On Aug. 1, 2007 I hit the big 4-0. Yep, 40 years and still twitchin'. I heard there were great and profound secrets to learn after 40 but I've yet to discover any. My birthday was a simple affaird - I got to sleep in until 7 a.m. (this is a very good thing), took my family to Eatza Pizza, watched a wonderful rainstorm from my front porch, had the in-laws over for dinner. Gifts included a plant from my sister Sharla, a Jamba Juice card from Kristen, lots of neat artwork from my kids (crayon drawing saying "I love you dad" are priceless, trust me) and some peace and quiet.

Now for the news - sorry I have not written in a long time. I've been very busy trying to get two boys registered for high school, finish taxes and other administrative issues and so on. My son Jimmy decided to join the marching band - this is very big news to me because I promised myself I would not force or insist my kids follow my footsteps into music. I exposed them to it but let them decide if it was something they wanted to do. Jimmy opted for Baritone and joined the band. He's very committed to it and I'm thrilled. I'm just as thrilled that Josiah didn't join the band and is on the swim team instead.

We've started a fund raising campaign to open a youth venture here in Surprise. We need to raised $100,000 at a minimum to get it started. I'm going to write a much more detailed post on that in the near future. Our first fund raiser has already started and, if we stay on track, we should raised at least $10,000 of our goal in this first step. We also have a golf tournament coming on April 5 among some other things.

Keep an eye out on the fourteensix website - it should have a major overhaul in the next few weeks. Much more updated.

I'll keep you all posted.