Cingular Customer Service

I was sitting down today and looking at our bills and budget and the like, and noticed that I hadn't received the Cingular bill yet. That was strange.

I went to their web page, and my account has been converted from the old AT&T account to the new Cingular account. Because of this, I got stuck in an endless loop trying to log in.

After finding an old bill (and tucking my son into bed first), I call Customer Service.
I enter my phone number, and am converted (probably cause of old AT&T). I enter my phone number AGAIN and I wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. You get the idea. I know I got on the phone around 9:35 or so. I got off the phone at about 10:25.

On the bright side, I found out how much my bill was. I found out it was mailed late (because of the transfer), and I should be getting it soon. The nice man reviewed my bill, and noticed that a $10 credit for phone lines was not put on my bill when they converted my account over, so he updated that, and credited me the $20 on my bill.

I also was able to set my phones up so my wife and I can text message. It is something we don't do very often, but have wanted to on occasion. But when I set up the accounts, I clicked something so it was impossible to text message. oops.

Anyway, I don't usually like calling Customer Service, but this wasn't too bad (once you get past the being on hold part).

How to handle Spyware & Viruses

Have I mentioned how much I hate Spyware and Viruses? Ok, yes, I have, but still, this stuff gets on my head. I'm so glad people write this stuff. I just can't sleep at night cause I'm so excited about the new viruses and spyware that is coming out. Ok. Maybe not.

Can you tell, I'm working on another computer full of the stuff?

Enough whining. It's here, and not going anywhere. So, the only thing we can do about it is stay on top of it! Here is what you can do.

1. Get a Firewall! Hardware or software. Hardware works better, but I've not seen hardware firewalls for modems yet. (Granted, I've not looked either.)
   
2. Keep your virus checker up to date (daily)!
3. Get spyware cleaner programs. Keep them updated, and run them!
4. Make sure that your hosts file is read-only. It's not a major deal, but I've seen lots of problems resolved when I cleaned out that file and made it read-only.
5. Install Google-toolbar, and make sure the pop-up blocker is turned on!
6. If you are running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, create user accounts that do not have admin privileges to your machine. If you don't have admin privs, there is a good chance that they may not be able to install, and create havoc on your machine.
   

Those are just a few things that you can do to help keep your machine running smother.

Oh, and NEVER click on a pop-up ad that advertises spyware removal. It's not a good thing.

Barny Fife dies

My wife told me about this later today. Don Knotts died on Friday 2/24 at the age of 81.

He was in so many things. Some of my favorite was when he was on the Scooby Doo Cartoons and The Apple Dumpling Gang.

Garden time

Yes boys and girls, it's that time. Time to get out your hoe, shovel, garden rake and such, and get into the garden. Okay, it's really only that time if you want to plant early spring crops like spinach, peas, and lettuce.

My son helped me plant today. That is always fun getting out in the garden and working with my kids (not that my oldest would ever do that). The look on this face was funny when I was amending the soil with a little manure, and he asked what it was. It was a look of total repulsiveness... At first, then he asked what it felt like. I told him well, get some and find out, he was all over it!

As I was pulling the hay back from on top of the garden as I was starting this afternoon, I had some weeds. No shocker, they are already up in the yard else where, but these looked a little different. Once I cut them with the hoe and threw them out of my way, I knew what they were... Cilantro. My wife loves the stuff. These were from last years plants that went to seed. I had several of them. I left a could where they were at, and moved two into pots. We'll have to see how they do.

Well, the garden is on the way.
70 days till my son can have some home grown peas that he loves so much.
45 to 50 days for my spinach and 45 days for my lettuce.

I would have taken pictures, but we all know what dirt looks like.

G'Kar Dies

While looking at some of my old bookmarks, I came across some sad news. Andreas Katsulas, the actor that played G'Kar, died on February 13th of lung cancer.

Wasp Sting Update

The doctor said that it was an allergic reaction.
She gave us some Atarax and Prednisone.

Time for school.

Wasp Sting

Tuesday night, my boy got stung by a wasp right above his ankle. Well, as I was tucking him in last night I noticed that it was quite swollen and bruised. It didn't look like the other wasp stings he's had. (probably between 8 and 10 wasp stings and a few bee stings)

Well, we called our next door neighbor (who is a nurse) and asked if she could come over and take a quick look. She did and told us the same thing we thought. Probably didn't need to go to the emergency room, but wouldn't hurt to go to the doctor this morning if it wasn't better.

Well, it's not. He is even limping as he walks. So, I'm sitting here trying to get through to the doctors to see if I can get an appointment.

'Borg' Computer Collective

This rates right at the top of my "Cool and scary" list. NASA has used 80 personal computers, using artificial intelligence (AI), and combined their silicon brains to quickly design a tiny, advanced space antenna.

The fact that it only took 10 hours to come up with the highly efficient antenna is cool. The fact that computers are now starting to design computers? That's sorta trippy. Reminds me of the Terminator. Of course, this is a long way from that.

Long work day

Today was a busy/long day at work. But because of the extra work, we had lots of food to keep us going (Mario's Pizza, Krispy Kreme's, cookies, pop, coffee, and salad).

It was a lot of fun, but it's been a long day. It was almost a part. I did do a lot of walking, which I expected to do. I took my pedometer to see just how much I did. I took nearly 12500 steps today. Which is over 6 miles.

Night.

Girls!

What a day!
Started off with church getting canceled. The roads were terrible, especially rural roads and that's where I church is.
So, after the family slept late, we got around and headed to the park for some more sledding. We took our sled, and our ski-tube. We tried the tube, and it just didn't go so great, so we took the cover of it off. It ran faster that way, but still wasn't as quick as the sled. I made, probably, half a dozen runs or so. I tried the tube out and was at the bottom of the hill waiting for my wife and son. A couple of girls got there, and was started down the hill. She ended up going straight for a tree. So, I threw the empty tube in front of me, and myself in front of the tree. She hit the tube and it went flying (was worth a try), then she hit me. Well, that was a good plan, problem was her head hit the inside of my knee. Dead center. Took me straight down. She started crying. I started to console her and wanted to check her head (as I'm laying on the snowy ground). She started crying she wanted her daddy. I could see him coming from his car (wimp, should have been out there with his girls). I told her he was coming. Well, she was fine. She probably had a pretty good knot on her head. I'm not really sure what part of her head hit my knee, all I knew was it HURT! When my wife came down the hill (I'm still sitting), she asked me how I was, I said "I'm hurt. I'm probably done for the day." I said other stuff, but I don't remember what. Tuesday, I'm suppose to work all night. As I was sitting there in the snow wondering if we should go to the doctor, all I could think about was trying to pull that all nighter at work on crutches. It would be pretty. Luckily, I'm not on crutches.

Well, we were there for at least another hour, maybe a bit more. Towards the end, I took another run (skeleton style, which is like luge, but head first on the belly). Made a nice run, air-born twice. It was fun, but hurt the knee. Right before leaving, I did it one more time (it was just too much fun).

My daughter worked a split again today, and was going to do some homework in between here shifts at a deceased friends mom's house that lives close to her work, well, she forgot it. So after sledding, I took her homework to her and put it in her car. Limped around walmart getting some stuff we needed and came home and took a shower.

Set down and relaxed a bit while my WONDERFUL wife cooked chicken noodle soup. After we ate, she started getting round to head to work, and my daughter called. Seemed her tire was flat (off the rim). *sigh* She was already at work, so she wasn't late to work, but her car was still at her friends house.

My wife took our boy to her work, and I started getting around to go help my daughter. I left a couple minutes later than my wife and son. As I passed her work, I saw the truck way away from the building. Strange. Wait, was the tire spinning? I stopped, backed up and into the drive. Yep. She was stuck. So, I helped get her unstuck, then I went and changed the tire.

Time for another shower and a rest, and hopefully, I'll get to really rest this time.

Don't get me wrong, this was a really nice day. I love my family, and would do anything for them. Just part of being a dad and a husband.

It really was a fun day.

Busy Day

What a day.
I actually got to sleep a bit late. I got up around 9:30, and got around and made blue berry doughnuts. Then my boy and I got bundled up and went out to the park to play in the snow.
When we left, the temp was 14 degrees. I think we stayed at the park for an hour to an hour and a half. We came home and had hot chocolate, then we went to the library with my girl so she could work on her junior paper, and me and him read books about stars and several books on some of the planets.

We had a really nice day. I hurt my neck on a wipeout sledding at the park. I may talk about that later. We had so much fun at the park. Hopefully, we'll get to go again tomorrow.

First time snow drive

Tonight was the first time my girl drove on snow. Course, it was snow, sleet, and some ice thrown in too.

I left the house around 11:40 or so, to get a good idea of how the roads were, and if I would let her drive home or not. The roads there were bad! I decided to let her drive home anyway. I stopped by Walmart while I waited for her to get off of work. I gave her some pointers when I had talked to her on the phone and said 2 things to her. Don't talk on your cel phone while driving tonight, and call me before you leave work so I'll know. Didn't want to embarrass her by coming to work to follow her home. Anyway, ice had started accumulating on the wiper blades, so I stopped to clean them off. When I did, it broke. At least I was at Walmart.

Got the blades and finally got them installed. Thought I was going to get frostbite on my fingers getting the blades installed. I get in the car and start warming up again. My phone rings. It's my daughter. She forgot to call me when she left work, and she was already half way home (maybe more). I specifically told her, don't use your cel phone, and call BEFORE you leave. She couldn't manage to do either. *sigh*

Anyway, she is home safe and sound. managed to drive in some nasty weather without wrecking her car.

PS3 update

I found some news about the PS3, though just a bit.

What's worse, it confuses me.

Sony is expecting strong PS3 shipments in 2006. That's good, unless you were hoping to snatch up a PS3 and sell it for big bucks on eBay.

The part of this story that confused me though is this quote:

"Sony does not regard Xbox as a competitor. Rather, the company may even consider working with Microsoft to develop games together, Yasuda noted."

Huh?
I just don't get it. I don't see how the Xbox 360 is not a PS3 competitor. Also, what exactly does "may even consider working with Microsoft to develop games" mean? (besides the obvious)

In a way, this would be cool There have been several games for the XBox that I wish I could have had for the PS2. But still, this makes me scratch my head in confusion.

Have to wait and see I suppose.

Highway 169 dangerous?

I drive to and from work on Highway 169. Lately, there seems to be a lot of accidents on 169.

And what I find strange, is that the accidents (mostly) are not happening around the construction where you would expect there to be more accidents.

A few days ago, a pew came out of a truck and through the windshields of a pick-up killing a baby and injuring the 45 year old baby sitter. This was at 136th St N.

Today, a dump truck with its bed up hit the 36th St N Bridge.

Also today, there was a head on collision at 46th St N when one car crossed the median and hit a car in the other lane. Both women had to be cut out of their cars.

Yesterday morning, around the construction at I-244 and 169, there was a nasty wreck. Tulsa Police had 169 North bound blocked off at the I-44 bridge for clean up of the wreck.

So what is it about this highway that seems to act as a magnet to accidents?

I really don't know. There is a lot of traffic on this road. But I don't think it's that bad.
The road is in pretty good condition, so that can't really be blamed either.

Truth is, 169 is probably no dangerous than any other road, but driving it and seeing some of the wrecks, and hearing the reports from the news... It can make you wonder.

Parent/Teacher conference

My wife and I met with my son's teacher yesterday for his first parent teacher conference.

On the first round of conferences earlier in the school year, the teacher said she didn't need to meet with us. But she wanted a meeting this time. I asked my boy if he was in trouble, and he said no.

She commented on what a good kid he is, and how neat his hand writing is.
She did say he talks a bit (he gets that from me), and that he is slow copying stuff off the board.
She is concerned that if he doesn't start picking up speed he'll have a hard time in 1st grade.

Other than that she had nothing but praise for him!

I know my son is a bit of a perfectionist. He wants things to be perfect (that includes his writing). He is also slow to answer questions because he doesn't want to be wrong, and thinks, and thinks and thinks about stuff before answering. These are not necessarily bad things, but they aren't always great either.

Anyway, our first parent/teacher conference went great!

Afterwards, we were leaving and found stuff outside the class rooms the kids did. We looked at some hearts on one wall where the kids wrote on them what they love. My wife and I were looking at them, and she found one. It said. "I love my dad". She told me, that one is his. So I lifted up the heart to see if there was a name on the back, and sure enough it was my boys. :)

He is such a daddies boy.

Coyote

While taking my son to the day care this morning, I saw a coyote walk across the road and jump into a field. Well, that is what it looked like. I slowed down as we got close and pointed him out to my son.

It was defiantly a coyote. I thought it was strange to see one during the day. That doesn't' happen too terribly often, at least for me.

Also, a couple nights ago, my wife saw one right across the street from our house. She said it made a noise like a woman screaming. She went out to see what the noise was, and there was the coyote.

I went to dictionary.com to make sure I spelled coyote correctly, and found a total of 3 definitions. One is for the wolf type animal I'm talking about. One is for a firefighter, and one is for a illegal immigrant smuggler.

New DISH Network Satellite Launched

DISH Network has launched a new Satellite, EchoStar 10.

I love my DISH Network. It's been great!

What exactly this mean, I'm not sure yet, but at the very least, it's more band width, and we all know you can never have too much bandwidth.

Hunting Accidents

Ok, so what is the problem with everyone going crazy that the Vice President shot his hunting buddy?

It happens.

And the fact that the News agencies are making such a big deal that they weren't told, is STUPID.

Here, I'll say it slow for people...

S T U P I D

The Vice President was tracking a quail and he shot his friend. His friend knew they were hunting. He should have came up BEHIND them so he wouldn't get shot.

That is the reason they hunt quail the way they do. when your are tracking a bird, you aren't worried about whats behind it. If you're looking behind the bird, you wont hit it.

Ok, I think I'm better now.

His friend will be fine. This isn't news... well, unless you are PETA, but they are crazy anyway.

School Bond Passed!

469-76 Meadowcreek
252-32 HealthCenter
49-2 Maranathan

Grand total 770-110

Great support and turnout for this bond issue!

School Bond Election Today!

A couple weeks ago, I talked about a School Bond Election. Well, today is election day. When I stopped by to vote today, I was the 40th person to cast my vote at my polling place. We'll know in a few more hours how it goes.

Happy Valentines Day

I wanted to take a quick moment and wish all my friends and family a Happy Valentines Day. I hope you have a very nice day and get to spend it with someone you love.

And for all you singles people out there, remember God loves you very much and He wants the very best for you.

I also wanted to tell my wife (who reads my blog) that I love you very much! I am so thankful God brought you into my life!

Soccer!

I had a meeting with my parents tonight at the soccer fields. We'll start practice next week!

I guess I'm finally getting excited about soccer season. It's really harder being the coach than you think. Not so much at game times, but at the practices. Coming up with ideas to help the kids practice.

Anyway, we came up with the team name and color tonight and I got the money from all the parents but one for them. So once I deposit the money, I can place my order and hopefully get the uniforms more than just a couple days before the game.

Saturday Adventures

My son and I got to spend some fun time together.

Frist, after we got up and around, we went down the road to have an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast to help some boy scouts fund a summer camping trip. It was very tasty!

Afterward, we came home and played some video games for a while, then we went to Claremore fo the Tackle and Hunting Show they are having. We walked around there looking at all kinds of hunting and fishing stuff. My boy even played a fishing game. He had to put on a life jacket, sit in a boat with a rod & reel, and catch a fish. They had a TV hooked up to some sort of thing that simulated a fish fighting. He seemed to have a lot of fun.

We came back to Owasso and ate pizza, and a little shopping before coming back home.

It was a lot of fun.

Olympics viewing

I got to watch about 30 minutes of Olympic programming on TV tonight during dinner. My boy was way impressed. When the TV changed to record Battlestar Galactica, he was all upset.

Hopefully, I'll actually get to watch some Olympics this year.

Also of note, you can go to one of the NBCOlympics.com and sign up for emails on events, medal, and schedules.

Prom Dress Shopping

My wife and daughter have headed to Tulsa to go Prom dress shopping.

Please pray for me as they go and spend all my money on a dress that will only be worn once.

(It's a good thing my wife if a good shopper, I would hate to think about how much my daughter would spend if left to her own devices.)

I'm sure I'll have pictures later.

UPDATE:
They are back from shopping.

They got a prom dress... Well, sorta, they got 2. Why? I still can't figure THAT one out.
While they were out, they went on a little shopping spree. They ended up with the 2 prom dresses, another dress, 10 pairs of ear rings, a necklace, and a pair of flip flops. They also went to El Chico for dinner. Now, they did do a great job in spending.

With all their shopping and dinner, they spent under $150

But, that would have been under 100 if they hadn't have bought 2 PROM DRESSES!!!!

Anyway, this isn't the best picture, but here are the 2 dresses they bought.

(click for a larger picture)

Soul Patch

Well, here is a picture of it. My wife hates it though, so I guess I'll do something different.

Taxes Paid!

My taxes are paid!

YEA!!!

I got another bill in the mail again today, so I called up the IRS just to double check that they would just take the money out of this years refund. After verifying that I was who I said I was I found out that my mistake on my taxes from 2003 have been paid ($1347.09) and that the rest of refund would be direct deposited on Friday.

I also found out that my State refund was deposited today!

I'm so happy.

Favorite Dad

Friday, on our drive to Vici, OK. We stopped at Mickey D's for dinner. While in line, my boy informed me that I was his "favorite dad".

I was really glad to hear that since I am his only dad. But it made me laugh.

More on Prayer

Why is it that many Christians do not spend quality time in prayer? With so much pain and suffering of those around us, you would think we would spend much more time in prayer than we do.

What I think that people probably fall into 1 of 2 groups. Either 1, they don't believe prayer really works, or 2, they are lazy (aka selfish).
I mean, really, look at the power that prayer can have:

Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will cure the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. Confess faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous one avails much. Elijah was a man of like passion as we are. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for the time of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to sprout.

James 5:13-18

The Bible has even promised us that is we follow Christ, we will have problems in our lives' which should be more reason to pray.

I'm not saying I'm perfect. In fact, I'm not. Far from it (just ask my family). But I've really felt God teaching me lately about this. I've just been to complacent with my Christian walk. So, I guess I need to stop walking and start praying.

Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

James 4:17

Time for a change... again

Tonight, I decided to act upon something I've been thinking about. I'm still not sure what I think about it yet.

Last September, I decided to grow my goatee into a full beard for the winter.

Recently, I had decided I was tired of the beard, especially with the warm weather. Well, last week, I went back to the goatee. I liked it and all, but I wanted something a bit different.

Well, tonight, I took my goatee to a mustache and soul patch.

Neither my wife nor I have decided if we like it.

100th day of school

Today is the 100th day of school (well, for Collinsville anyway).

I guess they make a big deal out of it now. My son brought home some sheet on Monday talking about the 100th day of school. Last night, the next door neighbor boy came by asking if we would sign his t-shirt. He was trying to get 100 signatures on his t-shirt for the 100th day of school.

My son woke up not feeling well today. When I got up, so did he. He told me he hoped he felt better so he could go to school since it was the 100th day. He didn't get to. :(

Taxes Filed

I filed my taxes last night. Yea!

Back in August, I wrote about getting a letter from the IRS stating we owed them money from my 2003 returns. Well, the refund I'll be getting will pay for that mistake. So, I'll finally have them taken care of. *whew* I don't like it when the IRS takes notice of me. It was just a mistake, but when you hear of all the nightmares people have had, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.

Anyway, back to the taxes. The problem that caused our mistake in 2003 was the source of some grief again tonight. Long story short, my wife cashed out an IRA, and we had to pay extra taxes on it. Well, again, I had problems with TaxSlayer doing that without extra thought on my part. On the page where I entered in the 1099-R there was a drop down box on the bottom of the page. I had to pick that to make sure my taxes were correct. What it did was copied the amount from one form to the correct line on another form. But I had to know which one to do. Plus, since my 1099-R did not have a value in line 2, I had to copy the value from line 1 to line 2. Anyway, I did my taxes in both TaxSlayer and TurboTax. Both returns had the same amount for a refund, so I feel comfortable.

TurboTax is still by far the easiest to use, however, to e-file both my State and Federal returns, it was going to cost $44.90 unless I could find a promotion code to drop that amount.

TaxSlayer was only $9.95 to e-file Federal, and State was free.

Winter Olympics are here!

I love the Olympics! Especially the Winter Olympics! Bobsled and luge are my favorite events, but I also like speed skating, snowboarding, ski jumping, alpine skiing, and some figure skating.

The Olympics go from February 10th through the 26th!

You can find out more and even what channels you can catch event on at NBCOlympics.com