Today however I woke up and decided to upgrade my fire pit in the backyard.

See I had this fire ring for years and it did fine, but I always wanted more. Wanted it to look a lot better.

I went to Lowes and Home Depot and found some stones that were suitable for the project at only $1.88 each.

I got 45 and ended up only using 40.

The most important part is to get your base ring nice and level then the rest just falls right into place.

Here are the results.

We had a blast aboard the Carnival Triumph. This ship was HUGE! For starters this ship costs a whopping $420 Million to create and it showed. Let me tell ya this thing was 893 feet long, 143 feet tall, has 13 decks, huge show lounge for their awesome shows that can hold up to 1400 people, 6 dance/sing/nightclubs, 4 dining rooms, oh man the list goes on. They have 1100 crew members and it can whisk away 2758 passengers of on the vacation of a lifetime. You can seriously get lost on this massive vessel.

We embarked on our 7 day cruise from the port of New Orleans on a Saturday.  We slowly cruised down the Mississippi river all night until we reached the mouth where it empties into the ocean. From there we sailed for 2 days or 936 miles to our first stop, Belize.

For the two days we were at see, we spent time lounging on the lido deck soaking in the sun, ate food, explored the ship, ate food,  took in some shows, ate food, worked out in the gym, ate food, and so on.

First stop Belize.

While at Belize we did a Land rover and Cave Expedition. When we got to Belize we left the dock in a smaller boat that held about 20 people and we cruised at a moderate pace down the Sibun river. Videos and more after the jump.

We made our way down the river to a camp where the very very old Land rover vehicles awaited us. We then got our own vehicle and cruised down the back roads of Belize to some another spot where we would get out and cross a long rope bridge and into some old Mayan caves. In the damp caves we saw lots of bats and other interesting things.

So that was our first exploration day.

Next stop Isle of Roatan (Honduras)

In Roatan Honduras we bussed to a location called Fantasy Island. Google Earth it here.

Here we did a Shipwreck Snorkel Adventure. They took us by boat about 250 yards out to sea from a gazebo, where they dropped us off and we swam back snorkeling over a shipwreck that was about 60 feet or so below us. It was awesome and we loved it there on Fantasy Island. We may go back one day to stay for a while. I had some underwater pictures that did not turn out so well so I didn’t attache them to this post. Our guide took us on a  stroll around the island to look at the monkeys and other wild life. It was great.

Here is a picture of the entire place.

Here is distance best I could configure from the gazebo to the drop off point.

When we arrived on Fantasy Island

Our Tour Guide David, luring the monkeys down from the trees

Monkey on the beach. They are everywhere.

The wildlife on Roatan.

Next stop Cozumel.

At Cozumel Mexico we didn’t take many pictures at all. We did a Clear Kayak and Snorkel Adventure. Yes we love to Snorkel!

The Kayak was a clear as a water bottle, I like to think of it as the Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, it was like that. You could see clear to the bottom. We made a big loop around the beach and then later we snorkeled in about 30 feet of water.

Here is a summary our good times on the Carnival Triumph and all three destinations set to music

We had a great time and and the staff and everyone on board the Carnival Triumph were amazing.

I definitely would recommend a cruise to everyone. There is soo much to do on and off the ship, you will need a vacation after you get back from vacation.

I wrote about them on www.instructables.com to share what I did with others much like I do here.

Check it out

How to make sturdy umbrella stands for under $15 – More DIY How To Projects

Wow your deck is huge!(that’s what she said) but no seriously it is. We decided to make it like we wanted it now rather than add on to it later.

The pool is a 24′ round Sand Dollar II with a 7 foot deep end. The deck is hard to give dimensions on but its just friggin large as you will see in the pictures and videos in this post.

The backyard is a never ending project and it seems that there is always something to do, but I love it. Its like my own backyard oasis. I love staying busy doing things out there.

For years I have pushmowed the yard and thought “man it sure would be nice to cut and go right into a pool for a swim”. Well now I can and have done so!

Next on my list of things to do is to get some night time lighting on the deck. After that I need to work on some tunes for the deck. I am thinking marine speakers and some place to plug in mp3 players and iphones.

Oh and just so you all know, I did not build this deck….so you cannot book me for work haha. Kevin Craig at KevinsCustomDecks built this awesome deck. He is local to North Central Mississippi. I am not going to publish his contact information here on the web, but if you are serious about having a deck built contact me and I will release and email address where he can be reached.

Here is a video from atop the house.

Here is a video of a quick walk around the deck

I don’t even remember much of April other than the swimming pool was completed and at the end of the month the deck project began.

May is always a busy busy month for us somehow every year, partly due to Visions. Starting off in May was the Grenada High School Visions Spring Show called One Moment More where it was about music from the past decade in movies. Here is a video of Justin performing Folsom Prison Blues.

After that it was time to move forward trying to get the deck complete before Graduation so that we could have a Birthday/Graduation pool party.

This didn’t quite go as planned with bad weather popping up often.  We did manage to have a party at the end of the month, but I will get to that later.

So graduation was looming, and I wanted to get the backyard done up real nice. I decided that I wanted me some stones in the backyard leading up to the deck steps. Some really really large stones. I thought about busted up concrete like from a sidewalk or something. I had a friend that suggested to me that he had some that I could have for free. I drove all the way to Ackerman, MS to find out that the stones were gone. The leftovers were too large anyways. I would have had to dig up ground, a lot of ground to put them in place. Lot of backbreaking work.

I then looked to local garden centers for some stone and found some nice ones. Some Arkansas Field Stone. Problem was that it was $260 for a pallet that only contained about 8 stones, and really they were not large enough to suit me. I had a ways to go with them.

Always thinking the hard way around something, I found my solution. I will mix up concrete or mortar in a wheelbarrow, then plop it out onto the ground creating my own stone, shaping it at random. Then imprint it with another stone, and color it up later with stain.

I did a few and it turned out to be exactly what I wanted. Problem now was the stone that I was using to imprint with was too heavy, so I looked to the internet rockmolds.com and purchased me a rubber stamp that looked like lava stone. This was the ticket!

Here is a video of what they look like.

Not quite done with them yet. I have several to make right below the steps on one side of the deck.

Feels damn good when your ideas become reality.

Here is a shot of the pool from underwater. I took this with my camera in a ziplock baggie.

Here is me jumping into the pool with the camera then I think I saw a leak in the baggie

Then came Graduation. Went really well. The boy graduated and ready to go off to school.

We had planned on having a party that weekend but the deck steps were not complete and weather was wet. We managed to pull it off the following weekend that rolled around and it went well. The shrimp boil was ON! Delicious! Goodtimes! Pics to come later if I feel like it.

Here is a gallery of some of the images from April/May.

As you can see…been busy.

I think maybe in the future I will write once a week like a digest of whats been going on… I dunno…maybe.

I guess to catch you up real fast starting with the latest while its fresh on my mind, I will start with a movie that I saw last night.

I went to the local theater here to see To Save A Life. I gotta say I was BLOWN away by this movie. It was simple film making at its best with several very powerful messages in for all ages.

I am gonna take a moment to rip off  IMDB.com and show you the full synopsis of the movie and possibly spoiling some of it for you but trust me you need to see this movie.

The film tells the story of Jake Taylor, a young man who has it all: a basketball scholarship, the ideal girlfriend, and the right friends. But faced with the demands of the in-crowd, Jake has written off his childhood best-friend, Roger. Isolated and mistreated, Roger finally takes his anger to the extreme when he shows up one day on campus with a gun.

Jake’s last-ditch effort cant stop Roger, and the events which follow rock Jake’s world. He begins to question everything, but most of all, he cant stop asking: Could I have saved Roger?

In his search for answers, Jake finds himself looking for the next Roger. He reaches out to geeks, losers, and loners. But crossing the strict high school caste lines threatens everything Jake values. And pushes him to answer the most important question of all: What do I want my life to be about?

This film doesn’t shy away from the real struggles facing our teens.. It is rated PG-13 because it portrays some of these issues accurately: from teen sexuality, to abortion, to cutting, to drug and alcohol abuse, to suicide.

But because it does so, teens are praising this film for its realistic and relevant portrayal of their world and responding enthusiastically to its message. As teen author and speaker Zach Hunter comments: It conveys the raw emotions of life and the ups and downs of high school My friends who have seen the film are already talking about it and encouraging others to go see it.

A must see for all teenagers and parents.

See the trailer here

Ok…moving on. I have been BAD sick last week with the flu or a severe chest cold. I manage to pull through it and just have a  minor weezing cough right now that fading day by day.

While I was sick I managed to start a few new top secret web projects, so you will to stay tuned for those.

I also managed to watch several good movies at home.

THE ROAD

FLASH OF GENIUS

PERFECT GETAWAY

The Road, I got to see an advanced copy of this. It was well…bleak. Very sad. Its about a boy and his father and their struggle to survive in a post apocalyptic world.

Flash of Genius was a very good movie based on the true story of Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper and how FORD Motor Company stole his idea.  He later battles FMC in court and wins, but don’t let these simple sentences stop you from checking this movie out, as you will never look at your wipers the same again. Good flick!

The Perfect Getaway was a movie that I expected to be very scary or suspenseful but it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong it was a GREAT movie. This is one of those who dun it movies and you will never guess, not in a miiiillliiiooonnnn years. Watch it!

That’s all for now, I’m tired of writing and I am sure you are tired of reading.

I will try to post more soon.

Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away

By: Kitty Werthmann

What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books.

I believe that I am an eyewitness to history.  I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.  We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote..  I’ve never read that in any American publications.  Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.

In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression.  Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed.  We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily.  Young people were going from house to house begging for food.  Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.  My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need.  Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.

The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other.  Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna , Linz , and Graz were destroyed.  The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted.
We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany , where Hitler had been in power since 1933.  We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.  Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group — Jewish or otherwise.  We were led to believe that everyone was happy.  We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family.  Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.  Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades.  The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.

After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order.  Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed.  The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women.  Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home.  An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family.  Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education – Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children:
Our education was nationalized.  I attended a very good public school.  The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore.  Instead, we sang “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,” and had physical education.

Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance.  Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum.  They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time.  The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.  The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination.  The rest of the day we had sports.  As time went along, we loved it.  Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.  We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.

My mother was very unhappy.  When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent.  I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful.  There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination.  I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it.  Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home.  I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.  Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me.  They lived without religion.  By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.  It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly.  As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home:
In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established.  All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps.  At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

Soon after this, the draft was implemented.  It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps.  During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.  They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps.  After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.  When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.  Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack.  I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare:
When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.  You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government.  The state raised a whole generation of children..  There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology.  By this time, no one talked about equal rights.  We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls:
Before Hitler, we had very good medical care.  Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna .  After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone.  Doctors were salaried by the government.  The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.  If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn.  There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine.  Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income.  Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household.  We had big programs for families.  All day care and education were free.  High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized.  Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.

We had another agency designed to monitor business.  My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.  Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners.  Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar.  He couldn’t meet all the demands.  Soon, he went out of business.  If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.

We had consumer protection.  We were told how to shop and what to buy.  Free enterprise was essentially abolished.  We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers.  The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“Mercy Killing” Redefined:
In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps .  The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.  So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded.  When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.  I knew one, named Vincent, very well.  He was a janitor of the school.  One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.  I asked my superior where they were going.  She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write.  The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.  They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.

As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death.  The villagers were not fooled.  We suspected what was happening.  Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months.  We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps – Gun Laws:
Next came gun registration..  People were getting injured by guns.  Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns.  Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms.  Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns.  The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

No more freedom of speech.  Anyone who said something against the government was taken away.  We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.

Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria .  Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath.  Instead, we had creeping gradualism.  Now, our only weapons were broom handles.  The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.

After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria .  Women were raped, preteen to elderly.  The press never wrote about this either.  When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process.  They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn’t destroy, they burned.  We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses.  Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized.  Those who couldn’t, paid the price.  There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians.  This is an eye witness account.

“It’s true..those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away
“After America , There is No Place to Go”

So Valentines Day is fast approaching. Have you given much thought as to what to get your sweetie?

I took the liberty of shopping at my favorite “find it all” site amazon.com and provided you with links to gifts for HIM and for HER.

Enjoy.

Valentine’s Day Gifts for Her

Valentine’s Day Gifts for Him

Before you get started read this several times. I have had some get confused and omit the Italian dressing, and even boil the tuna from the start. First of all the Italian dressing is the most important part to the flavor, second I only add the tuna at the end and let it sit in the water for about 1 minute to get it all warm.

I call it Tuna Deluxe. Its Tuna with Pasta, throw some peas of some sort in there for the fiber, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT PART add Italian Dressing and lots of pepper with a dash of salt. Some all the tuna and pasta meal the prison meal cause they say its what a lot of inmates eat in the “joint” to get huge. If it works for them hopefully it will work for me, and its delicious to boot! I would pay for what this meal I am about to teach you to create.

Thank me later. (or now)

Ok you will need the following:

• A pot to boil water in, mine is a 1 1/2 quart or maybe its 2.
• 2 cans of chunk light tuna in water, drained
• 2 1/2 cup of uncooked wide egg noodles
• 1/2 can of chickpeas or any peas for that matter. I like chickpeas, but purple hull peas or crowder peas work well too.
• 3/4 cup Italian Dressing
• Salt and lots of Pepper

Ok here is all our ingredients we will be using. Listen to me real quick. This may sound disgusting and even look disgusting but trust me, if you like pasta, you like tuna, you like Italian dressing…you will like this.

Ok boil your water, add the pasta, and yes I know it seems like a lot, but HEY we gotta feed those muscles!
When cooking noodles you can add a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to keep it from boiling over.
Cook it for about 7 minutes or until tender but not gummy. We want out pasta to have a little bit of strength to it. Its know as Al Dente.

I like to add my peas into the mix before the boil so that they are nice and warm. I just cook it all right in, no need for extra dishes to dirty up.
I know this might look a little nasty, but trust me it will be great in the end. As you can see in this picture I have added half a can of purple hull peas.
I did not have any chickpeas, so the purple hull will have to do. The Tuna is open and ready to go in later. Yes it gets grosser.

Now everything has boiled up pretty good now, the pasta is just about right and now I have added all my tuna.
I only add the tuna right at the end. It does not sit in there the entire time.
I add it and let it sit in the water for about 1 minute to get warm, then drain it all.
I do it this way so that it will all be nice and warm and no separate dishes to wash.

After a little while I drained everything in a strainer and put it back in the pot.
Here we have peas, pasta, and tuna.

Now lets add the Italian Dressing. I usually use 3/4 to 1 full cup with this much pasta.

Doh! Lets not forget the pepper! I add about 3 tablespoons of pepper. I aint skeered! I like it just a little spicy.
I like to know I AM ALIVE ! Just stir it on in there big boy. Don’t cry.

Look at that right there. That’s some muscle food right there son!
Trust me, unless you are a hawg, you will have a little left over in the pot for a midnight snack.

Trust me it looks better in person and taste marvelous.  Now go cook some!

Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call.

Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty,that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant.

Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen. The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado.

This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Check it out here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

And here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp