So I am watching how Brennon is growing. He is doing more stuff like pulling himself up, sitting up and playing with toys. It is like his personality is developing. He is generally a happy baby. I hear him laugh and babble as much as I hear him cry. He says dada alot. This morning as I kissed him goodbye I heard dada. We are working on mama. Having a baby is a big blessing. I feel like I can influence him and he looks up to me. I just want to have fun with him right now though. Holly gets to see him alot in the summer now. I can tell going back to work is going to be hard.

I was thinking about perspective. I wonder how he will see the world. I am hoping to teach him about comparing himself to others. Our neighborhood has a Lamborghini and a high school kid recently got a $50,000 BMW. I wonder if Brennon is going to think he has to do without even though he has so much. When he goes to school he will be surrounded by an upper class. Will he want a BMW when he turns 16? Hopefully not. I think though as parents Holly and I consider character a very high priority. Who knows, he may be able to teach his friends humility. He has so much living to do. It is all unwritten. That is so cool.

Of course the fun is in playing with him. He has books and some toys. Holly has him watching Sesame Street. It hasn't changed much since I was a kid. I think Elmo though has become the star. I remember actually learning stuff on Sesame Street. Then the Electric Company was cool cause it had music and Spider Man. Oh, then 3-2-1 Contact came on. That was more of a science show. Science is fun to do. Of course once you throw math into it people tend to not like it anymore. I suppose that is why those shows were replaced by Barney and Dora. Of course I wonder how Barney sings he loves me and makes me love him though he has never seen me. Ack. We are a happy family. Yes. We. Are. A. Happy. Family.

Well, I've still got it. I built a computer last night in 2 hours, turned it on and it worked. Some guys know alot about cars and can talk engine sizes like a 400 block engine and replacing a cam shaft, whatever that is. Other guys know alot about yard work and can talk on and on about how they are landscaping their backyard and the best time to mow and plant trees. Other guys talk about sports going on and on about what the latest espn news says as if it is the end of the world when someone gets traded. Then there are the guys that talk politics all of the time, about how so and so said this and the world is ending. There are also the guys who are into church activities and ministry work, talking about those interests and also talking about it as if the world is ending. Me, I know alot about computers and technology. That is my manly passion. I could talk on and on about it, but I have a feeling no one cares.

I have built many computers in my life. When I first started building them I would get frustrated as I would not do it exactly right and the thing wouldn't boot up. Then I learned about motherboards and jumpers. I learned about watts and volts and how to place memory in a computer. That became easy as I just snapped it into place. I started to learn about PCI cards and how to place them and hook them up. Back in the day we had IDE cables and they were harder to deal with. Now these SATA cables are so simple it takes a minute to install a new hard drive. The makers of computer parts are making computers easier to build. I hear USB 3.0 will still be compatible with USB 2.0.

In this latest computer I chose a solid state drive, only 40 gigs. I am hoping this living room media center PC will last 10 years. It practically has no moving parts to it. When I turned it on I had to look because I could not hear anything going. No hard drive, no fans because it is a low voltage Atom 510 motherboard. I am impressed. The best computers you can ever get are ones you build yourself, as you can make sure that you have the high quality parts instead of skimping on something. This hard drive is tested for 1.5 million hours before it fails. Thats 171 years. It may last longer I will. A far jump from the old 5 year lifespan of a hard drive. Ain't technology wonderful?

On Friday I came home and slept alot. Even though I did that I still feel tired on Saturday. I guess it is that sleep bank deficit thing they always talk about. Saturday I watched Brennon and cleaned a little. We all went to our Sunday School Class cookout. It was good to get to know our class. Brennon has some friends in there too. I sat him down in a playroom and an older kid started playing with a truck and Brennon was too. It was cool to see that kind of interaction. It is like he is able to something without the help of his parents. Kind of weird.

On Sunday we awoke and Brennon's nose was running like a racehorse. He has been stuffed up for two weeks but now it seemed worse. I think when the snot turns from clear to yellow is when you have to worry about some kind of infection. Fortunately he didn't have a fever. But I figured I would take him to Care Now. So I skipped Sunday School in the morning and took him. At the office they asked for Brennon's social. Now I didn't have it and I could see Holly was at home on the couch without her phone by looking at the cameras on my phone. So I went to my home control app and started flashing all the lights in house hoping she would figure out I was communicating. Eventually she did pick up her phone. After all was said and done we determined I was at the wrong place so I left and went home. Holly took him in today instead.

Sunday afternoon Holly had a baby shower at our house. This time it was just for girls. So I went to visit mom and got her things from the store. I then went to her church at 2PM and listened to the old peoples sermon. Then I still had some time to kill so I went to Fry's. There I determined the cheapest fastest computer I could build that would last for a long time for the living room(to replace the broken laptop). It was a Atom 510 motherboard/processor(low power) with an Intel 40 gig SSD drive - no moving parts and 4 gig of ram. That computer should last for 10 years. In my experience hard drives are the first to go. This thing is fanless and should be able to play netflix and run the speakers in the house just fine. So I came home and we had some friends stick around and went swimming. It was fun. Now I am at work, still drinking diet cokes. I don't think parents ever get much sleep. I guess I will adjust.

So today I am really, really tired. I suppose I could say that when Brennon awoke at 5AM that is what did it, but the reality is that I was already up at 5AM. Matter of fact I did not get to sleep until 5:45AM. I woke up at 8:00AM to go to work. With only 2 hours and 15 minutes sleep I am drinking diet cokes like water. That seems to be working.

So what led me to this condition? It twas, my new iPhone and Apple's bad iTunes software. I enjoyed playing with my new phone during the day and last night at 11 I plugged it in to my computer to sync the apps, music and videos. I think Apple makes iTunes crash on purpose so we will go buy a Mac. During the sync iTunes kept on popping up errors. So I figured maybe reinstall itunes and restore the phone back to its original state would do it. When I did that the iPhone froze at the restore point and iTunes popped up all these errors saying it could not restore it. My phone was now a brick.

Of course, me being a software engineer would not let that happen. I know most people would have gone to bed and taken it back to the store to get it fixed. Well, I spent 5 hours getting it imaged and putting it in a secret mode that allows me to upgrade the OS directly through USB. People do that to jailbreak their phones. I didn't do it with this phone cause it doesn't need it. I just used that knowledge to get it back to start. After a couple of hours of mess ups I went to another computer and it worked. I don't think 64 Bit Itunes is that stable. By 4AM I started the sync and got some errors that I had to correct like deleting the photo cache. Finally I was able to put my music, apps and videos on it, a total of 23 gigs of stuff. It is finally all together, looking good, up and running. However, I am not. More sleep...

Today's post is entitled restoration. As I stood in line this morning for my preordered iPhone I was thinking not just about phones but about life. This past year I have had to sacrifice for many things. I have not minded because there was always a greater goal, but it has been a growing experience. The one thing that goes through my mind whenever I do make sacrifices is restoration. I suppose because I have taken many financial risks with a new child, selling our old house, buying a new house and finally getting a new phone. Every time there seems to be some level of restoration. For instance, we knew having a baby could cost alot with medical bills, but somehow having two insurances meant we were spared from suffering the brunt of it, even when he went in the NICU. A bill of $28,000 was taken care of by the insurance companies. That is restoration.

Because we were spared that debt we were able to get a new house. First we had to sacrifice financially to repair our old house: like new paint, new carpet and a new fence. The restoration in that was that we didn't have to go that much lower on our asking price and we actually were able to sell the house in the nick of time. We took the risk of buying a new house while we hadn't sold our old one. Talk about risk. Yet during that time I had faith that because we made a sacrifice in fixing it up we would sell it, and we did. Now getting into the new house did cost a lot, but I had faith that the tax credit would restore us and it will.

Up next is the phone restoration. When my iPhone was washed and my contract was not up I didn't know what to do. So I got a Go phone and waited out the end of my contract. When that ended I thought the HD2 from T-Mobile would be even better. That thing they call a phone ended up a catastrophe. Now as I browse the 3G internet while listening to pandora and checking my email on my new phone I finally feel restored. The screen is so clear I don't have to squint when looking at small text. The front camera is cool and can act like a mirror. The size is smaller. Yet it has better battery life. I am really happy about this purchase. Its funny how life is. Yesterday my living room computer died. I wonder how that restoration is going to go? Better wait on that one. For now I am going to sell my HD2 on EBay. More restoration is on the way.

Well, I have finally uploaded more pictures and videos to the site. Check out the last 3 folders in the media section. In one folder I put the videos of him crawling for the first time. Now, of course, he is not only crawling but standing and will be walking soon. Some of the pictures are cute and some are funny. Brennon is adorable or am I wrong? I mean he looks like he could be in commercials. Is it worth persuing? Maybe enter him into some baby photo contests or something. I would never enter him in pagents though. I think looks should not be a competition. It sets the stage for vanity later in life. However, if you've got it, flaunt it. Maybe. more tests...

As the big day approaches I am getting excited. This Thursday I will be getting my new iPhone. Yes I know most people are like,"its just a phone." but this means that the nightmare called the t-mobile hd2 will be over. When I first got that phone I was excited because it had a bigger screen and it was a hotspot. But as time went on the phone got worse and worse. It would overheat, freeze, and have to have its memory cleared and be reset at least once a day. Then calls would come in and it would be Cory calling but the phone would say it was Laura. Their facebook contact syncing app scrambled my contacts. Then of course calls would drop more often. The data plan and web browser was slow. The battery needs to be recharged every 12 hours. The app marketplace is more expensive and there are less apps in it. It is just a bad phone. I am glad I will be replacing it.

The whole "its just a phone" mentality is kind of weird. It is like the people who say that would be the jocks in high school who made fun of smart people. Kind of like being proud that you don't know how to operate a smart phone or need a smart phone or even a computer. Yes, we do know we don't need the phone, but we also know that with it we become more powerful with knowledge flowing from our fingertips. The sad part is in high school being cool might have been the pinnacle of popularity, but in the real world being cool is so far down the list no one cares anymore. Being technical can be powerful, being powerful helps one become rich, being rich helps one get the pleasurable things of this world. There is alot of prosperity in being a geek, I think my life is a testimony to that.

Of course there is a dark flipside. It is all fleeting. Eventually when I stop learning I will stop being technical. Then I will stop being powerful. Then I could not be as prosperous. So the thinking is that I really need to take advantage of my skills while they are hot. That is why I create websites. See I was reading an article about how at Google there are 20,000 employees and only 200 over age 40. Since I am 35 that means I have 5 years to go. Time to program my new phone into an empire before it is too late and I have to be brought out to pasture saying things like "In my day we had something called a desktop." and "Does anyone know what COBOL is?" to all the young whipper snappers out there.

Friday we stayed home and chilled. Saturday I took Holly's mom to see Toy Story 3 at Studio Movie Grill while Holly took Brennon to a baby shower. The movie was good. It was a kiddie movie through the baginning of it. There were some funny moments. I started getting into it in the middle and end parts as the plot started to take some twists. It was a really good movie. It was the plot that made it. The 3D was kind of ok, it wasn't like in your face or anything. I think that is the way 3D movies are going nowadays. Now it is just a medium. Kind of like the way at the begginning of the color TV revolution they all wore bright colors. Nowadays color is not as important as content.

Saturday Holly made me cool Star Wars pancakes for fathers day. They were hard to flip as yodas ears kept on falling off and Vaders mask would break. Eventually she got it right and it was good. Brennon was given his card and walked it over to me on his walker. It was cute. At VBS this last week they made these cards and put his footprint in it. Brennon liked the card too as he started to eat it before he gave it to me.

Sunday I went to Sunday School and Brennon and Holly stayed home cause Brennon still has a cold. It was weird for people to say to me "happy Fathers Day" It was like, happy? Fathers? Day? Wow, I guess I now have something to celebrate and be celebrated for. That is cool. Holly's grandparents and cousin came over and I made choice steaks. I watched a movie called Crazy Heart about a country musician. It was ok, but a little slow and dramatic and mostly pointless. I ended up the evening chasing princess around the neighborhood again after going swimming. I swear, that dog needs a leash and our backyard. Later I watched some old band videos of me playing guitar. I remember really having fun being onstage. Ah, memories.

So father's day is now upon us. Gosh, it is like time just keeps on moving forward. I now qualify as a father under the father's day rules. That is weird. It is hard to think of me as a dad. I read an article about how dads enable their kids to take more risks. I believe that. There is a difference between dads and moms. A dad will let their kid explore farther and let their kid fall and see if they can pick themselves up. I am just like that. I will let Brennon go farther, but always watching, and will see if he can learn not to bump his head on something.

What to say about my dad? I do respect what he has done. As a doctor and then a psychiatrist he has treated many patients for many different diseases, mental and physical. That puts him in a class of a servant. Just like a teacher people depended on him to help them. I think in our family there is this perfectionistic streak. I know my sister has it and I have it and I would not be surprised if my dad has it. It is like we seek knowledge and love to learn. I don't know how many degrees my dad has, but he is still learning to this day. Going to Harvard and Tulane and getting an MD must have been hard as well. There are great learning accomplishments on his side. I think growing up I tried to mimic that and my sister did the same. She did it much better than I.

As a kid, when my parents got divorced my mom got to keep the Apple IIe. I think looking back that was a big tie to my father because I knew he liked to program computers. As I programmed it was like spending time with him. I continued to learn and I think felt a connection of the power of computers. Over the years we have shared a common bond of computers and gadgetry. When all the Basses got together last year we all pulled out our iPhones and talked about apps and the like. It was obvious that even though we never spent much time together that our family bond is strong. I believe that family blood ties a family member to each other. I am reminded of the dad who's son did a crime vs the stepdad whose stepson commited a crime. As oppossed to the stepdad the real dad said, "he is still my son no matter what, because he is blood". The same is true for my dad. He will always be my father, no matter what. Happy Fathers Day Dad!

Hmm, what to talk about? I can't think of anything. Brennon is cute. He went to the doctor yesterday. He still has a little fluid in one ear from his cold but is doing fine. He is now tall enough to be longer than my arms. This makes it harder for me to carry him. The best times we have are when he is playing on the ground and I am too. I think I now realize why parents do that. It is better than having them jump up and down on your lap and hitting you in the head. Right now he likes to touch my teeth. It is like I can hear him thinking,"so that is what is happening to me." He is putting 2 and 2 together. Pretty smart for 9 months. I wonder what I was like at 9 months?

So yesterday at 9AM I stopped in at Best Buy and pre-ordered a new 32 Gig Black IPhone 4. I should get one on the day they are released since I was like 3rd in line. It really wasn't crowded. I think people didn't know that you could pre-order it at Best Buy. I did and knew I could get reward points for buying it there. I am addicted to reward points. I am glad Best Buy was not down like the AT&T and Apple sites. However, they had a different system and were taking pre-orders on paper so I don't know if I will still get it on time. We shall see.

I am excited about this new iPhone. It is an amazing feat of technology. It introduces to the world "facetime" which is two way video calling. Because there is a camera on the front and back of the phone I can look at the phone and it will broadcast my face and I will be able to see whomever I am talking toos face. Of course there is one big caveat to the facetime, it only works with other iPhone 4s and it only works over WiFi. However, as time goes on it will expand. For now it will be a gimmick, cool, but not practical. The other great things about this iPhone are the extended battery life, by 40%, 4 times the screen resolution, and the ability to arrange apps in a folder. They say it is smaller and faster and the glass is 4 times as hard as it was before. As a techno junkie I can't wait. The hype is big.

Then there are the apps. My home and future car will be connected to this phone. I will be able to control all of lights in the house, turn up and down all of the air conditioners, listen to all of the music, stream all of my videos including netflix, view all of the cameras and even control the house door locks with the phone. Then the Nissan Leaf has an iPhone app that will allow me to turn on the air conditioner before I get to the car. There is also a GPS tracker app and a viper car start app which will actually turn on the car and unlock the doors. Top that off with voice guided navigation and voice recognition and you have a device that makes me powerful. I think technology has made me hungry for power. The more you use it the easier life becomes. The iPhone will feed me for a little while. I wonder if I can get full? More tests.

What are my thoughts? I have been thinking about deception in general and how many people still trust their sources, like news radio, politicians, mainstream media and the like. I have determined I am a critical thinker. I require evidence and proof of any allegations. I don't believe people at face value and believe there are motivations behind all allegations. If you hear someone say something about someone else, there has to be motive for it. From people talking about the President to talking about the oil spill. I think I have become cynical. As a result I have developed a new paradigm. It is kind of an enhancement to the scientific method. I think everyone can use it to determine if they are being lied to. I think we all should assume people we listen to are lying until we can prove they are telling the truth. I call it the Logical Method. Where you live your life by always asking questions and always researching sources. Google is great for that.

Steps in the Logical Method

1. Formulate a hypothesis(testable statement) based upon a theory, someone's presumptions or someone's allegations
2. Prove the inverse of the hypothesis wrong by testing it from various perspectives.
4. Test the hypothesis in various conditions and use a control group.
5. Look at the worst case and best case scenerio and who or what benifits from it.
6. Determine based on the source of evidence if what is said is true.
7. When you can defend the hypothesis against all scrutiny using the source of evidence then you have a successful hypothesis.
8. If you refuse to listen to the opposite view and can't defend against its attacks using evidence then you are wrong.

So what am I talking about? Not only science but daily living. I have been reading up on this oil spill business and wanted to know how I should react. Is it the end of the world or a little spill? News sources are so vague about everything their lack of research shows they can't understand its impact. It has been like 60 days so I wondered what is the scope of it. As I researched it I came up with a number of 60 million of gallons in the ocean. That is alot. But I have no perspective. So I researched oil tankers. The biggest one can hold over 200 million gallons. That is even more. I now have a perspective. Then to learn that 20 million has already been cleaned up made things even better.

That gives me clues to why people are trying to use this spill for political means - like stopping drilling, more regulations, saving the environment and such. Because people are not educated fear can be a driving force behind things. Even if they are good things we should not be motivated by untruths. But I had to test the inverse to be sure. So I researched the end of the world scenerios. I knew something about peak oil from my past. There is a faction of people who have untested theories about oil coming from deep in the earth and not fossilized carbon. They think oil is neverending. Then they go on CNN and tell the world how we are all going to die from it how once a hurricane comes all of the coast is going to be oily. They are doing another disservice by lying to the public as they cannot defend against the scientific evidence.

So in conclusion I went through my new logical method to determine that all of it is of no reason for concern. We are already cleaning it up and it will be stopped. We can fit it all in a tanker. Both the left and the right are wrong. Here is a question for you all to answer. Which side showed more hatred? The democrats in talking about Bush or the republicans in talking about Obama. I wonder what the truth is. There would have to be alot of research about this. Since I don't know the answer I will give no opinion. And that's all I've got to say about that.

So this weekend we hung out around the house. I think I went swimming on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is so hot outside the pool is actually very cooling. I am starting to realize that I have been a completely indoors person for the past 3 years. I think that is probably why I developed allergies. I would never go outside. Only when I would go from my car to work would I get any outdoors time. Now that I have a pool I am noticing things, like trees and clouds. I think a good dose of nature can improve everyone's mood.

On Saturday Holly and I took Brennon for a stroll in the mall. I was pretty close to getting an iPad at the Apple store but I relented from my gadget addiction. Simply because I am going to get the next iPhone. I know how I talked about how my current phone is the best, but I have known that it has some problems. Over time those problems have become magnified. Nowadays it doesn't hang up, drops almost every call, switches contact names, and dials people at random. It is like this phone is possessed. So I shall jump to AT&T and get the iPhone at a discount. Of course I wonder how to break the current contract. We shall see. The new iPhone is said to rock. I will be glad to get it.

Sunday night I got my exercise for the week. Princess decided to escape again - 2 times. The first time was around 7pm when I was barbecuing. She keeps on digging holes in the backyard and slips under the fence. It took me quite a while to get her. Finally after running around the neighborhood about 10 times I subdued her. The second time was around 9pm when Holly put some boxes on the front porch. Princess ran out the front door. By now I am like, well, if she wants to come back she will. So I work on printing off some "lost dog" fliers.

Ah but around 10:30 I decide I can't let her win and try to get her. First I hear the jingling of her collar. That is the only way to track her. Then I run after the noise. Of course she chases rabbits all over the place. I was hot and sweaty, but determined. Finally I hear her in someone elses backyard. Somehow she slipped in a hole under their fence, but apparently couldn't get back. So I get a shovel to make the hole bigger and grab her. When I go to return the shovel back to our garage she goes out through the hole and is off again. I am using a bright flashlight and am running in between houses. I am amazed I didn't get the cops called on me. Finally at 12:45 I decided to give up and let her be. On my way back in the house I decided to shut the back door slowly and let it creak. It was then when Princess appeared in the backyard. I kept on letting it squeek and then she comes strolling in the house. I just had one thing to say to her. "Bad dog!"

Let's see. What is going on with me? Not much. I am enjoying life. Brennon is getting bigger every day. I will have to post some new pictures when I have time. He is crawling awfully fast. I have a feeling he is going to give me alot of exercise in the coming years. Princess already gives me exercise. She escaped 3 times this week by digging out of the backyard. Luckily when she escapes she always stays within a three block radius. Of course that means I have to run, even sprint to catch up with her. I think I have done alot of sweating this week.

Yesterday we had our yearly Whirly Ball corporate team building event. It was fun. I didn't score any goals but I was good at passing the ball and catching the ball. What is Whirley Ball? It is a sport that combines bumper cars with basketball with Hai Lai. Basically you get on a team and you get a bumper car. Then they put a wiffle ball on the court. You can't touch the ball, you have to use a scoop. Then to score a goal you have to fling the ball at a little target and hit it hard enough for it to register. It is arranged like a basketball court with a one pointer being a close shot and a two pointer being a farther shot. Anyways, I played that for 2 hours. I wonder if it is played anywhere else?

I got the Beatles Rock band last night at Best Buy for the Wii. It is a good game. I like being able to play the old songs. Even getting the microphone out and singing along might be fun. Of course any real guitarist knows that the rock band guitar is a toy. I do have some skill playing on medium because I have already made my pinky strong by playing real guitar for years. I tried to think of a username to play online but they were all taken. So instead of my name being Feedback I am now called Freedback. In an alternate universe that is cool sounding name. Maybe.

Let's see. I have determined that I am lacking in creativity. I always try to think of the next obsession to have. I have the ability to pick my obsession and then become consumed by it. That is how RideSearch was born. I have skills but now that I am older I am trying to figure out how to use them to its full capacity. I think my next project is going to have one thing my other projects haven't had - profits. I thought, well, why not try the stock market? I suppose since it is going down it is a good time to buy and I don't have to actually do anything, but the problem is you really have no way of meeting any kind of projected output and I have no skills in the market. I could easily lose money and that would go against my goal.

I think my biggest thing is I want to be rewarded for my efforts. I was never rewarded for past projects and that has increased my desire to have a business or investment pay off. I was actually perusing my business model for RideSearch the other day. I haven't worked on it since Feb of 2009. I would have been profitable had I finished developing the product. I was going to charge $450 a year to companies to have their own carpooling management site internally and externally. That was a good idea. But I learned that the effort to build it required passion and I had lost that. Say I had built it, how was I going to sell it to other companies? Without passion for it I could not even attempt to sell it. Without passion for it I cannot even put the site up for sale. However, I did have 21 users sign up the other day. That is pretty good for doing nothing.

Anyways, so, new projects. I thought about making a game. Then I realized how long it would take and decided against it. Then I thought about a snow cone stand in Plano, then who would operate it? I thought about trying to make some music again and selling an album, but I have lost my creativity. The same is true for writing a novel. A burger stand is also a good idea cause I think I make good burgers, but everyone thinks their burger is the best. Maybe making a product and selling it solely on the internet. That always works, but what product could it be? What would the initial investment cost? As I have ran out ideas I realize the first step in all of this is one thing - get my creativity back. So sayeth the yellow labrador retriever floating above my head with a spatula in his paw.

Today's nightmare adventure is brought to you by Brian's subconscoius reminding you to always have an escape route. So there I was, in Wichita Falls at my old house. I was talking to mom and Robbie who were sitting on the couch and I had something to tell them. "What is it?" my mom said. Well you see I went to jail the other day for supposedly killing a man. I was given a choice of whether or not to take a life sentence or the death penalty. I decided to take the death penalty, because logically it is better to die than live a life in prison. "oh dear". So then I go outside and talk to my friends. I say "since I have logically decided to take the death sentence, it would behoove me to try to escape because I have nothing to lose. I can change my name and can go live with my sister in Arizona at her new house. I can make around $2000 a month doing freelance work on the internet from anywhere in the nation. I may end up in Alaska or in California. We shall see."

So now I am running from the cops. I go into a library where they are feeding the homeless. I realize that I am one of them and have blended in. They are all getting in line for food and are given a number to wait in line. I get a number and a reserved seat. I see someone who I used to know. I stopped her and said ,"haven't seen you in a while." and she walks away. Then I go running around the library looking for my seat to eat my dinner. Suddenly one of the cops sees me. She starts to run after me and we end up in an elevator. I have an opportunity to push her down the elevator shaft, but I say "I am not a killer, just give me a head start." So as the door opens I run out into the foyer with cops shooting at me. I duck as they hit someone else.

Suddenly I am in a shack with Holly. I tell her that I have to go because I am wanted. She is like, no, I want to go with you. I say no, you can't and the the cops bust in the door. It is snowing outside. I quickly jump out the window onto the roof. I then attempt to jump over the chimney. Right as I jump I turn into a fluffy bunny rabbit. Holly is behind me and turns into a bunny rabbit as well. The cop shoots me in mid air as I tumble into the snow, a bunny rabbit with blood on it. Finally the cop is standing near my carcass in the snow. With a "he's dead" I wake up. I am glad I am not a bunny rabbit. I am glad I have no one after me. I just have one question. What did I eat to cause such a weird nightmare? Probably raw cookie dough...

This weekend we hung around the pool. Brennon is still teething so he was up and down all night. We watched some movies on TV. On Sunday we went to our new Sunday School class. Holly's mom came over to watch Brennon as he is still coughy and they would send us home if we brought him. So afterwords we went and saw Shrek 3 in 3D at the studio movie grill. It was good. I thought it was better than number 2 but not as good as number 1.

In other news Benz has the job of selling my magic cards. Remember the card game that I played in college and was addicted to? The card game that consumed my life when I should have been out partying and meeting girls? I had saved all these cards over the years thinking I would eventually play them. I decided to sell them cause I don't expect me to remember how to play when I retire. Well the first lot of 14 cards came up and the total for it was $700. My Mox Pearl got over $200. That is pretty good for an investment of $65 back in the day. Especially since everyone told me I was crazy for getting it. Of course Benz is basically taking 45% of the cut since he is doing it all. I guess if I wasn't so lazy I could have gotten it all. There are still more cards to go.

Anyway I figure I will get either a new iPad or a new iPhone 4 for this money. Yeah, my existing phone the HD2 has lost alot of luster. When Cory calls me his name is Laura from facebook. It had scrambled all of my contacts when I did a facebook sync. It has to be rebooted constantly. The memory management is still bad. The T-Mobile connection drops calls. The T-Mobile data connection is also dropping alot. I guess the marketing hype got me. I am kind of like that. I go with the flow. Over the years though I think I have become more discerning... maybe.

Brennon is getting teeth. I suppose that is why he has been fussy recently. He is also crawling really fast now. I think though because he is crawling his desire to stand up has diminished a little. It is like, why walk? This weekend I am going to lower his crib. He is now pulling himself up enough to where he could probably get out of the crib. We don't want him to fall. He is getting very squirmy and wants to be moving all of the time. This summer will be baby gate time where we put gates on the stairs and around our patio. I think the goal is just to contain him.

I was at Best Buy the other day and noticed they have a GPS tracking device called the kid tracker. When Brennon is older we will stick one on him somewhere. That way we will all know where he is in case he gets lost. I wonder about all that. Say for instance we also give him a two way communicator, where we can always hear and see what he is doing, even when he is not there. Then if we catch him doing something bad we can talk to him as well. I wonder if that is too intrusive? Technology is definitely going to change the way parents do their parenting. Kids will have freedom again, but they will be watched by big father.

It is kind of cool to be able to check up on the goings on when you are not there. For instance our cameras record all of the activity going on in our front porch and backyard. The other day I was watching the last week in review and the UPS guy walks to the door with a package for us. As he approached the door he took the package and threw it like a frisbee at the front door and quickly pressed the doorbell and ran. I couldn't believe it how it got so much air. I guess cause it was a pretty light package, but still he should have placed it on the ground. I suppose I should have saved that video and notified UPS, but there was no damage to the contents. If there was our cameras would have been the evidence. I wonder what would happen if you put a kid tracker on a package? Could you tell how fast it is flying? Hmm.. more tests...

Holly's last day of school is tomorrow. That should be fun. Her plans for the summer are to take care of Brennon and teach vacation bible school for a couple of weeks. She needs a vacation after the kid beat her up. Of course they don't know any better since they are MR and don't know what they are doing. She didn't get bruised, just her pride got hurt. Some people are like, "why is Holly working anyways?" So I shall now attempt to answer that question. It is really a multi-part question. I can tell that some people have this kind of attitude that we are doing an injustice by letting Holly work. It is a weird feeling. For some reason I hear their unspoken words.

The first question is "why can't she be a stay at home mom". Now I don't have anything against stay-at-home moms(stahm). Matter of fact I know alot of them and I admire them as they sacrifice a career for their families. Holly is not like them. I have known her for wow, 6 years now, and can tell you being a stahm would not do her or Brennon any good. She would be happy at first and then it would become depressing. She would end up analyzing everything because she would be bored and that would lead to a depression. Boredom does not suit her. Maybe being a stahm with a 4 year old is exciting, but a baby, not really. I'd be more comfortable if she was a stahm when Brennon is 3 than now.

Of course the number one reason she is working is obvious, we want the money. Sure we could get by with one income but both of us have a quality of life that we like and we have the ability to pay off debts faster. Also, it is not like she is working a 12 month job with 2 weeks vacation. She gets roughly a 3 month vacation a year. That is alot. Being a teacher with a baby is a good deal. Brennon also gets more socializing being around other kids at his babysitter. He likes to listen to children laughing on the iPhone. It mesmorizes him. He watches other kids play. He gets Spanish fed to him as well. He will probably start speaking it soon as well. He would go stir crazy living at home alone during the day. He needs other kids and more stimulation. I think it is actually better that he have more than one outlet for caregiving than just parents.

The second question is "why is she teaching in Oak Cliff?" Well, we all know she would get to school quicker if she was in Plano or Frisco. However, she leaves so early in the morning she avoids rush hour. It takes her 45 minutes to get to downtown Dallas. I leave in rush hour and it takes me 45 minutes just to get to north Dallas. The number one answer is she likes her job. She likes her principle and been places she didn't like. I know from my experience job hopping that if you find a place you like you should stick to it. It really is up to her where she teaches and I am sure she has even more reasons. So anyways. Those are the reasons. I am sure for some families they need a sahm. We don't. Holly is happy. I am happy. Brennon is happy. Life is good.

So today I am feeling blessed. I guess that happens alot when you have a good wife and child, a good job and a nice house. I like where I am at in life. I've got a great life and great wife. I think my ambition to increase my station in life has waned. I am happy where I am. I don't care if I sell my company, especially since I haven't done anything to sell it. I'll just let it sit and continue to gain 10 members a day. Eventually it will hit critical mass in about 10 years from now. That is when it should have around 50,000 members. Although at some point it could exponentially change and it could happen alot sooner. Either way, it doesn't matter.

So right now I am enjoying getting into habits. I think this last year with the birth of Brennon, the selling and buying of a house, the moving out and in of my mom and the stealing of my car that we have had a lot to deal with. I am enjoying relaxing with very few worries, if any. Things are stablizing. Sure we still have to sell moms house, but that is what the realtor is for. Of course I do like to think about the future. I don't like to dwell on the past because we still have some good times ahead. I am thinking about when we can have friends come over and go swimming. Maybe not a "party" but a gathering. I think people liked swimming in it on Sunday. Maybe have a movie night and people can come over and watch Star Wars or something.

Yesterday we got in the pool and Brennon started kicking. Every time I would say "kick kick kick" he would kick. Then when I stopped saying kick he would stop kicking. It is like he is listening to me. He has his pool floatie keeping him up. I think we will give him lessons next year when he is older. Holly is like,"this is good, it will tire him out." I started kicking as well, maybe it will tire me out. I also find that when I am happy I don't eat as much. That is probably the number one key to weight loss. Enjoying life. Good times, good times.

So this three day weekend was fun. We spent Friday and Saturday cleaning and watching movies. I played with Brennon alot. He seemed to develop allergies and started coughing again. On Sunday he was touching his ear so we took him in to one of those doc shops on the corner and they gave him so anti-biotics for his ear. Luckily there is no fever so it was pretty mild. The biggest thing was that he was down and up every other hour this weekend. So at night we both were exhausted. We would nap during the day.

Saturday I got stuff for our annual Brian and Holly Barbeque Birthday Bash. I went and got some pool toys. I got some rings and floating things, a volleyball net and a basketball net. That should be fun and give us something to do while we play in the pool. Also, that afternoon I spent 3 hours getting mom's memorial day poem printed at kinko's. The guy running it had a hard time printing 2 4x6 cards on one 8.5x11 paper. He seemed to think it can't be done and it took alot of explaining on how to cut the paper to get it right. By the time it was all over my knees we sore from standing so much. I guess that's what happens when you are 35. Saturday night I cleaned up some rooms. Sunday morning Holly stayed with the sick baby while I went to church and Sunday School. We finally found a class that we like so we joined it.

Sunday afternooon Holly decorated the house in a flag motiff. Holly's mom came over and brought food for the party. On the party we had alot of friends come over. I think we ended up with around 20 people there. It was fun. I made burgers and we had lots of desserts and chips. I turned on the music in the pool area and in the end the kids all got in the pool and went swimming. I got in the hot tub and chilled. It was good talking to some friends who I hadn't talk to in a while. That's what really matters - spending time with friends and family. Monday I got out of bed at 2:30pm. I think we finally got some rest. Monday we took the leftovers from our party over to another memorial day party and talked with some people some more. Brennon got a little fussy so we went home early. I ended the evening in the hot tub again relaxing. I think I found the cure for sore knees. How was your weekend?