Christmas in Chicago

Yep, we are in Chicago. Windy city. 33 temp with 23 wind chill. Good thing it's warm right now. No possibility of snow  :(  .
Ok, so after we drove all the way here from Dayton, we just had to see some sights. One of them was the German Christmas nearby. It seemed like a replica of the Christmastime we spent in Germany. Lots of booths of goods, food and wine. After that we trecked all over downtown to find a good chicago pizza. We are now stuffed. Later after we warmed up a bit, we went to the Navy Pier. This is when it got cold (by our standards anyway).
Ok, I know I should tell you a lot more, but I am tired from all the walking and traveling. Maybe we can take this up again later.
 

Chicago

We finished our trip in Chicago by going to the Museum of Science and Industry. We all had a pretty good time there. Can't say we enjoyed more areas that others, but near the end, Thiago got on the Hampster Wheel and raced too hard. So exhausted he missed the last exhibit Azucena and I looked at.
We relaxed the rest of the day. The next morning on the way back to Dayton we went up the Sears Tower. Sorry, Willis Tower. Saw the city and also stepped out onto one of the ledges, or Skydecks. Awesome view that looks like there is no floor. I stepped out on a corner, but couldn't go any further. On one of the Skydecks, they were taking pictures so I shut my eyes, grabbed the back of Azucena's sweater and had her lead me to the center of the ledge so we could get a "professional" shot.
So for Christmas, we went to my dads for awhile and did laundry. Yeah, not a real Christmas type of morning, but it worked. Afterwards we went to my Aunt and Uncle's, a bit southeast, and had dinner and Thiago taught us a card game they play back home in Brazil called Truco. I think it's all about cheating because you are suppose to communicate with your partner what cards you have kinda like you do in Bridge
Today we went to the Air Force Museum here in Dayton. Had a pretty good time as usual, then went to see an IMAX movie called Fighter Pilots based on time spent in Nellis AFB in Nevada (Red Flag exercise). Later we hit Trader Joe's and then pizza. Now we are watching Thiago play Uncharted that he got for Christmas.

Christmas vacation has ended

Our final Christmas vacation journey led us through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma before finishing up in Round Rock.
As you might have guessed, this path was along Route 66. We visited, slept and ate at many great places. Many of them you can see resemblances in Cars.
The Wagon Wheel was our smallest place we have ever spent the night. I think our dining room is bigger that the complete room (including bath area). We ate at the Rock Cafe (whose owner is portrayed as Sally). Great food, by the way.

Sadly, we never did experience much snow to speak of. Our last full day in Dayton did give us some flurries but that was about it. It got cold by our standards (low 30's with wind and rain), but not cold by Dayton and Chicago standards. As we left Ohio and entered Illinois, we saw snow along the highway and at one point we stopped and threw a few snowballs. The rest of the trip was just plain windy.

One of our final vacation stops was at the WinStar casino at the IH35 Texas-Oklahoma border. Didn't do much, but walk around and see the sights. We got home later than planned, but that's what vacations are for. To have fun and travel at your own pace. Although we got home later than we initially planned, we were able to celebrate New Years at home. A great way to end our vacation. Sunday, we did a lot of nothing and enjoyed every bit of it. Monday we took down the tree and boxed up the ornaments. Tuesday we start work and school all over again.

1st week with Thiago

Thiago has been here almost a week and so far is still here.
He's going to Taylor HS. He's in the percussion section of the band. He's not playing yet, but soon will be. He has to be at band practice around 6:30 in the AM on Mon - Fri, then stay late till 7pm on Monday and Wednesday and the football games on Friday. So Friday is a long, long day. Long for Azucena too since she drops him off.
Thiago is one of three exchange students at Taylor. The other two are from Russia and Yugoslavia. I don't know if he's met the Yugo person, but he sits next to the Russian girl in English.
I don't know if this is the norm for him in Brazil, but he's got several people (students) looking out for him (mostly girls). I'm guessing his mixed heritage has some to do with it and being an exchange student has some. I guess you could say he's the exotic person at school.
Since he's an exchange student that needs to stay out of trouble, I'm thinking it's a good thing he's going to Taylor. Think about it. If he gets a date offer, she will need to drive to Round Rock (~30 minutes) to drop him off. That's about an hour round trip and unless she's really serious about him, I don't think it will happen. Ahh no, he doesn't have a license and no, he won't be getting one. One of those requirement thingies that he agreed to. Besides, having relations is one step closer to getting a ticket home. But he's a good kid. His momma raised him right.
As I said, his momma raised him right (usually it's the mom, even though I'm sure his dad had input as well). Anyway, getting back to being raised right, he is polite. We've been going slow getting him started on chores, but once he's been "trained", he doesn't hesitate. Now if I can just get him to quit asking if it's ok to take a shower.
Oh, you know how when dad is cleaning a gun when his daughter brings home her first date. He'll sit there cleaning it while talking to the boy about how important she is to him and yada yada, all the while the boy is watching the gun and hoping he didn't make a mistake asking this girl out. Well, we got a lovely letter from his mom and I can't help but think she was cleaning a gun while she was writing it. Basically she said he is a wonderful son and she will miss him, etc etc. She also trusts that we will continue to raise him as she raised him. I hope we can do her proud.
He's like a kid in a candy shop that is giving free candy. There are a lot of different style restaurants here that he can't wait to go to, like McDonalds, Italian, Little Red Wagon (greasy hamburgers - don't worry mom, we'll keep this one to a minimum). Not so much Chinese, not much Brazilian, but we'll manage.
That's enough for now.  Check back in a few days and hopefully I'll have more info.

Let's party Brazilian style

We finish our first week with a sort of party. We invited friends, family and educators. Thiago got introduced all around and he introduced his family's version of the hot dog. Mashed potatoes, mashed potato chips (redundant?), ketchup/mustard/mayo/whatever, Oh, bread and hot dog. I added queso, mixed it all together and ate. Not too bad (I had two).  I conned Azucena into making Chili (with 100 degrees, I'm not sure I was in my right mind with this request), I did my queso (used Italian sausage instead of regular sausage, but I was able to pull it off). J & E brought dip (loaded with parmesan), Jeanette and CJ brought ice cream toppings (which they took home with them, how rude was that), and Jeff brought Vodka.
Well, we all ate and drank and deserted our way through the evening. Oh and we talked stories too.
We had to wait until J and CJ (former teacher and hubby) left before we broke out the poker chips. What Thiago's mom failed to tell us is that he is a card shark. Or he was until Jeff and Jim decided they had enough and took his money.

Thiago's been getting along in school. He even has the Russian girl in one of his classes. Band is quite interesting. Mon - Fri at 6:45 am and then Mon till 9 pm and Wed till 7 pm. Then there's the Friday football game. It's a shame he lives in Round Rock and not Taylor. Umm, let's change that. It's probably good that he lives in Round Rock. I can't imagine anyone wanting to take him on a date since it would be a round trip for the dater (Tayor to RR is about 30 min. RR to Taylor is also about 30 min, so that would be an hour round trip. They may can get it down to 45 - 50 minutes, but that's pushing it). And no, we probably won't be meeting half way, unless it is a real special occasion.  I hear the band plans on going to Disney World during spring break. His education seems to be coming along just fine. Already aced one test and got top grade in another.

I don't think we broke the rule about driving by having him play GT4. Not just play it, but race it - I mean this includes a steering wheel, pedals and a cockpit type chair. He did his fair share, got pretty decent and decided he'd had enough (for now).

One other thing. He'd mention Krispy Kreme and although KK is no more in RR, we have something better in RR Donuts. So Sunday, Azucena sacrificed her free time and waited behind a bunch of cars (about a block and 1/2?) to get a dozen donuts and a Texas sized dount for his belated birthday.

OK, that's it for now, please check back soon to see if I have more gossip for you.

One month down, 9 more to go

Ok, one month has passed. He's still here. I guess that's a good thing.
As you know, he joined the Taylor High School Marching Band. Fortunately they don't march like ducks (Taylor Ducks. ducks. walk like a duck. Nevermind). He's been to 5 football games and has yet to march at halftime, but he's been playing with them so that's good. They have also marched at two competitions in the past two weeks. Last week he came along to watch, this week, he was "this close" to playing. He's trying to figure out how to march and play at the same time. Me, if I can walk and chew gum I'm doing good. Hopefully he will be playing before the next competition. His drumming is coming along pretty well, so now he just needs to get his marching down. A long way from home, isn't it Thiago...

It seems like every restaurant we go to is a new adventure for him. We went to Morelia's on Thursday and he got excited. We went to Zorba's Greek restaurant last weekend and he got excited, sort of, mostly. Two weeks ago we were at the Berryhill Baja Grill down south having lunch with Doug's family and Cecilia. The waitress became his temp girlfriend. We've also been to the usual, but he seems to like the Red Wagon a lot (this the greasy hamburger joint for Round Rock).

For sporting entertainment, he and I went to the last Round Rock Express baseball game of the year. Didn't end too good for the team, but he had a great time. He's also experienced UT football on TV. We might try to go to a game in November. Auto racing on TV (of all the Brazilian race drivers that have come and gone, he remembers Cenna the F1 driver from years ago. Funny thing is, there's a movie on him coming out soon and we just found out about him the week before). If it weren't for his marching competition, we would have been at a track last weekend, but hopefully we'll get another chance later on. We've also taken him to see the bats in Round Rock. Not the ice hockey team but real bats. Hard to see in the photo, but look close and you can see them.

Oh oh.. Band marching competition. I almost forgot. We were at the Tony Burger football stadium today for Taylors 2nd week of marching. They are in the 1A class for having less than 50 wind-blown instruments (percussion is not counted). Thiago didn't get to march and since they cut their program short due to lack of experience and quality (or something like that), they placed 1st for the percussion section (out of 6) and 1st for their overall marching skills. That makes 4 years in a row they won this particular competition. Their drill team which has been to national competitions in the past didn't do as well. Maybe next time.

Azucena just called. They are on their way back from Taylor Middle School where she was catching up on some school stuff. Thiago is with her since he rode back on the band bus and didn't come home with us. They made a stop at Strait Music store to pick up a drum pad so he can practice his skills and picking up Chicken for dinner. I can just see Thiago going Chicken? They don't have that in Brazil. I'm thinking he's going to open up a shop of all things American). 
Another thing I almost forgot. Last weekend after we had Maggie Moo's ice cream (yeah another experience he enjoyed), we stopped at Party City to pick out Halloween costumes. No, I won't say he had fun, but when we got back home, he called his parents and showed them his costume. Mom absolutely loved it. I could hear her laughing from downstairs. Oh man, are we getting him in trouble. Corruption can be a good thing, but in limited quantity.

I know there's more, but with so much going on for the month and everywhere he turns is something new, we'll just have to fill you in as we go.

Chrismas Wrapup

Well, well, well... How was your Christmas? Better than ours? Could be if you were on the receiving end. Doesn't mean ours was bad (ARO got a Mission upsidedown 4 lamp chandelier - or whatever you call it; Wonder Woman's first season; RSO got a nice set of chips(poker)/cherry style wooded chip holder turnstile thingie). Our Christmas is over; the one we thought would happen early next year, took place on Friday instead. This was good. Everyone was here. And we all had a great time. Jeff and Jim hung the light set last night, then we enjoyed a quiet game of cards. Friday was a bit noisier and a bit out of control, since the ante controls were removed. ALL IN anyone?
Mom got a nice roomba robot vacuuming system. Several of you have heard of it - vacuum the house while you sit, sip and watch. Unfortunately, it was dead as it came out of the box (I may not have hooked up the battery correctly). She was able to return it, but Bambi met mom on the way home. Bambi is fine, we think, but mom's car took a hit (uh, sorry pun, I know, but it did get hit).
For those in Texas, we got a bit of a surprise (twice). Called dad Christmas evening and talked about the snow in Ohio, and he mentioned lot's of snow in Brownsville (surprise 1). Yeah, that Brownsville, south Texas, next to Mexico, border town, did I say south Texas? Anyway, it turns out he was very correct. 2 inches worth (2nd surprise). 1st snow in recorded history (or last 109 years). Bypassed Austin completely. Last time there was significant snow in south/central Texas, San Antonio got hit pretty good. One shopping center had the roof cave in from the weight of the snow.
New Years coming up. What plans do you have? Can you invite us? It looks like a quiet evening of games and/or cards.
Till Next Year, us.

An early Christmas Celebration

Had dinner with friends and some family. Nini (Azucena's sponsoring her into the Catholic church) was there and sort of celebrated her birthday. We also passed out some for others. Jim and I had a joint Christmas gift which turned out to be a table top air puck hockey game. Either the puck needs to be smaller, or the goals need to be bigger, but I really think the table needs to be wider. It works fairly well. Nothing to brag home about, but the kids (not me and Jim, but ARO), would love it, I'm sure. We can set it up on our dining table, but it definitely needs to be wider. Goals are scarce. I also got a Christmas mug w/chocolate and ARO got a waterglobe from Nini. The waterglobe is motion active, not windup. You move it and it starts swirling. Pretty Cool. I think Kimmie would have sat in front of it for hours, except she needed to go to work tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, Doug Sr., Ronald, Azucena and I are going to meet with Angie and give her her Christmas gift. If you want to know what it is, wait until after tomorrow. I know the Rocksteads like to tell everyone what they got others for gifts, but I don't. So you'll just have to wait, or ask Azucena.
Anyway, as you've probably figured out by now, we've got company until Sunday or Monday or later. We'll have another present opening on Friday. If it doesn't get icy, we'll do the Overman's on Saturday. Stay Tuned for more details.

Christmas shopping and celebrating

I think shopping is over with. I think. You never know. I thought it was over with last week, and the week before that. Anyway, I really think shopping is over. We have one Christmas gift opening party tomorrow (Sunday) for some of the Rocksteads. Angie is going to be out of town during Christmas (visiting relatives, either in Dallas or the Valley). So, we'll open some presents for them and the kids (Angie, Doug, Doug Jr, Marcus).
Wednesday, probably, we might do another with friends (Jim and Evelyn, Kim, Nini). We all agreed not to buy presents for anyone, but Evie is the first to break the promise every year by sending us something through the mail. Paybacks can be hell.
Friday, we'll do one with the rest of Azucena's family (Dad, Mom, Ceci, Ronald. Doug and kids may be there)
Saturday, after Azucena gets back from Christmas Mass at the nursing home(s), we'll head over to my mom's for one more (Mom, Randy, ARO, Jeff, Sue, Ben, Katie, Anna). Gary, Carol and kids will have to do on their own back in New Jersey.
Finally, at the beginning of next year, we'll have one final present opening with Ceci's "extended" family (Raul, Johnny, David, Jessie).
We signed up (er, Azucena signed us up, I'll have you know) at her church to sponsor a family for Christmas. 2 girls and a boy. Also, she got her work to sponsor another family. Presents and dinner, oh my. We did a LOT of wrapping. Let me rephrase that. I'm not allowed to wrap anymore. KIM did a LOT of wrapping. She came over last week and spent an hour or so wrapping presents while watching Dodgeball (the movie). Good movie, by the way. We got J&E and Kim to stop by last night and conned Kim and Evie to help wrap some more, while Jim and I did football. Like I said, I'm not allowed to wrap presents. I can hang lights, go shopping, clean up, but not wrap. Whatever I did to get punished like this, I'd like to know, so I can do it again next year.
One last spot check... a few more presents to wrap, but since Airplane (the movie) has started, I don't think ARO will get the last of them done before tonight. (They're due tomorrow, shhhh).

After Thanksgiving dinner with Friends

Day after 2 days after Thanksgiving. Yesterday we had some different friends over for an evening of dinner, talking and cards. Vanessa, Matt and baby Emily paid their respects. Along with Kim and her mom Kathy, some of Matts' groomsmen, and the usual conspirators. We had leftover turkey remade as enchiladas. Very well done - Again. Matt's (or is it Matts') parents were suppose to stop over, but they got busy with other business. Several of us played cards, while others chatted. Watched Roberts' fairwell video (beware, if you do venture here, it is 17mb, not for the faint of computer systems). All in All, we had a great time. Now we get to finish it all up this evening with hamburgers at Jim's house to celebrate his dad's birthday.

Thanksgiving, UT and Poker

Well, Thanksgiving came and went. UT won their football game, Women beat Tennessee in Basketball, Cowboys won again, and after all the rain we've had, it was a very beautiful day.
Mom, Jeff's family and Azucena's siblings & parents were here. Couldn't quite talk Jimmie and the GrandParents to visit, but I think they were already booked. Meal was great as usual. Afterwards, we talked, watched some TV and eventually played Texas Hold-Em. ARO came back from a total loss to dominate. Jim went from dominating to coming out ahead. Doug got another dollar added to his kids education. Jeff went from dominating to a total loss, and then some.
Latest word is that Vanessa and Matt and some little infant will be joining us for dinner on Saturday. Maybe a few more friends and family also, too. Gotta go, need to get ready for this dinner here.

Practicing my golfing and other stuff

I went to the hitting range tonight and hit nothing but the Driver. About 2/3 of my shots were super nice - down the middle and with pretty decent distance. Since I was experimented some, I hit a few like Kevin Costner did at the practice range in Tin Cup. High and to the right. I think I saw Jeff do that once when Dad was here - It's still swimming, too. Part of my experimentation was stepping back a bit and adding more power. I had several that had distance and height, two qualities that haven't gone together with my tee off's before. I'd say I was pretty well pleased.
Got word dad was in New Jersey. He's been seeing the grandkids. Since he's got a new Cell Phone, he was able to send me a picture of the kids last Sunday. I need to give him a call to let him know I got it.
The last I heard with Ceci is she may have found a band. If she comes by for Thanksgiving, we may hear more. Also, I worked on the web site some in September or October. It's looking better. I sent a request to the Wench to make some adjustments, but don't think she has yet, so if you see any problems, email her and let her know.

Golfing with Jeff and Azucena

Went golfing again with Jeff and Azucena. Gary had left on Wednesday, so no go with him. He was probably in New Braunfels at this time. Jim was suppose to go with us, but he landed on a pretty young blonde while playing an unscheduled soccer match on Friday. He still hasn't told us what his name was, although he keeps hinting the blonde was a she. Anyway, the weather was very nice. Azucena did pretty good. I shot 20 better than I did on Tuesday. I think I had 115. My tee shots were really nice, the best I've done in over 20 years, but I couldn't do anything else. I landed in more traps than I have all of this year. But, one trouble spot was my tee off, so I'm happy about that.

Golfing with Jeff and Gary

Went golfing with Gary and Jeff. Jeff and I had 95/94. I didn't really do that bad. My chipping, which had been doing real well when Dad was here, started going south. My tee offs were doing better, though. At least we had some fun although I wouldn't go that far. It was cold. We took small blankets to keep our legs warm. It was windy. I actually had to pay attention to the wind and use that to play the shots for the first time in my life. It was wet. Didn't stop drizzling except when we stopped for lunch. I wore long pants and they were wet past my ankles. I had to take the golf glove off because I couldn't grip the clubs. Oh, Gary, That one shot you hit, like 400someoddyards, the one where you hit it past the creek, up the embankment on the green (Par 4 hole, back nine, probably 14th)? I mentioned this to John, a coworker who does a lot of golfing and he thinks I'm lying. He stared at me for about a minute before he could say anything. By the way, one advantage of playing in the cold, windy rain... no one else behind you. There was a tournament that finished before we started, but even though we signed on around 11am, there wasn't anyone else behind us. Oh, I almost forgot. Gary had a 75, I think. Maybe a 78, but it was in the 70's. And I though Jim had a good swing. Gary's was sweet and powerful.

Gary and Poker

November 1, 2004
Gary was still here, can you believe it... We had dinner at Jeff's and then played cards later on. Jeff and this Texas Hold Em craze. Anyway, Jim came away a winner AGAIN. He got off to a slow start winning 1 time in the first 3 games he attended. But since then, I don't think he's lost. Gary had to borrow to finish one hand, won and never looked back. I don't think I've won since we last held a large poker party at our house. Hmmm.

Halloween and visiting NJ Overmans

HALLOWEEN, YEAHHHH!!! OH, Gary, Carol and the kids came for a visit. We all got together at Mom's for late lunch and halloween. Jeff, Carol and kids show up, relatives from Temple (the Graves), Jimmie (uncle) Elaine and her daughter and friend and a few others. Had a pretty good time. Had an even better time going around the corner to trick or treat. Mom's street is deserted for halloween, so we went up one street (new subdivision) and picked a street and had a very enjoyable time with the activities.

Ceci; Dad O's recap

Word is out that Cecilia's band has broken up. Everyone who has her cd, know this, is is now a collector's item. Comment from a lowly brother-in-law... Cecilia, I hope you keep your chin up, because the band you were a part of was real, real good. There's got to be a few out there anxious to sign you up.
Dad is back in Ohio, Dayton that is. We snuck a cd of Eddie Rabbitt and his bunch of his hits. I got a cue from dadyo when he kept saying "That's a good song" on about 1/2 the cd that I played for him. So, while shopping at FYE's at Lakeline, we picked one up and snuck it in his luggage. Talked to him today and he said Eddie Rabbitt was a singer he'll never get tired of (not verbatim, but you get the idea). The cd we got for him was a most excellent gift. You are very welcome Mr. Overman. We enjoyed his company, he enjoyed his vacation. He wasn't sure what to expect, like how do you take a vacation from retirement? As it turns out, we put him to plenty of work (ugh, don't sound no good, do it). Reading, Golfing, Cards, Shopping, Babysitting, Movies, More Reading, More Golfing, More Cards. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing he got more done in the 3 weeks he was here than he normally does in 3 months at home. It didn't hurt that Jeff and I live close to each other and I took lots of time off (Thanks again Patty), or that Jeff had time for him as well. He also got around on his own, library, IHOP, Jeff's, more IHOP, Wal-Mart. We'll do it again sometime, but when he's good and ready (like maybe when he gets bored from retirement again???).
Hello Robert, hope all is well today. Did you get your hours changed? Any scheduled vacation plans for Texas? There's still some editing to do to make your going away CD complete, but she's been busy with other stuff, so it may take awhile..I think Kimmie says hi, but I'm sure she's been busy too. We heard from her yesterday, but it was in brief passing of emails.

Dad O's STILL in town

Well, it's been almost two weeks and it's been pretty good. Been out golfing 2x now and I think I'm ready to golf professionally. NOT!!!. I did much better the last outing than I've done since before Gary got married. Probably in about 20 years. We'll be going again tomorrow and will set another tee time on Monday.
Jeff's got this Texas Hold-Em thing going. He can't get enough. Not a bad thing. We'll be stopping by probably tomorrow night and maybe again on Saturday to try and lose some money.
Dad's booked a flight back to Dayton next Wednesday (Dayton, Ohio, not Dayton, Texas). That will give him almost 3 weeks here. I had no expectations on how long he would be staying so this is about right. He finally found Andy Griffith at Hastings. Fry's, and Best Buy didn't carry him, but found several albums here. Now, Brenda Lee, we'll have to get off Itunes since he only wants one song of hers. Hopefully he's been jotting down others so we can make an album of it. And does he read... Wow!. Fast. I wouldn't lay money on him or Azucena, but they both would challenge for the title among friends and family.
Robert, hope you are doing fine up there. At least you are away from the wet weather, I hope. We have been too, but it's still been nice. Rained quite a bit yesterday. I'm sure Kimmie says hi, but haven't seen her since Monday's holiday.

Dad O's in town

Well, several of you know my dad is in town. Came in on the 8:30 Amtrak from Chicago, from Cincinnati (Ohio). Anyway, we spent too many hours last night at Jeff's playing Texas hold-em. Jeff took off, then I started catching up at Jeff's expense, but Sue was holding her own fairly well. Then Anna took over for Sue and didn't know what the heck she was doing but ended up raking in some money (Remind anyone of a certain 14 year old a few years back? Jim? Was her name Heather?). I think we played until about 1:30. Jeff lost some of the money Anna made (she left to get her beauty rest). We took dad's money, but I think it was his way of kind of paying for services while he's here. He's in pretty good shape considering. He doesn't have a whole lot of stamina, though. Like, he can go golfing, but he makes us take a cart. But then, the golf course makes us take a cart.
Hello Johnny. Sorry we won't be seeing you at tomorrow's picnic, but maybe we can get together again later for more fun and games.
Oh, about forgot. Went to see Ceci sing last night at Joe's Generic again (www.joebates.com/joes.htm). She'll be there Monday night at 10pm. Jeff and Sue came along, and so did dadiyo. I heard a few new tunes and Jeff's still trying to figure out what Te-ni-Nee-ni-nu means. Now, if we can just remember to bring the ear plugs. Missed seeing Raul, but Johnny was there. Intently listening to the music, or was it that her voice hypnotized him, couldn't tell.

Early morning woes

It's about 4:50 am and I've been awake for a few hours and can't get back to sleep. It all started with the fan making a racket and since I'm a light sleeper, it was like torture, so I figured I'd be better off on the couch downstairs (difficulty spelling without my glasses!). Then the dogs wouldn't quit barking. A cat was making a lot of noise. I went for a walk around the corner of the house and it was Tiger. Hissing gone and dogs ain't barking. Now I have this cough and congestion which is keeping me up. Ugh. The only saving grace is I have today off.
Haven't mentioned this before, but Dad is coming to town this weekend. He'll be arriving Friday evening on the Amtrak. How long he stays is his guess. Jeff mentioned that I have him on my days off and when I'm at work, he'll take over. Jim also volunteered to play golf once or twice. Should be a real nice visit. Got Patty (co-worker) shotgun trained enough on the Classifieds that she can take care of these on the many days I'll have off. Thank-youuuu Patty.
Coughing has stopped, uh, no it hasn't. Darn, thought I could go back to bed. Another cough drop, I guess.

Prince

Well, I was dragged to some Prince concert Friday night. Floor seats. $75 floor seats. Sold out $75 floor seats for $300. Did I mention he had a second concert on Saturday, that probably was not sold out? But it was a great concert. We got close up views of him and other members of his band. Candy was HOT. Did I already say she spent $300 for $75 floor seats. Row 11, by the way. She also has 10 hours of his music. How do I know this??? Because she's told me. More than once. Including Friday night. 300....75.... you do the math, but don't tell me the results.

Azucena's 20th HS Reunion

Azucena had a 20 year High School reunion for Rio Hondo HS. She dragged me all the way to Harlingen/Rio Hondo on Friday in a convertible with the top down and I was still not getting over whatever I had from earlier in the week. Just being in the car wore me out pretty good. But, alas, we did have a good time. Stayed until midnight for her reunion on Saturday. This was taking place at a classmates house and it turned out quite well. The few kids that showed up flew kites and played a bit of soccer. They listened to some music from 1984 that ARO had put together, and they chatted all night long. Can't say I was bored. Ronnie ??? was good to listen too, very enjoyable. And Ronnie, although I never saw you in high school, I don't think your clothes shrunk much more than 1/2 size. You were very lovely to look at - uh, not that I was looking, yeah, that's it. Mr. Mac looked about the same. Although Azucena had wanted to spend lunch with him and catch up, it was Ronald who did all the catching up instead. Oh well, she'll have to try again next time.
100 degree temp coming back and yes, it was a bit warm. Don't think I burned any, what do you think?
I'd put a link of video and pics she/we took, but since she's leaving for D.C. tomorrow, I'm guessing it'll be about 3 weeks or more before they get posted.
Our next goal is getting a schedule set for my dad to come down from Dayton, Ohio. He's been here before, but it's been about 8 years or so. I visited in late January when he was staying with his brother in Celine, Ohio. Not sure what caused it, but his heart is pretty much giving out. He was in the hospital for awhile during Christmas time. After much testing and such, they've given his heart about 5 years. We'll see how long it really lasts, but I'm gonna miss him. Don't talk to him much as it is, but I might have to change that.

AllNighters in Harlingen

Ooopsie. I am a bit late on this. Last Saturday night, Ceci and the AllNighters played at the Blues on the Hill festival in Harlingen. 3 bands and hers was the last and best. I'm only saying theirs was the best because I know her. You'll have to listen for yourselves to find out. I understand she's doing Joe's Generic Blues on Mondays now, maybe more.
Anyway, after the showing, everyone was invited (estimated count was at about 600) to a blues bar for a gathering. Several were there and waited about an hour and 1/2 for Ceci to show up. When the house band took a break, the AllNighters took stage for a few songs, then one more, then one more. One of the songs, which included a former drummer of hers, was totally made on the spot, she called it Improv 101. Sounded pretty good too.

Listening to the AllNighters

Went to go hear Cecilia (Rockstead, Azucena's sister) and her band, The All Nighters at Joe's Generic Blues Bar on 6th Street. She had the early gig from 6 - 8 and by the time they were done, the bar was pretty full. Ceci is the singer of the family. She's got a real good voice. Good range. If you ever get a chance to hear her, do it. They should be playing there again next Saturday as the 8 - 10 band. Her band has also got a CD out, as well, too. Two songs are theirs, All Nighters (women who want it all night) and the Instrumental.

Post 4th of July

Today was our day off. We slept until 11am, then took a nap at 2. Had to take another at 5. It's now real late and I can't get to sleep. Not sure why, but I'm guessing the naps had something to do with it.
Just kidding with the naps. But we did sleep till 11am. Azucena gets more "recharge" out of it than I do. I just get more sleepy after so many hours. For her, it's like catching up on her sleep.
I hear Vanessa got the baby suit for Emily Elizabeth Marek. Sounds like it will be perfect fit in about a month. This was a coat, booties and hat that Azucena knitted for her.

4th of July fun

What a blast (homage to Robert?, I think not, but hey, he's the pun man). Yes, we missed Robert and we still wish him well (I didn't really say that, did I?).
Saturday we played cards without him for the first time since he left. I'm not sure what this means, but Jim and I got our butts handed to us by the girls. They came from wayyyy down that second Canasta game to just blow us out. Sorry Robert, we couldn't hold it without your, nor probably without Kimmie's inexperience, although we weren't able to use that much lately anyway.
Sunday we started with hamburger and hotdog cookout at our place. Jeff and Sue came over and that was a pleasant surprise. I left a message the day before more to tease them because I thought they were out of town. Mom was in New Jersey with Gary and his family, so they were "not invited". J & E came over, as well as Doug and his kids. Ceci wasn't able to make it, which was a bit of a disappointment since it was her idea to have the cookout to begin with. Kym had to bow out because her mom broke her ankle. Sorry to hear about that Kim. Hope she doing better.
I had also charged up the batteries for the RC cars so the kids and Jim and I could play with them. Found out I reallllly need to toss some old useless ni-cad batteries. I think the recycling place accepts them. Anyway, the kids had fun, Jim had fun and I quit after I ran my personal RC down the gutter. Fortunately it's only a 4 foot drop so it didn't get hurt too much. I let Jim take over after that. After the cars winded down and got away from the playstation some, we did a few fireworks on our driveway. Later, we tagged along with J&E to some of Jim's cousins in North East Round Rock and did about 1 1/2 hour of fireworks. Jim, Jason and Sam did most of the firework shooting off, and I did some supervision. The rest of the group (probably 20 in all) stayed back and enjoyed watermelon and the fireworks. We took a break once in a while to watch the other fireworks going on in the general area.
Monday, Azucena and I stayed in bed until about 11 am (our original goal !!). Then we did lunch and some shopping. Then we took a nap at 2. Put the shopping up as well as the dishes and a load of clothes. Then we took a nap again at 5. Lazy, huh!. I just hope I'm not too tired to go to bed for real between 11 and 12 tonite.
Just kidding about all the naps, but we really did get up at 11am. Did the dreaded Wal-Mart shopping and watched T-3, then Somethings Gotta Give. Good movies both. I am not going to claim Art critic, so if I say it was a good movie, then it could be anywhere from a 5 - 10 in rating. Great will probably land an 8 - 10. OK may be a 4 - 6. Sometimes my Good and Great are the same thing. Not Bad can also mean Good or Great, you just have to be listening to how I intone it.

Just found out several HOME links are broken and the page for my slot car racing is gone. I've fixed some links, but the slot car page will need to be redone. Boo hoo.
Enough for now. Laters.

Robert's going away video

Update: Robert is lucky. The video was on our old website, but since we moved to the new location, it hasn't followed (yet).
Azucena may update the video with the latest version that includes the live performance of Vanessa Marek. I showed it to a few people at work and one got it and the other sort of. I guess you had to have been part of the gang for quite some time to catch all the innuendo's (beware of the sheep). The Montague reminded Robert of a funeral, but we all enjoyed it anyway. I thought Kim was going to pee her pants she was laughing so hard. Everyone was laughing hard, it's a wonder no one peed their pants. Robert's supposed last day is tomorrow, or is it today?

Robert's going away present

We've been putting together a video for Robert's going away present. I got a viewing of it last night and Azucena has done a magnificent job getting this done. I thought I was going to cry at one point. I'll see if we can get it up on the web site later on. We were even able to bet a cameo by his daughter Vanessa (memorex, not live). Her performance comes straight off her wedding trailer. We'll either present this tonight or tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Tx Motor Speedway with Friends

This weekend was a racing weekend for me and a church weekend for Azucena. I'm sure she had more fun than I did.
Since she couldn't go, a last minute change of plans included David and Johnny, sons of Raul, who is a friend of Ceci, sister of Azucena, wife of Randy. Anyway, we left Friday morning and got setup and relaxed as best as we could considering it was pretty warm.
It was also a bit windy. Windy enough that we had to use additional ties to tie down the gazebo. Normally we just stake it at the poles. But with the wind, I added 4 cables to help keep the gazebo. grounded. After last year on this weekend, Saturday night, after midnight, we found ourselves ready to fly to Kansas, it was blowing so hard. Our previous gazebo. had tried to take flight and was grounded only by two punyass stakes. This year, I wasn't taking chances. It was a good thing too because after midnight, the winds came pretty good and I thought for sure, the tent and gazebo. would end up in Kansas. Then the rains came (this is Friday night, this year, by the way). It turns out our tent does not keep the rain out very well. David and I had to hide in our sleeping bags to get away from the drops. Saturday night turned out to be a repeat performance. Only this time, David was fast asleep and never woke up. Poor soul got up the next morning soaked. And it was blowing so hard, I thought the tent was going to knock me off the hammock I had recently bought. Nice portable hammock. Takes up a lot of room in the tent, but it serves me well.
The wind and rain weren't our only problems. We camped in the same spot in April and didn't have any problems. This time, we had ants in a lot of places. They found the cooler with ice, but fortunately stayed away from the food. It was also hot during the daytime. I think I was using outdated suntan lotion (if there is such a thing). I got red on my neck and a few weird places.
Doug and Angie and kids stopped by tonight. Jim and I were playing Madden 04 on the Playstation. After our game, Doug tried a few minutes and, how to say this politely, got whooped. This should be a lesson to you kids. Don't play with the same team time after time. You get to know the team inside and out, but when you play with another team, you are then clueless. Play with different teams so you get a feel for different strategies. In other words, Doug put all his toys in one basket and had trouble when he didn't take his basket with him.
Alright, time for bed. I plan on sleeping pretty damn good tonight since I don't sleep well when camping. Not complaining, just explaining. If I were to complain, I would quit camping. I like to take it in stride and go with the flow. We adapt as best as we can to our surroundings and it makes it easier to deal with issues.

Birthdays, movies, reunions and slot cars

Went to Dave and Busters to use our birthday coupons. We had a great time and they changed the way you select your token prizes. There is now a room to go into to choose. Unfortunately, the wench took all the coupons I won and put them on her card. Rats Robert should be in Connecticut by now. We watched a movie called Deliverance, which I only stayed past the first 10 minutes because it was in Roberts' honor of camping in Georgia. I actually found the whole movie very sllllooowww and boring. Sorry Robert. Went to the Krumnow reunion on Saturday. Only about 35 people (including infants) showed up. Less than half of what has shown up in the past. Also, it was held at this years' president's house. Wasn't too bad. Nice breeze, good brisket and sausage, potato salad and beans. Only people there that I knew was Robert and Phyllis Krumnow. Normally there are at least a couple dozen that I recognize. Not this time. Oh, I set up a slot car track in the living room and we raced some cars around and watched the cats, especially Sneezy chase the cars from one end of the living room to the other. Tiger generally sat in one spot and would swat at the cars as they came by. Bashful look as if he could care less, or rather like he wasn't interested, but we knew he was. Sneezy was just hilarious. Never learned. But then, neither did we, Jim and I. We kept teasing them and having a great time. Azucena just laughed like it was the funniest thing, probably because it was. I've got some footage of them from the other day, so if it ever gets put up, I'll link it.

Robert's Leaving

Just to get you caught up, Robert plans to leave us at the end of the month. He feels Vanessa's giving birth to Emily Elizabeth is more important that hanging around here and enjoying our company a few times a week. However, moving to the east coast to be near his ailing mother is an acceptable reason. We will lose his companionship, but may meet up with him in the future. We did have a wonderful time camping this past weekend with him and Kym at Garner State Park. Azucena and I celebrated her birthday last month (April 27, but this was not on that day). We went to Fonde San Miguel as usual and met up with some enjoyable ladies with a wonderful French background. Unfortunately, I don't remember their names, but when I find out, I'll update this. We visited with them the next evening at the mothers house and had the most wonderful time. Mom was born in France and has lived in Austin. Her husband passed away recently and the beautiful house they have is now a bit big for her. So she will be moving to Houston soon, to be with relatives. Her daughter, Monique? or is that the mother, was born in Austin and now lives in Dallas (but visiting Austin at this time). I think Monique was the mother and Katherine was the daughter.

Mom O's funeral

Funeral was yesterday. Lots of flowers and people. Very nice service. Gary did the MC part and did a fantastic job considering. He also opened it up for comments. It all went pretty well. Azucena spent a lot of hours putting together a video of Mom's "life". Once she gets the final version (which will include the funeral portion), then we'll get it up on the web site. Current version is over 500mb, so you'll have to wait for her to finish this and then create a web version.
Visitation was at Adam's Funeral home on Friday evening from 6 - 8. There is a guest book on Statesman.com that's good thru January 14, 2006. This is the cemetery she is located. We haven't submitted her name, but will as soon as we get the dates of her mom and grand parents (UPDATE: scroll down and you'll see Overman, Betty Louise Clark and this is the obit that was submitted).
Jeff, Sue, Gary and Carol have been going through mom's house and creating a lot of garbage. Azucena and I was there today and did our own trash making. Not sure if a dent has been made, but I did see a lot of "EMPTY" notes on drawers, doors, mirrors, etc. Wait until we get into the attic.
Azucena and I also took a lot of pictures home, which we will scan, label and save to disk in a photo album style. Our house is looking pretty crappy since we haven't been home much the past few weeks. I guess now we can get started on it. But first. Azucena is going to get a lot of sleep. She crashed about 9:30. I'm surprised she lasted this long considering the long hours she's been putting in on the video. We'll create copies for everyone who wants one.

Mom O's passing

Still been busy. Mom and Jeff butted heads for awhile about Christopher house and staying at his house. She really really wanted to leave the hospital to spend Christmas at her house, so the agreement was (and approved by her doctor, only because Hospice was involved) was that she get out on Tuesday, have Christmas on Wednesday, then after Gary and family leaves, stay at Jeff's until she needs constant care, or starts in a wheelchair, then it's off to Christopher house. That's how it was going to work.
How it really happened is like this: Jeff got mom signed out on Tuesday and was home in time for Gary and family when they came in town. Wednesday early morning hours, mom started complaining of severe pain. The pain pills she was taking didn't work (they were for a different type of pain), so she agreed to Christopher house if that's what it would take to get rid of the pain. So, they get her there about 11am and I meet up with all the relatives that have stopped by for Christmas, we pack the tree and presents and head over to Christopher House about 2pm. It was pretty amazing to see this tree and all these gifts come rolling in within hours of their new patient, plus a total of 17 people. Then we opened presents, and after that was done, had dinner that Azucena tracked down for everyone (Ham, sides, sodas, tea, dessert). More people visited Thursday, and former coworkers visited on Friday. Friday evening after Gary left, she got real nasty with the pain medication, so they decided to hook her up to an IV for a Morphine Drip. This pretty much said the End is Near. Her breathing got a bit better as the night went on, and her agitation started going away. Jeff, Sue, Anna and I spent the night and around 7:20am, Anna noticed mom not doing good and Jeff looked up and saw her last breath. I missed it by about 10 seconds. We had a few relatives stop by before Adam's funeral took her away.
Gary and Carol will be back Wednesday, funeral is next Saturday and we will probably have an open house either Friday evening or Saturday after the funeral and other festive's. Should be able to get some rest now, and also get back to work full time.

Mom O's health

Been a busy last few days. Longhorns won... !!! YEAH!!!. More on that later.
Mom had a real bad panic attack on Thursday/Friday and has been in the hospital since. She's doing ok considering, but not well enough to head back home. The doctor's prognosis is 3 - 4 weeks, or (50/50 she'll make it to New Years). Anyway, we are looking at Hospice, specifically Christopher's House in Central Austin. They'll take daylong care of her which she probably needs. More on this later too. Since we've all been busy with mom and such, I only have a minute to do this and head back out to visit work (about 4 hours late, since I stayed overnight with mom. Sue did it the first night, Azucena the second. I may do it again tonight, Don't Cry For Me/We/Us, Argentina).
Gary and family are heading to Austin tomorrow and we will probably have an early Christmas. Stopped by mom's house to make sure all the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. Most were, Gary's family is lacking, so they can un-lack when they get here.

Mom O's vacation idea

I guess mom's determined to use up some of her retirement money since she's been told the chemo drugs aren't going to do her any good. It turns out she is ready for a vacation to anywhere (except maybe Europe). This vacation includes all expenses for Azucena, Sue and Carol. Girls vacation. This vacation could have started tomorrow if everyone was ready. Sue probably is. Mom would have left by noon if possible. Carol is across USA in New Jersey, so the earliest she could be ready may be tomorrow. Azucena is in Memphis, so she wouldn't be ready until at least Friday. This vacation is between 6-8 days before or after Christmas, but not during, so everyone can be here for Christmas. Prelim word has it it may be a cruise. Maybe dad can stay with Gary while Carol is away and babysit. - - I'm back. Just took a moment break and emailed him about that. That's all I've got for now.

Rockstead Thanksgiving

Watched Texas "squeak" by on Friday. Overall a great game. Saturday, we had several people over for a Rockstead Thanksgiving. All went well, but if we are going to have pot luck, then ARO will need to NOT make so much extras next time. Pot luck was a great idea. Lots of good food came by and very little got wasted. The dressing was some of the best I've ever had. Then the actual Rocksteads got into playing something called Hero Clix. This is a "50" minute game, but it took them about 1 1/2 - 2 hours just getting set up, then another 1 1/2 - 2 hours to play. I had also charged up a bunch of batteries so we could do some RC racing out back, but since it rained that morning, plus with everyone playing some Clix game, it didn't seem important enough to start it up. But, I think I disappointed Kimmie. I didn't know she was looking forward to racing. Jim probably would have also, so I think I failed in my decision making. Doug, Sr. and Ronald have been here since Wednesday, and they'll be heading back to Harlingen on Monday.

Overman Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving came and went. We had a pretty good time with the Overman household. Everyone behaved themselves pretty good. And Charlie Brown had thanksgiving with his pals at Grandma's house. Saturday we'll have the Rocksteads and friends Thanksgiving.
On a sad note, mom's chemo isn't going very well. Her liver is starting to take a turn for the worse. Because of this and other factors, the doctors have told her she can't be on the experimental program any more. After some discussion and the usual Why Me, she said, Hell With It, Let's Go Shopping, so Sue took her to one of the military bases PX/BX while in San Antonio.
Dad said it is snowing in Ohio, probably Reynoldsburg where Wanda lives (if she still lives there). And it got to 80 degrees here in Austin. I gave him an open invitation to stop by any time he want with his golf clubs and he said he may take us up on it. At 50 degrees during the winter and golf courses open year round, I don't think it will be hard to twist his arm.
Cowboys lost, missed a field goal, screwed up in overtime. Longhorns tomorrow. Oh my. What to do. I guess I'll tape it and when it gets out of hand in the first quarter, I can fast forward between plays.

Mom O's Chemo; Thanksgiving plans

Nothing like having something to say, then not bothering putting it down in writing. Over the past month, we took mom to San Antonio for another round of Experimental Chemo testing. This is one of those type where they have several people participate and they use different doses to see which does best.
We'll be doing Thanksgiving at Jeff's house tomorrow. Azucena's dad and brother are in town. They are visiting Doug and kids for tonight. Saturday, we'll do Thanksgiving at our house with a lot of invited guests, so if you didn't get the invite, you can stop by anyway.
I was thinking we'd watch some football, but that ain't really gonna happen at Jeff. Even if is the Cowboys. Now Saturday, we'll have UT on, so we'll get to view that as we want, even if it is a blowout. We might also do some RC cars out back.

Hernia recovery (as if you care)

We'll, I gotta say, the hernia thing is not as bad as it could have been. I thought I'd be in "bend over" pain for a week or so and that hasn't happened. A bit sore, yes, but not lots of pain. I sat around mostly for two days before I reread the paperwork for about the 4th time and came across an item that said NOT to sit around for 2 days. Ooops. The worst part was having gravity use the bathroom for you. You don't realize how much "force" you use when you go, so next time, try it on your own, without any help from your body. Just let gravity take over. Took me over 5 minutes to do the job the first several times I had to go. And the pain. Well, not too much, but that's when I realized they had used a catheter while I was knocked out. Other that that, all is pretty good, no gory details. Plenty of people helping out. Azucena "baby"sat for 2 days, although I don't think I acted much like a baby (calling me her "poor baby" doesn't count, does it?). Went to work for a few hours today and took a very solid 3 hour nap. I guess that's because getting sleep is not that easy with stitches in your gut and the pain to turn over or get up/lie down. Anything that's gut related will hurt (sneeze, cough, can't blow nose, etc). You have to use your arms to pull you out of the chair, plop down, take a minute to "stretch" when standing.
How bout them Horn's !!!! Ok, so Oklahoma wasn't all that good, but it still feels good to beat one of your main rivals. Tech and A&M are next. I'm concerned about Tech more than A&M at this point.

Hernia operation

Ok, now I'm going to spill the beans. I went to see a doctor about a small pain problem I was having and he told me I had a hernia. I saw a hernia specialist and he said I had 2 hernias. I scheduled the outpatient operation (bi-lateral, Laparoscopy surgery) for today at 12:30. I got home about 4:30 and have taken it fairly easy. I really can't do much except have soup tonight and tomorrow. Pain is not too bad, but I'll take the painkillers just in case. They said I wouldn't remember anything since I was going to be knocked out, but they didn't even give me a chance to count backwards. They must have given me something while I was still in the pre-room because they didn't even get 20 feet and I was out. Woke up about 1:30 and was in and out and probably made a few comments along the way. I hope that was Azucena's hand I kissed.
Jim and Evelyn came by with a Get Well balloon and pie. Will get to the pie tomorrow, yum-yum.
Work can't be too happy, miss a week for Hawaii, in for 2 days (mostly playing catchup) and gone again for another week. Thanks to Patty for the hard work she's done to allow this without my freaking out.

Hawaii vacation

Got back from Hawaii on Sunday afternoon. Had a pretty good time overall. First day started off real well, then ended up in pretty bad shape, but it cleared the way for the rest of the trip (Don't ask, because I won't tell). Spent some time in Hanauma Bay, Makapu'u point/beach, Bellows AFS and beach, Radford High School, Hickam AFB, The International Market Place, Hilo Hattie's, Bellows again, Molokai Lookout, Blowhole, Pali Lookout, Mililani Town, plus a few others. Journal wasn't all that great this time, but I had difficulty with Gary's Blackberry and kept it to a minimum.
Spent lots of money, especially at the Hale Koa hotel exchange and Market Place.
Saw a wonderful magic show. Mark Mauricio was the magician www.magicislandtv.com. Also a fun Luau with Glenn Medieros as the host.
Left on Saturday at 9pm and got in town Sunday at 2pm. 5 hour difference and total 8 hour flight time.
Yes, I'd go again. ARO is already threatening me for our 25th anniv.

Wedding and Hurricane

Uncle Jimmie has a wedding on Saturday at 2pm in Easterly, Texas about 100 miles from our house. This means about a 2 1/2 hour drive. With the storm brewing (oops, sorry, Hurricane), and all the traffic that will be heading our way, it might be closer to a 3 hour drive. Now on the way back, it might be a 6 - 8 hours because of all the hurricane traffic they will be driving with (Did I say Easterly was on Hwy 79 north/east of Austin, just north of Bryan?). They should get lots of wind and rain. Late bulletin, we just got word (about an hour ago) that the wedding is now further east at 7pm on Friday night instead. If it aint the weather on Saturday, it will be the traffic on Friday.
J&E are back in town and they might come by with Kimmie on Friday to give a farewell to Randy as he heads to Hawaii Sunday morning.
Hurricane is also causing interesting situations at work. TML has graciously opened their doors this weekend for city officials who are in town and need a place to check email and other stuff (I know, why email when their city is shut down, but it happens. People still have ways to get through). Also, several cities have an Intranet which means if their servers are still running, then they can get work done. I'll be at TML on Saturday working with them and Patty gets Sunday, since I'll be out of town (yep, they still allowed me to take off, sweet of TML, isn't it).
I'm placing bets on when Jeff and family make it back on Friday. Let's see, 2 1/2 hour normal drive, traffic been moving at 1 hour for every few blocks, traffic could be dying down, I'd go with... OH.... 2 am.
I'm back. I'm changing it to 5 hours after they leave. (update 10/5/05 - traffic was non-existant - took the normal 2 hours)

Trip to D.C.; Mom O update

Ok, so sue me. I haven't been keeping it up any.
We had a trip to Washington D.C. at end of July. You can read the trip journal to see if there's anything important. We did have a pretty good time at the zoo and seeing Panda "Butt". Got to try some Brazilian food.
Update on mom. Not looking too good. She's getting quite a few tumors which is causing more pain with the clothes she's wearing than outright pain, but she's still a pain in the butt.
Gary came and visited a few weeks ago. While here, we went through a few boxes of photos and labeled what we could. Also while here, we decided to do a trip to Hawaii with Jeff, Gary, Randy and Mom. Mom and I will be on the same airlines there and back. Jeff and Gary will be flying on their own and we will meet up on Sept 25 and depart on Oct 1. Not sure what we will be doing. Since the three boys will probably be rooming together, Gary really has the honors of sleeping on the floor since he initially said he would stay in mom's room. I'm pretty sure we are doing the Arizona Memorial, but that's as far as I can figure out. It won't be pretty, but we'll survive. (Special thanks to ARO and Carol for getting the flight, room and car details worked out.)
How bout them Horn's. Great game, huh!. About as good as when they beat that Other Big 10 team, Michigan. So sorry daddio. Ya lost twice now. You'll have to wait until next year.

Finding myself: Ramblings

Just did an internet search for Randy Overman, and I am shown as a supervisor who got a sexual harassment warning for IBP, a grandparent in Ill., employee of TML and husband of Azucena Rockstead. Search for rockover.com gets us www.rockover.com/br. 3 pages on Google and not a one on our web site. Don't know if that's good or bad.
Now I forgot what I was going to write about. I do know that ARO is in San Diego right now. Will be back on Thursday, I think. Maybe Wednesday. 18 goes into 72 how many times? That's how many days she'll be gone.
I'll ramble for a bit here... Kimmie says Jarek(a) is in his/her terrible 2's. Soon will be a teenager and will start to mouth off, but it sounds like he's doing it already... 4th of July was fairly fun. We were at Jim's cousin's house and turned our backs on their fireworks to watch the ones in Cedar Park and everywhere else in the horizon... I must be brain dead because I can't even ramble. I spend 6 hours last night getting about 1 hour of good sleep. My mind was so active I couldn't get it to go to sleep... We spend over 10 hours on the golf course Sunday. Azucena's idea of a great time. Actually it was pretty good. We got in 35 1/2 holes before we had to call it quits on account of darkness. Would have made it 36 with 1/2 hour to spare, except the people in front of us decided they wanted to chat more than play and no rangers around to tell them to speed it up. We did pretty good though. I think I had a 100 on both events (9:45 and 4:30). Azucena didn't do too badly either. Mid 50's on at least 2 - 9 holes. Met some fun people... Kimmie is becoming a card shark. She is hooked on Hold Em. We played Saturday in her honor... Ramblings over. Going to bed. Goodnight. Thanks for the read (Still can't remember why I started this tonight. As she says, "Oh Wells".)

Danica Patrick

We are off to the races on Thursday (races are Truck, Fri night; IRL, Sat night). If you need anything, please let us know.
Doug and his kids should be joining us on Friday evening and staying through Saturday's race, Leaving Sunday. Should be interesting. We are going only because of Danica. At least that's the excuse I'm giving for ARO, since she's missed the last two summer races. It's a shame we can't get there Wednesday early. They are giving wrist bands for autographs later that evening at the bowling alley and including most, if not all, the INDY car drivers and possibly some TRUCK drivers.
Too late. You had your chance. Store is closed. If you need anything from the tracks, you'll now have to order it online. So Sorry, goodbye :(
Enough for now. I'm at work and had better get back to work.
By the way, JEFF, you can come by and pick up your catfish oil and cooker any time. Although you won't need the extra oil jugs anymore since it's all over the garage floor in front of, and under, the refrigerator. Ugh. I hope Febreeze will help with the smell. Cat litter definitely helped with the sopping up. Just wish I was quick on the action like Azi was.

Fourth of July and Jarek

Had an enormous cookout that turned into only big. Lost 2 because they were with their mom, lost another ?10? because Ceci and her side were not feeling well. Ceci's new band members were suppose to show up and we were going to talk them into being a band for us. Outside of that, it was hot and pretty good food.
I wonder if anyone got sick of watching Wonder Woman. This was going pretty much non-stop since noon this morning. Yes, Azucena has all the episodes now (I think. Three seasons, right?)
I guess the card macho's want to play cards Texas style. I'll relax some before I join in.
We'll be doing some serious fireworks on Monday, I take it. What little stuff we bought at HEB, is now on our dining room floor and in the trash can. Enjoy your fourth.
By the way, Gary, we had fun, with what we had. Sad to see you go, but glad the girls and mommaCarol came along.
**Kimmie's latest for Jarek** - Jarek actually took flight for the first time last night. I let him out of his cage to eat and he flew from the table to my chest. Granted it was only about two feet but I was very proud! You will not even recognize him as the same bird since he has gotten feathers and bulked up a little. I am still hand feeding him but that will change within the next week or so. (ed note: She brought him/her over to the cookout and showed him off. Anna and some of Gary's kids fed 'im and let 'im walk around on them.)

News on Jarek

Latest news on Jarek...
"Jarek is doing fine! Still has a heck of an appetite and is getting more and more feathers each day. He has started flapping his wings periodically and has even leaped off my hand one time (luckily if was only a few inches above my desk). Maybe he will be flying soon - the info I've read said they start at about 21 days which will be next weekend. Wow, my little boy is growing up." Kimberly said so excitedly.

Mom O's chemo

Visited with mom yesterday and she has taken her last chemo, for now. Although she's lost a lot of hair (my beige hat looks good on her bytheway), she was looking pretty good. She said they think the chem was working pretty good but won't have the final verdict until next week. She's going in for xrays and such this week and will get the results then.

Kimmie and Jarek

Kimmie, this is for you.
Not many of you know, but Kimmie is a new mom. Yep, a mom. Can you believe that? Of all things we think of when we see Kym, being a mom is not one of them. Well, she's a mom to dogs/cats/birds, but we don't ever think of her as A MOM. That all changed when we found a day old bird in my front lawn (Last Sunday). It had dropped about 2 stories from it's nest. (Grass was 2 weeks overdue for a mowin, so it was a plush fall.) Well, Kim elected to take the "starling" home and see if she could take care of it until it is ready to leave the roost. So, without further ado, I'll include some of the commentary straight from Kimberly's email. Hope you enjoy as much as we did. By the way, JAREK is the birds name. Don't have any clue where she got it from. (Jim, Azucena, Randy, Evelyn, Kim) I guess it's better than babyboo!

Kim (K in JAREK); next day after baby is found - "Just wanted to let you know the baby bird is doing fine. My vet agreed that he is extremely young and his chances of making it are slim. The vet advised me to feed him wet puppy food. It stinks but he seems to like it! "
"I take him to work and a co-worker watched him this morning when I had to go to a meeting and several others have offered to babysit. Apparently, there are a lot of animal lovers up here. Even one lady who has raised a few baby birds herself (but not quite as young as this one). He is still eating like a pig so I guess that is a good sign! " Thanks to all the co-workes who are helping out.
From Azucena (The A in JAREK) - "If you go to the website, starlings can be tamed but they can be ornery too." (Sounds like interesting conversation. Sorry if I don't include all the conversation going back and forth. Evelyn (E in JAREK) has some comments going on too, like babysitting.)
From Evie - "Actually an imprinted starling should not be returned to the wild." Imprinted. Curious word, that.
Kim - "Jarek is still demanding regular feedings and eating like a pig. Today he even opened his eyes a tiny bit while I was feeding him. I turned him so he could see me better and he immediately maneuvered himself so he was NOT looking at me. I am trying to not take if personally!"
How the name got to be:
Randy (R in JAREK) - "By the way, does IT have a name? How does Kajer sound? Jarek? (not much you can do with our intials, is there...)"
Kim - "Well I have been calling him Dudley but I really like Jarek."
Evelyn - "I like Jarek. It sounds like one of those characters from Star Trek DS9"

Kim: Almost finally...Jarek is still doing well. He has his eyes open most of the time and this morning he started standing up! But, of course, he only does this when he wants food - I guess he thinks I might miss the subtle hint of him screaming with his neck stretched and mount wide open.

Finally, for now anyway...Jarek paid a visit Friday night. We all got to see mommy feeding him/her. Very curious little bird. Kim is the lucky one getting to see the hourly growth of feathers, wings, color. Those feet are pretty darn long, though.
Cute how he times his dumps. Right when Azucena handed him back, it didn't take 2 seconds for JAREK to let his mom know he was home again. Azucena's got warm hands so he settled in real good in her palms. I'm still wondering how he can hold his head up with that huge beak.

Tx Motor Speedway - IRL and Truck race

Races came and went. For all you die hard Danica Patrick bandwagon fans, tough luck. She finished 13th. Not bad though. This was a tough track for her and she did pretty well considering all the media hounding and such. Now that she didn't finish in the top, maybe she can get some peace. We, however, had a pretty good time, although Azucena got onto her bandwagon pretty good herself. But she's still on the bandwagon. Someone she can root for and pay attention to in the IRL. Sadly we won't see them again this year like we have in the past. They've always raced their season finale at Texas, but because NASCAR has a late event here, they decided to do away with IRL's last race. And yes, we spend some money as usual. Each time we go, we are pretty sure there's nothing else to get, but alas, we were wrong again. This time is was mostly Danica's stuff. Next time, it will probably be Brian Vickers stuff. Azucena has the hots for him as a replacement for Terry Labonte. Very warm at the track and it rained pretty good on Friday night after the race. And our tent did not have the rain fly on, so it got pretty damp in there. That's all for now. I'll leave you to your imagination for the rest of it. But I will tell you Doug, Doug III, Marcus, and Richard came up in time for Saturday's IRL race. They also played poker with across the road neighbors till wee hours in the morning.

Azucena's golf blog

Thought I'd try something a bit different. Here is small note from our beloved Azucena. Did she have a great day on Saturday or what! Not even the front 5 of the back nine could damper this spirit. And to think that I know her..
"Well Randy and I went out and played golf today (Saturday) at Star Ranch. Since we started at 4:30 pm it was only $19 a person and included range balls.
Well, we were playing with 2 young guys who were pretty good and had already played 18 holes earlier. Randy and I were initially struggling but it seems once they guys left, our game improved. I sunk a long putt as they were driving away and on the next hole, I got my first birdie.
My tee shot landed just over a club length from the hole but I missed the first putt thinking I was shooting for birdie, sunk it on the second try and found out it was a par 4 not a par 3. On the front 9, taking penalties and everything, I actually got a 47 beating Randy by one stroke.
On the back 9, I fell apart, I guess I was getting a bit tired. But Randy kept on and got a 48 on the back 9 too. My game improved significantly after I called his Dad to brag about my birdie, but I was still tired. We didn't finish until almost 9pm. If it had been as dark when we were playing the 16th hole, we probably would've given up but since it was the 18th, we stuck it in. Shockingly, we didn't lose any balls on the 18th hole.
Randy wasn't able to find as many balls as he usually does, probably because we were on the fairways most of the time so we weren't in good ball hunting territory.
Anyway, that's it. We're pooped but I'm sure we'll try that again.
Azucena"
Kinda like bowling your first 200, and also like beating Randy at bowling for the first (and only) time. Kinda like when I beat ARO at Chess (for the first and only time).
Hope everyone got a chance to see racing history this past Sunday. Danica Patrick got a lot of people watching the Indy500 for the first time, including a few at my work.

Water Heater leak, yuck.

Well, guess who is out of town. Yip, ARO. She got up about 4:45 this morning and had a flight to LA, and will be back this evening.
On the sour note, I had to get up at 5:15 because our water heater sprung a slow leak. Had to get an $800 all bills paid replacement. Took awhile since they brought the wrong size (courtesy of me) and then the wrong brand. Oh, well, could be worse. I could have asked Jeff to help me with it (just kidding Jeff). I'm sure it would have been much cheaper this route, but I didn't have the time and too many connections. Plus, recent law (within last 10 years) says we need a drip pan, which we didn't have, and not sure if we would have gotten one, but all is working now. Should have hot water when I get home.
P.S., ARO had a 61 on Wednesday at Lions Muni. She's in a weekly golf league of 4 from work. She was tired when she got home, too.

Dad's visit; Mom's day; Ceci and her band

Been a busy few weeks. I'll try to cram it all in here if I can. Dad showed up on my birthday, dad left yesterday. Mom came by for Mother's Day dinner today. The end.
Just kidding. That was all correct, but you probably want more info, no? Or is it I want to give you more info and you could really care less (if you did, then you wouldn't be reading, but what do I know).
Ok, We had a lot of golfing, time off and a lot of fun. My golf went haywire pretty quickly and it took the last trip to the golf course to figure it out. Back in October, I found out if I step back about 1/2 foot from my tee off, I could get better accuracy for more often. I was also able to put a lot of power into it. During our 2nd day of golfing, I lost the touch. Last day, I found out why. Instead of taking the 1/2 foot back and bending forward some, I was squatting (imagine Pete Rose at the plate). I lost lots of control, hit short, topped, missed, Tin Cupped it (watch the movie if you don't know what I mean). So my last game had much improved tee shots. 99 score. Broke 120, so I'm happy. Dad left yesterday morning. We had a great time. He stayed at Jeff's house for several days, which gave him time to spend with his grandkids (Ben, Katie, Anna).
Today was Mother's Day. We invited all the related mothers that we have (my mom, her mom, Sue, Angie (Carol is in New Jersey, so she wouldn't have been able to make it)), plus the rest of the relatives in town. I missed some of the presents that were given out. Mom O brought Corsages for Mom R, Azucena and Sue. True, Azucena isn't a mom, but she does have cats, dogs and fish, so realistically, if not technically, she's a mom (She'll say she's got me but that really doesn't count). We got her mom a cell phone. This is a bit tricky since Mom R has limited use of her right hand, uses a wheelchair and resides in a nursing home. So we had to find a phone that would allow her to place and receive calls with relative ease. Also a phone that with a push of a button, turned into a "loudspeaker". She's now on our phone plan. The phone also allows her to contact her kids directly without going through the nurses. Also allows us to call her directly without going through the nurses. Mom O also got a phone for Mother's Day. Last Sunday, she mentioned she wouldn't mind having one. The challenge on this was to find one with larger buttons and easier menu access. The phone I have has the Up, Down, Left, Right surrounding the OK button. I don't particularly like this because many times I hit the OK when trying to go in a direction. But, we think we solved this with their phones. There is an U, D, L, R button without the OK button getting in the way. This works great. Since she's doing chemo, this gives her something to have available if she starts having problems on the road or at home. Both loved their phones.
Evelyn would have been proud of our usage of the dinnerware set she dropped on us. 12 total place settings were used. Also the salt and pepper, both sugar bowls (sugar and sweetner packets), both creamers (coctail and tartar sauces), 2 serving bowls, 3 serving platters, 1 bowl and 1 broken plate (don't worry, we still have over 12 plate settings). Could have used the salad bowls. Oh and glasses and 2 pitchers. Whew. Glad we got everything set up last night. Jeff deep fried catfish, also had boiled shrimp, potato salad, cole slaw, fried okra, salad, tea and cake. Mom O liked her catfish well done, and I liked mine midlin done. Jeff worked them both in. Thanks a bunch, there bro. Great job.
On to other news. Cecilia has started up a new band. The email I got from her said her band is called the Rockstead's, or may be just Rockstead. She has the same drummer as before. Haven't hear the band yet, but they will be in Harlingen again this summer for the Blues on the Hill. Rumor has it (sorry Ceci, this is a rumor because I didn't hear the whole conversation) that the Rockstead's may be going on some sort of tour. One of the band members has connections... Good luck with your band. If it's anywhere near as good as the last one, then you should be in great shape.
We'll that's all I'm doing for now. It got long and that means you are reading a novel and not a journal. Sorry. But that's how it goes. If you are still reading, then you haven't fallen asleep and I'm proud of you. It's late and I'm going to bed. (By the way, Azucena is on her way to Houston. She was in DC last week from Sunday through Thursday. Forgot what's in Houston. She'll be back on Tuesday, but head out on Wednesday to DC??? again and be back again on Thursday.)

Golf, golf and more golf.

Didn't take long to go golfing. Jeff picked Crystal Falls. If you don't know, that's on the other side of Cedar Park and way on the edge of the mountains. Nice view and homes. Talk about your golf course. 2nd hole is 3 levels. You go up one level to tee off, unless you play the Senior Citizen tees, then go down 2 levels to finish the 80 yard par 3. Watch out for that wind. Then hole 11 is about 100 yards (as if I can really remember the yardage), and drops about 30 yards. I couldn't see where my ball landed, so I took 3 shots overall, and surprisingly, all 3 were within feet of one another (yea I know, feet could be hundreds, but I'm talking 10 - 15, so there smarty pants). Didn't keep track of the first 9, but 2nd 9 was 49. I aim to do 2 over par per hole and I'm happy. I did and I was. But, this is one tough course, and not very forgivable. I lost more balls than holes played through the first 5. I may have lost about 10 altogether. Jeff, Gary, Charles Salano (Charles, you'll need to email me on your last name, sorry) were one set, me dad and Azucena were another. Ana went to keep the peace.
Charles went to school mostly with Jeff, in Hawaii. Became pretty good friends. He lives in Minnesota, I think.

Birthday riddle solved!: Mom O's plant fettish

Birthday boy here has an answer to the riddle below, what cost $15 and requires me to stay home for most of any 6 days over the next two weeks. I took Friday off to visit mom (because of Chemo, voice is hoarse, no strength, but is able to buy 50 potted plants), and then after lunch, ARO and I were to pick up my present from Jeff's. ARO hinted by asking if I needed new golf clubs and that definitely wasn't the answer to the riddle. Then Gary asked, so I knew something was up. Gary is visiting from New Jersey and brought his clubs. We stopped by Jeff's around 3 and on the table I saw some golf tees. Yeah, funny joke. Anyway Azucena led me around his house and I was half expecting to see golf clubs. As we made our way back to the dining room, we had our answer: Dad. Azucena used her frequent flyer miles and $15 to fly him down here (from Ohio) for 2 weeks. As we walked back and I saw him, the only think I could say was "AWW SHT!!!!!". Not what I was expecting. Great surprise, great present. It was almost given away when we drove up because he was outside and had to hustle inside, but I wasn't looking so it didn't matter. So, I need off 6 days for the next two weeks so I can go golfing with dad and anyone else who wants to tag along. Which means, by the way, that this $15 present is really $45+ each day of golf.
Update on mom, she's doing fine so far. She cut her hair short one evening. She was sounding a bit hoarse on Friday when I saw her in the morning. She talked about not having much strength and stamina, which ONE is understandable, TWO, what the hell was she doing buying 50 potted plants (this makes 300+)? Guess who will do the tilling for these? Yep, Gary. Oh-ho, thought it was me didn't you... Well, it's not. It's Gary, who is also down here as a surprise for me, but he's leaving Tuesday morning. BUT, if Gary wasn't here, then I may have been the one doing the tilling, which is fine with me.

Birthday riddle

Riddle me this. What costs $15 and requires me to stay home for the most part of 6 days. I can pick any 6 and I can change them with about a days notice. I really won't have time to take the dogs in to the vet unless I go realllll early in the morning. Any takers? Me neither. This is suppose to be my 45th birthday present. Yep 45. This year. April 22. 45. If you have the answer, I'm taking them at the above email. You can remain anonymous if you'd like.
I've also got a secret about Azucena and being a MOM that I might tell if provoked enough.

Mom O and cancer

I have some somber news regarding my mom. I'll have to lead you into this, so bear with me. Also keep in mind that I may not be exact or precise with my notes here, so take it for what it's worth and don't read too much into it.
A few years ago, mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. They operated and removed the right breast (I think this was it). Did skin grafts and the usual reconstruction. Recently, after getting checkups on a regular basis, she was told to come in for additional work because the cancer may have spread to her left breast. After she got back from her visit with Gary in New Jersey, she had her checkup. The doctor who has been working with her gave her the bad news. He had been keeping an eye on a dark spot on one of her lungs. This dark spot never moved, but the other lung sort of exploded with cancer cells (this, in the space of about 2-3 months). These cells also spread to other parts of the body. This new cancer is called Small Cell Carcinoma (I hope it's spelled correctly). Anyway, this is a fast moving, blood distributing cancer. In other words, surgery is out. Well, you can wipe out what is found, but since it moves through the blood stream, you'll never get rid of it, it'll just move on. All the Overmans here in Texas went with her on Wednesday to South Austin Medical Hospital to listen and question the doctor who will work with her. They are going to give her Chemo medicine (IV style) starting next Monday. She'll get two forms of it on Monday, then one form on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then do this all over again every 3 weeks for 4 attempts. After that, it is a wait and see situation. This type of treatment is suppose to work real well again this type of cancer. They also have a Chemo group meeting every Monday. Sue will be with her this coming Monday, which will be tough on both. They are going to go slow with the IV this time to make sure she doesn't have any reaction. So, with the Chemo group and the slow IV drip, they will be there from about 8am to 5 or 6pm. Next time, the IV will only last about an hour or so. They do have beverages and light snacks and reading and other stuff to keep her occupied.
I'll try to keep you up to date as I find out more.

Nini; electronics blow up

Sorry folks. Really gotta keep this updated. I'll try better, but that's just talk. Hopefully it'll be more action.
A few weeks ago, we had a Father Ray stop by for dinner. Jim & Evelyn were here as well. Was Kimmie here? Can't remember. She's here sometimes and not othertimes (busy with school). Anyway we had a great time, listened to some good stories and wonderful food.
This past Sunday, we went to St. Pedro (?) for Nini's Right of Confirmation. That's what I think it's called, but if not, please use the email link above to let me know. I'll make a correction in your honor. Anyways, Azucena is Nini's sponsor for her introduction into the Catholic church. When we were done, if I had been thinking ahead, we would have taken mom's Valentine gift(s). We weren't too far, but didn't think about it until we were about half way back. We did stop by Tokyo Steak House for dinner and celebration. Great food and yes, I did catch the shrimp.
Robert is suppose to stop by soon. I'd like to throw a welcome home party the day before he gets here. What do you think.
Azucena has been checking out the Woot.com site and decided she wanted to get a CD/MP3 digital jukebox for the living room. This has a 40gb hd (about 600 cds?). Anyway as soon as we hooked it up, she decided we need to upgrade our Receiver to accommodate it. So Saturday we went on an expensive shopping spree. Not only got a real nice (and I mean NICE) receiver, but also a steering wheel chair thingie combo for our playstation driving games (www.playseats.com). Well, last Sunday morning, before 5am, there were a couple of lighting strikes and apparently they took out the receiver. Actually, we think it took out the cable box, which we just found out isn't showing proper colors. Because the cable box is hooked into the receiver, then it took out the receiver as well. Also, our cable modem bit the dust. Surprising since all these are either on a UPS or surge, but we think it came in via the cable line. Bummers. I should be able to resolve this fairly easily.
That's it. It's late, I'm done, good night.

Happy New Year!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!. Hope all is well with everyone. I know we had a GREAT New Year Celebration around 7pm today. TEXAS WON!! Whoo hoo!. (Sorry dad). Last night we did the fireworks no-no at Jim and Evelyn's house, but since they don't live in Round Rock (street on left and on right are in RR), then it was totally legal. Had a pretty good time. I was forced to dance to the Disco fireworks (bright flashing lights) (they have no shame, nor do I, I guess, since I agreed). Azucena bought Robert and I a need two wheeler r/c. I'll have to track the name down for you. I picked up an inflatable "NASCAR" r/c. Not NASCAR sanctioned, but has the bells and whistles of one. Pretty large and with slick tires, does a mean spin.
All lights and other decorations have been taken down and put up (most anyway). It's been a pretty interesting end of year. It's late and I'm tired, so I'm closing and going to bed. Sorry couldn't be more informative.

Holiday travel plans

Well, most of you have gotten our newsletter by now and are checking this place out, so MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and to all a MERRY CHRISTMAS. Thought I was going to say Bah Humbug, didn't you.
We begin this journey by telling you that we are going over the river and through the woods to a grandpa's house in Dayton, Ohio. Our journey will continue as we spend a day or two in Celina, Ohio, where some of grandpa's brothers live (and sister in law). We may visit a cousin or two or additional uncles while in Ohio (the Overman side of the family in case you were wondering).
We've been notified that some good friends of ours are either on their way, or are there already, to Alabama to visit her relatives. We'd also like to publicly thank another good friend of our, Kym, for taking care of our pets while we are away. Don't worry folks, she got paid good money (well, food at Outback) for babysitting.
We'll end our journey by getting back to Texas next Saturday, just in time to miss the UT bowl game against Iowa. And, no we won't be able to tape it since TVO doesn't go that far in advance (ah, the benefits of plain ole vcr taping). Maybe we can pick it up somewhere and listen to McCoy take apart the defense and toss a couple of touchdowns and set the all time record.
Well, gotta go, our trip starts in about 45 minutes. Ya'll have a safe holiday.

Football and garage sales

Thanksgiving weekend was a bittersweet time. Our beloved Longhorns found another way not to win. Thanksgiving was tension free for the first time in memory. Spent too much on shopping which I hope it is not a start of a new tradition.
In a couple weeks, we'll have a garage sale to end all garage sales. NOT! We hope anyway. Then after that, right before Christmas, we'll head up to Ohio and visit dad and other relatives for a few days. I think golfing is out of the question, don't you?
Speaking of dad, Way to go Buckeyes. On to the Championship game. If it weren't the Longhorns, I'd like to see Ohio State in there. Maybe we'll be in it next year. Would have too if it weren't for McCoy getting hurt. Another Ba Humbug.

Poker and dogs

Well, it's been a little slow and slightly boring until the past week. The Longhorns have won, Kate is starring as a cheerleader (although you won't see anything but her hair) in a series called Friday Night Lights. Well, not really starring since she was only slightly visible in two episodes. BUT, she does play a slightly larger role in a move due out next year called Grindhouse. Dual movie really. You need to watch both movies since they relate to each other.
Other than that, Jeff, Gary and I took up a poker tournament last week at a place called Wings & Things. No money, only points. They play around 6:30 and 9pm on Wednesdays. Jeff was real anxious to give it a try, especially since Gary was in town for who knows what, probably a vacation from the kids. They give points if you place in the top 15. After losing fairly early the first match (we got there about 45 minutes late), I won the 2nd match and someone said I beat the points leader in a showdown (is that pretty wild or what). Jeff was pretty cool about it until this past Wednesday when I whupped him in the points again (Jim didn't do too badly himself. With only $5,000 in chips, he was able to move from 9th to 5th in points without making a single bet). Since then, Jeff's been worshipping my poker skills, enough so that I've had to retain an agent to handle my affairs. See my new website that we had to get just to deal with all the attention.
Big game against Nebraska this weekend. Who ya rootin for?
Papas has had two surgeries for some time of Mast Cell cancer. We hope we got it all and since he's pretty young, he should recover quite nicely. Along the way, some neighbors across the street saw a dog running loose and thought it was ours, so I went out and ended up bringing her home. She's a cross between Cocker Spaniel and Golden Retriever, so we think. Took her to the vet for some shots and a shave and she turned into a he (oops). So, I guess we can't call them Blondie and Dogwood like we planned. Put up notices and have walked around with him, but so far, no one has come forward. I might visit some vet places tomorrow. Haven't quite had him for two weeks yet.
I guess it hasn't been slow and boring like I thought. Till next time I feel like writing, toodles.

Mamas and Papas

I'll lead you in slowly with Papas antics following up with news on Mamas. Took both dogs to the vet this past Saturday. Papas is now at that age that he don't like vets. Just like kids don't like barbers, or dentists. He's got this real pathetic look the whole time he is there. Droopy ears and eyes that look like he's going to cry.
Papas was the first for his annual exam. Got him up on the table and he cowered real bad. When the technician started pulling his tail from between his legs, he got a squirt from the anal glands. His comment of "This is not good. It's going to stay with me all day" didn't mean much until about a minute later. Yep, not good. Anyway, with Papas not being cooperative, they took him into the back for blood work. I even had to lead him out of the room with Mamas so he could go. They came back a few minutes later giving up on doing this stuff. Papas was so uncooperative, they couldn't do anything. So we tried again in the room with a muzzle on him and he behaved pretty good this time.
Mama's turn. Before we really go started I asked about her heavy breathing that she just started doing, so they took her in the back for x-ray's. While back there, Papas was in the middle of the room looking sideways at the doors on each side of the room. Really funny. He'd go back and forth waiting for Mama's to come back. And that sad look was just too much. I wish I had a camera.
Anyways, to finish this long story, the x-rays showed Mamas was either in the late stages of cancer, or had some bronchial problems. Hoping beyond hope, they treated her for the bronchial problems and wanted to bring her back on Monday for additional testing for more positive diagnosis. On Sunday, between 4 and 5:30pm, Mamas passed away. She was breathing just too much (for those that remember Maggie, this was the same style of breathing) and probably hadn't had any sleep in a few days. She ate some cheese that morning, but the rest of the day, just sat around panting. Azucena had company come over at 4 and I left to run some errands and when I was done, went around the back to sit in the hammock and read a book. Saw Mamas lying there and that she wasn't breathing. Azucena's guests were great. They wrapped her up and put her in the truck for us.
Bye Bye Mamas. We'll miss you.

Football and Mom O's stuff

Not a whole lot going on. Well, one thing happened over the past weekend. Longhorns got their butts handed to them. They'll be back and if they get their act together and not play conservatively, they should go the rest of they way undefeated and play Ohio State again in the Big Bowl. That would be nice.
Still going through a lot of mom's stuff. Found a bible that had family trees on the front and back cover. Found a few more obits that were handled by Adams Funeral Home. We'll keep all those together and see how many there are. So far, I know of 4 including mom. Azucena has gotten on a organizing kick. This is actually good. With all mom's stuff going to be around for awhile, we need to get our stuff better situated for the longer haul. She's also starting a Garage Sale section with all this organizing. So, I guess we'll have another one around December.

Final garage sale for mom's stuff

Garage sale this weekend took care of the rest of mom's stuff. What wasn't sold is either tossed out or given to goodwill. Now will be tossing trash stuff from her house and sheds. Then that should be the end of it. Hopefully 1 or 2 weekends to go. Then some cleaning and hopefully it will be sold.
In almost 3 weeks will be the Longhorn/Buckeye ballgame. We've invited dad to join us, but not sure if he can make it. He might come down later on when it's not so hot. Azucena is about pleading with me to go visit during Thanksgiving. Maybe see other Overmans and if it's close enough, some Rocksteads as well. She's also talking about going to Bolivia for a medical mission for her church. This isn't until February of next year. Oh, saw "Taladega Nights". Pretty good movie. If you are a NASCAR buff, you'll need to go with the flow, but yes, it's still a good movie. Will definitely get it when it comes on DVD. Haven't seen "CARS" yet, but will when it comes to NETFLIX.

Uncle Ed Tribute

This past weekend, we went south to Harlingen for funeral proceedings for Azucena's Uncle Ed (read full transcript here).  Ed was into boats and woodwork, so Azucena decided to built a boat to put Uncle Ed's ashes in, put it out on the bay at South Padre Island, catch it on fire, and watch it sink (We accidentally provided an escort for his final adventure).
Well, it caught on fire, and we almost caught another boat on fire, which would have caught even more boats on fire, and who knows where it would have ended. But only one boat burned up and that was fine with us.
Would we do it again, especially for Kymie? Well, we COULD do it again, hopefully minus the drama, but WOULD we? We'll get back with you on that in a few years. Overall, we had a great time in Harlingen, even if we did do Chinese for lunch Sat and Sun. Sunday was much better. And mom R figured out how to get the hotel movies to show up. That's a dangerous area to get into, her knowing how to find the movies.
Now we'll have to concentrate on getting mom O's house cleaned out and ready for sale. Going much slower than we want, but oh wells.

4th of July and Uncle Ed

Wow, didn't realize it'd been so long. Where to begin. Still getting most of mom's stuff packed up. Had a few people interested in the house, but we're not ready just yet. Sue will stop by next week for a vague appraisal. Had a great Fourth in Jersey. Spent the week in Mt. Laurel and Ocean City, NJ. Rain two days, which wasn't too bad. Gave us a break from the beach, although it cooled off the already cold ocean some more. Also, since the state government shut down, we weren't able to do any gambling at Atlantic City. Kids were a blast as usual. Dad showed up and I'm sure he had fun. Sad to say this, but with mom not being there, it was a more relaxed atmosphere that it has been. She had a way of putting tense in tension. Most everyone went body boarding, including the kids. Got some video and might get it up on the web site before long. While in Mt. Laurel, we visited Famous Dave's BBQ joint, not once, but 3 times. Azucena's fault, really. They have some great BBQ and Memphis style Pulled Pork sandwich. After inquiring, there is a Famous Dave's in El Paso, but we figured it'd be quicker to fly to New Jersey, than drive to El Paso, but much cheaper to drive. I compare the ribs to Damon's, but alas, they moved out of Texas. Nearby for Dad and could be for Gary, though.
Uncle Ed
Tomorrow the Rockstead clan head to south Texas for a burial at sea. Well, sort of. Uncle Ed Rockstead passed away last week and his wishes were to be cremated and Azucena and others decided a Viking Funeral Pyre is in order. Sort of. Azucena and Jim has built a small boat (about 1 1/2 feet) that will hold his ashes in the bottom half, then the top half will have a rocket housing to send it further out to sea (a small port in south texas is where we'll do this, so it's not really out to sea). We are hoping the rocket that propels the boat, will ignite the rags that will have been soaked in a flammable fluid. If all this works, and we'll do this at dusk, then we should get a pretty good fire, the boat will get mostly burned up before sinking and Uncle Ed will float with the fishies.

Mom's garage sale and papers

Whoops, guess I'm not keeping up with this too much lately. A lot has gone on, mainly with mom's house and stuff. We've cleared a lot out and Azucena has put several items on ebay. 2 weeks ago, we had a massive Garage/Estate sale. Sold most stuff (Anna, you'll be happy to know, the swingset is still there.). I've also been going through most of mom's papers that she stored in boxes. These are being shredded one box a day. Takes about an hour to go through each box. It gets a bit frustrating when you see that she kept 10 copies of her divorce decree. Then when she went to court with dad over child support payments, she kept 10 copies of that also. Lot's of her lawyer stuff ended up with 5 copies or more. Each tax return has 5 copies plus the worksheet. It's funny some of the stuff she saved, for example, she kept an email that said she was in charge for the rest of the day.
There's a family reunion on Saturday, but from what I hear, not a whole lot signed up for it. We may talk about doing it every other or every 3rd year.
Till next time...

Mom's furniture

Time surely has been flying quickly. I didn't realize I hadn't been out here in a while. Had been to mom's on the weekends for the past few weeks picking up furniture that mom had bought in the late 70's from Far East Gift Shop in Taiwan (don't bother looking this company up on the web, I couldn't find them). Anyway, mom had 2 octagon end tables, one long coffee table, headboard, 2 dresser mirrors, 2 dressers (one tall, one long), grandfather clock (Jeffie has this now), curio cabinet, 2 sets of stacking stools, "stacking" tables, secretary desk, bar, entertainment center, Oriental divider, papasan chair, rocking chair, two end regular end tables, and two "cedar" chests. I think this is all (all for the low price of $700). Most of the table tops are marble. Anyway, since no one in our family is really interested in them, Azucena and I have been taking them apart and bringing them home and swapping out our own furniture with them. One problem. Cigarette smoke. I've been wiping them down with furniture polish and this seems to help. This has been keeping us busy, with unscrewing, polishing, putting back together... Also packing up Jeff and Gary's glassware.
I finally got the gumption to work on the Christmas newsletters and get them posted on our website. I was able to print, scan and turn them into PDF's. Don't look too bad at all. Here you go to view them - Christmas Newsletters. Up until today, we only had thru 1999 on the web.
Azucena and I are going to visit Gary on the east coast in July. Our current plans are to pick up dad on the way there, then stop by Dean and Honey's on the way home.

NATIONAL CHAMPS BABEE!!!.

UT hooked em. Overcame fumble, noncalls, and missed kicks to pull it out at the last seconds 41-38 over USC. No fireworks, ground still too dry, but lots of horns are going off. Jeff, Anna, Gary, Jim, Evelyn and Kym came over and we watched the whole game. Well, Jeff and Anna fell asleep for awhile, but we were glued. Dad too. He's in Ohio and watched the game and rooted for Texas. We're gonna try to get him down here for the UT-Ohio St game later this year and hopefully with tickets to watch the game in person.

Happy New Year!!!

Bah Humbug. No fireworks. It would have been boring if it weren't for Kymie and her birthday and Talisman and champaign. For all those that tried to get in touch with us, but failed, Happy New Year to you too.
UT championship game on Wednesday. Are you going to watch? Should be a great, if not a great, game.

Xmas, remotes and Cirque Du Soleil

Didn't get what I wanted for Christmas. Oh wait, yes I did. I actually ordered it myself. Since we have so many remotes for our electronics, we figured we had 8 remotes plugged into our old Sony Universal remote. Pretty much maxed it out. Had the PS3/DVD using the control for the Tape. An MP3 player using the CD, DVD using DVD, cable for cable, Receiver using AMP, TV for TV, a multi changer that was used for the PS3, PS2, Wii and MP3 player was using the MD setting. Did I leave anything out? Oh, yeah, the VCR. But this was set aside incase we needed the VCR. So, I bought a fancy new one - Logitech Harmony 890 (with the IR remote). This not only allows me to have each of these with their own settings, but only one button. At one point, I just needed to press DVD to control the DVD. Or press Cable to control Cable. Not any more. With our HD TV, and HDMI and PS3 and others, it has gotten pretty convoluted.
Here's a scenario. I want to go from Cable to watch Blu Ray movies on the PS3. Press the TV button, then the Input to change from HDMI1 to HDMI2. Press the MD button and change the multi changer to PS3 (if it was on another setting). Turn on the PS3. Press the Tape button for PS3 control (yes, since it's BluRay, I had to buy a USB adapter to convert play/pause/stop/left/right etc. so I can control from the Sony/Harmony remote). Anyway, I also press AMP to change from Video 1 (cable) to Video 3 (game - or BR DVD). With the new Harmony remote, I press Activities, BR DVD and it does all this for me.
Gary let us know that their visit to Cirque Du Soleil was wonderful. The girls had a great time. Jeff's family headed east this Christmas so we'll find out when they get back how everything went.
Azucena just informed me that Bashful is attacking the TV. She has been recording these sunrise shows on Discovery HD. They look incredibly great. Well, this episode has lots of birds sounding off and Bashful is pawing the TV and in attack mode.

Mom R's passing

So what is with the weather doing 40 degrees on Monday, 80 on Tuesday and 40 again today? Not as bad as Oklahoma, though, right? 1 million without power. Ouch. Hope where ever you are located, you have decent weather. My condolences if you are in Oklahoma.
Watched Down Periscope last night. Even the non HD dvd's look better with an HD dvd player.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the passing of Azucena's mother. On Halloween, we usually pick her up for trick or treating. This year, Azucena was out of town, so we left her with the nursing home and I did all the tricking by myself. Did a good job of scaring some kids, and a few adults. One kid took off running and screaming around the corner to her house. Poor thing didn't even get any candy. Anyway, Azucena's mom was on dialysis and did her usual cleansing on this day, then had dinner. Complained of a headache and went to bed. An hour or so later, the staff came by and found her non responsive, so they called the paramedics and had her transported to the hospital right next door. It turns out she probably had a brain aneurysm. She was pretty much gone by the time the staff came around. We were able to get her family in town and the next day at 7pm (appx 24 hours), they pulled the plug and she passed away at 7:30. Put up a good fight, though. She and Azucena would meet me for lunch somewhere each Sunday after church. She was always saying stuff like: "You look wonderful, Angel", or "You have beautiful teeth, Angel/Hijo". She was also fun to tease. She could also sit in her chair and for hours just call for the cats, who always ignored her. We'll miss her, but most of all will be Azucena who visited her at least 2 times a week.

Real HD!

Ahh, what has changed. Much in the last few weeks alone. Azucena decided she wanted a Blu Ray dvd player, so she bought a Playstation 3. WooHoo, got 5 free movies. Now to compliment the blue ray, she decided she wanted a TV that does HD real high quality. She found one and agreed to put it off for a year. That lasted for a week. Best Buy had a buy she couldn't ignore. Jim and Evelyn agreed to take our old tv off our hands. It was a 57" rear projection. The new one is bigger, but a 52" Sony LCD. Bigger because it has about 2 inches of frame around the screen that doubles as a speaker. Then we had to get a nice stand for the TV. So we found one on Sunday. Next is getting a receiver to handle all the new fangled gadgets. That too can wait for about a year. Yeah Right. Watch us have one by end of next week, or end of year. Good thing all of this is on a no interest plan. The all in one remote we use is pretty much maxed out, so we might need to get a high end one soon. Putting the PS3 on the remote was a challenge since the PS3 is bluetooth and the remote is infra red. Plus her car needed brakes real bad, so that's another chuck of important stuff that was really needed, not like the tv and such.
Well, I'd better head out. We are shopping for a family for Christmas. We've been doing this Just Because Christmas thingie from her church. And every year, we get 2 or 3 bikes. Where is all this money coming from?
P.S., if you ever do high quality HD with TV and Cable and DVD, you'll probably not want to go back. It's da bomb!!!

Resurrection

Ok, I was going to let this die, but Azucena says I need to keep it up. So here is the latest.
Sadly, while we were on our vacation to Cheesehead land, we lost several fish including most of the babies. Baby Randy and baby Azucena were the only new ones in this family to survive. I'd try again to bring new life into the aquarium, but I'd hate for them to be fishbait. Maybe soon.
I should have a bunch more to say, but I'll let you think I have something important. I'll try to start filling in pretty soon.

Baseball and trips

We have a new addition to the house, baby Kym. That makes 3 new additions in the last few months. These are mickey mouse platys. We are hoping for more to come.
Been a wet few months. Lots of fireworks were rained out, but several that were moved to the weekend were able to get off the ground. We also got to see a record number of ball games this year. My work had a party at the Dell Diamond last month and Jim was my escort. Then last Saturday, Azucena and I went to her company outing. Then Sunday, Dell had given thank you tickets to TML so I took Kym as my date. Not too bad. Only one win in all that, though. Fireworks on Saturday.
Yes, we are practically done with the house renovating. We just need to quit finding things to replace. We now have a new washer/dryer and had to "remodel" the room they went in since we couldn't open the doors all the way. So we took the doors down and put curtains. Looks pretty good too.
Azucena just got back from a trip to DC. She'll be on a few more trips this month and all next month. We'll also be going to a Rockstead reunion in Wisconsin in August. We may try to visit my dad around Thanksgiving. Suppose to plan on Vegas early November for one of Azucena's work trips. Can't get out of that, I guess.

House repairs part 2

YEAH!!!!! Our house repairs are pretty much complete. Just minor stuff like sealing the tile grout before the cats ruin it (which Bashful is already trying to do) and touch up on the paint. It is looking much better and very nice. Ya'll are invited to our House Warming All Over Again party. No date is set yet, but will be once we get this and the furniture set. Oh and lets not forget we need to "dust" the whole house. Everything has a layer of something on it, except that which we were able to keep locked away or under plastic.
Jim and Evelyn deserve lot of thanks for helping us load and unload our furniture and putting our toilets/sink back together. I'll need Jeff's help on the sink since it wants to leak some and we've got it as tight as we dare to.
Kym also deserves a lot of thanks because she helped with the loading and putting up with our dogs this whole time. Papas is a handle just by himself, but she had our two and her two and it sounds like they all pretty much got along. Oh, she stopped by to bless us with our color choice (well, concur with Azucena and remind me I'll like it regardless of my current opinion). It's a shame we don't have before/after pictures, but think of seafoam green rug and linoleum, now Continental Slate from Daltile. Looks good. Really Good. We've also redone the downstairs bathroom fixtures.
I'd thank Jeff, but he was able to time his trips out of state on both loading and unloading days. He gets some thanks though, for not electrocuting himself while fixing a lighting problem. I'll have other stuff for him later on.
Azucena has been busy working away on her church dvd and their web site. I guess she made sure she is listed first in the web page (see movie matinee), and no, I didn't see anything on the web site about their dvd.

House repairs part 1

It has been a very wet month. Almost messed up our plans for everything.
First of all, we had the foundation fixed on our house. It wasn't in bad shape, probably a 2 on a scale of 10, but we wanted it fixed up before we did other long term goals on the house. Only this required the rain to cooperate. Yes it did rain a bit on the 2nd day they were working on it, but only a bit. It also started raining some as they were finishing up on it and laying new concrete. The day after they were done, the rains came, and hard. Whew, done just in time. Some of the new concrete slabs look funky, but it all worked out.
Then we had someone come by and fix some woodwork to get ready for upstairs tile work. We asked him to come back and install some new doors we've been thinking about getting, which the tile people strongly recommend we get BEFORE the tile goes in. He was scheduled on Monday and it poured even worse than the previous rain storm. So he had to postpone until Tuesday. We had a front door put in and replaced the sliding glass door with french doors. Also we had him fix the cracks along the outside of the house and redo some window sills. Yeah, Jeff could have done the sills, but since he was there, we had him do those too. Doors look great and they shut real well too.
Kymie has been keeping our dogs for us, so we are much appreciated with her on that. Thanks to Jim for carting the french doors home since it wouldn't fit in or on the SUV and I didn't have a current insurance card to rent a truck. Kym's payment is lunch or dinner. Jim's payment is leaving the WII at his place so he can play and practice. The football game would be exceptional if it weren't for the bugs in it. Maybe next edition will be better.
All that's left is finish painting and tile work. Are we there yet???

Birthdays and House painting

Well, our birthdays have come and gone. Neither with much excitement. NOT!.
We had a great dinner on Sunday for my birthday at Fish Daddy's, then went home for cake and ice cream. For Azucena's, we had a little bowling party at Rockover Lanes as well as a very nice dinner that J&E cooked up. J&E, Herb and Betty and Kymie showed up. Then we played with Azucena's birthday present which she got the previous Sunday (yes, she got her birthday present on my birthday. Go figure. I won't mention who had the gall to do that, but she was married to him). Anyway, her present was the WII from Nintendo - she squealed pretty good when she opened it up. We created our on mini MII's and went to town. Bowled, played tennis, Bowled some more. Jim's dad, Herb got into it a lot more than we expected. His eyesight is going, so he doesn't get to do much any more, but with our Big Screen TV, he was able to see them pins fall. A lot of fun, the Wii's, more than I would have expected.
Changing subjects... as you know, since we plan to have foundation work done on our house, we have decided to repaint and tile the downstairs. We have selected all the paint colors we will use and have completed the stairwell and living room. Got the hard part out of the way. Plan on getting the dining room done this coming week, then the kitchen and we'll be done except for touch ups. Sesame, Pumpkin, Plum, oh my!

Weather and House repairs

Been awhile, hasn't it. Fooled ya, thought I wasn't going to update it any more. Well, fooled me too.
Got an email from Montie Krumnow who lives in Hawthorne, NJ. She's married into the Krumnows from Huntsville, Texas (Monroe Robert Krumnow).
Everything is kind of wacky here in Central Texas, but I'm sure it's wacky elsewhere too. Weather is the most unusual we've had in ages. It was sleeting in Round Rock last week and it should do some hail damage this weekend. It snowed in Temple, which is not too far north of us. Cold enough to start another fire and turn on the heater.
Ok, so we have started the ball rolling on serious house repairs. We will be doing some foundation work at the end of May, which means that they will not only re-settle our house some, but poke holes in the concrete inside the house, which also means pulling up the rug. So, since Azucena is determined to lay tile downstairs, this looks like one of those back to back to back projects. As soon as they finish the foundation, we'll probably paint the walls. I'm for hot pink, but I doubt she'll go for it. Then after the painting is dry, we'll get someone to lay tile. We've put it off because of money and cause we didn't want to have to move the TV, fish tank, curio cabinet, and other stuff, but since we'll have to move them for the foundation work, so might as well get it all done at that time. We'll need a place to sleep/shower/romp - Kymie? J&E? The animals are a different story, but we'll figure it out.

Bad weather and Buddy

Ah, the fun of it all. Temps around 29 - 31 degrees since Sunday night (wind chill down to the 18's). Colder here than Ohio and New Jersey. Looks like NJ is having some sort of warm wave, in the 50's and 60's (Dayton dropped 30 degrees yesterday and Mt. Laurel dropped 30 degrees today). Funny how Azucena and I traveled all the way to Ohio for ice and snow and found virtually none of it, but here in our own back yard 3 weeks later, we have plenty. How ironic too that because it's in our own back yard, we are told to stay home. So, Azucena and I have been home telecommuting for 3 days, well, mostly. She has enjoyed the days off some, but I've been checking back in with work, solving issues and getting work done that normally comes in via the web, so for me, it really isn't much different that if I were at work. For Azucena, same thing - she can get most of her work done via the internet, but she elected to treat it as days off, which her work officially did - paid too.
Tuesday, while letting Papas out front for the "pee on demand" trick he has going for us, Buddy got loose. When Buddy gets loose he's gone. We've always been able to find him except for the last two times and he's come back on his own (damn!, uh, Yeah!). But this time he heads out and after awhile we get a call. I had to climb in from the passenger side of the truck to go get him. The truck was iced too much on one side. Didn't really take long to clear the windshield, but I do like the side window vent. Cleared the ice right off the windows. But today, all sides are iced up. One coworker decided it wasn't worth coming in to work when she saw a neighbor spend 30 minutes using a knife around the edges of his doors to open them. Another coworker spend 2 hours de-icing only to decide the bridge she had to cross may be closed.
Some roads and overpasses were closes. Austin ran out of deicing material yesterday, so they basically pleaded with us to stay home. And when an accident occurred, the traffic announcer would say " See, I told you. But don't listen to us, go out on your own and see for yourself if travel is bad". We stayed home and saw for ourselves via the tv.
Dad is still enjoying his electronic setup. He got it off track the other day and came close to calling us, but we think the problem was hitting the channel button (taking it off channel 3 which just screws the whole setup) instead of the off button on the tv. He got it working on his own which is real good to hear. I just wish we had taken the effort to make mom's as simple.

Ohio visit

Ok, we went over the river and through the woods to grandpa's house, or dad's house, or whatever (Dec 23 - 30). We had a great time, OK? Visited with his godgrandson and Uncle Dean/Aunt Honey, and Uncle Joe. Really, we had a great time. No snow, and none of this problem with frozen water we heard so much about. Right before we left to come back to Austin, Azucena and I splurged since we hadn't really splurged on dad before (not for Christmas). Gary had given him some dvd's that showed his pretty face on tv during a Philly's game, and Jeff's family had given him a book on Baseball stuff (yeah, it was a good gift, only it included a DVD of news reels). Well, since he had no dvd player, we felt it was our duty to get one for him. But since his pissass tv had no connections other than cable, we felt it was our duty to upgrade the darn thing. So, Thursday after breakfast, we shopped at Best Buy and picked out an Insignia TV and DVD/VHS player. We went to the National Museum of the Air Force after lunch. This is one big museum. It is free and you can easily spend a few days here. After the museum we to his apt and gave him his Happy New Years Gift (since we already gave him a Christmas Gift, we needed to make up a gift reason, right?). The expert set it up (ARO if you didn't know) and let him learn the controls. He did have one nice piece of equipment, a Bose Wave radio that we used for speakers. Minimal effort on his part to watch DVD or VHS or cable. Then we went to dinner. (he tried to invite his newfound girlfriend we hooked him up with (dining hostess from our hotel), but she didn't have transpo at that time. Oh wells. On Friday, on our way back home, we stopped by his place to work out a few kinks and it was like watching a kid in a candy shop. (Sorry your Buckeye's lost the ball game, but they really did play crappy, and YES, UT did beat Iowa - Hook Em.)
Sunday (1/7) we had a wonderful lunch with Angie, Li'l Doug, Marcus and Mom R at Dave & Busters. Played for a few hours and left with a few goodies. We revamped our loft so we picked up a fiber optic lamp from D&B to put in the room for decoration. Loft is looking might good after all the changes. It's the game room we always dreamed it would be. Just a bunch of years later than we wanted.

Now we wait (UT football)

All UT can do is wait. They did their job against the Aggies and held them to their lowest point total of the year, which Tech and OU didn't. Texas doesn't have the great defense, but they do keep the scores pretty low.
Also, if you look at the teams OU and Texas played, a lot is commented on how OU played two teams in the top 25. But did if you look at the other "preseason" teams, then you'll notice that those two have a combined 1 win between them.
All UT can do is wait. Are they better than OU? Head to Head and on a neutral field, yes. Several say OU is better because they destroyed Tech. But, if Texas didn't drop that interception, or screw up the touchdown, or this or that and actually won, would people say the same thing? Probably not since it would be a moot point and Texas would still be #1.
Enough about football.
We had a few over for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. Nephews are upstairs playing on the PS2. Currently we are watching Iron Man. Most everyone else has gone home. The nephews mom is taking a short nap on the couch. She is wiped out. Azucena is out also. I'm getting hungry again. Maybe more of the good chit before I turn in.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Watching a movie with the temp in the upper 30's. Brrr.

Azucena, for the last year and a half, has been showing a movie at her local church (http://www.saintwilliams.org/movies). We'll probably show one a month or every other month depending on if she can rent the space. For awhile, it's been at the old church, but the last few times, it has been at the pavilion at the new church. The pavilion is nothing more than a kitchen, restroom, and open dance floor.
We take care of the drinks and popcorn and Steve always shows up with cookies. Our first time out, we were able to get about 70 people to show up. Since then, it's been between 40 and 60.
To get an audience, Azucena will put up mini posters around the area along with movie "business" cards so people don't forget. We've been impressed with the response even during times where we thought it would be real sparse. Yesterday was a great example.
These movies are planned weeks in advance. She gets permission from Ignatious Press (http://www.ignatius.com/index.aspx) to show movies like "Bernadette" and "Padre Pio" among others. We always have an intermission to give everyone a chance to stretch, get more popcorn and talk to Azucena about the movie with options to purchase their own copy.

Back to yesterday. We found out early on that the temperature was going to dip to the 30's. This was not good as the Pavilion is totally open air. We tried to use another building (the RE if I'm not mistaken), but we couldn't track down the key. So, with people starting to show up and the temperature starting to drop, someone suggested we use the kitchen. After checking it out, we figured with the 15 - 20 or so people that might show up, it would work. We had the wall to project the movie, we had some room for chairs and counter space for popcorn and drinks and a few kids to sit. It might be tight, but yeah, it'll work.
So while everyone helps set up, I start on the popcorn and a generous lady (sorry, I never got her name) helped with hot cider and sodas and cleanup (we got done around 10:30 and she had a 2am adoration).
By the time the movies starts, we have over 40 people. Geez, it's in the 30's and people want to watch an outdoor movie. Yeah, it's indoors, but they didn't know that. We've got got people craning their necks to watch around the stove hood, several sitting next to the freezers that turn on and off, and smell the popcorn each time it's made. After about 1/2 hour into the movie, we pause to raise one of the counters to allow another dozen people to watch it from outside.
I'm trapped in the corner with the popcorn and sodas and Azucena is trapped outside. Fortunately, we brought plenty of blankets to pass around. Even with coats, it still got plenty cold. We figured we had close to 60 people show up and that doesn't count the few who didn't stay for the showing. My guess is "Padre Pio" is real reason we had this many people. I'm curious if we had a true movie setting, how many would show up. Hopefully we'll show "Padre Pio" again and find out. Usually, I'm isolated while doing popcorn, but this time, I get to watch the whole movie, so it was nice to see what everyone else sees.

Ok, now to give kudos. I'm impressed every time we show a movie. Kids come along and generally behave pretty well. No matter what is going on, we have a good turnout. We do have our problems, mostly sound, but we work those out and people still show up. Our first showing at the Pavilion last month, we were in new territory and ended with one speaker. We corrected it for this showing and had 4 speakers (playing the dvd on one player, sending the sound through another dvd player and the video through an LCD (figure that out techies)). But we were not expecting the cold. To have all these people show up and several sitting in the cold is just too much to comprehend. We had kids. We had a few elderlies. We had a three hour movie!. Yes, we did lose some during intermission, but it gives those that were sitting outside a chance to warm up inside. And I do want to thank everyone for expressing their thanks on the wonderful popcorn. Unfortunately, I can only take so much credit. I measure out the butter oil, measure out the popcorn, pop until it's done, spray some butter salt, mix and bag. We use one of those commercial popcorn poppers, so that helps with consistency.

Conference and Halloween

I don't usually travel much, but this is the third time in the past 30 days I've been out of town. I'm in San Antonio for TML's Annual Conference. I'll be here through Friday. Will probably miss all the candy giving on Halloween since I may not leave here until after 6. That makes it easily 8pm, maybe 8:30 before I get home. Candy is bagged and ready. I bag the candy so we know how many show up, which is just under 100 (mostly) kids. Azucena is not too keen on doing anything this year. Her mom had an aneurism on Halloween last year and passed away the next day. We'd always pick up Santa (her mom) from the nursing home and dress her in a witches outfit (both of them actually) and help pass out candy. Kids loved it and so did she. Since both of us are out this week, as well as two weeks ago, we didn't bother decorating. Sorry. Last year, I did some decorating, but it must have been the big remote spider and mouse that scared some because the ugly mask I had on can only do so much. I feel sorry for the young lass across the street who went screaming home when I tried to hand her some candy. And it's fun to overhear some kids say "watch out, they'll try to scare you". And we still scare them. Anyway, I'm stuck in San Antonio. After a semi night on the Riverwalk, I head to the hotel gift shop for something for my daylong headache. I also found something that would be a great Christmas present for Azucena, but since she is not getting me anything for Christmas, I decided I wouldn't get anythinig for her either. So, she'd better not spy on my luggage when I get home and find out what I didn't get her for Christmas. Here's a hint and what I'm not getting her... Food.
Ok. I have a delima. The place I'm staying at has wonderful beds. Their key word here is Heavenly. They have heavenly dog crates, showers, beds, etc. The problem is that this bed is soft. Too soft for me to sleep comfortably. I got a backache and no sleep. The last time I was here, I spend the second night on the floor. I used the blanket and comforter from both beds. I'm debating on doing the same thing, or dropping the mattress to the floor and sleeping that way. I asked for a cot, but since I have two beds, the firemarshal wouldn't approve of the rollout bed. Huh? Oh, to top it off, they never replaced the shampoo and bath soap. So I found out when I got in the shower that it was left over. And to think I thought they unwrapped it for me. Ugh. I think I made up my decision on the sleeping arrangements for tonight. We'll see how it goes. It's not too late, but I'm tired and I need my beauty rest. TaTa.

Final wave of the flag

This will be for the bits and pieces to the final waving (sniff, sniff) of the green flag.

Here's a link to prove we were there:
http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/business/10/22/nascar.biz.racepoints/ind...

We got our first bonafide comment. From a fan of ours, Becky. She was in the Charlotte airport heading to Dallas. She'll be at the Texas Motor Speedway race next week and will continue to spread the work.
Nice hearing from you Becky. Although I was able to get our pictures (and some movies) on my laptop, I've yet to figure out how to convert any for my phone. My next goal is to get a good picture of the flag and an edited version of my flag waving converted to the phone.

Doug's big wedding

Doug Rockstead, Azucena's brother, had a pretty large wedding this past weekend.

The wedding was real nice. Someone was taking video and others were doing pictures. It was an outdoor wedding at Onion Creek Country Club, where we saw skunks and deer walking the greens.
The dinner was pretty good and free drinks for all. I don't want to guess how much was spent, but it was about 2/3 of my brothers' New Jersey wedding and we know they spent A LOT.
Doug and new bride Marie also treated the wedding party and immediate family to lunch on Sunday. Not needed, but much appreciated.
Out of town guests were April from Wisconsin and Leroy and Susan from Colorado (also Ronald and Mr. Rockstead from Harlingen). Yes April, we have your camera.

The sad part of all this is for whatever reason, he assumed Azucena knew about everything going on. Her first hearing on the wedding came from her ex sister in law. Then more information came from her cousin in Wisconsin. Finally, Doug called. What gives? Who knows.
Then just before the wedding, we get a call to attend the rehearsal dinner on Friday. Again, everyone already knew about it way before we did. Azucena had plans on Friday, but had to drop most of them.
Azucena also made arrangements to pick up her sister since she no longer had a 4 wheel vehicle to drive. But since her boyfriend was out (they only had one key), she had to wait for him to get back before she could leave. This meant she wasn't able to go to the rehearsal dinner.
We didn't go to the rehearsal since we didn't know anything about it, but when Doug and company started showing up at the restaurant, the first thing he did was bitch at Azucena for not picking up their sister. He also was furious that Azucena told him she didn't want to go, which was totally false to begin with. She told him she wasn't able to leave until her boyfriend showed up. Nowhere in that conversation was mentioned that she didn't want to go. Now the sister is mad because Doug jumped on her for not wanting to go to the dinner, which he says Azucena told him. Again, not true. (You see, Doug sometimes likes to hear things as he likes to hear them and not as they are told. He's done this several times, but this is by far the most irresponsible of him.)
Azucena and her sister got it cleared up and Azucena just let it slide since it was Doug's wedding weekend.

Bank of America 500

As you can see from Azucena's entry (http://www.rockover.com/node/103), we are sitting in Dallas for awhile longer.
Our itinerary came out and I WAS suppose to do an on air with NASCAR media tomorrow at 6:15 am, but it got canceled.
The rest of the highlights (which unfortunately are mostly my duties):
Meet with the media on Saturday before race
Get introduced at the Drivers meeting on Saturday
Pre Race pace car ride for both of us
Wave the flag
Garage visit (best time for autographs)
Visit NASCAR's R & D center on Thursday
Dinner on Saturday
Photo shoot with Jessica Simpson after waving the flag.
Will probably meet Aaron Peirsol and other notables during the race
We've been given tickets for Friday's race. Not sure where we'll sit, either in the Bank of America lounge or regular seating. Either way, we'll have fun.

Azucena actually prefers it this way. She gets to go with me to these and she'll take lots of pictures.

Golf Miracle

This is so amazing. Saturday, golfing with my bro's, Jeff and Gary plus Dad, with Anna tagging along, I hit a hole in one on the 6th hole at a par 3/4 golf course in Dayton, Ohio. A couple of other people were watching too, so it's official. They will put a tag on the plaque in the club house.
So I'm hitting a lot of achievements this lifetime. McDonald's All American Band (no longer around), bowling a 290game/700 series, pick up the big 4-6-7-10, Hole in One, Wave the Green Flag (10/11/08).
We are at dad's apt right now, watching football and talking shop. Getting hungry so we'll head out for dinner real soon.
Ok, that's it for now. Enjoyed USC losing on Thursday.
Today (Sunday), we played another round of golf at Wright-Patt here in Dayton. Lots of fun. Anna played some. But since I haven't played in over 2 years, my arms are not up to it. Couldn't survive more than 12 holes. But still had a lot of fun.
Heading home tomorrow. It's been fun seeing Gary and dad again. Lots of fun.
Next stop, Charlotte Motor Speedway.

OMG - It's NASCAR Calling

Azucena was able to snag a "life altering" opportunity called "Wave the Green Flag Experience" from Bank of America with her NASCAR Points(by the way, even though this is normally worth 500,000 points, we only needed 150,000 for this one time offer!!! O M G). You see, we've used the NASCAR credit card for several years now, getting NASCAR points with each purchase. All large purchases including house renovations, animals, HEB and anything she bought went on the card.
Originally her goal was to get two garage passes at the value of 150,000 points. Oh, the race is in Charlotte on October 11th at 7:25pm. The race is called... Bank of America 500.
Anyway, Monday she gets an email from the credit card company with a one time offer, first come first serve, only 1 opportunity available. Like putting 100,000 names in a hat and only one can be drawn. We deliberated for about 2 minutes (mostly if I would be able to take off, which being close to our Annual Conference, is questionable). I gave the ok, she called, they said Congratulations.
We get to wave the green flag, have access to the stage where drivers are introduced, Garage/Pit passes and a "gourmet" meal in the club suites, plus they'll try to get us a meeting with Jeff Gordon and his crew. They mentioned wanting to take our pictures and maybe video tape us(I guess they plan on turning us into celebrities).
Even though Azucena is the winner, instead of trying to meet her driver Brian Vickers, she opted to try to meet with Jeff Gordon and his crew, since he's so hard to track down. As a concession, I'll have to wear the Brian Vickers coat when I wave the green flag (Yes, she turned it down and said I had to do it. S'Okay wid me).
To give you an idea on how much it would normally cost us, Pit passes run about $100. Club suites and food run at least $550. Waving the Flag and Driver Intro are truly priceless since they don't sell these "events".
It's not totally free for us. If this was Texas Motor Speedway, it'd be easy. Drive, camp and have fun. But this is Charlotte. We fly, rent and have fun. All for about $800 more than it would be if it were Texas. Plus, now she's talking about renting a motor home and staying at the track instead of a hotel. But we'd be at the track, where if we stayed at a hotel, we'd have to drive back and forth and miss other opportunities. Hmmmm. Donations anyone? Update: RV's are already sold out, so we are "stuck" with the hotel scenario.
Oh, I almost forgot. Azucena will be in the pre race pace car. This either leads the drivers to the podium, or after their introduction. I don't know which is more cool, waving the flag, or riding in the pace car. Only the flag waving can get you in a whole lot of trouble if you drop the flag. I think Richard Petty lost his hat when he waved the flag at Daytona 500 this year. And no, we don't get to tell the drivers to start their engines - That's another winner altogether.

ARO visits Dad-O; Rob back in TX

Azucena is out of town again. She is in Cincinnati working a conference. Also visiting Dad-o before and after. In the After part, they are heading to Celina to visit my his brother Dean and wife Honey. Brother Joe should be there also. Funny, they are probably going to go bowling on the Wii that Uncle Dean's got hooked up. Ya never woulda known. I wonder if dad, a real good bowler in his time, will take to the Wii. She'll be back on Saturday.
Robert Moura has moved back to Texas. He's in Arlington/Dallas area near his daughter Vanessa. Good to see him back. He'll probably visit a few more times than when he was living in Connecticut.

ARO in DC; Kate Clark the actress to be

Azucena came and went to Washington D.C. for a one day meeting but was there for about 4 days. She took her nephew Douglas III (Little Doug). He had a great time visiting the sites and just getting out of Texas. ARO also had a great time if you exclude getting run over by a Segway. She made the mistake of hopping off as she gave it a slight turn and it went ballistic with spinning in a circle. She had to stop it with her thigh. Pretty good looking bruise she had a week later.
Kate Clark (formerly Katie), aka K-8, is moving to California permanently to have better luck at landing acting roles. Right now she is doing bit parts so not much with that. She claims to be in the know of some big names, but since we can't see her "diary" we'll have to trust her on that. By the way, you can check up on her at imdb. She'd be Kate Clark (III). Her latest movie is now out: "Kids in America". Not a big part. She's known as a model. In her other listed "Operation Shock and Awe..some" she actually has a name. But the best I can find on this movie is it is 6 minutes long. Her other big budget movie was in Grindhouse. You'd have to see the movie to find her. Apparently she's in a bar sitting on a stool and happens to be next to the big name star. Anyway, she and mom probably left this morning by car to find an apartment and move in. Good luck kiddo. I can say I knew ya.

Azucena's brand spanking new car

Here's some catchup for you. Visited my dad last month for really only one day. I had a business trip to Lexington Ky and stopped by his place for the rest of the weekend. Had a great time as usual. Short, but fun.
Last week, Azucena finally gave in to her lust. Blue Streak Metallic, Black top Toyota Camry Solara Convertible SLE (This is the best I can do http://www.toyota.com/camrysolara/exterior-360.html. Choose SLE Convertible, Blue Streak. For Interior, "Leather in Stone"). Very nice ride. She's only driven it one day, though. She settled on it and bargained on Monday, bought it on Tuesday, drove it to/from work on Wed, then we went out of town on Thursday to visit Gary in NJ and then she went to DC until tomorrow, so I've driven it a few days now. I'm thinking about swapping cars with her, giving her my Acura MDX.
Speaking of New Jersey, we visited Gary from Thurs to Sunday. I don't know what influence we had, but he decided he wanted an LCD, so we went shopping. While we were at it, he then decided he wanted a PS3 (and a Wii, but as you know, they are out). So we helped set it up. Not bad for a vacation. Got to see the Phillies whoop up on the Marlins too.

ARO misses RSO

Looks like I'll be visiting dad next week. I have a small conference to go to in Lexington, Kentucky and when I'm done, I'll head over to Dayton, OH. Gonna be a pretty tough week since Azucena will be out starting Monday. She'll be back on Thursday, but I'm leaving Thursday for KY and won't be back until Sunday. But on Sunday, she'll be heading out again for a few days. We'll be able to wave to each other in the skies. At least we won't have to get a babysitter for the animals.

ARO in Honduras.

Azucena is off on her 2nd medical mission. This one is in Honduras. She will be on a plane leaving at 5pm. She won't be back until next Friday at midnight.

ARO in DC

So, Azucena is in DC doing her marketing stuff and I'm stuck here in Austin doing my IT stuff. It could be worse. She could be basking in the sun while I'm wearing galoshes and gloves, hat and coat. WAIT. She IS basking in the sun and when I get home, it'll be sleeting. Wonders never cease. Right now it's 47 in DC and 35 in Round Rock with sleet in the forecast. Poor Dad-O. It'll be 7 tomorrow night in Dayton, Ohio. I hope he bought some DVD's to watch.
Uh, you know, this is a pretty dull and boring website. Not that there's anything wrong with it. We won't win any awards, that's for sure. Azucena wants to change it up, but she's been busy and I've not taken the time to learn the new software, so if it gets done, it may happen when she retires.

Fry's, TV and Wii OH MY!

What a weekend. First we started by having issues with Fry's trying to get them to give us a price quote on their Sony XBR4 TV. They wouldn't do it. I tried to get one in person, they wouldn't do it. Azucena stopped by after work and basically told them she wanted to buy a TV. She got a price ticket to take to the register to purchase a TV, but since all we needed was a price quote, she left. She went to Best Buy and did a price match with our TV (Sony XBR4) and we were able to save about $600 on the original price of our wonderful TV we bought in November. Saturday, when we stopped by Fry's, she told them the TV wasn't big enough so she couldn't get it (yes, that's me choking in the background. 52" is not big enough?).
Picked up a new Wii game called Carnival Games. Doesn't get good ratings, but it is a blast when it comes to playing. Imagine all those games you play when you are at the carnival/fair, Water Balloon, Balloon Dart toss, skeeball, knocking down milk jug, clown ball toss, dunking booth, basketball toss, shooting gallery, football toss, dish toss, bottle toss, cup toss, etc. We were able to play 4 at the same time on a few of them, or in turn on the other games. This will be a big hit at St. Williams' fair with the kids. 4 adults play on this for about 4 hours yesterday. It's a hoot and a lot of fun.
Ohhh, Ohio State plays tonight for the NCAA championship. I may be watching it if I'm not watching Heroes or playing games at the Carnival.

Happy New Year!

Brand new year!! Time to start a new beginning all over again. One of my goals was to watch the Hawaii Warriors win the Sugar Bowl. So far, I'm on the losing end of goals. How are your goals doing? Robert Moura stopped by for the weekend. Played cards and had some fun. Glad you could make it. Kymmie's birthday was Monday, we watched too much on the TV. Azucena rented Heroes, watched the first 2 episodes and decided she couldn't wait for a few days to watch additional episodes so she bought the first season. Don't you just hate that? Oh wells. I'm more of a Bones person, but I could probably get into Heroes. Better than Jericho, which wasn't too bad of a show.

2009 is history

2009 went out in style for the us in Round Rock:

• Brother and family from New Jersey came down for the New Year celebration.
• Dad from Ohio came down to watch Ohio State and UT on the big screen.
• Azucena had successful brain surgery, then got interviewed by St. Davids for their brochure on the success of St. David's neurosurgery department, followed up by a wonderful photographer that took some pictures of her for the brochure, then of us for our enjoyment (Kory Howell).
• Azucena and I getting to attend the NASCAR awards ceremony that was opened to the public for the first time.
• Azucena getting laid off (not going out in style, but hang tight).
• Azucena getting hired as a teacher at Taylor Middle School for 6th grade math(see!!  laid off => teaching. If that ain't style, what is?). I'd say she's a wonderful teacher at that, but you won't believe me.
• Me scaring the kids (and adults) during halloween and taking their candy. It never gets old.

UT going to BCS Championship game !!!

Tough, hard fought game against Nebraska. Lots of mistakes on both sides. Dropped touchdown pass for Texas, bad call on kickoff against Texas. Bad pass interference call against Nebraska. Bad kickoff for Nebraska and horse tackle.  Bad play choice for McCoy at end of game. Nebraska's #24 finally showed up in the last quarter - Good going.
After tonight's game and seeing what Ingram did for Alabama, I'm thinking Ingram has the inside track for the Heisman.
Great game Nebraska. Sorry someone else had to win. Uh, Glad it was Texas.

Texas has won several games on guts, so I think they have a real good chance against Alabama. With one or two of their games won by the refs, I don't think they'll match up against Texas or TCU or Cincinnati. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

NASCAR week in Las Vegas

What a wonderful week we had in Las Vegas. Had fun on the Blackjack and not so much fun on the Texas Hold-Em tables.
But we had more fun with anything NASCAR related.
We started by going to the FanFest on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Chase drivers (top 12) showed up and signed autographs. We stopped by the Sahara to eat at the NASCAR Cafe and also pick up a goodie bag that included tickets to Thursday's After the Lap (live interview with the Chase drivers).

Thursday, the Chase drivers drove their cars down Las Vegas Blvd and back and some showed their skill by doing burnouts. Jimmie Johnson showed another skill by doing lots of burnouts and then burned out the engine at the turn around area.
Later, we attended the After the Lap at the MGM Casino and hotel. Got to listen to all 12 drivers answer a question posted by a fan and then poke fun at the other drivers.
Thursday evening, we went to the Rio Casino and listened to parts of the Stewie Awards presented live on Sirius XM. Tony Stewart created a tongue-in-cheek awards program for NASCAR. This would have been a lot of fun, but we couldn't hear that well, so we left to play blackjack at the Sahara Casino. Can't beat those $1 tables. Played until midnight.

Friday, we attended the Awards Ceremony Fan Reception and then the Ceremony itself. This kept us busy from 4:30 until about 10:30. Hanging around for photos and autographs was the challenging part. Azucena regretted not bringing her camera so she needed to rely on some new friends from the Dallas area. And since I did not repeat anyone's name 3 times, I don't remember their names. A pair of sisters (Amber is shown with the Tony Stewart picture) and husband/wife team. I also had a nice chat iwth the Hellmans RealPlayer of the Year (she's the bottom right). Azucena was able to get a picture with her fav - Brian Vickers and also with Tony Stewart. Unfortunately, Kasey Kahne and Juan Pablo Montoya escaped right away so we weren't able to get pictures with either of them. Amber is a big fan of Kasey and as hard as we tried, he wasn't to be found.
Here's a picture of the championship trophy. Yes, we were THAT close to sitting with it. Wanna know how cool dinner was? Take a look at the desert "cookie".

And finally, NASCAR had a Pit Stop Tour. This was a type of treasure hunt where you had to go to get a stamp from 9 different locations and if you got all 9, you got two poker chips that said Champions Week - Vegas. We kind of ignored the hunt until this morning, then rushed to get them all done before we had to get ready for the awards ceremony. Several locations gave us an Aflac duckie and/or a Jimmie Johnson championship poster. The duckies will go a long ways towards Azucena's own rewards program for her Taylor Ducks students.

Would we do this again? Heck yeah. As long as we have enough Bank of America NASCAR rewards points to redeem. The really cool thing about this is that it is the first time the public was invited to attend the ceremony. So we were part of history there. We also watched the crowning of NASCARS first 4-peat winner - another history in the making.
Ok, time to go. It's been a great week. Stayed up late and got up earlier that we wanted. Tomorrow we have to get up by 9 to leave by 10:30 to catch a 1pm flight to get home by 9pm and then watch the taping of the UT ball game against Nebraska.

The Virgin and Nascar

Did I catch your attention? Don't worry.

Well, the Virgin is really the Virgen_de_guadalupe painting.  Azucena has worked on this for the last week and is for a church play next month. You can see the picture she is basing it on. She also pulled it up on the internet and used an LCD to image it on the canvas and then outline all the markings. As you can see from the original photo she did an amazing job.

Now for NASCAR. We'll be heading out on Tuesday to attend the NASCAR Awards Dinner on Friday night. As you know, last year we went to the October race in Charlotte to Wave the Green Flag and other activies courtesy of MBNA's NASCAR rewards program. She had enough points to qualify for the Wage the Green Flag Experience.
This year, she had enough points for us to attend NASCARs awards dinner. Normally the award presentation is in New York. This year, they are holding it in Las Vegas and opening the dinner to guests other than drivers.
So we'll be in Las Vegas from Tuesday thru Saturday to take in the sights and whatever NASCAR/MBNA throws our way. I doubt we'll be given the green flag treatment like the Experience, but hey, it will be a lot of fun and a chance to meet our drivers one last time.

Happy Scary Halloween

Halloween on Saturday. Cool. All day to get ready. Uncool. Too much Football and World Series. Can only record so many shows.

As I've said in the past, we generally get around 100 treaters every year. This year was a bit down, so far. Close to 85. One of my favorite tricks to get a treat is to take a piece of candy from their bag and give them a "bag of 4 or 5 pieces" of candy. Only one put up a complaint, but his companion said it was a worthwhile trade off. Another was too scared to come close, but finally relented, but since I had already taken candy from her companions, I told her I needed one from her before she got the bag and she did. Another young group showed up and in the process of taking a piece from their bag and given them a bag, one real young girl said thank you and took off before I could give her a bag.

We don't do too much to scare people, but for some reason several get scared enough to not come up (later I'll post pictures of my outfit and you decide). This year, I opened the back of the truck and put a headless shirt(filled up with bubble wrap) on the right side, a pair of pants in the middle, a couple of witches hats and "bat eyes" lights, plus a shovel. Oops, gotta go turn off the strobe lite in the master bedroom. It's strobing Casper.
Sorry, had to answer the door. It's 9:37. She was a bit scared because Casper was flashing, then not flashing and saw the curtain. Oohhh. I told her since she was scared, I got to get a piece of candy. Her companion gave me one also. Then the three behind them did the same thing. Dots, Nestle Crunch, Reeses Whipped, miniature tootsie pop and Hersheys milk chocolate. That makes 37 pieces they gladly handed over to get a bag.
Watching a tape delayed UT-OSU game. Just intercepted for a touchdown 17 - 0.
4 more treaters. 9:55. Teenagers. Using backpacks. Makes 96 for tonight.

Here's my halloween mask and outfit. I also wish I could claim the pumpkins, but I can't.

Is it hot or is it just hot?

It's not as hot as it has been the past few days. Today it got close to 100. They say it was 95, but my car says otherwise.

Anyway, it's hot because the AC is not working very well. It could be because of the wood on top of the unit outside. The wood on the unit is to protect it from the falling roof shingles. The roof shingles are falling because we are having the roof redone. We went ahead and had State Farm come out and look at the roof for hail damage. They said Yep. Damage. Plus damage to the outside yard lights, screens and a few other things. So we are getting the roof shingles replaced at this very moment.
It's about 85 downstairs and over 90 in the master bedroom. I shut the AC off so it wouldn't blow up, if it hadn't done so already.
My iced tea is almost ready. Hmm that'll taste good.
Tomorrow should be back to normal, around 103.

Azucena starts school all over again

As you know, Azucena spent several weeks learning the ways of teaching 8th grade math. Then she got a job teaching 6th grade math at Taylor Middle School (Guess who's going to be a Duck). So, although she passed the 8th grade math exam, she then needed to pass the 6th grade exam to show she knows her stuff. She's spent the last two weeks getting indocrinated with the TMS staff and her room. She's been decorating it in the NASCAR theme and then recruited myself and Nini to help copy, staple, write names, etc to get her caught up.
With the NASCAR theme, she talked to Austin Tate from NASCAR and mentioned her career change (yea, we all know she wanted to be a driver, but school won out), and asked if he had stuff lying around that would enhance her classroom experience. So he directed her to the Classroom Experience section of NASCAR and they are going to send her a package to use for her classroom.

All right. Let's get caught up, shall we?

As you know, Azucena has gone back to school to teach. She's at Taylor Middle School teaching 6th grade math for 2 classes and 6th grade Pre-AP for 1 class (I think she gets off easy. There are 8 periods in a day and her math classes are double periods). 
She has a NASCAR theme and has contacted NASCAR to see if they have stuff lying around that would help out for class. Turns out, they have a program for classroom activities. There are several books on the Science/Math of NASCAR and other goodies that will help her out. Just did a search on NASCAR classroom and found an article on nascar.com of a Pennsylvania teacher using NASCAR math in his 4th grade classroom. One of the first things Azucena did was take apart a recent race that was won and lost on fuel mileage. She explained through the video how a crew chief miscalculated and his driver dropped 30 spots and how another crew chief got it correct and his driver won. Kids were impressed and wanted more.
She's also got a pet student. She's got him pasting, drawing and other stuff to help her with her teaching.
And finally, being her first year, she's getting a lot of stuff that will stay with her throughout the years: microwave, scanner/printer, etc.
Unless you are on Facebook, you'll probably miss out on famouse quotes like this:
I had a crazy good first week. My mentor told the principal that she is
"in awe of me." I'm not doing things perfectly, but I've really made a
connection with the kids. I end my day with Pre-AP which is great because
these kids really want to learn. A quote in their exact words, "You can't
leave us hanging like this!" Azucena

We have RATS again. Oh yeah, 3 this time. Bernadette, Blondie and Vivian.
Annie went out of town again to visit her mom in California and left us with these 3. She shouldn't be gone for more than a month or two, but so far, these are behaving much better than Shawn and Dante did. Don't have to worry about them losing weight. Annie's been getting better at not giving them chicken every day, so now they are eating the dry dog food right away. Burnadette likes to bark a bit, but so does Papas. Nothing has been chewed up yet.
Two more things. The cats have a bigger crap than the rats and Papas has found a new smell. Can't get him in trouble, per se, but it is going to get him in trouble. Buddy is oblivious to the whole thing. Either he's gay, or he's really snake bit with them from when they chased him the first day or two.
 
House update. Don't know if I mentioned that Azucena painted the spare bedroom and computer room while being layed off. Right before school started, she also painted the loft. Individually, these colors may not be the best to use, but when you put them next to differently painted rooms, then it doesn't look bad at all.
We've had two hail storms this year, probably two more than we've had in the past 5 years. We finally got someone out to look at the house and they are going to start replacing the shingles pretty soon. Just glad they didn't start on it on Wednesday. A storm blew through Round Rock like we haven't had in forever. Strong enough that it snapped our umbrella in half. Didn't knock down as many limbs as I was expecting especially with the drought we are having.
Speaking of weather, It's been hotter here at 10 pm that in most other places during their peak. We're finally getting more than 2 days under 100 since before summer. No wonder we don't have water. How would you like to go boating and see trees under your boat. That's how low the water is getting on the lakes. The sand bars have now turned into islands and all the public boat ramps have been closed.

UT Football is about to start. Yesterday ESPN went through quite a bit of programming to promote the Heisman candidates for this year. UT is 2nd in all the polls so if they win out, they should be in the Championship at the Rose Bowl. I still think if McCoy hadn't gotten the shoulder stinger his freshman year, they'd have played for the championship and then last year, would have won it if it weren't for two screw ups in the final seconds against TTU.  Oh wells, maybe they can do it this year.

Day off to see the sights

Ok, we only saw one site... Inner Space Caverns.
 
Last time I took time off from work, we went to Enchanted Rock, north of Fredericksburg. Today, it was Inner Space Cavern, just barely north of Round Rock. Great history on how it was found and the tour guide, Mike, was exceptional.
It's amazing how much stuff you learn when you are young, then relearn it all over again as adults. I'll probably relearn things at least half a dozen times. These caverns were one of those learning processes. Stalagmites and Stalactites. Never knew which end is up. Hopefully I'll remember that the C means ceiling and G means ground. Stalagmites with a G is the ground spikes and Stactites with a C are the ceiling spikes.

Whoops, gotta go. Azucena just started up Wii Sports Resort. She want to get in another round of Basketballs' 3 Point Challenge. Got hooked last night when she found her shot and almost never went to bed. This Wii Sports Resort is fantabulous. Get it. But you will need the motionplus controllers (one which comes with the game).

We'll be doing dinner with some Taylor math teachers tonight. This should be fun. Hopefully it won't get too mathy.

Azucena gets a new job

Since I’m sure you want to stay in the loop, Azucena has been accepted to teach 6th grade math at Taylor ISD (Go Fighting Ducks)
http://www.taylorisd.org/CMS/index.php?option=com_frontpage

The job opened up just last week. She thought she was applying for 8th grade or higher (her certification is for 8th on up), otherwise she may not have applied. Now she needs to take a 4 – 8 grade certification test and pass. 6th grade does fractions and she loves fractions.

She was impressed about the quality of the school and technology they are using. They use electronic whiteboards where she can be anywhere in the room and write on the board. One teacher was out sick and “recorded” her assignment for the substitute who played it and then walked the room, not having to do much teaching.

Anyway, she’s excited about starting and it’s only about 20 minutes from home with no traffic. I guess I’m excited too. Woo Hoo. See. I’m excited.

Old games

I've got a few older games from so long ago, it's amazing I still have them.
Simon from mid 70's
Toss Across from late 60's
Coleco Electronic Quarterback probably from the late 70's
Vanity Fair's Electronic Computer Bowling I think from mid 70's
Tele-Games Jokari (sold by Sears) - late 60's
 
The only issue with any of these is the Toss Across. I pulled it out of storage and the bean bags fell apart. I think one or two actually sprouted beans. Since I can't find any bean bags, I wonder if the Baggo Bean Bags will work.

I guess all this came about because we just had a garage sale and I keep pulling these games out to decide whether to sell them or not.

Azucena and her "diabetes"

Azucena is the only one of her siblings to be diagnosed with diabetes. This dispite the fact that her mom and most everyone in her family had it. However, no one on her dad's side has it.
So why only Azucena? Well, the news is, it may not be diabetes after all. She has a small tumor on her pituitary gland. Normally tumors are something to be concerned about, but in this case, we look at it as a positive step to her health. She found all this out when she changed endocrinologists. First her medication was changed for the better, then her doctor suggested she might have the tumor.
See her email to her siblings below..
 
"Thought I'd let you know that I've been diagnosed with a tumor on my
pituitary gland which could easily have caused my diabetes. I had an MRI
and other tests to confirm that I have acromegaly. If I had the condition
a few decades earlier, I could've been tall, BUT since I'm late to the
game, it looks like I have other symptoms. I'll be meeting with a
neurosurgeon on Wednesday to discuss options. It's not as bad as it
sounds. The tumor is normally benign and given it's size I have a good
chance for a "cure".
My endocrinologist says there is even the possibility that my diabetes
might go away when they remove the tumor. Just wanted to let you know
what's going on with me before I mention it on my facebook status.
If you are curious and want the morbid details, feel free to give me a
buzz on my mobile. I'm actually pretty happy at the prospect of being
diabetes free."

Texting and email

Ok, so you shouldn't make fun of your elders, especially if they are your father and not tech savvy.
Ok, so we'll have a bit of fun at his expense anyway.

We FINALLY got text messaging on all our phones. It probably would have come in handy at the Bank of America 500, but we waited until now. I think Ronald is the main reason. We actually had Verizon block text messaging for most of our phones.
So now we have texting and I send one to my dad telling him I'm at Pluckers watching the Reds play the Astros and if he was in the stands (he's a big Reds fan). Well, he gets my message which on the screen says TEXT Message. So he goes to his computer and pulls up his email to read it. He actually has an email believe it or not (he don't get many and most of them are mine). So now he thinks whenever his phone says Text Message, he has an email. I think we'll have Verizon block text message on his phone again. I called him to enlighten him and now he understands, but he still can't figure out how to read them.

Ok, that was our laugh for the week.
Sorry dad.

Slot car creativity

Awhile back, by lovely wife (Azucena for those that weren't sure) designed a slot car track with a pulley system. This consists of a 4x8 plywood, several pulleys and a crank. We attached the crank to the wall, cables go from the crank through the pulleys to the plywood. This is in the garage and allows us to lower the table to play with the slot cars and raise it up when we are done.
Well, I've been "done" for about a year and 1/2 now and when I lowered the table, the dust sent my allergies into high gear.
The size of the table and lots of extra track have afforded me the luxury of designing various styles of track. On a few occasions, I'd build a separate short or medium track into the design so we could have two separate races going on at once. Sometimes I'd have the track intersect and hope no one crashes. I think one of the best tracks I designed is viewed here (still on our old web site). I like to try to get about 20 - 30 seconds per lap and that being at reasonable speeds.
I purchased a few sets off e-Bay and got inspiration from those (don't get me started on the cars I found - glow in the dark, Jeff Gordon 18 Wheeler, 3 section bullet train). One set showed me how to race the cars halfway around the track sideways. This also gave me ideas on racing halfway around the track upside down (take a loop and extend it). Since the cars use magnets, this really isn't a problem. As long as they don't stop, they'll go as long as needed. I had one track that was so well done that you actually got lost on the straightaway. One setup I did was a bit too hard to work with and the last one I did (probably the reason it's been sitting idle) did not play well. I kept having dead spots. Since I didn't feel like taking the track apart to work on different sections, I just let it set and forgot about it.
So, why am I telling you all this? We've got a garage sale coming up in about 2 weeks. I have enough track that I was able to put together 4 separate tracks to sell. So, my project now is to put together a track that will use up as much as I can and we'll sell most of the rest. My problem... I'm having creativity block. I use to dream up different types of track. I can't even come up with a corner section to get started. Yeah, I did the short track with the crashing intersection, but the main track I can't vision. This has been three days now. Once I get an idea started, it takes about 2 days to put it together. I'm talking loops - long and tall, extended sideways racing, "spiral" racing, racing through loops, u-turns, high speed curves.
Now. Nothing. Nada. Brain dead. I have one loop. A loop that goes up, then loops in the middle and morphs into sideways racing for the length of the race track. Hmm, maybe I can have it turn the corner, then morph into an upside down stretch that finishes in another loop that loops into an oval spiral. Ok, still thinking this out. The idea is to use up as much track as I possibly can. No sense on selling my leftovers only to find out I sold too much and have to buy off e-Bay again.

Lent is over

One thing we discovered over Lent has nothing to do with Lent, but with our DVR.
We had a 130gb SATA hard drive that we never used, so we hooked it up to the DVR and let it format and take over.
Since Azucena gave up TV for lent, we'd be keeping a lot of recordings including some 2 hours movies (By the way, even though she gave up TV for lent, she was allowed to watch TV on Sunday - a "lent holiday" http://www.kencollins.com/holy-04.htm).
So, we piled on the recordings. Right now we have 58 recordings at 23% with most of the recordings in HD. I think we would normally be around 20 - 30 recording before it filled up. Granted, Clean House Comes Clean takes up the majority at 30 minutes each. But a few months ago, it would have been House when they started their marathons.
It's soo cool to be able to record as much as you want and not have to be worried about maxing out. Imagine going on a long vacation. The only problem we'd have is replacing the DVR means we'd lose quite a bit of recordings. And you can only get about 4 or 5 1 hour recordings saved to a DVD.
So now that Lent is officially over, we can start watching our shows again. Lately we've been playing video games. She just finished Champions of Norrath. I'm working on Legend of Zelda.
Now to go veg out.

Odds and Ends

Well, so much for March Madness. It was one and out or two and out for UT men and women and Ohio State. Bah Humbug.
 
Azucena is still in the hunt for a new job. She's been interviewed, but it takes time to get the right person. With the high unemployment, companies get to be more choosy this time around.
With her extended vacation, she's been able to paint the guest room and computer room. She has also swapped the rooms around.
We worked on painting the master bedroom, but until we can clear some stuff out, we can only paint 2/3's of it. No rush.
 
Gary's company, New Jersey Legal, has put out a forensic comic strip, Capain Forensics. Pretty interesting.
 
It looks like Randy the Bandit is back. He's won the last three Texas Holdems he's played. Ahhh the limelight.
 
Finally, I got new glasses. These have progressive lenses, so I can finally see up close and far away without changing classes or looking through two at the same time. These take a bit getting use to since your focus has to be straight ahead. They say to you can't look to the side without turning your head. Kinda like animals who do the same. If I try to look to the side, it gets fuzzy and distorted.
These feel a little like polycarbonate lenses, which I can't use because of the pinpoint spot my eyes see out of. Don't know why my eyes do this, but oh wells.
These are pretty nice. I like them and enjoy the fact that I can read a book without having to remove my glasses. Also at work, I can now look at papers and then the monitor without having issues.

The Rats are still with us

The rats are still with us (dachshunds). Their owner should be by sometime next month to pick them up.
Because we don't feed them table scraps, they ignored their food and stayed away for the first few weeks, so they have lost quite a bit of weight. They are looking pretty good and getting around quite well.
We also gave them a dog house to stay in, but during this last cold spell last week, we spotted them staying with Papas in his dog house. Quite generous of him. I think he's growing fond of Shaun and Dante. Unfortunately, when their owner comes to pick them up, Papas may get a bit despondant. He's shown his protectiveness when we take Buddy to the vet, so I'll be expecting mostly the same when they leave.
 
Shaun is the only one that has tried to sneek away. Yesterday, he pushed his way open the screen door, then got through the cat door. Yes, the two rats have lost enough weight that they can get through the cat door. So Shaun went on a short trip before Azucena caught up with him on her 3-wheeler. Then she "walked" him around the block, with him sitting in the back seat basket on the second half.
 

Adventures of Flat Stanley

Our niece Grace Overman, from the New Jersey Overmans, has a school project.  
 
She re-created a character called Flat Stanley.  She then sent Flat Stanley to us so he can have an adventure of a lifetime.  Little did she know what she was getting him into.

Another Medical Mission begins

Azucena has headed out to Mexico to begin her 3rd medical mission in as many years. I think she's going to San Pedro de las Colonias, but she'll have to confirm it when she gets back.  For awhile, the mission was on hold because of losing her job last month, but due to unexpected cash flow, it's back on.  Am I concerned? Yep.  Probably not as much as her first trip, but pretty much so with all the violence going on now a days.  But then again, from what I hear on Iraq, not everything is printed - mostly the bad stuff, so let's hope that is also true about Mexico.  They left about 5:30 this morning and made the border around 10:15.  It took them about 2 hours to get past customs.  So now it's silence as I won't hear back from her till Friday, unless she happens across an internet cafe. 

Racism? or not

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE51I61D20090219
I just love it when Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson or anyone else starts yelling racism without thinking. After all, it just points out that they are nothing but racists themselves.
In the above article, they are complaining because an editorial cartoon that makes fun of President Obama by comparing him to a chimpanzee.
Where was Sharpton when President Bush was compared to as a chimpanzee (http://www.bushorchimp.com/)? Did he complain then? So why complain now? 

Layoffs affect the Overman household

Yep, Azucena just called to inform me she got laid off from TRI. No telling how long it will be before she finds new work. She's in marketing and has an MBA so you would think it won't be too long, but it is a tough economy right now. This is gonna hurt since she made twice as much as I do, but we can't complain too much since there are a lot of others that have both spouses out of work. Now to go talk to HR to put ARO on my insurance. More later.

My Bunny Honey is sick and a followup on these Black Rats

Azucena came down with a bad cold. Probably caught it when she was out on Saturday doing the Walk for Life thingie. It not only was pretty cool (about mid 40's), but it was blowing a bit to make it much colder. The irony is she was able to avoid my crap and now that I'm much better, she's not doing too well.
 
Ok, so you know we have inherited a couple of dogs for a few months from a church member who is in California looking after her mother. One of them hasn't been too sociable while the other has been getting a bit more friendly. The shy one decided to escape. There's a gaping hole in the bottom of the rotting gate. These two tried to chew through the edge of the gate so I never noticed the bottom was missing until ARO brought it to my attention this morning. What's funny is that I didn't see him this morning and I looked at the gate to see if it had a hole big enough. But I was looking in the wrong spot and it was not quite daylight yet.

Playing catchup

Life's a bitch. As you might have read from Azucena's blog (http://64.33.80.205/node/158), I aint living the hi life right now. Aside from the aches and other stuff, the side affects from the meds were insomnia. So I spend two days on a brand new bed just lying there trying to fall asleep and blaming it on the bed. On the second night, I spent half the time on the couch to see if it was the bed. Stayed awake then too. Once I found out it was the drugs, I was able to relax a bit more at night and at least get some rest. So I mostly recovered from Acute Bronchitis and Acute Sinusitis. but a few days later I have to go back to the doctor. I have an sinus infection this time. The new meds are mostly harmless for side affects. The lesser ones have me a bit worried tho. Hallucinations and nightmares. Sadly, I missed out on a lot of fun New Years eve. I stayed in the room because I didn't want to get others sick and I think we had an impromptu party. It happens. People want to come over and dance, and uh, dance. So they call and show up. Usually on Friday or Saturday. No complaints here. BCS mixup Ok, so most UT fans think Texas got shafted in the BCS rankings. But life goes on. We did beat Ohio State (sorry dad), and I'm sure we would have done ok against Florida. It was a sloppy nail biter in the first half and a bit better nail biter in the second. Those last second wins have got to go away (USC, Michigan, Texas Tech, Ohio State). I just knew Oklahoma was going to lose because they always do in the bowls. Do great in the regular season, but for some reason, can't get it going in the bowls. Big Rats. Yea, we have rats. Big enough to look like Dachshunds. Wait, They are. We are babysitting two dog for a church member who will be gone for a few months. We were also babysitting Mammas for a few months until her owner found a place that would take dogs. That turned out to be for life. I just hope this doesn't. I realize I'm not as fond of dogs as I could be. Probably Papas had something to do with that. Oh well. Right now, Dante and Shawn are in hiding. I don't think they escaped, although one tried to gnaw on the gate earlier. On the funny side, when you shout NO!!, they look around like GOD spoke or something. That quizzical look is just too much. And yes, they do stop, so they understand a few things. I guess we'll get along better in the next few days. They are tolerating Buddy and Papas right now, while they look at the new dogs as an adventure. Ok, I'm done for now. I'm sending my ass back to bed. Hope you had fun reading this dribble. If not, then you are nowhere near as insane as the others are. I could use a taquito from Whataburger right about now. Any takers? Can you hallucinate a nightmare, or is this the delirium and mania talking?

Old year gone, new year here.

Christmas came and went. We had a great time. For some reason, people enjoy our gratitude. New Year is coming. Are you prepared? UT is coming and going all over Ohio State on Monday. Azucena has a Medical Mission coming up in Mexico in the next few months. By the way, she enjoyed the cookbook I got her. It was from her favorite mexican restaurant Fonde San Miguel. I plan to enjoy the new Therapeutic bed we got us, but since I came down with an unusually ugly bug (imitating the flu and pneumonia), then I haven't just yet. Maybe tonight or tomorrow. Time for ice cream from Maggie Moos.

Happy Trails to 2010

2010 came in as a disappointment with UT losing their quarterback and not being able to prove they were the better team. Then they showed how inept they were with this years football and basketball teams. Ugh.

Along the way, Doug Jr. decided he wanted to be a daddy again. Did a great job. Very beautiful daughter, Isabella (pronounced Isabela). They still live too far south for many visits and we were here first, so they have to move.

Azucena finished her first year of teaching. She enjoyed it tremendously, but was ready for the summer vacation. I had a workshop in Galveston and she tagged along and spent 3 days in complete relaxation. Visited the pyramids, penguins, spa.. you name it, she did it. She's much more tuned in this year and getting more done for the classroom. Still spending a lot of time at school, but can't really get around that.

We did the NASCAR season at TX Motor Speedway again. Camped next to some wonderful people.
In April it rained pretty much the whole time, so we had to squeeze two races in on Monday. What a deal that was. Jeff Gordon had a great car until he got taken out with 20 laps to go.
In June, we took Anna and got blasted with the heat. Enjoyed the evening races, but just too hot to want to do anything other than pass out.
In November, we had three races to watch and when they were done, we about froze in our tents. Who tent camps in November when it's going to get in the mid 30's? 

Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas went pretty well. Still scared the adults (and kids) without trying too hard. Took their candy too. Thanksgiving brought her dad to town and some mac and cheese. Christmas meant we visited two families in one day and more mac and cheese and a heck of a long poker game. New Years eve brought friends and family for a visit for, you guessed it, mac and cheese and poker. Yes, we also had ham and champagne. What more could you want? 
The only low point was Gary and his family got snowed in at the Philly airport. They flight on Monday was cancelled and it would be Friday before they could possibly get another flight. Then they'd have to turn around on Saturday and head back. Kids start school on Monday, or is it Tuesday? Azucena goes back to school on Monday with Tuesday the first day back for the kids.

We got hooked on Firefly and Castle. Guess what was in the dvd player on New Years eve...Firefly. Ceci and Kymmie watched it for the first time, Evelyn watched it all over again. Better on the big screen and in Blu Ray. And for Castle to constantly give attributes to Firefly and other shows, makes it definately worth watching.

Work at TML was a bit tough this year. Several employees lost one of their parents. We also had 2 expected and one unexpected retirements.
TML also is getting more "connected". They want all the PD staff to have iphones and since I have a Droid X, I get in on the savings as well. Noel also created an app for our Legislative Updates. Job well done, Noel.

Speaking of the Droid X, Azucena finally traded in her decade old treo and got a Droid X. I broke away from the flip phone and got one a month later. I didn't think I'd really need all the gadgets other than voice mail and txting, but I was dead wrong. And the apps. Oh boy, are there apps. Good thing we don't go crazy with them. Azucena likes the bible app. It helps a lot at the nursing home.

Dad finally bought himself a new car. Well, it's used, but it's a lot newer than his other one. The reason was so that he can visit his kids more often. He hates to fly, so he traded up to have reliable transpo for when he needs it. And get this, he don't like to visit Texas during the winter because it's COLD. Well, duh, where is it not cold? But for him to think Texas in December is colder than Dayton (OH), is beyond me. Oh well, but at least he didn't have to travel in the cold weather. He said he'll visit later this new year. And driving means he's not locked into the schedule set up by flying.

I know there's more, but you know what? I'm done. 2011 is here and it's time to start focusing on this year.
Have fun, be safe and do good for others.

Roughing it at Texas Motor Speedway

We arrived at the track a minute before it was too late. We needed to replace our camping sticker before we could settle in. If we were about 2 minutes later, the line to the ticket office would have been out the door instead of the front. After we got settled in, we started keeping an eye on the weather since it was suppose to get a bit chilly later.

Halloween came and went and it was fun (again)

Ok, we don't do a lot of boo scares in our neighborhood, but that doesn't mean we still don't get our share of scares out of people.
I dressed up differently this year than years past, not as scary, but I had more fun. I also put the SUV to better use and used that as my candy storage. I'll post the pics when I get a chance.
As you've read my past Halloween posts, you know I try to take a piece of candy from as many as I can and then I'll give them a bag with 4 - 5 pieces. A fair trade off if you ask me. Most of the trickers think so too, so they don't mind. This year, I made it more of a "demand". When groups of 5 or more came by, I'd stammer and stutter like I was flustered with so many showing up at once, then I'd make the announcement: Did anyone know my candy rule, and if not, then they had to donate one piece of candy for a bag. Apparently we didn't have a lot of repeaters since only one knew of the "rule". Last year, I think I got 40 extra pieces of candy this way, but I needed all of it since we had more people show up than we had bags. This year, I made up 100 bags and probably took in about 80 pieces from the trickers. Again this proved valuable since we had about 40 more trickers than I planned on, and still had just enough of the extra candy (boo hoo, none for me).
One additional item we added this year (and didn't see anyone else using one) was a fog machine. We got a small one from Party City, put it under the truck and it worked pretty good. I'm gonna stop by tomorrow and if they are on sale, pick up another one. One tricker looked all over the place for the fog machine. Was it in the bushes? Was it in the SUV? Where, Where? I told him with enough beans, he could create his own fog machine.

FUN FUN FUN at my company's annual conference

TML held it's 98th annual conference in Corpus Christi this past week. Corpus is a mixed bag of results, but if you ignore the housing shortage, it's really a nice place to go.

Our exhibit manager went a bit creative and downsized the booths some to get more exhibitors into the hall. This really didn't hurt much, except for those that came with their 10x10 setup instead of the 8x10 that was listed.
As far as housing goes, we can usually get everyone into two or three hotels, but with Corpus, there's no real large hotel, so the delegates gets spread out to about 10 or so hotels and then, there's usually a lot more that show up, so they go to the outer edges of the area.

We (the staff) stayed at a "condo" place across the inlet. The condo's weren't really too bad, they have a bunk cubby hole, a queen size bed and a small living room with a table and bath area. My room was kind of interesting in the a/c didn't cool below 80 and the hot water never got above warm. And I know I should complain about a hard bed since that's what I thoght I liked to sleep on, but this one gave me a backache right off. I wised up for the next few nights by folding the two quilts and sleeping on top of them. Didn't need the sheet since it was already pretty warm. A cold front came by the last night, so I left the patio door open and that cooled things off pretty good.

Since this was a conference with over 300 exhibitors, I was able to get a bunch of sqeeze toys, balsa airplanes and other stuff for Azucena's class. The trick is to catch them early, or the last day when they are trying to ditch everything.

School's in Session; Randy goes modern

School is back in session so drive carefully around the schools.
Azucena spent last week in meetings and Friday getting ready for this week. I stopped by late with Blizzards for Azucena, Jeanette and Danielle. They worked pretty hard to get ready and with only one day, meant showing up on Saturday and/or Sunday.
ARO and I took off around 10 am on Saturday, got breakfast, cleared up a bill at Verizon and spent the rest of the day (until 10pm) at Taylor. I got to do all the helper stuff, so I was pretty busy myself. We made it worthwile by taking a few movies to help pass the time, but with no a/c, it made you wonder why even bother. But we got a lot done. Now my services have been farmed out to Danielle, so we'll wait and see. Payment might be a blizzard. Since I will probably stop by on Fridays after work, I'll probably be helping her out some.

I mentioned stopping by Verizon. Azucena got a Droid X earlier this month to replace her Treo of 7 years. The X crashed before the first week was out. So we stopped by and got a replacement order (X's are on backorder). After her new phone came in, it crashed within a few days. It turns out the sd memory card was bad - maybe her original phone was ok after all. But, all this changing phones stuff added an extra $60something to the bill, so we stopped by this past Saturday to clear it up. And while there, in payment for me being at Taylor for the day, we got an X for myself. So now I become modern in the cell phone world, but it may take me two weeks (remember, I said backorder).
I justified getting my phone because we have paid off two long term bills. One since her MBA days, and the other the TV. We also refinanced her car from 4.49 down to 2.49, so that alone is covering the additional charges to our phone bill.
Azucena is exited about her phone and has been teasing me with it. So we'll see how it works out. One reason I'm hesitant is I wear contacts. I don't see closeup very well without reading glasses, but since the X has a 4" screen, I shouldn't have too much problems.

Tweeking NASCAR's Chase Race

Ok, NASCAR again is thinking about fiddling with their formula for the Race to the Chase.
Although I like the chase, my boy has lost two championships because of it. But oh wells.

Everyone has their take on what to do to improve the chase and NASCAR has mentioned they want to make it a tighter chase. So for NASCAR, below is my idea of making it "tighter".

Instead of giving 10 points for every win during the regular season to start the chase season, use the following "payout" to start:
Win a race = 2 points
Pole = 1 point
Most laps led = 1 point
Maximum of 4 points for every race.

Instead of racing against 42 drivers, they need to race against the other chase drivers (including their own point payout):
To finish first among the chase drivers = 12 points. Second among the chase drivers = 11 points, down the line to 1 point for last chase driver.
Extra Points: 
Win the race = 2 points
Pole = 1 point
Most laps led = 2 points
Lead a lap = 1 point
Maximum points = 18.

Now, the extra points don't have to go to the highest chase driver. You can finish last as a driver and still get 4 points (1 for last chase driver, 1 for pole, 2 for most laps led).
And just like a regular race, you can finish below any driver and have more points because of the additional points handed out.
The whole idea is to let the drivers race within their own race, points and all.

For the other non-chase drivers, they still get the points they would normally get including 10 bonus points for leading the most laps.

Feel free to leave comments on your take. 

Off to the races - again

There's a truck and IRL race this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. I'm heading down for tonights NASCAR Truck race with my niece Anna and tomorrow Azucena will join us with nephew Marcus.
Normally we like to get there a day in advance, but with a busy work schedule and last days of classes for ARO, we elected to push it as much as we could. Even today I'm not leaving as early as I'd like because Anna is doing summer school and gets off at 10:30. Which in the large scheme of things, is not really too late. At least now I have help in getting set up and she gets to see both races and hopefully have a great time.
Ok, gotta go. I got half packed last night and hopefully will be ready to go by 9:30. See ya.

Race and Rain, right on.

We had several, uh, "wonderful" days in Fort Worth. I'll let you know all about it. In sections.
I'll use the comment section (see below) to fill you in on the daily happenings. A lot happened (and didn't happen) and it would be unwise to put them all in one report since it would take many minutes to read.. and you know how I like to treat you to a story.
But to give you a teaser, we had a great soaking time. Got to meet some wonderful people and one with newfound lifesaving abilities (think IRS building in Austin that made the news). Lots of autographs and some video"graphs" as well.

Check back soon for more details.

Once again, we head to the races

This is going to be so much fun. We did season tickets again for the Texas Motor Speedway. We'll visit with Amber and other friends we met at the Championship Banquet in December. We also have garage passes, so we'll be able to walk around the garage and get autographs again. Whoops. I almost forgot about having to wear long pants in the garage. I was going to go with only shorts. Bad move.
But, here's the rub. It's raining. It's suppose to rain in Fort Worth too. We came close to being rained out at Charlotte a couple years ago, but they still raced. With 60% and 40% rain chances on Sat and Sun, it doesn't look like a whole lot a racin is goin to happen. We took Monday off as a travel and rain day, but we won't be able to stay since Azucena has a dr's appt. So if the race gets rained out on Sunday, we're out of luck. The bright side, it won't be too difficult getting out since most will stay for the Monday race  (mmm, you think I can talk her to going to the appt, then coming back to Ft Worth to pick me up after the race? Cross your fingers - but that all depends on if it rains).

Lent, Basketball and dead grass

Ok, so week one is done. Is Alex Hermann the only one with a perfect bracket so far? He even picked Northwest Iowa over Kansas. Now, if Purdue can win it all...
Lent is here. Don't forget, Sunday is a holiday, so to speak. Not much left. Hope it is going well for you.

Dead grass. Now, how do you go about killing grass? You fertilize it and water it and by September it is pretty much dead and getting deader each day. So now, all we have is weeds and uh, more weeds. Methinks I used turf fertilizer instead of St. Augustine fertilizer and promptly gave it the death penalty. So, now the lawn gets tilled and we are going to use Bermuda seed to start over. Yeah, we killed the grass in the back yard too. Oh wells.

Azucena made semi headlines again today. In the AustinAmerican Statesman is an insert from St. David's on the Neuro Texas Institute. Several people are featured on the success of St. David's neurosurgery department. Azucena's brain surgery is one of them. Click here to read her version of it.

In a few weeks, we'll be attending NASCAR at Fort Worth: Live. Amber asked to meet up with us and since we didn't have tickets, we do now. It'll be great meeting up with some newfound friends from the NASCAR championship banquet last year. This sounds like it's going to be fun.

Oh yeah, and all you idiot losers that like to post bogus comments, get a life (I'm talking about spammers or the so called advertisers). Since your comments need approval, they are easier than ever to wipe out. You are just wasting your own time.