Keelie's Cute Cheers

Keelie is so cute!

Aggie's Travels

We went home for New Year's! We had a lot of fun with Ag in the airport waiting on our next flight. We even made some friends with a few little kids. Kristen attracts those little kids like moth to a flame!

Cookie Explosion

Kristen went crazy making Christmas cookies before Christmas!!!

1 Year Anniversary

Believe it or not but this little blog has been going for 1 year today (Dec. 23).

Here are some interesting stats.

There have been over 100 different visitors to this website.
There have been over 1,000 visits to the website.
People from over 10 states and 5 countries have visited.

We started this blog to help keep family and friends up on all our activities. Throughout the year we've gotten a lot of feedback on our site from our prime audience so thanks!!

We changed up the colors and layout so let us know if you like it. We'll try this out for a little while. Stay tuned for some fun Holiday posts...

Our Christmas Tree & Stockings

Here is a look at our Christmass tree & stockings! Check out Ag's stocking "The Boss."

Homemade Marshmallows

Check the pictures of our homemade marshmallows!!

Thanksgiving & Fried Turkey!

On Thanksgiving, we fried a turkey and went to our friends Tifanie & Matt's house. It was a great day! Kristen played their Wii and fell in love with it! So now we're searching across every store in the Bay Area looking for Wii's (like everyone else in the area).

Holiday in Carneros

We recently had some visitors from back home! Kristen's mom & dad (Tommy & Paree) and Art & Mary (family friends) came out for a long weekend before Thanksgiving. We had a great time! We did the "Holiday In Carneros" wine festival. We were able to purchase a commemorative glass at the first winery then go from winery to winery to try all their great wines! We went to 10 "wineries!" We even met the wine maker Ty Canton.

We started the day at 10 am at Etude. It was nice, but we were the first ones so they weren't quite ready for us. Next we went to Ceja, which was like visiting a close friend's house. I highly recommend them. Then we went to McKenzie-Muller. They normally don't do public tastings and it showed. I really enjoyed their wines (mostly reds), but the rest of the group were not big fans. Next we went to Bouchaine. I liked them right away, because they gave Mr. Tommy and Mr. Art a hard time for wearing ball caps. Their wines were great and their grounds were awesome. About this time we were starting to get hungry so we went went to the Larson Family Winery.

Larson had BBQ for sale so we loaded up on meat and carbs to help soak up all the wine. They had a major cowboy theme going, including a trail ride. After enjoying the food we went on the trail ride! By this time, everyone was craving our normal Carneros favorite, Homewood winery so off we went. Homewood is a great little winery, we always get to hang out with Dave the wine maker. This trip wasn't an exception. Next we went to what we called the "winery strip mall." Three wineries were setup in a series of warehouses. The facilities were not indicative of the wine. All three wineries, Tin Barn, Ty Canton, and 3rd winery (I can't remember its name) were great. I even bought a cabernet at Ty Canton (and he signed the bottle.)

With just 1 hr left before the day was over we hurried up to Robledo Winery. We were definitely the last ones there and they were ready to close down. But they served us wine and shared the day's stories. The wine was good, but I wish I could have been their during the "rush."

Overall it was a great day! I would definitely recommend Ceja, Bouchaine, Ty Canton, and Robledo to anyone going to the wine country.

The next day we did "the city." This wasn't the first time for any of us so we did somethings we've never done before. We went to the San Francisco Ferry Building. It was a really cool market place with many interesting stores and restaurants. Next, we went to Union Square. We checked out Macy's especially their Christmas section. Then it was off to "Top of the Mark." But when we got there it didn't open for another hour. So we walked around the area and then went to the Fairmont. Finally, it was off to the Top of the Mark, which was a really cool experience! Everyone ordered cool cocktails and checked out the sites above San Fran (but the fog kinda limited our view).

Lastly we went to Mr. Tommy's favorite place in the Bay Area (maybe even more than our house) the Pyramid Brewery. Everything was going great until Mr. Art & Mr. Tommy were teasing the waitress while she was picking up the table. Then all the sudden she dropped all the plates all over herself, completely covering her white uniform shirt with the night's entrees. Poor girl, she was mortified. Thankfully, she was a good sport and everything turned out ok...

It was another fun weekend with Mary, Art, Tommy, and Paree...

Make It Right NOLA

Really cool way to help make a difference in New Orleans. Make It Right NOLA

We Bleed Maroon

This song is by Granger Smith. He was in the Corps of Cadets with me, but in a different company. He quit during our Sophomore year to go to Nashville. Looks like he's doing ok!

This song is incredible!!

Aggie Football Intro

This was the video entrance for the Texas A&M football this year. It was an awesome experience in person. It almost made me cry ;)

Getting my A&M fix

Welcome to Aggieland!

Les Miles Rocks

I love the swagger of this guy!

Coach of the year

Vote for Coach Matt Viator for D-IAA Coach of the Year!!! He's led McNeese State to a 10-0 start for only the third time in school history! Coach V was my high school football coach and McNeese State is the local state school from my hometown.

http://www.coachoftheyear.com/

Winter is here

Blah, winter is here. Its been raining all day. We're about to go to Ikea! I can't wait.

5.6 Earthquake!

We just had a 5.6 earthquake in the Bay Area.

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm


Our whole house vibrated for a good 30 secs.

Crazy!!

St. Paul School Casino Night

We recently attended the St. Paul School Casino Night. I have to confess that I wasn't initially excited about going to the event. But I decided to give it a shot and besides the tickets were free!



The concept was easy. The admission ticket got you "$25" chips. They had "professional" dealers working all the games. There was blackjack, roulette, poker, and craps. Kristen and I started playing blackjack, but quickly lost interest because we were the only ones playing. I noticed that the craps table looked sort of popping and I thought now it would be a good chance to learn how to play craps. That turned out to be a wise choice!



Kristen and I started playing craps. The nice dealer started teaching us everything about craps. How to do the pass line, play the field, etc. Kristen had to stop playing to attend to some of her teacher duties, but I kept playing. I quickly lost all my money, but had a great time and learned something. So I asked Kristen for her bankroll. Somehow she relinquished her cash so I gave craps a second shot. This time the craps table was packed and people where having a good time. This time my luck had turned. I turned Kristen's $20 into over $140!! It was a lot of fun. At the end of the night everyone used their chips to buy tickets for raffle prizes.



The raffle contained a variety of prizes, Southwest $200 voucher, Disneyland tickets, Commuter Comfort pack (Fastrak, Noahs, and Starbucks gift cards), Oakland A's tickets and pre-game batting practice, A's stadium tour, restaurant gift certificates, etc. We used all our craps winnings to put tickets in for the Southwest voucher, A's tickets, A's stadium tour, and the commuter pack. We ended up winning the A's tickets/batting practice and commuter pack!!!



It was a great night. We won cool things and I learned craps!

Craps websites: remember always gamble responsibly ;)

http://www.crapshero.com/

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/craps.htm

http://www.ildado.com/craps_rules.html

http://www.goingtovegas.com/kpv-crap.htm

http://wizardofodds.com/craps/

http://www.crapdice.com/crapgame.html

New Stanford Stadium & Texas Aggies Game

A couple weekends ago we attend the Arizona State vs. Stanford football game. It was a good chance to check out the brand new Stanford stadium. Compared to the old stadium (and for that matter most stadiums in the US) it was really awesome. Everything in it was first class. It's a shame that there weren't more fans there. I'd guess the stadium was no more than 50% full. If they ever get a good thing going it'll be a great place to watch a game. ASU stomped Standford. The crazy part is that the very next weekend Stanford beat USC.

The weekend after the Stanford game, we went to the Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M game. I was able to get a few pictures before my camera battery died. The game was awesome! A&M came back from a 17 pt deficit, the largest in school history. This was my first game to not be in the student section. It was an incredible experience seeing the student section and even feeling them. I can't even express the difference in the game experience between A&M and Stanford. I loved every minute of it! The stadium was filled to capacity, over 86,000 fans.

Killing the fatted calf!

So we went to Sulphur a couple of weekends ago to visit family and attend the Sulphur High Homecoming festivities. I've been traveling a lot for work and I was able to tie in a trip home. While we were in Sulphur Kristen's dad cooked some really good fried shrimp. Kristen's grandma also cooked a gumbo for us (sorry no pictures)! The Homecoming game was a great game and Sulphur won! Hopefully we can make this weekend a yearly event.

New BBQ Pit

Thanks to all the folks (you know who you are!) who bought us a gas BBQ pit for our birthdays. We've cooked lots of goodies, even a pizza!

Crocs

I just purchased a pair of Crocs. I'll add a picture in the future. But, also check out an interesting article about the stock price for Crocs.

Energyville

Check out this fun little "game" from The Economist Group and Chevron. My high score is 665,000,000 ish. Can you beat me?

Fire And Passion

Coach Gundy of Ok. St. is showing the kind of fire and passion I was talking about in my previous entry. Check our here for more of a background explanation on this tirade.

Disappointed with Aggies!

Well, I'm mad. I'm mad that Texas A&M (under Coach Fran) can't pass. Can't win a big game. The Thursday's night loss against Miami was just another horrible loss that Coach Fran can add to his belt. Its hard for me to understand why. He's supposedly has top recruiting classes every year.

Coach Fran's contract goes until 2012 so getting rid of him might be more expense than is tolerable for the A&M Athletic Department. So what to do? When I look across the college football landscape the programs that seem to be resurgent or dominant are led by young energetic coaches (Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Florida, USC). The ones that are struggling are led by old (some might say more experienced?) coaches (Michigan, Florida State, Texas A&M). Coach Fran seems to lack that young/energetic element on his staff. Since we can't get rid of Fran my hope is that we fire Les Koenning, offensive coordinator, and the entire offensive staff. My ideal staff would we one that incorporates the modern spread offense, because lets face it, that offense works. Just look at Appalachian State, Texas Tech, and Florida.

Well, my rant is over. I've aired my grievances. My hope is that we win the rest of our home games (4-0, with a win against Texas) and go 2-2 on the road. That would give us a 9-3 record. But, after seeing A&M struggle against Fresno State and Miami, we could easily finish the season at 6-6 or worse if we catch Baylor or Kansas on a good day.

Even if we land at 9-3, which is great lets remember why we (collective) got rid of RC Solcum. We were "tired" of those 8/9 win seasons, hovering around a #25 ranking. Supposedly, RC couldn't win the big game. Well, in my opinion, we're staring right down the barrel of a similar problem with Fran.

Well, lets see what happens. The future starts next weekend against Baylor....

I'm lovin' it

A&M Gets it going!

A&M finaly got it going. I've found this interesting.


Also, GO POKES! Last night I witness McNeese State (I-AA) put a whipping on ULL (I-A). Congrats to all the McNeese fans out there.

Just call me McLovin'

Ok, I know I said "Knocked Up" was the funniest movie ever. Ok, well I was wrong. "SuperBad" is by far the funnest movie I've ever seen.

Rockstar!

My new toy (the Saab) goes really fast when this comes on the radio!

So many good things!

So I've been very delinquent in my blog updates. Here's some of the latest news. I hope to add more explanation later. But here's the overview.

In July we went to a SF giants game. It was while Barry Bonds had tied the home run record. He could of broke it while we were there. Instead he had a couple doubles. He hit the record breaking home run later the next week. Wish we could have been there. Check out our clothes. Believe it not it was July!



Next was our birthday celebration week in August. We both made special cakes for each other. Kristen got Coach shoes and Coach sunglasses. I got an Xbox 360 and the game "NCAA 2008 College Football."



Next over Labor Day weekend, we were invited by our friends Matt and Tifanie to tag along while they had some college friends here for a wine country trip. We went to some new (to us) wineries that really rocked. We hit 7 wineries in 10 hrs. The last picture kinda sums up the day...



Also, I got a new car!!! A Saab 2.0T convertiable. It rocks! I'll take some pictures soon I promise.

Then a long lost friend, Jim Bob LaFleur and his girlfriend came to San Fran for the weekend. It was great to see him and his girlfriend. They really seem to have things going in the right direction!

Cape Cod!

So we just (well, a couple of weeks ago) got back from Cape Cod. We rented a house with one of my college buddies, Patrick Ester and his wife Melanie. We all had great time. Check out some pictures.



One of the coolest things was whale watching. Check out the video that Melanie shot. Also check out some pictures I shot.

Here are some pictures of our day in Martha's Vineyard. Which was really fun! We both got some cool souvenirs. Kristen got a cool shirt. I got a fleece pullover. We got them both at the The Black Dog Tavern.

One day Kristen & I went off shore fishing. We were mainly fishing for flounder. As usual in my fishing career, I didn't catch a thing. But Kristen caught a SHARK and STINGRAY!

We went to a little winery on the Cape. The wine was marginal. (hehe, California as almost made us wine snobs.) But we had a good time with the Esters.

We also spent a day in Boston which was really fun. Kristen and I walked along the Freedom Trail, visited the Boston Commons and Public Gardens. Then we went to a Boston Red Sox game. It was a great atmosphere. The fans there are into every out. It was quite an experience!

Boston and Cape Cod where awesome! Even better was getting to hang out with Patrick & Melanie. We had a fabulous trip!

Check out some cool pictures the Melanie and Patrick took.

So much to talk about (Sulphur (poor Aggie), Crawfish Boil , Promotion, New Job, & Knocked Up)

Ok so I know its been a while since I've updated my blog. Lets just say life has been hectic. So I"ll go in reverse order:

Last night, Kristen & I saw the movie "Knocked Up." That has to be one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. I'd say on par with Wedding Crashers & Old School. Maybe even better because it doesn't get caught up in a romantic comedy plot. Two thumbs way up!

While I was on vacation down in Sulphur, I found out I'd be getting a new assignment. Starting this week, I'll be in the refinery's Long Range Planning group. My official title will be "Long Range Planning Analyst." I'll be doing the monthly Lookback & Backcast reports. These are reports that detail how the refinery did compared to what was planned for each month. It's a pretty sweet move, maybe a little sooner than I had anticipated. This is exactly the kind of job that I hope launches me to a job in Houston.

Separately, I got a promotion a couple of months back that I forgot to talk about. I'm real excited about it! Thats one of the cool things about the refinery, you can get a promotion up a technical career ladder without changing jobs... (hmm, but I ended up changing jobs, hmm.)

Sulphur, Ok, we went back down to Sulphur for a week to celebrate Kristen's youngest sister's (Klaire) high school graduation.

It was a fun week. I got to hang with my family, friends, and Kristen's family. I also went on a plant tour of the Grace catalyst plant. It's the plant that makes the catalyst my plant uses in California. (Small world, huh?)

A really cool part of the trip was a crawfish boil for Klaire and her cousin Stephanie celebrating their high school graduation. We boiled 550 lbs of crawfish. It was really cool. I learned to boil crawfish! Check out these pics. The other really fun part was playing Flip Cup (you know the drinking game). The best part was seeing Kristen's grandma & mom playing Flip Cup with all of us!!

The only bummer of the Sulphur trip was another "Poor Aggie" story. His breath had been very bad for a couple of days so when I brought him to the vet to get the "ok to travel" clearance from the vet (he flies with us when we go to Sulphur) the vet said he maybe needed his teeth cleaned. So when we got to Sulphur we went to Kristen's family vet who looked at him and said we was way past "maybe" needing a cleaning. In fact, the vet removed 12 of Aggie's teeth. Poor Aggie. He already had a lot of teeth removed from A.R.F. before we adopted him. Now he's down to two K-9s and a few molars in the back.

Jason Mraz

So I've just discovered this guy. I know I'm always about 3 years behind... Hope you enjoy.

Sold the Civic!!

We sold the civic!! We posted it on Craigslist for $2500 on Sat morning. That must have been the right price. Because we had calls within seconds of the posting. We had probably over 25 people call. It was crazy. Basically, on Sat night we had to take the phone off the hook.

Now its on to the replacement. I'll share more as we figure it out. (But, just a hint. We're thinking Mini.)

Selling the civic

We're trying to sell the Civic. It's been a good car, but it's time to upgrade.

Check out the ad on Craigslist.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/car/321284301.html

Aggie & Kristen love to nap

I couldn't resist this photo op. It's Kristen and Aggie napping on the couch.

Poor Aggie

Poor Aggie. The other day he came into the house limping a little. I didn't think much of it. But then I noticed he was really licking his paw. He sat down by my feet and then I looked down. There was a little black thing. Turns out it was his little claw. The thing had snapped right off. His poor little paw was bleeding.

Kristen sprang into "super mom", she got some gauze and tape and bandaged him right up.

When he first walked in he was hardly limping. Once the bandage was on he was really limping. Milking it for all that it was worth. The next day I got worried. I wasn't sure if he was limping because of the badge or something worse. So I tried to take the badge off. But Aggie wouldn't have anything to do with that. He was yelping like crazy. So I changed tactics and cut the bandage off. He tolerated that. The rest of the day he sat on the couch trying to look pitiful. That was a couple of days ago. He's no longer limping and back to chasing the birds in the back yard.

Aggie's new bed

Check out Aggie's new bed. We got it for him for his up coming pet boarding stay.

Also, look at Bevo. He's missing one leg. Aggie is such a good dog!!

Turns out Aggie loves this bed!

Hawaii Trip

Here are some pics from Hawaii. We just got back. We'll add more pics and some captions soon...

Hawaii 2007

Update on the Civic

Ok so, it rained on Saturday. When I looked outside I noticed the red paint splashes on my civic were "dripping." Turns out that paint was water soluble so we just sat out there in the rain and washed the paint off the civic with puddle water.

Crisis averted!

The funny thing is our local auto body shop wanted $250 bucks to fix it. Haha, we got the last laugh!

PS. Thanks God for the rain!

Carquinez East Hike

Kristen and I went on a hike on Friday. We did the Carquinez Strait East Trail. It was really awesome. The hill that we climbed is right above the town we live in, Martinez. You can see it in some of the pictures we took.

Carquinez East Hike

Splash of red

So Kristen just noticed a new addition to my civic. A crazy red splash of paint. Not sure when or how it got there. Or how we're going to get it removed....

First Roses

My backyard is blooming! The first roses of the season are out. They are so much work, but always worth it.

The Yard

King of Cars

So I've recently discovered this show on A&E, King of Cars. It's a reality show about this car dealership in Las Vegas. The dealership is part business/frat/circus. It shows the "real" workings of a car dealership. It's all about "ups" and sales.

I especially love their opening.

2008 Presidential Election

I added a few links to the side of the web page. It's a few of the presidential candidates I'm keeping an eye on.

What's on my iPod.

A little peek into what's in my iPod these days.

Spring Bloom

Here's a few more pictures of my yard. Some tulips I plant last year came back!

The Yard

Watershed Project

Couple of weeks ago, I participated in a volunteer event through my work to help with the Watershed Project to restore native grasslands along the Bay. It was a pretty cool event. We planted about 300 new plants!

Judd Bares

If your into country music give this guy a shot. He's a family friend from Sulphur.

Check out the spring bloom!

Check out the spring bloom from my backyard!

2007_03_03

Kristen's Skills!

Kristen's culinary skills are always impressive. She's made this crazy ice cream filled cake for an event at her school. Check out a piece that she saved for me. It was a chocolate cake filled with cookies & cream ice cream. Don't you wish your wife could cook like mine!

Equal Time

In an effort for equal time. I'm also interested in Romney.

Obama's Selma Speech

I'am watching Barack Obama's speech in Selma today. Wow! It was played on CNN. If you get a chance to watch it's worth the effort. Check the first 1/2 out right here.

4.2 Earthquake

On Friday night, the Bay Area was hit with a moderate earthquake. It was a 4.2 mag earthquake located about 12 miles south of us in Lafayette, CA. It was the biggest earthquake we've felt since being here. Our whole house shook pretty good for 5-10 secs. Luckily, nothing broke or fell down. And most importantly there was no report of any major structural issues or injuries.

Cape Cod Trip!

We just booked a trip to Cape Cod for a week of relaxation and reconnecting with Patrick and Melanie (some A&M friends who now live in Boston)!! We found a cool house at www.vrbo.com. Keep an eye out for pics.

Aloha

We just booked tickets to Hawaii! We're going with another couple from out here (Matt & Tifanie). We got a great deal from www.travelzoo.com. Keep an eye out for pictures in the future!

Aloha!!!

Cool, Thanks!

Thanks to all of you out there in the Internet who check my blog out. This week, I've had the biggest variety of visitors since I started blogging.

• U.S. Visitors: Wakefield, San Leandro, Alameda, Lake Charles, Iota, Lachine, Overland Park,
• International Visitors: Quilpué, Beijing, Toledo (France, not Ohio)

Ikea Excursion

We ventured to Ikea today. Check out what we're checking out.

2007_02_10 (Ikea Excursion)

Night at the Oracle (It's a Good Time Out!)

Last night we went to the Golden State Warriors (GSW) vs. Chicago Bulls NBA basketball game. Kristen's school had a fundraiser and the school basketball teams were supposed to play on the court before the game. However, for some reason the kids weren't allowed to play on the court before the game. The "parent in charge" told us it had to do with some of the NBA players wanting to get some extra practice time in. Since the kids couldn't play the GSWs are supposed to let the kids play on the court at some other game. The GSW also said they'd give everyone a free ticket to that game, as well. That could be cool!

Overall, it was a good game. It went into overtime after the Warriors were down by 13 points in the 4th quarter. Despite sitting in the rafters it was a nice experience, however, I think the price hurdle for the more expensive seats closer to the court would keep me from frequenting more Warriors games...

2007_02_09 (Golden State Warriors Game)

House Visitor

Last week, Kristen found a guest in our washing machine, Stuart Little....














Don't worry, he was safely released into the wild without harm.

We're gonna be rich!

Congratulations goes out to my lovely wife Kristen!!! She just got her California Teaching Credential!!

She rocks!!

Previously Mentioned PMP

Just wanted to put out a note for anyone interested, my previously mentioned PMP went well!
I got excellent feedback now I just have to wait and see if a promotion and raise are in my future (cross you fingers!). I'll find out about a promotion and raise in late March (crazy Chevron system, which I should blog about some time).

I found them!!

These are some great Career Builder ads.

I especially like these considering this is the time of year that people go through performance evaluations and promotions... (Wish me luck my initial PMP (performance management plan) is tomorrow, I'll also get preliminary feed back from 2006)).

Great Commercials

I really like these and I'm looking for the Career Builder "Survival of the Fittest."

Cool

Learning to use youtube.com

Fringale

Kristen and I went to Fringale for dinner on Saturday night. It's a French bistro in SF. We ordered off the Dine About Town menu. It was a nice restaurant, but a little stuffy and crowded for my taste.

Kristen ordered the sole and I had the pork. Both entrees we very good. Also, my appetizer the beet and goat cheese salad was awesome.

Work Mishap

Ok, well, I need to share a little mishap I had this week at work. It all started on Wed afternoon when I got hungry for some popcorn. I had one of those small snack size bags of popcorn. I set it to go for 3 mins (normally it takes just 1.5 mins) but usually I watch it the whole time. Normally, I stop the clock when the corn stops popping just like the directions say.

But this time I stepped away to grab a quick cup of coffee. However, when I got to the coffee pot there was no coffee and our process engineering manager was in the office. So I made the next batch of coffee and talked with him. All the while my pop corn was popping away. By the time I remembered the popcorn there was just 4 seconds left!

When I took the bag out of the microwave there was so much smoke I set off the smoke detectors in the office. I soon learned these detectors are connected to the central refinery fire department. Once the alarm went off the entire refinery fire department was sent out to check things out. They came lights and sirens blaring.

Needless to say, I've taken a lot of abuse over the past few days.

Lesson Learned: Don't leave the snack size popcorn unattended while popping or be prepared to face the teasing from everyone you know at work!

Rediscovered Wedding Pics

Well thanks to Picasa we've rediscovered some really cool wedding pics. All of these pics are from friend's cameras. We had 2 CDs of photos.

This was a really awesome day! Thanks to everyone that helped make it so special!

Wedding Pics

Roy's

We had dinner tonight at Roy's in San Francisco. Roy's is participating in Dine About Town in San Francisco. This was one of the coolest things we've done in SF. The food was awesome and the atmosphere was great! Our server Nolan was very helpful and attentive. I would recommend Roy's to anyone!

Picasa Web Album

Check this out

Aggie's Pics

The Blind Side

I just got finished reading The Blind Side:Evaluation of a Game by Michael Lewis. I give it two thumbs up!! (It came to me highly recommended from my long time buddy Josh S.)

The book covers two topics. First, Lewis discusses the impacts Lawrence Taylor and Steve Walsh had on the NFL. Walsh's impact on the offensive strategy of increased passing and Taylor's (and players like him) impact on the passing game. Walsh's answer to Taylor was by improved play and importance of the left tackle (protecting the passer's blind side).

Second, Lewis discusses the story of Michael Oher. Oher was a homeless inner city kid from Memphis that through complete chance ends up being adopted by a rich white Memphis family. As Oher's life in a white Memphis christian school crosses paths with Tom Lemming (major national football scout for both college and pros) Michael's life completely changes. Lewis discusses Oher's recruitment by all of the country's highest profile college football programs. Interesting in the discussion is the different recruiting styles demonstrated by Oher's biggest suitors (Saban at LSU (just before he jumps to Miami), Cutliff/Orgeron at Ole Miss, and Fulmer at Tennesse).

Oher is now the starting left tackle at Ole Miss...

My new niece

This is Lady Josephine my new niece.

Picasa is cool!

Took this photo last year (2006) when Mom & Jess came to visit (picture of Cal. coast along HWY. 1)