"It's Racin' Time!"

Man, has it been a year already? We learned a few things from the car we made last year and made this one much better! speaking from a engineering standpoint, of course. Emmy really put her heart and soul into desigining this car and I'm very proud of her. We're going to win the "Most Bling" award one of these days.






Seriously, how does this not win for best bling? I swear, all the "judges" kids always seem to win these things.


Zach even made his own (with a little help I bet lol). Here he is doing his Guy Smiley impression.

We're moving to the 4th floor starting next Monday. Always a fun time at ol' Healthmarkets right? The expression "if it ain't broke don't fix it" does not apply to this company. They're always tinkering with things and trying to improve things which can be a good thing if it makes sense. But we're on the phone, so why does it matter where we sit anyway? So we had to pack everything up Friday. Ah well. As they say, any job is a great job right now.

"A Day At The Park..."

Well, not really.

But today at lunch (the only lunch we got to take our rightful hour this week), I had a little trouble deciding how I wanted to spend it. So I cashed my YMCA reimbursement check and decided to explore the wonderful neighboorhood of Hurst located next to my office. And ya know what I discovered? It's about the same as any other neighborhood ha ha. Well, maybe a bit nicer. But I did find Chisholm park, so I took a scenic tour, and it was pretty crowded with kids and people enjoying the sunny day. Was kind of nice watching other people enjoy themselves, even though I had to go back to work. But I started thinking about if I take my kids to the park enough. To be honest, it's been a while. I know they love it, but we seem to get so busy these days there just doesn't seem to be much time for it. I sat back and thought about the numerous times I've been able to take them...

Hooper Park


Here Emmy was about 3 and a half. She looks like she was having a good time though. We fed the ducks some old cereal (yes, ducks love cereal) and played quite a bit.


Here is Zach's first visit to the park. Doesn't he look like he's having a great time?

Fairmeadows Elementary


Here we are at my old elementary school. Emmy was about 4 here. They sure changed it up a lot since my glory days in the 80's. I can still remember each teacher I had, what they looked like, and what I learned. Shocking, I know lol.

Hoppenfeffer Park


Okay, so that isn't the real name of it. Will have to see what it is. We had a Girl Scout meeting there and, of course, all the kids felt like they had to play on the playground.

I'm sure going to miss these days when all it takes is a 5 minute trip to a local park to make the kids happy. Pretty soon they'll want iPods and $70 jeans and money money money. Maybe they'll get it, maybe not. Depends on what my raise is next month ha ha.

"Ya Know What Rhymes With Economy?"

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

In a way there doesn't seem to be any answer for the dizzying downward spiral this country is heading into. Obama is throwing money at companies so fast and all they seem to do is ask for more. The trick is to get us Americans to buy more, to spend more, to invest more, to get the ol' Dow Jones up, whatever that is. It sure is fun to not know if you'll be at your job next week, isn't it? All I hear about in the paper is layoffs and next round of layoffs. On the other hand, QT gas station is always looking for people. $8.50 an hour!! Fortunately for me, the healthcare industry will always be around, and the small cog that I am cannot be let go unless they close the company down or if my performance goes down the loo. But, since they reward us for doing more, I have all the reason to be the best.

Speaking of investments, we took a little money and invested in: ice cream!


Took a million shots and this was the best of the bunch. Why do boys think it is so funny to not cooperate when all we want is a nice shot? They got in their pajamas and we went for a late night treat. Braum's will always be kind of special to me. Imagine if you will, a senior in high school, hoping to find a job so I could get a car and hopefully enjoy some part of high school. Well, due to high turnover and the fact no one wanted to work for minimum wage, in 1992 they gave me a chance and I ended up working there for a year. The bad part was they made me close up the store every night I worked and I would get home at like midnight. Then, since I was already up, I would watch Late Night w/David Letterman until 1am then sleep until I was woken up @ 6:30 so I could catch the bus @ 7:20. Of course, I would sleep up until 7:15 then get dressed and run out of the house to catch the bus. I ended up sleeping through 1st period government more often then not so the fact that I graduated at all is baffing. When I worked there they had a little store with some ice cream but not much else. Now, they have like a zillion more products like full meals, produce, etc.


This shot I call "The Apples Of My Eye".

Saw "Watchmen" Friday night with my supervisor of all people. Cari thought it was weird for us to hang out after work, but a guy's night out is much needed sometimes. Plus, I got to enjoy a steak! But that movie was off the charts weird. But it was really enjoyable. Really drives home the point of everything we want coming with a price. The old expression really is true. We can't have our cake and eat it too.

"Ya Gotta Come Back With Me Marty..."

"Where, Doc?"

"Back...To The Future!!!..."

And so, in 1985 one of the greatest trilogies in history began with an average kid, a too-curious 'doctor', and a souped-up DeLorean that could take you anytime...though not anywhere. I have always enjoyed all three of the BTTF movies, making each one my favourite at different times in my life. My sis got me this for Christmas last year and I have never seemed to find the time to post it on my collector site, so today I took it up to work to take advantage of the bright flourescent lighting to photograph it. Here are some groovy shots:










Pretty gnarly eh? I remember my mom having to talk me into going to see it because it didn't sound like a movie I wanted to see. Heck, there weren't any Transformers in it, so why bother? But we went and saw it anyway, and it just blew my mind how they made the same people and town look completely different from one generation to the next. One part of this that kind of spooked me was in the first one when Marty's brother kept disappearing on the picture. I wondered if we could ever really vanish from time...

Emmy keeps asking me to re-tell stories of funny things that happen or jokes I make. One such story happened recently when Emmy, Zach and myself loaded up the wagon with Girl Scout cookies and walked around our neighborhood trying to sell them. We get to this older gentleman's house and Emmy knocks on the door. After he answers and says yes, he'd like to buy some cookies, Zach proceeds to take one of each kind of cookie and put them on the man's porch chair. Then, when he says he wants some Thin Mints, Zach asks, "You wanna smell my breath?" because his breath gets all minty after eating a Thin Mint. Meanwhile, Emmy is laughing her head off and I'm trying to get all those boxes back into the wagon.

Another such story (this one didn't happen but I made it up just the same) was when Emmy's teacher sent home another student's paper home by mistake. Now I wouldn't have even noticed but I saw the grade: a 69! Emmy's lowest grades are in the mid-70's so I looked closer and saw it belonged to some kid named Luke. So I had Emmy return it to either Luke or her teacher. So she did, and I asked her, "Now you didn't be loud about it and shout 'Everybody everybody step right up, don't be shy, and come see the prettiest 69 in all the land belonging to none other then our friend...L-U-U-U-K-E!! Give him a round of applause everyone!!' Needless to say, she did NOT do that.

In the end, stories are just about all we have to keep memories going. Just the fact that we know who won the Civil War (wasn't it the South? Gave slavery the boot? My guess anyway), who won the 1927 World Series (pretty sure the Yankees won that one), and that Magellan first sailed around the world proves that it's up to us to pass down our favourite memories to other people. Don't worry about me, I haven't even scratched the surface of stories in my head. Scary thought eh?