Christmas?

Ok, I'm mad! I am really and truly upset.

Stopped into Walmart to get a couple things, and they were putting up a Christmas tree!

It's SEPTEMBER!

Karate

Today, my boy had his testing for his Yellow Belt.

He did really well. I almost had a heart attack when I saw them pull out the wooden boards for them to break. They had been testing with plastic boards that were tensioned, so when I saw the real ones I was surprised.

I was very proud of my boy today.

Pokes Football

I didn't get a chance to listen to the game tonight, but my wife did. Pokes win! I'm shocked and amazed. Not that I don't believe they won. They are a good football team, but, well, they don't always play the way I know they can.

So, after 2 weeks of football, they are 2-0. I wonder how longs it's been since they started the season 2-0.

Woo Hoo!

Go Pokes!

Karate

We had another great night at karate last night. At the end of the night, we received his white belt. He was very proud.

I'll admit, so was I.

Jiu-jitsu

Tonight, at karate, they worked on some jiu-jitsu. I'm not sure how much he learned, but I had several really good laughs.

Bliss

I am in complete and utter bliss!

As many of you know, I've been wanting a Playstation 3 for, oh, since before they came out. Well, I've been saving and saving, and it always seemed like something always came up and I had to spend my saved money on other, more important, things.

Well, I picked up some extra work, and it paid for my PS3, and a couple games! My boy and I have been in 7th heaven!

I've played it and even watched a movie or 2. The upconverting from it to my HD TV is incredible. I can't wait till I get a Blu-Ray movie to watch!

While talking to my wife about some details on setting it up. She commented that whatever I did, she didn't want any more remote controls. I guess needing 3 remotes just to watch TV was a bit much. Anyway, I did some looking and found the Harmony 550 remote control at Amazon for about $50. Harmony remotes are great. You can set them up to run just about any IR device, and if it doesn't have the device in it's database, if you have the remote, it will learn from it. Harmony's can get very pricey, but the 550 looked like it would do everything I wanted, and $50 wasn't too bad. Especially if it makes my wife happy.

Well, the remote came in the mail today, and I finally got it all set up. The TV, Satellite and Surround Sound are now all working off of one remote. One of the coolest features is I can turn on ALL the devices with the press of a button (well 2, the activate button and then "watch TV").
And all the devices turn off with the press of the power button.

Needless to say, I'm a very happy camper right now.

Star Wars - Clone Wars

This afternoon I got a chance to take my boy to see the Clone Wars. I'd heard it wasn't very good, but I really enjoyed it. My son LOVED it!!!

It's timeline is between the Clone Wars cartoon on Cartoon Network and Episodes III.

Also, some of the characters in this movie are from the Cartoon Network show. So I won't say you'll be lost without seeing it, but it will help.

Anyway, if you like Star Wars, there is a good chance you'll at least enjoy the movie.

Skunks!

Skunks!
Originally uploaded by jarrard@swbell.net

On my way back home from church tonight, I saw what looked like a bunch of birds in the road, or maybe something that had been hit and was still flopping around, but as I got closer, I noticed that it was slowly making its way across the road.

Then I saw the white stripe! It was at that point I hit the breaks, nothing worse than hitting a skunk. Well, actually there is. Hitting 4, and there were at least 4 skunks in this family.

It was really neat to see the momma keep turning around and making sure the "kids" kept up. You could almost hear her saying "come on, keep up" and "hold hands as we cross the street".

It's really nice to see the love a momma has for her kids... even when they are skunks.

Weather Bug Station in Town

I just found out that there is a Channel 2 (KJRH) weather station right here in town. And since they are tied into the WeatherBug program, I can finally get C-ville weather online (as opposed to guesses).

I've added a link in the side bar.

First Day of 3rd Grade

Today was my boy's first day of 3rd grade!

I can't believe that he is getting that old. It makes me both proud and sad all at the same time. He's gotten so big since the beginning of Second Grade.

I always love the start of the school year. I always have, as a kid and as a parent, the excitement of everything. Course my son isn't a fan of school, I'm hoping he likes it this year. He has a long way to go before he can get out of school. Not good to be miserable.

Olympics Opening Ceremony

Wow! This opening ceremony is just amazing!

If you missed it, you really missed something. Wow. Words just don't do it justice.

Olympics!

I love the Olympics, and I'm so happy it's that time. I finished watching the US Women play Norway in Soccer. Both teams played real well, but it took the US a bit too long to get into the game, and ended up losing 2-0. Both goals were made within the first 5 minutes. Crazy!

Anyway, Friday is the opening ceremonies (not that I care about that, but then games besides Basketball and Soccer will be on).

New Car... Again

A week ago yesterday, my daughters car broke down in Norman. For those that don't know, it's a ways away. Her transmission went out. So, with the help of one of my friends from church, we drove down there, loaded her car up on the trailer and came back. Which was an adventure, all into itself.

Anyway, Tuesday, my daughter and I went out shopping for a new car. Her car was in no condition to put a new (or rebuilt) transmission into it. Well, Saturday, in the 105+ degree temperature, and 7 car lots later, we finally found a car (and a few days during the week of shopping as well). It's a 2001 Hyundai XG300. Here it is...





As you can see, its really nice. It beats her last car which was a 1993 Saturn and her first car which was a Mazda 323 (don't remember the year).

Here is hoping it lasts better than it's predecessors.

Peppers, Peppers and More Peppers

I canned some of my Jalapeno peppers this weekend. Only canned about a gallon bucket full of peppers, got them all sliced up and canned. That was a lot of peppers! Probably left at least that many still on the plants!

Yummy!

Money Free Weekend?

While looking at Lifehacker during lunch today, I saw a link to this story about a Money Free Weekend.

We are not allowed to spend any money on anything, no matter what.
In other words, we can't make a run to the store to buy food, we can't
spend money on any sort of entertainment, and so on. Since we often do
our grocery shopping on Saturdays, on a "money free" weekend, we delay
it to Monday or Tuesday.

We can use our utilities, but no extra expenses on these utilities. No renting movies on cable, no text messages that aren't already covered by our cell phone plan, and so on.

I'm not sure I like the idea, but it can't hurt. Anyway, in this article, it talks about 100 Things to do during a money free weekend, and there are some really interesting things. So, you may want to go check out the article, if nothing else, it can give you some cool ideas for a weekend project.

Goofed up

Well, I really goofed up. I ended up letting my drivers license expire. Before that wasn't THAT big of a deal, but now, there are lots of rules about getting a license. Since it expired, I had to take my Birth Certificate in to get a new license (along with my old license). *sigh*

So, I come home yesterday and start looking for it. I looked all over. I asked my wife to help, and she looked all over as well. We couldn't find it anywhere.

I called my dad to see if they still had it, and he couldn't find it. Well, I kept looking and my wife checked what I needed to get a new one. For the record, you need a drivers license (ok, other photo id's too, but without any other photo id, you'd be in a lot of trouble).

Anyway, as I finish looking in the last spot I could think of, the phone rang, my dad found it!!!

So I went in today and got my drivers license, so I'm legal again.

As a side note, you can get a new license 6 months before yours expires, so stop what you are doing right now, and go check your license, if it's within 6 months of expiring, go do it now.
I knew in January that mine would expire in June... then I forgot all about it until July.

Oh well, all better now.

Happy Sadness

Not sure the subject really makes sense, but let me try to explain.

I've noticed how much my boy is growing. In August, he'll start the 3rd grade! He seems to be growing my leaps and bounds! So, on a whim, we went upstairs and measured him to see how tall he was. He is now 4 foot 1/2 inches tall!!!

He's broke the 4 foot mark! You should have seen him when I told him. And while that is great and all and I am really and truly happy to see my boy grow, it makes me sad too knowing that it wont be long till he out grows me, and wont want much to do with me.

I know that's natural and part of growing up, but it makes me really sad.

Failure

I know I've had days I've felt like this...

Happy 4th

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

It's this time of year really think about our freedom and all that others have done to keep that freedom.

Be safe everyone!

Hard to believe it's been so long since I last posted. It's always busy when you come home from a vacation.

I've posted some pictures on my Flickr account, and hope to post some here along with stories, but if you want to see some pics, go on over and take a look.