Merry Christmas from Saipan!

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Check out all the Christmas pictures and videos!

More Christmas from Saipan

Here are some more pictures. Sorry my camera was trying to adjust to the light. It keeps "clicking". Or maybe that's me!...

Merry Christmas from Saipan!

We had a Great Christmas. I took off early on Christmas Eve. I picked up a pizza and we went to the Suicide Cliffs for a picnic. It was a very nice day with lots of sun and some wind. I pitched some balls to Clark and Doris played with Amaris and the big ball. Every night we would read "The Night before Christmas" and I told them that this was the last night until next year. They woke up in the morning and started tearing into their packages. We played with them the rest of the day. By Wednesday I was worn our so I went back to work to get some rest.

Mommy and Amaris at Clarks Soccer Game

Your on camera! Don't pick you nose!

October and November happenings

Well, not a lot happening in the Birmingham household in the last month. Here are some of the high points.

Last week Clark lost one of his front teeth. He had been playing with it for awhile. It was not scary for him because he had already lost his two bottom teeth (see picture). We went to the Halloween party at the Hyatt. Clark won the "Best Dancer" prize. I have really never seen him move like this. He was really dancing! Amaris was dancing also, but she won the "Prettiest Princess" prize. I have pictures, but they came out very dark so I am not posting.
Doris is going to Guam for Thanksgiving. She is going to see her friends and go to their Thanksgiving party. She will leave on Wednesday and get back on Sunday just in time for my funeral. The children will be fine as they will be dancing on newly dug grave, which I dug and threw myself inside. Oh, just kidding, I'm looking forward to four full days with nothing but me and the kids. But, just in case, in lieu for flowers please send money or memorials in my name to the Bikini Bottom Historical Preservation Society.
Another Mid-Term Election on Saipan, or as I call it, Saturday. Note: I did vote
Politics on Saipan is like the Weather. It never changes, but is really never perdictable more than 3-4 days out.
Baylor is going to fire their football coach. I don't wish Coach Morris any ill will, but, hey, it's time buddy. I vote for Michael Singletary. We actually started at Baylor at the same time and worked out together in the Baylor Football off season our Freshmen year. He was a hoss then.
The other pictures are of Clark's "Parade of Countries" Day. His class chose Vietnam. Yeah, when I was his age I'm sure we would have picked Vietnam. Let's see, that would have been around 1966...
Anyway, we could not find any true Vietnam clothing, so we went with the standard pirate. He was a Vietnamese Pirate. Last year he was and Indian Pirate. Starting to see a trend here..
We will post more, later.

Bad European Interiors and Weird Swedish 70's bands

Yes, there is a website where you can find the WORST of Europe, and more directly Sweden, in the early to mid-70's. It' called Omodern.com. I've put it on my lists to the right. The site is quite small. It will only take you about five minutes to surf the entire thing. It has the worst of European Home Interior for 1974 (I have included a shot) and another section on Swedish bands (not named ABBA). Where do they find these people? I've seen better looking groups on the bottom floor at the horse races (If you have been to a major horse racing track, you know what I mean). These people are musicians? I think they just like taking the pictures. Anyway, I look up this site about every six months just remind me of another time. A time when you didn't need to be beautiful to be in show business. No Ricky Martin's or Shania Twain's here. Oh, not one. If you can find any person in any of these bands that would even...well, you know what I mean without me being mean. I am sure they have a good laugh at themselves when they sit down with their equally genetically challenged offspring and surf the site. Or maybe not. I challenge you to take a look at this site and feel better about yourself. If you don't feel better, maybe you should think about moving to Sweden and joining a band.

Clark's First Goal!

Yes, it was a proud moment for Daddy. My son stole the soccer ball and promptly took it from midfield to kick it in the goal! Oh, happy day! My son's first goal! While I held my camera, so sure I had captured his first moment of athletic glory, I saw the coach say something to him. Something that sent chills up and down my spine. "Clark, our goal is the other way". Oh, horror of horrors! He scored for the other team. I took the pictures and silently slunked away, avoiding the harsh stares of the other parents. Had Clark just lost them the game? What could they be thinking? How should I react? How do we live this down? My answer to everything. Pizza.

Amaris Birthday Party!

Amaris Birthday Party!

Saturday was Amaris Mae Dela Pena Birmingham's Birthday. She is now 3. We had Chocolate Ice Cream Cake from the Aqua Resort. She got a pink bicycle and a little girl kitchen. She also got some "jewelry", make-up kit, and some other nic-nacks. Clark got a jump rope. We had pizza for supper. She really wanted Pizza. OK, she kinda wanted pizza. OK, she didn't want pizza at all, so I ate it! Note: The putting together of the kitchen set was very interesting. It came in about 100 pieces. The directions were rather easy to follow and everything fit. It took me four hours to assemble. I just wonder who had the idea to make this in the first place. The time and effort it took to put all of this together could have probably best been used for something else, like planning a flight to Mars or along those lines. Anyway, Amaris had a good time.

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY AMARIS!

The End of Sarcasm

I've noticed in the three years I've been on Saipan that many writers and speakers use heavy doses of sarcasm to get their points across. I don't mind sarcasm. It can be effective and funny. I don't think that it should be the preferred way for a person to communicate as in "how can I add sarcasm to the point I am trying to make". If this is your preferred way of communication you can run the risk of being labeled a "sarcastic person" which would not add to your credibilty.
The title is not calling for and end to sarcasm, nor do I think it is inappropriate way to deal with tough issues. It just seems to me that some of the sarcastic statements that a person could make might really turn out to be true.
Let's look at one issue. The $.17 per kilowat hour passed the legislature, but was vetoed by the Governor (it might be overriden). A sarcastic comment could be "Think how nice it will be when we lose all our electricity for several hours every day and several days a week. It will be just like the good ole days". Well, I think we would all find out quickly that it would not be better than the good ole days. Not sarcasm, just truth. Another example: I play shadow puppets with the kids when the power goes out at night. A sarcastic comment could be "I guess we could close down everything and just play shadow puppets with the kids". I guess we can.
In times like these you might want to be careful with sarcasm. It just might come to pass.

"Life Begins Again?" or "It's good to not be fully awake when I have to put up with this"

Yes, it's that time of year. The time of year when I wake up at 2am on Sunday morning to catch the noon kickoff of the noon college football games. Who's playing? Don't know, Don't care. I can watch the game for one quarter and figure out who I want to root for. Of course, I have my favorites (Baylor). Did you know that Floyd Casey Stadium (where Baylor plays) is the only stadium where you can order Hot Dogs, Cokes, or a Morphine Drip, right from your seat. Special attendents hook you up and increase the dosage as the game progresses. When the game is officially over (not the same as really over, as that occurs long before halftime) they wheel you over to special buses that will take you home. Isn't that nice.
Baylor Fans don't have to worry about road games because they don't really go. If they do, they try to buy tickets in the home section and not wear Baylor colors. They play along and laugh at the people in the Baylor section. Who can blame them? They just want to experience what it feels like to be sitting with the winner.
After a road loss to TCU (27-0) on opening weekend, it does not get any easier this weekend as we host the feared Rice Owls. The athletic department had the nerve to actually schedule the Buffalo Whatevers for the next three years. Buffalo IS the worse team in Division Uno, number 119 out of 119, so losing to them would be especially traumatic. Well, maybe not. I mean after all we're not THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES!! A bit of Trivia: The Baylor/Michigan game to start the season in 1975 was in the Guiness Book of World Records for most people to ever see a football game. I kid you not. They played to a 14-14 tie. figures.

... And for all of you Baylor, Michigan, and let's go ahead and throw in Vanderbilt while we're at it, just close your eyes and...

"Hey, can you turn up the IV just a little bit. Oh, that's much better. Doesn't the scoreboard have such pretty colors".

The House to the Left!

I wish Google would update, but some areas in the States don't have this much detail. Moved into house in December, 2004. It is located in the Papago area and has an ocean view (check out other pictures). There are houses below us, but you don't see them so well due to the trees.

Princess Amaris and Prince Clark

"Princess Amaris, Princess Amaris, she's the prettiest princess in the world. Princess Amaris, Princess Amaris, she's the prettiest princesss in the world".
"I pray for Mommy, Dadddy, Baby, Lola, Tita Rose, Tita Becky, The Rest of the Family, and the Baby Jesus, Amen".

If it's Tuesday, it must be Fiji OR What could the Government do with $1,500,000?

CNMI Government could:

• Pay off a lot of rebates


• Buy a lot of textbooks


• Create a "Bikini Bottom" Theme Park

Well, the list goes on, but the one thing they want to do is spend it on something called House Bill 15-289 which is "To Establish an Advisory Commission on Land Ownership in the CommonWealth, and other purposes".

Not a bad idea, but do we need to spend $500,000 per year ("The Legislature shall provide through annual appropriation a budget to the Commission of not less than five-hundred thousand ($500,000) per fiscal year...") to be used for the purpose of "studying the land ownership question..." and for "Public education and comment". The money starts pouring in as soon as the law is passed and ends as late as January, 2011 (3 years)

I am sure that the commission would need to get as much information about how one goes about actually owning land. They would probably need to take trips to Nevada (Las Vegas) to see how they do it there. Want to see how Hawaiians own land? A week long trip to there would be a great idea. Might I also suggest trips to Fiji and Australia to see how they do it. Got to get that informatiion on how to own land.

Hey, I have an idea. And my two cents won't cost 1.5 million!

Produce a brochure detailing the Pros and Cons of Article 12. Print it in the Newspaper, mail it to residents, and post it on-line. This should cost no more than $50,000 (still a lot of $$$). Then let people vote

Stickers? Stickers? We don't need no stinkin' stickers!

I can't be the only one that notices how many automobiles on Saipan do not have current registration stickers. Maybe they ran out of stickers. I was over at a popular shopping center and started looking at the car stickers. I found nine out of ten did not have up to date stickers! What is that about. Now if the Government is looking for some revenue I would suggest they start with ticketing people that don't have up to date registration. I have a feeling that the situation is so bad they would need to consider an amnesty (more than the usual 30 day amnesty you get after your tags have expired) in order for people to get their cars tagged.
Go see for yourself. Look at the tags of the next 10 cars you see parked and add up how many have up to date tags.

The Beach, The Atomic Bomb Pit, and American Memorial Park- 2007

Clark at Bird Island

We took Tita Becky around the island on her month long visit. This is Bird Island on the North of Saipan. During her stay she visited Guam and Tinian. Also had a adventure with Marianas Trekking.

If it's Friday...

Friday has many meanings in our home. It has become:

• Purple Gatorad Day (Sara Market)



• Lollipop Day (same store)



• Bubble Bath Day



• Yellow Shirt Day (A GCA thing)

It would be best to spread these over the whole week, but when Saturday is "Grocery Store Day" and Sunday is "Park Day" and "Winchells Day". You don't have alot of time left.