nov 6

Sorry dude. I'm going to be heading up to Ney Jersey for training on that day.

Kudos to Mikey!

Big kudos and a pitcher of beer go out to Coopbro 4 who just scored the big new job selling medical supplies for Johnson & Johnson. Mikey, all I ask is that when that day comes when you're a gazillionaire, that you let me mow your lawn and that you not make me avert my eyes when you walk by. You gotta leave me my pride, dude. You know how it is.

Seriously, congratulations. You done good, brother.

Anyone think we need to send out a search party for Mark? Pretty long time since we've heard from him.

Texans at Jaguars

Sunday, November 6, 2005. Alltel Stadium. Kickoff is at 1:00 pm. You weenies need to be here because if I buy these tickets and you don't show up . . . well, suffice it to say that asses will be kicked and said tickets will be forcefully inserted into said asses sideways.

You've been warned.

Latest news

Dang Rob, you defantily hold the title for being the most caring, tasteful, and thoughtful brother of the four. Your class and humbleness are truely something to be admired.

Anyway, I've just been trying to close out some deals I've been working on at Paychex so I can get out of there. Intrestingly enough, I wasn't really looking for a new job. Things have been going really well where I have been, it was just too good an offer to pass up. I'm really excited about the opporunity as well as kind of nervous.

Anyway, I've got football fever here and am ready for that to kick off. Rob, looks as though your horns might have their hands full in Ohio.

Life is definently not fair!

I thought to myself as I bent my wife over the bed in our house overlooking the beach. "Why can't I have the larger house over in Indian Beach" I thought as I began thrusting like the pistons in my, now 4 year old Lexus.

Self pity is all that I felt, recalling the recent conversation with my new boss. The one where he told me that he would "prefer" if I would come into the office before 10:30 and stay until at least 3:00. Doesn't this workaholic sonofabitch realize that if I don't leave the office by 2:30, then there is virtually no way to get in 18 holes and a massage with a happy ending. Bastard!

I agree with you James. It's times like these when you really find out what you're made of. Hold on a sec,,,"For the four thousandth time, I like Half & Half in my coffee, not non dairy creamer you dumb bithch. Now get back in your car, go back to Starbucks and get it right!" Sorry guys. I swear, our secretary is trying to ruin my life. You see what I mean?

Never the less. I don't want anyone worrying about me. I've got the lord.

Me and Jesus
Got our own thing goin
Me and Jesus
Got it all worked out

Oh,,,Sin City kicks ass!

Megan

By the way guys, today's Megan's first day of college. If y'all could drop her an email or something, I know she would apprciate it. Her email address is cheez907ATsbcglobal.net.

Checking in

Well, well. Has no one got anything to say? Nothing at all? Jeez, is nothing going on in y’all’s life or are you all just lazy, hmm?

Well, since y’all can’t seem to get enough of my observations on my life, you should know that things are fine here. Still doing my thing and trying to get my life back together. It’s funny how distressing mundane things like paying bills and grocery shopping can be after you’ve had 11 years of marriage and a wife to handle chores like that. Still, you do what you have to do. I’m still working out every morning, 5 or 6 days a week, and I’m still eating right.

This morning was spinning and every Thursday the instructor, an uber-buff blonde named Angel, has us do a half hour on the bikes and another half hour in the aerobics room. The spinning was fine, normal stuff that I’ve been doing for almost a year, and for the last half of the hour Angel had us do 7 different exercises in a rotation with decreasing repetitions of each. This was after 30 minutes on the bikes, of course. The first exercise was the worst, 5 push-ups (no problem there) followed by a 20-second “plank.” The “plank” is a static contraction abdominal exercise whereby you lay supine and support your body weight on your elbows and toes, holding your body rigid while the instructor calls out the count. Proper form is to keep your torso straight with your ass level with your back, thus its name. The first set, we did five pushups followed by a 20-second plank. We did this four times. By the end, I was doing the plank on my knees with my ass in the air. I was more of an arch than a plank. It hurt like a bitch, but boy was it a good workout.

As to personal matters, I am not dating because I still don’t think I’ve got my head on straight enough to do so. Plus, I’m still married. Even though my marriage is only a legal res at this point, I did take a vow and I don’t want to break it. Just because Erica broke hers doesn’t mean that it’s okay for me to do so too. Back to dating though, I’m not saying that I want to be “perfect” inside before I try to meet anyone—I don’t think such a thing is possible—but only that I want to be cleaned of this experience before I try to meet anyone again. In other words, I want to go thru what I need to go thru before I bring anyone else into my life. Crawl before I walk, if you know what I mean. I think if I were to go out with anyone now, all I would end doing would be complaining about Erica and that wouldn’t be fair to . . . well, whomever I was with. I’ll know when it’s time for me to get back out there. In the meantime, I am trying to concentrate on work, working out and just taking care of myself. I’ve started attending a local Baptist church here and have been like 4 times already. The only reason I haven’t joined yet is because I haven’t found a Sunday School class that I’m comfortable with yet. Once I do, if I do, I’ll join.

The truth is, guys, without faith, I will sink. I am 1000 miles away from everyone I love. I am alone here, but for people I work with. I’m not saying that to elicit pity or sympathy from you all either. Lots and lots of people go thru what I’m going thru right now. I am not special. I am only saying this to explain why I feel the need to get right with God again. Not that I was ever really out of His grace, mind you. I feel the need to be within the community of believers, the church, at this time in my life.

I think that there are times in your life where God measures you and I think this is one for me. Right now, I am letting Him carry me.

I’ve seen some cool movies lately. I loved Paul Giamatti in “American Splendor.” Wow, what a departure from his roles in “Sideways” and “Cinderella Man.” I’m not going to go into a plot synopsis, just let it suffice to say that it was a decidedly offbeatl, albeit cool movie. I also watched “I heart Huckabee’s” and, unlike “American Splendor” thought it was crap. The movie was funny in parts, and the acting was good, but it was so self-congratulatory and tried SO hard to be whimsical and intellectual that it was impossible to enjoy. And though I enjoyed the performances and thought the subject matter (a lot of people talking a lot of philosophical mumbo-jumbo to each other) would appeal to the nerd in me, I thought the movie was less than the sum of its parts.

Right now I’m watching “Sin City” which, if y’all missed catching it at the theater, you really should rent it. “Sin City” is fucking awesome, and Mickey Rourke totally redeems his career in it.

B-I-G P-O-P-P-A!

It's time like this when I just think thank God I'm me!

Wow, what a cool party, guys. I say that despite the dump truck-sized headache I woke up with on Sunday morning, too. That was a lot of fun. Mikey, kudos to you and Molly for finding all those cool places to go. Mark, we missed you. I think it's pretty fucking cool that we have a mom who likes to do things like that occasionally.

If y'all want to see the pictures (and I know you do) then just click here. Should any of you want prints (Rob, I am thinking of your dumb, mindless ass here) just click on them to enlarge, then right click to save them to your computer. After that, you can send to any number of photo services who will put them on 4x6s or larger for you. I use ofoto.com for mine. I am going to buy a 5x7 print of the three of us and send it to mom.

Robbie, thanks for letting me crash at your place last night. BTW, you left a nice chrome pen in my rent car when we went on our beer & cigar run Saturday. It says "Valero Houston Open" on it. Give me your mailing address (email it, don't post it on the blog) and I'll mail it back to you.

still waiting on that heffer with cheese..

Whats going on Guys? Well yes I dont have any next generation baby pics to show as of yet. Mark I could however post a naked pick of me looking for cheetos In the same likeness.. Hmmm, not quite the same effect. Anyway, just hanging out here in the office semi working right now.

James, you might be intrested in knowing who I met playing golf yesterday.. Former UH QB Andre Ware. Really a nice guy too. Molly, the most star struck person I've met, totally geeked out.

Next Generation Coopbros, or Coopcousins!

The Girls 2
Originally uploaded by 3rdcoop.

It is quite unmistakeable which daughter belongs to which father. Somewhere theres a picture of us three that would freak us out if we looked at it next to this one.

Mike, your kid hasn't made it yet... Kind of like how you hadn't made it yet when James and Robbie and I were this age!

The Infamous Cooper Bubble-Butt

Bubble Butt
Originally uploaded by 3rdcoop.

How great is it to be a toddler! Lilli could care less about being naked. She's lookin for the Cheetos!

Weekend Recap: Mud Butt

Rob, You have a keen insight for diciphering culteral bias within art...(pshh!) but I still cannot allow myself to like anything with Rob Schneider in it. I chuckled through Deuce, but I still left wanting to smack that guy.

If you guys get a chance, go rent the Chapelle's Show Season 2 on DVD. I woke Lillian up laughing so hard at it. I especially like the one skit on "Heroes of Civil Rights". An elderly Buster Jenkins (Chapelle in old man make-up) tells the story of being the first African-American to use a white toilet (yup, potty humor).

"I remember one Tuesday getting a roast beef sandwich for lunch, during my shift at the steel mill. Little did I know that roast beef sandwich would change my life. Not long afterward I felt a bubblin... an evil bubblin in my stomach. I knew that it could only be the early onset of... Mud Butt. I had to take a dump."

Funny stuff man. Funny stuff.

Drop in the Deuce

Voice of Will Ferrell impersonating James Lipton:

If you want to see film that will make you inspired. Make you learn what love truly is, make you question your own existance. Then go out and rent Deuce Bigalow Male Giggilo. It's like looking into the face of the Goddess Aphrodite herself.

In all seriousness, We rented it again this weekend. I absolutely love it. Talk about a movie that found it's audience after it left the theatre. PISSFACE! PISSFACE BALL LICKER! Sorry, it's one of the unfortunate side effects. You end up spitting out lines from this one after you have finished wathching it. I will definately go to the sequel, although I doubt it will be as good as this on. VULVA!

I actually think that the scenes where the detective shows up and keeps showing Deuce his tallywhacker are actually a metaphore for how the patriot act has reduced civil liberties and allowed "the Man" to impose his will (tallywhacker) on our lives.

Last Tango

Hey guys. Hope you're all well. Rob, as we discussed, I will be in with Courtney next Thursday night around midnight or so. I am flying in to SA at around 8:00, then have to rent a car, get Courtney and drive to Houston. I do not want to rent a hotel and I rather doubt that I'll be welcome to stay the night at Erica's apartment, so I must drive that night.

Mark, I sincerely hope that the trailer mortgage gets taken care of in the settlement of Dad's estate. This whole thing has really put a bitter taste in my mouth, to put it mildly, and I really hope that we can at least salvage this much out of it.

Not too much going on lately with me here in Florida. I went to Alabama earlier in the week for a Dept. of Labor audit of our office (it went fine) and stayed at the Palace Casino & Resort in Biloxi. I actually made $100 at the Blackjack table too. It was fun.

I have seen some pretty cool movies lately, too. I saw "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" when the girls were here and really really liked it. In fact, I liked it so much, I bought it and another movie by the same screenwriter Charles Kaufman, called "Adaptation" and liked it a whole lot, too. Really cool shit.

Now for a movie to avoid . . . Susan gave me Dad's DVD collection a few months back. In it are some cool movies as well as some bad ones. Dad seemed to be a fan of mindless dreck like Bruce Willis movies but he also had that Stanley Kubrick collection too. Well, he also had a movie that is considered by most critics to be one of the greatest movies of the 20th century, "Last Tango in Paris." I had been meaning to see it for a long time finally got around to watching it the other night.

Jesus wept.

It starts with an unkempt Marlon Brando as he stumbles along on a Paris street under a bridge. A train passes overhead and he holds his ears, winces from the noise and screams "fucking God!" That's it, those are the first words spoken in the movie, and, believe it or not, it goes downhill from there. It's about an angry, cynical and emotionally damaged man whose wife has just committed suicide (gee, I wonder why?) and how he manages to emerge from his existential despair only by sexually brutalizing a woman 25 years his junior. I almost cried when I watched the infamous "butter" scene, too. I cannot see how anyone who claims to love girls, women or even people in general could find anything at all to admire in this movie. I felt so dirty after watching this awful movie that I had to take a shower afterward. "Last Tango" is an ugly and morally repugnant movie.

Look, I'm not arguing that all movies should be "The Sound of Music" or "Forrest Gump" or anything like that. But neither do I think movies should push our noses in shit like this one does, either. I know that this kind of nihilistic stuff was all in vogue in Europe and America in the late 60s and early 70s and maybe, had I been 39 back when the movie came out in 1972, I would have been one of its cheerleaders. But the fact is that I am the product of a diferent time and this movie insulted so many things that I hold dear, things like the simple fact that life is a good thing and that it is in the main good to love other people and have them love you back that I just kind of mentally recoiled from it.

This movie shows--glories, actually--in a middle aged man who repeatedly rapes a 20 year old woman. The fact that he mutters a bunch of incoherent pseudo-existential crap while doing so does NOT make it art, either, and anyone who argues otherwise is a moral cretin.

This movie has a festering hole where its heart should be. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and don't.

Courtney and me on the beach