Basket Case

Cheylene and Rob hosted the 2nd evening of scary night movie. This was their front porch. They had other fantastic clues inside. I failed to take photos. When I saw their yummy appetizers my eyes were only fixed on one place.

Matt guessed the movie, well done!!

Between dinner and the movie we played a few games with prizes. The first one we had to throw the heads in the basket that was hanging on the door knob. The second was who could get the most balls the the small baskets on the floor.

Congrats to Myles and Matt. Had a blast and you never know when Balyle may come get a little som'in som'in from you.

Twilight Characters Who are you? I'm a Alice

Brent you have got the take the test and let me know!
Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

I got tagged by Audrey

8 Shows I love to watch:

1- Biggest Loser

2- Seinfeld reruns

3- Friends reruns

4- Frasier reruns

5- Dancing with the Stars

6- American Idol

7- 24

8- Golden Girls reruns

8 Favorite restaurants:

1- Cafe Rio

2- La Costa

3- Taqueria Manteca

4- BJ's

5- Chicago Fire Pizza

6- Felipe's

7- Chipotle

8- Raley's sandwich dept

8 Things that happened yesterday:

1- Ran 5 miles at 5:30am

2- Got my car washed

3- Was told I still have a job (phew)

4- Ate dinner from Panda (comfort food)

5- Watched Ironman

6- Went to the gym

7- Was disappointed by a (guy) friend

8- Went to bed at 9pm

8 Things I am looking forward to:

1- Being done with the work day

2- Meeting up with old co-workers for din din tonight

3 Lisa getting prego

4- Alan coming home for Melanie and the kids

5- This weekend's 1/2 marathon

6- Scary movie night this weekend

7- Bringing my dog back to Manteca with me for 6 weeks

8- The movie Twilight to come out

8 Things on my wish list:

1- A house

2- Gas prices to go back to $.99

3- My zits will go away forever

4- Man of my dreams

5- A hug

6- A sport's massage

7- To eat McDonald's and not feel guilty about it afterwards

8- Get into a career where I don't have to listen to people complain (Does that exist?)

8 People I tag:

1- Melanie

2- Lisa

3- Danicia

4- Mindy

5-Kristen

6-Jennifer

7- Allison

8- Angie

Bass Pro Shop in Manteca

This past weekend was the Grand Opening of Bass Pro Shop here in Manteca. Mike and I decided to go later last night. We got there about 8pm and that place is like a Disneyland for adults. We took some fun pics. This place is really amazing. I'm not a hunter or fisherman but I can most certainly appreciate this place. They have a waterfall that is two stories high that fish live in at the bottom of the tank. They have stuffed fake animals all over the place.

You have to see it to believe it!

Egyptian Festival Oct 18th

I have a homeowner that invited me to the Egyptian Festival, in Ripon, that his church was putting together. They had wonderful food and great live music. I even bought a few items from their shops. They had three of them right next to each other down in the basement of the church. One shop was just of Egyptian apparel, the other had all the pictures, statues, book marks, jewelry of Christ and a wide selection of rosaries. The other shop was the shop will the Spinx, Pyramid, King Tut, and all that other good fun stuff. I was introduced the the Father and told him to be proud he was doing his missionary work. Novel kept inviting me to their next mass. :)

I SCREAM YOU SCREAM WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE-CREAM Oct 18

Brent and Floyd hosted the past weekend's scary night movie. A group of us get together and there's a theme with how the place is decorated and what you have for dinner and maybe some activities. The movie was I Scream You Scream We All Scream for Ice-Cream. It was about an ice-cream truck that's driven by a clown. He hands ice-cream to children and when they eat it it kills their dads. We had yummy homemade pizza and then while we were all chillin' Floyd and Brent were like guys we have to get this movie started now. So we migrated inside and found our seat. Now it may have been a movie from the $1 bin from Walmart but anything that involves clowns and children is a bit creepy. About 15 min into it Sherry, Floyd's sister, said hey um you guys I just saw two images walk across your front window. Are you expecting anyone else tonight. Floyd answered no. She said she was serious there were two people, adult images that walked by. About 30 sec later the front door opens and two people dressed up in clowns attire come running in with machetes in hand and the 8 of us screaming out loud. Low and behold it was Van and LaMar...my parents. They had it rigged the whole time and Sherry was just being observant. Although they couldn't had planned it better. After everyone caught their breath we stopped the movie for a ice-cream intermission.

Meanwhile Floyd was cleaning up split wine off the floor.

15 and Delirious October 19th

Sunday I was in town for the Scary Movie night at Brent and Floyd's so I thought I'd just stick around and do my long run along the bike trail. It was a beautiful morning. I started around 8am and had 15 miles to go. There's a few things that are different running along the bike trail vs. running here in Manteca. There are several fellow runners and that just gives you a blot of sanity. That's right I'm not nuts...look at everyone else that's out here. There were also cyclists who scared the crap out of me a few times. Thought I'd have to change my shorts. I'm used to running with cars and you can hear them but when you have 10 bikes that zoom past you coming from the back you jump a bit. Trust me on that on.

As the run got longer my brain starts to slowly focus on only what's in front of me. I can't do simple math or think about what I'm going to eat for dinner that night. It's primary focus is my current state. With that I began to get delirious and start seeing things that aren't what they seem to be. About mile 7 here was a tree stump but could have sworn it was a man in a hunching position that was getting ready to pounce on something. On the way back mile 14 there was a tree that I saw had a iguana the size of a large dog in between the branches. As I came up to the tree sure enough just a part of the wood. I just shook my head I decided to stop sight seeing and just focus on the pavement in front of me. I carried on.

Fun and Games with the BAD

At work some may know that I work for a home builder called Pulte Homes here in the Central Valley. We were known as the CVD (Central Valley Division). Well with life things change when the economy does so now we're merging to the BAD (Bay Area Division). As a get to know you and happy merging activity they had both divisions meet at Chabot Lake, totally cool place, and we were separated into teams.

Each team was a color and we had a treasure hunt to finish with the team. We were scored on a few things but some included team cheers throughout the hunt, battling it out in paddle boats, twister activities and word search/crossword puzzles. I was on the winning team, of course and had a blast doing it. It really was well put together and we bonded very quickly. Here are some pictures.

History crossword puzzle. Notice I'm taking pictures and not participating. History, ugh!

We had to come up with what this was. If you want to see the answer scroll to bottom of this post. **

This was at the very begining of our twister game that had 8 of us involved. I was one so had to put my right hand on someone's left shoulder.These guys hauled a%$. Their legs were hurting afterwards and they all cycle but it's all about the 4th quarter. Bringing it home!

**Desire to win

Hard Hat! Saftey First!

Being a Customer Relations Manager has it's advantages and disadvantages. One we don't think we have to follow the typical construction rules on the job site. Mike Moore was a volunteer of this. We were walking a house with a few guests from other trade companies and Mike walked straight into a stud. He didn't have his hard hat on and now we have proof the benefits of hard hats. If you note you'll see a cut across his head by the front of his hair line. Ouch! But that wasn't the word he was thinking when it actually happened.

Thanks Mike for taking one for the team!

Home Before Dark 9-26-08

Neil Diamond had chosen once again to come to Sacramento for a concert. His most recent album, Home Before Dark, was spot lighted but of course it didn't take up most of the time as he played his greatest hits.

Brent and I have a game that we play when we attend Neil's concert...name that tune with his songs during the concert. Brent smoked me! Well done brother!

We had fun that night. We were in the very last row you could get. Floyd had friends there too he was see frequently since the gentleman sitting next to him was oozing into Floyd's seat too.

Then it was Brent, myself, Karen (dad's fun cousin), mom and dad.

Some of our favorite were of course, Sweet Caroline, Play Me, Chery Cherry, Solitary Man, and Brent and I booed when he did Love on the Rocks. We're so over Neil singing it with one of his backup singers every time. If it's not Barbara then it's best to not go there.

Circus Night 9-18-08

Time to catch up

Melanie got free tickets to the circus for being a local hero. Her kind husband submitted her name in and va-laa...they loved their story.

We had great seats! Eating at the circus is like eating at Disneyland. For a box of popcorn $7, cotton candy $10, and a small bag of peanuts $4. I don't know how much the nachos and pretzel were. Too scared to look. Some parents were also hooking their kids up with stuffed animals, toy swords, and princess wands that twirl and light up.

Cody needed a diaper change and so Mel went with the ol' I'll change him right here and now. (It wasn't a stinky one, quick change).

Kambree got folded up in the chair as soon as she sat down since we weighs lighter than a feather so she sat on my lap. I took a picture of her and as you can tell she was more focused on what was going on than saying cheese.

The Boohers and Browns were there with us. Good times as always!

As you can tell the kids enjoyed and were a bit tired.