Who's Your Daddy?

One of my hobbies is genealogy. I picked up the "bug" from my aunt who's been working on our family history for over 20 years. Another lady doing family research on our same surname published a family Newsletter back in 1986 and 87. She grouped all the various family lines in to separate groups based on their location in the 1860 US Census. She is still working on those groups, trying to see if there are any common ancestors between the groups. One of the ways she is doing that today is by trying to get a male decendent from each of the groups to participate in a DNA test handled through FamilyDNA. This lady sent me a DNA kit this week and I scraped the inside of my cheek, put the swab in a little tube and mailed it off today. Kind of felt like I was on CSI or something... HA. I just hope I don't find out I'm adopted... :-) She has had quite a bit of participation in the study, so it will be interesting to find out the results.

The Missions Banquet was really good, although it started kind of late. I was really starving by the time we got our food. We thought it started at 6:30pm, but it was really at 7PM. But we really didn't get in line until almost 7:30PM... This year, instead of a missionary speaking after the dinner, our church choir performed a "Missions Cantata" consisting of 5 missions themed songs. They did a very good job.

My laptop was delievered yesterday as promised, but I was suprised that FedEx didn't have my wife sign for it. They just dropped it off on the front porch. Anyone could have come buy and picked it up. Ugh. On the FedEx site, the tracking info said that it was signed for by P. Orch (porch). How do you like that? Grrr...

YES!! Today is payday and I barely made it ... My truck needs gas and I didn't know if I'd make it to payday or not! :-)

My beautiful wife and I are going out on a date tonight. We don't get to go out very often, so this will be a nice treat. We got a babysitter for the kids, so we're going out to a nice resturant, then to a play, and maybe grab some coffee afterwards... Maybe we just won't go back home... HA!

We like to go to the local Stained Glass Theatre here in town, but last weekend was the last performance of their current play. Drat!! We noticed in last night's paper that the local home-schooled youth were putting on their annual play this weekend. Date Saved!! So, we're going to go see that tonight. We went to their play a couple of years ago and they did a very good job, so we're looking forward to see this one.

Blessings!

Wed Nes Day

Yea, it's Wednesday... Hump Day... Middle of the Week day... :-)

On Monday, we had an exciting men's b-ball game for the start of our tourney. The game was real close the whole time. The game was tied with three seconds left and we had the ball. We made an errant pass and the other team stole it. They threw up a desperation shot, but missed. OT Baby! We didn't fare so well in OT and lost 97-92 (there were a lot of 3 pointers in this game... Shoot (pun intended!) even *I* got one to fall! We were a little short on team mates for the game, so I had to play for most of the game and OT... I was (and still am) a little sore and tired... I'm not used to all that physical activity!! :-)

My new laptop is enroute and should be getting here tomorrow! WooHoo!! :-)

Tonight is the beginning of our church's annual Missions Convention. We kick it off with a Missions Banquet tonight, then a Fellowship with the Missionaries on Saturday, then one of the Missionaries preaches on Sunday morning. It's a pretty neat time to hear all the various stories they have to share. Plus my wife is excited as she doesn't have to cook tonight! :-)

Blessings!

Cha Ching

Just bought a laptop online from Circuit City a few minutes ago... My wallet seems a little lighter now... I got a HP Pavillion DV4030US model. I almost got the 4040 model, but the only difference was between a 1.6 GHz and 1.7 GHz and double the memory (512 vs 1G). I can always upgrade the memory at a latter date, so I didn't think the cost difference was worth it at this point. I went ahead and sprang for the service agreement, but I sure hate spending extra money when you most likely won't need it (hopefully).

We're starting our church league b-ball league tourney tonight. It's double elimination, so we'll at least get to play two games... ha!

Our work email addresses changed today. Man, that's a hassle when you've subscribed to stuff and now have to change everything, not to mention all the contacts you've built up over the years in your address book. What a pain... Plus, now, all my business cards are all wrong. What a waste. Oh well... That's progress I guess.... not!

Blessings!

Another Friday, Another Weekend

Wow! It's Friday already... Cool.... I'm ready for the weekend!

We had quite a little storm last night. Some areas had 2 1/2 inch diameter hail stones with lots of strong winds and rain. Pretty exciting! Now, it's turning off cold for the weekend (56 for a high on Sat. and 63 for Sunday).

It's been pretty quiet here at work today (no one wants to be here either), so I've just been doing some web surfing research on some of the old Statler Hotels that where "the" thing in the hotel industry back in the day. It's pretty interesting reading. Sad to see that the one in Detroit could possibly be torn down this summer, but glad to see the one in St. Louis has been remodelled and reopened.

Blessings!

Wacky Wednesday

Well, it's not so wacky, but it was a catchy title none-the-less.

The church board meeting last night actually was pretty interesting and didn't even last too long. We discussed our future plans of where we wanted to be in 5-10 years and we talked about buying new property and building a new church complex. It's fun to dream, but it's not cheap!

Our daugther is doing really well in the potty training front. This week we've been working hard on it and it's starting to pay off. She actually stayed dry all night last night for the first time and she's not fighting us all the time when we ask her to try and go potty. Maybe she's almost got it! :-)

I had to come in early to work today for a network test, and it was eventually successful. I'm just staying until my normal leaving time as I still have to pick up my son from school, so I'll just add it as Comp Time and use it at a later date.

It's been kind of stormy today with a little bit of hail, and it's suppose to get pretty bad tonight. Hope it's not raining too hard when I have to leave work...

Time to go!
Blessings!

No Title Tuesday

Man, I hate it when nothing is really happening that day and you can't come up with a catchy title for that day's blog entry. Bummer.

My team lost last night at our basketball game... It was the last game of the "season," but now our tourney starts... Double elimination... 1, 2, we're done. :-) Oh, we actually might get lucky and win one.

I've got a church bored (oops, there I go again!) "board" meeting tonight. We got into a big discussion of hiring a minority to the church pastoral staff to show the minorities in the congregation that we are serious about supporting them and their needs. It was a good discussion, but I just hope we don't go real long tonight as I'm really tired today. And, I have to come into work early tomorrow to help test out a new network connection. Ugh, it all just seems to come at once.

The Cardinals elected a new Pope today. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected and selected the name Pope Benedict XVI as his new name. He is the 265th Pope to be elected.

Only 30 more days until the release of "Star Wars Revenge of the Sith!" Am I a geek or what? :-)

Blessings!

Weekend Wrapup

Friday (4/15) we had a JBQ (Junior Bible Quiz) pizza party to celebrate the end of the season. The coordinator passed out awards and fun was had by all. After that, we came home and watched the movie, "Beethoven's 5th."

Saturday, we slept in some, then my wife went grocery shopping. Later on, I mowed the yard and then my son and I went to town to pick up a few things. He also wanted to spend some of his birthday money too. Imagine that! :-) That evening, my parents came down again and my dad and I went to the church as the men's ministry was having a "Spring B-B-Q." They had BBQ'd brisket, cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans and desserts. Sad to say, the brisket wasn't all it was hyped to be. It was a little dry, and tough and a few people said it wasn't totally done.

My son had been complaining about his stomache hurting through out the afternoon and when my dad and I arrived back at the house, he was in the middle of vomiting... Oh boy! The next monring, he said he still wasn't feeling too well, so I stayed home from church with him while my wife and daughter went ahead and went. I got a few things done around the house and I even cooked lunch and had it almost ready when my wife and daughter got home. My wife loves it when she doesn't have to cook on Sundays. :-) By the afternoon, my son was feeling pretty much back to his old self.

Sunday night at church, they started a new video series from Dr. James Dobson called "Bringing Up Boys" based on his best selling book by the same name for those that wanted to attend. My wife and I attended and it is going to be a very good series. Hopefuly I will gain some insight to why my son acts the way he does and how I can be a good parent to him. :-)

The dog woke me up about 2am this morning needing to go outside and so out we went. It didn't take long to get his job done, but after getting back in bed, I couldn't get back to sleep. I think I laid there the rest of the night staring at the clock. I don't feel too tired today, but if I don't sleep well tonight, ugh...

I also have a men's church league b-ball game tonight at 8:15pm... Maybe that will wear me out enough to help me get to sleep...

Blessings!

Lock Out!

Yesterday morning I got a frantic call from my wife here at work. She was locked out of the house (she was calling me from a payphone at the nearby shopping mall). It seems that when she and the kids left the house to take my son to school, as my son was opening the door in the kitchen that leds out to the garage, he inadvertently locked the door. Thankfully it was just the kind of lock that has the little hole (not a regular keyhole). I found a large paperclip here at work and rushed home to help a damsel in distress. I bent the paperclip so it was long and straight and pushed it into the hole and opened the door. Before calling me, she was about to call a locksmith. I'm glad she didn't as that probably would have cost who knows what.

The bummer part was trying to find a parking spot when I got back to work. There was not a space in sight in all of the various lots around here. I probably spent close to 20 minutes searching and then gave up and went way out to the shuttle lot.

Today is one of my niece's 8th birthday. Happy Birthday!!

Blessings!

Birthday Hangover

Can you have a hangover if you don't drink? Umm... Guess I'm just tired from all the festivities. We had a nice evening last night. My parents came down to help us celebrate my son's 10th birthday. We ordered pizza and had Zingers and ice cream for dessert. My son opened his presents and then we watched my parents' video footage from their trip to Israel. That was very interesting.

I skipped out of my men's church league b-ball game last night due to the party. I probably could have made it since it was a 9:15pm game, but after eating all that pizza, I don't think it would have been a good idea to be running up and down a court. :-)

It's been a pretty good day today... It's just that I'm a little tired...

But hey, it's almost time to go home! Yea!!

Blessings!

Happy 10th Birthday Son!

Today is the big day! My son turns 10 years old today. Wow... I can't really believe he is that old already. Since I am typing this, it is safe to assume that I did survive the weekend. As mentioned in my previous post, my son invited a friend over to spend the night last Friday night. They played together constently. They did take a break to watch a movie and eat some popcorn. My wife and I watched the third Anne of Green Gables movie (The Continuing Story) which kept us up until about 1am which is about what time we finally got the boys in to bed as well. They woke up about 6:45am Saturday morning and starting playing again until it was time to go to the birthday party at the roller rink at 2pm...

The party was pretty fun. Way to nice outside to be indoors, but you can't really plan for the weather a couple weeks in advance. One of my son's friends never really skated before and didn't last too long. So he played some of the various games at the rink. I felt bad for him and I think my son did too, as he stuck around with him for while until my wife told my son that we had paid for doing skating and not playing games... :-)

After the party, I got to mow the yard for the first time this season... Believe it or not, the mower fired off on the first pull!

Sunday was really a beautiful day (just a little windy) and I tried to spend as much time as I could outside.

Tonight my folks are coming to town to help celebrate my son's birthday. I think we're going to be ordering pizza for dinner. Hopefully my folks will remember to bring along their pictures from their trip to Israel as well.

Happy Birthday Son!!!

Blessings!

Another Friday!

Another week is almost at an end. Since next Monday is my son's 10th birthday (already?), we're letting him have a friend over to spend the night. These guys get real hyper when they're together, so I hope I can survive the night. Tomorrow we're going to have a birthday party for him at the local roller skating rink. That's always a lot of fun too. I'll let ya know... :-)

On Wednesday (4/6), my wife took my son over to the private school where we're going to be sending him next year. He really seemed to like it and it helped him knowing that there are some other friends and also a couple of cousins that also attend there. I'm sure his heart sank a little though when the principal told him that the school dishes out more homework than the public schools.... :-)

The Pope's funeral was today (real early... 3AM our time), but I missed it sad to say... Guess I can catch the re-run tonight on CNN...

Going to be mowing the grass at our new house for the first time tomorrow... We've been having some nice weather with a little bit of rain, so it's really starting to grow. I've got to go buy some gas for the mower and I just hate doing that with the gas prices so high... I've also got to fill up my truck tonight... Ouch... that takes a bite out of the 'ol wallet.

It's going to be VERY nice weather wise this weekend.... I just love it!

Blessings!

One Win, One Loss

North Carolina wins the National Championship over Illinois 75-70 last night... My church league team lost last night. Bummer. I know, no correlation between the two events, but we lost. Bummer.

We've been fighting what appears to be a hacker attempt here at work since the weekend, but I think it's just a case of messed up defintions on the remote side. It's happening over our SNA (VTAM) network and not the IP network. The sessions are coming from the West Virginia University Hospital network. We both have a common connection to the Aamvanet (old IBM Advantis) network, so that is how they are reaching us. I've got to call them tomorrow to try and straighten out the mess... But since it appears to management as a "hacker," all the security folks are getting up in arms about it all... Hopefully I can get ahold of someone that knows what's going on over there. Networking is *so* fun!

Blessings!

Crazy Weekend

As promised, I said I would report on happenings of the wedding I video taped this past Saturday. I wish I could say it was an April Fools joke, but sadly it wasn't. I already knew the groom was a little odd, but this was the strangest wedding I'd ever attend. :-)

The Pastor, groomsmen and the groom came in first down the middle alse, one at a time, *jogging* as they came. Never seen that one before. During the wedding, there were a few times when a song was played and the happy couple just stood there embracing - almost doing a slow dance - but not quite. They read love letters to each other... very mushy ones at that... The bride read, "I want to be the mother of your children...", etc. After the wedding, there was a worship service where they sang hymns and choruses and the pastor preached an actual sermon. The whole thing lasted about 2 hours. After the worship service, the groom announced that later that evening they were having a reception with old music, dancing and get this: They were serving cornbread and beans... He even mentioned that you better eat before coming if you didn't like cornbread and beans, and you also might want to bring along some Beano. Ack! Thankfully, I didn't have to go to the reception as this thing about wasted a totally gorgeous Saturday...

Sunday was a very beautiful day as well. I took the family out to lunch after church and then we just enjoyed the afternoon.

Sad to hear about Pope John Paul II passing away. I'm not Catholic, but he was a very godly man and I'm sorry to see him go. I pray that the Cardnials will have guidance and wisdom in the selection of the next Pope.

Blessings!

TGIF!

Well... I wish I was more thrilled that it was Friday... I have to go to a wedding rehearsal tonight that I have video taping. Then the actual wedding is tomorrow. I don't really video weddings has a profession, it's more of a 'hey, you run the TV ministry at the church, can you video tape my wedding' type of deal. Most of the time it's not too bad. But this time, the groom has everything scripted out... I mean, come on! It's a wedding, not a TV show! Oh well, we'll see how it goes, script or not. Details to follow on Monday...

Hey! All the new Star Wars Ep III LEGO sets come out tomorrow... cool! :-)

Happy April Fool's day everyone... Hope you didn't get "punked"!

Blessings!