Checking in from Paradise

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to say "Hello". Mark, keep your chin up dude. I have no doubt that you have the tools required to accomplish anything that you set your mind to. You're right, stress sucks big green donkey dicks. Now let's talk about me. We are having a blast! I will give a complete review when I get back complete with pics. This is the best vacation that I have ever been on. Better than Hawaii. In addition to the Aquadog, we have been to Schlitterbahn twice, played on the beach and have eaten like pigs. Well, gotta go. We have a sandcastle building lesson in an hour, then Rebekah and I have a spa session this afternoon. You guys have to come here.

We also saw Shrek 2 last night. One word. AWESOME. 5 out of 5 beers. Full review later.

Peace out!!

Hit the beach

Mark, I once saw a slogan on, of all places, a bumper-sticker. It simply read "let go - let God." I confess that although I am good at talking that game, I am not the best in the world at doing it. It's hard to do, after all. You're like me in that you worry too much and you try to control all facets of your life. As for any advice I have for you, all I can say is pray for wisdom, try to prioritize and do your best.

If shit still blows up, fuck it, you did your best.

I know this is pithy and isn't the thoughtful post that yours deserves, but it's getting late here in Mobile and Erica is going to fly into New Orleans in a few hours so I need to making my way to the door like 15 minutes ago. We're going to be doing Memorial Day on the beach at Gulf Shores.

Hope everyone has a great holiday and I'll be checking in again next Tuesday. J-man out!

Friday...and I'm feelin AAALLL RIGHT!

To the dudes:

It is a beautiful Friday afternoon and I'm putting a bow on this stressful week. Rob, I hope you're having a good time in Padre, and on the Aquadog thing. I checked out the website... All I can say is I hope they tightened the lugnuts on that sucker before you put my nephew and niece on it. It kind of looks like something from Beyond the Thunderdome!

Anyway, I'm sure you all can relate to this, but DANG I have had some back-knot inducing stress lately. I guess its because of all the many tasks that need to be done to breathe life into this market. From cold-calling agents to shopping around for a dumpster, none of these tasks are any more or less important than the others and they all need to get done. This and keeping up with my normal estimates, followups, and job-starts have caused a few greys to poke through my scalp and a few knots to well up under the skin on my back.

Stress sucks and it is a joy-killer. I don't know about yall, but when I am stressed I start to get down on myself. I start on with "Why can't I get all these things done? Why can't I do them in the time they 'should' get done in? I'm not that good..." yada yada yada...CRAP!!

It is crippling when each thing that needs to get done has a blinking red 'urgent' light flashing in my mind, with a beeping alarm, and they are all going off at the same time! Where do I start? Can yall relate? I'm sure you can.

Let me share with you why I don't feel it anymore: This, I believe, is where God says "Dude, do you want some help? Know this: whether or not you complete those menial things, I love you. You are wholly acceptable to me. Be at peace and get rid of the guilt, because you can't control everything. I'm the one in control. Just do your job, one thing at a time, and don't worry about it.

Things will eventually get done, and there will be more things to do after that. No big deal. Just have to do what you can in a day, then clock out until tomorrow (because it WILL be there for you when you clock back in)

I just thought I'd share this with you. I hope I didn't make any of you uncomfortable. Christianity is hard to talk about without sounding like the Church Lady (thanks Dana Carvey!).

Ray Finkel . . . and a clean pair of shorts

Boys, this mean looking sumbitch is called the A-10 Warthog. It has a gatling gun in its nose that can turn a tank into confetti.

I was driving on I-10 earlier today when one of these bad boys flew over the freeway, so low I could read the numbers on the tail. Boy oh boy, if I were a bad guy and I saw one of these coming at me with bad intentions, I'd be a fudge factory . . . assuming I lived to tell about it.

Me & my cutie

Took this one too.

Me & my lady

I took this before I left for Alabama this weekend.

Now that Robbie's gone, we can talk shit about him!

Rob, if you outlive me you may chisel "painfully longwinded" on my gravestone. Actually, that was one of the ideas for the title of my memoirs but, as I'm already up to page 3,506 and am still not even up to high school I am beginning to despair of finishing it. Anyway, glad you enjoyed my pretentious observations and I hope you and the fam have a good time in Padre.

Mark, "Abre tus Ojos" was a Spanish movie that used a PKD short story (I don't remember the title) as the chassis for it's plot. You're right that "Vanilla Sky" was a remake of it. When I say that it was a close adaptation, it was so more in spirit than in substance. The weird imagery and ending were pure Philip K. Dick. As for your problems posting from a Mac, just email the photos to me and I'll post them. That way, you can go into "edit posts" and add a title and text to them.

About Lynch, I never said that I loved his movies. He's made one movie that I loved, "Wild at Heart," and another I liked, "The Straight Story." I HATED "Lost Highway," despite the fact that it had real hot girl-on-girl action. I used to really like "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet" but those movies have aged like Whitesnake songs, i.e., not very well.

Well gang, I'm in Alabama again and will be here for 2 weeks. Since I will be busy, posting will be light from me. Also, I learned a lesson about how it's not always wise to be a tightwad and try to go cheap on the motel. Last night was so awful that I got only about 1 hour of sleep. More about that later.

I'm vin ta raise up and git my vacation on!

Boys, this will be the last you hear from me until June the 2nd. I am taking off tomorrow and will be wasting away in Margaritaville (or the Continental condos at Padre) I was telling Mark that we are going to scout this place out for a super family vacation next summer.

We are going to spend our days at the Schlitterbahn, go on an Aquadog tour (for the uneducated, an Aquadog is a land and sea vessel )http://www.breakawaycruises.com/AquaDog.asp check it out.
Parasailing, waverunnering, Mexico shopping in Matamoros, sandcastle building, eating and drinking like the family of pigs that we are and hopefully, HOPEFULLY destressing and decompressing.
I'm ready.

Mark. Great to see You, Natalie and especially Lilian this weekend. Wasn't the Grisby Grill cool. How come you didn't come Mike?

James, Permission to speak freely about your reviews? You big fat stinking slob. I hate you. You and your flatulant breath and your "Oh, I don't like Ben Affleck." and "Oh, I love David Lynch movies" :-)

Actually, they were informative......Painfully longwinded,,but informative.

I am up and out of this Byatch!!

btw..

James, I checked on the picasa thing. It doesn't work with mac. The only thing I could do is e-mail pictures to you and have you post them. But by the time I do all that, I could just e-mail the pics to all of you.

Good Times!

Well we just got in about an hour ago from Houston. Lillian went into "Darth Lilly" mode for about the last 45 minutes of the road trip, but she did fine for the majority of it.

Rob, we had a great time at your house. As usual, we left in high spirits from the hospitality.

Mike, your pad rocks!! I want to come down and chill out with you and the Cox-crew sometime. Maybe we can tape a game of football?!...

James, I'm looking forward to having a weekend like yours was this coming weekend. There is a plethora of movies out for rent that we haven't seen yet. I enjoyed reading your reviews. You may have missed your calling! I just had one question: I thought that "Vanilla Sky" was adapted from a spanish novel called "Abre los Ojos". What's the deal on that?

Speaking of..I thought Vanilla Sky was a cool movie. I'm like you James, in that I like movies with weird imagery (ie, the scene in Vanilla Sky when Cruise is running like a madman in the building, hollering "TECH-SUPPORT!!", while "Good Vibrations" from the Beach Boys is playing in the background....artful and cool as hell!). I do not, however, like David Lynch movies. A bit too dark for my taste.

I watched the rest of the Best of Will Ferrell, SNL on DVD on the way home. This one is definitely an owner. It even has his audition tape from when he first tried out to be a cast member. He does his Harry Caray impersonation among other things in it.

Anyway I'm out. Out is what I be. I've got to step ... with the viscosity.

Miracle

This one I’d recommend, especially for those us who are old enough to put this “Miracle” in context. I was 13 years-old at the time and what I remember from then is how good it felt to have heroes to root for at at time when everything else seemed so bad. I can still remember how the nightly news was dominated by the humiliating Iranian hostage crisis and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan back in 1980. "American Decline" was a phrase that was being bandied around a lot back then, and it looked for all the world to be happening before our eyes.

The "Miracle on Ice" was partly an escape from - and an antidote to - all of that. Sports movies are hard to review, especially ones like this that portray events that I so fondly remember myself. This isn’t like a Ben Affleck movie where I can pick on things that I didn’t like and make fun of the whole resulting mess. I don’t want to find anything wrong with this one. Commenting on minutae like small errors in period detail would be nitpicking, bitching for the sake of bitching, and I hate doing that.

So all I’ll say is that I liked "Miracle." I liked it a lot. I don’t especially like watching sports any more, but I’m still a sucker for sports movies. Especially true sports movies with a David v. Goliath theme.

So see it for yourselves, dudes, it’s impossible NOT to finish this movie with a big grin on your face.

5 out of 6 beers.

"Paycheck" endorsed, sort of

Guys, something in me just resists Ben Affleck movies. I don’t know why. I mean, he’s no Robert DeNiro, but then again he’s no worse of an actor than a lot of other movie stars out there. So what is it? Why this tissue rejection every time I see one of his movies? After all, I like Matt Damon movies well enough so I should like Ben Affleck movies, right?

Whatever it is, I’ve tried to get past it. Believe it or not, but there are times when I really do want to like him. Really. I mean, he’ll make a complete piece of shit movie like Sum of All Fears where I’ll walk away thinking that, for the good of the free world, Ben Affleck must die. Then, he’ll host Saturday Night Live and be funny as all hell. He’ll be self-effacing and warm. He’ll sift and poke around the wreckage of his J-Lo misadventure and joke about it. He was warm and funny on SNL, after which I thought okay well, maybe I’ve just been too hard on him. After all, he was pretty good in Good Will Hunting. That’s something, right?

Then, just as I beginning to warm up to him a bit, the little fuckwit will do something like go and stand up in front of the U.S. Senate to lecture all assembled on the inequities of the minimum wage. The fact that he’s a Hollywood nitwit who labors under the delusion that the Republic needs the insights of a young millionaire such as himself when debating how much to pay its burger flippers and toilet scrubbers doesn’t really make him unique. After all, both Tim Robbins and Alec Baldwin have trod this ground before and done it better than him. Robbins and Baldwin – say what you will about them (and I hate their guts) – at least seem to know what they’re talking about when they get out there to push their pet causes. I saw the tape of Ben’s Senate speech and he looked for all the world like Ted Kennedy’s sock puppet. Thus, I’m back to where I started; Ben Affleck must die.

As you can imagine, I rented Paycheck with low expectations. However, there were as I saw it 2 reasons to at least hold out some hope for this movie. One was that adaptations of Philip K. Dick stories usually made pretty good movies (e.g., Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, etc.). The second reason can be summed up in one word:

Uma.

Somehow, the job of propping up Affleck’s lifeless carcass in this movie fell to the goddess of all creation, Uma Thurman. And I thought if anyone could redeem a Ben Affleck movie, Black Mamba could. Did she? Well . . . .

Honestly, the movie’s not that bad. It’s not good, mind you, but it’s not as bad as other Affleck efforts. It completely butchered Dick’s story of course, but I expected that (I was really into Philip K. Dick back in college – my nerd days – because his stories are so weird; too weird though for anyone except maybe David Lynch to make a movie out of, at least one that’s a reasonably close adaptation. The only one I can think who even tried was Cameron Crowe with Vanilla Sky and the results of that one were decidedly mixed). So even though the movie had your typical hero-saves-the-world-and-gets-the-girl ending, I wasn’t too upset when I came to it.

This one’s typical John Woo fare, meaning that you’re going to see lots of bullets flying, cars crashing and shit blowing up. For example, when a bullet punctures a hydrogen tank in a computer lab, it makes an explosion that looked to me to be big enough to take out all of downtown Houston. I don’t know about y’all but I am sick to death of explosions in movies, at least the kind that look this fake. Anyway, though Uma disappointed me by NOT taking out her samurai sword and lopping off any of Ben’s limbs, she was still gorgeous to look at when she was on screen. Ben read his lines and smiled on cue and lots of people shot at and chased him and lots of shit blew up. At the end of it all, though I couldn’t remember any significant plot lines a half hour later, it was not a totally unenjoyable 2 hour diversion. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go out of their way to see it but if you have nothing better to do, it’s not a bad way to kill 2 hours.

Thus, out of a whole six-pack, I’d give this one 2 ½ beers.

Forthcoming movie reviews

Erica and I rented 2 movies tonight: Paycheck and Miracle. Yes, this is how we like to spend our Fridays; we are the beige Coopers, after all. Anyway, look forward to my pretentious thoughts and observations as I pontificate on both of them - as if anyone gave a shit - later this weekend.

I also got a new Anime called Darkside Blues. Hopefully it'll be as cool as Cowboy Bebop.

I've joined the digital revolution

I just went to BestBuy and purchased my first digital camcorder and camera in one. Mark, you can teach me how to use it when you arrive tomorrow. There will be plenty of pictures of Emily's recital and my South Padre Island vacation. I'm totally geeked. BTW- Great pics James.

So we can all share the joy . . .

Yes, I am the masterblogger. Sometimes 4 to 5 times a day. In fact, all I need to be happy in my life is a box of Kleenex, a bottle of Jergens and my weblog.

I was fucking around in the settings of the blog and found that I was the only one set up as an administrator. Y'all were all classified as "users." I don't know if NOT being administrators would have prevented y'all from posting photos, but I made us ALL administrators anyway. Now, anyone can change the blog format ot template or anything else they feel like. Make whatever changes y'all want, whenever y'all want. All I ask is that, to be fair, don't go deleting anyone else's comments. Don't be hatin' now.

As to the photos, what I would do is click on that little symbol under my photo of Dubya that I posted a few days ago. That will direct you to a page where you can download a program called "picasa," a free photo posting service for Blogger. You can get it either that way or thru the Blogger main page and click the link that says "Hello photoblogging."

Just remember . . . they have to be jpegs!

Are you the Masterblogger?

I used to masterblog three times a day! j/k

James, are you the only one who can post pics? I'm looking for a way to post but I cant...

Gratuitous picture of my girls, Part II

And here's the Goose, cheesing up for the camera on her first day of 3rd grade. Robbie, she likes to turn on the "high cheese" when she smiles for the camera, just like you did. I shudder to think in what other ways she could be like you . . . .

Gratuitous picture of my girls, Part I

Because I just KNOW that y'all can't get enough pictures of these beautiful girls of mine, and because I'm having so much fun with this, I thought I'd show you Megan on the first day of school this year!

Weeeee are the champions, my friend . . . .

I finally figured out .jpeg! I took this one this past weekend, Courtney's final game of the season. They won 7 to 2. She's number 3, by the way. Rob, take pictures of Emily at her recital and we'll get them posted too.

To the H-town Coops

Rob, I know we talked about us coming in to your casa for the weekend but there is something I didn't think about. Natalie and Lil are going to the hospital while I stay and go with you to Emily's recital. Friday night will be mom's only chance to see Lillian and I told her she would be able to.

Hence, the plan is to go to Mom's house Friday night, then I will be dropped off at your house Saturday morning on their way to MDA, then Natalie and Lil will meet up with us after the recital and we'll stay the night at your place.

I figure this equally dissapoints everybody...j/k

Mike, hopefully we can get to see your place sometime Saturday or Sunday?

James, keep on truckin' man!

Random thoughts 2

James, welcome to my world. I had to make the drive from moms to our office in the Heights everyday. Then get in my car pretty much the whole day and deliver shit and make sales calls. Luckly now we've hired a "runner" named John to help Kris and I out delivering shit which makes my life alot easier.. That & I I've moved in the loop. So I now have someone working under me. Remind's me of Old School "Hey John, How come theres no ice in my lemonade?!? You drop down and give me ten.. NOW!"

Anyway, I just had lunch with this girly I met a few weeks ago named Elizabeth. I met her getting off an elevator and her getting on. We looked at eachother like we both knew eachother. Turns out, we both went to A&M at the same time. She works downtown for a company called "Central Houston Inc." Lunch went really well. Shes really good looking.. Both her helmet and towlet checked out good! J/K. Seems to have it together and seems like a cool person.. Dating material. So I'll let you guys know what happens.

Random thoughts

I am starting to remember why I left this damned city 11 years ago. The round trip from Mom's house to the office and back is over 60 miles! And it's not like I have to go across town or anything, my office in on 290! Jeez, this place is too big!

I'm going back to work in Mobile again on Monday and will stay for 2 weeks this time. Instead of flying home for the weekend though, I'm going to fly Erica to Mobile so we can spend Memorial day on the beach at Gulf Shores, so that'll be fun.

Robbie, are you & Rebekah still going to be able to watch Courtney for us in a few weeks? Also, re the Sopranos, Erica and I don't have HBO at home so we just watch the Sopranos when they release the seasons on DVD. I did however cheat while in Alabama last week and I watched the episode where Janice beats the hell out of another soccer mom at her "stepdaughter's" game. Laughed my ass off because I've seen how worked up some of those soccer moms can get in real life. But, what really took the color out of my face - and reminded me why I don't have HBO - was this show I watched after the Sopranos called I think "America Undercover." It was about prostitutes and, well, let's just say that it wasn't family fare.

Mikey, this morning I worked up to 16 wheels - 8 on each side - on the leg press. I feel like I'm on someone else's legs right now.

Mark, hope all's well. Mom tells me that Rachel gets to come home for a few days. That's wonderful.

Someone needs to be pimp-slapped

. . . for criticizing my picture, and slapping my hand! Seriously Rob, what the hell are you doing quoting Ted Kennedy? Fucking drunken lout should be drummed out of the Senate for equating the U.S. Army with Saddam's henchmen, notwithstanding the actions of a few perverts. "Under new management" my ass. We should put his Senate seat under new management.

Who did you sleep with to get this job, anyway?

About little Emilita, if you can take digital photos of her recital, I'll tell you how to post them to the 'blog. But they have to be JPEG's. The photo posting site won't post photos that are saved in a bitmap format. My first photo would have been of Courtney's final soccer game this past weekend but alas, I cannot yet figure out how to convert the photos to JPEG.

Dancing Queen

Hey CoopBros,

My little princess has her first ballet recital this Saturday at 2:00 for those of you that will be in town. Mark - Natalie mentioned to Rebekah that you guys would be in this weekend and I believe that plans were made to stay at my place. It's about time!

Movie reviews. hmmmm. I did see "Stuck on you" on DVD. Funny stuff. Not quite as good as "Starsky and Hutch" and certainly no "Old School" More of a "Dumb and Dumber" kinda movie.

Do any of you dudes watch "The Sopranos"? In the last episode, Tony has a dream and it reminds one of a Stanley Kubrick movie. Very Clockwork Orange. Eeby Jeeby!

James. I am a Bush backer, but that picture is ridiculous. Very G.I. Joe President. It reminds me of the banner hanging off of the Aircraft carrier that reads "Mission Accomplished!"

Remember when we said that we were going to invade because of WMDs, then none were found so the message changed to, "The torture camps of Saddam Hussain have been closed." Well, looks like they've be reopened under new management. At least we give em a good salad tossin before we sodomize em!

Cool picture

I don't give a shit what Democrats say, I think this picture is cool as hell. 

Movie reviews

After recovering from my butt-numbing drive from Alabama, we watched two movies this weekend. Both were rentals so they're not really current. The first one was "Timeline," the latest potboiler from Michael Crichton. My review can be summed up in 2 words:

It sucks.

Unless you're in the mood for a boring and poorly acted time travel movie, don't waste your time. This thing is such a flyblown piece of crap that I doubt even the SciFi Channel would play it. Unconvincingly acted with plot contrivances that would choke your average five year-old, the movie actually breaks new ground in succeeding in making time travel BORING. To be avoided at all costs. In fact, should any of you ever be presented with the dilemna of either having to sit through this movie or eating a dogshit sandwich, a little advice: spare your brain cells and break out the Tobasco.

When we went back to Blockbuster Saturday night, there wasn't diddly crap that I wanted to see in the new release section. So we ended up renting one of my favorites, "Almost Famous." Probably due in no small part to my near fetish for early 70's rock, I have always loved this movie. For my money, this is Cameron Crowe's best, better even than "Jerry Maguire."

Mark, you're probably the only one who would be interested in my other rental, since you and I are the only "Coopbros" who have a bit of nerd in their genetic lunchbox, but I also rented a really cool anime called "Cowboy Bebop." Again, two words:

Totally. Fucking. Awesome.

Okay, that was three words. Sue me. But if you'll watch it at home on your PC with good earphones (it has incredible sound effects) you'll be blown away. I was in nerd heaven when I watched it.

Dig the new look

This looks cool. So how can we start getting hits from the outside? Maybe attract a few sponsors? We could review movies or something...and get paid for it!

Here's the first one:

Van Helsing - reviewed by Mark: I gave this movie...a high five!!

Anyway, did any of you catch SNL? The Olsen twins hosted and it was pretty funny. It was Jimmy Fallon's last show too, so I'm like depressed today.

Photos

The host for our blog is also now offering free photo posting. I'm trying to download it now.

New template

Blogger's offering a bunch of new choices. Hope y'all like this one, it's called "minima blue."

Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself . . .

Hey dudes. Just got in a few hours ago from Alabama. I did the whole drive in one shot, 700 miles - 11 hours. I am fucking beyond sleepy, as I'm sure y'all can imagine.

Rob, hell yeah I can remember going to see The Boss with you and Loper. That was I think back in the Spring of 1985, my second semester at UH. Still the best, most intense concert I've ever seen.

Mikey, all I can say to you is: all things in their time. I read a great quote the other day that I think speaks to this bit of angst you're feeling right now:

Happiness is like a cat. If you chase it, it'll run from you. But if you attend to your work and life, and sincerely attempt to do well, then you'll find that it'll come to you and wrap itself around your feet.

Life at TJ's

If you guys have a sec, go to the blog "Life @ TJ's" its this guy who blogs about his life at assistant manager at a titty club.. Really amusing.

Rob

Kris and some other friends are going to be at that show tonite.. Me? I'll be at the Playboy party.. VIP style.

Dancin in the Dark

Hello Boys,

I recently bought Springsteen's Born in the USA CD. M & M might not be able to relate as much as you and I Jim, but it occured to me that the Boss was 35 (my age) when he recorded this album which was released summer of 84. Remember the concert with Loper? Anyway, I forgot how much ass that CD kicks.

Nothing else going on here. Rebekah's aunt passed away yesterday in Ark. It was Wes' younger sister. So she's flying up there on Fri. Talk about being a bachelor with no benefits. On a happier note, Rebekah and I are going to the Dave Chappelle show tonight at the Improv. This is my second time to see him live. AWESOME!

Anyway, back to the dead end road. JJ :-)

R

Thanks Mark

I am now in therapy for your comments earlier.. My medical bills will be forthcoming.

...

My earlier post sounded bad after I read it again. I certainly didn't mean to imply that YOU were on a dead end road. I think you are doing great for yourself and I'm proud of you.

What I was trying to say (in a small nutshell) was that when we achieve or get something that the world tells us we need in order to be happy, often we find that it does not make us happy. Rather, we feel melancholy. After a few of these experiences, we may ask the question "What is truly worth persuing? What will pay off?". That's what I meant by starting a spiritual journey.

I'll shut up now..

Welcome to the Rat Race!

Mike, your post reminds me of the few years I spent in Chicago when we lived in the suburbs. We had some good times, but I definitely had moments like those as well. Natalie was on projects in either Minneapolis or Detroit so I was pretty much single during the week (with none of the benefits!). I would go to work at Siemens, where I would work my way through a stack of RGA's (which could probably be compared to TPS reports without the coversheet drama). For a large part of the year it was dark when I got home from work and dark when I left. I felt like a mouse on a wheel. Not much of a point to it all, you know?

Anyway, I'm not trying to say anything but that we've all been there. Maybe it's a good thing. The first step on a spiritual journey is usually realizing that you are on a dead-end road.

Regular Tuesday

Well its Tuesday afternoon pushing 5:00 and I'm rapping up another day here. I always look forward to this last half hour of work while I sit up here in my nook and wrap things up. Well tomorrow will be exactly one year that I've graduated from A&M. Everyone told me that time would go by fast once I reach the "real world." That is certainly the case.. Every day seems to be just like the one before. I wake up about 6:45 get ready and get to work about 8, reply to emails and head out of the office to deliver notices and records and maybe do a little cold calling until lunch. Then its 1:00 and I pretty much do the same thing I did in the morning until 4:30 or so. The evenings are spent hopefully (and have been here lately) in the gym. I'm reminded of that song "everybody's worken for the weekend."

As far as workouts go.. I'm sore as shit right now! My weightlifting bouts have become more intense and I can feel it. I guess I just don't have it in me to go at it lightly. If I'm going to lift, I'm going to LIFT. I'm still doing cardio too, much to make up for my steady pizza and Chinese food diet.

Anyway, nothing really much else is too exciting. I'm not really seeing anyone. I guess I need to get off my ass and go places, but picking up chicks at bars and such kinda sucks. Houston is NOT like College Station where girls are about my age, good girls, and are in the same boat as me. Here its more like there 30 somethings (no offence) divorced, and look like they've been drug thorough the ringer a few times. Oh well, its not something I'm losing sleep over. I haven't spoke to Tiffany in a while. Since we broke up, talking is just awkward. I wish her the best and all but I know that ending that was the best for us both. However, although being young, single, a lil cash in the pocket is great and all, I envy you guys sometimes having familys to go home to. Hey, the grass is always greener right? Talk to you all later.

...numb from the drive?

Good to see you too. All a' yous! Maybe next time (in two weeks) it can be a bit longer of a visit.

BTW, I thought your butt would have been sore from the trip downstairs! (I have to bust you on this bro, sorry!)

So I'm in Mom and Joe's bathroom flossing my teeth when I hear an ominous crash from the other side of the house. I look at my half full cup of coffee and see a ripple in the surface tension of the liquid. Then I look up to see some drywall dust fall from the ceiling onto the countertop and I'm thinking "Holy *&%t, What happened?"

As I walk into the living room I hear Natalie and Mom: "James, are you okay?". He had taken a bit of a stumble down the last few steps at mom's house. I get in there and James is already on his feet, like nothing happened. You all have done this, or come close to doing this before. I have. I was just impressed with the sound from the other end of the house!

Greetings from Lower Alabama!

Mark, my ass is numb from the drive but I made it here at about 3:30 this afternoon. It sure was nice seeing you, Natalie and Lillian last night. Lillian is getting so big and beautiful.

Hope y'all had a safe and pleasant trip back home this morning.

Your intellect, hmm?

Not much of a toolbelt needed there, dude. Oh, BTW Mark, I just found out that I'm going to be going to Chicago the first week of June.

The only tool I need

is my intellect man!!

A note for Mark

Mark, I went and saw Rachel this afternoon. It was nice to see her and Judy. Judy asked me to remind you to bring with you - when you come this weekend - whatever you'll need to hook up Rachel's DVD player to her TV.

"sup, dudes!"

Mornin, y'all.

Mikey, great to hear about how well business is going and how you're getting "harassed" by the paralegals. Just so long as they're women paralegals and that "taking one for the team" doesn't involve bending over and biting your pillow, then it's all good.

As for dad . . . jeez, how typical. So long as you agree with everything he says and dance to the tune he whistles, then he'll think you're a genius. If you disagree with him though, you're a sniveling, weak-minded idiot. Dad's philosophy is more and more beginning to resemble Kevin Kline's "Otto" in that great old movie "A Fish Called Wanda." He's becoming a caricature of himself.

Frankly I don't blame them for now wanting to go yet. They have 2 babies - one brand new - and Mark you even told me that you're not getting but maybe 2 - 3 leads a week in Dallas right now.

Anyway, enough of that.

I am going to be blogging from my old haunt in Mobile next week. Guess I can call that "Alablogging." My old confre Dean is falling behind and I'm being sent like the cavalry to rescue him. Should be fun.

Hey Guys

Ive also been crazy busy here in Houston. Things for the time being are going really good though. The law firm that is my big client has been ordering like crazy from me so the wave continues. Scary thing is that a few fo the paralegals there are completely unhappy and are looking for other jobs. Lucky for me the market kind of sucks right now so they are still there. The head paralegal is happy there though and shes happy with us too. I've been getting harassed heavly by some of the others there though. Oh well, I gotta take it for the team! I've been working out about 3 times a week lately. I'm back into weights but its more crosstraining than bodybuilding.

I visited Rachel's website and left a breif message. Not to sound redundant, but we all dont know how blessed we are. Thats really a scary thing to go through. Anyway, I hope all of you are doing well. Later.

MDC

I'm back in.

Sorry it's been a while since my last entry. Busy, busy, busy. So Dad is being Dad. What's new? He has no ability to empathize with a guy who is trying to provide for his family. Whatever.

Thanks Mark for posting Rachel's website.

I'm going to take your advice Jim and think about swiming some laps....maybe....some day. Or maybe I'll just eat another cheeseburger.

The Deal

Josh and Wendy are holding off coming up here for right now. He doesn't feel ready to make the move yet. According to Dad, he and Wendy came to him the other day wanting some type of assurance that our efforts would be successful in this market. Well, you know our father. Being one to never coddle, Dad told Josh that there are no assurances nor guarantees about this.

It irritated Dad a bit that they needed that assurance. To him it was a red flag of weakness. I'm not sure who made the decision to hang back but I know that Dad is reluctant to give them the opportunity now.

And the drama continues...

Another thing

Mark, Mom told me that she heard via Aunt Gay that Josh and Wendy aren't coming up to Dallas after all. Aunt Gay heard this because it's obviously throwing a monkey wrench into Jennifer & Enrique plans to move to Austin, as they were going to move into the house that Josh and Wendy were going to vacate. Now everything's up in the air with them.

What's up?

BFL Update

Robbie, my new thing for cardio day is swimming. Today I actually did 10 laps, albeit not elegantly nor even continuously. Nevertheless, it gets my heart hammering and it's low impact on the joints and back. Did you ever think about giving that a try? I recently went up to using 100-lb. dumbells for bench press and I'm still having some problems with them. The other day - in Beaumont - I couldn't get both of them up for my 6th rep and the one in my left hand came down and bounced off my chest. It didn't injure me, but it hurt like hell and left a bruise.

But other than that, no problems. I'm still hitting the gym 5 days a week and still feeling good.

The Status

That's a nice website for Rachel. I find the password "Apollo 13" to be quite apt, too. We should all keep praying for her guys, that, like the Apollo 13 astronauts, though she's had a scary trip around the far side of the moon, she'll come back safely. Lord knows Rachel doesn't deserve this hand she's been dealt here and she needs all the support she can get.

Hope everyone's having a good day. Until I get busy enough with my own caseload here at the new job, I'm going to have days like today when I feel like a 5th wheel. Oh well, who am I to bitch?

BTW, if Rachel has computer access, does she read our weblog? I certainly don't have a problem if she does, and she may even get a chuckle out of it from time to time, if only to see what a family of complete dumbasses her big sister married into. Oh yes, THIS is the genetic stock that cute little Lillian comes from!

Rachel

Hey Guys,

Rachel has a website dedicated to the status of her cancer. Check it out. Point your browser to www.thestatus.com

Then click on "Visit a Patient Page"

Enter her last name (Fulmer)

The password is apollo13

If you want, you can send her well-wishes and prayers right through the website. She loves to get them. Lately they have mostly been from Judy's acquaintances. Anyway, just thought you'd like to know.

PEACE!

Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Holy shit, if y'all havent seen the "Kill Bill" movies, trust me, you need to. Erica and I are just getting back from KB2 and words fail me to describe how cool it is. Do you hear what I'm saying, y'all?! Words fail me! ME! Words never fail me! I am the last person in the world who should ever have to find himself at a loss for words. Nevertheless, after basking in Tarantino's brilliance for the past few hours I find myself tongue-tied trying to explain why y'all should see these movies.

Put it this way, before seeing KB and KB2 I couldn't have imagined myself watching a martial arts movie about very hot women who are very good with samurai swords . . . and actually wished it was true. Now I do.

Hmm, I wonder where I could buy Erica a sword like that . . .

The Biz

I'm making a few sales here and there. I'm only getting two or three leads per week right now, which is something considering we have a little 3" x 5" ad all the way in the back of the foundation repair section of the yellow pages.

I've been doing a little marketing with some positive results (two recent jobs have been from realtor referrals). We are about to hit it hard with Josh coming up here and Jeff helping. I'm optimistic about things.

For the past few weeks I have been focused on getting our office ready. Namely, expanding the driveway with a new approach, encorporating the empty lot next to me, scraping the total yard area of debris, adding rockbase, fencing it in, painting inside, hanging shelves, etc. etc.

I've had my hand slapped by the city three times already. The protocol from Dad was to get the things done under the city's radar but I showed up on it trying to get a Certificate of Occupancy so we could get the power turned on in the company's name. Needless to say, I recieved a lovely "cease and desist" letter from code enforcement, and I'm having to shell out several grand more to comply with code (ie, relocating a water tap and meter, curbing my fence). Keep in mind I'm in an area where drug deals go down and there are likely crack houses nearby. Yet this is how the city uses its time and money.

Some of the codes they have now are so stupid. I think they are just a means to justify the existence of some city engineer nerd who can say he did something. Anyway, I am anxious to get it all done so we can get to business as usual.