Middle America's Worldview

I th0ught I would post a quick blog before I started work today. I had a chance to read other blogs on my list and add a new one. I still find it rather fascinating some blogs are dedicated to ones life, while others are purely for information.

I didn't mention this yesterday but my daughter ( now 7 going onto 21 ) brought a note home today to show me and my wife. It was a love note from Daniel. Some boy in her class. It basically read 'I love to Brittney'. She was all excited stating he took his snack time to write this for her, but didnt have time to write from Daniel. sigh. These kids are in 1st grade for crying out loud. Hell, looking back in my old photos and notes, I think I had a crush for my 1st grade teacher, but love notes to other classmates? I don't think so. I can only see trouble for my ulcer and more grey hair for my future.

The kids had a basketball game last night at school. It was one of those class A against class B types to help raise money for a field trip. I caught this guy sitting behind me on my right hollering 'Go Daniel' as my daughters class played. I asked the dude if his kid was Daniel. He replied 'yes' somewhat enthusiastically. I mentioned his son gave my daughter a note today waiting to see if he gave a shit. He really didn't raise an eyebrow. Oh well, discussion closed. Watching the boy on the court I couldn't help the feeling this will be one of those preppy kids in school. I mentioned the guys reaction to my wife when we where home last night after the games indicating he seemed to be non-sociable. Kelli informed me the mom's snotty. Great. These are the types I detested while growing up in my small school. Yeah, it's only 1st grade and I really shouldn't be thinking of this crap right now. However, I look around and realization keeps reminding me its' a different world then when I grew up.

Where are those tums.

Yesterday at work I pretty much dedicated the whole day to finish a grid. Basically data entry on routes and route assignments. Talk about a time killer, but it was necessary. I been putting it off for far too long. At least it was completed.

Today I was on support. Pleasantly it wasn't that bad. I had only about 5 tickets from support today. I will be on it again tomorrow but heh its Friday.

The auditors finish scavenging our company and put out what they expect. In a nutshell, more documentation. Open a ticket on every project, task, request and be darn sure to include any update, change, discussion, email, documentation, fart in that ticket to cover all areas. sigh. Yes, we live in a world where in court, if its not documented, it didnt happen. We keep hearing about trying to go to a paperless society, but do we really have to replace the paper with a thousand lines of data? I am all for CYA but now it's coming down from the top.

Next week will be very busy for us. The family will be driving into Amarillo, Texas Monday. I will be working at a facility site doing an Order system update. Our son will have a procedure Tuesday in Amarillo. We will remain there till we drive back home Thursday. Then on Friday we have to drive into Little Rock, Arkansas. I have a work seminar to attend, while my family takes our son to another Doctor visit there.

Well, we actually survived the black Friday. We found some pretty good deals in chlothes and some movies. We also snagged a couple of games for the kids. It has become a tradition of the family at this point. Each Thanksgiving we stroll out the 'day after sales' and plan the assault. I have tagged with my mother-in-law for the past 3 years, this year marking our 4th. We are assigned Walmart with all the sales and admatch's. We made record time this year. We grabbed all availble, in and out within 2 hours. That was waiting 30 -45 minutes in checkout lines. Yes, a record for us. We are improving as the years pass on. Fortunately for us we do not have to wait outside in lines and weather.

My wife hits 7 stores to our one stop shopping. She constructs a grid and marks out the trail. This year her family came in from Texas. They tagged with her. I like she feared they would slow her down. They actually helped her and kept up with her. This surprised us all. They said they had a good time in doing it.

Saturday we just stayed home in our pajamas all day. Literally we showered and got back in clean ones. LOL

Sunday we hit church and then ended up staying home that evening.

Monday's work was busier than I thought it would be. I was expecting a quite day due to most on vacation. But I was sadly mistaken. It was 6 p.m. before I knew it.

The one cool thing was, Kelli's cousin grabbed first season of "24" at best buy. He said I would love it. I never have watched this show at all. I completed the second of around 6 dvds in the set. I am now officially hooked on this show. The only description I can say is intense. It has not only the main but many subplots that keep it moving like crazy. Any 24 fans out there?

I find this unbelievable and irratating. What's next, no Thanksgiving due to it deemed a religious holiday?

"Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."

"He hands out a lot of material and perhaps 5 to 10 percent refers to God and Christianity because that's what the founders wrote," said Thompson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. "The principal seems to be systematically censoring material that refers to Christianity and it is pure discrimination."

So we have a principle that is erasing any form of Christianity from a Public School regardless if its our Nations history and roots. This is getting to the point of ridiculous. I am tired of liberals (on either side) that continues to neglect or rewrite history. I wonder if this is what the bible makes reference, regarding in the last days people will search the truth and shall not find it. Unbelievable.

Below are some links for this issue in California.

School bans history materials referring to God

Declaration of Independence Banned at California School or Red-baiting Liberals on Thanksgiving Day

Q: How could Neandertal man be too advanced for evolution?

A: In southern France, they recently found evidence of human habitation hundreds of feet deep within a cave. What makes this find so important is that it’s been dated as the earliest signs of humans in Europe. Only the Neandertals were thought to be the inhabitants of Europe at that time.
What they found in the cave was astonishing for such so-called “primitive” people. They found a “complex quadrilateral artificial structure consisting of specially arranged pieces of stalactite and stalagmite.” Also found was a piece of burned bear bone.

Now for the problem. The items were so deep in the cave, that the people would have had to have some kind of artificial light, such as a fire, torch or lamp. Also, the structure they found was so complex, it would have required the builders to be able to communicate with each other.

Such language skill and technological know-how easily fits the creationist understanding of Neandertals. They were a line of early humans living after the Flood and descended from Noah—but evolutionists have long held that Neandertals could not possibly have done these things.

Neandertals may be a problem for the evolutionists, but not for those who believe in Genesis.
Full article found here.
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Part of the above news can be seen at the bottom of this site.I have pasted it here.
NEWS: Fifty stone tools made and used by Neandertals in Ukraine have been found to have microscopic residues of wood, starch, and other organic substances. The residues on the bases of teardrop-shaped scrapers and combination spear-point/knives indicate that they were hafted on wood handles. Residues on the working edges and sharp tips of these tools show that they were used to process both plants and animals, including waterfowl. These artifacts came from two sites that date 37,000-32,000 and 80,000-40,000 years ago respectively. This evidence is important because it shows that Neandertals were more capable and flexible in tool making and food acquisition than had generally been thought. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences September 11, 2001)

I had a friend forward me an interesting article relating biochips. At my company we work with Siemens using their product as a intergration server. I recall last year when Siemens brought out their biomouse. Ever seen or heard of it? It is actually a good idea. Basically all employees in a facility requiring access would have their fingers scan. Then you can have a pc or dumb terminal in the hallway with a biomouse as a point of access. Now the scenario would be a Doctor goes to the PC and touches the mouse. The thumb would be scanned and he would have access to his security level. He then would leave and a nurse would come by. The nurse would touch the mouse and she could immediately attain her required level of security within the system. Now a non-working civilian comes by and touches the mouse to see if anyone might had not logged off. He would only be presented with a blank screen. Technology like this has been availible for sometime. Pretty cool, eh?
As I read this article below, I just wanted to point out the technology is arlready here. Please note the last paragraph, which I will emphasize. Also note a chip in you today, doesn't mean you have been marked by the antichrist. Reading the bible carefully, the rapture must occur first. I suspect when the rapture occurs and millions of people vanish, chaos will follow. A chip would be an excellent means to help identify those that remain. You will probably hear more about BIOChips and embeddeed microprocessors within our items and even ourselves to desensitize our youth. It will help get the fear and stigma away from our generation and prepare for what is to come.
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GETTING CHIPPED

Well, after a day off-line I finally heard word of my laptop. I still do not know what the deal was.

I received a call around 9:30 a.m. (10:30 est) from my buddy in PCLAN. "You want the good news or the bad news." Crap I thought, my harddrive is toast. "Give me the bad news." No sense in drama. "Well, brother, your laptop is not here." " OK " I said hesitantly. I was puzzled as too why but listen for the rest of the story. " But the good news is it's in King of Prussia." Seems Fedex had dropped it off at the wrong address. How the hell can that happen, I don't really know. Especially since their dropoff was across town, 30 minutes away at a totally differenent address given. Needless to say, I called the guy who had the laptop. Fortunately it was a pimpled kid with time on his hands and needed a shell of a laptop for his 250 gig harddrive. I then called Fedex explaining to them the issue and requesting they promptly repick it up and delivery it to the correct address.
Of course they will, with an apology of the inconvience. Yeah, right.

So without a laptop nor access to my precious enviroment, I returned voicemails, spoke in my scheduled meetings and attempted to act like I was working. I received word around 3:20 p.m. my time by PCLAN that he fixed the issue. When I prompted him, what was the deal. He stated he really didn't know. He had to fix/repair the boot sector. Stated it looked intact and he will be fedexing it back to me overnight. So I should receive it sometime tommorow. I will note my buddy also stated it should arrive in the morning, as he requested it to be. Unless, it lands up 3 blocks away. ha ha Very funny man.

So I don't know what the issue was, other than a failed boot sector. Thank the God in heaven I didn't lose everything. I made myself another mental note to back up my files every week. To hell with the CD's. I will just have to break them before tossing them in the trash.

I agree Mark (mental_note). We are not very fond of Citrix either. It is a bit flakey at times. But what are you going to do? If you have to use it; you have to use it.

I see Dan Rather is stepping down. As if there was a choice in that ordeal. But of course the discussion on the news__is this the end of network news? Yeah, about 5 years ago.

I think I will add the websites I have created or had part of creating on my blog. They are not fancy. Having them there will prompt me in keeping better up in them.

Well, yesterday didn't go according to plan. My work computer crapped out on me, again. I had it on all weekend. I rarely turn it off. I had to be somewhere yesterday afternoon and took 1/2 day off. Since everyone is not on the bandwith I knew I had to deal with a phone dialing into work. I checked if I could still dialin RAS ( Remote Access System ) and get to my work. Yep, the old dialing into with a copper phone line. After being on cable for so long now, I had to ask the guys at Corporate to pull the string harder. After 2 failed attempts I was in. Once in I found I could get to my Lotus Notes easy enough, but nothing else. VPN nor internet access wouldn't work. Hence I could not really get into my work. I had my Monday morning work call. Each Monday morning the interface team has a meeting to hash out their projects, any issues, what will I be working on this week, any rollouts of new interfaces, ect. I mentioned the fact I couldn't get into Citrix with RAS and they responded, I can. Oh well maybe I just need to reboot my laptop. I was thinking it would refresh the memory blah blah blah.

After the call and I made re-arrangments of my evening meetings; I took the plunge and rebooted my PC. I was greeted with an unpleasant blue screen. The white information was giving me the message of a software or hardware upgrade is causing problems and my startup didn't startup due to possible damage that could be done(or something to that effect). Ahh crap. So I did what every intellegent I.S. person does in this experience. I rebooted my PC again___and again___and again. Shit. It still doesn't come up. I tried F8, F10. Looked at my BIOS. Attempted startup on safemode, safemode with networking, safemode with command prompt. I tried startup with last known working configs (didn't know that was an option till now ). Still the same blue screen with white lettering. Sigh.

OK, time to call in the pros. I called a PCLan group buddy of mine. Basically, told him what is occuring and what I had done. I received the one question I hate. "Did you recently install anything new"? Like what am I going to say? Yeah, that cracked warez I received online. The dude told me it was clean. Yeah right.__ The last thing I put on the stupid thing was the graphic driver, he helped me with. So the end result is me fedexing it overnight, hoping like hell they can fix it and resend it to me by Wednesday. Until then, I am a duck out of water. I literally cannot do anything without my laptop. I live online. I am going to have them send me the Citrix and VPN software on cd when they return my laptop to me. I can put it on my home PC for a backup. But still this sucks. I am suppose to be oncall this week, but I will lose at least tonight. I already lost last night oncall.

Well, here's hoping I get the thing back and not a call saying, dude I need to order a new harddrive, with the holiday coming up, it will be like next week.

Site update: I hadded a couple of links and I will be removing the John Kerry links soon.

It is currently a little after 7 a.m. Sunday morning today. I have already taken a shower and the coffee is nearly done. Kelli and the kids are still lying in bed. The kids had another sleepover in the living room. On non-school nights they love sleeping in the living room while watching TV. They call it a sleepover in the living room. : )

Yesterday morning the fog was really thick here. It remained this way till after 8 a.m.

We started to put Christmas decorations out yesterday. I arose 6 a.m. and pulled down all the boxes from the attic. (Pause, I had to go get me a cup of coffee, the pot was ready)
Man, some of them felt like they were lined with lead. We have nearly 15, at the time felt like 30, boxes including a box of wrapping paper. Fortunately for me this is only once a year. My favorite part of this annual event is pulling out the old pictures of the kids. You know the ones I am referring too. They look so young and innocent in those pictures. As they gain on the number of Christmas’s they really have changed. For some reason I am really looking forward to this Christmas. The toys we have for the kids this year are for the bit older. This year the kids actually bought gifts for others on their own with their own allowance. They are making gifts for those they couldn’t. The difference is it was their idea this time. They are just growing up and its times like these that really make me realize it.

We as everyone else are so busy we usually don’t have time to scratch our butts much less hold someone’s hand. But on mornings like today as I sit alone in my home office while everyone else remains asleep, I stop and think upon these things.

OK. I finally have a chance to blog some more in peace. Yes, it’s Thursday, Yes, I am glad tomorrow is Friday.

I have the yard done! I had to acquire the 10 extra bags of rock Tuesday night. I wouldn’t have believed it would take so much if I hadn’t experienced it first hand. However, the yard is done. If must say it looks pretty good. It will take me some time to get use to it. We had been buying mulch for the past 3 years and now we don’t have to anymore. The rocks will pay for themselves over time. So that is 60 bags put out, 50 pounds a piece.

We have the shelves put up in the garage as well. I can actually see the garage floor again.

The work this week has been basically the same. Busy as usual and time flew. But I rather it be busy than crazy.

We are going to get a futon. Kelli’s dad is giving us a futon for my office. So I moved the used couch out today and her dad is bringing the futon in the morning. Kelli and I will sleep on it while her family is visiting next week. It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week. Where has this year gone anyway? Her brother came later today and we moved it to the garage. It seems he is unable to take it yet due to something about his yard being worked on. Oh well. At least it’s out of the house, regardless if it’s in the garage. Once I have that out and the unused shelves, I will be able to see the garage floor again. : )

We were able to make it to church Wednesday night. This is a good thing. The bad thing is the service being so late. They do not start till 7 p.m. We had the kids take showers before we even left for church. This allowed us to get them into pajamas with a snack as soon as we returned home. I received another tape from by buddy. This one is called The Panorama view of prophecy throughout the Bible by Ed Hindson. When I finish the Isaiah tape, I will watch it. Being Wednesday night also shows the weekly show Lost. I had to tape it while I was away. Now I have the luxury of fast forwarding through the commercials, but I haven’t had the chance to watch it yet. I enjoy that show, and I am trying to watch it when I can.

Kelli has a friend over tonight giving everyone haircuts. My son hates haircuts so this should be good. At least Braden knows her and enjoys playing with her kids. 10 bucks a haircut is not bad and the friend needs the money too. It’s a win – win situation.

You might note these last two weeks I have been blogging only every other day or so. the reason is our home projects. Fortunately Kelli seems be to better each day. She had a CT of the sinus yesterday morning. We are waiting for the results. I told Kelli I am having a hard time to recognize the house. With 10 more bags of rock (60 total), I have the yard done. We also purchased a couple more storage cabinets to complete the garage. I must say it is amazing how much crap one accumulates over time. The trash people will love us today. I have a bunch to be picked up for them. But alas, it will be oh so nice to have everything organized.

Kelli's family will be coming in from Texas for the Thanksgiving weekend. Another reason to get everything in order now. We are also already looking to bring down the Christmas boxes from the attic to begin putting up lights this weekend. Never a freaking dull moment.

I will write in more detail later today. I am currently having to update my monitor drivers due to some bug in my laptop.

I am already dreading work tomorrow. I know the vise will be back on the neck in the morning. I will not bore you with work. I will move on.

Yesterday I was excited. I received my DVD movie in the mail. I bought The Seven Samurai from EBay on 10.26.04 and received it Saturday. It was shipped in from Hong Kong. I was able to acquire it for 8 bucks! I won the EBay bid for .01 and the shipping was 7.99. It was an unbelievable price. The DVD was a 2 DVD set, brand new in the package. Yes, it has the English subtitles. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but I look forward to the opportunity when I do.

Kelli woke up feeling a little better than the day before. She has already met most of her sleep than she has ever had. Rather than the pain Saturday, she was just drained.
Her parents wanted to take us all out for lunch with her brother. It was for her brother’s birthday. She rested most of the morning. However, while she was online she checked into Home Depot. Can we say free credit? On a whim she saw if we could acquire any credit. Amazingly, we qualified for it. So we thought we would see if they had some storage appliances for outside and inside the garage. A little before the dedicated time to meet her parents at the restaurant we strolled into Home Depot to check it out. The store has been in Fort Smith for a little time, but we never been in it. We mainly shop at Lowes when we need anything for the house and yard. The prices weren’t as bad as we thought. Actually we spotted what we were wanting before we hit the store doors. Thanks to the outside display we identified the vinyl Rubbermaid tool house begging to come home with us. We went in and strolled around and noticed a couple more items of interest. During lunch with the parents and her brother, we mentioned our findings to her parents. They also were going to Home Depot after lunch. Her brother split for a hot date as soon as his food was ate. The rest of us met at Home Depot. I inquired her Dad would haul our items in his truck if I purchased them. He didn’t care to take them to our house. However, the kid (looked younger than me) asked exactly what kind of truck we had to haul the shed. I told him Dodge Ram, pointing out the red one in the lot. He looked at me and said he wouldn’t do it and asked if we had a trailer. Crap. I thought. How big is this box?
It was decided to go ahead and purchase it and Kelli’s Dad would come by in the morning with the trailer to haul it home. So the deal was done and I was on my way with another credit card payment. Ahh America the beautiful.

We also bought a couple of storage cabinets for our much needed garage. My daughter helped me put those together Saturday afternoon. Kelli pushed too hard being up and running so was knocked down 2 notches below where she started that morning. It was sad to have her want to clean and organize but couldn’t. Believe me, she would if she could, organization is her thing. I partied with the kids that evening and they fell out before 9 p.m. Since they had another sleepover in the living room, I watched the ‘Daniel, by Ed Hindson’, a walkthrough the book of Daniel by the prophecy scholar Dr. Ed Hindson. Telling everyone right now, if you never checked out his books or tapes, you really need to. I hold John Hagee pretty high on my ladder of good teachers in prophecy. Ed Hindson now is there, if not a little above. If you knew my collection of Hagee material, you would know that is saying a lot. Fortunately for me I have a friend in church loaning me copies of his Ed Hindson tapes.
Tired yet again, I went to bed. I looked at the clock in our bedroom, wondering the time and seen it was 9:30 p.m. What a wuss.

Kelli was up at 2:30 sick and with a splitting headache. She now had a rash from the meds and other issues. As she became as comfortable as possible, I was now awake. I went back to my daughter’s room and finished watching the Daniel tape. I went back to bed on to keep looking at the clock from 5 a.m. on to 6 when I finally got up.

Kelli’s dad came a little before 8 a.m. I had drinks and breakfast ready for the kids, who were up watching cartoons. I left to grab our new projects at Home Depot. Since we arrived a little early, we ran over to Walgreens to pick up Kelli’s new prescription. (We had called the on-call doctor to get a new script since the one she was on was causing the rash, ECT around 6:40 a.m.) Of course the pharmacies (open 24 hours) didn’t have it ready (now just before 8 a.m.). Seems their voicemail box doesn’t light up when a call-in was made, as it use to. Getting the script, we ran over to Home Depot where they gathered the shed and some rock I had bought as well for our flower beds in the front. Yes, give me money/credit I just spend it. Well when they brought the box out, I can see why they looked funny yesterday. This bad boy was huge. It was probably a good 10 by 8 foot, approximately 3 feet deep. Needless to say the trailer was full. We brought it home and just couldn’t get ready to get started. Sigh, where’s my coffee.

Well, I didn’t make it to Church as desired. It took all day putting up the outside sheds. We also moved our garage ‘junk’ into the sheds. This made quite a lot of room in the garage, as we hoped. I haven’t put all the cabinets together yet and didn’t even touch the rocks. But I felt we cut into it today. Not just a dent, but a good cut. For an old boy in front of the computer at work everyday, that was a lot of manual labor done. I am already sore and will probably really feel it tomorrow. I must say my daughter really helped out on these projects and I was especially proud of her. She is 7 but I seen these other kids around here, and I was proud of her this weekend.

Now its 8:30 p.m. and the kids are in bed. Kelli also is in bed, but probably awake. I have the option of another good night sleep by going to bed now or watching my Seven Samurai in the living room. Hmm, if I go to bed now, my work day will get her that much faster.

I really enjoyed the seminar I had Thursday. The seminar provided more information than I had expected. I had to send a thank you to the company to allow me to attend it. It was a Grammar free – Proofreading, Fred Pryor seminar. So I am in hopes my blog writing will also be of some improvements as well. : )

Thursday evening and night my poor wife was still having a serious headache. She went to bed early in hopes to get rid of it. I was thinking she was starting a migraine. She doesn’t have many of them, but when she does have one it is normally a doozy.

Early Friday morning the kids and I took her to a Promed (Doc in a box ). She was nearly in tears at one point. No. It’s not a hemorrhage. However, the Doc did say she had a serious throat infection and found it a wonder she could swallow. Kelli responded to the Doc as saying her throat wasn’t bothering her at all, compared to the headache. According to the Doc the headache was due to the infection. So she got two shots in the butt and 2 prescriptions for good measure. Once we finally were able to get the meds we headed home. I was unable to get a movie for tonight but the kids found 2 movies at Wal-Mart as we waited for the scripts to be filled. Our son grabbed a Pokemon cartoon and our daughter grabbed a Hello Kitty.

Kelli went to bed when we came back home and stayed there all day with the exception of eating a little. Other than that I hadn’t seen much of her. I played with the kids all day. I also managed to keep the laundry and dishes clean. I must say I enjoyed my day with the kids. It was a treat for the three of us to play all day.

It’s nearly 10 p.m. already and I am beat. I can’t believe I am already tired, but I have to say I am.

One good note is both kids seem to be getting over their bugs. Only a cough here and there for our son, and our daughter seems to be all well now. Go figure.

Well my work week is officially over. I will be in a seminar all day tomorrow and probably check the email tomorrow evening. I talked to the boss lady and gave her my updates. Hopefully nothing will break in the next two days with my name on it. : )

Well, I sent my kids to school this morning. Since my son seems to be bouncing off the walls again and my daughter had no fever nor temp. But as you would know, I ended up going to pick her up around 10 a.m. So I was a bad Dad by telling my daughter to toughen up and suck it in. (Not really but it seemed like it afterwards). She was looking pretty pale and just laid down all day. Later tonight she got sick again and was praying to the porcelein god again.

At least my son is feeling much better. My wife still isn't her full self. But she continues to do it all. Amazing. She's my hero. : )

Drinking the rest of the wine myself tonight. We had a bottle in the bottom of the fridge for nearly 3 months and broke it open a couple of nights ago. So since my wife still has a belly ache, I took the job of finishing it off. yeah me.

As I write this, Kelli is reading about lipstick having lead in it causing cancer, providing a list of known brands using lead. Hmm, let's think about this. Lead poisening is known. Let's put it in lipsticks. Want to know if your lipstick contains lead? Apply some on your hand, use a gold ring to rub in it and if the lipstick turns black, you have lead in your lipstick.

Concerning the Election. I am glad it's over. Kerry did a good job in conceding defeat, but the Liberals seem to have a hard time accepting defeat. Listening to Rush and Hannity, when some liberals call in it gets down right scary to hear them. They bring up all kinds of conspiracy theories, still believing in the concept of Bush stealing the 2000 election. sigh. One guy actually was looking at the possibility of a judge ruling Bush in for another 4 years. The liberals are so out of touch in reality they cannot take this in. Unreal. Sad really if you think about it.
Oh well. What can you do. It's over people, Daschel is out, the exit polls was flat out wrong, the county map shows nearly all red.

2:30 a.m. and my daughter is up coughing so bad, she threw up. My wife is up with a high temp and fever as well. Guess I did jinx it, but with their health.

We gave our daughter some cough medicine and now she and my wife are lying in the same bed. sigh.

I can't believe it. Two days in a row for work to go well. I actually am gaining ground on my projects without feeling too overwhelmed. I know, I know, I just jinxed myself. But without call and my support day over with, I am only left with tomorrow. I have an all day seminar Thursday in Fort Smith, and I am scheduled off Friday. So a short week for me.

Initially we were planning to go to Texas this Friday visiting Kell's family. Her cousin will be going to Kuwait. But with everything going on and the fact her Uncle's family coming in as well we figured we wouldn't be able to get much of a chance to visit anyway. It would had been a fast trip to see him. 9 hour drive and 3 days doesnt give one much time anyway.

I couldn't believe the lady that never gave me feedback actually did on ebay. So my points rise again. Great!

Seems the bugs has hit our house. My son been coughing his head off the past 3-4 days. It seems to be better as of tonight. He is already asleep and not coughing his head off. My daughter has a rash we been working on. The doc called it viral and my wife has fever as of today. She says she feels achy all over and not good at all. Her blood pressure was down today. So all but myself have succombed to some bug or other. I been lysoling like crazy, pumping vitamens down them in the morning while drugs at night.

I went to Walmart during lunch today to acquire some dvd/vhs combos for the school. PTA approved to buy a dvd/vhs combo for the teachers in school. Seems the school really do not have the funds and all have only vhs players in the rooms. Well, welcome to the 20th century folks. Nearly everything is coming out in DVD's. So Kelli acquired about 5 last week and I acquired 5 more today. Talk about looks from everyone. Want attention? Buy 5 dvd/vhs combos and cart them to your van. I was able to use our PTA tax exempt number and they were on rollback for 79.86 a piece. What a bargain.

It's only 8 p.m. and all my family are already in bed. I put them all in bed early tonight with drugs. A benadryl here, a cough syrup here, ect. You know the drill. Since all are in bed early tonight and I am not on-call, I took some as well. I figured I could also use the sleep. So I think I will go hit the bed and watch the CMA awards with the wife.

The weekend flew as it normally does. Friday is just a distant memory now.

Saturday, we stayed home to clean house and try to winterize it. After our 30 degree mornings, it was up in the high 70's all weekend. I managed to mow the yard and Kelli winterized the windows.

Sunday morning we went to church and then off to a skating party for one of our daughters friends. I hadn't skated in years. I was surprised I managed to stay up on them throughout the 2 hours. I feared I would be alot sorer this morning than I am. It was the first time the kids actually went skating. Our son took to it great. He kept going down but didn't stay down. He was a trooper and really liked it. Our daughter on the other hand, bawled and whined up to nearly 15 minutes before we left and then only enjoyed it. Everytime she went down she wanted to quite. sigh. But in the end they both wanted skates for Christmas. Go figure.

I will have a short week this week for work. I have a seminar to go to Thursday and I am off this Friday. Initially we were thinking to go to Texas for a visit of Kelli's cousin but we nixed it due to funds. Hopefully they will not require a weeks worth in 3 days. I know they will want it but we will see.

Ancy this morning and I don't know why. Could be the after-stress of the election and our last Lab upgrade on one of our facilties combined with the fact it seems like we are constantly working.

I want to try to leave the house today, and get out for a bit during lunch. I need to get some supplies. Yeah, Kelli could do it but I told her I wanted to get away for a bit.

We had our daughter home yesterday, feeling a bit sick. She didn't look like she felt good and Kelli seen a little bit of a temp. So we kept her inhouse yesterday.

We also went over to her parents house last night and helped them move in a huge entertainment center. I admit it was pretty. But of course it was pouring cats and dogs while we were doing it. I had a chance to see their new porch and what they had accomplished inside. The porch looks good. Only some finishing touches on it and it will be totally done. As far as their inner abode, it looks remarkable different. They pulled the remaining carpet out and floored it. They only require some crown molding and a few minor touches and it also will be done before Thanksgiving. It really is coming together. They are trying to get it all done before Thanksgiving due to their family coming in from Texas this year. And let me tell you, it's a huge family. Easily 30 coming this way.

Son Update: We are looking to acquire a second opinion on our son's findings. Just seems to coincidental it showed on this test as opposed to the later 3. That and other misgivings has us looking to make sure. No, not denial, rather assurance.

Ebay Update: The later person has paid for the 2nd sold pc game. So I will ship it out today. I haven't received one item yet, and there is one individual that gave me a positive response email but haven't posted a feedback. Go figure.

News Updates: I see this morning that they will now begin prosecuting Movies File sharers. Seems they have their cross-hairs on 200 unlucky souls.

I also read this morning the main reason of such a turnout for the polls was due to Morality. Seems most chose on moral reasons, higher than the war and security. Can I say again, I am glad it's done.

Well it was a long night for everyone. I had a facilty Lab and OPENLINK upgrade last night in addtion to watching the election on TV. I admit I had two tums initially when they kept referring to the exit polls showing Kerry to win by a large margin. But as the night progressed on, it became more evident those exit polls were incorrect. They should fire those people, because this is what occurred in 2000. Fortunately most were very hesitant as the night goes to call the states for either candidate. So it looks like Bush will be in 4 more years to the liberal demise. I find it fascinating that not only will he win by electoral but has the largest popular vote in history. Yes, it seems everyone came out to vote.

Another landslide was the state ammendments for 'one man to one woman' in marriage. No surprise there. They have always said the majority disagrees with the gay marriage, but now we can easily show that and the people did on yesterday's vote.

Looks like Oklahoma will have a lottery now. It passed easily. I was surprised the Oklahoma cigerate tax passed. The tax is per cigarette tobacco so the tax will be astronomical.

My man Coburn won the Senate. I know the Democrats was thinking Carson would win and it appeared to be close at first then Coburn pulled in the lead and remained.

Also interesting this morning was the Dow and Stocks are booming. So again, investors are more comfortable with Bush.

I was also pleased with Daschel losing office. This was icing on the cake for me.

All the way around, I am high in spirits this morning.

Monday actually wasn't as bad as I thought would occur. I was on support but it wasn't that crazy. Which in itself is a wonder. Perhaps I have just become a little pessimistic with it.

I did manage to move the remaining 13 interfaces over to BeyondFTP server today. I was pulled into 2 unscheduled confernece calls today as well. So it was busy but not chaotic.

Son update: We had the results called in finally from last weeks testing. We were informed he had 'underlying seizure disorder'. Basically it just means he showed signs of seizure activity or sharp like activity that could cause seizures. Not much to go on but we plan to make a call and get more specific. However, this also informs us it is nuerological so we really do not need to adhd test scheduled this Thursday.

I am having to visit our superintendet in the morning due to having to put some policies in place for PTA. In addition, our famous grade school principle was in a mood this morning. Seems when Kelli requested the secretary to ask Kohler (special education personel) if she could speak with him in regards to the adhd visit, iep ect. The principle stormed out of her office blasting Kelli stating she was not a docter and there was nothing to discuss, blah blah. Unreal man, it's a good thing I wasn't there. Kelli said it took her some will to composer herself and not jack slap her.

My last thoughts will be written regarding to the vote next week. Yes, I am tired of the voting and if you listen to the news its polls polls polls. Depends on which party is speaking they spin it positive their way. The fact is, they don't know. No-one knows what exactly will happen till tomorrow night. Whether it will be a win on either side or so close the lawyers come into play. So with that, I can only say I pray Bush does win. I hope each person able, will vote and they states can keep it fair.

Looking back on Friday, it wasn't so bad. There was one incident where at 5 p.m. est an email was sent out basically requesting to run a script for 3 files ( one file alone took me all weekend long before) before Monday. I was livid. I immediately called then paged one of the 3 in the email to see what the hell. I finally got him on the phone and he told me it woulndn't be touched till Wednesday and the requesting individual knew this. Well, the email had not hint of this at all and I said such. So he eased my mind. I just grow tired of these bombs dropping 5 o'clock on a Friday when a project like this has been on-going for nearly a year.

Since I was on-call over the weekend we just had planned to rent movies and stay close to home. We rented, Pokeman 3, The Day after tomorrow, Van Helsing, Dawn of the Dead,Raising Helen and Kelli found The lizzie Mcguire movie and Ella Enchanged for 5 bucks a piece. So we all had movies to watch over the weekend. That was a good treat. Each movie I watched was good. The kids watched that Pokemon 3 literally 4 times. Fortunately we also managed to do a couple of things as well as watch the boob-toob. We painted the front of the front door, pulled all the remaing flowers, cutting back the rose bushes and put new tires on the car. It was a relaxing weekend. Thank God call slacked off in being a PIA. ( pain in a## ).

Saturday night was Halejuah Night, in Pocola. We took the kids to 4 neighbor houses we knew here and then over to Halejuah Night. They had a blast and alot of candy.
We were hit hard this year with Trick or Treaters. Kelli had to start pulling down the kids chip bags we give them for lunch. We turned the lights off at 9 p.m.

Sunday morning we went to church and the pastor preached a very good sermon on the duty of a christian to vote for your leaders. He preached out of Joel, 'Multitudes Multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision'. It was a reflection of when your in the valley you have no-where but to look up. Do you look up to the enemy about to come down on you or up to God to help you. Also comparing it to the mulitudes coming out to vote in this all important decisions.

We plan to go to church again tonight. We need to start attending regularly and not just on Sunday morning.

Ebay update I heard back from one of my buyers. She recieved her pc game and was satisfied. But she hasn't given me a feedback in the Ebay yet. Bummer.

Son update: We have yet to hear from the docs on our son's result. Kelli called 4 times to get an update (we were told to receive it thursday) but haven't yet. We hope to get it Monday. We also are in a quandry for Thursday. They have scheduled an ADHD test for him in Little Rock. Every doctor, speech therapist, teacher have already told us the kid doesn't have ADHD. However, you know as well as I, until it's on paper they will continue to say "parent refused test, possible adhd". It sucks, because we are looking to do a 3 hundred dollar(out of our pockets) test to prove something we already know. Such is life.

Tomorrow morning, no more call. Sigh.

This has to be like the longest week for quite some time. I know alot has to do with me being tired. I been called every night this week on-call and when I get woke up, I find it hard to get back to sleep. This in addition to us not having any rest since I returned last Thursday, adds up to being tired, short and non-emotional.

My wife is feeling better. At least her antibiotics is kicking in and clearing her sinus's up. Now if I can get our kids cleared up then we will be good.

Its already after 11 a.m. and one hour-long meeting done this morning. I have to again pick up our friends kid and bring him here. They then pick him up around 1 p.m. Sorry but this is getting old.

Work is just not letting up. I know I know. whine whine whine.

Waiting for the mail today, curious if my ebay will be in. LOL. I also am hoping those 2 I sent out was delivered today so I can get a good feedback. Guess we will see.

Some related articles of an unfolding story showing the facts of John Kerry in link with Communists.

Here

Here.

Here

Here

The Bullpen is a blog catching this story as well as Wizbang.

And let's not forget, Jayne Fonda had apologized for her actions but John Kerry still refuses to do so.

Mid-day Tuesday and had time to blog for a minute. I didnt have to pick up our friends kid during lunch. But I went to mail out those ebay packages.

I heard from Kelli and it seems they already been able to catch 5 small seizures in their testing. This is opposed to the last 3 times we had this same test. She may be able to leave around 2 p.m. as opposed 5 p.m. I will see. I hope so but I also would like to know where we go from here.

I am catching up with my other projects and primarily some tickets that I needed to catch up on as well. I have Lysol'd the house today again as yesterday. Kelli has a bad sinus infection, thus as of yesterday on some antibiotics on crack. They look like horse pills. The kids have not coughed as bad as when I first came home last Thursday, but I hope to kill the remaining crap around here.

I have supper set out for tonight as well. I will not have to pick up my daughter from school. She has N-gate right afterwards and a friend will bring her home when they are done. So I plan on cooking supper tonight. Hopefully we can all eat together, but I don't know when Kelli and our son will be back home.

A not so busy day, it started out. I was on support today for work and I also start on-call tonight. yeah.

It wasn't bad till around noon then it got busy. But I only have support for today this week, so that's over with.

I actually sold 2 things on E-bay! I was excited. I have it ready to be shipped out to them tomorrow. Cool.

I managed to cook tonight for a change. My wife was having a really bad day, so it was the least I could do. She and my son will be in Little Rock tomorrow for a Doctor's appointnment for my son. I pray it goes well. I will stay here home, with my daughter, taking her to school, ect.

Other than that, a pretty unenventfull day, fortunately.

OK, obviously alot has gone on considering the fact I havent been blogging. Let's see, I finally got to sleep that night and up and atem Thursday morning for my plane trip. I actually arrived a bit early so I was able to get an early flight out of Philadelphia to Dallas. But I wasn't able to travel early from Dallas to home. It gave me a chance to eat lunch. While eating a Air Force guy and I chatted at the bar. It was an interesting conversation in regards to politics, ect.

I finally made it home around 4:30 p.m ( 5:30 p.m. est ). Back in my own time zone and family, I was glad. Even though I was home, I couldn't really stop and rest. My kids had a party to go to at 6 p.m. ( Yeah, 1.5 hours ). So I arrived home, put my clothes in the washer, gave my kiddo's and wife their 'surprises' from the trip and headed over to a Halloween Birthday party. We were there till nearly 8 p.m. My daughter was having a sleep-over there. But after 3 calls to us and 10 p.m. I went to go get her and brought her home. So by that time, I was half way awake again. Didn't get to sleep till late Thursday night.

Friday at work was freaking crazy. It was as if I never left there. I was on support all day and I never was able to stop. I was busy all day. I finally left around 4:30 p.m. to run 3 errands with the kids to be at a rented room in the park for my daughters Birthday party. She turned 7. We had rented a room, magician and had about 30 kids plus parents there. Thank God we had the rented room because we would never had pulled it off at our house. It went good and the kids really enjoyed it. The magician had at one point our daughter and then our son up on the stage. It was cool and I got it on tape. The magician, from Poteau, had a couple of pretty cool tricks, I have yet to figure out.

We got home nearly 9 p.m. on Friday night. Hauled the gifts in and crashed shortly after that.

Saturday morning, I ended up mowing our neighbors yard, and went to grab ( and hauled ) 6 bags of Arkansas white pebble for her front flower bed. They were 50 pound bags, so I got my excercise early in the morning. Since I mowed her yard, I went ahead and mowed our front as well. Why not right? Around noon, we went to my wifes parents house, because they were excited for us to see their kitchen. They had made a lot of work redoing it and it looked nice. They repainted the walls, finished the floor, and sandblasted, painted their cabinets. They also had a guy putting up a front porch for them that was about 26 foot long. Yeah, big porch. We stayed over there about 2 hours and then went to yet another party. This one was for 4-H. We left straight from her parents house in Shady Point to Cameron. I actually enjoyed this one, due to us cooking our weiners over a fire. I hadn't done that in years and enjoyed the conversation with another guy there. I managed to eat 4 hotdogs. LOL We also had a hay ride that night as well. It was fun. We arrived home around 8 p.m. and yes, was tired. Crashing nearly an hour later, as well as showers ect. sleep took us.

Sunday morning we hit the Church and enjoyed being back. With the exception of my poor wife. During all this she still is sick with a bad cold and can't breathe. We agreed not to do any running after Church and we stuck to it. Irregardless, her parents called more than once to have us over to eat out on their new porch. By this time it was completed. Nay, we said. By 2 p.m. we had already showered the kids and everyone was in there pajamas. We tried to relax this afternoon. Now, nearly 10 p.m. at night. I finally been able to just sit and talk with my wife on everything going on. Sigh. So now you know why I haven't blogged in a while. Tomorrow we get to start a new week over. great.

It's 2:30 a.m. and my mouth and throat is parched as the desert sand. I also was having this really bizarro dream. I was on some star trek ship, I am thinking voyager. Laying on the floor with a ray gun waiting for these glow in the dark spider things coming under the door and wall, through the hallway. I and some unknown person are blasting these things like crazy as they are running from one end to the other and some toward us. I keep hearing the sounds of galaga in my ears, until one gets to me, crawls on me burying into my armpit and bites me. I awoke with a shake and sandpaper for my mouth.
crap.

I have also calmed down from yesterday. The thing is, I in a crazy way, enjoyed the fact I could stay at work 10-11 hours dedicating the time to get stuff done. Yet on the other hand, feeling really guilty for it, because Kelli is having to deal with the kids being sick, in-laws, constant running, ect. all alone at home. I am still ready to be home and I know she is ready for me as well. She needs a break.

The in-law issue is a sensitive one. My brother married this girl, way to young. She is very selfish, world revolves around her, type. She seems to have no thoughts or feelings other than what is in it for her. The thing that also gripes me is my brother has changed so tremendously, I don't even know him anymore. He never calls unless he (mainly she) needs something. I have tried in the past to take him out for a brothers time out or just called him to check on him. The guy lives about 14 minutes away and unless I call him, I don't hear from him. With the exception of the need thing. Drives me nuts. I want to really dislike her but I can't just blame her for the situation because my brother is also to blame for not having the balls to stand up for himself. To make matters worse, they have 2 kids. I fear they will be as screwed up as my brother and I.

The other thing I was so pissed at hearing of them guilting my wife is the fact they do this to her when I am not there. I have told my brother not to call Kelli and guilt her while I am out of town. (my wife has a soft-heart, where she has a hard time to say 'no') They know this and that is why the call her. I get onto my wife for it, but it's also a trait that I love. Unfortunately there are many that uses that trait for their own selfish ploy's.

So I plan to call upon my brother sometime when I am back in town for some time out. I will just give him the opportunity to talk and unload (he probably wont) and then I will talk, giving him my piece of mind, again.

Nearly 3 a.m. I set the timer to wake me at 6:30 a.m. Guess I will be tired today. Better try to get some sleep.

I can officially say my day sucked. I started today knocking out 3 interfaces. I had migrated them off OPENLINK onto the BeyondFTP application. That took a bit. I worked on a facility lab upgrade everytime I had the chance. Had meetings out the wazoo. Later on I started yet another interface, Hemocare charges into a OPUS vendor. Then more testing with for the Aiken Lab upgrade. Another meeting. It kept going non-freaking-stop. I was in there about 11 hours with no lunch. sigh.

Then end of day, my wife called to inform me our son was definitely having seizures and they want him in Little Rock for testing. First they wanted it to be Thursday, but that couldn't work, because I fly back home that day. So now its scheduled for next Tuesday. But I still can't go, because our daughter really cannot be out of school. So fortunately her Aunt will be able to go with her. However, I hate the fact I can't be with them.

Then to top it off just now my wife calls to tell me my infamous sister-in-law calls her to guilt her to come and clean her house tomorrow. Knowing our situation, the fact Kelli feels like crap, the kids feel like crap. I blew a gasket. This chick and my brother had the gall to orchestrate this. Essentially my brother made the call, first to ask for something then told Kelli (our sister-in-law) had to ask her something and he would really appreciate if if she said yes. I told her by the time they scripted this out, they could have cleaned their own damn apartment. My conversation with Kelli was more colorful, but it did not go well with the day I was having.

On my way to TGI Friday's to get something to eat, I told myself I would not stay till after 6 p.m. Guess we will see.

Monday Night, 2 more days in this place. I was able to watch Farscape last night. It was pretty good.

Sunday, I mainly stayed in the hotel. I worked on my project planner for my current projects I am working on. Getting a good idea where I am at with all of them. This came in handy for the Monday meeting with our CIO.

I did happen to go to the Mall Sunday afternoon again to pick up something to eat. I browsed through EB games and found a bin of PC games for 25 cents a piece. I couldn't believe it. 4 for a buck. I picked up some for the kids. I then rethought it and grabbed some more for ebay. Figured if I can get at least a dollar out of them, it would be a good profit. Guess we will see.

Anyway, I stayed up Sunday night and watched Farscape. I been waiting a year for it.

Monday, was a quick day. A true Monday. We had a team meeting in the morning that lasted much longer than expected. Didn't get out of there till 12:30 p.m. Then had barely 2 hours before our 2 p.m. meeting with the CIO. It went alot better than expected. Everyone I spoke to, tends to dread them. Not that she is a bad person, rather you just not sure where she will be coming from.

We were able to meet the new guy tonight for dinner. He starts November 1st. Since I was in town, everyone was able to get together and have dinner with him. It was a nice visit. He seemed likes he will be quick on the trigger. Single, 6 foot 1 and around my age if not younger. He seemed pretty wordly, being in alot of places, ect.

Now I am back in the hotel, sitting in front of the P.C. yet again. The new Farscape will be on in 20 minutes. I was able to speak with the kids again on my way back here at the hotel. Kelli, is having to due a PTA meeting on her own tonight. I feel for her. She is not having a good week while I am up here.

Saturday and no on-call for me! So what does a wildman do all alone in a hip place like King of Prussia, PA? Well, let me tell you so far what I have done.

Last night, I watched 'Star Trek Enterprise', a rarity. Flipped through the channels each 30 minutes to an hour to remind myself there isn't squat on TV. Installed a couple more items on my laptop for good measures. Finally plugged in 'Resident Evil 2' to play on my pc in the middle of the night, till it crashed on me. ( a good hour wasted that way ) Not that I continued to use the infinite ammo cheat and had the walkthrough on hand. Since it crashed, I went to bed and tried to finish "The interrogators' book by Chris Mackey. I couldnt so finally turned the lights out about 1:30 a.m

I tried to sleep in, since no kids but I couldn't lay there for very long, so I got up an around. I finished my Interrogators book (had only 5 pages left) first thing. Called my wife and kids to check on them and say good morning. ( I am one hour ahead of them up here ). Got around and went to the mall to walk around and find some prizes for the kids. I found a sweatshirt a piece for the kids at the Disney store and a toy a piece at K-B's. I also found something for my wife to take back with me. Can't say, since she may read this later. : )
While there I stopped by and ordered some food for lunch and dinner at TGIF's to take back to the hotel with me. I also seen a very interesting software called the Rosetta software. It's a Language learner software. I had the guy give me a demo on the Arabic software (he wasn't doing anything anyway). I was very impressed. They had boo koo languages to choose from. Anywhere from Arabic to Vietnamese and all in between. I thought the name Rosetta was a cool idea as well. I didn't ask, but suspected from the famous 'Rosetta stone' found to identify ancient languages by archeologist. Look it up on the net if you don't know what it is.

I came back to the hotel, and found myself watching 'Frakenstein' on USA channel. I also ironed the rest of my clothes for the next week. I have my papers out and ready when I decide to do my work documentation, ect.

It's now 3:30 p.m .est and I am contemplating to go to Books A Million just to get out of the hotel for awhile. Maybe pick up that Wired magazine. I also recalled my wife and kids to check on them again to see how their day is going. Yeah, I miss them.

I received my laptop back around 5 today. Not all the applications are installed, but I at least have it tonight to replace my data, ftp, ect. Hopefully the remaining applications wont take so long to install in the morning.

My daughter is in a float tonight, of course I will miss it. But my wife will be taping it and taking pictures for me.

Today was a bum day. Yeah, only a couple of things went bad. But it's funny how a couple of things can bring you down though.

Seems I will be meeting the newbie on this trip. Looks to be Monday night around 6:30 dinner date at LoneStar. I look forward to meeting him. It's nice to meet the voices on the other end of the phone in person. Funny how they never look as you picture them in your mind though.

I seen the new wired magazine contains the article of Intelligent Design is killing Evolution. I will probably will have to get it before I leave this week.

Currently watching Smallville on the Family Channel. Nothing else is on and I don't foresee anything to follow.

I made it into Pennsylvania last nigth around 5:15 p.m. est. By the time I made it over to the Enterprise rental, drove to 'King of Prussia', stopped by ACME to pick up some drinks/foods, get into the hotel, and then back out to get something to eat, it was nearly 8 p.m. est.

I watched 'LOST' last night. I like the show, I finally have something to watch during the week.

The PCLAN group will take my laptop today and blow out the harddrive to put in XP (currently WIN2K). I am hoping like crazy I will get the PC back this evening. I will be without it all day today. They are then suppose to put LOTUSNOTES on it tomorrow morning. So I will be without the buisness email a full day/night and following morning. I will feel behind for sure.

I have my day setup to be in meetings and classes. I will show the olie script and beyondftp scripts to the team for an hour. I plan to sit with the co-workers for other items of interest they will show me.

I miss my family already.

I posted before on the other debates afterwards and will do so again. I thought it was an interesting debate. I am also glad it's the final one.

Overwhelming, Bush won this debate. Like the analyst mentioned afterwards, alot of people are watching the ball games and probably missed it. But the analyst also states, overwhelmingly, Bush won this debate hands down.

Note: below is an email sent to me, I found interesting enough to share.

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

I just found this the most fascinating thing. Senator Kerry's own hometown paper in Massachusetts, a traditional Democratic town, has not only endorsed President Bush, but a ringing endorsement, and quite harsh against Kerry. Read especially the highlighted parts (in red bold).

This paper can be found at http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105%7E4746%7E244

Lowell Sun

Endorsement: George W. Bush for president

Sunday, October 03, 2004 - It's about national security.

That's the key issue on the minds of Americans planning to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election.

They must decide whether Republican President George W. Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry, a Democrat, can provide the leadership to safeguard America from foreign terrorism.

Americans aren't fools. They know that without safe cities and towns, America will lose its greatness. Our cherished freedoms and sacred liberties will be diminished, along with our opportunities for economic prosperity and our basic pursuit of happiness.
Our children and their children will live vastly different lives if we fail to guarantee a future free of turmoil.
Islamic extremists, both here and abroad, have one purpose: To destroy America and halt the spread of democracy and religious tolerance around the globe.
They'd like to be plotting in our streets right now. They'd like to be sowing murder and mayhem with suicide bombers and hostage-takings, and spreading fear in the heartland and everywhere else. They'd like to be wearing us down and bringing our nation to its knees.
Since the devastating terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, one American leader has maintained an unbending resolve to protect our homeland and interest against Islamic savages and those foreign governments appeasing them.

That leader is President Bush.

While out-of-touch U.S. politicians and world leaders have attacked President Bush's tactics, they can't question his steely commitment to keep America safe.

In the ashes of ground zero, where nearly 3,000 innocent Americans perished, President Bush vowed to find the perpetrators, in domestic cells and distant lands, and bring them to justice. He said he will do all that is humanly possible and necessary to make certain that terrorists never strike again on U.S. soil.

Can anyone deny that President Bush has not delivered? America the terrorists' No. 1 target has recovered from its tragic wounds and rebounded. It remains safe to this day.

What might a lesser leader have done, faced with the daunting task of deciding America's course against withering, partisan attacks from Democrats, media propagandists, disingenuous U.N. officials and disloyal White House operatives selling their souls for profit during a time of war?

A lesser leader might have caved in. President Bush has stood his ground.

In this year's election, the question isn't whether we are safer now than we were four years ago. We already know the answer. Sure we are and that's because of President Bush. The critical question is: Four years from now, will America be safer than it is today?

In our book, Americans have to place their trust in President Bush. He's proven to be as sturdy as a mighty oak when it comes to saying what he means, meaning what he says and acting decisively.

When it comes to the war on terror, President Bush means to keep our military strong and our country secure.

John Kerry, on the other hand, has all the attributes of the shape of water when it comes to telling us what he believes and what he'd do for America. Like incoming and outgoing tides, Kerry is content to go with the flow. In a dangerous world infested with sharks, Kerry would be chum at America's expense.

We in Massachusetts know John Kerry. He got his first taste of politics 32 years ago in the cities and towns of Greater Lowell.

In his 20 years in the U.S. Senate, Kerry, a Navy war hero, hasn't risen above the rank of seaman for his uninspiring legislative record. He's been inconsistent on major issues. First he's for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, then he opposes it. First he's for the war in Iraq, then he's against it. First he's for a strong U.S. defense, then he votes against military weapons programs. First he's for the U.S. Patriot Act, then he opposes it.

Kerry's solution to stop terrorism? He'd go to the U.N. and build a consensus. How naive. France's Jacques Chirac, Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and other Iraq oil-for-food scam artists don't want America to succeed. They want us brought down to their level. And more and more, Kerry sounds just like them. In a recent campaign speech, Kerry said America was in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

No doubt John Kerry sincerely wants to serve his country, but we believe he's the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Americans should think back three years ago to the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center. There among the mist lay the images and memories of fallen firefighters, police, a Catholic chaplain and ordinary working citizens moms, dads, sons, daughters.

President Bush, through heartfelt tears, told us never to forget the twisted carnage and the massacre of the innocents. Yet some of us are forgetting.

President Bush told us the attacks must never happen again. Yet some of us are wavering because of the brave sacrifice of soldiers that our nation's security demands.

Well, President Bush hasn't forgotten. Nor has he lost the courage and conviction to do what is right for America.

We know if there is one thing the enemy fears above all else, it is that George Bush's iron will is stronger than his iron won't.

The Sun proudly endorses the re-election of President George W. Bush.

I turn around and its already Tuesday evening. I leave tomorrow morning for Corporate and will be in the air most of the day. Everytime, I have to leave for a buisiness trip (about once a quarter) it never fails, one of our kids get sick. This time it's our son. He had a bad night Monday night up coughing and I had to get him from school today due to a fever. So the saga continues. I leave for a week and one of them gets sick. The sad thing about it, it's become well known among my wifes friends and they recognize it as well. Go freaking figure.

Today and yesterday was busy at work, yeah I know, nothing new. We do have a newbie on our team. He is suppose to start Nov.1st. The offer was made to him on Monday and they said he took it. They are trying to get him availible for a dinner with the team while I am up there for a week. It would be nice to meet him in person. Guess we will see if it pans out.

I was to eat dinner with a couple of other co-workers tomorrow night, but I don't land till 5:30 est and by the time I get my stuff together and settled in the hotel, it would be too late. Oh well, I planned to watch the final presidential debate.

Sunday Night! Sunday night the new Farscape comes on. Farscapers know SciFi had cancelled the program but the Scapers (known similar to Trekkies) saved the show. Thus Scifi is running 'The Peacekeep Wars' a four hour mini-series starting Sunday night. I love it and look soooo forward to it.

Gotta spend some time with the kiddos since I am heading out in the morning for one week. I always get the funny nervous feeling in the bowels of my stomach prior of leaving.

Yesterday's PTA silent auction went very well. I arrived there a little after 11 a.m. and started to move the long tables in from their storage. Man those things are heavy. We ended up with about 7 tables in there. Without busting a gut, we managed to get them all in and Kelli arranged the items very neatly across the tables to allow easy view and bidding. It lasted till 4:30 p.m. and we were out of there a little after 5 p.m. Overall, we attained a little over 700 dollars in the silent auction and dvd/vhs combo drawing. Nearly 400 more than last year! Plus there were not nearly as many showed up as last year. So yes, it went very well.

We bought about 30 dollars of tickets to let the kids play the games availible. I think they played everyone of them. Plus the hair paint, fact paint, bingo, eating nacho's, soda, ect. It went pretty fast.

Get this. There was over 100 entries to win that dvd/vhs combo, but you will never believe who won it. I wasnt in the room at the time of the drawing, but as I came back toward the silent auction room, with the kids, Kelli was coming down the hall. She told me to go and give Whitney a big hug. ( she is a 6 year old ). I asked why. She told me that Whitney pulled the winner of the dvd/vhs drawing and I BETTER GIVE HER A REALLY BIG HUG. Yep, I won the bloody thing. I couldn't believe it. So I did give her a hug. LOL Kelli said she had Whitney pull the name and was blown away, informing the crowd 'you seen she did it, right?' So that made my evening.

We left there and went over to our friends house, who invited us over for supper. It was nice to sit and chat while we ate spaghetti with them. We left after 7 p.m.

The dvd/vhs wouldnt play dvd's so I had to take it back to Walmart today (Sunday) and exchange it for one that did work. This one now works. So I have it in our bedroom sitting pretty. heh heh

Today, we are having a lazy day. Actually got to lay down for some time.

Well, I must say both candidates seem to come out swinging. I thought both did well in different questions, respectively. Now, I am not going to say Bush did the best, just because I support him. Howeever, I was very pleased with him continueing to put the spotlight on Kerry's record. As I posted before, I couldn't understand the media nor anyone seemed to care what occurred 20 years of his Senate career. Seemed everyone cared more of his 90 minute posturing than his 20 year record. Wow, some comparison. My wife is signed up with the DNC website and the first debate we were emailed a very thorough request to go onto every major news website (they handidly provided the links) as well as requesting to write to our local news outlets, papers, ect. The request was basically supporting Kerry/Edwards and "Let our votes/expressions be heard". Well it seemed they were more hitting the online polls this time around. I must say if nothing else, the liberals seem to be half-way organized when it comes in appearance. But like Bush so eloquently quoted "You can run but cannot hide" regarding Kerry and his Kerry's record.

Today will be a busy day(as if). We will have the silent auction from 1 to 4:30 today. They will open the doors at 11 so we can get our stuff in and arranged. Our kids will stay at our friends house between 11 to 1 p.m. They are looking forward to this and it will help us out in organizing. I already put 5 bucks in a drawing for a combo dvd-vcr player. Wish me luck.

Gotta run to Fort Smith, prior to. Need to pick up 2 more donations and drop some chicken and dumplings off to my mom's.

It also looks like it will be raining again today. Pretty cloudy out there.

Well, we had a great rain yesterday evening, night and most of the morning. It definitely cooled everything down here. It stopped raining around 9 a.m. this morning, but remanined cool. Or so it seemed looking out the window.

Need I say TGIF? I was on support and it was actually busy, they hit me in waves with tickets. I managed to get most of the scripts on the Document Imaging FTP's. So that was good. Other than that, I pretty much stayed in front of the computer.

I seen part of the new JibJab on the news this morning. So I had to make it over to the site to check it out in it's entirety. I noticed they really changed the website up and making money selling them out. Still hilarous though.

We have our PTA silet auction tomorrow. I will be glad to get it ove with. We have nearly, if not, 50 items to be auctioned off. We hope to do well. My wife worked her butt off acquiring donations, setting up the system to make it presentable and easily to work.

I had news today that our son stared out today. He hasn't had any dairy products, so I dont know what the deal is.

My wife cooked chicken and dumplings tonight and man was it good. We haven't had it in quite sometime and was expectng it to be still raining. It was very good. I had to have 2 bowels of it. Cookies are being brought out of the stove now and they smell, gooooood.

I am looking forward to watching the next Presidential election tonight.

Hope everyone has a good/safe weekend.

I have heard stories of Arkansas stealing/shredding/stomping Bush/Cheney signs. I know the ones I personally set out in Fort Smith, have disapeared. However, I was not aware of the amount of attacks across the states.

Why is the news not reporting these attacks on the Bush/Cheney campain offices?

I been trying to look online to locate all of them and it wasn't an easy cookie cutter.

Michelle Malkin has actually charted them up to now.

Liberals are so lovely part 1

Liberals are so lovely part 2

Below I found 3 actual stories from news sources.

source of this article .

Bullies Storm Republican Office
Newsradio 540 WFLA ^ | October 5 2004 | Newsradio 540 WFLA

Posted on 10/05/2004 2:34:19 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather

Bullies Storm Republican Office A group of protestors caused a commotion Tuesday afternoon at the Bush-Cheney Headquarters at SR436 & the 408. The protestors rushed the front door and Orlando police spokesman, Sgt. Brian Gilliams says what happened 540 WFLA News Byte Bullies at Republican Office Once inside, the protestors used a marker to draw on posters and scribbled remarks. O-P says one employee at the office was slightly injured and police are considering whether to file misdemeanor battery charges against the unidentified protestor. It is believe the intruders were protestor labor policies of the Bush Administration.

NEWSRADIO 540 WFLA - ORLANDO
=================Burgalization=====================================================
Source of article below

Laptops Stolen From Bush Campaign Office
Three Laptop Computers Containing Campaign Plans Stolen From Bush's Wash. State Headquarters

The Associated Press


SEATTLE Oct. 1, 2004 — Three laptop computers containing campaign plans were stolen overnight from the Bush-Cheney state headquarters office, Republican officials said Friday.

Between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., after the last campaign worker had gone home from the office in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, someone threw a rock through the office window of Jon Seaton, executive director for President Bush's state campaign, said Chris Vance, state GOP chairman.

Vance said two of the stolen laptops belonged to Seaton and Chris Taylor, head of the office's get-out-the-vote campaign. A third had been slated for a field office.

The computers contained much of the Bush-Cheney campaign strategy for the state, Vance said.

"This looks like it was politically motivated," Vance said in an interview from the Republican party offices in Tukwila.

Bellevue police confirmed the burglary Friday afternoon but offered no support for Vance's claims about motive.

"No evidence at the scene indicated this was politically motivated," police spokeswoman Jessamyn Poling said.

State Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said Democrats knew nothing about the break-in. "We think it's awful and we definitely condemn the actions of those who stole these computers," she said.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source from article below.

Bush-Cheney Campaign Headquarters Burglarized

October 2, 2004

By KOMO Staff & News Services


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BELLEVUE - The state's Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters in Bellevue were burglarized and three laptop computers containing campaign plans were stolen, Republican Party officials said Friday.

Sometime between 2 a.m. Friday, when campaign workers went home, and 8 a.m., when the office reopened, a person threw a rock through the window of Jon Seaton, executive director for the state's Bush campaign, said Chris Vance, state GOP chairman.

Stolen were three laptops that Vance said belonged to Seaton and Chris Taylor, head of the office's get-out-the-vote campaign. A third computer had been slated for a field office.

Information on the computers included much of the Bush-Cheney campaign strategy for the state, he said.

Leah Yoon, Washington state Bush-Cheney campaign spokeswoman, declined to comment on what was on the computers, but said they did not contain advertising schedules, as had been previously reported.

"We've already been violated enough," she said.

The headquarters are located northeast of downtown Bellevue, in an area with several office buildings.

"This looks like it was politically motivated," Vance said in an interview from the Republican party offices in Tukwila.

Bellevue police confirmed the burglary Friday afternoon, but could not confirm Vance's claim.

"No evidence at the scene indicated this was politically motivated," police spokeswoman Jessamyn Poling said.

State Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said Democrats knew nothing about the break-in.

"We think it's awful and we definitely condemn the actions of those who stole these computers," she said.

Vance said a similar incident occurred in 2000 when a joint Bush-Slade Gorton office was broken into and a laptop was stolen. Gorton is a former Republican senator from Washington state.

"Somebody is trying to get a look at the Bush campaign plan or disrupt the campaign plan," he said.

In recent months, there have been several complaints of various acts of subterfuge against the Bush campaign, Vance said.

The party's office was called by Republican voters who said they received telephone calls alleging Bush would reinstate a military draft if re-elected, which Vance said isn't true.

Cars with Bush bumper stickers also have been vandalized, he said, and campaign signs have been painted over with swastikas and burned.

"There's always some tension in the campaign, but this is out of control," Vance said.

This was sent to me by my wife and I thought it to be of interest.
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Subject: Kerry's Visit to Cannonsburg,Pa.

John Kerry brought his "front porch meeting" to our
Canonsburg, PA neighborhood on Labor Day morning. Since you will never hear the truth from the TV or print media, I thought you should know from someone who was 'almost' there.

The residents who live on the street where the event took place were not allowed to attend. Kerry shipped in approximately 90 invitation only VIPs. In addition, there was a hard luck case about a woman who was about to lose her job at USAIR and another was an elderly woman who was having health care problems. Neither one was from this neighborhood. The street was closed to all traffic the night before and all residents on the street were REQUIRED to remove their
Bush/Cheney signs.

The sympathetic police officers on duty told us that Kerry used eminent domain to claim the street for his purposes. Residents who have homes within the perimeter (approximately 1 full block) were kept behind a line away from the partisan crowd. The rest of us were not allowed within the 1 block cordon. A neighbor from across the street came to the line where we were being kept and asked us to come onto his property. The police told us that we could stand on this man's FORMERLY private
property! This was set up so that Kerry's views could be heard - but not the neighbors. About 30 neighbors' shouts echoed down the street, "Let the neighbors in."

We could barely hear Kerry speaking with his microphone because press buses were used to block us from view! This morning's papers are reporting hecklers tried to interrupt Kerry as he spoke to the neighborhood gathering, but he turned our chants to his favor by calling us rude. Even though most of the media were there to record our stories of not being included in the neighborhood forum, not one of them printed
or aired the truth. This is what America will look like if Kerry becomes president.

Get registered and get all of your friends registered to vote if they have not already. Kerry thinks he is better than the rest of us and he has the media on his side to make him out to be what he is not! Finally, last night as I drove down the street where the rally was, I was shocked to see Bush/Cheney signs in almost every yard on the street!
Please send this e-mail on to as many people as you can.

LET FREEDOM RING!

Wednesday night already and it's getting late. I am not on-call but one of the facilities is doing a lab datamove onto a new server. Since I am over lab now, I am having to change to the new IP's and then wait to turn them on. 2 down (HSS lab and Quest((results, adt, ect))), one more to go. The lady I am working with will call me back in about 30 minutes. Hopefully will be done in time for me to watch Orielly at 10 p.m. : )

I have been asked to call some known Republicans basically reminding them Nov. 2 is the date to vote and asking them to please go vote on this important election. Not that you would have to be living under a rock or in a cave to not know this by now. But I am doing it regardless. It's my feeling of contribution and maybe some of these people need reminding. I find it interesting, because I didn't feel uncomfortable calling vendors for donation to a cause, like our PTA for school. But I do feel a bit of uneasiness to call people and ask them to go vote. Can't explain why, but I just get the feeling of speaking to a vendor, I actually have a purpose for the call. Rather when I remind then ask them to go vote, I don't feel like there is a result or goal in mind. OH well. Some have simply hung up on me, some have said I am going to vote -lets leave it at that (whatever that means), and some actually asked certain questions of the candidates. I guess they wanted to know if I am some lackey or actually have a clue.

My son went to the pediatrician doctor for a follow-up and according to my wife, it didn't go as bad as expected. Basically the interesting part I found was the doctor agreed he had a milk alergy and noted it in his chart. But didn't agree it could be the result of his staring out spells. However, she couldn't explain why the dramatic result (his improvement) either though. It sounded like a lot of non-believers. Yes, they see the result but really can't accept the result. I understand the Doc's fear of parents using alternate medicine. It's basically having a kid coming in burning with temp from 4 days of the parents trying to do a chicken dance to cure the evil spirits inhabiting the kids body. But like I told Kelli, she (the doc) should be able to view each parents common sense individually. Let's face it, there are some people having kids, that are not nor ever will be actual parents.

I said, I won my first bid on ebay yesterday. My paypal came into effect today. But this chic had only cashiers check or money order as payment. Well there's my first lesson to look. I was assuming everyone was on the paypal bandwagon by now. Oh well. I will acquire one tomorrow and send it out to her. I already emailed her twice on it notifying her.

We are suppose to be getting rain in this weekend. I hope we do, we need it.

Had to jump on here tonight after the debate and say, Cheyney plainly whooped Edwards Ass on the debate.

Looks like they both grew tired midways during the debate, and the analyst are already stating, Cheyney won the foriegn policy as Edwards won the domestic. But I love seeing the fact of Kerry's record coming in to the spotlight. Finally, after he wouldn't mention it in the DNC, the media has ignored it, Cheyney presented the public Kerry's bad record and MIA 70 percent of national security meetings.

I think this will now allow Bush a platform, come this Friday night!

Today, I was actually able to go to lunch with my wife! I couldn't believe it. Quite a dichotomy of last weeks two days. I am on support tomorrow so will be literally shackled to the pc all day, but thankfully I am not on on-call this week. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. heh heh

My wife has been doing Ebay for some time now and I am now attempting to bid on a product for christmas. I can see how addicting it can be. I cursed already for the 5 other bids I lost on the same product. Seems you have to wait 3 minutes before the end to start the bidding war. Once bitten twice shy. I will learn.

I also grabbed 2 more donations for the silent auction Saturday. I will be glad when this is over as well. We have about 41 donations for the PTA silent auction. The toys also came in yesterday for the card fundraiser. We divided them out last night to separate teachers. I loaded them in this morning for the school. So we should be finally done with the card fundraiser as well. : )

WOOHOO my first win on the ebay! I was bidding as I write this and actually won that product! My paypal will be processed tomorrow and I am on my way to Ebay!

Today was actually a nice day. It was quite peacefull today at work. Shh, don't tell anyone though.

Someone contacted me today with a list of Republican contact list. I was asked to call these in Pocola reminding/requesting them to vote Nov. 2nd.

I also was excited today to find a Christmas present for my wife. Can't say what it is due to her reading this blog at times. But, I was glad to order it. Yes, Christmas. We already have a lay-a-way off for the kids Christmas, and need another one for some other things. The lady I ordered it from was amazed it was for Christmas, but when you only get paid once a month, then you need to thin it out. : )

29 days left for the vote and I keep being surprised by supporters of the want-a-be with his record, ideology, ect. (shaking head)

If you have a little time on your hand plase check out Kerry's voting record here.

Here is also Brad Carson's Voting Record.

The weekend was good for us. We thoroughly cleaned the house and rearranged the kids bedrooms. It was nice to not having to go somewhere. Sunday on-call wasn't as bad as Saturday. So we spent all weekend cleaning house. We chose not to go to church either.

Only one meeting scheduled today, which I am on now. Other than that, today looks quite good.

I was surprised the polls are showing Kerry coming up to Bush, regarding the presidential race. I am surprised by a) people are easily swayed and b) most prefer flash, rather than substance.

Taking a breather right about now. As before I am on call all week and quite frankly it's been a busy morning for work. Keep getting calls. But this was the reason for us to stay close to home, just in case.

I stayed up last night watching 'Gladiator' and 'Bad Boys 2'. Both of which I acquired on dvd for 5 bucks a piece at a yardsale. I finally managed to watch them. I hoped to sleep in, being my only chance, but started to get calls early this morning.

Today ( between work calls ) we been cleaning house. Kelli been cleaning with a fine tooth comb in our daughters room. I can't say all she came out of there for yardsales, because I am sure it would be embarrasing. She completely cleaned her closet, shelves, ect out. It looks much better and I commend her doing it. While she been doing that, I cleaned the office and trying to cacth up on the floors, laundry, ect. I also managed to pull the fall decorations down from the attic and put some summer stuff up. We actually are making good progress. The weather is nice and cool outside but we happen to be working inside today. I mowed the yard Thursday, so I wouldnt have to worry about it this weekend.

Yesterday, I also ran to the election board and checked out Pocola's precinct of all registered voters. Yes, you can actually do this and its free. I have 5 buisiness days to keep them before returning them. It is a list of all registered voters. A word to the wise. It list your name, affiliation (Dem., Rep, Ind ), address, mailing address (sometimes they are different), voter id #, date of birth.

We also recieved good news last night and this morning. Last night my mother called and informed us she felt much better than before. This morning, we found out the neighbors house sold and they are closing it Tuesday or Wednesday. Supposedly the prior owner is to send us a check on the week of the 10th to compensate our work on it throughout this process and make good. No value was given but we are excited it's finally closing and we may get some extra money.