Password Graveyard

How not to be a good neighbor

2010-09-07T08:16:00.002-05:00

This morning was pretty much the norm for the last 5 months. Got ready for work and then took the dog for a walk around the block. Shelby likes to talk to the dogs (and rabbits) that are out in the morning and I know which houses are likely to have "friends" for her to talk to. I try to keep her from barking too much since it's usually before 6:30. There is one house behind us that has a little white dog that is frequently barking at us at the front screen door.

As always, Shelby immediately starts barking and pulling on the leash at the dog. I had about 6 feet of leash to work with so she was at least a few feet onto their front lawn. Instead of calming their dog down, the woman that lives there, opens the front door and lets their dog out. I couldn't believe it. At that point all I could really think about was getting Shelby away from their dog. I was more concerned with the fact that Shelby is pretty dog aggressive and didn't want something to happen to either dog. Meanwhile I hear the woman yelling at me about getting my dog off their lawn. I couldn't let that one go so I yelled back and walked on, fairly pissed off.

Obviously they don't care that much about their dog, since who knows what could have happened if Shelby was aggressive to the point of attacking their dog or the other way around. I realize that Shelby was on their property, but I always pick up after her and is it really worth it to come across as an asshole neighbor to start a fight about it? So now I'm pissed and trying to figure out how I'm going to handle this. I'm not going to take a different route to walk and I'm not going to do something stupid.

New Voicemail Widget

2010-07-20T09:22:00.002-05:00

I just updated the voice mail greeting for my call widget. Give it a try and leave me a voice mail. Click below or the image like it on the right and bottom.

Dear Sprint, About that EVO 4G

2010-05-13T08:41:00.001-05:00

Dear Sprint,

I just read that you're going to have the new HTC EVO 4G available starting in June. I can't tell you how excited I was. Even though our contract isn't up for another 6 months I was actually considering what it would take to get one. Then I read a few things that will probably keep me from getting one until January if at all.

First of all, I see that you are going to charge and additional $10/month because it's using WiMax. I understand the need for Sprint to make money. However, last I checked, Sprint was loosing customers left and right. So, why not hold off on that extra $10/month charge for a while. Get some customers and make sure you keep them with good customer service and then bring up the $10/month charge when you network has a large number of users.

I also see that you are going to charge $30/month just to use the wifi hotspot. I'm getting extremely tired of cell providers keeping users from and/or charging for tethering. Come up with a reasonable charge for the amount of bandwidth a users consumes and let the consumer use as much as they want with whatever devices they want! Don't hide behind some statement that users that tether will cause too much network congestion. Have appropriate charges and use that additional money to build out your network some more.

Considering the above two points, I can't really justify the additional hassle and cost of getting a new phone until my contract is up.

Sprint, thanks for the last few weeks of hope that you wouldn't be a complete ass. Now it's back to reality.

Sincerely,
Me

Encounters of the Dog-kind

2010-04-06T15:17:00.002-05:00

Our cats got to meet Shelby for the first time this afternoon. As one might imagine, the cats were not exactly thrilled. The following is a paraphrase of a message I got from my wife:

Door opens to let cats free from their room

Cats:HISSSSS HISSSSS run away

Shelby:Oh we are running? Sounds like fun to me! Runs after cats

Cats:Crap it's chasing us and the bedroom doors are closed! Crap! Crap! Crap! Stare at mom like she's the devil for bringing the dog into the house

Adoption Pending

2010-03-23T08:42:00.001-05:00

Last night we went to visit a dog named Kenzie. I've been window shopping for a new dog for a while now and when I saw the breed, read her bio, and saw her picture I knew I need to at least meet her.

Her foster home is not too far from our current home, which was a bit odd since the shelter is listed as being out of Wheaton, which is not really near her foster home. In some ways it was a little bit Deja Vu. It was a very similar experience to meeting Katie for the very first time. Kenzie was about as sweet as I could be. She was reserved, but friendly. She's mostly an Australian Shepherd, but mixed with something else. She's got probably the most unique coat I've ever seen and beautiful at that.

After leaving we did some serious thinking and had some discussion about adopting her. The wife and I had pretty much the same thoughts. There was no good reason not to adopt Kenzie. Most of my concerns could only be answered after she's been living with us for some time.

The one thing that I wasn't expecting to be able to do was to rename any dog that we were apt to adopt. This simply has to do with the fact that we're not looking to get a puppy. However, since Kenzie was dropped off with no real info on her, she hasn't been using Kenzie for that long and hopefully will take to her new name easily enough.

With that said, I'm looking forward to the day she comes home to live with us.

Frosty Fog

2010-01-17T11:29:00.000-06:00

Thanks to fog and some feezing temps this morning we've been treated to the above.

Google Voice Widget

2010-01-08T10:06:00.002-06:00

Just noticed the ability to have a Google Voice widget embeded into a web page. Added one to the right side of this blog. Give it a try if you want and leave me a voice mail. I'll post the transcription of the most interesting voice mail that I get.

I give 9 a 2

2009-09-10T07:40:00.002-05:00

I went to see 9 last night. While I'm not a Tim Burton fanboy, I generally like most of his movies. One of my all time favorites is The Nightmare Before Christmas. 9 is a different story all together. NOTE: no spoilers here.

Let's start with the good. On the surface, the movie looks great. I can't say that I felt I was watching cutting edge 3D, but it was still pretty to look at. Unfortunately, that's all I can think of to praise the movie for.

On the flip side, the movie is short, and by short I mean almost ridiculously short. On top of that, the pace of the movie felt rushed. One of my friends theorized that perhaps it was rushed out the door to meet the deadline of 9/9/9. I almost hope that's the case so perhaps the movie can redeem itself when it comes out for DVD/Blu-Ray.

The other bad news is that it felt like they just ripped out pieces of other post-apocalyptic movies, animated them, and threw them in the movie. Lastly, I felt very little attachment to any of the characters. If the main character was fed to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, I think I would have probably just thought, "hey, nice Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference".

There is one potential bright spot for this movie. It may be that adults are not the target audience and that kids might like it. It's about the right length , it follows the beat to death typical hero formula, and it's pretty to look at. I just hope I save at least one adult from going to see this without being prepared for what they are not getting.

Goodbye Dear Friend

2009-08-25T16:26:00.011-05:00

On April 19, 2004 our pup Katie came to live with us. At the time I don't think we knew what a gift Katie would be. I doubt there are many dogs that can live up to the standard that she has set for future furry residents. Like most Sheltie's she was reserved, but when she got to know you she was the one of the sweetest pups. She was never shy on kisses for people she knew (whether they wanted them or not) and always wanted to be around family and friends. She was always ready to do anything or go anywhere as long as it was with us and she was really tolerant of the kids.

The one thing Katie loved to do more than anything else was to chase a tennis ball. When we were at my parents the mere mention of playing ball would cause her to run the Sheltie circle. My parent's have a large back yard and her paws would propel her like a rocket to the back of the yard waiting for me to thow. We could always tell when she was tired (but still wanted more) when her tongue would hang out the side of her mouth.

There were many other things that she loved to do. Riding in the car was a big one, although to this day we're not entirely sure why. She'd get all excited, hop in the car, and then lay down. She loved to take walks, and I can remember plenty of times when it was too cold or rainy outside in the morning where I would get the "So, we're going for a walk right? right? right? right?" and then the look of "awwww" when we didn't. Nothing like sad puppy eyes to make you wish you could change the weather.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Late last year she had some problems eating. With a few visits to the vet and some medication we thought her problems were over. Sadly, early this year her problems returned and after many vet visits, an ultrasound, and lastly surgery, we got one of the worst diagnosis we could. It was Lymphoma and there was no way to remove it. While we decided to try chemotherapy, our hopes were tempered by the fact that at best her chances or remission were 50%. It's been a heart breaking summer with plenty of ups and mostly downs.

While her therapy seemed to be helping at first, by some time in July it was apparent that she was not going to be with us much longer. This last week has been the hardest for all of us. There's very few things as horrible as watching someone you love waste away with almost nothing you can do. By the end she wasn't eating, barely drinking, and it was apparent she was absolutely miserable. So this Saturday I did what had to be done. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I took a friend, companion, and in some ways my child to the vet to relieve her suffering. Katie left our house, but not our hearts the morning of August 23rd.

There are two moments in my life I doubt I will ever forget. The first is when I met Katie in the back yard of her foster home. The other is the last moments I got to spend with her before she left us.

I would like to thank all our friends and family for their thoughts, prayers, and support. Without them this would have been all that much harder. I would like to also thank all the Veterinarians that tried so hard to save Katie, especially Dr. Candice.

Rest in Peace Katie Paeth
September 1, 2000 - August 23,2009
"And if these pictures have anything important to say to future generations, it's this: I was here. I existed. I was young, I was happy, and someone cared enough about me in this world to take my picture."

NOTE: The quote is from the movie One Hour Photo, but I didn't feel right about listing the source of the quote considering the movie content and the content of this post.

Reality vs. Writing

2009-08-05T15:14:00.002-05:00

From what I've gathered from tweets from one of my favorite Celebs Felicia Day, this year's Emmy awards will not be televising the awards for writing. While I agree this sucks for many reasons, the biggest is that without good writing most shows would be horrible. The writers that make these shows great should really be recognized for the work that they do.

On the other end of the spectrum we've got the "Reality" shows that are still going to be televised. Just what we need, more recognition for "stupid fun" TV. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Wipeout and some of the other reality shows, but I prefer a well written engaging show with long story arcs like Dollhouse over something that I'll watch and forget shortly after. I guess if you feel the need to award the best of the best wow-look-how-hard-that-guy-just-got-nailed-in-the-head-TV show it's best that it's in it's own category, but do we really need to promote this stuff?

Now for the reality check. No pun inteded. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that most people (at least that I know) don't care who the writers of a show are. I think if they did we'd see the good shows rise to the top much faster and the mediocre shows disappear much quicker. The reason I point this out is that this is probably the reason that the writers awards are not being televised. The producers of the show are trying to get as many people to watch the show as possible and they felt something needed to be cut. Am I saying it's right? No. Is there a solution? probably not in the short term.

I know this isn't exactly the most elegant of blog posts, but I'm not a professional writer. Maybe I should start my own reality show.

EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that there will be some writing awards still shown. Please see the first comment on this post for more info. Thanks "Mathew". This is yet another reason why I don't do this for a living

Yoono Interface

2009-06-01T13:21:00.002-05:00

This morning when I started up firefox, I got an update to Yoono. If you haven't used yoono before it's a great little firefox plugin that allows you to manage a lot of your interactions with a large number of the popular social networks such as twitter, facebook, myspace, AIM, and a few others. After a little poking around the new interface I got a little frustrated because a few of my favorite features were not working the way I expected. So naturally I decided to post my displeasure on my twitter feed. I'm not sure why I was surprised, but I got a response from Yoono's support on twitter in a fairly short amount of time asking me what I was unhappy about.

While I'm not sure if I'm more sensitive then most to user interface issues, I'm certainly moe vocal then some. I think this comes from my background as a developer (web and other). This also means I understand how incredibly hard it is to get a really good interface to a program.

Let me say that any company that wants to succeed should follow the example of yoono. They are actively looking for feedback posted about their product and contacting users to see what they think. On top of that they are doing what some successful companies already know... negative feedback is not necessarily bad as long as you can look at the feedback as a way to better serve your users. I think many people don't really understand what that last statement really means.
My current issues with the yoono interface are as follows:

I can't find where to change any of my twitter account settings. At this point if I changed my password for twitter I'd have no clue where to change it in yoono. I'm sure it's just that I'm not looking in the right place, but if I can't find it, there's got to be plenty of other people that can't as well. Also, don't tell me to look at a user manual, this is the kind of thing that should not require reference material to change.

The @replies that other people post to me don't show up in my updates tab. Again, this might be a setting (that I can't find) or Yoono support said it might be a bug. Granted I can still see the @replies in my @ tab, but that's bit of a pain. One nice thing that they pointed out though is the "More" link allows you to see conversations. While not a replacement for my @replies in the update tab, I still like it

There used to be a way to "archive" the updates from my friends. I really liked this feature, since that meant I could clear my updates list and only see what was new. There is a mark as read feature, but that doesn't seem to do anything. I'm not sure if it's a bug or an error between chair and keyboard.

Like I said earlier I got a reply from Yoono's support and I hope they can either fix these bugs (if the are bugs), or add options to the program to let me use the program like I want to use it. Regardless, I'm still a faithful Yoono user and would just like to tell them to keep up the good work.

Mock Me A Website

2009-04-24T14:04:00.002-05:00

Here's an idea for a product if anyone would care to make it. I'm frequently tasked with creating a new web based product. The problem is that using even a WYSIWYG editor is too slow for what I want when we're having brainstorming or general design sessions. What I need is a program that I could fire up and very quickly lay out the general flow and page design. Here's my wishlist:

I can zoom out to see the overall map of the site

I can zoom into a page and see the rough design of the page

I can draw a component on the page

I can make notes on the page

I can link a component to go to another page

From the zoomed out view I can move pages around

From the zoomed out view I can see the links between pages

I can edit the source of the HTML and when I preview the page the sketched page can be an overlay on top of the page so I can compare the "real" page with the "sketched" page

If this already exists then tell me where. I'd love to spend time and create this, but I know better then to think I can make the time for something like this.

linux + bamboo = still aweful handwriting

2009-04-21T09:58:00.002-05:00

I just spent about an hour or so getting my new Wacom Bamboo "fun" working in linux. It took some time to get it to work properly because of one little tiny step in the How-To that I was following. As you can see though it works and my handwriting is still just as aweful when captured by a pen tablet as it is with a pen and paper.

Fun with SPAM

2009-03-30T10:51:00.003-05:00

So I just got the following SPAM in my inbox and was thinking what would be a fun way to respond...

Your Email Have Won Reference Number: XXXXXXXX Claims of BMW SARLOON CAR AND Â£45,000.00 pounds has been won by you in our BMW STARTING OF YEAR PROMOTION 2009 .get back to this office with your Names ....Depends on who you are, some people call me honey, sweetie, dad, son, @$$hole, smartass, and many more
Address ....Mr. is usually good to start with
Country...Northrend
Phone No...+69-555-byteme
Occupation..Warlock
Sex..Age I'm married, so we'll just go with occasionaly. Do you want physical or mental age? What form or measurement are you using?

Best Regards
Mr Richard Gray.

How Monday should not start

2009-02-23T08:15:00.001-06:00

WARNING! Following these five simple steps will start your day off on the wrong foot.

1. Woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm to my dog whining. This is unusual, but I figured that, like my 5 year old, maybe she didn't drain the tank before bed. So got up to let her out.

2. Just before I let her out, I heard one of those "good luck figuring out where this noise is coming from" beeps of what I assumed was a smoke alarm with a dying battery. So I let the dog out and started my hunt.

3. It only took me a few minutes to discover the location of the annoyance. It was a carbon monoxide detector in the stairwell leading to the basement. Thankfully in reach and we had batteries.

4. As I'm putting the detector back on the wall I hear the dog outside (at 5:30am) barking because I left her out for more then what she felt was appropriate in the brutal cold. So I sprint for the door, let her in and put her back in her crate.

5. As I'm headed back upstairs I begin to wonder how long this whole thing took because my alarm goes off at 5:30 and my wife was still sleeping. Sure enough I make it back to bed as my wife is trying to find the right button to turn off the alarm.

So needless to say not a great start, however, I'm determined to not let it affect the rest of my Monday.

Interesting Music Video

2009-01-31T07:47:00.000-06:00

BLIND

2009-01-29T13:47:00.002-06:00

For anyone out there that like machinima, this WoW video is pretty well done.
The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

Tech Book Sharing Site

2009-01-21T17:09:00.001-06:00

Someone needs to come up with a technology focused book sharing site. I'm tired of buying a $80 technical book, read some/most/all of it and then rarely pick it up again. I know in some cases these books are available at your local library, but I rarely find any of the technical books that I want to read at my local library or any of it's affiliated libraries.

Someone has to have the time/energey to put into this. As long as the books are there, I'd even pay a small fee per month or transaction just to use the site.

The good with the bad

2009-01-06T06:30:00.003-06:00

Well, yesterday was the funeral for my grandmother. She was 94 years old when she died on New Years day. While yesterday was not a happy day, it did make me realize that I was definitely luckier then a lot of people.

There are many of our loved ones that are taken from us without warning. Whether it's an accident or natural cause, we don't have the opportunity to see or speak with them before they are gone. I was lucky enough to have seen my grandmother one last time on Christmas day and to tell her that I love her.

On a related note, while I was writing this post I was reminded of a blog post of one of my friends (written before I knew her). Please give it a read when you get a moment http://naanad.info/. The theme of the post is something that I've heard from multiple people before, but worth repeating.

You will be missed

2009-01-02T09:22:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I got the call from my father that my grandmother passed away. All I can say right now is that I (and the rest of her family) will miss her.

A little CSS/JS Help Please

2008-11-20T09:30:00.002-06:00

I've been playing around with JQuery for a couple of weeks now. One of the features I love is the datepicker that can easily be added to any text box. One of the things that I've been trying to figure out is how to create a pop up dialog similar to the way the calendar pop up works.

I'd like to have a text box or table cell that has some text in it. In addition I've got an image or button somewhere else on the page. When I click on that element, a small form pop-up shows up under the text box. Now I know that I can do this, but simply putting the form inside a span/div tag, but I want the pop-up to actually pop-up and not affect the layout of the page when it shows or hides.

I know enough CSS and Javascript that I'm not a novice and if all else fails I'm going to attempt to dig through the jquery calendar js code. I'd rather not though. Any help would be appreciated.

Sunrise

2008-11-06T07:38:00.002-06:00

The sunrise this morning was absolutely amazing. I was wishing I had my good camera with me, but had to settle for my phone. I know this doesn't really do it justice, but use your imagination a bit.

Birthday Loot

2008-11-01T15:16:00.000-05:00

While my birthday is a few days away, got some birthday loot already.

My little assembly helper

Trick-or-Treat

2008-11-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

My little candy monsters

Pumpkins

2008-11-01T15:10:00.002-05:00

Our Family pumpkins. The one in the middle is suffering from an identity crisis.

In Love

2008-10-29T18:08:00.002-05:00

I just got back from dinner and I'm in love. No, I'm not going to leave my wife, she's the only woman for me (of course if Alison Hanigan or Drew Barrymore walked in the door that might make that statement a lot harder to stick to). I'm in love with Boston.

I wouldn't consider myself well traveled. I've been to more then a few places in the states and a couple on the other side of the big pond. I've been to big towns and small towns, but there isn't a single city that I've truly said "I would love to live here instead of where I'm at".

I've lived in the Chicago area all of my life. It's a great town to live in/around. The people are generally friendly and hard working. There's a good job market for what I do. There's a lot to see and do in and around the city for everyone. I can think of plenty of other places that would drive me insane if forced to live there (NYC comes to mind), but not Boston.

It may be that I just haven't spent enough time here, but there are so many things that Boston has done right. For one, the public transit system is actually useful and easy to navigate. Did I mention inexpensive (1/2 the price of an El ticket in Chicago). Oh and it goes where you need it to go. The city itself is just beautiful to walk around.

The Italian food in the North End is absolutely amazing. I had a lobster ravioli at Cantina Italiana tonight that would make the chef at some of the high end Italian places in Chicago feel completely inadequate. Seriously, if you EVER come to Boston make sure you at least have one dinner in the North End. I just wish that work would be paying for the whole amount, but it was sooooooooooo worth it.

There's only thing missing in Boston that makes me ready to head home. My family. So at this point I'm ready to head out. One more day at the conference and it's time to head home. I just wish I didn't have to drag my luggage with me everywhere tomorrow.

Quick Response

2008-10-17T07:25:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure if it's through my twitter feed or from a google alert, but one of the developers found my appcelerator posts from last night. Just wanted to mention to anyone that might be reading this to check out his comments. One thing of note is that they will not be requiring the dev network login.

Time to see if I can get appcelerator to do what I want it to do. At this point I'm pretty optimistic.

Hello Appcelerator World

2008-10-16T20:48:00.002-05:00

I've just gone through the "hello world" tutorial. So far I'm relatively impressed. The instructions were straight forward worked as advertised. I can't tell you how many "hello world" examples I've gone through that have typos or just don't work because the docs are out of date.

I've already started playing around with changing things around in the hw app. I like the fact that the changes are all compiled on the fly. Even the "service" java class is updated on the next access to the web page. Enough for tonight though.

Auto update

2008-10-16T20:41:00.002-05:00

Appcelerator has an automated update feature that runs when you start a new project. I sure hope there is some way to override some of this network related features. While I'm normally connected to the internet and it's not a huge problem, sometime I have little or no connectivity.

Appcelerator - The start

2008-10-16T20:27:00.002-05:00

I had a free workshop this morning that was promoting a couple of open source products. The first was a relatively new AJAX framework called appcelerator. I was impressed with the product enough to want to try it out. On top of that I think we've got a short term project that might be a good fit and a way to get some experience developing an RIA application.

I've now downloaded the SDK and installed it. First of all, the dev kit recommends that you install it as root. As a former SA I'm not really comfortable installing something that's not an official package from my linux distribution as root. However, it was able to install it to a directory off my home directory with a few minor hiccups. The nice thing is that it looks like ruby (never used it before) is able to download/update packages on its own.

So now that it's installed I've headed over to the doc section of the site to go through the getting started guide. Here's one of the most frustrating parts that I've run across so far. In order to run the project creation app, you're required to have an Appcelerator Developer Network login. I had to wait for an email confirmation before I could even continue the getting started project. I understand that appcelerator is a for profit company and they want to be able to try and sell their support services to people using their product, but don't force a user to login to your developer network just to start creating an application. That's rediculous. That's almost like if someone sold me a set of colored pencils that I couldn't actually draw with until I called and activated them.

Still hopeful that this framework is at least most of what I hope it will be. More to come.

Apple Picking

2008-10-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

After digging thruogh some of the pics from our apple picking trip on Sunday I figured I'd post a handful of my favorite pics...

Heroes - WTF!

2008-10-03T09:52:00.004-05:00

So the wife and I watched the first episode of the new Heroes season last night. If you intend on watching it and haven't yet, stop here!

After our viewing of the 2 hour season premier there were a few things that stuck out in my mind. The first was confusion. My wife and I both had a hard time remembering last season's finale which was quite a problem since there were no little reminder hints during the show. I spent more time then should be necessary trying to rummage through my mental archive of last season trying to remember key points about the characters. Needless to say it was a bit distracting.

On top of confusion, I pity anyone with a weak stomach that might have been eating during the show. There was way too much blood, guts, and violence. Just a quick FYI, I enjoy the occasional horror/action flick so violence doesn't really bother me that much. With that said, the first episode of Heroes was just too much. The scene with Syler picking Claire's brain was once such scene. The gore in this scene was just not needed. I actually went to check what the show was rated at one point.

The last thing that I noticed is that by the end of the show I didn't really care much about any of the characters. It could be that it's been so long since the last episode, but there isn't a single character I felt more then a little emotionaly attached to. If any one of them died it wouldn't phase me a bit.

At this point I just hope that the whole season is not like this or I just might have found some excuses to stop watching yet another show.

Tomorrow is a Holiday

2008-09-18T09:00:00.001-05:00

Arrr! This be a reminder to ye. Tomorrow be a holiday. Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Truffle Recipe

2008-09-04T09:43:00.002-05:00

I know at least a few people who have asked me if they can have the recipe for the Oreo Truffles. Absolutely! I found the recipe at recipezaar.com. Just a couple of notes:

You don't need to use the white chocolate. It's just decoration.

If you have a small cookie scoop for making cookies, I'd use that to ball the truffle filling. It's SOOOO much easier

If you try a flavor other then the regular, use about 1 teaspoon of extract. I think I ended up with a little more then a teaspoon for the raspberry

If you are not using a double boiler you can thin the white chocolate with Veggie oil

Enjoy!

Party!

2008-09-01T06:55:00.000-05:00

Well our annual party is over for another year and Autum is on it's way. The above is one of my favorite pics from last night. My daughter and her "pa pa". It seemed like everyone had a nice time. It was certainly one of the easiest parties we've thrown.

It was good to see everyone that we barely get to see every year. It makes me wish that everyone lived closer and we had more time then we do.

Who wants a yummy snack

2008-08-30T14:36:00.000-05:00

Plain and Raspberry.

Raspberry Oreo Truffles

2008-08-30T14:35:00.000-05:00

Just got done with these Raspberry Oreo Truffles. And yes, they taste as good or better then you think!

2008-08-26T09:27:00.000-05:00

First day of kindergarden. Can't wait to hear about her day. Hope it's more then the following:

Dad: How was your day?

Daughter: Fun!

Dad: What did you do?

Daughter: Ummmmmmmmmm. (pause)

Dad: Was the bus fun?

Daughter: Yup.

Dad: Is your teacher nice?

Daughter: Yup.

...

Offering to the Dragon

2008-08-26T09:19:00.000-05:00

"I offer thee my second born to appease the great dragon!"

This was a pic from our not too distant trip to the Ren Faire. NOTE: Trips to the Ren Faire should not be made with small children

New Haircut

2008-06-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

My son got a new haircut on Friday. Normally not really blog worthy. The image show why it's an exception

Revenge

2008-06-15T06:45:00.000-05:00

We told her one day he would get back at his older sister

Dear Plastic Food Containers

2008-04-25T13:22:00.001-05:00

Dear Plastic Food Containers,

I would like to commend you on how well you do your job. You hold my food in nice travel appropriate manner. You also are easy to clean, but a shout out to the dishwasher is appropriate here. Overall, when you are working you are a wonderful thing. At this point I must apologize for sometimes leaving you in the fridge for much too long to the point where that Mac & Cheese looks more like a science experiment. That can't be fun.

However, you are often baffling. You present almost the exact problem that you solve. While you are great at storing things, you on the other hand, are a nightmare to store. You rarely stack nicely with other storage containers; don't you like the purple lid?. You seem to taunt me when the only lid that I need has been somehow swallowed by a wormhole and won't return to this universe until next Tuesday when I no longer need that lid. If I do happen to find the lid I need it seems as if it has shifted to the bottom of an oddly precarious pile of other containers. Why do you hate me? Is it the science experiment? Is it the dark interior of the cabinet?

With that said. I promise to be better about not growing anything in you if you promise to help me solve your storage issue.

Yours Truly,
Me

Special People

2008-04-18T11:18:00.001-05:00

Dear Special People,

I would like to apologize to all "Special" people that I've sworn at in the past few years. It's obvious that my time is far less important than yours. I should know that when you cut me off trying to save those extra 30 seconds on the tollway that someones life hangs in the balance. I should actually feel good in that I left those extra six inches between my car and the one in front of me that enabled you to merge into my lane without causing an accident and therefore saving a life. I hope they came out of surgery OK.

I would also like to apologize for my atitude toward those "special" people that temporarily park in the handicap spot in front of the store without that little sign hanging off your rear view mirror. I can only imagine the agony you would have endured to walk that extra 50 feet to and from the nearest parking spot.

Lastly, I would also like to apologize to those people that think it's a good idea to work on their car and rev their engine with a modified exhaust a few houses down at 11pm. I only called the police because I wanted to get at least 5 hours of sleep. I imagine that you were only doing this because you were training for your first NASCAR event.

My apologies,
me

Dear DVR Users

2008-04-17T10:25:00.001-05:00

Dear DVR users,

I have been troubled by your use of the word tivo to describe your DVR. I know that you feel that your DVR is the same as other DVRs including a Tivo PVR. I would like to inform you that this is not the case. Before you begin to argue I would like to ask you to answer the following questions:

1. Does your DVR allow you to switch tuners without concern of which tuner is currently recording a show?

2. When you fast forward does your DVR backup just a bit to account for your one or two second reaction time?

3. Can you view your guide so that you can view a page worth of shows that are currently on different channels as well as see what's on a single channel for the next 10 or so shows on the same screen?

4. If you've been watching a show for 20 minutes and then hit record, does your DVR start recording from the beginning of the show?

5. Does the DVR menus feel like they were crafted by people with interface design experience and not like they were thrown together by a handful of monkeys and an Apple II?

6. If a show starts at 8pm and is followed by a show starting at 8:25pm, does it show the name of the 8pm show in the guide?

If you answered yes to all of the above questions then my guess is your DVR is in fact a genuine TiVo PVR and please continue calling it a TiVo. If you answered no to any of these questions, then please call it what it is. Just another DVR.

Sincerely,
Someone mourning the loss of his TiVo

Day 2 - I'm now part cat

2007-11-09T09:49:00.000-06:00

I must be part cat today. All I really want to do is nap and when I just woke up a few minutes ago, my tounge felt like sandpaper. I'm not purring yet, but my face is a little more furry.

Overall things are going much better today. The pain is a bit worse, but let's just say that it's easier to deal with the pain then other side effects of the surgery.

One last note before I take another cat nap. If you call my cell phone I will not be picking it up. It's nothing personal, but it hurts to talk and I can't really talk above a whisper. It would be about as satisfying as calling a mime.

Day 1 - They weren't kidding

2007-11-08T12:28:00.000-06:00

So it's been a day since my surgery and let me say everyone was right. It hurts like hell. Imagine the worst sore throat you've ever had and then double that. The scary part is that supposedly it gets worse in a couple days before it gets better. I won't disgust anyone with the details, but it was a rough night and morning.

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes. It means a lot.

Odd things to be thankful for

2007-06-22T08:45:00.001-05:00

I stopped at the local coffee chain this morning to get my mocha fix. Nothing really of note there. However, once at work I had a discussion involving the price of coffee and the price of gas. Based on the assumption that my coffee was $4 for a 16oz cup of coffee we calculated that coffee is approximately $32 per gallon. So I’m now thankful that my car does not run on coffee.

So if you happen upon this post and have some strange thing to be thankful that I can add to this post, add a comment and I’ll put some of them in this post or a follow-up.

Missed it by that much

2007-04-19T08:38:00.001-05:00

I managed to get out of the house at a good time this morning. Partially because I didn’t walk the dog on account of rain. After I got to work I heard from my wife that my daughter was up 5 minutes after I left. She found her at the top of the stairs loudly whispering “Daddy! Daddy!” When she saw my wife she matter of factly states that she’s looking for me. When my wife explained to her that I had already left for work she was a bit upset because she wanted to walk the dog with me. Now tell me that wouldn’t make you feel great and awful at the same time. Maybe I need to make more noise tomorrow morning (I’m sure my wife would love that).

auto service word of caution

2007-04-18T15:46:00.001-05:00

So my car is just turning over 60,000 miles and I need to get the appropriate service done as well as service the brake pads. In my experience the OEM brake pads seem to make a difference so I decided to call a few places to get some pricing. I called two local auto parts stores and they could not supply me with OEM pads so I decided to call a handful of the local dealers. The first dealer told me that the pads would be a bit over $100 for the fronts and a couple bucks more for the rear. The second dealer told me that they would be ~$95 for both and the third told me they would be $90 for the front and slightly cheaper for the rear. While I was shopping for pads I thought I’d check on the 60k service. One dealer told me $1000, another told me $900, and one even told me $650, but depending on the plugs in my car it might be more…probably more… definitely more… around $700 or in the ballpark.

I’d like some explanation of this price difference. I can somewhat understand the difference for the 60k maintenance. Maybe one shop does a few extra steps to make sure your car continues to run smoothly. To be honest I’d consider taking it to the one that said around $700 if it wasn’t for the fact that the service guy didn’t even sound like he knew what my car was (hint: It’s not run of the mill sedan). The thing that really makes me wonder how much I’m getting screwed when I go to the dealer is the price difference on the parts. A difference of $40+ between different dealers is not exactly pocket change. Is there really a good reason for the $40 difference. Am I getting $40 more brake pads at one location or am I getting screwed by an additional $40?

A walk around the block

2007-04-18T10:39:00.001-05:00

There are events in our lives that we forget soon after they happen. Some even though we try hard to remember them. Then there are those events that no matter how hard we try to forget them, they stick with us forever. While some people have a tough time remembering significant dates in their relationship, I’ve been blessed with a computer to remind me when they are coming up. I’m not sure if that counts as remembering. Anyway, today marks a non-milestone anniversary of the first date my wife and I had. It’s fun to think back to that day and how little I knew about our future together and how great it worked out. Hopefully the wife will like the surprise tonight that I got for her. FYI: Yes, I’m a big tease since I know she might be reading this.

I’m hoping that another event today is something I can remember and look back on happily. (note to self, mark calendar in computer). Anyone that knows my daughter fairly well, knows that she’s not a late sleeper. It doesn’t seem to matter if we move her bedtime back. So this morning I was just about ready to take the dog for a walk when I heard the tell tale squeeeeeeeeek of her door opening. Since it doesn’t seem to do any good to send her back to her room to “go back to sleep”, I decided to bring her along to walk the dog. It was nice to spend those few extra minutes with her. Just the two of us and the dog. Apparently it was a big hit with her. So the plan at this point, weather permitting, is to walk the dog together if she’s up before then. I’m certainly not going to wake her up at this point to go, but it’ll be fun if this becomes a regular occurrence.

Steve

2006-11-17T09:06:00.000-06:00

Here's a pretty good (for a cell phone) pic of steve from the concert.

Hold up your Lighter... um... Cell Phone

2006-11-17T09:02:00.000-06:00

It's not the best pic in the world, but at one point during the show tons of people held up their cell phones as if they were lighters. The pic doesn't do this scene justice.

How not to fall asleep

2006-11-16T16:32:00.000-06:00

I’ve discovered a really good way to keep yourself awake. Granted the conditions for this to happen are a bit rare, but just follow this simple recipe:

Buy a set of front row tickets to a concert for a band that you really like (Barenaked Ladies) about 2 or more months in advance.
Mix in a 3 year old and a newborn
Sprinkle in a handful of important events like birthdays and anniversaries
Forget to check the tracking number of the tickets once the tickets ship
Let simmer until you are just about to fall asleep the night before the concert
Ask your wife if she’s going to bring the tickets tomorrow only to eventually discover that the tickets were never delivered by UPS.

If you can duplicate the above, it’s a surefire way to keep yourself awake for a few extra hours the night before. So here’s where we stand so far. www.musictoday.com handles the tickets for the BNL fan club. Yes, I’m part of the fan club, get over it. They were open until midnight last night so I was able to talk to an agent around the time I was really starting to panic. Thankfully, the agent while couldn’t help me at the time was calm and polite and simply told me that they should be able to get the tickets to will-call, but I needed to call back in the morning. So meanwhile I’m really getting stressed out since my wife and I have been really looking forward to this for a long time. So around midnight I managed to get to sleep. My wife on the other hand…. Let’s just say that our 4 month old was not kind in his sleeping habits last night.

This morning my stress levels continue to climb because the tickets are not only for me and my wife, but for my sister and her husband as well. Before I continue, let me just say that there are two kinds of customer service, good and bad, there really isn’t anything in between. They’re either willing to help you or they’re not. My first step this morning was to call UPS. I wasn’t really hopeful since apparently my 2-day air package was out for delivery since October 31^st . I was simply told that there was nothing they could do to investigate and that I needed to call the shipper to start an inquiry. I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks for nothing.

Next stop on my quest for the magic tickets (sorry, played killer bunnies and the quest for the magic carrot last night) was to call music today again. I have to say another win for music today’s customer service. Within minutes I was talking to someone that was able to put in a request to the venue for will-call. She told me that I should receive an email from them when the tickets are confirmed with the venue. Thankfully I have enough work to do that the morning went by quickly. Since at this point I’ve imagined all sorts of fun outcomes of this fiasco I’m anxious to say the least to get word from them.

Around lunchtime I called the venue. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyhow. The operator was obviously annoyed with an abundance of calls and simply told me that they couldn’t tell me anything. At least they could have been a little more polite. Oh well, no biggie.

Finally around 2 I couldn’t take it any longer and called music today again. If anyone from there ever reads this (doubtful, but possible) I apologize for being a pest. I’m sure I wasn’t the worst, but it’s hard to be patient in these situations. Again, the operator was very polite and was able to tell me that the tickets were confirmed with the venue.

So that’s pretty much where I am right now. I’ll have to post an update later about what happens from here on out. I’m dreading the fact that the original tickets are out there somewhere and may not be gone for good. To say the least it would be unfortunate if someone else shows up with the original set.

Home Safe and Sound

2006-07-08T21:26:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of quick status updates from the slightly larger family.

First of all, thank you to everyone that has sent their congratulations. It's great to celebrate something like this with all our family and friends.

We're all home safe and sound. I went up to the hospitol and picked up mom and Shark early this afternoon. Monkey is starting to realize what it is to be a big sister already. With the center of attention shifted a bit from directly on her to the new arrival she's starting to point out all the stuff she can do.

For anyone looking for pictures, please email me directly since I don't publish any of them here. On a related note, I've updated our ofoto album with some shots from this week.

Thanks again to everyone for all their support.

G'Lori wins the prize

2006-07-08T21:13:00.000-05:00

OK, I still haven't figured out if there even is a prize. However, our little guessing game was really close with two entries. Jodie guessed July 7 at 2am and was off by 16 hours and 13 minutes. Not bad, but G'Lori guessed 8:15pm on July 5 and was only off by 14 hours and 32 minutes. Both guessed boys so G'Lori is the big winner of the contest.

It's a Shark!!!!!

2006-07-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

Well everyone, the wait is finally over. Our new baby has arrived. For those of you interested in the vitals, Shark is 8 pounds 1 ounce and 21 inches long and was born at 10:47 this morning.

My wife didn't get much sleep last night and woke me up around 2am because her water broke. I believe my initial response was something like 'mffff?' It's just a bit hazy. After a couple of quick calls it was off to the hospitol. The rest of the morning was "relatively" uneventful. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty that happened, just nothing that will get posted here.

For all expecting fathers (present and future), here's a bit of a PSA: If your wife is fully dialated, do not under any controllable circumstance leave the room. When the nurses are rolling in all the necessary equipment to actually birth the baby, it is not a good time to go anywhere; not even the bathroom. Hold it if you can and stay!

With that said, I stepped out of the room to use the facilities for what must have been less then five minutes. By the time I was half way back to the room I got a page "Would the husband of the woman in room ### please come to the room immediatly!" When I got back to the room eveyone was ready to go and the pushing was about to begin.

Apparently, at that point my son was really in a hurry because there was about 15+ minutes of pushing an out he came. I can't possibly describe the experience, but to say I was happy would be the understatement of the decade.

There's much more that could be said at this point, but I'll mention one more thing before I pass out at the keyboard. Out daughter is in SOOOOOO much trouble. She has no idea :)

FYI: Announcement on the winner of the date guessing contest will be sometime after I wake up.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It's like SNL, but funny

2006-04-30T20:14:00.000-05:00

Well for a special night out, the wife and I headed to one our favorite Italian restaurants and then we headed over to Second City. Other then the fact that it took us 2 hours to get to the restaurant and I only expected it to take about 90 minutes the evening was a sucess. For anyone that hasn't been to see a Second City show, I highly recommend it. The only way to really describe it would be to say that it's like Saturday Night Live, but actually funny.

SHARK!!!!

2006-04-25T12:52:00.000-05:00

As many people will tell you, kids say some of the funniest things. In almost all cases this is thanks to they're unique perspective of the world. My daughter I'm happy to say is no exception to the rule.

First, a little back story. Once we managed to get the word out to friends and family that we were going to have a second child we started telling our daughter that she would be a big sister. As with most girls her age, (insert name of large animation company here) princesses are a big part of her life. She always wants to play with Ariel, Jasmine, or some other princess. So, when we asked her what we should name the baby she told us that we should name it Ariel. We followed up with the natural question most adults would ask "What if it's a boy?" My daughter simply responded that it was not a boy, it was a girl. To her, there was no "if", the baby in mom's tummy was a girl.

For a few months her response was the same when we asked what to name the baby. It changed a bit when we came up with a first name that we liked, but Ariel simply became the middle name. Her response on if it was a boy was still the same. "It's not a boy. It's a girl!" Nothing could change her mind. Until one day we must have gotten through to her that it might possibly be a boy, because when she was asked the question of what we should name the baby if it were a boy she answered without reservation "Shark".

Ever since that moment she seems to have accepted the fact that there is a chance that she might have a baby brother. So I guess at this point I should ask the somewhat obvious question:
What middle name goes with Shark?

There a two 3 o'clocks in one day

2006-03-21T03:35:00.000-06:00

For those of you who normally sleep at night there's something you may not know. There are two 3 o'clocks in a day. I discovered this for myself just this morning. I woke up this morning at 3am to the purr of a car's modified exhaust sitting in the driveway accross the street.

Now I consider myself a reasonable person. I believe that in most cases if something like this happens the police should not be a first resort. A lot of times people simply aren't aware that they are doing something that is affecting others in a negative way. Therefore, I put on my coat and shoes (yes, pants too) and went accross the street to simply ask them to shut off their car.

The car was sitting in the driveway idling with two people in it talking. At least that's the best I could tell. I walked up to the car and explained as coherently as I could at 3:10am that they had just woken me up with their car and could they shut it off. I believe their exact words are "Can't you see that I'm taking care of something here?"

Of course. They were taking care of something. How could I be so inconsiderate. I mean how could I have been so incredibly rude to have walked up to his car at 3:10 in the morning and ask him to shut off his car. I should have simply offered to invite him into my house so that he could continue is conversation in the comfort of my kitchen. I could have even made some hot cocoa for him.

Now I'm not sure what anyone else would have done, but I wasn't going to challenge this guy to a fight over his obnoxious behavior so I simply re-iterated the fact that he woke me up at three in the morning, that I need to get up for work in about 2 1/2 hours, and to shut his f*cking car off and went off to get my phone and call the police.

I wish I could say that this story has a good or happy ending. The person at the police station that I talked to was kind enough to send a police car by the house to try and resolve this issue. Unfortunately, less then 5 minutes before the police car arrived, they turned off the car and went inside.

So, at this point I'm sleep deprived and somewhere between angry and furious. I'm tired of self centered assholes doing whatever they want regardless of who else it might be affecting. This isn't the first time the neighbors accross the street have been making enough noise to wake me up from sleeping or keep me from sleeping. I've written a letter to my police department to see if there is some form of noise ordinance that I can at least use as a starting point. So with that said if anyone has any good ideas on how to handle future noise "issues" leave me a comment. Creative/Funny entries would be appreciated along with anything sensible and legal.

One good thing that came out of this is that I've discovered that I can make it to work in about 45 minutes if I leave the house around 5am.

New meaning to getting a little tail and another reason to complain about M$

2006-01-17T22:34:00.000-06:00

Well, I've discovered a new meaning to the phrase "getting a little
tail." One of our cats managed to somehow get their tail caught in the
door. The strange part is that nobody heard the cat scream when it
happened. To make the story short, she managed to strip off all the fur
from the tip of her tail and some of the skin too. Thankfully she seems
to be OK.

Now it's time for me to complain about one of my least favorite
companies and to hopefully save some poor laptop user from a huge
headache. About 6+ months ago my laptop stopped working with my access
points at home. Now we all know that wireless setup is relatively easy
now, but it can still be a bitch when there's a problem. Well I tried
almost everything to get it working again. I even borrowed a second
laptop of the same model with the same OS (XP Pro). My laptop simply
would not stay connected to the wireless network for more then a
minute(if that). The other laptop didn't have the problem and it was
using the same wireless card. At this point I simply chalked it up to a
bad component on the laptop.

Well it never sat right with me that I had a wireless network at home
that I couldn't use. Finally tonight I found a post on some forum that
said to try and disable the "Wireless Zero Configuration" service. Well
after disabling the service and using the card's connection utility to
connect to the wireless network, all seems to be well with my wireless
network again. So I'm not sure what exactly happened, but I suspect
that one of the XP patches around 6 months ago added or updated this
service and completely busted my wireless access at home. Thanks a lot M$.

Guess The Date

2006-01-05T12:48:00.000-06:00

At this time I'd like to start the guessing game contest. At this time there is no prize other then the winner will be declared on this page. I know that's all anyone ever wanted in life, but I may be able to sweeten the pot at a later date. FYI: The current due date is 7/9/2006. Now here are the rules:

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment to this post containing the following information

Sex of the baby
Time and Date

If there are two identical entries, the oldest entry wins.
You may enter as many times as you want, but only your most current entry is valid.
This contest is only for fun and no prize of any real monetary value will be awarded. However, if you feel that your name or alias mentioned in a post is worth some money then let me know so I can find out why and maybe make a couple of bucks.
The contest ends at 00:00 on the day we go to the hospital.
The person that guesses the sex of the baby and is the closest in time and date will be declared the winner.
There will be a runner-up award, but the rules for that would take up more time then I want to waste.
All rules are subject to change at any time. Just kidding.
If you're still reading this, stand on your head and say "perspicacity" 10 times fast
The first person to post an entry with some outrageous date will get some honorary mention award.

New Arrival Information

2006-01-05T11:52:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be posting occasional updates on the arrival of our new family member to this blog. Since I can simply email the updates and have them show up here, I can do them from anywhere including the hospital (provided my brain is still working enough and I can use my cell phone).

Here's where we stand at this point in time:

The due date is currently 7/9/2006
We do not know what the sex of the baby is and we don't want to know if we can help it.

eblog test

2006-01-04T10:58:00.000-06:00

Nothing to see here. Simply testing my emailing skill set.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

2005-12-08T00:34:00.000-06:00

I'm so tired right now, all I'm going to post is. What a great show. Here's a pic of Steve signing autographs in the lobby before the show. Thanks Ed for signing my hat :)

Flying Daggers = Wow!

2005-09-19T16:30:00.000-05:00

I know I still can't seem to update my blog on a regular basis. There's a shock.

Well my first new post is about a movie. I managed to watch "The House of Flying Daggers" the other night. I have already stated that if/when we ever get an HDTV, I reserve two hours the first night we have it to watch this movie again. The cinematography is nothing short of amazing. I only wish I'd had the opportunity to view this movie on the big screen.

Badly needed update

2005-06-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since my last update. As opposed to my last post, there's tons of activities this week. Before I continue, a large thank you is in order to my parents for hosting our car and loaning us one of theirs. After another 6+ hours of work, we managed to get the car back in order.
This week is getting more and more packed as it moves along. It didn't help being ill for half of this last weekend. We've got a family trip planned for tomorrow to the water park. I'm sure there will be some post material from that trip. This weekend will more then likely be lightning fast with a wedding to go to on Saturday and our daughter's second birthday party on Sunday. And don't get me started on work!

As of the past week we took our daughter to the pool for the first time this season. What a difference a few months makes. While she could pretty much care less about being in the water last summer, this year when we ask her if she wants to go to the pool it's almost the same reaction we get from our dog when we ask her if she wants to go for a ride in the car. Unbridaled enthusiasm. She still doesn't like the giant mushroom with the water cascading down from the top, but I can kinda see where that might be a bit frightening when you get up close.

Well, that's about all I have time for. One last thing. For those of you that have access to our daughter's ofoto albums, you should get an invite in the next couple of weeks. We'll be starting a new family album after her birthday that will be more then just our daughter in it.

Not much of note & light sabers

2005-05-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

There's not much of note going on since my last post. Spent the weekend with family. The only item of interest might be that one of our cars is currently sitting in my parent's garage because two parts of the cover of the timing belt were busted when being removed. Of course, now the logistics of getting over there to finish the job are getting a little complex.

From the not-so-bright-jedi department, comes a story from the UK. Apparently, they decided that instead of using the old boring carboard tubes or even aluminum rods to film a light saber duel, they would use "fluorescent light tubes with petrol." You have to wonder what category of stupid this falls into:

It sounded like a good idea at the time.
Well, you see, we were out drinking...
Gasoline explodes?

I'm guessing that these two will not be chosen to be part of the Order of the Jedi any time soon.

Congrats! & Ofoto

2005-05-14T22:11:00.000-05:00

Couple quick updates:

1. Congrats to my younger brother. He graduated from college today (Unless he forgets to turn in his thesis).

2. Just wanted to let everyone know that our daughter's ofoto album has been updated. If you don't have access and you want it, let me know.

Time to head off to bed.

Vegas Vacation Part III - A few observations

2005-05-10T20:37:00.000-05:00

As anyone that knows me can tell you my memory is not the best so our vacation is already starting to get fuzzy.

One of the first things you realize when you're driving down the strip in vegas that the size of the hotels really messes with you perception of distance. Since most buildings in vegas outside of the hotels are relatively small, it appears that the next hotel is closer then it really is. The Wynn hotel looks like it might be just a city block away when in fact it's more like a quater of a mile from your current position. Needless to say that we got a lot of walking in while we were there.

Something else that both of us noticed that there were quite a few people traveling with toddlers. Almost every single toddler looked either glassey eyed and bored/tired or asleep. I can't even count the number of children in strollers on the strip at 11pm at night. It just doesn't seem right, but it's certainly not my place to tell anyone what to do with their children.

We spent some time in the Coca-Cola shop. If you head up to the top level of the store, there is a counter where you can get something to drink. Specifically, you can get some form of Coca-Cola product. In addition, they offer a 16 drink sampler of sodas from around the world. Let me save you some time, money, and taste buds. Just get a regular coke. Both of use tried every single one and we only finished two of them. Simply put, there is a very simple reason why most/all of these flavors are not marketed in the U.S. There was one that I liked quite a bit, but probably couldn't drink too much of, which was a "Stoney Ginger Beer." Can't really describe the taste, but it was pretty good.

We managed to stop by "The Wynn" the first day it was open. Let me say that it certainly has that luxurious feel to the place. Nevermind the stores in the attached mall that most people couldn't afford to even pay to handle an item. There was just this feeling that a huge amount of money was dumped into the place. The only detraction from all this opulance was the huge number of people moving through every part of the hotel that a visitor could be in.

A trip to vegas is not complete without two things. First, gambling is a necessity even if you only plunk down $25 in quarters for the slot machines. The second is seeing at least one show. The first show that we went to see was Mac King. If you're interested in this, go by Harrah's sometime during the day for their "free" tickets for the show. By free they mean free with minimum drink order. It's still about half the price of the full price tickets. The only other show we made it to was Mystere. All I really have to say about this show is "WOW! What a great show!" It's pretty much beyond description and by all means if you see the show, make sure that you get there before the pre-show starts.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

2005-05-10T12:58:00.000-05:00

"It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."
-- Ferris Bueller

Took this car for a drive today. What a blast! Everyone who loves sports cars should drive something like this at least once. I haven't forgotten to post the rest about our vacation, just having free time issues.

Parental Rite of Passage

2005-05-06T06:17:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows there are certain rites of passage that almost all parents must go through. Yesterday we went through another one of those. The trip to the ER.

Our daughter started acting a little strange yesterday morning. Turns out that she was getting sick. She started off in the morning not wanting to eat and just not being herself. Not long after getting work I got a call from my wife that my daughter had thrown up in the car. Throughout the day her condition got worse and at one point had a fever over 104. Acting on the recomendation of our pediatrician, we headed off the the hospitol.

To make a long relatively boring story short, we were at the hospitol until about 9:15pm. Our daughter held up pretty well considering the strange surroundings. Not too long before we left, the doctor told us that there were 4 out of 5 kids that evening with pneumonia(sp?). We were lucky and were the 1 out of 5 that did not. The diagnosis was a simple ear infection. How an ear infection can cause a 104 fever I don't know, but I'm happy to be home with a sleeping child and medication to take care of the infection.

There's still more to come about our vegas trip when I'm a little more awake.

Darth Vader Blog

2005-05-05T09:25:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to draw your attention to another blog that is pretty creative and funny. The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster is a blog from the perpective of Darth Vader.

Vegas Vacation Part II - What not to do on the first day

2005-05-03T12:47:00.000-05:00

Traveling to Vegas was a pretty uneventful, but long day of traveling. One item of note, if you're taking a large suitcase such as we were, be sure that it's less then 50 pounds. We checked in to find out that ours was 2 pounds over the limit, but the check-in clerk was kind enough to let this slide. Our stop over in Houston was pretty boring, with nothing of note.

Our second leg was uneventful as well. The only thing that comes to mind is that our ticket claimed that we had a snack on the flight and I'm not entirely sure whether a mini-sandwich, bag of chips and a salty nut roll should be considerd a snack or a light dinner. Niether of which is very filling.

At this point I'm getting to the one thing that one should not do on the first day traveling to a city where you will be doing a lot of walking. While gathering our monster of a bag (remember this is a 52lb bag), I managed to catch a toenail on the bag (thanks to wearing sandals) and cause some serious pain. While I didn't really think much of it at first, by the time I got to the rental car building away from the airport, the entire front of my sandal was covered in blood. At this point my first thought is not "This looks really bad," or "I should really wash this up and get it looked at. My first thought was "Oh great! I've hurt my foot and I'm going to have a hard time walking this week."

Well, I'm happy to report that nothing serious came of this injury. The worst part wasn't the pain so much as trying to cut a roll of gauze with blunt objects. BTW, if you do ever need to cut gauze without the aid of a knife or scissors, don't bother using a set of keys.

Once this trauma was done, we managed to get to the Stratosphere Hotel without incident other then some directionaly challenged moments. At this point we entered what I can only describe as a illogical maze of a casino. The signs pointing to the front desk were horrible and it took almost 10 minutes of limping to find the hotel registration desk.

After checking in, we managed to relax with a drink and stayed up late into the night. OK, so we only made it to 12:45am. That's late for a couple of parents of a 2 year old.

More to come...

Vegas Vacation Part I - What we did not pack

2005-05-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

The wife and I decided that our daughter was finally old enough to ship off to the grandparent's house for the weekend. So, last Monday was our first trip without our daughter since before she was born. My wife had not been for more then 10 years and I have never been to Las Vegas. Therefore we set off for 5 days... well with traveling all day Monday 4 days... actually since we left really early on Friday 3 days and 4 nights for Las Vegas, Nevada.

However, before we can get to Las Vegas there's just a few minor details to work out. Considering our track record, one might imaging that this post would contain items that we forgot to pack. I'm happily surprised to report that we forgot nothing of any importance.

Items intentionally not packed include our daughter, our dog, or our cats. As a matter of fact, we packed no living breathing thing unless you count a stuffed animal (Some people might). We spent the weekend before our vacation dropping off our daughter at her grandparent's house and the dog at the other grandparent's house. For anyone that knows us, it should come as no shock that since we had to drive 3 hours to drop off my daughter that we had nothing packed for Vegas prior to Sunday night. This statement alone should amaze anoyone considering the previous paragraph.

More to come...

Welcome to Password Graveyard

2005-05-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Well, you're probably wondering where the name for this blog came from. Well, the simple answer is that I managed to forget my password and the email address I signed up for my last blog. Therefore my password has gone to the password graveyard. I should have a blog posting later today pertaining to our trip to Las Vegas.