Halloween & Dia de los Muertos

I figured tonight we'd have at least a few trick or treaters show up at our house now that we live in town. I was wrong though. All that means for me is that the huge bag of candy I bought will either have to be given to someone else, or more than likely devoured by my fat self. I'm hoping for the first of the two.

I was trying to think tonight of the last time that I went out and had a big Halloween. I truthfully can't think of it. I don't know if that means I'm getting old, or maybe Halloween isn't my pick of holidays. Actually, it's not my pick, but it's fun none the less. I prefer another day where eating too much unhealthy food is the custom. Tomorrow if the first day of November, and only a few weeks later comes Thanksgiving. By far my fave.

November also brings my birthday. Another year gone by. I remember last year being home for my birthday. Not too much going on. I've hit that point where the birthdays are just another passing day. Nothing much to celebrate anymore. Another year gone by, and not too terribly much new to report. It's my day thought dangit. Ha, Gus also turns one in November. The 15th to be exact. I always thought each dog year was supposed to be equal to 7 human years. Turns out that may be wrong though. Who pays these people to do research like that?

Tomorrow is another holiday. Only not so much in the states as it is in Latin American countries. Dia de los Muertos has always been one of those Latin American things that's drawn my interest. It's just so far from anything that we in the States (other than the Latin folks) would think about doing. Neat though.

Yeah, not too terribly much going on right now. Actually there is, but I'm trying to get it all sorted out. I'll write more on it when I figure it out! Happy Halloween! Have a great one!

New One

Okay, tired of complaints that I haven't updated enough! Here you go, another boring blog for you folks...

Big weekend! Huge weekend! Not that I have anything at all to do, but it's a big sports weekend. Tonight is game 5 of the World Series. The Cardinals have a 3-1 lead over the Tigers, and in all likelihood will wrap it up. Tomorrow is College Football day. I move that we declare every Saturday in the fall a holiday where the past time is grilling and drinking. Sheesh, that makes me miss the college days. Sunday is NFL Sunday, but I'm not a big NFL fan. My team isn't playing until Primetime Monday night.

I've pretty much distanced myself from this World Series. Actually I've distanced myself from the entire playoffs this year. After the Astros got me all excited the last two years, I was more than let down this year when they failed to make the playoffs. They made it exciting in the last couple of weeks though. For that I say thanks! There's always next year!

Now back to the World Series. Who is my horse in the race? I'm not so much the bandwagon fan, so I can't jump right on to the Card's ship. I have pseudo ties with each one of these teams, so I'll have to use some kind of deductive reasoning to pick who's my team...

Major League baseball, no not the type in the midst of the World Series, but the Little League type for 11 and 12 year olds. For those 2 wonderful years of my life, I played for the Cardinals. The striving city of Ingram was able to field 4 teams at that age. The Dodgers, the A's, (If I remember correctly) the Pirates, and the Cardinals. The Cardinals were the lovable losers of the league, but they did have that perennial All-Star of a First Baseman.<--I'm the guy...We had authentic caps, not authentic jerseys, but I still wore the cap with pride. Since then I've had a bit of a connection with the team. Plus the fact I think Albert Pujols is the type of athlete that comes along once in a lifetime. The best thing about him, is his personality is built to the model of Tim Duncan. He's the best at what he does, he knows it, but he won't tell you that. It's hard to dislike the Cardinals, they like the Astros, seem to be a team full of good ole' boys. You don't hear about any of those prima donnas that are on some of the other teams (Bonds, Manny, Pedro).

I remember when I was young I watched episode after episode of Magnum PI with my Mom. I don't remember what any of them were about, but I remembered the theme music, and Tom Sellek's affection for anything Detroit. On the majority of the shows he'd have a Detroit Tigers lid on his head. I forgot about the Tigers hat, but I always remembered watching Magnum thwart the bad guys and usually end up with the lady (who were extremely hot in the 80's, but 20 years later they seem a bit old fashioned). What more could be asked for in a hero? Well, when I got to college, for some odd reason, 2 or 3 stations started carrying Magnum PI re-runs during the morning and afternoon. Over the course of about a year, I watched probably %90 of the series, and again learned of Thomas Magnum's love for the Tigers. Since Magnum was one of my heroes, I like to support who he supported, and that would be the Tigers. So I've been a bit of a closet Tigers fan for the last 4 or 5 years. Not so much to where I cheer outloud for them, but where I always hope they do well.

So this leaves me in the conundrum of who to cheer for. I'll have to jolt the tv show, and go for the team I was actually on. I'm liking the Cardinals. I guess, unless the Tigers win.

Now for the college football. What a great weekend. I'm sure there are all types of great match-ups this weekend. The most important, and pretty much the only one I care about though is Texas @ Texas Tech. Sure I want Baylor to beat the hell out of A&M, but I've got my priorities in order. That's a distant second to Tech throwing down on the Horns.

This series reminds me of the college days. These were the big weekends that we more often than not came out happy. Once a year, we either play Texas at Jones SBC (AT&T) stadium, or we play A&M. We beat A&M every year at home while I was a student at Tech, and beat Texas at least once in that time. The memories of these weekends will always be held close to heart. One year there was the fight Justin got in with the fence. The same year there were lights out in the kitchen at Charlie's house. There was the 45 minute drive home, that should have taken about 5. We hauled the RV one year and partied it up next to the stadium. Just an all around awesome time.

This year I hope for Tech to win. If that's not possible though, at least put up a good fight. It's tough to come into Jones stadium and win, so we need to light up the scoreboard. Oh the days...

Monday night, Cullen and the Vikings play against the Patriots on Monday Night Football. It's still cool to see one of the best friends I've ever had out there playing on such a grand stage. The Vikings are hardly predictable this year. Some games they'll play lights out, and look like the best team in the league. Other games, they just let is slip away from them. I'll be interested to see which Vikings team shows up Monday. Hopefully the one that won the first few games, and looked impressive in doing so.

Oh yeah, and the Spurs are playing the Mavs tonight...Pre-season basketball. Almost as boring as watching paint dry.


Hope I didn't bore you folks too much with the sports, but it's what's on my mind. Well it's all that's on my mind that I care to share! Have a great weekend...

go Cards...
GO TECH...
Go Vikes...

Go Spurs Go!

Things I learned in Costa Rica

One of the other students at the school in Costa Rica has this deal with her family when they travel to another country, they make a list of things they learned while there. She emailed it to me, and I'm going to post it on here. Some of them are hilarious, others you probably won't get without some explanation. My commentary will be added after each one! I might add some more down the road...

1. Cleanliness is next to godliness and God likes his sheets ironed
at least once a day.
-Every morning before I'd leave the house, I'd tidy up my room so the maid didn't have to spend any time in there. When I'd get home, I'd have a fresh towel and freshly finished laundry. The room would be swept and mopped and the trash taken out. I told her one day that she didn't need to do my towel every day. I just didn't want to be a nuisance. She said that in her house, towels were cleaned every single day...No more arguments from me...


2. If you aren't served at least 3 large plates of food for every
meal, then you're malnutritioned and your mama tica doesn't like you
very much.
-The first few days I was there, they would fix my plate for me and put it down in front of me. It would weigh about 10 pounds. That would be the first plate, there'd be more to come. Especially breakfast. By the time that I'd be finished eating, I'd have at least 3 plates on the table, and be almost miserable. I eventually asked if I could make my own plate. Had I kept eating at their rate, I'd be as big as a house.


3. Believe it or not, there ARE mosquitoes in Costa Rica, especially
at the beach---as evidenced by the 24 large red bites I have on my
left leg alone---Yeah Malaria, West Nile and Dengue fever!!
-I didn't have the 24 large bites on my leg like this girl did. I had at least 10 though. One night in Manual Antonio was unbearable...I always figured I got the most bites because I'm so sweet, but I don't think they really cared too much about that.

4. Bed bugs do exist--and here they're considered family.
-Again, I didn't have bed bugs in my house, but some of other students had them at hotels and in their own houses. Miserable...

5. If you're not completely soaked, then you obviously haven't gone
outside today.
-I was in Costa Rica for 5 weeks, and it rained every day except for probably 5 of those. There would be beautiful mornings, then around 2:00 it would cloud up, and rain for a few hours. The first weekend we were there a group of us went downtown and saw all the big buildings and museums. One of the big features is the National Theater. We bought tickets for that night and planned on going back to watch a concert that night. We all met at the mall to get a cab. On the walk from my house to the mall though, I got so soaked that we had to get the cab to stop by my house so I could change real fast. I couldn't wear my shoes for 3 days. I had a rain jacket, but it didn't do anything other than keeping my torso dry. I don't think even an umbrella would have worked.

6. Using the words "exited" and "hot" to express emotion or your
current temperature is not a good idea unless you're looking for a
Costa Rican fling.
-This one is funny. You don't want to use the exact translation of excited to explain how happy you are about something new. If you say excitado, you are saying you're horny. Remember this one folks.

7. Lane lines are merely an indication of the minimum number of cars
that can fit next to each other on the road.
-We're so used to the way people drive here, that when we leave the country we are shocked with how crazy the roads are in other places. Costa Ricans are crazy drivers as well. However, you say fewer wrecks there than you'd imagine. I wouldn't recommend driving there, unless you are super aggressive. I still think the worst drivers, or craziest I've ever seen were in Rome.

8. " Vaya derecho" and "vaya derecha" are not simply masculine and
feminine forms of "go right" (derecho means "straight")
-All words are either masculine or feminine. Some that you'd think are masculine actually turn out to be feminine, and vice versa. Why can't a word just be a word???

9. Stealing's not a crime (no really...the most they'll do is shake
their finger at you)
-Any kid under 17 doesn't get in any trouble. If it's bad enough, they send them off to a special school for a while, but they don't really get in any big trouble. I never had anything stolen from me, but I did have a guy come up and tell me a big story about how all his stuff got stolen and he needed the bus fare to get back to his hotel. Perfect English and all. After he walked off with the $5 bucks or so our group gave him, we started seeing the holes in his story. Oh well, it wasn't too much money. The best part of this story, is that when my Dad and Charlie got down there, we were going to have dinner at the mall. We were waiting to cross this street, and a guy comes up and tells me the exact same story. I was trying to ignore him, but he was really laying it on thick. So I turned around and recognized him to be the same guy that had told me the same story 3 weekends before. I told him, "man, that's a sad story. I met you 3 weeks ago, and you told me the exact same thing". He said, naaaa, it wasn't me, I told him, yes it was. He just said sorry, and walked off. A city of over 1,000,000 people, and we were in the opposite side of town, and the exact same guy came up and asked me for money again. What are the chances of that!?!


10. All roads are one way until oncoming traffic says otherwise.
-Pretty self explanatory. Most drivers will reach for the horn before they reach for the brake...

11. Whatever's biggest has the right of way.
-Yup

12. A hot shower's worth risking your life for-literally. Showers are
heated by electrical heat-coil units mounted right on top of your
showerhead- affectionately known as "suicide showers."
-I was lucky enough to have a hot water heater in my house. The others did not. The hotels we stayed in had these suicide showers. I have a picture of the suicide shower in one of the photo albums listed below...

13. If a child is over 5, "Would you like to buy a __________?" (fill
in with chocolate, candy, chicle, fruit, etc) actually means "May I
steal your wallet?"
-Kids sometimes will go up to people and ask for a dollar or something like that. When the person would take their wallet out of their pocket, or purse, the kid would grab the wallet and take off. Leaving the person standing there usually with just the dollar they were going to give the kid. Never happened to me, but a student that was there the month before I got there had around 200 dollars and his wallet taken.


I'll think of more someday. Good stuff though I thought....

Gooooo TECH

I remember last year I made several posts after Tech would pull out some amazing wins on the television. I wish I could do the same thing year. I can't though. We aren't the same team we were last year. Shoot we're not even half the team we were last year. How disappointing...

So tonight, we lose to Colorado. What happened to us being God's ordained team? I'm glad we could be the doormat for the Buffs to get their first win. What a load. I'm more than upset with our performance.

To make matters worse, the Aggies beat the team that beat us last weekend. I guess we can always bring up the head to head matchup that came down in our favor last week though!

Tonight we had a big dove and quail cookout at camp. When I say big, I mean huge. We had probably around 100 wraps on the pit, and the three of us here ate them all. Well actually four of us because Ruger the dog had a few too.

Now we're all sitting on the couch, listening to the radio, and calling in and annoying the poor DJ by making requests. She's actually playing one of them right now. Thank goodness for Guaro and Man and Two Dogs..

Cheap Thrills, don't you know I like cheapppp thrills..

Have a good night one and all..

Get your guns up..

Blah..

Friggin' Tech...

More Costa Rican Photos

Over a month in the country and I only ended up with around 150 pictures. What a beautiful place! Hope you enjoy!

My Photos <---Click it

Peace out!

Good Ole' US of A

Well, I'm back. Back to the States, back to Kerrville, back to boredom I guess. I miss Costa Rica dearly right now, but I'm also glad to be home. It's kind of a bittersweet feeling. I had really started to embrace the every day life in Costa Rica. Just how laid back life is, and how friendly the people are. On the other hand though, I missed my Dad, my Dog, and my friends. It's been great getting to see all of them again.

Being in Costa Rica for as long as I was able to be there, was an amazing experience. I can't think of a negative thing to say about the whole trip. I went down and accomplished my goal, complete four weeks of Spanish classes and leave feeling more confident in my speaking abilities. I made a few friends, and perhaps most importantly, had the time of my life.

While I can't say that I'm fluent in Spanish, I have a better grasp on it. I don't have much trouble communicating, and one way or the other can get my point across. I didn't go down there with the intention of coming back fluent though. I realize that's a much longer battle than one month. The teacher told us that if we wanted to be %100 fluent that we would more than likely have to spend around a year down there. I don't think I could handle that much though.

Everything was beautiful down there, and the people were extremely nice and helpful. I left with a great admiration of the country and the Tico people. I also left with a great appreciation of the things we have here in the States. I never had a second thought when leaving the states about not having hot water, water pressure, or other amenities that we all take for granted. The appreciation goes so much further than just those material things, but that's all I can pull of the top of my head right now.

I hope to get the chance to return to Costa Rica someday. There's so much that I would like to do still. I made the most of my time down there, but there's always something else going on. We here in the States have our own beauty, and great features, but it's all so spread out. In Costa Rica, everything is just a couple of hours away. While a four hour bus ride might feel like forever, you find that it is worth the momentary lack of comfort for new experiences you are afforded.

I'm not real sure what's next for the moment. I want to get moving on the new house, and hopefully I can lend a little help to that project. If not help, then at least some motivation.

Cullen signed a five year extension last night with the Vikings. I was hoping he'd move a little closer to home, but five years is a big time extension, and I'm glad he jumped on it when he had the chance!

Glad to be home. I hope I get the chance to see everyone sooner than later! Have a great day...