Saturday Evening Post...

We had a great family movie night again last night. This time is was Spiderman 3.



I like the message about having a choice - you are the choices you make. So, you know, I think America is great, and we've made some poor choices. And as soon as we stop making bad choices and start making some good ones for a while, maybe we can marry Kirsten Dunst.

My favorite thing about family movie night last night was that I leaned my head on Rachel's shoulder out of habit. And she reached over and rubbed my head. Now this may seem like no big deal, but it's the first time she has done this since the accident. The last few times I've done that, she's winced. But last night, it felt almost like normal, and normal is a nice change.

I cooked up a yummy dinner of three cup chicken, sticky rice, and wok-steamed vegetables. Found yellow cauliflower. It was a nice touch of color.

I was wearing the awesome tie-dye shirt Kimra made for me and my apron from Hugh's Culinary School. A few of Jake's friends came to the door while I was cooking. After they left, I realized what I was wearing and asked Jake if he was embarrassed that I answered the door looking like a dork. He said, "You don't look like a dork, you look like a hippie." And then he paused and said he wasn't embarrassed, and that a hippie is better than a dork.


Here's my iced tea with some of those light up ice cubes. Still haven't invented, or even really experimented with the "Seizure" cocktail. I'm starting with grenadine, but I don't know where to go from there. Maybe clear rum? And maybe Red Bull on top of that?


The pool is coming down - and in a controlled way this time. I don't think it has another season in it. Maybe next year we'll get one of the metal sided pools or something. And maybe 15 feet instead of 18.

Here's a shot of Moe in action and Cody inaction.

And here's one of the 5 or 6 crafting projects Rachel is working on.

Her Dad had her grandfather's old trunk from his military days. He built it himself and it has all kinds of great things in it from Jeff's baby shoes to a Masonic bible, a straight razor, and tons of pictures. She's putting together 3 shadow boxes, one for her Dad, and one for each of her uncles. I think it's a great project.

Here's one of the cool things. It's a diary designed for people in the military to document their experience. It's a little hard to read...


...but it says:

Dec. 23 - 1943
Munda, N.G.

Dear Diary:

I have just been assigned a very hard task, that is to fill this book with the last five years of my life. Well to make it simple, I'll do it this way. In war time it is against regulations to keep such a thing so that's that. Immediately after the war is over I'll write a 300 page book titled "Six Years Behind the Bow."

Admiring you,

R.E.B.

That was Peggy he was writing to, I guess.

This next thing is my favorite thing in the whole box. It was a note written on the back of a receipt:

He couldn't reveal where he was during the war, so this was his code to let Peggy know. So if he was in India, he'd write, "I'm visiting Johnny." And if he ran in to Hank, it meant he was in Pearl Harbor.

We also found documentation that he was at Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41.

Like I said, it's a great project.

Tomorrow I fly to Green Bay. I am not looking forward to it, but I am doing better than last time I flew. I am bummed that I won't have time to see Gary. And it is going to be a really intense trip. Lots of work to do in a short amount of time. So I know it's going to be rough, but it will be great to make a lot of progress on this project. Hopefully it will wrap up before December and I can move on to the next one.

Before I go - shout out to Brother Paul who is going under the knife on Monday for back surgery. Thoughts and prayers are with you, and I wish you a speedy recovery. It's going to be great to have you back at the pool table and kicking my butt all over the place again. And the Hotel Yorba hot tub is waiting for you as soon as you're able.