1776

Upon the advice of Mr. Isaac Anderson I bought a book called 1776 by David McCullough today.

Isaac and I had American Revolution together with Ms. Louise Breen at K-State (a lot of college nostalgia today, weird) . My favorite part about that class was the review session where we would get a chance to ask questions regarding the essay topics we'd already been given to review. So let's say the topic was: Explain how the colonists used effigies in order to show their discontent with the British government. Isaac would ask this question: So, Ms. Breen, how did the colonists use effigies in order to show their discontent with the British government? Ms. Breen would proceed to answer the question in great detail as we all feverishly took notes. Come test time all it took was transferring those notes into a test booklet, and you were assured an A. Thanks Isaac for asking the tough questions!

I'll let you know how the book turns out.

Kearney Kayak IV

This weekend I went on the Fourth Annual Kearney Kayak Trip with some of the fellas I lived with at K-State in a house on Kearney St. It is, as Mitch put it, a dot on the horizon that I look forward to every year. It is a great opportunity to connect with men that I spent time with in a important life-shaping period. Although I see them other times throughout the year, still not often enough, it helps all of us to reconnect, and remember some great times we had living in that pit of a domicile.

It also makes for some very lasting memories; grant and josh going crazy with fireworks, mitch crowding the plate in the wiffleball game, running across the tops of the kayaks, and david losing the key in the river! Things that I will never forget for the rest of my life happen in the span of 36hrs, once a year.

It is a true blessing to know some of the finest men on the planet, and to call them brothers.

Cheers to great friends!

Yeah, that's much better, Pat

Let the spin begin!!

"I didn't say 'assassination,'" clarified Robertson during a broadcast of his "The 700 Club" Wednesday morning. "I said our special forces should go 'take him out,' and 'take him out' could be a number of things, including kidnapping." (Bold mine)

He blamed The Associated Press for making him seem to advocate the assassination of a foreign leader.

"There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him," Robertson said. "I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time."

Yes, that is a much more Christian thing to do Mr. Robertson.

Full article here.

Fact or Fiction?

Man, I just thought that this new item was so interesting:

In brief, a woman died in April who may have held the answer to one of the all-time great disappearances. Her husband a NYC cop, she alleges, killed Judge Joe Crater with help from his brother a cab driver and buried him under the boardwalk at Coney Island.

Read the full story here.

Next on the list...Jimmy Hoffa

The (in)famous Royals

As we all know the Royals SUCK!!!! I'll bet you didn't know it was my fault.

I know I was a little hard on the Royals last week, but I didn't think I would have such a great effect on them. It was that night that they lost after the Indians scored 11 runs in the top of the ninth. I'm really sorry!!!!! Please forgive me Royals. It's all my fault!

It seems to be helping with national exposure though. See this Article. It kind of brings up a philosophical question. Is it better to toil in anonymity, or to be know for something, anything, even if it is futility?

All part of my evil plan to take over the world.

Secret Garden....

Really it's no secret. It just seemed you may want to know what was going on with the garden. Kayla has slaved away in the garden to manufacture natural products. We've not seen a whole lot, but we picked the first peppers of the year. We all sampled the jalepeno, except for Amy who was very frightened. It was not quite ready to be picked so it was a little bitter, but the seeds were VERY hot. So hot in fact that Kayla demanded a glass of milk to quell the fire in her mouth. I was going to upload a quicktime video of that event, but blogger isn't cooperating.

Theo for president!

This ought to be an unpopular post with the Royals fans.

I am all for the Royals succeeding, but I'll be quite frank, they are a farm team for the rest of the league. (I stole that line from some smart sports guy on the radio.) The most recent example of this is Tony Graffanino. He goes from the Royals, where he's playing solid baseball, but mired 27,000 games out of first place to the FIRST place (ahead of the Yankees) Boston Red Sox where last night he went 3 for 3 with a Home Run, 4 RBIs, and some great hustle plays. It's not to say that he wouldn't have done it if he were a Royal he just never got the opportunity, because as a solid player his 'stock' rose, and David Glass/Allard Baird being an opportunist shipped Graff right out of town. Obviously this isn't the only example, there is even another example in a Red Sox uniform in center field (granted some would say he'll go wherever the money, and (apparently) girls are. So the Royals will suck until someone loosens the purse strings on someone other than Juan Gonzales.

Anyway, the point is, I am grateful that Theo Epstein is at the helm in Beantown, and hope I'll see another World Championship banner flying in the Fens real soon.

Random-ness on Thursday......

1. I saw a deaf child at Target while getting my lunch. (I do know for sure he was deaf, I saw him talking to his mother in sign-language). It was so interesting because I saw him talking to himself as any kid does, but in sign-language. I guess I just didn't think it would work that way.

2. I had a dream in 3rd person last night; that is, I was able to see myself from an elevated perspective. I don't know what that means other than I am a genius.

3. Jeff Buckley RULEZ!

YL Crooked Creek '05

The fella's of Watanga, Tapanga, Wu-tanga, Whiskey Tango

Rockin' it out at the Ridge Runners

Hiking to the top with Anthony and Murph

Cowboy Grant

Jordan and Stacey pointing out some mountain goats.

I tried to sit down this weekend and put into words how much fun I had, and how life giving my trip was. Everything I wrote seemed pretty trite, and couldn't do the experience justice. What could be more trite that saying ' a picture is worth a thousand words?????' I don't know, but I think these pictures do it.