Katrina kills estimated 50 people

let me just say that i love my neice, katrina. she is a blessing to this world. she started the 8th gradethis year and is an officer on the drill team, and a member of the volleyball team. i am very proud of her. she was not going to go out for either activity, but changed her mind and made both.
i feel for the people in louisiana right now. they are going through pure hell. i have in-laws there and my prayers go out to them. however, this hurricane will be remembered for years considering that it bears my neice's namesake. i would like to obtain a copy of the local paper in new orleans to put in a frame and hang in her room. is it wrong to toll on death? for certain. is it wrong to find humor in those ironic situations that come up from time to time? Hell no, especially when it will be worth years of teasing and ridicule. even the worst of situations, you should find something to laugh at.
so, for all of the people who think that they have evil children, think again. when was the last time yours wiped out 50 people in one county!!??

loa

btw, i discovered the website of one of my favorite bands from high school. lords of acid. without a doubt, one of the greatest concerts i have ever seen. they will not sell out the american airlines center, but they are still a great show to see. unfortunately, they have not toured for a number of years. but check out their music if you can. and the website has lots of stuff to look through.
one of my other favs, the hunger, seems to be touring again. i hope so. they were so edgy before, i would hate to have seen the last of them.

busy end of summer

man, there is so much going on that these next few weeks are going to be outragously busy. first off, school starts next week. luckily, i am only taking one class, but it is calculus II. that is enough of a pain. luckily, i have a great tutor that really helped me get through the summer course. but i am still not looking forward to it.
refereeing just started back up. between now and november, i have over 30 matches. i know, does not seem like much, but add those to my school, and my full time job, and i stay pretty busy. i have already over the past couple of weeks worked 3 jobs doing 2 freshman and 1 varsity match. if anyone is looking for something to make some money, try to referee some high school sports. the pay is decent if you don't mind watching instead of playing. and the fact that it is only from now until early december really makes it nice as well.
also, i still have lots to do around the house. i have some bushes that may be jacking up my foundation a little. they gots to go. at least i am going to move them. i know where i am going to put them, however, trying to find the time to do it is proving to be the challenge. i did finally plant my wandering jew that i bought over in flint at some hole in the wall nursery. i planted that in the flower box on the front of la casa. i looks decent, but it needs to grow. and the hibiscus that nancy planted are just refusing to bloom. i think they need more sun. but at least they are not dead yet. i really think that we could have some nice landscaping if we could just get some small things done.
my other project is restoring this ancient armoire. the previous owner used it for many years outside. so many of the shelves are shot, there is some rot in it that must be fixed, and the paint is absolutly crap. so i bought some paint remover from the lowes and i am currently working on that. i don't think i am going to take it down to the original wood that thoroughly. i think i want it to have the old redone look, but who knows. i really wanted to get that stripped by this weekend, but we shall see. i have 3 more matches and nancy and i are going to the lake this saturday and sunday.
last and not least, i still have to spend time with the family. i fell asleep with pua this weekend. i really miss not seeing her as much as i could. but once we are out of debt (hahahaha) and i finally get out of school, then i will have a little bit more time. either way, the sacrifices have to be made one way or another for some time.
that is about it. whew. oh yeah, 5 more chapters of harry potter and the half blood prince. another thing that i will finish this weekend. that is the nice thing about the lake. it does give me some free time to get other mental things done. no house work, but book work and catching up on sleep.
till we meet again, and i still won't remember you, amf!!!

Running in Texas is HOT!!!

let me just say that i heard today coming to work that it is supposed to be 95 degreeswith a heat index of 110. damn, now that's hot. i don't mean in the paris hilton kinda way, i mean like frying an egg on the sidewalk hot. i ran yesterday in this crap. i know that running is good for you and all, but after yesterday, i just wanted to get fat and lazy and spend all day 'in the jacuzzi, smoke L's while you do me' like big poppa.
but today is another day. while i will probably not be able to run like the wind, work is interfering, i will at least get the satisfaction of knowing that the heat did not beat me yesterday. and the fact that i have a job that allows me to work out at my lunch break, i am okay with that. school starts back up on august 29th. i am only taking one class this year due to calculus being a royal pain, but i guess that is the price you pay for the education. hey, at least i am in school. i know plenty of people that keep saying they want to go back, because they already have taken like 20 hours. all i can say is go register.
hey, if you can't take the heat, stay outta texas!!!

waiting for photos, disney is expensive

well, disneyworld was a load of fun, however i must say that i feel 10 lbs lighter thanks to no longer having any money which to call my own. what a great place. we rode everything except 3 things this year. we did not make the rockin roller coaster, splash mountain, or soarin. personally, i think that soarin is just impossible to ever get on. disneyworld has this way of riding rides called a fast pass. you use your park ticket, which is like $65, to get a pass for the ride you want to go on. and instead of going on that ride right then, you have to come back at a designated time, at which the 'fastpass' line is much quicker, like a 10 min wait. the cool thing is that you don't have to wait in an hour+ long line to ride something. the bad thing is that as more people get fastpasses, the later the time of the day to come back. and once you get a fastpass for one ride, you cannot get one for another ride for a given timeframe.
so back to soarin. you are on like a hangglider in an imax type setting soaring throught the sky. this ride fills up the fastpasses like nobody's business. we tried twice to get passes, and they were gone by 3pm. which means that to ride it, you have to wait in the line for like 90 min. no way jose.
took lots of photos, however, in burning to a cd, i overloaded the cd and now none of the photos are accessable. so i need to get that fixed and i will post some pics.

family reunion

went to the annual 'kelly-brown-staton' reunion this weekend in the great metroplex that is hagansport, tx. actually, hagansport is a blink of an eye place that has a volunteer fire dept at the community center, and a hole in the wall store that always smells and charges way to much for anything. i bought a 12 pack of dr. pepper there and it was $4.99. ridiculous. anyway, hagansport has not quite worked themselves into a stop light yet. in fact, they do not even have a stop sign nor a 'slow down there's a town ahead' sign.
it was good to see the cousins again, as well as uncle rod and aunt doris. seeing them, dean, and sandy are the only real people that i go see. i only see most of these people during this reunion, so i hate to miss it when i can go. unfortunately, none of the siblings could make it this year. other commitments from the sister, and the bros are so far away, it would just cost to much for the 2-3 hrs of get together time. but it was good to see everyone. we only stayed for a few hours and went back home. we had flown in from disneyworld the night before and got home at 2am to turn around and leave to go here at 9am.
nancy took a nap which turned into going to bed at 5pm. she did wake up for a while, but then passed out again. i put pua down at 7:30 sat night, and she slept until 10:30 sunday morning. that was awesome. she and i needed that sleep so much.
that is all for now.