09/03/06

Elder Babs,

So how is your first Hurricane? Did it affect you much? Hurricane Ernesto? Did it even make it inland far enough for you to fee much of it? Or did you just get rained on with some winds? I got your letter the other day. I also have your e-mail address, so that’s cool. I’ll have to write you there just to save on postage. So do you get to print your letters and read them later? Or do you have to read them and then spend the rest of your hour typing? That’s not a lot of time to write. I know from my international trip trying to bust out as much letters as I could at the internet cafes as I could and it was never enough time. So tell me how that works. My letters will take at least a quarter of that hour just to read. So tell me how it works so I can strategize more effectively.

I thought I’d share my conquest of the week. I work close to a BK and I go there about 2 or 3 times a week. They all know me there and I have these coupons by the hundreds that give me a free whopper with the purchase of a coke and fry. So I always have to tell them that I have this thing at the drive through. Well, I always get the same girl at the window anyway, so this time I couldn’t bring myself to explain my coupon so I just thought I’d try something and I said, Yeah, I’ll take the Trav Special. I saw her look out her little window at me and then I heard her say, that will be $2.88. Pull forward. I was like YEAH, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!! I asked her how she knew and she said I just recognized your voice, so I knew what you wanted. I didn’t know if I should be proud or embarrassed that they know me at Burger King and know what I would order. So I asked her if I could just order it like that from now on. She said sure, she has a couple of other customers that she knows their voice and knows what they want. One lady always comes and orders the $500 special. The girl knows to hook her up with a Chicken Salad. So it just works like that for the select few. So I’m stoked. I have my own super discount special waiting for me anytime I show up. You just can’t beat $2.88 for a Whopper Combo!

My Birthday was mostly un-eventful yesterday. I worked till 7:00 which sucked since I’m dealing with so much crap during this reconfigure. But Suzanne and I went to Famous Dave’s for dinner and that was good. The family is coming over for dinner and a party tonight, so that will be fun. Shelli might come early to watch Prison Break and Two a Days with me again since she forgot to record it again. She is going to buy my TiVo though so she won’t ever forget again. Don’t get too excited about me selling off my TiVo though. I’m going to double my capacity with the new Duel Channel TraVo that records two different channels at the same time while I watch a third show. It also doubles my capacity to record 80 hours rather than 40. So now I can watch as much TV in a week as I work in a week. I can also stop worrying about VCR recording a show while another one is recording putting an end to my dilemmas like Smallville and Apprentice showing at the same time. I have 3 or so of those dilemmas a week.

I think I’m going fishing with Johnny over labor day Monday. That will be fun. The fishing is getting good now with the cooler temps starting to settle in. Fish start beefing up again for the long winter so it’s hot action from now till it snows. I’ll have to snap some pics. Did you get some pics from Suzanne of the new kitten and stuff? I’ll have to take some more and send them along to your e-mail. I just updated you blog with the first video we have put on it. It is the video of the elder showing your teacher how to chop an apple in half using his two fingers and some karate chop action. It’s too bad it didn’t happen in one shot. But it’s still cool. You blog gets better the bigger it grows. I have 20 peeps on the mailing list that I send an e-mail to when it’s updated. Tell you companion to get me his family’s e-mail address if they want to stay up on it. I’m sure they would like updates on you just knowing that he is near by. They will see stuff about him anyway and of course only the appropriate stuff. It would be cool for them I bet, especially as I put pictures up. See what he thinks.

Brinlee started her Panda class this week. She seems to like it pretty well.

The NFL season kicks off this Saturday. I am excited to start my repeat run for the championship again. I’ve got the tools to help me rule once more. We’ll have to see how we get it started off. Portis is hurt and may not play this first game. That will hurt, but I have some good back ups and other starters that can carry the load. Are peeps there pretty big Carolina Panthers fans? What’s the buzz on them? Tell people that Steve Smith is a Ute and that is where you are from too. That will get you in some doors I bet. Hey, if I can get in a door and teach a 1^st discussion by BRT’ing from hearing Jane’s Addiction playing through the door, I think playing the Steve Smith card is in order. I’ll send you fantasy updates often so you won’t totally lose your fantasy edge.

Time now for the RANDOM SCRIPTURE OF THE MONTH: Job 27:3

Go ahead, look that up now, I’ll wait…

What do you make of that scripture?

I guess that’s one of the reasons we shouldn’t pick our nose. I don’t know how else to interpret that. But ponder that for a while and send me your thoughts.

I hope you liked that little segment. I may just keep the Random Scripture of the month going. If you like it, send it back to me and we’ll both do one a month or so. That might be a fun exchange. Then we can both pontificate on how we liken it to our own lives. Sound good?

We had the Fam-damily over last night for my birthday. I got hooked up with some decent swag. Mom and dad gave me a family home evening ideas book for young families which looked pretty good. A sign that says, Thank Heaven for Little Girls that we are going to hang up in the new baby’s room (that should give away what we are having unless mom or dad already did that). And then some cold, hard cash. Staci gave me a check for enough to drive to work one day. Shelli was part of the cold hard cash contribution that came from Mom and Dad, and Grandpa gave me some cold hard cash as well. Suzanne gave me a brad nailer for my air compressor. I will have fun with that. John said he has some big ol’ gift for me, which I don’t doubt. Dude is way too generous for his own good. I guess I’ll see what that is tomorrow when we go fishing.

Well, I guess I better send this off, we are heading to Suzanne’s folks for my birthday and then I need to go to work for a while to get stuff done since I’m off Monday for Labor day and I’m going to be firing fools from 4:30 AM Tuesday till I leave at 4:00 PM. Well, only 10 guys, but the rest have to get big pep talks to keep them motivated while all the head pressmen are getting axed. It will be a rough day. So I’ll catch you next week for your weekly letter. Keep my plugged in with all the latest scoop and pics/vids and make sure you answer all my Questions in my letters. It helps me juice up the Blog big time. What did you think of my war cry for you? Work Hard Pray Harder!? Well, do it.

OUT…

Trav