Oops!

Cotton missed.

Good Oklahoma Fun

"Cotton" and Leo, fileting sand bass.

West Family

Phyllis, Leo, Max, Deborah, my mom, and Melissa.

Fishing Gang

Max West, Rick Boyne, Bob Boyne, Leo West, Ray, Ray's buddy

"New Cousin"

All my life, I have heard about my cousin, Leo. He is the son of my mother's mother's mother's sister's son, Max. He and his family live and work in London, UK. Max was there with Phillips Petroleum in the 60's and 70's. Leo chose to stay in London and married another immigrant to UK. For the first time ever, I got to meet Leo. I am both filled with joy to have a "new" cousin that I hit it off so well with and filled with sadness that I missed out on such a great guy my whole life.

For the past 4 or 5 years, Max, has come to Oklahoma from Borger, TX, to go fishing with some old buddies of his at Hudson Lake, which is just north of here. Two years ago, he asked my dad to go along. I think this was Leo's second or third time this year. And, since I was home, I got to tag along with the gang this year, too. We had such a great time. I only went one day, but the boys fished a total of 4 days. After it was all over, they brought home the sand bass for a fish fry at mom and dad's house. We were joined by Max's wife and daughter, and Leo's wife, Melissa. Unfortunately, Max was sick and he gave me whatever crud he had. (Yes, I am blaming you, Max!)

I had such a great time. I'd give anything to be able to go each year with them.

Yippeee!

Today, we got phone service hooked up in our house, so I can now do email and blogging from home! We only have dial up and only connect at 28.8, but, that's ok.

So, I should be a little more regular with my blog posts.

Scott Wesley Brown Video

Well, I finally made it up to my in-laws' house where they have hi-speed internet and was able to upload the Scott Wesley Brown video that I made last Sunday. Due to the fact that it is 91 mb, I am only giving the link here, so that if you don't have DSL, you don't have to wait forever for my Blog to load. Any any case, just click on the link below to take you to my YouTube site, where you can watch the video.

Scott Wesley Brown Video

Welcome to Texas

(Signs at a West Texas rest stop.)

I think what they are trying to tell you is: Don't feed the snakes!

Friends

Tim Tillinghast, Rick Boyne, Bill Johnson

It was great to see two old college buddies in Midland!

Scott Wesley Brown

Rick Boyne and Scott Wesley Brown. A couple of good lookin guys!

Great time in Texas!

We just returned from a conference this weekend in Midland, Texas. It was really great. The featured musician was Scott Wesley Brown. I have some videos, but I'll have to wait for a better internet connection to upload them to YouTube.

One of my friends from Africa said that West Texas looks a lot like West Africa, except West Africa has more trees!

Meme with Great-Granddaughters

My little sister threw a really great birthday party for Audrey last weekend. Since I've been so busy, I hadn't downloaded the pictures from the party until just today. I thought this one of my grandmother with her great-granddaughters (and one great-great granddaughter) was just pretty cool.

Thanks, Pam, for making my daughter's 11th birthday something really special!

All the girls

Here's Audrey's candles being lit at the shin-dig thrown by my favorite little sister, Pammy Pooh.

Birthday Par-tay

"Aunt Pammy's Cake" for Audrey's birthday. How sweet it was!

Wow, Expensive!

We are currently traveling to Midland, TX, and decided to stay at a Best Western here in Abilene. We are used to staying at very nice (4 star) hotels in Thailand for about $20-35 per night. Hotels in Thailand are incredible. They have full bell service, full breakfast buffets, incredible decor, etc, etc....

We paid $98 for this room. It is nice, but it ain't all that. It's a Best Western, for crying out loud!

At least it has a coffee pot and coffee in the room. That's something.

Getting ready for fun

This week, we serviced my dad's pontoon boat to get it ready for the season. You can see dad's golf cart near the back of the boat.

The crappie have begun to bite. Dad, Sally, and I caught several nice ones in the dock the other day, mostly around the 1 1/2 lb. size. We caught them on minnows at about 10-12 feet. I went trolling for sand bass with dad and we caught several very nice ones.

Traveling again

It appears that I have abandoned Boyneblog, but it is simply the lack of good internet access.

We are traveling again; this time to Midland, Texas. We left this morning about a quarter after 8, stopped for donuts in Muskogee, then hit Highway 69, took I-40 to OKC, then I-44 (toll) down to Wichita Falls. We were expecting to spend the night there, but we arrived MUCH TOO EARLY. So, we are spending the night in Abilene. I haven't been to Abilene in over 25 years. In my humble opinion, Abilene is what happens when 'West grows up'.

So, we'll poot around here in the morning, having a leisurely breakfast and drive the 2 1/2 hours to Midland. It should be a great time.

Hunt them eggs

The cold front that came through made for some frosty Easter Egg hunting this afternoon. While it warmed up to about 40 by the time we went outside, the wind was still very cool and actually unpleasant. The kids usually want to re-hide the eggs and do it again, but they said "once was enough" for this year!

Easter!

Well, we must be back in the USA: we had white eggs to color! We are up in Vinita for the day before Easter. The kids colored eggs and then went for a hunt in the back yard. A good time with family.

Birthday Cake

Audrey celebrated an early birthday at Grandma's house yesterday. (I wish she'd pick out better t-shirts to wear for internet publication!)

SNOW!

Yes, that's right! Snow in Oklahoma. Not much, but snow nonetheless!

It started with a cold front (obviously) that pushed its way through Oklahoma yesterday. By noon, it was snowing in Vinita and we received a phone call from Grandma gloating about it. By 3 or so, my sister, Pam, called and just went on and on about how pretty it was. By 9 pm, the girls were in bed (obviously) and I looked out. It was kind of snowing-kind of sleeting, but the top of the car was white. I got the girls up to look at it. Audrey was elated. Emily looked like Clark W. Griswold when he looked at the Grand Canyon in Vacation; kind of a "yep, it's snowing all right", then went back to bed.

Well, it didn't snow much and there wasn't any evidence left this morning when we got up. But, BOY IT WAS COLD! Sally and I had lunch at El Chico's, and when we came out of the restaurant, it was spitting snow again. The girls said they saw it at school, too, so I was glad for that.

We drove up to Vinita for tonight and Saturday. Grandma had a cake and present for Audrey's birthday (next Wednesday) and we had fajitas for supper.

In the mean time, have a very Happy Resurrection Day!

Internet Problems

Well, living off down in the woods of Oklahoma definitely has its advantages; I caught a pound and a half crappie yesterday! However, the biggest downfall is Internet connectivity. The ice storm brought down the phone line to our house and we haven't gotten it back up yet. My folks, who live next door, have dial-up, but I have only been able to connect at 21 kb and 28.8. It's like I am back in Africa!

I'll try to update as much as I can, but there may not be many pictures!