We will have the camera at the graduation this afternoon, so I will get some pictures of that posted soon.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
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.
We will have the camera at the graduation this afternoon, so I will get some pictures of that posted soon.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
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!!!
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.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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 .....
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 .....
Monday, December 14, 2009
New technology is cool
I finally got a new computer! Oh, wait, um .... guess what I got for Christmas?????
Its actually new and modern and everything. It even came with a keyboard that doesnt stick when you press Y and a mouse that doesn't double click even though you only single click.
As a "computer geek", you might think that I would update my technology a little more frequently (the last one was four or five years old) but why upgrade when the old one still works?
Man, I am becoming more like my dad every day (hahaha, now that is funny). Sorry Dad.
Side Note: "If it still works" is a great excuse to not buy things like nails, screws, hammers, planers, knives, shovels, finger nail polish, shoes, clothes and many other products BUT when it comes to electronics newer is generally better. For example, a flat panel TV can pay for itself in less than five years (in energy savings) compared to the old tube TV depending on the size and price you pay for the new flat panel TV and the picture is generally better.
The old computer had seen much better days. To make matters worse, it was my own fault. You should not keep a desktop computer locked in a small desk space with little or no room for airflow. If you have one of those computer desks with the little compartment to store your desktop computer, get it out!! Modern computers can take a LOT of punishment but like us humans, they need airflow.
Near the end of its life, the computer would overheat after an hour of normal usage and if I tried to stream music or video over the Internet it would overheat after about two minutes. Playing a game was not even possible (this is how I judge the quality of a computer), but the final straw for me was when it decided to overheat during the installation of a new software title.
The obvious question: Why would I even try to install new software on a machine with these problems?
Anyway, I got my new one Friday. Now, that I have the new one, I am running Windows 7. Thank goodness I was in Atlanta last week to learn a little something about Windows 7 huh? Maybe I wasn't too bad at scheduling this month after all (see the previous post).
I am having a little trouble moving my data from the old computer to the new one. Apparently, the old computer knows that I have a new one and will no longer run for longer than five minutes. Five minutes might seem like a long time, but when you are trying to make a copy of ALL your Outlook information (calendar, contacts, and email information) it is no time at all. As a result, I don't have anybodies' contact information at my hands.
Mom, I probably should have all this stuff written down in a little "black book", but I threw it away seven years ago when I got married. No, Im just kidding! Well, kidding my mom, who keeps a little book with everyones phone number, address, birthday, anniversary and other information. However, I am not kidding about not having one of those books.
The fact is that I am reliant on Outlook. I wouldn't know my own birthday without Outlook, much less yours!! I know the obvious question here is ... Why didn't you keep a backup? Well, I am lazy. Besides, you know your information and can give it to me again.
Now, I am hoping that I can slave (that is a technical term) the old drive into the girls computer (my new computer has a different drive connection technology) and pull the information from it.
In the meantime, if you happen to read this and want to send me your contact information, please send it to themtgylees@gmail.com, and I will use that address as a holder until I get Outlook back up and running.
With all that said, I also got myself a Webcam with the new computer. I know for you hardcore geeks out there, webcams are so 20th century, but I am slowly easing myself into this whole computer technology stuff. I plan on setting up the webcam this weekend. I am really looking forward to being able to see the nephews in Florida and talk to them over the computer (get ready Heather). If you are a webcam person, drop me a line at the address above and we can try it out.
So, having bored you with this latest post, I am going back to youtube, pandora, hulu, and several other sites to stream music, movies, games, videos, and whatever other stuff I can find just to prove that I can, because I can!!! That is cool and that is how I plan to surf the Internet now.
Green Tip of the Blog: We haven't had one of these in a while!! Get a new computer, they use less power AND you can do cool stuff with it too!!!
Until next time, onward CPU, RAM, and graphics card, we have stuff to see and do!!!!
Its actually new and modern and everything. It even came with a keyboard that doesnt stick when you press Y and a mouse that doesn't double click even though you only single click.
As a "computer geek", you might think that I would update my technology a little more frequently (the last one was four or five years old) but why upgrade when the old one still works?
Man, I am becoming more like my dad every day (hahaha, now that is funny). Sorry Dad.
Side Note: "If it still works" is a great excuse to not buy things like nails, screws, hammers, planers, knives, shovels, finger nail polish, shoes, clothes and many other products BUT when it comes to electronics newer is generally better. For example, a flat panel TV can pay for itself in less than five years (in energy savings) compared to the old tube TV depending on the size and price you pay for the new flat panel TV and the picture is generally better.
The old computer had seen much better days. To make matters worse, it was my own fault. You should not keep a desktop computer locked in a small desk space with little or no room for airflow. If you have one of those computer desks with the little compartment to store your desktop computer, get it out!! Modern computers can take a LOT of punishment but like us humans, they need airflow.
Near the end of its life, the computer would overheat after an hour of normal usage and if I tried to stream music or video over the Internet it would overheat after about two minutes. Playing a game was not even possible (this is how I judge the quality of a computer), but the final straw for me was when it decided to overheat during the installation of a new software title.
The obvious question: Why would I even try to install new software on a machine with these problems?
Anyway, I got my new one Friday. Now, that I have the new one, I am running Windows 7. Thank goodness I was in Atlanta last week to learn a little something about Windows 7 huh? Maybe I wasn't too bad at scheduling this month after all (see the previous post).
I am having a little trouble moving my data from the old computer to the new one. Apparently, the old computer knows that I have a new one and will no longer run for longer than five minutes. Five minutes might seem like a long time, but when you are trying to make a copy of ALL your Outlook information (calendar, contacts, and email information) it is no time at all. As a result, I don't have anybodies' contact information at my hands.
Mom, I probably should have all this stuff written down in a little "black book", but I threw it away seven years ago when I got married. No, Im just kidding! Well, kidding my mom, who keeps a little book with everyones phone number, address, birthday, anniversary and other information. However, I am not kidding about not having one of those books.
The fact is that I am reliant on Outlook. I wouldn't know my own birthday without Outlook, much less yours!! I know the obvious question here is ... Why didn't you keep a backup? Well, I am lazy. Besides, you know your information and can give it to me again.
Now, I am hoping that I can slave (that is a technical term) the old drive into the girls computer (my new computer has a different drive connection technology) and pull the information from it.
In the meantime, if you happen to read this and want to send me your contact information, please send it to themtgylees@gmail.com, and I will use that address as a holder until I get Outlook back up and running.
With all that said, I also got myself a Webcam with the new computer. I know for you hardcore geeks out there, webcams are so 20th century, but I am slowly easing myself into this whole computer technology stuff. I plan on setting up the webcam this weekend. I am really looking forward to being able to see the nephews in Florida and talk to them over the computer (get ready Heather). If you are a webcam person, drop me a line at the address above and we can try it out.
So, having bored you with this latest post, I am going back to youtube, pandora, hulu, and several other sites to stream music, movies, games, videos, and whatever other stuff I can find just to prove that I can, because I can!!! That is cool and that is how I plan to surf the Internet now.
Green Tip of the Blog: We haven't had one of these in a while!! Get a new computer, they use less power AND you can do cool stuff with it too!!!
Until next time, onward CPU, RAM, and graphics card, we have stuff to see and do!!!!
Monday, December 7, 2009
OK, I Lied ...
For the past several years, I've done a lousy job of planning projects and as a result, I've spent the last couple of months of each year traveling. One year I bought 75% of all Christmas presents in the lovely state of Mississippi. Your welcome Hattiesburg.
I promised I wouldn't do that this year. We even managed to complete our big project the week before Thanksgiving!!! With that project complete, I should have been able to hold up my end of the promise.
Alas, I have failed.
I will be home for more days this Holiday Season than the past several years, but I am still traveling this season which in my book means I have failed. Of course, with every failure comes a good story, so here is my story for the week......
Last Wednesday, I hit the Montgomery Regional Airport promptly at 10:00 AM to insure that I would be on time for an 11:27 AM flight for Atlanta for a short layover resulting in a 2:11 PM arrival in Houston. At 10:01, as I was checking my baggage, Delta announced that my flight had been CANCELED!!!!
Rather than bore you with every twist and turn in the plans, lets skip to 4:00 PM when I finally got on a plane! OK, I will own up to spending a few minutes in the airport bar watching TV with some Canadians trying to understand the concept of bad weather despite crystal clear blue skies outside. Excitedly, we taxi'd out to the runway only to have the pilot announce that we were being delayed AGAIN and just for fun, we were going to sit in the plane on the runway!
Finally, around 9:30 PM I arrived in Atlanta (a 32 minute flight). Now, for those not familiar with our part of the world, Atlanta is only a 2:30 hour drive and Houston can be reached in less than 10 hours driving. So, here I am, nearly 12 hours into my flying experience and I've only made it to Atlanta.
As luck would have it, the flight in Atlanta was only delayed for slightly more than an hour. I finally arrived in Houston at 1:00 AM on Thursday morning. Thankfully, the limo driver was waiting for me (yes, life can be hard sometimes) with a smile and disdain in his heart when he realized I had no cash for a tip. Oh well, thanks for the ride dude.
The next day was a long day of demonstrations and more knowledge transfer than a tired traveler should have to endure in a single day. I know the information will help me especially the awesome book they gave us but I floated through that meeting like a zombie floats through the night. Speaking of the night, I was treated to an AWESOME steak dinner at Perry's Steakhouse that evening. If you are ever in Houston, check out that place (it was like a man's Chuck E Cheese but with Steak).
Anyway, I was up the next morning at 4:30 AM for a quick shower and trip to the airport for a 7:00 AM flight. To my surprise, Delta actually managed to be on-time that morning and thank goodness, since it started to snow that morning at 9:00 AM. It was the earliest snow recorded in modern record keeping for Houston.
Tired and worn out, I managed to stagger into the house Friday afternoon in time for nap, a couple of diet cokes and a kiss from my wife before leaving for the monthly poker game. Now, I will admit that I could have skipped the poker but I think Big E was happy for me to be gone anyway (something about cleaning the house for the big football party). Special thanks go out to the guys for handing over their cash Friday, "momma was happy!" when I got home.
Anyway, Saturday morning, I was at the junkyard at 10:00 AM pulling a motor out of a Volkswagen (long story not to be told today), and Saturday we had big party for the most awesome SEC championship game ever.
A Little Timeout from the Story ... I admit that I LOVED watching Alabama stomp a mud hole in Florida. I also enjoyed watching Tim Tebow cry after the game. I really don't mean to be a Tebow-hater but with all of the LOVE and ADMIRATION that the media heaped on that kid, it was bound to happen.
Anyway, back to the story ... I made it to bed around 3:00 AM Sunday morning. Before your brains go into overdrive, I was asleep long before then but it was 3:00 before Big E checked on me and invited me to bed. I was watching the UFC finals and fell asleep.
Yesterday, I managed to pack and do it all over again. Yeah, thats right, I am back in Atlanta, but I will be back home on Wednesday night. Until next week ...
I manage to hit the road again, but this time its with my beautiful bride!!! I can't wait, we haven't had a night away for just the two of us in a LONG time. I guess I will buy Christmas in Georgia this year, I hear the school system needs the money!
I hope that you are having a great season. Along the way, stop for a minute and thank your loved ones for all they do for you. No matter who you are, the season wouldn't be the same without those you love around you.
I don't say it often enough but I can't imagine what it would be like without the most awesome wife in the world not to mention a wonderful set of understanding kids ....
I promised I wouldn't do that this year. We even managed to complete our big project the week before Thanksgiving!!! With that project complete, I should have been able to hold up my end of the promise.
Alas, I have failed.
I will be home for more days this Holiday Season than the past several years, but I am still traveling this season which in my book means I have failed. Of course, with every failure comes a good story, so here is my story for the week......
Last Wednesday, I hit the Montgomery Regional Airport promptly at 10:00 AM to insure that I would be on time for an 11:27 AM flight for Atlanta for a short layover resulting in a 2:11 PM arrival in Houston. At 10:01, as I was checking my baggage, Delta announced that my flight had been CANCELED!!!!
Rather than bore you with every twist and turn in the plans, lets skip to 4:00 PM when I finally got on a plane! OK, I will own up to spending a few minutes in the airport bar watching TV with some Canadians trying to understand the concept of bad weather despite crystal clear blue skies outside. Excitedly, we taxi'd out to the runway only to have the pilot announce that we were being delayed AGAIN and just for fun, we were going to sit in the plane on the runway!
Finally, around 9:30 PM I arrived in Atlanta (a 32 minute flight). Now, for those not familiar with our part of the world, Atlanta is only a 2:30 hour drive and Houston can be reached in less than 10 hours driving. So, here I am, nearly 12 hours into my flying experience and I've only made it to Atlanta.
As luck would have it, the flight in Atlanta was only delayed for slightly more than an hour. I finally arrived in Houston at 1:00 AM on Thursday morning. Thankfully, the limo driver was waiting for me (yes, life can be hard sometimes) with a smile and disdain in his heart when he realized I had no cash for a tip. Oh well, thanks for the ride dude.
The next day was a long day of demonstrations and more knowledge transfer than a tired traveler should have to endure in a single day. I know the information will help me especially the awesome book they gave us but I floated through that meeting like a zombie floats through the night. Speaking of the night, I was treated to an AWESOME steak dinner at Perry's Steakhouse that evening. If you are ever in Houston, check out that place (it was like a man's Chuck E Cheese but with Steak).
Anyway, I was up the next morning at 4:30 AM for a quick shower and trip to the airport for a 7:00 AM flight. To my surprise, Delta actually managed to be on-time that morning and thank goodness, since it started to snow that morning at 9:00 AM. It was the earliest snow recorded in modern record keeping for Houston.
Tired and worn out, I managed to stagger into the house Friday afternoon in time for nap, a couple of diet cokes and a kiss from my wife before leaving for the monthly poker game. Now, I will admit that I could have skipped the poker but I think Big E was happy for me to be gone anyway (something about cleaning the house for the big football party). Special thanks go out to the guys for handing over their cash Friday, "momma was happy!" when I got home.
Anyway, Saturday morning, I was at the junkyard at 10:00 AM pulling a motor out of a Volkswagen (long story not to be told today), and Saturday we had big party for the most awesome SEC championship game ever.
A Little Timeout from the Story ... I admit that I LOVED watching Alabama stomp a mud hole in Florida. I also enjoyed watching Tim Tebow cry after the game. I really don't mean to be a Tebow-hater but with all of the LOVE and ADMIRATION that the media heaped on that kid, it was bound to happen.
Anyway, back to the story ... I made it to bed around 3:00 AM Sunday morning. Before your brains go into overdrive, I was asleep long before then but it was 3:00 before Big E checked on me and invited me to bed. I was watching the UFC finals and fell asleep.
Yesterday, I managed to pack and do it all over again. Yeah, thats right, I am back in Atlanta, but I will be back home on Wednesday night. Until next week ...
I manage to hit the road again, but this time its with my beautiful bride!!! I can't wait, we haven't had a night away for just the two of us in a LONG time. I guess I will buy Christmas in Georgia this year, I hear the school system needs the money!
I hope that you are having a great season. Along the way, stop for a minute and thank your loved ones for all they do for you. No matter who you are, the season wouldn't be the same without those you love around you.
I don't say it often enough but I can't imagine what it would be like without the most awesome wife in the world not to mention a wonderful set of understanding kids ....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)