Opening Day

The whole family played hooky yesterday to go to opening day at the ball park! We go there early, grilled in the parking lot then headed in for the game. The weather remained great the whole day. Unfortunately the Rangers didn't deliver :-( But great fun was had by all!

More Hail

This weekend was the clean up after the hail storm. There are tons of twigs and sticks from the trees, chopped up plants, etc. Here is the pool skimmer lid and chlorine floater. The floater was at the bottom of the pool, sunk by the hail.

Spring Time in Texas


The first week of April has had all the signs that spring is really hear in North Texas.





The weather is all over the place, the boy's first baseball game last Friday night was brutally cold. Not sure what the temp was but it was cold! Two days later it was 85 and humidity out the roof! His second baseball game was Wednesday night. It was originally scheduled for Monday but it was rained out with the first major spring storm complete with hail and tornado sirens.

Last night at 3AM we had a hail storm and toronado sirens again. I'm sure the roof is a goner. These are hails stones still in the yard 5 hours later. During these storms the trees get shredded and their fodder is all over.



It's also Nascar weekend. The RV city is here, pictures don't do it justice. Who decide to make this race at this time of year in North Texas was insane. The same weekend last year I was driving home for work and the big racetrack jumbotron said "Take cover immediately"! There was a huge funnel cloud moving up 35W right over the track. Not exactly sure where you take cover in an RV...




On the bight side the blue bonnets are bluming, crawfish has finally arrived in Texas, and opening day at the ballpark is next Tuesday!

Today in History... 35 years ago the world's first mobile call

Matin Cooper was the corporate director of Research and Development for Motorola. Cooper is the inventor named on US patent 3906166 "Radio telephone system" filed on October 17, 1973. He is considered the inventor of the first portable handset and the first person to make a call on a portable cell phone on April 3, 1973, to the bewilderment of passers-by in a New York City street. That first call, placed to his rival Joel Engel, Bell Labs' head of research, caused a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward the person and away from the place. It was the incarnation of his vision for personal wireless communications, distinct from cellular car phones. Cooper later revealed that watching Captain Kirk talking in his communicator on the television show Star Trek inspired him to research the mobile phone.

Love Music Round 2 for 2008

moe. @ Lakewood Theater - March 29


moe., the reigning kings of the jam band scene came to Dallas last weekend. I always see these guys when they come and moe. always delivers. The Lakewood is not a venue in use very often. Its 4 or 5 times bigger than the Granada which moe. has out grown. Musically nobody cranks up the intensity like they can. Plus the shows always have a great light display, not bad for a 'bar' band. This year they stepped that up another notch. There were 18 multi-axes lights in the setup that produced an incredile visual display. moe. threw in some classic jam vehicles like Rebubula, Captian America and Crab Eyes. Plus lots of new stuff and some sandwiched segues into rock classics of Baba O'Reilly and Dear Prudence. A audio visual extravaganza!

An added bonus that I didn't realize until just before show time was the opening act. Jam newcomers Tea Leaf Green opened the show. They have made a mark on the scene as of late and I was glad to catch them. Their show was a bit reduced since it was the opening thing. But it did include a lot of crowd favorites in that short time on stage.

Stupid Phone Company Messages

You know how the phone company has stupid messages when you call incorrectly. Things like you don't have to dial a 1 (then why not just ignore it for me) or you do have to dial a 1, etc.

Well this morning I was trying to connect to a remote computer using my home line. This is some old school methods here but should work for what I needed. The number I'm dialing is to Oklahoma so I did add the 1. The computer starts the call with those customary beeps and then I get a phone company message saying "This call cannot be completed because the number you are dialing from has been disconnected". What???? I get a dial tone, the phone makes calls, all seems normal. What the heck does this mean that my number has been disconnected?

After messing with dial properties and comm programs for an hour I resort to Google. Apparently this is the message you are given when your phone is not allowed to make long distance calls! Well why didn't they just tell me that in the first place? Maybe "This call cannot be completed because you don't have long distance service"??? Frustrating and annoying.

Day 2 of a week that didn't start well!

Monday :-(

Its Monday, that is bad enough. Look outside and rain clouds are forming. Get into the office and start up the computer only to be greated by this:

Not a good sign for this week...

He is risen, He is risen indeed

Joan and I went to sunrise service this morning. For such a special day seeing the sunrise while giving thanks is always inspiration and divine.

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see."

Smokin' Lizards

Joan was out cleaning up the backyard. She took the rain lid off of the chimenia and there where our little gecko friends hanging out underneath. Kind of ironic since the lid has a lizard scupltor on it. She started the fire to burn twigs and such and these guys didn't show any interest in leaving. Maybe they like the warmth. You can see one guy here even crawling into the chimney...

HOB

Finally I made it to the House of Blues. After many attempts that fell appart for one reason or another this one finally came through. I went to see the North Mississippi Allstars and they were excellent. Good place (smoke free!) and good music.

LSU Basketball



Its been a tough year. LSU finished in the final 4 two years ago and then in last place of the SEC west last year. This year didn't look much better as a rough start with injurys, academic problems, and finally a fired coach. But give Butch Pierre some credit, after all of tha LSU managed to finished 4th in the west ahead of Alabama and Auburn.



The SEC tournament starts Thursday!

Louisiana Blooms

I was in Louisiana on the first weekend of March. It was still brown here and snow storms to come. But in Louisiana it was warm and sunny. Spring had started and many things were blooming already:

I love the spring and I'm ready for it to kick in here.

SNOW


Yesterday we were suppose to get snow in the evening. But about 9:30 my guy at the Eagle Mountain test site calls in and tells me he is getting out of there because he has an inch of ice on the test house! I look out the window and nothing here yet. Went into my 11 meeting and get called by Joan asking if she should bail out of school. So I look out the window again and its snowing! Yikes! So she smartly gets home and I wait a little longer. Well, maybe I waited a little too long, the drive home was no fun at all. It took an hour and a half to go 35 miles... next time I'll be quicker on the gettting out.


The view cruising up I35W at 5mph


A lovely view of Texas Motor Speedway


A crazy week, this was the second snow storm after the one we had on Tuesday.

Louisiana Eats

I went to the annual family meeting this weekend. One thing that is great about Louisiana is the food. Here is Saturday's run down:

Breakfast

The day starts of with the traditional Louisiana breakfast of Beingets and Cafe au Lait.

Lunch

Delicious Crawfish Etouffe over rice.

Dinner

Fried Gulf shrimp with rice dressing and toast. Here you see whats left of it. The shrimp dinner from Tiger is very generous, this tray was packed full of shrimp at the start.

So many wonderful flavors all in one single day. I'm already craving this stuff again.

Congratulations Commodores!!





#14 Vandy beat #1 Tennessee last night! Only two days before that Tennesse (then #2) beat #1 undefeated Memphis! What a shoot out in the state of Tennessee. I love watching these college basketball games as we heat up to March Madness.


Way to go 'dores!

Birthday Beast

It has become tradition that for my birthday my Mom cooks a prime rib! This is the third year she has cooked this fine cut of meat for the family. And, of course, she has perfected it. It was amazing! Thanks Mom!

Feast your eyes on the delicious, mouth watering beast of yummy goodness:

Cuba

Yesterday's news of the Fidel stepping down is historical. My hope is that Cuba will begin to open back up to the U.S. The embargo has gone on way to long and its really time to put that to rest. Since Fidel was really the face of the 'revolution' I'm hoping the U.S. can now use that to reduce anti-Cuba policy.

Nothing more was eye opening to me about Cuba then the Buena Vista Social Club. This was a project of Ry Cooder's where he went to Cuba and found all the great Cuban musicians from just before the revolution. Part of the project included an amazing CD as well as DVD. Watching the DVD is fascinating just from seeing Havana. Time has stood still since the revolution. All the cars are old 50s American cars. Such a contrast in beauty as well with the Carribean beaches and old city.

Hopefully one day I will get to visit Cuba...

Spring Break Approaches

Daughter #2 asked if we can boil crawfish on spring break. Heck ya!! Nothing like the smell of the crawfish pot. And nothing like Louisiana food! Just makes me think of going to jazzfest. Sure its got fantastic music but its the food that makes it. We eat constantly an the list of goodies is long:



Etoufee

Softshell Crab Po-Boy

Softshell Crawfish Po-Boy

Bar-b-que'd Oyster Po-Boy

Boiled Crawfish

Crawfish Pie

Crawfish Cheese Bread

Crawfish Monica

Cochon de lait

Cracklin'

Crawfish Sack

Fried Crawfish

Spicy Crawfish Sushi Rolls

Crawfish Beignets

Gumbo

Jumbolaya

Remoulade Shrimp Salad


....



oh man, I could go on and on, just like Bubba in Forest Gump.



So darned tasty, mmmm

Spring Try Outs

Yesterday the boy had his spring try out for 9/10 baseball. This is the first time he has ever had to try out. That was a bit scary. Plus he has barely picked up a baseball since the end of the fall season months ago. He did great though!

The try out had a little bit of everything. First he had to bat, 5 pitches. He fouled one and got an in-field fair hit on one. Then he had to run bases from home to third. Next was short stop, take 5 grounders and throw to first. He got all the grounders and had decent throws to first. Finally was left field for 3 pop flies then throw to first. He got 2 of them and had the 3rd but it leaked out.

Overall he did great and I was very proud of him! Can't wait for baseball to start!

Walking in the Desert with My Ears Plugged

Seems these days I'm carrying all my worries on my own shoulders. Nothing big really, just life. Kept trying to blog about it even but everything I wrote was whining. This morning as I woke up I realized what I was doing and really had to stop. Just stop and release my yoke to Him.

After that I arrived at work and realized today I have a corporate audit. Following that I have to tell an employee he is layed off. Talk about throwing the storms at me! Oh yeah, I'm also right in the middle of doing my taxes :-(

Its so easy to get buried in this stuff and just start to carry it alone. Why, I don't know.

Its fitting that I'm reading Jeremiah 12, no coicidence I'm sure :-)

HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!

Down in New Orleans
Where the blues was born
It takes a cool cat
To blow a horn
On LaSalle and Rampart Street
The combo's there with a mambo beat

The Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
Party Gras, pambo, mambo, mambo
Mardi Gras, mambo-ooh
Down in New Orleans

Join the Chief with the Zulu gang
And truck on down
Where the mambo's swing

The Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
Party Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
Pardi Gras, mambo-ooh
Down in New Orleans

Tasty Bacon

If only such a machine really existed!

Escargot



Last night we went out to eat and the menu included escargot. Growing up this is something I ate from the time I was to young to remember. So it was never a big deal to me to eat snails and they are very tasty. But my kids have never really been exposed to it, they just figure its another one of those weird things Dad eats. Last night I coaxed kid #3 to try it. She said she couldn't do it. I told her she was 18 and needed to be more adventurous. After all she is getting ready to leave home in a few months to go off to college. Carpe Diem!

She tried it, and she liked it! And she had another. Go her...

The Big Hole

Few things can prepare you for actually gazing upon the Grand Canyon. No picture does it justice. The immense size and grandier overwhelm your brain. You just look out and go 'wow'...

Joan and one of the kids went to northern Arizona last weekend. It was a college visit to NAU. They made the time to drive up to the canyon as well. Whether she goes to that college or not the trip to see the canyon alone is well worth it.

Little Children

The innocence and simplicity of little kids is always so refreshing. After a disagreement there are no mind games, no complications, no expectations. Just I'm sorry, I love you. and lets laugh again.

The Dream

You know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July, and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

Out of the Blue, Into the Black



In 1979 I moved from California to Arizona. I would start my sophomore year at a new high school in a new state. And as it would turn out I would only be there to complete my sophomore and junior years, two short years. High school is hard enough normally so these were trying times.

With a late registration there wasn't much left for electives so somehow I ended up in yearbook. Talk about oil and water, this was no fit at all but I had no choice. In the same class would be Ken who was also in the same predicament. Very quickly we gravitated to each other and would remain inseparable for two years. (Ken is on the right in the first row and I'm on the right in the second row above).

This would be a friendship deeper than any. And in two years Ken taught me more about life than I had even known possible. He was a very quiet person but incredibly intelligent and talented in many things. We had adventure after adventure.

The desert was our playground. A 10 minute drive and we were in the middle of nowhere. So we went out to play everyday. Ken got me into hunting. Bird hunting mostly. We would go out in the desert and shoot skeet to practice. Then when dove season rolled around we scouted orange groves shooting doves and dodging pellets. Right outside of Phoenix was a quail preserve for hunting as well. We would spend hours marveling at how a stupid bird could be so smart as we chased them in endless circles. More rabbits died at the hands of frustrated quail hunters than quail did.

Ken and I camped at many lakes in Arizona and tried to catch fish. We never did but that didn't stop the pursuit. Just being out in the wild was enough. Our favorite lake was Lake Pleasant. The lake had the infamous cliffs that we stupidly jumped from for amazingly scary thrills.

I bought my first bass in Arizona. Ken had a Gibson Les Paul with sunburst finish just like Jimmy Page had in the Song Remains the Same. We had big Sunn amps and learned how to jam for hours in the key of G. Our theme song was the Neil Young song "Hey Hey My My" . We played it just like on Rust Never Sleeps, real loud and real distorted!

Ken bought himself an Apple II computer. Back then having a computer was not even something you knew was possible. But not Ken, he had been studying and dived in. He was programming graphics and games in assembly language all on his own. He told me he was getting it before he did and I didn't believe him. $1200 was a lot of bread in 1980 for a high school kid. As usual he told me I never believed what he said. And he always did what he said.

He drove an old blue station wagon his parents gave him. We saved all of our coke bottles on the floor. That way when we coasted into the gas station out of gas we could cash the bottles in for another tank! A few months later Ken's dad bought 7 Corvairs just as a hobby to restore them. Ken got a red one. That was a strange car, a '68 Corvair Monza, standard shift, flat six in the back. You learn real quick how to put the belts back on... Many a dough nut was had in our desert playground.

So much more packed into two years, two of the best years of my life. I moved away, Ken eventually moved away form Phoenix as well. After I graduated from college I took a job in Tucson. Ken was going to U of A in Tucson then so we reunited. He was the best man at my wedding, I was the best man at his wedding. After only 3 years I moved back to the south and Ken went to California.

We would see each other again only twice over the next 20 years. But he was always my best friend. Two years ago I got a call from a friend of his saying Ken had died of cancer. He died 2 years ago today. I didn't even know he was sick. It was like a kick in the stomach.

Ken truly loved people and he always looked at life as an adventure. These are things he showed by the way he lived. These are things I will always remember when I think of him.

Revolution?

The use of the Beatles songs for commercials does bring up other thoughts. Certainly John, Paul, George and Ringo didn't write songs to later be used for Target commercials. I know this came to a head a while back when it first occurred for a car commercial. But the former Beatles don't own the rights to their own songs and had no say. I think Michael Jackson actually owned them and he allowed a song to be used for a car commercial. That certainly caused a break between Ebony and Ivory.

But would Paul and Ringo object today to this happening? I would say probably not. The idealism of the 60s is long gone. Buried in the mess of the 70s and me generations that followed. John's revolution was a generational revolution against the Vietnam war. Would anyone today dare put up billboards in NYC saying "War is Over - If You Want It"? How many people really care? The war is largely ignored. Its not humanized to any degree. Rarely do you see news stories about war in Iraq. Instead the coverage is about Wall Street and recession.

It seemed you used to be able to discuss politics to some degree and look at issues from both sides. Now you are either Red or Blue. Speaking from the wrong side gets a revolt against you, usually in a personal manner.

You tell me it's the institution,

Well, you know

You better free your mind instead.

Will it be alright? Dunno. Maybe its easier to sell products to the institution at Target then it is to free your mind. And just dont' worry about the rest.

Hello Goodbye


I saw a Target add yesterday that used the Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye" as it's theme. This was instantly recognizable. When I was a kid everyone knew the Beatles and everyone knew their songs. My brother was the huge Beatle fan, he still wear's a Beatles belt buckle. I gave him a Beatles record (yes, the the vinyl kind) every year for Christmas during our teen years. He was John or Ringo and I would have to be Paul or George. We would have conversations in our best Liverpoolian accents! My brother is a drummer. His very first band played in our school's talent show and the song they played was Day Tripper. He cried real tears of sorrow when he found out John Lennon had been killed. For many years after the Beatles broke up they were still reveared as the pinnacle. So many wondered when they would get back together.

I bet anyone over the age of 40 could rattle off at least 10 Beatles songs at the snap of a finger and could probably sing along with more than that. Its hard to imagine any other band that could have so many songs that so many people know.

The Beatles have finally faded. Those were different times. But the path they made was remarkable, just remarkable. And there will always be those songs that one can instantly recognize and sing along with. Even if its in a commercial....

Welcome to the new year

Every year the new year is brought in by a visit from some old friends. This bird is the Cedar Waxwing. I see a small flock of them once a year. These are some very unusual looking birds. They come in to eat berries. I assume the birds must be migrating as I only see them usually one day or just a day or two during a single week of the year. Then they are gone. What is weird is I always seem to catch seeing them each year even though they are here for such a short time.

On Saturday the waxwings were in our cherry trees. It was good to see them again.

Louisiana State University Tigers
2007 National Champions