Built Ford Tough!!!!

FINALLY!!!

So...Obama finally does what he should have done in the first place... and holds a presser and says "I don't know what the hell my old man crazy uncle is talkin about, but that aint me, and I'm startin to wonder about the old man"...or something like that. The whispers about Obama not having balls were starting to get louder and I wonder if it isnt too late. Now I guess we are going to see if this starts to go away...my guess is no... because it opens up the question of why did he make a 180 degree turn, and ...why now???? of course, we know the reasons why, but..once again, if you wanna be the big dog, gotta answer the hard questions, even if they are not on point as to the Presidency...
Oh...and ANOTHER THING!!!!! Obama charged my VISA 25.00 on APRIL 1st and I HAVE NOT RECEIVED MY T-SHIRT!!!!!! You mean to tell me you can't have Tommys T-Shirt Hut in Chicago print me up a 2 dollar shirt and get it to me in a month!!!! Wonder if i can reverse those charges....

Ryles had her recital on Sunday. I am always struck by all the people who are there. So many families supporting their girls (and boys) and I am always struck by the grandparents, friends, aunts and uncles who come. I dont know...I just found it interesting.

I dont know what to make of that Reverend Wright thing.... he certainly seems to be making sure he gets his 15 minutes worth.... i tried to call my chief politico E "Dick Morris" Brown but he seems to have gone into hiding in Brooklyn....

I have one more weekend free before I start a 1 month run of 4 possibly 5 nascar races starting with the Nationwide race in Darlington and ending with the the race in Pocono. Then i will probably have my fill till October...

I'll probably have that pic of Ryles up tomorrow night once I am able to get my light kit set back up...

finally...i wonder if Hanna Montana is headin down that Britney Spears road.

a little crack in the armor?

So... I ask the question that is starting to be whispered this morning by Russert and on Air America as I listen on XM..."Why can't Obama close the deal?" He had SIX WEEKS to convince the voters and still lost by 10 points. I think the question that Clinton keeps posing is legit...if you cant win the big games now, how you going to win in November? Because this will still boil down to the big cities vs the rest of the country come November. I think that you are starting to see the luster come off the golden boy the longer this plays out. The "he speaks so well" thing can only go so far, and while i like to think that I can read and comprehend on a high level, I am stil not seeing the substance to his campaign. And the biggest thing that keeps lurking in my mind is...if he was a white freshman senator from Illinois, who has virtually no experience at this level, would he have even gotten a sniff at this campaign? well, that much is obvious...he wouldnt have. John Edwards can make the same speech as Obama and he's sittin at home now. Obama comes along and , because he "speaks so well"(which we all know is code for something else) he's suddenly is our savior? um...No. Unfortunately, Clinton may STILL be the worse of the 2 choices from that side, and I am still wary of Mccain.... This all is starting to smack of what I have seen so many times in sports...the favorite (Clinton) goes into the game against the decidedd underdawg(Obama) and doesnt take them seriously... the underdawg comes out playing hard and gains momentum and the crowd gets into the game rooting for the underdawg... The favorite suddenly realizes (perhaps too late) that they got to get their A game going and makes a run(its the NBA, EVERYBODY makes a run)...and suddenly you see the underdawg with a little fear in his eyes..."Can I actually pull this off?" is the unsaid thing you see in their face. This is what I say to Obama and the koolaid drinkers pulling for him no matter what the warning signs are coming out about him....better win Indiana or I see big trouble....(and no...Brown...i dont think you are a koolaid drinker...hell, i pull for the Braves, so I know what its like to hitch your horse to the wagon and say "Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!!! in a game... i just decided to stay on the sideline till November so i dont have to get all emotonally tore up come November 5th)

its official now everywhere i look..I'm paying 4.00 a gallon for diesel... $4.07 in a couple of places

amusing me...

Whenever I go to I-Man and Ryles soccer matches, i am amused by the scenario that always plays out this season... the other teams come onto the field... all little white boys with blond hair blue eyes (very generalized, but...get the point) with names like Biff and Cody (Ok, so like I have room to talk with my kids...but...lets not get in the way of facts here...)..."Our" team is 1 black kid, 2 interracial kids, and 3 hispanic kids...and i always wonder how the so-called random allocation of kids worked out this way. well... well, again, "our" team crushes the other team and always about half way thru the match , the other team becomes so demoralized by the domination that "our" team virtually starts to score at will.... and what strikes me is the loud Spanish that is being yelled on "our " side while there is virtaul silence on the other.... oh, did i mention that we started the season with 1 white kid and he seemed to be having a lot of fun, but...he mysteriously has stopped showing up.... wonder what happened there??? (see previous posts about kids playing together)...but I have enjoyed the routine butt kickin's "our" team puts on the other teams... I'm sure I can figure out what is being mumbled on the other sideline... but i digress... as it will be interesting next season as a I-Mans first coach wants him back on his team ( at the next level) because of his speed and defensive ability.... As I have said before, I think I-Mans position (if he stays with soccer and doesnt pick up that baritone/tuba) will be on the defensive side of the pitch...

Moving right along...

...didnt post a "today" pic of Ryles...I forgot her recital is next weekend, so i will wait to throw up a pic of her after her dress rehearsal on Saturday. She is actually doing Ballet, Tap and Baton now..so she is in three different things on Sunday for her recital....

...the new FRAT Alumni Sec has created a Blog @ kkykb.blogspot.com for the alumni to access. Its a great idea and I beleive it a further indication of the direction the chapter is heading with its leadership. While it is open to the public, I dont think any "secrets" will be divulged there or anything, not that I have ever been too worried about non brothers knowing the 4 or 5 "secrets" we actually have. Just because you know that stuff doesnt make you a brother.

Actually, the "year" is about to end for the Frat...seems like it always comes so suddenly. I am currently pondering talking to Dr. Spede about flipping the MEP class to the Fall and limiting it to 8 weeks. That way the chapter gets that stuff out of the way sooner.I am still not sure if that is fair to the potential candidates to have to make such a big decision after only about 6 weeks in college, so I am still leaning toward not doing it.... if we did, it would clear up so much time in the Spring for more Service and community involvement for the chapter... the MEP process consumes everything in the Spring right now. Of course, maybe we should look at taking the tightened down MEP and hold to it in the Spring....

Battlestar Galactica is certainly starting to get very interesting....

I think I am 95 percent committed to doing the Pocono race in early June... that will knock off another track that I want to see and leave basically Martinsville and Talledega left..Harwood and I are in tentative negotiations regarding the Fall Talledega race, and it might make it on the docket...

Latest I-Man pix

...I was fooling around with my base lens and got I-Man to hold still for a second.... Who does he resemble more?...me or Jessica?..or none of us? kinda curious what you think and it wont hurt my feelings whatever you answer... I will put up a pic of Ryles in her dance recital outfit Saturday, maybe....

Back home for a little while...

I returned yesterday from the SED convention in Tallahassee. I am happy to report that the chapter received the Raymond D. Shannon Leadership award for the SouthEast District. This is an award given to the chapter that exemplifies and displays leadership both on and off campus. I am proud of the chapter and that brothers within the chapter continue to hold a large percentage of leadership positions within the bands and we have several brothers who are leaders within other organizations on campus too. I take my position as Sponsor very seriously, as I feel that i have a lot of friends who put a lot of time into this chapter when they were here. And to let all their hard work go to waste would be letting them down. So I continue to work to make sure that the Alumni of Kappa Beta have something they can be proud of. Hopefully, another great year in 2009 will see Kappa Beta listed again as a top ten chapter...we shall see....

It was great to see Pam and John again.... the time spent visiting was way too short.

finally... why is it that when I was driving back, I was looking for an Exxon/Mobil gas station that had diesel...and of course, there were none to be found??...eventually i got into my "i better get gas..um..like...NOW" window and stopped at the next exit that showed a BP with diesel. Used up my last 20 in cash and put in 5 gallons at 4.00 DOLLARS A FRAKKIN GALLON!!!!!!!!!!....so...now, a bit annoyed with the price, but not walking down I-75, i continue on back home.... and the VERY NEXT EXIT HAS A EXXON WITH DIESEL.... WITH EXXONS with DIESEL FOR THE NEXT 300 EXITS!!!!! ( or so it seemed )

might have to get a Dunder Mifflin polo soon...

Down in Tallahassee...

..down here in Florida staying with John and Pam. Will also get to the SED convention for the FRAT... nice little cabin they got down here.... starting to think I may NEVER get rid of my Jetta. While I had to pay 50 dollars to fill my tank, I got 375 miles on half a tank to get here. I dont know how much a new engine would cost (im sure my car guru Harwood will tell me), it might be worth it to research that option for the inevitable day that this engine finally starts to break down. No signs of it yet, though

...doesnt this airline thing smell suspicious... all of a sudden ALL the airlines are pulling their planes, instead of 10 planes here or there...

This entire thing of Easter being in February this year has kinda thrown off my mental view of things...used to Easter being in April, which flows all tidy like into May...

tsk..tsk..

Watching the National Championship last night.... free throws. I was having a conversation with friends the other day, and I remembered how i stated that everything stems from free throws. Memphis goes 1-10 of free throws down the stretch last night, leading by 9 with 2 minutes to play. Guess what?...they lost... hit your free throws, you're the champion. Miss your free throws???... you get close up of you crying into your towel... Wonder if any of those guys know how many free throws the greats shoot EVERY day? Jordan, Bird, Kobe, Lebron.... these guys shoot thousands of free throws EVERY day. Why? because it will always come down to them in the end.

ok...so maybe i will comment...

tonight I go to pick up my kids at a Mcdonalds near where I work. Grandma had picked up the twins after school and taken them for a McDonalds treat. (Of course she bought them more little toys to litter our den with..but...well..I dont think I can stem that anytime soon, no matter how much i tell her they dont need anymore toys...but i digress....) So i walk in and I-Man and Ryles are sitting there eating ice cream along with some random little Hispanic girl who seemed to be the same age as them. I'm like "who is this?" and my mother is like this is a girl they met on the playground (her mother was sitting a couple of chairs away) But I was struck with watching them interact as well as when they were playing with other random kids...why is it that there seems to be no problem whatsoever with White, Hispanic, Asian, and Black kids all playing together with no reservation...never met each other before, but had no reservation to go have fun. yeah..i know this has been observed in nurseries and daycares forever now...but i guess I was struck thinking that i bet that there are people reading this right now that if their son or daughter came home talking about playing with my son and daugther, they would get all bent out of shape about it. That if their kids came home and said that they were dating my son or daughter, there would be issues. And i shake my head and kinda wonder why you are reading this blog, and really kinda wish you would stop reading this blog, because even though that scenario isnt likely, I dont wish the inevitable time to happen that will happen, when someone will treat my children unfairly or with contempt simply because they are not white... or hispanic...or heck...black, for that matter. (i guess some will consider them white...some will consider them black, but that is a slightly different discussion). Some of you reading this will teach your children not to play with someone like I-Man or Ryles... and I simply wish you would go away.... because this is no place for you and your backass type of thinking....

...on another note...watching GLORIOUS HIGH DEFINITION TV tonight and it was ESPN and I noticed that they are broadcasting the NBA in some kind of different style..it looks like it is already aged and from 15 years ago... I also took a look at the same broadcast on normal TV and it looks like it normally does so this must be an HD thing....

Oh..and Battlestar was pretty slick....

So Say We All!

...tonight Battlestar Galactica is back on...I now have reason to live.... well...maybe another reason...also, New Kids on the Block are getting back together...another reason, heh..heh... I have decided to ignore the Braves till after the NBA playoffs and I see how far my Celts go... watched David Beckham last night and I think my MLS team is going to be the LA Galaxy because i simply cant pull for any DC team...

40 years ago MLK was killed. It gives me pause to think about things...I dont think I am going to launch into any tirade about anything, but it does make me think...

what the kids are doing these days...

One of the brothers from the Frat posted a couple of videos of the chapter dancing after their little Initiation Ceremony thingy the other night...thought some of you might be interested...

Clip 1

Clip 2

just throwin it out there...

i finally broke down...

...and got a pair of Crocs the other day. Not the genero ones EVERYONE has but these are the off- road-hiking types with boot type treads. Today is the first day warm enough for me to feel like i can try them out without socks...i have been leery because I dont like for my feet to feel sweaty and these crocs look like they will feel that way without socks...but everyone says "they are SOOOOO comfortable..." so I'm testing today...might have to continue the time honored tradition of wearing socks during the summer still if this does what i think they are going to do...