Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap Up

Last Wednesday night (23rd), instead of the normal Wednesday night activities at church, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the annual "All Church Pie Fellowship." Everyone brings a pie and we all sit around and eat and visit. We had a good time and ate some good pie! :-)

We slept in a little bit Thursday morning and then watched some of the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. I'm getting a little ticked off with the parade coverage on TV anymore. It seems like all they do is talk, interview celebs, show sing & dance routines, etc. instead of actually showing the parade stuff. I finally got frustrated and turned it off, but not before seeing the Barney float get a tear in it and slowly come down...

We left for my sister's house about 11:30am and got there a little after Noon. My folks were there along with my Grandmother as well as my sister, brother-in-law and all their kids. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and also got to play video games, ping-pong, etc. I also got to premiere my Lego Star Wars movie much to the delight of the kids. :-)

Being somewhat crazy, I opted to head to a Target store Friday morning at 6am to snag a Star Wars Lego set that I've been secretly admiring that was going to be 50% off. I got there about 6:05am as to not have to wait outside in line with the mob. I walked right in with no problems. There were plenty of the Lego sets left and so I grabbed one and also a Christmas video for the kids and checked out. I was in and out in under an hour. After that I went back home and got back in bed just as the kids were getting up.

On Saturday, we all went to a local Christian bookstore to scout out some Christmas gifts that the grandparents could get for the kids. We also picked up a fiction book for our son so that he would start reading again. We're cutting back his video gaming and TV watching as we want him to read more. Then we headed to the mall to see if we could find a nice Christmas tree topper, but we didn't find anything. We went to McDonald's for lunch and then I took the family to see the Vietnam Moving Wall memorial.

Saturday night we let our son stay up a little too late and we had problems with him getting to sleep. He got scared of various things (too dark in room, somebody is going to get me, I don't want to be alone, etc.) and almost got hysterical. He ended up sleeping on the floor in our room, and didn't get to sleep until close to 2am. Then our daughter woke up a few times from all the commotion going on, so we had to deal with her too. I was so worked up that I probably didn't get but about 1 hour of sleep.

Due to being so exhausted from the night before, we didn't end up going to church Sunday morning. We just had a quiet morning and just did our own little things. We went to church Sunday night and then went to bed early. Our son started to act up again Sunday night at bed time, but he was so tired, he just fell asleep.

Not a lot happened on Monday. At work I mainly just got caught up on e-mails and stuff.

Today is a good friend of mine's 39th birthday. Happy Birthday Joe!

Blessings!

Quickie

Just a quickie post to say that I survived the Thanksgiving weekend. I'll try to post more tomorrow on all the happenings of the weekend... I'm just too tired to do it now. :-)

Blessings!

Lego Movie and Moving Wall

I finally "finished" my first little Lego stop-motion movie. I guess you never really finish a movie, you just move on to the next one. Anyway, it's Episode I in my own little Star Wars trilogy called Darkness Falls. You can view it here or over at Google Video here. I also submitted it to the Brickfilms website, but haven't heard back yet if they'll accept it or not. For as short as it is (3:46 mins), it sure took a long time to "finish." :-) I've also provided links to it over in the side bar of my blog for future reference. Let me know what you think! :-)

Here in town this week they have the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall setup. It's open 24 hours a day for you to come visit. It's a 1/2 replica of the Wall Memorial in Washington D.C. Checking with my aunt who is big into genealogy, I found out that I have a distant relative that was killed in Vietnam in 1968. So I had a volunteer help me locate his name on the wall and they provided paper and chalk to create rubbings of the name. I also brought my camera and got some pics. I'm going to try to bring my family this weekend to see it.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we're traveling to my sister's house for the big feast. Please take time to reflect on the blessings the Lord has bestowed on us this past year.

Blessings!

Xboxed Out

Bummer. Even though I knew in my heart that there was hardly a hope in the world of scoring a Xbox 360 console today, I still held out a slight possibility for one. No dice. My wife lovingly went to our local Wal-Mart this morning (she was going anyway to get some groceries), but went a little earlier than she normally would have went to see about getting an Xbox. Our Wal-Mart is one of those 24 hour Supercenter ones, so they started selling them at 12:01 am. My wife asked one of the sales people and she said that they sold out by 1am. I've seen similar stories on the Web today, so there were a lot of people literally left out in the cold without one. Thankfully I'm not a die-hard gamer and didn't subject myself to camping out in the cold outside of a store with still the possibility of not getting one. But... I'm still X-Bummed.

Tonight is also Ted Koppel's last night of anchoring the ABC news program Nightline. He's been the host for I don't know how many years, but another staple is being removed from the fabric of news. I didn't really watch Nightline very much, but when I did get the chance, it was usually a very good program.

Today is my son's last day of school for this week and tomorrow is my last day of work for the week. I'm really looking forward to the Thanksgiving break.

Tonight I have a church board meeting. We're having our yearly budget review. Always a lot of fun.

Blessings!

Weather-proofed

This weekend, my wife and I worked on getting our house weather-proofed for the winter. The two windows in the living room don't seal real well and some pretty good drafts came through when those cold winds kicked up. We put some of that plastic over the windows that seal up real good by using a hair-dryer on it. It worked really well and you can hardly tell there is plastic over the windows. I was pretty impressed. Now we just have to wait and see if it actually will keep out the cold winds... :-)

I also finished up my first Lego Star Wars mini-movie (finally!!). This thing is only 3:46 mins long and it seemed like it has taken FOREVER to finish it. But Episode I is finally done. I'll be posting a link when I finally get it uploaded somewhere for all to see. And, as I'm a glutton for punishment, I've already written the screenplay for Episode II. :-)

Ummm... The new Xbox 360 comes out tomorrow... Sure is tempting to get one, but $400 is a lot of dough... And the game I really want to play, Lego Star Wars, isn't yet compatible with the new system yet. I read where they will be continually working to eventually make all Xbox games compatible with the new Xbox 360, it may be awhile... Bummer.

Blessings!

Twin Birthdays

Today is the 14th birthday of two of my nephews. They're twins and really into video games so I'm sure it's a fun day at their house. Happy Birthday guys!

Not too much has been going on this week. I had to redo the wax ring on the kids' toilet as it was still leaking after changing it the first time. This time I got a wax ring that had more wax on it (40% more to be exact!). This time it took and no more water leaks and smell! :-)

It turned off really chilly this week. It got down to 15 degrees last night! Brrr!

Sure seems like Thanksgiving is creeping up on us fast this year... But, I don't mind as I can hardly wait to get my once-a-year serving of cranberry sauce from the can! :-)

Blessings!

The Long Weekend

Last Thursday night my son went to a friend's house for a sleep over. They mostly played the Lego Star Wars game on their PS2, but they also went outside to play in the leaves and he really had a good time with some friends from school.

Friday was Veterans' Day and hence I had the day off. I first went and got the oil changed in my truck. I don't know why it takes so long, but it took practically an hour to get the whole job done. Next I ran by the church to pick up some old computer equipment to get it out of the way in the TV room. Then I picked up my son from his sleepover. After lunch we all went to the hardware store to pickup some weather proofing for the windows and also got a space heater for the kitchen as it always seems to get cold in there. I also replaced the wax toilet ring in the kids' bathroom as there seemed to be a little leak in there.

Friday evening we went to a dinner theatre at the church. It was being put on by our youth drama group called One Faith. It's mostly mime-type stuff set to music. They did an awesome job with their performance!

Saturday, my wife did the grocery shopping as usual, and then when she got back, I mowed the backyard and then we played out back with the kids until lunch time. Saturday afternoon I pretty much worked on my own little Lego movie. I got quite a bit done on it and also figured out how to add the lightsaber glow effects. It's looking pretty good for my first attempt. :-)

Sunday was our normal church day, but after lunch, my son and I did a little shopping and got my wife one of her Christmas gifts and also picked up a new Christmas tree as our old one is just that... old and a little too small in our new "big" house.

Blessings!

Veterans' Day

Since I'm off tomorrow, I thought I'd go ahead and post today. I want to thank all of those who have served and continue to service and protect our country. Thank you for your very important job.

My son is spending the night with some friends from school tonight. He's real excited as the boy he's staying with as the Lego Star Wars game on his PS2. :-) He's been dying to play that game since it came out. I'm thinking about getting one of the new XBox360 systems when they come out and that will probably be one of the first games to get.

Now if we could just find someone to watch our daughter tonight too... Sure would be nice to have another break from the kids for an evening.... :-)

Friday night, the youth drama team at church is putting on a Dinner Theatre. They do this once a year as a fund raiser. They usually put on a very good and inspiring show with a lot of mime and sign language set to music type of stuff.

Blessings!

Playing Catch Up

Got a little delayed in this post, so now I get to play "catch up."

Last Friday was an uncle's 72nd birthday. Happy Birthday!

Saturday, in the late afternoon, my wife and I were suppose to go to a wedding. We had a babysitter lined up for over a month. Early in the afternoon, the babysitter called saying that she had strep throat and had only got meds for it the night before. Since she hadn't been on it for a full 24 hours, she wanted to let us know incase we didn't want her to come. Well, after checking with a few other possible sitters (and not getting anywhere), we just decided to stay home. It's always hard to get all dressed up anyway after being grungy all day long. We did miss a good night out away from the kids with dinner and dancing, but oh well. Maybe next time.

Saturday was also my sister and husband's 17th wedding anniversary. Congrats to you both!

Sunday at church my old pastor from the church I grew up in spoke at our current church. He had resigned from his old church back in August to become the President of Central Bible College. He's now traveling all around speaking at churches, etc. to "drum up" students for the college. He is also the pastor that married my wife and I, so it was good to see him and his wife again.

On Monday my son started basketball practice after school. So after work I had to go by and pick him up. They'll be practicing every Monday and Thursday after school with games on Saturday. It'll do him good to get the exercise this winter. :-)

Not too much happened on Tuesday. Mainly had a "quiet" evening at home although my son wasn't feeling too good. He said he felt better this morning though. He's also getting out of school for the next two days as the teachers are having some kind of meetings. Lucky him (although I do get off work for Veterans' Day on Friday).

I'll be finally getting a haircut after work today. I tried last week, but couldn't get in. The lady I go to only works late (past 4pm) on Wednesdays and since I get off work at 4:30pm, Wednesday is the only day I can get scheduled. I think it's been almost 6 weeks now since my last cut, so it's getting kind of unruly (at least the hair that I left is anyway...).

Blessings!

Post #200 and Podcast Premiere

What better way to celebrate a milestone than doing something special...

Announcing the premiere of "Dave's Daily Weekly Wrap Up Show" podcast. This show covers the week of Oct. 23, 2005 and also includes info about VeggieTales' "Silly Songs with Larry", Artist of the Week, Link of the Week and more.

In reality though, it's probably not going to end up a weekly show and may even be a one time event. It just takes too much time to create which I don't have. It was fun doing though so there may be future episodes in store for your listening pleasure. :-)

Take a listen HERE and let me know what you think.

Blessings!

The Flu

With all the scare of the flu season right around the corner, my wife took the kids to the doctor's office last night where they received their flu shots. My son got his in his left arm and my daughter was stuck in the right leg. My son was hurting all night to were he hardly could use his left arm. It was like pulling teeth to get him to eat, do homework and take a shower. My daughter didn't seem too fazed by it. :-)

Well, I finally finished my Whitestrips treatments. I must say that my teeth actually have gotten whiter. They are just a pain to use twice a day for two whole weeks though.

I did finally finish up my podcast and I'm trying to get it posted now. So hopefully I'll have a link to it later today.

Blessings!

Day of the Dead

As they are celebrating Day of the Dead in Mexico, I'll probably end up dead tonight. I was suppose to meet my wife and daughter for lunch today and I totally forgot. Oh man... I'll be out eating with the dog tonight. She only told me about it this morning as my son and I were rushing out the door to leave and I just totally forgot. There was a lot of stuff going on this morning at work and I didn't write it down or mark it in my calendar. Man, I feel really bad. They came to my workplace to eat with me here and when I didn't show up in the cafeteria, they tried calling, but I didn't answer the phone as I was eating my lunch at my desk and I usually don't answer the phone as I don't take "work" calls during my lunch break. Anyway, they finally came to my work area to find me. Oh man, I felt (and still do) really bad... They don't get to come eat lunch with me that much anyway, so it is a real treat when they do.

Ugh... What a day. And on top of that... On one of the websites that I maintain, someone hacked the guestbook by deleting all the entries except for theirs which gloated the fact that they hacked the guestbook. I hate hackers...

And I'm tired on top of all that too... Our daughter cried out at various times during the night disrupting my beauty sleep. Maybe that's why I forgot about lunch... My mind isn't working right today. :-)

Blessings!

All Saints Day

Happy All Saints Day!

We survived Hallelujah Night (our church's Halloween alternative) last night. There were lots of kids (and adults), but it was fun to see all the kids (and some of the adults too) dressed up. They even had a paintball activity setup too which was new this year. The hotdogs were good too, but I think I'm about burned out on hotdogs now. We had them at that party Friday night, then again Saturday night at the Bluegrass & Bonfire, and then again last night. Please, no more hot dogs for awhile!

Worked some more on that problem we had at work with network connectivity. I did find out part of the problem was my own fault due to a IP stack configuration setting I didn't change last week before our system recycle. But the initial hardware failure we had definitely wasn't my fault! At least they can't prove it yet.

I don't think we have to go anywhere tonight... Man, going places four nights in a row just about wears you out...

The Saga is now complete. Star Wars Episode III came out on DVD today. My wife was suppose to pick up our copy today when she went shopping. :-) But, it's suppose to be a Christmas gift, so I guess I won't get to watch it until then. :-(

Blessings!