One Crappy Weekend

I've had bad weekends, but this one seems to top them all. So Chels and I have had these nasty sore throats for a while and the weekend seemed to take it's toll on us. Chels was getting a lot of pressure in her sinuses and yesterday she couldn't get her ears to pop so she could hear outside of the box. Bree wasn't feeling well either, and she is very clingy when she doesn't feel well. Clingy and whiny. Besides being sick, there was the weather. Stupid snow and rain and cold. Today is the first day of spring so hopefully, things will get better. Not holding my breath too much on that. And to top the weekend off as the worst weekend, Chels' grandad passed away. It was an expected thing, and it's good that he's gone, but it is still hard. He went peacefully at home surrounded by his loved ones so that is good. So there for the weekend was a total piece, and hopefully they will start looking up from here on out.

See's Chocolate Suckers

So there is candy in this world, then there is awesome candy. Last Saturday after the St. Patrick's day, we were downtown so I stopped into See's Candies and bought some chocolate suckers. Talk about great. I don't know what it is about them, but they are just dang good. I am just finishing one as we speak, and wanted to share my feelings with the world, or my 3 or 4 readers.

Movie Review - Chicken Little

Last night we watched Chicken Little, coming to DVD on Tuesday. I was plesantly suprised at this movie. It had a lot of humorous parts and the premise of the story was followed very well. Chicken Little feels the sky is falling and warns the city, which causes mass hysteria. His father blames it on an acorn hitting Chicken Little on the head. Chicken Little then becomes the laughing stock of the town. Even his own father thinks he's a little crazy. He becomes the hero in the movie and it shows the relationship between him and his father getting better. Then the sky falls again and he shows his friends and they know that he's not crazy. He tries to warn the town again, once again causing mass hysteria and nobody believes him. Not wanting to give to much away from the movie, it turns out that the truth is finally figured out and Chicken Little gets to be a normal kid again. I would give it a thumbs up, 4 out of five stars.

My next review of The Thing About My Folks with Paul Reiser, Peter Falk, and Olympia Dukakis is coming soon.

Zoo Volunteer Update

Those of you that have read my previous posts know that we (Aly, Aurora and I) were planning to volunteer at the zoo this year. Last Saturday was the interview day where you are asked a bunch of questions to see if you meet the criteria established to work at the zoo.

As posted previously, the original positions that we were going for were Jr. Zookeeper for Aurora, Zoo Aide for Alythea, and Docent Council for me. (See Hogle Zoo's website for definitions and job duties.) One of the reasons Aly didn't want to be on Docent Council before was because there was teaching involved. She would have to make presentations, teach and other stuff similar. Since she doesn't feel academically inclined, and she didn't like teaching, she didn't want to sign up for that.

As she was interviewing for Zoo Aide, the interviewer talked her into signing up for Docent Council. She reluctantly agreed and changed her position accordingly.

So, my interview and Aly's interview went pretty well. Aurora's interview didn't go so well. Her attitude was really poor. She said she wanted to volunteer at the zoo but she was tired and didn't act like she wanted to be there. So, we will see what happens.

I hope we get accepted. Our first year, we get trained on animal handling and if we have been on Council for a year, we can take the training and get our falconry license which is something that I've wanted to do for years.

So, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I'm Hooked...

So recently I found this cool game online and I'm starting to get the hang of it. It is pretty fun and very addictive. If you've played it, you'll know how fun it can be, but if you haven't try it out. The game is called Sudoku. I have a RSS feed for a daily Sudoku from Brain Bashers. It also has some pretty cool stuff on it like puzzles, games, and some cool illusions. Anyway, check it out. It's cool to start learning you can turn on all the cheats and work on it that way. I did today's medium puzzle in like 15 minutes. Sometimes it's easy other times it takes a little bit more time. Ok, that's all, go about your normal business.

It's Tuesday

I guess the title says it all, it's Tuesday. Not much about a Tuesday that is really likeable. Its not hated like Monday, isn't exciting like Friday. It doesn't have anything distinguishing like Wednesday being hump day or Saturday being a day off and Sunday being a rest day. Thursdays are kind of the same except that is the day to prepare for Friday.

I know Dominos tried to do something a couple years ago to get people excited about Tuesdays like some kind of special deal only on Tuesdays but it just didn't catch on because Tuesdays just can't really be all that exciting.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on Tuesday. Since its not an exciting day, no exciting blog (not that they ever are anyway.)

A Busy Weekend...

This weekend was a lot of fun. Went home on Friday and went out to dinner with Chels' Grandma for her 80th birthday. We went to Marie Callender's, and I remembered how much I dislike that place. When you are in a big party, It is sad how long you sit there. We got there at 7 and finally left around or a little after 9. It was nice to visit, but I am very impatient when we are at restaurants because I like to eat, and leave. Well the kids were being good, and as I said we were visiting with everyone that was there, it did just take a while.

Saturday, got up early and went and played in the St. Patrick's day parade. It was cold, but it was a lot of fun. My family was there to see me. We had lunch at the mall afterwards and then headed towards home. We then went over to Nic's house for a welcome home party of sorts, we had pizza and played Burn Out 3 and Tiger Wood's Golf on the XBox. It was pretty fun.

Sunday was church, and then we went to Chels' parents for Jared's b-day dinner. Roast, mashed taters, carrots, peas, and rolls. It was some good stuff. We got home shortly there after watched Crossing Jordan, which was a good one, and went to bed.

That was the weekend. I'm a little tired today, but not too bad. Well time to get back to work...

A Song for the Occassion

So I have had the ability for a long time to tie a song that I know to good and bad experiences that have happened throughout my life. Usually I will want to listen to a song based on what is going on and it will usually pep me up quite a bit. I think that music is one of the best things for the mental and physical attitude that is out there today. Now don't get me wrong, when the wife or kids is around a hug and a kiss is the bestest therapy I can think of, but to get my mind to move away from a "stressful" or otherwise situation, it helps to have your music. I think it comes down to the days of hacky sack in the band room in high school. You'd usually do pretty good if you had your music. Anyway, for a situation that I'm in right now I'm thinking the perfect song would be by the Beastie Boys, Fight for Your Right. Anyway, keep the music blastin' and don't let life get you down.

Lucky

We have had our van for several years and have not been the best about taking care of it. A couple of weeks ago, I had new plugs, wires, fuel filter and air filter placed in the van and they checked the belts and hoses which they said were in really good shape.

After that, we had a safety and emmissions inspection and the van failed miserably. Mostly because the computer was having problems understanding information. The causes were either a faulty sensor or bad computer connection. We were afraid it was going to cost us a LOT of money.

Come to find out, the oxygen sensor went bad costing us only about $140. We feel very lucky that it didn't cost more. Anyway, some good news.

I'm Tired of It...Aren't You

So once again the Salt Lake Valley has woken up to snow on the ground. I guess it's warranted since it still is winter and all that stuff, but come on. Now I know I can't control the weather, but I do want to say that I'm ready for a change. Not only am I ready, I'm hoping it happens soon. I'm not the biggest fan of snow. I've lived in Utah almost my whole life and I don't like snow. I don't ski or snowboard. I do like to go sledding once in a while, but for the most part that isn't any fun because you have to carry things up the hill to have your 5 seconds of fun. I know I'm complaining a little here but it needs to be said and this blog is where I can say it.

As for anything else going on in my life...I'm back at work today after being sick for a couple days. Being sick isn't fun, but getting better is. Nic and Rick get back today after their 6 week trip to Missouri. They've had a fun trip home I'm sure and my kids are way stoked to see them. Well I'm going to get some work done. Have a good day.

Apocolyptic Movies

One of the things I enjoy watching is movies that show natural or man-made apocolyptic events. Some of them help to answer the question "What if...." Not that they are entirely accurate or realistic, but it does give an author's rendition of what they think may happen. Some are backed by scientific data that "could" happen.

Anyway, one movie that I watched recently is Supernova. This one talked of a possibility that the sun being older than we thought and a very large meteor fragment setting off the events that would lead to the sun going supernova. There is nothing that could be done, nowhere to hide if this type of event happens.

Of course there is always the reporter that is going to break the story and get to the "truth" of what is happening so they can tell the world. Once it is theorized that the sun is to explode, the question then becomes, do you tell the world?

Here is the question I have. If the world is about to be destroyed and there is absolutely nothing that you can do, would you want to know? What would you do?

Now, add the fact that everyone else knows and everyone panics, riots, and general chaos ensues. Would that affect what you would do and where you would go?

What a Day...

I am starting to feel like crap right now. My head hurts my body is starting to ache and I'm really tired. I'm hoping for a good night sleep tonight to cure all my woes.

Today the power went off at work for a couple of hours. As fun as a power outage can be, like playing hangman on a whiteboard, not a whole heck of a lot gets accomplished. You can probably imagine. My cube became the place to gather when it came down to it. It's cool, it makes me feel special, or used anyway for the treats that I have. Anyway, I'm now waiting for my ride to come get me and then we are headed to band for the last practice before my first appearence before a live audience, minus my family, in many years. Wish me luck...

Friday, Friday, Friday...

It's here. The weekend. I'm leaving work in about an hour, and it's not going to come fast enough. This weekend, I have a pretty hefty list of things I want to get done, like the garage, the basement (moving stuff up), working some in the yard. That type of stuff. Will I get any of it done, maybe. Depends on how I feel when I wake up. It depends on the level of enthusiasim that the rest of the people in the house have. It depends on what's on TV. I'm going to get started on some stuff this afternoon when I go home, hopefully if this storm that supposed to be blowing in doesn't blow in in the next few hours. Anyway, life is good on this Friday and we are moving forward.

Headaches Suck!!

I woke up this morning, after what I thought was a good night sleep, with this major headache. I also had a stomachache, but that has since gone away. My headache is such that I'm having a hard time focusing on things that I'm working on. It's like the thoughts in my head are more out of whack than normal. So hopefully the Advil I just took will kick in soon, I have a Dew that should help as well. Caffiene is always nice for this sort of thing. Anyway, just wanted to complain a little about the headache. Now I'm going to try and focus a little and get some stuff done.

Music and Work

As some of you know, I'm a programmer, well my official title is Web Software Engineer, which means I engineer software for the web. Hahaha, incase you didn't realize that. So one of the coolest things about being a web software engineer, still just a fancy name for a programmer, is that I sit at a desk and listen to music on headphones and work my fingers to the bone. We are just getting ready to roll-out an application that will help track problem requests. Basically when the someone calls into our help desk, they will enter a problem request and that is how that problem will be tracked. It is pretty cool. Well I just wanted to share how cool I think it is to work somewhere you can listen to music and work all day.

Fine...Seven

It's the middle of the slowest day of my life, so I'm going to make it slower by doing this Seven thing that I'm being chased down with. Mind you i was up for an hour in the middle of the night so please bear with me on the following:

Seven Things To Do Before I Die

1. Go to Disney World with my Family


2. See Ireland Again


3. Serve a Mission with my Wife


4. I like the write a book thing...as long as it's good


5. Own my house, no more payments would be nice


6. See my kids grow up happy and well-adjusted, I want to be a grandpa that will spoil my grandkids and then send them home


7. Travel. I know this is vague, but I'd like to travel a lot

Seven Things I Cannot Do

1. Spin a web like Spider-Man


2. Fly, thanks for the help on that one


3. Be as strong as Hercules, Tiaree thinks I am though, it's funny


4. Drink a 2 liter of DP during 3-man without loosing it


5. Stop drinking DP, period, tried it, can't do it


6. Exercise, I'm too lazy, it's not physically possible


7. Finally, I can't do things right the first time, you laugh, come look at my wall where I hung my blinds for my sliding glass door, you'll see where it's putty'd over

Seven Things That Attract Me To A My Mate

1. Beauty, woo woo hunneeee


2. Intelligence, even though I can't spell the word, I'll spell check it though


3. Drive, if she starts something she has a desire to finish it, or have me finish it for her, haha ;)


4. Love of the Gospel, I love having religious talks with her


5. Spontanuity, spelling again, thank heavens for spell checker


6. Fun, we can just have fun


7. Her willingness to be a good Mom

Seven Things I Say

1. "Holy Hannah", don't know why, just say it


2. "See how that works when you listen"


3. "Be QUIET!, sheesh"


4. "I should exercise", I refer you to the things I cannont do


5. "Where's my super suit", ok, I don't really say this, but I can't think of seven, maybe Chels could help


6. "I love you"


7. "Get off my furniture like that", to my kids, they don't know how to sit on furniture

Sevent Books I Love (hahaha, me read, that's the funniest thing I've ever heard)

1. Honor Among Theives


2. Sons of Fortune


3. The Book of Mormon, had to be in there, if you haven't read it, I'd recommend it


4. Eddie Fantastic, Chris Heimerdinger book


5. Harry Potter Series


6. The Prydain Chronicles


7. The Chronicles of Narnia

Seven Movies I Love

1. I, Robot


2. Independence Day


3. The Wedding Planner, yes, I like chic flicks


4. Oliver, my favorite Musical


5. Mary Poppins


6. Hitch, if you can't tell I'm a Will Smith fan


7. So I Married an Axe Murder, Men In Black, and many, many more

Tag Seven

1. Chels


2. Chay


3. Harold, no joke, get a blog


4. Nicole, even though she doesn't have a computer


5. Alythea, B, you can let her post through yours or we can add her to the list of people that can blog in Whadda Blog


6. My Mom, and since she doesn't read this oh well, I'm running out of people to add


7. Whom ever feels like it...

There I took more time than I wanted too, but I'm done...get off my back

Seven

Seven Things to Do Before I Die

– Publish, I want to write a book worth reading and have it published
– Produce and direct a movie
– Sky diving
– Powered Paragliding
– Watch all my kids grow up to be fine, upstanding citizens
– Ride in a helicopter
– Run in a marathon

Seven Things I Cannot Do

– Fly like Superman
– See without corrective lenses
– Win the lottery
– Sing
– Cheat on my wife
– Eat slugs
– Dance

Seven Things That Attract Me To a Mate

– Attitude
– Converation
– Beauty (inner as well as outer)
– Intelligence
– Common interests
– Patience
– Big heart

Seven Things I Say

– "NOW!"
– "Ya, Right!"
– "I didn't do it."
– "Are we having fun yet?"
– "I don't think so."
– "That's amazing how that works, huh?"
– "We'll see."

Seven Books I Love

– The Chronicles of Narnia
– The Harry Potter series
– Uncle Tom's Cabin
– Where the Sidewalk Ends
– The Stand
– Walden Two
– Green Eggs and Ham

Seven Movies I Love

– Oliver
– The Ring
– Pride and Prejudice
– It's a Wonderful Life
– Superman
– Star Wars
– The Time Machine

Tag Seven

Chay, Melissa V., Krista, Melissa B., Tracy, Chelsea, and Harold (I'm with Neal.. Get a blog!)

Middle of the Night Pages/Calls

So where I work, I get a seldom call in the middle of the night to help fix things. Usually it's during my On-call rotation, but sometimes it's not. Well tonight I got a phone call to help with and issue. I had to laugh as I was getting ready to lay back down because when the phone rang, I thought it was the alarm and I was hitting the alarm pretty hard to try and turn it off. It wasn't until Chels said that it was the phone that it clicked why the alarm wouldn't turn off. Now I'm up waiting to see if I get a page from someone regarding what needed to be fixed. I'm giving it about five more minutes and them I'm off to bed again. Hopefully to enjoy a good nights sleep, at least what's left of it.

As I sit here writing this, I'm listening to the wind do a number outside. It's a pretty strong wind and once in a while it will gust and it sounds like the roof is going to fly off the house, it's that strong. Anyway, I'm going to get a drink of water and head back to my pillow to salvage what sleep I can for the rest of the night. Goodnight.

Free Food

So I got to work this morning and had a email in my inbox from my boss, that breakfast and lunch for today and tomorrow were taken care of. The Hospital is opening a new cafeteria and they want to make sure that it runs smoothly so they invited a bunch of people to come and partake of the freeness of them learning the new system. So this morning I had some biscuts and gravy. Yummy! I love free food, and working somewhere that gives out free food or whatnot is pretty cool. I actually got an MRI on one of my knees when they were testing the new MRI machine in the Cancer Hospital. It was pretty cool. Well time to get back to work.

A Fresh New Look

I've decided to change the look and feel of the blog... If you haven't noticed.

I did it because the pictues on the blog Trip to St. George weren't showing side to side like they are now because of the small middle section.