The Jack Noodle Journal

Happy birthday to my one and only! K turns twenty seven today. Girl you are getting up there! That’s okay for me to say because she isn’t self-conscious about her age yet right? There’s all kinds of fun in store for today and probably through the next week. Everybody loves K and she always gets the royal treatment on her special day. When you’re a nice, caring, happy person during the rest of the year, it really pays off. I should drop this curmudgeon routine and hop aboard the happy presents train. I still have it good though because I’m the guy who gets to hang from her arm.

First up for birthday fun, the handsome Eugene is taking the beautiful K to breakfast. I hope I can go too because I’m hungry right now. She then has some crazy notion about shopping. I’m not sure about that one. Later this evening we will be going to this Japanese restaurant downtown with the always dapper Mr. Baptist, the pretty Ms. B and some of the other usual suspects. The restaurant gives the birthday girl a free meal. We’ll have to show K around town and see how many other things she can get for free today.

For her birthday I got her a trip to the salon where she got the hair cut that she has been wanting for over a year. I would have liked to have gotten more. Next year I will drown her in gifts. Oh shoot! The least I can do now is draw her a card. What the heck is wrong with me? I had all week to make a card! I’m on it now before she wakes up.

Howdy all! Good morning to you. How you doing? It looks like it’s not going to be as hot as it was yesterday. Man, it is nice outside now. I felt a cool breeze blow through the room a few minutes earlier.

Last night K and I went to the first night of Puppy Kindergarten. Phillip didn’t go last night because the first night is an introductory time for the parents. I think it will be pretty good. We’ve got to teach that boy some tricks and manners! Our friends John and Lisa own the doggy day care where the class was taking place. It was really cool to be sitting in the middle of the empire that they have created with their own two hands. Good job guys, you rock.

I had an excellent bike ride yesterday. I really need to ride every day. I went and visited Eugene and company at the shop. Those folks are quite busy. That’s great. The more work the better! They think that moving the shop to the new location has helped bring in the business. After that I went to the post office.

I get so annoyed with the people waiting in line there. When I go to this particular post office, I come knowing that I am going to have to wait in line. Is it everyone else’s first time at this post office? They act like a line at the post office is the craziest thing they have ever seen. People! Just wait quietly in line! Man! They complain all the way through the line. Shut up! Please don’t turn around in line and try to talk to me about how lame the line is. Face forward. I just want to stand quietly in line and then continue about my day. Boy you know, I was in a bad mood all day yesterday. I don’t think the post office was the whole reason for it.

I need to get some coffee in me pronto!

Loads and loads of Sun shiny weather for you all! What has yours truly been doing while all of this good weather is here? I have been locked away in my laboratory playing the video game “Myst 3, Exile”. Man oh man what a gorgeous game. The artistry is spectacular. It’s not the most exciting game out there but the eye candy is great. I have been putting on my headphones, tuning in and blowing the last few mornings. Thanks for bringing that over Geoffrey! Oh the hours I could have spent doing something else!

Speaking of… I thought we were going to Seattle, Geoffrey? Gosh, you don’t hear from the guy for a couple of years, he comes knocking on your door asking you to help move his crap to a far off land, and then when you finally warm to the idea, he doesn’t call back. Argh! Ha ha no, just kidding. Maybe we go tomorrow or the next day eh?

I’ve got to get to work today! I think today I will go on a Freedom Bike Ride. It’s Wednesday as you can see, and that’s getting back to a kind of Freedom Walk, huh? I need to head out to the post office and mail some more CD mailers to you cats. I’m actually out of CDs now. I need to burn some more. I think I’m going to rework the disc so that the squirrel movie is incorporated into that Director portfolio thing I made, and get it all on one disc. Yes I think a bike ride will be great today. I hope I can get Phillip to lay down for a nap later. That dude is filled to the brim with crazy energy!

Hey if any of you want a puppy photo of Phillip from about a week ago, send me an email and I’ll email you one. He’s a lot bigger now than he is in the photo. I need to take some more pictures of the lad.

K is off on her first day of school today! I was like the loving mother who watches their little children leave on the school bus for the first day of kindergarten. I got a few emails from curious students wondering what sort of schooling K was getting involved with. She is going to an accelerated program at a university to get her masters in teaching. Yep good for her. What a smart girl. I think she will be in for some fun this week.

Maybe when she gets done with this round of schooling, I could head back and get educated. I’m actually warming up to the idea. I don’t feel like much of a student most of the time though. Getting some more smarts stuffed into my head probably would beat this lame sitting around with the pets and waiting for employers to call funk that I am currently in.

According to my friend Geoffrey, the market is starting to pick up. I may be helping him move later this week. Yeah hey, wait a second. If Portland is starting to turn around then why are you leaving town Geoffrey? Actually the young lad just landed a pretty sweet gig in Seattle. He’s working for a pretty cool video game company. Some sort of adventure game with swords and race cars I think. He got hired to do some story boards and character and background designs. I am very jealous. Well, keep me in mind when you are up there. I would love to work on a video game. Yes a video game company, a record label, skate and snowboard company or a porn company would all be pretty cool places to do art and graphics for.

Ah, good, good, good, sunshine filled morning! I really should go out and sit in it with a cup of coffee. Today would probably be a good day for a bike ride.

K and I went to the beach yesterday. Depot Bay. It was very nice over there. We were visiting my grandparents who are staying at a resort there this week. It was a little overcast there but the Sun poked out every once and a while. My brother and his family, and my aunt and uncle were there also. It was a pretty good time. The place where they were staying was pretty cool. Right on the ocean.

There was some questioning of jobs, and do you have a job yet, but it wasn’t too bad. I am kind of tired of hearing myself talk about it. It sure would be nice to have some sort of work. My grandfather keeps wanting me to draw some illustrations of the beasts from Revelations in the Bible. I politely nod, but that doesn’t sound very fun to me. He did say that he would pay me to do it, so maybe I should suck it up and get some cash huh?

Martin and Lori watched Pierre and Phillip while we were out wandering around on the coast. Gosh thanks guys! They did a great job. Phillip didn’t even notice we were gone. Hopefully next time we will be able to take Phillip with us. Sorry Pierre you’re going to have to stay home.

Good morning all. How are you doing? Me? Oh I’m alright I guess. Today is the longest day of the year. That would be Summer solstice right? Hmm maybe I should start a new tradition this year and celebrate the day somehow. Gosh! Do you people know how hard it is to type with a puppy jumping all over you, nipping you here and there with his razor sharp teeth? Come on boy. Let daddy talk to the nice people for a minute.

The weather has been pretty nice the last few days. Hopefully it can continue through most of the weekend. That would be cool. Now what should I do to celebrate Summer solstice? Maybe I could do some crazy pagan dance out in the backyard. Get all painted up, have burning torches in a circle, and spray the audience with goat’s blood. I think that may be a good start. I’ll try to come up with something else today. I’ve got time since it is the longest day and all.

You all remember that I declared that this is going to be the best Summer of our lives so far, right? I’m still sticking with that. We do need to get back on track and plan some sort of camping trip pretty soon here. That would be a good start. We’ve already got a few beach trips in the works. One thing we need to get back to is the bike riding. I haven’t been on my bike for a while now. I’ll probably have to pump the tires back up.

We watched the “Mothman Prophecies” last night. It was pretty good. It’s a creepy thriller type movie starring Richard Gere. He did an okay job this time around. Actually, last night was the 2nd time we watched it, because the night before we watched it and fell asleep 2 minutes after the opening credits, missing the whole movie. It definitely had some scary moments I thought. It was that good “someone’s looking in my window” type of scary.

I’ve got to go wash some dishes now and try to finish some chores. The puppy spun around in circles, with crazy energy and just finally passed out into a nap. Now’s my chance…

It looks like my moaning and groaning about the weather yesterday brought about the sunshine this morning. Woo Hoo! I have got to get out there and do some yard maintenance. The lawn is in dire need of a mowing. Man that lawn looks bad. How did it get away from me so quickly? I had such high hopes for that lawn this year! I also need to get that big pile of dirt out of the middle of the lawn. I bet that dirt is a solid brick. K is home today so she can watch the children while I go out and get some work done. I think the first job I need to complete is making some coffee.

I think when I’m done doing that stuff, I’m going to continue work on my project. I need to find a pencil and start drawing some things. I think the more I can draw out with pencil and paper before I get it on the computer, the better it will be. Mr. Noodle that is going to require you to sit down and spend some time with it you know. Get on that!

Look at that! It’s Wednesday again the best day of the week. That’s right you guessed it! Time for another Freedom Walk. I have really let the people down these last few weeks with the tour. I haven’t been out. I’m sorry kids. I will have to get out there and spread the Noodle love soon. I’m sure that you all have been keeping it real in my absence though, haven’t you?

Okay. Is Summer over now or what? It is rainy, wet and cold out there right now. Last week at this time it was the exact opposite. I wish it would just pick something and go with it for more than a couple of days. It’s stupid! Being burning hot and then icy cold in 48 hours time can’t be good for ones constitution can it? I try to not complain about the weather. No I really do try, hey, stop laughing.
All that and the furnace isn’t working again!

We saw a couple of movies in the last few days. We saw “The Princess and the Warrior” by the director that did “Run Lola Run”. It was just alright. The actress who played Lola was the star of this one also. Her name is Franka Potente. She’s cute. The movie had some okay moments. Some of the cinematography was good. The music was excellent. It got pretty boring at the end.

The other movie we saw was “Sexy Beast”. That puppy was awesome. I was in the mood to see a tough guy, thug movie last night, so that had a lot to do with my enjoyment of the movie. That Ben Kingsley did a splendid job. Man he played one bad dude. His cursing and ripping people new ones with his words was crazy fast. You could barely catch what he was saying. “Your middle name is ungrateful”. There was another evil bunny character in that movie, just like Donnie Darko and Novocaine. A lot of director types must have been haunted by rabbits during their childhoods.

Well, K’s last day of work is today. Next week she’s back to school. I am so very happy for her. She is really excited about hitting the books again. “Wait,” You say, “Noodle, you’re not working and now K’s not working? How does the math on that work?” Let me tell you friends, I am not sure. Maybe it’s magic? I’m definitely a little concerned with the situation. I need to get back into the work force pronto!

Amazing 2 entries in a row! It’s been tough to get good, solid journal time with Phillip bouncing around everywhere. The time that I set aside for journal time just happens to be one of his play times. K has got the little piggy right now, so I can devote some time to you, the valuable reader, my lone confidant. My candle in the wind.

Hey, happy Father’s Day everybody! I hope everyone wishes their old man a happy one. I should be hooking up with me Pa Pa sooner or later today. We’ve also got to go out and see Mr. Baptist today. I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to be juggling all that fun.

Thank goodness, we have coffee in the house again. I had a pretty annoying headache yesterday and an overall grumpiness due to the lack of coffee. I’m addicted people. Hold on one second let me go and pour a cup. There that’s good.

I plan on doing some good work on the secret project. I shared my idea with Eugene last night and he seemed to think it was a pretty good idea. I’ve got to hammer it out, and get this puppy finished. I’ve got to do some research and get some information on Australia, and get some pictures of kangaroos. Woe Noodle, don’t give away too much or it won’t be a “secret” project.

Oh man, I am so tired this morning. I stayed up late last night over at my brother’s house watching the nephews and trying not to fall asleep during the Conan O’Brian show. Then in the wee hours of the morning we had some puppy strangeness. Now I am trying to fall asleep while watching Saturday morning cartoons. Boy you know Saturday morning cartoons were a bigger deal when I was a kid. There’s barely anything on now days. Maybe we need to get cable again to get the full menu of quality cartoon viewing. I can barely keep my peepers open. We’re out of coffee! Can you believe it? Well there is some coffee left overs in the pot maybe I will microwave that.

Hey I’m back. I fell asleep for a little bit there. I’m watching Power Puff Girls right now. They have a movie coming out pretty soon? That’s cool.

K is out taking another test for school right now. Everyone send her positive energy now and magical wisdom powers. Man there sure is a lot of test taking for that school stuff.

I’m really getting tired of sending out thousands of resumes and not hearing back from anyone. This sucks! I think I’m going to have to take matters in my own hands and make my own jobs! You know I guess that has been the answer all along. I have been working on the experiments but I think I’m going to have to step it up a few notches and really give it my all. I’m going to have to get some sleep to get to my full potential.

I started a new secret project on Friday. No, not that original secret project, a new one. This project came to me while I was trying to fight the 90 degree heat on Friday. It’s not as large or as complicated as the first secret project, so that makes it easier for me to complete. Don’t worry though, I’m still going to finish the first one.