Sh-sh-shark!

These pictures don’t exactly reflect the current temperatures here in Jacksonville, but it’s really been an up and down thing lately. Since these were taken over the weekend, it was still warm. Tonight we may hit the coldest temperatures in over twenty years! Crank up the heater and dust off the ice scraper!

We ventured down to Daytona Beach on Monday and ended up getting side swiped right out in front of the speedway. Apparently the kid thought he was Dale Jr. or something, or maybe Lightning McQueen, I’m not really sure. No one was hurt, just our poor little car, but in all truth, Paul has probably done more to it in the last year to decrease the value than this fender bender. So it wasn’t too bad. I was going to show you a picture of the damage, but it wasn’t all that exciting, so here’s a picture of me and Paul instead:

Now that’s exciting stuff. It’s strange to see us at the beach, right? We actually headed down to New Smyrna Beach, about 12 miles south of Daytona, in fabulous Volusia County, Florida. All this time it was this close and we’d never taken a moment to stop and check it out… probably because we’d never heard of it. But we saw a magazine that labeled it as the “Shark Attack Capital of the World,” so we thought we’d go down to let Paul wade in the waters.

He wasn’t too thrilled, especially since we woke him up from a nap to see it.

Turns out all we saw were pelicans. Stupid, boring pelicans. Ah, well, maybe when it gets warmer we can go back and take Paul out into the waves and try to draw in the big fish. Last year there were 24 shark attacks at that beach. No deaths, but lots of half eaten limbs. I wonder if they state that in the brochure: “Come to New Smyrna and leave a little piece of you behind!” Sounds like fun.

But there was a pretty nice set of walkways running through the dunes that we checked out. It was a little windy, but the sunset and the warm weather made for another great day at the beach!

1 of 15 Done

I'm falling behind on these blog posts, so this one is going to be quick and simple. We had a few pictures from last week that I wanted to post, and I now have a bunch from yesterday to go through as well. So I'm posting these first:

One week of school is over already and I'm midway through the second. Paul and Becky made it out to enjoy the sunshine in the park last week while I was in class. Still a little cold at times, hence the flannel Brawny Boy outfit.

Florida Boy in a Montana sweatshirt. I think he may be finally getting over his cold, but I did have to edit out some of these pictures from last week where he had gobs of fluid bubbling out of his nose. Good thing his mother keeps plenty of tissues on hand.

Sweatshirts and sand. I guess we're not tourists anymore.

Love keeps the stars in the firmament, and imposes rhythm on the ocean tides. Each of us is created of it, and I suspect, each of us was created for it.

Apparently Maya Angelou is an American poet (I learned that on Wikipedia). She wrote that, and I thought it applied to this photo. Alright, I'll stop with the sappy love stuff. When I get two more free minutes I'll post the other pics from this weekend.

Oh, Go Fly a Kite...

We made it out to the beach today for the first time since we’ve been back. At Costco the other day, Paul got himself a spiffy Red Baron kite, so we decided to see if she’d fly today. Well, first attempts were not successful, as the Baron seemed to be loaded down with pizzas or something, because he kept falling out of the sky and kamikazing into the sand. The wind seemed to be coming up out of the ground or something, because it would swirl around us, stop, blow from the south, blow from the north, and then stop again. ‘Twas very difficult weather for kite flying. And the two of us are by no means kite flying certified, so we probably looked pretty foolish running up and down the beach with our plane crashing to the ground each time we let it go. But in the end we found a steady gust of wind coming from between the buildings, and we got that thing going pretty good. However, Paul was a little more excited about throwing sand at his mom than he was about the kite. But I had fun.

Da plane! Da plane!

EH! Weeds... stop... touching me!

It's a bird! It's a plane! No... just a kite...

There we got it!

2008 Holiday Picture Extravaganza!

Well here you go, some photos from the holidays! I hope you enjoy them, and even though we had hundreds, I wish we had more. Check it out:

And now I must go get my wife and child who have been enjoying the wonders of air travel all day today. At the moment, they've been sitting on the runway in Atlanta for over thirty minutes, so I'm sure they're having an amazing time. Once again, thanks for the holiday memories and hope to do it again next Christmas!

South to Florida

Delayed flights and late take-offs, but 1/3 of the Florida Sellers are back in the Sunshine State. I stepped out on the porch and slipped my bare feet into my sandals, and all I needed was a T-shirt to keep me warm. No more gloves, no more shoveling snow, no more ice and cold. Just sun, and a warm breeze rolling through the city. I had to ask myself, “Why are we leaving this place again?” The Spokane Glacier with its mountainous piles of snow swallowing cars whole on the road sides gave way to clear blue sky, and driving with the windows down. It’s good to be back.

I apologize that this blog was absent without leave over the Christmas break, but we had a lot to do up there in a few short weeks. But I want to take a second to thank everybody for making our holidays bright. Thanks to the Unbehends for putting up with us for a month. I know at times we were pains, but at least now if you ever decide to go into show business, you could definitely put on a fabulous two-person rendition of Disney’s Cars. Thanks to the staff at Grizzly Peak for the free food, Wii Tennis lessons, and the free loaner car complete with two flat tires. Thanks to the Clayburns for summoning more snow than I’ve ever seen, and thanks for not throwing us out in it. Thanks to the Utah Sellers for making the long haul up, even if we only got a few days to hang with belly-laughing Izzy and the lone promise circle resident. Thanks to Andy and Ted for letting me embarrass you on Guitar Hero. Thanks to the grandparents for holiday candy, driveways to shovel, and putting my name on everything of value. And thanks to everyone for letting my wife take almost 800 photos that I now have to go through. Yeah… thanks a lot. Thanks for the gifts, and thanks for the memories.

Seriously, we had a great stay in the northwest, and a huge thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy lives to hang out with us. Even though he won’t remember it, Paul had an amazing time. But I’m sure he’ll be happy to never wear that heavy coat again, and to be able to go outside without his “yockohs!”

Don’t worry, don’t worry.... I will post pictures, but as I said, there are more than a few to go through. When I get them done I’ll be posting a slide show, so stay tuned!!

North to Montana

Paul was not all too happy this morning at 4AM when I carried him outside into the 40 degree weather, en route to JAX. He and Becky headed off for the great Northwest via Delta Airlines, and when I talked to her around 9:30, Paul still didn't seem very happy. Of course, things were made worse when she missed her second flight. She kind of knew it was coming, as she only had about twenty minutes to get off one and onto the other, but she was still slightly upset when she called. And by slightly, of course, I mean very upset. As of now when I type this blog, the plane is somewhere past Denver, so she's only a couple of hours behind her intended arrival time. I can only hope that Paul is asleep right now, otherwise, the five hours worth of shut eye last night for a boy who normally takes in about ten, will probably equal a lot of agitated fellow passengers onboard. I could hear him yelling at her in the background when she called, and he's becoming very good with his word skills, but honestly, I don't know where he learned all of those expletives.

Ah, the joy of airline travel. I'm guessing she'll be in Spokane around 3PM Pacific time, but that really depends on what flights are available out of Salt Lake. Better cross my fingers that something works out, or I'll be getting another dramatic phone call very shortly.

Anyway, as you can imagine, this blog will probably be slightly boring over the next couple of weeks, with no pictures to post. As it is only me... here alone... fighting to survive, as the laundry accumulates and the refrigerator becomes barren. Two finals, two papers, and Tuesday after next, I'm out of here.

Farewell and Adieu, Chester

Oh, Chester, you flea-ridden free loader, you will be missed. Yesterday, we bid a somber farewell to Chester the Cat, as we won’t be seeing him again anytime soon. Well, unless he can swim really, really well and can hold his breath for long periods of time... only kidding, Grandma! A nice lady came by the apartment in response to my Craigslist ad, and she took away that gray, and often foul smelling, annoyance. Mostly, I will miss his incessant whining outside of our door, the shrill screams at 2AM when the other neighborhood cats came calling to beat him up and steal his free lunch, and the piles of regurgitated Wal-Mart brand cat chow he left conveniently splattered on our steps. Yes, I cannot wait to get a cat of our own someday. But the lady will take care of him. Apparently she runs a colony for abandoned felines and had room for one more. She said they would treat him right, feed him, and keep him warm in the cold months, in hopes that he would be adopted out to a nice family before long. But I must say, it was kind of weird that she came to our door wearing a white apron with a logo from Ming’s Chinese Buffet, and I didn’t quite understand why she kept calling him “Tuesday Special!”

Mmm, sweet and sour sauce makes anything taste like pork...