Frakkin' Apples. Frakkin' Leaves.

I have a true love/hate relationship with the trees in our front yard. During the Spring and Summer, the trees are marvelous. It is literally 15 degrees cooler under our trees...neighbors come and hang out, nice shade, good times. Then late Fall hits and the trees decided to make our lives miserable. First off, they hold onto their leaves as long as they can (mid November, about 30% of the leaves have fallen), then when the first snowstorm comes, the trees laugh in our faces and start shedding their leaves like their lives depend on it (I don't know if any of that made much sense). I will be picking up leaves and apples until sometime in January.



The pictures of the kids above was from yesterday. Notice the shorts the boys were wearing (yeah, rather warm). The pictures here with the snow are from this morning...we got 8 inches of snow. Late this morning, the wind picked up and the leaves and apples came tumbling down. We now have enough applesauce to feed a homeless shelter.

Rice Cakes after a Workout? C'mon, go for something better than that

Nothing better than having a great workout at the gym and then be able to stop and grab a quick snack on your way out the door. Or maybe, come on in to the gym and have a tasty treat and then spend a couple of hours working it off. I am not sure who the genius is behind this all, but it truly is genius.

Haircuts + Video Games = Boys are happy

Our boys like their long, but eventually we have to cut it. When their hair is flowing down to their shoulders, it probably is a good time. We have tried to do the cutting ourselves, often to bad results. But we found Cookie Cutters. The boys get to play video games or watch movies while they get their hair cut. They hardly notice they are even getting their hair cut. 2nd thing they dislike - dentist office. I need to check with my brother in law to see if he has a Playstation for the boys.

Eat PopTarts and Lose Weight!

Ok, you have probably heard about the professor that lost 27 pounds in a couple of months on a diet of twinkies and doritos and other tasty foods. He did it by limiting his calorie intake to 1,800 calories a day. You check out his story by clicking HERE

So that got me thinking. You all know how much I love my Brown Sugar Pop Tarts, so wouldn't it just be smart of me to have 4 pop tarts a day, 1 Banbury Cross donut, a twinkie, 5 Tab colas 2 cinnamon bears. Think of all the weight that I could lose! Yeah, I am not going to do it, but it is pretty tempting realizing that PopTarts could make me an even sexier beast.

My post, just not on this blog

I had the wonderful chance to post on my lovely wife's blog. You can check it out here: www.brodiashton.com

If you are not reading her blog on a regular basis, do so. It is always entertaining (moreso when she is writing and not me).

Easy Directions for Traveling from Japan to China

I don't know why I found this so funny. But if you go to Google Maps and you ask how you get from Japan to China. You get the following directions. I got rid of quite a few of the directions to save space but look at #43. How can you not love Google? This route of driving and jet skiing will take 2 days and 11 hours.

Japan

1.	Head north		750 m
2.	Turn right toward 大門街道/国道152号線		190 m
3.	Continue straight onto 大門街道/国道152号線		2.7 km
4.	Turn left at 大和橋（交差点） onto中山道/国道142号線 Continue to follow 国道142号線		13.0 km
			57 m
40.	Turn left at 県道349号線		11.3 km
41.	Continue onto 県道350号線		2.1 km
42.	Turn left		1.4 km
43.	Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean		782 km
44.	Continue straight onto 塘后支路		400 m
45.	Turn left at 塘后路		600 m
79.	Take the ramp to 巉柳高速		500 m
80.	Slight right at 巉柳高速 Partial toll road		37.2 km
81.	Take exit 甘草店 toward 312国道/312國道 Partial toll road		1.2 km
82.	Turn right at 312国道/312國道		15.9 km

China

Rockin' the Vote

So, I voted yesterday. How much do I rock? I have a feeling though that my vote was basically zeroed out by pretty much everyone that I know. I have never checked the Vote one Party button but when I finished voting, I voted one party except for one position.

I still enjoy election night, but I miss those days in Washington DC. There is something about living in DC during this time of year that is electric. Politics is a way of life there...and working for the Federal Government was always intersting to see how it affected the different agencies. We do live in a pretty great country when we actually do get to vote for the status quo or vote for change.