Steelers, Hogs, Hot Water, No DSL, and a 32-inch LCD....

Well, what a crazy weekend this has been! :-) Last time I posted, my folks' water heater had just let loose its fury, Auburn was supposed to clean house with the razorbacks, Big Ben was going to show 'em how it's done, I had Internet connectivity at the house, and our 26-inch, 12-year old TV was sitting in the entertainment center....

It turns out, my Dad pulled off one heck of a whizz-bang job getting the water heater swapped out and the new one hooked up. My Dad is like most Dads... Take whatever shortcuts you can to get the job done and Mother off your back.. :-) But, after seeing the job my Dad did, I was surprised at the care and thought he put into making sure everything was just right. I know I couldn't have done as good a job! Way to go Dad!

Most people that know me know I am not a huge Razorback fan. I am a Pittsburgh-born Yankee who moved to Arkansas and never left (By definition, a Damn Yankee). Over the years, I have come to enjoy watching and listening to the Razorbacks. When the "experts" in the state were talking about the whooping the Hogs were going to get, I knew we (Hogs) were in trouble. Instead, Arkansas showed the nation just how good they can be. I was very impressed - blown away, really. Awesome. LSU, on the other hand, got their butts handed to them. Not that I really care, but I do like LSU....

Which brings me to Pittsburgh and Big Ben... Look, when Ben came back at first, he had just gone through the summer after an accident and an appendectomy. We cut him some slack. The next week, we still gave him the benefit of the doubt. Last week, he didn't even have to play. I am a huge Ben fan, but my loyalties lie with the Steelers as a whole. Get Ben out of there. Charlie Batch won the first game, and Ben hasn't won squat. As a coach, you have your star players, I know. But, COME ON! Get Ben out of there and let Batch take a whack at it again. That's all I'm sayin....

Friday, I get home to discover that DSL is acting up. After some troubleshooting, I realize it is not my problem, so I call Centurytel. I know, they have a script they have to follow, and like a good boy, I worked the woman on the phone through the script. She was even polite enough to tell me that she could tell I knew what I was talking about but that if I could be patient and work through their dog-and-pony show with her, she'd get me the help I needed. It takes guts to admit to your customer that the customer actually KNOWS something... Anyway, the problem was not one that could be fixed remotely and we should have DSL by Monday noon. Turns out, everyone on our "leg" was out, and we all started calling to complain. Of course, that did not good since a field tech actually has to lay hands on the DSL service box, but at least they knew we weren't a bunch of techno-illiterate hicks... :-) I really got her when I mentioned that I traced to problem down to one set of IP numbers, which were the WAN (that is, DSL network) side of things. Maybe I should consider changing careers... LOL... I'm kidding.... really... i am...

So, while DSL was out, I needed something to occupy myself with... After spending Saturday in Texarkana (Emily went to a skating party - her first trip to the roller rink!), I decided to bite the bullet and buy a 32-inch LCD HDTV. As my son said, "Man, that is TIGHT!" The Steelers got their butts kicked, and I watched it all unfold (collapse?) on our new 32-inch LCD! Now, THAT'S football! Even better, it has a SVGA connector. In English, it means I can hook up my laptop to this puppy! Oh, yeah! I can't wait to try out a game or two!! :-)

Whew! And that isn't even EVERYTHING that went on this weekend! We played some football, played with the goats, Daisy, and other animals. We ate at the Cold Stone Creamery, had Sunday lunch (Shan made French dip sandwiches! YUM!), and I started reading about PHP Game Programming since the books I had ordered for my son's new pet project had come in. Of course, I told him he could read the book, install Apache/php/MySQL/etc on their computer and have fun learning it, too. I was not much older than he is when I first cracked the book open on a brand-new Commodore 64 and typed in my first few lines of code.... Man, that seems like ages ago now... And, now, you can run an emulator on your screaming fast PC that will run a Commodore 64 in a window while you surf the web, listen to your iTunes library, program a little php, and watch a DVD all at the same time..... Amazing.

Biggest Loser... Deal or No Deal?

Generally speaking, I have shows I like to watch, Shan has her shows, and the kids have their shows... Sometimes, we all watch the same shows... And, sometimes, there is are shows that come along and peak the interest of one of our children but not the other... Case in point:

Our son LOVES "Biggest Loser." We record it on the DVR so he watch it. We haven't quite figured out if the appeal is watching the tests the contestants face, or how much percentage weight they lose at the end of each show. Either way, he loves it. It also seems that when the new season starts up, he gets more active - wants to throw the ball around, go out and play, etc etc... Whatever reason, I'm glad he likes to watch what becoming more healthy can do for a person, and that he becomes more physically active while it is running.

Our daughter, on the other hand, LOVES "Deal or No Deal." She likes to sit and guess which case has the big money. And, we all pick a different case to play along. Mostly, we are trying to see if the contestant will even pick our cases throughout the show. Last night was cool because I picked 17. Shan said, "Where do you think the million dollars is?" I said, "Seventeen, that's why I picked it..." Turns out, I had been right... Figures... If I had been on the show, I would have lost, I'm sure... Emily had a blast watching and picking.

Is it educational television? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it's a great way to spend part of an evening... :-)

Of course, Shan and I LOVE Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal (the funniest first-run TV show on right, as far as I'm concerned). I am a huge fan of shows that never let the actors forget they are on a television show...when the actor turns to the screen, or makes some comment like Denny Crane when he said the new characters couldn't be permanent because they weren't in the pilot, or another character turns and says, "cue music." Excellent work!! :-)

On another note, yesterday, Shan's Dad and I (mostly Shan's Dad) gave Daisy her first woming treatment. Something akin to feeding nasty-tasting medicine to a child - a lot of head-turning, funny faces, and trying to spit it out once we got it in there... :-) Overall, I'd say she did well...

And, on yet another note, my Mom called me this morning and her hot water heater had decided it no longer wished to serve in that role. Apparently, it dropped its drawers and let everything loose on the floor - much like a defiant puppy, I'd say... So, after some running around, we got the water turned off, the heater turned off, and now we have to look at getting another one... That should be quite an adventure, too.... :-) Ever disconnected one and replaced it with another? I haven't.. :-) I'll keep ya posted........

When I get where I'm going.....

No, not the country song... I mean, seriously, sometimes I wonder how I got where I end up...

Yesterday, I was running late during lunch. Now, in most circles, that means I took a LONG lunch. In my world, it means I left FOR lunch late (there was a videoconference that had stopped for lunch break. I was told they would break for an hour. THEY went to lunch at 11:30). My lunch is from 12-1... So, 12 comes around, and I am working on getting videoconferences posted to the online calendar I am using. So, before I know it, it is 12:15... Well, I can't leave now, because I need to be there to start the recording for the afternoon's session. 12:30 comes and goes. At 12:40, the one participant we have comes back and she tells me that the conference will start back up at 12:45.... Now, I'm not complaining too loudly here, but umm, why did she tell me "an hour" at 11:30 when she knew then that it wouldn't start until 12:45?? So, did I mention my lunch is from 12-1? Now, yes, I could take my lunch from 12:45 - 1:45 if I wanted since I worked through lunch, but I don't function that way...

So, getting where I'm going.... I decide to run to Andy's, a local burger place, just two blocks away. On my way to Andy's, I figure I should swing by the post office. Now, before you ask... No, the post office is not on the way... It is out of the way, in fact... Evidently, most of the people in the fair town of Hope also decided to go to the PO right then, too...

After the PO, I hop in the HEMI and head to Sonic. Yes, I had been heading to Andys.... On my way to Sonic, since I had long forgotten Andy's now, traffic was heavy and I didnt want to wait to cross traffic to get into the joint... So, I figure I'm this far out of the way (by now, remembering I was SUPPOSED TO BE heading to Andy's, which is now behind me somewhere), I just as well head to Mickey D's...

So, it turns out, all the folks I saw at the PO decided THEY wanted McD's, too! What a party! I was so glad to see many of the same cars again! I needed to be the last person in the longest line of McD's history... :-)

My "quick trip to Andy's, two blocks away" has now turned into an adventure which lands me back at work somewhere around 1:20.... So much for not taking a lunch! :-)

I can no longer say anything about my children's knack for "Family Circus" routes to their destinations.... They get it honestly.... :-)

Fair and Rodeo Pictures!

Web pages, horse washing, and football

Tyler and a couple of his friends (mainly just one other cohort) are laying out the plans for a Pokemon-related RPG web site. They are currently registered with one (pokemoncrater.com), but they like the idea of creating their own Pokemon worlds where they get to play king.... One small problem.... These are middle-school kids with little or no idea as to HOW web pages work. That's where Dad comes in. So today, I ordered a book on PHP, MySQL, and game development... I'm sure there was another book in there somewhere, but I really don't remember.... That seems like days ago now... :-)

Emily has entered a new level of inquizativeness... Yes, all children go through the "what's that?" phase... She did that a couple years ago... Now, since her vocabulary is so much stronger, she has graduated to "What does that do? What's that for? How do I...." Today, it was laundry. "Why do we put clothes in different piles? What's the stuff in the bottle? How long does it take to do laundry?" And, just as quickly, "Can I type on your laptop?"

Skipping ahead in the day, Emily had been asking if we could go outside and play football all day... So, after the heat starting fading (Yes, 95+ in October?? There are still some things that I am getting used to, though I have been in Arkansas now for more than 16 years....), we went out to play football....

Our first stop on the "Family Circus" method of playing football was the goat pen. We needed to put the goats in for the evening, and get them fed. Wait... Since we're feeding the goats, we should probably feed the horse... "Hey, I thought we were going to give Daisy a bath, Daddy...." So, we grab the brushes, comb, Horse-n-Mane shampoo, along with various other essentials for horse-bathing... Of course, Daisy had other ideas. You see, she was expecting me to bring her feed to the trough.... Instead, I met her with the lead rope (well, okay, I had to substitute one of her new reins until we get a new lead rope.. LOL). She turned and trotted off, whinnying and, I'm quite sure, sneering at me... I opted for bribery. I know, you're not supposed to, but the heck with it. After a small "treat," Emily and I led Daisy to be bathed... "Can we wash her face? Can I use the brush? Can I squirt her? Can I put soap on her? Do I have to use the brush, or can I use my hands? Can I comb her tail? How come she keeps smacking me with her tail?" The questions kept coming and the late afternoon had slipped to early evening.... After we finished bathing Daisy, we turned her back out and gave her the meal she thought she was getting... Emily says that since Daisy did such a good job with her bath, we need to give her an award (meaning RE-ward..). I'm very interested to see what this "award" entails... :-)

And, yes, after (or rather, during) a visit from my folks, we did get to play football. Emily scored three touchdowns and learned how to throw the ball up in the air and catch it herself.

Sometimes, it's not the destination.... It's the journey we take to get there....