The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep...

”I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change” -Michael Jackson

After putting it off for a couple of years, we finally hit DisneyWorld last week. We didn't tell the twins that we were actually going there until about a minute before we saw the sign up above. Needless to say, they were ecstatic once they found out why they had ridden 31/2 hours. It took 17 "How many more minutes/hours/miles till we get there" on the ride to Pam and John's house, then 6 more the next morning until we arrived at the park. Once inside, we immediately headed to Splash Mountain, which is still about all I-Man can talk about wuth DisneyWorld. And I got totally soaked on the FIRST FRAKKIN RIDE... while I-Man got just a little sprinkle on him... It really took me a little while to get my bearings because my usual preference back in the band days was EPCOT, but once we got going, we hit every major and minor ride, except Space Mountain which is under renovation. I am not sure I-Man and Ryles would have been to thrilled about that anyway based upon their reaction to Thunder Mountain ( or whatever its called). That scared them and they left the ride a little shell shocked... at any rate, the twins actually lasted longer than I thought they would, going strong at the park from about 11:30am till 9pm and it was worth it to see their faces once they learned of where we were actually going.... Next time we plan to stay longer, tenative plans being to take on both Disney and Epcot, then revisit with John and Pam and take in a local water park and more fishing. Speaking of fishing, we stayed with old friends John and Pam and their new daughter Lauren Grace in Tallahasee. We visited a car museum that has to be seen to be believed. The kids also would have spent 24/7 in their pool if had let them. We also were fortunate to have John be gracious with his time, money and boat to take us out on the ocean for some fishin'. I caught a 5 foot baby hammerheard shark that took me 27 minutes to fight to reel in. Unfortunately, the reel broke just as I was lifting him into the boat... so... I didnt get a picture of it.... go figure ;)

It is really sobering, these vacation times... but it was so fun. now...back to the grind...till the next "vacation"

"Have you ever noticed... anybody going slower than you is an idiot. And anyone going faster is a maniac."
- George Carlin

trainwreck

after all the hoopla about Jon and Kate, I decided to watch the episodes last night. I have only seen brief clips previously and know some of the background but dont watch every episode. I think that despite what everyone likes to pile on about Jon in this case, or even talk about Kates personality, it was still somewhat sad to watch. Especially as someone who is married and has been for a long time. I cant imagine what they are going thru and certainly dont want to ever have to. I imagine the looks on their faces and the stumbling to come up with words are only the tip of their feelings. Clearly...CLEARLY... the birth of the children and the show totally destroyed this marraige. They both have personal responsibility and utlimately the decisions they made, right and wrong, were theirs. But I cant imagine having your life with a camera in your face ALL THE TIME. And then have poparazzi following you and your kids 24/7 too. Despite all the things we have seen, we still dont really know what is going on between those two. And Kate hit it on the head when she talked about being tagged as a "failure". All of you reading this...think about how it would be if ALL your decisions were fodder for public scrutiny. Would you hold up to that? Yeah.. I know. They signed off on it and they agreed to it. They knew and benefitted from the publicity. But...even Barack Obama doesnt have a camera (yet) following him and showing his private moments with his wife and kids. And I bet things are said and decisions made within his family that the public would discuss and not agree with. As happens with all families.

The birth of the children was a blessing to them. The decisions by TV and Jon and Kate to show 24/7 coverage of their life was a curse.

"Failure to Prepare is Preparing for Failure"

it amazes me that how, for a trip I have been mentally planning for about two years, I somehow feel NOT prepared... although thinking about it, I am pretty sure I am...

Today is Fathers Day. Jessica and the twins gave me a book /manual/guide that really has a lot of good information on image editing and I tested it out on the photos below... I-Man has all of a sudden taken a liking to wanting to toss a baseball.... and family was in town as well on Saturday... our cousin had been running around in the creek and eating watermelon, so please excse the slightly frazzled look of about an almost two year old and I-Man... well he's 7 and a half now...goodness...where has the time gone?in 10 years they will be 18 (obviously, huh?) andit just seems like it was just yesterday they were lying on the floor on their backs making strange sounds... sigh...

Vacation Bible school ended last night for the twins... They both seem to really enjoy it... we then went and hung out at Brandy and AJ's for a while... today will see family in town. Hopefully it wont be as hot as they are predicting...100 degrees supposedly....

on deck

This weekend will see Uncle Wes, Aunt Ashley and cousin Madison coming into town for some sorta night walk/midnight run thingy or another over in Greenville way. oh..by the way, we finally sold the Explorer. And mucho thanks to Lynn letting us borrow her truck where I was able to bring a load of wood from home... bunch of wood for firebowls that should last for a few months

Weird Al

the kids have taken a liking to Weird Al Yankovic... I think they like the music more that the humor/satire he brings to his songs

typical summertime stuff

Kids have been doing Vacation Bible School this week... watched them at the end of their session yesterday.. they do this song with choreography and its kinda cool to see how in to it they all are. I am reminded of the fact that I went to church virtually every Sunday for the first 18 years of my life... I am not overly religious nor anti religion now... but I just dont really get into it at all. I understand it, the foundation it provides and I know I am about as versed in biblical history and teachings as anybody. But I just cant see myself doing the every Sunday thing at any point

Prep is pretty much done for our trip to Florida. All we gotta do now is get there.... the twins do not know we are going to Disney World. They just know we are going to Florida to visit some friends, although Ryles did mention somewhat offhand (yeah right...) that she thought Disney World was in Florida too... As of now, i dont plan on telling them until we arrive to park the car at Wally World. I can already imagine Ryles looking at signs and pondering out loud about the proximity of Disney World, while I-Man plays his Nintendo DS in blissful ignorance... suddenly looking up when Ryles mentions something about a sign for Disney World. We'll see how that plays out... already have Mickey/Minnie T's, etc. so we dont have to buy them on site...

kinda have to wonder what Obama supporters think of ABC doing their news broadcast from the White House, refusing to offer an oposing point of view to Obama and the health plan they will be promoting on the broadcast. How can any same person think that this isnt further evdence that the public isnt getting the full story? Can you now trust ABC to offer anything but what they feel will show Obama and his policies in a positive light? That answer is no. And they havent in the past, nor has NBC or CBS. And you have Obama whining about FOXNEWS and how they are always criticizing him. Hmmmm... if he doesnt like Foxnews, he certainly has far more options to watch that openly CHEERLEAD for him. And for everyone who complains about Foxnews and the conservative talkshows.... ever wonder why it is that they are on? because no one watches the other stuff... Foxnews as 4 times as many people watching it as the other 3 main channels combined. why is that? I just cant see how anyone can think that his being on tv EVERYDAY and his announcing EVERYDAY that the government is taking over something else, and creating ANOTHER government agency.... that this is what our President and government should be doing....

at any rate, typical summer routines for now... occasional pool at Y, gym stuff... previous mentioned VBS, visits to Nanna and Papa, as well as Grandma... old school summer routine of pleasant mornings, hot temps midday with T-Storms in evening followed by humidity at sunset. THAT is what i remember summers here to be.. not the droughts of the past 3 years or so...

a different set of rules

as i sit here researching all this stuff about Disney World and making all these plans, I am amazed at how much more I have to consider when taking the twins than before. Used to be I showed up on a bus with a bunch of band people, marched a parade, played a few songs, then roamed around aimlessly for 3/4 a day. Now I gotta consider parking, food, water, heat, lines, patience and costs into the entire thing. And the kids in the frat wonder what I mean when I tell then to enjoy what they have now because it ALL changes once you leave college. used to be the biggest question was Epcot or Disney? now its vacation day or personal day?..

So Ryles comes downstairs supposedly dressed for gymnastics wearing a lightweight jacket... not that unusual except that its somewhat hot outside and it's all zipped up. Jessica asks her to unzip it and Ryles doesnt want to. Well, Jessica makes her unzip it and what do we have but this clothing that is about 2 sizes too small on someone who wears a size 7 girls. This outfit was something Jessica had told her she could not wear earlier to go swimming and it was obvious Ryles thought she could simply hide it until she was at class and their would be nothing we could do. ..it is funny to the twins try to be sneaky or make attempts at deception. They obviously dont (and hopefully wont for a while) understand that they arent trying to do anything we havent already tried years ago....

God?...I mean..are you serious?

"I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God." Newsweek editor-at-Large Evan Thomas on Hardball last Friday.

This is why I say that the media (outside of Foxnews, who has its own problems) has done nothing but treat Obama as a deity. How many times has Obama been on the cover of Newsweek and Time? When you have this type of crush on a man, can you trust that they are giving any sort of objective reporting of what ACTUALLY is going on? Can you even take the time to perhaps give criticism an objective, unbiased to look to see if there is any merit? Honestly...can you actually say with a straight face this is OK? God?.... really?.... where is this heading if you have people who report what is supposed to be fact saying this sorta stuff?... How is it that Obama can go on Date night on the taxpayer dime to New York City and Paris, France and ask CEO's to not take private jets to Vegas or you and me to sacrifice? oh.. thats right...he's God.

The end of innocence?

OK... so some people might be wondering why I would be meticulously scouring the FiFa 2009 manual at work, trying to figure out how to defend better... well... since I had to resort to basically tripping up I-Man in the penalty box to keep him from scoring on me (and thus forcing him to a penalty kick and his kicking the ball too hard and over the goal everytime), i figured I better make myself legitimately competitive so that WHEN he figures that out, I will be ready. It wont be long...

yeah... When I-Man started trash talking me while racing on Burnout Revenge, all the while taking random shortcuts that he just seemed to figure out were there via some sorta osmosis, and beating me by a half a mile, I figured I needed to practice. I sent I-MAn to bed (the conversation when something like "me...Time for Bed, I-Man!... I-Man...But...daddy..its only 5:30 on a Saturday.... me... GO...TO...BED...NOW!!!!!").... so i practiced after noticing that I-MAn drives withthe wild abandon of someone who has never crashed before... i.e, he never uses his brakes. Therefore he is able to go faster, but potentially crashes more. So... after practicing braking in the turns, I waited till he inevitably asked to race again. First race I win and I-Man says "wow..you are really good, Daddy"...but he wants to race again. I bet he was figuring that I got lucky after he crashed several times and watched me drive by him while he was in a smoking heap... we race again... as we are racing along, all of a sudden the game stops. I look over at I-Man ( i was smoking him after he had crashed several times) and he states "I dont want to play anymore. I dont like this game anymore"... heh...go figure.. I made him finish the race after which he stormed backup stairs to watch the same episode of Phineas and Ferb or Suite Life of Zack and Cody for the 46th straight time

So I digress... somehow, after only showing him the basics, he demonstrated that it will be a short learning curve in FIFA. SInce I would like to get some enjoyment out of the game, I need to be ready...