An Epic Ballade of Texas

Kyle (my brother) was asking me for some family tree information for a project of his the other day, which got me to once again crack open the genealogy documents that I have. Noticing some holes here and there, I decided to spend some time online looking for some old relatives. In particular, I was looking for some great-great-great-grandparents on the Norris side, and I found them! Below is a picture I found online featuring James Riley Norris, bottom left (my great-great-great-grandpa), and Elizabeth (Garman) Norris bottom right (my great-great-great-grandma). I think you can clearly see some resemblance between James Norris and my dad, no? If not, the picture below should help (James is on the left): James moved from Kentucky to Missouri, where his son Simeon (aka Albert) grew up. Simeon worked as a farmer then as a street-car motorman. Simeon's son William was a grocery store merchant as of 1930 (according to the U.S. census) and paid $15 a month rent on his house. William had...

KU hosted a “Carnival” the other night, and Amanda and I decided to check it out. It turned out to be fun, with a ferris wheel and games and rides and everything! The turning point of the night was when Amanda and I played the horse-racing game, pictured below. She managed to place second, and I managed to win! Which meant that I won my choice of ridiculous-looking overstuffed animals. I chose this chubby wild boar with flames coming out of its rear. We hit it off immediately, and I called him Billy the Wild Boar. We did everything together! We went on rides together… We played games together… We even went on the spinny whirly doodad ride together… Then we got sick together… Then we recovered by drinking some Diet Coke together (but we agreed it didn’t really taste that good)… Finally, when we worked up our appetite again, we ate cupcakes together… Oh, and I also had a good time with Amanda as well: No...