Senseless

As a techie, I appreciate what's being done with the RipeSense technology. But I'm afriad I just have to ask... why "crisp, firm, or juicy"?

Why not "crisp, firm, AND juicy"?

Losing my pants off

I haven't gone out and done anything in awhile. So when a work friend called a poker game, I was all over that. But man did I do terrible. I just got home a short while ago, twenty dollars shorter than when I left. Considering that twenty bucks buys me a new pair of Arizona jeans from JC Penney, you could say I lost my pants off, not that anyone wants THAT image in their mind.

Back in business (or well on my way at least)

A month and a half after my desktop computer was stolen from my home, I had finally gotten tired of limping along with my work laptop at home, just checking mail, and always hesitant to do anything "drastic" or permanent (i.e. installing my own scanner or printer software, installing my genealogy program, offloading the digital photos that are piling up on my camera, synchronizing my website locally so I could start making changes, etc). So I went out and made the first replacement of the more than $5K of goods stolen by getting a "converged" device.

Even though I now have an alarm, I'm still VERY uncomfortable leaving anything of value at home while I'm gone (as with any alarm, the intruders will still have five or ten minutes before the police arrive... plenty of time to swipe some cool stuff). So I just couldn't see myself getting a full-up desktop PC at this time. As such, I picked up a very nice Averatec laptop instead. Not only will this unit replace my desktop PC chasis, LCD flat panel monitor, wireless keyboard, and wireless optical mouse that were all stolen, but with its ability to act as a standalone DVD player (without having to boot the OS), it will also replace my portable DVD player that was swiped as well.

Thus far I have spent several hours with this puppy and I am quite pleased. I have already leveled it (reinstalled the operating system -- it came with the non-upgradable MS Windows XP Home and I have a license from my desktop for XP Pro) and built it up the way I want it to be. Some things will take getting used to, but it shouldn't be too bearish. Now I have to do all those things mentioned above and more, but that could take a week or more. But the beautiful thing is that when I am done computing, I can put the 1" thick device in my bag and take it with me. This thing isn't leaving my side (for awhile anyway), and so I'm not having to continuously wonder if it will be there when I get home.

Bye-pod

Forgot to mention previously that this past weekend I sold my iPod, which I won a month or two ago, for an undisclosed sum. I never even opened the thing, and I really just didn't want to get into the whole iPod way of life at this time (if you have an iPod, you know what I mean). I was going to put it on eBay before Christmas as I could have gotten a decent amount for it. But with the various house issues (and subsequent lack of a permanent PC), I didn't get around to posting it. So when it came up in conversation with my dad, who said my brother would want it if I didn't, I figured that was as good a time as any to offload it. I gave my brother a family discount, though, so I didn't get as much as I would have online, but every little bit helps.

Now that it's gone, you might think I'd be regretful, but I am not. I helped my brother get it all setup and learn how to use it, and I can say with all confidence that I'm glad I'm not messing with that for myself. As I already have a low-end MP3 player (a Rio Cali) that does just fine for me, I'm not looking back on this as an error.

Alarmed

While it's no guarantee of future non-burglarization, I spent most of the night installing the alarm system my sister got me for Christmas (thanks sis!), so hopefully my overall home comfort level will improve in the coming weeks. It has been largely non-existent since the various levels of crappage started hitting the fan back in mid-November. So now I'm reading manuals trying to figure out all the features...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Several times during this football season I've made the comment that I was content with improvement when it comes to the Eagles. That if they merely finished the season with a 14-2 record, or maybe a superbowl appearance and loss, I'd be okay because it was still progress. Well, I guess I need to caveat that slightly. While I still believe that a 14-2 record would rock, I'd really prefer that it were 14-wins and 2-hard-fought-losses. None this laying on the ground with a sign that reads "stab here with sharp object" crap. I know the reasons they did it. And I can't say I wouldn't have done it the same way, but darn that was something frustrating.


Strangely I had a premonition of this outcome a few hours before the game. I was thinking that the tragedies come in threes, and that with the T.O. situation and then the Reggie White tragedy, something had to be next. Why not a stinker of a loss to a team that almost didn't want to take what we were handing them?

It's a shame about Reggie (and Thailand)

The first two things I heard on the TV this morning were that my country of semi-origin had experienced post-earthquake tsunami-related devastation, and that former Eagle great Reggie White had passed away at the young age of 43. That's some pretty bad news to wake up to, and it kind of slowed my morning down as I watched with jaw-dropped attentiveness for awhile.


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Once we got going, I took the girls out to eat, and then bowling. We had some "free game" coupons that were to expire on the 31st, and the girls agreed it was a good idea to get them used. Afterward, it was such a nice day (60-something in contrast to last weeks' 20-somethings), that I took them to the park to play for an hour or so.

The girls have since gone to Kingfisher to spend a couple days with their grandmother.

Ho ho ho

As is traditional, the girls made out like bandits this Christmas. I don't know where I'm going to put all this stuff. I mostly got gift cards, which is what I requested, because of my recent home security issues. Figured it was not the best time to restock with gadgets.

Photo finish

Four freakin' hours of wrapping, and I'm done just in time for Christmas. Only to have all of this stuff completely unwrapped some twelve hours from now. It's craziness.


Earlier this evening we went to Christmas mass where we watched Darby sing Christmas songs in the church choir. She did well, though she did far too much talking with her choir buddies in the middle of the mass.

Down to the wire

Finally finished Christmas shopping. I spent way more than I probably should have, but only $22 over set-aside funds. I'm just so glad it's over, though the worst part is an uphill battle... the wrapping. Ugh.

Yep, it's winter

When my plane landed here in OKC this past Saturday, I was pleased (and grateful) to learn that it was 60 degrees in late December, having just gotten back from a chillier Washington. While I wasn't counting on it lasting much longer, I certainly wasn't expecting the bottom to drop out. Sure enough, on the second day of winter, we got (trace amounts of) snow, and I don't think it got much (if at all) over freezing today. In fact, for the next couple of days it's not supposed to exceed freezing. Yuck. On the bright side (ha ha) the days are getting longer... (just over three more months til baseball season!)


So I made arrangements today for Darby's upcoming birthday party. I can't believe she's going to be nine years old. And only four years from getting revenge on mean old dad by becoming a teenager.


Am I the only one not quite done with Christmas shopping yet? I'm hoping to wrap it up (again with the ha ha) tomorrow night, which I don't expect to be pleasant between the crowds and cold.

Improvement

Twenty-four hours of antibiotics and you wouldn't know the Shelby of today was the same little girl of yesterday. She's doing much better, though we'll be taking her medicine for another nine days (since she refused to get the one-time shot) and her rash will take a couple weeks to go away entirely.

Scarlet fever

Imagine my surprise to hear the doctor say Shelby had scarlet fever. It sounded so bad because of what I may have read in text book accounts of a time when people died from such things. But as it turns out, it's "just" strep thought with a bad rash. She didn't have the full-blown rash yesterday, but rather a couple splotches on her arm that I thought was her eczema flaring up. Man was I wrong, as this morning she was completely broken out, pretty much head to toe.

Still ill

We skipped mass this morning because Shelby was still running a fever when we got up. We did go to church, though, for Darby, who had a last choir practice before family mass on Friday. After choir, we had to meet with the kids' aunt to say good-bye, as she was flying out in the late afternoon.

We then had another family gathering to attend, but most of the time I layed on the couch with Shelby. She wouldn't lay down, but clearly needed the rest. The only way she would lay down and sleep was if I was laying with her, so I spent many hours laying there with her laying on top of me while I watched football (go Eagles). If this doesn't subside I think we'll be visiting the doctor tomorrow.

Twenty-two hours of craziness

I woke up Saturday morning before four a.m. Oklahoma time to catch an early flight. As hard as we tried to get there with enough time to grab a bite, it didn't happen that way. We got there just in time to board the plane, and had to wait until we got to Atlanta to even fathom eating.

The issue was preceded by the hotel's inability to find our car. You see, there was some kind of festivity the evening before, and the place was completely packed. There was quite literally ZERO parking. So I asked the hotel employee directing traffic in front of the hotel what he suggested and he said if I was a hotel guest they would valet park the car for me. So I gave him the keys and away went the car, while I went to my room to get packed, knowing I had to be up quite early.

When we tried get the car in the morning there were two problems. First, we were up earlier than any valet parking folks had reported for duty, so the front desk clerk had to not exactly joyfully help us in that regard. Second, the description of the car written on the slip attached to the keys was "taxi", which was of course entirely incorrect. In fact, I can't begin to imagine how they confused the gold (not yellowish, but metallic gold) Oldsmobile Alero that was rented to us for a taxi of any kind. Well, after much searching, they did finally find our car, which apparently was parked on the grass somewhere on the hotel grounds. Sweet.


So back to our story already in progress. In Atlanta, we had thirty minutes at most to get a quick breakfast, and a Burger King in the terminal was our last best hope for a speedy path to hunger discontinuation. Unfortunately, our BK hosts were less sympathetic to our haste (ironic I thought for an airport establishment), as we were in line for more than twenty minutes. I was finishing up my much needed breakfast as they called for boarding.

I knew the enjoyability of my flight was in jeopardy at the onset as I had a middle seat, as opposed to my preferred aisle seat. But beyond that less than comfortable situation, the agitation factors grew rather quickly. Being the last weekend before Christmas, there were many families on board the flight, including small children and more than one baby. Also on board were a few dogs. Yes, apparently you are allowed to bring a dog on board the plane if it's small enough.

So imagine if you will a moment during the flight, when the person to my left had fallen asleep -- thereby comfortable and spread out -- and the person to my right was using his laptop computer, which isn't exactly something that can be done without consuming a good amount of space. So there I was, quite confined, meanwhile with a young chatty kid going on about something just behind me, a crying baby screaming a few rows up, and a barking dog several rows back (with barking periodically interjected with the owner's loud and ineffective "shhhhh" command). And those few moments of sleep I tried to get myself were interrupted by the captain getting on the PA with geologic commentary (for example... "hey folks, if you look out the window to our left you'll see the mighty Mississippi and all the small lakes around it that were created by the river's change in course over thousands of years"). Needless to say, by the time of deplaning, I was quite jittery with feelings of shut-up-ness (you know, where you just want to tell everyone and everything making a noise to just shut up), and I was quite relieved to be away from the odor that started to spread through the cabin (presumably some mix of dirty diapers and sweaty animals).

After a tolerable wait for luggage and my journey and arrival home, it was one in the afternoon, and I was quite tired. But resting was not in my future.


Having had little time or motivation to get much Christmas shopping done to this point, I did what could only be described as the stupidest thing imaginable in that regard. I went to the mall on the last Saturday before Christmas, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. I had immediate regrets about this decision, as the traffic and parking were worse even than I thought they could be. I think I was stuck in traffic for forty-five minutes before I finally got a parking spot, but even then I believe I was nearly at the furthest point from the mall while still being on the mall grounds. I estimate it was nearly a quarter mile walk just to get into the mall. I'm not sure I want to guess how much walking I did in the mall itself.

After three hours of shopping, my hands were as full as they could be with shopping bags without me keeling over, and I still had to walk back to the car with all that stuff. Mind you, I wasn't finished with my shopping list, but rather had given up trying to carry more as my fingers were turning purple for lack of circulation.

Once I was through shopping, I immediately went to a family gathering where the kids were, who I hadn't seen since being back in town. It was great to see the kids again, and they were all over me at first, but the environment was kind of fraying on the nerves at first (as I was pretty tired by this point). There were some rowdy kids (not mine), rowdy animals (annoying chirping birds, a frail barking dog), and come to think of it there were rowdy (not entirely sober) adults, too. The event was generally enjoyable, but I certainly could have done with less calamity.

The kids were supposed to stay with family, but Shelby started to run a fever, so they went home with me instead. Hopefully this is not the start of a serious illness.


We left so late, by the time we got home, it had been 22 hours since I last had sleep. Talk about being tired... but we have more family stuff tomorrow, so rest is still not immediately in my future (and this is not to mention the fact that I'm still not done Christmas shopping).

Slightly wrong (but learning)

Okay, so I kinda-sorta got to do some touristy stuff this evening, but it was really lame in most senses. Not lame in that it wasn't a bad time, but lame in that the effort largely flopped.

Class ended at 6pm, and it was almost seven by the time we (co-workers and I) got out of here. One thing we've observed while here is the fact the traffic is atrocious at ALL hours of the day. Bearing that in mind, we scoped out a subway station about four miles from our hotel and we did the park and ride thing. It was about a thirty minute train ride to the National Mall area. We had this silly idea that we would go to the gift shop at the National Archives (a la National Treasure). We had checked the National Archives website, which stated operational hours through 9pm on Thursdays, but we didn't look at the fine print. It was the research library portion of the Archives that was open until nine, NOT the visitor's portion. Ugh.

As it turns out, pretty much EVERYthing in downtown D.C. closes by 6pm, so we missed it all. I was very surprised by this, as I would have thought this presumptively lively town would be bustling at all hours. Oh well. We did walk around and saw such sights as the Capitol, the Smithsonian, the Washington Monument, and countless federal buildings. But it was REALLY cold, so we hopped back on the subway and headed back to Virginia. I would like to have seen more, but in addition to the chill, we hadn't had dinner yet (and didn't until about nine thirty).

Unfortunately, this little foray into the heart of our nation will likely be my last for a few years. My flight out of here is 7am Saturday morning, so I'll definitely not have the opportunity then, and the timing will make it important to get back to the hotel room at a decent hour so I can pack and get some sleep.

The plan is to bring the girls out here to our nation's capitol in three years and do just about everything there is to do (including catching a Washington Nationals game if that deal doesn't fall through). Valuable lessons learned this night include just how good an idea it is to use the subway (it's cheap, convenient, and not terribly difficult... and driving would waste SOOOOO much time), and the concrete understanding of the scale of Washington. Looking at maps things seem so much closer. And while the cool stuff is not all that far apart, I now understand just how much walking will have to be done by the girls and I when we come back this way, which will help me better prepare.

When I took the girls to New York this past summer, I made several tactical errors that could have been strategically resolved had I made a solo advanced trip to NYC in the way that I'm now in DC ahead of a future vacation here.


One more surprise on this trip... the sheer lack of gift shops. Last night we went to the local mall, which it turns out is the biggest in the NCR (200+ shops), and there wasn't a single gift shop with capitol gifts. Same thing for the downtown venture tonight... no gift shops. Looks like I'm going to have to utilize the hotel gift shop and its outrageous prices.

Capitol punishment

After a long day of traveling, I have arrived in the "national capitol region". I'm technically in Northern Virginia, but just across the river from DC. Unfortunately with the class schedule I have, it is unlikely I will get to do ANY touristy stuff, which stinks...

Heartbreaking

Most Saturdays after I pick up the kids from thier mother's, we go do something together, be it see a movie or go to the park or some other activity that's going on around town. Sometimes this includes seasonal activities that are only going on for a limited time.

Tonight I had planned to take the kids to the Orr Family Farm for their "Jingle Farm" (a term from NewsOK) where the kids could enjoy "a mile long train ride to see the scenes and lights, visit the animal barn, ride the carousel, and receive a free tree ornament". However, the kids were in a lot of trouble at their mom's today, and I had told them that if they weren't good at their mother's, we wouldn't continue with our Saturday activity. So instead, we went home after a quick visit to the store, as I am not one to go back on what I tell them.

Both kids were pouty and sad the whole way home. And to make matters worse, while going over some school work of Darby's after we got home, there was a question, "How do you spend your Saturday's?" to which she had written, "I like to spend time doing things with my father."


Yeah, that made me feel great. Just great.

My little angels

While I might generally consider my girls to be little angels, that thought might not always apply to their behavior (I can be an honest parent). However, this evening -- regardless of their behavoir -- they got to be angels, literally, as part of their school's Christmas musical (no, I don't mean "Holiday Musical"). It was a cute little show, though being comprised of all the first through third grade classes, it wasn't exactly without incident.

Out of warranty

My VUE exceeded it's manufacturer's warranty today, 1 year and nine months after I bought it. Man that was quick. It seems like a lot of miles, but extrapolated out to the life of my loan, I should get somewhere around 120,000 miles, which doesn't seem as bad. What is maybe bad is that the extended warranty I only recently acquired won't even make it to the end of my loan, giving me coverage up to 100,000 miles (though I can extend it again before it runs out).

Saturn let me get it in for one last checkup to make sure there were no big problems. I thought it would be a quick in and out visit, but they said they had recall kits on hand if I wanted to have my rear suspension replaced, so I went ahead and set them loose on that, which kept me there almost two hours. I'm glad I got that done, though, as the VUE enters the extended warranty phase.

Eagles... surprisingly impressive. I enjoyed the good news.

Short and sweet for now

Took the kids to see Finding Neverland today. Quite a good movie, though I'm not sure Shelby got it 'til the end.

There are at least three unfinished posts pending for this site. My apologies for not being with it. Unfortunately those posts may never see the light of day. I was burglarized for the second time in two weeks last night and my motivation to ramble on about seemingly inconsequential topics has vacated my mind at the moment. I'm certain it will come back. Just not sure when. Thanks for your loyal patronage.