Comparing the Times...

HOLY COW....er I mean Water Buffalo!!!

I knew I was tough!

28

Take the quiz and see how good you are!

Holy Cow, the Whopper is gone!!!

A BIG BIG FISHY, CAUGHT AT THE BEACH!!!

It all started one dreary day, last Saturday the 28th of July, when there was a question as to whether or not we should actually make the trip to the beach to try to fish, even though there was one huge line of thunderstorms moving up the Texas coast directly towards Freeport and Surfside. Throwing caution to the wind, the decision was made to go headlong into what promised to be a sloppy, wet fishing trip. We ended up bringing home 2 barely keeper blacktips, after finding out that they feed on hardhead catfish cut-bait, along with a couple good gafftops. All in all a great trip.

While consuming this shark and catfish, a call was placed to a well known member of the family, who resides in San Antonio. Upon being informed of the deliciousness of said shark, he/she (identity withheld to protect the innocent) informed us that he/she knew of some guys who, when fishing for big sharks, would use a technique, till this point unbeknownst to us, of hooking on a second fishing pole to the first pole and releasing the first pole as the line is stripped almost completely. This gives the fishermen a second and, if necessary, a third reel of line. We would like to extend a hearty THANK YOU to that special family member because without that info, this would be the end of the tale. We l**e you very much anonymous family member, God bless you!

Now.............the rest of the story.

Monday arrived and words of a second fishing trip swirled in the air. After a few moments of contemplation, schedules were rearranged and plans were changed to make time for a shark fishing trip on Tuesday, knowing full well that we might have to settle for bringing in some gafftops, red, or black drum as well. We were more than willing to deal with those issues, as they arose.

Tuesday morning alarms sounded and Jayden was more than ready to hit the surf with Ryan and I. As we exited Lake Jackson we stopped at the Whataburger, ordered our burgers and struck up a conversation with a gentleman sporting an old 'Rock 101' t-shirt. He asked where we were going to fish and we told him down at Surfside going after some shark. He was very informative and told us that we ought take beach access number ** or ** and drive down a few hundred yards to fish. We already intended to take the first one he mentioned, because that is where we caught the earlier fish. We decided to try the other access road he suggested and got down 2-3 hundred yards to park.

The morning fish started great with Jayden hauling in the first fish of the day, a 25 inch hammerhead shark, while Ryan was still rigging up the rest of the rods. "Man, was this a sign?", we thought. Throughout the day, it was gafftop and blacktip galore, with a few hardheads strewn in for bait's sake. 2:40pm arrived and all of us manned our stations. While I worked at baiting rods and Ryan was out casting one, I looked over at the farthest pole and it took a deep bow to the ocean. I quickly hollered at Jayden to come reel in the fish and we both charged through the knee deep water towards the pole. After I set the hook, I handed the pole to Jayden. She began pumping on the reel with reckless abandon and managed to bring in the behemoth 50 feet against his will. The muscles in her little arms and chest began to fill with excess amounts of lactic acid, and she relunctantly asked Daddy to take over. With flowing blonde locks of 3/8" hair and piercing blue eyes the fight shifted into 5th gear. As I fought to save precious yardage on the reel I managed to yell over to Ryan with the universal signal for 'big fish', which was my right arm extended as far to the right as possible, since my left arm was occupied with the reel. Being the adept and knowlegeable fisherman that he is Ryan, 100 yards away, quickly realized the extent of the situation and rushed, without concern for his safety, headlong towards me to serve as re-enforcement, armed with what ended up being a useless and unnecessary 3 ft landing net. As the fish repeatedly took yards of line at will, it became apparent that without our newly gained knowledge of the previously mentioned big shark fighting technique, this fight was soon going to be over. With precious feet to spare, Ryan raced back to the truck and assembled a, as of yet unproven, steel leader connection. Second pole in hand and rippling muscles abound, Ryan stormed back into the chest deep waters of the seaside surf, just in time to thread said connection through the base of my reel. Not long after this it became necessary to release my pole into the blue depths, not knowing if I would ever see it again. The pole shot through the water like a white torpedo. The fish, with a new sense of freedom, stripped many yards of line off of Ryan's reel. With a white knuckle grip on the pole, Ryan continued the fight the beast for nearly the next hour. He recovered my rod after much rod pumping and I licked my chops for another round against goliath. Within the next hour, we sighted what looked to us like a huge stingray wingflap 100 yards out. Our hearts sunk with disappointment as we began to discuss recipes for stingray scallops the size of truck tires, instead of big, thick shark steaks. With sweat dripping from our brows, we decided to continue and it was another half hour before another sighting 50 yards off revealed that we were indeed fighting a razor toothed man-eater. A clearly visible shark body strolling in the surf waves caused our hearts to again jump with joy. After quite a few more minutes of my heated battle, and much documentation by camera, Ryan sank his meat claws around the fencepost sized tail, and drug the now whooped monster ashore. Many high-fives and loud yelling ensued. When the hoopla subsided, the picture posing began and contined for another 10 minutes, at least. The carcass was then loaded aboard the truck, iced down and hauled 50 miles inland, where the real work began. After two hours of back breaking, fish cleaning labor, enough shark steak and gafftop fillets were bagged to be able to feed an entire Somali village for a week.

The trio of shark killers, sun baked, wind burned, and smelling like dead fish, finally got a chance to shower off and recuperate. When it was all said and done, Ryan and I talked about the next time we hook into some big SOB like that again. Cut the line and tell a bigger fish story than this, or bring the bastard in anyway? hmmmm, let us think. Enough thinking, he's freezer meat, damn the torpedoes.

It should be noted that a total of ten gafftop catfish, ranging in size from 15 to 24 inches, one hammerhead, and a (UPDATE: 1 blacktip shark, and 1 Bull Shark) were brought home. The blacktip was a mere 2 foot long. We only failed to mention it up to this point because, you know, we catch em every trip we go after em, hehe. Oh, and if you hadn't figured it out yet, the unidentified family member was Thad. Thanks, brotha.

the baby finaly came

You wanna know why kidney stones are so painful. That's a whole quarter of an inch, boy! Passed at 6:08p, 7/10/07. Kinda takes after it's mother. Notice the fine razor like jagged edges. Nine months to deliver a baby....please. I spent two and a half months with this sucker slicing all the way from my kidney to my toilet. Three weeks of it's journey was spent visiting my prostate. Not one minute of the whole ordeal, did it let me forget that it was there.

That's why it's called a pig trap

I figured you all would get a kick out this pic. Notice there are four in the trap and one outside of the trap. If you ever set the trap be sure to carry a gun with you because, more often than not, the other members of the herd will hang and not leave their comrades. They can attack as you approach their panicing buddies in the trap.

JAYDEN LOST HER 1ST BABY TOOTH!!!!!

Jayden just lost her 1st baby tooth!!! She's so HAPPY and I am so glad that it's out, she was hurting but was a big girl through out the pulling. She has a few more that aren't to far behind this one. Hope everyone's doing good and staying cool. Love to all,Margaret

Uncle Chris' New Blog

Go check out my new blog. It will have an assortment of articles and comments on varying subjects, like politics, health and whatever else I decide to post.


The blog is called, 'The Uncle Chris Blog'. Catchy ain't it? The address is http://theunclechrisblog.blogspot.com


Adios amigos see ya there
Uncle chris

How to get to Ryan's Graduation, CLICK HERE

UPDATE: The graduation already happened, don't go to Huntsville now. You are too late and we had a great time. Pics will be posted asap. Eldon

Here are the general directions to Ryan's Graduation. It starts at 2:00pm, and I haven't heard of anyplace where we can all meet, exept maybe outside the Coliseum around 12:30 or 1:00?

If you are coming South on Interstate 45, you need to exit at Montgomery Rd and turn left, if you are going North on I-45, you also need to exit Montgomery Rd, but turn Right.

Now that we got all the Northerners and Southerners at the same intersection, follow Montgomery Rd. all the way until you T into Bowers Blvd.(a good ways) Here turn left towards the Coliseum, the big ROUND BLACK bldg. and park in the parking lot that is to the right, before getting to the Coliseum. That is, unless a police occifer makes you do something else, then you need to do what he says.
Eldon

HERE IS THE GOOGLE MAPS LINK TO THE CAMPUS AND COLISEUM -

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&q=sam+houston+state+university&oe=UTF-8&t=h&om=0&ll=30.712434,-95.545135&spn=0.009704,0.019312&z=15

Retirement will be sooooo sweet

Everyone should be getting their invitations in the mail within the next couple of days. Two Sundays from now I will be officially retired. Kimberly will be graduating. Tonight she received her President's Education Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. We are so proud of her. Thank you to everyone who has supported the kids and have given them words of encouragement all along. She will be taking the first summer session off and begin college the second session in order to get a head start.

That is President George Bush's signature

Ryan is getting his Master's Degree

Hey all,
We forgot to post the fact that Ryan was getting confirmed this Sunday, but Ryan asked me to post this as your invitation to his Master's Graduation Ceremony in Huntsville on Saturday May 12th. It is at 2:00pm, but if you want to know where to go beforehand, call Ryan so you can get in line on his voicemail, hopefully it won't be full, hehe.
There is a big BBQ planned afterwards with a couple of Ryan's friends and our respective families.
We have horseshoes covered, but if you have any other games you might want to play, bring them. Talk at ya laterz, Eldon

New Brewer family member in Houston

APOLLO

(Lita's new boyfriend)

Meet the newest addition to the family, Apollo. He is an 83 lb. HOSS of a dog, and he'd just as soon tear your leg off as look at ya. Ok, just kidding. He is actually just the biggest, most solidly muscled teddy bear that you've ever laid your eyes on and he would really rather crawl up in your lap and lay his head on your chest than tear your leg off. The petsmart vet estimated him to be about 7 yrs old, but I think he very well could be nearer to 8-9. We adopted him from a friend who found him on the street but couldn't find the owner for 2 months. He was going to have to take him to the shelter because he and his girlfriend live in a small apt and didn't have room for a horse sized dog. Thankfully, he is nearly as well-behaved and disciplined than Lita and gets along great with the kids, and the cat.

Easter in Houston

And presenting, The Three BucketHeads.(TBH) 'Professional Egg Hunters extraordinaire'

I know what you're thinking, and YES, the Easter Bunny DID hide them that good!

How 'bout that, an egg HIDDEN inside an egg carton. That EB was a GENIUS, I tell ya.

'Sniffle, Sniffle' "Dada, I only found HALF the eggs. Could you show me where the OTHER HALF is?

Thank God the rain let up for a little bit, all we had was 39 degree weather, brrrrrrrrrrrr.

Cool Idea

Thank God, Thank God

for all of you who may have been out of the loop and didn't get the news, Birkhead is the father, thank God, the world will sleep better tonight, thank God...

How Snow Came To Fall In Texas 2007

In this instance the "out of the ordinary" weather pattern is a direct result of the global warming trend caused by George W. Bush and the cattle on his Crawford Ranch. As Al Gore explained it, the lack of rainfall throughout Texas, preceding this climactic change, resulted in below average hay production for the entire southern region. Consequently, the wicked conservative President Bush, in an attempt to save money, the very same money that he received from his evil cronies at Halliburton in exchange for Iraqi blood, resorted to teaching his cattle to gulp mouthfuls of air so to fill their starving bellies and defer the dreadful hunger pains until beneficial rainfall would come. As a result, millions of little methane fart bubbles were created inside of the hungering cattle and the precarious first steps of what would cause snowfall in Texas on Easter weekend 2007, were taken. For months the cattle’s methane flatulent stale stink hung over Crawford and the surrounding countryside. As the horrid gasses ascended into the fragile atmosphere methane poopie ice crystals started to form. The abnormal ice crystals had the ability to convert normal ice crystals into evil misshapen stinky conservative methane snow crystals. The great conservative conspiracy had started and there was no stopping the enormous evil stinky conservative methane snow crystals from enveloping the entire sky over Crawford, then Texas, then the entire world… ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (evil laugh). All was thought to be lost,until wait, what is that, what is that sound, it sounds like a tweet tweet, tweet tweet, peeter peeter, hiccup cough, oooh, thank God or Allah or Buda or Jehovah or any other divinity whom you may worship or if you are Atheist we are heart fully sorrow for having offend you by the aforementioned deities, it is Al Gore coming to the rescue. As he stepped out of his pink rice burning hybrid Volkswagen a single tear streamed down his face and fell, but before it hit the ground it was sucked up into the sky, into the greedy evil stinky conservative methane snow cloud attempting to vacuum and convert all precious liquids into evil stinky conservative methane snow. However, because the tear was pure and released from a pure eye as a result of heartfelt suffering from seeing the harmful effects of conservative evil greed, the tear was able to stop the evil stinky conservative methane snow cloud and force it to fall back to mother earth harmlessly somewhere north of Huntsville. The End.

Damn this Global Warming to Hell

I guess Gore and those other libbies are correct about the man-made Global Warming Fireball of DOOM. Ryan's friend, Anna sent this undeniable evidence from her family's house this Easter weekend. And yes this is in TEXAS, just north of Huntsville, in fact. You better thank God that it wasn't us putting the banana on the snowman, hehehe. Think about that one while we go get the sunshields out of the closet to fend off this infernal heatwave.

HAVE A HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Rocky Jr. has his 2nd All Out Sparring Match

In preparation for the Laredo Tournament, at the end of the month, Michael got to step into the ring again this evening. His first fight, Novice on Novice, was too easy. Michael dominated the guy even though they were at the same level. He was too fast and hit too hard for the other guy to have a chance. This evening Michael's instructor tipped the scales in the other direction. The Amateur fighter he fought was 6'2 with a definate reach and experience advantage. He should have won hands down. This is the first time that Michael has gotten hit with serious intent to do harm. He has some battle wounds, but the "Amateur" realized early in the first round that he has some practicing to do. It's easy to hold your head up with a black eye when the professional fighters at the gym tell you that you did a good job.

When we got home, momma was slightly upset and demanded that Michael stop boxing. He'll be sparring again next week. I'll try to get some video.

I read that we had a template change....

I don't know..... I think I would like more color or pictures or funny little videos of kittens pouncing on unsuspecting puppies up in the top corner or something more than just plain blue.

I realize the template change took place only because it allows for the addition of the Fox News link at the bottom, which allows you to push your right-wing, ultra-conservative values on the rest of the family. To be really, so called, "Fair and Balanced" you should offer us a link to the Al-Jazeera "Fatwa for All" website. It tells the real story, not the Bush propaganda machine version. It also offers the interested reader insightful tidbits such as, "How To Wear Your Head Scarf in a Sand Storm," or "Color Coordinating Your Camel for the Spring Season." I don't know about you, but I hate a mismatched camel.

Update (and the cold, dead body...)

We're doing well here. Looks like we'll be moving back to the States in the summer, so that should be nice. :) Closer to the fam and all that. Henry is growing so quickly that I can't keep track of how old he is! (six months as of yesterday!) He has two teeth, a quick smile and the sweetest little voice ever.

Those of you with more than one: are you just awed over again with the second/third/fourth one? I imagine so, but I just can't see how it gets more amazing than this.... :)

We love him to pieces and we've only known him for six months! ;)

Photos at www.robandmel2001.myphotoalbum.com

Now, a quick note about Lenin's cold, dead body... you aren't allowed to take cameras into the pit which is Lenin's tomb. BUT, because they are so concerned with phototakers, you must have your hands where the guards can see them at all times. Not that I figured this out before I put my hands in my pockets. Noooooo...I had to have a guard come out of the shadows and touch me on the arm before I understood. Nothing like looking at a dead body and having some unseen person reach out for you. I almost wet my pants....

Hi everyone! Jessica is three months old, already. She rolled over on Sunday, onto her tummy. Can y'all believe that? She is growing up so fast, just like all the rest of us. Katharine is 2, and is fully potty-trained. She doesn't even wet in the bed. Thankfully! She tries to dance like a ballerina, so when she turns 3, we are going to put her in a dance class. David just turned 4, on March 21. He can't wait to go to school. He already knows how to write all the letters, and is learning numbers now. He can write his name and Noah's name by himself. He is also very artistic. Which he must have inherited from Josh, because he didn't get it from me. Noah is 5 already. He is doing really good at school. He is playing soccer now. He had his very first game on Saturday. He scored one goal, and was in the action, being aggressive the whole time he played.

Template Change

Hey everybody who still visits but doesn't post anything, including me, hehe. I have changed the template on the blog so we could be able to do some additional stuff, like move elements on the page around and such.

It's not like anyone is gonna read this anytime soon anyway, so I don't know why I write this, ho-hum.

Oh and Mel/Rob, where are the pics of Lenin's cold dead body?

I See Dead People (aka Our Visit to Lenin's Tomb)

Yesterday marked the beginning of our last weekend here in Moscow. Since we hadn't hit the major sights, we set out at 9:30 in the morning with two of Rob's colleagues. The weather was glorious: 37 whole degrees. Farenheit. It's amazing how quickly our perspective on warm has changed. What, no snow? It's toasty out!

Back to our outing. First stop: Lenin's tomb.

Karl and Petra watched Henry while Rob and I saw one of Moscow's most unique attractions. Kindly enough, there is no admission charged for this creepy activity. Instead, you progress single file down stairs into the marble mausoleum. The entire structure is red and black marble, and as you enter the chamber where he lies in-state, you find yourself in a room illuminated only by the red highlighting and the lights on his body. It's like something out of a movie. Very surreal.

There are questions about whether or not Lenin will be buried at some point. At the moment, they have to touch up his make-up every few days. But then, when a man's been dead for eighty years, a little touch-up now and then is never a bad thing.

From there we went to the Arbat, an historical part of Moscow with many small shops and booths. The weather turned then while we were having lunch, and we decided to head to a museum and then home again. The museum is actually quite close to our apartment, and I have passed it on numerous occasions without knowing what it was. It was a nice detour, and I found a new artist to love: Vereshchagin. His paintings are so exact many truly look like photographs.

After the museum, it was time to head back to our apartment and talk to the folks at home. We had had a full day of walking this enormous city centre, and our families? They were just waking up....

February 22, 2007

Houston, we have a .... tooth?

Go figure. We are watching for red gums, swollen gums, a grouchy child....Not really happening here. For the last day, Henry's been a little out of sorts, but no typical signs. Today, I gave him one of those freezable caterpillars that babies chew when they are teething, and he was happy. I thought, "Good! Maybe he's starting to teethe." He took it out of his mouth and I noticed a tiny bit of blood--I think Henry's cutting his first tooth! :) Unless he was able to find something to cut his gums in the same way a tooth would, I think we'll being seeing at least one pearly white sometime soon!

Photo on the way, if we can manage to get one!

March 3, 2007

Toothwatch Update:

We spent last weekend in St. Petersburg and this weekend touring around Moscow, and now it looks like instead of one tooth, Henry is cutting both of his lower middle teeth! Not full teeth yet, but edges like razor--yeow!

At any rate, he is doing well. He's starting to sleep better and isn't fussy as much. Sniff, he's growing up so fast.... :S

That's about it from here. We'll post some tourist stuff in a bit, but right now, Henry's dental developments are our top story!

Still working on the photos... :)

Blog update: Russia

As you all know by now, on September 28, 2006, Rob and I welcomed Henry Grayson Macalik into our family! Henry is named for Rob's great-grandfather (Henry) and Uncle Virgil (middle name Grayson), and Rob and I feel blessed to have two well-loved, well-respected men to name him after. Overall, he's just delightful and we adore him! His sweet disposition and easy nature have made the strange sleeping hours and the drool-stained clothes worthwhile. It's tough work to be a parent, though, so it has been a bit since we updated!

The fall was a blur with Henry's birth in September and visits from grandparents. I want to say, though, that I really, really appreciated your encouragement! Knowing that you all were excited for us and thinking about/praying for us was fantastic. Eldon, if you will tell Margaret how much her note about the c-section meant to me, I'd appreciate it. It was helpful to have her support and encouragement in that unexpected situation!

The rest of our fall included some preliminary travelling to prepare us for the flight home at Christmas. Before going trans-atlantic, Henry had already visited Paris, France, Boleslawiec, Poland, and Dresden, Germany!

Our trip home for Christmas was for a good stretch of time but was still too short! The grandparents, I think, would agree! :) Henry, thankfully, was an angel on the plane! Ten and a half hours on the second part of our trip from Prague to Dallas, and Henry slept for, oh 25 minutes of it. Yes, I really did check my watch. But, the other ten hours and five minutes, he was talking to himself, gurgling, looking around the cabin...generally surprising the heck out of us.

As of now, Rob, Henry and I are in Moscow, Russia until mid-March. The Russian firm recruited help from the region for this busy season, so Henry and I have been watching the snow fall and trying to decipher the Cyrillic on the food labels. For the last two weekends, we've walked from our apartment to Red Square. It's quite an experience to stand in front of the Kremlin. We've yet to go into Lenin's Tomb, but I have a feeling that won't go unvisited!

Strangely, though there is little for us to do, this time is passing kind of quickly; we signed on for five weeks here, and we've already finished almost two! Our first week passed with little fanfare. The primary adventure was finding and getting to the American Medical Clinic because Henry had his first ear infection. The doctor was fabulous and very helpful. This week had passed with even less excitement until today when we had a chance to visit with a friend from Dallas who recently moved here and has a sweet new son as well. While they slept through their "playdate," we drank coffee and visited about this crazy life away from home.

I'll see if I can't post some pictures from here, but that may have to wait until we are back in Prague. (The weather in Prague, by the way, is "positively balmy" and here we are with snow falling as I type!) The photos from Christmas are in a new location. http://robandmel2001.myphotoalbum.com/

Until we update again, know that we miss you guys and would love to hear from you!

Hog Noodlin... The dangers of hunting on the river

Yup, you guessed it, he went straight into the river. My adrenalin was racing so fast I didn’t realize how cold the water really was until the shivering started. He sank like a rock so I had to barefoot it and dive until I found him, but I found him.

I know, I know...it's about time!

AAAArggggg!

I just wrote a whole long post about Henry and our lives and then lost it!

I'll try again in a bit.

Miss you guys!
Mel

Clippin' party at our house!

Momma Brutus

The “little ones,” will be getting un-professionally castrated tomorrow. I am the, “un-professional” and I just hope that everything comes out alright. Ha ha, get it? “Comes out alright,” I made a castration funny. Really though, I expect a lot of squealing and crying and then when I clip the piglets I’m sure they’ll carry on too. They are eating solid food and drinking water so they will now be taking up residence at the farm. Is it un-ethical to take a piglet to the stand with you, make it squeal every now and then, and then shoot any hog that comes to it’s distress call? Regardless, I now have four new hunting buddies. They will have to get along without Brutus though; Christina wouldn’t let me move him out with them. I have learned a lot from this whole ordeal. The most important thing I learned is that if you come across baby piglets in the wild, leave them be. Second, control you wife and keep her from doing anything other than saying, “oooh look at the cute little baby piglets.” Third, shoelaces make real good piglet starter food. Truthfully though, we have had a really enjoyable time with the piglets, but it is now time for them to become farm pigs. Pigs in the house is why I moved out of the college dormitory.

Pics from the family hunt

Sometimes it was cold... so cold we couldn't put our shoes on the right feet.

Just relaxin'

Momma???

Pigletts are loud...

This is the closest you can get to hearing a picture.

Additional additions to the family

While out working at the farm Chrissy and I walked into a herd of napping wild hogs. After Chrissy helped me down from the tree and I got a clean change of underware we realized all of the mommas ran off and left the babies hiding in a fallen tree. I promptly decided to become a pig farmer. I ran to the tree and grabbed a squealing piglett. Little did I realize Chrissy was also pouncing on her own victim. She brought me her prize and swiftly ran for another. Michael too took part in the melee and snatched a one eyed cripple piglett for the farming. After all was said and done we have four squealing, never sleeping, always wanting to be fed pains in my neck. Aww, but aren't they cute...

Addition to the family

We had our first calf. Well not we literally, but our cow Betsy had her first bouncing baby bull. Betsy and Midnight are doing fine.