This year - Something Different

This gem was taken in 2000. As you can tell, all my girls were up on the latest fashion trends. I believe this was the Land-Scuba look, it's too bad you can't see the shoes. They were flipper shaped and bright yellow.

Wait a minute . . . . that was a different picture

Actually, I think this was taken at DisneyQuest at the Pirates of the Caribbean "ride". We had a great time. It was December and the place was decorated to the 9s for Christmas. There were a lot of people there but it was worth it because of all the decorations and special events.

In fact, we (as a family) have decided to return to Disney this holiday season instead of the traditional (read over the top) gift deluge. We are going to DisneyWorld in Florida and staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We stayed there many years ago and had a great time.

We interrupt this blog post for an important weather update . . . it's snowing . . . real snow . . . in Houston as I am typing this message.

OK - so we are really getting into the Christmas spirit now. We will let you know how this alternate Christmas celebration goes over.

It's That Time of the Year !

That's right, contracts almost up, time to get a new cell phones. Since Linda and I are almost the same person, of course we need the same phone. Also, if I figure out all the bells and whistles, I can flatten out the learning curve for my better half.

This time we went with one of those new-fangled touch screen phones, you know, like an iPhone but different. We were pretty happy with our old Samsungs so we will give the next generation a try.

Katie has a Blackjack II and Sarah has a Blackberry Curve, full blown smart phones. They seem to like them, they have a full keyboard which is nice. But they require a $30 a month data plan EACH. Ours just have that "virtual" keypad but I think it will be better than the standard number pad for sending texts, and it only needs a "lite" data plan ($15 each). I don't know if we will keep that plan or not.

Tell me, do you use your phone for anything other than phone calls and texts?

Creativity

I love to be amazed by other people's creativity. These artists, Tim Nobel and Sue Webster, do some really creative stuff, and one of their mediums is . . . trash

A Tribute to John Williams

Katie showed me this on YouTube and it thought it worth sharing. This guy borrowed the song from another group and used his own face to play each part. The real group that wrote and performed the song is Moosebutter. Surfing - you just never know what you might find. It's probably worth the 4:10 to hear a different take on some of John Williams greatest movie scores.



If you like this you might like Moosebutter's song "Harry Potter"

70s at there best

The list are in. We had our groovy gathering last night and submitted our lists for scrutiny and admiration. Here are some of the highlights;

Songs that epitomize the 70s:

Knock 3 times - Tony Orlando and Dawn - Stuart and Janice

Stayin Alive - Bee Gees - Thom

I will Survive - Gloria Gaynor - Bob

Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple - Linda and Katie

Car Wash - Debbie (on her big list)

#1 Favorite song of the 70s

Play that Funky Music White Boy - Wild Cherry - Linda and Katie

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen - Thom

Brother Louie - The Stories - Bob

I Want You Back - The Jackson 5 - Stuart and Janice

Hot Child in the City - Nick Gilder - Debbie (on her list at home)

. . . and oh so much more.

I only have electronic copies of some of the lists. As I get more I will post them.

Thom's List

Linda and Katie's list

Bob's List

Stuart and Jannis's List

Bread

Not the 70s group, or the colloquialism for money, I am talking the real thing - gluten goodness. In case you missed it (I did) there was a earth shaking moment in the baking world about 2 years ago (Nov 8, 2006). The NY Times published a "no kneed" bread recipe from a guy named Jim Lahey. This thing was bigger than bread before it was sliced. I was alerted to this fact a couple of weekends ago when I read in the Sunday paper about an improvement to this recipe. I was intrigued, I looked up the original and I was flabbergasted at the number of hits you get when you google "no kneed bread" go ahead - try it.

Sooo, I had to bake it, and I did. It was the best I ever made. It was very simple, it just took time and a dutch oven with a lid (I used my Le Crueset). I highly recommend you give it a try.

Side note: I cracked the plastic handle on the top of my dutch oven in the oven and my wife went to get me a new one. The lady at the Le Crueset store knew just what had happened and pointed to a new mental handle and said "they started making those just because of that recipe" Bon Apatite

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising


3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

¼ teaspoon instant yeast

1¼ teaspoons salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. 
   In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.


2. 
   Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.


3. 
   Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.


4. 
   At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Wake up to thee Oat-Man, can't afford ya

One of our potential list developers was unsure of the release date of one of their favorite songs “Wake up to thee Oat-Man, can't afford ya” although I consider myself quite knowledgeable in the music of the 70s I did not recognize this tune (although that is not a prerequisite for inclusions on any of the lists). I was curious and asked for more information. I was then supplied with the lyrics as best as they could be recalled. Perhaps you know the artist and release date?

On the dock, there's a highway, cool whip in my hair
One smell I could eat dust, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw she moon light
My head grew heavy and my sack rolled in
I had to stop for the night
Dead fish in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a Ken doll and she showed me the way
There were horses down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Renting a room at the Hotel California
Any time you're here, you can buy me beer.

Her mind is definitely-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls fins
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some days to remember, some days to forget

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wife
He said, ’we haven’t had that spilled in here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
We threw-up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel California
What a nice surprise when you're out of ice

Mirrors are deceiving,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the bastards chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their silly knives,
But they just can't kill the feet

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax', said the nice man,
'We are, go back to your seat.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never pee!

The List - 1970 - 1979

Back by popular demand, another music challenge. Pull out your Walkman and sharpen your pencil, we are working on a new list.

50 top songs of the 70s

10 most important or influential songs of the 70s
10 songs that scream “this is the 70s!” or epitomize the 70s musically
10 songs that are better now than they were in the 70s (the original is preferred but remakes are OK)
Your 20 favorite 70s songs

Bonus Picks:
What year had the best music in the 70s?
What was the best album of the 70s?

The Rules
o A song can only appear in one of the lists above with the exception of your 20 favorite songs (the ones in that list could overlap with the first 3 10 song compilations)
o The song had to be released between Jan 01, 1970 and Dec 31, 1979
o The songs can be from ANY genre
o We are ranking SONGS from the 70s not artists
o Each list should be in order (“they are all good how can I pick” will bring you mockery and shame)

The proposed deadline is November 1st when we will all meet to discus the anticipated errors in judgment and lack of musical taste. If you can’t be here in person you can email us the list. I can post them on the site.

PS not everyone looked like the groovy brother above. Stuart for example was still working on his groove in the 70s

More Refrigerator News

The good news: we got a new refrigerator and it looks great in our kitchen. The bad news: our double oven died in the same surge that killed our refrigerator. The good news: when we get a new oven it will match our shinny stainless steal fridge. The bad news: it will cost MORE than the fridge.



So we are now shopping for a oven/microwave combo unit that will fit in our wall. We got the fridge from The Great Indoors which is really Sears and it was a good experience. However it was delivered by Taco Libre and his henchmen.



Imagine if you will, a 14 yr old in desperate need of his Ridlen and one of those Mexican wrestlers who wear those masks, smoosh them together and device into four equal pieces, give them a truck and a furniture dolly and you'll have Taco Libre and his henchmen.



They came flying down our street, overshot the house, one jumped out and the rear lift gate started to rise before the tuck had come to a complete stop. The truck-leaper came to the front door clipboard in hand and announced he "had a refrigerator as was to leave it in the carton, where is the old one?" After overcoming the language barrier and straightening out the first two points, I turned to see 2 Tasmanian Devils ripping and tearing everything and anything attached to the terrified appliance. Edwardo Sissorhands. The third devil was standing in the truck, although I did not see it, I suspect he plucked the cardboard encased cooler and through it down to his com padres on the street.



Meanwhile, our dear old Amana was being manhandled into the street and onto the truck. We got Amana practically the same time we got Katie. As they skirted the mounting debris that was the new fridge's packing material, one of the drawers few out and bounced across the tarmac. It was being lifted into the truck by the lift-gate when the bottom section got crushed between the gate and the back of the truck. They had to lower the gate to get it out. I could watch no more.



Our new refrigerator now stripped naked was hurling towards the front door shouldered by 2 ADD Mexican wrestlers, wide side first. My wife shouted "Stop!" The word bounced off them like so many insults from the crowd. Linda through herself in front of the wedged refrigerator and explained that if they turned it 90 degrees it would fit. After much arm waving and adding of vowels to the end of words the fridge was through the door and slammed into the space where we hoped it would fit.



Once in it's native habitat it was obvious the appliance still had some vestiges of it's previous bondage. Taco and his men had to be pulled away with assurances that we would finish the defilement ourselves. Linda gave them waters and they were off. I think the whole event took less than 2 minutes. We were out of breath and emotionally spent.

Now we cool

I am writing this from my usual computer desk in my living room. We have exited the powerless zone. One day after the stunning omission of repair work to our little transformer we have been made whole. CalientePhobia is on the retreat.

Unfortunately all is not perfect in suburbia. As we began to power up our electronic infrastructure we discovered that our trusty refrigerator of 18 years gave up the ghost during the Ike ordeal. Let us bow our heads and raise our glass . . . ahh Amana, I knew her well . . .

So we are moving on. I see a bright gleaming french door cooler in our future. What it lacks in cubic feet an shear brawn it makes up for with an extra door, a svelte physic an styling from this century.

We still have a pile of branches in our front yard and a battalion of trash bags lining the driveway but we are well on our way to Normalville

Journeying through both space and time

Meet Bob and Linda; typical suburbanites trying to navigate the challenges of two kids in college, an ever expanding waistline and a dog with a taste for balcony. We find them pedaling back from a pizza buffet dinner, the first meal in 4 days that wasn't some forgotten frozen meat cooked on a grill or eaten out of a soggy cooler. Unbenounced to them, as they wind past the fallen trees and stacks of garbage bags they are about to enter . . . . the powerless zone



Their conversation revolved around the promise electricity returning to their suburban home. There were whispers from neighbors about electric company trucks stalking the streets, even predictions of an AC filled evening. It was too much to hope for. Just today, neighbors across the street who previously had their power restored had it disappear mysteriously while making beanieweenie. Their whole street was sliding into another dark night.



Just then they saw it, the electric glow that could only come from a television. The street was quiet, there were no droning generator sounds. They pedaled on. Over there! Two sconces burned on either side of a front door. They pedaled faster. There were signs of light and free flowing electrons everywhere, both sides of the street!



They finally came to their own block. The usual gaggle of neighbors chatting in the twilight were no where to be found. They were in their houses cooking and showering. They could taste the anticipation and the pizza burps from all the pedaling. Their next door neighbors and the ones across the street - both houses lit up like Christmas morning! They stopped in front of their own well manicured domicile with mouths agape. Every house up and down the street was basking in alternating current except theirs. The windows were black as coal, no AC unit puring beside the house, no prospect of seeing the Gilmore Girls tonight.



They reluctantly picked up their flashlights and sloughed off to the bathroom to get ready for another night on the living room floor wondering if they would every break free from . . . the powerless zone

Working our way back

Today (Tuesday) Linda and I went back to work since Thursday. We still don't have any power and we are out of ice. We cleaned up the house/yard/pool as best we could. Having water is great. We checked on friends around the neighborhood and all were doing well considering the circumstances.

Here is a picture of one of our less fortunate neighbors about a block away. We are pretty sure we had a tornado come through the subdivision. The roots of this tree are 4-10 feet off the ground.

Houston as a community has been great, lots of people helping other people, just spontaneous kindness. People have taken responsibility for their neighbors and strangers that need help.

Electricity, gas and ice are the top concerns in our area (in that order). I think the lack of access to enchiladas and quarter pounders are really taking their toll both physically and mentally.

Still here

We are all OK and our house did not sustain any significant damage. We may have some roof damage but no leaks as far as we know.

We have lost power (and Internet) for miles around but we are not alone over 2 million people are right there with us.

Our neighborhood had some bad tree-house collisions. A house on the street directly behind us was destroyed by a tree in their driveway. This picture was from 2 streets away. It's sad but i don't think anyone was hurt.

will update when I can.

Ready to take a Ike

As those with electricity know, there is a hurricane aiming at Houston. This time it looks like it's not going to change it's mind at the last minute. Most people have been getting ready to deal with it for days now. HP had closed their offices today and most of the businesses have also closed.

There has been a steady stream of cars heading north and west to Dallas and San Antonio. We chose to hang here in our NW suburb at least for now. Our greatest fear is known as CalientePhobia or the fear of losing air conditioning. We are going to get a lot of wind and we have a lot of trees this = power line seeking projectiles. Sure the trees will smash some windows and cave in some roofs. Cars will surely be crushed but when we hear that electric pop and the AC and TV become just a memory the hairs on the back of our neck stand up then quickly get pasted down with sweat.

With highs in the 90s and lows in the 80s and the humidity somewhere around 200% (the hurricane forces twice as much water into each air molecule than it will hold) you can begin to understand the horror.

We are hoping for the best, we look OK now. I will post an update as long as the electricity and Internet hold out.

How to make your mother cry

This looks like a pretty innocuous shot right? How could this make a mother cry?

.

Well . . . . . every since the kids started going to school, on the first day of school we would take their picture. They would be all dressed up in their age appropriate garb. We would have them stand in front of the TV in the living room and we would take several shots. The TV was like a yardstick, you could watch them grow. Even when they were way too cool teenagers we insisted we get the FDOS picture. We have a whole collection.

.

This morning was the first day of college for Katie. She had an 8:00 class. She got up, got her stuff together and rousted her roommate from bed and handed her her camera. Her dorm mate didn't understand, "why can't I just take your picture from in bed?" "Because we take the picture standing in front of the TV, that's the way we do it" Katie replied.

.

She got her picture and she sent it to her mom.

The Incredible Tree-Climbing Goats of Morocco

And now a word from the WebEcoist

So many times I try to tell people something interesting and they just don't believe me, well this time I have pictures. There is no way someone can doubt me now.

There is even a video for all you naaaay sayers

How much do you want to know?

First there were smoke signals, then there were letters, followed by email, IM's, then blogs now . . . . tweets. That's right - tweets.

There is a new time waster on the net and it's name is Twitter. This is a "service" where you, to quote this site " Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

So you basically broadcast little IM sized messages to everyone who has signed up to get them. These little messages are no longer than 140 characters long and are called . . . you guessed it - tweets.

I haven't twittered to tweeted, I can't even seem to manage to post a story a week on my blog but I just thought you might like to know.

To gig or not to gig

That is the question our latest political commentator must answer every week. What am I talking about? Not what, who. Our very own Sarah Hope has been recruited to write political commentary for a new Aggie journal/blog called AggieWire.

It hasn't launched yet but they have assembled their staff and are putting together their inaugural issue. The really cool thing is that they sought Sarah out. They had read some of her posts on various web properties like FaceBook and liked them so much they went to her and asked her to join the team. Pretty impressive huh?

By the way, for those of you not from these parts, one of the Aggie calls is "gig'em Aggies" it's like "go Irish" or "roll tide". Gig or to gig is from the Latin gigorous which means to poke with a sharp stick. Used in a sentence one might say "Gee Paw, we was just gig'en frogs"

Will your candidate be poked with a sharp stick? Gig'em Sarah

They have a different word for everything!

In the immortal words of Steve Martin, "the French, they have a different word for everything!" Well Katie and some of her friends in the French Club went to find out in person. A group of about 16 people embarked on a tour through Paris, Normandy and several small towns in between.

There were square trees, long dinners, famous landmarks and people who tucked their chin into ther neck and said "haww haww hawwww" to keep them busy for 9 days. During that time Katie took over 800 pictures and videos (I was so proud) which you will be forced to watch now. OK maybe it's just some of the good ones.

It happens to all of us

That's right, I am talking about birthdays. I think you can tell a lot about what phase of life someone is in based on their birthday celebration. When the kids are little they have nary a clue of what's going on, then it's all about the presents, then somewhere around when they hit double digit ages it's the center of attention AND the gifts.

I have an old friend who just had a birthday (this past Saturday), he stops by this site regularly, you have probably read his posts. He too is moving into the next phase, many of you will recognize it. We shouldn't be too quick to judge for all of us sooner or later we all will be donning the rubber pants and ordering the mashed carrots.

Happy Birthday Stu

Politics - Religion - Rock

What do these things have to do with each other? I will tell you. You don't bring them up unless you are ready to go deep. People don't take these things lightly. Case in point;

A few weeks ago I wanted to make a new CD to play in my car. I have a great MP3/CD disk changer in my car and I listen to a lot of music. I was in the mood for some "rock" so I started picking songs from my library and dragging them into a list. After about 20 songs I asked myself "how many should I pick?" 100 was a nice round number. One CD can easily hold that many MP3s. "Why not pick the best 100 rock songs?" And so it began.

I started filling my list. The next day I told a colleague at the office of my plan. We share many similar positions on music. He immediately fired a volley of questions about my selections and potential selections. As I tried to answer it became clear this was not as simple as it sounded. Gears were turning.

The next day, my friend at work announced he too was compiling a list of the 100 greatest rock songs. We decided to work independently. We discussed our venture with other cube dwellers, they were intrigued, another list was spawned. A date was set to review the lists over pizza and beer. Every day no conversation passed without mention of what was and wasn't rock. Intellect was questioned, some aspects of one's manhood were challenged. Lists were being honed.

We sat down together at my house over suds, slices, CDs, iPods and printouts. We compared lists. Initially the conversations went like this, "Oh, you put that song that high?, I have . . . in that position". Then the talk moved to "so where is .... ? are you crazy?" then " that sucks, that's the kind of stuff my little sister listened to in 8th grade", " do you know what rock is?!?!?" Of course in the end everyone agreed that my list was clearly superior and asked if they could revise their list with some of my selections.

But that wasn't the end of it. Since then I (and even Linda and the girls) mentioned our little endeavor to others. Sometimes it fell on deaf ears but sometimes you got back the Gatling gun of questions, "is ... on it?" "can you have more than one song from the same artist?", "what is your #1" "... has to be in the top 5" and on and on.

So why am I telling you this? Because I am going to show you the list. That way when someone brings it up in polite conversation you can speak with authority that you have indeed seen the top 100 ROCK songs of all time. What was that? You had a question about one of my selections?


Top 100 ROCK songs

Houston we have Graduation

Well today , less than a month after Katie turned 18 she graduated from High School. She wore the green shinny lab coat with the square hat, marched across the stage and picked up her empty portfolio. It was all captured for posterity.

The atmosphere in the University of Houston basketball arena was somewhere between a NCAA final four game and Al Sharpton's family reunion. But I must say, it came off without a hitch, which is saying something when you are handing out 600 fake diplomas in about 1.5 hrs.

We had a party last night with all the friends and neighbors we could muster to congratulate Katie on her matriculation. I thought it was one of the best parties we have ever hosted.

Another milestone reached as Linda and I prepare for the next phase of our lives - indentured servitude, as we funnel both of our offspring through the finest collegiate education system the State of Texas has to offer. Gods speed.

Memorial Weekend Memoir

We did something we hardly ever do, we traveled. I really like to stay sequestered during holiday weekends but on this particular weekend we made an exception.

Linda's brother Charles was getting married . . . in Alabama . . . at a Pow Wow. How could you say not to that? We couldn't. Even Sarah joined us during her break between semesters. It was like old times all piled into the Expedition with luggage, cooler and Harry Potter. One of the benefits of this particular excursion was it took us into Sonny's territory. For the 3 of you who don't know Sonny's, it's a BBQ chain in the southeast. Sonny's has been one of our favorite eating establishments since 1978.

We were headed for Dothan Alabama. The people and event were actually in Napier Field Alabama, but Dothan was the big dot on the map. Charles new wife is Native American, when they decided to get married they wanted a Native wedding, this led to putting together the first annual Napier Field Pow Wow. They have been working on it for 7 months. The consensus seems to have been that this one was very successful for the first one.

It was great to see Patty and to meet her new husband Jay, Leann and her boyfriend Mike, and Pam and Tom who brought their daughter Kristin. So it was actually a wedding/Pow Wow/reunion. Everyone got along except for a "peanut issue" between Mike and Katie.

As you could guess, I took a bunch of pictures. Stuart was kind enough to let me borrow is good lens which allowed me to snap some pretty good pics. The images below are worth your perusal.

Big Week

It was a big week in Lake Wobegone. It was Katie's 18th birthday, the 2008 Orchestra concert and Mother's Day all the same week. We were appropriately celebratory for each.

Since Katie is president of her orchestra she had a lot to do to prepare for the banquet including giving a small speech to the couple of hounded attendees.

Mother's Day was all about food, from pancakes to enchiladas to shish kabob we celebrated mom by gorging ourselves.

Katie's big birthday present was a speaker. Not just any speaker but a GALLIEN-KRUEGER bass speaker to connect to her GALLIEN-KRUEGER bass combo amp. I am glad to see you are dually impressed.

Senior Prom

Prom - one of the milestone rights of passage. Seldom does it pass as expected or follow the Disney Channel script, but never the less an event that will become the touchstone of many class reunions.

This was part of Katie's group. She was the ring leader organizing the dinner and logistics, always a challenge with a bunch of 17-18 yr olds. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, especially at "After-Prom" which is an all night lock in party. This year it was at Dave & Busters. They played video games, pool and air hockey from midnight to 6am at which time the busses dilivered them back to the school so they could crawl home and pass out. Katie is laying in the foyer as we speak, I guess I should drag her up to her room.

Mike Rowe

Does that name sound familiar? Yep, he's the guy from "Dirty Jobs". We happen to be Mike Rowe fans. We got a super dose of Mike a while back when we were on vacation traveling the west. He seems like a good guy and he is funny. Did you know he used to be an opera singer?



Why do I bring this to your attention? Well HP has made a pretty good move using him in a promotion. Those of you who know me, know that I am not a shill for HP but I am giving credit where credit is due. Click on this LINK to go to the web site. Make sure your speakers are on and don't do anything for a minute or so, then check out the little movies. They are pretty funny - not your usual product commercial, there is much discussion about poo

The Darjeeling Limited

yes, I have been a major slacker when I comes to updating in April. Perhaps it all those showers or somehow Spring related. I thought I might mention a movie we recently saw. It's not the best or the worst but did rank high on the interesting scale. I will warn you, it's not for everyone. the terms "quirky" and "offbeat" leap to mind when trying to describe the film.

If you have ever seen the movie "The Royal Tenenbaums" you know exactly what to expect . . . or not to expect. Both movies were made by the same writer/director and have many of the same actors. If you like one, you should see the other.

The first time I saw TRT, I said to myself, "what is this?" I wasn't sure if I liked it, but I had to watch it. Then I had to watch it again. By the 3rd or 4th time, I really liked it! It grew on me. Because of TRT, The Darjeeling Limited had a head start.

Anyway, it has Owen Wilson (a product of Houston) in it so it's big time enough to find as a rental but obscure enough that no one has probably spoiled it for you. I would be interested to hear what you think.

The Latest Mean Green

The soul searching is over. The pros and cons have been weighed. Deposits have been sent in and we have received "the final answer" The University of North Texas has scored a huge victory in successfully recruiting our very own Katherine Allison.

It wasn't an easy choice. Scholarships were offered, programs were evaluated and teachers test driven. Soon we will hear the "Ca Caaaw" reverberating though the house as Katie prepares for the role of Mean Green / Eagle supporter. Officially they are the Eagles and their color is green but they had a famous football player pass through their program and now their unofficial name is the Mean Green. Can you guess the famous players name???

Oh, and they have one of the best music programs in the country. North Texas was the first university to offer a degree in Jazz Studies in 1947. The College of Music is noted for building a world-class jazz program. They also have had their share of successful people attend the university including; Roy Orbison, Thomas Haden Church, Bill Moyers, Dr. Phil McGraw, Ann Sheridan, Pat Boone, Don Henley and Norah Jones to name just a few.

Hopefully one day some dad will be writing about the school his child will be attending and he will include my kid in his list of impressive graduates.

Do you need to be Hacked?

hack - verb, to hack - to modify from it's original state to improve functionally. In the early days of computers hacking was something done by nefarious denizens of the geek underground, usually to allow access to something that was not paid for.

Now, "hacking something" has less negative connotations. There is an interesting site with a lot of helpful and thought provoking information called LifeHack.org. One of the recent "hacks" was a gathering of responses to a question - "what advice would you give a younger you" the resulting compilations is called 34 Tips for Your Younger Self It's an interesting question. What nuggets of wisdom would you pass on to yourself if you go back in time. Turns out most of the suggestions would be good advice for all of us. What would you say?

There are a lot of other kinds of posts, like how to tell if your hard drive is dying or how to put on a fabulous Sunday brunch.

We can all use a little hack once in a while.

Onward and downward

We started our journey home today. Like geese flying south for the winter, we pulled together our belongings in tight formation and started our migration. Actually we went east across Colorado and Kansas before we turned south.

The weather was very accommodating and at the 75mph speed limit had us skimming across the heartland. We passed the two headed goat, 5 legged cow and largest prairie dog displays along the Kansas highway. I don't find the Kansas plains nearly as boring as some. My fellow spring breaker and I managed to get the gears meshing again. The audio book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams certainly helped.

Our little auto audio visual setup is quite the Rube Goldberg device. The GPS stuck to the windshield is connected via bluetooth to my phone, this allows me to take and place calls using the GPS as a cordless hands free device, the GPS is also connected to one of those cassette adapters via it's headphone jack. This transfers the sounds coming from the GPS to the car stereo, these sounds include the GPS directions, the phone calls and the MP3 player built into the GPS. Are you following me? Our books on tape are in MP3 format, so while we are listening to the book the GPS will pause the book to give us driving instructions, or handle an incoming phone call. It actually works quite well!

We stopped for dinner at "The most famous BBQ in Oklahoma" I am not sure if that's true but it is the only BBQ joint I have been to that serves popcorn with all it's meals and Tootsie Rolls for everyone for desert. Dinner was good but I must say not up to our Texas standards with or without popcorn.

Blinded by the light

It started pretty well. We had the "really good" complementary breakfast as usual. Then we started making plans for the rest of the day. Maybe it was 24/7 in close contact, altitude, cold, or maybe the way the stars were aligned. In any case, shall we say, we didn't exactly mesh like a well oiled machine.

We all have moments where things don't really work out the way we want. Perspective is at a premium. Arguments in these situations remind me a lot of songs from your youth, they sounded great at the time, really conveyed an emotion, but when you listen to it replayed with the advantage of time passed, the words can sound pretty goofy. You wonder how they seemed to fit so well at the time yet failed so miserably the test of time.

"Madman drummers bummers, Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin, the calliope crashed to the ground
The calliope crashed to the ground
But she was...Blinded by the light . . ."
- Bruce Springsteen

The Pearl of Boulder

We skied again today, another bright and sunny today but it was pretty windy. The gusts sent up little snow tornadoes. If you got caught in one, it was sort of like being sand blasted with ice chips. We got in some good runs, with virtually no lift lines we were up and down the trails in no time.

We headed down mountain a little early. With our extra time, we went to the Pearl Street Mall. This is one of those center city shopping eating areas several blocks long, no cars allowed. But that is just the physical description. It is both quintessential Boulder with it's art stores, holistic tea houses and anti war protesters. But it's also the anti-Boulder with it's smoke shops, Asian Import stores and pregnant skateboard punks.

We took it all in, they guy playing the mini harp, the "Pink Ladys" accosting passers by and some very cool arts stores. Katie's favorite store by far was Into the Wind. They are known as a big time kite store but they also have all kinds of wind up toys, puzzles, flying objects and the kind of stuff that would keep an ADD kid (or adult) fascinated for hours. Katie settled on two purchases, a mechanical flying bird from her youth and a set of guitar ice cube molds

Dinner was at the Boulder Cafe one of the several eateries on Pearl St. that had a lively crowd sitting in and around the building. The food was good and the atmosphere pure Boulder.

Demons Exorcised

Today was a glorious day. Bright, sunny, about 40 degrees in Boulder. We went to our favorite ski shop - Christy Sports and picked up our internet reserved ski packages. Then we stopped by The Whole Foods Market where the quality is high, the prices are higher and the snob appeal is off the chart. We picked up a good looking wrap and were on our way.

The temperature had been above 32 for most of the last 24 hours and precipitation free. that made for a dry issue free assent to Eldora Mountain. The skiing was great, not too windy, not too crowded. We had gotten a late start so we age a late lunch. Sitting in the back of our Expedition we ate Italian bread, cheese and the upscale wrap. It was yummy.

As the day wore on, it started to cloud up and even snow a little. We decided to pack it in a little early. Now the moment of truth, time to head down the mountain. Driving conditions were still very good. I am happy to report that our trip was uneventful. The spell had been broken, the demons exorcised. Tomorrow I am going to make Katie drive so we can start building new memories.

Strange but true

Today was going to be the first day on the mountain. We checked into the hotel around 9:00am so we could get our package lift tickets and be on our way. Next stop Christy Sports to get Katie's snowboarding equipment. Mysteriously, the turn signals on our SUV stop working. We get to Christy Sports and they are closed (they were going to open at 10). The Karma is going negative.

At this point drastic action was needed. We decided to take the bus to the mountain and rent the overpriced equipment on site. We had to find out way to the bus station an find a parking spot. Right then a Boulder EMS vehicle slammed into the back of our Expedition and the shock paddles flew through the windshield and our rear window. As the cords stretched to their maximum length they started to come together and hit me on both sides of my head at the same time sending 20,000 volts from ear to ear. OK that didn't happen but I thought it might as I looked for a parking space.

I think the bus was the right move. It was the first time up the mountain road since that fate full day in 2006. It was a little creepy. The bus stopped at the Nederland High School on the way up. Fortunately no one recognised us.

Katie spent the day frolicking on the bunny hill and hitting on 12 year olds while they were her captive on the ski lift. 4:00 came right after 3:00 and it was time to get back on the bus. The trip was uneventful. Katie recounted her conquests and the guy in row 5 used the word "dude" 9 times in one sentence.

We got back in the car and drove back to the hotel with nary a EMS vehicle in site. And the turn signals worked. Strange but true.

It's snowing . . . again

The morning started with a train whistle, it was followed by a pretty good breakfast, and then as we packed up the car. The temperature was around 40. One of us looked down at our french manicured toe nails and realized that the only "shoes" we had were cute little sandals that we were wearing. I'm not saying which one of us it was, but the sandals were size 8.

We spent most of the day driving north on I-25 through Colorado. Harry and company narrowly escaped Lord Voldermort for the 4th time. Friends were dying, enemies were gaining on them and adolescent hormones were going nuclear.

We were hungry and in need of and shoe store. We hit Pueblo Co but we were right at the climax of the fight at Hogwarts so we drove on. By the time we made it to Colorado Springs the epic battle between good and evil had been decided, our GPS lead us to a Kohles store next to a McDonalds next to a gas station., and it began to snow. As we descended from our chariot, one of us (cute size 8) stepped into a puddle, this propel ed us through the parking lot into the store at warp speed.

We ate dinner at Noodle and Company - one of Katies favorite spots, it is still snowing (just like it did last time we were here) and the weather man says it will snow all day tomorrow.

Can you hear the whistle blowing?

The first 663 miles down another 524 to go. We made it to Clovis New Mexico on our first day. Clovis is the first town in NM after you cross over the Texas border. We made the journey with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it really helps the time go by. The unabridged audio books are so much better than the movies.

We are staying in the nicest newest hotel in Clovis a Hampton Inn. We found a unique accessory on the desk in the room. Ear plugs. the main road going through Clovis and all the little towns in the area, is right next to rail road tracks. A train passes by on those tracks about once every 20 min. And of course, it's a law that they blow their horn has much as possible. To be honest it isn't that bad, I heard it while falling asleep and waking up but they never roused me from my slumber.

Colorado here we come, I hope the weather holds.

Once More into the Breech

OK - it's that time again . . . . Spring Break. We are going back to the sight of our most traumatic spring break adventure. Back, back to the Eldora - Neederland Expedition Toboggan Express.

Thanks right, Katie and I reprise our hair raising adventure of two years ago. If you weren't reading our blog back then check out the archives in spring 2006. Make sure you have plenty of food and water because it may take you a while to get through it.

We are going to get back on that horse, have a little hair of the dog, look under the bed one more time. We will let you know what we find (hopefully).

A When Grandma Goes To Court

Lawyers should never ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know me?' She responded, 'Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you'll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.'

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?'She again replied, 'Why yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.'

The defense attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said:'If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you both to the electric chair!'

(sent to me from my wife)

Party for the Bells

We had a little soiree for some friends of ours. They have been long-time friends and neighbors. They have 2 kids the same ages of ours who had also been friends since the first grade. Since there last name is Bell and ours is Christy our kids were often in the same school groups.

Anyhoo, almost 2 years ago Pat, the man Bell took a job in San Antonio. Their oldest child was in college but the younger was still in HS and they didn't want to uproot him for his last year of school (by the way he is valedictorian of Katie's class) so Teressa (the lady Bell) stayed with her son here in Houston while Pat commuted on weekends.

Graduation is coming up and thus the family Bell will be free to relocate to San Antonio. So we had a little party of close friends to say thanks and wish them luck. We will truly be diminished by their absence. Teresa has been president of about everything she has touched and has volunteered more hours than 3 mere mortal PTA members combined. Since 1st grade she has been listed as our emergency contact for the kids. They have her number programed in their phones to this day.

Best of luck Bells, if they new better, they would be having a party in San Antonio in your new neighborhood right now.

She is San Antonio Bound

For the 3rd year in a row we took Katie to Klein HS to board the bus traveling to San Antonio with all the other State finalists in KISD. She was met my her music department teachers including Ms Cowan (middle).

Sometime today she will have chair auditions to see what her final position will be in the top orchestra. Go Katie!

Top 10 %

It's official, Katie is in the top 10% of her class! In Texas that's a pretty big deal because you are automatically admitted to any of the Texas State schools. Tomorrow we have a breakfast with all the other top 10percenters and their families. The kids will be given they graduation cap and gown and they can wear it for the rest of the day if they choose to. Not only is Katie in the top ten percent, she was voted one of the 3 girls in her class "Most Likely to Succeed" and there is almost 830 kids in her class. So what do you think about that?

In the picture above she hs being congratulated by her principal (Bill Lakin) and the Superintendent of the Klein Independent School district (Dr. Jim Cain).

Does this sound familiar? Yes, you have heard it before in 2006

Tech Support

Being in the computer biz, I am often asked to solve technical problems for friends and family. One commonly asked question is; "my monitor is dirty, what is the best way to clean it?". Well there are a lot of ways to clean a monitor but many of them can harm the optical coating on the outside of your screen.

Here is one that will not give you that problem and it is 100% natural. And if you hurry (before the site is overrun) it's FREE!

(click on the picture)

Total Time Waster

In my endless search for things to do on my computer and on the Internet I stumble across a lot of . . . . interesting things. This is one of them, I think it's along the lines of "art for art's sake"

Click on the picture below, then click on the black box that appears on your web page and move your cursor. Very simple, very addicting.

Go ahead and click next when you are done and see some of the others. The last page takes you to these guys home page and more stuff to look at. But if you look up from your screen and you wonder were the time went . . . don't blame me.

Time Interval Photograph

I have discoverd a hidden feature with my new camera. It's called Time Interval Photography or TIP for short. I was able to take this shot at the park down the street. I had to send some guy on eBay exactly $37.57 (with free shipping) for him to tell me the secret.


Pretty cool, huh?

Truth or Fiction ?

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS, President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23,1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect, indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him instantly.

Neither the shooter nor the descender was aware that a safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.

"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."

That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor, whence the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr. Opus.

When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded. Thed old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

41 more Pics of Sr. Presentation

Bells of the Ball

.

Katie had her NCL Senior Presentation last night at the Post Oak Hilton. This is your basic Texas Debutant Ball although there is nothing basic about it.

Sarah had one 2 years ago at the same time (here) and place. They plan all year for this event. Actually they start thinking about it when they join the organization and 6 years later they all get to be Bell..

We were out pretty late tripping the light fantastic, so when I regain full use of my faculties I will Post some more pictures in a slide show.

This Picture makes me Laugh

An Inspirational Story

This one is more than 20 years old but it still is impressive even by today's standards. Cliff Young was an Australian farmer and sheep herder. In 1983 he was 61 years old. He lived with his mother on a farm outside of Melbourne.

There was a race called an "Ultra Marathon", it ran from Sydney to Melbourne, that's 534.7 miles to us Yanks. On race day Cliff showed up at the start in Sydney. World class athletes competed in this race. No one paid attention to Cliff until he walked up to the starters table to register and get a number.

He was in his overalls and work boots with galoshes over them. Everyone thought he was crazy. He had no teeth, he was 61, and his only "trainer" was his mother (age 81). Cliff was given number 64, and the press started to take an interest. When asked why he was entering, he told them that "his farm was 2000 acres and sometimes he would run (because until 2 years ago they were to poor to afford horses or 4-wheelers) around the farm gathering the sheep before a storm and sometimes that took 2 or 3 days and this race was only a few more days." The record for the race was 6 days.

When the race started the runners left Cliff far behind. He sort of jogged-shuffled like an out of shape suburbanite might as they go for their morning half mile "run". After the first day, people were shocked. He was still in the race! He was far behind the pack but he was still running. In fact he had ran all night. The experienced racers would run 18 hours and rest 6. Cliff didn't know that was what he was supposed to do.

Along the way people cheered him on. He would smile his toothless smile, wave and jog on. People watched live race coverage to see Cliff. As the days went on, Cliff got closer and closer to the world class athletes. At night while they slept Cliff ran on. The last night, he passed all the other racers. By the last day, he was way in front of them. Not only did he run the Melbourne to Sydney race at age 61, without dying; he won first place, breaking the race record by 9 hours and became a national hero. Not knowing that he was supposed to sleep during the race, he said when running throughout the race, he imagined that he was chasing sheep and trying to outrun a storm. He had run from Sydney to Melbourne in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes.

That's not all. When he was given the first prize of $10,000 he said, he didn't know there was prize money and “There’re five other runners still out there doing it tougher than me,” and he gave them $2,000 each. In fact it was said he never kept any of the things he was given. He always passed them on to a child or someone he met soon after receiving the gift or award.

This happened before Google or Microsoft but it is true. I read several stories about Mr. Young, and I thought I might pass it along so you might be inspired too.

Happy New Year

OK, this year I am going to do better. Sometimes the posts have been few and far between, but not in 2008.

I have a random act of kindness to report. One of Katie's friends, Laura, brought over a gift from her and her parents - a bottle of Agave Tequila for Linda and I. I have never met her parents, but they sent us something anyway to say "we are glad our daughters are friends, Happy New Year". I wish I had thought of that. Happy New Year