Last day of a fast year

Many years come and go with often undesired swiftness. But this year, the march of father time was executed with blinding speed. I still have "to-dos" from May, that got lost in the complete whirl that has been 2003. I hope 2004 treats us a little kinder. I'm not being impractical, asking for moments of stillness, or for granular control of the moments. But a "medium pace" (for you Adam Sanler fans) would sure be welcome.


Anyway, the kids' daycare closed at noon today, so I had to pick them up and take them to work with me. I took my handy portable DVD player and had them sit at a vacant desk to watch movies. That went very well and they behaved probably the best they ever have at the office.

Here soon we're off to celebrate the coming new year with friends, so probably won't get to blog again until next year. See you then.

Some guys have all the luck

(it's not what you think)

On my way to lunch today, a pickup truck at a stoplight, facing me from the oncoming direction, blew its radiator. Steam evacuated rapidly and antifreeze spewed all over the road.

Yes, this was quite unfortunate for the driver of that vehicle, but on the corner of that intersection?


A radiator shop. Lucky for him.


Had that been me, I would have been in the middle of nowhere during something like that.

Kudos for PJ

I learned just this evening that the best band in the land, Pearl Jam (technically I think it was just Eddie), was nominated for a Golden Globe for best original song in a motion picture. That is way cool, and Man of the Hour is a great, deserving song.

The trouble with paper records (and bastard salespeople)

You just don't know where they might be at any given time.


You see, I'm having HVAC issues at the house, which is more than mildly disturbing, since I'm still paying on the new-since-98 unit. When I bought it I was told it had a ten-year warranty that is transferrable to new owners if I sell the house, which of course seemed like a great idea at them time (July in a hot, A/C-less house, with a very angry wife staying home with two babies), but we're not here to dig up very ancient history (i.e. pre-divorce), although, I guess as we'll see at the end of this I do want to find a little piece of history to resolve my issue...

Anyway, so this weekend my heater decides to not fulfill its purpose, much to my dismay as I found myself triple blanketing the kids and strategically placing space heaters near their rooms, meanwhile freezing my own butt off.

So Monday morning, using the very business card that is still on my fridge since 1998, I call the people from whom I purchased my equipment upon the failure of my apparently original and overburdened 1960s unit. I explain my situation and that I need a warranty visit (one of which, by the way, I had back in 1999 for the repair of a minor glitch), only to have the lady tell me I'm "not in the computer".

(a pause while you consider my internal, but very instantaeous and body-shaking and head-exploding frustration at that moment)

I give her my first and last name, my ex-wife's first and at-the-time last name, my address, phone number, everything, and she can find no record of me ever having been a customer. How great is that?

I won't get all into the rest of that crap-filled conversation as to not ruin your appetite for the crap to come, but the end result was one free visit to my house by a technician to assess the situation.

He found that a sensor of somekind was not functioning correctly and therefore preventing the gas from entering the furnace to be ignited and thereby generate the all important heat that I need. So he did some "technician stuff" and got the sensor responding again, but said that it should be replaced immediately as it could give way again at any time without warning. The crux of the issue of course being that he could have replaced it on the spot and for free had I been able to produce proof of my so-called 10-year warranty that they have yet to be convinced exists (they say they only have a one-year warranty at present).

Of course, before the technician got to my house I spent much much time scouring my paper records looking for said paperwork, during which time I found such items as my 1991 selective service registration card, receipts for various computer products throughout the early nineties while I was in college, and even those great little collection notices from the mid-nineties when I was newly married and slightly more broke than I am now. But... no HVAC paperwork. Also a great thing, eh?

So the dilema is to keep searching for paperwork and hope the sensor doesn't fail again during a cold spell, or pay $177 for them to fix it via a normal service call. At the moment I'm still looking for paperwork, but I have set a Friday deadline for myself since there is cold weather coming in next week.


And the third piece of great news completing our exciting great-news trilogy? The sales guy who's business card I have from 1998 no longer works there.


(cut to present)

I've spent the past two nights continuing my paper-trail hunt to no avail, all the while hoping that while I was getting rid of (shredding) a bunch of old "stuff" back at the time of my divorce I didn't stupidly mix the presently needed paperwork in with the shred-fodder. Though that would be very much like me.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot... the nice lady who answers the phone at the service place, you know, the one that can't find me in the computer, says that back in 1999 they had a computer "upgrade". Translation from a computer guy to all you non-computer people... that means their computers crashed in 1999, they lost all the data, had no backups or disaster recovery plan, and lost their records of my existence. We'll call that one the bonus greatness. Or better yet, the greatness prequel.

A couple of revalations today...

1) My computer just went out of its 3yr warranty, so it's officially old, though it's hanging in there, thanks to many upgrades. 1Ghz with 512MB RAM and 80GB of HD isn't exactly shabby.

2) It's past December 21st, so the days are getting longer again. Rejoice! I hate this dark at 5:30 crap.

How about those Eagles, now?!?

Not that they did anything they weren't supposed to do, but against what seemed to be the odds, the Rams lost to Detroit, so now the birds have home field throughout! That rocks!

After the girls got back from mass, we went to the movies with my little brother and step-mother. The girls went to see Peter Pan, and the guys went to see Lord of the Rings III, or as I like to call it, the movie with five endings. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but there were at least five distict times I thought the movie was about to end, and I would have been comfortable with it ending at any of those times. It just seemed like they dragged it way way way way way out.

And oddly, the one thing I didn't feel was resolved (the Éowyn/Aragorn relationship), never got resolved, even with all those endings. Some may say he resolved it, but I'm thinking in the real world of man, when the elf girl (Arwen) came back for her guy, the "other girl" would have been at least a little jealous, especially one as tough and willing to be improper (for the age, i.e. going to battle as a man) as Éowyn. Considering also that Arwen decided to become mortal, I'm thinking the Rohan probable-queen could kick a little former-elf butt.

Eagles!

Now, officially, the Eagles are Superbowl contenders. They stomped the Redskins today and hopefully will keep that momentum going through February.

There is a new poll on the home page in their honor.

We finally got to open gifts here this evening, since I just got them back today and they went to their mom's Christmas Eve. But that makes five major gift opening sessions for them. Not like they were short on gifts.

Birthday party (no 15) was good. Girls didn't want to leave in fact. Afterward we went to Best Buy to see how I wanted to spend my gift cards, but I was so undecided I didn't get anything. More research definitely required.

Here we go again (aka more fun with hardware)

For you loyal readers that remember my 25 hour work day back in November recovering a crashed webserver before the customer arrived for the normal work day, I am revisiting the experience with another server rebuild, though this one was largely on purpose. It was supposed to be a "quick" upgrade, but that failed miserably, or as I will be saying at work on Monday -- anti-flawlessly, so the options were to revert (which could have, and still can be done) only to attempt failure on another day, or just rebuild the thing. Since it has been purring along hardly changed in the last two years since I built it to begin with, and since there was "plenty" of time until Monday, I decided to attempt a rebuild, especially since we can still back the entire effort out with an offline recovery drive.

So, I spent 18-hours at the office between yesterday and the wee hours of this morning, and I have quite a bit of loose ends to tie up over the remainder of the weekend, but I think we will all be glad that it is fresh when it's all said and done with.


For now, though, I'm off to pick up the kids and head to a birthday party.

Like Thanksgiving, I made the 100 mile round trip this evening to visit with my girls as they opened gifts at their grandmother's in Kingfisher.

There was much chaos. A hyper-active weiner dog that lost control of itself on the floor for Shelby to step in with her only pair of (formally) white sox since her mother forgot the suitcase I packed, a screaming baby (the girls' cousin), a couple of very wild, largely unsupervised, toddlerish children creating generally-difficult-to-maintain-a-straight-face moments, and a dozen or so adults trying to eat, talk over each other, and not step on dogs, babies, kids, or presents. I left there with such a crazy adreniline rush just from trying to keep my wits about me.

The adults (all from the ex-wife's family), as is tradition in that family, played a little Dirty Santa after the food. I got me an OU sweatshirt out of it, which was cool, but was -- strangely -- the gift my ex-wife contributed. I, on the otherhand, contributed an electric ice scrapper, which I'm not sure was equally appreciated.

The girls will be staying with their grandmother through tomorrow evening as their mother and I have to work and most traditional child care options are not available.

Fun with hardware

As noted in the previous entry, I received a DVD burner for Christmas, so I cracked open the computer case this morning after deciding to replace my current CDRW drive rather than go with two opticals. I decided this because I just don't copy CDs that much, and I still can with only one drive, but if I wanted to go with with two drives, it would be better to get a cheapy DVD-ROM drive (which can also read CDs) so that I could copy movies or music, and not just music. Also, one of my other computers has a CD-ROM drive that is not doing so well, and my old drive would make a worth replacement.

Anyway, I've got a Dell Dimension, which, unlike the way-cool-to-take-apart Dell Optiplex, took a little more effort to get into and add a drive. Fortunately the whole drive cage comes out so that the drives can be mounted to the cage directly, instead of having to squeeze hands into small spaces with low lighting. So I took my old drive out of the top 5.25" bay (there are two) and replaced it with the Sony. I put the whole thing back together, booted up, logged into windows, and hit the eject button so I could start loading software. Nothing but funky noises. So I took a closer look... crap. There was a plastic lip hanging down from the face of the case that was keeping the drive from opening. Ahhh!

I'm going to have to open this back up aren't I?

Yep.

After some measurement, the drive door is 3/16" taller than that of my previous drive, just enough to be maybe 1/16" under the case lip. Ironically, had I just left the old drive in and added the second, this wouldn't have been an issue. And I didn't notice it putting the drive in because the case face has to be removed to get to the screw that allows the drive cage to be freed. Part of that aforementioned "more effort" getting the drive in.

So, after pretty much a repeat of what I had already done, only with the drive in the second bay, I was back on track and loading software. Works good as a DVD player so far, but unfortunately it did not come with blank media (a surprise), so I cannot yet test the writing ability. However, I am eager to do so, because my system backups are presently taking 4 700MB CDs, which is a pain. It will be nice to be down to 1 DVD for my backups.

Tomorrow I will have to partake of my Christmas Best Buy gift cards to acquire some writable DVD media.

The story so far...

Last night the girls and I did Christmas with my side of the family. The girls got lots of... noisy stuff. Stuff of note includes a camera, boombox, and planetarium thingy for Darby, and a very large keyboard, air playing drumsticks (I don't know how else to say it), and dollhouse stuff for Shelby.

Personally, I was able to strike 3 items from the wishlist, in particular, the latest Sony DVD burner). I am very thankful for the unexpected treat.

Afterward I took the girls to their mother's, as they will do Christmas morning there and then go to their step-father's parents for yet more gift giving, followed by Christmas evening at their grandmothers, before coming back home to open presents at home.

It's almost over. So close I can feel it. Believe it or not I'm still not done wrapping. I'm done with family stuff that starts in about twenty minutes, but some stuff for the morning still needs wrapping. But I was just at the store and picked up some last minute neato stocking stuffers for the girls, so that, at least, I would call progress.

I am such a bad gift wrapper. I'm never going to get done with this stuff at this rate....


And I just remembered I'm supposed to get chips for tomorrow. Or later today as it were. Crap.



(and there went the dryer, so now I need to fold laundry.... argh)

Is anyone else NOT ready for Christmas?

Sure I have all of my gifts bought, but that doesn't mean I'm ready. Like many I'm sure, our family celebrations begin on Christmas Eve, which gives me tomorrow and the next day to "finish up". Which would probably work if I took a couple of days off work and did nothing else.

On the bright side, this time next week there will be another glorious year before Christmas. If only I could go into a non-permanently damaging coma for a few days... (i.e. wake up and it's all over)

Yes, I too am disappointed in the Eagle's performance today. But I still have faith they will endure.

Money well lost?

So I got back from my friend's a short while ago, after losing three games of poker. We started probably around seven thirty, so we were playing for quite some time. Considering I haven't played poker in probably two years, and have never played the type we were playing (don't even remember what it's called), I didn't do TOO badly. Out of the six of us, I finished third the first two games and second the last. It was down to two of us that last game and I was ahead at one point. But that was a situation that demanded experience and/or vast quantities of luck, of which I had neither. So I'm out twelve bucks. But that's not too bad for a full night's entertainment. Lasted longer than, say, Lord of the Rings and a beverage would have for about the same amount.

The kids had fun, too, playing with my friend's kids, and they got to have cookies and chips well past bed time. They fizzled out around midnight, but fortunately we live five to seven minutes away, so we were home and back to sleep in barely enough time for them to notice I woke them up.


It feels kinda weird to be doing this, being out late with the kids playing games at friends houses. I remember being the kid at my parent's friends houses while they played cards, or dominos, or whatever. It just feels strange for it to be turned around. And for me to be becoming more like my parents.

Pushing my luck

I don't much like driving, not extensively anyway, even though I drive cross country a couple of times a year to take the girls to visit family, but that's more a matter of expense and convenience rather than shear joy.

However, I do like to drive down the highway, preferably unobstructed, on a sunny, 64 degree spring day with the sunroof open and really good music, say a little Dashboard Confessional, blasting, and being in no particular rush to go anywhere. THAT I can really get into. And, while it's not spring, I was able to do that today, which is not too shabby for a few days before Christmas. Quite joyous.


But alas the joy was short lived. I had just a few last gifts to acquire before I picked up the girls later in the afternoon, and I missed a great opportunity to get these gifts the last two weekends when I was already at the mall... poor planning on my part I realize. So, for a third straight weekend (probably some kind of personal record were I keeping track) I headed to the mall (on the biggest shopping day of the year). I definitely pushed my luck. There was some serious traffic on Northwest Expressway, I'd say backed up nearly a mile, and the parking at Penn Square looked... not there. So I did a little back-street maneuvering and got myself into the rear of the mall complex where there was, surprisingly, decent parking. I went in, got what I needed (including Darby's birthday gift three weeks early, yea for me), made one last loop through the mall, and got myself out of that madness.

Only to, very stupidly, swing by the neighboring WalMart supercenter to get a few grocery items and also look for stocking stuffers. That was somewhat terrible, but since I only got a few things, I snuck away from the craziness via the 20 items or less line.

Then I got to do a little more nice-weather wind-blown joy-basking on my way to pickup the girls. Tonight we're going to a friend's for a little money-losing, I mean poker playing.

We apologize for the inconvenience

I've actually gotten complaints from "the local fan base" that I've not posted in a couple of days.... sorry folks, but I've worked until midnight or later the last couple of days (lots of research and testing for upcoming upgrades at work), which leaves little time for the creative energy to build and then be released in the evening. Plus my children have been with their mother for a couple of days, and they are often my best source of material.

However, I will say that Shelby had one of her best disciplinary weeks in quite some time. She had three tally-less days and only one tally each of the other days, which is a far cry better than she was doing this time last month.




(bonus points for those that can tell me where the title of this entry comes from.... if you know the answer, you probably also know the answer to the meaning of the universe as well)

Trying to find a spark

Those who know the girls know that they are both talented in thier own ways. Shelby is a little performer, not shy at all, and alway willing to entertain. Darby is an artist, and seems to understand the importance of the finer details.

With that in mind I've decided to enroll Shelby into acting class and Darby in a photography class next spring. There's an arts center in town that has children's classes of that sort. Applications are due in a couple of days, and it's not cheap, but if we find the girls blossom in those areas it will have definitely been worth it.

We had to get gifts for Darby's classmates this evening, so we visited the very wallet friendly Dollar Tree establishment. For the low low price of five bucks we got a little something for everyone in her class.

One Hundred Years Of Flight

As a Wright (though in all likelyhood unrelated), and as a flying/airplane enthusiast, I feel strongly about the importance of the day we honor, one hundred years removed, on the (Kill Devil) Hills of North Carolina.

The entire world owes so much to my nominal kin. They were true pioneers who had the courage and foresight to say... what's with all this side-to-side horizontal stuff? We... are going vertical... man!

10-watt light bulb... the light comes on, but it's not so bright

I make a habit of scanning school papers and drawings into the computer and emailing them to the girls' mother so that she's in the loop on everything. The girls are used to this, but I'm pretty sure they don't entirely understand what's happening when I do that.

Shelby has a Christmas ornament she made at school last week that she wants to take to her mothers to put on her tree. She forgot to do so last weekend, though. So she comes up to me a minute ago and asks if I could email the ornament to her mother... thought that was kinda funny.

Speech!

Darby had a speech contest today, in which she got third place. I stayed at her school after getting them to class so I could watch.

Shelby had dance team practice, and she's already having second thoughts on signing up for this session because it's a little harder than the last.

Darby also had a tally for the second straight day. Too much talking. We're going to have to do something about that.

Mis-usable quote from TV land

"Mid-field sack dance"

- From Sports Center, referring to the celebrating Mark Gasteneau (sp) would do after sacking a quarterback.

Happy Bill of Rights Day

I only just learned that December 15th is Bill of Rights Day. Interestingly enough, I was just reading the constitution after a political argument with my mother. If there's something that isn't fun, it's getting into political arguments with your parents.

Eagles!

Eagles win again, and the road to the superbowl looks to have less traffic at least. I'm not wanting to jinx it, but they are definitely better this year than last, and last year they were one win shy of being super.

It's official... I'm getting... less young

Today at work, following the xmas luncheon, PB of earlier story fame, noticed that I have a few gray hairs.

That's just great. EXACTLY what I needed as I sink deeper into my 31st year...

The Great Buns Controversy (aka I'll just have a salad)

Today was our office Christmas luncheon and I was vastly unprepared. My group was supposed to bring deserts, and much like the day before, I had completely forgotten to obtain my obligatory contributional party-fare. Had I at least foresight if not rememberance, I would have acquired said item when I was at the grocery store just over twenty-four hours earlier obtaining last-minute party items for my children and their Christmas party. But instead, I again visited the land of last-minute party shopping.

Yes, yes, on to our story...


I look down at the clock in my car as I'm zipping from work to the grocery store. I'll be a little late, I thought, but I'm bringing a desert item, so it's not like IT has to be on time. Upon arrival at the grocery store, I head straight for the bakery and pick up some cupcakes. Path of least resistance, right?

So I'm thinking I'm home-free, just a few more minutes to get checked out and I'm zipping back to work, desert in hand, and hopefully not last in line for food.

But suddenly, on the way to the check-out counter, I see lead. Or, that's what we call her at the office. For her initials, PB, and their contiguous significance on the periodic table (yes, I know we're geeks, get over it). Ah-ha! A fellow ill-prepared soon-to-be party goer. And she has a cart full of buns.

Dinner rolls that is.

There's an empathy here, so I must investigate. I ask her what she is supposed to get and she says salad and rolls, only she's not certain what she will do about the salad at the last minute. She was going to get some salad items and find some place to cut it all up, but she didn't have a bowl. So I suggested getting one of those salad bags that are already prepared, and I was pretty sure they had bowls in this joint.

So, a salad-hunting we will go.

First, we find the bowls, where we have our choice of two, three, and four-quart varieties. She grabbed one of the smaller bowls, but I recommended (in retrospect, mistakingly) the larger bowl. Keep in mind at this point I was still thinking leafy salad with not much density... need lots of room.

Moments later we're at the vegetable area checking out the prepared salads, but they were not to her satisfaction, so we headed to the deli area, after some organizational bickering, where they have roast chicken, other meats, and... salads (potato, pasta, etc).

Not a bad plan we're thinking. But we still have this not-clean bowl dilema, not to mention the question of quantity.

So she selects a bean salad (if that's what it's called) and asks if they can use the bowl we have to put it in, once cleaned of course. They reply affirmatively, so we hand over the bowl. They were very kind to clean the bowl for us and load it up with salad. Lots of salad.

Ten (10) freakin' pounds worth of salad.


Yes, yes, many mistakes were made to this point, and they continued. Could we have asked them to put back some salad? Sure. Could we have gone back for the smaller bowl? Sure. Could we have gone with plan A (leafy salad)? Sure. But we were very short on time. At this point, we suspected folks had already started eating, we were that late, so we went with what we had and got checked out.

PB ended up with a whopping fifty dollar bill for her lunch contribution. The bowl was like eight bucks, and the salad was three buck per pound (!). Ouch.

So, with plenty of second thoughts I'm certain, we rushed back to the scene of the party only to be the last in line to get food because, as we feared, folks had already started eating.

But getting into the building, we chose the side-door, which was locked, instead of the front door. I could see through the window that people were right by the door, so I knocked. When someone answered they said (I think in jest) they would only let her in and not me, at which point I replied with today's controversial theme...

"But I have her buns"

Yes, that went badly, but that's what I get for offering to carry "the buns" and my cupcakes while she, "the girl", carried in the ten pound bowl of salad.

Don't give me that look. I never said this was going well.


Well, for the sake of my readers, we won't get into the events of the party. It was mostly uneventful (and by that I don't mean day-to-day uneventful, I just mean, with regard to a Christmas party atmosphere), and none of us want to re-live that part anyway, right? For me, all of the "fun" was before the party. "Holding her buns" and all that.

:)

The morning came in a hurry and was, in that spirit, more hurried than usual (for a Sunday). On most Sunday mornings I have to have the kids at church by 10am for Sunday school, after which they attend 11:15 mass with their step-grandmother. However, today, due to schedule conflicts, they were to attend 8:45 mass, followed by Sunday school. This schedule change would have been minor had I not forgotten that this week was their Sunday school Christmas party, and had I not so poorly remembered to acquire snack foods for the children to take to the party, as requested by their teachers. So... we were up bright and early and off to the grocery store to get party snacks. And we made it just in time, too. We got to church as mass was just getting started.

Following Sunday school, we visited our third mall, Heritage Park Mall, in the last two weekends, still trying to come up with ideas for those last few hard-to-buy-for relatives. I hate this part. Everyone should have a wishlist. For crying out loud people, I don't even know what my own kids want (without asking) and I live with them.

Afterwards, we had lunch at Fazzoli's and trekked to the downtown area to visit the Braum's Ice Rink. The intent was to have some ice bound fun, but as we got there they closed the rink and brought out the zamboni (sp) to clear the ice for some kind of exhibition. Considering the delay, and the fact that it was REALLY packed, I decided to abort that plan.


So instead we crossed the street and visited the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Turns out there was a Smithsonian traveling George Washington portrait exhibit that just got started a couple of days before. So for the second weekend in a row (following last weekend's visit to see the DOI) we got to see an exhibit of national importance. The kids mostly had fun. Yes there were periods of boredom and "can we please sit down now", but they need the culture in their lives, too. And, afterall, the albeit new and very nice OKC art museum is no Philadelphia Museum of Art. You can spend days in that place and not see everything. Having been to the Philly version of an art museum countless times for school field trips, family visits, performances, etc, I can say with certainty that my kids had it easy.

Still trying to figure out if I should post this photo to the album.

After the art museum, we had some tasty Applebee's for dinner, followed by a trip to Bethany to catch the Christmas lights.

By the time we got home, it was bath time, so the day was quite full, and the kids were quite tired from all the walking.

Picked up the kids from their mom's (where they made a snowman with their mother... see the album for a snapshot), and we headed to Quail Springs Mall as though I didn't have enough last weekend at Penn Square.

After a quick meal at the food court (and when I say quick, I mean Shelby quick, which is really kinda... not so quick), we saw the movie Elf. Very funny. It was more packed than I would have expected considering it's been out for five weeks. The kids got a kick out of it, though I fear it might draw some unanswerable questions.

We walked the mall after the movie to do a little gift shopping for family. Got a few things and am almost done. I think only three more gifts to get and I'm done. But of course, those are the hardest.

It's officially winter in OK

It's 30 degrees and snowing out. While not the first snow of the year, it is the first measurable snow. We won't be getting a foot like my friends in Philly did recently, but unlike Philly we have limited road clearing resources, so I expect all of this to ice up and make for terrible commutes in the morning.

And oh yes, the forcasted high for Monday? 64. More of that lovely Oklahoma unpredictable weather.

Shelby lost her second tooth today. Unlike Darby's yesterday, this one was not a surprise. It was hanging around, literally, for quite some time.

There are those that are unhappy that I didn't mention (on THIS blog) my non-wordism performed yesterday in a meeting. But those who really care know to check SNEWD every now and then.

And then there's that other only-funny-because-it-was-so-stupid thing I did, which I can't remember, but I'm mentioning it because I forgot to do so yesterday.


If you think you missed it, no you didn't. Look straight, keep moving.

Darby lost a tooth today. Didn't realize it was loose, but she says it was. I think it's like her eighth tooth to fall out.

The continuing saga of duh-mass Shawn

If you're keeping up with this ridiculous saga, it doesn't stop there.

I had a 9am meeting this morning, so I decided to make a special point to go in to the tag agency first thing. So I'm there as the door opens at 8:30am, and I have my trusty registration card, and believe or not I'm actually a little smug.

PUH-LEASE

Right about then the tag agency dude asks for my proof of insurance, and like a dumb... e, I hand him the insurance card for my VUE. Remember, kids, this whole thing has been about the truck in my driveway that I no longer use. Do you think I carry around the insurance card for a vehicle I haven't driven since 1999? Exactly.

So again I feel stupid having completely wasted some additional (or, I guess subtractional, as it were) time at the tag agency. How many times can I walk into that place and leave having accomplished NOTHING? Only time will tell. I'm sure this thing isn't over yet.

I was pretty pleased with how they concluded the new BSG miniseries. Except for the very very end, which was a bit surprising. Overall I still think they did a good job with it. I've not heard that it will turn into a regular new series on Sci-Fi, but they sure geared it up for that.

That Darn Oklahoma Weather

Last week was a chilly but acceptable 30-50 degrees, which I didn't complain much about because I knew it could be so much worse for December. But then it got into the sixties over the weekend, culminating in a 68 degree, splendid December day, only yesterday.

Today, it is snowing. Only in Oklahoma, I tell you.

Digressive Reminutia

Growing up in the late seventies and through the eighties one of my all-time (top five) favorite shows was... Battlestar Galactica. Cheesy, sure, but I don't care. I loved it all the same. What you have to understand is that, back then, with the Shuttle program getting underway, and talk of a space station by the mid-nineties, as well as a possible trip to mars by the millenia... this stuff wasn't sci-fi... it was training. By the time I grow up, I could be a viper pilot on a battlestar, the childish imagination would reason.


For years, hopes were raised and then dashed by rumors that would never transcend into fact... of a new series, a new TV movie, a new feature film, a new whatever. (Heck, even the space station took awhile to come around -- though it still isn't mature, and mars... oy, don't get me started.) I would hear about it, and want it, even as I grew older, but it would never come.

Finally, last April I heard that the Sci-Fi channel was doing it. They were really doing it. There were even enticing commercials to prove it. A new Battlestar Galactica series. All for my very own.

In December.... ARGH!!!   I have to wait... eight... "fracking"... months...


Well, at long last, my twenty-plus year-old (and eight month) dreams have been realized and I am... impressed. Tonight was the first installment of the new three-part series, and over the months I've seen specials, glimpsed the commercials, and read various rants on the web about how bad it would be since they made so many changes.

While, yes, they made a lot (a whole darn lot) of changes, I really like what I see so far. They've done a really good job making the whole story seem more plausible, more dramatic, more dire, and in adding more realism to the technology. I was anticipatingly torn about the series until the opening five minutes of the show. Now I can't wait until the installment tomorrow.



(STOP! Before you go clicking on that comment link to rebuke my non-words, see this.)

Day of Rememberance

Today we remembered...

Pearl Harbor.

The Oklahoma City Bombing, by visiting the National Memorial and Museum. That is one solemn place. If you're in OK and you haven't been there, you're missing out. They did such a fine job with both the Memorial and the Museum. And the new federal building looks done. I think tenants are supposed to move in soon.

Our founding fathers and their vision, by visiting the Declaration of Independence Road Trip.

Eagles!

It has to be mentioned. Eagles solidified first place and clinched a playoff berth. To heck with you naysayers.

Fun with Fountains

The girls went to a birthday party (no 14) with their mother. I picked them up from her house afterward and we went to Penn Square Mall to have dinner and do a little Christmas browsing. We were supposed to go see Christmas lights after the mall, but we ended up being there THREE hours. Ugh.

We had a nice but LONG dinner at Pepperoni Grill (Shelby is such a slow eater... we were at the restaurant more than an hour). Then we went to check out the shops. Lots of neat stuff out there... Penn Square has some of the better specialty shops of the three major malls in Metro OKC (my opinion).

While walking about, we passed Santa, so the girls had a picture taken with him, which is posted in the album. Santa gave the girls a little Christmas Maze book (a $1.50 value) and we got back on our way.

We were passing the center court on the second floor when we noticed the fountain show going on. The girls wanted to go watch it, but I explained that it might be over by the time we got down there and that there are several shows every hour and we'd catch one later. Oh, and also pertinent is that we passed the bookstore and the girls wanted to go in and look at books, but I told them if we got through the whole mall in time we go back to the book store. Keep in mind that we had already been in several stores and this point, which with two touchy kids, isn't a short endeavor.

Fast forward maybe hour (we were really taking our time, there just wasn't a rush to be anywhere). We visited the Build-A-Bear store (very cool, but not cheap), and afterward Shelby noticed that she had lost her maze book that Santa had given her. Uh-oh, fit time... so she has an attitude fit and starts crying because she lost her book... mind you I had warned her more than once when she had put it down that she was going to lose it and I couldn't keep track of it at all times. (I was already carrying all three of our jackets, a camera, and their colorings from the restaurant that they wanted to keep, plus I was trying to hold their hands.)

So I tell Shelby that we are near the entrance we came in at and would just go back to the car and leave if she was going to keep on with the fit. That wasn't helping, so we turned around and headed for the exit, which of course drew a bigger fit. Fortunately for Shelby, her sister saved the moment by offering to share hers. That got her settled down and we continued browsing the mall.

Finally, sometime later, I think we covered the whole mall, and I say let's hit the book store. I do like to let the girls browse awhile in the book store when we visit the mall. So we get to the book store, find the childrens section, the kids grab a book each and sit down to look through them when... Daddy, Shelby says, I have to go potty.

Wonderful timing, kid. Wonderful.

So I explain to Shelby that the restrooms are quite far away and that if we leave the bookstore, we're not coming back (I'm really not trying to be a meany), and that oh by the way, we've been perusing the mall for almost two hours and you didn't say one word or hint at the fact that you had to use the restroom until the moment you sat down at the bookstore. Argh.

She says she'll hold it.

Okay, so I'm looking through some politcal books about two minutes later and she taps me from behind. Daddy, I have to go really bad.

So I say pack it up, let's go find the rest room. We exit the book store to the children's dissatisfaction (BTW, Darby almost left HER maze book on the floor of the book store) heading for a mall directory, and just as expected, the bathrooms are over by center court. We head downstairs towards center court and we pass Santa again. I let Shelby know that maybe she could ask Santa nicely for another book since she lost hers. She asked him, and of course, he gave her another one, at which point I let her know that I had intended to pass there again to let her do just that, which was why I didn't want her to make such a big deal about the book when she lost it in the first place, and that that was why it was important for her to be patient.

Of course, to get to the bathrooms you have to pass center court from the direction we were coming, and wouldn't you know it, there's a fountain show going on. What a quagmire we have here... they want to watch the show, but Shelby has to go to the rest room. And like with everything else, Shelby is very slow in the rest room. So we skip the show and head to the facilities.

As expected, that took some time. Afterward I explained that we were done with the mall as it would be closing soon, but that we could hang out at the fountain for the next show if they were good because, also as expected, the previous show was done by the time they got out of the rest room.

Finally, the moment they had been waiting for had arrived. The center court fountain began shooting water about in kid-notizing ways. They were thrilled. They positioned themselves in the spot that would get them most splashed and they leaned over the edge of the fountain, practically getting into it. I wanted to not get so wet, but I was quite tired at this point and also comfy in my chair. I did take some pictures of their fountain adventures and put some of them in the album. They got much more wet then it appears in the photos.

It was time to go as the fountain show concluded, so it was then time to take my soaking wet kids out into the thirty degree weather. Great plan, Shawn. Just great.


Lastly, when we got home and the girls got to bed, I watched the final quarter of what can only be referred to as the OU flattening. They didn't just get beat, or stomped, or run over. They were flattened. Like paper-thin pancakes. Only crispier due to the level of compression. And that's all I have to say about that.

Let's party (over spilled milk)

This evening was my company xmas party. It wasn't too bad. Lots of food. Pretty tasty. And lots of prizes. Everyone on my project team won a prize, what are the odds of that? Someone on my team even won the grand prize, and portable DVD/TV combo unit. Since I won this spiffy (and extremely useful) DVD unit at last year's party, that makes two years in a row the grand prize has gone to my team. Ain't that something.

Oh yes, and near the end of the party, I saw what I thought was an empty chalice, only to find out when I tipped it over to look inside that it was in fact a creamer that was quite full. Cream went everywhere and I was quite embarrased. Someone else, who tried to catch it before it completely emptied just spilled more in the other direction. But that whole few seconds of miscalculation made for the most memorable, laughter-induced tears of the night.

On the way home I used the Blockbuster gift card I won to pick up a couple of movies.

I don't need no stinkin gloves... or maybe... I do... brrrr

I get out of the car at work this morning, and it's a balmy 34 degrees, but it feels okay, so I throw my gloves back in the car and head toward the building.

But it didn't take long, once I was out from behind the wind-shelter of my car, for me to realize that I made an error.

By the time I got halfway to the building I was seriously considering going back to the car for the gloves, but I toughed it out at the cost of numb hands by time that I got inside.

Let this be a lesson to all you smarter people.

Is that your fall-back plan?

Got a quick haircut this evening and then ran by the grocery store for a few things. While in the grocery store, the girls were walking backwards down the aisle, racing eachother, in spite of my several requests to the contrary.

Fortunately for me (but not for them), right about the time it was getting out of hand, Shelby tripped and fell flat on her back, followed very quickly thereafter by Darby tripping over Shelby. It all happened very quickly. And it was a very interesting sight, my two girls lying there on their backs, one on top of the other, in the middle of a grocery store.

After a brief pause (by me, to make sure no one was seriously injured -- by them, instilled by the shock-and-awe value of the moment... vis-à-vis "Did we just fall flat on our backs?"), I began to laugh and initiated the obligatory parental I-told-you-so lecture.


They didn't do that anymore.

My new hobby

I call it... completely wasting my time. This isn't an entirely new hobby mind you, but I've become increasingly efficient at wasting my own damn time. I figured, let's make it official, shall we? So the next time you see me twiddling my thumbs, kicked back in a chair, I'm being neither lazy or lackadaisical. I'm merely freely, and hopefully enjoyably, exercising my recreational time in pursuit of my newly declared and of course well loved hobby.


The back story...
Last Tuesday, i.e. a week ago, I realized I was running out of business days to renew my car tag, so I put the registration card (or whatever it's really called) into my pocket for the next time I was near a Tag Agency. Of course, I didn't make it to a tag agency that day, so I put the card into "long-term pocket status". You know, where you keep something together with your "permanent pocket stuff" on the dresser until you're certain you won't need it. So that it goes back into the pocket the next day with your wallet, pocket change, etc.

Next day, Wednesday, I figure I must get it done because of the holiday and the fact that Monday is December and then I'll be late. But naturally, I forget.

Thursday and Friday, places are closed of course for the holiday.

Saturday, possibly my last chance of the month to be on time, as some tag agencies are open until noon on Saturdays. But unfortunately I was indisponsed, at a funeral actually, so that was an unachievable opportunity.

So on Monday, I realize I am officially late, but hey let's get it done today. So I verify the trusty registration card is still in my pocket and I go have lunch at a place next to a tag agency so that I can take care of it after I eat. However, I rode with someone to lunch, and apparently a whole lot of people were late for their tags as well (certainly they weren't just all eager to be the first tax-law-abiding citizens to register their tags this month), as the line was quite long. Not wanting hold up the person that drove, I figure I'm already late, I'll do it tomorrow for sure.

Finally, today, the day of truth arrived, a full week after the quest began. I decided to have lunch at Taco Bell, a wee bit south of the tag agency. I leave for lunch, park by the tag agency, and walk to Taco Bell. This way, I MUST get myself near the tag agency just to get to my car, and I would be a fool to not get this done today.

So after I walk to Taco Bell, stand in line, and begin to order, the cashier informs me there is a twenty minute wait because they are short-handed. Great. After ordering, my lunch friend suggests I take care of the tag thing while I'm waiting for my food and that he'll get the order if my number is called before I get back.

What a great plan, I say.

So I walk back, past my car, to the tag agency. I wait in the not-as-long-as-the-other-day-though-also-not-exactly-short line, until I am next, when I think to myself, I should pull my faithful registration card out of long-term pocket status and have it ready since I am next.

OMG.

It's not in my pocket. Every day this last week it has been, verifiably, in my pocket. That's what long-term pocket status means. Surely it must be here. I check every pant, shirt, and jacket pocket. No card. ARGH!

Mission: Incomplete

So I walk out in complete disgust, having completly wasted my time and effort, get in my car, and drive it the short way back to Taco Bell, where I wait ten more minutes for my order.

But that was so fun. Perhaps I will do it again some time.


And oh, sure enough, when I arrived at home this evening, there was my formerly-trusty registration card, enjoying its solitude on the dresser.

Took the kids to Chuck E Cheese this evening to see their aunt who was here for the funeral but is returning to California tomorrow. We had pizza and probably seventy tokens worth of fun and games.



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On the way home, the girls were playing with the toys they picked from CEC with the tickets they won, one of which was a rubber spider that Shelby picked. I was listening to music, but over heard Darby, for whatever silly kid reason, offering a bribe to Shelby's spider... she was offering "spidey chow". Thought that was kinda funny.

humanforsale.com says I'm worth $1,663,820. Seems kinda low. Not sure how I feel about that. :)



(warning though, that site spews pop-up ads galore)