It's almost 2007

Okay I have not posted to my blog for most of the year 2006 and from time to time I really regret it. I am not going to bother writing all the excuses for why I haven't put any effort into it because it just boils down to the fact that I just haven't been inspired enough to put in any effort. I am hoping to do a better job in 07 (put I'm not making any promises) because I have had an itch for something creative. I don't know how many people get this type of urges or how they might act them out, but I have wanted to get my creative juices flowing and paint or draw a picture something that would release my desire to create. The problem is that I have so little free time, or at least I don't have time that could/should not be used for more important things, I do have three small children and a beautiful wife after all!

anyway I guess what I'm driving at is that I intend to post more, hope to see you around.

You have to check this out!

I spotted this guys video on VH1 the other day, and had the hardest time remembering what his name was. After doing a google search for "jewish reggae" I came up with his site.

I love his song "King Without a Crown" check out Matisyahu and if you can pronounce his name your doing better than me!

I have found the best music on the internet!

Here is the deal, I was in high school and college in the 80’s (yeah yeah old fart blah blah blah Whatever!) and as is true for most of us, that is the time of my life were I was most interested in music. Not that I am not now, but then it was one of my passions, I was always looking for new music. if you were like me and alive and actively listening to music back then it is pretty likely that you ran across a college radio station that was playing all kinds of cool music that you could not (and still can not) hear on commercial radio. And frankly unless you had a bunch of black eye liner wearing friends (guys and girls) then the only way to be exposed to some of the most inventive music of that day was that the college radio station and you would pray the guy who was on the late night time slot would never graduate. Because he would brining in his own albums and those of his friends, and yes many of them were albums back then because CDs were just starting to explode (once again, yes I am that old)

Today I discovered this internet radio station and I am so happy to try and send some traffic their way! So please visit and donate so that you can keep my glory days alive!

Podcasting

Okay, my life is so being absorbed by the Apple Corporation! I don’t even have an apple computer I just have an iPod which I acquired last year! Now I am becoming totally absorbed in every media format it can play. It started out just as natural anyone might expect. I loaded songs I had on my computer, then I went through every CD I owned every digital format of music file I could get (for free at least because I am to old and too married to be spending money on music). And after a little while I figured out that some of the radio shows I listened to were available in Mp3 format, and then I figured out what a Podcast was and that these same programs were available and I started listening to them everyday. Then I got wind of the fact that private individuals are producing the same kind of programs and some of those are totally funny, most of them are crude so I will not list any that I recommend yet. But just the fact that you can find a daily dose of comedy or what ever you might be looking for makes me giddy as a school girl in a pair shiny new shoes!

All I can say is thank goodness I don’t have a video iPod or I would get nothing done!

Don’t get me wrong I am not claiming to be on the cutting edge of anything, apparently some of these Podcast have been up for several years and now there are literally hundreds of thousands on the net (the vast majority are lousy content, and poor audio quality too) but there are some diamonds in the rough out there. I encourage you to give it a whirl. Don’t be lazy just Google it, I am not going to tell you what you should listen to! Okay maybe later when I find some funny ones that are not cussing every other word.

Face lift

I decided to make a change to my template format because I am looking for any trick I can to get myself motivated to start posting again.


I have been keeping busy working and listening to a lot of different Podcasts in my free time. So I have not had a lot of inspiration to write. But I am beginning to feel the rumblings of the old creative juices, maybe it’s the spring thaw but I know I want get back to regular posting. So check back, I may even post something today. You will never know unless you check back.

I should get me one of them blogs

I have been thinking that I should start a blog of my own, yeah that could be fun.

I would like to apologize to both of my regular readers I can't believe it took me this long to get back to my blog.

I have lots of excuses though: new job responsibilities, multiple jobs, lack of anything worth reading in my head, most importantly New Baby (pictures to follow) but things are starting to get into a regular regiment again. So providing I can think of something worth recording from time to time I will be updating the blog again.

So please come back again, there might even be something on here worth reading

The time has come

I mentioned before that I sold my motorcycle, my Pre-marriage I am a dangerous man look out ladies transportation. And that was a somewhat painful experience. Not really as it was more of a useless eyesore in my ever more crowded garage.

But now I have begun an even more painful venture. I have places a For Sale sign in my little 1990 Ford Bronco II. This little truck has been my primary transportation for the majority of the last seven years (outside of the year where it sat fallow because I had cracked the heads on it). She is still a very good looking truck too, having spent all but the last three years of her life in the high dessert of central New Mexico. Where cars rarely fall victim to rust and more likely meet their demise in an alcohol related traffic accident. (New Mexico has the highest reported instances of alcohol related fatalities in the US). Now I will be honest she needs some paint, all that dessert wind and sand has worn the lovely pale blue paint off the center of the hood and roof. But she is super clean inside and everything still works, except the cruse control which mysteriously stopped functioning a few months after we purchased it, and the factory stereo which is demon possessed and if you attempt to adjust the volume in any way it goes from one extreme to the other without warning quite annoying at the very least. Over the years we have owned it I have replaced almost every major system starting with the steering pump, alternator, fuel pump, clutch (master and slave cylinders) breaks, and finally the motor three years ago. She almost new, but alas either the Bronco or the Jeep have to go so the older is put up on the sale block.

All this has come about because we needed to purchase a mini van to accommodate the arrival of our third child in December. The upside is that my wife is now driving a much newer automobile (only 3 years old) and I am upgrading to the 10 year old vehicle from the Bronco which is 15 years old. I am enjoying the Jeep already but it is still a little sad to see something that you have had for so long leave. At least this relationship will end better than that of my other vehicles (all of which I KILLED).

At it again?

I tell you what, for a while there I was concerned that I was becoming addicted to blogging, I was reading every blog linked to another blog, I was making mental notes of how my everyday experience could "make a good posting". I was thinking about it way too much frankly.
Then life started getting in the way, the whole "my job is interfering with my blogging" thing when I was transitioning into a new job role at job number one. Then when things started to settle down I started thinking to my self that I really need to post something again. I even got grief from friends about it. Then for a little while I was feeling guilty. I was letting my loyal readership down (all three). I was just surprised to find that once I had to stop blogging on a regular basis it was super hard to get back into the grove.
Well this is my first attempt to get the wheels moving again. So you can start coming back there will be more content in the coming days. No promises of quality but at least the quantity will be better.

My Precious

My Precious
Originally uploaded by DEPjrTX.

Well after what seamed like forever and hearing lots of smack from haters! I got my new toy on Friday and have been playing with it every since.

Ethan's Update

Well I know an update has been long over due but I have been extremely busy lately, work is cutting into my blogging time!

The only thing worth mentioning is that my youngest son had surgery on his eye lids today. He has Ptosis, which is basically droopy eyes. At first my though was “what’s the big deal, lets not start teaching the boy to be vain so early” then his physician explained that it can cause blindness because the weaker eye does not get enough light/exercise. Good thing the same thing is only making me fat.

Any way, we took him in today and all went well as far as we can tell. He has six small incisions (three above each eye) and he is pretty swollen, looks like he has been in a bar fight. But we never let our boys hang out in bars until they are out of diapers at the very least. I will try to post some pictures later, got some good before and after shots now we just need to wait until the swelling goes down to get a better look at the results.

Do you smell that?

I am so glad it is raining this morning! It has been nothing but hot for the last couple of weeks. My poor neighbor replanted his entire yard last fall with a different type of grass, and it is not fairing so well under the 95 plus degrees (Fahrenheit for those of you abroad). I feel for him too because he does fret over it so. I like to have a nice yard and want my grass to look good, but this fellow works too hard. To give you an idea I have not mowed my grass in about ten days. It’s getting a little long, and I plan to cut it tonight after work but I have been letting it get longer because of the heat. My neighbor however cuts his grass every three or four days without fail, and waters at least once a week. All this to no avail his yard is turning a little brown already and we have yet to get into the heat of July an August. Surly by summers end his entire yard will be dead or look it at least. My grass is doing fine except for a couple of small bare patches its green and full pleases me when I look over it in the morning as I am leaving for the space station.
I am not just happy for the rain because of my grass. I love the way everything smells after it’s been raining especially in the morning. It’s like sending the entire world through the washer everything looks clean again. All the dust is removed and the colors look better. Plus that smell, you will never find a dryer sheet that smells that good. Well I hope the weather in your little patch of the earth is just to your liking.

Boys and our toys

Here is a quick update on my iPod saga.

I have been attempting to procure a free iPod through a referral program (here is the back story) this effort started in February and has received sporadic effort at best for my part. Don’t get me wrong it’s not that I don’t want an iPod especially one that I don’t have to pay for. But I just found it hard to even broach the subject frequently enough to make it happen.

Well thanks in part to my good friend Eddie (he got two of the five required referrals for me and found the program in the first place) I am in the final stages! I have all five referrals now and have submitted for approval. This part of process is published as a 7-10 day time frame because they have to check and make sure no fraud is being attempted. Then I assume it will take a few more days to ship after I receive approval. I am very anxious to get my hands on my new toy (the Precious) because I am a Technodork and all boys love toys, but I will be pleased if I get it by the end of July. It’s hard but I keep reminding myself to be patient because it is an expensive toy that I am getting at virtually no cost.

If you would like to get your own precious you can help Dave (the referral that put me over the top) and check out the program here.

the Spur-fect ending!

My Spurs have done it again!

In the lowest-scoring Game 7 in Finals history, the Spurs prevailed 81-74. I could not be happier about this outcome. This team is all class and I am glad they represent my home town and state so well.

Missing in Action

For my three loyal readers I have to say sorry right up front. I have not posted in a very long time. This has been the biggest break since I started blogging and I will do my best to keep it from ever happening again.

Now on to the life updates. First thing on my mind this morning is


Way to go Spurs! Man I love Robert Horry. I have not mentioned this before but San Antonio is my home town and the Spurs are my team (until the fall when the Cowboys start playing anyway) and my boys are making a great show of it. I was a little nervous the last couple of games because Detroit is such a good team and the Spurs showed no heart for two games. This is the Finals baby, you gotta bring you’re A game!

We had a good visit with my sister and her family last weekend. They stopped in on their way to TN for a wedding. They have three kids and they are close to the age of our boys so they all got along wonderfully. I have great memories of my cousins when I was a kid and it made me feel good to see my children building the same type of relationships. The adults sat up on Saturday night talking until 6:30 am! No booze no cards just the four of us sitting around the kitchen table gabbing and laughing until the sun came up. We were all bushed and of course the kids were up at 8:30 like clockwork! And five kids under the age of five are not capable of being quiet especially when the three youngest are boys. My sister and Brother-in-law brought their big motor home and when we drove around town we all went together in it and my oldest though that was the coolest thing. In fact this Saturday when we told him we have to get ready to go to his baseball class he asked if “the really big car is going to be there”. I personally though it was a great visit, but did leave me a little sad missing family and wishing we were closer so we could spend time and allow our kids to get to know their cousins.

The only negative to report is that we all got sick starting with the youngest last Sunday night, then Mamma and the oldest boy on Monday, then finally me on Tuesday. Some sort of stomach virus that ran its course (literally) in about twenty four hours. Nothing more fun that evacuating copious amount of fluid and food particles at various stages of digestion from both ends of the gastrointestinal track. But we are all well again.

I promise I will do better about the updates. thanks for droppin by

My kid aint in this photo**

This past Saturday was meant to be the first installment of my eldest son’s Little Bombers baseball class. Little Bombers is an instructional class to teach boys and girls the basics of baseball, three and four years specifically. I have never been a huge fan of baseball but am enthusiastic about my boys getting involved in organized sports because of the development that kids get when they are involved and enjoying a team sport. Plus it will offer a new activity for me to share with them. Not to mention keeping them active enough to ensure an afternoon nap or an early bed time for Mamma and Daddy to enjoy, wink wink nudge nudge. The first class was being put on Saturday by the local parks and recreation department at 8:45 am. Needless to say my son has been very excited to go he loves to go to the park and the just the opportunity to playing with other kids is enough to get him wound up for days on end because he is very social. We had purchased an inexpensive ball and glove early last week and he has been tagging them around asking each day “are we going to the park today?”. He and I had played catch a little in the kitchen because of the rain we have been getting off and on all week, but nothing compares to getting outside in the sunshine on a grassy field to chuck the horse hide around (as if I know anything about baseball imagery) Unfortunately as I mention we have been getting some heavy rain pretty regularly the last week. So you can imagine my disappointment when I woke up at 7:00am on Saturday to the tap tap pitter pat of rain hitting the skylight in the master bathroom. And sure enough when I looked out our yard was thoroughly soaked. My assumption at that point was that the class would be called so I went back to bed, only to get up an hour and a half later to see that it had stopped raining the sky was clear the birds were singing and the tides had receded. So I spent the remainder of the weekend thinking that in my sloth I had cheated the poor child out of his inaugural venture into organized sports. In an effort to make up for my transgression I took him and his brother to play in the sports field by the church after service on Sunday but still felt a little guilty for him missing out on the chance to play with other yard apes. I called Parks and Rec today so I could find out what notification system was in place to handle inclement weather and not only discovered that there is a specific number for just this sort of update, but my assumption about Saturday had been correct. So woo hoo, I am not a lazy dad I have great intuition. If preschool sports are this stressful I don’t know what I will do when they get older.
** This photo is from a previous year so my boy wouldn’t be in it, this is his first year duh!

What kind of bait do you use to catch one of these?

Fishy find

Tim Pruitt holds a record 124-pound blue catfish that he hooked on the Mississippi River. It was the largest of its kind in state history, officials said. The fish died en route to a Kansas store, where it was to be displayed in a tank, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said.

dOWNHERE

Say hello to my new favorite band.



check out their site for a sample of their wears

Wow its Friday already

This week has just flown by, mostly because we have all been on a chocolate cake buzz the entire week. I am sad to say that I will miss my good buddy chocolate cake, but alas he is now gone forever. Oh such sweet soft kisses I will truly miss him.

Today we are going to the baby doc for the first time with this pregnancy (that would be an obstetrician, not an infant with a PhD). We are changing doctors from the one who “delivered” Ethan. And by delivered I mean she spent 45 second with my wife each visit where we had to sit in her office for an hour and a half, she also popped in five minutes before my son appeared and promptly left five minutes after.

I still say that my wife delivered Ethan all by herself and for the most part the rest of us in the room were just in her way. My role in the birthing process was to run the video equipment and drive quickly, which I did both exceptionally well. However I failed to capture the climatic event on video in the heat of the moment. I forgot to resume recording again after a brief pause to avoid excessive footage of the lovely Mrs. a’la natural. I did get some great video of the view out the window, but as I framed in on a lovely water feature out in the hospital garden my wife can be heard in the back ground agonizing through transitional labor. I will likely have to dub over the sound to mask the outcries which were a pretty obvious wake up call for me to get back to coaching and stop playing with my toys. Actually I am in awe of the entire process and just grateful just to be a witness to this amazing event.

My wife is already very happy about changing doctors as she has discovered that the new doctor likes to have a sonograms (or ultra-sound what ever) performed early and with some frequency where this is sometimes only performed once or twice, and you know how ladies love baby pictures
.

We are eight weeks pregnant now so the baby is only going to be about .63 inches long (crown to rump) so I don’t expect to be able to see much family resemblance yet. But I am looking forward to my first glimpse of the little one. I will try to post pictures this weekend.

Warning this posting may be hazardous

Due to the strong baby photo content and explicit chocolate cake images the following linked website may cause cavities viewer discretion is advised.**



**Baby lovers and Chocoholics are responsible for their own response. The publishers are not liable for any cravings suffered as a result of exposure to these images.

Ethan's first birthday and hair cut.

Our little man needs a hair cut


I have a feeling that I am not going to like this


this is not my idea of a good birthday event


Well I didn' t like the process but I like the result