I Love My Family

Well just a quick note to my family. I love you and God willing and the creek don't rise I will
be seeing you around 2 or 3 this afternoon. I look forward to it.

Elizabeth, Emily, and Gwen I love you thissssssssss much!!!!!!!

Mom and TK I love you guys lots too.

God's Blessings this morning.

Color Purple

Several years ago I was following a Florida columnist, Bill Maxwell, who was a visiting Angelo State University as professor of English and Journalism. While in Angelo he still wrote his column for a paper in Florida. He wrote about teaching black literature to the ASU students and he mentioned the novel The Color Purple. His article piqued my interest in this book and recently I found a copy close at hand and started reading.



The novel was written in an epistle style where the main character wrote letters to God. As the novel gets on then the main character's sister write letters to her. The book is interesting and powerful. It gives much insight into the African-American culture of the early 20th century particularly in the South. The ending can tear your heart out.

But I had a hard time continuing the book after several chapters. This book should be rated a hard R. There is a lot of domestic abuse, a lot of graphic sex and sexual abuse, and other adult situations. The book could have stood on its legs even without this but it may not have given insight into the black culture. I DO NOT RECOMMEND Reading this book due this alone.

I remembered when the movie came out in the mid 80s and knew it had gotten Academy awards and what not. And that Oprah and Whoopie received a lot of attention in those early years of their careers. So I rented the movie wanting to see if Spielberg was faithful to the book. I was nervous that he kept a lot of the rough stuff in the movie. The Movie was very good and though faithful for the most part to the book, Spielberg shot many scenes with only the inference of abuse and graphic sex, though some of the adult themes were obviously kept in the movie. The adult themes alone keeps me from recommending the movie. I am tentative on recommending it. Though it was not as hard as the book it was still tough to sit through. The movie was well done and beautifully shot. The acting was outstanding.

Basically the book and movie left things in my head that I really do not need there.

If this story is only half accurate about black culture then I learned a lot that I had not realized. Did I see Mr. __________ as a sympathic character?...not really. Not as Bill Maxwell mentions.

Left Behind: The Kids Series

In a parallel series to the original Left Behind Series, the Kids Series is a pretty good read. Action packed and non-stop is how I would describe them.





Emily started reading them before the end of school and has been continuous in her reading since then. I do not know where she is now but in the early 30s (there are 40 books in the series). I decided to read them along with her. I have been a book or two behind her but I may have passed her in the last few weeks since I am home alone.

This series is definitely an exciting way to learn about the Gospel and God's reaching out to us through His Son Jesus. I may just have to read the adult Left Behind series now.

Tram And Feeding Squirrels

The girls have been wanting to go up on the tram so they could feed the squirrels and chipmunks. The view from up there is great. You can see all of Estes Park and more.

Elizabeth was really excited and had asked everyday if we were going.









Here she is getting a squirrel to come up and take the peanut from her hand.

Fat Albert!

This is one of the Pallissard's ground squirrels who hangs out and eats behind the house. Who knows if this is Fat Albert the First or one of his kids or grandkids but we call the fattest squirrel here Fat Albert.






It seems the squirrels and chipmunks love watermelon rind.

Carry On My Wayward Son: Romeo

This Romero a white German Shepard who lives at one of the christian bookstores in Estes Park. He is a very calm and lazy dog. Who loves to be petted and have attention. We learned that Romero is a Los Alamos native! He was an abandon puppy from Los Alamos due to the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000. The owners picked him out and adopted him. A very special dog who has a wonderful home now.

Travels

Well I am off to Colorado to visit my family and in-laws. It will be nice to get away from LA.

Mom I forgot to tell your Happy Anniversary yesterday on the phone. I thought about it all day then forgot when you called. I love you both very much.

Elizabeth, Emily, and Gwen...I love you and hope to see you soon today. God willing and the creek don't rise.

A Picture From The Ether

Ramona (Gwen's cuzin) sent me this picture from her cell phone. This is at the hospital where Gale (Gwen's mom) is having surgery to replace a replacement value in her heart.
Elizabeth looks to be clowning around with Marmalade the clown. It is wonderful to see Elizabeth. Now if Ramona would send me pictures of the rest of my family. :)

All Blacks Win!

First Tri-nations game against South Africa....the ABs won 19-8 or something like that. It sounded hard fought against the reigning world champions from SA.

A good win against a side that could really test the All Blacks. So far Ireland and England did not put up much resistance.

A Little Shooting Today With Friends

Near lunch I wanted to go to the range for some strange reason. So I called Steve to see if he want to go. After looking at schedules he said he wanted to go and he asked if he could bring Caleb. Not a problem. I loaded up my long range rifle for Steve and me to shoot and brought two 22lr for Caleb when we got around to shorter ranges.

It was hot and the mirage was pretty bad. I could not hit anything at 300 yards but Steve seemed to have some luck on a prairie dog target. We moved into 15 yards and we set Caleb up to hit a prairie dog. He borrowed the cricket that we got Emily and was able to hit most of the target most of the time. He did very well and was excited. He took the target home to show his Mom and grandparents who happened to get to the house right before he got home.

We also got a chance for Caleb and Steve to watch two guys shoot trap. They were pretty good shots so it was fun to watch.

We packed it in since it was pretty hot. It was a good day at the range and Caleb got to doing his first shooting with his Dad. A memorable moment. Hopefully he will want to do more.

It started raining this afternoon and hailing a bit. Not bad though. But the rain was needed.

I am missing the family and wishing for hugs and kisses.

Strange: Pringles Not A Potato Crisp

Yep you heard it here first...well maybe not first.

Pringles not potato crisps - UK court

Reuters | Saturday, 05 July 2008

Fans of Pringles are savouring a court ruling that the snack is not a potato crisp.

The judgement is likely to save manufacturer Procter & Gamble Co (P&G) millions of pounds and ensure its customers will not have to pay more for the distinctive-tasting snack in a tube.

P&G had gone to the High Court in London to appeal a VAT and Duties Tribunal decision in May that the snack was subject to VAT as it was a potato crisp product, unlike most foodstuffs that are exempt from the tax.

With global sales of one billion dollars, P&G had argued Pringles were not similar to potato crisps, due to their texture, "mouth melt" taste, uniform colour and regular shape which "is not found in nature".

P&G also maintained crisps do not contain non-potato flours, and are not packaged in tubes, while Pringles are more like a cake or a biscuit as the snack is manufactured from dough.

"This appeal is allowed because Pringles are not, on the facts found, products 'made from the potato, or from potato flour or from potato starch'," said Judge Justice Warren in his judgement.

Shattering Day

Well today was pretty good. I got a lot of work done around the house and ate at home.

I fixed the new lawn mower by moving the old lawn mower blade to the new one. The new one got bent a few weeks back when I hit a tree stump with it. The old lawn mower had had problems in the past and our neighbors fixed it when it broke on their watch. They did not have to but they did. When they got it back together the old mower shook a good bit and made it hard to mow without your arms starting to tingle from the shaking. So I bought a new mower and kept the old one for mowing dirty jobs and/or parts.

Interestingly enough when I removed the bend blade on the new mower I noticed that the blade was not in the same direction as the old mower. I carefully study both mowers and they both turn the same way and the blade on the new mower had the sharp edge aligned correctly. So the old mower had it blade on backwards with the blunt edge moving in the cutting direction. Funny thing is that it cut the grass just fine other than the shaking.

I though hmmm maybe this is why it shakes....maybe being backwards it is out of balance. But once I got it on the new mower and working correctly then the new mower now shook similarly as the old one. But it was still functional and I got the yard mowed. Yea!

Now for the shattering part. I was cooking dinner for myself and had broiled a steak in the oven in one of our square Pyrex (spell) dishes. When I was done I placed the dish in the sink and without thinking turned the water on it to clean it up before the crud set on it. Well that was a mistake....you think? The dish went from about 450F to about 75F and of course it went from a nicely formed dish to popped and absolute glass pieces. Any that were still pretty good size, which was about 4 pieces were shattered but holding together. Luckily for me it all seemed to stay in the sink and none flew up or out. I was in shock...I had never had a Pyrex shatter like that. Maybe it was not Pyrex. Sadly it was a wedding gift and fit a nice square wicker basket. Oh well.

I got out our "bought to clean up ugly messes" vacuum and cleaned up the mess. And vacuumed then swept the kitchen floor to be doubly sure. I guess the lesson learned is even Pyrex has changes in temperature threshold limits. :( One would think as a fizzicist that I would know better. Praise the Lord.

The bourbon steak and pasta frigoli soup was wonderful though.

I have been watering most of this evening. I have two more spots to cover and all is well. Laundry is slowly but surely getting done too.

And Zoe and Carol dropped by and of course Zoe was looking for the girls. I gave her a treat and visited with Carol a good bit...mostly about New Zealand of all places. She vacationed there in 2004. Always nice to visit about NZ. And to boot a stranger mentioned, "Nice jersey" to me in the Smith's parking lot. I happened to be wearing my All-Blacks jersey. :)

Los Alamos Transit

Well yesterday was a busy day with me getting almost everything done I had scheduled, plus a bit more, without having to start my truck up.

I need to go to work and get some of my snacks out of the fridge then to head downtown for some chores then back to the hospital for blood work. I decided to walk the whole way for exercise.

When I got to work I found out that my appointment was in less than an hour and I needed a way to get downtown to do some chores first. Then I remember the transit system that is free which I had just rode on Tuesday for the first time. So when I left the lab I headed for the transit station which is located on lab property at the guard gates.

As I was walking up to the station I noticed from a distance several kids playing and laughing at the station and thought wow who would be riding the bus with that many kids. As I got closer it was Steve and April with their kids plus a couple others. I had forgot they were going to try the transit system up from White Rock to the Farmer's Market. They have to switch buses to get downtown. Turns out alot of folks had the same idea so the bus was full full.

I got downtown and went by the insurance place then by the post office for stamps. I needed to go by the library and to the grocery store but did not have time before getting blood worked up. So I hiked to the hospital then home. After doing some chores around the house and eating it was time to head to a movie. I walked to the end of our street and jumped on the bus with ten minutes to go before movie time. I had to switch buses for downtown at the transit and then I was let off right by the movie theater. I saw Hancock which was a bit slow at the beginning and seemed to be not so good but by the ending it had some twists that made it worth going to see. I then had to hike to the post office to mail some letters and stuff.

At this point a storm was coming so I headed home on foot hoping to get picked up by the bus if it started to rain. Luckily I got home just as the rain started. So I got some good walking in while doing chores today.

I stopped by the library on the way home and found the books are in White Rock. So I checked the bus schedule and found out I just missed the departure bus to white rock and it would be an hour before the next one. I did not have time to wait since the library may close so I drove down. I took Tali a present from Emily and stopped by the library then went to the White Rock grocery store to get stuff for today. Then headed home by then it was getting late and I still had some chores to do at home.

Anyway, it was an interesting day and if one is not in a hurry then the transit works well. I got somemore laundry done and hit the hay.

Today I have gotten more chores done and exercised and ate breakfast. I need to keep working and get a shower.

Happy 4th everyone!!!!

Another 300 yard target for M.E.

We went to the range again and Emily gave the long range rifle another try. When she focused then she dang near hit the bulls eye. I am very proud of her.

Horned Toad!

Yes! For what now has been probably 30-35yrs, I have lived in the absence of horned toads. There was a time when I was a kid that we found them on a regular basis. Then for years I have not seen one.

From a friend, who turns out to be a bit of horned toad aficionado, I learned that there are some in New Mexico but they are not the Texas brand of toads. Emily saw a toad last summer in the Jemez while camping with the Grahams. It was her first sighting.

Sunday while I was walking back from a target at the shooting range a horned toad ran out right in front of me. I was very excited. It was smaller than the Texas toads I remember and its head was a totally different shape than the Texas ones. Wish I had a camera.

Turns out that there are about eight different species of Horned Lizards in North America. Sorta interesting to learn about the different Horned Toads. There is a Horned Lizard Society too...so check it out.

Emily Goes 300 Yards !

Emily is pointing at the bullet hole she put in the target at 300 yards! Yea! (The other three in the black were Dad's but this one bullet hole is all hers.)



How did she do it you ask? Well....


with Dad's Tinker 22BR. Yep she used Dad's long range rifle.








Here with the 22BR from a different direction. Utopia shoot watch out.






When we arrived at the range she shot her Cricket 22LR then moved on to the Remington Model 25 pump that is chambered for the ole 25-20WCF. The exact same rifle that Aunt TK and Dad used to kill their first deer.

She enjoyed shooting this little rifle but soon decided she liked shooting Dad bigger rifle better. How quickly the graduate.

Elizabeth On Her Trike

Elizabeth, first time, on her trike. She is working hard to learn how to ride it by herself. What a joy....well maybe not her face at this moment. :)

Early Mornings: Angelo vs Los Alamos

Wow what a difference between the mornings of Angelo and Los Alamos. Angelo the sun is not up til about 6am...a tad after actually while here in Los Alamos it just keeps creaping closer to 5am.

The temperature is about 85 or more in Angelo with a good bit of humidity while here it must be
in the high 60s at least with no humidity. Los Alamos is just a cool place to be in the morning...no pun intended. Really enjoyable. And with daylight already upon me then no varmints to cross paths with. Maybe a skunk but so far no sightings yet since it is daylight.

On another note, I have had the makings of a BBQ review blog for several years now but I just have not bothered developing it. Emily discovered it the other day and wants to help me with it. So we should be unveiling it in the near future for the few visitors I have here at the Bubbalog.


I might be able to get a couple of reviews out this time since I ate BBQ four out of the five days I was in Texas. :)

Heading Home Today

Well I will be heading home today. Looking forward to seeing my family again.

God willing the creek don't rise.

I love and miss each of you very much. Love you Elizabeth, Emily, and Gwen.
Oh ok...Candycane, Rescue, and Blueberry too. ;)

See you soon. Love ya.

The 3rd Annual Utopia ShootOut & BBQ

I arrived at the ranch at about 8:15pm just in time for them to squeeze me for some sighters. I needed to be on at 400yards and was only on at 200 yards. I got it done just in time for them to start on time at 9am. I had to make one adjustment when doing official sighters right before starting our rounds. I drew 6A which is Lane 6 and circuit A. So I was first up in the relays. The start was a bit slow for me. Hitting only the biggy and one medium. Leaving a medium and all five small ones. Yikes. Looks like a long day.


This is a view from behind of the benches. There were six benches in all with 3 circuits or rounds.







Here is a look at boards with pigeon layout. The scoring was 10,20, and 30 for big, medium, and small in that order. There were two boards with 3 lanes each on them.







A view of what the shooter saw when looking downrange. You can see the boards at the end of the clear field.








Here is a look in the opposite direction from the benches. This is back the way we came in...and that is my rifle resting from its job.

At the start I thought I would be in the hunt for Dead Ass Last but each round I picked up steam a bit and by the last board I hit 1,2, 3 leaving two small ones. Not bad. That was as close as I came to sweeping my five boards. I finished 13 our of 17.



The Utopia Shoot-Out and BBQ