Yes, the sky is really this blue

When I was back in Pennsylvania, the weather was very nice - the two-month rain storm had abated, the temperatures were in the low- to mid-80s, with nice cloud cover (not too much!), not-too-awful humidity (not like July and August!), cool breezes, and nice cool nights. I mentioned to someone at my picnic reunion how ridiculously hot Arizona is, to the point where you really can't understand the heat unless you've experienced it. An old friend who has lived here backed me up on this. I mentioned that there's never any cloud cover, and someone scoffed at that. No, really, I explained to her, there's hardly ever any cloud cover, and this is for probably a good 250-300 days a year (other days, usually in the winter, are sunny, but there's a few clouds). In case anyone doubts me, I took a picture!

Seriously - that's the sky around here for most of the year. In case you think I'm just showing you a Blue Screen of Death and that's not really the sky, here's some context:

Yes, it can be achingly beautiful. But dang, it gets boring after a while. And, you know, really freakin' hot. Give me scudding clouds punctuated by bursts of sun and the occasional horrible downpour any day!

It Came From the Eighties!!!!! (With a Special Celebrity Cameo!)

I visited Pennsylvania this past weekend for our second annual high school reunion picnic, which this year was a bit more significant as I actually graduated 20 years ago. I went stag, as I needed some time away from the kids and it's far more expensive to buy four plane tickets than one (imagine that!). I flew out on Wednesday night and spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday in my old stomping grounds - namely, Bucks County, PA. This year I won't write about my experiences, as I did last year, mainly because the kids weren't around, so my visit mainly concerned sitting around with friends drinking (not too much, as I just can't deal with a lot of alcohol anymore, plus I was driving most places), which no one wants to hear about. At the actual picnic, I had a grand time catching up with people, some of whom I hadn't seen in 20 years and others who I see every time I go home, but they all make me feel inadequate (off the top of my head, we had a psychiatrist, at least one doctor, a woman who works for the Peace Corps in Niger, a lawyer, and a person who's working on a vaccine for staph infections at the picnic, and I'm sure I'm missing several other impressive occupations, making my day of watching television and blogging seem trivial by comparison - even if I LOVE IT!) so I'll just say to any of them who might be reading, It was great to see you, and I hope I can do it again next year.

However, while I was home, my mom told me that she had dug out some old photo albums, so of course I had to go through them. These are pictures from no later than May of 1993, when I graduated from college, and going back to probably 1986 (the only dated photograph is from July 1987, but a few look older than that). So sit back and return with me to a time when I was actually skinny. I know, it's hard to believe, but I have photographic proof! These photos star my sister, my parents, my bride-to-be, and perhaps the greatest celebrity cameo in history. I kid you not!


That's my sister, by the way.


Check out that skinny dude! That's my dad, back when he had (some) hair.


Man, I look like a total nerd. What's up with the hair and glasses? Dang. That's my aunt and uncle and my two young cousins.


This is my sister and I waiting at the airport in the summer of 1988 before our trip to Barbados. My parents took us cool places, because they're awesome.


This is when we arrived in Barbados. I have no idea where I'm going with such intensity, but I love that picture.

All right, ladies, avert your eyes before you're overcome with desire! Stud Alert!!!!

Look at those abs! Is it any wonder I was beating them off with a stick?



This is my senior prom in May 1989. That's my girlfriend, Holly. She was a pretty cool chick. We grew apart once we went off to school, but I had a nice little romance with her.


High school graduation. Look at how uncynical I am! So very, very foolish of me!


Check out those glasses! And yes, that is my Billy and the Boingers T-shirt. That's just how I rolled, man!


A dude should never match his mother. But check out those shorts! The '80s ruled.


My sister and I again.


This is July of 1987 at Ricketts Glen, Pennsylvania. The girl on the right was an exchange student who lived with us for a time. Check out my tan! And that's a Little Shop of Horrors T-shirt I'm wearing.


That's my dad in a rare moment of levity. Well, I guess it wasn't all that rare, but this is still not too common from him.


I don't know when this was taken, but it was in the Poconos, I know that much. Check out the shades!


This is kind of murky, but it still cracks me the fuck up. This is when I got all four of my wisdom teeth out and I had to have ice on both sides of my mouth for a few days. It was no fun.


This was probably junior year, but I'm not sure. This was my first girlfriend Krista. I wonder what happened to her.


I live to be goofy.


Look at that idiot. He thinks the world is his oyster. What a kook!


This would be my lovely future bride. We were in Nanticoke, PA, where my grandparents lived. This was my grandfather's funeral in the winter of 1993. It was the first time Krys met my parents. Fun!


Here I am sitting around at my grandfather's funeral. That's some stylin' hair on that dude!


This is my graduation from Penn State, meaning it's May of 1993.


That's my maternal grandmother. She was 82 at the time. She was pretty awesome.


My sister again. You might be wondering, does she ever smile?


Hell yeah she does! Barb and my mom were flying to New Orleans once and yes, Richard Simmons was on the flight with them. So they got their picture taken with him. Don't they all look happy? Richard Simmons is awesome, man.

So those are my mother's olde-tyme daguerreotypes. I hope you dug 'em!

All abooooooardddd!

The Saturday after Christmas the entire clan (our family, my parents, and my sister's family; ten people in all) went northward to Clarkdale, Arizona, in the beautiful Verde Valley. There we boarded the Verde Canyon Railroad for an afternoon of sightseeing. We had wanted to go on the train for a while, and so did my mom, so she made the arrangements to go. We'll probably have to go back in the autumn to see the leaves changing color, but it was a fun time nonetheless.

The train has indoor and outdoor cars, so you can stand outside and check out the scenery. The indoor cars have windows, of course, but it's still hard to see what is passing by. The temperature up north was much cooler than here in the Basin, but at least it wasn't raining. I spent a great deal of the trip north from Clarkdale to Perkinsville (a ghost ranch where the train stops and turns around) outside, mainly because I wanted to see the sights. Krys spent most of the trip inside hanging out with Mia, and they had a grand time. It was a very nice afternoon. I have written more about our journey (and our Christmas holiday in general) over at the kids' blog, mainly because it was all about them for the most part. But I figured I'd post some of the more scenic pictures here. So enjoy the Verde River Valley!








Check out my natty hat!


That's fashion, baby!

Most of everything else we did over the holiday dealt with the children, so I have pictures of them. I did get this nifty tool for Christmas:

How manly am I?????

Picture day goes to Seattle yet again!

Who doesn't love Seattle? If you've ever been to Seattle, you know how excellent it is. So in July 2001, when Krys's sister and her boyfriend visited us, we went north for a weekend. At this point, we knew were moving to Arizona, so we wanted to get as much Northwesting in as possible!

This is downtown Seattle. The picture is a bit small, but if you click it, you will make it huge! This is from the Space Needle. You are mandated by the local government to go up into the Space Needle every time you visit the Emerald City. I bet you didn't know that!

This is Lake Washington, which I've mentioned before. It's where the house from Sleepless in Seattle floats. Lakes are fun.

Here's another shot of downtown:

We went to a baseball game at the brand-spanking-new Safeco Field. It's a gorgeous ballpark with stunning views of downtown (you can see it in the background of the downtown photos), and we had a great time. I've always been a Mariners fan (I'm not sure why, just that I've always been fascinated with Seattle; I still own a Mariners cap from about 1982), so it was cool to see them in the ballpark during their astonishing 116-win season (not that it helped in the postseason, but still). The game went extra innings, but we left before that because it was getting late. We listened to it on the radio, so we heard the Mariners win. We also got to see Barry Bonds hit a home run, which was nice. I mean, I don't like Bonds at all, but it was kind of cool to see him hit one out.

Here's some of the ballpark.

Here's Ichiro at the plate. This was during his MVP and Rookie of the Year season. He only got one hit in this game, however.

This is Pike Place Market, which I've shown before. That doesn't make it any less cool.

This was our last trip to Seattle, and like most of the other things we used to do in Oregon, we miss it a lot. It's a very cool city. Too bad the Mariners suck these days.

Picture Day gets a Master's Degree!

In June 2001 I received my Master's Degree in History from Portland State University. Okay, that's not exactly true. My degree, which is hanging on my wall, says that I received it in December 2000, and that's strictly true. But they had no graduation ceremony in December 2000, so I had to wait until June to get my fancy "hood" and walk on stage while my name was called. Oh well - it gave my parents and sister a chance to visit, and June in Portland is a lot nicer than December, after all.

This first picture is when I received my "hood" in a small ceremony in the history office. In case you're wondering why I'm using quotation marks, well, the "hood" is just the strip of fabric that you wear over your gown. Mine was green and white because those are, apparently, the colors of history. Who knew?

As my parents were visiting, we went out to fine restaurants. And my mom took pictures! This is my dad, me, and my brother-in-law Mark. My dad looks much younger, interestingly enough, since he shaved his head. That's weird.

This is Krys and my sister. I haven't seen my sister in years. It will be good to see her in June.

Here is the ceremony, which was held in the Rose Garden. I wasn't too jazzed to go, because thousands of people were graduating, but my mother insisted. But here's the thing: my parents left early. MY PARENTS LEFT EARLY!!!!! They didn't actually see me walk up on the stage and get my diploma. And it was my mother who wanted to leave! She was bored, which didn't surprise me, but if I had to stick it out, she should have too. This was in the age before any of us had cell phones, so I had no idea what was going on. We had taken two cars, so I just drove home and found them there. Boy, was I peeved. Thanks, Mom.

We took some pictures on our front lawn. You get a good view of my "hood" in the first one. Krys looks nice in the second one, doesn't she? It makes my presence more bearable.


These last two pictures were taken a few weeks later. It was at a bar that my co-workers and I went to after my last day of work. I had already gotten my teaching job in Tempe, so we knew we were leaving Portland (boo-hoo!), and so we all went out and I didn't have to pay for alcohol. I love these two pictures, because they show me being goofy and (probably) loud, which is how I get when I drink (and often when I don't drink). I'm not a mean drunk at all - I'm boisterous and more talkative (if that's possible) and have far too many theories about life. This was the last time I got really sick while drinking. My friends were buying me shots of Jägermeister, which I love (or loved, back then), and I had one too many. Have you ever been drinking, and you're feeling perfectly fine (drunk, but fine), and you take one more drink, and it suddenly comes rushing up? Of course you have! I had six shots of Jägermeister in a couple of hours (and maybe two beers), and I was feeling great. I was a bit apprehensive about the seventh shot, but someone bought it for me, so I felt obligated. Boy, was that a mistake. My night was pretty much over after that. Whenever I get that drunk (every five years or so), I stop drinking for a very long time. This was the last time I got drunk, because by the time I might have been ready for it again, we had the kids and I just wasn't interested. I haven't had Jägermeister since, and I doubt if I would feel sick when I smell it, but I don't know. I have no interest in drinking that much these days, but this was a fun evening (until the puking). I miss those guys, and I miss Portland. I'm a bit sad that I couldn't find a good job there. Oh well.


That's Picture Day for today. Next time: Seattle! Who doesn't love Seattle? Commies, that's who!