On Tuesday, we slept in and then headed down to Temple for lunch with my folks at El Chico.  My mom was full of stories from her recent Canada trip.  After lunch, we went next door to PDI, my old summer workplace.  We talked to Heath Robinson and Michael Cooper for a while.  Then, we went to Belton to my sister's house, where we arrived in time to take a nap.  We ended up not taking much of a nap as Luke and Lauren arrived home before long.  We all went to Lauren's soccer game, which was a lot of fun.  Lauren played goalie in the second half, and she really made some incredible saves.  Luke spent most of the game jumping or crawling on me.  After the game, we got burgers back at the house, and then Jamie and I went over to Heath & Courtney's house for a little while.  We had a nice chat out on the front porch until Jamie pointed to a HUGE spider that was on the pillar right next to me.  I'm pretty sure this wasn't a tarantula, but it was just as big.  I quickly removed myself from that situation.  Heath tried to kill it with his shoe, but only managed in knocking off one of its huge legs.  Its spider buddies probably will call it "Seven Legs" or "South-Easty".

The next day was for us to spend with the kids, and spend it with them we did.  We got up early (for us) and took the kids to IHOP for a brunch.  Then, we headed to the mall to see when Freaky Friday was playing.  We had a couple hours to kill, so we went over to Tilt and played a bunch of video games.  I'm not sure why Tilt is even open during the day on a school day, but at least we had the place to ourselves.  The kids both traded in their tickets and got tons of little toys and trinkets.  Next we headed over to Petco where the kids could look at the animals.  Luke spotted one of the parrots out of its cage.  Fortunately it was doubly contained by the bird room.  Lauren noticed that only 4 out of the 5 hamsters in the hamster cage were actually alive.  It was pretty gross.  Apparently, hamsters are cannibals.  Movie time.  Freaky Friday was bearable.  The new theater in Temple was quite an improvement over the old ones.  Luke didn't care too much for the sitting still that is typically associated with movie-going, but fortunately there were only two other people in the theater, and they weren't anywhere near us.  All of this, and it's now only 1:45 pm.

Come Monday, it was time to visit a few people on campus.  I went by Casey Computer Center, where I talked to Lynne, Lonnie, Mary, and Mike Pond.  Unfortunately, Larry was out, so I didn't get a chance to have speaks with him.  I also got to visit with Daniel Eady over in Pat Neff, where he has moved out of the closet and into a swanky new office.  He was able to give me some more detail about the brouhaha that has been Baylor for the last several months.  Hopefully, everything will start settling down there now.  I also found Reagan Ramsower with a little time to chat, which was lucky and enjoyable.

Lunch was held at Ninfa's, and what a wonderful occasion it was.  I got chicken fajita queso and a Santa Cruz #2.  Man, I miss that place.  In case you hadn't noticed, much of our vacation was planned around eating at particular places.

After lunch, we went to the church to help prepare for the DCB CD release party.  Dave, however, was not there.  While playing at chapel that morning, which I also went to and forgot to mention before, his heart started doing some weird stuff.  So, he spent most of that day in the hospital getting tested and fixed.  Turns out he was "in afib", and they got him patched back up ("fib"?) about 30 minutes before the show was about to start.  Like a true rock star, he made it to the show, and it started on time.  The place was packed out.  I hear that there were about 1200 people in there.  Before the show started, though, we had dinner with B-dub & Jan & Ben Burch at Rudy's  BBQ.  At the show, I just hung in there for a couple songs, and then went to the backside to hang with Kyle and the Perkins's's's.  I knew that I would be seeing the concert in Hollywood on Saturday, so better to hang with friends that I wouldn't get to see otherwise.  Dave made it through the show, and was signing autographs afterwards.  I remember thinking that if I were him, I would be signing the CDs with "I should be in the hospital right now, but instead I'm standing here writing my name on your CD.  Dave Crowder."

Come to think of it, this was the night we went to Crickets...I think.

I'm trying to put a little time between these entries, so that you can get caught up, but I'm still more than a week behind, and I want to get to the current stuff, so I'm cranking it out.

After the Elite on Saturday, we went up to the church where Jamie helped stuff DCB pre-ordered CDs.  Once that was done we headed up to Crickets for some Guinness and apple pie.  The waitress was terrible.  Our chips and queso came AFTER our apple pie.  Pathetic.  By the way, the night before and this night Ben and I played a little foosball before bedtime.

Sunday we got to go to ubc for church.  We sat on the front row, which was quite a change for me.  Dave was right there in front of me; it was a little awkward.  Kyle preached a great sermon about emotions and transformation, though his incredible hulk bit could have used some sprucing up or trimming down.  After church, we all went to Chili's Too again.  I realize that there is nothing so special about Chili's Too that we would eat there twice on one vacation, but we didn't pick the place, and the company (aka fellowship) was more important.

After lunch, Jamie and I jumped in the Gran Dam, and headed up to Dallas to visit our friends Tawny and Cooper.  We met at their apartment.  They recently got a new dog, which I'm sure Jamie will tell you about.  Tawny's sister and sister's boyfriend were there as well.  It turns out that they live just about 5 blocks north of us here in Hollywood.  Craziness!  The boyfriend, Dan, works in production, and I might get to be involved with a short film he's shooting through the LA film school.  I spent the next couple of hours trying to get Tawny and Cooper to move out here.  I'm hoping they'll be here by my birthday.  We went to dinner at a really trendy cool place called Nikita.  If you are in the Dallas area and like trendy, go.  Back to Waco, I played some foosball before bed.

Saturday, we slept in.  We had lunch at the new Chili's Too located in the new parking garage on the Baylor campus.  It's pretty cool.  You order at the register, then they bring it to your table.  I just hope that they keep that place up.  After lunch, we met up with Ben and Jamie and Jamie's family who were meeting with a builder to discuss the construction of a new apartment building.  We went with them to another apartment complex that the builder had built.  The places were pretty cool, much too cool for a college student to have.  But in time, I guess they'll just become another 'The Centre".  We drove around campus to see the new buildings, and I noticed that Mark Twain is now gone.  Mark Twain, the apartment complex that we lived in our junior year.  I've known about the other Mark Twain being gone for some time now.  We met up with Ben & Jamie's family for dinner at the new Elite Circle Grill.  After years of remodeling, they're back in business.  It's quite a change, from a 50's diner style to an art deco style.  Though the waitress was not so great, the food was.  No, they do not still have those rolls, but they do have a pretty good bread instead.  More later...

While there was a part of me that wanted to blog while we were on our vacation, I knew that if I were to sit at a computer for too long, I would start working, which would defeat the whole purpose of being on vacation.  That's the downside to telecommuting.  Even though you are travelling around the country, the Internet makes your work follow you.  But on to bringing you up to speed.  I'll try to go in chronological order, but I make no promises.

We arrived in Austin last Friday around 2:00 pm.  For once, Jamie didn't find anybody on the plane of whom to be suspicious.  Unfortunately, there was a snorer on the row behind us.  It wasn't just a regular, constant snore.  I think the guy was dreaming about being Seabiscuit because of the sporadic sounds coming from behind us.  He was asleep before we even left the gate.  His wife did nothing to stop him.  When we arrived, we didn't have to go through baggage claim, as this was our first attempt at carrying our luggage on the plane, instead of checking it.  Pretty sweet.  We picked up our Pontiac Grand Am that had 63 miles on it, and headed up to Waco.  We stayed with Ben and Jamie Dudley.  That night we went to Baja Burrito, I think it's called.  It's a Freebird's ripoff in the old Cadillac Jack's building downtown Waco.  It was pretty good, but I would rate Chipotle better.

After dinner, we went up to ubc to get a tour of all the new stuff.  The floors are now all stained concrete, and the sanctuary now looks like a finished room.  The pews are gone and the chairs have come.  The upstairs has exploded since I was there.  The amount of equipment up there has easily doubled in size.  They've got a cool new lighting system and a video-editing station up there, plus they've got wireless internet kicking through the building.  This blog may already be getting too long for some of you, so I'll break it up a little bit.

Jamie and I fly out this morning (Friday) to go to Texas. So, naturally, I went online to print out our boarding passes the night before, which in a way it still it, as it's just after midnight. Anywho, I printed out my boarding pass no problem. Then I logged into Jamie's account to print hers out. Much to my chagrin, her reservation was in there, but it was CANCELED! So, I ended up spending 30-45 minutes talking to three different people at the airline. They were all courteous, but the first two didn't have any power to do anything. Eventually I got to a supervisor, who, upon hearing my situation reinstated Jamie's ticket at the previous fare. Now, all we have to do is have them reassign my seat next to her in the morning, and we're on our way. Thank goodness for online check-in. Otherwise, I would have been stuck at the counter trying to resolve this an hour before departure. Texans, I'll see you soon.

Everyone who fancies themselves a comic or a writer that moves to LA always has to make a comment about the prevalence of gym memberships here. That's not what I'm trying to do here. I'm just telling my own personal story. Clinton and I went to 24 Hour Fitness the other day to check out the facilities and find out the prices for membership. I also wanted to introduce him to our favorite theatre right next door, ArcLight Cinemas. We went in to just grab a brochure or something, but instead we had to fill out some info sheets and wait for a sales representative. John came over and asked questions like, "How committed are you to getting into shape?" I wanted to answer, "Seven" or "Committed enough to find out what it costs to join a gym, that's as far as it goes." Another one of the questions was something like, "How often do you exercise?" The options were 1) 3 or more times a week, 2) Sporadically, 3) Never, or 4) Exercised in the past. I bet they used to just have options 1-3, but often got a whiny "I used to exercise all the time" in response. Needless to say, I selected option 4.

So he shows us around the facilities, which are pretty nice as far as I know. Then we go to his 'office' to talk about membership. He lays down two options: One is a month-to-month membership with a signup fee, the other is a 3-year membership with a huge upfront cost but very little upkeep after the three years. He asks which I'd be interested in. The 3-year is definitely the better deal if you can afford the up front, so I tell him that I'd probably do that, but it would be a couple months before I could shell out that kind of dough (early 80's term for cash). His response: He pushes back from the desk, chuckles as if he realizes he's just been had, then says, "You're not coming back here, are you?" Just like that, I'm in a car dealership. Why does gym membership need to be a high-pressure sale? If I don't buy today, will the gym not be here tomorrow? The nice thing about this is that it made my short-term decision very easy. If high-pressure sales is involved, I distrust, and I say no. Once he saw that Clinton and I weren't going to be purchasing either of the membership plans he had laid (or is it lain) out, he brings up another option, a cheaper plan with no down payment. Hmm, where was that two minutes ago? We gracefully declined, and he eventually forced 24-day guest passes on us with his business card.

Now, I don't plan to do a lot of hard core exercising, but even jogging anywhere near where we live is difficult because of traffic. Plus, Jamie wants to do Pilates, and I might like to try yoga, which are included in the gym membership. Secretly, I also hope that paying for the privilege to exercise will be a motivating factor in getting me to exercise. So, eventually, we probably will join a gym. And it might be 24 Hour Fitness, which by the way is only open "24 Hours A Day, 3 days a week." I'm thinking of opening a store called "Full Body Wardrobe". Naturally, we would only sell left-handed gloves. Anyway, because of their high-pressure sales technique, I will be checking out other gyms in the area before making my decision.

So, Clinton came over again for dinner tonight. Man, what a pest. Oh, hey Clinton. Anyway, we ordered Dominos, and had a blast as usual. For those of you who don't know, Clinton's got a bit of an ambitious streak in him. He's full of ideas of how to "make it" out here in Hollywood. Some of those ideas intersect with some ideas I've had, and with every passing day, the possibilty of a resurgence of something Segue-esque grows. I'm hoping that, at least by January 2004, we will be producing new videos on a regular basis. Heck, if we meet the right people, we may even get to start shooting on some higher quality media. I hope that you other Segues are reading this and are making plans accordingly to move on out here to SouthernCalifornia. Just think...Tiny Renegade Dentist 2...This time it's personal...hygiene!

Much has happened since last we spoke. It's always when a lot of stuff happens that I don't have time to talk about what has happened, and vice-versa. As Jamie mentioned in her blog, we did go to Pacific Crossroads church this last Sunday. This was an authentic church. Several of our friends from NYC that live out here now go to this church, and we met up with them. While the music was not so great as the last church we visited, it was decent. The preaching was pretty good as well. I believe it warrants a go-back.

We went into Burbank yesterday to get a chandelier that Jamie's been eyeing. It's a really nice area, one that we might consider moving into, especially if we ever work for one of the studios. On our way home, none other than Uncle Leo (Seinfeld) drove by in his Toyota Corolla.

The big news, though, is that Clinton Pickens has moved out here, and he literally lives around the corner. Sadly, he got in a car wreck his first day here, but he won't let that deter him. He came over for dinner last night, and we hung out some today. It's nice to have a guy friend to hang out with, since Jeff's so far away.

Jamie and I happened to be passing a Del Taco today about lunch time, on our way home from a closed-for-Labor-Day Costco, and we decided to try it out. She'd been there before, but I had never had it. I had heard about it via Jeff, who really liked the fact that they served french fries with their tacos. I thought this odd, but I'll try anything once. I ordered the #11, which is a beef burrito, taco, fries and a drink. Jamie got the spicy jack quesadilla, extra crispy. Now I used to frequent Taco Bell back in Waco. There was something really special about the way the Dr. Pepper from Taco Bell went with their food. It was magical. In NYC, Taco Bell's weren't readily available, so I haven't been there for about a year. I heard, however, on my last trip to Texas, that Taco Bell no longer serves Dr. Pepper; they only serve pepsi products. That's right, pepsi doesn't deserve to be capitalized. Well, Del Taco doesn't serve Dr. Pepper either, but they did have Mr. Pibb, and I must say the combination of that Mr. Pibb and the taco approached the magic I once knew on a weekly basis in Texas. Thanks, Jeff.

I also purchased diesel fuel today for a mere $1.59 a gallon. To Texas folks, that may sound expensive, but regular unleaded is going for about $2.13 in these parts.

<p>I thought the <a href="http://www.flatlandmedia.com/flatlander/commentview.aspx/9a8fa76f-cfbe-4869-a573-8edbc28d22a1">Ten Commandments discussion</a> was good enough to bring it back up top for a few more thoughts I've had about it in the past couple days. I've been trying to think about from a very pragmatic approach that doesn't concern interpretation, or founders' intentions, or my Christian ideals. It seems that all parties concerned would agree at least one thing: the Constitution is a document that is supposed to protect our freedom. That's my big assumption here. If you disagree, then read no further as my thoughts will be rubbish. So, with this in mind, I have had a hard time understanding the mindset of the person that walks into the rotunda of an Alabama courthouse, sees a monument portraying the Ten Commandments, and then realizes that because of this, they are not free enough. I mean, who sees this and thinks, my rights are being blatently raped by the government! Because I don't understand this approach, I'm forced to suppose that the person who fights the presentation of this monument must have an agenda other than their own personal freedom, or the freedom of other citizens, even though they claim to be providing more freedom to us by removing the monument. So, what could that agenda be? It seems to me that what these people want is not freedom of religion, which is what the Constitution talks about, but freedom from religion. But I figured that it's more than just freedom from religion that they want, because I think we all know that we can be as free from religion as we want to be in this country. Instead, I think these people are seeking the ultimate freedom, the freedom from conscience. The morality inherent in God-fearing religions must be a reminder to them that however free they think they are, they still seem to be subject to someone or something. They still seem to feel guilty about something, even though they think that they have only to answer to themselves. </p> <p>OK, so I've made some generalizations here, but these thoughts have encouraged me to examine my own ideas about and desire for freedom. I, too, like to think of myself as autonomous, but fortunately when I'm forced to confront the fact that I'm not, I don't have to try to hide from my guilt. I know to whom I answer, personally, and that grants me a freedom that even the freedom of conscience could never bring. I think I'm about to make myself cry, so I'm going to stop there.</p>

I feel like my blog is somewhat famous. An old friend from college recently found me through the blog by searching for 'Pete Coulter Waco' on google. It provided a link to the story about messing with the roll in Calculus class. Technology...

It's been a long time coming, but finally the wait is over. I found out on Sunday night that there is a show at Universal City Walk that truly entertains audiences. That show is the musical version of Spiderman the movie. For those of you who have been feverishly writing the perfect American musical, you can throw your notebooks away, because it is upon us. Jamie and I went to our first LA pub, The Fox and The Hound, with Jamie's manager on Sunday night. Eventually, we were joined by Ryan, who manages Quiksilver at The Grove, and his wife Christine, or Christina, or Kristine, or Kristina, or Margaret, I don't remember which. Anyway, she is an actress, and had just come from her performance as Girl #2 in the musical version of Spiderman. I don't know for sure that the show is called 'Webs!', but I kind of wish that it was. I asked if there were original songs written for the show, because I really wanted to hear a poignant lyric about how a boy gained superhuman powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Alas, the show is full of recycled songs including 'I Need A Hero' and 'Another One Bites The Dust'. On another note, the pub grub was good, as was the Guinness, while the atmosphere and service could have been better. It was no 'The Field'.