Alan Hood

The Dallas Cowboys held Adrian Peterson in check and won for the 5th time in 6 tries this season. Tony Romo managed the game well and didn’t throw any interceptions in a game that should have been a lot more lopsided than the final score showed. Terrell Owens really has matured into a real teammate and didn’t cause the derailment of a season that could have been on the brink after the loss to New England. What can you say about the Cowboys other than this looks like a real team finally. The past few years the Cowboys have just looked like another average team, but this year they are finally rounding into a complete team. And really what I think about it is what a relief. It can be hard on a fan that expects or desires great thing for their team and ends up with mediocrity. Finally this team has the ability to be great. The Cowboys have tough tests coming up in the next 3 weeks but I am confident they will step up to the challenge once again.

So I was watching the game and doing of all things at the same time, installing a new disposal. Ah the joys of home ownership. Sometimes it seems like there is a never ending list of things to do to maintain a house, but usually it is when you would just rather be doing anything else. I got the new disposal installed and running but crawling under a sink is the last thing I want to do while the Cowboys are playing. Just so you know I had to install the new disposal because somebody decided to ruin the last one by cleaning out the pool filter and jamming it with sand and grit. People really do some stupid things. Alright it was me but I have an excuse. I am flipping stupid. Now there are only 2 big chores to get finished before the Halloween party next Saturday. Yippee!

I made a comment to my wife’s uncle today after he mentioned that the Cardinals were getting beat up on by the Redskins that I preferred when the Cardinals kept the game close and then lost on a last second field goal. Well it didn’t happen quite like that but the result was the same. Cardinals get a chance to kick a last second field goal to win and miss wide left. Not quite as good but I can live with it as long as they are starting to feel demoralized like all of the previous 14 teams have during the time I have lived here. The Cardinals are cursed there is no question about it and as long as the Bidwells own this team they will never win a Super Bowl. Which is perfectly fine with me.

I know it is disgusting for me to get so excited about concrete, but it just means so many things are done and won’t have to be done again.  I guess the best part is that an entire half of the yard no longer has to be mowed, weeded, raked, or have dog poop picked up off of it ever again.  Yes to me that is glorious.  All I will have to do is sweep in once in a while to keep it looking clean.  It also means that a huge 2 year project is done.  2 years for me or about what would have taken a normal human being about 4 months maybe 5 if they stretched it out.  One thing I have never claimed to be is efficient.

We now have a backyard that is a pleasure to sit back relax in and go swimming.  When we bought this house we were looking for a house with a pool that we could enjoy.  But everything else about this house was perfect, and the yard was definitely big enough for a pool.  I thought it would be fairly easy to remove all of the trees and bushes necessary to put a pool in, and it would have been if I had just hired the work out to people who know how to get the job done quickly and easily.  But not me I had to be cheap and try to do most of the work myself, but I have to say that this experience has taught me a lot.  Leave the heavy lifting up to the experts.  I will never again in my life try to take on a task like that.  It will always be better for my sanity to just get the job done professionally.  Live and learn.

Okay we are finally making some headway on the back yard. The guys took out 50 tons of dirt today and it is finally off of the street in front of my house. I can’t even explain how great it looks. I am sure the girl folk will be thrilled when they get home. 50 tons of dirt may not sound like a lot to you but you would have to see the pile to get a real appreciation for the amount of dirt that left here today. The truck picking it up is a large dump tuck that carries 15 tons at a time, so they have been loading it all day a scraping the dirt around the pool flat. Funny how much better flat dirt looks than bumpy dirt. They have told me that they are going to have to pour the concrete on two different days. The first day will surround the pool and the second will fill in up to the front wall. 27 yards of concrete is like a dream come true for me. No more dust and crud on my patio and in my house.

I don’t know why anyone would get excited about concrete but it is like Christmas, my birthday, and every other holiday wrapped up in one to me. I am sure it sounds crazy but it will be such a relief to have a nice backyard that we can enjoy for a change. I have to go swimming tonight just to look at the dirt one last time before it all gets covered up. Yes I am a little wacko.

I decided to detail the journey of getting the number one spot in the SERPS for Pest control as part of the Building an Empire series so if you are interest head over to netrat.com to check it out. There will be a great deal of information on exactly how I am going about controlling the world. Well getting a good ranking for a website, controlling the world might be a little extreme.

 This past week has been very exciting around the house.  Lisa was in Austin so I decided to do a few things around the house to make her happy, and just because they really needed to get done.  First I got my friends Gordon and Brian to help me get all of the dirt from digging the pool out of the back yard.  Believe me that was a huge job.  That was such a big job that three days later my back is still killing me, but that’s life right.  The most exciting thing is that we have a concrete company coming this week to pour 27 yards of concrete in the back yard; I know that sounds like a lot of concrete but it is just the area around the pool up to the front fence.  It still leaves plenty of yard for the dogs to take care of business and run around.  The most important thing is that for the first time since we moved into this house and I started ripping up the back yard it is finally going to be about 90% finished.

Just to give you an idea of what all has been done, in the back yard alone I have taken out 8 large trees, and countless small bushes including ivy, bougainvillea, bamboo, and lots of little bushy things.  This yard was a jungle when we moved in and I knew it was going to be a huge job to get it where I wanted it to be, but I have to say that the final results are exactly what I wanted.  The pool is great, know that it is finally vacuumed out, and with concrete around it, I think it will be a real pleasure for many years to come.  Now if I can just get Gordon to finish the projects he started in December inside the house then life will be almost normal again.  Not that life in this house is anywhere close to normal.