Colorado Dreaming

Newsflash: It's hot in Houston.

Real hot. After a week of the idyllic weather conditions and scenic beauty (see the shot from Estes Park above) of Colorado, I'm back in the broiler called H-Town. Funny thing is that I lived in Colorado for more than 20 years, yet this was my first visit there where I basically acted like a tourist.

We spent time in Morrison for a friends wedding, went up to Estes Park, toured the Madhava honey facilities, played golf at the fantastic Meadows golf course at the base of the Rockies, and in general just had a lot of fun.

Of course I visited with friends and family as well, but the highlights of this trip were the things that we normally don't do when we visit. Which got me thinking about Houston.

We've had a lot of people visit us in the years we've been here and we always show them the touristy stuff, like the Space Center, Galveston Island, etc. What I'm wondering is if there are other "must see" attractions here in town that I should do or see. I mean, I'd hate to leave here one day, return as a visitor, and wonder why I never did that while living here.

So in that respect I pose the question to those of you living here now, who lived here at some point, or have visited this fine city: What belongs on the must see and do list for Houston? Please let me know your thoughts and I'm looking forward to hearing from you. In the meantime I think I'll go soak in a tub of ice and try to lower my dangerously high body temperature. You know, typical summer in Texas stuff.

While I'm at it I think I'll try to figure out how to make enough money to spend part of the year somewhere cooler, like Colorado. Any ideas?



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Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July from beautiful Morrison, CO!

The picture above is from the incomparable Red Rocks Amphitheater where my friend Steve and his lovely lady Wendy just tied the knot. Congratulations to them and all I can say is he'd better never forget their anniversary!
Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday. Enjoy yourselves responsibly, but by all means have fun!

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Salmon - It's What's For Dinner

If everything goes well you should see, somewhere in this post, what my family will be eating for dinner tonight.

That's right, sitting there on that piece of foil is a salmon filet, seasoned with red onions and other herbs and spices, that's about to be placed on the grill. I know already it's going to be delicious because everything my wife cooks is excellent.

What we're having for dinner is not the point of that picture however. Instead its a part of my continuing evolution to mobile blogging via Blackberry from my tethered past of laptops and PC's.

I'm not sure how this post is going to look, not sure if the picture will be clear or fuzzy or above, next to, or below the text. This is all still in the experimental stage but so far so good. Later on I'll figure out how to insert hyperlinks, format text, place photos where I want them, etc. But for right now you get... salmon.

Musical Interlude: Old School Friday - Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

What a tremendously sad day. Michael Jackson has passed away. This is a devastating loss for the music world and the world in general. Many people my age grew up, came of age, and matured along with Michael Jackson and his music. We watched the Jackson 5 cartoons on Saturday mornings, sang along to "I Want You Back" and "Dancing Machine." We watched as he hit the superstar level with the "Off the Wall" album. Everone knows that happened after that - "Thriller" - only the best selling album of all time, followed by another mega seller in "Bad." Everything Michael Jackson touched turned to gold. Even some obscure dude named Rockwell was set up for life thanks to a hook sang by Michael Jackson in the song "Somebody's Watching Me" which you might know from the current Geico commercials.

Michael Jackson is a legend likely never to be surpassed in the field of entertainment. I'm just happy I had the opportunity to enjoy his music first hand, and to now watch my 11 year old discover his music a generation later. His music just had that affect on practically everyone, across the generations. I haven't even touched on his live performance ability, but having seen him and his brothers live on the Victory Tour, consider me a witness to his electrifying ability on stage.

I could go on and on, but there are only so many ways to describe the indescribable and the incomparable. Plus you're here for the music, so here is one of my favorite Michael Jackson songs, "Man In The Mirror." Here Michael sang about himself and his inner struggles in a personal way, and the song's message is still today one that we all should listen too.

Rest in Peace Michael. The world will not soon, if ever forget your name.



Don't forget the rest of the Old School Friday crew. I'm sure there are some great tributes up much more eloquent than mine.

Electronic Village - Chatting Over Cocktails - Ms Grapevine - Quick - Marcus LANGFORD - Cassandra - Danielle-Lisa C -Chocl8t - DP - Kreative Talk -MarvalusOne - Regina - LaShonda -AJ - Sharon - Invisible Woman - Believer 1964 -Dee - SJP - sHaE-sHaE - Songs In the Key of Life - Shawn - Hagar’s Daughter - freshandfab - Creole Pimp - Wonderland or Not - SoulAfrodisiac - Bria Bria - CCGroovy -

English (and Football) Only

What do you call a person who speaks two languages?

Bilingual.

So what if that person speaks three languages?

That's easy right, trilingual.

So what do you call someone who only speaks one language?

The answer: An American.

Sorry for the corny joke but that one has been going around in my bilingual circle of friends for years and there's more than a bit of truth to it. We Americans are notorious in our stubbornness to speak English and only English, which is a disservice to us all, but particularly our kids.

When it comes to opportunity these days, speaking additional languages is a major advantage. To illustrate that fact, all you need to do is visit practically any service related industry and look who's the people are who are front and center. In many cases it's a bilingual English/Spanish speaker because hey, companies aren't stupid and definitely understand who their customers are and which customers they would like to have. In a lot of cases, those new customers speak Spanish.

Not to say they don't speak or will never speak English, but you reach people where they are at. That's why I make it a point to practice my Spanish with whomever allows me to inflict it on them. In fact, if there's anyone out there with a similar mindset let me know in the comments and we'll figure out a way to practice together.

A lot of people feel that English is the unofficial global language but I disagree. The true international language that most Americans also don't speak is soccer, or more accurately, football. I'm a big fan of the game, especially the internatinal tournaments pitting national teams, one of which is going on right now. It's the Confederations Cup being held in South Africa which will also host the World Cup next year. The American team is doing quite well in this tournament, so far advancing through group play and defeating the mighty Spanish team today to earn a spot in Sunday's championship game.

Quite an accomplishment though you wouldn't know that living here in the States. Anywhere else such an achievement would be cause for celebrating in the streets, but not here. Most of us just don't pay any attention to soccer, I mean football, at all. Just like our inability to carry on a conversation in anything other than English, we are pretty much incapable of conversing in this global language of sport as well, and I think that's a shame.

So in addition to pummeling anyone who'll engage me with my Spanish, I'm trying to do the same in regard to soccer. The question is whether anyone's listening.

Anyone?

When PAC's Attack

I was watching one of the Die Hard movies the other night, the second one I think that was set in an airport. The head honcho at the airport was none other than Fred Thompson, he of the recent failed Presidential bid. I couldn't help but to think what an amazing leader we missed out on by not electing this man President.

Ok, not really. The Republicans didn't even see fit to elevate him to the top of the ticket, and they're never wrong about that sort of thing.

Anyway, imagine my surprise to receive an email this morning from the FredPAC, Thompson's political action committee, lambasting the Obama administrations handling of the current situation in Iran.

I won't bore you with details but suffice it to say it was the same old refrain of "weak" in the face of a challenge, etc. without laying out a more effective strategy of his own.

Opposing for the sake of opposing, in other words.

What was conveniently not mentioned is that the U.S. has a less than stellar track record as far as Iran is concerned and virtually no influence in their internal affairs whatsoever. Not that it would matter if they had remembered to include those facts.

In my opinion the Obama team is handling this thing just right, so that no matter what emerges on the other side of this situation, the U.S. is still positioned to take on the challenging negotiations ahead in regard to their nuclear program and other issues. We currently have no idea how this thing is going to play out but I have a hell of a lot more confidence in the current administrations ability to handle it than I did in the prior administration. Or would have in a Thompson administration.

So FredPAC, if you deem someone withthis line of thinking as not worthy of receiving further emails from your fine organization, I understand. I hope you keep me on though. As the old Reader's Digest magazine proclaimed, "Laughter is the best medicine" and your email was the best laugh I had all day.

The Cure For The Lazy Blogger - Well, Maybe

Well it's a well established fact that I'm a lazy blogger but I've been racking my brain to figure out why.

I mean, I don't think I'm lazy in the true sense of the word. I work hard every day, I can write effectively when motivated to do so, and if the subject is something I'm truly interested in I'm capable of generating a ton of material in relation to it. So what gives? Why has it been so difficult lately to regularly post on my blog?

The answer? Well... I don't know, but I have a theory. I think it boils down to technology, time, and motivation.

First technology. Most of the blogging I've done over the years was on my laptop. Over the past few months however I've basically stopped using the thing, instead using my Blackberry for most of the same tasks that the laptop formerly was the instrument of choice. Not to mention the fact that I can take pictures and make phone calls with the same device. And it weighs a few pounds less. To make a long story short, my blogging has slowed because I don't tote the tool around nearly as much as I used to.

So what about time? I have as little free time as I've always had, yet blogging output has decreased tremendously. Work consumes, but that's nothing new. So it must have something to do with motivation.

The latest Presidential campaign and all of its twists and turns provided an endless source of inspiration, yet once it ended it was like the air leaving a balloon. There are still endless topics worthy of discussion that I have opinions on but the motivation to write about them in depth just hasn't been there lately. I'm sure it will resurface but in the meantime... nothing.

So I've decided what I'm going to do, and basically that is to start blogging using my ever present Blackberry, to create posts whenever time allows at work or at home, and to try, try to focus on a topic of real interest at least once a week.

This post is the first test of the new There... Already blogging protocol. Stay tuned, there's definitely more to come as long as my thumbs don't wear out first!

Swine Flu, Politics,Smartphones, and Bean Pies?

Random thoughts in no particular order of importance for your Sunday morning.

I'm a little bit worried about the H1N1 flu virus because I'm in schools all of the time. Not to mention grocery stores, church, and all kinds of other places where people, and flu viruses, congregate. But I'm not so worried about it (yet) that I'm pushing the panic button. Looking at the news reports, you'd think it was the second coming of the bubonic plague. Maybe it is, but until we start flipping out about the regular flu that kills tens of thousands every year, or car accidents, or gunshot deaths, or..., well you get the idea. We're going to be careful of course, but life still has to go on.

This first round of this year's NBA playoffs have been outstanding so far. Of course I'm beyond thrilled that the Houston Rockets finally made it out of the first round for the first time in 12 years. This after trading away their starting point guard and having their "best player," Tracy McGrady, sidelined for the season. I think the Rockets are going to give the Lakers a tougher time than anyone seems to think right now.

President Obama is doing a good job. No elaboration, I just think he's doing a pretty good job all the way around and I'm looking forward to his first appointment to the Supreme Court.

Arlen Specter? Sometimes you should just lie to people. I mean, you don't want your fate decided in a Republican primary? Come on man, weren't you a Republican for like 45 years? What an insult to the people who voted for you, although I'm sure a lot of them are switching parties right about now too. I remember when Ben Nighthorse Campbell won a Senate seat as a Democrat way back in 1992. I voted for him. Then, I think within a year or so he switched to the Republican side. I know I was hot then and I'm I'll bet a whole bunch of Pennsylvania Repulicans are plenty pissed off right now too. But oh well, that's the way it goes I guess.

Still haven't bought the wife a new smartphone yet. Hey, it's not me. She's resisting. I'm pretty sure I know what phone I'm going to get her. Want a hint? We're on T-Mobile, she uses Google for everything, needs directions or phone numbers all of the time, and can't text on her regular phone keypad to save her life. Based on that, can you figure out the phone she'll be getting?

Speaking of smartphones, I know all of the talk is about iPhones and the App Store, but I've got to give it up to Blackberry and their recently launced App World. Talk about a utility for pretty much everything with more coming online everyday. And a lot of them are free, like Slacker Personal Radio. There's a war going on in my office, half of the people are iPhone fanatics and the rest are just as crazy about their Blackberry's. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out over the long run, especially when Palm jumps back into the fray.

The pirates are still attacking and capturing ships. How about a central government that works?

Finally, my wife makes a mean bean pie. Now if you're not Black and/or you haven't been around those Nation of Islam brothers at some point in your life, you probably don't know what a bean pie is and more than likely have never tried one. Well we're Black, non-members of the Nation, but we do like bean pies. One of her best friends however is neither; she's of Puerto Rican descent, born and raised in Chicago and has spent the last quite a few years in Texas. No bean pie exposure in other words. Until this past weekend when our families got together for dinner at our place and my wife made a bean pie for dessert. Suffice it to say they loved it! So much so that she's been working all week trying to make them herself. For some reason, the thought of it just brings a smile to my face.

And that's where I'm going to end this post, smiling. Happy Sunday.

I'm DP, and I'm a Lazy Blogger

They say admitting it is the hardest part, so I admitted it. I'm a lazy blogger. There's no excuse for the lack of posting here.

Well, actually, yes there is, but what's the point of repeating them when there are so many internet based tools that can do it for me. Take this excuse post generating tool for for example:

Geez I just discovered I have not updated this since last month. You would not believe how insane my life has become. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness.

I am overwhelmed with work, personal projects, just generally being a nuisance to society in general. My day is full to overflowing from sun up to sun down and beyond. I am looking at rectifying this, but hey, life happens.

I won't promise anything to you but I will update you with my nefarious activities as soon as I get a chance. Well, I'll try. What do you mean you don't believe me?

Not bad huh? And to think that was generated by a postbot on some blogger's site from halfway around the world and all I had to do was a little minor editing. Like I said, it's too easy to be lazy and still post on your blog every now and again. And obviously I'm not the only one out there, witness this guy who I lifted the Lazy Blogger certification from.

See, there's still hope for me yet.

Musical Interlude: Old School Friday - If Mama Only Knew

If Mama Only Knew. That's today's theme for Old School Friday. Where to go with this one? The obvious choice would be to cue up a couple of songs that made her pull her hair out back in the day and say "What's wrong with you kids? That's not music!" I'm sure we've all experienced that, it's a generational thing that I'm now saying/doing with my own daughter. But I'm not going to go there because this theme presents the opportunity to go a little deeper.

Most of y'all know I lost my Mother last year at the way too young age of 64. That threw me for a loop no doubt. As time goes by, I find myself reflecting more on what she meant to me, the things she taught me, and the sacrifices she made for my siblings and I. The unconditional love in other words.

I've also realized that there were points in my life where the unconditional love wasn't returned to the full degree that it should have been. Nor was the acknowledgment of and appreciation for the sacrifices she endured to raise us kids adequately expressed nearly enough by me in plain, easily understood language. Now that she's gone, what I want to say, know I should have said or done, and wish I still had the chance to say or do is amazingly clear in my mind.

But it's too late.

So If My Mama Only Knew how much I love her, miss her, and cherish each day that I had with her; and how the lessons she taught me in life I'm really just beginning to understand; and that I can still see and hear her in the voice and mannerisms of her granddaughter; I think she'd be proud and happy.

So how do you express all of that emotion through song? By playing one of the best songs ever written to express just those feelings of course. Here's Maxwell doing his version of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Worth."



Unfortunately most of Maxwell's videos can't be embedded, but here's a link to the original music video.

That's it, and I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of the theme. Happy Old School Friday and don't forget the rest of the OSF crew!

Electronic Village - Chatting Over Cocktails - Ms Grapevine - Quick - Marcus LANGFORD - Cassandra - Danielle-Lisa C -Chocl8t - DP - Kreative Talk -MarvalusOne - Regina - LaShonda -AJ - Sharon - Invisible Woman - Believer 1964 -Dee - SJP - sHaE-sHaE - Songs In the Key of Life - Shawn - Hagar’s Daughter - freshandfab - Creole Pimp - Wonderland or Not - SoulAfrodisiac - Bria Bria - CCGroovy -

Pirates- Does Anbody Have A Plan?

There's been lots of talk about piracy in the news lately, what with a huge international naval flotilla patrolling the area to interdict it, and now the news that after scores of attacks on vessels from seemingly every country on earth, at long last the pirates have got around to attacking an American flagged ship. Unfortunately for them it looks like they attacked the wrong ship.

The pirates tried to hijack the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday, but Capt. Richard Phillips thwarted their takeover by telling his crew of about 20 to lock themselves in a room, the crew told stateside relatives. The crew later overpowered some of the pirates, but Phillips surrendered himself to the bandits to safeguard his crew, and at least four of the pirates fled with him to an enclosed lifeboat, the relatives said. It was the first such attack on American sailors in about 200 years.

Wow. That's one bold, selfless, bad-assed Captain. Or a sad, sorry lot of so-called pirates. Either way I'm glad that at least a small victory against such lawlessness has been won. But the war is still far from over because we (meaning U.S.) don't seem to have a strategy in place to deal with the broader issues of piracy in the Horn of Africa region. Sure, there are a hundred naval ships in the waters off Somalia, but even this massive military show of force hasn't slowed down the number of pirate attacks. Or as stated by Galrahn at the influential Information Dissemination naval blog:

...the naval power accumulated off the coast of Somalia includes the greatest collection of global naval power collected since the invasion of Iraq, and even with virtually every major navy in the world involved, the pirates are winning.

That site by the way is a fantastic resource if you're interested in international naval and maritime issues, but I digress. Strategy. Ours isn't working because apparently there's is nothing in that part of Somalia that a decent person can do that remotely comes close to paying the bills like being a pirate. Throw in the fact that there's no central government and thus no one to turn pirates in to even if they are caught, and you start to see the true scope of the problem. In other words, you can't solve the piracy problem at sea. It has to be dealt with on land and that means helping establish a stable, central government. Wait a minute, I seem to recall..., remember this?

...So let me get this straight; the U.S. backs an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in order to bring peace and security to the region even though the Somalian Union of Islamic Courts had already pretty much done that.

...Regardless of the fact that the Islamicists had, through their earlier victory, ushered in the longest period of relative peace in Somalia since the late 1980's, the decision for regime change was made because hey, they're Islamic. Unfortunately for the Somalian people, that aforementioned period of peace only lasted for about 6 months.

Yep, that was your boy DP writing in April 2007 about our support of Ethiopian invasion induced peace and security, and the one size fits all approach to fighting terrorism. Here we are a couple of years later and Somalia is in worse shape than before and now the whole world is feeling the effects.

I truly hope the Captain of the Maersk Alabama makes it home safely. But I can't help but wonder what might have been, for us and the Somalis, if we had left well enough alone back then. With the attempted hijack of an American ship, I can only hope it influences our best and brightest to come up with a proper strategy to deal with the issue in all of its complexity.

My Wife Needs A Smartphone, A Moral Dilemma

My wife needs a new cell phone. She really does. You see the picture over there on the left? Well, her phone's not quite that old, but it's getting there. Some folks are just creatures of habit about certain things and she is definitely that way when it comes to cell phones. Currently she's using an old Samsung flip that can't do much more than placing a call.

Yeah, I know, that's what you want a phone to do, but in this day and age they can do so much more, especially with broadband. Like playing your music, text messaging, instant messaging, taking still and video images, playing games, and browsing the internet, to name just a few things. Not to mention the GPS capabilities and the myriad other applications being developed every day.

The reality is she needs what a smartphone can provide. For example, she's constantly printing directions to places she needs to go. Can you say GPS? Think of the trees saved over the long haul if nothing else. She also listens to music, manages a couple of internet groups, runs a vegetable coop, and home schools the kid. In other words, always on the go, even when she's at home. So she needs a more capable phone, but which one?

Dilemma? Well that's not really it. Here's my real issue y'all, and I'd appreciate your help in the comments.

As you know, I switched to the Blackberry Curve 8320 a few months ago, and have been amazed by all of the things that I can do via phone now, rather than the laptop. So much so that I've pretty much stopped toting the laptop around everywhere I go because it is basically a 5 pound redundancy. My version of the Curve was basically 3 year old technology when I bought it, and the newer models like the Storm, Curve 8900, and Bold have all been brought to market since then. And those are just the Blackberry phones. There's also all of the various touch screen models out there, like the iPhone, Instinct, HTC Touch, and G1. Having scratched the surface of what my current Blackberry can do, and being a gadget/technology guy, I'm already ready for a new phone myself. Which leads to my question. Should I:

1. Go ahead and buy her the type of phone I think she would like and use and wait to get an upgraded version of my own later, or...

2. Get the phone I want and let her have my 4 month old Curve.

You can see the conundrum here right? I mean I think she'd be happy either way but, well you know where I'm going here. It could go completely the opposite direction too.

So I need the help of you, my informed and enlightened readers. What would you do and please explain your rationale.

Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round-Up

A day late and a dollar short (as usual) but...

It is Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round-up. Here is your round-up for April 6, 2009.

Neil at Texas Liberal writes about Off the Kuff takes a look.

Justin at AAA-Fund Blog writes about the Pew study indicating Asian American students in Fort Bend and Pasadena ISDs face some of the highest segregation rates in the nation.

At McBlogger, we take a look at Ag Commissioner Todd Staples' efforts to make people sick. Nice work, Todd!

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is thoroughly disgusted with the crony-loving Texas Supreme Court which is hereby officially renamed the Texas Cronies' Protection Agency. Workers and consumers beware!
Labor gets its own television talk show, as MSNBC prepares to introduce Ed Schultz as part of its evening progressive lineup. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the details.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson has a round up of The state of the stimulus money in Texas.

WhosPlayin's MexicoBob took time to poke fun at the Republican Tax Day Tea Parties, wondering what other necessary evils that Republicans might protest next.

Over at TexasKaos Libby Shaw updates us on Houston KBR corporation's onging legal problems. It seems they got paid and paid and paid to create electrical death traps for our troops. As one civilan expert put it , " It was horrible - some of the worst electrical work I have ever seen. Read the rest here:
Lawsuit Claims KBR Responsible for Deaths of US Troops in Iraq


BossKitty at TruthHugger was struck by a single line on the news describing an Austin man turned away from medical care for lack of insurance, then going on a violent rampage, No Insurance, Meds Denied, Tate Mayhem and Perryman Murder - Op Ed. On a lighter note, it is amusing to watch opponents to gay marriage wring their hands in despair every time a court reverses the ban, Gay Marriage Apocalypse - Really Now

Vince at Capitol Annex points out that Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler) has decided that the Iowa Supreme Court gay marriage decision signals the end of American civilization.

Musical Interlude: Old School Friday - If I Were A Boy/Girl

Happy Old School Friday! Y'all bear with me as I'm trying to get back int he swing of things in the blogging world. The theme for this week's Old School Friday is If I Were A Boy/Girl.

Ok...

Not exactly sure how to handle that one, but here's what came to mind. I've been dealing with 11 year old daughter issues lately surrounding the whole Chris Brown/Rihanna episode. In a nutshell, the kid, because she's a bigger fan of Chris Brown than she is of Rihanna has been having a really difficult time wrapping her mind around the fact that no matter what the reasons or rationale, no man should beat a woman like that. Ever. Of course forgiveness and all of that stuff comes into play, but as a Dad, I feel it's my duty to take a hard line on this issue right now and try to set in her mind that she should NEVER accept that type of treatment from someone who says he loves her.

With that in mind, I interpeted today's theme as the types of songs/artists by male artists that I would hope my daughter would identify with as it pertains to relationships between men and women. Feelings, emotions, dedication, etc., all come into play here, and there are dozens of artists I could have chosen to represent my ideas here, but I've decided on these two.

First Up, Van Hunt with Being a Girl.



And next, an rock and roll classic from Led Zeppelin, All of My Love.



This was by far the most difficult Old School Friday theme to interpret so far, but I hope you understand the points I'm trying to make. Let me know in the comments, and don't forget about the rest of the Old School Friday crew.

Electronic Village - Chatting Over Cocktails - Ms Grapevine - Quick - Marcus LANGFORD - Cassandra - Danielle-Lisa C -Chocl8t - DP - Kreative Talk -MarvalusOne - Regina - LaShonda -AJ - Sharon - Invisible Woman - Believer 1964 -Dee - SJP - sHaE-sHaE - Songs In the Key of Life - Shawn - Hagar’s Daughter - freshandfab - Creole Pimp - Wonderland or Not - SoulAfrodisiac

P.S. I know more of y'all have joined up since I last participated so please drop your url in the comments and I'll add your site to the links.

Where The Heck Have You Been?

What's up y'all?

Wait, now don't be like that. Before you say anything, I know I've been missing in action for a long time. I know this blog hasn't been updated since mid-November, and we all know that a lot has happened since mid-November. I know I haven't been making my regular blog rounds to the fantastic sites that I usually frequent either. And I haven't left a comment anywhere for a while.

Look man, I know.

So what's the deal? Honestly, that I really don't know. The usual excuse is "I've been busy," and the truth is that I have. Since my last post we've sold a house, moved into another, been on the road a lot, continued to build a national organization from my current state base, hired a new employee, parted company with an old employee, hauled and humped 4 yards of garden mix topsoil for my wife's garden, started planning a golf tournament and gala for early September, become very familiar with my Blackberry 8820, rebuilt about 300 computers, met some really cool military veterans through my work, dealt with a daughter devastated that one of her musical heroes beat his girlfriend down, watched the Obama administration roll into office with a take charge attitude that I ultimately think will benefit the country, watched with trepidation as that same administration seemingly tries to address every issue facing the country today in one fell swoop, watched my beloved Dallas Cowboys collapse monumentally down the stretch, again, and not even make the playoffs even though they're probably the most talented team in the league, saw my equally beloved Houston Rockets shut down their so-called superstar for the year, trade their starting point guard, and become a better team, and oh yeah, I moved into new offices too.

Whew. I think I probably missed a few things in there somewhere, but you get the idea. What I haven't been doing is blogging as y'all well know. As a result, I've missed the opportunity to comment on all kinds of stuff that normally I would've been all over. Like bailouts, Afghan surges, Iranian satellite launches, and all of the other stuff in the previous paragraphs. Not to mention Old School Friday's and Texas Progressive Alliance roundups. In other words, I ain't been on my blog job and some of y'all haven't been shy about letting me know that. So Regina, Angie, Mick, Neil, Boo and everybody else that has said "start blogging again" in so many words, this post is for you. I can't say how often I will post because blogging is really a job in itself, but I'm pretty sure I can better the one post in 4 months pace I've been on.

And I know that some of y'all will let me know if I start slacking off again. But hey, that's a small price to pay for all of the love y'all send my way. I really appreciate and am thankful for you all.