JoeBoy

Sock Monkey

2010-05-08T22:53:00.000-05:00

The other day my sister-in-law posted a picture on her blog. I made a comment on her post taking credit for taking the picture while we were in Gatlinburg. Jeni replied to my comment and said,

and a wonderful picture it is. Then again...what else can you get with such an awesome couple.

I couldn't resist the temptation. My apologies to all of you Photoshop experts out there.

Original

Modification 1

Modification 2

The Things You See On The Way To Work

2010-05-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

Moving to a new place is always an adventure, and it's fun to get a acquainted with a new location. Every place has it's quirks and oddities. North Alabama is no exception. Every morning on my way to work, I drive by these two businesses:

Humble Heart Farms

2010-05-01T22:27:00.000-05:00

This morning we went out to the Madison City Farmers Market to check it out. We arrived later than we would have liked and most of the merchandise was already gone, but Anna and I had a nice chance to visit with the good folks from Humble Heart Farms. These folks milk 100 goats and sell some wonderful goat cheese. They took the time to let us sample a number of varieties, and gave us a couple of samples to take home with us.

The kids are in bed and Anna and I are sitting here on the couch trying the cheese. We've decided that the honey cheese has more of a "goat" taste to it than the Rio Grande and Texas Hickory. However, the Honey does go very well with fruit. We've tried it on strawberries and with apples. The Rio Grande is quite spicy, but very flavorful. The seasoning is quite strong and overpowers the native flavor of the goat cheese. In my opinion, you can't taste the cheese itself, just the seasoning, but it's still quite good. The Texas Hickory to me, is a good balance. It's a little spicy, but the seasoning is more subtle and the flavor of the plain goat cheese shines through. All of the cheeses were good and we enjoyed the opportunity to try them out.

In addition to selling cheese, Humble Heart Farms also sells fresh lamb and goat (chevron). Looking at their website, they also offer tours of their farm. I think I'm going to have to take a day off of work so we can take the girls on a field trip to take a tour of their farm and learn more about making goat cheese. Should be fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Brownwood Christmas Under The Stars

2009-11-22T21:28:00.002-06:00

Brownwood is gearing up for the first annual Christmas Under The Stars festival. You can read about it here.

I heard some discussion about this on the radio the other day, and interestingly enough, they will be serving Hot Dr. Pepper at this event. Yes, you read that right...not Hot Chocolate or Hot Apple Cider. Hot Dr. Pepper.

Ok, I'll pause for a second to let you recover

As it turns out, Hot Dr. Pepper is a pretty popular drink in Texas. I'd never heard of it before, but I found this recipe. Sounds good, I guess I'll give it a try.

Logistics

2009-02-28T07:58:00.004-06:00

Amazon has disappointed me. Indeed, their actions have subjected me to great peril.

We order everything from Amazon. Ok, maybe not everything, but we do order a lot of different things from Amazon because we live in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Using Amazon helps us fight back against high local prices on a variety of items, including toilet paper.

Yup, we order our toilet paper from Amazon.

Amazon has a Distribution Center in DFW, so we can order and it's delivered the next day, maybe two. Amazon sells it in large jumbo packs, similar to what you might find at Sam's Club so we don't have to order it very often. And it saves us a little money.

At this point, you're probably asking yourself why I'm blogging about this.

Well, you see, a few weeks ago we started to run out of toilet paper. We procrastinated a little too long and suddenly we realized we were down to our last two rolls, one in each of our bathrooms. This wasn't a big deal because, Amazon always comes through and delivers in one or two days for us. So, we logged on to our Amazon Prime account and ordered our favorite TP.

The next day it didn't arrive. No biggie. It always comes by the second day. A quick check of our "inventory" revealed that we were still in the safety zone, but we'd need to step things up with our just-in-time (JIT) vendor to make sure we didn't run out of material for "production".

We checked the Amazon website, and to our horror, our toilet paper had shipped from Nevada instead of DFW. OMG! We issued orders to the kids to be extra conservative in their paper usage. Addi obliged us by unrolling half of the kids' bathroom roll down the hallway. Blast!

The next afternoon when I came home from work, this is what I saw in the bathroom:

I checked the kids' inventory and found that it was perilously close to the same condition. I ran to the computer, hoping and praying that by some miracle Fedex Ground would come through for me and deliver our stuff before we ran out. It turns out that our toilet paper was somewhere between Utah and Oklahoma.

What to do? What to do?

Hold it for a couple days? Unlikely.

Borrow from the neighbors? (Imagine what that would have been like... Hey Bud, can I borrow some TP?)

It was hopeless. Realizing that our JIT system had failed us, we finally relented, got in the van, and drove to the place I hate most: WalMart.

Ironically, once we re-stocked with a small 4-roll pack, our consumption dropped.

Two days later, our TP finally arrived and we now are flush with 43 rolls.

Hope's back

2009-01-18T21:00:00.004-06:00

After a prolonged absence from blogging Hope finally had an experience today that drove her back into the blog sphere. You can read all about it here.. Here's a picture of her typing away on my laptop getting ready to post her story. This is all still pretty new to her and it takes her quite a while to type up a story like this.

Kohls Bargains

2008-11-30T14:35:00.002-06:00

Lately I've been driving Anna nuts with my mad shopping skills. We went to Kohls a few weeks ago because Anna was looking for some new tops. She dug around the women's section looking for stuff and I decided to give her some relief by taking the kids with me and exploring the rest of the store. I ran across a 90% off clearance rack in the men's section that was chock full of Docker's dress shirts. I ended up getting 20 shirts for about $100. Every chance I get, I have to remind her that after 10 years of working on me, she's finally made me realize by bargain shopping potential. :) She says it was just luck.

As it turns out, this wasn't a one time event. On Black Friday we ended up at Kohls again. While Anna and the kids were busy getting stuff for Christmas I wandered over to the kitchen section (I like to cook.) I've had my eye out for a set of omelet pans. A few years ago we bought a stainless steel set of pots and pans. I like them, but it takes a lot of patience and skill to use them to reliable produce good eggs because they're not non-stick.

I dug around for a while looking at hard-anodized cookware. I found these nice Food Network pans and realized they were marked down. 80% off! Yeah baby. So, I picked them up. I was even more surprised when I got up to the register and they rang up an extra percentage off of the clearance price. Here's Hope holding my $70 Food Network pans that I picked up for $11:

Anna's Altoid Addiction

2008-11-30T00:14:00.001-06:00

If no one else gets this post, I'm sure Josh will....

When Anna was pregnant with Tori she craved Altoids. A lot. She did not consume them like a normal human being. Instead of gingerly sucking on the curiously strong mints, she would chew them up and eat them four or five at a time. At first, this completely weirded me out, but then I tried it myself and found that chomping up Altoids gives them a completely different flavor experience, and I actually liked it too.

So, now we chomp our Altoids.

Apparently, this phenomenon is contagious because our kids now eat them this way too. When Anna breaks them out, say, maybe after the end of a meal out, there's all sorts of good breath in our van.

At any rate, while Anna has slowed down her Altoid consumption considerably she still likes them a lot. Eating them has turned out to be a rather expensive habit since they're like $3 a tin. Whenever they run them on sale someplace, she stocks up. Apparently CVS recently ran a buy one get one free sale on them because I came home to this:

Yup...that's 34 tins of Altoids in my junk drawer...

Breakfast Pontification

2008-10-26T10:40:00.002-05:00

This morning Hope asked me to make her soft-boiled eggs for breakfast. Tori doesn't really care for eggs and asked me to cut up an apple for her instead. After it was all done and we sat down for breakfast, Hope started to give Tori a little lesson about eggs:

"Tori, did you know that Dad and I are eating baby chicks? An egg is a baby chick, and when we cook it, we're eating a chick. I think the chick is in the yolk and that's why it's my favorite part."

Tori looked at her a little stunned and replied, "I don't think that we should be eating God's creation."

So Hope looks at her and says, "Well, we didn't at first, but things changed and people started eating animals. You ate a deer once and you didn't know that it was a deer!"

Tori just stared at Hope so Hope decided to continue on with her lesson. "Yeah, Dad went hunting and killed a big deer. And you ate it. You didn't know it was a deer and you liked it! He went to this place and they cut off it's head and gave us the meat."

Tori, seeming to have forgotten about her objections to eating animals got pretty interested and started throwing in her own adages.

"Yeah, and they cut off the legs too."

"Nu uh Tori! They didn't cut off the legs. We ate those too."

Tori, a little shocked, replies, "And the shoes too?"

"No Tori, they took off the shoes."

And that, my friends, is how the conversation went this morning over breakfast.

Metamorphosis

2008-10-26T10:08:00.002-05:00

In just a few short weeks Addi has gone through an amazing transformation from barely crawling, to turbo crawling, and now on to pulling herself up on things and trying to take steps. Here's a picture of her unloading the dishwasher while I'm loading it:

Mom's Work

2008-10-26T09:59:00.001-05:00

Mom made this outfit for Tori some time ago. Now it fits Addi! Here you go Mom:

Nostalgia

2008-10-26T09:27:00.004-05:00

Lately Nintendo has exhibited a lot of marketing genius. First, they created the Wii, a gaming system which bucks the trend of all of their competition. It doesn't have awesome graphics and increasingly complicated games. It's simple, fun, and appeals to a much broader audience including people who've never played video games before. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that my mother-in-law is now addicted to Wii Bowling.

Then, they came out with Wii Fit. Instead of going to the gym you can now work out with your family on your Wii. Now you can play video games and get exercise at the same time. WhoDaThunkIt?

Just recently Nintendo introduced the Virtual Console for the Wii. Now, you can give your Wii your Credit Card Number and buy "points" that you can use to buy and download old Nintendo games to your console. It's awesome! I spent $5 (500 Wii Points) yesterday to download the original Super Mario Brothers...in my opinion the best video game ever created.

I remember one Christmas Eve many, many moons ago when I first played Super Mario Brothers. We went to the house of some friends, Rudy and Mary Guttierez, for Christmas eve 1987- I think. They had a Nintendo Entertainment System. I think it was pretty new. Us kids were completely enthralled and I remember we spent HOURS playing it.

It's amazing to watch my own kids experience the same delight playing the same game which is very cheesy looking compared to the other games out today:

They had a blast playing this thing. Also, Anna and I had a lot of fun playing this too. We were both suprised at how many things we remembered, like where the 1-Ups (Extra Guys) are located on level 1-1 and 1-2. We remembered how to get to the warp zones on level 1-2 and 4-2. It took a little digging but we were also able to figure out how to get to the coin heavens in level 2-1 and 4-2. We had a blast playing Super Mario Brothers.

And then we downloaded Tetris Party, which combines classic Tetris with some new Tetris games, including the ability to play Tetris on the Wii Fit balance board. You want a work-out? Try playing tetris where you have to move your body to make the pieces move. Anyhoo, Anna pretty much whipped me in Tetris. I put up a really good fight, but finally about 1:00 AM she turned to me and said, "Joe, I don't think you're going to beat me."

Losing

2008-09-28T21:48:00.000-05:00

I occasionally enjoy playing video games. I don't play that often, but we bought a Wii several months ago and have really had fun playing with the kids. I'm not super competitive, but the last person I expected to lose to was my mother-in-law. She was a bit hesitant to try it at first, but once she got the hang of it she was really pretty good. And then she discovered Wii Sports bowling and she really started to lay down the law. She went pro in a single day, and laid waste to the rest of us mere mortals. Here's a pic of her hitting a new high score...bowling a 237!!! Go Betty!

Nimitz Museum

2008-09-21T13:15:00.004-05:00

We spent yesterday in Fredericksburg, TX, which is a very neat little place to go visit. It also happens to be the home of Fleet Admiral Nimitz. I knew it was his birth place and have seen the National Museum of the Pacific War on the main street but it's never quite worked out for me to visit.

All that changed yesterday. You see, Anna's parents are in town so I was able to talk her Dad into running over there with me while Anna and her mom shopped. From the outside it looks like the museum basically consists of the old Nimitz hotel (owned by Admiral Nimitz's grandfather). We popped in the door around 3 O'Clock expecting that 2 hours would give us plenty of time to see the place in its entirety. We were dead wrong. This place is huge! It spans 9 acres, includes 2 buildings, outdoor gardens, and another set of exihibits a few blocks away. It does have one exhibit hall that is dedicated to Admiral Nimitz, but the remainder of the museum covers the entire pacific war. Needless to say, we got kicked out at 10 after 5 and still had only seen about 50-60% of the place.

Along the way, I learned some interesting tidbits. For example, did you know that every president from FDR to George H.W. Bush was a WWII veteran? There's an outdoor garden at the museum with plaques that commemorates each president's role in the war. In addition, there's a Japanese garden - a gift from the people of Japan.

There's some very, very interesting artifacts on display. They have the spotting scope from the USS Ward, the ship that engaged a Japanese sub just outside of Pear Harbor. In addition, one of the Japanese attack subs in Pearl Harbor was captured. It is on display in the Nimitz museum. They also have one of the B25s used in the Doolittle raids. Lots of neat stuff on display.

Highly recommended if you're ever in the area. Even Hope thought it was neat.

The Kids Have a Blog

2008-08-17T22:31:00.000-05:00

We're trying to encourage Hope to write more and she's just dying to use the computer these days so we decided to get her an email account and let her start her own blog so she can publish her stories. Of course, anything Hope does Tori must do as well so we just decided to create them a single blog that they can both post to. Here's a link.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

2008-07-28T17:09:00.002-05:00

uh... it's hot here.

Almost as hot as it is in Baghdad.

It Is Finished!

2008-04-16T20:05:00.005-05:00

Well...sort of. Still have some staining to do and a few handles to put on. Plus, I want to add one more support so I can enjoy playing with some more concrete, but it's basically done.

More action shots here.

Swing Set Saga, Part IV

2008-04-13T00:50:00.003-05:00

This swing set is a merciless task master.I finished the rock wall assembly just after midnight tonight. Anna helped me stain the umteenth board and we finally called it a night. I hope to finish tomorrow.

Swing Set Saga, Part III

2008-04-11T23:09:00.003-05:00

Long day. Still a long way to go.

Swing Set Saga, Part II

2008-04-10T22:28:00.004-05:00

We made some good progress yesterday (Wednesday). We completed putting the decking on the first level, framed up the floor for the second level and installed the second level decking. We also built the wall supports for the play house and stained them. Finally, I put together the ladder. (Neither of the last two items is shown in the picture below.)

By the way, if you think this set is over the top, check out this or this.

Swing Set Saga, Part I

2008-04-08T23:57:00.007-05:00

We're building a Swing set, and it's all our neighbor's fault. We looked at swing sets last year but decided that most were just too expensive. We were planning on just waiting for a while, but then my neighbor Cody came home with one from Sam's Club. It was pretty nice and the price was reasonable. I helped him put his together and then decided I'd pick one up while Sam's still had them on sale. It took us about a week of evenings and a weekend to put his together. We started ours on Sunday afternoon.

On the first day, I put together the basic frame with some help from my other neighbor, Bud. Originally, I'd hoped to get farther than this on the first day. I wanted to have it levelled, square, and anchored by the end of the day. I discovered that my back yard is even more unlevel than I'd originally thought and ran into some problems. I decided to get some concrete pavers to help provide a nice smooth level surface. Here's what it looked like at the end of Sunday:

On Monday, I swung by the Home Depot on my way home and purchased the pavers I needed to help with the leveling process. Cody came over again and we managed to level the unit. Once everything was set and we were sure of the position, we moved the frame off the pavers and dug holes for the concrete footings we'll be using for anchors. When we got done, we moved the unit back on to the pavers to make sure it was level before we poured the concrete. Good thing we did because it was no longer level. Somehow, we'd upset one of the pavers while digging our holes. We were running out of daylight and I was frustrated with the ordeal so we quit for the night.

Tonight, Tuesday, we made some real progress. We finally got the unit level again, added braces, and the floor for the second level. Then, we finally got to pour the concrete anchors. I had the kids come out and make hand prints in the concrete. I figure 10 or 12 years from now if I'm still living here I'll tear it down and have an emotional moment and ponder how quickly they've grown up. I also marked the final anchors with the names of the construction crew.

Lobster Man

2008-03-30T23:45:00.004-05:00

So, I've been helping the neighbors put together a swing set. Not just any swing set, but a super dooper two story job with a tunnel, rock wall, slide, sandbox, and a cedar shake roof. So, it's supposed to be one of those assemble in 8 - 10 hour deals, which might actually work if you had a small army of illegal immigrants to help you, which, of course, is possible here in central Texas, but I digress.

So, we worked on this thing for several evenings after work over the last week or so. We didn't have a chance to work on it Friday or Saturday, so we finished it today. I thought we were only out there for a few hours because we were having so much fun. I've discovered that building stuff is sort of like having adult sized Legos. Anyway, when I came in and got cleaned up, I noticed that I'd gotten just a tad bit sunburned. I'd actually been outside working in the nice 87 degree weather for about 4 and a half hours, without sunscreen. um, so, I haven't worked up the summer tan yet, and uh, I temporarily look like Trevor when he gets embarrassed:

And of course, I'm getting no sympathy from Anna, so ya'll will have to give me some moral support here.

Glad To Be In Texas Today

2008-03-14T13:01:00.002-05:00

Minnesota Weather:

Texas Weather:

I especially appreciate weather.com's friendly reminder to "re-hydrate at each tee". It's too bad I don't play golf.

Tim Hawkins

2008-03-12T21:34:00.002-05:00

I was looking for something completely unrelated when I stumbled across Tim Hawkins' web site tonight. He's a christian comic. I about died of laughter when I watched this video. I highly recommend it.

If you think that is funny there's some more clips on his site.

Today's Activities

2008-03-08T20:53:00.005-06:00

I guess we have a little bit of cabin fever going on, or something like that. We decided to go do a few fun things today. This morning, we went to the Lehnis Railroad museum because they had a special exhibit on date nails. These are nails that are driven into railroad ties when they are laid in order to track their age. That was a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed it too. Here's some pictures.

While we were there we picked up a booklet on fun things to do in Central Texas. We saw a little blurb about the Regency Suspension Bridge and decided to go check that out too. Here's a map of where it is, about 30 minutes SE of Brownwood and only 889 miles from Wall Drug. Oh yeah, we took some pictures of that too. Make sure you check out the pictures to see an Axis deer. Well, sort of. It was on the other side of a game fence and I tried for a while to get a good picture of him. However, there were some other tourists driving around and this one old lady kept driving past every time I'd almost catch him. At one point I was only about ten feet away but there was some brush blocking my view. I was waiting for him to take a couple of steps when said old lady zoomed by in her Lincoln Towncar and spooked the deer. ah well...

We've been shooting a lot of pictures lately. I bought a Nikon D40 around Valentines day and I really like it. I bought a Magic Lantern DVD guide to it and it's really helped me to better understand photography. Reading Ken Rockwell has helped me too. So, I'm starting to take some better pictures because the SLR gives more control than a point and shoot and I'm starting to understand white balance, aperature, and some other basics. I have an old Nikon film SLR but I never really learned to use it well because by the time you got the film developed I could never remember what settings I'd used. But with the digital SLR, I can see the effect immediately and it's much easier to understand how the setting changes I just made have affected the output. I've shot almost 2000 pictures in the past 3 weeks. That sounds like a lot, but it can shoot 2.5 pictures per second. It would have cost about $450 to get that much film developed. The camera is a steal. I got it on a special deal at Amazon and paid about $460 for the camera, lens, extra battery. I'd highly recommend it if you're on the market for a new digital camera.

Other than that, not much is going on. We had so much fun stuff going on today that I forgot all about fertilizing the lawn. Managed to get to Home Depot and get the Scott's Turfbuilder but never got around to putting it on the lawn. Guess that will have to wait for another day. And for those of you up north who are still enjoying sub-zero temperatures, yes, I'm putting down weed n feed and watering the lawn already. :-) It's actually really starting to perk up down here. Anna took this picture the other day in front of the doctor's office:

Texas Snowman

2008-03-04T19:23:00.001-06:00

Two days ago, it was almost 90 degrees here. Yesterday, it got down to 22 and we had snow flurries. Welcome to Texas! This kids were really dissapointed that there wasn't enough snow to make a snowman. It was still chilly this morning so the kids stayed in their "foot" jammies to stay warm. It got nice this afternoon (70 ish) and we realized Hope hadn't fed the dog. So, she went outside and the next thing I knew, both the big girls were out "feeding the dog". Thirty minutes later I went out to tell them to come in and this is what I saw:

Both girls, outside in their foot jammies and crocs just finishing up their Texas snow man.

Michelle Obama Is My Friend

2008-03-04T18:52:00.002-06:00

The political season is definitely in full swing in Texas and everyone is clamoring for our precious votes down here. As a result of the tight democratic race, we've gotten to know Michelle Obama. You see, she calls our house nearly every day. The polsters have this well timed. She's never interrupted our dinner. Usually she seems to call just after we're through eating while we're sitting at the table.

You see, no one really calls us that much, so when the phone rings we can pretty much be sure that it's Michelle calling again. She's very polite, but I just can't figure her out. Really. I mean, she calls and says, "Hi! This is Michelle Obama."

"Hi Michelle," I reply.

"I'm calling to ask you to vote for my husband Barack. If we can count on your support, press one now."

"Really? You're calling just to ask me?"

"Obama needs your help. He stands for change and hope. blah..blah..blah... Press one if we can count on your vote."

And on and on she goes for about 2 or 3 minutes until she politely thanks me for my time and hangs up on me.

Now, this happens about 5 times a week. I've come to enjoy our little chats with Michelle. I even invited her for dinner a few days ago. When she asked me if she could count on my vote for Barack I replied, "Michelle, we'd love to have you and Barack over for dinner. Press one now to accept."

Funny, but she didn't answer me.

Tonight, I fear, will be the last night our post-dinner time will be graced with a call from Mrs. Obama. Ya'll are going to have to start calling about 6:15 in order to take up the slack.

Today's Thesis

2008-03-01T12:17:00.002-06:00

I've officially decided that having three kids is WAAAAYYYYY more work than two.

The end.

On Jonah

2008-03-01T12:12:00.002-06:00

This morning the kids and I went to the bank. On the way back, Hope was asking me some questions about Jonah and the whale. We had a little conversation about it and she seemed to be pretty satisfied, so I asked, "What can we learn from Jonah and the whale?"

"We need to be obedient to God and Mom and Dad and stuff like that," replied Hope.

And then Tori shouted out, "Yeah, or you'll get eaten by a really big fish!"

Caught in the act

2008-02-21T21:14:00.000-06:00

My new Nikon D40 is fast enough to catch my kids in the act of helping themselves to extra snacks.

Carpet

2008-02-19T19:35:00.000-06:00

What'd I do?

2008-02-12T20:08:00.000-06:00

2008-02-12T20:04:00.000-06:00

Dinner. (Cannon A570IS)

Sleeping

2008-02-12T20:00:00.000-06:00

I am really blessed.

Su Doku

2007-11-17T20:29:00.000-06:00

OK.. My sister-in-law Shirley and Anna have gotten me hooked on Su Doku. It's a simple game of logic. Here's what a basic puzzle looks like:

The basic point of the game is to fill in all the spaces with the numbers 1 - 9. All 9 numbers must be used in each row (vertically and horizontally) and each block of 9 numbers must contain all of the numbers 1 - 9. Here's the answer to the puzzle above:

So, Anna got me 2 Su Doku puzzle books for my birthday. One book is mild and the other is spicy. The mild ones are fun and easy. The spicy ones make me want to pull my hair out. Here's one example that seems to be deceptively simple on the surface, but took me a long time to solve:

Print it out and try to solve it....

Hope's First Post

2007-11-17T19:39:00.000-06:00

As a big first grader, Hope has been learning to write. She does a composition every day, which basically consists of writing 3-4 sentences all on her own, complete with capital letters and proper punctuation. We usually have to help her correct a few misspellings and punctuation errors, but she's doing great do far. She has a real interest in computers, so for fun, I let her type an extra composition now and again. She typed one today and asked me to post it to my blog. So, here it is, Hope's first blog post: (cut and pasted from Notepad to Blogger by Dad)

Today I play with My dady.and I play with My siser Tori.and
I play with My pet penelope and she licked my hands.
and I play with my momy.The end.

Telephones and Line Dot Line

2007-11-15T08:50:00.000-06:00

Years ago, one of my nieces used to call Tator Tot Hotdish "Line Dot Line". It took my sister a while to figure out what she was talking about. To this day, we still call Tator Tot Hotdish "Line Dot Line", at least at our house.

So, the other night it was time to put Tori to bed, and, as usual she suddenly had a hunger attack and needed a snack. When we asked her what she wanted she told us "Telephones". She proceeded to go to the fridge and show us that she wanted the leftover elbow macaroni and stewed tomatoes.

"See," she said, "I want those telephone noodles."

Hollywood People

2007-11-06T21:26:00.000-06:00

How weird is this?

Apparently the girl who plays Ally Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond was born in Brownwood. Incidentally, her brothers play the boys in the show.

I could really care less about the show, except everyone pronounces my name incorrectly because it's spelled the same. And I get a lot of questions from people asking if I'm related to Ray. Go figure. Anyhoo, I thought it was ironic that the actors who play the kids are from Brownwood.

Also ironic is that I stumbled upon this fact whilst trying to google information on Dog tags/licenses in Brownwood, Texas. Not sure how this turned up casting information for Everybody Loves Raymond.

I did, ahem, eventually find out that I need to get a license for my dog (for a fee, of course) which will expire on December 31, at which point I can renew it for another fee.

In a somewhat related note, I noticed there are other Hollywood people from Brownwood, including the guy who was the visual effects producer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. Now that is pretty cool.

And think of it... you just wasted 2 minutes of your life reading about something that matters to almost no one. Go figure.

Close to home

2007-11-05T20:31:00.000-06:00

I only live 30 minutes away from this guy.

I went to his show last year at the Brownwood Rattlesnake Roundup.

By the way, Dublin is also home to the orginal Dr. Pepper bottling plant. Around here, we love our Dr. Pepper.

Christmas Wish

2007-11-03T10:31:00.000-05:00

The kids want this for Christmas. I think they've been hanging out with Anna too long.

New Duds

2007-11-03T10:19:00.000-05:00

We got some new clothes to wear on Friday nights:

Oh yeah, notice the girls each have their own official Brownwood Lions cow bell. I used one the entire game and our ears were all ringing for a day or so. hehe.

Stylish, aren't I?

Dog On

2007-11-03T10:05:00.000-05:00

We got a dog. This is Penelope, a.k.a. Princess Penelope, our "All American" dog (read: mutt).

She has some interesting habits, like taking naps in Anna's flower pot.

She's a pretty good dog, and perfect for the girls. She only weighs 9 lbs, so she isn't intimidating. She's house trained, and I think we've heard her bark 3 or 4 times in the 3 weeks we've had her.

You know you've been in Texas too long when...

2007-11-03T09:35:00.001-05:00

Poor Hope hasn't been feeling too well the last few days. She's been running a fever off and on and just not feeling good. So, on Thursday night when I put her to bed, she knelt down to pray and said,

"Lord Jesus, I really need you to heal me because I really want to go to that football game tomorrow night."

:-)

More on Football

2007-09-08T23:03:00.000-05:00

Last night we attended another ~~worship service~~ football game. The kids had a great time, but we didn't enjoy it as much. During last week's game we had some trouble seeing the action because the people in front of us kept standing up to cheer and blocked our view. So, we thought we would employ some strategery and get front row seats.

This wasn't such a good idea. You see, in my video I posted in my previous post, you saw all the kids that run out on to the field ahead of the football players, right? Ok... so where do you think the kids come from? Yup... The stands. And how do they get on the field? Like a herd of lemmings they rush out of the stands, down along the front row and jump into the field.

So then, when the big hurrah is over, how do they get back into the stands? Um.. well, let's just say that when they decide to come climbing back into the stands, it's not a good idea to be trying to eat cheesy nachos with jalapeños (yum). They scamper into the stands wherever they can find a spot, often with the help of adults who lean over the rail to pull the young'uns into the stands. This wouldn't be all so bad really... I mean, it's all in good fun right?

The problem is, they didn't leave. So, we enjoyed the rest of the game surrounded by 3 - 8 year olds. It was a little crowded. Plus, they have all been well trained to stand up and yell and cheer. Since they were sitting all around us and on the floor in front of us with their legs hanging over the edge, they blocked our view when they stood up. So much for the front row seats and unblocked views. hehe.

We had a great time anyway. Also, we knew several of the kids who ended up sitting around us who had been in Hope's Kindergarten class last year.

The game was a complete blowout. The team we played (Sweetwater Mustangs) had beaten us last year and we were expecting a pretty good match. The Lions were on top of their game, especially the defense. We won 55-7. I don't think the Mustangs made it past their own 40 yard line during the first 3 quarters. In a way this was fun to watch, but it wasn't as exciting/suspenseful as last week's game with Wylie where the teams were more evenly matched.

Oh yeah... and I'm definitely going to have to get myself one of those cow bells before the next home game, but that won't be until Oct 5th.

Here's some more pictures:

The Bell:

Huge LCD Display and The Tunnel that the players run out of:

I once dreamed of making a huge spud gun. They use this air-powered one to launch rolled up t-shirts into the crowd. Sometimes they get a little carried away with the air compressor and end up launching the t-shirt over the stadium where some lucky soul in line at the concession stand gets blessed with a Brownwood Lions t-shirt from the heavens:

T-shirt in flight to lucky recipient:

Lionettes performing with the band:

34th Annual World Championship Goat Bar-B-Que Cook Off

2007-09-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we decided to do something fun and different. We went to the 34th annual World Championship Goat Bar-B-Que Cookoff in Brady, TX.

There was a sea of people there.

There were 150 teams cooking goat in good old fashioned Texas Style:

This feller here... he's got it made. He's got hisself (that's a Texas word) a trailer mounted pit Bar-B-Que, a little ol' pick 'em up, a Magellen tent, and he's fixin' hisself some goat.

These guys here even have a pink flamingo on their trailer. Notice, no one down here uses charcoal, just wood...especially mesquite.

Finally, there were a bunch of vendors with arts and crafts, and fun stuff for the kids to do. We let the kids go to a "duck pond". Each of them picked out a rubber ducky from the pond and won a prize:

We didn't actually eat any goat. Anna and the kids didn't want any, and I'd already had some when John and Shirley visited us in July. Instead, we had lunch at McDonald's and then headed home.

Texas Football

2007-09-03T12:10:00.000-05:00

I've heard about what a big deal high school football is in Texas, and have seen a lot of proof of this at work. I must confess that I really have never been to a high school football game in Texas. Until now. On Friday night we took the kids to the home opener for the Brownwood Lions vs the Abilene Wylie Bulldogs. This, my friends, was an experience.

Growing up in western Wisconsin I went to a few high school football games. We paid a buck or two to get in and sat on some cold, wet, rickety metal bleachers. The field was muddy and cold; the band was lackluster. It was a pretty low key affair with attendance of 200 - 250 people. But hey, we all had a good time anyway.

The differences were apparent from the moment we arrived. We got to the stadium 30 minutes before kickoff. The very large parking lot was full. We parked in the grass near the highway with several dozen other vehicles. As we walked up to the stadium I started to notice the vendors. They had the normal concession stand stuff, but they also had vendors selling funnel cakes, t shirts, foam hands, bells, flags, stadium seats, and just about anything else you can think of with the Brownwood Lions logo on it. (Think State Fair here.)

So, we make our way through the line of people buying tickets and finally get up to the little booth. The lady asked me where I wanted to sit. I said, "You mean I can't just get a ticket and go sit wherever?"

"No, we have assigned seats here son."

"Oh, OK.. uhh.. Is there a difference in price?"

"Nope, they're all $6 each."

So, I dished over $18 for tickets. (They let Tori in for free). I looked at the tickets. These weren't the little rolled up tickets stubs we had back home. These are printed color tickets with the team logo on the front, along with our section, row, and seat numbers. They looked more like the tickets we used to get for a Twins game than the ones you'd get for a highschool football game.

Tickets in hand, we went into Gordon Wood Stadium. "The Wood". This is where our opponents come so we can "take the wood to 'em". This is were Central Texans make their pilgrimage for their Friday night religious experience.

Right. So we found our seats with the help of an usher. Yup. We have ushers.

The place was packed. The stadium is a little different than what I'm used to. It's concrete. We have artificial turf. The team name is emblazened on the turf in the end zones and the Lions logo is on the 50 yard line. At one end zone is the score board. On the other, a huge full color LCD display. We later learned that the screen is used for the instant replays from the camera crew on the field. uh huh. We have camera crews on the field and instant replay. The game is also carried on TV.

I don't have any idea how many people were in attendance, but there were a lot. uh... did I mention that there are only 20,000 people in this town? I think they were all there, including the entire police force. They, of course, were "on duty" to "provide security". The police officers all looked like they were really enjoying their work. Everyone was wearing team logo wear, except us. Everyone also carried a cow bell emblazened with a lion which they rang. A lot.

Cheerleaders. There were regular high school cheerleaders and a color guard. We also had "Lionettes". These were cheerleaders in cowgirl-like outfits. Then, there were junior cheerleaders, who I guess were in middle school or junior high. Then, there was a hoard of young girls between 4 and 7 out there in their little cheerleading outfits. Down on the track near the field, there was also a trailer with a large bell mounted on it, like a church bell with a set of handlers to ring it when appropriate. Finally, there was another group of support people who did various things like shoot T Shirts into the crowd using a compressed air spud gun. There were also two guys breakdancing. Still don't understand that one. Maybe next time they'll have some people out there boot scootin'.

Oh yeah... We have a mascot. A big lion. It must've been 90 degrees outside and that poor soul was standing there in a lion suit.

So, after a few delays due to a lightning watch, the time came for the teams to emerge. Cheerleaders lined the field. Guys carrying flags with our logo and team name on them fell in between the cheerleaders. A set of handlers set up a huge ( probably 20 ft tall by 30 ft wide banner with the team name on it. On the end of the field a bunch of kids lined up in front of a large gate. I began to see the players mass up behind the gate. Guns and Roses' Welcome to the Jungle started blaring over the PA system. Smoke started coming out of the tunnel. The bell on the cart started tolling. People in the crowd screamed, yelled, rang bells, jumped up and down in nearly a pentecostal fervor. The gates opened and the hoard of kids ran out on to the field followed by our team. They came across the field and assembled behind the big banner. After a few seconds they broke through the banner on to the field.

The coaches (Yes, there's more than one. Actually, there's an entire coaching staff.) They all wore Motorola headsets, just like in the pros.

The teams took the field and began to play. There were mistakes made, but overall, I was impressed by the discipline and execution of both sides on the field. The players were huge, with some of our linebackers breaking 320 lbs. The QB wasn't perfect, but he had a lot of talent and termendous arm. He could fling the football faster than I could throw a baseball. I guess that isn't saying much. hehe.

Anyhoo... In the end, the home team prevailed 28 - 21. Mind you, our school is about half the size of the opponents. We dressed 38 players to their 80.

I could hardly believe it all. It was neat to go, and I can actually say that we had a really good time.

The kids enjoyed it too. They got to:

1) Drink Pop
2) Eat Popcorn
3) Yell
4) Scream
5) Jump Up and Down
6) Eat Pickles
7) Eat Candy
8) Eat Nachos
9) Stay up way past their bedtime

Tori woke up on Saturday and asked if we were going to go to another game.

Probably Tori... Probably.

Grilling

2007-07-15T21:34:00.000-05:00

I admit it. I've been slacking off on my grilling lately. I've been busy and haven't taken the time to spend some good quality time out on the back porch with my Weber. But last week my brother and his family were in town for a visit and he got me cooking again. hehe.

We kicked things off with a grilling smorgasbord one day while he was here. We spent the better part of the day making marinades, rubs, and just grilling. It was a good time. Here's some of our work in progress:

That's Barcelona chicken in front, baby back ribs with Memphis dry rub in the middle, and venison tenderloin in back seasoned with Cavendars. The foil bag has a potato medley in it. Not pictured: Ham Steaks and Peaches (desert). Oh man, those grilled peaches were awesome with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and pecans.

It was a very yummy evening. Another night we made burgers, and finally we made some other chicken while they were here. I guess it really inspired me to grill more. Tonight I made this yummy Brined whole chicken with lemon and thyme. Very tasty... you gotta try this one John... it's in the Weber cookbook.

Other highlights from my brother being here included our trip to San Antonio, which, admittedly, was a bit of a bust, but we enjoyed it anyhow. Along the way, I finally had someone with us to take a picture of Anna and I in the Geographical center of Texas, which is only like 25 miles from home. Anyhoo.. uh, yeah, as it turns out, the only picture that halfway turned out was the one of me in this nerdy macho pose:

It's funny, because when we were there, I didn't bother to read the sign, which clearly states that the actual center of Texas is five miles NW of the marker. UGH! So there you have it folks, a nerdy picture of me five miles away from the center of Texas.

Oh yeah... I guess I'm rambling now, but you're still reading, so it must be OK. On the way down to San Antonio we stopped at Cooper's Bar B Que. It was awesome. Actually, John, Nick, and I ate there. The ladies went down the street to a nasty Subway. We got the better end of that deal. We had brisket, chicken, and walked on the wild side by trying goat and lamb bar b que. Highly recommended! I'm going back. Google Maps link.

We also stopped in Fredericksburg and had a good time there. We got some ice cream at this shop with neat hats. Here's a picture of Nick and I posing together:

I know, it's a great picture. It really brings out the double-chin in me.

While we were in Fredericksburg, Shirley talked us into buying Blokus, and now I'm hooked. We played a number of games while they were in town. It was a blast. Of course, Anna now has the strategy of the game figured out so my hopes of ever winning again are dim.

On the way back from San Antonio, we stopped in Llano to try another Bar b que place which is also named Cooper's. I didn't think it was as good as the other place in Mason, but it was still really good. Interestingly enough, there's a picture of Dubya on the wall eating bar b que along with a letter from the then-Governor about how Cooper's in Llano has the best bar b que in the country. They also boast that they cater to the president's ranch in Crawford. We didn't see any dignitaries while we were there, but it's the only restaurant I've probably ever been to were a president has eaten. And it's a hole in the wall bar b que joint in the middle of nowhere, Texas. Go figure.

On a parting note, this spider crawled across our kitchen floor the other day. I killed it.

So what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Nothing, but I thought it would be a crazy way to end this meandering blog post. Off to bed.

Dog

2007-05-25T20:46:00.001-05:00

Today was Tori's birthday. One of the cool little presents she got was this neat doll that came with a dog. (Dogs are all the rage at our house these days ever since the girls saw Chestnut)

So, when Anna purchased this doll and dog set, she didn't realize that it came with dog food. And she didn't realize the dog can eat. Yup, you lift up the dog's tail, its head cocks to the left, the ears lift up, and the mouth opens so you can feed him. Yum! Neat!

Then.. we uh.. ahem, discovered what happens when you push the tail down:

Gross! Eww.. There's just something not right about this toy. But never fear. As it turns out the terds are made of metal, and the doll comes equiped with a handy dandy magnetic pooper scooper.

Cleanup is a snap. Simply pick up the doggie poop, place it into the included receptacle, and hit the magnetic release button to deposit the..ahem..deposit into the trash.

Further investigation reveals that this is no ordinary trash can. When you spin it around, it's obvious that this is a two piece trash can, but why?

Hey... it looks like this is a special recycling bin. When you split the trash can in two, you end up with a new bag of dog food!

The only thing the toy designer left out was the name of the dog food. It has good packaging, but it needs a good brand and slogan. Something like

Poopy Chow:
We turn your dog's emissions into their nutrition.

New Egg

2007-05-25T20:41:00.000-05:00

I've purchased a lot of stuff over the last few years from http://www.newegg.com. Anna's been wanting to upgrade our digital camera from an older Canon Powershot A85 4 MP to a newer, smaller, higher MP model. Well, I decided to order her one for Mother's day, a FujiFilm A800. While it's smaller and easier to use, the pictures aren't that great. The optics apparently aren't as good as the Canon. Also, the video resolution is a joke, compared to our old 3 year old camera.

I've really been pleased with NewEgg and their service until now. They no longer accept returns on digital cameras. I didn't realize this when I purchased it. I think this may be my last NewEgg purchase.

Wildflower Drive

2007-04-29T22:11:00.000-05:00

On the advice of someone at work, Anna and I drove down towards Fredricksburg today with the girls to check out the wildflowers. The bluebonnets are past their peak, but other flowers are just starting to come out in their full glory. We were not dissapointed. The wildflowers are absolutely breathtaking. The pictures don't even come close to doing them justice. These flowers go on and on for over 200 miles along the sides of the roads. Their smell permeates the air. It's just really neat. Take a look at the photos. Come see us next weekend.

I've posted the pictures we took today to a web album.

Great Western Loop

2007-04-07T11:15:00.001-05:00

For those of you who are backpacking fans, Andrew Skurka is about to begin his attempt of the Great Western Loop. Yup, he's going to try to complete 6,875 miles this season, starting Monday. 9 States. 12 National Parks. 75 Wilderness areas. His pack weight will vary with the segment he is on, but it looks like his full skin out weight (that's the total amount of weight he's carrying, including the clothes and shoes he's wearing) will range between 10 and 15 pounds.

For those of you who don't know who Andrew Skurka is, he's the first person to complete the Sea-to-Sea trail... hiking from Northeastern Maine to Seattle in 11 months. This winter he also completed his "Ultralight in the Nation's Ice Box tour" hiking from Duluth to Ely in January. 380 miles in 16 days with a pack weight of 24 pounds. Average Temperature: 5 degrees. Reading about his adventures is very interesting.

Wait 15 Minutes.

2007-04-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

There's a saying down here:

If you don't like the weather in Texas just wait 15 minutes, it will change.

Apparently, you need to be careful what you ask for. A few days ago, I posted a sarcastic post lamenting the lack of snow. It was a joke, really just intended to rile up a couple of my friends in Minnesota who were getting snow while it was 90+ degrees here.

Alas, I woke up this morning to this:

Yup... that's snow on the roof. Thankfully, this was in the forecast, so we were able to get all of the plants in the garage over night.

On another note, I've always heard people talk about how beautiful the wildflowers are in Texas. In particular, my Grandma always used to rave on about the Blue Bonnets that Grandpa and her always saw when they would spend winter/early spring in Texas. Last year, I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. I never really saw any wildflowers last year. Some folks told me that it was too dry and the winter had been too mild for many flowers to come out. This year has been much different. We had a cold winter (by Texas standards) and the spring has been pretty wet. Brownwood actually looks more like Greenwood.

The wildflowers are magnificent, especially the Blue Bonnets. When I realized it was snowing this morning, I decided to go take some pictures just in case they die off in the next few days. All of these were taken within 2 miles of the house. They are everywhere and they are very cool.

Life is Better When it Snows

2007-04-03T21:24:00.000-05:00

Over the last few days, I've decided I miss snow.

It's terrible. I've mowed the lawn three times already this year. I've already had to fertilize, and I've even extended my French drain due to some backyard flooding from recent heavy rains.

Yes, life is better when it snows. Just this weekend, Anna wanted to plant flowers. Sure, you know, she went to the store and picked everything out. I sat on the driveway and played with the kids. I got sunburned. Bummer. But hey, Anna did do a swell job on the flowers. But, if it had been snowing, I could have been, you know, reading a book or something instead of getting sunburned.

Yes, life is better when it snows. This evening, it was warm. I had to crawl into the attic to turn on the auxillary exhaust fan. It was 89 degrees at 6 PM. We decided to go on a walk. I got sweaty. ewww.

Yes, life is better when it snows. Apparently the kids got hot on the walk too. I don't know if I'd consider it a "walk" for them. Tori rode in the stroller and Hope rode her bike. When we got home, Tori said, "I need ice cream. I'm hot". We didn't have any ice cream, so I was forced to go down to Sonic (Think Dairy Queen, only better).

Yes, life is better when it snows. If it had only been colder lately, I could be like all of my friends back home in Minnesota, enjoying the last forays of winter (You are out camping in this, aren't you Pete?) -- But instead, I'm forced to sit here in the shade on the back porch, enjoying the sunset on this warm evening whilst sipping on my strawberry banana slushy. It reminds me of snow I guess.

Famous Kid

2007-03-19T10:37:00.000-05:00

Hey... my kid is "famous". Grandma is in town this week and took the kids to the park yesterday so Anna and I could get some painting done in peace. Go Grandma!

Anyway, while they were at the park, a reporter from the local newspaper showed up and interviewed a bunch of kids for a story he was doing on spring break. Hope made the front page.

Pretty funny stuff. It's too bad she failed to mention that in addition to going to the park and playing with her dollhouse, I also took her to the local Brownwood Jaycees Rattlesnake Roundup on Saturday. I'll have to post some pictures from that event later.

Weather

2007-02-02T09:56:00.000-06:00

To all my friends in Minnesota, I feel sorry for you. Looks like it's a little chilly up there....

It's pretty nice down here. Now would be a good time to come visit:

Chillin'

2007-01-17T20:33:00.000-06:00

In case you haven't noticed, we've been getting some interesting weather down here in Texas. Over the weekend we started getting a little freezing rain, which really wasn't supposed to be that big of a deal. Of course, anytime the temperature drops below freezing here, the weather service issues a severe weather warning, etc. The ice was supposed to turn to rain, but the temperatures kept hovering around freezing and we ended up getting a bunch of rain and then ice. By Monday, we had 1/4 inch of ice.

So, watching people down here drive on ice is absolutely hilarious. I pulled up to a stop sign behind a guy in a pickup on the way to work. When he started to go, naturally his tires began to slip. Nothing to him, he just kept giving it more gas. And more gas. And then he really laid on it. Finally, he wore through the ice, chirped his tires and lurched through the intersection, tires a blazing with his back end flying all over the place. This was repeated at every intersection until we got to work, when I realized that the guy in the truck was someone I work with. hehe.

So, we had 1/4 inch of ice and the roads are little slick, but not too bad. Of course this means that pretty much everything is shut down including FedEx, UPS, and almost all trucking companies. Commerce basically ground to a halt.

The weather was somewhat better on Tuesday and everything was open again. Late in the afternoon someone came running into my office to tell me that it was snowing. This was big news and we all went to the windows to check it out. It was flurries... and mild ones at that. A few minutes later it stopped.

This morning I woke up and looked outside to check on the weather. I was a little suprised to see that 3 inches of snow had fallen overnight. This is the first time this area has had any accumulation of snow since about 1980. This was really entertaining for me. Here's what the backyard looked like this morning:

Everything was closed. Schools, the University, most stores, shoot... they even closed the Alamo. The drive to work was even more entertaining today than it was on Monday. Everyone was going 5 - 15 mph, white-knuckles and the whole nine yards. Fedex, UPS, and all the other trucking companies weren't running. Interstate 10 was closed. Several local highways were listed as "impassable".

I came home for lunch and made a snow man for the kids. I was going to take a picture of it, but it turned out to be pretty pathetic and so I decided not to embarass myself by recording it. I got a good chuckle when the mail lady pulled up to drop off the mail while I was at home. She had snow chains on her tires. Chains for 3 inches!

I heard some other good ones at work. One person told me that the snow was so deep that she barely made it out of her driveway. Another told me that she couldn't believe how much snow it had "poured" last night. I had one person take the day off because the last time he saw snow he was 5 years old. He wanted to stay home and enjoy it. Two other folks took off after lunch to join him.

Of course, one of the fun things about weather like this down here is reading the weather service announcements and listening to the radio announcers talk about this stuff. The weather announcements say things like "Severe cold", "significant snow", "stay inside", etc. This morning, one of the local radio hosts was lamenting the fact that she reached outside last night to grab her mop off of the back porch and it was frozen solid. She couldn't believe how horribly cold it was. The temperature hadn't been above freezing for 3 whole days.

The whole event has been very entertaining. I just wished it had happened over Christmas.

Fightin' Fires

2006-12-27T23:34:00.000-06:00

Our church is about 20 miles south of town in a small west Texas town. On our way to service tonight as we were leaving town we were surprised to see a small grass fire in the ditch along the side of the road. A bunch of vehicles had stopped and people were out there stamping out the fire with their feet and pouring soda on it, or whatever they had in their vehicles. It wasn't a very big fire, maybe 10 foot by 10 foot and the situation looked pretty much under control. All the same, I still called the fire dept as we drove on.

About 10 minutes farther down the road I saw a Roman candle go off in the distance, maybe a mile or so ahead of us. This is very odd because we don't see fireworks often here. They're highly regulated because this part of the state is extremely dry. It's like a giant tinderbox. By the time we arrived where we saw the fireworks, there was a significant brush fire going. One pickup had pulled over. No one else was around, so we stopped to see if there was anything we could do.

I grabbed the big 4 foot floor mat from the back of the van while Anna dialed 911. The guys in the pickup had put the fire out on one side of the road, but it had jumped the road and had burned 50 - 75 feet of the opposite ditch. They told me they didn't think we'd be able to do much. The fire was spreading quickly to the fence line and a big stand of mesquite trees on the other side. I ran across the road and began to smother the fire with the floor mat. (It's the big heavy, rubber all weather type.) This worked surprisingly well, probably due to the fact that Anna was back in the van praying the fire would go out. It didn't take too long to stop the fire from spreading further south. The wind was blowing north pretty good, and the fire was still spreading that direction, with some pretty good sized flames licking the top of the fence posts. By this time the guys in the pickup realized that we might have a chance at putting it out and jumped in to help. It took us several more minutes to get the rest of it, and a few fence posts had been lit up really well. The mat got pretty hot and I think it's ruined, but we put out the fire, saved the fence, and kept it from spreading to some innocent rancher's pasture. That was a pretty good feeling.

After we had the fire mostly out, the guys told me that they had been driving down the road when some idiot in front of them tossed a roman candle out the window right in front of them and basically fire-bombed the ditch. About this time, the Sheriff pulled up and we told him what happened. He took off about 100 mph down the road and was soon followed by two deputies. I went back to the van and realized that we still had 6 minutes to make it to church on time. I wreaked pretty bad, but we went ahead and went. After we cracked a few jokes about being baptized with fire, we had a really good service.

Curious George

2006-12-14T17:47:00.000-06:00

Tori just announced that she is getting married.

"Really?" I replied.

"Yes, in my dress."

"Who are you going to marry?"

Without missing a beat she fired back at me. "Curious George".

Hawk and Small Deer Commentary

2006-12-03T12:57:00.001-06:00

So, yesterday morning I got up and went for a run. When I came home, I noticed a very large hawk perched in a mesquite tree across the alley. I grabbed the camera and tried to get close enough to get a good picture of him. Alas, I was unsuccessful in sneaking up on him, and he flew off before I got close enough to get a decent picture. I did get this one, from a distance:

When I came inside Hope asked to see the pictures I had taken. I showed her the picture of the hawk and explained what it was she looked up at me and said, "Did you kill that too, like the deer?"

-----

Incidentally, Trevor gave me a hard time about my deer. I believe he said something like, "They can only get bigger in the future." Take a look at the picture above. That's typical central Texas country side. What do you see for the deer to eat? We don't have corn fields down here. Deer eat cactus, grass, mesquite trees, and pecans. They don't get very big. I'm proud of my deer, even if it is puny.

First Deer

2006-12-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

I've wanted to go deer hunting on and off for several years, but I've never had the opportunity to do so. This year, I've been blessed with some folks who have invited me to come hunt with them. This afternoon, I took my first deer - a midsized doe. Here's a picture:

Honey Do List: Conquered.

2006-11-18T19:10:00.000-06:00

This is a historic moment. My "Honey Do List" is officially empty for the first time in I can't remember when.

I completed the last two items on the list today which were:

1) Replace Furnace Filter
2) Fix Fridge Water line

The first one was easy. The second one was annoying. The water line to our Fridge is attached to the back via a 1/4 inch compression fitting. The copper tube was fixed to the back of the fridge with a clamp to keep it from recoiling against the fridge. However, the Fridge broke a few months ago. Yes, my less than one year old Amana had a compressor failure. So, we had a loaner for a while. When the appliance people returned our old Fridge they failed to hook the clamp back up to the back of the fridge. This became really annoying, because every time you filled up a glass of water when the water would stop the copper pipe would recoil and hit the back of the Fridge making a clunky sound. This also happened every time something happened to put back pressure on the line, like flushing a toilet. So, every time anyone flushed the toilet, the fridge would make a light "clunk". Annoying, but not the end of the world, so I put it off.

Today, when I went to fix this problem, I realized there was a side effect. Every time the pipe recoiled, it put additional pressure on the compression fitting at the wall valve. Over time, this loosened the fitting and it leaked a drop of water every time it recoiled. I took everything apart and discovered that the copper pipe was worn from all the recoil and also had been crimped. Finally, I noticed that the brilliant plumber hadn't bothered to put any pipe tape on the threads either. If he'd done this it probably wouldn't have leaked. Anyway, the good news is that there is a plastic catch basin in the wall and the floor is laminate, so there was no damage from the water. I went to Home Depot and got a reinforced plastic supply line with pre-installed valves for $7.50. Incidentally, buying the parts and using the el-cheapo plastic hose would have cost over $10.00. Go figure. Anyway, I got it installed (with pipe tape on the threads) and now it's fixed. No leaking and no more annoying noises coming from the Fridge when you flush the toilet in the middle of the night.

WOOO HOOO. No more Honey Do list for me!!!! Yeah!

Wait.... What's this??????? Anna is walking towards the Fridge with a pen.... No!!!

Don't do it honey!!!!

ARGH.

Guess I lied.

Wax

2006-11-17T16:54:00.000-06:00

Every now and again, something happens that reminds me how small Brownwood really is. A few weeks ago, I woke up and I couldn't hear out of my right ear. This happens occasionally to me. Apparently, excessive ear wax production runs in my family. Go figure.

So, not wanting to wait several days for a normal doctor appointment, I grabbed the phone book and looked up "Urgent Care". They were able to get me right in.

When I showed up at the office I soon realized that the 80 something receptionist was the doctor's Mom. I thought it was nice of the Doc to employ her Mom. Besides, she was a nice lady and chit-chatted with me while I waited.

A few minutes later I was taken back to an exam room where the Doc looked at my ear briefly and declared, "Yup, you got a load of wax in there. I'll be right back."

I expected her to return in a few minutes with one of those Welch Allyen ear cleaner thingies that shoots water into your ear and also has a vacuum line so it simultaneously blasts the wax out and sucks it up. Instead, she return pushing a metal cart covered with a cloth. she pulled back the cloth and I stared in horror at a row of surgical tools. Things to poke you with, a small syringe, a medium syringe, and a syringe that was larger than my forearm.

What happened next is something I can't really even begin to describe. Water and hydrogen peroxide where loaded into the mega-syringe. This was thrust into my ear and a torrential burst of water was propelled into my ear canal. Then, another tool would be used to poke at the wax and scrape some away. This was fairly painful. The Doc was fairly sympathetic, but continued on. This went on for almost an hour until finally the last stubborn glob of wax relented and came out.

Meanwhile, during the hour torture session I learned all about the Doc's goat farm.

When the Doc rolled in the cart full midevil tools a part of me wanted to return to my primal Flight or Fight instincts. I should have listened to myself. It would have been morally and legally reprehensible to fight off a Doctor and her 80 + year old mother. Listen to your instincts when they tell you to FLEE!

Footnote: This really wasn't a completely terrible experience. Admittedly, it hurt, but I survived. And my ear is all better. I now use Debrox every two weeks to keep them all clean. Anyhow... if you thought this was funny..... just wait for Part II. Coming soon.... Ear Wax, Part Deux.

Riding the wind

2006-11-15T14:19:00.000-06:00

I've heard about Texas wind and dust storms and all that stuff. I really don't think that Texas wind is any worse than the midwest. Until last night.

A cold front rushed in from the north at break-neck speed, moving 50 - 60 MPH. About 11:00 PM, just as I was getting into bed, the wind began to howl. A lot. This was made somewhat worse by the fact that our roof is in the process of being reshingled from the May baseball hail storm. A lot of stuff started blowing around, including my wife's plants. I decided to move the plants into the garage so they wouldn't tip over and get ruined. So, I opened the garage door and stepped outside to grab the plants, which are in pots about 5 feet from the door.

It felt like I was stepping into a sand blaster. Dust and stuff was blowing all over the place. I quickly grabbed the plants and let the wind blow me back into the garage. After closing the door my ear began to itch. I reached up to scratch it and realized that my left ear and canal where coated in dust and sand. I'd been outside for about 10 seconds.

The howling and blowing and fence creaking and stuff hitting the house kept me up until almost 2 AM. During this time, I had plenty of time to contemplate all sorts of things. I think I finally understand why Texans build predominantly brick and stone homes and often use heavy metal roofs.

This morning was fun too. Riding a motorcycle into 55 MPH winds is a bit like riding a bucking horse while someone else is trying to push you off from the front. What's interesting is that when you're going 70 MPH into a 55 MPH headwind the wind is so loud that you can't hear the roar of the engine beneath you. The bike wants to go everywhere except for where you want it to go, and the wind buffetting will make a man out of you. Yee haw!

NASCAR

2006-11-03T17:48:00.000-06:00

If you are a Muslim, at some point in your life you must make a pilgrimage to Mecca, provided you have the financial means to do so. If you live in Texas, at some point, you must visit the Texas Motor Speedway. NASCAR is nearly a religion here.

There happens to be a race at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, and our company sponsored NASCAR team was kind enough to bring a car to work today so we could all stare at it. I thought it was pretty neat to see. For some of my co-workers, it was nearly a religious experience.

The most interesting thing to me was how loud the car is. One of our safety engineers was outside measuring the noise level. At idle, it's 105 DB. When revving the engine, it's about 125 DB. It was loud enough that standing 15 ft from the car, you could feel the sound waves pulsing against your chest. To put that in perspective, the maximum volume of an iPOD is 115 DB. Each increase of 10DB represents a doubling of sound volume. So, 126 DB is a little more than TWICE the maximum volume that an iPOD can drive a set of earphones. Unreal.

After work I ran home and got Anna and the girls so they could see it too. Here's a picture of Hope with the car. Unfortunately, Tori refused to stop running around long enough to have her picture taken.

New Sam's Club Catalog

2006-11-02T17:41:00.000-06:00

ahhh... Sam's club. The place where we go to buy sugar in 50lb sacks, pickles in 5 gallon jugs, he-man sized bottles of ketchup, and batteries by the hundreds. Buy in Bulk! Huzzah!

Generally speaking, the people I see shopping at Sam's are in the "buy in bulk" crowd. Ranchers buying a bunch of food, people toting around 5-8 kids pushing two or three shopping carts, and parents of toddlers buying crates of batteries. In case you're wondering, I fall into the last category.

Today I got a new Sam's club holiday catalog. I browsed through it looking for Christmas ideas for my wife, but alas, most of the fare offered was ostensibly out of my price range. For example, the first page advertises a Cessna Citation Mustang... yup.. a private Jet. A tad bit pricey at $2,734,600 - but if you have the means, I'd highly recommend it. In case you're actually ready to buy, you have to wire a $275,000 down payment by noon on November 9, 2006, prove that you have the means to purchase the plane, and then wait until around Q4 2007 for delivery. On the plus side, there's no extra charge for leather. Oh... I almost forgot, you have to be 18 to purchase this item.

If that't out of your price range, you might consider this walk-in wine vault. It's only $33,000. Still too much? How about some new Jewelry instead? You can get this lovely Pear Shaped Tanzanite for a scant $27,560.

But who really wants all that stuff anyway? I'd much rather spend money on having an experience. You could go to the super bowl. That package will only run you $71,000, but does include an invitation to Dan Marino's private party.

Not a sport's fan? How about Tony Bennett? See him in concert, meet him backstage, and get his autograph for only $44,000.

Sheesh... and I thought I was part of the middle class. Hello.

Golf

2006-10-14T09:40:00.000-05:00

I'm way behind on my blogging. Sigh. I've been real busy lately.

While we were in Branson, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to improve my golf game. I played 117 holes while I was there. I played an 18 hole course 6 times and a 9 hole course once. By the time I left, I was really feeling a lot better about my game.

Here's a shot of me making a difficult putt:

And the result?

The Fly Swatter

2006-10-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

So here we are getting ready for bed. I'm working on a presentation that I'm giving on Wednesday and talking to Anna. A noisy fly keeps buzzing around the room and driving us nuts.

"That thing is driving me crazy! Can you go kill it?"

So Anna sets down her tea, walks into the other room, and returns with the fly swatter in hand. She gracefully walks across the room and swings the fly swatter once, pegging the fly in mid-flight.

What a woman!

Ok, back to my presentation now.....

Cough Safe

2006-09-25T19:47:00.000-05:00

It's the time of year again. Cold and Flu season are just around the corner. Now's probably a good time to brush up on your coughing and sneezing technique. If you have 5 minutes run over to http://www.coughsafe.com and watch their video tutorial on the proper technique for coughing. Informative and absolutely hilarious. This one really made my day. Thanks Deb!

Team Hoyt

2006-09-24T09:17:00.000-05:00

The other day, one of my sisters sent me the following email. It was really good, so I thought I'd post it on my blog. When you're done reading it, check out the video on YouTube. Also, you can check out their website at http://www.teamhoyt.com

Strongest Dad in the World From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars—all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much—except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. “He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life,” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.” But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There's nothing going on in his brain.”

"Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!”

And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.” Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.” That day changed Rick's life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life.

He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. “No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then; they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?” How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.” And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn't been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would've died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland,Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. “The thing I'd most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.''

Here's the video....

Potty Training

2006-09-23T17:12:00.000-05:00

It's official. Tori has been potty trained. Best $20 I've ever spent. Here's what we did: (Ok, OK... Anna did it.)

Tori is really into Dora the Explorer these days. So, Anna took her to WalMart and bought a bag of candy and four Dora play figurines. She told Tori that every time she would pee in her potty chair, she'd get a piece of candy, and every time she pooped in the toilet she'd get one of the toys. She then placed all the goods on the back of the toilet where Tori could see them all the time:

And it worked marvelously. Tori went #1 on the potty 6 or 8 times the first day. On the second day, she worked up the courage to poop in the potty and earned Dora. She ran around the house yelling, "I did it! Yeah!" (That's what Dora says on her show.) Then she proceeded to run to the bathroom, pull down her pants and began to grunt and push on her tummy. "I have to get Diego!" she exclaimed.

So, she's been potty trained for almost a month and hasn't had any relapses. However, we are still working on perfecting some of the finer points of her potty technique, namely wiping.

A few days ago, I got Hope up for school and started working on getting her breakfast while she went off to the bathroom. A few seconds later she came running back into the kitchen yelling, "Dad, there's something in the toilet!"

Here's what I saw:

Tori got up in the middle of the night to go potty (Yes, she really does get up and go all by herself) and dutifully went to wipe herself. At the time, she hadn't quite mastered the art of tearing toilet paper off the roll. So, apparently in an effort to not make a mess, she proceeded to unwind the entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet. Thank God she forgot to flush!

Horseback Riding

2006-09-21T21:43:00.000-05:00

Google has a great new version of their Picasa photo software out. It includes a new feature called Web Albums that's remarkably similar to the photocasting feature of iPhoto. Here's my first Web Album of the Kid's going on pony rides while we were at Big Cedar in Branson a few weeks ago: (Click on the picture below to see the entire album.)

Horseback Riding

Sep 9, 2006 - 16 Photos

Brownwood Locomotion 5K Run

2006-09-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

For the past 6-8 weeks I've been training for the Brownwood Reunion Locomotion 5K run. I haven't run as much as I'd like, but have put a fair bit of effort into it. I figured it was a good way to help me get into a little better shape and gave me a goal to work towards. When I started running, I couldn't make it through a mile and I was sore for about 4 days afterwards. Lately, I've been running at least 2 miles a few times a week and I try to take one day per week and run 3.2 miles (5 k). I no longer get sore and I'm really enjoying it.

Before the race today, my personal best time was just under 33 minutes. My goal was to complete the race in 30 minutes. I figured that would be a pretty respectable finish.

So, this morning I went on down to the newly constructed Historical Transportation Complex (in thriving downtown Brownwood) and met up with my other team mates from work. We agreed that our main objective would be to cross the finish line and have fun along the way. One of the guys mentioned that his goal was to beat his 29 minute best. I decided that I'd try to stick close to him.

I was really pleased with my performance. I was able to stick with my buddy about 2/3 of the way through the race until he started to pull away from me. I ended up finishing 10 minutes behind the leader with a chip time of 28:11. That beat my personal best and was enough to put me in 97th place overall and 8th place in my age group. You can see the race results online here.

It looks like I'll have to train harder for next year. One of the guys on my team from work completed the race in 23 minutes, and he's 48 years old.

Slappin' Grandma

2006-08-06T14:49:00.000-05:00

The other night we were out and I tried someone's homemade salsa. It was really, really good. I said, "Man, this salsa is great!"

The guy sitting next to me replied, "Yup, it'll really make you want to slap your Grandma!"

"What?"

"You know. It's a saying. It means it's really good."

At this point, I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to fall off my chair. He looked at me with a puzzled-what-did-I-say-that-was-so-funny sort of expression on his face. "You guys don't have sayings like that up north? Like, that will make you want to kick your dog? Kick a can? "

"Uh... no."

They're for when I get Married

2006-07-30T22:36:00.000-05:00

Hope came up to me tonight carrying her Strawberry Shortcake "jewelry box". She opened it and said, "Look at what Mom gave me Dad. She told me to keep them in here because they are for my wedding."

I'm starting to feel old......

Tonight's Grilling Masterpiece

2006-07-30T22:17:00.000-05:00

Tonight's Grilling Masterpiece:

The journey continues. I'm working my way through Weber's Real Grilling and I've added two new items to my list of grilling accomplishments: Tequila Ham Steaks and Grill Roasted corn. Both were really good. The neat trick for the corn is to soften up half a stick of butter and rub it all over the corn before putting it directly on the grill (No husks, really) at about 350 degrees for 10 minutes, rotating it about every two minutes.

Anyway, I was going to have Anna take a picture of me holding the platter of buttered ears ready to put on the grill. However, as she went to take the picture, the corn started to fall off the platter.... I was able to catch the falling ears by shoving them forward with my chest. This did save the corn, but left a butter streak on my shirt. It was a cruel twist of irony that I was wearing the shirt that I was. Here's the picture of me saving dinner:

(Yup, the shirt really does say "Let me drop everything...." In spite of that, I still maintain that I didn't drop them; they fell from me.)

Hope Makes the Rules

2006-07-23T11:16:00.000-05:00

Big sisters can be bossy, and Hope is no exception. This morning she took a piece of paper out and wrote down two rules:

1) Yes
2) No

She taped the paper to the wall. Every time Tori did something Hope didn't like, Hope would drag her over to the wall and point to the word "No" and say something like, "Tori, don't do that. See, the rule says "No" so we don't do that."

When she wanted Tori to do something, she'd drag her over to the wall and say, "See, you have to do it because the rules say "Yes", so you have to."

I love the logic of children. We tend to overcomplicate things. They keep things simple and straightforward. I asked Hope what gave her the authority to make the rules. Without batting an eye, Hope grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the wall and said, "See Dad. Hope makes the rules. It says so right here. See? It says "Yes". So I get to make the rules."

hehe. I think I could probably get her a job working for Kim Jong Il. She could teach the communists a few things about making rules.

Anyway, I couldn't let this little escapade go without a response. So, I grabbed a pen and wrote on the sheet: Dad makes the rules. I pointed it out to Hope and told her that Dad makes the rules and told her in no uncertain terms to stop picking on her little sister.

A few minutes later I came back and here's what I found:

Father's Day

2006-07-04T11:38:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Father's day while we were in Indiana. This was the first Father's day that Anna has been able to spend with her Dad since the year we were married. Anna got me some new grill tools and an apron. I made Kabobs for everyone for dinner.

Fishing with Paka

2006-07-04T08:41:00.000-05:00

While we were in Indiana, Anna's Dad and I took Hope on her first fishing trip. She wasn't originally supposed to go with us. Anna's Dad and I got up fairly early, hooked up the boat, and headed for the local reservoir. We made it about two miles before we blew a tire on the trailer. We limped back to the house. Undaunted, we pulled the wheels off the trailer, and ran them out to a tire shop while we grabbed some breakfast. Hope came with us. At the restaurant, the cook made her a special Mickey Mouse pancake.

Over breakfast, Hope kept asking if she could go fishing with us. I figured, hey, why not? It's going to be afternoon by the time we make it out and we probably won't catch anything anyway. So, on the way home, we stopped by Meijer and bought her a Barbie fishing pole and life jacket. Hope could now go fishing in style!

A few things came up, and we didn't end up going fishing until about 5:30 in the afternoon. Hope was really excited and asked all sorts of questions as we launched the boat and drove out to the bay where we would be fishing. On the way, I took this picture:

It wasn't too long until she caught her first fish, which turned out to be the biggest catch of the day:

Here's my "lunker":

Here's Paka's fish. Don't be fooled. That's not his minnow. It's his big catch.

Hope did really well on our little fishing trip. At about 8:45 PM, she was starting to look a little tired. I asked her if she was sleepy. "Yes," she replied, "Can I take a little nap here in the boat?"

I explained to her that we didn't sleep in the boat and we'd just leave when she was tired. She thought for a minute and said, "Maybe I could just catch another big one and then we could go."

She's hooked and has been talking about going fishing again ever since.

Monopoly

2006-07-04T01:43:00.000-05:00

I've pretty much burned myself out trying to beat Anna in Scrabble. So today we played Monopoly instead. This is a game that I normally do very well in. I lost.

So, tonight, we played again. The game started beautifully. I collected Baltic and Mediteranian and secured St. Charles, Virginia, and States within the first several turns. Great! Two sets! Then I secured almost one of every other color on the board. But I didn't get any railroads. This turned out to be tragic for me.

Because, even though Anna had no complete sets, and therefore, no houses or hotels, she had all 4 railroads. I landed on at least one railroad nearly every time around the board!

Eventually, I built my properties up to having hotels. I knew for sure that soon the game would be over and I'd be victorious. Well, Anna never really landed on my properties and kept hitting the Free Parking space and taking all of the money out of the pot (House Rules).

Even though I wasn't going bankrupt, I wasn't doing all that well and she was amasing a pile of cash that would have made Warren Buffet and Bill Gates proud. Things started to turn around for me later in the game, but I wasn't really draining Anna's cash. Finally, about 1:30 AM, the bank ran out of 500s, 100s, and 50s. We were tired. So, we decided to end the game.

Here's a photo of our board: (Anna's on the left and I'm on the bottom - By all accounts, she actually won, even though we decided it was a draw. She's being nice to me. I think she wants me to play Scrabble with her tomorrow. Besides, she knows that losing twice in the same day on a game I'm supposed to be good at would be hard on my fragile ego.)

What's the moral of the story? Given enough time and money, men and women can figure out a way to coexist peacefully.

Pretty in Pink

2006-07-03T16:35:00.000-05:00

We went to Steve's wedding a few weeks ago and had a really great time. It was a real honor to be able to participate in the wedding.

On Thursday evening, I went with Steve, his Dad, and his brothers to pick up our tuxedos. Trevor picked his up separately. The tuxes were classic black with a silver/gray vest and tie. They looked pretty sharp.

While we were at the Tux shop, I noticed a pink tie and scarf hanging on one of the displays. I pointed it out to Steve and commented that it would be really fun to swap out Trevor's tie for a pink one and add a schnazzy pink scarf to boot as a gag. Steve got a good chuckle out of it and asked the clerk at the store how much she'd charge us to rent us the supplies for our gag. She overheard us talking about it, laughed, and said... "Just take it."

So, while at the bachelor party on Friday (which was conveniently hosted at Trevor's house), I snuck off and found Trevor's tux. I removed his silver tie and replaced it with a nice bright pink one and draped a pink scarf over his jacket. Perfect!

So, as it worked out, Trevor and I ended up getting to the wedding before Steve. We ran into the mother of the bride who suggested that we go ahead and put on our tuxes. Trevor stepped into the restroom and a few minutes later I heard him exclaim, "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I reached for my camera. Nuts! I'd left it in the car.

I ran outside to grab my camera. When I got back to the building I ran into one of the usher's and the father of the bride. They asked me if we'd figured out what we were going to do about Trevor's tux. They told me that the mother of the bride was pretty upset about it.

GULP! I'd failed to let the mother of the bride in on the joke. hehe. Whoops!

While I was gone, Trevor had told the mother of the bride about his tux issues. He thought that perhaps they wanted him to wear pink since he was the best man and the matron of honor was wearing pink. She told Trevor that she had other things to worry about and didn't care if he wore silver, pink, purple, or whatever. It wasn't her fault that Trevor had failed to check his tux. hehe... this actually worked out better than if I'd let her in on the joke.

I explained what was going on to the father of the bride. Then, I went and looked for the mother of the bride to apologize. I know from past experience never to mess with the mother of the bride on the day of the wedding. It was as if I'd walked with hobnailed shoes where angels would fear to trod. (Actually, she was really cool about the whole thing, but that last sentence sounded way too good to omit from my story). At any rate, I couldn't find her.

I went back to the restroom and gave Trev a bad time for a few minutes and decided I'd better cut the joke a little short and make amends with the mother of the bride. We did get Trevor to put on his pink ensemble and pose for some pictures:

Funeral Weirdness

2006-06-25T19:43:00.000-05:00

We just got home from a nice trip to Indiana to go to my friend Steve's wedding and visit with Anna's family. As it turns out, we also ended up going to a funeral.

It was an uncomfortable funeral. We went because Anna was related to the deceased, but she really didn't know her. I'd never met anyone from this part of the family, and the last time Anna had been around any of them was about 10 years ago. Have you ever been to a viewing like that? Where you just sit around and make idle conversation with people you've never met while standing next to a dead person you've never met? Awkward? Um.. yeah!

The deceased's adopted daughter's best friend put together a CD with music to play at the viewing. So, we're all siting there at the viewing chit-chatting uncomfortably while songs like Bette Midler's "Wind beneath my Wings" played in the background. Someone made a comment that the person who put the CD together had never arranged music for a funeral. This became more apparant as the CD went on. Some of the songs where a little iffy, but I really had a hard time not laughing out loud when the song changed to "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

Oh yeah... it was The Guns N' Roses version....

Wild Hogs

2006-06-12T12:51:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of wild pigs in Texas. Javelinas, Feral hogs, and assorted other varieties. They were originally introduced to the area by Coronado and their spread and population has grown over the years. While there are normally a fair number of them about, there seems to be an unusually high number within about 50 miles of where we live. The story is that in the 1960s there was a hog farmer who had about 3000 pigs in San Saba, TX - about 50 miles from here. Apparently he got in to some sort of trouble with the IRS and was going to lose his farm and animals. Rather than lose all of his livestock to the IRS, he let them all loose. Yup... Better to let them live free then give them to the government. He cut some fence, opened some gates, and let 3000 of these critters loose. They bred like rabbits with the wild hogs that were already here. There are hogs everywhere now. Ranchers will often let you come out for free and shoot them just to get rid of them. They tear up pastures and make a mess and car/boar accidents are almost as common as car/deer wrecks.

Why am I telling you all of this? We had a guest minister in town at church this week, so we had some extra services. Well, on Friday night one family was on their way home and low and behold, 9 wild hogs ran across the road in front of them. They were able to brake and swerve out of the way.

On Saturday night they were on their way home and at the same spot, they saw a single hog by the side of the road. Someone had just hit it. It was still alive and was flopping around on the shoulder. It was just about dead and would have been dangerous for them to approach in it's frenzy. It looked to be a good sized young hog. He thought about taking it home, but he was driving his Mom's van and he thought if he loaded a dead pig in it that she was just as likely to roast him as she would be to roast the pig. He gave up on the idea.

He called another guy who had to drive home on the same road and told him about it and reminded him to be careful. About 30 minutes later the second guy called back the first guy and says, "Hey, I got that boar all gutted and cleaned. I'll bring it over in just a little bit."

We were over at their house on Sunday afternoon and he told us this story and then he brought out this pork roast for us to try. We thought it was a big joke - you know... Texas humor is a little different. Turns out he wasn't kidding. That was some mighty tasty boar. Weighed in at 125 pounds and had about 2 inch tusks so he was pretty young and tender.

Ever eat Road Kill Boar anyone? Check!

Bloomin' Cactus

2006-06-11T17:44:00.000-05:00

Did you know that Cactus bloom? I didn't. Texas amazes me sometimes. There really is a huge variety of flowers and other fauna that I find very interesting. There are cactus everywhere, but when they're not in bloom they blend in pretty good with the wild grasses and other greenery. Now that they are in bloom, they stand out in the ditches and pastures. Here's some pictures I took in the empty lot across the alley:

Scrabble - Round II

2006-06-11T17:20:00.000-05:00

Anna asked me to play Scrabble with her the other day. We hadn't had a match in quite some time, so I agreed. She asked me why I never seem to want to play Scrabble with her. Ever since she started playing Scrabble on the Internet Scrabble Club (ISC), she's gotten really, really good. Her ranking on ISC is about 850.

So we played. I scored a respectable 253 points. Not my best showing, but OK. Anna plunked down four seven letter words to propel herself to a new personal record of 579 points. She had a single word that netted 185 points. Yikes! This woman knows how to strike fear into the heart of her opponents.

I wept. And she wonders why I never want to play this game with her? The sort of game that can make a grown man cry...

New Hat

2006-06-02T22:26:00.000-05:00

Anna took me shopping tonight. I really don't like to shop, but I needed to. My diet continues to go well. Since November, I've lost 16 lbs, which is great. The bad part is that my jeans are a little too loose now. So, she took me out to find some new ones. While we were out, I spotted this hat and decided to buy it too. What do you think?

Eau de Toilette

2006-05-27T10:19:00.002-05:00

I came home for lunch the other day and stepped inside the house. Tori walking out of my room, brushing her teeth. With my toothbrush.

Anna came around another corner and said, "Oh geez, she got into that again? Take that away from her!"

"Why?" I asked, figuring that she'd already pretty much ruined my toothbrush.

"Here," she said as she grabbed the toothbrush out of Tori's iron clad grip. "Smell this," as she rammed the toothbrush under my nose.

I reeled back, expecting something nasty, as if Tori might have used water from the toilet or something. My initial assumption was pretty close. "Yikes, that smells like Aqua di Gio!"

"Daddy, smell. Smell good. haa.. haa... Me smell." There she was, grinning from ear to ear and wanting me to smell her good breath. Thankfully, she didn't get sick or anything. So, I now officially have a daughter who has brushed her teeth with "Eau de Toilette".

The next morning, when I got ready for work, I grabbed my toothbrush and began to brush. Ewww! Yuck! Spit! pllllt! What is that? Oh nuts! I forgot. Guess I've officially had the Aqua di Gio treatment too.

By the way, in my quest to make sure I spelled "Eau de Toilette" correctly in this post, I ran across a website that explains the difference between eau de toilette and eau de parfum. I didn't know there was a difference, so I thought I'd share the website with all of you for your own enlightenment: Click Here.

Tomatoes

2006-05-21T15:35:00.000-05:00

Trevor asked me the other day how my tomatoes fared in our hailstorm. Suprisingly, they did pretty well. They lost a lot of leaves and there was some scaring on some of the vines, but they survived. The pepper plant right next to them took some direct hits and only had about 3-4 leaves left on it. I wasn't sure it was going to make it, but it's also recovering. I think this is all in a large part due to the very hot weather we had for about a week after the storm. There wasn't anywhere for the water to go, so the air was very humid for a while as well. Now it's dry as a bone and we haven't had any rain since our storm, which was on May 5th.

Going to Grandma's

2006-05-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

The other day Hope asked us why we had to buy a van. Anna told her that we bought the van so that it will be easier for us to drive to Grandma's house. That seemed to be the end of it and she scampered off to go play. About an hour later Hope came to me and told me she was all packed and ready to go to Grandma's. She wanted to know if I was ready to leave. I told her it would be several weeks before we went to Grandma's house. She seemed very disappointed and took me in the other room to show me that she was all ready to go:

Out of Focus and into a Mini.

2006-05-17T15:10:00.000-05:00

"The best laid plans of mice and men," or so the saying goes.

Three years ago, I purchased a 2003 Ford Focus ZTW wagon. I thought it would be a great car with plenty of room for our family. It was good on gas and handled really well.

When I purchased the car I intended to drive it for 5 - 6 years. I didn't buy an extended warranty.

It looks like some of my assumptions weren't really that good. The little Focus served us pretty well, but it's a little cramped, especially on trips. The gas mileage hasn't been too bad, but I should have bought the extended warranty. The vehicle has 50,000 miles on it and so far I've replaced the tires twice. Yup, third set of tires. Yup.. that baby can burn up 60,000 mile tires in 20,000 miles. I've replaced the rear wheel bearings, rear lower control arms, front rotors (warped at 40,000 miles), and sway bar links. The size of the vehicle and the frequency of repairs was really starting to get to me. I got rid of it yesterday.

I decided that I needed something cooler. Something that would meet my family's needs. So, I bought a Mini.

ahem. I bought a Mini.

ahem.. cough... uh... I bought a Mini-van.

So, here it is. The vehicle that will officially take me from being a young man to a "Suburban-Mini-Van-Driving-30-something-kid-toting-Dad". It's a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT with 7 yr/100,000 mile warranty. It doesn't have a HEMI, but it's got Stow'N'Go seating baby! Wooohoo! And a remote power liftgate! Watch out WalMart, here I come!

Storms

2006-05-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

It's been storming all week. Since Tuesday, it's been bright and sunny each morning, about 90 in the afternoon, and by 6 PM storms roll in. There's been a couple of good ones with magnificent lightning and strong winds. When I drove in to work on Friday, there were two empty Fedex semi trailers laying on their side in one of our parking lots. I don't know how strong the wind was on Thursday night, but it must have been pretty strong to tip over two semi trailers!

Well, last night we rented a couple of movies for the girls to watch: Felicity (American Girl) and Dreamer. (By the way, both were really good.) Anyway, we sat down to watch the movies, but it was begining to storm and there was an incredible amount of lightning. So, we decided to turn off all of the electronic stuff and unplug it. We made cookies and watched the storms roll in.

They really started to look nasty, so we turned on the radio and found out that there had been a tornado about 30 miles west of us and the same storm was headed our way shortly. As the storm approached the warnings got more severe. So, we grabbed a flashlight, radio and batteries, some drinks, snacks, and toys for the kids and headed to our walk-in closet to ride out the storm. We said a few prayers for us and our friends and then sat back and listened to the radio while the kids played.

The rain came down in buckets (5 inches in 90 minutes) and it started to hail. Having been through this experience when we lived in Wisconsin, it didn't seem so bad. There was some hail, but it didn't seem that there was too much and it didn't seem to be striking too hard.

SMACK! The wall shook behind us. Anna looked at me and I looked at her. What was that?

THUNK! It sounded liked someone was hitting our roof with a sledge hammer.

THUNK! BUNK! SMACK! Is that hail? It couldn't be... it would have to be huge to sound like that.

Over the radio we hear, "We're now receiving reports of tennis ball and baseball sized hail."

SMACK! THUNK! Now, our house doesn't really have any interior protected closets. All of the closets touch an outside wall. So, we elected to hang out in the one on the northeast corner of the house where two solid brick walls come together and the nearest window is in the next room. We were sitting on a cermaic tile floor over a concrete slab with our backs to a brick wall. When the hail struck the brick wall, it shook the floor. That was pretty impressive. We heard over the radio that the hail was forming at 41,000 feet. So, imagine a baseball sized hunk of ice propelling down from 41,000 feet and hitting your house. Yikes!

When the hail stopped, I waited a few minutes to make sure it was clear and dashed out to the yard to grab a sample to put in the freezer. It had already melted some because it was raining buckets and it was about 70 outside, but when I measured it with my caliper, it came in at 2.94". This is the biggest hail I've ever seen in my life. Here's a picture:

In my hand:

When these puppies hit the ground they make a little crater. Most of them were about 2 inches deep and 3 to 3.5 inches wide:

Tomatoes

2006-05-02T18:36:00.000-05:00

I planted some tomatoes in early March. This seemed really early to me, but they had them at WalMart, so it must be time to plant in Texas, right? The temperatures had been in the 80s for a few weeks and so I planted them. They started to take root and were really taking off when we got a late frost. They died.

I was at the barber shop a few days later getting my hair cut and getting the now customary shave with a straight razor. I told the Barber about my tomato growing woes. He stopped cutting, leaned back and said, "You know, the old timers say that you need to go out of town and find some old gnarly mesquite trees. When they start to bud, the frost is over and it's OK to plant."

I took the barber shop advice to heart, opened up the back gate and looked at the gnarly old mesquite trees the line the other side of the alley. No buds. I waited about a week and checked again. Buds!

Instead of buying Walmart tomatoes, this time I bought some starts from Sligers, a local produce store. I planted a Celebrity, which is a good slicing tomato, and a hybrid cherry tomato. I made a raised bed for them along the fence using pavers and filled it with Miracle Gro garden soil. The results have really been great. This picture was taken this evening.

Landscaping

2006-05-02T17:33:00.000-05:00

Lately, we've been working on our landscaping and lawn. My neighbor lost his yard to grub worms. It was really sad actually. He had a beautiful yard last year, but the grubs settled in through the fall and destroyed the root system of his grass. Of course, grubs eat all of the root over the fall and winter, so you really don't know there is a problem until spring. The poor man was almost in tears when he told us (the neighbors) all about it. The rest of us all ran out to Home Depot and bought Spectracide to kill off any of the bugs that might have migrated to our yards. So far, mine looks ok.

I've been doing a bunch of other stuff to try to get the lawn well-established. We've been talking about putting out some shrubs or something, but haven't gotten to that just yet. We may not get that done this year. In the mean time, we felt like we needed some plants or flowers or something. So, off we went to Wal Mart and Home Depot in search of some plants. After looking around I told Anna that we should take advantage of the fact that we're living in Texas and get something cool that would be hard or impossible to grow up north. So, we bought some cool stuff:

Turn about is fair play

2006-04-16T20:41:00.000-05:00

All right.... For all of your up north who I've been calling and emailing and saying, "Hey, it's 75 today!" or "I hope you're enjoying the snow, it's warm and sunny here"... Now's your chance. It was 106 degrees here today. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 103. 101 for Tuesday. Looks like it's cool and 70s back in MN.

Even 106 isn't too bad down here, but, I wasn't at home this weekend. We were in Del Rio, TX which is right on the border across the Rio Grande from Cuidad Acuna, Mexico. We went there for some special Easter church services. Del Rio is known for Lake Amistad which is where the Rio Grande, Pecos River, and Devil's river all combine. In addition, there are a bunch of natural springs all over the area. This all combined with 106 degree temperature made it pretty hot and sticky. The Easter services were outside in a park pavilion. There was a gentle breeze blowing and we kept a big cooler full of ice and drinks on hand. Overall, I actually fared better in the heat than I thought I would. I took 2 or 3 showers every day because I was sweating like a pig, but other than that it was a good time.

Del Rio is actually a pretty nice little town of about 35,000 people. A lot of the people there are pretty poor, and many of the buildings are old, but most of them are clean; you can tell that most people there take pride in what little they do have. This is in stark contrast to Brownwood, where our poor areas are just plain dirty. Palm trees dot the landscaping in Del Rio and a bunch of natural springs flow through the city in man-made irrigation ditches. The water is extremely clean and the most beautiful aqua-blue / turquoise color. Very cool.

We met a number of people who really don't have much at all - but were very happy. This was really good for me because it reminded me a lot of the poverty I saw as a child in Costa Rica. Also, there were a bunch of people in the services from Mexico who only spoke Spanish, so the services were bilingual. The poor guy translating had to switch back and forth between translating Spanish to English and English to Spanish depending on who was speaking. It's been about 17 years since I was fluent in Spanish, and unfortunately, I can only recall very little. After being "immersed" for only 2 days, I was starting to remember my Spanish. I was amazed. I think we'll have to head down there some more so I can work on being bilingual again.

The folks in Del Rio were very gracious in many ways, not the least of which was keeping us fed. On Saturday and Sunday they provided food for everyone: Rice and Beans, home-made tamales (YUM! - no.. Double-YUM!), home-made Salsa, fajitas, banana pudding, fresh watermelon, etc. When you sit for a meal, they serve you. When you finish your plate, someone comes by and drops another plate in front of you. They are very proud of their food, and they get offended if you don't eat it. This is a bit of a challenge for Anna because, while she likes most Mexican food, there are certain things that she won't eat. She didn't want to offend anyone and prayed before we left, "Lord, help me to eat when I'm not hungry, when it doesn't look good, and when it doesn't taste good."

When we showed up on Saturday morning a bunch of the guys were standing around eating soup. The pastor from Del Rio saw us walk up and said, "Come try some of this good soup we have made. It's a Mexican delicacy."

"What's it called?"

"It's called Menudo. It's very good, just try a little bit, even just the juice."

Menudo. Menudo. My Spanish was coming back. There was something familiar about this name. I knew there was a reason I didn't want to try it, but I consented.

He dished up a little bit of the broth for me.

I tried it. It was flavorful, but ohh... it was greasy. I didn't care for it. He asked if I wanted more.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't care for it," I replied. I looked more closely at the kettle of soup and asked, "It's made from intestines, isn't it?"

"Yes, cow. I'm sorry you don't like it." He was grinning from ear to ear and I could tell he was enjoying every second of stretching our cultural boundaries. The 20 year old strapping kid next to me turned a bit pale when he realized what he was eating, but then continued on and seemed to like it. Maybe he was just trying to prove his manliness. He regretted it later.

I walked over to get a glass of water to get the taste out of my mouth and looked back over towards "the soup". I didn't know whether to laugh or fear when I saw the pastor dishing up a bowl of soup for Anna. Her reaction was about the same as mine.

- - - PAUSE - - - -

Can any of you imagine my wife eating cow intestine soup?

God still works miracles. OK, we can go on now.

- - - - END PAUSE - - -

Anyway, later on this Mexican fellow walks up to us and says, "You didn't eat that stuff did you? It's disgusting. I don't even eat it, and I'm a Mexican."

Later, as the song service ended and the minister came forward to speak, we saw the 20 year old eat-all macho guy quietly exit the service and make a mad dash for the bathroom. He was there for a while.

Burnt Offerings and Toasted Spaghetti

2006-03-20T20:19:00.000-06:00

I'm sort of becoming a grilling guru. Ok, I'm trying to become a grilling guru. Most of the time, my grilled dishes turn out pretty good. Every once in a while I really make something great. And then, every once in a while I really mess something up. Really badly.

The other day I set out to make some hamburgers. Plain old ordinary burgers. And then, I decided that I should whip up some mushrooms on the side burner while steaming vegetables inside the house. So, there I was with 4 burgers cooking on the grill, a pan of mushrooms sizzling on the side burner, and a pot of steamed yellow squash on the pressure cooker. (It's really great with parmessean cheese, salt, and pepper).

Well, to make a long story short, everything turned out good, except I really burned the hamburgers. I mean bad. Black. Carcinogenic. Like Charcoal.

Later I was taking a shower while Anna was in the bathroom doing her hair. I chuckled to myself in the shower. She asked me what was so funny. I told her that I was trying to console myself by coming up with some sort of spiritual parrallel for my hamburgers.

She paused for a second and said, "Don't tell me you were trying to make a burnt offering."

"No," I replied, "All I could come up with was, 'This too shall pass.'"

Fast-forward a few days...to today! I came home from work and I smelled something burning. The stove vent was blowing wide open. Two pots sat on the stove. The burners were off. My wife was no where to be found. I tip-toed into the kitchen and gingerly lifted the lid off of the pan. It took a moment to identify the carnage, but I soon figured out that it was supposed to be spaghetti sauce. Only, it wasn't very saucy. As a matter of fact, the bottom half-inch or so looked remarkably like the hamburgers that I had made just a few days ago: black, hard, and crusty.

I sauntered down the hall into the bedroom and there was Anna, under the covers, with a pillow over her head. I pulled back the pillow and she said:

"I don't want to talk about it."

What's a man to do in a situation like this?

"So, where do you want to go?"

Tabasco

2006-03-17T17:54:00.000-06:00

I'm starting to get used to living in Texas.

Today, I put tobasco sauce on my goulash.

(Think elbow macaroni, hamburger, and tomatoes).

Gillette Fusion

2006-03-12T08:50:00.000-06:00

OK Guys... I know what you've been thinking. When you're out at Target or WalMart, you've no doubt seen the end-cap displays for the new Gillette Fusion razor. You've stared at them and thought, "Is it really a better razor? Is it worth it?"

Alas, curiousity finally caused me to buy one. I was leary, because a year or two ago I bought a Gillette Mach 3 MPower, which was a joke. It didn't shave as well as the Mach 3 Turbo and the blades are considerably more expensive. I ended up going back to the old razor.

I was not dissapointed by the Fusion. It's about the same size as the Mach 3 Turbo, but it has five blades instead of three. It's less uncomfortable to shave with, and seems to give a closer shave. The comfort guard on the front of the razor is larger and you can actually tell that it's doing something. In addition, the little Aloe strip thing doesn't wear out after 4 shavings. Finally, if you turn the razor over, there is a single blade on the back side that makes trimming your sideburns and under your nose really easy. Overall, I really like it so far.

Planting and Yard Work

2006-03-06T10:15:00.000-06:00

Texas really is great this time of year. Yesterday, I built a garden bed with pavers / retaining wall stone in the back yard. Looks really pretty neat. There was just enough room to plant 4 tomato plants, 2 strawberry plants, and a banana pepper plant. Think about that.... I planted my garden on March 6th! Wow!

I also fertilized and watered the lawn, pulled weeds, and a few other odds and ends outside. It's going to be 90 here today.

It's all fun right now, but it has me a little worried. It was 82 yesterday and I got a real light sunburn because I was working in the backyard with my shirt off. (Gotta get my tan in, you know?). Anyway, if it's 90 in March, how stinking hot is it going to be in July / August?

Only time will tell. In the mean time I'm going to enjoy my motorcycle and my sun tan.

What a difference a little rain makes

2006-03-02T22:47:00.000-06:00

As I've mentioned before, it's been really dry here. No doubt, you all heard about the grass fires up in Cross Plains and elsewhere in Texas and Oklahoma. I took this picture a couple weeks ago. This was taken in the empty lot next to our house. It's been so dry that the ground cracks. The cracks in this picture are almost an inch wide. There was an article in the paper advising people to water around their foundations to prevent heaving as a result of this type of movement and separation.

The good news is that we're finally starting to get some rain. About a week ago we had our first Texas thunderstorm. A few days later, I took this picture in roughly the same spot that I had taken the first image just a few weeks ago.

Amazing, isn't it?

Trip to Killeen

2006-02-19T21:08:00.000-06:00

You'll remember from one of my previous posts that I had to take my motorcycle in to get a recall repair. I was originally scheduled to run it over to Abilene for an appointment at 9:00 in the morning. It's about an 80 mile ride....farther than I've ever been before. However, when I went to leave, it was cold... like 25 degrees. Now, 25 degrees isn't too cold, but when the wind is blowing at about 20 MPH and then you create an additional 70MPH of wind chill and ride for an hour and 15 minutes, that gets really cold. When you don't have the proper gear it can quickly lead to hypothermia.

I chickened out. I turned around and went back home before I made it across town. I called the dealer and tried to reschedule for later in the day. I was told that they were much too busy and I'd have to reschedule for almost two weeks out. This really made me mad because I had called them the day before and was told that "it only takes 20 minutes and you don't need an appointment".

I called other Suzuki dealerships in "the area". The only one I could get in to was in Killeen, which is about 115 miles away. I waited and left at 10:30. By then it had warmed up to 40, which is still chilly, especially for a 2 hour ride. So, I donned by Patagonia long underwear, a pair of jeans, a pair of windproof pants, a fleece pull over, a patagonia R4 jacket, my Mountain Hardwear windproof shell, my balaclava, skull cap, helmet, and windproof gloves. I really felt like Ralphie's little brother from The Christmas Story, but I was toasty.

The ride down was great. I stopped in Lampasas (that's about half-way) and shed a few layers since it had warmed up a bit more. Anyhoo... I got the bike fixed and I didn't freeze on the way down there.

The ride home was a different story. I've heard other cyclists complain about the factory seats on their motorcycles, but always thought mine was nice and comfy. Until I made it back to Lampasas. An hour and 15 minutes from home I felt like I was sitting on a 2 x 4. And talk about a wedgy... yikes!

For awhile I decided to grin and bear it. That strategy soon failed. Suddenly, I began to notice that there were a lot of historical markers along this highway. I'm currently taking US History since 1877 at Howard Payne University. The history of cental Texas become increasingly interesting. I stopped at every historical marker between Lampasas and home. This allowed me to get off the bike about every 10 minutes, stretch my legs, and get my undies out of a bunch. In addition, I learned a lot about several dried up towns like Goldthwaite (the H is silent, go figure) and the Farmer's Alliance. Very interesting indeed.

Pony

2006-02-19T21:01:00.000-06:00

Somehow Hope got the idea in her head that she would get a pony when we moved to Texas. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but anyway, she was pretty sure she would be getting a pony.

So, for her birthday we gave her a Cinderella castle. It's really neat. The clock even chimes when you turn the hands to midnight. Anna stayed up until the wee hours of the morning putting on all of the decals. Bless her.

We also bought her the accompanying carriage, which comes with a horse. After she opened all of her cards and other stuff, she was prancing the horse around on the floor. She looked at me and said, "Daddy, look! I got a pony."

"Yes," I replied. "Don't you remember you were going to get a pony when we moved to Texas? There you go."