Oh the stories you will hear! Though we will have to work on our story telling. He set the bar pretty high.

Duane’s description is pretty spot-on.

Below is his obituary:

Melvin “Mel” Carter Peeples was born on September 13, 1932, to Hugh and Mamie Peeples. He passed quietly on January 28, 2012, in the loving presence of his family. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Betty; son Robert; son Alan and his wife Reynalda; son Mark and his wife Susan; grandchildren Duane, Philip (wife Tasha), Kara, Lorien, Gabriel, and Angela (husband George); great-grandchildren Brandon, Damian, and Alyssa.

Mel attended Pampa High School and the University of Texas, graduating in 1955. He met his wife, Betty, in the summer before their freshman year of high school and they were married on January 25, 1953, while attending the University of Texas. After graduation, Mel began his professional life in private practice in Pampa, Texas, raising his family there until 1962. The family then moved to Austin where he was employed by the State of Texas until retiring from the Department of Public Safety in 1993.

Mel was a large and powerful man but his friends and family know that his physical presence was dwarfed by his virtues. He was a loving, caring family man and a trusted, reliable friend to those close to him. He enjoyed a wide range of hobbies – hunting, fishing, model airplanes, photography – but one of the things he most enjoyed was being the fix-it guy for his grandchildren. Mel and Betty also loved to travel to Mexico, making innumerable trips beginning in the ’80s along with their close friends of more than forty years, Bob and Linda Casbeer.

Mel will be deeply missed by his friends and family.

The family would like to give thanks to the staff at St. David’s Hospital, Round Rock Medical Center for their diligent and thoughtful attention to Mel’s needs over his last days.

Memorial services will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 2nd at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N Lamar, Austin.

So, some GTO buddies and I went and played Whirlyball yesterday. For those who haven’t played, it is like a mix of lacrosse, basketball, and bumper cars all in one. It could also be used for legal torture because today every muscle in my legs are sore, I have a bruised gut from the seat belt buckle (working on that whole gut thing though), and bruised legs from getting slammed into the side of the car everytime I hit a wall or someone nailed me.

So for 2 hours it was one of the most fun orgainzed games I have played, but today and until I no longer feel it’s lingering effects, I will continue to curse the guys that came up with it!!!

Tasha snapped some photos while we were playing…have a gander!

Who visits here that does not have a Facebook account other than my mom? Is it worth it to maintain the site? I have already moved the photos to Photobucket so it is really just for the posts, which I put on Facebook by default now…

So, my readers, your thoughts?

July went by and we spent some time with Doug and Renee and their kiddos at the lake and at their pool. Was nice and refreshing with the heat this summer.

In August we headed out to the 3rd Annual East Texas Goats Guadalupe River Trip. Most folks camped out, but being late August…in frickin’ Texas, we stayed in the Holiday Inn. We also got to use our new waterproof digital camera for some action shots on the river without having to buy one of those cheesy disposable 35mm water cameras.

September was a busy month. For Labor Day weekend, Tasha had Brandy’s bachelorette party and Lisa’s birthday, for which we met up with Duane, Brandon, Denise and Bryce for a trip to Longhorn Caverns.

Brandy’s wedding shower was later in the month..same day as mom’s birthday and the same day I got to fly back from Colombia into Austin on a Saturday afternoon to catch all the fun. I also got to try out the new slingbox since the UT vs UTEP game was going on while I was traveling back home. Pretty neat technology! Check out the pics from Brandy’s shower below…

Late September/early October was pretty busy for me with work travel. Nothing too exciting, just a bunch of short trips. The weekends have been just as busy though. We had the State Fair Car Show and my dad came up to hang with us for the weekend. Tried all sorts of fried foods…fried butter, fried cookie dough, fried pecan pie, sweet jalapeno shrimp corndog, Fletcher’s corny dog, and a Fletcher’s jalapeno cheese corny dog. Got the car all detailed for the car show (thanks to the guys at Stuart’s since I was traveling too much to do it myself), only to have it rain that night!

The next weekend was Eric and Virginia’s wedding…awesome time, despite the reception place not having the UT vs Colorado game on TV . Seriously, who doesn’t have ESPN?!?!?! I kept everyone up to speed watching the live action via Slingplayer on my phone! Beat that iPhone fanboys! We forgot the camera so no pics Beautiful wedding with a nice Texas (UT) flare!!!

The next weekend we headed out to Mexico for Brandy’ss wedding at the Iberostar Grand Paraiso in the Mayan Riviera. We stayed for 8 days and had a blast. Some nights we (I ) can’t fully remember and some days we will NEVER forget! From catching Britney on fire with a flaming shot, to snoring so loud Tasha slept in the huge jacuzi tub, to a day trip for snorkeling and beachside chilling in Akumal with everyone, to a day trip to drive around Cozumel island to enjoy undistrurbed beauty and oceanside drinks and grub, and last but not least, the beautiful oceanfront wedding of Brandy and Todd. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting and hanging with their other friends and family in such a scenic and fun place! We didn’t even have to miss the Texas-OU game thanks to the wonders of Slingbox and free broadband at the resort. It rained most of the day anyways that day, so we didn’t miss too much resort fun! We stayed a bit longer than the rest of the group to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and then headed back home this past Friday. There are a ton of pics posted up, so have a look…

I think that is enough for now. If I think of more later, I will post. To look at the individual pics if you like, head over to the Photo Gallery…

- peeps

All in all, a great, tiresome weekend!

- peeps

I think though if she decides to go any shorter in the future I will think I am married to Sinead O’Connor

Here is the camera phone pic that she sent to me while I was out of town for work this week. Let her know what you think by commenting below…

- peeps

- peeps

And since I can’t stand radio, I get very little exposure to new tunes aside from hunting down new albums from artists I have previously enjoyed. Taking music recommendations now…post ‘em up in the comments below.

-peeps

We started working out in January or so. Going anywhere from 0 times a week (money well spent!) to 3 times a week depending on what else we have going on and how we feel. Usually we miss trips to the gym because I have work stuff going on (trips or evening international conference calls). Tasha is good though….even when I am out of town she makes an effort to go. When we go, Tasha will usually go to one of the classes (yoga, turbo kickboxing, etc) and I will do 40 minutes on the elliptical machine and 20 minutes of weights. I am also playing racquetball on Thursday evenings with Jason (aka Corndog) which was part of what started this workout kick since I find the cardio/weights thing boring as hell…racquetball had to be part of the regular schedule or I would burn out…QUICK!

Prior to starting this workout endeavor again, it had been about 7 years since I played racquetball and probably 10 years since I played on a pseudo-consistent basis. I was never good and I am still not good…but I am getting better about ball placement and shot selection though I still get tempted to just knock the hell out of the ball when I see that nice fat shot, which usually results in a lost point. I have yet to beat Jason in even 1 game…I’ll get there though. I get closer every week.

So it has been about 4 months now and and I can’t see any real differences. I haven’t lost weight, I don’t think I have shrunk any, I don’t feel different throughout the day….but I do have more endurance, so I guess that is a good thing. I’ll get there, just need to stay consistent and probably wouldn’t hurt if I ate better more frequently Tasha has toned up quite a bit….

What else…

Work is OK for both of us despite the down economy. I mean, my work has slowed down quite a bit, but we have managed to not be forced to make drastic cuts. Tasha still seems to be enjoying her job.

Over the last year or so we have gotten quite a bit more involved with my GTO group. We have met and gotten to know some really great people. A lot of people don’t get it…they think we sit around and talk about cars all the time, but really the cars were just the catalyst to bring us all together. Now it is just an excuse to get together and hang with regular ol’ friends. It has taken Tasha a while to come around on this but because of this great group and the fact that most group outings are family oriented, Tasha isn’t forced to be bored while we talk cars….unless you bring up new cars….she likes talking about those. Just not the nuts and bolts of it all!

Speaking of cars, we only have 1 more payment on Tasha’s car! We are really excited about it. Since 2000, we have always had 2 car payments. It will be a nice treat to not have that second one….until she decides she HAS to have that new VW Passat CC!!!

I was sad to hear that Pontiac is going to be discontinued in 2010. 75% of the cars I have ever owned have been Pontiacs…sure it is only 3 of 4, but they sure have brought me more joy than that Honda ever did! The 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix…5.0L V8, 4 barrel carb producing a WHOPPING 140hp was my first car that I got when Duane went into the Navy. Between the 2 of us, we drove the piss out of that car. The steering wheel of it still hangs in my garage! The next Pontiac (after the stint with the Honda during college) was my 2001 Pontiac Grand Am…3.4L V6 and 175hp. This car was my first new car and the first one fully paid for by me. I drove that until I was tempted by the idea of 400hp/400ft-lbs in the rebirth of “Pontiac” greatness…the 2005 GTO that today has about 66,000 miles. That’s 66,000 miles that Tasha, my family, my friends, and other drivers have seen me whippin’ around the state with an everlasting SEG on my face. I am proud to say that I own the last great coupe that Pontiac ever put it’s name on! (Notice how I carefully phased that!) I sure love my Holden!

We have started doing a monthly “supper club” with Tasha’s coworkers and their families. It works like this. Each month it is hosted by someone else at their house. They pick the main course and the others bring a side or dessert. The idea is the it brings everyone together and exposes people to new foods, recipes, etc. I like the new recipes part because I do most of the cooking for us and everyone knows how easy it is to get in a rut and just fix the same things all the time. Hopefully through this, we can figure out some new stuff that will allow us to mix it up some in our regular daily cooking. Personally, I hope we can keep trying to make something new and different each time…I have already stumbled upon an AMAZING charro bean recipe. It took me 2 weeks and 3 batches to get it right, but it sure was worth it.

Anyways, I think I have said enough for now. I hope to be not so long winded in the future…I rarely am anyways…

- peeps

Despite the little traffic this site gets, I updated the codebase (blog and photo gallery) for it for a couple reasons…

1. some of my .php files for WordPress and Coppermine had been compromised (hacked) somehow
2. the Wordprss code had been updated so allow me to add/update easier in the future
3. I like not having to worry about storage space limitations when using hosted solutions for photos, videos, etc
4. the above resulted in me having photos/videos posted on my Coppermine gallery, photobucket, youtube, and Picasaweb
5. I get bored with things easily…at least this change is cheaper than changing phones or cars

Doing this upgrade has given me a new found desire to get back to posting updates on our lives, photos, videos, etc. I have also started using Facebook a lot more so I have made it easier to post items there as well.

So, please bookmark the site, add it to your RSS feed list, ignore it, or whatever you do with sites like this…

I will do my best to provide frequent update to what is going on in our lives….

- peeps