Size does matter

Ok, I realize I have not posted in something like 2+ months. I have no real excuse other than laziness, but in my defense I was sick from something like a month. Nothing major serious, just a cold/cough that was annoying and made me just want to sleep.

So I am back...

So what has gone on in the last couple months.

I went to San Antonio for a conference. I think it was my first time there. We lived in Texas when I was little (maybe 1-2 years old) but obviously didn't remember it.

Mostly work on the trip, but knowing the famous landmark of the city, besides the Riverwalk, the Alamo was in the middle of downtown, I did go in search of it. When I found it, I had an immediate reaction of, that can't be it, its really small...My guess/estimate is that the front of the building is maybe 35 feet tall. I mean if your life depended on keeping thousands of angry Mexicans from killing you, wouldn't you want more than 35 feet of stone and brick work in their way. No wonder Davey Crockett and others bit it there.

So anyways, I will close with a funny story from Jenn's travels with Good News TV about the Alamo. (Jenn - No corrections on facts, I am paraphrasing and generalizing for time and convenience) Jenn used to travel 100 days a year with Good News and many of the crew members were high school and college interns and summer help. On a trip to San Antonio, they stayed in a hotel right downtown near the Alamo. They left the hotel for dinner on the first night and walked outside. Immediately outside the lobby, they realized they were right next door to the Alamo. The immediate reaction of one future brain surgeon, "Why did they put it so close to downtown." Wow, I'll be here all week, try the steak and don't forget to tip your wait staff, they work hard for you.

There is much more to talk about from the last 2 months, but for now, goodnight Internet.

Sgt. Barry Sadler is my Home Boy

Ok, most of you know I am a bit of a sports geek. My darling wife is a literary, music type of girl so when we play Trivial Pursuit it is pretty much a battle of attrition. I get Yellow, Blue, Green and Orange (History, Geography, Science and Sports), she gets Pink, Brown, Green and some Blue/Yellow (Entertainment, Arts and Literature and the others).

So tonight, partially because we were horribly bored with the same old same old (scanning Tevo), partially because of the writer's strike and partially because we just plain need to spend more non TV/Internet time together we decided to play Trivial Pursuit.

The first game was rolling along in typical fashion. I was doing well rolling all over the board looking for Roll Again and Orange Sports Spots to keep my turns going, till inevitably I had five pies and needed Pink to fill the pie and then of course to win I would have to answer another pink.

Then fate Smiled on me with the following two questions in succession on Pink (And Nathan will love the first one):

Q: What artist had a 1966 hit with Ballad of the Green Berets?
A: (And I love this song) Sgt. Barry Sadler

and then...even better....

Q: What name was given to the genre of Italian Cowboy movies (or something like that)
A: Spaghetti Westerns.

For me it doesn't get much better than that on Pink in Trivial Pursuit. Maybe something about Snoopy....what was Snoopy's buddy bird's name or something. So Barry Sadler, this Bud's for you. Oh and I lost the second game so the Ramsey family ended 1-1. BTW, watch out for us as a team, we won't lose. 8-)

Couldn't have one without the other

Jenn and I went to BW3 for dinner the other night after grocery shopping. After figuring out that we were standing at the maitradee stand instead of just ordering we were greeted by a quite competent girl working behind the counter and training a new but challenged employee.

The competent girl had two necklaces, one with the star of David and one with three crosses on it. I found that a bit odd. The Jewish people I know wouldn't wear a cross and the Christian people I know wouldn't wear a star of David. So knowing me, ya'll know what came next.

Bryan: So you have the Star of David AND crosses. What's with that? Couldn't decide?

BW3 Girl: Well, just thought you can't have one without the other so I have both.

Hmm....can't have one without the other. Christians might say that since they know Jesus was a Jew. Jews however might not agree. In fact my boy Baer chuckled out loud when I told him this story. In my honest opinion Judaism could exist and does possibly exist without Jesus and Christianity. They don't need us, but we need them so to speak.

So to my friend at BW3. I love your ambition, but you could be mistaken. Just a bit, maybe.

Childhood nutrition

I remember one trip to my Aunt Jo's house where I chewed a Ham sandwich bite or several bites maybe for the entire road trip to my Aunt's house. She lived in Orlando. We lived in Kissimmee. I believe it is about 30 miles, maybe more. That was the story of my childhood nutrition. I was picky and stubborn. I assume my parents just gave up trying after a certain point.

However, I think they missed the point. They never gave me the options the kid I saw in Mieneke Car Care this morning. I'm sitting there minding my own business waiting for my car to be finished and a girl, maybe 8-to-10 years old comes in with her mother. She sits down at the table I am at with a bag from Taco Bell and a bag from Wendy's. My kind of nutrition. So a couple of bites into one of her tacos, she lays it down and proceeds to dig into some fries from Wendy's. Moments later he mom says, "No more fries till you eat your taco."

I had a double take because when I was a kid it was no more dessert till you eat your veggies or no more something good till you eat something bad. This kid was getting no more fries till she ate her taco. I used to eat those Tacos and trust me they are both good tasting and bad for you. Hmmmm. I'm probably 60 pounds over weight right now. Imagine if I had those options as a kid. Good job mom!

US Postal Service, neither rain nor snow...

So the other day I go to the mailbox as is typical when I get home from work. I would say about 1 time a month or maybe less we get a piece of mail for one of my neighbors. I don't think that is a bad amount.

The most recent takes the cake.

Come to find out about 5 houses down from me lives someone who retired from the U.S. Postal Service.

So when I check the mail, in it is an incorrectly delivered piece of mail from the U.S. Postal Service Retirement Organization. If there was one piece of mail you would think they could deliver correctly, it would be mail to former compatriot about their retirement. So I enjoyed that little moment of irony. That the US Postal Service is not discriminating about what the don't deliver properly.

Disturbing News

I will get back to fun stuff soon I promise.

I am not going to go into much detail hear as I don't like having work discussions on the WWW, but this is a bit disturbing.

I am quite certain there will be appeals and other cases and all sorts of things I don't understand, but for now, just questions I guess.

What do you feel?

Just warning you this is pretty stream of consciousness. As most of you know by now, Jenn and I found out yesterday that we had lost the baby. What do you feel at a time like that?

I really don't know. It actually is a terribly mixed bag of things some of which I wonder if I should feel bad about feeling. I think all of it comes down to the fact that we heard a heart beat and that heart beat isn't there any more and that really sucks. Regardless of all the other stuff related to the pregnancy or now lack of pregnancy, we had created something and it is gone. Fears about money or health or being good parents, excitement over the new addition, a chance to be parents and a chance to raise a child; They are all gone for the moment.

I'm sure, God willing, there will be another pregancy and hopefully we will have a baby one day, but today just sort of stunk. It was my first day back at work and the fact that I had to tell a few people why I wasn't in yesterday stunk. The fact that when the girl who sits next to me asked when our baby was due, I had to tell her stunk. The fact that in a meeting, someone in reference to a product assortment life cycle said they wanted to know birth to death and all I could think about was an ultrasound two weeks ago that was loud and proud and an ultra-sound yesterday that was silence stunk. Like the silence on the other end of a telephone or a radio when communicating with someone and you aren't sure they are ok, only this silence represented the end of something small. No flat line tone like in the movies, just a silent audio track.

I guess I feel that it sucks. That's about it. We will move on. We will try again. I know God has his reasons and more than likely they include the fact that the baby didn't have a shot at survival or health. We didn't do anything wrong and Jenn did everything she could, bless her heart, to give that baby a healthy body to grow in. It just didn't work out and that sucks.

I guess that's it for now. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. I have talked to a ton of people about this and well, what do you say? I have told the same story over and over again. I hope the next story I tell over and over again is about how I witnessed the birth of our baby girl or boy and how that really didn't suck. Not at all.