do i have a mighty big crush on sarah palin? mmmm...

back in my classroom. i like it here. it is nice. we were going to try and watch as many pixar movies as we could last night, but i fell asleep 3/4 of the way through the incredibles. weird al should make a movie called the edibles.

i am working in my classroom. it is good to be back. i'm finally getting a little excited about the coming year. ask me how i'm doing in a week. or not as i'll probably be mopey and melancholy.

anything else? i'm training for a half-marathon. and i might make some stew for dinner.

my brain.

my brain almost exploded this morning. i am touch and go.

i am watching john adams. and i am a bit tired. i got home at 2:30ish or so and got up at 6:30ish. jack fell asleep about 20 minutes ago, but now i'm awake and i don't want to ruin my day by sleeping through.

this is going to be a busy week. i have to get ready for school (starting next wednesday), i have to do homework for my class, i have to start moving things to the other house, i have to dig a trench for a pipe, and i have to do some other things too.

this movie is good. it would be better if he played john adams as harvey peekar and if laura linney played a. adams as her character in kinsey and if the guy who plays george washington played him in the same way that he played that guy in the movie with dakota fanning that made people a little uneasy.

i may change the name of the band to the sons of liberty.

we have a show on saturday.

i need some coffee.

i think i may watch the diving bell and the butterfly. and i'm drinking green tea with vanilla soy milk.

i finished in cold blood and am starting my antonia. it is neat and reminds me of the nebraska relatives--my mom's side. anything else? no. oh, yeah. we're playing a show saturday. come out. 7:30. 7.00.

i'm watching the sands of iwo jima and it is nice. i am finishing in cold blood and starting in my antonia. poppo was in the hospital with heart issues. we think he's good, but please be praying.

we are playing on saturday. come on out.

Barbie Cue Update...

If you are coming on Sunday... bring a lawn chair or chairs as we only have a couple.

we saw a family of four of these yesterday.



eagle rays they be.

tonight we ate at aloha mix plate. good local food. i had the look fun. it was. we then went to town and had a little walk and saw a rainbow and a sunset. we will come home tomorrow.

i just finished lolita earlier today. now i am starting in cold blood. lolita was for book club. in cold blood was because i wanted something for my last couple days here. i'm slowly going through some stuff that i should've read a long time ago. i plan on skipping the boring things though because life's too short to pretend to be smart, or prentend to be trying to be smart or learnededd. making fantasy baseball trades is way more fun. sometimes. we leave in a day or so. this makes me sad. real life. shrug. i'm starting a tv show though and i have a baby and wife. these things are good. we went and saw the batman tonight because jack has a lot of grandparents around right now. it was way cool. sirius totally died and then didn't. it was so wack. heath ledger just totally...

so come to the barbie cue. it is sunday.

we are still in hawaii. robyn is giving jack food and i'm making my igoogle page more rad. the parents went on a drive to upcountry leaving robyn, jack, and myself all by our lonesomes. we've taken turns watching the baby and relaxing by the beach. robyn is finishing her vampire book and i am finishing the book club book of the month. we also spent some time in town under the banyan tree. we met an old man from australia and ate sushi. really the best and freshest sushi is from the market. i've been a little light on the poke this trip, but all in all my raw fish intake has been decent. i almost bought some look fun noodles to make look fun when we get home. i'll probably pick them up tomorrow or the next day. oh well. home soon. boo hoo.

so, we are on the home stretch. i think we get back to los angeles on friday, but i'm not counting. we've had a fantastic time. a lot of the same old, same old, but seeing as the same old (fresh fish- raw and cooked, snorkeling, surfing, reading, writing, sitting in the sun, etc.) rules, we've really had a gas.

nothing much major. robyn's dad got stung by a jelly fish. we saw a rare monk seal. jack doesn't like sleeping. the dodgers made some trades i kind of like and kind of don't. nothing else really. time for a shower and aloe.

i'll put up more pictures i guess sometime.

here are some beaches with people.

hawaii is still fun. jack decided to not sleep last night so i am tired. very. we played dominoes late last night and i recorded two songs with jayson. the belts leave today. this is sad. robyn's parents come in some time next week i think. i'm just reading a lot and snorkeling and whatnot. nothing out of this world, just your usual relaxing awesomeness. i may make some coffee soon. we're going to mix plate for lunch to eat good hawaiian food. and we may go surfing again soon. like today. robyn's birthday is tomorrow. we will probably do something fun. oh, and the dodgers made a dumb meaningless trade. ned colletti and joe torre bug. here is my analysis via fire joe morgan. they wrote the words that were in my brains:

Dodger Fans, Rest Easy

There's a steady hand at the helm of your ship. A hand that wears a cowboy hat. A hand that also wears snakeskin boots. Ned's hand.

What's that? You just traded a 22-year-old catcher with a .994 OPS in 2008 and a pitcher with 335 strikeouts in 262.2 minor league innings for a defensively challenged third baseman with a career 106 OPS+ who turns 35 in a month?

And he's a two-month rental?

Relax -- there are good reasons for this. Excellent reasons. Reasons like -- Ned, you want to take this one?

"Casey Blake is a gamer," said Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti.

See? Don't you feel better now? What, you need more? Ned's got more.

"I think we improved the club," Colletti said. "Blake's a grinder with great character, a passionate player."

That's not all, Dodger fans. In addition to the privilege of trading away two talented prospects, you'll get the added benefit of continuing to block the progress of Andy LaRoche, who's racked up an .898 OPS in 1796 minor league at bats, has been heralded as a top prospect for what seems like hundreds of years now, was projected by PECOTA to OPS something like .850, and yet can't seem to ever be good enough to play in more than a handful of games in a row for the Dodgers. Ever. (LaRoche, by the way, has awful numbers in the majors this year, but he's been incredibly hit-unlucky (BABIP of .200) and he's walked more than he's struck out. Plus -- dude. The guy has gotten all of 59 at bats. Angel Berroa has gotten 89 at bats for Joe Torre's TerribleVetSquad already.)

It's not like Carlos Santana and Jonathan Meloan are sure things. Santana is kind of old to be in High A (and he's in the hitter-friendly Cal League), and Meloan has been terrible as a starter (though he should be a reliever anyway). But we're talking about giving them away for two hundred-some-odd at bats of Casey Blake. .336 career OBP Casey Blake. Bad defender in an already defensively suspect Dodger infield Casey Blake. Gamer Casey Blake. Grinder Casey Blake. Beardy Casey Blake. Casey Beard.

So yeah, I guess if I had to give this trade a grade, I would give it an A-. The only reason there's a minus is: there now appears to be a gamer surplus in the Dodger clubhouse. What happens when a team attains such a dangerously high gaminess quotient? Will Juan Pierre grow a thick, Baron Davis-style beard to prove that he's more of a gamer than Blake? What if Jeff Kent shoots himself in the foot with a crossbow just so he can play through the pain of a crossbow wound and be hailed as the gamiest Dodger of all? What if Nomar turns himself into a 5'6" white guy, and then Broxton transforms himself into Brett Favre in retaliation, and then Hong-Chih Kuo tops them all by becoming the ultimate gamer: a 5'6" Brett Favre?

I think the answer to all of these questions is: the Dodgers and their fans win, that's what happens. Casey Blake is the key to the World Series. Ned, you're a genius.

we have now been here a week. this is the first morning where i think nothing is wrong with my body. i will continue to take the strep medicine, though as it has made me who i am today.

we are playing a lot of dominoes and swimming in the ocean and reading. i am writing too. and reading. wonderboyz. a rock autobiography. the human comedy. lolita when finished.

made the annual trip to the whaler's museum. i will visit five more times this trip. i took jack. i hope he becomes a whaler some day.

i am trading like mad in fantasy baseball. propose a trade and i will accept. not. only if it will make my team stronger like the wind that is dolly. in texas.

word.

i have to go to the doctor today. i think i have strep or mono again.

the rio bravo and jayson belt are playing a sweet fun show at the key club on august 23.

buy a ticket!

first day. so far. got up early and wrote. robyn went for a jog, but my toe was still hurting so i stayed behind. we just finished a walk. i tried jogging a little. tomorrow i'll give it the full go. on the walk we ran into a man in blue board shorts. he was walking from his place about a half-mile from kahana sunset. after we ran into him we started talking about the baseball all-star game. nearing the beach we ran into a man wearing a 2008 all-star game t-shirt. my dad said nice shirt. san francisco giant announcer jon miller turned and said, "thanks."

now jack is napping and we are reading and stuff.

my toe hurts. jack is on the floor. we leave for hawaii tomorrow. i will surf and eat poke. i will probably also eat other raw fish and read books.

im watching round midnight. it rules. dexter gordon stars. you should watch it. we will go to long beach today. im not sure what ill do down there. maybe play whiffle ball. this movie makes me want to move to paris. but then i think back to paris and realize i didn't really dig it as i did roma. rome was more like the west. dry and dusty. we were actually in paris this time last year. or was it rome? we ended up with an extra day in rome because of a terror threat. someone tried to board a plane with a raptor in their pants.

im drinking coffee. hopefully my next cup wont taste burnt. it probably will. hopefully i will see more of my friends who live in other states. i think i may catch them all before the end of summer.

i should really play more piano.

this french guy in the movie has become friends with dexter gordon. i want to be friends with dexter gordon. my baby might start crying soon. when he does, i will pick him up. like now.