The Jedi Council

Went to school today to do some work and realized that a LOT of my equipment is on the condemned stage in my school.  So, I planned on doing a lot of work and got very little done because there wasn’t really much to work with.  I found out today that tommorrow I will be meeting with the company that will be going in to get some of our equipment off the stage.  So, I’ll need to explain to them where my equipment is and what my equipment is.  It’s kinda hard because I’m not allowed to go in the room and I don’t want to forget anything.  It makes me feel a little better because my desk is set up and so is the equipment that is already in my room.  Now I hope it doesn’t take too long to get the equipment off the stage and into my classroom.  All my recorders, drums, and keyboards are on the stage and it will be hard to conduct a music class without any instruments.  We got home and I continued to work on the house.  The shop is looking better and I decided it was also time to mow the lawn.  So, when Heather headed out for work, I mowed the lawn.  All of it.  It took me almost a full three hours by the time it was said and done and it was getting pretty dark by the time I was done.  Man, they should consider putting lights on push lawnmowers.  What if I wanted to mow my lawn at night?  Just kidding :)! 

Anyway, time to talk about Chapter 4 (Part 1) of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 4 (Part 1): Nemrileo of the world of Tanjay and Senator Mousul meet in a very shady part of Coruscant at a bar.  Nemrileo says he’s nervous about the situation on Ansion and Mousul says he shouldn’t be.  He assurs him and a female at the table that all will go according to plan.  The female exclaims that two Jedi and their padawans will put a new perspective to the plan.  Tam Uliss, a buisnessman from Ansion says his people are growing impatient with the Commerce Guild.  Mousul warns that Shu Mai may not like where this is going and they point out that this is why the meeting didn’t involve her.  They all begin to question the ability to trust the Commerce Guild.  Mousul and the female at the table vouch for Shu Mai.  mousul says that his contact on Ansion is prepared to deal with the Jedi issue.  He suggests they go about their daily lives.  He reminds them they are luck that Shu Mai manages to mediate with the nameless opposition.  He suggests they have some drinks.  He relaxes more when he decides to tell Shu Mai about the member of the group they may no longer trust.  It could be the end of that person at the table…..

Today was very busy and I didn’t intend for it to be.  I expected to simply do some last bit of recording for our “Jedi Babies” project and get it done.  But, it didn’t quite go down that way.  Heather decided today that she wanted to rearrange the house for the things my parents are bringing on Thursday.  First we had to organize her sewing/scrapbooking room so we could get one of the two tables out of the game room because my father is bringing down the train table for our house that I’m going to use for gaming on.  My parents are also going to bring down my mother’s sewing cabinet for Heather to put her sewing machine on and her sewing materials in.  It will be good just in time for the fall season when Heather is sewing for the dancing company she works for.  We then went into my shop and organized that as we moved in the other table into the shop and took down my old shop table which was a really poorly put together old closet door that the previous owners used as a table-top.  It was pretty sad, but now it’s nice to have a shop area and now I got a chair for my shop.  Pretty awesome if you ask me!!  My shop is organized and looks pretty nice as well.  Heather even helped me throw out some things we were afraid to throw out before.  It looks very nice in the basement now.  Tommorrow I plan on going in to school to do some work and see what I can find out about our condemned stage and how I’m going to get the equipment out of there.

Time to talk about Chapter 3 (Part 6) of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 3 (Part 6):  Soergg and Ogomoor discuss the plan together that the jedi have put into motion.  Ogomoor suggested bribing them to which Soergg said that Jedi can’t be bribed, connived, broken, or even swayed.  Soergg told Ogomoor to come closer to learn how to deal with Jedi.  As Ogomoor did, he began to think he was not being paid enough to put up with this.

Well, today was a day to try and get things back to normal.  We took the car back early and headed over to Vestal to get my fingerprint cards so I can get them done.  Evidently I need to be fingerprinted even though I’m already a teacher!  So, we picked up the cards then headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some things we need for the house.  We also decided to stop off at Home Depot and check out some things we need for reorganizing a closet in the hallway.  I then headed over to the Sheriff’s department and got my fingerprints done - AGAIN!!  Man, if anyone in the office didn’t know any better, they would think I was a thug or something.  Heck, I’m getting to be known by name in the office now.  It’s pretty sad!  I’ve been fingerprinted three different times this summer for school jobs and certificates.  We came home, took a nap and then got some more of the camping equipment cleaned.  We hung all the tents and tarps outside so they could dry because my parents are coming with stuff on Thursday and we want to be able to give them back the equipment we’ve borrowed from them.

I tried to talk to my wife on the way home from camping about going to the New York State Fair this year.  I always loved going as a kid and I know our kids would have a blast at the fair.  We’ll have to see if I can convince her.  My parents are going there tommorrow.

Okay, time to get back to book synopsis and time to talk about “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster - Chapter 3 (Part 5)…..

Chapter 3 (Part 5):  Delegate Kandah waited on Songoquin Street for a benefactor to appear.  The stranger appeared and asked how the meeting went with the Jedi, to which she replied, “it all went too well.”  She explained the proposal of Luminara’s and the stranger laughed and said they’ll never convince the Alwari.  Kandah disagreed and was convinced the Jedi may succeed to which the stranger said they are famous for fighting not talking.  Then the stranger said she will get paid in the usual manner for the information and that she will reclaim land Karmudah should Ansion seceed from the Republic.  That’s when Ogomoor dissappeared…..

Well, we woke up to a soaked campsite this morning.  We decided not to waste too much time.  We took the kids to some fun things like saying the pledge with Yogi Bear and an autograph session with Cindy Bear.  But we didn’t waste much time striking camp because we felt as if our time was ticking down before it started to rain again.  The clouds/sky didn’t look promising.  We didn’t get on the road for more than an hour till we hit rain that was just coming down in sheets.  We took our time coming through Pennsylvannia which annoyed the heck out of Heather as she already hates driving through that state as it is.  It took both of us watching the road to make it through the situation.  We got back to Great Bend around five p.m. and my in-laws bought us dinner at the McDonald’s there.  We got to our house and dropped off equipment.  We immediately started to unload our muddy and soaked equipment.  We spent most of the rest of the night cleaning and drying camping equipment.  We went to bed early because of how tired we were from last night and not sleeping too well.

I woke up pretty early this morning to my father-in-law making a breakfast of pancakes for everyone today.  It was a great way to start what was sure to be a very busy day in Maryland.  Heather made a slight error last night when she took her shower.  She managed to loose our shampoo and soap on us by leaving it in the shower.  Drew let me borrow his for this morning.  We got everything done and packed up and then headed over to the Antietam National Battlefield Park.  Man, has that place changed since the last time I’ve been there!  There’s a nice visitors center and everything there and it’s all been updated with an addition of a tower to overlook the Sunken Road (better known as Bloody Lane).  I took my in-laws on a self-guided tour of the battlefield and I think they learned more and had more fun than if one of those park-ranger clowns had led us around with their tour.  We got to Burnside’s Bridge and I quoted some numbers (approximately 2500 men lost their lives trying to take the bridge) when Drew said that that many guys have died in the entire Iraqi war when in three hours, that many guys died trying to take one bridge.  It’s kinda ironic, ain’t it?  Anyway, we headed back to camp and ate lunch.  We got done eating lunch and all the kids wanted to go on the waterslides and the pool, so we all headed over and did that.  We were there for a good two hours and Heather and I came back to camp with Austin.  I felt bad as he couldn’t swim out with everyone else because of his cast on his arm.  I opened up some plastic military guys we bought at the park and told him he could play with them in the tent.  Heather and I took a nap in ours.

We got up about a half hour later and started to get dinner ready.  Drew came up with a friend from the military base and his friends’ parents came to visit us.  We had some great conversation and had a good time.  It was a cloudy afternoon all afternoon long and all night long we could see lightning but not hear thunder or have any rain.  Well, after dinner, the friends’ parents decided to leave as we had no protection from the rain other than tents.  We stayed up late talking again and then it started to rain around 10 p.m.  We all headed for the tents and it rained and rained and rained.  It rained so hard that Drew moved from the tent to the car and Heather and I got soaked in the tent.  Needless to say, it’s not exactly how we wanted to end our camping experience.

Okay, I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but over the next three days, I’m officially taking a vacation.  This means I will write about what happened to us in our personal lives, but no Star Wars book review.  At least for three days.  So, I apologize for not giving you advanced notice, but that’s just the way it is for the next few days.  Sorry…..

Well, one word can describe today - driving!!  I felt as though we were driving forever today.  Today started off pretty rough but ended off pretty nice.  We got up fairly early and headed over to Enterprise rent-a-car.  We proceeded to go through the process of picking up the car when they asked for a credit card, a heating bill, and all of our personal information.  Heck, at the rate they were going, I’m amazed they didn’t ask for our dental records!!  Heather said that their website and when we called, they mentioned none of this!!  So the guy said, “sorry, we can’t rent you a car”.  Well, that’s when Heather and I went into action.  We put on an act like you wouldn’t believe and we played this twenty year old salesman like a fiddle.  I got all ticked off, yelling at the salesman and stormed out of the store.  I knew Heather would play me as the bad man and would explain to the guy that we wanted to leave for vacation today, which she did.  I walked back into the store and demanded to see the manager in the office right now.  I started yelling at the guy about lying to the public and having a dishonest company and that I was going to be all over them for not letting people know this.  The manager came wipping out of his office and asked what was wrong.  I told him that Enterprise was going to ruin our vacation and that my poor kids were going to be wrecked over this.  At this point, almost on que, my kids started to cry.  The manager quickly started asking questions and assured us that we would have a car.  They accepted my parents’ credit card to secure the card and dismissed the other forms of I.D. and took copies of our liscences and social security cards.  We were on the road finally and went to Aldi’s quick before we went home.

When we got home, we unloaded the groceries into boxes and then started loading the cars with the camping equipment.  I was a little nervous that we hadn’t set the one tent up before we left, but figured it was okay as we would have other tents with us.  As we began loading, Heather’s parents showed up and helped and we loaded some equipment into their truck and car as well.  By 10 a.m. we were on the road and going to Maryland.  Austin was in our car and Ruth and Tara were in the car with Aunt Tara Lynn.  We got to the camp site around three or four o’clock and set up camp.  It worked out perfect and then Heather and the kids took off to do some things with Yogi Bear.  We stayed up late tonight to wait for Uncle Drew to join us from base and we went to bed pretty late.  Tommorrow we are supposed to go to the Antietam battlefield.

Today at band camp was MUCH better!  So much better that we actually finished the show!  That’s right, the staff and students taught/learned a marching band show in approximately four and a half days.  That’s pretty gosh darn good if you ask me!  It just felt good to leave that morning knowing that we got through the last set and that all we have to do is go back tonight and to start putting things together and cleaning the show up.  I came home this afternoon and the kids and I put the tents together for our trip this weekend.  I wanted to make sure I know how to put them together and I realized that we may not have enough “tent” for our family and my in-laws’ family.  Luckily, they have an extra tent, so we should be stuck too much.  I also worked all day on getting things together for the trip.  Including beefing up on my reading.  See, we’re heading to Maryland this weekend to camp at a Jellystone park.  Then we’re going to visit the Antietam Battlefield park where I will lead the family on a self-guided tour of the park (no problem as i am a Civil War Reenactor!) and then just enjoy some time together.  I’m really excited about the trip and can’t wait to get going tommorrow morning.  I was a little dissapointed in Heather as she didn’t plan ahead very well and we don’t have money to go food shopping with until tommorrow morning, which is going to make the morning very tight.  That means we have to get the rental car, go to the grocery store, and then load the car.  Lot’s to do in a short amount of time.  I went back to practice tonight and things went very well.  Great as a matter of fact!  I left early, picked up the girls, came home and did some last minute downloading for the car ride for the trip.  It should be loads of fun!!

Okay, time to talk about Part 4 of Chapter 3 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 3 (Part 4):  That’s when the delegate, Kandah by name, says they are trying to manipulate their words against them.  Then Ranjiyn says they should respect The Force when another delegate, Tolut, says he’s not intimidated by The Force and thinks the Senate is old and should just die.  he then takes data disks and throws them against the wall and shouts, “free Ansion” and demands they all join him, including the Alwari.  Anakin became anxious at that moment and started to reach for his lightsaber, but a smile from Obi-Wan stayed his hand.  Luminara warned that The Force should not be taken lightly.  That’s when Tolut said that anyone can muster The Force and used his wond powers to lift a glass at the center of the table without touching it.  Then Luminara took over his grip on the glass of water, lifted it higher, moved it over Tolut’s head and then dumped it on his head.  He lunged at Luminara and Barriss grabbed her lightsaber, but Luminara held her hand.  Then the other glasses of water flew off the table and onto Tolut’s face as Luminara remarked about the hope that no one was thirsty.  Tolut got angry and then admitted he did not know everything about The Force to which Luminara happily conceded.  Then Tolut said that no tricks will convince the Alwari as Obi-Wan pointed out to Anakin that this was Luminara’s version of dynamic diplomacy as Barriss held back a smerk.  Ranjiyn noted that the Alwari own most of the land on the planet and the Unity would rather not have to plead to the Senate everytime they want to expand a city’s territory.  Anakin points out that without a Senate they may face an unending local war and Barriss pointed out it hurts both sides.  They were told by “friends”, that they refused to disclose, that if they left the Republic they would receive aide.  Luminara proposed a compromise whereby the Alwari agree to share dominion over half the lands, let the Unity develop resources on that land in exchange for staying in the Republic.  As the Ansionions discussed the proposal, Obi-Wan voiced his concern abotu proposing something the may not be able to garauntee.  Luminara said she was simply trying to shake things up and get them to stop talking about secession.  This time they were addressed by the Ansionian named Induran.  Induran says the agreement would sway many in the room, but doubt the Alwari would ever agree to such terms.  Anakin asked how they could find the Alwari.  Ranjiyn said to go away from civilization to find them or let them find you.  they scoffed at the idea of convincing the Alwari, to which Obi-Wan said it can’t be any harder than negotiating traffic patterns on Coruscant….

This was a rougher day than normal.  I woke up this morning a little more tired and realizing that band camp is actually starting to wear on me a little.  This morning, sets went slower and we only got through a few sets.  The students as well as the staff just didn’t seem as motivated as usual.  I think it was just because it’s the middle of a long week.  The other staff members and I were really just burning out as well.  I just need to make sure I get some more sleep tonight.  I came home and Heather and I took a nap together.  While I was home and napping, Heather got a phone call from the band instructor at our school and found out that my auditorium has been officially condemned at my school.  Apparently when they went in to repair some problems because of the rain water leaking inside the auditorium, they realized that there is asbestos in the walls of the auditorium (which they’ve known about for years).  The EPA condemned the auditorium and has since said no one is allowed in there until the problem is fixed.  Surprise, surprise!!  I’m really not surprised, the auditorium was built around the 1950’s and no one has taken the time to abate the asbestos in there since then.  So, this may make our upcoming school year very interesting.  After my nap, we watched some T.V. together and then made and ate dinner.  The girls went to their first cheerleading practice while I went back to marching band camp.  I left there at eight p.m. and picked up the girls on my way home.  Tommorrow’s my last full day of band camp before I go off on our weekend getaway, which I’m really looking forward to.

Okay, time to talk about Part 3 of Chapter 3 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 3 (Part 3):  Obi-Wan sensed anxiety and hostility as they all walked toward the municipal hall of the city of Cuipernam.  Luminara didn’t like politicians and felt they never act on any personal thought.  Obi-Wan suggests that money works, but the Jedi don’t work that way.  He was confident they would respond to reason as much as they would money.  As they got to the building they noted how simplistic it’s architecture truly was.  A female greeted them and took them into a room where seven delegates sat behind a wooden table.  Luminara noted the Ansionian appearance as being sorter, leaner, and with a long strain of hair all the way to their tail.  They also had large eyes and sharp teeth.  Of course, no Alwari were present because of an agreement that had come about over two-hundred years ago, then agin, that’s why the Jedi are here.  The Alwari wanted to stay in the Republic and enjoy it’s rules and laws while urbanites wanted to live freely and dictate their own rules.  Of course no one here really understood that there was much more at stake.  A member of the Unity stood and introduced himself as Ranjiyn.  Luminara tried to explain that the Jedi are here to negotiate a settlement beween the city-dwellers and the Alwari.  She is cut-off and told that they all know she is here to try to keep them from joining the secessionist movement.  Obi-Wan said that the Jedi only seek peace within the states of the Republic.  Then a representative pulls out a large stack of data disks and slams them on the table.  She then complains of the “compliance” that the Republic insists upon.  They then speak of a bias toward the Alwari by the Senate as they have been told by Senator Mousul.   Luminara tried to counter but Obi-Wan cut her off by agreeing with the delegate about the Senate.  Then he points out that Democracy demands that citizens speak out and that’s what makes the Republic and Ansion such great places to live in…..

Second day of band camp and I feel as though we got a lot accomplished.  If we keep going at the rate we’re going, we may get the sets done a day early and even have some time to start cleaning sets and really laying it all down for the kids.  I was a little more tired today for camp but feel as though it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Heather called me while I was at camp this morning and told me that she was going to be taking Austin to a doctor in Vestal and getting a cast for his broken arm.  She then called me later and said she would come to me and meet me and we would go to Wendy’s together for lunch.  Well, the plan sounded good in theory.  However, as always, my wife decided to run the car too close to the “E” on the tank of the car again!  So, when she went to restart the car, it wouldn’t start.  So, we went to Wendy’s to eat lunch and came home.  We decided she would have to follow me to band camp tonight and put gas in the car using the gas can and then drive to work.  She got gas down the road and went to work.  I went to band camp and had the kids with me because we couldn’t find a babysitter for tonight.  They did a really good job staying preocuppied and I was so proud of them.  It was almost as if they weren’t even there.  We came home and watched some T.V. and headed to bed.  I didn’t get much work done on my bowcaster today and figured that would be the case until sometime next week after our vacation this weekend.

Time to talk about Part 2 of Chapter 3  of “The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 3 (Part 2):  Soergg then got on the comm to Shu Mai and let her know of the failed attempt.  He let her know that the other two Jedi arrived early and he lost many of his men and it has now become more expensive.  Shu Mai scoffed and said it was not her fault that it failed and asked Soergg if he did or didn’t car about Ansion’s potential entrance into the Republic.  Soergg asks her to send professional help but she says she’s restricted so as not to draw attention to the matter by the Jedi.  Shu Mai said that if Soergg had a problem, she would be willing to trade places and he could explain their problem to their patron why the mission failed……

Well, today was extremely busy and a little traumatic for the family.  First off, I got up fairly early and headed out to Vestal for band camp.  We had a great morning rehearsal and really got the first song done as far as sets were concerned.  I was pretty proud of the students and the band and I feel confident that things are well underway.  I left to come home and decided to call my school and see if I could stop by.  I needed to get back to my school today as my workbooks were probably lost in the flood.  I called and found out that no one would really be at the school until two p.m.  So I headed home for lunch, watched a little T.V. with Heather and then headed for school.  I got the workbooks recopied and took care of some buisness and then came home.  Heather told me that Austin was home in his bedroom and had a problem with his wrist.  When I looked at his right wrist it was twice the size of his left wrist.  I told Heather it didn’t look good.  We put ice on it and ate dinner, but I didn’t feel right about how it looked.  Then the realization hit when Austin couldn’t even cut his own meat, that his wrist was really hurting.  I had to get back to Vestal for night of band camp, so Heather decided to take Austin to the walk-in clinic by my school and show up to work late.  She called me at practice and told me the doctor at the walk-in said his wrist was broken.  He put an air-cast on it but said Austin needed to see a doctor tommorrow to get a cast for it.  He’s not happy because this has pretty much stopped his first football season before it’s even started.  I left band camp early and came home and got there around 8:30 p.m.  I went downstairs and watched the finale for “Treasure Hunters” while the kids watched “Ice Age” upstairs.  Went to bed early as I have more band camp tommorrow.

Time to talk about Chapter 3 (Part 1) of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 3 (Part 1):  Ogomoor, Bossban Soergg The Hutt’s major domo walked the halls of the headquarters very upset.  Ogomoor had bad news for eh boss and there were even wagers being placed about whether he would come out alive or not.  As Ogomoor entered he found Soergg looking out his window at a view of Lower Cuipernam and one of his concubines looked at him sadly, which he knew was not a good sign.  Soergg said that he failed.  Ogomoor pointed out that he didn not fail, but the attackers and those that hired them failed, he was just a facilitator.   Soergg suggested that no one is at fault but Ogomoor reminds him that it was still a failure.  Soergg also says they were told they would be dealing with two Jedi and not four and also states taht each Jedi there doubles their strength exponentially.  Ogomoor pointed out that the other two were not scheduled to arrive for two days and that maybe they had sensed danger and managed to get there sooner and that they needed to examine how.  Soergg asked who they should examine and then said that would open up a can of worms that Ogomoor would not want to sort out.  He also says Jedi are hard to ambush and that it will be more expensive to take them out, which his patrons will not be happy with.  Ogomoor points out that the arguement between the Unity , the Republic, and the Nomads has created much instability.  Soergg points out that this is bad for buisness, but that they must make sure the vote for Ansion to pull out of the Republic does in fact succeed.  Soergg also warned that their patrons have a bad reputation for over-reacting to failure.  Soergg says they need the employee of a true bounty hunter, but none of those would be found on Ansion.  Ogomoor goes to excuse himself to take care of a shipment of tweare skins but is stopped by Soergg and told the Jedi take presedence over everything.  Requisition anything or anyone he wants and Soergg will okay it.  As Ogomoor walked down the hall and out of the Hutt’s office, he wondered if there wasn’t a way to attack a Jedi without being detected first…..