Friday, February 22, 2008

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here are a few of my favorite things, and they are subject to change:

Movies: Uncle Buck, The Shawshank Redemption, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Street Hooligans, Rudy

Musicians: Jimi Hendrix, Metallica, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Beastie Boys, Green Day, Black Eyed Peas, Gnarls Barkley, John Mayer, Rascal Flatts, Puddle of Mudd

Food: Pizza, hamburgers, pizza, mexican food, pizza, boneless buffalo wings, chicken cordon bleu.

Places: My couch (sad but true), San Francisco, San Antonio, Washington D.C., my parents house with all my family, my in-laws house with all my in-laws, anywhere with my work buddies

Drinks: Coke, Coke Zero, Dr.Pepper, Peach Tea, Hot Vanilla...and pretty much the entire Starbucks menu

Places to eat: Hideaway Pizza, Buffalo Wild Wings, Earls Rib Palace, Rainforest Cafe

Things to do: Play Wii, hang out with my wife and kids, watch OU football, go to a Redhawks baseball game,

posted by Scott | 8:39 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

100 Things About Scott

1. I grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma
2. I have 3 older sisters
3. I have no brothers
4. I played the trumpet from the 5-12 grade
5. I played football in the 9th grade, and I was very bad
6. I played baseball from 3-6 grade, and I was so-so
7. I played soccer from 6-8 grade, and I was very good
8. When I started college in 1987 I weighed 135 pounds
9. When I started the south beach diet in 2004 I weight 226 pounds
10. I lost 35 pounds
11. 4 years later I'm still maintaining, but I need to lose about 15 - 20 more
12. I love junk food (see number 9)
13. I love Mexican food
14. I have never been out of the country
15. I need to get out more
16. I am not very organized except for my dress shirts
17. I keep my dress shirts organized by sleeve length and pattern; solid long sleeve together, solid long sleeve plaid together, short sleeve stripe together, etc
18. I love OU Sooners football
19. On February 19, 2007 I bought my first HDTV
20. On February 18, 2008 I officially hooked up HD to my HDTV
21. I have 3 kids
22. I have 1 beagle named "Sadie"
23. When I was growing up I had a dog named Honey
24. My first car was a 1979 Ford Mustang
25. My second car was a 1990 Pontiac LeMans (one of the ugliest cars ever made but I was in college, had a job, had no time to go car shopping, and my dad brought it to me, so I couldn't complain)
26. And at 39 years of age I'm still driving my 3rd car, a 1994 Isuzu Rodeo
27. I drive cars until they die
28. I hate shopping for new cars
29. I hate having a car payment
30. I hate having credit card debt too
31. I'm not very good with my money; I need to be more accountable for it.
32. I love music, I listen to it constantly.
33. I've passed my love for music on to my oldest son
34. I'm writing this list at 1:30 am while running a test for work
35. I'm a Christian.
36. I married a Christian woman
37. I went to a Christian college
38. Last year I read the entire bible
39. My attempt at reading it all again this year is not going so well
40. As I get older my spelling is getting worse. Isn't that backwards?
41. I have a weak stomach, things like medical procedures on TV gross me out
42. I am very hard to get to know
43. Once you know me though you'll love me
44. I'm a funny person
45. But I'm humble so I feel bad about typing number 44...and this one too.
46. I am very shy
47. While I would love to be creative, alas I am not
48. I love art
49. My favorite picture in the world is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte-1884, by Georges-Pierre Seurat. It hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago (and a print hangs on my bedroom wall) and someday I hope to see it. (See number 15)
50. My favorite class in college was Art Appreciation, even though my teacher was an idiot
51. I collect beer steins. I have about 50
52. I don't drink
53. I love my mother-in-law, we get along very well
54. I like to read but don't read much
55. My favorite season is fall (FootbALL season!!!)
56. Currently my favorite show is "John and Kate Plus 8" but the writers strike just ended so that will change soon
57. I'm addicted to chewing gum
58. I usually only buy a new pair of athletic shoes once every 2 or 3 years because I don't wear them out very fast (That might also help explain number 9)
59. I would like to learn to work with wood
60. I like watching home improvement shows
61. I say I'm not very handy around the house but I don't think I've ever failed at anything I've ever attempted to fix. But that might be because I haven't tried anything too tricky
62. I know when to use the word "too" and I'm proud of it
63. I went skeet shooting once and loved it. But my shoulder was black and blue for a week
64. I went to New York for work one time and took a subway that came up under where the world trade center was. It really kind of freaked me out
65. I have a very good sense of direction
66. Unless I've traveled somewhere by plane. When I get off a plane I'm almost always turned around and never get my directions straight
67. I've never been the cause of a car wreck ( although now that I've written it I'm sure it will happen soon)
68. I have a problem with holding a grudge
69. My skin will not tan. It might turn red and then a little darker, but then back to cracker white
70. I made a fountain pen once with a kit, a piece of wood, and a pen lathe. It was fun, I'd like to do that again
71. My son was in the boy scouts one year and we had one of the slowest cars in the pine wood derby. I made it. I was very embarrassed.
72. When I was young I was in the Y-Indian Guides
73. Every relative I have outside of my immediate family lives in Texas
74. I took my family to San Antonio this summer. It was our first family vacation. (Again, see number 15)
75. When I was about 10 my friend Alan Hughes and I were going to dig a hole in my backyard as deep as we could. I think we made it about 1 foot.
76. I get frustrated easy
77. I have a bad temper but I've gotten much better in the last few years
78. I got in trouble when I was 15 and was grounded from getting my drivers license for 2 months after my 16th birthday
79. I sacked groceries at Skaggs Alpha Beta when I was in high school.
80. One summer during college I applied for a job at the "Kiddy Park", but didn't accept the job. But they always called to tell me not to show up for work on rainy days. "Um yeah, I don't work there, but thanks"
81. I have only recently discovered that I love Blackberry Cobbler
82. I love the burgers at Earls Rib Palace.
83. I get the "Daily Oklahoman" but I throw it right in the recycle bin every day but Sunday
84. While not a hunter or a fisherman, I love going to Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. I've never bought anything in there.
85. The Friday before Christmas 2007, I was late getting ready to go run some errands. While running into my bedroom I kicked the bedside table and broke my toe. It's still a little swollen and red. I buddy taped it for 5 weeks. Maybe I should go to the doctor. I'm getting off track here.
86. My best friend from elementary school is currently in jail. And it's not his first time.
87. I rode in a helicopter once. They were giving rides at an air show.
88. I have a nice set of custom built golf clubs that I think I've used twice. I've had them for 6 or 7 years
89. I get claustrophobic.
90. I'm tired of TVs portrayal of the "dumb guy" vs. the "smart woman", like on the Sonic commercials. Although I do think those are funny. But its giving today's man a bad image. And by the way its not the smart woman that bothers me, its just the dumb guy half of it I don't care for
91. I love juice. In fact I'm going to stop and have a glass of grape juice.
92. My favorite cold cereal is Cocoa Pebbles. I like to eat small bowls of it so it stays crunchy
93. I wrote a computer program at work once that talks to AOL instant messenger. You can chat with it and send it commands and fix things at work. Although it was never breached it was considered a security risk and I had to shut it down. And since it was not commissioned, and they refuse to use it, I'm going to throw intellectual property out the window and offer it to anyone that is interested, for a price. And I just finished my grape juice.
94. I've been on the internet and making web pages since 1995
95. I've had a Blogger account since 2002.
96. Growing up my mom managed the supply room at church. She would work in there instead of going to bible class. A couple of times instead of taking me to class and her going to the supply room, we went across the street for donuts. Don't tell dad.
97. My home town flooded in 1987. My side of town was ok, but not the west side. I got out of school for 1 week.
98. My first cousin is a famous professional wrestler, Paul London
99. I am 1/16th Indian.
100. I have seen both George Bush sr, and Bill Clinton. Clinton was jogging..I think it might have been the only time he ever did that so it makes it extra special.

posted by Scott | 3:39 AM | 1 comments

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Burning Down the House

That title might be a bit of an exaggeration. Saturday I was in my garage and I kept smelling this odd strong smell of plastic. Later that afteroon Deborah came in the house from some shopping and said the garage door wouldn't go down. We both went out and looked, I played with the sensors a little, and told her to try it again. She says "hey look there's smoke coming out of the garage door opener". Sure enough there was. I took the cover off the opener so I could look up at it and think "wow, look at all the shiny parts. I wonder what they do" and then had Deborah hit the button again. This time we saw some pretty sparks. Lots of them. And I noticed that the big circuit board had a hole burned right through it. With my vast knowledge of garage door openers I came to the following conclusion: "I think its broke". Growing up we never had a garage door opener (well we did, and its name was Scott) so I figured a few days of opening the door by hand wouldn't kill us. Problem 1 though is that while unlike many new homes, we do actually have a lock on our garage door, but we dont have a key for it. So we wouldn't be able to unlock it without going through the house and into the garage. That just takes too long. And problem 2, apparently todays garage doors aren't intended to take the punishment of opening them by hand. Most only have one spring these days (I've learned that a good garage door has 2 springs, one on each side but todays builders are too cheap) and if you open them by lifting on the side without the spring, they get crooked. And then the cable unwinds. And then instead of watching "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" after church on Sunday night, you're on a stepladder trying to figure out how to lift a crooked door, and how to wind a garage door cable back into its spool. I went another route, I just unhooked the cables and let the door go down...really fast. Oops. No damage done though. Two days later and I became the proud owner of an Overhead Door Legacy garage door opener. It's a premium chain drive opener that features a patented motor for greater lifting force, rugged full-chain drive and solid-steel T-rail for long-lasting performance. And its $100 cheaper than the opener the first guy I called had. Happy Valentine's Day.

Labels: exaggeration, fire, Garage Door, terror

posted by Scott | 5:27 AM | 0 comments

Monday, February 11, 2008

Valentines Help

Ok men, here's an idea for Valentines day. I'm not talking about the expensive gifts, the elegant dinner, the dozen roses, anyone can do that, if you have the money. I'm talking about the little extras. Last year I just went out and bought a box of valentines like the kids give out at school. The kind you punch out and fold over and close with a sticker. I wrote sweet messages to my wife in each one, and then hid them everywhere I thought she would look. I put one in her purse, one in her coat pocket, one on the steering wheel of her car. I taped one to the orange juice bottle, one to the bathroom mirror. There were about 30 in all. She loved it. And I'm sharing this with you, because this year I cant think of anything to rival it and I need some help. Last year I basically set myself up for failure this year. I'm not that creative. I had one good idea and its been used. So, any ideas?

Labels: Valentines

posted by Scott | 9:36 AM | 1 comments

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Pops 2

We went back to Pops this afternoon. This experience wasn't quite as great as last time. For starters we had to wait for about an hour. What we thought would be an off time for dining, it wasn't. Last time we got there about 4:00 and got seated within about 5 minutes. Today we thought if we got there even earlier there might be no wait at all. We were wrong. That's fine, we knew we just got lucky last time, and its fun to look around at all the different pop they have. While waiting to be seated Tanner and I both noticed a table of ladies who were all eating the chicken fried steak. It looked so good. And thats where the rest of the problems started. We both ordered it. It was the worst chicken fried steak I have ever had. It was tough, it was chewy, and it had no flavor at all. Poor tanner had a big bite in his mouth that he couldn't bring himself to swallow. He chewed on it for about 5 minutes before it ended up in his napkin. At $10 a plate I couldn't bring myself to just let it go I went and talked to the manager. He was a super nice guy and didn't charge us for it. So really it turned out ok, other than Tanner and I not really getting to eat. But we ate enough sides to fill us up some. I'll still go back, but I'll never stray from the cheeseburger again.

posted by Scott | 8:53 PM | 0 comments

Friday, February 08, 2008

They Found Him

We had an interesting night last night. About 6:45 I got a call from a parent of a student my son goes to middle school with. Apparently another student, one that rides my sons bus never made it home yesterday afternoon. They were calling us to see if my son remembered seeing this boy on the bus, and he did. They called back about 5 minutes later to ask some more questions. Then at 8:15 two police officers came to our door and talked to my son for a few minutes just seeing what he remembered on the bus, who the kid might have been sitting with, that type of thing. My son doesn't really even know this kid, just rides the bus with him. They told us that the kid answered his cell phone when the parents were looking for him, but wouldn't say where he was and hung up, then wouldn't answer any more. That put us at ease a little bit because it sounded like the kid just took off, rather than being abducted. But after they left, then a police helicopter flew over our neighborhood with its search light on for about 45 minutes. Anyway I just heard that they found the kid at some McDonalds this morning. I have no other details but I'm glad they have him back.

posted by Scott | 9:21 AM | 0 comments