Under the Big Top

Last summer we went to the Ringling Brother's Circus. It was held at the Community Center downtown. It was my first time and I have to admit it was magical. The show was fantastic, the performers were awesome live, and the clowns weren't as freaky as I thought they would be... well, most of them anyway.

I'm buying tickets for this years circus now and so I thought I'd put up some pictures from last

year. (Disclaimer: If clowns give you the hee-bee-gee-bees you should probably not proceed.)

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Everybody gone? O.K.

These guys are just clowning around. Ha. Before the show we got to go down to the floor and watch and meet a lot of performers. It was AWESOME.

Nori's favorite was pretty funny and looks almost perfectly normal. :)
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These guys did some crazy stuff and it was that much cooler being a few feet from them as they did it. They got to most of these positions by flipping, somersaulting, jumping.

This last one was by far the best costume there. If you want to see more you'll have to go with us.

Worn out!

The last few days have been tiring. Other than today, they weren't especially hard or unenjoyable, just busy. Last night we saw Prince Caspian at the Deanza drive-in. It was pretty good. There were some adaptations to the book's story line but was true for the most part. This isn't the book I would have chosen for them to do next. I really like the Magician's Nephew (chronologically #1, but not by order of writing) and A Horse and His Boy. Anyway, we got home around 11pm and then rose again around 0500 (hua!).

This kids ran the annual Kids Day run. Nori got 1st in her age group and Christian got 3rd. Candi with Nori and I ran with Bubba. Make whatever deductions you will.

It's Mrs. FPFs birthday today (finally legal drinking age!) and we got her a book from Barnes and Noble's. Hope she enjoys it.

We ended the day by yanking out Nori's top-front-right tooth(how in the world is that supposed to be written?!). Check it out! I'm too squeamish to pull teeth. Mom gets the glory with this one.

Don't go angry - just go.

Mrs. Pipes and the kids took Pork Chop back to his native country last Thursday. They told me they caught one of his brothers to look at for a while. When they put him back in the little pond he was in he attacked the tadpoles that were nearby. Evidently he destroyed about four or five tadpoles in 30 seconds. They said it was obscenely violent.

Now we're all nervous to go wading in the Sabino waters.

While they were doing that, I was doing a run that has become a great weekly event for me. I've been running on the Phone Line trail. The whole trail is eight miles round trip; I've only completed 5.5 of it. The first half goes through some steep up and down sections - mostly up though. My goal is to run about 30 minutes out and 20 back. The best pace I can keep on the first half is 11-13 mpm with one two minute break.

I shoot for 20 back because it becomes almost a sprint on the way down (that is, if I still have enough stamina and strength to move my feet that fast). It is quite a rush sprinting down a 5% declined trail which is only about 3 ft. wide and has a 30 to 40 foot drop on one side. It's really a blast. It's nice to have the time away, an hour each week where I'm not thinking about anything but not face-planting on the rocks, and the fresh air.

By the way, we now have six or seven tadpoles in our backyard. Always an adventure over here.

Thank you to everyone that paid their respects to Lani last week. The ice cream was great!

These are some pictures taken on the trail when we hiked it with my dad last summer.

More info on the Toe Biters

We went to Wikipedia for more info about Pork Chop (and the late Lani). Here it is. One very interesting fact is that:

"Their bite is considered one of the most painful that can be inflicted by any insect (the Schmidt Sting Pain Index excludes insects other than Hymenoptera); the longer the bug is allowed to inject its saliva, the worse the resulting bite, and as the saliva liquefies muscle tissue, it can in rare instances do permanent damage."

I think it's time for Pork Chop to go home. It's always good to have a reason to go to Sabino Canyon.

Sabino again

Exhibit A
We went to Sabino today for a little hike. It was very nice out. When we got to the dam, we started checking out the tadpoles and other creatures living in the almost-still water. We saw a bug-looking fish or a fish-looking bug. It was long, skinny and had tiny "fins" on it's back 1/3. We were going to grab some tadpoles (that didn't work out very well last year), but then saw two Giant Waterbugs a.k.a Belostomatida a.k.a Toe Biters. Right away I got the heebee geebees. I risked my 10 fingers and scooped them up into our juice cups. The kids were ecstatic. Nori took a liking to the smaller one and called her Lani (LAWN-knee). Bubba took the biggin' and titled him (of course it was a boy!) Pork Chop (PORK-chop). They were pretty sweet actually.




Now the story gets sad (as all of my posts lately do). We left them in the same, large container for a couple of hours with no problems. Candi and I both went to our respective works. Candi returned and we had Pork Chop and pieces of Lani left. Evidently, they don't just bite toes. Nori was sad (I guess - I was at work still) for a bit, until Candi spanked Pork Chop with a leaf. Unlike Lani, I think she'll live.


So just a note to all you Giant Waterbug collectors out there - "don't cross the streams."


We're holding a wake at 11am for any that would like to come pay their respects. Ice cream to follow.


This is a male Belostomatida carrying the eggs on it's back.

Take me out to the game!

Random picture #1

I went to the Sidewinder's game on Saturday with the controllers from work, the TIA tower controllers and the radar controllers for the whole area. It was a good time. We paid $20 and sat in the upper deck (with the "upper crust"). Just so you all know, the upper crust eat hot dogs and burgers, too. The only difference is there's someone there to pick the cover up so you can grab your hot dog; I knew those folks making a lot of money had the life! Anyway, we were in a perfect spot for foul balls (there were two or three that came up there). It was a close game until the eighth inning. The St. Louis Redbirds (what the heck is that?) scored four that inning and held the lead the rest of the way.

The best conversation I had while there was with two controllers that just moved from New York. They've been controlling for 20+ years and had tons of stories/experiences to share. I've been really impressed lately to stop passing by experience and wisdom from those that have lived a lot of life already. I've also been realizing that it's o.k. to not have it all together. There's nothing wrong with saying "What do you think? I have no idea." Why do I try to learn everything on my own?

Valuable time

Well, theo 202 is done this week. It's been a long stint of classes. I've been taking them non-stop (basically) since last October. It's time for a break. Well, I'm actually just going to replace that time with something else... I'm just not sure what yet.

I've been trying to improve on the outdoor plumbing that runs our automatic sprinklers, swamp cooler, hose, and mister system. I got the swamp cooler taken care of a month ago and last week I decided to finish the rest. It's perfect... or was for about 12 hours. Evidently, PVC has a low pressure limit. Mrs. Pipes called me at work and said my project was spraying all over and flooding the backyard. Poop. I'm hoping it just needs a pressure limiter.

I've been working on one of those 3D puzzles on and off for about three weeks, too. It was of lovely Venice. With some help from Mrs. FPF it was about 60-70% done. I say "was" because today my wife watched another friend's son. That son is going to grow to be a demolition contractor... or Godzilla. Venice is in ruins. Poop. Luckily no one was hurt. I'm glad Venice didn't burn to the ground though. Mrs. Pipes said it was gone in a matter of seconds.

"Vanity, everything is vanity." Why am I spending my time on that stuff again? Oh well. The plumbing should be easy to fix. The puzzle won't be but then it'll be in a box, sealed air tight, under some blankets and Christmas decorations, under our stairs, for a long time anyway.