Christmas BBQ

This was actually my second plate. Actually, it was my daughters plate. She had taken too much beef, so I put on some more potatoes, and slaw and had that for seconds. We were so full, my dinner, at 7 PM, was an apple and a roll.
I really wasn't hungry for breakfast either......

Beef - It's whats for Christmas

We often have family over for Christmas. We eat a noonish time meal. For about five years, we'd get a honey baked ham. But then I noticed that we had about three members, who refused to eat it. One, even turned down honey baked ham, in favor of State Fair corny dogs. Three years back, we had one guest eating corny dogs and fries, one eating fish sticks and one is a vegetarian. My dad, also must avoid salt and honey ham has a lot in it. On top of that, where my wife used to get the ham, the smallest ham they sold, was something like eight pounds. I ate ham for a week and finally threw the rest away. $60 ham and about one-third of our guest, wouldn't/couldn't eat it.
So last year, I decided to just pick up BBQ. And not just any BBQ.
Angelo's.
They opened in 1958. The year I was born and probably about the year my dad found out about them. He was a USAF fighter pilot and they used to actually divert into Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, land, grab a staff car, drive over to Angelo's and eat. Then, proceed on to Dallas to visit his parents. I remember eating in Angelo's in about 1964. They used to keep sawdust on the floor. It absorbed the juice and grease. They fought with the health department for years, until they finally had to ditch the saw dust. They have expanded the place a few times, but it is still great food, and interesting vibe in the place, and some of the coldest beer in town. Ice floating off the glasses cold.
So, last year, I decided to get four pounds of sliced beef. The two visiting college kids still wanted corny dogs, fish sticks and fries. We told their mom to fix it. Basically, I got tired of running a restaurant on Christmas for people who were pretty much unpleaseable.
The best part of it, is I drive over on Christmas eve, eat a half-plate of sliced beef, pick up the take out and head home. I get some great BBQ, two days in a row. This year, the wife decided that their cole slaw is some of the best she has ever had, so we got some of that also.
When a friend and I head into Fort Worth for the big All Ford Show, we time it to have BBQ at Angelo's.
That photo at the top, was taken on Christmas eve, at about 11:15 in the morning. 15 minutes after they had opened. I'm in the bigger of their two parking lots. The front lot was full and two rows in the bigger lot. About half the people were eating and the other half were picking up meat for the next day. I did both. Jason, grandson of the founder, sliced my beef for me.

Festivus - For the rest of us.

December 23rd

The 5 parts of Festivus:

Festivus Pole

Festivus Dinner

Airing of Grievances

Feats of Strength

Festivus Miracles

I wish everyone a very happy Festivus.

our PC's new best friend

Our vintage HP desktop is about on it's final boot up. We bought it about 2000, maybe 2001. I think the C drive is about to die. That won't be good, as the C drive is all the applications. There is a separate D drive, with all the data. So about two weeks back I call up to Dell and buy a new Inspiron 530. I spent this past weekend, installing our few programs onto the new computer. I attempted to remove the old D drive, but it isn't compatible with the new hardware! I talked over some options with a friend of mine who does desktop support for a living. He thought there was probably some wire connections to install the vintage D drive, into the new computer.

I decided to use a service that we were already paying for. Carbonite. I'd signed us up about a year back. What it does, is back up the files and folders to the Carbonite off site storage. So once I got the software installed, I hooked up the new PC to the Internet. I downloaded more programs and fixes and patches. Then, I went to the Carbonite site and logged on. I then told it "this is now my machine". Carbonite then walked me through the steps to recover all our data from their back up site! I didn't choose the "do it all" option, as I wanted to control which files were downloaded and where they were placed. Mainly because I knew it would run a while and the D drive, didn't exist on the new VISTA machine. Saturday I did all the small files and folders. Saturday evening, I let it do all our documents. Saturday night, I let it do our photos. It was done when I got up Sunday morning. Sunday evening, I let it do our largest file, the My Music. Something over 13 GB. It was done when I got up this morning.

I've only got a few new issues to deal with.
1) figuring out how to get the new printer shared, so our work laptops can print at home.
2) I messed around with a file after I recovered it. I can't see it now, but the computer knows it is there someplace..... When I try to copy it back off my flash-drive, the new PC informs me that it already exist and do I want to over lay it.
3) ITunes. About 113 songs were "protected" on the old machine. The new Itunes didn't want to "convert" those. I've done some searching and have a few tips to try and get those songs into the new machine. Worse case sounds like "burn them to a CD on the old machine, and then slam them into the new one".

Anyway, Carbonite worked just great and copied all our data down. Get Carbonite on your desktop.

Get into that Christmas mood!!!

Well, not really.  Have a listen, at your own risk.  This has been around in cyber-space for years. The lip-sync version....

Another lost weekend

Working in data processing, you occasionally have lost periods of time. Nights, weekends, entire days. This past weekend was one of those. The company I contract at, one of the largest snack food producers in the world, schedule to test their computer systems disaster recovery. Usually, they start those test in November, and on a Tuesday through a Thursday. My job usually starts about 1o to 15 hours into it. Which means I usually pull an all night shift at IBM's disaster recovery site. Thankfully, it isn't too far from where we live. This year, the schedule started at noon on a Friday! And went 56 hours. Let's do the math. Yes, completing at 8 PM Sunday night. I lucked out a bit this year. My supervisor volunteered for the night shift! He reported about 9 PM Friday night. I attempted to relive him at 8 AM Saturday morning. Except he was so far along, he said he'd stay and together we'd be done by noon. That suited me, as our fourteen year old's birthday party was that afternoon. Since we were done so early, that shortened up my 8 AM to 8 PM shift and eliminated his 8 PM to 8 AM shift. Trouble was, all the other systems were not going to complete until about 5 AM Sunday morning. Translation: Thanks for doing all this, we will start checking it out tomorrow!

There was on NTOA meet Saturday, which I'd bowed out of.

I was asked to play drums for church on Sunday, but had bowed out due to the scheduled work.

That was a good thing, as my cell phone started going off on the way home from 9 AM church. I would work 10 minutes to fix a problem, or an hour. Then go try and do some leaf raking or some other weekend chore. The cell phone would go off again and I'd go back to fixing the next problem. The fun part, was they give us all-powerfull logon ID's. So we can do most anything we want. IBM also allows us to remotely connect. At least we didn't have to go back in. The bad part of that, is that while you are connected to IBM, you can't be connected to much of anything else. I'd get a call, they tell me they were sending an email or IM. You had to be "on work" connection. Then, disconnect, reconnect to IBM. Evaluate and solve the problem. Log back off, back on, call back, email back. ETC.

On TOP of all that, due to that I also support the payroll system, I had to work on an emergency-for-year-end-or-2007-taxes-are-toast project!

Short story, about 20 hours work over the Saturday and Sunday.

My cell phone, had a fully charged battery on Sunday morning. By 7 PM, it was flashing "low batt" at me.

But I still managed to be at daughters birthday and also rake up 11 bags of leaves.

That’s a relief

Our oldest daughter is a fantastic artist. She is also way, way smart. Twenty-fifth in her class of something like seven hundred students. One of those kids with a 4.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale. She was interested in college at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and University of North Texas (UNT). UNT seems to have won out. She applied and was accepted this past Tuesday. She plans on studying graphic/commercial/marketing type art.

Yesterday afternoon, wife and I planned on trying to get our three mile walk in, from 4:45 to 5:45. I had to do some work for work, at 6 PM. Wife ran a bit late in getting home, so I’d done most of the mail and had gotten my walking clothes on before she got home. We get so much mail from colleges right now, I don’t bother to open it. I just lay it on the daughters bed or leave on ours. So while waiting for wife to get her walking clothes on, I headed out to my shop to drop off some tools that I’d had inside the house. As I go to exit my shop, I start hearing a bunch of screaming and yelling, and my name is included. I figured someone was injured badly. No, one of those letters from UNT, was a scholarship!!! Daughter just got handed about 70 percent of her four year degree, paid for!

I need to get with our financial advisor next week. We might have enough saved up to put her all the way through school.

While sitting and discussing college, we also totaled up her college hours she has completed or tested out of by taking Advanced Placement courses. Seems she has 21 hours of college credit done and she is still a senior in high school!

Look out world. She is a quiet, unassuming, WORLD BEATER!

Her middle school sister, upon hearing the amount, commented “Cool. We can go shopping with that!!!”

Priorities. It’s usually about Priorities!

What if? Starting to get into that Christmas spirit.

Elvis and Led Zeppelin collided with a reggie band?  Yes, Dread Zeppelin





Pretty neat when Plant digs on it

What message did you send there mom?

This past Monday night, our middle school daughter was involved in a choir show. The program was sponsored by our middle school, but two of the elementary schools were there, plus another middle school and even the high school boy’s choir. What they showed, was how the elementary music program fed into the middle schools and eventually into the high school. Our middle school opened, and then all the other schools took turns. This happened at the high school auditorium and almost every seat was taken. About 800 people came to hear the kids and support the schools. My parents even came down to hear their granddaughter’s choir. I saved them seats.

Next to my mom, sat a lady who got there early, like we all did. She pulled out some knitting to occupy herself. We assumed that she would stop her frantic knitting when the program began. Nope! She kept right on knitting during the entire first half of the program. Never stopped knitting, never clapped for the kids. Bumping her elbow into my poor mother, who was trying to watch and listen to the choirs. Next to this woman, sat what I assumed were her parents. They did the exact same thing, but no knitting. They sat and whispered back and forth. They didn’t seem to pay any attention to the program, never clapped.

Intermission came and my mom decided to try and move down towards the front and away from the knitting machine. By then, one of the elementary school had finished and people had started to leave, so some seats were available. I was glad that the people had waited for the intermission to head home. During the intermission, the knitter put up her knitting and engaged in conversation with her parents.

The second half of the program opened with another elementary school. It seems that her kid must have been in that choir, as she attentively listened and clapped wildly when they finished. As that school exited the stage, the high school men’s choir came out for their last two numbers. During this, the knitter picked up her bag of knitting and she and her parents exited. DURING the show! “Excuse me…pardon…, sorry to block your view, sorry to bang into your knee…..”

What was sad is to see the progression. Her parents didn’t knit, but they also didn’t clap for any of the choirs but their own. The mom did the same. AND, she had another child with her, who has now learned that you only show up for the part of the program that you are interested in, you don’t pay any attention to the other parts of the show, and you bolt for the door as fast as you can. You also don’t be aware of how your actions are affecting the people around you. No, it’s all about you…..and your knitting.

We’d wished they had just stayed home.

12/8/2000 -- I was attempting to study for my college senior finals

The Twelve days of Christmas - from 1998 and Indiana U's, Straight No Chaser group.

I'm dead....

I work in data processing. We are on call all the time. Last night, we got to bed around 11:30 PM. The phone rang at 1:35 AM. Operations had an analyst needing database help from me. Except she is from India. I caught about every third word. She told me she was "Quaker". So I logged onto the Quaker Oats systems. No job could be found. I kept repeating the name of the job. Finally, the operator told me it was on Frito Lay and NOT Quaker! I finally got it fixed and was back in bed at 2:45 AM. At 3:35 AM, shes back on the line with a similar problem. Except she has no idea that Frito is so massive, that they have two production systems. Again, the kind operator pointed me to the correct system. Back in bed at 4 AM. Alarm goes off at 6:01 AM. I hit snooze twice, but then was too awake so just went on in. My boss shooed me home during a 2 PM phone conference, but then I didn't nap!

At 4 PM, I headed out and walked 4 miles. With a North Texas cold front moving in, the wind was gusting to 25 MPH and the temp dropped quick! But it was still better than trucking out at 8 PM! Which is my normal time to walk.

Next stop, easy street

I eat Pop Tarts. But not for breakfast, for a desert with my at-my-desk lunch at work. I get the Low-Fat Frosted Cinnamon ones. I also keep them in the refrigerator. They are great hot and cold, but not so great at room temperature. So, at work last week, I open up my packet and take a bite and something is very different! Seems they have strawberry filling in this box full! Notice in the photo, the pink filling? It is supposed to be brown.

I was totally traumatized. I've had trouble sleeping. I've become very nervous about this.

I plan to sue. I've sent an email to John Edwards. He made zillions as a trial lawyer and probably needs some cash about now.

Unfortunately, all I have left is this photo. I ate the evidence.

Thanksgiving

I've been making and eating these since about 1974....




Fresh hot flour tortilla.

Butter (spray on is good)

Dash of salt

Salsa

Roll it up

Enjoy.





You can leave off the Salsa for a change



Or put on just Honey.



My wife doesn't "DO" much hot sauce. However, lately even she has been having some of these. Well, not as much salsa as shown here.

Kids climbing trees

As a kid, I loved to climb trees. We lived right off Lake St. Clair, outside of Detroit, when I was around eight. There were these massive trees. The military base, had been opened right after WWI, about 1919 or something. The trees had been growing ever since. They were great.

We moved into our home in Highland Village in 1986. We planted a live oak tree in our front yard in 1987 or maybe 1988. We brought it home in a five gallon bucket in the back of our 1986 Ford truck. In 1994 we brought home daughter number two in a 1984 Toyota Corolla. Daughter number two, sometimes likes to climb the front tree. I got home from work this past Monday and daughter-two had two friends over. They'd all climbed the tree. Three kids in the tree. Wife suggested we call the tree man out to remove the growths in the tree.

Just amazing to think that I could put my index finger and thumb and encircle that tree, just 20 years ago.

The squirrels love it for it's nuts. It helps that there are two more huge oaks in the back yard.

almost lost my lunch today.....

I'd finished my lunch at my desk.  I was listening to the local oldies station, KLUV.  When on comes this...



What posses's people to call in and request this stuff?????

Don't they remember Disco Demolition Night?   I wonder how many blown up Disco LP's, were Kung Fu Fighting....

Orienteering at All Saints Camp

Over the weekend of November 15 and 16, I went orienteering. It was a two day event for North Texes Orienteering Association. It was at one of my favorite camps, All Saints. 660 acres of forest nestled up on Lake Texoma. Being a two day event, you must complete both days to be in the hunt for an award. I went up with the Marcus High School and the Flower Mound High school kids. We had four adults and about 14 kids on day one. We left on the bus at 6:45 AM and arrived about 8:30 at the camp. Being a two day event, they also had us all pre-registered so we even knew our start times. But with that many people, we had to be up there early. I do the technically difficult orienteering, but the shorter course. Better for this out-of-shape-bad-back guy. Day one, I made a royal screw up. Not on the course. I finished the course in about an hour and 11 minutes. Being advanced courses, we were electronically timed. Meaning, you wear an RF thing on your finger. When you find a control point, you verify it is the correct one and then stick your RF thing into the device strapped on the control point. It records your time onto your RF thing and you keep going. You know it recorded, as it "beeps" and flashes at you. I got to the sixth control, and it wasn't recording. In that case, you must revert back to the punch card method. The lower, easier courses, all use punch cards. On those, when you reach the control, it also has a paper punch. Each punch makes unique marks and you punch the paper into the box for that control. It sounds confusing, but it is easy. So on the sixth and seventh, I reached into my pocket to yank out the paper, punched it, stuffed it back into my pocket and kept on going. You can always paper punch to be sure your presence is recorded.




About an hour after my return to the bus, I remembered that at 6:15 AM, I'd ALSO put my Texas drivers license into that same pocket! Yep, my license is out in the woods. I checked at the finish, but it hadn't been turned in yet. By then, all our group was back, so we headed for lunch and back to the Dallas area. I figured I'd ride the bus back up and then I had about an hour and thirty minutes on Sunday, and would check for the license and then ask permission to head back out onto the day-one course and those two controls and hope to find it. They would probably not be using that side of the camp on day two.


Can you say "Needle in a haystack"? Sure. I went out to the two controls and the one spot where I'd had to climb under an old barb-wire fence, but no luck in finding the missing license.


Over all, I did well. I got third. Our fearless leader also got a third. One kid in our troop got a fourth. Only one other kid in our group, had bothered to finish their orienteering course.

Here are some photo's. The bus, the camp area, the cabins, the woods.

Broken glass everywhere

What a whirl wind week was the past one! Two more physical therapy sessions, a cancelled doctor follow up. Wednesday evening, 10 PM, phone call from oldest daughter. She was very upset, in tears. She was getting off work and went out to find her rear side window was busted out and her book bag was stolen. They broke the rear window, got in, and took the bag from the front passenger side floorboard. Seemed like a lot of effort! I guess they thought they were getting a free laptop computer. What they got was her bag, the schools Speech text book, her notes, and nothing else. We filed a police report. The next day I called the insurance, but it is below our deductible. They scheduled us a great company, SafeLite, to come out and replace the window. He came out Friday afternoon and replaced the glass in a little over an hours time.

The wife and I had mentioned to daughter, to use her trunk to lock up stuff. Hope she understands this now!

But faith in humanity was also restored later on Friday. I got a phone call from a guy who saw the stolen text book laying in the street by the shopping area where it happened. He got on the phone and he and I met to see if they hadn't tossed the rest of it out at the same place. No luck, her note book and bag must have been tossed someplace else. I checked all the stores trash dumpsters, but never found it.

33 years ago - November 10, 1975

Cat Napping - An Extreme Sport

I got a 1:45 AM call from work. I had to get up and fix a database. I was working about 45 minutes, and called our most excellent operations staff to let them finish it up. I also had to get up early today and report to church at 8 AM. So, cat nap Sunday afternoon. However, I don't take cat napping to an extreme sport. Like our 20-something pound cat. I placed a ruler next to him, for perspective. He has set places he sleeps. The wife's side of the bed sometimes. On a couch in the evening, another bed when the mood strikes him.

Kids and the Elections

Tuesday was the national elections. Tuesday is also football night for our middle school kid. She does cheer leading. So they had gotten home about 9 PM. About 9:45, her cell phone rang and one of the other cheer leaders informed her that the nation had a new president, President Obama. My daughter informed me of this, even though I was laying on the floor, with the TV on, doing my back exercises.
Here is the conversation we had (most of it).

Her: "Dad! My friend says that the President is now Obama!"

Me: "well...not quite. He is what is called the President Elect"

Her: "what? My friend just said..."

Me: "Right. There are now enough states reporting their results, that the media can project that Obama will be elected"

Her: "so....he's president.... And moves into the White House tomorrow..."

Me: "Not yet. He is elected to become President. It doesn't take effect until January"

Her: "So. That must give President and Mrs Bush time to pack up their stuff and dishes and all......"

Me: (choking back laughter) "Um...Right. It allows for the orderly transition of our government. See, Obama now must pick some advisers and such"

Her: "And meantime, the Bushes pack"

(Understand that we have not moved, so she has no idea of the work. She had a good friend just move to Arkansas, and saw them packing up their stuff for several weeks)

Me: "Well, the Bushes are rich. Any president is. The government has special people who will pack up the Bushes personal stuff from the White House and move it here to Highland Park"

Her: "That makes sense. So the Bushes don't drop the china and stuff"

Me: "right. Let's work on going to sleep now....."

And how can we forget Hayseed Dixie

Hayseed Dixie





And a classic...


And the Beatles...

All Hallows Eve - so I'm a day or two late....

This is one of the scariest things you will ever see. Not for the squimish.





And in case your forgot, or never heard/saw the originals....

Stonehenge Junior

Our fair city has built a great walking, running, biking and exercise trail system. They are still working on it. The newest section that I use, can take me on a five mile walk. Part of the trail I use, takes me right past the city hall, along a main road. The new fire station is across the street. About a month ago, some landscape material showed up and they began work. At first it looked like just flower beds, new bushes, and maybe some trees were going in. But then the Bob-Cat showed up and they started really letting the dirt fly. And then some underground wiring showed up. And then some more large rocks showed up. The city trail, at major trail heads, has some landscaping, some large rocks with “City Trail” carved in them, sprinkler systems and such. So when the rocks and wires showed up, I just figured they were doing the same. But then they placed the rocks in a semi-circle. Like a tribute to Stonehenge.




Looking at the city web site, it will eventually become a tribute to the city veterans.

A job, but for how much longer.......

Two weeks ago, I returned home from physical therapy and clicked on the noon news. One of the stories involved lay-offs at my current job. I say job, as I am a technical contractor at the present company. I've tried to convert to employee, but that hasn't happened and probably never will. I was interested in the number of lay-offs, but also clued in to that the report was for only a division of the parent company, not all of us. The next day, I read the paper and saw that the number corporate wide, was several thousand, not the hundred reported locally. When I got in that day, I discussed it with my supervisor and he'd heard a 50's something number for our location. He had some names, entire projects in fact. What would they do for support of those business applications? Lay off the on site workers, hire in some on-shore Visa holders and hire the rest off-shore.
A week later some of the teams that I support, got called in and introduced to their replacements. What a way to get laid-off!
They are currently meeting daily and the reports from the existing workers is not good. These new contractors, barely have any skills that are needed to support the business applications. The existing contractors are looking for jobs and will walk out as soon as they find them, not waiting until the drop-dead date, which is about two months away. The long-time employees, are either going to retire, or look for work and start either in two months, or as soon after that as they can.

One employee noted "they will out-source and off-shore us, until the entire technical department is gone". Several thousand workers across the company.

I suspect within a year, my position will be off-shored also.

And now for an uplifting story!

Our daughter's first place at the State Fair of Texas

As was asked for...
This is about the fifth year in a row for her taking a first place.
This work is oil on canvas. The green ribbon is a participants ribbon.

Aftermath of the State Fair of Texas

After the fair, I go down and pick up our daughters winning art work. I had trouble getting into the place. There is light rail construction along the main entrance area and the side entrance was also closed. I had to walk in a bit. It is amazing that the fair closed Sunday. Wednesday, you can start picking up art work. I ran down over lunch on Thursday. These photo's are the main walkway between the animal barns and the art building. The Cotton Bowl is in the back ground. Most of the stages were almost down. Nothing much was left.















What an empty animal barn looks like.

Tattoos, bullets, Grillz, pierces, and Cowboy Jerseys

Yes, we finally made it to the Great State Fair of Texas. On the last day of this years fair. The drive in was uneventful, unlike last years, which was a trip. Last year we went on Columbus Day, which was when most of the schools in the Dallas Fort Worth area got out and handed the kids free tickets to the fair. On top of that, the Jonas Brothers were playing a concert. It was an explosion of every 13 year old girl from the surrounding states. Last year, we were in downtown Dallas at 9 AM. About 10:30, we’d moved the three miles and gotten parked.
This year, downtown at 9, parked at 9:30. We got out of the car and our daughter’s friend picked something up off the parking lot and said “what is this?” It looked like a spent bullet to us, but what do we know. Understand, Fair Park, is centered in “the hood”. The next day, wife took the bit of metal into her work, where a coworker who is a gun collector, took one look at it from five feet away and said “That’s a spent 45. The bullet of choice in Fair Park”.

We were standing outside the art building, where our oldest daughter’s first place painting was on display, ten minutes before they opened. We used the time to sit in those chairs with the massagers rubbing our backs. You know the one. It feels like two billiard balls being smashed into your back.

We got to see:
Our daughters painting.
Butter sculptured into King Tut’s tomb.
Shoe art.
Massage chairs.
Beds.
Wonder towels ( I needed to pee and almost asked him if he’d demo….)
Jewelry
Wood art sculptures
Sewing machines
Sand art
Salt Water taffies being made
Cars, Cars and more cars.
Trucks, trucks and more trucks
An amusing robot by Ford, that took questions. He informed the 75 percent of the audience in Cowboy Football Jerseys, that the Boys were getting kicked around and loosing.
The Women’s building (always good for cooling off)
Clifford the big red dog.
The Daughters of the American Revolution house.
The Killdares, a band we first found at the fair
Cooking with Honey.

Free Ice cream cones.
Fletchers World famous corny dogs (twice)
The kids rode some rides.
The Birds of the Wild show
Jacuzzis
Rabbits
Sweet Potato Pie
Loaded cinnamon rolls

We also got to see people with pierces in every part of the body viewable while the police were around.

We got to see people with every sort of tattoo. Even some gang tats.


We got to see a few people will Grilz’s that would blind you.


And a literal sea of Dallas Cowboy Jerseys. By 2 PM, it was White and Blue jerseys as far as the eye could see. I think 75 percent of the attendees, were in jerseys.

We didn’t partake of:
The dog show
The pig races
The domino show
Chicken fried Bacon.
Fried banana split
Fried grilled cheese sandwich
Texas Fried Jelly Belly Beans
Deep Fried S’mores
Fried Chocolate Truffles
Fried Pop Rocks Fundae Blast
Fried Dinner Roll
Fried Cake on a Stick
Green Bean Fries
“Jalapeno” Deep Fried Gorditas
Fried Apple iPie
Fried Snowballs
Fried Honey Bun
Deep Fried Apple Bites
Mini Chicken Fried Steak Slider
Dessert Shooters
Ignited Moon Pie­
Beefy Fried Queso Bites
Crispy Fried Cantaloupe Pie

Go to BixTex.com if you don't believe me......

Friday Night High School band shows

I finally got to one of our local high school football games. It was held at the local stadium and there were concerns that it would sell out. We got there a bit early, so we could buy one ticket that we were short, but also so we could sit on the back row. Funny, we don't do that at church. Actually, we have been. That way, I can stand up and not block anyone's view, if my back gets to hurting. I stood for about half the football game.

They open up with the two schools sending out some cheerleaders to “exchange” gifts at center field. What is that all about? Later on, after the half time shows, half the cheer squads from each team, head over to the other side and again “exchange” items. I hate to point out, that I think the opening exchange was a drug exchange. The mid-way exchange, was probably exchanging either more drugs or phone numbers to “hook up later”.

The team had to play one of the powerhouse teams from the area. I expected a blow out. Surprisingly, it was a good game and was tied up with about a minute and a half left. Then, our team had to punt from deep in their own territory and the punt went more up than out. That gave the powerhouse team great field position and they were able to score the winning touch-down.

On to the half time band shows.

The schools no longer play music that is oriented to be played outside. They basically put on a mobile Broadway show. I was happy that they seem to have this show put together. In past years, we have been subjected to watching them march around while a “click track” blast over the Public Address (PA) system. CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, while they march in step and the audience runs for cover. I could make a fortune selling earplugs next to the concession stand. They have floats with people in them. They have about fifteen people playing marimbas, xylophones and such. None of which can be heard with no microphone or PA system support.

Our school put on a show in tribute to ancient gods. Zeus, Apollo, those folks. Except instead of having people show up in costumes like these gods, they had people in the same costume, but different colors. One guy in a marching costume, but yellow. One, orange, one green. They had all the colors of the rainbow out there at one time or another. Then it got weird. The drill team brought out some big sticks with fake grapes hanging from them. I commented to the wife “A tribute to winos?” Maybe a Tribute to Boone's Farm Wine




Meanwhile, my mind drifted off to the Fruit of the Loom guys.

After they finished the segment of a tribute to Boone’s Farm Wine, they brought out some S shaped phallic symbols and the guys in the colored suits used them to catch and fling different members of the band into different positions. They could have name that "A Tribute to Human Pin-Balls". I lost track of what happened next. But they finished up late and had to push all the orchestral instruments past the football players and hurry up and move off all the Broadway props from the field.

The other schools band, put on a show in tribute to the ancient Inca’s. As the visiting team, they actually put their show on first. I looked up Inca costumes and they didn’t look anything like what the other band used.
Here is what they should have looked like.

And here is what they did look like.

I think there was a general mix-up. Their drill team wore what looked like ancient Greeks outfits. Maybe all those "Gift Exchanges" were actually exchanging band costumes.

Another fine learning possibility, wasted.

They only thing they missed were the Inca Human Sacrifice.

Actually, both schools bands and football teams did well.

Day 11.5 of Physical Therapy

I've started to lose track of how many PT's I've been in. Today was work, fun, funny, and a pain. I got to start walking uphill, backward, on the treadmill. That is fun. I also got a PT trainee to help me out. She actually tried some of the "Swiss ball" exercises with me.

After about thirty minutes, I got moved over to the table. The torture one. Maybe they all are. Next to me, was this older guy. He's very funny, but was in pain today. He'd done some stretches and gone straight to electro-shock. On the other side of him, was a new guy, also with back issues. The main PT guy was doing a juggling act, trying to keep some of us busy, and take down new information from new guy. It was busy there today, with about six or seven of us. There are usually only about four or five people.

The main PT guy went over to show someone something, and the older guy asked the new guy "how are you?". New guy said "pretty good". Old guy fired right back "well you won't be saying that after they finish with you here". We all started laughing. New guys eye's got big. Main PT guy was even laughing.

So main PT guy mentions that I should attempt "the plank", see the opening photo (not me). I only held it for about 40 seconds and got a sharp pain in my lower back. They had me do about two more stretches, and then I FINALLY got a back massage! Main PT put me on my back and squirted something on me and went to work on my lower back. All while he was instructing other people. I felt a small marble in my back, and by the time he finished, it was GONE!

Next, he hooked up the electrodes and we went from a back massage to electro-shock and ice packs.

I mentioned it to the new guy, that you get electro-shock. He chuckled. Old guy said "yeah, they crank that up till you jump like a frog on a frying pan".

New guys eyes got big.

I hope he goes back. They really have helped.

Your Government, here to help

Cannibals in suburbia

I saw a strange site last Friday afternoon. I was heading home from work and had made a few stops on the way home. I wasn’t on my normal route. I was heading down a neighborhood road, but a major one. Four lanes, two in each direction. I’m stopped at a traffic light and a nice black Mercedes-Benz rolls up in the left lane and stops. They are one car ahead of me. With nothing better to do while waiting for the light to change, I glance over at the rear window of the Benz. In large letters it reads:

DELICIOUS EUROPEAN.
And a phone number.

Notice that it doesn’t list this as a web site, as in www.delicious_european_foods.com or something. No, just Delicious European. My mind goes into twisted hyper-drive all the way home.

Was this some new fad? Cannibals using only the finest European’s their money could buy, for a dinner party? They have this over in the Pac-Rim.

Was this some Cannibal group meeting notice? For those not local to the Dallas Texas area, there has been a “swingers” club prominent in the news lately. Perhaps some cannibal group has decided to advertise.

Why wasn’t there a Cannibal logo?


Was this selling some actual FOOD from Europe? Sheep brains in plumb sauce? Maybe Cannibals Soup?


Was this some escort service touting European “escorts”?




It's been four days since I spotted the car and the logo. All I've come up with is

"Cannibals in Suburbia", would make a dang fine name for the band I'm in.

Breaking news!

Our local news radio KRLD, just reported that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, is out for four weeks with a broken pinky...
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has a broken pinkie on his throwing hand and will be out four weeks, a team source told ESPN. Stay with KRLD and KRLD.com for the latest on this developing story.

Right….No mention of this last night in post-game interviews… Take your pick
1) He's out
2) He's not got the team behind him, so they are trying someone else
3) He'll be back when they get to the super bowl….
4) Jessica and he are getting married and he will be "too busy" to show up…..and "too tired" to practice….


5) Sales of Romo team shirts have started to slack off, so Jerry Jones wanted to try and boost sales of the other guys shirts
6) Tony broke it in a heated game of tiddle-winks with his offensive line.

Last nights news story

It must have been a slow news day. OJ was convicted. Everyone's stock is tanked by 25 percent, if you are lucky. There are no hurricanes or bad weather making national news. The political candidates are pointing fingers at each other, refusing to answer any question in less than 2376 words. And our state of Texas has decided to not allow "fish pedicures".

I think they should allow it. With a twist. Use these fish.