Seattle Rain

I am sitting here sipping a coke ( I gave up alcohol for lent) listening to Dan's latest band Seattle Rain. Kind of a 90's grunge/heavy rock band. Once again he is in a band that is pretty good. I am thinking back to all of the bands he has been in and all of the genres he has covered over his  career. All of the garage bands practicing wherever someone had a spare room. I am sure I only know of a portion of the actual number. He has always surrounded himself with very talented musicians, but was usually missing one or two ingredients, usually a good singer. Either that or life would get in the way. Being in bands is fun but you got to pay the bills. It's a shame Dan couldn't do this full time because he enjoys it so much. One of the last bands he was in turned out to be pretty successful regionally but he had to leave to go to jewelers school in search of another passion.  Reflecting back to being a roadie for him in high school jazz band to now there has been a lot of music and premieres of new bands like tonight, but he really enjoys it and you gotta love never giving up the dream. 

She Blinded Me.....

William's science project for fourth grade. The idea for the project came from one of his teachers and fell upon me to try to assemble. I actually enjoy trying to make this stuff work once I get into it. We got the material needed for the project at lowes but the majority of the material came from around the garage. Man, I really need to clean the garage. The chime was from some old chimes that we got from Dan. He was going to get rid of them and I thought maybe donate them to school or something. The doorbell I just happened to have laying around after replacing ours this summer. The fun part is when I get started on something I tend to overdo it a little. I now have designed and assembled 5 different plungers to get the proper chime soundout of the chime. Like usual i tweek until I run out of time and I am sitting here with it due tomorrow so I am done tweeking because I have to be. This is the first of many science projects for the boys 

OMG ITS BEEN 3 YEARS

Sad but true it's been three years since I posted in my blog. I blame Facebook for getting me out the habit and being a lot quicker to post stuff. Also getting time on the laptop to post can be a challenge. But now I have Blogger installed on my iPod so I should be able to post more. We will see how it goes. Reading old posts is really fun and brings back allot of good memories. 

Beta Beta Beta

So with the extra time on my hands due to unemployment, I decided to work on some projects that have been around the house. One of these projects is to try and find a way to get my old high school marching band tapes onto the computer. Problem #1 is that I don't have any way to do it. I know that there are stores that can transfer my tapes to cd, but I don't currently have the money and I am a little leary on giving these special memories to a stranger. I remember that Dan had a toy that he bought that could transfer the tapes, but I could never get it to work. So I found his little machine and brought it home again. After some internet searching I found out that the version that I have has a problem with windows vista and I need a newer version. So I upgrade the newer version and get the silly thing to work. Problem #2 is a bigger problem. The tapes are in the beta format. At the time it was the better format of the two, but vcr's had better marketing and won out in the format wars. I was hoping that a friend on facebook would have one sitting in their basement, but no such luck. Dan was able to buy me one on ebay that I can hopefully sell for the same price so it isn't a total waste of money. So far the machine only will run for a couple of minutes before it locks up. I can't tell if it's the machine or the tape. I am trying to edit out the mess ups, but still have some work to do.

Yes I still know I have a blog

Yes, back in February I promised to blog more and I can confidently say I have failed miseribly. So, let's go over my life up to this point. The major thing is my job. Back in December of '09 we found out that our company was going through a merger with another company, but that was all the detail that was given at that time. It's a slow process, but I was looking forward to working for a larger company and was very proud in what I had accomplished in the year at my current company. So over the first couple months of the year, I was doing my thing cautiously since I wasn't sure what the new company had in stock. During that time we all had to go through the interviewing process to see where we would fit in the new structure of the company. April came about and they were finally nailing down everyone's job titles and positions. I was called into my meeting and informed that there would not be a position available for me. Son of a B****. But they gave me 4 months to find something before I was shown the door. I thought, Heck, four months shouldn't be that bad, but little did I know in this economy. The four months flew by pretty quick. The four months was very difficult since everyone knew I was basically fired so I am not sure they were comfortable around me knowing that. To the upper management of my current company as well as the merging company I was non existant which was extremely disspointing having praised the "family" of co-workers that I had. Finally my last day, just sitting at my desk, fuming at everyone. I though for sure I would get an exit interview, or at least have to fill some paperwork out and turn in my key.... but nothing. So, I stood up, threw my key on the VP's desk, bit my tongue from saying something nasty, and headed out the door. Only felt this bad leaving a job one time before and that was when I left the radio station.

Update: It is now 6 months since the above post. I was getting ready to post the post above and got hit with a virus so blogger has made me nervous. The interviews have been few and far between unfortunatly. There have been a couple that I would have loved or been perfect for, but no such luck. I keep plugging away every day. Back to my routine that last time I was unemployed. I get up every morning and get ready for the day. Take William to school and come back and search the net for jobs. I have 6 or 7 internet places that I look at and then to searches for major companies around here. I am getting quite a few projects done around the house after doing a major landscaping project for uncle Dave. Wish I had the money to finish the basement before Easter, but I have been in untra conservative mode for money for months now. How Jenny is keeping the heat on with what we make with her part time job and my measly unemployment, I don't know.

August... Seriously

My last blog post was August? I need to get back on the horse here. It so helped that I could blog at work. I just don't have the interst to get onto the computer when I get home. But tonight the boys begged me to play "monster trucks" on the Wii, so I thought I would stop by and say hi. I will say that the monster trucks on wii is very cool.

So last night we decided to take the boys out to eat and then over to Kohl's to buy me some new shoes, and to let Jen return some stuff. This has been the plan for two weeks now, but something always came up that didn't allow us to follow through on the plan. Most times it was Jen's work calling her in for the night. We usually don't go out as a family to restaurants since it can be a little pricey with 5 people now, and you never know how the boys are going to act. Even though saying that, the boys have done real well lately. The only hiccup is if we go to triangle park there is a mad rush to get outside and feed the ducks halfway through dinner, but we figured they could handle Cracker Barrell. Lucky for us it was snowing outside and Cracker Barell wasn't that busy. The only part that I don't like about Cracker Barrell (at least with 3 kids) is all the toys and candy that you have to walk by twice going to and from the restaurant. We sat down and the boys did really well. Andrew was having fun with the golf tee game even though he didn't really get the concept. He just took out all the golf tees and color coordinated them back in the triangle. Christopher was happy with the crayons. We ordered our dinner and of course it was time for the inevitable "pee break" with two of the boys. As of this point Andrew is still fighting us on his potty training, we might have to get hardcore on him. Anyway the food arrives and I am trying to move stuff out of the way so that Christopher can't grab a hot plate and move all of the crayons and stuff. My plate is placed in front of me and I am moving one last thing, and wouldn't you know it I knock my full glass of pop onto my plate. Son of a B*****.So I am picking ice cubes off of my plate and trying to drain as much of the liquid as possible. The waitress says she will get me "another one" and will also return with a towel. Well she comes back with a stack of paper towels and "another" pop. Dumping the pop was totally my fault so I didn't expect to get a whole new meal, but I thought it might be a nice gesture on their part, but alas they didn't. I did ask for some new bread to replace the now soggy break on my sandwich. I only asked for two pieces, but I should have asked for for since the other side was totaly soggy as well. But hey at least my fries didn't get wet. Jen just laughed at me. So besides my problems, the boys did fantastic and ate all of their food. We payed the bill along with another trip to the bathroom for William and headed over the Kohl's. I took the boys with me to look at shoes while Jen returned my shirt. I made the mistake of not strapping Christoper down so he escaped for a minute which caused a little panic on my part. Lucky for me Jen showed up to wrangle the kids and I picked out a pair of shoes. I was amazed at the 25 pairs of shoes they had I would only even consider wearing 1 of them to work. I tried them on and they fit fine. We picked up some socks and headed to the checkout. Jen forgot her coupon at home, but they still gave it to her just on her word. Antoher qhick trip to Walmart to pick up juice for the boys, but with the snowstorm, there was a run on juice. We got home, put the boys to bed, and settled in for LOST.

I am going to attempt to blog more. if nothing else to catch up on what's been going on. It's really not that much. Maybe I will run an update on the basement remodel. Drywall is done, now it's just a matter of mudding and sanding (the part the sucks)

Labor Day 2009???

I found this draft in my blog. I have no idea what year but I am thinking 2009 or 10

Labor day was hinting at being a very busy weekend. Earlier in the year my dad hinted on possibly coming up for the weekend. That ended up coming true as my dad and step mom came for a visit.

They actually stopped in Bowling Green on the way up from Montgomery, AL to visit the corvette museum to see the new addition. In case you didn't know, my dad is a corvette nut. Starting years ago in the 70's when my parents got their first one (a '71). Ever since then he has been hooked. When my parents divorced, the vette was one of the things that he got (just kidding dad). After getting married, and bounced around in the '71 long enough. He went out and got a '99 convertible what is much easier on the butt for long hauls and cruising around. They took the '99 with them to Bowling Green and then to Fort Wayne. They spent Wednesday night in Bowling Green which gave us another day to get the house cleaned. Good motivation to clean the carpet again. They made it up to Fort Wayne Thursday around the time that I came home from work. Jen had to work so the boys and I got a chance to visit with grandma and grandpa. My dad is alot like me when I first had kids. Not really sure how to deal with a baby, but the older the boys get, (and the more you have) the more you get comfortable with them and can play with them. Dad and Betty had a unique opportunity with their visit for lodging. My brother got the house in his divorce and is in the process of selling it, so they just stayed at the house while they were in town. Kind of like renting a condo or something. So after visiting for a while they headed to the house.

Friday I took the day off of work so we could visit and do some stuff together. In the afternoon, Dad and I went up to Auburn so I could show Dad where I worked. it's not really that impressive, but he wanted to check it out. I knew that there was an event in downtown Auburn that night, but had no idea who big it was. The road in front of the credit union was blocked off for a block party with a bar and live band. The band was big caddy daddy which is the band my brother was in before he had to go back on the road. This is the only band in which he was in that actually is doing very well. All of the other bands were good for a while but broke up for one reason or another. I heard stories of a car show downtown but had not idea how huge it was. The show didn't offically start unil 6:00pm, but they already had the town square filled by 3:30. So dad and I walked around and gawked at the cars for a while. We headed home for dinner. We sat on the deak grilling a london broil adn doing some more visiting. After dinner, Dad and I took William and Andrew to a Tin Caps game. Knowing that my dad was coming to town I was looking around and stuff to do and noticed that the last regular season tin cap game was the Friday that they were around so I decided to get tickets. This would be my first experience at a Tin Caps game and the first one taking the boys with me. I thought that they would get bored and would want to leave, but they both did extemely well and sat in our laps for the entire game. They didn't get what was happening on the field, but they enjoyed just being there. Dad got the boys some popcorn and pop which they devoured in minutes. I bought the boys both a hat so they could remember the night, but of course they wore them that night and haven't touched them since. After the game there was to be fireworks. Neither one of my boys like loud noises so they have never been to a fireworks display of any kind. I asked them both numerous time if they wanted to stay and watch the fireworks, and they said "yes". So we stayed. There was a few time that Andrew looked scared, but as long as they both had their ears plugged they seemed to do alright. the lines for food and drinks never went down all night. The offical attendance of the crowd was 7,800 people. The only bit of advise that I can give to people going to a Tin Caps game is to NOT park in the parking garage. What a pain in the butt that was. First of all you couldn't get into the garage that easily and after getting in it took you forever to drive up to the top level to get a parking space. And if there was a elevator to get down, I didn't see it so I ended up carrying Andrew down 4 flights of stairs since he fell asleap in the van on the way there. After the game it was a 20 minute parking lot to get out of the stupid garage. They were only letting one lane out of the garage and you had to turn right which cause a huge bottleneck. you would think after this amount of time they would have that down a lot better. Find street parking is my advice. We got home late and put the boys to bed.

Saturday morning we got up a little later than we wanted to and had to quickly get us and the boys ready for William's soccor game. Dad and Betty met us at the house and we headed over to the field together. When we got to the field we met my mom there and we all sat down. My mom and dad get along pretty well for being divorced which makes these visits alot easier. With William's soccor league they don't keep score, but man they got creamed. Either the other team is just that good or his team needs alot more work, but hey they were all having alot of fun. Usually the chore at Willliam's soccor games is keeping the other two entertained, but they are getting a little better at staying with us. There was no real plan for after the game. I thought we would just head back to the house and think of something. Then my mom invited everyone over to her house for a visit. I was a little hungry since we woke up late and didn't have a chance for breakfast. I simply asked if she had a few eggs or something for breakfast Before I knew it there was Jenny, Betty, and my mom all in the kitchen fixing breakfast for everyone. I felt bad since I didn't mean for us to invade my mom's house like that and clean out her fridge. With 3 women in the kitchen I figured the best place for me was outside on the deck, reading the paper. Mom has a great deck on the back of her house on the 15th green at Cherry Hill. So a very good breakfast and more visiting. After breakfast Dad and Betty had some running around to do, and Jenny had some shopping as well so I took the boys home. While the house was somewhat quiet I made some cookies for us and Jenny's family fish fry. When Jen got home with some groceries I ended up making a second type of cookie as well. All part of Snack Night!! My first visit down to Alabama years ago I was introduced to snack night, where Betty puts out a HUGE spread of appetizers and you just eat and eat and eat. So every time we get together we have a snack night. So after I got done with my cookies, Jen and Betty take over the kitchen and start cooking. So a few hours we put on the feed bag and stuff ourselves.

night Golf V

I noticed that it is the middle of August and start calling around to see if I can get information about night golf. I remembered the name of the guy in charge so I call his office and get all of the information. Much to my surprise it is only a couple of weeks away. So once again I invite everyone in my address book to play with me. This year I added inviting all of my facebook friends who live in Fort Wayne as well as put out an email for people at work. Once again I get a few people saying it sounds like a lot of fun, but again they start canceling or saying they can't make it. Comes the night of the outing and no one has indicated they want to play. I was considering not going myslef, but, screw it, I have fun. Also by now I know a few of the guys so I figure there is a chance I would get teamed up with them. I show up early just in case someone shows up and grabbed a beer and dinner. The dinner was a bit of a dissapointment. They had a pulled pork, but it didn't have any sauce on it. They let you put your own sauce on, but the pork was so dried out and tough that all the sauce in the world wouldn't have helped it. The bratwurst looked a little scary, but the beans and potatos were very tasty. So I sat there and had a few beers waiting on the off chance that someone would show up. When no one did I ended up getting paired with Dr. Phil, who I had played with before, and his brothers. We headed to the first tee with a cold beer in hand and prepared for a night of fun. They actually postponed the start of the round because it wasn't dark enough, but the threat of rainy weather in the area made me think that we might want to get going. The first hit of the year was a little disspointing, but still not too bad for the 3 or 4 time on the course this year. Bewtween the 4 of us we made a pretty good team all contributing to the effort. Once again the beer cart was never too far away :). By the 4th hole we were one under par (legitamate) and playing pretty good. We had felt a few drops as we approched the tee, and then it started to really come down. We all scramble for the rain gear and umbrellas that we had remembered to bring with us. We continued to play the hole in the hopes that it would stop or at least let up. We finished the hole and the rain let up and then stopped. The rest of the night only sprinkled a few times which was lucky for us. We finished up a little after midnight and went back into the proshop to wait for everyone to come in. We waited and waited for one last team to show up, but they never did. I have said it before where there is usually one group who has to "play in" and make everyone wait. (That really pisses me off). We started to walk out to the course get tell these a-holes to hurry up, and even grabbed a cart to run out there, but finally decided that the group must have finished and just left the course. Still annoying. I think we ended up 2 under and in third place or something like that, once again I don't think the people who "won" were actually keeping score. So we all got out little prize and were done for the night. This is still alot of fun to play in and I am sure I will play again next year. Hopefully one of these years I can take a big group with me. They were supposed to move the outing so it wouldn't conflict with HS football, but they didn't. Hopefully next year they will let me know when the outing is and I don't have to hunt them down.

School Days

William started his first day of Kindergarten a week ago (yeah I am behing in my blogging). He is actually repeating Kindergarten. He did really well last year with his speach delay, but we thought another year would do him good and that now would be the best time to have him repeat a grade. The other factor is that he is changing schools as well and going full day so he wouldn't notice it as much. I missed his first day the last time due to the new job, but I decided I wasn't going to miss this one so I just went in late. Jen had a pretty good plan for getting everyone up and around so we put that into play on Monday. They allow parents of Kindergarten kids go bring the kids to their classrooms on the first day only so we decided ot make it a family trip. Everyone got up and around and we actually headed out the door on time. As we are pulling out of the garage, the heavens opened up to a down pour (perfect). We got near the school and the traffic came to a stand still. So we muddled through that and worked our way through the "drop off" process. all the parents were parking to drop their kids off so we had to park kind of far out in the parking lot. Lucy for me we threw a couple of umbrellas. We attempt to unload all the kids in a downpour with the parking lots flooded. I took Christopher's cup of juice and put it on the floor and of course it hit a blanket and bounced out and UNDER the freakin van. I am dressed for work with an inch of water covering the parking lot, but finally I said forget it and took my umbrella down and hit the cup so it would go behind the van and of course it got caught by the back tire. Finally I got the stupid thing and grabbed Christopher. So here I am carrying Christopher, holding Andrew's hand, and managing an umbrella as Jen took care of William. We got in the gym and William takes off like a shot to his homeroom. We did our best to keep up with him. He went into his room, put his backpack away, and found his seat and sat down. No fuss, no muss, happy as a clam (Thank God). We said good bye and waded back to the car and I took off for work. It's been almost two weeks and William is still having alot of fun. He get's to eat lunch at school every once in a while which makes us a little uneasy because of his peanut alergy, but so far so good.