Hello Me, Meet the REAL Me!

Umm, Stuff

2006-08-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's been another busy month. I've got a final at school tomorrow night over the muscles of the appendages and then another one next Tuesday evening on how to work those muscles. I should do good.

Our cat, Jasper, had surgery Monday for bladder stones. Expensive little bastage! But he was feeling pretty crappy for some time and he seems to be doing a little better now, so that's good. Our cat, Pixie, got locked in a closet while Christin took Jasper to the vet Monday and when Christin came home she found the little bugger in the closet with blood everywhere! Turns out she ripped one of her claws off while trying to scratch her way out. Dumb cat!

My mom and Tom came and visited us Saturday. It was way cool! We had lunch and then drove around sight seeing. We walked around Seven Falls, too. It was a nice little visit.

I'm quitting Agilent (Volt) tomorrow to work for Express Messenger. I will work less hours and make more money. Sa-weet!! It'll work great while I finish up school and after I'm done with school it will help with being able to give more massages and stuff.

I'm done.

Wedding Pics

2006-07-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the wedding (Brent and Tammy's) in Malibu and the reception that followed. Although you probably won't know any of the people in them, there are a few with Christin and me.

http://picasaweb.google.com/christin.hobbs

Things That Go Boom, Crash, Bang In The Night

2006-07-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

Two nights ago Christin and I were startled awake at two in the morning by some freakish noise. Here is what happened in Christin's words.

Nate and I were just rudely wakened by a most thunderous calamity! Laying in bed, with heart pounding in anticipation of unspeakable horrors, I slowly began to realize..."this must be because of a cat!" Fear gripped me as I quickly jumped up to see what was causing this noise as it echoed through the apartment, back and forth. A shadow (very noisily) raced by me at breakneck speed, into the office. Simultaneously, in the living room, there was a crash into the blinds. The shadow ran by me yet again, this time quietly...into the bedroom, under the bed to "safety."

I was quickly able to determine what happened and could not stop laughing for minutes! Pixie had somehow gotten her head caught in the loop of the Outback bag that was in the kitchen. Trying to escape her attacker, she ran from the kitchen, into our bedroom, back through the living room, into the office (where I thought she lost the bag) weeeeeeeeeeeeeee (that is Pixie's typing, literally - HAHA), and back into the bedroom. By this time Nate was up too and helped me search out the rogue bag. We found it between his desk and chair, pinned down by a book that had fallen on it. This caused the bag to rip, releasing Pixie from its prison, EXCEPT she still had most of the side of the bag and loop around her neck as she cowered for dear life under the bed.

I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time. I almost peed my pants after I realized what was going on. It is criminal that we were not able to see the whole thing play out - I fortunately got a glimpse of "the shadow" racing by me with the bag around her neck. The crashing into the blinds was one of the other cats freaking out as Pixie tore by, which of course, only made me laugh harder. As I write this email, Pixie has braved the world again and doesn't seem any worse for the wear. I am going back to bed now, but I had to share this with you while it was still fresh in my mind!

My Goodness!

2006-07-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

My goodness! It's been a long time since I've posted anything on here. I cannot tell you how busy I've been. Of course, there is work every week, same old routine which takes a lot of time but the main thing has been school that has been taking up most of my time. We started and finished our first six weeks of KOV's (Kinesiology Overview). This covered the muscles in the back, abdomen, head, neck, and rump. That was our Thursday night classes (theory). On Tuesday nights (hands-on) we learned how to work these muslces. Yes, it's true! There's nothing like gloving up to work on the internal muscles of the mouth or working on the muscles two inches from someone's bunghole! Great fun!! : )

We then had our tests on these things and in theory class I got a B (which kind of bummed me out but it was 210 really hard questions!). On the hands-on test I got a 100% though. So, since I passed those I got to continue on with the school program. We jumped back into the swing of things last week with learning KOV #7, which consists of a couple more muscles on the shoulder and chest.

So, that's school. I'm loving it still and enjoy learning all this funky stuff. Oh, we have another class on Thursday nights which is Neuromuscular Physiology. Wild!

I haven't been on any trips or anything...or have I? Yes, I have! We went to California for my brother-in-law's wedding on the beach in Malibu. That was rad! We went to Magic Mountain and rode the scary roller coasters. That was crazy crap! What are people thinking when they build these things?! But it was lots of fun and we were there with about 15 people. Friends from our WoW guild that live in CA.

I had my birthday. I'm 34 now. Weird.

Allana came and visited for a week and we had a really good time. She's still growing up! What the crap?! I hope to be in Boise for my cousin's wedding around the first part of August. It'll be just a weekend trip though. Hope I can see some people during that time.

Well, back to work I go. Peace!

Don't Touch Me There!

2006-06-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

When I came home the other day there was a note on all the apartment doors that talked about how management just wanted to be neighborhood friendly/safe and make sure everyone's aware of local sex offenders. They offered a website to go to find out more information. I thought this just too weird so I looked up our zip code and there's a guy on the top floor of our building that's one. I figured something was up. Not with that dude, because I've never seen him around, but just the note on the door.

I started Student Clinic at school Monday. It's every Monday from 4-9 pm and I give three massages during that time. It's cool. It lasts for 16 weeks.

Memorial Day Weekend

2006-05-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

We had a nice weekend. Friday evening, Christin and I just stayed home and watched Spanglish. That's a great movie! And then we played WoW until 1:00 am or so. Saturday, I cleaned house, played D&D with the boys, and played WoW again until about 1:00 am. Sunday, I went to some friends house in the morning and gave them massages and then Christin and I went to another friend's house and had dinner with their family. It was awesome because we had deer and moose. It was yummy! Although we each only had a bite of the moose because it was so tough! We just kept chewing and chewing and chewing... Then we came home and played WoW again. Monday morning I slept in until 10:00 am! That's pretty unusual for me. I usually can't sleep past 8:00 am anymore so that was nice. I did some homework and then we went and saw X-Men 3; we we liked it. Everybody dies but that's alright. Then we went to Home Depot and got some pots for Christin's herbs...basil and stuff like that. Not the other kind of "herb". We ate at Chipotle and then we came home and played WoW a bit more and went to bed.

My Space

2006-05-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

I recently, (today) created a MySpace page if you want to check it out. I'm not sure if I'll totally convert to it or not. We'll see...

http://www.myspace.com/bluskalz

Angry White Polka!

2006-05-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

Hehe...definitely gonna need volume for this one!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9015039751037156260&q=angry+german+kid

Whoever Said Rock Is Dead?

2006-05-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

Like a bad train wreck...I just...can't...stop...watching...

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=7610b16c-f51b-46c3-8a18-c60590e48d69&t=s5&f=06/64&p=hotvideo_viralvideos

Reviews

2006-05-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

I'm at work...working. No, really I am! I'm just between parts right now and they take awhile to run.

We've seen some movies recently. It's been quite awhile since we've seen this many movies. We saw Silent Hill last weekend and I liked it because it was a lot like the video game. We went with our friends Adam, Christina, and Kim. It's fun to go to scary movies with girls because they're so jumpy! I missed the very end of the movie though. I kind of had an episode. Like a dehydration-blood sugar episode, most likely. I got faint at the very end and don't remember what happened for about five minutes and it scared Christin. They got me some water and then I was fine. Afterwards, I told everyone that I was "just trying to add to the effect of the movie."

Saturday we went and saw An American Haunting. It was good. Christin really liked and got pretty spooked. The bad thing was that she went home that night and did some internet reading on the actual events and really freaked herself out right before bed. So she had nightmares all night long. Silly girl.

Last night we watched Finding Neverland and thought it was really good. I really like Johnny Depp, he's a good actor. I'm excited to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest when it comes out.

The season finale of the fifth season of Smallville is this Thursday. We're excited for that. Lex Luthor is getting bad, dude! Very sad indeed.

I'm Still Alive

2006-05-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note letting you know that I'm still alive. Just really busy is all. Nothing new here, really. Christin finishes school in a couple weeks and I'm just really, really busy with my school. Still loving it! I was talking to Christin the other night about some of the stuff we were doing in school and she said that I sounded smart. I wasn't sure if she meant it as, "ooh, my husband's really smart and cool!" or "thank goodness my husband's finally learning something, he's been such a moron all these years!" I'll pick the first one. : )

We might take a trip to Las Vegas or Baja this October to meet with our WoW friends. That would be fun.

We're going to my brother-in-law's wedding in June. It's on the beach in Malibu, "flipflops optional." Rad!

That's all I got.

Good Experience

2006-04-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Last night I did community service up at the school for a few hours; giving full body massages. I had a really good experience. I was able to work on three clients. The first lady said, after her massage, that she'd never had a massage by a man before and now she prefers that and wanted to schedule another appointment with me. That was pretty cool and I felt good about that. The next client was a man that works out pretty regularly because he was pretty buff. On my evaluation he said that the pressure was great! That's something I've been working on because with males they tend to like the deeper massages and I'm working on getting stronger and being able to dig into the muscles when needed. My last client was a little 75 year old Asian lady (thank goodness because I was worn out after the man before!). She was really sweet! She only wanted her back, shoulders, and arms massaged. For a FULL HOUR people! It's amazing how many different strokes you can make up when you are working on the same areas for an hour! Haha! That was the most people I've done in a row like that so I was worn out afterwards but I felt really good, too. It's cool to help people feel better!

It's Freaking April!

2006-04-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Good, lord! It's April already? What the crap?!

Anyway, here's the latest news with my fun and exciting life. I went skydiving, bungee jumping, deep sea diving, and climbed a glacier last week...oh, wait, that wasn't me. That was my evil twin, Skippy. I actually have just been going to school (a lot), working (a good amount), and playing WoW and D&D (a little). Not much new, huh? Yeah, I know.

We started our Bones class at school a couple weeks ago and it's kicking my butt. It's very interesting but there's just lots of stuff to learn and retaining that information has been difficult for me. I'm finding that I have to go over and over stuff every day just to keep it in my skull; which consists of the frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, maxilla, etc. bones. Ha ha! It's wild too because I'm learning the different little grooves and sticking-out-thingys (processes) on the bones where the muscles attach. Our quiz on Thursday is going to be over the spine. Yeah, it's cool.

Our next class after Bones will be Muscles. Tomorrow night we start going more into ROM (Range of Motion) which we've learned but haven't done it on other people yet. I'm doing community service tonight; giving massages to the public. It's done at the school. I've got a full body massage at 4:30, 6:00, and 7:30. Coolio.

Christin's brother, Brent, is getting married to his fiance, Tammy; probably June 18. So we'll get to take a trip to L.A. which will be fun.

There's a gal in my class, Jill K., that is a body builder. She could literally kick my freakin' butt! Here's a picture of her:

Like I said..."kick my butt!" But she's really cool. Christin met with her and they are working on Christin's metabolism right now and she's got a workout routine that she's been doing for the last two weeks. Christin wants to buff up. Not as much as Jill but maybe do a figure competition some day. Rad! Guess I have to start working out again...dang it! : )

Busy

2006-03-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

Last night at school we had our first practicum. We had a written test and then a hands on test. That's where the instructor pairs us up with another student and then he calls out a massage move and then we have to demonstrate it. I aced them both! Woo hoo! I'm happy because I've gotten straight A's so far.

On Thursday we start our Bones class where we have to learn the names of the bones and also the names of the little groves in the bones where the muscles sit. They say school is about to get really hard! I believe them! I have to pass this course so I can continue with the program. I have a feeling that studying will be my main priority!

We get to start doing community service hours as well. I think I'm going to do full body massages at one of the hospitals in town. It's for the staff.

I just feel so busy lately! With work, school, life...busy, busy, busy!

Christin was in L.A. for the weekend visiting her dad and brother, and some friends. I just sat at home and played WoW. It was nice and relaxing. My friend, Red, in ID started playing WoW this weekend. He's cool. We played online together for awhile on Saturday night.

Allana's coming to visit for spring break, so that will be a lot of fun.

Save Your Pennies

2006-03-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

OK, it's time to save your pennies so you can buy the new album when it comes out April 4! : )

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E1ZBHM/qid=1141746191/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-4953299-7999341?s=music&v=glance&n=5174

Silent Hill

2006-03-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Have any of you played (or even heard of) the video game Silent Hill? I've played the first two on the PS2 and have loved them! They are great to play alone late at night with all the lights out. They made a movie based on the game. You can go here to view the trailer: http://movies.msn.com/Movies/movie.aspx?m=552547&stab=2. Looks cool to me!

Time For An Update

2006-02-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

I think this is the busiest I've been in a long time, at least for this length of time. Work has been...well, work. Nothing new and exciting there. Usually on Wednesdays, I run Christin's route for her. If you don't know, she took up a part time job doing some courier work. It's Monday through Friday for a few hours during the afternoon.

As far as school goes, it's been really good. We finished learning chair massage and I've been able to give 8 of the 10 massages that I need to have done by February 28. It was really cool because after I gave the first one a couple weeks ago, my friend said that he felt like he could take on the world! He also felt so relaxed that he fell asleep during it and drooled! Ha ha! But it was such a great experience because I don't know how long it's been since I've felt like I've actually helped someone! You know what I mean? It was a great feeling! Also, we finished learning about the code of ethics of massage and what to do in certain situations; like what do you do if a man gets an erection while giving him a massage. Fun stuff!! : )

We started learning table massage last Tuesday which is pretty cool. I should be getting my massage table this week. I'm really excited for that! We started learning medical terms last Thursday which really overwhelmed me. It's been 16 years since I've really been in a "school" type setting. Lots of note taking and weird words. Although, unlike in school when I was younger, I now actually speak up and ask questions when I don't understand something. That's a good feeling.

We sold Christin's 1997 Ford Escort LX and bought a 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe GLS which we really love! We feel like grown ups!

Have I mentioned anything about the Steelers winning the Superbowl? Well, they did! That was way cool!

When we have free time, Christin and I play WoW. Dudes, if you get the time and the little extra cash for the monthly payment to play, do it! I highly recommend it! It's so much fun! It's cool, too, because in the game you can create guilds (which is a big group of people) that help each other out on quests or give you certain items that you may need or want. Well, our guild (Blood Cult) is the best! Everyone in the guild knows each other in real life somehow. Like for instance, Christin's brother-in-law is in the guild, as well as his girlfriend, and then they have friends that are in the guild; then Christin knows some others in the guild who have been friends of the family for years and years, and then their friends are members as well. So, it's fun chatting with them and playing the game as well. You get to meet lots of new people. You can group with people you don't know and play as well. Some can be real wankers but most are cool to play with. So, buy the game and join our guild! : )

Oh, the character I play, Rumpletuskin (Christin came up with the name; he's a troll warrior with long tusks), just reached 40th level. I was able to save enough gold pieces and buy a mount, a violet raptor! Cool beans! Just thought I'd throw that out there in case you give a crap. Ha ha! I'll have to post some screenshots.

On a different note, I think I'll throw out one of my thoughts. Over the last few years I've come to the realization that everyone creates their own reality, their own truth. Most of this thinking is about religion and spirituality. I don't think that there's any one true religion or way of thought. People believe what they believe and that will be the way it is for them, whether in this life or the afterlife (if you believe in an afterlife!).

That's all I got for now.

School (And Stuff)

2006-01-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

I started school this week! We were suppose to start the previous Thursday but it was cancelled due to bad weather. I'm really liking it! The instructors are all really nice and knowledgeable in their fields. And their actually interesting! There's quite the age range in our class; from people right out of high school to people around 50 years old. The class size is about 20 students. Soon I get to order my table and we start learning chair massage Tuesday. It's cool because we get to go and do massages at sporting events and places of business. Eventually I'll do an internship at a local business and get some good experience. A couple of my requirements due by February 28 is to give 8 chair massages and the really hard one is to receive 2 full body massages and do evaluations on them. If I have to, right? Ha ha!!

I'm working overtime today at work. Well, I should say I'm at work instead of working. No, I've done some work but it's at a leisurely pace.

Man, not much else is going on. Christin's been a real trooper lately. She's working a full time job, doing some work on the side, and going to school five times a week. She's a nut! And I love her!

My daughter's 10 years old now. That's just crazy!

STEELERS!!

2006-01-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

I Knew It!

2006-01-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

Last Couple Of Weeks

2006-01-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been busy! Doing something constructive, you ask? Well, no, not really. Just doing A LOT of gaming. Holy cow! I think I said before in another post that I'm addicted to WoW. At least I admit it! But that will all come to a crashing halt very soon though because I start school on the 24th. Yea!! And I have an orientation this Thursday. I'm way excited!

But other than doing that I gave blood last Wednesday. Successfully I might add! I attempted to give blood a long time ago in high school. My friend, Ellen Chandler, and I decided to give blood and well, I didn't eat breakfast that morning and I passed out...twice! They started pumping out my blood which I was totally fine with and then all of the sudden everything went black. After I came to they wheeled me over to a bed and asked me if I could stand up from the chair and lay down on the bed. I said, "yes." And when I stood up I passed out again. So, the moral of the story is to EAT BEFORE YOU GIVE BLOOD! And Drink lots of water, too.

The nurses last Wednesday were very nice and took really good care of me because I told them that story from high school. This time went really well and I gave the full amount of blood. After it was all done I did get a little dizzy though because I don't think I drank enough water beforehand but I still made it.

On the down side of the whole experience, I got my cholesterol checked and it's high which really bums me out. Ugh! That concerns me and it certainly concerns Christin, too. Given my dad's history I need to take care of it now.

It was an exciting weekend of football, wasn't it? The Broncos and the Steelers (my team) are going to the AFC Championships next weekend to see who goes to the Super Bowl. It's fun being at work where almost everyone is a Bronco fan! Good ole Colorado! : ) I hope the Steelers win! That would be righteous!

Update: How could I forget?! Last week at work we found out that we had been working with a sex offender! Isn't that weird? He got let go because of performance issues last week and afterwards one of the technicians here said that he checks the sex offenders list here in Colorado because he has kids and saw this guy on the list a couple months back. It's so weird because we were all shocked! You never would've thought it.

Rock On!

2006-01-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't know W. was a rocker?! Actually, now that I think of it, I thought I saw him at the Judas Priest concert last summer! Right on!

Holidays

2006-01-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

I drove to Denver Christmas Eve and picked Allana from the airport. She stayed for a week and we had lots of fun playing games and watching movies. On the way home from picking her up we stop at three toll booths because we take the toll road that leads to I-25. At the first toll booth the person in front of us had paid for us, wishing us a merry Christmas. That got us in the Christmas spirit won at the next one I paid for the person behind me. Pretty darn cool!

We went and saw Narnia and King Kong which were both good. We had a great Christmas dinner that Christin prepared. There was Christin and I, Allana, Christin's brother (Brent) and his girlfriend (Tammy), Christin's mom and step-dad, and our friend (Mary Beth) and her daughter (Sophia). A whole house full of people! We spent the evening watching one of my favorite movies, A Christmas Story.

Christmas was really good. I got some clothes (shoes, shirt, pant; a whole outfit!), a backpack for school, some movies (Star Wars III, Princess Bride, X-Men), Franklin dayplanner, and some games (Star Wars: Battlefront II [you get to assassinate the Queen of Naboo; how cool is that?!], World of Warcraft [WoW] [we call it World of Warcrack because we've been playing it nonstop since Saturday!; we're addicts now; if anyone plays let us know and we'll add you to our Friends List]).

For New Year's Eve I played D&D until about 8:00 pm and then Christin and I went home. She went to bed and I stayed up playing Wow. Pretty exciting, huh?

That's all that the exciting stuff that I can remember for now so I guess that's all I have to report.

Shop 'Til You Drop

2005-12-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

I got all of my Christmas shopping done last night. I guess I should let you know that my Christmas shopping only consisted of gifts for Christin; she took care of the rest which I'm totally cool with. Shopping is definitely not one of my favorite things to do. But going out this year wasn't too bad. I went a few times right after work last week and this week and was home by about 7:00 pm each time. Oh, I've been getting out of work around 4:30 pm. The hordes of people weren't too bad and I only got cut off in traffic twice. Hopefully she'll like what I got her. She better since she asked for them!

Anyway, not much else going on here. I'm really antsy to get the Christmas break going. I haven't been really present at all here at work this week. Just thinking about all the time off I'll have. I work 4 hours Friday and then I don't go back to work until January 3. That will be nice.

We watched the movie Better Off Dead the other day. I love that movie. It's so freaking funny! And John Cusack is so young!

Oklahoma Picture Time

2005-12-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures that were taken of our crazy friends when we were down in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving:

Christin, Ryan, and Tammy:

Ryan and me:

Tammy, Kristin, Eric, and Ryan:

Brad, Tammy, Christin, and Scott:

Ryan's friend (I forgot her name), Ryan, Tammy, Christin:

Tammy and me: