Google Maps Star

How many people that you know can say they are a Google Maps star? Go to our address on Google Maps, travel a few feet down Lytle Way and Voila!

Jason and Jetsy the Cat

Found Jetsy the Cat in bed with Jason this morning. She likes to sneak in and find a place to sleep.

Swim Party

We had a belated birthday party for Jason and Jon's birthdays. They invited friends over for pizza, swimming, movie watching and seeing who could stay up the latest. All the boys had a good time. Karen and I are tired this morning. All the Gibson boys fell asleep by 1:30. I made the other kids go to bet around 2:00. Here is a short video of the swimming they did earlier that evening.



Well, at least we're done with birthday parties for awhile. The next one up is my mom's, which will be low-key and during the day. Then comes mine, which will involve as little activity as possible and lots of sleep.

Jonathan - 3rd Grade Spelling Bee and Awards Ceremony

The 3rd Grade Spelling Bee and Awards Ceremony at Taylor Elementary held on May 28, 2009 at the school. Jon-Jon was a member of the Spelling Bee team and got several awards for academic excellence.

A Video By Josh

Josh and I spent the afternoon running around Abilene's city cemetery. I'm shooting for a video that has been commissioned by a local Abilene group. Josh brought along his own video camera, shot a video, did the edit and put it on YouTube. Here is that video.

A New Video - Mourning Dove

Mourning Doves are monogamous birds that share in the nesting process. Typically, one of the doves will sit on the nest from the morning through the afternoon. The other dove will sit on the next from the evening through the night.

We discovered this nest up in one of our trees. It took a picnic table and a ladder to get high enough to get some of the shots but it was worth it.

This story has an unfortunate ending, however. We have a cat that has a taste for all things bird. We think she got one of the doves and both eggs. The good news is that doves nest three or four times a year and often come back to the same place. Next time, I will put up some chicken-wire to keep the cat away.

Mourning Dove from David Gibson on Vimeo.

A New Video - Vintage Baseball at Buffalo Gap Historic Village

Over the last two years, I've had the privilege of getting to know a bunch of guys that love history and love baseball. There's only one problem: they spell it as "base ball" with two separate words. This spelling comes from how the game was spelled and played during the 1860's and 1870's. Join me for this brief introduction to Vintage Base Ball as told by guys with names like Joel "Flaps" Brant, Bob "Bonecrusher" Wettemann, "Fossil" Joe Christensen and Warren "Spider" Simpson.

Jason on the Intramural Track Team

We went to Cooper HS the other day to watch Jason run track. Jason ran in the 440-relay (pictured), the 50-yard and 100-yard dashes. It was a special day for Jason because his Uncle Derek was in town from Houston and got to watch Jason run.

Jason ended up with two 5th place ribbons and a big bottle of Gatorade.

The Kichen Flooring Project Continues

Here are a few pictures after all the flooring has been installed. WHATAJOB! I still have some molding to do but I'm going to take a couple of days off to rest and then finish the molding and end-caps.

Kitchen Flooring Install - Day 1

I took a day off work to ... uh ... work. We finally decided to install new flooring in the kitchen and utility areas of the house. You can only live on concrete that is covered in stains and old ceramic tile lines for so long. I spent about 12 hours today getting the last of the prep work done, putting down the moisture barrier to keep the laminate flooring from warping, and installing the first sections of flooring. I'm pooped and not looking forward to tomorrow but I should finish the flooring for sure

Here are some pics.

This is a shot just before I started laying stuff.

This is shot with the plastic installed.

This is the flooring in the utility room.

This is the first full row of flooring in the kitchen. Looks like I need to go back and catch up on a little painting I didn't do when I installed the cabinets.

A Day Working with a Video Company

I've been working for the last eight months as a videographer around Abilene. I had an opportunity today to with a professional production company out of DFW named Aires Productions. They were shooting part of a video at the local branch of Martin Sprocket. My job in this gig is what they normally a "grip." It means you move the lighting and video equipment around, plug it in and then step back and let the director and video shooter do their piece. It was interesting to watch and be involved in the process. It was also a bunch of work. But I enjoyed it and will maybe get the chance to do it again.

Here are a few photos of the event.

Space Center Houston

We spent this last weekend in Houston, visiting with Derek and Deanna, eating way too much food and catching some of the sites. We spent Friday afternoon at Space Center Houston. Here are a few pictures from that visit.

Weekend Event

We've been working in the garden this weekend. Trying to get it ready for spring planting. Everyone has gotten into the act.

There's the boys ...










The dogs are in the middle of everything ...

I promise I didn't fall asleep at the wheel ...

Of course, Karen is behind the camera ...

But, in the end, the only thing being lost is apparently the cleanliness of the house ...

Joshua Turns 10

Joshua turned 10 yesterday. He got what he wanted for his birthday: a DSLite and Pokemon Diamond. His party is tonight. He invited three friends over for burgers, an evening at PrimeTime and a movie. It will be fun.

My Latest ARN Video - Counting Bird

Here is my latest video.

http://reporternews.com/videos/detail/counting-abilenes-birds/

The Final Hurrah!

Before heading back to school for the Winter/Spring semester, we told the boys they could invite a friend over. By the time we got started, it involved eight boys, seven of which stayed the night in the house. Let's just say, it was intense.

In an attempt to run the energy out of them so they might actually sleep a little, I took them up to ACU to run around the track and play at Jacob's Dream. What they discovered was that the light on the ACU football practice field were on. At some point in their 2.5 hour football game, I stopped them long enough to get this picture.

Well, did my evil plan work? ARE YOU KIDDING!?!?! At 1:00 I had to get pretty loud so I could get their attention and at least have them get out their sleeping bags and lay down and try to be quite. From all reports, the last of them fell sleep around 2:30 in the morning.

Let's just say, it will be a long time before we do that again.

Movie with Jason

Twice a year, once in the summer and once at Christmas, we take the boys to bonafide movie at the theater. This year, we took all the boys to see "Bedtime Stories" with Adam Sandler. The good side of this movie is that for once it wasn't full of the usual Adam Sandler crudeness and sexual overtones. It was actually a good, clean movie that kids can watch. But, Jason is getting a little older and wanting to see more mature movies so he and I went to see Valkyrie, as evidence by the picture. I think Jason enjoyed being out with his dad, or maybe it was being out without his brothers. Either way, I had to capture the moment on my iPhone.



As for Valkyrie, it was a good movie but not a great movie. What made it less than great? In my opinion, the actors like Tom Cruise and others, made no attempt at sounding or acting German. I lived in Germany and Italy for ten years of my life. I know how they sound and interact. These actors didn't even make the attempt. I was also surprised to hear the "F" word in the movie ... quite prominently, I might add. In my opinion, a PG-13 movie should not have such language. Jason is only 11 but this is not even appropriate language for a 13-year old. I guess it goes to show that the rating folks in Hollywood really don't care what our children see and hear as long as they sell another ticket. The movie should have been an R rating. Shame on you, Hollywood.

After Christmas Skateboarding

We were blessed this Christmas season. Jonathan received a much-wanted skateboard for Christmas and spent the first four days skating every chance he got. Abilene has a nice skate park where other skateboarders ride their boards and use words like "Raw" and "Rad." Jon did really well and even went down a small hill or two on his skateboard.