I PASSED!!!!

I will be walking across the stage on Friday morning to receive my masters degree in Civil Engineering!

Finals: Coming to an END!

I have two more days (today and tomorrow) then I am done forever. I am going to be "Master Scott" from then on. My friends will still call me Scott, but everyone else will have to be respectful and refer to me as Master.

I hope that everyone is having a good time as Christmas approaches. I know that I am looking forward to some time off of work!

Y'all be good.

GEAUX TIGERS!!!!

First Dance

Saturday morning activities

I used to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. Now I wake up and I usually go "play" outside.

I have been very busy with school for the past couple of weeks, so when I took time off this weekend I was very pleased to have Buddy's backhoe at the house. I have been needed to dig up a bunch of tree stumps in the yard, so that is what I did. Here are some pictures to show my progress. As Chris told me, "you have to make a mess before it can get pretty."

I got pretty good at operating the backhoe by the end of the morning.

Once I get those stumps burnt and the dirt smoothed out again its going to look AWESOME!

Father/Kids relationship

This reminded me of my friends Chris, Lauren, and Annalise. You would have to see them in action to understand.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEH-HE-CA!

My birthday present was awesome!

Amanda gave me tickets to see these guys. It was pretty cool stuff. They put on a good show. And we had GREAT seats.

Jordan's Furniture

Jordan's Furniture decided to make a deal back in March 2007. They told their customers that all mattresses, beds, sofas, or dining tables purchased between March 7 and April 16 would be FREE if the Boston Red Sox won the 2007 World Series. Well, as we all know the Red Sox won. So is it time for this guy to pay back the 30,000 people who cashed in on the deal? He was smarter than I thought. He actually wont be paying back all of it. He purchased an insurance plan for $20 million to cover some of the deal. They never mentioned exactly how much will be paid back but here is a little math for you: $20 million/30,000 people is roughly $667 per person. I think that he is still going to be paying quite a bit of money out of his own pocket. Last time I checked some furniture cost more than $667, and that's only if each person only purchases one item.

Maybe we should start a help out Jordan's Furniture fund. We could do a car wash or something.

My birthday meal

My mother-in-law took Amanda and I out to eat tonight for our birthday. Amanda chose to eat at the Bonefish Grill. I thought that the food over there was excellent. They brought out some bread that I ate with olive oil and pesto - great. I ordered Mahi Mahi topped with shrimp, scallops, and crab meat - great. It came with some little veggies on the side - great. I also had potatoes au gratin - great. Amanda ate the same thing as me.

Thanks J.C. for the wonderful dinner.

Not to forget my birthday dinner from my mom, GUMBO. That was excellent also. It was perfect since it was right around the same time that the weather started to cool down!

Thanks mom for the wonderful dinner.

Happy Birthday to ME

Happy Birthday to Amanda

Happy Birthday Amanda!

I love you.

your hubby,
scott

LSU 28 - Florida 24

I was there! Believe it or not I got a ticket the week of the game. It all started when Kristen and Shawn told me that they wanted to come in for the LSU/Florida game. I thought that it was a wonderful idea, I just did not know how we were going to get tickets for the game. Well, Shawn and Kristen got tickets from one of their Florida friends. Now all that I needed was a ticket for myself. Luckily I was contacted by Anne-Kathryn telling me that Papa Bear came through with a ticket for me. I was by myself, but I was going to the game! What a great game that it was. I am so THANKFUL that I got a ticket.

This one goes out to Papa Bear and Nana Bear. I OWE YOU!

Big Bro's House

I finally made it out to Jacque and Jenny's house in Houston. It had been quite a while since the last time that I was out there. I was able to have lots of fun with my two nieces, Bella and Arianne. Bella was fun to play with and Arianne just kind of layed around. Sunday morning we sat there and watched Thomas the Train. That was pretty interesting. Jacque also made me worry while I was there. He handed me Arianne and started to walk out of the door with the his keys. When he walked out I heard the car start and I thought, he is leaving me with this kid and I have no idea what to do with her. Sure enough, she started to cry while I was holding her. He told me if she started to cry to put the pacifier back in her mouth, I tried that, but it did not work. So I just sat there with a crying baby and worried about when Jacque was going to get back to tend to this crying child. Luckily he was not leaving in the car, he was only backing it up in the driveway. So he came back in and took Arianne from me. That was very nice of him.

Here are some pictures of the weekend:

I was not sleeping, I just happened to have blinked.


Obviously this picture was taken before LSU beat Florida because they are all still smiling.

Poll #4

28% - 1
28% - 5
28% - 7
14% - 9

The correct answer is....7 times.

1. Church Point, NS - University Ste. Anne, Beginner 1 student (17 years old)
2. Church Point, NS - University Ste. Anne, Intermediate 3 student - with Stephanie (18 years old)
3. Vancouver, BC - visiting Marie (19 years old)
4. Church Point, NS - University Ste. Anne, Animateur - with Kristen, Audrey, and Laura! (20 years old)
5. Church Point, NS - University Ste. Anne, Animateur - with Amanda! (21 years old)
6. Banff, AB - Honeymoon (23 years old)
7. Vancouver, BC - vacation with Amanda (25 years old)

Actually sitting here and writing this stuff out makes me realize how lucky I have been to be able to travel so much in my young years. I am sure that you noticed it slowed down once I knew that I was getting married. I guess that is what happens, we have to start thinking about other people than ourselves.

Going to Ste. Anne was most likely the most fun that I ever had traveling somewhere. Mainly because it was a 6 week vacation from reality. I wish that I could still be working over there during the summers, but like I was saying earlier, I have to think about other people now.

One of the things from Ste. Anne that I am thinking about right now is the time that I told Kristen, Laura and Audrey that I was NOT going to be there for the summer that they were going as students. When they arrived at the university it was about 1 or 2 in the morning and the Louisiana crew is coming in from their long bus ride to the campus. I was standing there looking at Kristen and when we met eyes she was VERY CONFUSED. I think that she did a "triple take". Once she knew that it was me, she started to beat me up with her pillow. It was worth seeing her reaction to realizing that I was working that summer.

I could go on and on forever about my Ste. Anne story's. I am going to spare you though. If you are reading this and you went to Ste. Anne, write me a note about things that you remember.

I love to travel and I look forward to many more trips to different places around the world!

WATCH OUT FOR THAT.....

MIKE VI

It is official! Mike VI is going to have his official inauguration this Friday at his cage next to Tiger Stadium.

I thought that you may like seeing some pictures from all kinds of different people in Baton Rouge.

Here is a link with a video: http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p319/pam4lsu/?action=view&current=MOV01419.flv

Poll #3

25% - Deer in Mexico
25% - Squirrels
50% - Rabbits in Pecan Island and Dove hunting in Newellton

The correct answer is.....Rabbits and Doves. When I thought about this poll my first thought was that I never had more fun than when I hunted rabbits in Pecan Island. That was a blast. Mainly because Justin and I were like dogs getting the rabbits to run while other people were shooting them about 50 yards from us. From time to time we were shooting them too. It was a lot of fun. Of course we were hunting with 10 or more people so many rabbits (heads of lettuce) were harvested. All of them were eaten, we do not let things go to waist. BUT....that was my initial thought. When I really thought about long enough I realized that I LOVE dove hunting in Newellton also. Two different extremes of hunting. Rabbits were fun because we chased them down. Doves are fun because you have to be a pretty good shot! (Congratulations to He-hee-ca for shooting her limit this year.)

Glenn caught some fish too!

Since the last post I recieved this picture from Glenn. I felt bad because the trip was all about him and I was not able to post a picture of him with a fish.

Fun Fishing!?

I was in middle school the last time that I went off-shore fishing with Thomas and his family. We went red snapper fishing. It was a blast. I caught a lot of fish and I got very sick! I was sick enough to want to get on a platform and chill out for a while. That is exactly what I did, I got on the platform, drank water, and I felt better. I fished again until I felt bad enough to take another break.

This past weekend I was blessed with another opportunity to go off-shore fishing. This time with Justin, Glenn, Papa Bear, and friends. Glenn had some of his in-laws come down from Canada to take all of them fishing. I was so excited about being able to go out there.

We left from the camp around 6 in the morning. We stopped and fished as we went further and further out into the Gulf of Mexico. After a couple of stops I started getting sick. Justin was nice enough to get sick next to me, making it a lot easier for me to let it out. Justin gained control of himself again and had more fun fishing. I had caught a couple of fish by then and I just kept getting sick over and over. I knew I would get sick out there, what I did not know is that I could no longer seek "dry land" on the platform. It is illegal to set foot on those things now. So I was stuck in the boat. I had a blast while I was catching fish, but I was not having any fun at all once my stomach took over and kept me sick.

The other people on the boat did well. We caught a limit of red snapper, a lemon fish, a rainbow runner, and a trigger fish. That is just what we kept. There were plenty of hard tails (thanks to JT), plenty of bull reds, and other fun fish. One thing that was really cool to see was a HUGE marlin jumping out of the water catching other fish. Of course we tried to catch it, but never had any luck.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Poll #2

71% - 11 times
29% - 5 times

I knew that this one was going to be a hard one for y'all. I had to make a list for myself just so I could remember.

1. TV fell on my head - (5 years old)
2. Stepped on something while fishing in pond - (11 years old)
3. Got some air on a jump and busted my knee, biking - (14 years old)
4. Ice Skate to the shin, someone thought they could spray ice on me - (17 years old)
5. Axe to the shin - (23 years old)
6. Rock into the shin, three weeks after axe/6" above axe - (23 years old)
7. Knife to the hand - (25 years old)

Times that I have needed stitches....unknown.

Thanks for playing.

A sad day in the Baker house

While we were in Canada we had to eat out all of the time. One of the places that we went to eat was at Red Robin. The second that I saw the glasses that we were drinking out of I just had to have them for my house. So we got two of them. Kristen drank from one of them yesterday. This morning I drank from the other one. Unfortunately it was very wet and slipped out of my hand. You can see what happened after that. The best part about them is that it has "Canada's Gourmet Burgers & Spirits" written on it. Cannot replace that kind of glass very easily and I went and broke it. If any Canadians would like to donate another glass to me just let me know and I will give you an address to send it to.

Soliciting

What a wonderful Friday it was! Kristen decided to come and visit me this weekend. She had five goals for her trip to Baton Rouge:

1. See my house

2. Eat at D'Angelo's

3. Eat at Ninfa's

4. Eat at Smoothie King

5. Sell 13 DVD/CD combos

We met at D'Angelo's on Lee and had some wonderful food over there. We then needed to go to Target. We all tried on some clothes over there. After that we went to Sam's for an ICEE. Then we got into CRAZY traffic for over an hour to get to Baker.

Later that night we went to Ninfa's. While we were waiting for our table I was trying to get Kristen to try and sell some DVD/CD combos. Instead of her trying, I figured I would sell them, to prove a point/win a bet.
I tried to sell one to a worker (directing parking). He didn't really believe that it was for a good cause. I moved on to two women across the parking lot. While I am in the middle of my sell this guy comes up to me and tells me that I have to leave or he will call the cops. He was very rude about it, but I got up and walked back to the car and put the DVD/CD combo away. Well the two managers were following me. He continues to tell me that the cop is on his way. He actually said "Cops are on the way, he is a sergeant in the BRPD". How weird is that, intimidation? I tell him "I put them away, what is your problem?" He tells me "Just leave". Well Kristen came from Colorado to eat at Ninfa's, I cannot let us get kicked out on account of me. So I make my way to the manager and I apologize to him for being rude and for not listening to him the first time. I almost got on my knees to ask him to let us eat there, but it wasn't necessary. I was granted the right by the ALL MIGHTY ONE to eat at HIS restaurant, just so long I was being sincere and I was good boy while eating. Then the cop comes to talk with me. I thought that he was going to nice. He asked me what happened, I told the story. The cop then tells me never to do it again and to behave, otherwise I was going to JAIL. So then we ate the food and it was great.

Kristen got up this morning and we went for a smoothie. She saw a familiar face while we were there. It was a man sitting on the bench smoking a cigarette.

We also went to see Mike the Tiger (statue). Did you know that there is one in front of the football stadium AND in front of Mike's new cage?

I may have a story to tell about models later on, we will have to see if the pictures come back to us or not.

OUCH! --- Kristen DON'T LOOK

I am pretty sure that I am related to anyone that could do something like this. I mean, there are people who avoid accidents and then there are people like me and this guy. I bet you if he was old enough to blog he would have a poll about how many times he has had stitches.

Weekend at Lake Bruin (Continued)

Some more highlights from this weekends trip:

I had never seen a hunting place called Winter Quarters. Rusty thought that was just unacceptable. So we gather together a girls vehicle and a guys vehicle. The guys vehicle got Rusty's perspective of the hunting club and the girls vehicle got Kristen's take on the hunting club. That was a really neat place to see. It is about 8,000 acres. It was purchased by Rusty's dad about 40 years ago. This made me think that my generation has been cheated with land and play. I heard stories from Rusty about how much time he spent out there. I wish that I could have been out in the woods for every day of the week, killing deer, catching fish, how much better can things be? Not that I do not think that I had a pretty privileged childhood, its just the thought of being outdoors like that.

Our afternoon was filled with some tubing. Yeah that's right, we were the people making the wakeboarding guy mad! One of the good things about it was that Amanda got on the tube. She handled up on some tubing action like a pro. Unfortunately we always have to try and put as many people as we can on the tube. That always leads to a bad thing, a ripped tube. But, even a ripped tube is no match for Kristen and I. Those are her legs sticking out behind, just in case you were wondering.




That night we headed out for some more night skiing. It was cut a little short, but it was still fun. That night was also filled with a little taste of Ste Anne. Kristen and I had a couple of hours of speaking nothing but french. Well, every now and then we may have had a English word slip out. But we really tried to speak french the entire time. That was a lot of fun and it makes me want to go back to Nova Scotia.

Bright and early in the morning (6:00 a.m.) Kristen and I were the only people awake for the speed trails on combo skis and on the slalom ski. We headed out into the gorgeous waters of Lake Bruin. There weren't any boats on the water, so again, no boat wake, no wind. The water was as smooth as it could ever be. Kristen put the skies to the test at 43 mph. She made it look so easy out there. I do not think that she was even scared. I was up next. I slowly but surely made my way up to 50 mph. I could not believe that I did it. I wanted to quit at 40 mph. I had 50 in my head so I kept going. When I reached my goal I just concentrated on letting go of the rope and not falling too hard. I wasn't done there though. I wanted to put the slalom to the test. Amazingly I reached 50 mph with no problem. I kept waiting for the boat to increase in speed but it seemed to be maxed out at 50. The slalom was more comfortable at those high speeds. Kristen was ready to beat my petty 50 mph, but I wouldn't let her. There was lots of fog on the lake and I did not think that it was a good idea to go that fast again. For the record, she could have beat my speed. I think that since she is a good bit lighter than me that the boat would have pulled her faster.

That pretty much wraps up our exciting weekend on the lake. I hope that I did not bore you to death with so much reading. I found it all to be interesting to experience and thought it might be good to read about too!

Weekend at Lake Bruin

Somethings seem to not be going our way this weekend. First thing gone wrong was Mad Dog getting sick. Some other things that have gone wrong was with Kristen and Charles doing Harmonizer things (sorry cannot go into detail because of copyright reasons), but, I can tell you that they have not had the best luck with equipment. Kristen made sure to give me a list of things to bring for them to continue Harmonizer business. With this list given to me, I had one goal, MAKE SURE NOT TO FORGET ANYTHING ON KRISTEN'S LIST. Did I remember, YES. Well, my list (things that I need to bring for me) was short but important. I needed something to swim in and I needed Kristen, the wakeboard, not to be confused with Kristen the Harmonizer. I must have been out of my mind when I was getting ready because I forgot Kristen! Can anyone believe that? I still cannot believe it.

Last night's activities made up for a bad week. We decided that we were going to NIGHT SKIING! Which was most likely the best idea we had all summer long. The moon was out and the water was SOOOOO smooth. I had a blast.

So we might not have Mad Dog running, but we have a boat to go behind and we are going to make the best of it. I will try to update with pictures soon.

Poll #1

It looks like most of you knew me enough to know that cutting grass was indeed my FIRST love. Even though it is my first love, I no longer love it most. That spot is reserved for my dear Amanda.

What am I doing?

I am sure that there are some people out there who are wondering what I am doing these days. Lately I feel like I am working and going to sleep. I never thought that I was going to be working full time this summer, but I am. I am sure that everyone knows that I am working with Shaw full time. I am working as a Civil Engineer. Right now I am working on designing different things with the new parking garage for the Baton Rouge Airport. I am going to be able to see the results of my work since it will be built by August 2008. I have been working on the foundations (deep foundations - piles), a roof, and a walkway between the garage and the main building. All of this is a great learning experience for me. For some reason I never really thought that I would be doing as many hand calculations as I am doing now. We do not have any structural software, that means it is all by hand! It takes longer, but man am I am learning a lot. It feels good to know that I am putting all of my schooling to use. I do not think that I could be doing what I am doing right now without pursuing my masters. I have learned so much more in my masters program and I am putting it to use everyday. That is about all that I have been doing at work.

This week I started running with some of the guys from work. We just leave from work and go running at the river, next to LSU campus. I am still at slow "over weight" guy right now. I am hoping that within a month I can drop some pounds and run a little faster. I know that I am not fat, but I still want to lose a couple.

Pretty much every weekend I am going off doing something. I have not been home for an entire weekend in quite a while. I feel like there is always something to be done. Last weekend we went to Pensacola with the neighbors. That was fun. We stayed in a super nice hotel right on the beach (thanks to the Leep's). It was a nice 1 day beach trip. We went up there on Friday night and came back Sunday morning. You all know that I do not like the beach too much, so one day of it will last me two years. But like I said we had lots of fun.

This coming weekend it looks like I am going to be going fishing with a guy from work. He is trusting me to know where I am going in the marsh. We will have to see how that goes. This will be my first time actually going without Justin. As long as I do not get us lost I will be alright.

So when do I rest? I am wondering the same thing. I can still see many weekends ahead of me that I already have planned. I am ready to just stay at home and work in the yard. It has been a while since I was able to do that. I do miss it. I really do not think that I could get very much done out there right now. Everything that I do not cut with the mower (weed-eating, trees, brush) seems to grow right back as soon I clean it up.

I am very ready for school to start. I want to get it done. Now that I am working full time I feel like I have a lot on my plate and my life will be a little bit more sane once I am actually a graduate with a masters. I really cannot wait to know that feeling. I have graduated high school and college (undergraduate), and both times I knew that I was going right back to school. This time I will be DONE!

So that is about all that I am doing these days. I hope that you did not get too bored reading all of this mess. Its late at night so I know that I most likely rambled a lot.

Here is a picture to make things fun:

This was from when Amanda and I went to the Olive Garden just before I was leaving for Canada. That night, I asked her to be my official girlfriend. Of course she said "YES!".

Blonde Joke

Two sisters, aptly named Pam and Karen, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble. In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need topurchase a bull from the stockyard in a far town so that they can breedtheir own stock. They only have $600 left.
Upon leaving, the Karen tells her sister, "When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home."
Karen arrives at the stockyard, inspects the bull, and decidesshe wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599 -no less. After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her blondsister a telegram to tell her the news.
She walks into the telegraph office, and says, "I want to send atelegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch. I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive it here sowe can haul it home."
The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, "It's just 99 cents a word."
Well, after paying for the bull, Karen only has $1 left. She realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word.
After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, "I want you tosend her the word 'comfortable'."
The operator shakes his head. "How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable'?"
Karen explains, "My sister's a blonde. The word's big. She'll read it very slowly......... com-for-da-bull".

which watch?

Which watch would you pick?

The Radio! - 2

In a recent poll 55% of Americans believe we have too many of these.

The answer is.....POLLS! - which can be spelled polls/poles.

The Radio!

100.7 in Baton Rouge has an impossible question in the mornings. Today was the second day to have this question: 55% of Americans believe that we have too many of these.... They gave a hint this morning, since they have not gotten a correct answer yet. Hint: it's one word and it can be spelled two different ways and still sound the same. So I call in, like I would ever actually get through, but I really did get through! So my guess was "phat/fat". When I gave this answer I was thinking that the wording for the question was "...too much of this".
So I kept listening to the radio to see if they would play my call. Well after two songs I WAS ON THE RADIO! After they took my call I called Amanda to tell her to listen to the radio, so she was able to hear me on the radio.
I cannot imagine what it feels like to be on the radio and give a correct answer, I am so excited just giving a wrong answer. Today is going to be a great day.

The Harmonizers Save the Children

These are the two members of the brand new band "The Harmonizers Save the Children". Charles and Kristen began their singing careers on the way home from a SAINTS game in 2005. Since then, they have been working on perfecting their voices for the first album. Their main goals are to serve the Lord, inspire others, and to use their profits to help poor starving children around the world. Their first album was just recorded in an underground room. It was recorded underground because of the mass popularity of their music. Nothing was getting done in a traditional sound booth, so everything was moved underground.

We are all so proud of Charles and Kristen for their accomplishments. Please help their cause by going to www.myspace.com/theharmonizerssavethechildren, you can be their friend, you can purchase their CD, you can encourage them to continue their careers in the music business, you can even listen sample songs! If you ever forget the website there is a link on the right side of this blog with all of my other links.

ENJOY!

Happy 4th of July

Amanda and I were blessed with being able to spend time with Kristen and friends. We went wakeboarding in the morning and then we went to Rusty's house and we looked at the new born deer (one week to one month old fawns). One of them was missing so we went looking for it, I found it curled up in a ball in some clover! That was very cool to see how it was just tucked away and hiding. The smallest deer were about 5 pounds. Then we got to eat some really good dinner from Ms. Donna's house. They just treat us so well over there. Amanda was very nice to me by driving home from Pineville. I slept the entire time! That was nice! We then packed up and went watch the fireworks on the river with cousin Eric. It was a good day to be out and about.

I hope that everyone had a great day like mine.

That was very nice

I am so glad that I got to see some many friends this past Saturday. It was almost just like back when we were all still in school and we all stayed in town for the weekend. We joke about all living in the same city, same neighborhood, same house, or even the same room again. I really would not mind that at all. There are just so many things that would make it worth it. I miss having all of my friends so close. Sure it is easy to drive or fly somewhere, but now we all have jobs and we cannot just take off when we want to go places. I hate to say this but I guess that is a sign of responsibility. I am going to have to try and beat the system, figure out a way to make money and still be irresponsible. Those jobs usually end up being illegal though.

With the morning bike ride, the great food, the Frisbee throwing, the horrible all-time quarterback, the 1 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, the kangaroo legs, the monkey legs, the wonderful breakfast, and all of the other fun stuff that went on, I was very glad to have everyone over! Thanks for making my weekend a great one!

My first project!

I am sure that most of you are wondering what I am doing now that I am an engineer. I designed an elevated highway that was built just a couple of days ago. I guess I may have had a couple of bad calculations because it failed.

Not really...This is what happens to a bridge when a truck, carrying 8600 gallons of fuel, hits it. It is cool to see how most of the concrete stayed in tack after falling off of its supports.

By land or sea?

I can see the point of people wanting to play with a car that goes on the road and on the water, but just how many people could afford this thing?

I was not very interested until I saw someone wakeboarding behind the car. Then I scrolled down and saw that they have the jetski/4-wheeler - now that's an ATV!

See more about the vehicles at: http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4024856&topart=luxury