The Jedi Council

Well, we had to get up early this morning to find out how Wendy’s was doing.  Like, 6:30 a.m. early.  We waited a while and then found out they were going to try to open today.  So, we knew that meant that I was going in at 10 a.m. and Heather was more than likely working the night shift tonight.  So, I went back to bed and tried to get some more sleep before my shift.  I got out the door late, and got over to Wendy’s a little late in my shift.  Well, they had the store almost put back together.  The machines were back in and they were working on a normal opening now.  They sent me into the parking lot to clean the signs and sweep out debris and pick debris out of the rocks, etc. outside.  Basically, I was to pick up anything that wasn’t organic.  When I got back inside, we were getting ready to start to open and we had managers from all over the place.  I knew it would be a busy day, but I had no idea what I was in for.  They had the district manager from Wendy’s Bing., Wendy’s Syracuse, and Wendy’s Cortland there as well as several other big-wigs for our reopening.  We reopened our doors at 11:30 a.m. and we got SLAMMED!! I wasn’t able to make the burgers fast enough and we had to have two people on the grill.  It was ridiculous.  I’ve never seen so many people in our store all at once.  On the plus side, I kept getting praises all day long for my work yesterday and then today.  They said they never had someone pick up on grill in four days so quickly as I did.  Eventually I did get caught up and they left me on the grill on my own.  I did alright, but I was exhausted by the end of the day.  Corey was going to let me off by 4, but actually let me go at 3:30 p.m.  That was cool because I was exhausted from yesterday.

I came home and Heather and I switched spots.  I got my second wind after a half hour nap.  I continued to work on cleaning up the house as we still had a disaster around the living room from Sunday and Monday night.  Everything got put away and I was able to cut the pork steaks out of the meat we bought at Sam’s Club.  Then I hung our new door bell, gave Clifford a flea bath, worked on organizing the bedroom, bathroom, and home theater room as well as the gaming room.  I got a ton of stuff done!  I was really proud of myself, but exhuated as well.  I planned on getting caught up on blogging, which I did, but needed to get caught up on reading for my Star Wars books but couldn’t because I couldn’t find my reading glasses ANYWHERE in the house.  I guess it became too much chaos too quickly.  I guess I’ll have to really work at it tommorrow night.

Here are some photos of the flood from Wednesday.

Here are some photos of the flood from Thursday.

Time to talk about Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 22:  Raith Seinar was starting to get antsy in his crew quarters on the “Admiral Korvin” while in hyperspace.  He preferred being alone as to being a commander.  He held three inspections of everything aboard  the ship while in hyperspace.  Somehow, Seinar got the impression he was being set-up.  Time was approaching for him to meet with Ke Daiv.  He found the Blood Carver disturbing at best.  He decided he needed to find a weakness in his armor.  He pulled out some secret tools, including a pre-programmed verbobrain and ordered Kett to send an E-5 droid to his room immediately.  He inserted the verbobrain and the E-5 droid was brought to life.  The dorid would stay in the room during his discussion with Ke Daiv.

Okay, two words can now describe the Binghamton area.  Water and Flood.  I cannot believe how much rain we got between yesterday and today and the amount of water in our area was stagering.  Heather and I both woke up to a state of emergency being issued for Broome County.  We knew the rain had probably caused flooding, but we didn’t realize how sever until we watched the news.  Then I went out back to the back of our property to see the river.  And ironically, I could SEE the river.  And oh, by the way, I’m not supposed to see the river!!  It was getting close to the back of our property.  It was starting to get up to the edge of the property line and if it climbed another 10 feet it was going to be in my back yard.  And if it climbs another ten feet, then EVERYONE in the city of Binghamton was in trouble and under water.  The water was still rising as I was watching it.  That was the scary part.  I urged Heather to have both of us call into work, but like she said, there was nothing we could do at home to help the situation.  They may need our help at Wendy’s as we may be only several of the Wendy’s personnel that can actually get to the store.  Well, Heather decided to come with me as she needed to talk to her boss.  We both weren’t prepared to see what we saw on our way to work.

The Chenango River was EVERYWHERE!  It took over the golf course on the other side of Route 12A, the driving range down the street, the miniature golf course, and flooded Northgate Speedway acrossed the street from Wendy’s.  I was asked to be at work at 10 a.m. and we were hoping on the food by 11.  It seemed odd to me that so many people were on the road, considering we were in a state of emergency, but I guess everyone needs food at some point in time.  While we were working all sorts of weird rumors starting creaping into the store that we later found out to be true.  The dam up at Beaver Creek gave way, some of the levees broke, the Washington Street bridge was wavering then buckled, the water was coming over the flood walls in the city, the towns of Conklin and Waverly were completely under water, Union Endicott High School football field was unrecognizable, and Owego was completely shut down.  By 2 p.m., things seemed to be in a drastic situation in Wendy’s and we went from good to bad to worse rather quickly.

The water from the river was acrossed the street in the old Ames plaza when I first came into work.  We noticed the water levels were rising all afternoon long, but soon we began to realize that the street was flooding and the water was coming not from the river but out of the storm sewers.  At 2 p.m., we decided to close down to start getting employees home.  We started a regular close (which I felt lost because I had never been trained to do any of this and it was only my second day on grill) and really started to clean down the store.  by 4 p.m. we went from closing to we need to get everything out of the store.  And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING!!  We were loading food into trucks and transporting it to Main St., Vestal, and U.E. Wendy’s stores for storage.  As we started on this, our manager, Cory suggested that our car be moved.  When I looked at our car I noticed I wasn’t going to get in without flooding it, so I crawled in through the trunk.  Luckily the car started and I managed to get it into the Ponderosa parking lot which was higher.  The water was slowly creeping up to the front doors of the restaurant.  Our local manager, district manager, and store owners were all on site barking out orders.  After a while, they decided to sandbag and bring in pumps to start trying to excavate the water.  We fought it off the best we could but the water kept rising.  Heather and I continued to transport food to other places in the county and the more we did so, the more worried about our house we became.  We took everything out.  From buns, to meat, to condiments to the machines.  We took out the grills, frosty machines, fryers, everything came out of the store and were stored in a tractor trailer.  Then we began to sandbag again and tried to keep it all from coming in the store.  Then the storm sewer on the other side of the store started to flood.  We brought in a second pump and continued to fight to keep the store dry.  We made some headway but it didn’t seem like much.  Employees were starting to find out that they couldn’t make it home to their own homes or homes of loved-ones because there was no way to get there.  Heather and I even offered to let one stay at our home.  By 7 p.m., Heather and I finally had become so worried about our home, that we insisted that we wanted to leave and make sure it was okay.

We left and came home and all of my prayers were answered.  Our house was still there, we didnt’ have any water even in our back yard, and the river was only starting to climb the bank still, but was nowhere near the house.  We hadn’t thought about dinner yet, and I didn’t have a break from the day yet, so we decided to head back to Giant to get some food for Sloppy Joe’s and some fruit and water to drink.  On our way, we called my mom and dad to let them know we were okay and Heather’s parents to let them know that we were okay.  As we left the Giant parking lot, we noticed that they were still working at Wendy’s, so we went back to the store to see if headway was being made.  We were both surprised to find out that they were making headway on the water.  It was starting to back away from the back door and it looked like things were starting to get under control.  Corey walked around getting phone numbers and hours people could work for tommorrow in case they were opening to get the store back together.  We also noticed our pastor, who is friends with the store owner, was there with his family helping to sandbag the store.  We helped set up some more sand bags and then I begged Heather to go home because I was exhausted.

We got home and made dinner at 8:30 at night and ate it at 9 p.m.  It was a long day and we had to wait for the Wendy’s employee to show up to the house.  She showed up around 10 p.m. and we all ate some fruit and talked about the day and then headed to bed.  I don’t think I’ve ever slept so sound in my life!  Now the fear for tommorrow is getting everything back to where it needed to be.

Okay, so now that you all know about the tragedies in Binghamton, time to talk about Chapter 21 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 21:  It was a client celebration day on Middle Distance and many Sekotans were milling about for the festivities.  Obi-Wan sensed a revitalized people amongst all of this.  Anakin looked at the river below and hoped to ride a raft on it, but was warned that no one had because it was too dangerous.    They were informed they had ten minutes before arrival and Obi-Wan said he would like to know more about the procedures, but got a response from Gann that avoided the question.  When they arrived, they met a female Ferroan named Sheekla Farrs who was a grower and daughter of firsts.  She told Obi-Wan that they would meet their seed parnters and would then go into ship design with her husband, Shappa.  They entered Far Distance and Sheekla explained that this is where seed partners and owners meet.  Sheekla says they will experience what the Magister did when he first landed on Zonoma and became aware of the Sekot.  Anakin asked who the Magister was and Sheekla said he was the spiritual leader, and founder of Middle Distance.  They entered a tunnel where Farrs informed them that seedling come from potentium.  Anakin asks Obi-Wan about that word.  Obi-Wan remembered  of Jedi who believed in the Potentium, a controversial view of The Force, but were banished from the order.  As they entered the courtyard, many watched their entrance.  They were all singing the same song as Anakin and Obi-Wan were decorated with sashes. A man came and greeted them when Farrs suggested an offering to the Potentium.  Anakin handed the money to Obi-Wan who gave it to the Ferran who responds by saying he is optimistic.

Well, I got up a little later today and headed to work.  I watched a video on how to work the grill, worked with a guy named Brandon for a little while, and next thing I knew I was running the grill while we were in the middle of the lunch rush.  It got hectic, but I think I handled it well.  I do think my diet concept is going to work though.  Working with all of this ground beef and all of these hamburgers makes me think twice about getting a hamburger anytime soon.  Especially when I realized how much grease was on the grill while I was cooking those burgers.  Yeah, this idea might work.

I got home tonight and decided to start to organize my Star Wars Kenner toys.  Well, what I thought would take only an hour or so, turned into three and a half hours worth of work, and I’m STILL not done with them.  Oi!  I didn’t think that displaying a collection of toys would be this hard.  I may have to bow to Marjorie and Arnie to see if they have any suggestions for displaying these figures, because right now it just lookes like a bunch of figures.  Well, after three hours, I was exhausted and headed to bed.  Heather worked late again tonight.  It started to rain tonight what seems like almost non-stop.  I’m worried about the river just outside our house and whether the river can handle all the rain.  I figure it’s gotta stop at some time.  The good news is that there is no leaks in my roof and now leaks in the basement.  Thank you Lord for watching over my house and my family.

Okay, time to talk about Chapter 20 Of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 20:  Anakin asks Obi-Wan shy they don’t just ask about Vergere.  Obi-Wan says they must be patient and perpare to meet the Magister.  As they ride to the training facility that morning, Anakin says he feels at home here.  Obi-Wan says he fears tht the smeills in the air have some carcinogenic affect on humans.  Anakin says he enjoys the smells.  Obi-Wan asks Anakin what else he feels and that he needs to compare Anakin’s feelings to his own.  Anakin went to sit and noticed the chair was alive.  Obi-Wan noted that the material they use to build with is called lamina and that the buildings and everything in them are alive.  Anakin began to question how the lamina stays alive and Obi-Wan interupts him and Anakin reveals he feels a large unity.  Obi-Wan reveals that all the lamina is completely symbiotic but that he felt something outside of just the two of them.  Anakin says he can sense the colonists and the newcomer, but does not sense Vergere.  Obi-Wan agreed that she’s gone then pointed out to Anakin that the chair was feeding off the floor.  They talk about being ready the next morning for thier host and Anakin says he’s excited.  Obi-Wan was wary about the connection Anakin had with Sekot and was concerned that he didn’t understand either.

Today was my first day of work at Wendy’s.  It was okay, but really boring ultimately.  Boring because all I did all day long was watch videos and answer question sheets over and over.  I guess this is how they train their employees, but honestly I did more reading at work today than I’ve done teaching.  I didn’t even get a chance to see anything in action, but I know I’ll probably regret making that comment later.  I came home with Heather and we decided we were going out for dinner and were going to shop some more for stuff we need for around the house.  Heather realized that we had a little more money to play around with because I got a check from the school today for my Master’s School program.  So, we went to Sam’s Club, then Wal-Mart, then A.C. Moore to get some more stuff we need around the house.  Then Heather and I decided to go out for dinner so we ate at “T.G.I. Friday’s”.  It was good and got me full and then we headed over to the movie theater and saw “Click” as a birthday gift to the both of us.  The movie was okay, but actually not as funny as I thought it would be.  Instead, it was a lot more of a serious film than the T.V. advertisements say it is.  Again, we came home by 10 p.m. and dumped everything down and started to try to organize the house.  Needless to say the house now looks like a war-zone.  We decided to go to bed fairly early as I had my first day of work on the grill tommorrow and I wanted to make sure I was rested up for that.

Okay, so time to talk about Chapter 19 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 19:  Anakin couldn’t look out the windows of the transport headed south.  Anakin notes that the people on the planet are acting as if there are problems.  Anakin says he senses a change and shift in The Force on this planet.  One big shift.  Obi-Wan notes he does not feel the same thing.  An hour later the transport lands and the door opens.  A thick intoxicating floral aroma enters the cabin of the transport.  As they come down the ramp, they meet their first Sekotan, named Gann.  As introductions were made, Anakin asked where their really fast ships were.  Obi-Wan explained that Anakin was his student and Bann said it was okay because all younglings on Zenoma Sekot are students to all adults.  Gann told Anakin that he won’t see a ship for some days.  He then told Obi-Wan that they were on Middle Distance, a portion of the planet they settled on long ago.  Obi-Wan said they wish to buy a ship and have money and are willing to train.  Gann informed him that rituals come first.  Gann said he needed to introduce  the to Sekot and led them to an external platform and they get a great view of a beautiful planet.  Bann informs them that the planet is named Zenoma but the living creatures on it are called Sekot.  Gann informs them that in order to get a ship from their planet, they need ot acknowledge the Magister and the connection to Sekot.  Obi-Wan says they accept and Gann starts to lead them to their quarters.

Well, we got up at a decent hour this morning and went to Uncle Mike’s church.  Very nice service and a good sermon that kept my attention (which is hard to do for some pastor’s).  We then went back to my brother’s house after we stopped off at their local farmer’s market to try and find some fresh corn, but that ended up being a bust.  That’s okay, it just meant the ladies had to got to “Tops Friendly Markets” to get some corn on the cob.  Got to my brother’s house and changed clothes and then put up a tent in their back yard to eat under.  Which answers a valuable question.  How many Crissman’s does it take to put up a tent?  Well, the answer is three men, two women and about four children.  Eh, the family will get that joke!  Anyway, we had a great barbecue that my brother prepared.  He had some great sauces yet again, including a white barbecue chicken sauce and an awesome strawberry lemonde homemade concoction he made (which by the way Mike, I still need the recipe for) that tasted just like a Strawberry Julius.  After dinner we decided to celebrate my birthday and Heather’s birthday.  Heather got a gift card to Wal Mart and I got “Star Wars Battlefront II” and a partiotic t-shirt.  I also got from my wife an 18V drill, new screw-driver set, and a new socket set.  I was very happy with all of it.  A good mix of buisness and toys.  Just the way I like it.  We also managed to pick up from my parents’ house some of my Star Wars Kenner toys from when I was younger.  I got as many as I could into a 20″ T.V. box and managed to get the box into the back of the car.  I hope to get it all home and display them all with some stands and what-not.  We’ll see what happens.  Anyway, we left Rochester from Mike’s house, went to my parent’s house to pickup the dog and then got on the Thruway and headed home.  We stopped at the mall in Syracuse quick to go to the bathroom and get some water for our dog, Clifford.  When we came out to the parking lot, we had some lady scolding us, saying we were being cruel to our dog because he was in the car by himself.  Yet, we cracked the windows on the car and didn’t leave him alone for more than ten minutes.  This lady was absolutely psycho and needed to get a life.  We then got on the road again and headed home.  We came in the house and literally dumped everything down and dropped off the dog, and then decided to go to Wal Mart.  We got all sorts of stuff there.  We got a fertilizer spreader, fertilizer, grass seed, plants, clothes, some movies (2 for 5 bin), a tackle box for all of my Star Wars Miniatures and much more.  We stopped at Taco Bell and ate some late food, came home and dumped all of that stuff again, and organized a little before being exhausted and heading to bed.

Okay, time to talk about Chapter 18 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 18:  Seinar has been given the rank of commander and his four ships were about to enter hyperspace.  Seinar had convinced himself that this would be a harrowing mission, but that he would somehow come out on top because of his competitive nature.  At no point in preparing to leave did Seinar have time to make back-up plans.   Seinar was wearing an Old Trade Federation defense officer uniform with black, grey and red coloring.  Seinar gave Captain Kett the order to enter hyperspace once all coordinates were aligned.  As they entered hyperspace, Kett estimated it would take three days to arrive on Zenoma Sekot.  Seinar ordered more drills and a rundown on every officer within that time frame.  Seinar exited the forward observation deck.

Okay, so I’ll be honest, Josh and I woke up pretty late this morning.  I believe we both woke up around 11 a.m.  Josh and Joanne had a wedding they needed to get to and Josh was kind enought to take me to the Wendy’s in East Rochester to meet Heather so she could take me to my parents’ house.  We met there and went to my parent’s home where my kids were playing in the pool (imagine that!) and were just having a ton of fun!  I sat down and ate lunch with my parents and had some time to visit with them.  I helped my dad figure out how to level off the ground where they had their bushe removed in the front of the house and we decided we were going to move some dirt from their compost pile to the ground to the front of the house to level out the ground.  As we were doing this, Tara came running to us and told us that the pool was leaking.  We went to check out the pool and sure enough, it was leaking.  So, we emptied out the pool and dad went to the store and got “man’s best friend”.  You know, duct tape!  Anyway, we duct taped the pool when it was dry and it seemed to work fine.

We had a wonderful dinner as always at my parents that consisted of steak and baked potatoes.  It’s been a while since I’ve had a grilled steak so that was really a nice treat.  We then got the kids ready for bed as we know tommorrow is going to be a long day.  We have been invited to Uncle Mike, Aunt Trish, and Cousin Katie’s church and then house for a barbecue. It sounds like they have a ton of food, which sounds good to me and makes my son a very happy person.

Okay, time to talk about Chapter 17 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 17:  Anakin was depressed by his first glimpse of the planet.  The woman of the planet took off her helmet and mask to reveal her gray-white hair and deep blue eyes.  She asks Obi-Wan if Anakin is his son and he replies that he’s a student and that he himself, is a teacher.  She notes they are rich since they are about to buy a ship.  She asks who their financial backer is and Obi-Wan replies that it is academic in nature.  She tells him they don’t sell ships to research groups and to go home.  Obi-Wan said they came a long way and she retorted, “from teh center of the universe”!  She tells them they must prove themselves and that no visitor to Zenoma Sekot can stay longer than sixty days.  Obi-Wan said they were hoping to be treated well when the woman’s face softened and she began to act like she knew them as friends.  Anakin asked Obi-Wan what he did and he shrugged.  She told them to head south and that their ship would be ready in four days.  She asked them to follow her.  As they did, Obi-Wan instinctively reached for his lightsaber.  Obi-Wan worried about the mission and of his padawan.  He began to sense a shift in the balance of The Force.  Then Obi-Wan realized that Anakin was what was causing the unbalance of Force.  The women led them to a small, disk-like transport that would take them south.  Obi-Wan pulled out his comlink adn told Charza Kwinn to stay around as long as he could and then to leave, but stay nearby somewhere.

Well, today was the last day at school for students.  What a day.  I came to school finished up locking up equipment in my room and closed it out for the summer.  In the meantime, Heather headed over to “Monroe Muffler” to have the new tires and exhaust system put on.  She called me early in the morning to tell me that she opted to get the oil change and new wiper blades as they had suggested.  I figured it was about time for both of those things to get done and to save some aggrevation, then it was worth it.  Well, I got a call before our final staff meeting and Heather told me that they told her that they had to do break work on the car and that was why we were going through tires as often as we were.  It explained a lot but it also put us in a bind.  A bill that we thought was going to total $600 now became an $1100 bill that we hadn’t planned on.  AND, Heather managed to talk the guys down from that as they wanted to put on the best breaks there and wanted to replace the brake drums when their wasn’t anything wrong with them.  I got my check and picked up Heather and the kids and the “Monroe Muffler” mechanic told us it would only be another half hour (mind you, the car has been there since 9:30 a.m. already and he was still working on the car.  Talk about labor hours!).  We went home, ate some lunch with the kids and then called the shop.  They STILL weren’t done.  An hour later, they finally finished with the car!  We came home, loaded up quick and headed for Rochester.

Three hours later, the kids were dropped off at grammy and papa’s and Heather and I left to go to “Outback” in Henrietta to meet Josh and Joanne where they were incredible and offered to pay for dinner because of our mishap with the car.  I was led to belive in a conversation earlier in the week that Josh and I would go one direction while Joanne and Heather went in another.  However, we got there and ate (had a small dinner as I was SO in the mood for a Nick’s Garbage Plate) and then Josh and I went one direction, Joanne decided to get her nails done and Heather was kind of left in a lurch.  She went with Josh and I to Millenium and then went to the mall since she had nothing else to do.  I felt bad, but didn’t know what to say to either Josh or Joanne.  Heather’s feelings weren’t really hurt, she just felt left down is all.  Anyway, Josh and I had a great night.  We both bought some Star Wars miniatures and I think it’s safe to say we’re both hooked on the game.  We went to Tahoe’s, got our plates to go and went to Josh’s house and played the game until about 11 p.m. and then we went downstairs and watched “Johnny English” till 2 a.m. and then went to bed.  What a day!

Okay, onto my discussion of Chapter 16 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 16:  Zenoma Sekot gave clearance for the ship to land.  The voice on the other end said that the account of their last client was in doubt.  Kwinn said they didn’t garauntee that.  Charza offers to take the client home for free, but the official says it’s not necessary.  Obi-Wan notices that the weather system is perfectly symmetrical.  The landing area is near the pole, cold and almost freezing.  Anakin asks if the seas are salty and Charza says he does not know because the planet’s inhabitants won’t let them scan the planet surface.  As Charza landed the craft, snow was blowing on the ground.  As Anakin and Obi-Wan walked down the ramp, they spotted their heavily clad receptionist.  The woman greeted them and welcomed them to Zenoma Sekot.  She turned and headed for the nearest dome.  Anakin and Obi-Wan shrugged and followed.

Well, my day at work was very successful, but our day at home was a botched mess.  I got everything packed up in my room except for my computer (need to have some sanity tommorrow morning for the two hours I have to wait for my check).  So, tommorrow morning I’ll pack up my computer, do some personal work (Star Wars projects and what not) and then go to my staff meeting, pack stuff up and head out to Rochester.  I can’t wait!  it’s so lame that I’m looking this forward to leaving the Binghamton area!  It’s almost like I’m a caged animal or something!  Gesh!  Anyway, Heather had a more eventful day at home.  We had our septic pump guy come to the house at about eight o’clock this morning to pump out our tank.  When he looked at what we thought was the cap on our septic tank, he informed us that it was not the cap to the tank but the cap to our dry well.  I had no idea what that was until today.  Anyway, he couldn’t find our septic tank after poking our backyard for a half hour with a big stick.  His suggestion was to call “Roto Router”.  So, Heather took the next step and got “Roto Router” to come to the house.  He stuck his little camera down the pipe (dad, it was kinda like the one they probably used on your kidney {nudge, nudge, wink wink LOL}) and found out where out tank was.  So, we found the septic tank and have a big rock over where it was supposed to be.  The good news?  We think that he found the back up in the water and solved the problem.  He saw no problem with the levels in the septic and said we may be able to go another year or two without needing to pump it out.  Especially if we continue to use Rid-X.  So, the plan is to wait to have it pumped out.  The bad news?  Well, we had to pay “Roto Router” $250 to get the diagnosis.  That is the cost of having the tank pumped out to begin with.  All well, you win some and you loose some.

Tonight we took the kids out as a reward for having such a great year at school.  We went to Chuck E. Cheese and had a blast.  I’m proud to say that my high score on the “Sega Star Wars” game is still the top score under the name “ICEMAN”.  I don’t know why I’m proud of it, and I feel like George from “Seinfeld” being proud of his Frogger score in the show, but I’m proud of my score.  Anyway, the kids had a blast and then we went to WalMart to get some more hose for Heather so that she can reach the garden with the hose now and got some various assundries of other “things”.  Then we went to Suzie Q’s and came home.  Ruth and I played the “Star Wars Miniatures” game and had a blast.  She almost beat me till I cornered her at the last minute and managed to win the game in the last round of fighting.

Okay, so I have to be honest with all of you.  I probably won’t be able to blog over the weekend (unless I can convince Josh to let me use his computer on Friday and my brother to use his computer on Sunday).  My parents still live in the 20th century (well, maybe even 18th century because they don’t even have cable) and don’t have an Internet connection.  In some ways I like it because I get away from all my “interconnectivity” and distractions.  In other ways, I feel cut-off from the world.  So, this blog will probably be down for a few days, but I’ll back-blog when I get back.  Hey, you all know me and you all know I’ll catch back up.

Okay, time to talk about Chapter 15 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 15:  Raith Seinar entered the observation deck of his big flagship, the “Admiral Korvin”.  Seinar noticed that none of the craft on the ship were his and he was stuck with E-5 droids.  Seinar reveals to Tarkin that he does not believe in droids as fighters.  Tarkin tells him that these droids can think independently.  Tarkin says that Zenoma Sekot shoud be a pushover, so Seinar should have more than enough of a force to control the planet.  Tarkin informed Seinar that this was the best he could do considering that the Trade Federation’s army was being handed over to the Republic.  Seinar informed Tarkin that he was concerned about whether he would be successful or not and whether it would affect his reputation.  Tarkin informs Seinar that he will not be going, but staying  on Coruscant to deal with the political fallout.  Captain Kett entered the bridge and let them know that they would be leaving in twenty minutes.  Seinar insists on escorting Tarkin to the transport deck.

Well, today was a much more productive day without students around.  I had most of the morning to work out closing my room out for the end of the year.  My room is REALLY close to being ready to be shut down.  I did get a chance to meet with the High School sound/lighting guru and he wanted to help me maximize what we have in our auditorium.  I really liked being able to bend his ear and talk to him about ideas.  It was really cool and he had some great ideas for the auditorium that (I hope) will help to maximize the sound and lights.  Good ideas and quick fixes and it seems they’ll all work.  I then went over to a retired teacher’s house for lunch and had a great time for lunch.  She has a great house and a wonderful view and just had a good time socializing with fellow teachers and even some people I’ve never met before.  I know it would’ve made Heather nervous, but I’ve never seemed to have a problem socializing with people I’ve never met before.  I guess I get that from my dad.

I came back from lunch, talked to the other general music teacher for a little bit and about what needed to get done before the end of the year and then I started to put equipment away.  I came close to being done and expect I’ll finish within an hour tommorrow morning.  This will give me some time to work on some “Jedi Babies” script and also notes for the next TJCS and the backstory for “Catch a Falling Star”.  I came home to my kids coming home from their last day of school and we got a chance to socialize a little, eat dinner, and then watch some T.V. shows tonight.  My kids watched “Lilo and Stitch” tonight and I started doing an impersonation of Stitch and my kids thought it was awesome.  Now they want me to write Stitch into an episode of “Jedi Babies”.  We’ll see what happens, maybe it will happen.

Okay, time to talk about Chapter 14 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 14:  Charza puts his ship in orbit over Zenoma Sekot.  Obi-Wan reveals, while packing his bags, that he has a significant amount of money with him.  Obi-Wan says that there is a rumor that this much money will buy a Sekotan ship.  Obi-Wan hands the money to Anakin and tells him to guard this money.  Zenoma Sekot is a strange looking planet from space.  It ahs mixtures of greens and whites.  Anakin tried to come to an internal peace and realized that he missed Padme and his mother, Shmi.  Obi-Wan returned saying that Charza’s new younglings were ready to run parts of the ship.  Anakin reveals that he feels that they’re going to face trouble on the planet.  They check to see if the planet has okayed their landing.

Well, it’s officially over.  At least it is for the students.  We have no more students after today and good thing too because this year seems to have been really long.  I can’t believe I made it through the year without taking a “mental health day”.  Yeah, I can’t let that happen to me next year.  I need to take those days for my own sanity and I’m amazed that I didn’t go nuts before the end of the year.  Lunch time was interesting to say the least.  We had students rushing at other students, others hitting each other, and others kicking each other and they all thought it was funny and cool.  For the staff working, it was frustrating and scary.  This is going to be our future!  Yikes!

I got home and changed quickly and went to Wendy’s to do an interview for my summer job.  I had a good discussion with Heather’s boss.  They decided to start me on grill and then work me around if I want to.  I think I may actually enjoy working the grill only because it may turn me off to wanting to eat burgers over the summer.  What better way to stay on a diet than get sick of food that’s bad for you, right?  Well, let’s see how long that holds up.  I will look at all of this as a giant challenge.  Of course, when it comes to my diet, I’ve decided that the two days of this weekend don’t count and after that I will go back to my solid diet.

I am really looking forward to Friday night (I need this!).  Josh, Joanne, myself, and Heather are going to go out together.  We plan on going to Nick Tahoes for dinner.  I have been craving a garbage plate big time!!  And I don’t care what anyone thinks, there is only one Nick’s plate.  As far as what will happen after that, I’m not sure.  I know we’re going to at least go to “Millenium” and then we’ll see what happens.  I also am looking forward to going to my brother’s house and spending time with my family.  Still have to get the car fixed on Friday, but “Monroe Muffler” knows what needs to be done to the car and has all the stuff on hand and told Heather they can do the muffler system and tires in two hours and we’ll get Lemans tires on the car.  I’ve never used this brand before, but I’m willing to try something new.

Tonight Austin and I played the “Star Wars Miniatures Game”.  It was actually pretty cool and Austin could understand the concepts and rules.  I beat him, but only because I played a “hide and go seek” strategy with him.  he’s pretty smart though and almost beat me.  It came down to a final battle between Grievous and Obi-Wan.  I actually really liked the game and it may be the next miniatures game I get into.

Okay, I guess it’s time to get into Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:Rogue Planet” by Greg Bears…..

Chapter 13:  Tarkin and Seinar are racing toward a shuttle and Tarkin tells Seinar they have less than an hour to get ready because the Jedi have come out of hyperspace.  Tarkin is excited but Raith Seinar is taking his time.   Tarkin talks about the importance of the mission and the fact that they’ve been given level two clearance.  Seinar sounds dissapointed that it’s not level one.  Seinar told Tarkin he keeps and independent mind.  Tarkin warns that this concept could be personally dangerous.