Tomorrow is a busy day. I'm taking the day off, because we've got a lot to do. There's Bethany's end-of-year preschool program, there's Sarah's Field Day at school, and there's the drive over the mountains to see our good friends in Eastern Washington. It'll be good to see them again, and I'm sure we'll have a great time. We're spending the weekend over there, and will be back home Monday night.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Our old TV was giving out – it would regularly pick an inopportune moment to shut off automatically, and wouldn't allow itself to be turned back on for a while – so we were in the market for a new TV. The most comparable televisions have 27-inch screens and run from $200-$250. We were about settled on buying a Panasonic from Costco, but hadn't quite done it yet, when we spotted a Fred Meyer ad for a similar Panasonic TV. As it turns out, that television was one model better and $20 cheaper, so we jumped on the deal. It's a few inches bigger than our old TV, but the picture and sound are really good, and we got a great deal, so I'm happy.

The irony is that I watch little television these days. The only shows I watch on a regular basis are The West Wing and Smallville, and those are over until fall. I'm not watching much baseball this summer, and we don't seem to rent many movies... But it's still a useful device, so we need to keep it running, and I'm certainly enjoying the enhanced picture when I do watch a DVD. (We're up to season five of Babylon 5...)

The other irony is that the TV in our bedroom – yes, we have a television in our bedroom, but we don't watch it in bed, so there – is an old 13-inch that I owned way back when I was in high school! That makes it more than twelve years old, and it's still going strong. Now that was a good deal!

Much to our surprise, Julie and I have become baseball fans since we moved to the “Seattle area” after college. An exciting 1995 season got the ball rolling, and the 116-win 2001 season was great fun. However, the team-that-must-not-be-named hasn't been doing as well the last couple of years, and they're doing really badly this year, currently last in their division and having among the worst records in the Major Leagues. So, baseball isn't as much fun this year. I'm a fair weather fan, you might say, and there's storm clouds as far as the eye can see.

Of course, they say that every cloud has a silver lining, and I find mine in the great performance of Dan Wilson, my favorite baseball player. He's been a great catcher in Seattle for ten years, has a great attitude, and I've always had a liking for him that I don't fully understand. He's rarely had great stats compared to the other players on the team, but so far this year he's leading the team in batting average and runs batted in, and it's been fun to watch – when I can bring myself to pay any attention to the games at all...

Our entertainment for yesterday evening was the Elementary Spring Program of Mount Vernon Christian School. The program was enjoyable, but it also demonstrated the music skills that each class learned throughout the year. Each class from Kindergarten through fourth grade had their own musical numbers – Sarah and her fellow classmates did a few songs, including the classic song about a bunch of monkeys jumping on the bed.

Particularly interesting to me were the second and third graders, who played instruments I'd never seen before called “Boomwhackers”. Each student had a long plastic tube, some longer than others. They'd hold it with one hand and strike their other hand with it to sound a hollow note – the longer the tube, the lower the note. Different notes used different colors. It seemed like a great way to teach the notes to the kids – and a lot cheaper than handbells!

Can you spot Sarah?

This past Saturday, we had the opportunity to clean up the disaster in our garage! We spent much of the day putting away and throwing away; by the end of the afternoon, the van was happily parked in an organized garage. Now to keep it that way! (Note to self: Put tools back where you found them when you are done with them!)

I just wanted to wish a happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers that might be reading this blog. In particular, I'd like to thank my own mom for being such a great mom and helping me grow into the man I am today. I only wish I could have stopped by and said “hi” today! A phone call will have to do...

I'd also like to acknowledge the mother of my three daughters, who also happens to be the love of my life. She's the best!

We just got home from a trip to Lynden to celebrate with a few of the other great mothers in our lives, including Julie's mom and her mom's mom! We had a great day, and I'm hoping for a great week.

This past Saturday was supposed to be a productive day at home. In particular, we were supposed to clean the garage. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I blame the truck. I drove it to get an oil change on Saturday morning, but it failed to start when they were done. After a bit, it started again, so they decided they must have flooded the engine or something. Sounded good to me, but that became rather unlikely when the truck suddenly died as I drove south on I-5 to get home. I safely pulled to the side of the freeway, but despite numerous attempts, I couldn't get the truck to start again.

Thankfully, I had remembered my cell phone, so after I called Julie, I decided to give the oil change place a ring to see if they had any ideas, since they'd got it to start again. To my surprise, they said that they'd send someone out; to my chagrin, nobody showed up for nearly an hour. Worse yet, he wasn't able to help me at all, so when he drove off, I was back to square one.

No need to panic, though; I've got a AAA membership. So I gave them a ring, and they sent a tow truck. That can take a while, so I walked to the gas station at the next exit – I had drunk a few cups of water at the oil change place a couple of hours before, so you can guess why. Fortunately, a few minutes after I returned to the truck, the tow truck arrived. My truck and I were successfully towed a few miles to our mechanic, which was closed, of course, so I called Julie to come and pick me up.

While I waited for the tow truck to disconnect from my truck, I made a mistake. I decide that I'd drop my key in the mechanic's drop box with a note. Bad timing, because we needed the key to unlock the steering to push the truck into a parking spot! Fortunately, Julie had my spare key when she arrived, so she helped me get the truck into position.

Goodness, this is a long story. Anyway, my Nissan Pickup has been a faithful commuter car for many years, but it certainly has its quirks, and with over 210,000 miles, I won't be terribly surprised when it croaks for good. Happily, the shop managed to examine and fix the problem on Monday afternoon – a battery cable had corroded to the point of no return. About $50 for parts and labor, so I'm a happy man.

I picked it up from the shop this morning and had no trouble getting to work and back, so I'm hoping for a few more months of trouble-free driving! Hey, it's paid for!