Thursday, June 26, 2008

Fresno Baseball

Congratulations to the College World Series champs Fresno State, Fresno Pacific having a second player drafted by the pros, and to the Fresno Grizzlies for having a viral Internet hit.




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Now playing: Beck - Where It's At
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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Excuse Me

One of my favorite Christmas movies is Elf. I like to recreate the clip below in which Will Ferrell burps and follows it up with a "Did you hear that?" The other day Dillon burped and turned to me and said "Hee dat!" All three of us had a good laugh.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Tennessee Trip, Part II

Thursday was another lazy day for us. The highlight of the day for me was going to a local all-you-can-eat catfish restaurant. The only time growing up I got to eat catfish was on my birthday (at Hush Puppies in Bakersfield) or if we went to visit my grandma in Texas. Even at a young age I was able to out eat all the relatives. Today, those stories continue to be told and the amount of fish I ate continues to grow with each story. In a couple of years I will reach Bill Brasky level.

Friday was quite a busy day. We decided to use our rain checks to Dollywood in the morning. The adults went to ride all the roller coasters while the kids went to the boring rides. However, I did take Dillon back on the teacups and, to his delight, we went even faster than the last time.

Friday night we went to the NASCAR SpeedPark to ride the go-carts and the whole family got into the action. Grandma even showed off her driving skills. However, I got the best of Uncle Curt, who is the biggest racing fan in the family. I beat him in every go-cart race and on the Similator. He was so frustrated by my driving skills that he spun me out on the Similator and yet I still caught up and passed him again.

Today is our last day here and we are sticking around the house playing dominoes, cards, pool and the Wii. On Sunday we fly back to our normal lives.

Below are more pictures:


Uncle Joe shootin' the breeze with Dillon.


There was a water ride at Dollywood that allowed for the riders to shoot at people walking by. This picture was taken right before Uncle Joe soaked my shoes. I thought I was out of the way but he found a way to still get me wet.


If you look closely you can see Dillon between Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lynn.


The little chickies after the aforementioned water ride.


Dillon had a blast "driving" the cars at the NASCAR SpeedPark.


Dillon "The Intimidator" Nixon

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Tennessee Trip, Part I

Last year my mom's side of the family decided they would have a family vacation every other year. My uncle had the honor of picking the location of the first get together and his choice was Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. So Dillon, Christina, and I packed up and headed east.

Sunday was travel day as we left SFO at 12:30 pm and after a hour layover in Atlanta we landed in Knoxville at 10:30 ET. Dillon was very well behaved on the plane and only put out a little whimper when he was up two hours past his regular nap time.

Monday was spent around our cabin we rented. Everyone was to tired to get up and see any sites. But we did play pool, cards, and foosball.

Tuesday we walked around some shops in Pigeon Forge. The highlight for Dillon and Robert (my three year old cousin) was a stop in the John Deere store. Right inside the door was a small motorized Gator that Dillon immediately jumped on, pointed to the back and said "Otis." After our window shopping was over we headed over to the Dixie Stampede.

For those of you who have never been to the Dixie Stampede, it is an overpriced horse show with excellent food. One of the caveats of the show is no one is given any silverware, which is quite tough to do with a toddler sitting on your lap. Dillon did have the time of his life watching the horses race around the arena. He clapped and yelled and had a rowdy good time.

Today was spent at Pigeon Forge's main attraction, Dollywood. Well, I should say part of the day. It has rained every day or evening we have been here and today was no different. Thunderstorms rolled in this afternoon and the threat of lightning shut down all the rides. We didn't get a chance to ride any of the adult rides since we spent most of our time there doing all the kiddie things. We did get a rain check (no pun intended) since we were forced to leave early. There is a good chance we will go back later this week to enjoy the big rides.

Below are pictures so far.

Their love for trucks and tractors enabled Dillon and Robert to get along from the beginning.

Even Uncle Curt joined in the tractor fun.


Dillon and Yvonne celebrating their second birthdays.


Grannie Barbara made Veggie Tales shorts for the little ones.


TRACTORS!!!!


Here is Dillon driving a car at one of the rides in Dollywood. Another favorite ride for Dillon was the teacups. Keith, Dillon and I got our teacup spinning the fastest, much to Christina's disapproval.


The fastest pink gun in Tennessee.


A trip to Tennessee isn't complete without seeing the worst (best?) mullet East of the Mississippi. I had Christina snap this picture while pretending to take a picture of me.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Happy 2nd Birthday Dillon


It seems like just yesterday we were eagerly awaiting his arrival. Read his announcement and story, then look at his pictures over the past two years.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Quick Fix

Last Saturday, while jamming away on drums in Rock Band, I snapped the plastic drum pedal. Sunday afternoon I called up EA and in less than five minutes they were shipping me a new drum pedal, free of charge. I had read online that EA had set up a seperate tech support for the game but was not expecting such an easy process.

Today the new pedal arrived. It took exactly five business days for them to get the replacement from their warehouse to my doorstep. Very impressive.

Below is a picture of the broken pedal next to the new one.



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Now playing: Mama Cass - Make Your Own Kind Of Music
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