Gagne's gone...

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The Texas Rangers are making me mad.

Every year, it seems to be the same freakin' thing. A crappy start followed by a firesale in July "for the future". Tom Hicks runs that team as a mediocre business. It never really reaches for the top spot, but he seems happy to settle for "reaching" for one of the top ten. Of course, they're nowhere near that.

We traded away Eric Gagne today. A top tier closer. He's the type of player you trade for, not the kind you trade away. Rumor had been that he was willing to offer the Rangers a "home team" discount if they wanted him. Of course, that will never happen now.

The Rangers have "prospect fever". They're constantly developing and trading talent for more prospects to develop. Let me list some of the top talent they have traded away in the past few years (I'll * those names they acquired or developed before said talent became big)

• Eric Gagne
• Mark Teixeira *
• Chris Young *
• Francisco Cordero *
• Alfonso Soriano

That's just naming a few. All of these have gone on to be top tier players elsewhere. (Except for Gagne and Teixeira, who will be very shortly)

Tech Demo

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Daniel, Rob, and I have a project going. It's a business venture, and we're meeting with our prospective client (Rob's brother-in-law) on Wednesday to present our "Tech Demo".

I'm a little bit nervous about the whole thing. I keep wondering if we can really put out the high end, very Web 2.0 product that they are wanting. We know most of this stuff, but experience has taught me to be very wary of the things we're still not 100% sure about.

I feel like I'm almost constantly crying out to God in the depths of my soul. Crying out for His guidance right now, and that He will make it all work out.

I wonder if everyone starting out on a new business venture has the same fears. What if it doesn't work? What if we end up in massive debt? What if we have to declare bankruptcy? What if we can't, in the end, deliver a product that satisfies our customers? What if we fail miserably? There's a lot of risk in startup ventures!!

I think I'm just nervous. But, I also remember my grandfather, my dad's dad. My dad's family was always poor. My grandfather, from all that I know, never worked real jobs because he wanted to pursue his dream of music composition. Ultimately, he wasn't good enough to succeed. He was working on following that wild dream until his final years. (I can still remember him asking my brother and I to perform his music on tape while we were in Middle school) As I analyze my own fears and concerns, I think that the knowledge of his eventual failure in pursuit of this dream is weighing heavily on my mind.

And, the biggest question is: "What if this is not God's will?!"

I hope this project is, in the long run, a short term commitment, and a full success. I'm praying for that. We could make some money that would be really helpful right now for Lilly and myself. That would be really good. But is it God's will?

I think that, if it is not God's will, it will be doomed to failure, and I worry what that could mean to us right now.

"Lord, please help us!!!"

On the other side of my brain, away from my fears, is the part of me that is nervous with excitement and anticipation. What if this really is the beginning of a company that succeeds?! Rob, Daniel, and I are not exactly stupid. We do mostly know what we're doing. And our skills tend to compliment each other in this area.

This could be a huge success.

I think the point at which I would feel we had ultimately succeeded in this business venture would be if we were to all reach a point where we could retire out of a company we had built, and let it run on its own. That would be cool. I can imagine how that could pay the bills, support us in missions if/when we are called, and/or support others, too. It opens up possibilities, and I can only hope that, should God choose to grace us with such success, we will be wise and good stewards of it's rewards.

Ok, I'm rambling now. So, I'll stop. It's around 4:09 AM, and I'm really tired. (we've been working all evening on this project, and I'm seeing visions of html/aspx every time I close my eyes!!)

~Goodnight!

In the end, you're measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.

- Donald Trump: the Art of the Deal, 1987.

Adventures in Jenni and Alex's Thailand

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So, tonight we went over to my friend's, Alex and Jenni's, house and spent the whole evening making and eating Thai food. Jenni's dad is an amazing chef, and his ex-wife, Kelly, is also. (yes, our common name caused a lot of confusion. Although, mostly for me...) I don't know if I've ever really had Thai food before, but it was pretty good. (aside from the handful of ingredients I am mildly allergic to which caused mild breathing difficulties for a few minutes)

We all pitched in, and we all partook. I even ate quite a few mushrooms. I hate mushrooms! But, tonight, they were ok. (The soup they were in was excellent, and, no, I'm not just saying that because it was prepared by Kelly and I.)

After dinner, we got in some Wii time with Jenni and Alex's Wii. Pretty sweet. We also had this absolutely wonderful frozen mango treat that Jenni's dad had concocted. Mmmmm, absolutely delicious.

As some of you may know, Lilly and I bought for me a really cool camera while we were on our honeymoon. As you may also know, it was in the suburban when the suburban was stolen a couple of months ago. I've been missing it. I really liked that camera. On Wednesday, when we went to the baseball game, I especially missed it.

So, early this afternoon, after running our basic morning errands (we opened up a joint bank account, something that was really important to do), I looked online to see what the price ranges would be on a replacement camera. Amazon advertised a great deal which I then showed to Lilly. After the two of us agreed to it, I started to place the order....only to realize that the deal was only available if you have an Amazon Visa card!!!!! That pissed me off. We canceled that crappy deal, and decided that we would go take a look at Fry's. They had one listed online that looked about right for not too bad of a price.

We drove out there, and the people were pretty helpful. Not amazing, but not terrible either. Unfortunately for them though, they didn't have what we were looking for.

So we left.

We went to Best Buy.

Now, normally, I haven't had that many problems with Best Buy's service in the past. I've been kind of steering clear of them since this whole Geek Squad crap (it's just an excuse to raise the prices on their accessories. Reminds me of CompUSA.). Today though, the service totally sucked! Like, I have never had service this bad at Fry's, and, in the past, Fry's was supposed to be the standard for crappy electronics store service!! We stood in the cellphone section for like 15 minutes before someone would call someone else to come and help us. (we had decided to investigate altering our cellphone service) Then, when we told that guy we needed to discuss it for a minute and that we would be right back, he practically bolted on us. Completely out of sight. That made me mad.

However, we didn't really come for cellphone plans. We came for a camera. And, they had the right one, only in silver. They also had a much nicer one for quite a bit more. Lilly and I both fell in love with it, but with the service there at Best Buy, we decided that we should go. That's because the service came to a low point when we stood in the camera section for about 20 minutes, deliberately trying to look bored while waiting for someone to help us or even call someone else to come help us. Eventually, someone who was actually from another department walked by, saw us, and told us the camera we wanted wasn't available at Best Buy in black.

We left.

I decided we should try a store I probably haven't been to in over 10 years at this point: Circuit City.

I was pretty mad about Best Buy's service, but I didn't realize just how bad it was until we went to Circuit City. I walked in the door, walked over to the camera section, and there it was! The exact camera we had been looking for! Even in black! It was also cheaper than Best Buy. Not only this, but before Lilly could get back from wandering off for a moment, an actual employee had walked up, on his own, and asked if I needed help. He not only listened patiently to my story about our search, but also waited a good couple of minutes patiently for Lilly to show up so her and I could come to a consensus on purchasing the camera!!!

We didn't buy the camera though.

We bought a different one.

You see, Circuit City also had the nice camera that Best Buy had had. And, they had it in black. Lilly pointed out that if we were going to buy such a camera, we should buy something extra nice so we wouldn't have to buy another one for awhile. It's a big crimp for the next couple of weeks financially (and, logically, we may be stupid for buying it! lol), but we so bought it. We had been praying before we left the apartment, and even as we were going through the shopping experience. This felt like the right purchase to both of us. So, praying that God will help us through the next couple of weeks, we so totally bought this really sweet camera. It's a Panasonic DMC-TZ3. Way cool.

So, when we went to Jenni and Alex's tonight, we brought our new baby along. We plugged it into the wall, and, when it was ready, started shooting photos.

And now, mostly because I can, I thought I'd share them with you.

Enjoy!!!


The table is set.


Alex at the grill


The soup (I don't remember the name) that was made by the team of Kelly and Kelly (I really take way more credit than I deserve. This soup was all good entirely due to the other Kelly's work...hehe)


I hate mushrooms, but the soup was really good. (even though it had lots of mushrooms...)


The very sexy Lilly


Brian looking thoughtful


Lilly asleep on the couch after the first stage of the meal.


Jenni's dad (who is also Daniel's boss) conspiring with Daniel's parents...


The cooking of the second dishes.


Jenni was giving me the evil look for snapping photos.


A closeup of the main dishes


The main dishes, well enjoyed!!


Kelly serving dessert.


Daniel talking to Jenni's dad


The Wii


We gathered in front of the Wii


Lilly playing the Wii


Is she enjoying it?


Oh, that's why. (or is it?)


Brian looks quite content.


Wii boxing

Daniel's second appearance in a video on my blog... hehe

Texas vs. Seattle - Ranger 7, Mariners 6

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Baseball time in Texas

We went to the Ranger's game last night. It was Lilly's first time to one. It was a lot of fun. We won, and, in doing so, got the sweep of the Mariners. Woo hoo!

We also got lots of pictures. Enjoy!

We took the church short bus to the game


Lilly and I before the game


We have broom sign! (A small Dune reference there...hehe)


We also brought my brother with us


The long trek to the ballpark from the parking lot


Welcome to the third inning! (we were late due to I-30 being closed down by the events that took place earlier in the day)


Lilly and I in the stands (A self portrait)


Some of our friends (and my brother)


Some more of our friends



Even more of our friends (do we have a lot or what?)


Josh


Bryan


It was $1 hot dog night. We ordered 10. This was the remains...


Marlon Byrd (every time he came up to bat, people would stand up all around the stadium and flap their arms...fun times)


We were all having a good time


Just hanging out and chatting


Socializing...


Seventh inning stretch time in Texas (The actual image is much bigger than Blogger/Google seems to be willing to support)


And then this homerun!


The homerun put us back in the lead in the bottom of the 8th. Woohoo!!


Clean up on aisle 23!


The ballpark empties pretty fast.

"It's been a long trip. We need to get out of here,"

- Mariners manager John McLaren (quote taken from: Yahoo! Sports game recap

Simpsons Mania

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Strange things have been happening here in Big D. There's a new movie opening this week: the Simpsons Movie. With it has come one of the weirder movie promotions I've seen. Entire 7-11's have been converted into Kwik-E-Marts!! There's one just down the street from us that has suffered this fate, and, today, Lilly and I ventured into it's crazy parking lot for some snacks and gas.







It's pretty zany.

At any rate, that's not the only zany thing going on this weekend in our lives. We also have a new couch, courtesy of Brian and Christy.




It's pretty spiffy.


This has relegated our old couch into my "office" area.

Fortunately for our old couch, Daniel wants it, and is planning to take it to his place soon. His cats have liked his really nice leather couch way too much for a long time. And, as cats oft do in such a circumstance, they claimed it as their own long ago. He thinks he can get this under control in the next two weeks. At such time is he planning to then come and get this couch. hehehehe. He'd better hurry. I'm kind of liking this couch here...

In the meantime, Lilly's been allowing Rajah into places he's not supposed to go! (i.e. our closet!) This would annoy me except that it's only when she's in there....I think....



Finally, as a kind of last note, we bought bikes a few months ago. I just thought I'd show them off here (I don't think I have yet):



Lilly's bike (the one on the left) has seen many many miles.

"Reality has become a commodity."

- Stephen Colbert - The Colbert Report