The End...Again

Well once again we face the ending of one year and the beginning of another. Like everyone else, there have been highs and lows in my 2006. I thought it might to be fun to list a few of them.

The Low Lights



6) After getting there for the first time in 14 years, the Oakland A's get swept in the playoff's by the Detroit Tigers.


5) Going to Magic Mountain for the first time in at least 10 years and seeing that it has become such a dump! The employees don't give a poop, the place is dirty, and there just seems to be a depressing feeling around the park. A far cry from it's heyday's of the 80's!


4) May 06. Just didn't feel good and waited for a week before giving in and going to the doctor just to find out that I had double pneumonia.


3) Fast forward a month. Starting vomiting and ended up in the hospital (for the first time ever) and having the doc say "something on the blood test is high, we need to do more tests." Don't worry boys and girls, everything was ok!


2) Working so hard to make it work, only to be told "we are closing the Fresno center". BAM your unemployed!


1) The biggest low light came early in the year. After a year and a half battle,
I lost my sister, Suzie, to brain cancer on Jan 28th. She was such a big part of the person I am. I miss her every day.




Top highlights:




8) My second grader making the principal's merit list at school.

7) My son Archie, standing on a corner selling "Kids Day" newspapers to benefit Valley Children's Hospital. Oh, did I mention that it was 40 degrees and pouring rain?

6) Getting to play "cowboy" for three weekends with Archie at Cobb Ranch.


5) My son Tyler, sticking it out on his school baseball team, even after the players and coach had given up on the season...after only four games! This is by far, the biggest group of spoiled, what's in it for me, kids I had ever seen!

4) My daughter Cheyanne, making the softball team, sticking with it, and by the end, becoming one of the best players on the team!


3) Having time off from work to have bonding time with my son Clayton. Every morning after taking kids to school, we would go home and have eggies and then take a bath!! Quality time with my youngest.




2) Yvette and I had two encounters with very large ships. First on our anniversary in Oct, we visited the Queen Mary.
We were both really surprised at how much we enjoyed the ship. Then in Dec, I took her to San Francisco for the Titanic exhibition. A very moving exhibition! It really makes the whole thing real. We also went to Midieval Times in Oct after putting it off for a few years. It was great! I wish we had gone years ago!!
BLACK AND WHITE! BLACK AND WHITE!



1) The NUMBER ONE highlight of my year was my birthday present! My wonderful wife was able to get just about all of "the old gang" from my childhood together again for the weekend. People I haven't seen in up to 20 years were there! Dale had so much fun he split his pants, but that's another story!

So there we are. Valleys and peaks. I don't know what 2007 will bring, but some of the things I'm looking forward to,

Yvette will be doing the Three Day walk for breast cancer this year in San Diego. http://www.the3day.org/sandiego07/yvettesmith

Tyler and Cheyanne both want to play ball again this year.

Tyler and Joshua will be graduating, Tyler into high school and Josh into middle school.

Clayton will start pre school.

I will (hopefully) be starting a new job.

Well, that's all for now. Once again, thanks for stopping in!

Happy New Year to you!

Slone

Dancing with the Stars...Fresno Style

Last night, Yvette and I went to see the Dancing with the Stars tour as it made it's stop in the big city of Fresno. Now, the first question that comes to my mind is "why would I buy tickets to see a bunch of, kinda heard of that name, stars do something that is kinda a chick thing (no offense to any ladies that might be reading). Well first, I thought my wifey would enjoy it (Very good reason!). Second, I have a man crush (you heard it here first)on George Hamilton and I thought he would be in the show. He wasn't. The show had five "stars" and most of the "pro dancers" from the show, including Elena Grinenko, Karina Snirmoff and Louis Van Amstel. The Stars had Harry Hamlin, Lisa Rinna, Drew Lachey, Joey McIntyre and Joey Lawernce. Now, these people are STARS? Just what have these people been in in the last 20 years besides this show? Do you really own a Joey McIntyra CD?

Well, the show started with an amateur dancing contest featuring some of Fresburgs finest dancers. I was able to stay awake for the 10 minutes that it took to whittle the ten contestants down to two. The two would have a "dance off" later in the show.

Then it happened...a thumping beat...then from no where a booming English voice rang out..."Ladies and Gentlemen...Dancing with the Stars will start in 10 seconds...nine...eight...seven...what am I doing??? Why am I clapping to the beat??? Why am I counting??? Three...two...one! The theme music filled the arena and out comes all these people dressed to the nines!! WHAT AM I DOING?? I'm caught up in this! Look! That's Drew Lachey!! He won the title last year doing that cowboy dance!! OMG!! There's Lisa Rinna!! SHE'S HOT! Can't let Yvette see me checking her out. There's Harry Hamlin...who cares THERE'S LISA RINNA!! Whose that bald guy? HEY! That's Joey Lawerence!! Little cute Joey!!

Needless to say Yvette and I had a great time. Man these "STARS" are really more like me than I thought. I could tell the difference between their dancing and when the pros would dance. BUT, they do try hard and did put on a good show and dance way better than I could ever hope to dance...and did I mention that Lisa Rinna is hot?? (not in Yvette's league but still hot)

Well, that's all for now...gotta go write a fan letter to my new man crush Joey Lawerence! (kidding...I'm too old for him)

Thanks for stopping in, until next time

Slone

P.S.

for those who care, the amature couple for Modesto lost to the couple from Visalia and FRESNO!!

GO FRESNO...IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

GO FRESNO...IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

What the heck does that title mean?

From Gopman to Slone...where to start.
I guess the best way is to try to explain why I'm writing this and who should even care? I'm doing it because of my pal Mike's blog. I enjoy reading it. I admire how he can put his feelings into words on a screen. I've never been very good at writing how I feel, so I'd like to give it a try. The bigger question to me is why would you bother to read it? I don't know. I will say that I plan to follow Mike's lead to start with and use it as a game plan from furture entries.
But, back to the main question. Gopman to Slone?
As a kid I had a nickname of Gop-man. It came from a guy on a gameshow named, I think, Geoff Edwards. Somehow that morphed into Gop and then into Gopman (A.K.A., THE Gopman, Gopper, Gop-a-mainia, you get the idea) The name Slone, come from cowboy action shooting. That's a sport I'm interested in, but to play, you must have an alias from the old west or western shows. Mine is from the Lone Ranger, hence Slone Stranger.
So there you have it, Gopman to Slone. Are you still awake?
As I get better at this, I can't get much worse, I plan to add my deepest, darkest most exciting thoughts (now your asleep for sure), but for now I'll just tell you that I'm a 45 year old guy. I'm married to the most beautiful and loving woman God ever put in my life, and we have six kids (yes, six! No other hobbies!!) from 15 to 3 yrs old. I just recently was laid off from my job and am unemployed from the first time in a looooooooooong time.
I hope you (is there anyone out there?) stop by every now and again to say "howdy"