Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my dear wife and me! 10 years of marriage on Dec. 28th!

We celebrated in our usual tradition, dinner and a movie. I took her to the finest restaurant in town, then we saw "Pursuit Of Happyness" with Will Smith.

Every anniversary we've had, this has been our ritual. Dinner or Supper at a better restaurant than we usually frequent, then a movie. Presents, if any, are doled out earlier, or later, or just promised. This year, I received a "just promised" gift. We have to investigate prices and my legs have to be healed before it can be done, but my wife said she would get me another tattoo. I can have a new one, or I can finish the memorial tat I already have, as seen here.



This is in memory of my father, who passed away in 1989. I want to get lettering added to it saying "In Memory Of" across the top, and his name and the years of his birth and death across the bottom.

If you can't make it out, it's a version of this sculpture. This was one of my father's favorite pieces of art, but he never got to see the original. I now carry this rendition on my shoulder in memory of him.

I'm still trying to decide which I'll do. Complete the memorial, or add a new piece of art to celebrate something else, something not quite so sad. Because the "End of The Trail" is a sad piece, a sad reminder of a great people forced to leave their homes, and journey to a place utterly foreign to them, the Oklahoma Territory.

Sorry, I know this started out as a happy post, and I am still happy about my anniversary, but, somehow, I lost sight of the end and it went to a place I'm not entirely at peace with yet.



I still miss him.

Walrilla

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas to everyone! And I know I'm late, but Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends.

Happy Kwanzaa to those of you who celebrate it, and Fantastic Festivus to all the rest of you.

Everybody's gotta have something to celebrate, right?

I Done Been Tagged

Well, guess I've been naughty this year, 'cause I got tagged.


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper, in a frenzy starting about 10:00 p.m. December 23rd.

2. Real tree or artificial?
Artificial, and pre-lit. No sense creating any more of a fire hazard than necessary.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually Friday after Thanksgiving, but we're leaving on a trip soon after New Years, so no decorations this year

4. When do you take the tree down?
The week between Christmas and New Year's.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Where? Where? Lead me to it. As long as it's got plenty of nog and not so much egg.

6. Favorite gift you received as a child?
Electric football game. One of the old ones, where you set up the lines, and switch it on, then it starts vibrating. No, really, look it up. I used to beg anybody and everybody to come play my "Foot Game Ball" with me.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, a very nice one in a Native American motif, hand painted by my cousin.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
Ooooh, hard one. Either my dear wife, or my in-laws.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Dear daughter, obviously. She wants everything she sees, so whatever I get her, it's always just what she wanted.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
What are these cards you speak of.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Oh, probably the time I got dumped by a girlfriend, two days before Christmas.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
Y'all can have your 'Scrooged' and your 'It's A Wonderful Life'. Give me 'A Christmas Story' with Darren McGavin and Peter Billingsley.

13. When do you start shopping?
Used to be December 24th, but after I got married, Dear Wife straightened me out. Now we start on December 23rd.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Very seldom.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Fruitcake from Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Either. It's all good.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
The Muppets' version of '12 days of Christmas'

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I'll be staying home, Thank God.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeers?
Yes, all 10.
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen,
Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen,
Rudolph, and Olive.

You know, Olive, the other reindeer, who laughed and called Rudolph names?

Mean little hussy.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Angel, all the way.

21. Open the presents on Christmas Eve or morning?
Used to open everything Christmas eve, and Christmas Day was when Santa brought everything else. Ever since I got married , I had to change to Eve with my family, and Day with her family. Whatever, it's all good.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The fact that 'shopping season' keeps starting earlier and earlier.

23. Do you have Jebus in your heart this Christmas?
Probably not as much as I should.

24. What would you like for Christmas?
Well, Cap'n said he wanted a wad of cash large enough to pay off all his debts. Me, I want one large enough to pay my bills 4 or 5 times over.


I'm supposed to tag 5 people, but every one I know has already answered this one, so no tags.

Thanks, Cap'n!

The King of Doughnuts

A while back, Christina asked everybody which doughnut they liked better, Krispy Kreme or Shipley's?, Well, brethren, and sistren, too, I have received the vision from the mountaintop. And that vision says, "Get thee hence, to Round Rock Donuts!"

They recently opened a new shop in Temple, and after I got out of Whirlpool Therapy this morning, I stopped and got two of them and a Diet Coke. Folks, I'm here to tell you, those doughnuts were the best I've ever eaten. And this fat man knows doughnuts. Krispy Kreme is tied with Shipley's for a distant third, for my money. Far distant.

I don't know exactly what makes them so good. Maybe the fact that they were warm, or maybe the glaze, which is different from all other plain glazed doughnuts I've ever eaten. The glaze is full of sugar crystals and less smooth than other glazes(in a good way!)

This is a terrible thing. I don't need any more vices than what I've already got. I feel like I could sit and eat a dozen or more. And what's even worse, they are directly across the street from my place of employment.

I guess I'm going to have to get me one of these to survive.

Walrilla

Sorry

I've been a little weighed down lately.

I've been feeling under the weather and I don't know why. Probably just a spot of flu. Or plague. Or anthrax. Maybe Ebola, I don't know. I do know I haven't been able to get warm since before the cold snap at Thanksgiving. Add emergency surgery for Dear wife, in order to repair a hernia, and the necessary attendance on her, and taking care of two kids, on top of the aforementioned Black Death, and putting groceries on the table and under a roof, well, things slip.

Not to disregard you, my dear readers, I know you would do the same. I hope to get back to a semi-regular schedule, but, since we're leaving for a week at the first of January, so my daughter can see some specialists in Louisville, KY, I don't see that happening real soon, either.

You're really not being neglected, I'm just frazzled right now. But I do see light at the end of the tunnel(hey, what are these rails on either side of me, and is that an air horn I hear?)

Walrilla