Memorial Day Weekend

Not much has happened since my last post. I ordered Josh a cool birthday present and had it delivered to Rhode Island, but I forgot that he's home in DFW this week. Well, he'll enjoy it whenever he gets it. We didnt do too much over the holiday. We saw Poseidon and X-3, which was really good. I might have a buyer for my washer dryer combo, but e-c0mmerce still frightens me. Ollie has grown, I didnt know how much so until the neighbor kids got a new puppy, and we let ollie and her play. their pup is a chihuahua mutt, so it'll stay small. Ollie is about 2 times her size. for a good laugh, check out http://starbucksgossip.typepad.com/_/2005/03/inquiry_for_bar.html. Plenty of funny tricks for people attempting to scam starbucks, and even funnier responses from the baristas.
Here's a pic of Rumsfeld, eh, you know.

Friends

For Josh, Chris and Mike

Random Pics and hub-bub

Our Wedding, St. John, USVI



Hanging out on the Big Sur coastline, March 2004


Hands down, the best pic of Gary, April 2005


Josh and I in Corpus Christi, TX, March 2005


George and I, Halloween 2005
He wasnt happy with my costume choice

So I've been on hold with the LVPD for about 30 minutes (on my cell) and can probably repeat the whole schpiel by now. Customer Service has to be the best oxymoron I've ever encountered. They have yet to release a police report case number, and it's been about 4 weeks since the incident. All that stands in the way of the release of my funds from the insurance company is this number.
Well, I finally got ahold of a human being only to be told 'Yep, doesnt look like your name is in the system yet. call the detective and see if he has an event number.' So now, I have to get an event number to get a case number. Do you have any, like, leads, man?

Random Pics

Just some snapshots I found whilst clearing my camera's memory. Enjoy!
















Playing guitar in the old apartment, San Antonio. Note the OK Computer and Lebowski posters, which are currently rolled up in the garage . Sorry bout the mess :(















Me after a (not-so) close shave















My oldest brother Ramon and I, after my brother Ron's funeral, Brownsville, Tx, Oct 05















George on Couch
















Kase on the last Harry Potter Day

Day O' Fun

So today was interesting; I had to be on post at 0745 in order to do what is called 'joint service inprocessing', which can only be described as 8 hours of boredom. I left the house at 10 past 7 and made a coffee stop, arrived at the building 5 minutes early and, shortly after, the monotony commenced. The highlight of my day was my lunch break, in which I spent a good hour up at the alteration shop. It turns out the Chinese lady at the shop somehow gave me a uniform that is 3 sizes too small, so I've been feeling like some Chris Farley character for about a week. The lady couldn't understand what I was telling her or asking for, so I had to wait in line to get a manager to mediate the conversation. I ended up buying another shirt, that actually fit, and watching her sew on all of the patches, etc.
After that fiasco, I had lunch and showed up a few minutes late to the afternoon briefs, so I take a seat in the back. The army sergeant conducting the brief called me out and made me take a seat in the front. He takes a look at my name tape and asks where I'm from. I told him I was from Texas. He said that Texas was a big state, and then asked if I walked from Texas, and if that was why I was late. I assured him that I did not walk from Texas, and that was the end of it. I could have told him about the shirt fiasco, or the fact that our tap water has been coming out brown, and I was on the phone with the landlady for a bit,but he was the kind of guy who liked to talk a lot, and I didn't want to give him any excuse to take even longer. In the end, it was my choice to eat and take care of my shirt. I chose to show up late, so I didn't mind getting called out. It's worth it to have clothes that fit. Now if I can only find the receipt from my first shirt purchase, so I can get reimbursed for this one.

Speed 3

Not the vaccum cleaner guy.


GTA San Andreas nailed it.


Kase and I at the Shark Reef exhibit, Mandalay Bay.


The best I could do, still sucks.


Kase and a baby shark.


Self Explanitory.


Cool pic from our hooter balcony.


NYNY.


MGM.


Going to California.

Catch up to Speed, part 2

Ollie gets cozy in between us in the truck.


End of the first day, Comfort Inn, Albuquerque, facing northeast.


Start of 2nd day, mid morning headed west out of Albuquerque.


Stopping for rest just across the Arizona border.


Snowcapped mountains east of Flagstaff.


George & Co enjoying the view from the top, Grand Canyon, AZ.


The gang and Tim (I think).


What we drove 100 miles out of the way, and spent 20 bucks, to see.

Catch up to Speed, part 1

The McCarutham family photo (Clockwise from top left: me, Kase, Drew, Kyle, Maelie, Emily)

Ollie in full puppy pounce mode.










Kasey's going away cake from Clark High School, San Antonio, Tx, where she worked as a librarian for a year.












Kase and I in our Easter get-up (which no longer exists, thanks to some associate of the Hooter's Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, who felt it necessary to lighten our truck load for us).
















Maelie in an Easter basket, with some animals and a little garnish.






Our niece, Maelie McKillip, was born on April 11th, just a few short days before we packed up and left Tejas. We Got on the road from Fort Worth on the 22nd of April, took 287 up to the 40 in Amarillo, and rode that to Albuquerque the first day. The next morning we woke up around 6 AM Mountain time and crossed Arizona. We made a few detours by the Lowell Observatory (accidentally) in Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, and the Hoover Dam. We spent our 2nd and 3rd nights in Las Vegas. On the morning of the 25th, we awoke to the surprise of having a few things stolen out of our truck, which was parked in the valet lot in the Hooters Hotel and Casino. With our tail between our legs, we hobbled down the 15 to Barstow, caught the 58 thru the rest of the Mojave thru Bakersfield and eventually caught the 5. Took that up to the 46, around the James Dean Memorial Curve in Lost Hills, and caught the 101 in Paso Robles. 100 miles up to Salinas (Spreckels exit, actually) and the 68 down to Monterey. It took us a few days to find a place to live, but luckily I have some good friends, John and Mary, and Kyle in Fresno, who put us up a few days until the lease was signed. Thanks to our Renter's Insurance policy, most if not all of the stolen goods will be replaced at no cost to us.

A Few Good Pics of the New Place

Our new place in CA
Down by the fire
Ollie doing what she does best
George and I relaxing after a hard day's unpacking.

Genesis

0920 Pacific Time, Monterey, CA.
I created this blog in order to post some dumb comment about my neice's umbilical cord falling out on my sister-in-law's blog. In order to accomplish this, I had to create a blog. Stupid red tape! I was planning on starting one anyway; its relatively cheap and something to do. It will be a big step if I post with any frequency