A positive view...

...about what I do.

Johnny Mac

Tyler, Johnny Mac and Mom on Mac's boat in September 2007.

Johnny Mac died today. He was practically a member of our family, and my dad lovingly referred to him as a handy bastard. There's a picture framed at my folks place of him reading to me when my mom was still pregnant with me.

My dad used to take me to see Mac when I was little (not even in Kindergarten yet) at a bar called Kharacters. I would sip on Shirley Temples while him and my dad would drink and visit. I became so accustomed to the place, that I thought it was Mac's house. When my mom drove past it one day, I pointed and asked if we could go see him. You could imagine her surprise when her little daughter asked to go into a bar. But hey, it's Alaska.

Mac was always there whenever I needed help. He loved my parents, so therefore he loved me too. One time my car broke down in when I was in high school behind Captain's Coffee and dad couldn't come fix it right away. Mac saved the day by coming into town and getting that old Lumina running for me.

And he always used to say this to Zack and me when we were little:

One hen,
two ducks,
three squawking geese,
four Limerick oysters,
five corpulent porpoises,
six pairs of Don Alvarso's tweezers,
seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array,
eight brass monkeys from the ancient, sacred crypts of Egypt,
nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic old men on roller skates with a
marked propensity toward procrastination and sloth,
ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep, who haul stones in and around the quarries of the queasy of key, all at the same time.

I'll miss you Johnny Mac.

Tyler at Kirkwood

A rare occasion

My mom just sent me our family portrait photos. We had them done when we were all together in Phoenix. The last time all four of us were together at the same time was about two years ago.



And look how big Zack's head is compared to mine:



My little brother is HUGE!!!

Bellingham boys

Shortly after I dropped off Steve at the airport shuttle, Tyler called me and said Colin and Danny had just flown into Reno from Bellingham. So now the boys are staying with us for the weekend. Danny, Colin and I went to Kirkwood with my friend (and co-worker) Adam to shred the fresh powder. My Heavenly pass is blacked out, so I thought we could check out another mountain while they were here.

And Colin didn't waste any time getting acquainted with the dogs...

Tug of war

Steve and Ty's ski trip

Steve flew down from Bellingham on Friday and is staying with us for a week. He got a cheap flight with Allegient Air ($28 each way).

Today Tyler and Steve went on a cross country ski adventure. Before they left, we had to make a pit stop at the pet store to buy the dogs some booties for their five-mile trek through the snow. Moses took to his booties quickly, while Aspen wasn't as tolerant of hers.

Moses and Aspen stuck with them the whole way, and were pretty tuckered out by the end of their adventure. Aspen did lose one of her booties, but it was recovered by the time they got back to the car.

By popular demand...

...pictures of me.

Guest speaker

I recently wrote an article about business closures on the South Shore, and one of the adjunct professors at Lake Tahoe Community College read it. He sent me an e-mail to ask if I could speak to his small business class. Normally when I write an article I usually hear from all the people who hated it, and this was the first time anyone asked me to speak at a class.

My gut feeling was to say no just because I'm not a big fan of public speaking. But then I thought that wasn't a very good reason to turn this instructor down, so I said yes.

As soon as I drove up to the college, I had a mini panic flash. What the hell am I going to talk about? When I walked into the room, my fear wasn't relieved either because the old city mayor was siting in the back row (she's a frequent contributor to the Letters to the Editor). It was also weird to see my article projected on the screen in the front of the classroom.

All in in all it was good experience, and I think I sounded like I knew what I was talking about — but I did feel odd being a guest speaker in a class where most of the students were as old as my parents.

But no one asked me how old I was, so that was a bonus.

Superbowl Sunday

...but go Broncos!