Last night we went out to my parent's house in Wimberley to have dinner with some of my mom's family who was in town.  Ralph and Janet were there from Danville, Illinois where they run a very big family farm.  I had not seen them since I was a little kid, so it was a lot of fun to hear about life on the farm. 

A funny story involving Marley...

Ralph and Janet were telling us about their old dog Amos.  Amos was a big shaggy dog (think, "The Shaggy Dog") who looked and acted more like a human with a dog suit on.  Every day, he would join Ralph on the tractor, lean back in the passenger seat, and put his right paw up on the window sill as if he were just chillin'.  In the middle of the story, I heard something outside.  Since I had put Marley in the dog kennel with my parents' dog Cutter earlier that night, I got up to go and check on the noise.  I never went outside because I was too interested in Ralph's stories about their incredible dog Amos.  So, I sat down to listen to more of the stories.  A few minutes later we hear a noise inside the house and my mom says "the door opened!"  Before you knew it, in trots Marley greeting us as if he had not seen us in two weeks!  That dog had climbed over the chain link fence and somehow opened my parents' door to come and be reunited with us!  I should have been somewhat concerned and upset at him, but I was actually proud of him.  We've always known he had the talent to be a climber since the first week we had him and he would scale the doggy gate as a little tike.  Now, we have more evidence of this talent and more proof that he'd rather just be with people.  I'm thankful he didn't hurt himself and did not run away.  Hopefully he's not a bad influence on Cutter. 

Here's the Escape Artist himself

Thanks to my brother-in-law (who is of course always conveniently behind the camera and not in the pictures) for capturing these. It is always fun getting that perfect shot for the family Christmas card. Merry early Christmas 2007 from the Wilsons!





Now, I will really know if my family reads my blog.

The fishing trip was a good time but we didn't catch any keepers.  I caught 11 fish over the day and a half that we got to fish.  The cool thing about that is the variety of fish I caught.  That is something you don't get necessarily fishing in fresh water.  I caught mostly trout, a couple of red fish, a flounder, some fish I couldn't identify that had spots and a lizard-like mouth, and even a blue crab!

The funny thing that happened was Friday night.  We fished until dark and started to load up the truck.  Dad had started the truck and we had both kayaks loaded up and most of our stuff put in the back.  Well, we soon realized that with the truck running and the lights on, the keys were inside the truck!  It was completely pitch black and we were nowhere near any other people or places with people.  I tried not to panic but my dad seemed to get pretty worked up.  I guess that's understandable given the situation.  We looked around hoping to see that some of the closeby fishers were still around but they had all taken off for the day.  There was one truck that pulled up within 100 yards and all we could see were its lights.  Dad decided to go and ask for help (mainly to borrow a phone) so he headed over while I stayed with the stuff.  He walked over and came upon some redneck moron taking a leak.  My dad asked if he had a phone he could borrow.  The guy said something like "No.  Who would you call if I did."  My dad said he wasn't exactly sure but probably a locksmith.  The guy paused, finished his leak and said, "well, it looks like you're on your own."  My dad simply said "thanks anway" and walked off (pissed off - pun intended.)

So we walked down the highway.  Luckily I had a flashlight to waive so cars could see us and not hit us.  We did not want to waive any cars down however.  We're smarter than that and not that desparate at this point.  Well, to make this story a little shorter we walked a half mile up the road and by the grace of God, there was one lady still at the bait store that was already closed.  She was super nice and let us use her phone to call the locksmith.  The locksmith came and picked us up 30 minutes later and got the truck unlocked in seconds.  I've got to get one of those things I thought to myself watching him break in.  That only cost $40 suprisingly. 

Well, the whole ordeal was worth it because Dad took me to the best Tex-Mex place I think I've ever been to.  Los Camales had the best verde chicken enchiladas with avocado on top as well as the best cheese enchiladas I have ever had.  Period.  Ole.  Bueno.  Gracias.  Adios.

Thanks to Dave Terry for sending this to me.  This was taken in in 2002.  Me and Leonard's fashion choices have hopefully improved since then thanks to our ladies.

This video is dedicated to my mother and all mothers out there.  (I just hope the link works for you.)

http://www.ifilm.com/WMPPlaylist.asx?ifilmId=2667017&bandwidth=300

For a glimpse into Brandon's more sensitive side, check out Pete's blog entry for April 17, 2005.  As Jason Owens would say...hilarious (in Newman's voice.)