Leap Day

I’m about ready to take a leap into the weekend, that’s for sure. Anyway, looks like I’ll get to play a little golf tomorrow morning, and that’s always a good thing - then tomorrow night, it’s UFC at my house. Gonna be a busy, but really fun, day…

Anderson Silva fights Dan Henderson for the unification of the middleweight belts from UFC & Pride. I love watching Silva fight, that dude is friggin’ amazing.

For those of you in our Fantasy League - make sure you set up your picks.

I’ve really gotten the bug. Earlier in the week, Jess made reservations for a camping spot in the Lake Brownwood State Park for the 4th of July. I don’t know what it is about it, but I’ve got the bug to get going. I want to go fishing like crazy - and what’s crazy, is I suck at fishing! heh. I’ve gotta get on it and start rebuilding the top of the popup. I’ll post plenty of pictures when I get going on it… but first, i’d like to finish up my garage and get it ready to use as a makeshift shop… ya know? Man, so much to do, so much to say… crash into me! (my own little mashup, i know one person that’ll get it)

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Powerful. Wow.

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!

Sunday was one of those days that you think back about and just hope that you have alot more days like that. It was a beautiful day (hey, the wind was only blowing 12 - 15 MPH) and just a really relaxing & peaceful day.

We spent most of it out on the back porch, rocking in the chairs while the kids ran around the yard playing about; I was on brisket duty, smoking one to perfection. I’m actually really getting the hang of it, although I think i need to build a “wind wall” to help me maintain tempature.

Anyway, we had my dad and his wife over, with my step-sister and just visited the entire day, and … man, we didn’t do much at all. It was just one of those days where you wanna crank up the radio with Ice Cube’s “Today was a good day“… ;)

I can’t wait for the summer, we plan on having days like this alot.

Big Brother - Couples

yeah, i just don’t wanna type out the whole name… anyway, it started up last week, I don’t think there’s ever been this much drama in a whole BB season, much less in the first week.

Entertaining, to say the least.

The reason for this post, is basically to ask James if he’s ever watched it because “RYAN” on there reminds me of James, like so much its almost scary… so Dubz, if you haven’t watched it yet, you need to tune in on Sunday, and check out Ryan - he’s like a spitting image of you, other than he still has hair and is a bit taller than you… ;P

Total Lunar Eclipse

http://www.spaceweather.com

There will be a total lunar eclipse tonight (Wednesday, February 20, 2008) - the last one until 2010.  Projections are that the moon will appear red and maybe even turquoise. 

• Partial eclipse should start here about 7:43 pm.
• Total eclipse begins 9:01 pm
• Total eclipse ends 9:51 pm
• Partial eclipse ends 11:09 pm

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Senator Hillary Clinton, on an airliner bound for Texas, finds herself seated next to a weathered older man in boots, a western snap shirt, faded jeans, and a cowboy hat.

Snickering, and thinking herself above the old cowboy, she decides to make sport of him.

“You know,” she says, “I’ve heard these flights go much more quickly if you strike up a conversation with a fellow passenger.  Let’s talk.”

The cowboy looks at her wryly and says, “Well I s’pose that’d be all right, m’am.  What’d ya like to discuss?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” says Hillary with a slight hint of sarcasm.  ”How about Iraq?”

“Hmm,” says the cowboy, sensing an attempt to perhaps belittle him.  ”That could be an interesting topic.  But let me ask you a question first:
Horses, cows, and deer all eat the same stuff…grass…  yet a deer passes little pellets, a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse makes muffins of dried poop.  Why do you suppose that is?”

Dumbfounded, Clinton replies,  ”I haven’t the slightest idea.”

“So tell me, then,” says the cowboy with a wry smile, “how is it that you feel qualified to discuss something as important as Iraq when you don’t know crap?”

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Spent the majority of my weekend working to “fix” my pc. Started getting all sorts of freeze ups and errors - right in the middle of what would have been a VERY productive weekend…

Spent all day Saturday and most the day Sunday trying to reinstall and blah blah blah - ended up needing a can of compressed air and some opens space to get all the dust outta my case.

Evidently, the “radiator” on my processor was so crammed up with dirt/dust, it wouldn’t allow proper cooling and so I was getting errors and freezes - I aleviated that problem, and reinstalled Ubuntu - actually got a little work done last night…

Moral: Clean out your case good, and often.

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I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s day. I sure did. I’m constantly seeing myself change thought processes when it comes to things like this. Used to, it was all about my mate and I. Now I see valentine’s as more of a family “love” day, if you will. I have to include my kids along with my wife, which she does as well… It makes for a more fun day when everyone is included.

That’s not to say that we don’t like our alone time, but we definitely include the kids when it comes time for the tradition or whatever you want to call it.

I also notice the changes around Christmas, Easter, and the like - it’s more about the kids to me now. I love receiving gifts, just like the next guy; however, I find more joy by watching the faces of my children when they receive something I’ve gotten them.

This age thing has more to it than wrinkles and aches, I think…

Open Tax Season - 2008

so, tax season is here and it is in full effect. usually, by this time Jess and I are in line at H&R Block to do our taxes and find out how much we’re getting back. After regaurding the situation for quite some time, I feel that we’ve been making a couple of mistakes on our taxes; they are:

• I withhold entirely too much.[1]
• Pay-for services like H&R Block charge entirely too much.
• I always thought tax prep was complicated.

[1]* I don’t claim as many dependents as I have, due to the fact I am scared shirtless that I’ll owe the KGB IRS, money (alot of money) in April.

So this year, dispite having a couple of “complex” income deals, we decided to forget about the MAN (H&R) and give TurboTax a spin. We decided we’d do it, and keep the option to run with our tails tucked up to a “Tax Professional” if we became uncomfortable with the process.

I talked to a couple of my close friends and relatives and decided the “Deluxe” package was the right one for us. I used some Best Buy Rewards Points to pick it up and then installed it on my linux box using a virtual machine, lit it up, gathered all the forms I needed (1099’s/W2’s, etc.) and got to work.

About an hour and a half later I hit the “SEND” button, and we were DONE with our taxes for this year. Last year, I would have been forking over $316 to H&R Block for paying someone a part time hourly wage to sit and do basically the same thing I just did for $40 (actually $10 since my Rewards Zone Points paid the majority).

TurboTax has a brand new supporter, and I can tell you I will use them from now on. It was SO painless and so easy to get done; I didn’t have to make an appointment, or wait in a musty room for my shot at the desk or anything - VERY COOL. I highly recommend TurboTax to anyone willing to sit down for 90 minutes and answer some simple questions. You can also do turbotax ONLINE - which is more than likely the route I’ll take next year, so i can just use my straight linux box instead of a virtual windows box. (that was geek talk, sorry - but heck, the whole post is a tax geek post, so get over it).

Here’s to getting your taxes overwith AND not owing anyone anything! Go Tipton!

Texas License Plate Vote

http://apps.dot.state.tx.us/services/vehicle_titles_and_registration/vote_pla...

do us all a favor, and go vote for a new design! I love the “New Texas” one… bright and in your face!

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The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Proverbs 22:7
the Bible, English Standard Version

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GO ELI!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/don_banks/02/03/superbowl.snaps/

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i’m glad that Frank Mir wasn’t the first guy to have to say “Yeah, that’s me, I got beat by a fake wrestler” - and i’m extremely glad that Tim Sylvia didn’t win that fight - the sweep and choke out was SWEET!

Lesnar is one HUGE dude - i wouldn’t wanna see him looking at me across a cage.. eeewwwwf.

By the way, I tried to log on to the UFC Fantasy league to do my rankings, but kept getting errors, so I missed out again….

Canned Cheeseburger

http://www.gizmag.com/the-canned-cheeseburger--fast-food-in-the-wilderness/8713/