el blog de tclops

state fair fried food shocker

2009-09-02T12:45:00.001-05:00

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

2009-08-04T11:17:00.003-05:00

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....

2009-07-14T10:38:00.003-05:00

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

2009-07-14T09:09:00.005-05:00

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.

2009-04-05T19:44:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-03-31T23:05:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-31T13:54:00.005-05:00

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

2009-01-28T08:41:00.004-06:00

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:

@#&%*#@@!

2009-01-20T15:10:00.004-06:00

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

2009-01-18T11:07:00.003-06:00

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?

2009-01-10T14:02:00.006-06:00

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.

just a little bit

2008-11-12T15:01:00.004-06:00

hello, my name is russ, er, i mean tclops and i like to procrastinate. one of my favorite sayings is 'procrastinate now! don't put it off'. right now, i need to do some school work, and it's due tomorrow, but somehow my brain is wired to think i have all the time in the world. 22 hours until it's due, and it will only take an hour or so, so i have loads of time. makes sense, right? that's how i always like to roll.

i started a british lit class a week and a half ago - it's a 5 week class and so there's plenty to do in a short time frame. the whole class is comprised of 17-22 year olds. after the first day of class, i had a dream that night that i was back in high school. i woke up thinking it was weird, but i didn't think much of it until the next morning as i was sitting in class, and it hit me why i had dreamed that. i am back in high school. a couple of them are actually kind of cool kids. who would have thunk?

there will be no more blogging from me until i get this stuff done. or until i become bored with it and take a break. whichever comes first.

top ten....

2008-11-08T20:34:00.000-06:00

....reasons to procrastinate:

1.

bumper sticker

2008-11-06T11:41:00.006-06:00

i need to have a bumpersticker made. i may not use it right away, but maybe in a year or so.

don't blame me for this obamanation.

i actually really hope i won't have to use it. do i think that we're all screwed? not necessarily. the far right thinks he's a socialist and the country is going to hell in a handbasket. the moderates are saying that he'll bring parties together and be a transcendent figure and all that. i really don't know what the far left is saying because i just don't pay much attention to those guys. all the 'analysts' are spewing forth what they think obama is going to do and how he will handle the numerous monster issues he will face as president. i'm tired of listening to it. the fact of the matter is that nobody really knows how it's going to play out. well, hopefully obama knows. the rest of us will just have to wait and see. i say enough with the hype and back and forth between experts. i'll just sit back and watch the show, and draw my own conclusions. the next year or so will prove to be very interesting.

politics and religion - the universal argument catalysts. maybe that's why i can only handle short bursts of paying attention to politics - there's always something to argue about and way too many sides to look at.

almost fun

2008-10-28T11:18:00.003-05:00

i love me some softball. i started playing on a coed team with erin earlier this year. i played baseball growing up until i threw my shoulder out trying to pitch sidearm. i think i stopped playing when i was 16 or 17, which was a long time ago. now that i'm playing again, i'm surprised at how well my arm has held up. throwing overhand helps too, i guess. i love playing the game. any excuse to play is great with me. this past thursday, our last season of the year wrapped up. no more softball thursdays until february or march. i'll miss playing every week.

last night, my brother's mens team needed an extra player and i wasn't working so i jumped at the chance to go out and play. i wound up pitching the whole game. i did fairly well - no walks and a swinging strikeout (i tried not to laugh at the dude). not a bad line, except we lost 33-0. our defense made a few errors, but overall they were hitting the ball exactly where we weren't. add that to a horrible offense (myself included), and it was brutal. playing softball is fun. 33-0 is not fun. next time they need a player, i'm in. i'm not sure if that makes me an optimist, or a glutton for punishment.

fair to middlin

2008-10-27T08:38:00.005-05:00

puke fest rides, greasy foods, butter sculputres, big crowds and big tex. fun times were had at the state fair this year. in past trips to the fair, any combination of rides, food, drinks, parking, and admission has always added up to a good bit of change. this year, we decided to go on the cheap. here's the breakdown:
parking: $10
admission for two: $6 - with 2 dr. pepper empties
food/ride coupons: $20
a fun day at the fair for two: $36

one of the highlights was watching the crazy daredevils. will they pull off that handstand 80 ft. in the air? will they fall to their death? can they turn that music up any louder? the lowlight was the car show. boring. there weren't any real cool concept cars other than the new camero. almost all the other cars were ones that i've driven as a valet. the biggest disappointment was the new dodge challenger. outside it looks amazing, but inside and it looks like any other dodge/chrysler product. the only pictures i took were of some pretty rad choppers.

observations from the fair:

1. we just aren't really that into the fried food thing. sharing a corny dog and fried grilled cheese did us in. for desert, we went with a tried and true, non-fried lemon chill.

2. those foot massagers really do make your feet feel better. if your definition of better is beyond feeling, then it's a bargain for only a quarter. that thing vibrated the hell out of my feet to the point where they went numb. by the time the quarter ran out, i couldn't feel anything below my knees. brilliant.

3. who goes to the fair, eats a bunch of fried crap, then gets on one of those puke fest rides? they make me dizzy just watching them. maybe the trick is to get the pukers out of the way at the very beginning, then chow down on an empty stomach.

4. for an event that features such stomach-wreckers as chicken fried bacon, fried gorditas, fried dinner rolls, and fried cake on a stick, there really should be better toilet paper in the restrooms.

some pics for your enjoyment:

dubya likes a good foot massage (stolen from their site)

nice lookin sled

does this really look fun?

don't look down...

ps. ever wonder what the hell fair to middlin means? look it up.

oh the thinks you can think

2008-10-24T18:26:00.005-05:00

oh the places you can go..... i love me some dr. seuss, but this isn't about dr. seuss. this is about all the people i have been able to stalk out there on the innernets. in less than 30 mins and starting from my brother's blog, i've perused a bunch of blogs of friends from way back. seems everyone has one of these things and that i'm rather late on that bandwagon. usually i just smile and wave as bandwagons pass on by, but for some reason i'm along for the ride now. so what to do now? i guess i have a few emails to send or comments to leave or something.

"hello there it's me and i'm still alive. how are you? i am fine. i read your blog it was great feel free to look at mine. yada yada yada."

the whole concept seems so foreign. but i guess it's all the rage now and perfectly socially acceptable so here i am throwing some elbows trying to grab me some personal space on this here crowded bandwagon.

sugarmomma and the trophy husband

2008-10-23T11:38:00.005-05:00

so the wife started a new job this past week which elevated her to sugarmomma status which i guess makes me a trophy husband. so now i have to do stuff like blog about things and get plenty of beauty sleep. she has to do stuff like go to work and slave over a dual flatscreen monitor setup and then come home and think of ways to keep her trophy husband happy. trophy husband likes a moderately clean living environment and home cookin. and fancy cars. and cruises. trophy husband does not like school and work, but sugarmomma says he don't have a choice. sugarmomma apparently calls the shots.

we've done a couple of things to celebrate our new status (stati?). we went to the fair last tuesday which was her one-day window between old job and new job. we went on the cheap (it can be done) and we had loads of fun. we also went to the melting pot - a fancypants fondue place in addison. there was a crapload of food and all of it was really good. we had a wonderful time, but i don't think we'll be back for another few years, kind of like going to medival times. fun/enjoyable/etc, but not something to put on every new year's goals-for-the-year list.

Post 2

2008-10-23T11:18:00.007-05:00

i've just spent the better part of the morning setting this thing up. it's a lot of work. i'm not sure about this whole blogging thing but i figger i'll give it the old college try. worst case it will wind up being a lonely little page swept to the corner of the cyberworld, gathering dust. best case it will in some small way make the innernets a better place to be. stay tuned to see what happens.

just like cooking spaghetti, i'm just going to throw it at the wall and see if it sticks.

post 1

2008-10-23T11:18:00.003-05:00

just a test. only a test. if it were a real post, you would be reading something that didn't expressly say that it was a test.