Who let tha dogs out?

We came home from dinner and Buddy had pulled his whole chain anchor out of the ground. Then we couldn't find him. Winston was in his pen. After we came back from walking down the street looking for Buddy, we found him coming from the back yard with Winston. Winston's pen door was pushed in...not out. Buddy escaped and came back to get Winston. They plotted an escape and pulled it off. I made them "Sit" in the street. They couldn't look me in the eye. No one has a complete back yard. It's like a maze. Last night, Winston did a dry run on his own. They had a plan. I'm almost sure Porky was in on it too. Sons o' bitches.

Tomorrow, I put up a real dog pen.

We're on lock down. Curfew in effect until further notice.

BUT, IF SO...

O.K., I hate this crap. I almost wish I knew nothing about this. I hate it. It freakin' burns me up.
Will the government bail out Luna's if they fail? I love Luna's.
I want a "Jumbo" on the rocks.
I'll just put my head down and keep working.

DEMOCRATS KILLING CAPITALISM

Stop the Insanity. We're going to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Over 5.4 TRILLION? Is that right? I know more than that.

Franklin Raines- Obama's Top Economic Advisor for his campaign. This guy made over 90 Million dollars while being the CEO of Fannie Mae.

James Johnson- Another Economic Advisor for Obama's campaign. This guy is the former Vice-Chair of Fannie Mae and Managing Director of Lehman Brothers.

Does anyone see the connection here?

Where is the liberal media?

It sickens me that people support these yahoos.
Who in their right mind would vote for these people?Unless you believe in a Socialist government?
Where's the investigations?
I don't want this debt. Let them freakin' fail.
Why do WE get to pay for their greed mistakes?
If you can't afford it, don't buy it. What do we learn if WE give them money WE don't have?

Corn Hill Picnic

We went to the Corn Hill Church Picnic for lunch with the family. Had good chicken and barbeque. I decided to take the "long way home". That was my favorite part of the day. Not much to be seen between Barlett, Davilla, and Sharp. Just untouched and undeveloped land, old rusty tractors, old cemetarys, and historical marker signs...and the road was winding and fun to drive. Made me crave a Big Red. Saw an eerie old deserted school in Sharp. I think we were told in Texas History class that Davilla was one of the final considerations for the State Capitol city... Not sure if that is true.
I enjoyed burning the fuel. I love road trips off the interstates away from population.
We still made it home in the normal time. Maybe we'll start taking the "long way home" more often.

Our owl friend is back. He survived the hurricane.

Monkey and Coon Escape Zoo!

We heard a few animals escaped from Moody Gardens during the storm. They made their way north.

Aftermath of IKE

Lost all but one side of fence. Lots of shingles missing. Some roof damage. Shed damage. Tree loss and damage. We spent two full days clearing trees and fence. We're not done. I've never seen so many trees down. Very LARGE trees twisted and broken in awkward ways.

George W. flew directly over the house on Tuesday morning. He was landing at Ellington, but I don't think he could see us.

Monkey was in good spirits.

We have electricity finally. Very strange days without power. Curfews...and no lights. Everyone BBQ'd for days.

Everyone is helping everyone out. Picked up meals, ice, and water from the FEMA POD's. FEMA Pod's are everywhere. Seems like there's some type of relief organization in every major parking lot giving out meals, ice, and water. Even some private businesses are cooking out in the parking lot for people.

Gas is getting more plentiful everyday. Stores are starting to open.

I didn't know that so many power trucks existed. The Greyhound Dog Track parking lot is a staging area and it's FULL. Everything's headed to Galveston. Generators, Power trucks...Lots of trucks all day long. Military keeps flying over back and forth to the island.

Galveston is gone for a while. Still searching for people. They are getting everyone off the island.

We are lucky.

Sunday Morning

We may be headed back to League City today. We have some damage. I hear part of a tree is on the corner of Caleb's room and one of the back yard trees is down. The fences are down. One of the vents on the roof is missing and have some roof damage. Mark Martin says it looks like a war zone. No electricity.
Still, we are lucky. Galveston got destroyed.

Balinese Room washed away

Deep in the South of Texas

not so long ago,

there on a crowded island

in the Gulf of Mexico

it didn't take too much money,

man, but it sure was nice.

You could dance all night if you felt all right,

drinking whiskey and throwing dice.

And everybody knows

it was hard to leave.

And everybody knows

it was down at the Balinese.

Yeah, I remember Ruby,

she always dressed in red

wearing skintight pants, Lord, and how she could dance

with a rag wrapped around her head.

And everybody knows

it was hard to leave.

And everybody knows

it was down at the Balinese.

And everybody knows

it was hard to leave.

And everybody knows

it was down at the Balinese,

it was down at the Balinese,

it was down at the Balinese. -ZZ TOP

Hurricane Ike hits Academy, Tx.

Monkey almost blew away. I caught her.

Gustav,Hanna,Ike,Josephine

Ike and Porky

Porky is riding out the storm on Redbud. He was on the 3rd shelf of the bookshelf when we left. I think he was preparing.

IKE

We boarded up, packed up and got out at about 1pm Thursday. Made the trip to Temple in 6 hours. It was a good evacuation compared to Rita's 22 hours. Andi had the valuables and I had the dogs in the Jeep. The last forecast is that the eye will come across West End, Galveston and move through League City, and on to Houston.
The maps show 10-19 ft. storm surge up into Galveston Bay.
We live about 7 miles from the bay.
This may be the biggest direct hit in 30 years or more.

Officer Carl

The non-existent police officer???

Mr. Traffic Ticket

"It cost Sprecher's clients from $90 to $200 per offense, but few leave the courthouse thinking they've gotten any less than their money's worth -- even though many of them could have had their cases dismissed without having to pay an attorney. By avoiding a fine and a blot on their driving record, most are under the impression they've also avoided an automatic increase in their insurance premiums, although for many, the reality is their rates wouldn't go up with just one conviction. Other clients -- those who drive for a living -- will be able to keep their jobs by having their charges dismissed.

Despite his reputation around the municipal courthouse, Sprecher is almost invisible outside of it. He likes it that way: he's got a lucrative gig, and he doesn't go out of his way to call attention to himself. He makes a habit of not returning calls from persistent journalists. And though he'll walk away from a reporter at a fast clip, he usually can't stop talking as he does.

Sprecher is on the road before sunrise most mornings, driving from his home in Waller County to a Houston condo he keeps. He arrives at the courthouse by 8 a.m., parking his black '84 Mercedes two-seater in a special open garage he rents a block away. He typically heads for Court One, where he positions his Halliburton briefcase -- filled with clients' tickets and bits of law -- in front of the bar, and grabs a see-through pocket notebook divider he's filled with the day's most important papers.

Sprecher already has shifted into high gear, and he doesn't seem to come to rest for the remainder of the morning. A judge once reportedly said that the lawyer would do well to slip on a "feedbag of Valium." After a serious car accident left his back broken in three places, Sprecher ran his office from his hospital bed and appeared in court soon after wearing a partial body cast.

"I had to come back," he says. "We were losing $10,000 to $15,000 a month because I wasn't down here."

Sprecher is ubiquitous at the weekday morning readings of cases set for jury trials, where the accused are about 80 percent more likely to see their charges dismissed than at their arraignments or in trials to the judge. He spends most of his time in Court One, whose judge has a defense-friendly reputation. But Sprecher has one or two of his associates covering adjacent courtrooms, and he often dashes between the three courts.

Despite the demands on his attention, not a whole lot seems to get past him. When a prosecutor questions a trio of Houston police officers on the whereabouts of "Officer Lowder," the answer comes from across the courtroom, courtesy of a seemingly out-of-earshot Sprecher: "Lowder's on vacation with his family." When a judge orders her bailiff to locate a particular defense attorney, the disembodied voice of Sprecher can be heard calling from another room to inform her honor that the lawyer she wants is next door in Court Three.

Nobody really plans on becoming a traffic-court lawyer, not even David Sprecher. He came to Texas from Florida in the mid-'70s and worked as a night manager at ABC Bonding Company before enrolling at South Texas College of Law, intending to develop a practice in collective bargaining and negotiation. But while a law student, he fought his own traffic ticket, enduring two trials -- and two guilty verdicts -- before persuading a judge to set aside the second verdict. He had found his calling.

After getting his law degree in 1978, Sprecher was employed by a series of lawyers whose practices consisted of defending clients with traffic tickets and other criminal misdemeanor charges, including Harry A. "Red" Loftus and the late Max Weiner, a certified eccentric who called himself "doctor" and compiled a book of "good ideas" entitled Is There Anything New Under the Sun? By the late eighties, Sprecher had opened his own office, working for a while with now-state District Judge Pat Shelton.

Sprecher isn't the first or only lawyer to make a good living off of traffic-ticket lawyering, but he's refined it to a high art.

"He's the master guru," says Ron Hayes, a veteran criminal defense attorney who occasionally defends clients in the muni courts.

Sprecher brags that he maintains files on his most recent 40,000 cases on the computer system in his Montrose office. His practice -- he has a stable of associate attorneys who also make traffic tickets their business -- is a legal Wal-mart: high volume, big turnover."-Houston Press News

Good Start

Favre throws 2 TDs, leads Jets

past Dolphins 20-14

PALIN

For the first time I think something good may actually come out of this election. I remember her being on Glenn Beck about a year ago and she was "no B.S., anti-Washington" then. She's not a big-time politician, so she has nothing to lose. The liberal media hates that she is an average, normal person. I love it.