Too Little Time

Hello to all of my [3] readers that I have left hanging for months now without any posts. Life has been very busy handing me out items that usually consume more time than what I have.

I am not one to make excuses so I'll just cut right to the quick of what's been going on-

-Back on March 18th my wife and I welcomed the birth of our 3rd child, Murray James. He's now 2 months old and getting bigger by the day. So that ups the Whitehead clan to 5 with more to come in the future.

-Custom Computer Works is still alive and serving. Still no sign of it ever becoming anything more than just a hobby job for me but it helps us maintain a little cash flow on the side when needed.

-The wife and I are giving very serious action [whenever we get around to it] to selling our house in hopes of moving closer to the Des Moines area. For 8 years now I have been driving 2 hours each day back and forth to work and there is absolutely no logical sense for it. I had hoped to have a sign in the yard by June 1 but I don't think that the house will be ready for it....but I think I'll still put the sign up anyways and we can work on things as we have time. I'm open for later negotiations.

-I have decided that it is long overdue for me to take control of my life back from my stomach and butt. For the last 8 weeks I have been working more aggressively at getting back in to the shape that I am supposed to be in. I am taking the following actions:

• I am only eating 1/2 as much as I used to
• The food that I do eat is different from what I used to eat; no white bread or noodles made from white flour, more veggies, less sweets
• I bought some running shoes....and I'm actually using them for running
• I have gotten the mountain bike back out for some off-road trail riding
• I hung the punching back back up
• I dusted off the Total Gym and put it out in the garage where it could aways be ready for use
• I try to play outside with the kids more often

What I would love to find time to do:

• Finish writing some of my "dangling" songs that I've left alone for years
• Record those songs once they are finished
• Finish writing my book The Unauthorized and Incomplete High School Rememboirs of Rage Perry
• Take a trip to Scotland.....which will one day happen!

That is all for now. I need to go refinance my auto loan on my van. The banking institution that I work for has horrible rates so I need to go do this with another fine establishment.

Am I A Hippie?

I wouldn't normally just randomly ask a question like this but latly I've had a few people either infer or downright accuse me of being a hippie. Let's do a little examination:

Hippie definition (noun) from Wikipedia-

  1. (in the 1950s) A teenager who imitated the Beatniks
  2. (in the 1960s; still widely used in reference to that era) One who chooses not to conform to prevailing social norms: especially one who ascribes to values or actions such as acceptance or self-practice of recreational drug use, liberal or radical sexual mores, advocacy of communal living, strong pacifism or anti-war sentiment, etc.
  3. Someone with long hair: specifically, of a hair length that is considered unconventionally long in relation to one’s gender, age, ethnicity, or land of origin.
  4. Someone who dresses in a hippie style.
  5. One who is hip.

Now let's examine whether or not I fall into each class.

1. I am not from the 50's and I've never imitated the Beatniks.

2. I am not one who would typically conform to prevailing social norms [although I do now have a Blogger, MySpace and Facebook account]. I do not ascribe to values or actions that affirm the use of recreational drugs; but I don't deny them either. It is just a personal choice of mine not to get mixed up in chemicals that I don't know what they could do to me. I also don't personally seek to advance any liberal or radical sexual mores. Sex is fun, but for me just my wife is enough. Whether or not others want to pursue options outside of the "traditional" bounds of "normal" sexuality is up to them and I don't necessarily need to know about it. While I am also not a direct advocate of communal living...I cannot deny some of the benefits that it can have for a certain number of like-minded individuals who can make it work. Individualism is the key. They are all special individuals....just like everyone else. When it comes to pacifism, I do lean toward that side; though I am also not completely anti-war. In my personal life I try to be as passive as possible, but if push comes to shove for me personally....Well, let's just say that I haven't used my fists since Jr. High, but I've made sure to at least keep them polished. Politically, I don't think that we need to be the world peace force. We spend way too much money on war...and when we do go to war we often do not demonstrate the power that we should; i.e. why is there even still an Iraq on the globe? Get in, do it, do it right....make the other guy whose willing to die for his cause do exactly that.

3. While my hair is getting longer than it has ever been in my life, I would not say that it is unconventionally long yet. But then again, in today's culture anything goes with less friction then it did when I was a kid....so this is possibly a moot point now.

4. Someone who dresses in a hippie style- while I have always seemed to lack a certain sense of "style" I don't really wear bell bottoms or dashiki's I don't think that they are all that bad. I do actually own a dashiki but it is too big for me so I don't wear it. I also got rid of my bell bottoms after college. 

5. One who is hip- we'll leave that up to my kids to decide in a couple of years but my guess is that they would deny the suggestion because that's what kids do.

So I think that it is safe to conclude that I am mostly not a hippie. Sometimes people make accusations without really thinking about what they are saying.

So in another future post we'll have to explore the other accusation that I used to receive from an old co-worker of mine who insisted that I looked and acted like I was from Boulder, Colorado.

Until then, enjoy this clip-

30

I turned 30 yesterday. Yes, 9/11 is my birthday and has been since I was born. I chose not to watch any news yesterday because it's not that I didn't want to remember what happened at the twin towers but I just didn't want to remember it the way the media wanted me to remember.

I am also taking this whole week off of work so that I can work on a project with my wife- a makeover on the kids' bedroom. I'll post pictures of before and after when it is done but let's just say that for now it has been a lot more work than I realized it will be. We will still be "done" on schedule but I probably won't have any time to finish their bunk bed this week. Maybe that will have to wait until another weekend. Not only am I going to build a bunk bed but it is going to also be a loft style. The kids need more room in their room.

So I've been busy this week. Not a bad way to spend the week.

I have also had a little time to cut loose with the kids. On Wednesday night I took the kids up to the Elementary School while the Mrs. went to a Bible study down the street. The kids and I ran non-stop for about two hours all over the equipment. It got pretty tiring but it was AWESOME!!!

As I approached my 30th birthday [or beginning the 31st year of my life] I wanted to do it in better shape than I did my 29th. My current job has me sitting all day. I have to depend on my own discipline to work out on my own and cut down the eating if I was to feel any better about myself. So far things aren't going too bad. In about 2 months I think I've dropped about 10 pounds. I know that it could be more but hey, this isn't a race to me, it's a lifestyle change. Playing with the kids will be another outlet for me to accomplish the exercise. Since we homeschool out kids I have decided to act as their principal, foreign language and gym teacher. I just wish that the weather was going to be better for today and tomorrow so that we could get out there and do it all over again.

I'm tired now and am going to go take a nap. In the meantime enjoy this clip-

Meeting Minutes

It has been a month since I've rapped at y'all. Sorry about that. My life has just been a crazy mess of all sorts of stuff. 

Let's recap June-

All I remember was my daughter's birthday. She turned the big 5 this year. Wow, time really flies. If you have kids then you understand this well. It hits home even more when you sit back and look at photos of them growing up right before your eyes. A few of them that I looked at seemed like they happened just last week; only to remember that it was actually over 2 years ago. Hold on to them tightly and treat them well because the time is short. 

Another June moment was the confirmation that we are now expecting our 3rd child. So far the pregnancy is going well and my wife is still looking pretty hot. Well, she's always a hot preggo but I am sure that we won't have much time to really worry about that stuff. Now that we've already got 2 kids to keep us busy, and with how quickly the this last year has gone by, I'm sure that the pregnancy will breeze right by. I am pretty thankful for that because I remember how hard our first pregnancy was. The first few months blew right by. The next 4 months went by at a "life as usual" pace. The last month was killer. The anticipation kept me up each night thinking that my wife's every move meant that she was going into labor. Baby, when you're ready, we'll be waiting for you.

Pivot point 3 for June was my decision that I really needed to start working out again, seriously. My daughter told me one day after I got out of the shower that I looked like I was going to have a baby. That hurt...but she was right. 

I will be 30 next month and although I am still about 5 years away from entering those "mid-life" years I don't want to be one of those fat and unhappy middle-agers. My diet needs adjusting, which I'm working on, and I need to offset all of my hours sitting at a desk during the day with physical activities. Admittedly, getting into the swing of things is really hard, but I can say that I already feel a difference. I've lost 10 pounds and I feel a little more confident about myself. I don't need to be Mr. Universe but I also don't want to maintain my staus quo. 

On the job front-

I'm still at my regular day job. Not really going anywhere with that one.

The computer gigs keep coming in. I am usually making 2-3 calls a week on my customers and I am continually getting new ones.

I have also started to take off with painting. So far I have done the interior of 2 rental houses and a display wall in a photo gallery. Coming up sometime in the future I will have another home interior, a photo studio backdrop wall, 2 apartments and possibly 2 condos. If you or anyone that you know of is in the need for a painter just let me know or send them my way.

My book is still very slow in development. I have some upcoming time that I need to take off of work though so hopefully I can find myself in some secluded places for a few days and finally get it finished. I imagine that it would be a lot easier to crank out more books in less time if that was the only thing that a person did. 

My parents' divorce isn't getting any easier. My dad has been out of my mom's house for about 2 months now. We seem to see him every few weeks when he comes up to visit. It is nice to see him but it is hard because he seems to always be on a limited schedule and he's really unhappy. 

My mom is doing much better than expected though. She has begun to find ways to pick up the pieces of her life and move on. She is a strong woman. She is keeping herself busy with people and things to do and I'm very proud of her. 

Back to work.

Thanks for reading.

A short rant

I just wanted to take a quick moment to share with the world one of my deepest pet peeves: non-graduating graduations.

They now seem to take these forms-

• Kindergarten
• 5th Grade
• 8th Grade
• High School

Let's take a look at what it means to graduate.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This grad·u·ate Audio Help /n., adj. ˈgrædʒuɪt, -ˌeɪt; v. ˈgrædʒuˌeɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[n., adj. graj-oo-it, -eyt; v. graj-oo-eyt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, adjective, verb, -at·ed, -at·ing. –noun

1.	a person who has received a degree or diploma on completing a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.

2.	a student who holds the bachelor's or the first professional degree and is studying for an advanced degree.

3.	a cylindrical or tapering graduated container, used for measuring.

–adjective

4.	of, pertaining to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree: graduate courses in business; a graduate student.

5.	having an academic degree or diploma: a graduate engineer.

–verb (used without object)

6.	to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often fol. by from): She graduated from college in 1985.

7.	to pass by degrees; change gradually.

–verb (used with object)

8.	to confer a degree upon, or to grant a diploma to, at the close of a course of study, as in a university, college, or school: Cornell graduated eighty students with honors.

9.	Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from: She graduated college in 1950.

10.	to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.

11.	to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.

I can see no reason for Kindergarteners, 5th or 8th graders to have such a ceremony. It seems like it just kind of takes the meaning out of the High School one...the legitimate one.

I remember my 5th grade graduation. We had to make and hold up signs signifying what we wanted to be when we grew up. Most of the other kids had signs that said:

Doctor
Lawyer
Marine Biologist
Teacher
Firefighter

Mine said "Professional Skateboarder." The only place that I now live that dream is in my head because somewhere between my heart and feet is this stomach that prohibits me from enjoying much of the former pleasures that I extracted from sporty activity.

It is only kindergarten people. Don't do it.

Just say no.

Hey Monkey

I'm back for another session; I'm really pretty bummed about the reality that every time I post a new entry that it isn't really "topical" as much as it is an overdue mental vomit that contains a little bit of everything that I've been chewing on in my mind. Sorry for that, but time and energy just don't permit my blog to be all that she wants...."and all that she wants is another baby....and she's gone tomorrow."

Monkey in the picture used for this entry represents several things to me right now. The first thing that it represents was the most enjoyable thing that I recently observed at the Henry Doorly Zoo. The Spider Monkeys were incredible creatures to watch. They moved with such grace and agility and I just wanted to take one home. They were really getting jiggy with hamburger buns, graham crackers, pretzels and whatever the people were throwing into them. They sat out on logs holding themselves in place with their hands and tails while gracefully swooping down to steal the offerings from the tops of the Japaneese Carp that were too slow to retrieve them. One of them even raised his hand when he was ready for more. A sign to the crowd that "I'm the one that you should be looking at."

The zoo was a great time. In my two years living in Omaha I had ridden my bike there on several occasions, but just never when they were open. It lived up to what I expected of it.

Omaha.

I don't know what it is about Omaha. Every time I cross that bridge that separates Iowa's Council Bluffs and Nebraska's Omaha I just feel like somehow I'm back home. I have so many fond memories of that city and I wish that I could re-live so many of them. I don't seem to be able to get back there much but when I do it is always a treat. So what are my memories? Funny you should ask:

• Playing guitar with one of my professors in the upper room of his house
• Being able to be a part of a church that met on a Saturday night that wasn't concerned with how big we were
• Working down in the Old Market district and being able to meet so many different kinds of people
• Being able to ride my bike to work in the Old Market district
• Making runs to the Vinton Street Tobacco shot to pick up cigars for poker night
• Driving endlessly up and down Dodge and Douglas endlessly wondering if they ever stopped or started anywhere
• Playing ultimate frisbee in Freedom Park on the occasional Sunday afternoon
• Ordering Dominos pizza so often that they actually sent us a Christmas card one year
• Riding my bike through the old neighborhoods
• Taking trips out to the music shop to pick up guitar strings and oogle over all the other stuff that I couldn't afford
• Making afternoon runs to all of the thrift shops in search of the best deals
• Walking through parks while the Mexicans held their monster birthday parties and hearing their music blair
• Spending hours in the chair at the BioLife plasma donation center so that I could turn around and take that money to Hooper's so I could increase my CD collection
• Working in a crappy music store in one of the suburbs and driving to work every day wondering which one would be my last due to having to close the place down
• Late night talks with roomies
• Getting up at noon on Sundays
• The crappy campus "diner" food on Sunday nights (chicken strips, fries and a soda)
• The band, Autumn's Green, that I used to play in

So many things happened there that go into making me who I am today. Some thins I wish were the same. I'm glad some things have changed.

Another monkey is the one on my back about running my own business. Each day that goes by brings with it the feeling that sooner or later I should just bite the bullet and start doing it. I admit that I still feel scared about it.

Another monkey is the other one on my back about my parents' divorce. Divorce sucks. I just can't say that enough. I have never heard of a "good" divorce. Ever. It is hard to be in the place of having to be emotionally supportive of my mom without letting all of her pain become my own. It is hard to be there for my dad when by all appearances we don't even really have much of a relationship. And it sucks even worse to be stuck in the middle and trying to care only enough to be available for both parties, but distant enough to try and remain numb.

Another monkey for today is one of my own, my monkey daughter. Tonight we have our 2nd annual Father-Daughter dance. What happens tonight is that I take her on a date. She picks the place where we go to eat. Last year she chose Perkins and this year she has chosen Culvers. We get all dressed up and then we go out to dinner and just spend time together. We talk about what it means to grow up. We, as dads, try and take an opportunity to show our little girls what they should be treated like as ladies. We open doors for them, slide out their chairs and do whatever other chivalrous things come to mind. We just spend quality time together...somthing that all of us dad's should be doing more often anyways.

Then when dinner is done we return to the chosen location for a dance. All the daddies and daughters have fun for a couple of hours dancing and goofing around. We also have some snacks and punch and play some games. It is a fun time for everyone. I'm looking forward to it. I may not be the best dad in the world but I love my babies.

This week will also mark [in some way, shape or form] the re-shaping of my ass. I have had it [once again] with being the shape that I am. I have to start out slow and work my way up, but I am thinking that between now and my birthday in September that there should be no excuse for me not to have dropped at least 15lbs or at least turned it from fat into muscle.

It is now rainging outside....again....and more threats of flooding are on the horizon for many parts of the state. Just a few weeks ago I was asking when we might actually see summer. Now it is here with all of its humidity and misery. I know that I am dreaming but I just want a year of fall and spring.

Gary N. [If you're reading this], I've decided that I will try to have a song written by the time we come back to Omaha. I'm also looking forward to being able to lay down some vocals for some of the tunes that you were asking me about. I hope we can do that sometime sooner rather than later.

Jason, I look forward to having you up here in a couple of weeks. Our rendezvous is long overdue and it is largely my fault.

Spoon, thanks for the tech referral in Dallas.

Linebarger, if you read this then thanks for taking the referral. I know she appreciates it.

To all mah otha' homiez- peace and luvs to y'all

I had other crap I was going to write about too but I can't remember it right now. Mabye today will be a periodical catch up day.

Captain's Log- Star date 4.19.08

It feels like it has been an old school G.I. Joe kung fu action grip since I've dropped a post on y'all.

So much stuff has been going down these days that I just can't seem to catch up with it. I'm just going to go in the order in which things creep up on me thinker.

I have been working my way through watching Dexter- Season 1. I have got to say that it is probably my new favourite series. It was originally made by and aired on Showtime but CBS also tried to make it into a slightly sanitized version for prime-time television. I have not been watching it there. I've been watching it in its raw form as originally aired. The premise is that Dexter is a blood spatter expert [do those even really exist? who cares?] for the Miami police department. He's got a secret though. He's really a serial killer...but the catch is that his victims are only deserving ones who have caused great harm for others. So it's really one of those that even though you know that he is in the wrong for what he is doing you still cheer for him. Kind of like Porter in Payback. I love the show and can't get enough of it.

My wife and I recently had to work through miscarrying a baby. Thankfully it was only after a few weeks of pregnancy, but I still feel sad about the loss. We are doing alright though.

Speaking of the wife, she is down in Des Moines this weekend only getting Jesus.

It has just been me and the kids tonight and will do the same tomorrow until she gets back. While I admit that there are certain times that I do look forward to the brief moments of temporary bachelorhood...things are just not the same tonight without her being here. Even though most nights we might be doing our own things around the house I guess tonight I just miss her presence.

We now have another cat again. We weren't sure what to think of her at first. She came to us from a house where she had 13 other companions to share litter boxes with. For the first several days she didn't really seem to want to have anything to do with us and then slowly she started warming up to us. Now after a few weeks she is roaming the house, trying to snuggle up to the dog and occasionally letting our daughter pet her. We finally named her. Fiona. She'll probably never catch on. She is a sweet cat that sounds like a dog's squeaky toy when she meows but she needs to learn the art of cuddling. It makes the dog jealous though.

The recent earthquake in Illinois has once again reminded me to try and be aware enough of my surroundings and the unknown that I don't get too overtaken with surprise about anything. It's even more amazing to me that the place where the earthquake happened is also the same place that holds the record for the worst earthquake in U.S. history.

I am still [very slowly but surely] working on my book. In case I didn't mention the title here before it will be called The Unauthorized & Incomplete Autobiography of Rage Perry. It's been fun so far. Now I just need to finish the damn thing.

I am now beginning the initial stages of what I hope will be my new career path. I have high ambitions to leave the cut-throat corporate IT world to pursue painting again. So if you want your house painted just let me know and I'll see if we can work something out. :-)

I am currently listening to a classic Radiohead tune called Creep. The song is a perfect stimulant for conversation as to various contextual relevances of the "F" word.

Earlier I listened to a tune from Red Hot Chili Peppers. One thing is for sure about them- whether you love or hate them they are a band to be commended for their diversity and substantive offerings. I just wish the drummer would wear clothes.

What ever happened to Dave Matthews? And where in the world are Waldo and Carmen SanDiego for that matter?

I need to go let the dog back in. I'll be right back......

OK, I'm back.

I think that's going to be all for tonight. If I think of anything later I'll scribble it then.

Making Money Online

I have not spent the time lately that I really need to blogging and getting the word out either about my own thoughts or the products and services that are out there being offered. I have recently been reminded of how I need to get back into the swing of things in this area.

In addition to my regular pounding out of ideas there is another service that can be very beneficial to the viewers of this blog...and you can also make it work for you. The service is called Pay Per Post. You can actually get paid for using your blog to place ads for people offering their goods and services.

As people read your regular blog they can also have the opportunity to see an advertisement or two that may appeal to something that they are looking for. The benefit of this is that not only can they be one step closer to having a need met but you can also make a few bucks by offering the referral.

This is a nice option to have if you find yourself a little tight on money these days, especially with our economy the way it is. With the extra money here and there that I take in with Pay Per Post ads I can have a little more cash on hand to be able to treat my family to something nice once in a while.

You can read more about it at blog ads

Going Audio

This is just a note to my readers that I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.

Piggy-backing on the above note, I thought that this might be a good time to announce the desire of mine to turn this into an audioblog/podcast.

I am seriously thinking about turning this blog and my thoughts into something that you can download and listen to. I guess it is just the right time to move forward in this direction.

If everything works out with the web hosting and I can get all of the details worked out then I hope to be able to offer something in this arena by the end of the week.

Cheers!

A Random Thought Before Bed

I must confess that these thoughts just seem to come completely out of nowhere tonight. I guess that is what happens during the time in which you'd like to be in bed but then decided that since you took all of your pills right before wanting to climb into bed that you should wait a little while to try and get the last pee in first....

Now that I've gotten the personal information out of the way we can finally get down to business.

For no apparent reason tonight I was thinking about something from my past that I confess that I have fallen victim to- sometimes liking your girlfriend's best friend more than you liked your girlfriend. Do you know what I'm talking about? It is a very strange and uncomfortable position to be in, but I've been there; and it didn't really matter either way.

It's not like this was a regular occurrence with me, it just happened once in a while. Since I'm fairly sure that they don't read my blog, and since this is all water under the bridge now I'll go ahead and name the names that I remember.

I first remember "going with" Charleen when I was 14 [that was not an intentional rhyme] but she had this friend named "Peaches" that I found myself looking at a little too often.

Then I remember when I was dating Trisha, she had this friend named Diane that I thought was really groovy.

OK, so I admit that all of 2 times is probably the extent of this and so I've made something out of nothing. It is just something that jumped into my mind because I thought that a topic like that might make for interesting material for a song of some type; but I didn't know if I necessarily wanted to be the one to try and write it. How do you write a song like that to admit such a thing without it coming off as something vindictive? I don't know either.

I do know now though that suddenly I feel really warm and I finally have to pee.

G'night.

Music Of The Season

Since Fall is here I was thinking the other day about the music that I like most to listen to this time of year. Here is a list of CDs that I keep on hand for such occasions-

Madeski, Martin & Wood- Notes From the Underground
I bought this album in the fall one year of college but it is good year round

Pearl Jam- No Code
I bought this album the fall of my senior year of high school. There was just something beautifully eerie about the mood of the songs set to the backdrop of my misty wet and gray drives home after school.

Nickel Creek- Nickel Creek
Bluegrass is good for any occasion

Counting Crows- August And Everything After and Recovering The Satellites
August was an album that captured my imagination during my sophomore year of high school. There was a special comfort that I found in it when I didn't know how to spend the rest of my time. The same feelings come from Satellites, but I bought it with a friend in the fall of my senior year of high school. I remember initially not liking the album but slowly I grew to love it as I began to feel it being a telling of my life at the time.

Coldplay- Parachutes
If you can get past the self service of the lead singer the album is just great.

Crash Test Dummies- The Ghosts That Haunt Me
I first listened to this album in the fall of 1999. It captivated me in only a way that a singer who sounds like he has three nads can.

Edwin McCain- Honour Among Thieves
A friend of mine introduced me to this album right after it came out in the summer of 1995. My friend wasn't near to me that following fall but this album felt like it was my closest link to her.

Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds- Live at Luther College
I bought this in the spring of 1999 but it is still a great album.

Led Zeppelin- III
"Leaves are falling all around; time I was on my way...." From the song Ramble On

Crank it up and enjoy the ride.

Salmagundi

It has been a while since I've typed so now it's time for the latest instalment. This one very well may be all over the place and fairly random but just hang with me, or just move on.

First things first- I received an email from a reader that said that they found one of my posts on Minneapolis to be "anti-climactic." I had written about a fairly recent business trip up there and stated several nice things about the Minneapolis/St. Paul area but then ended the post by saying something to the effect of even though it is a great place to visit, I'm not sure that I would want to live there.

He said that in light of it being a decent post that he was confused as to why I would leave it so open-ended like that...and then made the comment that after then seeing my hair that perhaps it made a little more sense.

Sorry if you don't like my hair. Sorry if you're so shallow enough to really truly try and stoop to the level of judging a person by their "cover." As a writer I am open to constructive criticism about ways that I can improve the quality of my posts but when someone starts throwing jabs about intelligibility being linked to the fuzziness of someone's hair then, pardon me if I say....well, fill in the blank with the phrase of your choice. The conversation has been ended.

OK, now that that is out of the way....

A loooooooong time ago, sometime last year, I was talking about a renovation project that I had started in my house. It was a big deal. We had this room that we didn't know what to call. It wasn't a closet, it wasn't a bedroom...but it did have a 1/2 bathroom in it which made it that much more quizzical. Well, we decided that we wanted to get some kind of use out of it, but the problem was that it was the only room in the whole house that we were certain had absolutely no insulation, no real good source of electricity, and no heating ducts going to it. I think you might be able to track where I'm going with this now.

In order to make this room work, I had to really just start things over from scratch. I removed everything from the bathroom and covered up the pipes. We moved everything that we had been storing in there to another room. I then went out to my garage and got a few hammers and a pry bar and started having a field day. The room was once mainly bad plaster work that was later "patched" together with even worse wallpaper and then sealed up with paint. Not any more. I took things down to the bare frame.

I ran more wire to accommodate more electrical outlets, split off 2 existing light switches, re-did the ligthting for the room. I then insulated the room the hell out of the room before putting up brand new sheetrock. When that was done I mudded, textured, painted, and now I am in the very last stages of putting up the last of the trim around the doorways. So a year later I almost have this mamma-jamma under wraps.

Work at my regular job has been what it is, but I don't like to blog about that.

Because of all of the stuff going on in my life right now I really haven't had much time for family, relaxing, or leisure. But once things are finally to a near stop then I've got some things on my list to tend to-

1. Reading- I have books that I would like to read but I've just not had the time to read any of them lately.
2. Working out- I have not worked out in.....too long. I now finally have the room again to get my equipment back out and use it. I am tired of being tired and I know that working out again will help.
3. Catching up on the shows that I've missed- Thank God for Tivo.
4. Playing with my kids- I can finally come home from work and not be distracted by everything else that is going on.
5. Write some much needed music- Last night I was listening to a tape or 2 that I had from 2 concerts that my college band did several years ago. We really didn't put everything into our group that we could have and we weren't as good as we could have been, but in my estimation, for a half-assed band we also really weren't that bad either. I miss writing and playing music and I once again feel inspired to do something about it.

We currently have company in our house. My wife had a friend from high school who was a foreign exchange student from Germany. She is now back here in the States visiting us. I have to admit that it feels kind of exotic to have a foreigner here in our house with us to give us different perspectives and such. She has a lot of interesting stories from around the world. Thankfully she seems to feel right at home here with us and I hope she really does. I also hope that we've made the stay nice enough that she'd want to come back. Hopefully we can all meet up in Ireland someday as well and have a tour there.

Well, with all of that now having been said my children are now awake and ready for breakfast so I need to go get that ready for them.

I'll be back much sooner next time than I was this time.

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.

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.

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

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?