Payday!

No, not talking about the candybar... WooHoo... real money is in the bank... At least until my wife goes shopping! HA!

My daughter still wasn't feeling good last night. We put her in to bed with us, but she woke up around midnight and kept us up for quite awhile. I couldn't take it anymore, so I put her back in her own bed. I finally got back to sleep around 3am...

I at least feel a little better today... Not quite so achy and I don't feel the slight fever I had yesterday... but I'm just a little tired...

Look out everyone... Tomorrow is April Fool's day... :-)

Blessings!

Is It Time to go Home Yet?

For the last two days, I've been working with another agency and IBM support on a problem with our Enterprise Extender connection to them (if you don't know what EE is, please just ignore me). I'm tired as my daughter got a little sick at 4am this morning which threw everything in a loop. I had to come in to work late (which meant parking 5 miles away from the building... well, not quite that far...). I don't feel up to par either.... I feel like I'm trying to fight something off as well...

Oh, my church league b-ball team pulled off another win Monday night, 74-55... It was actually closer than it looks... We were down by 5 at half-time. :-)

It's VERY windy today... I went out for a walk at lunchtime and almost got blown off the sidewalk!

I just want to get some sleep.... please!

Blessings!

Spring Break!

Last week I took off work from Wed. through Fri. to spend some time with the family since my son was off from school for Spring Break. The weather was terrible... rainy, windy and cold. Wed. morning, my son and I took my truck in to get the oil changed. Then we headed over to the church so I could update some software on our video computer. Then we went home and had lunch. After lunch my son and I went out to the local K-Mart and he bought a couple of action figures (Frodo Baggins and Samwise) and I bought the Star Wars Clone Wars Volume I DVD. We just had some father/son bonding time. :-)

Thursday morning we as a family had our annual dental checkups. "Look Ma! No cavities!" That was a good thing, but it was still expensive. After lunch we all took off to the entertainment mecca of the free world for a night of food and entertainment. We saw a magical variety show which was in it's first year of performance and they were really good. Some of the dance interludes could have been skipped though...

Friday morning as we were getting ready to take a shower, there was no hot water! UGH! Then, just as we were getting ready to leave the hotel, we noticed hot water was available again. UGH! Well, we did get a good rate on the hotel, but I thought hot showers were suppose to be included in the price!!! After breakfast, we stopped by a nearby town and did some shopping before heading on home.

Saturday we didn't really do too much....

Sunday was of course Easter Sunday, so we all got dressed up in our Sunday best for church. We took some family pictures after we got home and then had lunch. After lunch we did a simple Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. We had to do it indoors as it was still pretty muddy/cold outside. Then we left to go visit my sister who just had a new baby girl.

My daughter woke up screaming about 2:30AM this morning for some reason... After we got her settled down, I couldn't go back to sleep until it was about time to get up... I'm a little groggy this morning...

I've got a church league b-ball game tonight... At least it's an early game so it won't totally ruin the evening!

Blessings!

Heading out

Well, our church league team lost last night to a very good team. Actually we just got plained spanked. :-)

Work seemed to fly by today... Guess that's because I actually had things to do! Ha!

I've got a church board meeting tonight, so that means some good chinese food for dinner too! Yummm!

Then I'm taking off work for the next three days to spend some time with the family since my son is off school for Spring Break. We're going to take a little trip to Branson and see a show and have a real good time. I'll have to report how it all goes next time.

Have a good week...
Blessings!

Monday

Hey... we had a very nice weekend weather-wise, although by Saturday afternoon, I wasn't feeling too well. My stomache hurt and I started having a low-grade fever. But, by Sunday, I was feeling pretty much over it. Me and the kids played a lot outside too while my wife headed for the grocery store and the mall. Watched some NCAA Tourney b-ball also. Wow, a lot of upsets this year. Good! Keeps 'em guessing... :-)

I've got a church league b-ball game tonight. At least it's at 6:15pm instead of the late 9:15pm game time...

The new Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon series starts tonight on Cartoon Network. Cool... Can't wait to see it. The previous series comes out on DVD tomorrow.

And, I saw an article on CNN's website that John DeLorean, the auto engineer that created the DeLorean sports car that was used in the "Back to the Future" movies past away on Saturday at age 80.

Blessings!

Almost the weekend

Hey, it's Friday and almost the start of the weekend! I'm looking forward to a weekend when not much is scheduled and will hopefully be a quiet restful one... Yeah, right!! :-)

Almost time to leave work.... Oh, I can't forget to pick up some milk on the way home... or else...

Blessings!

School Tour

Today my wife and I toured a local private school where we're thinking of enrolling our son in next year. It looks like a very nice school and would be a great place to go. We got to visit a few of the classes in progress and even got to talk to some of the teachers. They all seemed very nice. A few of our son's friends go there, so at least he'd know some other kids there. There would be a big cost to it (as opposed to the "free" public school), but I think the benefits would outweight that. It's even the same school my current supervisor attended, so I got to rib him some about seeing his old 8th grade graduation picture on the wall....

Man, it's a beautiful day out today!

Lots of NCAA Tourney action today/tonight... Do I really care now? Not really... :-)

Blessings!

NOW It's Over...

Well, I guess it's finally time to put to rest the dismal season of this year's local college men's b-ball team. They had their chance in the NIT last night and blew it. They even had home court advantage and blew it. They lost 75-70 against DePaul. What was with trying to shoot a 3 pointer every time they had the ball?!!? Oh well... there's always next year. I'm not even that excited about the NCAA Tourney now... Bummer.

Been a pretty quiet day at work today... Sometimes that's a good thing. Other times it just makes it soooo boring...

Can't remember if I've already mentioned this, but the latest trailer for the new Star Wars movie (Ep. III - Revenge of the Sith) came out on Monday. Pretty cool! Can't wait for the movie! Bummer it has to be the same weekend of my wedding anniversary...

Blessings!

It's Not Over Yet!

Well, like I mentioned, my local college's mens b-ball team some how made it into the NIT. They play (at home at least) tonight in the first round against DePaul. The game is on ESPN, so at least I'll get to watch it! :-)

Also, I played last night in my church b-ball league and we won! We're now 2-1! Whoo Hoo! I'm not the best b-ball player in the world, so I'm usually warming the bench for most of the game... Oh well, I can at least be a good cheerleader! :-)

My sister had her baby yesterday afternoon. They finally got a girl after having 3 boys. They had also adopted 3 kids before hand, so now they have 7 children! Unbelievable... They just don't know how to shut it off... :-)

Blessings!

And the First Place Trophy Goes To...

Me? ME! Incredible! As mentioned in my previous post, I entered my own car in the Sectional Royal Rangers Pinewood Derby races this past Saturday at the church. They had it setup so that all the kids raced their cars against others in their own age range. They also had a Leaders division for us "older kids." I really didn't think I had a chance as there were quite a few "pro" car builders that I've seen in the past. Anyway, my car actually won a First Place ribbon and trophy! Cool! My son's car got second place in his division. He was only 2 hundredths of a second behind the leader, so it was "real" close. My son's car was actually faster overall than mine was... So it was a good thing that I wasn't actually competing against him! :-)

And for another miracle, my local college men's b-ball team actually got an invite to the NIT tourney. They play tomorrow night (3/15) at home against DePaul.

Things aren't going so well on the potty training front for my daughter... My wife thinks she's just not quite ready for it and is really to quit for awhile until she's just a little older....

I've got another church league b-ball game tonight. It's not until 9:15 PM though. I really hate the late games... Makes getting to bed way to late for me... ugh.

Blessings!

I Hate Basketball!!

With basketball all the rage right now with March Madness upon us.... I hate basketball!!! Well, not really, but I'm just really down right now as just a few minutes ago, my local men's b-ball team just lost a nail-biter to Oklahoma in the second round of their conference tourney. They had beaten Nebraska yesterday. So, the team is 16-16.... I wonder if they'll get an invite to the NIT... probably not. I just hate it when the season ends... What do we have left to look forward to? Baseball? Big Whoop... (sorry baseball fans, but I just can't get into it....)

Tomorrow is the big Royal Rangers Pinewood Derby races at the church. I decided to enter a car in the "adults" division. I've got my son's car and mine painted last night, so they are ready for the clear coat application tonight after work. It's always a fun time going to the races.... But it always seems to take FOREVER to get things started... This is a sectional event, so there are many church groups coming in, and it takes a long time for everyone to get their cars weighted and checked in. The leaders will be there at the church in to the late night tonight setting up the track and making sure it works...

We're still working with my daughter and her potty training... We have good days and bad days... but I know it will eventually get worked out... Soon I hope! :-)

Yeah! It's Friday!!
Blessings!

And that's the way it is

Not sure why, but for the last two weeks, Monday through Wednesday has been hectic and then Thursday and Friday have been sllllooowwww. Even in the evenings, our family has had something going on every night where we hardly have time to eat dinner. Ugh. At least today is Wed., so after today, we can slow down again.

My church league b-ball team won Monday night. We almost got 100 points (94 to be exact)... As you can figure out, the team we played wasn't that good (but they did get 46 points). :-)

Well, tonight is CBS Anchorman Dan Rather's last night. After 24 years as head anchorman, he is stepping down. Good luck Dan at 60 Minutes... :-)

Blessings!

What a Weekend!

Wow... can a "winter" weekend get any better than that? Mid 60's on Sat. and low 70's on Sunday, sunny and beautiful.

On Sat. (3/5), my wife and son had their monthly Junior Bible Quiz meet. It went longer than normal as it was the last meet of the "season." So they all had to go back to the place of the meet for the awards ceremony. My son came home with a trophy for 3rd place over all in his division, a team ribbon (and trophy) for 3rd place, and a ribbon for 3rd place for the February meet. I was really proud of him to say the least!

So, while they were gone, I took it upon myself to work with my 2 1/2 year old daughter to get her potty trained. Just about every 30/40 minutes, I'd take her to the bathroom. She did really well I might add. We had a few accidents, but she is begining to "get it" and is telling us when she has to "go." It also probably helped that she got M&M's when she tried. She got one for just trying and two if she "went." :-)

Sunday after church & lunch, I watched the local men's b-ball team play their last regular season game at home against Kansas... It was amazing... the team shot 8/10 3-pointers in the first half and early in the 2nd half, had a 15 point lead. Of course, as happened in a lot of their games, they let Kansas slowly come back and even tie it all up. But, they didn't give up and fold and by hitting their free-throws, created a very small lead again and won it 72-68. Now they head into their conference tourney and play Nebraska first. If they win that game, then they'll play Oklahoma. If they can get just a few more wins, they just might make it into the Big Dance... That's a big "If" though... We'll see...

I've got my own b-ball game tonight in our church spring league. We're also having an All church skate night at the local skating rink... Since I have an early game, afterwards, I'll head over and meet the family to do some skating. I'll try to win finally win at that limbo game after losing the first two times... :-)

Blessings!

What a Disaster!

Not much posting this week as it's been very busy! Here at work we have been running a Disaster Recovery test to see how "smooth" things can be run from a remote location if a diaster wiped out or disabled our current Data Center. For this particular test, I was suppose to be "dead," killed in the disaster. We have scripts written up for people to follow to run things in case the "experts" aren't around. So, it's a good test to see how well written our scripts are. With each test we do, we refine our scripts and improve our procedures. Even though I was "dead" this time, I had to be resussated a few times (as an undead zombie maybe?) to help out. There were quite a few minor problems, but we finally got them all worked out before the end. It was a 72 hour test which ended today at 7am... Back to reality now....

Monday (2/28) night I played in my first b-ball game of the season (church league). I was pretty rusty for not playing for a full year, but didn't get too sore from playing. Got knocked down a couple of times though (I thought b-ball was a non-contact sport!).

Tuesday (3/1) night we went to the awards ceremony for my son's b-ball league. They had a professional women's b-ball player/motivational speaker there that did a lot of ball tricks and handling. She was very good.

Wednesday morning at 12:20 AM, I got a call from work about a problem that needing fixing, so I had to get up out of bed, dial in and fix it. Got back to bed a little after 1 am, but couldn't get back to sleep for awhile. So, most of the day on Wednesday, I really felt like a zombie.

Wed. night we went to church as usual. My son is in a group like Boy Scouts called Royal Rangers and they are preparing for the annual Pinewood Derby race which is coming up on March 12th. His car is all cut out and sanded, so we just need to paint it and we'll be good to go.

Finally got a good nights sleep last night, so I feel a little better today. We're staying home tonight and tomorrow night to take a break from all the hussle and bussle. My wife bought the DVD release of Bambi, so we're planning on watching that for our Friday Family movie night. I'm sure the death of Bambi's mother will tramitize my 2-year old.... ha!

Well, true to form, my local college men's b-ball team lost last night to Iowa State. One game left to play against Kansas.... It's a home game, so at least that gives them a fighting chance...

Blessings!