It's been long enough

For those of you that still read my incredibly awesome blog, I will update.

These past few weeks have been great. I really am glad to be so close to family. After the long three years in England, it is a huge blessing to be within a few hour drive of some family.

On a sidenote, there is a lot of you "Family" that is not in Texas, I will say the D. KEITH WALKERS have an excuse, seeing as they are going on for the Lord and all, yet the others should probably go ahead and move down here.

Anyway, having Zach and Marla here was really nice. We got to go tubing and to Corpus. I think I enjoyed tubing the most. Probably because all you have to really do is sit there and float. Sometimes I think God should have said laziness is next to Godliness. But hey what can you do?
Then going to Dallas was fun as always. I don't like the drive, but it can be fun when you stop(thanks Zach). Next time we'll have to get some walkie talkies.
We got beene's computers which I'm sure you all know. It is the dinky though. For those of you that don' know what that is, dinky =cool.

Pretty much I ramble. So add everything up that we have done the past few weeks and it would equate to good times.

I'm getting ready to fly to CA for my dad's 50th birthday. I'm pretty stoked because I haven't seen my mom and dad for many moons. Or a year and a half. The golfing should be sweet too. Let it be known though that if I get beat it is because I've only been golfing once this year.
If y'all could pray I get there and back safely and have good visits with all the myers. I think the week is going to go by way too quick.

Well I'll post again sometime next month.

~posted by The Bean

Workin weekends

I'm sitting in the information center of the hospital. It's 227 right now, and fortunately I got some coffee, so I'm awake. It's kinda weird working at the hospital and telling people where to go, and answering the phone, because I have no real clue what I'm doing. I got a 45 minute briefing the other day, but it kind of just skimmed through what I'm supposed to do. I'd say though I'm doing pretty well all things considered.
Hey at least I got to watch the last quarter of the Mav's game, so I was pretty stoked. And they won, for those of you who did not watch or want to know.
Anyway, life's going pretty good. I can't wait to see Zach and Marla, and getting off work should be nice. Hopefully we'll get the shelves in the garage built. That's what I really want to get done.
I start school on tuesday so that's a bummer, but the more I do, the sooner I will get a degree.

Anyway, I'm just starting to ramble, so I'll post more another time.

Love you all and I'll talk to you later.

Work

As I'm sure all of you have read Bean's blog, so you know what we've been up to and what we plan to do in the next few days. I have to call the people whose house we are going to so I can say hi, and hopefully get directions. I've got to say, that calling total strangers and asking for directions to their house so we can crash their barbecue isn't my forte, but I'm hoping that they don't mind too much. I'm sure they won't, and that it will be great fun. We're praying that we have finally found our church. It's been so long since we've had a HOME church, and I am really optimistic about this one. Please pray with us in this.

Oh and on another note, does anyone notice that work coffee is always the best. I don't know why that is, but it seems to me that I can make coffee and home and it is never as good. But actually the best coffee ever is at IHOP or Denny's. I haven't had any of it in a little while, but hey what can you do.

Are they serious?

Ok, I just saw a Chevy Tahoe commercial. The commercial begins with a panoramic shot of a large field of sunflowers. They are gently blowing in the breeze on a seemingly refreshing crisp morning. Then comes the shot of the Tahoe driving down a curvy road with sunflowers blowing behind it. You get this nice relaxed, clean feeling of no cares or worries. The nice voice calmly tells how wonderful the Tahoe is and what great gas mileage it gets. What is that number you ask? 22 MPG.
Now I'm not Green Peace guy or hard core ecology freak, but are you kidding me? I mean I have two trucks that get 22 MPG or less. But I'm paying for the gas because I chose to drive these trucks. The question that I have is, since when is 22 MPG something to brag about? I guess I wouldn't use the 22MPG as a selling point.

Crazy Chevy!

No bike for me

I went to the police auction yesterday and came back empty handed. There were four bikes, which usually means that at least a couple are decent enough to buy. The two I was hoping for, an '84 Kawasaki GPZ, and an '84 Kawasaki KZ700. Both turned out to be in really poor condition, and needed more work than I wanted to put in. Quite the bummer, but what can you do? There was a 1996 or something close to that, Suzuki GSX-R, but it went for a ridiculous $2,900! So in the end I still don't have a bike.

On a good note, I was inspected yesterday, or should I say, my fitness program was inspected. The military likes to make sure every couple of years that everything is running smoothly. It seems that I did pretty well considering the inspector guy was only there for about thirty minutes. We shall see though.

I need to finish getting ready for work, so I guess I'll be going. Mostly I'm starving so I'm going to eat an english muffin and then drink a latte, then I'll go to work. Ok, I'm going.

Oh, I still have hope though that I'll get a bike before too long, and one that I really want. The Suzuki GS500E. Anyway, stay classy San Diego.

More bike stuff

I gotta admit, I really just love bikes. I can't wait to get one. Hopefully this coming wednesday, I'll buy one.
Anyway I was talking to one of my bosses and he was telling me about some other bikes I should look at. That is after I make some money and after I get used to my first bike. Anyway, one I was telling Zach about, the Suzuki SV-650S is a nice bike, with great gas mileage.
He then told me about a dual-sport that gets super good gas mileage and also has some good power, the Kawasaki KLR650. I don't know, both are good bikes and fairly cheap for being new bikes, but I still don't have that kind of money. But hey if you haven't made any contributions to good causes this year, I would be happy to invest your hard earned dollars into a new bike for a worthy cause. Me being the worthy cause that is.

Caesar Idol

Yes it is true, some folks in ancient history Idolized Caesar, but I'm talking about some not so old stuff. Actually it better have been pretty new or that's gross.
Anyway, the Bean and I went over to A&M's house tonight to watch American Idol and eat some really awesome Little Caesars pizza, with crazy bread. It wasn't as crazy as it was bready and garlicy. But it was great either way. Bean's known Matt ever since she started working at Cap Group, but I have only known him and his wife for two short weeks. It's pretty great having friends to hang out with.
Hopefully tomorrow of thursday I'll get to ride Johnny's bike and get some practice. If I haven't said before Johnny is my boss at work. He also found out about the police impound auctions. There's been a few bikes the past few weeks, but next week and the week after there are going to be at least four bikes up for auction each week. Most are categorized as prisoner's property or uninsured, so that usually means they haven't been wrecked. I'm hopeful that they won't go very high, and I can get one for even cheaper than what Johnny has estimated them to go for. One on the 17th is a Suzuki GSX-R 750. It's actually the bike I've wanted since we lived in England and a guy at work had one. They're sweet bikes and they look pretty sweet too.
Anyway, the Kings are playing and I'm hoping the beat the junk out of the Spurs.

Which one

One of these I've bought, the other is what I really really want. Guess which is which.
Yeah, so I'm done with school now for a while. I'm pretty stoked.

Platelets

I told my boss that the next time he went to donate, I would go. They went two weeks ago, but it ended up that I had to go to the OR for a shoot, so I didnt get to go that time. So today he came back and asked if I was going. I really wanted to, but man I was a bit nervous. Apprehensively I went. I went once a while back, but only to watch and see how the process worked. I really didn't think I would want to donate, but now it's not so bad. I got there today, and the people that work there are laid back and quite nice. My boss and Al have been going for a long time so they know all the workers there, and they all just have a good time when they come in.
I was still a little nervous, but considering my boss goes every two weeks, it couldn't be that bad. All said and done it was easy and pain free. It was nice because they put a numbing agent on your skin, then they inject some numbing stuff just under the skin, but you can't feel that injection because your skin is already numb. Then when they are ready to hook up the blood tube you don't feel that because your arm in that spot is numb. Then I figured I would feel weird after I donated, but not at all. It's cool because they draw your blood, but after the machine processes the platelets out, it puts your blood back into you, so you don't get that light headed or nauseous feeling.
All said and done I think everyone should donate platelets. You don't have to be scared because I'm a big wuss, and if I can do it, so can you.

And a big plus, it takes about an hour or hour and a half, so you get to watch a movie and eat cookies and crackers and drink Dr. Pepper. I had a great time.

Oh school

So I am in my last four days of English, and then I will have a 5 week break. I decided to take a break so I can study for promotion. Although, I may not ever get to put on another stripe if I don't reenlist. I'm still on the fence. Oh the fence. I reckon Chuck should come knock it down with a motorcycle and then I'd have a decision much easier.
Other than those two things, not much else has been going on.
We're in a tornado watch. That's pretty sweet. But not so much.
Oh and I just took over for my squadron's PT program. So now I'm in charge of making sure people are in shape and following the rules for staying fit. I kinda don't want to do it, but then again, it will be good for my resume.
Oh boy, my favorite!
Later on.

The Bean is HOME

Well two days ago she got home, but it's sweet nonetheless. Paj, I don't have it as bad as you, but I feel you on the not functioning on all cylinders when your woman is gone. But she's back!
And our 4runner got here. It's pruty hot. But I'll let bean tell you about it seeing how it is her truck.

I'm in my forth week of english now, and surprising...or not surprisingly it isn't too bad. Normally I would think english stinks, but UoP is not exactly the hardest school.

The Spurs are on top. That's sweet. I need to watch some more games to be ready for the playoffs. Should be great.

It's time for dinner though, so I reckon I'll check on my pizza.
Later on.

Tax and UoP

The good news is we received our tax return from the state of California today. The bad news, is that although during the year we will no longer see extra money every month taken out of our paychecks for the state, we won't get a little present at the end of every year. So depending how you look at it, it's a bummer and a sweet deal!
In other sad news, I started a new class last week. English. Also known as......nuts! I can't stand English. It's not fun and I'm not good at it. Yeah, yeah save all the funny jokes. I'm aware that you could find tons of typos and mistakes, I know, I could really use this class. Yet I don't really want to do it. Then again, only three and a half weeks and it's over and on to Geography of World Commerce.

OK, well the Spurs are about to start, so I'm gonna watch. It's not the Kings, but then again the Spurs are doing much better than my real home team.

My new and slightly improved blog

It feels like I change my template pretty often, but oh well. My last template was just so hard to work with, so I found one that was easier to play with. Hopefully over not too long of a span I will have cool pictures and other cool html and java junk. We'll see.

In other news, we finally got the garage cleaned out and swept and then put back in order. Although I could use a Zachary and maybe chuck and caleb to help me with some shelves and a workbench. I was measure tonight where to put the workbench and shelves, now it's just a matter of getting some help to build them.

I finish Human Nutrition tonight, and start College Writing tomorrow. Just because I am in the class though, does not mean I will apply what I learn to use in this blog. That's all I have to say about that.

And the last thing I will say or ask is for y'all to pray for God's leading in my career path. I'm really not sure what to do as far as getting out and finding a civilian job or staying in the military. I do know that praying though will eventually bring an answer to this crazy question. Thanks.

The Professional

I'm pretty stoked. I was pretty sure that when I came here I wouldn't be able to get any of my photos published, but today I was proven wrong. Unfortunately it is really not part of my job here that I took photos of. It was mostly a few shots of one of guys in the shop doing his job. He's an illustrator, and he is the man. Really I'm just glad I get to work with him, so one day when he gets real famous I can say " I know that guy". You can check some of his stuff out here....

Anyway back to the story. So I am getting something published, which is pretty great if I ever want to get a photography job outside of the military. Not likely I will want to, but just in case.
Alright well it's not that exciting of news, but it's my news, so hey.

Oakhills

So bean just found in the church paper that Big Daddy Weave and Todd Agnew are going to play a concert there. Oh by the way, when I say church paper, it's not like the weekly trifold bulletin or oven flyer, no I mean actual newspaper that probably has the thickness of the NY Times A section. Stinkin crazy. Anyway, so we think we may go see them seeing how it's so close and all. Plus Big Daddy Weave is pretty good. Not as good as say Jars of Clay or Third Day, but good nonetheless.

Not much has really been happening. We cleaned house and hung some pictures finally. I mean to say the house is usually clean, so it's not "finally" that we cleaned it. But that Finally we hung some pictures. Either way it's good stuff.
Now we just have to get the garage painted and then some shelves and work table made/bought/I don't know.

The view!

I'll upload a few more, but this is the view from my hotel. It's weird there not more snow, but I guess they are having their heat wave. The 40's and all. Well, I have to get ready to catch my shuttle to the airport, so I'll post more later.

I'm in the Big CO

Well, if you didn't know I get to take pictures of autopsies. It's not the most fun job, but I think it's pretty interesting. Today I flew into Colorado Springs for one of these fun jobs. I was told before hand that this would be the nastiest job as of yet, and they were right. But when it comes down to it, it wasn't so bad, and I'm making a little extra money for coming here. I can't complain. However it's weird to be in a hotel all by myself. Actually Johnny is here to train me, and also the pathologist, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I finally got done, ate some dinner, and now I'm just hangin out, using the free internet access.
I'm sure my sentences are worse than usual so maybe I should go. I'm pretty tired. It's only one hour different here, but all the flying and standing makes tired.
Anyway I hope eveyone is doing good.
Oh have I said how beautiful Colorado is? It is so nice to see mountains again!
Alright, I'm out.

Nice weekend

Although the weather is cold, it's been a pretty great weekend. Katie got to go out Friday with Brandy, and I got to do homework. Then Saturday, we hung out and watched movies and stuff at home. I also got a Whataburger. I think it's my new favorite burger place, other than In-n-Out. Then yesterday we went to Oak Hills Church. I think Katie posted about it already, but it was good. It seems really huge, but they say they try to make it as small church atmosphere as possible. We met this lady, and she explained all about the small groups and the sunday school classes and what not. We are very hopeful about this church. We have to call the director lady about which small group to join. As of yesterday there is only 20 small groups "Open". 10 adults groups with kids, 10 adult groups without. I know not much of a selection. But actually we are optimistic. We'll keep praying God is showing us where to go.
Last night we went to Date Movie. It was kinda gross in some parts, but on the whole a pretty funny movie. And right now we're gonna go to IHOP for breakfast. What a great weekend eh?
Well I do have to finish my homework for the week, but I'm sure I'll be energized by the pancakes and coffee.
Hope y'alls weekends went good and you're not freezing too much. What's the deal with low pressure?

iPod Nano

Dude, so I got a Nano! It has got to be the coolest present ever. Bean got it for me for Valentines Day. She'd been all excited to give it to me, and I thought I had an idea, but I was wrong. In a good way. It's even better than a new Palm Pilot I thought it was. So I just want to say what an awesome wife I have.

In other news, I got to go to Ft Hood yesterday. That was lots of fun. Three hours to, and three hours back, plus you know, doin' my job. Good times. At least I got paid some extra money. So that's cool. And because I worked SOOOO hard yesterday, I got today off work. So all in all, not a bad deal.

I'm still sick, but almost better. However my stinkin jaw has been popping all day. I barely open my mouth and it pops. Maybe it's a sign for me not to open my mouth. And that would be ok, except then I don't get to eat, and frankly eating is on my top five things to do. Probably top one other than breathing.

Ok well anyway, I sure hope all you folks reading my blog had a good day, and that the sun is shining. Or moon is beaming? I don't know