From the Mind of MandoRon

If you follow Big 12 basketball at all, you’ve probably heard of Wayne Simien.  He was an All-American at Kansas several years ago.

There was a great article in The Wichita Eagle this morning about his journey to the NBA and his faith.  Check it out!  It’s well worth the read.

Like most young boys, my six-year old has developed a fascination with guns.  It occurred to me that it might be best if he understood how to safely handle a gun rather than guns being a complete mystery to him.  A while back, I told him that I would bring my .22 rifle when we went to my in-law’s farm at Christmas. 

I showed it to him for the first time a few days ago, and all he has talked about since then is guns.  He has told everyone he’s seen that he was going to shoot daddy’s gun at the farm.  It’s been pretty comical actually…  He’s been asking all kinds of questions about rifles, handguns, machine guns - even cannons!

So today we went out to the farm and shot up some cans and water bottles.  We went through about 25o rounds between my .22 semi-auto rifle, my brother-in-law’s .22 semi-auto pistol that he loaned me, my father-in-law’s .22 revolver, and his  .357 revolver.

I taught Jett to shoot the .22  rifle and pistol.  He had a blast and we had a great time bonding.  (I had fun too…)  At the end, he actually hit  some cans at about 40~50 feet!

Interestingly, I think Jett is the fifth-generation to shoot the .22 rifle.  My grandfather originally bought it for my  great-grandmother so she could shoot squirrels from her porch.  Apparently, she like to eat squirrel…  Now I’m not actually certain the my dad has shot it but I’m pretty sure that he had the opportunity when I was a kid.

I offered to teach Jada too, but she didn’t  want anything to do with the guns.  Maybe another day…

GO POKES!

Happy December 29th!  I’m sure it’s a holiday somewhere.

The UPS truck pulled up to the house today while I was playing Tiger Woods golf on the Wii.  I was surprised because we weren’t expecting anything.  It was a CD called Adrienna Valentine by Trent Wagler and Jay Lapp.  It was a gift from a guy at work.  I had never heard of these guys before but they’re very good.  They play Americana Roots stuff.  I’ve only been able to listen to a few songs, but I really like it so far.  Jay is a mean mandolin player. 

My favorite Christmas present this year was from my brother Jason.  He was the only person that used my Christmas Wishlist post in selecting a gift for me.  He is hooking me up with a new Wordpress blog that he is going to host on his server.  And he bought me my own domain - www.mandoron.com!  I’ve got some work to do to get things up and running over there, so look for the big switch in the next week or two.

We are looking forward to watching the OSU Cowboys play Oregon tomorrow in the Holiday Bowl.  Unfortunately, a trip to San Diego wasn’t in the Burgess budget.  Did you know that the Oregon ducks have 384 possible uniform variations?  That’s crazy!

On Wednesday, Andrea and I will be celebrating our 14th Anniversary.  I’m trying to figure out where to take her for dinner. 

On Friday, we’ll be attending a funeral.  We got a call on the day after Christmas that my step-mother’s middle son, Jay, had passed away in the night.  He was only 24.  It was unexpected and they still aren’t sure what happened.  As you can imagine, the family is in a great deal of shock.  Please pray for my step-mom Jana, and the rest of the family.

Please also pray for my brother Jason and his wife Chevy.  Chevy had a miscarriage the same day that Jay passed away.  That’s really got to suck…  It was a sad day.

I am fully aware that none of you probably care about this, but you should be aware that I don’t care that you don’t care.  Jimmy crack corn, and I don’t care…

The new polls are out and the Oklahoma State Cowboys are ranked #8 in the poll after putting a whuppin’ on the Missouri Tigers Saturday.  Who would’ve thought OSU could beat #3 Missouri on the road with defense?  6-0 for the first time since 1997 and in the top 10 for the first time since 1988.

In other news, ABC announced today that it will broadcast the OSU-Texas showdown on October 25 at 2:30.