"Rangers...Lose?"

Yes, even the mighty Rangers have to lose a game every now and then, and even though they lost this game 11-7 to the Rockies, we still had a pretty good time. My camera doesn't take as good pictures when you zoom all the way, but I managed to get a few here and there:


And, Mike Napoli swings and...well, he missed this one. Turns out when you swing and miss too many times, you have to go sit back down on the bench.


Justin Grimm...I don't know about him. Granted, it was only his second major league start, and he managed to win when he pitched against Houston, but the Rockies managed to light him up like the 4th of July. Maybe he'll come around one of these days.


One heck of an outfield! The envy of baseball. Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, and a young Leonys Martin, who if he keeps hitting the way he is, he'll be a fine replacement when Josh bolts for more money come the off-season. I hate to be a negative Nelly, but he just doesn't seem like he wants to be here.


Hey, that's a pretty good shot of Emmy and me! I wonder what that old lady in the background was thinking. Maybe..."Hey, I'm available for photography tips if anyone needs them..." Look lady, if you were such a 'photog', you'd have brought your own camera.

Hey, July 4th is next week! One of my favourite holidays. What's better than cooking out, fireworks, and no work the next day? Here's a shot of Emmy from six years ago:


Gaw, when did she become a young woman? I guess that's what she is now. Even though she can have a smart mouth from time to time, deep down she's a pretty good kid. I'm seeing her sense of humour start to develop and, like me, insisting the funny one on the room. She started saying, "As William Shakespeare used to say..." then she adds one-word answers like "Yes" or "No", as if she was about to quote something bard-like only to disappoint you ha ha. Maybe with some molding from moldy ol' me, she will be the funniest kid around. Who is the funniest kid today? Maybe the kid from Two and a Half Men. He cracks me up sometime. His complete apathy towards anything ambitious sure does remind me of me back in the day. Of course, when you have no idea what you want to do with your life, every day if a kind of drag. Good thing Emmy knows two things. One, to get a job indoors with weekends off and paid sick days and vacation days, and two, that she isn't going to live with us forever. I try to turn that around to make it think it is her idea to live on her own. Stealing from Inception? You betcha.

"Happy Father's Day..."

...to me! Sure, I didn't get a present that I can actually hold and cherish, but I did manage to get a couple of nice cards from Cari and the kids. We had an eventful Sunday too!:


Steak and Shake! We went there for breakfast after church and had a pretty good meal. Zach decided he wanted a picture of me and him together so Cari took one. I think it's pretty good.

Afterwards we made the drive down to Camp Stevens to take Emmy to one of her two weeks at camp! It's...really rustic. No A/C, no soda machines, no nothing. But somehow they always manage to have fun. We also managed to stop at Babe's chicken as well to get her one last home-cooked meal. They have these funny chairs outside so I asked Zach and Emmy to pose for a nice picture together:


I got this. Ah well. It's somewhat amusing just wondering what they were thinking, right?

Going to the Ranger game tomorrow night!! Also going next weekend too! Got some good deals on some tickets but weren't able to find any available seats to use them until now! I guess that's what you get when you have the two-time American League pennant-winning Rangers in your own backyard! I grew up with a lot of mediocrity form this team in the 70's and 80's. Sure, the last 90's were fun when we went to the playoffs but we were stopped cold by those despised Yankees. But we would not be denied in this decade. Speaking of being denied, I saw this in a Sports Illustrated yesterday:


Too funny. But also too perfect. I hope he has fun watching the play-offs from his house.

"Swim Time!!"

Yes, summer is now upon us...early I might add. But isn't summer always early in the South? I mean, Heaven forbid it stay cool or even cold a little later than usual. I'm sure the sun helps some kind of industry out. But for me and mine, it's hotter before it's colder. But Zach and Emmy are going to enjoy Saturday mornings for a little while as they both wanted to do swim lessons at the YMCA! So far they're learning different things. Zach is learning to not splash so much and to swim farther before having to touch the ground. Emmy's been a great swimmer ever since we took her to Emler back in 2004, but she wanted to learn different strokes, which is cool. A few pix:


Emily: "Hey Dad, these glasses stink! I can't see anything!"
Me: "Really? I thought colouring them with a black Marks-A-Lot would keep the sun out..."
Emily: "Yeah, it's keeping the sun out...but now I don't know where I am!"
Me: "Calm down...you're still in Arlington with your family."
Emily: "Whew...that's a relief. I thought I was in the ocean!"


Zach's just a floating head sometimes. This shot I really like because one, it's very clear, not fuzzy at all, and two, it shows the determination in his face to learn new things. Now he's been swimming for a while too, but this year is going to be a major step in hopefully swimming in the deep end. I want to be able to throw him around before he gets too big.

We got a serious case of peaches this year! This tree, this strange, unaccounted for tree, started growing peaches by the dozen about a month ago, and now some of them are ready to pick. Well, what about the ones that weren't ready to pick? Oh, there's an answer for that too...:



Squirrels! Apparently they love peaches...or anything edible within a mile radius. We've picked about 20 or so and I think I've eaten half of them. They're pretty good! I want to cut some up and have them with some vanilla ice cream. Soon...soon.

We took Emmy to see "Hunger Games" Saturday. Quite a bloodbath of a movie! But the story was really good and the actors were very convincing. Will have to get Emmy the book so she can read it. So happy she's into reading books. I wasn't. Why read when there's a TV just mere inches away? Probably explains my lack of attention to detail or directions. Ah well. Afterwards we went to a place called "It'Sugar". It's kind of a play on "It's Sugar". Clever yes? I took a few pics of some of the funnier products they have:


Cigarettes like Dad used to smoke...what a great product for our youth.


Pac-Man energy drink? I wonder if you drink it then you'll stay awake for the next three days then sleep for the next seven.


You would think this picture would make me not want a Rice Krispy Square, but all it does is make me want one more. Is it worth $23? Maybe...

So far this summer has been really fun. We have a vacation coming up next month and so far the centerpiece of it all is going to be a three day trip down to Seaworld! I haven't been in over 20 years, but apparently they have a water park now called Aquatica, plus all kinds of programs that start before the park even opens. Are we going to be able to do any of that? Heck no. But only because it costs a fortune to do any of that. But it's all good because the deal we got allows us to go to the park any time we want for the rest of the year. We'll try to make it down there a few more times. Nothing better than Seaworld during the summer, right?

"YUUUUUUUUUP!!"

Oh man, if you haven't watched this show yet, you are really missing a treat. They call it "Storage Wars" and here's why: There are four interested parties that all bid on abandoned storage lockers around the Los Angeles area. Sometimes they get a good deal on them, but for the most part they end up overpaying for a lot of crap. Here's what they look like:



Not exactly the most attractive lot of folks around, but what they lack in looks, they more then make up for in personality. Here's a brief run-down of the lot:

Dave Hester(lower row center)
This guy is definitely the jerk of the lot. I don't think anyone likes him as much as he likes himself, but for the most part he makes the best profit.

Darrell Sheets(bottom row left)

This is the redneck of the group. He'll bring his son around from time to time to try and "teach him the business". He has a knack for finding unusual items that while they don't bring a ton of money, there's always an interesting story behind them. He's probably my favourite of the group, and I'll explain a little later.

Jerrod and Brandi(right front and back)

These two crack me up. Brandi seems way too hot to end up with someone like him, and they seem to argue and disagree more than others, but there must be some underlying connection between them. When one of them wants to bid, the other doesn't, almost every time. Very rarely do they both see one they like and both want it.

Barry Weiss(back left)

This guy is definitely the wise guy of the pack. He doesn't have any store to stock, but he bids on the lockers all the same, hoping to find something to add to his collection of...well, collectables. Maybe one day he will take us into his home and we can see just what he owns. But he always has something funny to say about not only what he buys, but what everyone else buys. I feel kind of bad for him because he's always the one who has to unload his own lockers, all by himself. If I was around I'd probably lend him a hand. For a cut of the profits of course ha ha.

I mentioned that Darrell was probably my favourite, and here's why: Back in another millenium, 1990 to be exact, my grandfather used to own part, or maybe all, of a storage locker facility in Lubbock, Texas. There really wasn't a lot to do in Lubbock, but they did have a Western Sizzler restaraunt that was really good after a long day of loading and unloading other people's crap. Grandpa and Dad would make these weekend trips out there from time to time and sometimes I was invited, which was cool. Nothing like being included with the guys, right?



This is one of my less featured pictures, mostly because Grandma is closing her eyes, and Emmy doesn't look like she has a neck, but it's a nice shot of them.

Well, it's good that I have found a TV show I can get excited about again. Not since "Man Vs Food" have I looked forward to watching a show this much, possibly because maybe we can find something uncovered insude ourselves if we just look hard enough. Man was that sappy.

"Another Year Already??"

Some things just kind of sneak up on you sometimes. Just like moths and cat burglars, the last day of school just shows up out of nowhere. It really does seem like yesterday we were taking Zach and Emmy to their first day of kindergarten and 5th grade, and now...well, the year has ended. But the summer is just beginning. Hopefully we can do some really cool things during our vacation. But first...the last day:


Emmy: "This certificate entitles the bearer to one free session at Golden Tan. Golden Tan...where we believe everyone has the right to be tan, not just adults." Um...what the heck is this? I don't want a free tan!"

Okay, it wasn't a certificate for a free tan. But it WAS for excelling in her strings class! She's gotten really good at her cello. Hopefully she will stay with it and only get better and better. Here is a better shot of Emmy with her award:




Now onto Zach...

He actually won some pretty cool awards. But I HAVE to start with this one first:


Everyone in his class got a personalized ribbon that suited their personality. So when the teacher started describing the recipient of the "funny friend" award, everyone started looking right at my boy. What's weird is that Emmy seems to always want to be the funny one and Zach is a little more reserved. But what do I know, right?


Ms Beaty: "Zach, do you know what this is?"
Zach: "It better be my diploma and not one of those stupid free tanning certificates like my sister got..."
Ms. Beaty: "Um...no...of course not...what have ya got against a free tan, anyways?"
Zach: "What, did ya'll buy stock in some tanning company or something?"
Ms Beaty: "Maybe..."


Zach managed to read a few books here and there last year. Some kid claimed to have read 630 books. I think there's some major lying going on there. Assuming there are about 200 school days, she would have to have read 3 books a day. Possible? yeah, if you never did anything else ever. Sour grapes? Just a few...but the math award is pretty cool. He had to answer all 40 addition and all 40 subtraction questions right in order to get that, so I think it's safe to assume he's got a pretty big brain on his shoulders.

Zach is also playing indoor soccer for some friends of ours! The lighting is terrible so it was hard to get some good action shots of him without all the blur:

See? Ah well. Maybe I should have videoed it instead.

Emmy is also getting really good at softball! Each game she does something to amaze people. She can really turn on a ball when she gets a chance. Unfortunately, this picture was not one of those times:

One good thing about being off during the week is I can see some of these games that start before 7:00 at night. I remember during batting practice Emmy hit one that was just crushed down the third base line. Her coach exclaimed, "Now THAT was a hit!" I would have to agree.

Zach's T-ball season is officially over! I think he may have one more season then he will get to see live pitch. Believe me, he's ready. He can hit pretty much everything I lob up to him. Here he is getting his trophy:

Someone likes the spotlight ha ha.

We had our annual Campbell trip Sunday. My cousin Sarah was so excited to go and then she goes and gets sick the night before. Bad timing eh? We still had a pretty good time. I think I took a picture of this last year but I went and did it again...


Still feels a little empty without him around sometimes...but hopefully he's walking among us and finding new stories to tell. I always hear jokes about people that go to Heaven and hilarity ensuing. Here's a couple I can remember:

A pastor and a new York City taxi driver both go to Heaven at the same time. St. Peter is taking them to their respective housing. The taxi driver goes into his gigantic house and the pastor is feeling pretty good about where he's going to live. Well, St. Peter takes him to a small ordinary house. The pastor asks "Hey, how come I get the lousy house and that cab driver gets a mansion!?" Peter responds, "Well, when people went to your sermons, they slept, but when they rode in his cab, they prayed!"

Another one was a comic strip where this guy was in line at rhe pearly gates and he happened to be right behind Mother Teresa. St. Peter is looking at her life's work and tells her "You know...you could have done more..." and the guy is freaking out because he didn't do one tenth of the charitable work that Mother Teresa did. I wonder if I'm going to be penalized for all of the charitable work that I didn't do. I mean I try. I try to not hurt anyone. But is that enough? Iguess I'll find out one of these days.