Daughter Roller Coaster Trip Day 4: City of Ventura, Calabasas, and Santa Monica Pier

April 18, 2014April 19, 2014 ~ K ~ Leave a comment

Roller Coaster Trip Day 4

Day 4 of our Roller Coaster Adventure Trip was spent sleeping in (until 8 am) and relaxing. Even in vacation mode, I don’t sleep in. Sleeping in until 8 am is a big deal for me. Please keep in mind, we hit two amusement parks in two days and needed a bit of a break from our adventures in California. Instead of a roller coaster amusement park on Tuesday, we went to the beach in the City of Ventura, had ice cream for lunch, and then met up with my old college friend Julie and her twin three year old sons in Calabasas, California.

Even in California, people love the Seattle Seahawks.

This is the first time we have had a chance to meet her twin sons. She is married to my other friend Chris who happened to be out of town working. I’m pretty sure he planned to be out of town on purpose. Chris likes to mess with my head that way.

I do miss that age of youth and discovery with three year old kids. Julie thought that was amusing because sometimes her boys drive her nuts. But honestly, what kids don’t drive their parents a little bit nuts once in a while. My kids drive me nuts all the time. The dog and cat drive me nuts. Heck, I think you have figure out by now that everyone and everything drives me nuts. But I love people, really, I do love them.

Time flies by and it was fun to have a glimpse of the past (when my kids were younger) and I enjoy the three year old twins. We had a great time with Duplos. I discover that I am by far still a lot better at building than some twin crazy three old boys. Ah ha! Old age wins again!

Now, you know what doesn’t drive me nuts? This whole Dad and Daughter Roller Coaster Trip! One of my clients mentioned he did a Dad and Daughter trip and had an awesome time with his daughter to Disneyland. It inspired me to do this trip. I was delighted that I could take my daughter (the only one that really enjoys roller coasters and scary rides) on this trip. I finally had someone in my family that wanted to do the rides with me! I’m selfishly happy she is now 11 years old and likes to ride the scary rides. Roller coasters all the way, everyday!

On a brief side note: She has always loved those scary amusement rides since she was a little toddler. For the past two summers, as a family we have gone to Silverwood Amusement Park in Idaho, and she is my thrill ride partner. Silverwood is very affordable and well worth the visit to Idaho if you have the time, that’s my worthless advice for northwest amusement parks.

Ok, back to California and our roller coaster adventure. Julie and I and figured out earlier that we wanted to go to Santa Monica Pier and have dinner down there. We rode the Ferris wheel with the kids, spent some time in the arcade, and had a great pizza dinner. We had a great time (well, at least I had an awesome time!). I forgot how much I miss my friends that have moved out of Washington State. This dinner and catch up session was well worth the flight to California. Plus anytime I can tell other parents how to be a better parent (because I’m an awesome parent role model and everyone wants to learn from the master of worthless parenting advice…..that’s me by the way).

The twins...one is a bit of a worse driver than the other one. — The twins…one is a bit of a worse driver than the other one.

I liked Paradise Park on Santa Monica Pier. Besides it being a bit windy and cold that evening, the Santa Monica Pier was fun to visit. It has a small amusement ride area, a boardwalk with shops, an arcade, and some food booths. It only has a few homeless people to bother you as you walk around; not too different from over beach towns we have been too. Nothing like the warmth of Southern California to keep you in a reality check of everyday life, am I not speaking the truth?

Overall, Day 4 was a great day to relax and catch our breath. Day 5: Knott’s Berry Farm!

Thanks for reading and pretending to care.

Artwork by the twins….

A drawing by Erb boys. Thank goodness they got the hair on the side of my head correct!

Tainted Love Tuesdays on LMN: How to Make Your Life Exciting!!

April 8, 2014 ~ K ~ 2 Comments

You just have to enjoy a good movie on Tuesday, especially when it is a Tainted Love Tuesday movie on Lifetime. Always a source of enjoyment for me because I love the craziness of the relationships that are portrayed on the storyline.

My life is very normal. Some would say “dull”. My friends complain I drive like an old man.

All these character traits make me prefect at giving awesome worthless advice. It helps me keep my worthless advice so real and true to the heart. I don’t have a spouse that wants to kill me for insurance money nor do I have a business partner that wants the business all for himself. My career choice is somewhat dull. I do have a vivid imagination which helps me from dying of boredom but otherwise I’m a fairly normal person.

I don’t have any dangerous hobbies that makes me exciting or interesting.

Yet, I offer a solid safe port of worthless advice for my four dear followers and my imaginary stalker Cyndi. I am the clear thinking person you can email or call and I’m there to get your head back in the right space. I make calmness appear from chaos.

I’m not a therapist and I can’t magically solve your problems. I’m no superhero. I just like to listen and hear your problems, ideas, thoughts, troubles and hopefully give you someone else to believe in.

It’s a Thursday and I want my Weekend to Start now!

April 3, 2014 ~ K ~ 12 Comments

It is April and I have been too busy thinking of worthwhile advice to make any good worthless advice posts. It is a tough business thinking up worthless advice for my four followers to read about. Yes, I picked up a new follower today so I’m pretty sure I’m up to four people that follow me.

Now, Cyndi (my imaginary stalker) is by far my favorite. She loves everything I write and this does wonders for my fragile ego. Heck, I need all the pats on the back I can get. Blogging is a really tough gig, as you all know. My lack of posting on a regular doesn’t help to make my blog anymore popular either.

So I’ll be offering you the best worthless advice this coming month! Maybe we can talk about taxes, school photos, health insurance? What is more worthless than my advice (besides my travel tips)?

As always your comments are needed to keep my feelings from being hurt. Pretend you read me every day!
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Why wear sunglasses on a dark, cloudy day?

March 26, 2014March 26, 2014 ~ K ~ 24 Comments

You know what drives me nuts?

People who wear their sunglasses on dark cloudy days.

Sure, I know you can have a bright cloudy day and need your sunglasses. You need your extremely cool sunglasses on bright sunny days; I get that. I’m a photographer and I am aware of the amount of light I see every day.

No, I’m talking about dark, overcast, ready to pour down rain on you days. I’m talking about people who insist on wearing sunglasses regardless of how dark or light it is outside. I’m not talking about the old grandma types that need them because of cataracts. I’m talking about people who are old enough to know better but want to look “good” in their shades. They can be in their twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties, and they still insist on wearing sunglasses when they clearly don’t need them.

Granted, some people’s prescription eyewear does change with the amount of light that hits them but they have a free pass to wear them. They need them and they aren’t trying to be a model from a hip clothing line. It makes no sense to me. You look like an idiot and it seems to me that you are hiding something. A little too many martinis at lunch today? That hit off the old meth pipe too much? You were crying because you realized your boyfriend was an ass and you should have dumped him three months like your friends told you to? Why wear the sunglasses? Why look like someone who is clearly an idiot?

Being from the Pacific Northwest region, we have over 200 days of cloudy weather. I understand you might want to wear the sunglasses but it makes no sense. Accept the fact you live here in a cloudy, rainy area of the world with no hope of sunshine except for two months out of the year. Get use to it. It is cloudy here most of the time and the weather is cold (40-50 F) most of the time. If it is 65 F and sunny, we are in heaven here!

Comments? Please for the life of my blog….make some comments!

How to Lose Your Girl Scout Troop in Seattle

March 16, 2014March 16, 2014 ~ K ~ 3 Comments

Girl Scout Adventure to the Smith Tower and MOHAI!

Excuse any mistakes….this blog is from my phone!

On Friday, our Girl Scout Trip had a little adventure to the Smith Tower located in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle via the Sound Transit’s light rail train. All eight of our Girl Scouts showed up for the trip to the top of Smith Tower and the Chinese Room.

We were able to catch the light rail train from the Tukwila station directly to the Pioneer Square neighborhood where the famous Smith Tower (42 stories tall and at one time the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River) is located. Being from the South King County city of Kent, we have quite a few options to get into Seattle. Instead of driving on Friday morning, we took Sound Transit’s light rail train into Seattle.

My son also came along so we had a total of 12 people on this outing: 8 Girl Scouts, one Boy Scout, and three adults. If anyone is keeping track or needs to plan a trip into Seattle, I’ll be giving you costs for each of travel legs. One of our scouts met us there so our train fare was $34 for our group of 11 people.

Smith Tower is the only place in the Seattle area that has elevator operators. The elevators are staffed by actual human beings that will take you to the observation floor of Smith Tower from the beautiful lobby. The doors on each floor and the elevator’s doors are glass. This allows you and your fellow passengers the treat of seeing each floor as you pass by as you race to the top.

Cost on this part of the trip was lower than normal because Groupon had a deal for four tickets for $14.99. We used three Groupon certificates for the group of 12 we had.

The Smith Tower offers an excellent view to the south, southeast, and southwest of it. The industrial area lays to the south and I-5 freeway to the east. You can see the downtown Seattle business core to the north plus other landmarks like the Space Needle, CenturyLink Field, Safeco Field, and the cranes on the Port of Seattle waterfront. If you have time, you can watch the Washington State Ferries come and go into and back out of Coleman Dock. While the weather wasn’t too clear for us on Friday, I’m sure on a sunny day with blue skies, Mt. Rainier would be visible.

After we had explored the 35th floor observation deck, we descended back down to lobby and returned to the metro tunnel to catch another link rail train to the Westlake Mall area. The transit tunnel was built roughly 25-30 years for buses with the idea that it would one day have trains running through it. Currently, our transit tunnel allows both the light rail trains and buses to run through it and is handy when you know where you want to go.

We got back in the light rail train and rode the it to Westlake, got off and had lunch at the food court. To keep costs down, we had the girls bring a sack lunch. However, there is a small selection of restaurants and smoothie stands in the food court to choose from. The dining area is clean and well lit. Lots of places to eat at and we just made it in before the big lunch rush.

We then went back down to street level and caught the South Lake Union Streetcar north to The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). The Seattle Streetcar is different from the Sound Transit Light Rail system. The street car is run by King Country Metro which is our local county transit authority and the light rail train system is run by Sound Transit, our regional transit system. Confused? I bet. If you live in the area and travel on both frequently you may want to purchase an ORCA pass. However, for a short day trip, we opted to pay the general fair for the ride. Your ticket is good for the ride and you have a two hour transfer that you can use for the return trip. Cost for the streetcar is $2.50 for adults and $1.25 for youth. You can purchase tickets at the kiosk at each stop and on board the streetcar.

One problem I noticed is that the ticket kiosk is designed for you to purchase one ticket at a time. Not a big hassle until you have to purchase 12 tickets and you have to do it one at a time. One of the moms and I spent half the ride purchasing the tickets for all 12 of us. At one point I was tempted to skip it but what kind of example does that set?

We finally made it to the MOHAI and the weather had turned to sunshine. It was a marvelous sunny day in Seattle and one that makes you love Seattle. MOHAI is a beautiful museum and offers so much of the way of Seattle’s history. It moved to this location a year or two ago and it is well thought out. I wasn’t able to finish the whole museum myself. The nice part about the MOHAI is the cost is free for kids under 14. It is pricey for adults at $14 each. Of course they offer a teacher rate and senior rate as well. Luckily for us, I had planned ahead and asked the parents to look for Entertainment Book coupons and we got the four adults in for $24. Not a bad price for a group of 12!!

Our age for our Girl Scout troop is 11-12 years and this seems like a prefect age for the MOHAI. They were busy but not bored. Again, I could have spent a few more hours reading and enjoying the museum. I didn’t get to finish the whole thing but I definitely give it a thumbs up!! My favorite display was the Great Seattle Fire display. It has a little show you can watch and enjoy. Quite well thought out and keeps all ages entertained.

After we finished up there, we headed back home. You would have thought I planned it perfectly because as soon as we walked to the streetcar stop the streetcar was arriving. We hopped onto it and rode it back to Westlake Center. Then we went straight to the light rail stop and waited a few moments for the light rail and hopped on that. A quick fun ride back on the light rail to the Tukwila station and we were almost home.

Now before we left the Tukwila light rail station we had to park in the parking lot which doesn’t have enough parking for the ridership this station produces. They do have a special parking section that is marked S.O.V. Permit parking from 6 am to 10 am. I’m not sure what or who S.O.V parking is but we used two of their spots. The rest of the time it is open to general parking. We had arrived at 9:20 am and parked there. My troop moms were worried about their cars getting towed but our cars were there when we returned. For forty minutes, we were breaking the rules but it did work out in the end. No cars or cats were towed and I didn’t have to pay to get two vehicles out of the impound lot.

Oh Man, Where are the Followers and What Do They Read?

March 12, 2014March 13, 2014 ~ K ~ 4 Comments

The other day I was reading a blog posting about how one of the bloggers I follow on WordPress just got his 11,000th follower on his blog. In July 2013, he only had 6,000. He wrote a brief “success” blog about how and what he did to reach 11,000 followers.

I am a bit jealous of his success. In his humble opinion, he isn’t the world’s best writer or blogger. His blog is so poorly written it is hard to read and gives me a headache. I want to take my red ink pen out and correct it like a murderer/slasher on a 1990’s flick. A lot of his problems are due to the run on sentences, bad sentence structure, and terrible grammar.

Yet, he has some great stories and 11,000 followers so I can pretty much suck it, right? I have measly 400 or 500 followers so I really can’t say how to build up a huge following, can I? Of course, my blog is built on Worthless Advice so maybe I’m killing myself and my blog? He spins his tales like a drunken sailor (his description of himself) and people love it. Imagine what he could do with a ghost writer living on Kauai?

What is the secret to his success? He uses a bunch of tags that the magic internet search engine spiders love and brings in his type of readers (followers). Even if his blog post has nothing to do with those tags, he still uses the same tags and categories over and over again. Now, I’m not sure he is making money online but he has written a book and has self published it.

Oh, and a lot of his terms are about sex, crime, and drugs. His life experiences are downright scary. So we do know what the general public is looking for, don’t we? And I don’t have anything against others blogging and writing exactly what they want to write. I admire anyone willing to throw themselves out there and open themselves and their writing up for the world to see.

Your thoughts and comments?

Disaster is My Middle Name….

March 9, 2014 ~ K ~ Leave a comment

Gravel, gravel, gravel.... — Gravel, gravel, gravel….

You know that bad feeling you get when your projects have gone horribly wrong?

That is how my whole backyard feels to me right now. A few weeks back, my stepson became my indentured servant by needing money for rent. He offered to come work for me in my yard doing various grunt work projects. I appreciate him not asking me to loan him the money but instead offered to work for it. Now he is over at my house on various weekends doing year projects to pay off his debt.

This arrangement is excellent for me because it gets me out of a lot of heavy lifting, wet weather, and hard work. On my never ending “To Do List”, I do have yard projects and clean up projects. However, I really didn’t want to have to worry about all this stuff in the middle of the winter season.

Yet, I am dealing with the yard projects to keep my stepson busy. To keep him busy, I’ve had a new sand pad created for the pool to sit on, new gravel paths near the garden shed, transplanted a tree, and made a nice gravel pad for my recycling bin, garbage can, and yard waste bin to sit on. He has moved my compost pile from one side of the house to the other. All of these projects needed to be done and it is nice to have them done before summer. They have been completed without any major hiccups until now.

Now, the bigger problem we have looms like a small mountain in my driveway, mocking me. It keeps telling me that we are nowhere close to getting things done in the backyard and it will be there forever.

My problem: The large pile of gravel in my driveway.

In hindsight, I overestimated how much gravel we’d need for all the projects around the house. Usually, with my superior math skills (to think I made it through calculus), I grossly underestimate my raw material needs. More often than not, we end up making two or three more trips to the Palmer Coking Coal Company to get more gravel.

This is not the case with this huge pile of gravel. We can’t spread this stuff fast enough. I seems like this gravel pile isn’t getting any smaller and I’m afraid I might never get into the driveway again at this rate. My wife has voiced her opinion that our whole backyard will become a giant gravel field.

Isn't it pretty? And it looks so nice in my driveway! — Isn’t it pretty? And it looks so nice in my driveway!

This thought is somewhat amusing if I didn’t have the same fear myself. Of course, my wife only visits the yard on summer days so we should be good until August (here in the Seattle area) for her to realize if her fear has materialized or not. Kind of sounds like prison, doesn’t it? “Yeah, da wife is only allowed out once in a while….don’t let her see the outdoors much. Gotta keep her indoors cleaning and taking care of mine kin.” (I do hope I sound redneck enough….)

Tomorrow will be the big day to see if my stepson can power through the rest of the gravel pile. Otherwise, I think we’ll just have to live with it until summer. As always your comments are welcome but please remember that you’ll never have as much worthless advice as I do.

My garbage can now has a very nice place to hang out when not out in front of my house.

Roller Coaster Adventure Trip Part 2

March 3, 2014 ~ K ~ 4 Comments

The other day I started to write about my recent Roller Coaster Adventure Trip to California and the first stop on our tour was Six Flag’s Discovery Kingdom. However, besides roller coasters and thrill rides, I also wanted to visit with some of my friends. With Facebook, it was been nice to see what they are doing but a face to face visit is much more fun!

I honestly thought the goal of this exhibit was to kill as many butterflies as I could. Imagine how embarrassed I was to find out you weren't suppose to do that. — I honestly thought the goal of this exhibit was to kill as many butterflies as I could. Imagine how embarrassed I was to find out you weren’t suppose to do that.

Our first stop was beautiful Sacramento, California. Most people from Seattle know Sacramento as the city of the Sacramento Kings basketball team. And that we tried to take the Sacramento Kings away from this fair city and bring them to Seattle. We had hoped to turn them into the new Seattle Sonics. Needless to say, this didn’t happen. I didn’t wear my Seattle Sonics gear just in case there were any hard feelings from the citizens about this whole basketball team purchase.
We flew down from Seattle to Sacramento and stayed with our good friends Joe and Gavan and their two daughters. You know they are good friends when they let you crash at your house without a hesitation (or a moment’s notice)Zdx5. They have encouraged us to come and visit for the past several years and I was looking forward to this leg of the trip. Our friendship was built upon our years at Benson Hill Coop Preschool together as preschool parents. On a side note, we have a lot of friends from being coop preschool parents together that we still see and hang out with. I’m a big fan of the coop preschool system.
Of course, our daughters don’t remember each other but we (the parents) certainly do! It honestly seems like yesterday but it has been roughly eight years since Joe and Gavan moved back to California from Washington State. We picked up right where we left off.
I could ramble on about how time flies but we pretty much all know that already. Time does fly so you might as well enjoy life the best you can. Hmm, that really isn’t worthless advice so perhaps you should disregard that good advice. I don’t want you to think you could learn something from me.
I have to thank Joe and Gavan for opening up their home to us and allowing us to stay with them. They also picked us up from the airport, drove us to and from the Discovery Kingdom Park, showed us the Jelly Belly Factory Store, and then drove us to the airport on Monday for our flight to Burbank. You have to appreciate friends that will do that.

I want to say that on the way back from Vallejo, we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory to load up on Jelly Belly and it was a great choice for a tourist stop. Joe kept telling me about “Jelly Belly Flops”. “Flops” are the mistakes from the Jelly Belly bean process. They still taste like Jelly Belly beans but they are the rejects. You might have two or three Jelly Belly beans merged into one or a jelly belly bean might have a funny flatness to it. Most of the jelly belly beans in the “Flops” bag look and taste awesome to me. I love them! I can’t wait to drop into a deep diabetic coma caused from my massive sugar intake from eating as many Jelly Belly beans as I can fit into my mouth.
Since we only had 15 minutes at the Jelly Belly store before it closed, we grabbed a bunch of “Flops”, ate some ice cream, sampled numerous different flavors, and started the journey back to Elk Grove.

image (8) — I have my snacks for the car ride!

image (9) — Nothing is better than instilling unhealthy snack habits into future generations!

Now, that would be the end of a prefect day of roller coasters and candy, right? Nope! We topped it off with some excellent tri-tip steak, homemade mash potatoes, wine, beer, Caesar salad, and some delicious (onolicious) Hawaiian style Macaroni salad. Then we topped it off with a nice relaxing soak in the hot tub under the stars. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Again, a big “thanks” to Gavan and Joe for being fantastic hosts for our first leg of our Daughter-Dad Roller Coaster Trip!
On tomorrow’s blog, we talk about our next leg of the trip: Six Flag’s Magic Mountain!

Why it is OK to Scare Kids….(and other big babies)

February 11, 2014 ~ K ~ 8 Comments

Would you want to date this guy’s daughter?

Why it is OK to Scare Kids….(and other big babies)

My wife tends to disagree with me on some of my parenting theories. She thinks that I shouldn’t be the big, bad, scary and intimidating father to my daughter’s (who is age 11) friends. I, of course, disagree. I’m not mean, big, bad or scary to my daughter’s female friends…just to her little male friends.

I want those kids to fear me. I want them to know that if they mess with my little girl that they will have to deal with me. Is that really wrong? To be honest, I’m not threating them or verbally scaring them….I just look scary. That is the key…look scary. Nothing wrong with looking scary, right?

Sure, I’m a very articulate individual who enjoys a good conversation but sometimes the best thing to do is to keep your mouth shut. He who talks first, loses right? I want to be that father that is sitting in his chair when the daughter comes in with her friends and the boy just looks at me and knows he should be fearful. He should think “Hmm, I probably don’t want to upset her dad…he just looks scary.”

It isn’t like my daughter is dating so I shouldn’t worry….yet. However, why not plan for the future and lay the foundation now. The farmer doesn’t wait until the summer to plant his crops; he plants his seeds in the winter. I’m planning for the future. I’m planting the seeds of fear and respect in the minds of these 11 year old boys now so they know not to mess with me (or my daughter later). Hopefully, when they get into middle school and high school my reputation as a scary, frightening father grows into an almost unbelievable legend that will be passed down from generation to generation.

Of course, my professional as a school photographer isn’t exactly a job that scares kids. I also don’t have any tattoos, nor do I talk “ghetto” or “white trash”. The best I can do is speak Hawaiian Pidgin English from my school days on Kauai. Furthermore, it’s not like I’m from SEAL Team Six or on the SWAT team. The only scary thing about me is my bald head and the fact I practice aikido (a non-violent martial art). I suppose someone unfamiliar with it could possibly think I am a weapon of death and destruction.

Any thoughts on making myself a little bit more intimidating to the youth of today? Any worthless advice, tips, suggestions, ideas? Come on….leave a comment or two! And thanks for reading my Blog of Worthless Advice!

January and my Failures at Organization

January 31, 2014 ~ K ~ 5 Comments

It is the last day of January and I figure I’d better squeeze out one more blog posting of Worthless Advice before the month comes to an end. Like many of you, I always have thoughts at the beginning of the year (not resolutions, just thoughts) of how this year will be better than last year. I think to myself that I’ll exercise more, get a little bit trimmer by dropping a few pounds and lifting a few weights. Then I won’t waste my days away by endless surfing the internet watching funny cat videos on YouTube or updating my Facebook status.

I also thought I’d get more organized. I’d clean my office and maybe clean the garage out. Yet, I haven’t. I have made only minor dents in the mountains of junk I possess. Instead of tackling it, I am here writing a blog post. Tonight I’ll read a book or two. Tomorrow, I have a full day of work, then it is Super Bowl Sunday so I can’t possibly do anything that day. Sign…it just becomes an endless loop. What is a hopeless disorganized person like me going to do?

Before you call in the show Hoarders to save me, I might be messy and disorganized but I’m not a hoarder. Or am I in deniel? I thought stuff away and I donate things. I like to get boxes of junk and stop by the donation center. It feels good to unload my treasures.

So after this blog post goes up. I’m going to turn around in my swivel chair, pet the cat, turn on some comedy on Pandora, and clean up my office a bit.

Thanks for reading! Leave your organizational tips below!

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