Valentine's Day 2008.....

This Valentine's Day is the first that Morgan and I have spent together in a "normal" fashion since 2002.
2007 - Morgan in San Diego / Sal in NC
2006 - Sal has knee surgery on February 13th
2005 - Morgan in San Diego / Sal in NC
2004 - Have family visit and tell them about Morgan's job in SD
2003 - Sal has diverticulitis and is on antibiotics and can barely move

We are doing nothing overly special. I got her some nice flowers and we exchanged cards. Cassie has swim practice, but we will all eat dinner together. To me, the most important part is that we are together.

This is one of those reasons why people keep telling me that I will never leave San Diego after being here for a while. And who knows, they might be right. Living in an area where it can be 90 minutes from the top of a mountain to the beach is amazing. I was able to go 1/4 mile from the house and get this picture. Literally around the corner from where we live. Pretty amazing what God creates for us.

My buddy, Mike, had the real tough choice of choosing between two motorcycles. This only made Casey hate him more. :-)

Speaking of Casey. Things seem to be settling down around the Gavette household. We don't get to speak or text as much as normal during this time of the year, but I am happy to see on his blog that everything is going well.

Also, a friend of Casey, Mike and myself, Will (Hogw1ld), who writes mostly about his cooking (smoking and BBQing), blogged about smoking eggs a couple of weeks back. I love breakfast, and may need to try that at some time.

OK, that is it for today.

- When will this stop?

- Um, OK. If that's what you want to call your city.

- Dale, Jr. seems to like his new team.

- This never happened with my man, Bobby Knight around.

Until the next time.....

please stay home.....

So, I have my first San Diego clients coming to the office for an income tax return. They were scheduled for Saturday, but asked if I was free prior to that time. I explained, that just like them, I only moved here a short time ago, so they would be my first "sit down" appointment, so anytime was good. They show up today, and what happens? All of them are sick. The husband just got over a cold, the wife has a scratchy throat, and the child could have been the poster boy for Kleenex. I could not finish the return fast enough. They were nice people, but what were they thinking? It never fails, as I always seem to get one a year that is sick, and for some reason will not move the appointment. What are the odds, that it would be my first client in San Diego?

As you can tell, I am frustrated and annoyed. Now I will think about it until Friday or Saturday, and hope I don't feel any symptoms. Luckily, neither Cassie or Morgan met any of them, so they should be OK. Just call and say, "I'm sick". That is OK. We will reschedule. Ugh!

Got an e-mail from the church group concerning our ride this Sunday. Because of the great weather, and this being the first ride, they are going to make it a long one. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm game for it (as long as I'm not sick!), and am looking forward to it.

I'm tired and cranky, so it's time to go.

- Prayers for Rev. Graham
- I prefer Pepsi
- Bet you they ask him to buy the beer.

Until the next time.....

windshield and helmet.....

My buddy, Mike (Th3Guns1ing3r) has posted on his site some pictures of the new bike he is about to purchase. It's a 2004 Kawasaki Vulcan Classic, and besides being a Japanesse bike (you know I had to kid you being a Harley owner), it is real nice. I wish him the best of luck with it.

He mentioned in a comment note from Saturday's blog that he has never had a windshield before, and was going to buy a full face and skull cap helmet. I love the windshield, and think he will like it, and so will his wife if she rides along. As for the helmet, I only have worn a full face, but I get the itch every once in a while to get a skull cap. Then I get hit with a rock, or debris, and am happy I have the full face helmet.

Morgan is going to start a blog page soon concerning food. It will have recipes, and other items. It should be very interesting with her new perspective on food. I am sure she will do very well with it. As soon as she gets it off the ground, I'll have a link on the side.

Speaking of Morgan, she was extremely happy to get into another size lower of jeans. Actually it was a size 8, and she did a "happy dance" around the house because of it. She is now at about 120 pounds lost, and something less then 20 pounds away from her goal. She looks great, and I am proud of her.

If she doesn't do it on her site, I will eventually (after tax season) get into all that she has gone through with the weight loss. And, I don't mean only physical. There has been a tremendous mental aspect to this as well, and that includes how people have treated her all along the way.

Poor new on the stepfather front. My mother was able to call me earlier today because Lou was at treatment, and she had the house to herself. A friend of the family, who is a doctor, is very concerned about the size and type of the tumor. I am hoping they are wrong with their concerns and timetable.

The Hurricanes traded away Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore today to the Ottawa Senators for Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves. At first I thought the Canes may be giving up on the season, but after after having some time to think about it, this might be a pretty good deal. The Canes get younger, and more speed. Both are important for this team.

If you did not see or hear about what happened to Florida Panther, Richard Zednik Sunday night, it is an amazing and very scary play. Luckily, he is now in stable condition. The incident happened almost 19 years to the day, that it last happened, and that one also took place in Buffalo. That time is was goalie, Clint Malarcuck who got cut with an accidental skate.

- Cold War II?
- How's that fancy Blackberry?
- Sure looks like Blu-Ray is the winner.
- Hope you bought the "forever" stamp.

Until the next time.....

up the mountains.....

The weather here in San Diego has turned to "springlike" (not that it was bad before), so Friday morning Morgan received an email from the car club in our church that they were looking to do a ride up to the mountain town of Julian. Because I have not been there, and the Viper only has two seats, I tagged along behind them on my motorcycle. Let me say that making a 45 mile ride up to the mountains as my first "curvy road trip", may not have been my best idea. I was usually only a couple of minutes behind, but I felt bad for holding the others up. It was a beautiful and fun trip, but I had to get used to going around curves with only "drop off" on the other side. Morgan had a blast with the rest of the group going up and coming back down. We stopped at the Julian Cafe and Bakery for breakfast with the group. As you can see from the pictures, Flat Stanley also made the trip with us, and I think he had a good time.

After we all returned home, Morgan and Cassie spent some time over at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The park is associated with the San Diego Zoo. They had a good time, and said we need to go again when I have some time, and we need to bring the camera.

I spent the time in the office cleaning up little things so that on Monday morning I can just attack these tax returns starting to pile up on my desk. That always happens at the start of the month, when I have my normal monthly clients work to handle, along with the tax returns.

When we joined our new church as members, they let us have new Study Bibles. These are NIV versions that many of the church members carry with them to service on Saturdays and Sundays. In two months, I went from just one "regular" Bible, to now having two different study Bibles. Each is interesting in its own way. On the Bible reading front, it has slowed down these past couple of weeks because of work, but I am more than half way through the Book of John.

The Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Friday night. It was a good win for them, as the Capitals have been playing exceptional hockey since they changed coaches on Thanksgiving Day. The win, let them leap frog the Caps and put them back in first place in the division.

Tonight, is not so good for the Canes. At the end of the first, they are down 4-1 to the New Jersey Devils. Back to back games on the road is tough, but they have got to make a better showing then his if they want to make the playoffs. Hopefully this score will turn around in a couple of hours, but I'm not counting on it.

- Start your engines!
- No YahSoft or MicroHoo
- Getting a tax rebate?
- WiiHab

Until the next time.....

Top Gun.....

As you can see, Morgan is allowed out of the studio every once in a while. Yesterday she took a tour of one of the area's "repair stations". That is as basic as I can put it, as it has a big fancy official name, but it is part of the military here in San Diego where helicopters and airplanes are fixed and refurbished to keep running as best as they can. The people that are involved in that process are top notch mechanical engineers.

We were fortunate enough to watch fireworks from aboard the SS Midway for he 4th of July celebration back in 2004, and it is impressive. I was not there yesterday, but from these pictures, I am sure yesterday's adventure was equally as thrilling.

Cassie received her test scores back, and she has been accepted into the Gifted and Talented Education program (GATE). She will not be movng classes or anything that would take her away from what she is currently doing. The program here allows these kids to go a little deeper into what they are already learning. They meet as a group as are given some extra subject matter on what they were taught earlier in the day. For us, we think it will keep Cassie from getting bored during school.

The new swimming practices have been tough on Cassie. Now, the coaches work them the full 90 minutes, and want them to be working hard all the time. She has been called out by her coach a couple of times, but it is good for her. Tough in practice, makes it easier when you compete.

I don't want it to sound like I am looking for her to be the next Jenna Thompson, as I'm not. But I do want her to work hard and try her best at all times. Where that takes her afterwards is just bonus in my eyes.

We recieved our Flat Stanley today, along with some pictures and a T-shirt. Thanks, Kellie. Mr. Stanley is going to have a fun time.

Work, work, work, so it is time to go.

- Free checks for everyone. Well, almost everyone.
- Lots of new cars.

Until the next time.....

time to write.....

Not much going on besides working. Have four client folders on my desk right now, and should have that down to two, by the time I leave the office tonight. I should be able to get the information inputted on the other two tomorrow morning. Then I might be able to take a breath.

This is pretty normal, but with this being the first tax season of "blogging", some of you reading this might think I don't want to write. Not the case, just no real time,and life is pretty boring for me until April 15th as taxes take up most of my thoughts and time. When I do have free time, I just want to do "not much". But, I can't really complain, as it is only like this for three months out of the whole year.

Last night, the Hurricanes lost to the Nashville Predators 1-0. Cam Ward was great with his 33 saves, but the Pred's Chris Mason was better with the shutout and 31 saves. The Canes are away for three more games. Hopefully they can get it going in Washington on Friday night.

The big story was not the game, but the weather. The fans were told that nobody would be leaving the arena until those damaging storms had passed. Thoughts and prayers go out to those effected by these storms.

Quck update on my stepfather, Lou. He is home, and getting along with everything going on around him. Looks like the tumor is quite large, so he is looking at five days a week of treatment for a few weeks. The doctors say the type of cancer he has, has a 60% - 80% survival rate, so we are cautiously optomistic.

Blogger's spell check still not working for me and some others. May need to put this in Word first, then "cut 'n paste".

- Not even a citizen for a week.
- Duke / North Carolina. Great college b'ball.

Until the next time.....

that was Super.....

It is 11pm, and I should be sleeping, but I am still in the office, so only quick post before bed.

I am a huge sports fan (really???), and I have to say that was a great Super Bowl. I know a certain friend of mine is bummed (but on a completely different note, is extremely happy because his little girl finally left the hospital and is home with her mommy and daddy), but it was a great game. Three lead changes in the 4th quarter, and two in the last three minutes. You just can't ask for anything more.

I will say that I was extremely surprised. I did not give the Giants a chance in this game. I really thought with two weeks to prepare, the Patriots would get an offensive plan in place, and would carve up the Giants secondary. It never happened. It actually looked like the Patriots were not prepared to play the game.

Big props to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Just love his music, so it was a great 12 minutes of halftime show for me. They are probably my all time favorite group. Along with Bon Jovi and to a lesser extent U2, that is the music I went through high school and college listening to most of the time.

I'll do a favorite music post another time.

- Twenty states have primaries tomorrow.
- Very surprising. My favorite coach, because he always made sure his players did it the right way.
- What a surprise. That stimulus bill needs stimulating.

Until the next time.....

wet swim.....

Had the second part of Cassie's swim meet this morning, and it was not as pleasant as Saturday morning. Cassie did fine, and competed in four different events, including her first team relay event. No, it was the San Diego winter weather that made it miserable. It was rainy and maybe 50 degrees all morning. The wind starting picking up, but we were just about ready to leave at that time. Cassie started getting cold, but she had a good time. As for Morgan, well this was her first meet that she had attended, so we got the real bad stuff out of the way. Besides the 5 minutes of watching Cassie swimming, it was not a fun day at all.

Last night was the "father / daughter 50's dance" at Cassie's school. My little girl had on her poodle skirt, and scarf, and looked like she came out of Grease. It was funny that when we walked into the dance, the music that was playing was the Beatles. Um, that's the 1960's. After that montage there was some Elvis Presley, and others from the 50's. They served some popcorn and root beer floats for the kids, and overall it was a nice time. Cassie was tired from that mornings swim, so we didn't stay for more than a hour or so. Met a couple of Cassie's friends, and I behaved and did not embarrass her in any way. I'm saving that for the older years. :-)

I put picture from last night of Morgan and myself up on the side of the board. We need to get some better pictures of just the two of us. For now, I'll leave that one up until we get a better one.

Busy week ahead for work, but that's a good thing. With less extra activities, I hope to be all caught up when the week ends on Friday.

The Hurricanes lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 last night. They had a 1-0 lead going into the 3rd, but really had not played great the first two periods. They are really frustrating to watch right now. One "highlight" of the game, was that two years after being hit from behind and having his neck broken, Erick Cole finally confronted the player who hit him, Brooks Orpik, and they fought about 5 minutes into the game.

- Five years since this tragedy.

- That's lots of allowance money.

Until the next time.....

half the weekend.....

I am sitting here about 20 minutes before Cassie and I are to leave for the father/daughter dance, so I figured a quick post was in order.

Last night Morgan and Cassie attended the Hanna Montana movie, and Cassie had a great time. Morgan said it was amazing how all the girls in the whole theater were able to sing along to all the songs throughout the movie.

I stayed home, watched the Law & Order from Wednesday night, and went to sleep. I was uptight from work, and tired. My work day wasn't bad, but I just couldn't get any "traction". Everytime I started something, an e-mail would come in from a client asking about soemthing they were sending in their package to me. That is a good thing to hear from clients, but when you are trying to get another project started and going, the "on again, off again" can drive you nuts.

This morning was Cassie's swim meet. She was to compete in three events today, and three more tomorrow. She was DQ'ed from her 100m IM because she made a mistake one of her strokes during the breaststroke portion (I didn't see it, but I'm not an official), but had a good finishing time. She also competed in 50m freestyle and butterfly events, and did really well in those. Tomorrow will be 100m freestyle, along with 50m events in breaststroke and backstroke.

- More winter for my friends back east.
- I only want it settled to see Lost and Law & Order.
- The big just get bigger. My question is, will my stock rise?

Until the next time.....

membership.....

Figured I'll get a post before the weekend takes over this family.

Did you enjoy Lost?

Morgan's station is running a radiothon for St. Jude's Hospital. The local FOX station was there doing interviews and talking about what they were doing. Well one of the reporters from the station called Morgan "hot" while on air. She got a big kick out of it, me, not so much. I know my wife is beautiful, but to say it on the air. Really? Ugh!

We have the Hanna Montana movie as our activity. Then tomorrow night is the father / daughter dance, while Saturday and Sunday morning we will be gettig up early for Cassie's swim meet. I will try to have pictures of all.

Hopefully they will have this picture problem figured out by then. Since Wednesday, I have not been able to spell check or post a picture to this page. Very annoying. Seems it is not everyone, and they supposedly are looking into it.

Last night, Morgan and I joined the church we had been attending for the past 2 months. It was very nice to hear from all of the board and different directors of the different parts of the church. It feels very "normal" to us, and we are both very comfortable with the people and their message. Having the head Pastor riding a Harley, the executive Pastor speaking about the TV show "Cheers", and in speaking with the others, it just seemed right for us.

The Hurricanes won last night 3-2 in OT over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs tied it with 12 seconds to play in the game, but the Captain, Rod Brind'Amour, showed why is the captain and got back the 2 points with the game winner. Nice to see them come out of the gate for this stretch run in good fashion.

Ok, need to wrap up and get back to work. Hope the picture posting gets fixed so we can see what went on this coming weekend.

- Why am I paying $3 a gallon?
- There is a game being played on Sunday evening.
- More internet merging.

Until the next time.....