state fair fried food shocker

fried mac n cheese - not too bad
fried grilled cheese - almost edible
fried pb&J - no thanks
fried gorditas - sounded good, but couldn't pull the trigger
fried whatever else you can think of - it's all at the state fair.

just read the latest fried idea for this year's fair: fried butter. wow. fried butter? fried butter. ayup. count me out on principle, although it almost sounds intriguing. what do you think?

down with the twitterness

i made an account on there a couple of days ago. i was surprised that i haven't found too many people i know on there. it's one of those concepts that sounds really dumb: "why do i want to know what joe is having for breakfast?", but poking around there the last couple of days, i think it could be something pretty cool. there's way more to it than meets the eye. here in a week or so, i'll know if it's something i want to hang onto, or let pass on by. in the meantime, look me up if you're on there, or get on there and look me up. http://twitter.com/daangeruss

and one more thing....

i tend to be rather slow to embrace new stuff in general, but there's one particular bandwagon that i think i'm waaay behind on. . several of my aunts and uncles are on board, my wife is on board. both my mothers are on the bandwagon and now it appears that my great uncle tito is along for the ride as well. i am not on board. i just can't bring myself to create that facebook page. i'm not really sure what my problem is, but i just can't do it. if my grammy gets a facebook page, then i guess there will be no doubt that i have been left behind.

in related news, i'm also a bit intrigued with the whole twitter thing, but i can't even update this stoopid blog more than a few times a year and so how am i going to handle all this other online social networking crapola? i think i'll think about it some more, then do nothing. it seems to work pretty well.

3 months of life gone by

looks like i'm running behind on my 3 months per post benchmark. i just listened to the 911 audio in my last post again. i've heard it probably 25-30 times and it still makes me laugh. pure gold. so here's a quick summary of events/things that might have been el blog worthy, but just didn't happen:

erin and i ran in the north texas race for the cure back in june. it went much better than the last (and only other) time i had run a 5k. gale force winds were not felt, and the temp was well above 35 degrees. i decided prior to the race that i wanted to shoot for a 30 minute time. i hate running, and last time my shins staged a revolt after a quarter mile, thus slowing me down quite a bit. erin and i wanted to try to run together since there were more people there than mcdonalds has ever served. she wasn't feeling too great that morning, and stopped running after a mile. i stopped too, but when i did, my shins blew up. they were killing me if i walked, but didn't feel too bad whilst running, so we quickly made plans to meet up at or near the finish line and i took off running. i wound up pulling a 31:49, which i was pretty happy about. it's not a great time, but i was pleased. we wound up having to meet at the truck because we somehow missed each other at the finish. there were crap tons of people out there. it felt pretty good to support such a great cause.

i took a 4 week summer statistics class. i still don't like statistics that much, but i had a great professor, and it went fairly well. i actually think that the 4 week format is preferable to a standard semester when it comes to a class like stats. probability still makes my head swim, but i can say that the probability that i made an A is 1.

the first week or so of may, my sister and i took a bit of a kamikaze trip out to NM to see grandma nora. we left at 11pm on a wednesday, and drove thru the night. she had been in the hospital for a bunch of problems, and had nearly fought them all back. it came to the point that they put her in hospice care where she actually stabilized and even improved a bit. chris and i got to spend some great time with her. the day we left, there were a bunch of hot air balloons out. it was pretty cool. even better was that when we stopped by to see her on our way out, we could see them out her 10th floor window. we wheeled her bed over towards the window so she could see out, and we all enjoyed the view. it was a great visit and i'm very glad we went. she passed away a week or so later. along with chris & brant and rob & rashahn, erin and i drove up to albacranky for the funeral, and then drove up to taos where she and grandpa are buried. it was great to see almost all the family, but of course it was sad to see grandma go. the great thing is that we have the opportunity to see her again. we've got a great family and i look forward to spending an eternity with them.

erin had never been to taos before, so while we were there, we did the whole taos tourist thing. i love that place, and it was fun to walk the plaza and see the gorge and drive by some of the houses grandpa had built. we ate at michael's kitchen for dinner, which was awesome. on our way out of town, we stopped to grab one of their famous cinnamon rolls. it was HUGE!

for the 4th of july, erin and i and a couple of our friends, brandon and jj, went to the addison fireworks show. we went to what i call ground zero, otherwise known as addison circle. the fireworks are super close and there were a bunch of food and drink stands set up, as well as a few carnival rides. i'm not a fan of paying to be spun in circles to the point of vomiting, so we stayed away from those. there was an air show before the fireworks which was pretty cool. the news said there were about 400,000 people crammed into tiny little 4.4 square mile addison. and we were in the middle of it. we arrived early and stayed late so we didn't have to deal with the huge crowd that much, but still, that's a crapton of people. it was still fun though.

nearly 12 years after taking my first community college class, i finally finished up my core stuff. just last weekend i registered for classes at UNT. i'll be studying speech/language pathology. i'm excited to start in on some real classes geared towards what i actually want to do. it's amazing how much time i've wasted in terms of getting school done. at least now the end is in sight. it looks like i might be able to finish my bachelors in a year and a half than another year and a half or so for a masters, then it's done. giddyup.

and now for some pics:

loads of people and some airplanes


brandon & jj


that styrofoam thing is one of the big ones you would get if you wanted to take your dinner home with you


taos gorge (rio grande)



cousins sleeping. i think remmy moves around a bit when he sleeps



cell phone pic from grandma's window

i think it's a train...................yes.

just a story that caught my attention. stop me if you've heard this one. drunk lost guy gets his ferrari stuck on some train tracks in the middle of nowhere. sucks to be him, but it's pretty entertaining to listen to. here's the 911 audio track:



this guy used to come into a restaurant i have worked at. he's a pretty nice guy every time he came in, and i've parked said ferrari a few times. it was a nice ride. here's a more up-to-date pic:

people are stoopid.

2 posts in one day - it's a new record here at el blog de tclops. i just had to rant about this thing right quick:




why such a thing would be even thought of is one thing, but then for some moron group calling for a warning label on it is just plain stoopid.

if you have to rely on a warning label to know that you should probably stay away from a burger with 5 patties, 5 slices of cheese, a cup of chili, heaps of salsa and chips, packed on an 8 inch bun, and tipping the scale at 4 pounds and 4,800 calories, you are a complete *&%#!@^ moron.

the end.

first time long time

i laughed when i visited this thing the other day. i've worn shorts/tshirt/flip flop several times since my last post about the water that is frozen. not that anyone reads this thing anyway, but here's some bits of ketching up from the past few months:

i've started a little side gig that i hope will soon replace the valet gig that makes me shave. i've started working with an autistic kid in his home a few days a week. i knew the family from back when i worked at the school district, and ran into the mom sometime before christmas. it's pretty laid back, he doesn't have any major behaviors, so usually our sessions go pretty smooth.

i have a truck now. well, i've had it for what seems like forever, but i now am in possession of the title. now i can run it off a cliff and nobody will care but me.

i've finally procured some more of this heavenly stuff. mmmmm. my old bottle was almost out.

sugar gramps paid us a vist. we had a great weekend stuffed with food, a show at the granada, cabela's, bass pro shops, and of course, a trip to gattitown.

we ran a 5k last saturday. temps in the 30's, winds gusting at over 400mph, and running more than 100ft = suckfest. it was for a good cause, and we survived. our times sucked, but i was glad to have it over (until next year).

on a related note, obama hates the special olympics (see below). i volunteered for this years track and field event that the district put on. i had lots of fun, but forgot my sign. i was gonna bring one that said "obama hates all of you!" oh well. he apologized and i guess it's all water under the short bus.


online statistics sucks. big time. what a beating.

i showed my mountain bike some love, and then hit the trail the other day. definitely need to get some more riding in. i've missed it for too long. plus, GWB loves him some mountain bikin, so there ya go.

some random pics:

new friend

shooting stuff

sugar gramps is down with the green braces too

one of my favorites at the nasher

heart... on a string?

ice ice baby

last night i had to work for a bit. i figured that people would be smart and not decide to go out to dinner when every weatherman that could fog a mirror was sayin that it was going to ice over. not so much. it was busier last night than it was monday night. most of them were outta town folk out for a business dinner. the good news is that i got to experience the sub-32 temps, the wind, the rain, the freezing rain, and the sleet first hand. for like 6 hours. there were a couple of super bright locals that stayed in the cozy little restaurant probably a little too long. at one point i pulled up this lady's car that was covered in ice because it had been sleeting for about 45 minutes - she looked at me and asked "do you think the roads are bad?" nope. they're probably fine. holy crap lady, what do you think? by the time i left, i could barely open the door to my truck. just walking through the parking lot was an exercise in balance. i wound up driving home without a problem, except for getting the truck sideways every now and then. on accident, of course. ok maybe i did gas it a little once or twice.

now it's morning, and sure enough, there's a layer of ice over everything. except the windows of the truck. they got nice and toasty late last night. my 7:30am class is cancelled. and my 9am lab. suck. at least i get to go to my other lab at 1:30. good thing i have online classes that don't care if its iced up outside. i get to carry on with my studies. yay.

some pics for your viewing pleasure:

@#&%*#@@!

there. i said it. i almost feel better. but first, allow me to wrap up with a small list of things that make my head implode.

[rant]
-paying out the *#@ for textbooks
-paying out the *#@ for access codes to get to online stupidity
-spending 2+ hours trying to configure computer(s) to work with said online stupidity
-morons
-last minute homework assignments with an uncooperative 9 year old
-traffic
[/rant]

serenity now!

science project

we have 2 going on right now. one is in the fridge. i figure there's always a science project or two in the fridge at any given time. the other is karlee's. something was sent home with them in early december with all the information and such. somehow (indirectly of course) her mom found out about it on friday. it's due on wednesday. i never pulled stuff like that when i was a kid. so she's over here for the weekend and it's crunch time. yesterday morning she decided on a subject and we went to work. the big question is:

how does the storage temperature affect the number of leftover kernels in a bag of microwave popcorn?

she has conducted one round of tests so far with 3 bags - one in the freezer, one under a lamp, and one at room temp. she still needs to do 2 more rounds of tests under the same conditions, but so far the room temp bag has the most unpopped kernels. i was kind of surprised although erin seems to think that it is common knowledge that bags of popcorn pop best when left in the freezer. the most fun of this whole process (and the best is yet to come) is karlee's slow realization that a science fair project is a crapload of work. fortunately she's out of school monday so we'll be wrapping it up, hopefully.

is this thing still on?

i guess i lost the will to blog or something. or i was busy. or i had nothing interesting to say. i still am a bit busy and i still don't have anything interesting to say, but i guess since this thing is still up, and on account of it being close to new year's,  i might as well as type some stuff for all you 2.3 people that read this.  

i think that since i last posted something, thanksgiving, Christmas, and new years have all come and gone.  all three were splendid as always.  i mostly perfected my now world-famous baked mac n cheese and also came up with a pretty good apple-pumpkin pie.  now it's a new year and there's no room for that kind of gluttony.  only apples, spinach, plain yogurt, legumes, and chili's cheese fries (2070 calories, 160g fat).  it's new years so i gotta eat right and stuff.  at least for a little while.   

i bought a new bike sometime after thanksgiving.  erin thinks it's ugly and that i'm crazy, and my cousin micah said there's no way he would be caught dead on a bike that looked like that.  all the shiny parts were rusted out, the paint was bad and pretty dirty, and the tires were rotted out.  the good news is that it was cheap.  and it has fenders and a rack on the back for stuff.  i figured it would make a decent little commuter bike - something i could ride to school every now and then, and also quick runs to the grocery store.  over the past two weeks, i've replaced the tires and tubes, and taken simple green and a brillo pad to all the parts and pieces i could pull off.  it's still not exactly pretty, but it's much improved - then i zip tied a milk crate to the back.  all i need is a small dog to put in the basket and i'll be set.  maybe one of karlee's stuffed animals.

this is what it looks like now:

this is a random bike i saw in mexico this past summer:

 

in other news today, erin and i just cleaned up the apartment.  it is now worthy of visitors, so call us up and drop by quick.