The Great Cracker Barrel Robbery

Yesterday, the Bear and I saddled up the Breeze and headed Southeast to Tucson to meet up with The Blogging Boss, and his son Catman. It was because of this blog that we even knew each other.

The Boss was in the area visiting his parents, so we made plans to meet in Tucson to have lunch and talk a bit.

The Bear slept most of the hour and a half drive, so he was loaded to the eyeballs with energy once we got to the meeting place which was The Cracker Barrel.

Once we were seated, the Bear kicked in the afterburners and was bouncing of the walls. I was very embarrassed having to try and rope him in while maintaining conversation with the Boss. He, thankfully, was very patient with both of us, and got his talking in during the all-to-brief moments of still and quiet.

We had a very nice visit despite the entertainment and mayhem that the Bear provided. I did get him to tell the knock-knock joke though, :) The Boss and I discussed a variety of things from work to programming to writing. Catman showed me a few of the things he has been working on, one of which can be seen by clicking on his link above. He has done some pretty cool things.

So, you are probably wondering about the title of this post...

The Boss was kind enough to pay for our meals because we had driven so far to see them. I thought that was very nice of him. While he was paying the tab, I was fielding "Can I have Candy?" type questions from the Bear as we perused the gift shop. I told him that he already had treats in the car.

We all went outside to take a few pictures, and although I had seen what the Bear was sucking on, it didn't register for several minutes. I realized he was sucking on a push-pop. I asked The Boss if he had bought that for him, but he hadn't. I obviously knew I hadn't, so the Bear had managed to nab some candy, and make it outside undetected.

When we were done with photos, I took the Bear back inside and got the attention of the store manager. We played the roles of stern parent and concerned business owner to send home the message that we don't take things we didn't pay for. After that, I went to the counter and paid for the push-pop. I of course had no cash on me, so I had to use my card for 59 cents. :)

We sent the Boss and Catman home with a jar of DramaMama's homemade salsa and a gift for their home.

My Many Hats

I'm sure we all feel this way, all our different callings in life mixed in with our hobbies, work, church, schools, the yard, all fighting for our attention.

Some of my hats are of course Hubby and Dad, work... OY! Then writing, my business, and computer go-to guy for the extended family.

Recently, I have had a wave of people asking for help with their blogs. This was fun, because I got to put on my "prest-o change-o use the old thing and make it look completely different" hat.

I first took on "Beneath the Ivy Wreath" where I designed a header graphic for her. She hasn't got it in place yet, but soon I imagine. Next I took on a challenge from my sister the "Domestic Goddess" to help her redesign her blog. She had downloaded a very pink template from which I used one graphic and the color scheme. I think it turned out quite well.

DramaMama has been asking for a long time for me to fix an image on her blog. The people that created her template embedded her photo into the main image. She didn't like that, so I edited it out and replaced it. I also uploaded a profile image for her. I used the Pirate one he he he.

You may also have noticed a slight change in this blog as well. I originally used one of the stock templates, but was never really fond of the green blob in the profile. So now that I have become a bit better at template tweaking, I decided to do my own as well. I think it looks better, although it does have a few minor quirks.

Awhile ago, I helped redo my Writers in the Mist blog. The concept was mine, but I give full credit to Jonathan Boehme (see The Write Way Home) for the artwork and design of it. I made a few tweaks here and there.

So anyway, this weekend was a blog-o-rama, and I got a new hat.

Inna Blogga Davida

Hey, everyone!

I want to introduce you to my younger sister's new blog http://musings-of-a-domestic-goddess.blogspot.com .

This is the sister I punched in the mouth, knocking out her loose tooth. The tooth cut my finger (I still have the scar). When she went running to Mom, I beat her there and told her Inna (her current nickname) bit me. She got in trouble.

This is the sister who out of sheer meanness I would not let open the garage door. I held on and pulled it down. The opposing forces twisted the door off one of the runners, and it crashed down on her head. She was loopy for awhile. Since she was out of it, I told Mom and Dad that the garage door just fell off the thing and smacked her. I left out a few key details.

This is the sister who got the raw end of the deal when I ate only part of an apple and threw it in the garbage. Mom found it and confronted both of us. She carried out a scientific investigation by comparing the bites to our teeth. She determined that Inna's teeth matched the bites better than mine, and she was forced to finish the apple.

This is the sister that I hung out with as much as I could when she was in jr. high and high school. For some reason back then I guess I liked her or something. So I would drive her and her friends around a lot.

This is the sister I taught how to fill the gas tank in her new car, because she had never done it before.

This is the sister that I felt no man on earth was worthy to marry. As she grew up, I often pictured myself beaning some poor guy for being mean to her.

This is the sister I have irritated beyond words because of my internet business. She does a wonderful job handling the orders and processing credit cards. She handles a lot of the customer service stuff which I know stinks. She has been doing this for several years, and I hope she knows how much I appreciate all she does.

This is the sister that I feel like I have grown apart from (again because of the business), and wish that I could fix the situation.

So when you have a few minutes, drop by and say hi, and perhaps she'll give you her side of the story. I doubt she remembers a few of these episodes, she was pretty young.

Everyone... Inna. Inna... Everyone.

The Romantical Dork: The Novel

DramaMama and I returned last evening from a wonderful escape celebrating our 6th anniversary. She and the boys had spent spring break at her parents home in New Mexico, while I remained at home to work.

I took Friday off so I could drive to our getaway and prepare the place for her arrival. As things tend to go for me, several of my plans went awry. I fell back, regrouped, and did other things instead.

I pulled in half an hour later than I had intended to, but luckily DramaMama hadn't arrived yet. I made several trips up and down the stairs to the hotel carrying luggage and romantic things in.

I brought along the doll I gave her as a wedding present, and the pocket watch she gave me. I also brought several romanticalish movies, a set of candles that were supposed to smell like the ocean, CDs with music from our wedding reception, and our CD of ocean waves.

So I set about romanticalizing the place. I broke out the candles and set them ablaze in various locations around the room. I laid out all of the movies and a box of chocolates. I turned on the CD of the waves. I moved to the fireplace, and the fun began. Dave the well meaning dork emerged.

I really did go to Boy Scouts and learned how to start a fire. This one refused to start. It had newspaper and logs... nothing in between. So I arranged the paper and logs such that the burning paper should have sufficient burn time to start the logs. Nice theory. I didn't get much chance to tend my fledgling fire as the smoke alarm went off almost immediately.

"AWW CRAP!" I said, and went to deal with it. I twisted it off with the intention of yanking the battery, but it turned out that this was one of the hard wired kind. So I fanned the detector hoping to clear the smoke away from it enough to get it to shut up.

I turned to look at the fire place and the room was filling with smoke. After several minutes of trying to figure out how to turn the dern thing off, I heard a key in the door and a maintenance man came in. I set him the task of shutting up the fire alarm which he did in short order.

He then went over to the fireplace. "Well, here's your problem, the damper's closed!"

"DOH!"

So he opened that for me. By this time the smoke hung thick in the air. A very woodsy aroma. The maintenance man was very cool about it, but I'm sure he was calling me a moron in his head. Especially because there is a sign right on the fireplace that says "Danger, open the damper before lighting a fire." I didn't see it.

So after the Maintenance guy left, I tried to air out the place by opening the window and turning on the bathroom vent fan. I returned to my task of building a fire. SHEESH! This wood was nonflammable I swear! I used up most of the paper, and half a book of matches, and NOTHING!

"AAARRRRRR," I said, and got one of the votive candles that came in my set. I strategically arranged it with paper and logs thinking that a constant flame under the wood would result in fire. Apparently not.

The votive quickly became a blue puddle of goo on the bottom of the fireplace and hearth.

So remembering my Beaver Butt training in scouts, I pulled out my trusty pocket knife (A cheap mini-Swiss-army knock off) and set to making kindling from one of the logs. It was in this state that DramaMama found me when she arrived. She told me that she could smell the smoke from our room clear outside and down the hall.

She took some more paper, my kindling, and the logs I had in there and tried to get it going. It went nicely for a couple of minutes, but the inflammable logs couldn't be convinced that they were combustible.

We decided to give each other one gift that evening even though our anniversary was the next day.

I spent the most time and effort on one gift, so I had her follow the footprints on the floor that I had made that led to the drawer containing a set of 6 CDs. They are a course taught by fellow writer/blogger Jill Boehme entitled "Six Steps to Sanity."

Once I explained what it was DramaMama thought it was interesting. It is a tele-course for stay-at-home moms. I listened to class #1 (which was very good by the way) (she even says 'SNOT' on it! he he he) while fighting with the download option on my computer. I am a computer guy, but I actually had to go to our other computer to get them to download properly. I was up until 2:00 am Friday morning preparing the 6 cds.

So anyway, DramaMama gave me some gourmet toffee. It is excellent. We ordered a pizza, and watched "Maid in Manhattan". We played Scrabble, and she won. After the movie was over, she mentioned Pay-per-view movies, so I relented and offered up gift number two. It was "Walk the Line." Neither of us had seen it. We liked it.

The next day, we slept in VERY late. It was fantastic. I hardly ever get to do that. We gave each other our remaining gifts (Cutie shoes, fuzzy pink slippers, the first season of "Everybody Loves Raymond for her... A new belt, a can of wafer rolls, gourmet cookies, a new beard trimmer, and a nice new wallet for me.) We decided to get some breakfast and then go to a movie. We found a place called Johnny Angel's that touted a "John Wayne All-American Breakfast". How could I turn that down??? We arrived 20 minutes after they stopped serving breakfast. DOH!

We went for a drive in the snowy mountains which was very relaxing and nice. We drove up to a ski resort just for a peek. Then we went back and saw "Failure to Launch" which had some very funny moments. I could have done without Terry Bradshaw's butt though.

We watched "Sweet Home Alabama" on DVD then prepared to go have dinner. I decided to blow out the candles as a safety precaution. One candle wouldn't go out after two or three tries. So I wiffed my baseball cap at it in an attempt to blow more air at it. Bad idea. The adjustable part of the had smacked right into the wax puddle, and blue wax splattered all over the dresser, wall, mirror, DVDs, and one drop even hit Erica's doll.

So chalk another one up for The Dorkerer's Apprentice... no wait.. the Dorkerer.

We went to a nice seafood restaurant called "The Chalet". We both had Alaskan King Crab. with a Calamari appetizer. MMMMMMM.

So after all the cracking and snarfing and spilling drawn butter on my shirt, I gave my card to the waitress. She came back saying it declined. "AWWW CRAP!" I knew we had money in there, so she suggested that it was because she couldn't read the code on the back properly. I happened to have gotten a replacement card right before I left on the trip, so I used their phone and activated it. It went through fine.

As I was sitting back down from paying the bill, I twisted my knee. How many people can say that?

I tried out my new beard trimmer, but it was not working properly. It ranges from 1 (shortest) to 9 (longest). I could only get it from 7 to 9. So I tried it at 7 which should have been too long to even do my hair, but it was surprisingly short. My beard now looks like I have only been growing it for 3 or 4 days.

It was a very relaxing and wonderful weekend. I didn't want to come home.

I would marry her all over again in a heart beat! She is my best friend.

Bombarded by Rabid Spider Monkeys!

HA!!!! Now that I have your attention, give it up for my first renter on this blog. Lou from http://lifeaslou.blogsome.com/ I am new to this renting bit, but was surprised how fast people posted bids.

One unfortunate aspect of this is that only one bid can be chosen at a time, so you have to send all the others packing as it were, and they dont allow you to say why, they just get a rejection notice in their email.

I'm not so cold-hearted as all that, so if you got a rejection from me. HA HA HA HA HA! No wait... Um... Sorry!

This is all in good fun so I plan to keep it going. I'm interested to see how many people want to be associated with my oddball blog.

I Have Finished My First Draft!

From concept in 2001 to first draft wrap-up tonight, there have been moments of good writing spells, and several not so good.

Up until somewhere this past October, there was still a very long way to go, and many holes and stupid things to fix.

Jill of The Write Way Home announced to blogland that she would be putting a serial online of a new book she was writing. That intrigued me, and I decided to start a new blog featuring one of the books I currently had in the works.

I decided to put "Black, White, and Shades of Gray" out for my blogging friends to read, critique, laugh at, whatever.

The problem with that was that I had less than half of the book actually written. Much of it was concepted, but still in idea form. Once it came time for chapter 7, I had a big project ahead of me. I basically had a hole in the middle of the book that was masquerading as the Grand Canyon.

I dived in and produced chapters 7-11 which for all intents and purposes were brand new. They included some long standing ideas, but for the most part were very new and fresh ideas. I then took an existing chapter 12 and spruced it up.

Starting in November, NaNoWriMo came about, so I put my online book project on hold for that challenge. That died after 3 days due to life and work. That began a dry spell that continued until today.

I finally decided to get back in the game, and I found that the story was right there waiting for me, and I feel that today was a great writing day.

I finished Chapter 13, wrote a whole new chapter for chapter 14, and revised the old chapter 14 to become the final chapter 15.

I imagine that there is more story lurking in my brain that can be added during a series of rewrites. I intend for the final book to be longer than these 15 chapters.

It is a great feeling to reach a level of completion after all of this time. I realize that it is really only a single step up a long stair case, but it is after all, a step up.

Generation C - The Computer Generation

This morning as I was happily battling in Battle of the Blogs, the Bear hopped in on the older computer behind me. He is very good at finding his own games, (except Dot Com which means he wants to play on playhousedisney.com).

He brought up a game and was playing along when I hear, "You go live with Jesus! You too Buddy!"

Mr. Brown can Moo... Can You?

Have you entered Jill's Dr. Seuss contest? I did!

Rules are posted here:
http://www.beatyourowndrum.com/blog/jillian/jillianboehme.html

The winner gets a signed copy of her book My Lima Beans Are Allergic to My Spoon plus their entry will be showcased on Jill's blog.

The contents end at midnight on December 2nd, so hurry and get your entry in!

The Weezil Comes Out of the Closet... The Blogging Boss as Well! Sheesh, and Now Jillian! AW GEEZ! Wendy is in on it TOO!

Could it be... is it so????

Is CheezWeezil really.....

CheezWill Riker?



Well, I did make a pretty convincing Riker back in the day, but... I have a confession to make...



I did the "Face Off" thing here...



Sorry Jill... I couldn't find a real picture of me as Riker. But amazingly enough, I found one of Eric as Jean-Luc Picard!



Hey Eric... This one was in the bottom of my sock drawer:



Wendy: I didn't want to leave you out... I hope you aren't horrified by the result ;)



Shane: You were going to be Geordi, but your picture is too dang small!

JILL!

You do realize I couldn't let something like that get by me! HAR HAR HAR



Hover your mouse over the picture but dont click. He he he!