When I Was A Child DEA Agent

One of my favorite moments as a junior high kid was when my family was spending the weekend at our trailer on a hill overlooking Lake Bridgeport. (Go ahead, read that again. Yep, I said "trailer".) Anyway, we spent a lot of time in the back yard area underneath shade trees just looking at the lake.

At one point my mom began noticing a car about a quarter of a mile away make its way down to the shore. A couple of guys got out and walked into the woods. They would stay for a while and then leave.

This happened maybe three times over a week at which point my mom made a bold statement: "I bet they're growing dope down there!"

Being a wise guy even back then, I immediately ridiculed her. She was quick to defend her position and suggested that me, her, and my brother walk down into that wooded area and check it out. I jumped at the chance.

We made our way down the hill and along the shore of Lake Bridgeport until we came to the wooded area. We walked in, and, I'll be [expletive deleted], there were four rows of marijuana plants and a bottle of "Miracle Grow". Of course, we didn't know what marijuana plants looked like, but you just don't see a nice little garden of green plants in the middle of no where.

So what did we do? Heck, we couldn't let those boys come back and harvest their marijuana and ruin their lives. So we pulled it up.

I still laugh at the following sight. I've got both arms extended as I held about 20 big uprooted marijuana plants. And I'm just walking along the shore with my my mom. My brother, once we got out in the open, took off running like lightening.

"Where are you going?" we yelled.

I still remember his reply as his voice trailed off in the distance. "You can go to jail for two ounces and you guys are walking along with two pounds!" Genius.

I eventually threw all the plants in the lake, but we kept one. Dad took it into town the next day to show to the chief of police to confirm it was marijuana. (It was.) He brought it back the next day and for some reason we just kept it on the back porch in a small bucket full of water.

Good times.

Blessed Mother Of Acceleration

This has nothing to do with Wise County, but this state senator from the San Antonio area (Republican Jeff Wentworth) has spent $20,308 of campaign funds to lease a Lexus. Why? Because it's "safe" in all that crazy Austin traffic.

Hey, what does Rep. Phil King drive?

Poll Results

What do you think of the Reunion? - Top Notch. Wouldn't Miss It..................11% - Not Bad. Go Every Now and Then ...... 14% - Overrated.................................................34% - Hate It. Would Never Go Back................8% - Never Been...............................................30% Total votes cast: 216 And man, that is the ugliest looking poll in the world. But we'll follow it up with a reader suggestion who was curious about the demographics of The Blog.

The Concept Of Real Breaking News

Random thought time.

All the local TV stations/network affiliates will throw down the "Breaking News" banner at the drop of the hat. Normally, without just cause. But the old school national networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) are the exception. If during the day or prime time, you see programming interrupted for "Breaking News" because the national network has made the decision to do so, you can bet it will be big.

I think I'm an oddity, but once I see those words show up on my television, my heart starts racing. It happened last night when ABC broke in on some stupid sitcom to announce the bridge collapse in Minnesota. (And that, by network standards, is questionable story to stop down a network for. Yeah, it's big, but I'm a little surprised they did it.)

But once I saw the "Breaking News" banner I was standing in front of the TV waiting for the anchor to appear and say, "Good evening, there is breaking news tonight from . . . . " It can be anything. And in this day and time, I mean anything.

Thursday Afternoon Crumb

If I'd watch MTV's "The Hills" I would know that this is Heidi Montag. I still probably wouldn't understand why she has "Girls Gone Wild" across her booty. But somehow I figured this qualifies as breaking news.

Just For The Sports Fans

There's nothing special about this clip (Just Ex-Evil Empire great Vince Young slapping a teammate.) The real news is that ESPN is now creating embeddable video clips. I think the Internet changed dramatically when youtube introduced these flash videos to the masses. Now everyone is doing it.

Mark Teixeira

. . . hit a home run for the Braves last night. Which gives me an excuse to post this.

Dang It

Well, the tattoo bandit has been caught. Just when I was getting entertained by this crazy lady who thought she could walk into any establishment, anywhere, and just demand some money. I don't think she exactly was a fan of those "plan every detail" Ocean's 11 movies.

And, by the way, that's a hard 33.

At Least . . .

, , , she called me "dear" before she tried to infect my computer with The Aid.

The AID?

Fascinating news (from Fox 4) on the triple murder - suicide of the Flower Mound family. The wife/mother who used the gun left two notes: A suicide note and another warning everyone that the family was infected with AIDS.

Holy cow.

A spokesman for the Flower Mound PD said, "We looked into [her] medical history and found out that she had no terminal illness." Whoa. Tap the brakes there, hoss. If he means that the Medical Examiner has already tested her blood for AIDS and it was negative, then I believe him. Other than that, there's just now way you can know from her "records" whether she had AIDS. You simply can't know every doctor or public health clinic that she visited.

But what a crazy story.

The Poll

I used to post a poll every now and then but could never think of any decent questions. But the software on this site just made posting one very easy so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'll probably keep it up for a day or so. Edit: And I realize I need to work on the spacing. Edit #2: That is one ugly looking poll.

Skool Daze

The "new Texas Accountability Ratings" for public schools were released today. You can find your school's performance here.

Oh, So This Is What You Use Flickr For

Don't worry. She didn't jump. Link.

Edit: For a larger picture, be sure to click on the "All Sizes" button at the top of each photo.

Edit: Those pics were actually taken yesterday.

Well, It Is August

I was looking around for some preseason high school football rankings (which are meaningless but fun), but only had limited success. I'm sure Dave Campbell's rankings are out, but didn't see them on its website. It's too early for the AP rankings. Some outfit called TexPrepsFootball.com lists Decatur at #25. Edit: Found out Dave Campbell predicts this order of finish in a local district race:

10-2A 1. Cisco 2. Boyd 3. Paradise

Tara Reid says,

"I loves grabbing me a watermelon from IGA and then getting a bottle of champagne from One Stop before I hit the beaches of Black Creek Lake."

Edit: Everyone thinks this pic looks fake. Found it here (with others.)

Still Laughing At This

Photo from the Morning News - a fan of FC Dallas shows his disgust for David Beckham not playing in Frisco last night.

"Unusual Suspects"

The Smoking Gun has posted a few mug shots under the description of "The Unusual Suspects." Love it. And I think I saw wife #7 in there.

A Little Tense

O.J. Simpson was on a Dallas Internet radio show last night and even took phone calls. I'm looking for the audio but I know this happened:

One caller asked the former football player if he thought it was "a bigger feat to break 2,000 yards in one season or slice two necks in one night."

Oh, my.

Edit: TMZ has the video of a portion of the wild questions here. (The second caller asked him if he killed Bill Walsh - the former 49ers coach who died of cancer two days ago.)

Edit: Someone commented that video was gone, but I think it's still there. Another way to get to it is through here.