We Like Big Feet and We Do NOT LIE!

About a month ago I started on a quest for a good walking shoe. I had these 2 year old "Faded Glory" slip- ons from Wal-Mart ($10) . Believe me their glory has faded. However shabby they are they are comfortable for me to walk in. I know they have no support, look funky and smell funky, but they are comfortable. So I tried on a few different shoes; bought some, returned all because after I wore them around the house they weren't comfortable. Then I bought a cheap pair of Wal-Mart $7.99 skips . You know the ones with the Velcro straps for the man on the go. I bought the same size as my previous water soaked dry rotted pair from my sailing days: 7.5 EE. Well they didn't fit and for some reason Carol refuses to return them to Wal-Mart 6 months later without a receipt. Anyway, I dragged Carol with me to Rack Room Shoes in our new shopping center. After an hour she got pretty tired of bringing shoes over to me like some kind of Hebrew slave and we left. I went back yesterday by myself and found a foot measurer and according to it I'm an 8 1/2 to 9 EEE. Now how did I go from a 71/2 EE to a 9 EEE? I was in the state of denial so I got a pair of New Balance 8 EEEE's took them home, wore them around the house and exchanged them for a pair of 8 1/2 EEEE's today. These feel great. Now if this progression continues and I live 20 more years I'll be wearing 13 EEEEEE. I assumed this was an Asian plot to save on raw materials. But the shoe measurer doesn't lie.

Living in the Promised Land

Garden Condominium $163,000
Black Forest Restaurant


Basset Fauve de Bretagne'




Seeing that I completely blew off Valentines Day I had to go all out for Carol's Birthday. I got her Vol#3 of the Columbo series. Carol never heard of Columbo till she met me 25 years ago. Now she is a Columbo-aholic. A quick trip through the CVS drive up for a card and then out to a four star restaurant. I went all out and took her to a German Restaurant called the Black Forest. It was great food.

Speaking of tremendous stars. Carol has gotten 2 callbacks after her speed-dating unified auditions. Carol has an agent and has a call back to audition for a commercial for a realtor. Looks like we have the next American Idol. Remember "you knew her when". I knew that even with forgetting the words to her song that phone would start ringing within a week.

We put a down payment on our garden home condo. Now I'm looking for a dog I like that weighs less than 40lbs. We should move at the end of May. I think I'll look for a Basset Fauve de Bretagne'. It is usually about 35lbs. so as long as I don't fatten her up I should be OK. I think the association has a sidewalk square that is really a scale. If a dog steps on the the square and weighs over 40 lbs. it takes its picture and sounds an alarm.

What I'm reading; The Case For Faith by Lee Strobel

What I'm watching; The Canadians win the gold medal in curling.

What I'm listening to; Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan

The Beardless Baby Babba

Due to popular demand here is a picture of the Beardless Baby Babba. Contrary to rumor Baby Babba never did appear in any porn. This is my only picture without a beard. I started shaving at age 8.

A Sicilian message for Jon

May your first child, be a masculine child.

The Worst Inch of Snow

We returned to Asheville Fri. night amidst weather reports of the upcoming perfect storm. Saturday it was wet out, with a few flakes blowing around. It was about 39'F with a mild breeze. I went for a haircut in Asheville and the place was deserted. Then I went to the library and there was a sign on the door "Closed Due To Weather". What weather? Do they mean drizzle?

Today we woke up to a frightening inch of snow. About 9 am our pastor calls to tell us church is cancelled because he can't get out. He lives about 100 feet from the church. So I went out and documented this hundred year storm with my camera. Good thing I did because 2 hours later you can't even tell it snowed. North Carolina has a great snow removal plan; it's called sunshine! Beam me up!

Viva Las Vegas

We returned from Vegas on Tuesday. This is a picture of my sisters new hacienda in Pahrump Nevada. She is moving her ranch out of Vegas because of the urban sprawl. The other house is their auxiliary house which she offered to Carol for free if we would move out there. The other picture is Mack and me relaxing. We only stayed a couple of days since they where moving the whole ranch (18 horses, stables ,barn, arena) 50 miles to Pahrump.

We visited with my mother. She is doing great at her new Filipino personal care home. She has gained about 30 lbs. and seems real happy. We took her out to eat and she ate a pork tenderloin roast almost all by herself. She seems a lot more alert, probably because she isn't self medicating any more.

We had a great visit. The task of moving that whole ranch seemed overwhelming. We went to see "Ave Q" at the Wynn. We got $200 tickets for free since one of my sisters riding students is the stage manager. Except for the little bit of puppet-porn and political correctness it was a funny show.

We delivered this family heirloom to Marianne. It seemed fitting since she is at Notre Dame. She immediately hung it where it will never be seen.

A new pet for Marianne

Thanks to dumb Harbor Freight Tools, Marianne now knows about her back-ordered pet. They sent the back order notification to her instead of me. Harbor Freight is the I-HOP of on-line discount hardware stores. "Oscar Oinker" motion activated pig runs on 2 AA batteries and oinks whenever something passes in front of it. I thought it would be the perfect pet for the carefree grad student. I want one to keep in front of my fridge. As we speak some third world children are busy in some sweat shop in Indonesia making thousands of motion activated pigs for us Yankee Dogs. I'm not sure how she will keep the pig off the couch!