Category Archive

It’s really a shame I didn’t stay up to catch the end of the Oscars last night. My two best actor/actress picks won. And Avatar did not win best picture.  Jam.

Also, I knew I always liked Sandra Bullock for a reason.  Last night during her Barbara Wa Wa interview, she was asked why she didn’t get married until she was 40.  Her response, “I hadn’t met anyone that was bigger than me”. Totally respect that.

Lastly, the John Hughes tribute was awesome.  He will always be my favorite director.  Hey hey hey hey, ooooooooooooo-ohh.

If someone, who is a diehard NASCAR fan, compliments you on the shirt you are wearing, can you really take it as a compliment?  It happened to me this morning, and while I appreciate the kind gesture, I’m still not sure if i’m OK with it. 

And no, I don’t wear wife beaters to work.  Or t-shirts with the sleeves cut off. 

I only wear those bad boys when I workout.

Is the secret to Gamma’s longevity. A mason jar filled with raisins and Jack Daniels, “aged” in the fridge for at least 10 days. She has a little swig every morning. And this morning, I braved it and took a sip of the sauce.

The result… Probably a hair on my chest. And by my reaction, Gamma called me a “pussyfoot”. What a tough old bird!

It’s a sad, sad day in the world of Austin, Tx and Emily. Via Facebook, I got word that the Kitchen Door has closed down all locations. Remember how I told you about those amazing cinnamon rolls we have for Christmas every year?  The ones we’ve had every year since I was born?

Yeah, well now they are gone with the wind.  I was able to get over a little dip in my 401K from the recession, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to recover from this.  There is only one thing left to do.

Pray for a Christmas miracle.  RIP, Kitchen Door…

Today was a day of mourning, but I managed to get through it with my head held high.  My Elvis homage-paying time was significantly cut short when the 5 hours of Elvis biography television shows I had set the DVR to record didn’t record.  Apparently, I don’t have the Biography channel.  Major Eff!

Luckily, good old KERA came through and I got to watch free public broadcasting special about the “Romantic Elvis”.  I also caught some Blue Hawaii action in the morning before church.

And speaking of Blue Hawaii, please check out my new Elvis cup a friend got for me at the Flying Saucer last week.  The decal turns blue when you have a frosty beverage in it.  Pretty tight.  I did some googling last week to find out what Elvis’ favorite beer was, but since he didn’t drink, that was a problem.  I opted to have a “pop” instead.  It still served it’s purpose…

And in keeping with tradition, here’s my latest Top 10 Things Elvis…

Top 10 Songs to Play on August 16
10. Are You Lonesome Tonight?
9. I’ve Lost You
8. Blue Moon
7. Long Black Limousine
6. How Great Thou Art
5. Bridge Over Troubled Water
4. Peace In The Valley
3. If I Can Dream
2. Always On My Mind
1. American Trilogy

God bless you, E.

P.S.  I attempted some chocolate chip, peanut butter and banana cookies.  Get excited Tuesday night friends…

I took Rock-man to the lake today for a little walk. Unfortunately I took him at 2pm and he started panting after 5 minutes. Not the brightest idea, but I do believe we have a new world record for longest tongue.

I’m pretty sure being able to see both ends of a rainbow is good luck. Which is what I saw on my way home yesterday. I guess it’s time to kick back and wait for my bucket of gold to arrive…

Yesterday, I had the fortunate experience of serving my city with Jury Duty.  This was my first time ever to be summoned and I’m not going to lie, I was really looking forward to it.  No work, excellent blog material, and maybe some drama.

I arrived on time, for once, and made my way to the waiting room, which was larger than any movie theater I’ve ever been in.  I’d say the room was maybe 1/4 full.  I decided to choose a seat on the outside perimeter where I’d have minimal exposure to my fellow samaritans.  Of course within 5 minutes of sitting down, a lady comes and sits two seats away.  My entire ROW was empty, and she chooses to sit two seats away.  Great.

After about an hour or two of reading for class (yes, class has started… major bummer), I heard my number called and so I made my way up to the criminal court.  We waited there in the hallway for a good 30 minutes, which gave me plenty of time to people watch since this was now a mix of criminals, lawyers and jurors (fyi it’s apparently pronounced jur-AR-s).  I noticed a young girl sitting on the bench with a t-shirt on that said, “Get This Monkey OFF MY BACK”.  I’m going to guess she was a criminal and not a juror.

Finally, they called for the 30 or so selected juror candidates to make our way into the courtroom.  We learned that the case we’d be potentially sitting in on was a DWI case.  It was at this moment in time that I started to sweat.  Not because I was about to be interrogated about drinking and driving, but because I had no idea how long we’d be in there and I really had to go.  I think I have a form of claustrophobia where I start to freak out when I don’t know when I’ll be able to go again.

The questioning went on for about an hour, and I was surprised at how many people either a) had a DWI or b) had a family member or friend that had gotten one.  We even had a veteran drinker in there who said he had gotten a DWI back in 1969.  I didn’t know they existed back then?  

I don’t know if it was because I looked like a good samaritan, because I looked smart, or because I had a look of desperation on my face, but somehow I made the final cut.  Along with 5 other characters.  One of which, in response to the question of whether or not he would refuse a field sobriety test if he were to be pulled over, answered “I’ve been pulled over so many times before, I’d have no problem taking the test”.  Excellent.

We broke for lunch, and in the cafeteria I got to watch the kid in our case, who was being tried for a DWI, eat his lunch.  I decided not to let any judgements about his table manners or food choice have any weight in my decision later that afternoon.  But, it did help that he had a big blob of ketchup on his plate.  Mmmm, ketchup.  I noticed him sitting with a group of other people, two of which I assumed were his brother and sister-in-law and the other couple, his parents.  It wasn’t until his uncle took the stand and informed us those were his parents and grandparents.  (Insert jaw dropping).  

During the trial, we got to watch the cop car video of the arrest.  My favorite part was when the kid was explaining to the cop that he wasn’t drunk, he said, “I’m not drunk, I just stopped and ate at Taco Bell”.  Does anyone that’s sober eat at Taco Bell?  I don’t think so, pal.

Somehow we weren’t able to find him guilty… it was because of that whole “beyond reasonable doubt” jazz.  There’s no doubt in my mind he had been drinking, but without him taking a breathalyzer or doing the field test, there’s no way we could be sure.  When the judge read the verdict of not guilty, he had the biggest sigh of relief on his face.  It was creepy, but at that same time we made eye contact.  Without words his eyes said to me, “Thank you for saving my life” and without words mine said to him “Watch yourself buddy, next time won’t be so easy”.