Crazy Dog Bloggers

I like to look at other people's blogs.  Blogger has a place where you can click next blog.  I think it goes to random blogs they sponsor.  

I hadn't really planned on posting today, being Thanksgiving and all, but I saw a blog that I just had to comment on.  It falls right in line with my crazy cat lady thoughts.  The blog was called, I think, my life as a dog.  It was nothing but pictures of their dog.  Pictures in the park.  Pictures in the snow, mud, trees.  Pictures at the beach.  Pictures of the dog running, playing eating and going BIG.  I didn't see any people.  Probably because the person taking the pictures has no friends.  Only a dog.  Must be that anyone can get a dog, even social outcasts.

I guess it is good that people like that can get a dog.  I just find it crazy that their blog (and more than likely their life) revolves around their pet.  Don't these people have a life?  I am always annoyed by the people that think animals, any animals, are equal to that of a human, no matter how big a loser the human is.  Like these PETA people.  Most are wackos.  

Don't get me wrong.  I love dogs.  But they are more or less expendable, at least in comparison to people.  I have had many.  I once was an avid raccoon hunter.  Max was my favorite hunting dog of all time.  He ended up getting killed one night on a highway.  Dead.  Sad, truly.  But don't lose sense of what is really important in life.  Get the collar and then a new dog.

Isn't it great that we can all have different opinions.  It is just that some of us are right and some of you are wrong.

El Toro Negro

Get Shorty (I've never seen the movie)

OK.  I told you that I had to prove to my wife and fans that I am the most normal guy in the world.  Case in point.  I have a pair of shorts.  I have had them for quite a while.  I like these shorts.  They feel RIGHT.  The are my shorts, near and dear to my heart.

Well, they have a little age to them.  But hey, you don't throw out your spouse when she gets a little wear to her?  I know, some do.  For some reason my wife hates when I wear these heirlooms.  I can't understand it.  I only wear them around the house, and maybe to the local grocery store.  Nothing shows or hangs out.  What's wrong with them?

El Toro Negro

My Reality

What does it mean when several unrelated people tell you that there should be a reality show made about you or you and your family?  That has happened to me.  These people said it independently, on different occasions.  What is going on?  Am I not normal?  Does my family really resemble a reality show?  And the biggest question, can I make some cash out of the deal?  

I claim to be the most normal guy in America.  My wife, however, thinks differently.  Thus this blog was born.  I am proving to the world that I am just like anyone else.  I need to ask these people what it is exactly that causes them to say that.  It has to be something my wife or kids did.  Surely not me.  I don't really know.

What I do know is that I like my life, my wife, and my kids.  I hear all the time from other men how they can't stand their wife or kids.  What the heck is up with that?  I don't understand.  And when did kids become such a liability?  When I tell people we have six kids they can't believe it, or say something crazy like "I don't even want the one I have".  Sure, some things could be different in our life, and we work or some of them all the time.  But by and large I am a happy man.  I love my family.  I love being a husband and dad.

El Toro Negro

Mi Novia

With so many kids (my wife's fault) it is hard to get time to ourselves, except perhaps at 10 pm, and then I am sleep walking.  When we were in college (she is class of '96 at A&M too) we would got to the Hall of Fame with friends once or twice a month to dance.  We enjoyed it quite a bit and weren't too bad either.  We (I took lessons with a girlfriend before I married my wife) even did a bit of jitterbug.  

I have a calling at my church to oversee the program for the young men in our congregation ages 12 to 18.  One of the activities that we participate in are a type of area dance with other local congregations that take place about once a month.  It is really interesting to watch these kids dance.  I'm not talking about the goofy line dances or the spastic gyrations during the fast songs.  While they are fun to watch too, I get a kick out of watching the slow dances.   I swear that sometimes they are going to wear a hole on the floor.  They stay in one small spot, waddling back and forth, like penguins, stiff legged.  

The church we attend has a dance once a year for the adults in the area.  Last night I took my wife to eat and then "dancing".  It was very relaxing to be able to eat by ourselves.  No "I got to go potty" or "He won't leave me a lone".  I had forgotten what that was like.

The dancing was a bit funny.  It had been so long that I took me a minute to remember how to do the two-step and waltz.  The fast dances, well, we left those alone for the most part, content to romance with each other on the slow songs.  Over all it was a great evening.

This is a picture of us before we went out.  I bought here a corsage.  What a surprise.  I don't do the flower thing very often.  She wouldn't pin it on.

El Toro Negro

Mr. Popularity?

The phone is not one of my favorite pieces of technology.  Sure I have a land line (mostly for the fax) and a cell phone.  My wife (mother in law too) hates it that I won't answer the home phone.  Most of the time it is for my wife or someone selling something, even after the no call list!  The people I talk to most have my cell number and they can call that if they need to.  

Today, however, I got a call that was pleasantly surprising.  It was a high school classmate.  Seems that our reunion is coming up next year and he is looking up friends to get them caught up on the party.  It was good to talk to him and I look forward to the reunion. 

After the call I started to remember back to the old high school days.  Friends, events, football games, trips, skipping school, pep rallies, and pranks.  I was not a popular person at the start of high school, a nerd really, but I had the good fortune of signing up for a debate class, and there I met my best friend for the rest of my time in school.  We did everything together.  He was in the cool crowd, and by association, I got to at least hang around some of the "in" kids.  I miss this friend, a lot when I let myself think about it.  He was good for me.

What I really wanted to write about is this idea of being popular.  I heard it a lot during those years.  Who is popular and who is not.  Cheerleaders (see my other posts), jocks, class clown, head bangers, those with money, etc. all vying for a place on the popularity scale.  It seemed so important to a lot of the kids.  Some were obsessed with moving up the scale.  I am not sure why I didn't worry about it that much.  Perhaps it was because I thought I never had a chance to get very far up the ladder.  I like to think it was because I had loftier values or ideals, or that I knew it wouldn't always matter.  Maybe I just didn't care.  

It is funny looking back now.  I haven't heard the word popular in twenty years, not in the terms like I did in high school.  It is a nonissue in real life, yet we were so concerned with it back then.  I suppose that every teenager is.  They are worried about fitting in.  I have one teen now and five more that will be there soon enough.  I do take the time to try and assure them that their value as a person is derived from other things than that of being popular.  

I have been told that I am a bit "different".  I think they are sugar coating it for my benefit.  I don't know anyone that is concerned with being popular.  Not at my church, my work, non of my friends.  What happened.  Did I leave that world behind?  Does that world still exist, outside of high school?  Not for me it doesn't, and good riddance.  I don't feel a loss in any way.  Quite the opposite.  There are too many important things to concern ourselves with besides popularity.

I do suppose that those people obsessed with it are still out there.  It reminds me of the recent presidential election.  It has turned into a popularity contest.  They were never intended to be, and that is one of the reasons we we set up as a republic and not true democracy.  Imagine the most popular person in your high school being president.  WOW.  Not so appealing.  

I guess that another group that couldn't let it go are the hollywood types.  Just look at the magazines on the rack in the check out line.  Remind you of anything?  Who is doing what and with whom?  What did she say about her hair/dress?  Did she steal him from her?  And we are eaten up with worry over what happens to these people.  What a load of hooey.  We are more worried about who will win American Idol (I watch it) than what will happen when the next Supreme Court Justice retires, or where the tax rate will end up come January.  I can't stand the hollywood/music/tv attitudes and view of life.  But what I can't stomach even more is that we care so much.  What have we become as a people?  

El Toro Negro

Little Darling

I know that you have heard the slogan of No Child Left Behind.  Not a program that I am in favor of, at least not 100%.  I have seen and know kids, usually in their teen years, that need to be left behind or at least removed from the "main stream" of the teaching that goes on in our schools.  Their are kids that are so disruptive as to necessitate being removed.  There are also children that do not need to be forced to go through all the classes that are required by the State.  For example.  I know of kids that do not need four years of math, only to struggle the entire time, because their passion lies in hair dressing or delivering packages.  

Closely related to this No Child Left Behind is the idea (I think it started with soccer) that all participants are "winners".  I know that this has been going on since I was a kid because I always got the "participation" ribbon.  My kids always get a trophy at the end of their season, even if their team was in dead last place.  Dang, a kid can have a trophy room that is huge by the time he gets to high school and never have won anything.  What are we doing?  

I hear tell that this line of thinking comes from a philosophy that we in no way can harm the so called self esteem of or kids.  So we coddle them, baby them, let them rule our homes and tell us what they are or are not going to do, let them set their own boundaries.  They talk back and make demands.  We, of course, can not, will not, do anything that will harm their self esteem.  

So what does this mean?  We get kids that are advanced through school and graduate that can't even read and write, much less do the simplest of math tasks.  I bought some blinds for our new house about a year ago.  I went to Home Depot to get them.  They needed to be cut to length.  The little girl that was helping me couldn't even put them on a simple jig and subtract the undesired amount and measure it out.  I had to wait until the next day when the manager would be there.  She had worked there for over a year.  

What this means is that we are churning out high school graduates that can't read or do math, but sure do think a lot of themselves, because mommy and daddy and their teachers have always told them that average or below average, or that to loose, was ok, you are still a "winner".  

Kids need to know that they have a place in the home and that place does not supersede the parents.  They are not the boss.  We should not do "anything" for our kids.  I get sick of parents that storm up to the school to berate a teacher or principal because their little Johnny shouldn't be punished or get that zero.  After all, it wasn't his fault.  Plus, it might make him feel bad.  They need to know that there are levels of acceptable accomplishment and that marks under that level are not tolerated, even if you gave it a "good try".  They need to know also that there are boundaries of behavior not to be crossed.  They should be taught the rules and be held accountable.  

Now I don't want to sound totalitarian, but that is about what it comes down to.  I also think that our kids should also be loved unconditionally.  They will defy us at times, and that can not be tolerated.  But they must always be loved, and told so.  All I have to do is ask my kids "You know what?"  and they will say... "awe dad, I know, you love me".  They hear it often.  They see it often.  

I had better stop.  I could ramble on forever.

El Toro Negro

Old Cat Lady

We all know one, or at least have heard of them.  

So I was in Wal-Marts (for all the Hallies), doing my time in the checkout line, when I realized that the lady in front of me was buying nothing but cat food.  Not the bag of dry cat food for $5.99, but the "Fancy Feast" crap that was $1.39 for a can about the size of a tuna can.  She didn't just have a few.  She had many, many dozens.  Enough that I couldn't quickly count them.  Of course she had a variety of other cat treats.  I quit looking at the prices that were ringing up because I was a bit sick at the thought of spending that kind of money on a cat.  But who am I kidding.  You know she had at least several (or more) cats living/ruling her smelly, hair ridden house.  

So I leave the store and have to run an errand for my wife.  (I am beginning to regret showing her craigslist.  She has bought twice as much stuff on there as I have sold, and I get to be the one that has to go and pick her stuff up.)  Some lamp that matches the decor and fung shwe of our living room.  I arrive at the door of this lady's house that has the lamp and what do I see through the side room window.  A cat dormitory, complete with enough carpet covered tubes and posts to keep at least a dozen cats busy.  And of course I would happen to ring the door bell (no sing) and piss her off.  You scared my cats.  The door bell scares my cats.  We don't scare the cats.  Well crap, lady, put a note that says don't ring the stinkin' bell.  Thankfully only the feet of the lamp have to have cat hair removed from them.  

I am not one to tell a cat loving freak how to spend her money, or how many dozen cats she should have.  If you earned it, spend it how you want to.  But it just seems strange to me to live that way.  I can just imagine how many cat boxes she has to clean and how many loads of cat feces she has to haul out, not to mention how many bottles of febreze she must go through to keep the smell down (if she even tries).  I wonder also what her lint roller bill each month is (if she even cares to remove the hair from her cloths).  

And what about when she entertains?  I always hate when you go to someone's house for a social party, or to dinner at a friends house, and you sit on the couch after the meal only to get up and leave later with more back hair than sasquatch.  Might as well toss your cloths when you get home.  I sure don't have the extra hours of time required to pull off all the hair.  All the washing machine will do is get it on every other thing in the load.

And why are all the crazy cat lovers women, usually single women, unless their husbands are PW?  I have yet to have or know of a single guy that lives with and cares for 15 cats.  Do they exist?  I don't think so.  It must be because a cat's personality and a woman's are closely related.  They are both utterly unpredictable.  You can be scratching her behind the neck, her purring like crazy, one second, and the next she is trying to scratch and bite your hand off.  I've seen cats that do that too.  And just try and explain something them.  They just look at you like "yah right, I'm going to do that.  I'll do what I please".  I just don't get it.  

El Toro Negro

Smelly Smell

One thing that I have noticed is that women smell.  Now ordinarily that would not be a compliment and I'm not really sure it is now, other than to say that women generally smell more pleasant than men.  As we prepared to leave for church I quizzed my wife on the smell subject.  It seems that she always puts on her smell stuff rather strong.  The reason seems to have something to do with that you have to put it on really strong in order for it to last.  

I'm not sure how it is calculated.  Do you put on twice as much as you need for two hours of "smell good" in order to get four hours worth?  What the heck do you have to do to get eight hours on smell good?  My wife puts it on fairly strong in the morning before the half hour ride to church and the three hours we are there.  My wife wouldn't give me the formula to calculate the application rate.  I have to assume that it is a closely guarded secret.  I just feel sorry for the first few folks that have to smell it so strong.  I think that that is part of the formula which reads something like this. 

 "Be sure to adjust the application rate for the number of people you are not trying to convince that you always smell this way who will smell you before you get to the people you are trying to convince that you always smell this good, for they will dilute or absorb some of your smelliness, lessening the amount of time that you will have the smell good ora.  This adjustment in application is critical in order to keep smelling until you have seen the last person that you want to think that you smell this way always.  You must also factor in whether men or women are the last ones you are trying to impress, for men are much easier (to impress), given the sharp contrast in their smell and yours.  If the end smeller is of mixed gender you had better go extra strong, just in case."

I can only imagine the rest of the calculating formula. But for the record, I am glad that women smell good.

El Toro Negro

Post Election...

Well, I'm not sure what to say about the election results.  That might be hard for some of you to believe.  It seems that I always have something to say.  Perhaps it is just that I am so fatigued from the whole campaign/election process.  obama is not my choice, but since he won, I just have to hope for one of two things.  

I hope that he will govern from the center, like he promised he would do.  This, however, might not be realistic.  I mean, the guy is so far to the left that I doubt that even barak could afford a ticket to the center.  With the House and the Senate having a Democrat majority why should he move to the center.  When has he ever told the truth.  I realize the as a candidate he said a lot of things to get the votes, as do all candidates.  But when do the Dems compromise?  When do they make bipartisan gestures?  Never.  That is one of the reason why the Republicans are where they are.  They have been the ones that have continually made the moves to "work together", and in so doing, have caused a great many conservatives to leave the Republican Party.  What we want is to have a candidate that runs unashamedly on true conservative ideals, not on promises to "work with the other side".  

If he does not rule from the center, I hope that we will be able to fight his socialist agenda and stop (or slow) it.  If the Congress won't do it I hope that as a people we will make our voice heard, as we did on the immigration bill that we stopped.  I hope that not too much damage is done before the next Congressional elections or the next Presidential election.  

I guess that I must admit (I am embarrassed to do so) that I have lost some of my faith in this people that make up America.  I thought there were more of us out there that could see what barak is and not allow him into power.  I guess that we will get what we deserve for choosing such a man.  

God Bless America

El Toro Negro  

Chichen Itza

Here are some of the pictures from our trip to Mexico that have been requested.  These were taken at Chichen Itza.

This is an old lady that was selling little handkerchiefs.  Very sweet lady.

The next three were taken at the court yard.

Notice the first one is a player in pads, knees, elbows, etc.  What else is he holding in his left hand besides a playing stick?

This one is a bit worn on the left side (of the picture) but you can see that he has a club/ax in his right hand and he too has something hanging from his left hand.

This guy is kneeling on the ground.  In front of him is a ball with the picture of a skull in it.  What is this guy missing?  Hint.  Look at where the seven snakes are (one snake is missing).  Are they spewing out of his neck?

The next two we are in the courtyard.

And here we are in front of the largest pyramid.

El Toro Negro

Mastication Addicts

I am not a hollywood fan in the least.  In fact, I think that most of what comes out of hollywood is trash, detrimental to the moral fiber of this country, leading us down a path that ends up with a people numb to violence, sex, and reality.  Not the outer space, zombie, giant spiders eating bulidings kind of reality, but the what really goes on in the life of most of us.  Some would call us the fly over states or the "clingers".  

What I used to hear was that hollywood was only making a representation of the world around us.  I contend that hollywood has always pushed where the edge of extreme is.  Identify what line society finds too much, and then make a show or movie about what takes place on the other side of that line.  It might even be a promotion of what line they think the world of "lessers" should accept.  ( This would be the same opinion that the oboma fanatics have.)

But this post is not about the crap that oozes out of the butt of the US.  (I once thought that New Orleans was the butt of the US, at least until it was wiped clean.)  It is about something much more important.  Chewing gum.  Not the type of gum but the chewing of gum.

You see, everywhere I have gone where there is at least a little bit of properness expected, I have noticed that there are still people that chew gum.  So what's the big deal, right?  Have you ever noticed someone chewing gum.  Not just noticed someone that was chewing gum, but watched them chew gum.  It is really annoying.  A person looks really stupid chewing gum.  Like they can't finish eating.  Now in everyday life, shopping at wal-mart, you don't really notice it.  But in a sit down, be quite setting, it is really noticeable.  The next time you go to church just quietly look around.  You will see them.  They will be there, masticating themselves silly.  

I once thought it was the younger generation, teenagers and younger.  But after a while I realized that it is not limited by age.  It is, however, prone to a certain group of people.  That group is women.  The young and those in the "in crowd" are the ones who do it most.  I would imagine that if you started a conversation with one of these women it would include the word "like" an awful lot and center around what someone is wearing.

What in the world does this have to do with hollywood.  Alright, I know that I just went off of that place and those people, but they can teach us a little bit of properness, if you can believe it.  If you will pay attention the next time you are riveted to an almost daily awards show in hollywood, or even in a movie, you will not see them chewing gum.  Oh, there are exceptions.  If they are in the South and are portraying a red neck they will chew gum in a most obvious way.  But when they are walking down the red carpet they will not be caught chewing gum.  At least they know how stupid a person looks when they chew gum.  Perhaps we can take what little good we can find from these people and put it to practice.  

El Toro Negro