Backhoe Flat

A while back I got on the backhoe to pull some stumps out. When I backed into the spot I wanted to be I heard the tire get punctured by something. I had to hurry to go park it before the tire had no air at all. By the time that I parked it, only 100 feet away, it was already almost completely flat. I called a place to see if they could come out and fix the flat, that was a mistake. They wanted $85 just for the travel. I could understand that if I lived a ways out, but this place is about a mile from my house! That doesn't even cover the charges for fixing the tire.

So I decided that I needed to get it off of the backhoe and bring it in somewhere. Of course I have to call on my neighbor Chris. He has all of the proper tools. For a while I thought that I might have to call a service truck. Chris was struggling to get any of the lugs loosened up. Then he serious! He grabbed the "cheater bar" and started going at it. He got 4 lugs loose and one twisted up extension for his socket. The rest of the lugs came off just fine with another method of leverage.

Thanks for the help Chris!!



Doesn't it look like the bed of my truck was made for that? I just thought that it was funny because that tire is HUGE. We literally just rolled it into the back of my truck.

Your are not having fun until someone is BLEEDING!

We were at the camp in Lake Bruin and we had a little disagreement that lead to the following picture.


I am pretty sure that you want to know the story behind the picture. Pictures might be worth a 1,000 words, but its still not enough if it doesn't tell you why.

Kristen and I were sitting at the breakfast table watching every one else clean the dishes since we cooked. When Kristen got up and started to help I extended my glass to her and said "Here woman". She then asked what she was supposed to do with it. So I told her to do what she was put on this earth to do - "Wash it". So she politely came around the table and dumped a glass of apple juice on my head. From there it was on. I grabbed a bottle of syrup and we wrestled our way outside. That was when Kristen over powered me, took the bottle of syrup from me and whacked me in the nose with the bottle. No, she didn't purposely do it, at least I don't think that she did. I was behind her and she tried to dump the bottle on me from over her shoulder. I knew that it hit me, but was unaware of the blood. As I felt the dripping I started rubbing it in her ear, thinking that it was syrup. I didn't even know I was bleeding until Amanda came out and told me that I was bleeding. When we stopped I noticed that Kristen had my blood on her. Not a good thing for someone who doesn't like blood.

Anyway, point of that long story is that you shouldn't mess with Kristen.

Once in a lifetime?

What was I doing today? On Monday I got an email that the President was coming to Jackson Barracks. Yes, as in the President of the United States. President Bush came to Jackson Barracks to talk about the recovery of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes. I was fortunate enough to sit on the third row. All around me were very important people. Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Bobby Jindal were about five feet from me.

Here are some pictures from the speech.

This is General Downer and President Bush. We (Shaw) work for General Downer at the Barracks.

President Bush giving his speech.

President Bush looking at me while I take a picture! How nice of him to do that.

Two of my co-workers shaking hangs with the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana.

Me standing at the President's podium.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you...After the President finished his speech he walked around and shook hands with people. I was on the second row so I was able to shake his hand. We looked eye to eye and I said "Pleased to meet you sir" and he said " ? ". I don't remember what he said. I was so excited that I was able to shake his hand and I completely forgot what he told me. I think that he was telling me that he would call me later to discuss my future, I don't know.

This was a wonderful experience for me. I was honored to have been included in this event. I hope that I am able to get a picture of the hand shake at some point. There is a rumor going around that we are going to get some pictures from the president's photographer. I hope so, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Sean and Tory Walker!

This weekend was a very very special one for me. The greatest red head in the world got married to a wonderful women. She is a very lucky woman. I had the honor of being one of the groomsmen in the wedding. We had a blast for the bachelor party, we had a blast for the rehearsal dinner, and we had a blast for the wedding itself. We were able to keep busy before the wedding with a couple of games in the youth end of the church. That's always fun.

I would like to to take this chance to tell Tory that I am so thankful that she found Sean. You two look so good together.

I don't have any good pictures of Sean and Tory from the wedding but you can go look at some here. They were taken by a VERY talented photographer, Jason Cohen.

Here is a picture of me and my BEAUTIFUL WIFE! I love her so much.

Wii Fit

This weekend I was able to experience the Wii Fit game. It was pretty cool. Mainly I am amazed with how they are able to make a game like that.

This is a video of me taking a balance test or something like that. I am using a hula-hoop.

I miss Prissy :-(

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE FOUL WORDS (Crazy......com) ON THE VIDEO. THIS WAS SENT TO ME IN AN EMAIL AND I HAD TO POST IT, ITS JUST TOO COOL TO NOT SHARE.

Segway "Scooters"

Baton Rouge water company has a new way for the meter readers to get around. They started off with 2 Segways to try it out. They have 17 total meter readers. As you know, most of them are in those little pickup trucks. The 2 meter readers have improved the amount of meters read from 750 per day up to 1,000 per day. So, just with two people they have increased to 500 more meters per day. I think that it is saving them $1,000 per truck per year. They cost $5,000 to purchase, and 12 cents per day to charge.

Read full store here.

What am I looking at?

Click on picture to enlarge.

The Dark Knight

Here is something that I heard about on the radio that was quite surprising. So far The Dark Knight has made around 391.4 million dollars. That's only after three weekends. That puts it in 8th place for the most money made on a movie. What is the #1 ranked movie? - Titanic! Yeah, how crazy is that? It made around 601 million dollars. I personally think that it wont be in the number one spot for long.

If you saw the movie, what did you think of Heath Ledger's acting? Some people are saying that he will get a "pity" nomination for an Oscar. I personally think that he will EARN an Oscar nomination, possibly even EARN the award.

NOTE: After research I have found that adjusting for inflation "Gone With the Wind" would be in the number one spot... ~ 1.3 billion dollars. Back in 1939 it made 199 million dollars. CRAZY!

Go see The Dark Knight if you haven't seen it.

Tree Goes Down

This is right across the street from my house. About the only reason that it is cool to have a Monday off is because I was able to watch this tree work being done. What this trackhoe has been doing is going around the tree and digging up the roots. Basically just losening up the soil and breaking the roots away so he can take out the tree.

4 - Day Weekend

Since the project that I am working on is through the Louisiana National Guard we have to follow their work schedule. This week they are starting a 4-10 work week. But their day off is Monday. So instead of me working M-TH and having a wonderful Friday off, now I get the not-so-wonderful Monday off. Who takes off Mondays? Now I am going to have to tell people that I have a "case of the Tuesdays". That makes no sense at all.

Since this week was the start of this crazy schedule I had last Friday off and I had yesterday off. So it was a nice 4 day weekend. I was able to stay home for most of it. I did some work out in the yard mostly. As much as Amanda would have appreciated it I never did make it in the house to clean in there. Darn. On Saturday I went to Lafayette to mow grass and celebrate Rebekah's first birthday. Sunday I went to EBBC for church. Its always nice to be back on the student side down there!

When I get to my camera I will have to post a video that I took of the tree work across the road.