So... I splurge a tad and get Fifa 2009 for xbox and play a few games before I-Man becomes aware that I have it. Instantly, he wants to play me.... Having mastered the basics and figuring out that you actually have to pass to do anything, I expected to make easy work of I-Man. Well, the first match I won handily 5-2 with a tad bit of annoyace that he actually scored on me in about 5 minutes... the second match today found me scrtching out an 1-nil last second scorig match against someone who seems to have mastered the game without me telling him anything more than "press A to shoot, B to pass...." my only saving grace is the fact that he blew two penalty kicks because he hasnt figured out that holding down the shoot button kicks the ball too hard... I'm not telling him... sorry... This is the real world, son, and I have to use every advantage I can get.

"This remedy has been passed down in my family for generations and it always works. My grandfather was told that Diamond Dancer would never race again. They were wrong. He came in ninth in the Apple Creek Derby. And his jerky came in third the following year. A majestic beast. So fast...so tender." - Dwight Schute

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Summer is here. And the livin is easy... or something like that i once heard someone mention... I relented and powered up the AC for the first time last Friday night. Every time I do this I am always reminded how different the experience of childhood is going for my children than it did for me. Of course, I wouldnt want it any other way as I am sure my path has been easier than my parents as was theirs in comparison to my grandparents. But as I see how my children wilt under the heat, i remember that I grew up with no AC whatsoever at home. We didnt have AC in our cars either. Our AC was open windows and boxfans...and rolling down the window in the car. And even now, the heat doesnt bother me to go to sleep. But my daughter has issues if the temp is above 75 degrees in her room... Anyway, a project of mine this summer is to get the kids out into outdoors more this summer (and not just the pool) by sending them off to Grandma's a few times (well, maybe like 3 or 4 times)....

..watching Law and Order -Criminal Intent and I am thinking I like the Jeff Goldblum, Juliann Nicholson pairing just as well as the D'Onofrio side of things

...aquired a Netbook thru work...pretty slick. Now I can retire the old lapper to I-Man so he and Ryles can not have to fight over PC's now. Here is the plan..Ryles and I-man will have their own setups and I can use an old PC Aunt Lynn gave to us as a server of files/music that I can access from work. The only problem is that the 20mb pipe is going to be tested if/when Rylee is streaming Disney Radio, I-Man is playing Monster Jam/Hotwheels/Lego whatever DirectX games, Jessica is looking at Utube videos and I am trying to steam Trackpass at the same time... as well as play a game online with XBOX 360. Let's see how this all shakes out with the router. Curiously enough, i am now seeing a new wireless signal coming from my Internet leeching neighbor. And its wide open...I am thinking about testing his attentiveness by seeing if I can connect ALL our devices to his network. heh, heh... but that would take a larger effort than I am wiling to waste time on right now....

And does everyone really think that Pam is pregnant on The Office?

oh..and if I ever get to see a Lakers game live, I certainly hope I am there when they have what absolutely, positively must be the greatest basketball pep band I have EVER heard.... They must have the Johnny Carson era Tonight Show band playing at their games

200,000 and still going strong

Just went over 200 thousand miles on my Jetta. After a timing belt change last weekend by Uncle Wes, the Jetta is set to continue on (barring a total wreck) for another 100 thousand. I'll keep my 45 mpg in the city and 60mpg on the highway while belching (well, not really...my jetta doesnt do that unless I really get on the throttle) fumes into the air. Toyota, Honda, Obama and whoever can kiss my butt with their 40,000 dollar cars. At least until i decide to upgrade... and it WILL NOT be a Prius or some other similarly ugly supposed "Green" car.

by the way, this from my Facebook post...

"So I am to beleive that Pelosi, a seasoned politician and 3rd IN LINE TO BE PRESIDENT!!! gets up and stutters and stammers and looks at her note cards and tries to make us believe that the CIA are the ones lying here? No one with half a brain thinks she is not lying, including any rational Democrat"

So... after watching Harwood"s shenanigans with other people's wifi routers this past weekend, I went back and made sure our house wifi was at least password protected, and it was. But... since i have always left it open and assumed no one would try to sit in their neighboring house and leech our internet, I figured that it would never happen, right? Well... logged into router, saw 3 devices connected. Main desktop Mac address...check. Lapper Mac address... check. Hmmmmm... there is another Mac address. Ryles computer? not on. Secondary router for print server? not on. jessica lapper? not on. Xbox 360? not on. Nintendo DS's? not on. Hmmmmm.... lets ping this IP address... no response... hmmm... lets check the logs for this MAC Address... AOL!!!???!!!!, I havent logged into aol since like...oh.... 1992 or something.... Time to encrypt with password for "mr neighbor leeching my 20mb pipe" and now maybe Obama will bail him out for his Internet. Encrypted, powered off/on router, logged back in and no body else leeching my internet... now... if he wants to give me a stimulus check to help with my Charter Bill, maybe I will open it back up...

another weekend down

Race at Darlington went OK...the 29 was between 15 - 5th place the entire night... enough to keep my hopes up, but he never really contended seriously.

Today we have the Clemson baseball game makeup. showers early but I am hoping it dries up for this afternoon, at least. While we still need days of rain, I'd like to get this game in. The greenville Drive field is a replica of Fenway park and its actually a great venue...

after that is a typical dreary week of work and school for everyone until this weekend when I will be going to the All Star race in Charlotte and jessica is headin to the beach for her teacher Sorority stuff. No big deal this year for the All Star race... just me in attendance so I will drive up on Saturday morn, do the concert, races and return back to town in early morning... need to figure out something to do with twins in meanwhile....

looks like I have it planned out pretty good this summer with spacing as to events to look forward to... end of June will see trek to Florida... end of July will see trek to New York/New Jersey... not sure about Bristol this August... might have to go by myself this year.... then September will see the usual Fall stuff of soccer/football....

OK... off to Darlington I go today... Nationwide race tonight, with Sprint Cup Qualifying, Practice and Nationwide Qualifying during the day....

some days you win, some days you lose, some days it rains

Supposed to go to the baseball game in Greenville last night, but got rained out. gotta go on Monday, it seems...lets hope the Thunderstorms hold off for one afternoon then...

Well... this weekend saw another soccer match.The Harwoods came over to the match and we got to meet their new son, then went to lunch together. Following that, Jessica introduced Ryles to softball as far as catching. Jessica was a pretty good player back in the day so she was giving Ryles somestarter pointers in softball. Then I-man got to toss some baseball with her as well as me, before I tore my rotator cuff and went on the D/L retroactive to April 28th.... we then went over to Brandy and AJ's house for dinner. Pretty busy day overall...