All kinds of crazy....

It's been a few days since I last posted. Part of that is because I have been in Hot Springs at the ARDLA (Arkansas Distance Learning Association) annual conference and shin-dig. Ray Simon (the US Deputy Secretary of Education and former Director of the Arkansas Dept of Education) gave the keynote speech. There were actually a very good number of vendors that came this year versus previous years, which show (hopefully) that ARDLA is growing... :-)

There was also a 'speakeasy' casino night, which was fun. i spent the evening at the Hold 'em table, losing my imaginary money... I noticed I am much freer with the words 'all in' when it's not real money at stake.. :-)

I presented at the conference. I figured I would talk for about 20 minutes, take questions and call it good. Somewhere, I got excited about my presentation and I ended up running over my allotted time.. :-) No one seemed to mind though and I seem to have gotten several folks interested in trying out Share Point (A Microsoft online collaborative tool, upon which the AR K-12 DL Curriculum Portal is based: http://ardl.k12.ar.us/).

There were a lot of good door prizes - iPods, an XBox360, some kind of warbly microphone thingy... I didn't win anything. I probably should feel jaded, but I can't complain... The first time I won anything of significance was when I lived in Virginia. I worked in Alexandria at a little shopping plaza house between two high-rise office buildings. While hanging out in the computer store where I worked, I had the radio on for background noise. We had very few customers ever, so when this badly dressed Santa Claus came in to the store, I was pretty sure he was lost, drunk, or maybe they were filming the sequel to Trading Places... :-) Instead, he walks over, pulls off his headphones, cocks his head to one side and asks me if I am listening to 105... With a raised eyebrow and one hand on the phone (to call for police support), I slowly nod... He blurts out something about me being a winner, and how I would get 105 dollars... I was like, "Yeah, right..." So, of course he had to call the office and I had to do a little on-air spiel, but sure enough, a few days later I got a check for 105 bucks! :-) Now, a caring, sharing, responsible employee would have bought something for the boss... or had a party with the other co-workers... Not me. I bought a 6-disc C changer. Mind you, this was in 1989/1990... I bought a Garrard 6-disc changer that has the pop-out cartridge thingy.. :-) I still have it and it works wonderfully... :-) So, to get back to my tale, I never truly expected to win at ARDLA... Sour grapes? Okay, maybe a little, considering the "Apple Die-hard" of the group won the flippin iPod! How Brian B managed to pull that off, I will never know!! :-)

So, what's with the title of this post? Emily and I were washing dishes the other night and I was being my usual loony self, making up songs and stuff... I stopped at one point, looked at her and said, "Your Daddy sure is weird, isn't he?" She looked at me and with all seriousness, said, "No... You're just all kinds of crazy..." That, from a 4-year old.... When I was a kid, we used to tell my dad, "Now, don't act weird in public..." Guess I inherited some of whatever he's got.. Lord help us all......

20 Ounce Life-saver and Going to School

First of all, I just have to say this..... HO-LY COW!! The Steelers were awesome! I still stand behind my thought that Batch should have been played, given Ben's record as of late, but then again, I'm not the one pulling down a bazillion G's to be the coach, am I? Awesome Steelers!! :-)

20 Ounces.... That's 1.25 pounds, right? Can you imagine a 1.25-pound Life Saver candy? No, no, that's not what I'm talking about. I am also not talking about any kind of 20-ounce alcoholic beverage... Here, I am talking about a bottle of water I stole from our Y2K stash... Okay, first of all, to answer your questions: YES, we had a Y2K stash, just in case... YES, we still have items in our Y2K stash... And, yes, I stole a bottle of water from the Y2K stash...

You see, the pump was acting up on the well, so we weren't getting any water this morning (Monday). Being the resourceful person that I am, after I turned the shower off, I went back to bed. Seriously. Why stay up if I can't get a shower and I could sleep for another 30 mintues? Later, after I had been up for a while, it dawned on me that I could use a bottle of water to at least wet my head so I could comb my hair... I told Shan that I hadn't realized just how much hair I've lost until I was able to wash my hair with a 20-ounce bottle of water..... I'm just sayin.... 20 friggin ounces... I used to use more than that in mousse and gel for cryin out loud (Yes, a child of the 80's)...

Emily wanted to play school tonight, so after "Deal or No Deal," we played. She is always Mrs. Strawberry Shortcake. I told Emily my name was John... John Jacob, to be exact... Well, really, it was John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt. I pointed to Shan and said, "her name is my name, too..." Emily picked up her play phone and called my mother. I was in trouble. During class, I tried to tell Emily about all the goings-on in town... "Do you know Jimmy?" I asked. She tilted her head to one side and rolled her eyes at me. I continued, "Well, he cracked corn... And well, really, I don't care." Emily, er uh, Mrs. Shortcake, sighed. Shan nearly peed her pants... :-) Mrs. Shortcake called my mother. I tried to redeem myself... "Do you know Jack? Jack Sprat? He can't eat any fat... And his wife? Well, she can eat no lean! When they go out to eat, the two of them can lick the whole plate clean!" (Yes, I changed the words... Can you imagine what the word 'betwixt' would do to a 4-year old? I'm telling you, she'd be asking for the candy! (think about it).)

Mrs. Shortcake was having none of it... I continued, of course... "You know, Jerimiah was a bullfrog... (I paused for dramatic effect) He was a good friend of mine." Shortcake called my mother. I tried to explain to Mrs. Shortcake that, "my mother was a very poor woman... She was an old woman, who lived in a shoe... She had so many of us children, she didn't know what to do!" Mrs. Shortcake yelled, "Stop it!" I replied, "My mother's name is Hubbard... Old Mother Hubbard... She went to the cupboard, but the cupboard was bare..." At this point, Mrs. Shortcake invoked her right to use corporal punishment... And Daddy invoked his right to address Emily Grace! :-) I just talked to her, don't get me wrong! All in all, it was quite entertaining... Of course, I realize now I left out the parts where Shan was poking me with the umbrella, giving herself all A+'s, and generally being the Teacher's Pet... Oh, and somewhere in there, Mary had brought her little lamb to school... :-)

Apache, PHP, MySQL, huh?

Hang on, after the first paragraph, this post really is in English! :-)

So, a while back, I mentioned that Tyler and his buddies have decided they want to make an online RPG. I ordered a couple books and they came in, and I started learning... So far, the most I've accomplished is even getting Apache, PHP and MySql to even run together in a fashion that makes sense to me... :-) I should mention that I am doing this on my Windows XP machine... Yeah, I know, some of you may be wondering why I didn't do this on Linux.... Others have yet to even know what I'm talking about! :-) If it makes you feel any better, even *I* fall into the second group of readers! I have no clue what I'm talking about, I'm just trying to help Tyler... We'll see... I did find phpMMORPG, but it doesn't like something about my set up (prolly the whole Windows/Linux thing)... Now, it turns out Microsoft is giving Virtual PC 2004 away for free, so I may create a virtual computer and run Linux there and see what happens... Then again.... Maybe not... LOL

Since it's Saturday, I just want to say good luck to the Steelers... I guess Cower is leaving Ben in, and i just hope he finaly plays as himself....

I've been playing McDonald's Monopoly... So far I've won a breakfast sandwich.. :-) I really like the online version at playatmcd.com... Very cool... Put your codes in from the pieces and win! LOL, okay, so I haven't won yet... But, I could be a good pitch man, right?

The other day, I watched "Rebuilding an Icon" about the latest incarnation of the Corvette. Of course, I had seen it before, but I could watch it again and again... Not just because it's about the new Vette, but also because it is actually well-written, and very cool that they were able to tie in the car photographer trying to grab a photo during the whole process....

Yeah, I'm one of those "watch the same thing a billion times" kind of guys... If there is a movie or TV show that I've seen, and I like it, I'll watch it over and over... Today, I watched "Maverick" for the zillionth time... "Con Air," "Armageddon," and "Die Hard" are some others I could watch every single time they're on....

I still have to post the picture of Emily's stitches... I'll try to do that before the weekend is up... :-)

This afternoon, we all went outside and tossed the football around. We also played boys vs. girls. Emily has some serious moves! And, I'm not saying there were any penalties, but Shan's definition of "Holding" and the NFL's are not necessarily taken from the same rulebook... :-) We also ran about 50 races because Emily wanted us to... Then, we played some more - a LOT of running around... How did THAT happen!?

Afterward, we all came back in, and Tyler and I played each other in Battlefield 1942. Yeah, I know, it's kind of an older game, but we like it alot! :-)

Okay, I gotta say it - HOW 'BOUT DEM HAWGS!? Holy cow! 63-7!?!? Yeah, I know, it was SE Missouri St, but still... SIXTY-THREE to seven!? SMOKES!! YEE-HAW HOGS! :-)

Okay, while typing this up, I just saw a commercial for Intelius.com... Background checks on nannies, significant others, the mailman... I'm curious, how many people are going to actually use this? "I love you, baby, but I need your social security number... Why? I just want to run a background check on you..." Okay, actually, you don't even need the SSN! What the heck is this world coming to? Don't answer that... And, for Pete's sake (who *IS* Pete anyway?), don't waste your money checking Intelius for my info... :-)

A trip to the hospital...

Emily decided she wanted to have a hair-bow this morning. Little did we know that decision would lead to a trip to the hospital and five stitches....

She had been sitting in my lap while I was combing her hair. After I got done, she was told to get her shoes and socks to get ready for school. She got down, turned back to me and said that she wanted a hair-bow in her hair like yesterday... She took one step, which landed her leg against mine and she fell face-first into the coffee table edge. She cried out, covered the place where she hit her head and made her way over to me. I saw blood. I took her hand away, and I saw this was no 'ordinary' Emily accident. Since I was holding Emily, I told Shan to get a towel or rag or something, and we wiped away at the blood, carefully dabbing at the wound. Gash. It was a gash, and it was ugly.

Tyler asked if he could go to the hospital, and in our mild panic attack, I told him that he needed to go to school with Mimi (my mother, who works at the school). We did not realize how scared HE was until later when we had all settled down. We apologized to him and explained our panicked state. He took it well...

After the initial crying, Emily did not cry again until the doctor was feeding her eyelid with anesthetic (more on that in a moment). Of course, the fact that Emily was NOT screaming her head off only served to make Shan even more nervous. I was too busy concentrating on driving to think that deeply about anything!

At the hospital, Emily began asking all kinds of questions. She asked Shan what Shan would be doing if she had hit her head. And she asked me. We both told her that we would not be handling it as well as she was, and that she was eing a VERY brave little girl! The one question that sticks out in my mind, however, was this one: "When Jessie (her aunt) has her baby, how is the baby going to come out?" Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking this question is about 10 years too soon! I explained that the doctors would help the baby come out when it was time. Not satisfied, Emily followed up with, "Yeah, but HOW? Where does the baby come out?" I told her that girls' bodies were made so the babies would come out and that the doctors would help Jessie. Yes, I stalled for time. Fortunately, Randy (the ER nurse) came out to save me. :-)

Emily's doctor explained several time what he was going to do, and though Emily looked scared a time or two, she never cried. We put her on the table, laid her back, she laid perfectly still the entire time. As I mentioned before, she did cry a couple times while the doctor gave her injections (I think we counted 11 of them) to numb the site, but that was all. No flailing, no wincing, no screaming. I held her hand and told her to squeeze. She did. Once the doctor was done numbing things, he cleaned the site and got ready to sew. I relaxed. I relaxed a little TOO much.... I felt the world closing in around me, and asked Shan (evidently several times quickly in a row) if she would like to hold Emily's hand for a bit. I also had to go to the restroom (potty breaks can hit at the weirdest times!).

I am usually not skittish or prone to passing out. But, ever since her delivery, anything that involves my little girl just makes me lose it once I relax. From the story as told to me by Shan, I weaved my way to the restroom. After I came out, I was given a cup of ice, a cup of water, and I watched the doctor sew several stitches into Emily's gash (I will post pictures of his handy-work later).

After it was over, Emily walked around for a bit, just to be sure, and we were given the okay to head out. The doctor said he has never seen anyone handle getting stitches better than Emily. Shan and I, being directionally challenged as we are, had no idea where the exit door was. Emily (yes, the 4-year old that just had 5 stitches put in her head) says, "Umm, aren't we supposed to be going THAT way?" and points to the door. The nurses all commented on the fact that SHE had to tell US where the exit was... :-)

We took Emily to Mickey D's for breakfast (I think part of the reason for my light-headedness was the fact I had not eaten breakfast... well, that's MY take anyway...), and she got to pick out a toy at Wal-Mart (she chose a Dora the Explorer adventure van that talks, plays music, and does other things).

When we got her home, Emily ran and played and laughed and sang (at one point, she put "Bad Day" on the CD player, and sang along!). Basically, she was herself with a bandaid on her head. She and Mimi fed the goats, pet and fed Daisy, and then while Shan and Tyler went to Awanas, Em and I stayed home and played Lincoln Logs, Fisher Price Castle, Baseball Card matching game (the rules of which I never did quite fully grasp), among other things. Are we still worried that she hasn't had a screaming fit over this? A little, but then again, once Emily gets upset, she gets over it, and life goes on....

Shan's Dad did threaten to beat the coffee table with a hammer.... We're not sure if he was joking... Guess we'll find out... :-)

Beta Blogger

Okay, just for the record, I have switched to the new version of Blogger. So, if anything goes wacko, we can just blame the beta! :-)