Some photos of the damage

Roof started leaking this morning. Got up there and saw the damage. The roof is pockmarked from the hail. Nothing went all the way through, but the shingles are in bad shape. Golfers, you know what a divot looks like on a really soft green? Imagine that all across the western side of our house.

Some photos ...

That sucked

Big storm hit FS tonight. Golf ball sized hail. Possible tornado. Jen, the cat and I are fine.

Jen and I were at Bella Italia with Dad. Hail ripped three holes in the Jeep's top. Driver side door looks like somebody took a hammer to it. Looks like I will be waiting around for the insurance adjuster.

Six windows at house were knocked out. I'll post photos when the sun comes up. It was probably best that we were gone. Shards of glass blew across the living room. Good thing Charles taught me how to glaze a window. Of course, finding some panes might be a pain tomorrow.

FS schools have been canceled for Friday. TV station reported 10 schools were damaged.

Good thing my surprise party wasn't April 5

Because then we'd been in Papa's on Saturday night when this happened ...

Police Investigate Bar Fight

Of course, I know Craig would have had my back so we'd have been OK facing 15 members of an Asian gang.

Note to self

Never, ever go cover high school soccer after watching UEFA Champions League that afternoon on TV.

For you non-soccer fans, imagine going from watching the best movie you've seen in the past five years and then going to see the local high school do a production of the same story.

Brutal does not begin to describe it. Yes, yes, they're just kids. But geez it was painful to watch.

This made me laugh

Because if we had a bigger backyard, I could see Jen and I having this discussion. There's a house over on Country Club that has a chicken coop in the sideyard. I could see raising some backyard chickens for the eggs.

Spring

Spring is officially here.

Not because of any date on the calendar or the fact the dogwoods are blooming or because the Arkansas Derby is this Saturday. No, spring is here because I've got some tomato plants planted.

Two "patio" breed plants were placed yesterday. They don't deliver the huge tomatoes you see at the grocery store, instead these will be about 2-inches in diameter. Perfect for salads and salsa.

I'm probably going to get a third planter for a tomato bush. I had two of those last summer and they produced more tomatoes than we could eat. And I even snacked on sliced tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and a very light sprinkle of sea salt.

All of these tomato plants will be strictly organic. I'll use Terracycle fertilizer, made of 100-percent worm poop. Once the tomatoes start appearing, I'll use an organic pesticide. Last year, I found this stuff made from jalapenos. It kept the bugs, worms, birds and squirrels off them.

Anyway, the countdown to fresh tomatoes has started.

My new hero

Meet Jeff Deck. He's traveling the nation fixing typos and other mistakes on business signs.

Sign mistakes are one of my pet peeves. There's a hotel in Fort Smith that has a sign up that reads ...

Enjoy Our
"In"door Pool

I want to climb the sign and remove the quotes every time I drive past it.


http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/BusinessTravel/story?id=4593597&page=1

Oh, now they say it was holding

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08093/869712-66.stm

Playoff flag that wasn't thrown

Mike Pereira, the NFL's head of officiating, admitted yesterday that his crew working the Steelers-Jaguars playoff game erred in not calling a holding penalty against Jacksonville on a crucial play that allowed the Jaguars to kick the winning field goal.

Quarterback David Garrard scrambled on fourth-and-2 from the Steelers 43 and made the first down. Three plays later, Josh Scobee kicked a field goal, giving the Jaguars a 31-29 victory. Several Steelers players complained there was blatant holding on Garrard's run. Nearly three months later, Pereira agreed with them.

Tomlin declined to comment on Pereira's admission.

Question: What good does it do to announce this? (Aside from letting Steelers fans around the world say "A-ha, I knew it was the refs!") And what took them so long to announce it? Why wait 87 days from missing the call to say "Oops, sorry Steelers, we blew that one!"

OK, here goes

Jen keeps bugging me to blog about the surprise party. Honestly, I don't know what to say about it. Word fail to explain how much that night meant to me.

I was shocked. I'm talking completely and totally caught off-guard by it. Sure, I'd seen Karen and Nash wearing the shirts, but that didn't set off any warning bells. I chalk it up to being preoccupied with dealing with the new guy I've hired and trying to help him find a place to live. If I'd seen the shirts and then had time to sit around thinking about it, I would have been much more suspicious.

I was playing with a map creator yesterday, looking at how far some of you traveled to surprise me. It is humbling to know SK flew in from Boston, the Browns came in from Florida, Craiggers drove down from St. Louis (and left his pregnant wife!), Ed drove up from Austin, Dennis came from Tulsa, Mark and Sarah from Springdale and my in-laws trekked all the way from Walnut Ridge just for that party.

My mother wrote "I'm proud of the man you've become" on the picture frame by the door. I've been thinking a lot about that the past few days. Thinking about how I've grown and changed over the past 10-plus years. I realized I would not be where I am or who I am without your friendship, support, encouragement, laughter and love.

Thank you for helping me become the person I am today.

Wow

Still trying to recover from the weekend.

No, I don't have a three-day hangover. I'm talking about getting my head around the idea that Jen plotted and planned this spectacular surprise birthday party. And that even though I saw Karen and Nash wearing the tee shirts, I still had no clue what was happening.

The fact so many people took the time and spent the money to come to Fort Smith for it absolutely floored and humbled me. I freely admit I still start to tear up when I think about it. Thank you all for being my friend.

Photos have been uploaded onto our home Mac. I'll post some of them later.