Middle America's Worldview

I haven't had the time to blog these past two days. We been pushing for my vote today (yes, it's finally here) as well as PTA meeting occured Monday night, ect.
I received this in the email from a friend and found it totally fascinating. I have always been a reader and student of Bible Prophecy. I had heard long ago the antichrist would rise in the reign of the next pope. Reading this below only puts fire in my belly to get a move on. Take a look.
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A Jewish Pope?
By Jack Kinsella
www.olivetreeviews.org

Jean-Marie Lustiger: Second Jewish Pope?

Pope Peter II?

Perspective on the News

Sunday, April 03, 2005

France was stunned when Pope John Paul II named Jewish-born Jean-Marie Lustiger as archbishop of Paris. "You are the fruit of the Holy Father's prayer," the pontiff's secretary told him.

Could it be that the cardinal-electors will now stun the world by choosing Lustiger as next pope, the first Jew to occupy St. Peter's See since Peter himself?

Lustiger, both whose parents died in Auschwitz, has always insisted that, though he had converted to Christianity at age 14, he was and remained a Jew: "I was born a Jew and so I am. For me, the vocation of Israel is to bring light to the goyim. That's my hope, and I believe Christianity is the means for achieving it."

There is a remarkable conversion dialectic in Lustiger's life. He had himself baptized because he was so impressed with the Catholic faith of his foster parents, who brought him up after his real parents had been deported from Paris in 1940. In return, Lustiger has made it his mission to convert -- or, rather, re-evangelize -- France and by extension Europe in an unorthodox way.

While a parish priest, Lustiger wrote a memorandum to archbishop of Paris, Cardinal François Marty. In it he proposed a revolutionary strategy for bringing Christianity back to France, once called the First Daughter of the Church. He insisted the church must abandon any pretense of power and convert culture instead.

As George Weigel, the pope's biographer, commented on this plan: "This meant taking the gospel straight to the molders and shapers of French high culture, the thoroughly secularized French intelligentsia. The hardest cases should be put first and France should be reconverted from the head down."

According to Weigel, Lustiger believes this memorandum must have found its way to the Vatican and contributed to his promotions to bishop of Orleans in 1979, archbishop of Paris in 1981 and cardinal in 1983.

If so, Lustiger's strategy is bearing fruit. No sooner did he ascend to the Paris See than he targeted intellectuals, preaching to them every Sunday evening at his cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris. This year -- more than two decades after he inaugurated this sermon series -- the influential Figaro newspaper ran an eight-part series about Christian intellectuals finally resurfacing in France after a very long internal exile: it simply wasn't considered chic to be a man or woman of faith.

In France, the rest of the country has always followed the intellectuals' path. It is now fashionable again, even for leftwing thinkers such as Regis Debré, Ché Guevara's companion, to speak of the need of religious instruction at school, though the government blocked the mention of God and Christianity in the draft of the new European constitution.

The French church, once an institution of immense power, has become a mission church, and her sisters in other part of the Continent are following her example. Indeed, that mission takes place chiefly in the once almost hopelessly secularized urban centers, where there are now first signs of a tender spiritual renewal.

That, too, was Lustiger's brainchild. Since Europe's conversion has top priority for the Catholic Church, the election of this formidable preacher and thinker is still a possibility, even though, at 77, he is no longer of an ideal age -- and though popular superstition holds the last pope will be of Jewish descent and call himself Peter II.


Related Links/Source Story: United Press International






The Next Pope--
By Jack Kinsella

www.olivetreeviews.org



The Next Pope?

On March 14, Pope John Paul II will surpass Pope Leon XIII as the Pope with third longest papacy in history after St. Peter and Pius IX, according to a Vatican press release.

Having been elected on October 16, 1978, on March 14, Pope John Paul will have led the Catholic Church for exactly 9,281 days, 25 years, six months and two days.

The current Pope is 83 years old, suffers from Parkinson's Disease and has knee and hip ailments that make it hard for him to either stand or walk. He is so frail that there was talk at the Vatican about his resignation. It is unlikely, however.

Popes are elected for life, but given John Paul's condition, the Vatican is already buzzing about who will succeed him. Indeed, TIME Magazine ran a recent story asking the question, "Who Will Be the Next Pope?' before supplying some of the answers.

TIME listed some of the leading contenders, and one name in particular caught my eye. The Archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger.

Assessment:

Here is TIME's snapshot of Archbishop Lustiger:

"Archbishop of Paris, Lustiger was born of a Polish Jewish family in France. After his parents were deported during the Nazi occupation, he lived with a Christian family in Orléans and converted to Catholicism at the age of 13. He has been criticized by Israeli rabbis and may be a long shot if the cardinals decide his nomination would anger the Jewish community."

I know that I have Catholic readers, and I am myself a former Catholic. I am not a Catholic-basher, although I disagree strongly with Catholic dogma.

That said, the Bible pictures a global religious system in the last days that John describes as having 'two horns like a Lamb but who speaks as a dragon.' (Revelation 13:11)

There are lots of theories about the identification of that global religion, but the most widely accepted is that it will be the post-Rapture Catholic Church.

This makes Catholics go ballistic, but they shouldn't. I believe that saved Catholics will be Raptured with the rest of the believing Church.

Revelation's global religious system will be made up of religionists practicing a counterfeit Christianity. John said it has the appearance of a lamb (Christ, the Lamb of God) but that its doctrine is that of the Dragon (Satan).

There are NO Christians mentioned after Revelation 4:1 -- only Tribulation Saints, (all of whom are martyred).

That isn't the believing Christian Church of the Church Age. Even the antichrist couldn't track down and martyr a half-billion people in only seven years.

Any church in the Tribulation Period, according to Scripture, will be an apostate church devoid of Christians.

It is no coincidence that the description of that religious system described in Revelation 17 fits the Vatican like a glove. It is pictured as a woman dressed in purple and scarlet, (colors of the Vatican) decked with gold, precious stones and pearls (the Vatican's wealth is immeasurable) and drunken with the blood of martyrs.

Thousands of Christians were burned at the stake or otherwise martyred during the Papal Inquisitions. That is an historical fact.

Finally, Revelation 17:9 completes the identification, saying, "here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth."

Is there any other global religious system headquartered on seven hills, apart from the Vatican, which is seated in the Eternal City on the Seven Hills of Rome?

According to John, there are two beasts who share power during the Tribulation Period. The first beast is the political beast, the one who rises up out of the 'sea' - symbolic of the 'sea' of nations. Israel is always symbolized by 'the land' -- a picture of Israel as a spiritual island surrounded by a sea of Gentile powers.

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." (Revelation 13:1) This is the first beast -- the political beast -- the one we personify as the antichrist.

John pictures a second beast in verse 11; "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. . . " The word 'earth' is translated from the Greek word 'ghay' which means, 'ground' or 'land' in the sense of a region. From this one can almost certainly assume the false prophet will be a Jew.

This is where it gets complicated.

John's identification of the antichrist's religious system only fits one existing religious system, headquartered in Rome. But it says the false prophet will be a Jew.

Now, we return to the Archbishop of Paris -- and from here, let me caution you that this is partly speculative.

Lustiger is an ethnic, converted Jew. If he were to become Pope, he would be the first converted Jew ever elevated to the papacy. It has never happened before.

If Lustiger is elevated to the papacy, it is unlikely that another Jew will succeed him as Pope, making Lustiger the odds-on favorite for the office of false prophet, Scripturally speaking.

Even if he isn't elected immediately following John Paul II, remember that John Paul II came to the papacy after John Paul I died 77 days into his reign.

Here's where it gets really interesting. Cardinal Lustiger is 72 years old. The Tribulation Period is of seven years' duration.

I don't usually get this speculative, but this is dynamite. I am not date-setting, but Lustiger's age is a pretty narrow time frame. And Jesus DID say that we would know 'when it was near, even at the doors'.

The Scriptures indicate the false prophet will head an apostate counterfeit, global 'Christian' religion, but that he himself will be a Jew.

The papacy has existed since Pope Clement in the 4th century. From then until now, there has never been a Jewish candidate for the office.

Until this point, in this generation, when one of the leading contenders to replace an aging Pope is Jean Lustiger, a converted Jew.

What are the odds?

I have always heard and been told "It's not what but who you know that will get you places". You hear it, but you never truly understand it, till you experience it. I am experiencing it now.

I am running for School Board in my town. This is my 3rd attempt and hopefully my successfull one. In the past two, I came up some well known, experience opponents. I ranked pretty darn close behind them. This is quite a feat considering I was not born in this town. Those in the city cannot appreciate small town mentality. Basically everyone knows everyone else. If you cannot quote your geneaology from at least 3 generations back, then your pretty much a new kid in town. Change is hard to folks in these parts. When someone else comes in and makes those changes, it's hard for the others to acquire a taste for it. Whether that change is for the better or worse.

I been knocking on a lot of doors this week and last. It is amazing how many actual houses are built on one street. Take Morris Street for an example. I parked my vehicle on one end and hit 3 houses at the corner before making my way down one side, to follow up on the other. By the time I made it at the end (speaking to some people that happen to be home, listening to others gripe about what was going on in town ((nothing to do with the school))) I could only think I have the walk back up it again. Toward the end, and close to the car, I was looking forward to the bottle of water waiting for me. I counted my flyers and see I had passed nearly 70 out to that street alone. I hit every house offered. Some had dogs and fences in the front as opposed to their back yard.

In my car I stopped at the Police Department to give them a couple of flyers as well. Another feeling that I should. As I passed it to the guy in front, a lady came in from the back and asked what it was. I passed it to her readily enough as well. She took a look at it and said she "needed to talk to this guy". I replied what do you want to talk about? She got this goofy looking grin on her face and asked if I was the same. "Yes, what can I answer for you?" "Nothing, everyone asking do you know (my name), I keep saying I haven't never met the man nor know him". Thinking this is my chance to give some meaningfull answers to her great questions, I asked her does she want to know about me. "Nothing, just wondered who you was". Hmm, ok. "I appreciate if you get out and vote for me, it's next Tuesday". She only replied with that goofy grin, like she was looking at a rock singer.

As I jumped in my van, another police officer had came out asking if I was the same. "Yes". It was my opponent. I never seen nor met the man before. I was told by others, he wouldn't even campaign. Only wanted the position for name recognition. He was younger than I pictured him in my mind. So this was the one everyone knows, as opposed to no-one knowing me. We spoke friendly enough and shook hands wishing each other luck. Now I know who I am up against.

There are 5 members making up the school board. I know of 3 pushing for me, 2 of the 3 hard. The other two, I doubt they are. I heard, by more than one person, they are yes people. Those that do whatever floats the admins boat. I now the administration of our school do not want me to be on the board. Most likely due to the fact, the don't know me. So they don't know what I will do.

As the time dwindles down for the vote, I have been speaking to one of the board members helping me out. He continues telling me, he is speaking to people about me, but most say, "I don't know him". It is interesting a lot of them simply ask him, who should I vote for? I received some specific people to call. The names were given to me by some that would like me to be in. I called them, most would answer, "I spoke to (board member) and they spoke highly of you. I will be voting for you". It wasn't any answers to their questions, nor some new found knowledge or insight I could bring to the community. It was a nod from another person.

Yes, it's not what but who you know. I hope this time around, I know enough people to get me on the board.

Read for Friday. I was on support today for work. This morning wasn't bad, but it made up for it later.

I did get a chance to put out more flyers for my School Board campaign. The vote is next Tuesday. Working those lunches and ect. when I can. I have to say I am a bit nervous. I am up against someone, everyone knows, yet hasn't spent anytime campaigning for himself. I met him the first time today. He was actually younger than I was thinking. Oh well, I guess the people will decide next Tuesday.

I leave the below excerpt that was emailed to me recently.
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Recently the Colorado Supreme Court, by a vote of 3-2, threw out a death sentence for a man convicted of rape and murder. The reason? Some jurors in the jury room read from the Bible before reaching a verdict.



Oddly enough, the judge in the case – as Colorado law requires – sent the jury off to deliberate about the death penalty with an instruction to think beyond the narrow confines of the law. Each juror, the judge told the panel, must make an "individual moral assessment," in deciding whether the defendant should live.



The jurors voted unanimously for death. But the Colorado Supreme Court changed his sentence to life in prison without parole.



"The biblical passages the jurors discussed constituted either a part of the jurors' moral and religious precepts or their general knowledge, and thus were relevant to their court-sanctioned moral assessment," the dissenting judges wrote.



Of course, the ACLU praised the ruling saying that the use of the Bible in the jury room was illegal due to the separation of church and state.

Not bad for a hump day. My wife actually was able to stay home today. She normally runs 3 directions all day in addition to work. I had a chance to put flyers in 2 streets today during lunch as well.

We are leaving for Arizona in May. We will be there for 5 weeks. Yes, 5 weeks. Pretty much takes the summer. We found a hotel with weekly rates residing outside of the town we will be going. It was a true find. Cheaper than any other I have seen yet and holds a pool for the kids, high speed access for me to work off of and a kitchenette for us to use. That will save some money, not having to eat out. I made the reservations holding it for the 32 nights.

Only two days to go. Other than that, not much to blog about.

I thought I better update the blog, since it was already Tuesday morning. I couldn't get in the blogger yesterday either.

This weekend was nothing but rain rain rain. Man it was basically cold, wet and dark grey all weekend long. Your typical Easter. Saturday night, I satisfied my gaming fix. I stayed up most of the night playing 'Jet Li Rise to Honor'. It was very cool. The graphics was good and the flow of the storyline went very good. It wasn't your typical finish a scene then get a story board. The cutscenes would come into your battles, ect. It was impressive.

Sunday we went to church and stayed to eat with everyone. There were so many people attending the service, a few of us actually sit in the annex of the building. They must had expected it, because they put a camera and fed it to the annex for us to view on tv. It was different.

Monday went pretty well. It was a effective day at work and in the evening, I was able to put more of the swing together. It was sunny and beautiful outside. A shame to be in the house on that day.

We will be getting rid of bird. Seems our son (half-way) has agreed to be rid of it. I think it's past due. Considering he rarely plays in his room and I am the main one that cleans it up, so be it. One pet down, 6 more to go. Yeah, 2 cats, 3 dogs, and a fist left. sigh. If they speak of another animal, I will have to say something about it. Hon, if your reading this, let's not exchange, but enjoy one less food and upkeep.

Fortunately it is Friday and the weekend is upon us. We survived last night's PTA School Talent show. No dirty dancing nor bad language from what I could see and hear. I stayed in the back keeping the kids from getting on tables, hanging from the ceiling ect. The whole thing lasted from 6:10 p.m. till a little after 9 p.m.

Afterwards, we gathered the chairs and put everything back in place. I pulled the individual giving Kel such a hard time and had a short discussion with her. Nothing serious but I think she got the message.

I have to say, from what I could tell the Talent Show went smooth. Just glad it's over with.

Today at work wasn't bad at all. Rather relaxing for a change. I start on-call next Monday and hope to enjoy my weekend off.

I failed to mention, I was able to visit my dad Wednesday night for a little while. We were able to talk and he showed me the 'Hitman Contract' game. I had scored it used and cheap at Hastings a while back and gave it to him to play. He had already beaten it but continues to play his favorite levels. I watched him play and was amazed of the quality of graphics and play. So now I am itching to play some PS2 this weekend. LOL

Talk about a stress week. Work has been laxed, thankfully. However, the homefront seems to be an overkill this week.

Among the stress points are (not in any particular order): Our son's health, finances on future travel and projects, PTA, Running for School Board, getting sh*t done, house, family, getting projects done,on and on and on.

Tonight will be the talent show at school. Of course PTA has full responsibility on the matter. So if we fail, we look like idiots. If we succeed, everyone forgets it by next week. Such is the reality of life. My wife may have a coronary before tonight ends. I love her to death, but she likes "everything" in order. Unfortunately when (and the they often do) the details are not exact or missed, those out-weight the whole. sigh. This adds more stress on herself and it is showing. The nervous twitch, the grinding of teeth at night during sleep, all signs of meltdown. I tried to offer other stimulating ahem alternatives that suppose to suppress stress, however, she chose the one night I took two benadryls and fell asleep. Hey, I didn't sleep worth a flip the two nights before, so I needed the rest. Such is life, rarely can sync it up.

Crap, just got called by wife to bring the kids easter baskets to school. They were missed with everything else this morning. Catch you later.

Sunday night I had nightmares all night. I don't know why. I haven't seen any scary movies in quite some time. Could be stress, could be anything. I won't go into the graphics, but if you seen the Evil Dead, you have a visual.

Monday at work wasn't too bad. I was on support, but fortunately it didn't kill me.

I had to also go to the Doc Monday for a checkup. Seems I haven't had a yearly checkup since 02. I told the reception, "no way, I been here since then". Seems not. Oh well, time flys. Nothing to worry, weight was normal and just some bloodwork to check my cholestrol. I should get the results by next week.

It rained, rained, and rained some more all day Monday. It weaned off a bit around evening but I noticed it was blowing and going last night. I couldn't sleep worth a flip last night either. I ended up watching X-play on G4 techtv. I preferred it when techtv had it. I then watched some of Screen Savers. They totally crapped it out since G4 took over. They did have a commericial referring to a new show coming on called Attack of the Show. It looked like it might be interesting. I guess we will see.

I also started another Blog to flex some of my analyzing muscles. I guess we will see. I recognize I don't know that much on such things. However, it might push me to learn more.

One final gripe for Monday. The Doctor at Mesa finally replied to my wife's inquiries. He kept asking if he has fallen, ect. No. But what pissed me off was her so called local friend doctor insinuated our son gets stressed while Kel cooks supper. They did some type of stress test, feeling nerve points. As he asked our son question, they waited to feel that nerve jump, indicating stress. Yeah, voodoo woodoo. I couldn't believe it. I told my wife, "you gotta be kidding me". The idiot doctor basically put more stress on my wife. You have to understand, my wife takes that crap and runs with it. She can't help it. Just her way. (shaking head)

Well, the weekend is already gone. I totally enjoyed Friday evening with Kel. We went out to eat. I arranged a dozen roses to be delivered at the restaurant waiting for us. I never have given a dozen roses to Kel throughout our marriage. Yeah, half-dozen, 1-3 here and there, so I surprised her.
It continued to be good throughout the whole night.

Saturday we went over to Kell's parents and helped out. We cleaned out a room in one of their barns. If you need a visual, think of a dump 3 feet high. We literally shoveled out trash, molded clothes, ect to a burn pile. After that, we went over to Kel's Aunt. I helped nail up a shed, while she busted her butt pushing rocks for a backyard patio. Her Dad then fed us with a huge cookout on the grill.

Sunday we went to Church in the morning. Our daughter started to have a headache with a warm face. So we left Church after Sunday school. We tried to put the new swing-set together. So as a weekend warrior, I met Emanuel = Ol Eh Manual Labor.

Honey, can you pass me that Biofreeze
, when your done with it

I can't believe it's already Friday. Today was one of those days, I was just not in my game. I couldn't concentrate for work. I did my thing and then left. Sorry to say that, but sometimes it's just one of those days. Today was one of them.

I was able to pull away and go to lunch with Kell and the kids. This is a special treat, as I am usually chained to the PC during the day.

I am looking forward to tonight. The kids are going to their Nana and Papa's, which leaves a night for Kelli and I. Unlike Tuesday night, she hasn't gone through a traumatic procedure and under narcotics. : ) The most potent thing will probably be the wine and me. heh heh

We have reservations to go to Shoguns. This is a bit expensive, but the food is soooo good. After that, I can only hope.

Well at least yesterday wasn't as busy as the day before. I actually could breathe a little bit.

Work wasn't that busy. I didn't have any scheduled meetings. I was soo hoping to get some crap done, but alas it wasn't so. Every one I emailed to requesting an update or ability to work with never replied nor responded. Oh well. So it goes.

Tuesday evening, my wife and I had the opportunity to consolidate some bills. I had to get them ready and send them out yesterday. I did this during lunch. When I ran them to the post office, I had a weird feeling to stop by the Senior Citizens building. I did so thinking I would pass out or post up my campaigning efforts for School Board. The run-off is April 5th. When I went in only one guy and 2 boys were there. I simply went to him to hand him my flyer with a greeting. He not only stated he knew I wanted to run, but he was rooting for me. We have had a on-going political battle in the small town, which I will post later in detail. Seems he was running for City Council as well, but without an opponent. He will be nominated in without a hitch. Anyway, he asked if I could come in Thursday around 12 p.m. to speak. There will be nearly 50 elderly there and he would give me a mike and pulpit to not only introduce myself, but pass out flyers, discuss and explain why I am runnning for School Board. Talk about a great opportunity. He went on to say, they may be old, but everyone of them actually votes. This is significant, because I am constatly amazed of those that can and don't vote, or haven't even bothered to register. But that's another soapbox.

I just thought it was interesting I had a funny feeling to go there, and this came about.

Regardless, I plan to be there during my lunch today. Wish me luck.

Tuesday was another eventful, literally. I took 1/2 day off for Tuesday morning. Kelli had a tube down the throat scheduled. I had to be the designated driver. Been a long time since I was a designated driver (smile). She continues to have a very nauseated upset stomach if she doesn't take prevacid. The test came out clean, so it's back to taking more meds for her. Everyone continues to ask if she could be pregnant. Sigh. No. I had taken care of that about 6 years ago. Yes, I know it sometimes happens where it's possible, but a P.T. (pregnancy test) in ER answered that question.

Basically yesterday morning run-down went like this. I woke up 5 a.m. (couldn't sleep), and got up and about. Get the kids up (they are off this week for spring break) and around. We drop the kids off at a friend’s house on the way to the Clinic. The kids were able to play with their friends while we would be in the clinic. We run to the clinic and prepare for Kell's 8:30 a.m. procedure. We expect maybe one hour tops (so they say). They wanted us there 7:30 a.m. for preparation, shot in her butt, ect. By 8:45 a.m. I am pacing. By 9:10 I am really aggravated. Seems the Doc's didn't even arrive till after 8:30 a.m., where as they normally are there by 7:30 a.m. I grow so tired of people, regardless of the symbols behind their names, thinks the world revolves around them. Sigh. It blew my time-line. We were not done till 11 a.m. But at least it came out good. The Doc. kept referring to Gallbladder Ultrasound and how he cannot believe they didn't do a GB US before this procedure. Yeah Doc, it's called milking the insurance for all it's worth.

While she was in the back for that hour, I ran up to 5th floor for a mother-in-law errand. I then ran across the street to a Hastings. I picked up "The Incredibles” and the 3rd Matrix (used). I watched the first 2 last week at Corp. and didn't have the 3rd one. Once I arrived back and sat down in the waiting room to be called, I was immediately called. Talk about timing it right. That was a first.

Kelli had a friend she hadn't seen in a long time and wanted to really see her and allow our kids to play with her during their catch-up time. She was in town this week, but of course the only time available was Tuesday around 1 p.m. She was able to go and I think they enjoyed the time together. I was personally amazed Kell could do it. She normally wants to go to sleep for 10 hours after a couple of drinks. Having narcotics shot in your IV and she was up 1 hour later. I was shocked.

I dropped her and the kids off at a nearby McDonalds for them to meet and converse. I went back to work my remaining 1/2 day and then picked them back up in a couple of hours.

Once we arrived back at the house from McDonalds, Kell's dad was waiting for them. The kids spent the night with her parents Tuesday night, due to Kelli, the kids and her mom driving to Muskogee Wednesday for a therapy appointment for our son. Muskogee is about 1 hour and 15 minutes away, taking the Muskogee turnpike. Her mom wanted to go with them Wednesday. So the kids were out of the house all night. What is a couple to do? Not much, because she is getting sleepy again. LOL

We actually ended up going out eating Mexican. I really wasn't expecting to go out and about. We had one errand that took less than an hour. We ended up going eating and walked in Books a Million. I found a book in the discount bin, "The hacker diaries, confession of Teenage Hackers". It looked good. We grabbed a hot chocolate on the way out and back home. We finished up some stuff for work, getting ready for the next day, ect. She went on to bed and I watched the 3rd Matrix. It turned out to be a really nice evening.

Sorry for the delay in posting. What can I say, I was unplugged for a couple of days. I arrived safe and sound Friday evening from my flight. I was nearly late on my first flight out of Philadelphia. The flight was for 8 a.m. I woke up 6 a.m., showered, ate a bit ect. I hauled butt to the airport and it was 7:30 a.m. when I arrived. Cripes I panicked. But fortunately the security line wasn't that long to go through.

All day Saturday we pretty much stayed outside. I actually mowed the yard, if you can believe it. We played frisbee and croquet with the kids in the back yard. It was very very nice. Not too much running this weekend, just stayed home and enjoyed being with Kel and the kids. It was colder Sunday, so we just stayed inside after Church. I also made it a point to watch "The Contender". Can't help it. I really like that show. I didn't expect the winner Sunday, but was glad for it.

I was on support this Monday. The morning wasn't bad. It allowed me to make a lot of necessary calls. We are trying to line out this summer. We need to go back to Mesa, Arizona for at least 2 weeks. I need to go back up to Corporate again in June. The summer is already scheduled out, unbelievable.

My wife and daughter went to a friends house to practice an upcoming Talent show. This allowed my and son to bond with the PS2. LOL.

My beautiful wife actually had a surprise for me, rather than me bringing surprises to them. She acquired me Season 3 of 24. Too cool! I haven't started yet, in fear of being hooked on it like a drug. : )

Wednesday was a good day. We had a meeting with the CIO discussing our status of projects ect. Normally this meeting is dreaded due to the unexpected, but this one was good.

During the meeting the unexpected did happen. We were given a 'quiz' that was about 3 pages long. Basically a quick questionaire of applications, and then two pages of matching certain analyst with their apps as well as the IS Directors to their respective facilities. Yeah, I sucked at it. I am terrible with names.

Later that day, we also had dinner with the CIO. It was nice to be able to sit at a table and openly talk with one of the nation's largest and most respected health care management companies. I do not know of any other facility willing to do that. It's rare the whole team gets together in one room, so this was a nice touch while I was up here.

Monday the weather was really nice. However, by Tuesday morning it went to a scene off of 'The day after tomorrow'. Man it got cold. I had to literally scrape the ice of the windshield when I finally came out of the office. I went to TGI Friday's on the way to the hotel picking up some hotwings and a jalepeno burger to get warm.

The whole team was in the same room on mid-level yesterday. I think the boss lady wanted us to get more time together, since most of us are remote now. I found it rather interesting. Those that are more open on IM seem nervous in person. One peer actually kept fidgeting, stretching when she talked, indicating insecurity. Another guy seemed bored, and couldn't wait to get the hell out. I found the whole thing interesting.

Only today and tomorrow and I get to fly back home. I can't wait.

It's interesting. When I go on these trips away from home and family, I normally think of all the 'cool' stuff I can do without the kids, ect. That's what I think, but in reality after the second night, I am ready to go home. First night, yeah, it's nice to be away. Second night with nothing on TV, nor no-one to do anything with. I am not a bar hopper so I normally walk the mall to window shop. I enjoyed Sunday by just relaxing, but by end day, I was ready to play with the kids and hold my wife at night. sigh.

Today at work we get to have the whole interface team together in a room to sing Ku-by-Ya. The boss held a mid-level conference room for us to work together off a hub. This is an opportunity for everyone to gather and share work ideas, ect. Some are looking forward to it, others could care less. Me? I guess it will be different, I don't really lean either way.

I met the newest member of the group yesterday. She seems really nice, but quite a talker.

My highlight yesterday was watching The Contender. I enjoyed it and finally have found something cool to watch on tv.

Last night, once I arrived back to the hotel. I watched 2 of the dvds I brought along, Collateral and The Terror. I figured I can sleep in, no kids no wife, so I stayed up. Yeah, right. Once the body is use to getting up, it gets up. I was up early as usual.

I ate some yogurt for breakfast like a good little boy. I ironed the clothes for the week, put everything in it's proper spot and headed out to Barnes and Noble for the great Pokemon quest. Was I doing this for the kids or myself? Probably a little of each. It was a mission by now. I couldn't believe how hard it would be to find something like this.

I hit Barnes and Noble and find I have to wait till it opens, 10 a.m. So I am on the phone with my dad getting his updates ect. till then. Once inside, I begin looking around. Not finding much, so I asked for Pokemon stuff. The lady was helpfull and I ended up buying a mag, "Pokemon unofficial collection" and "Beginner's Manga A step-by-step guide" that was on sale. At least I know what Manga is now. I then thought to hit Borders once again. I left yesterday without looking and thought surely they would have something.

I was in luck. Note only did they have "Pojo's unofficial Total Pokemon" mag that described a lot of cards ect. I ended up buying the kids Pokemon dvd box set. They will love it. The asexual helper was there and helped me find the mag. Seems it was probably too busy to think last night. Now don't get offended on the "asexual" part. It's purely descriptive. I was always raised and continue to say "Sir" and "Maam" in respect of others. So I was hesistant at first but blurtered out "Thank you sir" without thinking. Then I thought Oh crap, what if its a chick with a deep voice? So I attempted recovery by quickly adding "Uh." which the whatever said. "yes?" "You have been very helpfull, thank you." I then moved onto the other side of the store, very quickly.

I flew in to Philadelphia Saturaday evening. Not a bad trip, didn't get stuck waiting for the plane through Dallas. So no complaints. Not that it would help anyway.

I normally always do the same routine when I arrive in Philadelphia. I get my bags (obviously) and then a shuttle to National Rental cars. Once I pick up the small car (I like the small ones due to good on the gas and easy to get around up here), I drive my way to King of Prussia. The route is the same, 202 South to 476 North, Valley Forge exit, then Mall Blvd. Easy enough to get to. The snow wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. I see it in spots on the side of the highways but nothing like I was told and none on the roads. Once I make it into town, I normally pick up all my grocery items at ACME (for the week), something to eat and then register in the hotel to plot my lazy butt down for the night. This time I hit ACME first and then register and unload in the hotel. Once that was accomplished I went to the mall to get something to eat. Yes, the mall is very large and they have a Court as well as a Plaza there.

I figured I would get some excercise by walking through the mall to the Court. There was a brochure in the hotel's lobby showing a discount for travelers at Borders. Cool, I had planned to go there looking for some Pokemon books or mags for my kiddos.

I pulled in the parking lot near TGIF, going in placing my order to go. I then proceed to walk through the Plaza into the Court for Borders. Being Saturday night, TGIF was busy anyway. Hey, it will take them time to get my tostada nacho's ready.

I go for it. I walked the mall many times, but rarely purposefully literally through it to the other side. I make it all the way to the end and outside. I messed up by going around the side, not over to the court. OK, I then proceeded back around outside and then through the crosswalk into the court. OK, now I begin to make it through the Court. "There's Disney, where the hell is Borders." I don't think it's this far. I asked a guy standing around in the middle of the mall where is Borders. He gets this look of confusion then says "Oh yeah, it's around the corner to the left." Thanks man. So I am going the right way. I make it to Borders finally and I am already out of breath. Yeah, out of shape. I then peruse around until I find someone with a store tag on and ask about the sale. "That's for real estate agents ect. " Real Estate agents? Bummer man. "So do you have anything for Pokemon, cards, mags, ect?" A silent look. "No, the only thing we have is a one manga." As the asexual helper walks away with another nagging customer. "One manga? Whatever that is." So a bust on both ends. sigh.
I then make my way outside the store and hit a game shop on the way back. I asked the guys in there for any type of book ect that shows what cards are availible ect. They only had a price card list. Some guy there was asking me about the Pokemon card game and I ended up answering more of his questions then getting answers for myself. Seems the Deoxys theme decks were selling like crazy. Oh well. I gotta make it back to the other end of the other mall.

I managed to make it back to TGIF. But on the way back, I started to get sick of my stomach, out of breath and feeling dizzy. Geez this sucks. My bottom part of my legs were now from sore to just there. I was thinking 'what the hell, I hope I don't pass out. That would be embarrasing.' I grabbed my nachos (which they didn't give me extra jalepeno's as requested) and went back to the hotel. I found out later, it was the fact I hadn't ate anything in nearly 7 hours. Once I ate something, I felt better.

That was my Saturday. All day in the plane and then a bust at Borders.

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Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in Ten Commandments Cases

More than 15 months after Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore lost his job for disobeying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the
state courthouse, the larger issue involved is about to be argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read full Story here.

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I guess this will be one of the main stories today in the news. Personally I think it's a no-brainer,but who said Liberals had brains.

If you clearly read the argument, you will see posting the Ten Commandments in public does nothave the Government supporting a specific religion. Ironically it will be held in a court depicting Moses holding the Ten Commandments in the background. Yeah, want to tear that wall down too? The argument is a war of ideology. We are a Judeo Christian based Nation. Get over it. The problem is many view ideology itself has become religion and our judges are pushing that non-
religious ideology onto us. You can’t explain that to the deaf though.

The core statement is the following.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof."

So does displaying the Ten Commandments represent Congress making a law establishing a religion? No of course not. Is Congress attempting to prohibit free speech of? Yes, I believe they are.

Some facts supporting the United States having a base in Judeo-Christian heritage.

Again, not a bad day. Yes, it was busy and yes, it went by quick.

Today, I noticed how much other's depend on my wife. I at times gripe at her for saying "yes" to everything and for everybody. Recently, she has become better in curtailing her quick replies. Today, however, all hell broke loose. I received some calls for work during dinner, but I noticed my wife on her cell phone for longer than expected. Then the home phone rings (rarely for me) and she is now on it, then her cell phone rings again. Back and forth like this. Next thing you know its after 6 p.m. and I find out what is going on.

Seems the other paralegal (only my wife and she works for the lawyer) has quite today. She gave her 2 weeks notice and does not plan on staying. This is a big deal, because the lawyer doesn't know what is going on (with scheduling, ect.) without this other paralegal. In addition my wife does not know all the jobs she does. This will bring more stress on her. Note she hasn't even caught up from our trip to Arizona yet.

Then her brother calls the cell to inform her, he has lost his license (again) from a failed drug test. I won't go into detail but let's say he gets into trouble and her parents continue to bail him out. Sure enough, a few minutes later, another call to her saying "appeal the lost license issue" as she had feared. Another token for her todo.

Then her Aunt calls (the actual stable one in her family) and we find out why she is so troubled financially. I can't say, but it's just another weight for her to bear.

This all happened this afternoon. Prior to all this, she is also trying to help a neighbor with a legal issue. She is trying to pull together to train two others to do paralegal work under her. She can't find the time to get organized enough to train them correctly. She is workning on our son's upcoming IEP for school. All this and having to deal with me. sigh.

I really, really need to do something for her.

I must admit, Monday wasn't that bad. Yes, I am knocking on wood. I continue to be on-call and I am on support tomorrow. Yippee.

We found out today our son feeling sick is actually a good sign. Yeah, that's what I said. I thought for sure he was having a UTI (urinary tract infection) Friday and Saturday due to having to go pee, having to go pee, ect. Yet, when he did go, it wasn't much. Sorry if too much info. Well, I took him to the doc in the box and it showed cleared. The doctor from Arizona is telling us that it's a good sign because he is trying to pass the metals and he feels bad because he is doing too much detoxification, or too fast. So we hold off on certain meds and up others. Yes, it's seems to be a juggling act, but hey, we are getting better.

I found a new means to make money online. No, not rich but hey any little bit will help. It is called Surf Junky and basically you scroll through their pages. It suppose to start off with 45 cents an hour. I purused around and already acquried a dollar. Like I said, won't make you rich but every little bit helps. You can also have them pay your paypal directly. So if you want to check it out, click here.

Sunday already? The weekend just flew by. I had to go to a wedding Saturday that pretty much shot that day. You can read that story in Busy Mommy’s blog.

Not much to speak of for this weekend. I was able to play the Pokemon card game with the kids. I have to say, it was pretty fun. My daughter really got into it and the game seem to flow easy enough. I can see us playing this one for quite some time.

I started on-call today as opposed to tomorrow. I will be flying into PA toward Corp. next Saturday. I have switched today for that Saturday, since I will be traveling all that day.

Over this busy, trying week, I had some reflection this morning. With everything going on with our son, compounded having to take my wife to ER for a found cyst on her ovary, it topped off today at work by losing access to my desktop. I rebooted the PC due to it being slow, in hopes to speed up the process only to find my normal password to my desktop is inaccessible. How stupid is that?

Regardless of me not having access to work email nor work IM, I continued to work with my projects today getting them accomplished. I still have access to my interfaces using my home pc, but not my Lotus Notes. I and the vendor were still able to successfully get a new interface up and running today.

This action of me not having contact with work by normal means, yet I continued to work on those things that needed to be made had me think of something.

Reflecting on everything going on in my life, I find most would think perhaps God is not listening or even there. Today I did not have a direct line of communication today with work, yet I continued to work for them. In respect to God, it sometimes seem we do not have a direct or constant communication with Him, yet we must realize God is still there and working for us.

Just a thought, today.

I was actually off yesterday, so today was a Monday. A Monday it was indeed. I spent nearly half the day on the phone with conference calls and the other half trying to resolve those issues the calls were for. sigh.

My poor wife is sick to her stomach and the docs suspect an ulcer. Considering all we have undergone I am not surprised. I had actually read in the past where ulcers were created from bacteria rather than stress, but who knows. What I do know is she has difficulty keeping anything down.

I ran our son to speech therapy again today after their school. Yesterday, she commented he was doing much better in his 3 consonant words then before we left for Arizona in addition to the time we missed with her. This tickled me to no end.

I also ran our daughter to basketball practice this evening and I have to tell you; I never get tired of watching those kids running around the half-court trying to get that ball in the basket. Rather than spreading out they always tend to group in together in a cluster. LOL

I haven't blogged in some time. Not for a lack of discussion, but a lack of dedicated time.

I have to say this is a 3 day weekend for me and my family. None of us have to go to school nor work tomorrow. I been on-call all week, but that ends tomorrow morning. I don't wish to say I will be glad it will be here, because it would take away more precious time from my family.

Tonight the kids will be having a sleep over in one of their rooms (not the living room). With this in play, I may play a PS2 game myself in the living room. I haven't played it since before our Arizona trip, with the exception of today, with the kids.

Did I mention I am running for School Board? I have a run-off April 5th. Wish me luck. The vote Feb. 7th occured while I was in Arizona. My wife and I couldn't even vote. We had expected to be back before then. Fortunately I ran second in the race out of 4 candidates. This will be the final time I attempt, but I also will give it my all.


I will have to say Church tonight was very good. A message on burden and leadership was addressed. It touched my heart regarding my family and those I love. Just had to share that.

It is hard to believe this week is already nearly half over. I began on-call again this Monday for this week. I will be on it for 7 days and then off 6 then on again for another 7 days. Gotta make that extra buck an hour.

My brother-in-law brought a laptop to me yesterday to have me look at it. I don't know where he is getting all these, and I don't ask. This one looks like it only has DOS on it with no windows installed at all. The CD is not recognized but interesting enough, you can slide in/out the CD and Floppy as an adapter. Oh well. I will see if I can install XP on it.

My son is sick this morning. He acted fine the first day in school. Yesterday during 4-H he bounced around, but by yesterday evening he became sick. My wife has to take him to a couple of Doctor's appointments today anyway. Just makes it hard.

Took my daughter to Basketball practice last night. I can see she enjoyed being back in the game after our 2 week out of state excursion. The couch showed her how to properly pass the ball and shoot the ball. He kept looking back at the stand to me as if 'Don't you know this stuff?' I thought to myself, 'nope, that's why I bring her to you.' Oh well. She enjoys it and I think she will get there.

Since Yu-Gi-Oh is pretty dark and has as many cards to read and learn as Clinton's excuses, we will look into the Pokemon card game. The kids love Pokemon and I plan to see if it's a bit lighter than Yu-Gi-Oh. I been trying to play the online Duel Monsters that Mark introduced me to, but I basically get my butt kick on the ones I played. Oh well, it's a nice break and I am glad Mark introduced it to me.

I will be traveling to Corp the second week of March. I plan to leave Saturday the 5th and return home Friday the 11th. They are already setting up conferences, ect. while I am down there.

The last 2 nights I haven't slept worth a flip. On-call hasn't been bad, knock on wood. But I seem to have a hard time getting to sleep and finding rest.

We finally made it home Friday evening around 4 p.m. central. We made two stops near home. One was a goldmine find for organic, non-toxic store in a hole in wall place. We spent way less in this store than the stores in Amarillo (gathering organic foods, ect.) but acquired nearly double items. The other stop was to grab cat liter, I knew we would need it. Yeah, exciting stuff, eh?

Saturday I ended up running to Fort Smith for errands and such. Today, however, I refuse to go anywhere. The whole family was a-sleep by 8:30 p.m. Friday night and didn't get up till at least 8 a.m. the next morning. Total exhaustion. We spent Saturday cleaning the house, unpacking, and getting some stuff together, (the wife moreso than I). Today, we finished up some cleaning, had some friends over for lunch and I am already ready for a nap.

Nixon has an interesting article regarding ramifications of bloggers in regards to posting about their jobs. When I have time, I would like to do a experiment to see how much info, I could actually acquire off of someone, via the net. Anyone have any suggestions of a good person to try it on, let me know.

Well, we survived Mesa, Arizona. Survived the Doctor's, 4 wall apartment for a week, ect. We are now at the Grand Canyon. We decided to drive here this afternoon, then off to Amarillo, Texas tomorrow. The Grand Canyon was only 45 minutes off our path and it would be a shame not to see it. So we are in a hotel nearly one mile away from it. It was cold and windy. It amazed me to see desert and 5 foot cactus in Mesa, snow covered peaks across the mountains to Flagstaff and snow on the ground here at parts of Grand Canyon. It was definitely a diverse in terrain from point to point.

Tomorrow will be the killer drive. It will be 11 hours from here to Amarillo. I am dreading it, but once we get there, only 6 hours more to home. I look forward to get home.

My thoughts on one of the 7 wonders of the world? The Canyon was indeed beautiful. Looked more like a canvas than a view. It's pretty obvious the only thing surviving out here buisiness wise is off the tourist that come. 2 restruants, 2 gas stations (2.49 per gallon), and maybe 3 gift shops? Yeah, I expected more.

The weekend was a nice break of the 4 walls. We hit the Phoenix Zoo today. I wasn't impressed. 40 bucks to get in, 12 bucks to ride the train. A lot of empty cages and there wasn't a good pathway to walk through. It seemed to be all over the field.

The kids were tired today, but should only be here 2.5 more days. We plan to leave Wednesday midday. I am taking a 1/2 day Wednesday and taking off both Thursday and Friday. We plan to go to the Grand Canyon on the way back home. It's only 45 minutes out of the way. We are so close, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to say 'we been there'.

Yesterday we went to a 'swap mart'. I found the kids Yu-Gi-Oh starter decks for 3 bucks a deck. 2.50 if you buy two. I let them pick out a deck a piece and then went back to get me one. When we went to another mall I realized how cheap they really were. 12.95 per deck! Unreal. I was soooo tempted to go back and grab all of them to sell on E-bay.

We also did laundry here again. Should be the last time before leaving. The kids and I actually played in the outside pool today. Nearly 80 degrees here. We are just really ready to go home.

We are watching the SuperBowl here in the hotel room. So far they are tied, 7-7, half-time.

Yesterday evening, we had our first time to enjoy the trip. While my wife took a nap, the kids and I went to the Southwest Museum. I must say I was impressed. On one side was 3 stories, the other contained 2. They refer to the museum as the Dinosaur museum and rightly so. There were many Dinosaur skeletons. There was also a display of acutal dinosaur eggs. Evidently this was not a standard display for the museum rather a temporary one. It was a treat to walk around and view the ancient indian artificacts, dinosaurs, and the kids were able to pan for gold (pyrite). They found more water on themselves then gold, but they loved it. I took many pictures and absolutely loved it.

When we returned, we ended up taking the kids to Golf Land. They commercialize having more than 200 games in the arcade, but when you see 2 or 4 of the same game, it dwindles in difference. I have yet to find a holographic game in these big city arcades. Again, the kids loved it. Of course I had to play some games as well. (smiling). It was a bit pricey but a hotspot in the evenings and night. As it grew later, more and more people arrived. This place also had a laser tag arena, bumber boats, mini-golf, and a go cart racetrack.

Since my daughter seems to be getting more interested in Yu-Gi-Oh, I figured I better analyze it.

As a former Magic Card player (more than 10 years ago), I can see similarities. The Yu-Gi-Oh, has some distinct differences that, I believe, helps drive its continued success. There is an actual storyline where the kids or adults follow. This is propelled mainly in the cartoon but also in comic and books. Since I have not read any printed material on this game, I can only base my analysis on the cartoon aspect of the subject.

The creator of the Yu-Gi-Oh phenomenon was created by Kazuki Takahashi.
Some history of Kazuki Takahashi can be found here.

The cartoon is 30 minutes in length. However, if you take in consideration the following it’s more of 20 minutes. The first 3-4 minutes comprise of a recapture of what happened in the prior cartoon, commercials, ect. Also I noticed a lot of verbage or talking in the cartoon. So I suspect the story line is only roughly 6 minutes per episode. The main theme is comprised of the duel. There is at least one major duel per episode (from what I have seen). This does too things; brings action to the game and introduce new cards to the audience. This is a great marketing tool for Bandai.

The card game itself is a strategic game, similar to chess. The two opposing foes battle it out by the cards in their deck (which they themselves create by buying the different cards) and how they play it. However, unlike chess, this is more of a visual battle with many many possible sentries. Note also rather than the king on the board in chess, you play the king and your life points pulls you into the game more so. There is a feeling of the player being more part of the game. One of the chief things I see where Bandai did right compared to the Magic cards is the strength of the cards. I noticed that Magic cards continued to go upwards in strength. After awhile the buyer gets tired of the race for newer and stronger cards. There is only so much you can reach. Bandai, however, limits the strength, but expands the cards horizontally. They create more cards for the buyer, but in such a way to allow more strategy in play, rather than power and strength. Note this is also a statement from Yu-Gi-Oh, in the cartoon as well. “There is more in the cards than strength and power.”

I have not played the game myself. This is only a brief synopsis of a dad trying to understand what drives my kids in this subject.

Conclusion: Yu-Gi-Oh’s drive is two fold. It has a storyline that pulls you into the subject and there is an element of power when you strategically beat an opponent in this game.

You can purchase Yu-Gi-Oh from Amazon.com here.

This is the third day for sons treatments and test. We had really good news and seeing some positive results. My poor wife has been n the Doc office nearly all day every day we been here. My poor daughter has been stuck with me most of the day in the hotel as well. Me? I been doing as I normally do, stuck on the PC working away. Unfortunately we will be here till next week. I have alreay spoken to the hotel and extended our stay. Luckily they knocked off 10 bucks a night on the extended days.

I plan to actually stop on time tomorrow night. Hopefully our family can have some quality time and enjoy some time together.

We drove into Mesa, Arizona from Flagstaff this morning. We stayed till my 11 a.m. est confernce call was over. Fortunately we made it here in Mesa safely. Our son's first apppointment was Tuesday at 3:45 Mountain time. Kelli and he was in there for 3.5 hours. My daughter and I stayed at the hotel, not knowing how long it would be. We caught up on the laundry, while she did homework, I read Wired magazine.

When my wife and son returned it was nearly 7 p.m. (felt like 8 to us) and everyone was hungry, not eating dinner yet. We drove around trying to find some kindof mall around here to no avail. Finally resolving to pulling into a 7-11 asking where is a local mall or restruant around here was told 4 miles up. So it's nearly 5 miles to a mall. At least we now know. Sitting across the table in an actual restraunt (lived on the road the past 2 days, it was a nice change), I couldn't help to see my wifes enthusiasm. It appears our son has mercury poisoning. The Doctor told her, he was a bit intimidated to know we are traveling 1600 miles to have him see her son. But after seeing our son, he said he's not worried. Our son can be fixed. Bold words from someone seeing him in less than 3 hours. I won't go into detail just yet, primarily because I simply don't have it. I will meet the Doctor myself tomorrow (now today). I was impressed he actually gave my wife his cell number and changed his next few days pt's around to see our son twice a day while we are here.

He also called us while we were out to ask if we had the chance to discuss and asked how our son was doing after the first treatments. This also impressed me. I spoke with him on the cell myself. He asked if I had any questions, ect. I will get a CD from him tomorrow with 'more information than I wanted' on some of my inquiries. Kelli already made him aware I work with computers, so he knows I am a bit analytical. I guess if he can speak my terminology, I can feel better about all this. Granted I would do anything for my family. It is just easier to understand why we will be doing it.

We have no idea how long we may be here. I reserved the hotel till Saturday morning, but we may be here next week as well. Sigh. Glad I brought the kids DVD's, wished I had brought some of mine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gotta start getting my work stuff ready for the week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah, call you tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is how you can help.

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

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

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

http://www.operationoutcry.org

Thank you!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I will be starting some informational articles soon.

I got sleep last night, Yeah!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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