Switzerland Trip Begins

I began my trip to Switzerland today. Let's just say it was pretty stressful beginning. First, I lost my driver's license on Wednesday. I can't find it anywhere. I didn't have time to get a new one, so I'm off to Europe and New England with no license. Doh!

Second, it took nearly two hours to get to LAX today. That is almost three times the usual 45 minutes. I thought my head was going to explode thinking I would miss my flight.

Third, today is my son's birthday. It's so sad to leave your newly nine year old son crying on his birthday. Its so hard to think that I'm nearly half done with raising him. :(

However, all of this was undone when I arrived at Tom Bradley terminal and was ushered to the "VIP ROOM" of Swiss Airlines. Very nice. For those of you who haven't experienced this it's a completely different experience. There are about five flatscreen TV's in here and unlimited food and drinks. There's wireless internet and newspapers in every language. I don't know that I'll ever enjoy coach again! :)

I'll give you more news when I land in Zurich tomorrow!

A new blog is up...
This blog is hard to keep current because it requires a manual visit to the Blogger site to update. I'm trying out a new service from yahoo! called Yahoo! 360. Check out my 360 page (http://360.yahoo.com/michael_lyn_williams).

Little League Season is OVER!

After a long, and sometimes difficult season we finished our Little League Season. In retrospect, we probably should have put Matthew in one more year of tee-ball. He was not ready for the kid-pitch part of the season. We started strong, but ended pretty slowly.

Vacation

Well, vacation is finally upon us. I'll post photos over the next few weeks. We're looking forward to seeing friends and family in TX, OK, NM while we drive through the SW USA. Should be a LONG and fun trip.

Star Update

The kids had their final school musical today. Of course all the regulars were there. But the big surprise was Tea Leone (sp?) came in and sat right behind me and Marcus. She had her little boy with her and said, "Look, there's a boy like you!" She looked EXACTLY like she did in Spanglish. It was kind of freaky. :)

Revenge of the Sith

For Matthew's birthday a few weeks ago he received the book "Revenge of the Sith". We started reading chapters to one another, but I didn't want to know how it ended, so I stopped. I spoke with him the other day and he stopped too. I think it was too depressing and scary for him. :(

So..I went and saw the movie yesterday with my good friend Hung Le. We wanted to preview it before deciding whether our boys could watch it. I must say, I'm pretty torn about it. There are a few scenes (eg, the younglings, and the destruction of Annaken) that would really bother Matthew. So I haven't decided yet what to do about it. My initial thought is that he's not really ready for it yet. But I may change my mind over time. Any of you with young boys (age 6-9) feel free to weigh in on it with me.

Overall, I liked the movie. It was a wonderful piece of connecting the dots...how did Annie become Darth Vader? Is Chancellor Palpatine really Darth Sideous? How did Yoda end up at Degobah? Kenobi at Tattoine? How did Vadar not know about the twins? What happened to Padame? How did the Republic fall? What caused the rise of the Empire? What happened to the Jedi Knights? All these, and more, are answered quite satisfactorily. Additionally, its a wonderful treatment of how "good" and "evil" are mostly a point of view, and how no one is intrinsically "good" or "evil" but their choices make them so. I found it enjoyable and well worth the $7.50 for a matinee admission. Now the $10 popcorn on the other hand...

General Update

Oh my goodness it has been much too long since I've updated this blog. My apologies. First, all is well. We've enjoyed our spring semester in Malibu and the kids are nearly out of school (one more month!). We've not traveled anywhere or done anything exciting since our trip to Italy in December. But we're doing well.

Matthew is finishing up baseball season. He's had a tough year. We moved him up to Little League this year from TeeBall. We maybe should have kept him in Tee Ball one more year. He's the youngest kid out there and has had some difficulties with hitting "kid-pitch" balls. But he's improved a lot and will be much better next year when he's a little bigger and stronger.

Madison has devoted the spring to learning to read and her art. She comes home from school every day and begins working on some art project. She's absolutely adorable. Plus, like Matthew, her first book was "Green Eggs and Ham". She read it for the first time back in early April. She's doing great. We hope to get her into gymnastics or dance classes in the fall.

Marcus is really learning to speak. He is very verbal now. He talks all the time and sometimes people who aren't even in our family can understand him. Madison is the best at understanding him. She always knows what he's saying. He's too cute. I've posted a ton of pictures recently on the website. Check them out! Let me know if you don't remember the password and I'll remind you.

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this site. Lots of news.

It's Dr. Williams to you!

It's true. I officially defended my dissertation and was awarded my Ph.D. in November. A long and grueling battle that I'm glad to have behind me.

Holiday Plans

We leave today for 10 days in Italy, then 10 days in MD with my family. It should be a blast. We're really looking forward to getting away for a while. One of the perks of academia.

Thanksgiving

Jerry and Lupe joined us this year for Thanksgiving. We had a terrific time seeing the sites in LA and relaxing around the house.

Star Watch

• Dean Cain (aka Superman)- at dinner last night at a sushi place in teh Bu. He was with a guy that looked like his brother and two semi-beautiful gals.



• Kenny G. - At Matthew's basketball game last Saturday. He is a very pretty man.



• Pam Anderson - Also at Matthew's basketball game. I'm sure she used to be a cheerleader. She's got the moves and the funny wave of the hand.



• Ellen DeGeneres - Also at Matthew's basketball game. She is actually quite beautiful.



• Mel Gibson - At several of Madison's soccer games.