Friday Night Storms

With me not feeling well yesterday, I forgot to talk about the storms that came through Friday night. I'm not sure how, but they managed to knock out my Satellite. Two of my receivers aren't receiving, and 1 (in the bedroom) is only picking up 1 of the 3 satellites it should be.

Wait it gets better. They can't get anyone out her till Wednesday between noon and 5:00.

Wait, it gets even better. The OSU bowl game is Tuesday night and is on ESPN.

I think I get ESPN on the upstairs TV. I think, but I'm not sure.

Sick!

I started getting sick Tuesday with a low grade fever and a cough Tuesday night. The fever finally broke (for good) Thursday night. My cough is still annoying and my throat hurts and I'm hoarse.

Yesterday, my wife started complaining about her stomach hurting. It looks like she's got the stomach virus that's going around. Today, I've started having problems.

*sigh*

Some Vacation.

Merry Christmas

I wanted to post earlier today (on Christmas Eve) but I've been running a fever since yesterday evening.

I hate being sick on Christmas.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good Christmas. I'm hoping to go to bed soon and get more rest. I was in bed most of Christmas Eve.

Anyway, If I'm sick or not, Christmas is here and it's still time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ!

Luke 2:1 - 20

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Merry Christmas Adam!

I wanted to take a moment and wish you all a Merry Christmas Adam today ( you know, Adam came before Eve).

I also wanted to share this picture with you. My WONDERFUL wife got me this hat Saturday! I love it!

Death of a Friend

Today, my son had his real first touch of death.

We were cleaning out his hamster cage today, and he took Ang out, but Katara didn't come out after him, so he went digging through the bedding and got her. When I came in from cleaning the top of the cage, he had me look at her. She was dead. Not only was she dead, but it looks like Ang might have chewed on her a bit after she died.

He did really well for about 15 minutes or so, and then he started crying. We went to have a funeral for her, but he didn't want to go outside when it was time. He wanted me to go and bury her by meself. I felt really bad for him.

He's doing better now.

No more Santa pictures?

Yesterday was a little sad. My boy didn't want to take a picture with Santa today at school.

When I asked him why, he told me why would he want to take a picture with a fake Santa?

"Santa's fake?" I asked him. He informed me that this one is, you can take his beard off real easy, just by pulling it.

I asked if he might be one of Santa's and he told me Santa didn't need any help.

He agreed to go ahead and get his picture takenso we were happy aboout that, but who knows about next year.

Snow?

Went to Walmart this evening and as I walk buy one of the entrances, I saw this stand of snow shovles with a sign on it.

If you can't read it, it says

Weather forecast is snow late Tuesday all day Wednesday and early Thursday morning..

I'm so glad Walmart is looking out for us by letting us know the forecast.

Bah!

You know, there are days that I really don't like AT&T

A while back, AT&T Yahoo stopped their photo storage and went to Flickr. Anyone that paid for their AT&T Yahoo account would get Flickr for free! I had used the Yahoo one, but several of my friends used Flickr and I used it some. So when they made that offer, I was all over it! I was impressed.

Then today, I bought a new camera, and uploaded several of my photos to Flickr, and I see this message:

Due to changes in your AT&T Internet Service, your Flickr Pro account will expire on 1st February, 2009.

I wondered what was up with that, so they had a link asking why my Pro Account is expiring, so I clicked it:

AT&T and Verizon Internet Services have reworked their broadband packages and will no longer be offering Flickr pro to subscribers after January 31, 2009.

Now, I can upgrade my Flickr account to Pro for $24.95, but still, AT&T is the one that offered it for Free to begin with. They didn't need to do that to begin with, now that I'm used to using Flickr, I either have to switch to something else, pay for the pro account, or go back to their free account.

*sigh*

:(

Our house is mourning after the 4th quarter ended. The Pokes did pretty well, but about half way through the 4th quarter, they just couldn't keep up with the Sooners.

Lost

While watching the BIG game, we saw an awesome Lost preview. It looks really, really good. January 21st won't get here soon enough.

Back to the game.

Christmas Shopping

First things first.

Thanksgiving was AWESOME!!! The food was great! I got to see a whole lot of the family, we looked at the sales ads in the paper, and did I mention the food was great?!?!?

As usual, I went shopping today. I did get out early, but not as early as I have in the past and I was out earlier than I expected as I woke up before the alarm went off this morning for my wife to go to work, so I went ahead, got up and went shopping.

I didn't hit as many stores as I normally do, but as usually, my shopping is now complete. I spent WAY too much money, but I had a great time, and I can't wait to see everyone open their presents.

I love to shop, it's a lot of fun, but by far, watching everyone open the presents is by far the best.

I'm so tired though it's all I can do to stay awake and try to finish wrapping some of the presents I got.

I did manage to get the tree up, so later, when my wife gets home, we'll decorate it and get these presents under the tree.

I love this time of year!

Thankful

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. While working out in the yard this afternoon, I got to thinking about what I'm thankful for. There's actually a lot.

So, as you glance/read through my list, maybe something I say will help you.

I'm thankful for:

• Jesus Christ - Without him, I'm not sure how I'd get through life. There are so many difficulties in our daily life. He doesn't make them magically go away, but he helps me get through them.
• My wife - My wife means so much to me! She is always there to make sure I don't take myself to seriously. To watch how she loves her kids and her friends and is always willing to give to them really makes me smile.
  
• My kids - Even when they drive me crazy, I'd not trade either of them. They are both so very special. It's such a blessing watching them grow.
• My family - I've been very blessed with a loving and caring family that is really close. I know people that don't have that. My family is always there to help each other out.
  
• My job - I've told several people over the years how much I really like my job. I believe this is the first job I've ever had that I really like. And I'm so thankful for that. Too many people go through life working where they are miserable. I can honestly say I don't work at such a place.
• Possible layoffs - Yea, you read that right. I am thankful for these layoffs that's going around at work right now. It really helps me see what I have. There's nothing like the possibility of losing your job that helps put a little perspective on your life (well, except for actually losing it).
• My house - I know I complain about this 100+ year house a lot, but I really am thankful that we have it. There are many other places we could live that isn't as nice as what we have here.
• My country - Yea, you read that right too. I am happy and thankful to live in the US. I know things aren't perfect. But they aren't anywhere else either. Plus, here I have the right to disagree with what is going on and not fear for my life. I have the right to worship God (or not). This country isn't the best, but I can't think of any other place I'd rather live.
  

Well, I guess that's long enough for the moment. Maybe I'll get on later and add to it. But that will do at the moment.

If I don't get on here again, I hope each of you have a great Thanksgiving. No matter what you do. If you go to friends and family's for big celebrations, or stay home for a small, quiet day. I hope you all take a moment to see how much there really is to be thankful for.

Mouse 5, us 1

ahh, but how much that 1 means.

I believe that Jerry stole the bait out of our traps at least 5 times... maybe a couple more. When I came home yesterday, both traps were empty. So I loaded one back up and tried the other but no luck (don't buy the off brand mouse traps).

My wife had me stop and buy some of those Don't view, don't touch mouse traps by Dcon, I did and got them set last night.

Anyway, when I woke up this morning, the trap I set after work yesterday had a little visitor, but this time, the cheese was still on the trap... as was the mouse!

I am victorious!

Now we keep traps set to see if we have more visitors I guess.

Mouse in the House

Today, I come home from work, and as I walked into the kitchen, I thought I heard some scampering noises coming from the oven... but I wasn't sure. I did have to check to make sure both of my boy's hamsters were in the cage, and they were.

So, I'm about to head to bed, and was walking into the kitchen for a drink and as I walked in, I noticed our cat looking up at the stove top. I look over and sure enough, there is a little grey mouse running for cover! It ran from behind the crock pot, through a slight clearing, under a cast iron griddle and into the stove top I think.

What good is having a cat if it wont keep the mice away. I'm picturing Tom the cat getting yelled at while Jerry raids the fridge. At least this one isn't doing that... yet.

I know it's getting colder out side, and they tend to run for warmer places, but I don't think I've ever seen a mouse in our house.

ISS Anniversary

Today is the International Space Stations anniversary.

The very first piece of the space station was launched 10 years ago today. It's really hard to believe it's been that long. It seems like that should have been just a couple years ago and here they are now making room for 6 people to stay at a time. Incredible!

I was going to post earlier today, but, well, just never got around to it.

Happy anniversary ISS.

Vote Today

Well, today is the day. The last day we'll hear those annoying political ads and have those automated phone calls.

But as much as I hate all of that, I do like that I can vote. I get to have a say in what the government does. It may not seem like much, but it's much more than many other countries allow.

I got into work too early to vote before going in, so after work today I'm going to take my son with me and go vote. Allow him to see how it works, and try to share the importance of today with him.

So, today, go out and vote. It's important.

And as I've said for many years, if you don't vote, you don't get to complain.

Dirty Keyboards?

On Wednesday, Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer had commented on some of the strange stuff she puts in her dishwasher to clean and sanitize and invited people to add comments on other non-dish stuff they put in theirs. So I added mine. My keyboard!

Well, on this post she actually linked to my blog about it, so I figured I'd try to write up something for those that may have questions. (though she called me a she when I'm really a he, but granted Terry and be either and she has mostly female readers, I'll let her slide hehe)

First of all, this isn't something I do all the time, but after a while, your keyboard can get all nasty. or worse, stuff spills on it.

So, I put it in the top rack of the dishwasher, keys down. I don't use soap, the hot water and water pressure is usually good enough to do a decent job. I also do not have the heated drying cycle on.

When it's done, I take the keyboard out, and take it apart. Just unscrew the few screws on the back and take the back off so it can dry REALLY WELL.

The 2 most important things to this is to NOT use the headed drying cycle, and to let it dry completely before plugging it back in.

(And DO NOT use a hair dryer on your keyboard to help dry it. My daughter did this once after spilling a large cup of sweetened tea on my keyboard. She didn't unplug it (so electricity was still running through it) and then used the hair dryer on high heat to dry it out. I tried the dishwasher, but it was too late. Needless to say, I had to buy a new keyboard.)

One of the ladies at my wife's work spilt Chinese food in the keyboard about a month ago and she called me up asking how to wash it. They washed it up, and it still works.

I've done this probably half a dozen times, if the keyboard was just dirty, it has worked every time for me. (see the story of the tea above)

So, still have questions? Ask away.

UPDATE: There are a few things I wanted to add. First, I've not heard of them, but if your keyboard has a battery in it, take it out. Second, I've not tried this on wireless keyboards, so I'd do more searching on the 'Net before trying it on that. Third, I've done this close to a dozen times and have never had a problem, but I guess there is always a chance there could be a problem. If it's completely dry before you put electricity to it then I would not expect you to have any problems.

It Happened

It happened last night. The Pokes finally lost a game ending their awesome winning streak.

Much to my dismay, I did miss the game, but again, my wife sent me text messages letting me know how it was going.

The game final was OSU 24, Texas 28. And from what my wife said it was a great game and that they played well! On Friday I checked, and Texas was a 12 point favorite.

So, they are now 7-1, but they can still end the season at an incredible 12-1 if they don't let this loss get to them.

Next up, Iowa State this coming weekend at home.

Go Pokes!

Freshwater Jellyfish

Thursday, while we were at War Eagle Caverns, my wife and son were feeding the fish, and she hollered out to me and our cave guide, "Are these Jellyfish?" To which the man replied "No, Jellyfish are only in salt water." I tended to agree with the man, but my wife knows what a jelly fish is, so I left him to go see.

Sure enough, there were these things in the water that looked like Jellyfish. So I did my best to take pictures of them. I didn't expect them to come out, so I tried doing a rough sketch of what they looked like to try to find them online later.

When we got back to camp, I pulled out my phone and sure enough, freshwater jellyfish to exist and she had found some there in Beaver Lake.

I looked up this picture earlier to show you what they looked like with a good picture. This picture came from USGS.

I managed this shot. It's a bit blurry, but a good straight on shot

Another shot I got of a Freshwater Jellyfish in Beaver lake

You'll need to click my links to see it better.

The Streak Continues

Saturday, Oklahoma State continued it's winning streak to 7-0 with a 34-6 win over Baylor!

We were on vacation at Beaver lake in Arkansas during the game. I did my best to find a radio station that would air the game, but I couldn't find one. So I do what I normally do in situations like this, I turn to technology!

I ended up using the Skyfire browser (which uses flash) on my AT&T Tilt phone and streamed the game.

I checked the polls today, and OSU moved up from 8 to 7 as Texas Tech moves from 7 to 8. Most everyone else on top stayed pretty much the same.

Texas Tech won their game of Texas A&M, but it wasn't a great game from what I heard, which is why we probably switched places.

This coming Saturdays game against Texas will be the hardest we've faced all year. We beat Missou, but Texas creamed them, and from what my wife told me about that game, we had our hands full with Mizzou to squeeze out that win.

Go Pokes!

UPDATE:
I found out that the BCS poll has come out. They have OSU ranked 6 with Texas Tech at 8. OU is still at 4 with Texas still at 1