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Our neighbor Ed got us tickets to the Death Cab for Cutie concert at The Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie. We were in the Nokia luxury suite and it was a heck of a show. The photos are terrible because the only camera I had was my cell phone and it doesn’t handle low-light situations very well.

We’ve been promising the kids for several years that we would get a dog. Andrew’s 16th birthday turned out to be the occasion for finally making it happen. Michelle and Andrew drove over two hours into East Texas to pick up “Scout”, a pure-bred Border Collie. We’re looking forward to years of fun with him. More photos are in the Scout gallery.

For the last couple of years, several of my Oklahoma kinfolk have come down to the DFW metroplex to attend the NHRA Fall Nationals Drag Races. We’ve had a house full of guests because we live so close to the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX, where the races are held. This year, Andrew and I decided to go along to see what all the fuss was about.

When we first got to the track, we began to think the whole reason for the event was to get your picture taken with PR girls from various companies. Soon enough we found out there were other activities, like walking up and down pit row checking out the machinery, and playing in driving simulators. In the pits, we heard a few cars started up and “racked back”, and we were (almost literally) blown away by the power and noise.

Eventually, we made it to our excellent seats. We were on the front couple of rows directly even with the starting line. Even that far removed from the action, the power and racket were awe-inspiring. Even with hearing protection, you could feel really it when these 7000-horsepower monsters blasted off. I’ve never experienced anything like it.

It’s not something I’ll try to make it to every year, but it was a fun day, and I’m definitely glad I got to experience it at least once.

I have been promising my nephew Cameron that I’ll come and watch him play football for the last 4 years now. He is a senior now, and last Friday was his last regular season game, so I had to go up to Oologah, OK to see it. As it was the last game the seniors were likely to play on their home field, it was “Senior Night”. This was a pre-game festivity where each senior and his parents were introduced and brought out onto the field. We got to the stadium right on time to see Cameron introduced and snap a couple of photos. On to the game itself: It was windy and cold, but my mom and sisters were smart enough to bring extra blankets, both to sit on and to cover up with. Cameron’s Oologah Mustangs got out to an early lead and never looked back. They ended up beating the Jay Bulldogs 41-0, and getting into the playoffs. The seniors were planning to camp out on the field, but chickened out due to the cold and wind. This meant that Cameron was able to come over to my sister’s house and get trounced by me at Burnout Takedown on the Xbox.

The next evening, we went out to Incredible Pizza in Tulsa and enjoyed some miniature golf and arcade games. Cameron and I were so intent on which of us would win in mini-golf, that we didn’t realize that we were actually being beaten by both my sister Chris (the big winner)and my Dad. Oh yeah: Cameron and I tied.