So I guess I need to post again...

I apologize to the football gods. I was merely making a lighthearted joke of sorts on the predictions of our season. How was I to know that our Offensive line would truly be offensive, that our defensive coordinator has apparently not taught our freshmen AND upperclassmen how to at least tackle a guy, even with the impending "learning of a new system," that our kicking game would be so atrocious, and that our senior QB's confidence could be shot so quickly?

Let's face it, these last two games have almost been painful. I guess one could say that it at least seems that they are two extremely good team (Bama in particular). Of course, then you have to note that Florida is as well, and that they just had a bad game. This of course, could bode poorly for us if the Gators are mad from losing to the Wild Rebel. I will, of course, still be there because, well, it's not like I have anything else to do. Besides that, it's football. And a chance to make fun of Tebow...from my seat in the upper deck. Plus, dad's birthday is Sunday, so it will be a chance to go to a nice restaurant afterwards and eat with him and mom. So a big woohoo to that.

Let's see, what else has been going on since I last posted? Oh, not that anyone cares, but I switched my car insurance. I know, big things happening for me, ha! But seriously, switched to Nationwide, which dropped my premium by about 150 bucks, plus dropping my homeowner's insurance 20%. Now if the assessor's office will ever "fully" process my homestead tax credit (they told me some months ago it was in the system, yet they couldn't tell me why i hadn't seen it yet), my montly mortgage should be less than $490 a month. Hmm....let's see, maybe if more banks would have done like they did with me (only allowing me to take a loan that I can ACTUALLY afford), then maybe we wouldn't have so many people with such high montly payments, so many danged foreclosures, and so many danged banks going belly up. But maybe that's just me thinking...you know...logically.

Luckily, I did buy when I did, thus getting me already into the "system" building my equity and my credit. So when the time comes that banks will start loaning money for homes again, and they're much stricter, Meagan and I shouldn't have any problems.

Past that, I'm just rockin right along. New TV shows are on, which is good. Sarah Connor Chronicles has been excellent, Heroes has been phenomenal, How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory have been great, as has been Smallville and The Office. I still haven't gotten time to sit down and watch the premiere of My Name is Earl, but I hear good things. Oh, and the new season of Pushing Daisies starts tomorrow night. So serious woohoo's to that.

Alright, at some point I should get started on work. They'll eventually notice that I'm just sitting here.

Keep on truckin,
-kyle

Happy Friday...

Man, I'm tired. I'm still tired. Both from the fact that this welcomed drop in temperature has my allergies reeling, and from the fact that sadly I'm still recovering from the 3am drive home from the Eagles concert on Tuesday night...

It's been a weird week. Busy, but not super busy. I'm glad it's Friday though. I get to see Meagan again and it's Hogs-Bama weekend once again. It will certainly be an early start to the Saturday football-sphere, but at least it won't be after midnight when we get home. So hooray for that.

On to the Eagles. Absolutely the most phenomenal concert I've ever been to. Heck, one of the most amazing evening's I've ever witnessed. I've been a fan of their music for a long time now, and being able to see them live was a dream come true. Heck, as Meagan's dad and I discussed, it was worth the price of admission alone just to see Hotel California live. Someone once said that you haven't truly lived until you've seen it performed live (i don't remember who though said it though. Maybe I just made it up in my head. I swear I read it once though...oh well). Either way, it's true. One of the single coolest things I've ever seen.

At any rate, they played several of their new songs, and then a crapton of their old stuff, which is of course the main reason Alltel Arena was packed. Just absolutely awesome. Have I mentioned that it was awesome? If I haven't, it was. They started playing about 8:10 and finished about 11:20, so it was certainly money well spent. The sad part of the evening was the part about not getting home until 3 in the am.

Alrighty, I've rambled. I should probably get to work. Mom's come back and keeps giving me a look as if I'm not doing anything.

So until we meet again, hopefully the Hogs will make it an even better weekend (hey, we're finally healthy, and while their D is good, they haven't played anyone all that good. No, Clemson isn't good. I put them just below WIU. Out of spite for them being Clemson and in the ACC).

Pig F'n Sooie...

-Kyle

One of these nights...

So I got mad at my dog last night. She woke me up barking at midnight. And then again at 1 (at which point after trying to get a late night swig of Dr. Pepper, I dropped the bottle on the kitchen floor, and proceeded to curse). And again at 5. I then locked her in the garage, which is what I should have done at midnight. I love my dog, but that is sadly one of the negatives to having a dog that you must keep outside most of the time. She likes to bark at random things in the middle of the night. The biggest problem I have with this is that she can't see anything with my fence. But she continues on, barking.

So it's apparently become a trend for me to apologize for not posting in a while. This blogging stuff is much harder than it looks, and trying to find something more than just the regular run of the mill routine that is my day to day life can be difficult at times. Not to say that there hasn't been plenty to talk about in the last 3 weeks. You then have to add in the fact that we have been almost excruciatingly busy at work and you get the idea. Still no excuse though, so I'm sorry. To Drizzle and Meagan. And the possible one or two other people that might be actually reading. No, it's just those two I'm sure.

Anyhoo, let's see all that's happened. I turned 25 and commenced watching the Hogs scare the living crap out of me against WIU. They did win, however, and all I can say is that there were definite positives, and definite negatives. Casey looked good. The oline and receivers looked good...at times. The defense...well, they seem alright against the pass. Along with getting to spend the game with Meagan and the Drizzle, and then add a Sunday lunch with mom, dad, and Meagan for my birthday and then pulled pork with her family that night, and it made for a wonderful birthday weekend. That really made for a long run-on sentence didn't it? Oh who am I kidding? I don't get grades anymore. I can make a 10 page paper into 1 sentence if I want to...Take that education! Ha!

Last weekend I spent with Meagan down in Russellville. I must first make the point that I am the man. After being very open that she doesn't really like much barbeque (doesn't really eat anything her dad has smoked, I get the feeling she ate ribs I cooked just to be nice :- ) ), I took her a chopped pork sammich from Rivertowne in Ozark. A slather of mild sauce, and then some hot on top of that, and I swear her first words after that first bite were "I really hate to say this, but...that's really good." I WIN! I'M A WINNER! OK, maybe they're winners down there with the single greatest barbeque sandwich on Earth, but still. They're not here, so I'm claiming awesomeness.

Past that, we hung out with each other, went to see 'Traitor' (really good film by the way. Also creepy when we're sitting there and in walks Amber Shaddock and her boyfriend, ha!) and went to church with my Grandma and Aunt. I sadly had to cut it short Sunday afternoon as I had to get back for church choir practice (we're trying to make a valient effort to get an early start on the Christmas program). I also was able to watch at least a smidge of the Hogs online Sat. night...at least the very end, which by the sound of it was the best part. Hooray for being 2-0.

I obviously haven't talked too much about work, but really there's not much to say. We're still extremely busy, but we're doing alright. The week following Labor Day allowed me to really get caught up on a bunch of stuff, and yet now I find myself with still several work orders on my desk. Just the fact of life. I'm certainly not going to complain though. It just seems at times that we're the only one's in the area that are busy. Or at the very least steady with business. I thank the good Lord above for that. Nice to see how he does and will provide when you let him.

It's also nice when it's as cool outside as it was today. I know partly it was from the "aftermath" of Ike, but I also like to think it's just getting that time for awesome jeans and t-shirt or light long-sleeved weather. Work seems to generally get done a lot quicker when you feel like going outside.

Welp, I guess that's about all I have for tonight. I should probably start getting ready for bed soon (yes, I realize at the time of my writing this sentence it's currently 10:02) as I've got a long night tomorrow. Work til about 3, and then it's off to see THE EAGLES!!!!!!! Riding down with Meagan's family, picking her up in Russvegas and it's off to Alltel in North Little Rock. Should prove to be an amazing show and an amazingly fun time. It will, however, be incredibly late getting home...at least late for me. Luckily, I don't have to go in at 8 Wednesday morning.

Happy Bama Gameweek. Until we meet again....

It's Game Week...

So it's been a whole whopping week since I posted, and for a change, a descent amount of stuff happened...thus worth my time and yours with me posting again. Or something like that... Anyhoo...

Meagan came back Monday evening, which was nice. Her mom and I went to pick her and her dad up from the airport. Meagan and I then got to spend a few hours together before she had to go do some last minute packing and peruse everything making sure she was ready to leave for Tech the next morning. We also found out that apparently the airport staff had stolen one of Don's bottles of hot sauce he had bought at Sylvia's Soul Food in Harlem. The nerve of those stupid Yankees.

At any rate, Tuesday I got up, got ready, got a steak burrito from Phoenix Drive-In (this place really is awesome if you haven't tried it. One of the better burgers in town as well), and then picked up Meagan and drove to Russellville. Surprisingly, we were able to get her stuff unloaded in roughly 45 minutes or so, and then proceeded to start unpacking and organizing. This also wasn't too terribly tough, considering the fact that her room is spread out a whopping 8' x 10'. Certainly doesn't leave too much room to contemplate where to put this and that. The positives of the day included a trip to Taco Bueno, and getting to really "freak out" two of her suitemates. Pictures this if you will...Meagan and her mom are introducing themselves to the two freshman suitemates (this suite has two single rooms, meagan got one and a junior got the other, with the double belonging to the to younguns). All of a sudden they hear the toilet flush and out pops this random strange guy who they've never met, he looks, nods and walks by them. The look on their face was the priceless kind where they immediately thought some guy was living in there with them. Well, maybe it was one of those situations where you had to be there. I don't know.

Back to the other roommate. Absolutely one of the rudest people I have ever seen. I can't say "that I've ever met" as she didn't speak a word to anyone. Furthermore, she didn't even acknowledge that we were even in the common area of the suite...as we were making noise, talking, and moving stuff around. It got to the point that I stood at the end of the hallway and stared at her for a couple of minutes, out of spite of course, while she sat there in her room.
Never even blinked. As it turns out, she one of these people who's in the honors college, and one that very much believes that she's better and smarter than you or anyone else could ever dream of being. She also apparently will at some point go out of her way to let you know that. I sincerely hope I am around for that one because let's face it, I'm a jackass. And while I may not be the smartest guy on the planet, I think I'm doing alright for myself. That could be a fun interaction.

In other news, on Tuesday we also apparently got a forklift at work. So that's fun. It might not really sound like that big of a deal, but we've needed one and the guy next door with the forklifts has started being a jerk with 'em. So dad just up and bought one.

Wednesday I worked and had choir, while Meagan started the first day of the last semester of her college career at Arkansas Tech. I'll tell you, church choir is such an awesome ministry, and I'm glad to be a part of it. Not only are we helping the church reach out to the congregation and such, it also helps us through the week as well. Whether you've had a rough couple of days or not, I always feel uplifted when I walk in there on Wednesday nights, and I would be lying if I said it didn't help me get through the rest of the work week sometimes.

Thursday and Friday at work, I am happy to say we got a LOT accomplished. Finally got somewhat caught up on a lot of these smaller jobs that have been getting in the way of the much higher paying gigs :-) Still have several things I'm gonna try and finish up in the next couple of days, but it's nice to have a least a smidget of breathing room.

Saturday I went down to Russellville. Partly because I'm whipped and missed her tremendously (yes, even after a mere 4 days...but that was following the 5 day New York trip. don't judge me...), and because she didn't have the greatest of days on Friday, and I felt she needed me to be there, also adding the fact that for some reason, EVERYONE it seemed had went home for the weekend down there...despite it being just the first weekend after classes had started. Either way, it was a nice relaxing day. We hung out, went to Whattaburger (which is still, and will always be phenomenal by the way), made a Walmart run for her, and went to visit my Grandma and Aunt who live in nearby Pottsville.

Sunday was my resting day. Church in the morning, which was awesome as usual, Bible Study, and then lunch with the folks at El Chico's. I got home, let the dog inside for a while, and sprawled out on the couch and didn't move for nearly 4 hours. Granted, I didn't sleep that whole time, but still, nearly 4 hours. A trip to Walmart for myself, and then back home to watch the Colts and Bills play on NFL Network.

So it leads into today. It's game week. It's the start of the 5th season in my opinion...Sports Season. The season that starts with football, molds into basketball, and crosses into baseball, lasting from Labor Day Weekend until hopefully the end of June. It's glorious, not to mention it gives us all something to do. It also marks the return of new shows on TV, giving us even more things to do. So a big woohoo to that. At any rate, Saturday is the Season/Home opener for the Hogs. Let's face it, it will be a slaughter. WIU is a creampuff, and despite us losing the big horses, and our defense being green, I look for it to be a laugher, but it's still football! And on my birthday no less! What a glorious day it will be. Meagan will be going up to Fayetteville with me, as will the Drizzle, making his valiant return to God's Country. It will be great to see you Driz, and the rest of the gang, hanging out, eating and watching some foosball together again.

I might as well go on ahead and post a prediction for the season here. I am no betting man, and am guaranteeing this probably won't come to pass...as most every one of you know, I usually am eternally optimistic and vote with my heart instead of my head. But any rate, we beat WIU and Monroe, win on a last second field goal against Texas, which gives us the momentum to beat Bama and Florida. Petrino then shows Tubberville why Aubie wanted to hire him (not to mention he wants to win so we'll be celebrating at the 2nd Annual Deckapalooza). Sadly injuries take their toll and Kentucky upsets us as we get screwed on a bogus pass interference call, beat Ole Miss in a hardcore all out grudge match, roll all over Tulsa, continue our dominance over South Carolina and Miss State. We then lose to LSU. I hate to say that, but that is one game I have a hard time seeing us win. They will be out for blood after last year, and in general, I just can't stand Little Rock. The city or the games down there. So 10-2. Will I be right? Who knows. Most people will probably say I'm crazy, but then I question who says I wasn't crazy to begin with.

That's all I got. Happy Game Week.

It must be a case of the Mondays...

So I apologize to my one reader for not posting anything the last 4 days, but let's be honest, it's not like my life is so amazing that I will always have some crazy adventure to talk about. I mean, don't get me wrong, my life pretty much rocks, but be it hard to believe, there are some days that I simply get up, go to work, go home, pet my dog, and sit there until I go to bed. At any rate, a few of the highlights that I can recall....

Thursday I finally got to mow. This is something that has plagued me because I do not like mowing, even with my Murray riding mower that I got from dad (although I won't lie, it is fun to chase the dog around the yard with it from time to time). however, I haven't been able to cut my grass the last three weeks due to my mower's blade not engaging. We finally took a look at it, and after about 20 minutes of trying to re-rig the spring, and such, we came to the conclusion it needed some WD40 on a bolt. A single bolt. How sad is it that I couldn't have deduced this myself? I know, incredibly sad Kyle. At any rate, that's what I spent the evening doing...mowing. And then bagging up the grass. And then sitting there as Meagan called from time to time to tell me it was pouring down rain in NYC (not that I didn't want to talk to her. I very much did. I'm just making the point that it was the highlight of my evening post-yardwork).

Friday was much the same, although Meagan's mom came into the shop to show me the box of wedding invitations she found. After work, a trip to Ci-Ci's pizza with the folks and Chandler and Logan, and then over to their house to watch some of the Olympics. The end. (I said there wasn't much to it)

Saturday I slept in for the first weekend in a few weeks, and then proceeded to sit on my couch for another few hours. Cathy, Meagan's mom, came by with another 15 boxes of those invitations. This is of course awesome, since still 9 months out from the wedding, the invitations are just another in the long list of things we have completed or nearly completed (still have to get them printed of course). I then rode on my bike for a hair over an hour and 11 miles while I caught up on DVR'd episodes of Robin Hood (awesome show on BBC America, in case you haven't seen it). Afterwards, I picked up Cathy to go eat with me and my folks at their house (her daughter and husband are in New York, and her son is back in R'ville). Some good food, and a couple hours of the Olympics later, and I was back home watching Phelps win the 8th.

Yesterday (Sunday), we started our new "Praise" service at Grand Avenue Baptist. The difference is that instead of having the 'Classic' service at 8:30, it's now at 9:30 and under a new name. Let's just say it was nice for most every choir member being able to get there an hour later. Sunday school, and a lunch at Logan's Roadhouse later, I was sprawled out on the couch and asleep where I would remain a good 2 1/2 hours. I then got up, rode my bike about 6 miles and then then proceeded to watch more of my DVR'd Robin Hood episodes.

Again, nothing too exciting. I must say, though, it was an incredibly relaxing weekend, as evidenced by the fact that probably half of it was spent on my couch watching the tv. Everyone needs a weekend like that from time to time. I sleep poorly enough as it is to not need one more often that not.

In other news, Meagan is nearly on her flight back to God's Country, and will be here around 7 tonight after a long layover in Atlanta. I am, of course, excited to see her again, but it will obviously be somewhat bittersweet as tomorrow morning we head out to Russellville to move her back into a tiny little dorm room for 4 months. That will be hard. Yes, I realize that most weekends I will get to see her, but the fact of not seeing her day in and day out, after an every day thing all summer long will take some getting used to :-) But it must be done, and will be over soon enough. The upside tomorrow is that I get to make a stop at Rivertowne in Ozark and get the best sandwich on Planet Earth. So a big woohoo to that.

I've rambled. A lot. I'm gonna stop now, seeing as I'm at work, and my mom keeps giving me a look when she comes back into my office, as if I'm not getting anything accomplished....

Oh, and at some point, I intend to tell my eternally optimistic views on how the Hogs football season will shape up...it should at least be good for some laughs...

Keep on truckin...
-Kyle

BBQ and Nachos become friends...

I know this isn't a new concept on food. Heck, everyone who knows me can vouch that for about a 3 year period, it was a pre-game ritual before each and every Razorback home football game. The piles of chips, topped with a pile of cheese, topped with a pile of meat with barbeque sauce is an utterly phenonemal idea.

But it all changed yesterday. I found the best I've ever had at Benson's Grill here in the Fort. Meagan's dad Don (who owns the Fort Smith staple by the way) had mentioned the dish to me on many occasions, and I finally got the chance to try it. Complete with a good ol' heaping pile of cheese, topped with good quality Roast, and sauce made from the recipe he got from apparently an old Italian lady, it's wonderful.

Yes, I realize it's just a plate of nachos I'm talking about, but seriously. They rock. Quite amazing.

In other news, Meagan was privileged to work her last day today at the sunroom booth today, and will be leaving me tomorrow to travel to NYC with her dad for 4 days. Hoping they get to go to a Yankees game, along with multiple other things they're trying to cram into the trip, I imagine they will have a blast and get some serious quality time before she heads back to school for her final 4 months in R'ville.

Of course, the sucky part, for me at least, is that she leaves, comes back on Monday, and then I help her move into her dorm room on Tuesday. Blah for me. But it'll certainly be ok. (oh and a serious apology for the current sappiness of this blog...i'll get off the subject in a second, ha.) She'll be done soon enough, and will get to come home here and there, as I'll go down there here and there (sappiness off.)

In still yet other news, I left work early today, due to me not being able to hardly move my neck. I've always had nerve problems in my neck, but today was different. About 9:30, i stiffened up and couldn't turn my head much at all. So I came home, rubbed some sort of pain reliever on it and took a nap. It's a little bit better now, although, i will probably take something tonight.

I realize that absolutely no one cares about my afflictions, but i figured since you were here, you might find it in your heart to care...for a millisecond. And now it's done.

Alrighty, I'm out. Gotta go eat, then go to choir, then go see Meagan before I come home and sleep.

Keep on truckin...

Oh the rainy days...

So I realize that it's not currently raining in the Fort right now, but it has enough since Saturday night to still talk about it. It's amazing to me that every year, year after year, I gripe during the months of May and June because it won't stop raining, and then through July and part of August, I gripe due to the lack of it. This may not mean much, but I caught myself at 1:30 Sunday morning (the point that the storm woke me up) thinking "it's still raining? dang." and then I proceeded to call myself an idiot. Of course, then I started questioning why I was arguing with myself at 1:30 in the morning and promptly went back to bed after letting Abby inside and boarding her up in the kitchen. But seriously, why do I, or we as people for that matter, do this? Poor God can't win for losing here, and yet it's not like we, or even I, plan on changing. It will happen the very same next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. I might not gripe about it when I turn 30, but by then I'm hoping my iPhone will have a program to do all my griping for me.

At any rate, and back on the topic of rain, the positive of all of it has been that, aside from us needing it in a serious way, it finally felt good to go out in the shop and work yesterday. I'm fairly certain it topped out in the low 70s, and it was wonderful. I also, in turn, finally got at least a couple of things done, as going out into the shop didn't promptly make my head spin from the constant fight between allergies and extreme heat.

But in other news, Meagan and I went to her Grandma and Jim's house last night as well. I was "hired" out to fix their Apple computers, and the payment was food. Spaghetti in particular. Naturally, being the pasta nut that I am, I couldn't resist. Meagan's Grandma is an old school cook, and it was certainly well worth going over there. I got both their computer problems fixed (the extent of which was "Why won't it save my Yahoo! password when I open up FireFox?" Of course, a change of the cookie setting, and we were done). We then proceeded to just sit around and talk with these old folks for a good hour and a half or so, which was again, a real treat. You tend to learn so much from them, whether just life advice, or just as a history of how things used to be.

So yeah, it's no longer raining, but I think I'm still feeling the sleepiness that accompanies that. I definitely see a nap in my future when I get home tonight.

I've also realized that I've rambled on about nothing, and the thought process that is my brain is extremely strange. Of course, my guess is that if you're actually reading this, then you know how I work, how I am, and most importantly how I type and talk. So don't gripe. Yeah.
That's all I got.

So until next time, keep on truckin...
-Kyle

And away we go...

So here is my first blog post, from my phone no less. I wish I could
say I have big plans for this spot online, but I haven't a clue. So
we'll just see where it takes me. For now, a picture of Meagan from
when she was working this morning...

-Kyle