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Dearest Redneck Son, I'm writing this slow because I know you can't read fast. We don't live where we did when you left home. Your dad read in the newspaper that most accidents happen within 20 miles of your home, so we moved. I won't be able to send you the address because the last West Virginia family that lived here took the house numbers when they moved so they wouldn't have to change their address. This place is really nice. It even has a washing machine. I'm not sure about it. I put a load of clothes in and pulled the chain. We haven't seen them since. The weather isn't bad here. It only rained twice last week; the first time for three days and the second time for four days. About that coat you wanted me to send; your Uncle Billy Bob said it would be too heavy to send in the mail with the buttons on, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets. Bubba locked his keys in the car yesterday. We were really worried because it took him two hours to get me and your father out. Your sister had a baby this morning, but I haven't found out what it is yet so I don't know if you are an aunt or uncle. Uncle Bobby Ray fell into a whiskey vat last week. Some men tried to pull him out but he fought them off and drowned. We had him cremated, he burned for three days. Three of your friends went off a bridge in a pickup truck. Butch was driving. He rolled down the window and swam to safety. Your other two friends were in the back. They drowned because they couldn't get the tailgate down! There isn't much more news at this time. Nothing much out of the normal has happened. Your Favorite Aunt, Mom

I snuck down to Verizon last night for the Lacuna Coil / Rom Zombie rock show. It received a thumbs up from me for sure. Rob Zombie's whole set cracked me up with all the tidbits of detail that set a mood for the concert. I especially liked the rolling film projected in the background with various anime clips bordering on soft-core Hentai flip flopping to Betty Page and notorious faces from past controversies. The undead cowboy bit was ok for a while, but I like that the show was mostly just the musicians doing their thing without all the theatrics. Mike, Steve and his wife, and their friend met me at Hard Rock Houston for drinks while waiting on the doors to open. If I had a nickel for every black clad, eyeliner wearing, metal spike and tat flaunting folk that walked by, I could retire... maybe. The opener, Lacuna Coil, is from Italy as it turns out. They were good, but their music was so simple as most "rock" artists' music is these days. Definitely not too bad when you have a half bottle of Crown Royal in ya. On my way to the concert last night it started hailing in a torrential downpour. The weather this morning looks great though and I'm hoping it holds through the weekend. I love to sit in the yard and listen to the birds... especially on a mild day with a cool breeze rustling the trees. It relaxes me and takes me to a place where there are no horns honking amidst the choking smog filled with traffic. I was in my office the other day at the house and audibly witnessed the most peculiar thing... a woodpecker trying to peck at my house. Is he retarded? or do I have bugs? Heh. Let's hope he's just mentally challenged. I would hate to have one of those big fumigation tent adventures where you have to move into a hotel or something for a few days. My Director is shopping around for new office space for us to move into this year. When the event first started, he was looking in all the places that my colleagues and I really disliked and didn't want to work near. We have no say in the final decision, so we just hoped for the best. Through circumstances completely without our intervention, he is now looking at a few desirable (to me) locations in The Woodlands. I'll miss the playful banter with the ladies running our executive suites... and the free coffee... but at least it's not in a run down industrial park. An ex-coworker and friend of mine recently approached me about advice for an entry level DSLR. His wife found a coupon for a Nikon D50 and he wanted to do some homework first. After explaining the in's and out's (trying to be completely unbiased as a Canon shooter) of the different makes and models and what to look for, he decided Canon was the way to go. She bought the Nikon anyway. Heh. For consumer and pro-sumer models, the camera body matters little in the long run anyway. Digital cameras are more like computers than cameras of yesteryear... planned obsolescence is a fact of life. The real investment is in the glass and once you buy into a "system" then you are likely to stick with it due to optic investment and the desire to not re-invent the wheel when you move to a current generation body. But I repeat myself. I'm headed to lunch... snoogens. Cinco de Mayo's history has its roots in the French Occupation of Mexico. The French occupation took shape in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. With this war, Mexico entered a period of national crisis during the 1850's. Years of not only fighting the Americans but also a Civil War, had left Mexico devastated and bankrupt. On July 17, 1861, President Benito Juarez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for a brief period of two years, with the promise that after this period, payments would resume. The English, Spanish and French refused to allow president Juarez to do this, and instead decided to invade Mexico and get payments by whatever means necessary. The Spanish and English eventually withdrew, but the French refused to leave. Their intention was to create an Empire in Mexico under Napoleon III. Some have argued that the true French occupation was a response to growing American power and to the Monroe Doctrine (America for the Americans). Napoleon III believed that if the United States was allowed to prosper indescriminantly, it would eventually become a power in and of itself. In 1862, the French army began its advance. Under General Ignacio Zaragoza, 5,000 ill-equipped Mestizo and Zapotec Indians defeated the French army in what came to be known as the "Batalla de Puebla" on the fifth of May. In the United States, the "Batalla de Puebla" came to be known as simply "5 de Mayo" and unfortunately, many people wrongly equate it with Mexican Independence which was on September 16, 1810, nearly a fifty year difference.