Let's Take A Drive

The new car, finally!!! Its been two months since our honda has been gone. It's nice too have two cars again

Dejected: Out of the House

When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.
Natalie Clifford Barney

Thats a bunch of **** love sucks

The Beginning

It has started! My first day of Pharmacy school has finally ended... Well it was orientation but long none the less. It was cool to see all of my future classmates and to see what is going to be expected of me over the next four years. The day was completely planned out so I thought I could give a rundown of the day and what I thought of each part of the schedule.

9-915: Welcome; this was the most awkward part of the day as we all found a place to sit and checked out the class. The class sponsor was very nice and seemed like she knew each of us very well.
915-930: Devotional; Same old SDA propaganda, although the pastor did a good job of catching my attention by talking about the NFL opening weekend. The Pastor talked about new beginnings and seeing things through to the end. I think his point was that we as humans aren't capable of seeing challenges to the end without God's help.
930-1000: Message from the Dean; Mostly he talked about his life and how he ended up the Dean of Pharmacy. He was interesting and it was good to know where he was coming from.
1000-1030; Welcome from upperclassmen; Basically, they introduced themselves and told us too hold on for the wild ride ahead
1030-1045 Break; After a summer with no school I was not used to sitting at a desk for hours at a time, this break was needed
1045-1130; History of LLU; The LLU historian gave a lecture, it was boring and long
1130-1200; Introduction of Faculty and Staff; They all came up and introduced themselves and gave a brief history. There was a lot more then I expected, and I think its going to be several years before I can sort them all out in my head
1200-130; Lunch; We had some sort of mexican dish with beans and chips. Of course I spilled my drink all over the ground and my desk. There was also a Q and A session with all the faculty and staff
130-145; Finacial Aid; Nothing new they just rehashed FinAid stuff that every undergrad should have learned years ago
145-215 Uncovering the mysteries of IPPE; Basically they explained to us What IPPE was and how it works. They are like mini rounds that should help us get ready for our fourth year.
215-300 Professional Organizations 101; They explain all the different organizations that we can join and told us that we need to join at least three.
300-345 Blackboard Tutorial; Since I've been using this system in undergrad for the last four years it was nothing new
345-400 Break
400-430 Elective Info; they just gave us a rundown of electives available for PY1
430-500 Some final thoughts from the instructors and gave us the game plan for the rest of the week

Even though there was no offical classes there was still tons of info to digest. Tomorrow we are going on a retreat sounds interesting but we shall see.

Blog Odyssey Vol 1.1

This is an account of my weekly excursions into the blogosphere and beyond.

My wife listens to imogen heap so I have heard of her before but I had no idea that she was so talented. However I was reading a post at LA LA LA and soon realized just how talented she is. LA LA LA found an amazing video of imogen heap mixing a song as she sings it. It was crazy I honestly have never seen anybody do that before.

If you don't know already my favorite baseball team is the LA Angels and on Tuesday they played a great game beating the Yankees by a score of 9-18. But Garrett Anderson a veteran of the team had a a career night going 4-6 with 2 home runs, one of them being a Grand Slam. On another note A-Rod has hit his 40th, 41st, and 42nd home runs of the year on us in the last two games. He is going to have the home run record and hopefully he will be on the Angels when he gets it.

Hurricane Dean has been cruising the Caribbean and making everybody remember New Orleans. Most Americans would want to get the hell out of Deans way, but not Kendra from Island Med Student. She is staying put and facing the storm head on. Will She Survive?

Not only did she survive she had a Hurricane Dean Party and made a movie of the party and the Hurricane.

Into The Heat

We took are semi annual family trip to Laughlin NV last week, we had a great time and took lots of great pictures.

My wife and Ava chilling out in the 115 degree heat. Her whole family was there with boats and jet skis. To get to our spot on the river (actually Lake Mead) we had to all load up in the boats, there was around 50 people so it took several trips.

I took my daughter on her first ever Jet Ski ride

She didn't last long before wanting to return

We stayed at the Tropicana Express which was newly remodeled. There was a train there so we of course took a train ride

We waited for over an hour for the train to arrive

Ava with her camera

Bang!

I'm not sure how my wife and I did not hear a car slamming into both of ours, but we didn't.

The honda was pushed into the truck

Hey dad somebody hit mommys car

Daddy mommys car died

They hit the cars so hard that is ended up on the side walk and pushed doem the street about three yards

Getting *&*^* from both ends

There is a good reason why I have not posted in a month and a half. I have not done anything since graduation except work and hang out with the family. I decided that I would not start posting again until about a week before I started school, but something happened that I felt was post worthy. We had both of our cars parked on the street in front of our house late on monday night. We watched some movies and went to bed. The next moring the cops were knocking on the door. They asked us what happened to our cars. We of course had no clue that anything had happened during the night. We slowly realized what had happened, somebody hit us late in the night. They slammed into the honda and pushed into the truck and pushed both cars about nine feet donw the street. Then they left the scene bafore they could get caught. The Honda is totalled and thetruck needs some front end work. The worst thing about this is that we had a $1000 deductable for each car so it is going to cost us 2K

The honda before its death RIP 2002-2007

The truck before is was brutally beatin

We hope to fill the void with this

The Missing Post

This Post is about a month and a half late

Done: This is me

A week after I graduated from CSUSB I am finally able to post some pictures of the event. I have been so busy since graduation that I have not been able to post anything. What have I been busy doing? NOTHING just enjoying my family, it has been so nice. Usually I would have started summer school by now but not this year, instead I will be relaxing in my new back yard playing pool and watching the Angels win the AL West.

Did I mention that my wife graduatated with me, only she was a double major

My mom had to get a cake even though Porsha and I do not like cake. Bannana Cream pie next time please

Porsha painted this to make sure everyone knew what event they were at and who it was for

The tram after graduation actually took us further from our car.

No More: This is me

I am no longer a college student... I finished my college experience rather unceremoniously this afternoon. After arriving at school at around 8am I studied for 6 hours straight. Studying for six hours straight was not something I pictured myself doing on the last day of college, but that is exactly what I did. Then I walked into the lecture hall, sat down, and took the test. This next part did not go how I have imagined so many times before. When I was finished with the test I walked up to the front, turned in the test and walked out the door and to my car. I always that that I would do something crazy or high five someone...anyone. Instead I left the last class of my college carreer without a sound. Throughtout the day however I did have my little moments to savor the last day. I was in the chemistry study room I overheard several people talk about their school schedules next year. BioChem, P Chem, Linear Algebra ect. usually I would be involved in these conversations but today I just smiled to myself and thought of enjoying my summer and starting Pharm School in September.

Broken: This is Ava

I went to school yesterday early in the morning so that I could study all day for my A&P lab final. I did pretty good on it, at least I think... When I got home the plan was to study for the three finals that I had today. Of course that didn't happen, my wife wanted to go check out some stuff at Home Depot so we headed over there. 3 hours later we were on our way home with a truck full of stuff for our new place. While we were unloading the truck Ava screamed super loud, normally she is just being dramatic but this time she was screaming for a reason. My little girl broke her arm. We rushed her to the E.R. as fast we could.

They were great to Ava and even though she was in pain they did a great job. I know she is my daughter but personally I think Ava took the pain and shock better then anybody I have ever seen.

She is a little grumpy today but perfectly understandable. We were up all night so my three finals were a little rough to get through. The good news is that I only have one more final to go and then graduation!!

Hell Week

I just got done with work and now I am trying to study for an A & P lab final that I have later today and then 3 finals on Tuesday. The family is coming for our graduation so we are trying to have our new place unpacked and clean. I just keep on saying to myself that at this time next week I'll be chillin with nothing to do for 80+ days until I start pharmacy school. Another picture of our amazing place

The kitchen

The front of the house

Ava's bedroom

The huge back patio

A lime tree, Corona any one?

Ava helping with the move

Settling In

We are done! This morning I picked up the frig from the aprtment and that was it. Nothing remains of our old life we have started a new adventure in a new house. We love it, it feels so comfortable and relaxing just to sit back and enjoy our new place. This week has been crazy we packed everything into the U-Haul on Friday. Then on Saturday we unloaded the truck and since then we have been slowly getting the rest of the stuff. With finals starting this week and term papers due through out this past week it has been difficult to keep up. We also have graduation next weekend so our families will be here by the end of the week. So even though it feels good to be moved in there is a lot left to do. I have to be at work in 5 min so I leave you with the first look at our new house

Spontaneous Reaction

Things have been busy as my wife and I try to finish off our last days as undergrads. Our family is flying in from around the country for our graduation and we have parties to plan and finals to prepare for. So what do me and my wife decide to do...Move! Yes several events have transpired the last few days that pushed us over the edge; so today we made the sudden decision to move. Saturday we were just looking around town at houses for rent and we found this nice little house downtown. We said we were interested but there were several other families looking as well. Then the next day the owner called us and asked us if we still wanted the place. This was a surprise because we really did not expect this. He gave us 24 hours to decide, it was looking like we were going to pass on the house but then the current landlord (AKA Step Father) called and yelled at us for this and that. It was pretty bad. It was that call that changed our minds and we are moving. It's crazy how when you wake up in the morning you never know what will happen through out the course of a day.

Boxes, boxes and more boxes this is what we packed within an hour of making our decision to move

My daugter sleepin after a hard night of packing

Empty Cupboards

Thats a wrap. Pictures of the move and the new house will arrive early next weel

It Felt Like Razor Blades!

For Mother's Day I got my wife a tattoo. It was her first so she was very nervous before she got it. She said it hurt a lot more than she was expecting but she got through it. Our daughter wants a tattoo now so we had to get her the fake ones that last for a few days. The tattoo is a chinese painting with our daughters name in the middle.

I Love You Babe

My wife in DC during the 2005 holiday season

My Grade has been Stolen: Reward if Found

Four Weeks until I graduate from CSUSB with a BS in Chemistry. I have not been very excited until the last week about graduating, but after this round of midterms I realized that I only have a few short papers to write and Finals. After Four years of school I am almost there. My undergrad was hard at times but hopefully it prepared me for pharmacy school.

Currently I am in class and not very happy. I just found out that I lost 10% on my A&P midterm because I forgot to put a 1 in the box that said grade level. This is standard practice for all tests that uses this scan-tron and I have been doing it for the last four years. For some reason I did not fill in the 1 before I turned it in, I have never forgot this little procedure before. So 10% is gone with no chance of return because of a mental lapse that I had. I do not think that 10% is fair at all I can see taking 1 or 2 questions worth of points which would be about 1-2% on this test but 10% is crazy. This test was 125 questions, so that means 12 of the questions I got right have been voided. I estimated about 25 hours of studying for this test or 12 minutes per question so that means 2.3 hours of my study time was wasted. That might not seem like a lot but I work 35-40 hours a week and I have a 2 year old along with 15 units this quarter. So 2.3 hours is at times hard to find and for it to be wasted is not fun. I thought test were supposed to reflect your knowledge of the subject however my grade does not reflect my knowledge at all. There should be an asterisk or something to say that I actually scored better then my score shows.

Kissing the Ground

Every time my gas light in my car turns on I think about one of the most heart pounding events of my flying career. It was 2001 and I had been flying for almost two years so I felt pretty comfortable in an airplane. For the past few weeks I had been flying this guy back and forth to Green bay WI. He had season tickets to the Packers but he lost his medical certificate so he was not able to fly himself. I was flying his Cessna 421 twin engine, it was pretty fast so the trip to Green Bay from Palm Spring was only about 7 hours and usually took 2 fuel stops. That is unless you want to stretch the fuel then it might be possible with only 1 fuel stop. So we left on Saturday and arrived late that night. We got up early to get to the game and spent the whole day at the stadium. Usually we would then spend Sunday night in Green Bay before flying home however he had to get back that night for a meeting he had the next day. So after a long two days I tiredly refueled the plane and added extra fuel in the tip tanks, climbed in and took off. As far as night fights goes this one ranks up there with one of the smoothest flights I had up to that date, at least at first. We made it safely to the first fuel stop at some small airport in Colorado. Then we took off, the next scheduled stop was Goodyear in AZ. Goodyear is only about an hour away from Palm Springs and is a decently busy airport. Then the wind came, it came from east to west at around 50 Knots. This means that we were know traveling about 50 knots faster then we had flight planned for. With nothing else to to I recalculated the numbers, and to my surprise I calculated that at the current speed we could make it to palm springs without a fuel stop and still have the legal amount of reserve fuel. I was rather excited about this because it would get us home an hour and a half sooner (landing refueling and taking off is a time consuming endeavor). I told my boss about our situation and he was also very happy about this. So as you can see getting a tailwind is great and pilots usually try to take advantage to the speed that it provides. All good things come to an end and this is was made my seemingly perfect flight become one that I will want to forget but never will. The wind died as I was flying over Goodyear so I had a decision to make, stop and get fuel or push ahead and get home. At this point I was extremely tired having been up for almost 24 hours. I crunched the numbers and figured out that if the wind stayed calm I had enough fuel to get to Palm Springs but I would be just under the legal limit. I asked my boss what he wanted to do and he said "Lets get home". So I kept going... Then the wind came and it came hard and fast, 65 knots direct headwind. My heart started beating because we were a little over half way from Goodyear to Palm Springs. We would have to either turn around immediately or try and make it with the little fuel we had remaining. Turning around would mean that it would be another 3.5-4 hours before we made it home, if we kept going we would be home in about 30 minutes. The only problem was that with the headwind our flight time had significantly increased. Out arrival time and time of fuel exhausting were now virtually the same. We kept going. I was so tired but my heart was beating like crazy. My eyes straining to see the tell tell signs of our home airport. Finally after what felt like hours I saw the lights. I called over the radio and announced our arrival. Then about 3 minutes out the right engine sputters and dies. I immediately feathered the propellers jammed the rudder pedal and prayed that the other engine would last just a few more minutes. It did, and I yes I did kiss the ground once we landed, and yes I promised myself never to do that again (at least not while flying). So that feeling always returns when I see that little gas can flicker on my dashboard while driving my truck. Back to Top

Coffee Anyone?

This is me at our annual mammoth snowbording trip. Starbucks is a must in Juanuary during the early morning hours. The ski conditions were crappy, ice one the slopes and a wind chill that was well below 0 degrees F. At leastmy beutiful wife was with me and the football playoffs were great
It was a short trip but as usual packed with excitement here is a pic of me my wife and our friend Dez about to get on chair lift nine at Eagle Lodge
On Saturday night we had game night. There were 8 teams of two. Each team would play another team at 1 of 4 stations the winning team would get a point and choose wether to move to the next station or or stay where they are

Table hockey with my wife and Ryan

A dice game with Dez

The essentials for a five hour drive
Not sure why I posted this except that I am very excited about going to Las Vegas so I was thinking aboutmy last break, which was this trip to Mammoth

Is This a Commercial or a Blog

I'm not really the type of person to get super excited about new gadgets. I figure that I an get it in a few weeks or days after it goes on sale. No need to rush to the store just to wait for 12 hours to get this new item (i.e. PlayStation 3 a buddy of mine spent over 24 hours in line at wall-mart just to be one of the first to own this 500 dollar toy). Sometimes I like to wait a few months so that maybe I could pick it up at a little lower price. Costco for example will bundle things like game consoles together with extra stuff but it will still be the same price. Get to the point Downed Pilot please... OK so I am tremendously excite about Apples new IPhone. This thing is an Ipod (can't live without it, and I know you can't either) An internet device that uses Safari (Mac's Web Browser which is superior to explorer) and a crazy phone that uses a touch screen with no need for a stylus. It also has a camera and a mini speaker. My point is, YES I will wait outside of a cingular store for several hours to get this phone. A few months ago I broke my phone and I have been using this cheep $20 phone because I didn't want to spend any money on a phone when I am going to be paying big bucks for the apple iphone.

On Tuesdays I have the great pleasure of attending 8 hours of lecture before going work for an additional 7 hours. This is by far my favorite day of the week. The four two hour classes that I have are listed below, the number next to the class indicates the importance on a scale from 1-10. 1 being not at all important and 10 being of the utmost importance in my school career.
1. Environmental Chemistry (1)
2. People and Technology (1)
3. Medicinal Chemistry (2)
4. Intro to computer game design (1)
As you can see I am taking almost nothing that will mean anything to me in 6 weeks.I finished all my classes for my chemistry degree in December and the only reason I am still going is for A&P my very last pre-req for pharmacy school. The reason i am taking the classes listed above is to maintain my full time student status so that I get the full amount of financial aid. The only problem with this is that I do not care about these class and I just want them to end. Six more weeks and I am finally done with undergrad.

T-3335 Hours and Counting

So I'm looking at my countdown to Pharmacy School, it is currently at 140 days. When I first added the counter to my blog it was at 167 days, I can't believe that it has already been 27 days since then. I haven't really paid much attention to the count down until today. I pulled out my check list of things to get done before pharmacy school starts and now I think that 140 days might not be enough.

List of things to get done in the next 140 days

1. hep C shots
2. Get Financial Aid taken care of
3. Find a new place to live
4. Graduate from CSUSB
5. Go to Hawaii for three weeks
6. Find a decent day care for my daughter
7. Pay off the credit cards
8. Pass A&P
9. Move into new place
10. Get my finger prints done

There is a lot more but I'd rather not rewrite the whole list

Unfortunately for some of my classes I am heading to Las Vegas this weekend. I have several midterms coming up next week so I guess that means that I have to study during the week before I go. This however is almost impossible, because I have roulette on my brain and I can't get is out


Between watching my wife play or playing myself I can usually spend about 80% of the time I'm in Vegas at the table. To anybody who has not had the chance to go to Las Vegas I suggest going. It is well worth the trip and the cost. We like to go for short 24 hour trips since we only live three hours away. The drive is nice with little traffic, we get a lot of talking and catching up done on the way out which is nice. Sometimes during the middle of the quarter we are so busy the only time we see each other is when we pass Ava off

---

The Lakers almost pulled off an upset win yesterday, I was very stressed. I couldn't even watch the last few minutes of the game because I the Lakers jut fell apart and Kobe became ice cold and was make very poor choices on his shot attempts. I have not lost hope, actually I think I have gained hope. I think they could pull this off in 7 games and finally repay the dept from last year
Good Luck Guys

Would you like a Pint or a Schooner?

Dear Mr. Alcoholic
Thank you Mr Alcoholic for coming into my bar. I love it when you arrive five minutes before we close and you expect me to serve you for an additional 30 past close just because your special. It warms my heart when you leave me a four doller tip after spending a hundred dollers on beer and nachos for yourself. I am so pround of you when you can arrive at 3pm, exactly when I start my shift and you stay until I am done at 12am. It takes a real man to be able to drink non stop for nine hours straight. When you talk to me about your life I really care, for real I CARE. I am overjoyed by that fact that you sucked every last piece of meat from your buffalo wings. Please continue showing me those clean bones every time you accomplish this. Please don't forget to move around the whole bar and leave a cup on every table because I love following you around picking up after you. I am thrilled when you ask me (every time) to put a little extra alcohol into you drink. You need it and you ALWAYS put a little extra on my tip. I am impressed that you know how to make so many drinks, and yes I know I should learn how to make them as well. I will study and practice until I am as accomplished as you in the art of bartending. I have no problem starting happy hour, thirty minutes early and end it an hour later just because you are low on cash. I am counting the hours until we see each other again but until then have a great day.
Cheers to you
Your Tender of the Bar


Thanks to the Lone Coyote for the letter writing Idea

History 101

Instructor: Brandon Dittmar
Required Text: The Wheel of Time (Books 1-11) by Robert Jordon
Course Discription: This course will take you through the life of Brandon Dittmar. This is just a brief intructory course that will give an outline of the major events that has broight him to where he is currently and may suggest where he is headed to in the future.

1980: Born on Thankgiving in Sacramento Ca. My mom was so thankful to get me out after 36 hours of labor
1981: My father beleived that the end was near. In order to prepare for the second coming he sold the house and bought some land in Tenn. We move to this land and live in a tent until he can biuld a 10x10 ft shack. No electricity, no running water, no bathroom, nearest neighbor a long two mile walk (he sold the car when we arrived)
1982: My brother was born to the sound of Kum By Ya, yes, sung by my father whilw my mother was giving bitrth in our shack
1985: So the space shuttle Challenger exploded and I was watching it on live TV. thinking it was fireworks I yelled at my Mom to comw over and watch the show. She had to explain to me what actually happened. From that day on I have wanted to be an astronaut, Im not sure why I have been compelled ever since I watched the shuttle explode.
1987: Start Kindergarten at age 7, I was very slow

1988: My mom had a big year, and when looking back I realize how hard it must have been. She left my A-hole father and started nursing school at the local community college. She worked full time had myself and my brother and went to school.
1990:Mom graduates and promptly moves us out to Ca to live with a guy she meet on New Years (we moved in June). My first thought of CA was how nasty and brown it was. I was pretty pissed off. Also I was missing my first ever girlfriend.
1996:I went to a school retreat and got caught smoking. They drove me home and in the drive way was a new honda (it was my birthday weekend) The priniclpe woke my parents and explianed to them why he had brought me home two days early. When I woke up the next moring...No new Honda.

1997: For the first time I expereinced the public school system. I switched from a private school to a public high school. It was one of the biggest culture shocks of my life up until that point. The private school hod only about 110 kids in the whole high school. The public school had about 1500 so it was a whole new world.
2000: I graduated from Yucaipa High School and start to fly a few months later before the end of the year I obtained my Private Pilot Certificate an was working toward my commercial pilot certification.
2002: Meet my future wife at a party in Redlands
2003: Get married in September to my beutiful wife Porsha. She is from Hawaii and was a graphic design major. I also start classes at California State University San Bernardino
2004: We find out that we are pregnant, considering that this was the last thing we planned on it was very nerve racking. We had to move out of our single bedroom and into a two bedroom so that we could have more space for the baby.
2005: My Daughter was born


2006:

2007: Get accepted into Pharmacy School at LLU