Heroes

I am really impressed with the Heroes series on NBC. I've finally got caught up with all the episodes. They've done a great job with the unexpected. It makes you wonder sometimes if there are actually people out there in the world with abilities like these. It would not surprise me at all if there were.

I like watching the Food Network. The latest challenge that they have on there is titled "Flying Knives." The whole show is about the guys who cook on the grill like at a Japanese Steakhouse. It's called Teppanyaki. The biggest problem I think is that these guys were outside and they had the wind against them. The guys I have seen at the local restaurants would put these guys to shame! (Except for the last guy that I just saw while I am typing it)...

This Thing Rocks!

I saw the absolute coolest thing tonight. I was watching the Food network and all of a sudden, this little TiVo window pops up in the middle of this Progresso Soup commercial. I click the select button on the remote, and up pops this advertisement on the TiVo to get a free coupon to try some of their soup. What's really neat is that it automatically paused the channel for me, and when I pressed the back button, it started right back where it left off. I'm very pleased with this technology, and I am certain the wife has enjoyed it as well.

Pain in the Ear

I've been woke up several times tonight by the boy. He has complained and whined all night that his ear hurts. I got up and gave him some children's pain reliever and put him back to bed. I just hope he gets a little rest. The problem is, no fever and once this stuff wears off who knows if it will be any better.

I must have gotten a popcorn husk in my gum on the top right middle side. It hurts pretty bad, but I can't feel anything in there and the more I mess with it the more it bleeds. The only thing I know to do is leave it alone until the swelling goes down and then see if I can see anything with a mirror.

I hope I have some energy today....

Class is strange

Not sure what exactly happened tonight, but one of my students was there for class and then all of a sudden disappeared. The other classmates stated that she said something about being behind and she was going to drop the course. I thought at first that they might be joking, but it turns out she never came back...

I wonder about folks like that sometimes. She didn't even talk to me about dropping or anything. I would have at least spoken to the instructor to see if I could have made up some work or something.

My roster was supposed to be in my box, but I walk all the way down there and someone had put a greenhouse course roster in my box. I still haven't got my gradebook nor my name badge. Maybe I'll get it by mid-term....

At the In-Laws...

We are at the In-Laws tonight. The wife and mother-in-law have very close birthdays, and we're going to celebrate tomorrow. We are supposed to eat at this place tomorrow night that is supposed to have awesome steaks. I can't wait! The nice thing is that we can relax tomorrow but I still have decent internet access to do some work.

I had to rush the wife to the Dr. today. Her blood pressure got down to 96/51 with a high pulse rate. She was feeling weak and light headed. The Dr. was pleased with her B.P. and said that it was normal for it to be low at this point in the pregnancy. What a relief! They did tell her to drink plenty of fluids because it could be that she's starting to get a little dehydrated. Hopefully she will have the opportunity this weekend to build that back up and get some energy back through rest.

Back at work

I had to take a day off yesterday because I woke up with a migraine. It is unusual for me to wake up with one. They usually hit me in the afternoon or evenings. The only thing I can figure is that me getting up with the boy at 2:00 AM and not getting back to sleep until 4 didn't help much. I don't think this crazy weather is helping any either.

But, I am back in the saddle again. We have a big weekend planned. We're celebrating the wife and the mother-in-law's birthdays this weekend. My baby is almost the big three zero! My mom told me something the other day that I hadn't thought of before. My sister and the wife were both the same age when they had their first child, and they will both be the same age when they have their second! As big as the wife's belly is now and we still have 16 weeks to go, I am really hoping that the little one will come a couple of weeks early (as long as his little body is developed enough). It would really trip me out if the wife and my sister had them on the same day!

Conference Over...

The bible conference is over. I thought for the most part it went well. We had some superb music and I am extremely appreciative of everyone who gave up their time and talents. I thought the choir did a great job this morning as well.

I hate to say it, but I wasn't too impressed with the evangelist. I think I enjoyed the local pastors more. I'm not sure about this guy's background, but his sermons did not seem to move anyone like the others' sermons did.

We've got a trip to Fayetteville tomorrow for an appointment. We're going to run the truck over to the dealership to get the oil changed and a backup key for it. I hope that it won't take too terribly long.

Good Service

I was a little late getting to the church tonight for the fish fry. Actually, I wasn't feeling well this evening, and when I got to the church and smelled that fish, it really didn't make me feel any better. When I get extremely busy I get hot, and being hot on top of not feeling well just aggravates everything.

I sat down for a few minutes to type in the words for one of our singers on the computer and that really helped me to cool off and chill out for a minute. It also got my mind off of not feeling well, and once it was actually time for the service to start I began to feel a bit better.

We had some good singers tonight. There is a blind gentleman that has been coming to play the piano for us and, of course, he is awesome! He will be coming regularly and I hope will play for us in our regular pianist's absence. He and his wife (who is also blind and a great vocalist) graced us with a duet. Also, the preacher who spoke first on Thursday night is a superb pianist and played 2 songs for his wife to sing tonight. I have been really pleased with our music over the entire conference.

Great Singing!

Great Singing!

Did "What a mighty God we serve" tonight and I actually got everyone to do the motions!

HALLELUJAH!!!

Sadness

We received word yesterday that one of my co-workers lost his 14 year old son to a battle with cancer. I understand that he had been extremely ill, but before the break seemed to be doing better. I can't imagine what he's going through - I wouldn't wish something like this on my worst enemy. Thinking about the boy's surgery is absolutely no comparison to something like this, and I know I am blessed that we have the ability to take care of this while he is young.

OK - what is up with the weather? Are we going to get to have Winter? I see all of these places out in the west that are getting temperatures well below freezing, and here we are with early Spring temperatures. This is why everybody is sick because it is so cold at night and so warm during the day. I'd love to have a nice cold snap and maybe a little snow before Spring officially gets here. I'm not holding my breath....

Sore Throat

They finally called about the boys surgery. It will be on February 16th with a pre-op that prior Monday. I am going to take off the 16th and the 19th to be with him for the surgery and to keep him most of the day that Monday. Then I'll take him to his great-grandparent's house a little over an hour away. He'll stay with them for 4 or 5 nights, then we'll ring him home for the weekend. Finally, he'll stay with my parents through the next Friday and we'll pick him up after work that day.

I am so thankful that we have family that are close by and willing to do this for us. With the new addition coming along, we need all the extra time we can save so that we can be together those first couple of weeks. I remember with our first born how difficult it was for the wife to get around that first week. That is definitely major surgery, and this time she has a child almost 4 that will want to be loved on and held, too. I think we'll begin even now talking to him about what will happen to mommy and how he will have to be careful with her and not be rough for a while.

Intelligent?

I am truly amazed at how someone with basic computer skills can get a position that 1) pays as much if not more than someone in a position of authority and 2) requires you to be above average in your daily routines. I'm realizing more and more that people that are on the same payscale as I am have no clue what they are talking about, and the ones below me on the payscale depend entirely too much on us that are above them.

A basic question - if someone is trying to open a file and the file says access is denied, wouldn't the first thing you would think of be "That user account doesn't have the correct authority to open that file - maybe I should check permissions"? Maybe I am just too logical... I mean, if the lights on your car are on and you open the car door and hear a dinging noise, why would you check to see if the trunk is open?

To me it is almost like someone calling a manager over to the cash register everytime a customer has produce because there is no barcode on the bananas. The manager has things he has to do which are most likely important, requiring concentration and not being interrupted every 5 minutes. Yet, as busy as I am, here I am blogging about it. Just needed to vent....

School is Cool

Enjoyed my first night of class last night. This will be a nice group because I only have 4 or 5 students. The lab that I am working in is really cool. Each machine has both a 17" and a 19" monitor on a dual video card. Definitely a good working environment for Graphic Design.

I am enjoying trying this new Blackboard utility. I was able to go to the website of the book publisher and download the instructor files. What's nice is that they've already done the work for getting the quiz information put into item bank format for this utility. All I have to do is pick the questions I want the students to answer and have them do it!

Went tonight to get my personnel information taken care of. I have a large packet of stuff to fill out to get back to the school. I think it will be worth it if I can do at least one class each quarter. Perhaps something will be available during the summer.

Already 5

My niece turns 5 today. I absolutely can not believe that time has passed by as quickly as it has. It seems just a heartbeat ago that she was in the nursery at Piedmont getting her first bath and us thinking how rough the nurse seemed with her. Or holding her for the first time and watching her try to nurse on my pinkie finger. I was looking through photos the other day and found some that we took at the hospital that day. 5 years goes by fast!

Today is the bowling party. The boy is looking forward to it - he keeps asking every few minutes if it is time to leave yet. Of course he wants to wear something exactly opposite of what would be appropriate for the day. I am really looking forward to seeing him bowl for the first time. They will have the buddy bumpers on there, so I hope that he can get enough momentum to get the thing down the lane.

Hello Professor...

Not really a professor, but I will be teaching a course at a local technical school a couple of nights a week. I am really excited about doing this. It will be a basic photoshop class which I should be able to do with no problem. It will really depend on how many students I have and what they know. I am hoping that there will be nobody there that has experience with photoshop since it will be a trial by fire.

More or less, the person who was supposed to teach the class quit at the last minute. I only have until Monday to prepare, no book and I was supposed to get the syllabus last night. It never came....

I don't know why, but I do enjoy teaching adults. I try to look for those who have the skill set to pick up on information and techniques rapidly and pair them with the ones who are struggling. That way, the fast learners don't get bored and the slower learners can keep up. It doesn't always work out, but I can adjust to those situations if necessary.

The one thing I didn't ask about was pay. However, I am sure that it will be decent. Anything extra is welcome right now as we are going to have to be out quite a bit with the boy's surgery and the new addition. There is no telling what other opportunities this might lead to as well. I would really like to do some online training, but I am not sure how far along the school is on getting that up and going...

Late Night

I really don't want to go back to work in the morning. I am extremely rested and would LOVE some more time to catch up on things. However, I know I need to get back and get things going. There are so many things that we have to do - especially getting ready for the new year. The whole thing has to be ready fairly soon after we get back.

I am also going to be on the committee for some new software and backing up the DBA on some of his tasks. This will be extremely interesting, and I hope that my input will be beneficial. I just hope it doesn't interfere with a lot of the other tasks I am required to participate in.

There will only be a couple of us back tomorrow since most of the department will still be on vacation. All of these folks are getting these pins for 20, 25 and 30 years of service. I am almost done with year 2. That's how they have all these extra days that they can take time off. Oh well, at least I am no longer the low man on the totem pole!

Basic Computing

I'm seriously considering offering a couple of training classes at the church to instruct users on computing basics. I get questions all the time about certain things, and I would want to do a series starting out with the insides and terminology. I'd like for folks to be able to look at a computer at a store, online or in a paper and know exactly what all the gigahertz, megabytes and caches are...

Thought the new DSL modem would have been here by now - they overnighted it to me. I have no idea what service they used, but I hope it gets here soon. I hope that I can get the laptop to work soon as well. I have no clue what is going on with this laptop screen. I will be looking up some info on what is causing it after I complete this post.

Tires

We have to get up at a decent hour in the morning because I have to spend over $500.00 to get new tires for the pacifica. Unfortunately, we really don't have it to spend. But it is one of those things that can't wait. You have to question yourself when it comes to the lives of the little ones. That is obviously something that money can't replace...

On my way for some shut-eye - it is just entirely too late to be up doing this without dozing off...

Take him on the road...

I believe that the boy ought to be a professional comedian. The wife took him to stay with the great-grandparents overnight. They had not been gone more than 10 or 15 minutes when she called and said if the movie was changed to Shrek it would "Cheer him up." She asked him if he wasn't happy, then he stated again that it would cheer him up....

Later she called after running through the drive-through to get a sprite for him and, after he took a sip stated "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" I mean, the boy is only 3 1/2 years old and already knows what things to say to get people around him to laugh.

It has been nice to just chill out today. I moved some of our musical stuff back into what we call the music room. I've got to give up my office for the new arrival to have his own bedroom. Although, I was thinking that we would let the boys share a room. But, the boy will get a new room and the baby will take over the nursery.

We had an awesome supper tonight. Turkey breast from honeybaked ham, garlic mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. Pumpkin Pie for dessert - I can't believe I hadn't had the first slice the entire holiday season including Thanksgiving....