Man-ny! Man-what? Hey, Free Souvenirs!

I had the joy of being at the Dodger game tonight. Kind of historic in the sense that it was the first of 50 games the Dodgers will play without Manny Ramirez thanks to his suspension for taking performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) as indicated by a positive test by MLB. While this is obviously a concern for the team, not having his services and all until early July, I am not too worried about the Dodgers and how they will do without him. Tonight's game confirmed my thoughts about that (more details following). After all, one player does not make a team, and it's very hard to win when your bullpen gives up 10 runs.

It was obvious right away that the Dodger did not need Manny to score runs tonight. They scored 6 runs in the first inning alone to go up 6-0, 4 of which came on Matt Kemp's grand slam. Randy Wolf pitched a great 6 innings giving up only one run on a home run that I almost caught! The ball was caught by the guy sitting one seat over and two rows down from me. (You might be able to see me and my friend Martin if you pause the video at the just the right time. At the 0:12 mark of the video, you will see a guy in a yellow shirt bend over to get the ball. From there, look slightly up and to the left. Martin is in a blue shirt almost on the edge of the video and I am right next to him, in a light gray shirt with my blue Dodger hat.) Also in the game was a wicked crazy double play turned by the Nationals' Christian Guzman that spoiled the major league debut of Xavier Paul for the Dodgers. (It actually is ESPN's #1 Web Gem for Thursday.) Ultimately, the Dodgers lost 11-9, their first home loss of the season in their 14th home game. Not bad. So now they are only 21-9 with a 5.5 game lead in the division. Exciting game, but wrong results as we left two the tying runs on base to end the game.

Now, as to how I actually caught a ball during batting practice. The Nationals were taking their pre-game batting practice and many players were in shagging fly balls in the outfield. Once in a while one of them would toss a ball into the crowd, either into the left field pavilion or our area of the field level. One of the players had a ball and was looking towards the crowd in our section like he was thinking about throwing it to us. So I stood up and held up my glove in hopes he would see me. He did and threw the ball towards me. It started hooking away from me towards Martin (who did not have a glove was willing to let me defend him with it) so I leaned in front of him and caught it. Good thing too as he didn't realize the ball was coming our way...he was still watching the batter. So since they were giving away little radios in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers first world championship in LA (beating the White Sox in 1959), I walked away with two free souvenirs for the night. And yes they were truly free as the tickets to the game were free as well!

Below are a couple of pictures. One is with me and the ball I caught. The other is me re-enacting me catching the ball. (Very realistic, I know.)

The Good, the Bad...Now I'm Sad

What a rough weekend. Thank goodness they are not all like this.

First of all having left work early on Wednesday and then calling in sick on Thursday due to a stomach bug of some kind, that didn't go away until Saturday, was a sign of how things would go, I guess.

On Friday, I took my car into the nearest Jeep dealership, which is now Cerritos after two others nearby have closed in this downturn, to take care of a problem that the last mechanic I took it to said could only be taken care of by a dealer. Well, they were right, unfortunately. Now that I've been putting up with my car stalling at random times for the past several months (we're talking since Christmas or just before), it is nice to have the problem fixed. Turns out the computer, you know the one that runs the car, was having an internal short and therefore making the car stall. The computer alone was $583 (not including labor). There was also a problem with air and gas control that meant the repair of another part. After all was said and done, we're out almost a grand. We are lucky in the sense that we were able to afford this right now and make the car last until now. However, the bad is that it cost about what our trip to Colorado would cost and spending that much again would not be smart at this point in time. Therefore, I have a feeling we won't be heading to Colorado this year, which really sucks. It kills me every time the girls mention and get very excited about going to Colorado. At least we have Skype.

Then, my worries about going to Colorado and spending the money on my car didn't seem very significant. Our friend Monica, who has been battling Cancer (Angiosarcoma) for about a year and a half now, was admitted to the hospital on Friday. We found out Saturday and were able to visit her that afternoon. She is in a lot of pain as the tumors rapidly grow in her. From what Traci told me from Sunday School today (I was home with Courtney who is sick) she has a 22cm tumor. The chemos she has been through have not been working. She needs prayer, as do her husband and almost 3-year-old son. It's obviously hard on them as well, especially Sol (her husband) as he better understands what is going on. I ask that you pray for them.

(Since I just posted a new song on my other blog, I wanted to post the previous video for my current favorite song as it means so much to me right now. Hope you enjoy it if you haven't checked out my other blog lately.)

Ummmmmm...

I feel kind of bad for staying home from work today after coming home early yesterday. My stomach has that "unstable" feeling and has since I got home from work Wednesday night. Fortunately, nothing has happened and I hope it stays that way, but it's just annoying when it feels like this. If it's still like this tomorrow, there will be no Dodger Dog for me at the game tomorrow night. At least there are plenty of other options there.

Courtney's First Job!

Yesterday, Courtney had her first photo shoot. It was done at Will Rogers State Beach and was for O Magazine. We don't know what issue it's going to appear in, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out. She is one of about 20 people in the shot and is the only one looking directly at the camera. I wasn't there, so I can't provide a lot of details, but if you go to Traci's blog, you can find out more since she goes into more detail...and posted pictures. We're proud of her and hope that she continues to get jobs as long as she enjoys doing this.

Birthday Time

It's officially my birthday and in just a few minutes I'll officially be 33! I'm looking forward to today and tomorrow as there are some fun things lined up. Tomorrow, it's off to Disneyland with Traci and the girls after she has her MOPS meeting to prepare for the massive yard sale at our place on the 25th. After Disneyland, we'll head to dinner with some family. Nothing big, kind of low key, which is good.

Friday, we head to our first Dodger game of the year where they will take on the Rockies and we'll be treated to postgame fireworks. That should be lots of fun as we (the 4 of us) head to the game with my parents (using Mom's handicap placard!) and my good friend Eric.

I think I'm just excited because it's all fun stuff and with people I really like being around. Here's to being about 1/3 of a century old! (That officially happens August 16, when I turn 33 1/3.)

Life

I was at our refinery's business plan roll out today at the Disneyland Hotel and after a speech from our retiring President of Global Manufacturing (who oversees all of our refineries worldwide), it just helped me realize what life is about. He talked about retiring after being with Chevron for 32 years and that he wants to be a better husband, father and grandfather, while going out on top, in terms of his professional accomplishments, and also wanting to give back in the community in which he was raised in India. One of the last things he mentioned in his speech was how much he felt blessed by God, and that was very good to hear.

Before his speech this afternoon, I pretty much just saw him as one of the corporate big-wigs. However, after the speech, I saw him as a fellow human being in this journey called life. I could completely relate to his desire to spend time with his family. He talked about the fact that he has put his wife of 38 years through 18 moves during his career, and that in the last six years (while in his current position) he has logged about 8,000 hours of airtime (not counting time in the airport or for transfers) and that he has typically traveled about 2 1/2 weeks every month. From that I can understand why he wants to spend more time with his family. He gained a lot my respect today. I could tell there was a lot of personal emotion behind his speech today and that is why I feel for and can relate to him.

I will tell you now that I have no desire whatsoever to take on a position of any kind that will make me be away from my family that much. I also know that not wanting to relocate can limit the opportunities available to me at Chevron. However, I will not sacrifice my family for my career. I also know that having a family that I value could affect the perception of my performance relative to my peers. While I don't think that is fair, that just may be the way it seems to some people. Fortunately, that has not been the case so far. As my uncle says, I'm not living to work, I'm working to live.

I am very thankful for the family that I have and I believe God wants them to be my top priority (behind Him). Therefore, I structure my life that way. When all is said and done in my career and my life, I am most concerned that they will look at me and be proud of what I did and who I was. I don't want to embarrass them or have them feel ashamed of me. I want them to be glad that I was a part of their life for as long as I was here.

At Chevron, we have something called the Chevron Way, which explains what our company is about. The values associated with it align very well with how I want to conduct my life, and perhaps that is part of the reason I enjoy working for Chevron so much. Trust, honesty and integrity are three of the characteristics I want to incorporate in all areas of my life. From those, I believe respect is inevitable. And if I have the love and respect of my family, I will be a happy man.

On another note, I am excited for it to be Easter weekend. After all, it is because of Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection that we celebrate this holiday and can have eternal life. I always love our church's Easter services. This year, we're doing something different as we'll be attending service on Saturday instead of Sunday. Part of the reason is that so much of our family is going then: my parents, my grandma (who we still think is unsaved at the age of 95), Traci's parents and Traci's grandparents. Afterwards at least some of us will be having dinner together and then re-gathering on Sunday afternoon for the official Easter get-together. One extra thing to be excited about for the services this year is that Eden Espinosa who played Elphaba in Wicked. (She went to college with our worship pastor so he has the connections.) So if you happen to be looking for a good church to celebrate Easter at, hopefully that will encourage you to give WACC a try. Happy Easter everyone!

The Weekend

I have to admit I'm really loving my 3-day weekends now with the new schedule. The longer workdays take their toll during the week, but when it really starts getting to me, it's the weekend again! And with this weekend comes lots of fun stuff.

Today we turned in Courtney's kindergarten registration packet and she is now officially enrolled for the fall at Orchard Dale, where Traci and I both went to school and where my mom works (when she's not recovering from hip surgery). I think Courtney is really going to like school and I think she'll do well. She has been starting to read on her own a little and that is very exciting. I have always been a little scared of that since I have never liked to read yet I want to encourage her to read whenever she wants to. So far so good.

Traci had her annual eye checkup today and we were scared of what new contacts would cost as she has been noticing a difference in her vision over time. However, last year, once we got on Chevron's benefits, we learned that our eye doctor didn't take our insurance. I wound up spending $500 for my appointment and glasses. Well, they just started accepting our insurance, EyeMed. Her contacts and appointment will cost us a total of $120. Much better than we were expecting. It turns out that they were almost forced to start accepting EyeMed since a lot of the people going to his practice have dropped VSP because it is too costly to their employers. I remember when working in underwriting at my last job that EyeMed was always cheaper than VSP and it is accepted at many large retail outlets (i.e. Sears, Target, Lens Crafters, etc.), which appeals to a lot of employees. So after cancelling my appointment for tomorrow (the time wouldn't have worked anyway...see below), I rescheduled for a couple weeks from now. We'll see what happens there.

I wound up taking my car into the shop since it stalled once yesterday coming home from work. I thought the new fuel pump and filter we installed last week had done the trick, but I guess not. It was due for an oil change anyway so I took up to a local shop here that I really trust. Unfortunately, they couldn't fix the problem, but were able to explain why. They said the coil (whatever that is and does) came up when the car was hooked up to their diagnostic machine. However, they said they had fixed that on other Jeeps like mine and it didn't fix the problem, but that it was probably the computer that runs the car. He said that it needs to be reflashed, which resets it apparently. That can only be done at a dealership, so I'll be taking it to a third place to get fixed. If after the reflashing, it still isn't fixed, then he said it probably needs a whole new computer, which will run in the $400-500 range, which is not what I want. Heck I'll flash the computer if that's all it takes! Ok, not really.

Tomorrow should be fun as we drop off the kids at the in-laws and then head with my parents and Nora (Mom's good friend) to Pasadena for her to get an employee-of-the-year-type award from her union. We weren't going to be able to go because our church had scheduled their Easter egg hunt for this weekend, but I found out earlier this week that they cancelled it. Mom was able to get a couple extra tickets so now we can go. It should be fun.

Then comes Sunday, the highlight of my weekend by far! Not only does the 2009 MLB season get under way, but a friend, just today, invited me over to his place for Wrestlemania 25! This is the same friend who will be going with me to Summerslam in August. Fortunately, we know them from church and he and his wife have two girls, just like us. So the wives will be keeping an eye on the kids and hanging out while we are secluded in our pay-per-view "suite" in their house. I could go into all the great matches planned for the 4-hour event, but most of you probably don't care. If you do, just check out the Wrestlemania site for yourself. Man do I love the gratuitous choreographed violence that is the man's soap opera called WWE!

And then after the weekend is over, it's back to work, but only for 3 days as our refinery's business plan roll out will be held at the Disneyland Hotel on Thursday, which I'm volunteering at. That means I have to be there at 5:30 in the morning, but it's over around 1:30 so it's a short day. And then another weekend, which includes Easter! And then another 3-day workweek as I'll be taking a vacation day on my birthday! Man, I love April!

Oh, I also posted an awesome new song on my other blog today so check it out if you have a chance.

Courtney Quote

I forgot to include this in my blog earlier today. Courtney was displaying her attitude towards Skyler (as usual) and when we told her she should be nice to her sister, she told us (and I quote word for word), "That is not my plan." She said it so matter-of-factly and calmly. Traci and I were shocked and busting up on the inside and had to look away from her so she wouldn't see us laughing. Fortunately, we were pretty successful since she didn't catch on. But hey, at least she's honest, right?

What's Going On

It's been a little while since I've posted, but I'm afraid this may be the new regularity. That is because with my new job at work, I have switched to a 4/10 schedule (work 10 hours M-Th with every Friday off). It's great because I now have every Friday off. It sucks because I now get home about 6:30 every night and only have about 2 hours with the girls before they go to bed. Plus I need to get to bed a little earlier, which takes some time away from Traci, since I'm getting up at 4:30, or at least trying to.

Last weekend I was able to get a little dirty with the help of a friend when we changed out the fuel pump in my car. This was no easy task since the pump is in the gas tank. Needless to say, we dropped the tank, changed out the pump and reconnected the tank. It sounds so simple, but when you've got 12 years of grime making sure things stick together pretty good, it takes that much more work. Fortunately our friend Bill (thanks, Bill!) is really good with cars and was willing to work on it. He did most of the work, but I was able to help out some. Took a little skin of my thumb in the process, but that's all part of the experience. Hopefully it won't stall anymore now. It needs to last at least until Skyler finishes pre-school in a little over 2 years.

If you have Facebook and check it regularly, you may have seen that Traci has allowed me to get some pretty cool tickets for my birthday. So, come August 23, I'll be going with a friend from church to WWE's Summerslam at the Staples Center. I've only been to one WWE (WWF at the time) event back in junior high with three members of the jr high staff at church and one of my good friends back then. It wasn't even a televised event though. Summerslam is a pay-per-view! Should be a fun time.

I was able to make a trip up to Dodger Stadium this morning to get my first tickets of the year. We (the four of us, my parents and good friend Eric) will be heading to see the Dodgers Manny-handle the Colorado Rockies on April 17. And there are fireworks after the game, just for my birthday! Ok, not really, but their fireworks are always awesome. We're going because I thought that would be a fun thing to do near my birthday, which is the day before. I also got 2 tickets to the May 7 game. Then my mom calls and asks if we want to go on May 1 with her union. The cool thing about the tickets I got at the stadium is that it was a total of 9 tickets that normally would have cost $240. I only paid $80! The reason for that is that last weekend when I was at the Honda dealership getting some maintenance done on the car, there was a sales guy selling a package of tickets. For $50, you get 6 buy-1-get-1-free vouchers (I used 3 of those today) and two vouchers good for 2 free tickets each (I used one for field level seats May 7, normally $50 each). Needless to say, considering I paid $50 and saved $160 today alone, I'm already ahead on the deal. The sales guy said they were selling the packs to get some demographic info on who is buying the tickets. I can handle a little spam (if I get any) for some Dodger tickets.

This weekend is our church's Serve Weekend. Traci and I are on the photography project, where we will be running to 10 different projects (9 on Saturday) to take pictures of those projects to be shown at the celebration at church on Sunday evening. I'm looking forward to it as we will be all over Whittier and poking into La Habra and Fullerton for a couple.

Considering we're dropping dinner off for some friends tonight (in less than an hour) before going to Disneyland for a birthday, I should go start getting ready.

Breathing...A Good Thing

Today was the day we have been waiting for for a long time. Our federal tax refund landed in the bank today. With things having been so tight for so long, it was weird going to Costco and Ralphs tonight and feeling restrained as to how much we could get. We didn't go nuts tonight, just got some stuff we needed, but not feeling stressed about going to the store is not something I ever thought I would be so excited about. It's nice to be able to breathe again.

Unfortunately, we have plenty that needs to get done with this nice little tax money. Fortunately, it should all be covered with a little to spare. That means we can just let the state refund sit whenever we get it (if the state actually has the money for it). The same goes for my bonus when it rolls in next month (at the same time as a raise...happy birthday to me)!

On the work front, things are going well, but busy and about ready to change. I begin the transition into my new job on Monday, which involves a physical move back into the refinery. (I was up in San Ramon last week to transition my responsibilities over to the other analyst for our group.) That's not all bad though. I give up my 7th story window cubicle for an office that I will share with someone for two weeks before having it to myself. No windows, but having an office is pretty cool, I think. It should be interesting as my workload will be increasing and it sounds as though training will be minimal at best. I hope that changes but I'm not holding my breath. At least I know that the people I will be working with can help me out. Seems like a pretty fair trade off since I've already worked with them and done some training for them. And they are all good people, so that only helps. My new boss is pretty cool too. I'm looking forward to working with and for him. This is the first of what I hope will be many changes/promotions throughout my career at Chevron. Also, it's pretty weird to think that next month will mark two years that I've been there already. It's the third longest I've been at one place behind UABT (4 years, 4 months) and Disneyland (4 years, 5 months). And as I was telling a friend at lunch the other day, this is definitely the best job I've had since being at Disneyland.

With Spring training well under way and the World Baseball Classic in full swing, I am extremely excited for the season to start. (And how about that team from the Netherlands, shocking the Domincan Republic twice to move on to the second round and sending the Dominican players back to Spring Training for their respective teams!) In case you've been under a rock for the past week, Manny Ramirez re-signed with the Dodgers after an insanely long, but ultimately rewarding, negotiating process. We have made plans for 7 of us (me, Traci, Courtney, Skyler, my parents and my good friend Eric) to go to the Dodger game on April 17th, the day after my birthday. There are fireworks after the game so that should be fun as well. It makes it a little more fun that they are playing the Colorado Rockies too. I am looking forward to seeing the Dodgers beat them pretty handily (I'm thinking like 7-2) with a Manny home run in the mix. (Take that all you siblings who have moved to Colorado in the past two years!)

Well I guess I should go enjoy some of the yummy Costco cookies we picked up tonight before I go to bed. Oh, and Traci is awesome! 24 pounds gone! There is definitely less of her to love, but what's left gets more attention. =)