Latin Lesson 1: Done!

Who-hoo! I FINALLY got my first lesson for my Latin correspondence course completed. I'm very relieved but at the same time I'm an POed at myself for waiting so long. How ever am I going to get this done before school starts!?

I know the administration isn't worried if I'm studying just a day or two ahead of my students, but I am! I want to KNOW this like I know my Spanish. I actually told the teacher why I was taking this class; I don't know if that was a good idea or not, but there it is. I figured if I clued the prof in, then maybe C. Winsor Wheeler might actually help me more than just grading the assignments.

I've been listening to the Latin tape but I really need to dedicate some time to get it from audio cassette into a MP3 format. Alvin gave me all the tools to do it, now I just need to make it happen! Wish me luck, I might give it a whirl tonight.

Intention Posts

Intention posts:

This is where you take pictures of your life, compose blog posts in your head, all with the INTENTION of posting. But, life gets in the way and the posts never actually make it to the blog.

Examples:
Kim's Garden
The back-yard fence
Kayaks
Painting
Yard sales

So, when you actually get time, here's the burning question: do you post them as "current" or do you set the date/time stamp for when they SHOULD have been posted? I usually retro-post (put the date/time of the event) but the issue is, then, do people actually look backwards and read them? My guess is no.

So, be on the look out for things to be moving off of intention posts and into real posts. I've got some great pictures!

Grandma Alice

We're going through some of Grandma Alice's things for a yard sale; it's like a full room full of memories. It's sad and good at the same time -- stuff has memories attached to it, but at the end of the day, it's just STUFF.

But, I was thinking about Grandma A and Alvin. Alvin caught a 15 pound catfish last week. Until his, the biggest catfish I'd ever seen in my LIFE was this one that Grandma Alice caught at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in the Verde in February.

Flower Flag

THE ONLY FLAG THAT DOESN'T FLY

Between the fields where the flag is planted, there are 9+ miles of flower fields that go all the way to the ocean. The flowers are grown by seed companies. It's a beautiful place, close to Vandenberg AFB.

Check out the dimensions of the flag. The Floral Flag is 740 feet long and 390 feet wide and maintains the proper Flag dimensions, as described in Executive Order #1083 4. This Flag is 6.65 acres and is the first Floral Flag to be planted with 5 pointed Stars, comprised of White Larkspur. Each Star is 24 feet in diameter; each Stripe is 30 feet wide. This Flag is estimated to contain more than 400,000 Larkspur plants, with 4-5 flower stems each, for a total of more than 2 million flowers.

Vandenburg AFB is in California.

Identity Theft

A friend of mine, Tina, sent these to me in an email and I just HAD to share!

Geocaching

Well, we've started a NEW family hobby. Geocaching! (pronounced geo-cashing) It's where you use a GPS to find the location of treasures. We did two finds on Sunday, one near Williams and one near Flagstaff. When you find a location, you log yourself in the book, take a treasure and leave a treasure.

And, if you're me, you also DOCUMENT the treasures with photos. I'll get those posted soon.


Right NOW, Dad & I are on our way to the very first Prescott Luncheon briefing. I've got a guest invited so hopefully, I'll get a sign up. I'm really excited to get my Thursday evenings back. And Fridays work well for me because even during the school year I'll be able to make it.

Speaking of, I had a nightmare last night about teaching Latin. I was totally unprepared, the class had no discipline or respect. It was nasty. I guess I'd better get more focused on learning Latin so that doesn't happen in real life.

The First Cache

We've taken up geocaching as a family hobby. Not a lot of time to post right now, but I wanted to put up a photo of all of us finding our very first cache near Flagstaff.

Dad wanted to buy a book about geocaching so we stopped at Bookmans. They didn't have a single book!

Then, as we were leaving the store, the sales clerk ran us down: a book had just come in on trade called The Essential Guide to Geocaching: Tracking Treasure with Your GPS

Jes-ka! is here

(The picture is actually from Labor Day 2007 - the last time I saw Jes-ka! when she came to hang out and go to the corn dinner.)

Yeah! Jes-ka! got in yesterday afternoon. She's off on a grand adventure being yacht (I guess I need to learn how to SPELL that...) crew but right now her boat is being ferried to Mallorca in Spain so she's got 3+ weeks vacation.

She drove in yesterday afternoon so we could spend a few days together. She'll actually be taking me to the airport tomorrow to catch my flight to Vegas. Today, we're basically bumming around Prescott -- I've got some errands to do and I feel the need for a bit of shopping. Then, we're going to use my Olive Garden gift card for dinner.

There has been a rumor of Ice Cream, Red Barn, a haircut, and Barnes & Noble in this afternoon's future.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Dad says the Enrolled Agent conference is going well; passing out lots of information , white papers about Identity Theft, and magazines. Today, he's planning on getting some people actually enrolled. Which is EXCELLENT -- we need the player's club points.

I'm Printing!

It's a BEAUTIFUL Saturday morning, but I'm at the MDI office, printing literally THOUSANDS of brochures for the Super Seminar next week.

I've got:

• My show flyer that explains why you should be an Associate (1,100 - in color)
• The 12-page, double-sided (so 6 pages) White Paper: "Identity Theft and Your Tax Practice" which includes answers to the quiz (500 copies)
• Trickle out day one: a double sided article excerpt about Identity Theft from 'Premier Business Magazine' (1,100 pages, double sided)
• Trickle out day two: What's You Identity Theft IQ Quiz Is your business a target? (1,100 - single sided)
• Trickle out day three: Last Chance to win a brand-new $100 bill! (1,100 - single sided)

Yeah, so I could SERIOUSLY be here all day, just printing. Luckily, I remembered to call the copy guys and have them service the machines so they're in good working order for all this. Now, I'm just hoping I have enough staples!

The goal for this show is 100 new Associates. Mom thinks we can easily get 300. I like 300!

Wish me luck!

Getting Close!

I'm really really close to having everything done and ready to print for this year's EA Super Seminar in Las Vegas! I've got three different "trickle out" pages that will be placed on the chairs of the attendees each morning. They're each designed to get them to come by the booth, pick up some information about Identity Theft, and enter the raffle.

This year, we're raffling off a CRISP $100 bill; one for each session. And, we'll be giving it away AT the conference so that should really get a lot more people entering the drawing and create some excitement.

Last year we had, I think 12 or 15 people sign up at the conference and I'm hoping to double that or better. It's really exciting and it should create some GREAT Player's Club points for us both.

Speaking of Player's Club, I'd better get on the stick. Here is is the 15th already and I have a whole ONE point being processed. For the big trip, I'll need to average at least 16 points per month. Hurry! Hurry!

But, Jes-ka! is coming to visit me on Monday. I can't wait. Of course, that means that it's limiting to my players club points early in the week so I'd better stay focused until then. The last week in May will be full of Finals for Spanish class, millions of phone calls for Pre-Paid and getting the garden in the ground.