31 August 2006

Thrusday Update

ave not been clicking along very well. yesterday he had a 103 F temperature, and was prescribed some drugs to help his situation. We are really not sure what it is today. Currently he is feeling better, and the temperature appears to have gone away. Amy and Cap wound up spending a lot of time yesterday between the Dr. office and the urologist’s office.

I had a meeting at church last night, and EPIC tonight. I am remain in an excited state when I think about EPIC and the energy that is currently in the church. Yesterday, I listened to a Focus on the Family show. There was a Christian author.speaker talking about NASCAR. He used the analogy that if you are driving your car and in last place, would you pull into the pits and say, “We may be in last, but I do not want to make any adjustments.” I think that the majority of us would want to make adjustments to get back to the front of the PACK.

Work was another exciting day, I got thrown a curl ball which tool up a great deal of me time. I had it planed to work on some other projects but I did not do that.

29 August 2006

As the Deer (Psalm 42)

I am tempted to open a Dr. Pepper so I do not crash and burn while writing this blog. I had a few sips out of one last night, but it did not help. Tonight I was reading the Bible to Cap and read the 42 Psalm. The first line of that Psalm was the inspiration to one of my favorite contemporary songs, As the Deer It is a very simple song in both the lyrics and the music, yet it speaks volumes about where our hearts are. When I first heard it I really did not like it all that much, it seemed very King Jamesish (probably the word panteth.) One day as I sang it and learned where it originated from a light went of in my head and I really connected with the song. It is a song that I could listen to and sing at any event or occasion, weddings, Christmas, church, camp, or camping on the side of a mountain looking out at the starts.

As the deer panteth for the water,
So my soul longeth after you.
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship you.
You alone are my strength, my shield.T
o you alone will my spirit yield.
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship you.
You're my friend,
and You are my brother
Even though You are a King.
I love You more than any other
So much more than anything.
http://www.cis.ksu.edu/~aruljohn/lyrics/lyrics.php?ad=&cat=ce&song=As_the_deer

New Tricycle


Hold that thought, I will be right back… …Okay, I have returned to the blog Mecca, my computer. Tonight I will muse about the bathroom, and the stars in the sky.. More to the point, I am tired, and there might be some random thoughts that I am having.

The first issues that I would like to mention is that the Strebeck found a location in their new apartment that does not have a signal. You guessed it, the bathroom does not have a good phone signal….

Cap’s new tricycle arrived today. I put it together after supper and he rode it up and down the sidewalk for 45 minutes, and had a blast doing so.

I am going to skip the part about the stars, other then they are beautiful when they twinkle.

27 August 2006

Jazz, the Honest Music

Jazz tells it like it is, I heard a song on the radio that chorus went something like this,

There are too many dishes in the sink
When I get home,
there are too many dishes in the sink

Jazz songs are bluntly obvious at points. This singers point is that there were to many dishes being generated, while he was at work and he wanted to know why. What other type of music could host a song called, “The Milk cow Blues.”

Amy’s dad left town this morning, back to the big city of Atlanta. While he claims to live in Atlanta, he actually lives 70 miles north of the airport. A fact that I did not full understand until we visited last year. He enjoyed his time with Cap, and from what I could tell Cap enjoyed him as well.

Tonight it looked like a big storm was heading for town. Since I have been working on several projects, my garage has been full of supplies and tools. I made a mad dash to get it cleaned up to where we could pull at least one vehicle into the garage before the storm arrive. With Amy and my dad’s assistance we got the car in the garage, and the garage picked up. I spent some time out there this afternoon returning stuff to the attic that Amy had gotten down, or set aside to be put up there. That saved a lot of time today. The storm missed us, but it was to close for Mazie and I to walk.

We had dinner at my parents house, because it was father’s birthday (father is not my dad but my granddad, my dad is now called Bear.) It was a lot of fun, I had some great pie, Jeff Davis to be exact, that had the perfect texture.

There was a guest speaker at church, name Fred Yazzie, he is from the four corners and is a Methodist Elder in full connection. It was interesting listing to his message and his story and calling into ministry. He said that we should be grateful for our beautiful facilities, because where they were at, people are happy to have a building. A few weeks ago we had a meeting and discussed the importance of the building to our church. It was a very interesting discussion, I think that overall everyone agreed that it was important, but it is not what holds the people together. I really think that we could have discussed it a little while long, to better understand the two choices, in relation to a physical object. I have great memories of that building, and services in the sanctuary. Epically at Christmas time, the beauty and splendor of the sanctuary when the Christmas decorations are up, and the church is singing Silent Night by candlelight. It is a time when the beauty of an innocent and pure angle has poured itself on the congregation. Yet, in all of that beauty there are several dozen children thinking of unwrapping presents.

26 August 2006

Musuem, Pluto, Geo Track

I went to bed last night around 12:00 am, because I could not stay awake. When I got up at 3:00 am I decided to finish writing the blog from yesterday which is why is has a posting date of today (August 26, 2006) instead of August 25, 2006.

We had breakfast this morning, got ready for the day, and then headed for the big city of Amarillo, with no other plan than eating Bar-B-Que and going to Toys R’Us. We ate at the County Barn, the only restaurant that I almost got lost in the bathroom. The walls are made out of mirrors, so it can be very confusing. Cap rode one of the small wooden horse that are in the lobby, he was quite disappointed that they were not rocking horses.

When we arrived at Toys ‘R Us, Amy’s dad said, “Cap are you ready to get out, we have just arrived at paradise…” Which I though was pretty insightful, considering Cap’s age. We got him some additional pieces for his new Geo-Track System. The Geo-Track is a small train system manufactured by Fisher Price. He was quite enamored with it when we arrived at home, as you can see by the picture below.

We also went to the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, located in Canyon, Texas. The museum had several exhibits that were revamped and one called the Duval Collection, which was a collection of minerals and rocks. They were breath taking to view. The museum is located on the corner of the West Texas A&M University, which I attended for two year and received a degree from. During my stint in Canyon there was a great coffee shop called “The Stomping Grounds.” I noticed that it had changed in to a beauty salon. This was a blow to my physic. The place that I help lead a bible study, drank coffee, ate breakfast all in my PJ’s with painted toe nails (I think that I only did that once or twice) his now a beauty shop. I will survive this blow, it will be tough… I took a picture of the building and it is below.

My heart has also been broken by those goofy astronomers. What right to they have to take away Pluto designation as a plant. I think that it is abdominal, were these not the people that said, “we have found another plant…” and now they say, “well technically by our new definition it is not a planet.

Below is a random picture of Cap, Amy and Stuart...

Friday Night

Last night I wrote a short paragraph which was very downtrodden, and I could not get in the grove. My mood and inability to blog was brought on by the day’s events. The events were out of my hands for the most part, but they still affected me. The big issue at work yesterday was the termination of an individual in our group. This is the third time in almost three years that an individual was terminated out of our work group. The first one was the roughest because we were in the middle of a weeklong training class, and the individual terminated was in charge of the training. We had to do the big old fashion PUNT.

EPIC did not go quite as I had envisioned. It was no a bad meeting by any means, it was just a little hard for everyone to stay on subject. I think that is partially due to the fact that no one there really wanted to make a decision about the next 6 weeks and where do and where do we go. At the end of the meeting I came to the conclusion that Ryan is an extremely patient individual. I am still very excited about the ministry that there is at EPIC and am looking forward to growing as a disciple in Christ with others.

Today has been better, it was Friday, and that always helps the day to start off on a positive note. Amy’s dad arrived in Borger, however his luggage did not make it until 5 hours later. The airlines really have a problem with the Atlanta to Dallas To Amarillo switch in Dallas. DFW is one of the larger airports in the country and they still have issues with luggage.We had Mexican food for supper at the Plaza. This was probably not the best Mexican food, but is was good. Amy’s dad likes Mexican food but lives in Atlanta. A few years ago he took us to the best Mexican food restaurant that he had found. I am hear (or there) to tell you that it was ok, but they did not put any spice in it. If you are looking for Mexican food, or Texas style bar-b-que Georgia is not the location to go to.

24 August 2006

Wireless

A bit about my day, and by bit I do not mean 1/8 of a dollar like in “2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar, all for the bulldogs, standup and holler,” nor do I mean a bit in the computer definition of 1s and 0s. I mean a short narrative that describes my day.

I had scheduled activities from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm (not including lunch). At 3:00 pm I had a 30 minute break, which I needed in order to complete a document for the 3:30 meeting, which of course was followed by a 4:00 pm meeting. It was like being a ping-pong ball bouncing from one meeting to the next.

My neighbors across the street said that they like the new widow, of course that was after I was chastised for working on it past dark. Because of the window project last night I did not mention a few other musings that I had yesterday.

My aunt said that she had read my blog, but until that point she had never head of a blog. My cousin was also in the same boat, she did not know what a blog was, is, or could be. This illustrates the point all to well that just because I know something does not mean that everyone else knows the same information.

Amy’s dad is coming to town on Friday, ordinary I would have spent more time pondering htat subject than I have this year. Tonight I have spent some time pondering EPIC and reviewed Hebrews Chapter 2. I am not sure where EPIC is headed, so I will close my eyes and pray that God will open the floodgates of heaven on EPIC and its members. Tuesday morning it was raining cats and dogs (I wonder if they use that expression in Pennsylvania?) There was a river that was running down the street at my house that I had to jump to get to he pickup. It was amazing see all of that water.

One other note that could be classified as, “SWEET ACTION,” is that I am sitting on my back porch and will be positing wirelessly.

22 August 2006

New Window

Installed the new window in the living room, it looks great. Amy was glad to see the old one go. Cap and Braegan enjoyed seeing each other today at church and tonight at the window installation event. Cap found it interesting that the window was gone when he got out of the bath.

We had dinner at my parents, it was great, chicken fajitas and some fried zucchini (green squash).

I am looking forward to our vacation, it will be fun to spend a week together without any pressures from work.

Got word that the weary travelers made it safe to Kentucky and had unloaded everything by noon today.

21 August 2006

Hebrew National, no butts around here

It was another Monday, in the movie Office Space, the little waiter accuses the star of the show of, “Having a Case of the Mondays,” I think I had them today. There were a couple of times today where it was just a killer sitting in front of the computer hammering out computer based training modules. “Brutal”

Tonight Brandon brought the Honda, his Honda, over and we worked on the air dam under the engine. It had a tango with some water and had come lose on one side, it is better now that we performed car surgery in the driveway while it was raining. All I needed to look like grade A hillbillies would be a toilet in the front yard, but it is probably in Kentucky by now.

Amy, Cap and I played with some of Cap’s new toys tonight, it was great. I have a hard time sitting and just playing with Cap, so tonight was special. We had this show on called, “How I met Your Mother,” which I don’t watch. (I don’t watch much TV in general). However, I had seen part of this show before several months ago, and amazingly enough it was the same episode. The same thing happened in college when Friends came on. All my friends watched it so I tried a couple of episodes, with a few months in between, and it was the same episode. I began to lament about this to Amy, and she started laughing, then Cap started laughing at her, and I started laughing at both of them. Poor Mazie would have laughed, but she is just a doggie.

The only thing that could top that would be a Jewish beef commercial, and what do you know but one came on. I could not believe what I heard, “We answer to a higher authority, and you can bank on no butts in your beef.” I thought it was a parody commercial, like they do on SNL but it is the real deal. The company is called, “Hebrew National,” and you have to click on the link. Perhaps, Mel Gibson is a stock holder?

20 August 2006

New Song

I think that I will write a song with the music off of the theme song to the Beverly Hillbillies. I was rocking along with my lyrics until I hit the word Kentucky, not an easy word to rhyme to. After Kentucky I encountered the word Asbury, after that I gave up on my song.

Ryan, Amberly, and Morgan left Borger today, beginning the trek to Wilmore, Kentucky. Leaving behind them a Legacy of individuals that they have touched, and ministered to over the past two years. A legacy, which I believe with outlast them with its ripples of effects. Today during church I offered up a prayer of thanksgiving for the future for them and our church that they departed from. I think that if you do not and are not thankful for the things to come, then you will miss out of blessing from God. They opened their lives to us and allowed themselves to be an image of Christ to each of us. Now, they will have the opportunity to do this in Kentucky, and we will have the opportunity to do it here in Borger. They blessed us by showing Christian love.

Tonight at youth we had a progressive dinner which was fun. I had several boys in my car, one is a super active 7th grader, and two were 11th graders. The two older ones thought that the younger one was spastic. I knew them when they were his age, and they were just as spastic then, as he is now. (A fact that I did not bring up, but enjoyed watching.)

19 August 2006

The BIg Birhtday Party

A week full of events for our little family. I had a Safety Society meeting on Monday, a Church Meeting on Wednesday, everyone had EPIC Thursday, we all had a wedding on Friday, and Saturday was Cap's Party.... What a fun week we have had.

Today, Mazie and I started the day with a short jog/run/walk at the park. Jogging is just not a good speed for Mazie. A few years ago the transmission in my truck had problems, and I lost a couple of gears. It was still drivable, the gears we still in the transmission they just did not work, and I had 1st and 3rd. I drove it like that for a while, so it was either fast of slow. Mazie is set up like the pick-up was at that time, either fast (running) or slow (walking). She does not do second gear (jogging), so it was tough to really get in a rhythm. Added to the speed issue is the fact that Mazie likes to smell things. So we will be cruising along at a “medium pace” and wham, my shoulder jerks back because Mazie is sniffing.

Cap’s party was great. Brad came over and helped cook, Amberly came over and filled balloons and helped Amy get the fixings ready. My mom came over and help with the grass, then she produced Potato Salad (no one makes it as good as my Mom) and baked beans. Everyone was well behaved, even Ryan who came over to help cook, about the time Brad was pulling the last set of patties off the grill. (Ryan has an impeccable sense of timing.) There we some people invited who could not make it because they were out of town, or had stuff come up. They were missed, and they missed a heck of a party. The boys and girl has a good time, and enjoyed their balloons. Below are some snaps of the party.

Cap looking at a new book.

18 August 2006

Bob and Beth

Tonight Amy and I attended Beth and Bob’s wedding. It was a wonderful event, held at the First Presbyterian Church in Amarillo. The church building itself has always interested me, and I have desired to go in and look around for many years. I am draw to the older buildings and houses that have such beauty and spender. The inside of the church is just as beautiful as the outside, with stain glass windows along the sides and at the front of the sanctuary. It looks like a church where the traditional services are embraced and tightly held on to, like a child holds a new puppy dog. One naturally would think that the processional would be played on the organ, with it loud billowing pipes filling the large expanse with sound. This was not the case tonight, out with the organ and in with a guitar and piano. That’s right, 1 guitar, and 1 piano played the prelude and the processional, including when the bride entered and walked down the aisle.

The pastor reminded me of Owen Wilson in his appearance, and light hearted candor. It was a wonderful wedding, and as weddings always do, it reminds me to cherish my wife and our marriage.

17 August 2006

Busy Day

Ii was an extremely busy day, I hit the office at 6:30 this morning, and left this evening at 6:15. I spent perhaps 1 hour in my office before 5:00 pm, and spent the last hour of my day responding to e-mails. Brandon cooked his new dish, he has moved up to a total of 5 ingredients, perhaps by the end of the year we can get him to make a dish out of 10 ingredients. We had EPIC tonight, it was like the last installment of Ryan and Amberly. The tone of the meeting however was not the end of EPIC, but rather, it was that of a spring day, where the flowers are beginning to grow, as the flower beings to bud, and grow into its beauty. I think that EPIC is bigger then the walls of the church, and larger than the pull of the secular world that we live in.

Yesterday's Post today.

I am not sure what happended yesterday, but it did not post on the internet. So below is what I wrote yesterday... It is not quite as good as tommorows news today, because it is yesterday's news today!

It is raining outside, which is great. The air is the soft gentle kind, like a grandmother that is doting on her granddaughter. The sky has opened up and allowed gentle rain to fall and soaked the ground. This will inurn, uplift the grass from its nearly dead state.

Today was El Capitian’s Birthday day, I am not sure if he grasp that concept quite as well as he grasped the new Happy Birthday Balloon, that has a picture of Elmo on it. It was a great day to spend a little time with Cap, as I had a church meeting in tonight. He is really growing up, and I really have a difficult time grasping with the fact that the time has flown by since his arrival. He challenges me to be a better person, and to make decisions based on what would be best for him and his generation. He has help me focus on not being focuses on myself.

We had a church meeting tonight which was great. I am encouraged with the committee or team and the work that we are doing. In the course of the meeting, I got to try some of Charles’ coffee. It was strong, tasted like camp coffee that has been cooked over an open fire with more coffee then water. Charles like it so it was all good, and besides just because I don’t like the coffee, does not mean that I don’t like and enjoy the guy, because I do!

15 August 2006

Fast Enchalidas.... You make the call

Today it was one of those beautiful overcast drizzle all day weather days. I am sure that people in the Northwest part of America do not considers days like this beautiful, because they have lots of them. However, here in the panhandle of Texas where we average 20 inches of rain per year, they are precious. I could hear my grass say, “Thank you for the rain!” Amy, Cap and I played in the living room for 1 hour after supper, and it was great. Cap climbed all over Amy, and then he climbed on me a little before he found something more interesting. His birthday is tomorrow, and I am excited, it seems like time has flown by. I will be skipping choir practice, but only because I have to go to the church council meeting. Amy asked me what I wanted to do, and I replied, just being around the two of you on his birthday will be fine with me.

Some people do not like birthdays very much, which is a though process that I have never understood. They look at birthdays as being another year older and it depresses them. It should be a celebration, where one says, “Hello world look at me, I made it through 2, or 30 or 60 years of life on this earth, praise God!!” People get all worked up over turning 30, you are just one year older then when you were 29. It is all based on our society and the pressures that we put on ourselves. Perhaps a near death experience will change one’s outlook at life.

We had lunch with Brain and Win-Dixie today at the Plaza. It was lunch and they were crowded. SO after 30 minutes of waiting the food arrived, well most of it. Mine was not quite ready yet. Right after the food was delivered the waitress came by and asked if we needed anything, and I said, “My food would be nice to have at this point.” It was promptly delivered after that comment. The underlying issue that I have is that we were eating at a Mexican Food Place. I was the only one that order “Tradition” Mexican food for my lunch (2 beef enchiladas), and yet mine was the last plate to be delivered. I would have though that they could make a fast enchilada, and everything else would have been slower.

14 August 2006

Thoughts...

One of the pastors who lead our church passed away yesterday. Jim Terry retired from our church a few years ago. He always had a smile on his face and the love of Christ in his heart. He died at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock. He had pastured Methodist Churches across the Northwest Texas Conference, and had attended Asbury Theological Seminary.

Last night everyone that finally made it home at the same time, after two weeks of non-stop travel and being out of town. I think Cap was glad to be home. Honey, Bear and Braegan came over and played last night. The boys had a good time.

Last weekend while we were in Clovis there were a couple of toddles that had to go to the ER the night before the party. Of course during the day there were a few cuts, bumps, and bruises that go along with it. Ryan said something to the effect that, “There is an inherent risk of injury when you grow and get bigger, it is demonstrated in all of humanity.” A few weeks ago I was at a meeting and the individual that developed some global software was talking about his software like it was a person that had a personality. I had to take some risks when he grew his software and his business. I think that a parallel can be draw between the living person and church programming or the church itself and growing. I think that there are times when a program just has to step up and say this is the direction we are going and here is how we are going to get there. It might be that we trip, stumble and fall. After which it is self-evident that it was a bad idea, and we learn from that and springboard into another avenue. During WWII I believe that Gen. George Patton said, “The problem with Monty (Gen. Bernard Montgomery) is that he is too afraid of losing to attempt to move forward and win.” If a program does not move forward, it will languish, and if a church does not take risks then it will parish. (The risks that I am talking about are things like, changing the style of worship, putting in projectors, inviting praise and worship, or perhaps playing some old hymns.)

Everyone should read this news story:
Pregnant woman crashes, has baby in car

12 August 2006

Swimming

This morning I noticed that there was a pair of ear plugs on the nightstand between both of the beds. I though that Amy might have brought some, as she has used them occasionally when I snore. I myself, do not think that I snore that badly, but she certainly claims that I do. Then I saw a short little note from the hotel management. In a nutshell it explained that the train tracks were not that busy when the hotel was constructed. It went on to apologize

Today we went to Amy’s aunt and uncles’ house for a barbeque and swimming in the pool. We played water volleyball for 3 hours; I am a little sore already. I managed to get to much sun on my forehead and shoulders. Cap swam and played with his cousins. I am not sure what the headcount was, but it was a lot of people. Several kids ay or under 2 years old.

New Mexico Here We Come

I made a nice three hour drive yesterday, from Borger to beautiful Clovis, New Mexico. I was glad to see Amy and Cap again, although Cap did not seem that interested in me. I am sure that if there were not as many people around he would have been more excited to see me, however, he was more interested in playing with his cousin. The three hour drive reminds me of the theme song to Gilligan’s Island, “Three hour tour…” Cap slept good last night until 6:00 (5:00 MST) when he woke up, he has been up and down since, and it is 7:21 here in New Mexico.

10 August 2006

Ups and Downs

It was a day full of surprises, surprises that were both uplifting and depressing at the same time. This kind of day leads to a feeling of funk inside my heart. Actually the last couple of days have seemed like a battle on all fronts, family, work, church, and personal fronts have popped up all week. It is not like any of the battles have been life threatening, they are more like small skirmishes here and there. In a worldly sense they might be nothing more than a thought, or a blip on the radar. However, when they are all going on at the same time it begins to takes it toll.

It is late, and I have a few more things to do, so before I get deep I will close life…

09 August 2006

Discipleship

What is discipleship? This is an excellent question with two type of answers, one is the short “Sunday School” answer. The other answer is one that scholars have spent lifetimes studding and attempting to define. During the days of the Crusades, did the English consider going on a crusade as discipleship? The short Sunday School answer is, “Discipleship is following God,” or “Doing God’s will is discipleship.” While this is the normal answer, it does not do justice to the question. It is such a unique question for each individual that is following Christ. Discipleship can be as simple as opening a door for a new mother struggling with the bag, the baby, the stroller and the groceries. Yet, discipleship can be a complex as sending 3 years at seminary, and 40 years in rural West Texas going from church to church preaching the good word. Discipleship be any aspect of following God. I heard it described in the following matter. Life is a car, and normal people like to be in the driver’s seat. When I am driving my family around, I usually drive the car, and am in control of the situation. Our spiritual life is like a car, and there are only two, maybe three options that can happen. First, you are in the driver’s seat, guiding your life through the treacherous streets of life, alone and without a guide. The second option is when you allow God to drive your life, but you sit in the backseat, and criticize each and every turn that God makes with your life. Finally, you allow God to drive the car, and sit patience buy in the passenger seat as he guides and directs your in your lives. In it’s simplest form, disciple ship is, “the following of Jesus Christ in all things he has called you to with the love of Christ. For ir we are without love, then what good do we do each other.

08 August 2006

NCAA Sucks!!!!

This morning I had a nice waffle in the hotel lobby, then I had a Danish, then I had a biscuit. No, wait, I stopped at the Danish because it was all I needed to eat. The waffle was only about half there, not sure what happened, because I poured all the stuff into the waffle maker. After that I headed over to the conference which was being held at the Hyatt Regency. It was across the river from where we stayed when we were in Austin in May for the ShinerBash. The presentation/forum discussion went very well, I did about 40% of the talking. It was a great experience to be part of. One interesting item, was the fact that 3 employees from my company were at the session and I did not know until it was over. After our session I attended two others, which proved to be interesting, one of the presenters was from England, and he used some words that they use in England.

Before lunch I went to the car to deposit the new ASSE blanket that they gave me for participating, and noticed a strangely dressed individual. He was olive drab shorts, a blue tee-shirt, he had long hair that was in the “Corn Row” configuration. In addition to this he was carrying a small bag and wearing rainbow colored suspenders. After lunch I noticed some more unusually dressed individuals milling around the lobby area, girls with green hair, guys in girl clothes, and a guy with orange hair. I began to wonder what was going on, was the Safety community changing into a bunch of grunge, hair died, cross dressers? Finally I ran across the answer, a placard was in front of a table saying, “Welcome 2006 National Poetry Slam”. (National Poetry Slam.) I do not think that poetry is bad, I wrote some while I was in college, in an attempt to be, oh what’s the word, intellectual…

I do not think that you can judge a person by the way they dress, expect to say that a cross dresser has unresolved issues. I found it odd that you had lot of people in business casual (dress pants, button down shirts, or polo shirts) sharing the lobby with the grunge new millennium beat poet look. I did not take any pictures, for fear of offending some one.
On the subject of offending someone, the NCAA has informed McMurry University that it can no longer have the Indian as a mascot. Click here to read the story, NCAA Denis McMurry Final Appeal. Click here to read the McMurry response, McMurry Committed to Respectful Recognition:. The Indian statue in the McMurry response was donated by a club called KIVA, when we played Frisbee golf, the base of the statue was one of the destinations. However, there was a 10 stroke penalty if you hit the statue itself.

I really that the NCAA is out of touch with the world, along with the ACLU and several other acronyms. Last night I watched part of PCU, which is a spoof movie around the political correctness. I am afraid that they creators of that movie have not missed the mark buy much.

07 August 2006

Truluck's, Austins Power Lunch Place

Today I had dinner at Truluck’s of Austin, which is a seafood restaurant on the corner of 4th and Colorado. I walked in and though and saw a big tall man with a shaved head and wearing a suit and tie. I thought that I was in the wrong place and he was a bouncer, and I would be bounced for wearing blue jeans. I was not ejected, and the man I saw was the manager. The food was exceptional, it was the type of meal, that made you want to smoke a hand rolled cigar from Nawlins, but instead, I settled for a cafĂ© mocca at this corner coffee haus. If the truth was told it was an adventurous day, I slept about 4 hours last night and headed for work. Work is always busy when you are leaving on a trip, and today was no exception to that rule. My flight was supposed to stop in Dallas for the Southwest Airlines shuffle. Since the airport was closed and we were running low on fuel they decided to swing by Austin for a refill, which made all the Austin bound passengers happy. The Dallas bound folks did not look to pleased.

I walked and ran on the tread mill for 25 minutes tonight and went 1.5 miles. The humidity here is terrible; I looked like I stood in the shower with my clothes on after that little exercise.

Austin reminds me of Atlanta, it is they both have rolling hills and trees, none of the streets are straight, and there are a lot of cars on the road. I think Austin might be a neat place to live in several aspects. However, I think there are some aspects that would not be as appealing. By the shear number of people that live here, I am not the only one that thinks it would be a nice place to live. Take for instance the trash situation, it is not as easy as carrying it out to the dumpster in the alley. The price of housing is not quite as reasonable as Borger, Texas USA.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Last week I spent 2 ½ days at the corporate office for a meeting on one of the computer systems that the company utilizes. Strebeck and I joke a lot about movies lines, in particular there is a scene in Ocean’s Eleven, when Brad Pitt and George Clooney are watching the surveillance video on the monitor. Clooney says, “Why do they always paint walls that color?” Brad responds by saying, “They say taupe is very soothing.” I though about that line and Strebeck while I was walking down the hall to the meeting room. The walls were a taupe color. The over all office seem very sterile especially compared to the office that I work in our at the plant. There was actually a sing in the hall that said, “Please be quite when in the hall.” We actually have short meetings in the halls of our office because everyone runs into each other and we start to discuss issues. The other thing that I noticed was, not many people were listening to music as I traversed the halls.

Tonight we went to Stinnet to the church wide swimming party. It was fun, Honey and Braegan came and had a good time. Braegan enjoyed watching me jump off the diving board and going down the slide. However, he declined my invitations to go down the slide with me. We did not have any rough water basketball games, which was good. Before the swimming the youth played ultimate Frisbee and by the time I got in the pool I was hot and sweaty. The pool felt like it was 30 degrees, so I had to dive in off the diving board. There was not sauntering in the pool from the shallow end. I was informed that if I really wanted to read a classic, (Don Quixote QuixoteQuixoteQuixoteQuixoteis not quite classic enough) I should read to Kill A Mockingbird. This will have to go on my list of books to read book. I think that I need to maintain a list of movies to watch as well.

Trevor did not want his picture taken, so I did and it is below for the world wide web’s viewing pleasure…

06 August 2006

Super Saturday

The porch project is coming along quite nicely. We got the decking on today, and the siding on the sides. We would have finished the tar paper, but we ran out about ½ through the roof. I helped my dad for a while this morning then it we worked on the porch. Thanks to Brad, Ryan, and my dad for all of their efforts and labors, I think they enjoyed the exercise more than I did. I did not mention it yesterday but the large bush in front of my house is no longer in existence. My neighbor asked if we were going to put it back together, and I said, “I don’t even know where the parts went.” He seem satisfied with this answer, and then explained to me that there was only 2 inches of top soil in everyone yard, and below that it is calachie. Information that I was not sure of, but he seem to speak like it was the gospel.

I watched the Rookie this evening; it is a great show that is inspirational. Mazie has been having fun with all of the commotion around the house, and has taken to Morgan. She is pretty good around kids, and kids generally seem to like her a lot.

I went to McDonalds this morning to grab a quick breakfast. While I ate, I read some of Don QuixoteDon QuixoteDon Quixote, which probably looked out of place for two reasons. First, I was sitting in McDonalds, which is not usually the place of choice to sit and read while enjoying a tasty meal. Secondly, I was wearing bib overalls and a baseball hat while I did it.

05 August 2006

Mel Gibson or Hezbollal?

Over the past week there was a lot of criticism about Mel Gibson, because of some anti-Semitic remarks that he made. I really do not understand the publicity that anti-Semitic remarks like his receive. Is it because the Jews are also a nation, because the Jewish people are a religious group of people as well? I think that if anyone really showed anti-Semitic actions or remarks, it would be the Hezbollah. I certainly have no issues with Jewish people, other than they missed the messiah. I would be a lot more concerned with the Hezbollah, who are shooting at the Jews, then Mel Gibson, who shot his mouth off about Jewish people.

Went to the movies and saw Talladega Nights, with Will Ferial. It was good, not as funny as I though that it would be, but good none the less.

03 August 2006

Home... Deep Blue Something

The Band Deep Blue Something has a song titled “Home” on their CD. This song has a lot of soul and some good riffs, it is almost like a modern folk song with a sprinkle of grunge added in for flavor. The song starts off with the sound of a match being struck (or lit.) It is nice to be back home, the trip was fun, and I enjoy traveling but there is nothing like home. I had a migraine headache this morning, which made the 3 hour meeting with 33 people talking at the same time fun. It also made it a little hard to concentrate during my one-on-one meeting at 11:00. I survived, and made it to the plan in time.

One fact that I learned about Continental Airlines, is that they switch pilots from one plane to another. We were delayed 20 minutes leaving H-town because the pilots had not arrive on their incoming flight, on a different plane.

I forget to mention the Iron at the hotel room. I was wondering how I would get a nice crisp press in my pants and shirts using the hotel iron with out starch. When I used it I was amazed, I got the nice crease that I was looking for. This leads me to believe the that Iron at home is in need of replacement.

EPIC was fun tonight, more discussion on the nuts and bolts of the matter, I fell out of the chair twice. Jenn hit me in the side of the face with a tennis ball, she could be a major league picture with the speed it was thrown. I used the word exctied 3 times in one sentence during the discussion.

Look at Mr. Excited...

02 August 2006

Yeppe I found Cafe Mocha... ...and some Books

Today I made a traveled from the hotel to George Bush International and back to the complex during the morning rush hour. It took about 1 hour and 45 minutes from start to finish, and I was a little late for the meeting. My little muchaco friend Carlos had to go home for a family emergency, so off we went. It was another day full of meetings, and today I learned how to do some really cool things with a computer program at work.

After the meeting I went out to Katy to look around and go to the Katy Mills Mall. (This has no relation with the Mills family that I know.) I looked around at a few stores and ran into one of the designers of the computer system we were work with during the meeting. We had a nice chat, and I learned that he spends about 50% of his time on the road. Which makes home life hard. We talked about kids, travel, ConocoPhillips, and where the food court is at in the mall. I went into a book store named, “Books A Million” and purchased two books. I purchased Don Quixote, one of the first epic novels written by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Tobias Smollett. What lead me to that book was my desire to read something classic. It is a wonderful tail of a Spaniard and his adventures being a knight. Jon the Methodist, a pastor in the Oklahoma Conference always spoke highly of the story, and that helped in my decision making. The other book I purchased was Disappointment with God, by Phillip Yancy. As I was pursing the Christian books something lead me to this book. I have read one other Phillip Yancy book, The Jesus I Never Knew. It was fairly deep, and was not a very easy read, certainly not as easy as C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. I hope that it will provide some insight to me about God and Christianity.

To finish out my evening I went to a coffee shop and had a cafĂ© mocha. It was not as good as the ones in Nawlins, but it was better then the disaster that I made. I sat in a large chair, my coffee on a table that was to tall for the chair, subsequently I felt like Cap at the dinner table, always reaching for my drink. I had one of those moments where I enjoyed the music and them of the late 90’s and 2K years in the coffee shop. When I got in the car it was a pure 70’s music moment, because Wildfire by Micheal Martin Murphy was on the radio. It would have been one of those moments to remember had John been playing that song in the coffee shop.

01 August 2006

Hot Elevator

Houston is a lovely town in the summer. The hotel that I am at has great air conditioning, expect for in the elevator. The elevator is a place that good A/C is important, because you are crowded in a small confined space with people that you do not know. It makes an uncomfortable situation even worse. In college I wrote a paper about peoples comfort zone, and how at a book store if you get to close to someone, they will just scoot over. Different people have different comfort zones, and these zones will change depending on who is invading the zone.

Today I was in a meeting that had quite a bit of discussion around several computer systems problem’s Overall the meeting was beneficial, however, there were times when it seemed as though we were chasing our tails. During the tail chasing, there were a lot of people with good ideas that were not listening to each other. The best part of the day was watching a guy who resembles Yosemite Sam eat pop corn from across the room. He had a very unique facial expression as he chewed.