Your story

Every life is like a story. They all start the same and they all end the same. You are born and then you die. What happens in between is mostly up to you. In the early years, you are mainly directed, much like an actor in a play. Then you step up to the director position. You call the shots and set the scenes. What story will yours be. An action adventure. A love story. A comedy. A tragedy. You are the master of your world. You can choose to be villain or the hero. You can choose to be rescued or you can do the rescuing. It is all choices. Don't stay behind the curtian. Pick a part and play it. Mix it up. Only you can play your role. In interviewing elderly people and asking about what regrets stood out the most, it was not what they did but rather what they didn't do. Choose wisely and live well. What will your story tell?

Hot days and fewer clothes

I went to the zoo this weekend. I took the kids because they still like to go, even at 15 and 17 years old. I would go even if the kids didn't go. I like to watch the people even more that the animals in the pens and cages. As the Texas heat builds and gets hotter and more humid the fewer clothes are worn. Now I am an equal opportunity gawker. I watch the women and the men. I watch the skinny ones and fat ones. As well as the pretty ones and ugly ones.

I find it interesting the parts of the body that gets pierced and or tattooed. I have heard it said that you can tell if someone is bi-polar by the number of piercings they have. Any number over 7 is a sure bet they are. (Or 7 rings is a pretty good indicator!) I saw many people that fit this category. Facial piercings were the most common. I did see one guy with bars on his neck and there was a woman that was wearing a tee shirt and no bra. You could see her nipple piercings through the tight shirt. How tacky is that!

Even more interesting than the piercings are the tattoos. There were several people there that had full body tattoos, 3 women and 1 man. I saw everything from dragons and fairies to Koi and hibiscus flowers. I am amazed at how many people have names tattooed on various parts of their body. It seems like the neck is the most popular followed by the upper back just below the neck for the women. I was thinking to my self what is the point of that. So the guy can remember his name while doing it like the animals do? Please!

I will be glad when I can go to Six Flags this summer. I will park myself by the pool and keep entertained for hours on end!

Flan cake

It was my job this year to bring a cake to Dads house for Easter. Easter fell on the kids birthday this year so I made two. The one in the picture above is a milk chocolate flan cake. It came out delicious and it was very easy to make.

You will need your favorite box cake mix, or if your have a favorite homemade cake recipe that is just fine. You will also need 3 eggs, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, and one can evaporated milk.

Pre -heat the oven to 340. Spray Pam in your cake pan. Make the cake per directions on the box and pour into your mold. Blend the eggs and cans of milk. Gently pour over the cake batter. It looks strange but do not worry. Bake for 50 minutes. Let the cake cool down for 30 minutes then turn over on your serving plate. The flan settles to the bottom of the cake mold which is the top when turned over.Let cool 30 more minutes and then place in the refrigerator to cool before serving.

I used ice cream topping to drizzle over the top for a frosting. Any cake mix will work. You could use a strawberry cake mix and drizzle with strawberry topping. My second cake was a butter pecan with butter scotch and caramel topping. It was very good as well.

Enjoy!

Started

I started my P90X today. I could not keep up with the tempo of the Kempo DVD. My heart rate was past 180 and I had to let it go down. All that did was get me stoked to improve. I am going to weigh my self every Monday to see my progress on weight loss. Today I weighed in at 195

P90X and my fatty liver

In January I was feeling ill. I had my blood work done and it showed elevated liver function tests. So, I had it repeated several weeks later (as well as other blood tests). The hepatitis screening came back negative twice but the liver function tests still are elevated. Last week I had more blood work done to rule out other bad problems. All came back negative and the liver function tests were still high. The doctor said I have a fatty liver! I stepped on the scale and I was back up to 192 pounds. Time to do something about it.

A friend gave me the P90X DVDs, a muscle confusion exercise routine. I went to Wal-Mart today and picked up free weights and a combination pull up/ push up bar. I will start the program next week to see if it is all that. Stay tuned.

2010 garden

I planted my garden today. My garden isn't the traditional garden with straight rows or mounds planted evenly. I hand tilled the soil in the flower bed and tossed the seeds in randomly. I planted yellow squash, zucchini squash, cucumber, and egg plant. I only put half the seeds in the tilled up area. The other half I tossed in the rest of the flower beds and a few seeds in pots. The last time I planted a garden the squirrels ate the blooms off as fast as they grew. I hope that by using this scatter method some blooms will go unnoticed and I will get to enjoy the fruits of my labor, so to speak.

An Angel or Karma

Everyone has an angel and everyone has the ability to be an angel for someone. You can call it Karma, you can call it what ever you like but it is there.

Years ago when my children were both in car seats, I drove a two door Hyundai. The car seats were strapped into the back seat. I had the muffler replaced and an extension tube did not get replaced on the tail pipe. The bumper caught fire and I pulled over into the police department parking lot. After pulling over the flames shot up and the back end of my car was on fire. I pulled the kids out of the car and got them to safety before looking for help with the fire.

I ran into the police station and yelled for help. I told them my car was on fire and I needed an extinguisher. The police officer yelled at me for pulling my car into their parking lot and said he could not help. So much for protect and serve. That exchange took less than a minute and I was back out to my car. I pulled out one car seat but the smoke became too much to remove the other.

Then when I thought all was lost a silver Accord pulled over in the parking lot and the trunk sprang open. A tall , thin black man with a well kept goatee dressed in a gold suit stepped out of his car and pulled a fire extinguisher out of the open trunk. It took him less than thirty seconds to put out the fire. He turned to me and asked if we were O-Kay. The fire extinguisher was replaced in his trunk and he was on his way.

To this day I swear he was an angel sent to help me and the kids. I was so speechless I couldn't even form words to thank him before he was gone. Was he simply in the right place at the right time with the right equipment? Only you can answer that question.

Everything happens for a reason. This weekend I was at a conference. A friend came up for the conference on Saturday but did not intend to attend on Sunday. He changed his mind and arrived to the conference for the Sunday session. I had a ride set up for the airport but the ride cancelled out and I was left taking a taxi. My friend said he could take us to the airport.

On the way to the airport we were commenting on how his car was shaking. He thought he needed an alignment. We told him it was a bad tire. At the airport when we got out of the car I inspected his rear tire and found a major defect. I told him to be careful because that tire could blow out on him. He said he would go straight to the gas station and have the tire removed.

I received a text while at the airport waiting for my flight. My friend was driving and the car start to shake worse than ever. He pulled over to the shoulder and was going he said about ten miles an hour and the tire blew. I would hate to think what would have happened if he had been going seventy on the toll road.

So, plans changed and a potential bad out come is avoided. Right place at the right time. Karma? An angel? Call it what you like but I am so glad that my ride cancelled.