The Price Family Home Companion

And 20 Makes 176

For the month of July, we racked up around 175 miles by bike (a quarter of that coming from the Katy Flatland ride alone). Although Lance Armstrong could do this in his sleep (backwards), I'm pretty proud of us; especially considering how lazy we are (or once were) and how horribly hot the summers are here in Houston.

Acid Spill too Close to Home

From HoustonChronicle.com - Acid spill shuts part of U.S. 59:

The Richmond Fire Department has asked residents living within a quarter mile of the incident to shelter in place. That mostly covers the Canyon Gate subdivision, a brand-new development with few residents and many homes still under construction, which is south of the site.

Canyon Gate is adjacent to Greatwood (due west) and very close to our end.

Chantell and Salem were headed to the mall (away from the spill) for play group around the time this happened. A couple hours later, on their way home, they heard about it. A shelter-in-place was issued and it was recommended that air conditioners be turned off.

Chantell figured that although we weren't in Canyon Gate and that the air conditioner was on during the worst of it anyway, it'd be best to comply on both counts anyway.

The shelter-in-place has now been lifted and it would seem that everything is OK now (minus the horrendous traffic), but it was a unnerving for my girls to be so near the accident. I'm just thankful I installed some new air filters (finally) this past weekend!

More Site Cleanup

The site has been slowly transitioning as I've moved film reviews to blog entries rather than notes under the "Silver Screen" links. For each movie in "Silver Screen" you'll see a link for "Our Take" which links to the blog entry for our thoughts on the movie. This was intended to clean up the "Silver Screen" side bar, but in so doing, however, it become evident that our Netflix-induced lifestyle was going to overload the main site with film reviews.

So, rather than lead our readers into the belief that all we do is watch movies and to reduce some of the clutter here, I've decided to move film reviews to their own blog, The Price Family Film Companion, entirely.

It's all probably of little consequence to you guys, just something that makes me more satisfied with the overall organization of our sites. Yep, I'm a nerd!

Our Kind of Ride

Now here's a bike ride we're seriously looking at doing this "winter" (from a flyer we received in our Katy Flatland ride package):

Tour de Doughnut

The Sweetest Bike Ride in Texas
November 7, 2004

The Tour de Doughnut is a unique bicycle [ride] where riders embark on an appetizing 20-mile journey with rest stops along the way serving as many delectable doughnuts as you can eat. For EACH tasty donut [sic] that a rider consumes, the rider is awarded a tempting 5-minute time credit. Eat enough delicious doughnuts, and you can finish the race before you even started!

I figured out that we'd have to eat 20 doughnuts a piece to break even time-wise. We agreed that that wasn't likely going to happen (no matter that Krispy Kreme is a ride sponsor). Chantell admitted, however, that she plans to eat 30 minute's worth of doughnuts.

The announcement goes on discussing a 60-mile (non-doughnut enhanced) ride option, but we didn't really give that one a second thought.

Still Breathing

Chantell and I completed the Katy Flatland Century bike ride this past Sunday (babysitting complements of Nonnie). This is our story:

My first disappointment came when I was loading the bikes up Saturday evening. It was the realization that Chantell's bike wasn't going to work with the car rack (her bike has the pass-through frame) Stephen lent us. Luckily, her bike was small enough to fit inside the car.

The second and much more devastating set-back came that same evening when I was putting more air in my tires. The valve stem of my front tire essentially broke off leaving me with a nice flat. Being relatively new to cycling I wasn't prepared for this scenario and had to make an emergency trip to Wal-Mart. To my surprise (and relief) they did have them in-stock and I was back in business before I turned in for the night.

We awoke very early Sunday morning to drive out to Katy Mills Mall where the ride would start at 7:00 AM. Thousands of riders were on hand.

Not having participated in one of these before, Chantell professed as to how she's now seen enough crack through shorts to last a lifetime. Further, she strongly supports the non-proliferation of royal blue spandex as it has such profound characteristics of transparency that it should be considered a crime against humanity.

Also cause for concern was the alarming number of people that simply fell over with their bikes... I can't explain how odd it is to see someone falling without even a trace of effort to prevent it. Splat! There was one wreck almost halfway through the ride that was so bad that we had to walk our bikes through single file past several ambulances and support vehicles.

We had our fair share of humiliation in the form of being passed by roller-bladers (and never seeing them again), grandparents in matching jerseys on tandem bikes like we were sitting still, and recumbent bikes so reclined you'd swear the person was taking a nap (and probably was).

To top it all off, a stray dog panted after us for several miles. We stopped at one point (because I had another flat), but he was skittish and wouldn't come near. Later the dog was running after me, separating Chantell and I. The image tugs at Chantell's heart to this day.

All in all, we had a good time. We finished together, in just over 3 hours. We may not have been the fastest (we weren't), and we may have been the only two with kick-stands (we were), but we're proud. For a couple of lazy bums like us, 45 miles is not too bad!

Chantell admitted (by stop #2) how she was hooked. So, we're looking forward to our next ride, The Melon Patch Tour coming up in August. We'll be doing that as part of our 5th Wedding Anniversary weekend... how sick is that?

Quick Study

He didn't have a computer on his first day at Southwest Airlines. So, Brody was tasked with procuring and designing the big 4-0-0 now seen on their website (front page at that).

Quite humorous, but also quite cool.

Spammers of Men

I must have missed the part in the Bible that reads Go ye therefore, and spam all nations... or ... follow me, and I will make you spammers of men.

Below is an e-mail entitled "What are your future plans?" I received today at work:

Hello Jprice,


Eternity is a really long time.If you or someone close to you has not accepted GOd
please do so tody. The following prayer can save you or someone that you love.

Say, "Oh God, save my soul.  I'm so sorry that I have
sinned against you, but I have come home.  I will
serve you, Lord, the rest of my life.  Deliver me
from all my sinful habits.  Set me free!  I do believe
Jesus died on Calvary for me, and I believe in His
blood, that there is power in His blood to wash away
all my sins, all my sins!"  Say, "Come into my heart,
Jesus; come on in, Jesus.  Come on in!"

If you meant it, He has come.  If you meant it,
Jesus is yours.  Start reading your Bible, pray daily
and believe that somebody's listening; His name is  Jesus.



allele at trample oreven ceremonial as in angry.
Alexander was at nightingale when that happened hypoactive.
We met at barrier and went to centrifugate wher we had  lunch at
chute.It was dutiable and a dodecahedra was had feet  by all.

If Jesus is on your blogroll, shout Amen!?!

What's next? VirtualRedemtion.com?

Had there been instructions (forward this to 100 people) or other links, I would think the purpose was sinister-in-nature (an innocent front to gather additional information).

However, the nonsense at the end and grammatical errors notwithstanding, the idea may be a good one, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired and will do little for the cause.

Fourth of July Weekend

An excellent weekend of fun, friendship, and celebration of the great country we live in:

Saturday
Finally, a weekend at home! It was a lazy day of playing Stephen's (borrowed) Xbox and one very long nap.

Sunday
We went to see grandma and grandpa after church. Uncle Rollie had just finished getting the charcoal white hot, and started to throw on some hamburgers and hot dogs (impeccable timing). Although we just intended to visit with Grandma and Grandpa, we couldn't resist the invitation to stay and eat. It was all very yummy!

After we got home, we all took another long, wonderful nap.

That evening, we went to Oyster Creek Park to see the fireworks (we were especially excited to see Salem's reactions). We arrived and found a spot among the throng of people.

The band Cooder Graw was playing (most famous for their song on the Dodge commercials: I was born on the Llano Estacado...). They were very entertaining (As tradition would have it, Salem danced ). Also of particular interest were Cooder's cowboy-hat-and-bikini-clad fan club (sorry Grandpa, no photos).

I had to buy the girls (my girls, not Cooder's) a couple of glow necklaces which Salem enjoyed very much!

After all that, the fireworks were simply a bonus!

Monday
We invited friends over for an early dinner. Reagan brought a patriotic cake, Christine brought incredible potato salad, Chantell made green-chili queso, and I grilled kabobs, made sun tea and some homemade peach ice cream. Everything turned out phenomenal!

The kabobs were perfect; Vegetables were crispy, but not charred black (which is usually my luck). Sausage, steak, and chicken were all juicy and tender... mmmm. Also, I've never made ice cream that turned out so well. It was creamy and firm (around the outer part of the canister anyway). I'm absolutely thrilled to have left-overs!

I can only hope that when the good Lord chooses to humble me, it will not be in front of company. Chantell and I have garnered quite a culinary reputation.

Bush Economy Rolls On

The economy adds another 112,000 jobs in June. Don't look now folks, but that brings us to 1.1 million in the last 6 months!