Who's the Badass?

M is the badass.

Why? Because not only did she get into graduate school, but she got a fellowship that will pay for tuition for the whole 2 years (and then some)! Glad to see that UT believes what we all knew to be true long ago about M.

Call, e-mail or leave comments below!


Full disclosure: This is all D on this post.

Moonwalking

Tuesday night, M and I happen to catch the 25th anniversary clip show of Nature on PBS. Since I've probably only seen like 10 episodes over the years, all of the clips were new to me. And all of the were the best of the best from Nature. Some, like the clip below were simply amazing. Others were gruesomely real, and the clip from their show on the pet situation in the aftermath of Katrina was near impossible to watch.

The anniversary show is living proof that PBS can still produce TV that is worth watching and far better than anything on network or cable.

Enjoy!



The clip is about the mating behavior of these little birds called Manakids. The woman in the clip is describing their mating ritual.

The Mansion, The Bodies, The Greatest

This past weekend, M and I visited my sister up in Denton. Her and 3 friends somehow managed to rent this huge 4 bedroom house that has a garage, a huge living room, and a huge gameroom on the second floor, and a heart-shaped hot tub in the master bedroom. Swank! Rent is $1600 per month. Get the fuck out, you say? No its true and in classic irony the best party house ever is rented by people who know better.

On Saturday, we went to see the Body Worlds exhibit at the Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park in Dallas. It was not as creepy as you'd imagine. The only part of the bodies that retained any humanity was their finger and toe nails. The exhibit was very informative and really made you want to keep healthy. Other than the bodies that were splayed in various positions, there were also diseased lungs, livers, kidneys, and hearts. There was a aortic aneurysm the size of a tangerine. Totally cool!

We also visited my brother and his wife and their 3 month old daughter. She was cute and had a very amiable personality. She also made a lot of faces, some of them were a reaction to me, some to poop.

Later that night we went and hung out at a smoky bar with my sister and her friends and the Booklahver, who I remembered lived nearby. Though I'm sure to be the only one to have nostalgia for the noxious cloud that hung just above our heads but just below the televisions, taken in small doses I really do miss that unhealthy bar scene. I'm sure in the future it will be looked at with as much disdain as smoking during trial, in the cockpit, or in the cock pit.

Interspersed through our activities and the eating of fine cuisine was the greatest sandwich every made. It had been calling to me for several weeks, but when my sister told me that the hype was true, I had to have it. Yes, I'm talking about Whataburger's Honey BBQ Chicken Strip Sandwich. Since I don't work for them, I won't urge you to get one (especially since it has 1110 calories), but it is a damn good sandwich to enjoy every once in a while. However, because it is "here for a limited time only," it kinda makes me want to go on a Ribwich-style tour.

BTW, M got into grad school!
If you haven't e-mailed her to congratulate her, you have until June!

I love Texas Weather

Why?

Because on a day that the weather-predicting-internets predict a high somewhere in the 40s with A.M. showers it can still snow.

Only in Texas!

To Watch or Not Watch

Wanna get drunk on a weekday?
Wanna get drunk on a weekday for a reason this time?
Wanna watch the State of the Union address tonight?

Nah, me neither, but I did find this cool drinking game for those that want to simultaneously vomit in terror and vomit from Tito's.

And for the responsible set, BINGO!

Update on Camping 2007

For the first time ever, I've actually gotten responses from ya'll before March. Yea you, you are indeed the Person of the Year.

So mark your calendars:

April 20-22

Pedernales Falls

As in past years, M and I will reserve two sites and get there early Friday to get the best sites.

Camping 2007

You know, I never noticed that the year coincided with the number of times we've been doing this camping thing.

Since it has been established that the arch-camper Mel-a-rific will indeed be in the country* for camping this year, we again try in vain to get an early consensus on where and when.

When: The weekends of April 14, 21, 28 look best so far. Weekend of April 7 is Easter, so that's a no go. We could do it earlier, but some people don't like to be cold.

Where: I heard a lot of talk for a place near Austin for this year, so here are the only two real choices:

Pedernales Falls (which gets my first place vote)
McKinney Falls

Then there is also the nearby places we've already been:
Enchanted Rock (drive-up this time, I swear)
Inks Lake (this time without everyones favorite jester)

There is also a more comprehensive list of the camping spots in Central Texas

And of course if anyone knows of any private (but cheap) campsites, speak up!

So please leave comments here as to your preferences. And please send this post to as many people as you'd like.

*This will be Mel-a-rifics last year camping with us as she is going to be stationed in the Philippines with the Peace Corp for the next 2 years

The Holidays are over.....now what?

Something for the winter blues.


(turn on your speakers)





Oscar and his new napping partner Rocko.


















Saw these rib cage clouds on the LONG trip back from McAllen.













But Felix just couldn't take it.

The Pros and Cons of livin in the stix

About 2 months ago, the drain in our bathtub started to drain slowly. We didn't think much of it at the time because this sort of thing happens to people with hair. Gradually, it just kept getting worse until it came to a head this weekend when it stopped draining all together: "it stopped draining," they all said.

We had tried "Drain-Oh" earlier, but it didn't work and so I thought that is was just some massive clog that needed a roto-rooter. So we bought one, its called snake and really all it is is a flexible but strong metal cable. We got 15 feet of it down the drain without hitting the clog.

Some clog, eh!

So as a last ditch effort, we bought some heavy duty sulfuric acid-based (pardon the pun) drain cleaner.

Foul smelling, scary bubbling, visible vapors, and it was brown.

Megan just happen to be outside with the dogs when she saw a brown bubblin' brew and an impending environmental disaster.


This is the crack in the drain pipe where the water had been draining into our yard. I went online and read how to clean up the mess safely and went about shoveling up the contaminated mud, all whilst it hissed at me. Have you ever had mud hiss at you?!

So I called our neighbor and told him that I believe there was a crack in the drain pipe and he concurred and fixed it today. Today?! That would never ever happen in the city. In Austin, we'd have to call Stern Lecture plumbing or some such place and actually pay for someone to fix it.

----------

We got a snow day 2 weeks ago. Enjoy!

Are they holding hands out of mutual love, or fear?

A collage of the snow day.

Felix REALLY likes that guy from MythBusters.

One down one to go*

For the many of you who didn't know that the midterm elections weren't/aren't yet over, there was a runoff last night in TX-23 Congressional District. TX-23 which was gerrymandering in 2002 was found to violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting the Hispanic vote. Last night Democrat Ciro Rodriguez beat 7 term incumbent Republican Henry Bonilla. Bonilla was the only hispanic Republican in Congress and I was glad to return purity to the Great White Party, not to be confused with the Great White Party


*FL-13 is still up in the air after voting machine error or ballot layout error resulted in a loss of 18,000 votes in a race that was decided by less than 400 votes. And no, of course there is no paper trail for these machines.

I got nuthin'...or some ramblings*

Hello readers!

Its almost Christmas time and perhaps I will fill all of you out there in on what is in store for this household come the New Year.

A certain D of DM recently applied for a job in Austin, and for the first time in perhaps my entire life, I am really (perhaps stupidly) optimistic about this job prospect. I applied mid-november and will likely know for sure (post interview) around late-january, early february. It means all kinds a complicated shit if I do get what comes the closest to my "dream job." Complicated, but exciting. Complicated for instance in that we would need to find a house with a yard on a UT bus route. Since the content of the job would not likely excite anyone reading, the context is that I would work in the same building that M attends class. How badass would that be?

M should find out about grad school in late-february. She sent off her application materials last friday and is finally done with the application process.

*If this post feels somewhat halting and broken in its prose, that is because of a failed/sucessful experiment using V8 as the base for a bloody mary. Yes, Mom, I know its Monday.

Keeping the above in mind, I don't (necessarily) want to alienate our reader base (whatever that may be), but the dogs are grown and M doesn't want to dress them so I'm finding it harder to justify posts dedicated to them.

I told T of HN recently that I wanted to have less politics at the site, but stuff like this just can't be ignored, so I think that the blog will probably become less about the dogs over time and more about whatever kinda crap me or M want to post.

But not so fast....

This photo, courtesy of M is like a Gerry photo if he covered dog shows (which may happen if he doesn't watch his mouth).

I made the top %10!

Hey everyone. As many of you know, I was a full on Election 2006 political junkie. I really got into reading about the "hot" races and reading the polls daily. I even printed out a list of the races and put checks and minuses next to those that I thought would win and lose. On Election Night, I had both a blue and red Sharpe to mark the returns.

Two days before election night, I entered the Predict06 online pool as a member of Swing State Project and made my predictions. Some of you may remember that post.*

I didn't win the pool, but when I checked back today, they had posted a list of the top 50 best prognosticators in the Swing State Project pool. I came in 17th out of the 171 members! I came in 25th overall out of the 2313 who participated.




*If you have the stomach for it, you can visit the anonymous detractor who also left their predictions in the comments.

Happy Birthday Felix & Oscar!

Felix and Oscar are 1 today. They got extra hugs and chased around a moth. It doesn't get much better than that.

Oscar and Felix last Tuesday: Stalwarts of Democracy

For the Nature Lovers

Today, I did something that I've wanted to do since we moved here:


I hiked up the hill that majestically pokes outta the ground in back of our house. It looks far, but its not. It's also not a plateau as it appears. Its actually a ridge the rings another small valley. The day was perfect for hiking. 65, cold wind, and no snakes. Here is what it looks like from the top.


The arrow indicates where our house is. Click on it to see more clearly.


I also found some lovely brain poop, possibly a relative of brain corral.

One last political post before the big day

Besides the principle reasons that I don't vote republican, there are the dirty tricks that republicans employ that compel me to donate both time and money to the opposition party. (And no, the shit they pull in the link above is NOT something that both sides do, you cynic, you.)

For you political junkies out there, you can make your own predictions about the House and Senate races over at Swing State. I've made mine. The winner of this multiple person pool gets a free massage, some meth, and some inappropriate sexual conduct.

Also check out HN's recent post about Election Day.

Oh, and by the way, VOTE!

Take time to remember

This post is not about politics, snakes, or dogs. Its about a restaurant.

As first reported by KB, the Country Omelette burned down this morning. When I was a kid, a finicky kid, we'd have our occasional family breakfasts at the Country Omelette. If it was close enough to 11, I could get a hamburger. If not, pancakes. I would stack the jelly like most kids do, or I'd take a trip to the bathroom staring at all the white people (the most I'd ever see in any given week otherwise) and the large landscape photos of places in Europe used mostly to cover the walls than to advertise any particular place.

The Country Omelette was also where, after ordering a hamburger at 11am, I first heard the story of my parents first date. They met in Dallas. My dad, like many people loves breakfast, so he assumed my mom did too. He took her to what he says was one of the best places in Dallas for breakfast. They arrive at around 10am, and she orders...a hamburger.

The Country Omelette would probably be considered a dive if not for its huge windows in every booth. It had a bar, booths, and tables, a permanent salad bar with those mini-cereal boxes that seem only to exist in restaurants. It also had not changed since it opened in the late 1970s, hence it had brown shag carpet and fake wood paneling that had faded to a derby brown.

The best part though was that on our way out I could get an Andes Candy, which you could only get there and no where else, ever.

So, RIP to the Country Omelette of my childhood, I had only good memories of thee.

Some if not all of you out there in the tubes must have a similar family eatery that you remember from childhood, so take some time to remember and lets hear about it. You too lurkers!

Special Guest T from HN on Voting

Hello all, this is a cross post from from HN :

Voting

Are you registered to vote? Are you going to vote? Do you know where you can find out who is running in your district?

If you're not registered to vote, take 5 minutes out of your day today and fill out your voter registration card. It's ridiculously easy. You're too late to vote in the Nov 7th election, but you can vote in the next one!

If you're not going to vote, you're basically throwing away your one chance to change how things are done around your city, your county, your state, etc. Besides, if you don't vote, you can't complain about how shitty things are. And, man, things are shitty. Have you been paying attention?

If you want to find out who is running for office in your district, check out this website. Or this one. Make informed decisions in the voting booth. Your future depends on it.

So get to it, Gentle Readers! Woot!

brought to you by tiny robot on 10/25/2006

Good news, Bad news, you pick

While trolling the partisan blogs today, I came across the answer to a question that I have had in my mind for the past couple of years: Are Bush (personally) and his administration really fundamentalists? Do they really believe the words that come out of their mouths or the words they distribute in press releases?

Sadly (or happily?), the answer is what my parents have always cynically suspected: No.

According to a new book written by David Kuo, who was the number two guy at the Office of Faith Based initiatives, the Bush Administration has been using fundamentalist evangelical Christians for their vote much like you'd use a bludgeon to club a baby seal.

So both sides get their comeuppance and prove my parents right: The fundamentalists didn't get to turn their narrow view of morality into U.S. law (at least not on the federal level), the Administration is tagged as a bunch of phonies, and it becomes clear that their agenda really is to make as much money possible for themselves and their loyalists. Move over Ulysses S. Grant.

Katy Blogs

So you think you have too many blogs to read? Well too bad because here is one more to add. My sister has started a blog and though her updates are about as frequent as Midwest or BBQ, there they are. Some of you out there may have met my sister before. Some have not, but perhaps all have heard the oft told story of how she drove a bunch of drunken college students home from a party.

The party was at Midwest's old apartment and for some reason Katy was in town and for some other reason I took her to this party. Even though she was 15 and had a learners permit, we had no intention of letting her drive.

As the party progressed, someone, lets call her Margaret needed a ride home. I volunteered, but was told that I could not drive. M also decided she could not drive, so we volunteered Katy to drive. Why not?* Its legal, she has a learners permit, so the four of us along with Mel-a-rific and possibly someone else piled into the car and we were off. We let Margaret sit up front so she could direct....I confess this story is not as good as it should be as all I remember of the trip was the car lurching across 26th street into the left lane of a residential street as another likely drunk vehicle was coming at us in the proper lane. Scream, scream, scream and we were all sober. After dropping off Margaret (if that is her real name), M took over.

Truthfully, it was not Katy's fault that she so unprepared for the Austin streets at 15, but we still never let her forget it.

*Later it was revealed that Mel-a-rific had given Katy at least 2 beers sometime during the party.

The limited appeal post

For those librarians out there, our registrar turned me on to this novel way of presenting the book online. In this case, an auction catalog. I'll be forwarding this on to the listservs later.

Just for fun!