Mini Flyweight vs Heavy Lightweight

Mom and Dad came for a visit today and after lunch we turned on the Wii. I introduced Mom and Dad to boxing. I think they will be sore tomorrow morning. But it looks as though they were having lots of fun.



Both had several knock downs, but the Mini Flyweight was the victor.
There were also several games of Bowling and Baseball. I think boxing was their favorite though.

Mom and Dad's hand-eye coordination is not good enough for guitar hero...so i didn't introduce that to them yet. Maybe next time.

Happy Birthday Bro!

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Hope it was a good one!

Love ya.

Happy Father's Day

I want to wish all the fathers out there a very Happy Father's Day!

You have taught us many things and we are thankful for all the things you have done or will do for us!

Hope you enjoyed your day!!

The Fedora

So, the parents came into town today and mom cooked a wonderful lunch. Dad was sporting his new fedora that he got for his birthday. I'm diggin' the new look...the fedora and the new facial hair. I wonder if i could pull off the fedora??



Here is dad with the new fedora...



Here are mom and dad about to head home...

On the music front...well, there was no practice this morning. Personal emergency got in the way...but last i heard everyone is okay. Some just a little stressed out. I should hit the studio tonight to make up for the loss of jam time.

Hope you had a good Sunday...

Merry Thanksgiving

Merry Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night!

This post is coming to you a little early...tomorrow i'll be working on console supporting the US manned space program...and following that i'll be spending some time with some good friends. I probably won't have much time to post tomorrow...

Be thankful for all that you have...Be thankful for what you don't have...
Be thankful for those that make you laugh...be thankful for those that are there when you cry...be thankful for family...be thankful friends...be thankful for all that you do...be thankful...

I'll leave you with perhaps the best short film parody that i've ever seen!!! And it goes well with my profession and the holiday... This is brilliant!!! Thanksgiving with the Kranzes. It'll take about 20 minutes to watch, but it's well worth it!

Long Weekend...

Well, the long weekend is over. First, i'll say thanks to all the veterans out there who have fought for and helped keep our freedom. Thank you.

It's been a pretty eventful weekend. I don't remember much of friday, but i'm pretty sure i spent it alone...i think i was catching up on much needed sleep.

Saturday brought my return to the saturday morning football field. It's been months since i've been available to play football...and i made it out this week. There were only 8 of us playing, but it felt good to get back out and run around. Most of the soreness is gone now.

Saturday night was a night spent hanging out with friends. Cory's birthday is later this week, so we had an early celebration. I picked up a bottle of Crown Royal (yes, a switch from my usual Jack Daniels, but the choice was twofold: 1) i like to try different every now and then, and 2) I needed to stock some Crown since that is the drink of choice of my brother)) So, Brandon, i'm stocked up on Crown for the next time you visit.

Sunday was a day to relax...had lunch with my parents. I was somewhat like a zombie though...lack of sleep tends to do that to me.

Today was a day off from work, which was nice...but i'll have a lot of stuff to do this week, so i'll pay for it later. Tonight was the first Finding Reason practice in quite some time. The good news is that my FR skills haven't atrophied...that much. The bad news is that i want to progress on the new stuff, but i just can't seem to make it work. But hopefully we'll be able to have more regular jam sessions. Ben resurrected one of his songs from his solo project and we worked out a potential new song (well, the start of it anyway...just a riff to work off of). We don't think we have drummer anymore...not that we really had one. With Ron leaving LTS, perhaps he'll want to work with us...even just part time? ... here's to hoping...

Well, that's about all i have to offer you tonight. I hope your weekend was fruitful!?

Around the Bend

Brandon and Jessica recently took a trip to Texas's Big Bend National Park. Here are a few pictures from their trip. (Brandon, i bet you are wondering how i got these pictures...hope you don't mind me posting them?)



Jessica relaxin' at the camp site.



Brandon on the top of the worl... er, Texas.





The private one-room nylon chalet.


I think if you put a saddle on this guy, you could ride him around...

Discover Card a Callin'...

I'm sure by the end of the day, i'm going to receive a call from Discover Card Services. Why you ask? Well, i don't use that card all that often, and usually for small purchases. Today, i made large purchases.



I just couldn't make it another 3 or 4 months on my old tires. So, i had to buy the cruiser new sneakers today. Luckily i had today off and i could spare the time to wait while they were installed.



Directly from the tire store, i made voyage to IKEA to see if they had what i wanted for the studio. Good news is yes, they did have what i wanted...and it is so comfortable. This particular item had to be ordered and will arrive (at the store) in 2-3 weeks. The bad news, i need to figure out how to transport it. I refuse to pay their ridiculous shipping charges. I think the package will be just a bit too large for the cruiser.

Weekend Update:

Saturday Night i spent in EB with mom and dad, since we were going to a family reunion in Austin on Sunday. Seeing family is a good thing. It was a nice distraction from the usual grind.

So, some of you have already seen my new frames that i bought a few weeks ago. I just realized that i haven't posted any pictures of the new specs. So, take a good close look Luke, it's just me ... Uncle Todd. No need to run away...



And on a final note, I'm not dating anyone. Some of you have been asking who kelly is. She is a friend, and the wife of a good high school buddy of mine. She just likes my blogs. Don't you??!

The Vacation

I thought I'd get a post in before i start my day. The vacation was a good one. I made a stop in EB to get some lunch prior to making the rest of the trip to San Antonio.

I met my brother at his store in the Rivercenter mall. He still had some work to do and i was there to buy some shoes anyway. So i shopped around and tried on quite a few shoes. All in all, i walked away with 5 pairs of shoes (1 of them was for my dad).







And here are the pair of shoes that my dad picked out.



After the shoe shopping (Thanks for the discounts, Brandon), we went to Brandon and Jessica's apartment to sort out the rest of the night. We decided to go to a pub to have a few drinks and shoot some pool. Well, it appeared to be a long wait for pool so we went back to the apartment to place some games.

One thing that Brandon i did as kids was play a lot of games ... on the Sega Genesis. My brother has an Xbox, so we played some Tiger Woods golf for most of the night. I remember back in the day when the controllers were much simplier--say a joystick with A button. Video games today have many different buttons and controllers to work through...definitely will help with hand eye coordination and memory. You have to remember what each button does functionally. Perhaps video games aren't so bad after all...despite the constant eating and no physical exercise...

The next day we did a little more shopping...making needed stops at Guitar Center, another mall, Game Stop, and Best Buy. We took a lunch break at Chipolte. Still doesn't beat Freebirds, Erin, but damn, it's awesome with the carnitas. I believe this past visit to Chipolte was the best i've ever had.

We went back to play the new game that Brandon bought, ESPN's NHL 07. Brandon and I used to play hockey on the Sega Genesis all the time. So we played some hockey for a few hours. Some things haven't changed, Brandon still beats me in hockey. We also played some football and ordered a pizza.

Ok, this is the part of the weekend, where i'll never look at Bob Saget the same way again. While we were eating, we flipped through the channels to find Bob Saget's That's Ain't Right standup. You remember Bob Saget as Danny Tanner on Full House and as the host of America's Funniest Videos. Wow, all i can say is that it was shocking. I almost think he was doing all that for shock value. It was friggin hilarious though.

Brandon and I did our usual music swap, and i was on my way back to EB for a quick visit before returning here.

I spent the rest of the evening preparing the studio for paint. Ok, i've spent a little too much time preparing this post, i must get some primer and paint now. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Definition of Cute

If this isn't cute, i'm not sure what is...My Godson bustin' a move. The kid has more moves than i do...I'm told that those are all his moves and he went on 3 songs straight before tiring. Definitely brought a smile to my face.

Such a ham...

I think i'm going to upgrade the all black guitar this weekend. She's got a great sound already, but i think there is room for improvement. Love-hate should sound much better with new pickups. Following my flight, i'm going to start devoting more time to Finding Reason. We need just a few more songs and then we'd be ready to perhaps be an opening band or perform short sets. I might also start buying some painting supplies for the cosmetic makeover for the studio.

Get yer groove on...

Thanks

Mom and Dad came for a visit today. Thanks for everything.

Well, i'm turnin' in early tonight...i've got to be up early tomorrow.
Hope you had a good weekend!?

One Track Mind

Lately, i've had a one track mind. I'm normally not so focused on one item. I usually can divide my attention to multiple things/people. I've been concentrating so much on getting my studio together that several things have kinda slipped my mind.

1) My flight (STS118/13A.1) is less than TWO MONTHS away. When did that happen? I have so much work to do yet. I've been some what of a recluse lately...spending the majority of my time in my office...not venturing out too far. I suspect it will only get worse over the next month and a half or so. Must build in some time to relax...help me relax.

2) Get better soon, Granny. Granny's been in the hospital the last few days with a case of Salmonella. Last word is that she's doing much, much better than the last few days. Get better soon!! I love you!

Ok, back to the studio. Yep, i'm still working on that computer. I can't quite get it to do what i want it to do. I'll continue to work at it for a little while longer. If i can't figure it out, i'll just deal with what i've got...then i can see if my new equipment actually works.

The Magic Door Mat

This morning i looked out my front door to see how the weather looked. Out of the corner of my eye, i noticed something amiss. My door mat had risen about 2 feet off the ground. Evidently, the door mat serves as a package cloaking device. If you put a package (no matter how large)under the mat, the package becomes invisible. It's the power of the magic door mat. I'm not sure why Fed Ex does this, but i think every package i've received from them has been placed under the door mat. Perhaps it's the whimsical personality of my delivery driver? Well, my studio monitors have arrived. Now i need the guitar interface and some nice monitor stands and the studio can become functional. Yes, that means the computer has been fixed.

Not 10 minutes ago, i finally fixed the studio machine. Well, it's not fully configured as i want it, but it is definitely closer. The one issues that i've been working on is getting internet access to the new machine. I was so frustrated. Turns out that Asus (the motherboard manufacturer) decided not to include drivers for the onboard ethernet port. Morons! And here i thought it was some XP software issues or perhaps a bad ethernet port. The latter would've driven me crazy...at least i could've scavanged from the old computer. Of course the only way to get the drivers is to download them (huh? how do you do that if you can't get your ethernet port to work!?!?!! UGGGHH Luckily i still have the laptop working) Anyway, i have progressed again. Tomorrow i will continue to configure the machine and install the studio software.

Mom and Dad visited today. We moved some clutter into the garage and mom did some cleaning. She likes to do that sort of thing...i most certainly did not get that trait from her. But thank you very much for helping me out. Now, i'm not so far behind on things i need to do. It helped out tremendously. It was a nice visit, even though i spent most of my time troubleshooting computer issues.

Well, the weekend sucked that i spent most of it troubleshooting computers, but it was a nice break. I'd like to have a few more days off, but i have much work to get done. Perhaps i should get under my door mat?

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I want to wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day!
I especially want to thank my mother for being there for me over the last year. You've been instrumental in helping me through the most difficult time in my life. A simple thank you will never be enough. But, thank you for that. And thank you for the last 31 years. Hope you are having a good day... I love you.

Happy Birthday Mom

Hope it was a good one! Hope you and Dad did something fun!
Anyway, Happy Birthday Mom!
I love you!

The details...

So, as i previously mentioned, i got up at 4:45am for my trek to College Station. It's only a 2 hour drive to CS and factoring in potential traffic issues, i've got to be on the road by about 5:30am. And inevitably, i am always way ahead of time. If i were to leave a little later then i'd be running into the morning rush hour crowd. Well, even driving the speed limit, i still arrived early. So i decided to spin by some of my old residences...wow...i lived in some shady places. But two of the apartments i lived in were still standing and definitely showing their age.

So, it was on to campus...It's a little weird being back on campus...making the same trek from one building to another as i did time after time back in the 90s...Luckily now, i'm not worried about a test or if my homework is done properly. I definitely don't miss those days...

The Senior Critical Design Review (CDR)is always fun. Basically, the seniors present the design that they've been working on over the last 14 weeks. Persons from industry (me) then ask questions and point out things that the students may have overlooked or point out the things we liked. It's also an opportunity for the students to mingle with the people that might hire them. And it's alway nice to see some of the professors that made your college life miserable. And there is always an opportunity meet new people as different members from industry make appearances. This was my 3rd one to attend and there are some regulars too.

Since my cousin, Kristine, attends A&M, i like to take her out for dinner when i'm in town. This time she was still working when i was complete with the CDR. So, i went over to the Post Oak Maul to kill some time. I was pleasantly surprised that the mall was nearly void of people. I was able to move about without being mauled. I managed to find some things that i've been looking for too. I also found a very cool store, Earthbound Trading Company.

Finally it was time to head over to Kristine's apartment so that we could decide where to eat. I also needed to check some email...i was going through withdrawals... Kristine suggested Abuelos Mexican Restaurant. That was some excellent mexican food! However, i must admit i enjoyed the conversation much more than the food. We had an awesome conversation! We talked about this and we talked about that. Things were learned...I was so enthralled with the conversation that i let my food get cold. But, if you are ever in the area, i recommend Abuelo's. We had a newbie waiter, it was his first day. He did well and i played a few tricks on him along the way...like ordering enchiladas without tortillas. The look on his face was priceless. Anyway, he was awarded with a very nice tip. I had a great time Kristine. Hope your little situation went well...

Well, there you go...the detailed post. Stay tuned for another post later tonight...

Too Tired

I've been up since 4:45am...i don't have the energy to give you the detailed post. Here's the short version.
Went to Texas A&M for the Aero senior design CDR. Bought some stuff at the maul...and had a very enjoyable dinner with my cousin Kristine. Made the 2 hour drive home, got home about 10pm...i'm now going to bed at 11:00pm.
G'night...

Stay tuned for the detailed post...this is just filler for your enjoyment...

The Visit

Today I got to spend a little time with my awesome brother and my beautiful sister-in-law. Brandon and Jessica just got back from a cruise to Cozumel. While i was stuck at work, they came here to the house and took a short nap before coming to JSC for a tour. Thanks, Rob, for taking us around...it's been forever since i've been in the simulators. Brandon and Jessica also say thank you. They enjoyed the tour.

After a detailed tour in MCC and keeping Melissa occupied for a few minutes, we headed back to the house so that i could change and check some emails before heading out to dinner. We headed over to Gringos in Pearland. Man, that is some good mexican food. It's been a while since i've been there. I just wish that i wasn't on-call...i would've had a few margaritas. Oh well...perhaps next time. Sorry you missed it!

After filling our bellies with great mexican food, we headed back to the house for some pictures and a little chat. It was great to chat with them again...last time i saw them was in January. Now that my increment is over, i think i'll try to make a trip to San Antonio to hang out with them...

So, here are the pictures from the night...



The Horelica Brothers



Me, Brandon, and Jessica



Cheesy Rockstar pose...



Cheesier Rockstar pose...

It was a good night. Can't wait to see you again!!

Fajitas, Prints, and That's Odd...

Mom and Dad came to visit today. So we grilled up some fajitas! Mmmm...i love fajitas. And while i had an extra set of hands around, my dad and i hung the new prints that i got framed. Well, i think they look better than i thought they would. Still need some additional accent pieces to fill out the blank spaces, but i think i have an idea of what i want to do.

And now on to the "That's Odd" portion of the post. Have you ever watched a movie...that you've seen before...only to pick up on something that you didn't remember seeing before...or even remember paying attention to? Perhaps it's the way you are feeling at the moment or something that is on your mind that triggers you to see something or hear something in a new way, or a way you've not seen or heard before? I won't name the movie i was watching, for it could be used against me later. :) But the following is what i picked up on this time: You don't have to have all the answers right now...you'll find them along the way. I'm not sure what that means for me right now, but i'll ponder that phrase over the next few days. I just found it interesting...

Sometimes it's the little things that get you thinking...

Happy Birthday Luke!

Today is my Godson's 3rd birthday! Happy Birthday Luke!! Tomorrow is the actual birthday party...the weather is supposed to be great!
Tonight i hung out with the Green's (Denny & Joan (the grandparents), Jena (the aunt), melissa & rob, josh & lisa, and eventually scott & hope & ayden). We played a little poker and had some fun. I think i walked away with an extra dollar or two.

See ya tomorrow!