Over the weekend, Dad was gracious enough to let me borrow his Sams Club card while he was in town so that Jill & I could buy some heavy duty shelves for storage in the garage.

While we were assembling the shelves we noticed that one of the pieces was badly bent, so we sent the girls off to the store with the bend piece to get it replaced. While we waited for them to return, Dad had a great idea to turn a few saw horses he had given me into a work table.

So yesterday, Asher and I went over to the new Lowes near us and picked up a piece of MDF and went to town: [click thumbnails to enlarge]


All in all, I’m very happy with how it turned out, and I’'m even happier to have the space in my garage back!

On Saturday, Dad came into town to purchase and test out his newest toy: a Ruger 44 Caliber Pistol.

Needless to say, it was a lot of fun to shoot but it packed a mighty punch.

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As usual we took advantage of the nice weather this weekend and decided to go for a family outing. Because we have exhausted almost every local scene within a 10 mile distance, we decided to branch out a bit.

Because it’s the off season, we were able to get onto the football field at Texas State where Jill is attending school. We’re not sure what Asher enjoyed more, the football field or the golf carts, but either way, with his size, we’re positive that this won’t be the last time his presence graces a football field. Let’s just hope it’s for a different team (Go Longhorns!).

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Of all the great things in the world, there is one that Asher and I mutually enjoy (and that Jill mildly tolerates). That great thing is techno music.

Techno is more than just repetitive beats and unintelligible bleeps - it’s an experience. And since Jill won’t let me take Asher out to clubs (he could totally pass for 21), I have to bring the club to him.

Using quite a bit of homemade hardware such as a laser setup that creates visualizations on the ceiling, a set of computer-controlled spot lamps that flash to the beat, and a programmed remote to kick it all off, Asher can now dance until the wee hours of 8 p.m. right before bedtime.

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For those wondering, the song in the video has been Asher’s favorite since he was 6 months old. It’s called Aerodynamik by Alex Gopher & Etienne deCrecy, though Asher simply refers to it as 'Ah Ee Oh' because of the lyrics.

Sunday brought nice weather so we decided to head over to The University of Texas (my alma mater) and take a nice family walk.

Asher, as usual, proved to be the most entertaining part of the trip as he explored fountains, the turtle pond, and the steps in front of the UT Tower.

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As many of you know, a long time ago I had the dream of one day having the ugliest, most dysfunctional phone in the world. Today, I am one step closer to that dream.

After finding an old school Motorola brick phone, (you know, the type of phone that Zack Morris used to carry around that weighed 5 pounds) I tried to get our service provider to activate it, but alas, because of the industry wide switch to digital signals, they could not.

So I did the next best thing and integrated a Bluetooth module into it so I could use it as a handset alongside my real cell phone. Basically, my real phone makes the call, but all the sound comes through the brick phone.

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If you thought texting while driving was bad, wait until you see me using this thing on the road while trying to shift.