Coasting Again

It's another weekend at the coast, our second in a row... we are certainly not complaining! I thought I may be in a tough spot a few months back when my wife called me at the office to propose spending Memorial Day Weekend at a beach house. Little did she know that we'd be there for our anniversary trip just a week prior. But I figured.. two weekends at the coast in a row.. no problem. Plus if I tried to come up with some reason why we couldn't spend Memorial Day at the coast, it would set off red flags.. it's just not like me to turn that down. So.. for our second weekend in a row, we were on the water. But this time, Little Calvin and even his 2 gerbils went along.

But this weekend was more of a traditional coast weekend. Rather than last weekends, "oh look at the pretty waves and whales off the rocks in front of our Condo", this weekend was beach, sand and all the activities that go along with that. We built sand castles (well, ok, Sand Jolly Rogers), we flew our kites, we walked along the beach, played family board and card games, roasted marshmallows on a evening beach fire and watched a lot of pirate movies... a perfect family weekend. Even the weather cooperated. Sure it rained here and there, just in time for our inside game breaks, but overall it was fantastic!

So far all of you out of state blog readers.. get yourself to the Oregon Coast! It's beautiful! Well, on second thought, stay put. It gives me that much more wide open beach space, and once you have a beach weekend out here, you'll be spoiled forever, want to come back constantly and rave to your friends.. thus sending that many more people to our little haven.

To check out our Jolly Roger sand creations or see our evening beach fire, click here to view the photo gallery.

The Bird Flu... In My Fish Tank

All I hear from the government these days is Bird Flu this and Bird Flu that.... somehow, in the next few years this killer virus is going to come sweeping across the world and kill millions. Cheery thought, eh?

Now, we are taught to be prepared, right? I mean, I didn't earn that Eagle Scout award for nothing. So, according to the news, and my congressman, I must prepare for the Bird flu. To make sure I am safe, I have worked to rid my house of anything related to birds. No more nests, no more feeders, no more little bird houses.. And I have constructed a electrical field around my home that birds cannot fly through. Think of it like the invisible fences that Dog owners install.. the ones where you torture the mutt with the cruel collar that shocks the daylights out of the beast when he crosses a certain point. Yeah, that. That's what I am surrounding my house with.. but for birds. One of those vile "whistling a friendly tune" beak wearing "conjures of death" comes near my home, it's getting vaporized, baby! Gone are the days of the happy bird sounds in the summer mornings, now they are like little flying Grim Reapers, sickles under their wings. COMING FOR ME!! I can begin to see why I have friends who are scared of birds (Yes, Zak.. that's you... Oh and Angela too!) the little beasts of death that they are...

But while trying to protect my home from these fiends from hell, I made one slight mistake... I forgot to protect my fish tank... Oops. Now, I have no clue how the infamous Bird Flue could have struck my fish tank.. but apparently.. it did. My wife and I have had a fish tank since shortly after we were married, a honeymoon decision made while visiting Seaworld. Since then, the fish have always been there, swimming in their tank. Obviously, not the SAME fish.. every once in a while, one will kick the bucket and get replaced.

Our biggest tragedy in the tank occurred during the February storm of 2002, that knocked out power to the house for 5 straight days and lowering the tank temperature to below livable temperatures for tropical fish. But ever since replacing the lot then, we have had minimal tank death.. rather eerie actually. The same basic fish, thriving happily and healthy for all that time.

But then came this week... the week of death. In a 24 hour period, we went from happy, healthy fish.. to an empty tank.. the next fish dying just as soon as we pulled the last one out to make the lone trip to toilet land. I have never seen anything quite like it.. to have the whole tank just go belly up one day (especially when the pet store fish tech guy said our water was fine). Like I said, the only thing that would make sense (according to all the warnings I hear about on the news) is to blame the Bird Flu. Now, how a demon duck got into my fish tank? Who knows. Guess I'll have to increase that security.

The JoDee Show

Ok, I'll say it... for the record. I, Calvin, actually attended... A country music concert (gaaaasp!). Ok, get your breathing under control.. find your inhaler... pick yourself up off the floor and back onto your office chair.. put the food back in your mouth and clean the spit off your monitor... YES, I.. spent 2 hours of my Saturday evening listening to country music.. And by golly, I enjoyed it.

So what in the world would posses me to do this? Like most guys pulling an out of character stunt, it was for a woman, the sweetie I am married to. She is a big fan of country music and to further my anniversary surprise I got tickets for the two of us to attend the Jo Dee Messina concert in Lincoln City on Saturday night. Was she surprised? You bet, this coming from me.. her country despising husband. But I went, just happy to be spending time with my wife.

Now this I just have to say: To me, it really doesn't matter what the music genre is, or whether I listen to that genre on a regular basis. To me, it is a memorable experience witnessing someone who really is a master of their craft. Jo Dee Messina, has an amazing voice, she can entertain a crowd, sharing her viewpoint, singing her songs, and entertaining all at the same time. She can play the guitar (yes, thank goodness I got some screaming guitar from both her and her lead guitarist. I LOVE hearing live electric guitar!!!). She can play the drums, and she can play the piano.

I know this is almost a blasphemous thing to say on the week of the American Idol finale, but when I watched her perform songs she wrote AND play all the instruments, she became infinitely more talented in my mind than the "made by marketers" American Idol competitors. THIS was a musician, And she did an outstanding job!

Now, will I get crap from all of my co-workers who may read this and realize I went to a country concert? Yup. But, again, she did an amazing job, and while I didn't know most of the songs, we had a great time and the concert was a great addition to our anniversary weekend.

So, to Jo Dee.. Thanks for a great show, you are a very talented musician! And to my wife.. Happy Anniversary! Thanks for a great weekend!

In case you didn't see them yesterday, there are photos of the show in the trip photo gallery, click here to see them.

Expect... the Unexpected

As you could probably tell from yesterdays post, my wife and I are celebrating our anniversary this weekend. Soooo, where are we? This year, I kept the plan as simple as possible as we are spending the weekend at an ocean front condo in Depoe Bay, one of our favorite spots on the coast.

But even simple plans, can become complicated when unexpected things happen. I already mentioned my first misstep in all of my trip planning: the announcement. My sneaky little attempt to sneak the news of our trip into a game of Scrabble turned out to not work. But Friday brought about some last minute.. rearranging, keeping me on my toes!

First, the weather... All of my weekend plans revolved around the fact that the weather would be clear. As of Friday... it wasn't. Our normally beautiful May weather was now cloudy, rainy, and windy. Suddenly I had to jump online and find some backup plans for some of our time on the coast.

Next: our departure time. According to my "master plan" we would be leaving town at noon, so that we would arrive on the coast by 1, and have several hours in Florence before having to head up to Depoe Bay. But that plan was derailed at 11:30 when the phone rang. It was Little Calvin's school calling. He and his school buddy were running on the playground, had gotten tangled up in each other at high speed, and had fallen onto the concrete sidewalk without anything to break their fall but the hard cement. He was in tears and complaining that he couldn't bend his arm. Without a nurse around, his teacher called us to determine their coarse of action. So the plan to leave in a few minutes was suddenly set aside, as Dawn made the 25 minute drive into town to asses his arm.

This at least gave me time to finish packing the bags and cooking (I pre-cooked all of our meals so I didn't have to spend time cooking on the trip). It also gave me time to come up with a plan that would work in case we had a 5 year old with us, newly in a cast. Luckily, that didn't have to happen. While yes, his spill was a doozy, leaving his arm scratched and badly bruised, it didn't need a doctors attention.. It just needed some "mom" attention. In the end, he continued on to his baby sitters house as originally planned and Dawn returned home. This did cause us to leave late, having to axe our go cart driving/mini-golf competition on the coast as there was no time.

But once we finally got out of town, the trip was wonderful. Like I said, we stayed at a condo in Depoe Bay overlooking the ocean. And by overlooking, I mean the waves were crashing directly below our room, sometimes crashing so loudly at night it woke us up with the loud sudden "SLAP" sound (but that is a plus in my book, not an annoyance). Even from the living room of the condo, it felt like being on a cruise, as we could see nothing but water from almost anywhere in the rooms.

Friday, we relaxed in the condo and watched one of the most gorgeous sunsets I have seen on the coast. Today, we went boating on Devil's Lake in Lincoln City (the weather turned out to be beautiful!) barbecued on the deck, made homemade ice cream, and tonight we are heading to a concert. (Look for the review tomorrow)

So, the trip has been great so far. If you'd like to see some of my photos from the trip, click here to view the trip photo gallery.

2006 Anniversary: The Set Up

Time to let you all in on a little family tradition known as the surprise Anniversary trip. In order to appreciate the plan this year, let me explain how this crazy activity began in our household and the "rules".

As you have been able to gather from my blog, I thrive on creative challenges. 8 years ago, my then fiance, now wife, gave me a classic challenge while planning our wedding: It had always been her dream to NOT know where she was going to be going for her honeymoon.. have it be a total surprise to her. I think it was that feeling of being swept into the unknown that attracted her.. to be able to leave the reception with her husband, and not have any idea what lay in the future, both short term and long term. And so I gladly obliged and began planning a "secret honeymoon". In fact, when we left our reception, no one, not my family, not my friends... no one knew were we were heading for the next week, except for me. As my wife soon found out, we went to southern California, to San Diego for Seaworld and scuba diving, then up to Disneyland.

The whole idea of a surprise trip soon morphed into a way to relive our honeymoon on an annual basis, using the same type of idea: A surprise trip. Here's how it works. Each year, we take turns planning a surprise trip for the other. The goal, is to do it in such a way that the other person has absolutely no clue that anything is even happening, so that when we make the "time to go" announcement, it hits them totally unexpectedly. Watching that "excuse me?" look followed by the smile associate with a nice getaway, is a priceless thing to pull off. The basic rules for the trip are as follows:
1. Plan a trip for just the two of us, no children.
2. Find activities that will be enjoyable to both of us
3. Do this outside of the regular family budget, so we are not hosing ourselves in whatever month we go each year. This does require a lot of careful saving of money, but since each person has 2 years to prepare, it usually isn't too hard to sneak low amounts of money away each month.

This whole approach, of planning on surprising each other, has produced some great memories... 3 years ago, I headed to the office with what appeared to be the "day from the fiery place" on my calendar only to have my wife pull me out of a morning meeting, as I discovered she'd been working with my boss to set up this crazy day, and that it was all a fake. Instead I got to spend the day relaxing in Bend. 2 years ago, it was my turn to plan and I got to enjoy waking my wife up at 6 AM on a Friday morning to announce "time to go! We leave for the airport in 30 minutes!" to her groggy surprise. Then we flew to Pennsylvania to spend a weekend in the Pocono Mountains, at a resort she discovered in college and always wanted to go to. Last year, I was wisked away to spend my weekend in the San Juan Islands, watching Killer Whales surface next to our boat while whale watching. Obviously, we have had a ball with our anniversary trips!

So this year, it's back to my turn once again.. And... this weekend it is! This year planning was much trickier than years past. With the company cutting annual bonuses this year, my financial plan for the trip was ruined and I had to go to cancel the original trip and move to plan B. So what is the trip this year? Sorry... can't tell you. My wife gets to find out first! But tonight she found out that we are going. I challenged her to a game of Scrabble, and (yes, I cheated) I had all the words I needed to spell out the invitation in scrabble words as we played. While this was a great plan in theory, it wasn't the best plan in practice, as in order to play my carefully constructed words, she had to put down words that worked with them... she didn't. How hard can it be for her to play some word that starts out with a T, that I can then build from? She didn't... but I finally, through the use of "trip" and "tomorrow" got my message across.

Was she surprised? Yes, totally! She was expecting the house to be full of kids all weekend long and be slammed with church meetings and responsibilities (thanks to my clever accomplices). So tomorrow, off we go to our 2006 adventure... that only I know...

Bwa ha ha ha ha! (my deep, evil, Calvin laugh)

Mother's Day Movie

I just couldn't help it... I HAD to come up with something to do with that HD camera.. and that little something managed to tie up almost my entire mother's day weekend. Good thing it was for a good cause: my wife's mother's day present.

I had been racking my brain for a while, trying to come up with a cool Mother's Day present for my wife... something that would clearly be from my son, but that would also show some thought from me: one gift serving 2 purposes. I had done the whole picture frame thing before, taking the kids out, taking their pictures and framing them.. so I couldn't do that. And any store purchased gift just seemed so... non personal when celebrating something as important as a great mom. And so, I decided to go with using another hobby: film production, and create a short film for my wife for Mother's Day. It also helped that it was the final weekend that I had a high definition video camera in my possession..

First, we had to find a script that Little Calvin and I could agree on, and this would be tricky.. My wife couldn't find out what we were doing, or the surprise would be ruined. But what child's story could we find that would pay tribute to mother's that didn't have a mother in it? Suddenly, the light bulb over our heads clicked on and we had an idea: "Are You My Mother", the classic children's story of a bird trying to figure out where his mother is. So Friday night, we pulled out the book that would act as both our script and storyboard.

Saturday, my wife was teaching a first aid class all day... the perfect way for us to get out and make our movie without her knowing. First thing Saturday morning we were up, dressed with camera's rolling for the first shot about 9 AM. Starting inside the house, we began gathering shots for the movie one by one. Once we got outside, we set out, our shot list in hand, and the day turned into a scavenger hunt of sorts: We needed shots of a cat, a dog, a chicken (turns out a goose worked fine), a wrecked car, a tractor, a boat, a plane and others. So we set out around the county looking for what we could find.

One of the interesting aspects of this production was at my sons scripting insistence: We had to have a Harry Potter scene. I think he just wanted to see himself fighting a dragon (or he wanted to give me a few more grey hairs in edit) on film. And so we added a trip to Goodwill to find a pair of Harry's round specs to fit him and some cliffs behind him so I could match him into a scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire without having to use a green screen. Eventually we got the shots we needed as Little Calvin got to perform as Harry Potter in front of the area rock climbers club, much to their enjoyment.

We also had another interesting adventure during filming. We had to find a tractor, or Snort, as the book puts it. Luckily, while searching for a tractor, we actually found one in operation. When I approached to operator to inquire as to if we could film the tractor, we agreed and even let Little Calvin drive the tractor (well, with his help).

So, by days' end, we wrapped the filming, taking our last shot about 8:30 at night. Just in time to get Little Calvin in bed, and begin to edit. By 1 AM, I decided I better get some sleep so I would not be nodding off in church the next morning.

Sunday afternoon, after getting home from Church, the edit continued, at a fevered pace, trying to get the whole puzzle put together.. tell the story, and pit my son against a fire breathing dragon. And in typical "Me" style, I was not just editing one piece.. I was doing 2: The main feature, and the "Making of" featurette. But in the end (more like 7:45, 15 minutes before Survivor started) we had our films done and presented them.

So far, reviews seem to be pretty positive. My wife, loved it and is wanting to show as many people as possible. And most people who watch it call it very "cute". So I was pleased with the project. It is always fun producing films, DVDs and stretching my creativity.. and to see the end results come from lots of fast paced work, and bonding time with my son. Thus, "Are You My Mother".. the film, was born.

To see a brief glimpse at some of the shots from the film, click here to see the gallery of film stills, both from the film and behind the scenes.

Card Writers: You're fired!

I just have to vent for a second... It's that time of year again.. The time when the green has returned to the trees, the flowers are blooming, the weather is finally warming up and the rain is stopping... time to celebrate the wonder of mothers. Of course, that also means that it is time to go down to the card store and spend endless amounts of time, going through the dreadfully painful process of reading Mother's Day cards.

Now by all means, don't get me wrong here.. I am not complaining about celebrating Mothers Day. I am all for that. My Mom is a wonderful woman, very deserving of all the praise in the world. She actually survived raising a Calvin (and believe me, has stories to tell!!!!) So she deserves all the thanks, praise, and love that is possible. And my wife... what an amazing woman she is! She blows my mind every day with her dedication, love, commitment and talent! I thank the good Lord every day that she is in my life. So again, it's not the woman I am complaining about here, it is the INSANELY TERRIBLY cards written to supposedly honor these women!

I mean, who writes these things? All these card writers should just be fired. How many cards with cheesy looking chimpanzees holding flowers do I have to sort through looking for that perfect card. You pretty much have 2 choices... the insultingly "funny" cards that no one laughs at.. so dumb they insult my intelligence, let alone the people I will be sending these too. Or the serious "weepy" cards that go all out in expressing love and emption. ahhhhhhhhhh.

I personally don't get the all lovey dovey cards. It's a cop out in my mind. You get the card that's all serious in expression of love and then you don't have to say anything... It's all taken care of for you. I saw an episode of King of Queens the other day where Doug (the central character husband is getting harassed by Carrie his wife, for never doing anything romantic. He showed her he sent a card. She said "you didn't even write anything!!" to which he replied "Hallmark said it so perfectly.." Seeee, it's a cop out. It requires no effort. So I try to find the perfect humorous card: something that really touts my bizarre, Calvinesque sense of humor, then I add my own loving message. To me, it means more, the recipient gets to laugh at my messed up humor and at the same time, read a REAL personal message from my heart, not Hallmarks.

Problem with this approach is just what I mentioned... do you realize how many TERRIBLE cards one has to sort through to find the one genuinely funny card. My eye balls hurt from all the eye rolling I had to do. My brain hurt from all the monkeys, potty jokes, and pride induced self congratulatory cards (You must have been a great mom.. you raised a kid like ME!) that only work to raise our own egos.

I think all these card writers should be fired. MOTHERS DESERVE MORE!

And so, After an hour of searching, gagging, and elbowing all the other procrastinators out of the way, fighting for room to get at the cards, I leave the store, with the best cards I can possibly find under my arm, desperately trying to think of a new way to change this age old tradition. Hey maybe I can write praise to my Mom in a blog.... hmmmmmmm..... maybe next year....

Playing in High Def

One of the things that I really like about my job is having the opportunity to play with the latest and greatest hi-tech toys and gadgets. There always seems to be something new that I just have to try out. My favorite types of toys: communication/computers, and anything related to video production.

This weekend, I really got to play... and I was loving it. This week at work I have to do a video shoot with the president of the company. I was planning on using my camera as it is certainly capable to do the job. But on Thursday I got a call from our video producer on vacation this week and he offered up his new Sony High Definition video camera. I have yet to play in true High Def quality so I jumped at the chance and was in my car heading over to the studio to pick it up within seconds.

Most people in my team just roll their eyes when I get into this "kid in a candy store" mode as these new toys arrive at my office. And Thursday pulling out the new HD camera, was no exeception. "Oh, here you go again" as one co-worker rolled his eyes. "How do you GET this stuff?" asked another. I just grin ear to ear as I start figuring the thing out. After all, I can't just show up in the President's office with a camera I have never used and have the ego to think that I can just figure it all out right there on the spot with him looking over my shoulder. I have to know what I am doing. I have to know how to set up the camera to make the shots I have in my mind a reality. I have to have something to shoot to put the camera through its paces. And that is where my five year old comes in.

The weekend came and I knew this was my chance to really play, but I had to be patient as most of our weekend plans did not offer any opportunity for successful filming. Sure, we took a 10 mile bike ride along the Wilamette River, but you certainly dont want to bring a $7000 camera along for THAT.. (not without sending our video producer into cardiac arrest at the thought). We went to a planetarium show and filming those, even in High Def.... just not effective. Even a family barbeque... Fire and cameras are not good bedfellows. So my "playing" had to wait until Sunday night.

Finally the opportunity came, to unzip the case and pull that bad boy out. My five year old jumping in excitement that he got to be filmed. And so the testing started.. me figuring out the ins and outs of a new camera and technology, trying not to get my drool on the camera, and my son acting like an idiot on steroids in front of the lens.

So.. what do I think? I must say the camera is very nice! Very solid with some nice features and sharp exterior screen viewfinder. Very easy to compose shots and tweak the focus. But as for the High Def part... the jury is still out. I mean yes, It can create some really sharp pictures! But could I justify the extra 3 grand to get a high def camera? I just don't see the point. Now, maybe I just haven't seen the light on this technology. None of my TV's are high def. The footage looked nice on the computer monitor, but when burned out to DVD, I just couldn't tell enough of a difference on my systems to go "WOW!" and suddenly begin my campaign to convince my wife to start upgrading our TV's to HDTV's. I haven't had any video clients demanding their stuff be shot in HD.

Sure, I have seen the demos at Circuit City, with the stunning picture, where you can see every pore of the actors face shining brightly. It all looks so clear! But are we at the point where we really need to see this much detail? Personally, I prefer the look of film to that of high quality video. That is what appeals to me most. I will be very curious to see how long it takes for High Def to become the societal norm.

But just having a new toy to play with... that is so much fun for me. It gets me very excited! Excited to see technology evolving. Excited to start a new project. Excited to find a new story to tell. But for now, will I do it in HD? I think I'll have to pass. I'll take my good ol camera and keep shooting away.. and see where the technology goes next year.

Diver Down (and Panicking!)

At last! The three and a half year drought finally came to an end on Saturday... I got to go diving! Years ago, diving was one of my all-time favorite things to do. Every chance I got, I'd be in the water somewhere. I took as many diving certification classes as my schedule would allow, working my way up to Rescue Diver. I purchased my own gear, and constantly looked for the next opportunity to explore new territory underwater.

Unfortunately, diving is one of those activities that you just can't go do by yourself! You have to have a "dive buddy", and that is where one of my main problems came from: All my dive buddies moved away. And so I was stuck, staring longingly down at the water, but unable to go in. Diving darkness reigned until Saturday, when the light finally returned. One of my buddies moved back to town, and as soon as we found a free weekend, we loaded up our gear and headed out to the coast!

Saturday's destination: The Florence Oregon North Jetty. I have been diving at the jetty many times, and I must say, I have yet to have a real positive diving experience there. Something ALWAYS seems to go wrong. The current was too strong.. we didn't hit the water at high tide, not enough weights to sink, zero visibility... there always seems to be some reason that makes for lousy diving.

But on Saturday, we were determined.. this was going to be a great day of diving! It had to be.. I had waited so long to get back in the water!! There was just one problem this time... Me. Usually I can attempt to point a finger at my buddy, but Saturday.. I was the problem child.

Issue number one began as we arrived and started to get changed into our gear. Without incriminating myself, suffice it to say that it had not occurred to me that in the last 3 years, I have gained.. eh.. a bit of weight. A wet suit is pretty targeted in size to a specific weight, and I certainly am not where I was 8 years ago when I purchased it! So... getting suited up was a struggle... took all 3 of us to get me in the darn thing actually. But eventually I was suited up and ready.

After a short pre-dive briefing, we headed down into the water. That glorious feeling of the world suddenly turning 3-D. The ability to go not just right and left, but up and down in weightlessness is indescribable. We slowly descended to the bottom and noticed something amazing in the Jetty.. visibility! We could actually see what was around us! For those that have not got diving in the cold water of the Oregon coast, this is an amazing thing! Just seeing that clear visibility was wondrous! Too bad that that's when I suddenly panicked.

In all the years of diving I have done, I have had buddies in the past go into panic mode, but it is something that has never happened to me. I was kneeling there on the bottom, enjoying my environment, when suddenly the realization came screeching in... "I can't really breathe". My mind suddenly started reeling in a thousand directions "Oh don't be a wuss! You have waited THREE AND A HALF YEARS TO BE HERE! You can't just bail out. Just tough it out, it will get better". But it didn't get better. It grew more intense. It felt like suddenly having an asthma attack and knowing there was no inhaler anywhere close. I couldn't take a deep breath without major effort on my body and lungs. The more I realized how difficult it was to breathe, the more my body went into panic mode, my brain spinning, trying to figure out where the next breath would come from. Finally, I made the smart decision. I grabbed my buddy by the arm and made the "There's a problem, I'm heading to the surface" sign. Once I saw him nod, in understanding, I bolted off the bottom. I couldn't get to the surface quickly enough.

Once there, and with my BCD filled with air to hold me there, it took a good few minutes to get my breathing back under control so I could speak again. According to my buddies, my face was insanely red and my eyes bulging, (think Schwartzenneger trying to breathe on Mars in Total Recall). In analyzing what had happened, we realized several things: first, my wet suit... just too tight. I was cramming my body into a space just too small to hold it (new incentive to lose weight!) and my lungs just didn't have the necessary space to expand correctly. Second, as I seem to have gained all my weight in my neck, my hood was too tight, causing my airway in my neck to be compromised. Third, a faulty regulator. Switching to my second stage regulator helped a lot! Take all these issues and combine them with the mental knowledge of being deeply underwater and your body just physically reacts in a very negative way.

With a few alterations, and the literal chopping up of my hood with my dive knife, we decided to try again. This time, things felt much better. We were able to go down, enjoy the visibility, explore "crab hole" and have an enjoyable dive. But, the whole panic attack thing really freaked me out. A few times, I could feel it begin again, and it took a lot of mental effort to push the panic away. I could tell the difference this time. I knew that it was mostly mental, just my brain fearful that the same thing could happen again. But I knew that if I let that fear take over, my body would physically react in the same way again, so I had to be determined to not let this happen and only react to the "real" issues.

And so I learned that diving, like so many other things in life, is one of those things that I could do effortlessly when I was younger, but the older I get, requires a lot more work. Just like running.. when I was younger I could just go run a 5k without training or thinking about it, and now it takes 6 months of training and effort. My once simple diving hobby is following suit. It will take work, exercise and effort to be able to do it successfully again. I'll need to lose weight, get into better shape, re-read my scuba books, and work on rebuilding my nerve. Even now, three days later as I type this, I can still vividly remeber how scary of a feeling that was, to struggle so hard to do something as simple as breathing. It was a terrifying feeling! But like they say, nothing worthwhile comes easy, and so will be my return to diving. But, I will return to the water again, more prepared, and ready to conquer.

Now.. where's my inhaler?

Seeing Green

What a crazy week it has been! Too many deadlines... too little time! And unfortunately, my blogging has suffered. But it's time to get back on track and continue to report the craziness that takes place in the Calvin household.

This weekend we had a nice treat! A visit from Dawn's Grandma and Grandpa Green, stopping at our house for several nights midway through their Oregon sales route.

Having the Green's over provides many benefits! First, and most importantly, we get to see them and spend time with them. Since they live in Idaho, we don't get to see them as much as we would like. This gives Little Calvin ample time to wrestle with Grandpa and show off his stuff. Second, it gives me a chance to cook! Somehow my enchiladas are famous throughout the family. Anytime people come to visit, they insist on eating my enchiladas, and since I enjoy eating them too.. well, now I have an excuse to cook! Plus I decided to try my hand at making Banana Cream Pie for the first time. I make pies all the time, how hard could this one be. But somehow I ended up with Banana Cream soup. Oh well, next time I'll just cheat and go for the Jello pudding mix version. It still tasted good.