really developed a love for the arts since I returned from my mission. I guess Spain would do that to you with all the amazing artists that have come from there. After that we had dinner in the Gas lamp district and had some wonderful conversation with some really good friends.

That pretty much sums up the weekend.....I am grateful to Brian and Chantal for letting us stay in their home and play with their 3 wonderfully behaved children. Also I am grateful for my "Convenient (unnamed) friend" who decided to go on this journey with me and get away from the hussel and bussel of our Arizona's life. I couldn't of picked a better travel companion, she is an angel....

To start off

So this is my first ever blogging experience.....so be patient with my random thoughts and ideas.

Things I love: My family of course, but less obvious things include:

1) Ice cream cake (vanilla) - Who doesn't love the mixture of cake and ice cream all wrapped into one. I would like to find the inventor of the ice cream cake and present him with a fake but very honorable award for the best cake maker this side of the Mississippi (just an expression, don't go all detailed on me)........frosting is fun but not as much fun as the cake and ice cream....which reminds me of something else I love that has about 27% to do with this ice cream cake talk......I have never lost a pie or watermelon eating contest in my life. I have a pretty big mouth that just sucks it all in and down the drain. I hold the unofficial world record eating time at 14 seconds....

2) Unicycles and juggling - I thought I would put these two together since they both fall under a similar category....don't go getting any crazy ideas that I can do these two things together by any means. Separately I rock, together, I would break my neck. I picked both of them up in high school. My mom actually got me into them. I think she was trying to kick me at of the house early by sending me with the traveling circus. I also love pogo sticking....how did that fad ever end!!! And in September I am going to take up Trapezing (not sure that is the correct grammatical conjugation).

3) stride gum - Love it....minty fresh

4a) snorkeling in clear blue water - As all of you that have done this know....it is so much fun to be underwater looking at all the fish and coral reef, etc. I always hate that part of the ocean though where its like clear clear water then all the sudden a huge drop off in to pitch blackness....because if I was a bad guy fish I would hang out right there waiting for swimmers to dare out into the dark. My favorite place to snorkel so far has to be Panama. It's such an amazing city....As you can see from the pictures within an hour of Panama City you can go from Metropolitan City thriving with Mercedes, McDonald's, and sky scrapers to the Kuna Indians that live in shacks at our bamboo and dirt floors. The Kuna Indians are my second favorite Indian. The Kuna Indians are a strongly-knit tribal society living on a chain of islands called San Blas Archipelago, on the Atlantic side of the Republic of Panama. Believed to be decedents of the Caribs, the Kuna Indians still live in much the same manner as their ancestors. The San Blas people have cleverly managed to retain their balanced life, free from the complexities of modern, highly-organized societies. They are absolutely amazing humble people.

4b) traveling the world. I have so much to write about this and all of my experiences but I am out of time for the day....until later......