Adios 2004!!! Bienvenidos 2005!

Let's be honest; 2004 has brought us some pretty darn good times. One of the greatest was the birth of this very blog! Yes yes yes I've had some good times. But all great things must come to an end. (No, the blog's not going away, the year's ending) And for some reason, when New Year's rolls around all of these countdowns start popping out of no where. So I have taken it upon myself to countdown the Top 10 blog entries of 2004. If you're just now joining us in the blog, well, you're crazy but this is your time to catch up on what you've missed! So Here We Go!

10. Whitey Mcwhite and the Tale of Big Larry: http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/10/whitey-mcwhite.html

9. Mean Girls and the Tale of Alfredo:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/09/mean-girls.html

8. Super Madness and the Tale of Super Saver:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/09/super-madness.html

7. For everything in life, there is purpose and the Tale of fire ants EATING MY FLESH:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/09/for-every-thing-in-life-there-is.html

6. Acceptance is the first step and the Tale of CRAZY inflatable gorillas:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/09/acceptance-is-first-step.html

5. Shark Attack:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/08/shark-attack.html

4. Death of a Salesman:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/08/death-of-salesman.html

3. Do you have a grudge?:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/11/do-you-have-grudge_01.html

2. I Adam, take you, Enchilada...:
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/08/i-adam-take-you-enchilada.html

And the number one spot OF COURSE goes to one of my most memorable moments in all of my life:

1. Belle Ball and the DEMON ARM!!!
http://ruckerblog.blogspot.com/2004/12/belle-ball-and-tale-of-eddie-lucky-x_05.html

I hope you've all enjoyed and we'll see you in '05!

Countdown to Christmas and Animal INVASION!

OK so we all know that Christmas time is here. To be exact: there are only 7 more days until Christmas day! Crazy, I know. Of course I've done absolutely no shopping whatsoever and I haven't really gotten all into the Christmas mood, so to speak, yet. Never-the-less, I did attend a Christmas reunion party last night that officially ROCKED my socks off.

I must say the highlight of the party (besides the "Remember When" box, that was awesome) was what happened when I told the story of the animal in my attic.

First let me give you a little background info: yesterday me and my sister woke up to *SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCHING* coming from the ceiling. So, naturally we followed the noise that was coming from over our heads around the house to see where it was coming from. OF COURSE, it ended up that it, whatever it was, was making noise from atop my bathroom. It sounded however, like it was stuck between two walls. So anyway, immediately noticing that the air vent and hole for the light fixture in the ceiling would be amazing passageways for this rabid animal (I assume that any animal is rabid just to be safe, and it does add to the effect of the story) to come into my house. So I get all of my stuff out of the bathroom and shut the door just incase this thing decides to fall through the ceiling.

SO. I'm telling all the people about how we got to listen to this animal clawing for its life all day my behind the door in my bathroom, but say that I'm not sure WHAT animal it is. One of my friends responded with "it's either rats or squirrels." This comment prompted another person to respond with "RATCHET SQUIRRELS?!" Yes, they were serious... THE ROOM ERUPTS. Immediately we begin to imagine little squirrels walking around the attic with ratchets in their hands with a very deep bass voiceover saying, "RATCHET SQUIRRELS: Breaking in and tightening all the screws in the house." Ohhh... that was fun.

The rest of the night, and SERIOUSLY it was the ENTIRE rest of the night, we played the ever-so-popular Mafia card game. WOW that was wonderful.

Anyway, if you feel like spreading the Christmas cheer around to me, feel free to go out shopping and buy me a gift! YAY

*MINI BONUS*
The Rucker household HAS purchased, and the key word is PURCHASED, a Christmas tree! The only catch is that it has not made it into the house yet. Due to the THREE HOUR APPRENTICE FINALE we did not have time to set it all up. Which, by the way, I was very upset by who won the Apprentice. Kelly was just too stiff and shy to me. He ended the show by saying, "When Mr. Trump said I had won, I couldn't contain myself." And I forgot when "couldn't containing yourself" meant: sitting with perfect posture and having virtually no facial or vocal reactions to winning a $250,000 job with Donald Trump. But maybe that's just me...
*END OF BONUS*

Belle Ball and The Tale of Eddie "Lucky" X-terra

It all started on a cool winter night. I arrived at a friend's house for pictures (where I was to meet my date for the drill team's Winter dance, which is known to most as "Belle Ball") at 5:30. People slowly stagger in with their dates, all asking me why I'm there because at that moment, my date was missing. You see, I had a show just a few minutes earlier and so we had agreed to meet at pictures. Unfortunately my date wasn't ready so I got to sit and watch 10 other couples take pictures while I twiddled my thumbs and played Snake on my phone. Finally my date arrived about 40 minutes late and we all get on our way to the dance in downtown Dallas.

I had another couple riding with us in the back seat and we had a wonderful time just yelling back and forth at each other as they all tried to tell me how to switch lanes. After about an hour of making our way through traffic and shady downtown streets, we made it into the parking garage and then up to the 69th floor of the great green building in downtown. I like to call it THE BIG GREEN.

BLAH BLAH BLAH. We ate dinner and got our grooves on at the dance floor. My favorite dance happened to be Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This"... So like, the WHOLE night I hadn't won any door prizes and then finally right before we left I won a Jim Jeffcoat autographed football (which you will soon be able to find on Ebay!). I think every single person that was still at the dance managed to come up to me and tell me again (as if I didn't already know) that I don't even know who Jim Jeffcoat is... That statement could not have been less true, he is a terrific NASCAR driver and I root for him every race... or is that JEFF Gordon. I don't know, Jeff something drives a car.

AND THEN, all the fun began. So we're leaving right? I'm at the parking garage exit and the couple in front of me (who shall remain nameless, but the girl is the drill team director's daughter... whoops! Have I said too much?!) can't get their ticket to be accepted to open the arm for them to leave. So I, being the good samaritan that I am, accept their idea of me putting in MY ticket, and us both going through the arm at the same time... Needless to say I hadn't really thought through this very much when I accepted the idea.

Long story short, I put the ticket in, they speed through, I gun it and TRY to speed through and as I'm going under the arm I hear, *CLUNK*CLUNK*DRAAAAAAAAAAG*SCRAPE* on the roof of my car...

WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED TO MY CAR?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Needless to say, I'm FREAKING out and tell one of the other kids in the car to look at the damage the DEMON ARM has done before I do. He gets out and looks and says that nothing's wrong, just some marks on the bike rack. (This after it sounds like a mad cow has just crashed down on my roof) I'm like WHAAAAAT?! So I get out and look and sure enough, nothing is wrong. The BIKE RACK saved my life.

SO, the moral of the story is: WATCH OUT FOR DEMON ARMS and don't try and get two cars through them at one time. If you do try it, make sure you're in an X-terra with a bike rack!

*MINI BONUS*
Shortly after I got back home from the dance, I found out that I had two tickets to get through the gate with and basically am just an idiot.
*END OF BONUS*