Labor Day Picnic/Hike

My parents called today, and asked what plans we had. Since we didn't have any, they asked if we wanted to come out for a picnic and a hike.

Sounded good to me!

We got to my parents around noon or so, and we headed out to Osage Hills State Park. I didn't even know about this park. It is about 15 minutes west of Bartlesville on Highway 60.

They have camping (tents and RV), hiking, a pool, tennis court, a ball field. There is a lake that is suppose to have good bass, crappie, catfish and perch fishing (no gasoline powered boats).

After cooking and eating some delicious hamburgers, we went out for a hike. It was beautiful.


There is also a lot of wild life. Today, we saw buzzards, hawks, lizards, grey and brown squirrels, armadillo's (alive can you believe it), turtles, and deer. My parents have seen bobcats out there. I'm know I didn't see one, but I think I might have heard one, but I'm not positive.

I have never seen so many armadillo's alive in one place. I'm use to seeing them dead on the roads all the time. At one point, I heard a noise, so I got everyone to be mostly quiet. (You'd have to know my family to really understand that). I tracked the noise to something that was under some leaves. Turned out to be an armadillo. As I got a bit closer to it, it turned into a ball (self defense).


That was too cool! I tried to get closer to get a really good picture. As I did, I guess it decided I had gotten close enough. It jumped up, and took off running. When it did that, I about jumped out of my skin, and jumped back myself. I know what happens when you corner wild animals. They tend to turn and fight and I didn't want to get whooped by an armadillo. What I didn't know about them is how fast they can run. Which is very, VERY fast. hehe My wife laughed so hard!

We hiked for about 2 hours or so. Maybe 2 and a half. My boy did great! I was a bit concerned taking him on such a long hike. But he couldn't have done better.

I plan on going back when foliage starts changing. It should be beautiful!

If you want to see some more pictures, I have posted some as a set on Flickr.

Crocodile Hunter Dead

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, died Monday snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.

He was killed by a stingray barb that pierced his chest.

He came over the top of a stingray that was buried in the sand, and the barb came up and hit him in the chest.

I'm in shock. I loved watching Steve Irwin's shows. From sound of the CNN article, weather had kept him from working on a show on "Ocean's Deadliest" and decided to work on a children's show.

For me, the worse part is he has an 8 year old daughter (Bindi) and a 3 year old son (Robert).

Pastorless

Today was the last day of our pastor at church.
He accepted a position as BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministries) Director. He will be very good at this, and I'm excited for him, but I will miss him.

This now puts our church without a pastor. Our Search Committee has met and we're starting our look.

This is really an exciting time for our church as well, though not everyone realizes it. When God moves in one place, He is moving elsewhere. Since God is moving our pastor away from us, He already has a man planned for us.

The search will last for a while since you don't want to rush into finding a new pastor. I'm on the search committee. First time to server on a Pastor search committee. This should be interesting.

September

It's September!

Can you believe it? I can't. This year has just flown by.

Course I love September! And for several reasons

1. My Birthday is in September! (9/11)
2. The weather starts cooling off! (this is a biggie for me)
3. The Tulsa State Fair starts this month! I love going to the fair, when I can.
   
4. Fall is right around the corner (not to mention Thanksgiving and Christmas!)
   

Those are only four reasons, but I figure if took more time, I could think of more.

Enjoy September everyone, it will be gone before you know it!

WL - 9/1 check-in

Well, I'm just finishing my 6th week of working out.

I've stayed even on weight loss, but considering I gained a lot of week last week between my wife's 20th HS reunion and my momma's yummy fried chicken and home-made rolls, I feel that's pretty good.

However, I have lost another inch in my waist! That's a total of 2 inches! So I'm feeling pretty good.

I've been extreamly tired lately. I'm not sure if it's the extra working out or just daily life now that school is in session, and all. I got a real good nights rest last night, and it really seemed to help my workout this morning.

Maybe I'll try that again tonight. hehe (yea right)

Gray Hair

Everyone is commenting on how grey my hair is getting.

I'm surprised every time I got get my hair cut how much more grey hair I have.

Tonight, while reading her Bible, my wife found this verse

Proverbs 16:31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.

Car problems yet again

My daughter came home from school today. Changed for work, and went out to go to work, and her car wouldn't start.

She took our truck.

I'm not 100% sure what is wrong with the car. What I do know is it wont turn over. Wont even click. It has juice, well, enough for the radio and lights. I tried jumping it thinking it had enough juice for everything else, but just not the start. No dice. I hope it's not the starter.

OK, I pull out my daughters books on her car, and start reading.
Fuse? Nope, it's good.
Maybe it's not in park good? Nope. That's good too.
Hot and not want to start? Again no.

OK. I hit Google. From the research I've done there, it is either a) the starter or b) the battery cable.

So, out I go. I jack up the car and get it on blocks. Then the hunt is on for the starter.

I FINALLY found it. Back of the motor. Half way up the block. *sigh*

Off the blocks it comes. Tomorrow, I'll try to tow it to my mechanic and have him look at it. Nothing else I can do. There is no way I can reach the starter with the clearance I have. And to make it worse, I was going to pull it, take it to AutoZone and have them test it. My luck if I did try to get the starter off, that wouldn't be the problem.

We'll see.

Funny thing though. The last time I worked on my daughters car was on July 30th. Today it August 30th.

This better not be a habit.

Cricket thermometer?

While listening to the radio this morning (Air1), they were talking about how you can tell what the temperature is based on cricket chirps.

So, here is the formula
# cricket chirps in 15 seconds + 37 = current air temp

Pretty simple. Though I don't think my wife would let me have a cricket themometer. She doesn't like them. (crickets, not themometers)

Weather Bug

I've made another addition to my blog.

I have added a Weather Bug "Sticker" to my blog. Each time you enter the page (or refresh), it will updates with the latest information.

As many of you know, I live in Collinsville, but we do not have a weather bug station here in town to link to. The closest one is in Owasso, but the temperature doesn't work, so it says it's 32 degrees. As much as I would love that (and I would), I just couldn't leave it.

The next closest location is technically the Tulsa Airport, but I figure Claremore's weather and temperature will be closer to what it really is here at the house.

Fall?

Well, it is August, but it feels like Fall.

It was 64 degrees this morning when I woke up to go work out.

What a nice break from all this horribly hot weather.

The drive in was just great! I love Fall. I know it isn't that time yet, but this is a nice taste of things to come.

Doom Update

Back in December, I posted about a Doom movie that had been released.

I finally got it in my Netflix queue a while back and watched it.

My impression? It was ok. Nothing spectacular. It was an UR movie, so I'm not sure how different it was from what was in the theaters.

I remember lots of language, and nudity. Other than that it was ok.

I thought I saw a Kangaroo?

I could just imagine a little kid telling their mom or dad.

Kid: "Mom, I just saw a Kangaroo!"
Mom: "No you didn't. There are no Kangaroo's in Oklahoma"
Kid: "But I did, I did, I did see a Kangaroo!"

Well, there was a Kangaroo loose in OKC over the weekend.

That's funny.

Worn out!

Today has been a busy day for me.

After work, which I left early, I mowed my grandparents as usual and my yard.

After finishing my yard, I still had some daylight, so off to Auto Zone to get oil and filter to change my oil in my Caliber. This is it's second oil change since we've had the car. We've gone about 6000 miles in 3 months.

I'm excited that I got it all done.

Losing Weight

As some of you may, or may not know. I've been trying to lose some weight.

Cutting back on the food and excercising. (Cutting back on the food is harder than excercising.)

I've been excercising and trying to eat less for the last 5 weeks. For all but the first week, I go 6 days a week.

So far, I've lost 11.5 pounds, 2 inches in my chest, and an inch in my stomach.

Making progress I guess.

PS3 - Not just games anymore

As you area all aware, the PS3 will be the most expensive (and in my opinion, the most processing power) of the NextGen consoles.

They are touting this as a Home Intertrainment system, not just a game system.

Well, this goes beyond Blu-Ray, DVD, online, I'm sure linux boxes, and playing music (and numerous other hacks that will come out in months to come after it's release).

I've found an article that now adds scientific discovery to a use for your PS3.

The team behind the Folding@Home distributed computing client has reported that Sony has developed a version for the PlayStation 3.

For those not familiar with it, Folding@Home client uses distributed computing to help the project assist in understanding how proteins "fold," or self-assemble, to become amino acids or other compounds.

There is more information on the Folding@Home project at their webpage at Stanford. They also have a FAQ about the PS3 version.

Medco Health

I hate Medco.

My company uses them for a prescription plan. They are the biggest pain in the rear I have ever seen.

We can get our medication discounted pretty well if we use their mail order service. However, if the prescription isn't written just so so, then it costs you more. They are the least helpful people I've ever seen. I had ordered and paid for some prescriptions on their web page, and used my debit card. I had let them store it so I'd not have to type it in in the future. MISTAKE!

More than once while refilling, I had marked for them to send me a bill to pay, and they automatically billed my card. That was a disaster waiting to happen. The last time this happened, I called them up and told them to take off the card since they can't seem to not bill me on it if they have it.

I guess they are better than nothing, but maybe not by much.

Pluto no longer a planet?

Ok, this whole Pluto thing is just silly.

All of my life (longer really), Pluto has been a planet. That is what is taught in school. We have 9 planets.

Well, now, because of some stuffed shirted, want to make everything difficult scientist at the International Astronomical Union has said so, Pluto is no longer a planet.

It will now be called a "dwarf planet"

You know what? I don't care except for the havoc this will make on the education system alone.

So now, if you care, our solar system has 8 planets, and 3 dwarf planets.

Does anyone else have a head-ache?

Blogging

It has finally happened. Blogger has been blocked by our "Surf Control" software here at work.

It's a sad day.

Good thing I can still blog through email.

UPDATE: it appears that only the Beta Blogger that is blocked. Still sad though

Beta Blogger

Blogger now has a Beta with new features.

I have switched to the beta, but because of the switch, there are a few things I need to pass along.

There are still a few Known Issues that they are working to correct.

The main one is that commenting as a Blogger user doesn't work if you have NOT upgraded your blog. So, for the few of you that do comment, you'll need to chose anonymous or other as an option.

The upgrades to add some nice functionality.

1. Private Blogs - So we can now have a private blog that only people assigned to it can view it. This is a huge thing if you've wanted to set up a family blog.
2. Labels - you can now add category labels to your posts, so you can find topics by the labels.
3. New ways to customize templates - including drag and drop.

I've not yet played with many of these features as I just found out about it.
I will however let you know what I think as I do.

1st Grade Update

Today was a big day.

My boy had his first ever spelling test. 5 words. Today is a pre-test. If he got them all right today, he doesn't have to take the test on Friday. He got a 100%!!!

That was so cool.

Also, he brought home book to read to us today. We sat down and he read he book. It was so cool!

I was a mean dad though, and I pointed to some of the words out of order to make sure he was really reading and not just going from memory.

*sigh*
He's getting so big!