No more room.

Just wanted to post this pic to illustrate the seating arrangement in the Suburban.  There is a little girl's (blonde) head poking up on the right side of the picture.  The reason that there isn't a pile of luggage in the rear (usually there is) is because we pulled the trailer.  

On the way I asked my wife if she would drive.  I don't know why she does this, but she keep a pile of stuff at her feet when we go on a trip.  This is what I had to deal with at my feet.  Somehow she can sit Indian style for long periods of time.  

El Toro Negro

I GOT to have my Big Mac

We were on our way back from the Thanksgiving fiesta and you know that the kids can't go more than a few hours without wanting to eat.  We were easily persuaded.  We didn't want to fix anything when we got home.  

We took the trailer with us because my wife's parents bought a new house and gave us a bunch of stuff they didn't want for our upcoming garage sale.  So we were parked on the drive thru side of the McD's parallel with the drive thru line.  My wife and several kids go in to order etc.  

I am watching the kids and look over at the cars in the line and noticed this car come around the corner.  This lady didn't seem to care that her car was riding or it's rim.  She acted like nothing was wrong.  I guess some people's cars lean.  She got her food and left the Mcd's, turning on to the highway in front of the store, like nothing was the matter.

I guess that some people NEED their Big Mac, no matter what it takes.

El Toro Negro

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