Nothing up my sleeve, but my arm

The other night after I got off work for my weekend of freedom, Wendy, Joy, and I went looking around the mall. Even though I work across a mall, I do not go there often. This weekend I have spent more time in a mall than I have in about a year total. It was worth it though.

Wendy was looking for some good deals. She did not really find what she wanted, though she did settle for a few things. Joy even got a few things for herself. I picked up a bunch of shirts. Nice, long sleeve dress shirts. They were marked originally almost $40, but were now $5. So I paid $20 for about $200 worth of shirts. Or the retail world would have me before. I was even able to use a gift card that I had no idea even had money on it and I still had one left. Not anymore though.

I usually only get clothes for Christmas. Now that I am adult I have to look for really good sales.

It is time for a cool change

Wild weather we are having?

The holiday were everyone has their last hurrah to the beach and the weather is cool. Maybe you like the beach to be comfortable, but I want the beach to be hot. So the water can be hot. I know I have odd weather tastes.

The brief exposure I had to the news showed some wind and rain damage to parts of the coast a few days before Labor Day. I am not sure if it affected too many people. At least it hit before the weekend.

Last night was pretty cool, temperature wise. It was the first time that my thermostat read below 78. So it must have been pretty cool. I think I saw temps in the 50s. So break out your poodle skirts.

For those who still like hot weather, it is probably coming back. It did reach 99 on September 1st.

Anytime the air is free I am happy.

Now that is what I call enter tainment

Well I thought I would finally get around to writing something down. I have been away for a long time. Since my absence I have a new addition. Yes, one of the signs was plus. My wife and I have a little girl. She keeps me busy, but not as busy as she keeps my wife.

I have not been doing that much. I do what I have been doing except updating my blog. Well that and changing diapers.

Maybe I will try and be better about recording my events. In 3D...duh duh duh.

Makeup sects

I have seen a couple of stories of women, who happen to be famous for some reason, go without makeup. Being a male, I do not know much about makeup. I might have applied it years ago, but other than that not on a regular basis. Wendy does not wear make up so I do not really see it on a regular basis. I know a couple of people who sell makeup.

One thing that I do not understand is that famous people look so pale without the makeup. I saw a few pics and the people were even whiter than normal. So there are some people that look better with makeup. Most of the time to me, I cannot tell when someone is wearing makeup. That is probably the goal of makeup to make the person look better without looking like a makeup wearer.

I guess there was really no point to this post except you have face your problems or you become a problem.

Away for a day or three

Your freedom is over reader. This weekend Wendy and I were visiting her parents. Nothing big, just visiting family. We did help Wendy's parents update their cell phones. It was a pretty painless process. They knew pretty much what they wanted.

Even though there was access to the online world, I did not get online any during the weekend. It looks like I did not miss anything.

So now I am back to making up my own news.

Whut?

I recently heard that word and thought where did it come from. Before I am going to google it, I thought I would put my own interpretation. I think it refers to when people express curiosity and a bit of what are you thinking. So the "u" refers to the you in the what are you doing.

Now let's see what or whut? could be...

Apparently it is just slang to express confused interest on what is going on.

Now you have no idea and that is part of my plan.

Shelf life

Yesterday was a day of missed opportunities. I went to the library to return some books I had and to pick up some new ones. I thought I would be smart and look at the online catalog. I had a list of the books I watched to check out. At least the numbers. After work I head to the library. The books I wanted were not there. According to the computer they should have been. So I had to wander through the shelves hoping that inspiration would strike. It took me longer than I thought.

After Wendy returned home, she wanted to visit a store to view some baby merchandise. So we drive over to Durham, the location of the store. The item is not there. We had looked online at it and it was out of stock in most online stores. The sales associate puts Wendy's name on a list to let her know when the item arrives. Wendy was pretty bummed that the store did not have the item. We did pick up one or two things that we wanted. So it was not a wasted trip. We had an expired good coupon, so maybe we will have another coupon when the item arrives.

I am glad it is Friday. This week has dragged on. Now to drag myself away.

The past is all in your girlfriend's mind

Wendy and I watched The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Or I think that was the title. The movie was based on The Christmas Carol. Except the main character was obsessed with women. Talk about a whoreder. He is haunted by three women and of course his childhood female friend. She happens to be the one who broke his heart so he became a womanizer to break hers. Of course he has the change of heart or is it something else?

I may have mentioned something like this before, but it is truly apparent in most movies. The main character will be extremely successful, but somewhat of a jerk. Then the character reunites with someone of the past and realizes "I am not truly happy until I have this person in my life."

I guess what makes it a movie is that the main character gets the object of desire plus keeps the money. They say it is not about the money, but it sure helps in that elaborate scheme.

On the tell end

Every story has a beginning, middle, and an end. Or is it beginning, middle, and beginning?

It seems that I am the last to hear about a good trend. I suppose I am like the old man of slang. If I have heard about it then it is going out of style.

It is nice of the internet to hold a bunch of archives. That way it can be new to you if you hear about something. It is weird when you are looking at something current and they reference another person's work. So you go to that link and it has not been updated for a couple of years.

Maybe the internet is a time machine. You can look at the past, present, or future.

Road wary

As Wendy and I were making our way back home from the ball game I nearly caused us to have an accident. It was dark and I am not a great nighttime driver. The lights (or is the absence of light?) do weird things to my eyes. It is always the medians that affect me the worst. Specifically turning.

So here is my bonehead move. We are driving down Davis Drive in Cary. It is a straight shot. After going through a green light, I go into panic mode and swerve the car to the right. To me eyes it looked like I was about the hit the median. I guess it was a patch of pavement. Fortunately, no one was around me. Plus we were not hurt. It did jar us a little.

Wendy raised a good point. Medians are usually in the middle of the road, not the lane. I feel like such an idiot.

My argument in the case for automated cars or me having enough money for a driver. I will take whichever comes first.

Remember to keep it between the lines. Talk about a line drive.

Games people play

Last night Wendy and I went to a Durham Bulls game. It was not too bad. The tickets were free through work. Wendy was able to get off work early and go with me. So we head over to the ballpark. We choose to park in the parking garage. We hope for a ground level space. Nothing. We go to the second level and nothing. The third level nothing. We did find parking on the fourth level. I think they should take a dollar off the charge for every level above the ground you have to park. I am not sure how it would work. Although the penthouses are always near the top of the building?

We find the box where we are to meet with my coworkers. There were a lot of people I did not recognize. It was open to families. The food was pretty good. It was hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, mac and cheese, potato salad. Plus they had Rita's Italian Ice.

The weather was a little cold to me. I for some reason could not stop shivering. After eating we sat up in the bleachers. It was a little warmer there.

The game was okay. It seemed to take a long time. Especially the first four innings. We left after the seventh. At our leaving the Bulls were down by a run. The two teams traded the lead up until the fourth inning when the visiting team scored four runs. Right before we left the Bulls did hit a home run. It actually hit the bull sign. I thought people were supposed to get something free from that, but an announcement was never made.

It was a good time, but I wish they had done it on a Friday. Maybe work will be a little quiet from all the excitement last night.

Just kidding

Wendy and I watched a bizarre movie called Away We Go. One of the guys from the Office and a SNL alumnae play expectant parents who are on the search for people to help raise their future daughter. They learn that a lot of people are crazy and have weird parenting practices. I think it was one of the few movies that shows the person pregnant all movie, but does not show the baby. All the other movies show the baby at the end of the movie, especially if the person would be a surprise.

The good news is that as parents we can only affect our child for a little bit. We will pass on certain traits and thoughts. However, it is up to the child to do something with them. The best way not too screw up your child too much is to love him/her. At least as parents we can do one thing right.

A battery of things

Well this early afternoon I was planning to leave work at 12:45 and meet Wendy for our tour of the hospital. So at 12:50 I was heading out to my car. I put the key into the ignition, turn, and nothing happens. I try again and same result. I think just great and this sucks for the g rated audience. I get a battery jump charge that belongs to work. I hook it to the battery and nothing happens. My supervisor notices that the terminals on the battery were corroded. With the charger nothing happened either. So my supervisor lets me use a work car to meet Wendy.

I arrive home a few minutes later than intended. Eat a sandwich. Wendy and I head over the hospital. It was a pretty nice hospital. We met with the nurse who led our baby birth class. She showed us an example of the room where Wendy will be giving birth. Then we saw one of the post partum rooms. It looks pretty nice. And it is private. We will see what will happen when the time comes.

So I get back to work. I try the key one more time and nothing. While I was awhile my supervisor cleaned the terminals. I put the charger back on and it did crank. However, it was still the battery. I needed to get a new one. The battery was not holding a charge or there was a short in the cell. I picked up a battery. It was more than I wanted to pay, but less than I thought. My supervisor installed the battery for me. Now my motor is running.

I know many of you, okay all of you, will not care but I was missing a pen for the past few days. I could not remember where I had put it. I was in a room at work that serves as a chapel. I was moving some chairs and happen to look down where I was sitting a few days ago. There was the pen in the chair.

You take the good and you take the bad. Hopefully you can give some of both back.

Tour of duty

No, it is not diaper duty yet.

Today Wendy and I are going to be touring the hospital where in about 7 weeks (hopefully) Joy will appear. We went through one class on the delivery. Now we get to see what the hospital side looks like.

I admit I have no idea what to expect. I do not have much experience with hospitals. Hopefully this will be a good experience.

I wonder if it will have a whirlpool in the room. It will probably not be for me anyway. I am sure though I will feel like I am in a whirlpool.

I want my mommy...to have a great mothers day

First of all. I hope all the ladies are having a great Mothers day. I guess it is dependent on how their children are behaving. So behave you rugrats!

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. Wendy did go to her shower to see friends and get some good gifts. I am not sure all what she received. She showed me, but I cannot remember. I know we received the travel system because Wendy and I assembled it. It will definitely be a learning experience. With all the parts I will either lose some fingers or gain some IQ points. We have not tried to conquer the car seat yet.

Today was a pretty day. Wendy and I ate from a Chinese buffet for the first time in a long time. I think we paid more than we should because it said Mothers Day buffet special 8.25 but when I was paying I noticed a sign saying 7.75 Sunday buffet. Oh well it is only once a year. Both Mothers day and when we eat a Chinese buffet. The sad thing is they did not give us any fortune cookies.

I guess they say no news is good news.

Presenting

Today is another shower for Wendy and Joy. A friend of Wendy's is hosting. I am not going to this one. This is for ladies only. I guess I will be spending time with other males not invited to the shower.

Maybe I will report back. But it will be second hand. Is that the left or the right?

Through the looking glass

It is a wonderland.

Our cats love to look out the window. Right now as I type Metro and Marley are perched or hunched in front of the glass back doors. I do not know what intrigues them so much. It is usually Marley that loves that view the most. Metro will meander away to do something else.

At least the cats, specifically Metro, do not try to run out.

That may be the best way to observe the outside from the safety of inside the house and the somewhat reasonably cool.

You got to pray to make it through the day

Today, Thursday, is the National Day of Prayer. Because I work for a religious institution I participated in this observance.

My day has pretty much been crap, but you could care less about that. However, I do have an uplifting story for you.

The building met together in our chapel for a time of public prayer. People had been designated to lead the group in public prayer. After this time we went out front to pray. We formed a big circle and said our prayer. As we finished a public transportation vehicle slowed down and stopped. It is like a shuttle or mini bus and called a CTran. I thought to myself the guy must have thought we all wanted a ride and he would get the biggest fare in his life. He walks up and asks if he could join us. He says he is glad and thankful for like minded people praying for a difference in the world. Another prayer was said.

So the moral of this story is that the buses will wait.

I am not buying it

Last night Wendy and I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was an okay movie. A young journalist who wants to work at a fashion magazine works at a money magazine. Surprise! She is in debt. She shakes up the magazine and falls in love with the editor. I wonder if the movie should be called Dave Ramsey in address?

The movie was pretty good. It had a pretty well known cast. Sometimes, yes, it was over the top. Or maybe the movie could have been Buy, Buy Love.

Then after the movie we flipped around the television. Hey, it was better than actually watching tv. We landed on a show on Discovery Health about obsessions. One of the stories was about, you guessed it, shopping. A woman had 85,000 on her credit cards. I am not sure if I read the wrap up right, but it said she had paid it off! The other stories were about a woman who would not stop tanning, a woman who constantly ate chalk, and a man who would not stop running for marathons.

Everybody has obsessions. Maybe like paranoia over the air flow or regulating the water flow? It is only weird if the other person does not like it. Or you do something completely strange.

Alright, that is all I have

An actual phone conversation with me wife.

The names have been changed to attack the guilty and me look dumber.

Wife: Hello.

Me: Hey.

Wife: What is it?

Me: Nothing. I just called.

Wife: Okay.

Me: Blah, blah. Alright. That is all.

Wife: Okay.

Me: Oh, blah, blah. Alright. I guess I will go.

Insert more blahs and Alright, I guess I will go and you will have the phone conversation. I am not sure why I blather on the phone. I usually have nothing to say and my conversations are short. Yet, I continue to repeat myself.

As long as the ringing is on the outside of my ears.

Just browsing

This morning Chrome is not behaving for me. It will open up a couple of things, but not what I am interested. Or it will load the page partially like a window blind. Then the circle of non-life will just spin.

I know you are saying big deal, aren't there a bunch of other browsers? Yes. I am using another one right now.

Last night we had some bad news in the household. Our loaf of bread was squashed in the trip home from the grocery. I know I was crushed also.

We now return to your regular schedule

I do not know what it is, but you probably do, when I have days that are off schedule I feel like doing nothing. If I have to sit around more than five minutes I can lose interest.

I enjoy a routine. I find myself doing the same things at the same time. I know of course this cannot always happen.

I suppose it comes down to if I do not have a purpose then I shut down. Maybe that is my problem. I am not goal oriented so I am always in shut down mode.

Nothing but air there.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen that is referring to the space in my head.

Everything I did yesterday was a screw up. I woke up and it started from there.

Wendy arose and noticed it was warm in the house. It was supposed to be warm outside. I said that the thermostat should not let the temperature get any higher. So I took off the cover to show her I had it set on cool. The thing came on. The snowflake icon did not appear, which is supposed to when cooling. Then the air continued to run, even after it reached the shut of temperature. So I fiddled with it and then could not get the fan or air to run. After almost an hour and time to go to church, we decided it was not worth it. We were going to get a new one. That thing has been a headache since day one. Even the manufacturer said it was messed up. I was trying to prove them wrong and save money. Neither worked.

We go to church and it was Youth Sunday. It was my week to run the video camera for the service. I have no idea how it turned out. The youth were spread out over the stage so I had to use wide shots. They may look like grasshoppers in their own eyes.

After church we proceed to Lowes to pick up a thermostat. We choose what looks to be a decent one, hoping this was one will function. The package says it takes 3 AAA batteries. So we pick those up as well.

Then of course it is lunch time. We cannot decide where to go. Finally we say why not KFC? So there we are. I was going to try the Double Down. I figure why not? However the price was not right. I did not want to pay that much for it. So we both got chicken strips.

Then it was home to install our new purchase. I take the old thermostat down. Put up the new face plate. To my surprise the batteries it calls for are 3 AA. So I use the previous thermostat batteries and scrounge for another battery. Then I try to wire the thermostat. I was hooking up the wires in what I thought was the right place. I could not get the thermostat to stay on the plate. Wendy comes over and pops it into place. However it does not work. I take off the thermostat, fiddle, but still nothing. By this point I am regretting my conception. Wendy comes over and says I have the wires in the wrong place. They need to go in the other side. I try to get the wires there, but I cannot do it. So she comes over and in two minutes has the wires corrected and the thermostat snapped into place.

The thermostat comes on blows cool air. It is working. I guess it was hot outside and in here. It ran forever and only cooled a few degrees. I was every minute checking to see what was going on. Yes, I was being paranoid and obsessive. I am not sure if the unit is running low on freon, like a friend suggested. It is a numerous amount of years old. I was also washing clothes and drying them so that added heat to the house.

A friend came over who is currently living in Wilmington. He had been in the local area helping his sibling move some river rock. He worked all day Saturday and had to drive back yesterday afternoon to be at work early Monday morning. He was the one who suggested the freon. Wendy told him about the dryer hose continually separating itself and heating the whole house. He agreed to look at it. To solve the problem in the past I had duct taped the whole thing. It worked temporarily, but still allowed heat to come through. I am sure he thought I was idiot for the taping job I did. He suggested I get a metal hose, because the one I had with the dryer was in bad shape. So he takes me over to Lowes and we get the hose. He somehow got the hose onto the pipe and clamped it down. Previously I had never been able to do that. He pulled on it to make sure it was tight and sturdy. It appears to be. Hopefully it will hold and I will not to worry about the dryer hose coming loose.

While at Lowes I also picked up filters. The ones I currently had were pretty old. I had replaced them in the past, but it was not recent. I was told that may have been why the thermostat could not get enough return air and might run longer.

After what seemed like an eternity, the air stopped. I guess it runs to a degree lower than you set as a cut off point. At least I know it cuts off. It is sad our house allows the cold air to blow in the winter and holds the hot air in the summer. I need to get a thermometer to test what the temperature is in here. That may play with my mind even more.

So there you go another day and numerous stupid acts on my part. That is how I do on pretty much every project. I know somewhat how to do it, but get to a certain point and someone has to kick me in the next step. I know that they want to kick me in the head. I do not blame them. It is tough working with an idiot. I should know I have to look in the mirror and see one every day.

It is high school, Watson

While Wendy and I were away from our house for the weekend, we were interested in watching a movie. Okay, it was me interested in watching Sherlock Holmes. This was Wednesday night. Wendy and I were staying at the house we were house sitting while the owners were away. They had recently purchased a new television since their other one went on the fritz. So the DVD player was not hooked up.

So, being the technological lack I am, I tried to see if I could hook it up. I plugged in this cable and nothing happened. I changed that setting, nothing happened. The owners happened to call in and we did a help line. I was able to get the DVD to play. Of course at this time it is 9:30 at night. The movie is two hours long. So it will have to wait another night.

Then of course it is Thursday night. Which is devoted to actual television viewing. So I did not get to watch it then.

Friday night. Wendy and I finally watched the movie. It seemed late when we got to start the movie, but we had no where to go on Saturday. Sherlock Holmes was interesting. I did get a little sleepy during part of it. One interesting side note. The DVD started where I had it playing. So Wendy and I spent the first ten minutes wondering if we were at the beginning. We did not see any opening credits.

The movie definitely portrayed Holmes and Watson as thrill seekers. They almost seemed to use their brawn more than brain. It was a pretty good action film. Especially if you like slow motion fight scenes where the guy's cheek flaps like he is in a wind tunnel. Of course there is the love interest and the opening for a sequel.

I would say at least investigate this movie.

Daze away

Greetings people who sleep with their eyes open.

I have been away for a few days. It is amazing that I was able to update everyday over nothing. Now that I have the opportunity to update I have nothing to say. Well I mean even less than normal.

That is all for this post.

Or is it?




Apparently it was.

Room being viewed

Wendy and I over the weekend found an interesting show. It is called Solitary. It airs or aired on the Fox Reality Channel. Over the weekend they were running a marathon. The premise of the show is that nine people are locked in individual pods. Their bodies are put to the test mentally and physically by challenges. They go through lack of food and sleep and bizarre challenges where they are rewarded or punished. The contestants have the opportunity to quit anytime, but then they would be out of the game. Of course the show is over the top.

I know I could not do that show. I get frustrated too easily. I would probably kill myself locked in a room. I know I am usually locked in a small room, but at least I have other distractions. I do not think I could do any of the challenges either psychical or mental. The thing that also gets me is my body would naturally pass out. I pass out even after regular sleep.

If you enjoy that kind of thing feel free to lock yourself up. It will probably be to the enjoyment of others. It is not in my cards however.

Re-gifted

Last night Wendy and I watched a pretty decent movie. It was called The Ultimate Gift. I picked it for the queue because it was recommended on behalf of other movies. I figured I had enough science fiction movies in the queue.

The movie is based on a book. It has some basic Christian themes. An extremely wealthy man dies leaving his greedy family only a portion of his wealth. The grandson who left the family is required to do tasks to get his part of the inheritance. He learns the value of "real wealth" plus he gets the entire inheritance. He also gets the girl.

If you like movies with rich guys who start off as jerks and become nice even richer guys, then this is your movie.

Lack of feeling

Joy is busy. I am not sure what she exercises she is doing in there. According to Wendy it is a lot. She says that Joy is constantly moving, except when I look. I try to do the husband thing of putting my hand on Wendy's stomach. Most of the time I do not feel anything. Probably worse yet I think that I feel something but it is not Joy.

Sometimes my hands are strange. I can touch hot items and not feel the heat. Then the next time it is too hot to touch. Maybe I have sensitized my hands too much. It is odd that my hands are sensitive to handshakes. I often feel that the squeeze is too much. It seems to hit a place on my hand.

Joy can be kicking and I not feel a vibration. It drives Wendy crazy. I am not sure how I cannot feel it. I think that I have seen Joy moving around.

I have a few more weeks to get better. If I can stomach it to have some belly laughs.

Mirror, mirror

No, I am not Alice nor am I A-List. I do now have a new looking glass.

Wendy and I were in Wal-mart over the weekend and Wendy informed me that she will be purchasing a mirror for the bathroom. The bathroom downstairs after previous renovations only had a side mirror. Now with the bedroom downstairs it is important that Wendy have a mirror for getting ready in the morning. The side mirror combo medicine cabinet did not work to well, unless you wanted a crick in the neck.

So we found a cheap mirror. I had to put it on the door. Wendy is not that demanding so the few projects she asks me to complete I try to work on. Else I would be a cold hearted jerk. Okay maybe a bigger one.

I had her help me hold the mirror to see where she wanted it. Then I first tried to screw into the door with a screwdriver. It was not a sonic, so it did not work well. Then I resorted to the drill Wendy got me a few years ago. It was still difficult, but once it got going it well pretty quickly. So after a few nicks on the door and moments of frustration the mirror is hung.

I have to say it looks pretty good, even if I do not.

Ramsey down my throat

Wendy and I are trying to get out finances in order. I would love to be one of those success stories that never has to owe money except bills. It will take a long time to do that. The good news is that overall we do not owe a lot of money. That may change after Joy is born. Our problem is that we have a hard time saving more. We come close to putting out what we put in.

Wendy has a renewed interest in the principles of Dave Ramsey. She has a friend that was recently on his show. Most of his principles sound like they would work. It does require sacrifice, but so do a lot of things. Sometimes I can be cynical and say there are conditions why that worked. Some of the results of the success stories sound too far fetched. Some of does peak my interest.

Wendy and I are going to give it a try. We have already been paying off some debt. Now we have to work on a budget and saving. Maybe some day we can check that off our list. Okay, okay. We will cash that in. Is that better?

Wendy is trying to sell my comic books and a few other collectibles. So far they have only been collecting dust. Why should not we collect money from them? Sell before sale I guess is the new motto.

Over the weekend

Wendy and I had a pretty good weekend. It seemed to go by quickly. Especially now that it is Monday morning.

Saturday Wendy and I went to our one and only birthing class. It was not too bad. It was a pretty good experience. The class was pretty small which was good. There were three other couples due late May, mid June, and around our due date. The instructor was very nice. She talked about the birthing process. It seems that birth is natural and the process is meant to go well. We also did some relaxing techniques and breathing exercises. I still do not know everything about child birth, but I do know more. Now we wait to put what we learned in practice.

Sunday was a normal day for us. Church, grocery shopping, and then a nap. Wendy made a pretty good dinner. We picked up some inexpensive beef ribs and potatoes. Wendy boiled the potatoes so she could mash them. She also cooked the meat in barbecue sauce. It was very tender and good.

Wendy was denied watching her Amazing Race program. It was pre-empted by an awards show last week. Then this week it was weather. There was a tornado out east. I am not sure how much it did. After fifteen minutes of hearing the same nothing again we changed the channel. I would flip back and forth and the coverage lasted for an hour. Fortunately, they should redeem themselves and show Amazing Race tonight.

Now it is Monday and we will see what the week brings. Hopefully another good weekend.

Make'em laugh

They say laughter is the best medicine. Doctors often say it is paying the bill.

Last night our church had a fellowship dinner. It is one of those quarterly things with pretty good food and entertainment. The entertainment last night was one of Wendy's second cousins. No, she was not in charge of booking him.

Apparently the guy had some good Christian street cred performing wise. He was pretty good. He sang a song or two, did some impressions, made other people do impressions, and left a good impression. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Wendy said she had no laughed that hard in a long time. I think the last time was when I gave her the ring.

The comedian had some participation for the former and current pastor. Then he had a couple of youth come up. He also had the youth minister's husband and me come up. Sure all of us looked like fools, but we had a good time.

The audience seemed to have a good time. Everyone had good comments to say about the, ahem, performance. In show business that is all the matters.

Type O

As your fingers do the walking there is the chance they will J walk.

Sometimes, well most of the time, I mistype my password. I know what it. I think. After I type it I hit Enter. Only to receive wrong username/password combination. It is mildly annoying. Usually I get it right on the second try. Speaking of passwords, do you find yourself typing in a password for another account? I have done that before.

I have even mistyped in the address bar and it takes me to weird sites. It is all part of the adventure. In babysitting.

I wonder how many typos there are in this post. The winner is... no one.

Block-head

It is a tough life Charlie Brown.

Last night I was on the Internet. My anti-virus software popped up some message about messages trying to get through on the web browser I was using. I thought it was some random error message. So I hit block and moved on. However, not very far. It blocked my web browser. I was using Google Chrome.

When I tried to sign back in, it would not connect. This morning I spend a lot of time trying to figure out why it would not let me in. I google Chrome and Mcafee. I saw some forums, but it did not apply to me. I went to the Mcafee site. It was a little helpful. So I played around almost to the point of frustration and finally found what I wanted. I was able to unblock Chrome from the firewall.

I know it probably took me longer than most people to figure that out. But, it is working now with a little help from my unseen friends.

A Healthy Dose

I am sure you have heard all the people around you wanting to get in better health. To do that they talk about losing weight. To do that they talk about watching what they eat.

I am sure that these are good goals, but it sort of gets on my nerves. I do not eat as healthy as I should. I enjoy junk food. I know it is important to eat right. I think about eating healthy. I try to eat vegetables and fruit. I know I do not do the best of jobs, by any means.

When someone goes to extreme it does turn me off. I think who cares about eating healthy. If it makes you feel better it might be worth it. Just do it and leave me out of it. A few random updates are fine, please do not make decision about food.

People say they want to live longer and better. Only time will tell that.

Take a memo

April 21, 2010

To all staff,

Happy Administrative Professionals Day.

You knew it was coming because you coordinate my calendar. Plus you actually typed this.

We could not do what do without you. Especially because I do not know what it is.

I might even one day get you name right.

Love, Mildly tolerate, Respectfully,

JP/jp
asdf jkl;

Sleep depraved

I by no means suffer from insomnia. It seems that a lot of people I hear from suffer with lack of sleep. I may look and feel like I suffer from the affects of sleeplessness. I can sleep usually anywhere, much to the disdain of Wendy. If I am sitting around then my eyes get heavy and I pass out. There have been plenty of times when one moment I am there and the other moment I am not. The past few days I have felt more tired than usual.

I wonder what it would be like to have insomnia. Would I get more work done? Or would I get less done? I am not sure because what work do I do when I could be sleeping? I have never been one to stay up late and work on projects. I wonder if there has been a study done between creative people and their sleep patterns. I suppose a guy can dream.

Probably the closest I will come to insomnia will be when Joy is born. I hear there will be many nights of lost sleep. I guess I am telling myself I am storing up rest now.

I think now would be a good time to get some shut eye.

That is using your vow-els

Hello to those who walk around with flowers maybe down aisles.

Wendy and I watched 27 Dresses last night. My thought about the movie is, it is the Wedding Crashers for women. Basically a women is in love with weddings so much she does everything she can to be in them. Of course it is about unrequited love that becomes realized.

It seems to me that in romantic comedies the women are extremely successful. They then meet the future love interest and realize their life stinks. Maybe they should not meet the guy then. Of course they are only acting happy. They are actresses after all.

It also seems that the women in movies who love love never get the guy. Well until the end. Think about it. They start off the movie lamenting the fact they are close to 30 and do not have anyone. Sometimes it looks like they are close to 40.

What is about having the guy as a reporter? Or at least someone being in the public eye. I guess that is so the final meltdown before they realize are right for one another can be public. Then the resolution can be public. We can then have aaaawwww moment.

I will end with another piece of movie logic. If your sister or best friend ends up happy then open your eyes for your relationship. I guess it all goes back to women even going to the bathroom in pairs.

I due.

Just browsing

Greetings to you who let your fingers do the talking.

Over the weekend I thought I would check my e-mail. I was not expecting any besides the normal spam. I sign into my account. See that I have spam and occasional forward. There is an e-mail I was going to click on. Yet when I clicked on it nothing happened. It would not let me read the e-mail. I could get into my e-mail account, but could perform no action. I tried another e-mail account same thing. I could sign in, but when I tried to open an e-mail, nothing. After a few moments of waiting I had to shut the browser down. Yet I would go to other sites and it would be working fine.

It must have been something with the browser I was using. I was using Google Chrome. Then I tried Firefox and I was able to read my e-mail.

The good news, at least for the spam senders, is that I am able to read my e-mails.

String'em up

It is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a man to thread a needle.

I have a button up shirt I purchased from a thrift store for about a dollar. The other day I noticed one of the buttons was becoming loose. I stored in the back of my mind that I needed to sew it. Today I word the shirt to church and the button became loose. It was basically hanging by a thread.

So tonight I get out the sewing kit Wendy received as a wedding gift. Wendy was talking through me the process. The thread had not been opened. It was a little difficult to get the thread started. I was able to thread the needle after a few attempts. I put the needle through the shirt and button hole. My first pull causes the thread to come out of the needle. So I have to rethread again.

I was able to get the button on the shirt. I may have sewed something before, but if so I do not remember. I do know it is not one of my favorite things. I am not a big fan of needles.

The highlight of my experience, at least for Wendy, happened a few minutes in. I pulled the needle through the shirt and felt a tug. I look down and the thread is hanging on my finger. That it is to say it is through my finger. I am not sure how I did it. I must have put the needle through the top layer of skin. Fortunately, it did not hurt. It scared me more than anything. I pull the string out and continue.

Wendy said the look on my face was the best part. Glad I could amuse.

In all honesty this should have had a better title

Dear parents, parents to be, wannabe parents, did not even cross my mind parents,

I have to say that Sharon, the baby we met this weekend, was a good baby. She would fuss just a little bit, but never too much. Then she would go right back to smiling or sleeping. I have seen a few babies that do not fuss too much. I know it is rare thing. Every baby has moments of fussyness where the parent thinks she will lose her mind.

I will be the first to admit I know nothing about babies. I am getting to that stage in life where I have more contact with them. Friends and other family members have them in their lives. Of course in a couple of months I will have a baby of my own.

So needless to say I am a fumble fingers when it comes to babies. I have never dropped one. It has been two. Just kidding. However, I feel I have no idea how to hold a baby. I know I do not do it exactly right. The parents must be thinking how is that IDIOT! holding my child. Hopefully it is a skill developed by practice. I know I will have a lot of practice. Holding a baby and being called IDIOT!

As we were sitting around the house yesterday Caroline and Paul were mainly holding Sharon. Of course it is their baby. Wendy held her some. Then she passed Sharon to me. I fumbled a few seconds, but then mainly rested Sharon against me. I have no idea if she was comfortable or not. Fortunately she did not cry or fuss. One time later in the evening while I was holding her she did start to fuss. I handed her back to the mom. Mothers are pretty good about making excuses for their babies. "She is getting sleepy."

Sharon was a good baby. She would sit there. Smile occasionally. Then nap. Basically that is what I do all the time. I think Sharon fussed less than I do.

I know that all babies are different, as well they should. I hope that Wendy and I are blessed with a good baby. I hope that Joy is even tempered and well behaved. So her parents can be too. Just kidding. I do hope we are blessed with a healthy and happy baby. I do not want to learn about parenting the hard way. There will be enough challenges.

So to all you baby mommas and daddies out there...Thank you for taking care of us when we are happy and fussy.

Hold me now

I have to hand it to you. Food, money, fussy baby.

If you suffer through my blog, then you probably ready Wendy's blog. You know through her beautiful way to tell and a story that we had some friends come to our area. It was a pretty good weekend.

Before we met our friends Saturday morning we went grocery shopping to have something to prepare for dinner. We never really keep much in the house, especially by the time the weekend comes. I doubt they would want a pop tart for dinner. Wendy thought it would be a good idea to get a lasagna, bread, salad, and dessert. So we found the lasagna. It was a good size so we could have leftovers. We found the bread. We pick up brownie mix and vanilla ice cream. Of course we have to pick up more oil. That is how shopping is, you go to pick up one thing and have to pick up several. Then we picked up the salad. So we have everything for a quick and easy meal.

We met yesterday morning at a restaurant not known for its expedient service. However, I did not notice anything amiss. The food was not bad. Two pluses for a restaurant. While there a young woman came up to the table. I thought she was part of the wait staff, but no. She was a balloon artist. She wanted to know if anyone wanted a balloon animal. So Caroline and Paul got one for their daughter, Sharon. They said a turtle would be cool. So the young woman made a turtle. I have never seen a balloon artist in a restaurant. If you think about it is pretty interesting. It is a neat way to earn extra money. I doubt she gets tips as much as she would like, but do we get as much money as we like?

After breakfast we go buy (okay just browsing) a store that has a baby section. Wendy loves to look at what suppliers have to offer to baby Joy. Caroline and Paul had good advice on what to look for and avoid since they have recently experienced what we will go through in a couple of months. It was a fun shopping time for me because I did not have to spend any money.

Then we came back to our house. We just sat around and talked. Then we went out for a walk. Ate dinner. Talked some more. Passed around Sharon. Caroline, Paul, and Sharon left around 9:30. You are probably saying, "Why did you mention in two sentences what happened for eight hours and what took an hour you blabbed on all that space?" I say can you not sum up your 8 hour workday with a sentence or word?

It was a good weekend. We had decent food. Saw decent friends. Learned a lot about what will be coming to us in a few months. Now we have a day to rest.

The answer is oblivious

Nothing much to report here. Yesterday was a pretty unproductive day. I could have gotten more done by lying in bed all day. When I do have to do work again I think I will forget how to do it. However, I did make it through a week feeling weak.

Wendy and I visited with some friends and their 6 mo old. They are in town for the weekend and staying at a Red Roof Inn. It was a little interesting at first because we were not quite sure how to get in touch with them. Fortunately, the number they called from was a cell number. So Wendy and I picked up a couple of pizzas for dinner and took them to the hotel. We knew what room they were in, but not were the room was. That particular Red Roof Inn, it maybe all for what I know, was split into two buildings. I had never seen that before. So we go into the side with the lobby. Up the elevator to look for the room. The hall ended a few numbers before their room. So it is the next building.

Wendy and I go to the next building, but it is a door that requires a key access. Which not being paying guests, we do not have. Also we do not have our friends' cell number in our phones. All the communication was through our house phone. I go back into the other building into the lobby to call their room. Fortunately, they answer and are able to let us in.

It was a pretty good time of catching up. Wendy and Caroline were swapping baby stories. We had pizza and ate it on tissues because we had no plates. It will definitely be different traveling with Joy. Right now Wendy and I do not carry much. I am sure with Joy we will have a little bit more. Now there are constantly times when we have not brought something with us that would be beneficial. I wonder if always having extra materials is a parent thing or individual trait. I will find out in a few months.

Wendy and I plan to see our friends again today. Other than that we have no definite plans. Since they are the guests we will let them decide where we all will go. That is fine with me. I think they at least want to eat at Bob Evans and visit the mall.

Not enough to the fill the space

I really do not have much to say at all. Just thought I would throw at few words at the screen and see what sticks. Di
d i
t
wo r k
?*

So much space to go, but so few words.

I wonder what lock the keyboard opens?

*I was hoping that would look better, but the formatting did not turn out right.

Oh synapses

There is something about memory, but I cannot remember it right now. That is the way it always is with me. I will be talking to someone and not remember some key element of the story. Then after talking with them I remember what I wanted to say. I am also like that with things. I mean to do something or grab something. Then I walk out and forget it.

The bad part about forgetting is you seem like an idiot twice. First, when you actually forget where you are going in the conversation. Then it never fails that you remember what you wanted to say minutes, sometimes hours, after the conversation. So you blurt out some random thing. Of course it was not random during the previous conversation.

Usually when I remember something I snap my fingers. I do not know why I do this. Sometimes I will also point. Maybe it is my brain firing and working through my fingers.

The good thing about a memory is that it is only as good as you remember it.

Plugging my own product

I read somewhere on some baby website that babies are protected by something called a mucus plug. It helps keep the baby safe. So I wonder if you have a stopped up nose than you are better protected. It certainly seems sometimes like I am in the womb with the weird numb feeling I get. I am not sure about you, but when I am congested and breathe I feel somewhat shaky.

I nose this is snot what you what to hear. Since I am stopped up, I will stop here.

Falling asleep

Greetings to those in the prone position.

I am not sure if it is taking my body a few days to adjust to the new sleeping arrangements. The first few nights after moving to the new bedroom I feel like I had more dreams than usual. I cannot remember them now of course. Usually I do not remember having any dreams during the night. Wendy said I also tried to fling myself out of bed. I am not sure how often I try that. At least I will not have as far to go when I hit the ground. Now we are closer to the ground. "The bed would be the same height, right?" Good point.

I think I have been sleeping okay. I have been waking up a few times and looking at the clock. With the new bedroom right down the hall I have to be careful about the noises I make. It is probably bad enough the way my body creaks as I sneak down the hall. I do not want to wake Wendy. She needs all the rest she can get. I am usually able to get mine around 7 pm. Of course being so boring helps also.

Talking about putting people to sleeezzzzzzzzzz...

Taxing

Be sure to keep your cents about you.

Today is the last day for people to file their taxes. Hopefully Uncle Sam and your state of affairs have been good to you. I am sure the post office will be crowded with people sending off their love letters to the government.

I will be glad when this week is over. It has been a long week. Much longer than this post will be.

Not too much going on here. Probably that is a good thing.

Nosey

Not that any of you care, but my throat issue is working its way up to my nose. This morning at work my nose felt like it was leaking. Only for a few minutes. Later I sneezed a couple of times. Now my nose is sore because I have been rubbing to keep myself from swallowing snot.

Oh well there could be worse things.

European or African swallows

Shouldn't coconuts have chocolate? Or is that a different kind of cocoa?

I do not think that I am getting sick, but who knows? Yesterday morning I woke up with a weird feeling in my throat. It sort of hurt, but when I swallowed. It was kind of a numbness. It last most of the day, but when I did other things I did not notice as much. This morning I feel the same sort of taste in my throat.

I will be fine in a few days. I will have to juice up probably or at least drink enough to float away.

Cashing in

Well I signed up for another round of surveys. I had not taken any for awhile. I have just been deleting them from my account. Today I fell for one. I saw an e-mail that said you get money for surveys every time. So I thought why not.

Sure they may offer you money. The offer. Most of the time you will not qualify for the survey. So since there is no survey there is no cash.

Oh well they say time is money. I will not be wasting 20 minutes answering questions. Now I can waster 20 minutes on something else.

It grows on you

Hello to those who run with scissors.

Do people really use scissors anymore? With some many cutting utensils on the market I never see anyone use scissors. Even people who give haircuts do not really cut with scissors. I was thinking about that because it is getting to bed time for a haircut. The hair on the back of my head grows faster than the front. So it hangs over my collar or curls up. The good news is I only notice when I look in the mirror. I do not look in the mirror that often.

Another thing that sneakily grows on me are my nails. I usually cut them once a week. I am not one of those who cuts them all the way to the quick. I do not think I could do that. When the time nears for me to cut them I spend a couple of days before wondering if I should cut them. At certain times they look long and then they look like they could go a couple of days.

If you would like you can spend all your time looking at the documentation or just ignore it.

It is my new goal

Greetings dribblers.

Last night at church after the youth meeting I went outside with a few of the younger boys to supervise. The church has an outdoor basketball court. With the warmer weather the guys love to go out and shoot hoops. The basketball goal is adjustable in its height. Most of the time is about six feet high. That is shorter compared the usual nine or so foot high goal. The youth like it because they can dunk. There is nothing more satisfying to them than to be able to "power dunk."

The time before I went out with the youth I was only adult supervision. They did not need me to play. That was fine. I am not even sure the last time I played basketball. Last night to make the numbers even I played. I was okay, but not great. I made a few points and even dunked once. Of course I was wide open at the time. I did make an air ball or two. To my lackluster defense I threw it over the goal.

It was pretty interesting to play. It had been a long time since I have played. I probably would have embarrassed myself more if the goal had been regulation height.

The cable guide

Greeting viewers.

You may know that Wendy and I tried to plug in our television to the guest room cable outlet and it did not work. We tried what we could think of to get it to work, but it did not. So at 10:30 pm I called TWC. The operator said someone will be out between 2 and 4. I said fine because Wendy and I would be at home all day. You can check previous posts and Wendy's blog to see activities.

Well 2 in the afternoon rolls around. We get a phone call. It is a friend who is coming into town next weekend. Wendy and her talk for a few minutes. About 3:30 the phone rings. It is TWC. The technician is running late. About 4 the technician calls and says he will be here between 4:40 and 5. We say no problem. About 5:30 the technician shows up. He apologizes for being later than the appointment. I understand how it happens.

We tell him the situation about not receiving cable in the guest room. The technician was very through. He checked each outlet. He had to replace each connection. Apparently every one of our connections was loose. The wire sticking out is supposed to be flush, but ours was reset. He had to do about five other things before looking at the outlet in the guest room.

After fixing the connections inside we go outside to the cable box. He has to fix those connections. He finds the wire for the connection of the guest room, but I guess was not getting a good signal. He has to go up on the roof to look at some wires. I am not sure exactly why. I do not know if it had something to do with the previous owners having satellite at one time.

Then he goes to the main cable line out in the yard. It was not even in our yard, but is in the neighbors. He takes at look at it and laughs. He says he wishes he had his camera phone so he could e-mail this sight. The wire was cut in three places and one of the connections was broken. This is the main cable to our house! He did what he could to correct that, but said some will come out and replace that box. He went back to the side of our house and grounded it. Apparently it was not grounded. It is amazing and sort of disturbing to see the cable guy shaking his head and wondering what is going on with the previous wiring.

The cable technician expressed his amazement how we even had cable or internet at all. We had so many loose connections and the main wire was cut. He said our internet should be fast now and our viewing should be better. It is strange because we have not had any problems.

It is just one of those strange things about this house.

Clean living

Well hello glides and brooms.

Wendy and I spent most of yesterday cleaning up our act. Once waking up and enjoying breakfast, we decided it was time to...run quick errands. The cats were in need of some litter. Wendy wanted to pick up some deep cleaning liquid. She was also interested in a steam mop to clean the floors. Two of three are not bad. We picked up the litter and Krud Kutter. The steam mop was a little more than we wanted to pay.

After our semi successful ran at shopping we returned home where we got down to business. We started in the kitchen. Wendy moved the appliances off the counter. We mixed our cleaning solution. Then sprayed and wiped. It will pretty much that easy. It is amazing how much grime can be located under an appliance. Talk about feeling crumby. For the time being the counters are pretty clean. We even cleaned the burners on the oven. I was surprised how tough they were to scrub. Then I moved to the bathroom and wiped everything down. We also did the floors to the kitchen and bathroom. We then picked up the assortment of items taking residence in our living room and vacuumed the floor.

I have to say it looks a lot better. It is amazing how the house looks different. We even had the rest of the night to sit back and relax to watch movies.

Moving on down

Well strange bedfellows,

Yesterday Wendy and I moved our bed downstairs. With help from my brother. The actual moving of the bed downstairs was not as bad as it could have been. My brother knew exactly what he was doing. The hard part is going to be rearranging everything. We had, and have to, shift a lot of things around. It seems that our junk room just keeps getting bigger.

It is going to take a little bit of time to get used to being downstairs. Plus having the cats try to climb on top of everything and making noise. When I see all the junk I have it makes me not want to buy anything else. I either want to trash it or try and sell it. I do not know how I pile up so much junk.

It was a pretty frustrating night trying to figure out where to put things. I think the room is coming together. The next problem is the cable. Their is a jack, but it did not work last night. It was only the fuzzy channel. I called TWC and a technician is coming by. I will see what he says. I hope I do not have to pay anything more. I do not mind paying five dollars one time, but I do not want to pay any more monthly. I am trying to cut down and cut out.

Well today is a clean up day. It will probably take all day. You never realize how much you have to do until you start messing with it. Maybe we can do something with this mess.

Rearrange my place

Hello all you bed bugs.

Wendy and I have been discussing what to do about our sleeping arrangements. Joy's nursery is downstairs and our slumber chamber is upstairs. It is a long way from room to room. Especially at 3 in the am in a dark house. We are going to transfer our bedroom to what is to become the former guest room. Well to the three guests we had.

Our plan is to at least move the bed and a nightstand to the room tonight. Thanks in advance and post to my brother who agreed to help. I am not sure what we will do with the other furniture.

Due to our odd collection of assortments we may be running up and down for out things. At least we will have what we need for Joy downstairs.

An odd thought for Friday or any day of the week. I hear about nursery rhymes, but does nursery actually rhyme with anything?

Jump around

Greetings to you cool guys and girls.

I mentioned my issues with my thermostat the other day. I think they are resolved. Yesterday I called a number for Honeywell, the manufacturer of my thermostat. I thought well they might be able to help me or maybe someone has had this problem before. When I called it was an operator who sounded like she was from India. Fortunately she was nice. She tried to help me, but being at work I was not in front of the unit. So she suggested I call back later.

While at work I made use of my time and googled my thermostat. I stumbled upon some forums of people who had issues with my thermostat. Most of them were issues in heating. I did see questions about the cooling. There were a few answers, but not exactly the one I was looking for. My supervisor, who is a handy guy, and I were looking at the manual. I told him about the problem of no fan in auto mode. We thought about the jumper. For some reason my just had three prongs. I had no idea what to do with them. My supervisor mentioned using a wire to connect two of the prongs. These prongs told the thermostat whether it was gas or electric. Apparently most thermostats have a switch, according to my dad.

Once I arrive home I immediately call Honeywell. I get another Indian representative. She asks me questions about the wiring. She tells me it is correct and wants me to get someone to look at the fan. I tell her I was able to get the fan to come on when I wired it another way. She has me remove some wires. I think she wanted the fan to come on. It did not. At first she said the thermostat unit worked, then she said the problem was the thermostat. She wanted to return this one for a new one. I thought to myself how could it have worked in heat but not in cooling? I asked her about the jumper switch. She said that had nothing to do with the cooling. It only effected the heating. Apparently there is supposed to be a plastic cover you can move according to your heating system. Mine did not have this. I am not sure if I lost it or it never had it.

I am distressed because I don't think Lowes will take back the thermostat. It has been since October. I have no idea where the receipt is, plus I no longer have the box. I was under the impression the thermostat was functioning. It produced heat for the past months.

I call my dad about the results I got. He suggested using a bread tie,stripped of course, to wrap around the prongs. In the manual it said this jumper 2 helped with the fan. I had a hard time wrapping the wire around the prongs, but I got it. I put the thermostat back on the wall. Turned it too cooling. Waited a few minutes. Then the fan and my unit came on. It dropped the temperature a few degrees. It worked! My dad suggested I get a plastic piece to cover those prongs, like I am supposed to have.

So I call back Honeywell hoping to get the piece. This time I get an Indian man. When I ask about getting the jumper piece he tells me it has nothing to do with the cooling. Yet I know that when I used the jumper it worked. He wants me to return the thermostat to Lowes. So I just say thanks and hang up.

I cannot believe they will not send me a cheap plastic piece. I guess I will have to find one. My dad says those plastic pieces can be found on computer motherboards or modems. I know I have seen them. They just cover metal prongs to protect them. Maybe I can track one down or find one in a store.

At least the thermostat is working. I would feel better about having the plastic piece on the prongs. I ran the thermostat again once Wendy got home. It was previously warm in the house because of the temperatures and the use of the dryer.

I knew it had something to do with the jumper. I could not figure out why it had prongs that went nowhere. Now I know. They were meant to be covered. I knew just enough to not get anywhere. My dad has an extra thermostat. I might get that from him and install that one. If my Honeywell is "not working." I will not be spending money on a new one. Would Lowes take the old one back? I am not sure, but I don't really want the hassle if I can avoid it.

Losing my cool

I cannot remember if I have already used that title or not.

Last night was not a good night for me and technology.

First Wendy and I were going to watch a movie we received through Netflix. I put the disc in the player. After a few moments of nothingness, it tells me cannot play disc. I take out the disc and wipe it off. I put it back in the machine. Nothing and then the same message. I take out the disc and it looks like there is a groove not supposed to be there. Wendy takes a look and feels that the disc is bent. Netflix is beginning to hurt my feelings. This is the second mishap in two movies. Just the other day Couples Retreat was in the queue. They sent Observe and Report in the Couples Retreat sleeve.

The next thing to set me off involved the thermostat. Wendy decided it was time to turn on the air since it was 90 degrees outside. She did not sleep that well because of the heat. So I switch the thermostat from heat to cool. The cooling icon comes on. The outside unit comes on, but the fan does not come on. This is a digital thermostat we recently acquired. We installed along the time right before the cool weather. So I know the heat works. I had to get some help in installing it. I could not figure out how to put the wires in.

I have a feeling the wires are right. So I went to the panel and flipped the switch on and off. Still the same result. Everything would come on except the fan. The fan would come on in the on position, but I only want the fan on when it is needed. So I check the wires and they seem to be right. Just out of curiosity I switch some of the wires. Then the fan worked on auto, but the outside unit did not come on.

Needless to say I was not happy last night. I was hot under the collar and not because of the heat. I am going to get some input about this. I did find a number to call on the manual. When I called it last night they had already closed for the day.

I do not know why it is not working right now. I may not be able to figure it out myself, but I will certainly ask someone. It will be solved one way or another. Even if I have to pry the solution out of my cold dead hands.

Got any cheese?

Hail mail.

As I was sitting here waiting on Wendy to arrive home from work I decided to be productive. Not too productive of course. A few weeks ago Wendy and I cleaned out a spare bedroom. Most of it was my junk. Mainly papers and old mail from my college days. This was the box I was going through. I had letters from my freshman year in college. That was 1997. That is almost 13 years ago! It does not seem like it was that long ago. It is weird how yesterday seems so long ago, yet 10 years does not seem very long ago. Most of the mail was from my mom. She was pretty good about sending a card around once a week. I hope that I am that prolific in expressing my love for Joy as she ages. I doubt it will be on paper.

I don't know why I seem to hoard paper. I think it is one of those things I look at for the time being and set aside. Then it just builds. In my reasoning I think that is neat (Who says "neat" anymore?) so I will save it. Then I forget about it for 10 plus years. Until Wendy says it is time for a clean up. Then I recycle it.

I was also looking through old photos. You know the ones you actually had to develop. I took horrible pictures. Most of them were so blurry that I cannot tell what they are. I was notorious for having 32 shots of film, but only 5 came out. I think the digital age has improved my picture taking. I am still not the greatest. I should take more pictures. Occasionally I drag around a camera, but never use it. With my bad memory I need some evidence. Although it depends on the situation.

My advice as someone who never reads mail, send it anyway. The person may not read it now, but they will enjoy going through it later. Even if it is not a letter people like to receive something. It helps if they can read.

Hopefully I am not the worst pack rat. Although I can be quiet as a mouse.

Hard to come up with the right words

So I just left them.

I really have nothing much to say so I will just let me fingers type.

I am ready for the weekend again. I think it is going to be a long week. It seems like it will be a slow week. Although when I think it is going to be quiet, that is when things seems to happen.

What is the deal with all the pollen? I have not seen too many people sneezing yet. I pull into the parking lot at work yesterday and the whole lot was covered. Everything was green. The cars are completely covered.

I think that having cats are getting me used to a future child. They get into everything. You have to feed them and clean up after them. Just when they make you mad they do something cute.

Duke did win. Barely.

Big game. Big hype

Hello to those who are looking to go to court.

The basketball court.

It is interesting how all the national news is making a David vs Goliath reference in tonight's NCAA championship. I can see the big story. Duke has won a few titles while Butler has never made it to the Final Four. However, the local news makes a show of Duke crushing Butler. Of course that is because I live in North Carolina.

Most of the time the lower ranked team does well. You cannot tell by this year's brackets though. That is why the David vs Goliath references are used when they can. It does not happen too much.

I cannot figure out why the game is not until 9:21 pm. That seems really late. It might be because of where it is playing and it is earlier there. I think it is because they are college students after all and used to all nighters.

I will not watch the game, but I will at least pay attention to the results tomorrow morning.

I'm not loving it

Greetings to those after the chocolate high.

Well the weekend is over. Why do the so called long weekends pass by the fastest? It seems like it was just Friday. I do not even remember doing anything over the weekend. The hard part about traveling over the weekend is that part of the weekend is taken up by getting to and from your destination. Then you have to acclimate yourself back to your house. Oh well, one day at a time.

Speaking of traveling, Wendy and I went to McDonald's twice over the weekend. Technically three times. Each time it was crowded. I was shocked. The first time we could not even get in the parking lot since the drive thru line was so long. Wendy and I agreed it was not worth the wait. The next McDonald's had a long line also, but it went quickly. This was lunch Friday. Then Saturday morning since we were out and about with Wendy's parents we went to Happy Meal land for breakfast. As we pulled in the parking lot it was crowded. It did thin out as we were there. I guess everyone was traveling and wanted something quick. I heard Wendy's mom say they are getting rid of Ronald McDonald. I think someone joked over the weekend and said people were sending their condolences.

Wendy and I came back to Cary down I40 probably at a bad time. It was Sunday afternoon. Of course traffic was bad. It always seems bad. Although it did not take too much longer to get home than normal. I guess it looked worse than it was. It was annoying to me because traffic would stall and then take off. I guess it was people trying to access I40. I saw a guy with Tennessee plates get cut off about five times. That was annoying to me.

I am surprised at how many cars just have one person in them. What a waste of cars. I am guilty of traveling by myself most of the time. I believe in highway reform. Why not make people travel together if on the highway. It would decrease the level of traffic. If people had to start riding together I would invest in deodorant stock. I don't think people will give up their car to ride with others.

I guess it is all about riding in style. Better than riding in anger.

No, I won't talk about the IPad

With all the hype it was the only title I could come up with. I do not even own an Apple product. Would I love one? Sure. Am I going to get one? Probably not.

This weekend Wendy and I are visiting her parents. It is a pretty quiet weekend. Usually they have big plans. So far we have not done that much. Of course for a few hours we were busy. Going out to eat, trip to Walmart, and Easter egg hunt. A little less than the usual.

Tomorrow is Easter. A time to remember new life. It seems noteworthy at this time for us because of the new arrival we are expecting.

By the way I did get my Cadbury egg. It is not the creme, but caramel. Walmart was out of the creme. I have not had it yet. Good things come to those who wait, at least some people say that.

It is what is on the inside that counts

Greetings to all you hunters.

Many of you have busy weekend plans. You search to get sugared up. Fortunately it is the weekend so you have a couple of days to burn off the energy before Monday morning. I wonder if churches do Easter egg hunts on Saturday so the kids will be sugared up to wake up their parents for early morning services. Just wondering.

Wendy and I have not had our Cadbury Creme eggs yet. I went to Big Lots the other day hoping to pick up some. Unfortunately, they did not have any. I think I saw some with fudge, but it is not the same thing. I will have to make a trip somewhere to pick some up. Of course I could get them after Easter when everything goes on stale, uh, I mean sale.

This is the first Easter weekend that I remember that is actually warm. For some reason Easter is always cool and rainy. I guess it does mark the transition of new life. We go from the cold and dying to the warm and new life.

I hope you find what you are looking for.

Your phone is talking to you

I know the majority of you could care less and the majority of you do not read this anyway, but I heard something interesting.

Wendy came home from work the other day telling me that her phone told her who was calling before it rang. She said at first it scared her because she had no idea what was going on. I told her that my phone had not done that when she called me. So I went through her phone settings to see what I could find. The phone has a call alert feature that will tell you who is calling if selected. Now you know when to ignore your phone. However it tells everyone who is calling you. I say make your contact list full of famous names. It will make your friends jealous.

It is sad that I had to call myself to test the feature on my phone.

It is a first.

Well we made it to April. And temperatures in the 80s.

For most people I think it will be the end of the work week. I hope to the others that have to work tomorrow you get Monday off. Everybody should get a 3 day weekend or is it a 3 day work week? I can never remember.

I hear a lot of people warning that pranks and jokes are on the way today. You can either completely ignore everything you hear today. Or you can completely believe everything you hear. Then the joke will be on the person who told you the joke. Because he did not believe you would believe it.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, lawsuit!
*That reminds of a joke. Why are attorneys well dressed? Because of all the lawsuits.

Some people joke, other people are jerks. I think it depends on how much you like them.

Baby talk

A Goo goog A ga ga.

I hear it is important to talk to the baby in the womb. I know that it helps development and probably helps to recognize you when the baby makes a debut.

As you can tell from my babbling and incoherency here I do not have much to say. I am not very good at conversation. I can never think of anything to say. It is strange because I do read, okay skim, and I like to listen to podcasts.

I know I need to do a better job of talking to Joy. This may be the only time she listens to me. I better take advantage of her being a captive audience.

Come and go

Wendy and I were talking this morning. We do that from time to time. We were thinking about the employees at my work. I have been there longer than about half of them. I have only been there full time for five years, but a couple of years longer including part time.

If you think about it I have seen a lot of people come and go.

It's the eighties ladies!

I don't think elderly women are attacking everyone, but I cannot be sure. In a few days the temperatures will be in the 80s. The heat will on and I am about to lose my cool. I am ready for the warm weather. I enjoy warmer temperatures.

I do not remember it getting so warm so early. Usually Easter is cool and rainy. According to the forecast it may be close to 90 on Good Friday. That would be a good Friday.

Hopefully this is shaping up to be a good week. Warmer temperatures. Payday on Wednesday. No work on Friday. Easter weekend.

Energize

Hello to all of you made of molecules. Who am I to say if they are in the right place?

This morning I am taking some time off work to go with Wendy to a doctor's appointment. If she wants she will tell you more about it. All I know is that she has to chug some solution that is supposed to taste horrible.

I know that I talk about being worn down a lot. These couple of days I have felt it more. I had quit my habit of passing out on the couch for a few days. Now it is back. I get tired around 6:18 every evening. Wendy and I have been going to bed earlier and I still feel tired. I used to could get up in the morning and actually do things. Now I get out of bed and feel like taking a nap. I have no idea how it will be when I have to function on a lot less sleep.

I guess if I do start to yawn a lot, throw some food my way.

Mow em down

Well it is getting to be that time. I need to begin mowing the grass again. I have not done it yet. I thought about it at least. Does that count for something? It always seems that parts of the yard grow faster than others. Then the other three fourths do not really grow.

At least I get some exercise. Sometimes I am such a push over. Other times I use a push mower.

Severe is near

Greetings to those who breathe the air.

Wendy and I noticed yesterday that the wind was pretty strong. It was blowing and shaking a lot of the trees. I could feel the gusts hitting the car on the drive home. As we were sitting around our house we saw the effects of the wind. Wendy and I wondered if there were any warnings. Wendy checked online and they was a tornado warning for our county.

During the night the rain started. It came down hard at certain points. I almost wondered about our skylights. At some point Wendy turned on the tv to check what was going on. The news had extended the warning. I did notice that the rain slacked off right after she turned on the tv. Then it started up again.

I am glad that we did not lose power. Looking at the forecast it does look like a wet day. I am thankful we did not get the damage some places received.

Weekend finally...but now over.

I know you thought you had heard the last of me. Not quite.

Wendy and I have had a busy end of week and weekend. It has been pretty productive.
Thursday night through Sunday we were house and animal sitting for some friends. It is usually good to get away. We do not have internet access at their house. We are out of the loop.

I do not remember Friday at all. Which I guess is good. Then Saturday was busy. We updated and downgraded our phones. We are no longer Blackberry users. We have just generic phones. Although they do slide out with a Qwerty keyboard. I think Wendy really likes the phone. I already like the bill. It is much cheaper than our previous bill. We did not use the internet enough on the phone to warrant the expense. Now we can save the extra money or use it for another bill. After that we met a friend for Wendy to do some clothes shopping. She found one outfit and still has money leftover to get another outfit. Saturday night we watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons." It was okay, but long. Fortunately, for our bodies Friday night we went to bed very early.

Sunday, which I guess is today, was another busy day. It is Wendy's mother's birthday. Plus her church was honoring her for 25 years teaching Sunday School. So they wanted the family there. Wendy and I surprised her mother by attending. It was pretty nice and the food was good.

I am ready for the week to be over. It will be the end of March, plus we do not have to work Friday.

Feeling a little short

Greetings people with nothing up their sleeves.

I think I will try to wear short sleeves today. The thing that gets me is the cool temps in the morning and then it is warm in the afternoon. Well at least for today. It is supposed to be cool all weekend. I guess I should take advantage of the warm weather as I can.

I really wish today was Friday. I do not like why March is crawling. I am ready for next week. You cannot beat payday and a day off in the same week.

Snuggle with the hand that feeds you

Better to have hand to mouth than foot in mouth.

One of our cats, Metro, has been snuggling with us recently. He will stare at us for a few minutes and then jump in our lap. He will lie down with Wendy before bedtime. As I am typing on the computer he will nose his way to the keyboard. This is the cat that used to randomly bite us. He has calmed down a lot.

Okay it is mainly because he is hungry. He knows when it is getting close to feeding time and we off course are sitting there. He is the dinnertime alarm clock.

In a completely unrelated event-What is going on with the weather? It is supposed to be cooler and wet over the weekend. I guess we need to take over the rest of the week and work the weekend. Or maybe not.

At least if the weather is bad, you have animals to keep you entertained.

March is more like walking

Dear March winds,

I wish you would blow on through. It feels like this is such a long month. And we still have to go into next week. I think I am ready for April because of the day off. It will be good to get a break from work. Plus I am hoping for the nice weather. I am not looking forward to the weeds growing in my yard. They are already here.

Plus there are more exciting things happen later than now.

Health me please

Well I have no idea what the future holds.

I do hope that tomorrow is a better day than today was. Everything I touched today turned out wrong. It is a completely frustrating day.

With the new passage of health care bill I can get a better premium with Dr. Death.

Room to breathe

Hey space savers.

Yesterday was a productive day. We started to straighten up the extra bedroom which had become a junk room. We already had a bunch of old things that we were going to get rid off. The boxes were sitting in the floor taking up a lot of room. You could not even walk around in the room. Wendy was off work Friday so she had cleaned up some. So we finished going through the things laying around.

Then we ended up going through my closet. Wendy and I got rid of several old shirts and pants. I was surprised how many clothes I had and do not wear. It still feels like I have a bunch of clothes in the closet. I had two previous bags to get rid of from a clean up last year.

So we made our way to the local thrift shop to drop off our former belongings. It was a pretty big give a way. It was about six bags and four boxes. Mainly clothes and miscellaneous items. It is amazing what we had collected over the years.

The room is for the most part clean. At least everything is out of the floor. I think it will always be a work in progress.

After dropping off the materials we went grocery shopping. We had nothing in the house to eat. Now we have a few things to munch on. Then we came back to finish straightening the room.

We also went to contemporary worship service at our church last night. It was pretty good. Then we came home to watch Seven Ponds. The movie was pretty strange. For me it was a little hard to get into. It is a pretty depressing movie with a few happy parts. It is amazing to me that Will Smith plays characters who are so versatile. One minute is doing action scenes and the next minute is a genius. I guess it is all in the script.

Priced to move

Greetings to those with taste.

This week it seems that restaurants are trying to maximize there customers. You may know what I am talking about. IHOP and Denny's have had cheap specials in the past hoping to draw people in. Most people will buy something else instead of the special.

The other day Jimmy Johns was having a dollar sub. The sub was pretty big. So looking for a deal Wendy and I went. We found a crowd. The line did move fast and we got out food. We both got sandwiches. Wendy bought a drink and I bought chips. We both paid two dollars. I am thinking that with the line out the door for most of the afternoon they made money or at least broke even. If you have ten people buying one dollar subs compared to one person buying a five dollar sub.

Cici's pizza is dropping their buffet price for a few days. It is back to the price when they first opened. So last night Wendy and I went for dinner. The crowd was not too bad. When we first got to the restaurant, there was not much pizza on the buffet. It had pretty much been wiped clean. I was thinking if you are going to have a promotion of a cheap buffet at least keep it filled so people do not have to wait in line. Fortunately, they did a better job later that night. It must have also been two for the price of one night because we saw about eight pregnant women there.

Rita's Italian Ice is doing a promotion also. We will be there today. I will let you know how it goes.

It is good to get more food for less.

At last

Greetings to those in the human race.

It has been a long week. I am glad it is Friday. I do not think we have anything planned this weekend. We will probably clean up a guest room which became a junk room. Hopefully we will find some things to give away. Most of it we do not want. Plus we need the room. We have not looked at it in years anyway. Only to say, "We still have that."

Wendy gets to enjoy some needed time off today. I would join her, but all the jobs I have been working on this week need to be done today. Of course the materials are coming in today. I think Friday is sometimes the new Monday.

According to the forecast it is supposed to be nice. I am glad for the people who have outside plans. Most of the time I sit around the house. At least it will be naturally comfortable in the house, hopefully.

Alive and kicking

Hello to all with feats of strength.

Joy is doing well. According to Wendy she is kicking like an all star. I have even felt her movement. Wendy loves to lie in bed at night and watch Joy's progress. I will be just about asleep and Wendy will ask, "Did you see that?" I did happen to see movement last night.

It is interesting to hear from other moms about mannerisms that the babies have. Then they say, "Oh, that is what was going on." It will be interesting to see in a couple of months what Joy has been doing.

Shaken not stirred

Greetings to those who see the glass full.

It may be full of the particles leftover from you mixed in. I can never completely dissolve packet mixes that I put into my liquids. Every time I put a packet of mix into my drink I stir. I think I get everything mixed well. Then I finish the drink and on the bottom of the cup is clumps. Most of the time it happens with hot chocolate. It always happens with a powder mix that Wendy has.

Sometimes I can turn up the cup and the clumps will slide. Other times I can tap on the cup and it will loosen. Every once and awhile I will poke at the residue with my finger. I usually try to get it all. Even though it is basically powder. They say it is good to the last drop. I always wonder how the last drop is supposed to taste then.

There is a cup-le things to get you going today.

They call it a plan

Hello to all with your listening ears.

Wendy and I are talking about changing our cell phone service. We are only about a year and a half, if that into our current plan. We want something a little cheaper. We use some of the services our phone and plan provides, but not enough to warrant the current cost.

Yesterday afternoon Wendy was on our carrier site and saw that one could change the plan with change of contract. So last night we thought we would give it a try. We look around on the site. We choose the button to change plan. We wait. For some reason it was so slow. Then we it finally loaded there were only three plans.

We did find a family plan that looked to suit our needs and it would save our money. For some reason they wanted us to update our phones. We were not sure what that meant. The phones they showed us were well over 200 dollars and into the 400s. So to save 30 dollars we would have to shell out 200?

I guess we will have to go into the store. I hope it will be a better experience than the website. We did not want to get abused why we do not like our current plan. However, the lack of personal interaction did not help us this time. A couple of times we have gone into a cell phone store we have not had the best customer service. I guess you could say they were trying to phone it in.

Why the long face?

Greetings gassy ones.

I noticed coming home from work that fuel prices are increasing. Last Friday I had to tank up so I went by a fuel station that is usually cheap. But to my horror it was one penny more than a gas station I passed closer to my house. I put in my little bit of money and went to work. Then that afternoon I was driving home from work and the gas price was nine cents cheaper. Today it started with its normal price and by the end of the day was close to what it was Friday. Why is it playing yo-yo with the price and my emotions?

Cars are a lot of trouble. I should get a bicycle. They seem expensive, but think of the money saved after a month or two. The only thing is they are not great for carrying things. Plus you have to pedal. As I learned watching the Amazing Race, I could get a horse. Hay, neeiighbor! I wonder if they eat grass or just poop in it. That way I could get rid of my lawn mower.

Just horsing around with some ideas. Maybe it will keep my emotions stable.

Hourly employee

Well it is time for another one.

Over the weekend we went through daylight savings time. It was the spring forward. I guess you think about it as completing tasks an hour earlier. Since it hits around 2 or 3 am most people think about the hour of sleep they have lost.

The good thing is the longer daylight. It will be nice for it not to get dark until later. Not that I go out much at night.

Good enough to eat twice

Salutations stuff,

Wendy and I had pretty good weekend food wise. Earlier in the week work had a bunch of activities. So of course there was free food. I was able to snag some leftovers and bring some goodies home to Wendy. It made a couple of good anniversary presents, though I doubt Wendy saw them as that. I brought home a large pan of fettuccine alfredo. Apparently the caters brought way more than needed. The building was begging people to take some home. Wendy and I have eaten a couple of meals off it and have not made a dent.

Then of course was the barbecue dinner at church Friday. I helped a little bit with the cleanup. So I was able to score some dessert and a carton of potatoes. We also took home some of the cake from the baby shower the other day.

I think we will be set for awhile on the food front. How is it that the desserts get eaten faster than the other food items?

Tickled pink

Hello girls and guys.

Yesterday our church had a dual shower for us and another pregnant couple in our Sunday School class. That was one of the many activities that the church had going on this weekend. I think it was possible that with everything going on some people of the church could have been 48 hours.

The shower was very nice. It was pretty well attended. We had no idea what to expect. We were almost late because we took a late afternoon nap. There were the mints, veggie trays, crackers and pimento cheese. Of course there was cake and punch. The women of our Sunday School class did a great job. We found out later they had been there most of the afternoon.

I am sure you are interested in the presents. Well I am also. It is apparently a tradition at the church for the gifts to be placed in a crib during the baby shower. That was pretty neat to see a crib full of gifts. We received diapers, blankets, onesies, outfits, lotions, and other baby memorabilia. I cannot even tell you want some of it is. I hope Wendy knows what it is and the use for it. I can tell you it is greatly appreciated.

There was a party game of guess the flavor of the baby food. There were seven jars of baby food with the label peeled off. The winner received a basket of items made in North Carolina.

It was a great kickoff for the shower season.

Shower the people you love

I suppose that would be us.

Today is going to be a busy day for us. Wendy has a haircut appointment in the morning, errands to run, and a baby shower in the afternoon. It does seem that everything happens at the same time. There is no in between. We sit around the house bored or we are gone all weekend.

The church is hosting a baby shower for us. Any gift we get is a gift we do not have to buy. Plus I guess there will be little cakes to eat.

I am glad it is Saturday. Sunday will be a day of rest though.

Out in the field

Hello Friday feelers

Wendy and I watched the movie "Cloverfield" last night. Yes, there was material on this disc. I am still not sure if that was good or not. The movie was bizarre. I could not really make sense of it. It was on of those thrillers that throws action at you but not much plot. I think it was meant to take a look back at what happened. However, I am the one saying what happened.

I have no idea why it was called "Cloverfield". Did the alien destroy just New York? How many aliens were there? I am not a big fan of movies where they do not wrap everything up. I guess I like everything explained to me.

There have been a lot of movies where the plot is that the viewer is watching what happened to the characters after they died. I guess if you think about it that is the same thing as a book.

The good news about this movie is it was only an hour thirty. A little bit of a time waster. It did the one camera action like one of the characters was filming a movie. I guess it was a nice camera, but it would blank out at random times.

If you are reading this then it probably got posted.

The rain reigns

Well it looks like we might be soggy bottom boys. I saw that rain is projected in the forecast through Saturday. The good news is that the temperature will be warm. Is that fog in my head or is it outside?

Wendy and I watched the movie "Precious" last night. It was an okay movie. The main character went through a lot. I cannot remember how it ended. I think I say it was based on a true story. That is the way life usually is. You go through life and face struggles. Things for the most part work out. However, you are not exactly sure how.

I am not sure if I mentioned this or not, but the other night Wendy and tried to watch "Cloverfield." However, the disc was blank. I put in the movie and the counter started, but nothing on the screen. Not even the menu or previews. I have never seen that before. We are supposed to get the movie again today. Hopefully we will see what happens.

Three-dom

Years ago, it was three, Wendy and I were married. It has been my best decision in my three decades.

Wendy is helping me to improve. No matter have much screaming and sleeping I do. Who knows what I would be doing without her? Probably even less than I am now.

I know that I am not the easiest person to live with, but Wendy does a great job at putting up with me. I should show Wendy more that I love her. At least I have the rest of my life.

I love you Wendy. Here is to many more years together.

Road is paved good intentions

Greetings visitors to our streets.

After four months the streets are finally paved. A paving company came something in November to work on the streets in our neighborhood. However, the streets required more care than at first thought. There were not only cracks, but apparently the curbs needed attention. The crew would come out for a day. Then it would rain for two days. Imagine the process until our frigid winter. Then we did not see the paving crew for 3 months.

We did see evidence of their work. The potholes were raised about the road. Something to avoid. There were barrels in the middle of the street. Something to avoid. Along with the cars parked on the side of the street.

We had no idea what was going on. There was not much communication. Finally about a month ago we received a letter saying the paving company would come out sometime. They needed dry weather and highs above 50 degrees. Of course we did not have this. Then last week on the mailbox was a letter saying the paving company would be back to finish the job.

Today was that day. The streets are paved and clear. It is safe to drive again. Well maybe.