Mustache March Finale

All good things must come to an end. But for our wives, this particular "good thing" came to an end way too late. By the end of the month, only Clint and I were left with facial hair that could be mistaken for a black comb being taped to our top lip. And with it being the end, you have to sport the solo mustache. But before I go on to show you our pictures, let's take a walk through memory lane and thank all of the great men of media who helped inspire us through the month of March.

Like Kevin Kline, who rocked a huge comb-like mustache in French Kiss.

Or who can forget Ron Burgundy and his mustache bringing San Diego the nightly news.

And last but not least, Tom Selleck, his mustache, and his baby blue eyes.

All of this manliness you see before you led to this great month, and all we could do was stand tall and proud of our mustaches. At least we can look back in time and say, "Although this may not have been the coolest thing at the time, mustaches were once cool...just not according to our wives."

Although we may have looked like THIS to everyone else around us...

we really felt like THIS. Tough. Manly. And proud of the fact that we can grow hair on our upper lip!

New Song - Mistaken

This song has been sitting in my mind for some time now. It was one of those songs that never got recorded or even played live. All I had was a tape recording of the song from a past band practice, so I had to make a good recording of it. The song is about how every summer I would go off to camp, away from the norm, and would end up having some sort of summer crush. These usually were very short yet very emotional relationships. You spend the whole week pining for this girl and then by the time you have the courage to make a move, your time is practically over. But along with those relationships came confusion. You can misread physical cues, actions, and words yet still fall head over heals for some girl you don't even know, but for some reason...it's worth it and you'd do it again the following year. If you haven't guessed yet, I loved camp and have fond memories. I mean, that's how I found my wife. :)

To hear the song, just click here or visit http://drop.io/portermusic.

My New Story

Wild Horse Canyon from the top of the hill.

Two weekends ago, I got to go back to Wild Horse Canyon for this year's Sunset Men's Retreat. I had enjoyed myself so much last year, that I knew I had to go again the following year. Then we found out Donald Miller was going to be the speaker (author of Blue Like Jazz). My excitement level began to rise. He's from Portland and I already had a few of his books. Jay, our worship leader, then asked if I could play for the weekend. Cha-Ching! So now, not only would I be able to hear a great speaker, I would also be able to serve during the event. The icing on the cake was that we got to go up to the camp a day early, hang out, and practice. It couldn't get any better than that.

The whole worship team, Pastor Ron and Donald Miller.

But it did. Don talked about how individuals like ourselves are in the middle of our own personal/faith stories and asked us, "What is the story that you are telling?" and that it all boiled down to asking ourselves who do we want to be/do and going for it. I was moved. Not to say that my story is all that bad, but there are definitely some areas that are rough around the edges. So I began to make a list... a list of all of the things I wanted to do. One thing stuck out. Song writing. For some reason, I felt it was time I stop writing for myself and start writing for God.

God must have been ready for me to give him the reigns. Other members in the team started saying they wanted to be a part of writing worship and making music to share with the church and possibly record. I don't know if I was ready for that but it's in full swing now. I'm just eager to see what happens. As Don said, there may be some conflict, fear, and doubt involved, but if you hang on to your story, God can do awesome things. Personally, I can't wait to see what happens.

Don and me with my mustache - part 2.
(All the kids at school called me Luigi. LOL!)

Birthday Weekend

It was great to go out and catch up with everyone on my birthday. We did pretty much everything I wanted to do. First we went to Kell's Irish Pub for some grub and brews. They even had on a few soccer matches so that I could watch some footie as well. The best part of all was that most of my friends were there to celebrate with me. Clint and Marla, Sean and Susan and Jake, Mark, Travis and Beth, and Craig and Nicki were all there with Alli and I.

Alli and I love Kell's!

Clint and Marla had a REALLY fun time.

Jake, Sean, and Susan

Mark, Craig, and Travis

Beth and Nicki

After that, we all went back to our place to hang out, have some cake and chill. The only problem is that we didn't have candles and I had to blow out imaginary candles. At least the cake was awesome! Funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting! This is my favorite cake of all time! It's been the standard since I was really young and Alli makes it for me every year even though she always asks me, "Are you sure you just want rainbow chip cake?" My answer never changes. It's always, "Yes." We also watched one of my favorite shows called MXC...Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. There is nothing like laughing at cheesy overdubbed voices, jokes and other people's pain when they wipe out while trying to perform an obscure challenge. Chris and Nicole Langton also joined up with us at our place. Their gift...beer. And what type of beer did they bring? See for yourself.

Makin' a wish.

The Porter.

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out and party. It was a blast.

Mustache March: Week 1 - The Tough Guy Look

That's right... It's Mustache March.  Out of the eight of us, only three remain.  Ken, our janitor, already had a mustache so he didn't do Full Beard February, but man does his stache look good.  As for Clint and I, we are sticking to the plan (unlike Sean, in the background, who is sticking with his trimmed beard).  First up in the way of special shaves is the the Tough Guy Look. This is the full chops attached to the mustache. It's the staple for bikers and wrestlers.  Sure, most of the ladies we work with think we are crazy, but we don't think anything of it because they thought we were crazy even before we had crazy facial hair.  So here it is!  Week 1!  Up next, the Frenchman!

31 and Counting: #21 - Blogs

The other day my wife told me about a comment that was left on one of our friends blog.  The comment on the blog was something like this... "This blog makes no sense."  The more I thought about this comment the more I thought about the true purpose of a blog.  The best definition I have ever heard for blogs comes from the title of my friend Phil's blog.  In his blog title it says, "A blog for you... and by you I mean me."  Sure, blogs can be written for many reasons, but that is the best part about a blog.  You can write about whatever you want.  It doesn't have to make sense.  As long as the writer is content with what he or she is writing about, who cares if it doesn't make sense.  Blogs can be used to share stories, pictures, ideas, songs, random thoughts, sheer stupidity and any other reason you can think of.  That's why I love them.  They reflect the author's creativity and thoughts, as well as their passions and ideas.  So keep blogging for others... and by others I mean you.

31 and Counting: #22 - Trade Paperbacks

A couple of years ago, I made the transition of buyer of comic books to buyer of trade paperbacks.  What is a trade paperback?  A trade paperback is a collection of comic books that collect a complete story arc.  Although trade paperbacks don't grow in value over time like comic books, they tend to be cheaper and don't take up as much room.  

At first, I was really against the idea of buying trade paperbacks.  The only reason you would buy one is if you couldn't get your hands on rare issues and wanted to read the (usually important) story arc.  But after I got married and the number of boxes of comics began to grow in my closet (10 boxes!), I decided enough was enough.  It was no surprise that my wife wholeheartedly agreed.  But as time passed by, I realized that a few things were changing for the better.  First, I wasn't spending as much money.  Second, if the trade paperback wasn't good, I could sell it back to a used book store to get money to buy a new one. You can even filter out the bad stuff by reading reviews of the comics to see if you even want or need to read it.  Lastly, no longer do I need to wait to read a complete story.  It's all there.  Sure I have to wait a long time for the next trade paperback to come out, but that waiting time is filled with reading other trades.