Middle America's Worldview

I can't help feeling sympathetic to those unable to get away from the natural horror in New Orleans and Missippippi. However, I was blown away from what I heard this morning.


I was watching the news this morning before work, yeah its all about Katrina's snail trail. Some guy on the tv was saying "people are doing what they do out of necessity".

I guess necessity comes in those roll of coins within the slot machine. Vandalism and looters are rampant.

Here you have 80% of New Orleans under water and people are taking everything they can get their hands on. Unbelievable.

This same guy on the tv was saying "people are doing what they are doing from necessity". Seems the end all of me has become priority. Then he proceeds to inform the newscaster "People are crazy. There was a girl raped last night. It's all crazy here".

Geez, what neccisates a girl getting raped? Hey Harvey, you getting any since the flood. Nope. Hey look at that chick all alone.

What are these people thinking?

Later on more newscasters went out during the daylight catching anyone nearby to make a statement. Mainly everyone was stating the same thing. "We need help. We need food. We need water." I didn't hear the question, 'why are you still here?' or 'why didnt you leave when 2 days prior everyone showed this coming?' I guess they couldn't really answer that one. Albeit some couldnt leave, for whatever reason.

Personally, I do not see how they can plug this levy up. From what I heard, their dropping 1000 pound sandbags to no avail. Considering this storm could had caused even more damage if it had not wobbled a bit when it hit land.

Don't get me wrong. I am sensitive to the loss, damage, heartache these people are going through. I was thrilled to hear Germany was willing to help U.S. out. Where is the United Nations?

And my final gripe today is these freaking gas prices. Here in Southwest Oklahoma it went from 2.69 to 2.89 today alone. Unreal.

I am not too much into sueing. I know there are many many out there willing to sue for the sake of it. ACLU for one, low-lifes looking for easy money for others.

Don't get me wrong, there are good reasons for it.

However, I am thinking of sueing Axe Toiletries. I picked up the Axe shower gel and deadorant. I have been showering and using it for 2 days now and not once have I been tackled by unknown beautiful women nor seen my wife unwillingly grind in the shower after me.

False advertisement man.

I already put my thoughts on the gaza pullout regarding Israel and Palestine. Today Gary Baer post's the first of many Islamic Terrorist attacks.

--Please note the thread below----------------

In the Middle East, no good deed goes unpunished. Israel Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon thought he was doing a good deed that would start
the illusive peace process when he ordered the forced evacuation of 8,500
Jews from Gaza. Now it’s payback time, but it isn’t olive branches that
are being extended.

A Palestinian homicide bomber blew himself up outside a bus station in southern Israel yesterday. At least 10 people were injured, but the death toll would have been higher if the bus driver hadn’t identified the man as a terrorist in time to stop him.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of the Hamas "military,"
issued a bin Laden-type videotape over the weekend promising that now that
Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza is complete "all of Palestine" would "become a hell" for Israelis.

And finally, Israel began the last stage of the Gaza evacuation today—removing Jewish remains from 48 graves in the Gaza cemetery. The removal is necessary because Palestinian thugs will surely desecrate the graves if the bodies are left behind. And these are the people who optimists believe are prepared to "live side-by-side in peace with Israel."

I had an odd dream last night.

I dreamed I was with someone (I dont know who) traveling in a car. Don't know the destination nor where I was, but the mood was cheery. I then found I had the ability to do anything I wanted to do. At first the ability to put my hands through the car, walk through walls, even change the enviroment or world around me. Thinking to myself in the dream, it must be one of those I can control. So I played around with my new ability to develop the world any means I wanted too.

I then found myself with the feeling of non-satisfaction due to my ability to have total control of everything. I ended up creating a world without micro-managing. Those who asked for my help, I provided. But this too became troublesome because I soon didn't feel appreciated.

I woke up wondering about the odd dream. Perhaps it was due to the seminars, ect. However, I also couldn't help wondering if it was more of a message.

Home that four letter word that means so much. Kel and I made it home safely this afternoon. Man, it's good to be home. We stopped at Kel's parents to pick up the kids and her dad was grilling lunch. We had a good welcome home lunch and some leftovers to take home.

I already kindof dread this week. I start on call tomorrow and the history of on call has not been easy. Oh well, I had 3 days of pleasure with my wife and now it's back to reality.

I will say, I learned quite a bit from the seminars. It was very worth it. I look forward to putting some of this new knowledge in place. As usuual, the more knowledge I acquire, the more I realize how much I have yet to learn.

I am sitting here watching this 4400 show trying to figure it out. It's kindof weird but different.

I am at grips to watch my favorite Deadzone show.

I already have had my melatonin and looking forward to my own bed. ( deep sigh )

Kel and I were able to pull out Thursday night to head for Oklahoma City. Finding, our hotel I was impressed of its size. I wasn't too impressed on the aspect of having to pay 8 bucks a day for the parking. Seems every little iota in here has a small price tag for it. Anything from a bear asking to be taken home, to the 3 dollar candy bars in the hotel rooms fridge. On top of it all, They charge extra for internet access. I have been to a few hotels due to work, and to me this one is pretty expensive. The little extra's with a price only puts a sour taste in my mouth.

I spent all day Friday in the seminars and I was impressed with some of them already. I found it fascinating, I came upon a conversation of a OSSBA and Principle (Muskogee) discussing the need and desire to create a network of contacts. This would allow someone to see what the other districts are doing in respect to policy/procedure, ect. Crap, that's what I been saying all along! Needless to say, I handed him my email address in agreement. It only cost me a few moments to listen to his pangs within his school, he is dealing with.

I see Halo Scan isnt coming up on my blog this morning. I will have to look into this when I get home tomorrow.

I look forward to the round discussion tomorrow morning at the conferences. Seems this time is availible for all to pose questions, and ask for assistance in their respective circumstances.

This morning, I am looking forward to the "Do's and Dont's of a School Board Member". I am curious how much I am screwing up. : )

I have to make one final commment in regards to last night. Kel looked very hot (as in sexy) when we went out to eat dinner. The dinner was good and I enjoyed walking the mall, ect just to be with her. I have to say, my mind was on her throughout the evening. I kept saying "you look good tonight". I am not sure how the statement sounded after number 15, but I was totally enamored by her.

OK Pat Robertson stated some remarks this week that brought him to the fore-front.

First he calls for Hugo Chavez assassination. He then states Islam is a religion of violence by explaing the foundation of Islam.

I could say, he doesn't speak for all christians. But that would be a bit hypocritical, considering I slam the liberal Dem's for their statements. So, I will be honest and say, I personally agree.

Why would a christian want agree to a assassin of a human being or be so myopic in thinking a religion actually calls for violence?

I cannot help but think, Hmm, if I had the opportunity to put a bullet in Adolf Hilters skull prior of the jewish onslaught, would I? The answer is a resoundley yes. Most of the people should recognize the fact we are in a war of ideology. On one hand, we have the idea of a Democracy. On the other side we have the ideology of Dictatorship. The ideologically leaning left continues to gripe about the money going into Iraq. But act shocked on the idea of dismissing a similar dictator. Oh well.

As for the idea on the religion of Islam, history shows this to be a fact. I like one statement I heard. Not all muslims are terrorist, but all terrorist were muslims. This holds true for the current war we are in. The fact is this is a war of ideology. You have the muslim extremist that are willing to die for a cause. You have dictator's not wishing the idea of democracy to be put in the peoples heads. This would cause the dictators to loose their power. A quick look of a brief muslim chronology gives us a short view of assassinations and war. Also a look at the history of Abraham with Isaac and Ishmael showing Isaac was the father of Israel and Ishmael was the father Islam. Although the two brothers were able to reconcile their differences but these two nations (Palestine and Israel) cannot.

This is the way I see it anyway.

Another busy but this time progressive day at work for me. Some days it just clicks. I been trying to figure out 2 project issues on 3 interfaces I have been working on. Today, I think I resolved them. For some reason, the answers just seem to make sense and materialize. It could be the fact, I was not bombarded all day by everyone, or I wasn't entrenched with support. Regardless, I did actually get some things done regarding my development in work today. Tomorrow I am on support all day, so I am not holding my breath. Taking it one day at a time.

We lost the means of the internet this evening. I wasn't able to sleep tonight so checked it again 11:30 p.m. local time. As luck had it, we have it back. Seems the whole area of Fort Smith, Van Buren, Arkansas was effected. Since Pocola is using the same network as Fort Smith, we were caught in the outage.

I am having a little difficulty with the School Board and some issues I am trying to resolve in my head. I was frustrated with the admin and the means or rather their in-effective means of management and ability. I attempted to help in a resolution prior of school board without getting anywhere. One of the reasons I tried and now succesfully gain a position on the School Board was to be a positive influence toward that same goal. However, I find myself still unable to do anything short of the same. The burden remains on the teachers to produce the examples and facts of the admins inability to promote a positive work enviroment. I can only convey the teachers and parents have a friend on the board that will support them in anyway I can.

I think with work, worry about Kel and now the School Board issues coming into play, I have a lot on my mind and it appears sleep will not come easy.

Today was my actual break of my bad 2 weeks. I was busy as normal and I am so far behind on my projects it's not funny, but, I could at least breathe today.

I did some PTA stuff this morning at school. Tried to get copies to the teachers with more copies to the students made.

I managed to get on and off the work conference calls with ease as well. Over all a busy but not so hectic day.

We also had a PTA meeting tonight. Our first one! We had a great turnout (in comparison to the ones in the past)tonight. I think around 11 signed up and paid for membership tonight alone. The meeting didn't last very long, but it was nice to get the first one kicked off. Kel is again President and I am again Treasurer this year. This will be the last year we can retain these positions. There is a 2 year limit for each officer position. Personally, I wouldn't mind stepping back a bit on it.

I was able to watch Dead Zone last night. This is a great show! It totally rocked last night. It's hard to believe next Sunday will be their Season Final. But then again this year has really flown.

Looking forward to having Friday off this week. Kel and I plan to go to Oklahoma City this weekend. I have a 3 day seminars regarding School Board and perhaps she can have some quite quality time.

A hellacious weekend of on-call. Yet, it is over. I am officially off one week then back on the wagon again next week. Gotta make that money.

I finally put a new face on my blog. Please comment if it sucks or not. Personally I liked the old one, but it seemed way to busy and too wide.

I want to give a nod over to Mongo's excellent history test.

I also wanted to point towards STOP the ACLU interesting post on the ACLU putting the initiative to sue a county. I thought those interested would contact the ACLU as opposed to ACLU looking for a lawsuit? Oh well, I called the Oklahoma ACLU last week and still waiting for that return phone call. Seems they simply do not want to answer 'questions'.

Gotta hit the work early this morning. I am already looking at 3 conference calls before noon.

Strategically, its not a bad idea. I think there were 6000 jews compared to nearly 1 million palestinians. By pulling them out, they Israel army would have a better chance to hold the new border. In addition it should appease the palestinians the fact of fulling giving the land over to them and show the world, Israel is working toward peace.

However, the fact is, regardless of how much land Israel gives over to the palestinians, they will simply want more. News are already showing, the land they have given over is being destroyed and uprooted.

Scenes of jewish brothers pulling other jewish brothers down from their synagogues is a tragedy. Camera's showing tormented souls losing their homes and land. Although, being told they will be paid a specific amount for their homes and land doesnt give much comfort to those losing. I am reminded of the fighting in U.S. homeowners over their land by states wanting to put in roads and buisiness's. It doesn't seem so different. So why doesn't the world care?

Seems Israel is asking United States to assist in this compensation to those losing their homes in the tune of 2.3 billion in aid. My question is why not assistance from the U.N.? In addition to Israel asking for assistance, Abbas is also requesting United States for assistance in obtaining equipment to bolster the security forces, such as communications gear, computers and vehicles. My question is, where is United States getting all this money to provide aid?

I understand overall what Israel is trying to prove. They will pull out as agreed but the crazies will still attack and commit suicide bombings, only at a better advantage point.

However, everyone with a clue already understands this and the show is not required.

We are actually getting the rain we need. Now my once dying yard is becoming a tropical rain forest. I think the weeds have grown to my ankles at this point. Oh well, the farmers needed rain.

I find it fascinating in the one aspect of being on the school board. Last night, someone had purchased last years PTA Yearbook. As he was speaking with me, the discussion ended up on a issue on the middle school gym. I guess I should be getting use to these types of discussions. It will start on one subject but inevitably the true meaning of the contact will end up on a particular issue the person will have.

Seems this virus has also effected Siemens and hospitals as well. Gotta love the worms out there. (shaking head)

I actually drunk a beer last night. This is highly unusual for me. I think last week was the most I have drank (one beer on the nights I actually did drink)and this is the first one at home.

Regardless of the one beer, I didn't sleep worth a flip last night. I don't think Kel did either. She mentioned she was up last night and didn't think I was asleep either. I told her, she should had talked with me. Oh well, at least work didn't call me for on-call stuff.

I had a live that didn't happen at work today. I also seem to be busy as all get outs. On top of the busy-ness our cable went out around 2:30. Talk about sucking. When your remote and your link is down, your just out of luck. Cable guys finally arrived around 5 p.m and we learned the contractor that hooked up the neighbors cable, accidently kinked or loosened a nut on our end. Sigh.

I was scheduled to be on-call this week. Fortunately our seek peer arrived back to work today. She took my on-call and remaining support today. She was appreciative of us picking up the strings last week and was more than willing to do whatever today. I really didn't want to give it up, but with the cable going out on me, I didn't have much choice.

I didn't sleep great last night, but much better than I have all week. It was just nice to be able to sleep with my wife again.

I was thinking today how much I love my kids and family. Regardless of how hard it was today and with everything working against me (cable, bad live, ect), I remain appreciative to have a good home with great kids and a beautiful, peaceful wife.

Tipping my water to all and wishing them a blessed week and NO MORE MONDAYS. geez.

I am finally home and glad of it. My connecting flight was late on departure. About an hour late. I didnt get home till around 5 p.m. Bummer.

I gave the surprises to the kids (more than half was from Kel earlier) and Kel. It was a Teen Titan bonanza. LOL. I was able to find a cool hingebox for Kel.

I already have the clothes washed and currently being dried. Kel fixed a good homecook meal as well. Mmm mmm.

I look forward to a good nights rest snuggling with my honey before the week starts yet again.

I finally get to go home tomorrow. I am soo ready.

I actually slept in this morning till 9:30. That's a record for me. Basically today I went to Barnes N Noble as well as Borders looking for a particular book. No go. However, I was informed of another book in the same subject matter. I also went to a local library to check it out. As I parked the car, I couldn't help but notice the other park car had one of those car-jack gadget on the steering wheel. The thought of 'what kindof area was this' ran through my mind.

I also went to the I.S. Picnic to show my face and took a couple of pics. I said my hello's and stayed for about 2.5 hours. It was hotter than ever out there. I had shorts and a cool shirt on but it didn't help much.

I am already packed, took my tylenol pm and requested my 6:30 a.m. wakeup call. I ran across the move 'Cellular' on tv. Never seen it, but it looks like an ok movie.

Peace for 12 hours. I ended up having to take 1/2 a day of support tomorrow. I have it 9 till midnight. Someone else is taking it the remaining 12 hours. We are simply a victim of circumstances and being shorthanded.

I planned on revising websites ect, but alas I havent done that at all tonight. I found myself in the Stop the ACLU chat room. There was interesting discussion going on. I have a follow-up to do and felt compelled to find something to write about in assisting them. I support their cause and it appears I wasn't alone. So if you start noticing any Anti-ACLU blogging from me, that's why.

Today was another bad day at work. Two servers went down around 12:30 and again after we had them back up. Hence we had to keep recycing interfaces till nearly 6. Made for a long Friday.

I am tired and ready for bed. It's already 11:25 p.m. now. Maybe I can sleep in till at least 7 in the morning. Sigh.

I was able to sleep all night without waking up every 40 minutes thanks to melatonin. I still was up around 5:30 a.m., but, I stayed down till 6 a.m.

I already have 3 conference calls/meetings scheduled for today. In a addition a cleardown for a live Monday. I also plan on completing a couple of projects today. Busy busy. But hey its Friday.

I plan to revise the blog website a bit tonight. I hope to also revise the other websites I am maintaining tonight.

I couldnt help but think of today being the first day of school for the kids. I hope they and Kel's day goes very well today. Regardless of being on the other side of US, my mind remains on my 3 blessings.

Last night while I was trying to relax, I accidently found the movie "Bad Santa". I ended up watching it (not much of choices) and found myself actually laughing out loud. I consistently was shaking my head in wonder as this guy was cursing and hating all the kids. Realistically it was a pretty sad movie. This character was so low and with no respect of himself, he was literally at the bottom. His so called partner only heaped on his problems by consistently putting him down. During the movie a simple child started to show him a way to make him crawl out of the darkness of his soul. I would not allow any child less than 18 to actually watch it due to very strong language, but under all the foul language there was a message in it.

I have to say, today was a better day. Yes, it was busy and full of meetings. However, today is over and only 2 more to go up here. Unfortunately the wife has to deal with everything as I am away. And it appears she is dealing with a lot this week.

I am kindof looking forward to tomorrow night. I will be off call and actually have the ability to sleep in. I have to go to the I.S. Dept Picnic Saturday. That isn't till 12-3.

I didn't sleep worth a flip last night. So tonight it's melatonin time.

Yes a new day emerges as the night dwindles down.

I awoke this morning at 5:30 this morning unable to sleep. I couldn't help but put my situation in a different perception. Considering the fact I have a good job (every job has it's stress) that supports the family. Many perks can be found in my job as opposed to what I use to do (Rad tech).

The fact is there are many soldiers across the ocean with far more sucky jobs and little pay. There are many out there wishing they had a job. So I now feel bad about pissing and moaning. It's all a matter of perception.

Well, my plan was to check out downtown Philly this Saturday morning. Two of the reasons I came up this week was to be at a Siemens afternoon party (this evening) celebrating the amount of interfaces we have on OPENLINK. We have over 1000 interfaces on OPENLINK alone. Also on this Saturday, the IS picnic is happening at our CIO's house. This is a yearly occurence. I haven't been to one in about 6 years.
Now with the prospect of on-call being forced on someone, who knows.

I also wanted to catch up on the websites I have been maintaining. I guess I will do this Friday night.

So for today, regardless of the craziness and I am sure frustration, I will put on a new shield and view. Just call me bulletproof.

I like the saying....You cannot control what is given, but you can control how you deal with it. May your day be a blessing.

Well, this week is still sucking. I know, I know it's my first day here. I arrived and settled in the hotel last night around 8 p.m. After running around to get something to eat and water for the week, it was nice to pull the shoes off.

I have a guy on the team leaving this Friday. I like the guy and he knows his stuff. There is also another gal on the team that has been out all week. She happend to be on call this same week, so they begged someone to take her call. I took tonight and tomorrow. I don't want this weekend. I have to travel back Sunday and I start next week on-call. I don't know what they are going to do. Nobody seems to want this weekends oncall. If I was home, it would be different.

I was able to acquire wirless for my work laptop. I have to say it's pretty sweet. I just plugged it in with the cd install and boom. I am online. The weird thing is at this Hilton the wireless net is free but if you just have a plug, then you have to pay for it. Last night I couldn't get online.

Now I sit here finishing up some work stuff and able to blog. I have a red wine, merlot sitting here beside me. I am finishing up on my Tostado Nachos fro TGIF watching some weirdo movie on my 15 channel lineup.

After my poor wife allowed me to vent, I feel better. Or it could be the Corona I had after work and knowing this wine is waiting on me.

My Monday in word..sucked. Since I was up late last night, it seemed to just continue in the morning. I was on support today and it seemed to never stopped. Due to the servers being down last night, some files didn't cross over. Hence, a continuation. I tell you man, it was a Monday.

I did manage to get the grass mowed this morning after my barrage of tickets. It was already hot hot early morning. So I sweated it out and took a shower midday. But it is done prior of me leaving tomorrow.

In a quick synopsis of my day...Worked, cut my and neighbor's yard, ran the kids to speech, ran the kids to the doc's, hit the school board at 6:30 local time and managed to fix the broken fence in the back yard.

But enough of me griping.

The day is over and I am off to Pennsylvania tomorrow morning. I am sure once I am there, I can relax at night alone.

School Board meeting was quick tonight. We were in and out 29 minutes flat.

Through out the weekend, I heard basically 3 things from my kids. "When will mom be home", "Can I call mom" and "How long before mom is home".

I selfishly played and entertained the kids all weekend. I say selfishly with a grin, because, I have a school board meeting Monday night and leaving for Pennsylvania Tuesday morning. I will not be back till next Sunday. So I purposely spent alot of time playing with the kids all weekend, as opposed to ignoring them. (wink)

Kel asked me not to trash the house (lol) while she is gone. I managed to not only clean up my and the kids messes, but shampoo'd the carpets, wipe down everything and clean out her car. (big applause for me) Other than that, I pretty much gamed with the kids.

Unfortunately I was awoke Sunday morning around 6:30 a.m. by work. I had forgotten in my slumber I was actually on-call this Sunday (took it for a peer). Talk about a rude awakening. As you know, once I am up, I am up.

Now that it is 2 a.m. local time, I am again awaken for work. Not a single call all day with the exception of these off hour ones. I guess I shouldn't gripe. Seems there were 3-4 servers down. No telling why. I just spent 40 minutes recycling what I can with a vendor. I updated the siemens ticket and paged the facilities to recycle their side. I should head back to bed gathering what little sleep I have left, but I figure as soon as I do, my cell will ring.

I am glad Kel is back home. I knew she would be tired. I didn't think she would be up too late this night and I was right. around 7:15 p.m. she was already crashing. What surprised me was our son beat her to bed. Unreal.

Saturday with the kids was great!

I picked the kids up earlier than normal, when they stay over at the kids Nana and Papa's. After staying for a bit, we headed home. I started another load of laundry (those seem to never end) and shampoo'd the carpets. The kids started watching a cartoon on tv. I fixed lunch and we headed to our errands afterward. We dropped off the library books (kids didnt want to go in) then all the movies from last week and last night. The kids found 2 more movies to rent for our all nigth stayup, Pokemon 3 and Teen Titans Volume 1 DVD. We also picked up the pizza on the way home, so we didnt have to get out again.

Once we arrived home, I had the kids jump in the shower and pajama's. They had to wear one of their moms sleepshirt since they missed her. I pulled out my surprise for them. It was a new PS2 game called Xmen Legends. All four of us could play on it at the same time.

We gamed most of the evening with the Xmen. Taking a break, we watched Pokemon 3. After that we gamed some more. During this time, we actually received rain so let the dogs in the garage.

Our plan was to stay up all night gaming and movie watching. Around 9:30 this old man was already feeling it. We took another break to watch the Teen Titans. Knowing, it was a long dvd I picked up the snacks, pizza ect. The living room looks like a Frat party had taken place. Sure enough, our son fell out first with our daughter to follow around 10:30 p.m. local time.

I followed suite and headed to my own bed. I didnt plan to be beaten and squashed all night tonight.

Around 12:30 Kel called from her partying. It was loud in the background and she mentioned Eugene jumping into the water. My honey was still rocking and partying, while I was dozing at home. Sounds like she is having a blast and I am glad for it. She much deserves it. I keep telling her, just bring pictures back.

My father-in-law grabbed the kids around 4. I finished picking up the house and cruised over to my buddys house. He and I ate out at Logans. I actually had a Corona (the only beer I like) with my steak. We then hit Blockbuster to see if they had any movies for later. Picking up Hide and Seek, I seen if they had Evil Dead. The classic that scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. They didnt have it. It was a shame the kid that worked there even stated there really wasn't any good scary movies, other than Hide and Seek being pretty good.

We watched Batman Begins. Seeing the previews of War of the Worlds, we wondered if we picked the wrong movie. However, I personally thought it was a great movie. This guy far outweighed any other Batman movie (if you call anything with Val Kilmer a movie). I would suggest it to any guy to watch. I will be owning this bad boy when it hits DVD.

After the movie, we decided to run by Walmart picking our choice of beer. A 6 pack of Corona for me and a 6 pack of Smirnoff for him. Adding a bag of chips a piece we then hit Movie Town for 2 additional movies, Girl Next Door and The Jacket.

Since he has surround sound, we watched two movies there. After the second one, I left and headed home. It was 1 a.m. and he was yawning way too much.

During our movie watching the girls (Kel and her party animals) called and sounded like they were having a great time.

Well, that was my guys night out.

Friday morning started off way too busy and didnt stop. I knew I was going to get our friends kids Friday for me to watch around 8 a.m. However, what I didnt expect was that 7:55 call from work. I received a call about a project I am not even working on for questions (well its mine now). Two ladies called me for 'questions' (I hadnt had my coffee yet my girl was still asleep. The questions became more questions then they pulled in the vendor on the call to get this all settled. Next thing I knew it was 8:35, Erich and his kids are at the door. Being on mute, I asked them to get it. The kids let them in and the house alarm went off. With a phone jack in my ear, I quickly turned it off. I didn't even say hi. The kids were dropped off and 10 minutes later I am still on the phone. Then the cops were at the door. "Yeah we are ok, just didnt turn the alarm off." Left him and still on the phone. Then the neighbor was trying to call like crazy. I ignored it. Then she walked over. Phone still plugged in my ear while the vendor is speaking specs. "yeah we are good" Left her at the door. Finally, off the freaking phone after over an hour.

I called the neighbor gal back and let her know my first morning wasn't a tragedy. Fixed the kids breakfast and finished my half pot of coffee.

The remaining of the day was just busy busy for work. It was just too crazy for a Friday.

Kel left for the big city of Oklahoma City last night. It was around 6:30 when the other girls (2) came and they headed out. Our daughter hugged and held her most of the time of her escape. I pulled the mat from the office sofa/bed into the living room for the kids to sleep on. I had picked up a couple of movies for us to watch as a kickoff for the weekend. Our son picked out 'Fat Albert' and our daughter wanted to watch 'Are we there yet'. I had seen neither movie so was looking forward to watching something new.

Anyway I pulled the mat out and made the snacks and we were on our way to partying our weekend.

We started off with 'Are we there yet' and before the movie was half way over, our son didnt like it and didnt want to watch it. I had to inform him we were finishing it before we started watching Fat Albert. He then said he didnt want to watch Fat Albert. I reminded him he picked it out. "uh huh" Oh yes you did.

Needless to say, every hour (for 4 consecutive hours) the kids wanted to call mom. I held them off at least that much. They told me it's just not as fun without mom. Yeah, that's how much I rank. Even though, I leave for a week at a time, they are just not use to having mom gone. OH well. I say we stil had a good time.

We watched the two movies and then turned on Digimon. The kids talked me into sleeping in the middle of them. I laid there half asleep while digimon was playing and asked them if they are asleep. No answer. I turned the tv off around 11:30 p.m.

During the night I had one girl on one side that took up half the mattress. On the other side a boy that must had been dreaming of playing on the monkey bars (I was pulled, kicked, halfway beat to death). Then the dogs from outside first screamed to come in and then must had communicated that to the neighbor dogs, because it seemed to me they were up half the night barking.

Is it really Tuesday already? It's hard to believe Kel will be heading out to Oklahoma City in two days. Now I know how she feels being on this side of the fence. The honey leaving for a few days. I will have the kids to myself all night Thursday and Saturday. Friday, I get to work and watch my kids in addition to our friends kids being over all day Friday, I have my work cut out.

I have to say, I am looking forward to the nights alone with the kids. I purchased Xmen game for the PS2 that allows all of us to play at the same time. I told them we will stay up all night playing games, ect. I plan to get the pizza and party with them all night long. : }

Friday night, the kids will be picked up by Kel's parents. Even our friends kids. This will allow my buddy and I to go out to the movies. He want's to watch Dukes of Hazard, but realistically the more I see the previews, the cheesier it looks. I mentioned to him yesterday, I would prefer to see War of the worlds or Batman Begins on the big screen. I have heard rave news on Batman Begins and War of the worlds looks to be a cool movie on the big screen. Guess we will see.

I been trying to work on a certain project today and yesterday. More research here lately than me actually doing anything yet. I spoke with a senior analyst today in my idea and he replied with 'thats alot of work'. Yeah, but what are you going to do?

Tonight we had 15 girls over for a slumber party. Around 9:30 it dwindled down to around 9 girls as 4 left. Then another one left just now, 10:30 p.m. local time. I actually enjoy these parties, knowing the kids will not be young for long, but they wear me out. They were able to swim, play on the swing set, Kel had them creating a craft with flip flops, and they put on a fashion show with dressup makeup the works. Yes, even the little brothers had to put on a dress.

Now the trick is to get them to settle down. We also went through 6 pizzas. Thankfully Eureka Pizza has the buy one get two pizzas free. I sure thought we would have some pizza left in the morning, but nada.

Sigh, gotta go settle them down again.