Arok's Daily Thoughts

Moved from blogger

2010-02-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

So. I might be coming back. Not today, but someday soon I think. Just too bored at night to not do something. And come on. I miss you. But there is a caveat. I'm not here. Not on blogger. I'm on my own site now, I'm hosting it at: http://www.yellowswanphoto.com/aroks-daily-thoughts.

You should go there now. The photo blog moved there too... Main page in this case.

Later

hanging it up...

2009-09-10T19:20:00.001-07:00

I've been at this for almost five years now. In internet time, that means that I am damn near a dinosaur. I've never gotten many readers. Mainly family and passers by, but that didn't matter that much to me. I did this more for me than for anyone else. As you know, I've never really censored myself on here. I talked about anything and everything. Much to the dismay of my family. And while I've always been an attention whore, they most certainly are not. Recently, my family achieved a bit more notoriety than I had ever hoped to receive. It has gotten me to thinking that maybe I don't want to be out in the spotlight all the time. Maybe I don't want to have all eyes on me and mine.

My daughter is back home safe and seems little worse for wear from her travels. She will be entering school tomorrow. I should get to meet the boyfriend this weekend. I'm not sure that the entire world really needs to know about this. I'm not sure that the parties involved would wish it so. So. I'm hanging it up. I'll come back every now and then. Just to see if it is still here. But I doubt I'll be posting.

To those readers that have actually stood by me through the last five years, I thank you. To the passers by, I'm sorry you couldn't stay and that you didn't get here sooner. I think I'm going to be working on a few things. I'll still be writing, I just think that I'll be doing it a bit more privately. I will still be keeping up the photoblog. I pay money to keep that one up and I don't need to put as much of myself out there on a daily basis. Good luck everyone. I love you all. And until I talk to you again...

Later.

Gone a week. still out there somewhere.

2009-09-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

So. It's been a week since I last posted anything here. As you might have guessed, I've been busy. And no, she still is not home. Might be in Minnesota, might not be. Hard to tell. In the past week I've known every emotion that a man can, I think. I've grieved, I've raged, I've cried, I've even laughed, though not normally very sincerely. I've come to the conclusion that not only does my daughter really dislike us, she isn't coming home. At least she isn't planning to. It's painful to say that. I love her so much. And I've given my entire being to making sure she is the best person she can possibly be. To say that I've failed is an understatement. And please no tell me how I haven't failed, that this isn't my fault. It is. At least by not recognizing the signs that she was having trouble. I've got a little bit of a timeline worked out for how things went down. Of course it is pure fiction, but it is the only thing that makes sense to me. The only thing that I can believe and still keep my sanity.

As near as I've worked out. She didn't go to bed planning to leave us. She could not have been that upset with us and still had as much fun as she was having. She did know that David was leaving. The deadline for him getting kicked out was well known to both of them it seems. Now if he told her that he was moving to California when that happened. That would bum her out big time. Maybe he told her while we were gone. That would explain the severe mood swings. Maybe they were fighting about it. Now they were on the phone all night the night before they ran. Why. If they knew they were leaving at that point they should have gotten some sleep. My guess is that during those conversations they decided she would go with. They didn't have much time to really plan as otherwise they would have gotten the stuff packed up ahead of time. And they might not have tried taking two cars. That's just silly.

So that is how I believe it went down. If I thought anything different I would go crazy wondering what kind of sick person I raised who could just lie that well and in such a hurtful manner. I can't believe that about my kid. I have to believe that she did this out of some sort of love for him.

We all do stupid things for love. I've done my share. Maybe someday when she comes back, I'll tell them to her. I'll never tell anyone else though. Everyone needs a few secrets.

I have forgiven them both. Life is too short to worry about such things. She just needs to come home and all of that other stuff will be fine. It might even work out the way she wants it to. I don't care if she sees David now. Seriously. The cat's kinda out of the bag on that one. She can't unsleep with him... and if someone is that much in love that they are willing to give up everything for someone, then maybe they should be given a chance to make things work. But. She needs to do that here. California is no place for someone with no high school education. When she graduates, she can do what ever she wants. Go to college, not go to college, get a job, move in with him, whatever. Makes no difference to me. I want her happy, I want to be in her life, and I want her to have a chance at a future. She's doing her best to make none of that happen.

My wife is taking more time to move through the grieving process. I had to really work hard to get her out of bed this morning. She still bounces back and forth between tears and anger. But that's normal. She's been hurt more than she's ever been hurt before in her life. It will take a long time to get over that.

Steph, if you ever read this, you will know that I have never, ever used your name on here before. But, you've gained sort of a national notoriety lately so, I don't feel too bad about this. All the things I've told about, but left off your name so that a future google search didn't bring them up, well they pale in comparison to this. But, Steph, I want you to know just how many people care about you enough to help you try to come home. There are almost 500 people in the Help Bring Steph Home Facebook group. Including many in the places you've been running to and through. We've had almost 1200 visits to http://helpbringstephhome.com to look at your photos and see if they can help find you or to check to see if you've been found. That is a lot of people for one missing girl. To this point, it hasn't worked. No one has seen you. But they will. I don't doubt that for a minute. They will because they care about you and want you safe. Just like I do. Just like your mother does. We all love you Steph. We just want what is best for you. Be home soon sweetie. I love you.

Later

My daughter has run away

2009-09-01T20:50:00.001-07:00

Today, I got home to find the house empty except my wife. We had been trying to call my daughter all day, but received no response. Up until my wife said she wasn't home, I was not too worried as she had done this before. She often turns her phone off when she thinks she will be getting in trouble for something.

After I got home, my wife noticed that her bedroom door was locked, I got worried. I hoped it was a mistake as there were no known keys to that door, but knew I needed to get in there anyway. What happened if she was hurt, injured or dead in there and I didn't try. So using a technique that my grandfather taught me when I was a kid, I popped the door open using a screwdriver. It was empty. She left her bed and some of her possessions, but not much else. Her computer was gone. Her VCR was gone (?) not her DVD player or her tv. She took most of her clothes. She took her books. We got online and after some trouble with the site saw that she had cleaned out her bank account. $300. Not much to get away with, but I later found out that she took my copy of Rock Band 2 probably the only game we had she thought she could sell and she took all the movies she thought were hers. (few actually were).

Shortly after we found that she was gone, we started calling all the friends that she had been texting. We knew who they were because of the call logs on the AT&T account. We got a call back from a worried mother whose 21 year old son had packed up and left too. The same person she had talked to all night last night. The same person I'm guessing she meant to run away with when we told her we loved her this morning when she left for work. I called the police shortly after. They took her information and took the number of the worried mother, but ther has been no progress since.

To say that I am worried sick is an understatement. Right now I don't even care about the stuff she took from me. I just want my baby back. I broke into her facebook page tonight. I put a call out to all her facebook friends to help me find her. The ones she had been texting with I had already called.

I don't know what to do. After breaking into her facebook page I saw that she really didn't like me. At all. I have to say I am surprised. I voluntarily gave her everything I had. though she was adopted, I could not have loved her more if she were my own flesh and blood. In every respect, but the one I consider to be the least important she was my daughter and I always treated her as such. I might have been too strict. But like many parents, I was unprepared for the shock of my teenager failing to live up to the standards that society sets. Standards like a high school diploma. Now I don't know how she'll get that. I always explained everything I did to her. I thought I had gotten through to her. I saw that she just thought I went "fucked over."

My wife and I are giving up hope of seeing her tonight. You can get a long way with two people and a couple thousand tops before you need to make any decisions. She has her phone shut off and who knows if it is even with her anymore. I hope she does. I have sent her an email to see if she reads it. I hope she does. I told her I loved her and how much trouble her boyfriend was going to be in due to his age and the fact that she was a minor. I told her that I loved her. I told her her mother was crying all night. I told her I loved her again. I don't expect her to ever read it. I try not to give up hope, but it is hard. I'm not normally a pessimist, but I know how very stubborn she is. And how proud. I hope this boy doesn't hurt her, but when a boy tells you: "you know I would never do anything to hurt you," often he has plans to do just that. Or to at least do something that he feels on some level might. I'm sure he made her feel special. Being in love is a great feeling. I hope he doesn't do anything to make her fear that feeling in the future.

I'm not sure how much sleep I'll get tonight. I have yet to even eat supper. I'm sure I won't. I'm afraid I will be calling in tomorrow. I don't know if they'll let me use sick time, but hopefully they won't make me use my last vacation day. This is certainly no vacation. I'm afraid, worried, and just plain confused. And I'm rambling.

I'll stop know to the blog, but not in my head. I just keep wondering what I could have done differently to let her know that we loved her. We told her all the time, but it obviously wasn't enough. I hope when she comes home, if she comes come, that it will be very soon.

Later

I'm home!

2009-08-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

I'm home and though I miss Oregon already, for once it is good to be back. It had a few rough spots not the least of which was one female ending and one starting her period... sorry, but not always so enjoyable to be the only guy in that situation. Gotta try to plan around that next time. But it wasn't just that, I loved it out there, and can easily see me moving there once the kid is out of college (provided they have any jobs). I loved the ocean, I loved the mountains. I even liked the people for the most part. But there is something about coming home to a good job and a good family that I was actually looking forward to for a change. I hope to have a recap of all my final thoughts written for tomorrow, but for right now I'm just happy to be home with all the things I bought in one piece. Plus it is late and I need to try to sleep now that I'm used to two time zones west of here so I can go to work in the morning.

Later.

I almost forgot!

2009-08-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

I got everything ready for vacation. I was getting everything packed in my head, all the list of things that I needed to get done in order when I realized that I never made the website for this year's trip. I had gotten everything ready to post to the website from the road, but there I was. No site to post to.

So this one is not as complex as in the past, I've decided that the format I had been using was time consuming to build each night, slow to load and though it was pretty, it was a bit dated in functionality. So I just installed another Wordpress blog to my eburkedesign site and there we go: www.eburkedesign.com/AGW4/

I'm pretty sure all the words and everything will be going there this time, we'll have to see how it goes as far as the typing and the connectivity and if I'm using my phone or not.

So I will see you all in September as I return August 31. By the way, I may have fatally screwed up my photoblog, it may or may not have lost everything. I'm a bit upset by that, but will deal with it when I get back.

Later!

nothing

2009-08-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

I've got nothing tonight. I did nothing. I thought nothing. I just sort of sat here all night long. I wish I could say that I was getting ready for vacation. But I wasn't. Well, actually that isn't true. I spent a good potion of the night downloading maps for a navigation app for my phone for those ties when I don't have coverage. So that was getting ready. I also changed a doorknob in my kitchen so my house sitter wouldn't accidentally lock herself in the garage. Shouldn't be possible now. I guess those are technically getting ready, but it doesn't feel like it. Feels like I just sort of sat around all night.

And now to bed. Yep, sometimes I'm an exciting guy.

Later

My thoughts on Favre

2009-08-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Ok. I better get this over with. I've been taunted today. I've had people gleefully ask me what I think of the news of Favre becoming a Viking. I've had people who admitted to not being a football fan in the morning go off the deep end and spend $70 on a jersey before the day was done. And through all of that. I just smiled. I smiled and I thought to myself, we'll see who gets the last laugh.

I love Favre, it's just the Favre of 10 years ago. The one who continually had us in almost every game. The wild, reckless gunslinger who took chances that most often paid off. Today's wishy-washy Favre, I have no respect for. I was on his side last year. When he said that he just wanted to play. I understood that and thought that the way the Packers let him go was disgraceful. I was angry. I bought the Jets jersey. I wore it more than my own Packer one. I won't be buying a Viking one.

So here are my thoughts on the manner. I think the Vikings made a huge mistake. Here's why:

1) I think that their young "quarterbacks of the future" have just been thrown under the bus for a player that last saw his best days about 5 years behind him. I think that based on the last couple years, Favre has shown that he can't last a full season, even with a training camp under his belt. Last year the "Ironman" showed that without a proper training camp he could barely limp through the second half of the season. This year he has even less time to physically prepare himself. Hopefully Childress will have the guts that Mangini didn't have to bench him when he fades.

2) He is notoriously uncontrollable. Favre does what Favre wants. There hasn't been a coach that didn't just hang on for the ride since Holmgren. Ray Rhodes was fired due to lack of discipline, Mike Sherman was fired due, well he was fired due to being inept, but he also let Favre just sort of do his thing, McCarthy, for all that I dislike him at least had the balls to say no to Favre. Mangini let him stay in when he was injured and lost the playoffs and his job for it. Now will Childress be able to control the spoiled child that is Favre? If not he will be out too.

Now in addition to these reasons the Vikings made a mistake you can add the reason I was smiling all day. The Packers have suffered for 15 years from Favre's uncanny ability to throw the ball to the other team just when the biggest games are on the line. And it has been hard to stand by and defend him by telling about the touchdowns and the fact that he could do something great on any play. But as the years went on this tendency has grown. In addition to his massive fade in his last game with the Packers was the massive interception he threw to cost us a shot at the Super Bowl. Last year he ended the year with 22 interceptions. Eight of them coming in the last three games. In fact, aside from his one good year in 2007, he hasn't had a year under 20 INTs since 2004. Now if that wasn't enough to make you smile add into the equation that we had only three players voted into the Pro Bowl last year. All three were defensive backs who were voted in mainly on the basis of their interceptions (We had 22 INT's as well, tied for third in the NFL, and six of those went for TDs which was first in the NFL). With all three coming back and a revamped defense in front of them, this is an exciting time for the Packer fans to watch their defense.

So my thoughts on the Favre thing. It could very well be the best thing the Vikings could do to the other NFC North teams. Bring in a circus that will help their defenses shine. All in all, I'm happy with it. They are meant for each other.

Later

things that make me happy and things that make me not so much

2009-08-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

Good news on my brother. He may have lost his fingernails, but according to the doctor he didn't really lose anything else other than a lost of skin. In fact he pretty much skinned his fingertips, mangled one just a bit, but eventually he should be pretty much back to normal. I can't tell you how happy this makes me as, though I was calm and collected outside during the whole day, I was churning inside. I can't tell you how awful it was to think you were seeing your little brother possibly lose not only the fingers, but also the ability to do his favorite activities. There is no way to pull back a bow without your first two fingers, and fishing will be extremely difficult for a while too. Now, it will be out for a little while, but it won't be out forever. That makes me very happy.

You know what else makes me happy? Tony Bennett. Yes this is sort of one of those random conversations we have. I saw a documentary/performance show tonight and I have been listening to the three cds I have ever since. It is very much the happy making.

Know what makes me not happy though... Blossom end rot on my tomatoes. I've pulled off about 5 or so and everyone was ruined to it. I hope to get some of them to come through ok, but since I';ll be gone while they are ripening, it may not be possible. It sucks to put all that work into a garden only to have them ruined by something like this. Luckily there are a lot of plants that look like they will bear a lot of fruit so maybe if I can get a some that don't have it I can still make some sauce. Hopefully. This is very much the crazy making.

Later

a really bad weekend

2009-08-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

This wasn't a good weekend. It started fine. But after a few hours taking my brother to the ER and a rainstorm that brought 12+ hours of hard rain, it turned sou pretty quick. It now looks like my brother may have lost the tips of two of his fingers on his right hand as opposed to just breaking and mangling them. He was telling me about the fingernails and tips of his fingers he found in his work gloves today so it may be worse than he originally was told by the ER doctors. I guess I'll know more when they call me after he goes to the doctor tomorrow.

And then the rain. It was humid all weekend and between that and the rain, I had to dry everything in the camper. I planned on bringing the camper home to dry. Check that. I planned on leaving it at my Grandma's but due to the wet, planned to bring it home. But it was sunny and windy by the time we got to my mother-in-laws so I set it up got everything dried up and left it there. The first weekend I'm home after vacation. I won't be home. I'll be at the cabin so it makes little sense to bring it all the way back here just to take it back up again. Speaking of which... Friday I leave. Yay!

Ok I'm beat. I slept like crap all weekend and now need to recover so I can go to work.

Later

cabin this weekend

2009-08-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

The ancestry.com subscription has been officially canceled. I've pretty much gotten all the info I can off of it. Now it's time to continue with the book and google research. That'll be more fun anyway.

I'm going to the cabin tomorrow. Should be fun, aside from all the hard work. We're splitting wood all day Saturday. The leaving on Sunday as early as we are allowed. We are going to visit my dad and see his new boat.

I'll also hopefully get the opportunity to take some photos. I've got all these fancy toys and so far have done nothing with them. I've already told the kid that she needs to make sure that she is ok with her modeling. I'd hate to be practicing and have her looking all grumpy. If she does, I've warned her that I'll be positng those photos online for all to see.

I'm just that sort of mean.

Later

I know I've said this before

2009-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I need to copy out all stories and photos that I've uploaded to Ancestry.com. I've said it before, but I need to cancel it this weekend. And this time the wife is making it stick. It won't be as easy to do in the software program I bought, but I will be able to continue the research. Mine is pretty much done. I have more digging I can do for my Grandfathers, but I have little hope of finding anything. The wife's I have a ton to go. Not really exaggerating when I say that her family history could go back 2000 years. Of course a lot of that would be myth, not reality. We can't prove anything beyond the past hundred years, not really. But this would involve semi mythical people like kings from Scandinavian Sagas that no one is really sure existed. But if they did, then there they are.

So tonight and tomorrow were and are being spent doing the last minute searches that I can only do online and copying the last bits of info out of the online database and into the local one. Most things came across, names, dates, events, title. Just not the stories or photos. Shouldn't be too bad. I'll miss the access to census records and government documents that I had though.

Later

guess what... a list

2009-08-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

home made cranberry juice rocks. with a splash of soda. yum.

Just got a replacement iPhone today. The other had battery issues. or connection issues. or maybe heat issues. in any case it was freely replaced with few questions asked and those just for diagnostic reasons.

Some books are meant to be read, others listened to. Right now I'm reading one I should listen to.

The guy writes like I do. Lots of tangents and bad grammar, but when read aloud it makes for a beautiful learning experience.

I need more cranberry juice. brb.

my dog is afraid of the dark. does anyone else find that odd?

I'm so afraid of not protecting my new iPhone that I refuse to put it in the old case for fear the old case will scratch the new phone like it did the old one.

So I need to go two days without protection instead of two days with crappy protection... still unsure of the logic there.

Thought I had a lead in my grandfather's family tree this week. Turns out... no.

I wish my dad would give me this info voluntarily instead of piecemeal as he thinks of it.

Speaking of my dad. I might have him convinced to by a Mac. Unless someone else talks him out of it.

They need it though... always have viruses and they keep their computers for 10 years or so. Macs last and don't have as much danger from viruses.

Not as much danger... not no danger.

New iPhone is noisier than the old... maybe that means the radio is better. I'll find out this weekend when I go north to the boonies. The old one was terrible.

10 days until vacation. and still no practice with the kid and the lenses and the flash... and she's gone for tomorrow... maybe thursday or this weekend

Sometimes I just power down like C3-PO in Star Wars for a while. My eyes unfocus and my head hangs at a weird angle... and time just passes. I've passed five minutes or more like that on occasion.

No wonder people think I'm wasting time.

Ok second cranberry juice is gone. time for bed.

Later

A family reuinion treat

2009-08-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

I needed to make a dish to pass for the family reunion I was at this past weekend. I had another wrinkle. We were camping so it had to be able to be made at the campsite. Luckily I have a camper that almost always has electric hookups. So I went online to find a easy campsite dessert recipe. I found one, but it needed just a little modification. Not through any fault of the author (click the link above for the original) but because I wanted to make sure that the flavor was layered so that the latecomers in line would still get the flavor of the "topping." Here's my version of this really tasty treat.

One three pound bag of granny smith apples, sliced.
1.5 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick oats (next time I'll add more probably 1.5 cups)
4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup butter, softened

So, how to make it at the campsite? Mix the brown sugar, flours, oats, and cinnamon in a gallon freezer bag. Pack that, the butter and apples to take with. About four hours (in my crockpot, yours may take more or less time) before you want to serve it start to cut up and slice the apples. I did mine very rough. Fairly big slices. Dunk them in water wile you cut them up. Then put the softened butter in the freezer bag with the dry mix. Squeeze it until it is a thoroughly mixed soft dough. Spray the crock pot with non-stick cooking spray. place some of the apples in the bottom probably about a third or so. Then, make a patty out of one third of the dough. Make it about big enough to cover the apples. Repeat 2 times, making sure the last layer of topping pretty much covers the top. Just dump the rest of the bag on after you make your last patty. Cover the now full crock pot and cook on low for about four hours.

This is really good.

Later

A wet one

2009-08-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

The lenses I rented for vacation arrived on Friday just before I left. But. The insurance on them does not cover water damage. So I didn't get to play with them much.

It was damp all weekend in the campground the mini family reunion I was at this weekend was held. Good thing the dogs were at my Mom's. We'd be smelling them for weeks. But we had fun. Chatted with folks we hadn't seen in about a year. Had way to many things to drink on Friday night as my uncle was trying his best to prove he could keep up with the younger kids and was forcing alcohol on others. Man it's hard to remember just how fast taking a few swigs off a bottle can mess you up when he keeps coming around. Woke up Saturday mildly hung over. Remembered at that point that I wasn't supposed to do that sort of thing anymore on the doctor's orders. Why do we always remember not to drink after we've had too much to drink?

Anyway. It seems that the damp we had was only the edge of what we had here at home. I checked the rain gauge when I walked in and it read 3.3 inches. Sounds like it happened on Saturday. Along with tornados close to here and power out and lighting starting fires. All sorts of crazy going on. We got rain, lots of rain, but just rain. Not even a tree branch down. So I'm happy.

And if it goes back to the dry weather that we had up until Saturday, I will be outside trying to get my kid to allow me to practice taking her photo before we are on site in Oregon. Less than two weeks to go.

Later

confused

2009-08-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm confused. The kid's check didn't get into the bank again. This time it hurts a bit more since she has $22 to last her until she gets another job, which means no driving. She claims that she handed the lady her check, the stub, a deposit form and her check card, but that she never got back the stub or the receipt. She said 's lied about what she did with her check before. That time she spent the entire thing.

Did she do it again? Who knows. there is no way to know at this point. She claims that she'll go to the bank tomorrow to talk to them. once again. I'll never know if she really does.

It works out to either she thinks we are too stupid to notice things like this or she is too stupid and got robbed by the teller. I'm much more inclined to believe the first than the second. But I'll never know. If she doesn't stop this crap, she'll never make it too college since she won't have any money to pay for it.

And of course the wife is mad. So mad that she's refusing to go to my family reunion that my father has already paid for. He paid for a camper site for us with water and electricity and I can't drive the camper. She offered me the tent. And I need to deal with that now too. Right now I could just wash my hands of the lot of them.

I'm confused. I wish I knew what the hell I did. I wish I knew what was wrong with the kid and I wish I knew why my wife was acting like she is.

So I'm confused, frustrated and honestly, getting a bit steamed. I'm going to stop before I get into even more trouble than I'll already be in.

Later

yet another random list

2009-08-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Virtual driving along the Oregon coast makes me excited and sad. Almost wish I'd left it to the imagination. Discovery is a great thing. But so is planning.

Today my fancy lenses shipped. should arrive just in time for them to miss me and make me go to the FedEx pickup on Monday.

Finally using the camper for something other than the cabin this summer. It's August. Maybe soon, I'll dewinterize the boat.

When I move away. Pretty sure neither of those will be coming with me. Kinda sad about that. Maybe the boat. Definitely not the camper.

Speaking of moving away... just kidding. I got nothing on that.

I have a temperature sensitive birthmark on my hand. Just thought I'd share that since I'm warm and it's bright red.

Subscribing to an audiobook subscription tonight. I'll get one book a month free and it will only cost $15 a month. Pretty cheap considering that audio books on CD cost between $30 and $90.

Took a bit of talking to convince the accountant/wife to go along with that. But I'm convincing.

Sometimes I act like I'm that kind of awesome. That's because sometimes I think I am... other times I'm a different, though no less awesome sort of awesome.

When I say stuff like that the dog runs in and barks at me. Not sure if he's saying "you're right!' or "yeah right"

I like maps

I want to make a T-shirt that says "I love Rainbow Word art" Can't decide if it should actually be in rainbow Word Art though.

That's probably enough for tonight.

Later

What the Hell?!?

2009-08-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

I've been good. I don't know that I've talked at all about the Packers this year. Maybe once or twice, but not complaining. I've pretty much stayed away from the Favre talk. Wasn't happy there was talk about him in purple, but I resigned myself to it only to have it put away (for the time being). But the headline I saw today made me flip my lid.

From ESPN: "Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson won't rule out interest in Michael Vick"

What the hell is this? Has the character issue gone out the window with this guy? I mean I know he's an idiot, but to even flirt with the idea of bringing in a guy who has fun by torturing dogs? That is some sick $#!+. Seriously sick. If this would happen, I'd give up n NFL football until Thompson is gone. I can't see myself rooting for another team. But I can't root for a team that has Doggie-Day-Care on it either. So I'd get to watch my Gophers lose games and see get interested in the other college games.

Now on the flip-side he didn't say anything about bringing DDC in either. But why run the risk of the backlash if you aren't thinking about it on some level? This is only the latest symptom of Thompson's idiocy. I had high hopes for the guy when he came from Seattle. I was calling for Sherman's head for a long time. Now I see that this isn't the guy either. I'm so pissed right now...

Later

iPhone 8 months in

2009-08-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

I am totally addicted to a game on my iPhone. I'm constantly playing it. If I could find a way to play it in my sleep, I would. It really is fun. I'm shocked. I mean all you're doing is digging with a bulldozer modified with a giant drill, but it is really fun. Challenging too. It is called I Dig It. and if you have an iPhone, get it. I think it was two bucks.

That's one of the things I like best about that thing. So much fun. Games and anything else you could think of. I have apps for identifying birds, I have a level, Trail guides, restaurant reviews, weather, news, music, blogging software, tv schedules, a norwegian translation tool, something to allow me to record audio blog posts, and that's just some of them. I really can never go back to a normal phone.

Well, that is not true. I'd love to have a normal phone and this. It is a terrible phone and I'm always afraid it will crash and I'll be without a phone. (It hasn't yet, but it is more computer than phone so it is inevitable that something will go wrong). So I guess I'd be ok with a normal phone and this as long as it still connected to the data plan. Then I'd be fine.

Yes, a very bad problem, considering that others are going without food and I'm whining about not always having internet. I understand. But this is a gadget review so I won't feel too bad about it.

Later

Boring weekend

2009-08-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

I admit it. I had a boring weekend. But I loved it. Yesterday we drove to St. Paul, jumped out of the car to return some library books and nothing exciting happened. Then we stopped at the zoo on the off chance that the butterfly garden was open, it was, but butterflies are not very exciting either. Pretty, but not exciting. Then I came home. That was pretty much it for Saturday. I did finally watch Porkey's so I could say that I had. Wished i hadn't. What a bad movie. You must have had to been old enough to see it when it came out to be entertained. I think I smirked once.

Today, got up, read the paper, got an oil change on the car. had to unexpectedly buy the kid's car new tires. that was upsetting, but not exciting. Then I pretty much spent the rest of the day either watching tv or virtually driving the vacation route via Google Earth.

What a boring weekend, nothing exciting happened. It was great.

Later

I'm pissed.

2009-07-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Now I'm pissed. I understand why ValleyFair makes most of it's money on people who don't live in the Twin Cities. From places like North Dakota and Wisconsin. Anyone who has worked there or had kids that did, probably won't give them their money. I know I won't ever again. I have heard this from all the locals here when I mention that my daughter got a job there. My wife has heard about the terrible reputation they have in Minnesota HR associations. If I had known when I was first letting her take the job, she wouldn't have been allowed to.

So they start out by hiring all these people on the promise of a bonus if they stay the whole summer based on the number of hours they work. Then they work them all 70-80 hours a week in June, everything is peachy so far. They are warned of this. Then in July and August they start laying them off due to "overstaffing." Until all that are left are those paying them rent in their company owned dorms.

And that isn't the part that pisses me off. When the kid went in to get her paycheck straightened out, (They tried to rob her out of over half of it.) they were interviewing people to take the place of those they'd just laid off due to "overstaffing." That. Is. Just. Shit. And they are doing it all to keep from paying the bonus that would be rightfully owed to the kids. I didn't like it before, but now that place is dead to me. I will actively work to convince people not to go. As far as I know they don't break any laws, but damn, I don't have to reward their behavior by giving them my money. And since there are three of us, that would be $120 just to walk in the door. Not to mention the $4 sodas and the food that will cause you to choke. Just on price.

Grrr...

Later.

The kid's job

2009-07-29T20:34:00.001-07:00

It's hard watching your child lose her job. Pretty sure it was through no fault of hers, but more due to overstaffing. I'd heard that this is pretty normal for them at this time of year. Makes you wonder why they hire so many to begin with if that is the case. But she had two interviews. One is probably past the time where they would have called back. So I'd kind of count that one out. The other she won't hear back until Saturday.

She wasn't working many hours anyway. So it's not like she is losing much income. But it is the rejection that comes with this sort of thing that hurts more in this situation. I feel bad for her. But in a way it is happy for us. We don't need to worry about her needing time off for family things in August. That's a terrible thing to say, but it's true. She'll get something else, I'm sure of it. And if not, she can buckle down and get her schoolwork done and good grades so she can try for scholarships.

She's pretty sad right now. I've been there, I feel for her.

Later

new toys!

2009-07-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

I love vacations. I love the going, of course. But I also love the things leading up to it. The planning and the reserving of rooms, the looking at the maps and deciding where to visit. I especially like the toys I get leading up to the vacation. Normally we get something. Four years ago I got a new lens. Three years ago I got a new camera. Two years ago I got a camera bag. Last year the wife got a portable hard drive and a new camera. This year I got a flash for my camera and an emergency charger for my iPhone.

Ok so it doesn't seem as grand as the previous years, but I am just as happy with them. The iPhone has horrible battery life. Just awful. So this little guy (the Tekkeon TekCharge blah blah blah) will get me through at least one plane flight maybe even both on the way out and, with a change of batteries will get me through the super long one on the way back.

Today was the super present day though becasue in addition to the charger (which will also charge the wife's and kid's phones) I also got my flash delivered. It is used, and used of a discontinued model at that, but it will get the job done. It's a Canon 430EX Speedlite. Like I said decent, but not a barnburner. Which is good. I still need to learn to use it. I will admit to never using a camera that has one before and I think it looks a bit dorky there. But that's just me. I'll get used to it.

Yay! presents. Now once the lenses I rented show up a week from Friday, I'll be ready to go. The planning parts should be done. Then the waiting pats start and that's the part that is no fun.

Later

Sleep

2009-07-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

Sleep is a crazy thing. When you want it, you're brain somehow finds a way to keep you from getting it. This happened to me again last night. Insomnia struck again keeping me awake until almost 3am. I think after a time worrying about not getting to sleep was the thing that kept me most awake. Three hours later when it was time to get up, I couldn't. I actually had to take a sick day due to extreme tiredness. I slept until about 9am. And only had one cup of coffee. I've been tired all day, but hopefully I'll be able to use that to actually sleep tonight.

Hopefully.

Later

It's all perspective

2009-07-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

I had a weird weekend.

Yesterday, I was traveling to go to my cousin's wedding dance when unexpectedly my daughter starts throwing up while we visit my mother-in-law. By the time we get to my mom's it has happened again. So we decide that it's probably for the best that I just go home. By the time we get home, she is feeling fine, but I'm feeling nauseous. I stay up waiting for my wife to finish baking brownies and when I go to bed I have trouble sleeping. I finally get to sleep and the dog gets it into her head that she doesn't want to go out to her kennel with my daughter and figures the best place to hide is in my bed. Which she enters by landing on the backs of my knees 20 minutes after I finally get to sleep. I got her out and now, of course, I can't sleep again. By the time I can, it is 1:30 in the morning.

Today, I got up still feeling ill, but was determined that my wife was not going to miss meeting friends of her's from Iowa who she only knows from the internet. There would have been a time when this would have been the weird part of the weekend. But with this weekend and the traveling 2.5 hours to turn around 10 minutes from the destination with a kid who is miraculously sick and then not in the span of a few hours and the dog whose using me as a spring board/landing pad, it was just another thing.

It's all perspective

Later

More random thoughts

2009-07-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

I can't believe another week is over. At this rate vacation will be done before it even gets here.

I'm afraid to admit just how easy it is to buy something from Amazon from my phone. Way too easy.

The kid has an interview at Target tomorrow. Going in to talk to the manager before filling out an online application seems to help.

Speaking of the kid, the wife and I have both noticed that she seems to be showing off more cleavage than she used to. Maybe she needs bigger shirts.

I found a dragonfly sitting on my deck tonight. No comment. I just like dragonflys.

I seem to spend a lot of time waiting up for the kid to get home from work. I say "seem to" because she only works one-two nights per week. One reason for the pavement pounding mentioned above.

Yes, that means I'm waiting now.

Waiting mainly because she shaved her legs in my tub today and didn't clean up after herself. I intend to make sure she does.

Yep. I'm an action figure of a dad... with Kung-fu grip just like G.I.Joe. I'm pretty sure that there was a overweight mid-thirties G.I.Joe at some point.

bought a song from iTunes today based solely on getting an email from them. Anyone feeling an itch to email me right now had better back off... please?...

Is there anything more gross than seeing a fine coating of powderized hair in your tub? Wait. Don't answer that. I can think of a few and I don't want to know yours.

I've had a bag of paint tubes under my desk for about two years now. And a giant-ass canvas along my wall for about the same length of time. Maybe someday I'll do something with that.

Or not. It's fun to have a giant canvas.

Just kidding dear. I better finish before I get into trouble.

Later

Damn I'm tired.

2009-07-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

Not like normal. Not because I don't sleep enough, but because I set my treadmill for a couple of very tough workouts. Not so tough that I couldn't do them. I tried that for about 3 minutes. It was going to have me go at a five percent incline at 4.5 mph for 35 minutes. That is too fast to walk for any length of time and too slow to run. Too hard for me. So I went with a more varied workout.

I really like this thing. I work up a lot more of a sweat than I did on the Gazelle. Plus it is not the same thing for an hour. It changes every minute or two. That keeps it interesting and keeps me going. I may not lose much weight, but my heart seems to be in better shape. My last doctor appt was right on for pulse and blood pressure. So I should be able to handle the walking I plan to do on this upcoming trip. I'm going to hike down to the lake at Crater Lake and I plan other walking as well. Not a lot of strenuous hiking planned. The kid doesn't like it and it is probably our last family vacation together so I'm going a bit easier than normal. I'll still be up at sunrise though. You better believe it.

In honor of my wife's new-found English heritage, we made English Shortbread cookies for her to take to work for her heritage pot luck tomorrow. It's a good thing the are mostly going to work with her too. The first ingredient is a pound of butter. Toss in a couple eggs and, well, let's just say it is a good thing they are small cookies. We made about 100 of them though so it's not as one will kill me. They aren't bad. Delicate buttery lemon flavor. Flaky. Overall pretty good.

Later

I've come to a conclusion

2009-07-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

My family only likes a Crisp if it is Apple Crisp and they do not like cobbler. Which makes me sad since I like both and won't make them often since I'd be eating them by myself.

Speaking of which, right now I am eating a big bowl of Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler. I found the best recipe for it I've ever eaten. Though I have to admit that this is my first Strawberry Rhubarb cobbler. And it's not too bad for you. There is a little over a half cup of sugar, a half stick of butter and an egg. The rest is fruit, flour, milk and leavening. Lots of fruit. Four and a half cups of rhubarb, 1.5-2 cups of strawberries and some orange zest. If you like such things you can find the recipe here at Simply Recipes. I don't know much about the site aside from this fabulous cobbler recipe, but based on that, I'm going to explore more.

I've had two bowls as of now. Probably shouldn't go back for the last one. I'll save that for tomorrow. Oh, but then it might be mushy. Good point. I'm convinced. I'll eat the last of what my wife tried and didn't like and the kid wouldn't even try. I shouldn't be upset since this way I get to eat it all, but in a way I'm still disappointed. I thought that they would like it. That's why I made it.

Oh well. Off to eat.

Later

Tonight didn't go as planned.

2009-07-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

Tonight didn't go as planned.

I took my camera body in to get a pre-vacation sensor cleaning so that I'd have it back before the fancy lenses came in. I thought I might buy some emergency raincovers due to the fact that I'd most likely have a very expensive lens on my camera whose insurance does not cover water. They were twice the price at the camera store as they were online. I looked at a flash, but it was too expensive for my taste. $330 is a bit much.

I thought I was going to make Strawberry rhubarb cobbler. I didn't have orange zest. I ate a few gummy worms instead.

I thought I was going to rent a flash. But $105 for the month plus shipping seemed a bit much for me. So I bought the used older model they had for about half the rice the camera store was selling it for. Score me a deal. Like I said it was one model older, but had everything I was looking for and if I decide to ever spend the money on the higher up version, it will talk to it. So that's good.

It didn't go as planned, but it did end happy. Plus I got to watch two more episodes of Rome with my kid while exercising on the treadmill. That's happy making too.

Later

ok fine, some pictures too.

2009-07-19T20:06:00.002-07:00

Ok. So I'll upload pictures too.

This is mainly why I am tired. The wife stained the lattice and the stair treds. I did all the floors and hung the lattice. Pretty sure I have a nice sunburn now.

And we finished painting the chairs we bought a month or so ago and got them back together.

All in all a really long day.

Later

too tired to type

2009-07-19T20:06:00.001-07:00

"Too tired to type" by arok on audioboo.fm

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went to the doctor

2009-07-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

Visited my new doctor today. I like him. He's excited and energetic. So much so he's almost twitchy. Almost. I like him because he didn't talk down to me. That was something that the last guy did. That and tell me I'm coming in for one thing and then proceed to order a completely different test. Which is the real reason I'm now dealing with someone else.

All things considered, even though I don't necessarily like how the clinic is laid out (there is a separate check-in for each department and no real way of knowing where you are supposed to go) I like the doctor enough to go back. Got a physical, the pulse was great, the blood pressure was in their words: perfect. They took two vials of blood. Enough for the full load of tests he ordered. Hopefully everything looks good. I'll find out in a few days.

Later

not again...

2009-07-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

I did it again.

Watched a 3 hour movie (Autralia. Good, but could have been two movies easy) then thought I should work on the wife's genealogy. The kid was very impressed with the lineage I found for her last night. Yeah, I guess for a 17 year old being descended from 5-7 kings of two different countries and a couple emperors is pretty exciting. Of course she doesn't realize that it isn't worth a hill of beans now except as an interesting curiosity.

Ok. but now I gotta get to bed. almost 11:30 again.

Why do I keep doing this?

Later

My wife let me keep it...

2009-07-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

So I'm not going to be able to cancel the genealogy thing yet again. I thought I was almost done, that the one branch I had left on my wife's tree was going to be as small as the others. For most of her family, it goes back about 3-4 generations. Some of it not even that far. Like me she has one that barely passes her grandfather.

Of course then she has one that goes back about 1500 years or so. That one will take me a while. So because I was finding fun things, I convinced her to let me have it for another month. Maybe I'll even be able to figure out just where Grandpa A. came from. But first I need to travel back in time a few years. watching the millennia pass.

Damn I have a lot of typing ahead of me.

Later

AudioBoo / My Wife: The Noble

2009-07-14T17:40:00.001-07:00

AudioBoo / My Wife: The Noble

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Can you believe it? Frickin' Charlemagne!

Later

Family tree

2009-07-13T20:45:00.001-07:00

Working on trying to finish the wife's family tree before I need to cancel tomorrow. Had two months am not being granted any more.

Later

An update

2009-07-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

This is basically just an update from Friday. I received word through Facebook that my friend passed away on Saturday. It was an odd feeling getting the news from something that normally brings such joy.

I spent Friday night and Saturday reveling in life. I did things that my body regretted later. I ate my favorite foods and drank my favorite beers. A little to excess I have to admit. Saturday I spent much as I used to with my Pete when we were at college together. I was the most spontaneous I'd been in a long while. What started out as a trip to the library and a watch store turned into a day long run of fun. We started at the library. Then had lunch at our favorite restaurant in downtown St. Paul. Then we went to Harriet Island. A place I'd heard of, but never been to. Pretty nice. You can see St. Paul from across the river. After that we hung out at the Mall of America to get my wife's watch fixed. I saw Buzz Aldrin speak. That was pretty cool. Then after I received word that my friend was gone. I decided to not go home, but to keep moving. We drove to Minneapolis, wandered around Loring Park, visited the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden (the big cherry) and then wet to Rogers to Cabella's to see about hiking sandals for the wife. Then to Gander Mountain for the same thing, then to the movie store to rent a few movies, then finally, home.

It was a long and fun day. If it had been for any other reason, I wouldn't have minded it at all. But to keep busy was to stop thinking. It helped. Now I am pretty much at peace with it all. The circumstances of everything. You know. I'm still sad, but that is all now.

Later

Finding a friend

2009-07-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

I don't normally do Friday posts. I fact, aside from vacations, I don't know that I've ever done one. I feel the need now because I want to get something down.

About a week or so ago, we ran across a scrap of paper that I had kept in a box since I left the U of M. Written on it, was the name and address of a friend that I had then. A friend I am ashamed to say that I had lost track of. I found him briefly around 1997 or so, the early days of the internet when there were fewer of us on it. And fewer ways to contact each other as well. I emailed him back and forth a few times. That was the last time I talked to him.

When we found that scrap, my wife urged me to try to find him on Facebook. I mean you can find anyone on there right? And I did. I saw his picture. Boy, had he changed. So I sent him a friend request. And I didn't hear anything. Thinking that maybe he was one of those people who have a life and do things other than spend time online, I thought no more of it. Well, this morning I got an approval on the friend request. I was overjoyed. I was going to be reunited with a friend that I had missed for all these years.

Then I got to reading his updates. They were not him. They were his wife. It seems that somewhere along the way, he had developed leukemia and was taking immunosuppressive drugs. Recently he caught chicken pox and was hospitalized. Then he had shingles. Then the medicine caused microclots to form in his blood. They caused his blood vessels to rupture and he bled internally. Then he was put on a ventilator because he couldn't breathe on his own any longer. Yesterday there was this post. "Peter Buchy is being taken off the ventillator tomorrow. Please pray he has the strength to speak. He will be awake until he can no longer breathe on his own (no idea how long that will be) and then he will be made comfortable."

I went from very happy to extremely sad in the span of a few minutes. I've never been in this situation before. All the people I've know that had died were older than me. Not younger. And who knows how long he was able to breathe on his own. There have been no further posts. I can hope that there was a miracle and he survived the day, but for how much longer? Until I receive word that he's gone, I will continue to hope. But I'm afraid that there isn't much left.

It seems he got sick again a couple weeks ago. I'd had that damn paper for 15 years. And I decide to do something with it in time to learn he was dying and unconscious and wouldn't have known me if I'd been in the room. I feel like an ass for not doing something sooner. This is a lesson against procrastination I guess. Don't put things off until tomorrow, tomorrow may be too late.

I think the little phrase I thought of yesterday might need an unspoken corollary. Wander through the world as if you were seeing it for the first time, you never know when it might be the last time you see it. Out of all the people I knew, he was the person in whom life seemed to burn the brightest. The one for whom I knew great things were destined. Illness snuffed that flame out. I've missed my friend Pete for 15 years. I guess I'll have to keep missing him.

I'm sad today.

Later

another random list

2009-07-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have not, and I promise I never will, blog about scooters as google suggests I might in its suggestions for labels for this post

My cats have a habit of eating dog hair. At this time of year they tend to feast.

You should always wander through the world as if seeing it all for the first time.

I had that thought today. Out of the blue. I don't know if I'd heard it before or just made it up.

Dang, poets get all the chicks.

Sorry watching the Tudors again.

Pukey, hot, sweaty, and blech. This is how my wife describes herself while on the treadmill. I agree with the middle two.

I have not had a glass of wine other than at the cabin for a couple weeks. I now see why. I had one bottle left that I thought might be drinkable

I was wrong. It isn't drinkable.

I hope for better from the next trip. Oregon is much more known for it's wines than North Dakota is.

Never drink Apple mint wine...

Peter O'Toole is a fantastic actor and I treasure every time I get to watch him perform.

And really... don't drink apple mint wine.

not good. What was I thinking?

Later

Three (completely unrelated) thoughts

2009-07-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

1. Teenagers, while they can be wonderful at times, suck. I was actually trying to figure out a way to stay late at work due to the fights that happened last night. Taking away keys phones, lying. It all sucks. I'm very glad that all of that seems to be behind us. Things are better tonight. much more civil. Though the grounding is still in effect. It will stop if the attitude stays good.

2. I prefer pint glasses over ever other type of glass. And not just for beer. I use these things for everything. I love them. They are heavy, sturdy and often have a fun image on them. Sometimes it is a sports team, sometimes a beer logo I had one that had a moose on it. That one washed off and is now blank. Still love it.

3. I was more affected by Billy Mays's death than I was by Micheal Jackson's. I was completely unmoved by Jackson's death. At least right away. My view of him was too tainted by his recent strangeness. After a while I was able to look past that and remember when he was the coolest thing around and that made me a bit sad. I actually had Thriller on LP. By choice. Wouldn't have admitted that a month ago. Billy Mays. I'll miss the yelling. You gotta love a guy who communicates only by yelling.

Later

Toys

2009-07-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

I. Am. So. Excited. Right now.

I just made a reservation for my vacation that will cause more happy days than any other I have or will make. Tonight I made a reservation for these...

1. Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM A much better and fancier version of the kit lens that came with my camera. It is made for small camera sensors like my camera has so it will actually give me a very nice wide angle shot.

2. Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM This will be the very first pro quality lens I have ever shot with. I expect great things.

3. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM This is for close up shots. I am renting this to shoot tidepools where a 100-200 mm macro lens is recommended. If I don't find any, maybe I'll see some flowers or something that I can photograph.

I am extremely excited by this. They will be arriving at my door sometime on the 7th of August. That is going to be a very fun weekend. I have them for thirty days which gives me some time to get used to them before vacation. And a couple extra days after before I need to send them back. And the price was right. Insured against damage and including shipping, I am paying less then $500 for 30 days. These retail for about $3100 new.

Have I mentioned I'm excited?

later

Home late

2009-07-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

Somehow ten-thirty got here extremely early tonight. I swear I only got home two hours late. Then I exercised for an hour and watched a little tv. Then bang. it's bed time. Well. I guess that might be how time got away from me. I was on extreme deadline and needed to get the files to the printer today. No matter what time today ended. So I didn't leave until six. It was seven by the time I got home and supper ended about 7:30. Then an hour of exercise and a little tv, some photo work and that leaves little time for anything else.

I did finish a fabulous season of tv while exercising. Season one of the Tudors was awesome. It's for an older audience since it is a very sexy show. But it really is great in spite of it, not because of it. While I enjoy a naked person as much as the next guy, I don't know that all the sex and nakedness really adds anything to the show. It would be just as awesome without it. But don't let that stand in the way. Just prepare yourself and make sure your kid is old enough if they are going to wander through the room. I really can't wait for season two to get here from Netflix or Season three to come out on DVD. Hopefully before Season 4 shows up on Showtime. Go watch it.

Later

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

2009-07-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

I love going to the cabin, I really do. But for some reason I am always extremely crabby once I leave. Not sure why. It might be that i haven't showered in two or three days and I stink. Or that I don't get much sleep after 4 am everyday I'm there due to my lovely dogs and it is finally catching up with me. Maybe some of each. Not sure. All I know is that I feel completely out of sorts the entire ride home and a good portion of the rest of the day.

I've found a cure though. When I come home I make myself some Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. Oh... that's some good yummy. I found the recipe today after receiving five pounds of frozen rhubarb from my mother-in-law. Think Apple Crisp only more tart and more red.

You mix up four cups of halved strawberries and three cups of rhubarb chunks with two-thirds of a cup of sugar and a tablespoon of corn starch. Put that in a two quart baking dish.

Top it with a Crisp topping (the one I used was three-fourths of a cup of flour and three-fourths of a cup of sugar and a teaspoon of nutmeg. Cut 6 tbsp of butter into it and mix the result with three fourths of a cup of oatmeal) and bake it for 35-40 minutes at 400 degrees.

If you make it you might want to add more sugar to the filling because it is really tart. I like that, but you might not. It did get rid of my crabbiness instantly though.

Later

Audio blog from the cabin

2009-07-05T16:23:00.001-07:00

This is sort of a test of this audio thing this was recorded from the car and posted from there too. All done from the iPhone under very extreme connection shortages. If it works I know I'll be able to do it while on vacation in august.

"outhouse...shudder..." by arok on audioboo.fm

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Maybe a something new

2009-07-01T18:52:00.001-07:00

"Just A Test Really" by arok on audioboo.fm

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mah foot, it hurts.

2009-07-01T18:12:00.001-07:00

So I hurt my foot today. Actually I hurt it last night on the treadmill, but I found out about it today. Sort of made me crabby all day. Imagine every time you take a step you step on a tender bruise. That was my day. By the end I was having a bit of an issue. Now I can't exercise tonight. I bruised it walking so I can see that walking some more might make it even worse.

Excuse me, I need to clean cat puke off my wife's shoe...

And because I had a bad day, I couldn't exercise and just felt like it, I decided to order domino's. On a whim I tried the blue cheese dressing on my buffalo wings. Not bad. I prefer ranch, but it was acceptable. Now if only I could eat that stuff on vegies, I'd be the healthy man. or at the very least, I could get rid of that bit of pickiness.

Goin to the cabin tomorrow so everyone have a safe and happy Independence day!

Later

more shorts thoughts

2009-06-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Buying more to pay less seems wrong.

Saying purple too many times in a row makes you sound like an idiot.

Since moving to Minnesota, I've found I no longer get funny looks when I wear purple.

My family will all wonder why I'm wearing purple... answer: because it's pretty.

You know a teenager is sick when they go to bed before ten with no prompting and no reason to get up in the morning.

Walking through the woods one day, in the merry, merry month of May might not be all it's cracked up to be when one has allergies.

Luckily it's July and unluckily the allergens are still there as I go to the woods this weekend.

My kid managed a B average. Yay! I'm able to keep reduced car insurance.

Oh. And she betters her chances of getting into the college of her choice.

Listening to my wife shop for clothes online is odd. There is a lot of secretive measuring and muttering.

Don't bother trying to explain it, I will never understand the sizing on women's clothes.

Inches are way easier to deal with... though sometimes very mean to see.

I spent about five minutes just staring at the amount of hair on my chest tonight. It's odd to think that when I met my wife I had two.

I sometimes get caught doing odd things when I think no one is looking.

I realize that was no shocker.

My wife wants me to say that her cat is a pretty baby... fine. there. said.

Nice cool nights make for good sleeping. If I can breathe with the windows open. Stupid allergies.

Tucking my wife in is one of the nice points of each night. I think I'll do that now.

Later

update on the sick kid

2009-06-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Before I got home from work tonight, the kid told my wife she felt better. Wanting a second opinion, my wife asked me the second I came in if I thought she should take her to the doctor. I heard one word creak out of the girl's mouth and said "she's going to the doctor." And a good thing too. Though she tested negative for strep with the quick test, her white blood cell count was at 19,000. Normal is 10,000-11,000. So she has an infection. The doctor said that whether or not she has strep or some other infection, he would have given her the same medication. So she has a bottle of actual penicillin. I was unaware that penicillin was even effective anymore. But that's what was prescribed.

So that's tonight's update. I really hope that it isn't something contagious. I really don't want to go through what she is. It looks like it hurts so bad.

Later

sick kid and a tortuous treadmill

2009-06-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

Really nothing to talk about tonight. The kid is sick with a very sore throat. Tylenol and Icee's from the gas station seem to be helping though. I'm sure it is the Tylenol more than the icee, but what the heck. Sometimes emotionally feeling better is just as useful to feeling better as medicine is. Hopefully it is nothing serious as she has the next two days off, but I'd rather she spent them having fun than being sick.

Speaking of fun, I've spent the last hour sweating on the treadmill while watching the Tudors. And I'm extremely beat. I hit a wall at the 35 minute mark. My body just didn't want to do anymore. I pushed past it, but now I'm wiped out. Oh wait. No. I made a mistake here. That wasn't fun. Time for bed I fear.

Later

A few random and only slightly connected thoughts

2009-06-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

A cute puppy is worth a trip to Blaine even if you don't get to keep it.

I'm ecstatic that my wife is home. So much so that I tucked her in and am still sitting here... wait.

It's an odd feeling waiting up for your kid to come home from work. I can't imagine what it will be like when it is a date.

Had my annual review today. Got a raise. Yay!

Found Banana bread in my freezer. Forgot I made it. Oh my God! Yum!

The kid got her ACT score back. Not great but good enough for the school she wants to go to... Barely.

Sometimes squeaking by is the best one can hope for.

Sometimes squeaky wheels need more than grease.

Sometimes I just type things. Most of the time I have no idea what it meant.

Pretty sure it is time to sit impatiently looking out the window willing the kid to get home so I can go to bed. But can't do that from here.

Later

a (minor) accomplishment

2009-06-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

I actually got something accomplished tonight. Aside from giving myself a blister between my toes. I mean that was an accomplishment, but not the one I'm talking about.

I took the boat cover off the boat. Robbing many thousand mosquitoes of a nest. I'm pretty proud of that. And I'm very happy to report that the cover worked. Even though it had a lot of water pooling on it none of it got inside the boat itself. That makes me happy as I had feared for the carpet in there. Now that I did that maybe sometime this weekend we will have time to de-winterize it. Crazy doing that before it is winter!

Later

a really non productive night.

2009-06-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

my wife is gone for a couple days. I always have such productive plans when she is gone. Alas. A movie happened. Though I was on the treadmill the entire time. I did an hour workout where things moved up and down and faster and slower. Then when that was done I just walked slow while the movie finished. Pretty nice way to pass the time. I wasn't tired or anything when done. Sweaty? Yes. Tired? No.

Then it was just watching a podcast and playing an online flash game. Pretty boring night after the workout/movie. I guess I'm just not exciting when she's not around.

Later

a realization

2009-06-22T20:24:00.001-07:00

I feel sorry for my wife. She needs to get up at a little after 3 in the morning. And she just got to bed a few minutes ago. (A little after 10). She needs to catch a 6 am flight to Nebraska. I'll try not to whine the entire time she's gone. I'm staying up a little late tonight so that I can make sure she can get to sleep undisturbed.

Didn't do much tonight. Exercised, watched a little tv, and realized that I probably won't be able to attend next year's family reunion aside from one day. My wife can't miss work on either the first or last day of the month and it is being held the one time of the month we can't ever do anything that takes more than Saturday and Sunday. Which makes me sad. But that day should be fun. Oh well, hopefully I'll make the next one. Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining, I'm just sad that's all. But then, who knows what will happen. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it

Ok. She should be asleep now. I'm going to head off to bed myself. Hopefully she has a good trip.

Later

really a great Father's Day Weekend

2009-06-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

7 am yesterday morning. We head out for a road trip. We went to Itasca State Park to see the headwaters of the Mississippi. So far it is one of the few Minnesota State Parks I would visit again. So far this and the ones on the North Shore are the only ones. Pretty, but not so much at the headwaters. I know that seeing the Mighty Mississippi as a five foot wide creek is a big deal to folks who are used to seeing the Mississippi as the mile wide monster it is in the south. But for me, it's normally only a couple football fields across. I walked across it everyday when I went to school at the U. The five foot thing was underwhelming. But the rest of the park was really pretty. Just forest. Nothing special, but worth spending some time in.

So the crowds and the poor light (it was noon) and the bugs made us decide that this was worth another trip when we could spend the night and visit things when they are pretty. So what to do? If we went home now we'd be home about 4. Then we'd sit and stare at each other all night. Of course the only thing to do is extend the trip. So we went to Duluth. I didn't really know how long it would take to cross Minnesota at that point, but I decided that it couldn't be more than a few hours. Four at the most. I was right. We got to Duluth about 4 and headed down to Canal Park to see the water. I had actually never been down there before this so it was a new and interesting experience for me. We spent an hour and a half or so wandering around. Then decided to head for home. Stopped for pizza at Sammy's on the way out of Duluth and for rolls at Tobie's in Hinkley and got home at about 9:30-10 pm or so. All in all a fun day.

Today I spent about three hours doing genealogy research at the U of M library. So it was really a great Father's Day Weekend.

Later

Another one!

2009-06-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

I have been smelling a foul, rancid smell on the landing of my garage stairs for a couple days now. I started smelling it in the kitchen this afternoon. I had planned to try to find it this evening, but once I smelled it downstairs I knew that I needed to. And that I couldn't give up until I did.

I looked around on the landing this morning. I did it quickly since I had to go to work. I couldn't find anything. I looked up there again tonight. I thought for sure that maybe a mouse had gotten into an old trap and the heat had baked it. Or that it had fallen in the garbage and couldn't get out. That has happened before. But there was nothing.

Then I moved to the other side of that small wall and smelled it again. I tore apart the storage area wondering if a piece of garbage had fallen down there somehow. But again nothing. I needed a bit more light at this point so I opened the garage door. The smell was gone. I couldn't smell anything on the landing. Nothing.

So I broadened my search. Finally Beautiful Wife asked if I had looked in Kira's dog house. I hadn't smelled anything over there this morning so I looked but didn't expect to find anything. But I did. There half chewed and covered with flies was a possum. I had to throw out the bedding, a rug and empty the shop vac by the time I was done. It was one of the most disgusting things I've had to do in a while. I still have the smell in my nose. It won't go away.

It must be summer. The possums are moving into the dog kennel. I wish I knew where they lived so I could get rid of them. They pull this every summer. At least once. Hopefully this will be the last time this year. But I doubt it.

Later

I have a bit of bad news

2009-06-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

As I said last night, I'm doing a bit of work for our family reunion. It gets a bit interesting since there are two different spellings for the last name so keywords have to be duplicated so that if folks happen to be googling the Amundson Family Reunion or the Amundsen family reunion they stand a chance of stumbling across our site and can come on in. Now there is a friendly rivalry about which spelling is the "correct" one. My branch has always contended that "on" was correct.

This brings me to the bad news. I've also been doing a bit of genealogical research. In the digitized versions of the old Norwegian records the correct spelling is Amundsen. Now it might have been Anglicized when my gr gr grandfather landed in America. But in any case it looks like the name he was born with was Iver Amundsen.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news to all those who have just realized they have been spelling their names wrong for three generations. Me. My name is completely wrong. I always knew that. I just don't know what right is. :-)

Later.

Yet another blog

2009-06-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I have enough I know. That is why I am not doing this one myself. Or at least not mostly. I set up the blog (and am providing the hosting) for the site for our next family reunion. If any of my family wants to be an author on it to help document the planning and help get other branches of the family interested in coming for it, please let me know. I will set you up an account and send you a user name and password. The site is http://www.Amundso-enReunion.com and i invite you to check it out.

If you do not know how to blog and are not comfortable just trying to pick it up, I can give you a very quick course on what to do. I promise, it is the easiest thing there is to do. (How else could I do this for what is coming up on five years?)

Later

A great book.

2009-06-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

I am reading a fantastic book right now. It is called The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding Years, 1913-33. A long title, but a very interesting book. It is the story of the beginning of the National Park Service. As you might have guessed by the title. It is told by the guy who was the first civilian superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and the second head of the park service. He was also assistant to the first head so he knew the background. I started it because the other book I was reading was physically too large and too heavy to take to work with me (2ft by 2ft). But it was so good that I'm afraid that I won't be reading the other one until I'm done.

It is written in a very conversational style and is a quick and easy read. I don't really tell about the books I'm reading anymore. Not since I discovered the site in the side bar that could tell you what I'm reading without me needing too. But this one was too good to pass up. I know most of my readers are not as into history as I am, but if you secretly are or just want to learn a little about the history of our country's crown jewels. You will read this book.

Later

Bayfield photos?

2009-06-15T20:43:00.001-07:00

If anyone has pictures of Bayfield, Wisconsin that I can use for the family reunion site, I'd be happy to use them. I need four or five very wide photos for the header. Once I have that it will be ready to go.

Other than that nothing to say. I came home sick today and am going to be early to make sure I don't need to again tomorrow.

Later

exercise and internets

2009-06-14T20:34:00.001-07:00

Started exercising again today.

I know. I know. That's what? the third time this year that I've said that? But I think this time I can make it stick since I now have a new toy and an exercise buddy. Today on the spur of the moment the wife and I bought a treadmill. It's kind of fun. It changes speed and incline on you every minute or so. It goes up to twelve degrees of incline. Though unless you were going uphill a lot in the near future, that might be a bit of overkill. And you can go up to 12 miles an hour on it. I'm excited. It is so much more interesting to exercise with someone. The wife and I can either play music over the treadmill's speakers using the iPhone or we can watch tv or a movie. Makes for an enjoyable hour.

I also attended the first planning session of the family reunion that my branch of our family is in charge of hosting next year. My wife and I got charged with setting up a web presence. You know that everything needs a web-presence these days. Especially if I am involved. I have the domain registered and the email address set up, now all I need to do is put up a website. Should be fun. Nothing too fancy, just a wordpress blog. Thought about a wiki, but honestly that is a lot of work on my end for very little gain. Not sure that most folks would know how to use a wiki anyway. Now a blog and some comments. That is doable. Once I get it set up, I'll give away the admin password so people can post to each other. But for now the internets need to process the fact that I want a site associated with the domain I have set up. Makes for a good excuse to go to bed and check to see what has happened in the morning.

Later

Getting there

2009-06-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Almost done entering the information I got from my grandmother about our family history. Someday I hope to revisit the information about the actual people that is included in there. I see stuff about this branch of the family being founded by a Norse raider who decided to settle in the land he was raiding. Fun stories like that. Plus just interesting things like what the various people did for a living. Right now I 'm working on the pedigree portion of it. I hope to be able to go back and flesh out the history part of it in the future. I've expanded quite a bit due to the fact that our records only follow the male lines. There were not a lot of entries for many of the wives, but there were a few where others had done some research and been nice enough to include it online. I'm getting close to done with my Grandmother's family. Then I get to go back and revisit the Norwegian records for my Grandfather.

I feel like I am accomplishing something here. I don't know how much has been of interest to anyone else or how much will be interesting to anyone other than me in the future. But I'm learning a bit about who I am and all of the various things that had to come together to make me me.

Later

I'm just not that into today

2009-06-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Or so I thought. It all started with a long argument with the wife that lasted all the way to work. Stupid since it was about nothing but hurt feelings. So I was in a funk all day long. Argued again on the way home. When I got to the house I was pretty sure it was going to go on all night.

But then before I got into the house I noticed a little turtle in the yard. It must be the crow in me (ooh! shiny!) but I was instantly distracted from my hurt feelings and was like a little kid. I took it's picture from every angle imaginable. Tried, unsuccessfully, to shoo it out of the yard and back across the street tot he swamp, but no go. He was pretty sure he was staying in the yard. He stuck around for a couple hours just sort of wandering the property. He was a cutie. If you want to see him he is featured on tonight's photo at the other site. Even the kid (who hates reptiles, screams at the sight of a frog or toad. seriously.) thought he was a cutie. And poor guy only had three legs. Must have lost the other a while ago since it had healed over and wasn't even scabbed anymore.

When the wife asked if I was going to leave the poor guy alone, I responded with "at least it didn't end up in the bath tub." If that confuses you, ask my mother. There were plenty of times when they would be swimming in our tub when she got home. Never let me keep one. Probably for the best, they wouldn't have been happy sharing a shower with us.

So I feel very fortunate to have met Mr. Three Legs. He cheered me up out of an all day funk and made the evening enjoyable.

Later

An eventful day

2009-06-09T20:54:00.001-07:00

Ok. I can not believe it. Two unbelievable things happened today. First IT finally got me the new computer that they have been promising me for that past month. I was pretty sure that it was never going to happen.

Second out of the blue, my wife decides to subscribe to Showtime.

I'm completely shocked. Seriously. I'm not sure what's come over either of them.

Plus I learned something tonight in the genealogy search. My whole life my mother has told me that my Grandpa's father changed his name when he moved to the US. He swapped his name from Amund Iverson to Iver Amundson. Never made sense why one would do that, but I went along with it. Turns out that story is wrong. I've found the records in the Norwegian Digital Archives that show Iver Amundson as the oldest son of Amund Iverson and Anne Knudsdatter. Which makes much more sense. Especially since it was the tradition at the time to name your oldest son after your father. The second son was often named for your wife's father. Though that doesn't seem to have happened in this case since her father would have been named Knudt and the second sone was Hans. Kinda exciting since I think that with a bit more digging I'll be ready to go to the U of M library for more info. Next though I have to enter that final set of family documents and then it is all online (or on campus) digging.

so it has been an eventful day. And a good one.

Later

random stuff

2009-06-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

Took another look at our upcoming vacation tonight. Its looking more and more like we need to cut out the Lassan Volcanic day of our trip so I can actually do more than drive up the Oregon Coast. Which means that we'll need to take a short trip to San Francisco and the wine country to make a visit to that park since it really is no where near anything. Still spending a night in California, but not two anymore. Kinda sad, but it means more fun later and we really wouldn't have spent very much time there anyway.

I've found a few more things in the family history thing. I found records of people who were only a name on the list previously. Pretty cool, I found the ship the France's arrived on, realized that one of the names was wrong, and couldn't get any further back. Odd how there are records of folks getting off the ship, but nothing about anyone getting on. hmmm....

But that's the night tonight. Watched the movie The Alamo. Thought it was a good one. Liked it a lot. The wife found it depressing. Everyone dies. But we knew that going in.

Other than that nothing happening tonight.

Later

more ancestry dead ends

2009-06-07T20:40:00.001-07:00

Well, the kid has one class done. Four to finish and 3 weeks to do it in. Should be able to if she keeps her nose to the grindstone.

Since the class she has done is Algebra that leaves me with more time to devote to the new hobby of Genealogy. Right now I am trying to sort through the records that I got from my grandmother this weekend. It's harder than I thought it would be since there are conflicting records and ones that just don't make sense. I'll give an example. There is a mention that the first ancestor to come to America in this line was in 1683. Pretty early. And pretty cool if it is true. There is another listing that the first known ancestor is named Henry (possibly the first in a long line) but the first one we have a date for was born in 1809 and the thought is that this would be the first Henry's Grandson. Now the numbers don't add up for this. Even if The first Henry was born on the day before he arrived, he wouldn't have had kids until he was about 20. The baby making might have lasted until he was about 45-50 or so depending on how late he got married. Now that puts us at somewhere between 1703 and 1733 (if he arrived as an infant). He had a son somewhere in that range, but for this argument lets say that child was born in 1733 the tail end of the range we guessed earlier. So let's do the same thing for this second Henry. Born 1733 could have had kids between 1753 and 1783. We are missing some 35 years and that is if each was born in the last of the baby-making years and the first Henry arrived as an infant. We could be missing a lot more. So I have to assume that the first arrival and the first named person refer to two different folks.

So far no help in finding anyone who wasn't already on my list. Not to worry, I haven't consulted the Mormons yet. That could help a lot. Or it could help not at all. A bit disappointing so far. Though I have another part that I have lots of listings for. But I was hoping to do a bit of discovery work. I couldn't even find anything on the female lines for which I have no info at all. Maybe the discoveries will have to come off of my maternal Grandfather's line. I have a place name in Norway where one was born and a place name in Sweden where another was born. If the Swedes are as excellent to work with as the Norwegians are, this could be really exciting. OR it could be a flop.

But in any case that is a project for tomorrow. I'm a gonnig to bed.

Later

stuff and things

2009-06-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda into the fake chicken patty right now. The cool thing about it is that I eat it as if it were a real one, that means slice of cheese, some homey on a bun, but I don't have all the fat to try to kill me and I get some vegi in me. Works out well. I'm scared to try the not spicy one though. This one is so spicy that under it all it just tastes like a mediocre chicken patty. I'm afraid the non spicy one will taste like a bad chicken patty. Makes for a good snack though. Just a bit mushy at the end.

I get to go to my Grandma's this weekend. It looks like I'll be helping to demolish an old screen room off the garage. Should be fun. I love tearing things down. But more fun. I get to go see the family history stuff from that side to see if there is anything I can add to that part of the family history. Should be fun.

Tomorrow. Date night with the wife. We get to go see Star Trek. And bring home a non-made-by-me pizza. I'm loving that. so overall should be fun. Can't wait for work to end tomorrow.

Later

Don't drive and dumb

2009-06-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Not much to say tonight. Got in a spat with the wife. Pretty sure that's over now though. Word of advice to all you married guys out there. Try to never act as though you are going to leave your wife at the mall. No matter how cranky she is or how much you may be quasi considering it. Especially don't after you've threatened to...

Those are my words of advice for today. I like to say that I haven't been married for 12 years by being stupid... but then I go do something stupid. So I guess I'm lucky I'm a quick and sincere apologizer.I think it is the sincerity that does it.

In my defense. I wasn't going to leave her there. I was just going to back the car up a bit to show that I was thinking of it. But it seems that gesture can be very easily misunderstood for the real thing. I apologized, meant it and things are better now, but... yeah. I'm pretty dumb when mad. One should never mix driving and dumb. I think dumbing might be worse than drinking while driving. Though one could say that drinking and driving is dumb too so maybe not.

Later

I had fun tonight

2009-06-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

I broke with my usual hermiting tradition and actually left the house tonight. I went to a friend's to help him with his portfolio as he's decided to change jobs. Provided he gets any interviews which is hard to do right now, he should have no trouble. Good stuff.

The kid did not have to quit her job. Which was good. She's down to four days a week until the end of June. I'm still not happy, they really take advantage of the workers it seems. But she needs to make her own decisions and she seems happy doing it so ...

I'm really getting negligent on the photo blog. I just don't seem to have the time to do everything I want to get done in the night and since that is the most time consuming thing that isn't the family history, it gets cut. I'll figure something out for tomorrow night. Just in case you were thirsting for new pretty.

Later

Blah Blah Blah

2009-06-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah. I got nothin. I've started putting folks from my mother's side into the genealogy site I'm using to build out my family tree. But so far it is slow going. No hints really so far from the community. I'll get there though. I was able to get back to the immigrants on my grandpa's side pretty quickly. It was two generations. And I had all the names. Census data gave me the year he arrived, but there were quite a few Amund Iversens that left Norway in the mid 1800s. Of course the story is that he changed his name at some point going from Amund Iversen to Iver Amundson. If that is true I don't really know if it was before or after the move. So I technically have a lot more names/records to go through. Ugh... But enough of that. I'll get there.

Tonight I also had to take away the kid's phone again. She's been up texting until 2:30 am but oddly not doing homework until then. If she's up she can do homework. I'm just in a pissy mood.

And I really have nothing to say that hasn't been gone over a hundred times. When I find something new, I'll pass it along.

Later

an eventful weekend

2009-05-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

So it looks like the kid's experiment with work is going to have to end. They are working her too many hours for her to get her homework done. She's almost done in Algebra, but is close in only one other subject. And she has a little over three weeks left. I wish it wasn't the case. She's going to need the money for college, but won't be able to go if she doesn't finish her junior year of high school. Let's just say she isn't pleased. She actually likes her job. So that makes me feel bad. To top it off, she probably won't be able to get another since she'll have only this little bit of experience, and no one is hiring. Kind of sucks. She's going to talk to them tomorrow to see if she can gt them to reduce her hours for the next three weeks, but if they can't, we've told her she'll need to quit.

While I was waiting for her to get home for two hours after her shift was supposed to be done on Saturday, I was able to finish the project I started two weeks ago. The little path between the flower beds is now done. And I have pictures.

Remember where we started with this project:

So now here is the finished project:

The first one is looking from the same side. The second is from the other. I'm thinking of putting a little bench somewhere in there for the wife to sit on and enjoy the birds and the flowers, and I am putting another feeder in on a pole in the back of the bed next to the deck, but other than that, outside projects are pretty much done. Oh I have to put up some lattice around the deck and stain it. But then it is done. We've even got the garden planted.

Yep. it was an eventful weekend.

Later

1520

2009-05-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

I've never thought much about the year 1520 before tonight. To this point in my life it hasn't been all that important. Tonight it took on a bit more importance as this is the year my earliest known ancestor (to this point) was born. I need to think about that for a little bit. That was a long time ago. Almost 500 years. Before two weeks ago, I knew that I had family that went back about 200 years. I knew nothing about it (still don't for that matter since I am researching a different portion of the family right now).

so I got to thinking: "1520 that's a lot smaller number than our current year. but it's just a number, what does that tell me?" Or something along those lines that probably involving a lot of long pauses and looking out the window while absently drumming on the desk to whatever is playing on iTunes at the moment.

1520: the highlights

The Swedes start rumbling about leaving the Danish led union of Norway Denmark and Sweden. (Important to me since it was probably the resulting wars that destroyed any records further back for this particular lineage)
Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first European to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Cortes fights the Aztecs on his way to becoming one of the most ill thought of names in American Colonization
A guy named Michelangelo is working his butt off doing beautiful sculptures like this one started in 1520.
English King Henry VIII has an affair with Mary Boleyn (whose sister he later marries and then has killed)
Martin Luther is threatened with excommunication by Pope Leo X (actually does it on Jan 3 1521, dang! 3 days...)
Famous Italian painter Raphael dies (he did things like this and this)

But of all of that I think that my earliest known ancestor being born was in the long run the most important and earth-shaking... I mean without him, there'd have been no me.

Later

1500s

2009-05-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

Pushed family tree back in to the 1500s tonight. Barely, (1598) but an achievement none the less...

Might go farther. Haven't yet exhausted the book I got from the library tonight. But I have exhausted myself. Off to bed. Don't know why I'm tired. It's only 11:34 and I've spent enough time tonight pouring over a old Norwegian history book that I'm starting to understand the language a bit. Not a lot, but I can read a sentence here and there.

Exciting stuff.

Later

Is there anything I can't do?

2009-05-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

Well... fly unaided, become a werewolf, get frustrated without sharing it with the world...

But there are plenty of things I can do as well. As an example tonight I fixed a broken washing machine. And while replacing a broken belt probably doesn't rank using only google doesn't rank quite as high as remodeling my downstairs using only google, it is pretty damn good none the less. Five years ago I would have been looking for another washing machine, but now... my wife says: "the washing machine doesn't work. Fix it." And I go... "I don't know anything about washing machines" To which she replies: "you didn't know anything about remodeling the basement either."

Damn. Past achievement bites me again.

So I looked and figured it out. The washer now spins and the clothes can agitate, rinse and dry properly. So it is a good night.

And to show thatI am a man of even more talents, I also made six loaves of banana bread to use up six large very overripe bananas.

Yeah. I'm awesome.

Later

Damn...

2009-05-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

That's it. Just Damn. I've had such a bad day that I don't have the energy to say much more. First off, I was at the cabin this weekend. Normally a very nice experience. This time something felt off. People were crabby and I sort of wanted to just stay out of the way. I know what it was, to an extent. My brother's, girlfriend's kid was there. He is a typical 4 year old from what I can see. A bit worse than mine was, but not that far off. Mine would listen when you told her no, but still tried to get in about as much trouble to start with. My mom was crabby and constantly trying to get little digs in with statements like "now he knows his brother's frustration."

Well, yes. I do. If his frustration is stepping into a situation where there is a three year old child who has not been disciplined. Where the mother was young enough that it was just easier to let them do what they wanted. Where the biological father would take any excuse to make trouble (like disciplining the kid). Where there were elements in the kid's family that would complain behind your back and sometimes to your face if you tried to institute some discipline. And where your own parent was more than slightly disapproving of the whole situation. If you mean that is his frustration, then yes. I understand it very well since it is exactly the situation I found myself in 13 years ago. Only I was 19 trying to deal with it, not 29. If anyone there this weekend was uniquely qualified to deal with a child like that, it was me. And oddly, I am the only one who wasn't driven absolutely bonkers by it (well almost the only one there were a couple more who had other things to deal with). I had to get angry once or twice, chase, catch and discipline the child a few times, but on the whole, things went pretty well.

So there was that to deal with. When I got home I found another bill for the kid's visit to the ER which brings the total up to about $1100.

Then I had an overtired cranky wife to deal with. Part of which was brought on by the crabbiness over the weekend, part of which was brought on by the bill, and part by just plain not feeling well.

Then the washing machine broke. It has a broken belt, so now I have to get a new one of those and figure out how to put a new one back on.

Then I found out that my brother (the one listed above whose kid I was helping to watch) had a big 30th birthday bash that I wasn't invited to and didn't even really know about until after the fact. Sounds like it might have been more fun than dealing with a crabby group and a crabby kid. But whatever. I'm not thought of when there's fun to be had.

So. Damn. It's now 10pm and I want nothing more than to cover my head and not come out until the world goes back to normal.

Later

frustration and a surprising food review

2009-05-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

Why is it that I can find out where someone lived, married and died in Norway in the early 1700's but cant' find anything about an German immigrant in the 1890's. Why couldn't my Dad's family be bothered to find out anything about their Grandparents? Their names would have been nice, but lckily there is a guy in Florida who knew their names which led to a 1920 census record confirming the relation. I'm extremely frustrated here. I dead ended in Norway in 1701. I have book coming that might help with that. So I decided to work on my Paternal Grandfather's family. I have all his Brother's and sisters including the one my brother was named after. But I can't find anything out about his parents. I have a hint that he might have rented a room in Quebec about 2 years before he immigrated here, but that could be someone else entirely since there is no record of anyone with the name Fred Burke entering the country anywhere in that time frame. WHY?!?!??

On a completely different note I tried Boca Chik'N patties tonight. Not bad. Flavor-wise they tasted more like chicken than the really cheap breaded chicken patties you buy at the store. Texture wise they are sort of like wet sawdust. On a bun with a slice of cheese and some honey, it tasted fine. And it isn't going to put me in an early grave. Maybe I'll try a different brand to see if the texture improves. We'll see.

Ok. I give up for the night. The Mormons are no help, the website I pay for is no help and near as I can tell there is are German emigration records. Gotta love the Norwegians there. They wanted to know where everyone was in that country. And who their family was going back ages.

going to the cabin this weekend so I'll be back again on Monday night.

Later

i don't want to stop!

2009-05-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've found quite a few mistakes so far in my family history. Mainly because it looks as if someone misspelled an Americanized version of a misheard Norwegian place name. And then others just blindly copied it. I've been up to my elbows in the Norwegian Digital Archives where I am browsing through birth and census records. I'm just about certain that I am not only correct, but building on the stuff that others have missed. It's a good feeling that I may be actually uncovering things instead of just rehashing things that have been found before.

But because I had to tear myself away from the screens in order to make sure I get to bed before midnight and it is now 11:19. I better actually get to bed.

Later

Latest Read: Earth Abides

2009-05-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

Earth Abides George R. Stewart

Finished the book I was reading. It's really good. I normally try very hard to not read any sci-fi from before I was born. Mostly because we are so removed from that world now that it feels just too hokey for me to enjoy. It needs to be something either really good or so much a part of the culture that you almost have to read it. The one I just finished was in the first camp. This was a book about the years after Man in almost completely wiped out by a pandemic. It follows the life of Ish (short for Isherwood) as he gathers folks around him and tries to rebuild civilization or at the very least cope with its loss.

One of the more powerful books I've read. And it was particularly timely as I started reading it jsut as the Swine Flu scare was starting. I would have never guessed that this book was written almost 70 years ago. You would never know aside from the fact that it refers to US 66 instead of some freeway and by the way it describes the old coins. Both of which could be very easily overlooked.

An easy and fast read, but completley enthralling and impossible to put down. Beautiful Wife agrees though it made her cry. We both comented that it was odd that there was not one thing in the book where we said "couldn't happen." Fantastic.

Later

Finally! research that shows progress.

2009-05-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

another night spent researching. I'm having better luck fleshing out the collateral lines of my family since I paid for the membership. I also have traced at least some of my Grandmother's family back to the 1700's in Germany... somewhere. All I have at this point are names. I hope to have more with more research. I haven't done much on the Norwegian line. Confirmed a few things, that's about all. But it's good to have the confirmation. I did find one interesting thing. I see by going through the various census records that my Great-Great Grandfather was a farmer who farmed on his own account, but rented in 1920, but by 1930 he was a kitchen worker in a hospital while owning a 2500 home. The Great Depression started in 1929 so I wonder if that had something to do with the move from Farming to Working in the hospital kitchen or if he wanted different work and moved into that by choice. It is frustrating since I want to know the stories, but all I have is the outlines... if I even have those.

I did make a breakthrough though. I found the names of my paternal Grandfather's parents. But that's all. I see one was an immigrant from Germany, possibly by way of Canada, though I'll need to do a bit of searching to confirm that. And the other from South Dakota, though I don't have a last name to go with her. Makes finding more about her difficult. I have one month to find something out before I get charged another $30. So hopefully I can find out all there is to know by that point. I still have yet to consult the Mormons on these new names so who knows what might yet turn up. I'm getting excited.

Excited, but sleepy... Almost 11:30. I better got to bed.

Later

i hurt...

2009-05-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

Do you remember how excited I was to move into a house that didn't require that I dig up sod? Yeah. Me too. Then I forgot how much work it is to do by hand. And that made my patio look sort of like this...

It started out simply enough. As these things do. My wife wanted a little water feature made from her grandfather's grindstone. She even had a spot for it picked out.

The problem with the spot was that it was surrounded by grass. Well actually it was surrounded by weeds that tried to mimic grass. Long weeds. Sparse grass. How hard could it be?

Seven hours later I was to here. You see the problem with having two lovely, existing, curved beds is that in order to add anything to them that looks even remotely like it belongs, you have to curve it as well. And in order to make it "easier" to do, you want to make the new curve have room so you don't have to cut any of the bricks.

After digging up all the sod, I realized that at some point there had been some sort of lovely breaks in the lines of bricks that had some of the cement rubble that has been used everywhere else in the landscaping. These were now gone and the bricks needed adjusting. This small little project just keeps getting easier.

After marking where the hole for the fountain needed to be dug, I quit for the night. Eight hours was enough and I was losing daylight due to not starting until 1:30 or so.

So the first thing I do this morning is cut the hole. I needed room to fit two cinder blocks to hold up the fountain. I have a round top so I initially think I need a round hole. I'd have needed a great big hole if I wanted to fit in two cinder blocks and a pump and, oh yeah, some water. So after standing there looking at the hole with the shovel in my hand I realize that a square hole would work just as well since I would make it look round after I was done. I also had to cut a wider, but shallow, area to put the liner with pebbles on top so that the splashing would run back into the hole to be pumped back up.

Liner's in. Larger rocks are in place. the end is in sight.

pebbles are washed and dumped. The pump is on and working. I ended up going tot eh hardware store and getting a rubber utility connector and a plastic ribbed insert to put in the two inch square hole. The one I got was supposed to allow you to attach a small hose to a utility drain. With a little trimming of the rubber to allow it to fit in a square hole and a bit of duck tape around the end of the hose to make it thick enough to fit inside the plastic piece, it was sturdy enough to hold steady. (I was not only unconcerned about leaking, I actively wanted to allow whatever ran back in to get back in the pond under the stone.)

Smoothing out the few bags of pebbles that I had. About 32 more need to be bought. I initially planned on having a load delivered. Cost wise I should have, but I am no where near ready to go on the other projects that might need them. This was sort of spur of the moment. So I sacrifice and do things the stupid way.

It'll look really nice once it is done. And bonus: less weeds to mow. Down side: I am sore as hell. And this wasn't the end of the weekend. I still had to de-winterize the camper... ugh. But I got it all done.

Later

Arghh...

2009-05-14T20:29:00.001-07:00

Math from 6:30 until 10:30 makes me cranky. Now bed. Tomorrow: forced volunteerism at work. I get to pick up trash in a Woodbury city park. Should be fun. Then pizza. Saturday: kid starts work for real. She wonders what her check will look like. I've just overheard her wondering if it would be some giant piece of paper. The wife explains it will probably be a letter sized piece if paper. The kid sounded very sad with her "oh..."

Later

i got shivers

2009-05-13T18:52:00.001-07:00

I found a post online that talked about my Great Great Grandparents through my paternal grandmother. That post had two photos attached. One was unreadable due to odd scanning. The other I've attached. Apparently my Grandmother's looks ran in the family. The older lady in the middle is my Grandma's Grandma. Spitting image. Crazy.

so I've broken down. I've spent the last two hours translating the table of contents of the history book that I got from the library so I know which sections would be good to try to scan for a name that's familiar. I'm now half done. I think I need to break down and pay for the membership. At least for a month. $30, but it might save a lot of time. And I really need to buckle down if I'm going to spend the money since I'll want to make sure I can actually finish in the month since the wife won't let me go more. Probably with good reason if I had more time, I'd take more time...

Anyway here's the picture:

So me I'm back to work to see if I can find anything else that induces the shivers.

Later

the search is on... again.

2009-05-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

I. am. so. excited.

Today the books from the U of M that I was waiting for come in. They are the history of the region of Norway that my family may be from. Maybe. Oh and I'm guessing they'll be in Norwegian. Not sure what help this will be or if I'm at a dead end with immigration in this line. but this and one more are the things that will tell me. Tomorrow the kid runs to the library to get them for me. Tomorrow night I may forget to blog... hell, I may forget to sleep. So, that being said, if there is nothing posted assume that I'm sleeping in my office chair, head down on the desk, hopefully not drooling on the books.

I'm pretty sure I may be taking a road trip one of these days to visit the county where both my Grandpa and Grandma were born. Or where the obits say they were born. There is no record of my Grandfather online except his Soc. Security Death Record. Odd how I can find his Social Security number, birthday, death date, but nothing else. Of course I could pay, but that feels somehow like cheating. I may end up doing it just so I can look at the census records. I'd need to go to DC to paw through them if I wanted to do it for free. Doubt I can find the scratch to do that though...

So the search is on. Again. Wish me luck.

Later

boring night

2009-05-11T20:01:00.001-07:00

Moved into new digs at work today. Bright, airy, open. So far I love it. Of course I've been there for all of 1.5 hours at this point. They built out an unfinished portion of the building and as of today it was ok to put folks into. Glad I was on the list to move. I haven't had natural light at work in so long I was beginning to think that I was part vampire. But, it turns out I won't be sparkling in the sunlight anytime soon.

Everyone in the house was tired today. It's 9:30 and I'm the last one awake. None of us got our normal sleeping in weekend thing. I now know how my mother felt about taking me around on my paper route on the snowy days. I get it. But the good news is that the kid has decided to start getting up an hour earlier. She told us that she thought it would be better for her to get up at eight and have more time for homework. As a person who hates seeing people sleep when I'm not, I can totally get behind that. Plus it shows a bit of maturity on her part to know that she needs to do it without being told to do so. I'm extremely excited by that.

Yes. it is a Monday. I'm not yet recovered from the weekend and as such am quite sure that I have nothing exciting to say. I spent all night playing a game on my phone so I have experienced nothing this evening. But I was happy doing it so that's all that matters.

Later

Ok wow

2009-05-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

It is 10:09 and I just finished helping the kid with Algebra. It has been that kind of weekend. This weekend the kid started work. She was extremely excited. It was odd. I don't know that I've ever seen here up when I got up at 6:30 and had her actually be aware of her surroundings much less energetic. Which she was today. I'm very seldom energetic when I get up, and I love my job so she's off to a good start.

Getting up that early both days this weekend led to lots of time to get projects done. Yesterday I went to Lowe's to get some stuff and then cleaned my entire garage. It was an all day project. But then I took it into my head to mow the lawn and put some lawn fertilizer/weed killer down. Pretty much ready for bed at that point. Today same thing. Ran to some stores and then potted plants all day. Until after supper then it was algebra for 4 hours. gah...

I tell you what. I did a good job on the plants too. If I get sick of this design stuff, I could easily slide into potted plant arrangement. It was fun and the results were pretty. But once again it is time for bed. I've claimed a full weekend before, but I think this is one of the first where I actually am being very literal. thank god I get to go to work tomorrow and rest.

Later

zzzzz...

2009-05-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

wow. just woke up slouched way down in my office chair. It's 8:50. The late nights this week must be catching up with me. It's been a fun set of nights. Learned a bunch of stuff and watched a good movie. Everything has kept me up late though. I think I better get the photo up at the other site and just give in... Have a good weekend folks.

Later

night off, but found a photo

2009-05-06T18:12:00.001-07:00

taking the night off to watch a movie tonight. But I have something interesting to show you. This picture is a family portrait purported to be of some of my ancestors. They are the Abrahamson's of Dwight, IL. No idea who each of them are, but there is a chance that one or more is my ancestor (since there is that pinch in my family tree). At the least they are family. And I'd believe it by looking at the one in the lower right corner. She looks a lot like my grandma. No idea if she was related to us, but it at least adds plausibility. I got this off of a forum (and forgot the name of the poster) on a geneology website so I have no idea of the accuracy, but it is interesting none the less.

Later

four hours and no confirmations

2009-05-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

It's funny. I've spent the entire night trying to find my Great Great Great Grandfather in Norwegian records. Norway is cool in that they have scanned the pages of as many of the parish records as possible. They would have births, deaths, christenings, etc. I've yet to find a mention of either him or his wife or kids in anything online. So, I have a book on order through Inter-library loan that will help shed a little light on things. I've penciled in the next three father's beyond my triple-G Gpa, but those are based exclusively on where a random stranger claimed that he was born. Not where the one concrete thing I've found actually shows where he lived (Emigration list for him and his family, thanks Norway!). So, I've requested a book, the problem is that I'm pretty sure this will be a local Norwegian History in Norwegian. Good news is that spending the evening copy-pasting lines into Google Translate has caused me to recognize a couple helpful words like, Førenamn and Etternamn (First name and Last name) And problem two: the one I want is out and so I also asked for ones that tell about the place the random stranger told me about. This one will probably lead to frustration since I think that I will be barking up the wrong tree there. But who knows maybe he moved from one area to the other. Though from what I hear that was uncommon.

So far just looking for confimation, but who knows, maybe that will lead me to more. Or maybe it will fizzle. And to think this is only the first part of my search. Just the Norwegian line of my dad's mom's family. I have the German line and my Dad'd Dad's family to go yet. That one may be hard since I have my Granpa's name and his brother's to go on and where he was born. Luckily it is only about two hours from here. I may end up using a vacation day to run down and see about some records in the local library or whereever such things are kept. That one has always been the secret one so I'm extremely interested to find out what is there. So lots of work yet to go. Hopefully folks don't get too bored of this since I'll probably be at it for a while.

Later

Mead

2009-05-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

The internet is a wonderful place. Especially for information you already have. There was a time when things on the net were free... but no more. Now if it is information you want, you get to pay for it. Even though it is information that belongs to your family. I often wonder about people who collect other people's family histories to sell back to those families. Of course families that have lost track of their own histories are probably even worse. Damn! I don't want to have to pay to find out who my Great Grandparents were...

On a completely different subject, I tried mead for the first time last night. Wine made from honey not grapes. I like it. I'm finishing off the bottle of a dry mead tonight. Pretty sure that my wife doesn't like it. She said that "it's ok." Too sweet. Good thing I didn't get the sweet mead, huh? But hey, look at it this way. I'm looking for info and the bottle says that the ancient peoples associated mead with wisdom. Maybe it will help. Of course they also associated it with fertility... Yeah. Don't need that.

Later

Family tree

2009-05-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend I spent what time I wasn't spending with living family researching dead family. I was up until 1 last night and am looking at at least another hour tonight. You might have noticed by looking at the books I've been reading in the sidebar that I love history. So I am having a lot of fun finding out a little of my own. My mom's family is pretty well documented. In fact I even know a little of that as I did a project kind of like this as a youngster. But my dad's family is much less well known to me. Partly because its not well known to to him. I have my grandfather's name and where he was born to go off of for his line. My dad never knew his paternal grandparents and doesn't know their names. Hopefully they died in Minnesota so I can look up their death records. I've done pretty well on his maternal line since I have folks who have tried this before and left a path online, but I'm only doing it for fun and half the fun is exploring so I will only look to them for help if I really get stuck.

But if I'm going to get anymore exploring done tonight, I better get finished here.

Later

varying levels of fun

2009-04-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

my back is killing me tonight. it has been all day. Just a sharp pain in my holder blade whenever i move he slightest bit. Sitting back helps some, but then another muscle cramps. Not fun.

But what is fun is that my mom and grandma are coming over for the weekend. I really can't wait. We're going to some nurseries to look for plants. I love spring. I hate planting, but I like the results. So I guess I just suck it up like I do every year. I doubt i'll be getting any plants this weekend. I'll probably jst scope out where the cool or cheap ones are and go back when I'm ready to do the gardening. But my mom has a greenhouse she sets up in the spring to make sure everything stays nice. Should be a fun weekend.

If only my back would quit hurting.

Later

Rice Bread

2009-04-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

I've tried this recipe a couple times now. Once with white rice and once with brown. The brown is much better as it adds a nutty flavor to the bread and sticks around a little. Unlike the white rice which just sort of fades into the texture of the bread. This is a bread machine recipe so it is pretty easy.

1/2 cup cooked Brown Rice
1.5 Tbsp olive oil
warm water (110 degrees)

3 cups Bread flour
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp active dry yeast

Put the rice and oil into a 2 cup liquid measure. Add warm water until the mixture measures 1.5 cups. Pour mixture into bread machine.

Add dry ingredients

Cook on the white setting.

See easy. It comes out as the crustiest bread I've ever had come out of the machine. And it gives me an excuse to eat the brown rice I prefer (can make just a half cup...)

Later

finding things=hard

2009-04-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

spent all night trying to find old slides that I knew I had around here somewhere. Once I found them I realized I didn't have the software for the scanner involved. Once that was installed and set up I got to scan one image before it was past bedtime. But it is scanned and on the other site if you want to see what took me all night.

So off to bed.

Later

My poor kid

2009-04-27T19:58:00.001-07:00

My daughter had the ultimate bad day today. She went to job shadow a nurse at a local hospital this morning. The time she was scheduled to be there was 8 am. Unfortunately the time the nurse was scheduled to be there was 9 am. So they told her to come back in an hour.

When she gets back there, she locks her keys in her car. Took the keys off the lanyard, went to toss the lanyard in the car and used the wrong hand.

While she is doing her job shadow she watches the nurse draw some blood and passes out. The nurse thinks she had a seizure so they take her to the ER. The doctor disagrees since she doesn't show any symptoms of having had a seizure (plus the fact that it would be very coincidental that she would have her first ever seizure just as she was watching someone draw blood), but since the nurse thinks that she needs to go back on Friday to get looked at by a neurologist.

And until she sees the neurologist, she can't drive. They didn't officially pull her license, but she still can't drive until she's cleared. And she's pissed.

So. Her week can only get better. The good news is she still really wants to be a nurse, the other nurses there says it happens to all of them once or twice and that you just sort of learn to know when it is coming on and sit down so it doesn't happen.

Later

a not so busy weekend

2009-04-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

I did pretty much nothing this weekend. Which is odd for me. I had plans to watch the draft this weekend, which I did, but I really had a thought in the back of my head that I would get bored after the first round and do something. Nope. I got sick about 2 yesterday with a extremely upset stomach and didn't move again until about 1am. I watched the rest of the draft while playing solitaire on my phone and then watched a couple movies we had rented. (Quantum of Solace and The Day the Earth Stood Still, both good. though the Bond movie wasn't as good as the one before it). Then bed.

This morning I read the paper, went to the store and then watched the draft and the ducks that were scoping out my backyard. Eventually they decided to wander off to another yard down the block. To the dismay of my dogs I'm sure. But that was it. All weekend spent either on the couch or in front of the tv in my office. It was sort of nice actually, though I doubt it will happen again for at least six months. Hmm... done early. I wonder if there is time for another game of solitaire before bed.

Later

random thoughts

2009-04-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

I love going to work. I really do. Especially right now. Not only do I get to do something fun everyday, I get to do it with really great people. Which means that my best work is happening right now. I love that fact!

I see now why wine snobs look down their nose at Rosé wine. Not very good. At least not the one called "Baga Blush" ewww....

I've spent the entire evening playing a game on my iPhone and not beating the level I was playing. Yet having a blast. This means no photo tonight, but I couldn't be happier.

Got a haircut tonight. One of the first times I can remember where the hair stylist didn't try to get time to keep it longer. Been there. Done that.

I bought two plantains on a whim. Watched them turn yellow while trying to figure out what to do with them... I'm thinking plantain pancakes instead of Friday night pizza. Move that to draft day lunch.

Except for a very short trip to return a library book on Saturday I will be spending as much of the weekend in front of the tv as possible. The new NFL year starts this weekend and I plan on seeing as much of it as possible.

I love the warm weather. I'm gonna love it tomorrow and I will hate it in July... odd how that works.

Ok. I think that is enough. I could go on, but that's what Twitter is for.

Later

something cool

2009-04-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

I found a cool site today. I was trolling around the library's web site (I know, exciting huh?) when I found a link to the part of the Minnesota historical society's website that allows you to get a copy of the birth certificate from folks born in Minnesota prior to 1934. I thought that was pretty cool. For nine bucks they will scan it and send me the file.

So this is only cool if you know that my Grandfather was born in Minnesota. And I've looked his is there. I never knew his mother's maiden name before. I really need to start digging into my family history. I should talk to my grandmother about that. I know she has records of all sorts.

But I'm thinking that for nine bucks it would be cool to have that. All I'd need is a nice printer to print it out on and it would be something nice to hang on the wall. A nice piece of family history. If I knew their wedding date, and if they were married in Minnesota, I could probably find his parents wedding records as well as any birth records. It really is a cool search tool. Too bad Wisconsin didn't have anything like that since that is where most of my family lives.

Later

It getting late

2009-04-21T20:47:00.001-07:00

Getting late tonight. Not sure where it went but now it is almost completely gone. Well I know where some of if went. I spent two hours photoshopping the image over at the other site. I'm pleased with the results. Much better than the last one I did. That one suffered from a bit too much artifacting. It looked like crap and if I had stopped to look at it, I'd have just not done one that night. Last night's was nice. But tonight's is pretty cool. Check it out. I'm going to bed.

Later

It took a while

2009-04-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

So I caught the kid using her iPod Touch to access the internet and check her email. Not that this is a bad thing. It is just surprising. She's been very adamant that she only wanted it to play games on. She's shot me down every time I offered to put the network password in so she could access the app store without running downstairs to her computer. Finally on Saturday I went ahead and just did it. Today I get a shot message from her that says. "I love you" with the standard apple signature: "sent from my iPod" I thought it was sweet.

I also thought it was funny, but I wouldn't tell her that. Amazing how fast having access to a tool caused her to actually use it. I feel a little bit like I won something. But once again, don't tell her that. :-)

Later

a full weekend

2009-04-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

New images saved. You can now go check it out. It may not be a lot faster, but it should be faster.

I've had a terribly busy weekend. Yesterday I traveled home to visit family. My cousin had his wedding dance. I also installed a router at my Mother-in-laws and had a car looked at. (the kid's had been making a funny noise. verdict: I seemed to fix it by taking the rear tires off...)

Today it was grocery shopping and homework all day... Proofreading papers is an amazingly long process. But now at 11:00pm I am ready for bed I think. I got everything done that I wanted to this weekend. I may have finished it 5 minutes ago, but it is done. And now I can move on to other things. Not sure what, but certainly other things. Maybe sleep. That sounds good.

Later

got the first two done

2009-04-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

Watched a movie tonight. It was good, but sad. It was called In the Valley of Elah. It had an all star cast. I think I've seen almost everyone in that movie in something else. I can see why they'd want to be in it. It was really good.

Anyway that is why I only got two folders worth of images saved smaller. Only 10 more to go. But this took me only about 5 minutes or so. So I'm pretty sure that I can get the rest done tomorrow with no problems. If you haven't been to the main page of the other site hold off until Sunday. I'm hoping that it will be working a lot better by then. I did get the chance to fix my typo and old links though. So I feel like I got something accomplished.

Later