Pictures from a fun weekend

I took a lot of unrelated pictures this weekend, and thought I'd roll them all into one post:

I went to my sister and brother-in-law's house Friday night. Mr. Chen, the factory owner that I've worked with during 5 trips to China, was having dinner with them. Mr. Chen is a Tool And Die maker who started his own company in China almost immediately after Xiamen (his hometown) became a "Free Enterprise Zone". (Free Enterprise Zone is a term used in Communist China to designate places where people aren't starving to death any more. It's strange how the Free Market works, isn't it?)
And for long-time followers of this blog, Mr. Chen is the star of The Infamous Chinese Dog Story, an epic tale of death, destruction, and bizarre cultural differences that has been read and copied and emailed all over 6 continents.

Mr. Chen speaks almost no English. Here he is cooking scallops and signaling that he needs to find a urinal.

This is Nancy. Nancy is Mr. Chen's translator, Salesperson, Office Manager, and right hand. Nancy also had a small part in The Celebrated Chinese Typhoon Story.

I spent Saturday morning working at the Jukt Micronics New Everman warehouse.
Tommy, Joshua, and the crew have brought order out of chaos. NOTHING is out of place in this entire facility. NOTHING.

Saturday afternoon, I went to the Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup at The Flying Saucer in downtown Fort Worth. Michael Badnarik, our 2004 Presidential candidate, was there. And that's Stephen Smith, of the "Beginner's Guide To Freedom" blog, on the far right. Stephen is staring off into the distance, thinking of things far more brilliant than anything I'll ever write.

Stephen is, after all, from Jackson, Mississippi.

That's me, plotting rebellion and upheaval with Tarrant County Libertarian Party Chair, John Spivey.

Mandy the dachshund has been "great with child", to put it biblically, for quite a while. She decided to have 6 babies Sunday morning. I kinda had to help out with number 6, who was quite comfy inside his old resting place. Thought he was stillborn, cause he didn't move at all once he hit the great indoors. A couple of minutes passed by. I decided to let Mandy sniff him, etc., so she could see that he didn't make it.
Mandy licked #6 for about a minute and a half without stopping.
#6 woke up, lifted his head, and started sniffing around for breakfast. It's amazing how they just "know".

We let Mandy outside so we could count the puppies. 6 of them, and all seemed healthy. We let her in, and then watched some "Lost". I'm at the very beginning of Season 4, and I think the Island is the center of a Time Warp.

The Aggie and I decided to count how many boys vs. girls we had. We counted 4 boys and 3 girls. That couldn't be right, because we had 6 puppies. We counted again. Came up with 5 boys and 2 girls. (Their mother kept moving them around. That had to be the reason.) We counted again. It added up to 7. Mandy had pushed out another pup while we weren't paying attention.
Amazing.
I'm glad Mandy stopped at 7, because I think she only has place settings for 8. Woulda been crowded at the table.

It's strange how these tiny, delicate, effeminate, mewling, balls of life can grow up to be somewhat larger, delicate, effeminate, mewling, balls of life. I honestly don't know how I wound up with all these dachshunds. (Well, I know how I got the last 7. I just don't remember a conscious decision to fill the yard with them.)

Went to Boomerjacks in the old Montgomery Ward's area Sunday afternoon. There supposedly was a Cowboys game going on. I think the Cowboys won. This will only encourage Jerry to remain in place as G.M. Therefore, in the long term, this victory is a bad thing.

Other relapses were prevented. (Long story.)

When I got home, The Aggie had made a TCU pumpkin for my Paw In Law, who got his doctorate at TCU.

My Maw In Law countered with some ghost brownies.

End of weekend. It was a good one.