June 26, 2006 – Lots of Work to Do, and No Time to Do it.

Last week was a pretty nice week. Last Sunday was Father’s Day so I went out to my parent’s house and helped them with some chores. On Tuesday, my old college friend Nichole was in town and we watched the Dallas Mavericks choke. Wednesday Gena, Liam, and Mitch came by the house to barrow my car and go for a walk around the park. That was really nice.

Thursday I invited them back over for a BBQ, and they brought Mitch’s dad with them. I tried a recipe for Shiner Burgers I got off a 6-pack of Shiner Bock. The burgers were way too moist and fell apart on the grill. They were also not as tasty as I had hoped, but everyone was very nice and did not mention it to me. Friday I started a long weekend of yard work.

Friday night I went out with Dave and Boris and when I got home I tried to write my blog. Around page eight I realized Jason was right and that I need to be more concise. In it however I believe I did have three cures for cancer, the answer to the question of life, and a great recipe for brown betties.

Saturday Dave cooked Jen and I a great lunch, and we watched a weeks worth of The Daily Show. There was a great bit making fun of the new North Korean missile name, plus tons of other really funny stuff. The rest of the day was spent on yard work. I started installing a sprinkler system in the back yard.

Sunday was Chloe’s birthday party, and Julia went all out. There was tons of food there so she sent George and me home with a lot of the leftovers. I am going to be eating well this week. I bough Chloe a trampoline with handlebars on in. (frog trampoline – They sell them at Academy for $29) It is a great toy for little kids, because they spend hours jumping on the thing wearing themselves out and it dose not make any noise. I bought one for Peyton when he turned one, and he still loves to play on it.

The rest of the day I worked on my sprinkler system, and then went to help Robin clean out a fish tank at her school. Apparently Peyton accidentally over fed some fish, and Robin needed help figuring out how to clean the filter. A helpful hint to everyone, don’t buy fish. They suck.

Update on Omer’s dad. He is doing a lot better. It looks like he should be able to make a significant recovery. I need to say sorry to Yung and Liam for butchering there names in previous posts.

Also I would like to apologize to the oil and gas industry for accusing them of price gauging. The real reason for the higher gas prices is due to limited production capacity which is a result of strict environmental regulations put on new refineries back in the ‘70’s. Because of these regulations oil and gas companies have not built a new refinery in the US in the past 30 years, thus resulting in a market where demand exceeds supply. It is at this point where the explanation must stop, because if you were to examine it any further you would have to ask yourself if this is the cause of the higher gas prices would we have not had a gradual increase in price as refineries approached there production limits rather then a sudden spike? There is an attempt to explain this spike by using price points and foreign markets that if you don’t dig too deeply into covers a lot of bases. But we are going to stop back there by blaming it on environmental regulations. Oh, and on a completely unrelated topic this blog is now sponsored by the good people at Exxon-Mobile.

Now on to the discussion topic. As promised this one is on immigration. I know it is a touchy topic so I will refrain from any jokes like, who is going to build the wall? Let’s face facts the only reason this became an issue is because Dubai tried to manage one of our ports. Then people cried about border security, and some jakehole who wanted to draw attention away from ports pointed towards the Mexican border. I mean if you are an terrorist doesn’t it make more since to send a bomb via cargo ship then try and sneak it across the Brownsville border on your back?
Now I think we all have heard a lot about the many different sides and issues of immigration reform. My favorite being, building a giant wall, only because it shows how freaking stupid people in congress are. Now don’t get me wrong I hate Mexicans as much as the next guy, but the truth is they are here doing the jobs no one else would do. Like accounting, architectural design, and computer programming. (Funny side note Dave was telling some girl what he dose for a living, and she replied, “I figured it was either computer work or working in a field.” I just hope the girl was really good looking, because with that brain she is not going to get very far.) Because Mexicans are to blame for how bad our economy is doing right now, they are trying to turn the southwest into Mexico II, and they eat babies, we can all agree that immigration is a emendate crisis that must be taken care of. So let’s get on to the solutions.

Since this is such a rational problem shouldn’t we take care of it rationally? The truth is people for the most part people come to America looking for a better life. It is pretty straight forward. People in Mexico need jobs, and people in the US give them jobs. So first why don’t we enforce our current laws and punish employers that hire undocumented workers, and second stimulate the Mexican economy so people do not have to leave Mexico to get a job. It is the second part of my plan that admit tingly there might be a couple of holes, but politicians love to point out how many illegal immigrants there will be in 10 years, imagine how much better the Mexican economy could be in 10 years. Now I must confess I am not very well versed in Mexican history, but as I recall not too long ago Mexico had a fairly decent economy (’60 – ’70). Then the late ‘70’s depression hit and Mexico was hit way harder then the US. Since then corruption has been holding Mexico back. Mexico is a country filled with natural resources, yet something like 30% to 50% of the countries GDP is from people working in the US sending money home to there families. There is also some figure like 5% of the population has 90% of the wealth. Now all of that could be wrong. So if you do know the real story please enlighten the rest of us. However my question is what do you believe to be the best way to stimulate the Mexican economy? Oh, and please be quick with your answers, I believe Hugo Chavez already working on his response.

A little correction in my Mexico history. Apparently according to wikipedia, the time after WWII was know as the Mexican economic miracle, and in 1994 was the economic crash in Mexico. The crash was due to corruption in government, and would have been much worse if Clinton had not given the Mexican government $50 Billion.

June 19, 2006 – Nice Boring Weekend

Well not much has been going on lately. Yesterday was father’s day so I went out to my parent’s house and spent the day with them. I took Boo Boo with me and he had a blast chasing deer in the back yard, but for the most part he just stayed inside and slept. It was way too hot to really get anything done.
On second though I guess a lot did happen last week. George moved into the guest bed room last Tuesday. It is nice having some one else in the house, even though we do not see much of each other. We are both usually busy doing our own things, me at home sleeping and him out having a life.
Friday I got some more yard work done. I bought a tree pruning saw and had a field day sawing down branches. I got the scary looking branch over the driveway that looked like it was going to fall on the car some day. So that was nice. The only bad thing is that the tree in the front yard is so big I could not get to most of the branches I wanted to take down. Also there are a couple of branches that are over the house that I want to get rid of. But for the most part the yard is looking good.
I am trying to get the crape myrtle cuttings to grow, but it dose not look good. However, when we bought the house back in December there was only one little patch of grass in the back yard and now just about the entire yard is covered. I am also optimistic about my grub worm problem in the front yard. I think the grass is starting to come back in these areas as well.
Terri wants a platform bed for the master bed room, so I was going to start building one on Saturday. However a pretty bad storm rolled threw in the morning and washed away my ambition. So instead I played video games most of the day.
One of my old high school friend’s fathers had a stroke on Saturday. His father was with his sister and mother on there way out to California for vacation when it happened. They made it to El Paso before finding a Hospital. Apparently he started showing signs as they were leaving San Antonio. The good news is he never lost consciousness. It sounds like they caught it in time, and I am hopeful that he will be able to make a full recovery. The really scary part is that his dad is pretty young. He is in his early 50’s.
Omer was in College Station with his girlfriend at the time. So he met up with his brother in Austin before continuing on to El Paso. Dave and I bought them dinner and loaded them up with supplies for there long haul. Omer looked so tired. You could tell he was just physically and emotionally drained. They did not get out of Austin until around 8:00pm. So undoubtedly they had a long rough night. I have not heard from them since they left Austin, but I will let you know how things turn out.
My sister Robin’s birthday was on Saturday, but we celebrated by going to dinner on Thursday with the whole family. We probably should have ordered in since we had Peyton, Adie, and Lillian with us, but Robin needs to get out of the house every once in a while.
Well I think that just about covers my week so let’s move on to our discussion questions. I had thought of about twelve of them, but now that I am typing I can’t seem to remember any of them.
First off undoughtably everyone has heard that Zarqawi was killed the other week. What a sad day for all. Since then gas prices have dropped. My question is who being killed or captured would drop gas prices more: Osama Bin Ladin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the president of Iran), Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or for all you Bush haters I will even though his name into the count, but you have to give evidence why destabilizing the US will decrease my fuel expenses. Good luck with that. Nice side note while I was looking up how to spell Hugo Chavez I just noticed that he is now trying to nationalize the Diamond industry down there.
That seems like a pretty good place to start my next discussion question. With Venezuela and Bolivia starting to nationalize there industries, what is a greater threat to the US, the spread of communism in South America, or an unstable Middle East? The fact is we get way more of our oil from South America then we do from the Middle East, so now with so many South American countries moving towards communism and becoming more anti-American what is the bigger threat? (At least these countries are moving in the right direction, after all France has the ideal social government, and you never hear about riots or strikes in that country.)
Talking about countries moving in the right direction let’s talk about the panicle of stability and model for all Middle East governments, Palestine. Of course we have all heard about the election in Palestine where the terrorist organization Hamas had won the majority of there congress from the Abas party. Of course since Hamas is a terrorist organization, all Israel wanted was for them to remove the part of there charter that calls for the destruction of Israel. And Hamas has refused to negotiate with Isreal in any way. So Israel has decided to stop funding the Palestinian government. (How freaking unreasonable is Israel? They won’t fund a government that wants them destroyed.) So now we have all sorts of strikes from government workers that have not been paid in Palestine. Ok, a couple of months ago when Hamas won the elections, my friend Aldo predicted it was the end of the world as we know it, and that this was going to unravel into all out war. I on the other hand believe it was a step in the right direction. Now Hamas is accountable for its actions, and if they want to stay in power they are going to have to learn how to negotiate with Israel. What do you think, were the elections a step towards peace or war?
Ok, to show you how bored I was this past weekend, yesterday I watched Meet the Press. Man dose that show ever suck. The guests were pretty interesting though. They had Senator Murtha on, and the CEO’s of Conico, Chevron, and Shell.
First the interview with Murtha. Let me tell you, if the republican’s want to win all they should do is shut up and give this idiot as much air time as possible. This guy has no freaking clue. I mean he seems like a nice old grandfather figure, but as sweet as my grandfather was I don’t think he should be leading a nation. For those of you that do not know Murtha is the senator that is most calling for a pull out of Iraq. He calls it a change of direction. He uses the examples of Korea, Beirut, and Mogadishu as examples. He wants to pull our troops of the ground in Iraq and conduct the war from our base in Okinawa. When confronted with the progress being made in Iraq and pointing to the death of Zarqawi as evidence of this, his response was that we did this with air power not ground troops. For some reason he can not comprehend that the only reason we were able to get the intel on the location of Zarqawi in the first place was because we have troops on the ground over there that trained and sported the people that gave us the intel in the first place.
Let’s step back and look at all those victories that Murtha used as examples. Korea, as I recall we still have solders stationed there guarding the 35th parallel. No real truce has ever been negotiated, just a cease fire agreement. The reason for not pushing threw North Korea was because China was reinforcing the North Koreans. We did not want to escalate the war to a point that China would become directly involved. Luckily for us North Korea is a shining example of a peace loving country. When a country makes China look like a paradise full of personal freedoms you know things are not good.
Beirut, I am not all that well versed on Beirut, but from what I recall I believe it was under Syrian law until recently when it got its independence back. Also someone was recently assassinated building tension between Lebanon and Syria.
Mogadishu is a prime example of a job not finished. Now some people will try to blame President Clinton for this, but it all honesty anyone in power at the time would have done the same thing. War lords have recently been pushed out of Mogadishu (Yea!!!) and a radical Muslim fundamentalist group is ready to establish a government. One of the early titles for the new government is Taliban II. They have already started to implement there new economic plan to increase tourism by starting up all sorts of terrorist training camps. Way to go guys! Murtha is so proud.
Ok, back to my point. Murtha is an idiot we can all see that, but the scary part is that as left wing waco fringe group as I think he is, there are other Dems that follow right behind him. It is a scary day when you have to look as Hilary Clinton and say she is not as much of a nut ball as those guys. Probably the most frightening part of this entire situation is how nuts Kerry is. This guy was a few votes away from being our next president, and he still can’t decide what he is for. He said he was ready to pull out the other day because he and Hillary were in front of some far left group up in NY. Hilary got booed for saying that the best cores was to see it thru to the end.
Well let me get off my soap box for a little while, I am not sure who will be running for the Republican presidential primaries. There is a list of people I would like to see run, but all in all they pretty much are the same person in a different package. The Democratic party on the other hand is way more interesting. The party it self is very diverse to put it nicely. From what I can tell the people that are going to run are Her Majesty Hilary, flip flop Kerry, and Mr. Science and inventor of the internet Gore. Who do you think will run to be a presidential candidate and who do you think will be the next Democratic candidate.
Next up were those CEO’s from oil companies. Really old rich men, geez are those guys’ crooks or what. When asked how oil companies could justify such high gas prices while showing record profits one of the terds had the gaul to say that they were making barely any money off of gas, and it was other divisions that were making all the money. Another one tried to say that it was supply driving up the prices, and that if the companies lowered the price the companies would run out of gas because demand would increase by so much. Of course each of them laughed off alternative fuels. Now I am not a big believer in conspiracies especially when it comes to the free market. But the oil and gas industry is not a free market, it is an oligopoly. Last nights episode of King of the Hill hit the nail on the head. Strickland Propane made a deal with the other propane companies to not under cut each other and started price gauging. Now I realize my build up to this question is totally bias, unlike any of my other questions, but do you believe gas companies have been involved in price fixing?
Ok, that is enough talking about TV shows I have watched recently. I hope you all enjoy. Next time I might delve further into socialism and border security. So you might want to brush up on those topics.

June 9, 2006 – Next Investment, A Concrete Wall

Boo Boo was in deep doo doo this morning. At about 5:00am he decided he needed to wake me up so I could let him out to go chase cats. So I let him out and go back to bed. I wake up at 6:30 and go to let him back in and he is nowhere to be found. So I call out to him and hear some jingling in my neighbor’s back yard. I look over the fence and there he is as happy as could be. Apparently he decides to dig thru the fence to chase some cats.

So at this point I figure he is locked up in the neighbor’s yard and should be ok for five minutes while I change out of my PJs. I get dressed and nock on the neighbor’s door and explain how Boo Boo dug threw the fence to get into there back yard. When we go back there to get him the fence is wide open and he is gone.

So I jump in the car and start driving around the neighborhood for the next 30 min hoping I would see him peeing on someone’s lawn or something.

On my first loop I drive by the park and see two guys that are there walking there dogs. So I ask them if they had seen Boo Boo. Neither of them had. However one suggested I go home and make a flyer. So that if anyone dose find him they would know how to contact me. What a freaking moron. That still bothers me. With in the first couple of minutes of loosing your pet you don’t go home and make a freaking flyer, you go at and try and find the thing. Plus Boo Boo has his tags on him so there is a number and address to contact if he gets lost.

So I continue driving around the neighborhood hoping to see him, and I see a lady that is out on her morning walk. So I ask her if she had seen Boo Boo. She said she did see him on the concrete path in the park. So I drive right over there and as I get there he comes walking down the path following a lady that is walking her dogs.

Of course when I try to put his leash on he runs away. After a while he gets tired and lays down wanting to be petted. Man I could have killed that dog. So now I have one more project I need to get done this weekend.

Let’s see, other things that have been going on. Tuesday after work I went over to Linda’s house and helped her with some lawn work. I took Boo Boo with me and he really enjoyed playing in her back yard. After that I got to baby sit Peyton and Adie for a couple of minutes while Robin was out playing cards with some friends. Unfortunately Peyton and Adie were already a sleep, so I did not get to play with them.

On Wednesday night I got to play poker with Alicia, John, and all those guys. It was a blast. Originally I was going to have to go to bed early so I could give Dave a ride to the airport at 5:00am, but luckily Boris had to fly out about the same time so he gave Dave a ride instead, and I got to play poker. I took Boo Boo with me. The entire time John’s dog Rito tried to play with Boo Boo, but Boo Boo was busy being a lazy punk and would not play.

Thursday night was really nice. I got to stay home and watch the Mavs tear up the Heat. It was great the Mavs looked awful yet still beat the Heat.

Hopefully I can scan some old Germany pictures later today and tell you some good old stories, however for right now let’s get to today’s discussion questions.

Rep.William Jefferson is a US congressman that is suspected on some bribery charges and was asked by the FBI to turn over some documents which he never did. So the FBI obtained a warrant and searched his office and collected boxes full of documents. Before the boxes could be examined several other members of congress, both Democrat and Republican, started to scream foul. They claim that sense the FBI is an extension of the executive branch or the government, the search is a violation of the separation of powers. When all these congressmen started complaining the President freaked out and came up with a magical presidential seal on the documents to keep them from being opened for 40 days. (Because that is how many days Jesus spent in the desert) Now let me remind you Jefferson is not convicted of anything yet, however Nancy Peloci House Democratic leader wants to give up his spot on the House Ways and Means Committee until the matter is cleared up. Now just today the Congressional Black Caucus which Jefferson just so happens to be black has said the first correct thing in this whole situation. They say that Jefferson has not been convicted of anything yet and as a result should not be forced to give up his post.

Ok here are all the mistakes as I see them:

1. Congressmen yelling at the President to do something when it was the judicial branch the ordered the search. A warrant is a judicial order. If you want the seized material returned or sealed you need to petition the judge that ordered the search in the first place. Not the President. The President has no power in this situation. Coincidently Jefferson has petitioned the judge, but not till after the magical Presidential seal was applied. Separation of powers is a very important thing as we all know from the Watergate scandal; however congressmen do not have diplomatic immunity. Therefore they are subject to court ordered searches. To what extent do you think congress should be protected from the executive branch?
2. The magical presidential seal. The President is chief of the FBI and basically every other law enforcement agency. So what he says goes with those guys, however I have never heard of another situation where a chief or commander in a department can order evidence to be sealed. That type of stuff is up to a judge. So do you think the President has the authority to seal evidence or do you think that this could be considered obstruction of justice?
3. Peloci has no business asking Jefferson to give up his spot on the House Ways and Means Committee. Jefferson should volunteer to give up his spot but that is his choice. If everyone accused of a crime were to have to give up there position then every one would start accusing everyone else of different crimes. So do you think Jefferson should be forced to give up his spot?
4. The fact that I as a novice realized all the mistakes that have been made and the people that are making the laws do not seem to understand them. Do you think since teachers are required to take a competency exam shouldn’t politicians?

Ok next topic. I have several crape myrtles in the back yard and I love them. (Man dose that make me sound gay or what?) Anyway I have a couple of areas in the yard that I would love to fill in with some more crape myrtles. I figure the best way to go about doing this would be to do a cutting. So I got on the interweb and looked it up. This is what it said:

Propagating

Crape myrtle is propagated easily from semi-hardwood cuttings taken during the growing season. June, July and August are excellent times to root cut-tings. Take cuttings from new growth of the season, leaving three to four nodes per cutting and several leaves. Rooting hormone is generally not necessary, and cuttings should root in three to four weeks. Place cuttings in well-drained rooting medium in a shaded area; keep them moist by enclosing them in a clear plastic bag. Cuttings also can be placed in prepared outdoor rooting beds. Thoroughly cultivate the soil to a depth of 10 to 12 inches. Add 4 to 5 inches of organic matter such as peat moss, leaf mold or pine bark to the surface and thoroughly mix it into the soil. Place cuttings approximately 6 inches apart. Insert them one-half their length into the soil. Mulch with 2 to 3 inches of pine straw, leaf mold or pine bark to conserve moisture. Keep them moist with regular misting. The young rooted plants can be transplanted to their permanent location during the fall and winter.

What the hell dose that mean? What is a root cutting? What is cutting from new growth? I need pictures dam it!

Ok I got the scanner to work the other day. So I am going to try this thing out.

This picture is of the first day I meet my first host family. For the most part a lot of them seem pretty normal. You do have to remember this picture was taken over ten years ago. I meet my family in Berlin about three hours before this picture was taken. Apparently this was a family reunion. Most of these people had only met each other once or twice before, if at all. You might recognize me to the far left of the picture covering up some family member no one cares about. Just below me was my host mother Heidi. On the far right side of the picture you might notice a guy with a beard and glasses. That was my host dad. I forgot his name like most other things about him, very forgettable person. Heidi wore the pants in that family. Now four heads to the left of the dad there is a teenager that looks like he has down syndrome. Sorry to everyone who dose have down syndrome I do not mean to insult you like that. This kid is Ule my host brother.

That party was probably the most fun I ever had with that family. It was the first time I ever saw one of those little mini kegs, great invention. For the most part everyone else at the party was really nice and pretty cool. I don’t have a really cool story about this picture other then it is of a party I attended and did not know anyone. Next time I will pick out a better picture.

June 6, 2006 – Back by Popular Demand

Ok so two responses might not be a tremendous number, but I will take quality over quantity any day. Terri and Yong, you can’t get better quality then that.
So first let’s start out on an update of what all has been going on. I got a 9:00am wake up call from my sister Robin asking if I wanted to go play with Peyton and Adie at the park behind my house. Unfortunately I was up till 3:00am writing a blog on Saturday so I slept threw the entire park time. However after they played at the park they decided to stop by the house for a quick snack and a diaper change. Peyton and Adie loved playing with the bear chair and Terri’s Simpson toys. The rest of the day was spent mostly cleaning, doing laundry, and getting the Xterra ready to be stored in the garage.
Yesterday morning at work our AC was out, and it was around 80 degrees in my office. Luckily they got it working before it got too hot. I had lunch with my parents and my sister Gena. Unfortunately she was in a hurry to pick up Liam from day care so she had to cut out early.
I got a myspace message from my high school student body president, asking if I could help with the reunion next year. I let him know that I would be more then happy to help, and let him know about my mad excel skilz. Then I forwarded him a spread sheet that I made that when you pressed a button a smiley face would appear and it would say “Have a Nice Day, @#$%!”. Those random symbols weren’t exactly what I said, but the real word was kind of bad so I figured I ought to edit it.
Yesterday evening I did some gardening. I have a couple of brown patches in my yard that I am afraid are grub worms. I have been using some pesticides and stuff but I am pretty impeccant. Also I replanted my fern and some flowers that were in cracked pots. Hopefully this will help them grow. I am a little upset about some wild flowers I planted about two months ago. The stupid things still have not bloomed. They just look like weeds right now. The calo lily has started to grow though and should look real nice.
Jen Taylor came by the house last night to pick up there bed, and she brought her new cat with her. When she walked in she had it in a small basket and I just thought it was her purse. Luckily I realized what it was before Boo Boo and was able to lock him in the bedroom before he could get to it. Jen is still trying to come up with a name for the cat. I suggested Lunch.
While we were waiting for her friend with a truck to show up we watched the Alma awards. Now that is not a pointless award show at all, and played with the cat.
Tonight I am going to go over to my co-worker Linda’s house and help her get it cleaned up so she can sell it. (Terri is extremely jealous) Also hopefully I can get the scanner up and running. Terri wants me to send her some stuff, and it would be nice to get started with that picture idea I mentioned last time.
OK, now to get more of you involved I will post some discussion questions for you. First, I have two 401k plans from places I use to work, and I have decided I want to roll them over into an IRA. I have been doing a little research and think the Vanguard 2035 plan is the right way to go. Apparently as the plan matures it will automatically redistribute it self switching from a strong growth fund to a stable savings fund. Has anyone heard anything good or bad about the Vanguard fund or does anyone have any suggestions on a good fund I should look into?
Next topic. As many of you may know I have been a regular supporter of the President, and most of his policies. Recently the President has come out and said he would sign any law that was passed by congress that would ban gay marriage. Personally I believe laws should be written to protect people’s rights, not to limit them. However even more frightening is the idea that this non-issue is being made into one because no one has answers to the real issues. (i.e. Social Security, Health Care Costs, Gas Prices and the threat of slipping into another era of stagflation) However without getting to involved in peoples opinions of the President, my question is do you think his making this an issue in order to galvanize the religious right for the up coming elections will work, or will it turn off the voters because it is such a blatant manipulation. Personally I would tend to think it would back fire, however it worked on Ohio during the Presidential elections. And I have been wrong before in predicting what the populace wants. (A prime example of this is the show The Bachelor. How can people watch that garbage?)

June 4, 2006 - First and Hopefully not Last

Hello every body. Well Terri has been after me to start this blog for a couple of days now. So here it goes.

This past week has been a pretty busy one. Richard and Jenny came into town and stayed with us on Tuesday and Wednesday. Jenny cooked her famous Asian beef and noodles. Of course she made way too much and I have all sorts of leftovers sitting in the fridge now. On Thursday we had a small going away party for Terri and I cooked some spaghetti. And of course I cooked way too much and have a ton of leftovers from that. Friday morning I had to take Terri to the Airport. It was pretty sad. It has only been two days and I already miss her. OK enough being sappy.

The real exciting news about Friday was my friend Cody and his fiancée Kimberly were coming in from Houston to pick up the spare washing machine we had in the garage. So I had to rush to clean the whole house. There was still a bit of a mess from Terri’s going away party, and the guest bedroom needed new sheets after Richard and Jenny slept in there. (After all we all know how dirty Richard and Jenny are) Oh and Boo Boo did his part to make a mess also. He puked on the rug twice. The first time was just a small spot from some grass he had eaten, but the second time was a huge pile of his dog food and raw hide all mixed together.

Luckily I was able to get the house in presentable order before Cody and Kimberly got in. Friday night Cody, Kimberly, Dave, and I all went out down town for the Republic of Texas Motorcycle rally. Cody really loves motorcycles. We got back home from that at about 3:00am and of course we all wanted a little snack. So I heated up some of the Asian Steamed Bunds Terri had brought back from her last trip to Dallas. Cody and Kimberly while hesitant at first really enjoyed them, they really hit the spot.

Saturday morning Boo Boo felt it was necessary to bark at 5:00am and let me know he wanted to go out side. Which was odd because ever since last weekend when we left him and my sisters dog Emit out side while we went tubing down the river, and then to my nephew Peyton’s third birthday party, he has not wanted to go outside. Anyway so I let him outside and go back to bed for a couple more hours. When I finally do wake up Cody and I make some breakfast, because I am trying to get rid of as much food out of that refrigerator before it goes bad. And we start watching “Date Movie” which Terri and I had rented when Rich and Jenny were around. (Awe full movie do not pay to watch it)

Around 1:00 we meet up with Cody’s sister and her boyfriend for lunch at Matt’s Famous Mexican Grill. Delicious! It is on South Lamar across the street from Kirby Lane.

After lunch Cody and I loaded the washer and dryer into his pickup and drove to Goodwill to donate the dryer. However apparently they do not accept appliances at Goodwill, but they did give me a list of places where I could go to donate them.

Cody and Kimberly left around 3:00 this after noon and since then I have been really busy doing nothing. It is great.

The problem is I have a ton of work I need to get done. Tomorrow I am supposed to meet up with Dave and Carlos Garrett at Trudy’s for lunch. I also want to get my Xterra ready so I can store it in the garage until Terri gets back. So I need to wash it and get the oil changed in it. I also need to get Terri’s car inspected. The tag runs out this month. And for some reason I am getting brown patches in my yard even though I water just about every day. Cody suggested it might be grub worms and that the best way to fill in the patches is to rake out all the dead grass and water the area. So hopefully I will be able to get to that tomorrow. Not to mention doing all the other house chores to get ready for this next week.

Well I hope my first blog entry did not totally bore you. Hopefully I can make them a little more interesting in the future. Terri wants me to start scanning some of my old pictures and tell the story behind them. Apparently she thinks I have a lot of interesting stories to tell. As evidence to the contrary I submit this blog.