Middle America's Worldview

We left shortly after Sunday School and drove to Amarillo, Tx. We made it there around 7:30 p.m. and crashed around 9 p.m. Didn't sleep worth a flip all night. We were up around 5 a.m., got up at 5:20 a.m. and drove all day to FlagStaff, Arizona. Talk about a long drive. It was beautiful country through New Mexico, but man was it long. We drive into Mesa, Arizona tomorrow.

Friday was so busy, I almost needed a catheter with a bag attachment. I think I was on the phone nearly 6 hours of the 8. This combined with IM's, email's and working at three things at once, made one fast hard day at work.

As stated before, Kelli made the calls that morning. Interesting enough out of two sources, both pointed to the same place; Mesa, Arizona.

We acquired more information during the day. Seems there is a week of testing. However, the Doctor speaking with Kelli seems to have an idea on the issue already. Of course he doesn't say this, but it is becoming apparent with the specific questions and discussion being made.

I couldn't sleep last night. I watched Troy (good movie) and turned the tv off around 1 a.m. I then woke up at 3:30 a.m. tossing and turning. The church wants me to speak Sunday prior of us going to the clinic. We plan to leave after church tomorrow. I finally got out of bed around 4 a.m. and looked up directions, locations via mapquest and google. The plan is driving to Amarillo, TX (6 hrs) and spend a night with one of Kelli's aunts. From there we will drive to Flagstaff, AZ (9 hrs) and stay Monday night. Then it will be a little over 2 hour drive into Mesa, AZ.

We already have hotel reservations made in Flagstaff and Mesa. We really do not know anything beyond the initial testing. We will be staying in Mesa till Saturday morning at least. I have already made arrangments to be off Monday, but work out of the hotel Tuesday-Friday. If I have high-speed internet access, I can work. It is one of the privileges of being a remote employee. My boss-ladies were understanding. I busted my butt getting everything I could in order, including newbies projects done on Friday. I then spent 30 minutes to just update my supervisor. This was done in case anything came up Monday in my absence as well as just an FYI. Those in the Corporate knows what I mean.

I had to get an oil change this morning. Kelli has a good friend with kids the same class as our daugter come in town for the week. The only spare time we had this weekend was 10 a.m. today and lunch. We still have packing, ect. todo.

Gotta start getting my work stuff ready for the week.

I had some exciting, yet nervous making news yesterday. It all came down shortly after my quote unquote end of day. As I had stated before my wife was fed up with Childrens Hospital. They were not providing any answers and it became a political move on their side. Rather than looking at our son to find answers it became, less cover our own peoples asses. So she began calling around yesterday morning. I have to say it all fell into place yesterday evening.

On two different sources both led to Phoenix, Arizona. She acquired contact with a branch off the Mayo Clinic. They spoke with my wife and went as far as faxing some local hotels in the area. They also booked him Tuesday through Friday next week to perform tests. The interesting thing is the statements and questions the Doctor posed to my wife on the phone. He identified what Childrens did and had posed for our son. The last statement elated her. "I can help your son." You have to realize this is the first time a Doctor had made such a direct statement to us. It's always been "I think" or "Let me try".

As with anything in my life here lately, nothing is timely. Now we are running to figure out how we can leave Monday and be there by Tuesday's appointment. Fortunately I can work out of any box, as long as it has an internet connection. That puts most hotels on the map. So here we are, trying to catch-up on both of our works (which is laughable at best) and making directions to get there. We will probably stop midway in Amarillo, Texas due to it looking like an 18 hour drive to Mesa, Arizona.

The implication is great. The possibility of our son being rid of his staring out and speech delay is wonderful. We cannot afford not to try this. We have attempted everything else and we have broken milestones with him. I, like my wife hope and pray this is the end of this ride. However, I fear to put all my hopes up, yet again.

My wife and I still plan to have a night out, while the kids are at Nana and Papa's but our minds will not be at ease, I fear.

Just another day in the neighborhood for me and mine. I am glad it's Wednesday due to being closer to Friday night. My wife and I planned on going out to get some quality quite time. However, seems we have our friends that will be crashing our party. Yes, it will be good to go out with other 'young adults'. Is mid to early 30's still considered young anymore? To me the crowd all seems to be younger than I remember.

I managed to create templates for my projects via the Microsoft Project last night while watching my daughter at the Basketball practice. Work coninues to be an overload, but it sounds like everyone's is.

Had some continued bad news on our son's health yesterday. My wife at her wit's end on it. I just don't know what to do. We struggle with the Doctors, because due to their delibitating knowlede on what to do, their basically crossing of "lets try this" list. Yes, we have resolved some physical issues, but the overall problem remains. Its like fighting a non-entity with physical weapons. It's just not working. We have a good spiritual support group, but after 5 years, its time to get some answers for resolution.

Yesterday was a good Monday to start with, Yes, I was on support after a weekend of on-call. However, no bombs or surprises were dropped. That was a relief. My bosslady liked my Microsoft Project template, she suggested an object link on my question on a one view of my interface. I will try that later.


I went to the Chiro yesterday evening, to get adjusted and get some information on the website they want. As normal I asked the specifics, most they hadn't thought of. It's easier to ask, 'do you know of a website you like the format?'. This allows me to see what they like and use as a template. They gave me a website they like. Last night I checked the site and pulled down the source to see how they arranged it, javascript they use ect. Most sites have a few comments to identify who created the page, where some scripts come from ect. Well, low and behold this one also did. So I thought I would check the guys site out by copying and pasting it in the address bar. 'No site found'. Hmm interesting. So I removed the "index.shtml" from it and hit enter again. Low and behold a site produced, but not one that I expected. Rather than a 'Hey I am so and so, these are the sites I created, contact info if you want a site built,ect.' I see a simple one color page with a bunch of links crammed in the middle. What links in this pink background with pink links you may ask? Porn sites. Hardcore porn sites not intended for the naked eye. I couldnt believe it. Here is a supposedly dedicated Doctor, that must be pretty good, with a porn site embedded in his website. I will have to ask Chiro who created this site for their friend.

Wow, Saturday went awfull fast. There is a Angel Ministries near us that has a great deal on meats, ect. Basically around 27 bucks you can purchase the deal. It's not a bad deal. You pay them month by month. No setup or requirements necessary. This is the second month we have tried them out. I have already purchased one for next month. Anyway, this morning, I went to grab the meat, vacuumed out the cars. When I ran back, my wife went to an errand at 10:30 a.m. I cleaned the carpets and around the house. When she returned, she took our daughter to have her Upwards basketball pictures taken. While they did that, my son and I had our haircuts done. Yes, she commented on how my hair was more greyer than the last cut. Sigh. Then we met the women at the Basketball game. Whew, busy morning. But there-after we just relaxed. My favorite part of the weekend, resting with the kids and wife.

I tried my hand in Microsoft Project today. I normally put all my projects in Excel because I am comfortable with it and it's easy for me. But the bosslady mentioned to use Microsoft Project to provide our vendors and peers outside of the interface group. So I played with it this afternoon. The application wasn't hard to grasp, but I don't like the ability in not able to see that whole worksheet at one glance. Any Project users out there know how to get the ability to view a worksheet within Project, please post it. Thanks in advance.

I haven't been able to revalue all my FTP address's back in my PC yet. I am thinking of creating some sort of access database of them. This would allow me to have a quick view off line on my connections. But I don't like the idea of having duplicate information, one in the FTP app (that got wasted) and one in Excel or some other app.

Nothing planned for tomorrow but Church. The kids are already laying down and my wife and I are in the office catching up on work (real party animals).

For such a busy week, it has been a long one. I continued to work diligently regardless of email. Yesterday, I actually was able to move forward on my projects. I set 2 more interfaces, conference calls, ect. I noticed I can still function but on a linear level. Normally I can muli-task well, with firing out emails, IM's answering in turn, while on the phone and working on tickets ect. Without my email and sametime, I can only work on one thing at a time. Makes me realize how much I do on hand and my addiction to online communication.

I have to share this. I received a Voicemail yesterday evening as I picked up the kids from school. "Matt, I just heard you lost your laptop. I sent emails the past two days and haven't heard from you......(pause) If you cant move those files for (facility name)can you call me tomorrow? "

Yeah, call you tomorrow.

Later as I was speaking to my supervisor asking her how support was today (I am on-call) while she turned it over to me, I mentioned this. She stated; "oh yeah I heard about that. I would think if it's important and if she doesn't hear from you by email she would had followed-up with a phone call."

Yes, my fellow bloggers. In a world of instataneous electronic email with quick satisfaction, if your fellow correspondent does not reply within 24 hours by email...call their A$$. Oh well. You can only do what you can do.

I had 2 interesting comments made to me yesterday as well. One from the Sr. Analyst and the other from the Supervisor on separate phone calls. Both are behind on their projects as well. It's not just lonely me.

I wanted to watch The Apprentice last night. They have coined it book smarts against street smarts. I figured the street smarts would win. I am interested how they will film this particular Apprentice. I know they will play most of it up, but realistically in a world of corporation the degrees, diplomas, continueing education counts for something. It's called justification for rate of pay. But personally if I had the choice of someone with OJT compared to someone from a classroom, I picked the OJT.

I went through Radiology to get my R.T. way back then. I recall one girl transferring to our hospital program from college. She has the knowledge on paper, but she couldn't take a simple chest x-ray while everyone of us was knocking out extremities. My point is, the paper knowledge is good, but it doesnt get much accomplished compared to someone out there busting their butt on the floor accomplishing the job.

Today was chaotic to say the least. Since I do not have a laptop with my nice Lotus Notes, Sametime, FTP, ect. software for my easily accessible crap I check and work on every day; I had to be on the phone aalllll daaaayyy long. I called for an update, leaving a voicemail. I call another person to give them an update. I call on a conference call. I call my bosslady to give her updates as the day progress's. I normally can just IM her as I go but not today.

I start the morning as normal (for this week). I get my daughter to school, come back in the office starting my second cup of coffee. I was thinking this would be a simple day to allow me to update on some of my interface building. Yes still trying to catch up on those precious projects. But to no avail. I finally was able to install VPN in my home pc to at least get access to OPENLINK. I did, finally. I then get baraged with phone calls concerning issues. It ranged from facility issues to a follow-up on an old project that a peer never followed up. Regardless I was on the freaking phone all day. I was surprised when bosslady finally cracked this afternoon. She was on vacation all last week and Monday. She missed the batch charge file fiasco last week. She told me 'what is going on with all these issues? I can't work on my projects, due to all these issues that keep coming up.' Yeah, welcome to the jungle.

On a lighter note. I was able to eat out with the family tonight. After taking the son to therapy this evening; daughter, son and I met my wife to eat. No-one felt like cooking tonight. It was nice to do something different.

Oh get this. The 100 gig harddrive I sent with my Laptop? It's not happening. Seems the HP laptops can only handle up to 80 gig harddrives. So, the guy had to pull a brand new PC harddrive out (40 gigs) and slam it in mine. No, they wouldnt give me a new PC. I probably won't get the laptop back till Friday. Bummer.

Last night on-call wasn't bad, fortunately. This morning, I took the kids to school came back had a good 2 cups of coffee and kicked butt at work. I was jamming this morning. I updated all my tickets, resurrected my projects and fired out emails for updates ect. Yes, this morning was good for me.

My brother-in-law came by for a surprised visit. A buddy had acquired a PC and wanted me to check it out. I set it up (it was only the base_no monitor ect.) and cranked it on. "No OS found". Hmm, maybe the harddrive is clean? I thought. The following converstation went like this;
I asked my brother-in-law, Where did your friend get this?

"Uh a friend of his was raided by the police and tried to take the harddrive out. He said it was still good. He owed him money but gave him this instead."

As thoughts of child porn, drug smuggling secrets in PGP on this pc ran through my mine I just shook my head. "OK"

I checked CMOS and it showed to be good. He left it for me to play with and I did for a while. Ironically, it began working. Cool. Must be a loose cable. I scanned through the harddrive and it was clean. Nothing my imagination had drummed up.

I then began to get back to my work. I had to reboot my work pc and then it happened. I get a black screen "Non-system disk or disk error" Oh crap. To no avail by harddrive had crashed. What the? Long story short I had to purchase a harddrive at Best Buy to fedex with my laptop to Corporate for them to set me up. I had to acquire a harddrive because they don't have any harddrives on hand. Million dollar company but not harddrives on hand. OK. I should get it back Thursday. Best Buy only had one availible, a 100 gigabyte drive for around 200 bucks. I will have to send in my receipt for reimbursement. This was ironic. I fixed a computer as mine went down.

Monday is over and the weekend was a blast! We basically stayed home with the exception of our daughters basketball game and church. The kids and I played PS2 most of the weekend and it was nice to just chill with the family. Today at work wasn't nearly as bad as last Monday either. A sigh of relief, indeed.

Received an interesting email concerning Roe vs Wade today. I figured I would share it to everyone reading.
====================================================================================

On January 18, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin a process
that could overturn Roe v. Wade!

Because you have stood with the Center for Reclaiming
America on pro-life issues, I wanted to alert you to
this news.

On January 18, Norma McCorvey (the original "Jane Roe" of
Roe v. Wade) will file a legal appeal with the Supreme Court
to have Roe v. Wade reversed. I will be in Washington, D.C.,
on that day to stand with our friends at The Justice
Foundation in support of this case.

The Justice Foundation has invested thousands upon thousands
of hours in this case. They have gathered an enormous body
of evidence to support Norma's case.

Matthew, this is a powerful opportunity to
refute Roe v. Wade!

Here is how you can help.

First, notify your friends. Forward this message to everyone
you know. We simply must get the word out.

Second, please pray for Norma and the team at The Justice
Foundation. Set aside time on January 18, specifically,
to pray.

Third, find out more about this case and how you can
impact The Justice Foundation's efforts here:

http://www.operationoutcry.org

Thank you!

====================================================================================
I shared the email to my father-in-law this afternoon as he drove through. He kindof grunted and stated, it shouldn't go back to the days of abortions in the back alley. I replied, that would never happen. However, I was intriqued of this email. I heard a snippet of this news but nothing as significant as I would expect considering the ramifications it could bring.

Another interesting website I was introduced with is Psalm 139 Project. This is from the Faith and Familywebsite.

I will add the two links to my blog on the side.

I took my kids, age 6 and 5, to see Shark Tale last night at the dollar movies. My kids enjoyed the movie but I had some reservations on it.

The movie is definitely about acceptance. The theme acceptance is looked on two levels; using two of the main characters. One is a loud mouth fish wantabe and the other is a shark born different than the other sharks.

On one a fish named Oscar always dreamed of being on the top reef with the other 'rich fish'. He is a whale cleaner with big dreams but doesn's recognize what he already has. A girl fish that loves him and many friends who "accepts" him as the way he is. The movie ends on him accepting where he is and what he has. This is the individual acceptance level showing him to accept who he is and where he is at.

On two a shark named Lenny is the son of a mafia family of killer sharks. But Lenny is born different than the other sharks. He is a vegetarian and doesn't like harming much less killing anything. This character depicts one as not born as he should be. Note the mental characterization is different not a physical difference is defined. The movie ends on his Dad accepting the way Lenny is born, rather than trying to change him into something he is not. This is the group acceptance level, where everyone else accepts and loves who he is and how he was born.

While my kids thought it was pretty funny, with the exception of Lenny's brother dying (this propelled the movie). I was a bit disturbed by its theme and obvious message. This is a Liberals movie come true. On the surface it appears as a cartoon movie, but once the movie starts, it's pretty obvious what it's about. But how can I a parent speak about this in such a way to a 5-6 year old? This is the other reason I am uncomfortable with the movie. To a child, it's just a movie. To an adult it is devised as an obvious message that may not be agreed upon.

If you want to purchase this movie from Amazon you can through this link.

I wanted to blog before I even get into the work this morning. Basically this week boils down to the following.
I am behind on my projects (creation of new interfaces).
Charge batch issues suck and time consuming to research.
Not on call but felt like it.
Should be able to leave early or on time each day but couldnt.
Charge batch issues suck.
Everyone thinks the interface team can resolve the issues.
No-one wishes to take the responsibility but hand it out.
Charge batch issues suck.
It seems to take forever to resolve something.
Once you fix a problem, your the owner of similiar future problems.
Did I mention the charge batch issues suck?

Other than work, the home life isnt bad. Seems my brother still doesn't want this second wedding. He came over yesterday evening (surprised the hell out of me). I asked whats wrong and I hear Kelli in the office saying she knew why he was here. Kelli had created and printed out the invites for them. She was going to bring them to their house today, but I guess they couldnt wait 12 hours. My brother had turned his truck in for a newer one. This one having 4 doors rather than the prior having two. I went out to check it out. I noticed the wife in the front feigning sleep with a sleep mask over her eyes. What a loser.

I complimented his new rig and asked how are things going, being outside and from earshot. He barely audibly said ok. I then inquired if he was still wanting this ceremony. He only replied with that look and "see you later". Yeah, ok.

I am hoping this weekend goes well and the family enjoyes it before the next week springs into action. I start on-call again next Monday. Just never slows down.

Interestingly the batch charge file issues continue. Yesterday we identified where some of the missing batches were in one facility. Note the other two facilities batches are still believed to be delayed not missing. I reran the batches through and they appear to have been accepted. Weird. We have another facility (separate issue) where the batches were rejected due to out of sequence errors. I found and resolved that yesterday as well. In addition another facility (yes another separate issue) stated they had charges that were doubled. Looking into that issue, I see it appears the charges were entered in the 6th and 10th. Yeah, charge issues this week.

Time got away from me yesterday evening. After my son and I returned from his therapy it just seemed to have flown. A neighbor let me borrow the movie "The Village". I watched it last night when everyone else went to bed. It wasn't a bad movie. The movie was definitely different. I was expecting a scary movie, from the previews. Yet, it really wasn't. The theme shifted in the middle of the movie. I would call it more of a mystery movie. I will say this; the movie is set in a colonial setting. However, it's actually in the current era.

I was really hoping to get some of my 20 something projects worked on today since I am not on support. Well, that didnt work out. Not only was I replying requesting emails, but phone calls all freaking day. The IM's (Sametime Instant Messages) swarm like flies. Get this. The charge issue from the weekend resurected again today. I thought the vendor analyst would be taking care of this, since it is the vendor analyst charges. Hell no. She dumps it on me. I scramble around 1:30 p.m to find the answers everyone is asking. I managed to pull in the information and it looks like we may not have missing batch charges, rather they are only late. This would make sense due to the way networks work.

Think of it this way. You have a waterhose attached to a hydrant. The hydrant is the first server. The waterhose is the interface and the bucket your putting the water is the second server. When the waterhose (interface) is interrupted (like the routers going down) the water (batches) remain until the interruption is cleared. Hence when the routers comes back up, all the batches are delayed but now can go through. Make sense?

Anyway, we will confirm it tomorrow. Just pisses me off everyone seems to be shoving the responsibility around, but unwilling to take it on.

This evening I was able to again wrestle and play with the kids. I was also able to take my daughter to basketball practice. It was nice to have some time, just the two of us. She is going to a program called "Upwards" that also has bible teachings with good basketball practice, teaching. Looks like my little girl will be in Basketball for some time. She enjoys it and actually is getting good. : )

On a downward note this evening, I think I screwed up. I was suppose to call in some petifores for a Teachers bridal party tomorrow. My wife off handly said thanks to me for calling it in. I had that deer in the headlights look. "I don't recall ever getting a hold of them, honey." Oh that wasn't good. I do recall calling twice that day but never remember anyone answering the phone. So no loving tonight and I will probably be dead in the morning when the verification is in effect.

Another manic Monday at work today. Speaking to others, I wasn't alone. Basically we had an issue at Corp that a lot of the charge batches did nto come through. Hence the facilities recieved their charge credit reports not showing the charges. Yeah, it's a mouthful. Basically no charges, no revenue, everyone screams. In addition I was on support today so everyone was IM'ing me and asking this and can you look at that. sigh. I barely had time to pee. Fortunately my on-call ended this morning so I was able to quite and there was light on the end of the day. heh heh

I see Wacky Southern Housewife put her site on the Blogarama to be reviewed, so in like course I have done the same. The link is on the right of the screen. You can review my site on Blogarama if you so desire

We had a PTA meeting tonight that lasted less than 30 minutes. It went very smooth with no bumps. We had a lot of discussion but after the minutes, ect. Plus my wife had to get back in time to watch the Bachelorette tonight. Yes, we are watching it as I type this up. : )

Have to tell you this quick story. Last week I was on-call and I was pretty much dead in the beginning of the week from no sleep. I have began wrestling with my kids in the evenings for the past 2 months during commercials in the evenings. We started this and it has now become a Dad and kids time. We watch Digimon and then wrestle between the commercials.Unfortunately I was way too tired. By Wednesday night I started to wrestle with them and of course I get a call for work. Anyway, you get the idea. Well when I was able to actually wrestle the screamed "Daddy's back" as if I been gone for a week. Sigh. I love my kids and I would not trade them for the world.

I was trying to find some more interesting blogs out there in the internet. Interesting, meaning some of the dark underground type. But alas, I was unable to. During my search I came across BlogDex and Globe of Blogs. These two blog search engines also allows you to add your site to their search engine for free.

Later today, as I was called to recycle some interfaces, my wife had read Jays blog. So we had to take the myers briggs personality test as well. My wifes results nailed her right on. She was shown to be a ESFJ. I tried mine twice and neither one actually hit me. The two had some similarities. I pulled a ISJT first and then ESFJ the second time ( when my wife helped me answer them ). I figured she had a better reflection (keep me honest) since we been together 10 years. Regardless it was interesting to take the test online. You need to check out Jays page to acquire the other website for a more fuller detail in the personality definition. I don’t want to hack his links.

I started up the second season of 24 on DVD last night. Now I have to finish it. I dont think I will actually watch season 4 on TV. I wont because quite frankly I will get pissed if I miss an episode. I am hooked on the storyline as it is. I can’t imagine missing it and getting lost on the viewing of the show.

I will be starting some informational articles soon.

I got sleep last night, Yeah!

I am always in pursuit of interesting blogs out there. Some blogs I have listed on my sidebar to grant me easy every day access. Some blogs I simply have in my favorites to read on occasion. I guess like everything, blogs tend to come and go. When I first started blogging, I was introduce to the idea of other people actually putting their life out there for others admiration or shock value. As I learned of more blogs out there, I now typically see two formats. One type of blog is for social and the other is for informational. Some blogs have a little of each. I find myself falling into the latter category, a little of each. I will actually be producing more info in the future.

I suppose each of us bloggers tend to look at other blogs and incorporate the cool new app or design into their own. I recently changed my template during the New Year. I wanted a 3 column template with easier colors on the eyes, and I think I found the one I like.

I still have some ideas on my blog, so you will be seeing some more changes in the future. Hopefully nothing as drastic as the initial template change.

I will be removing On Donkeys mind from my sidebar list. Unfortunately the site has not been touched since last November. I enjoy reading other points of view, contrasting to my own. But I guess since the election, Donkey really doesn't have anything to say. Blogs come and blogs go.

I actually acquired sleep for the last two nights! I had to work on VPS Anyque routes last night till 11 p.m. It was a lot longer than I wanted, but it had to be done.

Just glad it’s Friday. Hope everyone has a good Friday today and a great safe weekend.

Second and last day of support today. Yes, it was again a crazy day at work. I could whine and moan in the unsuccessfull attempt to have one feel sorry for me. But you know, I have a job and it could be worse. So I won't gripe and whine today, but I rather blog about something else while drinking my wine.

I thought to drink a beer (I can only stand Corona) last night but decided not too. I wish I had. I don't know why, but I could not sleep worth a flip last night. I watched X-play till abou 10:30 and turned the tv off. I laid there for an hour and could not even rest. I got up and figured I try PS2. I didn't want to get on the PC due to already tired of it. I plugged in Max Payne. My dad let me borrow the first one. I bought the second one used at Hastings. I am trying to work my way through the first one. I made it to Part 3 chapter 2. Man this game is long. But I am hooked on the story line now and want to see it play out. It was after 1 a.m. before I quite and went back to bed. Good game.

I didn't want to take some tylenol p.m. due to being on-call this week. I cracked open the wine for tonight. : )

Weather wise, it rained all day today and yesterday. Looks to get down to 20 degrees tonight and cold cold tomorrow(teens).

I will get a break tomorrow during the day. I am not on support. I should only have to deal with my own tickets rather than all issues.

Found a new site to add to my list. Reasons to Believe. I will add it to my link list. For those bored, check it out.

Today was another b&tch of a day at work. I am on support today and tomorrow. Add that to my on-call this week and it feels like work 24 hours a day. sigh. Last night they liked to kill me. An issue of our group access to OPENLINK was fried so I couldn't gain access till 1 a.m., that's 2 a.m. EST. The ticket they had never did say what the resolution was. In the mean time, I had a vendor's server that was using 100 % percent of the processor usage, I.E. everything stalled. So a call to that vendor, resolves it.

My problem is once I am awake; it takes me a good over an hour to get back to sleep. With calls every other hour last night, I guess I made around 2.5 hours of sleep. Fortunately the two issues are supposedly resolved. Hopefully the remaining week will be quite. Sure didn't start out that way.

My brother called me today. I was half expecting it. Without going into specifics, my brother is married to a whack job of a girl. I call her a girl, because she hasn't grown up yet. With two kids and a wife that is unwilling to view anything outside of her own bubble and unable to do anything, he lives in Hell. He is also unwilling to leave her, so not much I can do. Anyway, he asked me to be his best man for his re-wedding. They are already married. They married without telling anyone in our family or asking anyone to be an attendant. I was a bit miffed due to him being my best man on my marriage. They have been married for 5 years as of February.

They really cannot afford it. No-one seems to understand why they are doing it, with the exception of an attempt to capture something they missed before. My brother had stated before this will not happen (another exchange of vows in marriage), but she's been set to do it for the last 3 years. So I guess he caved in. I stated and asked him, I thought you were not doing this. He only replied meekly that he guesses he will do it. The only thing that is getting me through this shanagen is for him and the idea that perhaps they see it as a new beginning. Maybe one will grow up and the other will stand up.

I appreciate the comment Wacky Southern Housewife. My wife pointed it out as well. I had an issue of the right panel overlapping the middle column.
Interesting it was only for Internet Explorer.

This morning I worked on it while on a conference call for work. I was frustrated because by the time my preview looked good and I saved it. The page could not be displayed. Guess I took too long to get my crap together on the page. I checked it again with my wifes Internet Explorer and it appears to be in good order now.

I continuely appreciate everyones input on this new view. : )

Q: When a giraffe lowers its head toward the ground, wouldn't you expect the blood pressure to increase so much that its brain would explode?

A:It's true that the giraffe's blood pressure rises so much that it might cause its brain to explode. But, this doesn’t happen because the giraffe has a series of incredible features. This includes reinforced artery walls, bypass valves, as well as pressure-sensing signals that all work together to maintain the proper blood pressure.

But then comes the real trick. As the giraffe raises its head, the same systems used to reduce the pressure when the head is lowered, also act to increase the pressure as the head is raised (so the giraffe doesn't pass out).

The problem for evolutionists is this. How many giraffes blew their brains to pieces when bending down - how many passed out as they lifted their heads, becoming food for the lion - until the special features somehow evolved?

It's obvious that the very first giraffes had to have these special features right from the beginning. If not, they wouldn't have survived to pass them on to their offspring! Of course, this is not at all surprising to those who believe in a Creator.

We attained a foozball for the kids for Christmas. It was the perfect size for the kids to play. Just happened to find it in a yardsale some time back and grabbed it for 15 bucks. Santa brought it for the kids. ; )

Each evening my 7 year old daughter has challenged me to a game. Each evening she kicks my butt in it. Noothing more humble than a 7 year old kicking your A** in foozball. At first it was humble, now its nothing more than just plain humility. This morning I felt confident with 3 cups of coffee down me. She challenged me again and I actually won! It was tough. She is just good at the game. I told her she is still champion due to the fact I only won one out of 5? Oh well. I enjoy it and she is so competitive, I enjoy watching her concentrate on it. heh heh

Last night we had the friends come over and we first played Bratz game (reminded me of chutes and ladders) with the kids. Then we pulled out the Trivia Pursuit 90's version. Needless to say I lost big time. I got maybe 2 pieces of pie. Came in dead last. Utter defeat on my part.