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I went into a bank today to exchange five $20 bills for a $100 bill. The teller was very friendly and quite polite and asked me if I had an account there. I replied that I did not. She proceeded to tell me that they did not exchange money unless you have an account at their bank. She apologized again and said it's just their policy.

Usually this wouldn't bother me too much but this was on a Friday afternoon, payday, and there was no one there, not a single soul. There were no cars in the parking lot and there was only one teller working. As I looked around the lobby on my way out the door I noticed that it was a very typical old-time bank lobby. It was it was a large lobby, the teller counter was too high to look over, and the offices of the bank officials was behind glass.

In this time of recession and banks going out of business, I wonder if it isn’t time for banks to start reevaluating their policies. I went out of my way to stop at that particular bank to get a $100 bill and by not doing it, they can pretty much rest assured that I will never be a customer of their bank.

It seems to me that a bank, or any business for that matter, would want to drive traffic into their branch. Everyone who walks through the door is either a customer, or a potential customer. It seems that the owner of that business would want to do anything they could to garner that person’s business. Well Mr. Bank Policy Maker, listen up. Customers don’t like to be told no, especially when it’s something as simple as exchanging money. Stop hiding behind stupid policies and start taking care of your customers. Because if you don’t take care of them, they won’t take care of you. And it wasn’t like there were any other customers to help at the time.

This weekend, my buddy Randall and his new wife came down from Dallas and stayed with us. He brought his motorcycle, hoping that we would be able to get out and ride.

The weather didn’t look like it was going to cooperate, rain being the theme of the last week, but the weatherman came through for us and predicted a nice day; that’s to say it was going to start out cloudy with the sun coming out and the temperature reaching 71 degrees.

We woke up at the crack of nine, a bit fuzzy-headed from our previous night’s frolicking, but steadfast in our determination to take the bikes out. After much lollygagging, mostly by me, we couldn’t take it any longer and we donned our leather. It was almost noon. The temperature was a bit chilly, but bearable and the promise of upcoming sunshine spurred us on.

We fueled up and left Cedar Park, headed out FM 1431 to Marble Falls. It was nice, scenic ride, all things told, but in Marble Falls, we pulled into a convenience store to warm up a little and rehydrate.

From there, we took US 281 north and then headed east on Park Road 4. From the moment we left the convenience store, we could see that the sun was trying hard to come out. The short bursts of sunshine gave us hope and we continued on, enjoying the vistas of Park Road 4 and the castle. When we got to TX 29, we again headed west, Cooper’s Barbeque in Llano being our ultimate destination.

We stopped about seven miles from Llano in hopes of getting a glimpse of the bald eagles nesting there, but they were shy and the foliage was still too dense to get more than a glimpse of their nest.

From there we headed on into Cooper’s and some of the best barbeque in the state. There were about 30 or 40 bikes there when we pulled in. We ate and had a little hair-of-the-dog in the form of a frosty beverage made from malted barley. Of course, we bought too much barbeque and had to bring some home.

When we stepped back outside, we were greeted by warm, sunny weather. Randall announced that it was 64 degrees, a bit shy of the promised 71 degrees, but we weren’t complaining. We loaded up and headed out, travelling back on TX 29.

We were barely past the eagle nest when we noticed we lost the sun, and with it, a few degrees in temperature. Now, that may not sound like much, but on a motorcycle at 70 mph, that’s getting pretty chilly.

We stopped in Burnet to refuel and warm up. We stopped at the Dollar Store so D’anah, Randall’s wife, could get a scarf. Soon we were back on the road and headed home. We didn’t stop again until we were back in Leander. We were supposed to stop at a birthday party on the way home, but we were just too cold. In fact, we were nearly frozen by the time we got home.

But, we did clock in just over 140 miles for the day, in spite of the nasty weather. Overall, I’d say it was a lot of fun.

We’re already into the second week of September and I realize that NaNoWriMo is almost here. That’s right – the National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you write 50,000 words in the month of November. That comes out to 1,667 words a day and produces a novel the size of The Catcher in the Rye or Brave New Worlds.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for the last 3 years running, and each time I was able to cross the finish line on November 30th in excess of 50,000 words, but I’m a little worried this year. You see, I tried to use April as my ApNoWriMo, or April Novel Writing Month, and I failed miserably. I did have a respectable showing, coming in at 38, 319 words, but that was after extending the deadline to May 15th. I was barely over 33k by the end of April.

That’s not going to keep me from participating during November this year, but it does make me wonder. I’d like to think that I’ll blow through it again this year, but I guess time will tell.

Honestly, I don’t know what I’m worried about. My NaNoWriMo novels are not the next great American novel, but a couple of them have been pretty decent. And ultimately, that was why I stopped working on my novel in April. Honestly, it sucked. So it makes me wonder, is it better to keep going on a crappy novel or is it better to quit and move onto other, better, projects?

Well, I think it’s a little of both. One of the most fundamental, immutable rules of being a writer is that you have to write. Period. There’s no discussion, no debate. You have to get words on paper – or at least a computer screen – if you want to even harbor the notion that you’re a writer. That being said, there are a million and one excuses that all keep us from writing. Like, I’m going to quit writing this crappy novel and work on more important projects. If you’re going to really do that, then more power to you. I just know that for me, those other projects will be changing light bulbs or cooking or a hundred other little things that usually go unheeded during the month of November.

So for me, I’m going to try to push through and finish this November, no matter how crappy it becomes. Remember, you heard it here first.

Heaven Below is a four-man band that plays hard rock music and hails from Los Angles, California. The band is lead by lead vocalist and guitarist, Patrick Kennison, formally of Union Underground. Drummer Chad Clark, guitarist Jesse Billson, and bass player John Younger make up the rest of this hard hitting group. They currently have a CD out called Countdown to Devil.

I saw the band on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at Bums Sports Bar in Temple, Texas. They are playing five Texas locations over an eight-day period in what they are calling their Texas Takeover Tour. There were three other bands that opened for them but Heaven Below was the headliner. The other bands were Seven Perfect, The Jericho Machine, and Dark Summer Dawn. Seven Perfect was without their lead singer, but Robert Perez, the lead singer from The Jericho Machine and friend of Seven Perfect filled in. They pulled it off but it caused the show to start late. It was nearly 1:00 am before the headliner took the stage.

While all the bands were good, Heaven Below was clearly the best band of the night. Bums Sports Bar is a pretty small venue and from a fan’s perspective, it allowed up close and personal interaction with the band. If you ask me, they were too good for the venue. This is the kind of band you would expect to see somewhere like Stubb’s in Austin. They played a lot of the songs from their CD, but also entertained the crowd with covers from Guns ‘n Roses and Judas Priest. Overall, this was one of the best performances I’ve seen this year and it was definitely worth the wait.

If you haven’t heard Heaven Below, they have some of their music on their MySpace page. You can also find them on their website at www.heavenbelow.net and their CD is available for purchase or download from iTunes or Amazon.com.

I just got finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Nicely done. I've been reading a lot of crappy stuff lately and this book was a very pleasant surprise! I really enjoyed it. I even got on Amazon.com to leave a review. The review is below but I'll say, if you get a chance to read it, do. It's worth the effort.

My review:

Tough Concept Nicely Done

The Hunger Games takes a hard concept, that parents would sacrifice their own children, and pulls it off. Not only does Suzanne pull it off, she sucks you into it in the process. It a story about love and friendship and takes a fresh look at the cost of survival – and sacrifice. The Hunger Games is well written and an easy read. I enjoyed it very much and I’m looking forward to the release of Catching Fire on September 1, 2009.

~Doug

CJ is a dog. He’s a black lab that used to belong to us, but now resides with Maria’s sister. He’s a good dog, but he’s old and now deaf. And he’s overweight too, but not as much as he was before we inherited him from Maria’s other sister. Yes, he’s a family hand-me-down dog.

But I have to say, he’s happiest in his current home. And although you would think that he would enjoy our home more, because there are four of us to administer the attention, Maria’s sister dotes on him and he does not lack for affection.

But then she had to travel and was going to be gone for a week. Of course we agreed to keep CJ. We like CJ. He used to be ours and lived in our house. He would feel right at home.

But then she dropped him off and flew out. CJ isn’t the same anymore. He’s still a good dog, don’t get me wrong, but he’s spoiled these days. He wakes up at all times of the night and whines. And did I mention that he’s deaf? We couldn’t just tell him to “get back in bed.” We had to get up and physically lead him to his bed and make him lie down. Over and over and over.

After the second night, Maria and I decided to take turns getting up with him. It was awful. We felt bad for him because he really loves Maria’s sister, and we knew he was probably getting up in the night looking for her.

But after a week of it, we couldn’t wait for him to go home. We met Maria’s sister at the airport, taking CJ with us so that we could drop them both home together. And they were thrilled to see each other.

Kudos to her for taking care of CJ the way she does. She spoils him mercilessly. And, it appears, he enjoys it immensely. But Freakin’ CJ is too spoiled for us anymore. And he doesn’t keep decent hours anymore.

~Doug

My sister reminded me this week of a tradition we used to have that I’d forgotten about. When I was a kid, I used to ride the bus to school. On the last day of school, the bus would stop at the local Tastee Freeze for ice cream. It was always a big deal and we really looked forward to it.

So the other day, my sister told me that she was picking up my great niece and nephew and taking them to Dairy Queen for their last day of school. I told her that was a tradition I needed to start back up with my kids. Well, Xavier is already in college so that doesn’t work out so well with him, but Sarah, now that’s a different story.

So Friday, I got off of work early and picked her up after school. We came home, got on the motorcycle, and went to Dairy Queen. We had lunch and then Blizzards. It was a lot of fun. Sarah even said it was a tradition we should’ve started a long time ago.

~Doug

Wow. I’ve been to Reno. I’ve been to Lake Tahoe. But I’ve never been to Las Vegas. I was totally unprepared for the experience. Maria has been to Vegas three or four times before, so she knew what to expect, though she discovered a lot of changes.

We started off on a 7:30 am flight from Austin to Las Vegas on Saturday morning. We had to be at the airport at 5:30 am so we had to get up a lot earlier than normal to make it on time. We planned on going to bed earlier the night before in preparation, but with all the last-minute packing and the excitement of the trip, combined with the rigors of our last workday, it just didn’t happen. That means that we started off on the first day a little tired.

We flew Southwest Airlines and the plane was only about 2/3 full, so we had lots of room to stretch out and kick back. With the 2 hour difference in time zones, we landed at about 9:10 am and tried to get a limousine. Maria has fond memories of drinking in limos on the way to the casinos, but come to find out, that’s all changed. Limos don’t come with stocked bars anymore, so we took a cab instead.

We got to The Imperial Palace and were lucky enough to be able to check in immediately. It was a lucky break, and not the last one I would get this trip. We went to our room, threw our bags down and nearly ran out of the door on the way to our first day of adventures.

We checked out the Casino at The Imperial Palace, and then went off in search of other casinos. We stopped into the Venetian and then Maria wanted to go to Circus Circus. Her father always stayed there when he went to Las Vegas and in all of her other trips, she’d never been there. I’d been to Circus Circus in Reno and I knew that it would be lousy with kids, and I was right. It wasn’t long before we were ready to go to the next casino.

We got a cab and went to Binion’s in what they call old downtown. We also wanted to experience Fremont Street, and they were right next to each other. Binion’s was kind of fun and I had a good little run on the Blackjack tables while I was there. We also took our picture next to a big pile of money. It’s $1,000,000, all in $100 bills and under plastic to keep anyone from taking it. We also ate there and then went out to Fremont Street.

We were a little early for the show so we wandered around a little, taking pictures and watching street vendors. The show finally started and we were a little disappointed. We thought it would be like a laser light show, but it was really like a music video that you had to look straight up to see. We left a little after 9:00 and headed back to the hotel. Turns out at 10:00pm, it was a tribute to Queen and would have been more along the lines of what we expected, but we left too early.

At the hotel, I wanted to get a little writing in and discovered that the Internet isn’t free there. It was $30 for 3 days. So I didn’t pay and did blog, or twitter, or yammer, or anything. Bummer. But I did write until midnight or later.

But that was a mistake because we got up early the next day, at about 6:30. As soon as we were showered, we were off again; this time in search of show tickets. Maria found a place for discounted tickets and got tickets to see the Cirque de Soleil show, Zumanity. Once we had our tickets, we went to the Flamingo before going to MGM Grande where we watched lions in a habitat they have there.

Next it was off to New York, New York where we at lunch and exchanged our vouchers for tickets for Zumanity, and then we went to the Luxor. There, we found Maria’s favorite slot machine; I Dream of Genie. There were two side by side, so we sat down and started playing. We played for hours. Our waitress took really good care of us and we had a hard time walking by the time we had to go eat before seeing the show. We went up to The Cathouse and had expensive tuna and cheap spaghetti.

When we finally made it to Zumanity, all I can say is that it was awesome! There was a lot to see and it was pretty cool. After the show, we went to Mandalay Bay, then to Harrah’s where we at midnight breakfast before going to bed at 1:30 am after walking probably five miles that day.

Monday morning we were up bright and early again at about 7:00 am. I think it had something to do with the sun shining directly into our room in the mornings. We got up, got dressed, and we were off again. We did a brunch at The Imperial Palace and then each had a 15 minute massage. Once we had all the kinks worked out, we went out again, walking across the street to Caesar’s Palace. They had a neat aquarium and a laser fountain show that we caught. We also picked up souvenirs for the kids there.

We stayed on the strip for the rest of the day, going back to our own hotel so Maria could take a short nap. I played the Star Trek slot penny slot machine all afternoon, winning about $150 on it. One hand I won $100. I had four Captain Kirks in a row, then it went into Win Warp and it replaced the one that wasn’t Captain Kirk with one that was 10x. Five Captain Kirks are worth $10, but the 10x made them worth $100. I was stoked!

We finally made it back to Treasure Island that night for their outdoor show. It was almost cancelled because of the wind, but they decided to put it on anyway. We went inside to gamble for a while. There, Maria discovered that she still had a slot machine voucher for Caesar’s Palace so we had to go back there before we got back to The Imperial Palace. It was nearly 2:30 in the morning when it was all over.

Tuesday morning we got up early again so we could check out and get to the airport. We were early, our plane was late, we were tired, and I was hung over. What a bad combination. So I sat down at an oxygen bar and sucking in O2 while getting a back and head massage. It did wonders to make me feel better, but we were both really tired from an exhausting and wonderful trip to Las Vegas.

I didn’t think I would say this, but I can’t wait to go back. But I have a couple of things I need to remember for our next trip:

- Get on the treadmill to get used to all the walking before we go.

- Wear comfortable shoes for all the walking – ask Maria!

- Plan out your shows in advance. Sometimes it’s hard to make it from one spot to the next in time to see what you want.

Until next time,

~Doug

So, I have to ask; how does a boy need to be before it’s not okay to go into the women’s restroom with his mom?

Tonight, I swear, I was going into the men’s restroom, and as I was going in, a group of women were coming out of their restroom. Among the women was a boy who was almost as tall as I am; and I’m 5’10”.

Now he obviously looked young, but not that young. I’m guessing he was 11 or 12. So, I have to say, I’m not too cool with that.

Now don’t get me wrong. If I were 11 or 12, I would probably want to go into the women’s restroom with my mom. Hell, I’m 44 (45 tomorrow) and I still want to go into the women’s restroom. But that don’t mean it’s cool!

So am I alone with this, or is there anyone else out there that thinks we need to card boys to go into the women’s restroom?

“I’m sorry, you’re a little too old,” says that big, burly bouncer outside of the women’s restroom checking IDs.

“He’s my son and he can come in,” the angry mom replies.

Well, you see where this is going. What do you think?

~Doug

My wife did it again. Every time we go to Dallas, she not only finds us a great hotel deal, she figures out what else we should do while we’re there. You see, when we’re in Dallas, or Houston, or wherever, we’re usually going for a reason. This time we were going to Dallas for the Nickelback concert. It was awesome by the way, and you can read about it on my blog at: http://www.dougmcintire.com/blog/.

That was the main reason we were going, but today, she suggested that we go to the Dallas World Aquarium, just a few blocks from the hotel where we were staying. So we did, and I have to say, it was awesome. We spent almost 3 hours there looking at all the birds, monkeys, snakes, spiders, crocodiles, turtles, poisonous tree frogs, and yes, fish. And that’s why I say she did it again.

The trip before, it was to a Scott Sigler book signing, but we also went to the King Tut Exhibition, which made for a great weekend! Well this was a wonderful weekend too, thanks to all the research she does.

So, if you find yourself in Dallas looking for something to do, check out the Dallas World Aquarium. It’s worth the effort.

~Doug