To my Aggie Friends

I didn't write this but I found it very funny given I'm a Boilermaker... not an Aggie.

Aggie spirit lives on even when the faithful are gone

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

They're putting in a new cemetery space for Aggies in College Station, which makes you wonder. Since it's a tradition for Aggies to stand up through a whole football game, will they bury them upright and at attention?

Hey, this would be kind of a green move because it would conserve space and help fight global overpopulation.

They say there's no such thing as a former Aggie, and that once you are one, you're happily branded with that designation for life. Aggieness is harder to get rid of than a bad tattoo. But the new cemetery opening up in a few weeks proves you wear this badge for eternity.

I can hear St. Peter now. "Nice boots, pal. Really nice boots. What's the deal with the sheep?"

The Memorial Cemetery of College Station will have a section called the Aggie Field of Honor. The first phase will have 2,900 burial spaces, although non-Aggies are welcome there, too, if you really want to be buried in the middle of a bunch of Aggies. It's probably a good idea to mix, though. Nearly 3,000 burial plots — that's a lot of burr haircuts.

Some 350 spaces have already been sold. Former Aggie football great John David Crow has bought spaces, said Ross Albrecht, the marketing supervisor for the cemetery. Former Aggie football coach R.C. Slocum is planning to buy a spot, Albrecht added. He said they have yet to hear from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was an Aggie yell leader when he was in school.

Maybe Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is going to buy his space for him after the Republican primary.

The Aggie part of the new cemetery is decorated with a circular, concrete, tilted A&M logo. Vaults holding cremains will be marked with a dark red, almost maroon granite, Albrecht said.

Wouldn't the cemetery be even more festive if they included one of those UT outhouses like they used to stick on top of the Aggie bonfires?

What surprises me about this is that nobody's come up with this before. If it says A&M on it, you can sell it to an Aggie. Why didn't I buy a couple of acres outside Bryan about 10 years ago and start digging? I could be rich by now.

Oh, the municipal cemetery will also have a non-Aggie section for those who would rather be buried away from the Aggies. A 4-foot-by 9-foot grave site runs $2,000 in the Aggie section, and just $950 in the regular municipal section.

So why does it cost an extra $1,050 to get planted in the Aggie part? "It's just really the prestige," Albrecht said. I wonder if Aggies can get a price break if they buy season tickets for the whole family? And why not? The football team has been playing dead for the past couple of years.

But the big fashion question becomes should an Aggie be buried there with his senior boots on or off?

Actually, this Aggie cemetery is a pretty good idea for College Station tourism. Let's face it. The night life out there at the graveyard will be on par with the current club scene in the rest of College Station. No offense to the Dixie Chicken, of course.

You know, it's easy to make fun of Aggies because their traditions seem pretty goofy to non-Aggies such as myself, who just don't get it. But let's give the Aggies their due and admit that they manage to show a spirit that simply isn't equaled by the University of Texas. Who else but Aggies would have buried their deceased dog mascots so they can see the football score inside the stadium?

On the other hand, why not a cemetery in Austin for UT fans who have shuffled off to that great OU Weekend in the Sky? How about a cemetery for Longhorn faithful where each grave is marked with a full-sized plaster Bevo? Or a high-dollar Mack Brown plaque, embossed in gold, that comes with a Nike swoosh on it?

John Kelso's column

Citi Citi

Whoaaa whoaaa.... let my money go.... yeah yeah yeah yeah (sing it now). Citi citi whoaaa baby, let my money go. Now that I have the tune of Louie louie stuck in your head I'll get on with the post. After 10 min of telling them they have been a wonderful card and it's not them... it's me that's changed (yes it's starting to sound like a bad breakup), I'd like to close my account. When asked why I just told the truth and told them that our spending was way more than we wanted it to be. When doing transactions in cash, you have that "ouchie" moment as you fork over the greenbacks. When the transaction is in plastic... there's no pain... until you open the bill. In order to be more financially responsible, our family made the conscious effort to switch to a cash basis. After a few more attempts to get us to stay on... the customer retention person finally admitted defeat and closed the account. The end of an era.

Leaving China

This is the final installment of Stinker-Winker's travel log:

Wrapping up this last entry on the way to the airport to fly home...
After finishing the last supplier meeting, we drove from Jiangshan city to Anhui province where the Yellow Mountain (Huangshan) is located. We drove to the entrance to the national park, took a taxi to the start of the cable car ride, and then climbed the mountain the rest of the way to our hotel at the top of the mountain. It was another gorgeous clear day. We woke up early to try to see the sun rise over the clouds, but it was raining and very foggy, so only a few very gray shots, and no incredible shots of rays of light dazzling the mountain profiles or clouds. Further, because it was warm the day we ascended the mountain, and I was told it would only be cold during dawn, and the hotel had warm coats to loan out (they did), that didn't help me on the rain-soaked climb over 2-3 more peaks before we headed for the cable car to go back to our van. Can you say, "Cold drowned rat?" I still got a lot of fabulous pictures, and I'll remember the trip,scenery, and the struggle of the climb for the rest of my life.


Dining in China:
- Averting disaster at dinner in Jiangshan: I'm a fairly adventurous diner in China -- to be courteous to my supplier hosts, and because all the different food types are fascinating (not always tasty, but fascinating). So at dinner on Tuesday, something fried and small was served with some green onions and what looked like sunflower seeds. I pick up one of the fried thingies with my chopsticks, and for some reason, felt compelled to ask on this particular occasion, "what is this?" the response: fried bee. Now if it had been most other insects, I would have given it a whirl. But I'm really glad I asked, as I am ALLERGIC to bees. Or at least, bee stings. I played it safe and didn't partake.
- Shannon will be thrilled: I'm actually starting to like mushrooms. You don't really get much choice while dining in China.
- Watermelon, watermelon, watermelon. I'm not faking lip movements to pretend I know the words to a song I've forgotten, I'm telling you the breadth of desserts I've had here in China. Always fruit served at the end of each formal meal, and always watermelon (along with varying supporting cast members, most of which I don't enjoy). At lunch today with SACHEM's expat General manager of Asia and his wife, I had a piece of chocolate cake. Oh, dessert, how I've missed thee! (Must be my fatty liver talking)
- Food I've missed most: Shannon's home-cooked meals. Other food I've missed most: Mexican food, specifically a fine plate of enchiladas.

Seen on a hotel lobby sign:"Be on the move Azalea -- The beautiful lion ambassador is you collapse feeling serves"

That's it for this installment of my journal of life as I've lived it and observed it in China. I hope you enjoyed living vicariously through these. I'm really looking forward to going home (although not the part where I spend 13 hours in coach).

Until next time...

More addiction photos

Well the cleaning bug finally bit... actually I think it was the coffee talking... and I organized Scooter's room to make it picture worthy. The downside is that at the same time... he was melting down for a pre-lunch nap. I threw him into the crib once I had changed the sheets and put his "critters" back in and his mood seemed to brighten. Odd. So here are the shots I took of his room in all its decorated glory. The theme was more jungle animals since he's still using the nursery bedding. It's about time one of my children gets to use the darn comforter that came with the crib bedding.

Enjoy

My latex addiction

So one of the reasons I had been slacking in the blogging department is because I was back to working on my latex habit. The joke is that I swear I'm addicted to painting. My preferred medium is latex paint and my canvas is a builder beige room in need of some color. I did the painting in Tater-tot's room in January while Stinker-Winker was at a conference in San Francisco for a week. Later that month I did the painting in Scooter-boot's room. At some point in February I attempted to put up the wall borders. I have NEVER had so many problems with borders until I went to put up the borders in the boys' rooms. They would curl and peel and UGH! I was not a happy camper with the results of the first go around. So I had to go buy wallpaper paste and attempt to get them back up on the wall. I haven't taken shots of Scooter's room yet because that would require cleaning and organizing and at the moment I don't have energy. I do have photos of Tater's finished room...

Enjoy!

So I've been slacking...

I know it's been some time since my last post... I've been busy living my "debt free" life. I've also been busy feeding my latex addiction... more on that later. There really hasn't been much to report on. A few moments of kid hilarity have slipped by but I'll do better at catching the rest. Stinker-winker is in China right now and has been for almost 2 weeks. These are his travel logs

3/17/09 - China Journal 3.0
Aka Road to Make My Thumbs Sore(for those of you new to this little journal of mine, I write it all from my blackberry)
Back in the land of many people, many language characters, much potential, and too much smog. This time around I'm jet setting around eastern China visiting some potential new sources of supply, and holding negotiations with a couple of others. List of cities:Shanghai(Shandong province), JinanDezhou (Jilin province), Linjiang, Changchun, Beijing, Back to Shanghai (Zhejiang province), Jiangshan, Hangzhou Yes. I'm doing all of that in two weeks. As I said: jet set. Since I had to fly coach this time (tough times calls for no more business class), I arrived on Saturday to allow an extra day to adjust before starting business agenda on Monday. Sunday was actually the first time I'd spent any time sight-seeing in Shanghai -- it's always just been home base for other travels. I spent the morning and afternoon visiting the Shanghai City Temple and YuYuan garden. The temple wasn't all that impressive given some of the bigger more historic temples I'd visited on past China adventures. Yu Yuan garden,on the other hand, was very special: a water garden with many rock features and rocky passageways. After seeing it all, I spent about an hour just sitting there relaxing and people watching. It's ironic that the garden is in the middle of a busy marketplace/ shopping area. Late afternoon and evening I had the special treat of being able to meet up with one of my friends from Purdue (glee club and fraternity), Dustin Davis along with his wife Jackie and their two boys. They just moved to Shanghai two weeks ago, and on last minute notice, we had a great time getting to worship together at church, visit over a meal, and they took me to see the lights of the Bund and Pudong. I noted that it was funny to have to go across an ocean to meet up with long-lost friends for the first time since we'd parted ways after graduating from Purdue. Also, Dustin's showing off his basic Chinese language skills has inspired me to buckle down and start seriously learning some myself. On Monday morning, I flew to Jinan to meet with a possible new supplier for one of our critical raw materials at our plant in Wuxi. I'll write more about that in my next post. Now for the part you all know and love: my random musings and observations on life in China...- Missing the forest for the trees when it comes to city cleaning -- labor is so cheap they pay many people to walk along the highway shoulders sweeping the dust and trash off the shoulder with oversized brooms made of sticks (with no protection or caution signs other than wearing an orangecoat), and also people mopping -- yes, mopping -- the painted stripes onthe asphalt roads around the airports. Yet they don't seem to have the resources to clean up the trash heaps scattered around the city in and amongst apartments and businesses alongside the streets.- so much sodium and MSG!- my hotel seems very empty compared to my previous visits- lots of Chinese couples at touristy places with their one child, but only with a kid that is a toddler or younger. I don't see many grade school kids at all.- as I've alluded to before, a sunny day does not mean you get to see the sun.- line heard most around Yu Yuan garden: "Watch? Bag? iPhone?" I decided not to even answer after the hundredth time. Dustin taught me how to tell them "no buy" in Chinese that I look forward to trying out at my next tourist spot.

3/19/09
I saw North Korea today. They wouldn't let me in. Enough said. My hotel is on the river that separates China from N Korea. I'll write more tomorrow on the 5-hr drive from LinJiang to Changchun tomorrow.

3/20/09
(The ride from Linjiang to Changchun was uncomfortable and bumpy, so I couldn't stand thumbing out a long email on my blackberry. This journal entry is being typed from my hotel room in Changchun on Friday. My thumbs are thanking me.) OK, so now I know why the Chinese border guards were so jumpy and sensitive about me taking pictures of the border crossing bridge in Linjiang yesterday. One of them was practically reaching for my camera to try to confiscate it, but I quickly slipped it back in my inside coat pocket, and thankfully they weren't up for frisking me to get it. (In case you didn't hear, 2 US journalists were captured by N Korea on the China/N Korea border on Tuesday: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509748,00.html ) I'll now treasure the two pictures I did get that much more. I was about to attach one of them to this email, but then thought better of it. Need more excitement? I got to experience my first earthquake today! In Changchun around 3:00pm today, there was a minor earthquake while my colleague, Weilian, and I were visiting the Imperial Manchurian Palace. We actually didn't feel it that much, but it was apparently enough of one to call for the evacuation of office workers from tall buildings, and all the school-age children were sent home early. The other interesting part about the earthquake is that the epicenter was only a few miles away from a town called Baishan, which we drove through earlier this morning -- it's roughly 40km away from where I was staying in Linjiang. I just went to the US Geological Survey site, and they aren't showing it on their map yet. I'll have to check back again later. The people of Linjiang have now seen an American in person: according to my hosts, since Linjiang is a remote city (a "small" city of 180,000 people), they think that I was likely the first American to visit the city. I did draw quite a few long stares and double-takes as I walked around the hotel, the town, and the company's plant. I've now had my "remote China roads" experience. It was another hour and a half ride from Linjiang to the company's plant site. First, an actual beautiful drive along the river separating China from N Korea. But then we turned off the road and the switchback pot-holed fun began, passing many a hand-cart, smaller motorized vehicles, and the occasional pack of cows or sheep. The fresh fallen snow did make it quite a scene. During the second dinner with the Chinese supplier in Linjiang, the owner of the restaurant surprised me with a special treat: they brought out a plate with a breaded chicken sandwich with french fries (with no bones or claws in the chicken!!). I actually enjoy authentic Chinese food -- for the most part -- but I was grateful for a little taste of the US. The owner asked me to rate how I liked the chicken sandwich. And let me tell you, it was fantastic! The breading was flavorful and crunchy, and they used a sweet and spicy sauce in lieu of mayonnaise that was also good. I gave it an 8 out of 10. Visiting the Imperial Machurian Palace in Changchun was a very educational experience. Thankfully they had many signs in English explaining the room we were looking at or the person associated with it, from the last emperor Puyi to his wives, etc. I think I'll have to rent the "Last Emperor" movie when I get back home. Life in China: - Traffic patterns: OK, so I've made mention of Chinese traffic many times before, but here's a new one: While in Changchun on one of the main city streets that was 5 lanes wide, I discovered an interesting arrangement for left-turn lanes. Let's say the lanes are number 1 through 5, going from left to right. So with lane #1, the left-most lane, it was logically a left-turn lane. The other left turn lane? Lane #4. Weird. - Beer is half the price of bottled water. - Good news: The CBS March Madness on Demand site works in China! The bad news: It's so choppy and intermittent (like satellite TV in a bad rain storm) that it's not worth watching. - Chinese hotel shower drains: Can someone please, please introduce this country to Drano? Sorry, it's a pet peeve of mine to not be standing in a pool of water midway through my shower. - The Chinese business-man likes his cars: the 5-hour (each way) ride to and from Linjiang was in a recent model Audi A6. Very comfortable. Too bad 4 hours of the drive was on a narrow road constantly passing, swerving, and honking. - I'm actually starting to enjoy some of the Chinese tea. (I'm not a tea drinker. Coffee, yes. Tea, no.) - Nicer restaurants are composed of a bunch of different size private rooms for eating. Completely walled-in with a door, and at the nice ones, also your own bathroom to use during the meal. Always just one round table with a large turntable to share the dishes. Got to sit at a table for about 16 people -- that was one large glass turntable.

3/22/09
Yesterday, we flew from Changchun to Beijing, and was able to squeeze in a visit to the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square yesterday afternoon. Beijing greeted me with the smog it is famous for. It was very hazy and smoggy. Beijing's smog makes Shanghai appear like Eden in my opinion(although that would change on Sunday). The Forbidden City is amazing! It's a monstrosity of a palace, with dozens of large halls, temples, and ceremonial areas built and rebuilt over theMing and Qing (that's pronounced "ching") dynasties. My colleague, Weilian,and I took lots of pictures, but to be honest, after about the sixth or seventh Hall of Perfect This and Hall of Harmonious That, they all begin to look the same. The size of it all still left me in awe. And from the emperor's purpose, that's the point: "My palace dwarfs anything you have."Tianamen Square is also huge. I was told it's the largest city square in the world. Maybe so. Lots of Red Army soldiers standing guard to keep everyone in line. But I was able to stop long enough to get a picture with me and Chairman Mao's larger than life mug gracing the front of the gate between the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. Why do I have this feeling that Obama wouldn't mind having a similar super-sized painting of himself prominently displayed in D.C. for his adoring public to see?(stepping off of political soapbox) Capped off the night with a traditional hot pot meal at a famous chain of Chinese restaurants. The name of the place translates to something like"come from East smoothly."Today was special... I had the pleasure to climb the Great Wall, and also visited the Ming Tombs and the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)institute. Apparently I need to take number 15 and number 6 herbal medicines because I have a fatty liver and I'm a bit overweight. Ok, so the overweight part doesn't take a genius to figure out. Fatty liver? Well, who knows? TCM is big into the harmony and balance between 5 or your major organs. And this diagnosis was from looking at my face and tongue, followed by taking my pulse. Of course, there was a sales pitch at the end to buy some of the medicine, and it isn't cheap! I didn't go for it -- probably not covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield! Although I'm guessing that Shannon's aunt Donna would say it's worth it having studied acupuncture and Chinese medicine. The Ming Tombs: blah. Nothing too spectacular there. Same type of buildings as Forbidden City, just on a much much smaller scale. Finally it was time to go to the Great Wall of China. Since I went with a tour group (along with English-speaking guide), of course we went to the most popular -- read: crawling with people -- section of the Wall called Badaling. It was a gorgeous, sunny, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky kind of day. Plus, SHOCKER... It was very clear!! Because of the clear & sunny day, I think I was able to get some pretty good pics.






Even walking up the sidewalks and parking lots to the entrance is fairly steep, so I was already wishing I was in better shape. Combined with the steep slopes and numerous uneven tall steps of the wall, it's definitely not for the weak or weary. So you might think that you walk/climb/hike up the Great Wall... Noooo. You wait in a long line to ride a roller coaster-style train (complete withover the shoulder lap harness) up to the 4th of eight towers in the Badaling section. OK, OK, you don't have to take this shortcut. But when your tour's schedule is inane enough to spend half the day at the Ming tombs, a jade market, and the TCM institute, such a shortcut is necessary if you want to make it up to the apex of tower #8 and back in the two hours we were given to spend at the Wall. I feel truly blessed to have had this opportunity to spend time at one of the "new" wonders of the world. Now, as my thumbs wrap up this chapter of my journey, I'm sitting in Beijing traffic on my tour bus trying to get back to the hotel. Tonight I'm going to try to make it over to Olympic Park to see the lights of the bird's nest stadium and the water cube. Then, tomorrow it's back on a jet to Shanghai. My next entry will probably be on the 5-hr van ride from Shanghai to Jiangshan on Tuesday.

3/23/09
Had some fun with this one while waiting for my plane in the Beijing airport...Seen Around China:- Signs seen on the ride-controlled descent of the rollercoaster tram atthe Great Wall:"Drive Slow""No Racing"- To boldly steal IP where no man has stolen before:There is some domestic Chinese car brand that has blatantly ripped off its logo from the original Star Trek insignia.- Are these city bus model names supposed to impress?"King Long""Young Man" Life in China:- The Great Wall also included a black bear exhibit, complete with plates of apple chunks on the railings to feed the bears -- for a price, of course. You grab and throw a morsel to Smokey, you pay.- Traffic thinning in Beijing: during the work week, each day there are two numbers in the last digit of license plates that are not allowed on the roads. Weekends are fair game for all cars, as I experienced on the way back from the Wall.- Taxis in northern China: predominantly Volkswagon Jettas, althoughBeijing had a decent amount of Hyundai Elantras.- Beverages: you'll see many Chinese toting around a see-through sportsbottle or plastic jar w/ screw-top lid filled with their favorite tea,including the leaves/flowers/junk floating around on the bottom. Looks nasty -- but tastes ok.

3/24/09
As promised, now enjoying the Chinese countryside of Zhejiang province for the last 4 hours from my van window. Once again, my Bose headphones and iPod have been worth every penny paid for them to block out the BackstreetBoys and the Best of Michael Jackson. (especially easy to say for the iPod since it was free). I wrapped up my last evening in Beijing by doing some shopping on WahnFuJing street -- apparently it is Beijing's version of Times Square. Shopping in a department store has its quirks: after you decide what toy to buy and negotiate the price in a section of the store, the sales person gives you a ticket with the information of what you bought and the price.You then have to take that ticket to a cashier, who then collects your money and proceeds to stamp the living snot out of about 3 different receipts with carbon copies of each. She gives one of them back to you with a carbon copy, which you then walk back to the department from which you made your purchase. Only after giving the sales person one of the receipt copies do you finally get your toy. All of this for a toy on which I spent only 30RMB (less than $5). Then I had the chance to have some authentic Beijing duck (they don't like you calling it Peking duck anymore) in a very cool, recently renovated lamplight-style district. Two words: dangerously delicious! Weilian was able to convince the head hostess of the most famous Beijing duck restaurant (almost 150 years old) to give us a last minute table even though they were fully booked and we arrived three minutes before they stopped letting people in the door. The duck was flame-roasted to perfection. They even gave us a commemorative card with our duck's unique serial number as a souvenir. Apparently, like McDonalds, over 1.15 billion ducks sold! On Monday morning on the way to the airport, we stopped by the Olympic park so I could see the birds nest stadium and the water cube. My recommendation is go visit them at night -- I've heard they're much more spectacular with their lights. Not that it needs mention, but there are a ton of people here in China. Case in point: the plane flying from Beijing to Shanghai was an Airbus A330(double aisle 2-4-2 seating in coach) and it was full. Throughout the day, one of those departs for Shanghai every half hour. And that's only one airline! I'm getting a bit tired of Chinese food, so last night in Shanghai, my friend Dustin took me to the Xintiandi area of Shanghai -- a very upscale old architecture/buildings meets modern stores and restaurants. I had a 12oz sirloin steak. Mmmmmmm, steak... It was so good! And a wonderful break from eating with chopsticks.

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!! . We finally kicked Sallie (Mae) out of the house and paid Stinker-Winker's parents back for the loan they gave us to buy the first house... oh so many years ( and several houses) ago. Fall 2007 we started Financial Peace with our small group in St. Louis but only made it about 4 weeks in (before we moved) and I'm sad to say that many of the good ideas and habits that were talked about didn't stick. So we started FPU again this past fall and completed it. We had Baby Step 1 ($1K emergency fund) done a long time ago and just finished Baby Step 2 ( get rid of all debt but the house). Baby Step 3 is to save up 3-6 months expenses. We looked at our budget to determine where some fluff is that could go if we suddenly ended up jobless (goodbye DirecTV and pre-school). At our current savings rate we could have 6 months of lean living expenses saved up by the end of this year. Baby Step 4 is putting 15% of our income into retirement. Steps 5, 6 & 7 seem like a pipe dream right now. I haven't given myself a "plastectomy" yet... but it's coming. I need to move some of the auto-draft charity payments over to my checking account and off the credit card. I'll work out the details about where to put some of the bills that are also auto-drafted because I'm not keen on giving them electronic access to our main checking account. Either way... the surgery is coming soon :)

Many thanks to my friend Jenn and her FANTABULOUS spreadsheet for annual budget planning and monthly tracking expenses. She has brought out the "inner-nerd" in this "free spirit".