That baseball tournament from late-March/early-April that was cancelled was made up today. Darby's team only had one game left and they won that so they got first place in their division. Shelby's team lost both of their games, which put them in third place.

Afterward I took the girls to see The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which I had been promising to take them to see for awhile. Darby really liked it, and Shelby, while a little bored at first, came around and liked it by the end.

Tooth Decay

Darby lost another tooth today. She says it's her seventh. I've lost count.

A Scorcher

Darby's game was cancelled (a blessing in disguise). Shelby's game was on. Think they lost. It was way hot out there, like 94. Nice way to kill a five-year old's focus.

Pics

Posted just a few pics from the trip in the album. More to come.

Trip Summary

Now that I've had a moment to collect my thoughts... here's a quick summary of our trip:

Round-trip travel time - 31 hours (17 out, 14 back)
Total miles - 1827 (839 out, 162 there, 826 back)


The VUE averaged 24 MPG on its first long distance trip, and on one segment of the trip got 27! That is compared to the 20 I've been getting around town.

The Long and Winding Road Revisited

On the way back to OKC, got way lost in Indianapolis after a highway closure detour. Made me stuck in traffic for more than an hour. Yuck. On the slightly interesting side, in my attempt to get found, I ended up driving right past the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (just a couple of days after the 500 to boot). This time I made the entire trip from central Indiana to OKC in one leg, about fourteen hours total travel time. I'm just now getting wound down and will likely be recovering for days. Now for a couple hours of sleep before heading to work....

A True Vacation Day

Today was a good day for the kidos, probably the only true vacation day of the trip. We slept in a bit, had a big breakfast, then headed off to the Indianapolis Zoo. We were there for several hours and had a great time. Then we headed off to the ballpark. We caught a AAA game between the Indianapolis Indians and the Rochester Red Wings at Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis, which was pretty cool, though the home team was thoroughly trounced. This was topped off by a visit to the girls' favorite grill, Applebee's, for dinner. Girls were zonked out in the car not minutes down the road on the way back. That's a measure of the quality of the day. By how much energy we were able to suck out of the girls.

We're supposed to head back to OKC tomorrow morning, but not sure if we're doing that yet or not. Might stay an extra day, but not sure. Kinda need to get back.

Now That We're Rested...

Let's get tired again... there's a lake here in Anderson, Indiana that has a two-plus-mile trail around it. The girls and I and some family friends rode our bikes around the trails today. (We brought our bikes with us to Indiana.) We all got really tired as when we got back and had a big meal, we were all asleep by seven (in most cases involuntarily). But then we got up at nine and chattered into the night.

The Long and Winding Road

Left the OKC area late Friday afternoon for destinations midwestern. Short road trip with the girls to visit the grandmother in Indiana. The plan (cough cough), was to drive straight through like seventeen hours. That was a bad idea. Having spent all day Friday packing and loading up, I was already tired when we hit the road. We only made it to St. Louis before we had to catch some Zs at 3:30 in the morning. We got a few hours of sleep and hit the road again. After just a couple of wrong turns near the end (we're in farm country Indiana), we finally made it here mid-afternoon Saturday. We'll be here through maybe Tuesday or Wednesday before heading back. Taking lots of pictures. Will post some when we get back.

Youngster Emerges From Slump

Darby had a baseball game tonight. She did a great job. When she was playing shortstop, a ball was hit directly to her, and she zinged that ball across the field with a near put-out (first baseman missed). She also nearly got her first hit in awhile. She's been in a slump offensively the last several games, but she got her ball on the bat today, so maybe she's out of it. I'm sure it helped that the team thoroughly trounced the opposition today.

Posted a snapshot from just before the game in the album. Several other snapshots have been posted recently, too.

Crash No More

Finally got my dad's computer back online. Still needs a lot of app loads, but he will do most of that. His original primary drive is fubar. Got him running on his large, new former secondary drive with an OS on it, along with all of the data that was already on it. Still going to try to recover small amounts of data from bad drive, like favorites, etc.

The Peaks and Valleys of Children's Athletics

Shelby had a t-ball double header. I think they won the first and lost the second. Double headers are a bad idea for t-ballers. Especially when the temperature drops twenty degrees in the course of the two hours due to impending storms.

Darby didn't have a baseball game today, but had an athletic festival at school. She got second place in the softball throw (that's my girl!), fifth in the 50-yard dash, and third in the 400-yard dash.

WHOA

So I saw The Matrix Reloaded today. All I can say is WHOA. Don't listen to the nay-sayers that have been giving the film meager reviews. The problem is that the film and the concepts in it are mind-blowing. So, if you have little to work with, well, you just won't get it. Sorry. But even if you do get it, be prepared to be disappointed with the ending. Not that the ending was disappointing, but that it had to end the way it did. However, keep in mind that in every interview given, producer Joel Silver has said Reloded was "only half a movie". Don't forget that when you go see it.


Oh yeah, you should strap in. It's a ride. With loops.

Figures

Have deduced that my dad's computer issue is his on board IDE controller. Put a new one in and drives are at least found. Think there is physical damage to his primary drive, though, as a recovery attempt on it is not going well. He has a large secondary drive that will likely just become his primary drive. Still working on that.

Also learned today that BOTH the Gateway warranty and the Quantum hard drive warranty expired in late February.

Good-bye Soccer Mommas

The girls had their end-of-season soccer picnic today and got thier trophies. Fun was had by all, but I am already tired enough to go back to bed...

That's Gonna Leave a Mark

In all my years in compu-topia, I think this was the first time I've heard a computer make a noise like that... the sound of platters and heads violently clanking together as though someone shifted from fourth gear to reverse all at once.

For the past couple of days I've been trying fix my dad's computer. The IDE controller and/or the primary drive are toast. Fortunately his fairly new secondary drive is not damaged (that I can yet tell). Couldn't access it from his computer using diagnostic tools (thus the bad controller theory), but was able to access it when slaving it into another computer. The primary drive can't be accessed no matter what I do, so I think its FAT table is gone, aside from the whole physical damage thing. SO, dad is picking up a controller today so that I can disable the onboard controller, put the new one in and test access to the secondary drive. That drive is big enough that we'll probably just load the OS on it and press forward. I'm not sure the first drive is worth a recovery effort, but I'd like to get some of the data back for dad. Fun, fun...

It's Not My Fault, Really

Bumped into a link of the 10 most dangerous intersections. Thought it was interesting that I've been stuck in traffic at five of those ten intersections. Two are in Philadelphia, two are in Tulsa, OK, and one is in Plano, Texas.

Sucking Chest Wound

Two games tonight, one win, one loss. Shelby got hit in the chest with a ball going pretty quick and the ex-wife about jumped all over the kid and his mom. Had us worried for a moment, but Shelby walked it off pretty good and got back in there. Must have jarred something loose as she hit twice and scored once this evening.

In other news, got my Matrix Reloaded ticket today. Will be seeing it this weekend.

Ethically Speaking

I am ethical again for the next couple of years. Had my bi-annually required corporate ethics training today.

Bad Mix

Girls had baseball games today, back to back. Plus Shelby had team pictures. Made for a pretty hectic evening. It didn't help that I got stuck in traffic in every direction. I think because of the tornado (one of the east-side Tinker gates was wiped-out, so that cuts exit capacity by a third, also several south-side streets are closed or slowed down still). Darby's team narrowly missed victory, though Shelby's team came out ahead.

As X-pected

Saw X2 today. Pretty cool!

Will the next one — and yes, I'm sure there'll be a next one — be called X3, Triple-X, or XXX? Oh, wait, they've used some of those already. How about Next Next X?

Until We Play Again (in September)

Soccer is OVER! We like soccer, but it's good to be done. The girls had their last games today. Nothing like sunny, hot, and muggy conditions for a soccer game. Man were we dying to get out of there when it was done. It was the girls' weekend to spend the night at their mothers, but we went bike riding for a couple of hours at Lake Hefner first.

Shaken, But Not Stirred

For friends and family that are wondering, all is well with us this evening in the wake of this afternoon's tornado strike in the OKC metro. The path of the tornado was about three miles south of our home (about a mile further out than the massive May 99 tornado), but it was a closer call for us than I expected. We were on our way to our regular Thursday baseball games, which are held off of I-240, when the warnings went out. I decided to abort the trip before we reached the highway, which probably saved us a lot of trouble. The way the timing worked out with when/where the tornado struck, had we still gone to the fields we would have either been in the tornado, or stuck in traffic for many hours as there was a live powerline down across the highway which held up traffic in both directions for several hours.

Amazing. My instincts worked for me rather than against me today. Perhaps this is the start of a new trend. (wishful thinking)


AFTERMATH
The south side of the base I work on was clipped pretty good, taking out one of the entry gates and a lot of fence-line, not to mention some building damage from the flying debris. Could have been much worse, though.

Also, the storm left the area power-less, which meant traffic lights were out (not just blinking). Subsequently one of my employees, while leaving work, was hit by a car that didn't treat the out signal like a stop sign. Her car was totaled and she is now shopping for a new one.

Posted some recent snap-shots of the girls in the album.

Sometimes You Just Can't Win

Both girls lost their baseball games tonight. They played hard, but the other teams edged them out...

Cure for the "Dad I'm Bored" Blues

The kids had their soccer games at the same time today. Afterward we had lunch and then went bowling. Then I took them bike riding for about two hours, which they really enjoyed, and that was followed by dinner at a friends house. Another action packed Saturday.

Eternal Bachelor Gets Hitched

That is, my car got hitched. Had one installed on the Vue today so that I could get a bike rack and tote the kids bikes around without having to remove all of the crud from inside the vehicle...

I am SO glad I didn't just buy the hitch and try to install it myself. The veteran installer dude said it was the hardest installation he ever had, and he had a shrapnel wound (gouge to the head) to prove it.

Retro Shelby

Shelby had a show at school tonight. It had a fifties theme. Put some pictures in the album.