I am very lucky to have such a great network of friends and family. These are people I rely on, people that make me laugh, people that I respect. They vary in personality traits, but not one of them have a pessimistic outlook on life. I stumbled across something a friend wrote and felt the need to share it. If I had an ounce of the strength this guy has I’d be unstoppable:

“I sit on my ass all day and collect your hard earned tax dollars (Social Security). I enjoy hanging w/my friends, family and my homies(the plastic ones). I don’t hate anyone because life is too short, so all you haters out there are wasting your lives away. I believe people can change, so I do give them second chances. I think we are all connected through the universe somehow and will find out how one day. On September 7, 2000 my life took a dramatic change. While surfing, I hit the top of a wave late and got piled drived into 1 1/2 feet of water breaking my neck and drowning. I was revived after 15 minutes and am very fortunate not to have suffered any brain damage. Open ocean sailing was my passion; I sailed across the Gulf of Mexico 4 times, the Caribbean, and logged 6000 miles in the Pacific. I then spent over a month touring Europe. Three weeks after I returned home I had my accident.I now spend my days working on a college degree and doing peer counseling at a rehab hospital. If I die tomorrow I can say that my life was lived to its fullest. None of us know what tomorrow may bring, so live every day like it’s your last because it just might be.”

This was classic! I was cleaning our pool yesterday. I talked dallas into helping me by emptying the trap. Every now and again you’ll find something interesting in that trap. Normally a frog or a big spider. I was waiting to see what dallas’ expression would be as she opened the trap. Soon after grabbing the trap she screamed at a pitch that only dogs could hear and did the “shake it off” walk. Turns out a small Ring Neck Snake took a nice dip in our pool for a little drink and became trapped.
I grabbed the little fella and tossed him on the grill. Tasted like chicken really. made a few southwestern snake tacos.

all of this is a complete lie. I was the one who was surprised by the snake and screamed like a little girl. and no, we didn’t eat the little sucker. i think I need to find more interesting topics to write about.

Here’s the deadly ring neck snake:

My father-in-law took Dallas, Carly and I out to sugar bowl this past weekend for a little camping trip. Aside from the jellies and thunderstorms, it was a blast. Good food, drink, company and storm watching. I was under the impression that the storms were going to be active during the day and simmer down at night. Not the case. A masive storm hit at around 1am. Carly was safe and dry sleeping in the air conditioning of my father-in-laws boat. Dallas and I, however, weathered the storm in a flimsy 4 man tent on the beach. At times the wind was so strong it blew the top of the tent down flat. I’m thinking the wind must’ve been in the 35-40 knot range, not to mention the lightning and dumping rain. It was something to see and amazingly enough we didn’t get wet. No one can sleep wet. Here are a few photos of the day and storm approaching.

My father just bought my daughter a portable dvd player. Perfect gift. Like a buying parents 2 hours (or however long the movie is) of time to get done what they need to get done.
As I’m setting up this dvd player for carly; discussing why she was given this great gift and who she needed to thank, I tell her that i wish i could get one. her words “Well, you can’t have one. You need to get little to get one of these because you’re big so you can’t get one of these. pappy said so…”

What say you Pappy?