« June 2005 | Main | August 2005 »
July 29, 2005
Hmmmm?
Okay, how do you cut and paste a website address onto your blog so that it can be clicked on and take the clicker to the aforementioned site?
How many grammatical errors are there in that question?
Posted by james at 09:27 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
July 28, 2005
Not too smart
Y'know...if I were going to raise such a crop as is mentioned in the following news story...I think I would have better since then to put them outside my FRONT DOOR to get some sun. Sheesh! I think this guy was smoking too much of it...it has fried his ability for cognitive thought.
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3650956&Call=Email&Format=Text
Posted by james at 09:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 27, 2005
Lawn Care
I'm meeting with a gentleman this weekend about the details on purchasing his lawn care business from him. My wife and I are really excited about the prospects...as are the kids. It'll be nice to be able to meet for lunch with the family during the week because I'll be around where they are occasionally(unlike now). Anyway, I truly hope it goes through.
Posted by james at 11:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Where we've been the past two weeks
Well, it's been a very busy past couple of weeks.
First, we went to Shreveport for my grandmother's funeral. I saw a lot of people that I grew up with...people I haven't seen in 20 years. It was one of the more joyful funerals I've been to. My grandmother was a very tough lady, but very loved. She wasn't herself for several years...my dad said it best at the funeral when he said, '"She's back to being Doris Marsalis now".
Friday night in Shreveport, Will, Stephen and I went to Barnes & Noble and took part in the Harry Potter festivities. We had a ball! The kids talked and played with other little wizard wannabes and all of us parents drank Starbuck's coffee and smiled at our little ones(because of course, we were only there for them right?).
Seriously, there were a few parents decked out in HP garb. The lady that dressed as Professor Trelawney was very good. She won the costume contest...we arrived too late for it, but the boys got alot of thumbs-ups for the "Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes" shirts they had on. "Mischief Managed" won out for the back of the shirt wording...everybody kept bringing people over to read their shirts and their bags of "Puking Pastels" and "Canary Creams" they had around their necks. We got the book at 12:27AM. We finished it on Tuesday the 19th. Very good! Probably the best one yet in our opinion.
Saturday, I stopped at a cemetary near the funeral home and took the kids to a gravesite of a boy I went to school with and played soccer with growing up. He was killed when he was playing with his dad's gun back in 1983. His name was Mark McKnight. I told the kids the story and used it as an explanation about why I never let them point a gun at anyone or anything they don't intend to shoot, and why every gun is always to be thought of as loaded. I won't go into the details but it seemed to make a bit of an impression on them. The boys could relate because I told them that I'd been friends with him since I was Will's age and to imagine someone they know right now being that boy that was buried there in front of them.
We left the memorial service in Shreveport and went to Deadwood Texas for the burial. For those that don't know(which is most of you, with maybe the exception of Christin and Aaron, Deadwood is about an hour West/Southwest of Shreveport, LA. It's not too far from Carthage, TX. My grandmother was raised there, as was my dad, for the most part. I was amazed how I didn't need a single direction to get there...we'd been out there so many times, it was like going home. We used to all go out there for New Year's, Easter, Mayday, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There would be 50 or 60 people in that little 3 bedroom 2 bath house. The food, the family, the fun...the memories....just going to the old church and the cemetary brought it all back. We drove past the old storesite(they bulldozed it down years ago) and I told the kids about sitting on the porch watching the log trucks and oil trucks drive by. When it was too hot, we'd all be inside the old store in front of the BIG FAN that Pawpaw had gotten out of a cotton gin. We'd play checkers and chase mice in the back, see who could kill the most flies with the flyswatters. Mawmaw would give us some candy occasionally(okay, she gave it to us everytime, but mom and dad didn't know that). I told the kids about walking to the fishing holes and camping out and shooting blackbirds along the fencerows and killing snakes whenever we could find some that were poisonous. We watched very little television out there, but we were never, ever bored. It was a shame it took my grandmother dying to get all of us together again. My cousin and I have taken it upon ourselves to plan and execute regular family get-togethers out there again. It truly was like nothing else...all of us being together. My daughterwent back with her aunt and uncle to Tennessee and we yearned for her the moment they drove away.
Well, when we got back from that, we went to church on Sunday, relaxed on Sunday afternoon, and the boys and I went swimming in our lake. Monday was a workday, Tuesday was a remodeling day at one of my customer's homes and packing for the trip, then mowing the remaining yards I had waiting on me before we left.
We went to Tennessee to see my brother and sister in law on Wednesday. They just moved into a new house they had built in Clarksville, TN. It is VERY NICE! We stopped in Birmingham on the way up and visited the Lusks. We miss them alot. We got in, figured out sleeping arrangements and then stayed up talking until 1:30 in the morning. I do wish they lived closer to us. My brother's wife is probably my wife's closest friend and it's just very easy to be around them. My brother is getting ready to go back to Iraq and he is working from early in the morning til late at night getting ready, so we only got to see him...well, late at night. Thursday, my sister-in-law and I clean out the garage and then the ladies went to grocery shop and I commenced to mowing the yard...I immediately missed my Gravely...whew! The little ones were napping and conveniently woke up when the mower stopped. So we're all sitting down watching "Cheaper by the Dozen" when my sister-in-law calls and tells me somebody is coming to do something to the house and to let them in. Fine, I think. 5 minutes later the phone guy shows up to bury the phone cable. Well, that was easy right? Wrong. He wasn't the guy in question. The guy in question is the floor guy. Apparently, he didn't do something right when he sealed their floor and it has bubbles on the wood(hardwood floor). He is from Alabama and he says right then is the only time he can do this as he doesn't live her. So the decision is reached by my sister-in-law and I to move all of the furniture off of the wood floor, into the kitchen and to have him redo the floor. They sleep upstairs that night and nobody goes on the floor for 24 hours and the furniture can't be put back on for a week...but who cares, because the floor is going to be perfect, right? Wrong. There were still blemishes, missed spots, and yes, bubbles. And floor man was seen by us in the neighborhood on Friday and Saturday. An image of Marvin the Martian with his Q38 space modulator entered my mind as an appropriate answer to the situation but I resisted my inner child and settled for playing golf with my kids on Saturday morning and my brother on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time we had played golf together in about 2 or 3 years. Very nice...just two brothers hanging out and enjoying one another's company. We came home on Sunday and I gotta say, we could have stayed another week. Family is really something that is taken for granted...too much so.
Whew! I don't remember typing that much useless information in a very long time.
And there you go.
Posted by james at 11:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 15, 2005
My grandmother
My grandmother, my dad's mom, and my final living grandparent, passed away on Tuesday evening. She's had dimentia for several years and it progressed into Alzheimer's in the past couple. She will be missed.
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/dclassifieds?Dato=20050715&Kategori=OBITUARIES&Class=1&Type=CAT2000&Lopenr=507000277&Selected=13
Posted by james at 08:36 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 14, 2005
Losing a child
A member of our presbytery lost their son last week and their handling of the loss has truly been a blessing and strength to all around them. The little boy was 6&1/2 yrs old and contracted a form of cancer after receiving a kidney transplant. I absolutely marveled at the strength of this family and the way they lean on their Saviour for strength. The father posted a tribute to his son that I couldn't not share with you.
LORD of heaven and earth, thank you for a son who taught me more than I taught him; who loved me more than I loved him, and who left me more blessed. Samuel, most precious gift of the LORD, thank you for living and dying with such courage, endurance and love. I will certainly miss you, but am also filled with joy at your present state in the safety of our Savior. Till we meet again, blessings forever. Amen
How does one handle losing a child? How does one so strongly stand in the face of what must be unbelievable grief? I hope I never have to experience that, but if I do, I truly hope I can be the sort of example Samuel's family has been to me, someone that only knows them by name.
Posted by james at 11:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Public Service Announcement
I'm sitting behind my window the other day when this lady walks in with her kids for their appointments. Well, mom was dressed in clothing that, shall we say, she didn't fit in. It was VERY UNATTRACTIVE. My buddy the cop, who also brings his kids here, comes by to say hi and I asked him about her attire. He looked and said he'd give her a ticket for indecent exposure. He did it, too!
She was ticked! And embarassed...
Posted by james at 09:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 12, 2005
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Well, it's only 3 days, 8 hours and 54 seconds until J.K. Rowling's latest publication is released. My kids are very excited...the heck with the kids...Candice and I can't wait for 12:01am ourselves. We are getting a babysitter for the two little ones and all of us are going to Barnes and Noble for the Midnight Magic party with Will and Stephen. Will and Stephen are dressing up as the Weasley twins(Fred and George, for those of you that haven't read any of the books) and are making t-shirts with slogans they are trying to decide on now. I think the front is going to say something like "Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes" on the front and we're all voting on what to put on the back. Here are the ideas so far:
1. Mischief Managed
2. Eat dung Umbridge
3. Give 'em hell for us Peeves
4. Future galleonaire
5. Volde-who?
6. Umbridge-itis
Candice says that she thinks that #2 and #3 are a little offensive. I said only to Umbridge worshippers. We'll see. I just know we've got the Potter bug bad right now.
Posted by james at 03:29 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
July 11, 2005
Read the whole story...
Okay mothers, just because you read a name in a classic literary work or the Bible doesn't mean you should name your child with the same name. Here are some examples of names NOT to name your little girl(and yes, I've seen these names where I work):
Pandora
Jezebel
Medusa
Posted by james at 10:47 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Who said it?
"What do we do with all this dirt?"
"Give it to the meek!"
Posted by james at 08:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 09, 2005
Dennis the Menace
Here we are watching another hurricane barreling toward the Gulf Coast and I'm wondering...what did people do before the weather services were around? I mean it's not like the had a lot of warning. "Looks like a storm a brewin', better get inside". I don't think that works in category 3, 4, and 5 hurricanes. I'm very thankful for the advances in technology that allow us to save lives and property. It's only a voluntary evacuation from New Orleans right now and already I49 is quite full, even at 8:30pm this evening on the way home from a side job.
I'm really amazed and impressed that the hurricane gurus can so accurately "guess" where these storms are going. I know that the storms still go where the Lord directs, but still, to understand so much about weather patterns, ocean currents, and etc. and to be able to come up with what they do...hey, my hat's off to you gents and ladies.
Now, please tell the rest of the hurricanes this year that we aren't participating.
Posted by james at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 07, 2005
Reasons I wouldn't want to be President
1. Your schedule is set out by someone else
2. You will have to shake hands with people you really won't/don't like
3. Criticized for everything you do
4. You can't just "go do anything" without a major production
5. People are always taking your picture(thus no nose picking)
6. You "inherit" other President's actions and policies and, once taking the Oath of Office, must defend them as US policy
7. There is no such thing as a quiet dinner with your wife
8. You never know if people like you for you or for the office
9. You have to be nice to people like Ted Kennedy and Mary Landrieu(notice, I didn't say senators)
10. There aren't any places to get boudin and cracklins in D.C.
11. People actually want to and plan to try and kill you(that really sucks)
12. You can't drive yourself anywhere
13. People are intimidated by you and thus aren't always honest when giving you their opinion
14. You can't just go fishing with your kids when you want to
15. You can't just go to church
16. You feel responsible for each and every soldier, airman, marine, or sailor that is killed in action
17. Someone is ALWAYS watching you
Posted by james at 10:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 06, 2005
Jokes
Have you ever heard a joke that you think is hilarious, but when you tell it, nobody laughs? I mean, it's not like I miss the punchline or anything...
Yep, that happens to me alot.
Posted by james at 01:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack