January 1 is tomorrow. Today is a day that most people spend looking back and making plans for changes in the new year. I, for one, have never been good at making or keeping resolutions. I think it stems from my elementary years when the teacher would require us as students to write down some resolutions. She would then put them in the class folder to return to us at the end of school in May. I would always forget what the resolutions were and when I get it back, I would be dismayed at the complete non-change made.

I have tried in the past to come up with some resolutions but I have found that whatever they are, I do not complete them. So I have in the past found one resolution that I have been able to keep year in and year out.

I resolve not to make any resolutions on January first 2007!!

The past year has been fairly good and I have had my health except for a bout of kidney stones that landed me in the hospital in September. I, also, passed another one yesterday but I was able to withstand the pain so a trip to the emergency room was avoided.

My family is well so I will not bore you with their accomplishments. :)


I hope your family is safe this season and please pray for the families that have suffered a loss at this time of year.

Happy New Year!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for my growing readership and the opportunity to be able to write about anything that strikes me.

I have been rather excited to see the Dallas Cowboys actually playing to the potential that each player has. That is a strange statement to make. These are grown men getting paid a lot of money to go out and play a game. I think that other industries should have the same exposure on them. The NFL is due to make 5 billion dollars in revenue just on the NFL Network deals that they have made with cable and other broadcast outlets. I would love to see them send some of that money into the school systems. Especially since they are building athletic programs up all over the place.

There was a guy nicknamed "Mattress Mac" and he gave a million dollars to the University of North Texas. The AD fired his friend the head coach. Mattress Mac took out a full page ad in the newspaper demanding that the practice field that was to name after himself be named after the fired Head coach otherwise he wanted the money to be moved to the music program instead. I say bravo for that but UNT decided to keep that condition so that they would not have to move the money. I now say that Mattress Mac should donate another million to the music program anyway!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Election Day!!

Did you vote?

If not, I don't want to hear any complaining from you. This is one freedom that should be protected by action. I stood in line for more than an hour to vote and still people got tired and left the line. I think election day should be a paid holiday but only if you can prove that you voted!!!!

FYI: my vote for gov in tx lost. Well it was a protest vote against the established two-party system. I really do not think that any independant will ever win an election.

Hope your canidate won, unless it was one that beat mine!

So the Cowboys lost to Washington. I was disappointed but not really surprised in the on-field antics of T.O. That little lay-down cost 15 yards. The end of the game was interesting in that the face masking penality was called a 15 yarder but should have been a 5 yarder from my understanding of the rule book. Oh well, next week will be here soon enough.

I only brought it up because I saw the game without snow. I have great picture now. But not as nice as the "Joneses" down the street. He has HD-TV. I really don't see the great difference as it is still just TV.

I cooked a steak on my new grill. I overcooked it because I am not skilled enough yet to time out the dual side cooking technique. Another steak is in the waiting.

Check out some of the people that I have linked in the Rattling Chains section. I don't agree with all of them but I do find them interesting reading.

We went to a restaurant last night and I had a steak, per my normal choice. Red meat for me without any fancy sauces or gravies. In fact, I am getting tired of "peppered steak"!

I want a slab of beef with a little lemon and little salt and cook it medium rare. And, Dear Waitress, do not tell me that it will have a "warm pink center"! I have been ordering steak that way for years. I do that because while you are out smoking your cig and my steak is sitting under the heat lamp, it will not become shoe leather by the time you deliver it to my table.

Sorry had to rant there. But shoot, I know what I like on my food. I understand that she was just verifying my choice because all chefs cook differently but still. I will not EVER send food back to the kitchen to be recooked. If it is under cooked (from the way I ordered it), I will ask for a to-go box and cook it at home.

Speaking of cooking at home: I just got my birthday present. I got a dual-surface grill, more commonly known as a George Forman Grill. But mine is not a GF grill. It is a Westbend. It was cheaper and I think better designed because it can open all the way up and you have a large one surface grill. I have cooked FROZEN chicken breast in 10 minutes without defrosting the chicken. That is such a time saver. I have yet cooked a steak on it (that was the main reason I wanted one) but I can't wait.

Hope your weekend is great with the extra hour of sleep that some of us in the US enjoy tonite.

I am in the process of learning how to update my blog. I have added a blog roll to the sidebar and have put two of the blogs that I enjoy reading. Strangly both started out as teachers. Now one is a stay at home mom with a new baby. I will let you decide which one.

I am also considering providing coffee mugs to my readers. If you are interested in this offer let me know by your comment. I will provide more detail soon. Let me tell you this though: The mugs are completely personalizable to a person. So you could have your own Chains Rattl'n coffee mug with your name on it. The design is still being worked on but the cost will be in the neighborhood of $15.00 per mug.

Please let me know how I am doing as a blogster.

Television Choices and High Speed Interenet.

I have been holding out on getting any satellite or cable TV programing ever since I heard last year about the city of Keller, Texas being the first city for Verizon to go with FiOs to the edges of the city. Last week my neighborhood (not in Keller but another city in N.Texas) has joined the wave of FUN!!!. I now have more choices of TV programs to not watch, but the Cowboys are going to be snow free this season. I always felt that watching a Dallas TV station on "rabbit ears" should be clearer than what I got. BUT NO!! I now have snow free viewing and superfast upload and download speeds. I was already cooking with my DSL connection but now it is flying at the speed of light (once it leaves my house and is translated from copper into light).

My wife is excited because of all the Christmas programs she can watch as she grades papers. My son is excited because there is a video on demand feature that allows him to watch endless showings of Sponge Bob. For me, Football and Baseball---SNOWFREE!!!! (unless I am watching a Yankee team attempt beat up on the 'Boys at their northern home.)

I did not spring for the DVR option as we have video tapes out the yazoo. Call me cheap.

It bugs me!!!

My son said something wonderfully insightful today and I can't remember it. Man, I need to carry around a notepad. I hate doing that though. I never like to carry things in my pockets other than a wallet, change, and keys.

I wish I had a better memory.

Oh it just came to me.

We were eating at Pizza Hut and on the placemats were some games and questions. The questions were like: Where would you go if you could travel back in time? and What would you do with a million dollars?

The question that my ten-year-old son answered with insight was: If you were stranded on a desert island and could have only one possession, what would it be? He answered: "A big, powerful boat."

I thought that showed great insight and planning. I said that I would take my pillow.


Something tells me that he takes after my wife's side of the family.

I just got back from the Texas State Fair. It is awesome. It ends this Sunday. I spent very little money because I refuse to get suckered into the sideshow games and because I took advantage of the DrPepper special admission price on Tuesdays. All ride are $2.50 on Tuesdays as well.

I don't go in for the rides that spin you around and throw you up in the air. I like more tamer rides like bumper cars. Must be my age showing. Oh well, I am sure that they will not go broke if I do not ride them.

I liked seeing the card stacker. He has created the Dallas skyline out of playing cards. For more info about him, please go here.

They also had a small exhibit of DrPepper stuff from the Waco museum. Take a tour of the real museum here. I have a small collection of DrPepper items that I have collected over the years but nothing that compares to the collection in Waco. If you are in the mood for a REAL DrPepper, you have to go to Dublin to get one. Oh that is Dublin, TX, by the way. Worth the trip in mid-June when they rename the town to DrPepper, TX. The Real DrPepper tastes much different from the one that is mass produced across the world. Check it out here.

At the State fair is the Largest Car show outside Detroit and boy do they have cars. I was overwhelmed and did not even see all the exhibits. I guess I will have to go back next year.

Today is FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH!!!

It affects those that have a ailment called Tridecaphobia. Do you suffer from it? I don't but some people are so afraid of the the number thirteen that buildings have been built without a 13th floor. I used laugh when I thought about a building that does not have a 13th floor but has floors above the missing floor. I wondered how the floors could have been built. I mean did they build the 13th one and then remove it, leaving an empty space where the 13th once was? After I got older, I realized that the floor numbered 14 was actually the 13th one, so it does not make sense to number 1-12 and then 14 to whatever. Over in South Korea, the number 4 is considered the "death" number so one can find a 13th floor there but not a 4th. Items are never sold in sets of 4; either threes (most common) or larger. It is interesting what "scares" people. What are your fears? I really don't have any fears other than the fear of failing. Which, of course, is a self-fulfilling fear. I must work on that one, but I am afraid that I won't be able to conquer it. Have a good weekend.

BOO!!