THE non-THINKing TANK

"Shot in the Arm" was published by Weight Watchers in 2007. The author, Sharon Riguzzi, died the following year. You can read her obituary if you click on the picture. This is one of those inspirational books that you're not supposed to read straight through. The entries were originally meant to be weekly anecdotes. I've been needing a big "shot", so I read them all at once. I dunno if I'm inspired or not yet. I guess we'll have to find out at the weigh-in on Monday. No, I haven't been moving forward on the weight-loss journey. In fact, I've been stuck in the same spot since around December. That's over half a year, you know. I guess part of it was my brain re-adjusting. Part of it was giving people a chance to get used to it. Part of it was just laziness. I can't say that I'm out of the rut just yet, but I am getting closer to being fed up with it. I'm still not really sure what the goal is. To be able to make the lifetime membership, I have to reach a weight that I haven't seen since, oh, 5th grade if I remember correctly. I started pumping iron in the 6th grade. Eh, I dunno...who needs goals anyway? This little book says that I do. I think. It insinuated that I need them at least. I guess I'll consider considering what my goals might be if I was a person who made goals. It couldn't hurt too much.

Did you know that if you catch the largest bass in Texas for the year, you can win a lifetime fishing license? I got the impression that it has to be at least 13 lbs. I think the biggest bass I've ever caught was 5 lbs. 13 lbs is a very big fish. I get the feeling that they don't wanna give you anything for free. There are way too many rules out there. Reading this after the notary book has been a major overload of laws and rules. The funny thing is, I retained more about the rules of hunting from a conversation on the golf course a couple weeks ago. They were talking about some of the trouble their sons had gotten in with the game warden. Everyone's always telling me that we should go spotlighting...not to shoot anything, but just to look. Apparently that's a good way to catch a glimpse of the illusive game-us warden-us also. Just don't have a gun in the vehicle when you're doing it, or you'll go to jail. The laws make me sad. But it's even sadder that I have no desire to hunt anything. I think I might be a bad Texan. And I still don't understand why I need a license for non-commercial fishing. It's sad. The more I know about law, the more I detest it. Too bad. It could have made me rich.

The parents and I went to see "Up" yesterday before my cousin's wedding in Lewisville. When we were walking out of the movie, a lady in the hallway asked us where the kid was. She was teasing. It was kinda funny. She said we needed a rent-a-kid. Good thing we have a rent-a-kid for Miley in October. Heh. Anyhow, this movie wasn't just for kids. It had some very deep themes about moving on and letting go and living in the present and chasing your dreams. I want a pet snipe now.

I've been staying plenty busy around here. There's another golf tourney this afternoon. Next weekend I'm hoping to go to the Paint Horse Show in Fort Worth on the 4th, but I haven't really been able to find anyone who wants to go with me. I'm sure mom will go, but we've both seen it before. Part of the fun is taking someone new. I used to have friends. I think I did. I've convinced myself that I did. I was probably dreaming. Stupid dreams. The good ones are just as dangerous and damaging as the bad ones.

Tell me I was dreaming
That you didn't leave me here to cry
You didn't say you don't love me anymore
And it was just my imagination telling lies
Tell me that you didn't say goodbye

Well, here's an unusual one. Yes, you probably already know that I'm a notary now. I figured I should try to follow the law in at least one area of my life, so I read the manual. Who does that? I think that more people would if the thing didn't repeat itself AT LEAST 3 times on every point. Then, at the end, it lists the laws out in actual law form. The first part is sort of an interpretation of those laws, which I assume is supposed to be easier for the common person to read. It's not. They would have done better just to list the laws, and the booklet would probably have taken only a couple hours to read. As it is, our government, in its wisdom, as outdone itself yet again. And my time was wasted on top of their time, and their time equals my money. Hey, I'm just sayin'...at least I have a cool stampy stamp.

Today is the day. 10am is the time. Yup, I'm trying to get Miley concert tickets. It's not til October, but tickets tend to disappear in a matter of minutes. 5,000 will go on sale this morning. On Wednesday, AmericanExpress cardholders can buy theirs, and then on Saturday they go on sale for real. I'm gonna try to be part of the 5,000. I even joined MileyWorld. Had to, you see. Wish me luck. I'm gonna wait til I have the tickets before I start practicing screaming like a girl. Yes, like a 9 year old girl. You know it makes you smile.

I've been productive lately. I finally figured out how to operate my VHS to DVD burner. I can't decide if it's more trouble than it's worth...I guess it sorta depends on how much YOU appreciate the final product. Lemme know...

FYI, I haven't been able to get the embedding to work on my computer here at home. I even installed Adobe Flashplayer, but that didn't help. It wouldn't work in my Safari browser, either. Something about MIME applications...Anyway, if you can't get yours to work, either, just go directly to my YouTube HERE.

Me (on Mollie) Penning and Showing in 1993 and 1995


Prairie (on Honey) Penning and Showing in 1993 and 1995


Whitney (on the P.O.A. and Velvet) Penning in 1993

Well, I survived. This is Cody. My mom's friend has him at her place on trial to see if she wants to buy him. He's a mustang from Wyoming. She wasn't sure how he would do, so they asked me to try him out...be the guinea pig. I'm not as brave as I used to be. But he was a good boy. I dunno if I've ever ridden a mustang before. He looks like he has some draft in him. 'Tis the season to be riding the horses more. I'm gonna go riding this morning, and I think a few people are coming with me. Then later today I've got a golf tourney. Tomorrow I'm planning on going to the Diamonds game in Bedford. I gotta take the dogs to the vet and get Rebel shaved on Tuesday. Next weekend, Memorial Day, we've got some tentative plans to go horsey camping down in Tolar. Then on Saturday the 30th is the Diamonds last home game of the season. You should go. 7pm. Tickets are only $10.

I found this one at a garage sale. Since it's a collection of stories, I'm just gonna tell you which one I liked the best. I think it was the story about Strider by Leo Tolstoy. It doesn't matter why; I just liked it.

I watched the Benjamin Button movie with Jeffrey and Amy on Saturday. It was plenty entertaining, but the end was a bit out there. Of course, that's what we expected. Mr. Button was pretty ugly for most of it. 'Twould have been nice if they would have made him hotter for longer. But basically the theme is that every life is important...don't give up on people...don't judge too quickly. Eh. The trouble with having good themes with fantasy movies is that it makes good seem like just that - a fantasy. Or it could be that I struggle with fantasy stories no matter what the theme may be.

We also watched Cold Mountain. Actually, it was on all weekend on CMT, so I saw most of it twice. I never did catch the first 5 minutes or so, though. This one pretty much has the same theme. Everyone has a purpose. Don't give up. Blah, blah...but it's definitely not fantasy, and I was very satisfied with the ending.

At the suggestion of Thainamu, I did go to the Tyler Rose Garden. I walked around for awhile looking for this plaque:

...but I had no luck, so I had to go up to the gift shop to get a map of the garden. See, grandpa and mom have been looking for that particular rose around here for a long time, and no one sells it. I wasn't even convinced that it was real. But I found it in Section F Row 8.

Then, on my way out of town, I stopped an a nursery and bought four of them. Happy Mother's Day! So mom was happy. And my trip was productive. 'Cause we certainly didn't catch any fish out at Lake O' the Pines. The water was too high.

In other news, totally unrelated, last week dad found a little opossum in our garage under the lawn mower. He stuck him in a bucket, and I snapped a picture:

Stop eating our cat food, beasties!!