Middle America's Worldview

Great Scott, what a day of support today. The network was totally unstable and I had to continually recycle interfaces all day. Some more than once.
I am currently blogging as I keep an eye on my alerts when someone IM's me of another interface down. Probably take me a freaking hour to write this. LOL

Cable/Dish update: Well this morning, I was on the phone with both to disect this out, seeing my best options. Essentially it boiled down to this. I can get the same channels (in one reciever) through Cox for the same price as I am putting out for Dish and Cox. In addition I will have channels 2-99 in both kids room and my office. Currently we have the Dish Channels in our living and bedroom only.

I have this going down next Monday. Dish will discontinue and Cox will come up full digital.

Good advice Nixon, I gave them the lowdown this morning when I called into cancel.

The individual I spoke with initally asked why I was going over to another cable company. I told him full blown. Basically just told him the truth. Dish first said I could upgrade, giving me the local retailers that can do the work and call them to turn it on. I called the local retailers, they said no that was incorrect. If we do that Dish will fine us. Dish will have to give the yes and they call us. I called Dish back and the second representive said they could not upgrade us due to 'your an existing customer'. blah blah blah. So the guy said, "ok, let me transfer you to our cancelation department."
I was very nice nor raised my voice during the whole discussion. When the cancellation dept answered a lady asked me the same question. "Why have you decided to go another company?" I asked if this conversation wsa taped. She was a bit taken back and replied "I dont know."

So I gave her the whole story again in rich detail. She interupted saying it will be more expensive to go another company. I said no it isnt. She said, "yes it will, it will be cheaper in the first month but I assure you it will rise and be more."
'That is incorrect maam, yes it will be cheaper the first 3 months and then the price will rise, but it will be the same I am putting out for Dish and I will gain 3 rooms of cable.' Well that didn't go over well. You would think they realize we (customers) would research our shit first. grr. She changed tactics and started to ask me if I would like a 522 reciever sent to me with no charge, we can install ect. I kindly responded with 'with all due respect maam, Dish should have offered that yesterday before you made my decision for me. I am requesting you to cancel it Sept. 20th and send me my final bill via mail." She finally resigned her attempts and confirmed the date and amount the final bill will be.

Son update: Recieved tremendously good news today. My wife took our son to the Doctor and spoke with him. This is an alternative doc, registered not a voodoo but not really mainstream either. Anyway, he suggested we are on the right track. ( not that we can't see a major difference ourselves these past 2 days, with the non-milk diet ) Anyway, the thing I found interesting is he suggested to my wife, the belief our son actually does not have speech apraxia, rather since he has been missing 40-50 percent of input, due to the staring out, he is only developmentaly behind. He also stated, he would not be surprised our son would catch up in 1-2 years with his speech. Now I know we shouldnt be too overly confident, but with the last two days dramatic change. This is looking better and better. I have to say Thank the Living God. Yes, we wish we had this 2 years ago, so he wouldnt even be behind, but at least we have it now.

As promised, the election board sent me a sample ballot for Oklahoma. The 10 question s posed on the ballot can be found here. They are state questions, 705 through 708, 711 through 715. In addition there will be the following running for office.

Judicial Retention: Requesting to retain Note they are not running against anyone.
Justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court
James R. Winchester - District 5
Rudolph Hargrave - District 8
Judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals
Charles S. Chapel - District 1
Judges of the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals
Joe C. Taylor - District 3, office 1
Ron Stubblefield - District 3, office 2
Glenn D. Adams - District 4, office 1
Larry E. Joplin - District 4, office 2
E. Bay Mitchell III - District 6, office 1

Coporate Commissioner between
John Wylie(D) and Denise Bode(R)

U.S. Senator between
Brad Carson(D), Tom Coburn(R), an Sheila Bilyeu(I)

District 2
Dan Boren(D) and Wayland Smalley(R)

Then of course the Presidential vote.

Well no-one replied to my recent 'Going Political' inquiry. Oh well.

I had called Dish Network to check on upgrading our current two room to 4 room viewing. I been seeing ads showing you can get 4 rooms, with dvr (ability to record, pause, ect ). So I called, since I way past my initial year contract. I was amazed at what I found out. I cannot get a new year contract with them, acquiring the new upgrades.

Here is how the conversation went.

Dish: "It is not offered to existing customers."

So I simply replied the obvious,
"So your saying, I need to discontinue Dish and reapply?"

Dish: "No sir, you would still be considered a existed customer. Because you would still be in our databanks."

Me: "Well then how do I get Dish in 4 rooms not my current 2 rooms? Because 4 rooms weren't available at the time I signed up?"

Dish: "We cannot upgrade existing customers with the 322 or 522 receivers."

Me: "So no-way on the upgrade in anyway?"

Dish: "We can send you a 522 receiver for 24.95."

Me: " Who would install it?"

Dish: "You would."

Me: "So there is no-way I can get Dish in 4 rooms? Just the 2 rooms I have it in now?"

Dish, rather stressful:" We cannot upgrade you to the 322."

(sigh) I said, ok thanks and hung up at that point. It just didn't make any sense to me. I was only trying to acquire a satellite feed in my kids 2 bedrooms and they wouldn't do it. They only wanted me to acquire a new receiver for the existing one I have.

So I called Cox cable to see what my options are there. See we have both in our house. I know it sounds crazy, but Cox is the only one in this area offering digital internet access. Where as Dish Network was the first offering more than 18 channels in this area. So after speaking with Cox. Sounds like we can get the same channels we currently have with Dish ( don't want to lose any ) and still gain channels 2-99 in the kids room. Not only that, but I should be able to splice the cable to my office so I can get Fox News in here while I work. I plan on speaking with Cox again tomorrow and set it up.

I explained all this to my wife and she said that was why some of her friends went over to another cable company from Dish, because like us, they were an existing customer and they would not allow them to simply upgrade. Crazy if you ask me. You would think they would, if nothing else but to maintain their customers for another couple of years, via contract.

Well it's Wednesday morning and I already have the trash out to be picked up. I finished off the brownies ( nice breakfast, eh ) and wanted to blog real quick before I hit the work again.

I have a slight dilemma in politics, and actually asking for feedback on this one. I am currently registered as an Independent. The reason is because I make my political decisions on the candidate not the party. True I vote as a conservative. But here is the deal. In Oklahoma state law, you can only vote within your party for the primaries. Now Oklahoma is primarily built up by Democrats. Take this last sheriff election. Both candidates were Democrat. Since both were going for it, I could not vote being registered as a Independent. I do not foresee any Republican Sheriff coming on the November ballot, thus the Democrat wins by default. So I really am not having any say in the matter. You might think, what's one vote. But in the last Sheriff election, Gentry one by only one vote. So I personally believe each vote actually counts.

I have been told this year, by more than one person, Bush will acquire Oklahoma hands down. So much is this thought, the Republican Headquarters are having to buy their Bush/Cheyney yard signs as opposed to being given too. The reason? They see Oklahoma as a lock state, and they are pushing more on the swing states. ( sigh ) Sucks, but I guess you have to look at the big picture.

Back to my question. I have been thinking of changing my party to Republican. Mainly because I am currently locked out of both primary party votes and truthfully my conservative is swayed more toward Republican ideology. More-so now, due to the extreme liberals taking over the Democratic party. I will say this, I know of some 'southern democrats' that are so fed up with the liberalism in the Democratic party, they are also talking about changing their party. Some may think 'whatever' but I have to say this. Living in Oklahoma all my life, in this area, the mentality has always been, 'my granddad and dad has been Democratic, so I am Democratic'. But of course the problem is, Democratic party is changing, not the 'southern democratic. I was also told yesterday, even Brad Carson, the Democratic runner in Oklahoma for the Senate seat, is starting to stay clear of Kerry, because he knows Kerry is bad news.

So with that background, should I change to Republican for my same means of thinking or should I change to Democratic because that is mostly what is in this area?
By the way, I am voting for Coburn (R)for Nichols replacement, and I voted for Corn (D)for Senate. I value both men's history and ideas and highly respect each.

There are 10 things on the ballot in November 2nd for Oklahoma. I have asked for the Election Board to mail them to me. I will post them once I receive them. I like to know what and who is up to vote on / for before I go in.

Site Update: Messing around my site, I removed two dead bloggers and actually alphabeticalize my listings. You will also note some new headings and links over there.

Right Face

My Journey_written by France

Adam Sessler

Received fantastic news today. Kelli called me around 3:10 p.m. telling me Tiffany ( the teacher assistant that has been with our son for 2 yrs ) said she been waiting all day to tell her. Our son didn't have a single staring out today. He not only finished all his work, he wasn't the last to do so. When the teacher walked the room, he kept an eye on her. He had energy all day and played like crazy. What is more, there were two other people, remarking to my wife how our son's skin color wasn't as pale as it had been before. A noticeable difference. Talk about great news. So even with him only drinking yoo-hoo a difference was made today.

Found out today also the prospect of a new peer doesn't look good. The lady they had heard (she has an interview tomorrow) isn't very technical. Not good. I asked my boss lady why isn't there so many people looking for this position, isn't there anyone out there needing an interface job? So much for a drop in job loss. We cannot even find a reasonable applicant.

Today is my dad's birthday. He turns 57 today. I surprised him this morning by wishing him a happy birthday. Also when the kids were in this evening, we had them call to wish him a happy birthday as well.

I am drinking the last of the silk soybean chocolate. I actually like it. Oh well.

I also found another Robert Baer book, called 'Sleeping with the Devil'. It's about "How Washington sold our soul for Saudi Crude". I will have to say how it is when I complete it.

I finished the book 'See no Evil, by Robert Baer'. I found it totally fascinating and insightful. I do highly recommend it. It portrays his career as a CIA agent on the grounds as a anti-terrorist group. It even brings it up to his findings on the oil scam regarding Roger Tamraz having Senator Kennedy's wife on the payroll, along with having access to Bill Clinton and the campaign finance. Yeah, it was very interesting.

Kids and wife are off to school and work. Getting ready to hit it again. I figure it will be busy day to get my projects underway. Looks like I will be moving a new interface out next Tuesday. I will also be migrating other interfaces off the OPENLINK and onto the new BeyondFTP server. I have a meeting scheduled this Friday.

Oh well, I hope to hit the town today and pick up the donations for the PTA silent auction. I also plan to hit the library again and find another similar book. I enjoy the fiction true stories more than before. Probably showing my age.

As expected, I was on the phone all freaking day. I then get a call about 10 till 5 p.m. asking to check a interface. I thought why not. Next thing at 5:30 I kept saying, I really need to go now. I wasn't on-call and couldnt get the on-call person at all and then find out they are not even going live with this interface tonight. crap.

So as my wife continues to inform me, I am not on-call nor would the others be doing this. I split and we race to pick up the friends kids from the babysitter to run to Fort Smith. We had planned to meet our friends ( 4H couple ) at LoneStar tonight since kids eat free and they had all the ribs you can eat.

Needless to say we made it on time but the couple was a bit late. ( GO figure )
Well the ribs were good at first but then they became more and more salty. I personally do not like salt on my food. Any of it. I mentioned to my wife it's pretty salty and she said the steaks were too, but she liked it that way. Well, I barely finished what was brought out. So that was a bust. Then when the bill came, they charged us for the kids meal. Well, I had to mention it and she came back and said only Sunday and Wednesday. No, I replied, that is not what Brady said the other day, its all week. You see, for PTA silent auction the manager had donated two lunch coupons worth 25 dollars to the PTA, in addition kept saying we are having kids eat free all week. Expressing his desire for us to tell all about it. So that is why I had to make a correction on it. They took it off the second trip back. But all in all, I enjoyed the conversation with everyone and the kids did very well for the time we stayed.

So now it's already 9 p.m. and I already threw the kids into their showers and bed. Hence also updating this blog.

Couldnt blog last night. I am finding at times, I am unable to create a post or get into Blogger. Must be pretty busy with the amount of users for it. They need to upgrade their processers, ect.

I managed to help dad out yestrday with the furniture moving and I was also able to just sit and talk. It was nice to chat on life, and catch up with everything.

I am interested to see how today will be with Braden. We went cold on milk and dairy since Friday morning. I guess we will see. I made some pancakes ( kind you just add water ) this morning adding a bananna. Everyone seem to like it. I am also the one that will end up drinking the Silk choco drink. No-one else likes it. He's been feasting on Yoohoo's, water and juice over the weekend.

I have alot of conference calls scheduled today. I don't expect to get anything done. In fact my first one is in 10 minutes from now.

We also learned last Friday, our peer is finally out. But in addition the individual that they were looking at, dropped out as well. He didn't take the position. This is the same one everyone expected to be in the team by mid-october. I already have my tickets bought to be at Corporate. But now we are back to square one, trying to find a person to feel the vacancy in the team.

Needed to catch-up on my blogging this morning as everyone else remains asleep.

The kids were out of school Friday so our friends kids stayed over here, and Kelli watched/entertained them all day. I heard them through the door as I worked. I didn't make any calls Friday, as I was trying to catch-up my work and projects. I managed to create a working charge interface that has been on my list for quite some time. I also learned in addition to NWTH facility in Amarillo going up on the new ordering system in December, they want the Aiken facilities lab upgrade to be done by November 1st. So it will be off to the races again. Consider this, each interface that currently touches the ordering system in NWTH will need to be modified for that one facility and each interface that touches the lab system in Aiken will need to be modified. So you have two separate facilities with about 20 interfaces per facility that will need to be worked on and ready for those individual deadlines.

Friday night the kids went to their nana and papa's. So what does the wild couple do without their little ones? We went out to eat a steak since Kelli was hungry for one. After she talked about it, I also became hungry for one. Yes it was good. We had to wait nearly 20 minutes before we had our drinks, yes I had a corona, but the food was good. It was a Logan's Run that just came into Fort Smith.

Afterwards, we hit Toys R Us and we found some good bargains for the School PTA silent Auction coming up October 9th. Then we hit Walmart on the way home and walked around there, picking up some more yahoo's, ect.

We had grabbed two movies on the way to the restaurant to watch later that Friday night, 'Jersey Girl', 'Punisher'. I was impressed with both. Jersey Girl wasn't as I thought it would be with, but I still enjoyed it. I was most impressed with Punisher it was a remake with John Travolta playing the mob boss. I stayed up till nearly 2 a.m. watching it. My wife barely made it through Jersey Girl, since we came home later than we thought we would. So there you go, a wild night out. : )

All day Saturday, we were at the Poteau Fall Carnival, assisting 4H with their booth. I helped sell raffle tickets for a smoker someone had donated. They will draw for it October 18th. Kelli painted finger nails, and put designs on the fingernails. The raffle was one dollar per entry whereas the finger nail painting was 2 dollar each. I heard more than once a lady saying the quality of the nail jobs was equal to a 40 dollar manicure.

Kell's parents brought the kids around 11 a.m. and so the kids were able to see the animals and play the games. They also had these huge blow up activity contraptions. One of those jump around with the net to hold the kids in and a big slide. The thing would take half our backyard blown up. But the kids had a blast and for the duration we stayed there, they did really good. But admittedly around 3 p.m. I and the kids were about faired out.

There were also a republican and democrat booth at the carnival. I stopped by both. I was able to pick up some Bush/Cheney yard signs as well as some Coburn yard signs. The Republican gal told me to please not to put them out till mid October( I planned to hit Pocola with them ) because, they were having problems with people picking them up and throwing them away. I mentioned I noticed a couple of my signs I had put out were no longer there. She said it was not only illegal but not right, but that was a problem they are seeing in this area. Figures.

We hit the house Saturday afternoon. Kelli bathed the kids as I ran the movies back. I called my Dad, since he was on the caller id at home. He wants me to help move furniture today, Sunday. I will be going over there after Church today. I also called my Mom checking on her and I will be taking her to a knee surgery not this Monday but next. She has to be there by 4:30 a.m.

So last night the whole family were pretty much wiped out and we all hit the bed before 9 p.m.

This morning, as I drink my coffee, the family remains asleep. Never a dull moment around here man.

Friday for me.

Yesterday evening my wife was given some astounding information. Our son is highly allergic to milk. The thought is this is what is causing his staring out. Those unaware, our son has small seizures called staring out. To us or the outside it appears as if he is just daydreaming or zoning. It was explained to us like a lightbulb that goes off and nothing comes in till its back on. He receives nothing as far as information for those periods of times. This news came at once, literally around 4 p.m. My wife came in all excited, 'this may be the answer we were needing!' . I couldn't help but be a bit reserved. Seems she was consulting women at church and doing research about it for quite some time. ( God knows when she had the chance ) Researching the abilty to dispell ADHD and staring out by diets. I was astounded of info online where kids with ADHD lost symptoms entirely just by their diet change. Did you know milk held the highest product of people being allergic? More so then peanuts? I didn't.

Kelli explained to me the means of the Dr.'s testing him for allergic. If I wrote it, you would think it was as crazy as I did when I heard it. But it had to do something with a reaction of the vega nerve. The other interesting aspect was this same Dr. consulted with another Docter in Tulsa by phone, giving out the symptoms. She immediately told him it was due to an allergic reaction of milk and by removing it from his dietary would elimanate 90 percent of his problems. This could also assist his speech ( speech therapy is where we take him each day ). This is what prompted the allergic test. Note the Tulsa Doctor was not told of anything but his symptoms. Want more interesting info? He mainly drinks chocolate milk every freaking day. The kid can't get enough of it. So it's looking more and more like this could really be it.

I don't mean to be skeptical and I hardly know everything, not much of anything when you look at the big picture. But my main fear is another setback in Kelli's resolve. However, she genuinely glows when discussing it and I have to admit it sounds verrrryyy likely. We will be going cold on milk around here for at least 5 days to see the results. It will take 72 hours for the milk to be clean from the system. We should see dramatic results by Monday. We had parent/teacher conferences last night and informed his teacher and assitant. They are excited to see if any improvement occurs as much as we are. The kid is smart, no doubt about it. Even with his staring out occuring nearly 50 times a day he is one of the first 3 to have his bee on the board. This means he knows his phone #, address, town, state, ect. I was impressed considering it was from the whole class of about 17 kindergarten students. So I will definitely post the outcome. I joked to Kelli's friends last night, rather the kids smelling booze on our breath, they will smell milk. We will become closet milk drinkers. : )

Yesterday morning, I assisted the Grandparents Lunch at school. I helped as a dishwasher. I figured l let the pretty ladies out in the front while I stayed in the back. At least that is what I told them. Personally, I rather do the job few like. It always make it go by much faster and I do not like just standing around out there. It seemed to go well. The plates just kept coming. There were a stack of them in the corner ( normally 3-4 stacks at at time ). My goal by mid morning was to hit that corner stack. But no sooner than I was nearing it, the next class of kids was dumping their trays on us and I was behind again. This along with the kitchen ladies putting silverware and pots in front of my plates ( they had only one of those steamed dishwashers running 90 seconds per turn ) kept me behind. I had to leave at noon to go to work, and never did make it to that freaking stack. Oh well. At least I was of some help.

The parent/teacher confernces went really good. Both teachers had good things to say on our kids. I was impressed and proud of both of them. Each seemed to be accomplishing above their peers and personally that's how I like it. Can't help it, you want your kid to be the best. No-one is perfect and mine included, but each teacher had good things to say about them.

I also ran to Walmart after 10 p.m. last night acquiring non-milk drinks, products for the weekend. Wish us luck.

I made numerous calls for the PTA today, requesting donations for our silent auction coming in Oct. 9th. A few immediately said yes. I picked them up the afternoon.

I had two conference calls I had to deal with today at work. Both went well. One was a project, we were able to put back on track the other was a follow-up call. I have my stuff done, but the other party still needs to complete their side of it before testing can occur.

I fixed another charge problem for a facility. Seems they were not charging a particular charge for the last month. Looking into it with them and the vendor, seems their Lab IS person made some changes incorrectly. Essentially this is the flow. A result is sent from Vendor A to Vendor B. Vendor B then creates a charge from the result and passes it to us with the result. Well there is a table between Vendor A and Vendor B that was not correct. Thus no charge was sent onto us with the result. At least it's fixed now.

I also managed to deposit more in the PTA fund today, which was also good. My wife picked up, yet another box of returns to go through. I will be glad when this stops to trickle in.

After I ran all over Fort Smith this evening and got home around 6 p.m., I wrestled some with the kids and gave them their showers. Fixing them snacks and later started to wrestle, play with them again, my daughter hurt her arm. She jumped on my back and right over me onto the floor. I was practically on the floor but that didnt stop her. She said she twisted it, bummer. Needless to say we stopped and attended the injured. She was ok as I held her through the rest of the cartoon. Kelli (wife) and I been so busy the past two nights, I guess they feel neglected.

Grandparents luncheon is tomorrow at school and I will be taking the halfday off to assist. I will probably be cleaning the dishes in the back. We plan on giving the school cooks candles and a fundraiser card for their troubles. Kelli asked around and it seems no-one in the past 4-5 years has ever given anything to the cooks. Unbelievable. Well, that will change this year.

I been teasing my buddy the 4H guy. They called us the day before to have our pictures in for the fair. So last night we found out we needed it done and turned in by 3:30 today. Not only was the ball dropped, but they hadn't picked it up yet. I created them some tickets for them to sell the Smoker Grill for the 4H fair. Didn't mind too but, darnit I have to put up with people calling me at work saying I have an issue needing resolved now, even though the issue was from last month/week, ect. I hate it when I have to deal with it at home too. Anyway, I teased him pretty bad about it last night and then later felt bad about it. I hear this evening, I wasn't the only one saying words to him in regards to communication. Bummer, guess I will have to apologize.

Kelli found some of these towelets to 'wipe/clean' the dogs with. Anyone seen these? We have 3 little dogs. Yes, 3. One momma and two sons. One son for each kid and yes each dog loves to sleep with the kids. So rather than me using the excuse of ' I haven't showered the dogs tonight, before its too late' she acquired these to wash them so they can sleep with the kids. Where might you ask does momma dog sleep? Why between Kelli and I of course. Towlets anyone?

I was able to drop off the 3 largest boxes to school for the teachers. These boxes contained the supplies provided by PTA. I noticed Cindy Steele ( secretary) was already polling them out before I left.

I also had a chance to sit with my daughter and go over some math problems she seemed to be having trouble with. Her trouble equaled to 80's rather than 100's. I see that she has a logical mind, similiar to mine. The other day the neighbors daughter came over for me to assist her in math reciprocals and such. With me helping her and then today with my daughter, it reminded me how much I enjoy math. It's simplistic logical ways. You do the equation correctly and it comes out the same correct answer. I like that, going back to 'just the facts' again.

I spoke with my son yesterday evening while we headed to the speech therapist. He told me he hated school and didn't like it. I asked why and he retorted because all they do is work, work and work. I had to giggle on that one. I tried to convey to him that was the reason you go to school, to work and learn. ( Try explaining this to a 5 year old wasn't really easy ). I also tried to mention the fact that momma and daddy still works, you will always work and working isn't a bad thing. I don't know how well I conveyed it to him but I tried.

I will take a half day off tomorrow to assist in the Grandparents lunch at School. Seems that only 4 PTA members have responded to help out. Figures. We have 38 members and only 4 replied back.

Guess I better get to work. I gotta make alot of calls today and try to pick these projects up. During yesterday's call with the CIO, she indicated she wanted to get Aiken (hospital) lab upgraded by November. So this will only be an addition to the project list. Oh well. I said it before. I rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs.

Well, the first day of the week went as fast as usual. During our CIO meeting the only statment of our peer ( who I have not heard nor seen all last week or this day ) was that the position was re-opened and we should have a new interface member by next meeting. Well, I guess that said it.

I was able to drop off the 3 largest boxes to school for the teachers. These boxes contained the supplies provided by PTA. I noticed Cindy Steele ( secretary) was already polling them out before I left.

I also had a chance to sit with my daughter and go over some math problems she seemed to be having trouble with. Her trouble equaled to 80's rather than 100's. I see that she has a logical mind, similiar to mine. The other day the neighbors daughter came over for me to assist her in math reciprocals and such. With me helping her and then today with my daughter, it reminded me how much I enjoy math. It's simplistic logical ways. You do the equation correctly and it comes out the same correct answer. I like that, going back to 'just the facts' again.

I spoke with my son yesterday evening while we headed to the speech therapist. He told me he hated school and didn't like it. I asked why and he retorted because all they do is work, work and work. I had to giggle on that one. I tried to convey to him that was the reason you go to school, to work and learn. ( Try explaining this to a 5 year old wasn't really easy ). I also tried to mention the fact that momma and daddy still works, you will always work and working isn't a bad thing. I don't know how well I conveyed it to him but I tried.

I will take a half day off tomorrow to assist in the Grandparents lunch at School. Seems that only 4 PTA members have responded to help out. Figures. We have 38 members and only 4 replied back.

Guess I better get to work. I gotta make alot of calls today and try to pick these projects up. During yesterday's call with the CIO, she indicated she wanted to get Aiken (hospital) lab upgraded by November. So this will only be an addition to the project list. Oh well. I said it before. I rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs.

I was able to drop off the 3 largest boxes to school for the teachers. These boxes contained the supplies provided by PTA. I noticed Cindy Steele ( secretary) was already polling them out before I left.

I also had a chance to sit with my daughter and go over some math problems she seemed to be having trouble with. Her trouble equaled to 80's rather than 100's. I see that she has a logical mind, similiar to mine. The other day the neighbors daughter came over for me to assist her in math reciprocals and such. With me helping her and then today with my daughter, it reminded me how much I enjoy math. It's simplistic logical ways. You do the equation correctly and it comes out the same correct answer. I like that, going back to 'just the facts' again.

I spoke with my son yesterday evening while we headed to the speech therapist. He told me he hated school and didn't like it. I asked why and he retorted because all they do is work, work and work. I had to giggle on that one. I tried to convey to him that was the reason you go to school, to work and learn. ( Try explaining this to a 5 year old wasn't really easy ). I also tried to mention the fact that momma and daddy still works, you will always work and working isn't a bad thing. I don't know how well I conveyed it to him but I tried.

I will take a half day off tomorrow to assist in the Grandparents lunch at School. Seems that only 4 PTA members have responded to help out. Figures. We have 38 members and only 4 replied back.

Guess I better get to work. I gotta make alot of calls today and try to pick these projects up. During yesterday's call with the CIO, she indicated she wanted to get Aiken (hospital) lab upgraded by November. So this will only be an addition to the project list. Oh well. I said it before. I rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs.

I was able to drop off the 3 largest boxes to school for the teachers. These boxes contained the supplies provided by PTA. I noticed Cindy Steele ( secretary) was already polling them out before I left.

I also had a chance to sit with my daughter and go over some math problems she seemed to be having trouble with. Her trouble equaled to 80's rather than 100's. I see that she has a logical mind, similiar to mine. The other day the neighbors daughter came over for me to assist her in math reciprocals and such. With me helping her and then today with my daughter, it reminded me how much I enjoy math. It's simplistic logical ways. You do the equation correctly and it comes out the same correct answer. I like that, going back to 'just the facts' again.

I spoke with my son yesterday evening while we headed to the speech therapist. He told me he hated school and didn't like it. I asked why and he retorted because all they do is work, work and work. I had to giggle on that one. I tried to convey to him that was the reason you go to school, to work and learn. ( Try explaining this to a 5 year old wasn't really easy ). I also tried to mention the fact that momma and daddy still works, you will always work and working isn't a bad thing. I don't know how well I conveyed it to him but I tried.

I will take a half day off tomorrow to assist in the Grandparents lunch at School. Seems that only 4 PTA members have responded to help out. Figures. We have 38 members and only 4 replied back.

Guess I better get to work. I gotta make alot of calls today and try to pick these projects up. During yesterday's call with the CIO, she indicated she wanted to get Aiken (hospital) lab upgraded by November. So this will only be an addition to the project list. Oh well. I said it before. I rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs.

I was able to drop off the 3 largest boxes to school for the teachers. These boxes contained the supplies provided by PTA. I noticed Cindy Steele ( secretary) was already polling them out before I left.

I also had a chance to sit with my daughter and go over some math problems she seemed to be having trouble with. Her trouble equaled to 80's rather than 100's. I see that she has a logical mind, similiar to mine. The other day the neighbors daughter came over for me to assist her in math reciprocals and such. With me helping her and then today with my daughter, it reminded me how much I enjoy math. It's simplistic logical ways. You do the equation correctly and it comes out the same correct answer. I like that, going back to 'just the facts' again.

I spoke with my son yesterday evening while we headed to the speech therapist. He told me he hated school and didn't like it. I asked why and he retorted because all they do is work, work and work. I had to giggle on that one. I tried to convey to him that was the reason you go to school, to work and learn. ( Try explaining this to a 5 year old wasn't really easy ). I also tried to mention the fact that momma and daddy still works, you will always work and working isn't a bad thing. I don't know how well I conveyed it to him but I tried.

I will take a half day off tomorrow to assist in the Grandparents lunch at School. Seems that only 4 PTA members have responded to help out. Figures. We have 38 members and only 4 replied back.

Guess I better get to work. I gotta make alot of calls today and try to pick these projects up. During yesterday's call with the CIO, she indicated she wanted to get Aiken (hospital) lab upgraded by November. So this will only be an addition to the project list. Oh well. I said it before. I rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs.

[22:23]
Well, the first day of the week went as fast as usual. During our CIO meeting the only statment of our peer ( who I have not heard nor seen all last week or this day ) was that the position was re-opened and we should have a new interface member by next meeting. Well, I guess that said it.

My wife and I went through another box of the PTA card fundraiser today. I picked it up from school during lunch. amazing the amount returned. But we gained more funds for the PTA so I shouldn't gripe too much. But I will say this, I grow tired of parents not filling out their forms, nor teachers unable to adequately write down the kids name and money/cards returned.

Unfortunately this took time away from spending it with our kids. They did watch their evening shows, and played but I still, like my wife, feel guilty of having to take time away from them to do this other stuff. I realize there are alot of parents out there that do not give their kids the time of day but we are not one of them.

I finished my Deadzone last night. So now I have officially watched season one and season two. My mom will have knew surgery coming up pretty quick and I will let her borrow them to watch while she is down. Other than that, I couldn't find anything on last night worth a flip to watch.

Already morning and still working on my second cup of coffee. Kids and wife already off to school and work. The interface team has a scheduled meeting with our CIO today. Perhaps we can finally hear what will become of our peer and if we will indeed be acquiring one mid-october. This would help in regards of me getting my plane ticket in advance, ect.

I was thinking this morning of beginning a journal in addition to my blog. I been actually keeping my blog up ( which surprises me ), so I found a free journal online at http://xaltra.net/contents/download_file.php?program=1&mirror=0
. My plan will be to write my personal stuff in addtition to my current blogging. I will then copy/paste from my journal to the blog. This will allow me to write those more personal thoughts and experiences for my kids, and not feel like doing double writing. We will see how it goes.

I had a nice relaxing labor day weekend and I know it will be hard to get started back in the ball and grind mindframe again. I am on support for work tomorrow and I need to request a half day for Thursday. With everyone else coming back after a vacation and some probably remaining on one. I do not foresee a very productive week in respect with projects. It will be a good time to get caught up on my documentation and internal projects, ect.

My daughter lost her first upper front tooth this weekend. Talk about looking cute. I know its a sign of her contininueing to grow but I can't help seeing her as my little girl.

Ahh, another day off without being on-call. I was able to sleep in again this morning and man it felt good. After we ate at chinese yesterday, we ran to Walmart getting the essentials, you know chocolate milk, OJ, ect. Then we just bummed yesterday afternoon.
The kids played well together and they had a sleep over in the living room watching movies. I actually was able to watch 'sniper school' on discovery channel. A rare treat to watch a non-cartoon in the living room. : )

While the wife and kids fell out last night, I managed to watch the rest of my Deadzone dvd, with the exception of the last show on it. I fell out around 12:30 a.m.

It rained a bit last night as the ground is wet outside. Looks like it will be cloudy all day.

Good morning all.
I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. I watched the passion last night and yes cried in it yet again. We plan to go to church this morning and then eat out at a chinese restruant. Been looking forward to it all week.

I was looking through my blog list that I enjoy and was struck with a bit of aggravation at Nixon's blog today". He correctly reports on the media bias but also this flat out lie from the AP. It wasn't Nixon I was aggravated at, but the continued Kerry supporters found in the media making it more and more obvious. Nixon links to a blog reporting the outright lie. Within the report I see Oklahoma News Channel 4 reporting it on their site. But I could not find a single place on the site to email the editors, nor any living body. Grrr. That also frustrated me. So my question is what can one do to these outlets that blankets lies and you cannot hold them accountable? AP put out the lie that during a Bush convention, while Bush stated the news of Clinton's learned heart problem, the crowed boo'd while Bush did not say anything to them. This is a far left tatic to put dislike to the Bush supporters. Here is the actual audio of the same Bush rally. Check out Nixon's blog today to get the rest of the story.

Unfortunately there were no extra's within the Passion of the Christ DVD. My neighbor wants to watch it, which will be a good seed.

I stayed up last night with the kids watching movies. I made it through Superman cartoons and then we started 'Clifford the Big Red Movie'. I hadn't seen it yet, while the kids seen it, like twice already. My daughter fell out and I wasn't much behind. My wife already hit the bed in the back. My son and I began the movie around 10 p.m., I think. I fell half a sleep during the movie and managed to half way wake up. My son wanted to watch,yet another movie. I said no-way, it's time for bed. I turned the tv off and staggered to bed. The lighted clock showed midnight and my son was still wide awake. Fortunately he didn't argue.

This morning, I put all the cash and checks for PTA fundraiser into the bank. I am uncomfortable with all that money and was glad to get it deposited. When I was back home I managed to finish mowing the yard and weedeat both mine and my neighbors. It took some time but both yards look good now. I finally put my attempted garden to rest. I managed to machette the weed-trees down and finish it off with the mower and weedeater.

Afterwards, shower and rest. I was able to play with the kiddos the rest of the day. And yes we watched the Clifford movie and I did get to see it this time. Anyone played the game Shooters? No its not a drinking game, rather a dice game. My wife played it way back before the kids and I pulled it out showing my 6 year old how to play. Needless to say, she beat me in every game. Pretty humilating to have to count her chips for her (due to her not knowing how), but she was the winner of the game every time. Oh well, we had fun.

I plan to watch the Passion of the Christ, tonight. My wife hasn't seen it at all and she wants to watch it alone. I will be interested in her take on it. If my wife watches it tonight, I will probably catch a much needed adult show, due to all the cartoons watched today with the kids.

The speech from President Bush was phenomenal last night during the last of the RNC. He did exceptionally well. It wasn't too much over the top nor forcefull, rather a smooth speech. I was most impressed with his 'This is what I believe in.' and actually stated his positions on topics such as traditional marriage, ect. I have yet to hear anything from Kerry but his 4 months in Nam. It's like he is stuck in the past with no hope of moving forward. I picked up this similar theme from Bush's speech last night. He continued to reiterate looking in the future not the past.
His speech is found here.
But now that the RNC is over this week, I can actually watch something else for awhile. I hope to watch again 'The Passion of the Christ' and see if they added any extras within the DVD. I also hope to pick back up the remaining 'Deadzone' I haven't had a chance to see on season two dvd set.

I am glad to hear the Islamic terrorist in Russia has been pulled out of the kids school. Unfortunately, it sounded like it ended in catastrophe. As ambulances came in to pull the dead parents bodies from the grounds, a bomb went off and all hell broke loose. The islamic group hid behind the kids as they ran away. Last I heard they had some in a house held up, but that was earlier today. They found dead bodies within, mostly kids shot in the back. God help the parents of those children.
Dangerous has a good link on this as well. http://www.danegerus.com/weblog/Comments.asp?svComment=5950

Today wasn't too bad at work. Perhaps next week everyone can reply to my questions, request for the projects that are on a standstill. But like it always happen, they all will reply at the same time and then I will be wishing for a breathe.

Site update: I have removed

Jyeah

Jordan

from the list since they haven't been blogging for some time now. I will keep Nixon's cousin blog on for a bit more.

I am on call till Sunday Morning. I am so glad its Friday. TGIF man. Regardless of being on call there is something nice about it being Friday. I am actually off this Monday for Labor Day as well. So I will be off Sunday and Monday without fear of being called for work. I hope all have a good/safe weekend.

On a differnt note, I was called 'middle aged'. Eek gads, I never was actually called middle aged nor thought of myself as already there. I gripe about time flying but must we be reminded how we are subjected to it as well? Oh well.

I had a chance to actually blog tonight as opposed to only in the morning. I was short today, I admit it. I didn't get much sleep last night, my head hurt all day and my ear continues to bother me. I was able to get into the Chiropractor today. I am now down to once a week. I asked if he can adjust eustachian tubes. He said no, but could do sinus. So yes, he whacked my sinus's with his instrument. Guess we will see if it helps. Funny thing is, he knew which ear was bothering me, without me saying. I continue to find that part fascinating. And no, I wasn't pulling on it. heh heh

I receieved the following piece in an email from Gary Baur that I found interesting and wanted to share it.
"Let me tell you something about those “peace protestors.” The New York Sun
polled 253 individuals who participated in the “United for Peace and Justice” march earlier this week. Fifty-two percent (52%) agreed with this statement: “America is overall a negative force in the world.” Sixty-two percent (62%) opposed U.S. military action in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban. And worst of all, 67% agreed with this statement: “Iraqi attacks on American troops occupying Iraq are legitimate resistance.” Lending credence to Miller’s words, 76% said they planned to vote for
John Kerry in November."

I must also in fairness mention one of the group that was beating the crap out of the New York cop, was not a regular leftist peace groupy, rather an unstable individual that has record. So I guess he wasn't chanting 'No Bush - Peace man' while beating the crap out of the cop. Still I heard nearly 1000 protestors have been arrested, thus far.

On a totally different note, I also received a prize from my wife yesterday. She bought me 'Passion of the Christ' on DVD! I was very surprised. I havent seen it yet on DVD due to the Republican Convention, but plan to do so. She has not seen it yet and I am unsure if she will. She doesn't like violent movies and I frankly do not know if she can handle it. News reported 4.1 million copies of the movie sold in the first day alone. Amazing. I am not sure if this was in America alone. Can you imagine if only half went to vote on November 2nd? So if my wife happens to read this particular blog, Thank you.

I wish everyone a good night and a safe labor day weekend. I also continue to pray for the hostages in Russia to be released.

Site Update:Wacky Southern Housewife happened to visit my blog and post. So I have added her to my list of blogs and will check her blogging out. If 'My Journey written by France' and 'Jordan' doesn't restart blogging, I guess I will remove them. : (

I also added a contact on the right. You can contact your congress and media, ect.

Thursday morning, finally. I was awaken last night twice for on-call. First time was around 12:30 a.m. for a simple recycle of one interface. I couldn't get back to sleep for squat. I was up just enough to get my mind free of cobwebs and aroused. I turned for nearly two hours chanting to myself, 'you gotta get some sleep or your going to feel like crap tomorrow'. The chant wasn't much help. The last time I looked at the clock was just prior of 2 a.m. I then was awaken around 5:40 a.m. by another on-call issue. So I am on my second cup of strong coffee.

Yesterday at work, three more facilities were hit by viruses. I ended up on support till nearly 3 p.m.,so basically all day. It was a busy support day too. I was trying to kill the tickets as they came to me but they just seem to continue to come at me. I didn't get much done other than maintaining support all day trying to resolve issues.

I was able to see again, the RNC, last night. Yes, Zell Miller was a bomb in the room. He threw more zingers than twinkies could muster. He was forceful, made an impact, and I think only repeated 4 words. I could see he was the type of individual that said it once and that was it. My favorite line, among many, was the spitball comment. I was again impressed with Cheyney's speech. He came out with the joke of Vice President. Incidentally, that was the same one he used in Fort Smith, during that convention I was able to see firsthand. Seemed to me Zell Miller made the noise, Cheyneys wife gave us a pause, and Cheyney came out swinging in his cool, smooth, articulate manner. Finally, someone is addressing the 19 years of Kerry's voting record as opposed to the 4 months in Nam it was so proud of. I only hope those that have not made up their mind actually listens and looks into it.

News: I see the Islamic terrorists still has the kids and parents held up in the school this morning. They reportedly resleased 3 children and their mothers. I heard on the news they appeared to be infants from a distance. So, we have reportedly 350 hostages, on day two they release 4 (2 babies and maybe 2 moms). Giving this rate, they will be in there, around 232 days? I get this by dividing 350 by 4, then times 2 ( for the days). Anyone know what the hell they want, other than releasing their Islamic brothers in arms? Again, can you imagine the impact if it was here? I don't know if we would have another Waco, but if we cannot figure out how to stop these islamic facist, then I can only see their same attempts here. Remember, these facist believe in the more horrific, the more publicity they will recieve.

I feel a sinus cold trying to come on. My right ear began hurting yesterday, and I woke up with another headache. geez.

I was up early this morning. My wife is still throbbing with the root canal and unfortunately for my kids, their time to the dentist is today. Hence, up and at-em today. I just spoke with them and they are already done at the dentist heading to Walmart for a prize and some essentials. I have already vacuumed, cleaned the bird cage, animal box, and started the laundry. My next task will be mopping the floors since I have the rugs up. While I cleaned the bird cage ( outside hosing it down for good measure ), I filled the bottom with clean litter. On my treck back into the house (Note this is a large cage with wheels ) the bottom came out and litter spilled between the garage and kitchen tile. grr, I kicked the remaining bottom that clung to the cage. Yeah, that did good, the remaining litter flew in the garage more like a blanket of snow. Just more for me to sweep up. I managed to reapply the bottom and clean up my mess, moving on. But that's how it started this morning.

During this I also was running a script within a couple of facilites to populate the PIDX. Basically the script auto-loads patient information as opposed to someone manually keying them in by hand.

Well frail, I just received an IM stating that the one doing support today at work has a virus. I will be taking it up for a bit. Oh well. Yesterday, a facilty had a virus that required them to shut down all their routers ect. so as not to contaminate the network for the other hospitals and corporate.

News: This morning I also woke up to hearing of yet another terrorist attack on Russia. This time the douchbags have taken a school. Reportedly, anywhere from 200 to 400 captives, mostly kids. Unreal. Yes, they are Czek Islamic terrorist. I think we all should have compassion and be outraged for the families over there having to go through this horrific ordeal. Can you imagine this occuring here in the United States? I have no doubts if our current President, and prayfully our next, didn't take on the offense on any/all terrorist that scenario could very well be playing out here today as opposed to over there. The terrorist even stating if anyone of them are shot, they in turn will kill 50 children per soldier killed. I pray for the families and that country. Because it seems pretty relentless on them this week.

I watched the RNC last night again and was impressed with Arnolds speech. He was the one stealing the show, it seems. I felt bad for the Bush girls. They were obviously nervous and frankly their attempt of humor fell flat. Oh well, they did say it was their first public appearance. While I listened to Laura Bush, I was only thinking, this lady sounds intellegent. She stumbled over a couple of words, but her message was very articulate and seemed to me, a bit long, even though it was only 22 minutes.

Yes it works ! This is what I felt last night as I finally got a script to run correctly at work. It was a FTP interface using a script. The script allows me to pull a file within a time period as opposed to just polling for it every x amount of time. It felt good to get it going, correctly.

I was able to see most of the RNC last night on FOX news and it definitely seems Rudy G. received the spotlight and amazingly so he was pumping up the current president. I hear this morning on the news radio a lady from talk radio is going around stating the RNC is sending a subliminal message of 'Christianity' to the public. There is also news that the so-called peacefull protesters are actually not from New York anyway. These are leftist radicals who support John Kerry. I don't recall hearing radical rights burning crap in the DNC and I am pretty sure the media would spotlight that. Only day one and a dichotomy already seems present from the would be and incumbent.

My poor wife had to go to the dentist for a root canal. She has been hurting for over a week now and our regular dentist didnt want to do it or couldnt for some reason or another.

I need to mow mine and my neighbors yard today. This should be the last time on the neighbors yard then it will be the new residents responsibility. She is suppose to be moving in within 1.5 weeks.

I had to link the actual video track of last nights VMA show where the daughters received more boo's than cheers. (you have to scroll down a bit.) One person said it well. It was like going to a party and someone asked to do math homework, we didn't come to do homework but to party.

http://www.dailyrecycler.com/blog/2004/08/mtv-crowd-boos-kerry-daughters.html

Hey gang, I just signed up on the AudioBlogger to test this out during lunch. When you set yours up, it basically shows below.

================================================================

OK! You are ready to Get Your Voice On!




Alright, now all you have to do is call that number to make FREE audio posts to your blog.

1. Call the number

(Listen very carefully to the Voice Prompts)

2. Enter your Primary Number

3. Enter your PIN, press #

4. Record your post, Press #

5. Press 1 to post, 2 to review, 3 to re-record.

6. Check your site!
=================================================================
The site to signup for free is http://www.audioblogger.com

Sunday night. Guess no Deadzone watching tonight unless its by DVD. I have season one and season two. Nearly done with Season two viewing. Last weeks season finale was very good. Seems the question will be sacrifice Johnny's new love attraction or keep the future the same. I thought it was very cool the way he paired with his future self in the end. Nice touch.

Site update: I have added a couple of blog sites on the side.

Yesterday my wife and daughter went to see 'Princess Diaries 2' while my son and I watched 'Yu-GI Oh'. Yes, I can now officially pronounce the blasted thing. The ladies said their movie was cute and romantic. We will probably try to get Princess Diaries one and two on DVD when the second one comes out. I will see it then. Yu-Gi Oh is another whole ball of wax. I can officially say it was interesting. It brought the whole background, what it is, ect. into play. There were alot of little boys with one dad or mom there. Anyone recall the card game Magic the Gathering? I tried it, like...10 years ago. I found it similiar but extreme. Of course my 5 year old didn't get the jest of the gaming itself, but the visual art is what captivated him. I asked him part way in the movie if it was good. He replied 'yeah great movie dad' as he slurped more soda down. If this continues I see alot of card acquiring. I already checked online and was amazed of the fan based for this.

Today before church, our daughter woke up stating she was feeling sick at her tummy and head. My wife gave her some meds and she also felt a stomach ache coming on. We feared it may be the stomach virus that is going around. I went onto Church, which I was glad I did since it was a good sermon I needed to hear. When I was leaving church I called my wife to check on her, I was heading to do some errands, and she informed me not only did our daughter lie to us in regards of feeling bad, but our son also stated 'it was ok, because I lied last sunday so I wouldnt have to go.' Needless to say, it pretty much infuriated her as well as me. When I got back I had a long discussion on lying and why we do not lie to each other, because then we wouldnt be able to trust each other. Plus the fact giving our daughter medicine when she is pretends to be sick can make her sick. This after my wife already spoke to them and disciplined them. ahh the joys of parenthood. Amazing one day we all have a great time and it was a true treat to go out to the movies with them. Then this happens.

I began call this morning and will have it till next Saturday. Here is crossing my fingers.

I had to make an additional addition this morning's blogging. While perusing through my list of blog reading I could not help be fascinated by this post.

http://www.danegerus.com/weblog/Comments.asp?svComment=5846

Raining down on Saturday. Thursday the heat index hit 110 degrees. Then Friday was supposed to be hottest of the year. However, cooler weather is upon us this Saturday morning.

Friday I was on support and it was actually busy. Normally it consists of a couple of recycles here and there. But for whatever reason, it wasn't as simple. It did make the day go faster though. I also received my review Friday and the review was very positive. So, I am glad of that. It was only 2 months behind. My supervisor had her evaluation as well and it was 6 months behind.

Friday evening, I went to help my brother move some of his furniture, ECT. During this same time, our slumber party hit off with about 8 other kids, totaling nine with ours. There were 7 6-yr old girls and two boys. I have to gripe just a bit on the moving. I arrived there after work and his wife was gone with the truck. I tried to get some boxes in my van to get going but he wanted to wait upon her return to see what they wanted to move. She came back in 15 minutes with one box of diapers. She plopped on the couch saying they needed to get some food for the kids (he has 2 little ones) after the first load. I asked my brother why she didn't get the food along with the diapers and his reply was she didn't think about it. I asked what could we move? Of course the answer was the boxes. so I filled the van (Ford Windstar) up with as much as I can put in it, as well as his truck with a large chair, ECT. We unloaded and came back. Then she left again with the van. She was gone nearly 50 minutes to get a Wendy burger and some fries. Of course we had the two little ones. I filled the van back up during this time and asked my bro for the key to unload while we waited for the truck. You guessed it. "I don't have the key, she does." I hate to gripe but they are the most unorganized movers. I feel for my brother because, from what I can perceive, I am not really impressed with his mate. But it's his life and choice. The heaviest item was the fridge. Once we finally were able to get it out the door, we were not manly enough to get it in the truck. Man, it was heavy. I called upon my friend (the one kicking off 4H), who was at my house kind of waiting on me to assist. Fortunately he did and we were able to haul it over to the other apartment. I am feeling it this morning.

I didn't make it back to the house till nearly 9 p.m. and the slumber party was still going on strong. My wife was exhausted already and her helper was remained sitting on the couch leafing through an LTD catalog. Around 9:40 p.m. a couple of moms came and picked up their kiddos. That brought it down to 4 girls and 2 boys. A bit more do-able. We finally put them down and started a movie. They crashed a bit after 11 p.m. We only had two wakeups during the night with the smallest boy.

We are hoping to go watch movies today. My wife still wants to take our daughter to 'Princess Diaries 2' while I watch 'Yu GI GO' with our son. I have a hard time keeping 'Pokeman and Digimon' apart and fear this will only add to it. : )

Site update: I have added 'On Donkey's mind' to my blog list of viewing. He happened to find my blog and posted. I checked it out find it thorough and worth looking at. Thanks Donkey.

Week is going going going.....

Already Wednesday this week. Geez

Monday night we had a successfull first PTA meeting. Kelli did well. We cut through the long agenda in 30 minutes, I clocked it. But of course afterwards it was an hour to B.S. It was the most time I seen my wife speak with the Elementary Principle and both leaving in one piece.

Did Tuesday really happen? I think it was a blur.

My schedule this week been basically, taking the kids to school, picking up the PTA first fundraiser, organizing it there. Replacing sold cards with new ones. It doesnt take too long though. I have a system now. I then return home to work, meetings ect. then at noon I or my wife transport our friends kid from headstart to a babysitter, due to them at work all day as well. So needless to say, it continues to be busy.

Today wasn't such a bad day at work, so far. I did speak with a friend of mine working in Mcallen Texas facility. I was a bit surprised she is still indecisive of who to vote for in Nov. 2 this year. I basically told her my view and will send her some weblinks to review. Basically ended it with, "I am not saying who to vote for but you really need to get educated, because this is an important vote." I did find it interesting when I asked her simply, "what do you find appeasing in Kerry?" and she stated she really didnt have any idea and there were none. I think Bush and the team needs to really gear up to what he accomplished to create a dichotomy of his decisivness, resolve, and accomplishments as opposed to Kerry's indecisivness, flip-flop, 19 years of liberal votes within the Senate, and non-accomplishments for our country.


Today I managed to find the time to deposit the money/checks for the last members and the fundraiser. We had kicked off the first fundraiser Friday and we have 2 weeks to do this in. I am hoping it will go well. From what I can see, it is far more organized than the past year. But I guess we will see how it turns out.


My coffee machine broke yesterday morning, so yesterday and today - no coffee in the morning. Bummer man. But I seem to keep functioning. : )

Criminy the weekend is flying. Friday was not too bad of a day in regards to work. It was a quiteness prior of next week's coming. We will be down to 3 working in our group. One is going on vacation and I get to test her projects in her absence. So she gave me the low-down Friday in regards of contacts, place of testing, ect.

My CIO contacted me Friday as well. She received my request to discuss Thursday and had some time. I was able to convey to her my perception of what was going on. It wasn't easy but it was needed. She was very receptive and evidently she also seen some things she was concerned about ( yeah, perhaps the fact she hasn't hit a 5 day week yet ) and spoke to her on it. Evidently she ( the peer ) will be back to work on Monday. Guess we will see. Since she was out all week and last Friday, next weeks support has been split up between the 3 of the remaining team. I have Tuesday and Friday for support.

On Friday night we didnt rent any movies or anything. In fact I cannot recall what we even watched. We spent the evening taking the kids to the first 4H meeting (I ended up entertaining 6 kids on the side while my wife got the low-down) and then to Gymnastics. Only one more week of gymnastics and I think we will be done with that round of experience. Since there was an 1 hr and half between, we ate out at a place known as 'The Barn'. A buffet of fish, chicken, shrimp, ect. It's always good but I get a cotton mouth afterwards. Must be due to the salt on the fish. It all tastes homemade and is ran by an old friend of my wifes and her parents.

Saturday, I managed to finish up on the PTA website by adding a couple more pages. Kell's Dad came by and picked the kids up to hang with him during the day, since her parents hadn't been able to see them all week. This allowed Kelli and I to get our PTA stuff organized, partly ready for our first meeting this Monday night, and paint some of neighbor's walls, ect.

Saturday evening, we went to her parents house and had some smoked ribs, chicken, tenderloin, with baked beans. There is a couple of guys that comes in town every other weekend and smokes meat throughout the weekend. Talk about good. Man, not only can you smell that good smoke smell for a block away but everything we have tried taste excemptionally well. The guys are making money hand over fist with it. They literally cannot keep up with the demand. The have a huge smoker planted on a trailer bed that they pull into a local grocery store. You can see them pushing a cart of rack of ribs, whole chickens, pork chops, tenerdloins,brisket, ect. smoking them till they run out. This is what we had Saturday night. I also had a good talk with her Dad and we enjoyed their company. Our daughter ended up spending the night and our son came home with us, not wanting to spend the night. Which totally amazed me, because both kids normally always want to stay there. While I was over there, I also setup their speakers and installed the kids games on their P.C. ( Just seem not to ever get away from this contraption.) Later that night, while at home our neighbor brought over 'Kill Bill, Volume 2' for me to watch. I thought it was better than the first one. It's a conclusion of the Volume 1. I enjoyed seeing David Carradine playing in a movie again. I hadn't seen him since the new KungFu series was attempted ( the one where his cop son was from the Shaolin Temple ). Its been awhile since it was on.

I was listening to a new talk show on the A.M radio that I hadn't heard before, called 'The Rusty Humphries Show'. His website is Talk to Rusty. Com. He had John Kerry's Citations on it that was interesting. I printed this off to give to Kell's Dad to look at. He was in the service for quite sometime and knows it more than I could. I look forward to his feedback.

I am planning to watch the DeadZone special 2 hour Season Finale, tonight. Also for those Farscape Fans, I seen the season 3 box set is coming on sale in the Best Buys Sunday Paper for 95 bucks. All 22 episodes in it.[sigh]

Nearly 10 p.m. already and the day once again flew like crazy. This morning started out pretty good. My wife took the kiddo's to school on her way to work, thus I had a bit of time prior of work. As stated I was on support today but did manage to work on a issue I been meaning to and follow-up on other tickets I had opened for awhile at work.

I placed a call to our CIO and requested some time with her ( spoke with the secretary ) but didn't get a chance nor heard from her. But I really didnt expect it. First day back you know she's booked solid with meetings. That's what I hate up at Corporate when I go there. "Oh your in town, can we do a meeting to discuss.. or review..." and then your basically in meetings all day and cannot get anything done.

I didn't even listen to the radio today in the background and yet it managed to fly by.

Last night after I wrote my review on GodSend, I took two tylenol pm's to wind down and thumbed through the tv channels and happed upon the end of 'The Deadzone'. Cool, I was able to finish it. I noticed I hadnt missed much of it but at least I was able to get to see all of it now. This Sunday is a 2 hour special end season. Has it been a season already? Crud, I didnt think it's been running a full season yet.

This evening, my wife and I put together the prizes the school kids will win on the fundraiser kicking off tomorrow morning. PTA is selling discount cards, those that stores/resturants/ect. will take a percentage off. Supposedly more stores are on this years fundraiser than the year before. This is our first one and we hope it goes well. Guess we will see.

I finished the PTA Website Wenesday, if you want to check it out, its at here. I pulled a template down and then revised it accordingly. Yes, I eventually will put the officers pics on there as well. And with me being treasurer, I guess those reading this blog will actually see my mug. : )

I am heading off to watch Orielly Factor. I haven't been able to see it much at all this week. It rained today and is quite cooler down here. Nixon, I wish I could push some of this cool rainy wind your way.

Page update I added a new blog and removed an old one that apparently died.

Well, finished the movie and it had some spooky parts in it. I jumped about 4 times during the movie. Basically the theme is parents loose their only son, who just turned 8, by an accident. They are in pain during their loss and Dr. comes to them saying he can help. This Dr. happens to be a genius in genes and promises to clone their loss child, everything perfect down to the hair on his head. They have 72 hours to make their decision, due to the genes stability.

Well, at first the husband says no-way, while the wife is willing. Then the husband agrees. They do it and the birth gives them a scare, but they have their son again. The Dr. relocates them, giving them this big mansion as opposed to their current apartment, new job, ect. Basically paying them for the experiment, but the story doesnt say that.

Something goes wrong. The Story fast forwards to the boys 8 year birthday. Shortly afterwards, he has these night terrors. Old memories of another boy emerges and the story begins of another identity coming through. I wont tell the end nor how it goes from here but the storyline basically is after the boys original death, new genes are awaken, hence the night terrors, memory, recognitive comes out.

So what we have here is a story about genetics that retain previous memories, slash life, that is resurfaced. Sound familiar, how about evolutionary thinking. The thought that life continues to improve, ie we get smarter, ect. Or life orientated, our make-up, thoughts, the way we act, say, do is all built in our genes and we cannot help ourselves in who we are.

But this is just a story right? Maybe at 11:15 p.m. I am reading to much into a movie. Oh well, I cannot help but analyze things and this story to me touched something.

I personally do not believe in Pre-ordained, ect. Because I think we are able to make decisions, and choose that which we love, eat, enjoy, ect. But there are those out there that believe in Pre-Life (you had many lives before this one and that's why you fear certain things, ect.) or the belief in soul-mates (the thought someone is your soul mate due to a previous life, you were married, loved each other) and you find each other again. It doesnt matter if your man-woman, man-man, woman-woman, because you will continue to reborn. But that logic doesnt really hold for me, becaue if that was the case, my luck my soul mate was the cow that was slaughtered for my McDonalds burger.

Anyway, you see my point. It's a scary story of what if and the possibility of a pre-life re-emerging, given the chance. The chance was due to cloning. The bummer of it was it happent to be a Psycopath kid with Pyromaniac tendencies. I will have to say the kid played a good part. He gets this glazed empty look in his eyes that nailed the character.

So, in short, not a movie for the kids. It had some scary stuff in it. But you pretty much knew what was going to happen as the story unfolded.

Well, hump day is over or soon to be. It is nearly 9 p.m. and the kids are in bed.
The kids had a good day at school today and that's always a plus.

Since my wife had to run our son to therapy at 4:30 p.m. and I had a trip to make to the Chiro at 5:30 p.m. We ate out for dinner. I left work early to drop off the movies with my daughter and hit the doc. I was out by 5:20 p.m. We ended eating at Panera in Fort Smith. Never been there, it had free wi-fi, so it must be hip, right? Well, it was a bit expensive and not really the place to take kids to eat. None-the-less we tried it out. I didn't think it was too bad. If I was single with a pretty good job, I can see hanging there, but my wife wasn't impressed at all. I would like to try their mocha sometime though.

I received an email today at work that our peer will be out all this week, due to health. Don't know the details, but I will be on support again tommorrow. I hope she makes it to work next week. I guess I will still make that call to our CIO tomorrow. I hate to give bad news about anyone, but we are hurting on this one. We have 4 people supporting, building, doing for 26 plus hospitals not counting outside interface projects. Considering there are a good 20 interfaces per some facilities, your looking at quite a load. Every consultant I have spoken to stated our company is the fastest paced, most worked place they ever worked in. There are suppose to be 5 in the team, but this chic hasnt been in a full week yet, and another peer is on vacation all next week. OK I will take cheese with the whine now.

On another note, I plan to watch 'GodSeed' tonight. A buddy of mine let me borrow his copy. So I will probably write about it in my next blogging.

Yesterday evening was pretty good. My wife had to bring our friends daughter over, due to them going to a 4-H leader meeting. No big. But it was a bit aggravating when they called around 7:00 p.m. from Walmart checking on her. Our kids were crashing out around 8:10 (around their bedtime) and they still hadn't came to pick her up. We finally put our kids to bed, note we already given them showes ect. as usual. My wife was in the process of asking our friends daughter if she wanted to take a shower so she didnt have to when she got home. Fortunately her parents came shortly after that. Perhaps I shouldn't be aggravated at something so insignificant but I also don't want it to become a habit.

On a side note afterwards, I was able to sit outback with my wife with a bottle of wine and relax under the stars. It was very relaxing to get a chance to unwine. Much better than tylenol pm and flipping through the tv. I am going to have to make it more of a routine getaway for us.

This morning started out with a bang. Getting the kids up and taking them to school was chore. They were dragging. Once I hit the school I caught the superintendant in the teachers lounge to try to get some feedback on the papers we sent her Monday. She was more than willing to discuss in her office. Interestig how everything was hunky dory and she just wants everything to go well this year. This same super will not spend time with my wife but attempts to be nice to me. Guess we will see where it goes. I played politics before, but don't like it much. However, if I can get more action out of her than my wife, so be it. At least it keeps things moving.

I grabbed the PTA mail and headed out. I was also able to speak to my son's teachers and aid as well as 3 other teachers, nurse on my way out. All this without finishing my first cup of coffee.

I proceeded to get home and correct a problem at work right off the bat. I am on support today and do not see getting much accomplished other than that. I was asked by a peer where is other group member( the one I mentioned yesterday's blog) and I didn't have a clue since I just logged on. Seems she is MIA again today.

Another day another dollar, so they say. I was able to get my yard done last night as well as the neighbors. So at least that was accomplished. I had to do it after the kids were down and I finished last nights blog. I stil need to get my weedeater running to finish up the edges though.

Late last night around 12:30 a.m. pacific, my daughter came into bed saying she spilt water on her bed. I blame myself, probably didnt have a tight enough lid on it. So we changed her bed out and by the time it was done, I was awake. I am normally a light sleeper anyway. I got up and started on the PTA officer webpage. When I went back to bed, I had a restless night. Go figure.

I took the kids off to school this morning and put some gas in the van on the way back. I plan to take our son to therapy this afternoon. I am looking at 2 scheduled conference calls today. I received a call from my supervisor yesterday and was asked a favor. To speak with our CIO of IS concerning a peer. She hasn't been in a full week since she started and moral of the team is down. She was out last Friday, I didn't know of it till Monday's morning call, which she was out Monday as well. When you consider everyone's plate if full working nearly 10-14 hours a day and she doesn't even care enough to call into her boss to say she's absent. That's gotta stink. Since she is not making deadlines her projects our put upon us, in turn we get even more overwhelmed with the crap we have to do. So I told her I would make a call this Thursday. This is when she returns. I needed to talk to her anyway. My evaluation hasn't been completed yet by her. It was done and turned in nearly 2.5 weeks now. We are supposedly waiting on her (CIO)anyway.

I already went through my coffee till it was cold and have my pepsi by my side. About to turn on Swordfish soundtrack and get going. On another note, I learned yesterday evening John Edwards was in Fort Smith today, speaking. My wife chides me saying I wouldn't attend that one, but I actually would had liked to go, if I had more notice. I would be intererested in what he has to say.

Well, Monday is over with and as usual fast and furious. I was able to get some things done today at work. One of the conference calls was changed to Wednesday so that bought me another hour today.

After work, I was able talk to my wife a bit. She is overwhelmed. She is working for 3 lawyers, PTA president (trying to organize a previous non-organized unit ), and our kids school activities along with the kids antics and therapy, ect. Not to mention secretary for her Aunt's Nursing stuff. I listened and offered my services in anyway possible but there is not much I can to assist in alot of these. I am hoping things will get calmer if not more manageable before long.

I finished getting supper ready and ran to my Chiropracter while the kids and wife came back in from their running. The doc told me he didn't have to work to much this time and my 2 times a week will be cut to once a week after next week. Which is good for me. So it must be getting better. Again, I never put much faith in these guys but I must admit my wrist haven't hurted since I started and I felt better. Oh well, whatever works, right?

Kids already ate and finished their homework when I returned home. PreK and 1st grade having 30 minutes of homework, geez. And it's only the second week.

It was suggested to have our son do at least 30 minutes of excercise in the evenings to get him on a better schedule. OK so I grabbed a timer and told the kids we are going to do some excercises before their showers tonight. "Excercise with Dad, wow". They were excited. I started to set the timer for 30 minutes but my wife said let's start them at 10-15. "OK" I figured for them to get into it. So my wife was frantically trying to catch up on the computer while I get the kiddos in the living room to excercise for 10 minutes. We start out with situps, 10 of them, then some waist excercises then bicycling. "OK kids, lets do some excercises." "Yeah!" they cried joyfully. "one, twooo, threeee, (grunt) fourrrr, fiivvvveee, no Braden like this (that bought me some breathing as I instructed my 5 year old), siiiiixxxxxxx, (more grunts), ssssseeeevvveeennnn, (turning red), eeeeiiggghhhtttt (turning to bob the tomatoe from the veggie tales), nnniiiinnneeee, ten (long sigh). Dad's out of shape kids." Of course during this my 5 year old son is flopping like a fish out of water and my 6 year old daughter is knocking them out like a piston. We manageed to finish it of with some head-waist-toes and 10 minutes came in quick. "Whew, ok kids let's get your showers done."

Anyway, after showers I was able to read some books to them and they are eating their snacks watching tv now. My poor wife is on the phone trying to decipher her R.N. Aunts notes, ect.

Web Update:I found a little script called "chatango" and added it to my blog. Suppose allow online chat if both parties are on the page at the same time. I will try to setup a date/time to chat online. Anyone have any preference let me know.

Drinking in the coffee this morning, looking over today's schedule. I have 3 meetings (conference calls) scheduled for today, first one in 25 minutes. Kelli and the kids have already gone off to work/school. House is cleaned up and I am listening to the Swordfish soundtrack to get me into the mood.

I fell asleep last night watching Deadzone. What a bummer because I really like the show. At least I only had one call last night for support. I am off on-call till next week. The group has decided we only have one day per week to do support during that day. This has helped out tremendously on the assigned projects. Consider this, trying to get a handle of your todo's while supporting over 26 hospitals with possible issues, recycles, ect. It can be stressfull. This will allow us to dedicate at least 4 days on our projects. At least we can move along. My dedicated support day this week is Wed.

I guess I will go ahead and remove the 3 links from my previous post. No-one seemed to know or answer my inquiry on them. I noticed this morning Blogger is having issues with allowing you to post comments and update your templates. Perhaps someone is trying to answer and getting the same issue I am. I have also added a couple of moblogs on my side as well. I enjoy X-play on G4TECH.TV when I get a chance to watch it. I also have seen The Broken and find it fascinating. They will be on G4Tech.TV tonight and I plan on trying to catch it.

I guess I will be getting ready for work. Had to update the blog. I plan on creating a test blog and working with it as well. I noticed others doing the same. This will allow us to manipulate and modify without fragging our prod one.

When I initally started blogging, I really didnt know what the deal was. I made contacts of other bloggers, either through similar interest or another link from that blogger. Once you start a line of communication, you become somewhat acquanted. However, then the blogger seems to suddenly give up on the blog or rather no further updates on his/her life. So with that I wonder what became of

The Skoop on Skassy

,

Lisa is trying to figure it out

and

Just Blog me

? Must be part of the dying blogs.

One blogger I continue to converse with is

Nixon's Memoirs

. Although I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him personally, I find alot of similiarities. My wife had a friend online that she communicated for nearly 5 years prior of actually meeting her on a vacation. It was interesting, as the friends husband was telling me and my wife a story, ect. afterwards, Kelli (wife) would say, I already knew that due to email, ect. Just seems interesting people may be more willing to open up online rather than conversing with someone face to face.

So, if anyone knows where these dying blogs stand, can they let me know?

Well, they put a temp fix on the instability network issue yesterday. Seems they first thought it was a misconfigured router in Lakewood facility down in Florida, and was unable to get to it due to the storm. Then another email was put out stating it was actually a phone system that was messing up the WAN, effecting some of the other facilities. Geez, with simplicity for the users comes complexity on the system and sensitivity for changes.

Last night we watched most of the movies, yes, I nearly cried when Optimus Prime died on the Transformers movie again. For awhile I was a kid again. The 'our lips are sealed' Mary Kate and Ashley movie was ok but pretty cheesy. We also managed to put in a 'Pokemon the movie' in, is there any other parents out there having to figure this out? oh well. I am envisioning many cards to be purchased and figuring out how to play these games.

I been fighting a sinus cold all week. Allergies are crazy down here in Oklahoma and I am not the only one. My wife was hit with it full swing yesterday, started day before. She took some benadryl and crashed for awhile ( can't hold up to it ) heh heh

So the plan for the weekend is R and R. We been running like crazy all week and its time to rest.

Well, Kelli's friend wasn't able to spend the night here before leaving. She left out this morning. I did get a chance to discuss with her during dinner last night. I was fascinated with her knowledge of the Iraq war and her thoughts on it, as well as the Euro, ect. It was a short discussion but an intersting one. Essentially she thinks the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder made a mistake in not assisting and it was not the same view as the German people. She also mentioned the burdening taxes, ect on the German economy.

I was on support last night and it was a booger. I had continued calls up till after midnight, then it tapered off. The only reason was the facilities gave up and put themeselves on downtime. The network was unstable and we continually recycled the connections only to have them drop again. Siemens is working on the issue with our Network group. Hopefully they will resolve this with ATT, or its going to be a lone weekend.

I plan to rent Transformers the movie and a Mary Kate / Ashley movie for the kids tonight. Popcorn and movies at home. Looking forward to it.

This week, my wifes friend from Germany has come over the states to visit. Initially she attended a wedding in Texas but this week she is staying close to here. I was fortunate to meet her Tuesday, and visited again last night. She is an interesting individual. She has gone to school/college most of her life and can speak 5 languages. She has a hard accent and at times has that confused look as to what your trying to convey to her, but you can also see she is definitely a warm, well knowledged person.

I was able to speak with her a bit during lunch Tuesday, about the main dichotomy of here and over seas. She said society in whole, school system and just from one town to the other as differences she see's. Their main means of transportation is by train or bicycle. Gas is horribly expensive, and with only the short distances of travel, they mainly cycle it.

I am on support starting tonight throughout the weekend. The family will be able to go out to dinner with her tonight and I hope to be able to discuss with her again. I find it fascinating to hear first hand of others view. My wife was able to spend some time with her during the week. But I feel she could have more time with her, were it not for her Aunt's hoggging her friend.

I will ask my wife to see if we can have her spend the night prior to her leaving.

I miss the days of Dragnet. I recall the same plea over and over again. "Just the facts ". When I went to school we had a bad ass English teacher that drilled it in our heads, just the facts, just the facts. I hated English, as you can see in my grammer. But as I grow older and notice the news, mags, and stories, it seems their English teacher did not have the same adament desire.

If you noticed the 'news' are more of ideology than facts. Its not how it is, rather than how it is perceived to be. This is something I learned the hard way while I debated online. Regardless of how many facts you throw at some people, they still choose not to accept it. What the hell. You can lead the horse to water but cannot make that horse drink it.

So in debating, I come to the simple conclusion. The opponent will not change my view, I will not change the opponent's view. I may find more information from the debate, but the major outcome will be those on the sidelines listening in on the discussion. The kicker is which opponent has the most information on the subject as well as the resources to back it up. The problem is the side-liners probably will not take the time to go look at those resources, if given, rather take whichever sounds the best or fits into his/her own ideology. This is what I am finding more and more of. There is so much spin on the same subject matter you can lean left or right.

Where's the days of facts? If either debator addresses their view of the facts, they generally leave some of it out or word it in such a matter of their view. I guess I am just ranting tonight but does anyone else see my point here?

Drop, crash. As I began working this morning, both my kids and wife was still in bed opening their eyes. I heard an unmistakenble drop, crash. My first thought was a picture must had fallen off the wall (happened before). I looked down the hall then in the other rooms. Nothing unusual or obvious. Then it struck me. The ice machine in our new fridge. The new fridge we acquired yesterday has a water and ice machine in it and I am not use to the sounds.

On another note this morning, I read the following in an email article and had to pass it on.

"Kerry for President camp just handed me the kind of story I can't keep away from. The new "religious advisor" to Senator John Kerry previously joined the lawsuit filed by atheist Michael Newdow to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag! Kerry's new "religious advisor" - Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson - was one of thirty-two clergy members to file an amicus curiae brief in behalf of Michael Newdow. This is the woman that John Kerry plans to send to America's religious groups as his representative. Polls show that almost all Christians and the vast majority of even non-Christians in America, do not want "under God" removed from the Pledge. So what religious groups is she going to represent John Kerry to? Gay Unitarians? "

Kids are back safely from their trip, and I am so glad. It's amazing how much I missed them bugging me. It's like being a week at Corp., first couple of days were nice but then I was ready to have them back. It sounds like they had blast and was spoiled like crazy. Kell's mom and dad (nana and papa) had to tell me the story of them at a biker bar. Seems they had picnic tables there and sat outside watching all the bikers drive in and out and the food was excellent (or according to nana -to die for). My son loves motorcycles. But everyone made it home safe. Still washing their dirty clothes. : )

In addition to the kids coming home, Kell's parents brought back a freezer, refrigerator, couch and love seat. We get the refrigerator and her brother will get ours. We were told we would acquire it, which will be nice since this one has a built in water/ice. I never had one of those before, so we are looking forward to having it. Ours is a bit smaller but its the perfect size for her brothers place, as he does not have on yet. ( he moved out recently ) So it works out well.

Yesterday, all day my wife and I just shopped. We were looking for calendars/organizers to buy the teachers, from the PTA. No luck. Seems to be the wrong time of year. We will probably have to order them online (internet) for them. In looking for them, I think we hit 20 stores. MOstly we browsed around while in them but it was nice, the fact we didn't have,"I want to go home", after ever other store. So we spent most of yesterday evening out and about.

During the weekend we also managed to clean out and rearrange our garage and today I deep cleaned the floors. Even took out all the rugs to beat and hang in the sun. Kelli and I worked on getting geared for the PTA this week. We will have a member drive during open house Tuesday night. Unbelievable to think school starts this Wed. My daughter will be in 1st grade and my son in Kidengarten. Man time flys.
I mentioned I had started on the PTA website and the site is located here.

I can't recall if I mentioned us putting on a lay-a-way for Christmas while they were out. Well, we put on a PS2. Yeah, its as much for me as them. : )

I haven't updated all in awhile so I thought I better do so. The kids have gone with their nana and papa to Texas for a wedding. That's right, Thursday, Friday night and Saturday without my precious. We feel lost without them. But as much as I miss them, I am really enjoying time alone with my wife. Thursday night we ordered pizza (didn't have to have pepperoni) and watched 13 going on 30 all before 9 p.m.! yeah, you might think, 'wow, what party animals'. But it was nice to be able to sit watch and relax before anyone else was in bed.

Friday's work day was pretty good. I was able to accomplish alot and felt like I was all over the place. I worked on 2 projects, on 2 conference calls, assisted 3 people, and was able to update some documentation. All in all a productive day. I am still seeing the Chiropracter, had a visit at 8 a.m. before work today. Same thing, keep up the excercises and see my twice again next week. But I have to say my wrist has not hurt at all since I been going. So something is working right.

Friday evening my wife and I enjoyed the evening out. We ate out at LoneStar steakhouse (I had a peppercorn steak and my wife ate steak and shrimp) yes it was good. We then gathered some supplies, cookies, soda for PTA. Did I mention my wife is PTA president and I was voted Treasurer this year? Can't recall if I did. Oh well. We grabbed the stuff. I also grabbed two movies to watch, Swordfish (seen it before but wanted to again) and Hart's War(haven't seen that one), both for 1.99 each so couldn't pass renting those. We also were able to leasurely walk through Walmart, so we put on a Christmas layaway for the kids. Have to start on it due to being around the corner and the fact I get paid once a month.

Anyway, the evenings have been really nice but we continue to call the kids to check on them. They are being spoiled rotten as usual and enjoying time with their grandparents. School starts on the 11th here. The school has an open house on the evening of the 10th. PTA will furnish the refreshments, hence the soda's and cookies. We will also have a member drive that evening. Another exciting event is my buddy will be starting up a 4H here in Pocola, which they have not had before.

The other best thing, is the spontaneity my wife and I can have without the kids. I will leave that to you imaginations. : )

Dick Cheyney in Fort Smith today, 8-3-04 

Very cool. I had the chance to take an extended lunch to go see Dick Cheyney in Fort Smith today. I stood in line for nearly an hour to go through security. It was held in the Fort Smith Convention Center. Cheyney was a bit late arriving and spoke for about 35-40 minutes. I was able to tape nearly all of the speech and of course taking as many digital pics as possible. I am posting one of the better ones of him. I was able to shake his and his wifes hand. I am grateful to have a good job to enable me to be able to escape for such things. Of course I will put in that same time if not more but I cannot gripe. I figured this would be the only chance to actually see him in person.

He spoke very clear and was very articulated. I was very impressed with his speech.

Per request, I found the speech on the Bush Cheyney Website. It is here.. http://georgewbush.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=3164