Fall Festival - 12 pounds of candy

Tonight at our church we had our Fall Festival. We had it tonight to hopefully have people that don't normally go to church come. That way we may hopefully have some good prospects.

Well, my boy had a great time. He went as Darth Vader.

When we got there, they had a "Guess How much candy is in the jar". He ended up guessing 279 pieces of candy then we went off to play games and collect booty.

He collected so much candy and snack cakes. A couple of balloon animals too. About an hour later, we got word that he had won the jar. 266 more pieces of candy.

We stayed for about 2 hours. We came home with a HUGE bag of candy.

I weighed it before letting him have at it.

Have you ever wondered what 12 pounds of candy looked like? Well, here it is.

Jack-O-Lantern

This afternoon, my wife and I helped our son make his Jack-O-Lantern.

He had a blast. He went with his grandmother a few weeks ago and picked out the pumpkin that he wanted to use. So we took the time this afternoon and made it.

Here are some pictures.




We had finished and he was happy to show it off. H really liked the knife in the head look.

Those are freckles. He insisted on having freckles. He made them himself.

Go Pokes!

What about them Pokes?

That was a great game. Wow. What can I say.

Now, all they have to do is not get cocky and get ready for next week.

Texas at Austin will be a hard game. It's at 6:00 p.m. on TBS.

Here is hoping it's another good game.

WL - 10/27 check-in

14 weeks and counting.

Totals:
30.5 pounds lost
4 inches loss in my chest
4 inches loss in my stomach

My average is I've lost a little over 2 pounds each week, which is a nice pace.

This also puts me back around what I weighed in High School!

Here is the kicker though. Thanksgiving is 4 weeks away. That means I have 3.5 weeks to lose 9.5 pounds. That is a bit over 2.5 pounds per week. That will be tough.

If I can get to 185 by then I'll feel pretty good.

Timechange this weekend

That's right boys and girls, it's that time of year again. Time for time change. On the bright side, we gain an hour of sleep this time round (my favorite).

For my one reader in Guam, I believe that you do not have time change. The only good thing about that is there is also no time change in the spring.

Firefox 2.0

It is finally out. Firefox 2.0

There are several things that have been updated, but one of my favorite is that you can change one of the settings to open the tabs from the last session you had open.

So, if there are a hand full of pages you read, you can open them in separate tabs, close Firefox 2.0, then when you open it next time, all your tabs open.

Crazy Hat Day

It is Red Ribbon week this week at my son's school. (Say No to Drugs Week)

Today, was pajama day. (He wore his camouflage pajamas.)
Tomorrow is Crazy Hat day.
Friday is wear Red day.

So, to get ready for tomorrow, my son and my wife sat down this evening and made him a Crazy Hat.

What do you think?

Lost thoughts

Not to be confused with the show Lost.

I've lost it. yep, I've lost my mind. I've had numerous things I've wanted to blog about, but when I'm actually at a computer, can I remember a single one?

Nope, nadda, zilch, zero... you get the idea.

Oh well, I guess I got a blog post in anyway, but not what I wanted.

Cub Scout Awards

Last night at my son's Pack meeting, he and his den were the color guard for the flags. They did such a good job. They followed the Webelos down and followed their lead. It was cute.

From the quick survey last night, it also looks like he was one of the top 4 popcorn sellers. The top 3 sellers get gift cards from Academy. The top seller gets $50, 2nd gets $30 and 3rd gets $20.

Of those there last night, he and another boy set down when they went from the 700 to 800 mark. So, I'm not sure if he'll get that extra bonus or not. We'll have to wait and see.

He got 2 awards last night. They are belt loops (that go on the belt). He got one for fishing and archery. He was very proud going up and getting his award.

He also got his Space Derby Kit last night.
What is Space Derby? Imagine Pine wood derby, but the "cars" hang from fishing line and have propellers. That Derby is next month, right after Thanksgiving.

Get your popcorn here!

After our soccer game this morning, which went very good, we came home, changed cloths and went out to sell popcorn for Cub Scouts.

My boy has had his eyes on some 2 way radios as one of the prizes for some time. It took $700 worth of popcorn sales to get that prize. When he set that as his goal I told him he would have to sell it. I'd take him, but he'd sale it, and I wouldn't make him go sell. If he didn't want to he wouldn't have to.

I had already taken it to my work, and my wife to hers. All said, there was probably $200 already sold before he started.

Well, the popcorn sales are due Tuesday. And as of this morning he still needed $240 to reach his $700 goal. So, we went to his baby-sitters neighborhood, and started knocking on doors. (OK, he knocked, I mostly stood at on the sidewalk making sure he was safe and answer any questions he couldn't.)

After about 2 hours of knocking on doors, he only needed $13 to reach his $700 goal. I really couldn't believe it. That is a stinking lot of popcorn. Once we reached that point, I knew he had it. My grandparents hadn't bought any yet, and neither had we.

I was impressed. He sold over $500 worth all by his onesies.

I think what impressed me more was he set a goal, and accomplished it.

By selling $100 worth, he'll get a Pack T-shirt that we are designing.
By selling $500 worth, he'll get to go to the week long Cub Scout Day camp next year for free (our pack pays the dues if they sell that much)
By selling $700 worth, he'll get his 2 way radios (walkie-talkies).

He filled up 2 complete order forms.

Guess the only thing I can say is...

WOW!

Cub Scouts - Woolaroc

Thursday, the Cub Scouts went to Woolaroc. which means Woods, lakes, rocks. For those who don't know, it was created by Frank Phillips the founder of Phillips 66. So I took off work so I could take my boy. It was the first time he had been there, and the first time he had been to a museum. (I know, I've been a bad dad.) Anyway he loved it! Just the drive in was an adventure as we saw so many animals that he had never seen before.

They have a watch tower, or whatever you want to call it on top of one of the buildings. From it you can see all around. That is were I took the above picture looking at the front of the Museum.

After we watched a movie and slide show, we went into the museum and looked around. He loved it. He enjoyed a lot of stuff in there. He liked the guns and shrunken-heads, arrow heads and a lot of the other stuff that was in there.

After that, we went back across to the other building and had lunch. The Cub Scout Pack supplied bottomless PB&J sandwiches. When we finished, we fed our trash to the Trash eating Buffalo (a vacuum buffalo that sucks up your trash). This has always been one of the coolest things to me and my wife about Woolaroc, and he loved it too. Then off to a hike we went.

It wasn't a long hike, but considering the temps were low, it wasn't bad. There is a bit more to the trail that we my take later that we as a pack did not go on. But for Thursday, it was good.

After the hick we were done. Me and my boy stayed a while longer and went and looked at the old lodge, and he got to climb around on some rocks down by the lodge. On the way out, we saw many more animals really up close and personal. We drove through a huge heard of buffalo as well. They were very close. One was about 3 feet from the car. Me and my boy had a blast as did the other Cub Scouts.

WL - 10/20 check-in

I'm 13 weeks in.
I'm continuing to eat less (most of the time) and exercise.
I lost 4 1/2 pounds this week. Mainly making sure I didn't skip my workouts and really making sure I don't pig out.

Overall, I've now lost 27 pounds. I'm feeling pretty good. But to stay on track for 10 pounds a month, I have to lose 3 pounds next week. That'll be tough. But if I keep my goal in mind, watch what I eat and make sure I go work out 6 of the next 7 days, I may make it.

Really, the thought of being under 200 lbs is crazy. I still can't get use to the scales being below 200. I said last week that I switched to some smaller sized jeans that I still had, well, this week, my belt quit fitting. My wife brought home a leather punch so I could add a few more holes to my belt, and I really wanted to do it with real leather tools instead of and ice-pick. I know I'm going to have to go buy some more cloths soon, but I really want to wait a bit longer. I don't really want to go buy some jeans, then a month or so later, have to go buy more.

The Circus is in Town

Today, my wife took our son to the Circus that had come to town.


I wish I could have gone, but that just didn't work out.

They went with my wifes friend and her son (the one that has been fighting cancer) and they all had a great time.




He managed to get on the elephant, but didn't make it for a ride. :(
Do you see that big grin on his face? I live for those moments. They are too awesome!

Google Chat

I had heard about Google chat back when they first came out with it. But I already was running ALL the other chat programs possible, so a new one didn't appeal to me.

Until today.

My brother-in-law is currently in Iraq. He does a lot of sitting at a desk, and he has communicated with his wife via Google Chat. They use the voice chat capability it has. Anyway, because of that, my mother-in-law wanted it on her machine. She had a P2 running Win98. Google Chat wont run on such a thing. And her computer wouldn't run XP. So I helped them go shopping.

Anytime I get to buy a computer with other peoples money, well, that is always a good day for me. :)

Anyway, We got a new computer home and set up, and I got Google Chat installed for her. We called my sister-in-law that was online and gave it a try. Once I got past the mic problems I was having on her machine (machine/user problem, not Google chat), this thing is great! It sounded like she was in the same room as me.

Yet another reason not to have a long distance provider. Go out to Google Talk, download it and sign in. It uses your Gmail account name as your user name. If you don't have a Gmail account, you can get one here. if you have a cel phone that can receive text.

WL - 10/13 check-in

It's that time again boys and girls.

Another week has gone by on my quest to lose weight.

I have lost 1/4 of an inch in both my stomach and my chest.
I was able to get into some jeans that I have not been able to get into for years. That felt really good. Yesterday, I also noticed that I'm at the last notch in my belt. I can't tighten it any further.

I did gain 1/2 a pound, but that isn't bad.

Best Buy

I just got some good news today. Of course, my wallet didn't.

The new Best Buy they are building in Owasso is set to open on Friday.

Owasso just about has everything you need for your shopping pleasure which may save me a trip to Tulsa this Christmas season.

Cub Scout Campout

This weekend was the Cub Scout camp out at Osage Hills State Park.

It was a blast.

We came home from our soccer game (which was ok) and we finished loading up the car and got on the road by 10:40. I had wanted to leave by 10:30, but that's not bad.

We got there and found a spot to set up our tent. We unloaded and set-up. After I finally found a place to park the car, we sat down for a sack lunch we packed. About the time we finished, most everyone was getting ready to go fishing, so I got our stuff ready. We ended up not going with everyone else and stayed behind to do some leather working. Both me and my boy made some cute pieces. His had a skull and crossbones at the top with a snake at the bottom. Between them was a shortened version of his name. Along the left was OHSP and 2006 on the right. We tied it around his walking stick, he was very proud. I had the Tiger Cub symbol and a fish. with 2006 and OHSP along the sides. I also beveled my edges a bit. I hung mine from the wrist strap on my walking stick.

Afterwards, we hiked to the fishing hole (lake) to do some fishing and take a look at the old CCC camp site. I was glad I paid attention a month ago when I went with my dad as I was able to tell the couple kids and parents with us the same stuff he told me. We fished for a bit, but didn't catch anything.

On the hike back, we saw some turkeys, armadillo, a hawk and some deer. We found some really good turkey feathers that we also put on our walking sticks. The kids were most impressed with those, as were the kids at camp.

We had dinner, burgers and hot dogs, and it was good. After dinner, we went to the water falls. But with the lack of rain, it wasn't a water fall, but it was very pretty.




Later, they had smores and boy scout cobblers made in the dutch overs. They had apple and cherry. They were GREAT! The kids continued to have a good time, but I heard several talk about being tired (as was I) around 8:30. My boy and I finally got to the shower and back to camp, played several games of UNO and then finally went to sleep around 10 to 10:30. I got up early this morning to help cook breakfast and left my boy to sleep but he finally got up and around before breakfast. I was amazed at how early some of the kids got up. We had biscuits and gravy, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs and pancakes. (again, it was good).

Since by the time I helped clean up and get our tent down and put up, we had missed church. So my boy and I went on another hike and then finally to my parents to drop off the camping stuff we borrowed.



The trip overall was a blast. My only complaint (and the only complaint I heard from everyone else) was the parking situation. Part of that was the fact we did not camp in an actual camp site, but with 75 people (2 - 4 per vehicle) that left us with a lot of cars, and no place for them. Other than that, everyone had a great time!

I know my boy did as he slept most the way home and is still sleeping.

WL - 10/6 check-in

At 11 weeks of working out and eating less, I am happy so say I have lost a total of 23 pounds!

I also broke the 200 pound mark this week. 3 out of 4 days, I have woke up at less than 200 pounds. For me, that is WONDERFUL!

I'm not sure when the last time I was under 200 lbs was. Probably in college.

It's going to be a tough week though. Since my wife is having surgery today, my mom is talking about bringing lasagna over for dinner tonight along with chocolate pie and maybe cinnamon rolls.
Camping with the Cub Scouts this weekend promises hamburgers for dinner and eggs, biscuits & gravy, sausage, bacon and pancakes.

Anyway, Pray for my wife today as she has this surgery. Nothing major but it's still surgery.

Last weeks Soccer Game

Wow, here it is Thursday, and I didn't talk about last weeks soccer game.

Bad dad!

Anyway, it was a good game. All but one of my kids (remember, I coach, so I call them all my kids) scored in Saturdays game.

That's right, MY BOY scored his first goal of the season! WOO HOO!

I was so excited. And being the coach, you can't go nuts on one goal without doing it for the others.

Luckily my wife and my parents were and saw it.

The kids are starting to pick up on the positions though they still don't like it, but the girl on my team scored a goal from the back half of the field! It was too cool!

Also, during Saturdays game I said something you wont hear coaches tell their kids very often. "Stop talking!" See, most of the time, coaches want the players to talk to each other, things like "spread out", "go up", "I got it" stuff like that. Things that help them play more as a team. Well, my boy (I think) and one of the other boys were just chit-chatting about who knows what, and had basically stopped playing.

Our head Ref heard me tell them that, and she laughed. She knows that is something we drill into the kids on the field.

Next week, we will take this years photo's. So, Monday will be an easy practice. Now I just have to figure out what I'm doing tonight.

Police Comments?

I received an email today that said the 15 comments below were taken from actual police car videos around the country.

Is that true or is this just another funny list? I'm not sure, but from the police officers I know, I think there is a good chance these are real.

Anyway, here they are, enjoy.


The following 15 Police Comments were taken from actual police car videos around the country...

#15. "Relax; the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch out after you wear them awhile."

#14. "Take your hands off the car, and I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

#13. "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

#12. "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? In case you didn't know, that's the average speed of a 9 mm bullet fired from my gun."

#11. "So you don't know how fast you were going. I guess that means I can write anything I want on the ticket, huh?"

#10. "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I am the shift supervisor?"

#9. "Warning? You want a warning? O.K., I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket."

#8. "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Is Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7. "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy, and step in monkey poop."

#6. "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."

#5. "No, sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to have quotas, but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we want."

#4. "Just how big were those two beers?"

#3. "In God we trust, all others we run through CPIC/NCIC."

#2. "I'm glad to hear the Chief of Police is a good personal friend of yours. At least you know someone who can post your bail."

And ... THE BEST ONE!

#1 "You didn't think we gave pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't - Sign here."

What Superhero are you?

Today, while trolling some blogs, I ran across this Superhero personality test.

Being the geek I am, I had to give it a try.


You are Spider-Man



You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Spider-Man		100%
Superman		65%
Robin		58%
Green Lantern		55%
Iron Man		50%
Supergirl		48%
Catwoman		45%
Wonder Woman		43%
The Flash		35%
Batman		25%
Hulk		20%

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

WARNING: if you try to post your results on your blog, you may have problems as you can tell my how this post turned out. I think blogger doesn't like tables. Give it a try anyway and let me know what you are.

Almost Lost

That's right boys and girls. It's almost time for Lost to start back up.

That would be tomorrow night!

I'm so excited.