maybe in 20/20 hindsight she should have went with this dress more often.

so i am so glad this is all over. Zach we can take down the banners now the quiet protest is over.

now i am have to worry about the Christmas tree and getting it up before the family comes for Thankschristmasing. i have like 20 other things i want to get done between know and then too i need to wash the house and the fence and stain and seal the fence. Get the Honda out of the garage and into the shop to get fixed and tagged and rolling. and get the Mini back, maybe buy a used Saab and give the Tank back to its owner and get Gus into the garage for an oil change and the lights on the house and i have 20 days to do all this in. OK it might not all get done. First things first. i wanna get something done to the fence. this week. Hear that babe? ok and i wanna stop drinking soda. except when i NEED it.

CHEERS!  and dont grieve to much, my dear republican friends, nothing is ever gonna really change, that is just the way it is somethings never change, (insert bruce hornsby piano riff) and it dont matter if we have a black man or an old man a chick, or a chick with a gun on the run in the big house we are supposed to pray for them just the same.

Last night the harvest moon was so full and so bright I had to get up and turn the blinds the other way because the light streaming into my windows was so extremely bright.

I love the old farmer’s almanac website. It makes me want to live in the north east or at least the north.
Fall is my most favorite of all the seasons. I love the colors and the smells and cooking and what the time of year always represented for me as a kid growing up in Southwest MO.

The Ozark Mountains during this season hold an amazing array of colors. The trees are like a warm palate bouquet and the sky goes this most amazing color of blue. The grass may very well green up too just because it would feel left out being brown and dead up next to all the other amazing colors.

School starts back as well. And for me that meant that these college kids that would celebra-tize me in a way would soon all fill my parent’s home. My dad is an instructor in a small Christian college in Southern Mo. My mom (I am sorry meximelt) the best cook in the history of mankind and she seems to have a bent on all the things cooks like to cook in the fall. My favorite is a Carrot cake with a melty cream cheese icing. Not too sweet because I am her kid and I am hyper enough. And Pumpkin pie and pecan pie, fried potato’s and squash. Baked apple cake, also not very sweet with the butter and pinch of kosher salt sprinkled on the top for good measure.

Man oh man I am really feeling it now.

I love to walk out side and see the leaves that have fallen and think by raking these all into a pile I will have blisters BUT the fun I will have by jumping into them or my specialty riding my bike through them as if I were a stunt man, riding heroically through the smoke, Well worth the blisters. And when you are all damp around the temple from the running and the jumping you feel the cool breeze and you hope you don’t get a cold. So you run in and beg for some of the grown ups mulled cider!

When I grew up a smidge and had my drivers’ license I would do what my Grandpa Branham got me started doing; Going for a drive through the country side to see the beauty of nature. I would drive out t his grave and sit on the bench he had instead of a huge unusable monument. I’d sit there for a second or two and think wait I still have a living grandpa I want to spend as much time with as possible. And race the back roads to Papa Whites and soak up his company like a sponge. I am so hyper I make his blood pressure rise. Now that I am 30 I have learned to sit still and listen to stories but I think the sight of my car in his drive still kicks the blood pressure up a notch or two.

Now that I live a bazillion miles away from all of my family I want to see them more than ever. I want to throw my arm over their shoulders and beg for one more slice of pie, and one more game of washers or on more try to shoot cans on the hill across from the garden.

All of this talk has me for sure wanting t return for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas. So mom, when you read this please send me a picture of some fall foliage, and have a cup of hot cider for me. Oh and when you see Papa White next, probably at Church Sunday, give him a big tight hug and tell hi it is from me. And tell Grandmother she looks ravishing for me, and Grandma Branham. When you go this weekend to see her rub the bump on the back of her neck and say this is fro Dainer.

Oh and momma I love you too, and when I come home please promise that all the diets will be over. Lets cook good food this time ok? Like 20 years ago 1987! Like when I was 10!

Home again home again giggity jog. Karina the math magician says we went 32 miles short of 2500 in a one-week time span.

It is 81 degrees outside as I type at 15 past 3 and I am thinking. Oh, my I should just go home and relax.

Special thanks to all who came to the little friendly get together at my moms.

Fun times. Next year I will be in CA for Christmas, or so that is the plan. So maybe given that we have two years to plan we can do a friends night right, you know with food and stuff. The next time we could have kids and the works. Crap mine, who is nothing more than a glint in my stare at this point, should then be a couple months old. However, since our parents are glued to the ground chances of a move and a further scattering of “the Village” seems unlikely. I miss the family unit about the town most of all other than that I miss the cheap car washes. One quarter to start the crazy thing and that gives you a full minuet. I washed Karina’s MINI like 4 times in a one week span that I spent half of in Iowa getting salt and road grime on it that I could wash off again when I passed through on my way home.

And folks I was so stinking good all year long, and let me tell you it pays. I got good stuff for Christmas. First the U2 show was my “gift” from Karina so I was not banking on anything else to come from my account, but no I scored a bad ass belt buckle that is vintage and just rocks to say the very least. Also I scored a pair of Crocs. A couple of handmade picture frames and some sweet shirts from a favorite old shop of mine Houndstooth in Fayetteville, AR. Over all we had a wonderful Christmas and a great time with family. Ok I am going to start missing them really bad if I keep thinking about them. So, if you want tell me about your time or more specifically your trips to your perspective homes.

Oh yeah I came to work today to find out that my Boss is Resigning. Happy New Year!

What is your new years resolution? Mine is to loose 20 pounds by this time next year. I think it is an attainable goal. God please help me to like water and veggies. Beer and Chips are so good though.

“Have you ever been just too dang busy?”

That was this wig wearing announcers opening question as he attempted to give me the lowdown on why I needed to buy x vitamin pill that is not sold in stores and was 109.99 a bottle. Of course he was on channel 99 and I was just cruzing past his infomercial and I am sure he would have cut me a deal if I would have called within the next 15 min. My excuse was I was just too tired to go to the phone. It is a vicious cycle.

You know what else is a vicious cycle. No ladies I am not going there. If I were to, they have drugs now (Vitamin X) that are supposed to make the Cycle “Not so Vicious”! No, I am talking about the fact that it is Christmas all over again. I just was done with the last one. Although it does seem like forever that, I have seen my Grandma B. I miss my other Grandparents too but Grandma B called the other night to tell me tat she wanted a back rub for Christmas. That was so sweet.

You know what I miss the most about the goings on of Christmas Past. It is my cousin April.

You know that person you are kin to that makes you think” you know we are not all strange. She just sent me some new pictures of her baby. Makes me want one. She and I have remained the best of friends even though we last saw each other August 2003 for a span of a day. We went running around Washington DC for the day. We irreverently ran through the art museums we would have loved to stay all day. We were trying to lap up all the life we could from that day. It was as if we knew it would be a while before we could all be together again. She is going to be spending this Christmas in New England and again I will miss her. Here are some pictures of she and I as children.

Oh yeah and i shaved the beard. It was bugging me and i did not want to frighten the kids at Christmas. Last years had to come off too. no big deal i can think hard and it grows back.

THAT IS IT. I AM GROWING A BEARD.

… Oh, nothing I just forgot to shave again. Stink.

Well it is raining and 50 degrees out and they say by noon it is supposed to be freezing. I am not gonna hold my breath. Two reasons That would be a long time to hold the breath and why, if it does get that cold and start freezing the rain then great I hope so but if not, well then I am not disappointed. It is –7 at my sisters house right now.

Well I have been doing quite a bit of the old bowed head lately. I feel as close to the maker as Andre 300 the talented half of Outkast. Ha! Id love to hear Lew dissect the God (interlude) for theological significance in a Postmodern Mkt.

I dressed up today I have a lunch appointment with a Vendor and the accounts payable dept. Nasty. I think I will eat then “purge” so I can technically still be on the “Fast” or maybe mine will just end today at lunch.

Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Tell me I am not wrong for straight up ignoring the drama. My Co-Worker is doing the heavy sighing, and constantly looking over (I can feel that) like will you look at me and ask me what is the matter. She is a trip. It is always the end of the world and it is always the Governments fault.

She is this person. We were talking about the Christmas music on my BI-pod and she wanted to know if I had Christmas shoes. I said yuck! No tearjerkers allowed and she went into this deal about she had a religious experience while listening to this song.

Whew, I guess I am still a bit old school when it comes to “experiences”. I like to call them as I see them. Much needed emotional releases. Oh, I am so cold & hard aren’t I?

Today I am not the emotional Prop, it is not the end of the world, it is just Christmas.

I am feeling more like Rick James, Yeah I’m Rick James…

Stephanie bated me with the funny Santa pictures the other day. Now I am listening to Harry Connick Jr. Not the Christmas Album but still I am thinking about it and missing my mom and the lengths she goes to to make the month of December the best month of the year. She does it too every year of my life December has been the best. Ok now I am just home sick for Neosho. I want apple pie and cheddar cheese and sweet tea and hot cider (and how much fun it would be to spike it) Cranberry Raw, and leftover turkey that you think is making you sleepy but it is really the lack of sleep from staying up with your sister catching up on life. I can’t wait for Christmas. Soon I am going to count it down.

Hey folks I am back from my vacation in Florida. I am tanned and rested and ready for Christmas. I will be filling you in with pictures of what we did where we went all that jazz like a week after it actually happened. Like FCC delay that is on live tv! So a week ago today we were on a plane and no we did not take pictures of that but we did go shopping when we go there a the mall across from our hotel and Karina was pooped out afterward.

I am still in chill mode this morning at work. I want a cup of Cuban coffee and a good cigar. I need to be shorter so that I would not look so stupid in a straw derby.