Cap and his Gingerbread House

Cap and his Gingerbread House
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Boys Weekend

Amy went to Albuquerque over the weekend, leaving Cap and I at home. Cap spent Thursday and Friday at Honey and Bear's. We also had breakfast on Saturday, Supper on Saturday, and lunch on Sunday at Honey's house. (I would have fed him myself, but who would pass up Honey's cooking?) We had a good time and survived the weekend with out Momma, although there were a lot of questions about where she was. I am happy to report that she and Ella have returned home safely, and in good spirits.

Last week I finally returned to my real job, it was a bit of a shock to the system. I am working on mentally preparing myself for tomorrow, and the return of the fast pace. I do not have any issues with the fast pace, I just had a few to many days of a pace that was more like a stroll or even a saunter, instead of a sprint slowing down to a marathon.

FedEx tried to deliver my new flash on Thursday and they left one of those tags because it has to be signed for. So I called them and it took 15 minutes for me to explain to the customer "help" desk that it was futile to deliver the package on Friday and most likely on Saturday as well. I was ready to pull my hair out.

I have been thinking about Christmas, and I have the following question. Why do we have a celebratory candlelight church service the evening before Christ was born? Have you ever thought about that? Don't get me wrong, I love the Christmas Eve service, with the Christmas carols, the candles, and communion, but have you ever wondered that?

Ella's New Doll

Ella's New Doll
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Ella and her new doll.

Cap Shoveling Snow

Cap Shoveling Snow
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Captain Snow Shovel

End of Year Review 2007

In the event that you did not know it, 2007 the year of the pig is coming to an end. As I was sitting down to hammer this out, I thought to myself, "I will not write the generic stuff about how good of a year it was, and that time seems to be flying by like a Boeing 747." However, it is hard not to start with some cliche about the year. Below are some high points to the year.

Cap turned 3
Amy Turned 31
I turned 33
Ella Mae arrived in August (2 1/2 weeks early).
I purchased my first "Artificial Tree" which looks surprising good considering I have not watered it.
The pressure plate in the mustang went out again.
I Purchased the Nikon D80 SLR camera, that's right it is a sweet camera.
I transferred out of the refinery!!!!

I was taking to my sister the drug-dealer in training (don't worry it is all legal) about the group called the Decemberist. She had not ever heard of them, and I kind of like some of their stuff. They have one song that is or was on the radio titled O Valencia!

We took Ella to the doctor today, she has a cold and an ear infection (I hope I am not violating HIPPA), while she and Amy were at the Doctors office, Cap and I went to Barns and Noble. I was going to purchase a few books, but I left my wallet at home. I felt a bit embarrassed buy the situation, because I realised I had no money after she said, "That will be 20.19." It did remind of my aunt Dorthy, who spilled the entire contents of the hospital cafeteria tray onto the floor.

Cap Shoveling Snow

Cap Shoveling Snow
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Here is a picture that I took yesterday of Cap in the driveway. He wanted to play outside because I was shoveling the snow off the driveway. Of course, he also wanted to shovel the snow with me.

Yule

Today was the kind of day that I like, with the exception of attending one funeral. I woke up and went to the office to work on sending a note out with my boss. Then I ran down to the Tar Box creek and checked the Oil Wells on the Hodges. After that I went home, at some lunch, attended a funeral. After that I had a message on my phone from my dad, he had locked the keys in his truck and was stranded at the riverview station. So I went to rescue him, and Monroe. Once that was done I stuck around and ran the pulling 54 joints of tubing into a well.

The Funeral was the second one that I have attended this month. Today it was Max Nuttall's funeral. Max was always at Church, the first one there on Sunday morning and he locked the doors once the service had completed. He was always happy and a pleasure to talk to. When I was learning how to play golf, I got to play with him a few times. There was a group of retirees that would hit the links at sun-up and he was usually there.

A few weeks ago I attend the funeral of Dorthy Fahle, who was a neighbor on the street that I grew up on. In the summer she and her husband (Mark) would sit on their front porch for a couple of hours each night. As a kid I would usually find my way down to visit. They were both wonderful people. The first few years that I lived on the block during the winter, Dorthy would have a bible study on Monday evenings for all the kids on the block.

On a side note, the word Yule means: Christmas or the Christmas Season. In case you wanted to know.

Stick'em Up

Stick'em Up
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Here is Cap and Braegan showing off thier new work gloves on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas

The holidays are upon us, and many people across the world celebrated Christmas on Tuesday. You can count me as one of the masses that did celebrate Christmas. Christmas has been a splendid time for the most part. The only exception is that my aunt and uncle were involved in an 80 car pile-up on I-40. They both landed in ICU and are still in the hospital. We went Clovis last Friday to celebrate Christmas with Amy's family. One famous line that I heard on Saturday was, "Well there is only 31 people coming today."

Of course Santa came and gave me some nice oven mitts (top of the line), candy, two movies, and boxers and socks for the year. Cap and Ella had fun, particularly Cap. He enjoyed opening presents, and playing with his new toys. He got a couple of new Geo Trains. Ella got some neat dolls and a mat that has animals that make noises, the lion growls, the elephant trumpets, etc.

I have started posting some pictures on a site called flicker, below is a link to my pictures. I think that will work better in the future. I have had some issues with blogger only allowing me to upload one picture per posting, which is inconvenient when you have a lot of pictures.

http://flickr.com/photos/22236683@N06/

Snow, Ice and Rain

Over last weekend the weather man was predicting a rather large ice storm for our area. Thankfully he missed the forecast. For Friday he is predicting some snow flurries, which means that it will dump 12 inches of snow on top of everyone. (Well probably not, in all actually they do pretty good about predicting something that is fairly unpredictable.) I would pull my hair out if I was a weatherman (or person if you want to be politically correct).

I watched an interview with Mike Huckabee on Sunday morning, and I noticed two major points about all of his responses. He did not criticize the other opponents on anything and he actually answered the questions. I was quite impressed. He seemed genuine, especially when you pit him against some other politicians (Ted Kennedy for example.)

This week Jerry Jones (the owner of the Dallas Cowgirls) and some NFL guy testified to the Texas House Regulated Industries Committee about the cowgirls not being on normal cable. I read a report in the paper that quoted Jones as saying, “As America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys have millions of fans outside the home market who are being kept in the dark by Big Cable."

Of course, on the other side Todd Baxter, general counsel for the Texas Cable Association, said, "The billionaire NFL owners have every right to make more money, but they need to be intellectually honest about it and stop blaming the cable companies."

In my opinion, the state government should not be involved. This should be dealt with as most business deals are dealt with. If the cowgirl fans want to watch them play on the NFL network, the cough up the money and pay, or protest professional football all together. My vote is for college football or even Baseball. Also, I think someone should really tell Jerry Jones that the Cowgirls are not America's team.

Life in the Fast Lane

I took yesterday off from work, witch was really nice. I took Cap to Kid's Kamp, and because it was me, when I was standing in the church the power went off. So I checked on a few things and waited for the power to be restored, and checked on a couple of other things. Then I went and ran some errands. (Welcome to my exciting life.) It was a nice day off, and I enjoyed it.

The wind has been blowing strongly yesterday and is forecast to blow hard today as well. During the night it switched from the North to the South, and is part of mother nature's plan to de-leaf all trees in the Texas Panhandle.

The Christmas lights are going up all over town, along with the environmentally friendly policy of cutting healthy trees down and sticking them inside a house for a month. Where the trees become a fire hazard and cleanup mess. On the other hand you can purchase a plastic tree, where you will save a tree. If you think about it, instead of having a nice biodegradable tree to dispose of, the plastic tree will be around for the next thousand years, if not more. Of course if your name is Clark W. Griswold, you will drive out to the county and pull your tree up. Note: This house has not decided on a tree this year.

An interesting article that I ran across in the Newspaper. I find the first few paragraphs the most amusing.

Local couple receives a sweet homecoming

Three Amigos

On the Fast Track

I was looking through a FAO Schwarz Catalog over the weekend and found an interesting gift idea. I think that the gift might be a bit excessive no matter whose family you are in. If I was a kid I would love to have it. However, I reflex back to the many miles I road my bike down the alley and the hours I played on the north side of the house with my cars and trucks, and it was fun.

The caption is to small to read so I have written it below.

D 1942 Willys MB Junior Replica On the road again, this time in an authentic replica of a real Willys, sized for kids. Just as tough as its grown-up version, the 2/3 scale model has a 5.5 hp engine that goes up to 20 mph on private property (no streets, please!). Detailed with a cushioned canvas seat with room for two, plus working headlights, seat belts, side mirror, rollbar, and all-terrain tires, including a spare. This set of wheels is also designed with an additional brake pedal on the passenger side that parents can use to teach about safety and the responsibility of driving. Includes steel roll bar (not shown) as a safety feature and a removable canvas top for covered driving. Gasoline powered. 7' x 3'. SPECIAL ORDER. PLEASE ALLOW TWO WEEKS FOR DELIVERY GIFT WRAP NOT AVAILABLE. AGES 12 AND UP. $9,900 EACH ($900)

Thanksgiving

One of my friends wrote that Thanksgiving is the only holiday that is devoted solely to a meal. I do not really agree with him, however, his observation is interesting. One could use the same logic and say that Valentine's day is an event devoted solely to one date. Or perhaps the MLK day is devoted to one person (well perhaps that is a bad example because it is devoted to Martin Luther King). I think that the meal around thanksgiving is more the central piece of the puzzle, with the larger pieces being a celebration. A celebration of Family, Friends, and all that we have been bless by the lord with. Below are a few pictures that I took over the thanksgiving holidays.

Dining Room Table prior to the Patman Celebration

Happy Thanksgiving

Once again the traditional thanksgiving holiday has arrived in America. Millions of people across the nation gather with friends and family to over indulge on turkey, desert, and sweet potatos. I have many things that I am thankful for, and I will not try to list them all here. In synopsis, life is good! Below are a few Halloween pictures.

Where is the Fall

TOday is November 16, 2007, and the high temprature was in the 70's. That is some 20 degrees warmer than the average hight for this time of year. Perhaps the earth is getting warmer. I saw the comic strip below in the newspaper on 11/4/07, and though that it was fitting. I am espically found of it since I have a degree in Environmental Science. I hope that it is not diffucult to read.

The kids are doing well, they are both growing, and it has been quite a change having Ella around. She has been responding alot lately to funny faces that I make, which is exciting. I should not that Cap has also been responding to the funny faces that I make.

If you have a chance you should listen to "Breathe" by Michael W. Smith.

New Concrete

I have found that running around with two kids take more energy then just one. It takes up four times as much energy as one (or so it seems). So of this could be getting up earlier to go to work at my new job. It is a good job, and I do enjoy it, although I am still adjusting to the sheer amount of driving that I do. Last week it was 220 miles, and I was in class at the home office for two whole days. That might not seem like much but at the old job it took ~1 to 1 1/2 months to put that many miles on the blue light special (my work truck there.)

Ella slept through the night last night, or at least she did not need a snack like I did. I have never really been good at sleeping through the night, I can remember as a kid waking up in the middle of the night, going downstairs and eating Goldfish crackers while watching CNN. (It was in the day after cable, but only 13 channels.)

Cap helped me in the backyard yesterday, we go an area ready to cement in. Once it was ready I began the process of making the cement on sack at a time. Ten sacks (800 lbs) later I had a nice little slab pour over an area that is always overgrown and difficult to maintain. Everyone, but Cap, (including Mazie the Wonderdog) put their hand or foot print in the wet concrete. For some reason Cap did not want to put his hand in.

Amy called on Thursday to inform me that the people were going to put in the new patio door. I said that i would have cleaned off the porch if they would have given us more notice. It looks nice, slides easy and locks. It is a much needed improvement.

Digging

Last night, or really it was evening time because when I think of night I think of midnight out at the bar causing trouble, I started digging a trench to lay some new conduit and wire to a plug in the back yard. Cap was my assistant. He and I put on our digging clothes and went to work. There towards the end, he told me that I was a "Good Digger Boy". I am still not sure what he means, so I will take it as a complement. It was fun, I find it interesting how fast a 3 year old can go from a jolly good time, to a near melt down. Ella is doing well, currently she is trying to settle down for a nap before her final feeding of the day. I tried to feed her a bottle at our bible study but she did not want any part of it.

As of late, I have had no major revelations about life, or the world around me. However, I do want to interject that the Red Sox will be playing the Indians in the ALCS, and once again the Cubs lost out in the playoffs. The Curse of the Billy Goat lives on.

Fall

The fall is starting to take shape here in the panhandle. The leaves are beginning to turn yellow as the surrender to the hard fought battle against the weather all summer. It is not a mass surrender yet, only a few here and a few there. The sun is sleeping later each morning and going to bed early each evening, reminding everyone that winter will soon be here. One observation that I have always had, is that the shortest day of the year, is in the middle of December, and we normally have our coldest spells in January and February. I find that interesting, I know that it is an exciting revelation. If you think that is not exciting, then just for a minute ponder the life of the early astronomer. The countless hours they sat and stared at the sky thorough their primitive telescopes.

Cap and Ella

Life on the Front Porch

This evening Cap and I went out side to play after dinner. WE played out in Mazie's yard for a while, and then we moved out in to the front yard. After tossing many rocks back into the street, Cap decided that he wanted to get out his chair and sit down. So, I sat down with him and we talked about things. He was particularly interested in the colors of the cars, the Wasps (which we learned were bad bugs) and the locust that were "talking to each other". It was fun, in a way it was the first time that we just sat and visited, I think he had a good time.

Bear came over to see everyone one, he had been busy, one of their doggies danced with a skunk this morning and had to have the old tomato bath.

Changes

WEll it has been a busy time here at the ole homestead. I was ill over labor day and it took me about a week to start feeling better. Amy's dad came out to visit last week, it was nice, I think everyone had a good time. I changed jobs this week, same company, it is still Health, Safety and Environmental, just with a differnt division of the company. It has been intersting, as are all major changes are. Ella is growing, eating and pooping, all one can expect out of a 6 week old. Cap started Pre-School last Tuesday and seems to enjoy it. Last week we went to the local football game, the home team did not fare to well, and ended up loosing 41-14. (At least it was a nice number).

Below is a picute of Cap in front of his star at preschool on the first day.