Christmas Fun

I actually closed the clinic for four days, which I have never done, so that we could actually spend some time with our families for Christmas. It was well worth the craziness I am going to encounter tomorrow, as four days worth of sick animals bombard me by 9 am.

We went to Lorena on Christmas Eve. It even snowed pretty heavily in the afternoon, which was cool...since it very rarely snows anywhere near Christmas. Logan and I had a snowball fight, which he won handily. Then we went to the candlelight service at church. After church, we went to Carrie's house and played Trivial Pursuit. My Dad is so good at it that his teammate, my Mom, always quits about halfway through the game because he never confers with her on any of the answers. You've got to watch him though...he thinks he knows more than the makers of the game (which he probably does) and has been known to cheat if he disagrees with the game's answer.

On Christmas, Laura, Scott, and Makinley made it by noon, and we opened presents. It was, as usual, mass chaos. And as usual, the kids got more toys than they can ever play with...but that's all the fun. Logan, I swear, opened all his gifts in 4 minutes. He had a pile of gifts three feet high in the living room, and I found him outside playing with a stick. Go figure. After all the presents were opened, we had a fajita lunch consisting of enough food to feed a gameday crowd at Kyle Field.

We headed back to Katy that evening in time for Nancy's parents to get here and spend the night.

Makinley cheesin' it up

Our snowball fight

Logan looking mischevious

Brynna playing dress-up

Logan and Brynna in the snow

On Saturday, Nancy and I and her parents drove up to Magnolia for Christmas with Brandl, Danielle, Brooke and Tyler.

We opened gifts with them too...and not surprisingly, the kids got loads of toys to go with the loads of toys they already got from everyone else. I think Brandl and Danielle are going to have to add on to their house soon. We ordered some Chinese food and played with the kids for a while, then called it a night.

Tyler having some fun

Brooke trying to play her new trumpet.

Brookie swinging




Tyler swinging. Doris and I tried to swing him, but he only wanted to be pushed by Grandpa...because only he does it correctly.

Brookie as the subject of Nancy playing with the zoom lens on her new camera

Tyler also got to participate

The annual family picture

What have I gotten myself into?

Always loving a good project around the house, I decided last weekend that it was time to put down some wood laminate flooring in our downstairs entry-way and dining room. Nancy and I had talked about doing this ever since we moved into this house in June 2008 (Has it been that long already?). But I think Nancy was thinking more like 5-6 years down the road. Sitting around watching football last Sunday and being a little bored, I bumped up the timeline a few years. Nancy did not sound too thrilled when I asked her if we could start this little project. Seeing as how we are likely having visitors at Christmas, and definitely at New Years, I think she doubted (with good reason) my ability to get it done in two weeks.

You see, as much as I enjoy working around the house, building things, and these kinds of projects, I am sadly not much good at them. Nancy's dad can throw together a new wing on your house in 2 hours, but I inherited much of my handy-ness from my dad...who also enjoys working around the house, but, like me, tends to cuss a lot, hurt himself in some way (my dad recently shot himself in the thigh with a nail gun...no idea how that happens), and hire someone else to finish it.

So I can understand Nancy's frowns and skepticism at the thought of me ripping up all the carpet in her new house that is less than a year-and-a-half old and putting in a new floor that actually looks nice, all in two weeks. But I am stubborn, and talked her into letting me get started on this, with the promise that I would hire someone if the going got too tough. Very excited about my small victory, and assuring her I would do it myself and not require her assistance, I sped off to Home Depot for the supplies. I knew from my internet research what I needed as far as tools and supplies, but first I had to pick out a floor. When I walked down the flooring aisle and looked over the 2,348 different styles of laminate flooring, I knew I was in trouble. The first step in my project and I needed her help. I had to call her to drive up to Home Depot to help me pick out the floor. There was no way I could do that myself. An hour later, we had finally decided on a floor we liked. We bought a whole truck load of flooring, tools, and supplies, and as the cashier rang up the total is when I first realized what I was getting myself into.

Still gung-ho about the project, I waited for Nancy to go to bed and started ripping up the carpet. I got about half of it up that night, but I thought Nancy was going to cry the first time she saw her new downstairs torn to shreds. Again I assured her of my floor-installing capability, despite having no clue at all what I am doing. After all the carpet and padding was up, it was time to remove the wooden tack strips that hold the carpet down at the edges. The trouble is, they are nailed down every 6 inches into solid concrete. After taking 30 minutes to get the first 4 foot section of tack strip up... was the second time I realized just what I had gotten myself into. Two weeks to install the floor? Hell, it might take me two weeks just to get the tacking strips out of the concrete.

The first section of ripped up carpet, tack strips still firmly in place.

Eventually, I figured out a little faster way to separate the strips from the concrete, and I eventually got all the carpet, padding and tack strips removed in just two nights of work.

Very proud of my handiwork, and anticipating a future blog entry, I snapped a few pictures.

We initially were going to leave the ceramic tile in our entry way (pictured above) alone, but along the way we decided to remove it as well. After researching the best methods of doing so, I decided that this particular part of the project was best done by a professional, with more powerful tools than a hammer and chisel. Mr. Castillo will be out bright and early tomorrow morning for this apparently very fun job.

So yesterday after work, Nancy vacuumed up all the dirt and dust from the dining room, and I was ready to go. The first step of laying down the foam underlayment (red stuff in the pics) went off without a hitch. Time to start laying some floor. We started with the dining room first, because it is square, unlike the rest of the entry area, with its crazy angles. By last night, I had finished the dining room, and, surprisingly, it looked pretty good. And I only cussed a few times in the process. Today began the more difficult part, and the part where I was certain I would be calling the nearest remodeling contractor after 30 minutes. But so far, it has managed to go okay, with only a few hiccups along the way. So far, I have not thrown anything, irreversibly broken anything, hurt myself in any way (seriously, how do you shoot yourself in the thigh with a nail gun??), or hired someone else to finish it. My dad should be so proud. But there's always tomorrow.


The dining room about halfway finished

Dining room is done!

So far, so good

This is far as I got today. A little slower going with all the angles.

Snow in Houston?

This is not something you see every day. It doesn't even snow in winter here, but here it is a full three weeks before winter and we got 2 inches of snow. So much for global warming. There were some huge freakin' flakes coming down almost all day. Nancy even got to leave school at noon. My boss is a hard ass and made us work all day. Seriously, the whole city just about shut down. My staff was even less productive than usual because they kept going outside to look at the snow. Half my afternoon appointments didn't show up. And we didn't even get below freezing or have any accumulation at the clinic. As you can see, we got quite a bit in Katy.




Shelby had fun

Our back yard

Front yard

Here are some pictures of some of our Christmas decorations. Nancy works really hard putting these up in late August, so I figured I would give her some props.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. On Wednesday night, we drove up to Lorena and had turkey and all the fixings on Thursday at lunch. Of course, we fit in a little bug hunting with Logan as well. It was fun to see all the family and Makinley, Brynna, and Logan. I can't believe how grown up Makinley is already. Evidently we did not take any pictures while we were there, so I have none to post. We left in the early afternoon on Thanksgiving to make it the game. The game itself did not go as planned, but at least we put up a fight. If we had even an average defense, we would be infinitely better as a team.

On Saturday, Doris and Paul, Brandl, Danni, Brooke and Tyler came to our house for a fajita Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun, of course.


Me playing airplane with Tyler

Tyler and Brooke

Brooke being a monkey

Brooke loves to play dance and freeze

Traveling (Again)

We have done a lot of traveling this Fall. Most of it has revolved around Aggie Football, which is one of our favorite things to do. It is sometimes maddening, occasionally exhilerating, frequently disappointing, but always fun. It is always more fun to root for a winner. But I truly believe that if you can be a true fan, even in the not-so-good times (i.e. the past ten years), it will make it that much more satisfying when the good times return.

Our Aggies have had their ups and downs this year. Since I last blogged, we have thoroughly dismantled Texas Tech (the armpit of the Big 12), dominated a lackluster-but-improving Iowa State team, and lost to a below average Colorado team. The team finally has some talent, has a bunch more on the way, and has shown glimpses of being a good football team. What we lack is consistency. But they are young, so hopefully that will come. We have three regular season games left: At Oklahoma, home for Baylor, and home on Thanksgiving for Texas...so we will see what this team is made of.

This weekend we traveled to Boulder, Colorado with Jeff and Celeste to watch the Ags. It is always fun to travel to other schools and see their campus, their traditions, their stadium, their nightlife, and their fans. Boulder is a beautiful college town at the foothills of the Rockies, and CU is a beautiful campus. We arrived in Boulder late Thursday night after flying in to Denver and spent Friday seeing the sights, doing a little shopping, and partaking of Boulder's food and drink establishments.

Saturday was the game. Folsom Field was just a short ten minute walk from our hotel, which meant we didn't have to find parking...which is always a plus. Our seats, as is common for the visiting fans, were not great. The Ags dominated the first half, but failed to put the Buffs away, and paid for it by letting them come back and win it late 35-34. Very disappointing performance, but not unexpected with this team.

We had a great time otherwise, and we are going to try to go to at least one away game every year. If the Ags don't kill me first.We've got one more trip in 2 weeks to Dallas for Derrick's wedding. Then we are going to finally get to see our families and nieces and nephews over the holidays, and of course do a little deer hunting.

A few pics:

Man-pri pants are all the rage in Boulder











Campus Building




Celeste and Jeff





Nancy playing in the snow, or what was left of it




Wish I had a fly rod



The gang




On the CU campus before the game




Nancy likes all the mascots, even Buffalo Chip





Folsom Field




Ralphie, the 1000 pound Buffalo, leading CU onto the field





This guy, in downtown Boulder, wants you to give him money to get inside a box that, frankly, I could fit in.





Nancy and Celeste

After the game. Everyone else had sense enough to change clothes for the 42 degree weather, but I was too busy pouting about the game.

The view from Denver International Airport

Weekend Off

This was the first weekend in a while that we did not have anywhere to go, so we just relaxed.

Last weekend we went to College Station for the OSU game. We tailgated again, which was a blast. The weather was a little better this time, although it never got sunny as promised by the Weather Channel, so it was pretty cold...and most of us were unprepared, garment-wise. In my short sleeves, shorts, and flip-flops, I persevered. The game was at 11:30 am, so we had a pre-game tailgate and a post-game tailgate. Two for the price of one, baby! Lots of food, drink, and friends made it a pretty good time despite the outcome of the game, which the Ags lost 36-31.

I am not going to discuss the complete and total egg the Ags laid yesterday at KSU. When you are favored by 5.5 and lose by 45, there is not much to say. Mike Sherman lost a lot of fans this weekend, and it is going to take a huge turnaround to get them back.

Nancy is going on a cruise to Cozumel with some friends this coming weekend. She is leaving Thursday, while I am still slaving away at work. I don't know how she can sleep at night. But I will get my revenge the next weekend, when I am at a bachelor party and she is at home.

For now, it's back to patchin' up puppies and kittens tomorrow, so my wife can afford the $10 drinks and the casino on her cruise.

Aggie Football in DFW & Tailgating in the rain

We flew up to Dallas last weekend in order to partake of the 1st Annual Southwest Classic, the yearly football game against Arkansas in the new JerryWorld (aka Cowboys Stadium). We had big plans for this particular weekend that included an awesome tailgate for the 4 hours leading up to the game, the game itself where we would show that the Aggies are back by beating a good but not great Razorback team, wrapped up by a wild night of celebration.

Reality 3- Plans ZERO

The tailgate started out well enough...good food, good drink, good friends and a good tailgating spot. Then the rain came. Tailgating is not near as much fun when you are huddled with 20 other people under a 10 x 10 canopy. We did manage to get a few games of washers in, and we still got our eat and drink on, but good weather would have made it a lot more fun. Derrick went all out on supplies, so it was disappointing that we didn't get to partake as much as we had planned (especially after the game). Oh well...this is likely to be an annual gathering, so it will get better.

We wrapped up the festivities at 5:45 and headed over to the stadium. We had managed to get a pretty good parking lot for our tailgate, so the walk wasn't bad. The stadium itself is awesome. You can definitely see where the 1.2 billion dollars went. It just doesn't have that feel for college football though. You can definitely tell it is a more sterile pro stadium.

The game itself started out great. Our Offense scored on two of the first three possessions, and our D played inspired, with 3 straight 3-and-outs. Out to a quick 10-0 lead, things were looking good, we had all already lost our voices, and the place was hoppin'. Then two plays changed the game entirely. Now, I know what most of you will say...how can I say that two plays were the difference in a game that ended 49-17. Well, up 10-7 in the first quarter, our most sure-handed receiver breaks wide open down the middle, JJ hits him right in the hands, and he drops it! That sure TD (no one was within 15 yards of him) makes it 17-7 and we are on our way to the shootout most expected. Instead, we end up punting. Then, later in the quarter down 14-10, Arkanses fumbled deep in their own territory and we recovered. On second down, JJ is sacked and fumbles, and the Arkansas linebacker picks it up and returns it 85 yards for the TD. Two devastating plays within 5 minutes of each other completely took all our momentum and all the wind out of our sails. It was now 21-10 and we would never recover as we abandoned our running game completely. I took the loss hard, only because I expected a better showing. Not necessarily a win, but a better showing. Our team never gave up though, which is a far cry from the "Coach" Fran days and last year. At least I can see some hope for the Ags and rebuilding our football program.

As we left the game and walked out of the stadium, we were greeted by 6 inches of water built up on the concrete and a torrential downpour. That same walk that was "not too bad" before the game, was absolutely miserable after the game, and seemed 10 times as far. By the time we got back to the tailgate, everyone was soaked head to toe, and no one was in the mood to party...so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

This weekend we are going to do it all over again. Only this time in the friendly confines of College Station. We've got our tailgate rations ready to go bright and early for the 11:30 am game on Saturday against a Dez Bryant-less OSU team. I think we win this one 35-31. That would almost make up for the big pile of cow dung that was last weekend's game. Almost.

Here are a few pictures from happier times early in the tailgate:

Me, Nancy, Tiff, Derrick, and Geoff

Me and Nancy

Derrick and his "artistic" apron