Happy Halloween

It seems we have a fun night ahead of us, atleast if all goes as planned. We will have our camera with is at all times, and hopefully be able to capture the moment and share it with each and everyone of you.

Saturday we had a slight preview or a practice run at our church where they had a trunk or Treat along with a carnival with games and food (a chile cook-off.) They had a halloween costume contest where Hannah got robbed. Hannah really enjoyed going to each car and saying "Trick or Treat!" and left by giving a healthy "Tank you!" She lasted a decent amount of time holding her own pumpkin which all the candy was being thrown into. It wasn't until we were almost done and on the home stretch when she it finally got too heavy for her and she asked, "Help you!" which really means, "Help me!"

Funny thing is, lately at night she comes and sits on my lap with a pen or something and if she can find it her small handheld piano thingy, and says, "I wanna sing tinkle tinkle little STAR!" so we sing it as she either pretends to play something by tapping the pen or other object on my arm, or she will pound on the toy piano pretending to play. When that song is done she will look at me and say, "I wanna sing abcd lmnopeeeee!" So I sing the alphabet song as she repeats the same musical actions. It's lots of fun but it never really has an end....

NBA Preview 2008

A few pre-season games have already worked their way into the national progamming schedules of ESPN & TNT. This Thursday on TNT will be the first double header Pre-season game, and the season officially starts on October 30th.

So with no further adieu let's talk some basketball shall we. As soon as October hits, my blood starts to run a little swifter through my veins as the excitement begins to build up from the holidays... yes, but also because of the basketball season starting up. I slowly work ESPN and Sportscenter back into my rotation of what to watch on a daily routine basis, and ESPN the website becomes a daily stop throughout my daily surf threw the intraweb.

Teams I'm Excited to Watch:
Phoenix:
Has been my team since obtaining Steve Nash, not so much because I am a Steve Nash fan (although I am) but more because they are an exciting team to watch. They put up 100+ points a game and mostly shoot threes. Which is basically the way I enjoy playing when I'm found on the hardwood. So I will be looking for them to make it deep into the play-offs. They made a few small moves in the off season the biggest being that they signed Grant Hill, I'm not sure how smart of a move that was, but I'm anxious to see how it plays out.

Celtics:
This is the team that made the biggest moves in the off season and obtained two of my favorite players, thus making my heart twitter with that much more glee. Seeing as how I was raised in a Larry Bird home, Celtics was the team I rooted for from birth. Up until I learned of the greatness that is Michael Jordan where I quickly was converted into a loyal Jordan disciple which effected my life on and off the court. Moving forward I am happy that I now have a renewed interest in the team and will once again return to my roots and become a very avid Celtics fan. I can not wait to see what the trio of Kevin Garnette, Ray Allen, & Paul Pierce will do to an already weak Atlantic Division.

Spurs:
Well let me start out by saying NO I AM NOT A SPURS FAN. Most people who do not know me very well will automatically assume that because I was born and raised in San Antonio that I would obviously be a die hard Spurs fan, however due to the ridiculous nature of "Spurs Fan," I have been left drained and unable to be associated with such a RETARDED group of people. That being said, I'm not a moron, so for me to just simply HATE the Spurs would be equally ridiculous. They are obviously either The Best, or one of the best teams of the last decade. Tim Duncan is the best big man in the league right now, and in the top 3 if not 2 players in the NBA altogether. Also I am a huge fan of Ginoboli despite his terrible ability to act, and over dramatize fouls on the court. So the Spurs are definitely a team to watch by any fan of the sport. Besides they are the returning champs, and seeing as how they have yet to repeat, it will be interesting what the season has in store for them, especially since they really didn't make any changes.

Houston:
I used to be a huge fan of Tracy McGrady, because of this I have always recieved a great amount of ridicule and late night phone calls or text messages from family and friends reminding me each and everytime he didn't come through and choked. So due to the fact that for the past 3 or 4 years he has consistently NOT produced, but instead he is consistently disappointing. I have taken a huge leap off his bandwagon, and am no longer promoting Tracy McGrady as nothing more than a decent ball player, who HAD a lot of potential, but that is NOT living up to it. With that being said Houston did make a few moves this summer, one huge one is bringing in a new coach with a new style of play. That alone sparks up the slightest hope that perhaps T-Mac will return to the greatness that he once was on the road to becoming. One move that I definitely think was RETARDED was Houston bringing Steve Francis back to their roster, kind of a BONE head move if you ask me, and might even be a worse fit than Steve being in New York. That move alone could very well bury any and all chances of Houston surviving the West, unless some how Steve learned how to lead a team and pass the freakin ball. However the last memo I recieved they weren't teaching anything like that up in New York, nor were any camps being held in Orlando, and last I checked even the Fun Police have retired.

Washington:
Each and every year for the past 5 years I am becoming more and more of a fan of Gilbert Arenas, and he has quickly climbed up the latter of my favorite players list. I could care less what the rest of his team plays like, well I shouldn't say that because I would love for him to have a strong supporting cast, but at the same time that won't stop me from watching him play. Just like the I never stopped watching Allen Iverson play with the 76ers.

Denver:
With Carmelo Anthony improving each and every year, and the fact that this will be the first FULL season Melo and Iverson (another favorite.) share the court, also they should be a lot more healthy as a team, so they should be pretty solid.

Sacramento:
Is going to suck BAD this year, they seem to be totally rebuilding their team, their coach has found a new home on the Houston Rockets sidelines, and I'm not totally positive what moves were made as far as players being added and subtracted goes, however they do still have the highly streaky and inconsistent play of Mike Bibby who in my opinion has the sweetest looking jump shot in the NBA. That reason alone keeps me tuning into their games. I get goose bumps seeing how beautiful his shot is. Sadly it seems that Sacramento sealed their own fate when they decided to trade Chris Webber and try to build their team around a guy who only had success because Chris Webber was on the court. (Peja Stojakovic. **100 bonus points to anyone who can tell me what team he plays for without looking it up online.**) It seems the team has gone on a swift downward spiral ever since.

I don't have any real solid predictions for you, in regards to who is going to win the championship, or who's going to win "ROY" not even a name for who's going to lead the league in points, however I will leave you with this

MVP:
Steve Nash, Kevin Garnette, LeBron James (It will be one of them.)

A Few Photos

Here is a photo of Hannah wearing her new pumpkin shirt.

Here is a sequence of photos I like to call The Many Faces of Hannah.




A Weekend With The Family:
This weekend we met my mom, Matt, & Ethan in Taylor, Texas at this Bar-B-Que joint that was featured on the Food Network, and I believe some magazine as well. It's called Louie Miller Bar-B-Que. I totally meant to grab my camera and be able to have some photos to share of the fun times, but I forgot to grab it as we walked out the door. We did have a good time though, and the food wasn't too bad either. OF course it wasn't any better than Tom's Ribs, which is my favorite Bar-B-Que joint in San Antonio.

Getting Older

"I check my face, I look a little bit older..."

So I turned 27 Sunday, and so whenever your birthday lands on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday that means the entire weekend becomes your birthday (atleast in my mind.) So Saturday my mom was supposed to make a trip with my brother Ethan to visit me and take us all out to dinner. I received a call around 8:30 as I was following Hannah through an empty yet brand spanking new Super Target, on the phone was a familiar but raspy voice informing me of the bad news. It was my mom informing me that she has been and still is sick, and wasn't going to be able to make the trip. It was sad indeed, but I decided to make the best of it and still enjoy the weekend. Hannah decided she wanted to look for bugs in target and was growing annoyed of me being on the phone instead of helping her, so we said our good byes, and I slid my cell phone back into my pocket and went on the hunt with Hannah.

Saturday was a pretty chill and laid back day, we walked around the mall a bit, hit up Baskin Robins for a two scoop Sunday, where Hannah decided my ice cream was her, lucky for me she shared. then to end the night I hit up the movie theater, sadly the last time I was at a movie theater was on my birthday last year. Anyone that knows me know that I am into about 3 things, Basketball, Movies, and music. If you ask me what I want to do I'm always going to chose going to the movies. It's hard for me to explain but there is just something about the experience of watching a movie in the theater. It may be due to the fact that I have a lot of memories of going to the movies with my father growing up. Then also that is something we also did as an entire family, and me and my brothers share the same passion for making a trip to the theater. It's been difficult to go recently one with Hannah, and two with how much the cost of admission these days. However there is a $1.50 theater not too far away, and I would love to make that something to do once a month or even once every two months.

Anyways so I was able to see a movie Saturday night and I had a lot of trouble making a decision on what to watch. My choices were:

The Kingdom
Michael Clayton
We Own The Night
3:10 To Yuma
The Darjeeling Limited

The only two of those movies showing in the theater closest to me was The Kingdom & Michael Clayton. So I decided I didn't want to travel to far, so I limited my decision between those two movies. I read a couple reviews and finally decided on what was reviewed as being more action packed.

The Kingdom:
This was a GREAT movie, it far exceeded my expectations of the movie. Right from the opening credits and the graphics that were used to display a timeline of events to give a history of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia in regards to oil. It was beautifully done, and pulled me in right from the get go. The movie itself only got better as it went on uncovering more and more secrets, and ending with a lot of big explosions, and shootouts. The movie was also very cleverly filmed where there were many parts where it appeared as though someone was just walking around following these FBI agents and documenting it. There were a few shaky camera scenes to ad a bit of realistic touch. All the acting was up to par, and the music went well with the movie, perhaps not as cleverly as Wes Anderson does in his movies, nor was there as much pain staking detail as Wes Anderson puts into his movies, but that's not the type of movie that this was. It was a great way to end my night.

Sunday, which was my actual birthday was very low key and laid back. It was spent the same as all of my Sundays. We just lounged around the house, went to church, came home, ate dinner, and watched football with a few sprinkles of television shows. I also was able to squeeze in, Reign Over Me, which was a very nice and enjoyable movie as well.

Pushing Daisies

My all time favorite show thus far out of all the new shows that have kicked off this fall season is Pushing Daisies. I love everything about the show. The story is good, the acting is good, the set and costume designs are superb, and my all time favorite aspect of the show is the way it is narrated in it's, "Lemenony Snickets, A Series of Unfortunate Events" manner.

Be sure to tune in every Wed. 8/7c on ABC.

Elevators

Fresh off the presses, I turn 27 on Sunday October 14th, so mark your calendars and hit up your local Nike store, or good ol' fresh cash is always accepted as well. As a default I am always satisfied with a good ol' fashioned card, if it can make me laugh that will gain you extra bonus points. E-cards are also accepted but frowned upon unless they evoke a solid (not a courtesy) laugh.

In other news, I was recently, and by recently I mean Friday around 3:30, informed that I am getting a significant and also sufficient raise that went into effect October 1st. Not too shabby indeed my good friends out there...

I was looking back on a few old entries from blogs I have kept in the past, and came across this beauty that caused some beautiful memories to flood my brain.

"We both arrived on time...
which is good, I'm usually never on time.
I sat down as she approached the window to sign herself in
I began to read, It's a book I have been trying to finish for a few months now
I'm pretty weird when it comes to reading,
I enjoy reading but I go through spurts where I actually set aside time in my day to read...
It's really a matter of turning off the TV long enough to pick up a book.
Everyone who showed up after us seemed to get called in before us.

Finally I found myself all alone in a room sitting in a chair in the corner,
My wife was urinating in a cup...
I was left to my thoughts as I held my book in my lap.
Soon the silence was broken, and it wasn't long before the lights went out..
The only thing lighting the room was the screen, and the little amount of light that the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door would let pass through.
Before I knew it my little baby was on the screen in a very abstract way.
I struggled to be able to make sense of what was being shown on the screen.
The doctor tried her hardest to make sense of all the madness...
After staring into the screen long enough it finally made sense, and I saw her...
It's a girl!
It's so amazing to think about me being a father...(and scary)"

Reading through some of those old entries it's nice to remember the road I've traveled to reach where I am. That bumpy road has made me into who I am today. The crappy night time job I had taking catalog orders for Lane Bryant, Lerner, Chadwicks, and Brylane Home, as I was going to school full time. From their I got an internship that led to a more enjoyable job with low and painful pay. Then Hannah blessed our life and I kept pushing myself and pushing myself learning and growing through each and every bump in the road. It's fun to read my thoughts, and the different stories I shared. I really need to take the time and print all of it out or save it on a CD or my computer, maybe even all of the above.

"We moving on up in the world like elevators."