Spare Christmas Spirit

I thought I was leaving work early today. Instead I was changing a tire and forking over the moola to replace it.

Still, I wasn't working on spreadsheets and I wasn't stuck on the side of the road.

Merry Christmas!

Irony

there is just something about this sign...

Driving picnic

Tonight we took a driving picnic. (sonic wacky packs w/ chocolate shakes for the boys. A 7-Layer minus two burrito for Lainey).

Our mission was to see Chistmas lights and the fireworks at Firewheel Mall. But the unintentionally neon-lit tree at Sonic was one of the best sights of the night.

A tail of two glasses

I typically wear glasses in only two situations.

1. At work after about 40 hours (this usually occurs by Friday at Big Time Consulting, LLP).

2. Driving long distances at night or towards the sun.

When I wear my glasses in these situations, I find I have left them in the car or at home and do not have them for work. Or they are sitting on my desk when I want them in the car. My prescription and need is not strong enough to have them with me all the time. Usually, I throw my most recent pair in my laptop bag and regulate the old pair to the car.

I actually went all of last year without wearing glasses. They were uncomfortable. It turns out my eyes had gotten stronger and my prescription is now weaker. Time for new glasses! But that also means, I cannot just dump the old pair in the car. And insurance only pairs for frames and lenses every two years.

Enter Zenni Optical. Instead of dropping $150-200 a pair, a decent pair of glasses can be ordered online for $18 after shipping.

So I bought a "real" pair of glasses from the local walli-world eye-mart ($148 for discount frames) and a nerd pair for the car from Zenni.

Walgreens sells socks

OK, I forgot to wear socks to work!

I began Friday morning letting the doc take some of my blood. He likes to keep tabs on my thyroid, you know. Anyway, I knew I was swinging back by my apartment before finally heading to work, so why wear real shoes...

It wasn't until I hit woodall rogers that I realized I was still wearing sandals. Luckily, I have a fear of loosing digits and I always insist on closed-toed sandals. With socks, my feet looked professional enough for casual Friday.

Cub scouts at football

Scout night at SMU Football! We spent Halftime and most of both the 2nd &3rd quarters in line for pizza and pretzels.

By the 4th quarter a pokemon game had broken out.

7 minutes to go. 27 27 tie game and I don't think the boys remember there is a game....

UPDATE:

Tulane wins. The tie was up to 34 with just a few seconds left. The crowd was in the game and the boys were watching now. Tulane scored in their overtime procession and then recovered a SMU fumble to end the game. Dad, who had been relatively quiet stood up and cheered... clapping for the crowd. He could hold in his Tulane support no more.

We listened to LSU on the way home... I checked the score via-Treo from the stadium and LSU was behind. By the time we found the game on Sirius, LSU was ahead. And then they were behind and then they went ahead again with one second left.

While we were looking for the game, we tuned n WWL AM and thought we had the wrong station, until we realized we were listening to the Jindal acceptance speech.

All in all, I think it was pretty good night for Louisiana.

Finger...

my false severed finger is looking nasty.
the yellow-orange goop that looked like a urine sample to begin with is turning darker
and the finger keeps rising to the top.

REDBOX

I have been shopping at Redbox [www.redbox.com].  (Don't get confused.  My fiancee should not get excited and expect something from Red Envelope [www.redenvelope.com] which is an entirely different website)

 

Redbox is that big DVD-dispensing machine that is starting to show up in grocery stores (and supposedly McDonald's).  Push buttons on the touchscreen, see what's inside and rent a movie for a dollar a night.  Considering that the local video store no longer had dollar rentals but instead wants to give me 5-night rentals for $2.50 or something, Redbox is cheaper.  Not cheaper by night, but cheaper by use... assuming I return the movie in the morning.

 

The selection is limited by machine and location.  Customers can return a movie to ANY Redbox machine.  So some locations may be short on titles while other locations may have extra titles.  But by running out to the Redbox.com website, I can browse the selection by location and even reserve the movie, to be picked up later.

 

This really isn't all that exciting.  But I come from a town that got excited when they built that no-attendant/pay-at-the-pump Shell station.

It is Texas State Fair time and my baby wants fried food for her birthday! Normally, I'll take in the Fair with the kiddos on whichever day the school district designates. But this year their mom took them. Dang, last year the kids and I won a DVD player at the Mutual of Omaha exhibit.

This year, I just met Katrina after work and we used Dr. Pepper cans to knock the price of our tickets down to $3 ea. We saw the pig races and joined the nighttime parade. We ate our fair share (pun intended) of fried goodness and wandered the midway. I think this is the first time she had ever tried boudin. We will have to acquire some more this Thanksgiving. Fried Boudin Balls at the fair in Dallas; who knew?

Oh yeah, the hats were free from the GM tent.

Happy Day

On Thursday, 'Trina and I went to celebrate my birthday at the MasterGrill Churrascaria at Firewheel Mall in Garland. She had never eaten at one of these Brazilian type restaurants before, so it was a treat. The Picanha with Garlic was our favorite. But the salmon from the salad bar was also especially tasty. And I did not die when cajoled into trying the grilled pineapple.

This was a nice little place. Not as swell feeling as Texas de Brazil on Cedar. I always had the feeling that Garland and the mall were just a few yards behind me. But it was tasteful and tasty all the same. The value reminded me of the first of these places I even visited, Rodizio in the Salt Lake City Trolley Barn.

I must say, even though it was 5 year's ago, Rodizio was the best. But I'd gladly go back to MasterGrill on another special occasion. I'd even take the kids if Lainey weren't working on the vegetarian thing and Paul wouldn't ask if they had one of those skewers with a PB&J on it. I wonder if Lainey remembers going to the churrascaria in San Antonio?

Yumm indeed

Halloween trees

Kids wanted to look at Halloween stuff today.
After we found our way past the Christmas trees,
I think we found a New Zoo Hat
and the perfect costume for Paul...

Shotgun

Paul with a shotgun!

So after our adventure at the Louisiana Wildlife Festival thing, I really had a hankering to go shoot some more clay pigeons.

So I borrowed a friend's 870 12 ga and Katrina escorted me out to the Alpine range. That is fun. I only wish, I lived in the country where I could justify the purchase of a manual trap and my own shotgun. But why bother? Here is Dallas, it will take you just as long to get out to someones farm as it will to get to the range. And you can shoot the heck out of a range-rented gun ($10 for gun rental, $15 for clays and range use) many times before you'd pay for your own.

Heck, for that matter, there is an indoor rifle and handgun range just up the road from me. Targetmaster offers a yearly membership. Of course, you'd have to shoot at least twice a month to break even on the gold-level membership.

Maybe shooting is a three or four times a year kinda thing.

Here is one of the hawks Patrick enjoyed shooting with the camera.

Bayou Bodcau

This was the weekend (9/23) for the anual
Wildlife Festival at the Bodcau Army Corps o' Engr site.
The were plenty of critters to look at and a hill to sled down.
Great fun, but if you go, watch your step.

1K Popcorn

A package of last year's Trails-End Popcorn. Looks like it was deemed good for a long time, a thousand and one years actually!

WOW, you should really buy some popcorn from your local Cub Scout or Boy Scout.

BAGGIE PANTS

Just thought of a great deterent to baggie pants: PEDESTRIAN SOBRIETY CHECKS.

Imagine a cop stopping you on the street and asking you to run about 20' WITH your hands ON TOP of your head.

If you stumble (trip over the pants that are now around you ankles), you get thrown in the drunk tank!

Better pinatas

NM has better pinatas.

Rockhound State Park

You can keep the rocks at Rockhound State Park... But not the tarantulas or humming birds.

Late check in

Rockhound State Park has late check in.

Meteor Crater

You can not take rocks or snakes from the meteor crater.

Super Fan

If you ever run into this hand dryer, hold on...

Budding Photographer

http://mediaokra.netfirms.com/okrapics/nfpicturepro/thumbnails.php?album=82

Grandma sent the kids her old Sony Mavica. Lain and Patrick first got their hands on it at Paul's Scout Meeting tonight.

But it was Patrick who really took to documenting the Court of Honor.

Follow the link to mediaokra for the product of his eye.

Hard Rock Liberty City

The Whataburger/Exxon at the I-20 Liberty City exit is full of guitars and Beatles memorabilia... Jake and Elwood guard the door.

Neat... Nicely done... But an odd juxtaposition.

Make sure you look up!

Welcome Home a Hero

Went to DF W today to cheer for returning service members. The flight arrived at 7:40 -- awfully early for a Saturday. But loads of cheering supports were there anyway... Very inspiring.

Why is the world out of focus?

Could it be abnormal dilation due to excessive sinus pressure?

Elephant Racing

Elephant Racing... 'nuff said.

July 21 Dallas Zoo. Treo Camera

she's not my girlfriend anymore

It wasn't meant to be a test, but I guess dragging your girlfriend on a 1,000+ mile trip WITH your three kids to stay as a guest in the home of one of your closest friends can be somewhat daunting...

We went to DC.

With stops, including Mass at St. Paul's Cathedral (Yea! MassTimes.ORG), it took 27 hours to get there.

Our site-seeing party included 5 adults and 8 kids. There was much potential for many problems. By day three, we had been threatened with heat stroke and lightning and deviations from the spreadsheet.

But day three also found us in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/current.html) The Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals (http://www.mnh.si.edu/earth/text/2_1_3_2.html)...
past the Hope Diamond...
and the Tiffany Diamond...
and the The Carmen Lúcia Ruby,
somewhere near the giant beryl crystal. And I said:

All of these gems remind me of what is truly precious in this world and what a gift it is to find you. So to paraphrase our late Pope (John Paul II), will you do me the honor of joining me in the *gift* of matrimony?

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Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family - a domestic church. -- Pope John Paul II

Orange

Today we went to the National Museum of Natural History. We wore orange.

We saw an Arma'posum (or Pangoron?) and mummies and elephants and shiny things.

Ben liked the skeletons. But I think he expected them to move like zoo animals.

Paul held a cockroach.

Yep, we wore orange.

A man with a M16 just told us to have "an exciting day..." but I was so looking forward to a nice sit down at Becca's.