Okay, so two and a half months after saying that I was going to start posting regularly, here I am. Hey, you get what you paid for, folks!

So, what brings me back to the keyboard? I guess it’s just the mushy, gooey feeling I get this time of year when I think about all of the many, many blessings that I have in my life. I have been fortunate to have a wonderful partner as I have trekked through the last nine years. We have the same values, the same joys, the same goals, the same ideals. Prior to this relationship, I had only imagined what it would be like to be able to share this much of our lives together.

This year has been fairly quiet for most of our family, which is a blessing. Our family has grown this year with the addition of a new son-in-law and a new, precious granddaughter. This weekend we’ll be gaining a daughter-in-law as well. (Busy year!) There have been a few little health things with various parts of our families, but nothing that we haven’t made it through. I’m thankful that even though I don’t often see the rest of my family in Oklahoma, we get to talk on the phone and we know that we are a family that loves each other. It seems like such a simple thing, but it does mean the world. With a loving and supportive family, you never are really alone.

Friends are such an important blessing. Ultimately, aren’t true friendships one of the most gratifying experiences we can enjoy as humans? This year we have deepened some friendships, reconnected with some long lost friends, and we have seen new friendships take root. We are so thankful for our friends and the important roles they play in our lives. Even when circumstances prevent us from seeing some of our friends for some time, please remember that we love you and will always be here for you.

Often taken for granted is our health. I thank God that even though our bodies are aging (how did that happen?) that He watches over us and helps us to stay healthy. It’s funny how when you are 20, the importance and the value of your health is something that is seldom appreciated. As I age, I continue to marvel at the miracle that is the human body. So fragile while at the same time being so resilient. Our bodies are truly an amazing vessel and I am very thankful that we continue to be healthy.

The mere fact that we have jobs and a roof over our head is something else that I’m thankful for. In this day and age, I’m glad we are able to work (though I wouldn’t turn down a nice fat lottery check!), and have a nice dwelling place to call home. I tend cocoon so I’m thankful I have a decent place to do that.

In this day and age when there is so much unrest in the world, when (thanks to technology) we are always connected and are working harder and faster just to keep up, it is more important than ever to make ourselves step back for a minute, take a deep breath, look around us and realize all of the things that we have to be thankful for. I may not be a billionaire or be devastatingly handsome, but I have more things to be thankful for than I will ever be able to count. So even when I forget to say it, know that in the deepest reaches of my mind and my heart, I am thankful for you. For without each and everyone of you, my life would be forever changed.

God Bless and my deepest wishes for a peaceful season to all of you and your families.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I really have been good about posting almost everyday or at least every other day. That was all before the week from hell that I just went through. It all started almost a week ago when we noticed a virus on one of the computers at work. About ten minutes later, another one showed up in another office across the country. Then they started popping up all over. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that I work in information technology, but yep, I’m a computer geek.

So, a few computer viruses, what’s the big deal? Well, that was what it seemed like on Wednesday, but by Thursday morning, things were getting a little bit out of hand. To make that start of the story short, I ended up not going home on Thursday night and I worked a full day Friday. So I was up about 42 hours straight. I thought that was the end of it, but Saturday morning things turned really ugly and I had to call my whole team in to work. I really hate doing that because we all need weekends to rest, but things were looking pretty bad–and they were.

So, I stayed all night Saturday night too. I did go home for about three hours and took a little nap Sunday morning, but when I woke up, I needed to head back in and get back to work. So I get back into the office around 11AM on Sunday and end up staying until after 7 on Monday evening. This is crazy! Today, Tuesday, I stuck with a little over a 12 hour day, mainly because I knew things are really under control this time. [Knocking wood]

Keep in mind, I’m not exactly college aged. Yeah, sure, we can all pull all nighters when we’re 18 or 20, but I’m in my 40’s, hardly a Spring chicken. So, how do I do it?

Uh, no, I’m not asking a rhetorical question here, I’m serious. Or maybe the better question is WHY do I do this? It seems like most people can’t do these types of hours and normally I couldn’t either, but this was different. This was like someone brought something bad–the virus/worm–into my home. This was a matter of pride. I take a lot of pride in my work and my responsibilities at work and the mere fact that something like this could happen was very embarrassing to me. For that reason, it was extremely important to me that I did whatever was necessary to minimize the impact to the company.

The funny thing about things like this is that frankly it is a lot like peeing your pants when you are wearing a dark suit–you know, you get a nice warm feeling but no one notices.

The other funny thing about the peeing analogy is that if I didn’t do the Superman effort, then they would notice that I was a slacker. Kind of a Catch-22 I guess. I either go way above and beyond and everybody sees normalcy, or I just do the average effort and people think I’m a slacker. How does one win in that world?

Okay, maybe I’m a little bit sleep deprived.

Now that I think things are back to normal, look for me to get back in the swing of thing as far as posting. I plan on it anyway, and we all know about the best laid plans of mice and men…

Today I’m going to write about our tour of the 9^th Ward and St. Bernard Parish as well as a little bit about Southern Decadence 2006.

Our last day in New Orleans, our friends that live there drove us through the 9^th Ward and St. Bernard parish. We have heard much about these sites over the year following Katrina, but we wanted to see for ourselves. Though just over a year ago it was a thriving middle working class community, today the 9^th Ward looks like it has been abandoned for years. Everywhere you look there are foundations but no homes, or there are homes clumped together with no foundations. Often, you can see cars or trucks sticking out from underneath houses. The devastation is mind boggling. The shear magnitude of the destruction is much more dramatic than what a 30 second drive by a news team to be used as filler for the evening news can really convey. While there are a few homes scattered throughout this area where the homes are fairly intact and the families have returned to try and rebuild, the majority of what you can see is not quite as uplifting. Read the rest of this entry »

For today, let’s talk about my favorite aspect of the Big Easy, the food, glorious food! When we arrived in the French Quarter, we first headed to the Clover Grill for a quick and easy meal. There used to be a sister joint called Poppy’s, but now only this one remains there on Bourbon and Ursuline. They serve breakfast 24-hours a day, and though I really like their breakfast, I came for their greasy hamburger. You know the kind I’m talking about. They are the ones we used to be able to get years and years ago before everybody started getting healthy, the ones where you can feel your arteries hardening with every scrumptious bite. They still grill these under a hubcap so they stay really moist and juicy. Not a real extravagant “foodie” type of choice, but definitely a wonderful way to kick off our visit and prepare our bellies for the break from salads and healthier choices. I always look forward to a burger at this place at least once during my visit.

We walked around the French Quarter and I’m very pleased to say, it’s back! We were a bit worried that things might not be the same after Katrina, and while it isn’t outside of the Quarter, inside it is pretty much business as usual. If you are familiar with the French Market, which is an outdoor flea market type arrangement on Decatur, right next to the river. They are taking this opportunity to redo part of it so it is about a third of the normal size, but there still were the $4 sunglasses, the $5 T-shirts, and most of the usual suspects, just not as many different booths to choose from.

For dinner Friday night, some friends took us to Cochon on Tchoupitoulas which if you speak French, translates to Pig, and man o’ man, do they know how to cook pig! We actually started with their Louisiana Shrimp and Crabmeat pie which looks more like an empanada. Next we had some fried boudin, or blood sausage. For soup, I selected the Chef Donald’s Black-eyed Pea and Pork Gumbo which is one of the best gumbos I have ever had. For dinner I split the Louisiana Cochon with turnips, cabbage, and cracklins and the smoked beef brisket with horseradish potato salad with Larry. It’s hard to pick which one was better as they were both incredible. Needless to say, there was no room for dessert.

One interesting thing that happened in this restaurant on Friday night and was repeated on other occasions, locals asked us if we were visiting and where we came from. Every time, they thanked us for coming back to the city. Folks, these are wonderful people with a wonderful city to enjoy. They really had a terrible ordeal, but they are a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the desire to live the American dream. They are fiercely proud of their city and with good reason. It was incredible to have them stop and recognize us and thank us each for visiting.

Read the rest of this entry »

After several months of no days off other than weekends and July 4th, we headed to New Orleans today for a long weekend. I thought the blog might be a good place to answer the questions that people have been asking that know I was coming. It seems everyone wants a firsthand observation of what the city is like, post Katrina, without the media bias. I’ll do my best to convey what I saw during my visit.

A little background, I’ve been coming to New Orleans at least once a year since about 1995. I love my trips here–the city has so much character which makes it very endearing. Some of the finest food I have ever eaten was done right here in New Orleans, both in the quarter as well as other places like downtown or the Garden District. Many of the best known chefs in the country either got their start in the Big Easy or have built their own little empire there. So it should really come as no surprise that when I head here every Labor Day, my taste buds are tingling from the time I make my flight arrangements until I arrive. My annual Labor Day trek was interrupted in 2004 due to a hurricane hitting Orlando that weekend and I didn’t want to leave the house unprotected in case there was damage. In 2005, of course, was Katrina so I stayed home that year as well. I’m very glad that this year the weather has cooperated and we arrived as planned.

So, flying into MSY, things looked pretty much like they always have, however you can see lots of heavy equipment around the levies and pumping stations. The blue tarps were scattered about the city as you can see on this photo out the window of the plane. Once on the ground, it was obvious that the airport wasn’t as busy as holiday weekends we have travelled into the city in the past. Which does remind me, when we booked the hotel room about a month before our trip, prices were great and every hotel seemed to have rooms available. A couple of years ago, booking less than three months out would mean getting stuck with something outside of the Quarter, and for the prime locations right in the heart of things, one needed to book several months early. Not this year, however. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you that have been checking, Ernesto came and went without any fanfare in Central Florida at all. We got a nice, soaking rain for awhile, but not much else. We have had far worse summer storms this year.

Nonetheless, I did get prepared for Ernesto, as far as making sure that we had extra water, canned and other foods that don’t require refrigeration, extra propane for cooking that food, and full gas tanks. I always think that it is interesting that the day before a storm hits, the gas stations have lines. Why is that? Read the rest of this entry »

Being a new blogger (is that even a fair term yet? perhaps I haven’t earned that badge and I’m still a just a wannabe for a few more posts), I’ve been scouring the net for any advice for people new to the blogosphere and have found some great resources. One is Lorelle VanFossen’s site where she actually has a Blogging Challenge. I’ve been following it for the last few days and trying to follow her challenges at my own pace. Today I’m up to the “Personal Blogging - Tell Us a Story” challenge, so I’ve been trying to think of a story. I read through the comments on her post and noticed a touching one from tbirdonawire about her grandmother that brought back a fond memory for me of my grandmother. While I hadn’t really planned on posting anything mushy on my blog, I’ll do it just this once with a childhood memory.

When I was just a boy of maybe four or five, we lived in Oklahoma City. I had grandparents in Pampa, Texas and in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t even begin to start explaining just how bad this hit me.

Michelle Malkin: Hoisting the Mexican flag at a US post office

I do not want to come across as prejudiced, because that really isn’t what is causing my feelings. When I am in Mexico, I am glad to see that the Mexican flag is proudly displayed. Countrymen should be fiercely proud of their homeland as I am. But for people that choose to leave their country of origin so they can participate in the opportunities available in our nation, is it too much to ask that they respect our customs and our prides?

I keep having to erase and rewrite what I am typing because I am just furious about this whole thing. I am equally frustrated that we aren’t seeing this in the main stream media. Are they afraid that some on who immigrated here might be offended?

Well, I’m offended. I’m sick and tired of us always having to walk on egg shells to be politically correct about every stinking thing. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your origins, but if I chose to move to Turkey, for instance, I certainly wouldn’t try to hang a U.S. flag in a Turkish post office. Many places around the world, I’m sure that could get you killed or at least jailed for a while. Here it is called “expressing oneself.”

Read my lips, THIS WAS WRONG! This is NOT the way to make me sympathetic to your cause. If you want to live under the Mexican flag, then please do…in Mexico!

I’m afraid this is what we have gotten in return for being so accepting of everyone and being so afraid to hurt any one’s feelings.

I have been playing around ever so little with Fireworks and Photoshop and trying to learn them a little. Nothing too serious, just so I can edit a few things on here when needed. Anyway, long story short, I happened to stumble upon this today and got a kick out of it. Nowadays you’ve gotta be careful every time someone picks up a camera in your vicinity. Check it out here…
SomethingAwful, you’ve done it again! LOL!! « al-holic’s Cerebral Cortex

For anyone that cares, Fireworks seems a little more intuitive to me, though Photoshop is certainly the industry standard. I am curious what Adobe will do with Fireworks now that they have purchased Macromedia.

Perhaps due in part to my sleep deprived state that I posted about this morning, it seems that I have been having some rather obscure thoughts drift through my gray matter that I then have to spend quality brain cycles trying to sort out.

Earlier today I was watching Good Morning America while working from home and waiting for a worker to show up. After the show was over, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (frankly I think Meredith Vieira is pretty hot) came on and worked as background noise for me. Every once in a while, I would key in on a question and one of them had to do with what kind of shell do hermit crabs live in with the answers being clam, lobster, snail and something else. The contestant didn’t know the answer to the $100 question she had to ask the audience.

I knew the answer was snail, of course, but over the next few hours, this theme resurfaced over and over and it actually brought up something that I have been pondering for a big chunk of the day. (Yeah, I know, I need to sleep.)

Read the rest of this entry »