Blog Blitz Part 5 (or 4.1)

With the birthday madness in full swing, we are of course preparing for Skyler's second birthday, which is Jan 13. We just reserved the Tinker Bell bouncer today (it's a Tinker Bell themed party). It is kind of sad though as we had to take a lot of friends off the invite list to keep the party a reasonable size. Please don't be offended if you do not receive an invitation. When we made the invite list for everyone we wanted to invite, it went over 100. Needless to say, we regrettably removed some people since, frankly (or scottly in my case), we don't have room for that many people if it should rain and everybody is forced inside. Anybody who's been to our house can attest to that.

We also made our traditional trip to Disneyland on New Year's Day yesterday. What does that have to do with birthdays? Well, Skyler and Courtney got their picture taken with Ariel. Courtney also had one taken with Ariel by herself for her birthday party invitations which will go out in about a month or so since her birthday is Feb. 20. On the bright side, with all the birthdays we celebrate in the first half of the year, the second half is pretty tame...gives us a chance to recuperate for Christmas.

Blog Blitz Part 4 - Birthday Madness

I think Christmas kicks off the birthday madness that happens every year. At least it's Jesus' birthday that kicks it off. To give you an idea of how crazy it is for us, I'm listing the dates of birthdays that we celebrate (attend a party or gathering for) each year. Any numbers in parentheses represent multiple birthdays on that date.

January: 2 (2), 3, 12, 13, 15, 27
February: 3, 9, 18, 20 (2), 24 (2), 25, 28
March: 23 (2)
April: 1, 13, 16 (2), 17, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30
May: 1, 4, 5 (2), 6, 9 (2), 12, 16, 20, 30
June: 13, 19, 20

There are a few other birthdays in those months as well, but I don't remember exactly when they are (and our anniversary is June 26). Therefore, I would like to make a statement to those who are or may be thinking about having a kid or 10. I hereby declare the following times of year off limits to any new birthdays within out circle of friends and family: all of January, all of February, March 23, all of April, all of May and mid-June. Let me translate this into other terms...sex is hereby banned for all fertile people (who are our friends and family) from April through September!!!!!!! Now, April is just three months away, so you better get busy!

Blog Blitz Part 3 - Christmas summary

Now that Christmas has come and gone, it can be summarized in one word...dolls! That's right, our home is now an orphanage for dolls. Courtney got a few and Skyler got at least half a dozen! That doesn't even count all the ones they had before. I knew having two girls would mean lots of girly things, but seriously. Nevermind that most of them currently have no clothes on, which oddly enough is much like the girls themselves (Courtney and Skyler that is). On the bright side, they never have a hard time finding one whenever they feel like being motherly or bossing someone around (when they are not bossing each other around) and seem to enjoy them quite a bit. At least Courtney seems to have outgrown wanting to nurse them!

Blog Blitz Part 2 - Job Update

As some of you may know, I am currently working at Chevron as a contractor, meaning I'm not on Chevron's payroll, but working for them while getting paid by a third party. I was told when I hired in that it should become an employee position. Well, that time has come! I was verbally offered the position on Monday, New Year's Eve. Today I received the formal offer. Now it's a matter of me accepting, which I plan on doing tomorrow since I got it so late in the day today, and then jumping through the hoops that need to be jumped through (paperwork, drug test, physical and anything else I'm not yet aware of). It will be nice going from just getting paid to getting paid and getting benefits, retirement, paid time off (vacation, sick, etc.). Although it will be a cut in base pay, they expect me to get an increase when the pay scale increases in April. plus factor in medical, dental, etc. (which we currently pay for on our own - 100%) as well as vacation (3 weeks!) and sick as well as retirement (4 to 1 match on first 2%!) and it's looking really good. That doesn't even take into consideration the regular bonuses for various safety and operational milestones achieved throughout the year or the annual incentive plan (success sharing/bonus). Needless to say, I'm very excited about this and hope that I can stay at Chevron for the rest of my career. I'll try to post again on this when everything is finalized, which if all goes well will be in about a month.

Blog Blitz Part 1 - The Risky Gift: Update

So here we are into 2008. I thought I should give an update on how the gift-giving went with my grandma. Fortunately, there was no negativity. When she opened it, she looked at it for a minute or so and then said thank you. I'll take that. Traci says she heard her say she would read it. I really hope she does. We left her a little note inside the front so hopefully that motivates her to read it as well. I guess we'll see.

The Risky Gift

I finally went out tonight and got a gift for my grandma after talking with my wife and my mom, getting their opinion on the idea. I've felt almost a conviction to get "The Purpose-Driven Life" for her. She's 93 years old and everything I know and have learned from my mom about her indicate that she is not a Christian, which saddens me. I like to think that maybe God put me here to bring her to Him.

I am a little worried about how she will respond to it, so I have prayed about it, hoping that God will allow her to accept it and be open to what the book has to say. I just hope she doesn't get angry that we chose to give her the book. But, if she does, I will deal with it. I will love her no matter what happens.

Then, again, I tend to look at the negative side of things often. Maybe there will be no reaction (or action), or maybe, just maybe, she will actually read the book. Once I give it to her, it's up to God to do the rest. Although it may help if I actually read the book all the way through.

Our church did the 40 days of purpose thing a few years ago and I read some of the book. I generally don't like to read, but I think in this case I should read it just in case my grandma calls with questions or wants to talk about it. (I don't see this as very likely, but it's one of those scenarios I need to be prepared for.) And in addition to not liking to read, I am currently reading another book that I am leading our Sunday School class through at church through the end of January. Then, also in January, I begin reading another book for a spiritual formation (2-year) class/program at my church with our new Pastor of Spiritual Formation, Sherry Mortenson. All this reading and I'm not even in school (thank goodness...I feel sooooooo done with that)!

Anyway, if you pray, I would appreciate prayer for my grandma and that she will be open to her gift from us this Christmas. I love her and want the best for her, especially as she grows older. Who knows how long God plans on keeping her around for, but I would like to try to make a difference in her life before it's too late.

Baseball...what happened?

So as everyone not living under a rock is now aware, the Mitchell Report has been released and named more than 80 players who have apparently used steroids, HGH (human growth hormone) and similar performance-enhancing drugs. (I only say apparently because they were statements from people who I don't how credible they were...but I believe them.) Prior to the report's release, it wasn't really a question of was there this stuff going on, but rather who was doing and how rampant was it?

I'm going to try not to judge the actual people who used the drugs, although that's pretty tough, but rather my opionion on why they use in the first place. In my humble little opinion, using performance-enhancing drugs tells me that you think you're not good enough to compete with the talent that God gave you and that you have to find unnatural ways to improve as opposed to practicing and getting good coaching.

From this fan's perspective, I'm disappointed that I was deceived; that some of the players I rooted for weren't really as good as they seemed to be. I will always be a baseball fan. It's a part of who I am, and that will never change. Unfortunately, it's hard for me to trust the legitimacy of achievements in the past and future. HGH was only banned back in January of 2005, but in my book, it was wrong before then. Also, since there is currently no test available to detece HGH, there's no telling who continues to take it today. Also, it seems as though these types of drugs advance and change as often as technology. And unless there is an "insider" letting the league know about these drugs, there is no way they may ever find out. And by the time they do, they would probably still have to go through the players' union to gain approval for the testing which is a whole other problem in and of itself. And don't even get me started on the issues of unions, let alone the players union and the unrealistic power they have been allowed to gain. However, you can't point the blame in any one direction here. The report reveals that all levels of people in the game have contributed to it from the clubhouse attendants all the way up to the commissioner's office.

Like I said, I will always be a baseball fan, but this whole situation is pretty sickening. I just hope the case to convict Barry Bonds is strong enough. I've heard perjury is pretty hard to prove, and he has pretty much stuck with his story the whole time, but it still doesn't make sense to me how he could not have knowingly lied. You can't take stuff like that for that long and not ask what it is you are taking. And if you're surrounding yourself with people who will decieve youi like that, well that's a whole other issue.

As sad as it is for me to make this next statement, I'm going to say it anyway. It wouldn't surprise me if Barry Bonds did not make it to or through his trial, either due to damage he has done from his use, or from the ultimately-selfish act of suicide. He knows things don't look good for him and his chances of making the Hall of Fame. It seemed Mark McGwire was a sure shot for the hall when he retired, but then the initial Congressional Hearing did him in when he would not say he didn't do steroids, but rather chose to say he didn't want to talk about the past.

Who am I?

If you have MySpace, you may know that I have two totally opposite songs (well one song and one video) on my site. The song is "East to West" by Casting Crowns. The lyrics in this song are so powerful. It's definitely my favorite song right now. If you want to listen to the song, you can go to http://www.castingcrowns.com/content/jukebox.php or you can check out my MySpace page. However, if you don't have MySpace, or do and are not one of my "friends,", then you may not be able to see it.

The video on my MySpace page is definitely of an opposite flavor. As a matter of fact, I have declared it my offiicial theme song! It is "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al, quite possibly one of the greatest musicians around. The lyrics are awesome enough on their own. But to get the full effect of them, you have to watch the video. Check it out here. And when you do, notice the math references in it (pi and vector calculus are mentioned because, well, that's hot!) as well as the background in a number of scenes of the video. It is topped off by the appearance of Donny Osmond. That's right, that's not a typo. You've got to check it out if you haven't before. And even if you have, it just never gets old (the same way "Dumb and Dumber" and "Christmas Vacation" never get old)! As a matter of fact, it may border on addicting becasue it's such a good video and song. Anyway, the song was actually released last year and was his highest-ever ranking song on the Billboard chart breaking into the top 10!

So in conlcusion, am I geeky enough for you?!?!?!?!?!?! This is Scott Steinman, CMG (Certified Math Geek) signing off!

P.S. Have I told you that pi is my favorite part of every meal? Ok, seriously, I'm done.

Christmas time

Well, it's official. Christmas is in full effect at the Steinman house! We went out and got our tree (traditionally) at Home Depot this morning. The star is up as are the lights, and the ornaments will go up soon as will the lights around the house, if all goes well.

Another way you can tell it's Christmas is when every weekend is packed full of stuff for us to do. Granted it's all fun, but man does it get busy. An good example of this is next Saturday. We have been invited to three different Christmas parties. We'll be going to our Sunday School's party since it was the first one planned (and is always fun).

We're also very excited about seeing Courtney in her first musical tomorrow afternoon for her preschool. It should be intersting to say the least, but I'm excited about it. We'll be recording it too. If I get really ambitious, I'll post it on here, but don't hold your breath.

I guess that's all for now. I'm off to continue recovering from my second illness in two weekends. (That always help me enjoy the season!)

A Special Day

So, tomorrow is December 3, which holds a special day in my and Traci's hearts. It was that day, 13 years ago that we started going out...this time. What I mean by this time, in case you don't know the story, is that we were a couple for about two months in middle school (she was a 6th-grader and I was an 8th-grader), two weeks in high school/middle school (8th and 10th grades) and two months in high school (freshman and junior). It's always fun for us to reminisce about our past and everything we've been through together.

It's amazing that God introduced the two of so long ago. We actually met when I was on her brother's and cousin's little league team in the Spring of 1986! (If I can find a picture or two, I'll try to post them later.) Her dad, uncle and grandpa were all coaches, which worked out for the better since we all got to know each other early on. (And they still let me in the family!)

We have made it a tradition to exchange Christmas tree ornaments as a way to remember the special day in our lives. We have also made it a family tradition where we have Courtney and Skyler exchange ornaments as well.

Needless to say, we look forward to this day every year. This year is no exception. Little did we know at the time that things would work out as well as they have. Merry Christmas!