Enough Already!

Statement as of 12:50 PM CDT on April 10, 2008
... Public information statement... ... NWS damage survey finds damage consistent with a weak tornado on the west side of San Angelo that occurred during the early morning hours of April 10... A damage assessment was conducted by personnel from the National Weather Service in San Angelo... investigating damage which occured just after midnight on Thursday April 10 on the west side of the city of San Angelo near Arden Road and Glenna street. The survey team determined that the damage on the west side of San Angelo was produced by a weak tornado... rated EF1... with estimated winds around 90 mph and a 150 yard wide path. The tornado caused extensive damage to a metal building... overturned a tractor trailer... and blew over trees and power poles. This tornado was embedded in a line of severe thunderstorms that moved across west central Texas late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning between 11 PM and 3 am... producing large hail and damaging winds. Straight line wind damage was reported in several communities... including Buffalo Gap... Wall... San Angelo... Doole... Coleman... and Brownwood. Additional details are contained in the local storm report product... lbblsrsjt. An additional survey will be conducted in the Brownwood area later this afternoon. National Weather Service7654 Knickerbocker RoadSan Angelo Texas

As if we don't have enough going on here already!!!!

Wordless Wednesday -- Only in Texas!

Thoughts of a Dog

"That little brown dog is gone somewhere with that fat gray cat. I bet I can get away with some fun of my own without them interrupting me."

"Her brand new duck sure looks tasty."

"I bet she won't notice if I just chew on it a little bit."

"Boy, that was good!"

"I feel so happy!"

"Maybe I better get rid of the evidence. I'll clean the duck parts off from my feet."

"Uh-oh, that tall brown haired lady sure is looking at me funny."

"This sure is making me feel a little anxious. I wonder if I am in trouble."

"Maybe if I go back to the couch they won't know it was me."

Poor little Penelope ... she didn't even know what had happened!

The Results

Mandy brought it to my attention that I didn't mention who the winner of yesterday's race was. It was Carl Edwards. And if anyone cares, here are the rest of the race statistics.

Samsung 500
Lap length: 1.5 miles(Start position in parentheses)

1. (2) Carl Edwards, Ford
2. (5) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet (Kenny's favorite driver)
3. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota (Austin's favorite driver)
4. (4) Ryan Newman, Dodge
5. (14) Denny Hamlin, Toyota
6. (35) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet
7. (24) Tony Stewart, Toyota
8. (31) Mark Martin, Chevrolet
9. (8) Matt Kenseth, Ford
10. (25) Clint Bowyer
11. (21) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet
12. (1) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet
13. (7) David Ragan, Ford
14. (32) Jamie McMurray, Ford
15. (41) David Gilliland, Ford
16. (36) Brian Vickers, Toyota
17. (19) Paul Menard, Chevrolet
18. (38) Travis Kvapil, Ford
19. (11) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dodge
20. (30) Bobby Labonte, Dodge (Mathew's favorite driver)
21. (29) Dave Blaney, Toyota
22. (22) Casey Mears, Chevrolet
23. (23) Kurt Busch, Dodge
24. (42) Reed Sorenson, Dodge
25. (10) Kasey Kahne, Dodge
26. (26) Elliott Sadler, Dodge
27. (13) Scott Riggs, Chevrolet
28. (27) Patrick Carpentier, Dodge
29. (9) Mike Skinner, Toyota
30. (15) Robby Gordon, Dodge
31. (20) Michael Waltrip, Toyota
32. (17) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge
33. (40) Michael McDowell, Toyota
34. (28) Bill Elliott, Ford
35. (34) Regan Smith, Chevrolet
36. (12) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet
37. (43) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet
38. (39) Jeremy Mayfield, Chevrolet
39. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford

These four finished, but have an explanation as to their poor finish:

40. (37) John Andretti, Chevrolet, suspension
41. (6) David Reutimann, Toyota, engine
42. (33) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, accident
43. (18) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, accident (Chase's favorite driver)

Race statistics
Average Speed of Race Winner: 144.814 mph
Time of Race: 3 hours, 30 minutes, 41 seconds
Margin of Victory: .399 Seconds.
Caution Flags: Six for 27 laps.
Lead Changes: 16 among six drivers.

Lap Leaders: D.Earnhardt Jr. 1-13; Ky.Busch 14-29; C.Edwards 30; D.Earnhardt Jr. 31-47; J.Johnson 48-83; D.Earnhardt Jr. 84; M.Truex Jr. 85-86; J.Johnson 87-110; M.Kenseth 111-132; J.Johnson 133; M.Kenseth 134-176; J.Johnson 177; M.Kenseth 178-180; Ky.Busch 181-214; C.Edwards 215-229; J. Johnson 230-232; C.Edwards 233-339.

Top 12 in Points: 1. J.Burton, 1,065. 2. K.Harvick, 1,006. 3. Ky.Busch, 1,001. 4. D.Earnhardt Jr., 978. 5. T.Stewart, 957. 6. J.Johnson, 921. 7. D.Hamlin, 913. 8. R.Newman, 901. 9. G.Biffle, 901. 10. C.Edwards, 881. 11 C.Bowyer, 874. 12. K.Kahne, 874.

Nascar Sandwich

Definition of a Nascar Sandwich: Driving 5 hours in the morning, watching Nascar for 6 hours, then driving 6 hours in the evening because the hotels within 100 miles of the race all cost $200/night!

Yesterday was the Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway. Brian and I took Chase and Kenny and their friends Austin and Mathew to the race. Our two families bought tickets together, but Austin & Matt's dad had to go out of town unexpectedly so Brian & I volunteered to take all of the boys so that their mom could have a day at home with their daughter Hayley (who has absolutely no desire to watch cars drive in a circle for 5 hours). The drive up was pretty uneventful and the kids were really well-behaved:

The weather was perfect, the traffic wasn't too bad, and the boys were excited. Heck, I was too. Here are the boys before the race started:

And here they are when everything was just getting started:



Just before the race starts all of the drivers are introduced and the people cheer/boo as loud as they can while the drivers go around the track and wave to the fans:

Then they all drive around the track a couple of times. I was thinking, "This isn't too loud. I might not need my earplugs. Watch this 10-second video:

Then all of a sudden the real race started. Oh my goodness ... it was LOUD!

The boys wore their ear protection all day long. They look so cool and so cute at the same time:

My friend Elaine (from high school!) was in Texas on business so I called her and invited her to meet us there. Notice we are already sunburned and we are wearing our earplugs. So we protected our ears, but not our skin:

She is great with the boys. They just love her!!

Here's a picture of the six of us at the track:

Here's Brian & Chase's favorite driver:



Here are some pictures for pure entertainment:

What is this guy doing?!? Do you think he bought that? Found it? Brought it from home? I have no idea. This was my first race. So if someone else out there knows the answer, please comment and let me know.

This is the typical drunk guy. We have no idea who he was cheering for. All he did was drink, smoke, yell, and get sunburned all day long:



Here is the guy who had a little trouble getting out of the parking lot. I can't even tell you how many cars we saw that looked exactly like this:



Here's another thing we saw a few times too many. This guy ran ahead of the traffic on the way out of the racetrack, ran into the woods to hide from view (see how well it worked?), went pee, and ran back to his car:

The entire day was fun and exciting. Although the traffic was a little bit worse leaving the track than it had been getting there, the drive home was just as uneventful as the drive there:

We left the house at 6 am and got home at 11 pm. That is what I call a Nascar Sandwich!

The Pottery Ranch

While my mom was visiting we took her out for some local entertainment. Fortunately for me (and her too, I suspect) I had a little bit of say in some of our other activities. It wasn't all shootin' and cow hoof stealin'. We also went to the Pottery Ranch to get in touch with our artistic sides.

This is our pottery before we got started. The two square dishes were my mom's. Her plan was to create planters for her cactus plants. The plate was Chase's and the bowl was mine. You can't see Kenny's project in this picture. He decided to make a mosiac tile instead of painting pottery.

Here's Kenny's tile when he was just getting started:

Chase working on painting his plate:

Kenny gluing his pieces onto the tile:



This is what our projects looked like when we left them at the Pottery Ranch. We had to leave them there for a week. The pottery goes into a kiln for firing. I have no idea how long the process actually takes, but to simplify things the Pottery Ranch just tells people to wait a week before they come back. Kenny's mosiac went home with us that day. We had to wait a couple of days to make sure the glue was absolutely dry then we put grout on it to complete it.

Here are our projects now. We were a little surprised at how much darker they were, but still happy with them.

So with this in mind ... if you were thinking of visiting, but we scared you away with THIS POSTING, keep in mind that we have not gone totally off the deep end. We won't force you to go 4-wheelin', shootin', and cow hoof stealin'. Well, if we do, we'll at least take you to paint some pottery when the day is done. Promise.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Invent a new flower; give it a name and describe it.
"Sunshine" -- big, bright, yellow, and in bloom all year long

Soup
Name someone whom you think has a wonderful voice.
Corinne Bailey Rae

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how clean do you keep your car?
4

Main Course
How do you feel about poetry?
I just spent two weeks studying it in one of my education classes so I will say that I have a recent appreciation for learning and teaching poetry. Honestly -- I don't really enjoy it, but I know that as a teacher I am going to have to open my mind to more than what exists in my small self absorbed world!

Dessert
What was the last person/place/thing you took a picture of?
Penelope (see yesterday's posting)

Dear Grammy

Dear Grammy,
I miss you already.
I miss playing outside with you.
I miss sharing your wheat chex with you.
I miss having a personal seamstress.
I miss sharing your ice cubes with you.
I miss getting new pony tails every day.
Most of all, I miss having my hair combed every day.
Please come back!
Love, Penelope Jean

Wordless Wednesday -- Miss You Already!

Expensive Projects

We have a front yard that was once nicely landscaped. The previous owner of this house was not only single (no kids or pets to wreck the grass), but she was a college professor in the Agriculture department. I am assuming she knew a thing or two about keeping the lawn looking nice. Stereotypical of me, I know...but the lawn did look nice. Then we moved in. And when I say we, I mean two adults who don't care for doing lawn work, two boys who prefer to trample the lawn playing football rather than pull weeds, two dogs who pee all over the place, and three cats that do God-knows-what on the lawn when I am not looking. Needless to say the yard has taken quite a hit since we moved in. Last weekend my mom and I decided to tackle couple of projects. I wish I had taken some "before" pictures, but we were so busy working I didn't stop to think about it. Here's an "after" picture of one of the bigger projects:

And here's a smaller project we did a few days ago ... I didn't mean to be in the "before" picture, but my mom took a picture of PJ helping me when I sat down to start pulling weeds.

Here's what it looks like now:

After buying 25 bags of lava rocks, landscaping paper, landscaping sand, and two large pots for the plants in the front we decided to borrow the cactus plants we needed to finish the project from the natural Texas terrain. I don't think they'll be missed. At least I hope they aren't missed too much ... this particular plant in on an airplane heading to NY right this very minute!

And this one is on my front porch. Isn't it cute?!?

The next phase is attempting to turn the grass green. I am thinking that might be more of a job for Brian. I will stick to stealing roadside cactus plants! Just don't tell anyone.