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Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Here is a map of Arlene's expected path, our first tropical storm this season.

And here is a picture of our cruise route we're leaving on in 2 days.


You draw your own conclusions.

I turned 27 on the 4th of August. I don't feel any older than 26, however I sure don't feel like I did at 19, or even 22. It's still kinda hard to believe.

Anyway, one perk in being married ( for me anyway ) is getting to have multiple birthday parties. Even tho they remind you that you're that much closer to dying you get alot of presents that way.

Tuesday night Tasha's family took me to the Woodlands House, a Chinese buffet. It was my choice. I love Chinese food. The hot and sour soup was perfect; hotter than I'd ever had it anywhere. yumm. Besides that I left feeling stuffed. Jeremy got me a Remington AirMaster bb/pellet gun. I was kinda surprised that he brought it into the restaurant - then giving it to me to unwrap. That was kinda uncomfortable.

After that we went and saw Jaycee in the hospital. Jaycee is my new sister-in-law. She was born just a few weeks ago. ( I should really put her birtydate to memory ) She's soooo tiny. Born +6 weeks early will do that to ya I guess. Oh, that's right, that's why I've got asthma.

So the next day, my birthday, I just stayed at home. I needed a break. I did some laundry, washed some dishes, did some yard work -- all mindless, relaxing tasks. It was wonderful.

I also spoke to my credit union about a loan. turns out they can offer me 4.9% rather that the 6.74% interest rate I currently have on my car loan. That should free up an extra $25 a month.

I also had tons of time to shoot lots of stuff with my new air gun. he he he. No small animals were harmed during my time shooting stuff in the back yard -- but that doesn't mean I wasn't tempted :-\

When Tasha came home from work I got to see my present from her. What a surprise! She bought me a new Alvarez Guitar I never would have expected it. I love it. I sounds so much better than my Ovation.

What a great day! Too bad I slept horribly last night. Turns out they are spraying for mosquitoes from airplanes over areas with West Nile carrying mosquitoes. Airplanes that roar by just feet above your house at 10:30pm at night! It's miserable, however, I didn't notice till just now that while playing in the back yard all yesterday I had ZERO encounters with those nuisances.

Well today my family is taking me out to see Napoleon Dynamite. My mom is the person that actually wants to see it. She just figured it'd be fun to invite everyone to the movie she wan't to see and then to call it my birthday party :) I don't mind. The movie looks like it will be funny.

As for now I just have 5 more huors of work to trudge through.

peace out.

 

We purchased a new Honda CR-V earlier this month! We love it!

It's as base as a base model can get, however, surprisingly it's got enough. CD, tape, power everything, etc... My favorite feature is probably the spare tire cover in the back that doubles as a card table. Ask me to show it to ya some time =)

We took it to utah to bring back furniture that Uncle Pier made for us. That's most of the reason we bought it. Plus it gets great gas milage for my long commute downtown every day.

anyway, if I had to give it a rating i'd give it 5 of 5 stars.

So - oaky. I've been home from Utah for over a week and a day and finally I'm caught up enough to jot a few things down about it.

First of all we had a great time together -- it was so nice to not have a care in the world for a whole week.

And that's it.

Look at the pix if you want more detail.

( can you tell I'm getting sick of updating this thing? )

Tasha and I went camping at Lake Houston State Park over the Easter Holiday. The heavens opened up and let loose a terrible thunder storm Saturday night. We were captive in our tent for a good 3 hours. During what I expect was the eye of the storm we quickly packed our drenched equipment, gathered what we could and escaped in our van.

Lesson learned: Don't vacation on Easter Sunday.

pictures coming soon...

Tasha and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary (3/16) at the Kemah Boardwalk. I left work around noon and surprisingly we arrived there around 3pm. The weather was perfect, it stayed in the high seventies the whole time we were there.

We started off looking at the shops, which we came to find out all had the same stuff crap in them, mainly stupid souvenirs. I'm not sure how long we did the shop thing the atmosphere was so nice I think I lost track of time. Eventually we made our way to the actual boardwalk. I was really expecting for there not to be too much to do. Was I wrong! We stayed busy for hours, if we weren't watching the boats we were eating benyas, or watching the juggler, etc., etc.. We spent some time in the aquarium which was nice, but I guess after seeing larger and better ones it wasn't so impressive. We didn't dine at the Aquarium, I'd heard from friends that the food there is way over priced. So after we got soaked on the Beast we headed over to Joe's Crab Shack. The food was ok, nothing to get excited over. The view was nice, but again nothing to get excited over. How beautiful can the port of Houston be anyway?

Back to the Beast. the beast is a big, big, big and fast, fast, fast racing boat ( or at least I think it is ) that you can ride for a mere $10 a person. I sat mere because it was well worth the money. The boat takes you out in the Gulf of Mexico, and within seconds you can see oil tankers, off shore wells, and the likes. Things we only before saw through the telescope on the boardwalk. Well, we sat near the back of the boat which means we got soaking we. We had so much fun doing it tho.

After dinner we headed home, but not before stopping by Sonic and Dairy Queen. Sonic for Tasha, DQ for me. All in all we had a great time. I'd suggest Kemah to anyone wanting to get that "get away" feeling without having to shell out "get away" kind of cash.

I love being married. I can't believe it's been two years already. Life is just flying by. Makes me want to slow down and enjoy more of the view.

peace.

it was fun.

Due to the fact that Tasha and I wouldn't have a "private" valentines at my parents party that night we/she decided that we should do our own thing. As soon as she got home from work we headed down I45 to the 610 North Loop to a place to Pecos Grill.

First off, I decided on Pecos Grill for one main reason. PRICE. I won a $20 voucher to the place on eBay for $4. Excellent right? $20 worth of food for $4!?!

Well I printed off the directions to this place on maps.yahoo.com. I began feeling discouraged at my choice of places to eat as we entered Acres Homes ( not the safest neighborhood in Houston ). Saftey always takes priority over frugality. But we got inside and everything was alirght.

It was a clasic back woods-ish BBQ/grill. Most of the lighting came from beer signs. County music was playing and even better, it was playing LIVE. There was a dance floor and everything.

We started with some grilled shrimp, the best I've ever had in my life. We scanned over the menu and now I realized why those $20 vouchers were only $4 on ebay. EVERYTHING in that place was AT LEAST $20/entree. Well that was cool, I just figured we'd get one free meal out of the deal.

Our server tried to sell us on the steak and lobster special they had going. It sounded good enough - and at $21 it was one of the cheapest items. When I sprang for it Tasha got a look of amazment in her face. As it turns out the valentine's day special wasn't $21 like I heard, it was $29!!!

Tasha hear it right and assumed I did too. It wasn't till after I mentioned how much of a bargan this meal was that she straightened me out. We laughed at my stupidity - for some reason things are funnier when they are more serious. the fact that I'd made the mistake was funny. The fact that we really didn't have the $$ to pay for the meal was even funnier. The credit card came to the rescue!

It really was a great place - and the food was excellent!! I give it 5/5 stars.

Below are some pictures of our night:

before:

after:

me:

tasha:

If you didn't know, I'm the Assistant Scout Master for the Boy Scout troop that meets at my church. On January 1st through the 3rd we had a "Wilderness Survival Campout" at Fritsche Cemetery Park.   [ Park Map & Boundaries] (PDF)

We arrived at the park around 5pm on New Year's Day. We cooked hot dogs over the fire, set up our tents then hit the sack. The next morning the boys started working towards the Wilderness Survival merit badge. They relinquished their all of their supplies, save a small survival kit they had prepared. We provided a limited ration of food for the boys that day. For breakfast they had an apple and an orange.

We took a wilderness hike to get them in the "survival mode", then for the next few hours the boys learned survival techniques from the adults. We prepared classes on fire starting, first aid, building a natural shelter, and water purification. After that we provided lunch which consisted of a few raw potatoes. Some of the boys cooked their potatoes in the coals of the fire, others on sticks. We were generous enough to provide salt, pepper and butter to liven up their meals.

We broke for a game of football some time during the afternoon which was fun. It sapped the boys of all of their energy and it reminded us adults just how out of shape we are. My quarterback skills have diminished significantly. I think I threw 3 interceptions that game.

Some time around 5pm John returned with 7 live chickens. Kelton instructed the boys on how to kill and prepare them. I'm guessing that his was the only chicken that didn't suffer a long, agonizing death. The boys tried their best to chop the heads off cleanly, but unfortunately, most of them, including me, had to take more than one swing to finish the birds off.

After several hours of cooking finally the birds were done and we could eat. Luckily no one came down with salmonella poisoning or anything of the sort. We adults stayed up that night talking and playing with the fire till about 1am. That night the boys slept in the shelters they had prepared that day. They must have been pretty uncomfortable because from 3am till around 5am they were awake, gathered around the fire making all kinds of noise.

To say the least I woke up grumpy that morning, but over all I had a great time. We have some awesome leaders in the troop as well as some great kids. I can't wait till our next campout!

Click the link below for more pictures.

I don't feel like doing alot of typing tonight, so let me just post some pictures of my (our) Christmas. Tasha got me a digital camera this year, so you can thank her for the nice photos :)

We opened presents

had cinnamon rolls

then spent some time with my family

ate some food

Dad started his puzzle

we relaxed

Then returned to our home for the evening

to play with our new toys