Technology is awesome

Let me start by saying that my wife is a genius!!! I absolutely love her!

For this holiday season, I opted to update (read: replace) some of the technology in the house and that resulted in the need to upgrade a few additional peices of our technology. As with most technology, all of this stuff is Internet connectible. The problem is it requires networking magic to make it all happen and I am not a wizard of the network (nor do I have the patience to be a wizard). This is where the Magi Queen comes into the picture.

I won't bother to list all the goodies, but lets just say that my TV talks to the Internet, the Xbox is rocking more than just games, the disc player talks to everything and I think we can control all of this stuff with our phones and computers.

Being off work this week has given me a chance to figure out the basics of this stuff. Today I was playing a game on the computer, playing one on the Xbox, streaming radio off the Internet, and watching a TV, ALL at the same time. My mind was a little overloaded but the sheer coolness of being able to do all of that simulaneously is awesome.

Look, we live in a world of cheap electronics, fast computers, Internet connected everything (just look at the newest refrigerators!!) and everything else that the imagination can conjure up. I think it is awesome but at the same time, I question, are we really any better off, are we really any smarter?

I don't know about you but I don't think I am any smarter but I sure am having fun with the toys! Thank goodness for my wife that seems to be a heck of a lot smarter!

And everyone plans to sleep good ...

Wow, what a day. Cant go into details now. Thanks to everyone that came over today, thanks to everyone that helped, thanks to everyone that participated, we had fun.

The dogs are exhausted. The cats are tired. We are out of it.

Merry Christmas.

Pre-Christmas happenings ...

I hope your days have been as crazy as ours lately and I hope you have enjoyed it too. I don't know what is more tiring, the week leading up to Christmas or the weekend of Christmas. I think Big E would say that it is the Pre-Christmas run up that is more tiring.

We've had a blast the past two weeks with family happenings, work happenings, friend happenings, shopping happenings, and more ..... Now, we are trying to prepare for a really BIG Christmas Eve day and night.

Tonight, we had a party with our surrounding neighbors. We aren't exactly in the same age bracket as most of the neighbors (most are retired) but with that said, we have a great set of neighbors. We are truly blessed to live in an area with older people that can provide wit and wisdom for us. The party was a nice break from cleaning and baking.

We are hosting two different parties on Christmas Eve (tomorrow).

In the morning, we have my family coming over to open gifts for all of the kids. This was the only time that all of the kids (regretfully this does not include my sister since she is so far away) could be in the same place for an hour or two. So, Big E and I will be cooking breakfast, serving breakfast and laughing as our kids and nephews open presents. I am truly looking forward to it.

In the evening, we have Big Es family coming over to open gifts, play dirty Santa (why is it called that), eat and catch up. Everyone brings food to the evening event, which means you have no idea what you will be eating but you know it will be good and plentiful. This is a yearly family event and I really enjoy it each year.

I don't know what we will be doing the rest of the holiday, but I bet we will be sleeping in on Christmas morning. What you ask, sleeping in on Christmas? Yes, our "kids" are older and think getting out of bed before 10:00 AM is early. I kinda envy everyone with little people waking them up at 4:00 AM screaming about Santa Claus.

In the meantime, I think all of the stockings are hung, all of the gifts have been delivered or are wrapped and under the tree, nothing has to be put together (thank goodness), and the kitchen is cleaned (finally my mom gets to see the house clean!!!), so I am going to bed .... Happy Christmas Eve Eve, Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas.

Pride, my belly and Christmas Shopping

As you can imagine, our family is like most other families at this time of the year, we are shopping for Christmas presents. One of the problems, is that I tend to get frustrated after an hour or two and start to shop for myself!! When I know what I am after, I am one of the best at getting in and getting out. However, the idea of spending all day "browsing" for the right thing does not make sense to me.

I can not be specific about the gifts and individuals, but I have really been blessed with some good ideas, thoughts and strategies this year. Maybe I paid attention to "hints" or maybe I simply lucked up, eitherway I've hit the jackpot on ideas and prices in many cases.

With that said, I spent yesterday ... "browsing". This resulted in me shopping for myself. I bought a new pair of jeans. I've had two pair of jeans give up on me lately (ie. the crotch area literally blew a big hole in each pair). You can put a patch or even ignore a hole in your jeans in any location but the crotch (I'm modest like that!). I should say that both pairs of jeans were five plus years old, one was probably closer to eight or nine years old.

So, I took a break from Christmas shopping and went Stephen shopping. Since I haven't bought new jeans in several years, I went with the size that I remembered buying last time (34 X 30). I've been that size for many years. However, when I got home, the jeans had shrunk!!!! .... or I bought the wrong size? I tried squeezing my way into the jeans (and could!! haha) but I couldn't breath after I cinched the last button.

As a result, I went Stephen shopping again today, to exchange the jeans for a slightly larger size. This is when it got funny. The nice lady at the store asked if I underestimated my belly!!!!! She better be happy its Christmas time or I would have ....

Aside from that, I managed to knock out most of my Christmas shopping. I still have an item or two that I am considering for my beautiful bride (she deserves it all) and I have a Christmas Eve gift to purchase, otherwise, I am done. I hope everyone enjoys their gifts as much as I enjoyed shopping, digging, brainstorming and other painful "ings" for them, but I also hope that everyone stops to remember why we celebrate Christmas and enjoy the family and friends that we share these moments with each year.

One last thought, its really nice having children that are old enough to purchase gifts on their own, with their own money!!!!! With that said, there are some items that they can't purchase. Today, one of them learned that she could not purchase a movie for her mother. No, it wasn't a dirty movie like that, but it was a rated R movie and she isn't 17 or 18 whatever the age limit is for rated R movie's. I guess I will have to make one additional stop to handle this purchase.

Last, to my Mom, the girls have requested frozen dinners for Christmas. You know what they want and it will be great to eat out one less night a week. Thanks!!!

I didnt say it!!!

Its been a really long day, so I will keep this one short.

I had dinner with the my daughters tonight; actually, the two younger ones joined me. For those not in the know, Monday Night is MY night out for dinner. I dont remember when or why this started, but Monday is like my night out to have dinner and recharge my brain.

Anyway, two of the girls joined me for dinner. I really enjoy having dinner with the girls without Big E (who is traveling today) because I have a chance to learn stuff (which helps me understand why my mom doesn't want to know some of my stories from my childhood).

Tonight, about midway through the dinner, the following was stated ... "I dont understand, aren't all girls born with the sense of where things are located at the grocery store?".

I promise, I did NOT say it. It was actually our middle child, Little E. She made the comment after admitting that she cannot find anything in the grocery store. Apparently, the bread aisle is a little difficult to find?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?

Of course, that brought a laugh or two and a comment about whether or not I would blog about it. Well, Little E, here is your answer.

One time before the holidays

Well, its been a little slow lately, so I haven't had much to post. I know its hard to imagine things being slow in my world, so let's say that its been slow with publishable material.

Last weekend, Big E decided it would be fun to get rid of a BUNCH of junk in the house, in "southern" terms that means "lets have a yard sale". A yard sale isn't exactly my idea of a good time, but it does allow us to get rid of what we consider junk and allows someone else to pay us for it (that is a winning combination, unless you are Uncle Sam and want a chunk of the proceeds).

My main problem with yard sales is the start time. Why do people show up at 5:00 AM? We specifically stated 6:30 AM and people were literally stopping at 5:00 AM as I was trying to get the junk into the driveway. For goodness sake, its still dark! Is my junk really worth that much to you?

Once it was over, Big E and I were off to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama v Mississippi State game. We were really lucky and someone gave us a couple of tickets to see the game! I won't complain since the tickets were free but lets just say that with binoculars, you still could not see the game. I felt sorry for the people around us since they most likely paid for the seats!!!

With that said, we had a blast. It was the first weekend that actually felt like football weather. There was a slight chill in the air and when the wind blew it was almost cold. Considering our seats were up at the equivalent of the altitude of a small airplane, we were cold. Bama won, we had a great time and the drive home was easy (I slept), so it was a great day.

Other than that, I don't have a lot to report at this time. The girls are doing great. The animals are going strong. Fall is here and it is finally cooling off. Life is good.

The holidays are coming quick. I plan on taking a little time off this season to slow down and enjoy it. I really haven't been able to do so in a few years but this year we don't have any big projects going at work or home that will prevent us from spending some time with the families and ourselves. I hope you get to do the same, and I hope to share a few moments of our fun with you. Until next time, happy Thanksgiving.

Stone Mountain, one more time ....

The most evil contraption ever. The steel contraption you are looking at is three stories tall and contains a series of evil challenges between each platform. The challenges range from walking across a four inch wide plank to trying to walk across an one inch rope with various obstacles in the way. The bottom line, this contraption is not for the faint of heart or the weak of knees.

This contraption is a combination of rope climbing, balancing act and dealing with heights. Remember, we are tied into this thing with a rope attached to a harness around our chests. Im sure the harness could have handled the weight of any of us, but I want willing to test it!!!!



Here is a picture of Little E and JM in the middle of the third floor of the challenge. They look happy and rested, almost like the past hour of climbing the stupid thing has tested them at all.

This is Brooke after completing the thing. She looks happy, did she climb all three levels? Umm ... maybe she wimped out after two.

This is me, after only two levels. I was hanging my tongue out hoping it would help cool me off like a dog? I didnt work! Thankfully, this was near the end of the day, so I was able to take a shower, go to dinner and go to bed! Ahhhhhhh ..... sleeeeppppppppp!!!!!!!!!

Stone Mountain ... Part Three

Three more pictures. This one is a the top of the mountain. Everyone was resting from the climb.


A great view of the hotel from the top of the mountain. The hotel is the building in the background. The closest building is actually a museum about the mountain itself.



Here is another cool picture from the top of the mountain. You can see the lake and if you look close, a couple of the cleared areas are actually a part of one of the two golf courses.

Stone Mountain ... Part two!

I am having a problem uploading more than two or three pictures at once.

Anyway, here is a picture of one side of the mountain along with the famous carving of the mountain. This is not the side that everyone hiked up, this is the side that I rode up on the cool sky car.


Here is the side of the mountain that everyone hiked. It tok them a little over an hour to hike the 1.6 miles. Also, the big field in front of the carving is where we watched a spectacular laser adn fireworks show one night.

Stone Mountain Summer Trip with the Girls ....

We took a trip to Stone Mountain a few weeks ago with the girls. These trips are becoming a little more special as the girls get older and scheduling "family" trips becomes more difficult.

Everyone had a really great time.

We went to Six Flags, Stone Mountain and the Coca-Cola Museum on this trip. We also managed to eat like fools!!!!!!! That was my favorite part of the trip.

One of the challenges for the trip was the hike up Stone Mountain, every one tried and completed it but me. I didnt even bother to pretend that I could do it. Everyone succeded!!! One of the girls had a stop and puke on the way up. Apparently, eating a full buffet breakfast before hiking is not a smart move (who knew?).



Above, I am relaxing as I watch them depart.

Here is what they looked like before departure. That's JM with them, he went on the trip with us.

I'll post some more pictures from the trip in a minute.

One time, two time, three time .... DEAD!!!

Several months ago, I introduced you to Elizabeth's new "baby", Daisy. Daisy is a beautiful Cairn Terrier (terror), who has managed to double in size and almost triple in weight since we got her in March. She isn't the only one gaining weight but that is a different blog.



I admit that I wasn't a fan of Daisy (or getting any little "mini" dog) but Elizabeth was very persuasive about the decision. However, since getting Daisy, she has grown on me and I readily admit that I love that dog.



Cairn terriers were bred to be rodent chasers. In fact, they were bred to climb through tunnels and crevices in the Earth to catch their prey. In Alabama terms, that means that Daisy is ready to own and defend "her" turf!!!!! In theory, this should be Rusty's job!

As luck would have it, theory means nothing in our house. The reality is, females rule, males drool. Daisy rules Rusty in every sense of the word. She also rules the back yard which she considers her domain.



Since getting Daisy, she has managed to catch and kill two birds. She is a quick little bugger. Today, she caught and killed her first rabbit. To prove that I am not kidding, her is a picture of the rabbit.

WARNING: For those that love rabbits or don't understand the concept of the food chain, don't look now!!!!

Yes, that rabbit is dead and yes, it is our backyard. Daisy makes me so proud. Don't come in our backyard or Diasy will get you.

Its not enough that Daisy rules the backyard, but she also thinks that she rules the sofa. To be clear, the sofa is MY domain. I rule the sofa!!!! I rule the TV, when the women of the house are not around. Tonight, Daisy, apparently amped up on her most recent kill, decided she ruled the sofa too. Don't believe me? Check out these photos......

The first one is me and sweet little Daisy. Can you see how lovely she looks with her little bow? She is a little camera shy, so I had to hold her for the picture (hence the worried look on her face and my hand on her throat). Notice anything else about the picture?

Check out this close up! Yeah, that's my nose after it has been cleaned up!! Daisy apparently had an issue with me sitting in "her spot" on the sofa. To extract her revenge, she literally, head butt me to the nose.

Ahhhh, its always exciting at our house. Usually, its the girls that keep it fresh but sometimes the dogs get in on the action too. If I get a black eye, I will post that tomorrow.

Last, let me say a big happy birthday to my sister. Tomorrow is her big day. I think she will be ... yeah, I ain't that dumb ... 21 for the second or third time. Love you, happy birthday!!!!!

Am I behind or what?

Its been so long since I bothered to drop a few lines and I apologize. I doubt it will be much better for the rest of the summer though. To be honest, we are so busy running around and chasing ourselves that communicating with others hasn't been a priority.

Also, I got a new computer game, so the time that I spend on the computer has been spent playing it!!!!

We've reached the age where all of our girls are working and since it is summer, we hardly see each other. I'm not kidding. There was a two week period recently where I saw Little E for about 1 or 2 seconds a day.

With that said, we've had a little fun of late that I would like to at least mention.....

1. Little E spent a week in Orlando to start the summer. She was hanging with my sister.
2. We, Big E, Jessica and I, spent an awesome weekend at the lake with Big E's family. I want to say a big thanks to the hosts. I understand that there is a picture or two of me on an intertube being pulled behind a boat with Big E. If I find those pictures, I will share them (maybe?).
3. Brooke spent a week in Tennessee with her church group. I know she had a great time.
4. Jessica had her wisdom teeth pullled this week. I thought she was already challenged!!!
5. I got to go see a great concert with some friends here in Montgomery.

For the July 4th weekend, we actually took a little time off and did NOTHING. Amazing!! On Friday night, we went bowling (I whopped em all). We also discovered that our air conditioner was frozen up that night so no cooling the house. Thankfully, we were able to get a local company to come out and fill our unit with freon on Saturday (not cheap but worth every penny here in the south). On Sunday, we grilled some flank steaks and had fajitas for dinner.

Now, the latest thing keeping us busy, we are dealing with a whole new type of fun. Some jerk decided to steal some of our bills, from our mailbox, early in June. It wasn't enough that he stole the bills, he managed to change the name on one of the checks and actually CASHED it at the bank. Ouch!!!!

I spent about three hours at the bank this week working with them to explain the problem, file the appropriate paperwork and all of the rest of the effort. I spent another hour with the police going through the story and filing the appropriate paperwork with them, and I spent another hour or two talking with the impacted businesses that did not get their payment. Its too early to tell the outcome ... will we get our money back? will the police catch the person? how mad are the companies that they don't have their money yet?

I will keep everyone up to date though. I hope it ends with me publishing a mug shot of the jerk that caused the fun though.

Enough for now, Big E is outside grilling (yes, it is awesome that she is doing it not me) hamburgers so we can eat. See you!

Special Day Today ...

Its Graduation Day today for Little E. Here are a few pictures taken from her Junior/Senior back in April.

We will have the camera at the graduation this afternoon, so I will get some pictures of that posted soon.

Picture Post from Biloxi

A few pictures from the Biloxi trip ....

Whew, March and April too?

Time flies when you are having fun and at the Lee house, time is moving at warp speed. Since its been so long let's look back, briefly, at the past month and a half....

March
1. Brooke's birthday - Number 16
A. Wow, our "baby" turned 16!!!
B. Brooke took two tries to pass the driving test.
C. She was "too nervous" and made a few too many mistakes the first time.
D. She passed with no issues the second time.
E. Car insurance increased a meager $70 dollars PER MONTH!!!!!!!
F. Afterwards, I wondered if I bribed the administrator of the test to fail her, would he?
2. Worlds Greatest Mother-in-Law's birthday - Number XX
A. At a certain point, a birthday is a great excuse to get attention and ignore the number
B. The "Worlds Greatest Mother-in-Law" has reached that age, but I aint dumb enough to tell
C. She beat me at bowling and ultimate frisbee too ... on the Wii!!!
3. My Birthday - Number 41
A. My birthday is on the same day as the "Worlds Greatest Mother-in-Law".
B. I celebrated with my brother in Atlanta.
C. We went to a celebrity "Jimi Hendrix Celebration" concert.
D. Awesome, to say the least.
E. Funny, even in my 40's, we were "babies" compared to the age of the average attendee.
F. We ate at "Abdullah's House of Ribs and Chinese Food" for lunch.
G. If you are in Atlanta and get a chance, try Abdullah's. Take a body guard though.
H. If you eat at Abdullahs, you won't need dinner. Too much food, even for me.

There's probably a few more things to report about March, but to be honest, short term memory appears to be the first thing that I will lose.

I do remember that we had a few BBQs in March. Yes baby, I do remember the long day of BBQ'ing, I just don't remember much about the evening. Next time I will grill enough for me to eat too.

I can't take all of the credit for the BBQs, my buddy Scott is an excellent grill master. In fact, he handled the grill the second time by himself. I think between the two of us, we could make a dime or two selling a little "Que". I base that opinion on the number of requests for advanced notice for the next BBQ. I think we have another one coming up pretty soon, hint!!!

One more thing about March, it finally quit raining .... so the pollen showed up as a replacement.

April showers? I wish! Funny how you feel about getting what you wished for to begin with. March, the rain wouldn't stop, April, the rain wont come. My white truck is yellow. Our gray house is yellow. The ground is cracking from a lack of rain. Heck, I can't spend more than a few minutes outside without breaking into a continuous sneeze session. We need a little rain.

Sunday is my babies birthday!!! She will be twenty-something (at least she looks twenty something to me) this year. She is looking every bit as good if not better than when we first met.

To celebrate, we took a LONG weekend last weekend and headed for the coast of Mississippi. We enjoyed a wonderful day of golf in Greenville, AL on Friday before making our way to Biloxi. We spent Saturday and Sunday playing a few games and at the Billy Currington concert. Yes, a concert that didn't involve Keith Urban!!!!!

I almost felt like we were cheating on poor ole Keith, but Elizabeth didn't seem to mind at all. I don't know, but apparently the crowd of three thousand or so women thought that Mr. Currington is a rather handsome guy. I make that statement based on the various "cat calls" and other "unmentionables" that I heard from the "ladies" in the area where we sat. WOW!

To be honest, Billy's music is a little too "sappy" for me but a few songs and things did impress me about the show. I love music, and live music is the best. I could almost enjoy any live concert as long as there is a great guitarist and the deep beat of a bass or drum.

I will try to post a few pictures from the trip, soon. Elizabeth took some really nice pictures from the golf course and the coast.

To celebrate her birthday, Elizabeth is running a 5K race tomorrow around the meteorite crater in Wetumpka, AL. She, Scott and John Michael will be running the race. I am in NO shape (well, round is a shape) or condition (round is not a condition) to run a race at this time. For those that don't know, John Michael is Jessica's boyfriend. He is a really good kid and they've been dating long enough now that he is comfortable hanging with Big E without Jessica. I hope they have a good time ... I will be sleeping!!!

Oh yeah .... Daisy!!!! I know everyone wants to know about our little darling. That's right, I said "our" little darling. She has doubled in size (height and weight). She is learning her position in the house, number one!!! The problem that I have with her is that she is too cute to not love especially at night when she curls up in my armpit to sleep. That is completely awesome!!!

Daisy spent her first Easter with us at my Moms house. Wow, what a great day. My mom needs to open her own restaurant!!!! We ate until we couldn't walk then we chased Daisy around the backyard for a little while. I think my mom even liked Daisy and she isn't really an animal lover.

On the horizon, we have a graduation, an anniversary, a wedding and more. Hopefully, I will be a little more timely with the reports.

I finally caved in ....

For some time now, Big E has been on my case about getting another puppy. When I say "for some time", I mean for over a year. I think she was disappointed on Christmas morning when a puppy didn't jump out from the tree.

For my part, I didn't want to introduce another animal to an already crowded house. Both of the cats are past their prime and Rusty is the most jealous animal I've ever seen, so what would happen if we added another animal to the mix?

To be honest, I think the rash of young ladies in the office having babies tiggered her desire for the puppy. It seems we have a new announcement every week of someone expecting a baby.

Last weekend, in a moment of weakness, I caved and agreed to a new puppy with a few stipulations. First, it had to be the type of puppy she really wanted; a cairn or yorkshire terrier. Second, the puppy had to cost less than $400 dollars. I thought this would be a safe bet since all of the terrier puppies that she has looked at for the past year cost more than a $1000 dollars.

I thought I had made a safe bet and I proceeded outside to put together the new grill (that will be another blog). Within thirty minutes, Elizabeth came running outside with tears in her eyes to let me know that she was headed out of town to pick up a puppy.

A what? Puppy? What puppy? How much? Where? All of these questions ran through my mind as she proceeded to tell me that she found a Cairn Terror .... ummm .... Terrier that was well below the price limit. She showed me pictures of the little devil on Facebook, kissed me, and bolted from the house before I could think of another reason why she couldn't get the puppy.

Meet "Driving Miss Daisy" (her registered name) or simply "Daisy" as we call her or "Scooterbutt" as Big E refers to her most of the time. She is five pounds of so ugly that she is cute.

In her first week, she has managed to take over the sofa. She has pottied on the floor (more times than I care to admit). She has torn up her first travel crate. She has terrorized the cats and Rusty (which is absolutely hilarious). AND she has molded herself right into the hearts of our family. In fact, she is sitting in my lap as I write this blog. Here are a few pictures of our little cutie ...

Styling in one of her shirts! Notice the "princess" pillow that she took from one of the girls. This is her spot on the sofa with the pink blanket and toys.


Here are a couple of additional shots of her all dressed up and ready to play.

And one more of Daisy chilling on her sofa.

Notice anything about those pictures? She is awake and ready to play. I don't think she sleeps!!!

I'll post more pictures of her soon.

Meat Juice Kool-aid .....

I don't even know where to begin with "meat juice kool-aid" BUT I bet we can have a little fun with it!


We have strange friends, you have strange friends, we all have strange friends. Due to the nature of our work, we have more than our fair share of strange friends.

To protect the guilty, I've changed the name of the strange people discussed.

We have a friend, lets call him Scott, who for some unknown reason, enjoys hanging with us on a regular basis. Scott usually eats a meal or two with us a week. Now, to be clear, I am not complaining about the amount of time Scott spends hanging with us; in fact, its refreshing to have another male opinion being expressed in our estrogen filled home. In addition to being strange, Scott is actually a very smart, socially capable (this can be a problem for some computer type nerds) and generally fun (bonus points for hanging with the girls) guy.

As we often do, we decided to go out and grab some dinner Friday night. The dinner gang included Big and Little E, myself and Scott. Ummm, Outback. After a little issue getting seated (which I thought was going to cost the host a pint of blood) and a stern warning to the waiter that he better be better than the host (man was I embarrassed), we ordered our drinks, appetizers and dinner.

Side note: The waiter at Outback was great. I will also give him double points for making Big Es drink a little extra stiff to insure that she was "happy" with the service.

We made it through dinner without any issues. Everyone's dinner was palatable. Scott's dinner was a little better than ours.

After polishing off the one pound of prime rib, Scott ate his steamed veggies and fully loaded baked potatoe, dipping each bite into the au jus for the steak. Finally, with his plate empty, Scott proceeded to drink the remainder of the au jus and announced that it was the best "meat juice kool-aid" EVER.

I was amazed!!! I've seen Scott eat numerous times, some of his combinations can be a bit different. For example, the night he ate a three pound sirloin roast (he called it a steak) that took me close to forty five minutes to grill OR the night he decided that sushi, fruit cups and gummi bears candy was a valid triad for a complete meal (imagine the look on your local nutrition expert if you explained that one).

However, drinking the leftover juices of the steak is a whole new level of weird. He didn't even follow that up with a swig of water, beer, tea, nothing. How does that sit on your stomach?

We all have strange friends, Scott is one of ours. Tell me about yours .....