State Fair Catch-Up

I've been meaning to post this picture since I had Anne take it while driving home (from the State Fair, I believe). How cool is this vehicle? I know that it isn't as cool as the wiener-mobile, but it is pretty darn cool... And wouldn't driving this vehicle around be a great job? On the other hand, I wasn't sure how to spell wiener, so I consulted Ed's favorite dictionary website, the urban dictionary for consultation. Here is what it said...

And here is another picture that we took at the State Fair, specifically for our friend Pancho (or is it Poncho?). Pancho's (Poncho's) owner Mike, Em, Anne, and myself actually had a discussion on how Pancho (Poncho) should be spelling his name. I guess the answer was in front of us all the time. Silly dog, not knowing how to spell his name and everything.

Houston, WTHDABLT?


For those of you not familiar with my use of Acronyms, WTHDABLT stands for Why The Heck Does Anybody Live There. It is amazing when you go to a town several times per year and no matter how hard you try, you have a tough time finding any redeeming qualities. The town literally sucks. Okay, make that figuratively. None the less, it really sucks. Reasons to hate Houston;

1. W's Family Lives there
   
2. Kenneth Lay's Family Lives there
   
3. No cohesive zoning strategies (there is a rather large adult bookstore right next to the Galleria)
4. No good radio stations (unless you like Latino, Hip Hop, or Country)
5. Bums at every freeway exit (even in the best part of town)
   
6. No sidewalks throughout most of the town (try running in Houston)
7. The one "good" park has only 2.9 miles of running trails. This is considered awesome in Houston.
   
8. Oh yeah, they only have one "good" park
9. More big cars per square foot than you can shake a stick at
10. Sprawly Sprawly Sprawl Sprawl. Houston is 600 square miles in size. Greater Houston is 10062 square miles in size. And all of it is ugly.
    

Extra, Extra, Read all about her...

My wife has bravely ventured into the blogging world. She named her blog tvsnacks and I've now added her to my "blogs I read" section. You go girl!

Poppies will make him sleepy....

Thank you Slate for bringing us this picture and the accompanying article. Nothing like seeing the military tromping through fields of flowers dreaming of visiting an opium den somewhere other than Afghanistan. Not only that, they argue for legalizing opium. That means that the dude in the picture could visit an opium den in his home town instead of getting drunk on Lone Star (or whatever his poison is)...

Weather Underground

One of my favorite websites is Wunderground.com . It is undoubtedly the best weather site on the web that I've found (Noaa.gov is good too). What I'm here to tell you is that for free, you can get the ad-free version of the website, compliments of yours truly. Just click on the $10 for no-ads, and enter in the code N4Z4N when you get to the pay page. It adds tons of Paul Douglas like capabilities (e.g. zooming on the radar map), and there are no ads. This is some good stuff.

On the other hand, the other Weather Underground were not so cool. Well, cool in a 60's terrorist Black Panther kind of cool, but not really.

Vita.MN

I ran across the website (linked on the side) Vita.MN --which looks to be a subsidiary of the Strib. I'm pretty impressed. Rants about overrated restaurants, the stiffest drinks in the city, and heck, a mention about a friend of a friend, Zander Cannon (mind you it was in an article about a nerd map of the cities)

What a website! (I'll even forgive the adds)

Tanner Dog

Last summer, we lost one of our two dogs. It was one of the most devastating days of my life having to say good bye to the best companion you could ever imagine. Tonight Anne and I were out jogging and came across another runner who was running with her dog. It reminded me of running with Tanner. I became nostaglic and ended up looking for pictures of him. I pulled a few of the best...

Sorry for my little round of nostalgia--but I miss my Dog.

Mexico, Oh Mexico

Last month, I took one of the best trips of my life. I've traveled quite a bit, so saying this really means it. It honestly was one of the best trips of my life. We stayed at a resort called Hotelito Desconocido and lived the good life. No phones, no TVs, and hardly any electricity for that matter. Just Beach, Sun and Amazing Food.

My favorite thing to do the entire trip was to release baby turtles at sunset. The resort lies on a turtle sanctuary and has a staff biologist who cultivates eggs shortly after they've been laid and hatches them in holding pen. Then, once they've hatched, he digs them up, puts them in a big bucket and lets the guests of the hotel release them into the sea. 3 out of 4 nights, we released more than 150 turtles. Simply Amazing! So, here I am, lining the turtles up to go into the sea and watching the turtles begin their slow and scary walk into the big surf (and it was some big big surf on this beach). Next, a wave came in and wave caught me by surprise--it obviously caught the little fellas by surprise too, as they washed back up on to the beach some 20 yards down and 3 yards up the beach as compared to where they started. We made sure they all made it into the sea, then went about our business of drinking and eating. The little fellas (and they were little), had a full night ahead of them, swimming into the sea and trying not to become dinner for some big fish. Sadly, we were told that only 1 in 1000 of these guys would make it back to the beach. Thanks,Anne for capturing this awesome sequence. You are a better action photographer than I could ever hope to be.


If you ever get a chance, visit this place and experience what it is like to vacation. I'll most certainly be back.

Happy New Year!

I recently heard somebody call January 1st "National Hangover Day". I like it and think that we should formalize it somehow--I'll be writing my Senator tomorrow. It certainly is a good day to sit on the couch, particularly if you like Parades and College Football. Even if you don't like either of these, they both are great as background noise as you sit and work that hangover off.

Speaking of hangovers--What's your cure? 1 glass of water per drink is the standard way to not get the hangover, but what do you do to get rid of one? Anne prefers Coca Cola Classic. I always know how she feels if she is drinking one. Me? I've tried pretty much everything without success--the only thing that works is sleep & time. I'm looking for help here people. Not for today, since I finally slept enough that my hangover is gone. But next time...