Monday, May 24, 2010

Congrats Chris

You didn't think I forgot did you? Come on.... I wanted to say congrats to Chris who crossed the stage at Moody Coliseum, Southern Methodist University, with a Masters in Business Administration. Well done sir. And since this is your 2nd Masters, you now have more degrees than anyone that I know...


PS, dont forget to check out his sweet shoes in the video..

Laters,
jth
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The House That Wouldn't Let us Leave

As a modern family, we are pretty cool; Celia Chris, Moseley and I... that's my opinion anyway. And I have heard of objects that have feelings such as cars, or ships or whatever. but who knew that our house would be so upset that we are moving this week that he would try and stop us by knocking down one of the trees in the front yard? And there wasn't even a storm or anything... Well that's what happened and it was a huge tree. It fell, a crew came and chopped it up for pickup, and that was that. (I put Celia in there so you could have a size reference)Too bad house, although we love you very much, it's time to move on....

Laters,
jth
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Thursday, May 13, 2010

For those that are still around...

Ok, so I realize that I have been a major slacker on here. But before the stones begin to fly, I do have several fantastic excuses:
1. They have blocked this site at work, probably my fault for blogging during office hours.
2. Nothing has been going on at all. But we have a bunch of stuff coming up so be excited.
There, so,,, yeah. In your face, I bet you feel like a jerk now! Nah just kidding, no worries.
So coming up, well I’ll just dive right in. Chris’s graduation is this weekend, awesome job buddy; I know for a fact that getting an MBA from SMU is no easy challenge; as a matter of fact, I’m like the only one of us that doesn’t have one. So I guess my overall feeling is that I hate all of you over-achievers. Thanks a lot for reminding the rest of us that we are mediocre at best… btw, the party is on Saturday. I’ll be the one sulking in the corner.
We’re moving at the end of the month. Not far though, just a couple of blocks west. I will miss the place on Waggoner Dr. but its time to go try out a new place.

We’re going to Belize in June. It will be a fantastic trip full of Scuba, tours, fishing, and relaxing. Everyone will be there for atleast 2 weeks, some of us longer. It is a big crew of atleast 8 people. We will be in Placencia and Hopkins Village. Ferrari and I are going to shoot over to Guatamala for a day or so. Action. When we get back we will be getting the boat out of storage for the season; Wakeboarding, skating and general sunset chasing. Of course when you are on a lake, the sun chasing is sort of in vain since you run into shore pretty quick. But one day, oh crafty Sun, we will take you down!
It’s going to be an exciting summer so get ready.

Oh yeah, Jacob came by to take pictures of Chris. I had to catch that…

Laters,
jth
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Monday, April 19, 2010

3 of my Favorites

I know it has been a few days since my last entry. But not alot has been going on.. Bret came down and we had a blast shooting guns, going to Damian's concert and then staying up til 6 am playing guitars and singing like old times. Then Caven was in town this past weekend and we mostly just hung out. Celia and I are looking for a new house and Chris is about to finish up his MBA. Bing bang boom. See what I mean? Not alot to write about... So I will entertain you with 3 of my favs.







Anyway, I hope that was the best 5 minutes you have had all day.
Laters,
jth
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Friday, April 9, 2010

The greatest thing to come out of South Korea since Hyundai...

It was a clear night with plenty of visible stars through the Bedouin cloud cover. I was sitting in my favorite hunting chair on the back patio. Casual conversation was the order of the moment as I was opposite Chris and flanked by Genevieve and Celia. Moseley let out a series of barks, not the warning kind, more of the “I’m happy because I see people I know walking up.” Chris had mentioned earlier that Tyler and Rob were thinking of stopping by. But he was mistaken. It wasn’t tyler and Rob; it was Tyler Rob and someone else, someone not so familiar.

수는 중대하다

I studied her form as she slinked down the back stairs into the party room. From the bottom up, simple but elegant pumps, a khaki skirt and white blouse, sleeves playfully rolled up. A double strand of pearls graced her stately neck; I surmised that at some point in her teenage years, she had most likely retrieved them, with nothing but a dive mask and a pearling knife from the magical depths of the Sea of Japan or possibly South China Sea. Her look was smart and appropriate for our informal gathering as well as she could have blended in at a Congressional session. I took a sip of my drink as I wondered who this woman, this Jade Princess might turn out to be…That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I met my verbal match this past weekend: Sue
Oh Sue, why is your banter so fantastic and clever? Tyler Rob and Sue were in town for easter and they stopped by the house for some drinks. A few drinks in, I was being verbally dominated by Sue who obviously takes no prisoners. She works at Capgemini with the boys. We had a lovely evening of smack talking and story telling. Sue even got to hold her first firearm. Sue I know that your first trip of length to Texas ended up to be one ridiculus stereotype after another, but you’re welcome any time. We have Damian G concert this weekend at Liquid Lounge Saturday night at 10:30. Come earlier for the opening bands. Bret is coming down from NYC this afternoon. Fantastic. Hope to see you at the concert. Laters,
Jth
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

1st Anniversary

Yesterday was my 1 year anniversary with Celia. Man this past 12 months has FLOWN by,, I can’t even believe it. She wanted to go down to Pioneer Square in downtown. The place has special meaning for us because when we first started dating, I lived in a loft right across the street. One night we decided to go ride our bikes around downtown around midnight. Well, we came across all these giant iron cows (40 in all) being herded by cowboys through a stream. We got the great idea to climb up on the last cow in line and try to crawl to the first cow without touching the ground. Celia made it, I fell once. It was a blast and we hadn’t been to that particular spot in years. So we headed down there to check it out. I got some great pics. It is also a graveyard that holds the sleeping founders of Dallas. Their graves are all from the 1800’s.
Lastly, there is a memorial to the Confederate soldiers that fought in the Civil War as Texas was a one of the seceding states.After that, we headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Lover’s Pizza. I got the lobster ravioli which is AWESOME! Good evening all together.
BTW, Richard started a blog. http://outboundanddown.blogspot.com/ Go to it and click on Follow to stay updated.

Laters,
Jth

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Monday, March 22, 2010

M3 Mistake

Last Thursday at lunch, a couple of my buddies and me went to Best Buy. My friend Mike wanted to pick up an HD flip camera so he could record his laps on Saturday in his BMW M3 at the race track. Well he came to work today and said that he made a slight mistake by not letting his tires warm up before he took a corner at 90mph. See the video below for the result. Mike said that mud and grass were everywhere:

He is fine and the video is sweet.

Laters,
jth

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Friday, March 19, 2010

Where I spend most of my time - not always on purpose..

The first question you will most likely have is, “Hughes, why are you showing us where you work?” Well, really there a few answers for that. Firstly, it is where I spend the majority of my time. I don’t think I was made to spend my time indoors, it doesn’t feel right. But I have been doing it for 6-7 years now so suck it mother nature. Another reason is that my building is sort of an anomaly. Literally, it is a giant office building in the middle of a field. It is the oddest thing, I look out my window and I can see downtown Dallas in the distance, I-635 is a little closer, and then… a field full of round haybails. There are tractors out there constantly, and here we are in an office full of computers, digital phones, faxes, etc. Weird. Lastly, I had to tell you the story of how these pictures happened. I came up here last weekend to shoot some pics that I might be able to use on my other blog. I never figured that they would end up on this one, but my foolishness provided the ammo to accomplish that unlikely goal. So I come up here and am taking pictures out of my window of the field outside, Downtown, blah blah. I was not happy with them as you may know that the quality of a picture is not very good if you are taking it through a tinted office window. Out to the balcony I walk. It is a lovely sunny day so I snap away. Satisfied that I achieved what I wished, I turned to go back into the building only to discover locked balcony doors. That quick shot of panic/adrenaline surged through me,,, you know, the one you feel when you discover your keys are locked in the ignition of your truck in the middle of nowhere because you pulled over to pee on the side of the road? (don’t ask). Yeah that one. So I set the camera down, rattle the doors violently and sit back to accept my situation. What to do? I have my cell phone so I could call Richard and have him drive across the city to come let me in, but that would allow him to tell the story to everyone and when you do something stupid it is always better for you to tell the story than someone else. That way people feel sorry for you instead of violently insult you. Atleast that’s what it says in my brain. So anyway, back to the balcony of an empty office building around 3pm on a Saturday. I decide that I should probably just wait it out til Monday morning that way when someone comes out to have a smoke, I can act like I was out there getting some air or something and casually stroll back in like everything is great. But the fact that I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt/smell like I haven’t showered in 2 days might give me away; back to the drawing board.
I painfully concede and pull my phone out of my pocket to dial Ferrari (Richard) when I notice a small lever hidden underneath the handle of the most evil door in the world. As I turn it and the door opens, I realize 2 things:
1. I will never get those 20 minutes back.
2. I have to share this story with you because it is pretty funny.
And because I made that decision you are required to feel sorry for me, and not make fun…. Atleast that is what my brain says…

Laters,

jth

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Top Gear

Have you ever seen the show Top Gear on BBC? If you haven't then stop whatever it is that you are doing and go to your house if you arent already there and set your DVR to record it. If you don't have a DVR, then please join the rest of us here in the 21st century and call Dish Network then set it to record.

It is a brilliant show that has great cinematography and cars. The music aint bad either. I have a lot of favorite bits from the series but the following is one of my top 5. Jeremy Clarkson is driving the new Aston Martin V-12 Vantage in this clip. He is talking about how he loves the car but he is sad. Anyone who knows me knows that AM's are one of my favorite cars so you can see why I like this clip: I like the car, the commentary and the music. The video is in HD so feel free to click on the button that makes it go to full screen. If you have speakers, turn them up!


If half of the video is cut off preventing you to see the right side of the picture, click HERE to go to YouTube to see it there.. it is worth it.
Laters,
jth
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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Snow Day

I know I am a little late telling you about the crazy snow we had a couple of weeks ago but better late than never, right? We have had a pretty extreme winter for Dallas, TX. And while I completely understand relativity, this was a rough day regardless of where you live. Now I know there will be some guy from like Wisconsin or something that will read this and be like, “Ah man, you guys had a foot of snowfall in a 24-hour period, we have that all the time! Wussies!” You know what guy from Wisconsin, we don’t want to win the “who has more snow” contest. You sir, may keep your snow… and your curling for that matter. Our athletes are faster, our chicks are hotter and we get to wakeboard 8-9 months of the year! --- now look what I have done, I went and got myself all riled up.
So yeah, it snowed like the dickens. It started on a Thursday afternoon and by the time we got home, there was a good 6 inches. There was mandatory snow ball fighting and snow man construction. Actually we made the biggest snow man I had ever seen. He was about 8 feet tall and his name was Topo Chico. He was glorious looking in the back windows.As Thursday night wore on, we lost electricity, so we retreated to the back room because it has the wood stove. Luckily it was already pumping out heat so we brought every candle from the house in, lit them and played cards to the sound of battery powered IPOD player thing. We went to bed around 2 am. When I woke up for work on Friday morning, it was 40 degrees in the house. When I came home from work that afternoon, it was 35. We got electricity back later that evening just in time to bounce out to the Damian G concert in Deep Ellum which was AWESOME! Laters,
jth
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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Happy Birthday to me

So my birthday was yesterday; not really a big deal if you are a guy. One year pretty much feels like the rest and we don't take getting older too hard,, well unless you are metro I suppose. Celia being the awesome one that she is surprised me with Dropkick Murphys tickets. Sara also got them for Richard so off we went. It was fantastic. We missed the first band because we were invited to the VIP room so we stayed there until DM went on. The Foundation Room is dimly lit bar/room with several living room environments for lounging. The molded ceilings are reminiscent of Versailles and there is an overall feeling of comfort.
We moved onto the the concert hall I recorded the opening song for your enjoyment.
The show was loud, raucous and very entertaining. A nasty, but appropriate mosh pit formed in front of the stage. Needless to say it was good to be in the balcony. The show ended with tons of fans onstage with the band for the final number.Greatness. By the time we left, voices were strained from screaming the lyrics to the songs we knew.

Thanks Sara and Celia for a great birthday.

Laters,

jth

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Monday, March 1, 2010

Guilty Pleasures - Challenge

This song is a guilty pleasure of mine. And before you make fun of me too hard (Chris pretty much let me have it already) I challenge you to listen to it without it getting stuck in your head and/or making you feel like you need to fix a building, volunteer at a homeless shelter; generally improve your community. Game on:


Let me know how it turns out.

Laters,
jth
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