SHARKS WIN First Round!

The San Jose Sharks have won the first round of the Western Confrence playoffs! They played against the Calgary Flames and won 4 games out of 7 last night at HP Pavillion in San Jose.

Their next challenge will be 7 games against the Dallas Stars starting this Friday in San Jose. The Sharks will play 2 games at home then travel to Dallas for 3 games. Hopefully the Sharks will keep their heads on the task ahead and pull off several wins against Dallas.

The Sharks have done reasonably well against Dallas during the regular season, but when the playoffs begin, it's a whole new season.

You can catch the Sharks on satellite this Friday and Sunday at 7pm. You'll need to check your listing for channel, but it should be 449 or 419 if you have Dish Network.

GO SHARKS!

CA OES OASIS

Every once in a while I get asked what do I do when I volunteer my time with the California OES. Well, this is one thing that I do. It's called OASIS or the Operational Area Satellite Information System. Basically it's a portable telephone with a really big antenna and on wheels. During forest fires or other emergencies, like the Southern California Wild Fires from last October, the OES will send this out so that the incident command post has telephone and internet access. The system has 24 phone lines and has internet capabilities. Unfortunately, the internet speed will slow down when their are more users accessing the internet.

For the most part, the volunteers for the CA OES wait for the official start of fire season. I bet you didn't know that California had a fire season. Yep, it pretty much takes the place of the end of fall and most of winter. So in California, those two 'natural seasons' are replaced with fire season. So we spend the 'off season' doing show and tells and fixing things on the OASIS trailers.

When fire season does start and we are called out to provide communications, we get to see some really nice country..

Get to know the 'neighbors'...

But the sleeping accommodations are a little to be desired...

But all fun aside, it's something that I enjoy doing even if I don't get paid for doing it. If you every find that you want something else to do, volunteer and help your community. I suggest a good place to start is to find a local CERT or Community Emergency Response Team. Your not committed to any monthly meetings, just go through the training and be ready to help out in your community when an emergency happens. And if your 'adventurous', why not get your Technicians Ham Radio License while your at it!

TTYL… The California Fire Season officially starts in a couple of months!

Panic at The Disco!

Cathi will soon have her 16th birthday and the one thing she asked for was to go see the band "Panic at The Disco" at the Warfield in San Francisco. So, the dutiful dad that I am, purchased tickets to see them. During the purchasing and "Dad will you take me to San Fran to see them" did I find out that there were actually going to be 4 bands at one concert!... Phantom Planet, The Hush Sound, Motion City Soundtrack and Panic at The Disco.

	Yesterday was the eventful day and the first stop of the Honda Civic Tour, Panic at The Disco at the Warfield. In the program that was handed out, Phantom Planet wrote the theme song for "The O.C." called "California". They played that last night and sounds pretty good. They also opened for Elvis Costello and others. They are from L.A. and I think they will do quite well
	We started out at Fisherman's Wharf and the sea lions...
	Alcatraz Island...
	And San Francisco...

I actually had a good time myself except for standing for 4 hours at the Warfield. I had never been to the Warfield before and was surprised how small the venue is. But then again this is San Francisco and unless the building goes up then there isn't much space to go wide.

Cathi and I also saw the new movie "21". If you haven't seen it yet, I'm not going to give it away! But you'll like it. It has a twist at the end that you may see coming about half-way through the movie.

Ttyl!

The Music Player

The Music Player has a few of the songs that were played at the concert Cathi and I went to in San Francisco. Hope you enjoy them.

April 2008 General Conference

Well, it's that time of year again for the LDS church to broadcast General Conference. I look forward to hearing from the Prophet and the other leaders of the Church bear their testimonies of the Savior, Jesus Christ and his atonement and sacrifice for us.

I have gotten into the habit of traveling to Salt Lake City almost every other year now for the past several years to go to the Priesthood Session of Conference and at least one other session on Saturday. This year I didn't go. Last year I went and took Cathi and a nephew of mine to SLC to see conference. (That's Steven for the use of your couch!)

Most folks spend time watching all of conference on TV then look forward to reading the conference talks in the Church Ensign. I tend to wait until the Ensign comes out to really delve into conference. Yes it is wonderful to hear and see the Prophet and the other church leaders on TV, but I prefer to read their remarks and be able to go back and ponder those words.