Scrappy

I wonder what Scrappy looks like without his Scrappy skin on? And, I wonder if he sees us out at the mall or something and cracks up because he knows us, but we don't know him. Hmm. I wonder. But, our kids do love them some Scrappy. Even with his poor sad worn-out gloves/hands.

Now, I need to grab Scrappy next time Pickle is with us to get a picture of him with Scrappy, too. That's what happens when he's gone for a weekend and misses stuff. Little Bit was a ball girl/sweeper for the UNT Women's game last week. The first half of the game was boring, but the second half was pretty good. The Mean Green came back to win in the second half. That may be one reason it was more exciting.

Thanksgiving was fun and event-filled for us. Very little down time, which is normal for our family. I did get some straightening up accomplished. Got the wreath on the front door and our yard decorations up (we don't have much). Did get a lot of little things done. Some Christmas shopping was accomplished. I thought about getting up at O Dark Thirty, but opted to head to Best Buy about 7:45 a.m. instead. Got almost all that I wanted and needed to get done, which is good. Spent some quality time with Hot Rod. Pickle went with his dad and Little Bit stayed with my parents for a few days. Got lots of pics to post, but not a lot of time to do it. I was up late tonight finishing some work and thought I'd throw these up on the blog. Ok, not literally, but you get the idea.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Go Cowboys! Beat the stinky old Raiders!!! And, everyone have a blessed Thanksgiving. Enjoy a little Thanksgiving song.

Happy National Ammo Day

Go to the store and celebrate National Ammo Day. If we don't make it to the store today, we'll do it this weekend.

Nobody told me there'd be days like these

Strange days, indeed. Most peculiar, momma.

Hey, lookit guys ... I'm over 2 million hits now. I sort of missed it with all that is going on in my life.

But, that's sort of cool. Just blogging about 4.5 years (give or take) and little ole Army of Mom reached 2 million hits. Groovy.

Had a weird kind of day. Hot Rod went to the doctor and got the official asthma diagnosis. Made my heart ache for him. *shrug* He's fine; no inhaler or anything. But, still makes me sad. Just an extra challenge for him in life. Pickle has been fighting many in his 15+ years. I just hate to see another of my kids have a struggle. One is plenty.

*sigh*

Then, total randomness - get a call from a casting company wanting to talk to Hot Rod about being on a kids' game show. *shaking my head* He was nominated for his perfect TAKS score last year. Weird, huh? We'll see if he makes it.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

I always loved this song, but I remember being puzzled by the video. I always thought Bonnie Tyler must have had a bit of a cougar/Mary Kay LeTourneau thing going on her Total Eclipse of the Heart video. But, I really love the literal version that V the K posted. Go have a giggle. Don't be drinking anything, though, or you'll spit all over your monitor and keyboard. No one wants to see that.

Its smiling at us

Ok, so it isn't as bad as the Christmas dinner goose from "A Christmas Story" but it certainly looks like a happy duck being choked by the 10-year-old in this first image. Actually, it is a wood duck shot by Army of Dad this morning.

Hot Rod went hunting with him. Maybe next year he'll get to do some shooting after a hunter safety course. For now, he's just helping dad out.

Little Bit couldn't be left out of the fun, though.

Those are some proud fellas. AoD used a shotgun that belonged to his grandpa.

And, the pretty little ducks before they were prepped for Sunday supper. Their feathers were very soft.

And, another of the proud boy with both ducks.

Mean Green Mark 1,000 Wins

The awesome Mean Green men's basketball team earned its 1,000th victory tonight with 80-62 win over Cameron. Pretty awesome.

And, of course, Collin Mangrum looks good while playing. Oh yeah, his play is pretty good, too. My videography? Not so much. But, I'm trying.

I tried to get just a few clips of the beauty in motion. :) Now, I have to wait until Nov. 24 for the next game to attend. *sigh* We can't go to the UTA game next week. Oh well, they'll just have to win without us. :)

I spared you the hippie pics

Unless, of course, you want to see the hippie pictures. I didn't post any of them here. I got a couple of winners, too. These pics are from the Muir Woods. These are the redwoods in this part of California. Gorgeous.

And, the view from the mountain above Muir Woods, where we got lost when we missed our turn.

Mom and I looking down on San Francisco.

Sunrise over the Bay.

The penguins at the Puma store in Union Station.

Welcome to the Hotel California.

Cute sleeping sea lion at Pier 39. They were fun to watch.

They were pretty smelly, though.

Mom with Alcatraz behind her. I didn't know she wanted to go until the evening before we left. By that time, it was too late to get tickets and a ferry.

Mom, me and SpongeBob. I couldn't talk her into taking the SpongeBob 4D ride.

Mom and I dining for lunch in Chinatown. Not a single tourist in there but us. The food was plentiful, tasty and uber-cheap.

My friends and colleagues out in San Francisco to celebrate my birthday. The staff sang Happy Birthday to me. Afterwards, we walked to an Irish pub and closed the place down. The house band sang to me, too.

Separated at birth?

Can you pick which one is Oprah's boyfriend and which is our attorney general? I didn't think so.

Mean Green BB

I love this time of year - yep, the Mean Green men's basketball teams back in the Super Pit. And, for the first time in a couple of years, my favorite player is healthy and was back on the court last night.

I missed the steal when I was trying to video, but got the two points he scored as a result of it.

Lots of hustle.

Sinking two free throws.

And, for the first time ever, we are now Mean Green season ticket holders. I'm very excited.

And, I saved the best for last. Check out Hot Rod the dancing sweeper! I think those are Michael Jackson moves there.

Happy Veterans' Day!

Happy Veterans' Day to my favorite veteran, Army of Dad (on the left) as seen outside our apartment near Fort Hood circa 1997. This was his best buddy, who is some sort of NCO now. Not sure of his rank any more. Many thanks to all the vets we know and love and those we don't. AoD has a cousin, who is a Ranger, and many other relatives and friends serving. God bless each of you and your families!

I left my heart

I did leave my heart somewhere, but it is back in Texas - not in San Francisco. I'm missing my honey and my kids as I mark my 41st birthday in The City (as the locals call it). I serve on the board for a professional non-profit and we're having our annual board meeting in SF this weekend. I came out a little early on Thursday and ran into two colleagues who were here for meetings that had been cancelled.

So, I got the luxury of a tour guide. The fella there came from Cleveland, but he lived in SF years ago. So, he rented a car and showed us around all the touristy spots that I wanted to see. The gal is actually from my DFW Chapter of the non-profit. So, we had lunch in Fisherman's Wharf and I got to ride down the crookedest street in the world, too. All in all a great day of site-seeing. Friday I had a digital media symposium and learned some new stuff for work. Supper last night at the Elephant Bar with some of the ladies in the group, too. That was nice.

I also got to meet Ken from the Fifth String on the Banjo of Life and formerly It Comes in Pints blog. Always nice to meet people you've read for years online and see if they're anything like you imagined them to be. Today I'll celebrate my birthday with a non-stop board meeting from 9-5, but I think my colleagues are planning to take me out on the town tonight. Can't wait.

Marketing campaign: Fail

Email subject reads: "Happy Birthday BBW! Special Offer Inside!"

I know better, but upon first read, I'm thinking that Bath & Body Works is calling me a big, beautiful woman (i.e. BBW) and wishing me a happy birthday (as mine is coming up on Saturday). What they really mean is that the company is marking its birthday. Oops. Don't send that to a chubby gal!

How 'bout them Cowboys?

Faux Jason Witten and Faux Tony Romo were still pretty cute, even if they weren't the real things. This Romo had some tasty chocolate brown eyes. *hubba hubba* The Witten-wannabe also told some drunk Seahawks fan to leave me alone, too. Gotta love it. Hat tip to AoD for spotting them for me. :)

Us at Jerry World. Some very nice Seahawks fan took the pic for us.
This was my camera's max zoom on Romo from our seats. We didn't have ushers up in the nosebleeds, we had sherpas.
Roy Williams looks like some massive giant on the jumbotron.

And, another example of the view from our seats. I had to make myself watch the game and not the giant TV right in front of me. :) It was cool for replays, especially. More cool angles of the stadium. I really like the design.

This view was from inside the stadium. Beautiful arches are both neat architectural features and stabilizers for the structure. All in all, an incredible day. Cowboys won 38-17. I had never seen the Seahawks in person before either, so that was cool. Many thanks to AoD for scoring the seats from his workplace. :)