Summer!

I've been neglecting this blog again, and for that I'm sorry. I've just been so distracted by... well... life.

I've started working out a few times a week at a beautiful new women's gym just a few minutes from my house (score!), plus a couple times a week here at home. I love this gym; it's such a great fit for me. Thanks to my friend Alison for introducing it to me!

My niece/goddaughter has also been in town for the past month, and she's been staying with us the majority of the time. (The rest of the time she stays with Grandma and Grandpa.) Em and I enjoy having her here. It's nice having someone to play Mario Kart with and to accompany Em outside when I have other stuff to attend to! And she's just a fun person to be around, period. :-)

Now I'm also preparing for my sister's arrival on Thursday... and Friday is my parents' 49th(!) wedding anniversary. Then, of course, Saturday is the 4th of July (which we'll be celebrating at my beloved alma mater, USD)... and we have a birthday party to attend on Sunday. We might have a dinner party to attend next Tuesday... and I also want to sign us up for a Family Campout that the City is hosting on the weekend of the 18th. I'm also hoping to get us back to Legoland at the end of July, because Em *loved* the water area and we just didn't have enough time there when we went a couple weeks ago. We need to go on the rides we missed, check out the really cool-looking Aquarium, and spend a nice chunk of time in the water (this time with bathing suits!). And then, we have a few of our nieces and nephews on the Lawless side coming to stay with us the first weekend of August. They'll be in town for a friend's wedding, and we're really looking forward to seeing them all. We're especially eager to meet and see baby Anna. I'm so glad I'll be able to get a new baby fix!! ;-) And THEN, of course, Stephen is going to visit his family in Oklahoma the second week of August. Actually, everyone will be there except for me and the girls; it's going to be a Lawless reunion. I'm sad we won't be able to attend. :-( Hopefully, Stephen, the girls and I will be able to go out there together in a couple years (perhaps spring of 2011?). We won't be able to go next year because we'll have too much going on (and therefore too much expense!): my parents' 50th anniversary (next July)... and our 10th (next October)!

So anyway, as you can see, we've got a lot going on, just like we do every summer. I really wish I could be disciplined and post updates every time something significant happens. Instead, though, I envision a very lengthy all-in-one post in August, detailing all of our summer adventures. I guess it's better than nothing.

I also want to take this opportunity to express my profound sadness over Michael Jackson's tragic and untimely death. I hate that he had to suffer such horrendous abuse at the hands of his father. I hate that he was such a pained soul who had to endure, in Lisa Marie Presley's words, the "awful vampires and leeches". I hate that in life, he was so insecure that he never felt the immense love so many of us had for him. I've always loved him, his music, his talent and his genius. Whenever I see a clip of him dancing on TV, I stop dead in my tracks and watch in awe. No one will ever match his talent. He's a legend, he's one-of-a-kind, and I will forever miss him.

Anurag Did it Again!

Anurag Kashyap, the Poway boy who won the 2005 Scripps National Spelling Bee, has done it again.

Only this time, he didn't win the Spelling Bee. This time, he won the TV game show, Jeopardy!

This kid is unbelievable.

Way to go, Anurag!!!


[BTW, here's my post about Anurag winning the Bee in '05.]

Old Poway Park

We went to Old Poway Park to take Emily on the train. (We went on this particular one.)

I guess there were some good pictures taken that day!

Beautiful

Emily & Daddy on the train at Old Poway Park -- October 4, 2008

Plowboys

I'd been wanting to post this for a while (two months now, sheesh!), but I never got around to it. I was pretty sad about it when it came about. Heck, I still am. We all loved Plowboys around here. It was such a cute, quaint, convenient, inexpensive place to get fresh produce.

What a bummer.


San Diego Union Tribune: Plowboys to go; Wal-Mart to grow
North County Times: Wal-Mart looking to expand its Poway store

Way to Go, Titans!

The little brother of one of my best friends is a senior at Poway High and plays for the varsity team. They went to play at "The Q" (Qualcomm Stadium) last night (my friend's birthday!) to compete for the CIF Division I title.

We unfortunately lost to Carlsbad, but hey, we fought the good fight!

Congratulations to Andy, his best friend Donnie (the star quarterback), and the rest of the Titans!

Little Geniuses

Did anyone see Oprah yesterday?

Anurag Kashyap, the (then) 8th-grade student from Poway was on! He won the 78th Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee last year. Pretty awesome!!

Kashyap was on the show because the episode was all about "little geniuses". Oprah featured a boy who could count and recite the alphabet at 11 months(!); a 4-year-old boy who paints, an 8-year-old girl who writes poetry and short stories and types 80 words a minute; a 12-year-old girl who discovered that the ice at many fast food restaurants contains more bacteria (including e-coli) than their toilet water; a 16-year-old girl who is an amazing pianist (she can compose beautiful original pieces of music on command!); a boy (another San Diegan) who swam to Alcatraz in the cold waters of the San Francisco Bay to set a world record AND to help raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina; and a little boy who swears he will be president when he turns 35. These kids rock!

Oprah also interviewed Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, and 12-year-old Keke Palmer, the stars of the upcoming movie Akeelah and the Bee. This looks like a great movie. All the reviews I hear say that everyone should see it. Starbucks is even promoting it. And we all know how much I love Starbucks and their causes!

Record Scores

One reason (of many) why we're so glad we live in Poway.