I think the third season sucked. My theory, despite the evidence, is that it was intentional. Suicide by bad plot lines and character arcs; also, way too many damn guest stars. It’s as if Jonathan Ames wanted to go out on his own terms, or, drive his own damn nails in the series’ coffin.

I mean, really: Sperm bank fire? Elder love? Locavore restaurateur rivalry? Alcoholic relapses involving plushies? Incest?

All, too much, I say.

It was great a run. I loved seeing Ted Danson, Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, Oliver Platt and John Hodgman perform in an off-beat comedy based in Brooklyn.

And even though its final season sucked — I knew the show was cancelled before I started the third season — I would have kept watching the damn thing because at its worst, it was still better than the predictable drivel that passes as comedy elsewhere on the tube.

But on New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July, the commuter lots become a place for the community to come together and — burn ban or not — litter the ground with thousands of firecracker casings and other remnants of an apparent good time.

Anarchy?

By the looks of it, this sort of thing is tolerated in this unincorporated portion of Fort Bend County. The location of the lots mean the celebrants’ explosions can be seen from the highway and throughout the surrounding area.

As seen on New Year's Day.

At Target, I found this Cookie Monster toy. It talks, and munches cookies. If only I were five again! It was also about $40, which I think is a little excessive, but so was Cookie Monster.

Update: Dec. 27. Ok, it wasn’t $40. It was $25. But still. It’s available from Target.com.

Kim and I are expecting our first child! We’re really excited and we can’t keep the news to ourselves any longer! This is big — we’re even using exclamation points, people!

Update Dec. 23, 2011

See photos from Kim’s second ultrasound appointment from October 26.

Bastrop

Burger

Let's go to the capitol building!

See more photos from my Austin trip.

Fried oreos and twinkie on a stick!

They had a new, smaller ferris wheel this year.

Kim entered some cookies this year and they won a blue ribbon. Her prize: One dollar.

See more photos from our trip to the Fort Bend County Fair 2011.

Maybe this medium is for more than reporting lunch.

Ten years ago, I never thought the Sept. 11 tragedy could have happened.

But the attacks changed everything.

Justice is the violent and merciless killing of Osama Bin Laden this year.

My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims of the last ten years.

Since then, we’ve been a great team, as she would say, and I’ve never been happier.

So in my continuing effort to embarrass her, here’s some more photos.

Aug. 19, 2011 - my last day at UH

Aug. 9, 2011 - At Brennan's for her birthday

If it didn’t set, it couldn’t rise.

It was sad to leave such great friends who I learned so much from – but I believe change is a necessary force in skill development.

We’ll stay in touch!

Look what came in as I went out.

Location: Dallas, Texas
Date: Jun 10-11, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 385

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/10/dallas-fort-worth-vacation/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/09/surfside-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=surfside-2011 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/09/surfside-2011/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:46:04 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=2415 The beach trip.

Location: Surfside, Texas
Date: Jun 6, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 14

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/09/surfside-2011/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/27/summer-vacation-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=summer-vacation-2011 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/27/summer-vacation-2011/#comments Fri, 27 May 2011 13:39:44 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=2414 Summer weekend getaway in New Braunfels.

Location: New Braunfels, Texas
Date: May 27-29, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 23

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/27/summer-vacation-2011/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/12/cumin-cocktail/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cumin-cocktail http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/12/cumin-cocktail/#comments Fri, 13 May 2011 01:07:26 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=3253 Continue reading →]]> While eating at India’s in Houston with colleagues from the University of Houston, I came across a rather peculiar ingredient in a cocktail … as printed on the menu, at least.

I should revisit this place later to try it out!

Location: Houston, TX
Date: Apr 30, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 116

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/04/30/megan-neal-and-mark-suarez-wedding/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/07/27/surfside-2010-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=surfside-2010-2 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/07/27/surfside-2010-2/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:47:21 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://www.brandonmoeller.com/blog/?p=1290

A day at the beach.

Location: Freeport, Texas
Date: Jul 24, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 26

View Album

Location: Katy, Texas
Date: Jul 4, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 12

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/07/04/fourth-of-july/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/06/26/mechaia-lunn-and-clyde-longs-wedding/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mechaia-lunn-and-clyde-longs-wedding http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/06/26/mechaia-lunn-and-clyde-longs-wedding/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:32:46 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://www.brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/07/17/mechaia-lunn-and-clyde-longs-wedding/ MeChaia and Clyde’s wedding.

Location: Houston, TX
Date: Jun 26, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 60

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/06/26/mechaia-lunn-and-clyde-longs-wedding/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/08/kitteh/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kitteh http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/08/kitteh/#comments Sat, 08 May 2010 17:32:47 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://www.brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/07/17/kitteh/ Pictures of our new cat, Daphne.

Location: Rosenberg, Texas
Date: Jul 11, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 67

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/08/kitteh/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/07/this-space-reserved-for-doodles-really/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-space-reserved-for-doodles-really http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/07/this-space-reserved-for-doodles-really/#comments Sat, 08 May 2010 01:06:44 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://www.brandonmoeller.com/blog/?p=783

I saw this in an issue of The Daily Cougar earlier this week.

The issue was full of puzzles and three comics.

It's The Daily Cougar Finals Edition! Back in the day, we didn't have a Finals Edition - unless I remember wrong - and we would have never filled an issue with only puzzles and comics, even if some say that's the only reason it's read. I guess times change.

Location: Rosenberg, Texas
Date: Jul 11, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 4

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/02/food/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2009/11/18/wedding-program-is-done/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wedding-program-is-done http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2009/11/18/wedding-program-is-done/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:53:11 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=2063 Continue reading →]]> I have finished the design for the wedding program! Our wedding program. The one I insisted on designing and getting printed myself.

We used the font Brioso Pro throughout the program.

Here's the main graphic for the cover of the wedding program that I designed.

Here's the graphic I created for our name. Note the interlocking ampersand.

Here's the front and back covers of the wedding program.

Here is the PDF of the wedding program I designed for our wedding.

I designed them using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS4.

Here they are:

The blue "formal" coozie.

Photos taken for the blue coozie were shot by Pin Lim, from our engagement photo shoot. The background of this coozie will be blue, so the ink needs to be white, and so the white ink is black above – which means it’s kind of hard to tell what this one will look like. I’m confident it will be awesome.

The white "fun" coozie.

One of the photos taken for the white coozie was shot by Pin Lim (see the one on the far right). The others were shot myself, holding the camera out at a decent distance. This coozie was white with blue ink, so it’s not hard to see what it will look like, since the black ink above will be blue.

UPDATE: See a photo of the finished coozie, printed by Kustom Koozies, from Pin Lim’s wedding photo shoot:

The coozies came out great. Our guests loved them!

I first met Ken in college, when we both were sharpening our skills at The Daily Cougar. He was the ace reporter who always got it right and I was the columnist who never knew what time it was. Since then, he had a stint at many a small paper around Houston and we last worked together at the Houston Chronicle’s Neighborhood News department.

We all got together to bid him farewell recently, and I snapped a few shots of the journalistic legend. But, I was shooting into the glare of a large window behind him, so I have altered the following photos to highlight his good features.

Keep in touch, buddy.

Ken Fountain and one margarita

Some lessons hurt more than others. Especially those involving the sudden loss of half a toe nail.

They didn’t have to amputate it, but man – what if they would have? I certainly wouldn’t be having to wear sandals to work, man.

Ow ow ow ow ow

Kim said the photo I’m adding to this post may not be suitable for all viewers, especially those who may be missing a toe. I don’t think I know anyone missing a toe, but I do know a guy who goes by Toes because on one foot, he has six.

See.

Speaking of Kim, she was part of this lovely exchange on Facebook about the toe.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Yeah, I was driving Kim’s car. She said, “I never drive it over 80.”

There were two of them, hiding on the blind side of the hill. It didn’t take longer than 10 minutes before I was on my way. I am thankful there were no stupid human tricks involved in the ticket issuing process. And I’m just paying the ticket – like a man – this time, for the first time ever. No wrestling with an online defensive driving course or twiddling my thumbs somewhere during class. No. Screw it.

For my next trick, I will devour a bowl of ice cream.

Here's a bunch of dead red sun sunflowers I deadheaded last week. Deadheaded about as many this past weekend, too. Sigh.

The biker took our photo, though I'm pretty sure his bike stole the frame.

Then, Kim took my picture outside of the historic building.

Some guy in front of Gruene Hall.

Then, I took her photo.

Kim at Gruene Hall.

And later, using Adobe Photoshop, I combined the two individual photos to create an image of us together, in front of a full view of Gruene Hall.

Grune Hall: We were there, together.

Then, later the combined photo was printed in a Shutterfly book I made for Kim.

The Shutterfly book I made for Kim to remember our 2009 summer vacation across central Texas.

Here is the adjusted photo as published in the Shutterfly book.

Of course, the gallery of the photos I took during our Summer 2009 vacation can be seen here: day one and day two.

Well, don’t be a stranger. Comment below and congratulate us.

See A Lot of photos of Kim and I here.

Or, see other photos used in this year’s Christmas cards here.

It’s an exciting position that I am very much looking forward to. I start on Oct. 27.

For me, it’s kind of like a homecoming, since I graduated from the University five years ago after working for The Daily Cougar for most of that time and for the Journal of Classroom Interaction in the College of Education for part of that time.

Feel free to wish me luck on my new endeavors here, and to everyone I’ve met and had the pleasure of working along side at The Houston Chronicle: Thank You.  Keep in touch.

Check them out here.

Here’s a preview:

Corina’s birthday

At Chuck E. Cheese

Mother’s Day

Silly Kramer

Leila’s opening

Midnight at Surfside

David’s birthday party

Ben’s surprise birthday party

Well, that’s all for now. Enjoy until next time – which hopefully will be sooner. Whew.

Or that I can run an 8k in 28:08.8? I hope that’s fast.

Or that I practice as a beat pharmacist and echologist?

Or that I wrote a disgraceful song about ether and a candy peter that would make Chip Taylor or, anyone – for that matter – shudder.

Apparently, I’m also back in high school, pledging to be drug free (Update, July 15, 2010: http://www.fortdodge.org/charactercounts/pdf/13.pdf is no longer a working link), writing for the school newspaper, and wrestling every chance I get. While, all the time, looking (Update, July 15, 2010: http://www.fortdodge.org/charactercounts/pdf/13.pdf is no longer a working link) like a guy who I did go to high school with, but who apparently doesn’t have a Web presence. Confused?

I’m talking about my googlegangers.

Here’s the definition from Urban Dictionary:

Similar to that of a doppleganger, it is another individual with the same name as you whose records and/or stories are mixed in with your own when you Google yourself.

It’s true. Just google me.

And now to leave you with a quote, from Ben Folds:

“Seems the police had made a computer mistake
Said there must be thousands like me with the
Same name”