It’s almost Christmas. Word. I love Christmas.
Unfortunately, I’ll be working Christmas this year. It’s a Thursday which means I’ll be putting together a Friday paper. It’s gonna have to be a thin paper cause I’m doubting we’ll have anything to report on that day.
But it also means the ski area will be open so I’ll be skiing that day. I’ll be skiing on Christmas day… and the day after Christmas… and maybe the day after that if I can talk Jess into it.
I can’t wait.
I got my new skis. Well, one pair anyway. I got my new powder skis. They look like this:
So pretty. So fat. So can’t wait to get them on snow. Now all I have to do is find a pair of bindings for them. I actually have some in mind but I haven’t been able to find them yet. That and I kinda wanna spread out the expenses. I’m going to try to sell a couple pairs of skis to finance the new skis and bindings. Anyone want a sweet pair of twin-tips?
There was snow on the mountains here this week. I love this time of year. So full of hope and anticipation.
Dallas is sitting at 3-0 right now. They’ve had a tough three game stretch and now they’re through it undefeated. Sweet. I was worried about tonight’s game against Green Bay cause… well, it’s Green Bay and they don’t suck. Tonight they sucked. Dallas did not. That takes the Boys to a tie with the New York Giants at the top of the NFC East.
The great thing here is the Giants have had an easy first three games. Easy by record standards anyway. The teams they’ve played have been pretty poor. The Cowboys have played one team that was supposed to be good, (Cleveland) one team that is definitely good (Eagles) and another team that is really good (Packers). So they’ve survived some tough teams. Not that it gets much easier anytime soon, but for now, it’s giving me confidence in the team.
This could be a good year for my team. Go Cowboys!
I’ve been pretty involved in politics this year. I’ve followed both conventions. I’ve read a ton about all of the candidates. My political leanings aren’t too secret. I’ve kind of reached my limit on being able to sit quietly by with the whole Palin thing.
I understand why people are all excited about her. She’s new, she’s a relative unknown, she’s outspoken. She’s an ok speaker and she’s got some charisma. For the Christian right, she’s pro-life. She’s an evangelical. Sort of. She’s pro-creationism. (sort of) I get the appeal. Really I do.
Now here’s what I don’t get. I’ve heard from many people, in my family even, that now they have someone to vote for. What? Before Palin, many of these same people were saying they weren’t even going to vote because they disliked McCain so much. Coming from some of these people, that’s a pretty big deal. But now, because Palin is on the ticket they’re willing to look past all the barnacles on McCain and vote for him. What? He’s still the same McCain he was before Palin. He’s still the one that would be in power. Palin is not the Presidential candidate. What exactly does Palin’s inclusion on the ticket do to change McCain?
I have plenty of reasons to be leery of Palin. Here’s my biggest… This whole investigation into “Troopergate” is being handled remarkably similarly to the way Bush handles every inquiry into his actions. Just say it’s partisan and that nobody is going to be allowed to testify. Very secretive, very closed and out of the public eye. When your staff is subpoenaed and you tell them not to testify, that raises all kinds of red flags for me. If you didn’t do anything wrong, what have you got to fear from your staff testifying? Even if it is slanted/biased/partisan… truth is truth. If you did nothing wrong you’ve got nothing to hide. You’re asking your staff to ignore a legal document compelling them to testify.
The whole situation is exacerbated in my mind by the fact that Palin used Yahoo mail to conduct government business. Since it’s personal email it’s not subject to Freedom of Information requests so she’s conducting official business outside of the public eye. That’s wrong. There’s no reason for it. She’s got BlackBerries set up for her Yahoo email and she could very easily have had it set up to run through the government servers. Why do it through Yahoo unless you’re trying to keep something private/secret? It bothers me. It leaves me feeling like she’s doing things she knows she shouldn’t be doing. It makes me question her integrity.
I’m not saying that she’s the only one to do anything wrong… I’m not even saying she’s done half the things she’s accused of. But conducting government business via private email (not official government email) is just wrong. It’s skirting the system and keeping things out of the public record. Government actions are not supposed to be handled that way. That is wrong.
So I’m having trouble understanding the excitement over Palin. Is it because she’s a woman? Is it because she’s a hockey mom? Is it because she’s claiming to be fiscally responsible? (Her record doesn’t really back that up btw) To me, she seems to be few of the things she’s claiming to be… and besides all of that, she’s the VICE presidential candidate. John McCain, the guy none of the “true” conservatimes liked before Palin is still at the top of the ticket. He is the one you all would be voting for.
I just don’t get it.
For the past few years I’ve had a pretty strong desire to buy a house. I just want a place that Jess and I can call our own. I hate paying rent. I hate throwing that money away. It’s hard earned. I want a place we can work on together and truly make it our own.
The problem has, and continues to be that we don’t make enough money. The sad thing about that is that we have two good jobs. Especially for this area. We make decent money, better than most. We can’t afford a house though. The housing market around here is whack. Not as whack as So. Cal or anything, but at least there you can make a decent living.
There’s a huge development that’s trying to get city approval to build just outside of town. They want to be annexed into the city. I was pretty for the project until I found out the home prices. The range is $200k to $500k. The $200k may sound pretty reasonable to many of the people that read this blog… but you have to realize that at a combined $50k/year, Jess and I are well above the average for this area. I would say the normal household income is closer to $40k/year. That’s for two people and most of them have a few kids as well. How is anyone supposed to buy a house on that kind of income?
I have no doubt that Jess and I will eventually be able to afford a place to call our own as we both have pretty bright futures. I just don’t understand how a developer can call something “affordable” when the majority of the population of the area couldn’t possibly afford it.
I can’t get enough of these commercials. These and Apple/PC commercials are the only ones I’ll stop the DVR for.
We didn’t do anything this weekend. Friday I slept in and Jess was having a rough day so we went out to lunch. After lunch I walked home and tried to get my iPod back into working order (It had some issues). By the time she got home we were kind of at a loss as to what to do. I fixed us some dinner and we ended up renting the movie “What happens in Vegas.” Turns out it was a pretty funny movie.
Today we were scheduled to go to the lake with Jess’ family. The weather didn’t cooperate though so the trip got canceled this morning. Since we’d been planning on doing that all week we didn’t have anything thought of to go do. Around here you kind of have to have a plan cause there’s not a lot to do to start with. Plus we still had plans for dinner with the family to celebrate mom-in-law’s birthday. (It’s tomorrow)
So tomorrow my weekend comes to an end and we didn’t do anything. Bummer. Gotta be better prepared next weekend.
Footnote: I’m watching Across the Universe as I type this. This movie is SO good. Brilliant. As were the Beatles.
So we went to Arkansas as a family vacation. My folks were celebrating their 40th (FORTY!!!) anniversary and we went down to celebrate with them. Plus, they gave us a tour of the early years of their relationship and marriage.
To start the trip, Jess and I loaded up the TC and headed for Spokane where our flight would be leaving from the next day. We enjoyed a tasty dinner at Red Robin and a nice slumber at the airport hotel. The next day we got up and boarded our first of three flights for the day. Spokane to Denver!
Once in Denver we went and got our bags and checked back in for flight number two. Then we had some time to kill so we went and got an early lunch and checked out the Crocs store where I used to work. It looked the same and I’m glad I don’t work retail anymore. Especially at the airport! We met up with my sister Callie and her husband Jimmy Cracked Corn and then got on flight number 2 for the day. Denver to Dallas!
In Dallas we discovered two things. 1) The airport restaurants closed 10 minutes before we got there. 2) Flight 3 for the day was delayed. A lot. So we found a Subway that was still open and got some dinner then settled in for a long wait. Finally we got on the plane and headed to Arkansas where the folks were waiting to pick us up for the long drive to Hot Springs and the vacation home we’d rented. Oh, and it was more humid than anything. Ever.
So the next day we slept in, bummed around and did a lot of nothing. At night though the kids fixed dinner for the parents and helped celebrate the big anniversary. Each couple gave the parents a parents a photo of us on our wedding day as well as a framed letter saying what we’d taken from their marriage into our own to make it succeed. Here’s a photo of dad getting ready to read one of them.
The napkin was to catch the tears. There were plenty.
They enjoyed the gifts and we cleaned up and went to bed. The next day the boys took our girls to a day spa and let them be pampered. I don’t have photos of that cause… well, I didn’t take a camera. The boys went to lunch though and enjoyed a nice conversation and a decent meal.
After the day spa we picked up some fried chicken (we were in the dirty south!) and headed over to my aunt’s house. We hung out there for a while.
The next day we spent some time on Lake Balboa. Mom and dad rented a boat and we had a great time. Photos below!
Fishing with the sis…
Dad relaxing at the helm.
It was a big one. Really.
I’m the king of the world!
So is dad.
Later we all got dressed up in our finest camo for a family portrait.
Jess says I “ruined” this photo. I say I MADE this photo! I love the way the camo shirts all kind of blend together.
Then we took a day trip to my grandparents’ house. Along the way we stopped at the college my folks went to and wandered the campus. They showed us where they went to class, where they met, all that stuff. Mom was even in a sorority!
We also saw the church they were married in. (Callie and I had been there a few times before. James and Jess had not, so they got to see it.)
Also on the tour was my grandfather’s office. Unfortunately his actual office was locked so we just checked out the rest of the building. That meant Jess and James did not get to see the frog collection or the political cartoon of my grandfather and Bill Clinton that I’m second in line for.
After the tour we had a family get together on the farm. Here’s a photo of the girls in the family…
That’s my youngest cousin Hannah in the background looking totally confused. She was irritated that I took this photo. Oh well!
The following day we went to my dad’s hometown of Hampton. I didn’t take too many photos this day as Hampton isn’t too exciting. However, we stopped by my cousin’s (I think he’s my cousin, it gets confusing on my dad’s side) shop for a quick tour of the drilling facility. Callie found the truck she’s always wanted…
So redneck!
The following day the boys went out to play golf. I suck at golf…
JP getting out of the sand… he kicked our butts.
Dad putting Happy Gilmore style.
That night we went out to dinner with a large portion of dad’s side of the family. Seafood buffet. I ate a crab. A whole crab. Very tasty.
The next day we got up and headed to Colorado. That was an adventure in itself but I’ll save it for another post. This one is already long enough.
The roots tour was a ton of fun and we really enjoyed the trip. Special thanks to the parents for funding and planning the trip as well as giving the kids so many great examples of how to make a marriage work over the long haul.
Boy have I been busy since getting back from vacation.
To start with, the day before we came home Jess started feeling ill. The day we came home she was in full on sick mode. Her throat was killing her and she couldn’t even talk. It was a quiet few days. So I did a lot of the chores/cleaning/whatever around the house while she sat on the couch trying to get better. I also had to go back to work. She stayed home and tried to get better.
Friday Jess was feeling a bit better and we headed out to her folks house for a little birthday type celebration. Only it was more like dinner with the inlaws than birthday celebration. Jess couldn’t stop talking since she’d been silent for three days and what was supposed to be a two hour trip to her parents’ house ended up being a four hour trip.
Saturday we got out of the house and spent some times with our friends here. (Pretty much the only “couple” friends we have) We went out to dinner at a local joint and then went over to their house where I kicked their butts at 90’s Trivial Pursuit. Now, I’m old enough that I lived through the 90’s at an age that’s conducive to remembering stuff. Plus, for the latter 90’s I was debating so I was researching stuff about pretty much everything. So I have a pretty extensive knowledge of 90’s events and stuff.
Yeah, I kicked their butts.
Sunday I went into work early. I took a nice break though and came home to watch the Dallas Cowboys lay a whooping on the woeful Cleveland Browns. That was nice. Then it was back to work to finish the newspaper. Once I finished that up I rearranged my space at the office and settled into a new desk that gives me more room and a better set-up.
Jess is finally back at work now and feeling a bit better. Not totally healthy again yet but then, the back muscles I pulled on vacation aren’t totally back to normal yet either. At least we’re getting close to being back to normal.
So that’s what’s been going on. I’ve been too busy/tired to get an update going here. Now I’ve managed to do that though so I can get to bed.
Today is my birthday! I’m old. Today I entered my mid-30’s. Yup, I’m 34 now. Crazy. I don’t feel that old. I didn’t do anything super fun today. I spent the day travelling. I got up at 5 a.m. and left my folks’ house at 6 a.m. Then we went to the airport and got on a plane. We flew to Spokane where we got in the car and headed for the nearest Red Robin for a free burger. (free burgers for your birthday if you sign up on their web site) Then we loaded up once again and headed for home.
Four hours later here we are chilling out in the house with the kids. (cats) They’re happy we’re home and we’re exhausted. We’re here though.
We had a super fun trip. I’ll be blogging about it later. I’m too tired to do it now. Mostly I just wanted to get a post up on the blog and let everyone know we’re home and happy but very, very tired. And that it’s my birthday!
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