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

Into the great wide open

Well, the movers finished with their job at 6PM. Nancy and I stood there watching the giant orange Allied Moving truck disappear into the horizon waving as 99% of our possessions were onboard.

Tomorrow, begins a new chapter in our life as we face the reality that we are indeed moving out of this house.

They're Here

I'm drafting this entry while the moving company is here.  So far so good.  These guys are quick and careful.  It's been 3 hours and I'd say half the house is on the truck. 

The disgusting thing is that now that furniture is disappearing, we are noticing a black film all over the carpets.  I, at first, thought it was dirt from their shoes, but it wasn't.  It was a layer of dog hair from our Coco.  Man, the vaccuum cleaner is going to get a workout when the moving is done

Moving Day

Well, it's 2:00AM Central Time and the movers are coming to finish packing and moving us to Oklahoma City. I still have alot of crap to get organized in my office before these guys show up.

I hate moving.....

New Blog Entries Coming Soon....

I'm currently sitting at the Orlando Airport on my way back from a fantastic 10 day trip to Walt Disney World. I'll be back to blogging in the next day or so.

I have a lot of family and friends that want to know how my trip went, so I will be posting my trip reports to my blog for easier distribution. Hopefully, my writeup will be entertaining enough to keep my readers interested

When you wish upon a star....

Q: So, Ray, your wife has just graduated from college, what are you two going to do now?

A: We are going to Disney World!!!!

Well, folks, it's time for Nancy and me to take a much deserved vacation. This will be a slash vacation ... Birthday Gift (for me)/Graduation Gift (for Nancy)/Belated Honeymoon (for us)

I don't know what my internet connectivity situation will be like at Disney, but if it's there, I plan on trying to post something. But definitely when I get back, I plan on blogging my trip report.

I have a pro flickr account and we'll be uploading alot of pictures

Belle Before and After

I know, I know, you guys are tired of hearing about my dog, but Nancy and I were amazed at how quickly she's healed. Here is a side by side comparision of her from the day we brought her home and 6 days later:

Belle's Surgery Incision Originally uploaded by rharkness.

Belle after 6 days Originally uploaded by rharkness.

Update on Belle Part 3

Belle is home!

Actually came home yesterday, August 30th, but she is a handful. That's why I've been lax blogging an update. Despite the fact that she's home, she still needs constant attention and care.

The doctors warned us that she'll be coughing alot and that we have to feed her very carefully. What we have to do is make little meatballs out of canned dog food and feed it to her one piece at a time and make sure she completely swallows between meatballs. This is because she kinda has to relearn how to swallow properly. Part of the problem was that the flap of skin that helps control where air and food go was overgrown and part of the breathing problem (in addition to the airway collapsing). So what they had to do was some resculpting of the flesh. This results in the potential that if she doesn't eat patiently she could accidentally inhale her food. I'm not too worried about her though. I have the same problem. I cannot talk and eat at the same time without nearly choking on whatever I'm eating.

Nancy has been spoiling the heck out her. She hardly lets her walk on her own. I think we are going to have an even worse monster on our hands when the healing is done. We are also supposed to keep her as calm as possible.

This is no easy feat since she doesn't believe anything is wrong with her. She is always trying to jump up on things or down from things. Also, whenever Nancy leaves the room (or house) and comes back she gets all excited. The funny thing is that when Nancy leaves, she remains very calm with me and just sleeps. Then when she comes home again, she's excited again. But this also hold true for our other chihuahua, Coco.

The surgeon was telling us that everyone in the ICU was knocking on any piece of wood they could find and would never talk about how well she was healing loud enough for her to hear because they were afraid of a jinx. We were told that she's ton quite a few surgeries on dogs like this and our dog has healed the fastest she's ever seen.

So here's hoping we are through the woods on this one, but Belle is still a candidate for lung infections and infections from the surgery. But she's our little trooper.

Thanks to all who had our little girl in their thoughts. I'm guessing some good energy was sent her way

An Update on Belle Part 2

Well, 5 o'clock came without word from the animal hospital.  Nancy being the concerned parent that she is, decided to call to see what she could find out.  I told her to not bother the hospital because the surgeon most likely was still in surgery.  We knew that there was at least 4 surgeries scheduled for today. 

Nancy got ahold of one of the nurses in the ICU.  The surgeon was still in surgery as I suspected.  They had several emergency cases come in that extended the surgeon's day.  From what the nurse told Nancy was that Belle was doing fine.  She has won over the hearts of the staff and every time someone comes over to her cage to straighten it up, she's there all smiles and ready to jump in their arms. 

That news seemed to help appease Nancy for awhile.  The nurse she spoke to said that we should hear something between 6PM and 7PM.  Well that came and went and she was getting kinda worried.  I told her that either she's still in surgery, busy calling all the patient's parents, or decided she'd call tomorrow because it was late.  So we decided to go to dinner.  We went and got sandwiches and came back.

Around 8PM we heard from the surgeon.  She said that she had to implant around 7 prosthetic rings to support her airway.  She needed rings that went down to her first ribs on her rib cage.  We were informed that her practice was to keep the dogs intubated for 45 minutes after getting out of surgery to make sure there isn't any potential for paralysis.  For that 45 minutes the dog is in the lap of a nurse getting some TLC.  We were told that at almost exactly at the 45 minute mark Belle was letting everyone know that she was ready to get that tube out of her throat.  Once she was extubated, we were told that if it wasn't for the swelling you'd never know anything was wrong.  Then the surgeon told Nancy that she had to lower her voice so Belle couldn't hear, but she was absolutely amazed at her progress.  She's progressing faster than she ever expected or has seen and if things keep on this path, she might be home by Wednesday night.

Belle's next hurdle is going to be eating.  She'll get her first solid food tomorrow.  It will be wet dog food (food from a can) rolled up into tiny balls.

That's all we know at this point and thanks for all of those people that had our little girl in their thoughts

An update on Belle

Some people who read my blog have told me that they want to be kept informed about how Belle is doing.

We got up early this morning to take Belle to the surgeon.  The paperwork we got told us to be at the hospital between 7:15 AM and 8:00AM.  So we took off from the house at 6:40AM.  Belle was all confused because her routine was screwed up and she didn't get any breakfast.  Coco was confused because she was baby-gated into the kitchen but Belle wasn't with her.

Well we hit the highway and just as I feared we ran into traffic.  Not just any ole traffice but the kind where you are only moving at 10-20MPH.  In an hour we had only travelled what the previous day had only took us 20 minutes.  I was stressing.  But we eventually got there with 5 minutes to spare

We filled out the necessary paperwork and sat down and waited for someone to come get her.  We weren't there waiting for long.  Nancy gave her hugs and kisses and handed Belle over to me.  We had to say our necessary goodbyes in case things went badly and this was the last time we saw her alive.

I am usually the cold hearted bastard of the bunch when it comes to feelings so I was taken aback by the fact that I actually felt a little something as I walked away from Belle after she was handed off to the medical personel.

We didn't hear anything from the hospital until sometime around noon.  The call was from someone in the recovery room.  Everything went well.  They had just extubated her and she was real quiet.

Now we await a call from the surgeon to find out how successful the surgery was and anything else she needs to tell us.  Plus, Belle needs to survive the recovery process.

All I know, if that it feels like something is missing here

Organization is the Key

Mr. Eichmann was my 12th Grade math teacher in North Carolina. He really made math fun. Besides his very apparent passion for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (The Tarheels) he also had a passion for organization.

A day didn't go by without him uttering the phrase, "Organization is the Key" and he meant it.

It turns out it's a good phrase to live by. Now those who know me really well and have actually seen either my work office or my home office will know that I haven't really taken the phrase to heart. My wife, on the other hand, lives by it.

When she was a student at Texas Woman's University studying nursing, she began every semester with a trip to Wal-Mart to buy organization supplies. That usually entailed buying three ring binders for every glass, colored post-it tabs and colored highlighters.

Well, her organization fetish isn't limited to the classroom. We were going to the Galleria area because we had to take Belle to the surgeon and they had to run some tests on her that was going to take over an hour. So we decided to go to the Galleria Mall to kill some time. Well, on the way there, we passed The Container Store. Nancy isn't one to blow by a store which derives it's business through providing organizational products. Plus, she is looking for a better way to organize her scrapbooking and quilting supplies. So we stop and go in. We didn't really see anything of use until we got to the end. There were these plastic containers that are designed to store your shoes.

Nancy decided that she was going to pick up a box of 20. I noticed that the boxes for men's shoes were more expensive than the ones for women. So I decided to see if my Size 8 shoe could fit into a woman's shoe box. Unfortunately, it couldn't so we picked up 4 of the mens shoe boxes.

We got home from our trip to the Galleria area and Nancy quickly went to the closet and started boxing up her shoes. Up till now, our shoes resided either at the front door on a shoe rack, or along the floor of our walk-in closet.

The beauty of these boxes is that you can stack them and see into them. So now, all our shoes are neatly boxed away and are on the top shelf of our closet. Boy does our closet look better now without all the clutter on the floor.

This is an animal hospital?

As I mentioned in my previous post, our beloved Belle will be having surgery on Monday. The surgeon operates out of a hospital in the Houston. For those familar with Houston, the hospital is tucked away in the Galleria area.

When you walk into this animal hospital, you'd swear that you were in a medium sized human hospital. But you realize rather quickly that this isn't the case. Everywhere you look there are dogs, a few cats, and maybe an exotic animal or two.

There are departments just like you'd expect to see in a hospital. There is Oncology, Dermitology, Gastrointronology, Orthopedics, etc. Of course, this hospital also had the requisite waiting areas with all the outdated magazines. The walls were covered with professional portraits of hospital staff with their pets.

They even have canine gurneys. It was kinda funny watching the staff transporting the dogs on these gurneys. They had high sides on them like a child's crib but no front or back. The dogs, wouldn't lay down and would try to stand as the gurney moves forward. It's almost like what I imagine a dog would look like if it was trying to surf.

They even have a fully staffed ICU for their surgical cases and seriously ill. From what we've been told, they even prefer to hire RN's instead of vet techs because their own studies have shown that the recovery rates are higher with RN's.

I have to say I'm impressed and never believed there was such places in this world. I felt much more comfortable with the idea that our dog will be in their care.

Lady Belle Von Wags-A-Lot

We call her Belle for short. She's our 7lb fawn colored Chihuahua. We found out early in her life that she had problems with breathing. SHe would cough alot. Our first vet just wrote it off as Kennel Cough, but eventually over time, we found out that it really was a congenital defect called a collapsing trachea.

It's rather sad to see her. She runs around trying to have a good time like a 4 year old dog would like to but she just starts hacking and coughing. She really sounds like a goose when she gets going. All the neighborhood kids always ask us what is wrong with our dog which Nancy promptly tells them that she has bad asthma. Adults on the otherhand think we are choking the crap out of our dog.

Unfortunately, in the 4 years we've had her it has finally gotten to the point where she really doesn't want to do anything anymore but lay around. Our vet recommended a surgeon who happens to be a pioneer in airway surgeries in small breed dogs. Nancy went to see her last December and found out Belle was a strong surgical candidate. The only problem was that the recovery is long and if anything went wrong, she wouldn't be able to cope while trying to go to school at the same time. So we have waited.

This summer has been especially hard on Belle, but we finally made it to Nancy's graduation day so we made an appointment to see the surgeon again.

Belle is scheduled for surgery on Monday. We will not be able to visit Belle after the surgery for anywhere from 3-5 days. Since the surgery involveds her airway, the doctor cannot take any chances of putting undo pressure on her airway so the prescription is boredom. The more bored she is the less stress on the airway and what dog isn't excited to see their family. So therefore, no family visitation.

This is going to be very stressful for Nancy. Since she is young we are told that Belle's chances are good, but with any surgery there is risk.

I know she is a dog, but she is like a child of ours. Some people have think we are wierd but we don't care. I think pets should be given every chance if you have the means to take care of them. To mean that is part of the definition of responsibility

The Quick and Dirty Career Test

Your Career Personality: Independent, Insightful, and Ingenious

Your Ideal Careers: Architect Artist Business strategist College professor Computer programmer Mathematician Neurologist Philosopher Photographer Video game developer

The Quick and Dirty Career Test

What would you do?

Nancy and I went to the movies on Thursday. What the movie was isn't important since it doesn't really have anything to do with this entry.

Before the movie we were being bombarded with the ads that now have become a part of the pre-show before the previews. One of the ads was for a new show coming on NBC this Fall called Heros. It appears to be about a bunch of people who find out they have special powers. One of the people, a teenage girl, finds out that irregardless of what she does to herself she cannot get a scratch. She is impervious to harm.

Yeah, this is a comic book like premise, but it got me to thinking. What would I do if I suddenly found out that I could not be harmed?

Would I still be scared of my own shadow and afraid to take risk or would i done a mask and cape and fight the things that go bump in the night or worse would i become the thing that goes bump in the night?

Another Fine Adventure

Here it is, another Sunday and it's amazing how much the wife and I got done in the past week.

I'd have to admit the most excitement was when Nancy ran to the aid of a fellow human being, but the rest of the week was not boring either.

The purpose of our trip was to get Nancy's urinalysis done for her new job and to get a TB test. While there she found out she can also knock off the drug dosage exam which she did.

The other purpose of the trip was to hopefully find a place to live up there. Well, Nancy found a place she likes. It's about 1000 sq ft smaller than our current digs in Houston but we were planning on getting something smaller. It will allow us to pare down our possessions. To get back to the basics, the bare essentials. Plus, we should be able to save some money. The monthly rent is $500/month cheaper than my mortgage and property tax bill. Unfortunately, we cannot seem to unload the house in Houston.

Nancy was also successful in conquering her quest for the perfect dress for our meal at Victoria & Albert's at Walt Disney World. Since we are eating there twice, she conquered twice. I must admit, that I found the dresses to be stunning. Now that Nancy has found her shoulders it really has opened up a whole new world for her in regards to fashion choices.

I'm going to have to go get a new suit now. The suits I own are huge on me now. When I tighten up my pants with a belt they look like I'm wearing a potato sack. With Nancy having these great dresses, I need to look nice standing next to her

I managed to work from the hotel room the whole time and managed to pretty much kill myself. I must say, I've never been much for respecting ergonomics, but the chair and desk in the hotel were not comfortable. By the time we left Oklahoma City, my neck was killing me from hunching over the desk and working on my laptop.

This was the second week back to school for my neice and nephew and they managed to bring home to the family that little bug that kids like to bring home from school and got my brother and his wife very sick.

To give you an example how sick my brother got, he actually went home from work early so he could rest. My brother never takes a sick day. He follows a philosophy that you save the sick days for when you are feeling great. If you feel like crap you go to work.

Because of the sickness, Nancy and I didn't get to see my brother and his family much. We were afraid we wouldn't get to see them at all, but we got fortunate in the fact that my brother was feeling better by Friday. His family and I went to our favorite restaurant in the area....Red Robin! I love me some Mushroom Burger with American Cheese....yum!

Fun was had by all and then Nancy and I got to take the 7 hour drive home. We took a quick pitstop along the way to visit some of Nancy's family which turned out to be a real treat. Nancy got to show off her new dresses and her sister got to show off her new house. I don't know what I was expecting expecially since every house they've had before was of a different style and age. But I had to admit it was really beautiful. Since she lives along the path to OKC, I'm sure we'll be stopping off again in the future.

Well, that's all I liked to say about that

This is a job for.....

Nancy!

For awhile now, Nancy has been craving seafood. So, we decided to drive down the road to go get some Red Lobster (for the seafood lover in you). Lunch was awesome! I love me some shrimp scampi...yum!

Well, after we paid our check we were slowly rolling ourselves toward the exit when we noticed a man sprawled across the floor in front of the hostess' podium. Nancy immediately sprung into action!

I must say, I've seen Nancy be helpful before. She loves to help people cross the street, get in and out cars. But this time, she was helping someone who was in medical distress. Three people from the restaurant helped the gentleman get back into the wheelchair that someone from his party brought and then Nancy started doing all the stuff you'd expect a nurse to do when you were in the hospital.

She was there taking his pulse while asking him questions. She did a quick assessment to determine if he got a concussion and trying to determine if he was in immediate danger.

The manager alerted Nancy to the fact that they called 911 and if they should turn them back. Nancy was quick to point out that if it was her decision she would make sure the EMT's arrive.

Meanwhile, I'm just slowly trying to get out the way. I got myself to the bench the farthest away from the action and hid. I hate being the center of attention, so in a way (a way that I feel guilty about) I was hoping nobody associated me with her.

The funny thing was that the hostess came up to me and asked me if I needed to be seated. I told her that I was with my wife and pointed toward Nancy. The hostess told me how lucky I was. Something I am constantly reminded about every day.

Well, the EMT's quickly got there and Nancy and I just slid out the front door and left the man in the capable care of paid professionals.

Well blog-people, that was the excitement for the day. Hopefully everyone had a memorable yet good day.

3 Cheers

So I can just hear the roar through my Ethernet connection, "Ray! What did you do this weekend!" Well let me tell you

We hosted a cookout celebration for Nancy in honor of her successful completion of Bachelors of Science in Nursing curriculum at Texas Woman's University.

Now if I tried to convince you that I was excited and eager for the honor of having 20+ people (some being children) over to my house, then I'd be lying to you. I am an individual that lives and dies by my routines. I don't like to carry on "small talk" and I'm not comfortable if I'm not talking about work.

When it comes to parties, I just don't make it a practice of attending them. When I was dragged to company parties under penalty of termination, I was the one sitting on the couch in the corner. If it was at someone's house, then I was the once sitting in the corner watching TV.

My wife has a veracious appetite for the social. She loves attending get togethers and always wanted to host one at our house. What better opportunity than to celebrate her graduation from college.

I was politely told to fake my excitement and if I ruined her party I would rue the day. So I let her do what she wanted.

Since I was the designated grill-master (master being the laughable term), I immediately called the true grill master of the family....My brother....And asked, nay, begged for help. With his excellent guidance I knew how many bratwurst to buy and how many burgers we should have on hand.

I was actually amazed that almost everyone who was invited ended up showing up. Even her only brother, who lives about 2.5 hours away and who is very difficult to get out of his neck of the woods, showed up with his fiancee and kids. I think fun was had by all.

I even was even able to kick the brats up a notch. My brother asked me to try a new preparation technique and it proved to be a hit. This time, I had actual bratwurst connoisseurs in my presence and they were just nodding their heads in agreement after the first bite and giving me the thumbs up. Definitely an ego stroker!

My brother-in-law's fiancee made the cake and it turned out to be a masterpiece. Granted, it went through a slight mishap on the way to our house. Apparently, my brother-in-law took an offramp too quickly and caused the cake to slide in the box and messed up the icing on one side. So, after a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies, she quickly had it repaired and we got the joy of eating the frosting she scraped off to make the repair.

The most amazing thing was that the dogs behaved. We were really worried about how they would fare with that many people wandering within their domain. We were especially worried about Coco. She is really skiddish around strangers and we had 20+ of them running around. She would run and hide in the bedroom and then poke her head out of the bedroom door every now and again and look to see if everyone was still there. Sometime she would wander out, make a couple laps and then run back to her hiding place.

When it was all said and done, I didn't ruin Nancy's celebration and I made a few more fans of my grilled hamburgers and sausages.

So blog-izens, that's all I have to say about my weekend.

Defected's ARAQUIEL-A

Well, my brother has put up another piece of coloring work. He's taken on another one of Defected Angel's pieces. A link to the original can be found here


Defected's ARAQUIEL-A by ~impwerx on deviantART

Graduation Day

Well, yesterday August 10, 2006, Nancy completed her Fast Track BSN Program at Texas Woman's Univeristy! She has conquered her Everest. This was a grueling accelerated Nursing Curriculum where they crammed the usual 24 months of material into a 15 month timetable.

Out of the 20 people who started, I think only 2 dropped out either due to not meeting academic requirements or familial obligations that interfered with the ability to meet the demands put on them as a result of an accelerated timetable.

I'm very proud of Nancy. When she got her Bachelors of Science degree in Sports Medicine from Brigham Young University her goal was to just get out and not fail. Any support she received from outside the university was non-existent. Thus, she finished with a 2.91 GPA. I like to refer to that period of her life as B.R. (Before Ray).

As she went through this program I was aware of her past foray into higher education and I attempted to be the most supportive person I could. Granted, at first, I was a despot at best at trying to get my wife to stay focused on the task at hand. I was such a dictator it put fears in Nancy's mind about what kind of parent I would be to school aged children.

Well, after some "come to Jesus" meetings with my wife, I started to let up. I still had to stay on her a bit and try and motivate when the pressure was too much. Nancy is a chronic procrastinator and somehow still gets acceptable (A's & B's) with little or no studying.

Well, when it was all said and done, Nancy is graduating with a 3.698 GPA! The downside is that she is missing Magna Cum Laude by .002 GPA points (if my calculations are correct), but she is still graduating with honors (Cum Laude).

She has a job already waiting for her. It's in Oklahoma City (yes that means we'll be moving) in an Emergency Room. This is where she wants to specialize since she thought it would be the best marriage of her experience in Sport Medicine with her newly gained experience in Nursing Medicine.

It just so happens that it was far easier for her to get hired into an ER up there than it was to get hired into one in the Houston Medical District where they expect a certain amount of experience before letting you come in. So this move is more for her than it is for me. It will give her the experience that she need right after graduation that she'd have to wait 2-5 years to get a shot down here.

So now, a new form of reality is set forth for my wife. And a new adventure begins for us as a couple......

Mall Detox

For those who don't know me real well, you'll probably be shocked to know that my wife and I have had quite a run with the LDS lifestyle.

In regards to my involvement, it slowly snuck on me. I started hanging out with some people that introduced it to me and let me try it for free. Next thing you know, I'm hooked and cannot quite leave it behind. It's amazing how many people, on LDS, are out there. They could be your neighbor, your family member, or even your co-worker. There are some tell-tale signs but you have to look for them. One such sign is as a strong desire to tell you about their cool older brother.

My wife on the other hand was born into this lifestyle. She really didn't have much of a choice on what direction she went down. She tried a few times in college to escape her dependence on LDS by smoking and drinking at college contrary to her university's co-dependant attitude.

Well, as of today, we are 2 years LDS free. We are on the wagon. Our footsteps felt lighter having gotten that giant monkey off our backs. Nancy had a harder time kicking the habit since she has been living with it her whole life. Giving up certain things, even though she didn't feel they were bad for her, was hard to give up because it was such a part of her. But she has slowly gotten over those things. Her mother introduced her to the sweet nectar of the vine and her sister helped her broaden her appreciation of the libation. On top of that she's learned that shorts come in lengths shorter than knee-length. I've been told that clothing can be liberating and therapeutic.

But, my female sources have told me that nothing is more therapeutic and liberating than shopping. Hence, the topic of this blog entry.

Here in Texas we are experiencing the annual ritual known as Tax Free Weekend. Anything clothes or other back-to-school related items costing less than $100 would be sold minus the sales tax.

We went to the mall on the premise of getting me some clothes for our trip to DisneyWorld in September. Since I only own 1 pair of shorts and an array of t-shirts my wife hates, she felt it was a good time to buy some clothes and save 8.25%.

Well after a fruitful trip to Old Navy, the official outfitter of Team Ray, we wandered the mall to try and find Nancy some new shoes for our Disney trip. Well, as luck would have it, we couldn't get to the Lady Footlocker without passing by that bane of the dyed in the wool, balls-to-the-wall, hard-core LDS user’s existence......Victoria's Secret (what is her secret anyway). Nancy turns to me and says, "I want to start wearing some strappy tops, and that means I need a strapless bra, should I buy at Victoria's Secret or Dillards". I told her to buy wherever she can get the most comfortable bra. So Victoria's Secret it is.

Now I'm a man who always was turned into a blithering idiot around pretty women and even more around pretty women in sexy lingerie. So for me to walk inside Victoria's Secret is like hanging a lump of Kryptonite around Superman's neck. Where do I avert my gaze? It's hard to walk around looking at one's feet. Needless to say, my wife found two bras that she liked and it was off to find tops to go with them. After all, a woman can't just buy one item of clothing. It must be accessorized. What better accessory to a new bra, other than a matching pair of undies, than a new top?

After all that looking I have these things two things to say .....

1. My wife has a great set of shoulders which all this time have been hidden underneath those sleeves all these years, and
2. They need more man chairs in women's clothing stores.

Well, that is my story of our day of detoxification at the local mall, or what I more aptly like to refer to as the de-mormonification process

Defected's Barfarel

My brother has posted another piece he has colored on his deviantART site. To see the Defected Angel's original piece my brother used as his source, click here.

My brother never ceases to amaze me. His talents are always growing in regards to his artistic talent.

His latest endeavor is carving. He creates molds out of whatever he finds laying around and then pours Plaster of Paris into them creating the stock material he will work with. Then he carves it with sharp instruments. I have seen some of his finished pieces and they look like they are made out of stone.

Phonebooks

I got another phonebook dropped of at my doorstep. I wonder how many trees are cut down to make the paper that is used to compile all the phonebooks printed in the United States in a calendar year?

I cannot think of the last time I've used the phonebook. I just simply go to one of the many online searches and find what I'm looking for. I'm kinda partial to http://www.smartpages.com but I'm sure there are others.

Is the phone book obsolete?

What a pleasant surprise

There was a very loud knock on the door which got Belle and Coco barking because an unfamiliar noise can not be heard unbarked.

So I walk to the door and peek through the window beside the door to see who it is. We have solar screens installed which allows me to see out but the people cannot see in (as long as it is brighter on their side than mine so one must be careful about walking nude with the lights on at night if you don't shut the blinds). What I saw was two middle-aged women and a girl that looked about 5-6 years old. I originally wasn't going to answer because I didn't recognize them, but I thought that it might be Nancy's new visiting teachers. Despite the fact that we haven't attended an LDS church in 2 years they still come by to visit her. I know how difficult it must be to come to a house where your message must be not so willingly received so I answered the door.

As soon as I answered the door I heard, "I'd like to give you a message...blah, blah, blah) and I caught in small print on a glossy stack of flier in the lady's hand JW and Jehovah. Great. The Jehovah's Witnesses.

My last encounter with a JW standing in my doorway involved a heated discussion that mainly involved my trying to get them to leave and they wouldn't go. This time, all I had to do was listen to their invitation to some conference they were holding, accept their flyer and wave as they walk away. They did try to use the current situation between Israel and Lebanon as a selling point to convince me the Second Coming is near.

At least this time I knew better to keep my mouth shut. If I had said something like, "If I couldn't accept the LDS what makes you think I'll like your church?" I'm sure I would've never gotten rid of them.

Oh What a Night

Well, I didn't get much sleep last night. I just couldn't seem to get my mind to relax. Then once I did manage to close my eyes for a bit I kept getting haunted by the same dream.

I was apparently in college. What college I do not know. I was still living in my childhood bedroom in Durham, NC. A room I haven't stepped foot in since 1986. A room that technically no longer exists since that house burned down a couple years after we sold it. Apparently, the owner cleaned out the fireplace and some of the ashes were still hot and they stored those said hot ashes in the garage and it caught the house on fire.

But I digress.

The weird thing is that Wally is in my dream in the role that he holds in real life....my best friend. The haunting nature of this dream is that we have final exams starting the next day and apparently, I have neither studied for them nor even taken the effort to attend classes all semester. Well, you see, in real life Wally hates college just as much as I do. But in my dream, he was not only prepared, but on top of everything. I kept calling him to try and find out what classes had exams the next day but he wouldn't tell me.

Needless to say, my alarm went off this morning right when I was getting to college and walking into the exam hall (which I must say looked awefully similiar to the one I went to at my high school I attended in Singapore). I was walking in and not knowing what test I was taking.

I wonder what I feel unprepared for. I'm obviously under great duress about something, I just don't know what

Lactic Acid Buildup

I must thank my friend Wally (not his real name). He has gotten me back into the gym. It's the perfect partnership. Both of us want to work out, but we can always manage to come up with some reason to not go. So we help each other get our butts over there.

The little gym I was a member of got bought out by a chain called L.A. Fitness. They finished building their new facility in June and I must say color me impressed. I have been a member of alot of gyms and gone to quite a few 24 Hour Fitness locations and I haven't seen a gym yet that compares to this one for variety of machines, free-weights and abundance of cardio machines (treadmills, eliptical trainers, stair steppers, recumbant bikes, etc).

I have been a fair-weather friend of the gym for about 4 years now and haven't really been at all since I had my ulnar nerve transposition surgery in April 2005. So I decided to go extremely light in order to prevent the dreaded lactic acid buildup and resultant pain. Unfortunately, I wasn't too successful in that endeavor.

I was fine until we worked our biceps and triceps. Since my surgery was on my elbow and involved the disconnection of my bicep and reattachment after the nerve we moved beneath it, I expected that biceps would be difficult. I also was more cautious to exercise with good form. I guess I did too good of a job, because my biceps hurt!

Needless to say, I am excited to be back in the gym. Like my wife keeps telling me, you cannot complain about things you don't like if you aren't willing to do anything to try and change it. Well, I've been complaining about my ever-expanding waistline and how much I miss my much leaner frame of a few years ago. Now I hope I can rebuild the habit.

Avast ye mateys, thar be cliffhangers ahead!

Well Nancy and I went to the movies Saturday and took a thrilling ride into the world envisioned by those powerhouses of Walt Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. Once again we followed the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow and his prescious ship The Black Pearl.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest picks up shortly after the completion of the first movie. Once again Captain Jack has managed to get himself into alot of trouble and sucks all those around him into the depth with him.

I must warn you that this movie has more double crosses than a case of Dos Equis. Granted this isn't a "thinking movie". It is definitely a Jerry Bruckheimer film. If you liked the first movie you'll definitely enjoy this one.

I don't want to give anything away since I feel not knowing anything helps heighten the enjoyment of this flick.

Keep an eye out for the subtle and not-so-subtle nods to the Disney attraction that inspired this successful movie franchise.

As my title suggests, this movie ends with a cliffhanger. Much like the Lord of the Rings movies, this movie is intended to be told over more than one film. So there is obviously going to be ongoing adventures of this merry band of pirates and I cannot wait till next summer to find out how things end up.

The soundtrack is also excellent. I bought the first soundtrack and it quickly became part of my morning routine. It's lively beats and thundering tones always got me ready to take on the day. I bought the new soundtrack today and Nancy has already stated that is definitely different but along the same lines as the first one. I'm sure I'll be expanding my morning repetoir of music to amp up the brain.

So if you decide to go see this movie, sit back and enjoy the ride. But make sure you keep an eye and firm grip on your rum :) And never forget that "Dead men tell no tales"

I hate fireworks

For those of us who live in the United States or are expatriated US Citizens, yesterday was Independence Day, informally known as the Fourth of July because, well, it falls on the 4th day of July.

I was laying in bed, staring at the ceiling last night and into the early morning thinking about this blog post. Why couldn't I sleep? Glad you asked. It was due to the pyrotechnic experts known as my neighbors. Where I live in Houston it is legal to buy and shoot off fireworks. People spend hundreds of dollars on various types of explosive devices that seem to operate as efficiently and accurately as a Korean missile launch.

I don't know what's wrong with me because I love the fireworks at Disney World but I guess it may have had to do with the really organized nature of it and the fact that I can avoid the hassle of it if I avoided the prime viewing locations within the park.

But outside the Wonderful World of Disney, people are very Machiavellian when it comes to their fireworks enjoyment. There were long lines of cars just pulled over on the highway making it impossible for a car to pull off the highway in the case of an emergency. Why? Because they wanted a prime viewing location for the downtown fireworks celebration, yet didn't want to park and walk somewhere and they wanted the convenient location to the highway for when the fireworks show was over.

When it comes to those who create their own fireworks extravaganza, they don't seem to care if those around them could care less about an explosive light show. I even would bet they don't consider Independence Day as anything more than a day to drink beer, fire up the BBQ and enjoy burgers by the pool, topped off with lighting explosive devices.

I wouldn't be as irritated if the festivities concluded at a decent hour, but they shoot them off until 1-2AM and it isn't just that one night. This will be a night event for the rest of the week.

Then, when you complain, you are basically told that your opinion doesn't matter because it's the freakin 4th of July and it's their right to shoot them off.

I don't know when I started to hate fireworks. I cannot pinpoint a date where I went from ooh and ah to "shut the hell up". It must've been about the same time I started to hate snow. That point and time when you realize the fun doesn't outweigh the inconvenience.

I often wonder what veterans of our wars think of such amateur shows. As I was laying there it sounded like an air strike was going off over my head. Has their ever been a vet you was awoken by the sound of the revelry and hit the floor and went reaching for their rifle.

I'll be jumping for joy when they finally outlaw fireworks

The eyes have it

I saw the craziest thing today. My wife and I were sitting on the couch discussing topics for her nursing exam on Monday and she turns to me and says, "Ray, look...Coco's asleep." Coco is one of our two Chihuahuas (otherwise known as the fur-kids). I told her that she couldn't be asleep because her eyes were wide open.

She insisted she was asleep because her body was twitching like she does when she's asleep. I got down and put my face in front of hers and she didn't move. I knew at this point she had to be asleep because Coco hates to have someone look her in the eyes and will turn her head away if you put your face into hers.

That's when I saw the cool yet wierdness. Her eyes were twitching like crazy. First they rapidly moved left and right. Then they'd roll back or roll to the side. The whole time her eyes were going crazy her body was twitching like she was wanting to run somewhere.

I guess what I was seeing was REM not the band, but Rapid Eye Movement. I just never knew anyone besides Beetle Bailey had figured out how to sleep with their eyes open

Dogs And Cats

I tend to have these spells where I think about life, the universe and everything and I do most of this thinking the same place I think most red-blooded males do their thinking......in the restroom.  Afterall,  it's pretty much the only place within one's home that a married man has peace and quiet to do that serious thinking that he needs to do.  Yes, we have tinkering in the garage, swinging iron on the links, or mowing the lawn but those all involve leaving the conforts of the home.

Well, as I said I've been doing some thinking and observing as of late and I suddenly noticed something about dogs and cats I don't think I ever noticed before.

As I said, I have been doing doing alot of this thinking in the restroom and that usually involves closing the door so as to not disturb those around you.  Well, there has been a few times where I haven't shut the door all the way.  Sure enough within seconds of shutting the door, the dog is pushing his head through the crack and looking around.  As soon as she spots me you can almost see the look on her face saying, "Oh, there you are.  All is right in the world".  The thing that always makes me laugh is that I literally just walked into the bathroom and she comes looking for me.  It reminds me of when I'm at my brother's house and his children want to always know where I am.  I also have noticed that my brother's kids are always wanting to play and especially with their uncle.  It's always, "Uncle Ray, will you play with me?".  Well, I've noticed the dog is also like this.  It's always, "Will you pet me?", "Will you throw the ball?",  "Will you run in the backyard with me?".

It's these traits I love about our dogs and other dogs my friends take care of.

Now onto cats.  I only know a few people with cats, but the personality traits seem to be the same.  They could care less if you were there.  You could be gone a week and when you announce your presence back at home, they just look at you with a look that says, "You were gone?  I didn't notice."  If you start playing with them and they get irritated, I can almost see them as little Joe Pesci's from Wiseguys,
"But, I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh?".  Then they proceed to beat the crap out of you.