Spring Break!! Yay!

It's been nice going to bed early, not having to do any school work. But it all starts up again next week...

Got good grades, all A's, last quarter. Good classes, and I'm looking forward to my next ones.

The play H is in won the regional competition - now they're going to Nationals in Kalamazoo, MI, in June!

The kids are visiting their Grandparents and cousins down in Oregon, so H and I have a few days to just be with one another. Its been nice, going out to movies and dinner, just being together.

But I'm missing the kids too and look forward to seeing them this Friday.

Brewed an IPA over the weekend - it's bubbling away in the stairwell as I write. Hope it turns out good. It should be nice and hoppy.

"Sons of A Common Mother", the play H is in and that was in competition, won!! That's a state-level competition. Now she's on her way to Oregon in two weeks to compete in the regionals (six states). Since the competition is close to H's parents it looks like she's going to combine a visit down there with the kids.

She's pretty excited.

Today is our 11th dateversary. We used to give each other white chocolate-chip macadamia nut cookies on this day (that was a cookie we shared together on our first date), but since H doesn't eat sugar anymore we haven't done that in a few years. This year I bought H an iPod Shuffle, along with Tori Amos' and Kings of Leon's new albums. I loaded those and some other albums from her iTunes onto the Shuffle and then put it into a container of macadamia nuts.

She didn't even see it at first. I had to get her to pour the nuts into a bowl. She really likes it though. It's a cool mp3 player, very small and light.

It was a good surprise.

Now back to the 580 case study paper - it's due tomorrow by midnight.
The 542 Database Design project due date has been pushed back a week, which allows me to focus on the 580 paper.

I'm really looking forward to Spring break.

Big push this week to get a project done for each of my classes, one due Saturday, one due Monday. After that I'll be pretty much done for the quarter as far as the really heavy stuff goes.

Work on those two projects is going slow but steady - I'm pacing myself...

Next quarter I'll be taking my last required class, 560 "Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals", as well as the next database class, 543 "Design of Information Systems".

H is going down to Tacoma this Saturday to compete with her cast in the play festival - she's going to take N with her to give them some one-on-one time. I get to hang out with M and S, which should be fun. We're going to the first annual "Food Not Lawns" work-party at the co-op.

Had a terrible "shopping" experience last night at Best Buy. What a crappy place. I'm never going there again if I can help it.

It's been a busy weekend! Yesterday H went to an improv workshop taught by Keith Johnstone, an improv guru. Though the politics involved with getting into the class have been tiring, the class itself seems to have been worth it. She also went today and will go again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I went to Seattle last night to see Steve Earle at the Showbox. I hooked up with Allen in Ballard, where we had a pint before heading downtown to the show. Though we got there about thirty minutes late it was well worth it. Steve's such a performer, a great singer and songwriter, and has some great things to say about current politics. He's a real activist/advocate. He did three encores for the sold-out show.

I've got two deadlines hanging over me right now, both due on Tuesday. One is this tsunami blogs article (which I'm almost done with), and the other is a three page paper for LIS580 (which I haven't started yet but I'm not too stressed about).

Writing this little bit is taking me away from those, so I'm going to cut this short and get back to work.

P.S. Got to play frisbee and basketball with the kids today - had a fun time with them. I wish I could be home more often to play with them like that....

P.P.S. We finally bought a digital camera (nothing too fancy, 3.2 mpixels, compact design, kodak brand). So, pictures should be appearing here sometime, as well as at my other blogs ::))

I'm very tired tonight.

H has been co-teaching the positive discipline class for the last few weeks and it seems to be going well for her. She also finished up "Plummet" (which she was great in) and is in rehearsal for "Sons of a Common Mother", which is a role she did last year and which will be in competition this year at the Tacoma Little Theater as part of the Washington State Community Theatre Festival.

All three kids are having fun with acting/dance classes and Pokemon collecting.

School work continues to be challenging, both the management and the database design class, but for very different reasons. The management class has a lot to, well, manage, with many different group projects and papers to write. The DB class is just hard to wrap one's head around, but I think I'm getting it (mostly).

Tomorrow the kids and H get to go see Cirque Eloize at the Mt. Baker Theater. It should be a great show and I wish I could join them for it.

The article I co-wrote with Paul is up at Searcher's website, "The Blogs of War". It's cool to see it published this way. It's also coming out as a hard copy, and it's the cover article to boot!

I don't feel like I've been working enough on the Tsunami blogs article we're working on now, but I'm also finding it hard to find the time - schoolwork is really taking it all up.....

And I still have to finish reading Under the Banner of Heaven before the Book of the Quarter. Sigh.

I should also mention that I visited Windward High School last Friday to talk to the students about what I want to do for their library and to meet my student intern. The response was great! Everyone clapped and cheered when it was announced that I would be helping them get their library off the ground. It'll be a long, slow process, but my goal is to have it done by the beginning of the next school year. I have to write it all up for my portfolio too....

On one last note, here's a link to an old friend's website that's all about the Rugby House days.

H started co-teaching a Positive Discipline Parenting class tonight at the Bellingham Technical College. Though she's not getting paid for it it's a good experience and may lead to a paid teaching position later this year. When she got home we both agreed how lucky we are to already practice PD with our kids and how much of a difference it makes for all of us.

Had a mellow, pleasant evening with the kids. N read a whole graphic novel on his own tonight! He really got into Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things by Ted Naifeh. I'd read this before and knew it was engaging, with great art. H got it from the library today because it looked good and it was recommended for 7yr olds and up. It was really cool to see N so enthralled with the book, he just got very focused and read it all "in his head" - I don't think he "got" it all conceptually but it's still a big leap. I'm going to read it to him and M & S tomorrow to reinforce his conceptions and to help explain things. We're going to look for more graphic novels for both N&M to read, and inevitably S will want to too. I think we'll start with Jeff Smith's Bone books. Should also mention that M read Monkey vs. Robot by James Kochalka, another cool graphic novel. It was fun to listen to him read the words out loud: "Boooom!" "Crash!"

I'm keeping on top of my schoolwork but it still feels like I'm juggling a lot of slippery balls. And I need to work on the Tsunami blog article more this week too! And the 580 paper that's due Monday! And continue to wrap my head around the database concepts for 542!!

I'm listening to Wilco's Bonus Tracks EP that I downloaded for free from their site. It's great, with six songs new and old and reworked. Man, they're an awesome band. Sometime I'll have to write the story of H and my trip to Vancouver to see Wilco live and following Tweedy around for awhile on the street and my one-of-a-kind souvenir.

I'm failing miserably at my new goal to stop doing schoolwork by 11pm so that I can get a few more minutes of sleep every night (it's 11:31 as I type this). I've got to work harder at that, because the one night this week I did manage to stop by 11 I felt more rested the next day.

But tomorrow's Saturday and I don't have to get up early and better yet it's a three day weekend!!

H's play opened on Thursday to a packed house. There was a good review in the paper of it that day (from the preview show) and H felt pretty good about her performance. Tonight's show went well too.

The kids have had a couple of hard days, especially N - just lots of fighting, squabbling and bickering. Something's out of balance...

I'm going to be bottling my stout this weekend - it's been in the carboy for a week for the secondary fermentation - it looks dark and tasty. Can't wait to try it in a few weeks.

B is coming up on his way to Vancouver, BC this weekend. We should be able to get together and jam on Sunday - I'm looking forward to it. Played a new song for the kids tonight about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and the Tar Baby. They liked it.

I've been working hard this week on my classes, but I've also been really productive too, which feels good. Tomorrow I've got to get more writing done on the tsunami blogs article P and I are working on. And do more school work, of course.

Oh man, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything.......

Let's see. H's play (Plummet) opens tomorrow night. The preview show last night went well - it should be a good show. Now I just have to figure out a way to go see it.

And speaking of shows I bought tickets to see Steve Earle in Seattle in February with H. That'll be a great time. Plus I've got a ticket to see David Grisman and Ricky Skaggs here in Bellingham.

The Iraq blog article I wrote with PP is coming out in February. It's going to be the cover article too. I'm very stoked about that. Just signed and mailed off my contract to the magazine today, which was cool too. Now we're working on another article, this one about the tsunami blogs that have been started. I've got to finish writing the intro to that tonight.

The kids really enjoyed the snow we got here last week - I think there was 4-5 inches. The only downside for me is that I can't ride my bike for a while. I'm really missing my rides.

The residency in Seattle went well. It was nice to see some of my cohort, especially at a dinner that most of us went to on Friday night. The two classes I'm taking right now (Database Design and Management of Information Organizations) are keeping me very busy, especially the database class. I'm very tired and feel, as usual, like I'm juggling eighteen things at once.

The kids are all doing well. We haven't been able to do any nights out since H has been in rehearsals and now performances, but probably next week we'll be able to do that again. We had a family meeting last Sunday after not having any for about three weeks. It really makes a big difference for all of us! It's quite extraordinary.

H may begin teaching her parenting class next week if Bellingham Technical College gets enough enrollments. I hope that works out for her too.

That's pretty much it for now I think. Work, school, family life, and some personal stuff squeezed in here and there.

Oh yeah, speaking of personal stuff, I got two new guitars (stumbled onto a sale at Mojo Music and with H's enthusiastic support bought two dream guitars). A Martin SWOMGT and a Fender '52 reissue Telecaster. They're both beautiful, superbly playable and make me very happy.

Christmas in Oregon was nice, very relaxing, though more stressful for H than for me since it was her family we were with and she naturally sees more of the dynamics there that I don't....

The kids had a lot of fun hanging out with their cousins. The drive back was pretty mellow though tiring. It felt good to get home.

We discovered that Sam had been bitten by one of the other cats while we were away and the wound had abscessed - so another trip to the vet! More money spent! Sam's turning into an expensive cat.

The winter break has been great - two more weeks left until my quarter starts up again and then it'll be back to the grindstone. I got great grades last quarter - my first 4.0 for a whole quarter. I think this quarter will be tougher though, what with the database design class. Will have to see.

H's rehearsals are going well though she hasn't got all her lines memorized yet. She keeps raving about her cast-mates and director. Her play opens in a couple of weeks.

More music playing this Friday night at Andrew and Debbie's New Year's party - really looking forward to that. Have to get the new guitar and mandolin strings on.

The dvd that H and I made turned out really well and everyone we've given it to has enjoyed it. I need to make a few more copies and am slowly rebuilding it after I unthinkingly deleted the whole file! Man was I pissed/depressed about that for a few days.

N, M and S are really into Pokemon right now - they all got binders with card holder thingamajobs for xmas. Today was my last day of vacation....

Oy, it's been too long since I've posted! Leaving tomorrow for H's parents place for the Christmas break. Will try to write more from down in Oregon.

Enjoying the break from school...

Thanksgiving holiday is over! We did the turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, rolls, yams thing - actually, H did almost all the work, I was out sick that day - I think I slept for about 12 hours....

H used the neighbor's oven (two doors down) to get everything done! The neighbors were visiting friends for Thanksgiving, so they gave H a key to use the oven. It worked out well - I think she did the turkey over there and baked everything else here. Her mom and dad (P&G), as well as one of the kid's cousins, A, were here too. We had a full house and a nice visit.

Yesterday they all went to the wave pool in Surrey, B.C. I didn't go because there wasn't enough room in P & G's van (it seats 7) and I didn't think it was worth driving a second car just so that I could go too. And I am still recovering from this cold. Still have the annoying cough. But I wish I could have gone. S, N and M all went down the slides for the first time, and I would have liked to have seen them do that....

On Wednesday I came from work and jumped right in to helping G put up some plastic over the front of our garage. It had been pouring rain for the last three days and on Wednesday our garage flooded! H called me earlier that day while I was at work to let me know - by the time I got home there was about 2 inches of water in places on the floor. Thankfully the floor isn't completely flat and the water had pooled up in a few places. Otherwise it would have gone into the basement.

Anyway, there I was in the rain, getting drenched (not so good for my cold), nailing up plastic over the garage door and trying to figure out where the water was coming from. G pointed out that the gutter above the garage had pulled free and all the water from the roof was just pouring straight down the side of the house and then under the garage door. I'm glad he was there to help. The next day I was up on a ladder nailing the gutter back in. Hopefully it will work during the next big rain. Oh yeah, it rained so much that we even got a little flooding in the basement. The water came seeping up from under the floor in places. What fun!

Fall quarter is almost over - just a couple more weeks really. Pretty much done with all major work for 510, one more paper due next Sunday for 568 (which I should start tomorrow). I have to get this Iraq blog article I'm co-writing with Paul done by Monday too.

The kids are doing well, they've enjoyed A's visit. The grandparents and cousin go home tomorrow, then it's time to start getting ready for Christmas.....which I actually enjoy. Also time to start thinking about telemark skiing. I've got to go this year and see if my knee can take it!

Met with the principal (Jill Iwasaki) and community coordinator (April Busch) for Windward High School last night at Stuart's Coffee House to talk about volunteering to help them with their library. The meeting went very well. We are all enthusiastic about making this work. I'll be helping them organize their library (which at this point consists of donated books on shelves), using cataloging software (which I need to research and evaluate) and student help (I'll have interns working for me!)

We also discussed collection development and information literacy workshops for students and staff, as well as research workshops for the students. This will be a long-term relationship that will fit in nicely with my portfolio requirements at the iSchool. Jill said I'll be the "Librarian Mentor".

They were also excited to have someone "young and cool" and thought it would be great to have a librarian male role model.

I joked that the last time I met with a principal was when I was getting suspended from high school for a week....

I'm getting towards the end of Fall quarter. Grupo Cinco just finished our project and submitted it last night. Just a couple more papers to go in both classes and then a break!

M really liked his pottery class and made some beautiful pieces. Now he's decided to join N in his dance class, so now all three kids are dancing again.

H's kid acting classes continue to grow- two new students starting this week. The bartering seems to be working out pretty well too. She had a great experience taking improv classes in Canada, has finally dropped Sheila Goldsmith's improv class here in Bellingham (along with a lot of other students), and will be starting an informal improv get-together/learning time with them. She also just got cast in one of the leading roles for a play at the iDiOM Theater here in Bellingham, written and directed locally.

Halloween went well - the kids had a lot of fun at their party, and then got to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters at our house (a first for them - I think they may have had just as much or even more fun handing out candy then they did being at the party or trick-or-treating themselves). This was the first year that we didn't go trick or treating, mostly because we had the party to go to instead.

In the past we've bought the candy off the kids at the end of the night so that they wouldn't get sick from eating it all, and now that we are off sugar (as a family), there's really no reason to go trick-or-treating for them, except that they still may find it fun to do and probably would want the money anyway. Their aunt Jessica came up today with their cousin Caleb, aka Ace - he's walking/running a lot now (18 mo old) and is a pretty even-tempered, happy boy. Jessica gave the kids each a bag of candy, so that's what they gave out to trick-or-treaters tonight.

N was a werewolf - H made a great costume for him, with the fur coming out of rips in his clothes and the ears coming out of the top of his baseball cap. We glued fur to his face and used stage makeup and he had claws on his feet and hands.

M was going to be a cyborg, but after a trial run at a library Halloween event he discovered that all the metal was too uncomfortable, so today he changed to Aragorn - with his long hair he looked pretty sharp with a green cloak and leg and arm wrappings. I put "stubble" on his chin and cheeks with makeup - looked good.

S was vampirella, with a black and white-striped wig, red dress, and white face makeup with dark circles under her eyes and grey, hollow cheeks. She looked pretty cute.

H had her second full weekend of improv classes up in Vancouver - last weekend she had a minor fender-bender which busted one of our headlights. She said when she was exchanging insurance info the other party and witness were dumbfounded when she asked what the insurance company was. Turns out that in Canada everyone has the same vehicle insurance company! Anyway, her classes are going well and there were no accidents today.

School is keeping me really busy, I have several due dates creeping up on me and still feel like I'm treading water in very large waves.

Saw "Saw" last night - interesting movie premise-wise, but suffered from overacting by Elwis and a bad montage, too many flashbacks and boggy third act: C-

Oh the time goes by, yes it does.

Shaun of the Dead was a great movie!

Did a report back last Tuesday about my experience being in NY at the RNC and working for Radical Reference. I was pretty nervous before-hand, but it was done in a seminar style, all of us sitting around a circle, so even though the focus was on me for the 10 minutes or so that I talked, it wasn't overwhelming. I imagined I'd be standing up in front of a lectern or something. There were about 30 people in the crowd, all dressed like Evergreeners. I actually felt pretty comfortable with them. The response was terrific, people were very enthusiastic about activist librarians. I could almost see a paradigm shift occuring as people began to imagine librarians as a source for protest and social justice information and support.

M starts his pottery class tomorrow. He's pretty excited about it. N and S continue in their dance class. H is going to be gone for the next three consecutive weekends, pretty much all day, for an improv class up in Vancouver, BC. It should be a pretty intense and rewarding experience for her. The only hard part for me will be this upcoming Saturday, when we have our third annual Apple Fest happening. Hopefully I'll be able to be papa/host/participant in all the events until H gets back.

School is going OK - I feel like I'm constantly behind on my readings, just barely keeping up with them, but I'm "getting" the content pretty well. I've received high grades on all my assignments and exercises so far. Got my first 3.9 in LIS510. But the pace is fast and it would be easy to fall behind if I'm not careful.

Um, what else? I feel like I'm going through my financial aid money pretty fast, but also feel like I'm spending the money on things that are worth it (like H's improv class, fixing M's bike, buying H a watch that she needed, etc).

I've been sick the last few days, and now the rainy, windy, dark and cold rides are upon me. Time to get on the cold weather gear and suck it up.

H and the kids are down in Oregon for the weekend, at Honeyman State Park on the coast, with the big sand dunes and the yurts. This is the first year I've not gone with them, and it's because the trip was planned for later in Sept instead of earlier, and since Fall quarter has started up I couldn't take the time off from my studies.

We could have gone down for a quick two day stay but that's a lot of driving for that short of time - not worth it to me. So H and the kids went down yesterday (Thu) and are coming back Monday. But what's cool is that Heather Dillon and her daughters Erin and Brenna went down with H & co. So they got to split the driving and the kids have playmates for the drive down and they'll get to share the experience of the dunes and meet their cousins and H will have a friend with her.

Jon and Chad and I are going up to Langley, BC to the Colossus theater tomorrow. It's a huge theater with Imax screens, great sound, great seats, and it looks like a giant UFO has landed on it from the outside. Inside it has a bar upstairs.

We're going to see Shaun of the Dead, which is in Seattle, but not B'ham.

Well, classes are going well. Turned in my first exercise for 568 today. On Sunday I'll be starting the write up for my group's first assignment, worth 25% of our grade! That's for 510. Keeping up with the lectures and readings so far, and more importantly I'm understanding what we're learning.

Got to see the flyer of the RNC report back I'm going to be doing. Pretty cool. Funny that I'm listed as a librarian. I'm both nervous and looking forward to it. I just want to make sure I do a good job - I need to write up what I want to talk about, and write an article about NY and Rad Ref for the ISchool's Silverfish.

And Paul asked me to co-write an article with him about soldier's blogs and other blogs coming out of Iraq! I was excited and flattered to be asked. I think it will be fun to write with him and cool to get published.

Fall Quarter 2004 has begun! I'm in LIS510 (Information Behavior) and LIS568 (Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning). These are both fairly challenging classes with a couple group projects (in 510) and a ton of reading (in 568). Had a good residency in Seattle and had fun hanging out with Jim, drinking good Belgian beers and watching Anime.

Now I've got to get back into the school schedule - used my lunch hour to read today and should be doing more reading right now (instead of working on this blog). I also have to get cracking on the first assignment (conducting some interviews) which is due next Wednesday.

Been feeling very tired lately, hard to be "happy" with the family. Bummed about that. It'll probably pass, though.

Helped Chad, Thom and Jon put up the Dissent is Patriotic display at the library today. The background is my big 48 star US flag, upside down. A t-shirt I bought at the NY protests is in there too. They have lots of quotes and pictures from various dissent actions in US history in the display. Looks good and it's very timely.

Went to Village Books last night and listened to Krist Novoselic read from his new book Of Grunge & Government: Let's Fix this Broken Democracy! It was a SRO crowd - I've never been to a reading there that was so packed. Krist had some good things to say about democracy and the political process. It was also cool to see so many young people there, way below voting age, high school and junior high, very enthusiastic. Funny to think that Krist is still a rock n roll celebrity. Some good questions from the crowd about many different aspects of the political process: Instant Run-Off Voting, Marijuana Legalization, youth mobilization, etc.

He is really tall, was wearing a suit, and is balding on top, with just some wisps of hair covering up the bald part. I noted that the cover of his book cuts off the top of his head so that you can't see that he's balding....

I tried to talk with him a little about Radical Reference and how librarians can be part of the fix, but it was pretty loud at the signing, there were a lot of people in line behind me, and he seemed pretty distracted by it all. He also appeared sort of bemused by the young, junior high age hanger-ons. He kept glancing at them with a nervous sort of half smile, his face very pale and sweaty.

I'm hoping I can get hold of him somehow (email/phone/letter) to talk more about RadRef - it would be great to get him to promote our group and librarianship in general as a force for reform and democratization.

Got a call and email from someone named Andrew Hedden who is the coordinator of the Peace Resource Center here at WWU. Jeff Purdue gave him my name for an event the PRC is putting on that will have people talking about their experiences at the RNC protests in NY. I told him I'd be willing to do it - this will help me fulfill my goal of doing a presentation of some kind. It should be interesting to talk about the RadRef experience.

Still haven't blogged my written journal of the RNC events - got to do that soon!

Have been back from NY since Friday 9/2/04. It was great to see the family again, and weird to come back to work. Realized I had to tell a lot of people about the trip, and have to think about what kind of "presentation/talk" I want to do about it.

Wrote a lot in my journal while on the road - will try to add those to this blog in the near future.

Only two weeks till Fall quarter starts again. On that note, got in to LIS568 today after being told it was full up when I tried to register for it several weeks ago. Now I have to get my financial aid and tuition billing all adjusted....

Said goodbye to H and the kids this morning - they're heading to Oregon to stay with the grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins while I'm in NY. I'm bummed I'll miss S's birthday on Saturday, but it was fun to give her the bike yesterday. She was really excited about it and loves the basket and handlebar tassels. Can hardly believe she's turning 5!

They have some fun stuff planned - staying at the coast, going to Otter Beach (a water slide park) - and they just love going down there anyway, but we all miss each other very much when separated. I think we all said goodbye to one another about thirty times this morning....

Off to NY tomorrow - Jon is driving me down to the airport as part of his contribution - we're leaving around 3am to get down there in time for my 6:30 flight. Feeling excited and nervous and some other things I'm not quite sure of....

Hopefully I'll find time to blog while in NY doing all the other stuff I'll be doing: working with Radical Reference, volunteering at the Indymedia Center, participating in the big UFPJ march on the 29th, doing another march to represent the unemployed - a long line of marchers all waving pink slips - on 9/1, and probably lots more besides once I get there.

I'll be so busy that I'm sure the time will pass pretty quickly.

One thing that all the kids were involved in this Summer was a production of Peter Pan put on by Western Washington University - part of their Summer Stock series. M&N were originally cast to be in it (M as a lost boy, N alternating as a lost boy and as Michael), but they lost one of the lost boys and the director (Jim Lortz) happened to see S and asked if she'd be interested in being a lost boy (many of the lost boys were girls) and so all three of them were in.

The first two weeks were all rehearsals, and heavy ones, something like 5-6 hrs a day. Since the rehearsals were here on campus I was able to join them for lunch breaks, though they didn't really want to hang out with me much after the first day, when they'd had times to make new friends.

After the rehearsals they did two shows a week for about a month and a half (July 8th - Aug 18th), all outdoor shows, all over Whatcom County. They were very popular, with mainly large audiences. Except for a couple of times when S was tired before a show all three of the kids were very positive and happy - they knew their lines (for the most part) and enjoyed being on stage.

This was their summer camp this year. Jim (the director) said they'd never had crowds this large for their plays and will probably do more family shows in the future.

And tomorrow they are going to be acting in a production of their own, a play created by the kids in it and co-written by H and myself (and directed/produced by H). This is part of H's Kids At Play scheme. All the kids are really excited about it, though it has been a bit stressful for H and myself.

Three more days till I leave for NY. I just signed up to be part of a line of people who will be representing the unemployed in America. Sometimes I get a little nervous when I start thinking about this trip, but mostly I'm excited about it.