Freebird!!!!!!! and some guy painting

Michael Jackson died on my birthday

Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon got upstaged in the death department this week. There is an urban legend where celebrities die in 3's. We knew that the third one was coming... who was it going to be? Walter Cronkite? Patrick Swayze Maybe? The "Power Of 3" says it is usually a surprise, and boy was it. Michael Jackson dead at 50.

Jackson and Fawcett died on the 25th.  5-2 = 3 . Strange huh?  Strange coincidence maybe...

Even when doctors find out why he died, I think Jackson will be like Elvis where followers don't believe he's dead and somehow is still alive somewhere.

KRMD on CMT! We're Insiders!

Check out KRMD this weekend on CMT Insider!  Hillary and I shot some video to send to them for the Hot Picks segment.  We give some shoutouts to Shreveport-Bossier and the Ark-la-tex!  Holla!

It's this weekend only!!  Here are the show times this weekend on CMT! 
Saturday 6-27-09
12:30pm
~and~
Sunday 6-28-09
10:00am central

Here are the outtakes!

Up! and down fall the tears

E.T. didn't phase me as a kid. When Rose let go of Jack in Titanic, nothing.   So I go see a kids movie this weekend, and not only do I bawl once... but the water works open up twice!?

What movie could possibly cause such emotional distress?  Up!  The new animated movie from Pixar. The movie gets you right in the beginning with a great 4 minute love story with no dialog that begins with the couple meet during childhood with a promise to move an old abandoned house which they used as a clubhouse to Paradise Falls one day, and throughout their life, they try and try, and finally when they are able to go, the wife gets sick and dies. ...and like rain..."Bwahhhhh! Why does she have to die!" It was sad, but a great set up story for the rest of the movie. The old man goes it alone and decides he'd rather escape and make a run for Paradise Falls than to go to some retirement home. So he attempts to move the old clubhouse, which is now their home with balloons! When he makes it to the falls my water falls opened up again!  It's a great movie, but be warned manly men!

I'm such a big wuss!   I'm not so sure why it touched me the way it did.  Thank goodness the 3D glasses hid my wimpy disposition that afternoon. I was so embarrassed, I didn't even tell my wife after the movie.

It's soooo hot!!

This week, the temperatures here in the Ark-La-Tex is supposed to reach 100 or better. It's already about 97 right now! Whoooo! So, It's time for the obligatory "It's So Hot..." jokes. Be click on comment below and leave your "Hot" jokes!
Here were today's callers jokes:

Here are some more responses from the Facebook peanut gallery!:
James Anthony at 2:41pm June 22
It's so hot...You discover that it takes only 2 fingers to drive your car.
Mark Meyers at 2:53pm June 22
It's so hot...I actually turned down sex this morning.
Holli Swartzwelder Nixon at 3:09pm June 22
it's so hot...I can't get these damn kids out of my house. Wait, that's not funny...
Tiff Foster at 4:00pm June 22
It's so hot...you learn that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron.
Nicky Sofyanos-sheppard at 4:46pm June 22
that i do NOT want to cook at all!!! i hate the heat here in texas.
Marissa Kurtz Carbine at 5:02pm June 22
It's so hot even my golf balls are sweating.

Nice bike

I'm the only Daddy who'll ride the line...

Watchout Dierks!

Australia has a bunch of deadly sea creatures off the coast.  Mainly the deadliest jellyfishes in the world!  The Irukandji and the Box jellyfish.  The Irukandji is about the size of a thumbnail, invisible, and will almost always kill you if you come into contact with it.  The Box jellyfish is second deadliest....They are ALL over the Australia coastlines.... and then Dierks Bentley goes surfing on a banned part of an Australian beach.  He was in Brisbane and probably in the safest part... but still.  Enjoy the video below.

You probably won't see me in the water of Australia anytime soon.  I like the ocean... not sure I want to be in that ocean!

T-Swizzle!

If you missed the opening rap with Taylor Swift and T-Pain from this last week's Tuesday's CMT Music Awards!  Word!

Check out the making of the "Thug Story" below!

I'm Prego too!

If you didn't know already, my wife and I are expecting child #3 in just a few months.  I have never felt more pregnant than this go round.  I'm moody, and I've gained, easily, 20 pounds in the past 6 months.

Today the next "male prego" stage hit: forgetfulness.  I can't remember people's names, extention numbers, or even what I was going to write about today on my blog.... oh that's right, forgetting I'm pregnant... um or something like that.  It's bad enough I can't keep my attention on something for more than a minute, add to that forgetting what I was supposed to be doing during that minute before I....  oooooh look at the butterfly out the window!

Weekend Inbox

I about feel out of my seat when I saw this in my email last week.  Thanks Bean!  This is from the Dan Reynolds Unwrapped cartoons.

But seriously....

Haven't been on a soapbox in a while... enjoy!

You can’t turn on the tv or open the paper without hearing about some sort of stimulus package or bailout .  Funds paid for by the American people for financial institutions and auto makers. What about the earmark on Obama’s stimulus package spending millions to build some water park in Arkansas?  I think that was a rumor, but I know you have said to at least once to a friend, “where’s my bailout?” 

There is one potential bailout that hasn’t been talked about even once that could have been paid for by now to bail us out directly: Bail us out of healthcare insurance!  It continues to be political suicide to talk about.  It’s taboo to say “Medicare for all,” yet you continue to put up with rising healthcare costs, dwindling coverage, and an insurance system that wastes 30% of each insurance dollar for things like paperwork just so they can “not” cover you when you get sick. 

Politicians aren’t going to touch this.  Why?  Because the big insurance companies pay big to help get them elected at fundraisers so they won’t talk about insurance alternatives.  We the people must stand up to the lobbyist and politicians and tell them to bail us out for once.  A healthcare bailout will instantly turn this economy around, by saving you thousands! 

We already have some basic needs paid for by this country by you and me, like the police and fire department, basic education, the library system to name a few.  There is one thing that continues to stay on the sidelines due to political pressure from big money insurance lobbyists: Healthcare for all Americans, paid for by Americans just like the police, and our schools.  This can be done and put lots of money back into your pocket, yet, still have the best healthcare in the world.  Think of it.  We would save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in insurance premiums per month in exchange for a small payroll tax.  What!?  Another tax!?  It makes sense though to save huge amounts of money in premiums to get better coverage and better healthcare no matter if you have a pre-existing condition.  This seems like a no brainer, but remember, politicians are not going to shoot themselves in the political foot by throwing a financial contributor under the bus.  Politicians lie and use words like "socialism" and "rationed healthcare" to scare you so they can get insurance company kickbacks to get elected again in a couple of years.

You shouldn’t have to go into bankruptcy to go to the doctor when you happen to get sick.  2/3 of all bankruptcies are medical related.  75% of those 2/3's had health insurance. 

There is a bill in congress now that is better than any other country’s “socialist universal health care.”  Even better than Canada!  Ha!  We, as a people, already pay for 60% of the healthcare in the U.S.  Let’s pick up the tab for the rest, and at the same time bail you out by putting money directly back into your pocket, not to mention not having to sell the farm when you get cancer.  Google “HR 676,” then hunt down your local politician and tell them to support this bill.  The plan is a private healthcare system paid for by the American people, run by the American people, not the government.  It would actually SAVE the United States money... therefore saving you money!

We should never see coffee cans at the convience store raising money for a 6 year old girl for cancer treatment.  This is one of the biggest human rights discrace in the U.S.!  It's one thing that really is worth paying for as a people, as a country.  Everybody in, nobody left out.

You are very welcome to leave your comments and opinions for, or against, below.

My blog is hairy!

Haven't done this post in a while....It's always fun!

My blog gives me information from Google on how people find my website with keywords.  Like, if you Google my name, you'll find my blog pretty easily.  What about other words... People google some strange things and somehow find my blog... Seriously!

Some of the googled terms point to my website somehow:
*half off cars

*no subscription required

*Lady Antebellum

*Shreveport Steakhouse

*blogs about Haiti

*Derek James

*Inspection sticker Shreveport

*la dude

*Shreveport radio jobs (good luck there buddy!)

*stores in sacremento terminator salvation voice helmet

*YouTube Sherri Talley

The most searched term that points them to my blog here?  Hairy backs!
Like:
*hairy backs
*hairy back blog
*hairy back will I get one

I am on the furry side, but I didn't know my website was a shrine to hairy back people!  I found the blog I wrote that "hairy backs" might be pointing to here.  Thanks Google!

Different kind of song request

It's not too many times I get a request not to play a song.  I did today.  Not because it was a bad song necessarily, but a song with a sad reminder of a possible outcome.

This last weekend many of our men and women from Barksdale Air Force Base were deployed overseas to fight.  Hearing Tim McGraw's "If You're Reading This," on KRMD today was too much for Amber, whose husband was one of those deployed.  She called me and said, "Todd, My husband and about half of Barksdale just got deployed and the last song you want to hear is that Tim song or (Carrie Underwood's) Just A Dream. That had me in tears today."  She went on, "Can you stop playing that song for just a week until I get through this?"    I can't imagine being in that situation and hearing those songs.  I made the necessary adjustments for her.   I pray everybody from Barksdale comes back home soon and safe!

Every song touches somebody who are living those lyrics everyday, sad or happy.  Are there other songs you hear you just can't listen to because it reminds you of somebody or something that happened in your life?  Are there certain songs that describe you perfectly and crank up everytime you hear it?  Leave you comment below!

Back home!

OOOoooooohh!!  Vacation was a long time comin'  Usually we just go home to Texas and do the family tour.  This time we took a different route down to Houston to San Antonio back up through Dallas.  Our first big "Clark W. Griswold" style vacation!  We hopped into the truckster and took off!
Trale and Mason both rode their first big boy roller coaster.  Amazingly, they were tall enough to ride most of the rides at Fiesta Texas. 

I'm glad to be back, but now I'm wanting to know when we go on vacation again??  Are we there yet??

Todd Vacation Stats
1321 -  miles driven
8 -  "are we there yet?" was spoken from the boys
2 - cheeseburgers eaten
.75 - miles walked inside a cave
3 - pink enchiladas
6 - bugbites
11 - geocaches found
2 - Trex fossil displays

See more pics of the trip when you click here!

Pink is my favorite (enchilada) color.

When you think of childhood, there is always one or two memories that pop up first right?  Good or bad, as we get older, all of those memories begin to fade and dwindle until there are only a handful of these flashbacks left.  After 20 years, I still remember eating pink colored enchiladas.

Every fall/winter my Dad and I would travel to just outside of San Antonio to go deer hunting.  On the way, we would pass a little town called Helotes.  If you blinked, you would have missed the El Chaparral on the side of the road.  Just a little hole in the wall restaurant that sold mexican food.   In fact, I wouldn't even say hole in the wall, it was such a small restaurant.

To this day, I still remember, vividly, eating a cheese enchilada where the outside tortilla was literally pink!  They were the tastiest enchiladas ever!  My Dad and I would sit there eating drunken beans waiting for our plate to come out, enjoy some pink cheesy goodness, and on the way out getting a Chupa Chup lollipop!  I've always wanted to go back, but really haven't been out in that direction in a long time.

It wasn't our plan to go to Helotes on our vacation trip this week to San Antonio, but after debating on what to eat for dinner too long, we made a mini-road trip to the famous-in-my-mind restaurant: El Chaparral.

The little mexican food joint wasn't such a hole in the wall place anymore!  It expanded!  The original entrance was now a game room and there was a huge patio addition out back.  I was scared the little restaurant got "commercialized" and more importantly, did not serve pink enchiladas anymore.  It was the first question I asked the waiter.   I was in luck.  They even served the drunken beans with my chips and salsa.  I ordered the pink enchiladas, of course!  Just as good as I remembered!

It's crazy the things we hold on to in the ol' noggin... pink enchiladas after 20 years!  It's one of my fondest (and oldest) memories growing up and going hunting every year with my Dad.  If you're ever in the San Antonio area, stop by one of there three locations!!  I guess other people like the pink enchiladas too.