Mrs. Hale, Tear Down This Shelf!

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

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

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

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

Rack Wreck

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

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

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

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

Doing God's Work

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

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

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

7 Days Later

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

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

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

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

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

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

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

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

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

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

Back In Business

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

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

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

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

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

PC Nuked

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

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