On The Rebound

Elliott had a good game this morning. They still lost by 7 points, but he played pretty well shooting 3 for 7 with a season high 7 rebounds. They were in the hole again early by 15 but managed to cut it to 6 in the 4th. Elliott got a few fouls and bumps and knocks too. I told him he should end every game with no energy left and banged up a little - that would mean he played his hardest and got into the mix! Two more games this coming week, then the tournament next weekend.

It was a quiet day here yesterday. Lucie and a friend scrapped for the day and Elliott went to youth group at night. I did some stuff around here and watched TV last night. We ordered sandwiches for supper from this place that makes a sub like Thanksgiving - turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce! Lucie placed the order and I went and picked it up but didn't realize I paid for 5 subs and only got the 4 we ordered. I called them last night and picked up a refund from them today after Elliott's game.

The display on Ashleigh's phone died so we had to activate her older phone. The new one is out of warranty and not eligible for a free replacement until March so she has to make do.

I got the last piece of information I needed to do our taxes this year. So I finished them off and got the state and federal forms filed electronically. That didn't take long. We are still getting a much needed refund so thank God for that.

Today is big cleaning day here. That is why I am blogging! ha ha My theory is it is better to clean a little every day than waste an entire day cleaning. Lucie doesn't agree. So she can spend her whole day cleaning and I will do my usual... I also backed up the computers today. It is cold outside (mid 20º's with a steady wind) but I will go walk the dogs later. They love that and it tuckers them out.

Basketball Spanking

Elliott had a game tonight and his team got spanked. Not Elliott's fault though - his coach dug them a hole they could not get out of. The league rules require all of the players on the team to play at least one quarter. So the coach has decided to put the weaker players in for the first quarter and bench the better players (Elliott plus two others). Then he subs them in for the rest of the game and expects them to pull the team out! Tonight they got behind 0-15 at the end of the first quarter!! The other team was running a half court trap which created all sorts of problems for Elliott's team. Elliott finally had to just start firing up 3 pointers to try and salvage some dignity but they lost 24-55. And the coach then got on their case after the game! Elliott really busted it and played hard and took good shots. Their team just has no tall players and too many weak ones.

From there I went and played my Thursday night games. And I had my own set of problems. I played terribly! Could not hit a layup or outside shot all night. Everyone actually started just laughing at how ridiculous I was. Not so funny for me! I did manage to keep my guy from scoring and worked on just setting picks for the other guys. And I did do one running drive that must have looked great because it sure felt it! But that was just one good move for the night. We only had 9 out so I played all night. My back is still feeling great and the glucosamine has completely cured my knees. I can tell you I saw the worst ankle sprain since I tore my ankle ligaments 20 years ago. This one guy came down from a rebound and turned his ankle. Immediately a ping pong ball sized swelling appeared, and that grew to a tennis ball and then that grew to a grossly misshapen tomato! Horrible. He was in pain but called someone to tell them he was on his way home and off he went. OUCH

On Wednesday we took Elliott sledding at a friend's house. That was pretty fun. I wound up falling asleep on their couch. Elliott got soaked - it started to rain but he kept sledding. Lucie worked on church stuff all day.

Tomorrow is another scrapping day for Lucie. I will do some breakfast I suppose and find something to busy myself with. The sun has been out and the little bit of snow we got is melting. And the birds are really enjoying the feeder!

"Green" Pocket Warmer

First, it took me a few tries to find a presentable image (to the left) for this entry... I was walking the dogs the other day and it was very cold. Sure enough, about halfway around the walk, Britni the beagle has to stop and poop. Being the good neighbor that I am, I have little canister with a roll of poop bags attached to the leash. So I bagged up the pooped, tied it off, and put it in my pocket. Eureka - an all natural hand warmer! ha ha

Last night I started in on our taxes. For better or worse, it didn't take long this year. I use Turbo Tax so it is easy to import the information from the previous year. Then it is just a matter of updating the information. Unfortunately, that didn't take long... I am still waiting for a few more documents but I should be done with that pretty quick.

I battered up some chicken and dropped it in the fryer last night. Came out really good. And the bonus is the carnival smell in the house.

We got a litle snow last night followed by freezing rain. Just enough to cancel school. They had a new system that worked well - like a reverse 911. So at 5:45 this morning, both of the kids schools called the house and informed us that there was no school. It is supposed to warm up and rain all day so it shouldn't be any big deal.

Feeding The Birds

If you look closely, you can see a cardinal sitting on a limb behind the house. This fella and a bunch of friends have arrived since I put the bird feeder up. And they are hungry! They emptied it right out! So today I am going to get some more food for them. We got a little snow overnight and up to four more inches are due tonight so I want to get some food ready for them.

Lucie says it is a sign that the Arizona Cardinals are going to win the Super Bowl on Sunday!

Elliott Won His First Game Of The Season Today!

Well today was the day! Elliott won his first game of the season! They only lost by 3 the other night so I knew they had momentum. And they only lost to this team by 7 earlier in the season so I was optimistic! Today they won 31-29. Elliott only had 4 points but he had some good assists and he shut down their big scorer in the last quarter. The coach almost ran a box and one with Elliott dedicated to the other team's high scorer. The kid sank one 3-pointer once Elliott was on him but that was all! After the game he went with a teammate to a UD basketball game.

Today I put up a bird feeder with a squirrel shield. We had gotten the bird feeder for Christmas and I used a Home Depot gift card to get the shield. It looks like it might work well. Vacuumed our cars today too - Britni the beagle ran out of the house yesterday and the best way to get her back is to pull up alongside of her in the car and let her jump in. Once she was in, I went and picked up Ashleigh from school and took Britni with me. Which left a million white beagle hairs in the car. While I was vacuuming out Lucie's car, I found 3 spoons and a bowl. Why not any money...?

Gooney Bird

OK, so the picture at the right is not an actual Gooney Bird, but that is what I think of when I hear that term. And in basketball, a "gooney bird" is when you fake out your defender so badly, he goes flying by. Well, Elliott "goonied" the guy on him at his game tonight a bunch of times! Just a little head fake and that dude went flying by! Elliott played well although he missed a lot of open shots - shots he normally hits and was hitting in practice. His team came back from being down by 15 to being down by 1, but they lost by 3... They really could have beaten the other team! He outscored the guy on him and had a bunch of rebounds. His next game is Saturday morning.

I played pretty well myself at my basketball game night. A couple of old friends showed up so we had some good laughs and a good time. I hit a few deep jumpers and was happy. Someone poked me in the eye and knocked one of my new tri-focal lenses out but someone actually found it (!) and I popped it back in. It was a good night.

Its been quiet the past few days around here. I was on a mission to find a new pooper scooper. The old one snapped when I was trying too hard to scoop some frozen dog poop but I finally found a new one at Petco. During my searching, I found a reasonably priced remote thermometer for the pool at Wal-Mart. The probe (that drops into the pool water) on the last one stopped working and it cost as much to replace that wire as a whole new sending and receiving unit. It seems to be working well so far.

The other night I noticed one of the front lawn light bulbs was out. So I tried to replace it but the new bulb didn't light up. I pulled out a working bulb to test the new bulb and promptly burned my fingers! Actually, it wasn't promptly - it was so dang cold out I didn't feel how hot that bulb was until it scorched off my fingerprints! ha ha And it turned out it wasn't the bulb at all - the wiring was loose. All good now.

I had to make a return trip to the dreaded cable office to return the modem I leased for a month. Whatever the problem was, they fixed it and we have been solid online since January 6. My old modem is working fine so I returned the cable company rented one. Only had to wait a few minutes this time. Not too bad.

I am happy to see "24" and "Lost" back on TV. We have been getting some good laughs at "American Idol," "The Office," and "Worst Week."

That is about it. I sent my resume to a couple more places this week. One place will not work out (now that I found out more about it) but I am hopeful on the other one.

Mrs. Hale, Tear Down This Shelf!

I have rebuilt the closet shelves for I hope the final time. At the left is a picture of a pull up bar which is actually similar in design to how I re-built the shelves. AND, when I finished with the lag bolts and support bars, I did do a pull up on it! Of course Lucie's clothes weigh a lot more than me but I am feeling confident. I finished the job last night, loaded it up, and they made it through the night.

Ashleigh spent the night at a friend's house and this morning Elliott is on his way to Wilmington for a day long school competition. Fortunately, another parent took him and some friends and will bring them back. That keeps me away from the Obama train stop which will be happening right about at pickup time in the same general area. Going to be mayhem in the streets.

It is pretty dang cold out here but sunny so at least it looks warm! Because of the school thing, Elliott had to miss his game along with at least one other teammate. I am not sure if there were enough players today to play.

Keep me in mind. I am mulling over a decision I need some direction on. Some CLEAR direction.

Rack Wreck

The image to the left is in no representative of the status of our closet. If you will recall, it was just back on July 14 ( http://sehale.blogspot.com/2008/07/and-racks-came-tumbling-down.html) that the clothes rack in our closet collapsed. Well, here we are again, a mere 6 months later, and Lucie has done it again. I was sitting downstairs watching Letterman and relaxing after my basketball night, when I heard the sound I thought I would never hear again. CRASH! I went up and sure enough, the rack in our closet collapsed again. I thought I had rebuilt the shelves to withstand anything but I didn't account for Lucie's wardrobe. All I could do was shake my head and go back downstairs. Now I have another project! Or rather, the same project again. I do have a plan to make it last this time - I am throwing out half of her clothes! Oy...

Elliott had his first game of the year tonight. They played the team they lost to in their first game of the season, 18-40. They did better tonight but lost again 30-42. Elliott hit 50% of his shots and had 9 points. They did well but the other team had a giant kid in the middle who pretty much scored at will. It seems every team in the league has a ringer like that. Except Elliott's.

The day started off rough for Lucie - she was rear ended driving Elliott to school. She started out into traffic, then stopped to double check, and the girl behind her didn't stop. Just bumped her spare tire on her back door but the girl's car had a little crease in the hood. Nothing to be worried about.

Going to be high temps in the teens tomorrow. I guess I should be glad that Lucie hangs her clothes inside the house...

Doing God's Work

The pastor of our church is away on a cruise so it was the perfect time for me to go in and do some work on the church computers! (He actually asked me to while he was gone.) Anyway, there was one computer that was isolated from the rest. It is used for some record keeping and such. So I was able to get it networked and online and able to print to the color printer/copier. I fixed the internet connection and was able to get it all updated too. Took a long time but it will make some lives a little easier and now that it is done, I can say I enjoyed getting it up to speed. And heaven knows (notice the religious pun!) I have the time...

Meanwhile, Ashleigh is taking mid-terms (and doing well!) so her school hours are all mixed up - going in late and finishing early. She came home from lacrosse weight training today pretty sore. Wait till tomorrow! Elliott has a game Thursday night and has had a couple of practices.

Getting pretty cold out these days. Nothing big planned coming up. Pretty happy that the show 24 is back on.

7 Days Later

It was one week ago today I awoke to find my computer fried. Today, the new/used one is 100% and slick. It ran my scheduled backups and virus scan flawlessly last night and everything is installed including tying it into the network. I am actually amazed it went so well. I did have to get a new mouse and keyboard due to the connection types being different on this computer but I got them on sale online and they work great.

Today I picked up my new (bi-focal!) glasses. They are replacing glasses that are at least 20 years old. They look pretty good - so says the family.

Last night I had a guys' movie night over here while the women were at a wedding shower. We watched the new Death Race. It was a great guys' movie but the language was pretty rough. We had pizza and wings and hung out.

Today there was supposed to be minor winter storm but it never materialized. It is just gray out but no precipitation. We got the Christmas stuff I had stacked in the basement all boxed up and put away. Now Lucie has a clear runway to her scrapping stuff.

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

On December 11, I had my root canal done and I called my referring dentist the next day to find out when they would be doing the crown. I was told that when the root canal doctor sent my info to them, they would call me. Well, here we are almost a month later and no word... So I called the dentist today and someone will get back to me...

Last week when I was at the eye doctor's, the first attendant did a lot of testing and told me to hang tight until someone else came in to do the dilation. I wound up taking a nap for 20 minutes in the chair until she came back in and apologized all over herself for leaving me alone. The person who was supposed to come in forgot about me. I am beginning to see a pattern...

For the past month or so I have noticed that my gas gauge in the Pathfinder never shows full. Even after filling up. I googled that and found it is a common issue with the 2006 model and has to do with a faulty sensor. Of course I am 4000 miles out of warranty. So I called the dealer today and asked if there was some sort of a recall or anything they could do. He took down my info and said he would get back to me. I am not holding my breath...

Meanwhile, Lucie got in last night fine. They told her her flight was delayed due to sleeting and terrible weather conditions but it never did sleet around here. We got to the security checkpoint about 2 minutes ahead of her, scooped up her luggage, and got to church just in time. Not bad.

Tonight is basketball night for me. Elliott starts basketball practice again tonight. Ashleigh started conditioning training yesterday at the University fitness center for lacrosse.

Back In Business

As you can see, I am back in business. I got the new/used computer up and running. Everything installed fine with no real hang ups. My keyboard and mouse have PS2 connections and this computer uses USB only. I tried adaptors but I lost some mouse functionality and the keyboard went crazy. I have an old one that is getting me by but I will get a new one.

Lucie flew down to Floriday yesterday for her uncle's funeral. It went well and she wound up speaking and translating. She is enjoying time with her brother and comes home tomorrow night.

I took all the Christmas stuff down tonight. I brought it all down to the basement where Lucie has all of her scrapping stuff. It is going to be impossible for her to scrap without putting stuff away! I did a lot of it but some things get packed in a way only she can.

Elliott starts back with basketball practice soon and Ashleigh is supposed to start weight training tomorrow for lacrosse.

Not much work news. The holidays and activities here had me distracted for a while but I am getting back to it.

PC Nuked

Early this morning I was doing a little normal computer work and then went to bed around 2 AM. Got up around 8 to a blank computer screen. Dead. No error messages or warnings. Reboots did nothing, swapping hard drives, pulling the RAM - nothing. So I packed it up and took it to the shop. I was surprisingly calm, because I have it fully backed up. So they popped it open and saw one blown capacitor with a few more bulging. The computer is 6 years old and they said it was a proprietary board and extremely cost prohibitive to replace it. So we found a used computer in the shop for sale and we worked out cannibalizing some things from my old one and upgrading that used one. All of my data is intact - I just have to re-install all of my programs. And then tweak it to the way I like. That will take a while but I am fortunate I have the time right now. And it was much, much cheaper than buying a new one. AND it will be running XP Pro instead of the dreaded Vista.

Everything else has been quiet and normal. Getting together with friends, doing stuff with the kids, etc. I intended to take down the Christmas stuff today but got de-railed with the computer problem. So that will wait a week or so.