I've started another blog

Well, I have decided to start another blog.  My life is rather boring and I was finding it hard to come up with topics to blog about without running into issues with the fact that I cannot write about the largest part of my life.....my job.

My new blog is:

Grumpy's Hollow

This blog is related to Disney and it's relationship with me.

Road Trip

Well,

The year 2007 marks the tenth year my wife has been out of high school. We found out a week before that a reunion (of sorts) was going to be held at Hugo Lake in Hugo, Oklahoma. This is where my wife would've graduated from high school if her dad's job hadn't moved her to Southern California in the middle of her Junior year of High School.

Since, she had a greater attachment to her high school in Oklahoma because she lived there most of her life, she decided that is which reunion she wanted to attend.

Fortunately, Nancy was able to get her scheduled shifted so we could get a Friday and Saturday off to drive down there for the reunion.

I took a half-day off of work, we shipped the "kids" off to the "puppy hotel" and hit the road to Nancy's homeland.

For the entire time I've known Nancy, she has gone on and on about the Indian Nation Turnpike and how it is absolutely horrible. From a scenery standpoint, it is 10x better than the drive down I35 S to Houston. But it has one major detractor. Somewhere between Tinker AFB and Shawnee we lose our cell phone signal and we don't get it back until we get to the same point. So the entire time we were gone we'd be without a cell phone.

Well, half-way down the turnpike, we noticed the car was starting to drag and pull when trying to go up hills. It was behaving like my motorcycle does after winter.

Immediately, I just assumed that we got some bad gas. I recently switched to the low octane gas under the insistence of friends who told me I was wasting money by purchasing the middle-grade gas. I was just hoping that we got to Nancy's dad's house (where we would be sleeping) before it died.

We got there alright and Nancy's dad and I went to the gas station to put premium gas in the tank and a bottle of STP. We hoped that it would make the problem go away.

The next morning was the day of the reunion. As the day went on the car just got worse. Our biggest problem was that since we didn't have cell phones we had no way to stay in touch with the other people in the group. So we kept trying to stay with them despite the car running like crap.

Eventually, the "Check Engine" light came on. This was the final straw for me and I insisted that we went to Nancy's dad's house and stopped driving the car before it died for good.

We got to her dad's and he was nice enough to swap us for one of his rather new vehicles where we were able to catch up with the group at the Hugo Rodeo that was going on at the same time.

Well, it was decided that we'll leave the car in Hugo and borrow one of her dad's cars to get home. Nancy had to get to work the next day. Someone was going to take it to the Toyota dealership for us and we'll return with the borrowed car when our car was fixed.

Well, we got a call about the vehicle the day after it was dropped off. Here is where it gets interesting.

Apparently, when we took the car into the shop a year ago to get the 100K mile service, the spark plugs were changed. Whoever did the work left the socket for tightening the plugs in the engine. It took a year (about 14K miles) for it to do it's final damage. It trashed the sparkplug which resulted in one cylinder not firing anymore. It was a simple fix. But, while they were trying to do the inital determination they found a leak in the head gasket. This was very expensive to fix ($450).

Needless to say, we had to make the trip back the next day and I had to take another day off of work. But, we have the car back now and it's running like a champ.

Wasting away in Tornadoville

Well, it's 12:23AM and I'm sitting in front of the TV switching between network channels.  We are having tornadoes once again dropping all around me.



So far, I've been lucky and they are not close enough to me to warrant the tornado sirens to go off, but I'm afraid to go to bed or risk sleeping through the siren (it's awfully faint from this location).



I haven't even had a chance to hit the showers after my 45 minutes on the treadmill because I didn't want to get an uninvited guest while showering.



My wife just called from the hospital to inform me they have announced a Code Black because tornadoes have touched down real close to them and they need to be prepared for potential victims.



I told her that I'd take a hurricane any day over this.  This is the 3rd night in a row of this crap!  At least with a hurricane you know which way it's headed and you can get out of the way and pray that it turns.  Here, it's like Russian Roulette.

Welcome to Mustang

Well, Nancy and I were out eating dinner at TGIFriday's and decided that we wanted to see how the property looked at night.



We knew that Mustang was a tad more rural than Oklahoma City and when we had been at the property during the day noticed that there weren't a lot of streelights visible. Those street lights that were visible weren't very tall. So we were interested to see how dark it was and how much light pollution was present. We were kind of wanting it to be dark.



Plus, because it had been raining we didn't really think and work would've been done.



We pulled up and circled around so we could get a better look at the lot and see how dark it was. We got out of the car and was going to walk to the center of the lot and look at the sky.



I took 3 steps into the lot and almost fell on my face. The ground suddenly dropped by 3 feet. Apparently, some work had been done. The two trees that were directly in the front of the lot were gone and they started grading for the foundation.



Needless to say, there wasn't alot of light pollution or I would've seen the pit I fell into.



I got back into the car and we decided to take a quick spin around the neighborhood and see what has improved. We passed the security guard who was asleep in his car.



Well, as we were pulling out of the neighborhood, a police officer came pulling in pretty "hot". The car pulled a U and came in right behind us. I turned to Nancy and indicated that most likely they were there for us so let's just pull over. Nancy pulled over and just sat there.



I'm sure this confused the heck out of this fine person that we pulled over befor his lights were on because it took forever before he walked up to our car. We rolled down the window in anticipation. He slowly peeked into the window with his high powered flashlight blaring in.



As soon as his flashlight hit the "to go" container with nancy's leftover salad that was sitting in my lap he broke out in a big ole smile.



We told him that we purchased a lot in the neighborhood and that we just moved up from Houston and we were just curious on how dark it was because we were hoping for dark.



He told us that the security guard runs a tight ship and calls the cops everytime a car pulls into the neighborhood after dark. We told him that we were going to appreciate that.



He was about to turn around and leave when he stopped and said, "Oh by the way, welcome to Mustang". He smiled, waved and sent us on our way.

Welcome to OKC...Bitch!

Well, I just got my first Tornado scare......

The siren went off, then the radio did it's Emergency Broadcast sound, but this time it wasn't a test. We were being told to take shelter.

I scrambled to grab my laptops because the information contained within are crucial for my company and my personal finances. Fortunately, my home office is right next to the bathroom that serves as our storm shelter.

I went to go try to grab the dogs which I knew would be a challenge when the warning was lifted. The tornado had already touched down.....15 minutes down the road from where I was.

I called Nancy at the hospital to let her know I was alright to find out that the hospital had already called a "Code Black" and she didn't know why. I told her that a tornado touched down on a highway and took some cars out.

She's in for a long, long night in the ER and hopefully I don't have to do this hokey pokey again and try to get my butt into the bathroom/storm shelter

Model of New Entertainment Center

I am still playing around with Google SketchUp.

This is my latest foray. Nancy spent and evening measure things and drew up a plan with dimensions and I transfered it to Sketchup.

The stereo components and TV you see are from the available components you can grab out of the repository of objects users upload to Google's Sketchup page. In fact, someone created a 3D model of my Samsung DLP TV and I added it to this model.

Cigar by Impwerx

Well,

My brother, Impwerx, has struck again. This time dabbling in the world of portraits and not coloring other people's line art. This is pure Impwerx original. Here is what he said:

A brief stint into the world of portrait work. Something about this piece really appeals to me, yet strangely I don't know what it is exactly. About 6 hours or so in photoshop. Standard default brushes, and the texture is the concrete near my house.

~imp

Cigar by ~impwerx on deviantART

Arrested Development

I was at the gas station filling up the car with gas. While I was pumping the gas, a local police officer pulled up in the lane across from my car. We started chatting. I was mainly pumping him for information since Nancy and I are new to the area.



Well, I like to use that little feature of the pump that allows you to not need to hold the handle the hold time. I normally have it set to the slowest setting, but I was getting antsy waiting for my 20 gallon tank to fill up. So I grabbed the handle to set it to a faster speed when I guess there was a spark because my arm suddenly burst into flames (I was wearing my sweatshirt).



The cop noticed this as I hit the ground trying to put my arm out. He jumped over and started smothering the flames with a blanket. After the fire was out he threw me up against my car and started putting handcuffs on me.



I was shocked and shouted to him what had I done. It was an accident. He threw me in his car and told me that I was under arrest for carrying a fire arm....



This was a nod to the cheesy joke Kuri posted on his blog

OK Land Rush

Well, Nancy and I have done it. We have taken part in the Oklahoma Land Rush. Granted it is only 118 years late, but we did it.

We firmly planted out stake down on a nice 1/2 acre of prime Oklahoma red clay with a smattering of cedar trees.

As the lady at the title company said, "We know own land with the promise of a house."

This will be the first of hopefully several blog entries documenting the development and construction of our new residence

Randy Green's Hell Girl

Well, my brother has managed to eek out some coloring time and has posted another piece on his deviantART page.

So i tried to knock some rust off my coloring talent. As suggested before I tossed some names into my kangol and pulled one out. It was Randy Green's Hell Girl piece that got the magic touch. Anyone can see the pro talent if you look through his gallery. There is a high level of control and style he consistently exhibits. I highly recommend looking through his work, as there is a wealth of information for would be pencillers to digest.

You can just never go wrong with a hellboy, or in this case a hellgirl theme. The series itself is moody and inventive. I came at this piece with a theme. Heat. Everything about this idea of hot, and heat haze is where i was going. Looked at a camp fire the other night to get the idea for the BG. It is entirely self made, which represents a bit of achievement for myself as like most, I tend to pay little attention to the background and instead focus on the main element itself. I tried to get it all in balance to my satisfaction, without sacrificing any of the imagery.

Linework : Randy Green : link

typos and grammar fumbles free of charge.

~imp

You can view the original deviantART page here


Randy Green's Hell Girl by ~impwerx on deviantART

Sicky McSickster

Well, no good turn ever goes unpunished....

I was out-of-town helping with a project for my company and as we like to do, we exceeded our goals and delivered results early. That didn't come without a price. Between Monday and Friday I clocked 74 hours and an additional 4 hours today (Saturday). Of those 74 hours, I spent 10 hours traveling between Houston and OKC.

By the time I woke up Thursday morning (after clocking 51 hours), I woke up with the beginnings of a soar throat and cough. So, I did what I normally do when this happens. I start drinking water like it's going out of style. Well, for the first time, this didn't help. My throat just kept getting more sore by the hour. By the time we went out to dinner that night, my voice was starting to get hoarse.

Well, despite being exhausted, I didn't get much sleep. After being out cold for about 2 hours, I awoke in pain. First I threw up and threw up. This must've been from the drainage. Then the pain in my throat hit me. I couldn't have been in more pain if I swallowed a pine cone whole. I tried to suffer through it, but by 2AM I needed to say something to someone because I was just miserable.

So I called Nancy. She was the good nurse that she is and told me the proper things. I needed to drink more water. Well, anyone who has been on a high water diet knows that drinking lots of water and sleep don't go hand-in-hand. You either sleep in wet shorts or you are running back and forth to the restroom. I think the only way one could afford to do this and sleep is if they are capable of putting in their own Foley catheter. Then you can pee and sleep at the same time.

Well, I whined to her on the phone for a bit but I could barely speak so I cut the conversation short. It was at this time that I remembered that when I have a problem with coughing due to drainage, I would prop myself up with pillows. So, I scrounged up all the pillows I could find and build a wedge out of them. This seemed to help alot. At least enough that I got a few more hours of sleep.

Morning came and we swung buy CVS pharmacy to pick up some throat remedies. So I picked up some CVS-branded Chloraseptic® and some cough drops. Both of these seemed to help, but the Muscinex I took earlier seemed to start to make me foggy headed and I had to struggle to continue to be productive at work. Plus, I needed to catch a 5:45PM flight back to OKC.

I caught my shuttle to the airport after it being almost 45 minutes late and made it through security without issue. I was worried because on this trip, I was bringing back all the stuff I was leaving in Houston while i was traveling back and forth since late November. Well, I didn't want to check my back for one 4 fl. oz. bottle of contact lens solution. I know the regulations are 3 fl. oz. or smaller, but I looked and couldn't find a 3 fl. oz. bottle of contact solution in my brand. Well, security didn't say anything.

Then, as luck would have it, my flight was late. Then it was overbooked. Then it was hot, hot, hot. I was sweating the whole way home. I tried to sleep, but it was just too hot.

It wasn't until I stepped out of the OKC airport into the 48 degree air that I realized that the plane wasn't hot, I was. I was still burning up in the cold air.

Well, Nancy had asked me to go get some milk on my way back from the airport. At this time, it was around 8PM and I felt like death warmed over. So, I decide to go to Wal-Mart. I prefer Albertsons for groceries, but I wanted to see if I could get some more knock-off Chloraseptic® and I didn't know what Albertson's selection would be. Wal-Mart is also a tad out of the way, but I didn't want to stop twice.

I get to wal-mart and pick out some drugs to try and help me sleep grabbed the milk and came home.

Naturally, Belle and Coco were ecstatics to see me. I let them out of the confines of their entrapment (the kitchen) and they emptied their little bladders in the appropriate location. Then I fed them. I hit the couch to watch a little TV and maybe play a little XBox 360, but I never really made it far. I was out cold on the couch. I woke up at 10 and dragged myself to the bed where I remained until 15 hours later.

I hate being sick, but soar throats, to me, are a torture worse than death.

Sage Advice.....

Just because it's in your size, doesn't mean you need to wear it

Model of my Entertainment Center

Well, it's been a desire of mine to get into woodworking. I was looking around the internet for free CAD programs and ran into Google SketchUp. Granted, it's not a CAD program but it was FREE and looked cool.

So, I needed a project to get my feet wet with. So, I decided that I would attempt to me a 3D model of the entertainment stand my wife and I built a couple years ago when we got our DLP HDTV.

Here is what I came up with.



Model of Entertainment Center by ~grumpwurst on deviantART

Happiness Is.....

Finding that sweet spot on your wadded up jacket being used as a pillow and falling fast asleep on the plane.

Ladies and gentlemen... Donny Osmond!

And that is how Weird Al introduce a new video on his MySpace page.

I have to admit that the most entertaining part of the White and Nerdy video that I highlighted here.

I was just tickled pink when a co-worker pointed out to me that Weird Al posted a video of the entire song being performed with Donny Osmond doing his dancing. So, if you like the self-deprecating humor of Donny Osmond in things like the White and Nerdy video, I present to you Donny Osmond...definitely white and nerdy:

Pork - The Other White Meat

We have decided to give the grill another go for 2007. On Friday, we cooked some chicken. I've pretty much got that down now. I just have to grill 8 minutes on each side and perfection. Well, I haven't done pork yet and we has some pretty thick chops sitting in the freezer.



Nancy threw them in the fridge to thaw out on Friday night. Well it didn't quite work for us to grill them up on Saturday since we had plans during the day and Nancy had to be at work at 3PM. So, we decided to grill them up today.



Unfortunately, I'm not skilled in cooking pork. So, I called my brother, Impwerx, up and asked for some advice. He simply told me to treat the pork like a steak except that I need to tenderize the chops. He told me to give it an extra kick, to switch the Worcestershire with apple sauce and to add a smidge of cinnamon.



Well, I don't own one of the meat tenderizing mallets. Nancy came up with the idea of using the rolling pin. Since the meat was still vacuum packed we could pound the porkchops as much as we wanted without worrying about making a mess.



We didn't have any canned or bottled applesauce, but we did have those little snack pack applesauces that are meant to go in lunch boxes. Those applesauces also had cinnamon already in them.



So we got out or handy vacuum marinader that we use with our Foodsaver. Nancy opened up one of the snack packs of applesauce and laid it down on the bottom of the container. I rubbed in the Montreal Steak Seasoning an both sides of the chops and laid the meat down on the bed of applesauce. Then we put the rest of the applesauce on top of the chops. We vacuum packed the container and let it sit in the fridge for an hour.



With the exception of my running out of propane half-way through the cooking process, it was pretty painless. Those suckers were juicy and the applesauce combined with the seasoning came out rather nice.



We will be definitely adding this to our list of grilling recipes.

Eviction

Who are you to ask me to leave?

I made you who you are today.

I gave you all the riches you hold so dear.

You can’t get rid of me that easy.

I am not a tumor that can just be excised.

I am your excuse, your alibi.

I’m who you fall back on when things go wrong, when life is unsure or you don’t know which way is up.

I’m not going to go quietly

I will raise hell

You begged me to be here

You begged me to never leave.

I make you feel right, I make you feel strong,

I make you feel loved when you were alone in this world.

I’m that family member that came to a visit and never left

I am the stray dog that you decided to feed.

Your fear feeds me

Your anxiety justifies me

Your lack of hope ensures my tenure

So you say that you are done with me

That I’m unhealthy for you

I’m not that easy to get rid of

Cause I’m that monster under your bed

Get rid of me if you can

I’m your second skin

Get rid of me if you want

But you’ll end up asking me back

So you say that won’t be happen

I hope you are right

Cause if you don’t your life will be naught

White and Nerdy

I actually stumbled across this awhile back, but a coworker has brought it to my attention in a whole new manner.

This is an awesome parody by "Weird Al" Yankovic, but I think Donny Osmond in the role of Krayzie Bone from the Chamillionaire video. He is hilarious.

The Mighty Battler of Accumulated Sleet

The mighty battler of accumulated sleet

Well, as some of you may know, I live in Oklahoma City now and if you've been watching the news you'd know that we just got hit by some severe winter weather.

Nancy and I have been pretty much cooped up since Friday because we've had a constant barrage of sleet falling on our fair land.

Nancy wanted me to dig out the front stairs as it fell, but I felt we should wait until most of it had fallen. Well, that day happened to be today (Sunday).

So, I dug out my thermal shirt and my old snowboarding gloves and face gator and went outside to tackle the sleet.

Nancy had the intelligence and foresight to purchase a snow shovel before the frozen stuff started to fall. Unfortunately, after sitting on the stairs for a couple days, the weight of the sleet must've melted the stuff on the bottom because we had a good half inch of ice on the stairs with about 4-6 inches of sleet on top of it.

So, the snow shovel was kinda useless. Fortunately, I still had my landscaping shovel that we purchases when we built our flowerbeds at the Houston house. It has a flat blade instead of a curved one. It proved to be quite useful.

Nancy came out and took a few pictures because she needed some winter weather pictures to go with some scrapbooking embellishments that she had in her collection.

After getting the stairs scrapped, I had to salt them. So I went to the garage and grabbed one of the 2 fifty pound bags or salt Nancy had purchased with the snow shovel.

Well, it became heavy quickly. I had to walk around the entire complex to get from my garage to the front stoop. So when I got to the stairs, I couldn't hold onto the bag anymore and it fell out of my hands and hit the ground. Well, the bag blew it's sides out and there was salt everywhere.

Fortunately, Nancy brought me a large Ziploc plastic container that I used to scoop up the salt and get it onto the stairs.

Well, now the stairs are clear and I have a sore back, but it was a good outlet to blow off some steam.

Happiness Is...

Waking up in the middle of the night, expecting it to be almost time to get up and finding you still have 4 hours of sleep left.

The Overprotective Mama

On my way home from work, I decided to stop by Subway to pick up a foot-long Italian BMT on Parmesan Oregano. This was about 7PM and I was in a tad of a hurry because my shows were starting to come out of the Christmas/New Year hibernation the networks put them into.



Unfortunately, there was a line. The line was moving quickly but there was this lady in front of me that kept getting out of line, poking her head out the door and giving the hand signal that one gives to say "stay there". On one of these trips she looked at me and said, "I have to check on my kid".



I can understand a couple checks while in line, but she was doing this every couple minutes. She even did it a couple times while the people were making her sandwich. I was just htinking to myself, "Wow, either this lady has an unruly kid who cannot be trusted to stay in the car, or she's very overprotective".



Well, I finally got my sandwich and paid for it and this lady was walking out the door right in front of my. She took a hard right out of the door and I saw her child. It was a golden retriever tied to the handrail on a set of stairs near the store. Now, everything made sense. Dogs think that a few seconds out of your sight in an eternity, so a couple minutes must've been unbearable. So she had to go keep reassuring her loved one that she was still there.



I just chuckled as I walked to the car.

Power Tools......Not just for the Y Chromosome Anymore

As has been the trend lately, I have been been out of town on business, but I had the benefit of being home between Christmas and the New Year. The whole time I was home, Nancy was attempting to get me to hang curtains in the guest bedroom.



All I could remember was the frustration of hanging the curtains in the bedroom. Since they were some meaty curtains that we were hanging in the master bedroom, the curtain rod had to be hung such that the screws were hitting wall studs. For some reason the stud finder wasn't properly detecting the studs because whenever I would attempt to pre-drill a hole I just hit blank space. I took forever to hang those curtains and a lot of choice words were loudly blurted out.



Now, the room Nancy wanted the new curtains hung in are the same as the master bedroom, so I didn't really expect it to be much better. Plus, the curtains once again required a well hung curtain rod. To add to the frustration is that we were missing some screws for the curtain rod. So, I just kept telling her I wasn't going to do it.



I'm a perfectionist when it comes to fixing things and building things. I don't want to start a project unless I know, without a doubt, it will be completed with some semblance of perfection. This of course has led to many projects not ever getting started. It's probably the main reason why I haven't ever proceeded with my desire to delve into the fine craft of woodworking. I don't want to begin a project unless I know I can do it with success.



Well, I digressed.



So I came home from my latest adventure abroad for work and found that Nancy hang just got tired of waiting for me to do it. The Dewalt cordless drill was out and the curtains were up. And the problem of there not being enough screws. She took that complex problem and gave it a simple solution.....just don't put two screws on each bracket.

Firefly

Here in OKC we have a HD channel from Universal. They play, in excellent HD quality the movies and TV shows produced by Universal.

One of those shows is Joss Whedon's Firefly. I happened to attempt to keep up with this program when it originally aired. But as has happened with many a good show that the networks don't have faith in it got canceled.

Well, I have recently started watching it again. I must say that it was a very good show. I wish it hadn't died.

I must say. George Lucas said that Star Wars was supposed to be a Western in space. What Joss Whedon created with Firefly really is a Western in space. You have people using 20th Century ballistic weapons, riding horses and wearing western-style clothing. But they fly spaceships.

I know that Joss Whedon put out a movie a while back called Serenity in order to tie up loose ends, but I cannot figure out why people didn't want to watch this show.

This show was definitely nothing like Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I didn't find some entertainment merit out of it.

Oh well, maybe the day will come soon when a show can still be successful but not rely solely on the network airtime to be successful. That way a good show, with a solid fanbase can still be made

Happy New Year

I'm sitting here on the couch trying to get my receipts into Quicken, when midnight hits and at that exact moment my cell phone rings. It was Nancy calling from the ER.



For those who have followed this blog, they know she isn't calling from the ER because she's a patient, but because she is working there. She managed to be away from a patient room at the stoke of midnight to fire off a quick "Happy New Year".



That sure made the night a lot more tolerable. I didn't think it would bother me too much to be spending New Year's Eve all alone, but it did. Nothing like ringing in the new year with the "ka-ching" sound of the Quicken application as I key in entries.



Nancy was only able to give me a quick call because as of midnight they were crazy busy in the ER and all predictions were that it was only going to get worse. I sure hope that she gets to come home on time at 3AM, but knowing how idiotic people are during those holidays that seem to revolve around the bottle, it's probably going to be a nightmare for her.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish the 1 or 2 people who read my blog a Merry Christmas. Here's hoping that this year was everything you hoped and that next year brings that much more.

Enough Ramblings to Fit in a One Quart Bag

I have been an active air traveller since I was in single digits. My mileage really racked up in my teen years when I was logging time between the US East Coast and the Republic of Singapore (where my family had been relocated).



All that time in airports starts to teach you a thing or two about travelling efficiently. I guess that is where I learned to travel with as little luggage as possible...preferably carry-ons only.



Travel has changed a lot since my teen years thanks to the ever changing political environment and the increased desire to use our transportation systems as tools of destruction.



The first thing that happened was that the metal detectors became more sensitive. Then you had to remove your video cameras and laptop computers and run them through separately. Then it became mandatory to remove one's shoes. Finally, you can only take toiletries that are 3 oz or smaller and only enough that fits within a 1 quart bag.



I cannot speak for the other road warriors who spend more time in airport security that they do in rush hour traffic, but I am constantly flabbergasted by how many people seem to totally surprise when they get to the metal detector and are suddenly stopped for violating all these "new" security measures.



Over the years I have developed quite an efficient way to get through the security process.



Before entering the security line, I find a nice place to to the side. I take off my belt and put it in my carry-on bag. I pull my driver's license out of my wallet and put the license in my pocket. Then I put my wallet and my cellphone in my carry-on. Then I check my pockets and make sure everything except my driver's license and boarding pass are properly stored in my carry-on bag.



I then pull my laptop(s) out of my backpack. I loosen up the shoestring on my shoes. Then I enter the security queue. After getting checked by the initial screeners to make sure my ID matches my boarding pass, I get herded to the metal detector and X-Ray machine.



Since I have already prepared, I just have to drop my laptops in bins, slide my shoes off and put them into another bin. If I have a coat, it gets put in with the shoes. I load the bins along with my carry-on bag onto the conveyor and walk through the metal detector.



Now, on the other side is my other annoyance.



Nothing irritates me more than the people who feel they need to get "dressed" right at the mouth of the X-Ray machine. As soon as their stuff gets spit out the other side they start putting things on.



Please people, gather your stuff and move to another location away from the flow of traffic and deal with your re-dressing. This is about as annoying as those skiers who feel they need to drop to the ground right after they get off the ski lift. Some of these people have the gaul to get irritated with me when I try to reach around them to get my stuff as it comes off the belt. I just gather my laptop(s), my shoes and coat and walk to the chairs that are typically located right after you leave the security area. Then I can take my time putting everything back in it's place.



I for one would be all for a measure that would allow for separate lines for more seasoned travelers. Heck, I'd even allow myself to be subjected to extra background screenings so that I can get special clearance so that one doesn't have to go through this kind of ordeal with the casual traveler

Ramblings from the Road

Well, I'm still traveling for the job. I'm still doing laps back and forth to Houston. I moved away from the city but it's tractor beam is locked onto my ship and won't let me escape it's pull.



I was sitting in the airport at OKC and doing my usual thing while waiting for boarding to begin: Listening to my podcasts and people watching.



I must say that my observations are giving some credence to my theory that air travel and being a female business traveler don't mix. Or at least, they don't mix painlessly.



I don't know how many females I saw doing the 100 meter dash down the concourse trying to get to their gate before they stopped taking passengers. Now, the male business travel has an advantage.



The advantage is what is often the advantage to when it comes to running.....footwear. The man has his shoes. Even though there are many colors, shapes and sizes a man's dress shoe can come in they all have one thing in common. That is they have a very low heel and flex very nicely.



This cannot be said for many of the choices of footwear the typical female executive has chosen to accentuate their business ensemble with. I must preface this commentary by saying that I'm referring to those females who still try to stay trendy and hip in their style of dress. You will find the female executive that must be a "road warrior". I say this because they are wearing sensible shoes. But this is a hard assessment to make. I don't know how many female flight attendants I have seen that are wearing 6 inch stilleto heels.



I have heard women say that they must suffer for their shoes, but the suffering that would ensue from a serious sprain or, even worse, a broken ankle doesn't seem worth it to me

Good Sportsmanship

I had the pleasure of watching my nephew play basketball this past Saturday. His team won and won big, but we will never know what the actual score was because the league has a rule that the score can never be more than 10 points apart.



After the game the kids go to the back and get their stickers for "best defense", "best offense", "Christlike behavior". In actuality every kid walks away with some kind of "award".



I don't know how I feel about this. I played recreation league sports when I was my nephew's age and I don't remember such rules being in place.



I pretty much was always on a losing team. Fortunately, we didn't lose every game, but we lost alot. I personally think there is a lot to be learned from losing and even more from losing big. How can you know that you suck if you cannot look up at the scoreboard and see a 100-20 loss?



Also, I don't think every kid should get an award for just participating. I think it really dilutes the specialness of the other, real awards for real accomplishments. I struggled to get awards for being most improved. I felt better about the accomplishment because I knew the number of awards were limited.



What's the point of sports if everyone walks away a winner?



Maybe this is why the United States is losing it's edge in the international community. Could it be the fact that we coddle our children and make them feel all special and warm and they are all winners be taking away their drive to be better than everyone else?

Dashing through the Snow....

One of the components of my job is that there is travel involved. This past week I had to take a jaunt down to H-Town to spend some "Face Time" with my company. Being that I now live in Oklahoma, they are starting to forget what I look like and only know me as my avatar on my IM.

The trip itself was uneventful. I went down there and did what I'm paid to do. It was the trip back that I was dreading the whole time.

Unlike my previous trips back to Texas after moving to Oklahoma, this one didn't involve a 7-9 hour car ride. I got to enjoy the luxury and comfort of an airplane. I left the driving to the capable hands of the Continental Airline pilots.

It was my first night down there that my wife called me and informed me that the weather guys on the news were saying that we were going to get some winter precipitation on the day I was coming back. She further dampened the news by informing me that her coworkers at the hospital told her the Will Rogers World Airport isn't shy about shutting down. So, I knew then that it was going to be fun coming home.

Each day, I got a new report on what the weather prediction was going to be. It just kept getting worse. Then Wednesday came. The day before my "supposed" departure home. The storm rolled in early. The temperature dropped colder and sooner than predicted. This can be a blessing in disguise. If it's really cold you can avoid the peril of freezing rain. Also, if the ground is cold enough for long enough, any snow or sleet you get can accumulate instead of turning to water and then freezing.

I checked the airport's website and Continental's website and there were no notifications about the cancellation of my flight.

Departure day came. I was only working a half day and wanted to get to the airport soon because I didn't know how this whole airport shuttle thing I was using worked on the trip back. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I checked the airport and continental again and no closings and my flight was listed as still "On Time".

A co-worker had to loan me a coat and gloves because it was 20 degrees in OKC and with the windchill it was in single digits. This wasn't the forecast I had when I packed so all I had was a sweatshirt to keep warm. I didn't want to freeze solid trying to get back to my car.

I got to the airport and the line through security was short. I was standing on the other side of the security putting my shoes and belt back on when I looked up at the board listing departures and noticed a flashing red notation "CANCELED". I knew what I was going to see..... sure enough, it was my flight.

So I called Nancy up quickly to tell her that my flight was cancelled and at this point I didn't know what the game plan was going to be but I'd call as soon as I knew.

I quickly found a Continental desk and talked to someone. Sure enough, my flight was cancelled. I was given a guaranteed seat on the 9:58PM flight out, but there were several before and if I was willing I could try to get on one of them standby. I was like, "Hell Yeah!". I knew if I had to take the 9:58PM flight, it would get me in around midnight which would only mean the situation would be worse.

Then the guy at the desk gave me the bad news. I was on the standby list for the next available flight, but it was on the far side of Concourse C. I was on the farthest away point in Concourse B and I had to take a tram to get between concourses.

So I did the only thing I could do. I utilized that training I got during the Singapore days when my Dad's company's travel person liked to give us 30 minutes between connecting flights. I strapped down my backpack and took off like OJ Simpson in the old Hertz rent-a-car commercials. As Forest Gump said, "And I was runnin'". I made a few wrong turns because the signage at George H.W. Bush International Airport (otherwise known as IAH) are atrocious, but I got there with a few moments to spare. I went to the desk, showed them my standby boarding pass and was told to step to the side with the "others" and they'll be calling names shortly.

The "others" was a group of 20 or more people. Apparently, my flight was one of two flights cancelled to OKC. So, I sat patiently talking to the "others". Mainly, we talked about the weather where we were going. By now, we've heard that the snow was accumulating fast and they were expecting 6 inches or more.

As soon as we saw that the plane was holding the Lamar University Basketball Team, I knew I wasn't getting on board. By this time, I still hadn't told Nancy what was going on because I didn't want to get her hopes up. Plus, my cell phone battery was on one bar and all the plugs were occupied.

Eventually, they made the announcement that anyone who had a confirmed seat better get on the plane because they are about to start giving seats away. I was still not hopeful. I was right, I didn't get on the plane, but I did see that one lady, who had a confirmed seat, got screwed. She ran up as they were closing the doors to find out that they gave her seat away. All she was told, was that she "should've been there on time".

At this point, we were told to head back to the same place I was on Concourse B to try and get on the next flight at 6:18PM. The current time was 3:00PM. Fortunately, this time I could walk back.

I got back to Concourse B and checked in for Standby on the 6:18PM flight. Now where they had us waiting for this flight was on the very end of Concourse B. It was basically a bus terminal. There were 5 gates lettered A - E with buses parked outside to transport passengers to the planes waiting on the tarmac. It was freezing in here despite the hundreds of people crammed in the large holding tank. Those 5 gates all had giant sliding doors that were constantly opening and closing. Now, you see, by this time Houston had a big temperature drop themselves. It was 40-something outside.

At this point, I called Nancy and gave her an update. I told her my cell phone battery situation and how I was worried I wouldn't have a phone for my drive home through the snow. She was very adamant that I find a plug.

So I started looking for a plug. There was only one plug in this entire holding tank and it was being blocked by people sitting in seats and they were not using it. So I decided to start wandering. I kept finding plugs, but I kept finding people tethered to them. It's not until you need a plug that you start noticing how many people work at the airport. Everywhere you look, there are laptops tethered to the plugs.

By this point, it was about 4PM and I hadn't eaten all day, so I decided to grab a #1 Value Meal at McDonald's in order to recharge before trying to find a plug. I must say, I love me a Big Mac. Nancy developed a taste aversion to McDonald's after getting really sick back in college. Her sickness didn't have anything to do with McDonald's, but since it was the last thing she ate, her brain has made the association. Well, I was alone and I could eat it so I did.

I wandered back to the tank and grabbed a seat where I could keep an eye on that lone plug. I should state a correction, I did find another plug, but it was near the bathroom. I didn't feel like having people stepping over me to get to the bathroom.

Eventually the person who was occupying the space near the plug got up and left and I took the seat. I hooked up my cellphone and called Nancy.

I got the latest weather report and found out that they were calling for it to get worse before it gets better. The highways were ice rinks covered in snow and wrecks were the news for the day.....great....

While I waited for 6:00 to show up, I was able to get a bit of work done.

Finally the time came for them to start calling standby passengers. I quickly logged off my computer and ran to the desk. As I said, this was a large holding tank so all the overhead announcements were stepping on each other. I didn't want to miss my name and I didn't want to wait until 9:58PM to fly out of here.

My name was called! But we were told that there was a strong possibility the plane wasn't going to leave because it was near whiteout conditions in OKC.

I called Nancy as I was on the bus to let her know that a) I was on my way to the plane b) it might not take off

After sitting on the plane for 30 minutes, everyone was starting to wonder what the holdup was. Typically, one the standby people get on the plane, they shut the door and leave. That wasn't happening this time. Well, it turned out that they originally planned on only allowing half the passengers on the plane and to put on extra gas in case the plane needed to land at a different airport or circle a lot before landing. For some reason they changed their mind. So, they had to remove all the extra gas they put on.

So now, we are at the point where we are on our descent into Oklahoma. The pilot came over the loudspeaker and told us to look out the window to see what we were up against. I pulled up the shade and looked out. Everytime the lights on the wings lit up, all you could see was driving snow. Plus, you couldn't see the ground. All you could see was clouds.

Eventually we broke through the clouds and we were very close to the ground. The runway was covered in snow. I'm not a nervous flier by this time I was a bit concerned. Snow isn't exactly the idea landing surface for an object that is attempting to go from several hundred miles per hour to a complete stop.

We came down with a thump and kept thumping. I looked out the window and we were going over small snow bumps that looked almost like speed bumps, but they were created by the blowing winds. I'm sure it helped us slow down.

Once I was in the airport, I could see the people sleeping everywhere who got trapped there. I thought to myself, "At least they are trapped here instead of their cars"

Now I had to try and remember where I parked my car. I knew it was near the elevator, but I forgot which floor. Now is the time I was glad for the coat that my coworker loaned me

I found my truck, but some idiot decided he was going to park mere inches from my driver's side door. So, I had to climb in on the passenger side.

My truck almost didn't start. I guess the cold did a number on the battery. I let it idle for a long time to build up some heat before heading out.

Just to illustrate how strong the winds were. My truck was parked in the innermost part of the garage and there weren't any openings to the outside visible. There was snow accumulated on all the vehicles

I made my way out of the garage and as I pulled out, I was greeted with a blanket of snow. So much snow, you didn't know where the road was. I just pointed my truck toward the pay station and hoped I didn't run over and curbs. This was very sketchy driving. I have a lot of experience driving in different snow conditions form my days living in Colorado. But, this was the first time I've driven in these conditions with a truck. I do know that trucks are rear-wheel drive vehicles and without added weight in the back, they can fishtail on snow and ice.

I was experiencing the difference of driving a truck as I made my way to the pay station. If I hit the gas too much too quick, the back end would start to slide out. I made it alright and paid. Then it was the trek to find the road to the highway and the various exits

I knew as long as I took my time and other drivers didn't get in my way, I'd get there. I took my time, but the other drivers didn't stay out of my way. People in lesser vehicles than mine were just blowing by at 40+ mph. There was no exposed asphalt and the snow was packed and about 3-4 inches thick. I was just waiting for one of these idiots to hit me.

To top it off most of them were flashing their lights at me to tell me to get out of their way. Trust me, there was plenty of room on either side of me to go around

I finally made it to highway 44 to get back home. The highway started out pretty clear. At least, one lane was. Everyone kind of fell into a line and spaced themselves out. We drove about 30 MPH. Then the idiots were back. They were the ones who had SUVs or trucks and felt they could drive close to the speed limit.

Now you have to imagine the environment. This is a 4 lane highway with only one lane being used. So you have this massive amount of space to the left and right. These people would come rushing up on your rear, flash their lights then blow by on the left or right. A few people decided to roll down their windows to yell at me, laugh at me, or tell me I'm #1 with hand signals.

I finally made it to my exit, I pull off the highway and slowly make it up the large steep off-ramp and then I get what I dreaded.....a red light and I'm having to stop in deep snow. The light eventually turns green and I slowly press the gas. Nothing. Just spinning tires. I give it more gas and I slowly creep forward and then traction. I make the turn and make my way toward home.

Then I see what I thought I'd never see..... kids doing doughnuts with their jacked-up 4-wheel drive trucks on the road. The road to my house is a minor highway and these kids were playing like it was a parking lot. I just hoped they didn't hit me.

Needless to say, I got home without an issue. A normally 15 minute trip from the airport took over an hour and I'm left with one heck of a memory

The Motorcycle Diaries

Many people who know me wouldn't think that I had a motorcycle, but I do. It is a 1996 Yamaha Virago 535 Special Edition.

It was a somewhat impulsive purchase I made on my 30th birthday. It probably was the single event the brought on my getting married because shortly after purchasing the steel horse, I met my soon-to-be wife.

Well, I needed to take the bike over to the Tag Center to get the VIN inspected so I can get my Oklahoma Title. It was a very frustrating day. The bike started without issue, but as soon as I tried to throttle up, it just conked off.

Well a friend of mine gave me a few things to look for and I decided to try and deal with those things today. I took the seat off the bike so I could get to where the fuel filter and other important hoses are and noticed that the battery was severly bulging.

It turns out that the vent tubing for the liquid battery had somehow gotten kinked and was preventing the gasses from escaping. I probably caught a major explosing before it actually happened. As soon as I unkinked the tube, I heard this loud whoosh of air like you'd heard out of an air compressor and the battery went back to it's original shape.

Well, I needed to get the battery out to check the fluid level because I couldn't get a good angle from within it's housing. I normally would just remove the two fuel lines than ran overtop and pull it out. But, I guess I have neve3r done that before with a full tank of gas, because when I pulled the tubing off this time, gas starts shooting out everywhere.

It was a geyser of gas coming out of the where I pulled the tube out and from the tub itself. I was frantically trying to get the tub back in place. I was successful in replacing the tubing, but I was soaked in gas from the waist down and it was all over the floor of the garage.

I took an entire roll of paper towels to soak up the gas on the floor and I think I started seeing pink elephants from the fumes eminating from my pants.

I guess it's time I break open the wallet and purchase a repair manual

One more RN Marches onward

Well,

I have always tried to be the best husband I can be, but we all have our weaknesses and faults.

One of my biggest weaknesses came out this week. Nancy sat for her NCLEX examination in Oklahoma City on Monday.

I have always known my wife is highly intelligent. After completing her first degree in Sports Medicine she sat for the National Licensure exam for the National Athletic Trainers Board of Certification (NATABOC) and passed it on the first sitting. It is rumored that only 30% of those who take this exam pass it the first time.

My wife also graduated Cum Laude from Texas Women's University with a BS in Nursing. Most of the time she hardly even studied much to the chagrine of her classmates who spent many sleepless hours preparing for the exam.

Even though she wasn't a straight 'A' student in Nursing like some of her cohorts, when it came time for the benchmark exams, she blew the roof off them. I told her that it must be because she is absorbing the data and not cramming in the minutia of the details required for A's on individual exams. Those people who were getting the A's on the individual exams didn't do as well on the Benchmark exams.

Well, due to beurocratic red tape in Oklahoma, Nancy had to be submitted to a curriculum audit in order to get permission to sit for the NCLEX exam. This took almost 3 months to happen. Meantime, she is working as a Graduate Nurse in the ER here.

Nancy only got 75 questions on the exam. This is the bare minimum. The maximum is 256 questions. The test is an adaptive test. This means that for every question you get right, you are given an even harder question. If you get a question wrong, you get a slightly easier question and more of the same to determine if you know the material. The purpose of the test is to determine if you are proficient in the material or not.

By only getting 75 questions means either you are extremely proficient or you are extremely non-proficient. Since she got quite a few pharmocology questions, which are a weak point for her, she thought there might be a possibility of her failing.

Now here is where I wasn't the best husband. Everyone was telling her that they knew she passed the test. My response......"What is the plan if you don't pass?"....groan.

I'm the kind of person who prepares for the worst and all I could think of was her failing. I knew she was smart, but I have this running theory that the elements are out to get me and everyone around me. So, by marrying me, Nancy gets to deal with the bad luck that comes from being me.

Nancy tries to tell me that she's always considered herself lucky and that by marrying me, I have inherited her luck.

Well, today, I think her luck beat out my bad luck. I logged on to the Oklahoma Board of Nursing site and saw that she passed her exam and is not a Registered Nurse in the fine state of Oklahoma

When one door closes, another window must be opened.

Well, this marked the first week that Nancy started working the shift that she was hired to work (3PM - 3AM). It started on Sunday night.

To me it was no big deal, I'd head over to my brother's house and eat some food and watch his family play the PS2.

Well, as soon as Nancy took off, I decided that I would install the new programmeable thermostat we got from Lowe's. I just cannot stand to use a thermostat where you set it and have to change it manually whenever you want the temperature to change.

Firstly, the part of the wall that holds the thermostat isn't in an easy to get to area. There is a treadmill in the way and an antique china hutch. So I had to move the china hutch to the left to make room on the wall for the new, wider thermostat.

Naturally, it wasn't a simple task like I thought it would be. First I had difficulty figuring out how to remove the face off the old thermostat so I could get at the screws to detach it from the wall. Eventually I had it figured out but not after a few choice words were rolling off my tongue.

I prefer to work these kind of projects when my wife isn't around because I don't have to be subjected to her disapproving stares when words that are on the "banned" list are uttered.

So now I have the old thermostat removed and I lined up the new thermostat and found out that the holes in the wall from the old screws were in perfect alignment to the screw holes in the new thermostat. I was sure it was a good sign. I screw the back of the new thermostat in, snap the wires into their appropriate place and put everything in it's place and step back to admire my handiwork.

At this time I knew I wasn't going to make it to my brother's house by 5:30PM for dinner, so I call to tell him. He tells me to just show up whenever I can make it.

Well, I go to program the thermostat and noticed that the thermostat wasn't flush up against the wall. So I pop the face off and notice that the screws don't tighten down to the wall. So unscrew the entire thing because I was going to use the little thingies that came with the thermostat that you stick into the drywall to give the screws some "bite". Well it looks like I was lucky and I could just push the "thingies" into the wall and tap with the hammer to push them flush.

I wasn't that lucky. One tap of the hammer caused the thingie to bend over sideways. I was pissed and more "banned" words began flowing. So I pulled out the instructions to see what size drill bit is suggested. I go out the garage to get my drill bits and a pair of needle-nose pliers. I use the pliers to pull out the thingie and use the drill bit to open up the hold some more.

I'm the kind of person who throws all the extra parts from projects into my tool box. So I spent the next 30 minutes looking for some extra thingies because I don't tend to use them. I was sure the one I ruined was not useable anymore. I wasn't lucky enough to find a thingie of the same size so I just grabbed one from the tool box and mumbled my way back to the thermostat.

Well, I got lucky and the the thingie was still useable so I tapped both of them into the wall and was able to screw the thermostat plate tight against the wall and got the thermostat reassembled. Everything seemed to be working.

So I called my brother to let him know that I was done with the thermostat and all I needed to do was feed and walk the dogs and head on over.

So the dogs got taken care of and I decided I should put my tools away before heading to my brothers. So I head out to the garage and as I make my way through the door, I pull the door behind me out of habit so the dogs won't run out. As I walked into the garage, I heard a click and immediate turned around screaming, "NO!". I knew what I had just done. I locked myself out. I reached to check the doorknob fully aware that the answer would be that the door wasn't going to open.

You see, the new house we are in has a locking doorknob. There isn't a deadbolt like what I'm used to. I'm not used to the lock being on the doorknob so out of habit, I just closed the door since I have always had to manually lock the door iwth a key.

Well, the first thing I did was looked to see if there was a window that wasn't locked. Which there wasn't. But there was a window, that for some reason wasn't on it's track.

I called my brother to tell him I wasn't coming because I was locked out. His first suggestion was that I break out a window. I didn't like that idea because I didn't want to piss of my wife or the property manager. His next suggestion was that I knock the doorknob off the door. This would cause the part of the door that has the lock on it to be removed and therefore rendering the door openable. Well, just as luck would have it, the hammer was locked in side.

My sister-in-law suggested that I try to find something flexible enough to slide through the side of the door to pop the latch, but that was unobtainable too.

Well, I decided to walk up to the property manager's office to see if there was anyone there, but there wasn't. So I walked back.

Well, as I was digging through my toolboxes for the umpteenth time, I noticed a roll of very stiff electrical wire that was left over from an installation of a garage door opener and I looked at it with a hint of possibility. I was wondering if I could fashion a loop on one end and fish it through the crack in the window and pop the other latch. After about 10 tries I got it and was in. Granted the window only opened a little bit and I had to do a limbo number to get through the window.

Well, I was going in feet first because I'm better balanced that way and step in dog crap. Apparently, my dogs snuck into that room and pooped on the floor near the window. But it didn't matter, I was in the house.

I immediatly called my wife and let her know I was no longer locked out of the house just in case she got the first message I left when the ordeal all started. So that she would know that I wasn't sitting on the back stoop with only my cellphone.

Afterwards, I called my brother and let him know I was in the house now. He asked me if I was still coming over and I told him that I would if he was still willing to accept the company. He asked me to grab a few Texas beers I had in the fridge (beer from Texas has a greater alcohol content than Oklahoma beer). I grabbed 4 Shiner Bocks and hit the road.

That beer sure hit the spot....mmmmmm

Elsevilla's Girl Lc Style

My brother has posted another coloring piece. Per his DeviantART page:

This was a quick one about an hour to an hour and a half, with 45 minutes later on as clean up.

You can view the original page here.

You can view the original line art here.


Elsevilla's Girl Lc Style by ~impwerx on deviantART

The Acceptance of Charitable Service

Well, on Monday I drove down from Oklahoma City back to Houston. For all practical purposes, I made a 450 mile trip so that I could mow the lawn on my house in Houston I haven't been able to sell thus far.

When I got to Houston on Monday afternoon, I wasn't able to mow the lawn because it was pouring outside.

So I was able to get the lawn mowed this evening. After cooling off and getting shower, I went across the street to return to our neighbor their keys we had in case of an emergency.

Well, my neighbor is LDS and he was trying to get me to allow him to mow my lawn so that I don't have to drive all the way and back just to mow. I'm having a hard time accepting his offer of charitable service.

I think it has to do with one or both of two things:

1. I was always taught that one doesn't get something without an expectation of something in return.  In other words, if he mows my lawn, he'll expect some kind of favor in return
2. I am somewhat of a micro-manager and I wouldn't trust that it would get done to my satisfaction

This is really bothering me

Whitney & Osama?

So I'm listening to one of my podcasts earlier this week and it was mentioned that Whitney Houston has decided she's had enough of her husband Bobby Brown and is leaving him.

Am I the only one that finds it interesting that within a couple months of the world finding out that Osama Bin Laden has a craving for Ms Houston that she's leaving her man.

Could it be that Whitney decided that she's had enough of the 80's bad boy and now wants to make sweet, sweet love with the current ultimate bad boy?

Happy Birthday to Me....WDW Day 1 (Part 1)

September 8, 2006

Well, as I said before, I was spending a vacation with my wife at the most Magical Place on Earth.

Today actually started yesterday. After putting in 10 hours at work, Nancy and I took Belle back to the hospital that did her surgery to be boarded while we are at Disney. We just told her that she's going on a spa trip for awhile. Once we had Belle safe and secure in the care of the loving nurses of Gulf Coast Vetrinarian Hospital, I needed to go to a doctor's appointment. That took forever because as we all know, doctor's never see you at the appointed time. By the time we got home, the sun was setting.

I quickly mowed my lawn which will most likely look like a jungle when I get home despite the fact that it got a trim before my departure. Then I had to rearrange the garage so my Toyota Tundra could fit inside. I didn't want to leave my nice truck outside as bait to would-be car thieves. Then we had to go drop Coco off at grandma's house for her 10 days of only-child living.

By the time all this got done, it was late, but we still had to clean the house and finish packing. Since we are going to be gone we needed to make sure the house was show ready.

This meant we went to bed around midnight and had to get up at 4:00AM to catch a 7:45AM flight (damn homeland security and their need to check my bags with a fine tooth comb). I set the alarm and went to bed. Somehow, when the alarm went off, I must've turned it off and rolled over. This is an extreme rarity for me. I'm always a slave to my alarm clock. Fortunately, I woke up at 4:25 AM and noticed the problem. We got up and I got dressed and loaded the luggage in the car while Nancy got ready. We were out of the house quickly and we still got the airport at my predetermined time.

You see, it takes a lot of math to factor a wakeup time. I knew IAH was saying that you had to be there 1.5 hours before loading. Since loading was at 7:15AM that meant I had to be at the airport at 5:45AM. Then I knew it takes about 30 minutes to get from the off-site covered parking to the airport. THat means I had to be at the parking lot at 5:15AM. I knew it takes 45 minutes to get from my house to the parking lot. Which means that I had to leave the house by 4:30 AM. Now the tricky part, figuring the Nancy-factor. I know on a normal day it takes 45 minutes for her to shower, perform her skin maintance regime and eat breakfast. This time she already showered before going to bed, wasn't going to eat breakfast, so I had to guess. I gave her 30 minutes, that's why I said a 4:00AM wakeup. Fortunately, it took her less than 30 minutes to get ready and it took less than 45 minutes to get to the airport. So we got to do ALOT of sitting and waiting

The flight was not without it's drama. While sitting in our seats waiting for everyone else to board, the usual log-jam formed as people put all their carry-ons in the overhead compartments ignoring the unwritten rule of only one bag per person. Well, one lady was standing there waiting for the non-english speaking people to get into their appropriate seats. Apparently, this passanger didn't care that the seating arrangements were breaking up this latino family and felt they should've thought of that when they booked their flight. She was very vocal about getting the aisle seat she paid for. Well while all this was going on, a person of asiatic descent and most likely still lives in the region, since he also spoke little or no english decides that he was going to do the kind and courteous thing of moving through the log jam like Emmitt Smith on Super Bowl Sunday. When he pushed passed this vocal lady, she told him to f-off and shoved the crap out of him. That caused some tension because the poor fellow (not really because he was being most rude) almost hit the floor.

Needless to say, all those in shouting distance of this lass was glad when the flight attendant announced the destruction of all cell phones. Not really, but I'm sure that's what people think is being asked of them to turn it off. That was the only thing that shut this lady up because we were getting to listen to her recant over and over again the details of "Shove-Gate 2006".

Besides that, all was fine with our flight. We landed in Orlando without incident.

We had decided to forgo the free Magical Express shuttle service from Orlando to our resort which came with free baggage delivery and went with a towncar. Some of the Disney-themed forums I visit made it clear that it could take awhile to get to your resort based on where you were on the drop-off schedule since the busses went to all resorts.

As was described to us, the gentleman who was to be our driver was in the baggage claim area holding a sign with my name on it. I really felt important :)

He stood with me while I got my luggage and helped me haul it outside where he told us to wait while he got the car. While this was going on I was telling Nancy that the towncar would be just as good as a limo because we were originally planning on getting a limo since this is also our honeymoon. But a limo was an add'l $100 on top of what a towncar cost.

As we were standing on the curb we see our driver pulling up with not a towncar but a nice long white strech limo. He gets out and Nancy and I told him I thought we had a towncar. He looked at us, smiled, and said, "Surprise!". Somehow we got bumped but I don't know who is responsible.

Since Nancy has never been in a limo, this was a real treat for her. When we got to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I swear we saw people looking at us getting out of the limo wondering who we were.

Amazingly, our room was already ready for us at 11:30AM. We were taken straight to our room on the concierge floor. We decided to go whole-hog on this trip and booked the Platinum Package with a concierge level room. Basically, everything but the basic snacks from the carts is pre-paid like on a cruise. We just have to tip the housekeeping (or as they call it at Disney....Mousekeeping).

Once we dropped off our bags, we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom since it was close, it closed at 5 and allowed us time to prepare for my special Birthday dinner at Victoria & Alberts (the AAA 5 Diamond restaurant at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort).

Since we hadn't eaten all day we decided to hit up the Rainforest Cafe since it was near the entrance and it was available to us on the Platinum Package meal plan (from what the waitress told us, that's the only meal plan it was on). I must say, it's harder for me to order a meal when price is of no object than when it is. I'm cheap, so I usually order a nice cheap burger, sandwich, or chicken fingers. I decided to go with the shrimp sampler and Nancy had the chicken and ribs. The highlight was the volcanoe cake for dessert.

We really enjoyed our food and left thoroughly stuffed.

The Animal Kingdom is host to one of Walt Disney World's newest rides, Expedition Everest. After we ate, we decided we needed to check that one off the list and since it was a new ride and lines were to be expected, we felt we should do it first. We made haste to Asia to get in line. It wasn't hard to find it. At the Animal Kingdom, signage was excellent, but you almost didn't need that to find Everest since you couldn't miss the giant mountain piercing the horizon.

When we got to the ride, there wasn't the line running outside the staging area like we expected and the sign informed us the wait was 15 minutes. We were stoked because 15 minutes is alot more tolerable than an hour. Well, despite the sign saying 15 minutes, there really wasn't a line. We walked right up to the ride vehicle.

Everest was awesome!!!! Nancy and I were really amped up about this ride. Disney did alot of promotion for it thorugh some TV specials and we were really looking forward to this attraction. We were not disappointed. We were so stoked we got right back on after getting off the ride. This time, I was asked to carry a red plastic card on a lanyard. I was told that they time how long it takes to get from being handed to me to being handed to the person on the other end of the line. The ride was as fun the second time as the first.

After two rounds on Expedition Everest we felt we should try to do something else. We decided the Dinosaur would be fun. Once again, no wait. Just right onto the ride vehicle. This ride was a classic Disney dark ride, but was really, really bumpy and alot of what I call the shock factor. Dinosaurs suddenly appear in your face making alot of noise. I probably wouldn't choose to ride this one again, but I wouldn't protest if someone else did.

After Dinosaur we made a mad dash to a restroom. When I came out I found Chip and Dale having fun with my wife. They were wanting to know where her husband was. You see, we were both wearing pins denoting that it was our honeymoon. I have a lot of respect for the Cast Members who wear the costumes every day. I was standing there in shorts and a short sleeved shirt and I was drenched in sweat. They had a lot more material draped on them and no real way to get a breathe of fresh air.

At this time we needed to head back to the resort to get ready for dinner. We made our way back to the busses and stopped at shops on the way.

We are settled in

Well, our possessions survived the trek from Houston to OKC. The moving truck was here at 10AM on Friday morning. It took some time for the driver to figure out the best approach to bring the truck into our new community.

I must admit the guy was a great driver. He ended up deciding to back the truck in and had to navigate around a parking lot while doing it. He treaded that sucker in their nicely.

The next thing that needed to be tackled is the two small flights of stairs leading to our front door. One of the men on the crew had the ingenious idea of using ramps to go from the truck to the door, thereby bypassing the stairs. It was easily setup and worked beautifully.

It took the movers only 4 hours to unload the truck. This included getting the appliances into their new homes and setup. They also masterfully squeezed our very heavy and long couch into our living room. It wasn't a straight shot, but they made it look simple.

I must say that I highly recommend our moving company. We used Daryl Flood who is an affiliate of Allied. Despite the fact that to me the trip from Houston to OKC is a long haul, to the moving industry it's no different than a trip down the street. Therefore, the nationwide movers won't touch the job. They lateral it over to their local affiliates. That is how we ended up with Daryl Flood. From talking to our driver it sounds like Daryl Flood operates in more places than just Houston so I believe I'll be using them again