Happy Holidays to you and yours. Be safe to all. Everyone drive safe. Enjoy the vacation. Live life to the fullest. Enjoy your friends and family. Relax and kick back. Take a load off. Enjoy the outside. Eat good food. No worries. Remember the memory of all of the fallen soldiers who died for our freedom we so take for granted. Remember they did die for something. Remember those who serve the country in various fashions. Remember the IRS person who got hit in his office this last year. Remember all of the soldiers in Iraq and Afganastan who died for us. Remember our government leaders and show them respect, even if you disagree with them. Remember the Civil war, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I, Iraq II and other skirmishes we have had over the years. That is what memorial day is about.

I have always had respect for the military. I grew up a military brat and even got in trouble one time for saluting a person on our AFB when I was 7 in Alaska. Apparently you are only supposed to salute officers and he was not an officer. Also as I was not in the military I think civilians are not supposed to salute. As I look back now and think about all of the military people I have known and there is a sacrifice made even in peacetime. I some cases they even sacrifice their sanity aka stepdad. They leave their families and have duties and jobs that some of us couldn't even stand. Like I know I could not do anything before the sun is up and they do it all before I wake up. I thought about joining at one time and even looked through the requirements. Too bad my ankle and blood pressure prohibited me from joining.

So anyways, I am going to be cleaning and partying this weekend. Our party starts at 6:15PM at our house on Sunday night. I get Monday off. I love 3 day weekends. The start of the summer is always fun. I wish I had a 3 month vacation like teachers do. That is the one thing I envy about teachers. I remember fondly all of the summers I had off. I remember having swimming parties at our house, ordering pizza, renting movies, playing card games and staying up till 6 in the morning. I think it didn't count as a party unless you stay'd up all night. Nowadays after 1AM I get too tired. But I still have fun and I still know how to have fun. I am not old yet, even though 35 is the age where I have officially quit caring about birthdays. Now it is all about the gathering that makes it fun. Have a good one everyone.

Let's see. My birthday is coming up and so is Holly's. I will be 35. That is too old. From now on please think of me as a 29 year old. Today at lunch I went and got a buzz cut. It looks pretty good. Although I always wondered what haircut a big person should have. Then I realized it is about the face and not the body. I think longish hair is good on me when I have a goattee. Since it is summer and I am clean shaven I think a short hairdoo will due rather nicely, especially given the heat. Also, I love getting up and not having to brush it.

As I perused my past posts of my birthday I realize I have always liked to have parties on it. I think it is because not only is it my birthday but it is the beginning of summer break for teachers and students, and now it is Holly's birthday as well. It is time to bring back the summer pool party. That is a cool thing about having a pool. I think I am going to get a volleyball net or a basketball net for the pool. That way I will get some exercise while having fun. Of course our salt cell has gone out so now our pool is on a chlorine diet. I rather enjoyed the salt as it was so much smoother and easy on the eyes than chlorine.

Holly also has a tradition of having parties so our thinking goes together rather well. I have noticed that about Holly from the beginning. We are so similiar in our personalities. Easy going and fun loving our are motto. Now that "Summer Holly" is arriving it is going to get even more fun. When she doesn't have school to worry about she can relax even better than me. Well, almost better. I wonder how many candles we should put on our cake?

Let's see. Last night we watched the finale of American Idol. This season was bad and I put in a vote for no one. The girl whines when she sings and the guy sounds like he is straining. I think the judges are stale too. I will stop watching that show. I heard the Biggest Loser was 500 pounds and is now 260. That is pretty good. I wonder if he is going to gain it all back? I stopped watching that show this season because whenever I watch it I like to snack. For some reason we watched the finale of Glee even though I have never seen a full episode. That show is still horrible. I just don't get the fascination. I think maybe you have to be a girl or a tween to like it, kind of like High School Musical. I am glad the TV season is ending. Even I watched very few shows. Modern Family, The Office, The Big Bang Theory and Community were the shows I stuck with. All others I quit watching. I think there is more to do in life than to watch TV and movies and have started doing it.

So I try to keep up with the news online. So far even the news is pretty boring. I guess an oil spill in the ocean is the biggest thing. For some reason whenever I think about it I think about Revelations and how a third of the seas are supposed to die. I think if it gets big enough that may happen. I also think about how years ago I heard about a man made virus that was supposed to eat oil. Scientists were worried about releasing it for oil spills because they couldn't contain it once in the wild. I wonder what ever happened with that? I also wonder about the stuff we don't really know. I bet there are so many things going on and we are unaware of them. Maybe we need new news stations.

Also I think about the border situation. I think I lean in both directions. I can see value in having people who do the jobs we don't want to do who get paid under the table. If they were all legal that economy would fail. However, I also think they should pay taxes if they are going to use our stuff. So I think there really is no answer and will leave it at that. I don't want to strain my brain. I also think about that Korea situation. It is like, apparently this stuff happens all of the time. I think we are all numb to the rhetoric by now. I also think because we let things go like a sinking ship every time then we have to continue to do so, otherwise we look like hypocrites. The only reason we should respond is if other countries do it first. I also think about the economy. The tech sector is hot right now. I get a call every day from a recruiter. I think it is because people have upgraded their OSes and have gotten new phones and now they need software for it. The rest of the economy seems lacking though. As long as I have a job then I am happy. So I am bored with the world. Time to change it.

As a precursor to today's story let me tell you about something that happened when I was 16. I had just got my drivers license. I was thrilled that I could finally drive myself and go anywhere I wanted. I think most 16 year olds are. Of course I never owned a car in my teen years. Instead I used my sisters car when she wasn't using it. She had a white Pontiac Lemans that was pretty comfortable. Well, one time I noticed it was low on oil. So I went and got some oil from the store and proceeded to figure out how to put it in the car. Naturally, being a logical person I knew that I checked the oil at the dipstick place, so if I poured oil into it then the oil would get to where it needs to go. Of course I had to find a way to get oil down that little hole. Even a funnel wouldn't fit. So I went into the garage and got some thick paper. I then proceeded to twist it and turn it into a funnel. It actually worked. However, oil somehow did not end up in the car. Later on when I told people I heard laughter. Apparently you are not supposed to put oil in the dipstick hole. I felt like an idiot.

That brings us to last night. So I get off work at 6. I go out to the parking lot to see mom's van still sitting there. I then get it in and turn the key. Nothing, not even lights. I looked at the battery and just knew it had to be the battery. I thought a jump might work. So I call Holly, then Pepper who was driving home. I then go into the building and a the security gaurd does not have jumper cables, or do jumps. Wonderful, they are sooo useful. So I call Holly. So she arrives about 6:30 with Brennon crying in the car. We hook up the jumper cables and nothing. Not even the headlights. I figure the jumper cables don't work. I also figure that the battery is dead. Now I have changed a battery before so I thought this is doable. So I find an autozone nearby. Keep in mind this is a ghetto autozone. I buy a battery and proceed to go back to parking lot.

So there was this expandable wrench in the van and I used that to remove the bolts keeping it in place. Except there was this one bolt that was on super tight. I could not get it off. It was holding a metal plate that was keeping the battery in place. I try and try. Then Holly tries. Later on when I removed it I realized we were turning it the wrong way. Apparently the whole righty-tighty, lefty-loosey thing confused me because the wrench was at the bottom of the circle. If it is on the top of the circle it is true, if it is on the bottom you need to go right to get it loose. Whoops. Anyways there was corrosion. So I try to pry the metal thing off the battery using a flathead screwdriver. I start to hammer it into the bottom of the battery to get leverage. Suffice it to say, battery fluid started leaking over everything. It even started leaking on the bolt. It still didn't work (of course since I was tightening it). So around 8:30 we go back to AutoZone and I get a torque wrench and some bolt loosener.

Holly wants me to hurry because her and the baby is in the car and people hanging outside are watching us. So I get the stuff and get back to the car. I spray the bolt loosener on it and wait a couple of minutes, during which time I try to figure out how to get the torque wrench extensions out of its hard packaging. Finally I got it. I go and unscrew the bolt and find out I was going in the wrong direction. I then place the new battery in its spot. I try to put the cables on it and am forced to hammer the negative one on because it is very tight. Finally I shout in victory. I did it. I replaced a battery. Then I get in the car and turn it on. Nothing. Not even lights. Frustrated I give up and we go home, thinking about how it had to be the battery. Holly took me to work this morning and I called a service place to tow it away.

This morning as I was fading in and out of consciousness on the drive to work I was thinking, are negative poles supposed to be black plastic? I remembered one time when I replaced a battery I had to take it off. So when the tow truck driver got there he opened it up and said,"Ah I see your problem, you still have the plastic on the negative." So I took it off and put the contact back on and I saw lights. Apparently my front lights were on. I bet that is what drained the battery. So I get in and try to start the car. Nothing. Then he tightens all of the wires. I start the car. It worked. The guy said that happens about twice a year. I am sure they are laughing at me now. Lesson learned. I guess I am one of those guys who can fix a massive computer problem yet can't change the oil or change a battery. At least I can change a lightbulb.

So I had a good weekend. Holly was off on Friday. It was a bit of a different weekend. We spent most of it just relaxing, getting in the hot tub and swimming. We really didn't make movies a big part of it, which is unusual. I got a USB sound card at Best Buy and am now able to have a Pool Zone for music. So I was able to play music outside and not have it playing on the speakers inside. It was kind of like a party except there was only 3 of us. I played with Brennon alot. Now that he is crawling and talking it is pretty cool. I feel like he is communicating with me. If I hold his hands and stand up and move he will act like he is walking. That is fun. I think I am becoming addicted to my family and my house. I am now a consumate family man.

On Saturday I visited mom and brought her some stuff she wanted. She wants me to print out her peom for memorial day, so I shall. I am sure she will mail it off to people as well. I think that is what she will spend the rest of her time doing - writing letters. She even sends stuff to me in the mail, even though I see her twice a week. Saturday night we got a pizza, hung around the house and got in the hot tub again. Sunday we went to Sunday School and went to lunch with them. I think we finally found a Sunday School that we can join. We have alot in common. They all have families with kids and most of the guys are around my age. There is something about that, most classes we visited were married without kids or married with kids and in their twenties. Despite what some think, a common age brings a common way to talk about the past. I am not likely to join a softball team but I am likely to take Brennon fishing with the class and he can be friends with all their kids.

I find I am truly grown up. When I start talking about my kid, talking about the markets and talking about what work is like for me, I can see I am in the family zone. It is true, there is bigger difference between having kids and not having kids than between being single and being married. I suppose it is because your responsibility is higher. It is ok to be irresponsible with yourself when you are single because you only suffer the consequences. However, when you have a wife and kid you realize things that you do affect them so you try to be a better person. I think that is what can make a man more than just a man. He can be a family man.

So I wonder if I still have a fever, PAC MAN fever. People are celebrating its 30 year anniversary this weekend. That was my first foray into the power of computers and how you have fun with them. I remember asking my mom for many quarters so I could play pac man. The thing is, I never got past the 4th level. Try as I might. I might get to the second level most of the time but I always felt that the joystick was hard to control and those ghosts were just too quick. The same was true for Ms. Pac Man. I just could not get past it. I think I even got tired of it anyways after the second level. Cause really it just is the same thing just a little faster. I was even bad at Galaga. I remember there was a person in Wichita who got on That's Incredible for his Pac Man score. My claim to fame was beating Star Wars on the Nintendo.

I loved Pac Man cereal because it had marshmallow ghosts. I loved the cartoon as well, although I think it only ran one season. I even have it on DVD, although I haven't watched it all. One of my favorite games was the Pac Man board game. I could play that. It had all of these marbles that was power pellets and your job is to get them all and avoid the ghosts. Ah the 80s. I think society is kind of tailoring to us 30 somethings who were kids in the 80s. There are Star Wars references all over the place. Movies from the 80s are being remade - like Nightmare on Elm street. I think people can become 80s crazy. I think it is because the 80s were a time of relative peace and prosperity and we all want to go back to that.

We want to go back to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Goonies, Freddy, Apple IIe, Moonboots, Tang, The Space Shuttle, MTV with Videos, jean jackets, sweat bands, Fraggle Rock, Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, John Candy, Break Dancing, neon green, hot pink, surfing clothes, Van Halen, fast guitar, creative music, synthesizer pop, Maddona, Micheal Jackson, Peter Gabriel, He Man, GI Joe, Ghostbusters, Def Leapard, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Hands Across America, Farm Aid, Rambo, Rocky, Mr. Mom, Apple Print Shop, designer jeans, acid washed jeans, tank tops, mullets, poofy hair, punk rock, beginning of rap, the Fresh Prince, Young MC, handi-snaks, and the staple that is still eaten today - Kraft Cheese and Oscar Mayer Bologna Sandwiches. The great thing is all of the stuff we can still watch, listen to, and eat to jog our memories. I suppose I have more than Pac Man fever, I have 80s fever.

What to talk about? Brennon? He has crawled on one knee so far and then he collapsed. If he does two knees I think it will be official. I am starting to think about babyproofing our house. That is going to be a chore. I think you are supposed to cover all sharp edges with foam, put plugs in the outlets, secure all cabinets, put doorknob squeezers on, and remove anything that can be picked up and eaten by a small child. The big thing is the pool area. I will have to put up a baby fence around the patio. I even thought about just not allowing him out there, but still we need a stopper just in case he gets out there. There is a baby proofing service in Dallas that will come and do it all, but realisticaly I should do it because it shouldn't be that hard, except for the fence.

Let's see, what other stuff? Well our Birthday Bash happens May 30th, my actual birthday. That is cool. Of course all friends and family are invited. The one thing you wonder about inviting is, past friends. The kind that you like but just can't seem to keep in contact with because you are so busy. I think those should be invited to a party because it allows you to reconnect with people who you don't talk with that much.

I just can't believe I am turning 35. I am at that age where my life is mostly defined and set out before me. Where I do the best work and look forward to a vacation and a retirement. For some reason the years are going by faster. But to put it in perspective I have 30 more years of work before I retire and that is alot. At the age of 35 I have gained wisdom on God, business, relationships, life, money, bands, technology and am now gaining it on being a father. I still have alot to learn, but I have so many skills to use that it won't be that hard. Of course I still feel like an old fogey with aches and pains, but recently I have been feeling rather good. I think I am going to need it. I have lived a good life but I have alot of living yet to do. Time to keep on moving.

So the Microsoft conference was informative. Basically they are releasing a new version of Visual Studio. Visual Studio is the main tool developers use to develop Windows programs and Web Sites, and now Windows Phone 7 apps. It should be fun to use. Of course, like most tools this one costs $10,000 for the enterprise version and $800 for a simple developer version. They love to make things hard to get. That might be the one thing that causes them to fail, unless they are too big to fail.

It is rather interesting being in the company of my fellow geeky developers. I met a guy I had worked with at Realpage years ago. It is a true geek fest. 95% male, 25% socially awkward. So during a presentation someone may blurt out something stupid to the presenter like "only give out a shirt to people who have windows phones". Then another will say,"Or Android, if I am allowed to say that word." Of course we as developers really wanted to see what it could do better than the current version. It seems all the new tools are just the same as the old with additional features. I feel sorry for newbies. They have so much more to learn starting off than I ever did. What I know I learned over 20 years of coding. The one thing Microsoft really kicks but on is their development environment. It is faster and easier to use than any other one out there, like Eclipse for Java and iPhone tools. However, it is their price point that makes it hard to get into. Of course they have learning versions but you can just get your feet wet with it. I wonder what computers would be like if they gave everyone a free version of Visual Studio.

Microsoft is betting heavily on Windows 7 and the new Windows 7 phone. It is their best operating system, but most people do not care about the operating system anymore. Their new phone system looked buggy and clunky. It will fail. All of our apps are now online in the cloud and on our phones. As I was in Walmart the other day I noticed their PC Software is down to only two sections. It is sad that Windows software is becoming a thing of the past, especially given these new interfaces will be smooth and fast. I think it would be great if there was an App Store for Windows 7. A centralized place where you can download huge games and apps for your windows machine. That will bring us all back to the computer. Anyways, it was fun and they gave me a 90 day trial of Visual Studio. I am going to use it to create a Star Trek theme for Homeseer that will control my home. I will put it on all of the touch screens. That is the great thing about coding, if you can dream it, you can do it.

Here I am at a Microsoft Release conference. I got a hat, a tshirt and some pens. Woot.

On Friday we stayed at home and played with Brennon. He is starting to stay up a little later which is good, that means he gets more sleep in the morning and more time with daddy at night. We watched some Rifftrax shorts as well. I think it is official now. Brennon has said his first words. Guess what they were? Dada! I know you are thinking, well that's just him babbling. But, Holly would hold up a picture of me and then Brennon would say "Da Da". Then I took Brennon to look at us in the mirror. Then he said "Da Da" again. He knows who I am! His bottle is "Ba Ba" and I think when he says that he wants his bottle. I even heard him say "Ma ma" when he was looking at Holly in the other room. I then knew Brennon wanted his mother. It is cool that he is able to communicate.

Saturday Holly went to a baby shower with her mom and took Brennon. It was then when I did something I hadn't done in a long time... Play electric guitar. I plugged in the system and at first it wouldn't work. I think some of the tubes had burned out. So I put it on electric diode mode and was able to get some sound out. The problem of course is that my fingers are really out of shape. I used to be twice as fast as I am now. Even my blues licks sounded stale. I guess if you don't keep your chops up you can lose them. I think even my rythyms were old too. Maybe I needed drums to keep me aligned with the rythym. Saturday night we saw Iron Man 2 at the Studio Movie Grill while Holly's mom watched Brennon. I thought it was good, but not as good as the first one.

Sunday I slept in. Holly had to go to a Vacation Bible School meeting in the afternoon so I took Brennon to see mom. We went to her church at 2pm. Brennon enjoyed the singing. However, when the message was being said he started to babble, so I took him back to mom's room. During that time I had to go to the store to get mom some stuff. I can't believe we pay so much for her room and they want us to supply a toilet brush, cleaner and toilet paper. To me that is ridiculous. It is hard running errands with a baby. I can see why Holly prefers to keep Brennon at home. Anyways, I ended the day programming the house better. I am now able to access the home on my phone. I can even view the cameras on my iTouch. I am also working on integrating the media center and getting a custom music selection for the morning wakeup ritual. For those interest the JRiver Media Center does alot more than Windows Media Player. You can connect multiple computers together and play music from one computer to another and even schedule a time for when a playlist is played. That is cool. How was your weekend?

Hmm, what to talk about. You know I have written over 10,000 posts on this blog. That is unbelievable. I often thought if I ever wanted to branch out I could write a column for a newspaper or write science fiction short stories. I think I would like that genre as I am too impatient to write a full fledged novel. However, writing 337,000 lines of code is equivalent to a 8,500 page book, so maybe I do have the patience? I think I have typed roughly 240,000 lines into this blog over the 6 years I have been writing it. That is equivalent to a 6,000 page book.

I like to think about the usefulness of numbers. Money can be saved and grown if you know how to play the numbers. I thought about making a website for investors and credit card owners. Basically it is a site that allows investors to invest in debtors. Like say I have a credit card bill that is $5,000 and I am paying 20 APR interest on it to the bank each month, or $83. Now say you are an investor and want to make 10% APR a month. Well, you go to this site and buy a debtor. You pay off their $5,000 balance at once. Then the debtor owes you instead of the bank. You charge 5-10% APR interest which is $20 to $41 a month. You can even negotiate a monthly payment and length of time to pay it off. That way the debtor pays less money to pay off the debt and you make 5-10% interest, which is way better than a savings account. Of course, the whole reason why this wouldn't work is there is too much risk and no liquidity for the investor, but it is a thought for an investor who would not care about liquidity and a debtor who is low risk. Why should the credit card companies get all the money?

Also, I was thinking about APR rates and balances and how mathematically it is not as simple as paying off the high balance first, or low balance first or highest payment first or lowest payment first. There are some equations you can run. The idea is to maximize the usefulness of your payments to lower the interest payments as quick as possible. For instance is it better to pay off a $1000 card at 20% interest or a $2000 card at 10% interest? Both have $200 a year in interest payments. Now if you had $1000 to spend you should pay off the 20% interest one. It gives you the most bang for your buck. You also could pay off half of the $2000 card and then you would still have a $100 interest payment. Then you could do a balance transfer of the 20% interest to the 10% interest card. What in effect happened is that you paid off the $1000 card. These equations are fine, but there are so many rules I could write a book about it. Hmm, maybe that will be my new book, "Do the Math: Beat the Card Companies at their own Game". Nah, that sounds pretty boring.

So the big question on everyone's mind is - how is Brian's phone doing? Now that I am used to the HD2 things are a bit different. I have to say, the iPhone is still better. Once the iPhone gets an HD screen this size this phone will be a thing of the past. However, together the iTouch and HD2 beat the iPhone by a mile. Simply because I can use the apps on the iTouch and I can use the HD2 wifi hotspot to connect to the internet thus avoiding AT&Ts service. However, T-Mobile's service is still spotty. Even with this phone when I am in my building I am only getting E speeds, way lower than 3G. Also, when people call me sometimes it hangs up on them and is static filled. But you never know if it is your phone or theirs that is the problem.

Windows Mobile 6.5 also has alot to be desired. It still crashes on occasion and I have to reset the phone. That is mostly a problem with multi-tasking. One of the biggest complaints with the iPhone is it lacks multi-tasking. That is actually a strength because you don't have to manage the memory. Also, the apps for the HD2 and the Windows Marketplace app store are greatly overpriced. It is common to see apps over $10 whereas in the App Store most that you pay for are just $1. Now because I have both I have found good use of the HD2. If it was my only handheld device I would be mad. However, as an addition it is good for what it does.

Not forgetting Android though. I suppose I need an Android device to run the gambit in OSes. I wonder though would it be possible to run Android in a dual boot mode on my HD2. There is enough storage for it. I hear the Android operating system is now a majority and beats the iPhone. What's great about the Android is it is developed for open source. It's basic language is Java, but you can develop for it in C#, my forte. Speaking of development, yesterday I had a personal celebration. I finished porting 337,000 lines of code from VB6 to C#. I took myself out for ice cream at the galleria to celebrate. This is one of my top 5 development feats of all time. Time to sit back and relax...

Do you ever get that weird feeling like people talk about you? Like you walk into a room and the conversation stops or you spot your boss looking at your cube to see if you are there. That is all oogy. I think though the proper course of action is to not care. Really what can you do? When I was a teen I used to care what everyone thought of me. As I got older I learned to accept that I cannot control what other people think of me. That was very liberating. Then I realized if whatever they thought was important enough to me they would tell me. That is even more liberating. Then I realized that since they didn't tell me their thoughts about me that it is not important at all. Now I am liberated.

Of course being free to not care is a good thing but can be misused. For instance, sure you have freedom to not care about your appearance, but is it not better to put a good foot forward to squelch any prejudices people may have? I always think about the race that is mentioned in the Bible. Basically there is analogy that we are all running a race. At the end of our race is heaven. At the end of some peoples race is not heaven. A good Christian's job is to run the race side by side with everyone on Earth and as we run we point them towards our finish line. It gets even deeper. Some laws separate us from non-Christians. We are given permission to not follow them so that we may win others to Christ. That is how we are suppose to become just like non-Christians, except our finish line is different. Some people point that Christians who act "conservative" are good and the ones that act "liberal" are bad. Why? Because the outside world expects us to follow our own laws, which are basically designed for us to be good healthy moral people.

The problem is, as Paul found out, that good healthy moral people don't associate with the bad unhealthy immoral people. Most actually judge them and condemn them. It is grace that saves us so it is grace that we need for others. I remember back in the day when I gave messages to the homeless I would stress one of my favorite verses: "Mercy triumphs over judgement." So really what we need to be doing is try to be like those who need Jesus. To go to the environments where people need salvation. So what does this have to do with people who talk about you behind your back? Well, nothing. I am free to write whatever I want. I am liberated. Are you?

Hmm, so what to talk about. I put a new album of pictures on this site. These are Brennon at 7 months old. He turned 8 months on Sunday. I can't believe he has 4 months to go and he will be one year old. He's is starting to develop a personality. I have noticed that he is needing more activity. Before you would just hold him and make faces to get him to laugh. Now you have to throw him up in the air to get him to laugh. He is also showing signs of assertiveness. Like when you feed him he will whine until he gets another bite. If he doesn't like something he will start squirming and use his arms to move things around. It is like he is tired of lying down and now wants to be mobile. He loves his walker and could walk around in it all day.

And he is the cutest baby I have ever seen. Of course I am biased. But his big blue eyes make him look like he could be on a commercial. One comment we get alot is how big he is. He is the size of some one year olds. As I look at him, it is not that he is big like fat, but big like tall and muscular. Combine that with his arm and leg movements and you've got an athlete. I think he will need to join alot of sports. I can teach him some soccer and football stuff. That will be fun. Although I try not to be too speculative cause he could be a bookworm instead. Right now though I am leaning towards an assertive athlete. Ack, I hope I can handle it... We shall see.

So this weekend on Friday we stayed at home and I cooked burgers. We watched some rifftrax shorts. That was funny. Saturday we went to a baby shower for one of Holly's friends who is having twins. I can't imagine what that would be like. It makes me think how scary it would be to have identical triplets. Have you ever seen Children of the Damned? Those silver eyes always freaked me out. Sunday we went to a new Sunday School class and then came home and picked mom up and took her to iHop for lunch. Then we went back to the house and George and his family stopped by to see the house. It is scary how fast his kids are growing. They went swimming in our pool and liked the house. For mother's day I made a collage of pictures of Brennon and gave it to mom. I hung it on her wall at her place. She liked it. I gave Holly a necklace and earrings from me and Brennon. She loved it.

Today as I stepped on the scale I realized my non-diet one high calorie meal every two days plan is actually working. I am at 260 down from 286. I've lost 26 pounds so far and actually wore an XL shirt this weekend. Of course it was my old hypercolor shirt from high school. They don't make those anymore. They were cool and changed color when they got hot. For instance my shirt was orange but when it got hot it would turn yellow. I think the problem with that was that people would walk around and their armpits would be the only thing turned yellow. Thus, the end of that fad. It is probably worth something now. I think I'll invent some other kind of shirt to wear. How about one that plays theme music so when you walk into a room people know who it is without even looking? Then again, what if someone borrows your shirt? More tests...

Happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out there! Seeing how Mothers Day is upon us I shall now take the time to talk about my mother and her good qualities. Everyone has unique qualities that define themselves as a person. As you grow up you work on making your favorite qualities better. By the time you have kids, who you are has pretty much been defined. For instance somehow over the years my mother has become a good story teller. Probably from years of teaching high school students. Not the kind of story teller like my wife who can read a story to Brennon and change her voice, but the kind like a person on a stage, telling a funny story that happened to her in real life. She spared no embarrassment to make the story interesting. A part of her story content list is her real life is rather interesting so she has many stories to tell.

She would tell many stories of her life travelling the world, of meeting people and having a good time. She would tell stories to scare us, teach us and humor us. What makes it one of her best qualities is she has mastered the art of the backstory. When you hear her talk you think, what does this have to do with the story, yet you still listen. Back in the day it really would have something to do with the story. Of course she also knew how to embarass us with her stories, like telling everyone how I cut my wee wee in Alaska. When she was single she would have a canned "life story" that me and my sister had memorized, that she would tell to anyone she met. I guess that is where my honesty streak comes from. It did make people uncomfortable but my mom not caring about what others thought was also another quality

One of her other qualities that is tops is a sacrificial love. It is like she would do anything for me and my sister. We saw this growing up as she got divorced and had three jobs to take care of us. We knew she was doing it for us. Yet, she always had a good sense of humor and could joke around. We knew how dedicated she was to us even though she had to work alot. She also has a soft emotional side and spiritual side as well. Her dedication to church I could see was a result of her growing up in the church. All of her qualities she has I learned from over the years and tried to mimic. Some, like storytelling, I just could not grasp. Others like sacrificial love I used as way to understand God and marriage. Without my mother guiding me I do not know where I would be. Now that we are caring for her I know I could never do enough for her as she did for me. Happy Mother's Day Mom. I love you!

What are my thoughts? Hut tub was drained this morning and I have no idea why. I got a pen yesterday while others were getting awards and promoted. Holly got a pen for teacher appreciation day. Her last day of school is like June 4th. Our birthday party has been moved to Sunday May 30th, my actual birthday. Everyone who wants to come is invited, just contact me for my address and an invite. I plan on cooking my famous burgers. I have often thought I could create my own burger restaurant. Those things are the best burgers I ever have had. Of course, temperature and thickness of the burger is very important.

I am coding alot at work. I realize that is why I stay, that, the money and the fact that I can come in late and not get fired. Last night I added some seagulls to my bedtime sound environment. We now have deep ocean sounds, light ocean sounds hitting the shore, wind, and seagulls in various locations. I suppose I shouldn't concentrate on making my sleep better, it is already good, too good. But our house is very relaxing.

Mom is doing well. We are going to take her to my place for Mothers day. George and his family are coming too. That should be fun. Brennon can play with his cousin. My sister is working in Mayo and has an offer on a house close by. Last I talked to her it was a house with an airplane hanger. Mom made a good point about the noise. I wonder if you hear planes at all hours of the day? Flying in Greg's plane was fun last time. It reminded me of the time I was about to get my pilots license. It only took 45 minutes to get from here to Wichita Falls. I wonder if I would have had a plane back in the day would it have made my life easier or harder? And those are my thoughts in stream of conscoiusness style...

So our pool woes continue. After all this the pool guy says the previous owner didn't clean his salt cells and we need a new one because our existing one has limescale deposits that can't be removed. It will cost around $600 - 1000. I don't think the warranty covers this. In the meantime I am learning that they have been putting chlorine in the skimmers to compensate. I am also learning all of the different pieces of the pool pump. At least they cleaned our filter. The valves are another problem. Whenever I turn on the spa and then turn it off the spa still drains. I don't know how many people have looked at it. I am figuring out all the manual processes to get it to work without the electronic valves. Eventually I will know enough to do it all myself, maybe. I just hope I don't break anything.

Yes, I knew what I was getting into when I became a pool owner. Last night as I had a soak in the hot tub I realized it was worth it, even the salt water cell. The salt water is very smooth, like you are swimming in Fiji Water. It is so different than a regular chlorinated pool where the smell and sting of the water can take the fun out of it. Saltwater is very oceanic too. The closer I can get to mimicing Hawaii at my house the better it will be. I turned on the ocean sounds throughout the house and then decided to turn on some waves hitting rocks on my iTouch. As I positioned it in the bedroom I realized I was creating a virtual sound environment. It really felt like I was sleeping on the beach. Of course, without the sand. I think next I will play some seagulls and boat whistles on my phone speakers and position it farther away. All I need now is a projector of HD oceans on all of the walls and a sky projector on the ceiling and I will have a created a virtual reality seascape. Although, if I tried to jump into the ocean I'd be hitting a wall.

Well I finally got to work. I took a sick day yesterday with only 3 hours of sick leave so that means that I have to take some vacation hours. I now have 2 vacation days left. I accrue 6 hours a month. I wonder if I will ever have a real vacation, although sleeping for 18 hours was refreshing. Now my sleep schedule is all messed up, and that is not good. It makes me wake up in the middle of night, go back to sleep, and then wake up for work late. I still need a good wake up solution. Sleeping is rather pleasant. This weekend I hooked up some high quality ocean waves and thunderstorms to my house speakers. Talk about realistic. When the thunder goes on the walls shake. It really sounds like the house is in a storm and near the ocean. If you want some realistic sounds go to whitenoisemp3s.com

So I think I have figured out a device to get me out of bed in the morning - electrical shock socks. Basically I will get one of those shock collars for dogs and wrap one around my ankles when I go to sleep. Then I will automate the shock by using X10 signals in my home. I think I don't need to actually create a new device, just use an existing shock fence plugged into an X10 outlet without power until a certain time of day. I would place the fence near my ankles at the foot of my bed. Then when the fence gets power it will turn on and the localized field with activate the collar and shock my ankles. That would wake me up. Really though I probably would just take it off and go back to sleep but it might actually work. Maybe I can somehow integrate the system into socks and patent it. I'll call it "Shock Socks", coming soon to a store near you.

So this weekend both Holly and I were sick. It started off with just her being sick. Symptoms were diarrhea, sour stomach, headache and extreme tiredness. So for Friday night and Saturday Holly slept much of the time. I went grocery shopping, cleaned the pool and got the hut tub working. I watched some movies and just relaxed. Then Saturday night I got to experience her sickness. I have been sleeping for a while now. I am still at home and had to take a sick day. It is a shame, cause I don't get many of them. Sleeping is probably the big effect. It reminds me of when I got mono when I was a freshman in college. It is like you get like 18 hours of sleep and when you wake you are still tired.

So I then knew that this thing is contagious. Using the handy dandy internet I diagnosed it as viral gastroenteritis. I think I pinpointed down to the Norovirus, however we did not shisk, which is a blessing. Either way it lasted for 36 hours with Holly so this evening I am expecting to be better and to be at work tomorrow. I am willing to bed Holly got it from her kids who are not the most hygienic in the world. Now we just have to lysol down everything around here and it will be contained. I am thankful Brennon did not get it. Let's hope he doesn't. And that is my weak end-- get it...