Hixter

My friends hold 3 of the 6 seats on the HOA board, but I still haven't been able to convince them to allow me to erect a tower for an amateur radio antenna.

We're all friends. Everyone gets along perfectly. The husbands hang out, drink beer and help each other with home repairs and projects. The wives drink wine and socialize and the kids play with each other. Several of the neighbors were friends or co-workers who visited and decided to move there because of the excellent neighborhood dynamics. Two old Army buddies are trying to convince their spouses to buy a house on our streets.

We have installed swinging "Hee-Haw" gates in our fences so that we can get from yard to yard without having to walk all the way around the block.

My neighbors bring me food when they have leftovers, drive me to the airport and put my trash can back in my garage. They're the best.

My neighbor texted and invited me to Christmas dinner with his family. Then my other neighbor invited me to dinner with *his* family. That would never have happened in any of my previous neighborhoods.

I haven't encountered any more than I have in the other states in which I've lived. The demographics are so incredibly different that it's hard to make any sort of comparison: San Antonio's non-Hispanic whites make up only 25% of the population, while states like Vermont and Maine are more than 95% white.

A 10-year-old was recently suspended for shooting another student with an imaginary bow and arrow. Zero tolerance regulations need to be scrapped.

I usually order brisket 'moist' so that there's a little more fat and juice in it, but i've never had any that I'd consider dry.

I've lived in Indiana, Nevada, California, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, and San Antonio is by far the friendliest place I've ever lived. My neighbors are so wonderful that I can hardly believe it. I've never had a dry brisket; you must have hit the wrong places at the wrong time.

I worked 26 straight hours a few years ago. It doesn't happen very often.

Satellite communications. It's the same thing I did in the Army 25 years ago.

I would rather eat an iPhone than try to type your initial post on one. I'm lucky if I can make it through a paragraph on a portable device.

It's 2:30 on a Monday afternoon in Florida, so I hope you didn't post that on company time/equipment/network unless you're the company's IT guy. I'd never badmouth my company while on the clock because I have no idea whether they're reading or storing the data that passes through the local network. Better to be safe than sorry ... My boss is a good guy and I have no complaints at all. I work 27-hour weeks (salaried) and can take off any any days I'd like. It's by far the best job I've ever had.

I just made two Chicago-style pizzas for my kids, their significant others and my grandson. Little remains.

Obamacare has even lost the uninsured: Less than a quarter—24%—of uninsured Americans think the health care law is a good idea, and half think it’s a bad idea.

I'm visiting my family and friends in Orange County at the moment and there's a bottle of Rudy's Sause on the table in front of me. I brought out 4 bottles of it this trip, much to the TSA's consternation. A few arteries were murdered, but that's why God invented coronary bypass surgery. I hate onions and don't bother with crackers, but I guess they're just palate cleansers and/or side snacks. It's not bad for a chain. The original is closest to my house and I've found that the franchise outlets are sometimes of lesser quality. The photo that I stole posted was taken at City Market

The actual number is 364,000. But that's just the number of people who have added a plan to their shopping cart, not actually paid for it. I've read that the about 5%-10% of customers have actually paid. We should remember that: 1) If these numbers represent the low-hanging fruit (people who were uninsurable due to existing conditions) then the program is in deep trouble because it needs millions of young, healthy people to sign up to offset the people with expensive conditions. (Can we call them The Other 1%?) 2) More than 5 million people will lose their insurance, so a few hundred tho

Ribs, brisket and sausage served on paper with a few slices of bread; maybe some beans on the side. Sauce and utensils are optional, but mostly unnecessary.

Once I got used to the frontage roads and turnarounds I wondered why every state doesn't have them.

I'm visiting family in southern California so it's a little grayer than I'm used to, but I can still see clearly.

http://nelscline.com/jim-hall-reflections

The Democrats wanted another shutdown to shift the focus from the Obamacare mess, so the Republicans stymied them by agreeing to a deal that doesn't raise taxes -- even though it does -- except they are referred to as fees. Airline travel will get more expensive, federal workers will have to pay more into their pensions and the government will continue spending as usual. Humbug. I preferred sequestration.

Relax, it was a joke.

Calvino made a wisecrack about a meaningless photo of the president being mentioned on a right-leaning website and I made a wisecrack about a meaningless photo of the president being mentioned on a left-leaning website. Call it balanced reporting ...

Both Fox and Drudge mentioned Raul.