Funeral Today

Well, the funeral for my aunt is this morning. It is to start in a little over an hour. I'm to be a pall barrer.

We have decided to take our boy with us. I think he is old enough to go.

Keep us in your prayers. This is going to be a hard day.

Funeral

Well, my aunts funeral is Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. in Tulsa. The graveside service is at 3:00 p.m. in Francis.

I haven't been to Francis is years. I think it's been since High School when we use to go see some family down there ( one of my aunts and my great-grandparents).

What states you been to?

Steven posted on the State's he has visted, so I went an looked at the ones I had visited.

Some of these have been years ago, some have been recent. I think the map looks interesting.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.


This may be updated if I find some I've been to that I've forgotten.

*sigh*

Today, was the Collinsville Free Dump day, so I loaded up the truck and went to Tulsa to drop off some stuff that has been collection for some time.

I get home, to see my daughter mowing the yard! I can't believe it. I told her I wasn't sure when she could mow the yard again, because Wednesday, the day she was suppose to mow, was the only non-Ozone Alert Day this week. The other days are determined every day after 3 p.m. Yesterday, they declared both Saturday and Sunday as Ozone Alert Days, so, my lawn wasn't going to get mowed. hopefully some time next week.

Well, I guess its mowed now!

I'll miss you Diane

Well, as many of you know, my aunt Diane died today.

She was my mother's youngest sister. I guess she was somewhere in her mid forties, not real sure on her age, but she always acted younger.

She was always a big part of my life. My mom use to baby-sit my cousin, so we saw her all the time for years and years. Even after she moved off we always saw her a lot. Even after I left home, I still saw here a couple times a year.

I know I haven't seen my aunt much lately, but I will miss her. She was up just two weeks ago. We were all out at Skiatook lake. We had a cook out, and some of the family spent the night out there, including her. She got to spend the night in a tent that she got for Christmas.

This has been sort of a shock for the family. She has not been in good health for years. There were times we thought that she wasn't going to make it. She had just had some surgery a couple weeks ago, and everything was going fine. I don't think we really know how she died, and I don't believe an autopsy is going to be done. It was just her time, and God took her home today.

My cousin Angel (Diane's oldest) is doing pretty good from what I hear. My cousin Laura gave her a call tonight and talked to her a bit. But from what she told my, my cousin Zac (her youngest) is taking it pretty hard. He still lived with his mom. He is home from college for the summer. He is the one that found her. I have not talked to him yet. They are suppose to be up Tomorrow or Saturday, I can't remember which, I think Saturday.

I'm sure he is thinking that if he had gone in the room sooner, she would have made it. I know that isn't the case, but how do you tell a grieving son that. It's funny what you find out in times like this. I just found out that the doctors had only given her 9 years to live, of course, that was over 12 years ago. (what do doctors know anyway? God is the one in control!)

There are so many things that are going through my mind. I opened a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper tonight, and thought of my aunt. One summer, I spent some time at their house in Enid, and she went to the store to buy me some Dr. Pepper. She came home, and opened the bottle. She was not being respectful of Dr. Pepper like she should have been, and the bottle exploded all over her kitchen. That was so funny. That story has come up over the years, more than once. :) Or there is the macaroni and cheese pizza she bought me, though she always swore it was only a cheese pizza, but I know it wasn't! :)

I am sad, and I will miss her. But I am also happy for her. She is no longer in pain. And she has been for many years. The most important thing though is she had accepted Christ as her personal savior, so I know she is in heaven right now as I type this. She is with my child, my grandfather and may others that I know that have passed on.

One day I'll see her again.

Virus to treat cancer?

CNN had an interesting article today about using a common virus that seems to kill some cancer. The virus AAV-2 in some tests seems to kill cervical, breast, prostate and squamous cell tumor cells. And what is really cool about this, is it doesn't have the ill effects as some of the current cancer treatments.

VBS update

Well, it's been a crazy week. Getting off work, rushing home, so I can run up to the church for the evening for Bible School. 3 days down, 2 to go, but it really has been a good week so far.

My wife and I have been leading the music. One of the things done now is that every song has motions to go along with it. This is done so the kids will remember it more. And it seems to work. The kids have been enjoy it so much. To see them have fun makes all the hard work in learning these songs, and motions worth it!

Summer Begins

Well, Today is the first day of Summer! For those of you who love summer, I bet your excited. And boy, has summer arrived!

It is suppose to get to 93 degrees today here in Tulsa. Yesterday, on my drive home, I saw it was 98, though I'm sure the "official" reading wasn't that hot.

Today is also an Ozone Alert Day. It is possible to go to that side after 3 each day to see the forecast for the next day.

Also, if you really want to make today interesting. It is to be a Full Moon tonight.

MSBuild

There is a new build process Microsoft has created called MSBUILD. I'm starting to take a look at using it at work right now. I'll post as I make progress. If you know of any good links in how to use it, feel free to let me know.

Father's Day weekend

What a weekend. After the busy week of vacation last week, and getting back into the swing of things last week, this weekend was very much needed!

My boy went to stay at my parents for the weekend with my sister, and her kids, so he had a blast, and was was best, that means we got to sleep late on Saturday. We cooked some hot wings and pizza for dinner, and watched a movie. Went to bed relatively early, and slept pretty late, atleast for us. Slowly got around, and took my father-in-law his Father's day present (a couple tomato plants), and then we went to Walmart for some much needed groceries.

After that was done, we cooked some burgers, and floated out in our mini-pool. After doing some decorating at church for Vacation Bible School (VBS), we came home and cooked some yummy steaks!

Today, after church, we headed to my parents house in Bartlesville for lunch. When I got there, my son was making me a Father's Day card. He wrote "Happy Fathers Day" on the front.
"I love you" on the first inside page, the second inside page, had a CD drawn with pac-man written on it. (not sure why, but I'm loving it), and on the back, was 2 different pairs of shoes. It was very cute.

He came out and gave me that card first, and I thought it was wonderful. Then both of the kids came out after that with presents and cards. My daughter brought out a Darth Tater (Mr. Potato head in Darth Vader costume) and she had a really nice card. It went on an on about what a great dad I am, course every S was a $. On the inside, it said something about if I wanted to reward such loyalty, I could in any way I $aw fit. hehe Very fitting.

Now it was my boy's turn. His card was very touching. It was a picture of a little hand holding onto daddies finger. And it said, "I'll never let go." His present was Star Wars, Episode I on DVD. I had it on VHS, but it isn't the same.

These cards were very fitting for each kid. My wife did a WONDERFUL job picking them out for them. :)

My mom cooked a wonderful lunch, and then my boy and my niece played outside in the sprinkler and slip and slide, and little pool.

Well, It is getting late. We have VBS this week, so who knows what kind of updates I'll have this week. My wife and I are leading the music, so this should be fun. Course this is right up my alley, as long as I don't do something silly and hurt myself (which is also right up my alley) :)

Garden Update!

It's been a while since I've updated on the garden.

It is doing very well. The peas are now dead. I just pulled them up a few minutes ago.

I have okra! About half a dozen or so, but it's a start.
The cucumbers and tomatoes are covered in blooms!
There are also blooms on the watermelons and jalapenos. In fact, I'll be able to get my first pepper soon. (my mouth is watering thinking about it!)
Oh, and I don't want to forget the blackberries. I can almost smell the cobblers now!

Here are some pictures.


Cucumbers are doing very nice.


Okra in the front, and the tomatoes in the background.



Watermelon (with blooms!) and tomatoes in the background again


My blackberry bush full of yummy (but not quite ripe) blackberries!


Forgound is cilantro, slightly above is the jalapenoes and above that is the garlic!

Stories from the Trip, pt 4

Well, our stay in Maryland was at an end. Time to start our drive home.

didn't really know where we were going except, southwest.

We loaded up the van, and headed south.

As we entered Virginia, we decided we would go through the Shanadoa mountains. From there we headed south, and stopped at the Natural Bridge. It was nice, but it was too expensive for us all to go in. We drove on down, and stopped in Bristol TN. We were only about 2 blocks into TN. We got checked in and we headed to the pool, well, my boy, my wife and I did. It was cold. Too cold. My boy enjoyed it, I only got in to my knees.

We got up in the morning, and started off again. We decided to go see the Smokies. First of all, traffic was horrible through Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg. Somewhere through there we stopped for lunch. At that point, my daughter took the co-pilot seat. She started helping navigate, and she got to learn how to read a map. As we were headed through Gatlinburg, we found Cooters. The General Lee, the jeep, tow truck, and sheriff car from the Dukes of Hazzard were there. My girl and I turned around and went back. We had a lot of fun looking at all the stuff. They even had Clietus from the show there signing autographs. We both had a lot of fun. Through the mountains, we stopped at about every other turn off to take pictures. Everyone else in the car was ready to stop, but we had so much fun.

From there, my girl navigated us to Chattanooga. We stopped there for dinner. After dinner, there was a traffic jam on the highway, so we opted to head west, and see where that took us. Finally got back to the highway, and we had passed the traffic problem. And off to Nashville we go.

We started looking for a place to stop for the night before we got to Nashville, billboard prices were pretty cheap. But there was some sort of music festival. So, all the hotel rates were raised. We kept going trying to find a cheaper rate, but never really did. Stopped around 12:30 for the night. They only had 2 rooms, 1 non smoking, and 1 smoking. So, we took them. Our toilet barely flushed, which I guess was good, cause the next morning, we noticed a toilet outside between a couple of the rooms.

It is now Saturday. Last day of our vacation. We get up and around and hit the road. My mother-in-law wanted to stop at Cracker Barrel to eat. So we stop. Now, my daughter had asked for McDonald's, and that would have been fine for me, but this was ok, even if it was a bit more expensive than I really wanted to spend. We go in, about a 30 minutes wait. Ok, we wait.
Finally get seated, I'm trying to help my boy with his order, couldn't find the kids menu, finally did when my wife pointed it out. My boy knew what he wanted, so, now time to look for me. And she comes to take our orders. Well, I haven't even really looked at the menu. My in-laws ordered, and she was suppose to come back in just a couple minutes for our order. Well, along time later, she returned for our order. And then an eternity passed before we got our food!

Breakfast took us 2 hours!!!

So, we hit the road again. And except for an adventure finding a Walmart in West Memphis, everything else went pretty smoothly. Got my in-laws home around 11:00 pm, and us a bit later than that.

Well, here are some picutres of the Smokies and some other miscellaneous stuff.

Stories from the Trip, pt 3

Wednesday, we decided to go to the Atlantic and go swimming. Being that close to the ocean, can't skip on that. So we pulled out a map, and started looking where the closest place was. We decided to go to Virginia Beach. So we packed up the van and took off. It looked like it would take us about 3 hours or so to get there.

Boy, were we wrong. Partly because of traffic. Took is 5 hours to get there.

My daughter had been to the ocean before, so this was just another trip for her. But this was my boy's first time, and he was amazed!

He had a blast! We all did. It was so much fun watching the waves hit him and almost knock him down. He kept stepping on me and my wife when we were holding him. He finally got use to it enough where I wouldn't hold on to him, and he could take most of the hits from the waves without falling down. He also liked it when I held on to him, and we floated out deeper. I was about chest deep or so, and we would float over the waves as they came in.

I would definatly suggest taking your kids to the ocean (Atlantic or Pacific) when you can. It was so much fun.

We only got to stay there for about an hour and a half or so. Then we decided to pack up and go eat. So as we are leaving, my boy was complaining about his feet hurting to walk. well, we thought he was just being a pansy, turns out he wasn't

We walked up to one of the foot washes, and I took off his swim shoes, and both of them had ALOT of sand in them. hehe it was something else.

While we were washing the sand off our feet, we asked some locals for a good place to eat. They suggested the place we were standing by, which was the restraunt in the Hilton. Not in our budget by a long shot. I'm sure it would have been good, but wasn't happening. So they suggested another place down the road, so we went.

It was nice. We had about a 30 minute wait which wasn't bad. Food was good too, but the price wasn't what I had in mind either. Oh well, it makes for a good adventure. As we are leaving town, my wife flipped out at one of the street signs. Its a no cussing sign. I loved it! So she had to get its picture. It took her a few times, but she finally got it.

On the drive home, my boy was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the restraunt. He had a busy day. Well, about an hour out of Virginia Beach, we made a bathroom stop, and he woke up. And he stayed awake till we got back around 1 AM. And he talked the whole way. about 3 hours in all. I thought my wife and daughter were going to kill him!

Here are some pictures were took at the beach.

Stories from the Trip, pt 2.

After arriving Sunday, we were tired.

Well, duh!

Anyway, we had a wonderful steak dinner prepared for us, and it was very yummy, and we sat around, talked and rested.

Monday, We finally got up and went to DC. We went to the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam, Korean, WWI, and WWII memorials. We saw the Washington Monument, and the reflecting pool. We also walked over and saw the White House. This was all very beautiful and nice, however, it was 95+ degrees outside. So, it wasn't very pleasant.

This took all afternoon to see it all. My boy did a wonderful job during all this, didn't really complain or anything. Though he did get tired and wanted to be carried a few times. After we left, we went back home for more delicious food. On the way, we saw Marine 1 headed to the White House. Now, I'm not completely positive how it works, but when the President goes to the White House, 3 helicopters fly in from different directions, and 1 lands and drops off and picks up the President.

Tuesday, We went back into DC, and drove past the Jefferson memorial and the Pentagon. We went to Arlington National cemetery. It was something else. We saw the changing of the guard and a special ceremony of them changing the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Very touching experience.

After that, we saw some markers for the Shuttle accidents. Both of these really touched me as I have always liked the space program.

We left there and saw the Marine memorial. After that, we got lucky and got to see Air Force 1. We then went home to get ready for my nephews graduation.

We took several pictures of the sites. You may be able to see them on my yahoo photo's DC page. Then again you may not. From home, I can see them just fine, from work I have been having problems, so hopefully, you'll get to see them.... If you're interested.

More later

Stories from the Trip pt. 1

Well, I've promised some stories from the trip. Not that many of you are interested, but I do want to write these down.

As I've said before, the trip up there was mostly uneventful, which is good on a trip that long. We did learn that at least some Pennsylvania drivers are not that friendly. My wife was driving so I could get some rest, and she had the cruise control set on the speed limit, and was passing someone. Well, she got around them, and scooted back over into the "slow" lane. Well, one guy several cars back I guess did not like her going the speed limit, so as he passed us, he honked his horn, and flipped us off. Good first impression of the state.

It was here that we took our first real adventure. There was a traffic jam, so we got off the highway, and decided to find another way through town. I think it made my father in-law a bit nervous, but we survived, and it was a lot of fun. I had contemplated just finding our own way to my brother-in-law's house, but we decided not to.

We did get to drive though some tunnels on the way to Maryland, and it was interesting, as we do not have tunnels here.

Trip up there only took us about 25 hours, and that was with a couple dinner stops, several fuel stops, and some bathroom breaks. Not too bad.

What Kind of Blogger am I?

While trying to catch up with the going ons from last week, I read Steven's post about Am I your kind of Blogger?

I feel it is pretty accurate. Course, I haven't been blogging long, so I guess that can always change as time goes by.

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What kind of blogger are you?

We're home!

It is so nice to be home.

To tired to do much more typing.

I have some pictures I'll be sharing soon as well as some stories, but not tonight.

Washington DC

Well, after a wonderful breakfast, we got around and headed into DC to see some of the sites. We hit the Vietnam Memorial, Korean Memorial, WWI memorial, WWII memorial, Lincoln memorial, the reflecting pool, the Washinton monument, and the White House.

It was very nice. One of my grandfathers fought in Korean, the other in WWII. Those meant the most to me, but it was personal. Several of my wifes uncles fought in Vietnam, so that was good too.

I'm sure I'll talk more about it later. Dinner is almost ready.

The Drive!

Well, we left at 4:00 CT PM Saturday and arrived in Waldorf Maryland around 6:30 PM ET Sunday. It wasn't too bad.

The trip really went well.
We stopped for dinner in Lebanon Misouri. and ate at Bob's steak, chicken, seafood, and gun show for dinner. Now, that wasn't really the name, but it was very close to that. It was very good.

Everyone started going to sleep in a couple hours after that. We hit St. Louis about midnight. I got to see the Arch. It was cool. I had never seen that before. Come to find out, no one in the car had seen it. My boy and girl went to sleep about 15-30 minutes before we got there.

The kids were great. No arguments or fights. Both did great. Had some tears from my boy in Penn. and my daughter started getting a bit short, but not bad at all.

When we got here we had steak for dinner. Can't beat that!

Anniversary

Monday will be my 7th Wedding Anniversary!

It has been a wonderful marriage. I love my wife so much! We have had some wonderful times over these 7 years, and we've had some bad times.

I'm so glad God brought her into my life!

Unfortunatly, we will be on our Vacation with our Kids and her parents, so not really planning on doing anything special for it.

Vacation

I'm rather excited about my vacation we will be taking starting this weekend.

Me, my wife, our 16 year old daughter, our 5 year old son, and my wife's parents are taking a mini-van and driving from Oklahoma to Maryland. According to MapQuest, that is a 19 hour drive. That time frame does not include any stops. So it is really much longer.

The main reason for the trip is to see our nephew graduate from High School, but while we are there, we will do some site seeing. My wife and son are very excited about seeing the sites in D.C. I'm not as excited about that as they are. I know I should be. And I'm really trying to get excited about that part of the trip.

We are currently planning to stay till Thursday, and slowly make our way home. Stopping whenever something strikes our interest.

online shopping

Looking to buy stuff online? Wanting to spend a little as possible, so you shop around to find that lowest price? According to this CNN article, that doesnt' always get you the lowest price.

There was a lot of information on this article that I already knew. Stores can change the prices on items from person to person

"...unless doing so discriminates against a consumer's race or gender or violates antitrust or price-fixing laws."

The article talks about how one person found that a site gave him different prices depending on if they have previously visited price comparison sites.

It also talks about how something similar happened to a person that got a lower price at Amazon after a person deleted "electronic tags on his computer that identified him as a regular customer."

Banana Phone

Today, was obviously weird news day at Yahoo.

Is that a banana in your pocket?

Yes, yes it is. hold on while I answer it!

Life would not be complete without a banana phone.

Guard-Lamp

What do you get when you cross a guard dog with a lamp? Roborior.

Roborior has a digital camera, infrared sensors, and a camera phone. So Roborior can notify you of intruders while you are away from home.
It will also go right/left, forward/backward, and you can move the camera up or down with the handset.

I think it looks pretty cool, but at $2600, you wouldn't see me with one even if they were being sold in the US.

GreaseCar

And I don't mean the car on the movie Grease either!

A story I read today on Yahoo news about a new invension that for $795 will allow you to turn your diesel engine vehicle to use vegetable oil as a fuel source. This solution does have some pluses and minuses thought

Pluses
- oil is cheap to free (some restaurant's may give their old oil away to you instead of paying to get rid of it)
- You exhaust smells like what was cooked in the grease.

Minuses
- track record of vegetable oil clogging diesel engines
- Still uses diesel to start and stop vehicles
- can't pull up to Quick Trip and fill up
- You exhaust smells like what was cooked in the grease.