The Cicadas

The cicadas are out. It is not a 17 year hatch but there are enough loud ones in the trees to about deafen you as you walk under them in the evening. As a kid in Illinois I used to pick the exoskeletons off of tree trunks and stick them on my clothes as ornaments. Mom did not like that at all as she was bug-phobic. I picked a few off the tree trunks here and grossed all out.

Two of the cicadas I found.

See the cicada on my shirt.

This morning we went to Weight Watchers, Val, Jasmine and me. Then to Jasmine's soccer game.

This is not a phone picture. It was taken with Richard's camera.

Texas Football with the Lovejoy Leopards

The Leopard was a friend of Jasmine's, so after the memory card in her YEARBOOK STAFF! camera was full she spent time helping her friend. The Leopard always has to have a spotter as the head has an under chin strap that can choke the Leopard if a child jumps on her.
Ben loved the Leopard and in between climbing up and down the stadium stairs and running as fast as he could all over, he played with the Leopard.
Robert was playing the Tuba in the band. He was in the back on the left in the photo, totally blocked by the enormous Tuba. They put on a long half time show. They marched and played by themselves, then at the side they played for the flag girls and the pom pom girls.
After the game they marched off. Robert was the last Tuba in the line. He looked very tired and sweaty.

The game was a long evening. First I had to take Robert to the band room at 515. Jasmine had soccer practice from 6-7 at celebration park so we missed the 9th grade game. Then we went home and picked up Val and Ben to make the JV game. The game started later than planned at 8PM. The 9th grade had beaten the MacKinney Broncos 36-9 and the JV team also won 40-20. At 930 after the 1/2 time show Ben started yawning so Val took him home. She came back to pick up me, Jaz and Robert after Robert had changed after the game. It was about 11PM when we got home, exhausted. Today both kids took a skip on arriving at school at 7AM and arrived at 8AM after a nice breakfast.

Ben today

Ben Breakfasting
Ben at Lunch
Ben Dressed up Cute
Ben on the Potty
Ben is almost potty trained. He likes to go bit at a time and help flush the big potty. He may do this 5+ times in a row. He is a good eater but has a cold and an itchy allergic rash, so he is a bit fussy today. But he is cute as always.

Weather in Texas Again

At 848 the temperature is 78 and the humidity is 87. The air feels thick and my glasses steamed up when I got out of the car after taking Jasmine and Robert to school. They have early, 7AM, tennis and band respectively, so they needed a ride. I am looking forward to the football game this evening. I won't fix dinner. We will just eat concession stand food. There is quite a variety of food as the crowds are large. Not just candy and nachos like at Pioneer Park. Last year the boosters were raising money for a blow up entry way for the 9th grade team. I am sure they got it, and it is probably impressive. Go LOVEJOY!!!

Hours

Just add 2 hours to my post times. I don't like to change the time on the laptop as it messes up the times on my palm. Val just took me outside to see a cluster of web worms, at least 50 of them, that were gathering on the trunk of a tree before going up to web the tree crown. Richard is going to knock them off in a bucket and kill them some nasty way. Thursday night is Football and Robert will be marching with the band. I will be there taking pictures.

Weather in Texas

Temperature is 73F with a light rain. I drove the kids to school as it was too wet for them to walk. The Turpens have a new Ben/Grandma proof front door knob cover.

The cannas are in bloom and the puddles are muddy in the lawn.

In Texas

Arrived in Texas this evening.
Robert in the kitchen is supposed to be doing the dishes.

Great Faux Harry Potter Video

Harry Potter and the Dark Lord Waldemart

Sports Learning

What did I learn in sports today? All about the A's Mark Ellis and why he is a great second baseman who gets passed over for awards. Serena and Venus will probably face off in the US Open. The 49ers are better and probably will make a wild card spot in the playoffs. The Raiders are great on defense and poor on offense, still, so they will probably have few wins.

Sierra Shakespeare

This weekend we crammed in all our Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet on Saturday and Taming of the Shrew today. The Foothill Theatre Company is a fabulous production company. Both plays were 5 star.

Sports

I decided that for balance I needed to appreciate that narcotic of the masses, sports. So I tried to read the sports page today. The UC Davis Aggies have a new stadium. One of the reasons they lost was because it was too hot and the artificial turf retained more heat. They are a smart school, maybe they should have figured out a way to cool that turf. I also noted that there are a lot of football divisions and that the 49ers look pretty good in their division. The Milwaukee Bucks signed a Chinese guy. It seems like I read somewhere else that more Chinese were playing basketball. Romania looks good in gymnastics for the Olympics and I recognized the name of one of the Heisman Trophy contenders, Darren McFadden. Also Cal won and Stanford lost. Yeah! Pretty good for a first time. After the Simpsons I looked for some sports on TV, so NASCAR is on. I'm not watching, but it is on. The couch part of Homerazzi was great. Homer evolves prior to sitting on the couch.

Neighborhood

There are vacant homes in the neighborhood. This is supposed to be a sign of decline. The two homes in question, 302 and 350 had some remodeling done and do have occasional yard service, but no one has lived in them for over a year maybe two. In a bad neighborhood that would be a disaster. Dad reminds me that our house will be vacant for 7 months, but Linda and the animals will be here so not really.
Barrys are selling their house. A son is the real estate agent. I wondered what they were going to do, so when I ran into Ben on the street I asked him. He still wonders all over town, but since he was ill, he seems a little loose mentally. He told me they were moving to Tahiti. I don't think so.
The gray duplex across the street has had serial renters lately. The latest crop moved in yesterday.

The Last Great Republican

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the last great Republican. During his presidency was the last time I considered myself a Republican. As a 3rd grader I went over to the neighbors (they had a TV) and watched the Republican National Convention and gleefully shouted "I like Ike."
But he has proven durable beyond the political vision of an 8 year old. He warned us of the Military Industrial Complex. He said that a union system was necessary for our country. Although he thought that only a few hard line reactionaries were anti union. He created the vision of an interstate highway system. He was an honest open person who knew how to have fun. He was the face of another age. He also did not trust his VP, Nixon.

Texas Spiders on Rampage

Texas long-jawed spiders are spinning massive webs making canopies over trees covering acres of parkland near Dallas. Texas state insect biologists have never seen anything like this and don't know what is going on. Just in time for my trip to Texas. read more.

Neoliberalism + Neoconservatism

It seems that we have the worst of all with Neoliberalism dominating our domestic policy and Neoconservatism dominating our foreign policy. Both are morally bankrupt and are well advanced in killing our nation. Stir these policies together with the desire on the part of the powers that be to ruin our nation's economy, military and government and what is left is an elite ruling a serf nation.

Tony Snow is Poor?

Tony Snow is leaving his post because his family can't make ends meet on his government salary. He said he wasn't going to ask them to cut back and that he had taken out a loan prior to taking on the job as press secretary, but that money is gone. So he will go back to working in cable TV and radio "news" and punditry. So sad that 168K per year plus that loan is poverty level. See Poor Tony Snow for more.

Successful Conservatives Fail

The failures of conservatives in running government is really success for them. They can then point to government failures and say that this is why we can't have government running anything since it will just mess it up. This is why we can't have the government running healthcare as it will be messed up as bad as the response to Katrina was and still is. Paul Krugman has an excellent article this week. Katrina all the time.

Delta Kappa Epsilon

I remember the DKE's at Berkeley. During my Junior year when I was unfortunately living with the girls gone wild, I had gone out with Wm one evening when the girls invited the DKE's over for a party. Things were so bad at the apartment when I got back that I wound up going back to Wm's apartment and spending the night on a pallet in a closet. I cooked breakfast for the guys in the AM and they said I was welcome to stay. When I got back to the ruined apartment that day I found that some of my records and my portable stereo had been broken and they had burnt up one of the kitchen chairs. That is what the DKE's are like. The frat house was near the dorms and always had that Animal House aura about it.

More Cronies

Although I do not think Chertoff will be named to be Attorney General, or at least not confirmed if named, I still think Bush will stay with the serially acting Paul Clement. If Chertoff did need to be replaced at Homeland Security, the friend on the short list is Clay Johnson III, the current Deputy director of Management at OMB. He was a classmate of President George W. Bush at Phillips Academy, roommate and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother at Yale University, where he helped pull down the goalposts after a Princeton game. His business experience prior to moving in with the Bush transition team was with various mail order companies. Yippee doo! Lots of security experience. I guess he can learn on the job during the next big one!

Next Larry Craig Prediction

My prediction is that within the next few days Larry Craig will find Jesus. And William says, "or check into Rehab."