Kindergarten Lunch

I went and had lunch with my son at his school with his kindergarten class today (January 15, 2007). This was probably the first time that I have eaten school lunch since I was freshman in high school. Logan had no idea that I was going to be there. His class was getting all lined up and ready for lunch when he saw me standing by the door. He ran up and gave me a big hug and started telling his classmates that his dad was here for lunch. He was so excited. He got in his place in line and was good and quiet while walking to the lunchroom. Turns out he is typically the last kid to get lunch. They go in alphabetical order and I guess there is not a single Williams or Young in his class, oh well. Sometimes he is not the last; the kids who misbehave get sent to the end of the line, as was the case this day. (I wonder what would happen if Logan was the one who got in trouble, he is already at the end of the line. Hopefully he doesn’t start to think that way). So while in line there was one little girl who made sure that I was aware of the two girls that had crush’s on Logan as she told me about it and pointed the girls out several times.

Well, it turned out to be Logan’s lucky day. Not only did his awesome dad (me) surprise him for lunch, but because his birthday is in the summer the school decided to celebrate it at the halfway point of the year, which happened to be the same day I was there. So he got to sit at the birthday table with a few other kids. It was all decorated with balloons and he got a cupcake and a new pencil.

Logan “Terje” Tittle

I took Logan snowboarding today (January 10, 2008). He has literally asked me to take him everyday since the first snow of the year. Today was the perfect day to go. For all the international readers or people from the future who are reading this you may not know, but yesterday about 20 inches of the greatest snow graced Northern Utah (also caused lots of car accidents). It was perfect for snowboarding. Logan has only been on a snowboard once and it was last year on a relatively small hill. He mostly just sat on the board and rode it like a sled, which was still fun. I decided to take him to the same hill this time. It is perfect for him to start working on the basics.

He started out well and kept his balance pretty good, but struggled to keep his board pointed down hill. If you have ever tried snowboarding then you know that this will cause your board to turn sideways resulting in you catching your edge and face planting in the snow. Fortunately for Logan there was plenty of powder to cushion the falls.

After riding for a while I asked Logan if he wanted to sit on the board and ride down like that instead. He said “No, not until I figure this out.” How awesome is that? Well he didn’t have a whole lot of area to really work on his balance, but once he was able to go most the way down he decided it was time to start working on some new tricks. He started doing what he called a “Heelie” which is basically the same as a wheelie, but on a snowboard. Later I asked “do you mean a wheelie?” He said “No, a heelie because you go back on the heel (referring to the tail of the snowboard).” He did pretty damn good for his first time. One time he was able to successfully get the front of his board about a foot or so off the ground; returned it too the ground and rode the rest of the way down the hill. From the bottom of the hill he yelled “DAD, Did you see that wicked Heelie?” Of course I saw it.

Next he wanted to move to a new spot. He had been riding where others kids had made a small sledding path. Powder is much more difficult to ride in, but he wanted to go for it. So we picked his spot, but before sending him down we had this conversation:

Me: Logan, do you know what this kind of snow is called (pointed at the untouched powder)?
Logan: No.
Me: This is called powder. That stuff over there that you were just riding on is packed. This has not been touched by anyone, it is fresh powder. This is what snowboarding is all about; this is the best snow in the world. This is your first fresh powder run of your life. Are you ready?
Logan: Yes.
Me: Ok.

Then I showed him how to put his weight on the back of his board so that the nose didn’t sink into the powder causing him to become stuck or to crash. Then I sent him on his way and he made it all the way to the bottom of the hill. I seriously almost cried. He was so pumped. He ended up making about 5 runs in the fresh snow. One time when he was close to the bottom he hit a little jump that some hooligans had built previously. Now, he was definitely not going fast enough to jump off it, but the sudden bump caught him off guard. This would cause a lot of people to crash, but he survived and has officially made it past his first jump without crashing.

As you can tell I am pretty proud of this little outing. He had so much energy and didn’t get discouraged at all. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, next time. I decided to add “Terje” to the title because of this professional snowboarder. His name is Terje Haakosen. Here is an absolutely ridiculous video of him tearing down the steepest mountain I have ever seen anyone ride. It looks like is completely vertical. I would not survive what he makes look fairly simple. Definitely worth checking out.

Locked Out

So my neighbor came over recently asking if I had a wire hanger. Without needing to ask I knew that she had locked her keys in her car. Is there any other purpose for a wire hanger in this modern society that we are living in? I can’t think of one, God knows I am not using one to hang my clothes on. (Later that day I actually picked up a coupe items from the dry cleaners for the first time ever, and what do you know, the clothes were on wire hangers). This just leads me to question, since the 1970’s has any body successfully got into a car with a coat hanger? It seems to me all that happens is that you fuck your car up. But yet, we all still have the slim hope of cramming this piece of wire in through the window and somehow fondling it around hoping that it will somehow strike the unlock button with enough force that the doors will unlock and you, master of the wire hanger, will be the hero of the day. I have locked my keys in my car and actually tried this, but failed to do anything but knock my window off alignment and scratch my windows. I would actually be upset if I had a nice new car and was able to unlock it with a coat hanger. If you lock you keys in your car just bite the bullet and call a lock smith. It may cost you $50.00, but think of it as a dumb ass tax. There are certain dumb ass things we all do in life, this is one of them.

So I wanted to find a picture of someone trying to get into their car with a hanger. So I Googled “Wire Hanger” and went to images. Every image was of keys locked inside a car. There wasn’t even a wire hanger in most of them. I just found that validating…thank you Google.

30th Birthday

Well my 30^th birthday has finally come and gone. It is about damn time too. For some reason I started considering myself 30 the day I turned 29. Nothing too fantastic happened in the final year of my 20’s. My son started kindergarten which has been fun, but other than that, nothing really spectacular occurred. Right after I turned 29 I created a list I called “The Dirty 30” outlining 30 things I would have liked to have accomplished before I turn 30. I barely touched the list. I did not do a very good job, but that is just the way it goes sometimes. Overall though I would say it was a good year. There were some amazing times, there were some days that weren’t so great, but that is not unique by any sense.

Well below are a few pictures from my birthday party. Once again I am amazed by my closest friends. They all came out on a Thursday to celebrate with me. I truly am lucky to be surrounded by such a great group of people. The party was at “The Hotel” and Soul Redemption was playing. I have not mentioned them much before, but several close friends play in the band. At one point in the night someone thought it would be a great time for me to take my turn singing with the band. So during their reggae cover of “What’s Going On” (4 Non Blonde’s) I got up on stage and was handed a mike. Now, I could have said nothing and just got off the stage, but fuck that. It was my 30^th birthday and it was time for me to bust out some freestyle. So I got the mike and here are a few of the lines I spit out (at least that I was told, I don’t really remember):

“I came to get my F* on, but first I need to get my drink on.”

(Andy hands me a beer) “Props to Andy for always taking care of me.”

“I may be turning thirty, but that don’t mean I won’t get dirty”

“I got older tonight, but I still ain’t gonna act right”

“I am up here doing some thinkin’, but it is tough ‘cause inside my brain is blinkin’”

That is pretty much the gist of it. I am not entirely certain how long I was up there, but it sure was fun. I got good feedback, from both the drunk and the sober patrons, so I suppose I did a decent job. It is too bad no one had a camera, other than me, to record it because it will probably never happen again.