The Return of the 258 Bricks.

Welcome to the Jungle,
Actually there is no jungle, I dug that up on Thursday.

Friday was a usual day for us with work, skating and a trip to a book store.
Saturday was were the action was at.
11:05 is when the 258 Bricks make their not so grand return. With Jillian and I knowing of our fate ahead, we decided to get a jump on our day. We started jumping at 10:00. Jillian went to a flea market and I went for a skate.
We reconvened at HQ (mother and father in-laws house) to start the wall building.
The builders were Kevin ( Jillian's brother), Brad(brother in-law), Big Poppa (father in-law), Jillian and me.
We started at 11:05 and finished at 5:07.
During this time we had to level the ground with gravel, move the bricks from the top level to the bottom level, dig out bricks for under to big piles of dirt, lay bricks (7 high), level bricks, shovel dirt behind wall and then just for kicks we ended up cutting down a few big branches that were getting in our way all day.
Momma Bill (Jillian's Mum) supplied us with drinks all day and then for lunch made us all a personal pizza.

Here are a few photo's that show the process through out the day...
The leveling.

















The thinking/planning.














The laying.














The complaining.














The very satisfied Big Poppa.

















After it was all said and done we were all very happy with the finished product And that we were able to help out the In-laws with something so big.
The bricks were defeated at 5:07. I have heard a rumor though, that the bricks have some cousins who come in the form of a fence.
Sunday was a bit of a full day as well with Jillian and I working. Then the family celebrate Natalie's b'day for the second time, which was great fun. Her and Kevin (The Hodgii) are of to Vietnam for a couple weeks on the 2nd of July or tomorrow. A well deserved trip.

Green thumb

FE FI FO thumb I have the opposite of a green thumb....

Last week I was ask to Help out the HODGii, (aka Natalie and Kevin aka My brother and sister in-law) with some of their gardening. Since the HODGii are so busy with work and my work is very flexible at the moment. Still I was a little shocked that they wanted me to help out with gardening, until they explained that it was the tearing down of an old garden. I thought to myself that is the type of gardenening work I can do.
Knowing they had been busy and had not had time to tend to the garden for a while. I thought I knew what I was in for. I underestimated how quickly everything grows with plenty of sun and water.

I started at the side of their house and then I hit up the front.
Here is some before pics of the side .

Example A.

















Example B.
















Example C.
















So here is an after of the side.
















Here is the finished product at the front.
Where you see dirt was either ivy vine stuff or very pointy holy bush.














Who knew that I would be doing so much labor intensive work once I moved to Seattle. And if you did why didn't you tell me?
Tell you the truth all this labor I have been doing as felt really good.
Love, Truth, Strength
Matty

Play Ball

Welcome one, welcome all
to the long awaited event of Jillian's softball debut.
But the story doesn't start or finish there. So lets start from the beginning;

The sun has just broken through the dark and Jillian is heading of to the coffee shop for the early shift. Sore, cold and barely awake after a hard day training the day before. Jillian still is able to muster up the energy to be a shining light. Finally 11:30 comes around and Jillian can put her feet up and rest her eyes. Though this relief will only last a short time, as game time is creeping up.
Jillian starts to get ready. You can see nerves, excitement and exhaustion in Jillian's face as
we arrive at the field at the same time as the coach (Jillian's Dad). You see this puts a few more butterflies in the stomach of Jillian. For Jillian not only has the pressure of the game, It is also fathers day. Jillian finally gets to put the team colors on.












Jillian scrapped together enough energy to play both games and had some amazing plays.
here are her stats.

Overall, Jillian batted 7 times, and got 2 hits, batting .286:

1st game:
2nd inning, ground-out to shortstop
3rd inning, ground-out to pitcher
5th inning, SINGLE, driving in a run, and eventually scored a run

... AND: defensive play of the game -- 3rd inning, playing right field, Jillian snares a long fly ball, killing their inning!
Let me fill this in a little bit. They put Jillian out in right field also known as no mans land. Thinking that wouldn't be a ball going out there. But as always Murpy's law comes into play and a huge fly ball gets put out to right field. it is a about 15metres(I am not converting from the metric system any more. The yanks need to step to the metric plate. ) away from Jillian. With plenty of time Jillian is waiting under the ball. I think everyone was holding their breathe at this point. And as the ball landing safely in Jillian's glove a large roar came from everyone. It took Jillian a second to realize she had to throw the ball, as it was still in play.

2nd game:
1st inning, struck out on a called 3rd strike, but Jillian didn't realize she started with 1 strike -- coach's fault!
3rd inning, ground-out to pitcher
4th inning, SINGLE, and then later forced-out at 2nd
6th inning, ground-out to pitcher

Jillian filled in runner for one of the other women and made some great ground for the team. I like to believe that Jillian was that main contributing factor to "The Incredibles" winning both games. Bias? maybe.

Jillian knocks a ball around....


Jillian gets to home base...


Here is a fathers day special.
Big Poppa hitting a solid base it...


The day was not over by any means. For it was fathers day, so we had another family dinner. Which I did not get to enjoy as I had to work. Bitter? a little.
Later that night The Hodgii (Natalie and kevin) and Big poppa (father in-law) came to the movie theater to see "year one". They had mixed reviews on it.
Big Poppa helped me close down the theater. And when I say close down I mean basically hold my hand as I am a wimp and it is mad creepy up top in the projection booth.

Well that ends the Sunday adventures of Team Mitchell..

Oh Saturday!!!

T'was a night before fathers day and not a creature would stir, not even a,
umm ohh, well I guess Something did stir.

Cause Saturday was very very busy day.
After waking at 10am Jillian and I started our day.
Mango and I started out with a skate which was okay. The best part of it was being able to help out a Dad and his son both on the board.
Jillian and Juice started out with a run from our house (which is also refered to as the "Team Mitchell Bat Cave", well actually no it isn't. But I will start refering to it as that now) to the skatepark, which Jillian says was great.
Once the run and the skate were over we headed to HQ (also known as my mother and father in-laws house) to grab my father in-law to for some training.
Training for what you ask?
Well tomorrow is Jillian's Soft ball debut. Our family and friends have had a softball team for the last two years. So in preparation for her debut Jillian's Dad took her out to hit a few balls.
While Jillian was smacking balls around the park, quite well I must say. Mango, Juice and I were chasing them down. I think Mango loved it more than any of us. 

 Well here is a photo or two of Jillian in training.

Once Jillian had beaten the covers off all the softballs. We headed off to the
"Team Mitchell Bat Cave" to get ready for our sister in-laws B'day BBQ.
The B'day bbq was a blast with friends, family, burgers, hot dogs, boccie, football and a bunch of presents. The birthday girl had a smile on her dial to top it all off. 
Unfortunately I had no pictures of the birthday girl.
So this was the best I could do...

Well once again Jillian and I ended up with a great day in our hands. And it is only Saturday.
Stay tuned for the pics and story of the grand, long awaited debut of Jillian's softball career.

Matty
aka MATTY3STARS
aka The only member of Team Mitchell with testosterone

Operation Graduation

Good MORNING VIETNAM or where ever you are in this great world..

On Thursday at 2:00pm Jillian's little sister Savana(of the little sister big sister program) graduated from the 6th grade or grade 6(My deciphering skills are unbelievable).
Savana was looking fantastic and was glowing with pride.
Jillian and I are so proud of Savana and were greatly appreciative that we were given the opportunity to enjoy the experience.

















Peace out
Team Mitchell

Acupuncture Anyone

Four Scores and Seven Minutes Ago,

I finally put the last touches on my latest web project.
It is for a women who lives above us and it is for her new Acupuncture business called "Banyan Acupuncture". Last year I was given the chance to design her logo and it felt good to have a repeat customer this early on in my career.
It is a nice simple clean website and was a joy to work on. The website goes by the same name www.banyanacupuncture.com.
Here is a little taste of the home page.






Thanks Matty

Hot doggity

Hot diggity dog Batman,

Here is a sample of a project I am working on for the movie theater I work at. It just for a hotdog sign but it was a lot of fun.


















--Matty3stars--

WOW!! WHAT A WEEKEND....

To Whom it may concern,

Well where do I begin...
What about where we left off last time.
That was Thursday night basketball with friends, work and an early b'day present from Jillian.
Well Friday started like most others, though it did not end up that way at all.
I got to get some work done, have a great skate with my new gear and hang out with My Sister and mother in law and my nephew at the park. oh and the to most beautiful pooches in the world Mango and Juice. OH OH My nephew even said Juices name. Very exciting...

In the evening Jillian and I were heading out to
what I thought was going to be a low key dinner in a really cool suburb of Seattle.
So we had a lovely time getting ready, then a lovely drive in chatting, laughing and enjoying each others company. We are very Dorky.









So we finally walk into the restaurant ONLY for me to find there is two tables full of people
waiting to surprise me. Okay this is going to sound strange, but I was actually speechless. I know I know..crazy huh?
I was filled with so much joy I didn't know how to express it.












After some dinner and desert. We headed out to an irish bar were there was many laughs, a few drinks and this picture was in the urinal for the Ozzies.












Once again Jillian out done herself. I felt so special that my friends and family made such an effort. even my friend with the broken leg came out to the dinner.
Wow..I am a very lucky man...

The fun doesn't stop there though. Neither did Jillian who helped mastermind another surprise party for My sister in-law Natalie 30th on Saturday (actual b'day not til the 24th of June). This party had a twist to it, we all had to wear wigs. So being a person who likes to get into character. I thought I would take it to the next level. I got my wig at 2 in the afternoon and did not break until I went to bed that night. Even though I went the grocery store twice, the skate park and played a good twenty rounds of table tennis.
In saying that I am now going to introduce
"Ol'e Boy Matty Jo".
He is the evil twin of mine with the reddest of necks.








Here are few more characters that were at the party.

Jillian with Rastafarian dreads and Big poppa rocking out with a
Mo hawk.
Sister in-law Christy in the background with showgirl head peice or the docter zuess head peice. depending who you were speaking to at the time...




The Birthday girl with Fro Fo Sho(inside joke for the party people)
and Grandma a lovely set of curls for her fringe..
A family friead Sarah in the background who kinda looks like mickey mouse in this photo.





Here is "Ol'e Boy matty Jo" showing my nephew how to smack a few ping pong balls around.







The party was a success, Natalie was surprised like no other. As she actually had words coming out of her mouth unlike someone I know. After a few drinks, Mexican food, cupcakes and a bucket load of table tennis or ping pong (again depending on which Providence you are from).
we finished up at 11 with everyone with grins from ear to ear.

Okay I know this is long, but bare with me for just a little longer..
Every Sunday we have a family dinner.
So this is a time when we hold birthday dinners for family members. June is a very busy month for our family.We have a birthday dinner every Sunday for the month of June.
So Sunday June 14th 2009 was my b'day dinner for the family.
With family b'day dinners you get to choose your own menu.
I chose burger with fries. Nothing surprising there!
but for desert!! insert drum roll here.....
I chose Ice cream with real home made cookie dough and Ice magic (or for the Yanks magic shell) on top. Yummers. Even I don't need a suger fix for a week...well 3 days atleast.
I got swamped with mad presents...
Gift cards to a skate store, so I can keep my skateboarding addiction going strong.
Two magazine subscritions "wired" and "communication arts".
A great laptop table I can use in bed. Using it now.
A new stereo for my car so I can play my ipod directly through it. No more FM.
And a scrabble card game. The geek is strong in this one!!
After my bday dinner Jillian and I headed home, watched one of our favourite shows, played a game of scrabble cards and reminenced over what a great weekend we had...

Ending up with these to great big smiles on our faces as we went to bed!!

First b'day present

Dear diary
Today was great I got do some work on the computer. At lunch Jillian took me shopping for an early b'day present. and I was lucky enough that she was willing to support my addiction. I received a skateboard deck, wheels and bearings.

Later on in the day I hung out with my friend Nick, Cody, Trevor, Tegan and Laura. We watched game four of the NBA finals, which was disapponting as the lakers. Though there was many many laughs had. So all in all a good day.

I must give props out to Jillian as she has been working her little behind off lately.
She is an ispiration everyday.
Here is a pic of me showing my enjoyment after putting my board together.


--Matty3stars--

258 concrete bl0cks

Captains log June 9th 2009....
Today was full on. Packed with fun, work and even harder work.
but let's start from the beginning.
I woke up at 8:30, yes people I am trying to make the conversion from night owl to early bird.
I had breakfast then took the dogs out to the park.
While the pooches were running around I shot some hoops. The only reason I am mentioning
this is so I can boast about the 2 half court shots I made consecutively. I think the NBA playoffs have inspired me a bit.

So after putting my mad ball skills to the test against my four legged friends, I got some house work done.
I then headed to the skate park before I started work at 1:00pm.
The skate was good, I landed a few tricks I was stoked on. The main trick was a switch blunt stall to disaster on a half pipe.
I worked the cashier position at the movie theater. Which gives me the opportunity to work on personal projects. Today I was able to put a few hours into a website I am currently working on (I will let you all know when it goes live).

I finished work at 5:00 and headed straight to My inlaws house to move a few bricks. I knew there would be a few. But I had no Idea there was 258 of them weighing 30 pounds or 14 kilos. depending if you cool enough to rocking out with the metric system. Adding to the fun there was a 2 foot wall of crumbling land fill we had to put them on top of. With Jillian and her brother Kevin helping out it went quite quickly. As a thank you Jillian's mother cooked us delicious dinner and we watched the Magic win game three of the finals..













end of captians log..

Friend in recovery

Here is my friend nick in recovery. I kicked it with him on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He is in high spirits, though his leg is still twice the size of his other one.






-- matty3stars iPhone --