Language Arts Test

So, this is funny, especially if you know me. I expected at 60%, not a 98%. Proof it was an easy test.

Your Language Arts Grade: 98%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
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Shopping Pt4

Wow, what a day!

I am so tired.

After looking at the ads all day yesterday, we came home, and I looked at the ads until about 1 AM setting up my game plan (or shopping plan as the case may be). The alarm went off at 4:00 AM, and I was at Best Buy by 4:15.

As I posted earlier, nothing went according to plan, but I did mostly get everything I wanted.

I took about a 2 hour break from about 2:15 till 4:15. I unloaded the car, sorted through everything, and had a bite to eat (first all day, too busy shopping to eat). I went back looking for a bit more, and did pick up a couple more presents.

I'm not home, and exhausted. But it was a good day. Now I just have to get the house looking like it's Christmas time, and not a train wreck.

Shopping Pt3

After standing in the check-out line for over an hour. I was ready to get out of GameStop. After that, I went to 5 more stores and only bought 1 present. Not the day I was hoping for.

After those 5 stores, I decided to back to Best Buy to see what else they might have. While I was there, I found what I was looking for earlier!!! It was soooo cool!

As I've been writing this, I've been in yet another line.

What started off as a rather slow day is turning out pretty well.

More Later

Shopping Pt2

Well, Best Buy went OK. I got 3 of the 4 things I went for. Unfortunately, I didn't get one of the presents I went for. I'll find what I'm after somewhere else. I'm now in line at GameStop. I've been here for 34 minutes already, and I've got 26 more to go before the store opens.

More later.

Shopping Pt1

I am Crazy!

It is 4:32 a.m. and I'm dead center behind the back of Best Buy. As I was walking to the back of the line I asked what time some got there (about half way to the back, and they got there at 3:30).

More later.

Black Friday

It's Black Friday!!!

I'm off to do some shopping like a mad man.

Have fun.

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everyone!

WL - 11/23 check-in

It's been 18 weeks since I started this process to lose some weight and basically just get in better shape (I still say round is a shape).

With all the eating I did last week, I would not have been surprised if I had gained weight.

Well, I didn't.

I lost 3 pounds since last Friday. No change in my stomach and chest.

Normally, I weigh in each Friday. But I'm pretty sure that I'll be getting up at the crack of dawn and going shopping. No time to weigh and measure, so I figured I'd do it today.

Baptism

This is the funniest thing I've seen in a very long time.
It's only 1:28, but worth every second. I'd even suggest it on dial-up. Especially if you go to church.

Police

Tuesday, my boys Cub Scouts den went to the Collinsville Police Department.

They got to see a police car and play with the lights and sirens.


They met with the Chief of Police, they were finger printed and they got to see dispatch.

The kids had a great time!

Jim Giles.

Wow, I knew this day was coming, but now that it is here, it's hard to believe.

Jim Giles, has been the Chief Meteorologist on KOTV for the last 25 years.
He is now retiring on November 22.

He's by far one of the best meteorologists that I have ever watched.

You can read more about his career on KOTV's web page.

Brother-in-law home

Friday, my brother-in-law came home to Oklahoma from Iraq (via Maryland for about a week). It was so good to see him (and his wife). We've spent the last two evenings with the whole family. Last night we had pizza and tonight, we had lasagna. It was soooooo good, both nights!

Friday was the first time I've seen much of the family since I've lost my weight. One of them asked me if I had malaria. I told him, "Nope, bird flu". When we got home from the airport, my father-in-law told me I've lost enough weight.

Anyway, it's late and morning comes early tomorrow.

WL - 11/17 check-in

17 weeks down.

I now stand at 5.5 inches lost in my stomach and still at 4.5 inches lost in my chest.
I'm also down 34 pounds since the start of this adventure.
(If you found any of it, you can keep it, please do not return to sender).

The medium shirts my wife bought me fit very nice. I've had lots of complements.

Four weeks ago, I talked about moving down a size in my jeans, well, it may be time to do it again. But I don't have any that I can try on, so that means it's time to go shopping.

What makes this week so good is the fact that yesterday was the first of much eating I'll be doing over the next week. And I didn't gain any weight. There may be hope for me to make it through Thanksgiving without too much gain.

Happy Birthday

Oklahoma. You turn 99 today.

Let the centennial celebrations begin! (which is still strange to me since we haven't turned 100, but I guess it in celebration of the upcoming centennial birthday all the things are planned.)

Well, no matter.

Happy Brirthday... Oooooooooooooooooooooooooklahoma where the winds come sweeping down the plains...

(You're sining it aren't you?)

Rolls Update

Well, the rolls I made were a hit. I had several compliments.

I ate 3. Not too bad. I would have had more if I hadn't have been losing weight and didn't want to gain it all back... today.

Rolls

Tonight, after getting home from church, I made homemade yeast rolls for the first time!

I love rolls. Shoot, I love bread! Especially yeast rolls. Tomorrow, our office is having a Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow. Mostly non-traditional stuff. The last few years, I've made my "cowboy dip". Not cowboy as in the Pokes, just cowboy. But there were already several dips that was being brought, so I didn't want to add another.

I really had a hard time, then I thought of bread. Can't eat a meal without bread. (OK, I can't eat a meal without bread). So I signed up.

Course, I never thought about the fact that I've never made them before.

Well, so far, so good. Guess we'll see how they are doing in the morning.

Happy Birthday

Today is my daughters 18th birthday.

Wow, 18 years. That's just crazy. She'll be graduating in May, and before we know it moving out. YEA! seriously though, there were days I wondered if she'd see 18.

Tonight, we are going to Red Lobster for dinner. She loves it there.

If you read this sister, I love you and I'm very proud of the woman you are turning into.

Veterans Day

Friday, at my son's school, they had a Veterans Day assembly. They asked all the Cub Scouts and Brownies that wanted to take part in the event to come in their uniform. When I told my boy of the invitation, he was excited!

Friday, he proudly wore his uniform to school. My wife and father-in-law got to go watch. My wife tole me I would have been very proud of him and that he did a great job.

My boy was part of the Color Guard when they Posted the Colors and when they Retrieved the Colors, he got to carry the American Flag.

My wife did tell me of one cute thing that happened. As he was carrying the flag back, he was concentrating on holding the heavy flag up and making sure it didn't touch the ground that he wasn't looking up. Well, in the gym where they had the ceremony, there were basketball goals with nets on them. And the eagle on his flag got caught up in the net. Thankfully, there was someone there to help him get untangled.

I wish I could have been there to see it.


We had several good pictures from the event, but since they had other kids in the pictures, I didn't want to post them. Here was a picture of him as he walked in front of my wife. Can you see the concentration on his face?

More Football

Ok, I can't believe it.

Unranked Kansas State just beat fourth ranked Texas, 45-42.

What I saw of it was a good game. But Kansas State almost blew it.

What a day. The Pokes are headed to some bowl, and Texas got beat.

Go Pokes!

Well, the Pokes one today. And if I remember correctly from what the news said last night. That makes us....

BOWL BOUND!

WOO HOO!

Soccer Over

Today, we officially finished our Fall soccer season today with our soccer party.

We met at Mazzio's Pizza here in C-ville and I handed out trouphys. I also made an award for each kid pointing out something good about their play this year.

Parents and kids liked this I think.

Whew.

Here are a couple of pictures from when we had our pictures made this year.

Cub Scout Popcorn Sales

Tonight I went and picked up the popcorn my boy sold so we can start delivering.

As I've stated before, he sold over $730 worth of popcorn. That is a lot of popcorn. But you should have seen what I saw tonight.

The pack sold over $18,000 worth of popcorn. That is right. I didn't put the comma in the wrong spot. over $18,000. That means that the if we sell all the popcorn that was ordered (order first, pay when you get it), then the pack will receive around $6,300 plus the fact that this region will also get $6,300.

I still don't know if my boy is one of the top 3 sellers, but the top seller sold over $2,500 himself. That's darn impressive (and from what I could tell, he did it, not his parents).

WL - 11/10 check-in

It's hard to believe that I've been working out for 16 weeks now.

As of this morning, I have lost 32.5 pounds. 4.5 inches in my chest and 4.75 inches in my stomach.

This week, my wonderful wife bought me 3 new shirts. Get this, they are mediums! I can't tell you the last time I was in a medium shirt. Sorta strange to go from XL to M. That'll be a hard adjustment. But one I think I can get use to.

This has really been pretty incredible. I still have problems not stopping at every mirror and just staring. Not because of being vain, but out of shock.

I've "wanted" to lose weight before, but the truth is I didn't. I didn't want to do what it really took to do it. What it took for me is to decide that I really wanted the weight off. And for me, it's been a two step process.

Eat less. I know this sounds crazy, especially with all the take this pill and keep eating what you're eating and you'll lose weight. That doesn't work. I've cut back a lot on what I eat. Instead of 3 cheese burgers, I'll usually now only eat 1 (may 2 )
Instead of 2 sandwiches at lunch, I'm eating 1. Stop drinking pop. There are 120 calories in a single can of pop.

Exercise. I'd say exercise more, but I wasn't exercising at all. I was spending between 1 and 1.25 hours 6 days a week. That was harder to do than the eating less. I've started slacking off a bit, but my weight loss has also slowed down. I'd spend over half of my time there on the treadmill and some time lifting weights.

I don't think I'm done losing weight, but with the weeks that are coming up, I think maintaining my weight would be a great.

Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away. Yummy!

Home Safe and Sound

My brother-in-law is home on leave from Iraq. Safe and sound. He'll come this direction next week to see everyone before heading back.

It's good to have him home.

I am proud of every man and woman that serve in our military.

Thank you!

Chess

I taught my boy how to play Chess tonight.

I beat him, but I got a bit worried a couple of times. I gave him lots of help, and in doing so, didn't pay attention. Oops. But it was a good start. I was very proud of him.

He'll also be able to earn his Cub Scout belt loop once he can tell me the pieces names and how they move.

He really liked it. We'll probably play again soon.

Fear

One of my worse fears has come to pass. The Democrats have control of both the House and the Senate.



This is going to be a long two years I'm afraid.

Fall Morning

This morning, I took my son to the bus stop. While we were waiting on the bus, I happened to look up and saw how pretty the moon looked. I also noticed a really beautiful tree changing colors. It was amazing.

After he got on the bus, I came home and got my camera and took a couple pictures before heading to work.

These aren't as good as the real thing, but I think they are still nice.

Black Friday

For all of you out there that can't wait till Thanksgiving to get all the sales ads, you are in luck. You can see many of the Black Friday Ads online.

Some include: Best Buy, Kmart, Khols, and the list goes on.

BlackFriday.info

Enjoy.

BTW, does anyone know why they call it black Friday?

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

My boy lost yet another tooth tonight.

It seems like the tooth has been loose for a year. Probably not, but it has been loose all summer at least. He looks so cute.

And I guess he can officially sing...

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

Truck wreck

This is different from a train wreck.

On my way to work this morning, there was a tractor trailer that looked like it tried to take the clover leaf from 169 onto I-44 a bit to fast and turned over.

First time I've ever seen one of those. Didn't look like much of a mess, so I don't think he was going real fast... just too fast.

I hope the driver was ok.

I saw the channel 2 news van there, but I couldn't find anything on their web page.

Voting

Today was election day.

I went to vote before going to work this morning. I took my boy with me today so he could see how it all worked. He really enjoyed it. It was his first time to go too. I doubt it will be the last.

We barely got him to the bus stop before the bus got there, but even if he would have missed it, it was a good experience.

Speaking of my children, in the next election, my daughter will be able to vote.

Scary.

Jam and Spice

I finally got around to making my blackberry jam preserves today. I made 8 - 8 oz jars.

They are not seedless preserves, but that's OK, I don't mind so much. Specially since blackberries are just so darn yummy.

I had also been drying some oregano from my garden this year and got that put in a jar. The jar reads 1/3 oz, but that really lasts a pretty long time. I had basically decided not to do spices next year because we just couldn't eat them as fast as we needed to. What I may do is harvest and dry all year long. Not sure. I have a months to decide.

Google Maps - Wireless

OK. I found this 2 days ago, and I'm afraid I'm just getting around to sharing... sorry.

I'm not sure if you have ever used Google Maps. Well, if you haven't it is great!

They have added another wonderful piece to their already wonderful puzzle.

It is Google Maps for Wireless Palm devices. It was specifically made for the Palm Treo, but it also works on my Palm TX. Only difference is I'd have to be at a hot spot to use it.

Anyway, it works on a boat load of devices.

Anyway, very cool!

Check it out.

WL - 11/3 check-in

15 weeks down.

Hard to believe it's been that long. I can really notice the changes. My face looks slimmer, shoot, I look slimmer.

For the most part, I did pretty good getting through Halloween with all the candy around and not eating too much of it.

I've lost another 1/2 inch in my stomach, so that's good.
I've also lost another 1/2 pound. That takes me to 31 pounds lost.

Good riddance! And if you are out there reading this and you say you found them, you can keep them.

First Freeze

We had our first freeze this morning, at least at my house.

26.3 degrees if I remember correctly. It felt nice. I really love this time of year.