Weekends

Our weekends this fall are going to be pretty busy. We have one weekend before December where we do not have something planned. It's either a football game in College Station, an out-of-town football game (we are going to watch the Ags play Arkansas in Arlington at Cowboy Stadium and we are going to Boulder to watch them play Colorado), or wedding stuff (Derrick is getting hitched and also having his bachelor party this fall. Both on home football game weekends, I might add...since this is a happy time for him, I will restrain myself from killing him).

Two weekends ago, the streak started with Carrie, Nick, Logan and Brynna coming down to spend the weekend. We had a great time, although it rained the whole time they were here, so we didn't get to go swimming or to the Splash Pad. We went to Rainforest Cafe, which Logan loves. The kids got balloon animals made for them while we were eating and got to pick out a toy (or three) at the gift shop. We also went walking through the mall and got a Great American Cookie, played on the playground (where Carrie clotheslined a 5 year old kid to the ground), and played video games. We also burned up our leftover sparklers from the 4th of July. Logan enjoyed that for about ten minutes...then it was time to hunt bugs.

That is the kid's current obsession. He finds something he enjoys and goes all-out. First it was balls...baseballs, bouncy balls, nerf balls, it didn't matter. Then it was Star Wars. Now it is bugs. He is perpetually creating bug habitats out of tupperware bowls and leaving them all over the house to fester and rot with the carcasses of any insect or spider who dared show itself to him, along with mud, water, grass, sticks and mushrooms. Good times. There is also a pair of his dirty underwear apparently hidden somewhere in our upstairs. We have not found it yet.

Then Mom and Dad came to take Nancy out to dinner for her birthday and spend the night with us before her appointment on Monday. All her tests came back good, by the way.

Brynna and her penguin balloon animal

at Rainforest Cafe

Logan doing something weird, I'm sure

Brynna loves Shelby's toys

Logan and his turtle balloon animal

Carrie getting her eyebrows "threaded" at the mall

Nancy, either acting goofy or trying to take a normal picture and accidentally closing her eyes (she does that a lot)

Nick, Carrie, Brynna and Logan

I then spent the week hurredly building a cornhole game for our tailgate party. Cornhole is a beanbag game smilar to horseshoes or washers. In my research to find some plans to build a game board, I even found out there is a National Cornhole Association. Go figure. I spent the week staying up until all hours of the night building this thing from scratch, and finally got it done on Friday, the day before our tailgate. The only problem was that my custom-bought cornole beanbags did not show up before Saturday, despite my paying extra for rush delivery. So our plan B was to buy a cheap knock off beanbag game available at Bed, Bath & Beyond, use the beanbags, then return them after we were done. Worked like a charm, although the beanbags were a little lighter than the real thing, and filled with tiny plastic beads instead of kernels of corn. Oh well, it was better than nothing. Here are the boards after I finished them:

The tailgate was awesome. We rushed to College Station after I got home from work on Saturday morning and met everyone at the parking lot. We don't usually tailgate, just because there are only three of us that make it to EVERY game (well, when there's not a wedding ;)). We usually just hit our favorite local watering hole before and after the game, since it is within walking distance. But this time, Chad and his fiancee' Tabitha came down from Oregon, Brian and his bro and Jeff C and his wife all came in from San Antonio, and there was, of course, Nancy, Jeff, and I. We drank beer, cooked venison burgers and venison sausage, played a little cornhole, and drank some beer. Oh yeah, we also drank some beer. Then it was off to the game, where the Ags won...so it was a good day all around.

Then bright and early, Nancy got up and went downstairs at the hotel to eat Ramada's Texas-shaped waffles. These waffles are quite literally her favorite part of the whole football game weekend, and the entire reason we stay at this particular hotel. Then it was back to Katy to watch the Texans beat the Titans and clean up the ridiculous mess I made in our garage building the cornhole tables.

Oh yeah...last week Nancy also got in a wreck. She was turning into our neighborhood when some jackass decided to pass her, on the left, at a high rate of speed, while she was turning left. Thankfully, no one was hurt, although it scared her pretty good. That was last Wednesday, and she finally got a rental car from the guy's insurance company today...since her car is not driveable. They should be able to fix it though, since Ithink it is mainly body damage. Here is a picture:

This weekend, we have a football game too. But I am also going to San Antonio for a continuing education conference. I'll be skipping out on work Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sounds like that would be a good thing, but I hate leaving for that long and trusting a relief vet I have never even met (my normal reliefinarian could not cover these days for me) with my business, clients, and staff.

Finally, I just want to wish a Happy Birthday to my incredible, beautiful, wonderful wife. Who is now only one year younger than me...for a couple of months at least.

Football Season

I'm so glad football season is finally here. There is something about this time of year that just makes me happy. I am also blessed with a wife that not only lets me go all over the place watching football, but actually gets as excited about it as I do. And she puts up with Jeff and I on an almost weekly basis, which I promise you is no picnic.

We went up this past weekend to watch the Ags play New Mexico. We actually won handily and looked like a real Division 1 football team. Things are slowly but surely looking up for the Aggies. We might actually be a factor in the Big 12 South within the next few years.

The next game is on September 15th, and instead of hitting the usual watering hole before the game, we are tailgating old school style. We haven't dusted off the tailgating gear in several years now, so it ought to be fun. I'll make Nancy take some pictures and I'm sure we will have plenty of good stories. So I might actually blog again soon. Crazy, I know.

Did I mention that I love this time of year?

Prayers

Nancy's Mom is having surgery this morning (Thursday), so keep her in your thoughts and prayers.


****UPDATE*****
Surgery went great. I won't post the post-op picture Nancy sent me.

New Truck

Okay, so that wasn't really the new truck I got. I don't think that truck is really my thing.

Here it is:

My New Ride

My truck was 7K miles past the warranty running out, and it started to hesitate getting into gear, as well as make a few funny noises. So we decided I needed to trade it in before it petered out on me. We ended up getting a pretty good deal on a new one...and Nancy cleaned my old truck really well- so it fooled the guys into thinking it was in good condition :) So they actually paid ME for it. We were afraid we may have to pay them to take it off our hands. It has been a great truck, and despite some really BAD luck with it, I loved ol' Blue.

When I bought ol' Blue 5 1/2 years ago (9 months out of vet school), my Dad went with me, since it was my first car purchase. The first place we went, Planet Ford, was less than friendly in general, and the salesman was a real ass. I told him what I was looking for, and he came back with their "deal", which happened to be a lease. Upon hearing the terms of the "deal", my Dad bangs his fist on the table angrily, stands up, and yells to the salesman, "You can do better than that. Damnit, he's a DOCTOR!" And with that, he stormed out of the showroom into the parking lot. There I was still sitting there at the little table with this salesman, trying to figure out what just happened. I stood up kind of sheepishly, looked at the guy and shrugged, and followed him out the door. We ended up going to Lone Star Ford instead.

The new truck is a little flashier than ol' Blue, but we like it.

The new truck:

Back in the Saddle

I am finally getting caught up after missing 4 days of work. 4 days doesn't seem like alot, but you would be surprised at the number of phone messages, computer problems, staff problems, and drama that can pile up in that short amount of time. Luckily, there was nothing too serious. Nancy is glad too, since I told her on our way back that if there were any disasters while I was gone that we may never go on another vacation.


Like I said before, Costa Rica was awesome. I didn't know much about the country prior to our visit, but we were thoroughly impressed. Our original plan had been to go to Mexico, but it made some of our friends a little uneasy to go there with all of the drug cartel stuff going on. So we decided on Costa Rica. For those that don't know, it is a tiny country between Nicaragua and Panama in Central America. It is a fairly mountainous country with alot of jungle and farmland as well. We stayed at the Occidental Grand Papagayo Resort on the northwest Pacific coast, in the province of Guanacaste.


We flew into Liberia, a small town in Guanacaste...a 3.5 hour flight from Houston. We met Derrick and Bjorn (friends of mine from vet school), Bjorn's wife Devin, and Derrick's fiancee Tiffany at the Houston airport. D and Tiff flew in from DFW and Bjorn and Devin from San Antonio. The airport in Liberia was interesting. It was very small, with open-air and no AC. Our plane did not pull up to a gate, but instead had portable stairs right down onto the tarmac.


We realized soon after our arrival that Nancy's leopard-print suitcase did not make it to Liberia. So we had to go through all the red tape of reporting that to Continental and waiting on the rep to make a copy of my passport...which took almost an hour. Needless to say, the ten other people who were riding on our shuttle to the hotel were getting pretty irritated b y the time we finally left. One crack whore even suggested to the shuttle driver that he should leave us in Liberia. Luckily, we got it all straightened out and our bag arrived at our room later that night.


The resort was very nice and all-inclusive. Basically that means all the drinks and food you want are included in the deal, so you don't pay for anything while you are on the resort. Needless to say, we took full advantage of both food and drink, and got our money's worth and then some.


We spent alot of time just relaxing on the beach and in the pool. It was great to catch up with good friends who we don't get to hang out with nearly often enough. And unlike sometimes when a group of people go on vacation together, there was no drama. It helps that all of us are pretty laid back individuals.


We also rode some jet skis, rode four-wheelers through the jungle, and went on the previously mentioned "Canopy Tour"...another name for ziplining. Bjorn and I did not particularly enjoy the Canopy Tour as much as everyone else did. In fact Bjorn quit about 1/4 of the way into it. I stuck it out for some unknown reason. It wasn't necessarily the fact that we were 100 feet off the ground that bothered me (well, maybe some), but it just wasn't very enjoyable to me. Everyone else, besides the two of us, enjoyed it alot. Here a few pictures of my first and last ziplining adventure. You will notice Nancy is smiling and I am not.

Despite that insane, uncontrolled, near-death experience... it was a great vacation, with great friends, in a beautiful country.

Some random observations about our trip:

• Our Bubba Kegs were the envy of the resort. While we were lounging on the beach or in the pool, sipping on our drinks out of these gargantuan, insulated cups, all the other guests were drinking warm beer out of small plastic cups, with constant trips to the bar. A couple of us even sold our Bubba Kegs to other guests before we left.

• A guy, who we named Frank, was the only one who seemed to have a problem with our drinking vessels. Frank was a cross between the gay guy from the first Survivor and Vlade Divac. He stared at us constantly, making snide comments to his grotesque wife (who we named Bertha...a cross between Grimace and a large, wrinkly beach ball), and acting like a total dewshbag.

• The shuttle drivers in Costa Rica would make good kamikaze pilots. The trips in the van made the zipline look like a siesta. Daredevil passing on two-lane narrow roads, nearly driving off the side of the mountain, and a blatant disregard for ALTO signs made this the most dangerous part of the vacation.

• When in Costa Rica, it would be wise to find the air-conditioned lounge area BEFORE spending two nights sitting outside in the open-air lobby with its 124% humidity and breastfeeding Europeans.

• Devin is going to find some interesting, possibly slightly graphic, photographs on her waterproof disposable camera she brought.

• Derrick is the sunset Nazi. Do not even think about leaving until 5 minutes AFTER the sunset, which is when every seasoned photographer knows you get the best shots.

• Bjorn (The Sexual Manatee...don't ask) was stung or bit by something while we were in the ocean. He will still be complaining about this horrible wound at his 1-year-old son Gavin's high school graduation.

• Just below ziplining on my "future things to do" list is eating sushi. If you force me to try it, I will then vomit it up. Once bitten, twice shy.

• Non-American males have a strong desire to accentuate their boy parts for everyone by wearing speedos. Really tight speedos.

• They actually make thong bikinis in size XXXXXL. Who knew?

• We witnessed our first Caribbean-mullet. Business in the front, braided reggae party in the back.

• The Grand Papagayo does not, nor will it ever, sell a shot called a Costa Rican Car Bomb...no matter how many times Bjorn asks for it.

• And finally...Full glasses of liquor do not stand up on angled, beveled table edges. Derrick learned this by accident. Then while trying to demonstrate what caused the spill, he spilled drink #2. You had to be there.

Costa Rica

We made it back from Costa Rica, after a far-too-short vacation. We had a great time, and I will write some more about that tomorrow...when it's not past midnight.


We flew from Houston to Liberia, Costa Rica on Wednesday and flew home today. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort called the Occidental Grand Papagayo. Here are a few pictures of our resort:


































































A Costa Rican Sunset:

















Nancy's favorite view:


















Me, about to display some mad snorkeling skills:






















There was a whole lot of this:

















Group picture, from one of our more civilized moments:

















On the Canopy Tour (which is another name for careening at 400 mph to your near-death, way too high in the freakin' air, with way too little holding you onto a cable tied between two trees):


















Looking civilized again, at dinner:

















The crew on the beach:

















During the ATV Excursion

















After a great time riding ATVs through the jungle:

















Some hottie I found in Costa Rica:

We were sad to have to leave:

The Liberia, Costa Rica Aeropuerto. Open air and no A/C.