N3tw0rk

My network at home is on the fritz. Well, actually it is just my router's wireless capabilities. So right now I'm pounding out this blog from my crappy Windows machine that's hardwired into my router.

I guess it is probably about time that this happened since my router is about 2 years old. I knew it was bound to happen. When it is plugged in it makes this very quiet high-pitched noise that goes away if you unplug it. So in the next few days or so I will be heading off somewhere to buy a new router.

Tomorrow night though is date night. The Mrs and I are going to get some time to ourselves while the kids are with their grandparents. It will be good for the kids and good for us. The only catch is that we will not be in a major city and we are trying to find a theater that is showing The Bourne Ultimatum. We've heard that the movie "kicks major @$$" and we want in on some of that action while it is still on the big screen.

I'm gonna go for now though because I myself really need to reboot and relax so I'll be back when it's appropriate.

Combustacation

How many blog posts start out by me saying how worn out I am? Well, I can't break tradition with this one...

I spent most of the weekend working. I worked and worked, and then worked some more. I worked a total of around 15 hours this weekend which meant that I was up well into the night. That was with my "regular" job where I moonlight as an antivirus support engineer.

Then I had work lined up for my own "business" on the side which also drained some more life and energy out of me. I really need some R & R coming up here soon or I am going to catch on fire like the dude that is featured here in the photo to the right.

I do have to give props to my wife though. She probably should be sick of my absence by now, but instead she just keeps encouraging me to keep going and while I've had my own stuff to do she has been working on a monstrous project of cleaning out our house and garage of junk.

That's right, I have a big dumpster sitting out in my driveway right now that is pretty well full of junk; stuff that I've either had in my house, my basement or my garage for way too long. We are in the final stages of getting some stuff rolling to do a facelift on our house. Yep, new siding, windows, soffits, facia, gutters, and two of our porches rebuilt. This should mean a much warmer and energy efficient winter for us...not to mention the quieting of the trains that pass through town in the night.

I am only working for 3 hours tomorrow. Then I'm back in the office for Thursday and then out on Friday to make a nice 4-day-weekend. Nice.

the other night I watched the movie Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil. It was a pretty good movie.

My hair is now long enough that I have moved into the ponytail stage...of sorts.

Whenever I go over to my parent's for lunch, I always have this fear that I left their place having gone to the bathroom but forgot to flush.

I heard an ad on the radio today about investing in gold. They said that it was the best investment that one could make. As a "gift go get you started" they were offering to send you a free silver dollar. Hmmmm, invest in gold and get a silver dollar.

I find it hard to sit in a breezy air-conditioned room and not want to lay back and take a nap.

I finally watched most of the movie Zeitgeist. It is very interesting, but then again most conspiracy theory movies are interesting. I am usually pretty skeptical of conspiracy theories because I don't think that people are generally intelligent enough to carry them out...but I guess you never know.

I don't like how newspeople have changed over to use the word pleaded instead of plead for the past tense of the phrase "to plead."

Presidential candidate Tommy Thompson wants to eliminate cancer. Good luck with that.

I am tired of the political races already. Bert is running against Ernie who can't say anything good about Spongebob. Puppets. That's all they ultimately are. Puppets.

We temporarily provided refuge for a dog on Sunday, but then she peed on our floor so we put her outside and called the vet. The vet found her owner and she made it back home OK.

That football player who got in trouble for dog fighting claims to have "found Jesus" through all of his turmoil surrounding the incident. I'm pretty sure that Jesus was trying to hide as he probably didn't want to be involved in dog fighting. Poor Jesus.

That is enough for tonight. I think that my headache is strong enough now that I should listen to it and stop for the night.

Obesity In America

If you just go to the mall, fast food joints, or just sit in a parking lot somewhere and observe it is guaranteed that you will see more overweight folks than those who are on target. Although the exact source of the problem cannot instantly be found, there are more ways to address this today than there have been before.

Can you believe that at one time a method of weight control was to ingest tapeworms? Sure there were good intentions behind that but ultimately it did more harm than good. Today we have better means and methods of helping people achieve their desired weight loss.

Journey Lite specializes in Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding which is also known as LAGB or the
lap band System procedure. This is basically like having a control band installed around the upper part of your stomach that limits the amount of food that you can eat, thereby allowing you to lose weight faster. The fact that the procedure is performed via a Laparoscopic procedure, there is minimal scaring which means a faster recovery time.

If you are overweight and want to do something about it, please consider this opportunity. Financing is available so how much is your extended life worth to you?

For more information on the company and their services please visit their website.

And the winner is...

There is no winner; that's just a catch title.

Well, I just got up this morning. My wife is gone and my son is still in bed. I probably would still be sleeping except I was woken up by my bladder telling me to get up or else.

Another week of work is gone. I am currently waiting to hear back on a job that I applied for with the Iowa Department of Transportation. I originally applied for the position a few months ago and the hiring process has been put on hold a few times for various reasons. But I just got an email at the beginning of last week saying that they were going to begin the process again by the end of this week. I think it would be a sweet deal- the pay would be better, I would occasionally get to travel, my hours would be more consistent, I would have the job security of working for the State...many benefits.

On Thursday morning I got a funny call from my dad saying that he had something for my kids. When I asked him "what" he replied "a box." So then I said "oh yeah, what's in the box?" He then proceeded to tell me how, around his shop, they have all kinds of Praying Manta. He said that he had gotten 2 of them and that they were waiting for me to pick up. Reluctantly, I did.

When I got them home, we set the box in the floor and took the tape off so that it would open up a little. Then we shined a flashlight down in there to see if we could see anything. Then, like some scene from a scary movie one of them started to come out of the box, so we all screamed and then shut the box up again. We then decided that what we'd do is relocate the hermit crab and put the manta in her tank. So now they are out and wandering in her tank and I have to admit that they are kind of cool but still kind of creepy. They will watch you if you get up close. If you want to see a video of a praying mantis killing and eating a mouse then click here. If you'd rather see a strange cartoon drawing (unrelated to the subject at hand) then click here.

So we still have the manta until my daughter comes home and then it sounds like we will be letting them go outside. That is too bad because I was going to name them Genghis and Clementine. Those seemed like fitting names.

Just when it seems like all hope is lost, rest assured that it probably is.

I was thinking about something last night that seemed like it would make a very cool obscure subject for a blog entry but now I don't remember what it was.

My wife is on a [much necessary] kick to clean out all of the junk toys and unneeded children's cloths in our house. Wow do we have a lot of stuff. I can't believe the amount that we are either going to throw away or donate to charity.

Have you ever gone to bed and woken up with better hair than you had the day before?

I gotta go. My son needs breakfast, my wife needs help and my nephew needs his laptop fixed. Have a happy Saturnday.

Goth & Single?

I have seen a lot of different websites lately, as I do a lot of web surfing in search of what the latest trends are in various subcultures. This one is no exception to my "who would have known?" category. Finally a site that is dedicated to Goth dating!

Now, I know that many of the other well known websites allow you to search for your mate based on certain key criteria, but WOW, does this site really get down to specifics! You can search based on orientation, pet ownership, religious affiliation, willingness to relocate, hair colour, eye colour, nationality...I was pretty surprised by all of the different options available to narrow your search. I was also surprised to find that, even though I live in a fairly small (almost rural) town, how many hits I got from people fairly near to me.

Now, I am a happily married man, but I do have some goth friends that I would be willing to share this site with. So if you're goth and looking for that special someone to share your lair with then give this site a visit.

goth scene

Happy Birthday

Today is my son's 2nd birthday. What a flood of memories come to mind when I think about the day he was born; talk about excitement!

The night before my son was born my wife had been having trouble sleeping due to what felt like just an upset stomach. Since she couldn't sleep she decided to just go downstairs and watch TV and lay on the couch.

I woke up at 04:30 that morning to find that she was not in bed with me so I decided to take a journey downstairs to see what was going on. She was laying on the couch saying that she was uncomfortable with what felt like gas pains. She had been in and out of the bathroom many times hoping that something would happen to make things more comfortable for her but nothing seemed to be working. So we called the "First Nurse" people at the hospital and they gave us some suggestions that didn't work either. So I then jumped online and read whatever I could on the subject of relieving gas pain...the one thing that we had not tried was peppermint tea. So I jumped in the car @ 06:00 and drove to the nearest town in search of it. I went to a few places before I found it. Once I had it in hand I drove back home as quickly as possible.

When I was just about 10 minutes away from home my wife called and said that she hoped I was on my way because she was really getting uncomfortable. I assured her that I would be there very soon and to just hold on.

When I got home she could barely stand up straight because of the discomfort; and nothing was happening in the bathroom. So I called "First Nurse" back and told them the situation- that she was pregnant with 2 weeks left to go in her term and that she was a very unhappy camper. The lady on the phone did some mumbling of sorts and then said that I should bring her in.

My first thought, though somewhat distant, was that possibly there were complications brewing...was everything alright? were they going to have to induce her? were they going to have to do a c-section? do i need to be worried? I did entertain the possibility though that we might end up having a baby by the end of the weekend.

So we notified to neighbour so that she could come over and be with our daughter. [Author's note: We had already been talking to our 2 year old daughter about what might happen if mommy should have to have the baby when she was sleeping. We told her that Lindsay might come over and be with her until Memah and Papa got there to be with her.] We then packed up whatever we thought we might need and we then zoomed off to the hospital. When my wife said that she thought that she was feeling some pressure I stepped on it. We were soon flying down U.S. Highway 30 westbound at 90mph. I blew right past a state trooper who was dealing with someone one the side of the road. He didn't do anything about me; it may have been because I was driving with my emergency flashers on.

When we got into Ames I continued to drive like a road conscious mad man through town. I even blew through an intersection that had a red light staring me in the face and a local cop driving right toward us. He just pulled into the gas station like he didn't even notice.

We get to the hospital and I wheel my wife in to the Emergency entrance in the wheel chair and when we're greeted by the receptionist who said "Hi, what are you here for today?" my wife said "I need to have a baby." So they got the room lined up for us and we set out to find it.

After we got to our room it wasn't very long before the midwife came in to see us. [If you've never used a midwife, we HIGHLY suggest them] She checked my wife's dilation to find that she was already at 8cm. HOLY CRAP!!! Not a minute too soon!!! We could have had the baby at home if we didn't come in...

In just a matter of about 2 hours or so, our son Liam Robert entered the world with us. Man, I was so proud as a dad to now have a son. I was overjoyed to find out that our first child would be a girl. I knew that my soft spot in my heart would have to get bigger because of her, but now I had a son. Someone who could one day pee just like me. I cried as I watched him come out.

Meanwhile, when our daughter woke up at home to find that we were gone and Lindsay was there-- she thought for a minute of two [now she's always been a very sharp girl, but for a 2 year old this was amazing] and said "Linneys, mamma, daddy gone...MOMMY HAVE BABY?!?!?!?!"

Lindsay held the fort down until my wife's folks got there to collect our daughter to come to the hospital. When they got there I went down to the lobby to meet them and to tell Keelin that Liam was finally here with us. I cried again. She was such a proud big sister. You could see it all sink in as she dimly understood that Liam was no longer in mommy's tummy, but now out with us.

Kids can be such pains sometimes. I really hate to say it, but it's the truth. Our parents can vouch for that fact with multiplicity...but how they are worth it. To think that we could be responsible for the raising of the next generation right under our roofs.

Liam had a big day today- a doctor appointment to get checked up on, then swimming at his aunt's house, then a house full of family and friends tonight to celebrate his life. So he's asleep now. I like to watch him sleep.

In so many ways he is my spitting image, but I am so glad that he is not me.

I love you buddy...more than you'll ever know.

Happy Birthday.

New Endeavour

Today I filled out the paperwork for what I hope will become my new full time job.

As many of my readers know, I have my own pseudo-business on the side doing computer consulting and repair. Business has been pretty slow lately and I found that this company is looking for techs nationwide. I initially found it on Craig's List. So last night I went to their website and registered myself to become an independent contractor for them.

Now, I am certainly no fan of The Geek Squad so why would I do this? Primarily because the rates a much lower which means a more fair service to the customers. RentAGeek is only $39.95/hr as opposed to some places charging between $50-65/hr. My hopes are that I can over customers within 60-80 miles of my house. I'm going to start out just doing part time work and see what happens from there.

A New Course Of Action

There is a new service that I am going to try and tap into here.

I am going to give PayPerPost.com a try and see if it works out to be advantageous for me. If it works then I will continue to post a mixture of thoughts and advertisements here [sorry for those not interested]. If it does not work, then I'll remove the adds and get back to business as usual.

Thanks for trying to understand.

Sincerely,

The Management

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from 13 August 2007

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Move 'Em Out

So today we moved my sister. We got her out of the house where she was living with her boyfriend, or whatever he was, and into another place where she and my nephew will be living with a few other girls. It is always interesting moving her because she usually isn't ready to move; she's usually still packing when we get there. Today seemed to be better.

I am glad that she is out of that situation because it didn't sound like it was working out, but I feel horrible for my nephew. The little guy just turned 4 and he's in a strange place. His mom and dad are divorced and his dad lives with a few other guys (one of which is my cousin) and his mom lives now has just moved out from living with her boyfriend to the situation just described.

Moving her required that we go from one part of town to the other. She lives in Des Moines, where I used to live, but by now she knows the city much better than I do. So I found it ironic that I needed to follow her around everywhere we drove today. The place that she was living in before was decent, but the new house is definitely much nicer.

After I got home I decided, at the prompting of my wife, to take advantage of the cooler evening temperatures to mow the lawn...but as it would happen, it seemed to get pretty dark pretty fast. I got the neighbour's place done and started in on mine when the chain came off--once again--of the rear left wheel. It was just too dark for me to try and put it back on, and on top of that I would have had to push my mower back out toward the street and then pull my car up close to it to be able to jump start it. The battery probably needs replaced. Bottom line is that my mower will just have to sit out in my yard until tomorrow morning when I can finish the job with light.

Do you every get the feeling that I blog just to blog? Perhaps I do. Perhaps this is my sorry excuse for not having a journal or diary. The fact of the matter is that I don't really have anything outstandingly amazing about the every day stuff of my life...or I can't seem to remember all of the obscure thoughts that I have during the day.

You know what I hate? I hate it when bands cover songs from other bands and they leave all of the music, words and melody the exact same.

On the other hand, right now I am watching a rerun episode of Saturday Night Live and Beck is the musical guest. He is always innovative, and if he ever covered somebody else's tunes they would probably rock.

That is all I have for tonight.

Learn Scottish!

Who knew it was this simple?

Worn Out

Another work week in the books.

We had some friends from Denver visiting the area earlier this week so we got a hotel room next to theirs and hung out for the evening. I went to college with both of them, for 2 years at least. After they graduated they got married. They're a great couple. [Greg and Amber, it was great to see you. We'll do it again sooner rather than later]

What that rendezvous was over I had to go back to work. I'm not really going to talk about work because it is just not a good practice to put work related stuff out here on the WWW since the powers that be can find ways of possibly using that material to show your can the door. So what I will say though is that I'm glad that I'm done working for the week.

Saturday's forecast looks like I'll be helping my sister move. She's out of a relationship that she's been in and now she's moving on so I'll be part of the help.

I was really hoping to do a follow-up blog about how happy I was that I had found my CDs, but no such fate. I haven't yet begun the process of seeing where to start over with all that.

So now it is Friday night @ 23:08 and I'm now sagging just a bit from the fatigue and the sips of scotch that I've thus far enjoyed.

Food for thought- if there is a parallel universe, will I ever get to know myself?

Bummed Out

I am kind of bummed out.

I don't know when it happened, but I looked over in the passenger seat of my car today to see that my book of CDs was gone. When did it happen? I am guessing that it was sometime between last Friday and last night but I hadn't gone out to my car since last Friday.

I live in a small town that has a reputation as such that I wouldn't need to keep the doors on my car locked. I did have my car parked in my driveway though so whoever took them does at least qualify for trespassing.

I am mostly bothered by this on principle. It was my stuff and I don't go around taking from others what is not mine. Is it fair? Nothing is fair; fair is such a poor word to use. I even tell my kids that it is futile to try and look at life in terms of what is fair and what isn't.

The upside to my CDs getting taken is modern technology. With the exception of a few of them, I still have them copied to my computer in my house. I can go through and make new copies of them but what a hassle. That means that I need to go back to the store and buy a new CD case and blank CDs. Then I have to spend the time in front of my computer burning them all back onto the disks.

I've had this happen before too, but it was with a lot fewer disks. This time I think that I probably lost about 30 or 40 albums.

I've been thinking about what I'd like to do to whoever took them and this is what I've come up with- I would tie them to a chair and make them listen repeatedly to the music of Fine Young Cannibals while watching reruns of The Price is Right. That ought to fix them.

I've Had Enough

Really, I've had enough. I just had supper and I only ate enough to satisfy my hunger.

Unlike what our initial thoughts of the guy to the left might be, being overweight is really not all that funny, especially when I am as young as I am. Sure, I'm not as big as some of the others my age, but the fact is that I've just kind of let myself go over the past few years and I was up to weighing 35lbs more than I did when I graduated.

So I've decided that the answer is to stop living like I love food. Think about it, how often are we unaware of how much food controls us? We just eat until we can't have any more. Well, I am done with that.

Just think about how your car operates. The car doesn't think about how much it loves gas and can't wait to get another tank full. On the flip side, the car requires gas to perform. I am through loving food and am now just seeing it as a means to keep me going. I've also noticed that by doing this that I don't eat so much. The results are that I no longer feel bloated all of the time and I feel like I've actually also gained some energy.

I've only been doing this for a week and I've already lost 5lbs. I have about another 15 to go before I feel like I'm where I need to be.

So what's for supper? Who cares? I'm only going to have a little bit anyways.

Another Chapter Being Written

Hello bloggereaders.

In today's installment we will talk about a few happenings.

Today after church we went to a Taco Bell/KFC. If we would have known beforehand what we were in for we would have opted for plan C. That's right, plan A had already failed and plan B was almost just as bad.

Upon entering the establishment we could already see that the patrons there looked like they were standing in line at the DMV. Apparently service was really slow and when the folks did get their food the orders were wrong. We, I later came to find out, were no exception.

I typically like to be as laid back about fast food as I can because I know that both the food and the pay are generally of low quality. Any given day could be either the cashier's best or worst day of the week. Apparently today was the worst day for ours. That's really too bad though, given that today is the first day of the week.

So I step up and give the lady my order. It was going to be quite simple- 1 meal that was some taco crispy wrap thing [the name escapes me now] and 2 SOFT shell tacos; one with meat, cheese and lettuce, and the other with just meat and cheese. And then I ordered a Teryaki buffalo wing meal. They got my order right but the wrap thing didn't have all of the ingredients, and both tacos were HARD shell with meat, cheese, and sour cream. NOT what we ordered, but I had a feeling that the lady behind the counter may have had a gun....and I didn't want to find out. The up-side was that we got 5 drinks out of the deal somehow.

Then after we got home I needed to mow the lawn because it looks like this might be a week full of rain; we'll see. I don't trust weather people any farther than I can throw them; and with my bad knees I don't really feel like giving it a whirl any time soon. I found out that I should start thinking about replacing my riding mower. It has been a good mower but I had to jump start it with my car today and I found some "additional" parts to it laying in my driveway. I have no idea what they are or where they go.

I also found out that my son has a temp of 103.2. No wonder he has been being a turd.

In other news- I've decided to write a book about my pseudo memoirs from college. It will be fiction based on what may or may not be true stories. I will change some of the names to protect the whatever. I just felt that the world needed at least one more book in the library. I'm currently working on Chapter 1.

That will have to be all for now. I'm hot and sweaty from mowing; yes even after riding a mow...and I am in charge of supper tonight.

I'll catch you all on the other....

Fortunate

I just wanted to take a minute and reflect on those who were injured or died in this event, and all of the families and friends of those who were involved or affected.

I also wanted to take a moment of thanks. I was on that bridge only weeks ago. It could have happened to me.

Good Idea/Bad Idea?

Interesting excursions.

Tonight we decided that we would use some tickets that my daughter won in something to take the family to see the Iowa Cubs play baseball against some team from Tuscon; good idea.

To make things interesting, as my wife was watching the noon news today she saw that tonight was "take your dog to the ballpark" night at Principal Park where the aforementioned game would take place.

I wish I could say that everything went according to plan, but I can't. If it were a little league game that would be one thing, but when you get that many people in one place with that many dogs it is just less than ideal. We were all put in seats out on the sidelines along right field where it was hard enough to really get a good look at the game. Then factor in a dog who is always moving around due to being in an uncomfortable situation, and 2 kids who don't really understand baseball. (Well, the irony is that my 2 year old son was more into it than my 4 year old daughter) Instead of being into the game, the kids were into the dogs. Not really bad in and of itself, but I think that we've learned a pretty good lesson from tonight- [say it with me, class] if the kids want animals take them to a petting zoo one night, then do baseball another.

What I do know is that what little bit of the game I did catch didn't really seem to be much. Minor league baseball just doesn't seem to have the zeal that it used to. These guys didn't really seem like they were trying all that hard. Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe I would have a different angle if it were me playing.

The moral of the story is....there is no moral; but we did get to spend some time together as a family and it didn't cost us anything to get in.