The Holiday season has officially started

Hope you have having a nice Thanksgiving break, we are. The annual turkey gouge fest was a success. I cooked my turkey upside down this year, it was a 20 pounder, the breast meat came out very juicy and the dark meat was cooked properly. The only problem was that it wouldn't win any beauty contests. You are supposed to turn it right side up about half way through cooking. I waited to about 3/4 of the way. It came out sorta pale and the skin wasn't real crispy. We used a rack in a pan and an unintended consequence was the rack marks left on the breast. The turkey looked like it had six pack abs, a regular Turkeynator.

But it tasted good. Two of my three girls braved the traffic and crowds on black Friday. I hid out at home and watched football. Did you see the Aggies defeat their instate rivals t.u. (Texas) who were ranked #13 at the time? That's 2 years in a row!

Congratulations Katie !

for the 3rd year in a row, Katie has made All-State Bass in Orchestra. Once again she is in the top orchestra (Symphony). Her family, friends and even school are extreamly proud of her.

Once again she will be traveling to San Antonio to partcipate in the Texas Music Educators Association convention with the best HS musicians in the state. At this convention the students get to practice and hang out with kids from all over the state. They congragate in small groups to discuss the theory of minor chord progressions combined with sticatto harmonic resonance. They joke about 3/4 to 5/4 syncapated transitions. Of course with the range of ages there is always the occasional hazing prank like bow-whipping the younger students while they are made to play major scales left handed or sometimes offering to sell them the highly coveted "Hungarian Rosin Cheese". But it's not all fun and games, and it's back to the music.

here are some of the previous All State posts;

Picked in 2005

A recap of the 2005 event

Picked again in 2006

Last years convention

What is a Lurker ?

Dictionary.com defines it as;

"to read or observe an ongoing discussion without participating in it, as in an Internet newsgroup"

There are far more Lurkers than we realize. You who are reading this are probably a lurker. I have to admit that I also do my share of lurking (except for this blog).

There are may reasons to lurk
wanting to remain anonymous
because it's too much trouble to put in your own 2 cents
you feel you don't have anything to contribute
you're sure if you post you will be inundated with spam offering to improve your sex life and the opportunity to help a poor Nigerian monarch with his too much cash problem . .

Perhaps I missed one? Let's here yours. (almost got ya didn't I?)

Those who are not Lurkers may wonder what one looks like. Well just the other day I found this one reading here, clicking there but not commenting anywhere.



He was lurking while he should have been studying. He was in class, all the way in the back lurking on this very site while IMing a footreader (he is from the southern hemisphere) in Auckland.

I see some of you lurkers are taken aback by my level of awareness of your presence. Because you have stayed with this post all the way to the end I will tell you one of us bloggers little secrets. See the little picture in the upper left corner of this page (the one of the dowdy family hosting this blog)? Well it's not a regular picture, it's like those windows that look like they are covered by an advertisement but if you go inside you don't see the advertisement - you can see out!