family's in town for the summer's last "hurrah" or whatever. yesterday it was nothing new.. just hung out and went downtown for a thing er two. today... we planned an excursion into mendocino for some.. i dunno what. we started off at the botanical gardens which we decided not to actually enter because it was gonna xost like $7.50 per person... which is ridiculous because all we're gonna do is look at plants. next we headed for the lighthhouse which suckled since (long story:) we decided to drive my grandma and grandpa down to where only handicap parking spaces were.. but someone had to drive the van back to where the normal spaces are (about a half mile) so my dad volunteered, and he took the cell phone so that we could summon him with my aunt's cell phone. once he took off we met up with those from our party who were up ahead... only to find out that my aunt had left her cell phone in the van. beautiful. so my bro and i hiked back up to where the van was parked only to find out my dad was on his way down because he realized my aunt had left her phone..... AAAHHHH!!!!!! after that we headed into downtown mendocino to walk around a bit... look ay shops and the like. well.... after a few people got seperated.. i was chosen to round up the straggelers. once i got everyone together.... they decided to walk back to where we were... AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! (theres more) they continued around a few blocks in search of a place to get some tea and such... but my dad and sis went ahead to a place he knew of while the others stayed back and window shopped.. my bro and i attempted to catch up with them but reached the shop just as they were leaving... with tea and coffee for the others. after wal;king pretty much around 4 blocks worth of downtown menducino we returned to the van to find my grandpa.. he said the others were headed to the coffee shop. we got in and drove over in hopes of stopping them.. but alas we were too late as they had already bought another tea.....AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! someone shoot me.from there we basicly headed home... which was about 1 hour and a half of picturesque tree covered mountain roads and another hour and a half of open road highway. we stopped on the way to stuff our faces at Outback.

wow... havent updated in a while.. been EXTREMELY busy. first off.... the party. went well.. except we over estimated on the foods a bit and ended up with an extra meat and cheese apetizer tray, as well as several racks of ribs and chicken leg wuarters.. all already cooked and barbequed. this may sound like a good thing.. but after a huge party in which the main course is barbeque chicken and ribs.... barbeque chicken and ribs doesnt seem so apetizing the third straight day of having it for dinner. (and lunch in some cases). we surprised my dad pretty well.... tho my uncle joe decided he had to stall him an additional 3 minutes talking with him in the front yard before he came in. that was interesting... 60 people hudled into a small space in anticipation of my dad walking in... and my uncle joe is standing around with him outside discussing plumbing... i duno. the preperation was by far the most stressfull part.. once the party was in full swing.. it pretty much ran itself.

anyways... the weekend following this huge event... i started school... talkabout change of mood. so.. i'm taking Political Science.. which is more interesting than i anticipated since we are discussing alot of current events and tieing them into our scheduled topics and what not. i'm also continuing my math studies... i am now in.. oh what the hell is it called???? i cant think of its official name.. but its basicly a "survey course" which means that it doesnt cover anything in depth.. its more of a scratching of the proverbial surface so to say. its not review since its new stuff... but its not terribvly deep either... just kind of a taste of all sorts of things. im taking it with the same teacher as last year.. which means no daily HW unless i want to... awsome. next is geography... which i'm taking at night so its kind of a drag.. but luckily the teacher is really umm.... cafeinated i guess.. either way she's very sarcastic and funny. it'll keep me awake no doubt. on the other hand i am also taking an evening photoshop class... which sounds interesting.. till i realized its in a normal classroom... so i have to follow the teacher's cursor and stuff and have to wait till i get home to actually do it myself. that sucks. i should get a laptop. anyways.. thats my schedule. i have almost completed my second week.. looks to have potential as an enjoyable semester.. i just gotta figure out when i'm gonna do HW... since i am still working. so... here we go. i go to school mondat through thursday from 10:30-12:00 i then work everyday from 2:00 - 5:00 (give er take) and then go back to school on tuesdays and wednesdays from 7:00-100:00pm. any sugestions?

and now for the afore mentioned party. tommorow (well.. technically today) we will (try to) throw a surprise birthday party for my dad. it is his 50th birthday and... i dunno what i was gonna say after that. sorry. anyways.... so yeah, we borrowed several pieces of outdoor furniture from family and friends and have hidden them in the nether reqions of our backyard from my dad. we have also ordered several catered food platters to be surved as well as balloons and wahtnot. it is a luau type of thing so.. we will have leis (sp?) and even some hula dancers (or maybe just one.. i dunno) it will prove to be a most interesting feat to pull off. as it is we have to surprise someone in their own home. as well as do all the preperations for the party without him knowing. and then we have to get him out of the house somehow and put everything up and ready while he is gone.. and then shuffle up to 80 people (not all will arive before his return from a carefully planned distraction) into the backyard.. more or less without his knowlege. i have no idea how this is gonna work.. i only pray that it does. he probably already has some idea of what is gonna happen.. i mean.. it is his 50th birthday.. so the fact that we have SOMETHING planned im sure has crossed his mind more than once... but im not sure he can imagine the shear magnitude of this celebration, or how many people will be here. it will be great. hopefuly. that is all i have for now.. i'll maybe check ba,ck tomorow to let you know how it goes.

boy have i been busy. last i posted, i had come back from a weekend of partying. now.. i prepare for another one. but before i get to that.... lets talk about thursday.. the day of hell.

my boss had mentioned to me that if i wanted to put in more hours, that i could go and do some work for him at his house one day. so... i was expecting to maybe mow and weed wack his FRONT lawn or maybe even do some minor maintenence to his "yard." anyways.... basicly, he fist had me mow the "orchard field" and to him, orchard evidently means a poorly kept side yard the size of most people's entire backyards with scattered trees, rocks, and an irigation system. oh.. and the yard itself resembles the lunar surface... with weeds. also.... his lawn mower is some crappy POS jolopy that he bought for 5 bucks 15 years ago. reliability at its finest. it died at least 5 times. and after i was done mowing the NASA lunar testing ground.. i moved onto the "coral" a corner of "yard" against a bard that has been somewhat fenced in for the sheep that i had to scare away. this, surprisingly, was better kept than the so called orchard.. but it was riddled with sheep crap and it was probably last mowed during the clinton administration (its interesting how when people really wanna make periods of time seem even longer.. they compare it to who was president at the time.) anyways.. when i was done with that.. he had me pull weeds.

now.. im picturing that i would sift through daisies... seeking out dandy lions and plucking them at will. but no... he has me scower his "yard" (its more like a frickin farm.. only.. without crops its basicly just grazing land for his sheep) for thistles. for those of you who dont know what a thistle is.. its the most god-awful-tough-as-nails (and just as sharp) prick of a weed ive ever seen. they dont go deep into the ground.. but the ground has been baked rock solid and the liol bastards are strong.. so it was tough just to pull them. thats aside from the fact that they are abolutely bristling with thorns.. just to give you an idea.. i put these lil bastards into a doubled-up garbage bag (in case one tears) and the little pricks would shoot right through both layers of bag AND my jeans to jab the hell ota me everytime the bag barely brushed against my leg. goddamnit that was hell (it was like 90 degrees outside as i walked back and forth for about an hour and a half). and if that werent enough.. he hands me some rusted and busted edger so i can edge his front lawn... which is halved by a cement walk way.. good if you need to mow.. but bad if you have to edge.. cuz then there is more edge to deal with.... PLUS since the edger has to roll along the cement as a guide.. it was even more difficult given the varying levels of the cement and the degree that the grass had over grown its boundries just added to the difficulty. it sucked.

well since going down to the city on friday.. we decided that it was so much damn fun that we'd go down again saturday and sunday!! actually.. saturday was my cousin's wedding (reception... he got married a couple weeks ago in hawaii) so.. that was huge fun. actually... it wasn't. i was happy for him and all.. but other than eat.. there wasn't much to do. i dunno... im just not a jump-out-onto-the-dance-floor-and-shake-my-ass kinda guy. so i ate.. and sat.. and watched as they went through the obligatory motions (speeches, and jokes and dances and throwing of various objects). once the stupidity was over.. they really got down (and loud and obnoxious) so i grabbed some fresh air and joined the intelectuals (and smokers) outside. we left shortly thereafter and eventually got home around 1 ish.

sunday was the last day that my dad's aunt would be in the area.. so we had a far more casual get-together at my aunts house. there was a myriad of different foods to be had. we brought pasta. someone else brought popusas.... (i dunno what their county of origin is) but they are kinda like tortillas or flatbread with cheese (and beans and meat if you want) baked right into the middle of it. theyre kinda greesy.. but they are really good. someone els ebrought some very good fried chicked. and someone else brought lumpias. so as i said... lotsa food to choose from. now thats my kinda party. and also, since there was no defening loud music or whatever... there were actual conversations to be had.

yesterday, after an afternoon of anticipation, my aunt and uncle (who also happened to be in the area... they came up for my grandma's birthday) decided they were NOT going to visit, and instead invited my mom out for dinner and a drink. thats nice. thankfully they decided to visit afterwards and we got a chance to talk and walk and whatever.. good times.

have you ever been on the freeway, goin like 70-75 mph and you pass some idiot who was going like 65? well... today, i was that idiot. we went to the city this evening to celebrate my grandma's birthday and, on the way back, i was designated driver. it started out on the wrong foot when i lightly tapped the audi parked behind me. it went down hill from there. as i drove on i asked my dad something about an intersection. all i said was "is this a right turn only lane?" he said "no" i then noticed that the lane i was in and the one next to it suddenly became one lane on the other side of the intersection. so i asked him "do these lanes just merge in the middle of the intersection?!!?" he answers "yes." i think to myself about all the other times that i drove down this street and damn near ran into other cars because where 2 lanes once were.. they suddenly became one. a rather stupid design. i descided to share this sentiment with my dad by saying "well... they shouldnt..." he then interupts by saying "well, they do" i was going to say "well they shouldn't because the cars in the right lane who go straight mite think that the cars in the left lane are going straight from a right turn only lane... and vise versa. so i begin again "well they shouldnt..." he interupts again "well they do!." frustrated with his lack of patients and ability to to let me finish my friggin sentence i respond by saying "forget it" and turning the radio up a notch. this aperently pissed him off, cuz he then turned it all the way down.. so i turned it up.. he turned it down.. i turned it up.. he turned it off.. so on and so forth. i finally try to explain why i turned up the radio.. i forget how he responded or what transpired after that.. all i know is that we argued about something. he then ends a sentence with ".. and you just missed your turn off because you were argueing" i am quik to point out that it takes 2 people to argue and that he wasn't helping. he then goes silent when i am forced to turn in the direction opposite i wanted. my mom chimes in by asking my dad which way i should go. he responds with "i dunno, i'm not driving" this is the last straw.. almost. "what you know your way around the city only when you are driving??? and when you are not you have sudden amnesia?!?!?!" silence. OMG!!! luckily for me.. i had made this exact wrong turn before.. so i knew pretty much exactly where to go. he then explains that judging by the fact that i "made a right turn and went into the left lane, that i knew where to go" (he was partially right.. i did know where to go) but what the hell does that have to do with what lane i merged into?!?! and how did he come to that conclusion?!?!?! just because i took a wide turn as to not slip on the wet rodes i am suposed to be suddenly enlightened on exactly where to go?!?!??!? OMFG!!!!!!! so i am really goddamn pissed off. and i dont drive well when i'm pissed. he then points out that i drive with an attitude. with passengers like i had.. he was lucky that i was still driving.. period.

so here i am charging down this street and the worse possible thing happens.. well almost. three people wearing dark clothes decide to cross a street with no signal lights at night in a really foggy San Francisco. i dont see them till i am practicly on top of them.. so i am forced to hit the brakes... hard. my dad then says "do me a favor, stay under the speed limit" this IS the last straw. how can i pay attention to the speed limit with him commenting about every thing i do and teling me how its my fauilt and turining off the radio?!?! so.. i decide to do exactly what he told me. from that point on.. i stayed BELOW the speed limit.. most of the time i was about 5 miles under the limit. this means that most of the time i was cruisin at 50 in the city i was hittin 30 and on the open hiway i was at about 60. its amayzing how many people speed!!! and i SOOOO wanted to be one of them. but it was somewhat exciting to see how pissed off people get when they get behind me. hehe. i was really hoping i would get pulled over and given a ticket for going slower than the flow of traffic. i didnt. (at one point i came across a big rig... so i got behind him and started drafting.. it was cool... the wind nopise changed completely as i got close to him. i never passed him. i was behin him for a good 10 minutes. it was kinda fun) from now on i will drive below the speed limit when my mom and dad are in the vehicle. til they beg me to hurry up... at which point i would decline for safety reasons. of course when they're not there.. i will drive as usual.. fast and furious.
MWAHAHAHAHA! <- the last laugh.