sniper shovel

Good Evening.

Today I planted a few shrubs. The Houston Garden Center over on the Katy Freeway is where I usually buy shrubs & stuff like that. Usually, the fall is the best time to buy but the have sales going on right now since it is so hot in Houston right now. It really is too. Yesterday, while I was looking around and picking out some shrubs, I was about ready to get back in the Air Conditioning and do it another time but my perserverence perservered.

I was walking around and I ran into the dude over there who gives out advice on what to buy. He either really knows what he is talking about or he is a very good bullshitter. He always answers with confidence and makes a solid purchase suggestion. I told him I had bought some red tip photenias over there about 15 years ago and at that time they were supposed to be very easy to take care of. Since that time they have become less hearty and succeptable to blight or fungus or whatever it is that makes them die so fast. He pointed me out to some "silver" (in the sunlight) looking shrubs and I picked of three of them and then went over to Walmart and bought three bags of scotts top soil (.75 cubic liter). Walmart is cheaper for stuff like that.

I had left the shrubs and bags of topsoil on my driveway and today I carted them around to the back yard. My plan was to work in stages to keep from getting too hot but I didn't expect to be coming inside after just moving the shrubs to the backyard. I had my straw hat and a towel over my head so I looked like a landscaper and I brought some water outside and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. I also brougth two shovels, one regular looking shovel made for digging and one that my dad, Kent Twyman, had used to plant trees and shrubs in our family home back in the 1960s. We had nine kids in the family and Kent wanted us to have trees to climb in so he planted fast growing trees. He knew trees and plants pretty well and I am sure he would have preferred to have Oaks and other trees like that but he planted quite a few chinese tallow trees. When I was a kid, there were plenty of trees to climb and we did spend a fair amout of time in the trees and shooting china berries with our slingshots. Many of them are already gone but they served the purpose and Kent was happy that his kids had trees to climb. There was one tree that was right outside the kitchen sink window that had a natural "crows nest" and I used to climb up there and watch the fireworks going off at astroworld at 10pm. It was a pretty good distance away but I could see them pretty well. Even as a young teenager, it was nice to have a place to "hang out" at night. It was very peaceful to be up in a tree but you had to stay alert. I never did have a fall. My dad had convinced me at a young age that I was a good tree climber and now that I am older, I realize that he was just giving me confidence but since I had so much practice, I did turn out to be a pretty good tree climber after all.

Well, back to today. I dug the holes, put some topsoil in, and then finished planting the shrubs. The "sharpshooter" shovel that my dad used to use made the job much easier. It is a little bit worn but still cuts right through roots & such and does a fabulous job.

After that, I spent the rest of the day in the AC, made some noodles and I took a nap. I had some dreams but if you want to know the contents of all my dreams too, that is going to far. I told you about my dinner, my shrubs and my childhood of climbing trees. Seems like you should be satisfied with that.

OK, I will tell you how I made the noodles but that is it. I just used some elbow macaroni and boiled them with a little olive oil. As far as the sauce, I didn't start from scratch but it was still pretty good. I used a jar of "Classico" sauce with "mushrooms and ripe olives". I also added a can of diced tomatoes (salt free). In a separate pan I put about 4 large cloves of chopped garlic and about half an onion, chopped up also. I then threw some hamburger meat in with the onions and garlic and put a little bit of garlic powder, black pepper, oionion powder with parsley, and some other spice but I don't remember which one. Once the meat was cooked, I drained off the fat and dumped it in the large skillet with the sauce and diced tomatoes and left it on simmer for about an hour. That is the trick if you use store bought spagetti sauce, You gotta cook the acidity or whatever it is out of it that makes it taste like it does if you don't cook it for a while. I also put some parmesan cheese in with the sauce to cheat a little bit and that was it.

See, this is really too much information. You are creeping me out again and I have to go.

Bye.

David and Kathleen Bagby

Last night I was watching an episode of Dateline NBC and it was a story about a man named Andrew Bagby that was murdered by his girlfriend and then it turned out the girlfriend was pregnant. She was indicted for the murder of Andrew but fled to Canada, where she was from, and the Canandian court system didn't extridite her back the USA for trial but instead let her out on bail.

The Grandparents of the baby, Zach, moved to Canada to be close to the baby and in the end the crazy girlfriend killed herself and the grandbaby. It was really a sad story but it was also very compelling just how decent the grandparents were in the way they tried to do everything they could to help Zach and aftewards they helped get the laws changed in Canada.

Compared to anything I have ever seen on TV David and Kathleen Bagby are the most amazing couple ever. God Bless those folks.

Here is a link to a story about a scholarship fund set up in the memory of Zach:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38387899/ns/local_news-pittsburgh_pa/

Here is a link to and an excerpt from a story about the murder suicide:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_150829.html

Turner, infant son found dead

Dr. Shirley Turner's attorneys thought their client was ready to face a September hearing in her continuing legal efforts to avoid extradition to the United States to face a murder charge in the shooting death of Dr. Andrew Bagby, of Latrobe, once her lover and father of her 13-month-old son, Zachary....

Here is a link to an article about the documentary made about the Dad, Andrew, that was intended to be given to Zach. It now turns out to be a tribute to both of them and also the amazing grandparents, David and Kathleen Bagby. There is nothing that can be done to replace the losses they have faced but I hope they find some peace and happyness. They really do deserve it.

http://www.moviezeal.com/dear-zachary-a-letter-to-a-son-about-his-father/

id speaks to ego

I decided to play a few tunes on my accoustic guitar this morning. It goes well with a cup of coffee. After a while, I remembered a dream that I had last night where I was looking for the particular guitar I was playing. In the dream, I was looking around and couldn't find it and finally I remembered it was in its case (where I always keep it). Thats the whole story so I hope you are not disapointed. Still it stuck me as interesting that it seemed like I had made a decision to play my guitar when I was still asleep.

It is funny how sometimes we take things for granted. Just a while ago I was hungry and decided to "settle" for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then I started to think about it. The fact is that it was a damn good sandwich and even though it sounds like a cliche, there are people all over the world that would appreciated just having a couple of pieces of bread. Same thing with peanut butter or even peanuts.

I know my regular readers will think I am in a slump here but it doesn't get any more real than peanut butter. Peanut butter shows how much human beings have advanced. At some point someone had to dig up the first peanut and eat it. Somone figured out that peanuts were better to eat when they were cooked and the next thing you know someone was eating chocolate and bumped in to someone eating peanut butter and the rest is all marketing history. That may seem boring to you but if you thought of it first then you would be the millionaire and not senior Reeces so I don't want any sour grapes.

Grapes is another good example. Whoever thought up how to make wine out of grapes had to have an intitive imagination. As long as it takes wine to ferment, it wasn't something that they didn't have to really think about and be patient with. I guess it was more of an accident like reeces peanut butter cups and someone left some grape juice in a container and forgot about and then decided to drink it anyway and liked the buzz. This is going to call for some research.

If you are going to kill a chicken...

If you decide to murder a chicken then the least you can do it cook it right. As Charles Barkley once said "Anything less would be uncivilized". The bible even says that "what ever thy hand findeth to do, do it with might"

Well, I know there are several "mighty" good ways to cook chicken but the goodest way of them all has to be fried. What is better than fried chicken? I used to think that Kentucky Fried was good but now that I am older it just doesn't do it for me. The best fried chicken that you can buy in Houston is at "Frenchy's". They have several locations. The original one is by U of H but they have one somewhere around Stella Link and also one one Belfort near the Soutwest Freeway. Just look them up to be sure.

Barbequed Chicken is pretty dang good also but you have to be careful not to overcook it. You want that barbequed taste and the crispy on the outside goodness but you don't want a peice of dried out chicken when you are done. I think the best way to grill a chicken is direct grilling. Right over the heat. Using a smoker doesn't really get the job done. I cooked some on the grill not too long ago. I have a medium sized weber grill and I highly recommend that as a good value. They have them at Walmart for about $69 right now already assembled. I have had mine for years and it still has not rusted out. I bought some wood chips at Walmart also. They have small bags for about $2.49 and a variety of woods. They didn't have pecan wood which is a favorite of mine so I bought some hickory and some cherry. I don't use mesquite too much because it seems to overpower the flavor but if you use mesquite, just don't use too much. They have instructions on the bag to make a foil pouch but I just got the coals going and right before I put the meat on the grill, I added the chips. They smoke pretty good right at first so be careful not to breathe in too much. You can also soak them in water for about 20 minutes before throwing them on the coals. Same thing works if you have some old pecan shells or pecans that are not good enough to eat. The general Idea is to have a hot enough fire to cook the chicken but not too hot. If you do the vents right, you can leave the chicken for about 20 minutes at a time before you have to turn it.

OK. Back to Fried Chicken. Yesterday they had chicken breasts and drumsticks at HEB for $1 per pound (limit 2) so I bought some chicken and when I got home I decided to fry it up. I think I posted about it before on here but usually I used flour. This time I decided to use some cracker crumbs. I had some low salt Saltines and I threw some on the counter and crunched them down pretty finely with a rolling pin. Then I mixed that with some flour and spices. I also had a bowl of just flour and a bowl with milk with an egg mixed in.

First throw the chicken in the flour and then dip it in the milk/egg and then sprinkle it with some spices of your choice. I mixed up some garlic powder, black pepper, and Mrs Dash. You can even mix some chili powder or whatever else makes you happy. Not too much spice that the cracker crumbs wont stick.

After you have the chicken piece soaked with milk/egg and sprinkled with a spice mixture, then roll it in the cracker crumbs/flour mixture that has a little spice in it also.

The best cooking oil I have found for fried chicken is the Wesson Best Blend. Don't used corn oil. It is rated better for holding up to the heat but the taste is not as good. There are all kinds of good oil to use so take your pick. You don't want the oil too hot but you want it hot enough to get the job done. Use your best judgement. Heat it up a little extra in the beginning so that when you drop the chicken in, it will not cool down too much. Also, You gotta use some oil. Put enough to cover the chicken about half way so that you don't have to turn it so many times. It will cook more evenly. Golden brown is good but some people like it cooked a little more.

There you have it. You can now impress your friends and neighbors.

If you really want to do it up good then wash it down with some chocolate cake and lemonaid.

Good Night.

Waiting for the news

We should hear this week if the effort for the new "cap" on the oil leak was successful.

I am more than just a little bit disapointed in our efforts as a country to deal with this threat. To me it seemed like the politicians were worried about who to blame instead of fixing the problem. There will be plenty of time to assign blame but from the moment the leak happened, The common goal of protecting the Gulf and the Gulf States should have been the focus. Just like in a time of war, the President is the President. He got elected based on the rules set up by our founding fathers. It wasn't time to campaign. The bottom line is that I am disapointed in America as a whole that we did not pull togeather and stop the leak sooner. I am not pretending like it is a simple fix but if we could send a man to the moon and rescue the Apollo 13 astronauts, we should have been able to get this done. There won't ever ask Tom Hanks to star in a movie about his particular mishap.

Dammit People, Let's start being Americans first and then worry about politics second. Get involved in the political process and then respect the process.

We need to do better!

If you need an electrician Call R.S. Electrical Services in Katy

A several weeks back, the main breaker for our home tripped and started tripping more often after that. A guy from the power company told us that the main circuit breaker itself was probably bad. I thought this made sense since we had not added anything for the past year or so that would have increased the load. Also, even after we started to be careful not to use appliances and AC units at the same time, it still happened.

I have done some electrical work around the house before and did install a new breaker one time also but it was not a "main breaker". I know that in thoery that I could do the job without getting electrocuted but I didn't want to test that thoery in practice. The problem is that when I changed out a breaker before, I just shut off the main breaker and the wires were no longer "hot". There was still a live wire coming into the electrical box but as long as I didn't touch it, I was safe. This time, The actual wires going in to the circuit breaker would be "hot" since it was as it is called the "main breaker". The way to deal with that (in thoery) is just to make sure that I don't touch the exposed part of the wire while I am working on it and also when I use the screwdrive, just make sure not to touch the metal part. The problem is that I am not an Electrician and I didn't think I wanted to test the theory and find out that as I was getting shocked that I was wrong. Also, I didn't want to take the chance of the screwdriver slipping or me loosing my concentration for even the briefest moment and end up fried so I decided I needed to call an elelctrician.

I didn't know an electrician off hand so I looked on the BBB web site for houston and found the guy that was located closest to my home. I found R.S. Electrical Services which is owned and operated by Richard Simmons. He is located less than a mile from my home and had an "A" rating and no complaints. My thinking is that if I could find someone close then it would be an easy quick job that they could do on the way home as thier last stop. My other thinking is that I would be doing business with someone in my "community" and since the economy is slow right now, I would be happy to give them some work also.

I called Richard the morning of June 28th and he said he would come by. I asked him if he had the main breaker I needed on his truck and he said probably not. I asked him if it would be OK if I picked up the breaker just to save time and an extra service call charge and he had no problem with that. In the process of looking for the breaker, I found an electrical supply house here in Houston and the guy quoted me $249 for the part. I called Richard and asked him about this and he said it was "a little high". With Richard's direction, I went over to Home Depot and found a GE brand circuit breaker that was the right part. I had previously been under the impression that I had to have a Siemans brand circuit breaker but Richard told me that the GEs were interchagable so to go ahead and pick it up and he would make sure it was the right part when he got there but he was pretty sure it would work. I went to Home Depot and paid $61.

Later that day, Richard showed up at my house, installed the circuit breaker, used his electrical testing equipment to check things out and also moved the circuit breaker I had previously installed to the other side of the box to balance the load and all he charged was the cost of the service call exactly as he quoted on the phone.

If you need electrical work call R.S. Electrical Services at 713-202-7619. Please be sure to tell him Marc Twyman gave you his number.

On behalf of Marc Twyman's One Man Contractor Referral service, Thank you for letting us help.

Sunburn Health Benefits

My dad, Kent Twyman, used to work for the Houston Post and one of his long-time accounts was a nursury called "Paul's Greenthumb". Kent would prepare the copy for the add and also do a "lay-out" by phsically cutting and pasting the different sections of paper using an exacto knife and rubber cement. Nowadays, it is all done with computers. Kent would write some text every week and in the center of the Paul's Greenthumb add put in a little humorous story that not everyone would get. There was even a guy that my parents knew who would save the adds one time when they were at a party, the guy read them to the group to make everyone laugh. Kent wouldn't have ever done that himself. It wasn't his style.

OK. The item that I am getting to is that in one of his Paul's Greenthumb adds, Kent said something about Paul not being intimidated by the sun. He said if there was any question about that people go see for themselves and just go visit Paul and take a look at his "Sunburned Tongue".

This morning I woke up thinking about "funny". The actual concept of funny and how it came to be. To me, if you really think about it, and you believe there is a god, then you would have to agree that God created "funny". That seems simple enough but ponder on that for a while. I could explain it to you better but that would not be as good as you figuring out all the implications for yourself.