That was one strange wedding. Well, strange isn't the right word. It was just different. But it was also the coolest wedding I've been to just about ever.
It was cool because even though there was so much that was different, most key staples of a traditional marriage were left intact.
I couldn't possibly explain all the differences, but principle changes were in the music selection -- the bride's choices I'm sure, she has good taste -- and unique vows that included phrases such as "I promise to love you to the end of my wits."
The ceremony iteself was followed by a dinner, and then by mostly traditional reception type stuff (first dance, father/bride dance, etc), though there were some twists there as well. And after that there was basically an all-out party. The groom is in a rock band, and his band had their gear setup, and they played while the rest of the friends and family jammed.
So why come all this way for an offbeat wedding? The bride, Sunny, is a close friend of the family. Some would say my "god sister". Her parents are my god parents, and as children we spent a lot of time together, especially in the summers. I lived my first four years of life in Arizona, and many of my relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) are there, so even after we moved away, I would be sent to Arizona for most of the summer to visit friends and relatives. While there, if I wasn't staying with my grandmother, I was staying with my god parents. Sunny and I played together all day and night, with my cousins at times, and with neighborhood kids at others. We did other activities together such as take an art class and go swimming at the community pool. She is the closest thing to a second sister I could have, and thus the reason I felt it important enough to drive a thousand miles.
In all, I'm VERY glad I came all this way for a wedding, as I also got to talk with many family friends that I hadn't seen in years. I'm talking the kind of friends that I've known since before I could walk. Or in some cases before they could walk. It was great catching up.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Day of visitation
Hey, look. Me and my brand newest cousin, Samantha.
And check out the view from my aunt's house. Notice I left my Vue in the view.
Spent the day visiting relatives. Leaving for the wedding soon.
And check out the view from my aunt's house. Notice I left my Vue in the view.
Spent the day visiting relatives. Leaving for the wedding soon.
Friday, October 29, 2004
This is your brain... this is your brain on road trips
While I intended to leave at or near 5am, it was just after six when I was finally on the road. 15 hours and 1,017 miles later, I arrived in Tucson, Arizona. I am SO mush-brained right now that I've pondered sleeping with my ears plugged so my head-guts don't leak out. It didn't help that I only got four hours of sleep the night before.
The key to successfully executing the cross-country endurance road trip (i.e. > 8 hrs), is to not crash. But also very important is to keep yourself occupied. I occupied myself with snacks, drinks, music, and books on tape. In that fifteen hour period, I consumed four Mt. Dew Code Red 24 oz bottles, four 16 oz bottles of water, half a box of donuts holes, a pop tart, nearly an entire box of peanut butter Ritz bits, half a can of pringles, about eleven sticks of Big Red chewing gum, and two double-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I also listened to 11 CDs all the way through (at least 3 of them more than once through), did enough bad highway singing to make my throat sore, and listen to part one of the four part, "How to Deal With Difficult People". That last one didn't help with the can't-sleep-and-drive-at-the-same-time problem, so we'll have to catch the other three parts later.
The advantage of taking a trip of this sort without the kids is the fact that I can operate so much quicker and make sacrifices I wouldn't make if the kids were along. When the kids and I travel, every gas/restroom stop is a minimum 30 minutes. Each meal stop is a minimum hour long. Today, I was able keep each of my stops to 10-15 minutes, and I didn't stop for meals, instead eating the sandwiches I made before hand (this option is available with the kids, but doesn't have the same effectiveness). Had the kids been with me, the trip would have been AT LEAST four hours longer in my estimation. And that would have been a problem because I don't think I could have made a 19 hour drive (my standing record is a 20-hour drive back when I was still young in 1994, and that nearly killed me). The 15 hour drive was pushing it as it was, yet I have to do it again in 36 hours. 30 hours of driving in a 72 hour period. Ugh. It's times like these that I question my intelligence.
As I've already seen my mother, grandmother, uncle, and three cousins since I've been here, it would have been great for the kids to have been here, too. But we just couldn't have managed it with the timeline as it stands.
Some observations from the road:
- The sun rose behind me as I drove West, burning off the remnant clouds in western Oklahoma, revealing an awesome blue sky, while the moon, still visible just above the horizon, clung barely to the falling night.
- In Texas, I endured a tumbleweed onslaught. They were everywhere, jumping out onto the road when least expected. It was crazy. Wish I could have gotten a photo.
- New Mexico (central, mountainous areas anyway) in October is very pretty. I saw foliage I would only have expected to see back east. Taking pictures while driving is, while a favorite pastime, tricky stuff. I was trying to capture BOTH the foliage and the mountain, but I would either miss the mountain or a hill would get in the way of the foliage. Use your imagination to envision this photo and this photo as one photo.
- I watched the sun set behind the Arizona mountains. Neat stuff.
- Driving through the mountains at 80mph, as the sun is setting, with the sunroof open and music playing way louder than is likely safe for human ears is fun. Wish I could do it more often.
Tomorrow, I visit more relatives, attend a wedding, and get some rest before I have to get back on the road again.
The key to successfully executing the cross-country endurance road trip (i.e. > 8 hrs), is to not crash. But also very important is to keep yourself occupied. I occupied myself with snacks, drinks, music, and books on tape. In that fifteen hour period, I consumed four Mt. Dew Code Red 24 oz bottles, four 16 oz bottles of water, half a box of donuts holes, a pop tart, nearly an entire box of peanut butter Ritz bits, half a can of pringles, about eleven sticks of Big Red chewing gum, and two double-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I also listened to 11 CDs all the way through (at least 3 of them more than once through), did enough bad highway singing to make my throat sore, and listen to part one of the four part, "How to Deal With Difficult People". That last one didn't help with the can't-sleep-and-drive-at-the-same-time problem, so we'll have to catch the other three parts later.
The advantage of taking a trip of this sort without the kids is the fact that I can operate so much quicker and make sacrifices I wouldn't make if the kids were along. When the kids and I travel, every gas/restroom stop is a minimum 30 minutes. Each meal stop is a minimum hour long. Today, I was able keep each of my stops to 10-15 minutes, and I didn't stop for meals, instead eating the sandwiches I made before hand (this option is available with the kids, but doesn't have the same effectiveness). Had the kids been with me, the trip would have been AT LEAST four hours longer in my estimation. And that would have been a problem because I don't think I could have made a 19 hour drive (my standing record is a 20-hour drive back when I was still young in 1994, and that nearly killed me). The 15 hour drive was pushing it as it was, yet I have to do it again in 36 hours. 30 hours of driving in a 72 hour period. Ugh. It's times like these that I question my intelligence.
As I've already seen my mother, grandmother, uncle, and three cousins since I've been here, it would have been great for the kids to have been here, too. But we just couldn't have managed it with the timeline as it stands.
Some observations from the road:
- The sun rose behind me as I drove West, burning off the remnant clouds in western Oklahoma, revealing an awesome blue sky, while the moon, still visible just above the horizon, clung barely to the falling night.
- In Texas, I endured a tumbleweed onslaught. They were everywhere, jumping out onto the road when least expected. It was crazy. Wish I could have gotten a photo.
- New Mexico (central, mountainous areas anyway) in October is very pretty. I saw foliage I would only have expected to see back east. Taking pictures while driving is, while a favorite pastime, tricky stuff. I was trying to capture BOTH the foliage and the mountain, but I would either miss the mountain or a hill would get in the way of the foliage. Use your imagination to envision this photo and this photo as one photo.
- I watched the sun set behind the Arizona mountains. Neat stuff.
- Driving through the mountains at 80mph, as the sun is setting, with the sunroof open and music playing way louder than is likely safe for human ears is fun. Wish I could do it more often.
Tomorrow, I visit more relatives, attend a wedding, and get some rest before I have to get back on the road again.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Weekend getaway (not)
I spent the first half of my day running errands that HAD to be done before the day was out. I didn't get to work until about 1pm, yet I still worked my eight hours. I've since pretty much finished packing, and tomorrow, I drive a thousand miles. The plan is to come back from that thousand mile journey in time to get at least half a day of work in on Monday. While it's possible that won't happen, I MUST be back in time to take Darby somewhere softball related (her last game was cancelled due to the rain and rescheduled for Monday night, though Monday she is supposed to have her softball end-of-season party, so I don't know if we're doing one or the other or both yet).
I sense a great exhaustion in the force.
See you two thousand miles from now. Although strangely, I'll not have really gotten anywhere, if you know what I mean.
(My friend Futility is laughing at me.)
I sense a great exhaustion in the force.
See you two thousand miles from now. Although strangely, I'll not have really gotten anywhere, if you know what I mean.
(My friend Futility is laughing at me.)
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Sweeping away those curses
I didn't want to see a sweep (and thereby quick end) in the world series, but at least now there is no doubt. No close games won on bad calls. No blown saves. No wondering by the other team how they almost won were it not for those one or two mistakes.
The curse is over. Undisputedly.
The BoSox swept the Cardinals with surprising ease and in decisive (if not initially erroneous) fashion. I would have been happy either way, but this way just seems more... harmonious. All is right in the baseball world. The Sox have restored somebody's father's/son's honor. At last there can be peace in our time (i.e. no more talk of 1918 or curses, etc).
Dare we hope for a similar fate for the Cubs next year?
The curse is over. Undisputedly.
The BoSox swept the Cardinals with surprising ease and in decisive (if not initially erroneous) fashion. I would have been happy either way, but this way just seems more... harmonious. All is right in the baseball world. The Sox have restored somebody's father's/son's honor. At last there can be peace in our time (i.e. no more talk of 1918 or curses, etc).
Dare we hope for a similar fate for the Cubs next year?
Haunting zoos
Fortunately, the rain we had today cleared up long enough tonight that the kids were able to throw on their Halloween costumes for a visit to the OKC Zoo for the 21st annual Haunt the Zoo event. We've been to it the last five years or so straight, so it has pretty much become a tradition for us. More than any previous year we took our time this year and took pictures at nearly all the diplays, so I hope they enjoyed it more this year than in years past.
This is probably the best pic of all the ones I took because the quality of the painting and angle at which I took the photo makes it look like the kids are actually about to be unknowingly picked up by the giant.
This is probably the best pic of all the ones I took because the quality of the painting and angle at which I took the photo makes it look like the kids are actually about to be unknowingly picked up by the giant.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Respects
This post has been delayed. Reference the following from the Blogger.com status site:
"Starting around midnight last night, we have had significant network
problems that would have prevented some Blogger users from accessing
the site. We continue to work on the problem and will update this
blog with additional information.
Update: A major error was made in the network routing from the Blogger datacenter. This affected certain users from specific routes trying to request pages from Blogger or Blog*Spot. This change has been reverted and we're following up to make sure this kind of problem does not re-occur."
Now back to the post, already in progress.
As previously noted, the funeral for Darby's friend's mother (Mrs. Penny) was today. Prior to the funeral I had to take care of a couple of errands, so I had to leave work pretty early (only got a little over an hour of work in).
After my errands, I picked-up Darby from school as she really wanted to go to the funeral, and I thought more of her classmates would be participating as well. As it turns out, she was one of maybe four kids from the school in attendance, but there were A LOT of parents and teachers, who had come to know Mrs. Penny (see the obituary from the Oklahoman) through classes, school performances, birthday parties, and other activities where the kids, parents, and teachers came together.
The funeral was packed. I estimate between 230-250 people were present, which is more than any other funeral I'd ever been to, and a testament to the number of lives she touched. And I must say, with all respect, that this was one of "the best" funerals I have attended. I don't mean to imply that it was fun or fortuitous, but rather very powerful and moving. Several speakers gave excellent eulogies, in particular her former squadron commander.
Mrs. Penny died on my birthday, just two days shy of her 41st birthday, so we were almost exactly ten years apart. But it's amazing to me what she had accomplished in her short life. Not only was she just two months shy of retiring from the Air Force with 22-years of service, but while she was in the service, she attained the rank of Master Sergeant (for perspective, my father retired after 21-years in the Air Force and only achieved the rank of Technical Sergeant... one stripe below MSGT), and continued her education, obtaining her AAS degree, her BS degree, and an MBA, while also remaining active in her son's school and extracurricular activities, and highly involved in her church. Even though I have ten years to do it, I'm not certain I'll have achieved as much as she did by that age.
Rest peacefully Mrs. Penny. While we wish you didn't have to go, you definitely earned that rest and peace.
--
After the funeral, Darby, her mother, and I grabbed some lunch, I took Darby back to school, went back to work for a couple more hours, and then had to pick up Darby again for her softball game.
Darby continued her strikeout streak, and the team continued its losing streak, but Darby did have an awesome, well executed play at third, nabbing a hard hit grounder and beaming it over to second just in time to get the force out. Of course, the second baseman did her part on that play as well, but Darby has previously not done as well on such plays, so I was very pleased to see her do it so well, and when it was very needed (the play ended the inning).
We still had to have dinner after the game, and Darby had A LOT of school work to catch up with, having been at the funeral, so it was a late night for us when all was said and done.
"Starting around midnight last night, we have had significant network
problems that would have prevented some Blogger users from accessing
the site. We continue to work on the problem and will update this
blog with additional information.
Update: A major error was made in the network routing from the Blogger datacenter. This affected certain users from specific routes trying to request pages from Blogger or Blog*Spot. This change has been reverted and we're following up to make sure this kind of problem does not re-occur."
Now back to the post, already in progress.
As previously noted, the funeral for Darby's friend's mother (Mrs. Penny) was today. Prior to the funeral I had to take care of a couple of errands, so I had to leave work pretty early (only got a little over an hour of work in).
After my errands, I picked-up Darby from school as she really wanted to go to the funeral, and I thought more of her classmates would be participating as well. As it turns out, she was one of maybe four kids from the school in attendance, but there were A LOT of parents and teachers, who had come to know Mrs. Penny (see the obituary from the Oklahoman) through classes, school performances, birthday parties, and other activities where the kids, parents, and teachers came together.
The funeral was packed. I estimate between 230-250 people were present, which is more than any other funeral I'd ever been to, and a testament to the number of lives she touched. And I must say, with all respect, that this was one of "the best" funerals I have attended. I don't mean to imply that it was fun or fortuitous, but rather very powerful and moving. Several speakers gave excellent eulogies, in particular her former squadron commander.
Mrs. Penny died on my birthday, just two days shy of her 41st birthday, so we were almost exactly ten years apart. But it's amazing to me what she had accomplished in her short life. Not only was she just two months shy of retiring from the Air Force with 22-years of service, but while she was in the service, she attained the rank of Master Sergeant (for perspective, my father retired after 21-years in the Air Force and only achieved the rank of Technical Sergeant... one stripe below MSGT), and continued her education, obtaining her AAS degree, her BS degree, and an MBA, while also remaining active in her son's school and extracurricular activities, and highly involved in her church. Even though I have ten years to do it, I'm not certain I'll have achieved as much as she did by that age.
Rest peacefully Mrs. Penny. While we wish you didn't have to go, you definitely earned that rest and peace.
--
After the funeral, Darby, her mother, and I grabbed some lunch, I took Darby back to school, went back to work for a couple more hours, and then had to pick up Darby again for her softball game.
Darby continued her strikeout streak, and the team continued its losing streak, but Darby did have an awesome, well executed play at third, nabbing a hard hit grounder and beaming it over to second just in time to get the force out. Of course, the second baseman did her part on that play as well, but Darby has previously not done as well on such plays, so I was very pleased to see her do it so well, and when it was very needed (the play ended the inning).
We still had to have dinner after the game, and Darby had A LOT of school work to catch up with, having been at the funeral, so it was a late night for us when all was said and done.
Monday, October 25, 2004
Updated album
While I've got a ways to go before I'm caught up, I've updated the album with a few pics of the kids, and even one of me and my sis from last month.
I also linked photos to a previous post concerning Halloween costumes.
I also linked photos to a previous post concerning Halloween costumes.
Leave it to Shelby...
... to crap all over everything. (aka dookie without the green day)
Darby had softball practice today, after getting team pictures taken. During Darby's practices, Shelby usually runs around, playing with another little girl that is a sibling of a team member. This scenario has become so "normal" over the last couple months that I've not thought much of it for soem time.
And as I was trying to pay attention to Darby's practice, I really didn't catch the key words at the critical times. Sure, thinking back on it, I vaguely remember hearing some odd phrases come out of Shelby's mouth. But if you've ever been around Shelby for more than three minutes, you'd know that every other peep from her mouth is a weird sound, word, phrase, or sentence (or if she's not making strange sounds she's making strange faces or gestures). Without a little prompting, she doesn't generally say much that makes any kind of sense. If it weren't so darn cute, it would be maddening.
"Eeeww, there's dog poop everywhere"
"Look, there's another one"
"Let's go find more"
These were but a couple of the phrases I chose to omit from my immediate attention this evening, while I watched the practice. It wasn't until we got in the car upon the completion of practice, when I was smothered with the foul smell of seemingly fresh dog poop, that it all came together.
I immediately exited the car, went around to Shelby's door, got her out of the car and inspected her and her shoes. She had majorly stepped in that dog poop she was so keen on finding, but the worst of it was that she had also somehow gotten it on her sock, leg, and (by tugging on the sock I presume) hands.
Freakin' yuck. It was such a Shelby moment.
The irony here is that we were in such a hurry to get out of practice -- the first to leave the field and get to the parking lot -- yet we were the last to actually leave. Having forgotten we even had practice today, I didn't leave work early enough to take the girls to get something to eat before hand. So we had to eat afterwards, thus the haste. Knowing that, in addition to eating, we still had to run by the grocery store (for lunch drinks) and do homework, I didn't want to dink around getting out of practice. But as I began this entry, leave it to Shelby to crap all over everything.
Literally this time.
Now, I complain about this situation -- and who wouldn't -- but it could have been MUCH worse. You see, I carry baby wipes (what parent of young ones doesn't?) and hand sanitizer in the VUE, so we were able to get cleaned up, though as with all things Shelby, not entirely without incident. Also fortunate was the fact that I had a plastic grocery bag (in which I put the shoes and socks) and an extra pair of Shelby's shoes in the car that I hadn't taken into the house yet.
So, while I have been crapped at today, I went away without having been entirely crapped upon. And I am thankful.
Darby had softball practice today, after getting team pictures taken. During Darby's practices, Shelby usually runs around, playing with another little girl that is a sibling of a team member. This scenario has become so "normal" over the last couple months that I've not thought much of it for soem time.
And as I was trying to pay attention to Darby's practice, I really didn't catch the key words at the critical times. Sure, thinking back on it, I vaguely remember hearing some odd phrases come out of Shelby's mouth. But if you've ever been around Shelby for more than three minutes, you'd know that every other peep from her mouth is a weird sound, word, phrase, or sentence (or if she's not making strange sounds she's making strange faces or gestures). Without a little prompting, she doesn't generally say much that makes any kind of sense. If it weren't so darn cute, it would be maddening.
"Eeeww, there's dog poop everywhere"
"Look, there's another one"
"Let's go find more"
These were but a couple of the phrases I chose to omit from my immediate attention this evening, while I watched the practice. It wasn't until we got in the car upon the completion of practice, when I was smothered with the foul smell of seemingly fresh dog poop, that it all came together.
I immediately exited the car, went around to Shelby's door, got her out of the car and inspected her and her shoes. She had majorly stepped in that dog poop she was so keen on finding, but the worst of it was that she had also somehow gotten it on her sock, leg, and (by tugging on the sock I presume) hands.
Freakin' yuck. It was such a Shelby moment.
The irony here is that we were in such a hurry to get out of practice -- the first to leave the field and get to the parking lot -- yet we were the last to actually leave. Having forgotten we even had practice today, I didn't leave work early enough to take the girls to get something to eat before hand. So we had to eat afterwards, thus the haste. Knowing that, in addition to eating, we still had to run by the grocery store (for lunch drinks) and do homework, I didn't want to dink around getting out of practice. But as I began this entry, leave it to Shelby to crap all over everything.
Literally this time.
Now, I complain about this situation -- and who wouldn't -- but it could have been MUCH worse. You see, I carry baby wipes (what parent of young ones doesn't?) and hand sanitizer in the VUE, so we were able to get cleaned up, though as with all things Shelby, not entirely without incident. Also fortunate was the fact that I had a plastic grocery bag (in which I put the shoes and socks) and an extra pair of Shelby's shoes in the car that I hadn't taken into the house yet.
So, while I have been crapped at today, I went away without having been entirely crapped upon. And I am thankful.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Game also
In contrast to my preference for Eagles dominance of a game, I must say I rather enjoy the post-season nail-bitters like last night's World Series game. As tonight's game was not so much the nail-bitter, were it not for yet another amazing -- if not inhuman -- performance from Schilling, I might have come away a little disappointed (in the Cardinals... not because I want them to win, but because they didn't put up much of a fight). It was great to see the Schill make history.
Don't scare me like that
Geez, Eagles. You're 6-0, and that rocks, but please, no more close ones like that You're going to give me a heart attack, and I'm still (for a couple more years anyway) too young for that. But you're still one of only two undefeated teams left, so I can't complain excessively. Keep up the good work.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
So far, so good
The series is going just as it should. Neck and neck the whole game, with no clear winner until the very end. Couldn't really ask for better.
But oh, to be a BoSox fan in Boston tonight. Good times. Good times.
But oh, to be a BoSox fan in Boston tonight. Good times. Good times.
Block party
The girls had a Halloween party tonight, which it turns out was a block party. There was a moon bounce and a costume contest (in which Shelby was a finalist) and all kinds of other stuff I'm told.
The girls went to the party with my step-mother. We actually had other plans for the evening and they had to choose between the two. The other choice was to go to a friend of mine's for a game night. They actually like to go over there because he has five kids so it's like a kid's night out, too. But they picked the party this time, so I went ahead to my friend's while they went to the party.
While there I got the last of my birthday gifts, which was a REALLY cool baseball stadium book.
Imagine me for a moment watching a ballgame, playing a game, and in between game turns flipping through a ballpark book, foraging on the plentiful food all the while. With an environment like that, I'm easy to please.
--
Earlier in the girls and I went to the library, and afterwards I made good on my ice cream reward for them, though they chose shakes instead.
I have to say that I can't wait for the Bricktown Marble Slab Creamery to open. As the nearby Baskin Robins and Dairy Queens have closed, our only local choice for Ice Cream is Braum's. And while I like their ice cream, I'd like more choices. Both Marble Slab or Cold Stone are awesome, but Penn Square is the closest Cold Stone, and for now Edmond is the closest Marble Slab. I think they're working on a Cold Stone for Crossroads Mall, but I'm not certain. Even then, Bricktown is closer, though the parking situation may be an inhibitor.
Where have all the ice cream shops gone? Makes me want to open one up.
The girls went to the party with my step-mother. We actually had other plans for the evening and they had to choose between the two. The other choice was to go to a friend of mine's for a game night. They actually like to go over there because he has five kids so it's like a kid's night out, too. But they picked the party this time, so I went ahead to my friend's while they went to the party.
While there I got the last of my birthday gifts, which was a REALLY cool baseball stadium book.
Imagine me for a moment watching a ballgame, playing a game, and in between game turns flipping through a ballpark book, foraging on the plentiful food all the while. With an environment like that, I'm easy to please.
--
Earlier in the girls and I went to the library, and afterwards I made good on my ice cream reward for them, though they chose shakes instead.
I have to say that I can't wait for the Bricktown Marble Slab Creamery to open. As the nearby Baskin Robins and Dairy Queens have closed, our only local choice for Ice Cream is Braum's. And while I like their ice cream, I'd like more choices. Both Marble Slab or Cold Stone are awesome, but Penn Square is the closest Cold Stone, and for now Edmond is the closest Marble Slab. I think they're working on a Cold Stone for Crossroads Mall, but I'm not certain. Even then, Bricktown is closer, though the parking situation may be an inhibitor.
Where have all the ice cream shops gone? Makes me want to open one up.
Good idea gone REALLY wrong
Tags:
technical
A few days ago I finally got my shawnwright.com domain moved over to my new webhost, something I alluded to a couple months ago, and I've been cleaning up various things since. A couple things broke in the move, but I think I have them fixed now. As I'm finally on the new host, I can start catching up on my back-logged site to-do list, such as the family album, which still lacks vacation pics, softball pics, fencing pics, new school pics, etc.
The biggest piece of broken-ness is the fact that I was using SSI (server side includes) on many pages, and I hadn't counted on the fact that I previously had my ISP configure their server to parse all .htm and .html files on my home directory for SSI. As I'm now on a big web host, there's no hope of that customization happening, so I had to rename a bunch of files to .shtml for those includes to work. Eventually, as I centralize my menus and what not, all files will be renamed to .shtml (or more likely .php). The biggest impact is the links page. I know I had several friends and family members bookmarking my links page (links.htm), which is now links.shtml. However, I did put a redirector in place so if you still have the old page bookmarked (though you really should update it) it will still get you there.
I've also switched all shawnwright.us references (i.e. slogs.shawnwright.us) back to shawnwright.com, but the .us aliases will remain in place indefinitely.
Something I still haven't fixed is page counters, which were only on a couple of pages, but the new host has some nice web stats packages for free, so I'm not sure the counters matter much any more. Besides, the home page on the old host only had about 11,000 hits in the eight years it was on my ISPs server, so it's not like I was racking up the visits.
The stupidest thing I've done so far in this domain move was to implement a catch-all email box (*@shawnwright.com). As it was, with just my one address (me at shawnwright dot com) I was getting like fifty to seventy-five spam messages a day. I think I've gotten several hundred (maybe even a thousand) alone in just the 12 hours since I turned on that mailbox. Obviously, while my new host does filter viruses for me, they DON'T filter spam (bastards... they probably make too much money off it themselves being a web host). So, to stop the massive influx of spam in my mailbox, I'm about to turn that feature way off. If you don't know my real address (you darn address-making-up spam-bots), you can't spam me.
The biggest piece of broken-ness is the fact that I was using SSI (server side includes) on many pages, and I hadn't counted on the fact that I previously had my ISP configure their server to parse all .htm and .html files on my home directory for SSI. As I'm now on a big web host, there's no hope of that customization happening, so I had to rename a bunch of files to .shtml for those includes to work. Eventually, as I centralize my menus and what not, all files will be renamed to .shtml (or more likely .php). The biggest impact is the links page. I know I had several friends and family members bookmarking my links page (links.htm), which is now links.shtml. However, I did put a redirector in place so if you still have the old page bookmarked (though you really should update it) it will still get you there.
I've also switched all shawnwright.us references (i.e. slogs.shawnwright.us) back to shawnwright.com, but the .us aliases will remain in place indefinitely.
Something I still haven't fixed is page counters, which were only on a couple of pages, but the new host has some nice web stats packages for free, so I'm not sure the counters matter much any more. Besides, the home page on the old host only had about 11,000 hits in the eight years it was on my ISPs server, so it's not like I was racking up the visits.
The stupidest thing I've done so far in this domain move was to implement a catch-all email box (*@shawnwright.com). As it was, with just my one address (me at shawnwright dot com) I was getting like fifty to seventy-five spam messages a day. I think I've gotten several hundred (maybe even a thousand) alone in just the 12 hours since I turned on that mailbox. Obviously, while my new host does filter viruses for me, they DON'T filter spam (bastards... they probably make too much money off it themselves being a web host). So, to stop the massive influx of spam in my mailbox, I'm about to turn that feature way off. If you don't know my real address (you darn address-making-up spam-bots), you can't spam me.
Friday, October 22, 2004
Reporting progress
I had to attend parent/teacher conferences today. Both girls made honor roll (Shelby pulled her C in reading up to a B!), and both received good reviews from their teachers. Turns out Darby is a bigger goofball in class than I thought. Not in the getting in trouble sense, but in how she acts, which perhaps not so oddly is close to how I act.
I intended to take the girls out for ice cream tonight in recognition of their grades, but I kinda botched it. We went to Chick-fil-A for dinner and the kids meals there come with free ice cream cones. At that point it just didn't make sense to take them for ice cream again. Sometimes I baffle even myself.
I intended to take the girls out for ice cream tonight in recognition of their grades, but I kinda botched it. We went to Chick-fil-A for dinner and the kids meals there come with free ice cream cones. At that point it just didn't make sense to take them for ice cream again. Sometimes I baffle even myself.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Poor Roger
I would like to have seen Roger Clemens have another shot at a Fall Classic. And a Clemens/Red Sox matchup would have been nostalgic. But alas it will not likely ever happen as the rocket isn't getting any younger. I hope he'll be back next year, but he's definitely earned a good long rest.
Just as disappointing is the fact that Beltran will get no recognition for his amazing display of talent over the course of the NLDS and NLCS. Only the statisticians will remember years down the line.
As for the Cardinals, they're definitely not unworthy of a trip to the World Series. They've had a great year, and it just got a lot greater.
I'm not even going to make a prediction on this one. Come Saturday, I'm just going to kick back and enjoy the best time of the year. If the post-season thus far has been any indication, I expect only the amazing.
Just as disappointing is the fact that Beltran will get no recognition for his amazing display of talent over the course of the NLDS and NLCS. Only the statisticians will remember years down the line.
As for the Cardinals, they're definitely not unworthy of a trip to the World Series. They've had a great year, and it just got a lot greater.
I'm not even going to make a prediction on this one. Come Saturday, I'm just going to kick back and enjoy the best time of the year. If the post-season thus far has been any indication, I expect only the amazing.
Unexpected passing
Tags:
Darby,
in memoriam
Just eleven days ago, the girls and I were at a birthday party, and I remember talking to the birthday boy's mom. I see her sometimes either dropping off or picking up kids. She was a very nice lady.
Today Darby's third grade class was told that she passed away suddenly last night following some outpatient surgery a couple days ago. Her son is Darby's classmate, and one of her better friends. She usually sits pretty close to him in class. So far, she seems to be taking it okay. But what a shock, even for me.
UPDATE, 22 OCT
Turns out she died of a blood clot that made it to her heart after the surgery. And surgery was elective, making the whole thing all the more tragic. The funeral is on Tuesday, and Darby wants to go so she can comfort her friend.
Today Darby's third grade class was told that she passed away suddenly last night following some outpatient surgery a couple days ago. Her son is Darby's classmate, and one of her better friends. She usually sits pretty close to him in class. So far, she seems to be taking it okay. But what a shock, even for me.
UPDATE, 22 OCT
Turns out she died of a blood clot that made it to her heart after the surgery. And surgery was elective, making the whole thing all the more tragic. The funeral is on Tuesday, and Darby wants to go so she can comfort her friend.
October eighty seven
It was 87 degrees when I left work today, and I loved it. There was a swift breeze that kept it comfortable. It was the first day we actually reached 80, though it had been promised all week. I don't mean to sound unappreciative, but it sure seemed unlikely we'd make it today, considering it was pretty darn chilly and foggy this morning.
At Darby's softball game this evening, just after sunset, that swift breeze shook the tree-line beyond the outfield fence, blowing loose the colored leaves and creating a steady, botanical rain upon the outfield. It was a beautiful fall sight. Not that I'm embracing the fall.
Darby struck out yet again, but did well fielding. Only two more games left. I hope last Thursday wasn't her final hit of the season.
At Darby's softball game this evening, just after sunset, that swift breeze shook the tree-line beyond the outfield fence, blowing loose the colored leaves and creating a steady, botanical rain upon the outfield. It was a beautiful fall sight. Not that I'm embracing the fall.
Darby struck out yet again, but did well fielding. Only two more games left. I hope last Thursday wasn't her final hit of the season.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Seventh heaven
Great job BoSox! There couldn't have been a better role reversal. Congrats on your long overdue return to the big show, but don't go thinking there are laurels up there in baseball heaven. There will be no resting for you. At least not yet.
While I was hoping for an end to both series' on my birthday with an Astros victory (my how I undersold them early on), there's something special about game seven. However, unlike the Yankees, who looked pretty defeated all night (or in the very least at the clear turning point in the game... Johnny Damon's self-redeeming grand slam), I expect neither the 'Cards or the 'Stros will go quietly into the night tomorrow.
While I was hoping for an end to both series' on my birthday with an Astros victory (my how I undersold them early on), there's something special about game seven. However, unlike the Yankees, who looked pretty defeated all night (or in the very least at the clear turning point in the game... Johnny Damon's self-redeeming grand slam), I expect neither the 'Cards or the 'Stros will go quietly into the night tomorrow.
A balanced birthday
While it was a very busy day at work, with early morning impossible deadlines, and of course you know my position on being my age (not that I'm unappreciative for being less-old than others), which didn't help in the matter, it could have been so much worse.
Instead, it was quite well balanced out with many birthday wishes in the form of calls, emails, comments, and visits to my desk. In fact, I'm not sure the well-wisher turnout has been this good on my birthday in many a year.
Thank you all for the birthday wishes, and thanks to all that made things go so much better than expected on my birthday.
Last but not least, an extra special thanks to my team for taking me to lunch, and to D for the unexpected, but very excellent CD. You guys rock (almost as much as this CD).
Instead, it was quite well balanced out with many birthday wishes in the form of calls, emails, comments, and visits to my desk. In fact, I'm not sure the well-wisher turnout has been this good on my birthday in many a year.
Thank you all for the birthday wishes, and thanks to all that made things go so much better than expected on my birthday.
Last but not least, an extra special thanks to my team for taking me to lunch, and to D for the unexpected, but very excellent CD. You guys rock (almost as much as this CD).
Officially thirty something
I didn't much like reaching thirty. But it was tolerable because I was not yet thirty-something. Just thirty.
When you're just thirty, it's like y2k. You know, the whole "millennium doesn't really start until 2001" thing.
"I'm not in my thirties until I'm 31."
"Hey, I'm not old yet, but when I look to the left, I see old people."
So here I am, officially thirty something, re-entering the atmosphere, hoping my ceramic tiles will hold, and that I didn't take on any foam-damage on the way up.
Oh, I'll get over it. But already I don't like it.
When you're just thirty, it's like y2k. You know, the whole "millennium doesn't really start until 2001" thing.
"I'm not in my thirties until I'm 31."
"Hey, I'm not old yet, but when I look to the left, I see old people."
So here I am, officially thirty something, re-entering the atmosphere, hoping my ceramic tiles will hold, and that I didn't take on any foam-damage on the way up.
Oh, I'll get over it. But already I don't like it.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Schilling redeemed for shelling
As previously noted in a comment, I refrained from ranting about Schilling's earlier ALCS performance. I had faith and confidence that he would return later in the series with a whole bag full of former glory, and I was not let down. Schilling, you da man. I always admired your rock-solid ability to complete games (and getting upset when losing the opportunity to do so), and to get darn close with a lame foot, kicking Yankee butt all the while... impressive beyond words.
What a series! And we haven't even gotten to the big show yet. With LCSes like these, we almost -- ALMOST (dare i say) -- don't need a World Series. I can't believe I even fathomed saying such a thing, but the stress and late(r) nights are going to kill me if it gets any worse for the show.
Hey, I said ALMOST. Quite emphatically. Get off my back.
What a series! And we haven't even gotten to the big show yet. With LCSes like these, we almost -- ALMOST (dare i say) -- don't need a World Series. I can't believe I even fathomed saying such a thing, but the stress and late(r) nights are going to kill me if it gets any worse for the show.
Hey, I said ALMOST. Quite emphatically. Get off my back.
Ugh
Okay, so I spoke too soon on the weather.
Yesterday's forcast for today: High, 81 degrees.
Actual temperature when I left work: 68 degrees.
At lunch time it was outright cold. Well, tomorrow's high is supposed to be 84. I want to be excited, but... I felt so betrayed this morning when I stepped outside to cold, fog, and a dew-glazed VUE.
(note to self, add "Dew Glazed View" to list of cool band names)
I know I shouldn't complain, as it could be so much worse for October. But you can't just dangle an 81 degree day, offer a second, yank it away, only to offer a third with expectations of non-skepticism. Yet I'm in a crazy bind because I sent the girls to school wildly unprepared for the coolness. So should I repeat the error tomorrow or trust in weather.com?
--
And then there's Darby's continued batting slump. She had a great fielding day at third base, but she continues to strike out, swinging over the ball, despite our many practices to the contrary. She did get the game ball for her fielding efforts, though. Which both she and I were very pleased about.
Yesterday's forcast for today: High, 81 degrees.
Actual temperature when I left work: 68 degrees.
At lunch time it was outright cold. Well, tomorrow's high is supposed to be 84. I want to be excited, but... I felt so betrayed this morning when I stepped outside to cold, fog, and a dew-glazed VUE.
(note to self, add "Dew Glazed View" to list of cool band names)
I know I shouldn't complain, as it could be so much worse for October. But you can't just dangle an 81 degree day, offer a second, yank it away, only to offer a third with expectations of non-skepticism. Yet I'm in a crazy bind because I sent the girls to school wildly unprepared for the coolness. So should I repeat the error tomorrow or trust in weather.com?
--
And then there's Darby's continued batting slump. She had a great fielding day at third base, but she continues to strike out, swinging over the ball, despite our many practices to the contrary. She did get the game ball for her fielding efforts, though. Which both she and I were very pleased about.
Yet another Darby reference
(aka Darby as gadget fodder?)
Via a Gizmodo article (see screencap if broken). So there should be a third reference coming along any time now, right?
Or is this the third reference (if you count the political ad the other day)?
What does it all mean?!?
Via a Gizmodo article (see screencap if broken). So there should be a third reference coming along any time now, right?
Or is this the third reference (if you count the political ad the other day)?
What does it all mean?!?
Darby as virus fodder
There's a new virus out, dubbed "Darby.B"
I can see it now... more of my site, or email between family, being blocked from work because some keyword filter sees the word "darby" as a threat. That should be fun.
I can see it now... more of my site, or email between family, being blocked from work because some keyword filter sees the word "darby" as a threat. That should be fun.
Monday, October 18, 2004
What a moment
I saw the thin, crisp line just before it snapped. To use MLB's catch phrase, "I live for this." So rare it is for both games to be simultaneously at such an even stalemate, and at such critical junctures. It has been the perfect remedy, just as it seemed the LCSes were going to be boring sweeps. We naysayers have been put in our place.
(click image to enlarge)
I suppose I was wrong (for now)
Maybe she's not back. She had gone away. Then she seemed to come back. But then, gone again. I keep expecting her back again any time now, but I remain in waiting. Will I wait forever?
Of course, I'm referring to Darby's return to hitting slumpage in softball. She had a stand-out game on Thursday after four staight hitless games, but today it was as though Thursday didn't occur. She struck out again and didn't have the best fielding day. She would have done fine in the field if she was watching the ball and listening to the coach. On more than one occasion she'd do something like throw the ball home when the coach had yelled to hold onto the ball, and twice she was looking into oblivion as the ball was thrown to her for what seemed to be a sure put-out. She's playing third base a lot lately when she'd rather be playing first. Third is much harder to play and she knows it. But I think they put ther there because, unlike the girl previously at third, she has an arm and can make the third to first throw if necessary.
She's trying her best, I know. And she really is doing well in areas I don't always get to mention. I'm only (very very slightly) disappointed (for her, not in her) because she has been doing this for so long and has so much skill, yet isn't (consistently) earning the recognition on the field.
--
Yet another thing to be wrong about... I had recently all but written off the summer, thinking we'd get a few 70s here and there, but the 80s had packed up and moved South until Spring. While I wouldn't dare claim Summer has returned, I'm extremely appreciative for the projected week of nice weather (70s AND 80s!!! In October!). When I went to lunch today it was 76. 81 when I left for the day. Forcast calls for more of the same this week. Such is pleasing, and I'm appreciative.
Of course, I'm referring to Darby's return to hitting slumpage in softball. She had a stand-out game on Thursday after four staight hitless games, but today it was as though Thursday didn't occur. She struck out again and didn't have the best fielding day. She would have done fine in the field if she was watching the ball and listening to the coach. On more than one occasion she'd do something like throw the ball home when the coach had yelled to hold onto the ball, and twice she was looking into oblivion as the ball was thrown to her for what seemed to be a sure put-out. She's playing third base a lot lately when she'd rather be playing first. Third is much harder to play and she knows it. But I think they put ther there because, unlike the girl previously at third, she has an arm and can make the third to first throw if necessary.
She's trying her best, I know. And she really is doing well in areas I don't always get to mention. I'm only (very very slightly) disappointed (for her, not in her) because she has been doing this for so long and has so much skill, yet isn't (consistently) earning the recognition on the field.
--
Yet another thing to be wrong about... I had recently all but written off the summer, thinking we'd get a few 70s here and there, but the 80s had packed up and moved South until Spring. While I wouldn't dare claim Summer has returned, I'm extremely appreciative for the projected week of nice weather (70s AND 80s!!! In October!). When I went to lunch today it was 76. 81 when I left for the day. Forcast calls for more of the same this week. Such is pleasing, and I'm appreciative.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Another round of birthdays for the boy, please
We had our traditional family birthday dinner today, for my brother and I. Nothing spectacular, but I did play a little gag on my brother. I used a Barbie gift bag for his gift, so he was very conflicted about opening it. He knew it was a cool gift, but he didn't want to be seen opening it.
The coolness of the gift -- the game Star Wars Battlefront -- was later confirmed. He played it almost the whole rest of the night and wouldn't stop saying how cool it was.
The coolness of the gift -- the game Star Wars Battlefront -- was later confirmed. He played it almost the whole rest of the night and wouldn't stop saying how cool it was.
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Happy birthday bro (has it REALLY been that long?)
My brother turned 15 today. Tough to believe since he wasn't quite two yet when I moved to Oklahoma from Philly. When I lived with my father while going to college, I watched my brother on Saturday mornings while my dad and step-mother were at work. So for a couple of years, just about every Saturday, I got to change his diapers, which is not exactly a common memory shared between siblings. Heck, I'm biologically old enough to be his father.
You see, I was 15 when he was born. Thus the significance of the event. Though technically I was four days shy of being 16, so this post should really be reserved for next year, but I'm thinking about it, so I'll call it close enough (likely to just refer back to this post come next year).
As I was about to be 16 myself, I remember thinking how weird it was going to be being 32 when my brother reached 16. I remember how far away I thought it seemed and, looking back, I'm not sure whether to smile or grimace about just how different my life turned out in contrast to how I imagined it would be back then. Really, I have little to complain about, but man was I way off.
[begin side-rant]
I don't know why teachers and guidance counselors bother with those "where will you be in five years" surveys when we're that age. We have no true basis in reality from which to form our opinions. Our perception of how the world works is so narrow and even what we can see is warped by our youthful, self-interested egotism (yes, I know that's slightly redundant). Heck, I'm about to be 31 and I still don't know how the world works (in many regards at least), nor would I dare try to predict the types of trouble I'll have gotten myself into five years from now. As a matter of fact, it's barely more than five years ago that I found myself freshly divorced with a one-year old and a three-year old.
[end side-rant]
I know one thing I'll NOT be doing when my brother turns sixteen... trying with any measurable effort to imagine where I'll be at 48. This doesn't mean I won't have my usually lofty goals. But while I'd like to hope that I'll be lucky enough by then to have earned a spot in early retirement, all I can really expect is to not still be right here (you know, "at this point in my life"). As time tends to have its way with things, that's probably something, the one thing, I can count on as reasonably certain.
You see, I was 15 when he was born. Thus the significance of the event. Though technically I was four days shy of being 16, so this post should really be reserved for next year, but I'm thinking about it, so I'll call it close enough (likely to just refer back to this post come next year).
As I was about to be 16 myself, I remember thinking how weird it was going to be being 32 when my brother reached 16. I remember how far away I thought it seemed and, looking back, I'm not sure whether to smile or grimace about just how different my life turned out in contrast to how I imagined it would be back then. Really, I have little to complain about, but man was I way off.
[begin side-rant]
I don't know why teachers and guidance counselors bother with those "where will you be in five years" surveys when we're that age. We have no true basis in reality from which to form our opinions. Our perception of how the world works is so narrow and even what we can see is warped by our youthful, self-interested egotism (yes, I know that's slightly redundant). Heck, I'm about to be 31 and I still don't know how the world works (in many regards at least), nor would I dare try to predict the types of trouble I'll have gotten myself into five years from now. As a matter of fact, it's barely more than five years ago that I found myself freshly divorced with a one-year old and a three-year old.
[end side-rant]
I know one thing I'll NOT be doing when my brother turns sixteen... trying with any measurable effort to imagine where I'll be at 48. This doesn't mean I won't have my usually lofty goals. But while I'd like to hope that I'll be lucky enough by then to have earned a spot in early retirement, all I can really expect is to not still be right here (you know, "at this point in my life"). As time tends to have its way with things, that's probably something, the one thing, I can count on as reasonably certain.
Hey, hay
After a non-hurried start for the day (unusual for us), we had to head back to the store where we got the girls' Halloween costumes because I noticed after we got home last night that I was double charged for Darby's costume.
By the time that was taken care of, it was lunch time, which we had at a Braum's that happened to be next to a Barnes and Noble. So, after eating we ended up walking over to the book store to do some browsing and lucky us, we walked right in on the start of a book reading session in the children's book section.
The children's section employee (Jennifer) provided snacks and juice, read a book about voting for president, encouraged the kids' participation by asking lots of questions, and gave them short interactive tasks, such as voting for which snack was better. After the book reading, the kids got to color a picture of Abe Lincoln and have a polaroid taken that was put into a little Mount Rushmore frame (that's supposed to make it look like the kid's face is on the mountain) for them to keep. Shelby dove right into that action, of course, but Darby chose to observe from a far, I guess since the kids were all younger. It was a neat little unexpected bonus for Shelby at least.
That whole deal took a bit, so by the time the kids perused cool-book-utopia and settled on that one favorite book to get, almost two hours had passed. It's not a bad way to spend a couple hours, but I was kind of wanting to pull my hair out by the end of it. If only I had a buck for each time a kid said to me "THIS is the book I want... no wait, THIS is the book I want, no wait..."
Our evening event, which I had been planning for a couple of weeks, was a hayride at a real pumpkin patch (where pumpkins are actually grown as opposed to where they just haul them in), followed by a trip through a 5,000 sq ft covered (i.e. dark) maze, which Darby loved, but of which Shelby was scared.
And we concluded our evening events with a kid-favorite dinner at CiCi's. Darby had something like eight platefuls and Shelby had four or five. Both also got quarters to play games for a bit, as we don't always do that when we go to CiCi's because we're usually in a hurry. Shelby decided to use one of her quarters in the sticker machine instead of playing a game. However, I'm having difficulty deciding whether to let her keep the sticker or have it mysteriously disappear.
We contemplated a movie before heading home (since there's a new Hilary Duff movie out and the kids are big fans), though the timing didn't work out (plus I'd rather pay dollar theater prices for that one... it's no Shark Tale after all).
By the time that was taken care of, it was lunch time, which we had at a Braum's that happened to be next to a Barnes and Noble. So, after eating we ended up walking over to the book store to do some browsing and lucky us, we walked right in on the start of a book reading session in the children's book section.
The children's section employee (Jennifer) provided snacks and juice, read a book about voting for president, encouraged the kids' participation by asking lots of questions, and gave them short interactive tasks, such as voting for which snack was better. After the book reading, the kids got to color a picture of Abe Lincoln and have a polaroid taken that was put into a little Mount Rushmore frame (that's supposed to make it look like the kid's face is on the mountain) for them to keep. Shelby dove right into that action, of course, but Darby chose to observe from a far, I guess since the kids were all younger. It was a neat little unexpected bonus for Shelby at least.
That whole deal took a bit, so by the time the kids perused cool-book-utopia and settled on that one favorite book to get, almost two hours had passed. It's not a bad way to spend a couple hours, but I was kind of wanting to pull my hair out by the end of it. If only I had a buck for each time a kid said to me "THIS is the book I want... no wait, THIS is the book I want, no wait..."
Our evening event, which I had been planning for a couple of weeks, was a hayride at a real pumpkin patch (where pumpkins are actually grown as opposed to where they just haul them in), followed by a trip through a 5,000 sq ft covered (i.e. dark) maze, which Darby loved, but of which Shelby was scared.
And we concluded our evening events with a kid-favorite dinner at CiCi's. Darby had something like eight platefuls and Shelby had four or five. Both also got quarters to play games for a bit, as we don't always do that when we go to CiCi's because we're usually in a hurry. Shelby decided to use one of her quarters in the sticker machine instead of playing a game. However, I'm having difficulty deciding whether to let her keep the sticker or have it mysteriously disappear.
We contemplated a movie before heading home (since there's a new Hilary Duff movie out and the kids are big fans), though the timing didn't work out (plus I'd rather pay dollar theater prices for that one... it's no Shark Tale after all).
Darby as political fodder
Maybe a week ago Darby said something about someone visiting her school to talk about the importance of voting, but she couldn't remember the name. She said he used to go to her school when he was a kid.
I had forgotten about that conversation, but was suddenly reminded when I received this political ad for Kevin Calvey (who is our representative in the Oklahoma House) in my mailbox yesterday, which displayed this photo containing the very top of Darby's head.
I'm not offended or anything. It was just an amusing moment. Darby "can't believe it" and feels famous, even though her pictures are up on the internet (via the family album) for the whole world to see. "The Internet" is just not as concrete as "a newspaper in the mail" to an eight year old. Funny stuff.
I had forgotten about that conversation, but was suddenly reminded when I received this political ad for Kevin Calvey (who is our representative in the Oklahoma House) in my mailbox yesterday, which displayed this photo containing the very top of Darby's head.
I'm not offended or anything. It was just an amusing moment. Darby "can't believe it" and feels famous, even though her pictures are up on the internet (via the family album) for the whole world to see. "The Internet" is just not as concrete as "a newspaper in the mail" to an eight year old. Funny stuff.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Finally Disguised
We went to three different places tonight looking for costumes for the girls before finally settling one something. Can't say that I think too much of their choices, but it's their deal, so...
Darby insisted on getting something with a mask. She ended up picking a faceless-hooded thing that I don't even know what to call except faceless-hooded thing. There's some kind of mesh thing that goes over her face so that it looks like a faceless person with a hood.
Shelby is some kind of unicorn-riding fairy. When she puts it on it's supposed to look like she's riding a unicorn. I was a little better about it when she had picked a pony instead of a unicorn because we could have used some on-hand cowboy-type stuff to make her look like a cowboy riding a pony.
I had plenty of suggestions for them, but they wouldn't hear any of it. We've looked for costumes in some capacity for the last few weekends, so they've had plenty of variety to choose from. I shake my head every time I look at the costumes, but they've made their choices...
--
Guess we're not having a softball tournament after all. The team (coaches actually) decided not to participate this weekend. That's good in so many ways, but principally from the getting some rest perspective. Gee, by my tone, you'd think I was about to be OVER 30 or something.
--
UPDATE, 19 OCT
The girls have been invited to a Halloween party this weekend, so I'll be posting sample pics. But it's important to note the costume names.
Darby: "Mesh Face Robe"
Shelby: "Ride-A-Unicorn"
What great cosutme names. They sound like racing horse names. "And it's Mesh Face Robe by a neck!"
--
UPDATE, 25 OCT
As promised, here are pre-party pics of Darby and Shelby.
Darby insisted on getting something with a mask. She ended up picking a faceless-hooded thing that I don't even know what to call except faceless-hooded thing. There's some kind of mesh thing that goes over her face so that it looks like a faceless person with a hood.
Shelby is some kind of unicorn-riding fairy. When she puts it on it's supposed to look like she's riding a unicorn. I was a little better about it when she had picked a pony instead of a unicorn because we could have used some on-hand cowboy-type stuff to make her look like a cowboy riding a pony.
I had plenty of suggestions for them, but they wouldn't hear any of it. We've looked for costumes in some capacity for the last few weekends, so they've had plenty of variety to choose from. I shake my head every time I look at the costumes, but they've made their choices...
--
Guess we're not having a softball tournament after all. The team (coaches actually) decided not to participate this weekend. That's good in so many ways, but principally from the getting some rest perspective. Gee, by my tone, you'd think I was about to be OVER 30 or something.
--
UPDATE, 19 OCT
The girls have been invited to a Halloween party this weekend, so I'll be posting sample pics. But it's important to note the costume names.
Darby: "Mesh Face Robe"
Shelby: "Ride-A-Unicorn"
What great cosutme names. They sound like racing horse names. "And it's Mesh Face Robe by a neck!"
--
UPDATE, 25 OCT
As promised, here are pre-party pics of Darby and Shelby.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
She's back
Darby broke her softball slump today. Some will argue it was my non-presence that allowed her to relax and play well. Maybe that's so, but we'll see this weekend.
The girls' mom is out of town, so, with Shelby's fencing practice from 5:30-6:30 and Darby's game from 6:00-7:00, I needed to enlist assistance or someone would have had to miss something. So I took Shelby to her fencing while my step-mother took Darby to her game.
It's reported that Darby got a triple and a run scored. I'm very glad and hope that she can maintain the momentum for this weekend's tournament.
--
In work news today, my company announced the date of our Christmas party. There are both good and bad aspects to that, the worst of which was the fact that I was hoping to ignore Christmas' impending arrival for just a little bit longer. The girls haven't even made up their minds about what they want to be for Halloween yet (Shelby has changed her mind), so Christmas, that's just a distant blur, right? Please say yes...
The girls' mom is out of town, so, with Shelby's fencing practice from 5:30-6:30 and Darby's game from 6:00-7:00, I needed to enlist assistance or someone would have had to miss something. So I took Shelby to her fencing while my step-mother took Darby to her game.
It's reported that Darby got a triple and a run scored. I'm very glad and hope that she can maintain the momentum for this weekend's tournament.
--
In work news today, my company announced the date of our Christmas party. There are both good and bad aspects to that, the worst of which was the fact that I was hoping to ignore Christmas' impending arrival for just a little bit longer. The girls haven't even made up their minds about what they want to be for Halloween yet (Shelby has changed her mind), so Christmas, that's just a distant blur, right? Please say yes...
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Happy Birthday Netscape
Today you turned ten. I've been with you from (nearly) the beginning, and my loyalty has been unwaivering, even in the tough times. In my heart, you (in particular, your kin) will always be the bestest browser.
Here's to ten more years.
Here's to ten more years.
My dream come true
My gadget dream anyway. Okay okay okay, one of my MANY gadget dreams. But this one made my day.
For years I've been hoping someone would come out with a standalone device I could connect my camcorder to and make DVDs directly. Finally... FINALLY I tell you, Sony has heeded the call. For a reasonable price even.
And as though they were making it up to me for my years of longing, they made the ultra-spiffy device capable of hooking up to a computer to be a USB 2.0 dual-layer DVD burner. Wow. I already have a DVD burner, but it's not dual-layer. So that's icing. Yummy.
Streaming the video to my computer and creating my own fancy DVD with titles and chapters and menus (etc etc etc) is fine and dandy. But it's SO darn time consuming, AND it's a hard drive sucker-upper (as you might imagine from that 2-minute, low-res, 35MB video from yesterday's post). There have been many occasions where I have a single event on one tape and I just want to make several copies to send people without all the computer-in-the-middle hassle, and this device will be my answer. It is SO already on my wishlist.
For years I've been hoping someone would come out with a standalone device I could connect my camcorder to and make DVDs directly. Finally... FINALLY I tell you, Sony has heeded the call. For a reasonable price even.
And as though they were making it up to me for my years of longing, they made the ultra-spiffy device capable of hooking up to a computer to be a USB 2.0 dual-layer DVD burner. Wow. I already have a DVD burner, but it's not dual-layer. So that's icing. Yummy.
Streaming the video to my computer and creating my own fancy DVD with titles and chapters and menus (etc etc etc) is fine and dandy. But it's SO darn time consuming, AND it's a hard drive sucker-upper (as you might imagine from that 2-minute, low-res, 35MB video from yesterday's post). There have been many occasions where I have a single event on one tape and I just want to make several copies to send people without all the computer-in-the-middle hassle, and this device will be my answer. It is SO already on my wishlist.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
For the first time since Shelby started fencing, Darby didn't have practice or a game at the same time. So I finally got to watch Shelby in a fencing bout. Two actually. She won the first with a kid her age and level, but lost the second, with a kid that was bigger and more advanced than her. I made a video of the first bout that I was going to post here, but it's a little bigger than I thought it would be for a two-minute video (35MB), so I'll need to think about that.
UPDATE
Okay, well, I guess we can try the video thing, but download at your own risk until I can get this clipped down some. So, without further delay, here it is.
UPDATED UPDATE
That's Shelby on the right, for those who haven't watched the video yet. I forgot she's wearing her fencing mask and thereby not really recognizable. And yes, she's making a face under that mask, thinking that I can't tell. She's like that.
UPDATED UPDATED UPDATE
The above video has been resampled to be 7MB instead of 35MB.
UPDATE
Okay, well, I guess we can try the video thing, but download at your own risk until I can get this clipped down some. So, without further delay, here it is.
UPDATED UPDATE
That's Shelby on the right, for those who haven't watched the video yet. I forgot she's wearing her fencing mask and thereby not really recognizable. And yes, she's making a face under that mask, thinking that I can't tell. She's like that.
UPDATED UPDATED UPDATE
The above video has been resampled to be 7MB instead of 35MB.
Monday, October 11, 2004
My 'Stros!
Thank you, Houston Astros, for taking the Atlanta Braves out of the playoffs. And, of course, congrats on your first post-season series victory. Your alum, Mr. Caminiti, who died today, would have been proud.
(and in peripheral news... the Pack, what's up with them? End of an era?)
(and in peripheral news... the Pack, what's up with them? End of an era?)
Good-bye, man, you were super
I'm sure I'm not alone in my sorrow for the death of Mr. Reeves, my childhood Superman. I'm probably also not alone in my naivety that hoped he would inspire some miracle cure, go through years of rehabilitation, and eventually play some role in a future Superman movie (say, as Superman's holographic father or something). But alas that false-hope will never be realized as we lose a second Hollywood great in as many weeks.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Stuck inside
I picked up the girls yesterday morning from their mom's and we had a big breakfast at Jimmy's Egg, along with its requisite poor service (asked us three separate times what we wanted to drink, as though we were new patrons each time, finally brought us the wrong drinks, gave us someone else's check, didn't brink my toast,etc).
Afterwards, we swung by the store to pick up a birthday present for a party the girls were invited to only Friday.
As we were just next door to the Saturn dealership, we stopped there next and ended up being there for some time taking care of the VUE's overdue 30,000 mile service, during which I watched a significant portion of the OU/Texas game (the girls were appopriately dressed) that I had the opportunity to attend (but I'm SO glad I didn't, after hearing about how it went). The strange thing is that there were two TVs playing the game on opposite sides of the waiting area and one of them had some kind of a delay. We always knew a split second ahead of time that something good was about happen because we heard the cheers from the other side of the room right before it happened on the TV we were watching. It was like watching the game in an echo chamber.
After the service appointment, we booked it to that birthday party and were just in time. It was a bowling party, but not just any kind of bowling party, it was a cosmic bowling party. So the girls loved that, though I thought it was pretty darn chaotic. With 20 or so kids running around in the dark throwing eight pound objects around somewhat indiscriminately, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time just knowing that one of the girls were going to either inflict damage on someone or be damaged themselves. I can't believe everyone made it out unscathed.
Following the party, we went to the library to look for more books for the kids. Darby had previously started reading a 200-plus page book (Dickens, Tale of Two Cities [her choice not mine]) for her book report due at the end of the Month. But I told her the requirement was only for a 65-page book and that if she wanted to pick something different at the library for her book report she could. So she did pick something else out for the book report, though she said she would continue reading the other book afterwards, which is a good thing. We also picked up another book for Shelby. I don't think, at the rate of the last week, that she's going to make her book-it goal, but she needs the reading practice so we're going to keep going anyway. So all three of us check out a book just in time for the library to be closing. I picked up the recent Play Baseball the Ripken Way, figuring I could learn a thing or two, and maybe give Darby some pointers to help her get out of her slump.
I had some outdoorsy plans for the girls for later that day, but sometime during the birthday party it started raining, and it pretty much hasn't stopped since. It is supposed to rain the rest of today (ruining yet more outdoor plans) and Monday.
Bleh.
UPDATE, LATER
I am so sick of the freakin' rain already. I think we have enough for this year and next. Forcasts call for more of the same tomorrow. This makes for bad Monday karma.
Afterwards, we swung by the store to pick up a birthday present for a party the girls were invited to only Friday.
As we were just next door to the Saturn dealership, we stopped there next and ended up being there for some time taking care of the VUE's overdue 30,000 mile service, during which I watched a significant portion of the OU/Texas game (the girls were appopriately dressed) that I had the opportunity to attend (but I'm SO glad I didn't, after hearing about how it went). The strange thing is that there were two TVs playing the game on opposite sides of the waiting area and one of them had some kind of a delay. We always knew a split second ahead of time that something good was about happen because we heard the cheers from the other side of the room right before it happened on the TV we were watching. It was like watching the game in an echo chamber.
After the service appointment, we booked it to that birthday party and were just in time. It was a bowling party, but not just any kind of bowling party, it was a cosmic bowling party. So the girls loved that, though I thought it was pretty darn chaotic. With 20 or so kids running around in the dark throwing eight pound objects around somewhat indiscriminately, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time just knowing that one of the girls were going to either inflict damage on someone or be damaged themselves. I can't believe everyone made it out unscathed.
Following the party, we went to the library to look for more books for the kids. Darby had previously started reading a 200-plus page book (Dickens, Tale of Two Cities [her choice not mine]) for her book report due at the end of the Month. But I told her the requirement was only for a 65-page book and that if she wanted to pick something different at the library for her book report she could. So she did pick something else out for the book report, though she said she would continue reading the other book afterwards, which is a good thing. We also picked up another book for Shelby. I don't think, at the rate of the last week, that she's going to make her book-it goal, but she needs the reading practice so we're going to keep going anyway. So all three of us check out a book just in time for the library to be closing. I picked up the recent Play Baseball the Ripken Way, figuring I could learn a thing or two, and maybe give Darby some pointers to help her get out of her slump.
I had some outdoorsy plans for the girls for later that day, but sometime during the birthday party it started raining, and it pretty much hasn't stopped since. It is supposed to rain the rest of today (ruining yet more outdoor plans) and Monday.
Bleh.
UPDATE, LATER
I am so sick of the freakin' rain already. I think we have enough for this year and next. Forcasts call for more of the same tomorrow. This makes for bad Monday karma.
Friday, October 08, 2004
So now I'm a jerk, right?
I complained enough that my aunt is going to just take my little brother to Texas anyway. Her father's surgery is Friday morning, so it's not like she's missing that. She just didn't want to be gone so soon after the surgery. But, she made no prior plans to stay down there or anything. She plans to drive down (leaving ~5am, something I couldn't imagine doing myself), see the game, do the state fair, and then head back.
So I feel guilty, and I'm probably a jerk for it, but after tonight, I definitely would have had big problems getting myself together in time to make the trip.
--
In kid news, Darby continued her hitting slump, striking out a couple times, making it four games straight. Not sure what's going on in her head. She did a decent job fielding today, though she got hurt at one point trying to catch a pop fly. Instead of holding her free hand behind her glove to squeeze the ball, she put it out from the palm of the glove as you would scooping in and holding a ground ball. So the ball basically hit her square in the open palm, causing a pause in the game to give her time to shake it off.
So I feel guilty, and I'm probably a jerk for it, but after tonight, I definitely would have had big problems getting myself together in time to make the trip.
--
In kid news, Darby continued her hitting slump, striking out a couple times, making it four games straight. Not sure what's going on in her head. She did a decent job fielding today, though she got hurt at one point trying to catch a pop fly. Instead of holding her free hand behind her glove to squeeze the ball, she put it out from the palm of the glove as you would scooping in and holding a ground ball. So the ball basically hit her square in the open palm, causing a pause in the game to give her time to shake it off.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Decisions, decisions
My little brother is slated to head down to Texas on Friday to see the OU/Texas game with an aunt. However, her father is having surgery this weekend and she doesn't want to be out of town, in the event something goes wrong. She has asked me to take my bro down there for the game.
Most of you are saying no brainer, but there's so much going against me on this one.
I'm not an admirer of driving in traffic for long periods of time, yet I'm told the standard three hour drive will turn into a five hour drive with the mob of Okies heading to the Cotton Bowl.
More than driving for extended periods in traffic, I loathe driving in the rain for a long time, and there's supposed to be plenty of it in the region over the next few days. So I can maybe look forward to five hours of driving in the rain.
Even more than traffic and rain, night driving for any lengthy duration chides me pretty well. So throw all three of the above together (traffic, rain, darkness), and we have ourselves what can only be a fairly terrible scenario.
I can't imagine even attempting to take a five hour drive down there Saturday morning when the game starts at 11am (thus the likely night-driving). I simply must head down there Friday night and get a room somewhere. But how could I possibly get a room anywhere remotely in the vicinity of the game on such late notice? It seems unlikely.
Throw in the fact that, though my brother and I get along, he's sixteen years younger than I, so it's not like we relate on a high level or anything. So I'd expect the conversation to be thin after the first hour or something.
And lastly, let's not forget that in all my years in OK, I've only recently gone to a game in Norman, and I didn't even get to see the game because I was working the concessions. So why on Earth would I want to throw myself into the mother of all OU games, in a whole other state nonetheless?
I'm thinking I need to bail on this one. But I'm not sure there are options aside from me, so there's some level of pressure. I can't say I like being in this predicament.
Anyone want to take my brother to Texas?
Anyone?
Okay, that was mostly in jest.
Mostly.
(anyone?!?)
Most of you are saying no brainer, but there's so much going against me on this one.
I'm not an admirer of driving in traffic for long periods of time, yet I'm told the standard three hour drive will turn into a five hour drive with the mob of Okies heading to the Cotton Bowl.
More than driving for extended periods in traffic, I loathe driving in the rain for a long time, and there's supposed to be plenty of it in the region over the next few days. So I can maybe look forward to five hours of driving in the rain.
Even more than traffic and rain, night driving for any lengthy duration chides me pretty well. So throw all three of the above together (traffic, rain, darkness), and we have ourselves what can only be a fairly terrible scenario.
I can't imagine even attempting to take a five hour drive down there Saturday morning when the game starts at 11am (thus the likely night-driving). I simply must head down there Friday night and get a room somewhere. But how could I possibly get a room anywhere remotely in the vicinity of the game on such late notice? It seems unlikely.
Throw in the fact that, though my brother and I get along, he's sixteen years younger than I, so it's not like we relate on a high level or anything. So I'd expect the conversation to be thin after the first hour or something.
And lastly, let's not forget that in all my years in OK, I've only recently gone to a game in Norman, and I didn't even get to see the game because I was working the concessions. So why on Earth would I want to throw myself into the mother of all OU games, in a whole other state nonetheless?
I'm thinking I need to bail on this one. But I'm not sure there are options aside from me, so there's some level of pressure. I can't say I like being in this predicament.
Anyone want to take my brother to Texas?
Anyone?
Okay, that was mostly in jest.
Mostly.
(anyone?!?)
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
School pics
The girls brought back school pictures today. I haven't yet had time to add them to the photo album (the album is WAY behind... vacation pics, baseball pics, school pics, goofy pics, etc), but here's a couple of direct links to the pics for now.
Darby, September 2004
Shelby, September 2004
I'm a little peeved that Darby's hair is the way it is because I had her put it up that morning knowing it was picture day. And Shelby's picture came out VERY dark. The above photo is "enhanced" by me slightly to not be so dark, though I couldn't go any lighter without her face getting washed out. Here's the original scan. You should see a big difference in contrast between Darby's pic and Shelby's original (note the backgrounds).
Think I'm going to have to take advantage of the re-take option.
Darby, September 2004
Shelby, September 2004
I'm a little peeved that Darby's hair is the way it is because I had her put it up that morning knowing it was picture day. And Shelby's picture came out VERY dark. The above photo is "enhanced" by me slightly to not be so dark, though I couldn't go any lighter without her face getting washed out. Here's the original scan. You should see a big difference in contrast between Darby's pic and Shelby's original (note the backgrounds).
Think I'm going to have to take advantage of the re-take option.
Twin-kies!
Wow. Twins top Yankees AT the Bronx. I stand corrected.
Go Cards. Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Good job Shilling/BoSox. But stay focused. The Angels lost all three game 1s in all three playoff series' when they won the World Series in 2002. They may be called "angels", but they've got bite.
Go Cards. Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Good job Shilling/BoSox. But stay focused. The Angels lost all three game 1s in all three playoff series' when they won the World Series in 2002. They may be called "angels", but they've got bite.
Bad dad... bad! Go to your room!
I had something that HAD to get done at work today before I left. I got it done, but was then not able to leave work when I needed to so that I could get Darby fed BEFORE softball practice. I hate it when that happens.
After a really long practice, I took her to get something to eat (Shelby had already eaten after fencing), but it was already close to 7:30. She ate pretty quickly, so we started heading home, knowing that we still had to do homework and take baths.
But... then I realized. It's Tuesday. New music comes out today. New R.E.M. !!!
I was very conflicted. Hurry home, be parental. Or be selfish, swing by a music store to pick up the CD first, then go home.
I angsted over the issue many very very long seconds before deciding to swing by Best Buy. They sell music the week it comes out for $9.99 and then it goes to 13.99. I just can't stand paying four dollars more for the same stuff just for waiting longer. And with obligations every night the rest of the week, I was running a serious risk of dishing out that four bucks. Ugh. On the good side, I also picked up the new Good Charlotte for $9.99 as well. So, did I save $8 or spend $20 (when I probably shouldn't have)?
I feel like scum. Even though it only added 20 minutes to our home arrival time, I feel like I was outlandishly irresponsible and self-centered just then. The girls didn't get to bed until 10:00 after doing homework and getting baths. Did that 20 minutes adversly impact them? Not sure. But it impacted me.
And to top it off, I'm a little disappointed in the new REM thus far. All the "pop fans" have basically said that REM has sucked post-Automatic for the People. Well, I say poo-doo on that. AFTP was certainly one of their best albums, but the three albums after it were awesome as well. Now, their last album, 2001's Reveal, was a little odd by comparison, but there were some gems on there, too.
With this new album, however, almost every review I read in the lead up to its release (part of my excitement for getting the album so soon) said "REM is back" or "best album since AFTP" or something to that effect. I'm sorry, but I must poo-doo on that, too. It's not a bad album at first listen, but it's no AFTP. By a long way. It just seems to lack the energy that I felt was there up through 1999's Up. Like it would have been a star had it acquired a bit more mass to ignite. I'm still looking for a gem. In fact, if I were Monty, I'd say I got a raw deal. And this is coming from a BIG fan, that has all but two albums.
The Good Charlotte album is decent thus far. Not as good as their first two in my opinion, though it deserves more listens. They're clearly trying to "grow up" on this one, and it comes off well in some tunes. Though on others they moved past grown up and right on to old age. I swear one of the songs sounds like disco, which freaks me out, since I thought I bought a punk album. Okay, pop-punk, but definitely not disco.
I would have felt better about this whole thing had I gotten stellar albums out of it, while saving eight bucks to boot. I'll be the first to say that it takes way more listens than I've got in (maybe two each thus far), as I've recently been re-visting my Something Corporate CD, Leaving Through the Window, and I can't belive I put that one away for awhile because I thought it wasn't that great at first. But I really expected an instant classic from a seasoned veteran such as REM. Maybe it's a time-released classic. We shall see.
After a really long practice, I took her to get something to eat (Shelby had already eaten after fencing), but it was already close to 7:30. She ate pretty quickly, so we started heading home, knowing that we still had to do homework and take baths.
But... then I realized. It's Tuesday. New music comes out today. New R.E.M. !!!
I was very conflicted. Hurry home, be parental. Or be selfish, swing by a music store to pick up the CD first, then go home.
I angsted over the issue many very very long seconds before deciding to swing by Best Buy. They sell music the week it comes out for $9.99 and then it goes to 13.99. I just can't stand paying four dollars more for the same stuff just for waiting longer. And with obligations every night the rest of the week, I was running a serious risk of dishing out that four bucks. Ugh. On the good side, I also picked up the new Good Charlotte for $9.99 as well. So, did I save $8 or spend $20 (when I probably shouldn't have)?
I feel like scum. Even though it only added 20 minutes to our home arrival time, I feel like I was outlandishly irresponsible and self-centered just then. The girls didn't get to bed until 10:00 after doing homework and getting baths. Did that 20 minutes adversly impact them? Not sure. But it impacted me.
And to top it off, I'm a little disappointed in the new REM thus far. All the "pop fans" have basically said that REM has sucked post-Automatic for the People. Well, I say poo-doo on that. AFTP was certainly one of their best albums, but the three albums after it were awesome as well. Now, their last album, 2001's Reveal, was a little odd by comparison, but there were some gems on there, too.
With this new album, however, almost every review I read in the lead up to its release (part of my excitement for getting the album so soon) said "REM is back" or "best album since AFTP" or something to that effect. I'm sorry, but I must poo-doo on that, too. It's not a bad album at first listen, but it's no AFTP. By a long way. It just seems to lack the energy that I felt was there up through 1999's Up. Like it would have been a star had it acquired a bit more mass to ignite. I'm still looking for a gem. In fact, if I were Monty, I'd say I got a raw deal. And this is coming from a BIG fan, that has all but two albums.
The Good Charlotte album is decent thus far. Not as good as their first two in my opinion, though it deserves more listens. They're clearly trying to "grow up" on this one, and it comes off well in some tunes. Though on others they moved past grown up and right on to old age. I swear one of the songs sounds like disco, which freaks me out, since I thought I bought a punk album. Okay, pop-punk, but definitely not disco.
I would have felt better about this whole thing had I gotten stellar albums out of it, while saving eight bucks to boot. I'll be the first to say that it takes way more listens than I've got in (maybe two each thus far), as I've recently been re-visting my Something Corporate CD, Leaving Through the Window, and I can't belive I put that one away for awhile because I thought it wasn't that great at first. But I really expected an instant classic from a seasoned veteran such as REM. Maybe it's a time-released classic. We shall see.
Monday, October 04, 2004
The only good thing about October
So I fell asleep. As I thought I might. I'm a bit tired.
Darby's in a softball slump. She struck out again today for the third straight game, meanwhile the coach's daughter got her first hit (which is a good thing). Come to think of it, I think almost everyone but Darby hit today. Not sure what's up with that.
Anyway, tomorrow begins baseball's second season. The first round of the playoffs. The match-ups look exciting. I hope the Astros continue their romp and stomp the Phillie-killers, I mean Braves (hey, they've got the Rocket). St. Louis will likely stomp the Dodgers if they don't buckle to October pressure, sorry Na Na (I know you loved Dodger blue). As much as I'd like to see the Twins prosper, I can't imagine them putting the hurt on the Yankees in a divisional series. And I'm conflicted about the Boston-Anaheim matchup. I'd like to see Boston get far, if not all the way (AND Schilling is pitching tomorrow), but the Angels were my first favorite team as a kid when I lived in California and Reggie Jackson was with them, so in the back of my mind I'm always cheering for them. I thought it was great when they won the series a couple years back. And who can resist the rally monkey?
(my birthday is specifically NOT on the list of good things about October)
Darby's in a softball slump. She struck out again today for the third straight game, meanwhile the coach's daughter got her first hit (which is a good thing). Come to think of it, I think almost everyone but Darby hit today. Not sure what's up with that.
Anyway, tomorrow begins baseball's second season. The first round of the playoffs. The match-ups look exciting. I hope the Astros continue their romp and stomp the Phillie-killers, I mean Braves (hey, they've got the Rocket). St. Louis will likely stomp the Dodgers if they don't buckle to October pressure, sorry Na Na (I know you loved Dodger blue). As much as I'd like to see the Twins prosper, I can't imagine them putting the hurt on the Yankees in a divisional series. And I'm conflicted about the Boston-Anaheim matchup. I'd like to see Boston get far, if not all the way (AND Schilling is pitching tomorrow), but the Angels were my first favorite team as a kid when I lived in California and Reggie Jackson was with them, so in the back of my mind I'm always cheering for them. I thought it was great when they won the series a couple years back. And who can resist the rally monkey?
(my birthday is specifically NOT on the list of good things about October)
Now what?
I don't remember the last time I got the girls to bed before 9pm. Wow. This is a strange feeling. With the softball season (late games and/or subsequent homework catch-up), and other stuff going on it's been tough to get them to bed by nine, their "normal" time, though we've gotten a few 9:15s in there a time or two of late. But 8:50? Amazing.
I have just started a load of laundry and I am quite certain I have at least two dozen things I could be doing with my new found kid-less moments... but I think instead I shall lie down for ten minutes and think of nothingness. It seems like the right thing to do. Or maybe it's procrastination. Or... or... or... oh, forget it.
I have just started a load of laundry and I am quite certain I have at least two dozen things I could be doing with my new found kid-less moments... but I think instead I shall lie down for ten minutes and think of nothingness. It seems like the right thing to do. Or maybe it's procrastination. Or... or... or... oh, forget it.
X marks the spot
It is done. I am VERY pleased. Let the future begin.
(but it's a shame that one space pioneer would die as another is born.)
UPDATE
I wonder if they new when they planned this launch that it was the anniversary of the Sputnik launch?
(but it's a shame that one space pioneer would die as another is born.)
UPDATE
I wonder if they new when they planned this launch that it was the anniversary of the Sputnik launch?
Sunday, October 03, 2004
October reflections
Every day so far this month I've been forgetting that it's October, doing things like writing 9/ beginning a date and having to scribble it out. But it's getting harder to forget. No longer is there a chance summer might slip back in for a last hoorah. The Halloween spirit is out in full-force -- I've taken the girls costume browsing already, and there are people with their orange lights up. The pumpkin patches have started. I wore long-sleeves the last couple of days. And today, the baseball (regular) season ended. A certain finale to a not-long-enough summer.
While disappointed in the lack of a post-season, I'm glad that the Phils completed their season in a solid second place, as I know it was, and could have remained, much worse. Of course, it was also better at one point, but we'll chalk that up to Brave-ery.
Apparently the Phils management is much less tolerant than I, as they fired Larry Bowa yesterday with a year left on his contract, which I think is a little sad. Sure, he was a hard-@ss (with an overall losing record), but I still liked his style. Also, the fact that he came up in the Phillies organization as a player during their greatest years, seemed like good karma to me. Like all they lacked was Mike Schmidt as their hitting coach.
But what a baseball season it was, Phils aside. I feel bad for teams like the A's and Giants and Cubs that played so darn hard all season long, only to fall short in the end. But then there's the excellent surprises like the Angels, who were up and down between first and thrid all year, and the Astros, who won seven straight games at the end of the season to come out of nowhere and take the NL wild card from other apparent shoe-ins.
Of course, there was the new Phillies ball park, and I believe this year was the first year that attendance at ball games league-wide was at pre-strike levels (let that be a lesson to the players and MLB... ten years is a long recovery... I can only imagine where the game would be without the need for a recovery). And then there's the recent news that MLB is returning to Washington, DC. Just in time for my next east-coast vacation, which will include a DC visit, and fortunately now a DC ball game.
My (likely incorrect) October prediction? St. Louis all the way, winning the series in six. Boston, I love an underdog, and I'll be rooting for you (plus you have ex-Phils ace Schilling... how could I NOT root for you), but, well, I'm afraid this year destiny is in the Cards, so to speak.
October Black Sky
I intended, but completely forgot when it came time to write, to pay homage to the enormously historical event that took place last week. In my opinion, September 29th, 2004, will go down in history as the space-equivalent to December 17th, 1903.
As the first private astronaut crossed the boundary of space, and with several recent commercial announcements, the chances that, if not my children then my grandchildren, will be able to live and/or work in space are better than ever.
Tomorrow, that same group will take to the black sky once more, to win the $10 million X-Prize, and change the world forever.
Two major companies have announced plans to offer space flights for the average citizen by 2006. And already there will be a $50 million follow-up space prize for the team that puts up a reusable orbital craft by the end of the decade.
This is such an exciting time, only it isn't empty promises by governments anymore. I remember how much talk of a space station by 1995 and mission to mars by 2004 when I was a kid got me all riled up about the day I could work in space, or live on the moon. I can only imagine the dreams and aspirations being conjured-up by the impressionable youth of today. Let's not let them down this time.
While disappointed in the lack of a post-season, I'm glad that the Phils completed their season in a solid second place, as I know it was, and could have remained, much worse. Of course, it was also better at one point, but we'll chalk that up to Brave-ery.
Apparently the Phils management is much less tolerant than I, as they fired Larry Bowa yesterday with a year left on his contract, which I think is a little sad. Sure, he was a hard-@ss (with an overall losing record), but I still liked his style. Also, the fact that he came up in the Phillies organization as a player during their greatest years, seemed like good karma to me. Like all they lacked was Mike Schmidt as their hitting coach.
But what a baseball season it was, Phils aside. I feel bad for teams like the A's and Giants and Cubs that played so darn hard all season long, only to fall short in the end. But then there's the excellent surprises like the Angels, who were up and down between first and thrid all year, and the Astros, who won seven straight games at the end of the season to come out of nowhere and take the NL wild card from other apparent shoe-ins.
Of course, there was the new Phillies ball park, and I believe this year was the first year that attendance at ball games league-wide was at pre-strike levels (let that be a lesson to the players and MLB... ten years is a long recovery... I can only imagine where the game would be without the need for a recovery). And then there's the recent news that MLB is returning to Washington, DC. Just in time for my next east-coast vacation, which will include a DC visit, and fortunately now a DC ball game.
My (likely incorrect) October prediction? St. Louis all the way, winning the series in six. Boston, I love an underdog, and I'll be rooting for you (plus you have ex-Phils ace Schilling... how could I NOT root for you), but, well, I'm afraid this year destiny is in the Cards, so to speak.
October Black Sky
I intended, but completely forgot when it came time to write, to pay homage to the enormously historical event that took place last week. In my opinion, September 29th, 2004, will go down in history as the space-equivalent to December 17th, 1903.
As the first private astronaut crossed the boundary of space, and with several recent commercial announcements, the chances that, if not my children then my grandchildren, will be able to live and/or work in space are better than ever.
Tomorrow, that same group will take to the black sky once more, to win the $10 million X-Prize, and change the world forever.
Two major companies have announced plans to offer space flights for the average citizen by 2006. And already there will be a $50 million follow-up space prize for the team that puts up a reusable orbital craft by the end of the decade.
This is such an exciting time, only it isn't empty promises by governments anymore. I remember how much talk of a space station by 1995 and mission to mars by 2004 when I was a kid got me all riled up about the day I could work in space, or live on the moon. I can only imagine the dreams and aspirations being conjured-up by the impressionable youth of today. Let's not let them down this time.
On second thought
Our plan to attend early mass did not work out at all. You see, when Darby woke me up this morning, mass was half over. So we reverted back to late mass, which worked out okay, but we then missed some loose lunch plans we had. Instead, the kids and I had lunch together after mass at Braum's and we got ice cream afterwards.
Lunch was followed by a visit to a used book store, where we got a few books for the girls. Shelby needs extra reading practice, and I'm trying to motivate her to reach her Book-It goal so she can get a free pizza (which she loves... the pizza, not the reading). So after the book store, we went to a park, at which point I let Darby go play and I told Shelby she could go play after she read half a book to me. She read her half a book quite well and took off to play. We weren't in a hurry to be anywhere, so we stayed at the park for about two hours. The only reason we left was because the girls ran out of beverages and were thirsty.
After quenching little thirts, we got Shelby a hair cut. She had been complaining for at least a week about her bangs being in her eyes. Here's a sort-of before-and-after (the before is from yesterday).
We had dinner out with my dad and his family, right after the hair cut, concluding our day's activities.
Lunch was followed by a visit to a used book store, where we got a few books for the girls. Shelby needs extra reading practice, and I'm trying to motivate her to reach her Book-It goal so she can get a free pizza (which she loves... the pizza, not the reading). So after the book store, we went to a park, at which point I let Darby go play and I told Shelby she could go play after she read half a book to me. She read her half a book quite well and took off to play. We weren't in a hurry to be anywhere, so we stayed at the park for about two hours. The only reason we left was because the girls ran out of beverages and were thirsty.
After quenching little thirts, we got Shelby a hair cut. She had been complaining for at least a week about her bangs being in her eyes. Here's a sort-of before-and-after (the before is from yesterday).
We had dinner out with my dad and his family, right after the hair cut, concluding our day's activities.
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Dynamite with a lazer beam
Our first order of business for the day was a birthday party at Lazer World in Shawnee, OK. While we've driven as far as Tulsa for parties in the past, Shawnee is a good hike for a morning party. And though I'd been to Shawnee a few times before, I didn't know my way around at all. After a couple of wrong turns, we got there only a tad late.
The girls had a great time. They had been to a laser tag place before during summer cmap, but not this one, which they say had different rules than what they'd done before. Subsequently, Shelby (being stubborn and picky) had a bit of a tantrum about the fact that they weren't playing the way she knew how to play. So I had to tag along with her the first game to help her figure out what to do. But then Darby got upset at the fact that I was using her (as she was on the other team) as target practice in showing Shelby how to shoot. Shelby got the hang of it pretty quick and was off on her own before I knew it, shooting her sister all on her own. Here's a picture of the girls in their laser gear.
After the party, I had planned to take the girls to see Shark Tale, though I originally planned to go to one of the local mall theaters, as I didn't want to deal with the crowds I expected at the newly-opened, one-day-old Bricktown theater (see related articles). But I decided last minute to go ahead and checkout the new theater and abort if it was too packed.
Surprisingly it wasn't too packed (though we got there at 2pm, which I'm sure helped), so we got tickets and walked around the new place for a bit, as they've done a lot down there in just a few weeks. When we were last at Bricktown for a ballgame, they still had so much to do, but they got it all done quite nicely.
I'm so glad we chose to go to that theater. Not only is it better than most of the other local theaters (not that the newer super-sized theaters aren't excellent), but we were fortunate that we caught Shark Tale on opening weekend as they had it showing in the monstrously-sized "Cine Capri" theater (600-seats, 70-ft high screen, 150 speakers). I simply MUST see all of my future movies on that screen. Wow. Well, okay, I know that I can't do that, but some (like the upcoming Star Wars Episode III), I think were made for a screen that big.
I know you're tired of reading about the theater already, and you just want to know if you should see the movie. And the answer is a resounding YES. Remember that the makers of Shrek are responsible for this movie, so if you liked those two movies, you'll love this one. I wouldn't say it was better than Finding Nemo outright, but it definitely had some better aspects to it. I liked it quite a bit. And the kids loved it. So go see it already.
In her typical fashion, Shelby messed up something brand new (She's VERY good at staining brand new clothes on their first wearing). Considering that the theater had been open just over 24-hours when we visited, I'd say she was the first kid to spill an entire just-purchased, full-to-the-brim soda all over the brand new floors. So if you go see a movie there soon, and you hit that sticky spot, think of and thank Shelby.
After the movie, the girls wanted to eat dinner at the also newly opened Sonic Cafe next to the theater. They had their pick of restaurants, but that's what they picked because they had never seen anything other than a drive-in Sonic (and in fact, there are only something like three or four sit-down Sonics if I remember correctly). That was a very typical Sonic meal, but it's a neat little place. We ate on the patio, where there's a menu on the wall with the little red button that you push to order. What's different is that the menu has a credit card slot, so you order and pay right there and go sit down and they bring out your food, all of which I thought worked out okay.
In what must be the strangest event of the day, a complete stranger (a teenaged girl, not like a sicko or something) walked up to Shelby and gave her a flower and said she was such a pretty girl that she wanted her to have that flower. Like I said, strange.
The girls had a great time. They had been to a laser tag place before during summer cmap, but not this one, which they say had different rules than what they'd done before. Subsequently, Shelby (being stubborn and picky) had a bit of a tantrum about the fact that they weren't playing the way she knew how to play. So I had to tag along with her the first game to help her figure out what to do. But then Darby got upset at the fact that I was using her (as she was on the other team) as target practice in showing Shelby how to shoot. Shelby got the hang of it pretty quick and was off on her own before I knew it, shooting her sister all on her own. Here's a picture of the girls in their laser gear.
After the party, I had planned to take the girls to see Shark Tale, though I originally planned to go to one of the local mall theaters, as I didn't want to deal with the crowds I expected at the newly-opened, one-day-old Bricktown theater (see related articles). But I decided last minute to go ahead and checkout the new theater and abort if it was too packed.
Surprisingly it wasn't too packed (though we got there at 2pm, which I'm sure helped), so we got tickets and walked around the new place for a bit, as they've done a lot down there in just a few weeks. When we were last at Bricktown for a ballgame, they still had so much to do, but they got it all done quite nicely.
I'm so glad we chose to go to that theater. Not only is it better than most of the other local theaters (not that the newer super-sized theaters aren't excellent), but we were fortunate that we caught Shark Tale on opening weekend as they had it showing in the monstrously-sized "Cine Capri" theater (600-seats, 70-ft high screen, 150 speakers). I simply MUST see all of my future movies on that screen. Wow. Well, okay, I know that I can't do that, but some (like the upcoming Star Wars Episode III), I think were made for a screen that big.
I know you're tired of reading about the theater already, and you just want to know if you should see the movie. And the answer is a resounding YES. Remember that the makers of Shrek are responsible for this movie, so if you liked those two movies, you'll love this one. I wouldn't say it was better than Finding Nemo outright, but it definitely had some better aspects to it. I liked it quite a bit. And the kids loved it. So go see it already.
In her typical fashion, Shelby messed up something brand new (She's VERY good at staining brand new clothes on their first wearing). Considering that the theater had been open just over 24-hours when we visited, I'd say she was the first kid to spill an entire just-purchased, full-to-the-brim soda all over the brand new floors. So if you go see a movie there soon, and you hit that sticky spot, think of and thank Shelby.
After the movie, the girls wanted to eat dinner at the also newly opened Sonic Cafe next to the theater. They had their pick of restaurants, but that's what they picked because they had never seen anything other than a drive-in Sonic (and in fact, there are only something like three or four sit-down Sonics if I remember correctly). That was a very typical Sonic meal, but it's a neat little place. We ate on the patio, where there's a menu on the wall with the little red button that you push to order. What's different is that the menu has a credit card slot, so you order and pay right there and go sit down and they bring out your food, all of which I thought worked out okay.
In what must be the strangest event of the day, a complete stranger (a teenaged girl, not like a sicko or something) walked up to Shelby and gave her a flower and said she was such a pretty girl that she wanted her to have that flower. Like I said, strange.
Friday, October 01, 2004
What, no Olympians?
After school I took the kids to a "Meet the Olypians" thing at Darby's former gymnastics place. They had moon-bounce/slide type activities, face painting, some musicians performing, and of course various (local) gymnasts flipping out.
The kids did the bouncy things and we went inside for a bit to watch the gymnasts, but the Olypians never showed up. When we left someone said they had just gotten to the airport and would be on the way soon. I didn't feel like waiting and the place was packed as it was, so we took off (I'm not sure we would have seen them but from a far, and I'm not sure the kids really cared at that point).
We had to get a birthday present anyway for a party we're going to tomorrow for Shelby's classmate. And that worked out well, as we got home by 9:15, something I'm not sure would have happened had we stayed at the other thing, which wasn't over until 11.
The kids did the bouncy things and we went inside for a bit to watch the gymnasts, but the Olypians never showed up. When we left someone said they had just gotten to the airport and would be on the way soon. I didn't feel like waiting and the place was packed as it was, so we took off (I'm not sure we would have seen them but from a far, and I'm not sure the kids really cared at that point).
We had to get a birthday present anyway for a party we're going to tomorrow for Shelby's classmate. And that worked out well, as we got home by 9:15, something I'm not sure would have happened had we stayed at the other thing, which wasn't over until 11.
New Musketeer
So I booked it from work yesterday to Darby's school because she had softball practice at 6. Turns out it was cancelled mid-day and no one bothered to tell us. So I could have let her mom take her when she picked up Shelby for fencing. Argh. Instead I had to take Darby across town to the fencing place, but that worked out because I was finally able to see Shelby in her fencing get-up. I hadn't seen her facility or her practicing since she started because I hadn't been able to get over to that side of town in time, usually due to a Darby practice or game.
Shelby had her first fencing test yesterday. That little green ribbon on her chest signifies she passed her test and is now an apprentice junior musketeer or something like that. There are many levels to this fencing thing and I'm not familiar with them all yet. As her reward for doing well, her mom bought Shelby her own glove and foil, which Shelby just loves, of course. I don't think I had my first sword until I was eight, so Shelby has me beat.
After I dropped off Darby, I went back in to work to get caught up on some stuff. You don't even want to know how long I was there. But let's just say I'm only working half a day today because I already worked the rest of it yesterday.
But it was a mostly (not entirely) suck-free day. So maybe I should thank Jim for that hug.
Shelby had her first fencing test yesterday. That little green ribbon on her chest signifies she passed her test and is now an apprentice junior musketeer or something like that. There are many levels to this fencing thing and I'm not familiar with them all yet. As her reward for doing well, her mom bought Shelby her own glove and foil, which Shelby just loves, of course. I don't think I had my first sword until I was eight, so Shelby has me beat.
After I dropped off Darby, I went back in to work to get caught up on some stuff. You don't even want to know how long I was there. But let's just say I'm only working half a day today because I already worked the rest of it yesterday.
But it was a mostly (not entirely) suck-free day. So maybe I should thank Jim for that hug.
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