Well hello there August

My life continues to pass me by, just like July, and as I sit here typing I wonder where it went. The most highlighted event recently was the Prine Annual Reunion event and vacation last month. I found my sandwich and all of us headed to Mammoth where we hiked, fish, played tripoli, ate lots of good food, panned for gold, and I am proud to also add horse back riding, which I can now cross off my bucket list!

I took nine days off work- using six vacation days- and left the city behind me. This was my first vacation in two years since Amy and I took our month long road trip two years ago. Sometimes I forget what it is like to get away and even what America looks like. You know that seemingly untouched and beautiful place that makes me happy I live here, ah the frontier- Tally ho! I feel the month long road trip may have spoiled me into ever enjoying a vacation again, or at least being able to fully relax and breath, however I was I feel I was able to do that last month. I love my family, even with all the yelling of the crazy bozopax. There is something wonderful and yes all be it odd about being around all of my family at once. It was like that Wisconsin trip all over again- no matter how old I get I will never outgrow family vacations and am thankful we all had the time to come together.



Mi Familia


This weekend the nonprofit group I formed, Recycled Resources for the Homeless, had it's first neighborhood outreach and engagement event. Together we set out in pairs to meet and greet homeless folks living in Highland Park, Glassell Park, Eagle Rock, and S Pasadena. I was so touched that people gave up their Saturday morning and afternoon to make a difference in the lives of people around them. We had a solid 28 people we outreached to, many asking for us to come back and check in with them. Most were mentally ill and many reported living in the same place for years- it's those people you see in the morning on the way to work and you wonder about. Well I am happy to say I now know their names, their stories, and they know there are people who are here to assist them. I can't describe the feeling of making contact with people and listening to them. Amazing!

You can read more about it here... www.recycledresources.org/news.

So thats where August and I have been so far. I also took some time to relax this weekend and hang with my monkey at the wineries in Temecula. Good times!



It's 9:00pm now and I am going to bed, yup I am old, however I feel pretty damn good about it.

Good night!

4th of Julio!

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Happy 5th of July to chubby pigeons everywhere! These pictures were taken in sequence from our backyard in Highland Park. I feel it urgent to point out these fireworks were not done from a park, a stadium, a school, or even while fire persons were standing by. To those who say we are in a recession I say come to East LA for the 4th of Julio and have a look. I am talkin Disneyland style fireworks above your heads! We had to go nowhere and pay nothing! It was simply beautiful and after the buzz kicked in Alex wasn't so worried the house was going to burn down.

We stayed back from family gatherings this year, sorry guys, due to the new home owners fear of our house being set ablaze, why I don't know it is the only catastrophe our insurance covers: fire. Nevertheless it was a jolly good time.



I love taking a man down! In addition to bbq and fireworks alex broke out his pellet gun and we took dead aim on the rich kids, got them in the crosshairs, and took them down! We thought we would honor the hard working people of this country by taking shots at those people we thought destroyed or are destroying America.





Target hit!! (repeatedly) In the middle of all this madness my friend David turned to me and asked- Do you like America? I looked at him and said Hell's yes man, I love America, just not most of the people who make decisions in their best interest, financial interest which is what I feel our government has become. The concept of sharing is out the window, taking care of others is out the window, and giving everyone that equal opportunity, I feel, is so far from the truth. However this is the most beautiful place in the world, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. To make my point understood I played Coming to America by Neil Diamond and completed this with a dance off! The people here are so diverse, like no other place ( keep in mind I have only been to Mexico- and on the baja side) but I feel this is so. How awesome is it that when we choose where to have dinner we chose from essentially every type and style of food- from sushi to banana wrapped enchiladas. Rad!

So I salute you America! And remember...
'Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.' - Lincoln

Ole!

June

Much has happened since my last post. I have kinda farted around and not had much to write about. I mean CVI came and went and it was grand, simply grand- however I had a shitty cold the whole time we were there and feel that I let my fellow CVI'rs down; well there is always 2011! The high point was the shuttle ride!!!



I did however win 100,000 pennies on the way back at state line. For those of you who aren't good with math Moochie Poochie will tell you. He turned to me in the middle of the payout and said, $1,000 dollars- you just won $1,000 dollars. We hugged kissed and made love! All in Buffalo Bill's, it was great. To celebrate I got myself, Fluffy Von Bottom and Moochie Del Taco- the bill $27.00, that's del taco gold!



This weekend Monk and I went to Logan's first birthday. All I can say is cute cute and more cute. I don't know which side of the coin I prefer, Lance or Logan; both! Judge for yourself.





The tradition in our family continued as he was given his own cake and had at it! The best part was when Lance came up with his fork and helped out. I have to write for a moment just how much I love Rach and Brian. Seriously love them. We are in the middle of making plans to bring over a fire pit and a cube of coors light so we can spend the night over there just talking about the world and all our wonders. More to follow here.

Monkey had a birthday too. He is now 37 years old. He hated the turn to 37 but loved his party. I guess it's just the three years to forty that bothers him, I myself am looking forward to forty. The older I get the more things just seem to make sense fall into place and the less I give a fuck about things. My anxiety has been so/so. I go into Kaiser tomorrow to meet with an anxiety specialist for an intake. I am trying to be positive. I made it through my work week without missing days, went out to lunch with alex, and also went shopping. I am trying to not hide in my home full of panic, my mind is constantly full of 'what if', well I have to change the way I think and hope tomorrow goes well.

Well that's my catch up. We all, The Prine's, go to Mammoth in two weeks. a ONE WEEK FAMILY VACATION! I AM SO EXCITED! I have ghost towns mapped out, horse rides booked, and I am going to take Pax and Bozo panning for gold. RAD!

Have a good night earth.

To tag or Bomb a Surface

Good morning.

It's sunday and the wind is chilly picking up and grey clouds are rolling in. Beautiful. Rain is on the way as I sit here now with a warm cup of coffee complete with vanilla cinnamon cream. It's been a slow moving weekend. I had a colonoscopy on Friday which was pretty amazing. To lie on a bed and watch as a camera explores 50 feet of you innards is pretty remarkable, not to mention the drugs only added to the experience. All went well and I have to go back in three years due to them finding and removing two polyps. Amazing huh?

When I woke up Saturday I painted the fence that surrounds our home. We haven't painted it since we moved in due to it being a canvas for the neighborhood artists. There are several definitions for graffiti such as a backjump which means 'A quickly executed throw up or panel piece. Backjumps are usually painted on a temporarily parked train or a running bus'. I think that is what ends up on our fence. I don't really mind it when it's a picture however when it is unreadable letters slung together it annoys me. The most recent one is this...



Interesting huh? I like boobs, who doesn't? I don't know if the family across the alley enjoyed having this as the backdrop to their bbq's but it made us laugh. Anyway we painted the fence..



I will now monitor it in the mornings to see if Santa came or not; he didn't come last night. I don't know what I would tag if I were such an artist. There is a cat that appears all over the 110 freeway, he is smiley and wears a bow tie in every picture. he makes me smile and upon spotting him monkey always makes meow noises, I like it really but will I like it if it shows up on our fence? Who knows.

After painting the fence we made use of the rental car we had gotten for my procedure on Friday- no driving home and monkey still not driving a stick- so we have the car until monday. Driving through S Pasadena we went to antique stores and low and behold there are wineries- well a couple and we stopped in to have some port. Notice the Italian grape fields behind us.



It was nice to be the passenger and Monkey took great care of me. I am now going to make him pancakes as a thank you with whipped cream and the one strawberry that has grown in our garden.

Enjoy your fleeting weekend guys!

B-I-N-G-O!

On saturday my family- well part of them- came up to Nolden for cocktails and snacks then as the sky opened up and a heavy downpour of chubby rain descended we headed to south pasadena high school to play bingo!

Discovered in 2010, this bingo hall is conveniently located about a mile from our home, has a $15 buy in for 22 games- each paying out $250 to the winner!, and for some strange reason is fun- although it's not quite Vegas fun! My family had asked if I knew what I wanted to do for my birthday and I thought this would be grand.


In corner number one we had my aunt Jan, next to the queen herself my grandma, next to the original queen my mother, and a lady who often wishes she was a queen- a drag queen- Monique.

In corner number two we had the men- thats the corner I was in!


My dad, seated next to me, seated next to monkey. I guess it made it easier for all the drinkers to pass booze to each other underneath the table!- something I really need to work on.

Did anyone win some people have asked. No, no we did not. However it was fun. Unbeknown to us this night had a jackpot raffle prize of $5000, therefore every seat in the house was filled so we didn't really get to sit in a bingo circle, as its known however glad we went. Also note, they ran out of tri-tip sandwiches... we'll have to go back! Go back too because Monique and I got a free game card for playing bingo in the month of our birthdays! a $25 value! And I just must write that I like it when I get to spend time with me mom and dad- not enough of that lately.


Monkey gives up! I don't think Monkey will be going back as he surrendered somewhere between I 23 and O 71. Ironic for someone who enjoyed math more than he thought he would however could not keep up with the bombardment of numbers!


BINGO!