Shawn's Blog

I Like My Coffee Hot But Not THIS Hot...

2012-02-15T17:14:00.000-05:00

I have my Cuisinart DCC1200 coffee maker programmed to start brewing five minutes before my alarm goes off in the morning. That way my coffee is all brewed and ready by the time I amble downstairs. So down I go this morning and immediately smelled a burning plastic smell. I looked over at the coffee maker and saw that not only had it turned itself off, but some nice blue smoke was curling up out of it. Especially from the back where the cord comes out. So I unplugged it, waited a minute or so, and plugged it back in. No clock and no lights. Unplugged it and waited 15 more minutes. This time when I plugged it in the clock came on and the lights worked but it wouldn't brew. I did some research online, specifically at www.ConsumerAffairs.com, and found many complaints about Cuisinart coffee makers doing the same thing. No actual fires, just burning up. I am guessing a fusible link does its job before an actual fire breaks out but that is still unacceptable. I bought it from Kohls in 2010. So I wrote to Cuisinart and told them about it, posted my experience on the Consumer Affairs page, and then wrote to Consumer Reports. That model was rated #1 and they need to know what is going on. The good news is that Kohls has a no-hassle return policy. I walked in with the coffee maker in a bag, presented my receipt, and they refunded my money (most of it anyway but that was OK). Marched myself over to WalMart and bought myself a Mr. Coffee.

#1 And #9

2012-02-09T23:22:00.000-05:00

Elliott came back home tonight from a state-wide DECA competition with the first place prize! DECA is a marketing and business association. DECA used to stand for Distributive Education Clubs of America but is now international and they just kept the DECA name. So now he goes to Salt Lake City to represent Delaware! There were five other kids from his school that competed in different categories so he will have some company. Some time in March. (Of course Lucie wants to be a chaperone!)

And what about #9? Oh, he is #9 in his class of 320...

Raising The White Flag

2012-02-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

I got beat on a few projects this week. The most frustrating one is captured in the black box to the left. You might notice the tiny white underline cursor in the top left. That is what I saw when I rebooted Lucie's computer... Just after the BIOS POST and before Windows starts. Now there is only one or two files that are accessed to kick off Windows. I fixed them, replaced them, edited them, everything. Nothing would work. I could restore a Ghost image and get her computer to work for a while, then on the next reboot (after 8 or 9 successful ones), this would happen. For the first time ever, I had to re-format and re-install. Fortunately I am a back-up fiend so I had backups stored in multiple locations. What I actually did was restore a back-up of Elliott's laptop (which is essentially the same as Lucie's) and then re-customized it and restored her pictures and documents from one of her backups. Frustrating. Never been beat before.

But that wasn't the only thing to get me. I couldn't find a cheap replacement wheel for the elliptical even though I went to bike and skateboard shops, other mechanical places, scoured the internet, and even tried to epoxy it. I wound up having to buy one from the manufacturer. But Lucie and I use it every day, five days a week and its the first problem we have had in over 4 years so it was worth it.

The Tivo remote went on me as well. The down button stopped working. I cleaned it and did all I could. So I had to get another one of those. Fortunately, the remote was VERY cheap on Amazon and the computer repair didn't cost anything (but time - and I have plenty of that...). So I looked at it as God keeping me busy during this time.

More "random" things keep happening which at the very least remind me that God hasn't forgotten me. There was an interesting development today that I am very encouraged about. Hope to share it soon...

Q: What Goes Step, Shudder, Step, Shudder?

2012-01-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

A: My elliptical. To the left is a picture of one of the four guide wheels on my elliptical. It is under the right foot and rolls along a track. Lucie and I are on the elliptical every day and the other day it was vibrating with every other step. Elliott and I got under it and he watched while I stepped. He found this wheel is cracked and when weight is on it, it flattens. Stupid thing is hard to get to and wicked expensive to replace. I am going to pull it today and see if I can replace it with an in-line skate or skateboard wheel.

It's funny, there have been a lot of little issues come up lately that have been resolved pretty inexpensively. My cholesterol medicine is about gone and I remembered I had a bottle of 80 mg pills (I take 40's). So I grabbed a pill cutter and halved them. The Tivo remote was driving me crazy as the down button wouldn't work (press it and it would select every other position but down. A&E found it very funny to see me get so frustrated with it.). I fixed that with a tiny screwdriver. And the washing machine was fixed with a $9 part. There have been a bunch of other little things too. It seems God is giving me little projects to keep me busy and my mind occupied while I wait on His timing.

Below is a bonus picture of the Ravens missing a game tying field goal which sent the Patriots to the Super Bowl. Elliott and I just about lost our voices watching the game.

I Am All For A Good Deal But...

2012-01-03T12:55:00.000-05:00

I got this in the mail today so I scanned it and sent it to Consumer Reports Magazine. On the back page of every issue they print bloopers like this. We'll see if I get published!!

Putting The Pieces Together

2011-12-30T16:09:00.000-05:00

Last night I was cooking up some pork chops on the grill and found my grill light wasn't working. I love that light. It has a flexible neck so I can aim it right on the meat and has magnetic feet so it doesn't slide or move around. So while the chops were cooking, I took the light apart. One of the batteries in the cartridge that holds 3 batteries corroded and the whole thing was a mess. I took it inside and pulled it all apart and cleaned it up. Put new batteries in and fired it up: nothing. So I took it all apart again and wiped everything off, made sure the batteries were aimed in the right direction and tried again. Nothing. As I was taking it apart for the third time, I dropped the cartridge. The batteries went everywhere and little connector pieces came off the cartridge. I thought I would never get it back together but I got all of the pieces and fitted them back in and voila; the light came right on! As soon as it lit up, I had an illumination myself. Looking at my situation now, all I can see is a bunch of separate pieces that used to fit together nicely. I cannot see how it will all come together and how life will come around to "work" again. Seems like no way that can happen. But of course it can and will and I believe that. I just had to smile and thank God for that little life lesson. It will work out and be as good or better than ever!

By the way, the pork chops were fantastic!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T10:29:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the generosity of a lot of people, we had a Merry Christmas this year. Lots of stuff but more importantly, lots of thoughts behind the stuff. We are very grateful and humbled. Made what could have been a disappointing day into a very happy one. You will notice one big brown element managed to work herself into just about every picture... (I even covered her up in the Ashleigh picture!) She and Britni eventually got busy on their stocking bones and stayed clear. Though a few of the later presents got an "anointing..."

Following up on my last post, my feet are doing much better. The orthotics came in and immediately added a lot of relief. Not 100% yet but doing a lot better.

Golden Arches

2011-12-07T12:27:00.000-05:00

They aren't golden in appearance but they are in cost... After many months of battling with heel spurs and plantar fasciitis, I finally decided to get my feet casted for custom orthotics (shoe inserts). I have done the night splint thing, icing twice a day, stretching, meds, "regular" shoe inserts, taping, elastic supports, cortisone shots... you name it. The doc was great and took all sorts of measurements and observations. Turns out the Achilles tendon in my right foot is very tight and the arch in that foot flattens when standing (it is fine when resting). So the inserts will position my foot and hopefully take some pressure off the Achilles (which reduces the constant pulling and subsequent pain). Should be about 3 weeks before the inserts are available. Of course my insurance doesn't cover it... But I couldn't take it any more. He gave me a bonus cortisone shot today which hurts going in but provides immediate (albeit temporary) relief.

In my last blog I mentioned the theme of God creating something out of nothing. Well, we are at the "nothing" point now and are anxious to see what develops. It seems every lead has dried up but we know that can change in 30 seconds. Still searching online, networking, going to my required Unemployment classes and doing what I can. And God keeps providing. Just waiting for the big breakthrough...

P-R-P

2011-11-29T11:04:00.000-05:00

Pumping - Raking - Praying. That's what I do these days... The pump I bought last spring to remove the rainwater from the pool when the water gets too high tripped the GFCI outlets every time I plugged it in. Only used it about three times. It was out of the store return time frame window but the manufacturer was great and gave me a return number. Walked into Lowe's with that number and got a new pump. The pool cover is porous and rain water gets in. The water gets too high and the regular pool pump is winterized so I need this to keep the level low. Mocha doesn't like that plan - she is heavy enough to lay in the middle of the cover and create her own lake when the water is too high.

Did the annual leaf raking and blowing yesterday. The fenced in backyard acts as a giant leaf catcher. All of my neighbors' yard are windswept clean - mine is full of leaves. Or was. I blow them all to the back fence and then "shovel" them over into the woods. Not hard work but time consuming. And it gets dark so early now...

It was nice to have Ashleigh home for Thanksgiving. We had a couple of families over and had a nice, laid back day. Pretty thankful for all that we have.

The outside time doing mindless work lets me pray and think a lot. I am not writing much about my job search and the circumstances about my unemployment but I can say Lucie and I are VERY encouraged about the "coincidences" that remind us that God is in control and it is all part of the Plan. Sermons at church about hope and peace, things people say, verses-of-the-day, and other little "random" reminders keep us positive. A couple of things that have seemed to be a recurring theme - that God sees our lives from the end and knows how things will turn out and how He is able to create something from nothing. So we are doing our part in terms of job searching, networking, cutting expenses, etc. and waiting for God to pull us through. Looking forward to telling the happy ending to this story...

Agitating Again

2011-11-07T15:04:00.000-05:00

Today I was doing my domestic duties which included doing the laundry. I noticed that the top part of the washing machine was not agitating like the bottom was. It just sort of sat there. Well, Google is my friend so I went online to find out what was up. Come to find out, these little Agitator Dogs fit inside the agitator and have tiny ridges that engage grooves which in turn spin the agitator. Apparently after 18 years, those little ridges wear down and no longer engage. Some guy even made a YouTube video of how to replace them. Made a phone call to the local Sears place and then Mocha and I made a run over. Less than $10. When Elliott came home from school, we re-played the video and put these dogs back in their houses. Ten minutes later all was good.

Can't wait to see what's on the agenda tomorrow...

Birthday Girls

2011-11-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

Ashleigh came home for her birthday weekend. It was pretty stormy on the Saturday before with wet snow and overcast skies but we had a good time. Had a nice lunch on her birthday and she stayed an extra day just to hang out and watch the Patriots game. Mocha turned two a few days later. I took her to the vet to get some more heartworm prevention pills and she hopped on the scale: 132 pounds! Here she is with her bib on ready for cake!

A New Direction....

2011-10-31T13:58:00.001-04:00

That's all I have to say for now... Stay tuned.

Insurance and Injustice

2011-10-22T11:11:00.000-04:00

Elliott gets his "license" soon (he will be able to drive alone during daylight hours) so I thought I would check insurance rates. I went online and submitted my info to a site that sends it out to a few companies and they come back with a price. Oddly enough, my own company came back with a rate about half of what I am already paying them! I called them up and sure enough, they said I could cancel my current policy with them and get another for hundreds less! Turns out it is up to the insured to monitor their rates and shop around - every 6 months to a year is recommended! So for who knows how long I have been paying for nothing! Grrrrrr

Meanwhile my battle with Sony continues over the blue line that has appeared in my 36 month old big screen TV. Not much of a battle actually when the other side has the upper hand and doesn't want to fight. I paid $50 to their local repair guy to tell me that it will cost $682 MORE than I paid for it to repair it! Sony Customer Relations listened patiently and so graciously offered to sell me a discontinued TV for a mere $900. Thanks for nothing. Why would I would I buy another TV from them when they won't stand behind the first one?! So I sent a letter (an actual letter on paper in an envelope with a stamp on it!) to their HQ pleading my case. Not holding my breath....

Last week we went to meet Ashleigh at the Baltimore Humane Society Dogfest. Started off rough - we got off to a late start and someone stole Ashleigh's expensive North Face jacket while she was volunteering there. Then there was a 1.5 mile backup to get near the place. We wound up just pulling off the road and walking (like many people). Mocha was terrible on the walk there - pulling and lunging. Took everything, and I mean everything, in me to hold her back. Of course the Humane Society is not the place to be disciplining your dog... But once we got in she was her usual big fluffy self and everyone loved her. It was a huge field with lots to see. Turned out OK. One of the vendors had a water bowl out that Mocha claimed as her own (see bottom photo).

The other night I was walking the dogs before supper and when I came back with them the whole kitchen had a smoky haze. I asked Lucie what she was burning, uh, cooking for supper. Turns out she put the Costco chicken, plastic boat tray, cover and all, in the oven to warm up and the plastic melted. The top clear part shrink-wrapped over the top of the chicken and the black bottom melted thru the rack to the bottom of the oven. But it cooled quickly and peeled right off beautiful. Didn't taste bad. I told Lucie the rice could use a little more plastic though...

Flat Lining

2011-10-08T11:21:00.000-04:00

While we were at Newfie Fun Days, the hard drive in Lucie's laptop died. Fine in the morning, dead a few hours later. When we got back I went to our usual computer place but they wanted $150 for a replacement drive! For $400 I can get a whole new laptop. So a friend recommended a used computer parts store and I got a bigger drive for $25. I "Ghost" our computers monthly (take an image of the entire drive) and do weekly data back ups so I just had to slap the replacement drive in, put the image from other drive back and copy in the latest backup and she was up and running.

That was an easy fix. This one, not so much: my beautiful 52-inch Sony TV has a line running down it. Argh! About 4 inches in from the right - top to bottom. Very thin but it looks like a dang highway to me. For now, it fades away after about 15 minutes. But research says soon it will stay. So I have called and emailed Sony and their oh-so-helpful response has been to just get it fixed. Um, getting it fixed means replacing the entire screen! That's not helpful. It is just over 3 years old and out of warranty of course...

Meanwhile I shut the pool down. Always a sad time of the year. I got a Shiatsu foot massager to try and help with the bone spurs and pain. I ice my feet first, then put them on the massager for 15 minutes. Pretty painful actually but seems to be helping. Last night I watched a video of an athletic trainer taping someone's foot. I tried it and it feels good.

Today Elliott and I are going to an ING DIRECT sponsored car show (free tickets). That is always interesting. Gotta mow the yard too. Not many more times this year for that...

Dog Gone It

2011-09-24T14:18:00.000-04:00

It's all about the dogs - or so it seems the past week. First, we took Mocha up to Eliot, Maine for two days of Newfie Fun Days. And fun days they were! She traveled up the 8.5 hours with no problems and was very well behaved the whole time we were there. Kind of crazy to see her, all 127 pounds of her, compared to bigger Newfs. There was carting classes, water rescue demonstrations, stuff to buy, grooming classes and so on. What was amazing was how all of the dogs got along and there was not a bark to be heard. My mother won two of the raffles and was kind enough to give us a big, wooden, handmade/hand painted bench with a scene of a Newfoundland looking over the water. We only had a couple of days but got to get in some quality time with friends and family and stayed one last time in the Cafe. It was at the Cafe where we met Newfie Captain Oliver - the dog that inspired us to get a Newfoundland. He and Mocha got to play and visit every day. At night we brought food home and Mocha just socialized and went to bed in our room. She loved swimming in the cold waters of the ocean and walking along the beach at night and in the morning. It was tighter quarters for Mocha coming home (with the bench) but she did great and we made the trip in record time of 7 hours.

After we were home for a few days, Britni the beagle's right eye suddenly clouded over and looked like she had an eye infection. Very lethargic. So Lucie took her to the vet and they gave us the bad news that she had sudden onset of glaucoma. The right eye pressure was at 98 and she was blind in it. The left eye was at 28 (normal is 10-15) and she would probably go blind in that one soon. The pressure was putting her in terrible, migraine like pain and we were going to have to make a decision about eye removal and possibly putting her down. Shocking how quickly it happened... After an emotional night and day, we took her to a doggie opthamologist who examined her and said she could probably save the eye and treat the other one. So we went ahead with the procedure and sure enough, the next day the pressure in both eyes was down to 10! She doesn't have full vision in the right eye but it looks normal now and she is back to her old self. We have to put drops in her eyes the rest of her life to control the pressure but she is home. What a relief!

The Crack of Dusk

2011-09-05T09:34:00.000-04:00

The Great Earthquake of 2011 and Hurricane Irene came and went without much excitement. I was on vacation that week (good choice!) and on the day of the earthquake I had taken Mocha for a walk at a new place (a fish hatchery area out in the middle of the woods - kind of lonely but interesting). We got back and Britni was in a chair by the pool while I brushed out Mocha. Next thing I know, Elliott is asking me if I felt anything because the whole house just shook. Nope - didn't feel a thing. And the dogs didn't do anything weird like you sometimes read about. The hurricane caused a little more excitement - lots of branches and leaves down, strong winds, had to pump the pool out two times and we lost power for 9 hours. But no damage and no flooding in our immediate area.

The hurricane did knock out my dusk to dawn outdoor motion light though. It has a setting where, at dusk, it will come on at about 50% power. That acts as a sort of night light without blinding the neighbors all night. Once it detects motion, it goes full power for 5 minutes, then dims again. The wind and rain must have somehow gotten to it because it wouldn't work during the hurricane and after. It was getting power - if I put it to "test' it would come on and the red LED would light up when it detected motion but it just wouldn't light up at all like it should. I planned to replace it on Friday but Thursday night it came back to life. Strange. Works fine now.

The other day a rock nailed me on the way to work on 95. When I left, I found this nice crack. I will wait until after we return from our trip to Maine to replace it. I think this will be the third one...

Ashleigh Is In College Now

2011-08-24T20:20:00.000-04:00

Today was the day. Last night Lucie and Ashleigh and Nathan and Elliott packed up Ashleigh and got her stuff loaded in two cars. (I made supper and stayed out of the way.) All 5 of us headed down a little after 9 AM. Great weather - sunny and windy. It is just over an hour ride (1 hour and 12 minutes to be exact) and we got there fine. Today they let the Honors Program Freshmen move in first so there were hardly any people there. Got everything up to her 4th floor room in just two trips and were all unpacked by noon. The school bought us pizza for lunch and then we headed out to pick up some odds and ends and books. I did all of the IT stuff - got her online and downloaded Office 2010 and so forth. She has one roommate and two suite-mates - they live in another adjoining room. All four share a bathroom, two sinks, shower, fridge, microwave, phone, etc. Pretty nice. Ashleigh has been emailing the other girls so they sort of knew each other. This dorm is brand new - Ashleigh and the others are the first to live in it. Around 4 they fed us again (hors d' oeuvres) and at 6 Ashleigh had an introductory meeting with some of her instructors. We packed up and left at 5:45 PM so she could go to her meeting. Tomorrow the other freshmen move in. Ashleigh has a full day of a ropes course and other get-to-know-you team building things. Pretty hard to pull away but fortunately she is not far away and we will see her often. When we got home, one of her school books arrived in the mail - I wanted to go back and bring it to her!

Feets and Toes

2011-08-22T10:26:00.000-04:00

The Hales are a bit gimpy around here. Lucie had minor toe surgery last week to get a toe bone shaved down. Outpatient but they still knocked her out. Seemed like she was out for all of ten seconds. Went fine. She has her foot in a bootie thing but can get around fine. Only hurts when she stubs it. Which of course now happens all the time... Coming out of the anesthesia was probably worse than the operation itself.

Meanwhile, my third cortisone shot seems to have taken. I am aggressively icing my feet every night (that is a party!), wearing my brace and keeping the inserts in my shoes. For the first time in a LONG time, this Friday morning after Thursday night basketball I was able to get out of bed and walk across the room without an electric scooter. (The mornings are the worst - the Achilles tendon is inflamed because of bone spurs in my heels and the first stretch of the day is a killer.) I am on vacation this week so I can wear real comfy walking shoes and maybe I can finally put this all behind me. Or under me...

Chair-ity Case

2011-08-20T11:13:00.000-04:00

One of our pool-side stools rusted thru this summer. Oddly enough, a year or two ago Ashleigh put one in the pool and sat in it and now we have one chair out of 5 that has rusted... Anyway, when my younger brother visited recently, he offered to fabricate a piece to fix it. He did a great job and sent me the pieces. However, as the picture shows, it broke during my efforts to slide it in. Back to the drawing board...

Just halfway through August and it is already the wettest August on record. I may actually mow the yard now. The funny thing is, after it rains, there are about a dozen little frogs in the pool (I do rescue them). But when it is hot and dry out, they don't get in. You would think it would be the opposite way.

I ran the entire safety and security part of the annual picnic at work this. Aside from some communication issues with the City, all went extremely well. I was so pleased. And relieved!

I am on vacation this coming week. Not sure how much of a vacation it's going to be: Ashleigh goes to college on Wednesday and Lucie gets rotator cuff surgery on Thursday. Maybe I will get called in...

Resistance Is STILL Futile

2011-07-31T21:29:00.000-04:00

In August of last year, I wrote about a resistor going bad in the electronic board for the pool salt chlorinator. A less than $3 part went bad on a nearly $700 board! I was able to take out the old one resistor, solder in a new one, and all was good. Well dang if it didn't happen again this year - the resistor stopped working. Me, being the smart guy that I am, bought TWO resistors last year. Installed one and put one in a safe place. So this year I went to go to that safe place but could NOT find it! I tore the house apart but couldn't find it. So I ordered 3 more. They came pretty quickly and I installed one (and put one spare in the control panel and the other spare taped to the owner's manual). It's been a little tricky - I am not the best solderer and it is intricate work. But so far so good. I did learn a shocking lesson today that pulling a fuse on the board is NOT the same as shutting the power off at the fuse box...

Lucie had a good week at camp but her shoulder/rotator cuff pain is getting worse. Going for an MRI next Friday.

I've spent a lot of time floating in the pool lately. The water temp is in the upper 80's every day so I am making the most of it while I can. When we first put the pool in, we had tree people come and cut the over-hanging limbs back. They have grown back so we get a lot of stuff dropping in the water from the trees (and the critters that live in them). Pretty much every day is a vacuuming day.

Hard to believe tomorrow is August 1...

Sticking Together

2011-07-23T11:47:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago the subwoofer in my Pathfinder blew. Which means with every beat of every song, there was a rattly noise. Ugh. Drove me crazy. Nice Bose system too - which you would think would be built to handle the sound no matter how loud I cranked it. Anyway, it was a major pain to get to it to try and replace it and I could only get the bottom two screws out. As I was working on it, I noticed that the center cone was separated from the outer paper material. So I smeared a ring of glue around it and all is good! Sounds perfect.

Our first tenting experience was not that great because of the hard ground. So I dug out our queen sized air mattress and went to work finding and repairing the leak. It has a built-in pump so I pumped her up and took it out to the pool. I found the leak and remembered it was a spot that Jasmine had stepped on and poked a hole in it with her toenail. So I went to work coating it with glue and putting on patches. Seems much better.

Yesterday Lucie and I took a 2.5 hour drive down to Bethany Beach. Really nice little area. Of course it was 102º out but at least there there was a strong breeze. I wasn't too excited about sitting on the hot sand baking (even under an umbrella) so we walked around the shops and looked at things. Nice time. Stopped for supper on the way home. It was pretty relaxing because Elliott stayed home with the dogs (Ashleigh was working) so we didn't have a curfew to beat.

Roughing It

2011-07-09T11:19:00.000-04:00

Lucie and the family decided we needed a 9 man tent so they got one for me for Father's Day. Anyone who knows us knows that my definition of "roughing it" is staying in a hotel that doesn't have room service. So on Sunday night (we were all off Monday July 4), we put it up in the backyard. Went up pretty quickly - especially since we had never done anything like that before. They got me a battery powered fan and light for it too, but we had to put an electric fan out there due to the heat and humidity. We all made our own nest in there with cushions and pillows and sleeping bags. Of course being very careful to keep all bugs out. We stayed in the house till about midnight before going out. There were some power issues with the extension cord but pretty quickly we were all settled in and fine. We kept the dogs in the house. All was OK for a while but then I quickly discovered that my cushion was too thin (yes - the cushion was too thin. I was not too heavy...). So every pressure point seemed to hit the ground. I slept off and on through the night. Then it got too cold. At 5:17 AM the birds started in so I packed up my pillow and went inside and went to bed. Pretty fun though. We will do it again and be better prepared.

Towers and Troubles

2011-07-02T21:35:00.000-04:00

Today, yes during the holiday weekend, we made the 80 mile trip to Tower Beach in southern Delaware. Took 2 hours to get 10 miles away, another hour to make those last 10 miles... Anyway, it was a great day - warm and breezy. The water was chilly but I got some sun and a nap. Of course when we got home the sun was nice enough to point out exactly where I missed with the sunscreen.... We left the dogs outside and Mocha doesn't eat or nap when we leave her alone so she wolfed down her supper and flopped.

Had some cable modem issues - it would randomly reboot. Annoying to me - devastating to Elliott when he is trying to play XBox online. So I went to Comcast and picked up a rental to test. If it holds up, I will know my old modem was dying. It's only been a few days but the rental hasn't rebooted yet.

Got a weird pool issue - silt on the bottom. It is very fine and wispy but dark. It is not sandy or gritty. If I wipe my hand over it, it sorts of fades away. But settles back down on the bottom. I have vacuumed it out with the filter set to WASTE so it doesn't re-circulate but rather pumps straight out to the yard. The next day the bottom is silty again. I may have to add some stuff to make it coagulate ("flocculate" is the technical term) and try to vacuum it out again.

Ashleigh is pretty much working full time over the summer. Elliott is in vacation mode. He got his report card - straight A's and is in the top 10 of his class. He plays lacrosse Thursday afternoons and is driving.

My feet are doing much, much better. The two cortisone shots, inserts, meds, exercises and wicked expensive new sneakers are really helping. I thought it would be the end of my basketball career but the Doc says I have a ways to go...

No big plans for the 4th. But tomorrow night will be the first night in the Hale family tent. Should be quite an experience...

Serendipitous Stuff

2011-06-18T10:08:00.000-04:00

Everything happens for a reason. I believe it. Sometimes it's little stuff, sometimes bigger. The other day the pool light wouldn't come on. So I went out and tested the switches but they were OK. That meant changing the bulb. It's not hard but it is underwater and a little tricky. After determining that was the problem (and not having a bulb handy to install), I kicked back to hang out by the pool and tried to turn the radio on. But it wouldn't come on. We had some real heavy rain and the outdoor GFI outlet tripped. So I re-set it. Later that night I looked out and the pool light was on! (I have it set to come on every night from 8-10 just because it looks cool.) Anyway, it turns out the pool light is on the GFI circuit and re-setting the outlet fixed the light. Good one.

Recently,my online email address book was hacked. Twice actually. It makes no sense to me but whoever hacked me sent out stupid links to pharmaceutical companies, foreign web hosting sites, etc. Stupid stuff, but harmless. And annoying to everyone in my address book. So I changed my password and that shouldn't happen again. (But it did happen to a lot of people who have an online Comcast address book. It was a hack on their side - not my PC.). Anyway, there was one good thing that came out of it: a friend of mine from grad school, whom I had not heard from for over 20 years, replied to the spam email. We worked in the Dean's Office together during the day at Northeasternand went to classes at night. Right after we graduated she was in a skiing accident that left her in a coma with severe injuries. She is now in a wheelchair but full of energy and has a great job with the State of Massachusetts. So what one person(s) intended for harm turned out to be good.

The other day Capital One entered into an agreement to buy my employer, ING DIRECT. It's a complicated story about Dutch loans and bailout money and payback but the deal will be finalized later this year. Of course there is a lot of uncertainty at all levels right now and no one is sure of anything. But one thing I am sure of is that God brought me to this job and He will bring me to another (if that is necessary). And God has a funny way of letting me/us know He hasn't forgotten about me/us. When the word came out, a friend of mine texted me and said that Stevenson University was looking for a Security Director. That would be the same Stevenson University where Ashleigh is going in the fall... Turns out they are looking for a retired policeman type but it made me smile that nothing is out of control...

Low Key Birthday To Me

2011-06-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

Well my birthday was pretty low key. But that is not a bad thing. It had a been a busy week with the family and Ashleigh's graduation and graduation party the night before. That party went well - good turnout, lots of food. I will be eating meatballs and rolls for weeks...

So I got some tee shirts, the new Journey CD, mug, Dunkin Donuts card, movie, signed book and some nice outdoor chairs. That was nice. Even got a little home-made bread pudding... Earlier in the day we went to Ashleigh's All Star lacrosse game. She started and played all of 30 seconds before rolling her ankle. She sat out the rest of the game but her team won.

All else is going OK. I had to get another cortisone shot in my foot. I was VERY concerned that my basketball days might be over because my foot was doing really well after the last shot, then went bad again after playing. But the Doc said I have plenty of ball left in me. Got some physical therapy to do at home (exercises), ibuprofen, supports, and the potential of having custom made shoe inserts created. I even went out and treated myself to some real expensive Nike sneakers. Tonight I play again. We'll see how that goes...

Ashleigh Graduated Last Night

2011-06-07T11:11:00.000-04:00

Now how we did we get from here:

To here?

It was a quite a night. My younger brother and his wife were here, my mother, and Lucie's brother from Arizona made a surprise visit. Made for a fun time!

I Said Heel

2011-05-31T06:46:00.000-04:00

I would rather say, "Heal!" For several months now I have had mild to pretty darn bad (that is the medical range term by the way) heel pain. Mostly in my right foot but some in the left too. I can definitely trace it back to the trip to NYC around Thanksgiving that I took Ashleigh and Lucie on. I went up to do some work at one of our company's remote sites there and wore my regular shoes. Lucie had other plans though. Walking plans. Walking, and walking, and walking plans... Ever since that day my feet just haven't been right. I have tried different shoes, inserts, pads, stretching, etc. I might get the pain to subside for a day or two, but it is usually right back. Terrible in the mornings. Classic symptoms of Plantar Fascitis. I have had that before but it went away with some stretching. But this is not stopping. So off to the podiatrist I go today. He thinks it is actually bone spurs that have developed and he may give me a cortisone shot. But enough is enough. I just hope this doesn't hurt my basketball playing...

Great day in the pool yesterday with friends. The air was hot and the pool water was 85º. That is a new high for May. Here is a video of Mocha making a splash:

Slowing Down A Little

2011-05-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

The school year is just about out for A&E. Most of their testing is done. Final lacrosse games have been played. (Ashleigh still has one All Seniors All Stars game on June 11 though). They have had their banquets and are coasting along enjoying life. I thought the picture of Mocha flomped by the pool was a good representative picture.

Had a good relaxing day today. The pool is open and clean and no major work needs to be done on it. Today the water temp hit 82º. I did a little cleaning but mostly laid out and sweated and read the newspaper. We did have a minor catastrophe though - one of our nice outdoor stools rusted through. No one was hurt but the chair portion separated from the legs. The other 4 look OK. I can't remember where we got them despite scouring my warranty folders. Had to be Lowes or Home Depot but I don't see them online. I did fill the Tiki torches with oil. They have a little spout thingy that slides over the bottle now. It looks like a scene from Survivor at night out there when we fire them up.

Earlier I went to the pet store and found that we were eligible for a free 30 pound bag of food (buy 10 get one free). That was nice walking out of there with a nice big bag for nothing. Of course that bag will last us about a week... (ha ha - actually for all of her 130 pounds, Mocha doesn't eat that much.)

It wasn't such a casual night last night though - we thought it would be a good idea to let Mocha sleep in our room for the night. For the past few nights Mocha hasn't been ready for bed when we go so she cries and makes little barking noises from the kitchen where she sleeps. The beagle sleeps up with us every night and is well behaved. Jasmine used to come up and sleep there at the foot of the bed too. But Mocha is Mocha and it's different with her. She jumped up onto the bed to claim the coveted spot but of course she isn't staying there. I pulled her down and then up Britni would go. Shooed her off and then Mocha would jump on Britni and flatten her. And then around they would go again. It was crazy. I got them each to lay down on their own beds for 20 seconds before the melee broke out again. I finally had to drag Mocha downstairs and gate her in the kitchen again. We can try that again in 3 months...

Tomorrow looks like another pool day. We have some ribs to grill but no other plans. I might get adventurous and build a stone wall around our fire pit. We'll see...

Another Driver In The House

2011-05-14T10:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Elliott got his driver's permit. And as a bonus, they gave him this highly reflective, highly embarrassing bumper sticker. Fortunately, for the moment, there is no law requiring him to have this on the car when he drives... So this morning we will be hitting the road and driving around doing some errands. I usually bring Mocha with me on my drives but since Elliott will be behind the wheel, I think I will give Mocha a break...

Here is an action shot of Elliott (#33) at a recent lacrosse game.

Ashleigh's Senior Prom

2011-05-13T13:08:00.000-04:00

Someone's Getting Old...

2011-05-07T12:55:00.000-04:00

This week was Elliott's 16th birthday. Why, I remember when... He is now taking driving lessons and is out on a "date" with some friends as I write this. He is having his party in a couple of weeks due to a bunch of other stuff we have going on. On his birthday he had a lacrosse game and scored a hat trick (3 goals!). They won and he was pretty happy. We raced from there over to IHOP for a fundraiser for Ashleigh's team. We had had a cake a couple of days before.

And to add to my aging misery, this week was our 25th anniversary of graduating from Oral Roberts University. 25 years! Last night was Ashleigh's Senior Prom. More on that in another post.

Since my last writing, we replaced the carpet in the dining room with hardwood flooring. The room isn't very big so we got the best product we could. A crew of guys came out and ripped out the old carpet and I bleached the floor and put several coats of KILZ down. They came a couple of days later and did a BEAUTIFUL and fast job of laying down the wood. Mocha loves it - another place to cool herself off on.

No big plans for Mother's Day. I told Ashleigh and Elliott that they are old enough to take care of Lucie. She is their mother, not mine (and I took care of my mother!).

Here is a picture of the dining room now.

It Takes Money To Make Money

2011-04-16T20:44:00.001-04:00

Fortunately, the financial aid process isn't using paper and pen like in the picture above. I did the first online form (FAFSA) for Ashleigh and that gets shipped over to the school she is going to (and others if she was undecided). They take a look at that and then put together what they think we, the parents, can contribute. However, after looking at the aid letter we got back from the university, I think they must have thought it was Sheik Hale and Lady Lucero who are Ashleigh's parents. Ashleigh was awarded a huge scholarship that pays half of her tuition for all four years but half of two million dollars is still a million dollars... So after some quick calculations of the shortfall, I did the only reasonable thing I could do: co-signed a student loan for her. Lucie and I finished grad school with a pretty significant debt but we managed to pay it off. What we needed for right now was peace of mind that there was money available for her first year. Later on we can figure about whether we need other loans, work study, internships, etc. Ashleigh was relieved. On we go...

Right now it is thundering and lightning out. The dogs were cooped up today, (Lucie had a scrapbooking store open house earlier today) so I thought I would get in a quick walk between showers. I harnessed up the pups and out we went. Of course we got to the furthest point of the walk when the lightning fired up and the skies opened. We were all three soaked and sad by the time we got home. Cured that with a nap.

Work has been very busy. Proactive drills and training and report generation. Very smooth and good. I have been able to comp some time due to some night work up in the New York City Cafe and I am cashing that in by getting out early enough to beat the traffic and get to the kids' lacrosse games. Ashleigh is Captain of the varsity team and Elliott is Captain of the JV team. They are both doing really, really well.

And on an interesting note, one of the final seven contestants on American Idol is the son of a guy who graduated a year behind me in high school. I had no idea until I saw some Facebook commentary from some old high school friends. Small world...

Here is a bonus picture of Mocha sitting in the upstairs window watching the neighborhood activity.

They Take A Lickin', And Keep On Stickin'

2011-03-29T23:01:00.000-04:00

Ashleigh and Elliott are in full lacrosse swing. Ashleigh is co-captain of her varsity team and Elliott is co-captain of his junior varsity team. I have made it to one game each. Elliott scored once and had an assist at his game early on. Boys lacrosse is very physical and he took a hard shot. That woke him up and he upped his game big time. Very aggressive and was putting some good checks and stick hits on. They wound up losing 5-6 but played well against a very good team.

Ashleigh played today and her team was down 4-9 at one point. They were slowly creeping back in and it was 8-11 when Ashleigh took a hit to the head (girls don't wear helmets). The game was stopped and the girl who hit her got yellow-carded (penalized and removed from the game for a few minutes). She was hurting for a minute or two but stayed in. That hit got her fired up too and she scored the next two goals - unassisted. They tied it at 11 but lost 11-12. Good games!

If It Ain't One Thing...

2011-03-12T12:04:00.000-05:00

Well I see it's been a month since my last posting. A lot has happened, yet not much has happened. Had a bunch of minor (hopefully!) medical issues pop up - bone spur in my right heel, strained calf muscle in my left leg (thought it was basketball retirement time), jammed thumb, small cold, and most annoyingly, an achy left flank. It kind of felt like the makings of a kidney stone but there was no real sharp pains - just a dull ache like someone was squeezing me from the inside. I finally called my doctor and went in for an x-ray. Since my appointment was the next day, I got to take my x-ray films with me. Of course as soon as I get out in the hallway I hold them up to the light and take a look. Uh oh. Big dark cloud mass on the one side. My doctor is in the same building so I marched myself right up there. There’s this very attractive receptionist at the window so I told her I just got my x-rays and am concerned and don’t want to wait until the next day for my appointment. She pulls out the films and looks them over and seems concerned so she said she would go run them by the doctor. I am thinking that if I am going to get bad news, at least I will get it from a good looking woman. Well out comes the doctor and they are talking right there on the other side of the sliding glass. I can hear everything. The doctor says I have two stones and that is my problem. Then the receptionist says my concern is the dark mass. The doctor looks again and makes his diagnosis: gas. Ugh. So now here comes the attractive receptionist over to the window and I have to try and look her in the eye and listen to her tell me that not only am I not dying, but I am full of gas. Nice… Turns out they aren't stones (there is a big name for calcium deposits) and they are not the problem. I am going for a CT scan to see what is up.

Meanwhile, I got my car back and it is all good. The peepers started peeping the other night and we have had a fox and several deer in the back woods the past couple of mornings.

Ashleigh and Elliott are both captains of their respective lacrosse teams. That is cool. They are practicing now and come home filthy muddy every day. Elliott even did the "slip and slide" in the big field puddle the other day. Good thing I carry blankets in the car...

He Rode In On A Hyundai

2011-02-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

On the way out and back to the conference last week, I noticed my Pathfinder was riding rough - like it couldn't find the right gear to be in between 45-60 mph. So I googled it and found that Nissan has had a BIG problem with my year Pathfinders (2006) so they extended the warranty to 80,000 miles. Apparently the radiator leaks into the transmission and ruins them both. All of they symptoms added up to just what I had. I have 74,000 miles on it and the job, out of warranty, would be $7,000! So I took it in on Monday and wouldn't ya know it, the problem was NOT the warrantied one - it was bad U joints and some other stuff. Dang! At least $800 worth of repairs. I told them to go ahead and fix it. They called me the next day and said they were wrong - the problem WAS the radiator/transmission one and they would fix it for free! And that fix would cover the other things that needed fixing too (U joints, etc.)! That was some good news. Of course the parts are back ordered and will be shipped out sometime but that is OK - they gave me a free loaner car. A 2011 Hyundai VeraCruz with 12 miles on it. The best thing about it is the XM radio. To the embarrassment of Elliott, Lucie and I were singing and rocking at the stoplights last night!

I finished my taxes today. I usually buy the federal Turbo Tax disk (not the state one) but this year you could do it all online and then pay for the protram at the end when you submitted the return. The federal one was pretty straightforward so I did that and e-filed. Fine. Meanwhile, they kept a running total for DE state taxes in the corner and offered to sell that program too. DE offers free online tax filing so I figured I would just do that like I always do and save the Turbo Tax fee. But when I finished the DE online taxes, it said I OWED money while Turbo Tax said I was due money back! What?! I compared both returns and the only difference was the tax amount from the table. Turns out, I filed JOINT on the DE state form (like always) while Turbo Tax reviewed the best filing option and found that "married filing separately combined" was the best option! Who would have guessed that? So I went back to the DE online form and changed the filing status and sure enough, getting money back! How "governmental" to have a filing status called "separate combined!" Works for me...

Her Name Was George

2011-02-04T20:49:00.000-05:00

There are so many ways to tell this story that I don't know where to begin... Lucie, Ashleigh and I are in Lancaster, PA for a Royal Rangers conference. Lucie is running a few classes - Ashleigh and I are along for a vacation. Elliott has Driver's Ed so he stayed behind with the dogs and Ashleigh's boyfriend. This morning we went to breakfast at Bob Evans. Our hostess was a spry woman in her 60's and was wearing a head piece with Valentines hearts on springs bouncing around. All went fine and we stopped to pay our bill on the way out. As we were paying, the hostess pointed out that HER name was George. She was the youngest of 14 kids and her father named her George because he wanted a tomboy daughter. That revelation lead to a story about her as a child being teased and having to fend for herself. (Reminds me of the Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue.") That story, which included references to pants lowering episodes to prove her sexuality, was nothing compared to what came next. First, she quizzed me about who was President in 1969 (Nixon) and then the REAL story began... George told us how when she was a teenager, she received a letter saying she hadn't responded to the draft. Next thing she knew, she was being taken away in handcuffs and shackles. Soon she was drugged and taken to Area 51. Wait. WHAT?! Area 51?! Indeed. George shared how the aliens that are amongst us have been so for thousands of years. "And they don't look like the pictures you've seen. They look like you and me. They are bald." The aliens have provided the technology for many human accomplishments including the lunar landing. It didn't take long for George's mother to retain an attorney who directly contacted the Commander in Chief. A lawsuit was filed and suddenly George was set free. Not with a check of course, "that could be traced." Instead, George was sent home with a briefcase full of cash. And years later, her golden years are being spent in the Lancaster Bob Evans - wearing a headpiece with spring mounted hearts suddenly looking very similar to alien antennas.

Though we could have stayed all day and listened to her stories, we had to leave. As we left I turned back and said, "By the way George, tell me about your sister Larry..."

And Your Total Comes to Zero Dollars

2011-01-17T17:03:00.000-05:00

I was off today so I went over to Dunkin Donuts to make good on their offer to correct their previous over-charge. The manager was very pleasant and he tried to pay me back for my entire order. I took the $2 they owed me and put the rest in the tip jar. He then insisted I take a free coffee and donut. The last thing I wanted to do was make him unhappy so I obliged...

While I was out, I got a Facebook notification that Chic Fil A had a free Facebook promotion: between 3 and 4 PM, mention the promo and get a free large order of waffle fries. So I pulled in and asked for them. They said the promo was for free chicken nuggets. Even better! It was funny, after they told me it was nuggets, they said, "Your total comes to zero dollars. Please pull around." When I pulled up to the window, I asked what happened to the waffle fries promo. The kid said there were two promos going on and asked if I wanted the fries too! Why surely I do! But wait - there's more: when I got home, they gave me TWO orders of chicken nuggets AND the large waffle fries!

I would make some sort of "Free at last..." comment due to today being MLK day but someone will probably get offended...

Doh! Nuts!

2011-01-15T21:26:00.000-05:00

The other day I pulled up to Dunkin Donuts and ordered a large coffee and two donuts. I had a coupon for the two donuts - two for $0.99. So I went to the window and gave the girl my coupon and a gift card (that had like $4.65 left on it). She told me I still owed her money! What?! I tried to explain that it made no sense that a cup of coffee with two donuts should cost more than 5 bucks AND I had a coupon! I might as well have been asking for technical support for a computer if you know what I mean... I finally gave up and paid the money and went on my way. My receipt showed two things - the girl had added $0.99 for the donuts instead of subtracting it and there was an invite for me to fill out a customer service survey. Fill it out I did! That afternoon I got a nice call and email from the store manager and he is going to make it all right.

More important than all of that, Ashleigh got another acceptance letter. This one from the University of Delaware nursing program. We hear only 100 people get into the program every year. She is still set on Stevenson but it is nice to have a choice. Today I filled out the financial aid application and found out the hard way that there is a difference between fasfa.COM and fasfa.GOV. One is the real Federal Financial Aid online program and the other is an identical site that charges you to apply... So after getting to the end of the application that comes with a fee, I recognized the error of my ways and had to do it all over again (for free).

Off this Monday. We may have a little Patriots watching party over here tomorrow night.

Hard Work DOES Pay Off

2011-01-10T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today we got a GREAT letter from the University where Ashleigh is going to school in the fall. They looked at her GPA (4.1), class ranking (top 10%), difficulty of her high school classes and standardized test scores. Without even applying, they awarded her the top amount of the Dean's Scholarship! That is the second highest scholarship available and is worth $10,000 PER YEAR! Pretty darn impressive!

Somehow This Is My Fault

2011-01-08T10:07:00.000-05:00

First and most importantly, Ashleigh is fine and no one got hurt. Now, for the rest of the story... We woke up at 6 AM to about an inch of snow or as I said, "a heavy frost." (You can see how much is on the driveway.) Lucie wanted me to drive the kids to school but I said no - the 6 mile drive has a max speed limit of 30, Ashleigh's car is 4 wheel drive all the time, and she needs to learn to drive in it before she goes to college next year. So off they went. About 20 minutes later we get the call: "I've been in an accident." And quick as you can say, "I told ya so!" it is my fault. ha ha Lucie was pretty clear, several times, that she or I should have driven them to school. Um, no. She's gotta learn. There was barely any snow (it had stopped) and we can't keep her in her crib all of her life. (That went over pretty well as you can imagine!) Ashleigh picked the hilliest route to school (instead of the slower, well-traveled one) and hit a slippery spot. She got spun around and then someone hit her. Right behind the driver's side rear door. Probably doing about 10-15 miles an hour. There are some scrapes and the bumper is dented. She was going very slow as was the other driver. The police came out and did a report and all was fine. Lucie wanted to go right over there but the last thing needed at an accident scene is another car and an excited Colombian! Elliott gave us updates on the phone throughout. Fortunately, Ashleigh's boyfriend's grandfather runs a body shop... In a way it was a good thing to get it out of the way now - it was an accident and cars are replaceable and that is why we have insurance. Next time it happens, and it will happen, she will know what to do and it will be fine. Ashleigh was OK to drive back (get back on that horse I said. Another popular comment for the morning...). I would have driven Lucie over to drive her home if she was too shook up. But she was OK. Anyway, she and Elliott came home and didn't go to school. Despite them saying they didn't get hurt, I have to wonder if they didn't hit their heads - both of them cleaned up their rooms for the rest of the day without being told!

We got a little more snow overnight but nothing major. I have the waffle maker warming up right now and will make breakfast, then take down the outside Christmas lights. Next we take on the family room...

Gung Hay Fat Choy

2011-01-01T10:51:00.001-05:00

Every morning I get a "Fact of the Day" on my Blackberry. This morning's was, "Gong Hay Fat Choy." Well everyone knows that is not the proper Cantonese spelling - it's GUNG Hay Fat Choy! And if you know that, then of course you know that means Wishing You A Prosperous New Year. Someone needs to be checking the Fact Checkers...

Last night we went to the church pot luck dinner and Lucie oversaw the younger kids while they played on these giant inflatables. She was done around 9 when the older kids (including mine) took over. We went and hung out with some friends, then went back to our house. A&E invited the brothers and sisters of Ashleigh's boyfriend over so we watched the ball drop and a bunch of no-talents grope themselves and flop around on stage with their auto-tuners making up for their lack of singing ability. ha ha Geez, how old do I sound...?

They left just before 2 AM. No big plans today. It's supposed to rain. I sure hope so. My salty white car used to be blue.

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-31T13:04:00.000-05:00

2010 is washing away and 2011 is upon us. Looking back over the things I blogged in 2010, and remembering the things I didn't blog, it was a year of ups and downs, emotional and physical pain, and the loss and gain of companionship. It was also a year of personal growth - 12 pounds to be exact (you didn't think I was going to be philosophical the whole time!). Those goofy insurance charts show that I should be 190 for my height - I haven't seen 190 since college... But I can drop a few pounds (and more than a few pounds) if I put my mind to it. And I will be putting my mind to it.

The number of blog entries dropped in half from 2008 to 2009 and in half again from 2009 to 2010. Either I am running out of things to write, or I am not writing about all of the exciting things in my life. Hmmm, history will show that it doesn't have to be exciting for me to blog about it so I need to make more time to write.

Of course no one knows what 2011 will bring. Good and bad, happy and sad, and just life experiences. But "life" is built around "if" so anything can happen. I'm looking forward to it!

She's In!

2010-12-28T10:50:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of shots of Ashleigh opening her package from Stevenson University and her reading that she was accepted into their Nursing program! That is the school she was really wanting to get into. And she certainly should have - she has a 4.1 GPA, plays 2 varsity sports, and is active with church and stuff. The school is about an hour and a half from where we live (so Lucie is happy!). Very exciting day and a load off her mind. Which translates into a load on our bank account... But at least I will have a medical professional to take care of me when I get old... er.

By the way, the condition of the family room in the background will be corrected today...

sNOw

2010-12-27T12:58:00.000-05:00

After hearing dire predictions of a significant snowfall, we ended up with a grand total of 4.6 inches - and most of that drifted off the driveway. What we got was light and fluffy. Did a quick swipe of the end of the driveway and all was good. Got in to work early actually! Mocha must think she is back in her native homeland - she goes out in the wicked wind and chases leaves for a while, buries her nose in the snow, then just flops down and looks around. The beagle is in and out as fast as possible.

Christmas was pretty low key this year. Just us opening presents REALLY slowly... Mocha jumped in and helped pull the wrapping paper off for us. Funny how she knows not to touch stuff when she is out and about all day but tears into it when she gets the green light. Ham for lunch. Never got out of my jammies. Got some good stuff - slippers, cologne, movie ("Inception" - good movie), shirt, and a bunch of books that I have bought throughout the year and haven't read yet. We popped in the burning fireplace DVD which provided a nice backdrop.

This week is pretty quiet. Nothing planned. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Still Sad

2010-12-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

This coming Thursday will be one year that our Jasmine died. Since then big Mocha has helped fill the void and we have some great paintings and memories of Jasmine around the house. But we still miss her and we are reminded of her whenever we see another Golden in our travels. I was doing pretty well not thinking about her until my cousin-in-law posted the poem below on Facebook this morning. Killed me. I am sure others have had bigger human losses in their lives and I don't mean to be poopy at this happy time of the year. Might as well get it all out today and maybe I will be better on Thursday. After the poem is another one another friend sent at the time. Still gets me...

God saw you getting tired and a cure was not to be.

So he put his arms around you and whispered “Come with Me.”

With tearful eyes we watched and saw you pass away.

Although we love you dearly we could not make you stay.

A golden heart stopped beating, hard working paws at rest...

God broke our hearts to prove to us, he only takes the best.

I lost a treasured friend today

The little dog who used to lay

Her gentle head upon my knee

And shared her silent thoughts with me.

She’ll come no longer to my call

Retrieve no more her favorite ball

A voice far greater than my own

Has called her to his golden throne.

Although my eyes are filled with tears

I thank him for the happy years

He let her spend down here with me

And for her love and loyalty.

When it is time for me to go

And join her there, this much I know

I shall not fear the transient dark

For she will greet me with a bark.

GPS-ing Through The Snow...

2010-12-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

Actually through the rain I guess. So with Ashleigh driving more and more on her own, we thought it would be a good idea to get her her own GPS for her birthday. I knew the one I wanted to get so we waited till it went on sale. We found a super TomTom GPS on super sale at BJs on Black Friday. Went in to get it and they had sold 35 of them that morning and were out of stock. So we went home and ordered it online from BJs (afraid the deal would be gone and we wouldn't get one). Cost an additional $7 but it was still a great deal. Meanwhile, we went over to Staples to see if they had any in stock so Ashleigh could have her present in hand. They did so we bought it and went home to cancel the BJs order. Nope - in the couple of hours since we had ordered it online, they said we couldn't cancel the order as it was already being shipped. We figured we would just mail it back when it came. The next day I took the one we got from Staples outside to see how it would work on a drive with me. Stepped in the driveway, opened the back suction cup thingy, and dropped it right in the driveway! DOH! Scratched the corner. I felt SO bad. Well Ashleigh was talking with her boyfriend's grandfather about her goofy father and the grandfather said he would buy the scratched one and we could keep the one coming in the mail! He said he could use it for his drivers around the shop (and I am sure he was trying to be nice and help us out). So we did that and all was good.

Until yesterday. Ashleigh's wouldn't power on past the start up screen. Dang! So we took it to BJs and they said they cannot accept returns on items bought from BJs.com. How dumb is that? Lo and behold, Staples had it on sale for two days only. First Staples was out of stock, but the second one had 7. So we went over there. Not only was it on sale, but there was an additional 15% off today! Woo-hoo! And with the money we saved on that, we bought the 2 year extended warranty for half off. At the rate this story is going, we will need it!

Quick Christmas Lights Picture

2010-12-03T19:31:00.000-05:00

Some reflections from the mailbox reflector but Mocha is in the window.

Heisman Hale!

2010-11-30T16:42:00.001-05:00

Today Ashleigh got word that she was a School Winner and a State Finalist in the Wendy's High School Heisman Award program! She was the only one from her high school and got a certificate, bronze medal and $25 gift card for Wendy's. Here is a description of the program:

The WHSH program has set the standard for high school student-athletes, and gained tremendous prestige in its own right as the program combines the best of high school athlete and academic awards. Each fall, the WHSH recognizes the nation’s most esteemed high school senior men and women for excellence in academics, athletics, and community/school leadership. Students from across the country become involved in the WHSH program because these prestigious student recognition awards highlight their accomplishments and the winning students are showcased on a national level.

GREAT!

Pokes

2010-11-20T12:21:00.000-05:00

Tuesday morning Ashleigh went out to her car to find the passenger rear tire was flat. Lucie drove Ashleigh and Elliott to school while I took the tire off. Of course nothing has changed in all my years of car jacking so as soon as I got the tire off, the car starts to roll down the driveway (yes it was in Park) and the floor jack (with wheels) tips over. No biggie - the car fell on the frame so there was no damage. Not sure how it rolled in the first place. That set off the motion detector car alarm so there I stand at 7:15 in the morning with an alarm sounding and car sitting on the frame. Ashleigh had the car keys with her so I had to wait for the alarm to time out. I was pretty popular in the neighborhood that morning... Anyway, I ran the tire over to Wal-Mart and about an hour later they yanked the nail out that you see above. Took the tire home and slapped it on and all was good.

Sometimes at night to keep the dogs occupied I take a rawhide bone and cut about a third off. Mocha gets two thirds, Britni gets one third. (By the way, last week was Mocha's one year old check up at the vet - 116 pounds!) Usually it times out right that they both finish their pieces at the same time. The other night Mocha got distracted and walked away from her piece. So Britni snatched it and had both pieces. Well that led to a big fight of snarling and growling. Mocha could kill Britni if she wanted to but nevertheless I don't want one or both to get hurt. Elliott was walking by the fracas so he reached in to grab Mocha's piece and mis-timed it and got chomped by Britni. Not intentional but it punctured him pretty good. We wrapped it and soaked it in peroxide for a while. But because it was a dog bite, and because of some strong urging from a friend with a medical background, Lucie took Elliott to the doctor the next day. It didn't get infected but the doc put him on antibiotics just in case. Meanwhile, I asked our oral surgeon friend which was worse - a dog bite or a human bite. Human bite by far...

I am working on Monday and then am off all next week. No big plans. The kids are out of school but Lucie is working. Her birthday is on Thanksgiving and we are fortunate to have been asked to a friend's house for Thanksgiving.

Ashleigh's Field Hockey Award

2010-11-11T10:54:00.000-05:00

Last night was Ashleigh's field hockey banquet. Last one. Seemed like just the other day we were standing in Dick's trying to figure what field hockey stick to buy because she had never played before and we had no clue. Now she just finished her senior year as a varsity starter.

The banquet was at the Newark Country Club. Nice place and the program was good (but a little long with all of the awards and gifts and words of appreciation and thanks).

Ashleigh didn't win MVP, or Most Improved, or Best Offensive Player (she did get a certificate as an All State Scholar Athlete for her 4.0 GPA though!). But she did get recognized for what I consider the most important "award" of the night. Towards the end of the evening, a group of freshman players got up to say some words. (Earlier, during the freshman awards, one freshman girl was named "Most Like Ashleigh Hale!"). Each one of the girls singled out Ashleigh as the most approachable and friendly senior who not only encouraged them on the field, but was not ashamed to publicly greet them in the halls of the school. They were amazed that a varsity senior player would spend time with them and genuinely care about them. So while Ashleigh didn't get a plaque with her name engraved on it or another paper certificate, she made a positive difference in someones life - and that is the most important accomplishment anyone can do. I am proud of her.

What's A Camel Got To Do With It?

2010-11-04T18:35:00.000-04:00

I had some notes with lots of little comments to blog about but couldn't find a good theme to start with. So what better place to start than with a picture of Lucie and I and a camel?! ING DIRECT had it's 10 year anniversary party at a big convention center in Wilmington last week. We hired in a lot of security so I didn't have to work that night (lots of work prepping before though!). The Delaware Symphony Orchestra played background to a Cirque de Soleil type of performing group and the the theme of the night was a 1001 Arabian Nights. Lots of good food and a good show. And camels of course. And just so you can never say my blogs aren't educational, camels live to be about 50 years old.

So we had a good night that night and then I was able to obtain some $500 tickets for the public show two nights later (for FREE!). We went back and took Elliott (Ashleigh's boyfriend had bought her tickets to a concert in Philadelphia). Same show but a much fancier night. Timing was everything as we got there just ahead of the CEO so I was able to shake his hand and the #2 in the company too (they went back too as ING sponsored the event). And the family urologist was there so we talked to him too. (Lucie was reluctant to at first but I explained that there really was no one there who knew me better than him...!). I am sure there were people wondering who we were that could afford expensive tickets just as we wondered the same about them.

"Family urologist?" you ask. Yes - oddly enough, they found a kidney stone in Lucie while doing other tests. So this morning I took her in to get that blasted. Pretty strange that we both have them but we really don't eat everything in common. It just so happens. She is doing fine - coming out from and recovering from the anesthesia is the hardest part.

Ashleigh's birthday party was fun and low key. She had some friends over for cake and food and s'mores by the firepit. Earlier that day we went to the Stevenson University Open House. She wants to go there for college next year to get her nursing anesthetist degree. Its about an hour away. Beautiful rural campus but very near civilization too. It is one of the top rated nursing schools and was clean and modern and well maintained. After sitting through the financial session, I think we can scrounge up enough money to send for a full 3 days; maybe an entire week!

Ashleigh played her last field hockey game this week. We have a serious issue with her coach that I will be resolving very soon.

It is chilly out now and we have to scrape the windshields in the morning. Lucie mentioned the other day that she may start parking outside so Ashleigh can park in the garage. I pulled rank and said if she decides she is parking outside, then I am parking in the garage. It's privilege enough to have her own car to drive to school, we don't have to warm it up for her too! Why when I was her age, I had to get up an hour early to shovel a path to my car...

Ashleigh Is 18 Today

2010-10-30T06:38:00.000-04:00

Today little Ashleigh turns 18. Why, it seems like just yesterday... ha ha I could go on and on about remembering pushing her in her stroller to get the mail in New Castle every morning, what I was doing when I was 18 and so forth but you all can imagine my thoughts. I am very proud of her. Never a bit of trouble growing up - and she isn't all grown up yet. The collage above is a collection of the "photo of the days" that I posted each morning on Facebook counting down the 10 days till her birthday. For those of you not on FB, the one in the middle with her in the purple shirt is today's birthday picture.

We don't have a lot of plans for today. Pretty soon we are going to go the Stevenson University open house. It is just outside of Baltimore and where she wants to go to nursing college next year. This evening she is having some friends over for a little fire pit cookout. I am sure there will be a cake in there somewhere.

I am a fortunate man.

Weighing In

2010-10-23T13:28:00.000-04:00

Today I had to take Britni the beagle in for her rabies shot and Elliott and I took Mocha in with us. She is always a big attention getter there. Together Mocha and I exceed the weight limit on our home scale (I am blaming her!) so I wanted to weigh her on a big scale by herself. She came in at 98 pounds. Up 18 from our last visit. And still growing. Little Britni was 43 pounds, up 2 from her last visit and also still growing (unfortunately!). They are really good to us at that vets and were SO sensitive when dealing with Jasmine.

Two weeks ago I was in Dallas for the American Society for Industrial Security annual convention. That place was loaded with all sorts of security related stuff and classes. It is good for me to go as I earn continuing education points which I need to keep my professional certification. My boss is certified as well so we will probably rotate our attendance and go every other year. I came back with a bunch of freebies and contacts and ideas for new things at work. I went to the convention years ago in Orlando - always educational. I met up with some old friends and colleagues and that went well. I was also able to take a short side trip too. The weather was beautiful and the city was clean and nice. I took a swing by the grassy knoll where JFK was shot (just a couple of blocks from the Dallas Convention Center). Pretty interesting.

Our company 10-year anniversary is Wednesday night at the Chase Center in Wilmington. Cirque du Soleil is in town and we will get a "private" showing. We saw them years ago and they are fantastic. We thought it would be a good idea to get tickets for the regular show on Saturday and bring Ashleigh and Elliott for Ashleigh's birthday because just Lucie and I can go to the company show. However, they are moving the show on Saturday to a smaller venue and tickets are expensive. So we ruled that out. Then yesterday our company got a limited number of free tickets for the Friday night show at the Chase Center. Thanks to some quick thinking and generosity of my co-workers, I was able to get some tickets. But not just any tickets, we got the "Ringmaster" tickets - $500 each!! Did I say I got them for free?! Includes ringside seats, dinner before and dessert after, etc. That should be great. Here is a link to the site that also has a short video:

http://www.delawaresymphony.org/gala/htm

Pool Closing Sadness

2010-10-09T20:28:00.000-04:00

So we closed the pool today. A couple of weeks later than usual because Lucie wanted to show it off to her sister but that was OK. Kind of a sad day because it marked the official end of summer and Mocha will miss it. In fact, both dogs seemed kind of sad about it. The saddest part was when I went to change my web page picture that shows the pool is closed. I had to put in a new picture because the other one showed Jasmine sitting out there...

All else is going OK. I was chewing some gum the other day and developed a mild case of TMJ (from what Google says). Wicked pain and popping in my right jaw joint. Taking Ibuprofen and and not chewing on that side but it is sure painful. Nothing can be done but rest it so I am. Fortunately, or some may say UNfortunately, it doesn't interfere with me speaking. Or typing...

Heading to Dallas Monday for a national security seminar. Going to be there till Friday. Should be very educational and fun. It will be the first time that I will see my former employer since I left but that should go OK. I checked out a laptop from work so I can keep up with my work (and personal) email.

Here is a quick funny video from today:

Ashleigh Scores (And I Got Too Excited To Record It All!)

2010-10-03T16:46:00.000-04:00

Today was Ashleigh's final Turf Bowl field hockey game. Turf Bowl is a weekend long series of games where all of the local high school field hockey teams get to play on the University of Delaware artificial turf field hockey field. Her team has never won and they fell behind 2-0 pretty quickly. I haven't made any of her games this year so I was armed with the camcorder and 3 batteries. As they neared the end of the first half, there was a turnover. The girl on the other team puts the ball into play and our team steals it and the girl takes a shot. Ashleigh, #19, closed in and followed the shot. She got the ball and put it in off the rebound! You can barely see it because I got so excited my finger must have hit the stop button but if you watch her closely, you will see her lean in and flip it in! They wound up winning 3-2!

Co-Conspirators

2010-10-02T17:55:00.000-04:00

When I take the dogs for their daily walk thru the 'hood, I have them on one retractable leash with a "Y" splitter at the end. They both have harnesses on and we go about a mile every evening. The other night Britni the beagle stopped in the middle of the walk and pooped. No problem - I have a poop bag holder attached to the leash so I pulled out a bag and started to pick it up. Mocha must have thought it was a good idea so she decides to poop too. Since I already had a bag out, I thought I would grab up her poop as well. But the bags are only so big so it was a little tricky getting it all in one bag. While I am focused on that task, Britni managed to wriggle free from her harness and bolt off down the road. Mocha started off after her and she just about pulled me off my feet when she hit the end of the leash. I finished grabbing up the poop and knotted the bag and we took off after Britni. She darted into someone's open roll up garage door and started rummaging around. The homeowners had a screen door from the garage into the house so I started yelling, "hello, hello" into the garage. The homeowner comes out WITH his yellow lab. And it was on. Britni was zipping around, his dog was jumping around, I was trying to keep Mocha under control and not lose the over-stuffed poop bag. Finally I managed to stuff the beagle back into her harness, offered up my apologies, and down the road we went. The guy was really cool - fortunately.

Work had a few challenges the past couple of weeks. Sometimes when it rains it pours and everything goes wrong at once. But I got through it. And I still say my worst day here is better than my best day at my old job...

Lucie's long lost half-sister and her husband spent the night with us last night. They are originally from Colombia like Lucie, but they now live in New Zealand. He is a PhD and they both work in social marketing. They are on sabbatical for a few months so they went took a trip through Europe and now they are on their way to Lucie's brother in Phoenix, then a sister in Seattle. Pretty interesting people. Lots of Spanish with a few "Shawn's" mixed in (they did speak very good English). We had a fun time with them and they went for a walk with us and the dogs at the pond. Mocha actually saw an animal bigger than her today - we ran into a bunch of people on horseback.

Started the pool close down today and will finish next week. I am off to Dallas the week of the 11th and I want it all done before then.

180º

2010-09-16T17:48:00.000-04:00

For the past two days, there has been an Executive Council meeting for about 200 of the senior management of the company I work for (purposely unnamed here). I was very involved with the off-site safety/security assessment, securing the facility, non-disclosure agreements, staffing, etc. Busy couple of days but fun. Today I parked in the exact same parking garage, in the exact same parking space, that I parked in for years when I worked for my old company. But today was different. VERY different. Here are a few examples:

I wore a suit but that was unusual and not the norm
My beard was "on"
I went in early and liked it
The team I was working with was using the latest technology and equipment
Independent thinking and creativity was encouraged
I paid for my parking with a corporate credit card
Lunch was provided
The CEO was motivating and positive and encouraged thinking outside of the box
New bonus and pension plans were announced which represented a major investment in the employees and future of the company
My boss left me to run the security program and didn't micro-manage me
At the end of the program, the #2 in the company invited the "cast" to the stage. This included all of the behind-the-scenes people who set up and coordinated the event. We were honestly appreciated and received a huge round of applause (that was not prompted).

Who would have guessed that I would be where I am today?! Certainly not me. All those days that I parked in that spot, I never imagined the culture and atmosphere and position I am in today. God is good.

Hard Driving

2010-09-11T10:53:00.000-04:00

Another busy but not really notable week. During last week's Office update on Lucie's computer, I saw she was just about out of hard drive space. I took it to the local PC place figuring they could slap in a new drive and "Ghost" over the contents of her old one quicker and more efficiently than I could. And indeed they could - for $200! Um, no thanks. So I bought a new drive from Dell ($65) and Ghosted it myself. (Norton Ghost is a program that makes an exact duplicate of your hard drive that you can store like on an external drive in case your hard drive crashes. Buy a new hard drive, copy the duplicate back onto it, and you are back and running without having to reinstall everything. I "Ghost" our hard drives every month and save the copy just in case...). Worked out really well and she now has 10x more free space than she did last week at this time.

Getting pretty cool at night and the leaves are dropping. I have to consider closing down the pool but I hate to do it. And Mocha swims in it every day. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Ashleigh has started her field hockey season. Her final one I guess. I have a link to her schedule and scores on my web page.

I went to my doctor yesterday and was declared stone free. No recommendations or advice on how to avoid them going forward as nothing is really proven to be the cause. So I will go back in a year for a check up and see if I am creating any new pearls.

Nothing really planned for the weekend. Of course today is a day of remembrance. Seems like just yesterday we were sitting around the TV watching those images over and over. Still hard to believe.

Office At Home

2010-09-05T16:12:00.000-04:00

Not too much happening since my last post. Work has been going great. I love the perks and incentives and special things they do for us there. Really having a good time. They offer an Associates discount on the new Office 2010 suite of programs - $9.95 for the whole thing (versus $499 buying it at Staples). So this weekend I installed it on the home computers. Upgraded us from version 2002. So I guess it was time... It went well and everyone seems to like it.

I have been getting back into the swing of basketball after missing so many weeks. I am still the oldest, fattest, slowest and with the least amount of skills but its my program (and my ball!). I have the most fun out there too.

Today we took the dogs for a walk at the park. They had a great time. Mocha carries the water for everyone but it doesn't bother her in the slightest. Everyone we pass comments on her ("what a beautiful dog," "she looks like a bear..."). The weather has been great the past few days and we have had some good grillin' and walkin'.

This week I go back for an x-ray and 6 week follow up on my kidney stone removal. I hope they find absolutely nothing. I've been feeling fine except for phlebitis in my hand where the IV was. But the veins are not as rock hard any more and not as sore. Getting there...

No big plans for the weekend. Nothing wrong with that...

23 Years Today

2010-08-28T11:31:00.000-04:00

Today is our 23rd wedding anniversary. Last night we were at a friends' house for a birthday party and the subject of weddings came up. Ashleigh told us later she was surprised at how we, and the other couples in the discussion, had forgotten a lot of the details of the wedding date itself. At the time it seemed so important but now, not so much. I guess there is a lesson in there about what is really important and what isn't. I looked up to see what the traditional anniversary gift is for the 23rd and that is one of the "in-between" years. The "modern" list says silver plate is the gift. This is all the silver plate I need... Anyway, so far so good and I am a blessed man.

It was a great week at work - and it was my one year work anniversary two weeks ago. Still loving the job and the culture. We had a few computer issues to work through this week but we got them resolved. On Friday I was "featured" at the department Town Hall meeting which was video conferenced across the country. I had done a security assessment at a place where there is going to be a corporate function soon and the place (purposely being vague here) said they had never had a corporate security representative come do an assessment before a corporate event. Seems fundamental to me... Anyway, that review and report earned me some recognition. At the time I was embarrassed but it was very nice to be called out as a guy who thinks "outside the box."

Speaking of boxes, I got my new grill last week but the lid came dented and the paint chipped. I made a call to Weber on Saturday morning, got right through to a human being, and a new lid was shipped right to me. Got it Thursday. I will tack a picture of it on the bottom of this post for those not on Facebook to see.

I took off the word verification requirement on the Comments section of this blog for those who like to leave Anonymous comments. Had to put it back on because I immediately started getting spam postings. Sorry about that.

We are using a gift certificate to go to Texas Roadhouse tonight for supper. It's almost 11:30 AM - Ashleigh has gone to the beach with friends and Elliott is still asleep. I guess we won't be getting breakfast in bed...

Resistance is Futile

2010-08-17T19:45:00.003-04:00

When we got back from vacation, the pool water was slightly green. Well that was strange. We have an electronic chlorinator that converts salt into free chlorine so we never have to put any chemicals in. Once I put about 250 pounds of salt in the pool in the spring ($5 for a 40 pound bag at Wal-Mart), it takes care of itself pretty much all season. I add salt after heavy rain but otherwise it is maintenance free. Come to find out, this $2.40 resistor burned out on the chlorinator motherboard. Common occurrence after 5 years or so according to my online research. I called the manufacturer of the board for help and they referred me to their"local" vendor who is 30 miles away, has terrible online reviews, and won't return my calls or emails. My original pool installer doesn't install pools anymore (which is a good thing) and they said they can replace the board and the housing it came in (it is mounted outside in like a weatherproof fuse box) for $683. I can get the entire board online for $250. So I bought two resistors online. Of course they were out of stock but they came in quickly and I received them today. Went right out, unsoldered the old one, soldered in the new one (thanks for some guidance from my older brother and a YouTube video...), and all is working again! Saved myself $680! I think I will buy myself a new grill with the money I saved...

Thinking about this made me think of the top 5 things you don't want to hear from the person house-sitting for you while you are on vacation:

5. Does your pool water normally turn green after it rains?

4. I thought you said you left your computer on?

3. Does it matter if the red switch at the top of your cellar stairs is on or off?

2. Do the dogs know how to find their own way home?

1. Where do you keep your plunger and mop?

Mocha, Me and My Thoughts

2010-08-14T16:06:00.002-04:00

Mocha and I went for a walk today. If you can see the two little red dots at about 9 o'clock above, that is where we started and finished. The white line is our trail. About 1.43 miles. It is a dog/horse walking trail off of a state park. Free. The trail is about the width of a road and is mowed and flat and dry. Very nice. I put Mocha's water packs on her and just she and I made our way around. About 80% in the shade. Lucie was home scrapping (imagine that!) with Britni the beagle (she is all over the place and not too fun to go on walks with - Britni I mean, not Lucie!) and A&E were at the movies. We had a good time. About an hour. Now I may sneak in a little nappy before having some friends over and a small cookout. Nice day...

NH Vacation 2010

2010-08-08T16:20:00.003-04:00

It would take me a week to write about our week of vacation. Which, when you think of it, really isn't a 'vacation' at all - it is a busy time! I am certainly not complaining but our days were busy, busy, busy and we still didn't get to see many friends that we wanted to. And there is no hiding on Facebook - post a picture and the entire universe knows where you are. It is a nice feeling to have so many people contact us yet it is frustrating knowing we cannot possibly see them all.

The drive up was 7.5 hours including a gas/rest stop. Very good time. We were met by my mother with Moe's sandwiches and then we met my younger brother in Portsmouth. The next day was spent visiting friends and mini golf and a visit to our old house and eating and eating and eating. In fact, EVERY day had a lot of eating so I won't even mention it anymore. Monday we went to my younger brother's house for dinner and the next day we went to my older brother's house for the day. What a great scenic ride that was. We even saw a bear cub in a tree off the side of the road (on Route 302, by the Willey House and Ripley Falls near Attitash for those familiar with the area). We had a great time at lunch and hanging out with all three brothers together and some of the cousins.

There was a visit to York Beach and many short shopping trips. We rented a boat for the day on Lake Winnipesaukee. That was great fun even though we got caught in a steady rain and had to return the boat early. The rain was stinging us in the face as we headed back to the dock. I had to break out in a rendition of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" to add some mood music. There was a cookout night and a pizza night and a lobster roll lunch from the place that won Best Lobster Roll in NH and my mother supplied her famous cookies and strawberry shortcake(didn't I saw I wasn't going to mention food any more?!). The weather was great and the nights were fantastic sleeping above the sounds of the tide coming and going.

Did a little fishing but for the first time ever, no one caught a fish. But a good time was had anyway. Suddenly the end of the week was upon us. Too soon as always. While it is always sad to leave, it was especially hard to leave this time knowing it was probably our last stay in the Cafe. But we'll be back...

Go to this link: http://home.comcast.net/~sehale/ and scroll down to the 2010 NH Vacation slide show.

My Rocks Are Not Rolling

2010-07-23T18:13:00.002-04:00

I had a rude awakening yesterday after thinking that the coast was clear from my kidney stone blasting on July 1. Out of the blue, the pain was back yesterday. Not the worst it has been, but bad. I bailed out of work and went home. Threw up a few times and then started hitting the meds. Lucie was away so Ashleigh stepped up and took care of me. A nurse friend explained to me what meds I had and in what order, and dosage, to take them. During a period when I wasn't hurting too bad, Ashleigh drove me over to get an x-ray done. I cycled in and out of pain all night. The doctor called me in the morning and suddenly I felt fine. He wanted to see me so I rushed in. Apparently there is a big stone fragment stuck down low that he has to go up and fetch. The hard way. With vacation coming up, and the uncertainty of another attack, we scheduled that for next Tuesday. Sounds like a big party...

Later in the day my regular doctor told me my cholesterol was a little high so she put me on some meds for that. Meanwhile, all day I was battling a dead battery! The heat must have killed it. So every stop along the way meant some kind soul had to jump me. Perfect on a wicked humid day when I am feeling wiped out. Tomorrow I will get a new battery. I had Costco rotate and balance the tires (free since I bought them there) this week and had the oil changed. Pretty much all set for the NH trip.

But on lighter notes, Lucie came home after a week at camp. A little sore but not completely exhausted. Elliott blew away his state test scores - especially at math. Ashleigh is working part time but steadily and really enjoying it. And work for me continues to be interesting and I love it.

Bustin' Out

2010-07-10T14:33:00.006-04:00

There is a video of Mocha fetching in the pool. She is a natural. We saw a short news clip the other day that in Italy, they use Newfoundlands as rescue dogs. They showed clips of them jumping from helicopters and towing 6 people to shore. Pretty fun stuff. And kind of scary when you are in the water and she gets a running start and jumps on you! Great fun.

I was walking her today with Britni (we have a Y splitter on one retractable leash) and the leash snapped. Fortunately we were just in the neighborhood. So today I had to buy a "giant" one to handle up to 110 lbs. Which she will outgrow eventually (about 85 right now).

The fireworks were great as usual. They sold Little Caesars pizzas there for $5 so we got a couple and sat with a bunch of church friends and enjoyed the show. The little town we go to must spend half its annual budget on fireworks. We know just where to park, and the right direction, to get out and home within 5 minutes.

It was over 100º 3 days last week. But it was pretty dry so it wasn't too bad. Rainy today but it is too late. The grass has gone dormant and all is brown.

Just a couple of tiny sand particles have come out from the stone blasting. Had some real crampy days in the kidney but no real pain. I played hoops for the first time this week - I blamed my poor playing on the stone procedure. What can I use for an excuse next week?

Here is a bonus Mocha video.

Pop Rock

2010-07-03T08:37:00.002-04:00

A lot has happened since my last blog. Well, "a lot" is an exaggeration but some things have happened anyway. I had two more excruciating bouts with my pesky kidney stone - within 24 hours. Sent me to two different ERs. The first ER treated me quickly at 4 AM and I went home. But around noon the pain came back and it was off the charts in terms of the pain. Terrible. So Lucie called our doctor and he told me to go to the big regional hospital. Of course by the time we get there and wait for hours and hours to be seen, the pain passed. So in the comfort and privacy of a gurney in the hallway, they did a CT scan and found the stone was lodged in my ureter. Kidney function and urine flow was still happening but it had to go. So I went to a urologist and we set up an appointment to get it blasted. The big day comes (July 1) and I am in getting prepped when the nurses are going over the procedureS (yes plural) to be done. Hold on. What is this "cystoscopy" of which you speak? For my non-nursing friends, that means they ram a camera up me into my ureter to see the stone before they blast it. I didn't recall that being on the treatment plan... They knocked me out so it didn't matter anyway. I laid on a table that had like a soccer ball attached. They lined it up and I guess they fired the shock waves from there. All went well. I woke up feeling fine and went home an hour or so after the procedure. Still filtering looking for any gravel but so far nothing. Feeling good.

Ashleigh started work for the local hospital (where I went twice). She is in a pool of clerks that will be called to help staff doctor's offices for vacations and such. She is making good money and can manage her own schedule (she is a sub on call). She is loving it.

Mocha was fixed and that went well. Her hair is growing back where they shaved her. 81 pounds now. And growing... She is LOVING that pool and swims all day. The pool water temp hit 90º last week.

I put a new wireless router in and our signal strength and the consistency of our internet signal is MUCH improved. I have a wired switch and I hope to get up to the attic today (before the heat blasts in) to run some ethernet wire through the house so we can plug in if we need to.

My high school friend and college roommate Dave Batchelder and family stopped by here Thursday night on their way to NH for vacation. That was nice to see them. We always have some good laughs and memories. His wife and kids are really nice and we were happy to give them a good grill cooked meal and place to rest.

Speaking of NH vacation, we are lined up to go to NH the first week in August. This may be our last chance staying the family Cafe on the water so we will make the most of that.

No real plans for the 4th except to hang out by the pool and go to the local fireworks.

Fryday Friday Birthday

2010-06-12T09:35:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday and Lucie put together a little party with some friends. We have had great success with our Fryday Fridays in the past so we thought it would be a good time to do it again for the party. And it was a great success. All afternoon the family was busy battering up onion rings, mozzarella sticks, tilapia, Cajun catfish, chicken wings, haddock, shrimp and mushrooms. We set up the Hale Poolside Fry Hut and went at it. Everything came out great. There was something for everyone. Some of the kids hit the pool but the rest of us just sat back and listened to the soothing sounds of our arteries clogging... Later on I fired up the torches and we enjoyed the serenity. Sort of like a Survivor Tribal Council out there. I got some good gifts too; a CD of some Down East Maine humor, "professional" ladder ball set, gift certificate, Blu Ray movies, and a Kidney Stone Passing kit from one of my nurse friends. I hope to put that to use real soon! Oh, and Lucie got me an electronic bug zapper thing. (Picture below) It takes 2 D batteries and delivers 1500 volts. What does that mean? That means when you touch it it feels like you dipped your finger in molten steel and you wonder why there isn't a blister because it hurts so freakin' bad... After I recovered from that, we rounded out the evening zapping bugs (they really zap too!).

Today the party will continue when I take on the project of replacing our leaking and rusted disposal with a new one. That I will NOT test with my finger...

Stoned Again

2010-06-05T08:44:00.003-04:00

Tuesday night I had just sat down to eat supper and I had crampy feeling in my lower left back area. It went away after a few minutes, then came back big time. I went to the bathroom hoping that would help but it didn't. Very quickly I was in agony and throwing up. So somehow Lucie got me in her car and off we went to the ER. It felt like someone had my kidney in a vice. I was moaning and groaning and someone came and helped me into a wheelchair and into the ER. I kept writhing around trying to find a comfortable position to like stretch it out but nothing was working. Sweat was pouring off of me and I was still throwing up. They gave me a Percocet but that didn't do anything. Finally they got an IV in me with some Phenergan and Dilaudid. That sent me to a happy place... Then they sent me to get a CT scan where they found the culprit - a 4mm kidney stone. Passable they say. 7mm and bigger requires other treatment. I had a kidney stone about 8 years ago and passed that. That pain was shorter and sharper - this was deep and non-stop. So around 2 AM I was feeling better (worn out but no pain) and was able to walk out and go home. I carry a pocket full of sunshine around with me now (Percocets) waiting for the next movement. I went to work the next day for a few hours but I was just exhausted so I came back home and went to bed.

The rest of the week was good. Elliott had his lacrosse awards night banquet on Wednesday. The pool temperature in the mornings is 83º and 87º in the afternoons. It didn't get to those temperatures last year until July or August. Mocha loves it. Every morning she goes out and takes a lap. We are leaving her gated in the kitchen these days when we are out (not in her crate) and she is behaving. She loves to swim every time I get in.

Tonight is Newark Nite where they block off the Main Street in downtown Newark and turn the whole area into a carnival like atmosphere. If it cools off, we will take Mocha down and march her around. She loves the people and the people love her.

Freaky and Leaky

2010-05-31T09:57:00.002-04:00

The dead black widow spider to the left is part of the freaky part of this blog. Standby for that. First, the leaky: So the pool opened very nicely this year and cleaned up quickly. We have been in several times and it is doing well. We have a small leak up on the solar panel on the roof - there is dampness up there that I can see from the ground at night when the water is not pumping up there. I have a friend who is more man than I am and goes up there and fixes my leaks for me. And now the little power washer I have is starting to go. I did some reading and it turns out there is a crack in the pump housing. I use it a lot to wash the cars, clean the house siding, wash the driveway and pool deck, etc. I think I just wore it out. Costco has a nice gas powered one on sale that I am looking at. It may be a combo birthday / Father's Day gift to me.

So here is the freaky part: Ashleigh found that dead black widow on the front steps the other day. That is the second one we have found here in the last 8 years or so. Ugh. The best spider is a dead spider... Anyway, I have the house configured with an X-10 system so I can control the house lights with a remote control. The other night, our bedroom lights were completely unresponsive to the remote. Just our bedroom. That is number 1. Then the outside sending unit for our wireless remote temperature thing stopped transmitting. (We have an inside clock that shows the inside and outside temperature). That is number 2. That same day, Lucie's cell phone could answer calls in the house, but no one could hear her. That is number 3. Finally, my wifi in the house would only work if I was in about a 5 foot range of it. Normally I can go three houses down on either side of us and pick up my signal. That is number 4. I felt like going outside and seeing what sort of alien spaceship was hovering over the house. Freaky stuff. Of course the next day everything was working again...

Awards Week

2010-05-29T10:01:00.004-04:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last blog. Let's see, Ashleigh had her lacrosse banquet, Ashleigh and Elliott had academic awards night, Lucie had her church play, Elliott had his belated birthday party, we had a work department picnic at a local state park, and I was busy working on opening the pool. All good stuff so I can't complain. Oh, and I took a half day off one day from work to play with Mocha and the family in the pool.

No big plans this weekend - which was the plan all along; get the pool opened BEFORE Memorial Day so we can enjoy. That is working out well.

Here is a bonus video of Mocha swimming in the pool:

Hiking Mocha

2010-05-15T20:01:00.005-04:00

Today we took the dogs on a walk. A few weeks ago, we got this great backpack for Mocha on wicked sale. It has bladders on either side we fill with water and it has spigots to pour it out from. So we loaded her up and put our own water bottles in there and went for a 3-mile walk at a local park. She loved it! Newfoundlands are born to be work dogs and she really had a great time. Did not bother her a bit. The temperature was in the low 70º’s and we stopped to rest and drink along the way. They say Newfies can easily carry a third of their weight. On May 1 she was 75 pounds (the same weight 12 year old Jasmine was when she died) but what she was carrying was nowhere near 25 pounds. And tonight we are the proud parents of two tuckered out dogs!

Hanging Up The Cleats

2010-05-14T06:52:00.002-04:00

This season of lacrosse has come to an end for the kids. Elliott had a good time and played well. Ashleigh's team had a winning record and about won more games than the previous three years combined. I am proud of them for sticking it out (lacrosse is tough!) and still maintaining 4.0+ GPA's (the Cambridge program they are in adds extra weight to their grades). So now maybe they can finally clean their rooms with all the spare time they are about to have...

Speaking of sports, it was almost a disappointing night for me last night. No one came out for my weekly basketball night. A couple of months ago I had to limit the people to 18 and we have been having around 8-12 ever since. Not many things worse than coming home and having to take off my basketball stuff while it is still dry. I sat down to watch the Celtics game and both of the Tivo tuners were recording shows. So I switched the TV over to straight cable input and the Comcast digital transition had occurred so I had no channels. But wait - I had a free cable box I never hooked up. (I got it a month or so ago for the digital transition but thought I didn't need it as I used other ones for the other TVs.) So I hooked it up and wouldn't ya know it, the power supply was no good. Right out of the box. That is unacceptable. (I tried another power supply and it worked fine.) So I am off to the cable place this morning to wait for an hour to change that. Anyway, by the time I got done troubleshooting and calling Comcast, the shows Tivo were recording ended so I got to see the Celtics beat Cleveland and move on to the conference finals.

Mocha continues to grow but she is still a little puppy inside that 75+ pound body. Still bitey, still jumpy, still a little scared. She means well... The other night there was a fox out back screaming. If you have ever heard that, you know how creepy it is. Mocha would not come out of the house to investigate. Britni the beagle and I were right at the fence with my super flashlight watching it walk around but Mocha stayed in the kitchen.

Ashleigh Junior Prom

2010-05-08T12:46:00.001-04:00

Sometimes words just get in the way...

Giving and Receivering

2010-05-02T08:20:00.005-04:00

Both of the avid readers of my blog may remember back in March that I ordered a stereo receiver online to compliment my new Blu Ray player. I wound up returning it to my local WALMART store because I found the sound issue I was having (and thus the reason for the new receiver) was actually a setting on the Blu Ray player. When I changed that, all was good (and has been ever since). Well, this past Thursday, Ashleigh called me and asked why the receiver was back on the front porch. Sure enough. They hadn't sent me another one, they sent me the SAME one! I tracked it through FedEx and saw that it sat for about a month in limbo after I returned it before someone sent it back to me. I also checked to be sure I wasn't charged again. It is a super nice receiver and I would love to keep it but I already got my cash back and it wouldn't be right to just keep it. So I emailed WALMART and told them what had happened and asked how I should proceed. About 48 hours later I got a call and an email from WALMART pretty much saying that THEY had discovered a mistake and had sent me a duplicate item. I could print out a label and bring the receiver to the Post Office to mail it back to them. Uh, wait a second. I am the one who found the error and I shouldn't be expected to print labels and lug the thing to the Post Office and stand around to ship it back. And I told them so. Clearly it was an automated response from them but that is the problem with some of these companies. They have lost the human touch. (Not the one I work for though!) Someone found a pigeonhole close enough to match my situation, plugged me in, and out came an automated response about returning a duplicate item. Which is not the case. They don't sell this item any more and had I not been honest and alerted them to the problem, they would have, and probably have, written it off. In the back of my mind I am hoping they just let me keep it but at the very least I would like a tiny bit of appreciation for making the initial effort. So I told them I was putting it back on my porch where I found it and they can come get it...

You may ask why I put WALMART in all caps here a few times. One time I wrote about my cable provider in this blog and shortly after posting it, I received a call from their customer service rep offering to help me. Apparently they scan the 'Net looking for comments. Maybe WALMART will do the same.

Meanwhile, we have had some really warm days the past few days. I power-washed the house, car and driveway yesterday. Mocha jumped in her little Tugboat Tuggy pool and had a great time. Then Lucie and I went to Elliott's lacrosse game and did our parental obligation of working the concession stand. His team is struggling but he plays well and I have to give him credit for sticking it out and taking the hits that he does. Ashleigh won her game the other day. She is now playing defense but managed to score the first goal of the game!

Lucie brought her Kids Church program into the main sanctuary for her annual opportunity during the morning service last week. That went over well. Pretty funny to see the adults doing all of the hand motions and jumping around during the songs.

I got my replacement router and that is working fine. I have a security setting where I only allow certain computers and devices on my network regardless of if they know the password or not. So I was setting it up (it was a slightly different model so I couldn't just load the settings from my old one) and entered the unique identifier information from one of the Tivos first. As soon as I hit "apply" to only allow that device, I locked myself out of my own network! (I forgot to add the computer I was on first!). Had to reset it to factory defaults and start all over. But all is fine now.

Elliott's birthday is tomorrow but due to games, we won't be able to go out for the traditional dinner till about 9 at night. So we are going early today (he wants to go to the Olive Garden).

In and Out

2010-04-24T10:17:00.003-04:00

Above is a picture of Ashleigh signing the Newark High School National Honor Society registration book. (Something I never did - at Newark or elsewhere!). She was inducted last night. That was good. Afterward we walked around downtown Newark and ate at a Mexican place we like. Really nice night and it was booming downtown. When we came home we watched Avatar in Blu Ray. Like the box says, it was the movie Blu Ray was made for. Wicked clear with great sound. Good movie (but a bit long).

On Thursday night our wireless router died. No warning. Just froze up and that was the end. I had an older one that would work if I connected the computer to it directly - it just wouldn't transmit wirelessly. (The one that died wouldn't do anything.) I plugged that in and am now back online (for a while I felt like someone had disconnected my life support!). I bought another router from eBay for $28 and it should be here Monday. I use an older model but it works fine and I have all of my firewalls and security settings configured for that model. When I get a replacement, I just hook it up, download my settings, and am back in business.

Today Elliott has a game at noon so I will pack up Mocha and take her. What about Britni you might wonder? She is too busy sniffing around and trying to get away when we take her out so she can enjoy the afternoon outside at home without Mocha drooling all over her.

Hale Hat Trick!

2010-04-20T19:12:00.004-04:00

Just a quick post today. I was able to scoot right out of work, grab Lucie and Mocha and race down the road to Elliott's lacrosse away game - which was closer to home than his home games. (Ashleigh was at an away game of her own.) Elliott scored three goals - his first goals of the year - and his team won 6-3! It was the first game I was able to make it to and he put on a show! Mocha was barking when he scored and we had a good time. Stopped for Domino's pizza on the way home. He wouldn't pose for a picture so here is the team one which will have to do.

Ashleigh's team didn't do so well but we gave her some pizza anyway...

New and Improved

2010-04-17T08:28:00.003-04:00

This was the week of a few new and improved things. First, my computer monitor died. Woke up to a blank computer screen on morning (if you can imagine, I keep my computer on all the time...). Did some diagnostics, including hooking up an old 800 pound monitor, and was relieved to see that that was all it was (versus a major failure). So I cashed in our Costco rebate check and got a nice, 22 inch widescreen monitor. Loving it.

Last night, Tivo pushed down a new update and that sped things up and corrected some issues there as well.

Ashleigh's lacrosse team had a decisive win which is a major improvement and Elliott's lacrosse team is doing better every game. Ashleigh also got accepted in the National Honor Society this week.

So it has been a pretty good week. Big sale at the local pet store today so I may load up the Mocha Monster and parade her through there and pick up some stuff on sale - like a new collar (she is outgrowing her puppy one) and of course, dog food...

Dog Walking

2010-04-10T16:39:00.005-04:00

The picture above might be a bit hard to see but it is a collage of Google Earth images of our dog walking this week. I tried to overlay the path we walked at each place. You might be able to right click the picture and save it and then open it with your photo viewer and zoom it. (I can just click on it and it will open up bigger for me but that may not work for everyone). Or just email me for the originals. The first map is at Lums Pond State Park (which I wrote about previously). Nice huge lake with a clearly marked trail. The middle picture is at White Clay Creek State Park. Very hilly with a lot of wet areas. But nice with some open fields. While we were walking there, we saw two big deer go bounding through the woods. Silently. Pretty weird seeing them bouncing along without making a sound. Today we went to Iron Hill Park in the third picture. That had a huge Frisbee golf course and two big fenced in pens for dogs (big or small) to run around in unleashed (we didn't want to get our dogs into that). But we had a nice long walk but like White Clay, the paths were not well marked. I looked for trail maps to print and bring with us, but I couldn't find any online. Nor were there any available at the sites. A little over a mile walk at each place (the maps I plotted aren't exact). That doesn't sound like much distance but it was fun and woodsy and the dogs loved it. All of the parks are about 3-5 miles from the house. The first two have an entrance fee during the summer but Iron Hill is free year round. Today we found one tick on Mocha but we got that off (and yes we do treat both dogs with anti-tick medicine). We packed a water bottle and dish for them to drink from while we were at the parks but we are looking at a pack for Mocha to wear and she can lug her own water around. And some snacks for the rest of us...

The weather has been just great all week. Gonna light up the fire pit and cook hot dogs and s'mores outside tonight. Gotta get it done now before the mosquitoes and bugs come out.

I Ain't Lye-ing (Again)

2010-04-09T12:50:00.002-04:00

Here we have a picture of our clogged kitchen sinks. With the best of intentions, Lucie put a bunch of old food down the disposal. And it clogged up the plumbing. So we poured some Drano down. Then some Super Drano. Then some poisonous-to-even-think-about drain cleaner. Added a couple of pots of boiling water and stirred with a plunger until I had a nice broth of flesh eating acid (actually, the common ingredient to the drain cleaners is lye - which is a base). And there it sat. For two days. I would occasionally plunge but because of the dual sinks and vent, I had to block the other sink drain and seal off the vent while plunging. Not easy. That did nothing which meant my only option was to go in with the snake. The last time I did that, I wound up leaving a nice horseshoe shaped burn on my knee. I was kneeling in the drain cleaner and never felt it eating me up. So this time I donned gloves, overalls, raggedy shirt and safety glasses. 30 seconds in I realize the rubber gloves had a hole in the right hand because it is itching like a son of a gun. Went and washed the hand and tried another pair. I cut the bottom off of a milk jug and bailed out as much water from the sinks that I could (put it in a bucket and flushed it down the toilet). I went in under the sink and pulled out about 8,000 things we have under there and set them aside. Then I loosened the pipe connections under the sinks and caught that water in my bucket. Finally, I was able to get to the back square plug thing that gives straight access into the main plumbing line. And in goes the snake. Of course about 18 inches in there is a bend in the pipe so I had to fight my way through that but on I went. I thought the first bend might have been the clog so I pulled out the snake and tightened everything up. Ran some hot water and immediately I had a sink full of hot water again. Here we go again. Bail, drain, drain, unscrew, put in snake. This time I fed that thing all the way down. About 10 feet from the end of the snake I ran into some resistance. So I twirled the snake around and rammed it through a bunch of times. When I pulled it out, the "pig's tail" at the end was full of yuck so I knew I had been successful. Cleaned up my tools and ran upstairs to blog about it... ha ha. Lucie is down there re-organizing the under-sink stuff and cleaning it up.

Wednesday I went to work (at a trade show in Philly) while Lucie did errands and lacrosse practice with the kids. Yesterday I did a lot of yard work including poison-dusting some carpenter bee holes (pesky things!). Elliott had lacrosse practice at the high school so we took him there and then marched Mocha around downtown. She was loved by all! So many college kids stopped to pat her and give her ice and ask what kind of dog she was. She loved it. We made our way to Rita's Water Ice and bought her a water ice - us too! (We were giving her water all along). She loved the attention and was very obedient. Almost a bit overwhelming for a 5 month old baby though! Last night was my basketball night and it rained hard. So our high temperature yesterday of 82º has now dropped to 57º. But it is very nice out so we will go do something.

Mocha at the Pond

2010-04-06T17:49:00.004-04:00

Today is day 2 of our mini local vacation. Yesterday was spent cleaning the muddy kitchen floor and then cooking out and watching a scary (?) movie with friends. Not a bad start to the week. This morning we decided to go to the local state park and bring the dogs. We packed a picnic and off we went (about 4 miles away). It was pre-season so it was free to get in and no one was there. First we did the muddy nature walk. Halfway around Lucie said she lost her cell phone (but we found it in the car when we got back to it). We ate our lunch under the pavilion and then took the dogs to the beach. Britni the beagle had no interest in the water of course and was happy sniffing around on shore. Mocha's true calling came out though! She loved the water. We had to keep her on a retractable leash but she fetched a stick Lucie threw out over and over and over. Some kids went by on a sailboat and she thought she would go pay them a visit too. She got tuckered out after a while so we headed up to the car. When we got there, we ran into some guys going to play Frisbee golf and they had an 18 month old brown Newfie. Had to be three times Mocha's size! That one's owner was thrilled to see us and Mocha and his dog Mia played together for a few minutes and we talked for a while. Nice glimpse into the future...

When we came home, the dogs smelled of dirty pond water so we shampoed them off outside. I fished out the old Tuggy Tugboat and power-washed it. Mocha immediately took the helm:

It's All About Easter

2010-04-04T16:41:00.002-04:00

Someone asked me to share some thoughts on Easter. There is really no need for me to be profound or write some lengthy treatise on it. Like our Pastor preached this morning, the message is simple. Without Jesus rising from the dead, there is no ultimate purpose to our life. If someone wants to be a "good" person and live a life of good intentions, there are plenty of religions to choose from. But God created us to live forever with Him. The only way for that to happen is for Christ to have risen from the grave, and for us to believe in Him. "...For whoever believes on him shall not perish, but will have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Easter Weekend

2010-04-04T08:37:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day here and I had a few things to do in the yard and around the house - including fixing some gutters. Not the gutters themselves, but rather these little gutter guards I put in to keep the leaves out. The heavy snow this winter broke a couple of them. One broke right above the back door so when it rained, the water would drip right down in the worst spot. So I set up my aluminum ladder and went up to the gutter on the second floor. About half way up, I get the knee-shakes. And the ladder starts shaking and rattling and I begin to wonder if I should yell over to my neighbor to come guide me down or just cut out the middle man and call 911 directly... Funny how I just shoot right up the first 5 rungs, but after that I am doing one rung at a time, feet feeling like cinder blocks are tied to them, and suddenly the ladder seems way too narrow. And going up is only half the battle. But I got up there, found the problem and crept back down. Having survived that ascent, I had some confidence going up the second and third times to replace the guards.

Then I moved around to the front of the house and broke out my hedge trimmer. The front bushes were way overgrown so I went at them. I should have put on my Jason hockey mask to make the image complete. But I got them pared down to a presentable level and Lucie and I raked and swept up the debris and got rid of that. Trimmed and mowed and the yard work was pretty much done.

Meanwhile, Mocha has found any and every way to get wet - rolling in the mud at the bottom of the downspout or running across the pool cover (it is porous like a trampoline and her weight brings it down into the water. So on goes the bathing suit and I took her up and gave her a bath. Half the yard washed down the drain I think. She was filthy.

In between jobs I was playing with the new Tivo I got with my tax refund money. Comcast went all digital on the 30th which pretty much made my oldest Tivo obsolete (it wouldn't tune in the digital channels). I transferred the recorded shows from one Tivo to another and then found a big software problem that may require an exchange. Too technical to explain here but it is pretty annoying and shutting me out of some features. Calling Tivo support later.

By the time all the yard work and cleanup was done, we were ready for dinner. We can almost see a Chic Fil A from our house so we went over to get some chicken sandwiches and their new peach shakes. Signs everywhere for their new peach shakes. Life is not complete without a peach shake. So we ordered four peach shakes. They aren't available until Monday. So I guess I will not be able to reach my destined potential until Monday... Not to be deterred, we went to another ice cream place but they were cash only and the ATM there wasn't working. We finally ended up at Friendly's.

Some friends (Ashleigh's boyfriend's parents) invited us over for Easter lunch after church so we will do that. That will be fun. I am on vacation next week and the kids are out of school. I think we are making college visits all week for Ashleigh. Suddenly I feel old...

All (Sore) Thumbs

2010-03-30T22:38:00.002-04:00

Saturday was a beautiful (but chilly) day here so I thought I would do some yard work. It is kind of hard to explain but at the bottom of the fence around the pool we have that black edging stuff holding back the rocks. The edging had bowed and bent and rocks were spilling out and it looked terrible. Very wavy and uneven. So I decided to get some pressure treated wood and line the bottom of the fence. If you know me, you know I am now asking for trouble. My older and younger brothers got the mechanical skills. So I went to Home Depot and got my lumber and some rebar and went to work. First I had to pull the rock back away from the fence and level out the bottom for the wood. Mocha decided she wanted to get involved with that so she piled in, on, under and over and "helped." She took my hat twice and both gloves once. And she got stuck once and I had to pull her out from under the bottom rail of the fence where she had dug herself into a trench. Anyway, I measured my wood and cut it and went to put it in place and of course it was too long so I had to cut it again. Did that, got it in place and screwed in between two of the fence posts. Nice. Then I decided I liked the look of the black edging so I thought I would tack that on the outside of the wood I had just placed. Problem was, there was green wire fencing in the way. Every time I tried to hold the nail in place between the green fence grid, I would pound my finger or the fence or the wood or, on occasion, the actual nail itself. Finally, I got it on. Having learned my lesson, I put the black edging piece on BEFORE I put the plank in place the next time. That one I also cut too long and had to cut it again. Repeat those steps for two more sections and that is my story... But when it was done, I had a nice, straight edge at the bottom of the fence and the rocks are being held in place. I also pounded some rebar in on the outside of the planks to hold them from sliding out. That went OK but I probably maintained the same swing to strike ratio - about 4 swings to an actual hit.

After that I sharpened the mower blade, recharged the battery, changed the oil and air filter, and then edged and mowed. Spread the first Scotts treatment too. It has been rainy for a good day now so that should help distribute the Scotts and launch me into another season of the greenest lawn in the 'hood.

Home Away From Home

2010-03-27T07:10:00.003-04:00

Last night my mom called with the news that I guess I had been expecting to hear some day but still wasn't prepared for - our "home away from home" was being sold. Those of you who know us know about the Cafe - the house built on pilings on the Piscataqua River between Maine and New Hampshire. It was built by my great, great grandfather and kept in the family for many years. It was an actual Cafe at one point but was used as a vacation home by friends and family for the last several years. My uncle invested sacrificially into its upkeep and each year my aunt would call asking us which week we wanted to book for our summer vacation. As you can imagine, a wooden structure built above the salt water requires constant attention and maintenance. My aunt and uncle have reached a point where they are ready to enjoy a well earned retirement and it just isn't possible for them, or any of us, to continue its upkeep. There is property on land to the left of the picture above that will be sold too. I remember mowing that grass for my old great Uncle Ray on that side and storing the mower on the hardwood floor in the Cafe. Lucie and I had our wedding reception there and lived on the shore side for a while when we were first married. The view is spectacular and that Cafe represents the best memories for us. Ashleigh and Elliott caught their first fish off the point there and spent hours and hours flipping over rocks with their cousins catching crabs (and sometimes the crabs catching them!). Countless times the call, "Meet you at the Cafe" meant food and fun was waiting to be had. After a long drive north, the sight of the Cafe meant we were home. And when the time came too quickly to leave, seeing the Cafe in the rear view mirror meant a return to reality and thoughts of when we could come back home again. I am so grateful for the times we got to spend there and for my family - past generations and present. The Cafe represents the very best definition of family, generosity, laughter, sharing, compassion, hard work, and rest. Ultimately of course home is where the heart is but a part of my heart will always be there.

Making Money By Spending Money

2010-03-20T08:25:00.002-04:00

About two weeks ago I bought a Blu Ray player (Lucie leaving town the day we got our tax return was NOT a good idea!). Come to find out, some BR movies are recorded in Tru HD sound - a new sound format my stereo receiver couldn't handle (I thought). One night we sat down to watch a movie only to find the receiver couldn't process the sound so we had a great experience visually, but the sound was terrible. That HAD to be corrected so I bought (on wicked sale online) a new receiver. While waiting for it to arrive, I was reading the owner's manual online and found that there was a setting on the BR player to compensate for that sound issue. I went home, set it, and the old receiver was pumping out the sound! The receiver was delivered Thursday but with no justification for it, I did the unthinkable and decided to return it. Before we left to go do that, we got a flier in the mail for an electronics place that had my BR player on sale for $25 less than I bought mine for. Best Buy has a price matching guarantee so we headed out to return the receiver (to a store unnamed to protect the innocent) and to go to Best Buy (where I bought the BR player). After waiting forever to return the receiver, the returns person counted out the money due back to me... ERASE. I had an interesting story as to what happened here but Lucie made me delete it. Suffice it to say I made money on the return due to their online return policy even though I pointed out that they were giving me back more than I paid. Then off we went to Best Buy. No lines, no hassle, and the girl handed over the $25 difference. So it seems to make money, you have to spend it. Maybe the government is on to something!

Looks like another beautiful day today. 46º in the pool and climbing. I have my list of stuff to do - vacuum up the leftover leaves, put out the hoses, saw off the stumps from the trees that went down over the winter and just generally clean up some stuff outside. Mocha has been digging some holes to China so I will fill them in too. Speaking of Mocha, I have the Tivo set to record anything with "Newfoundland" in the show title or description. We saw a great program last night on a 200 pound Newfie on duty in England as a lifeguard. That dog was amazing. It would swim out with a float and tow people back to shore. Mocha is sleeping in a BIGGER crate (for those who were concerned) overnight in the kitchen so we are all sleeping better.

The kids are at lacross practice this morning. Lucie and I are going to a birthday party tonight and taking it easy on Sunday.

It's 3 AM, Do You Know Where Your Dog Is?

2010-03-13T12:02:00.004-05:00

I do. She is rumbling around in her crate wanting to go outside. And again at 3:30. And maybe once more around 4... For a little while, Mocha has been itchy so I would give her a fish oil supplement every morning with her breakfast. That helped the itching but gave her an upset stomach. And for some reason, it only seemed to hit her around 3 AM. And it hit fast. She would bark and we would stumble down the stairs to the backyard where she would go, and then go back to bed. Only to have to go again a little while later. Ugh. I was like a zombie. We actually didn't think it was the fish oil at first but we have since stopped it and she is doing much better. Itchy again, but her stomach has settled down. We will find another treatment for the itchies. (The vet said she is fine - normal for growing puppies and the dry winter in-house heat).

Getting a lot of rain today so she is going to be wild. Way too windy and rainy to walk her so I hope she and Britni wrestle all day. I intend to nap and watch TV and just hunker down. Everyone around me seems to be sick and I am feeling run down so I am taking it easy. I wanted to chainsaw off the stumps of the trees that came down over the winter and shore up the AC unit but it can wait.

I am picking up our guest missionary speaker for church tomorrow at the Amtrak station right next to where I work. I may make a surprise visit to the Officers on duty and see what is up. Work is still going really well.

Elliott had practice in the monsoon this morning. I brought some towels to protect my car seats and bags for him to put his muddy cleats in when we picked him up. Not too cold out - nothing a Dunkin Donuts coffee and sprinkled donut didn't cure. On the way home, we stopped at Lowe's and got a buy one get one free bag of bird food. The new feeder really seems to be working - we remain squirrel-less.

Oh, this is the new front license plate I put on the other day:

Opossum (and other animal) Crossing

2010-03-07T09:17:00.002-05:00

Spring must be coming because the animals in the woods are starting to show. Last night Mocha and I were out in the backyard and I heard some rustling in the woods. And it went on and on. So I grabbed my giant flood/flashlight and there was an opossum ambling along out in the woods. Apparently they don't hibernate but I am claiming this sighting as a good sign. Forget that goofy groundhog. But speaking of groundhogs, I saw one of them scampering around out in the woods this morning. They DO hibernate so I am encouraged. To further usher in spring, I grilled ribs outside last night.

I bought myself another squirrel proof bird feeder with our tax return and it actually works. I have yet to see a squirrel on it (though they do hang around under it).

Looks like a nice day and week ahead. We still have some snow piles here and there. I had to drain off a lot of pool water from the melting snow.

Mocha is growing by the hour. A friend of mine let me borrow another crate so now we have one upstairs in the bedroom for her to sleep in at night, and one downstairs for the day. If she wasn't teething, we would just let her roam the kitchen during the day (we have it gated off). But I am afraid she will chew up curtains, chairs or whatever.

Get Your Act Together Boy

2010-03-03T06:31:00.002-05:00

And here we have a depiction of Elliott recently... Monday was his first day of lacrosse practice and he announced THAT DAY he needed a mouth guard and cleats. So at 7 o'clock at night, we are off to Dick's. On Tuesday morning, he took the wrong set of books to class so I had to detour my way to the high school to bring them to him. Then around 8:30 last night, he realizes that he must have left his bag of books at the lacrosse practice field! Fortunately, his coach had found it and he will retrieve it today.

He is really liking lacrosse so far and seems to have a "handle" on ball and stick control.

Meanwhile, Lucie's car was making a terrible racket under the hood. I correctly diagnosed it as a bad water pump so we got that fixed yesterday - and did a bunch of other tune up stuff on it. It is a 2001 Rav 4 with 90,000 miles so it should have plenty of life in it. It sounded and felt like a new car last night when we got it back. I am telling people that we bought Lucie's car again with our tax money.

The glaciers around the yard are finally melting away. Patches of grass are poking through and the roads in the development are rut free. One good thing about a snow covered yard - you can find the dog poop a lot easier...

Speaking of, Mocha turned 4 months old on the first. She continues to grow by the hour. Still kind of bitey now but very smart and learns quickly. I can walk her and Britni on the same Y-split lead now. I let her sleep outside her crate in our bedroom while Lucie was away this weekend and she did really good. I have a Mocha Cam aimed at her during the day so Lucie can check on her over the internet.

Ashleigh had her first interview for a summer job at a doctor's office. She had to make a resume and meet with a couple of people. That seemed to go well. She won the first game of indoor lacrosse playoffs but then they lost in the semi-finals. Now she starts high school lacrosse.

Lucie had a good time at winter camp with some church kids. She didn't come back wiped out like in the past.

All else is good with me at work. I caught a knee to my thigh/knee area at basketball last week which knocked me out of playing for the night. It is still sore to the touch but I will be back this week. At least I will have an excuse for my lack of mobility...

Another Season Over

2010-02-13T12:31:00.003-05:00

Well, another basketball season for Elliott is over. Today was the first round of the playoffs and they lost. Elliott alone scored almost 40% of his entire team's points again - which is consistent with his whole season (he scored 34% of the entire team's points for the year). They ended up with 3 wins and 10 losses BUT, he had an outstanding year. He shot 51% from the field (up from 30% last year), had 119 points (up from 67 last year), and a HUGE 114 rebounds (versus 24 last year). After the game today the assistant coach came up and told that they asked Elliott to do it all this year - bring the ball up court, score, rebound - everything. It was just too much. But he had fun and it was great to watch his development.

After some major storm related delays and facility damage, Ashleigh resumes her indoor lacrosse season today. In case you are wondering, I don't track her stats as closely as there aren't as many categories and her games are more for working out than high level competition.

Buzzer Beater

2010-02-06T10:55:00.003-05:00

There aren't many highlights to Elliott's basketball season this year, but he had an exciting game the other night. They were down by 9 with 1:33 to go in the game. Elliott started grabbing the ball and tying it up so they got it back on the alternating possessions. Then he hit a long jumper and had a beautiful assist to a kid for an easy lay-up. Next thing I knew, his team was up by 1 with 4 seconds to go. The other team in-bounds the ball to the far side of the court. The kid takes a running shot which misses. Elliott pulls down the rebound and covers up the ball and just holds on for the win! Pretty exciting. He was supposed to have the first playoff game today but it was postponed due to 20 inches of snow... (so far!).

Jasmine

2010-01-31T18:14:00.002-05:00

This is the framed portrait my aunt did for us of Jasmine (ignore the flash glare in the middle). My mother sent an email just after Jasmine died and said that God is patting her head in heaven now. So I sent several pictures and those words to my aunt and this is what she created. Lucie had it mounted and framed and it came out beautiful. We miss her every day. Thanks Aunt Tania!

Meet Mocha

2010-01-24T07:28:00.003-05:00

So there you see the newest Hale family member: Mocha. She is a Newfoundland. Almost 3 months old, brown with a white spot on her chest. While on vacation this summer, we saw one and loved the breed. We had several family meetings about the loss of Jasmine, "replacing" her, and the inevitable future loss. Yesterday was one month since Jasmine died and it was very emotional. But we convinced Lucie (!) and did our research and shopping. The biggest problem was finding an affordable one. Most are champion bred and cost about $2000! I have no intention of showing her in dog shows. Finally we found Mocha for sale by an Amish/Mennonite (?) family about 3.5 hours away in Pennsylvania. So we loaded up the Hale family truckster and headed out. On the way out there, we looked at the picture we had of her and decided on the name of Mocha because of her coffee color with a splash of "whipped cream" on her chest. We really wanted to see where she was born and her parents and so forth. And it was worth it. She lived on a farm way out in the middle of nowhere with other Labs and Newfies. Her mom is all brown and weighs 120 lbs and her father is black and white and weighs 150 lbs! She was very social and fun... and dusty! So we hung out on the farm for a while and took her home. She slept most of the way home with no accidents. When we got home, we made the introductions to Britni the beagle (who wanted to play a lot!) and let her explore her new yard. Then I gave her a long bath (which she loved) and she came out of the tub a fluffy and clean puppy! We had a good evening and she did really well. Last night I put her in her crate in our bedroom but that caused a ruckus with Britni so I moved her down to the living room and I slept on the couch near her crate. We slept well all night and when Britni came down this morning, I opened the crate door and they both marched out to the yard and took care of business. She is pretty well behaved but I am not fooling myself - we have a long road ahead of us. She will stay crated during the day and between Lucie and I, we will give her all the potty breaks she needs. A new chapter in our life begins...

In other news, everything else is going OK. The kids did well on their mid-terms and are actually exploring employment opportunities. Elliott hit a buzzer beating, half court 3 point shot at half time of his game the other day. The crowd went nuts and they said it was the best shot in the league this season. His team lost but he scored 14 of the 29 points and did well.

Elliott's Carrying The Team

2010-01-16T16:59:00.004-05:00

Elliott's had a couple of big games this season including a really close one today. They have only won one game and lost five but it is a very young and small team - Elliott is the oldest and biggest and most experienced. And he is making the most of his veteran status by teaching the younger players what to do and running the game on the court. But it is too much for one person. He is shooting 60% from the field and has scored 40% of all of his team points. Today he had 14 of the total 28 points and had 18 rebounds! When the games get close, he inbounds the ball, brings it up the court, passes off, and tries to get open to score. And he does really well. The team is improving - they are into the second round of playing some teams and so far his team has scored more than in their first meeting and the opposition has scored less. So there is improvement. Elliott has a great attitude and just enjoys the game and the exercise. A parent on the other team told me today, "that #3 (Elliott) is really good. He picks his shots and hits them." I proudly said, "that's MY boy. And every good play he does he didn't learn from me!"

Today Ashleigh is down in Baltimore with her boyfriend doing the Aquarium and eating out. She is still playing indoor lacrosse on Saturdays (not this one) and they do pretty good. Both she and Elliott are trying to get jobs as they are starting to see the need to earn some money to do things (since Lucie and I sure don't have any!).

Britni is a different dog without Jasmine around. Pretty quiet and oddly enough, obedient and much better behaved. Some of things she used to do just annoyed Jasmine. We are sure she misses her like we do. I took her for a walk today and she really liked that. Lucie has been taking her in the car on errands and things too.

Work is still going great for me. I love it there. Something new every day. Still not used to real benefits, vacation time, and "banker's hours" though (lots of holidays). I and the kids are off Monday. I bought some meat to grill (it got into the 50º's today!).

We had a good night out with some friends last night. We had some good laughs - it seems like we haven't had a good laugh in a long, long time.

Pet Portraits

2010-01-11T19:01:00.003-05:00

Just quickly posting a couple of pieces of artwork my aunt did of Jasmine. The pastel of God reaching out to pat Jasmine was inspired by something my mother wrote and my aunt sent that to us to be framed. The painting of Jasmine on the couch she kept for her shows. Really good stuff and we love the outcome and effort.

2009: Roller Coaster Year

2010-01-02T10:43:00.002-05:00

Well we made it to 2010 but what a roller coaster of a year 2009 was. I was reading back on some of my blog entries from the past year and lots of emotions were invoked. Employment issues marked most of the year, but that was resolved in the best of ways. The end of the year was an emotional time for the family as well with Jasmine passing away and another issue. Sometimes we make the right decisions and sometimes not. But as I look back I can clearly see that the constant through 2009, and every year, is God's goodness. It is up to me, and everyone, to decide whether to stick to that plan or venture off on our own. Believe me, the venturing off is not the way to go but thank God there is place to come back to. So I thank God for His goodness and mercy and for my family and close friends. I was never much of a roller coaster guy...

We Lost a Family Member Today

2009-12-23T18:00:00.005-05:00

Jasmine, our loyal and loved friend of over 11 years died this morning. She had been lethargic and not eating for two days and was having a hard time breathing. Somehow I feared the worst and did not think she would make it through the night. We all gave her a lot of love before bedtime. I carried her upstairs and laid her on the floor at the foot of our bed and I made up a bed next to her. She seemed to be OK all night and changed positions a few times. In the morning I carried her downstairs and outside and she went out in the snow and laid down. She loved to do that. I had to carry her back in and when I came down from my shower, I found she had climbed up to her spot on the couch. I took the picture above this morning. After Lucie took the kids to school, I put her in Lucie's car and she took her to the vet. The vet did x-rays which showed a mass in her stomach and lung cancer. He said she might not make it through the day. So I left work and went and picked up Ashleigh and Elliott from school. She was fading fast when we got to the vet but hung on and waited till her family could all be by her side. Then she just closed her eyes and went to sleep one last time. Saddest day of my life.

You Never Know

2009-12-19T10:53:00.003-05:00

It seems lately that this is the time for the unexpected. Several people I know have had job or personal experiences twist and turn and go in directions they never saw coming. Me too. Every day it seems something pops up that I never saw coming or things go in a direction I didn't think would ever happen. In the past I would spend a lot of time, and looking back perhaps it was wasted time, thinking and planning and trying to account for every conceivable option that could affect a particular situation. How many times did things NOT go the way I planned? Over and over again I had to learn to just let it go and let "nature" take its course. That does not mean I was uncaring or lazy - of course I had to make contingency plans and do my due diligence to be prepared. But I have come to realize that even my best laid plans are often not enough. It is exciting to see where life takes us. I guess one could chose to be afraid of the unexpected and withdraw for fear of the unknown. Or one could choose to embrace the energy and "go with the flow" knowing God is in control and ultimately, it is all His plan. And for my benediction (!) I offer these verses from Ecclesiastes: Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? No one knows what is coming--who can tell him what will happen after him?

But for today, there was nothing unexpected about the storm going on outside. We have about 6 inches on the ground now with at least another foot on the way. It is light and fluffy but the wind is blowing. I am going to go out and make the first pass at clearing the driveway now. I am the only New Englander in the neighborhood and usually the only one that goes out several times in a storm to shovel. I say it is better to shovel 4 inches three times than a foot once. There should be a Bible verse for that too!

Elliott is doing well at basketball. He scored 16 out of 33 points the other night for his team but it wasn't enough and they lost. They are off for a few weeks but are going to try and practice sometime during the break. Ashleigh is still playing indoor lacrosse and doing well. I have told them they are dedicating one vacation day to cleaning their rooms. Which goes back to my philosophy: better to clean a little every day than waste a whole day cleaning.

I should go into the fortune cookie writing business...

2009-12-13T18:29:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I posted and I was telling a friend the other day that I have been busy and didn't really have anything blog worthy to post. Then I looked back and realized that never stopped me before...!!

Thanksgiving was very nice and relaxing with friends. Lucie did make us a turkey too so we were able to have leftovers.

Since then, Ashleigh has started playing indoor lacrosse with some friends from school. They will be the varsity high school team in the spring so this is a great tune-up. They are playing just over the PA line every Saturday. Elliott is back playing city league basketball. He is the tallest and best on his team but he cannot carry the whole team. He is the veteran on the floor and his skills improvement is really good. I don't see a good year for his team though. It seems the other teams all have about 3 good and tall players. Elliott is the only one on his team... He also has had some major dental work done with a palate expander and a jaw alignment thing. He looks like The Godfather and is very uncomfortable. But it is only for a few months and of course the benefits will last a lifetime.

It seems like it has rained every other day. But it beats the snow alternative so that is OK.

Lucie's kid's church play went very well. Next Saturday is the church dinner. This morning was the church choir concert. I woke up just as it ended.

Timing is everything...

Kissin' Cousins

2009-11-23T12:12:00.003-05:00

My brother and his wife and daughter arrived Friday night for the weekend. They are spending the week in SC for Thanksgiving, then stopping back by on their way home to NH. Saturday morning we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and headed off to Hershey. We had a good trip and got to see a lot of Amish horses and buggies and the country side. The last time Lucie and I were out that way was when we had to race to see Elliott get his finger tip sewed back on. At Hershey we did the free tour and ate some chocolate stuff there and picked up some Christmas presents. Then we hit the outlets for a while. For supper, we went to Sonic (they had never been there either). So we ate there and then when I went to start the car, I had a dead battery! I guess my headlights were on the whole time and the auto shut off didn't so there we were. The Sonic workers were great and came out with jumper cables and jumped me and we were on our way.

After church on Sunday, we went to another place they had never been to: CiCi's Pizza. The service was poor and the selection wasn't that great but we had some friends from church join us so that was fun. After that we roamed the mall and watched the Patriots on TV. For our family viewing night, we watched a National Geographic special on Amazon headshrinkers... This morning they continued on their trip to SC. Lucie is off this week and I am taking a few days off so I don't lose them. No plans besides creating excuses on why NOT to put up the Christmas decorations.

In other fascinating news, I did a day of volunteering at a Habitat for Humanity site. Part of my new hire requirements. So the other new hires and I spent the day moving dirt and mulch for a multi-tenant condo in Wilmington. It was a nice day and fun. When I got home I blew the rest of the leaves out of the pool area and into the woods.

The kids brought home their report cards. Ashleigh remains in the top 10% of her class and Elliott is in the top 2%. Ashleigh's field hockey season is over but she may play indoor lacrosse over the winter. Elliott is still practicing in the city basketball league and doing well.

We are going over to some friends' for Thanksgiving but I think Lucie is making turkey dinner for us to have here also. Her birthday is Wednesday so I hope she makes herself something reaaaal nice...

Sod And Soggy

2009-11-14T22:04:00.003-05:00

This picture has nothing to do with anything but I thought it was kind of funny. This is how I found Lucie in bed the other night - sound asleep with the book in her face.

We have had nothing but rain for several days. A cold, soaking, miserable rain. But a friend of mine gave me 59 rolls of sod from his yard (he cut it from where he is putting in a shed). So I placed it around some low areas in my yard. With all this rain, it should settle in nicely.

Ashleigh finished her field hockey season. Another year with a losing record but their intensity was much better and their skills greatly improved. Elliott just started playing basketball for the Newark city league. He had the option of playing one more year in the division he has played in for a few years or moving up to the next bracket. He wisely chose to stay in his division. So now he is one of the veterans and is the team leader. He is really hitting his shots and has some skills. Must be a genetic thing...

I upgraded Lucie's church computer to Windows 7 the other day. That went very smoothly. Elliott had saved up his money and bought a new Xbox game. Ashleigh had a firepit party here last week and hooked the Xbox up to the 52 inch Sony HD in the living room so they could play Guitar Hero World Tour with her friends. So Elliott was playing his game when he got the dreaded red rings of death on the machine. So we contacted Microsoft and will ship it in for free repair. But he is bumming because it may not be back in time for Thanksgiving break. Now all he has time for is reading and cleaning his room... He did just win a $3000 scholarship for doing so well in the state tests so I can't get on his case about studying!

Work is going really well. I seem to be creating a lot of work for myself as I dig into things. But in this company, initiative and not going with the flow is actually encouraged and hopefully rewarded. I really enjoy going into work every day. Well, make that most days. The other day of my co-workers was let go. She was like the buddy you first make when you move to a new school. We hadn't worked together long but we had some good laughs in that short period. So I guess that even though I lost a co-worker, I didn't lose a friend...