It's been 9 weeks since my last donation, which made me eligible to donate again. I was actually able to donate last week, but they were closed for the holiday. So I did my duty, and gave them a pint of me blood. I got a coupon for a free pint of ice cream, and a ribbon magnet that promotes blood donation. (Give for my fourth donation.) They're going to run a CVC to count my platelets, to see if I'm eligible to donate that in the future. Another pint, hopefully another life saved!

I'm pretty excited because I joined a bowling league during this last week. I used to bowl in a league about 10 years ago. It doesn't start until March 27. It's on Monday nights at 7 PM. It's a NASCAR themed league called "Race & Roll". I get a NASCAR ball carrier and a Nascar bowling shirt. So cool!

When I was 8 years old, my step mom was pregnant with the oldest of my siblings. They asked me if I thought it would be a boy or a girl. I said, “girl”, because I wanted it to be a girl. He turned out to be a boy. Soon after he was born, my father stopped using his visitation rights, and thus faded out of my life. For 18 years, Robert was the sibling that I knew existed. Back then I really wanted a sister. I don’t know why, but I did. I think maybe I knew she might need me more. I’m not sure. I reached a point in my adult life, where I was curious as to how Robert was, and if was alone. I figured that he couldn’t be the only one. So I went through our files, and with the help of the Internet, I reached my cousin in March 2000. It was a thrilling and emotional event. And it got even better. I had a sister. And had a second brother. Robert and I never really clicked. Patrick is wonderful, and I love him dearly. But the greatest surprise and gift of all, is how close I’ve become with Jeanette. She’s the youngest. She is the baby of the family. With the number of years apart, and with the geographical distance between us, we overcame the odds. We are brother and sister. Even better, she is my friend. For a person who grew up as an only child, I never dreamed I would have this. I always tell her she is my favorite sister. Ok, she is my only sister, but my favorite all the same. She uses this to her advantage as well. When we’re playing around and teasing each other, she’ll play the “but I’m your favorite sister” card. And now she is grown, and she is sacrificing herself and her time, and serving our Country. This blog is dedicated to my great, wonderful sister. I am so grateful, everyday, that we found each other. Merry Christmas, Jeanette. Stay safe, and come home safely.

My sister had an opportunity to call me today. The important thing is that she is safe and alive. This was the first word I've gotten from her since she was deployed. I was just thinking about her yesterday, too. It's really tough to have her in Iraq during Christmas. I appreciate everybody's thoughts and prayers for her. I will continue to keep you guys posted. She said that she is not in much danger where she is at. Which makes big brother feel a lot better. **==

Richard Pryor died today of a heart attack. Pryor will be remembered for being a trailblazer, and inspiration to black comics. His stand up career started in the 1960s, when much of America was still cut in half, by a color line. His success, showed many future black comics that they too, could make it in this business. I remember him as being one half of one of the greatest movie comic teams of all time. Pryor, with Gene Wilder, made some of the funniest movies. Stir Crazy and Hear No Evil, See No Evil are two of my favorites. He also teamed up with John Candy in Brewster's Millions, and with Jackie Gleason in The Toy. His life has been a roller coaster. Married seven times, battled drug addiction, even went as far as catching himself on fire while free basing cocaine. He finally had to retire from entertainment, when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Last year, he was voted the #1 all time stand up comic by the Comedy Central channel. I know that many would be turned off by his crude humor, but Pryor was a giant in stand up comedy. He was a trial blazer, and has already been missed.

Ok. I'm the first one to admit that a college football championship is a joke. To me, there really is no such thing. And Congress looking into steriods in professional sports, I can buy into that. But Congress spending time, and my tax dollars, looking into how a college champion should be crowned? Stop the bus, I want to get off. Surely, there are bigger problems in this country to deal with, than this. And they can't even solve those. How about finding a cure for HIV and AIDS? How about the National deficit? Poverty. Discrimination. Iraq. Finding Bin Lauden. Health Care. Social Security. How about how the rest of the World views the U.S. these days? These are just name a few. Solve these problems first, then maybe talk to me about college sports.

It's official. My sister is being deployed to Iraq this week. The good part, is that since she was just assigned to a new unit, she won't have to do a full year. Her unit has already been there for about 2-3 months. She will only have to be there for 9-10 months. She isn't there for combat. She's there to fix computer equipment. The biggest risk that she will have will be while she's in convoy from one place to another.

I wanted to share with my friends some of the pictures that I've taken, that I'm most proud of. I claim all copyright privileges for all photos on this page. The tower bridge. This takes you over the Sacramento river and connects Sacramento to West Sacramento. This is one Sacramento's biggest icons. An old fashioned steam-engine train, coming into Old Sacramento. It is part of the Train Museum there. The Delta King. This is now a restaurant and hotel. I saw mystery dinner theater on this once. It was a blast! A shot of the Downtown Sacramento Skyline. Sunrise in Sacramento. This was the view from my front porch one day before work. I was so captivated, that I ran in and grabbed my camera real quick, before heading off to work. The water fountain that is one West side of the State Capital. It may be hard to tell, but the horse is still in color. It's hard to notice brown with a black and white surrounding. This is my favorite. Taken in Old Sacramento. I have done the US flag in color on several other pictures, but this one came out the best. I hope you enjoyed!

On November 5, I will be doing something that means a lot to me. I will be donating a pint of my blood. This will be my third donation. Once I make my fourth donation, I will be part of the gallon club. I should be eligible to donate again on December 31. If I am able to donate then, then I'll have a gallon this year. Donating blood is something that I've wanted to start doing ever since 9/11. I didn't donate then, because so many people donated at the time, they had to throw some of it out. They can only save it for so long, and they had more than they needed at the time. I made a vow to myself that I would donate at a later time, after the current drives died down. It took longer than it should have, but now that I've started, I'm making sure to keep it going. I have O- blood type; therefore, my blood can be used for anybody. They also told me that I tested negative for the CMV virus. (I may have it wrong, so I'll edit this when I get clarification of the name of virus.) It's a virus that 75% of us have, but it doesn't effect us. But those of us that have it, cannot give our blood to newborns. Since I'm negative for this, my blood can be used for newborns. Now that I've started this, I've made a vow to donate as much as possible, as long as I'm able to. I may develop something in my older years that may make me ineligible to donate. While I'm young and healthy, I want to give as often as possible. It's extra important to me, because I do have two brothers and one sister in the military. My sister is slated to go to Iraq sometime soon. Someone's donation may be the difference of them coming home someday. I encourage anybody else to donate, if you are able to. It really is a nice feeling to leave a donation center, and know that just maybe, you saved a life today. You never know for sure, but that donation may be the difference. Even if your donation doesn't save a life per se, it frees up someone else's donation that may make the difference. If you look at it the right way, everybody's donation helps aid to save a life.

I'm watching NASCAR right now, and I saw that Subway is donating a portion of their sales that they make today to the Red Cross Disaster relief fund. Let me say that again. A portion of their sales. 5% of their sales, to be exact. It's great that they're donating money, to folks that are still in dire need. It's great. But . . . The fact that it's a portion of today's sales is bothering me. In other words, make sure you buy a sandwich at Subway today, so that they can donate money. It really bothers me that they would use something like this as an opportunity to bring in more sales. They could just as easily just pick a number and say, "We're giving $x,xxx,xxx.xx to Red Cross". They can set up donation boxes or food drives. But what they did was say, come eat at our restaurant, so we can give money away. They're probably not the first to run a campaign like this. They're just the first that I've noticed. I do applaud the fact that they are throwing their efforts into the mix. It just bothers me about how they are doing it. I will give them credit for one thing. At least it keeps our attention on the need, and keeps our eye on the ball. Make sure that you remember to keep up efforts, one way or another. Give directly to Red Cross. Even buy a sandwich. Better yet, buy some non perishable food, and give that to the Red Cross.