Well, I had an excellent blog started but my window got closed and it was lost! So, here is draft 2. hehe

Rita was able to get Thursday and Friday off as the Doctor is out of town. Although, she still had to be "On Call" for the phones. Some vacation day! Thursday wasn't to bad but since we tried to go out Friday the phones were off the hook!

In the days since my last entry I have spent a lot of time following the NASA STS-127 Endeavour Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. They finally launched on the 6th attempt on July 15, 2009, 6:03:10 p.m. EDT (22:03 UTC). Hydrogen leaks and bad weather delayed them multiple times. All told the mission had been delayed a little over a month. The main focus of this mission is to deliver the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF), and the Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Exposed Section (ELM-ES). The exposed facility is a part of Kibo that will allow astronauts to perform science experiments that are exposed to the vacuum of space.

The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which culminated with man's first steps on the moon, also began on July 16, with a real time re-broadcast of the original radio production of the launch and mission of the Apollo 11. The contrast and correlatins of both missions were quite interesting.

Have also been spending time taking Nana to Doctor's appointments. She has been feeling pretty rough and having a lot of sleeping, stomach and aching issues. We set her up with Dr Megna, our family doctor, for a physical. He found a slight Urinary Tract Infection and an abnormal ECG and so referred her to a cardiologist, prescribed her antibiotics, and also reccomended a mamogram. She also had some teeth that were hurting and some broken ones that need to be removed. They reccomended a Dr Haney in Waxahachie and so I took her there a few days ago. He reccomended the removal of the offending teeth and prescribed her a course of dental antibiotics to clear up a tooth infection before he can do the work.

Larra and Benn came in town the afternoon of the 16th. They plan on staying with us for a couple weeks. Larra has plans to go see the latest Harry Potter movie with Tiffy (her best friend).

Well...that catches us up to today! Today I woke around 1130am. I think everybody sleep in pretty late. Actually though, Larra and Rita did go to the store and pick up some things before I woke up. Nana had her appointment for her mammogram at 230pm. Larra wanted to go to the mall (Hot Topic) to get a Harry Potter shirt to wear to the movie. So, after we got Nana home from the hospital, Larra, Benn, Rita and I headed off to get some food and go to the mall.

We went to eat at Mexican Inn in Mansfield. VERY good! I had the "Tres Amigas" meal, 3 chicken enchiladas made in 3 different styles. YUM. Rita had beef enchilada's and Larra had taco's. After dining heavily on this, chips, queso and gorging on tea and diet coke, we headed off for our shopping spree.

First stop was the Parks Mall in Arlington. Barnes and Noble's was our first stop to find a word search puzzle book for Nana which we did. As a bonus buy I found The first three books of the Edgar Rice Burrough's series John Carter of Mars in a trilogy collection. I read the 10 book series when I was a teen and want to read them again as they are making  the story into a movie for 2010-2012. Larra's stop at Hot Topic was a flop as they had no shirts in a size she could wear. Sooo...we decided to go to the Towne East Mall in Mesquite. Larra was sooo sad.

Success!! Larra was able to find a shirt she liked that fit at Hot Topic in Mesquite. Man, were we tired by then!

Headed home then, and are currently watching King of Queen's and conversating as Nana chows our leftover queso and chips! Rita is sad.

Well, that is PLENTY for now! Talk to you cats later. Love, hugs and kisses, Charles "Slinkyman" Gotcher.

Hey family, friends, neighbors and nuisances!

I have been so busy learning and following and posting tweets on twitter that I have failed to update my blog! BAD SLINKYMAN! I have really enjoyed twitter. It is an interesting insight into peoples day to day lives and a great source for breaking news and trends. I am mainly following celebrities and people from the racing, political and news fields as well as several NASA feeds. It is interesting to see the day to day thoughts of people that we sometimes think of as so very different from ourselves. Some have turned out to be VERY strange and some are very down to earth. Just like one of us!

I have been following the  mission of Endeavour STS-127. After a little over a month of delays and 6 launch attempts, she is finally on her way to the International Space Station. Onboard she carries the Japanese outdoor experiment pod called Kibo or Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF), and the Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Exposed Section (ELM-ES).^[4] The exposed facility is a part of Kibo that will allow astronauts to perform science experiments that are exposed to the vacuum of space.

Also have been following the various events centered on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon which resulted in the first man to set foot on the moon. Amazing story and made that much more fascinating as I can remeber following the mission when I was a child of 7.

Wow, it has been 12 days since I last blogged here. I cannot seem to remember anything else happenning! hehehe Larra and Benn arrove today from Sinton and will be staying with us for a few weeks. YAY! I am so glad she was able to work out coming again. It was touch and go there for a bit.

Created by The Oatmeal

Yesterday Rita and I got some time out alone. It was very nice. Rita's friend Ashley (The "Twilight" Nut) wanted to see the new series "True Blood", which we have on DVD. She lives in Desoto so we took a trip up there to deliver it to her. Below is a picture of Edward, from "Twilight",Checking out the competing series!



Rita was craving Mexican Inn, so I found a scenic route from Ashley's house to the restaurant. We traveled thru Cedar Hill home of the local TV broadcast towers. They are sooo TALL! I asked Rita if she would like to work on the top of one of these.



As you pass out of Cedar Hill, you approach the lake Joe Pool area. It is very pretty with LOTS of trees.



Kinda reminds me of the Hill Country in south Texas.



The approach as we drive across a narrow section of the lake.



And, Viola! Here is lake Joe Pool.



We made it to the restaurant! MMMM, corn chips and queso! I love there chips more than any other mexican place. We both had Brisket Tacos for lunch but Rita didn't take to them very well. She had plenty of chips, queso and salsa to compensate. You might recognize me chowing down below!



I approve! Charles gives it 2 thumbs up! (Actually this pic is from another occasion but it seemed fitting!)



All in all it was a wonderful time out with Rita. I hope we can do it again soon!

Went to the pool and swam a bit and got some sun. BORED! Rita is still asleep. SHe needs it. I hope we get to do something later. I'm cabin fever. It is funish to swim but boring when no one is out there to talk to. YAY Rita wants me to go woth her to DeSoto to take Ashley the "True Blood" dvd's. At least it is out of the house! Rita want's lunch @ Mexican Inn. I'm looking to find the nearest one!

Wow, What a night, dumpster fire, mean old fireman, pool party, new friends, enchiladas, AND fireworks! What more could I ask for??

Wow! What a FIRE! The dumpster burst into flames. I told Christa that I smelt something burning and next thing we knew the dumpster was SMOKIN'. Called 911 and the firetruck came and I paparazzied. The OLD fireman came and asked me "Can I help you?" I was like, yeah can you hold my camera while I take pics! Arsehole!

Christa HAD to have her pic taken with the firemen! She has BALLS!

Then we sat at the pool till the fireworks started. It was a pretty show specially for a fairly small town. I took lots of pictures and even Nana came out to watch. It was fun.

Getting mentally prepped for the fireworks tonight. They say that it gets crazy around here...people at the pool and parked all over the place. I bet it is going to be loud. Xavier, the maintenance man, said he is still closing the pool at 10pm since he has to come in from off property and has to get to sleep. Hope they don't give him a bunch of crap.You can see the show from our apartment. Won't even have to leave home. They are going to broadcast the music from it on the radio.

We were invited to see it by the pool with some of my friends but Rita has been so tired and a little anti-social about my friends. She used to give me crap about not having friends but now....

I hope that Rita gets off a little early since the Dr. SlaveDriver wouldn't give her off. It may be hard for her to get in or get parked if it is too late.

Well, will let you know how it goes later.