I’ve got two toys on the way this week, and I’m counting the days until they arrive. One is my new Playstation 2 … I sold my old one, went into withdrawals within the same week, and ordered another one online. Lost a few bucks in the deal, but it’ll be worth it in the long run. The second toy is a GP32 … there’s a review of this little item HERE. A handheld that you can watch movies on, play games on, program on, run emulators on, listen to mp3s on … Susan’s going to have to drive me everywhere from now on so I can play with this thing while riding in the passenger seat.

Next week, Susan heads off to sunny Florida for a week long work trip. Any volunteer babysitters, grab a number! He’ll need a bath around Tuesday or Wednesday.

No big pranks to pull today, and better yet, none pulled on me yet. Been having some problems with hosting the website lately, might have to finally move this monster to a “real” hosting solution.

Bought a replacement Palm Pilot off of eBay to replace the one that got stolen, so I’ve been having fun setting that up.

Just got back from Taco Bueno … *burp*

Kind of fell of the face of the Earth this weekend. Been doing a lot of stress-induced sleeping. We’re pretty much over the “car break-in” incident. Bought a new cell phone Saturday, bought a new Palm Pilot Sunday off of eBay … slowly but surely replacing everything. I’ve got e-mails in to a couple of people on checking prices for car alarms (better late than never, I s’pose). Susan’s back to two nights a week for school, so it’s just me and the little man Monday and Wednesday nights for another month. Took Mason to the park over the weekend — this time he hated the swings (loved them last time) but loved the slide (hated it last time). Also bought a tub of “bubbles” to blow in the park. Apparently, compared to all his toys, bubbles are boring.

Thanks.

Last night I attended Jello Biafra’s spoken word performance — his only one in Oklahoma in 20 years. Since I got home late (around 12:30am) and was tired, I left the Tracker out in the driveway.

Fatal mistake.

Yup, everything’s gone. My first clue was the tell-tale sign of broken glass, streaming down the driveway. The passenger door was still open. The dash was “attacked”, for lack of a better word. Stereo, gone. Amplifier, gone. They left the speakers — I’m assuming the box was too big or too heavy to take.

Turning back to come back into the house, I see more glass. The rear window in the Rodeo had been busted out as well. But what did I have … MY LAPTOP.

Yup, once again. I guess I left it in the back seat of the Rodeo and didn’t think twice about it. Laptop, gone. DVD-Burner, gone. Palm Pilot, gone. Cell phone, gone.

We just finished the first round of insurance calls. My car insurance only covers the broken windows. $500 deductable. Rodeo window, $284, Tracker window, $212. Yup, that’s $496. For our home insurance, we have a $1000 deductable. I’m sure we’ll come out ahead if we claim on that one but, I don’t know that we will yet. For starters, I’m out $500 for two windows …

Someone hit the jackpot in my driveway last night.

Shit.

“The inevitable has happened. We are now at war with Iraq. I’m not sure if they really realize the big picture here — we’re launching missles from 600+ miles away, missles that fly for up to two hours to reach their targets, and the Iraqi army are armed with swords.

I have a feeling they are about to find out.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope everyone has great plans for this March 17th!!

I’ll be at the Green Door tonight, catching southern rockers Alabama Thunderpussy, RPG, Brothers of Conquest, and Bongzilla. Should be a fun time, with plenty of green beer flowing.

I’ve already signed off for tomorrow morning.

People who don’t live in Oklahoma don’t really understand the volatile nature of our weather. Here’s a great example to prove that point. Wednesday (yesterday) when I woke up, it had apparently rained. Despite that, yesterday turned out to be beautiful. In fact, it almost got up to 70 degrees, despite the rain! Instead of driving straight home after work, I took the long way home in the Tracker, enjoying the sun. Then, when I got home from work, it was still nice so I took the bike out for a quick spin. At 6pm it was so nice we went outside with Mason and let him run around in the front yard. And now, here’s a picture out my front door at 8pm, 2 hours later.

Yes, that’s HAIL, covering the majority of my front lawn, including (sigh) my cars. It hailed for almost 45 minutes — complete with thunder, lightning, and massive rain. This was one of those storms that literally came from out of nowhere. It was still sunny and warm when I came upstairs to check my e-mail. Ten minutes later I noticed it was dark, and then lightning caught the corner of my eye. Go figure.

While not everyone feels comfortable using a dating site to help them find someone to date, many people find than an online dating service can be one way to meet people you would never have met without the dating site. Also, if you’ve just moved and you’ll need to find Oklahoma personals, then the Internet can be a good resource right from home.

My good friend Justin (last name “Mason”, if that last name rings a bell…) bought a motorcycle last year. He lives in Dallas, and since Ardmore, OK is exactly halfway between Dallas and Oklahoma City (120 miles for each of us), we decided that would be a good meeting place. Last Fall’s trip turned out to be pretty miserable for both of us. The ride was longer than we thought, and neither of us were very prepared. We both came home very tired and very sore.

After a fairly cold Winter, we decided to try it again. Of course, this time I have the R1 instead of the Honda Shadow, which I was really worried about. It turns out I shouldn’t have been, as the little rice rocket was way more comfortable than I could have imagined. I told myself before leaving that I would force myself to stop every 30 miles to stretch and take a break. I changed that to every 40 miles, just because I was so comfortable. You would think that leaning forward like that would be hard on your back, but it’s just the opposite — the weight normally on your back gets transferred to your chest and arms. While my palms are a little sore, my back feels great.

Justin’s a big fan of Mazzio’s Pizza (which he misses dearly since he moved away from Oklahoma), so we met at the Mazzio’s in Ardmore. Both of us ordered way too much food, but it was all good. We sat around, ate, talked, and rested.

From Mazzio’s, we headed out to Lake Murray. It was only about five miles from downtown Ardmore, and the winding rodes looked like a fun place to ride motorcycles. It turns out, we were right!

The curves around the lake had us throwing around our bikes like never before. The funniest thing is, while I was riding I felt like I was really leaning hard, and then when I look a the pictures it barely even looks like we were turning. OK, so we weren’t dragging our knees in the corners or anything, we were still having fun! The speed limit around the lake is 45mph, so we weren’t even speeding … that much.

After riding around for a bit we found a couple of pretty good “S” twisty turns, which turned out to be a good place to take some pictures. We were there for about half an hour, taking turns zipping up and down the road. It turns out taking pictures of people riding a motorcycle is pretty hard, although we did end up getting some good shots. Just know, that for every picture added to the gallery, there were about three of the road with no motorcycle anywhere in sight …

Someone must’ve eventually called the park ranger, because we saw one circling the area when we left to get gas. Then when we were setting up for the pictures, we saw two come by in pickups. When we were all done, we left and decided to push it for “one more good ride” … right near the end there are a couple of tight turns which causes us to slow down, which was good — around the second corner was a park ranger with RADAR. Fortunately he didn’t catch us, and all’s well that ends well.

The weather was pretty cool around the lake. While it was 70 degrees on the way to Ardmore, around the lake it was closer to 60 degrees. Cool, but not cold by any means. When we finally decided to leave, it was almost 7pm, and temperatures were dropping. Fast. I hit the interstate going North, and at my first stop (40 miles), it was closer to 50 degrees. Since it was 70 degrees when I left, I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, blue jean shorts, and fingerless gloves. At 50 degrees, it started getting cool. With no other option than continuing, I did just that. The second stop was in Norman, and at that point, I was freezing. I saw a bank sign that read 39 degrees. My fingers were numb, my whole body was freezing, and I was shivering like crazy. I ended up stopping at a 7-11 and buying some gloves which, while not very stylish, did get me home.

When I got home Susan fixed me a big cup of hot chocolate and some hot soup. After trying to warm up with a blanket for a while, I ended up running some hot bath water and soaking in there for a bit to warm up.

Overall, we both had a blast. Riding around the lake was a lot of fun, and the 120 mile ride to and from Ardmore wasn’t nearly as bad as you might think. We’ll probably do it again soon … but if I get a vote, we’ll wait until Summer.

Ken Ford in custody. Nice picture, cous’.

Yup, it’s over. No real drama, apparently he was picked up on a traffic offense, and when they ran his name he already had two warrants out on him. Of course, that doesn’t include the A/C company he ripped off, any of the burglaries, or anything else, so just wait until those charges hit. Yeah, he’ll have plenty of time to think about this one.