Today is a great day.

After spending the last few weeks watching President Obama and Congress buying everyone in America tickets for the Socialist bullet train coming to America, I have been a little bit down. I don’t like seeing my country do things that not only have been proven not to work, but in the long run make things worse off than they should be. (Sorry folks, FDR’s New Deal did not work. It failed. Just like the stimulus package will fail. The spending Japan tried in the 90’s when they were in a deep recession didn’t make the grade either. And just look at Venezuela…there is a place I want to live!!)

But today I am on a high. And because of what transpired yesterday I will have this feeling throughout spring and into the summertime. Sure, a lot of things are still wrong in America. But one wrong was made right yesterday. Ken Griffey Jr. came back to the Seattle Mariners.

Now for those of you who aren’t Mariners fans, this might not seem to be that big of a deal. But for those of you who have been there through the good times and the bad (mostly bad) you know what a big deal this is. If not for Griffey, the Mariners wouldn’t have had that magical run back in 1995 when they came from 13 games down in the standings to overtake the California Angels to claim the AL West crown. If not for Griffey, they wouldn’t have beaten the Yankees in game 5 that year of the ALDS when Edgar Martinez hit “The double”, a hit that still sends chills down the spines of Mariners fans everywhere. But most importantly, if not for Griffey, there would not be a baseball team in Seattle.

Simply put, the man is a legend here in the northwest. From 1989-1999, every kid in the state of Washington from Aberdeen to Zillah would claim that they were Ken Griffey Jr. when out playing baseball with their friends. Ken Griffey baseball cards were like currency, worth their weight in gold. I remember when we would play our pick up baseball games in the old neighborhood that I would try to stand and swing like “The Kid” did. And no one roamed the outfield and go after baseballs with reckless abandon the way “Junior” would. It didn’t matter if the outfield wall was going to cripple him; he was going to get that ball. He was the epitome of coolness.

Not only that, but he did not have to rely on steroids like many superstar baseball players did. He has hit 611 home runs in his career to this point, and the only drug he could be accused of taking was one that caused hard work and determination, and the willingness to sacrifice his body for the team and the sport he loved. Jim Rome once coined him “Nintendo Griffey” for his ability to make plays in the outfield that was only thought possible on a video game. And to top it all off he had that smile. A smile that said to you, “Don’t worry about anything. I’ve got in under control,” and you would believe him no matter what.

So ladies and gents, he might be in the twilight of his career and only have 2-3 more seasons in him. And he is probably not capable of hitting 40-50 home runs in a year anymore. But I don’t care. My boyhood hero is back in the town where it all started. And even if it is just for one season, at least I can sit back and enjoy watching the man they call “The Natural” play for the team that I have been a fan of all my life.

I would just like to say thank you Ken Griffey Jr. for coming back to play in the stadium that was built because of what you accomplished. Not only does it mean a lot to me, but it means a lot to Mariners fans all over the place. The kid is coming home!

Finally...The world of Breakfast cereal has been restored.

I have been meaning to write this blog for awhile now. And since Lisa is still out with the girls for mutual, I decided now would be a good time.

When I was a kid, we were only treated to sugared cereal every so often. I am fairly certain one of the reasons why is because as soon as we would see a box of the sugary goodness come out of the Waremart bag, we were instantly into it. A box of sugar cereal would not last more than 2 days in the Sorenson household. Actually, that is the only reason why. We would eat it so fast, that my mom would go back to buying Rice Chex instead.

One of my favorite sugar cereals was Alphabits. Sure there were other sugar cereals that had more sugar in them, but only Alphabits came in the shapes of different letters! I enjoyed Alphabits all growing up.



But then something happened. One day many years ago when I had to start buying my own cereal, I decided I was going to take myself back to the glory days of living in Parker Brothers Valley (Yes, my childhood neighborhood growing up was named after the game makers. We even had Monopoly Park across the street!) and buy all the boxes of cereal that I would crave, but only get every blue moon. In my cart I had some Cap'n Crunch, a box of Cookie Crisp, (A cereal that my Mom drew the line at. No nutritional value whatsoever in that stuff...it is what makes it taste sooo good!) some Trix, and some Golden Grahams. All I needed was a box of Alphabits to round it out. But they were nowhere to be found!!! I tried every grocery store in the Tri-City area but to no avail. It was then that I had to face the cold hard truth...Alphabits no longer existed in the cereal universe.

For several years after the Alphabits extinction (As it came to be known.) I would look up and down the cereal aisle in vain trying to find the blue box with the boy and girl happily sharing a bowl of Alphabits goodness on it. After finally coming to grips with Post Cereal ripping out my heart by way of discontinuing Alphabits, I could walk down the cereal isle and not feel betrayed by their heartless gesture.

And then it happened! Last year I was at Walmart with the girls buying groceries. We were heading down the cereal isle, and just when we were about through it something caught my eye. Could it really be??? YES!!!! YES IT WAS!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!! ALPHABITS WERE BACK!!!


I felt like Sir Mix-a-Lot when he found out buttermilk biscuits were free today. Like when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson. (Which I believe happened 19 years ago today.) After many years of want, I was finally able to have again.

I bought only one box that day, and I pretty much ate the whole box myself. Since that day I have bought a box every time we go back to grocery shop. My girls like it too. I just hope that unlike their old man, they don't have to have it taken away from them.

Yes, the world of breakfast cereal is back where it should be.


And in remembrance of Tyson getting knocked out for the first time in his career, here is a clip of the 10th round when he went down.



Oh yes, and I can't forget those Buttermilk Biscuits!

The Tale of Two Elvas

Before Elisabeth was born in September of 2007, we were tossing around different names for her. Lisa had wanted to use the name Elisabeth for about as long as she wanted to use the name Alexandra. I did like the name, but at the same time I wanted her to have a middle name that would honor someone who was very important in my life, my Great-Grandmother Elva Brinkerhoff.

It wouldn’t be the first time that we used a family name. Alexandra’s middle name is Louise, which is both my Mother in Law’s and Lisa’s Grandmother’s middle name. For Lorelai we used Lisa’s Dad’s name, Lee. We did change the spelling to Leigh (Which just so happened to also be Lorelai Gilmore’s middle name in the TV show Gilmore Girls, which is where we got the name Lorelai to begin with.) so it would sound a little more feminine. When it came time to find one for Elisabeth, we thought that Elva had a good ring to it.

My Grandma Elva died when I was only 8, but I have vivid memories of her and her house on Smith Ave. in Richland. She was what a Grandma is supposed to be; sweet, kind, loving, and the ability to spoil any child rotten. My sister Heidi and I both had a very close bond with both her and my Great-Grandfather Jess. There are too many memories to list on this post, so I will just leave it at this: Nobody in the world could have loved their Great-Grandparents (Which of course are the ones pictured above.) more than Heidi and I did, and I believe that the feeling was mutual with them.

One thing that I will talk about though is the little white and red ceramic cups that are also pictured above. Grandma Elva would use these little cups to put Jell-O into. We would go over to their house, and chances were better than none that those little cups would be filled up waiting for us in her fridge. It was one of the true joys of my childhood to have Jell-O in those cups. Needless to say I was quite excited when about a year or two ago my Mother asked if I would like to have a few of the cups for my own.

You might be asking what this has to do with our little Elisabeth. I didn’t even think of the connection until about a week ago. You see, Elisabeth has to take medication to control her seizures and her infantile spasms. I won’t go into further explanation, since almost all of you read Lisa’s blog and know all about our little miracle. Well, the medicine she takes is something called Depakote Sprinkles. And when I say sprinkles, I mean it. They resemble the same kind of sprinkles that they put on sugar cookies. They do not dissolve in liquid, so the only way Elisabeth can take them is to eat them with yogurt or some sort of baby food. Since yogurt is her food of choice, that is what we usually use. And what do we put the yogurt and Depakote Sprinkles in? Yup, you guessed it, the Jell-O cups that my Grandma Elva used all of those years ago.

Ever since last week when I realized this, I have thought about my Grandma Elva every night when I give Elisabeth her medicine. I picture her up in heaven with that wonderful smile on her face while she looks down on her Great-Great-Granddaughter taking the medication that she depends on to make her life just a little more normal than it would be without it. And while I only have a few things in my possession from my Great-Grandparents, these are by far my favorite and most precious.

Time for a Nova update!

I realized that it has been awhile since I did any updates about what is going on with my Nova. If you didn't even know that I had a Nova, you need to go back and read this post.

Since it has been pretty cold around here, I haven't been able to do as much as I would have liked to do, but when it is 30 degrees outside and your garage is barely making it past 55 degrees, there is only so much you can do. That is until my darling wife bought be a heater for the garage. In combination with adding a couple extra flood lights to the garage for both lighting and warmth, I am now up to about 60 degrees inside. And that has made a big difference in what I can do.

So what have I been doing you ask? Mostly I have been working on detailing. I went ahead gave the car a coat of polish to prep it for the wax. In case you didn't know, there is a difference between polish and wax for a car. If you really want to know, you can read about it here.

I also gave the inside dash and seats a good cleaning. And while the dash is still cracked pretty bad in a couple spots, it looks a lot better than it did when I first received the car. Since yesterday was a day full of sunshine, I pulled it out to take some pictures. I only wish that I would have taken some before pictures of the paint so you could see how much dirt was ground into the body. Oh well, at least I know how bad it really was.

Long side view of the Nova.

I love how it looks all shiny now.

I took of the hubcaps and gave them a quick polish job. I need to do it one more time and they will look even better.

I really like this shot, because the front end of this car is one of my favorite features. In fact, if you go back to my first Nova post you can compare the pics on there to the ones now. I think you will see a big difference. (At least I do!)

I would have loved to keep the old blue California plates on, but it wasn't working out.

The green interior has really grown on me. The photo doesn't do all the cleaning I have done to these seats justice.

As goes for the dashboard and speedometer cluster. The photo doesn't show how clean it looks. These were filthy and now look brand new! (Well, other than the cracks!)

In the next month or so I am going to be doing some serious cleaning in the engine compartment. The first local car show is in March I believe, and I want to have her all ready to go by then. From what I have heard from people who have seen my Nova, it sounds like it will do great in the Original category at the shows. Hopefully next month I will have some trophies to go along with her!

Yet more proof Nancy Pelosi is a blow hard idiot.

Not that anyone needed more proof of her stupidity.

And yes, she probably just misspoke, but just imagine if a conservative said something like this!

Monday morning safety videos, and a plug for a great vampire story

 OUCH, OUCH, AND OUCH!

 

Sorry for the lack of posting this past week.  I have been a total blog slacker.  About the only thing I have been doing online is geeking out on Facebook, watching “Welcome Back, Kotter” on Hulu, and reading “Hell on 5 Dollars a Day” by Greg Bulmash.  If you have some extra time in your day, you should head over to his site and read it too.  In fact, here is a link to the intro and first chapter of the story.

 

And always remember: wear a cup while skateboarding, wear a helmet when riding a bike, and don’t be a human motorcycle ramp.  Follow these three safety rules, and you should be fine.