Latest Haps

A lot has happened since I last blogged about Courtney having an agent interested in her, so here is what has happened in life since I last wrote.

We left to go camping with Traci's family a week ago Friday. On the way up to Lopez Lake, we swung by LA Models / LA Talent and dropped off the signed contract. Courtney is now officially represented by them and they are looking for something for her. No news yet, but they've called a couple of time already with questions so we know they're looking around. We are however, awaiting the arrival of Courtney's renewed work permit. That's the only thing left they need from us at this point. It's a waiting game now.

Lopez Lake was fun. We were there Friday through Monday. The worst part was all the bees and wasps. It was crazy and made it unenjoyable at times, especially when we were actually at the lake on Saturday. However, I think we kind of got used to it after a while and wound up having a good time. On Sunday, we went to the water park that is up there at Lopez Lake and that was tons of fun, especially for the kids. We took lots of pictures of course. I doubt I'll post any here, but keep checking...you never know. They had a kiddie pool area, which is where we spent most of the time. They also had a couple of water slides. One was like a halfpipe where you drop almost straight down in a 1-, 2- or 3-person inner tube and just go up and down the two sides of the slide. Then there was a traditional water slide. Courtney wanted to try it so I went down it with her. It was fun. We drove back home on Monday and life was back to normal.

As a matter of fact, it was so back to normal, that on Tuesday, while I was enjoying a relaxing vacation day, we had a nice little earthquake. Gotta love California! We hadn't one in quite a while. This one was centered in Chino Hills, which is about 20 miles from Whittier, and measured 5.4. (I've seen quite a few people blog or do postings about the earthquake and most of them said it was 5.8. That was the original magnitude, which was revised a short while after, as most earthquakes are.) It was a fun earthquake for me. I enjoy them as long as they are not too violent. I was in Office Depot when it hit, which was an interesting experience, watching everything sway when it hit. The baseline I use to compare all earthquakes to is the 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake. I've lived in Whittier for all but about two years of my life (the first 13 months of life and the first 10 months of marriage, when the driveway into our apartment complex was the border between La Habra and Whittier). That was a 5.9 and it shook like crazy. It didn't last as long as this one in Chino Hills, but man! The shaking was vertical and very intense in the 5.9, but of course we were very close to the epicenter also, which makes a difference. I could go on about earthquakes because they fascinate me, which I think is courtesy of growing up with a dad that was and still is very fascinated by them, (as a matter of fact, he put together a 10-page paper on the Chino Hills quake just for fun recently...must be nice to be retired!) but hey, that's what makes me a nerd!

This past week brought about another move at work. So now I'm on the 7th floor instead of the 17th floor. I was almost wishing I had been at work for the earthquake since I would have been on the 17th floor at the time, but oh well. I'm sure I'll have another chance eventually. I expect it to be nicer on the 7th floor since there are fewer people (half the floor is training rooms, the other half is offices and cubicles) and they are more professional than the contractors on the 17th floor (between the language and belching and people working in shorts and t-shirts, it just wasn't what I was used to).

So after a short 3-day workweek this past week and a 4-day workweek this coming week, I take another week off as Traci and I head off on a cruise with Traci and her cousin Bryan and his wife Shauna, with no kids! This will be my first cruise ever and I am excited about it. We'll be going to San Diego, then Catalina, then Ensenada (Mexico) and then back home. It's always nice to have some alone time with Traci. It always helps us re-focus on each other, which is important for any marriage, in my humble opinion. The girls will be splitting the week between grandparents so they should be ok.

Oh, and of course, I'm extremely excited about the Dodgers newest player, Manny Ramirez! They are calling the biggest mid-season/trading deadline move the Dodgers have ever made, and I might be inclined to think so, even though I've only been a fan since the mid-1980's. Needless to say, I bought tickets Thursday night for last night's game when Man Ram made his Dodger debut. There were 55,239 people in attendance and we were all intense with his arrival. he got a number of standing ovations from the crowd. I love being at games like that, it's always a very memorable experience and lots of fun. He went 2 for 4, but the Dodgers lost the game 2-1. It almost looked like a scripted game when he came up in the bottom of the 9th inning with Russel Martin on first and the Dodgers down by one. Unfortunately, he grounded into a double play, and needless to say the crowd was really into it when he came to bat, realizing that if he hit a home run, the Dodger would have won and it would have been because of him in his debut. But oh well, baseball is a humbling and unpredictable sport. However, he did hit his first Dodger home run tonight. I'm hoping he can help us get past the Diamondbacks and into the playoffs for the first time since 2004. We've got 7 weeks left in the season and it should be interesting.