Category Archives: Confessions

Things about me you probably never wanted or don’t need to know.

Tough Day

Today was a tough day for the girls.  They were both out of sorts.  Evie has some teeth coming and and I’m not 100% sure what’s getting to Abby.  She’ll be five in two weeks (22nd) and she’s just been disobedient and she fell a few times from her jungle gym in the backyard.

Jessica spent much of the day scrubbing the kitchen down from top to bottom.  It looks fantastic.  She just told me it, ” was so disgusting.”  And by my standards it was looking OK.  Apparently she’s just got higher standards 😉  Actually, the kitchen gets dirty fast because both girls, as old as they are, have a way of trashing any area within minutes of entry.  Some people might even go so far as to say seconds from entry.  I would be one of those people.

The last thing that made today tougher is that my buddy Dave, whom I have worked with as a co-worker or as a contractor for years now, is moving on to another company.  He’s a really, really sharp guy, a neat brother in the Lord, and he’s also funny.  All three of those things made working with him great and I’m sure that the folks at his new place of employment will really enjoy him for those reasons and more.

Reminder: Tonight is Feasting on Asphalt 2!

Just in case you had forgotten tonight, Saturday August 4th, is Feasting on Asphalt 2 night!  We’re having my sister and her husband over and we’ll be eating jambalaya in celebration of Alton’s starting off his journey in the southern part of the United States.  We’re hoping that we can follow along on this culinary adventure every weekend with some parallel food based on our understanding of the different regions followed by watching the episode from the DVR (thus fast forwarding through the commercials that would keep us from the actual fun).

I guess this makes us junkies 🙂

Thankful Thursday: My Brother Hated My Drums

I know its a little goofy to be thankful for my brother not liking my playing the drums when I was younger, but if it wasn’t for his frustration (and the evil happiness that it caused me to make him frustrated) I wouldn’t have stuck with music.  I hated practicing, and really I wanted to be a rock star but I knew I wasn’t enough of a rebel to be one, but hearing my brother complain made my lack of devotion go away and it helped me explore other instruments.

I love my brother a lot, next month is his birthday and I think I shall write him a song, but it’ll be about how I hope the instruments his son and daughters have come together to make one sweet song that brings him much happiness instead of frustration.  Brennan, my nephew will probably be the next Pat Boone.

Big Step in the Seated Position

Evelyn went potty on the toilet tonight.  Much cheering took place – as you can imagine – and she was excited.  I’m not sure she realizes how wonderful it will be for us to not have to spend so much money on diapers and wipes and having to always remember to carry the diaper bag.  This is just the start and she’s by no means done being potty trained, but I’m excited to see this next stage coming.  As a parent you love the next stage because you see your child develop and grow, but at the same time there is moderate sorrow to see that the memories are what you have left because that very child is growing.  Its wonderful, though, and I’m glad that she’s not going to be thirty, living in the basement and wearing diapers 😉

A Day of Tears

Today at church we said good-bye to our friends the Pools.  They’ll be moving to Virginia later this week and we won’t see them as regularly.  Fortunately Rachel has family here so they’ll be back at times and we’ll get to see them.  I was very sad to see them leave.  The Lord has a plan for them and I’m OK with their departure.  We had to leave friends and family when we left Nevada and Texas.

One of the families we left in Texas was the Mason’s.  They’ve been planning and trying to adopt a baby from China for about three years now.  Today, in China, they picked up their baby girl Nadia.  Jessica and I had tears streaming down our faces as we watched these videos of Luanne & Mike holding their new baby girl.  They will be heading home after about a week’s time I believe.  We can’t wait to meet Nadia and see them again as a bigger family.

Many tears today, but we’re glad for what the Lord is doing!

iLustForAniPhone

I used an iPhone today.  Crap.  I totally want one – like I’d probably sell one of my internal organs for one.  Its cooler than cool.  It may single-handedly be able to reverse global warning and help find the cure for Paris Hilton.  Wow.

The downside is that I also want the $500.00 that it has as a requirement to get one 🙂

Thankful Thursday: Wayne Anderson

I have a neighbor down the street named Wayne. Wayne happens to also go to church with me, but for now I’m going to just be thankful for neighbor Wayne. Neighbor Wayne has been incredibly helpful this first two years that we’ve been home owners. Wayne has helped me with many projects, and even has managed to help me when I wasn’t home (like fixing my sink plumbing when I was out of town). Wayne enjoys joking and hanging out, but he also likes to educate me and that’s just cool. So we can laugh, we’ve even cried (like grown men do, no sissy crying), and we’ve probably learned a thing or two from one another. I’m thankful for Wayne because he’s just been really, really awesome. I hope I can be that sort of neighbor to my other neighbors some day.

Wayne’s wife Sue is also an amazing sweetheart and I’m grateful for her friendship as well.  Jessica has learned a great deal from Sue in many areas and we would probably trade our car for a large case of her apple pies.

Sears Borkbucks: The Borkination Continues

So this morning was finally the day that the repairman from Sears was supposed to come out and unbork our fridge. That is until this morning when some poor soul had to call our house and tell us that they had scheduled a repair when there wasn’t a repairman available. She kindly asked us if we could wait another 8 days. You know, because walking out into our garage to get any item that needs to be refrigerated is a good thing. Not really, but surely they must appreciate putting customers on hold for weeks.

Jessica was nearly screaming at the automated voice system when she called back to try to speak to someone with actual authority. The automatic voice recognition system isn’t designed to handle angry people, which makes the angry people more angry, and it makes the system more not work, which means when the person gets a hold of a manager they’re ready to rip off the heads of live chickens in an Ozzy Osbourne type show trying to demonstrate their anger and communicate to the manager that the situation is grim.

I just hope that Sears deals with us soon and quickly because I’d have to have to write a third post about borking – its starting to make me feel kind of mad-scientist like with all of this evil laughter.

Update: Jessica got through to a live person, who promptly hung up on her, then she called back, got another live person who transferred her to a manager who got an appointment scheduled for Friday.  Not exactly now, but definitely better than next week some time.

Thankful Thursday: Mr. & Mrs. Frank Anthony Nuzzi

My buddy Tony who currently lives in Round Rock, Texas has been a friend since college.  I began working with his wife at the Christian bookstore.  We quickly became friends (Jessica and I and Tony and his bride Erin) and it became apparent that I was a jerk.  I was trying to be funny but it often came about by me speaking rudely about Jessica.  Tony & Erin told me I was not welcome at their apartment any more if I continued to be rude like that.  I learned a valuable lesson that night.  We came over many times after that and once getting married we moved in next door to them.  They were both part of our wedding party.

Tony & I are goofy together, which has been a lot less often since I’ve moved to Colorado, but I count he and his bride as dear friends.  Tony inspired me to be a coder, inspires me to be a better theologian, and he also inspires me to use the word Hermeneutics in any conversation we have together at least once.  I’m thankful for my friendship with him, and Erin as well.  We’re looking forward to them coming to visit us next month.

Show Me the Money

I’ve started a new blog about what I’m learning in the world of finances.  Its a rather transparent blog about what I don’t know, what I do know, and what I want to learn.  You can read it by going to WatchMyMoneyMaker.com.   I’m going to be doing some interviews soon to create an audio podcast as well.  I still need to work up a site style & theme, but there is already some writing up for you to peruse, critique and evaluate.  Also, if you’ve got questions about various principles or things you want to learn more about shoot me an email and I’ll do my best to research the answer so I can learn and you can learn, too!