Disney Deja View

I found these pictures from a russian website. Obviously they have way too much time on their hands, of course so do I if I found these on a russian website.. doh. Alot of the images are recycled exactly to later in the movie. In some cases the exact images are in different movies. Are they an homage to previous movies or just lazy artists? I know animation takes alot of time and effort, but come on now. So if you feel a sence of deja view when watching these film you know why.

There are alot of pictures to show so I am just going to do them a few at a time so I can keep if from filling an entire blogger page.

Darn you Ebay

We are getting ready for a garage sale this weekend. It's a difficult task to go through your stuff and decide what to keep and what to try and get a quarter for. Being a notorious pack rat I have a lot of stuff that looks stupid, but meant something to me in my youth. Most of the stuff has been in boxes for years now and I obviously don't really need this stuff. Anyway going through boxes last night I got unsentimental (if that is a word) and really made tough decisions on my stuff, throwing away a ton of high school stuff like papers and newspapers. About the only thing I saved is some of the marching band stuff. There is some stuff that you just can't throw away, but it isn't really needed either. My mom unloaded my baby stuff on me a couple of years ago. I don't really need my baby shoes, old teeth (tooth fairy), and other crap but I can't throw that stuff away. Anyway, isn't it the job of the parents to keep this stuff at their house until they die? I swear it's a law.

Usually for garage sales you just make a pile of stuff that you don't want and throw it on a table with a slightly inflated, and totally estimated, price hoping to get a portion of that price. But now with the advent of Ebay, I have been putting stuff aside thinking that I could get a lot more for it on Ebay than in a garage sale, or at least I am thinking that. I have actually found some of the stuff on Ebay for a few dollars here and there. Now I have bought stuff through ebay but never sold stuff, so I am going to venture into the world of selling on Ebay. Ignorance is bliss is my thinking, and all of this stuff I would have happily just thrown on a table and got whatever for it, but now I actually have to work at it to make a few dollars. I know I could take it to an Ebay store, but I don't want someone else cutting into my few dollar profits. And you never know if someone really wants my electronic quarterback handheld game with the red dots and would pay a lot for it. You wouldn't think that anyone would want my crap, but then I run into people like MR who buys stuff like this and I find there is hope. I will just put it on the list of things to do.

Easter 2006

when did Easter become as nuts as Christmas? With kids and grandparents it's getting as busy as Christmas. Hatching a plan on what we were doing this year for Easter was more of planning a full scale campain then hatching a plan.

Easter Eve.... 6:30pm.... Jenny got home from work. The plan of attack for the night. Frost 4 dozen cookies (luckily they had already been baked the day before), frost and decorate a cake (again luckily had been made the day before) for a Easter get together at Aunt Carol's. She could have easily just done one of the two dessert items in question and it would have been fine, but leave it to my wife to overkill. Not like there won't be a TON of food there anyway. Making the process longer, we decided to make the cake into the shape of a bunny, which required both of our expertise in geometry to make sure we cut the cake just right so the bunny ears were even. Quite a few ideas for templates and layouts were used to assure Bugs' ears was correct. I had to make sure that all camera's batteries were fully charged and had had space for pictures. I find out that the digital camera is full (I don't have a very big memory card) so I decide to dump the pictures onto the laptop, and at the same time load the pictures into our flickr account. Of course with only dial up at the house this will take FOREVER.

Easter Eve....8:30pm....After kid wragling for an hour to get them fed and asleep in bed I finally go down to the kitchen to see that a powdered sugar bomb has exploded in the kitchen. This stuff is everywhere. Jenny informs me that she spilled a little while making the frosting... a little? I set up the laptop to load my pictures into the flickr account. I figure I can load in pictures while I frost cookies. Bunny cake is cut and Jenny starts the decorating process with the tools and talents that she received from her cake decorating classes. The decorating process is pretty boring, but we are at the kitchen table and can't see the TV which is showing the good version of the Ten Commandments. I decide to put a movie on the laptop to watch while I download pictures. The fine cinema that we pick is Montey Python's Holy Grail. It seemed a bit sacrilegious to have the Ten Commandments on the TV and the Python gang quest for the holy grail in the kitchen. I am all set and ready to decorate my cookies when Jenny informs me she has to make frosting for the cookies... huh? What do you call that huge bowl of fluffy stuff right in front of you. That's when I learn the difference of cake frosting and cookie frosting (silly me). So another layer of powdered sugar in the kitchen and I have my frosting. So multi-tasking of frosting/decorating cookies, downloading pictures, charging batteries and listening to "the knights that say NI". We are finishing up and it's 1:00am on Easter Sunday. I head for bed and Jenny heads for couch (she has to wind down first).

Easter... 5:30am... The alarm goes off so Jenny can get up and go to 6:30am service with her parents. I call it the "Crack of dawn service". I have been to this service a few times but we decide not to try and get the kids up and upset them. I was truly heartbroken that I didn't have to go :). (Actually thinking about it, with the time change it was 4:30am real time) After waking her up and listening to her get ready I fall back asleep.

Easter... 6:30am.. I get up.. My plan is to get a shower and start the process of feeding, bathing, and clothing my two sons so we can get out the door by 8:00am to get to my church service. Ah the fun of living in a mixed marriage of different faiths. We usually don't go to both services every week, but we do for the big holidays. So, I get ready, get my youngest son fed and dressed for church, wake up my other son (big surprise) and throw him in a tub, and get him dressed. Jenny came home during the process and we actually made it out the door by 8:10am.

Easter... 8:30am.. met up with my mother at our church and we were able to sit next to her in the standing room only church. Kids act pretty good for most of the service but William is ready to go about 3/4 the way through mass.

Easter... 10:00am.. Brunch at my mom's house. A nice selection of baked goods and fruit. My mom gave up alcohol for Lent so we popped open a bottle of Champaign for memossa's but we decided "screw the orange juice" and just drank it straight. Of course my mom went nuts with gifts and stuff for the kids. That singing dancing bunny is going to be heading for the closet real soon now. We stayed there and visited until about 12:00pm.

Easter... 1:00pm... Lunch at Aunt Carol's house. We had went home after mom's and changed clothes and fed the baby. Aunt Carol's was the usual fun of kid's Easter egg hunt, kids running all over the place with toys, and TONS of food for lunch. Luckily Jenny's parents and brother were there too so they could chase down William while we vegetated on the couch. We finally headed home around 6:30pm.

Easter...8:00pm... I am attempting to put William down to bed. He doesn't go down quietly when he has had a nap in the afternoon. Jenny has passed out downstairs. Finally William falls asleep around 9:30pm or so. I go downstairs and just shake my head at the carnage of the kitchen and head to bed.

Hoppy Easter !!

Cute

mmmmmm... cookies

I work right behind Ellison Bakery (Archway cookies). When I leave work I know what flavor of cookies that were made that day due to the aroma of cookies baking. Imagine your grandma's kitchen to the MAX. All I can say is that I am glad that our windows don't open so I don't have to smell that delicious smell all day. I am sure that if I smelled the aroma all day I might actually get sick of it, but it's a nice treat going to and from work. I only wish they hadn't closed the thrift store at the factory so I could buy some of these treats. They are expanding the factory in the near future, maybe the store will return.

Daylight Savings Time

This year for the first time in decades we had to observe daylight savings time in Indiana. Over the years, all the debate over the years was exhausting and anoying. So when it became law, my thoughts were "oh well, just change the clocks and move on." Boy was I wrong. The local media did a very poor job in reminding people to change their clocks on Saturday night, but luckily I remembered. I actually fell alseap in the chair saturday night, but was able to be conscious enough to reset the clock in the bedroom before falling alseap. When I reset the clock it was 12:00am, but when I reset the clock it was 1:00am, boy it's late.

I woke up in the morning and it was still kinda dark outside. It was 8:00am, but wait, no it was 7:00am, damn it's early. It kinda like when you put your clock ahead by 5 or 10 minutes in the effort to get you going earlier, you KNOW its 5 or 10 minutes earlier, but this is one hour. I still mentally adjust the time to REAL time, but its not quite as bad after a week.

Other things the time change affected:

We went to 10:30 mass and even the priest commented at the end of mass he would be curious to see who showed up at 11:30am for 10:30am mass because they forgot the time change.

Monkeyjack forgot about the time change, as well as Williams birthday, or maybe we will just give that one to Lori :)

My mom forgot about the time change. It was only because her brother called her about going to church that she was informed.

Williams body clock has yet to adjust all the way. I usually would attempt to put him to sleep around 8:0pm, but I haven't been able to get him anywhere near a bedroom until around 9:00pm. He still gets up around 7:30am which is around the same time, or does he think he is getting up early?

I woke up monday for work and it was dark again. I just got used to it being light when I get up for work so I have to adjust again.

aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I hope somebody is making lotsa money.

The one good thing about the time change is that I got a chance to remember how to reset all of the clocks and watches in my house and in my car. I almost forgot.

Just Kids Stuff

William's 3rd birthday was last Sunday. It was a good get together with Family and friends. I imagined a houseful of kids screaming and running around, but there weren't really that many kids there. Most of the kids that William runs around with are in a playgroup that usually does celebrations during their Wednesday get togethers. I was hoping to kick the kids outside to play, but it was a little cold and it started to rain.

One of Williams favorite characters is Bob the builder, so we spent last weekend running all over town to find birthday stuff for his party. I am not sure how he got hooked on this character since he doesn't get a chance to see it that often on TV. Jenny spent most of Friday and Saturday getting the food ready to go including baking and decorating a "Bob the Builder" cake. I cranked up our old hot dog steamer that has the ability to quickly steam large quantities of hotdogs and buns in a short time. Unfortunatly I did not have time to make my coney sauce before the party, but I will soon. William is really getting into opening presents and really enjoys it. Any clothes that are opened are quickly tossed aside, in hope of the next present being a "fun" one.

I attempted to buy William a toy for his birthday. He loves his matchbox/hot wheels cars so I thought it would be cool to buy him a track so he could race his cars. Now I remember these tracks from my youth where you would hang the track on something (chair/table) and let gravity do its work and they would race. Good luck trying to find this simple toy. These days, all of the tracks are power assisted and alot require special cars that only race on those tracks. I didn't have time to do an intensive search for his birthday, but maybe for christmas. Or it may require a trip to E-bay.


Date to Note: March 30, 2006 Andrew rolled over to his stomach by himself

This time I might have went too far

I was looking at the pictures that Keith had scanned into his flickr account last week and came across a very dated picture of his brother Scott. I am saying circa 1980 with knee high socks, shorts and flashing the "peace" sign. Looking at this I decided that it needed to be animated, so I took the picture into photoshop and made it so Scott's arm waved back and forth. Unfortunatly I could not post the animation here because of limits on download size that I have, but Keith put it on his website.

http://www.monkeyjack.com/love-the-socks.htm

Upon doing this a couple things came to my mind in the form of good news and bad news. The good news is I am learning more about creating those animations so I can mess with almost anything I see in the internet. The bad news it that I might have ticked off a guy who knows tons more about the internet that I will ever know, and he hosts my website so it wouldn't surprise me to see it redirected to a porn site, or my site might have unauthorized changes on it.

Yeah I know I shouldn't have poked the bear, but it just had to be done.

Son of a ... razzzle frazzle snort snort

My life...

The automatic door locks on our jeep are acting up. They don't always unlock when they should and make a weird noise when they do work. With this said, we decided not to leave the keys in the jeep, even though it's in the garage, until we get a second set of keys made.

Myself and the family were out and about last week(in the jeep). When we got home we went through the usual routine of unloading kids and stuff out of the jeep. Being mindful of the keys I put them in my coat pocket to grab Andrew and the car carrier out of the car. The next morning was the usual rush rush rush to get ready and out the door. I have about a 30 minute drive to work (one way). I got to work, I clocked in, and I was heading for my desk. At that point I noticed that my right side was heavier than usual. I put my hands in my pocket and felt the jeep keys, THE ONLY JEEP KEYS. SON OF A ...MOTHER.... FLUBBER!!!! I knew this would happen. Now usually it's not a real big deal since my wife doesn't go anywhere during the days, but no, this day she has all kinds of places to go with and without kids. So quickly weighing my options I realize the only option is to run the keys home. Did I mention 30 minutes one way??? So I clocked out after being at work for 3 minutes and proceed to take an hour morning drive back to the house and back to work. The look on my wife's face when she heard the garage door open, and me hand her the keys, was pretty funny. Luckily I made up the hour at work that day so I wasn't docked for the morning jaunt. You think I would go out the next day and have keys made, but they are special "chip" keys and I need to go to a dealership and just haven't had the time.

They call this a party?

Before getting married, I became aware of a activity that people, mostly women, ok all women get involved in. I call them the vicious cycle parties. They are also known as stamp parties, candle parties, and other various home selling businesses. The first personal experience I had with this is when a guy called me up and said he was a friend of Monkeyjack and would like to give me a short (yeah right short) presentation for some knives he was selling. Being a good friend, and now knowing what it was exactly was going on I agreed to this meeting. After an hour or so of this guy showing me all of the wonderful things this Cutco knife could do, I really wasn't to interested in what he was selling. I was also cursing Monkeyjack under my breath for unleashing this yahoo on me. But I finally agreed to buy a knife to get this guy out of my house. Yeah, I still have this knife and it is as sharp as the day I bought it and fantastic, but I didn't know that then. (I had bought this cleaner stuff from a guy going door to door that I believe was just some DAWN soap in water, so I was a bit gun shy). Before this guy will leave he insists that I give him a referral to another person and won't leave until I give him one. This is where I found out that this guy wasn't really a friend of Monkeyjack, more of an acquaintance, and this is how he keeps the vicious cycle going. I give him my brothers phone number, and as soon as the door hits this guy in the butt, I am on the phone with my brother telling him that this guy is not a friend, so the decision for the presentation is all his.

Anyway, while dating my wife, she would occasionally be unavailable for a date due to having to go to a party. I have leaned over the years about the different types of parties that there are. I think she has been to about every type of party, except for a toy party. (Not a kid's toy party but a (buzz buzz) adult TOY party). I have heard about these parties but never really knew anyone who went to one and admitted it. We currently have a whole closet full of candle crap from all the candle parties that she has been to.

The thing with those parties is that one party spawns another party. Usually one person at the party agrees to host another party with "other" friends and family and so the vicious cycle begins. But in this world of housewife wholesale there is a few things that I actually find useful, quality made and interesting. Dicsovery (kids) Toys is one, but Pampered chef sells some cool kitchen gadgets that are useful. My wife hosted a pampered chef party last Friday at our house, and along with the cool stuff I saw, she actually got a recipe for a appetizer that is delicious. Usually I clear out for those parties, but this time I stayed at the house since most of the participants at the party were friends and family. I hid upstairs in our bedroom, but it just proves to me I need to get my basement setup sometime soon for a "guys" getaway location.

St. Patricks Day

There are some holidays that I get excited about and some that I could care less. One of the holidays I really enjoy is St. Patricks Day. Being of Irish decent it feels good to take a day and celebrate my heritage. Also having visited the Emerald Isle, I feel a connection.

But being my life.... nothing is normal in the celebration.

I have found the most informative video about the history of St. Patrick and his life was from a Veggie Tales video my son has. The video is a "cliff notes" of the history of St. Patrick. You would think it would be from a website or a big book, but nope, Veggie Tales.

The beer I chose to celebrate the day?.. Guiness?.. Harp?... nope, a beer from the bahamas called "Kalik". I would have bought some Harp, but my mom just returned from Florida and was able to get some of the hard to get imported beer. So I just put some dreadlocks under my big green hat. I got hooked on Kalik when my brother and I went to the bahamas for a day trip a bunch of years ago. While they were selling the usual Bud Light, miller light stuff for almost $4 a can we could get this local beer for about a buck...score!! Another bonus was that the beer was alot more potent than the american stuff. After a couple of these, my brother and I were feeling real good. So, I would drink it when I got down to the bahamas. We found out they were selling it in the states and pick up some whenever we get down to Florida. Either the stuff they import into the states isn't as potent or I have a higher tollerance, but it just doesn't have the kick like that first time. (I think they sell the more potent stuff only down there under the "gold" label)

Anyway, back to St. Patricks Day. What to eat? I love a good Reuben sandwich and usually treat myself to this on St. Patricks day, but damn, St. Patricks day on a friday during lent, (No Meat). So cheese pizza it is.

What to watch? We don't have cable TV so the usual fare of movies aren't availble. I do have "The Quiet Man" on DVD... cool. It's a good John Wayne movie. I need to find Darby O'Gill and the little people sometime too. Plan was to put the kids to bed and put in the movie. No problem, right? Nope. William gets an ear infection, so it is a battle to get him his medicine, get him settled into bed and finally asleap. So I finally start my movie with my beer and about halfway through I fall asleap. I wake up as the final credits are rolling.. damn.

Maybe next year it will be a normal St. Patricks day, but I doubt it.

Birdie??

This video was sent to me the other day.



Along with being funny I can say I have seen this happen in real life. My brother and I were playing at Canturbury Green golf course when we got to the hole on the back 9 where it goes along the pond by the apartments. Geese were always a problem along this hole since the old people in the apartments fed the geese so they just hung out there. My brother and I were getting ready to tee off and I commented how funny it would be if we were to hit one of the geese along the fairway. We just laughed since there was no way we would hit the geese because they were about 50 yards away and out tee shots on the short par 3 would be well above their heads. I hit my shot near the green when my brother gets up to the tee. He hits this screamer of a worm burner (snake raper) that only goes about 4 inches above the ground and nails this goose in the ass. The goose squawked loudly and headed for the pond. There was a second of fear in our eyes as we thought of hurting the poor, pooping machines, but that quickly turned to laughter. I think the goose is alright,but it was hard to tell since we couldn't see too clearly from the tears of laughter in our eyes. The old people sneared at us, thinking we did it on purpose. The worse part is that my brother had to hit his second shot from close to where he hit the goose. Along with being full of goose crap, other geese didn't get the hint and stood around where my brother was going to hit again. He thought that the goose might get mad and come after him, but I assused him that he was pretty safe.

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Happy Dance

Why is Jeff so happy?

~

In memory of Sid

I found out that our friends were going to put their dog ,Sid, to sleep last night. Loosing an animal is much like loosing a family member. Especially hard is explaining it to their young son.

Our prayers are with you.


Photo courtesy of eledteacher (but he doesn't know it)

Fun Beer Facts you should know

About 4000 years ago, it was the accepted practice in Babylonia that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calender was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know to day as the "Honey moon"

Before invention of the thermometer, brewers used to check the temperature by dipping their thumb, to find whether appropriate for adding Yeast. Too hot, the yeast would die. This is where we get the phrase " The Rule of the Thumb"

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender used to yell at themto mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. From where we get "mind your own P's and Q's".

After consuming a vibrant brew called Aul or Ale, the Vikings would go fearlessly to the battlefield, without their armour, or even their shirts. The "Berserk" means "bear shirt" in norse, and eventually to the meaning of wild battles.

Way down in 1740, the Admiral Veron of the British fleet decided to water down the navy's rum, which naturally, the sailors weren't pleased with. They nicknamed the Admiral Old Grog, after the still stiff grogram coats he used to wear. The term grog soon began to mean the watered down drink itself. When you are drunk on this this grog, you are "groggy", a word still in use.

Long ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim of their beer mugs or ceremic/glass cups. The whistle was used to order services. Thus we get the phrase, "wet your whistle".

MOM STORIES

I have the best mom in the world, but sometimes she does stuff that just makes me scratch my head and ask "WHY?". I have always wanted to write down these stories as they happen or when I recall them so I think I will use this format to do just that.

My mom has always been pretty independent and liked to do what she wanted without anyone else telling her that she couldn't. This especially came about when my parents got divorced and then no one really could tell her no.

Story #1

When most people buy things out of a catalog it's not a very high dollar item. Usually clothes, seeds, or fantastic fundraising items from WOW fundraising. My mom has gone against the grain on this one... TWICE.

While having her Lebaron serviced at the local Chrysler dealership she saw the sales brochure for the Plymouth prowler back in 1996 (I think) and thought I just have to have it. So she went onto a waiting list for this car and waited over a year for one of these cars. She waited so long that they were into the second year of production before one became available. She waited so long that the dealership was sold to someone else in that time. That became a little bit of a thing with her since the new owners of the dealership didn't have the old waiting list and told her she would have to go to the back of the list. That kinda sucks going from #2 on the list to somewhere waaayyy down the list. But actually the list wasn't that long since all of the other people on the list either changed their mind or went somewhere else to pick it up. She finally got her car and paid way to much for it. The cars were being sold for much more than list price up at the Kruse Auction, but that was last year. She didn't buy it to sell she bought it to drive. The car was pretty to look and and turn heads,but it didn't have any power under the hood. She owned that car for about 5 years and hardly ever drove it (I drove it more than her). She ended up selling the car with around 2,000 miles on it and took about a $10,000 bath trying to get rid of it. I told her to keep it since it will probably become worth something years from now.. kinda like a Delorian.



You think she would learn... Nope. A few years ago we were having dinner with her and she pulls out a brochure for a new boat. "Look what I just bought" she said. I just looked at her stunned. "You What?". She informs me that a guy at the Marina had talked her into buying this new type of boat which was basically a pontoon boat with three "toons" on the bottom and a 400 Merc Cruiser I/O engine. Again, paying way too much money. Oh and by the way it wouldn't be in for a few months. Sigh. So we finally got the boat and it was a freakin pontoon with a big engine. It went pretty fast in a straight line, but not quite fast enough to pull a skier. (at least no one brave enough in my family). You dare not try and corner this boat fast since it took half the lake to turn it around. she basically could have bought a couple Ski Nautiques for what she paid for the boat. Again, years later she tried to sell the boat and was informed that it would be hard to sell since no one bought those boats since they sucked and that my mom, I think, had one of the only ones in the State. The boat was finally sold at Auction with the rest of the cottage stuff (another story later) for a substantial $$$ loss.

She doesn't buy things out of a catalog that much anymore. Not that she wouldn't, she just can't afford it.

Memory

I wonder why my memory is swiss cheese. How come I remember the dumbest detail about something I knew years ago, but I can't remember what happened last weekend. I guess I just have a memory for unimportant stuff.

I can remember a combination to a lock that I have owned since the 80's, but haven't used in at least 15 years. I came upon this lock while moving to a new house (I don't remember which house.. there have been so many) and I had forgotten to write down the combination, but I rattled of the combination 8, 38, 24 and it opened. I have since written down the combination on a piece of tape and stuck it to the back of the lock "just in case".

while on my trip to Ireland they had a contest to see who could guess how far it was from Fort Wayne to Ireland. I got it within about 20 miles. No one else was close. Someone asked me how the hell I knew that and I just had to say I read it or heard it someplace and remembered, but I have to pause to remember what year I was married (don't tell Jenny) I get it right, but I have to pause.

Why do I remember cartoons like Speed Buggy, Hong Kong Phooey, Quick Draw Mcgraw, and why do I remember the theme song from the cartoon Godzilla series. "UP FROM THE DEPTHS.... THIRTY STORIES HIGH.. BREATHING FIRE..HE'S HEADING FOR THE SKY.. GODZILLA.. GODZILLA... and godzooky"

I guess what I choose to remember is just a little different from everyone else.

Bullfight??

After reading my last post I am reminded of another story.

After graduating college my brother, mother, and I went to Cancun mexico for a vacation. Yes we went with my mother, but she was paying for the trip so we just took it in stride. As soon as we got off the plane we boarded a bus to our hotel room and the tour guide in front of the bus starts selling bottles of beer out of a cooler for a buck. I like this vacation!!! After getting to the hotel we met with a tour advisor and looked over the opportunities for day trips and sightseeing stuff to do. The one thing we notice was that there was a bullfight, but it was that day only (I think only once a month) and it started in a little while. We decided to go, but it was a bit unnerving being in a foreign country for only minutes and getting into a taxi cab that could have taken us almost anywhere (we had to dicker with the taxi driver for how much he would charge us to take us to the bullfight). But we pulled up to the stadium and it looked like a pretty nice place. We entered the stadium into the actual arena where the bullfight took place so you got to see what it looked like on the "field of play" so to speak. It was kind of like the first time I walked onto the football field at the Hoosier dome. After you mingled and took pictures, you climbed up some stairs to the bleachers for a seat and they removed the stairs. Again I liked this place since they had people strolling around the stadium selling beer for a buck. Let the bullfight begin...

Let me say now that everything I knew about bullfighting was basicly from bugs bunny cartoons where the guy comes out and waves the red cloth. The bull tries to run into the red cloth, chalks up his horns, and has a ring through his nose. I never thought of what really happens at a bullfight. I thought the bull comes out and they dance around for a little bit until the bull gets tired and they switch matadors and bulls. I WAS SOOOOOOOOOO WRONG.

The bull comes out, and the matador and him dance around a little bit, then a guy on a horse comes along and stabs the bull between the shoulder blades with a spear causing the bull to start bleeding. WTF! I never saw this on cartoons. Then the matador and bull continue their "dance" until the bull basicly bleeds out and can barely breathe or stand, whereupon the matador takes out a sword and stabs the bull until it falls. I sat there with my mom and brother in total shock as the crowd cheered. Then another guy on a horse drags off the dead bull carcass out of the ring. I think they did this like 6 or 7 times (no wonder it was once a month).

The last matador thought he was hot $hit and proceeded to kill the bull and cut it's ear off. He paraded around the ring with the ear and the crowd cheering. Then he looked right at my mom, blew her a kiss (again WTF), and threw the ear up to her. We all basicly dove away from the flying ear but it was caught by the woman behind us (who he was actually throwing the ear to). On the way out of the stadium we passed the area where they had put all of the carcasses. I hope they were headed for a hell of a good BBQ. Of course on the way back to the hotel I leave my fanny pack (yes a fanny pack) in the taxi, whereupon I loose my sunglasses, camera, and other stuff... on the first day of my vacation!! Needless to say I headed right for the bar.

Ahh cow.. we knew you so well

(Marcus might not want to read this)

This weekend while my dad and stepmom were visiting, my brother offered to cook dinner for them on Saturday night. I offered to have the dinner at our house since our house is kid-proofed and easier to handle to two boys on the home field. So everyone gets together at our house and my brother brings over the meat. He informs us that this is fresh meat from my sister-in-law's co-workers ranch. Usually I don't know the history of my meat, but I do now. I should be happy that I actually know that this cow wasn't fed steroids, and preservatives, but it's also a little unnerving not buying the meat from the grocery. I mean it's not like we got the meat out of the back of a pick-up truck, but the processing of meat and grading of meat is there for a purpose. We fired up the grill and cooked the known, but unnamed, cow. It was a little fatty, but pretty good meat. We have a few more cuts in the freezer to try.

Ding Dong

My dad and stepmom were visiting this weekend from Alababa (whoa nelly). I knew that they were heading over to my house so I unlocked the front door figuring that they might just walk in since it was our house. Even if they didn't just walk in, if William heard the "Ding Dong" of the doorbell he might run to the front door and let them in. So I am in the front room playing with my sons and I hear the door bell ring. I ask William "who's that?" and he gets excited and heads to the front door. I am waiting to hear my dad or stepmom say something like "HI WILLIAM" , but it is quiet so I decide to investigate. I thought maybe I had relocked the door by mistake. As I rounded the hallway I see my son holding open the front door to two kids selling candy for their baseball team. Oops. It's so funny to see the two kids looking at my son and wondering "is he alone? what do we do? is this the man of the house? is there a dollar in his piggy bank to complete the sale?". I buy a candy bar from the kids and they went on their way. A half hour later the door bell rings again. This time when William heads toward the front door it's actuall my dad and stepmom and I hear "HI WILLIAM!". Thats the way it should be...