Hey all...

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be discontinuing this blog for an indefinite amount of time... It may possibly be permanently, but I can't dogmatically decide that at the moment. As a very difficult school year approaches I won't be able to keep this blog up anyway, and if I did it would be a very poor use of valuable time. There are also reasons of a personal nature that have influenced my decision to end this blog's life, so at the moment I have almost every reason for doing so.

Also, I will be continuing my Pete's Place blog through the school year by posting different school papers and short thoughts on there, but it won't be very often, most likely.

Anyway, it sure was fun while it lasted, and I really enjoyed talking with you all here! But I think it's served its purpose, so let's let it die a happy death, okay? :)

Signing off...
Pete

Well, I tried Erin's Mom's pizza recipe, and I've got to say that it was the best pizza I've ever had. :) It was interesting, though, because after it came out of the oven the crust dough had rizen to almost twice the thickness as when I first put it in. That seems unusual because normally you have to rise the dough before you bake it if you want thick crust. Maybe the 450 degree baking temperature coupled with a whole tbsp of yeast factors out that necessity. :)

For toppings (besides cheese, of course) I fried bacon and chopped it up along with fresh green peppers and onions. Yeah, I know... I stepped way out of character and went a little veggie. :)

At any rate, I didn't do anything dreadfully stupid while I was making it and it tasted awesome! Thanks for the great recipe, Mrs. Koller! :)

Yesterday I drove over to the Hainline's house with dad... It was a two hour drive and a very long story of wrong turns and confusion trying to get there, but we did eventually make it. :) Anyway, dad and Mr. Hainline needed to talk about different things, so I went along and brought 3 of my rifles and a shotgun to plink around with Stephen, Jon, and Ronald on their property. Stephen was gracious enough to spend the better part of an hour helping me re-adjust the Nikon scope on my 7mm... I had dropped it rather heavily on a rock when I was out deer hunting and it threw off the accuracy by 7 inches to the left at 50 yards. BAD. Anyway, thanks again Stephen! :) We got it pretty close, I think. :) (Oh, btw, the 7mm mag has a really heavy kick, so firing it 17 times pretty much ruined my shoulder... lol, it hurts so bad today. :))

Jon, Ronald and I did some plinking with .22s and my pellet gun which Jon *cough* sighted in for me... *cough cough* :) We also, um, tried to shoot some skeet with 12 and 20 gauge shotguns... Ran into some accuracy issues there. Jon and I did, anyway. :) Ronald at least hit 2. To give you an idea of how bad we did, I think we figured out the ratio to 1 hit for every 15 misses. :)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I'd thank them all once again for their wonderful hospitality and also for the excellent meal. :)

Okay, blogger's going all techy on me again and not wanting to let me post any pictures, so you will all just have to be happy with a text post for now. :)

Love ya'll!

I've decided to fill out a tag that I was indirectly commanded to do because there's nothing else to post about right now... :)

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4 and write what it says.

"...it rejects the basic tenets of a capitalistic society and favors state interventionism..."

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?

Some CDs on the right side of the computer monitor...wait... *looks at hands and tries to remember which one is the left one*

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?

Well, I never watch TV, so that just might have some influence on an answer to this question...

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.

Um... 3:15?

5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?

Oh shoot... missed it by 7. 3:22.

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

My Dell surround sound playing Josh Groban at very, very high volume. (Booyah to all you Josh Groban fans!)

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

Sometime this morning... I was dumping some trash. :)

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?

A Mozilla Firefox page loader waiting for this page to come up.

9. What are you wearing?

NordicTrack running shorts and a spandex t-shirt (yeah, I'm about to go running...).

10. Did you dream last night?

Yeah, I fell of some cliff in the middle of nowhere... It's funny now, but lemme tell you, dreams are freaky when you're having them. lol :)

11. When did you last laugh?

This morning when I was washing the dishes... I remembered a really lame line from "Napoleon Dynamite" and it cracked me up.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Um, some windows and decorations, a clock and some other super-boring stuff.

13. Seen anything weird lately?

Yeah, I freaked out last time I looked in the mirror... the guy staring back at me was so weird. lol

14. What do you think of this quiz?

Lame, just like all the other quizzes out there.

15. What is the last film you saw?

Um, a not-so-great Jimmy Stewart classic...

16.If you became a multi - millionare overnight, what would you buy?

I tithe it and then invest the rest in a good growth stock mutual fund. :)

17. Tell me something about you that I don't know.

I turned 2 years old while flying over the Pacific ocean. *audience swoons*

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?

Abolish the government-run public school system. Hmm... Either that or colonize Mars. :)

19. Do you like to dance?

Weeelll... I've never really danced formally or had lessons, but I'd actually like to learn... It sounds like it'd be a lot of fun. :)

20. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?

What do you think I am? A walking dictionary of girls names?

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?

I'm starting to see a pattern here...

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?

I don't know... I'll have to see if that option ever comes up. :)

24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gate?

Because of what My Son did on the Cross for you, not because of any actions that you have performed, are you able to enter My Kingdom.

25. 4 people who must also do this quiz on their blog.

Um, here's three people that I don't think will do this:

Josh
Kelci
Zach
Hannah

Signing off...

Okay, really quick here... I've updated my other blog and changed the template/profile, everything. I basically revamped it and am trying to revive it, so go read my latest post and check out the interesting discussion that's just starting to erupt... and... participate! :)

Oh, a word about my new profile pic... I, ah, get very into certain classical "romantic" period guitar pieces, and, um, my sister took that without me even knowing. Anyway, just so you don't think I do really weird poses... lol :) I just thought it looked, um, eccentric enough to warrant its presence in my profile. :)

Okay, here's the text post that goes with the pics of the last post. Blogger was being weird, so I had to do the pics through a different publishing system. Grr.

Anyways, it’s high time I posted something that at least looks like an update externally, so let’s see if I can condense the last 2 months or whatever it’s been. :)

Um, let's see, probably the most interesting thing (to me, anyways) that happened is I got another guitar. This is my third one and it’s a Taylor classical (nylon string) NS34-CE with a cutaway plus Fishman electronics (very handy for amplification) and a pre-installed K&K pick-up. Beautiful wood...
What’s really cool is the deal I got on it. It lists for a little over $2000 were you to buy it at a music or guitar store, and I got it for only $1000 brand new. (And no Lance, I didn’t get it on eBay. Lol) An older friend of ours (a great guitar player) who bought it brand new just 3 months ago (and actually never played it) developed arthritis in the index finger of his left hand (an extremely crucial finger for guitar players) and since he knew I was planning on buying the same guitar in a short while (you guys like all my parenthesis? :), he offered to give me a really good deal on it. Anyway, that’s the story… This guitar plays like a total dream. The action (the distance between the strings and the fretboard) is perfect and so is the tone and everything else! :)

Okay, so that probably bored everyone to death… :)

Oh yeah, I ran my 330th mile for the year on Saturday, so I’m a little behind in my plan to go 700 miles by the end of the year. Hoping to catch up a little more when this weather cools a bit. Not that I mind running in the sunshine by any means, but it’s much more exhausting on the body to go 6-10 miles a day, 3-4 days a week, when it’s 85 degrees and up and with all the work I’ve been doing this summer, I can’t really afford to be any more tired than I can help. :) Plus, the latest thing I’ve been doing has to do more with running a faster mile, as opposed to going farther at a slower pace. It was Colin’s genius that struck upon this plan, so make sure all you runners give him some credit. :) So the workout looks more like this: Plan on running just 3-5 miles in one mile intervals with a quarter cool down and a waterbreak between each mile. Set a goal of say, keeping each mile under 6:30. Then run as many miles as you can while staying under that amount of time. Anyway, it’s a really neat way to train for a faster mile…

Moving on to………. the Fair! Yeah, you know that place where people actually go and pay money (um, like, LOTS of money) to take rides that leave them staggering, giggling uncontrollably, and feeling desperately like puking all of those Dippin’ Dots they forced down earlier? So last Thursday our choir was singing for Motorcross at the Fair at 7:30 pm and Colin, Lance, Kate and I went early to eat, do rides, watch people do stupid things, etc. Colin and I did one ride (and only one) called “The Zipper,” and, well, suffice it to say I doubt either of us have ever screamed and yelled and repented quite as much as we did on that ride. Crazy. It was literally the most freaky experiences of my life, and I've been through some hairy scary and painful ordeals, so that's kind of saying a lot. :) I stumbled off thinking (using what brain cells I still had), “I paid how much for my senses to be destroyed?” Brother… Fun times! :)

Over last weekend we were able to spend time with some Japanese friends of ours that mom and dad brought to Christ about 14 years ago when we were missionaries in Thailand. It’s a family of three people: Sadakazu (the dad), Kaori (the mom), and Ran (their daughter). Anyway, the dad and the daughter are on a vacation here in the US, and so they made plans to fly into Portland and stay for just a day and a half to be with us, see our church, etc. It was really interesting trying to relate to people from a completely different culture than our own and I’ve got to give it to Japanese society that whatever its faults, it produces intelligent, incredibly well-mannered and very hardworking people. Ran (the daughter, in case you forgot :)) and I are almost exactly the same age (um, but I’m the older one, just so you know… :)) so it was neat to talk to a fellow teenager from a completely different country. Anyways, it was great to see them again...

Well, I’m gonna cut this short here… I haven’t covered anywhere near what’s all been happening, but hey, you got the essentials, so just thank me for that and leave me alone for another month, okay?

Love ya’ll! I’ve got the greatest bunch of friends a guy could wish for! :)

Ran and me up on Beacon Rock... And yes, I'm standing on a rock. I'm not that much taller... lol

A view of the back...

My new guitar...

Happy 17th Birthday, Rebekah! Try not to have way too much fun today, okay? :)

Happy 15th birthday, Jenna! Hope it was a goodie! :) (So what'd ya'll do? :)