ask Shaffer -- if you dare.

I'm fairly certain that anyone who knows me, even just a little, would say that I take being a parent pretty seriously. It's a great job really. Not that I was remotely qualified or ready for the duty but somehow, someway, we've muddled through. And like most jobs there's a portion of the job that is great...so naturally there's a portion that sucks. A couple of weeks ago, I got a primo reminder of this. [Flashback time] When Kristie and I bought our first house back in 1988, we had a plan. First the house. Then a dog and a cat. Then kids. Oh yea, before kids, we needed a car. And we executed that plan. Our nifty little house in Highlands Ranch was really nice, for a "starter" home. Two weeks later, we went to the Denver Dumb Friends League and picked out a nice little Golden Retriever/Aussie puppy and a tiny little black and white kitten. The dog was named Sadie, the cat Rita. Phase two of the plan complete. We went on to successfully execute the rest of...

When I got home from my first interview, Kristie and the girls grilled me...and my response was that I have no idea how I did. And that's the truth. I could've just as easily imagined never hearing from them as getting a call from them. How they could ever use this process to weed out candidates is beyond me. So I was a little surprised, when a couple of days later, I got a call from the store manager (who was one of the 3 at the first interview) telling me that she'd like me to come in for a second interview. Cool. Then it got weird [again]. She told me that she couldn't find my profile in the computer and couldn't find my piece of "official" piece of paper that I filled out...right at the end of the first interview, an interview with one of the leading leaders in technology, an interview that to get to I had to complete a form on the computer, they had us put our name, phone and email address on a piece of scratch paper.....but I digress. okkkaaaaa...

OK, I promised myself that I wouldn't be writing another of those "man, it's been a long time since I've written, but I've been so busy..." kinds of posts. Man, it's been a long time since I've written...did I mention how busy I've been? I've noticed that when I get remotely busy and have a lot of email writing to do, I blog less. And I also notice that when I blog regularly, I email less frequently. But seriously, is anyone going to believe that I've been so busy and had so many emails to write that I couldn't have done anything since August 28th? So here's what I've been up to: 1. Redesigned and deployed two new web sites: www.frcs.org and www.aspengrovechurch.org . The first is our infamous school. Originally I wasn't going to directly link to it...but I decided we can always use the traffic. There's a whole post coming describing the re-write. It's comical. The second is for our church...and it too turned out ni...

The term "drama queen" gets tossed around a lot..and I've never really given it much thought. In High School, I avoided the dreaded "thespians" like the plague. I was a total anti-social geek, but even they were far too uncool for me. Zooming forward to today, my daughters are smack dab in the middle of the thespian crew at the School and I am (apparently) firmly ensconced as one of the primary patriarchs of the effort. When we found out that Erica was leaving, after the shock had worn off, we spent a lot of time thinking, praying and flat out wondering what was going to happen at this little school in the theater department. Let's face it: she made it all happen. She had the whole vision thing, she had the drive to make the vision happen and the charisma to get others (like me) fall in line and literally walk across flaming shards of glass to make it happen (okay a bit of an exaggeration). Prior to Erica, the program was "run" by Sharon, a nice la...

After we went to Die Hard 4 and totally loved it, I knew it was time to re-view the first three. It had been years since we'd seen any of them and I was afraid that my memory of them was better than they actually were. Rather than renting them, I uncharacteristically decided to buy them. This way, I figured, the girls could become acquainted with the John McClane saga before they saw the 4th one when it becomes available on Netflix. So without further adieu, here are my thoughts: Die Hard I - By movie standards, this movie came out a long time ago. Bruce Willis was "that TV guy", and hardly the Hollywood star. This movie also looks a little dated when compared to today's effects laden, quick edit affairs. But all of those nits not withstanding: this movie rocks. I seem to remember it as kind of a new thing, a totally crazed action movie, with "humor" tossed in...and did I mention action? Sure the bad guys were bad shots and McClane was able to survive ...

Late in the afternoon on Friday, I recieved an email from the Apple Store. I have been wanting to get a part time job there, so I was excited. The email was weird, as it asked me to respond to this email by the end of the day on Friday (about 2 or so hours left in the day) to reserve my spot at the hiring "meeting". Luckily I was on top of my email that day and immediately replied. They also asked for a bunch of information, information that was in my resume. OK, so that's not too odd, but the beginning of the email stated "after reviewing your resume...". OK, it was a little weird... And they wanted me to plan for "about a 3 hour time committment". It was getting weirder. I arrived promptly at 1PM on Saturday where it took a couple of queries as to where this "meeting" was taking place. They had decided to move it to the mall's office/meeting room...something that would've been nice to include in the email that was still not...

I was neither right nor wrong, really. Terry Fator , the ventriloquist extraordinairre "won", but I believe we'll be hearing from all of the 4 finalists sometime in the future. I'm anxious to see what Cas Haley does most of all. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and I like how he sounds. Julienne and Butterscotch will be fine performers somewhere and likely all of the top 10 acts received more pub than they ever could've imagined. It's been interesting watching this show. They portray it as if these are virtual "nobodies", languishing in their living rooms and entertaining only their mirrors. Terry Fator is an accomplished performer, appearing in state fairs and all sorts of corporate events...he even won some "Male Performer of the Year" in 2006. So while he's definitely deserving, he's hardly the "unknown" that maybe they'd like us to believe. He made it through the gauntlet and came out on top. Props to h...

It's iconic...it truly is. The Sound of Music is such a standard in musicals...in soundtracks...in movies. Our family alone has probably seen it like a million times. So when we saw that it was being performed by Boulder Dinner Theater , we knew we had to see it. Neither Kristie or I had seen the show performed live, but I had read the script some time in the past. I knew that some of the sequencing was different than the movie and had a few different songs (and a couple were added for the movie to boot...) so while it would be familiar, it at least wouldn't be just a rehash of the movie, or so I hoped. They didn't let us down. This was our second time at BDT (last summer's Music Man performance was documented and subsequently lost in the great blog meltdown...) and it remains a highlight. The food: decent, if not entirely forgettable. We settled as a family on 2 beef stroganoffs and 2 chicken corden bleu. Neither was bad, nor was it particularly terrific. I guess it si...

I was talking to a friend the other night, he and his wife just had their first kid last January. He was excitedly telling me about her (the baby) just starting to scoot and crawl. My babies start their Junior and Sophomore years in High School today. If things go as planned, Kelly will be driving Allie and herself to school in a couple of weeks. Kelly is already talking about her college prep class and how she has to take a prep test for the SAT/ACT. Allie is talking about the job she's going to get at Starbucks once they open up. I think deep down, they were ready for school to start. Not the getting up and going there, nor the homework. But the social interaction and the not sitting around the house with their stupid sister thing.....

Was it predictably unpredictable or unpredictably predictable? That was the question that Allison and I came up with after all of us (Kristie & Kelly too) saw this movie. A quick summary: it was really good. Ocean's 11 was so strong and then Ocean's 12 was so weak that we almost blew this one off until Netflix time. It actually came and went in the first run theaters without my attention that when Kristie suggested we see it at the local 2nd run bargain house, I was shocked...I had totally forgotten about it. But back to the original question: it was predicably unpredictable because it had the double switches and tricks that we loved in the first. You get mistakes that are actually the plan, and an all around good time. But it was also unpredictably predictable because you knew they were going to end up with all the money, but things didn't go as machine-like as the first one...these guys are human afterall. I read somewhere that it's like Ocean's 12 nev...

The other night, Allie received a phone call that by the look on her face was completely unexpected. We were all in the car, driving home from my parents on a Saturday night when her cell rang. It was obviously a one sided conversation, as she responded mostly with very thoughtful "yes"'s and "maybe"'s. It was really like watching someone in a movie, talking to headquarters in front of the bad guys. Maybe we watch too many movies... After a bit and a whole lot more single word responses, she hung up and didn't say anything. I glanced in the rear view mirror and saw a funny little smirk on her face. Finally, her sister broke the silence and queried "who was that?". Allie returned a look that spoke volumes, the look that means "shut up, I don't want to talk about it..." Weird. Our girls' lives are actually very transparent...I know there are some secrets that we as parents, are unaware of. But for the most part, we're all pr...

Heard this on Last Comic Standing (one of the very first nights and the only bit I've seen of the show): A friend of mine died recently while waterskiing. When people hear about it, the standard response is: At least he died doing what he loved.... I'm not entirely certain, but I don't think being chopped into pieces by boat propeller was exactly a "love" of his....

As I re-read my original post on Kristie's resignation from the School, I realized that I made it sound a whole lot more negative than it really should be. I have been immensily critical of the School and will remain more than just a little bit so in the future. But I think what's missing from a lot of this is just how appreciative both Kristie and I are (and have and will be) of her job there. God clearly controlled her getting the job and her keeping it as long as she did. And he provided her this recent job. And the wonderful friends that she has made working there. And it was those friendships that she was the most worried about damaging and in her resignation "process", it was those friendships that caused the most tears. She has been lucky that her direct boss, Holly, is also her good friend. A good enough friend to confide in on almost every topic, save the fact that she was looking for and, ultimately had accepted, a new job. So the conversation was lo...

We didn't know it, but last night was Part 1 of the finale...or was it the semi-finals and the finale is going to be on next week? Whatever. The bottom line was that the final four were chosen, they competed and in 1 week, we'll know what America thinks about talent. As hoped "the Leftover Four" were the four acts that I (and the rest of the clan) felt were the least viable as winners. Not bad or untalented, just not worthy of the crown. The Glamazons, Jason Pritchett, Robert Hatcher and (thankfully) SideSwipe were all eliminated. These were definitely the four acts that I was the least bullish on and with the exception of Hatcher, I didn't really think they'd make out of the top 20. The Final Four: Julienne Irwin - 14-year old singer My personal opinion is that she won't win. Not that she couldn't, she has a lot of what would make her the winner. She is talented. She's cute. She appears to be naturally comfortable in front of an audience. She'...

Kristie has been employed by the School for almost 5 years. The key word is almost...today she is going to hand her resignation to her boss (and very good friend). She has accepted a position with another company, a commercial cleaning business and she's very excited and nervous. The School has been a great place for her to work and improve her skills but it was clearly time to leave. In the Spring of '06 her job was really getting to her. I remember writing about the fact that she was in a very bad place, and she worked very hard through prayer and a good work ethic to get through it. She never really "got through it" really, she simply became resolved in that this was how it was going to be and she needed to deal with it. She battled through it during the summer and into the fall. By the beginning of '07 she reached her breaking point...and went in and talked to the powers that be. She was comforted. She was consulled. Stroked. Told whatever she needed...

Kristie told me this funny story..... The School has been blessed for years with a teacher who has dutifully taught yearbook class to the Senior High students. She abruptly resigned a couple of weeks ago, for personal reasons and nothing to do with the School or the job per se. In a mad scramble, the principal scrounged up a "suitable" replacement. This replacement was described as "a mom". Fast forward to yesterday. Kristie was doing new employee orientation and this new hire was present. Kristie did emphasize this person seems to be a terrific individual and an all around nice lady. When Kristie introduced herself she stated: "So you're the new yearbook teacher....nice to meet you". The new hire replied, "Thanks, do you know anything about this yearbook stuff? Because I don't..." Kelly signed up for yearbook this year...she already has Digital Photography, a questionable class and now Yearbook. Wednesday Elective Day is going t...

We had caught wind of Colorado Acts , a nifty little theater company, doing Music Man when we (Allison and I) went to their performance of Guys and Dolls. Kaylee and Whitnee were in the play, so we went to see it while Kristie and Kelly were on the practicum trip to Purdy, Missouri. This isn't a review of Guys and Dolls, but there is an interesting side story relating to the Music Man, both this production and the School's. It was really kind of a puzzle, with the first clue being the program of Guys and Dolls. It announced that ACTS was going to perform the Music Man this summer and it would be performed in the School's auditorium. Interesting. I'm not, will never and didn't want to be in charge of these things, but this was the first I'd heard of this. And I thought it was interesting since I was reading this announcement 1 day after I'd stored all of the flats and destroyed the remainder of the sets! So I was a bit confused and thought maybe there was pla...

"Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters, not how we left it." We had the pleasure to have Erica, Junia and David over for dinner a few weeks ago. Sadly, we had never had them over...our only real social experience with them as a couple was going out to dinner and a play a while back. David & I went to a Rockies game on my birthday, Allie and Kelly had spent a lot of time with Erica/Mrs. Morrow over the years, & I had a chance or two to have working dinners with Erica to discuss plays and stuff...but never a full-fledged, "come on over to eat some food at our place" kind of affair. And it was sad since the event was really that we were saying goodbye to the three of them. David is a proud graduate of the Seminary, they sold their little house, had their kid and were ready to move up to Minneapolis to be grown-up, all the while living in David's parent's basement (to get started of course). We had a ...

Standard disclaimer: these are just some notes that I accumulated over the course of the last few months, when I was too "busy" to document them here. We woke up on Sunday morning and went to church, and when asked what I was going to do this afternoon, my response was....go back to the School, and work on the play...just like it had been for the last 4 months or so. But today it was different. This was the last time I'd have to respond like this...or so I had hoped. I had committed to going in and returning the sound-board patch bay to its "original" state for school on Monday. And I just left the night before...didn't grab anything but my car keys and my family. So I had a little work to do. It was strangely quiet and calm in the auditorium. It had literally been my home for the last few months, and I was glad to say good bye. I also cleaned up Erica's class room. The pizza party wasn't completely eliminated from existence. I also took a quick look...