For Sale by Owner!!

We finally have the house sell-worthy and everything is ready to go! We have created a website for showcasing the house, which makes getting the news out much easier. Plus, being able to see color images helps a lot, too. And all our neighbors won't steal our flyers trying to see how much we're asking. Call it environmentally-friendly FSBO real estate. That's the way we roll, yo.

Anyway, the house site can be found here. Please share it with friends, family, or yourself to help us get the word out. Between the blog, Facebook, & Twitter, surely we can find SOMEONE to buy the house, right? Once we sell the house, we'll get a rent house and break ground on the new house in Harber Meadows! Rockin'.

Looking to Get a Minivan??

If you're in the market for a minivan, my friend Blake's family is selling one on Craigslist. It's a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country with 27,000 miles on it. I'm a big fan of minivans, which you'll know if you've read this blog for a while. Their usefulness is beyond measure, and they are total chick magnets. Ok, not so much chick magnets, but they're really useful, especially for families.

Click here for more details.

Quirkiness Abounds

I've been tagged by Josh to list 6 quirky things about myself. Apparently, Josh's list is very orifice-focused. Here's a shot at my quirks.

I must have the toilet paper a specific way: rolling over the top, not dropping below when rolled. It was the only request I made of Allison when we got married. It drives me nuts to use public restrooms for this very reason.

My computer's desktop (work and home) are VERY clean...very few icons are on it. However, my actual desks (work and home) are crazy messy.

I don't like to talk in bathrooms. My current boss is known for holding conversations while in the bathroom, either on the phone or with the other stall-mates. I don't like even having to share the bathroom with others, let alone talk to them. Perhaps this is due to my need for anonymity...in case something embarrassing happens, the others don't know who did it.

I hate meeting new people. For being such an extrovert (read: chatty cathy), I rarely enjoy meeting new people, especially when there's a ton of people to meet. Like a business meeting I just got back from. I forced myself to meet 15 new people, tried to remember their names the rest of the week, and tried not to meet anyone else on purpose.

I'm ALWAYS a backseat driver...even when I'm driving. I don't do well in the passenger, middle, or way back of any vehicle (save buses). I'll even give myself backseat-driver advice/emotions when I'm driving and the only one in the car.

I hold full conversations with myself...out loud. Not only do I ask the questions out loud, I'll answer myself. And I'll make jokes to myself and laugh at them. In fact, I'm the funniest and most brilliant conversationalist I've ever met. And I'm apparently mental.


I'll tag Lafe (who truly defines quirky), Blake, the Kelley's, the Nate/Sarah McGooden, and the Miller's.

For those that know me, I'm sure there are other quirks you've noticed. Feel free to leave them in the comments. Blake, don't be an idiot...I know where you sleep.

A Very Gender-Balanced Day

Today was very gender-balanced for me. Living a life with 4 girls (wife, 2 daughters, and female dog) makes like pretty...um...pink and frilly. The day started off on the manly foot: a trip to National Home Center & Lowe's. I spent the next 3 hours installing new doorknobs on all the doors in our house. Now, that may not sound manly to you, but in MY book, that counts. Big time. You see, I'm the least handy person, possibly ever. Todd and Josh can attest to this information. They're my go-to guys when I need info or help on doing anything remotely manly (except electronics, it's my only saving grace).


After replacing the doorknobs, I grabbed my camera gear (and my two beloved lenses) and went to grab some quick shots of the sunset. I found a nice spot that gave me some great sunset shots along with cow silhouettes, which is always a bonus! A couple of the shots turned out pretty cool. My favorite is this one to the left...cows are cool.


Now, the tipping point.


After dinner and putting Brooklyn to bed, Allison told Emma that we were ALL going to play one of her favorite games: Pretty Pretty Princess. If you're unfamiliar with the board game, it's essentially Trivial Pursuit. But where there aren't tough questions, and instead of winning little colored pie pieces, you win different pieces of jewelry. Travis is quite aware of this game. I am no longer a Pretty Pretty Princess virgin...I even won a game! Here's a pic of me and Emma after the first game (that Allison won). See how manly I look?


But the fun doesn't stop there, folks! After Emma went to bed, Allison told me she had DVR'd something fun. And by fun, she meant "it's girly". We spent the next 2 hours watching "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". The best thing about the movie was seeing Sarah Jessica Parker actually being cute. I mean, that girl's face has gone down hill since that movie. It's amazing what makeup can do...she sports a mole larger than De Niro!

So that was my day. Balanced nicely between manliness and girliness.

...in Bed

I love Chinese food. Specifically, fried Chinese food drenched in any kind of sauce. I also love fortune cookies. For the longest time, Allison and I have always added the phrase "in bed" to the end of our fortune. I'm sure others do this too (because I know we're not the only crazies in the world!). This is my latest fortune...apparently, I'm still VERY immature.

Irony Defined

A guy just ran his Mercedes into my co-worker's car.

Into a parked car in a parking lot.

Minor damage to my co-worker's car.

Front end of the 'Cedes is crumpled.

The guy is a Personal Injury lawyer, specializing in car accidents.

Irony defined.

Violence in Media Isn't to Blame

According to a new study in Scientific American, violence cannot be blamed solely on media (games, movies, tv, etc). They blame the parents for not instructing their kids in appropriate social behavior. Brilliant! It's amazingly sensible. Perhaps even common sense. It's about time the scholars learned to think inside reality. Article is here.

Now, I'm going to play Halo 3 with my 4 year old daughter. Or perhaps Gears of War.

Frank Broyles / Sports Illustrated Signing

Sports Illustrated is currently selling a tribute to the SEC to celebrate the SEC's 75th anniversary. Frank Broyles has agreed to an in-store signing of these issues. If you're a fan of the on-the-way-out Athletic Director and Arkansas god, drop by and get a copy of the magazine and get it signed by the man himself.

When: Friday, November 2nd.
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Where: Wal-Mart on 6th street. Get directions.

Also, there will be a limited number of signed poster-sized covers (pictured) that can be purchased for $10. All sales from the posters will go to help build a new gym for a local elementary school.

How Not to Be Seen

One of my favorite Monty Python skits is "How Not to Be Seen" (Flying Circus). Below is the YouTube clip of the show. Watch it now.



Can you improve upon this? Never. Can you make a Halo version of it? Absolutely. Can it be funny? Of course! Watch it now. It's genius.

One Man Star Wars

Last night, Allison surprised me with an outing to see One Man Star Wars at the Walton Arts Center with my brother-in-law and his 3 kids. Murray and his dad made an appearance, too. I was a bit skeptical at the sound of it. Kinda retarded, but somewhat intriguing. I also knew I would be surrounded by total Star Wars freaks, like a Trekkie convention.

To explain what this guy does is difficult in it's simplicity. He basically acts out Episodes 4-6 (the original trilogy). He makes the sound effects, does the voices of all the characters, and becomes the ships. He really draws out the humor in the movies, such as when Luke Skywalker sadly looks out across the barren lands of his home planet and the wind blows his hair. This guy leaned out, put his hand in his hair and started moving is around as if wind was blowing it. All while singing the sad music. He did the voices of the Emporer, Ben Kenobi, and Han Solo really well. He went through all 3 episodes in just over an hour, so it was pretty non-stop entertainment!

Overall, I enjoyed it immensely! The entire audience laughed the whole time and there was not one boring part of the show. It was well worth the money and the time to go see this show. In fact, he's here for a few more days and does a couple of shows per day. If you can, I highly recommend going to see this guy's performance. You can see some video clips on his website.

Times Square & Indian Dentists in Arizona

It's been an eventful couple of weeks for me. I spent a week in New York City for business, home for Easter, then out to Phoenix, Arizona for sales training. Now I'm home.

New York
Time/Warner's corporate headquarters are in Midtown (NYC). It is adjacent to Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza. I basically spent 12 straight hours each day in a conference room going over sales numbers and meeting everyone that worked on different titles (People, Martha Stewart Living, Sports Illustrated, etc). The weather was crappy. The last night there, a co-worker and I walked around Times Square for a little while. I took a crappy picture with my camera phone.

Phoenix
The training in Phoenix was a simulated sales call. Basically, they throw you into groups and you have to accomplish something in a limited number of meetings with people and with very little prep time. We were right next to the ASU campus and stadium (the picture is of the big "A" on the hillside by the stadium). But the big story for this trip was my body-numbing pain. The first night, my tooth hurt. I tried to go to sleep, but was unable to due to the pain in my tooth / jaw. I finally called a co-worker at 2:00 AM to get some aspirin from him. The next day, I fought the pain all day with aspirin. The next day, I was worthless to my teammates as I was running a fever and couldn't focus on anything except the pain. I started calling dentists in the area to get a meeting (and drugs). One guy had an open spot. I walked 3 miles to his office (the bellhop said it was a MUCH shorter distance) in 90 degree heat in pants, dress shoes, and a long sleeve button down. Lots of sweating. Sat in his office for almost 2 hours before I got in. He spent 3 minutes looking at my tooth. Infected. Root canal needed. Drugs prescribed. I walked to the nearest Walgreen's and got my drugs. Took them. Finished walking back. My root canal is scheduled for this coming Tuesday. I have horrible teeth. I'm the reason dentists drive luxury cars.

That's the long and short of my last two weeks. I traversed almost the entire length of the US. It's good to be home again. It's good to be with my girls again. And it's good to be on pain meds. I highly recommend them.

2 For 2!!!

I absolutely detest the Claw games you find everywhere. You know the games: the claw that drops down on on the unsuspecting stuffed animal, only to have the weakest grip ever and slide right off the animal shattering the hopes and dreams of little girls and boys. Yeah..that game.

Tonight at Neighborhood Market, I upped my winning streak to 2 in a row! A few months ago, I snagged some critter at the Springdale Hastings. Tonight, I snagged a yellow Easter Bunny. Emma was ecstatic, as was I. This was the conversation on our way out to the car afterwards:

Me: Emma, do you love your new Easter Bunny?
Emma: I do! But he's crying!
Me: Oh no! Why is he crying??
Emma: Because he misses his mommy!
Me: Oh...I bet you're right. But YOU can be his mommy now!
Emma: (said as if my statement was the stupidest thing ever) But Daddy, I'm not a bunny!

It's hard to argue with that line of reasoning.

American Idol

American Idol is back and rolling! 5 hours of Idol this week...lots of late nights full of great TV. Tonight, in fact, I have 2 hours of Lost (last week's episode, too) and 2 hours of Idol to watch. I'm looking forward to it! Of course, it's all manageable with a DVR. 2 hours = 1 1/2 hours of true TV, especially for Idol.

You can keep up to date with my episode opinions over at the TV Addicts blog. If you'd like to join up and voice your own thoughts, let me know and I'll send you a contributor invite.

In other news, Allison has contracted the blogging bug. So she now has her own ID to blog under on this site....show your support by commenting a lot on her posts. Positive Reinforcement!

Benton Walker (aka MacGyver)

I could have written about this in the Superbowl Party post, but felt it needed it's own post merely because of the glory that should accompany the feat.

Benton Walker ( of The Walkie Talkie fame), pulled a MacGyver on us at the house during the party. We had 5 kids running wild in the house throughout the game. Running through the kitchen. Running through the living room. Running into Emma's bedroom. Repeat.

Somehow, in the 3 minutes of non-running, one of the kids locked Emma's bedroom door and closed it as they all ran out. Locked door. No one on the inside. Though it made the quandary much less dramatic with no kids locked in, it did present a problem. We had no key for the door. In fact, it's one of those crazy doorknobs that just has a circular hole in the middle of the knob. While I went looking for a tool that was small enough to fit through the hole and unlock the room, Benton (aka MacGyver), decided that he just needed a paper clip. I'm not sure if Benton has a criminal record for breaking and entering, but he sure has the skillz to pull that crime off. He jimmy-rigged the paper clip and effortlessly opened the door. (to my credit, I had a tool in my hand that would have worked, but felt like Benton should have honors since his idea was so nifty and handy)

Way to go MacGyver...you saved the day. By the way, if you'd like to see a list of all the genius MacGyver tricks pulled, Wikipedia has a comprehensive list.

Poll: Wild Animal Pets

In a moment of extremely random thought, I asked myself the following question:

If I could have any wild animal as a pet, which would I choose?

I'm pretty sure I'd pick a squirrel. Why? Because they freaking rock! I mean, they can climb just about anything, they jump really well, and they're extremely cute. Tell me the picture here isn't cute? Makes you want to just hug it! And how about that cool thing they do with their tail? You know, where it shakes/shimmies really fast? That's awesome! And don't get me started with how fun playing fetch would be...the possibilities are endless!

So what about you? What wild animal would you choose as a pet?

Note: any animal is allowable. I'm going under the assumption that the pet would not harm you or loved ones in any way (aka Bear mauling).

Random Things...

1) Does anyone know the answer: When I click on an RSS feed and it loads a preview page in the main screen, does that count as a hit on the page? Or does a person have to land directly on your URL to count as a hit / visit?

2) If you use Firefox, there's a great (cheesy, but great) theme out there called Tinseltown. It's a great Christmas / Winter theme that was done really well. Once I got over the cheesiness, I've really begun to like it a lot!

My World: Dilbert-ized

Pumpkins & Dog Vomit

Tonight, Amy McFadden brought us food. Super-fantastic BBQ (we're guessing from Sonny's). I called Todd to come eat with us since we had so much great food. Also, I had picked up 3 big pumpkins to carve with the family, and I was going to need some help.

So he came over and brought Maggie (his dog). We ate and began carving pumpkins. Emma colored on hers, as there's no chance in hell I'm giving her a knife. She's dangerous enough with a marker! Todd picked out out a couple of designs for us on Home Star Runner's website. Todd picked the duck, and I picked Strong Mad. After corralling and wrangling my kids to bed, we got to work polishing off the pumpkins. Somewhere near the end of it all, I smelled something awful. In honesty, it smelled like dog poo. I searched around, and found a nice pile of brown liquid dog vomit, placed lovingly in the dining room by Maggie. Todd cleaned up the vomit while I cleaned up the kitchen / carving area. Then we watched Heroes...such a great show!

So that's my Pumpkins & Dog Vomit story. It's now the 31st...Happy Halloween!

Photo journal

I have no idea what to title this post. I saw this on the Leonard's blog today, and thought it would be pretty fun to do, so here it goes.

The rules are: go to www.images.google.com and post the first postable image you find a result for:

1. Place I was Born: Mountain Home, AR








2. Place I Live Now: Johnson, AR









3. My Name: John Nelson













4. Spouse's Name / Significant Other's Name: Allison Nelson









5. Favorite Food: Peanut Butter & Jelly









6. Favorite Drink: Dr. Pepper









7. Favorite Song: The Symphony of Blase, Anberlin










8. Favorite Smell: Freshly Cut Grass (bonus points if it rains afterwards)








9. Favorite Hobby: Xbox 360-ing










10. Favorite Place I've Been To: Winter Park, CO