Stage Right Theatre’s dinner theater production, “Game Show,” is just a couple of weeks away. I will not be on stage this year, but I am part of the show. You could be to! (Oooh. How’s that for a teaser?)

For the first time, you can buy your tickets online (for a $1 extra fee). So what are you waiting for? Do it!

Clicky clicky.

It’s been a long time and I’m bored on Work From Home Friday, soooo….

BASICS:
001. Real name: Trinity Lance Ladd
002. Nickname(s): Trint, Honeybear, Ninny, Uncle Trint, Laddy
003. Zodiac sign: Neon
004. Male or female: Really? Ok. Male.
005. Elementary: Highland Park, Pucket, and one in Washing DC were I got bussed to the ghetto, but I don’t know the name.
006. Middle School: Highland Park
007. High School: Highland Park
008. Hair color: Brown with natural white highlights 😉
009. Long or short: Short
010. Loud or Quiet: Oh so very loud
011. Sweats or Jeans: Cargo shorts!!
012. Phone or Camera: Dude. It’s 2011. They are one.
013. Health freak: I wish
014. Drink or Smoke: No thanks. I prefer breathing and not falling down.
015. Do you have a crush on someone: Yes!
016. Eat or Drink: As much as possible
017. Piercings: NEEDLES??!! NOOOO!!
018. Tattoos: My name, my heritage, my God (all in one)

HAVE YOU EVER…
019. Been in an airplane: Yes
020. Been in a relationship: Yes
021. Been in a car accident: Yes
022. Been in a fist fight: Yes

FIRSTS:
023. First piercing: NEEDLES??!! NOOOO!! (still)
024. First best friend: Galyn Black
025. First award: 2nd grade pinewood derby (awarded for style not for speed)
026. First crush: Jennifer Shipley (kindergarten)
028. First big vacation: Red River motorcycle trip (18 months, I have video proof)

LASTS:
029. Last person you talked to: Tammy
030. Last person you texted: Tammy
031. Last person you watched a movie with: Tammy (Is this getting redundant yet?)
032. Last food you ate: Strawberry banana yogurt (We’re out of milk, so no Cheerios today.)
033. Last movie you watched: Knight and Day (Didn’t like it)
034. Last song you listened to: “I Am Free” (Youth worship last night)
035. Last thing you bought: Oneida Forks (I know, weird, huh?)
036. Last person you hugged: Tammy

FAVES:
037. Food: Freebirds! Carnitas and refried beans baby! Yeah!
038. Drinks: Grape G2, Mountain Dew when I’m feeling naughty
039. Clothing: Duh. Cargo shorts and funny T-shirts. It’s all I own!
040. Books: Only if they read themselves (audio books are teh roXXorz)
041. Music: U2, Christian rock, 80s punk, and Weird Al
042. Flower: Not so much
043. Colors: Black mostly
044. Movies: Yes and lots of them (but no chick flicks are stupid teen movies please)
045. Chips: No! Cheetos!!
046. Subjects: Religion and politics of course

IN 2010 I …
047. [x] kissed in the snow (Yea snow!)
048. [ ] celebrated Halloween
049. [x] had my heart broken
050. [ ] went over the minutes on your cell phone (Unlimited is the only way to go!)
051. [ ] someone questioned my sexual orientation
052. [x] came out of the closet (What? We have a walk-in. 😛 )
053. [ ] got pregnant (Heh. Now THAT would be impressive.)
054. [ ] (Not even going to allow that question on my blog.)
055. [x] done something you’ve regretted
056. [x] broke a promise
057. [ ] hid a secret
058. [ ] pretended to be happy (Never! Always be true to yourself!)
059. [ ] met someone who changed your life (Unless you count new youth kids. I do that every year.)
060. [ ] pretended to be sick
061. [ ] left the country
062. [x] tried something you normally wouldn’t try and liked it (I’ll try [almost] anything once.)
063. [ ] cried over the silliest thing (Well, my mom died, but I don’t suppose that qualifies.)
064. [ ] ran a mile (Har har har. I haven’t run more than 50 yards since college.)
065. [ ] went to the beach with your best friend(s) (Blech. I don’t like the beach.)
066. [ ] stayed single the whole year (Duh. I’m married.)

(Dang, this is long!)
CURRENTLY:
067. Eating: Nope
068. Drinking: Nope
069. I’m about to: Take a shower and have lunch
070. Listening to: The hum of my ancient desktop computer
071. Plans for today: Oversee the youth mowing my yard, go shopping for youth camp supplies (Oh! And work from home, of course.)
072. Waiting for: Lunchtime!!

YOUR FUTURE:
073. Want kids: No thanks. I’ve got plenty.
074. Want to get married: Not again!
075. Careers in mind: I’ll stick with web developer, thank you.

WHICH IS BETTER WITH GIRLS/GUYS
(I’m going to go with girls, although it might get me in trouble.)
076. Lips or eyes: Lips
077. Shorter or taller: Taller, but not as tall as me.
078. Romantic or spontaneous: Yes
079. Nice stomach or nice arms: Arms? Really? Stomach
080. Sensitive or loud: That’s a tough one… loud
081. Hook-up or relationship: Relationship
082. Trouble-maker or hesitant: Trouble-maker >:)

HAVE YOU EVER:
083. Lost glasses/contacts: Sunglasses, many many times
084. Ran away from home: No
085. Hold a gun/knife for self defense: Yes
086. Killed somebody: No, and please, God, I hope not ever
087. Broken someone’s heart: Probably
088. Been arrested: No
089. Cried when someone died: Yes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
090. Yourself: Absolutely
091. Miracles: Very much yes
092. Love at first sight: Very much NO!
093. Heaven: Yes
094. Santa Claus: HA!
095. Sex on the first date: Oh, come on. Really? NO!
096. Kiss on the first date: No

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
097. Is there one person you want to be with right now: Yes
098. Are you seriously happy with where you are in life: Very
099. Do you believe in God: Yes! Jesus is my homeboy!
100. Who would you like to see answer these 100 questions: Steven Hoyer (#1)

[ed. Fair warning: I was in a very weird mood when I wrote this, or possibly having a heat stroke. Read with caution.]

Ahh summertime in Texas. Huddling in our homes, curtains drawn to keep out the burning light of day, basking in the cool breeze from our air conditioners, and praying our lawns do not spontaneously combust. Good times.

That is, until your AC can’t keep up with the hundred-n-somethin’ oven outside.

When Tammy and I bought our wonderful home, we knew that the AC was old and perhaps past its prime. We told ourselves, “No matter! For we shall save our pennies and dimes that on that fateful day when the system succumbs to the sweet here-after, we shall easily purchase a new one!” (For some reason, my more naive memories always have Elizabethan accents.)

If you saw my last WFHF video, you know how all that penny and dime saving has been going this year. Yyyyyyeah. So, anyway.

Last Friday (This Friday? This last Friday?? The Friday that was before today last time happened???), we noticed that it was strangely warm as we huddled in our home (see first paragraph for further description). The thermostat said 72, but the thermometer said 80. Well, that can’t be good. Being the manly man of the house that I am, I ventured outside (risking my life in the full heat of the late evening) and found the loud-noise-box-thing wasn’t making it’s customary loud noise that cools the house. After giving it a manly kick that didn’t fix it, I knew I needed help.

Thankfully, we have a friend from church who works on loud-noise-box-things-that-cool-your-house. He came by and found that a part had overheated. (What? In this weather?? Noooo.) He looked through the similar parts rolling around in the back of his truck, but could not find an exact match. Instead (and I’m not making this up), he found two smaller parts and some extra wire and made the part we needed. So where we used to have a 60 amp thingy, we now have a 25 amp thingy wired to a 35 amp thingy wired to where the busted thingy once was. Seriously.

It’s working so far, but the above mentioned friend did have a hard conversation with me. The kind of conversation that usually leaves you looking at your bank account balance and quietly weeping. Basically, our air conditioner is living in hospice care. We’re doing what we can to keep it comfortable and quietly making arrangements for its ultimate demise. And you think funerals are expensive! You should see the estimate for a new AC!!

And so we are taking measures to try and squeeze another couple of months our of our hospice care AC. For instance, on Saturday, we turned the thermostat up to 80, making the house very uncomfortable for us, but much more comfortable for our poor AC unit. Then, we spent the entire day away from the sauna that would normally be our house and drove all over town going from free AC to free AC. Bookstores, restaurants, malls, you name it. It was actually a lot of fun. It was an adventure!

So, please be in prayer for our hospice care AC. Pray it lasts long enough that we can pay to replace it without paying the premium rate (that I feel is completely fair and well earned) for doing the replacement when it’s a hundred bazillion degrees outside and twice that in our attic (where the less-noisy-make-cold-box-part lives).

[ed. See? I told you it would be weird.]

It’s that time of year again. The weather is hot. School is out. And the young and stupid are aimlessly roaming our streets.

I am more than a little concerned (if not fully horrified) that I have increasingly heard words generally associated with grumpy old farts coming from my own mouth (and even from my wife).

“Pull up yer pants! No one wants to see yer drawers!”
“When are ya gonna get a haircut, ya hippie?!”
“What’s with all that metal hanging off yer face? Did you crash into a fence?!”
“Stay off my lawn!!”

Ok, I’ve never actually said that last one. But still…

I’ve worked with the youth in our church for eight years now.  (Holy cow! Eight years?!) We loved and guided dozens and dozens of kids through the trials of youth. We call them our “chi’ren” (a bit of a nod to Shirley Q Liquor and her 19 chi’ren). A few of our chi’ren are now married with kids, thus we even have grand chi’ren! So I feel that I am well qualified to talk about this segment of our population: The Young and Stupid.

I read a quote once:

“To be old and wise, you must first have been young and stupid.”

It might be a stretch for me to presume that I have achieved “old and wise”, but let there be no doubt, I did get here via the long and painful road of “young and stupid.” Still, I don’t think this statement is universally true. Here are a couple more quotes that I feel are good rebuttals to the above:

“A wise man learns from him mistakes. A wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.”
“I don’t have to get hit by a truck to know it hurts.”

And thus, there is always hope for the young. There are ample opportunities for them to gain wisdom without experience, to be both young and wise. In fact, a couple of my chi’ren are shining examples of this. However, they are in the minority.

So, if you are old and wise, be patient. When you hear the music thumping from a car behind you. When you see clothes that used to be reserved for strippers and prostitutes now worn openly at the mall. When you are confronted with the Young and Stupid, remember! You were once young and stupid too.

Oh, and if you are young and stupid: Pull up yer dern pants and stop poking holes in yer face! You’ll thank me when your old.

Hiking is just walking where it’s okay to pee outside.

This week’s white board quip is brought to you by Wolf Pen Gap in the Ouachita National Forest in Western Arkansas. Tammy and I had a fantastic vacation there last weekend.

We trailered Thumper and Buzz up there and rode all over the places where it’s okay to pee outside. I have some pictures and video that I hope to put together later this week along with a full report. But for now, let me just say that my wife is awesome. This was only her second time on her four-wheeler and she did amazingly well. Together we rode every open trail in Wolf Pen Gap, even the hardest ones. We only chickened out on the single hardest obstacle there, a big boulder field. I’m such a lucky guy.

Today, I was surfing YouTube… er… I mean… I was working… yeah, working. That’s it. I was working and stumbled across the video below. The fact that I stumbled across this completely by accident is pretty amazing.

Long ago, I posted about my glory days racing “thunder bombers” and Dirt Track Speedway in Amarillo. Well, the video below features thunder bombers racing at that very same track! The name has changed and, based on the website, they’ve closed once again, but this video has left me washed over with memories of the sights and sounds of that glorious summer. The glare of the lights. (We ran at night back then.) The smell of burning oil and rubber. The grit of the dirt in your teeth. Good times!

Yes, chi’ren, this is what your Uncle Trint used to do for fun! And, holy cow, was it fun!!

A few things to notice:

The giant tractor tires sitting on the track were put there to slow us down. The idea was, if we had to slow down to avoid the tires, we’d be driving at a saver speed. Yeah. Nice try.

Keep an eye out for the co-drivers, sitting in the passenger seats. You can see them looking back trying to spot on-coming cars for the driver as you have to race without mirrors.

This was a pretty small race compared to those I raced in. We always had at least 20 cars on the track. The biggest race I was in had over 50!! And, as you can see, there are no yellow flags to let disabled cars get off the track. If your car quits, you just have to sit there and hope you don’t get hit until the race is over. Out of that more-than-50 cars I raced against, less than 10 finished the race.

It’s Friday night. Tammy and I made a spontaneous trip to Six Flags after work and rode the newly redesigned Texas Giant.

First, let me say that it’s been over 2 years since we rode the Giant. It was just too rough. Painful. No fun anymore. But the new steel redesign is freakishly smooth and quiet.

Usually, for a “hang time” ride, like most woodies, you want to ride in the back for the faster, negative-G drops. But for a fast, smooth, super coaster, you want to ride in the front for the better view.

We road in the front first. It was fun, fast, and the “over 90 degree” turns were really cool. But it wasn’t “the best ride ever.”  The line was short (30 minutes) so we rode again, this time in the back. OH EM GEEEEE! What a difference. It was a completely different ride. It was OH-Mazing. The “hang time” was off the charts. I usually scream my roller coaster scream (Tammy says I sound like a girl. Pshaw.) But on this ride, I was going back and forth between gasping, “Holy crap!” (Yes, I’m sorry, chil’ren. I cussed.) on the huge negative-G drops, and laughing so hard I couldn’t breath. It RAWKED.

I’m not sure if it’s better than Mr. Freeze (my all-time favorite ride), but it’s dang close.

We’re back!

It’s surprising how much you yearn for normalcy when you are forced to go without it for a couple of weeks. And there’s nothing like a death in your immediate circle of friends and family to rattle your perspective. So this week’s white board quip is not nearly as original or clever as usual, but it certainly is true and very much in the front of my mind this week.

Don’t take life too seriously. No one makes it out alive.

Sorry for letting my blog stagnate. There’s been much news on the home front. Rather than fuss with copying and pasting, I’ll just link over to my Mom’s blog.

March 8 – The Home Stretch

March 10 – Waiting

March 12 – Free At Last

Thanks to everyone who prayed, cared, and commented. I’ll still be in La Grange for the next week. Maybe life will regain some normalcy after that.

I have had an epiphany.

There is this thing I heard about that I think could well change my life. It’s called “priorizisition” or something like that. Basically it means, “Do important stuff and don’t do unimportant stuff.” It’s pretty ground breaking and, I think if this catches on, the world could really be a better place.

The epiphany is this: I can get things done that are actually beneficial and and productive and can improve my life and the lives around me. But to do so, I must stop doing the unimportant, meaningless, and time-consuming things that fill my life now. I do not have to watch every sci-fi or comedy movie franchise or TV series, in order of release, just because NetFlix recommends it to me. (Take that “Strong Bad’s Emails: Discs 1 -4!”) I do not have to eat every SweeTart in the movie-theater-sized box that I bought (just because it was on sale), carefully choosing the color I eat to maintain an equal color ratio among the remaining pieces. I do not have to listen to the songs in my iTunes playlist sorted by number of plays so that no song feels superior to the others and no song feels left out.

Shocking, I know!

I just finished pruning my NetFlix queue from 498 down to 336. I feel so free! Inspired!! I also deleted the spreadsheet where I tracked the episodes of “Sliders” that had and had not seen. (I still have the spreadsheets for “King of the Hill” and “Big Bang Theory.” Baby steps, you know? [And, yes, I am serious. These spreadsheets actually exist.])

So anyway. Now, all I have to do to turn my life around and change the world is overcome my overwhelming compulsions to do all these pointless things and to somehow replace them with overwhelming compulsions to do productive things like teaching myself Ruby on Rails (It’s a computer programming language, Dad. Yes, like the punch cards you used in college, except it’s for the inter-webs.) And finishing my curriculum on Revelation so I can actually teach it to people who want to understand Revelation. And getting my lawn to have green grass and dead weeds instead of the other way around. Cuz that right there would make the world a better place, I tell you whut!