This blog will most likely just turn into a place to post pictures of my daughter Calathea Louise. Anything else I could report on is just kind of monotonous everyday stuff. She is truely a hilight of my life. I don't know if it's just the pride of being a father, but I just think that she is the most beautiful thing in the world. I am so proud of her. I'm always fascinated at how smart she is and her abilty to figure things out. I love her personality although she was kind of a pill tonight when I was trying to put her to bed! She's so aware of her surroundings. She's quite sweet and very smiley, as you can tell..

From today, she loves the piano!

I just love her smile on the second one. It also shows that she does have some hair in the back!

Picking raspberries

picking raspberries today

From my visit to see Cali today. It was quite fun and peaceful at first but the rest is a long story that I'll have to share later.

For those of you who haven't seen or heard her in action, here is a short clip of Cali on the neighbor's trampoline today:

After a triple double backflip with an artesian flying monkey twist and half barrel roll she ends with a strong landing....

TTFN!

Lost Media Archive-Out/Ex

"Why don't you go braid your hair or something?"

The lost media Archive was created to preserve all forms of old media such as films, records, old comic books, art, and all kinds of other things like that that ultimaly would have been destroyed, forgotten or otherwise disappeared into unknown places never to be seen again. It was originally started by a group of people who appreciate old things like that, but since then has been moved to the University of Utah's library system where it can be organized, catalogued and made available to everyone.

The Out/Ex part refers to the watching of outsider/experimental movies. Once a month, the group meets in Salt Lake to review these old movies and the progress of the archiving work. I'm new to the group so I'm still learning about everything this involves, so don't quote me on all the details. From what I can tell, it basically boils down to a bunch of geeks getting together to watch horrible movies. These movies are so bad, they're good- no wait, they're awesome! They've got it all, cheesy special effects, bad acting, poorly written scripts, outrageous fashions, you name it.

Last Saturday I participated in this madness by attending a screening of "Creating Rem Lezar" , a children's movie from 1989. You'll have to look it up on Youtube to find more about the movie itself. We watched the movie, then a few from the group performed some of the songs from the movie. After that a bunch of us went to breakfast at freaky Dee's (it's like Denny's). It has been dubbed "freaky" because there is a transgendered person that works there as a waiter/ess. We didn't get to see it this time though, oh well. And since it's always open this restaurant seems to attract odd people at odd hours of the night too- like weird movie geeks for example. We even had our Rem Lezar with us in full costume! We sure got some weird looks walking around with a guy wearing a blue spandex suit, cape, gold shoes and a curly blue wig. I was one bisquit way from finishing an entire Cowboy Breakfast while the large guy next to me tapped out at about 3/5ths of his same meal. I finally got back to Logan completely exhausted at about 1:30 in the morning.

Not everybody gets to have their picure taken with Rem Lezar and Ashley for their birthday!

Hey! It's Ashley, Zach, and Rem Lezar! (you'll have to watch the clips on Youtube)

Bonsai

Banzai is a japanese war cry. Bonsai, (pronounced : Bone-sigh), the art of growing miniaturized trees and plants is a hobby I've been studying for years and years. Because of the unsettled lifestyle I've had in the past, it has been difficult to keep any bonsai stock for very long. However now that I've stayed in Logan cosistantly for over three years I've been able to keep a few trees going. Here's one of them.


This is the story (so far) of a black pine that I acquired in September of 2006.




The first picture shows the tree as I bought it from Lowe's in a 3 gallon nursery pot. It is approximately 4 feet tall.





















The second picture is in mid-July of 2007. About a third of the tree's height has been removed and it is planted at an angle in a larger pot with plenty of drainage. This is done for several reasons reasons: First, if roots are kept too wet, they will rot and die- and so will the tree! Second, the faster the water drains, the faster the roots will grow to follow it. More roots equals a stronger, healthier tree! The "pot" is exactly what it looks like, a laundry basket. It is lined with window screening to hold the soil in. Planting the tree at an angle creates a more visually interesting form for the trunkline. A lot of foliage has been removed as well. This is also done for a couple reasons. One, it lets more light into the inner parts of the tree, which will encourage the tree to produce more secondary branching on the remaning limbs. It allows the viewer to see the trunkline of the tree and gives it a patina of greater age when you can see the cracks and fissures in the bark. An old gnarly tree with bends and twists in its trunk shows that it has withstood the pressures and ravages of time and is much more interesting than a young sapling with a straight trunk and Christmas tree-like silhouette.







This is the pine in late Spring '08. It has been repotted again into a shallower pot so more people can recognize it as a bonsai in training. The pot is still much larger than the final pot will be eventually. Foliage has been thinned out a little more and separated into more of the "pad" shape they will eventually need to be in. It is still growing strong and is healthy.





This is not my tree! It is a good example of the vision I have for mine someday though. My plan is for mine to reach this point in 7-12 more years, most likely closer to the 12 years... or more!

Here is a pine tree I saw on my hike last Saturday. It must be centuries old! Very inspiring!

I had a great birthday yesterday. I hiked 9 miles in the morning/ afternoon, got to spend some time with Cali, and then some friends from my ward came over and brought me a birthday cake! I got to talk to some of my family members and chatted with my friend Dorothy for awhile. From the ridge of the mountain I was on, I could see Tremonton and Brigham City to the left and Cache valley to the right at the same time. You can barely see the northern most part of Cache valley on the right, most of it is kind of behind and more to the right of my vantage point.

I made this snowman up at the top of the mountain. Time, availability of snow and precarious placement of aforementioned snow prevented me from making a larger snowman. He's cute though, huh?

Back in February when my Pontiac Grand Prix got totalled, my landlords offered to let me borrow one of their cars until I could get a new one. It was an old beater buick Le Sabre that smelled funny, but beggars can't be choosers. I found out shorty after starting to drive it that it would die unexpectedly during the cold wet weather, often in inconveinient places like in the middle of intersections with people waiting behind me. When the weather got warmer and it Stopped dying all the time I actually started getting attatched to it. I put the CD player from my old car in there and last week I traded the wheels from my ex-wife's dead dodge caravan onto it. I had bought the tires for the van brand new and then it died, so they were just sitting not being used. Today I got new wheel covers to fit the new wheels to dress it up more. It only had three hubcaps from the van so it was pretty ghetto looking. Little by little I'll continue to work on this car to make it nicer and run better. The Willardsons are going to sign the title over to me so it will be all mine and that's why I'm puuting all this effort into it. This first picture is the way it was before the new wheels, rather boring looking. The next one is with the new wheels and covers on there. It still needs a lot of work, but there's progress!

After Church today I had the urge to be out in nature and clear my head a little. I went to a place up in Logan canyon called Tony's Grove. It has this cute little lake with a trail that goes all the way around. The road leading to it reminds me of driving through Skate Creek rd. in Mt. Rainier Ntl. Park, you better keep your eyes open or you'll end up in a river! This picture is of the lake itself.

I found a picture of me at work at the sprinkler store, drawing away! here ya go!

On Saturday I happened to be fortunate enough to be at Lowe's visiting my friend Ilene when an announcement came over the speakers saying the Lowe's 48 racecar was outside. I went out there and I only had my phone camera with me so the picture isn't the best, but hey- it proves I was there and I touched it!

I have no idea who these people are...






















The City of Logan is weird about the days on which they do their fireworks shows. Last year it wasn't on the fourth of July and this year it wasn't on the fourth of July either. At least this year I didn't have to go alone! I got to have Cali with me and she loved it. We watched them from the soccer field above the football staduim along with about half of the population of Cache valley. Cali loved running around, jumping on everyone else's blankets and playing with their kids.




I was constantly chasing her and bringing her back to our spot. Overall, it was really fun and memorable.

I"m on my 7th out of 8 weeks of physical therapy and I have noticed such a difference in the mobility and function of my left side. When we last tested, my left hand's squeezing power has increased 3x since I started less than two months ago. The circulation has increased drastically and overall range of motion is signifigantly better. With more work and exersize, more improvement will come!