A...A...A...

Elliott got his report card yesterday. A+'s in 6 out of 9 classes; A's in the other 3. Obviously I am very disappointed in those last three grades which means his internet and TV time will be taken away until they improve. Of course I am kidding and he is doing great. Even while busy with after-school sports, church, and other stuff.

Today he had basketball practice and has picked up one of his old man's traits - lack of on court stamina. Starts off like a shot, but wears out quickly. So I will be introducing him to the elliptical machine later to work on that. It has done a lot for me with my breathing and pacing. He did really well though and scored several baskets during the scrimmage.

Meanwhile, Ashleigh came home worn out last night from her first swimming practice and had another practice today. Today they were going to be filmed underwater to analyze their technique. She is the only person on the team who hasn't swum (swam?) on a team before but she is doing fine. They will work with her on some of the fundamentals like getting off the blocks and turns, etc.

Still no success on the map unlock code for my GPS. Another tech in India and I went around and around yesterday - each time him telling me they will email me the new code in 12-24 hours, and me asking why he can't email it to me right then - or just read the dang thing over the phone to me? I think I should move to India and be a tech support person who speaks English as a first language. I will be the most sought after person in the country...

Lucie's hayride was rained out last night. Sort of. She canceled it because they predicted a lot of rain but it mostly just sprinkled until about the time it would have ended - then it rained. But she had to make the call based on the information at the time. She did learn something from The Weather Channel yesterday - even though the radar shows a huge cloud cover and they are calling for a 70% chance of rain, that doesn't mean the rain will hit the ground. Sounds like a nice alibi for missing another forecast...

Ashleigh and I saw a meteor or shooting star or something like that the other night. We thought it might be a firework that never exploded shooting across the sky. But at least one other person I know saw it too. Nothing in the local news about it. The strange thing is, we lost about 3 hours of time that night and I woke up with puncture marks in my stomach...

Speaking of losing time, I still cannot get used to this time change. At 5:30 PM it feels like 10:00 PM. And no one is going to be able to convince me that changing the clocks has any benefit to mankind at all.

Yesterday I made myself a note to contact someone I know in our local professional security organization chapter . I thought I would give him a call on Monday. Well, he and some other former co-workers were at a function in NYC yesterday and my situation came up. He told them to tell me to call him at home today. So that is a good sign. He is a real nice guy and connected so he may have some leads for me.

And you know the holiday season is upon us when the fruitcakes are available. Of course they might be the fruitcakes that didn't sell last year just put out on the shelves again. But that doesn't matter to me. I dug deep into our reserve fund and bought one yesterday. Tis the season to be jolly...