October Camping Trip

We finally got our Fall Break Camping trip scheduled today.

We are going to go to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. We initially were going to go to Devil's Den (AR), Robber's Cave (OK), or Roaring River (MO), but all three were out of reserveable camp sites. Since the were out, we started looking elsewhere. We almost went with Roman Nose (OK), but I wasn't sure. Then I found Bull Shoals (AR). It had hiking, camping, fishing in a lake or river. It sounded great. Plus the town also had a cave. So, I went to reserve, and none were available. I guess everyone is going camping that weekend. Then I found Crater of Diamonds. It sounded great, and they had availability... can't beat that!

My boy loves rocks! And even that statement is probably an understatement. So the opportunity for him to dig for diamonds and other stones is a real treat for him. Plus, we'll have hiking trails we'll take and who knows what else. Plus with the trip scheduled in October, hopefully we'll have some nice fall foliage too!

Roaring River Men's Retreat

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Originally uploaded by jarrard@swbell.net

I had a great time this weekend. The fishing this year was harder than last. I'm not sure why, but Thursday and Friday were killers as far as getting my limit. Saturday, luckily, was much smoother.

My dad and I didn't get our long hike in cause of how long it took us to get our limit on Friday, but we did manage to go on a small hike.

Saturday, after we got our limit, we walked around and took some pictures. This one is where Roaring River starts.

The Worship service each night was great. And I really enjoyed hearing 30+ men just sing praises to God. Wow!

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Originally uploaded by jarrard@swbell.net

Oh, and here is one of those pesky little fish that gave me such a hard time this week.

It really was a great trip!

I have a few more pictures on my Flickr account if you're interested.

Talk like a Pirate Day Update

Talk like a pirate day was a blast. I had a lot of fun with it, and made just about everyone I met laugh. I even got several people to try it, though one couldn't even manage an "Arrrr". I found that amusing.

I hoped eveyone else had a good day as well.

Well, I'm off to Cassville, MO. I'm going on a men's retreat up there, and plan on doing some Trout Fishing!!! I can't wait.

Talk like a Pirate Day

Wednesday is Talk like a Pirate Day! In fact, every September 19th is.

Try to have fun with it everyone.

Aye, Der be much fun to be 'ad. Savey?

Okie Blog Awards

Alrighty. Yes, I know. everyone is shocked that I'm posting again! Who knows, this may be a new trend.

The reason for this post is to brag on my brother-in-law who runs the blog 4 Color Commentary which is a comic book related blog.

Anyway, he has been nominated for an Okie Blog Award. The award he's up for is the Best Culture Blog.

So, if you are from Oklahoma, and have an active blog, head on over and vote for him.

And while you're at it, you might want to stop by his blog and take a look-see.

It's official, I'm old

Today is my 35th birthday, and it's bugging me a bit.

I don't think it's the age itself that's bothering me. It's the fact that when I fill out forms, I'll no longer be in the 2x-34 age category, I'll be in the 35-50 or whatever it is.

35-50!!! They might as well sign me up for AARP!!!

Anyway, I come home from work today, I look through the mail. I had 3 birthday cards and some mail from AARP telling me I qualify for their life insurance policy!!!!

WHAT?!?!?

Now I really feel old.

But the day ended well with my wonderful wife grilling me steak and shrimp for dinner and get getting me a new stove for camping!

Sex

Wow, very long time since I last posted.

Last night, my boy and I were watching TV when a commercial came on with kids talking, telling their parents to talk to them about sex.

After about the 3rd one I'd seen that evening, my boy looks at me and asks. "What's sex?"

So I explained that sex is something God gave a man and woman that's really nice and it's how babies are made. And just like the commercial said, it should be saved till he's married. That's also how God made it.

He was like, "OK" and he moved on to other conversations.

I'm sure that will be the first of many other conversations to come. Just wasn't expecting the conversation at 7.

River Tax

Well, I'm sitting here running another 101+ temp again for the 3rd time this week (I was "normal" yesterday") and the urge struck me to talk about the River Tax. Why? No clue, but why not.

What do I know about the River Tax? Not a whole lot, and I'll happily admit that.

• Do I think developing the Arkansas River in Tulsa would be a good thing? Sure do. Shoot, it's working for Jenks, especially if the Drillers move down there.
  
• Do I think we needs to be a tax for it? I'm not really convinced one way or the other.
  
• Do I think there needs to be a county tax for it? Nope.

Here is the deal. There are shopping centers going up all over the place. Nice ones that people come from all over. Shoot, I know people from the Sand Springs area that frequent the Owasso shopping Center, and that's just one example.

Concerning a county tax, I'm not sure how having a tax to build at the river will help the Collinsville economy. Nope, don't see it at all. I do, however, see how it could benefit Tulsa.

There has to be some rich person out there that feels the need to get richer and develop the area with private funds. There's gotta be. And if not, any rich person that wants to do that, they can give me their money, and I'll get richer doing it.

Email or comment if you need to know who to make the check out to.

Happy "Birthday"

Today is my daughters "7th" birthday.

Yes, my almost 19 year old daughter turns 7 today. It was 7 years ago today that her adoption was final.

Every year, I have bought her a card and a small present. The card always reads which birthday it is. She ran across her 5th birthday card a few weeks ago. This is a little something that we've always done that's special to both of us.

First Day of 2nd Grade

Today was his first day in Second grade.
He is getting so big! It really can just break your heart sometimes watching. We took him to school and walked him to his class (like normal on the first day of school). Tomorrow, he'll ride the bus to school as he continues this grand adventure!

And as in Kindergarten and in first grade, we again took his picture on the first day of school.

Compilng

This is just to funny not to share. Of course, it may only be funny since it's the line of work I'm in...


And I've done stuff like this while compiling. hehe

Computer Room

Now that my daughter has moved out, we now have another room.

This weekend, my wife and I painted over the pink & black, and moved in some stuff. The room now has a TV, DVD, satelite, and PS2. My computer is also in here, and we've also got a recliner.

We'll keep our eyes out for a few things to finish off the room. I want to set up a second computer. My wife also wants to get a different chair.

It's been a long weekend, but now it's done... (well, we still have to finish cleaning the other room).

*sigh*

There are days I wish I could turn in my "Daddy card".

Confusion

Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?

It's Just Not Fair!!!

It's not I tell you!!!

Day's like this I was a Canadian.

Win a Trip to Outer Space!!!

Pokemon

Back at the beginning of the summer, I promised my boy that once HE read 10 books, I'd get him some Pokemon cards that he wanted so badly.

Last week, while he and my wife were at Falls Creek, he finally read his 10th book. So today, we picked him up a small Pokemon kit. It basically works on teaching him how the game works.

After getting home from the store, we read the instructions, and played a couple games.

I won the first game, and he won the second.

We had a lot of fun (even if it was Pokemon)

Vacation Journal - Day 7 & 8

Friday 6/22

When we got up Friday, we weren't 100% sure what the plan was. We decided to head on over to Fort Worth and visit my wifes sister. We talked to her that morning, and she was excited to have us, so, we have our plan.

We got up and packed up and went to Denny's for Breakfast. That was some good eating!!! I love eating breakfast out. We then headed out. We got to New Orleans a couple hours later I guess. That place is still all torn up. It really surprised me. We did go into the French Quarter, and we stopped and walked around Bourbon street for a bit. We stopped by an old drug store that had an old soda fountain, but unfortunately, the fountain was broken. We went back to the van, and headed out. Didn't even eat in town. We missed a lot of what Bourbon street is like by being there in the day, but with my 7 year old with us, we thought that was best.

We got to Fort Worth about 8:30 or so, and my sister-in-law cooked lasagna and garlic toast! yummy! We got to see her new house, and just have a nice quiet evening.

Saturday 6/23

The highlight of the day was probably breakfast. My father-in-law and sister-in-law cooked breakfast. It was so tasty! We loaded the van for the last time, and headed home. Not long after we had left, we noticed a smell. Cat Pee. We decided that one of her cats marked our suite case. That made for a long drive, but it would be our shortest drive of the trip, so that wasn't too bad.

We finally got home around 4:30 I think. It was good to finally be home!

Vacation Journal - Day 6

Thursday 6/21

We woke up today, had breakfast and loaded up to hit the road home. We decided not to go home the same way we came, and since I'd never been to Florida before, and we were that close, we headed for Florida.

For the most part, the day was pretty insignificant. while we were in Mississippi, we hit a long line of traffic. It was bad. After being in line for about 30 minutes or so, we finally got to a sign that said road construction, 3 miles. We were still 3 miles from the construction that was causing the problem!!! My wife was driving at the time, and she noticed fish jumping in the swamp next to us. She hollered up at some kids that were hanging out the window in front of us to see if they saw the fish jumping. At one point, I thought we were going to do a Chinese fire drill. During the traffic, I did manage to get a cool picture of a Mississippi sunset though.


Other than the long traffic jam, nothing major happened. I guess the highlight of the day was when we stopped for a hotel room in Buloxi, Mississippi. We looked up a hotel on the GPS and went to it. It was a bit off the main road, but you can usually find better rates there. Anyway, we get there about 8:30 or so, and the office was closed!!! We couldn't believe it. Ok, we'll try again. I found another Hotel real close, we went to it, and when I saw it, I told my wife to just keep driving. hehe It wasn't somewhere we wanted to stay.

When we had got off the highway, there was a hotel that said "Super Low Rates", so we went back there, and it was $88/night, and they didn't have any rooms with 2 beds, and I was NOT sharing a bed with my squirmy son. We went to another place, my father-in-law and I both went in. He ordered a room with a single bed, and wanted to use a senior citizen discount. She told him $55+tax. He said great and took it. He walked out to the van, and I told the girl. "I need a room with 2 beds, and do you have a traveling with your in-laws for 7 days discount?"
She laughed, and then gave me the same rate she gave my father-in-law! That made me happy.

So, we had a shower, and got to watch a little TV on our possessed TV. It would just randomly shut off. Sometimes it would come back on, and sometimes it wouldn't.

Schmap NY Guide

One of my pictures was published in the Schmap New York Guide.

It was a picture I took of Radio City Music Hall a couple years ago.

Sorta cool.

Sick and Tired

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired! I've been sick now for 11 days straight!!! I had a fever over 100 for 9 of those days. One day, it got to 104.

I'm coughing and I'm quezy. I'm cold and I'm hot, all at the same time.

I went to the doctor Monday, and he said it was either a chest cold or viral bronchitis, and we were trying to make sure it didn't turn into pneumonia.

Now, I don't know what to think. I just can't wait to get well.