Something Political: Let's Pray for this Country!

On Thursdays I'm supposed to write about something political... OK, today's blog will be short but these are my thoughts on the upcoming election:

Sigh... Sadly the only thing I can report is that I'm not thrilled with either presidential candidates this election season.

Obama's views and values just simply don't line up with my own. McCain is in full 'politician mode' and I don't think he can be trusted, either.

Seriously, is this the BEST that America has to offer? I think we are in big trouble no matter who the next president is...

It's really time for men and women of Faith to get on our knees and Pray for this Country....!

Favorite Thing.... Storytelling

Hmmm.... One of my favorite things to do is tell stories. I love when something comes up or is said in a tennis class that reminds me of a story or something that happened to me in my childhood. Telling stories is a great way to drive a point home. It's one of my favorite teaching methods. I really love it when a young person comes up to me days, weeks, months, even years later and asks me to tell a certain story again. When that happens I know I've made a connection and have impacted their lives...

Elijah's Birthday Video

This Blog only allows videos up to 100 MB in size... The one you are viewing is 75 MB We have another video of Elijah unveiling his present that is 172 MB. I'll have to try to figure out how to post in a different forum...

Oh this was a very happy day...! Elijah loves his Fire Truck...!

Today is Wednesday and my Blog Topic is something that is a favorite of mine...

Fireman Elijah to the Rescue...!

Yesterday was Elijah's Birthday...! One of his favorite gifts was a fire truch pedal car... Oh how he loved it. I don't know if I've ever seen him so excited before...! More photos and stories to come... Please check back...!

Happy Birthday Elijah...!

Guess who is three years old today...? Not the guy with the beard... No, we are celebrating Elijah's birthday today...! YEA...! It's my precious little boy's birthday...!

We have a very special day planned for the Boo Boo...! Look for a full report in the next blog post tomorrow on Elijah's Blog.

One of My Favorites...Riker of Star Trek The Next Generation

I'm relaxing this evening watching some Star Trek TNG episodes on our DVR. I'm a huge science fiction buff. One of my favorite characters on the 'Next Generation' was first officer William T Riker. One thing I liked about him was that he played the trombone.

If I were a TNG character I would most likely be Commander Riker. After all, he had a beard, too...!

I hope to start posting a little more regularly on my blog now. Tomorrow I will be talking politics.... You don't want to miss that...!

4th of July...! Twilight Zone Marathon

It's been a tradition for the past five years for the Sci Fi Channel to air twenty four hours of Twilight Zone episodes. I'm looking forward to taking in a few episodes this afternoon...

Although, I must confess that my wife and I are pretty burned out on television. We hardly watch anything on TV any more. Not only is it difficult to find any show that is 'decent' to watch anymore, but many times not even the commercials are 'safe' to watch. We are very concerned about what images our sweet little Elijah is exposed too. Praise the Lord for DVR's and TiVo where we can pause live television.

Oh, how our society has really decayed morally over my life time...

What ever happened to shows like the Twilight Zone...? For it's time, the Twilight Zone really pushed the moral compass and often times made bold political statements in it's little vignettes.

Granted, there were many episodes that just 'bombed', but there is a certain charm to those old black and white re-runs that just keeps me coming back. I suppose it's the hope that I'll come across an episode that I've never seen before...

One day, when we have some extra discretionary resources, we'll just purchase a dvd collection of the entire Twilight Zone series. Then we'll be able to view them at our leisure without the annoyance of Viagra or Maxoderm commercials. Until then it's remote control time...

Side Note to Last Night's Blog:

The brisket turned out fantastic...! I ended up going to bed about midnight and finished it off in the oven instead of waking up throughout the night tending the fire... I know that true BBQ 'purists' turn their nose up to that, but they probably don't have a soon to be three year old at home...!

I'm still working on publishing a video on the web... I'll get that figured out later today... It's 5:30 AM and I can't sleep. Am I on some kind of weird schedule or what...?

I think I'm going to close here for now, but I'm sure I'll be back to post some photos and more commentary later...

Thanks for reading my blog... (You've got to have better things to do than this...!) :)

The Brisket Vigil...

8:23 PM.... OK... Still having trouble uploading a movie...

The learning curve is getting 'curvey-er'....


7:47 PM... The Brisket Vigil and Home Movie Update

OK, Let's see if I can upload the first goofy video Elijah and I made together... Remember, we are not professional actors...!


Oh Too Bad...... It wouldn't publish because the file was too large... No Problem... This is the learning curve... I'll try it again after a quick trip to the grocery store...

Coach Sam... 7:50 PM Texas Time...


6:52 PM Update on the Brisket Vigil...

The Brisket is looking good. I've had steady smoke and temperature for close to seven hours. I'm smoking with mesquite and pecan wood. I like to mix the two for longer smokes because 19 hours of mesquite smoke can be overpowering to the meat in my humble opinion. The milder pecan smoke helps balance out the taste....

I got my web cam installed. The installation took a long time. But I've already made some goofy home videos. It's pretty fun. Now I'm going to see what I have to do to publish them to the web or send a video post card... - Coach Sam 6:58 PM Texas Time!


5:30 PM -The Brisket Vigil...

It's the 3rd of July and I'm making my traditional brisket. This one was 15 lbs so and I put it on at about 12 Noon. It needs to smoke for about 22 hours. I've got 14 hours to go...

I've stayed busy so far this afternoon working in the back yard trimming and weeding.

Right now I'm installing a new web cam on my lap top so I can create videos and post them on my website....

More later.... -Coach Sam 5:58 PM Texas Time....