On March 22, 2007 I took a redeye flight out to Winston Salem, North Carolina. My sister had just had a baby on March 11 and I was flying out to surprise her. Everyone knew except for her. My brother in law, Jeremy, picked me up from the airport and dropped me off before she got home. When she arrived back, I called her and proceeded to talk to her. She didn't notice I was in her house until I was practically standing next to her. It would have been a wonderful video to show as she jumped when she figured out I was there. I had a great time hanging out, albeit, most of my time there was spent sleeping or being awake but tired. I can't wait to see my nieces again!
3月22日にＮｏｒｔｈ　Ｃａｒｏｌｉｎａ州に行きました。妹の所に行った。妹（Ｍｉｃｈｅｌｌｅ）はびっくりしました。3月１１日にＭａｄｅｌｙｎ（マディリン）Ｉｓａ伊佐　Ｂｏｌｌｍａｎ(ボールマン）が生まれました。伊佐はＭａｄｅｌｙｎの日本名です。Ｍｉｄｄｌｅ　ｎａｍｅって言う。私のＭｉｄｄｌｅ　ｎａｍｅは隼人です。妹の子どもとたくさん遊びました。

　

John and Maddie

She's such a good baby.

maddie

her name is maddie. she says hello.

Play with me.

Her 3 favorite words: Play with me.

redeye

I don't like flying. I can't sleep on planes. so what do I do? I take a redeye to the east coast. i'm in chicago for a 1 hour layover. it's 5:30 here. but in san francisco where i've just flown from it's 3:30 in the morning. next time I will be paying the extra bit to get an upgrade. i'm tired.

1 more hour

I wonder if this will work. sending a picture to my blog from phone/ can do pretty much anything mobile device.

卒業おめでとう

３月２２日は小学校の卒業式です。　宜野座とかんなと松田小にビデオレターを送りたかったけど間に合わなかった。宜野座小に間に合った見たいです。今日宜野座小から写真届いて、寂しくなった。I miss Okinawaから。インターネットがあるから、連絡するのは簡単です。デジカメでビデオ取ってすぐ沖縄に遅れる。

A nice weekend to get away
Last week a highschool/college buddy of mine, Tim Anderson, was visiting the area with his girlfriend as they consider relocating to Northern California. They spent a couple nights at my place while spending the days in teacher forums where they met with different schools in the area. I originally had a busy Saturday planned as I'd been in charge of a tax seminar that was going to be held for JETs who returned within the last year. Due to a lack of RSVPs, we decided to cancel the event. It was supposed to be a nice weekend in San Francisco and I was going to try and get in some quality training runs but the cold and fog swept in, convincing me to head out to Napa with Tim and Jen. On Sat. we went to Grgich Hills winery where Dave, another college friend, works. We tasted some and then headed to another guy's house to BBQ some salmon and mushrooms. The property overlooked the Mondavi Vineyard which pretty much left us speechless for a couple of minutes. It really was that nice! On Sunday, Tim and Jen went to a couple of wineries courtesy of DD John. Afterwards, they let me go to Target to check out some furniture and other things. Thanks to their patience and car, my room now has a new storage cabinet, shoebox, and lamp. Jen took a redeye back to Boston while Tim and I put together my newly acquired furniture. The weather in Napa was wonderful and I had a great, relaxing weekend hanging out with Tim, Jen, and Dave.
Here are some pics and videos:

Tim used to do this monkey call in the cafeteria in college. Always good for a laugh.

Tim playing in the flowers.

Dinner in San FranciscoWick, Tim, Jen, JohnDave explaining FAT (Fruit, Acidity, Tannens) I thinkTim's thirsty

SunsetDave the expertMy attempt at artistic photography

So we all know that the world is getting warmer, more polluted, and more unpredictable. Lucky for us, there are lots of Eco companies looking to clean the Earth up and slow the devastation that is most certainly going to happen. Since starting my job I've been lucky enough to study up on these new technologies and companies. After reading this latest article I now understand what needs to be done...

1. Save the plankton, Save the World.
2. Make a volcano, Save the World.
3. Huge space umbrella, Save the World.
4. Plant artificial trees, Save the World

Now reading those 4 sentences out of context would probably lead you to suspect that I'm crazy, right? Although the ideas can seem a bit eccentric, there's some truth to those sentences. For those of you who study up on the environmental problems of the world, you know that excessive carbon dioxide is a problem. Solution 1 & 4 above are just different ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Read Crazy Technology to learn more about the ideas scientists are coming up with and whether or not, they'll actually work.

I'm Uncle John.

On March 11, my sister Michelle had her second baby, Madelyn Isa Bollman. Her and her hubby, Jeremy, sure do make beautiful kids!

Last night I had dinner with my cousin, Katie. I hadn't seen her in about 3 years. She's in San Francisco for the week doing training to prepare for her mission trip to Africa. She will flying into Kenya and staying for 2 months. What an amazing opportunity for her and I look forward to hearing about her adventures and how God works thru her and her group.

March 1st is the day set for high school graduations in Japan. Since teachers change schools every couple years, there is usually a video show at the end of graduation with teachers who are at other schools saying a little message congratulating the seniors. I was contacted by one of my teacher friends asking me to send a little video. I wanted to wait to put it on my blog until after graduation since some of my ex-students check my blog. I purposely was on the phone when the first video was taken and the second video is the actual message. I hope my ex-students enjoyed it.
３月１日は高校の卒業式の日。宜野座高校の先生からおねがいがありました。おめでとうのビデオ。最初はわざとNGでした。