Beginning on June 18th, I weighed in at a hefty 274 pounds. By the time August 14th rolled around 57 days later, I had trimmed an even 30 pounds, with only 4 pounds to go to reach my initial goal of 240. I’m going to wait a few more days before weighing again. Perhaps I’ll have reached my goal by then.
It’s something that I’m kind of proud of, and I believe I’ll keep going for at least a little while longer. Maybe see how I feel at 230 or 225 or so.
He weighed 9 pounds, 14.3 ounces, and was 20 inches long.
Labor and delivery was quite an adventure, but was by far a much better and I dare say easier experience for all of us than were the birthdays of our last two kiddos.
Here is the text of what I wrote to Texas Senator Robert Duncan today regarding Senate Bill 1164, relating to the carrying of concealed handguns on university campuses:
Senator Duncan:
I’d like to express my support of SB 1164 concerning the right of persons possessing a concealed handgun license (CHL) to carry their lawfully owned, concealed handguns on university campuses, and request that you do the same.
To deny a law-abiding adult the right to defend themselves by any means necessary is shameful.
To deny an adult who has lawfully obtained and trained with a firearm, who has taken the required course, passed both a written test and a shooting proficiency test, and has paid all applicable fees in order to obtain a CHL the right to carry their concealed handgun in certain locations based on the premise that such a location is a “gun free zone” is laughable. Such a law-abiding citizen, carrying a concealed handgun, is no more likely to engage in violent behavior on a university campus than any other law-abiding citizen.
A person that engages in such violent behavior is a criminal, and balks at the notion of a “gun free zone”. Designating a given location a “gun free zone” is as ineffectual and inconsequential as would be designating the same area a “crime free zone” or “violence free zone”. Such designations do nothing to change a criminal’s behavior, and only serve to restrict the law-abiding citizen’s right to self defense.
Law-abiding citizens should have the right to protect themselves from criminals, or otherwise those with such a criminal or predatory mindset, regardless of where that citizen happens to work or go to school, and by any means at their disposal.
As a voter and as your constituent I urge you to support this bill. There is no valid statistical or otherwise factual basis for doing otherwise.
Thank you for your consideration,
Joseph Ellis
It’s not the most eloquent letter ever written, but it gets the point across.
You can write to him here.
Read this.
Yep, it’s been a while, but here we are again.
It may seem odd to some cyber-savvy uber-dorks, but real life does on occasion get in the way of blogging, even on a low-rent blog like this one. We’ve all been pretty busy as of late – in a good way. Mark has been keeping me busier than a one legged man in one of those contests you’ve heard about. We’ve been renting apartments and getting tenants moved in just as fast as we can, at what I believe is safe to call an all-time record pace.
So. Family blogging has fallen by the wayside, and I do apologize to those who long for updated photos and stories of the kids/grandkids. We’ll try to get some recent stuff posted up here in the coming days.
For instance:
Well I believe I’ve gotten everything put back together. Got the memory issues resolved (I think), restored the Photo Albums, and got all the Pages which had inadvertently been converted to Posts converted back to Pages via a little SQL work in phpMyAdmin.
If you notice anything that seems a little wonky, let me know.
But now it seems that in all my fiddling around with this infernal contraption I’ve managed to wipe out the Photo Albums page. It’s actually still there, but Wordpress doesn’t seem to know that yet.
Until I get it all sorted out, you can peruse the Photo Albums here.
Wordpress has been giving me heck with memory errors and whatnot. I’m working to resolve them.
In the meantime, ponder this:
