Posts from — November 2003

Happy belated birthday to Robyn. Sorry, I forgot with everything going on.

FSU 38 UF 34

You know how you flip the light switch and you just inherently know the light is going to come on? That's the way we watch the FSU-Florida game every year. Sometimes it's close, sometimes it's not, but –more times than not– that light still comes on.

Last night's win over the Gators was sweet. It was the Noles fifth win over UF in the last six games. Hopefully some of my Gator friends will be checking in at some point. Just y'all come on over if you want to watch that one again on DVD. Now it's time for the boo-hooing that always follows a Florida loss. They've really gotten so good at it. Close calls, huge hits, last minute scores…shut up Florida fans and look right there…scoreboard.

Next up for the Seminoles is a BCS game. Not sure where just yet and no one will know until next weekend. It would be a lot of fun to see the Granddaddy of College Football play in the "Granddaddy of them all" (The Rose Bowl). That's a possibility for sure. FSU will either get the Fiesta, Orange, or Rose. Can't…hardly…wait.

In the meantime, UF sucks…of course.

As previously mentioned, I am now in possession of a new car. Not just a new car, but a brand new car. This is a first for me. I've never owned a new car before, so I was a little giddy last night when I drove it home. Granted, it's a little bit (OK, a lot) dad-like. That's OK by me. I got an incredible deal on it and I have enough luck with the ladies without the flashy car.
It's a 2003 Taurus SE - one of the last ones on the lot. I got about $8,000 off the sticker just to drive it off the lot for them. Depreciation? Not a problem for me. Anyway, it's got some really nice features that I didn't expect on a Taurus, including a pretty good stereo system with 6 CD-changer, great trim, and pretty good power. The best part may be –since I'm used to renting a Taurus on travel– it will feel like I'm on permanent vacation. YAHOOTIE!

She will affectionately be known as the "Brown Bull" or "Torro Marrón", at least until a better name can be established. So, if you see a really hot guy in a sedan blow by you - it's not me. But, if Mr. Plain rolls up next to you with a big smile, shoot me a wave, will ya?!

If you're running MovableType, here's another little programming "honey-do" in order to make the world a more spam-free place. Kudos to Girlie who learned of this problem the hard way to make us all aware that it's a big world out there. Now, stop what you're doing and go fix this hole now.

The great car question has been resolved and the maybe Rolling Stones were right. Perhaps you can't always get what you want, but –if you try– sometimes you get what you need. This is definitely the case with the car quest. I now am the proud owner of a bona-fide Dad-mobile. I'll post some pictures later, but it's not a truck and I am (quite honestly) very happy with the way it all worked out.

More to come, but right now Shania is on and, well, duty calls.

The parents made it safe and sound on Friday afternoon. So far, their stay has been pretty good, I'd say. They really like the new house. I knew they would. It is a great house.

We went out to dinner on Friday night to Christina's, a little Tex-Mex place in Lewisville. As always, it was most fabulous. They may have the best salsa in D/FW since Tejano's closed down in Fort Worth years ago.

Yesterday, my Dad and I were both up by six. I have no idea why I was, but my Dad has always been an early riser and his body clock is still on Eastern Time. We went to Fry's at about nine and stayed until lunchtime. We could have made a longer go of it, but we had an obligation to do the lunch thing with my Mom. I'm sure there is at least one more trip in our future soon.

After lunch at La Madeleine (sorry, Courtney - no soup for you!!), we went over to the resort and showed the family my office and toured them around the property. They were pretty impressed. I'm starting to think they regretted staying with us, but we have Tivo and the resort doesn't…so there! We headed back to the house to meet Merrin (she had to work) and then all of us went to Cotton Patch for dinner.

Later we all went to the grocery store. What a farce! We needed to pick up the Thanksgiving turkey and Merrin really wanted a 20lb. Butterball. Albertson's didn't seem to have any (which made me happy because I was in favor of the 20lb free turkey), but we asked a clerk who wouldn't bother to look in the back for us. That was a mistake. Now I was on a mission to rustle some Albertson's Vice-President from his digs to search the freezer. Needless to say, they found us a 20lb Butterball. The only positive to the story is that we spent enough on the Butterball to get a free turkey anyway, so now we have two. Having two turkeys is a good thing until you realize — shit, we have two turkeys.

I'm not sure what's on tap for today exactly. The weather is starting to set in, though, so I think we'll be closer to the house. It's technically 45, but with the huge winds and the rain, Weather Channel has the "feels like" temp at 36. That's pretty cool for the Florida crowd. I'm sensing we'll all stay in, watch the rain, watch the dogs, watch the Cowboys and watch one another watch one another. Perhaps we'll venture out to Merrin's new job and show Mom & Dad around. Later, we're slated to have some great Merrin-made pork chops and broccoli, but with the whole Butterball fiasco, we forgot to buy said pork chops and broccoli. (D'oh!)

Mom & Dad are adjusting to our new digs. I can understand how they feel to some degree. They knew Fort Worth really well and could wander off to the mall or wherever on their own and (relatively) unsupervised. In Flower Mound, they are still trying to figure out where our house is in relation to other landmarks, so we haven't yet approved them for straying to far from the house.

Like it or not folks, the holidays are here. And, no, I still haven't made my Christmas list - but I am working on it. We put some cards & pictures in the mail yesterday, so if you're accustomed to getting cards & pictures from us, then be so apprised.

Finally, my car is still in the shop. It is supposed to be out today. Three cheers for an auto shop that works on Sundays (assuming that I do get my car back and it is in proper working order!)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go make fire for the parentals.

Wow. I'm just bowled over with shock. The leading Democratic contender for President is now being rung up as a draft-dodger.

In the 10 months after his graduation from Yale, time he might otherwise have spent in uniform, Dr. Dean lived the life of a ski bum in Aspen, Colo. His back condition did not affect his skiing the way the rigors of military service would have, he said, nor did it prevent him from taking odd jobs like pouring concrete in the warm months and washing dishes when it got cold.

Even the candidate's mother, Andree Maitland Dean, said in a recent interview about his skiing after receiving a medical deferment, "Yeah, that looks bad."

Hmmm…draft-dodger….Democrat…where have I head this before?? Sounds like the other Dems are starting to get a little desperate against Dean. Wrong tactic, fellas. All you have to do is point out that Dean can't beat Bush….which, of course, is true…but I'm hoping no one notices.

Right on schedule, my car has decided to celebrate the holidays in it's traditional way: Breaking down and leaving me stranded.

In the four and a half years I've owned it, it's decided that little hiccups are a good way to help me curb my holiday spending. Besides, there's nothing like a new ((insert auto part name here)) to make Christmas seem merry.

Today my car decided that it was time for the fuel pump to go dead…in a rough neighborhood…in the rain…40+ miles from home. Forget asking Martha, I'm here to tell you this was definitely not a good thing. I've talked about getting that new truck for Christmas, but today was the first day Merrin said, "Please go get a new car." Well, I very well may, but I want to get mine running first.

It's not that its going to be "very" expensive, it's just that this cars pulls these same stunts every year. Once it was $800, once it was $400, once it was $1600, and this one will probably be a couple hundred bucks. It's kinda making me wonder why I"m so gung-ho to buy another Ford.

I'd like to send a big shout out to Pedro, the awesome tow truck drive from "24 Hour Wrecker Service" in Lancaster. You saved my can today, dude. You were a really good sport (despite the weather) and I would gladly recommend your work to anyone. That being said, I hope I never see you again (in a good way!)

Looks like the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special is on ABC next Sunday night, so Tivo's up!

I have been advised by someone that this will not look awesome hanging over my new desk. Well, strike one potential Christmas present off the non-existent list.

New rule at Chez Kev: Blog then cook or cook then blog. Do not attempt to do both at the same time.

On a somewhat related side note…who knew we had two smoke detectors?!

If anyone wants some really, really, really blackened shrimp, snow peas, and water chestnuts, come on over…it's in the trash can…help yourself.

Every year Merrin & I put our Christmas lists online so the family can check 'em out. We haven't put them up yet and some of the folks out yonder are getting a little restless. My sister-in-law even accused me of holding up her plan to finish all shopping by Thanksgiving!

Rest assured, Christmas lists will be up. We'll probably put them up privately this year because of all the extra attention our websites seem to get, but I'll send out the passwords.

Give us another couple of days - it's really, really hard to compile a list this year.

Love & luck, y'all!

I had a great time last night at a little reunion of a bunch of my old hotel mates. Everyone got together at this little bar/restaurant called "Up in Smoke" in the booming burg of Keller. Pretty cool place. They had a band there, too - but they really were pretty awful (even on the one song we could recognize!)

It was so good to get to see so many of my old friends. Lynn even shocked us all and flew in from Toronto to be there! Everyone is doing pretty well and a lot of beer was shared by all. I just can't believe it's been so long since I've seen some of those people. A few of my friends couldn't make it, but hopefully they can next time. We all made plans to try to get together at least one more time before the holidays.

After a few (too many?) beers, we loaded up and went to the old hotel. While it probably wasn't the finest measure of our social graces, it was an awful lot of fun to turn up some drinks in the hotel bar. (Plus it seemed like they could really use the business, so maybe it was win-win?)

I had a great time, y'all. Can't wait to do it again.

The parents are coming! The parents are coming!

I have it on good authority that my parents are going to be making their first (ever!) trip to the new house for the Thanksgiving holiday. This will actually be the first time they've been to our house for Thanksgiving and the first time that we've spent turkey day together in nine years. Merrin & I are really excited. If all goes well, they will be able to stay in town for about a week.

So with my parents arriving in less than two weeks…the race is on. Last week we completely redid the guest bedrooms. We went from one mismatched bedroom & an office to two bona-fide guest bedrooms with queen beds and full bedroom suites. Both bedrooms also feature some pretty spiffy desk sets for all the computing. Merrin is thrilled because she can finally be at her computer without my computer (and –presumably– me) in the same room. She said something about Nirvana, but I wasn't listening.
Tonight is a little electrical work. I spent about 30 minutes installing a fancy new dimmer switch in the dining room (gotta dim those lights for the turkey, right?) and a new hard wired, programmable clock/switch for the outside lights. No more of this dawn/dusk B.S. for me. I spent an extra five minutes actually learning to program the thing, so now the outside lights will go on/off on a timer. Cool!

I'm not sure if there are too many projects left before my folks get here. I know Merrin wants me to install a Heavenly Shower head in the guest bath, but that's a cinch. I think we're going to knock out the last of the wall decor as well. Basically, we're all ready to go except for the normal house cleaning stuff. I may steam the carpets, but that is probably about it.

Since Merrin & I will probably be working most of the time they are in town, they are going to be staying with us rather than at the resort. I think that's a pretty good idea, otherwise we would hardly see them.

That's about all I've got for now. I'll try to be witty or something tomorrow.

As much as I love going to see everyone, it's good to be back in the Lone Star State. (I think I was in Suburban withdrawal or something!)

Lots of new pics over in the Kailey gallery. Some are good, some aren't. That's what you get when I'm taking 'em though. I also got a couple shots of the family and I'll post those soon.

Finally, I got a couple pics of the gorgeous wife, so I'll post those as well!