Digging day

We moved into our house a little over a year ago, and we love it! I'd say the biggest problem we have is with drainage when it rains. We never have water in the house, but it would always cover the sidewalk, and the front porch just about every time it rains!

A couple month ago, we added a large flowerbed in the front and took the soil down 2.5 inches. It helped a lot.

However, with the storms a few days ago, the sidewalk was covered again and all the mulch in the bed was floating away. So, Friday, my wife decided she would try to dig a little drainage ditch between the gravel and paved portion of the driveway. While doing that, she found a drain that had been placed there who knows when. As she excavated, she found that the drainage pipe went about 10 feet into the yard and just stopped. Also, it was all filled with gravel and dirt.

We decided to do something about it. My wife and son had cleaned out the drain yesterday.

Today, my wife and I dug a ditch and bought some new pipes so the drain would actually drain out and away from the house. We even put a clean-out section in the pipe to help with keeping it cleaned out and working. We now just need another good rain to give it a try.

I remembered to take a few pictures today as we worked.

Did I mention how many rocks and shell we have in the ground? Yea, it's a lot!!!

Gardens

After the storms Wednesday night, my wife decided to see if she could dig a trench where the gravel driveway meets the paved section. While doing that, she found that there was a drain in place.

She started looking for a pipe where this would drain out at. She finally found it. A pipe left the drain and went into the yard 6 to 8 feet and just stopped. It couldn't drain out anywhere cause it was covered by dirt!!! We'll have to drain it out somewhere, just have to figure out where.

So, after looking at that, I decided I'd walk around the yard and look at the garden. It's the first garden we've had here, and it just doesn't look good. However, our tomatoes are finally starting to produce. Also, we finally have some blooms on our cucumber plants too. Now, I just need my peppers to start producing!

Very cool

Well, today, I had some much better photo ops.

I got home from work and was sitting on the couch when I saw a golden finch fly up into our weeping cherry tree we planted earlier this year. So I grabbed the camera and carefully opened the door. I only managed on shot, but I think it's good!



Later, my wife and I went for a while. I had my camera in tow! And I wasn't having much luck on finding anything interesting to take a picture of. Then I saw this tree. It looked fuzzy. It was something I've never seen before. I took a picture, but it doesn't do it justice.



A bit later, I was walking by this field that had a huge array of wild flowers/weeds in bloom... which ever. Either way, I gave it a shot.



Then the storms blew in! What a crazy night for storms. Tons of lightning, rain and tornadoes! I'm not sure how many touched down, but they were all over the place. It's raining so hard, I hear many streets are flooding. One of the nice things I like about storms is the lightning. I love it. Especially now I have a camera that is capable of taking photos of it. Here are a couple I thought turned out pretty good.





Oh, speaking of flooding, the rain is doing a number on our new flower bed. The mulch just keeps floating by.





This was a much better day.

Beautiful Sunrise

The sunrise was beautiful this morning. There was cloudy morning, but the sky was beautiful pinks and purples and blues as the sun came up.





This isn't as long as I had hoped, but it's something.

Quiet

I realized I've not blogged a lot lately. Mostly just because I've been busy. Some cause most things I just put in Facebook and I can limit more of who see's what.

But I saw someones blog the other day where they were blogging about their photography. I thought that might be fun. Get me back into my blogging, and more incentive to take pictures.

So, I'm going to give it a try. We'll see how it goes.

First off, at the start of the year, I decided I'd try to take at least 1 photo everyday for the year. I've failed miserably, but I'm still taking them and uploading them to my flickr set. You can find that here if you're interested.

Tonight, on my walk, it was getting late and the sun was setting on this mostly cloudy day. It was really nice out. The temperature was cool and many people were out mowing their yards.

I was really enjoying the colors of the sky tonight and stopped and took several pictures. I think this one may be my favorite of the night.




This picture was probably a close second. I liked how the sun was trying to peek through the clouds, and how all the trees and shrubs were framing the sky.





Further on in my walk, I saw downtown Tulsa off in the distance. From this vantage point, there were a lot of power lines between me and it, but I still thought it was decent.




Early on in my I saw these thistles, and really liked the way the looked.





Hope y'all enjoy this short walk through my walk tonight.

Updates

Today felt so good! It was like Spring was coming out for a visit! It was a nice visit too! My wife got some flowers planted, and bought a steak for me to cook on the grill!!! It was wonderful!

The garage door opener broke today, so that was bad. looks like the nylon gear is all chewed up. Will probably end up having to buy a new one.

We have a busy weekend coming up. I have practice Saturday morning for Wednesday's nights Kids Stuff at church, and then Saturday night we have the Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet!

Well, guess that's it for now. Night all!

4 8 15 16 23 42

So, this week in Lost, the Numbers showed back up, but this time, with a bit more meaning.

Jacob had 6 possible protectors and a number next to their name. They are

4: Locke
8: Hurley
15: Sawyer
16: Sayid
23: Jack
42: Sun/Jin (not sure which one)

So, that being said, Riddle me this, Those numbers have been going on since WWII if I remember correctly.

How's that for some long term planning?

Howling

I knew it had been a long time since I've blogged, but I didn't realize it had been 2 months. Sorry about that (if you even care).

Tonight my boy and I went out and howled at the full moon again. We've managed to get out every time since we first started on July 7th! (one month it was cloudy so we howled at the faint glow behind the clouds)

We both really look forward to it. I wish I had done this with my daughter, though I'm not sure she would have enjoyed it as much as my boy has been. And this month, we'll get to do it again. Twice in one month, what a treat!

You can read more about it here if you're interested.

Life

Life can be so strange sometimes. Things are going about as good as they can go. I'm blessed beyond measure but at the same time, it's hard to imagine more heartbreak and difficulty than I'm having.

Right now, i'm sitting on the top of an old fire tower in Roaring River State Park. So old, the trees are taller than it is. There probably isn't another person around in over a mile or more.

It's funny how God can use a walk (or hike in this case). There are old burnt and dead trees all around. Tres and leaves dead and decomposing, but in all this there is life and beauty.

The sun is shining, the wind is blowing. I can hear birds and frogs and the talking of the trees. Izve seen beautiful butterflies. I've sen dragon flies and it all so beautiful.

So, even in the chaos of life, there's beauty. And even after the stroms that come through, life thrives.

Holy Cow!!!!!

I just saw a couple things I wanted to share.

First,
The 9/14 issue of Sports Illustrated has OSU on the cover! (go ahead, click the link)

Second,
Take a look at the college football rankings http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings

A quick summary (AP Poll)
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Alabama
5. Oklahoma State!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13. Oklahoma

Not sure I've ever seen OSU ranked above OU before.

Crazy!

August?

Are we sure today is the last day og August? It was 51 when I left the house this morning! Not only that, but it never got out of the 70's today!

Crazy I tell you and you'll not get any complants form me!

4th Grade Pictures and more

I promised pictures, So here they are.
As usual, you can click on the pictures to make them larger!

4th Grade

3rd Grade

2nd Grade

1st Grade



Kindergarden


Pre-K

4th Grade

Today is the start of my boys 4th grade year! Wow, it's hard to believe he's here!

It seems like only yesterday he was learning his colors and his letters. Starting to read and write. Today, he's in 4th grade. The things he'll learn, the things he'll experience, I'm excited for him!

My beloved is taking him to school this morning, and I'll be home when he gets off the bus. Hopefully, I'll have a picture of him on his first day of class. I love those pictures as we take them every year, the first day of school.

I'll try to post pictures later.

Good Day

Today is turning out to be a good day, even though it started a bit rough.

I went to be a bit early last night, and was sleeping relatively well. That was until 5:00 this morning when the cat started meowing. So, I get up so he doesn't wake up my wife, to figure out what he needs. He took me to the living room and went to the front door!

He's not an indoor/outdoor cat. He's only indoor unless he escapes, and hasn't escaped since we moved to the new house. Anway, I almost threw him out the door anyway for waking me up! I went ahead and checked his food bowl and made sure that the door was open so he could get to his litter box and went back to bed.

I went back to bed, laid down, and was wide awake! So, after about 5 minutes, I decided to get up. I had my quiet time, surfed the web, fixed breakfast, and packed a lunch. My wife woke up about 7:00 and I got the bed made, laundry going, and dishes done before I left the house at 7:15!

Work has even been going pretty well today.

The downside is knowing my dishwasher broke yesterday, and we've no money to fix it.

Oh well, guess we'll do dishes the old fashioned way for a while.

Mechanic

Today was my boy's first time to work on one of our vehicles.

It was cool having him help me.

Making memories!!!

Tonight, my boy and I went out, and howled at the moon! Why? Because it was a full moon, and we are wild men, and it was fun!

We've also decided to always try to howl at every full moon! Is this silly? You bet! But what better memories can I make with my boy now then to do something silly with my boy!

Things have made me realize how important it is to have fun, and make these precious fun memories with my boy now, while he still wants to be with me, and have fun with me. He's 9, and before long, dad will no longer be cool.

We came into the computer room to see when the next full moon is, and it's on August 5th! So we already have our next howling date scheduled. In fact, we've scheduled the rest of them for the year! (and for the record, there are 2 full moons in December... 12/2 and 12/31!

Then, after howling at the moon, we went and found the ISS passing over and enjoyed watching it fly by!

When it was time to come in, we took the time to howl again!

Good Idea?

So, I'm up in the office this morning, walking back to my desk, and I notice a woman out in the parking lot putting up a sunshade in her truck. That in and of itself is not unusual, but she was putting it on the OUTSIDE of the truck! I even watched her put it under the windshield wipers.

I'm not sure why she was putting it on the outside of the truck, but she did. Before lunch, we noticed that they did indeed blow down as we expected. But, on the bright side, she's warming up the engine for when she gets off of work.

Oh, wait...

Resident Camp Update

First, I will admit. I was nervous this weekend.

This camp that my boy went to was more than just another night at a friends house, this was a true camping trip! The kind where your shower is either a dip in the lake, or provided by God in a rain storm! He slept in a tent, without an adult in it. And to top it off, it was a rather stormy weekend.

I didn't think he would, but I was afraid he would want to call us to come pick him up, and I didn't want that. I wanted him to realize how much fun this stuff is! How he can have fun without me or his mom around.

And man did he!

When we first got there, he saw me get out of the car and came a running! When he finally saw his mom, he ran to her too. He talked to us a few moments, and then was quickly out pacing us with his friends headed to dinner.

The leaders told me what a great job he did, and only had one slight breakdown and that was Sunday morning (after a very tiring week). So, that was awesome! He was so tired come Sunday, after lunch, he fell asleep at the lunch table!

Watching him interact with his friends, allowed me to see how much he grew up this weekend! To listen to him talk about the paddling the war canoes, and swimming, and the castle, and songs, and skits they did, was incredible. We sang one of the songs several times in the car on the way to my parents for church camp this week. I learned more about the 3 days at Resident camp than I think I found out the entire school year about what when on at school.

And as happy and proud of him as I was, it also makes me sad knowing how much my little boy is growing up. But again, that is is how it should be.

This week, he is at church camp with my parents. He'll be exhausted by the time he gets home. But he's having a good summer!

Big Step

Today's a big step in family, or, at least, seems like a big step.

My little boy, who's not as little as I'd like to think, is at Webelos Resident Camp. It's a 3 day, 2 night camp where Boy Scouts run the camp for the Webelos. They'll be camping out while they have all sorts of fun. And I'm here at home, while he's there at camp.

He wanted me to go with him. And normally I would, but I felt like he needed to do this camp without me this time. Let him grow up a bit.

He was sad about it yesterday, but when I left him at the camp today, he didn't bat an eye...

As it should be.

It made me both happy and sad.

And I suppose that is also how it should be.

Decorated!

Well, we finally finished up the decorating and painting... well, mostly, you know how it goes.

The house is really awesome, and we love it here. The house, the area, the quiet, EVERYTHING!

Anyway, I promised some pictures. I put out several on my Flickr page. You can click to enlarge.

More busy-ness

Wow! Has it been a long time since I've blogged. I've thought about it a lot, but just haven't managed to get in here and do it. I've had a lot to say, but now that I've got the time, I can't think of most of it.

So, what's been going on?

• Well, We got moved in, unpacked and the like. We are finishing the painting up of the last room (master bath) today or tomorrow (Saturday at the latest). Once we have the paint done and finish the last bit of decorating, I'll post a bunch of new pictures.
  
• Kids. I'd say what's to say, but there's been a lot, I'll post more below (or later depending on how long this post is.)
• Saturday is my and my beautiful wife's wedding anniversary. We wanted to go do something, but doesn't look like that's going to happen. 11 years!
• I got my parents moved from Bartlesville, OK to Hodgen, OK. I hurt my back in the process, and it's just now getting back to normal.
• I've been pricing fencing for the new place, man is it expensive.
• E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) has been this week, and I've enjoyed it. Wish I could have gone to it! Lots of video game goodness!
• I'm sure there is more, but can't think of it.

So, my kids, first my boy.

• We were asked to have him tested for the Gifted and Talented. I thought it was strange, but I told them they could test him. Anyway, he scored in the 99 percentile (meaning better than 99 out of 100 of people that took the test. So, next year, he'll spend 40 minutes, twice a week for enrichment activities (whatever that means).
• He also was given an application for a Lego Robotics team that will meet one to two times a week before school next year and a competition in Stillwater in December. (I think that link is right) He was completely stoked about it till he found out he had to fill out part of the application himself, so he said "nah". Well, being the good dad I am, I made him fill it out. He was stoked until that point. We've not heard back, but are hoping he gets to be a part. they are only choosing 10 kids out of the 4th -5th grade class.
• He finished 3rd grade with straight A's!!! We are so proud of him.

My daughter though is another matter. We just had to spend $500 so she'd not go blind! She's had the same pair of contacts in her eyes (without removing them nightly like she's suppose to) for the last 8 months+. Luckily she was able to get some glasses (the dr said no contacts for at least 1 year if ever). But she can see, so that's whats important.

Anyway, I guess that's all for now. Hopefully, it wont be month before my next post.

New House

I've twittered about it, but haven't blogged yet.

We closed on the old house Tuesday and the new house today! We've cleaned a lot today, and will paint Friday with Moving on a very rainy Saturday.

More later I'm sure. It's late

Busy, busy, busy

Those 3 words pretty much sum up what's going on for me.

Today and tomorrow we are having garage sale. This will help get rid of stuff we no longer want and make a bit of money in the process. Anything we don't sale, we'll take elsewhere after the sale.

Tonight is my boy's Karate class. This weekend, he tests for his Camo belt!!! We are so excited. Once getting his camo belt, he'll get to move to the advanced class where he'll finally get to start sparing. We're all excited about that.

Saturday evening, we take a final walk-through on the new house to make sure all the repairs were done.

Tuesday we close on our current house and have my boys first advance Karate class!

1 week from today, we close on the new house and start painting and cleaning and have Karate (he may have to miss this day, we'll see).

Friday May 1st, is more cleaning and painting and maybe some moving. The telephone/DSL and Dish Network gets turned on.

Saturday morning May 2nd, we move.

Saturday evening May 2nd, we'll have a birthday party for my grandmother.

Well, that's it for now. More later!

Tulsa #1

Wow, I can't believe it.

In this years RelocateAmerica.com's annual list of the top 100 places to live in the US, Tulsa, OK came in at number 1!

You can see more at this article at MarketWatch, or take a look at the full list at RelocateAmerica.com.

As a brief recap though, Tulsa came in at #1, Dallas/Ft Worth #2, Little Rock at #9, and OKC at #10.

Transformers II

I just saw the Transformers II trailer... Wow!

Work

*sigh*

I'm exhausted. I've been pretty busy with work lately. Tonight we put in a lot of new functionality into one of the applications I work on. Getting ready for this release has been a little stressful considering all the problems I had in getting this working in our QA region.

There were a few hiccups, but luckily nothing major. The actual release, which normally takes about 30 minutes took right at 2 hours to make all the changes on all our servers.

Hopefully, I'll sleep much better tonight than I have been.

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a great Easter today. I know it's wet around here, but that shouldn't dampen the holiday as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ!

Satellite Move Scheduled

Making my last post, reminded me I needed to call to move my Dish Network. It's scheduled to move on the same Friday as the phone.

I can't wait!

Phone Move

I called yesterday and scheduled to move the phone to the new house on the Friday after we move. I found out we will end up with a new number (or pay a $6/mo for basically a permanent transfer... not happening)

I also confirmed that I'll be able to keep my same level of DSL service that I had here in town. That makes me very happy!

19 days till we close!

Getting closer

3 weeks from today, we close on the new house! We are so excited. We've been doing what I consider a good job packing. We've packed a lot, designated a lot for a garage sale, and thrown away a lot. I'm not sure were all this stuff has come from, but it's nice to get rid of a lot of it.

The Internet goes to poop today

It's April Fools Day, so today, the internet goes to poop. You might can believe 1% of everything you read today, but even that's not a safe bet.

Have fun, and don't get fooled!

House update

Well, things are going well with the house. 2 of the 3 inspections have been done. There are no termites and nothing major wrong with the house.

That is just great news! We are so excited.

We've started packing. We moved out our comfy chair in the computer room so we have a place to stack boxes once they are packed and labeled. I'm having problems with the packing at the moment, May 4th seem so far off, but I know it will be here before we know it.

We've also loaded up the truck for a trip to the dump. It's amazing how much trash you acquire in 10 years. And I'm not talking about garage sale stuff, I mean trash! It's crazy! I've got more stuff ready, but it wont make a full load, so I may wait a while before my next trip... not sure yet.

Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted.

Oh, I promised more pictures, but since all the pictures I have has all the current owners stuff in them, I probably wont post many. But here are a few more

(Click to enlarge)

New House

Tonight, I got the call, our counter-counter offer was accepted. We will sign the papers tomorrow night.

We're excited!

(Click for a larger picture)

I'll have more pictures later once the paper work is in order.

It's Sold!!!

Tonight we sold our house! We are very happy about it. Now we just have to find a house to buy before we are homeless! :)

We have 2 that we are very interested in. Hopefully we'll get to take a second look at both houses this weekend.

Spring

I went out on the back porch this afternoon, and noticed that there are buds on the plum tree in our backyard!

It's not the plums, but the buds that has me excited!

Spring is almost here!

Update

Wow, it's really been a long time since I've posted. I knew it had been, but I didn't realize it had been almost a month!

For the most part, things have been really quiet (and I'm NOT complaining). We have decided to start looking into buying a new house. I've let the church next door to us know because they had shown some interest in buying the place if we ever sold. So, we've had about 8 people from their church come by and look at the place. I was always under the impression that they wanted to bulldoze it, but they've been asking a lot of questions about the house, so sounds like they may want to keep it. I really don't care as long as we get out of it what we need for a down payment on the next place.

We've not done a lot as far as hunting goes. We've looked online a bit, and drove by a couple houses we've seen, but we've not gone into any of them yet.

Last week, we've also filled out loan papers and are still waiting to hear back on that.

I guess that is basically it. Hopefully it wont be another month before I post again.

Winter storm and pulled muscle

Well, the storm is here, there is a good bit of ice on EVERYTHING, roads, cars, everything. It took me over an hour to come home yesterday from work (which usually takes about 20-25). I picked my son up from the bus stop so he wouldn't have to walk home, and the bus was 30 minutes late. It was crazy.

Anyway, I went ahead and made it to the gym. It was about 25 degrees outside and everything was covered in ice, (the car again), but I didn't want to break my exercising streak. Easier to keep it going than start over. Anyway, since the car was covered in ice again, and the gym was 2 blocks away, I put on my spiky shoes and walked to the gym.

I had a really good workout and after the day I had, I was good to be there and work out some of my stress. Afterward, I got wrapped back up for the cold and started walking home. As I was crossing the street, and Jeep came sliding around the corning going way to fast, so I make a run for it to get out of the road. Well, as he was sliding, he slid right into the parking spots across the street (where I was running to), so I'm trying to make it up on the curb and into the ally (safe from the crazy jeep). About my second step, I pulled a muscle in my right calf!

It was all I could do to get across the street before getting hit! As I did get to saftey, I turned around to check on the jeep, and he was sliding towards an old parked semi. I thought he was going to hit it, but he didn't.

So, I had to hobble the 2 blocks back home to get out of the weather. Every step was horrible. But I made it.

It feels better today, but there is no way I'll be able to make it to the gym today.

*sigh*

Great Horned Owl

The weather has been nice lately, so I've been going on walks. Well yesterday, on my walk, I startled something that flew out of a tree and down the row of trees. It was huge. When it landed, I realized it was an owl. I didn't know what kind, but it was huge!

Thanks to Google, I figured out it was probably a Great Horned Owl. Their bodies can be between 18"-25" long with a wingspan of 36"-60". Those upper numbers are close to how large I thought this owl was. I've never seen an owl in the wild. I've heard them, but never seen them.

I need to try to get a picture of it.

Birthday Cake Time

Well, it's that time of year again, time for another birthday cake. Big number 9.

This year, the cake was Spongebob Squarpants. I think I did ok.

Last year, was Pokemon:


The year before that Yoda. That year, I did 2 cakes cause we had to parties, and I wasn't happy with the first cake.
Second Cake:

First Cake:


I guess I'm getting better, not sure. course when my practice is a year apart, it will take me a while to get really good at it.

Birthday Boy

Today is my son's Birthday... big number 9. The last birthday before he hits double digits. He is getting so big!

Today, he also came home with his report card.

Language Arts - A
Math - A
Reading - A
Science - S
Social Studies - S
Spelling - A
Music - S
PE - S

Considering where we were at the start of 2nd grade, this is nothing but a pure miracle!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

May you have a blessed year.

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

Come and get it!

We've had some visitors while we've been here. Yesterday these two kittens stopped by. It's obvious they were smart kittens as they read Gizmo's food and water bowel and helped themselves.

My family liked them much more than myself, I kept trying to get them to go away but to no avail. After we went to bed, they decided they wanted to join us I guess as they kept getting under the rain flap. I tried to ignore them but it just didn't happen. After swatting at them several times I put on some shoes and proceeded to try to scare them off. I'm throwing sticks and rocks and eventually small bolders at them. I ran and kicked as well. I felt like Wile E Coyote chasen the Road runner and being made a fool of! I finaly gave up. There was two of them and only one of me after all.

Camping

Yesterday was the first day of our Fall break vacation. We came over to Beaver Lake for some camping.

It was a very chilly night last night, but it makes camping fun!

Today we went to War Eagle Caverns. It was my boys first time in a cave. He seemed to really enjoy it.

That's enough for now. I have to get this fire going, its starting to get chilly.

(Tonights forcast is 44 degrees)

Nooooooooo

The world is conspiring against me watching OSU play football this year, and especially since they are winning (though maybe my not watching is helping them win?).

Anyway, this weeks game against Baylor is not televised. No shocker there.

However, I just learned (as in about 5 minutes ago) that the OSU/Texas game will be televised!!! on ABC!!!! at 2:30 in the afternoon!!!

Why is this so tragic? I'm going with our church to take the kids and any adults that might like to go to a Corn Maze. We'll have a fire for hot dogs and marsh mellows. Now, truth is, that sounds like a lot of fun, but knowing we'll be leaving the church at 3 and not be back till 8 means I'll miss the game.

*sigh*

Maybe someone will take pitty on me and text message me updates.

Mobile Air1

Most people that know me, know I love Air 1. And for me, I hate being away from one of their radio stations.

Well, today, I found Mobile Air 1 and I am so excited!

You can their Verse of the Day, News links, a searchable station list, recent songs, and if your mobile device supposes Real Player of Windows Media player, you can listen too!

Too cool!

What's that stentch?

Last night, my wife made Chicken Teriyaki for dinner last night. It was good. I was about to tell her it was the best thing I had eaten all day, but then I remembered the breakfast I had, so I change it to best thing I'd had since breakfast. Well, my son quickly piped in that she needed a better complement than that, and it was the best he'd had all day! It was very amusing. After dinner, he went upstairs to watch some TV.

Well, we had some noodles left, so my wife decided to cook some more chicken to go with the noodles. When our boy came down to brush his teeth before bed, he asked "What's that stench?" with the most disgusted tone in his voice. Well, she'd burnt a bit of the teriyaki sauce. It wasn't bad. 1000% times better than the smell of burnt popcorn.

We laughed so hard!

What I found very amusing is I'm not sure I'd ever heard him use the word stentch.

Ahh children.

OSU Football

Sorry for all the football talk, but to same I'm pretty excited is an understatement.

Well, the new standings are out, and the Pokes are ranked 8. Not bad. OU dropped to 5th after their loss to Texas (which they moved to 1st).

So, looking at the rest of our schedule, we have:

• Baylor next week. They should be able to win assuming we don't go in all full of themselves and not play football. (It's unfortunately happened before).
• Texas the week after that in Austin. They are currently ranked 1 in the AP poll. To win that game will be a struggle, but not impossible. They'll have to take stay concentrated like they did over the weekend to pull that off.
• November 1st is Iowa State at home. Again, we should be able to win assuming they stay concentrated.
• November 8th it Texas Tech at Lubbock. Texas Tech is currently ranked 7th in the AP. Again, if they can stay focused a win is not impossible.
• Colorado on the 15th in Boulder, and as will Iowa State and Baylor, just stay focused and on the task at hand.
• And yep, 11/29 is Oklahoma. at HOME! The home will help, but since Norman and Stillwater are so close, expect a lot of Crimson in those stands. We've beat OU several times. It's not unheard of, but in the last 10 years, we've only beaten them 3 times (1998, 2001, 2002). Though, it's about time for another win.

I just realized that they have a week off between Colorado and Oklahoma. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It should let them have players healed up and rested up for one of their hardest games all season.

To say we have an easy end of year is a lie. To says it's hard is an understatement. Well, for half the games anyway.

The Pokes have always seemed to have a problem staying focused on the here and now and not underestimating their opponents. If they take it one game at a time, and play them all like it's the Big 12 championship, then they very well may be playing for said championship. But if they let their focus drop for even a moment, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma will eat them for lunch!

The next 7 weeks are going to be very exciting!

Pokes get another W

Wow! The Pokes pulled out a win over Missouri tonight! 28-23 I wish I could have seen that game, sounded great! Oh, and did I mention that was at Mizzou?

I am so excited right now. So, #17 beat #3 on the AP poll while #1 lost to #5 in the same day. I'm really going to be excited to see how all this stacks up.

I'd heard that the Pokes were after the Big 12 championship this year. This is how you go about it, one game at a time and keep bringing home those wins.

They're 6-0 for the first time since 1945 (ESPN)

Go Pokes!

Think before he speaks!

My mom and my sister are both preachers wives and over the weekend they went to a preacher's wives conference.

When I saw them this weekend at my parents house, they showed me and dad this video (over dial-up which took forever)

Anyway, this is too funny. Maybe it's because I'm a preachers kid and they are talked about as much as preachers wives. Maybe it's because I've gone to church my entire life, and I've heard many a sermon illustration with their wife and or kids.



Go ahead and watch it. It's not long (unless you have dial-up and even then it's worth it).

It's too Funny!

Pokes Football

Wow!

That's just about all I can saw with the way the Pokes have come out this season. I can't tell you the last time they have been 5-0. Ever? Not that I'm complaining, I love it, I'm just surprised!

Granted, it's 5-0 overall, but only 1-0 in conference. This coming weeks game playing Missouri AT Missouri is going to be the hardest game they have played this season. But if they can make it past Missouri, it will be a huge hurdle. If they can't, I still don't think all is lost. So far, they are setting themselves up really well.

I've had a couple of my friends (non-pokes fans) tell me that at this rate, they could end up 8-4. I'm hoping it's much better than that. But they'll have to get past Texas, Texas Tech, Missouri and Oklahoma. None of those games will be easy, and the pokes will have to NOT do something they do all too often... Choke.

I'm not saying that they wont have to concentrate on getting past Colorado, Iowa State and Baylor, I'm just saying I believe they will beat them if they keep their heads in the WHOLE game.

So, do I think they can come away 12-0 this season? I truthfully doubt it. Is it possible? I think so. Do I think they'll do better than 8-4? Absolutely. However, I think they are still working on building the program and from what I've seen so far, I believe they'll be better next season than this season.

Go Pokes!

Air 1 Pledge Drive

I love listening to Air 1. It is such a great radio station.

Last Thursday, they started their pledge drive and it will go till this coming Thursday. If any of you listen to Air 1 and don't give, let me encourage you to give. Several years ago, we started giving to them. We listened to them all the time, and decided to give.

The surprising thing? We never missed the money.

Every time we get in the car, my boy asks if it's on Air1. The other day he told me that he always hoped the radio on the school bus would be on Air 1, but it never way. And it made him sad.

He listens to Air 1 every night as he goes to bed, and he listens in the car everywhere we go.

There is so much that goes into our heads through the music we listen to. I know the music I listen to affects the way I feel. So knowing that my boy loves listening to music that uplifts and points to Christ!

Cub Scouts

This past weekend, we had a cub scout campout. It was a lot of fun. The weather was just about perfect! My boy and I got there and got camp set up, had lunch and then managed to go on a hike on part of the Trail of Tears.

My wife made it too! This was the first cub scout campout that she has got to come to. My boy was so happy that she got to come. When he saw her, his face just lit up!

My boy is such a daddy's boy, but he loves his momma, and loves spending time with her.

So any mom's that might be reading this, I want you to know that no matter how big of a daddy's boy your son may be, they still want and need you to be a big part of their lives.

Christmas?

Ok, I'm mad! I am really and truly upset.

Stopped into Walmart to get a couple things, and they were putting up a Christmas tree!

It's SEPTEMBER!

Karate

Today, my boy had his testing for his Yellow Belt.

He did really well. I almost had a heart attack when I saw them pull out the wooden boards for them to break. They had been testing with plastic boards that were tensioned, so when I saw the real ones I was surprised.

I was very proud of my boy today.

Pokes Football

I didn't get a chance to listen to the game tonight, but my wife did. Pokes win! I'm shocked and amazed. Not that I don't believe they won. They are a good football team, but, well, they don't always play the way I know they can.

So, after 2 weeks of football, they are 2-0. I wonder how longs it's been since they started the season 2-0.

Woo Hoo!

Go Pokes!

Karate

We had another great night at karate last night. At the end of the night, we received his white belt. He was very proud.

I'll admit, so was I.

Jiu-jitsu

Tonight, at karate, they worked on some jiu-jitsu. I'm not sure how much he learned, but I had several really good laughs.