9/30/18 My Folks Visit, Finally?

    My folks finally came up to Austin, it had been a long while.  They arrived Friday around 7:30pm, and sorry, but I was busy at the time they arrived with installing a new TV in Javalina's room.  First off, we had tried putting off the TV purchase to coincide with his birthday next month.  It would turn on occasionally, if he waited and hour or two and tried again, it might turn on and work, sometimes, it did not.  This past week he told me he couldn't get it to turn on at all.  Lucky for him, Best Buy has these 65 inch TVs for $600 and they look pretty good, for the cost.  It is the first flat screen to go bad on us, not sure why, but that is fine.  We are even still using the very first flat screen, a 32 inch TV we bought for Boy when we still lived in the other house, it cost $600, but now it is hanging in our breakfast nook area in the kitchen.  It is the perfect size for the space.
    After hanging the TV, we said hello and decided we needed to go eat.  We went to eat at Mandola's Italian, getting there about half an hour before it closed.  I had started with Wife that I wasn't too hungry, we had eaten a snack when we stopped to get pan dulce, but the pizza I ordered was so good I about ate all of it myself, even though Wife and I were going to share each other's food.  Her shrimp scampi was just as good.  It seemed late, so we headed home after this.
    Saturday, I got up super early, as usual, and wrote my blog and sat around with my folks drinking coffee and conversing.  My dad was obsessed with the start of the Longhorns game, meanwhile I like to watch them, but if there is family or something else to do, then that wins.  We decided to take my mom and brother to Dimassi's Mediterranean for lunch.  It has Greek food in buffet form.  A lot of the food looks different and sketchy, but everything I have tasted there so far has been delicious.  I noticed this last time on their rice, they had a couple of cinnamon sticks laying on top and sure enough, I could taste a light quality of cinnamon in the rice.
    From getting up early and eating so much at 2:00 in the afternoon, I knew I was going to be lights out for a couple hours.  I got home, barely remember crawling into bed and I slept like a baby for about two hours.  I came down to try and watch the last of the Longhorns with my Dad, and I kind of did, but still fell asleep there in the guest room where he chose to watch the game.
    Wife and my Mom kept going, they went to several stores and came home looking for dinner around 8:00pm.  We tried going to Longhorn Steakhouse, but it was going to be upwards of an hour wait.  We then drove to Kyle and ate at Logan's and luckily, there was no wait.  I had what seems like a lame meal in that it was a salad, but it was just what I needed.  I washed it down with one of their blue vodka lemonade drinks and some water.
    We came back home and I got the chance to introduce The Good Place to my mom.  We saw about three episodes before we all fell asleep.  I then tried writing this blog, but only got as far as the first sentence and then just stared at the computer for another 20 minutes.

9/29/18 Too Many Outlets For Censorship Today?

    I woke up not sure what I was going to write about, then I open YouTube and there is Patrice O'Neal (RIP) commenting on comments made by some shock jocks (Opie and Anthony) and then followed by him again defending Imus after his infamous comments on the Rutgers team, calling them "rough looking", all tattooed I would agree, but then adding "nappy headed hoes" and that was bound to get a media response.
    If this wasn't enough, my buddy Yak Motley, has a new story about how You Tube is trying to demonetize any stories involving guns, and he believes that soon enough all gun related stories will be removed from YouTube altogether.  All I can say is what the hell is going on?  This is akin to the idiots in the 1800's burning books to prevent the message from getting out.  Comedians should not be taken in the same context as news personalities.  As Patrice was saying, a joke can come from anywhere and it is up to the comedian to guide the funny out of the dark material from which it comes from.  I have noticed the best comedy comes from dark places.  You can't make real funny jokes to entertain adults unless you are going to dig into some dark and uncomfortable material.  For example, it was funny as hell when Chapelle made a joke about being in a limo with a sketchy driver and before he knew it, he was in the ghetto and there was a baby standing on the corner.  He wanted to at once help the baby, but also feared the baby because it was like 3:00am.  It turns out the baby was a drug dealer (hahahaha), then the kicker was the baby saying "I'm trying to feed my family" (hahahaha).  When Dave said it, the room exploded with laughter and it was funny, but thinking of where it came from, yeah, it is some depressing stuff that ghettos exist and kids are exploited in this way to sell drugs.
    Back to attempting to censor nowadays, which is still barbaric in raw form.  The only place it really works is where the FCC rules and that is on the free shit.  ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX TV have to work and live by their rules, as do the radio stations broadcasting on AM and FM stations.  The same rules don't apply to XM/Sirius radio which is a private pay as you listen satellite system, there's Netflix and Hulu which are also private pay to enjoy outlets and many others springing up.  I think YouTube is going to get stupid at a certain point and an R rated version of it will appear allowing all the things it currently doesn't.  I have looked for things like naked women and other perverted stuff, not necessarily dealing with sex, and it is almost nonexistent.  Why?  Because conservatives get uptight knowing it exists?  You uptight perverts don't have to go out looking for it, just let it exist.  There was a time when I was very much against guns, they scared me more than anything, but I would never bitch that guns shouldn't exist.  Now, I hold a different opinion, with Boy having introduced me to them, I am more comfortable around them and I will probably buy me a handgun sooner than later.  If only YouTube leaves the videos up so I can look at the various tests people do independently of different brands and styles of guns.

9/28/18 The Best Time Of Year Starts?

    I love this time of year, especially with the 100's disappearing from the day to day forecast.  One can almost feel the days shorter and the nights starting to linger.  Add to that, we have been hanging out outside if only to watch my boy's football games, it has been really great with the weather working out in our favor.  My folks keep rescheduling for fear of rain and the flooding that can occur in San Antonio, somehow we have avoided the downpours and just gotten the cloud cover and nicer weather.
    To add to the feeling of Fall, I started decorating the house this week.  Usually, I start at the beginning of September, but I just didn't feel it at first.  This week, I said screw it, and instead of sitting around watching YouTube videos until I go to bed in the morning, I have been dedicating from about 8:00-10:00am to making the house look Halloweenie.  It all starts with the lights and that was kind of holding me up.  We bought a whole new set of lights last year that are supposed to be LED and thus don't get hot, change colors from purple to orange or a mix of the two in a flashing pattern.  I finally found them by just going through all the bins we have.  The bulk of the decorating occurs on our stairs, with the lights, followed by all sorts of spiders in sizes from small to jumbo and then some spider web to give it that aged look.  This year, I added a bunch of plastic babies and other creepy folks that we have been buying over the years.
    Last week, we went to the old Garden Ridge and bought a couple of inflatables for decorating outside, but nothing was on sale yet.  It is hard to justify the prices on some of these things.  I saw a big 8ft dragon at Home Depot, but it is going for $300 and that is a bit much.  I might buy it if I could get it for $120 or so, maybe the day after Halloween when they discount everything.  We always try to go and buy a couple things after Halloween at the Halloween stores, it is part of our fun and why we have so much stuff.
    I hesitate to put expensive stuff outside, one year some jackoff took our Christmas Snowman and walked it over a few houses and left it on an empty house that was vacant.  They must have thought of stealing it, then decided it was too much to walk with, Jerks!  Even though we got it back, I always worry about losing stuff to a-holes like this.  Still, Wife will put stuff out on the yard.  I mostly stick with stuff inside the house and maybe on the balcony, which I plan on doing this weekend, just in time to welcome October.

9/27/18 Small Took A Big Bite Out Of Bedichek?

    I totally feel for the kids playing their little hearts out, but their is no excuse, they just got outplayed I think 38-6.  Tonight was the third game for Javalina's eighth grade year.  I wish they could win a few of these games.  They are the same teams we played last year, but we lost a couple of key players, chiefly our QB1 from 7th grade who was a playmaker.  They have a decent quarterback, he can run, but there is no passing game at all.  They throw maybe 6-7 passes a game and I am surprised when they catch 1-2.  When the other team knows there is no passing game, they pin their ears back and just go crazy with blitzes and stunts, bringing everybody because it's not like the receivers are going to do much.
    Javalina was overused tonight.  I want him to play, of course, but he was in every defensive play as a defensive tackle, right in with the big boys, then this week he was practiced at guard and he played the whole game on offense as guard.  If that wasn't enough, he also played on kickoff returns.  I thought it was weird, but honestly, he was the only one with a sweaty jersey that you could see was a darker color because he was wet.  He was out for a total of two plays, the first one when they kicked off to start the game and after their lone touchdown.  Guards tend to pull and run off to block ahead of backs and he was complaining while we were eating after that he doesn't know the plays, yet he was getting shit for not knowing this.  That is on the coaches.  Like they say, when you win, you win as a team, but when you shitty, everyone likes to play the blame game.  I ask him every day after practice "how did it go?" "what's new?"  He never mentioned the move to guard.  When they were on offense, I thought it was him hiking badly, making the quarterback jump for the ball and almost causing a fumble in the first series, because he talked about being center, a lot.  Then we noticed he was not under center, which we thought was odd.  I also don't want to say the referees were cheating, but it seems every long play that finally looked promising got taken away with some holding call or some other crappy excuse.
    The only positive I can say is that the night was the first one of the year with a true cold front feel.  Boy and I were both seating there wishing we had brought a sweater or jacket.  Since they keep moving him around so much, I'd like to see Javalina play running back for a series or two, just to see if he can run with some runts on his back, it would entertain me at least.  I only mention this because he has run drills in practice with him running the ball, so maybe.

9/26/18 Javalina Thinks Keeping A Clone Is Like Having A Pet Turtle?

    I like asking Javalina about school because he loves to talk and will usually remember something to talk about.  He said today they were discussing what their opinions were on clones.  His opinion is that it would be great to keep a clone in some frozen state and if he ever needs organs, then he has a clear match.  He understands that this is an expensive technology and the only people who would benefit would be the rich, of course.  Then he said that there have been breakthroughs, like Dolly, the sheep cloned in A&M a few years ago.  That would cost about $140,000 to do a human with that technology.  My opinion is that it is not fair for a basically "human" to stick around for the sole purpose of replacing organs when and if I need them.  What if I die in an accident, the clone has to be destroyed too, would he have been in the trunk, just in case, it travels everywhere you go?
    Javalina says as long as he doesn't have to build a bond with it, he doesn't want to talk to "it" or cloth it or feed it.  I say that is not fair, it thinks, it breathes, yet you want it kept isolated, what a shitty way to be.  Although, what if it has heart (The Replacements reference) and it decides it is going to go for a run and read classic literature and pretty soon it is a better version of you than you?  Javalina didn't like the angle of this thought.  He still stuck to his guns and he would keep it isolated and dumb.  It would be worse than Dobie, no old clothes or nothing, just rags.
    I believe there was a book and a movie along these lines.  The clones ended up fighting back and escaping from a hospital or something.  What do you do when this happens and they go and commit crimes?  Is it the responsibility of the original or can a clone be charged with crimes.  At that point, they might as well be considered their own individual.
    I like that the boy will take a stand and support his ideas.  He says very few people will raise their hands and participate in class, which he says sucks, and it is usually him against another girl or two.  His thought on clones comes from a good place.  He worries about his grandparents and if they need organs, it would be easy for them to take them from a clone, with no worries of them matching.  As a motorcycle passed by, I said I like it the way it is right now.  See that idiot, that is somebody's organs eventually.  Motorcyclists love to speed and die, so we always have a ready batch of fresh organs without paying the $140,000 fee and raising another family member.

9/25/18 Javalina Is Thinking?

    We have been watching a few shows on Netflix, one of them is The Good Place.  It stars Ted Danson as an evil/demon architect trying to change things up in hell.  Four new shitty humans have just died and they have been convinced that they are in "The Good Place".  It takes most of the first season, but then one of them figures out that they are in the bad place, so Danson re-boots them trying to fix what went wrong.  It is his first time as an architect, so it is on him whether the whole fake community and acting demons in disguise as humans will work.
    The point though is that while watching this, Javalina has started thinking about a place like hell and he does not believe it could exist.  His justification is similar to mine, maybe it hurts when they peel back your skin the first thousand times, but how many times before that act gets old.  It's not like they can kill you again, you are already dead.  He doesn't think being in heaven would be that much better.  Would we still have to clean up after ourselves, if angels are constantly cleaning up around us, won't they get tired, so by now, there would have been a revolt and we would have to do it ourselves.  I told him I don't think you do anything but stare at god, in heaven.  All that I have heard is that you are in his presence and you never want to leave, so god must be like a lightbulb and everyone is just smothered around him or her for the warmth and love he gives, provided you have done as he commanded on earth, otherwise, you are f*cked, even though he loved you.  Javalina just said no with his head, not wanting that to be it.
    What about the point that Bill Burr brought up in one of his comedy things.  Not all your family is gonna make it up to heaven, how soon before you're sitting around do you whistle at Jesus and ask, "so, where is my brother who could never stop cussing?" and he replies "oh, lawyers automatically go to the bad place, but peace be with you."  "Hmmm, well that sucks, JC, but I guess, you da man."  If my true happiness is contingent on the people I love being around me, but there is no guarantee of that, I see that as another flaw.
    I know I will get blamed for "polluting" his brain with my thoughts, but I would much rather have a boy that questions things he doesn't understand and makes sense of them than believe he has all the answers in an old book and never ask any questions.

9/24/18 Proud Owners Of A Bouncing Baby 3D Printer?

    The weekend might have been a dud if not for Boy and his friend getting together and buying a 3D printer.  The two of them are trying to get a small company off the ground right now, where they would make 1.) representations of weapons carried by different characters in their imaginary worlds.  2.) with the 3D printer, they can now make nick knacks and other things up to a dimension of 10x12x23 inches high.
    Friday, we never got going to do anything.  Wife called around 5:00pm that she was on her way, I was picking up Javalina from football practice.  We did manage to go to the boxing place where he was taking classes for awhile.  We put his account on freeze through November, but I kept getting notices that I owed money.  After talking to a really nice girl there who I am sure could kick both our butts (that wouldn't stop us from staring at her big ole boobies), she said his account was ok because he was a minor, there was no charge.  Javalina was saying on the way over that he thought he was done with boxing, that he would prefer to focus on weightlifting after the football season was over, but the girl asked him "so, are you excited to come back to us in November?"  Suddenly, he was all "yes ma'am!!  I love boxing."  We both left floating like Pepe Le Pew, from admiring the boobs, I think we even high fived each other for the first time (aww!).  We then went and ate at The Crawfish Shack which we both really like and then back home to wait for Wife.
    Wife showed up with pizzas and chicken, Boy was busily working in his room on the computer and then in the garage setting up the 3D printer, which he is afraid to put in the house because the fumes can be carcinogenic and bad for you.  Over the last three days, they have had that printer working non-stop making different examples of shapes to test the tools limits.
    Saturday, we mostly sat around and watched the Longhorns play, our old neighbor stopped by for awhile.  After he left and as the game finished with all sorts of sloppy penalties, I took a light nap.  After waking, we went to Lowe's and bought some supplies for Boy's new endeavors.  I really wanted to see their Halloween spread, but they had already taken it down and are setting up for Christmas.  It was nice, Boy was with us, his GF has a cold or something, so we ate as a family Saturday night at Red Robin.
    Sunday was another lazy day.  We went to the old Home and Garden place to look at Halloween stuff, and Wife found some, but it is not what I was thinking of.  We ate again, as a family at Culver's.  I came home and took my quickie nap while Boy cut the grass in the front.  After I got up, I trimmed as much as I could until the battery died on me.  With the last few hours of sunlight, we went to Target to get some food for the week.

9/23/18 Texas Might Have Figured Out How To Win?

    Texas appears to be on a little bit of a roll now.  It has to be helping that the temperature is down and it has been maybe as cool as it is in their beloved bubble.  I have no doubts that if the weather was still in the 100s, like it is supposed to be, these boys would be melting.  As it was, it was a great day for football.  The weather stayed in the 80's through much of the game.  We all got up and hung out just here at the house with no particular agenda.  Wife heated up leftovers from last night, she had picked up a bucket of chicken and some Little Caesar's Pizzas.  I chose to eat some questionable cheese dip with ground up sausage and salsa from last Saturday.  I am writing this as of 11:30pm and I haven't gotten sick, so I guess the cheese dip thingy was ok.
    While watching the game, I got a text from my old neighbor dude.  This is the guy married to one of Girlie's aunts until about 8 years ago.  We hadn't seen him in a while and we texted for a bit then he asked if he could stop by.  I told him sure, we are always here and you are always welcome.  He was here for the 3rd and almost the whole 4th quarter of the game.  We discussed many things, and I thought it was nice to catch up.
    Meanwhile, I noticed in the game, that the defense is something to behold.  They are playing at a much higher level than the offense.  Even though the offense scored the points, much of those came from pretty good set ups from interceptions and 4th down stops.
    While our old neighbor was here, he asked why I didn't go watch the games at the stadium?  I told him I prefer to be home where I can watch in my underwear or while grilling.  I like the idea of watching on TV because if we miss something good, we get a review and they'll run the play over again.  When watching in person, you get one shot at seeing what is happening on the field.  If you look away even for a second, you might miss a crucial play.
    In the end, the score was 31-16 against another ranked team, TCU came in ranked #17.  Last week, they beat a then #22 ranked USC.  I don't know that they are ready to be ranked themselves, but they do seem to be going in the right direction.  Maybe they have made the right choice in going with Ehlinger as QB1.  He seems very natural and comfortable in the pocket and when he takes off, he is thick enough to take some punishment at 6'3" and 230 pounds.  I still find it curious that even at that height, he seems like a little guy next to his linemen, who must all be in the range of 6'5" and above.  Keep doing what you're doing, and Hook 'Em!!

9/22/18 Can You GoToo Far?

    If someone comes at you, can you go too far insulting them back to the point that you feel bad for the original bully?  It seems that my favorite Spanish rap artist, Residente, of Calle 13 was verbally attacked by some other rapper and he came back at him with a generic rap first, but then a very personal 12 minute attack that hit him everywhere.  You can find reaction videos to stuff like this and I found a few and they are helpful in understanding what certain phrases or words mean.  I mean I can talk and understand Spanish well enough, but there are some words that just sound foreign, like bisturi which means scalpel in English.
    I thought it was funny in the 1st reaction video which the guy was expressing opinions of "ya, lo mato." (with that line, he has killed him).  He said it about 3-4 times and then realized he was only three minutes into the video but the video lasts 12 minutes.  At this point, he started changing his opinion with a "yes, Residente is better at this, but he is coming across as a bully.  Once someone is dead, you are supposed to respect the dead.  He said something like Residente basically murdered the bastard, then dug him up to murder him again, and piss on him to boot."
    I don't necessarily agree with this, if someone is being a chihuahua and nipping at my heels and you can be a German Shepherd, then it is his fault if the bigger dog tears you up.  This "song" was not a comeback, but a lesson.  He insulted what he was where he came from, what he thought, how his belief system was less than.  Then he "corrected" him, saying rhinos do not live on Mt. Everest (I believe the other guy rapped this), told him how it was wrong that him and his fans spelled gente (people) with a "j" (they sound the same in Spanish), went into how he was like his grandma, got a switch (tree branch) and whipped him like a little boy.  After giving him a lesson about the difference in revering gangsters and thugs that tore up their respective countries like Pablo Escobal versus good men who helped push for constructive change through song, like Ruben Blades, and a list of others, he goes states the History lesson is over.  I will now break it down for you simple like in kinder garden, I will use the vowels.  He starts with A, rhymes for a few lines in each vowel until he gets to U.  It is a work of art, to me.  That he goes at it for over 1,900 words makes one say wow.
    Now, if the taunt came from a child or someone with mental difficulties, then I would agree, you can go too far.  We must give the less fortunate leeway and not aim to destroy them, it would not be fair.  But if a grown ass man wants to talk shit and he is put in his place, then he deserves it.  As a spectator, this was nothing short of brilliant, it has existed for about a year, I just found it and I have had a blast looking at it and slowly translating the words, the names of the individuals (America has put a lot of "dicks" in power over the years), and enjoying how he puts phrases together.  Bravo!

9/21/18 Sold Last Of My Magical AMD Stock?

    I finally sold all of my AMD stock earlier this week.  I thought I had sold all of it last year when I decided $13 was about as good as this old dog was ever going to do.  I have had these stock certificates hidden in books for almost 20 years.  They have been worth between $400 and almost $20,000.  There was a day or two when the famous Athlon came out that the stock was valued at $96 a share, but I got greedy, thinking it would do what the other tech stocks were doing, which was growing and splitting in unstoppable ways.  Sure enough, not long after, we did not meet some numbers and the market turned against us and we went into a freefall all the way down to around $2.
    A couple years ago we started getting ourselves out of credit card debt and I used what I thought was all of my stocks to get me around $4000.  It felt nice for a day or two, selling like 300 shares but it quickly went to pay off Dillard's, Best Buy, and several other smaller accounts.  A couple months ago I got an e-trade letter and it reminded me I had some shares done electronically, 76 to be exact.  Wife is dead set on going to Disney this summer, I just want to get out of these freaking medical bills that Boy caused for us (the jackass is still coming home with scratches on his arms from the freaking GFs cat).  We managed to pay off all the smaller ones of $48, $49, $75, even $800 from Austin Regional Clinic, and the ER doctor's bill of $392.55.  The one big one that was feeling like rape was the one from St David's at $3114, for being there about 6 hours  (the jerks didn't even figure what was wrong with him, but I digress).  I called and complained that the bill was ridiculous, the lady, with a straight face said well the total bill was $12,500 something.  Your insurance paid the rest.  I still say for what?  He sat on a bed that is used nightly, nothing magical.  we were charged by the doctor and individually for the cat scan and spinal tap, so how do you justify $12,500?
    Anyways, they did reduce it down to $1,800, our part, so there is that.  I told Wife I'd give her half to save for Florida and the rest was going to pay down the balance.  At one point, I had plans that the stock money was mine and I would use it for a down payment on a $60-80,000 boat, you know, cause I deserve it.  But no, responsibility will always shake you down first and take what you tried to hide.  Oh well, at least it has been on a great run and even though I was going to settle and sell them for hopefully $13 or so, like the other shares.  I timed it just right and sold for $31.  This will help pay medical bills and fatten Wife's grubby paw for our summer vacation.  It sucked balls last year not going anywhere.

9/20/18 If We Only Had Some Offense?

    Both times, our boys have come out striking like killers in the first series, only to play the rest of the game as if they already lost.  The start of the game kick-off was a swift kick to the gonads.  The receiver started running before the ball was in his hands, had to run back to get it, then got tackled behind the 10 yard line.  It seemed impossible, but on 4th down and 9, they went for it (on their own 7), and the running back busted through a hole and went about 93 yards for the opening touchdown.  Great!  Except for the next kick-off, the Murchison Matadors did the same thing, they ran it back for a touchdown.
    The following series or two was the same, minus the touchdowns.  At some point, Bedichek was again on 4th down and long, inside the 2 yard line and they went for it again.  This time they got caught in the endzone for a safety.  Apparently, they can punt the ball, because that is what they did after the safety, only to have the same guy #44 run it back all the way for another TD.  It was a very frustrating game, and they scored this way, it's not like the defense was even on the field.  I am partial to defense, because that is where Javalina resides now.
    As an offensive lineman, he had the right mindset of waiting for an attacker and going for him, or if in a running play, go this way and clear a hole.  He has had a harder time understanding that on defense he is his own playmaker.  He has the strength to disrupt a play once he believes he can do it.  It appears it took watching the Waterboy to see some wicked tackles and the intensity I want from him, but he turned it on in the 4th quarter.  #44 was on his way going around the edge and Javalina usually runs behind the play if only to help the guys get up after the fact, but this time he had an intensity and seemed even quicker.  From the nose guard position, he chased the back about 25-30 yards, caught him by the hips and spun him out of bounds.  It was the best play he has had this season, followed by the next play in which he ran over the center and caught the running back in the backfield, wrapped him and just fell over for a good ten yard loss.  I keep telling him, once you grab someone, fall, no one is stronger than you to overcome your 250 pounds.  The rest of the game he was double and triple teamed at the line.  Our boys managed another score in the final minute, so the score of 12-28 does not seem so bad, overall.
    After the game, talking to Javalina, he said it felt like something overtook him, like it wasn't him doing the tackles.  I think that comes from going Beast mode, which I hope he can dig down and get there sooner.  He did say he kept having flashes of Waterboy and tackling savagely throughout the game.  I've been jokingly calling him Amos Moses because most of the time he doesn't run, he moseys which I find annoying, but he says "hey, at least I don't stop and walk, I keep going."  He found that magic tonight, I think.  We have to wait until next week to see.

9/19/18 Recapping The Weekend?

    I usually have more to say about our weekends, but since I worked Saturday night, the weekend just kind of got away from me.  The plan for the weekend was simple, my folks were going to come since they hadn't come the week before, but again there was a lot of rain in the forecast, so we figured we would just stay in.  We went to HEB Friday afternoon while Javalina was still in football practice and got snacks and junk food for some serious movie watching.  I already mentioned watching Waterboy and The Replacements.  I had started watching Atypical at work Thursday night and after I talked Wife into watching an episode or two, I just continued letting them play.  When I watch stuff at work, I always miss out on watching some scenes because the work takes my attention here and there.  Anyways, I stayed up until 5:30am to see both seasons, then jumped to the table to write whatever blog I wrote for Saturday.
    Saturday, we slept until 4:00pm, I figured the more sleep the better, since I was working.  Wife is probably just tired from driving back and forth all over Texas it seems sometimes.  We had promised Javalina that we would eat at Crawfish Shack there in Southpark Meadows.  He loves the Cajun fries, I love the catfish and shrimp po' boys and their fries.  We then left and I came in to work right on time, about 6:30pm.  My only other plan had been to watch the Longhorns, but I was sure they were going to lose, so I figured it was better to make money, given the choice.  Surprisingly, the Longhorns did manage a win, which I should try to catch on the Longhorn network.
    Sunday was rough, I am no longer a spring chicken.  I got up around 2:00-3:00pm as Wife had just made some eggs, sausages and Canadian bacon in muffins.  She was nice enough to have a cup of coffee brewing as I walked into the kitchen, but it did not do much.  They were arguing between watching more episodes of Atypical or watching The Good Place.   I honestly laid there with them, but I was more asleep than awake.  Of course, when Wife said she was going to bed at 9:00pm, that is when I finally felt ok to be up.  I washed a load of clothes, put away all the clothes we had washed over the weekend, and decided to go to bed after watching a couple episodes of Beachfront Living.  I went to bed at 3:30am or so, but got up at 4:50am to walk Wife out to her car and help her carry her bags for another week of fun.  I don't mention Boy much because he is all in love and dating, so he is hardly around

9/18/18 Atypical? (Netflix Series)

    I have to admit that I loved this series.  It is just perfect, I don't know what Netflix is doing, but most of their programming has been high quality, totally worth the cost of admission.  This series is about a family going through life with their son being autistic but high performing.  We pick up as Sam, the protagonist with a touch of autism has become obsessed with the opposite sex, as we all do, around 17-18 (well us beaners start much younger, about 13-14).  Part of his therapy is seeing a therapist who happens to be young and cute as can be.  He, of course, over time falls in love with her, and that arc goes through a couple episodes before he adjusts himself.  He has a mad obsession with Antarctica and everything related to it, starting with the penguins.  He relates everything in his head to Antarctica somehow or other.
    The funny is in his interactions with the world.  He is brutally honest, he does not have societal filters which make people say things carefully or not at all, he just blurts out, one girl for example makes out with one guy and then the next day she is with her "boyfriend".  He goes up to the guy and asks if he can give him pointers on dating a "skank" who has no trouble making out with different guys.  He also has a younger sister who has his back and protects and watches over him in her own way.  She does tend to bully him in a sisterly way, never to be mean, just to keep him on his toes.
    Another great character is his best friend who he works with at an electronics store.  Zahid knows everything about women and he is only too happy to help get his friend closer to boob land.  At one point, Sam realizes he can't have sex with his "practice girlfriend" until he sees boobs, so Zahid, having a cousin who manages the food at a titty bar, attempts to take him in.  Sam cannot handle the lights and music, so he runs right out, but after explaining to a stripper his problem, she gives him some advice and then flashes her boobs at him.  He is left mesmerized, it was awesome.
    He has a "practice girlfriend" so he can figure things out as he gets closer to attempting to date his therapist.  He starts dating this little rocket of a girlfriend.  She is a total type A and she starts figuring out what and how to help Sam, she is perfect for him, although a little overwhelming.  They have their ups and downs but overall, they are good together.
    The one messy relationship is the parents.  The dad is played by Michael Rapaport who I have always liked, and the mother is Jennifer Jason Leigh.  The mother is a mess, she has been consumed by Sam, but now he is trying to outgrow her and she is having a hard time finding her new role in the family.  She starts an affair with an idiot bartender and only makes things worse for herself.  The mom is the one character that is hard to like throughout the show.  The dad is doing the best he can to connect with his son and as he is interested in girls, Sam finds himself needing dad more than mom, for advice.  This doesn't help mom any as she feels out of place every time she tries to help.
    Overall, the show is awesome.  The sister is struggling with the notion that she is really good at track and now a private school wants her, which is great, but will cause her to leave Sam alone in the public school they go to.  He insists he doesn't need her anymore, and does well enough, except when he gets overwhelmed, occasionally.
    I liked it so much, I stayed up Friday night until 5:30am watching the first two seasons back to back.  Wife liked it and has been watching 3-4 episodes at a time.  Even 13 year old Javalina couldn't leave the room, he got caught up in it.  To top it off, Boy left in the afternoon and came back late.  I was talking to him about school and stuff and casually asked him what he was up to and he said they were watching this show called Atypical.  I said "no shit, we've been watching it all weekend."

9/17/18 Thought For The Day #2?

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.  If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

-Albert Einstein

Like I said, I need a little break now and then, this is another thought for the day from one of our most celebrated scholars.  Einstein is synonymous with genius, which no one would dispute.  A little known fact is that he was dyslexic, a trait shared by some of the greatest minds the world has seen, da Vinci was also believed to be as well as Thomas Edison.  

    As a youth, the idea that Boy had this "debilitation" put a world of fear in me.  I thought maybe we would have to support him all his life.  It turns out, dyslexia can be a positive thing.  I would never say life can be easy for them, but there is a thin veil of beauty in that as we have been told, they see things differently and I believe this is where their genius comes from.  For all his trouble reading simple paragraphs, Boy can turn around and apparently is having good success writing computer code as he continues working on his degree in engineering  He chose to quit his job at Alamo Drafthouse because he has an internship with a tech company where they have told him they want him to stay on indefinitely until he gets his degree.

    When life gives you lemons, as they say, we make lemonade.  We cannot reboot or ask for a do-over, we must play life as it comes to us.  

9/16/18 Longhorns Can Win?

    I had to follow this game online as best I could because I was at work on Saturday night.  I have to admit I was not excited about the idea of these Longhorns going up against another quality program, but luckily, USC is still also in a rebuilding phase.  From what I read and heard, they were starting a freshman QB and we have a QB with roughly one year of experience.  Looking online the first chance I got, the score was looking bad, as the Trojans were up 14-3.  That just smelled like a blowout was looming as the night progressed, so I didn't look for a long while.  The next time I did, the score was in the Horns favor in the 3rd.  Apparently, they scored 13 points in the 2nd quarter and another 21 in the 3rd.  Somehow or other, they came back and did not allow them another score for three quarters.
    I like that they now have a 2-1 record, that loss seems a little weird, but they still have a long way to go.  Last week, they went completely limp in the 4th quarter and Tulsa almost came back to win that game.  Even if I didn't see this game, I can notice that they again did not score in the 4th quarter.  Are they so out of energy towards the end of games that they have a hard time finishing?  I blame that freaking bubble then.  These are Texas boys playing in Texas.  They know our humidity, they know our weather.  If all their training is done in there with little orange mitts and burnt orange earmuffs and maybe the trainers are bringing them little cups of cocoa with BEVO shaped marshmallows, then somebody needs to kick the coach right square in the ass and get these boys outside sweating, like my Javalina does, on a shitty field with thorns where he gets cuts and bruises from the field as much as from the competition.
    Don't get me wrong, I am an alumni and I love everything Longhorns, but I believe those boys need to practice out in the humidity and heat or whatever the weather brings.  I mean nobody listens to me, but those boys will continue to be mediocre until someone gets rid of that poor excuse for a building.  It is one of the ugliest things you will see driving on I-35 through Austin.  Just saying.  But at least for this week, congratulations boys, you scored another win.  Keep them coming.

9/15/18 A Javalina Friday Night?

    I am usually open to do whatever on the weekends, but if we can stay home and do the minimal, well, that just sounds like the bee's knees.  So it goes, Javalina suggested we make a movie night for Friday night and sit and watch some football movies.  For this exercise, I chose The Replacements, one of my favorite movies (come on, it's got strippers, fat guy jokes, and Keanu Reeves, what's not to like?) and Waterboy, which I will agree that it is a stupid Adam Sandler movie, but also funny in its own silly way, specially for a 13 year old.
    Our boy had to stay for football practice until 5:00pm, so luckily, Wife got home a little before that and I decided to go to the HEB before and get some food so we could just come home after picking him up.  We got a couple of big pizzas from their deli section up front and they were actually decent tasting.  I was in the mood for nachos, with the Velveeta cheese, morning sausage, ground beef, and tomato pieces, along with some avocado slices.  While at the store, we also got some sodas and other junk food, like cookies and chips.
    As soon as we picked up Javalina from practice, he started up trying to get us to take him to Crawfish Shack and Oyster Bar, which as I have said, we both love, but Wife can't come around, she just don't dig it.  We got out of it by promising to go tomorrow, we shall see if we carry thru.  We had a car full of wet groceries, it rained about as hard as it ever had while we started paying for the groceries.  I didn't want to be late to pick up the boy and with the heavy downpour, it was going to be a matter of minutes when he called that practice was cut short.
    As soon as we got home, it stopped raining, which is good but we were still soaking wet.  I started the movie and the oven a couple minutes later.
    We started with The Replacements, normal kinds of funny.  Javalina loved the scenes involving the big linemen and Jon Favreau as the crazy tackling linebacker.  I will admit, I fell asleep towards the last 15 minutes of the movie.  By then, I had eaten like 4 slices of pizza and some soda and the sofa was so relaxing, I zoned out.  We took a little break to pee and stuff, but we went right into The Waterboy, which is on Netflix right now, and it was a much faster paced movie, with stupid shenanigans keeping us going.  I kept telling Javalina I wanted to see him tackling like Sandler's waterboy character, which throws himself with no abandon into taking down people.  The tackles themselves are a thing of beauty.  It was nice to hang out with the boy sitting next to us for a couple hours.
    Boy occupied himself with his friends, at one point he was counting hundreds of dollars on the island, which for a minute I thought he was going to give me another couple hundred bucks like in the summer for his car, but it turns out, he has been saving money, along with his friend to buy a 3D printer.  They found a guy here in town selling his, so they were going over.  I did not like this idea at all, but it's not like he involved me.  I told him not to start flashing the money out until he saw the printer, and it would be best if they could see it working for a bit.  He said "I know, I know" the required number of times, and they left.  He had it later in the evening, and he said he ran it for them, but they did not use it as they are ordering more filament and trying to upgrade it somehow.  I am slightly interested as to what they will come up with with this new "toy".

9/14/18 Running Around To Find An 18 Year Old Movie?

    We were talking to Javalina about some of the funnier football movies out there, wondering if he had seen them while we saw them.  I know I've seen The Replacements about 5-6 times, it is really a cool movie, I don't care that the masses laugh at Keanu's acting abilities, I always enjoy his movies.  To my surprise, Javalina has not seen that one, nor any of the others, so we had suggested that we should choose a night and watch a few of these movies, if anything so when we make a reference to them, he knows what we are talking about.
    This week, he decided that we should sit Friday night and watch some movies.  I like to be prepared, so I went to our collection of movies and of course, I could not even find the case for Waterboy, I did find the case for The Replacements, but it had Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer inside instead.  I looked for that case, thinking I might get lucky and they just got flip-flopped, but no luck.  I did manage to find Rudy, which is another really great movie, but it might be too serious for a 13yr old.  Being the dad that I am, I went to Half Price Books to see if they had the movie, and they did not, but the store on Lamar did.  After we picked up the boy from football practice, we drove over there, and I was able to buy a brand new copy for $4.99, still wrapped in plastic, The Replacements, that is.  Waterboy is playing right now on Netflix, so I did not bother looking for that one too hard.
    If we get past those three, we have Any Given Sunday and then we can go old school with the original Longest Yard and the remake.  We have quite a bit of movies, although now we have stopped buying for the most part.  Boy still likes buying them when they come out promising extra scenes or even like the 4K versions.
    We are expecting another wet weekend, so the idea of sitting around watching movies and eating junk food doesn't sound so bad.  My folks did say they were coming this week since they didn't last week, but if there is more chance of flooding in San Antonio, then it might be another week of postponement.  What would go better with the movies but some super nachos with a ton of cheese and meat or Wife was suggesting some frito pie with some hot dogs.  We shall see what the weekend holds for us.

9/13/18 A Belt To Support My Number One Baller?

    I hate weaknesses that can be overcome with a couple bucks.  I don't know how my two boys can be so different.  Boy never saw a material thing that he won't say "yeah, I could maybe use it, let's take it."  Javalina is totally the opposite.  We got him two new sets of tennis shoes that each  cost over $100 so he could look cooler than usual, so what does he prefer to do?  He mostly wears the pair we got him at Academy for $50 last year.  I know there's nothing wrong with them, but Boy would have lost those already and moved on to newer and better things.
    As the start of school neared, Javalina got all excited because football was starting.  I told him no BS this year boy, we are getting you football cleats and I want you to wear them every day to practice and especially on game days.  He agreed only after a year of realizing that basketball shoes do not work on damp grass or artificial turf, still, when we went to Dick's Sporting Goods, he went with the "cheaper" Under Armour" $59.99 pair when I was trying to get him to look at the $129.99 Nike cleats.  That is all good and well, until now.
    Last year, his pants seemed short of material in the back, his ass would not fit in the pants, yeah, he is blessed by a big butt, but it should fit in the pants, I think.  This year we told him you better bring home pants that cover that big ham of an ass or we will go in there and talk to the coaches ourselves.  He did as he was told, and came home with what he said are XL size pants.  The problem now is that they didn't seem to have a belt, so last week I was trying to buy him one of those baseball belts, figuring we could make it work.  He froze, got pissy, complained, and fought us all weekend about going to Academy.  Then we got the shit show on game day, him acting like his pants were going to fall every single play.  As soon as they were between plays, he'd be fidgeting pulling the pants up, like his shoes were pulling them down.
    He was like a different person after the game, mostly mad at himself for playing "bad" according to him and the pants "might have been getting in the way".  All I can do is look at him sideways because I have seen the pant fight all through his practices.  To top it off, we went today and the stupid belt exists for football pants, in black or white and it was only $2.99.  I was pissed inside because this little belt could have helped so much, but dragging this boy to get the right things can be hard dragging this knucklehead.

9/12/18 Lamar Scotties, Three Girls To Zero?

    Javalina and the boys were back on the field once again.  Everything was perfect, except the score.  I got up a little late, at 5:15pm and quickly jumped in the shower.  I looked outside and it was raining kind of hard, so much so, that Girlie had said she was going to join us, but backed out thinking we were going to be sitting in rain and she didn't feel great.  I showered and got the call from Wife that she had gotten on the road at 4:00pm.  She cut it close, as it takes her about three hours to get back to town, but she managed to get to the game with 1 minute remaining on the 7th grade game.  I gathered my Frogskin (a waterproof poncho), a towel, a camera, and my fancy stadium chair I bought a couple weeks ago and headed off by myself.  Boy, surprisingly called about half an hour before game time and he made it in on time too, with girlfriend in tow.

    I still hate that they sit all of us on the same side, leaving our boys on the opposite side with no people to cheer for them behind them, it doesn't seem right.  On a positive note, the skies opened up and I could not ask for more perfect weather for a football evening.  I saw on my phone 76 degrees at kickoff, with a slight breeze, and the grey and thunder clouds painting beautiful mosaics in the sky as it darkened.  Our boy played a ton, I want to believe he is one of the leaders, as he says.  He played kick off return, nose guard on defense, and in the 2nd half he even played center on offense.  I wish his pants would have been part of his ensemble, as he fought those freaking things all afternoon.  For some reason he doesn't have a belt and they keep wanting to come off, so almost every second he wasn't playing, he was pulling his pants up, like those idiot hood kids who walk with their pants below their asses and then have to pull them up to take a fast step.

    The most surprising thing for me was that the other team had three girls on the team and they actually played.  Two of them were out there as defensive backs, and the other came in and out various times.  I find this quite dangerous, for them.  There is very little chance a girl is going to accelerate and crash into my son and hurt him, but one of the faster boys could turn a corner and knock one of these girls out, some impacts even at this grade level make one say "ooh".  I know we are in a stupid period of political correctness that is nearing a sway back to normal as it has gone on too long, but just watch, one of these girls is going to get really hurt one of these days, boys break necks and arms, when it happens to a girl, it is going to be a travesty and the media will shit over itself to tell us how dangerous football is.

    Regardless, I concede, even with the girls, the other team played better, they tackled better, they played as a team, they deserved the win.  I was very happy on how Javalina played as center.  Center is one of those "no excuses" positions.  When in the shotgun formation, you have to hike the ball five yards behind you, watch for defensive linemen in your face and even linebackers and ends blitzing which you also have to take care of.  He did not screw up any of the snaps and was quite comfortable on the offensive line.  He needs more "animal" in him on defense.  I really think he is scared of hurting people.  Too many times when there was a pile forming, or the play slowing down in front of him, he would not involve his 250 pounds, which can always help the team.  I want to see him dive on fools, not to hurt them, but a heavy boy falling on you might make you think about going his way.  He did get burned badly on one of the last plays where the QB came and bounced off him and kept going for a score.  He said all game long, they would run away from him, and when he came at him, he was surprised and could not grab him from anywhere, so he slid off.

    First thing tomorrow, I need to go find him a belt he can put on those football pants so he can quit screwing around, I had told him before, but he is such a weirdo.  He kept saying no.  Now that he saw how much the pants affect him, now he is mad we hadn't done something about it.

9/11/18 Changing The Sheets To Prevent A Murder?

    I mentioned last week going to JCPenney to buy new sheets for our bed.  The truth as to why I have had to tear the last three sets is because they come to life after awhile.  I have figured out the secret to bringing things to life, totally by accident!  You have to spin three times in place and then while chanting some magic words which I shall not release, fart ever so beautifully, like you ate a saucepan worth of beans and your sheets will come to life.  I keep telling Wife this is cool as the sheets hug us at night and keep us extra comfy.  Hey, they even help while doing l'amour, that's why I am so quick nowadays.  Nothing like your sheets going whack-a whack-a in your ass crack to make you feel alive.
    The problem comes when it is time to wash the sheets.  I go to remove the fitted sheet and the flat sheet actually attacks me.  It takes the pillow case and uses it like a towel whip.  This last time I had it cornered, I was taking much abuse, but I put on my jacket so I wouldn't feel the little whips from the pillow case on my arms.  The sheet managed to kick me as it struck a Karate Kid pose and got me in the chin.  As I fell to the bed, the fitted sheet, fitted itself around me and told me "don't do it, Fat Boy.  You know soap and water is our enemy."  I said, sorry, but Wife says you two getting funky with the BO and ass smell (I don't smell anything, I think Wife is jealous of our love).  They complained for another half hour saying it was my fault, I could go back to taking two showers a day, I agreed, then they suggested I could put on more clothing, that's where I put my foot down and said no!  I promised them that I would bring them back to life as soon as Wife headed back out of town, they just had to keep it on the down low when she is here on the weekend, and you have to let her watch whatever she wants, its just on the weekends, that seems fair to me.
    If we can't live in harmony, then you might become the fourth pair that gets torn, we wouldn't want that, would we?  That seems to have sunk in, they behaved admirably the last few days.  But shh, don't be a tattle tale, I don't want this getting out.

9/10/18 Relaxing Rainy Weekend?

    We were supposed to have my parents visit this weekend, but then my Mom called that they weren't going to come because of the forecast of heavy rains over the weekend.  Too many times, when we have heavy rains, it floods in many parts of San Antonio and they have to pass through there to get here and back home.  She said maybe they would come up next weekend, we'll see what the weather is doing.
    Because we expected bad weather, as soon as Wife showed up, we went and well picked up Javalina from school, he had a headache and weird rash/scratches on his forearm.  Because Boy had the weird typhus call, we decided to play it very cautiously, but by the next day it was apparent that the arm was just scratched, probably from a tackle on that dry grass, still, we picked him up and headed to go get some food for the weekend.  We wanted to have plenty of food if we got flooded and had to stay home all weekend.  We had eaten Taco Bell too before we stopped at HEB, and that left us pretty full.  We had some frozen lasagna and other Italian stuff to put in the oven, but we decided on finishing all the leftovers instead.
    I showed Wife a movie I had seen during the week as soon as we got home, before she got on her never ending shows, and while we watched it, we heated up tenders and Boy had half a burger in the fridge along with some chicken parmesan and pasta in a separate container, Wife had plain old sandwiches.  We ended up going upstairs and once in my room, I get sleepy quick.
    I was probably asleep by 9:30pm, then woke up at 5:00am, Saturday.  I did finally nap at 11:00am to about 2:00pm, waking up just in time to help Javalina do his Geometry homework, his headache was gone and the scratches were not intense red, but a fading collection of little bumps and scratches.  Wife got up briefly at 8:00am to throw a brisket in the oven.  It cooked slowly until game time, for the Longhorns playing at 7:00pm.  There wasn't much to do but watch other games and nap until game time.  While I watched TV, Wife was on the computer and we have been having a hard time printing from her laptop, which is the one we keep on the kitchen table.  It has the Wi-Fi connection and the printer is right there two feet away in the pantry, but it never wants to recognize it.  In the 2nd quarter Wife said she was having trouble, so I told her let's go to Best Buy, you get a new cable and that will solve your problem.  We had one, but we also have two knuckleheads which touch everything, so I don't know where it went.
    The brisket and sausages were great in tortilla tacos.  We did manage to run to the pie store in Kyle and got some personal sized pies too.  I ate all of the lemon and half the pecan, they were delicious.  What else to do after a big meal of brisket, sausages and potato salad, not to mention homemade pies on the side?  I slept on the sofa, didn't really even watch the end of the game, but that is alright.
    Finally woke up Sunday to some strong rain coming down.  Honestly, Sunday was super lazy.  I got up, wrote a blog at 8:00am-9:00am, went back to bed at 11:00am, woke at 3:00pm, ate leftover brisket and sausage, then back to bed to watch TV and nap.  Finally got up at 5:30pm and we sat around for awhile, but we did nothing much.  It was very nice.

9/9/18 Not A Cop Out?

    Lately, I keep using stupid movies I watch on Netflix as "filler" and I know some of them are lame.  It is hard to always have something fresh to say, but I really like the idea of writing at least a few words every day.  When I have something to say, I can put one of these blogs together in 20 minutes, but there are some nights I just stare at the empty space for hours, I fall asleep on our kitchen chairs, risking falling over which until now I have caught myself a few times.  I am writing this Saturday after writing Saturday's "sermon" type which came about from discussing this with Wife.  I am also going to do some real short ones like post a quote and give it an explanation, if it needs it, or maybe just what it means to me, maybe even a song title which y'all should listen to if it has a good message.

"Don't Try Your Best, Try My Best."

This is one of Adam Carolla's best quotes.  Too many people give you a half ass effort when asked to do something and then they just shrug it off with an "I did the best I could."  It is kind of tongue in cheek and cute, but there is a lot of truth in it too.  People that are successful always seem to get shit done, they do it and don't utter nonsense afterwards.  People that aren't will try a little bit and then throw up their hands and give you the "ughh, I gave it my best shot."

9/8/18 Lesson From Facebook?

    I am not religious in the least bit, but I love stuff like sermons that can teach one a lesson.  A couple days ago I was scanning through Wife's Facebook and came upon something I hadn't seen before.  It was probably copied from something else or paraphrased by the person who put it there, and I am not taking credit for coming up with this, I just can't go back and try to find who the author is, but it was something like this. (I found it online, did not want to screw it up)
  

I ask, “If I’m holding a cup full of coffee and someone bumps into me, what happens?”
You answer, “Coffee spills out.”
You are right.
I then ask, “Why did coffee spill out?”
You’re most likely to answer, “Because you were bumped.”
You are wrong.
The reason coffee spilled out is because coffee was in the cup.
If lemonade, tea, or any other liquid had been in that cup, that’s what would have spilled out.

The bumping is simply the catalyst to reveal what was tucked inside.

To that, you have to consider, when life bumps into you, what will come out?  We can't help it, but all of us encounter unsettling/uncomfortable situations throughout life.  Does stress make nothing but poop come out of you?  

Do you understand that life is nothing but a game of chance and that for all the precautions we can take and safety measures, eventually life deals all of us a bad hand.  I still say we must consider ourselves lucky (most of you would prefer "blessed") that we live in a time when we do.  As a society, we can respond to ugly car crashes in a matter of minutes because of technology we have created where we all have phones.  We count on our human heroes, the firefighters and 1st responders who many times risk their own lives to save strangers and try to keep them alive.  We should thank the engineers that create the tools these guys use, stuff like  "jaws of life" to tear open a car or portable defibrillators to resuscitate someone.  Everyone is quick to thank God when an ordeal is over, but I rarely see the "Thank you" to the real gods, the doctors who work anonymously in those cold hallways we call hospitals.  Prayer doesn't fill them with knowledge.  These men and women study study and study more (it takes over 10 years of medical studies to call yourself a doctor) so when they are called upon, they do what seems the impossible.  When life bumps them, they give you nothing but knowledge and what seems like magic.  

In our daily lives, we all piss and moan internally when "that idiot" cuts in front of us, let them.  Give them the leeway that they need, don't let your "spilled coffee be anger and stupidity".  Too many times on YouTube I see people try to teach someone a lesson after they speed by.  Why?  Now you are speeding and being a "dick" too.  Let those annoyances go, don't let trivial stuff ruin your day, we only have so many, save your energy for your loved ones.

9/7/18 Premature (Netflix)

    I have been watching a lot of movies lately on Netflix due to how my job works.  I spend half the night getting samples prepared and then the other half stuck on a chair in front of a tool running samples.  There is nothing else to do once I sit, so I go through a movie or two unless I am really into something on YouTube.
    Premature was another teen movie of kids finishing high school and getting ready to move on to college.  This one was cool because it was like a mix of Groundhog Day and American Pie.  The main kid has an interview to Georgetown University which he hasn't realized he is only doing it for his parents.  Before he knows it, he is pulled out of his routine and hanging out with his best girl friend.  The resident hottie has been getting tutored by him and she suggests he come over to her house for an impromptu study session.  When he gets there, she admits she has had a crush on him for a long time and starts undressing.  She gets up real close to him and starts going for his crotch.  As soon as she starts massaging him in all the right places, spurt.  His orgasm is the reset button as he figures out after a couple of scenarios.
    After awhile, he stops caring about getting dressed for the interview and just wants to figure out how to stop the madness.  At a certain point, he starts figuring out who he is and what he needs to do instead of being a machine that just pleases his parents.  Alan Tudyk plays the recruiter from Georgetown and as always, does a hilarious job on a nothing role.  He plays it up and makes himself part of the funny.
    The shenanigans are in full swing as we see him go from smoking a little weed, to picking a fight with the boys volleyball team, to beating up (or trying to) his 4th grade bully, and going as far as feeling up the boobs on a teacher who just seems to have too much going on under her blouse.  He manages to save himself by getting to an orgasm and resetting his day each time, as embarrassing as that moment is.
    He starts going crazy because he is stuck in a loop, he decides he is cursed and takes it out on the goofy neighbor of his best friend who is a girl.  They go to his house and the grandma is from the old country, or something, she has a creepy vibe and basically attacks the kid.  I was unclear if she attacked him to give him the curse or attacked him because of the curse.
    In the end, all he needed was to figure out who he really wanted to be with and not screw around too much.  Georgetown would be a great school, but maybe not for him.

9/6/18 Why Must Bi-otches Fester Over Everything?

    Over the last couple of months I have been following kayaker on You Tube.  He is great, most of his videos have been focused on catching fish in bays and even out a couple miles into the Gulf in his kayak.  He lives in Pensacola and through his videos makes me wish I lived there.  From the kayak fishing to the beach where they regularly fish and just all around hang out.  He has a girlfriend who he has never made the focus of his videos but obviously he hangs out with her most of the time, so she is in the bulk of the videos.  She is cute without being a showoff, she plays the sidekick very well.  If she is in the video, she smiles and makes a comment about  where they are at, usually good stuff.  I would say 98% of the comments from viewers are positive, so great.
    After watching a video today, I was looking through the videos for additional information of where they were at or something and I came across an obviously confused woman who has too much time on her hands.  Bitch, go clean the house with your negative energy.  Or my new favorite, "eat some make-up, see if you can get prettier on the inside!!"  Anyway, she was going on about how the guy is "using" the girl to increase his views and that maybe someday she will come to her senses and realize she is being used.  That the guy is too selfish to get married and won't, so she is wasting her time.  This was totally out of line with all the other comments, which stay on track about the fishing or whatever they are doing.
    Why do 2 people have to be married on paper?  It is just to protect the woman, maybe give her an edge when she decides to take his stuff.  Can't people just be happy that people get along peacefully and lovingly without going in with your surgical knife to dissect what is wrong with them?  He is called selfish, and I say so?  I am a selfish a-hole, hardly ever "worship" my wife, but in my need to do this and that and the other, I only want to do those things with her by my side.  If I go boating, I want her there, if I go to Disney, it is because we are going together.  She has made life more interesting and fun, but we are all individuals.  I am not responsible for making her life "shine."  Wife has a mouth and tells me when she doesn't like something, she is an intelligent individual, I assume the girlfriend is in the same boat.  She appears to be happy spending lazy days fishing on the beach, that can't be enough for more of y'all?
    Y'all women that think you should be worshipped must have been dropped on your ponytails when you were young or you've smelled too much hairspray, there's holes in your brains.  I've never met a wife that was worshipped that appreciated the acts done by the man, so no, that is not a good idea, ever.  And no, my wife is no pushover, she is actually a huge "ballbuster", but we  have a very good balance here, going on 30 plus years together.

Good Kids (Netflix)

    Good Kids is another fun little movie I found on Netflix last night.  It focuses around four friends who have just about finished their high school time and are days from going off and starting their college lives.  Instead of getting drunk and being stupid, they have been the good kids, never gotten in trouble, all four heading to great schools, but yet, they feel incomplete.  They decide they need to get the monkey off their back that no one has really invited them to any of the parties that kids have.
    One of the kids, works as a tennis instructor at the area country club.  Now that he is 18, some of the women decide he is good enough to take care of more than their backstroke.  He needs money to get his Indian girlfriend over here, while his friends are positive that he/she is catfishing the friend.  Their luck changes when Lion, the friend into Karate gets invited to a private party on an exclusive island.  They realize they too can have a good time partying.  They end up going to more and more parties almost going to far, but they get it back together.
    The tennis instructor gets found out by one of the husbands and he tells the other ones, so it looks bad for the one guy, but of course, this is a kid's movie.  I don't want to give the end away, but I thought the movie was cute and that there is a lesson to be learned.
    It is not all tests and volunteering, party a little, it will help you assimilate with strangers.  Apparently, everyone likes to party a bit, drink a beer, play beer games, and act the fool once in a while.  Without these skills, you will have a harder time fitting in.  I liked when the tennis guy had a 1 on  1 with the party guy.  The party guy said basically we never didn't invite you, y'all just exiled yourselves.  The parties were always open to anyone who wanted to come.  I don't know if that is true for any party, but I always felt this way.  If someone did not expressly invite me, then why would I show up and possibly disappoint some people who didn't want to see me.  Anyways, I enjoyed the movie.

9/4/18 Labor Day Weekend?

    I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself for keeping up with Wife's car.  In the last two weekends, I have installed new tires, she got the first set up to a little over 70,000 miles, which now that I think of it, sounds like a lot.  Still, when I went to Discount Tire, only one of the front tires was in the dangerously thin section of wear, according to their charts.  I figure, if these new tires can give her about the same, then that should get us to four years.  I don't know if she'll keep the car with that many miles, but currently she does love what we have affectionately been calling the butt plug.  There is just something to its look, where it is simultaneously cute but boxy, too small, but big enough for the job.

    After doing the tires, she mentioned it seemed low on power.  I thought maybe it could be the gas filter, it has given us problems on the Excursion.  When I asked the guy at Advance Auto Parts, he said if they didn't carry it, it would be inside the gas tank and not meant to be cleaned regularly.  He did suggest the spark plugs should be changed as often as every two months, shoot, we hadn't changed them since we bought the car, two years ago.  He was able to look up the right part number based on the engine size.

    I brought them home and then started doubting myself that I could do it.  I looked at a couple of YouTube videos showing how to do it and it actually seemed very easy.  Sure enough, it all went smoothly until the last plug, on the far right.  It seems trapped by another part that has two hoses going to it.  I figured how to take the wires off the coil, but that didn't help too much.  I found another person online asking for the same question and the guy who did the video responded that it will come off just by forcing it out, and it did without breaking it.

    After the spark plugs, I filled her washer fluid reservoir with new fluid solution and even added a gas cleaner to the fuel container, in case she has some water in it.  I feel pretty good about doing all this, but I still had a gameplan to finish my backyard patio.  Maybe this week I will get my chance.  It is a short week, work wise and my folks are coming this weekend.

9/3/18 Rest Of The Weekend?

    Once I accepted the fate of our team, the weekend was much better.  We went to the mall after deciding we were running low on sheets for our beds.  Maybe my feet need a pedicure, but I have cut through about three fitted sheets with my feet, I guess the dry skin is out of control because of the Crocs.  Anyways, I told Wife we might as well go buy some a couple sets, we do have four king size beds in our house and I do change the sheets anytime someone sleeps over.  By having extra sets, I just have to remove whatever is on the bed and instantly put on a new set.  The dirty one then falls in with the dirty clothes but there is no rush to wash them.  We got lucky in that JCPenney had a 50% off sale.  We bought two sets for the King beds and one for the Queen bed in Boy's room.  For some reason, he seems to prefer the crack addict lifestyle and usually sleeps like he doesn't own sheets for his bed.  It really bothers me that he lives like an animal.  He has enough computing power in his room to run an airport or a small army, but he can't keep his nice clothes on hangers, he can't keep sheets on his bed.  At some point, he thought pallets would make a nice platform for his spare twin bed which is more of a sofa, but we finally said no.  They didn't match, he didn't paint them.  I don't know if at 24, I should still be going in and de-cluttering for him, but his room seems to overwhelm him, I think.
    Anyways, Dillard's was having a great sale of an additional 40% off stuff already on sale.  I managed to get another 2 polo style shirts that are normally $70, two T-shirts, and even a pair of shorts that normally sells for $60, all for $63.  I thought it was such a great deal, I didn't even charge it.  That was about all we could muster, so we left.
    The plan was to go to Pappadeaux, we haven't had a nice meal in a long time.  Out of nowhere, Javalina suggested maybe trying the Abuelo's restaurant next to the mall.  We have been going to the mall since I moved up here in 1991, and I had never eaten there.  It just looked like the kind of place that overcharges and gives you mediocre food, plus it is loud and crowded because it serves people from the mall.  We figured it was close, both Pappadeaux locations are on the other side of town.  The restaurant was actually pretty on the inside, the waitress was quick with the chips and drinks, the prices were a little on the pricey side, but not crazy.  It turned to shit when the family of Mexican idiots walked in and sat on the table next to us.  The two guys were laughing like they were on their horses out on the back 40, fucking loud fucks.  Use your inside voice when the restaurant is half empty.  Take cues from the others.  There were three or four other families around us and it felt like we were eating alone, then these "compadres" come in and they might as well had megaphones, fucking goons.  The fajitas were also a little sparse.  I could swear the fajitas for two got mixed with a serving for one, but we made the most of it.  Javalina's plate with pork loins wrapped in bacon looked like a quality plate.  Mexican restaurants should also know about tortillas and they should have a little crispiness as they are burned on the "comal".  This place seemed to microwave their tortillas.  We might try this place again, but the fools sitting next to us have to go sit outside, I hate loud asses indoors.

9/2/18 It's Gonna Be Another Long Year?

    Wife wanted to go here and there yesterday, on Saturday.  I was more like 'yeah, after the Longhorns game we'll do whatever you want." The Longhorns were supposed to play from 11:00am until around 2:30pm.  I got up at 7:00am, did the husband/wife thing for a few minutes, then got up to come downstairs.  Javalina was already up and I offered him donuts, to come with me to get some at the corner donut place.  I had meant to change the spark plugs on Wife's car, so I thought I should get them to do that, as well.  I went upstairs to get my shorts and wallet and told Wife our plans.  She had planned on sleeping until the Longhorns game was over.  This gave her a new mindset, now she wanted to go have breakfast with her boys.  We got dressed and went to Bill Miller which was way more packed than normal.  We go in there about once a week, and usually we are there alone or with maybe another table or two having someone.  Today, there must have been a full house, most of the tables had people on them.  We managed to find a table, and ate a big breakfast before 11:00am.  I had a plate with brisket, eggs, beans, hash browns, and pancakes.  Wife had a couple tacos and some pancakes, Javalina had a couple tacos.
    We got back home just in time for the kickoff at 11:00am.  Right away, it felt like the Horns were not in control.  I know it sounds elitist, but the Longhorns are supposed to be a superior program.  We are smack in the center of Texas and that should allow us to choose the best football players in all of Texas, as Austin is about a 3-4 hour drive from most anywhere in Texas.  Add to that, the school made $215 million, tops in the Big 12.  Maryland, meanwhile is 2nd to last in the Big 10 and barely made $94.9million.  They are also up near Baltimore and New York, not exactly known as a region that produces football players, shoot, most rosters from any state have a few Texas kids on them.  Oklahoma sometimes manages to steal a third of their teams rosters from Texas.  How about OSU in 2016 with 70 of their allotted ~105 kids from Texas?  Just saying, Texas is loaded with talent, more so than most other states, except maybe California.
    As soon as I noticed Maryland taking over, my full belly took over and I napped, seeing only about half the 1st quarter.  Wife called me to come lay in bed, she knew I had fallen asleep sitting on the sofa.  I slept through what would have been the whole game, but the football gods put a rain delay in the game of almost 2 hours.  I woke up at 4:00pm or so and the game was just starting the 4th quarter.  Maryland ran down the field, scored a field goal to go up by 5.  Perfect, if Texas could rally and make a long slow drive in about 6 minutes, they would win with a TD.  Nope, QB1 threw an interception.  The defense was stout, stopped Maryland right away, Horns got the ball back, now they had 4 minutes, if they could muster a TD, they could still win.  Nope, the running back fumbled the ball.  The defense stopped them again, they punted and the return guy even brought the ball back to almost midfield.  Come on guys, two minute hurry up offense!  Score 1 TD and you win.  Nope, QB1 threw another interception.  I'm sorry, but at some point try another quarterback, what do you have to loose?  If you don't give them playing time, they might leave to another team and then there you will be.  A freaking +$200 million program with no real reason to be worth that much.  I don't know why they still make that kind of money, it has been almost ten years since the McCoy era.
    Go get in your bubble and tell us the excuses why a dinky program from the north has beat your sorry asses two years in a row?  This is supposed to be a practice squad to work out the kinks, not a yearly swift kick in the ass to remind you, your shit does indeed stink.

9/1/18 Javalina Volunteered To Be The Tip Of The Spear?

    I love the fight in Javalina.  Last year, he was playing tackle which is either lineman on the end, not including the tight-ends, but a few guys have left, so he volunteered to be center, which is the guy in the middle that starts each play by handing the ball to the quarterback.  I fear the center position, there is no upside and the only thing you can do is either play it perfectly or screw up.  Playing it perfectly means you can get the ball to the quarterback in every down either from "under center" where the Quarterback is directly behind the center and for lack of better language, has his hands right up in the center's ass.  The shotgun position, which is played 5-7 yards behind the line of scrimmage was originally used for quarterbacks who had lost a step and needed a little more spacing to be effective.  This formation has actually become more normal and now it is used a lot in college and is favored by quarterbacks who are very fast to see the field and decide whether to keep it or hand it off to a running back.
    But back to Javalina, he must become adept at both styles, since they are generally used interchangeably throughout a game.  If he does well, it will just be "well, that is what a center is supposed to do."  But if he screws up multiple times, there is no one else to blame, maybe the quarterback for having butter fingers.  We will work on it at home a bit, at least it'll be something we can do together for awhile.  He brought a football home, so we will be practicing on it sometime this weekend.  The only thing of course, I just talked to him, is that he has a bruised shoulder and I'm thinking it might be a good idea to let the shoulder rest a few days.  He showed me the hiking procedure and stupidly hiked the ball, just letting it bounce off the walls in the next room, luckily he didn't break anything.  I go "hey, don't actually release the ball, Fool of a Took."  He said "I didn't know I was."  I chuckled as I can tell the boy is drained, they are practicing five days a week, and even today, being Friday, they were out there until 5:30pm.
    I guess if this goes well, it would be a good skill to be good at.  It seems that at the higher levels, the linemen are always getting shifted around from position to position when someone gets hurt.  I just read that because the center "has an ideal view of the defense, he typically makes the first line call."  Because the center must know so much, they are typically the most intelligent of the offensive linemen.  Knowing this, I kind of think maybe Javalina should be the center.  This boy though, like he doesn't have a big ego already.  He likes to say he is the strongest player on the field against his teammates, now if he starts thinking he is the smartest, his helmet may not fit him by the end of the season.  Rumor is that games start not this week, but next, week, Sept 12-13.