The Malone Family

Friday, May 1, 2009

The Snake Wrangler

Here's the story: As I was driving to Stuart and Dev's place I passed a large snake in the middle of the road. It was coiled up and looked like a rattler, so I decided to turn around and run over it - please don't call PETA. I wouldn't normally do that, but there was a path for joggers right beside the road. Can you imagine the reaction from a woman who might be pushing a stroller??? Not good. So, I ran over it. I figured I flattened it, but when me and Stu went back to look it was still alive in the road. By this time cars were stopping to look and we decided the best thing to do was get it off the road...but, we didn't know how.

This is where my incredible van comes into play. About a week ago I picked up some lumber out of a dumpster and thankfully it was still in my van (I was going to try to use a tennis racket, but Stu talked me out of it). As you can see in the video I wasn't man enough to pick the snake up by the head, instead, I opted to throw it with the piece of wood. After getting the snake out of the road it made its way back to the brush. Problem solved.

I put the video on here because there aren't many times a person gets to play with a snake like that. I must admit that I felt a little less manly for not picking it up with my hands. The guy from 'Man vs. Wild' would probably laugh at this...in disgust, not because it's funny.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Bogey and Me

Allison and I watched the movie, "Marley and Me" not too long ago and it was lame..err I mean, really good. Ok, ok, it was sad, but seriously, who in their right mind treats an animal like a human being??? Billions of dollars are spent on vet care, purchasing an animal, and animal accessories every year while millions of people go hungry at night. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I confess, I spend money on my dog. A brotha has to eat, right? We buy him dog food. We bought a collar. We bought a leash. We bought pee-pads (occasionally, he will still poop by the backdoor). This isn't supposed to be a 'bash on people for spending too much money on their pets while the world goes hungry' post, so I'll move on. This is about my dog.

We finally got a dog and I think he's the best dog in the world. I'm a proud dad. If not the best dog, then definitely in the top 10. His name is Bogey and we got him from my grandma when he was a little over a year old. He knows how to sit and how to go to bed when you tell him to. He can also sing a mean karaoke version of 'Single Ladies'. Just kidding, everyone knows dogs can't sing karaoke - but only because they have a difficult time reading the words. Maybe if the words were written in 'dog' then they could. That was a joke too. (insert laugh here)

Allison and I enjoy bike riding. Allison had the idea of bringing Bogey on our bike ride the other day. I thought we would just hold a leash while he ran, but no, Allison had a brilliant idea. Instead of Bogey having to do all that running she wanted to strap a blue crate to the back of my bike and let him ride in it. See the pictures below.

Cute, right? We rode around for about twenty minutes and he did great. We had the bottom of the crate padded with a blanket and he sat and enjoyed the ride probably more than we did. However, on our way back home, as we passed two kids and their dog, Bogey decides that it would be a good idea to jump out of the crate after the dog. It wasn't the worst idea, but we had a leash tied very short (I thought too short for him to jump out) to the inside of the crate. When he jumped out he didn't go far, because the leash stopped him. I don't have a picture of Bogey being hung by the leash but it wasn't a good sight. I saw the shadow of his little body dangling beside the bike, then I heard Allison behind my telling me to stop, so I reached back and threw him back in the crate. The funniest thing was the faces of the kids! I can only imagine the story they went home with.

After having a dog that I really enjoy I can understand why a person would pay a lot of money to keep a pet around. That doesn't mean that I will, I'm just a little more understanding.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The gypsies never stop!

So it's been a while, and for that I apologize. I'm feeling uninspired at the moment but thought I would take advantage of this free moment to share a little of our life right now.
We had an amazing holiday season full of traveling, family, friends, new experiences, and lots of goodies of course!
As many of you know we just hit the 1 year mark! Whoop for marriage! We decided since life has been mostly insane the past year we needed to get away, so we took advantage of our good buddy Bryan and stayed at his families ranch house in Hearne, TX. We were there just for a weekend, but it was a good time of just relaxing, 4wheeler riding, fishing, roasting smores, classic movies, and enjoying each others presence - uninterrupted.
On from there we drove to Paris for Christmas festivities. We had a blast and drove back to Sugar Land on Christmas night in order to leave the following morning for our YL ski trip. As the gypsies we are, we set off with around 50 people total, including the San Antonio YL crew, on a near 30 hour bus ride up to Crooked Creek Ranch in Winter Park, CO. We skied for 3 days, of which I only skied 2, and for my first time skiing I have to say I am proud of myself for only falling once - thank you very much!
When we got back home, we spent most of the week cleaning house, visiting people, and packing again to leave for yet another trip to CO where we currently are residing for the next 2 weeks. Gary is attending YL's 1st year staff training, and I am just soakin up the sun on the glorious snow-laden mountains at Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, CO.
Needless to say its been a pretty eventful, fun, and somewhat tiring holiday season. I'll leave you with some pictures of all of these events...
These are our beautiful nieces Cydnie, and her new baby sister, Criss