Friday Night Lights

There are 3 things Artesia, New Mexico is well known for: their Oil & Gas Industry, FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center), and probably the most important... High School Football!!! 

Artesia High has won 26 State Titles and believe me when I say they are all very proud of it!  This town bleeds orange!  Several years ago, after yet another State Championship, Mr. Yates (the owner of the main petroleum company here... and pretty much the owner of the entire town itself) gave a very hefty donation to the school in order to build a brand new state of the art football stadium... complete with reserved (season ticket) seating, sky-boxes for the VIP's, and an artificial turf which itself cost over a million dollars!  It's certainly quite an impressive stadium... especially being that it's for a high school team (feels like it should be for a small college team!), and that it's in crummy Artesia!  Definitely strange to see something so nice in such a small & dirty town!  

So Friday night, my buddy & I decide to drive the half mile down to the stadium and catch the annual "Eddy County War" between the Artesia Bulldogs & the Carlsbad Cavemen!  

The stadium was absolutely packed... with about 90 percent of the attendance all decked out in orange!  Between all the orange everywhere and the field... I almost thought I was in Knoxville! 

I honestly couldn't remember when the last time I went to a high school football game... but judging from all the youngsters and this new generation I couldn't quite figure out (nor did I want to!) that was everywhere... it had to have been hundreds of years ago!

I was actually really excited to hear the bands... but then I remembered where I was!  They're both really small schools... with particularly small bands, so needless to say, I wasn't all that impressed!

The game was actually really good until Carlsbad forgot there was a fourth quarter and decided to stop playing after three!  The atmosphere was pretty cool too... although after 'people-watching' in between plays and at halftime, I suddenly realized, "I am that creepy old guy at high school football games that really shouldn't be there?"  Perhaps... but either way, it was a good time, I enjoyed myself, and it was a great way to spend an otherwise boring Friday night!  Go Bulldogs!!! 

Growing Kittens!

Then,

Now.

Then,

Now.

Then,

Now.

Then,

Now.

Now where can I get me some dwarf kitties???

Sometimes I Surprise Myself

My most (and only) loyal customer, Rebecca, has ordered yet another cake!  She gave me a picture of what she wanted the cake to look like about two months ago... and actually paid for it a month in advance!

I started the baking process (my least favorite part!) on Thursday with great trepidation!  I had never made a square cake that required such perfect corners before... so needless to say, I wasn't feeling very confident going in to it!  Once I got home from work I went straight to the kitchen to start baking.  Four long & exhausting hours later, the cake was baked and the first coat of frosting was put on before I finally had to call it a night. 

I picked back up where I had left off on Friday night... where the decorating process (my favorite part!) took center stage!  After experimenting with a few new techniques, and eventually adding them to my little bag of tricks, I made sure those corners were nice & neat and up to (my high-quality) standard.  I have to admit, getting those corners just right was frustrating without a doubt... but actually not as bad (hard) as I thought they were going to be.  I was definitely concerned about how the cake was going to turn out; and to tell you the truth, I almost didn't accept the order for fear the cake would ultimately end up on "Cake Wrecks"!  So although it was frustrating, time consuming, and stressful, I'm glad I took the order on and impressed I didn't give up... for in the end, I think it came out pretty darn good!  

Below is the photo she gave me of what she wanted her cake to look like.  She only requested two tiers (or just enough cake to feed 30 people), she wanted the same color "ribbon" on both tiers, and she also requested the classic bow on top to have two loops instead of three. 

And this of course, is my version.  

Not bad for my first square cake, huh?

Next up: the dreaded wedding cake in three weeks!

Wish me luck... I think I'm going to need it!  :-)

Dinner at Ming & Bing's

Me, Kitty, & Sasquatch

Ever since I've known my buddy... he's always made fun of me for having a cat!  He's a huge dog-lover and had an Australian Cattle Dog for the longest time.  "A single guy should never own a cat!" he used to tell me back in the day... "How do you expect to get _____ when you already have one at home?"  Needless to say, he's poked fun of me since the beginning, and now that we're here together in Artesia... he's picked up right where he left off and at it again! 

After we got home from our camping trip and went our separate ways to get a good hot meal in our bellies, a nice warm shower, and some much needed shut-eye... we met up again to exchange all the pictures we had taken over the weekend.  So while I'm sitting on the couch watching football on TV... assuming my buddy was downloading, organizing, and looking at our pictures, I hear him in the background giggling to himself!  Normally, I'd be pretty curious... but given the fact that he's 100 percent mentally unbalanced more than half the time, I really didn't pay any attention to him.  Until, of course, he suddenly popped out of his chair, ran over to his big screen TV, plugged in a USB drive, and yelled out, "Alec doesn't go anywhere without his Kitty!" at the exact same time the picture below flashed up on the screen! 

I don't know... maybe it was the moment, maybe it was him & how he said it, or maybe just the mood I was in - but I thought it was (and still is) freakin' hysterical and just about fell off the couch I was laughing so hard!  Of course the first one was so funny and was so much fun to do... there just had to be a second one!  So... naturally, he decided Sasquatch would make an appearance - hangin' out on the edge of a cliff... in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. 

So anywho... I just thought these were too funny not to share!  I hope you found them as amusing as I did! 

P.S. Sorry about mentioning my "Poo" schedule in the previous post.  Apparently some people didn't care too much for that part of the story! 
 

Top of the World

The only thing worse than a weekend in Artesia... is a holiday weekend in Artesia!  Two days with nothing to do is tolerable, but three days is just plain maddening!  So as Labor Day approached, I got together with an old friend who's a permanent instructor out here, and we began planning for the long weekend.

Brandon & I spent close to five years working together... hiking the hills, mountains, canyons, & draws of eastern San Diego County.  And although our "paid" hiking days are now over, we couldn't come up with a better way to spend our weekend than to lace up our boots, strap on our packs, and explore the great outdoors!

Our weekend expedition began by driving south two and a half hours until we reached the Lincoln National Forrest.  Once in the "Forrest", we drove the 'Rim of the Earth' road... and once I saw the 2,000 foot straight drop and the view, the name of the road made perfect sense!  (No Moe-Joe, you would not have liked it!)     

As you can see from the picture, the drive in itself was pretty spectacular!  We saw a few deer scampering away as we drove in... and even saw a bunch of Turkey Vultures, with one in particular sunning its wings!  

After driving as far in as we could... we parked, strapped on our gear, and finally got out on foot.  Don't know if we were more excited about getting out and hiking again... or about how magnificent the scenery was! (It was southern New Mexico after all!)  But I'm pretty sure it was a good combination of them both!  Regardless, we were all set and excited to go with absolutely beautiful weather, a pair of really heavy rucksacks, and a trailhead pointing us in the right direction... so off we went!  

Fortunately for us, the ('Wilderness Ridge') trail itself wasn't as arduous & rugged as most of the terrain that surrounded us was!  But all that nasty rugged terrain certainly made for amazing vistas! 

  

Can you pick me out?

After what seemed like an entire day of hiking... we finally made it to the border!  No, not the U.S. / Mexico border... but the New Mexico / Texas border.  We left the Lincoln National Forrest, crossed over south into Texas, and continued our journey into the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.    

Once in the National Park the trail continued, and so did the hiking. But unbeknownst to us... the views were about to get a lot more spectacular! 

After admiring the breathtaking views of west Texas... and trying to wrap my head around the fact that that massive valley I was looking at used to be the bottom of an ocean floor at one point, we continued on hiking with our feet getting hot-spots and our shoulders aching... until finally, we reached our campsite!  We unpacked, broke out our chairs and got settled in.  We got our make-shift 'kitchen' situated and then proceeded to get a bit to eat, rest, relax, and enjoy the outdoors!  

Needless to say we were both pretty exhausted... so after a brief power-nap, it was back out to the trail again to do some exploring!  Just a short hike from our campsite was a bluff we found with nothing but spectacular views!

I'd like to say the picture looks a lot scarier than it actually was... but I'd totally be lying!  There I am (below) practicing my yoga! (Actually, I was praying a really big gust of wind wouldn't all of a sudden blow me off!!!)

After snapping some pretty cool pictures of each other on the edge of 100+ft. cliffs... we headed back to camp before the sun went down and prepared the kitchen for dinner! 

After a very filling Spaghetti & Meatball meal for dinner, it was time to light up some stogies, relax, enjoy the UNBELIEVABLE view of the stars, and reminisce about the good ol' days! 

Once our cigars had finished, it was time to set up the tents and get ready for bed... but not before star gazing one last time before getting some shuteye. 

The ground was super hard which made for a long night, but morning soon arrived, and with it came another absolutely gorgeous day... along with my scheduled morning poo!  So after I 'dropped the kids off at the pool', or in this case the creek bed ("field-poos" are the worst!), we got our kitchen up and running again and made ourselves some breakfast.

After a nice hearty bowl of oatmeal... there was nothing left to do except to pack everything up and get to hiking back the way we came!   

We were truly blessed with amazing weather and incredible vistas on our little camping expedition.  It felt really good to get back hiking again up in the mountains... and to do it with an old friend made it that much more enjoyable!  For being stuck in "Shartesia"... it certainly wasn't a bad way to spend a Holiday weekend!