Middle America's Worldview

I guess this would be week one down from five. I think it was a bit slow, although busy. I basically been in the hotel with the exception of one night we ate out and two errands I had to run. Personally I don’t care. I am pretty much use to it working home.

I noticed something else too. My wife needs more sociability than me. She literally lights up when a friend calls her on the cell to talk. I knew she enjoyed time chatting, act. With her friends, but didn't really understand the need till this trip. I read somewhere guys more easily picked up old friends easier after years of not seeing them or required less 'guy time' than what was considered 'girl time'. I guess it holds true.

This weekend we plan to hit the Mesa Market. It's basically a large outside flea market. I am looking forward to getting out and just leisurely looking around. I will bring my pda with me in case I get a call from work. Tomorrow we plan to have a picnic in one of the nice parks nearby. I haven’t been on a picnic for quite some time. Again I am looking forward to it.

Arizona surprises me with its cleanliness and obvious leaning on the natural healthy side. There are more health shops, natural stores than one can shake a stick at around here. We went into a simple store the other day and I bet there were 4 aisle of nothing but vitamins. Ironically there were 6 aisles of wine. All but one brand I never heard of. This was only part of one side of the store. Nothing compared to home. The medical ideology is a dichotomy when compared here and home. It seems more natural, higher if not different technology here than at home. Those here are more apt to have different views on the attempts to cure someone here than the 'thinking in the box' view at home. I find it fascinating when comparing to the states.

One gripe I guess I have is my wife has been taking our kids to places and out during this whole week. That isn't the gripe. The gripe is our kids seem to require 24/7 entertainment time. Their though of going to Mesa Market is 'what are we going to do for fun today or tonight'. I hadn’t realized how much they are in to 'the me'. If nothing else, this trip has opened my eyes on many things. I see some of these things in my family and also some of me. I recognize I require 'getting away' time as well. This is done by watching a movie when the kids are nearly asleep or reading. I went through a whole book in a matter of a couple days. I read slowly so I think I astounded my wife. I continue to be sick of being on a computer after on it all day. So I find entertainment in playing PS2, battle with the Pokemon decks we brought with the kids, ect. Oh well. As previously thought, this will be a long 5 weeks, but not I also believe it will be eye openers.

Midweek of one out of five already. Well, regardless of the busyness with work, it still seems slow. This getting up 4 a.m. and to work around 5:30 6 a.m. is something else. My computer's clock remains set to eastern time to help me with my scheduled conference calls. I have to turn around to the microwave clock within the hotel room to see the local time. When I came into this hotel room I recognzied the layout. I asked the main desk later this week if they were affiliated with MainStay. They said they use to be MainStay, but no longer. This is the exact floorplan as the MainStay hotel I stay at in Pennsylvania. How freaking weird is that? The room is smaller than the one in PA but the same layout.

My wife had another emotional day today. She came into the room and I could see she was crying again. Seems the every other day schedule has been changed to everyday for our son while we are here. However, the Tuesday and Thursday's are only for 15 minutes. Seems our son informed the Doc 'mom been doing physical therapy, speech therapy, ect' Yeah, it's called excercise and continued speech therapy since we are in bumville and not home. So the gracious doctor thought it best to come in on the T days to do some physical therapy. Probably charge us another 2 days per week for this. The other thing that is upsetting her is the office stating it may be longer and/or more expense than we have informed you, prior of coming. But we will take a percentage off, ect to assist. Man, I wish they would find the solution and soon. We been out 10K out of pocket for this and most have come from charity or assistance. I shouldn't bitch because most families could not even do this. I have a lot of blessings and lattitude as opposed to most. Yet, it is frustrating to continue to see my wife and family go through this rollercoaster.

It boils down to this...The metals, toxic's ect that we have and flush out of our systems on a daily basis is not big deal. However, our son seems to not be able to flush those same metals, toxics ect out of his body. They want to remain there and build up. This crap then brings on the seizures, inability to concentrate, ect. The doc here is the only one identifying that and can remove it from his system with the high-tech equipment and treatments. However, the issue is for our son to continue to do so on his own. This is what the doc is now trying to figure out.. him and whomever he is consoling. We had hoped and was told the full program should remedy this issue. Since only being here a little over one week was such a remarkable improvement, it sounded logical to us. The set back we experienced was due to our son not continueing to flush this out without the laser, daily treatments ect. But we really can't live here, so we are hoping and praying for the answer to remedy this.

Our daughter stays with me in the hotel room while Kel and our son goes to the doc. She fixed me lunch and we took a break to hit the excercise room. I actually walked 2 miles on the treadmill. At least it blows steam and maybe some calories.

Work went as usual today. Three conference calls, worked on 4 projects and bothered by peers. If one thinks by working out of a hotel eases ones load, think again. The main difference? The 3 hour difference. Having to work 6-2 rather than 8-4 makes my day seem very quick. I am on call this week, but next week will enjoy the evenings off with the family without the worry of a cell phone ringing.

My daughter and I took a break today to work a little in the excercise room. It has a nice treadmill, stair climber and bike to work with. Plus the abilty to watch the whopping 12 channels on their tv. yeah.

Thankfully our PS2 works well. The abilty to play games in addition to movies will be a lifesaver. There is nothing on TV, so Pokemon DVD is it. I will have to use the portable dvd player tonight to watch a 'dad's movie'. I been cartooned out already. I was able to catch some news this afternoon just to get an idea of what is going on in the outside world.

This is going to be a looonnngg five weeks.

Well we rested today. Still having trouble with the time change. It is 2 hours behind here from where we are. So at 5:30 at here the kids are playing PS2 in pajamas (already showered) with the sun still up. Kel and I are like...ready to get prepared for bed?

Although we 'rested' today, we ran around checking the grounds around us. We found our old stomping area in Mesa. We hit a couple of stores to walk around and found a really good park. I was impressed with the park and we will probably be hitting it quite often. I managed to do the laundry (unbelievable, but yes already)this afternoon. We also managed to play in the park, get our bearings, play in the pool here at the hotel, found the excercise room and tried out the 3 items, and get settled in the room.

Other than that, we called our mothers to wish them a happy mothers day. We ate at Macaroni Grill here for lunch.

I also checked the buisiness email so it won't bog me down too much tomorrow.

Made it to Arizona! Talk about God watching over us. Man, it was a long drive.
We arrived in Amarillo yesterday around 3 p.m. We stayed all night with Kel's aunt and uncle. Thinking it was 5 a.m. we actually were up at 3 a.m. and drove it straight through to Arizona. We are all tired but with needed showers done and pizza in our bellies, contempt.

We continue to get ready for our drive to Arizona. We have nearly everything ready. I will be glad when we finally arrive there.

Want a free DVD? Check out Last Best Chance.org They are sending out these DVD's while they last. It depicts off facts regarding terrorist's getting nuclear arms. It looks intense.

Today is our son's 6th birthday. It is hard to believe he is already six. Man, feeling old. We will be going to Chuckie Cheese tonight for him to play with his friends. Yeah, fun fun.

A lot is going on in today's news. Here are some highlights and my thoughts.

2 toy grenades were loaded with gunpowder blasted small damage outside the British Consulate.
My thoughts...What if it has nothing to do with the Brits, rather a probe to see how we respond and timing us?

Sex offender in Florida cuts off his ankle tracking bracelet (near school yard) and flees

OK guys, it's getting crazy for these sex offenders running helter skelter. This makes 2 sex offenders escaping in Florida doing this. What the he** is wrong with them down there anyway? I say plan a GPS in all sex offenders body (say internal that will detonate upon attempt of removal) regardless of victims age. Have their GPS on the net so anyone can view where the he** they are on a given moment. They already have their mugs on the sex offenders list anyway, so this would only bring it to real time. The bleeding hearts worried they will be looked after to be picked on, tough. They should had thought of the consequences when they were enacting their own desires on a innocent.

No. 3 in terrorist group caught and talking.

Who knows what the guy is saying. Perhaps the government just leaked it to the media to watch the ants run.

Documents to prove Kofi Anon may be guilty of the Oil and Food Scandal

Is there anyone really not surprised?

I will be the first to admit I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. However, I have to tell you this one. As you know, I been attempting to pull a index of school board members in the attempt to have the members a way to converse across the districts for ideas, ect. I happen to find out our area is district 14. On the ossba.org site there are 2 contacts listed. I called one of them to inquire what their roles are. I found out they were considered directors of the district, voted in by the other districts school board members. Hmm, ok a person of information. I explained to him my history of inquiry with no answers and asked if he was aware of any index of contacts. Nope, he doesn't believe it exists. I could ask OSSBA. I informed him, I already went down that road. So this was another dead end. Then he stated the district has 2 meetings a year for a chance all school board members within the district to get together. Perhaps I could attend and bring it up or make some contacts that way. OK so I asked the obvoius question. How does the members get notified of the when/where/ to attend? He answered very quickly. Oh, the OSSBA sends out a letter to all the board members with that information..... OK, I repied, that would be an indication they had a index of contacts. Only silence from the other end of the phone.

We had our last PTA meeting last night. I for one am glad of it. We were in and out within 30 minutes. Fortunately no hassle from anyone. I will be the treasurer for next school year as well. Guess, I am doing something right on that part. ( smile )

2 days after today, before we leave for Arizona. I need to get some stuff down around the house, big time. I was on support for work yesterday, hence no time to do anything else.

Wow, what a day!

I must say, today was fun. We had our son's party at the place, and it was a blast. We were the first there and had a chance to look around. It wasn't so much as a large place, but they organized the space well. They had only 5 tv's consisting of 3 x-box's and 2 PS2's attached to it. They had Halo2! I had to try it out. It was great graphics and easy controls. Too cool. In addition I played pool with a couple of friends and my brother. I haven't played in a looonng time, so it was nice. The place wasn't too big for the little ones to get lost nor too small to be crowded.

The kids seem to have a blast as well. In addition to the games, they had remote control vehicles, a blow up slide (which was a hit) and a 900 lb riding mechanical bull. Some of the kids got on to ride and for pictures. One mom and my brother and I. Yes, I had to try it. I think I held my own. I was surprised the inside of my legs were the most tired from it. I guess from squeezing the sides.

After the party we went over to my dad's and checked out his new truck. We cruised on home and was greeted by our friends. No naps for us. They stayed till nearly 7 p.m.

We then showered the kids, played pokemon card game (dueled), ate snacks and prepared for bed. My honey is already asleep, exhausted. I just layed the kids down and figured I better write this while I can.

We have 4 days of school left and leaving for Arizona Friday. Our plan is to hit Amarillo, Texas Friday evening. Then head straigth to Arizona Saturday. It's about 6.5 hours to Amarillo and another 14 to Arizona. Yeah, long A@@ trip.

We will actually begin packing tomorrow. Sounds crazy, but if you seen our schedule for this coming week, you would understand it will go faster than this week. This week flew faster than a 407 on crack.

This week simply flew. I mean really really flew. I looked up Friday afternoon at the clock to see it was 4:30 p.m. thinking, crap what happened to the day? That was pretty much everyday for me.

Thursday night, my wife went to the PTA wrapup party. They went to Logans to eat. I was also going to go but had to attend the School Board meeting. I found it interesting, albeit I was nearly late. I had to try to find, scan and send a file to Kinkos for the PTA yearbook. This all 15 minutes prior of the School Board meeting.
I did make it right before the roll call. The meeting was interesting and I felt more comfortable in asking questions, ect. When I came back to the house, our babysitter (neighbors girl) was playing hard with the kids. I asked if she could remain for a few more minutes and I ran the file to Kinkos because it was simply too big to email. I met the girls (wife and PTA group) at Kinkos then left them to it.

I relieved the babysitter, put the kids down for the night and finally went to bed myself, flipping through the channels. Kel made it in awhile later.

Thursday night was also my first night of a decent sleep. On-call didn't kill me that night.

Friday, as I said flew, during the day. The kids had a day off. We went to get haircuts around lunch, took care of car insurance and grabbed a Sonic for the them. Kelli had to work her butt off. A friend of hers asked for assistance on her job. So she had to clean, scrape, ect on a newly constructed house. I was surprised she isn't as sore this Saturday morning as I expected. ( I had to biofreeze her back and shoulders for her, ((grin))

This Saturday morning we are going to 'Smarty Partys' for our son's birthday. It has a 900 pound riding bull, X-box, PS2, 50 games to choose from, pool table, remote trucks on a terrain, ect. for 2 hours. I hadn't seen it yet, but looking forward to checking it out. It's pretty new in town and I know of one mom coming without her kids just to try out the bull. LOL

With the prospect of Euphenasia in USA and our continual eradication of our youth, one wonders how much life is worth anymore? I guess it depends on who you ask.

Evidently in Palestine, it's worth about 100 NIS (around 23 U.S. bucks) for as many as you can get.


Two More Boy Bombers Nabbed in West Bank - Margot Dudkevitch

Two Palestinians, aged 14 and 15, who were paid $23 apiece to detonate a bagful of bombs near soldiers at the Jalameh crossing north of Jenin, were arrested on Wednesday. Major Yariv, a commander of the unit deployed at the crossing, said the two had been instructed to approach the soldiers and ask for a drink of water and then detonate the bombs near them. It is the 11th time since the beginning of April that terrorists have recruited teens to either smuggle weapons through the checkpoints or blow up near soldiers, security officials said. (Jerusalem Post)

It's nearly 11:30 at night and I still continue to wait. We have a facility moving their system over to another server. I already have my stuff down, been done for 4 hours, however, I have to wait for the other side. We were hoping like crazy they would be done and ready by 10 p.m. but alas it isn't so.

I received 2 calls last night during on-call. One around midnight and the other around 4 a.m. I stayed up after the 4 a.m. call. So here we are approaching midnight again and I have to wait. Because God knows if I lay down the call will come. Such is the life.

Since I am on-call this week, it seems my life revolves around work. Just can't get away from it. Fortunately it's only for one week.

My wife is stressing to the max. She puts everything on her shoulders. I mean everything. She plans what is needed, required, and to do before, during and after our road trip to Arizona coming up. She gives me a simple request and I seem to always miss the ball. I had said I would make an errand today. Well, today was the craps, since I was on support and 2 meetings to be in. Hence I didnt make it around lunch. I was on the phone all the way up to taking our son to therapy and totally wasnt thinking of the simple errand. Of course this was pointed out to me nearly 7 p.m. this evening. Crap. I could had made the errand if I left at that point, but that wasn't the point. The point was I failed to do it and it just another marker on the board. (In my mind anyway)

I will take the kids to school tomorrow morning. They are out Friday this week. The lucky brats only have 4 days of school this week and 4 days next. I plan to watch them Friday and all three of us to get a haircut. I wonder if a catastrophe will occur to ensure that simple request will not happen. Hmm. Guess we will see.

Now 11:35 p.m. and the vendor hasn't replied to my email. She must be doing something on her end. Perhaps she will give the thumbs up soon. Too late to start a movie. I already ate the remaining salad and munched on potato chips. There isn't crap on tv and I already read up on my blog roll. Crap, I hate having to wait.

I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with the OKC conferences regarding the new School Board members workshop. The only 2 complaints I had were; they did not hand out pamplets per class, rather what you wrote down in notes is what you left with and there is no index of Oklahoma school board members. I was really think there should be a contact list to allow new members to gain insight what each district is doing in regards to policies, issues, ect. This would help facilitate and promote the state in whole. Yes, I did actually put this in writing on our feedback form.

Other than being in the class most of the whole day, I enjoyed the time with Kel. It was nice to be able to walk around the mall or store, withiout little ones asking to go home. Yes, we missed them, but the break in that regard was cherished. Kel and I didn't make it out to a movie Saturday night, but we did spend some quality time by eating dinner. Since I continued to have sinus issues and she was tired anyway, it was benadryl and melatonin time at night. It was rough sleeping Friday night, but I crashed hard Saturday night.

We acquired a new PS2 game, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' to bring back for the kids, myself included. The kids and I have beat Shrek2 and we are working on TMNT now. The game allows four players at once, hence the three of us get to play and work together on it. Cool deal. Kel just asked not to be dragged in. heh heh

I finished watching season 3 of 24 last night. I had to put it away for a time due to our crazy schedule, but I was able to finish it up last night. Talk about a very good storyline and intense show. I can't wait till season 4 will be on dvd as well. Maybe it will be a Christmas present. (hint hint)

I seen the other day 'The greatest American Hero' first season was out on dvd. Did anyone else watch this show? I loved it as a kid and will be watching Ebay for it.

Work has been crazy already this week. Not bad crazy, thank God, but busy crazy.

Better get back to work, currently changing IP's for a new Rad server for a specific hospital. I have a school board meeting Thursday night. I will present a lot of questions. Yes, they will see me as a pain in the butt, because I don't want to be a bench warmer.

Made it to Oklahoma City, tonight. The past 2 days I basically been scanning the PTA yearbook. Finally finished it today as well and sent the 20 bloody CDR's to Kinkos for them to create our yearbook. 170 PDF files scanned and done! whew.

Looking forward to this weekend. My wife and I actually have 2 nights alone in a hotel room. I will be in the School Board class all day, but we will have the evenings. Unfortanately I am still not over my allergy crap. My voice is returning but my sinuses are still acting up.

I will be sore tomorrow, for sure. Friends of Kelli had created a fundraiser held tonight in our assistance. Jack's Skateland offered their place for 2 hours and all was able to skate. Yes, I pulled on the rollerskates (not blades) and went around and around. I had my son on one arm and a friends son on the other. I think I held them up half of the whole evening. My arms are telling me I did. I enjoyed it though and received a good workout.

We came home and put the kids in showers, teeth brushed, into bed. I think it was about 14 minutes and my girl was out like a light. Our son is still struggling to hang on. LOL

I didn't have any conference calls today, so that was good. I continued to scan the PTA yearbook pages. I am up to page 75 of 180. Yeah, moving right along.

In times like these, it's appreciated very much for friends like these.

Glad Monday and Tuesday is over. Work continued to be busy with conference calls, ect. Seems the tone has changed to "push" the vendors along. Seems they are not moving fast enough.

The girls came over last night trying to finish up the PTA yearbook. I say girls but all of them have kids the same grade/class as mine. I had Kel's parents digital camera out (they let us borrow it) and was snapping pictures. Not often I have a lot of good looking women over. (grin)

I also lost my voice as of yesterday evening. I been fighting a alergy cold, much like everyone else and it finally caught up with me. I guess it was good it lasted till after work, but sucked last night, since I couldnt hardly raise my voice over a loud whisper. Fortunately my main form of communication is email and IM's at work.

I don't really feel 'bad', just can't talk. I hope it gets better by the weekend, due to me being in Oklahoma City for the School Board 2-day classes.

I just finished watching the Contender as I put up the clothes and backed up my laptop files. It was good. I missed it Sunday and was able to catch-up on it, tonight. Cool.

Today was a Monday for sure at work. I had 3 conference calls that lasted all morning.

The weekend was good. I was able to clean the vehicles over the weekend, mowed the yard, ect. I was also able to play with the kids and enjoy some quality time with the family.

I happened to catch a piece of 'Desperate Housewives' last night. I must admit, I never seen this before and only seen a part of it. However, the part I seen kind of erked me. Evidently an actor playing a son thinks he may be or is gay. The mother is freaking due to thinking he will go to hell. She had the priest come over for supper. The actor playing the priest came in bible carrying and all. Evidently there are no pocket bibles in Hollywood. What irked me was the priest relentlessly came in and started to talk about the kid’s sexual interest. No couth or sensitivity at all. Of course the kid stated he knows himself and he is cool about it. The priest stops the discussion to the moms chagrin. She kept asking 'Is that it?' to the priest. Correctly the priest replied the kid didn’t want to discuss it anymore nor could the priest change his mind. The dad played the role of support 'whatever the kid wants we need to support him'.

That is my rant. Here is my reason for the rant. Because I don't believe in griping about something without a reason or resolution, here are my thoughts on it. The idea of someone going to hell for being gay is incorrect. Correctly the reason we go to hell is due to not accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. Yes, most believe heaven is attained by good acts and deeds. But that is why Christianity is different than any other religion. Rather than by your own deeds or actions, heaven is only attainable by the blood of Jesus. He died for our sins so we had a choice to be with God (in heaven) or not and end up in hell. I like Ray Comforts take on it.

Look at the 10 commandments. Have you broken the 10 commandments? Have you ever stolen something at any point in your life, regardless of the worth? Have you ever lied about anything? Sure we all have, myself included. That is only 2 of the 10 commandments.

So we have all sinned and come short. Rom 3:23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

The only payment for sin is death. Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death;

This means we all have sinned. Not just gay, murderers, sexual predators, ect.

The bible makes it clear the law shows us we have sinned. It's like a light showing the dust on a table. The light didn’t make the dust but shows it. The law doesn’t make sin, but shows it to us.

So what can we do to attain heaven and not death?

The bible makes it very clear what the answer is.
Jesus said to him,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." -- John 14:6

Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice of death for our life eternal with God. Rom 6:23 ....but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you haven't accepted Christ as your saviour, allowing Him to be Lord of your life, I would urge you to do so now. What He offers is a free gift of eternal life and you only need to ask him for it.

It is a simple message passed down the ages. Unfortunately in the show, this message was not said or told. That is what irked me. If it was a true priest, he would have given the message and corrected the mother.

Its been awhile before I could get a chance to blog. Just been really busy, between Church, School Board, Family, Work, ect.

We recieved good news today. The initial doc bill has been changed to no more than 4500 this is very good, considering the first quote around 8200. This is a far easier goal to set. This also includes the meds and supplements while we will be there. Praise God!

Also Kel's friends, we have learned, are working diligently on ways to acquire money. Through fundraisers ect. This is a blessing beyond words. I had a good feeling Sunday morning on the way to church and now it seems to be blossoming. I am relieved beyond words.

I will be going to Oklahoma City the weekend of April 22nd. I will be leaving that Friday and attend 2-day conferences regarding Oklahaoma law and policies regarding School Board. I look forward to this and hope to gain some valuable info. Although a newbie, I hope to energize the School Board out of its apathic state. Kel will be going with me, without the kids! Unreal. She can relax all day while I am in the conferences and we can enjoy the evenings together. Fortunately her parents will keep them for us.

Work has just been that, work. Let's not go there.

The kids used their money to buy Shrek2 for the PS2. We had rented it and all 3 of us can play it at the same time. I was able to play with them tonight and we made it past the next chapter! woo hoo.

I had posted a possibility for the next pope and the possibility of him being the false prophet. I received two other interesting emails. One is a link indicating he has a nearly 50 already supporting him. He requires 77 to be the next pope. The other makes reference of the last pope will have a females name. Intereting enough, this same pope, Ratzinger, has Jean-Marie, within his name. Interesting.

Yesterday was a busy day. Work was stressfull in the sense of an ever continueing project coming to a head. Let's just say Corporate was pushing and the facility pushed back, I was stuck in the middle (again).

I took both kids to our son's speech therapy. As they were in the back playing I ran to the bank and post office. Grabbed them, ran to the video store, renting Shrek2. We then proceeded to Burger King, treating the kids with a kids meal. Proceeding to a nearby movie place, I acquired some passes for the PTA fundraiser gifts. From there a hop over to Putt Putt Golf for additional passes. I was trying to acquire all the necessary fundraiser prizes while I was in Fort Smith. Most of these guys don't open till after 3 p.m. This makes it difficult to do on a lunch. I don't see how Kel runs like this all the time.

In the evening the kids and I stayed home while Kel ran to a friends house working on the PTA school book. I knew she was stressed out so made some no-bake cookies with the kids. We straightend up the house (cant tell it now) and played the Shrek2 game. We can all 3 play at the same time, together.

I called Kel a couple times checking on her and found out on her way home, she had a melt down. It is difficult, because it's one of those situations, where you just simply have no control over. I can't help recognize we made it this far, no turning back now. With the stress of the job, family and pressure from others (too many to laundry list here), it is no wonder she held out this long. Hang in there Kel, I am stil waiting on the word go from the Lord. It will come.

On another note, I also picked up the agenda for the school board as me and the kids headed to Fort Smith yesterday afternoon. I was shown the bids for the new roof at school. I received a call from one of the other board members last night as well. I think i had more answers than she thought I would. This is not boasting, but I could tell she was a bit surprised I was actually in the loop already. As she ended the call, I re-asked her to call me anytime. She said ok and hung up. Too me, this is not much difference than work. Communication is key and it looks like it will hold true here as well. But then again, what do I know? I just started and havent been sworned in yet.

I am pleased to announce I have won the School Board election. I actually won pretty big in small town standards. There was a large turnout as expected due to the City Council having 2 wards being voted on the same day. I appreciate everyones vote for me on this and hope to do my best. It is a 5 year term. I also learned another board member will resign in the next meeting. Monday night will be my first School Board meeting, not as an observer. They will swear me in first thing, and then proceed. I will be required to go to Oklahoma City in the end of April for 2 days of conferences. I actually get to go with another School Board member. The School's secretary had called 2 weeks ago asking for my availble days, in case I win. I chose the same days as the other School Board member, thinking it will be more beneficial we partipate together. I should learn a better understanding of the rules and process in class as well as what really goes on outside of class by my peer.

Now that this ulcer is over with, gladly so, another one raises it's head. In 4 weeks we are scheduled to drive back to Arizona for a duration of 5 weeks there. This is for our son's medical need. The 5 weeks will consist of the full program that will alleviate our son's issue. When we went a couple of months ago it had a major difference in enhancing his progress. However, as of today, he is not progressing.

The issue was found to be a residual of metals in his body, speculated to be from his 2 year immunization shots (he is now 5). This resulted in a long arduous account of issues. Issues being seizures, inability to speak correctly, ect.

I truly believe we were lead there for the answer. At this point, I wish we stayed the full duration while we were there the last time, but I also know we really couldn't due to school, work, ect. Rather than going back and forth, it has been decided to go the full 5 weeks. The cost will be 8200 dollars in Doctor fees. Our insurance will not cover any of it, due to it not being viewed as mainstream medicine. It is Holistic. Regardless if these procedures show improvement, it simply doesn't matter. Sounds crazy, but if you have kids, you understand a parent will do simply anything to enhance his/her health. I am concerned how we will manage to find this prior of leaving. On the other hand, it must come from somewhere. Why else would we had been lead there in the first place? I don't think God sets us up for failure.

So I am asking those Christians who happen to read my blog or stumbled across this article, to please pray for me and mine. Thanks.

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.
=============================================================

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.