"Geez, Eddie, where have all the posts gone?"

Ok, I know I have been lacking on the "weekly picture posts" but I've been busy.

I went to L.A. last October for a Rancid show which was a great time. I spent about 4 hours in Hollywood goofing around before the show. And to be honest, thats a long time to be in Hollywood by yourself, let alone with a group. One can get restless quite easy. It was a cool fall afternoon while I was there so it was great hoodie weather which I sported all afternoon. And keeping with my number one rule when going to a show: never wear any clothing sporting the band that you are about to see. You just don't do it. As a title of a Rancid song, Unwritten Rules. That's what it is.

I like this pic cuz I think it's L.A. in a nutshell. Graffitti, billboards, and gates to a public parking area. Love the gate part.

Ok, I'm done. Goodbye for now.

New picture every week

So I got to thinking.

A lot of people share their lives in words. Whether it be a blog, songs, poems or books, people write their thoughts down on paper and write a story. Obviously, I'm doing the same with this blog.

I thought I'd add an element to my blogging world.

I was thinking about sharing a picture a week with y'all and post it on here. I thought I'd post photos on what I'm doing and where I've been and what I've seen. I will of course write a little tid bit about the photo(where its located, what I'm doing, bob loblaw....) you get the idea. And if you know where the last part in the parentheses comes from, then you're just awesome.

With that being said...drum roll please.

The picture involves a 500 Rummy game between my father, my sister and myself. Not to mention, a coupla whiskey and cokes. This glorious event happened on Christmas night. My score is on the left, my sister in the middle and dad on the right. I grew up playing 500 Rummy with my father and was never able to beat him until a coupla years ago. Since then, he has only beat me one or two times. Looks like the torch has been passed. And God help my sister, she just cant remember what people have in their hands.(a key to winning) She doesn't stand a chance. And please note the "W" next to my score.

Victory.

Mornings with Mom

They happened Monday thru Friday while I was home. They were very simple, yet the most memorable. She ate her oatmeal while we spoke. These talks were in the car. I drove her to work. We'd cover politics, work, love and life all in about 10-15 minutes. The conversations were short but different everyday. One thing that remained the same was the mutual feeling of enjoyment of each others company. And that's all that really mattered. It was always dark outside and most of the days, the roads were covered with snow. As I pulled up to her office, the words, "See ya at 5:30" became a routine. I always looked forward to the next morning to see what new adventure awaited us.

It's funny how the little things in life such as a car ride mean the most to you and its the time you remember the most. Of course, the mornings with mom had to end because I had to leave, but the time and memory will last forever.

Thanks Mom.

Its Early & its Friggen Cold

So I flew home to Boise, Idaho on Tuesday for the holidays. Holy shit is it cold here! Ok, I'm from here and I know how cold it can get here during the winter, but I was not prepared for THIS biting cold weather. When I left San Diego it was a nice and warm 53 with a little rain and when I landed it was an easy 18 degrees. Lemme tell ya, that takes your breath away. And not like a beautiful woman does.

I'm two days into my visit and surprisingly enough, I'm not too bored. Notice I said "too". It's really great to see family and my best friends. My goal is to do something almost every night. I know that's asking a lot but come on, we can do it. I realized something while coming home to visit. I LOVE being the "visitor". So in keeping the tradition of some past blogs, lets make a list of why I love being the "visitor".

• Free home cooked meals
• Don't have to pay for gas
• Everybody that I know in town wants to see me
• Getting asked, "How long you in town for?"
  
• Doing my favorite crossword from the paper
  
• Not having ANY responsibilities
• No work (see above)
• I can guilt trip people into doing something because, well, "I'm only here for so long!" :-)
  
• I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want
• Saturday morning coffee and breakfast with friends
• Checking out what's "new" in town
• And the last thing I love about being the "visitor"....I get to do all of this all over again!

As I finish this post, it's still cold and only going to get worse. Snow tonight and a high of an excellent 12 degrees on Saturday. Yes, you heard me correctly, a HIGH of twelve. Whats a San Diego boy gonna do!?! Hopefully I'll write before the year but if I don't, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa to all and to all a goodnight now!!

7 Years.... $160 Million?

I know, seems ridiculous huh? It is. Thats the figure that "star" pitcher C.C. Sabathia will be getting paid from the NY Yankees. For the people that know me really well, I love sports. Its a big part of my life and I watch sportscenter almost everyday. Sports aren't all my life but I enjoy them. With that said, aren't we paying these athletes just a little too much. What happened to, "holy shit we're in a recession" talk? Oh ya, I forgot we're dealing with the Yankees here. The "I don't-care-how much-we-spend-to-get-a-star,-so-long-as-we-can-almost-make-the-playoffs" team. They did this a few years ago with Alex Rodriguez and look where they are. They haven't won the World Series since 2000. Hmmm you do the math?

And you may ask what his initials C.C. stand for? Yep, you guessed it......Cha-ching!!

I rest my case.

My point? The rich just get richer and no matter how shitty the economy is, these teams will always throw stupid money at these overpaid athletes. What about giving some of that money to the struggling families in their respective communities? Or maybe the three jackass CEO's of the Big 3 Automakers, who by the way, flew each of their private jets to Washington to ask for a "bailout"? I mean what happened to Jet Pooling? Oh ya, I forgot, its Christmas, the season for giving. My bad.


Goodnight now.

Golf Camp & The Holidays

First things first. I told you so Kristin!! So there!! (tongue out)

I have been told lately by my real life friends and my blogger friends that I'm lacking on my posts and need to get on it.

So here we go.

I was talking to my Canadian friend Far and she suggested that I write about golf camp. So I said, what the hell, thats a good idea. So you ask yourself, "What is golf camp?" Is it a camp that you send your kids to for summer? Is it a camp over the weekend type of thingy? Actually no, its an accredited college/academy for us individuals who dream of becoming a golf professional or indulging into a career in the golf industry. Now that you know what it is you may ask, "Why, Edward(in honor of Twilight, but yes that's my name) do you call it golf camp?" Glad you asked.

For those who know me, you know the name of the academy but in respect to them I will leave their name out of this post. I simply call it golf camp because its simply a mickey mouse "school". Not that I have anything bad to say about this "school", I'm just not going to put it out there. Actually this "school" has been quite fun and I'm really glad I came here to pursue my passion of golf. I'll point out a few highlights/lowlights of this "school" and I'll be done with it and on to talk about more important things, the holidays!

Highlights:

• Playing golf is a class(i know, easy)
• Free golf at over 15 courses

Lowlights:

• Dealing with rich little kids who's mom and dad sent em away cuz they wont go to real college
• Shaving every other day ( i despise it)
• Sitting in a class where I know more than the instructor
• Having to take a 7th grade computer class
• Being stuck in a room with 30 dudes for 2 hours

I could go on but I wont. All in all, golf camp has been fun and its almost over. Onto the holidays.

I love the holidays. It's my favorite time of the year. Here's why:

• Christmas Songs(i know they get old after a while but they getcha in the mood)
• Smell of fall in the air
• Brisk mornings(well only some here in Cali)
• Leaves changing colors
• Christmas parties
• Ugly sweater parties
• Traveling
• Shopping
• Christmas lights
• Egg nog
• Family time
• Snow(again, only in cold climates)
  
• Cranberry Bliss bars from Starbucks
• Vacation
• Kisses under the mistletoe
• Kisses while not under the mistletoe
• Celebrating Jesus' Birth
  
• Christmas Trees
• Stockings
• Plaid scarfs
• Last but not least......I get to wear sweaters everyday!!!
  

What do you love about the holidays?

Holiday Traditions & Others

I know you have em. I do and I love traditions. Whether it be a holiday tradition, a birthday tradition or whatever you and your boys/girls do to "keep the tradition alive" thingy. Here are a few of mine:

• Watch "Its a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve
• Make the first cut on our Thanksgiving turkey
• Bake and make the green bean casserole(my favorite dish) on Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Play Parcheesi with my mom and sister on Christmas Eve
  
• Sing "Happy Birthday To Me" by The Vandals, to myself, on my birthday
• Play golf on my birthday
• Put the star on our Christmas tree
• Go to Christmas Eve church service
• Say a prayer before every road trip and flight
• Send a rose to my mother, sister, and if i have a GF, on Valentines Day
• Drink Guinness and only Guinness on St. Patricks Day
• Watch Penn State play in their respective bowl game with my father
• Grow a little beard for the Holidays(to stay warm ya know!)
• Go fishing with my dad on Fathers Day
• Spend the whole day with my mom doing whatever she wants to do on Mothers Day
• Buy way too many groundflowers on the Fourth of July
• Shoutout the 10 second countdown on New Years with all my closest friends

So what are some of your traditions?