No iPod

I have listened to my iPod going to sleep almost every night since October 28, 2008. This is of course with a few exceptions. This past week started off with a potential disaster in this respect. I left town on a 5 day business trip, and realize as I was leaving town that my iPod was in plugged into the computer on the desk. To go back and get it would have costed about 1 hours driving time, leaving me to have to make a decision. I could go back and get the little boggier, or see what it was like without it. On the plus side, I knew that I had packed the earbuds, so at the least I could put them in my ear to fake it. I chose to risk it, and carried on my travels without the iPod. I hit pay-dirt the first two nights because the hotel had cable music channels. The last three nights, I used my computer and Pandora to play some music.

Aside from the sleep, I use the iPod to listen to music or pod cast when I tire of the audiobook I am listening to. I was forced to use the seek button and listen to the FM radio during these periods.

Winds of Change

There are some songs that are instantly recognizable after only a few bars of music. One of these songs for me is Scorpions Winds of Change. The song was released in 1990, my high school days, and it is the only song I remember Scorpion releasing. The song starts with the music being whistled, and then it goes into a ballad. The song invokes a general memory of high school, no particular event, just the fun times we had in High School

For me there are many songs that invoke some memory. For example, Soul Asylum's Runaway Train, takes me back to a camping trip I took with Terry, Steven, and Cory to Cimarron Canyon, New Mexico. We camped in the Pondersoa camp ground for 6 days, then drove over to Red River and spent one night in a hotel before heading back. The camping trip was the first one that we had taken without any parents. We did not get into any trouble, and we did have a raccoon stalker at the camp site.

Two songs, Hammer Time (MC Hammer) and Vogue (Madonna), and to a lesser extend Barbra Ann, remind me of the first time I went to the state competition for drafting. While not quite as manly as the state football playoffs, it was a lot of fun, almost like a 4 day school paid for vacation. Those two songs were on MTV when we were staying at the "Value Inn" just off of I-35 on the north end of Waco, Texas. It was also the first time I saw a Piggly Wiggly. I managed to go to state 4 straight years, and had a lot of fun. Fortunately my Senior year, we upgraded to a better hotel, in a safer part of town.

Pretty Good Skier

After dinner Ella and I were playing around with the soccer ball in the back yard. I would gently kick it to her, and she would throw it back. Then she change to where she was going to hike it back to me like a football. So I took up the ch allege of kicking it between her legs. Which got me to thinking about snow skiing. (I know that is the same as going from dot #1 to dot #35 on connect the dots.) I managed to get pretty good at it as long as I was close. My memory flashed back to lining up behind a skier in front of me, and sitting down, laying back on my skies, then shooting the moon. This moment of reflect drove me to come to grips with the fact that I was a pretty good skier at one point in my life. It was nothing for us to shoot down the face at Wolf Creek, hit the waterfall area, or take a chute that was no wider than our skies were long. We managed to survive all of it. Of the new inventions in the world, the one I would have enjoyed the most was an iPod. It was really tiresome carrying a couple of tapes, and extra batteries along with everything else we carted on the mountain.

Editor

Tnoght I glanced through several old posts, some from 2006, and some from 2010. After reading those, I decided I needed an Editor to proofread my writing. Any volunteers... ...no, I did not think so.

Square Sink - Round Tile

Sinks, a device or fixture that is in almost every bathroom, and kitchen I have ever been in. I have always associated sinks as a round object. This is despite the fact that most sinks are not a circle, rather they are an oval, or even a square with rounded corners.

Tiles, are yet another item that are found in abundance in bathrooms and kitchens. In my house they are also found in the entry, laundry room, and living room. As a general rule all the tiles that I have seen have been square. Some are big, and some are small.

This evening my "norm" was challenged by a restroom that had a square (straight corners and everything) sink, and round tiles. Which brings up the age old question, "Why do we readily accept the 'norm' and are or can be put mentally off balance by the 'exceptions'?" Our fast acceptance the norm will stifle creativity. On occasion, my kids seem to drift off to a land that they have created in their head. They will sit there and happily play with this or that toy imagining it is part of a family, or a pirate, on a great adventure.

Lately, I have felt like I have lost my creativity, or at least not had much to write about. I was listening to a podcast about The Onion, driving back from Beeville the other day. One statement was made about their desire not to get stuck in the repetitive creativity loop. A cycle that has the same set of jokes, or headlines. The last several post I have made, seemed to be stuck in this "creativity loop". A much deeper question: Am I creative at all? I think I have some degree of creativity, I am no Monet, Picasso, or Shake sphere. The is mainly because I cannot really paint, nor write sonnets in old English.

Dr. Pepper on Fat Tuesday

As the season of Lent is upon us, it is time to reflect upon our lives. This year I will be giving up Dr. Pepper, so I celebrated today with the equivalent of the old "Big Gulp.". Which in todays over the counter soft drink standard is more like a medium.

Obama Foodorama

I read an article once upon a time in Newsweek about a "Weblog" or blog for short. I found the entire concept interesting, and that is probably one of the reasons I started keeping a blog. We have many different outlets for getting information delivered to other people, the blog, a tweet (I do not do this), facebook, a newspaper (which still exists today), and the favorite Television.

A television news show can take an 8 hour intellectually stimulating debate and boil it down, like a distillery, into two 30 second sound bites. Neither of which, is much like the overall tone of the debate or argument. These news bits seem to feed the American Public, as opposed to going out and reading information on your own. We allow others to help us formulate our opinions. If you do not believe that, look at all of the news shows, in which the reports give their commentary, or thoughts on a situation.

So I was reading the news last night, looking for information on the proposal to cut public radio funding. I came across a blog about the presidents food, and dinning experiences. Which is interesting on several fronts. First, the fact that people are interested in what the president is eating, or his latest dinning experience. While his may be a little more extravagant, a Bourbon marinated pork chop cooked in my kitchen, is similar to a Bourbon marinated pork chop cooked in the presidents kitchen. Well there is one small difference, my pork chop, did not have to go through security. I am thinking about starting J's food blog, how is this for a title.

The Big J and His Food
A Look at the Cooking and Eating Habits of an Aspiring Home Chief

The Presidents blog is put together, by a paid staffer, with more abundant resources and time to complete the assignment. Big J's has limited time resources, and will not be as "professional" in its appearance.

See the Obama Food Blog
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Fritos

I am currently having a bit of a crisis. I cannot find the Sony Reader, which I have managed to misplace. It is a great little device, that I need to find, so that I can finish the book that I was reading. The other crisis, is that I do not have any chips to eat. (Perhaps the term crisis is a bit strong.) It is still an issue, as I like to eat my chips and hot sauce about this time in the evening, and since it is a Friday, one of my 7 favorite days of the week, I was going to have a tasty beverage with my chips. They complement each other.

Lent is coming up and I have not decided quite what I will be giving up. I think this year I might fall back on the Dr. Pepper, as I have gotten in the habit of drinking more of them that I used to. This has help the Levis Strauss company, as I have expanded my wardrobe, not just in number, but in size. Besides Dr. Pepper, I might give up the stinky chips aka Chile Cheese Frito's. I have not decided.

My air conditioner is running, it is 9:48 pm, in the first week of march and it is running. The heat is coming and will be here before I know it.

Fog

Driving through the fog is always fun. I did it for about 1 1/4 hour this morning. Driving though the fog, is like driving through an new universe. Much like the first time you drive some where in the dark, but with the fog, it could be the 345 time, and still, it is like a new universe. The fog shrouds the world around the car as we are driving. There is a difference between walking in the fog and driving in the fog. Most fog is not super dense, and difficult to walk in. When one takes the same density fog, and you are now going 60 mph, it seems much denser.

Living life is sometimes, like driving in the fog. One can never be quite sure the direction they are going. As the fog shrouds the surroundings, so does the hectic life we lead. Busy doing this, that, or the other, and we miss our turn. So busy that we do not see the beauty in the people around us, or we are to concerned with our own destination, that we miss a yield sign at life. When we do those things, we allow the beautiful things of life, pass before us. Life is Beautiful, if you ever take time to stop and gaze at the beauty. You will also miss the miracles of life, and by miracle, I do not mean the 1980 USA Hockey team, or the fact that the Red Soxs have actually won a few world series;s. The miracle of life, is that God can take us, create us, and love us, for who we are. He does not love us for what we have done, what we are going to do, or what we plan on doing. He just LOvES us!

Go Fish -

When I arrived at the Castle (chateau, manor, abode, or whatever you chose to call you home) A,C,E, AKA ace, were sitting down to play go fish. I joined them, and using my super powers learned while playing 42, and paying attention to who was asking for what I pulled down 8 pairs. I was pretty excited by this, last time I played, I manged to squeak out 5 pairs. I am thinking, "I bet them!!!". (This is an illustration of my competitive streak, playing my wife, and kids who are in K and Pre School.) So we count up the number of pairs, and I am tied with C, who also has 8. My bubble was burst, I though, we could squeeze in one more game. In the second game it was a 4 way tie, because everyone got 6 pairs.

In the end, I have decided that I might not be the mastermind of Go Fish. The blackberry has taught me I am not the mastermind of "Texas hold'em". I went all in on a Q high straight, the guy sitting next to me had an A high straight. Down the drain when my play money. As night falls here I realize that I will have to practice more with the cards, and the poker. There is nothing like family fun night with Go Fish, Trouble, or even Chutes and Ladders.

Descisions

Decisions are made all the time. Today, I made many decisions, most were small, with little impact, like waking up on time. (Always a good decision in my book.) I made decisions about what I was going to where, items at work were decided upon, and action taken.

Now if i was three, one of the biggest decisions of the day would be, what Pajama's I was going to select for sleeping in. Next to that decision, a three year old would be selecting which stories their parents would read, while they played, and appeared to pay marginal attention to. To be three again, it sounds pretty inviting, until you realize, you don't get to decide much after all. Wake up when you are woken up, and go to sleep when your parents tell you.

I was informed at work that last night were the Oscar's. This information was passed to me, down the hall and through my door, in the form of a conversation down the hall. Had those two individuals not been talking about it, the entire event might have gone without me noticing. I am sure there were great movies made this past year, I for one, have chosen reading, and writing as a more creative way to spend my time.

When you read a book, you engage your mind. When you engage your mind, you think. When you think, you gain wisdom. When you watch a movie, you munch on popcorn. When you munch on popcorn, you drink a soft drink. When you drink a soft drink, you have to go to the bathroom.

Do you choose WISDOM, or the bathroom?

Legos

Legos are awesome I want to get that out of the way first. Legos are a toy that can be played with if you are 3 or 33, I should know, I still play with them. Legos were designed in Europe in the 1940's and have been a favorite of builders with small hands for many years. Cap, Ella, and I have built everything from a space ship, to a boat. All it takes are a few blocks, an idea and a little imagination. Our favorite things to build are planes, cars, and space ships.

I though that I would have more to say about legos, but I do not.

Day of Meetings

Todays Schedule
7;30 to 8:00 - Meeting to review alerts.
8:00 to 9:30 - Staff Meeting
9:00 - 11:00 - Conference Call
11:00 - 11:30 - Presentation to procurement.
1:00 - 2:00 - Incident Review

And how did you spend your day?

Who is Cee Low Green

Last night I wanted to see what the music scene was like, by watching the Grammy's. Normally I tend to avoid award shows, because most of it is just pomp. I managed to watch 10 minutes of the show. Keith Urban, Norah Jones, and some other guy, sang "Jollie". Then they gave the award for best song of the year. Of the seven nominees, I had heard only one of the songs. It was at that point I realized (a) watching was a waste of my time (b) I rarely listen to pop music (unless you count Beethoven), (c) I am out of touch with today's music. So, who is Cee Low Green, and what kind of name is that?

Perhaps I should do some reading on the Oscar nominees, to increase my pop knowledge. However, I think I will just read a book instead, and engage my mind! Any activity more American's should do.

The Confrontation

Today as Cap and I were leaving church, I heard the high school kid cry out B.S. (The entire words), several times; six to be exact. He was upset because he did not call "shot gun" first.

For whatever reason, I decided that I should talk to the boys, and I gave them a little lecture about language. I hope they will think more when they are talking but I doubt it.

When I was in the 6th grade we were playing Romans and Christians outside of the church at youth. One of the older kids, was running around the corner when he slipped. I heard a loud F@#*! Come out of his mouth. I always felt let down by that. I never will forget the experience, it was the first curse word I ever heard at the church. Unfortunately, it was not the last.

Quantitative Easing Explained

The Pumpkin Patch

October is well in swing and last weekend, Cap and I went to Lowes last saturday. When we walked in Cap saw the halloween decoration, and then the Christmas decorations. So you can purchase you ghost decorations, and hang them off of Rudolph's antlers.

Yesterday we went to the Pumpkin Patch, which is much more than just a patch. It had a play fort, pedal carts, a dinning hall, a couple of fields if christmas trees. It did have a pumpkin patch, and to quote the hay ride tractor driver, "The Jack-o-latern pumpkins were brought in from a different vendor this year.".

Everyone had a good time as we searched for the Patman Family Pumpkin.

Muddy Water

The other day I was at the Library and discovered that not only do they have audio books on CD, and you can Check out, but they also have music. I was going through the stacks of music, and found two CDs. The first, was a critically acclaimed Miles Davis Jazz CD. The second, was Muddy Waters, Greatest Hits. I have listed to both albums and I have to say, that the Jazz that Miles Davis puts on reminds me of trying to get out of a corn maze. The music will be clicking along at a stead rythm and notes, then all of a sudden, wham, you hit the dead end of the maze, and the music goes haywire. The rythm changes, and the notes, cords and melody take a U turn, and throw the listener for a loop. Jazz... the music that sounds like abstract art at times, and Paublo Picaso at others. The Muddy Water CD was what I was looking for, a more John Lee Hooker sound of Blues.

I went back today and picked up Wynton Marsalis, and a classical violin CD, and another audio book. THe book is written by Karl Haasien, and I have several other audio books by him. This past week I listened to Airframe by Michael Crition, and it was great. An 11 hour read and I listened to it in about 5 days, of course I put on around 600 miles of travel with work. At this point with as much driving as I do, purcahsing audio books each is getting uneconomical to say the least. That and the pool vehicles that I get, all have CD players, which my old company truck did not.

Last but not least, I did an experiment today to see if I could use all 5 lbs of flour in a new bag in one day, and I succeded. We started out the morning with homemade biscuits (2 cups), then started with the bread (8 cups), I should mention that the bread machine was not used, then we made some blueberry schones (2 cups), and lastly pizza dough (3 cups). Needless to say we ate well, and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking and talking to the kids about cooking. Ella help me top the pizzas, and cap helped with the scones.

Homemade Bread

I did it, all by myself, if you are wondering "what" it is, the homemade bread. This is without the use of the bread machine. It was an interesting process, kind of fun, and not at all as bad as I thought it would be. This does not mean that you will soon see "J's Cafe, your home for coffee and breads."

Another bit of exciting news, while it is still hot outside, I do not feel like I am "MELTING" the second that I walk outside. Football is back on TV, and it does not look like the Astro's or the Red Sox's are not going to be going to the playoffs.

Learning to Read

When I was a kid, particularly when after I started High School, my grandmother always ask me what I was reading. My normal response what nothing, or what ever I had to read in school. She always had a book or to that she was reading, and help get me to read the "Hank the Cowdog" books when I was a kid. (My parents or mom help along those lines as well.). It was not until I was out of college that I finally discovered the enjoyment in reading. This can be correlated with the end of required reading, or that I had time in the evenings to read. Tonight Cap, with a little help, read "Going to the Firehouse" by Mercer Mayer. I hate to boast, but this makes me proud, particular since he wanted to read it.
Over the weekend I was listening to a MLK speech on the forming of a new nation (when Guine became independent) in his speech the he stressed on the importance of education, and the first step, was learning to read. So here at our house we do lots of reading to the kids, as they learn how to read, how to write, and how to be kids.

Cap Self Portrait 8-29-10

Cap Self Portrait 8-29-10
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Say Cheese

Ella Self Portrait 8-29-10

Ella Self Portrait 8-29-10
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Need I say more...

Play Mobile Pirates

Play Mobile Pirates
Originally uploaded by Germburner

The great thing about toys is that you can use your imagination. We were playing with the Play Mobile toys the other day, and Santa ended up being the skipper of the Pirate Ship. It makes Ho, Thar, and Ho! Ho! Ho! fit together. On a side note, Ella calls all of the figure people "Bad Guys" from the pirates, to santa, to the Explorer that is in the back of the picture.

Scenes From My Day 8-26-10

Today I went into a CVS pharmacy in Lafayette, Louisiana. Behind the cash register they had 3 sections of merchandise in this order. First there was the Patron, and other hard liquor. Next to the adult beverages was the and I quote the sign "Quit Smoking Zone". An area with a variety of aids to help stop the smoking. Next to that section was the cigarettes, there was not space whatsoever between them. I would think that if they were interested in helping people kick the habit, they would not be selling the cigarettes.

The other item I notice is that you can purchase a Whataburger gift card now. It makes the perfect card to give to that co-worker that you just cannot tolerate. Buy one today, and save it for the dreadful white elephant gift christmas party this year. That's right, a Whataburger gift card.

If this is not enough there was a teenage girl that came into the whataburger wearing ballet slippers, lime green pants, a yellow shirt, and a knitted winter hat that looked like a puppy dog. I should point out that it is 93 F outside and sunny. If it was 32 cloudy with snow I could understand the hat. No matter what the temperature the lime green pants just don't work.

Ozark Big Ear Bat

Cap's first day of school
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Today was Cap's first day of kindergarten. It was an exciting day, and cap wore a shirt that was educational. It had the picture and name of the Ozark Big Ear Bat. Of course he was also sporting a backpack with "Cap" stitched in the back. I find it hard to believe that he is in kindergarten.

Homemade Pizza

8-22-10 Photos 004
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Yesterday I attempted something that I had never done, and only read about. I made Pizza from scratch, that's right. I planted a little wheat, ground up the flout, well maybe not that much from scratch. I started with Salt, Yeast, and flour, and the breadmachine. It worked out okay for my first attempt. While I was cooking I did a little reading and learned a few things that might help. Of course, this means investing in more Cooking equipment. Do you think the neighbors will mind a brick oven in the back yard?

Lumber Yard Shopping List

8-21-10
* Assorted Zipties
* Hanger for Ella's hide-a-way
* New trash can, Old one is trashed, or thrashed might be a better description.

Me

Me
Originally uploaded by Germburner

August 17

Captains Log: Star date... Oh wait, I am not a captain, just another human being. I have had a touch of writers block, I tried to write last night but lost interest when I fell asleep. Mr. C is now 6, and as birthdays go he had a good one. We traversed the city to go to Galveston, and played on the beach. The kids had fun, along with Stuart, Honey & Bear. The Jellyfish were out, although I did not see any there were some possible bite victims. I did find a couple of Hermit crabs, who up until I pulled them out of the water, were living the good life. Then all of a sudden, they get jerked out of water and it is a shock to their system. It was really hot there yesterday, and on the drive home we were hammered by a rainstorm.

While I am not Captain Krik (and let me tell you that is a good thing. I was watching espn classic a while back and he was on some celebrity bowling show. It was quite funny), sometimes I feel like I am going where no one has been before.

Ella

Ella no cake!
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Here is a picture of Ella in the kitchen after she and Cap watched amy working on the birthday cakes.

Willie's Icehouse

Today after church we went to eat at a joint called "Willie's Icehouse". It looked like a place that had character, and we had never eaten there. While they do make a decent Bacon Cheese Burger ($7.95) and a great grill cheese sandwich according to cap, they do have some quirks. I guess one could say that it had character, as that is a word with a broad definition. So here it is, they have a counter that you order at, no problem. The signs getting you to the counter are Less Than adequate(LTA). So if I did a taproot investigation, I would say that the human engineering was LTA. When you get to the counter your order and some kid making minimum wage writes your order down, then hands you the ticket. By ticket, I mean the slip of paper that the guy in the kitchen gets. The kid then tells me to take it to the table and the waiter will take care of it. Keep in mind that I did not even pay. When the waiter shows up, he re-reads the order (I guess to make sure the first kid did not make a mistake, which they had) then takes the ticket to the kitchen. Willie's is a new looking place that by design is striving for that old look. Much like stone washed jeans when they were in their prime. If you want character, and good food, my recommendation is Red's, AKA Sandy's, AKA Shannon's. It is a place in Borger that does not have to work hard to look old, because it has been there since my uncle was in high school (it was Red's at that time). You can go into the smoke filled restaurant, order a tea and bacon cheese burger and get out with a $6.00 bill (including tip). In the event you are feeling saucy, you can play a Clarance Carter Song hit on the Juke box.

Does Willie's have character, well they have characters in their name if that counts!

MKT - "The Katy"

Now that I reside in a town named Katy, it is time to explore how it got this name. It was named not for a person, like Clovis (named after King Clovis) rather, this town was given the actual Railroad's nickname. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas line was nicknamed "K-T Railroad." It has a bit of a colorful history, including a stunt crash at a location in Texas that later became "Crush" Texas. There is a great blues song titled "She Caught the Katy" and it took me a few years to finally spend the time to research what the song was about. I was thinking, okay was the KT some sort of disease, because the singer's theme is that his partner catches the KT and leaves him. Once you fill in that the KT is a railroad, and that is why she leaves him a mule to ride, the song makes more sense. The song is part of the SNL spin off movie "The Blues Brothers" which is (I am kind of ashamed to say it) a great movie with lots of wonderful quotes. Certainly not a show to watch with the kids, but it is priceless when they have a high speed chase through the Toys R Us and mall.

Elizabeth Who

Today is Ella's Birthday, she has turned 3, and it only took 3 years. She was excited to see me tonight, we met at the Chick-Fillet because they have an indoor playground. In addition I really like their food.

Maize is hungry, she is sitting on the couch winning at me so that I will go feed her. It is certainly on the list for this evening, along with crawling into bed. I can't seem to get my pillows configured correctly, so I have been tossing about at night. I am ready for tomorrow evening, because it will be the start of two blissful without work.

The tropical storm colin, which ceased being a tropical storm a few days ago, so my question is: should this be call Colin II, or just Junior.

2920 Days

Today is Amy's cousins' wedding anniversary. They were married 8 years ago today. It is currently the only anniversary of amy's 10 cousins' anniversary that I know. In all likely hood it will be the only one, I will be able to tell you off the top of my head. In the event you are wondering why I can remember this, I will tell you. It is very simple, they were married the day after we were.

So eight years, 2920 days, 2 kids, 1 dog, 2 house, 3 kitchens later we celebrated our anniversary yesterday. It was fun, went out to eat without the kids (they were under direction of a babysitter) then we hit the Target. While dinner was romantic, the trip to Target was functional, I guess that is what happens after 2920 days.

Love, the Beatles sing about, Shakespeare writes about it, poets rhyme passages of words about it, and Hollywood (we Hollywood shows it, misrepresents it, makes fun or it) but we, we get to live it.

The Kayak Roll

Well I want to start of with a little something on my trip to Northern Louisiana last week. When you go to Louisiana, their specialty it seafood / cajun food, not Mexican food. I did eat at a Mexican food joint last week, it was okay, but it was not like an Emerald "BAM!" Type of experience.

Friday we headed for the hill country,which is one of my favorite parts of Texas. We had the Strebeck summer Family Celebration, which was fun. This leads me to the kayak, I had never been in one so I tried it out. Fist in a two man boat with ella, which went well. Then I decided (Ella did help make the decision when she went of crying for "mom") that I would try a single person. I managed to roll ot over about 6 inches after being push off from shore. I was proud of my new sandals, the functioned well when wet. Our clan had a great time there, one odd thing, we stayed in a hotel that had a tile floor in the room. It caused me to have a little anxiety. On a positive note, our kids did not crash on it.

On the way home we stopped at my cousin Tina's and had lunch in San Antonio, which was a lot of fun. Got to meet Teddy, and have a nice chat.

We did get stuck in traffic 60 miles for houston, so I bailed off the interstate and hit some of the back roads.

The Kayak Roll

Well I want to start of with a little something on my trip to Northern Louisiana last week. When you go to Louisiana, their specialty it seafood / cajun food, not Mexican food. I did eat at a Mexican food joint last week, it was okay, but it was not like an Emerald "BAM!" Type of experience.

Friday we headed for the hill country,which is one of my favorite parts of Texas. We had the Strebeck summer Family Celebration, which was fun. This leads me to the kayak, I had never been in one so I tried it out. Fist in a two man boat with ella, which went well. Then I decided (Ella did help make the decision when she went of crying for "mom") that I would try a single person. I managed to roll ot over about 6 inches after being push off from shore. I was proud of my new sandals, the functioned well when wet. Our clan had a great time there, one odd thing, we stayed in a hotel that had a tile floor in the room. It caused me to have a little anxiety. On a positive note, our kids did not crash on it.

On the way home we stopped at my cousin Tina's and had lunch in San Antonio, which was a lot of fun. Got to meet Teddy, and have a nice chat.

We did get stuck in traffic 60 miles for houston, so I bailed off the interstate and hit some of the back roads.

The Early Bird Gets the Table

Today was a summer saturday at home, which as usual, involved a trip to the swimming pool. Today we made it to the pool 8 minutes after it opened (10:08 AM). I finally understand how long it take to get two kids in their bathing suits, sunscreen, pool toys, snacks, towels, and water gathered up. We managed to get a table with a shade on it, and had the pool pretty much to ourselves for the first 30 minutes. Then other folks showed up, we had fun.

Tonight I grilled some steaks, shrimp, and veggies, and made some whole wheat bread in the bread machine. The bread tasted very, very healthy, so I need a little more practice with it.

Travels

Here is a brief recount of my recent travels.

Houma, LA - July 7-9th
I had Cajun food, and stayed at the Fairfield Inn. To be honest it was not what I expected, a little run down, and my room had a de-humidifier. That's right, something that sounded like a diesel engine in my room that removed humidity.

Houston - 1 Night

Abilene, TX - July 10th-11th
Stayed at Alana's had a great time with them as well as Ryan & Amberly. Went to Ryan's church, which I could not remember ever seeing when I lived there. In addition to that, I had the best ribs I have ever had in my life, Doug cooked them for the birthday party.

Houston - 2 Nights (Yippee)

Editorial Note: I drove 300 + miles 3 days in a row.

College Station - July 13-14
Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. I Went to a place called wings and more, and we were all surprised that they actually made a few things that weren't fried. I also had a great pork chop at lunch.

Beeville - July 15
Holiday Inn Express I know what you are thinking, "Where is Beeville?". Well it is in Bee county. Not much to report, did not have a local guide for dinner last night, so I headed to Chillis, one them about that place is consistency. No matter if you are in the houston airport, Amarillo, Tx, or Lincoln Nebraska, the food tastes about the same.

Frog Legs

I made an important discovery this past week in Louisiana. I knew they.ate alligator meat, crawfish, and budan, but I did not realize that they ate frog legs. Keep in mind, that I grew up in a place where a wet year was 23 inches of rain. Our fish were freshwater, and we ate a lot of beef and corn.

The frog legs were deep fried (this fits in with southern belief that if it is good, then it is better fried) were good a little on the chewy side. I am a texture person, some people are hung up with color, but texture is important to me. It could taste really good, but if the texture is off, then it does not do it for me. All that said, the chewy texture eliminated the good taste of the frog legs.

Cap at pool

Cap at pool
Originally uploaded by Germburner

You guessed it, here is "Cool Cap" at the pool. We did some snorkeling in the pool, which Cap thought was great.

Ella at pool

Ella at pool
Originally uploaded by Germburner

While not the best quality photo, I think the subject makes up for it. I ran off and left the camera at the house. I almost got the photo taken, uploaded to flickr, and blogged on my "Smart phone." I made it all the way to getting it blogged before I was shut down, still it is pretty amazing. (Needless to say, we went swimming this morning.)

July 4th 2010 Family Photo

July 4th 2010 Family Photo
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Here is our family photo on the 4th of July. Later it sounded like my neighborhood was under siege, but it was only the fire works that went into the wee hours of the night. We are truly blessed to live in a country with some many freedoms, like religion, speech, and even to publish stuff on the Internet.

Fashion

Yesterday we went to church, then went to the Texas Roadhouse for lunch. While we were there I noticed a couple of the waitresses wearing miss matched socks. I asked Amy if they knew their socks did not match, and she said that they did. Evidently that is a fashion statement, as opposed to a political statement. It reminds my of a children's book that Max Lucado wrote titled, If I Only had a Green Nose, which is a great children's book no matter how old your are. This sock thing is a fad just like the bell bottoms of the 70's and late 90's as they made a resurgence. Clothing fashion is such a strange concept, how things that look good today, my children will laugh at when they are my age.

A few interesting tib bits from the news. A hot dog eating champ was arrested for trying to crash Nathan's hotdog eating contests. (Link) You have got to be kidding me, I mean really, there is much more news worthy stories out there. On a second level, a contest to see who can eat the most hot dogs. This is something you do as kids, with hot dogs, pizza, or Cream Puffs. (I would like to mention that I hold the family record for the most cream puffs eaten at 3. I must clarify that these were the "BIG" ones, not the little ones). Only in America, will we have a contest to see who can eat the most hot dogs. It does not stop there... ...in Amarillo, Texas, there is a steakhouse that will cook you a 72 oz steak for free, if eaten in 1 hour along with the sides, while sitting in front of the entire restaurant.

For all the soccer fans out there, the following link will take you to a video of a couple of announcers, announcing a goal in the world cup. I have always said that it is funner listening to the Spanish announcers while watching, and this is even better.

Soccer Announcers

Going to Swim WIth Dolphin

Going to Swim WIth Dolphin
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Here is the crew getting ready to meet the Dolphins, Cap would not kiss the dolphin, and Ella, gave it "Eskimo Kisses".

Birkenstocks Demise

Bahammas 2010 241
Originally uploaded by Germburner

My sandel's finally fell apart. Natually they decided to do this while on vacation in the Bahamas. They held up for 2 days, until I submerged them in swimming pool water, at which point the two section seperated. It was a true travesty, so I had to pay 16.99 for a pair of 2.00 flip flops at the restort. They are not even comfortable flip flops, part of today's quest, is going to be replacement sandels. That, along with laundry, a trip to the swimming pool, a pasta supper or grilling shrimp on the grill, and mailing two memory sticks of vacation photos to Honey.

Story Time 6/25/10

Note - I actually wrote this last week, but am just now publishing it.

I started mowing the grass tonight, but took a break for story time. Current we are reading, Thank You Santa". So reading a Christmas book while the kids are playing with the Halloween decorations they found in the draw. It is like the twilight zone.

Thank goodness, we have moved on to a non-holiday book, it is "If you give a cat a cupcake". A good book, not quite as fun to read as "If you give a pig a pancake," but fun none the less. These books kind of remind me of a TV show call connections, which start with some mundane event, and threads its way to great discovery.

Reality TV, Really?

So the other day I was spending the night in a small hotel with nothing to really do but watch TV. I happened to stumble across the Golf Channel, I like golf, so I wanted to see what was on. After a few minutes, I decided that reality TV has gone to far. (A thought that I have been harbouring ever since "Survivor" started). So here is the setting, a private resort with a golf course, 10 lady golfers who played in college, and saw a little pro action, and one big house. It is like Survivor crossed with The Real World. As you can image, the challenges were all based on who was the best person on the golf course. I was telling Amy about this and she said, "Isn't that kind of what they do every week on the pga tour."

We live in a world with abundant access to books, I mean we have the printing press, Amazon's Kindle, the Sony reader, a variety of newspapers, magazines, yet, the average American house has 2.24 televisions per house. Americans spend, on average, 4 hours of Television per week. We have become a nation that would rather watch someone else's lives, that we would participate in our own life. That is what I think about reality TV...

Slow Camera

Swinging
Originally uploaded by Germburner

I was taking a picture, well this picture with the Sony camera, which is not quite as fast as the Nikon, but what do you expect for a camera that is 1/4 of the price, and fits into your pocket.

Swinging

Swinging
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Cap is enjoying the swing, at what he calls, "The Little Park". Little or not, it has swings, and is within walking distance.

Fathers 2010

"One father is more than a hundred Schoolmasters." ~George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

So happy Father's day, the day which father's are recognized for being, well themselves for the most part. Ole George was right about fathers and schoolmasters, while I learned a lot of book smart from the teachers, I learned more about they way the world worked, in particular a 1966 mustang, than anyone else. My dad taught me how to use a drill when I was 5, I have a 5 year old and he is not going to be touching that drill for a few more years. I learned how to welded before I could drive a car. The first vehicle I drove down a street was a 5 Ton GMC Winch Truck (or Gin Pole Truck), it had a Detroit diesel engine, and 13 speed roadranger transmission. (I don't think I had started drivers education yet). More important, he taught me about integrity, honor, and respect, treat others the way you would want to be treated. Every year, they would put together a vacation trip to Houston, so I could See a doctor. Once the doctor visit was over, the trip was great, lots of fun.

Here's to dad's, while they may be sitting across the room from the conversation, looking at the paper, they are still listening to every thing. No matter what time you call, or how insurmountable the problem, they always have sound advice, and an extra heavy tow-rope to pull you out. No matter how many questions you ask, they always seem to have an answer.

Saturday Morning 6 AM

I think one of my favorite times is saturday morning around 6:00 am. I get up before the kids, and can have a bit of peace and serenity. It is also a nice time to sit outside. One of the issue I have with the greater Houston area in the summer is the heat. Right now it actually feels kind of cool. In the panhandle it cooled off pretty good once the sun went down, making the back porch an "attractive" place to it. Here it is still 85 degrees, with 60 % humidity, so it is not very cool.

There are a few things I could do, pick-up back yard, go for a walk, fold my laundry, or even take some advil for the headache, as I stayed up to late to be up this early.

I can actually hear a cow mooing in the pasture across the street, which is one reason, my does not feel like it is in the big city. That is until you get on I-10 to drive into work with 500,000 other people.

Tonight the president was on television, talking about the oil spill. The spill that has been going since April 20th. One interesting fact that I learned today, was the bp (British Petroleum) has more employees in the good ole USA than any other country, including Britain.

"Mean while back at the ranch," have you ever wondered why cliches are so popular. Sayings like, "bite off more than you can chew," "a rolling stone gathers no moss" are just things people say with out much thought. Is it that we are out of phrases, or just to lazy to think of something to say... ...or perhaps they are just sayings we like to use, because they sound so different than their meaning. Take "what ever tickles your fancy" has nothing to do with someone tickling you (or me) until we laugh. It means, If that is the way you like it, then it is okay with me". This would be the McDonald's slogan, unlike Burger King which has, "Have it your way."

Do Not Come In My Room

Well today was the kids first day back in Katy, which was an interesting lesson in kids. Ella I think has been missing sleeping in the same room as big brother. Cap on the other hand spent some time in his room with the door closed. In fact, he needed a pencil and paper to make a do not enter sign for his door. Which is funny on two different levels. First, instead of "Do Not Enter" the sign said, "Do Not Come in My Room." Secondly, mom and dad will always knock first, but come into the room, leaving Ella, who does not read, to absorb the new sign on Cap's door, which is still hanging on his door. Amy informed me that while closing the door is easy, the is fun in making a sign. I wonder if that will work at the office?

Other than that it was a pretty ordinary day, we picked up Mazie (Ella and I), Cap elected to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas show instead of coming with us. Charlie Brown may be 6 months out of season, but Mr. C sure like to watch them. Of course, on the TiVo, we still have a show titled, "Prep and Landing," (it is an adorable cartoon) about two elves that "Prep" the house before Santa arrives, and assist with the "Landing" of the sleigh. In 6 more months it will be back in style, just like Disco Music...

Hello World... ...are you still there?

I have been working on hanging a few pictures in the house, that is in my spare time, to make it more homey. So I had the bright idea to see if I had taken any good picture lately with my camera, i.e. "artsy" photo's. (I have taken plenty of the family, well really those have even fallen short.) After looking through several folders, I realized that I had not taken any pictures that were not related to family events, and of family members. Not that this is a bad thing, I like taking pictures of the family. The exception would be the ole house hunting trip. Amy has the good camera with her, so I am left with a small Sony camera, and the old film camera. I may have to run to wal-mart to see if they have any real B&W film, although I doubt it.

I have been so busy lately, and somewhat disjointed the past year, that I have forgotten about the enjoyment, and value in writing, along with photography. Next year I am going to set a one photo per day rule, which will be placed on flickr.... but that is in about 6 months.

Across Valdez Bay

Across Valdez Bay
Originally uploaded by Germburner

A picture standing at the Valdez Civic Center, looking across the bay at the snow covered mountain.

The Big Trip

In the morning, I get to take a big trip. I get to leave the house around 350AM, and will fly from Amarillo, to Denver, to Seattle, to anchorage to Valdez. It will be a good trip, although I am not looking forward to spending a hole day and then some traveling.

Today was church day, so I went. It was an okay service. I got to thinking that I do not remember anywhere in the bible where it says, "worship must consist of 3 Hymns, 1 offering/offertory, a 20 minute sermon, and prayer time.". Don't take me wrong, it is not that I am opposed to this, however, I do not know what Impact it has on the congregation. We call it the worship service, aside from the hymns, there is not much crowd participation.

...and the winner is...

...and the winner is...
Originally uploaded by Germburner

A picture of Cap's Soccer team. They called themselves the Tigers, and everyone had fun. It was a good season... I am sure we will play again in the fall.

3 Ring Circus

Today, I felt like I was in the middle of a 3 ring circus. It is now ~1000 PM, and I am finally winding down. A fact that would not be bad, except I walked out the front door for work @530 AM. Don't get me wrong, the day went by fast, and it was good, just long.

So now it is me and mazie, patio, Dr. Pepper (my best syb for a "Tasty Beverage"), chips, hot sauce, and my iPod.I suppose that I have reached the age of reflection. For instance, I remember the days when phones had cords. Microsoft was virtually unknown, and the Apple IIC was the bomb.

Today, I am sitting on my porch with my cell phone, that I can use for E-mail, the internet, text messaging, alarm clock, and actually make a phone call with. On the table is a iPod, which has 5 movies, probably 20 Audiobooks, and ~1,500 songs on it. Do you know how much space that would take up with CDs, or Cassette tapes, or even the "Vinyl" record. I cannot remember the last time I placed a call on the home phone.

Mazie the Wonderdog

Last night Mazie the wonderdog decided to wake me up at 3 am. She had to take care of business outside, and I don't mean barking at the moon. The last several times I have let her out, I have had to bribe her to come back in. For some reason, she thinks the perfect time to run up and down the fence and back at something is between 1200 am and 600 am. Which does not impress the neighbors. So I found myself, in a tee shirt and boxes standing in my back yard with the dog on a leash. (It is the best way to get her in the house). It was quite the adventure.

The Waiting Place

"You can get so confused that you'll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,headed I fear, toward a most useless place. The waiting place... ...for people just waiting. Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or the rain to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the show to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting" - Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr.Seuss. I am certain that our church is in the waiting place. Not sure what to do, not sure where to go. A group of people that are very continent, and oblivious to the situation.

Pandemic?

I feel like the world is standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, waiting and watching to see what the swine flu will do. Will it be an epidemic, like the 1917 flu, or like the regular flu, of 2009. It is hard to say, I do think that Egypt might have over reacted by killing 300,000 pigs. The amount of information, and the speed which it is spread is amazing. This single item will aid more in preventing a world wide epidemic, that the paper masks you see on the Tele.

By now, everyone should know the WHO is not who, but the World Health Organization.

I was talking to a fellow at work, and he said that he had spent$ 20,000 on his daughter's wedding. I was shocked, to say the least, you could by a Harely for that much money. (Not that I am looking for a harley, I am just saying that is a lot of money for a wedding. I guess that if you have enough money it would not a so alarming. I am thinking that I would have to be a millionare before I dropped that kind of money on a wedding.

To many people spent more time worrying about the blessed day, instead of the blessed life afterwards.

On a side note, it rained today.

Spring has Sprung

I think that spring has sprung here in the ole texas panhandle. I have spent the majority of the day outside, in fact, I am on the back porch right now. I trimmed back the rose bushes, which is always fun. Like of like crawling through a "Biohazard" container at the hospital.

Cap had a soccer game this morning, he played almost the hole game until a knee injury took him out. No permanent damage, he is good as new right now.

Working on learning to play the guitar, I have a book from the 60's, that is not to helpful. I recently learned that like skinning a cat, there is more than one way to play most chords.

The Kick

The Kick
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Cap kicking the ball inbounds at his first soccer game.

Soccer Game and Random Thoughts

Today was Cap's first soccer game, and I hoped that I would have some pictures to upload. Unfortunately, the pictures are still on the 2GM SD card that goes in the camera. Evidently, I have managed to fill up my hard drive. It is an 80 GB (small for today's standards) but 8 years ago, it was the bomb. (I think that word probably went out of style 8 years ago as well.) Of the 80 GB, 50 GB is devoted solely to either Pictures, or Music, Audio books, and videos on iTunes. It is a shame that I did not make the jump to apply eight years ago, as there software is supposed to be better for most of the things that I like to do on the computer. iTunes, Photos, and writing. Not that I am writing a book or anything, although, this may become a book sometime of the other.

Which leads me into a random thought, do you think that people really analyze what they are putting on the Internet these days. I mean, that picture of you doing the keg stand that is on facebook, is that the best thing. Those sorts of pictures seem to resurface. I will be honest, if we had all of this neat web based interaction when I was in college, you guess it, there would be a picture of me drinking out of the "Liter". The Liter was a beer stein that my college roommate made during pottery. It got its name quite frankly because it held a liter of liquid. Aside from the water that was used to check the volume, the only other beverage it had was beer. The thing to do, was drink the liter in 3 minutes, and then take the dreaded triple shot of Goldschläger. Yikes. (Perhaps I should edit this out in a few years, or hide my blog from the kids.) It certainly was not the brightest idea that some of us had, but compared to others in the dorm we were saints.

Back to the soccer game, Cap team did okay, they hustled up and down the field. (A phase that I have used since the game ended, which secretly means, "they got spanked.") Everyone had fun, and Alana, Ben and Zoe stayed an extra day and came to the game. I did take something like 373 pictures at the game, and I am certain that some of them will be great pictures.

I ordered an additional hard drive for my computer, it has an extra spot, so that is the direction I decided to do. Compared to developing 373 a 500 GB hard drive is a drop in the hat.

Canceled

Canceled
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Picture of the flight status board at the Amarillo Internation Airport. I still find it interesting that it is called an Internation Airport. It is as if, Devner, Las Vegas, or even Houston is a foregin country.

The Big Trip

With. Passports ready, and bathing suits packed the entire Patman clan headed to two airports this morning. The rendezvous point: Nasasu (the Bahamas). Mission: Patman Family Fun Weekend! Well one blizzard and a blowout an airplane wheel, caused mayhem. A late winter/early spring blizzard shutdown the Amarillo Airport. Meanwhile, the plan with the Nebraska folks had a blow out while taking off. They could not get rescheduled, so the mission was aborted. We had a good time at Natty's, and are getting ready to go to sleep at the ole Holiday Inn Express.

Three Amigos

Three Amigos
Originally uploaded by Germburner

The Three Amigos, hiding under the tree.

The Patman Family

The Patman Family
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Cousins

Cousins
Originally uploaded by Germburner

1966

I have a 1966 Ford Mustang sitting in the driveway. It is in decent shape, needs some body work, new paint, and new weather stripping. I just can't decide how or really where to start the project. Current the instrument panel illumination lights are out, the front speaker on the radio, and something is out of balance. That is not to mention needing new seats, and a head liner. Perhaps, I should just go buy the replacement bulbs at the "wmart" after story time.

The Passing

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/031609/obi_obits12.shtml

Bartender Song

It snowed a little today, and I have to say, that I miss the 70 degree March days now that it has turned cold again. I was pretty happy it was Friday, had an all day meeting at work, which was okay. We had a little working session, and put some music on, and I heard a song by Rehab, Bartender Song (aka Sitting at the Bar), and that pretty much describes how I was feeling towards the end of the day. It was a long week, I actually got home before 6:00 PM tonight, and was pretty pumped about that fact. The bed is sounding pretty good, and the Psychedelic Furs, Love My Way, is just not doing it for me.

Soccer

Cap and Crash are both going to play soccer this year, and they are on the same team. We had the first meeting tonight and it went pretty good. I am not the coach, I don't know that I would be very good or really have the time.

It was a cool almost cold day outside, but fortunately there was no wind, which is unusual.

Panoply

A few weeks ago at church we sang a song with the word, "panoply" in it. I had to get out the dictionary to look up the definition. The word was in one of the hymns that was sung by everyone. I just find it interesting, the songs that are selected in the year 2009. That would be 9 years after "2000 - Space Odyssey.

The Bishops Message

Today, being Sunday, I went to Church. Although sitting here thinking about the phrase, "I went to Church," does not accurately describe what happened, or what should happen during worship. I can honestly say that today, I did more than go to church. I participated in the worship service, I worshiped God in his house today. While I was worshipping God, Brother Johnny, mentioned a recent message from the Bishop of the Northwest Texas/New Mexico Annual Conferences. It was really exciting to read, and he was pretty blunt about what Church's should be focusing on. There is a link below.

The Bishops Message

Music

The other day, we were listening to the music that I have store on Itunes. I had started it on shuffle, so there is really not telling what it would play. It was the most peculiar song order, we went from some Christmas song, probably O Come Emmanuel, to The Beasty Boys, Sabotage. At this point I would like to point out that Amy was not to please with the change in music genres, and I myself found it to be like going from 0 mph to 60 mph in 1.1 seconds. It was an abrupt shift. I like music, I like a lot of different music, and there is some of this music that Amy does not like in the least. What is more troubling for Amy, is that I can have two radios going at the same time, in the same room, playing different music. Or, that I can listen to the radio scanner, while listening to the radio.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve
Originally uploaded by Germburner

The Christmas Eve Family Photo. My don't we look nice.

Revelation 22

It has been a while since I have written anything, that was not work related. In all actuality the last time was about a month ago, when I posted a blog. I have not really had much to say, that was not related to work. A sad fact indeed, as I find myself already slipping back into the old 11-12 hour days, waking up at 5:00 and getting to the office at 6:00.

Cap participated in Christmas Program, he was a "Star", and he did good. The program was great, and afterwards, Santa came to see the kids. This year Santa was Mr. Safety this year, he was wearing steel toe boots. I guess Rodolph stepped on his toes one to many times.

Last night I read Revelation 22 to Cap and Ella, so it took 4 years, 4 months and 4 days to read the bible to Cap. We started with Genesis 1 and read straight through the bible. I missed a few days here and there, but for the most part we read 1 chapter a night. Sometimes 1/2 and others (like the Psalms) we might have read 2 or 3. Reading the bible out loud brings a new depth, and dimension to the words of God.

I would like try to read it out loud again, and after reading keep a journal, of what the reading meant to me. We will have to see if that works.

Christmas is Upon Us

Well, this Thursday is Turkey Day, or thanksgiving. I prefer to call it thanksgiving myself, because we have a lot to be thankful for. If you are reading this, then you should be thankful for the ability to read, and thankful that you had parents, and teachers who cared enough about you to ensure that you could read. I mean, I rarely use words that are more than three syllables, so it is not as detailed as reading a dissertation on the parallels between Luke and Acts. (That is an assumption on my part). My dad's birthday is tomorrow and he will be a year older, while I was thinking about this fact, it dawned on me, that a week and half after his birthday, I would also be turning a year older.

I am sure that you are expecting some rant about being another year older and that it is depressing, I assure you that it is not depressing. It is exhilarating to be having a birthday, sure I am not as agile as I was at 4, 14, or 24, and I will probably not ever "catch air" on the ski slopes, but I have gather lots of wisdom. A bit of wisdom that I have accrued, is that "catching air" might be fun, but like running into a burning building, if you are not a professional, don't do it. Keep this in mind, if you stop having birthday's that means only one of two things, either the rapture has occurred, or the other thing happened.

I love Christmas music, I mean, I really like Christmas music. Every year I will listen to Christmas music on the FM radio from the Friday after thanksgiving until after Christmas day. Last year we found that the XM radio has several Christmas stations. (I should note that they also have a Hanuka station, which has some strange sounding songs.) So we were driving back from Amarillo last weekend, and Amy announced that the XM radio already has their Christmas station up and running, at least one of them. Needless to say, I am not sure why she would inform me of this, but I have been listening to lots of Christmas music.

Reflections on the Trip

Over the past few weeks I have spent a lot, or at least a fair amount of time in reflection about life in general. I am always amazed and humbled to know that so many people have spent so much time supporting my family though pray and actions, phone calls, cards, and watching the little children. I am most appreciative of everyone who has aided a hand during my recent hospitalization and procedures.



Of course there is my dad, who drove me once again to see the "Doctor In Houston." We were waiting for an elevator in the Doctor's Office and some random guy said that it had been a long day. My dad and I agreed, and he said, "I have been dealing with these cardiologist for the last 6 years." To which my dad said, "We have been dealing with these cardiologist for the last 33 years," while gesturing in my direction. I don't think the other fellow had much to say after that. I suppose that I will be dealing with the cardiologist for the remained of my life.



Then there is my mom, who kept Cap while Amy and Ella made a mad dash to see me before "Blast-off." She also made dad and I an excellent meal upon our return, and checked the oil wells while dad was off. I had to call her collect from the hospital room so she could get a hold of dad, when an anaesthesiologist showed up and stated confidently, "You are scheduled for surgery." To which my response was, my Doctor failed to mention an additional surgery, and I got a little unfriendly with the fellow.



Amy and Ella came down, and Amy seemed a bit upset when I was more concerned with her taking care of Ella, then checking on my. I had a hole host of individuals who were getting paid to stare at me. None the less she had been taking care of me, and making sure that I do not pickup anything above the 10 lb threshold. This afternoon (November 9th) we got my work back-pack out, and slimmed it down to slightly less than 10 pounds. It has 1 laptop, the charger, a small note book, and some pens. So we dumped out several folders, a large note book, countless chargers (phone, blackberry, iPod,) a 1" binder that I have carried in the back pack for the past year. My back-pack is now slimmed down to the bear minimum.



Sid and Selena, flew Amy and Ella down to the greater Houston area, and much to my surprise, Sid and Amy walked into the "Anti" room where they were getting me ready, you could call it the "Pre-prep Area". Not only did they get Amy and Ella to the Houston area, but they all stayed at Selena's sister's house with their family, all of whom played a roll in taking care of Ms. Ella, and took her trick-or-treating.

Bob and Mimi, who volunteered to house me and my dad, for what we though would be two nights, but turned into 8 or 9 nights. They were very gracious hosts, and I enjoyed visiting with them, most of the time we passed like ships in the night.

Last but not least is the army of people who were praying for me, the doctors and everything else, as you can tell your prayers were answered. I had an vast assortment of calls, and several unexpected visitors in the hospital.

Wolfie

Sometimes, like all good writers, (personal opinion) I have writers block, where I am not really sure what to write. More often it is a case of, the only thing that I have to write about is work, and well I do not need to rehash that on the world wide web. I had some inspiration about what to write about while Amy was reading to the Kids...

When I was a child, my grandparents (which still is strange for me to say since I called them Marian and Father) had three dogs, Wolfie, little wolfie, and Piglet (she looked like a pig). As the story goes, when they got little wolfie, I showed up and my cousins (Bob and Allen, primarily Bob) said the Father had wash wolfie, and she shrank, at which point they presented little wolfie, who was considerably smaller than wolfie.

On a more political note, the Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, said that Obama was, "‘‘young, handsome and even tanned.’’

One article that gave me the Heebie Jeebie was:

Iranian leader welcomes Obama win

What Did He Say

So last night I was at home sleeping in the bed and something woke me up. As I had left the TV on I could hear John McCain talking about something, and as I listened more closely I realized that he had evidently been defeated. So we will see how that turns out.

Dad and I made it back home yesterday afternoon, and had Patman family fun night at Honey's, which was the best food that I had eaten in a while. I am still sore, although it seems to be getting better. It was nice to see the kids, as I had not seen them in 9 days.

Procedure

You know, when the doctor says, oh it is a simple procedure, that is because they are not going through the procedure. Much like when the Auditor says, we are only doing this to help you out. I had a stint graph inserted into my aorta, two actually, to cover an area that appeared to have been leaking, and thus causing my problems. That was on Thursday. They went in on both of my leg veins, and my left arm to get it all done. Once I return to Big B I will have to scan in a photo of the drawing they did showing the location of all of these new devices. I am alive an kicking, although I feel like I have been in a major fight still. November is a good time to come down to Houston. Thanks for all the support and prayers!

Tile Floor

Tile Floor
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Look at the tile floor. The guys showed up to install it, and said, "Oh, I think it will take 3-4 days." I asked if they worked on Satuday, so that we could find a place to stay, they said, "yes, and we will work Sunday as well." One week later, that would be 7 days later, they were finished with the tile, however, they had to come back and clean up thier mess on the wood work. It is nice now that it is in, but I will be using someone else if I ever have any additional flooring needs.

Nice Stove

Nice Stove
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Look at that stove/microwave, it is wonderful you set it for 350, and "Bam, it stays at 350 degrees".

Look at the Cabinets

Look at the Cabinets
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Another Picture of the Kitchen

Looking into the Dinning Room

Looking into the Dinning Room
Originally uploaded by Germburner

Pictures of the new kitchen at the house. It was completed early in the spring, I just never got around to posting any pictures.

Political Survey

Can you answer the following questions?



1. Who has control of the United States House of Representatives?



2. Who is the United States Secretary of State?



3. Who is the Prime Minister of England?



If you can answer all three correctly, then you are 82% more politically in tune then 82% of the United States according to a pole done by the Pew Research Center. The correct answers are below. Here is the link to the survey, "Americans Flunk Simple 3-Question Political Survey."



1. Who has control of the United States House of Representatives? -- Democrats

2. Who is the United States Secretary of State? -- Condoleezza Rice

3. Who is the Prime Minister of England? -- Gordon Brown

The Surgeon, The Episode, and The ER

It rained all day yesterday, and it was cool, really cool outside. I went to see the good ole Thoracic Surgeon yesterday, expecting him to want to run this test, or that test to help eliminate or narrow down my current medical issue. I was knocked off kilter when he said, "You need to go see the original surgeon, who did your 3 heart surgeries." This was not what I expected to hear from him, and I think that Amy was a little surprised also. The surgeon thinks that my medical condition might be a result from my congenital heart disease, and subsequent surgeries. Evidently some people who have congenital heart disease sometimes will develop additional, or larger blood vessels around the large air passages. So I will be going back to the Texas Heart Institute, which is part of the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital.

I will not be seeing or at least have an appointment with Dr. Cooley, however, I do have an appointment with one of the Surgeons who assisted with my last heart surgery in 1979.

On the way back to Borger, I had a coughing up blood episode, so we went back to Amarillo, spent the night in the hospital and had a scope run in my nose and into my lungs. (The Medical Term for this is Bronchoscopy. Overall it has been an exciting 24 hours.

All of this has set me off onto, for lack of better words, an emotional roller coaster. It is difficult to put in words some of the emotional feelings that I have had over the last 24 hours. It is particularly shocking when the person that calls to make the appointment says, "well the Doctor is in on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and if the you want to have any surgery that might be needed it is better to come early in the week." Thus reminding me that at this point there will be some sort of medical procedure performed on me again.

LA Dodgers

This year's baseball race to the pennant has been interesting up to this point. Particularly in the National League. The Chicago Cubs, one of the lifelong underdogs, went into the play-offs with the best record in the National League, only to be beaten the LA Dodgers. The Dodgers spent a good portion of this year below the 0.500 win line, and have been working the Philly's over in the National League Championship Series. The Cubs have not won the World Series in over 100 years, and have not won the Pennant (NLCS) since 1945, the Dodgers on the other hand have not won the world series in 20 years.

This evening I spent 30 minutes completing Paper work for the Dr. Appointment tomorrow. It was a lot of fun. I ran out of room on the form for "Operations" so I printed off a sheet that has them all listed.

We also played with the Matchbox cars tonight after supper, and Ella assisted in putting them in the box. Cap go into trouble tonight and got sent to time out. Time out consist of sitting on the fireplace hearth. Ella, went over and tried to sit with him, but she is a little to short. I do not think he appreciated her sign of affection.

Rainy Saturday

The past week was another busy week at work, I woke up this morning at 5:00 am with no alarm clock, which is another sign that I am getting old. Today we went to the mighty metropolis of Amarillo in hopes of going to a pumpkin patch. However, it rained all day long, we did manage to get some costumes for the kids. Cap wanted to be "Lighting McQueen" from the Disney movie Cars. Amazingly enough they make a costume for that. For Ella we found a cut Lady Bug outfit, which I liked. I though it was a tad bit better then being a princess, she can be a princess a little later in life. Perhaps she will grow up to be a famous entomologist, perhaps she will become the Isaac Newton of bugs.

On the grand adventure we met up with my sister "Aunt Natty", mom and crash. We went to Uncle Edd's house to see father, it was like a brief mini-family reunion. The boys (father, Edd, and Bear) were watching the coveted football game, The University versus ou, and UT was a victor of the game. The score was 45-35. They performed a lot better against their opponents than the Borger High Football team, who lost 51-30 to Levelland.

I am about to become part owner of a bank, and I am excited about the opportunity. That's right, part owner of a bank, me, you and the other 305,186,613 Americans, as Uncle Sam with the help of Uncle Henry (Henry Paulson) purchase ownership in the banks(Link to News Article). This is a step that has not been taken since the Great Depression. When I was a kid I remember seeing a shelf at my grandparents house that had noting but bars of soap on it. I bet there were 100 bars of soap on that shelf. I have always related that type of stock piling to their growing up during the great depression.

Feeling Old

Today I ventured out in the rain (it actually rained here in the partched Texas Panhandle) to go to the grocery store. While I was there the girl who checked me out looked like she should be in the 6th grade along with the kid who pushed the basket out to the car. Yet, I am sure these two individuals were both at least 16, and I do not think I looked that small when I was 16. Then again I think I weighed 145 lbs when I was 16 so perphaps I did. Another startling revelation occured to me on the way home, I have had an e-mail account for around 12 years. That is amazing, 12 years of e-mail, I bet the kids at the store do not have many memories that are 12 years old. So know you know why I am feeling old today.

The Sheets are Done! Yippe, I can help make the bed and then crawl into bed!!!

Okay, the bed is now made, however, I was not done with this so I shall finish.

I was reading the USA Today today at my parents and they had a little article on the $700 Billion Wall Street Bailout Bill, particularly about some of the incentives that were included in the second attempt at the bill. I wanted to list two below for your consideration, (and yes this is what the politicians in DC came up with.)

1. Film and television productions. Allows more film and television show production companies to use the domestic production deduction. Estimated cost: $387 million over 10 years.
2. Children's wooden practice arrows. Exempts wooden practice arrows from excise tax, currently 39 cents. Estimated cost: $2 million over 10 years.
3. Motorsposts Complexes. Extends seven year cost-recovery period to the end of 2009 for land improvement and support facilities place in service after Dec. 31, 2007. Estimated cost $100 million over 10 years.

I did sent a little letter to Mac Thornberry asking why he voted for a bill that included the above items.

I went to see the pulmonologist last Friday, and he told me that based on the tests (he ran all the tests that he could run) that he ran, he is not sure why I am having problems, and referred my to another specialist. The next specialist has a scary title: Thoracic Surgeon, say that a few times and see if it does not make you shiver a little. I will go see him 10-14-08 @ 10:00 AM, perhaps he can explain my phenomenon.

Have a great evening below is the text to Philippians 4:4-7.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

193

Last week when I was on vacation, I took a true vacation. I did not check my work e-mail for the entire time, I left on a Friday afternoon and did not log in again until the monday morning after I returned, a grand total of 9 days. When I logged on the computer Monday morning, I had a total of 193 e-mails waiting for me. That is around 21 per day over the eight day strech, of course if you take out the 4 days that were week end, the average is 39 e-mails. Sure there were some that were junk, and some that was mass distributed e-mails. The sad part is that when I am in town, I normally get more e-mails than that. One thing that I did not have to worry about was phone messages on the office phone. They were nice enough to delete any that I might have had over the weekend, when new software was installed on the phone system. (Oh, boy) so if the president happened to call, yeah I did not get that one.

Work has been a tumultuous affair since I have returned, none of that slowly ease into the week stuff for me, it is more like a sprinter coming out of the starting blocks on Monday Morning, the only difference is that I do not get to stop after 100 yards.

Ella had a VCU test done yesterday, which is used to determine if she has any reflux between her bladder and kidney's (Cap had reflux which we corrected.) The test itself went well, however, the results showed that she has grade 2 reflux. Which is a step above mild, so we will get to do some preventive antibiotics every day, and have the test run again in a year to see what things are like.

Once again, the NY Mets fizzled out in the waining week of the big show and did not make it to the play offs. However, Joe Torre did make it, although not with the Yankees who fired him last year, he is now with the Dodgers, and the Yankees, well they did not make the cut this year.

Vacation 2008

First things first, I will get a few items out and in the open. I am still kicking, and the family is doing well. I have had a few request, well one of them was a bit more than a request, for me to start blogging again, so here we go. It would take a few thousand words to cover what has been going on, so we will just start with last week's vacation.

We traveled to the Metropolis of Wilmore Kentucky, to visit Ryan and Amberly, Morgan, and Athan last week (actually we flew back in to the Panhandle today). The trip was great, we stayed at a little place across the street from their house, so we were close and spent some time hanging out. We did go to church last Sunday in Wilmore, and I had the chance to play golf on some Kentucky bluegrass, which was nice. However, unlike golf here in the Texas Panhandle, when you hit it into the rough you need a GPS Tracking device to find the ball. The golf course also had a lot of sand, and my shots seemed to have an affinity for the course grainy stuff.

I did get the crash course seminary experience on Monday and Tuesday. I say Monday, because I hung out in a coffee shop and library reading a book, which is what Ryan was doing. However, I will point out that my book was not nearly as deep in though or wide in the number of pages. Tuesday I did attend one class, and Amy and I went to chapel.

We also went to Nashville, and I did not see any country and western stars. However, we did get to stand on stage at the Grand Ole Opry (not a bid deal if you are a heavy metal fan, but if you like country it is a neat place.) We also went to the Zoo and it is a nice Zoo that we though were well laid out. In general Nashville is a neat little city, however, (the following information is based off of my esteemed tour guide experience) it is not the best place to take the little fellows (i.e. 1 and 4 year old).

This was the first trip in about 3 years that I did not take my laptop computer, and so I did no work whatsoever during the trip. I had a few more things to write, but I have forgotten them. Below is a link to the flickr site that has some of the pictures from the trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?ids=2897594270,2897594262,2897594238,2897594214,2897594168&mode=together