My dad’s stuff

March 30th, 2005

I got the records page completed. I also updated the rest of the site with the new records page replacing the standing page I was never able to properly keep up with. The site is new and cruising along.

Jon came over with stuff for my mom because of her birthday yesterday. He also brought over the stuff that my Aunt Karen brought to us that had belonged to my dad. It included his first wedding ring. He was married for about a year. The women he had married moved to California and was murdered down there by her new boyfriend.

There was also his old grade school report cards. Some of his books. It has some pictures. There was a photocopy of a letter he wrote while in the military. There was also some funeral programs for a couple guys who were my dad’s age who died in a car accident on December seventeenth, nineteen-fifty-seven. My dad was in the car as well. Two guys died. My mom told me one guy who died was alive at first and he had a hole in his lung and when he would breath blood was coming out his mouth. Sounded very violent.

I watched SouthPark and they did an episode that was a commentary on the Terri Schiavo case. It was an interesting take that they had on it. Kenny was Terri and Cartman was Michael.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

March 29th, 2005

Today is my mom’s birthday. I got her a card when I came home from the office. I spent the day today doing more work on the website for my softball team. I even put together a “records” page with the old era records and new era records. With the change in style of doing stats I figured it would be unfair to have stats that covered everything because in the past we use to count anything that got you on base as a basehit, even if it was really a fielders choice or an error. The old batting averages were artificially high because of that. So were other stats.

I got home with the card for my mom around eight pm. We had dinner then I went to my room and talked to Ben and Ryan on the phone. We talked about softball and I asked Ben if he wanted to watch Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. He said he did. So we will do that on Friday.

I watched some TV and then got on the computer and checked my E-mail and a couple message boards before finding my way to sleep.

All day with Ryno!

March 26th, 2005

With my alarm clock buzzing I got up and headed to the coroners office for the meeting. We went over the last few cases and we looked over the autopsy shots from the murder that happened a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see the bullet path and the damage to the brain.
Following the meeting I went into the SO and printed off a few things for my softball team and checked my E-mail. The plan for the day was to hang out with Peter like we had planned. I called him around noon and let him know I was free and to give me a call when he was available. I sat around the house for a while relaxing.

Then I decided to go to my office and get some stuff on the computer done. I had a few thousand E-mail messages I had to sort. I spent a lot of time doing that. I hate paying first step internet for spam service and still getting as much spam as I do. It is horrible.

It was getting later. I was going to get a pizza from Little Caesars. When I was there I called Ryan. He said he was at Blockbuster. So I went in there and found him. We rented a movie called Blackball. It was about a young guy who breaks into the British Bowls scene that is dominated by old high-class people. It is by National Lampoon. It was okay, but I understand why it never had a huge following. Ryan has a membership at Blockbuster where he can rent as many movies as he wants for a flat fee.

We went back to Blockbuster and got Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. I also bought a couple movies that were on sale. I got Saw, Anchoman, and two other movies. We grabbed a pizza from Little Caesars this time through. I was still waiting for a call from Peter but none were coming and by now it was after five pm.

We started to watch Harold and Kumar when I got a call from Ben. He was going to have a poker game and wanted to know if Ryan and I wanted to come. I did but Ryan didn’t. I didn’t want to leave Ryan, but I wanted to go. I tried to get him to go but he was refusing. He is like a bump on the log. If he does not *think* he will have fun he will not do it. It limits some of the things we can do together. So after much coaxing I got him to go. I was surprised because normally he will not change his mind about that stuff.

So we stopped the movie where it was and went to Bens. We were only going to be there for a couple hours. It turned into about four hours. We started by playing tournament style Texas Hold’em. Then when enough people were eliminated we played Apples to Apples. It is a real fun card game I had never heard of until tonight. Ben also got Ryan and I in the helmet club. When I get a copy of the pic I will post it. It is terrible!

After the tournament was over we started to play four-five-six. I played that for a few hours. Everyone was really liking the game. At one point Ben was up more then twenty bucks. I did a twenty dollar bet. Ben “aced-away”. His girlfriend got really mad. We joked about Ben sleeping on the couch because of that.

Later on Ryan and I left and finished watching Harold and Kumar. I laughed a whole bunch more. I took off after the movie and went home. I watched TV for a while before finally finding my way to bed.

As it turns out Peter never called. I am glad I did not sit around waiting for him to call me. It seems that he is really flaky. I am not sure what the issue is with him, but I have to believe there is still something there.

Happy Birthday Nick!

March 25th, 2005

I had big plans for the day. I was going to get a new battery in my truck. I was going to drive the Bumblebee around. I was going to get my trucks’ license renewed. I was going to work at the jail. Then I was going to go to Nick’s surprise birthday party. Well that was all dashed when I woke up a few hours later than I had planned. I set the alarm clock, but did not turn it on.

So I got up and went straight to the jail. I got lunch at Bulldog Pizza on the way. I mainly stayed in control the whole time and then I helped the captain with a computer problem at his house. I had him buy some new equipment for his computer. So I will be installing that stuff for him one of my next trips into town. I went to the auditors office and got new tabs for my truck. While at the jail Sgt Poffenroth asked if she was the only who did not know that John (name changed) was gay. She said that she was really surprised. She said that she had no clue but it was clear that everyone else seemed to know. I played dumb with her and tried to get more information about how she had heard about it. She said everyone knew. One day the topic came up and when she found out, everyone else in the room was shocked that she did not know. I told her that it was just rumors. I said that he had said in the past it was not true. I asked what evidence others had, if John had told them. She said it was the other officers figured it out because of the guy John was always with and whatnot. Then I went home and got ready for Nick’s surprise party. I got Ryan and we drove to Russell’s place.

We were the first there. So we went inside and waited for Russell to show up. When he got there I helped him get a few things set up. Then he went to get Nick and took him out to Dairy Queen for dinner. Everyone else was gathering for the party. When they finally showed up, everyone yelled Happy Birthday. Nick was really surprised. He was happy and had a good time. He did not know we were doing that.

The people at the party were on the left side of the isle politically. So I was the only conservative there. A few of the people were on cougster.com. We talked about the WalMart thing and joked around a little bit. Ryan and I left to get some dinner at Taco Bell in Moscow. The others were planning on going to the Show in Moscow.

Ryan and I went to his apartment. We ate and then played Madden Football. I threw for almost eight-hundred yards of passing. My team is currently undefeated. It is going well. I also spent time when I was not playing trying to get Ryan’s computer cleaned of spyware and viruses.

An Evening with the Peterman

March 24th, 2005

At work today I spent most of it helping to clean a computer of spyware. It was so bad it would not get on the network at all. It was really slow. It was in bad shape. But I used my magic fingers to type in the address of the spyware applications I like the best and I get the computer responding and working like a champ. The coroners meeting for tonight was cancelled but I planned on going over anyway because Peter and I had plans on hanging out.

I did not have to be in a huge hurry so I left work after I got the computer taken care of. I got some lunch and I got some chew. It was my first dip in a week. I hit the road and the traveling was pretty tame. I made good time and I got to my house a little after six pm. I hung out at home for a while watching some TV. Peter and I had planned on meeting sometime after nine, but I was free earlier. So I called him and he said he was doing something on the computer but would be done in about an hour. So I drove to Pullman and got some dinner and stopped at my office. I did some stuff on the computer and waited for Peter’s call.

Around eight he called me and I went over there. We started to talk about the small stuff. What each other has been up to and all that crap. Then we started to talk about his project that he is doing and presenting. He is interested in seeing what I can do or offer for the business plan. We talked about the business plan in depth and we talked about programming in general.

At one point I had his cell phone and took a few pics with it. He has it set up with my first name. But I never go by my first name with him. I have no idea why he set it up like that. So I was going to change the name to Scotty Walkin like Ryan’s phone is set up. As I was trying to do it he wanted to see what I was doing with it. He was wrestling me for the phone just like we did back in the day. It was always fun to wrestle like that with him. Finally I got done with the phone what I wanted so I gave it to him.

He looked at it and asked where the name Scotty Walkin came from. I said Little Ceasars. He thought the back story was lacking. We started to laugh then I told him it was the name they had on the pizza receipt one day when I got a pizza that was carry-out.

I hung out for several hours with him. We watched SouthPark and the Jeff Foxworthy Roast as well and just talking about everything under the sun. I still have not asked the question that I want to know the answer to, but that will come someday. He said he puts a lot of trust into me. He knows that I am trustworthy and he values that. So I hope that someday he will admit to me what the issue was. He admitted to me that he was an “asshole” to me and was sorry for being that way to me. There is still some tension between us and I don’t know if it will ever go away. Maybe I would feel more at ease around him if he were to tell me what the issue was.

At the end of the night we decided that we would get together on Saturday and watch Saw and do stuff.

T-Ball Practice with Justin

March 23rd, 2005

Jon is down in Arizona for the Mariners Spring Training. I was asked to take Justin to his practice because Lisa would be taking Logan to his practice. I got off work a little early and drove to Jon’s to get Justin.

We started to go to the field and I asked Justin if he knew where we were going. He said he did not. So I said, let’s drive around until we find it. He said okay. So I went to where it was. And then he got all excited. He said we were in the right spot. Then we got his stuff from the truck and he hurried to the field because he thought we were late. We were the first ones there. I threw the ball with him for a while. Well it was more like ran after the ball when he threw it and rolled it back to him. Then the practice started. That takes a lot of talent to work with a bunch of five-year-old kids with an attention span of about thirty seconds.

Follow practice I took Justin home and waited for Lisa. Justin and I played a Scooby Doo video game while we waited. When Lisa got home she fixed pizza for us. Justin, Logan, and I played some board games. The last game we played was sorry. I lost to Logan on it. I think he played with some rules that were not regulation, but that was house rules, I guess.

I headed home after that. I watched my CSI TV shows. I decided to go to bed earlier than normal because I wanted to try to get a decent night’s sleep.

Happy Birthday Wenis

March 20th, 2005

I feel a little worse today than I did yesterday. I am still not getting good sleep, but I don’t seem to be too tired. I am coughing a lot but I am not getting the phlegm out so when I breathe deep it sounds like gurgling. Yes, this is quite nasty, isn’t it? One of the worst things is my nose is either really stuffy and I cannot breathe through it or I use some meds to reduce the stuffiness, but that dries it up so much that the cold dry air going through my nose causes a stinging-like feeling each time I breathe in. Yeah, it sucks to be sick. I have not been sick like this for a long time.

I went to he store to get some NyQuil because I figured that I would use it to help me get a good nights sleep. While at the store I saw Gary’s mom, Natalie. It was great to see her. We hugged and then talked for a few minutes.

I went home and checked on the webcam that is monitoring the backyard. I still have to work on getting the settings so it only records when major movement happens. It seemed to be hit off by anything last time. It actually filled up the hard drive with twenty-second videos.

I came inside and I talked to Ryan on the phone for a little while about my ride along from last night. I also called Richard and wished him a happy birthday. He sort of sounded like he was wondering why in the heck I would be calling him. Oh well, I wished him a happy birthday all the same.

I had dinner and did the dishes and rushed to my room to watch my normal Sunday night TV shows. I also spent some time talking to Peter online. After my shows were over with I took my NyQuil and went fast to sleep.

Riding with Joe — Again

March 19th, 2005

I planned on sleeping in as much as I could so I would not be tired tonight. I stayed up until four o’clock am. But duing my sleep I found myself waking up every few hours. I was not sleeping well.

I pretty much sat around the house watching TV and doing stuff on the computer while waiting to find out if Joe would be working tonight or if he would be sick again. He said we would be working. So I left around three o’clock pm. I got some corndogs and cough medicine from Safeway.

I hit the road and was cruising along. There was a slow down around Everett. But it got cruising again. I was talking to Ryan about a lot of things. We spoke about the basketball tournament mostly. He was telling me about yet another of my teams losing.

About ten miles outside of Bellingham there was a slow down. I thought it was a traffic jam. It turns out some small convertible rolled over on the right shoulder. People were stopping to help. About ten people had stopped. I kept going because there were so many people there and I was in the wrong lane to stop quickly.

I got into Bellingham and drove to Joe’s house. He just bought a new house. It is three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. It is a pretty nice house. He got a call from John, another deputy, about going out to dinner. So we drove to downtown Bellingham and got a hamburger at this bar and grill. It was good food.

Then we went back to Joe’s. I set him up with FTP access to the website so he could move over pics and PDF files. He got ready to work and I got one more shot of medicine taken before we headed out.

The night was pretty uneventful. It was really windy and that caused many alarms to sound, most likely due to poorly shut doors blowing open in the strong wind. We also helped a local city PD arrest a guy for domestic violence. I also told Joe the Green Golf Balls story. He was not impressed and vowed to get me back.

One of the things Joe loved to do was get me on a road and ask what direction I thought we were heading. Most of the time I was off by one-hundred and eighty degrees. So I would say East and we were going West, etc. He got a kick out of how backwards I was.

He also drove me to the boarder and I got to see it. It was seriously a ditch. There was a residentail two-lane road on the American side and the same thing on the Canadian side. There was about a eight to ten foot grassy area and a ditch that was about two to three feet deep. It is funny was separates American and Canada. I could litterally get out of the car and walk into Canada with nothing but a three foot deep ditch to go through.

At about two-thirty we were close to Joe’s place and I was planning on calling it a night at three so he headed to his house and dropped me off. I drove home as quick as I could because I was getting tired and I wanted to get to bed.

Jello Shots

March 18th, 2005

When I got to work Terry and Shawn were having a smoke out back. We were talking about my ride along. Terry asked what I had going for the day. I told him I was done with my bug, so he told me to take off early. So I stuck around until around one pm and then left for lunch.

I hit the highway and I was on my way to Whatcom county. I was about twenty miles from Bellingham when Joe called and said he was sick and would not be going on patrol. So I turned around and headed home. I had planned on helping out my softball team at the bar on Saturday, but I would be going with Joe on Saturday, so I called Eric and he said I could come over tonight to help out in making the Jello Shots.

I got home and my parents were planning on going to the Eagles for dinner and invited me. I went down and I was not feeling all that hungry so I ate what I could and then I left to go to Seattle to Eric’s condo. My job was to pour the liquefied jello mix into the shot cups. Other put the lids on them and then Mark put them in boxes. After we were done I drove them to the bar. Mark and Gerry took them into the bar.

I was planning on meeting Dave at Billies Casino. I pulled out some money from the cash machine and started to play. The Four-card poker table was full. I played some PaiGow to start out. I was doing well, then the dealers changed and I started to lose. So I went to a blackjack table. I got a couple blackjacks in a row then the shoe changed and I went down hill.

I moved to four-card poker because the table had some spaces on it. I played for a while and was doing well. Then I got a straight-flush. That was a forty-to-one odds on my five dollar bet. Plus another twenty-to-one odds on a second five dollar bet. So I won more than three hundred dollars in the one hand, because I also got paid fifteen buck on the final bet. Dave and I were given another comp for a meal. So we decided to quit after a little while. I cashed in and I was up three-sixty. We got dinner. Then as I figured we would be going Dave suggested we play some more.

We went over to the four-card poker table again. I sat in the first position and I sat at an angle because there were two ten-six-seven’s playing pool. I keep watching the ten-six-seven’s and I was unable to concentrate on the cards. Finally they left and I got to playing. I was doing well for a while and then I could not get a hand. So finally I told Dave I was done. I walked out with another forty bucks for a total winnings of four hundred bucks on the night.

Hanging out with Ben

March 12th, 2005

I got a call from Ben to start out my morning. We planning on meeting up and doing a short golf lesson and hitting the a bucket of balls. I met Ben at the golf course I paid my fees and bought a bucket of balls. I pulled out the seven iron and he started by telling me a lot of things about stance, holding the club, and the swing.

After getting through the bucket of balls my back was really hurting, but I was ready to get going. Ben’s friend showed up and we started with our three-some. After the first hole there was a solo golfer behind us. We invited that guy to join us. He did so for the rest of the way we had a four-some. I was not having the best of days but I was holding my own. Ben would give me some instruction on the course when certain situations came up. He taught me how to get out of a sandtrap. After we were done with the round of golf Ben and I decided to go to the WSU baseball game that was underway.

We went inside and saw Mark from our softball team. We sat behind home plate a few rows back. The score was seven to zero in the first inning. The Cougs were doing well. But while we were there we only saw good pitching, with no offense to speak of. Towards the middle of the game Ben asked if I wanted to go to his place and get something to eat real fast then come back.

So we drove to Ben’s and I had a beer and a TV dinner. We started to watch some of the Best of Will Ferrell. As we got into it Ben said we would go back to the game at three pm. So we left and walked back into the stadium. We got our seat. Started to get into the game. A guy from the other team hit into a double play and the game was over. We sort of laughed about the fact we came back for one more play.

We went back to Ben’s apartment. We were going to watch a couple movies. When I got there he had the idea to hit the softball for a while. So we went to the playfields and hit the ball about thirty times each. Then we went back to Ben’s apartment. We watched Caddyshack and Anchorman. I had never seen either of those movies. I was laughing so hard during them. Ben made a couple bags of popcorn. I could not believe how funny those movies were.

I talked to Ryan and we decided to go to dinner at Applebee’s in Moscow. So Ben and I rushed over there. We sat down and ate. JT was our waiter. He gave us all free pop. That was nice of him. After we finished eating we decided to hit the bars in Pullman. Ryan was the one who really wanted to go. So Ben got his car and drove us to My Office. We got on the trivia and I had one more beer. We played trivia until about two in the morning. Ben offered me a place to stay for the night, but I decided to head back to Colfax and sleep there.

Today was a blast. I have not had a day like this for a while. Just being busy doing fun stuff, one thing after another. And on top of that getting a chance to hang out with Ben so long without other people around. It was just a wonderful day.

New golf clubs

March 11th, 2005

I went to work and with my project finished, aside from the adding of the new type for the appexport, I spent time trying to step through the process to see where I could fix it.

Around noon a group of us went to lunch. We got some subs and I was given a coupon for a free sub and pop. So lunch did not cost me a thing. That was nice. Free lunches… nice!

I stuck around until about two o’clock pm. Then I hit the road. My cell phone was totally dead and I could not find the charger when I left my house. I was hoping it would be at my house in Colfax. While I was looking for it before leaving to go to work this morning I found the golf clubs that Jon gave me a while back. So I took those to Colfax with me.

When I got in I went to my house and put my golf clubs in my golf bag. Then I called Whitcom and let them know I would be on and available via radio only. I let them know my cell phone was dead and being charged. I put the phone on the charger and drove down the fire station.

I hung out there for a while and talked to Carl, Tim, and Ken. Tim and Ken left on a call and I chatted with Carl a little more. Around eight o’clock I went home and got my cell phone and then headed to Pullman. Ryan and I were going to watch Third Watch and go to see Hostage.

I also talked to Ben about golfing tomorrow. We are planning on meeting up around ten am. I called Phil, Ron, and Mark about golfing with us. None of them were able to go.

I got to Pullman and grabbed a pizza from Little Caesars. I went to Ryans. We ate the pizza and watched some TV. Then we went to see the movie. It was pretty good. The ending was lacking for me. Some loose ends did not seem like they were tied up for me. Some movies have been doing the recently and I don’t like that. But over all the movie was pretty good.

We headed back to Ryan’s apartment and watched SouthPark. I left and went home a little while after one am because I wanted to get a decent night of sleep.