Tuesady morning working

I actually almost feel like I have a job this morning. Here I am sitting at the computer at a good start work hour, and I am writing up the itinerary for my trip. Adjusting the days where I will be, verifying contact numbers and confirming the dates I will be staying with people. Almost makes me feel like work.

17 days and counting down.

This past weekend was nothing major exciting. The 4th is Saurday approaching, and we are planning on spending the day at my sister's.

I am still trying to finish up all the scanning. I have no clue if I will have it 100% done by the time I leave or not. The Wife keeps bringing up more stuff for the other project (that we still have to complete our family photos for). The Wife is being lazy and not realizing there is a deadline to get the items in. That makes me so frustrated at times. She loves to put things off to the last minute. Now I know where the daughter gets the trait from. Myself, I like to be early - not on time.

Now, see! I done got myself a bit pissy already this morning. It sure does feel like work.

That's it for now. Look for more later.

PeacE

A Simple Friday Post

Man, it has been a pretty boring week here at my house. Today I doing a remote post from my sister's place. She had asked for some help about getting around Facebook and her security. Yeehaw.

I should have my revised itinerary for my trip. I had to adjust a couple of days, but that is no big deal.

Got some funny pics to post but I am not at home. Will have to wait til next time I guess.

PeacE

Hmmmm.... What should I put here?

That's my thought for the day. I have nothing exciting to share. So I am just gonna spout some one liners and see where it goes.

My typing is atrocious today. Thank goodness for spellcheck.

Under 30 days until I leave for my trip to Indy. Heard back from my friend in MI, and I need to re-arrange a couple days, but otherwise things should work out nicely.

DCI (Drum Corps International) is tomorrow night, but this year we won't be attending. We didn't find out til last minute, and the regular price of tickets are a bit high. The last two years, my Wife's boss's son was in the Corps from Tempe, and we were able to get advance discount tickets. The daughter is going though with some friends. She gets some additional credit points for band next year for attending.

Summer is back in AZ. As of yesterday morning, they are saying 109 by Friday. It was nice having early June under 100 for several days. I am ready to head to Reverend Mother's and enjoy the pool.

Still scanning pictures. Most of what I am down to are ones I can't place the year or estimate the age of the kids. The Wife will have to sit down with me, and maybe even bring the daughter in for consult. I still hope to be done prior to leaving.

I still have that Ice cold tea craving. My Wife is so good to me, she picked up a can of tea mix when she got milk last night on her way home from work. Ain't she the best!!! I've already had 2 large glasses this morning. At this rate, I'll need another can of mix by the weekend.

Okay, that's enough for now. I am off to read for a bit then I don't know what. Might meet a friend and help him celebrate a birthday - who knows.

But that pool over at Reverend Mother's sounds good about now... no kids, me and a radio and a pitcher of iced tea. Sure sounds good.

PeacE

Another Good Sunday

Happy Father's Day to those out there that it applies too!

For part of my special day, the family went out to supper last night to Garcia's, and I stuffed myself. It was a good dinner and the kids didn't fight or fuss - quite a surprise at that! I had been craving ice cold tea all day, and I must have had 10 glasses of it throughout our time in the restaurant. And that El Magnifico Sampler platter just really hit the food spot! Some of us had watched a made for TV movies called "Category 6: Day of Destruction" earlier in the day, and we finished out the night after dinner watching "Category 7" a sequel to the other. Kinda cheesy, but the good part was each was 3 hours long, and family time together for them.

Today will be spent with my heading back to bed to cat nap and read a bit. Then when the Wife and kids get home from church, we'll head to my sister's place, and spend the afternoon there for a BBQ and meet up with my parents. Afterwards, we'll swing by my in-laws to do Dad's presents there. It sure is looking to be another good day.

I like to think that I am not a real verbal person when it comes to certain topics like politics or religion, but I have come across a good example, that what I think may not be true. I mean, I know I have caught myself at different times in the bar discussing either of these subjects (very taboo) but around the home, I figured no, I don't. Another of life's lessons that kids note the smallest details about how they see the parents and others in the house do/say/act upon things. The following is a scan of some schoolwork my 6 year old son had done this last year. The Wife had found it ( I don't know where, since it has what appears to be juice stains on it and it was pretty wrinkled) and shown to me several weeks/months back. I came across it again as I was going through a stack of paperwork/magazines/etc stacked near the computer.


Amazing where kids get this stuff, huh? A six year old making his first political statement. Almost brings a tear of joy to the eye. I am curious what his teacher thought when she read it....

What else have I got for you today? Hmmmm, still working on my Scan Project. I should hope to be done with it near the end of this week, maybe the first of next. At least the scanning part. Then I still need to organize/move the current digital pictures into the proper corresponding order/categories I did the scans. THEN - it'll be nice and easy to locate certain pics, and saving new ones will be easier label. *Sigh* I get excited when I think how nice it will be once I actually get it done.

My Sister and brother (Stuman) decided to return to Indiana for the family get together this July. The Sis called me yesterday to let me know they got their tickets and what days they were staying. I think she just couldn't stand me going by myself and having a good time. Sisters are that way sometimes. I will have to call my buddy in Michigan as he hasn't responded yet about staying there a couple days. Hope that will work out still.

Friday I took Rusty (you know, Spawn of Satan) tot eh Vet for his 3rd set of booster shots/vaccines. That lil pig gained 1 and 1/4 pounds since his last visit 3 weeks prior. Yeah, he sure is nice and healthy compared to the way the Wife found him about 10 weeks ago. Damn cat. Sometimes I get happy thoughts when I think of just in a few months, I'll be taking him in to get neutered. Yeah, that should help mellow him out.

Guess that is about all I got for you today. Looking forward to this afternoon and maybe getting to play with my new camera some more. Who knows, maybe I can get some good pics to post.

PeacE

Might be worth the Wait

Welcome to another Friday. Though, truly it is a day that I have nothing to blab about on here. However, it has been one hell of a morning. For some reason, again I was awake at 3am and even after doing emails, and playing a couple little games, I could not sleep. Instead, as I lay in bed, a story started unfolding in my head.

I thought, that would be sort of cool if I could remember all this and get it at least into short form to get the details. Since then, I have not been able to do that. In fact, I decided by 5am that I had better start typing. So I did. As I am typing, I am getting more and more story idea and no time to put it down to paper because I might forget what I am writing now.... Damn! When writer's block goes, the damn flood pours!

Without further ado - go over to my other site and check out chapter 1. Open for any and all criticism - anyone knows I am not a perfect writer.
Oh, you can find it quicker by clicking here.....

Can't believe I am on a roll. Gonna have to stop in a bit to run Rusty to the vet though - it is booster day!

PeacE

A Month to Go and Counting ...

Only another month until I leave for my trip. I am still trying to finalize where I will be staying/visiting, but overall I am still not too excited yet. Wait til a day or two ahead of, then I won't be able to sleep.

I joined DoubleDay book club at the beginning of the month, and yesterday the load came in. It was nice to get 6 new books, in hardback, as my stash was starting to run low. Got some nice new releases too.

Still working on my scanning project. The end is in near sight now. I figure a couple more days of sticking to it, and I'll be done scanning. Then it will be arranging the digital pics already done, into the categories I set up scanning. Still quite a bit of work, but should be done before I leave.

That doesn't leave much of interest for you. My days have been pretty boring. Yesterday I was feeling a bit sick. I was thinking more like a cold kind of sick, but the Wife was trying to turn it into Swine Flu. She says it attacks more like a cold than the flu. I brushed her off and took some NyQuil last night. I am feeling lots better today. Good enough to head to the pub after bit and read one of my new books.

PeacE

"What You Were" thingy I came across

I found this over at StraightWhiteGuy's and thought I would do it too. Here are my reults, which I found rather humorous. You can do it too - click here.

Your past life diagnosis:
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I don't know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Ireland around the year 1475. Your profession was that of a artist, magician or fortune teller.
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Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Bohemian personality, mysterious, highly gifted, capable to understand ancient books. With a magician's abilities, you could have been a servant of dark forces.
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The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
Your task is to learn, to love and to trust the universe. You are bound to think, study, reflect, and to develop inner wisdom.
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PeacE

Okay, and a Whoopie!!!

Yep. Exciting header/headline today, ay? Hmph. I noticed that I finally got over the 25K mark (accolades of applause for those that care). I even wanted to copy the info of the winner, but when I looked....OMG. Hoosierboy had a nice rounded out big hit, and it was the same person! Someone, who's ISP is out of Shady Springs, WV, is the big whole lotta nothing winner. Twice over even. yee haw.

Again, the weekend is here, and I ain't got nothing for you. I am so pathetic. I did have a good time at the bar, seeing a friend that is leaving for Atlanta in a couple weeks. That was cool.

The Daughter is gone to help do VBS for a remote town with her Grandpa this week. So it is the boys, Mom, and I. Hmmmm... wonder what sorta trouble we can cause.

Went shopping today. The original intent was to help me get some clothes for my trip to Ind. Ended up buying much more. Needless to say I got the new digital camera, a Sony DSC-W230 which was way cool. I get the new one for my trip. The Wife keeps the old one. She knows how to work it better. Heh. Sorta like the rest of life's things.

Ok, nothing more today. Maybe on Monday.

If yer in Shady Springs, WV, I would love to know it. If your ISP is based there, same thing.

PeacE

Management of Boredom and Anger

I never was very good at managing either of these two issues, and like life generally goes in my household, they were here this week.

The boring part is mostly just me doing some work that is monotonous. Sitting a couple hours at a time doing a repetitious duty just drives me insane. Though I could sit and read for hours, I can't do that to scan pics.

Then let's get to the anger part. Yeah, the Daughter loves to work this one on me. She is even better at it than her mother. First flare-up was the other day when the daughter leaves some paperwork on my computer desk. "What's this?" I ask, not knowing and wasn't feeling up to reading it. "That's the booklist for the summer I need Dad."

"Oh, the one you mentioned two weeks ago, and I said get me the titles and I'll get them?"

"Yes. They are both listed on the first page there."

Ahhhhh, permission to peruse paperwork that wasn't mine. As I read, I see she is supposed to have the first 9 chapters read from one book and posted a discussion on it through a school associated site with Yahoo - by the 15th. Here it is the 10th, and I am just now getting the titles. This is at like 10 at night - so there is nothing I can do right then. The next day I called Barnes and Noble - thank goodness they had copies of both (Ralph Elison's "Invisible Man" and Thomas C. Foster "How to read literature like a professor"). So I had a hold put on them, and last night the daughter and I drove there to get them. Even with a discount it was like $30 total.

So, the anger went away from the prior night - I was able to locate the books needed last minute to complete her assignment. Sounds like SuperDad, and I am feeling pretty good about it. Then last night, I went to bed about 10'ish and the Wife came in about 12'ish. I noticed the front room light still on so I inquired and was told the daughter was "just finishing up something on the computer and then headed to bed." Finishing up? At midnight? Non-school related of course. Okay, that's fine.

I waken at 2am. She is still on the computer. I mention the time and that she needs to get off to bed. She is 'just finishing up now'. I'm a bit pissed. 2 hours to finish up something? At 2:30, again I tell her she needs to get off to bed - 'just finishing'. I go awaken the Wife. When she's sleepy, she can be a good witch. I hear an exchange of words, but not clearly. The Wife comes back in saying she should be done in 15 minutes. I catnap once again. This time I awake at 3:30, she's still on the computer. I, in a very loud threatening manner inquire what the hell could she be doing that to finish up takes 3 1/2 hours? Copying music CD's into Itunes from her friend, because she has to give her back the CD's today.

I am fuming now. No way am I going to be able to go back to bed to sleep. I asked for a specific amount of time needed to finish or I was killing the power. Twenty minutes I am told. I go to the family room and for the next 40 minutes I walk in and remind her of the time every 5 minutes. Then remind her she is never going to be on the computer past midnight again or I kill power. Then I smile sweetly and say "Thanks for asking if you could add that crap to my computer too." Yeah, I was pissed.

But I did watch "Seven Pounds" during that time frame. Good movie.

That's all I got today. I am off to have breakfast with a friend.

PeacE

Mid-Week Doldrums

I think I might have caught a case of the Blahs and Boredom. Yesterday I didn't have much, but I was excited to finally see that movie - which was good. But now I still really have nothing for you.

The Project is still in process, but I can only do so much a day. My back and behind get sore if I sit here too long so I only do a couple of rolls per day. Sometimes a bit more.

So I hear I get to see a new Indy airport that is nicer than the old one. I hope it isn't confusing. I looked it up on maps and it looks pretty straightforward. I'll have the rental car place help me out with directions too, just in case.

The rest of my trip is looking good. I am waiting confirmation from one friend to finalize everything.

That's all I got. Think I am going to go read a bit, then come back and try to work on the project some more.

PeacE

It's Finally Here!!!

Man, have I waited a long time for today! Netflix came through and delivered "Gran Torino" today and I have been dying to watch it. Well, maybe not dying, but very anxious!! A couple friends with 'bootleg' copies kept telling me they would lend me theirs, but nooooo. It released today and I got a copy legally to watch.

In fact, I got nothing else for you today. I am watching the movie. And then "Seven Pounds".

PeacE

Happy 6 AM to you!

I can't remember offhand the last time I voluntarily was awake at this hour of the morning. But lucky for you, here I am all bushy tailed and ready for the day! In fact, I have been that way for the past 2 hours. Usually I am up at such an early hour to relive bladder pressure, but for some reason today was different. I just couldn't go back to sleep/ Must have been those dozen 10 minute naps I tool while trying to read a book yesterday. I dunno.

So what is there to do at 4 in the morn? Not much at my house. I don't have cable, or satellite, so only local channels that show nothing much but reruns of news and paid infomercials. Read a book? Eh, not really. My favorite reading place is in the bed, and that would wake the Wife. So, instead, I go back to that damn project of scanning pics. Not too shabby. I have scanned about 75 in the past 2 hours. At this rate I might be done by 2012 - in time for the end of the world. Hmph!

The days are just going by too slow for me to get to my trip dates. I haven't been to Ind in over 11 years, so am looking forward to seeing many old friends and family. Hoosierboy mentioned something about how I am going to love the Indy airport. Is that sarcasm I detect? Is it that bad to maneuver through? I have been to that airport in over 20 years - I am sure it has changed.

Welp, I have nothing of major note to share yet today. The weekend was pretty slow. Maybe something will happen and I will have to do an update... Til next time.

PeacE

I Could Kill Kodak

I remember back several years ago, when I was a much younger boy, and CD's weren't around and VHS/Beta were the rave. And even some time before them. But I would love to go to Grandma's house and we would beg them to get out the old 8mm soundless films they had taken over the years. Mostly it was stuff prior to my being born, but there were a few years after, that I was, too, a film star. Then after watching reels of film, I would want to go through photo albums for hours. Especially if it had anything of my Dad in them. I still like to do that. Grandma has even put together a few albums for each of us siblings, of special pics of our Dad through his years prior to his passing. It was a great gift. My uncles one year took all the film reels and had them put on to VHS tape. A few years back the grandparents gave me an edited tape with mostly stuff of my Dad, and his family. Yeah, pictures and films were such a wonderful back then.

Now I can't stand pictures. I am tired of looking at them, touching them, trying to figure out who-what-when-where-how old-why and label each one correctly. Oh, and let's not leave out scanning the damn things. Yeah, back to scanning.

We (being the Wife and I) went through the three boxes of photos we have and selected certain photos to complete this project I had been working on. No biggee. I actually got them all done. Now I have to figure which pics came from which package and put them back. The Wife was good and many are numbered, as are the packages.

So why do I hate photos so much? Because of sensible ideas. This particular idea is - since we have dug ALL our pictures out from the storage/shed/albums/etc, why don't you just scan them so we can have ALL photos on disc? Yeah, I started THAT project yesterday. Most packages are easy to date/explain. Oh, that was Easter of 2002, or that was the 1st SeaWorld trip and the kids were this old... But then there are many I look at and wonder, who is that person, or which newborn kid of mine is this? Luckily, the choices are narrowed a bit as David wasn't born until we had gone digital (thank a god).

Okay, enough raving about that. Now you kow how I am spending most of my early summer. At least it is inside and air-conditioned, plus I can work at my own pace. Just wish I was getting paid more than self-satisfaction.

My sights are set on Indiana now. As of this morning, I have paid for the flight and rental car for my trip. I am leaving Phoenix and spending 10 days in Indiana and Michigan. I even emailed out my itinerary to friends/family I hope to visit this morning and replies have started arriving. If anyone is interested, I am arriving July 17th and leaving the 27th. Both to/from Indianapolis. I am so excited!!!

I'll have to see about borrowing a laptop or something so I can blog whilst on the trip. Then again, maybe I won't. I don't know. But what is sort of funny is when I get back, the Wife will be gone with the boys already to camp for a week. Another week with just the daughter - who will be able to cook my meals. Life works out good sometimes.

Alright, I gotta get back to work. See y'all later.

PeacE

What's gotten into Hump Day?

Hey, it's the middle of the week and you know what? I don't care. I am so indifferent about it, I could not care about not caring. Yeah, my day is off to a wonderful start, ay?

So, today I am writing from a remote location - the Reverend Mother's house. Not that remote - about 2 miles from my house. I am over here sending some huge-ass emails of scanned pics to my brother in-law. The RM has high speed. God Bless. But it sure sounds cool when I say "... from a remote location." *snicker*

I was praying my scanning days were pretty much over for the time being, but when in Hell, the torture goes on and on. Last night, the Wife found all our photos and we started through them. Right now we are doing a rush job, mainly for the project the BIL is doing. So that means not only after I have scanned some of the pics, I will have to go back at another point and scan ALL pics and save to CD. I am not thrilled. But, the good news is I will have some pics to post at different intervals as I come across some really cute ones, or old ones, or whatever. Already this morning before I left home I found some old family pics like when I was 7 or younger. Pretty funny looking.

After I leave here, I think I might as well head to the pub. I don't really feel like going home and doing nothing but play poker online for hours. I did that the other day and blew through about 5K of chips. plus whatever I won. But it took several hours.

Oh, here's a good whine for the day. I was talking tot he Wife last night about my upcoming trip to Indy. I explained where and how I had found really good deals on flight and car rental, gave her the basic figures. I also pointed out how much I was saving over some of the regular sites that give offers out. She was impressed! I was actually being frugal about it all, and it paid off! Then she asks me "What dates were you going again?" I mentioned I was planning it Aug 10-19. Is it okay if I make the purchases and reservations? With that look that wives get, I hear "Oh. You won't be here for mom's 50th Anniversary. That's what all the pics are for." When is that, I ask.... the 15th of Aug. That started a whole new argument about me missing my family reunion in July because she is going out of town for the week, and someone has to be here for the daughter and cat. Then she throws up that the daughter could stay with a friend that week... like who would want that issue? I got so frustrated, I just said let's talk about it tomorrow (now today). Yeah, I need to get a buzz on. Possible good part is, I may actually get to go to the reunion now... who knows?

Okay, that's all I got today for now. Tune in next time for exciting features that you may not even be interested in.

PeacE

A Morning for the Blues

This week is starting off to be a slow one. I don't have anything major scheduled to be completed, except purchase my airline tickets and set up the rental car. That'll take like 15 minutes.

The daughter has band practice a couple days this week, otherwise is done until the last week of July. We had a parents meeting last night and paid up her band 'participation' fee (they are pay to play) plus ordered the band boosters Tshirts. I guess this year's marching show theme is "The Mask of Zorro".

So, June has arrived and the only thing seeming to change around here is the temperature, and it is going up. I'm staying places where it is air conditioned.

That's it. I am tapped out for information today. Go spend some time reading the links on the right side there.

PeacE