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So, this summer in addition to all that other stuff I mentioned in that other post, I’m also playing Daddy Day Care for Morgan and Ian.  The time I’m getting to spend with them is absolutely priceless.  It’s also allowing me one other opportunity:  cooking.

That’s right.  I’m turning into Betty Freakin’ Crocker.  Have you seen Once Upon a Time in Mexico?  No, really; there’s a connection.  Hang with me.  If you haven’t seen it, go out and rent the DVD.  I’ll wait.

There is a feature on it where director Robert Rodriguez takes you into his kitchen and, in 10 minutes, provides you with a recipe and shows you how to cook it.  One of the pieces of advice he gives (at no additional cost) is to come up with 5 or 6 dishes that you really love and learn how to cook them - really well.  Then, create a menu for yourself and keep it handy.  When you have friends over, you can have them choose what they would like to eat and you can impress them with your ability to cook it!

So, since I’m playing the part of stay-at-home-dad, I decided, I would take full advantage of it and teach myself how to cook for Bekah and the kids.

Yesterday, Bekah and I had a huge lunch so I went with something light for dinner.  I prepared a simple pasta salad and a Yogurt Crunch desert.  Not to toot my own horn, but both were a hit.  Still, I figured, a simple pasta salad wasn’t all that impressive…

So, tonight, when Bekah walks in the door in a few minutes, she’s going to be treated to stuffed green peppers.   I’m getting more and more adventurous with my dishes and I’m going to track my successes (and failures) here.  Stay tuned for updates!

For those of you who already knew this will be old news (sorry): My grandfather is doing much better. He was in the hospital for nearly 10 days last week and they weren’t really sure what was wrong with him…except for the fact that he had the flu which deteriorated into pneumonia. All of that in addition to his weakened heart and diabetes. The doctors weren’t giving him much of a chance, but I don’t think they took into consideration his underlying strength. He fought it back enough to get himself back to his own home.

Bekah and I went to see him last weekend and I was scared by what I saw. His color was just not right and it took him a few minutes to recognize me. On one hand, I do worry about him and yet, on the other hand, he is a Marine. He survived Guadalcanal during WWII for crying out loud! He was talking about how he was going to write another book about hospitals and how much he hated them! He never let his sense of humor leave him. He was obviously in pain yet, his primary goal was to make sure that those around him were in good spirits and had a smile on their faces.

He is the strongest man I know. I don’t think he will ever know exactly how much he means to me. If I can grow up to be half the man he is, I will consider myself a very lucky man. He is my inspiration and my role model. I love him so very much. And I almost couldn’t handle the fact that he was spouting parental advice to me (as though he’d never see me again) as we were leaving his hospital room. I just kept telling him that I’d see him at his house very soon.

He’s back at home now and is doing better. He’s still very weak, but at least he’s not stuck in a hospital anymore. For that, I’m thankful.

Incidentally, his book From Guadalcanal to Tokyo is available. E-mail me for more information on how to order a copy.

In other website news, I’ve finally gotten my performance resume and curriculum vitae online. You can find them in the list of links to the right. For now, the CV is only in .pdf format (you’ll need to have Acrobat Reader to see them), but I am working on the webview version.

So, I’m only about 5 years behind the times. I only got my first iPod about a month and a half ago (even though I’ve had other mp3 players long before that) and I’m captivated by the podcast. I have subscribed to so many of the free ones through iTunes that I have trouble finishing them all before more downloads take place.

Anyway, I know that WordPress 2.0 and higher (the blog software that runs this site) supposedly make podcasting a snap, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Here is a link. It’s the link to my first podcast. However, if you want to put it on your iPod with relative ease, I suggest you subscribe to my RSS feed through iTunes and let the software work its magic.

I’m interested in getting the feedback on this one.

So, I’ve had this site online for nearly a month now and I guess it’s time I put a little something on it other that just the “Hey Check Back Soon” post. Here’s a little bit of what I’ve got going on this summer.

In June be on the lookout for a Bristol Motor Speedway (running regionally in the Southeast) with my mug on it. I’ll try to get it linked here as quickly as I get it in my hot little hands.

I’ve just finished my first year as a university professor and I loved every last second of it. There is something so free about being in a classroom where the students have a vested interest in the class (even if the class is just one that they have to have to graduate). They were attentive and respectful. I even conviced a couple of them to change their major!

Summer projects for me include continuing to update this site and my other two sites that I’m running: The Mirror Up To Nature and the MTSU Theatre and Dance website. The latter is in desperate need of an update. That’s the next thing on my list. I’m also going to be continuing to work on my book. It’s going to be a non-fiction book on Shakespearean Performance. Obviously, I’ll be posting updates on my progress here and on Mirror Up To Nature. My agent continues to send me out on auditions in the Nashville market, so hopefully there will be other work to announce in that respect as well.

I’ll also be continuing to post DVD reviews on NeedCoffee.com and I might even get around to continuing Ginger’s adventure over at Dark Blue Monstropolis. God knows I’ve been needing to get her out of the situation she’s in.

As you can see, I’ve added the random photo grabber thingy to the left. It’s pulling random images from my photo gallery. So far, I’ve uploaded my headshots (both past and current) and some images from some productions I’ve done. I’m working on getting some embedded links to some video of the commercials and industrials I’ve done as well.

Oh yeah, I’ll also be posting some fairly random stuff up here as well. Stuff that really doesn’t have anything much to do with my acting career, but has more to do with my hobbies and/or my family. Big news on the family front right now is that Bekah is starting a new job tomorrow with Thomas Nelson Publishing. I can hear her rummaging around the bedroom right now getting herself ready for her first day. It’s a great job and she’s really excited about it. I know she’s destined for great things. It’s just another one of those things that makes it clearer that we were meant to leave Texas (even though we miss the people there horribly). The class that were Freshmen my first year at Newman Smith High School are graduating this year and I was doing everything in my power to try to get back out there to see them, but it just didn’t happen.

So, this site is up and running and I will be updating it regularly. Thanks for stopping by! Pull up a chair and have a cold one!