One I forgot

I had one more picture from the other day that I really liked, but I had a bit of a compositional problem with it. The big bright spot in the upper left corner. But I really like the shot, even with its faults so I will share it. I am a bit photoshop challenged, so therefore I was not able to hide this fault, so there!

Horse Wreck

Heard an interesting term today... Had the inspector come by today for annual termite inspection. Lousy day to do so, but anyway, we were talking and he mentioned a few years back he got in a "horse wreck". A horse "throwed" him and he got all busted up, with broken ribs, collarbone, punctured lung. He's ok, just had to rest as there's not a lot can be done for those injuries. But he got in a "horse wreck". Must be a Texas thing, but its the first time I heard that one.

Ice Storm

Yesterday we had an ice storm. The roads were a mess this morning, starting after supper last night. Today it is warming up above freezing so in all its probably not as bad as it could be but fortunately I can work from home so I really don't know how bad it actually was, other than what was on tv, and it looked pretty bad!

We had a hockey game last night, the roads were too bad for me to risk and shortly after I made that decision, some of the other guys thought similiarly. The rink probably should have cancelled games but at decision time I guess the conditions weren't that bad. Oops just checked the score, looks like we lost 10-0. We obviously didn't have a full bench and from the looks of the shots, we were in pretty bad shape.

So anyway, figured I get up and out to take some photos before I settled into work. I expected a bit more ice on the trees and stuff, but I think I got some good shots.

Peace has returned to the office

Good news in the office today. After several months, maybe even longer, a co-worker's daughter had commited to playing basketball for a full scholarship at the University of New Mexico.

All of us in the office are very excited for Vanessa and her family as now their life can return to normal, as normal as it can get with a daughter going off to college to play basketball.

Congrats! I may have to watch Women's College Basketball in the future. Go Lobos!

Nnaji chooses New Mexico

December Article

Re-organization

Everyonce in a while you have to reorganize things. This past weekend we redid our office area, which was much needed. In doing so you tend to find things that you always had, but had either forgotten about, mis-placed, or otherwise neglected. In our cleanup I found some wedding picture disks that some of our friends had given us some time after the wedding. Well I just posted several on the wedding blog site, including an absolutely fantastic series of shots from Rod Dixon.

Crazy Texas Weather

I rode to work yesterday but took my truck today as I had some errands to run. Tomorrow I plan on riding again.

Interesting weather, sunny, dry, dry for weeks actaully, we are really in need of some rain and some sustained rain. And this dry weather is making for some interesting temperatures.

Yesterday it got fairly mild, it may have reached 70 but not sure. Today it will definately get into the mid 70s and tomorrow its supposed to get into the low 80's. But the real interesting thing was the low temperatures this morning. In Mckinney, which is a bit of a low point, it was 25F. Yet just west of Ft Worth, it was 50F, within 40-60 miles, east/west and with no front, there is a 25 degree variance. This afternoon the temperature will be much more consistent throughout.

The weather guy blamed it on the dry conditions, with the temperatures. He compared it to the desert, where is so dry and the temperature variation between day and night can be significant.

Of course this weekend we will have another cold front, cold and windy and generally miserable on Saturday. If we're lucky we'll get some rain.

First Place

In the words of Ricky Bobby, if you're not first, you're last... Well victory is bittersweet. In the case of the American Eagle Chili Competition, victory means doing it again in a few weeks at the regionals. So, yes, we are on our way to Bedford.



As impossible as it may be to believe, stacked up against 10 other entrants, the judges felt our chili was the best so we received first place Judges Choice!

As always it was loads of fun, and our intent was to win presentation! Who cares about how the chili tastes if your tent looks good! Well that's not quite true, I really do care how the chili tastes and actually put a lot of effort into making a competitive chili.

So this year, we got beat in presentation, by Bobby and Jo-Ann Mims and Bill Davenport, who had a cowboy setup that a movie set would be envious of! Very well deserved on their part. Tremendous effort and in truth I know how much work that is, so would be surprised to see a repeat in the future but very much looking forward to that likelihood.




I learned a couple of things this year, and have some tips going into the regionals. After travelling all over the metroplex the past couple of years, it would be nice if we or Billy-icious could bring it home to Corinth!

It's On!

The Chili competition is heating up! The trash talk has begun in earnest.

Our Annual chili contest is this year. We entered for the first time last year, mainly for show (I can say that now that I have recovered from the taste loss....). So this year I have a bit of a different attitude, focused again on show but with a new theme this year.

A new recipe, I think its a bit easier at least all the spices I can pick up locally. Actually I really enjoyed last years recipe except that one of two cuts of meat did fall apart a bit too much.

We picked up most of our props yesterday and should have all we need.

Not sure if we will join the trash talk or not. I have a feeling we will have a "job" to do later this week and a chili competition is a convenient way to "dispose" of the "evidence"....

New Year's Rides

So far in 2009, the weather has been very cooperative for riding. But I am sure that will change as today for example, we are having freezing rain.

New Years Day is our annual Brass Monkey Ride. This year we are a bit late getting out the door so we caught up with the group and joined in mid-ride. I don't recall the exact number of bikes but I believe I heard numbers of 82 bikes or so, and we were not the only riders that were not part of the official count.

Here's a classic picture of Mini-T leaving the festivities!



We started off in warm gear but the temps got very nice, and standing around was definately shirt sleeve weather, but riding still needed leathers.

Then on Saturday, Jan 3, we had our chapter meeting and went out for lunch after the meeting. It got over 80F that day. I rode in a long sleeve shirt and was very comfortable. There were bikes everywhere and groups of riders. Not what you would expect in January. Of course, typically, a cold front arrived Saturday night, although without the usual light show. It got into the 50's overnight and supposedly got up to 60, but that wind made it feel a lot colder.

50 / 50

Trying to establish holiday traditions can be tough, but you just gotta stick them out sometimes. Last year we initiated an annual polar bear swim in our pool, after a previous effort at a friends house. Last year was quite successful with lots of the boys friends getting wet.

This year we had high hopes for a good turnout, but unfortunately even best laid plans can fail so you can imagine if the plans are poorly communicated..... Especially with teenage boys.

So while we were low in numbers, Marc, Corey and I took the plunge. We had a couple of spectators but no other takers. Other visitors arrived well after the event and far too late to participate.

The air temperature at the time of the jump was 50F. The water temperature was also 50F. Needless to say, the time in the water was short indeed.