Things not to say.

This place is full of 'interesting' people. What did Ryan learn this weekend? Don't tell someone you just met at a singles dance...

• you're getting over a "Nasty Divorce."
• or that you just finished your last round of "Chemo" last week
• or proceed to introduce your 11 year old son.

Yup. Good times. Awesome dating scene.

My fridge

So I bought some new magnets in the $1 bins tonight at Target, and they make me happy enough I felt like posting a pic of it.
If you zoom in enough you can read the magnets: click here to read more about them...

Texas Resident

So I still haven't gotten my Texas driver's license and all that jazz, but I did get word yesterday that they're giving me residency for school - basically saving me about $4000 a semester, a nice $8,000 for the year. This is very good news.

Also, since moving here a little over a month ago, I haven't eaten out once. Now that I'm going to have a little more money, that might change - but I'm hesitant to do so. From the changes to my diet I haven't lost any weight, but my pants are all way loose and I can tell I'm getting leaner, which is neato.

So I went for a bike ride

Ever since my accident riding my road bicycle a little over a year ago, I just haven't ridden much. I still really enjoyed it, but with the Utah hills beckoning, I did a lot more mountain biking. So yesterday I needed a break, so I decided to take out my road bike for a ride. I did about 19 miles, half of which were into a fierce headwind (not fun).

That's a sweet story, but the interesting thing was how many deceased animals I saw. Yesterday I saw:
2 dead birds (sparrows?)
1 Turkey? (It was pretty mashed up...)
1 Skunk
and I think I saw an armadillo...

Prepare a Wild-Caught Rabbit for a Meal

The first thing you want to do, after catching a wild rabbit, is to calm the rabbit down. A panicked rabbit does not make for a pleasurable dining experience. It taints it. Pet the rabbit. Maybe say something soothing, like "Easy, Brownie, easy" (if the rabbit is brown) or "Easy, Gray boy, easy" (if the rabbit is gray). You might just say, "Easy, little bunny." (But, really, can't you come up with some kind of name besides "bunny"?)

Feel the belly. It should be plump and fuzzy. But skinny is fine too. Feel the ears. They should be soft and pink. Man, I love the ears.

If you like your rabbit spicy, try rubbing him with wild sage or wild mint.

Place the rabbit on a rock with good drainage. Next, take out a long, sharp butcher knife. Try not to let the rabbit see the knife. You may not want to look at the knife yourself, as some of them are kind of scary-looking.

Hold the rabbit down firmly with one hand. With the other hand, take a carrot out of your backpack. Still holding the rabbit, place the carrot on the rock and slice it with the butcher knife. then feed the carrot pieces to the rabbit. If the rabbit doesn't eat all the pieces, feel free to eat the leftovers.

Let the rabbit go. For fun, throw the knife at a tree trunk, to see if you can make it stick, like Jim Bowie or something.

(P.S. The reason you want a rock with good drainage is in case he pees.)
- Jack Handey

I'm a capitalist

So the other day I'm eating my breakfast (which I believe was a wonderful egg sandwich with ham and cheese) when on the Today Show said they were going to talk to a Freegan about not spending money for a month. Being in a money crunch mode myself right now, I thought that this sounded like a great idea. I mean, I love free stuff, and love for people to give me free stuff, so maybe I could be a Freegan too!

Well, I didn't get to watch the piece - had to run to school, but while taking a break from reading more law this afternoon I decided to look up Freeganism.

At least it brought humor to my day. And while I will continue in my pursuit of free stuff - particularly free meals - I don't think my imperialist and capitalist points of view will allow me to ally myself with such people. Oh - nor will my work ethic. Lazy trash diggers - get a job.

Labor Day in Lubbock

So I decided I needed to do something different today, but not wanting to spent much in the way of monies on gas, I decided to go mountain biking. Therein lies the problem, for you see, in Lubbock there are no mountains. I decided a dirt road in the middle of Nowhere, West Texas would suffice.

So I went riding about 25 miles today, 12ish miles each way, got chased by some crazy dogs, saw lots of crops, and when I decided to turn around, this is what I saw:

To the North

To the East

To the West

To the South

So now you all know what you're missing out on...