Yeah for the workout family

We made a commitment to work out twice a week together. So far, so good. Workout Wednesdays and Sweaty Sundays. Twice a week is better than no times a week. If only I had a picture of Devin on the elliptical and me doing my lunges and squats. Wednesday Sierra kicked my booty. Woooot! (I hear the cool kids say that a lot).

(disclaimer: photos not real-actual results not typical)

In Memory of Velma Ponder Scott

Tomorrow is my grandmother’s birthday. She was our Nan. She is gone now, but her spirit lives on in my memories, in my genetics and of course in my heart. That indomitable, feisty, never give in spirit. I recently came across some random thoughts I had written down the day I learned that she had passed. They may not be as meaningful to you, but my sister and mother will probably get it! This is a ramble, so bear with me!

Nan word association: beauty, strength, stubborn, determined, full of life, always searching for meaning, unconventional, ahead of her time, adventure, queen of the road.

She was no rocking chair grandma. When I see her in my minds eye, she is wearing a polyester white pants suit; always made up, always in motion. Action Nan. No rocking Chair grandma. No smells of cooking in the air. No Martha Stuart garden and home.

She was a wanderer and car trips with her are my most treasured memories. I loved pulling over and sleeping on the side of the road and waking up as the sun rose. For some reason I remember the smell of that car. It’s hard to describe, but it was a little like the faint odor of carsickness. She had a CB and her handle was " The Big yellow banana" Imagine this tiny woman saying “10-4 good buddy” She let me drive it when I was 12. Yeee haaaa !

Beans and weenies for lunch on the side of the highway and gorgeous scenery must be looked at even if you are so sick you can't lift your head. It seemed that she had a friend or former patient (she was a chiropractor) in each city we drove through. Smelly Ann Martin, Bert and the cigarette burns on his shirt. No matter where we were between Canada and Texas, there was always someone to visit; someone to heal. She inspired my travel dreams with her trips to Africa, Russia, Israel and Panama.

Even in the most perilous situations, she always saw beauty even in 6 feet of snow, and icy roads. “Ohhhhh LOOK at the beautiful mountains”


Searching for meaning brought her too many different ideas; Scientology and the E-meter when I was young, that crazy Thane Walker and finally Oral Roberts. If that’s not a diversity of ideas I don't know what is. Her courage was amazing. She would stand toe to toe with a foe twice her size. I think to the end she believed that her sight and hearing would be healed if she just prayed harder.

“You just let me know if you are saying something I need to hear"

She loved to have us scratch her back with nails or hairbrush. Back rubs! I learned just the right spots from her.

I learned to hate chiropractic adjustments since she always thought I needed one. Run away, run away!


She loved all of us, but you could really say that she just loved period.

Sierra's Video

7th grade is one of those in between times when the kids sometimes act so adult, and then at other times the go back to being little kids.

Sierra's class has been playing with small stuffed animals again. They shot this video in class on Friday. Sierra and her friend Jenna spent Saturday editing it.

So Misunderstood

My name is Spitfire, or " Spitty" for short. I'm not sure if they call me that because I drool when I'm getting a pet or because I spit when I'm scared. You have to look scary to keep the dogs away!! I am a loving affectionate male, neutered and de-clawed senior kitty. I'm very talkative especially at night when all the humans are asleep. I love to wander through the house yowling especially if I've caught a lizard. Actually, I'm not really sure why I yowl. I'm old. Maybe I'm senile. I think my human family has about had it with me. I woke up mom again tonight at 12:30am. Uh oh....

Guitar Heros

Sierra plays her super cool newly re-finished custom guitar


Devin's special song. He is really into it!




I think I have decided that I'm not as interested in learning guitar as I thought I was. Its kind of fun, but not fun enough to spend 25 bucks for 1/2 hour lesson weekly.

Imagine No Religion

A few months ago the Pez Ran clan attended a fund raiser BBQ to help pay for 4 billboards around the city. Sierra was impressed by the pool, if you remember from my earlier post. The billboards are finally up and today the group got together and we had our picture taken in front of the billboard. No one attacked us which is nice. A few people honked although I'm not sure if it was in solidarity or derision. This billboard is on the corner McDowell and 3rd street in case you want to visit. This is just me solo... sporting my autographed " Skeptics Guide to the Universe" t-shirt.

We had yummy Tai food after the picture with our Atheistic Skeptic comrades. I reccomend the coconut curry, but stay away from the Tai ice tea!

I'm not really sure how Scientology kills, but I'll bet he'd tell me...

This is Matt. He spent over 6 hours last night trying to de-convert a nice Mormon girl. Go Matt. I'm sure they had some interesting "discourse" He is wearing a big Scarlet Letter of Atheism t-shirt. In fact a couple of people were. I want one. I don't suppose Richard Dawkins would send me one would he?

I am officially a College Student Again!

It was 15 years ago this month that I finally graduated from college with a B.A. in Marketing. I started my collegiate journey back in 1983 at Pierce Community College in Woodland Hills as a music major. After experiencing the highs of the stage as Kailua Madrigal Singer in high school, I was convinced that I wanted to sing for a living. An opera singer is what I wanted to be because after all I was fat and if you wanted to sing and were fat then obviously Opera was for me. Well unfortunately, I had very little self confidence and apparently not enough talent to make it out of the required sight singing class. So then, I decided to go for French as a major because I was also kind of good at languages. I spent another year doing that and decided I had messed around enough and needed to get serious!


I applied to both Cal state Northridge in the L.A area and ASU in Tempe Arizona ( where my mom was living at the time) as a business major because I just wanted to get a good job and make a living by then! ASU happened to accept my application while Northridge was strangely silent. Here's a picture of me at the beginning of my college career. Yes indeed....I did look 12. I although by then I was 24 I think. This was pre-braces so you can see the gap in my teeth. Yes for those of you who didn't know. My maiden name is DICKEY (cue painful childhood memories).



After starting at ASU, I still couldn't decide what I wanted to do and after another year of business classes with grades ranging from A's to C's, I decided I would again go for languages. I had studied Japanese in High School and thought that would be my ticket to adventure. I could go to Japan and teach English to the Japanese! I pursued that for two years and then just got tired of going to school. I had been on the 10 year plan and I just decided I wanted to be done!!! I went back to marketing and finally got my degree after a grueling round of summer school. It had taken me a long time, but I finished!!!! Yeah for me.

Now after 15 years in the workforce, I am going for my masters degree. I've been thinking about doing it for a few years, but dreaded the work it was going to entail. Now, I'm ready. Sierra does not need me around as much ( a fact that she makes quite clear) I can take time for this. Avnet will pay for it so why not! I'm going for a degree in something called " Instructional Technology" which is a fancy name for learning how to design and create training. This is a calculated move on my part to advance myself at Avnet while learning something that is not Electronics Industry specific. I can also do this job remotely from anywhere. As I look toward 50, I want to make sure I have all the skills I need to be independent of any particular company.
Stay tuned.......

Science Rap

A rap about the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC. It is a very large particle collider being built in Europe. The rap kind of explains what the various experiment stations do.