dwilson

I’m Feeling the Love on My Birthday!

Facebook has made its mark for my 50th birthday. I received 51 birthday greetings. At first, I was going to respond to each one individually, but my life is now officially half over so I’m not sure I have enough time left to do that.

Thank you everyone for noticing and caring enough to shout out to me today (and a couple from yesterday).

My family and a few friends surprised me with a surprise party at the New Thai restaurant on Saturday. They showered me with some lovely gifts….like Depends, Geritol, and other similarly themed goodies. Funny, I don’t feel that old…so why did AARP send me that application form?

Anyway, at work today, for lunch, my employees held a potluck lunch for me and another person in our department whose birthday was yesterday. I ate a lot, then fought back the sleep for the rest of the afternoon. I guess people my age need a nap in the afternoon.

All day, I was getting the greetings through Facebook, SMS, email greeting cards, phone calls, and in person. As I mentioned before, I greatly appreciate every thought, blessing, and prayer from each of you.

I heard from each one of my immediate family, several of my more extended family, school classmates (most of you already know the feeling of 50 or will very soon), friends from my church – now and past, friends from my daughter’s church in Idaho, many of my new friends from Virginia, racing buddies, people who know me from so long ago that they call me “Donny”, and family and friends from as far away as Spain and Japan. You are all amazing.

But now that I’m old, I need to stop writing this blog post and go take my early evening nap, so I can refresh myself enough to last all the way to bedtime.

Enjoyed our Blueberry Banana Smoothies

Tonight, Leslie made blueberry-banana smoothies with our new Ninja Master Blender. The smoothies were wonderful – made from frozen blueberries that we had picked this summer at the u-pick up the road from our house.

Making Smoothies with the Ninja Blender

We used to have an old food processor to make smoothies, but we wore it out. For awhile, we were left with the Magic Bullet to do the smoothies with, but finally came across the Ninja, and I’m so glad we did.

The Ninja is so easy to use. It’s perfect for most every use in the kitchen. The main thing, as a blender for smoothies, is that it has enough power to chop up the ice with ease.

Don’t get me wrong – we love the Magic Bullet. In fact, I used it just yesterday for pureeing some veggies to put in the chili that I was making. It has it’s place in the kitchen, but the Ninja is much better for the heavy duty jobs like chopping ice for smoothies and fraps.

Wood Spider on Drugs

I have so many relatives who teach science, I knew that I needed to share this video.


The Effect of Drugs on a Wood Spider

This is absolutely hilarious. I has to rank on the top 10 of my all time favorites. Watch the wood spider as he is exposed to various drugs such as LSD, marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, caffeine, and more.

I don’t have any personal experience with any of the above, outside of caffeine, but I’ve seen enough of it from high school acquaintances to know what the various drugs do.

Funny Road Rage Video

This is a hilarious road rage video. Watch Mercedes guy’s face throughout the process. It is totally priceless.


Road Rage: Granny’s Revenge

I can really relate to this guy in the Mercedes. It’s nothing to do with the car. In fact, I drive an old Ford. I’m talking about being cranky while driving and having it backfire on me, which just makes me angrier. Good thing I live in a small town instead of some crowded metropolis. I’d die from high blood pressure for sure.

Walking the dog

We go on frequent walks with Kaiyah, our Siberian Husky. She doesn’t listen to us very well, so has usually been confined to a leash.

Most recently, though, we’ve become a little more adventurous and have started walking her without the leash. We only do that when we take to the hills across the road. There are several acres of sage brush and weeds where we have little chance of encountering other people or dogs during our walk.

Just to ensure that Kaiyah doesn’t run off, we have purchased an electric dog training collar with a remote button that we can push to give her a little zap to remind her that she should listen to us.

It has worked very well. In addition to the zapper button, it also has a button that makes a little beeper tone for her. That what we use most of the time. She rarely pushes things to the point that we have to use the “other” button, anymore.

siberian-husky-resting

We still have a few places where a little shade has kept the snow from melting. Our silly snow dog runs from one to the next, stopping to roll in the snow, lay on it, eat it. I guess she knows and understands her purpose in life.

snow-dog

Message from the March of Dimes National Ambassador

Here’s a note from the National Ambassador for this year’s March of Dimes – March for Babies.

When Katelyn was born at just 25 weeks, she measured the length of a ballpoint pen and weighed less than a pound.

My husband, Michael, and I call her our million-dollar miracle, because that’s what her hospital bill was up to when we finally took her home. Now, it’s our goal in March for Babies. We plan to raise 1 million dollars to give back to the March of Dimes. Team Katelyn first walked in 2005, we’ve already hit $140,000!

Every year on March for Babies day, we celebrate how far Katelyn has come. Seeing her walk by herself for the first time was a moment we’ll never forget. This is a girl whose doctors once said would never walk!

Families who have directly benefited from the work of the March of Dimes certainly understand the value of the organization and are willing to put forth substantial efforts to support its cause. Aren’t you glad that they are there if you, or someone close to you ever need the services of this organization?

If you want to know how you can help the cause, I’ve listed some simple things you can do that will greatly help.

Follow Katelyn’s Blog

Keep up with her travels as our National Ambassador, and don’t forget to watch her video.

Country drop down box

I found some html code and decided to put it here just to see what it would look like. See, the code I put in my blog made this cool country drop-down box.

Is that cool, or what? You can select your country from the drop-down box.

Of course, once you’ve done that, nothing else happens. I just thought it would be cool to have a drop-down box on my site.

First kart racing practice day

February 28th marked the first day of practice for us this season. It was a little cold, but dry.

I haven’t raced since 2002 and Austin last raced only a limited schedule about 2 years ago. It was fun to get back out on the track. Now that Austin is older and can take care of his own kart, I can start racing again without having to spend all of my time caring for two karts.

Much of our time was spent tuning and setting up the karts.

racing kart adjustment

We managed to get in about 30 to 40 laps, though. It was valuable time and allowed us to shake down two karts we hadn’t driven before.

It also gave me plenty of time to work out some muscles I didn’t know I had. Man, am I sore. I had forgotten how much work it is to drive one of those things. I’ve got a new respect for the professional race drivers who go like that for 500 miles….wow!

Some friends at the track took some photos of us while we were driving around the track. I’ll post them as soon as I receive them.

Big fruity nose

wine_tastingI’ve yet to find a wine that tasted good to me. Of course, I haven’t looked that hard, either. I’ll just stick with my Dr. Pepper and iced Mochas.

I don’t know that wine connoisseurs drink all that much wine, either. Every time I’ve observed a wine tasting, I see people smelling the wine, looking at it, talking about it, but only occasionally tasting a it.

Wine connoisseurs have their own language. Wines are described as flowery, woody, elegant, velvety, rounded, yeasty, smoky, and the list goes on.

While walking past a tasting booth in a grocery store, one day, I overheard the taste master say, “This one will give a big, fruity nose.”

bigfruitynoseI’ve seen people with big fruity noses. Now I know how they got them. I started trying to imagine what I might look like with a nose like that. No thanks. I’ll stay away from the wine that gives you a big, fruity nose.

how to control road rage

roadrageI don’t have many faults, but there is one glaring fault I really need to overcome. When I’m driving, I have a shorter fuse with other people than at any other time.

As an admitted resistentialist, I know that whenever I’m in a hurry, everyone else on the roads have all day. And, I’m certain that the city roads department has programmed all the traffic lights to turn red on my approach.

Even my hero, Dilbert, encounters issues on the road.

Fortunately, I’m able to stop my reactions short of causing bodily harm or property damage to another driver. I’ve witnessed, first hand, that their are other drivers on the road who can’t profess such self-control.

According to eHow.com, there is a 5 step process for overcoming road rage.

1. Slow down and quit tailgating.
2. Quit screaming at the people in the other car.
3. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
4. Think of the other driver as a real person.
5. Follow the “Golden Rule”.

C’mon, now! There’s no way I can do that stuff. As long as I’m driving, I’ll encounter idiots on the road that will set me off. The only way to ensure that I can control my road rage is to stay out of the car. It’s alot like birth control. The only way to prevent pregancy with 100% certainty is abstinence.

In the end, road rage just won’t benefit you.