Cameron Jumping

My sister took these pictures of Cameron jumping in his jumper back in June. I am finally getting them posted.

Ashley's Dance Concert

Ashley had a dance concert for a class she was taking as part of her gymnastics work. Three of the girls on her team were all in the same class, which was dedicated to teaching them dance for gymnasts. They did a great job and you could tell they really enjoyed what they were doing.

Mackenzie's Eigth Grade Awards

Mackenzie did very well at Vista del Mar Middle school for the three years she was there. In the fall Mac will be moving on to San Clemente High School. But first she won a few awards. I sent out an email and it was requested that I post what I wrote, so here it is.

Mackenzie took home awards for Presidential Fitness, 2 years of 4.0 GPA (missed the third year - 6th grade - with one B in PE for arguing softball rules with the PE coach who "read the book"), and an award for top ASB student for the last three years. All of Mackenzie's teachers praised her work ethic and attention to detail as well as her enthusiasm and willingness to take on any task, she must get that from her mother. I was really happy to see that her ASB adviser had high praise and comments. This is the same person I had a run in with last year for threatening to lower her grade and citizenship because she had a softball tournament to go to and would not be able to help with last years eighth grade dance. I am very proud of her accomplishments at Vista Del Mar and hope that she can continue the success in High School - I am sure she will do fine.

... and some pictures.



Needless to say both Nicole and I are very proud of Mackenzie and her accomplishments.

American Athletics place 8th

Mackenzie's Softball team, American Athletics 14U, finished in 8th place at the State Tournament held June 8th-10th. Mackenzie didn't play for the first 2 days of competition other than to pinch run. On the last day she was a designated hitter and walked twice, scored twice, and had some very well struck balls.

Cameron Pictures 5 Monthish

OK. Cameron is 5 1/2 months in these pictures. For the most part he is a very happy boy. And he is all boy. Very different from the girls in respect to being squirmy and constantly on the move. The only time he cries is if he is hungry or board and sometimes when he is really, really tired. He and I are having a great time together, but unfortunately my time with him will soon be lessened as I have to go back to work - :( I guess that will simply make the time I do have with him that much more meaningful.

Same Picture as Above, Just in Black in White.

The absent minded blogger

Wow I can not believe I have not had anything to post for almost a month.

Lately I have been interviewing for full time positions, I am over the whole owning your own company thing. While I will probably keep the company, I will scale it back to a meager existence. One of these days I will get off the stick and begin developing one of my software ideas, then I may revive the company again.

School is almost out for the kids. Mackenzie will be going on the obligatory 8th grade Washington D.C. trip the day after school gets out. Ashley is now beginning to wind down from gymnastics for the summer, she will still practice 4 times a week, but at least she can afford to skip a day or two. Mackenzie's softball season is in full-swing (pun intended) with most games scheduled around the state and a few out of state tournaments planned including Kentucky and Illinois. So we have some traveling to do.

I just got back in touch with a dear old friend of mine. He is doing well which is great to hear!

I have not scuba dove for some time now, I think the last time I was underwater was before my last post in May. I did however see that my first ever Open Water Scuba student did in fact get his certification card. Congratulations to Tyler Lee!

La Jolla Cove

With the recent and long lasting red tide we are experiencing here in Orange County, my buddy Jeff and I decided to drive to San Diego to dive La Jolla Cove. Neither one of us had dove there before so we had to formulate our dive plans on the fly.

When we arrived the water looked deceptively appealing. Standing at the top of the stairs at the cove we were able to see sand, rocks, and orange colored Garibaldi's through the blue-green water. There were no waves and the waves that did make it to shore were more like stray boat wakes. We watched as the swimmers made their way from the beach to the half mile buoy and back. We sighted a large patch of kelp out by one of the Scripps buoys and decided that this would our first destination. We suited up and made our way to the water.

The water of the interior reef was surgy and visibility looked about 10-12 feet. We snorkeled out a bit took a compas heading and descended in 15 feet of water. Underwater we were greeted by the usual suspects including kelp bass and garibaldi. Our first dive took us through the large beds of kelp and rock quarries split by valleys of course sand. We zig-zag our way to the reef looking for things to see. 63 minutes later I had successfully navigated underwater back to our exact entry point - pretty cool!

During our surface interval we meet the local game warden. The warden was a scuba diver and had dove the area often. He checked to ensure we had not taken any game and then gave us so reconnaissance on where we were diving next - La Jolla Caves. We switched tanks and made our way back to the beach. We again snorkeled out past the tourists and made our way east along the cliffs. We dropped in at 15 feet of water and continued east. This dive was exciting from the start. There were lots of nooks and crannies to find small critters. We found a couple of shovel nosed guitar fish resting in holes. We had a curious California sea lion do a fly by to check us out and blow bubbles at us. The visibility was poor so we decided to go deeper.

Unfortunately as we swam out towards the canyon we were meet by the very red tide we were trying to avoid. We did get below the red tide and swam through the kelp forest. The kelp canopy was thick and turned back the sun to create a dark eerie dive. We decided to swim out of the tide and back towards the caves. As we came out of the sea of red something to the left caught my eye. A very large giant black sea bass, requiring a double take, had caught my eye. It scared the *#%@ out of me. This gentle giant swam up to us to get a better look, just then and second an even larger giant black sea bass arrived on the scene. It was amazing. We stayed for a bit as the two large fish circled us to get a better look, coming so close as I could reach out and touch them - I did not however.

Mother's Day 2007

Mother's Day 2007 was a hit. I prepared a Mexican themed late lunch that consisted of Carnita's, Chicken Enchilada's, and Lamb with all the fix'ns. We had Margarita's flowing and everyone had a great time.

Johanna, Nicole, & Jenny

Moms and Kids

Mac, Ash, & Cam

Great Grandma Nelson & Cameron

Cameron 4 & 1/2 months

Google Test

Big Surf Pictures

Here is a link to a photographer that took some pictures of The Wedge in Newport Beach today.

Cool Widgets

I can teach you to blow bubbles...

It was just confirmed. I am now a teaching status PADI SCUBA Instructor. So if anyone wants to learn to SCUBA, I can teach you. This goes along with my Emergency First Response instructor rating where I can teach CPR & First Aid. Next I want to get my DAN instructor rating, this will allow me to teach more advanced diver first aid classes including O2, Advanced O2, AED, and Hazardous Marine Animal First Aid.

Me underwater

Cameron is 3 Months Old Today

Here are some pictures to celebrate. As you will see Cameron has an array of facial expression.

Todays Dive

Jeff, Whitey, and I went diving at Shaw's Cove today. Jeff took some pictures and here they are.

One more week left

I have completed three weeks of the four week IDC (Instructor Development Course). I have given micro teaching presentations, prescriptive teaching presentations, confined water presentations, and open water presentations. I have demonstrated the 20 basic skills required by all SCUBA divers, I have taken the same 5 general knowledge tests twice as well as 2 tests on the instructor manual.

Yesterday we went to Catalina to perform 2 of our 5 open water dives. It was cold, 57 degrees. Which if you are moving is not bad, but when you are sitting at 35 feet watching people do skills over and over again. It was cold!

So I have one more week of the IDC. The week after that I take my Instructor Examination with PADI. If I pass everything then I will be an Open Water SCUBA Instructor. Not sure what I am going to do with that, but at least I will have it.

The one thing that gets me with this whole process is how everyone I talk to that has gone through comments that it is hard, and that you don't get enough sleep, and how if they knew what the process was really going to be like, they probably would not have done it. What a bunch of wimps - it's easy, well maybe not easy, but not hard. Demanding, time-consuming, and at times confusing - it's all that!

So here is the question, what type of fish is a Garibaldi?

I must be crazy

I started the IDC today. The IDC stands for Instructor Development Course. So what is it? The IDC was created by PADI to teach potential instructors how to teach people to SCUBA. Starting today can going for the next 3 weekends (Saturday and Sunday) - 8 AM to 8 PM. Then I take the two day instructor exam. Crazy!

Yes I am still going to school, taking English and Trigonometry right now. Yes I still have my consulting company, and if that is not enough I am starting a new company. It is called EFR International and it is my CPR, First Aid, and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) training and sales company. I became an Emergency First Response instructor back in January. Since then I have created a goal of having an AED in every company in the US and to have every employee of those companies trained in CPR and AED - because the life that may be saved, may be yours.

So why did I start this endeavor? I am not really sure other than the fact that I had to bail out of the Red Sea trip I had scheduled and had available funds on the books at the dive shop. I was gonna go to Belize, but I am going to Mexico during the Belize trip. I was gonna go to Bonaire, but for some reason I could not do that on either. So I decided to go through the IDC.

Ashley at 5th Grade Science Camp

Cameron at 5 weeks

Numerous people have been asking for more posts of Cameron, so here are some more pics of "Everyone's Current Favorite".

I don't understand the problem

So I went in for a vasectomy yesterday. Prior to that I had heard all the horror stories about the pain and discomfort, etc. All you guys that whine about that are pussies! Sure there is a little discomfort when you doctor injects the pain killers into your ball sack, and yes there is some discomfort after the procedure - a mild form of the kicked in the nuts feeling. But look at the benefits, once this is all over you no longer have to worry about getting your wife or girlfriend or whatever pregnant - that's a benefit at twice the cost.

Here is how it went down. Two weeks ago I went into Orange County Neurology for a consult. They put all the guys in a room to watch a humorous video about the procedure and to go over some of the associated risks. Then you meet the doctor (Dr. Shuerke - not sure on the spelling) and he makes sure that you are physically able to have the procedure. The day of the operation I went into the office and was taken back to procedure room, similar to an operating room just less fancy. I had two assistants to prep me for the main event; both female , both young or younger than me, and both attractive. The only scary part is when they broke out the Bic razor. They shaved my balls and then clean with an iodine solution.

They ladies left and the doctor entered. He started with the local anesthesia, which was like pulling the hair off your nuts. Then a small incision was made. From there he grab one tube and spliced it, then cauterized and capped both ends. He said reversal is possible, but my thought is - Hell No! He repeated the process on the other tube, threw in a suture and I was done.

Now here are my recommendations: Eat before the procedure, a jock strap is a good idea so you can throw it away when you are done healing, and have someone to drive you home. I found that I was fine using a bag of frozen corn to help reduce swelling and add in the comfort, but I only needed it for a couple of hours in the typical on 15/off 15 minutes scenario. I also found that a couple of glasses of Makers Mark helped to take the edge off. I slept fine, but I did have a pillow between my legs to give room to the now swollen boys. My final recommendation is that this a great excuse to have someone wait on you hand and foot, especially your significant other - take advantage of it.