Only in New Orleans

My Boss just got back from there and showed me this picture he took from his camera......
Click the pic to get the bigger version...

More cold weather!

Well this week was up and down weather wise, but on the way home tonight, I see the temp display on the car drop lower and lower the farther out I get to the house!

Its cold and REALLY windy right now!

We just had our family Christmas! My aunt and uncle served a mix of American and Chinese, especially her special CURRY! MMMMMMMMMMM MMM!!!

Heres my aunt with the big spread!

Clippin Coupons....its free money

So as lot of you guys know, I love saving money! I went to HEB to get groceries tonight, with my fat envelope full of coupons.

Here's the Results....almost 20 dollars off my bill!

Check it out......

Anyone else do better than this? I usually get at least 15 bucks off.....

Blast from the Past

Well I got to see my good friend again, last time we saw eachother was almost 18 months ago, and the time before that, was the day that we graduated high school!

We had a great visit, he, like me, has put on a few pounds but I think I'm still ahead of him!

Hopefully we'll see eachother soon again! Heres a pic. I'll try to find a before pic one of these days.....

Knight Rider is Back.....

I don't know about you, but I was a HUGE Knight Rider Fan, although now, watching old episodes, I realize how cheezy they were!!

Well Apparently its back!





Looks ok, some other shots of it look hideous with the signals above the headlights.

Is that a Cold Front I see???

I wish we could get some cold weather soon......




Looks like this friendly weatherman has some happy news.....

Christmas Martha Stewart Style

I really loved this clip from a few years ago!

Hope you guys are getting ready!!!
I'm doing most of my shopping online! WOOT!

Proud Uncle!

Life group...The aftermath

Well, we had our final Life Group meet last night, which was a Pot Luck dinner anyway, but it was really great to have everyone get together and share a meal.

I made pork tenderloin, green bean casserole, and a bunch of appetizers. Some other folks brought Mashed Potatoes, Chili, to die for Jalepeno Cornbread, and my good friend brought 2 loaves of his homemade bread! OH MAN! For dessert we had all kinds of good stuff, including Blue Bell Birthday Cake Ice cream. If you haven't had it, you gotta try it!! SO GOOD.

Afterwards we watched Mythbusters and played Dance Dance Revolution! HAHA!

I love entertaining in my home, but I dread the fact that I have to do some serious cleaning of the casa tonight.

Anyway, its kinda sad that Life group is over. This was a break in the week, kind of like feeling "If I can make it to Wednesday night, I'll be OK. Then afterwards, all I had to do was do Thursday and Friday, and then the weekend was there!

I'll have to figure out something to do on Wednesday nights now....hmmmm. I guess I need to get back to working out regularly.

Coach Fran Calls it QUITS!

He looks pretty indifferent here.....



Jack Arutes questions/comments were TOTALLY inappropriate!

Wow! Takes me back!

Are you still full like I am???

Was doing laundry and cleaning house today, had Satellite Radio on, and as I was pulling clothes out of the Dryer, this old song came on. I had to laugh because the video was all in my head. I found it on youtube too!



Did I mention I love the cold weather??? I got a fire going and I'm waiting for the A&M vs t.u. game to come on! WHOOP! We'll see who wins this one. Oh thee of little faith. I think we'll pull it off. Either way, I think this is Fran's swan song.....

Happy Turkey Day!

Well Everyone, another Thanksgiving is among us! And I woke this morning to...*Gasp*

COLD WEATHER! WOOHOO!!!!

I love it! Cold Thanksgivings are great! Time to get up! I'm going to Chris and Bethanys this morning to work on Chris's Truck and then coming home to make mashed taters!

Going to my moms to celebrate with around 30 people! WOOHOO!
Happy Turkey Day All!

Dead Flowers

Well alright, the Pansies I planted the other day all croaked. I'm pretty sure it was the fertilizer I used. Nevertheless I went to Lowes Saturday to get some more. We'll try again.

In the mean time, Watch the stuff you put on your flowers! ACK!

Thanksgiving is a week away???

I can't beleive it! Only a week away. Its 80 degrees outside and I'm running the AC in the house. Crazy. We're supposed to get rain and stuff this weekend, maybe a cool front. I always like COLD Thanksgivings, which we haven't had in years.

This year, I'm in charge of making the Mashed Taters for our big Thanksgiving Dinner at my moms. I'm going to get some nice big Russets for the job!

Hopefully it will be more successful then my friend, the Swedish Chef.....

My first technical post

Well, my 02 Ford Explorer has developed a Clicking noise from the rear AC blower area, so much that when people ride in the 2nd row, they ask "is something wrong with your car?"

So I know that one of Fords electronic actuators is out, so, time to do some exploratory surgery and see whats knocking in the back!

Do this on a Cold Motor, because there are heater hoses running to the back and you could injure yourself on the hot hoses.

1. First off, You'll need:

• A Socket Set, Metric 3/8 and 1/4" drives with various extensions. Specifically, 13mm deep, 10mm and 8mm.
• A trim removal tool
• A dropcloth or sheet to keep the interior of your truck clean
• T50 Torx Driver

Now, Lets move on. This repair applies to all 02-07 Ford Explorers with Rear AC. If you mysteriously have some clicking or knocking from the rear cargo area of the truck, when the ignition is on or if the AC is running, this is probably your issue. I was getting the noise ANY time the ignition was switched on, whether the HVAC system was running or not.

So here's our 2002 Ford Explorer. Start by Putting down the rear seat if equipped and removing any cargo tray liners, tools, junk etc from the rear of the truck.

First, remove the upper and lower trim from around the cargo area. This can be achieved by using your fingers to gently pry out the panels or you can use the trim removal tool to help.

Next, if equipped, pull the 3rd row Seat Belt "D" ring out of the panel




Now that the D Ring is out of the way, pull the rear hatch weather stripping out of the way and remove the Upper Side trim panel. Use your trim removal tool to help in getting the panel loose. Gently pry AT the clips and pull out. Once one side is loose, pull at the clips, not at the whole panel.




Now that the panel is exposed, we can remove the cupholder and the power lock panel, disconnect the wiring harness to the switch. Use the trim tool to help avoid scratching your interior.




Now that we have this panel removed you're going to need to get to the driver side rear door and remove the upper trim piece, lower scuff plate and lower seat belt anchor. The upper trim panel is VERY tricky. Be gentle and take your time.


Now that the scuff plate and upper panel is removed, pull outwards on the lower panel from the front, and then go to the rear, pull out again, near the clips, use your trim tool to help.


Now move to the back. This duct can be pushed up into the upper duct so you can remove the blower box.

Now, you can remove the upper 10mm bolt on the blower housing


Now loosen the lower bolt near the driver side rear door, 13 mm. You'll need a deep well 13 mm to access this.

Now we can move the blower box out to see whats going on in the back. VERY CAREFULLY slide the box from the long stud and turn the ignition switch on and the AC Fan to isolate the clicking noise.

After turning the key on, I found that the noise is coming from the temperature blend actuator. I unplugged it and the noise went away. Now you have isolated the culprit, turn the key off and replacement of the actuator can begin. I used a 8mm socket and 1/4" drive ratchet to remove the culprit. There are 3 screws on this one.
Heres the new part. It's a dealer item only, and cost around 60 bucks.


Now we can put the new part in, plug it in and turn the key and listen for the sound of....silence! Once you have verified the part is in and working and its quiet, reassemble and pat yourself on the back for saving 2.5 hrs at a dealer rate of 70-100 dollars!

When is the cold weather coming?

Its the middle of November and I'm running the AC in the car and in the house! Whats up with that? I finally made myself go buy my "Fall Flowers" and pull up the poor zenias that are confused with the weather and have half died and grown gangly in their old age. So I hit Lowe's yesterday and picked up a flat of pansies, and a big snap dragon, and a sprayer to tame my ongoing tick problem.

I had some pansy fertilizer that said on the directions to sprinkle the stuff right onto the plants directly after watering. So after Green thumbing it yesterday, I put some magic fertilizer on the plants, only to come back 2 hours later to find them all wilted! green but wilted. Hopefully they'll come back, otherwise I'll need to buy more! ARGH!

Afterwards, I used my new Chemical friend, "Dragnet" and treated the back yard, which is supposed to kill all the fleas, ticks, and anything else that moves. I'm tired of pulling ticks off Forrest, and I'm sure Forrest is tired of having them on him. This stuff is for use by professionals only, and the mix was .1 ounces to 5 gallons of water, so we'll see what happens. Its made from the oil of Mums, or so I'm told. But I have to dilute it a LOT to use it inside the house, as my closet was a playground for ticks, but Sevidust has helped quite a bit. Time to say good bye guys.

I'll let you know how the stuff works. Stay tooned!

Deer Season is upon us

My Good buddy Chris sent this today. Looks like the deer are really coming out of the woodwork among other various places!

Looks like the news editor was hittin the sauce before work.....

Life Group Time!

Well I decided to take the plunge and start to do a life group at my house for the month of November. Life group at my church is kinda like Bible study, but its geared more to smaller groups and discussing life in general. Since its the month of November I figured it would be good to discuss being Thankful and being grateful.

I really didn't think that anyone other than my usual suspects would come out, since I live "way out in Katy" but I actually had a few folks email that live nearby! I thought I was the only one!

Thus I have been cleaning and scrubbing, trying to get everything ready so I can open my home up on Wednesday nights for a dozen folks to come in and discuss.

The cool part is, the last week of group, we're having a pot luck dinner to celebrate the end! I'm looking forward to it!

My first post

Okay well I finally decided that I should make a blog! Well this is my first post! I'll try to update this one every few days, and the goings on of what not :)

Check back now and then!