San Diego 501st garrison visits the elementary school carnival , and I'm all over it . . .

Anyone who knows me , knows I'm a nerd . I've actually been called way worse throughout my life , but that one seems to keep coming back around and is apparently becoming pretty fashionable these days . Who knew . . .

I even started building my own Darth Vader costume last year , but in the middle of raising a son I ran out of " silly shit money " and the project hit a dry spot . I still might finish it someday , but there's no rush at this point however I had a sudden burst of inspiration Saturday .

I've been a fan of sci-fi and monsters and spaceships and anything with lazer beams coming out of it all my life . . . pretty much standard issue for me . So down the street from my house there's an elementary school that's having this big open house carnival . The one Vaughn will more than likely be going too when he's old enough . It's walking distance from my house so we decide to pack him up and go for a rainy day walk to get in on the action .

As it turns out , the mighty 501st San Diego garrison is there making an appearance . Amazing . I see these guys almost every year at the San Diego Comic Con , and their costumes and gear is Hollywood prop level of accuracy . If there was really such a thing as a Stormtrooper , they would have these guys make their uniforms . Also one of my favorite bands from 10 years ago , Supernova is playing , and it's all for free . Also amazing .

Even though it was sort of wet , my friends started showing up and we had a great time .

It was kind of a rainy / drizzly day but that didn't keep the troops from trooping and the fun from happening . . . here's proof of the world I live in , a long time ago , in a galaxy far far away far far away .









What kind of gun safety do they teach at the Empirial training academy ?!?

Just a quick Friday all text post

So these days when I wake up in the morning , it almost always feels like I've slept in . The sun is working it's way up into the sky , and It seems like it should be about 8:00 or 9:00 . . . I look over at the cable box and through my blurry eyes I see it says 6:37 . That can't be right . . . but it is .

Gone are the days of rolling out of bed at 11:45 to make it to work at noon . That's around the time I realize that Amy has already been up for 1/2 hour messing around with Vaughn and I decide to try & roll over and catch a few more Z's

If I'm lucky I wake up 20 minutes later to the sound of feet slapping their way into the bedroom and tiny maniacel giggles . This morning the giggles were accompanied by the sound of " ooooooooh , ohhhhhhhhhhhh , ooooooooooooh . . . " What could it be today ?

As it turns out , Vaughn has found a long wrapping paper tube and has it up to his mouth and is playing it like a horn , holding it out straight in front of him . It's about 3 feet long so it's already pretty funny looking but it's even better when I take a better look and see that he's standing there , looking right at me , blasting me with his new horn .

So I sit up and realize how funny my life suddenly is and laugh at him , and he starts laughing at me and pretty soon we both think we're both pretty funny , so he runs over to the closet and grabs my ugg boots ( size 14 and almost as tall as he is ) and brings them over to the doggie steps next to the bed and starts trying to put them on .

He manages to get one leg into one boot and then falls over , but still thinks this is all pretty funny and manages to keep me entertained till I'm awake enough to get up and chase him out of the room and into the front of the house where Amy has a slice of peanut butter toast waiting for him .

That's pretty much how my day starts these days . . .

I love the life I live , and I live the life I love .

My friend Tod Swank got a fancy " new " van and Vaughn loves it

Me and Amy around 1996 give or take

I was caught keeping it real here with my Vespa P-200 E . This was a good old bike and it stayed on the road even after a decade of abuse and many many miles up & down the coastline .

I sold it to buy an old Harley from a friend about 5 years after this picture was taken , and actually might be buying it back soon , we'll see how that goes .

I still have those Sambas though . . . go figure .

Just a couple of dudes wrenching on a bike

Sometimes you gotta work on your ride to get it ready for the long miles on the road . Sometimes you gotta get a little help from Dad . . .

17 months this week

He knows where the gas is , once he's big enough to grab the clutch it's on !

Home town aloha style

Salton Sea house of the future !

Fredie's sweet Lincoln at the Tropics