TODAY Took A Vacation to San Antonio

In January I started watching tv in the morning before I went to school or work. My daily schedule was the Rachel Ray Show, The View, and then The Today show with Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. I had never had the slightest interest in any of these shows before, but there was nothing else on with our limited channels in Wymount so I got attached to these ones. My favorite was the Today show. I don't know why but KLG (Kathy Lee Gifford) and Hoda amused me because they bickered back and forth. Over the past 6 months I've watched them religiously. It kills me that I didn't know about them sooner because I took a trip last summer to New York and I could've been in the background of their show in Rockefeller Center. Well, last week I was watching the show and they announced they were going to go on a vacation to SAN ANTONIO. I was in shock for a moment. I had to rewind to make sure I heard correctly...I did. I was SOOO excited.

Mack knows of my infatuation with KLG and Hoda. When we watch tv in the morning he is kind enough to let me watch my show, even though he would much rather watch many other things. Being the incredibly generous and understanding husband that he is, he suggested we go and see them when they came to visit. I love Mack. :)

They came on Wednesday and on Tuesday we found out that they were taping everything really early. We had to be at this little theatre by the Riverwalk by 7 am. I was having second thoughts because I knew there would be tons of people and so we would have to go earlier. I told Mack we didn't have to go, but he knew I wanted to deep down. He was willing to wake up early, sit for hours, and be hot and sticky to see them with me.

We got there by 6:30. The theatre was already full. We found a spot by some annoying high school cheerleaders (who I guarantee have never watched the show) and watched while people took pictures with KLG and Hoda, swarmed the staff who were giving out free stuff, and watched people waving their ugly homemade signs. I couldn't believe that the people I watched everyday on tv were actually here in person. It was an early, but fun day. Mack even enjoyed himself. He had fun taking pictures of the weirdos. We taped the shows and later watched them to see if you could see us. We made it into some crowd shots, but only we would've been able to recognize ourselves. There was one clear one of us. We were on the Today Show!!!

KLG and Hoda...

Some of the weirdos Mack took pictures of...

A parot...it was a girl wearing the costume

An old genie

Some man claiming to have won something...he had an eye patch

They did a Texas animal segment and the Buzzard flew on Hoda's head.

And Leeann Womack performed...

It was a dream come true for me to see them. I give a big Thank You to Mack for supporting my weird obsession and indulging me by going to see them.

eBay is the best thing that ever happened to anyone

eBay is awesome. I can't even describe how great it is. I'm a man who loves deals. It was something I learned from my father. He always told me "there is no need to buy brand new when you can get barely used for half the cost". That is so true, and there is no better place to find barely used but at half the cost than eBay!!! I've been in the market for a new driver for a while now since my old driver is almost a decade old now and really outdated as far as technology goes. Unfortunatley I have a really high swing speed and that means that I have to install an aftermarket shaft that is extra stiff so it can keep up with my swing. Of course I have my sights set on the $300 shaft that is top of the line....So I'm searching around on eBay and I come upon this basically brand new 2009 TaylorMade Burner TP driver and it has.....the top of the line $300 shaft in it already!!! So I look at it not expecting it to be in my price range, but lo and behold I'm the top bidder at an astounding $150!!! It has another 4 days left before its over so I don't expect it to last but it only goes up another $50 and I won it!!!!! If I were to go into the Golf Shop and build this club on my own with all the specs that it came with I would be paying more than $750....for one club! Man I can't even tell you how excited I was to get this. The club is just beautiful. I'll let you enjoy it now:

I know right????? It's gorgeous. I can't wait to crush my drives 350 yds with this baby. What a beautiful thing. Man I love golf. By the way, this is the hardest program to post things on. It's not very user friendly and this took me like half an hour.

The San Antonio Riverwalk

I finally got to see this much talked about Riverwalk in San Antonio. Its this little river with restraunts and hotels lining it. You can eat dinner and look out at the river. We chose to sit inside and eat where it wasn't hot and then we took a stroll down the side of the river.

After walking by the river we went in a roundabout way back to our car and ended up going right past the Alamo. Its not very big and I'm not quite sure of the story behind it, except that its in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. I know its part of some battle or war and people survived in it...I don't know, but here it is.

Can you find Mack?

Haha, he's to the right of the door. I was tired of being in all of the pictures, but this was as close as he let me get of him. It was nice getting some of the sights in of San Antonio before we head out in a couple weeks...yay!!

Another Puzzle

Since I finished the puzzle of Times Square so fast (750 pieces), Mack surprised me with another puzzle of the Las Vegas strip which was 2,000 pieces!!!!! It is like 3.5 feet by 2.5 feet. I thought it was going to kill me. Don't let the picture fool you. It was full of crazy roads, pieces I swear did not belong anywhere, and windows up the waa zoo.

It took me a little over a week. I usually worked on it a couple hours a day so maybe between 15-20 hours total. Now Mack wants to get me a puzzle of The Last Supper he saw at the store...but I said no thanks.

I told Mack that now he has to take me to Las Vegas to see the real thing... his reply, "Haha, oh yeah? With what money?"

Puzzle Mania

During the day I get really bored and restless. Mack and I went to Barnes and Nobles to find me something to read so I wouldn't be so bored. Mack got a golf book and I wasn't feeling anything. I'm just not into reading when I don't feel like it. I have to be in the mood. I was looking at the kids' books and I got the idea of a puzzle. I love to do puzzles and they take a long time so it was perfect to keep me occupied. Usually I do them with my mom, but seeing that she is not here, I did my first one by myself. It was only 750 pieces, of Times Square in New York.

I started this puzzle on Sunday and finished it on Monday. Haha, so much for keeping me occupied. But here is the puzzle all done.

Two of My Favorite Things

Mack here. Been a while since I blogged so I thought I would write a bit. I have been missing something in my life for the last few years since my mission and since the multiple knee surgeries but it has found new life. Golf. I LOVE golf. I played daily in high school and have played with the same clubs for about 7 years now so needless to say, it is time for a new set. So I've been playing with this TaylorMade 320ti Driver that back in the day was awesome but there has been some amazing progress in technology since 2002. So I go into the golf shop here in San Antonio looking around for a driver. I had done a bit of research and grabbed one of the drivers I wanted to try out and I go into the simulation booth to test hit the driver and I start crushing it. I average about 300-315 yds. with my older driver which is still long but I hit this newer driver 340 yds! I was really happy about that but the golf pro started watching me and asked what club I was hitting and he said "hold on, that club can't keep up with you, let me grab you something" So he came back with the new TaylorMade Burner and he said "hit this". So I grab it and hit it 375 yds! The golf pro was amazed and then told "just grip it and rip it as hard as you can" So I swung as hard as I possibly could while keeping good form and I set the record at the golf shop with a huge 405 yd. drive! The golf pro couldn't believe it. He said "well I think that you have found your club" I went over and grabbed the ball to hit it again but I found that I had cracked the ball right down the middle! They had me sign this little towel that they kept by the simulator with all of the records that they had seen and they let me keep the ball. It was pretty sweet.

I love to play Chess and have played since grade school and even taught a bit in high school. So I thought that I would teach my lovely wife how to play the game I love. So I went on the internet and bought a $7 chess set similar to the ones that I played on in high school and over the last couple weeks have taught Bre a bit about the game. She has caught on quckly and we've already had some fun games. It's been fun to play again and I'm sure in no time she is going to become quite adept.