Update

this is just to get the Sausage salute off the top. Carry on.

A Salute to Sausage!

I am going back to New Braunfels this weekend to celebrate me some sausage.

http://www.wurstfest.com/

I get to eat some sausage on a stick, get a meat kabob, and have me some real Germane beer. I might just slide down the big blow up slide in a potato sack again. My only hope is that my son, Garrick, goes easy on himself. Last weekend the little dude was rocking out to some live polka and fell, smacking his head on a table in the big tent. About 20 minutes later he does this again. About 30 minutes later it does it again, only this time he splits his lip too. Poor guy had to have had a bad headache that day. Next day we stayed snug inside the lakehouse, as the weather was crispy, and my son fell against another table and re-opened his lip. Later that night, he fell down the last 3 steps of our staircase, bouncing his battered noggin off the last one before coming to land on the ground floor.

Here are your 2006 Polka winners.



I have not worn my new hat all that much. I'm sure it feels inadequate compared to my last one, RIP. I saw my last one at the lakehouse last weekend....I tried to fix it again, just didn't look right.

Today is my wife's birthday! I got her gift at lunch. Got her some tennis outfits and spent over $200 on it. yeesh. And last night's dinner cost $150. And tonights dinner/movie will be about $30. I don't remember what I got for my birthday this year.



Ziggy Zoggy, Ziggy Zoggy Oi! Oi! Oi! Ziggy Zoggy, Ziggy Zoggy Oi! Oi! Oi!

5 years later.....

5 years ago I woke up as normal....at the last possible moment that left me enough time to shower, dress, and go to school...my wife drove me in, with my baby girl, Elizabeth, just 5 months old, in the back, strapped safely into her car seat.

My first class was French.

the TA thanked everyone for showing up, in spite of all that was going on....class was a little noisy with chatter, so I turned to a classmate and asked, "did something happen today?"

My classmate told me that two planes crashed into the WTC, and that another hit the Pentagon. I'll admit that my bigger concern was the Pentagon, as I actually knew people there....

French couldn't end soon enough. After class I rushed back to the front of the studen union building, to where Senora was picking me up. I jumped into the passenger seat and called a friend of mine. Dave had yet to end his term with the Army, to work for the FBI, but he said that those we knew in the Pentagon were accounted for, and were fine.

I called in to work, telling them I wasn't coming in for obvious reasons.

Upon arrival at home, I switched on CNN and held my 5 month old as tight as I could without hurting her, and cried for hours.

I don't watch many 9/11 shows, be they documentaries, special reports, or movies based on the event......it still hurts, and I knew none of those that were lost, nor none of the families that lost a loved one.

REJOICE!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!

Who's the most badass mothereffing Texan you know?






After that, who's the next most badass mothereffing Texan you know?





y'all suck!



H4T3RZ!

So my oldest is a Kindergartner

So she went to her first day of kindergarten on the 16th. I took her. I walked her to her classroom to make sure she got settled in with her supplies. She gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye and sat at her table.

I retreated through the door and stopped, just outside the doorway, leaning slightly to peek in at her. She looked around for a second, then sat down in her chair, looking around at her new friends and enemies. Then suddenly she turned and spotted me, so I fled. I fled her hallway, and felt the tears well up. Quickly I shoved my sunglasses onto my face as I round a corner, successfully concealing my distress from an approaching teacher. I compose myself as I leave the front doors of the school...but...

as I pass by the front on my way back to my car, I stop at a window, and I have a great angle into her classroom. There she is, my first born...the girl I stayed up all night for when we brought her home from the hospital, putting my finger under her nose every 5 seconds to make sure she was still breathing....no longer spending all of her time with us...we are relics now, people she used to know....

Watching her with her cheek resting in her hand, looking bored, a thick wall of brick separating us, saddened me so much, that the tears no longer welled, they flooded my eyes and poured down my face. As I called my wife to tell her Elizabeth had made it to school okay, I couldn't choke out the words. She told me not to go to work right away, to come back home.....

By the time I was home I was better, just barely. My little girl still worshipped her Daddy when I got home, and she had much to tell me.........

such as this morning when I was taking her to school. She told me of her friend Ty. Ty cried yesterday after school. Ty is Elizabeth's new best friend. They're in the Brownies together now.

Ty cried because some boy first made fun of her socks after school, where the children were outside (supervised) waiting for their parents to pick them up. Then this boy (not a classmate of Elizabeth's) pulled Ty's hair.......then he pulled down her pants.........................................................

okay, so when I was in the 1st grade or so, I can recall lifting up dresses of girls on Wednesday's "dress up day" (I didn't realize "dress up day" was a day to wear nice clothes you see.....) but I was hoping parents had stamped out this type of behavior by now.

Y'all are Lucky!

I went back to the zoo for the first time since my hat went Ed Martin on me, and they weren't selling it anymore. There were some crappy imitations, but the real McCoy was nowhere to be found. My search will continue, but newer photos of my riot inducing apparel must wait.

I'm swamped at work.

They're Back!!!

And I couldn't be happier for the already trashed downstairs! It took them all of 30 minutes to have all of their toys out of their toy room and scattered all over the place....I even helped! I was a Lincoln Log building machine just so my son could play Godzirra and knock them down. Sooo happy to have my family back again...

At dinner my son sat on my lap and I was sandwhiched in between my girls. I've had more hugs the past day and a half than I had the two weeks preceeding their departure.

My wife was a site for sore eyes too....*WARNING MUSH AHEAD* we cuddled on the couch after the kids went to bed...............................................

I'm not cut out for bachelorhood...Though I did get to hang out with some friends, which was fun. I bowled. First time in about 10 years......I bowled a 111 and a 123.....yeah I'm not good.

And our psycho kitten, Pumpkin, finally has someone else to terrorize.

What would you do?

A buddy of mine asked if this made him a complete jackass....

Story:

When he and his brothers were younger, they were saving their money up to buy a go-cart. Their father was putting the money into an account for them. Well something happened, they ended up forgetting about the account, their dad bought them a go-cart later on anyway, and just recently his dad was going through his finances and saw the account was still active. He withdrew the money, closed the account, and divided the amount 3 ways; each brother getting $400.

My buddy has not told his wife about the money yet for a few reasons. 1) she'll want half and he's a little selfish at the moment with it, since it was his money that he was saving. 2) she'll want half to go spend on something and it won't get saved (my friend is really good about his finances and saves his money.

So is he wrong for not telling his wife? Is he a dickwad for wanting the money for himself? Either to spend on himself or to save?

I have been known to use my birthday money (I still get birthday money from parents and grandparents :)) on gifts for my wife, but I spoil her rotten and probably shouldn't...because as a result she bought me some orange Nike Air Max's for $160.00. I appreciate the gesture, but for some reason she didn't hear me saying "I would never spend $160 on a pair of running shoes." She justified it by saying I splurge on her all the time (she spent $180.00 at my Dad's jewelry store....we get 50% or better discounts there (most times we pay cost or less even) and I said it was fine). *Here is where I'd insert the head bashing off the wall emoticon*.

Feedback?

I think the only ones who read this are Sarah and Jackie :D.....



for which I'm grateful!

Just because...

Voicemail

Had a voicemail last night from my kids. They were outside catching "lightning flies". I guess they mixed up the terms fireflies and lightning bugs; it was cute. They love me and miss me too. It brought a smile to my face.

now.....

I'm increasingly disturbed by the amount of unrest in the world. I wonder why some people feel that war and violence is preferred over diplomatic solutions, or why diplomatic solutions fail. Is bloodshed and death really that much more desirable to these people than peace and progression?

One of my biggest frustrations comes about when I fail to understand the "why" behind certain decisions or thought processes. When there is no rational/logical explanation behind some decision to insult, assault, or committment towards prolonged aggression I still try to find one....because I cannot comprehend the severity of evil that lives inside the minds of men.

What does Korea have to gain by testing the tolerance of the world? Even their own allies in China want them to cut it out.

WTF is happening in Isreal now? The Lebanese had to know that Isreal would not tolerate the kidnapping of their own soldiers, especially when the kidnapping took place within Isreal's border. Did these Labanese covet the bombings of their roads? The deaths of their families?

Hell, I should just throw in the whole Middle East right now, and include the U.S. in this. I understand fighting for people's civil liberties and God given rights, but there has to be some point where we need to realize we're a hated nation, and that our continued military operations only increase that hatred and aggressions toward us and our allies....and that some people just don't like our God; and some just don't believe in our God...or any God.

And this comes from a former U.S. Soldier and moderate Republican who is as patriotic as you can get. I'm just at a point right now where I'm tired of the U.S. being the answer. I'm tired of our guys in green...having the targets on their backs, and chests....I would like to see the U.S. back off from these military operations for a long while.

The problem with that is Europe is so inept at handling conflit that evil would spread unchecked and the problem would get worse, and then what?

I suppose the forces of good and evil will always clash in this perpetual struggle for dominion, and I will watch in wonder and fear the type of future that is laid out for my children.

Ugh

Either I had a bad day, or my body's beginning to shut down already.

Got up at 3:30 to see the family off, and couldn't go back to sleep. Went in to work about 9. Came home for lunch, and at the end of lunch I begin to feel lightheaded, and I can't catch my breath. So like a real man I go to work and ignore these silly ailments. As the day drags on I feel worse off. A colleague offers to walk me down to the client's medical wing, I politely decline...I assume I'm either dehydrated or my blood sugar level has plummeted and I need a boost. So I get a glass of water, a Coke, and a Snickers. The Snickers helped for a little while, but slowly the dizzyness returned (minus the shortness of breath). I leave work early but don't bother calling my doctor (I emailed a doctor I know from the Internets :D but he didn't bother to reply to my symptoms :(). I'm still a little dizzy. I'm hoping it's just fatigue, but I normally don't feel this poor after just 3 hours of sleep. I'll be really pissed if my body up and decided I'm old just because I'm in the twilight of my 20's. I don't know how you old 30-somethings manage :D.

My hat = FUBAR

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale.....

out on Canyon Lake Saturday afternoon when a nasty storm hit us unawares...well we were aware, but we thought we had a little time before it was upon us....we were wrong. That storm blew in in seconds when we thought we had several minutes. We had waves crashing over the side of the boat, idiots cutting me off, and my two little girls were terrified. I was driving the boat back (we were about a mile from the house), my friend Matt was holding my 3 year old, my wife's 12 year old cousin was holding my 5 year old, and my wife and her friend Lee-Ann were on the bow, to balance the weight. At first everyone wanted to be in the back, but the weight was too great and I couldn't see over the bow.

Well we made it back to shore safely, but as my wife was getting off (while myself, Matt, and my father-in-law prepared to take the boat to the ramp to take it out) I asked her to take my hat with.....

it died. She crumpled it as she jumped into the water, and it was beyond repair this time. My son tried to kill it once, but I was able to get it back to its proper shape....not this time. RIP hat.

I am very sore today. I tried wake surfing Monday morning, and it was a blast. But I wrenched my knee while learning the proper way to get up. It's not normal. You lie in the water with your heels resting on the surfboard, then as you tell the driver to "hit it" you stand up. At first I was telling them to "hit it" (meaning to gun the throttle) and then tried to stand up....my knee couldn't handle the pressure of standing up against the drag of the boat....whereas when I stand as I'm telling them I'm ready, I'm already half out of the water when the boat takes off, therefore pulling me up the rest of the way, as opposed to dragging me.

After that it's really cool. I use the rope to pull myself into the boat's wake (about waist high) then once I'm ahead of the wake I toss the rope (someone on the boat reels it in) and I surf the wake for as long as I can. If the driver keeps making left turns, it's easy to stay in the wake. A lot of fun, but I did come away with a slightly sprained right knee.

Then, my wife drove the boat Monday afternoon, and pulled myself, Matt, and my father-in-law on a 3-seater tube. My head got bounced around so much that I have a serious case of whiplash today. Over the days I could feel my neck get progressively sore-er.

It didn't help that I went out twice for said punishment, only the 2nd time around my father-in-law was the smart one and stayed ashore. By the end of the run I had no strength in my neck to lift my head off the tube.

Also, having my arms yanked for so long before getting up on the surfboard, and being whipped around on a tube has left me with sore arms and chest....and to top it off, the wakeboarding I did has left me with sore thighs.....

So I'm sore in the following parts:

Neck
Chest
Arms
thighs
knees

....and my hands and feet are sunburnt. I learned my lesson and kept a good amount of sunscreen on my head and face, and I wore my surf shirt.

All in all a very good weekend.

Now comes 2 weeks of loneliness and sadness. My wife leaves at 4 a.m. tomorrow for her trip north to see family (her's and mine). She comes back on the 26th.....that's almost 3 weeks! I just realized that! aarrgh! *sobs*

My oldest cried last night. She wants to go see Nanny (my mom) but she also wants me to come with. She said it's going to be so long until she sees me. I told her it wouldn't and that it'd go by fast......it won't.

I'm going to leave a card on my wife's steering wheel saying I miss her. And I'll need to talk to my kids at least once a day.

wow. writing those last 3 paragraphs has really depressed me. I feel a cry coming on one of these nights. I bet it comes tomorrow morning.

My family

C'est ma femme. Je l'aime

et mes enfants.

Another day.....

parenting is the pits sometimes. I don't deny that my kids have me wrapped around their tiny little fingers, especially the girls, but there's is absolutely no joy in being a parent when you spend a whole evening scolding them for countless acts of disobedience.

It puzzles me how a 5 year old still hasn't been able to figure out what things anger her daddy, and what things make him happy.

It's not a long list. In fact, if my oldest wrote them out, it would read:

1. Daddy likes it quiet. This means no shouting in the house.
2. Daddy does not like to be interrupted. If we need to talk to him and he's talking to Mommy, we need to first say excuse me, and wait for him to finish, then he will talk to us.
3. No fighting.
4. No whining.
5. If we run in the house and hurt ourselves, Daddy will have little pity, for he has told us many times not to run in the house.
6. Crying only gets us an angry Daddy, unless we're very sad about something or unless we're hurt. Being very sad about having to go to bed isn't good enough, neither is being very sad about not getting to wear the jammies I wanted to wear.
7. Daddy doesn't like it when we play in our beds after bedtime.
8. Daddy doesn't like it when we get out of bed after bedtime, unless it's to go potty.
9. Daddy loves hugs.
10. Daddy loves kisses.
11. Daddy loves big squeezes when we hug.
12. Daddy loves it when we say "yes Daddy" or "okay Daddy" after he tells us to do something like go to bed.
13. Daddy loves it when we say "please" and "thank you".
14. Daddy doesn't like it when we don't listen to him.
15. Daddy really really doesn't like it when we lie to him.
16. Daddy really doesn't like to get mad at us.

Okay fine. It's a long list for a 5 year old, but you'd think she'd get one of those...right?

I don't see them much during the day, and when I do, the last thing I want is to have to punish them for breaking some of their rules...makes me feel like a big ogre, but at the end of the day my wife is done with them (bless her soul she puts up with a lot) and they become mine when I get home (unless I have more work to do - but I usually don't do that until after I put the kids to bed) so their time spent with me is when they're tired and ornery....I'll certainly miss them when they go away for 2 weeks.

Hi again

this picture reminds me of someone I've never met; his name is Ryan. I heard he's not good at football. at all.

I love sour patch kids, so much I wrote a little poem.

It's called:

Ode to Sour

In my mouth you're so sour and sweet
You make me smile as you rot my teeth
But then the sugary juices flow back along my jaw and rest behind my ear where they sit and hurt like a GI Joe kung fu punch to that soft patch of skin behind my earlobe. Why sour patch kids why?

I love teh kids.

oh, and way to go Dee and Auggie.

Which reminds me, Duke sucks.

why did the Rockets have to trade for Shane Battier, blech.

Someday I think I'll post a serious thought.

I'd also like to add

that it was I who introduced the Juggernaut to the Deuce. I don't know how to permanently list links on this POS site yet so the Deuce is here, somewhere in this post. Go there, get addicted.

*stares off into the sunset* stfu I don't care if it's 11:34 p.m.

I'm a roaming cowboy riding all day long,Tumbleweeds around me sing their lonely song.Nights underneath the prairie moon,I ride along and sing this tune.See them tumbling downPledging their love to the groundLonely but free I'll be foundDrifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.Cares of the past are behindNowhere to go but I'll findJust where the trail will windDrifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.I know when night has goneThat a new world's born at dawn.I'll keep rolling alongDeep in my heart is a songHere on the range I belongDrifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

Wow, I'm a loser

It's 11:19 p.m. and what am I doing? Doing it? Nope. Reading a cool magazine on the latest trends in legal consulting? Nope. Playing video games? Nope. Watching Sports Center? No. I'm writing in my new dumb (no offense the mute people of the world) online diary and I don't know why. I guess being a nerd is the new cool.

(It took me ten minutes to write all that)

My head is sunburnt. it itches. it was oozing stuff Sunday because it blistered. I had crusty ooze on my head.