Winter Formal

I have a ton of pictures to share and a lot to tell. I'll try and keep it interesting but if I get boring feel free to move on. Friday morning I slept in. I felt I deserved it. I then took the morning to work on a job for another client who was paying a lot more money than Hi-Z was plus I made arrangements to get my cell phone switched over to a private account before Kyocera disconnected it. I then ran into Hi-Z to start working there. We have a big potential investor coming in next week so there is a lot to get done. We didn't have a chance to talk about any details of my employment so I guess that will have to wait. I then had to rush home from Hi-Z to go to see Mackenzie's dance recital. She did a wonderful job of course. I also learned that she is in the Miss Valley Center competition. That will be an exciting competition to go and watch. I think they said it is in March.

I was hoping to sleep in Saturday morning but I had to drive Sarah to a wrestling tournament. Sarah in a wrestling tournament you ask? As exciting as it would be to watch her wrestle she is only the team's statistition. She loves doing it and I'm sure they're glad to have her. The problem is that today is Winter Formal and Alex and his date were taking pictures at 4:30 but Sarah needed a ride home from the tournament. That is why I got the early shift. We still wanted to be home for when her ride came so we were just a bit concerned about the schedules. Alex's date lives in Rancho Santa Fe. Just in case you've never heard of Rancho Santa Fe, that community is known as the most expensive community in the United States. As we drove into one of their many gated communities it wasn't hard to believe. Their house is literally on the top of a mountain and the view is unbelievable. If you look in the picture taken from their back yard the hill on the horizon is Mt Soledad in La Jolla and to the left of that if you look closely is Coronado Island. You can see the ocean off to the right. It truly is stunning. I didn't dare ask what his house cost but he told me that the house down the road burned in the brush fire and it was worth twelve million dollars. Right across the valley was a huge house that he figured cost thirty million dollars and it looks like a castle. It even has a moat around it. The thing that makes me sick is that the owner of the house is only thirty years old. He made his bucks in the .com boom doing something on the internet. That just doesn't seem right. It was funny as he was telling us the story. He said that when they were building the house they were digging a huge hole. He and Bree (his daughter, Alex's date) went over to see what the hole was all about. He said it looked like they were putting in a bomb shelter or something, he thought maybe they were Mormons or something. We just smiled and listened to the story but Alex almost burst out laughing and had to walk away. Little did he know that his little girl was going to the dance with a Mormon. We took a ton of pictures and I will share some of them with you here. I threw in a picture of one of the other couples that was there because I thought you might find it interesting. The girl in this picture is Arianna and she was on American Idol. She passed the first round and is headed for Hollywood. Alex had no idea and we were watching American idol a couple of weeks back and she came on. Alex burst out, "I know that girl!!! I go to school with her." I guess this is proof that he does know her. After everyone was totally sick of getting their pictures taken we sent them off to the restaurant and then we got a tour of the house. They are very nice people and really down to earth. I think Bree is an only child, at least she is the only one home right now. We were invited to stay for some drinks but we had to pass and rush home to get some pictures of cute little Sarah before she left. We arrived not long after she did so we rushed around getting her ready to go. Sarah's ride showed up and I got some pictures of them together but they were rushed and it was already dark so I don't have too many pictures. That's a bit of a rip off for Sarah but hey, she's only fifteen and she is the one who wanted to do wrestling. It know this looks like a date but it really is more of a ride to the dance. It's a long story and I won't bore you with it. I figured that Lisa and I should go on a date but instead she dragged me out to do some shopping. Yay... and then we came back to the house and finished cleaning it up while Peter and Maren watched a movie. The movie seemed interesting and I'm thinking I want to watch it before they return it. When Sarah came home we sat and watched an episode of Monk that had been recorded. I should say I slept on the couch while an episode of Monk played on the TV. So that is my weekend so far. From all accounts it seems like it was a great evening for everyone. I'll hear more about Alex's night tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

-------trivia------

Once you reach 80 years of age the probability of dying in the following year doesn't change. It remains at about 25% for the rest of your life no matter how old you get. After the age of 80, when you do die it is usually quick, relatively painless and low cost. The probability of dying in the next year is lowest at age 14 (0.02%) and increases exponentially after that.

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