Big Drug Raid

... in the neighborhood behind our office this morning. Russell went to the McDonald's about a mile from our office this morning to get coffee. While he was there, he saw several vehicles full of US Marshals putting on bullet-proof vests, checking weapons and stuff. Apparently there were several officers standing in the parking lot talking about something. He hung around waiting to see what was going on. I asked him if he walked up slowly to the group so he could hear what they said. He said, no. They were armed. LOL. Anyway, he came back and we wondered what was up. About that time, we noticed an OKC police car parked across the street. It was there for about 15 minutes before it took off at a high rate of speed down the street next to our office toward the housing addition behind our office.

Earlier this afternoon, Russell saw an article on Yahoo about a huge drug bust in OKC and Enid involving local, state and federal authorities. Apparently about 15 people were arrested from the neighborhood plus a bunch of people in Enid. Big crack cocaine ring involving people in California and Mexico. Whoa.

Emergency assistance

Good thing I have a roll of hockey tickets in the trunk. :o

Ask Debbie for details. hee hee

Monday, Monday

Debbie returned to work today after missing the last four days due to the flu. Hope her day goes well.

The pre-dawn sky has really been clear the last several days. Alot of stars can be seen. On Friday, I planned to get up early on Saturday to look at the stars through the telescope. I woke up around 5:30 on Saturday morning and laid in bed thinking about getting up to use the telescope. I talked myself out of getting up because it was the only day of the week I didn't have to get up early. I stayed in bed until 7 am! hee hee. Only problem was I was awake the entire hour and a half. So much for the extra sleep. I listened to Debbie sleeping. I believe that might be some sort of vicarious experience. LOL

A friend of mine, along with his father-in-law, did a parachute jump on Saturday. Their first time. Maybe their last, not sure yet. They had a static line, which automatically pulled the cord for the main parachute to deploy as they exited the airplane. "Dad" jumped first and James watched "Dad" have a problem with the main parachute deployment. "Dad" had to pull the cord to deploy his reserve parachute. James said he was really nervous about jumping after that but he did anyway. The lines for his parachute became twisted and he had to kick around to untwist the line so he'd have control of the parachute. Yikes. Sounds like major puckerage occurred. James said he and his father-in-law are going to try Buxom Babe mud wrestling next. LOL.

Have a good Monday.

Good Saturday

Debbie and I had a good day yesterday. We cleaned the living room carpet yesterday morning. Had a great lunch of sushi with Megan. Attended a pretty good football game last nite. Good guys won. Kinda disappointed in the Grambling band. They were really good, no doubt about that. But the hype made Debbie and I expect more than they delivered. The OSU band is just as good, in my opinion. Kinda funny that the Grambling band played several Michael Jackson songs. The OSU band played almost exactly the same songs during last week's halftime show.

Have a good day.

Pole Dancing

Ladies, make sure you get professional help installing the pole.

Surprising your man.

LOL

TGIF

It's Friday. Deb stayed home another day, but is feeling really good. Guess she lucked out and the flu didn't kick her butt too bad compared to others. Two days in a row of feeling better must mean she's no longer ill. Good news for her.

An engineer friend of mine is going parachuting for the first time tomorrow. I asked him if he was going to wear some industrial strength Depends just in case. hee hee. We were talking about it and what to expect. After a few minutes, he asked me if I was trying to scare him. I told him that if he wasn't scared already on his own, he didn't need my help. His 63 year old father in law is going, too. Both of them are jumping for the first time. My friend is 42. He thinks if his father in law can do it, so can he. I told him that would be my argument. If old farts and little girls can do it, I could do it. I thought about what it would be like to do that. I'd enjoy every part of it between the moment the chute opened and the landing. I'll pass, tho. We talked about jumping out of a good airplane. Apparently the plane he's jumping, or getting shoved, out of isn't a top of the line airplane. The guy he's jumping with said you kinda want to jump before the plane crashes. Nice. LOL.

Have a good day.

Dishwasher Redeaux

In January, the Kenmore dishwasher went on the fritz and instead of repairing it, we bought a Bosch dishwasher. After several months of hassling with the stupid thing not cleaning the dishes and hassling with the dealer, Debbie finally convinced them to take it back and return her money. We decided to have the Kenmore repaired instead of buying another new dishwasher. Today, the repaired Kenmore is back under the counter and washing dishes. It might be noisy, but it has a new motor, new pump and new heating element. Pretty much everything that can go wrong is new. So, we'll see how this works out over the next few months. Debbie seems happy and that's the main thing. I think she was ready to shove a dishwasher where the sun didn't shine for a certain appliance store owner.

Thursday already?

Wow. This week is flying by.

Debbie took another day off. She was running a low grade fever last nite, so she is not totally well even though she felt better than she did on Monday. Hopefully, she will be ok in a day or so.

Have a good one.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Just heard on the radio that Steven Tyler (lead singer with Aerosmith) and Robin Zander (lead singer with Cheap Trick) will be with TSO this fall. They mentioned another name, but I missed it.

Feeling better

Debbie stayed home again today. She is feeling much better than she was Monday. Not convinced the symptoms she had were really H1N1 related. Reading about the flu yesterday. The symptoms apparently are similar enough to regular cold symptoms that it's hard to know the difference. I was wondering about doctors doing a test to determine if you have H1N1. Apparently the current testing is only 50% accurate. You might have the flu virus and the test could be negative. Anyway, the good news is Debbie is feeling alot better.

The temperature was 51 degrees when I left the house this morning. The fall equinox rolled in on a cold front.

Have a good day.

Ain't feelin' so great

Debbie called me yesterday afternoon and said she was feeling really bad. Sore throat. No energy. One of the women in her office missed several days because of the H1N1 virus. Hoping that is NOT what Debbie has. Debbie called the doctor and was able to get a prescription for the Tamaflu or whatever that stuff is called. Hope that helps her. She stayed home today.

Debbie ain't feeling well. It's raining. The sky is crying.

Saturday was... odd

Finally got the lawn mowed on Saturday. Didn't get enough cuttings for a bale of hay, though. It sprinkled several times while I was mowing. Not long after I finished mowing, the clouds started moving away and the sun came out. Weather-wise, the day ended up being pretty nice.

Debbie and I had some Rib Crib for our pre-game meal. Pretty good as always. Megan and Kelsey were working, but were able to sit and eat with us. If you call wolfing down your food "eating". LOL.

Deb and I went to the game. OSU has some serious work to do. Offensively they are, well... offensive. Not at all what anyone expected them to be this year compared to last season. But, OSU won the game and that's the important thing. Hopefully, the Pokes can win ugly but still win.

Tara, during halftime, Rebecca and Michael McLaughlin stopped by our seats and chatted for a few minutes. Their little girl, Emma, is a cutie. She was wearing a cute little OSU tu-tu. Guess what Debbie has in mind? hee hee.

Speaking of ugly, well... I'll let the photo speak for itself. LMAO. Hope you are not trying to eat while reading this blog. Gotta love Sooner fans!



HAVE A GOOD DAY!!!

Good Friday

Debbie and I each had a pretty good day. Debbie is the worker-of-the-day (wod) in her office on Fridays. There are some Fridays when the looneys are loose and decide to visit her office. Other days, it's just a steady stream of people looking for some assistance and asking questions. Sometimes, it's like today. Quiet most of the day with an occasional person coming in the office. A good Friday for Debbie.

My Friday was pretty quiet too. An early morning site visit that I thought would take a couple of hours lasted less than 30 minutes. Got the mirror replaced on Deb's car for about a third of what I thought it would cost. Got alot done at the office with few phone calls.

Sometime during the afternoon Deb and I were emailing back and forth. She said something about celebrating the day. I emailed that we should go to Crab Town for dinner. Turns out that was her thoughts, too. So, we went to Crab Town for a shrimp and crab boil dinner. Shrimp, crab, andouli sausages, new potatoes, corn on the cob all cooked together in Cajun seasoning and dumped on the table covered in butcher paper. Large mug o' Boulevard Wheat beer. Deb had an iced tea. Dang, that's good eatin'! I'm full and I'm likin' it! Dinner with my favorite gal. Great way to end the day.

Hope everyone else had a good day.

New Mirror

The dealership replaced the mirror on Debbie's car this morning. Took about 10 minutes and $32 instead of $110. Nice way to start the day.

Now, gotta figure out some way to keep large birds from attacking Debbie's car. Think one of those devices mounted on the front bumper to scare deer will work for birds? Maybe a scarecrow hood ornament? I could take one of those freaky Barbie-doll replicas with the weird hair and put on the hood. Or not.

Anyway, have a good day.

The Moods of a Cowboy Football Fan

Someone on gopokes.com posted this. Thought it was hilarious and a lot too true. Replace the "Tigers" with any team of your choice. LOL

Oklahoma State Football Fan’s Psychological Cycle

Saturday - Before Kick-off: "Poke Dementia"
My Thought Process: "WE ARE GONNA KILL 'EM!!!!!"
Comment: Wife wont talk to me on Saturdays

Sunday: DENIAL
My Thought Process: "I cant believe we lost in OT to the Tigers...AGAIN?!?! . Cheatin' Bastards! How can their receivers be open every F*&^%-ing play?!?! Our receivers are TWICE as talented as theirs!"
Comment: Wake up with a "Cowboy Football hangover" and feel like crap; which is a mystery because I didn’t drink anything the night before.

Monday: ANGER
Thought process: "F*&%-ing Tigers!!! I HATE that team. We SUCK!!! 19 point underdogs to the Horns next week. It should be more like 49!. We SUCK!!! "
Comment: I am usually very tired at work Monday mornings due to the stress of the weekend. No work gets done. Boss asks me if my dog died or something. I tell him "I wish".

Tuesday: CONSPIRACY
Thought process: "Bryant was IN BOUNDS on that catch!!! How many holding calls can the freakin' refs miss?!?! Why do we get shafted on calls EVERY game, year after year?!?! I heard that the head ref's son-in-law was a Mizzou grad...that's why he called Bryant out of bounds. Why did the Oklahoman choose to run stories on the Sooners' undefeated season and OU/UT game instead of our big match up against Mizzou?"
Comment: In hindsight every week- I generally feel like an idiot on this day.

Wednesday: ACCEPTANCE
Thought process: "We just don’t have the tools this year. Savage just isn't the threat we had hope he would be this early in his career. Reid has got to learn to hang onto the ball to be a big-time college QB. Maybe next year"
Comment: This is the only day of the week that includes any type of rational thought. Work actually gets done in the office and the wife is happy because you aren't complaining about football.

Thursday: OPTIMISTIC
Thought process: "OK, we have 6 games left. All we have to do is beat UT and Colorado at home and OU in Norman . We still have a shot at a bowl."
Comment: Call to get airfare price and hotel reservations in Shreveport in December

Friday: DELUSIONAL
Thought Process: "UT can shove those 19 points right where the sun don’t shine. I can’t believe we are underdogs AT HOME!!! This is OUR HOUSE!"
Comment: People at work laugh at me.

Saturday - Before Kick off: "Poke Dementia"
Thought process: "WE ARE GONNA KILL 'EM!!!"
Comment: The viscous cycle continues...

Traffic snafu

Most days, I take Debbie to her office and then go to my office. Today, I asked her to drop me off at my office. Doing that generally allows me to get an extra hour or so of work done. Well, today happened to be the traffic day from hell. Sometime around 5 am, a large truck wrecked on the freeway between my office and Debbie's office. The wreck happened about two miles south of my office on the Broadway Extension. The road and barriers were damaged badly enough that they closed the road so repairs could be made. Problem is the officials never announced to anyone they were going to close one of the most heavily travelled roads in OKC during morning rush hour. Debbie dropped me off at 8 am. By 8:45 am, she had travelled about 1/2 mile from my office. She should have arrived at her office by that time. Around 9 am, she called and said the road was closed and traffic was being diverted from Broadway Extension onto I-44. The I-44 exit is about 1-1/2 miles south of my office. We were on the phone together while I gave Debbie directions on how to get to her office. Eventually she arrived at her office. Sometime between 9 and 9:30. What a mess.

Daughter rejects Daddy's foul ball gift

I saw this on tv while Debbie and I were getting ready for work. At a recent baseball game, a guy caught a foul ball and handed it to his very young daughter. Who promptly tossed it back toward the field. LOL. Too cute.

Daughter rejects Daddy's foul ball gift

One year after

This is a link to a Boston Globe pictorial essay about Hurricane Ike that hit the Galveston area in September 2008. If the link works properly, you should be able to click most of the photos to see a "before and after" shot of the area depicted in the photo. Amazing.

One year after Hurricane Ike

Tara, I know you and John have been to Galveston. Anything look familiar?

Change

Back on August 9, I posted about an old building that I was working on in OKC. I finished my portion of the project and was glad to be finished with a task. This morning, I received a call from the architect about the project. One of his clients is interested in leasing the entire 2nd floor of that old building. The owner is really glad because he has not received a single inquiry about the property since he bought it last fall. The kicker is that everything the architect and I worked on for the last few weeks will be for naught if the architect's client leases the entire second floor. All of the work to design an elevator, stairs, ramps between the various floor levels... re-do it. Good thing we get paid for the first round of design and then for the 2nd round. Well, some folks call us "practicing" engineers for a reason.

Talking about old buildings, I met with the owner, architect and contractor for the other one that I posted about several months ago. The one with the gigantic cracks in the walls. We were discussing various things that needed to be done for the renovation. The architect asked the owner how his business was doing. The owner is a road and bridge builder. He said things were going well. For some reason, he looked right at me and said, "Why? Do I need alot of money?" I just smiled. He didn't. LOL

It's STILL raining

Is this the seventh day in a row for rain? Lost track. Our lawn is getting tall enough that I'm concerned about wild critters hiding in it and jumping out at us when we walk down the driveway.

I learned over the weekend that Barry Switzer, the former University of Oklahoma football coach, attended the OSU vs. Houston game on Saturday. He was the guest of T. Boone Pickens. Switzer wore an orange shirt during the game. Thanks to Barry for donating several thousand dollars to a children's charity. But what the hell is he doing at an OSU game wearing orange? Now, every time I wear orange I will feel dirty somehow. ;) I wonder how many times Barry stuck his butt on the windows of Boone's suite? hee hee.

Tara, good luck on the pipe replacement. Hope they really do get finished today so you can get your house reorganized.

Have a good day. Stay dry.

Rainy Day

Debbie and I went to the OSU vs. Houston game yesterday. The cloudy day turned rainy in more ways than one when OSU was defeated by a pretty good Houston team. OSU being ranked #5 should have played better and won the game, but Houston didn't get the message that OSU was supposed to be the better team. Apparently, OSU didn't get the message, either. Dropped passes. Poor tackling. An injured starting running back. The rain started just after half time and the Houston playmakers rained on the OSU fans' hopes of their team going 2-0. OSU national ranking will certainly drop when the polls come out tomorrow.

Debbie had a hard time watching the game, as did the older lady sitting next to her. The guy sitting directly in front of Debbie must have been about 6-10. And he stood up most of the game. Dunno why, as he was tall enough to see over everyone when they were standing and he was sitting. He was almost as tall as me when both of us were standing. Debbie watched most of the game by looking at the jumbo-tron screens because all she could see otherwise was the guy's back. After one of the rare occassions that he sat down, Debbie said loudly, "Oh! That's what the field looks like!". LOL. Hopefully, he isn't at the rest of the games. If he does return, Debbie and I will have to figure something out. Anyone know where I can buy one of those homemade periscope kits? Have to search the www for one...

Don't have alot of time to fuss about it. Another Houston area team comes to town next Saturday evening when OSU plays Rice University. Hopefully, OSU serves up a dose of fried Rice and wins the game to go 2-1 before playing host to Grambling in a couple of weeks. The only really good thing to look forward to in two weeks is Grambling's awesome marching band. And, an OSU win.

Tara, glad you and John didn't cough up the $$ to attend yesterday's game. That would have stunk big-time to travel, get wet, and watch OSU lose. ouch.

Debbie and I soothed the pain of watching OSU lose by having a sushi dinner at Kyotos.

By the way, it's still raining.

Have a good day.

WE GOT THE JOB!!!

I just learned that we got the Stillwater Children's Museum project!! WOO HOO! Maggie's photo must have helped.

Don't know when we will start the structural design because the architect will have alot of work to do with the owners, but it is really cool to get to work on this project!! Hopefully I can be involved in the preliminary, artsy fartsy stuff.

Opie is doin' the shuffle...

hee hee hee

Hey, Tara

The Houston game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest (FSN) at 2:30 pm Saturday.

New Mirror

Took Debbie's CX-9 to the dealership to find out about a new mirror to replace the one KO'd by the buzzard. It appears that just the glass part needs replacing. $110 will cover new mirror. Now, if a bird breaks your mirror, do you get the 7 years of bad luck or does the bad luck apply only to the bird?

OSU is ranked #5 this week after Saturday's win. OSU's Dez Bryant will be on the next cover of Sports Illustrated. Cool. Next game is against Houston. OSU played them in Stillwater last year and it was a high scoring game. Houston is pretty good and their QB was the offensive player of the year for their conference. Hopefully, the Pokes get the bugs worked out of their offense by Saturday. 6 pm gametime. Shouldn't be as hot as last Saturday. Fun, fun, fun.

See yuns later.

OSU vs Georgia photos

Good montage of photos from Saturday's game.

Cool panoramic photo of the stadium.

More gameday photos.

Jupiter and its moons

Went outside tonite and looked at Jupiter through the telescope. We could easily see three of Jupiter's moons. Did not stay outside for long as the mosquitoes were thick and drove me batty. I let in several bugs while taking the telescope outside and bringing it back in later. It is warmer in the summer to be outside, but you have to fight the bugs and heat. Plus, you have to wait so late before it is dark enough to see alot of stuff. Winter provides more hours of darkness, but it is cold! It's tough being an astronomer. Yeah, whatevah! It is fun, I know that for sure.

Had a boring day hanging around the house. Not a bad way to spend a weekend. Hee hee. Debbie is getting stir crazy. I went to the driving range and hit about 80 balls. First time I've had a golf club in my hands in over 2 years. Really fun just to whack away. Makes me want to play 18 tho.

Kelsey worked alot of hours the last couple of days. Made some good money in tips apparently. She earned it working almost 30 hours in two days. Yikes.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

OSU slobber knocker

Reading the Tulsa World this morning and this photo of OSU's Lucien Antoine knocking a Georgia player down is awesome. Notice the Georgia player's chin strap is on his forehead instead of under his chin. That's a slobber knockin' hit!

Several good articles in the Tulsa World about the Pokes' game.

Pokes Win!

OSU wins 24-10 over Gawguh today. UGA scored on their first possession and it looked easy. Thought it was going to be a long day for OSU and their defense, but OSU ended up outscoring them 24-3 the rest of the game. Pokes didn't look very sharp, but still won the game. Just before halftime, Georgia was leading 7-0. OSU had just punted to UGA. Debbie and I left our seats and went to the concession stand and restrooms to beat the halftime crowd. While we were on the concourse, OSU scored twice to lead 10-7 at halftime. We missed both scores. Daggone it. But, we got to see OSU score 14 in the 2nd half and got to be there for the Pokes' win. Hot and sweaty, we made it back to the house. Debbie cooked a quick dinner. Fun day with my lady.

Another game next Saturday against Houston. GO POKES!!

Game Day Eve

Tomorrow is the opening game for college football at OSU. Looking forward to seeing how OSU fares this season. Should be a great game against the Gawguh Bulldogs.

GO POKES!!!

Stillwater Children's Museum

I am part of an architectural team that interviewed to become the design team for a new children's museum in Stillwater. The interview went great and one of the board members told the architect that our group was the most creative and the only group where everyone on the team discussed something about the project. As Tara and Debbie already know, Maggie's photo was used in the presentation. Unfortunately, so was one of my photos, but no one fainted or screamed aloud so all must have been ok. Not one of these photos, but a better one that I cropped from a photo of Debbie and I. Anyway, thought I'd post a few photos of me wearing a tie. This is a rare occasion. I had a couple of different shirts and several ties that I wanted to wear. I was trying different ties with a darker shirt and asked Debbie and Megan what they thought about each combo. I changed into the shirt in the photo with a purple tie and asked Debbie and Megan their opinion about how it looked. Debbie didn't notice I had changed shirts. Guess me dressing up was so tramatic she was blinded by the boogliness. So, I decided to wear the lighter blue shirt with the Tigger tie the girls gave me several years ago. Glad I can now remove the tie. Not my favorite attire. Someone invented blue jeans and t-shirts for a reason, ya know.

Going out to mow the lawn. Hope the photos of me didn't make anyone lose their lunch or soil their knickers. Have a good day.

Nice day

Wow, how about this weather? It was 60 degrees this morning when Debbie and I went to work. I had to stop at a jobsite around lunch time and it had warmed up nicely by then, but still a nice summer day.

Debbie and I went to Ingrid's Kitchen for lunch. Debbie had meatloaf and I had the schnitzel and smoked bratwurst. Yum. Debbie's German potato salad is better than Ingrid's. Love their purple cabbage. Debbie bought a couple of cookies for me. Don't remember what they were called, but there is coconut, almonds and something else in them. Tasty, but too much granulated sugar in them for me. Have to try a different cookie next time.

We talked to Evie last nite about her first day of school. Sounds like she had fun, but not sure she told us everything that she did. LOL. Growing up way too fast, but it's cool to see. Maggie's first day is today. Waiting for Tara's report on how that went.

Anyway, better get back at it. Have a good one.