Day : 1/2

Took Cari to the airport this morning. Randy had a total fit when it came time to leave. I had to pretty much drag him down stairs. He was much better after getting into the car. The attendant as I left short term parking was very friendly as she stole my $3.00. It is raining hard today, and driving home was not fun at all.

First line of buisness. Mom is not home and I am in charge! Let's start lunch with a chocolate chip cookie. Randy was quick to take one, but Meredith did not want one. She wanted a hot dog. Randy asked if she was crazy. "Take a cookie!", he urged her.

She did take one after I promised to make her a sandwich for dessert.
The coveted "tv chair" started to become an issue, so I dragged the table into the doorway so at least two chairs could see the tv.

more equipment

I'm going to go get in line for Star Wars III tickets tomorrow. I'll only be there for a few weeks. I am trying to get setup with a laptop and wireless internet so I can keep you up to date.


Cari will be leaving out of town this week. I will be taking a week of vacation while she is gone. Yep, just me and the kids running the house. I'm sure I'll have some updates from that. It starts on Thursday. Pray for us.
That means it is up to me to cook, clean, laundry, get the boy to school on time, pick the boy up, etc. . . you know, all the stuff I never do.

It's not nice to tease.

Tony Hawk was a guest on CSI: Miami last week. They really pumped up that he would be on. I made a point to Tivo it, although I normally do not watch the Miami variety of CSI.

GUEST STAR: TONY HAWK. "Oh, this will be very cool!", I thought.

I sat down to watch, and in the first thirty seconds, what do I see? TONY HAWK. . . dead.
What the. . .!? I waited a week, to see him laying on the floor dead. This is not a guest appearance of a world class skateboarder. This is a corpse that looks like a world class skater. I started throwing things at the TV (not at Tivo, just the television itself). I was cussing. I have been tricked to watch a show I don't really like to watch. Oh, I could just send out some quick angry e-mails to CBS.

I continued to watch. Nerds playing skate games, programmers, blah, blah. As the case starts to get solved, a flashback. NOW, I will see Tony skate.
Wrong.
This time he is alive, but it is a scene of Tony gets smashed in the head with a skateboard. No lines, just put his arms up in defense. This stinks. There are plenty of other shots of some other guy skating. This just makes me more angry.

Before the show ends, there is about fifteen seconds of Tony skating in another flash back scene. They edit it so that it flashes back and forth between views, and you can't really make much out.

Next week on CSI: Miami. Guest star: Jeff Gordon
(he won't drive a car, but he may be hit by one before the first commercial break)
I won't be deceived again.

Chicken

We went to church Friday night. It was kinda a funeral. To talk about the night Jesus died. We told Randy and Meredith they were to be especially good this night. The service was set up so that the lights in the church would be turned off near the end, and the congregation would leave in silence. I told Randy to sit quietly and listen to what was being said.

As Randy and I walked to the car, he quietly asked me, "was I really good tonight?"
"You sure were squirming around a lot tonight.", I answered him.
He smiled, "It's because I was thinking about chicken. Chicken tastes so good."

Easter Egg 2005

50 plastic eggs are now in place. The hunt begins tomorrow morning!

What Spring Means to Me

When you live in South Florida, there is only one season. Hot. There are probably eight days a year that you dig through the dresser looking for a sweater. Maybe one day a year you turn the heat on in the house. Most of those days are not that cold, it's just that your body is so used to 80+ degrees, that when it gets to 65 you are freezing.

So, when you hear on that it is now SPRING, or when all the stores are pushing huge SPRING ads, you just don't get it. What's the big deal? South Florida never really loses it's color. The trees stay green and the flowers bloom year round. Sure, spring brings a few extra blooms, and certain flowers appear.

This year, I understand what the big deal is. Driving around in upstate, South Carolina, the past few months you will see bare trees, dead lawns, and very little outside activity. It's too cold to want to be outside most days. Over the past few weeks, Pear trees have filled their canopies with clusters of white flowers, yellow daffodils have pushed from the ground. Color is coming back, people are working outside again. It's kind of exciting.

finally, SPRING time has meaning.

Spring has arrived! (and I had to cut the grass)

YES! I LOVE NASCAR!

Nascar came to their senses today when they took away the penalty that suspended Chad Knaus on the Lowe's #48 car! The penalty was from allegedly cheating, which was not the case, proven by the fact they took off that penalty. Read the GREAT news here:
http://www.nascar.com/
I was really surprised when I read this, I can not remember a time that Nascar has changed one of their rulings.

Time to celebrate. And the REAL cheater, Kevin Harvick and friends, will keep their FOUR week penalty! HA!

Bristol the week after Easter!!!

Cari got a new job. Making fabrics. Pay is low, conditions are not the best, but it's a job.

la la la la la

Hello people!

I wanted to write to tell you that I learn new things from the TV. TV is like going to a hella cool school. A school you can attend in your underwear. So, what did I learn? THE talkin' hand!

I learned that I can sing. I can do it very well. American Idol taught me this. Everyweek when they let that stupid, no talent, Mikalah Gordon, sing, I realize that I'm good enough to be on TV.
I am hoping that there will be a surprise episode, where they fly her out to the Survivor island and use her for shark bait.

Last night was the worst moment so far. Even the power of Tivo couldn't save me. I got up and walked out of the room while she squeeled out a friggin' song.

Please. I'm begging you from the bottom of my palm, do not EVER give this annoying voice a vote. Unless she is on Survivor, then she can get all the votes.

Talkin Hand. . . out!

busy week

traffic jam in turn 2

a two car spin at the front of the pack jammed up EVERYONE. It took a good fifteen or twenty minutes before they cleared up all the cars, and cleaned up a spilled liquid.

Don't drive angry

This guy got spun around DURING A CAUTION. Man, he was just a bit upset.
He got out and wanted to confront the other driver on the track. Shortly after this picture, about six officials surrounded him, ushered him back to his car, and had the offending driver removed from the race.

Green Flag!

Cars coming to the green flag on opening night at Greenville-Pickens Speedway!
This is the 60th year running races at the track. Many famous people have raced here. It is an official Nascar sanctioned track.

Good turn out, and some good racing last night. It was a bit cold, but we brought our blankets. The last race of the night started after ten. They ran into some problems, and it got red flagged twice before they were able to get five laps logged. We had to leave before they got going again. It was eleven pm, and freezing. Good time at the track last night. We look foward to heading back in a few weeks.

Handy Dandy Cookbook

The Dentist

I tried to post this early in the day, but blogger would not connect...so here it is now.

I paid a visit to the dentist today. Everyone else in the family has been in the past two weeks, and now it was my turn.

They call me through “the door”. I followed a lady to the last room on the left.
She smiled, "“now I've seen everyone in your family."”
“"yeah."”, I replied with no enthusiasm.
“"I've heard a lot about you, how long has it been since you have been to the dentist?"”
“"about ten to twelve years, I'm not really sure.”"
She kinda laughed at my answer , "“why did you wait so long?”"
“"I have been busy.”"
“"for ten years?”", she didn't seem to buy my excuse.
“"yeah, it's been some busy times.”", I told her matter of factly.

After some x-rays “the chair” got laid back. The bright light was placed over my head, and she handed me some safety goggles. Now it has been a while since I've been to the dentist, but I have never put goggles on before. We must be getting ready for some serious work, stuff is going to be just flying out of my mouth.

She shows me the major scraper that she is going to be working with. This thing has an electric motor. Not a drill, just a scraper that vibrates at high speed to get all the chunks of tartar glued to my teeth.

Next, my favorite part. The sucker tube. I hate that thing.

So, I lived through the scraping and polishing of my teeth. She told me I didn't have any cavities, and that I seem to have strong teeth. Must be from all the ice I crunch. Lesson learned? No need for 6 month check ups, I'm doing great!

But the visit was not over. This was a trick. She was not the dentist. After she got done, the dentist came in. I never saw this person because I was laying down. He came in from behind me and sat down near the top of my head. He poked around with his own pointy tool. He discussed the computer with the woman for a few minutes. Then he told me he recommends pulling my wisdom teeth out. He said they are far back there and it would be hard for me to keep them clean.

YOU ARE A MORON! I have not been to the dentist in over ten years! Now you think I will allow you to rip four teeth out because I may not keep them clean?! Friggin' idiot.
I didn't respond to him. He got up and walked out, and the woman took charge again. She asked if I wanted a referral so I could arrange to get those teeth pulled. I laughed at her. I really did laugh. She looked at me, and she must have known what I was thinking. “Your wisdom teeth are all the way in, so it would not be that bad, just an extraction. They won't have to cut into the bone or anything.”

CUT INTO THE BONE!?? Don't even say that around me. Let me tell you, these teeth are not coming out of my head until I am in so much pain, that I have eaten nothing but soup for eight months. Even then, I would have to seriously consider my options. I kinda like soup.

"“Yeah, I'm not ready to make that appointment today."”, I said politely.
As she was finishing her report, she said my teeth were good, but she doesn't recommend I wait that long for another cleaning/check up. I made another appointment for six months from now.

I'm good for another ten years.

Bright Idea!

This is not really a new product. Just new to me.

Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs!
Use 13 watts for the same light output as a regular 60 watt bulb.
The past week, I have been running around the house replacing bulbs. I love these things.

You can read a short description of them and their benefits on the Energy Star website.
It seems like no matter what time of day, their are at least two lights on in my house. Why? I don't know, but it just is that way. You can run full speed shutting lights off, but when you are done, at least two more will be on. Maybe there is some strange three way wiring going on here. The other thing, the little girl wants her little lamp on all night. Now it uses less than 10 watts.
There is a light at the top of the stairs that has gone out twice since I've been in this house. I hate changing it, because you have to position the ladder right next to the stairs. These compact fluorescent lights last 6-8 years!

If everyone in the US would change one bulb to one of these, it would reduce the pollution equal to taking a million cars off the road! Or something like that, it's on the Energy Star site.

Just wanted to enLIGHTEN you on this topic!

Horse rides. $5

True Love

Nothing shows true love more than a bashing in of your head. Seen here, as Becky and Grant demonstrate.

Through rain, sleet, and snow. (yeah, right)

I met a woman who is a letter carrier. We were all talking about the snow and ice we had a few weeks ago. She proceeded to tell us that she has a street in her route, that she does not even try to get mail to when it is snowed or iced. Excuse me? Won't even try it? She said the hill was too steep, and she would be stuck down there. She didn't seem embarrassed that she couldn't do her job. She almost was proud that she made that decision. Mail carriers from the USPS will be there through rain, sleet, and snow. You can count on it. Unless you live on this lady's route. Hope you weren't expecting any time sensitive materials.

Cari didn't seem to think it was a big deal that this lady was doing a half assed job. It's easy to say it's not a big deal when it isn't you being affected by it. "The street is only eight houses." Yeah, that makes it ok.

If I was a mail carrier I would have to evaluate my route as this lady does.
"oh, that street only has ten houses, I'll get them tomorrow."
"Mr. Smith got this big box today, but I'm not strong enough to carry it to his door, hope he sees it laying in the street....two doors away."
"I was up way too late last night, I'm only going to do the first twenty houses this morning."

Yeah, that's the job for me. Through rain, sleet, and snow, I will continue to do a half assed job.

We are the champions. . . of the word!

Ah, beautiful, clever, word games.

Although Becky and Grant have trained daily, for months at games such as Boggle and Scrabble, they were now in our home court. Would they prove to be champions of the word game? Would they totally embarrass Cari and myself, causing Cari to break down in tears? Would they cheat to make that dream come true? Maybe a little bit of all those questions is true.

Day 1: Boggle.
The children went to bed, and the four of us sat down to play some Boggle. Everyone was friendly, smiling, chatting. That quickly changed as Mrs. Vocabulary dominated round after treacherous round. Becky seemingly found every known word in that 4x4 grid. Many words, I believe she was making up. Nobody else at the table knew the words she was writing, but none of us felt confident enough to challenge her. I didn't want to appear stupid, so I just smiled and said, "good find". I know now, that she made up many of the words to give herself an advantage. Grant and myself did okay. Cari is used to totally stomping me in this game, so losing put her into shock. She too tried to cheat and make up words, but Becky would call her out on it each time. Oh, shame!

Day 2: Scabble
Grant and Becky play this game daily. They have been preparing for a tournament that would test all double word score skills that they have. I quickly realized how skilled at this game my brother is. Many times, I showed him the letters I have, hopeful for a hint. Many times I received this hint, and he helped keep my score in the game. In the early rounds, Grant took a commanding lead. Becky started to trail behind, and she got desperate. "I have bad letters.", was her excuse.
"Let me tell you about bad letters", I told her. "Six of my seven tiles are vowels!"
Becky got desperate. Really desperate. It was sad to watch as she tried to cheat. She would impose strange, twenty second, time limits on Grant to force him to make a play. Nobody else had to live by this made up rule. Part two of her plan, was to constantly distract Grant. Tapping her fingers on the table, constant talking, picture taking, were all part of the game for Becky. After seeing the tears on Cari's face from day one, I didn't think it could get any lower, but Becky proved me wrong.

Grant went on to win by more than a hundred points. Now, when you read their blog, and Becky brags about being the champ, you know the real truth.

wire bridge

This is the cool pedestrian bridge that overlooks the falls, and the park in Greenville.
You could feel this bridge moving in the wind. This caused my brother to get on his hands and knees, and crawl back to land. True.

Falls Park at the Reedy

This is one picture from Falls Park @ the Reedy river, in Greenville, South Carolina.
We took our first trip to downtown this past weekend.
The park is really cool. There is a cool pedestrian bridge that is up over the front of the waterfalls. Tons of park area. Walking down the streets was also nice.

quicky post

Just a quick note to say I haven't forgotten to update.
My brother and his girlfriend were here over the weekend. We had a good time. Now, it's back to work in the morning.

I have several pictures I want to post and talk about on here in the next couple of days. I am going to try and get at least one good post up tomorrow.

This is just a teaser post.

house guests

My brother and his girlfriend are coming to stay this weekend.
They write a blog together over at BGInc. It's not updated more than once a week normally, but they write some pretty good posts.

My brother seems to think that they will get some funny stories to post after their visit to our house. Is this like some kind of amusement to them? Like going to the circus? We'll see who is writing about who, after this weekend.

Can't read it wet

Another entry from Talkin Hand, here. This is one hella crazy story I'm going to tell ya!
You may not want to believe it at first, but it's all true. I couldn't possibly invent this myself, I'm not that creative.

Cari was at home reading a paperback book at the kitchen table. She got up to check the mail, and when she came back in, Meredith spilled a cup of water on the table, soaking the book.
Can you believe it?! A three year old spilling water! Wait. It gets better.

Cari obviously was having a difficult time reading more of the book. It was only about forty degrees outside, setting the book out would take too long. She wanted to read more NOW.

A quick glance to the clothes dryer.

Another look, then she gets up and walks over to the dryer. She quickly took all the clothes (mostly dry) out, and threw the book in. Slam the door, click on high heat, and START.
This is friggin' nuts. How good is that book?

How does this story end?
Cari goes to check on the precious book. When she opens the door a few loose pages float out.
When you look in, you see a pile pages in the bottom of the dryer. Oh, my. Time for a new book.

Talkin Hand. . . OUT!

A child's innocence

This picture comes from a party we went to a few years ago.
Center stage, Dora the Explorer pinata.
What a wonderful party. You can see the bounce house in the background, the birthday girl in her princess dress. Smiles on every young face. A paper model of a young mexican hanging in a tree. Now let's get a bat a smash the crap out of Dora!

innocence part 2

Finaly, Dora's broken body falls to the ground, revealing the sweets hidden inside. What an exciting moment, leaving the Dora head hanging from the tree.

Maybe a pinata should be a character we do not like. A scary creature, a non-human object. I'm scared for the parents of that girl. They might have been sued under some kind of hate crime law.

We had a pinata at Randy's last two birthdays. Last year was a dragon, and the thing would not break open. The broom handle broke long before the concrete dragon. This year we went with a pirate theme, and had a pirate ship pinata. It was timed perfect. Put the oldest kid in the back of the line, everyone got one turn before the thing split in two.
So, I think pinatas are fun at a child's party. Let's leave the child idols out of it. Even funnier to me, is the tag on the side of Dora, "made in Mexico"