What Happen Me...?

10 Years!

2011-08-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Rachel and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! It has been a great ride so far, with infinitely many more ups than downs. We spent two nights in Seattle at the Warwick hotel and just had a good time wandering and shopping and eating. And other stuff. My mom took the kids so that we could spend the kind of time we don't usually get to spend together, what with Rachel's crazy new work schedule (she is now the customer service manager at the bank) and my school and odd work schedule. That and we have two rambunctious boys that keep trying to kill themselves as they chase each other. It was good to get out and just spend a little quality time with my BFF/wife. She said that she would marry me all over again, so you know she still loves me! And I love her.
We got to the hotel Tuesday night cause Rachel was working during her vacation. Apparently she was the only one who could interview prospective employees and that took most of the day. So we got to Seattle at 7:30 or so, and went down to eat at the hotel restaurant, the Bra Margo or something. It was a french name and it sounded like bras to me. Anyway, we ate there and after went to the market across the street just cause we were bored. Then we went and crashed in our room. The next day was spent walking and shopping and eating, not all at the same time. We also saw HP7.5 which was ok, but I didn't like how they changed the story at the end, before 19 years later. And they didn't age them very well for that last part by the way. Anyway, we were going to go eat at the Space Needle, but we had to wait till 9:45, and we didn't make it, what with the movie and the waling and all, so we ate at the Cheesecake Factory instead. I was happy with that #1 cause it was less expensive, and #2 cause I didn't have to dress up in a suit and tie. Then this morning we checked out and drove down to the market, because you have to do that if you ever go to Seattle for fun. If you don't, you are a fail. We had a great time overall.

School

2011-04-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

I started school again. I am at Bellevue College, trying to pick it up where I left off after so many years of slave labor working at FedEx. Not really slave labor, cause they pay really well, and have great benefits, but you know what I mean right? It's just that even though we were doing well while I was working there, I was never really happy with my job and wanted something more out of life. I wanted to resume my education, so I could find a job that I really like so that going to work didn't have to be so hard every day.
So anyway, this is the beginning of my second week back at school and so far, so good. I am taking Calculus and Chemistry this quarter and so far my teachers are great. I really like my math teacher (which is something I haven't been able to say in a while) cause he likes to explain not just the how, but the why too. When I ask a question, the answer isn't, "Because I said so." He takes time to explain and discuss. That and he uses real world examples, not just numbers on a board.
Hopefully, I won't have so much trouble this time around.

I Just Feel Like I Have to Post Something

2011-03-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

I don't know what to post about tonight. I probably could post about cleaning up the garage today and all the cool tools that I found under the mess. I could post about feeding the ducks in the lake waffles that I made yesterday and how they come right up and eat out of your hand if you don't scare them off. I could write about problems Rachel's friends are having, but that would take all night and I don't want to do that, except to say that I'm glad Rachel and I are not having those problems and that we are generally happy with our marriage. I could talk about the new blu-ray drive I got for my computer and how nice it is to be able to back up 25gb worth of pics and video all at once and not have to worry about them getting lost in a hard drive crashes. I could also mention that I finally got Rachel's karaoke stuff squared away and what a painus in the anus that was, but at least she can make her own karaoke cds and do her recording.

I could talk about all that stuff, but I don't want to.

Things to Catch Up On

2011-02-12T23:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, since my last post i have done a few things that are worth mentioning. We went to Whistler BC this last week and had fun with Rachel's family. We didn't have to stay with them though, and that was fantastic. It's also worth mentioning that our cell phone service didn't work in Canadia. We are with Boost Mobile, and while they have fantastic service here in the states, up there.... not so much. Although Terry (Rachel's dad, and also a Boost Mobile customer) was able to receive text messages on his Blackberry, which I thought was odd. Not calls, just text messages. But we have phone cards, so any calls we needed to make were covered. That and I bought new walkie-talkies so we could stay in touch if we wanted to. Rachel took some ski lessons with her Aunt Judy and had fun doing that, we played in the snow with the kids, rented snow mobiles for a few hours, celebrated multiple birthdays and just generally had fun. Here are some pictures:

January 24

2011-01-26T02:12:00.000-08:00

Monday was my birthday. I am officially one year older that I was last year. It doesn't feel any different though. I still feel about the same as I did the day before my birthday. I guess once you hit a certain age, a birthday is just another day when it all comes down to it. We didn't really do anything special on my birthday, but we did go out and watch the latest Harry Potter and then we went to Shari's afterward. In my family, on our birthday, we get to choose what we will have for dinner. This year I didn't really get to do that, since my kids have been so sick recently. We were going to do my birthday dinner on Sunday, but we decided that it would be better for the kids if we just took them home after church. I'll have to come back and edit this post later, because there is more that I would like to add, but I am too tired now and Rachel is stirring in the bed next to me.

First Post of the New Year

2011-01-13T23:34:00.000-08:00

It's officially 2011. That is one year closer to the end of the world, as our financial advisor put it to us this morning as we were going over our investment options. Since it looks like we are not going to start building the house any time soon, we decided to take that money out of our savings account and "put it to work for us." That's another line from the investment guy. Anyway, he seems like he knows what he is doing, so whatever. It's got to make more than just sitting in a savings account, right?
And now that I am on the road to financial freedom (yes I am still jobless), I can focus on the important things in life, like writing in this blog...? I suppose that I have to make a first post sometime. We went to the Pacific Science Center today and became members for a year. It only cost $80, and $75 is tax deductible so we really only spent $68... I don't really understand about the whole tax deductible thing. That is why I am not a very good investor, and why someone else (my wife) does our taxes. But the Science center is cool. If I had my camera I'd post some pictures, but it's out in the car right now and I don't feel like going to go get it at the moment. Mostly because I am not wearing any pants, and the neighbors might think I was a little odd going outside in my underwear. So If I get my camera soon and haven't forgotten all about this post, I will upload some of the pictures I took.

Save Money Doing Your Normal Online Shopping!

2010-12-31T00:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=82sUDNftLG53MhAChpcGLw%3D%3D

Do you shop online to save money? Do you use PayPal? I do too. Now I do both even better, ever since stumbling upon Ebates. Their website pays you back a percentage of your purchase at most online retailers, just for using their site as a portal. I mostly shop on eBay, and we all know that eBay gives you eBay bucks back when you buy something. It's like 3% of the purchase. But now, if I go through the Ebates portal, I get up to an extra 7%. It's stupid not to. They deposit into your PayPal account, or if you don't want to give them that info, they will also send you a check in the mail. Payouts are every 3 months (just like eBay bucks), as long as you have spent enough on other sites to get at least $5 back, but if you shop online like I do, that isn't a problem. They even credit you $5 when you make your first purchase through their portal, so you are guaranteed a payout in the 1st 3 months. They have 1,200 other member stores to, like Newegg, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Overstock.com, plus a lot of little online specialty stores that have great deals that you might not normally visit. I bought printer ink and got 15% back for that purchase. If you do ANY online shopping, sign up with these guys, and use my link to sign up cause I get more $$$ when I refer people. So far I've gotten $10.80 back from Ebates, for doing my normal eBay/online shopping, and I'll keep updating this total as I receive more.

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=82sUDNftLG53MhAChpcGLw%3D%3D

Sign up. Make a purchase. Get $5. If that 1st purchase is $25.01 or more I'll get $5 too.

What am I going to DO?

2010-12-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

So today, I have made a few lists. Making lists is not one of the things I like most in the world, but today I feel like I didn't have any choice. I am getting ready to start school again next month and I am in the process of re-evaluating my goals. What that means is I am trying to figure out what to major in. What am I going to do with the rest of my life? I have made three(3) lists to help me explore and narrow the possibilities.

(1) Things that are important to me:
Resources to support my family
Time to pursue other things -family/hobbies/church
Being creative
Build/make things
Working with hands/tools
Learning about how things work
Feeling like I contribute/accomplish something
Autonomy

(2) Things I enjoy doing:
Woodworking
Building things
Reading
Finding out how things work
Being outside
BBQ/cooking
Teaching
Playing games
Solving problems around the house with things I make
Swimming
Working on my VW

(3) Things I don't really like doing:
Complex Math
Repetitive tasks
Being micromanaged
Having to wake up too early
Radical change
Crowds
Being really social/outgoing
Driving

Some of you who read this might say to yourselves, "Yes that is Nathan to a T." Others might read these lists and have a few things to add. Let me know.

Potty Training

2010-11-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Today, we started potty training Ammon. I say we, but really it was just me and Ammon. Rachel took Noah out for the day and left us to it. Now my only recollection of potty training comes from my parents house when my dad was working with my younger brother. My dad would let my brother go off and play for a few minutes and then hurry off to go find him to remind him about the potty. He would ask, "Have to go potty? Have to go potty?" And my little brother, who was just settling down to play with toys, would look up and start crying because he knew that he had to get up and run to the bathroom to sit on that potty. But they kept at it and my little bro was toilet trained in a day. And when he finally got it, there were treats and praise and all that stuff.
So far with Ammon, this plan has not worked out so well. Ammon is happy to run to the potty, and pull down his "Boy Big Pants" and sit there for a minute. But that's all he is doing, is just sitting there. I don't think that he quite gets the idea of what he exactly is supposed to be doing while he is on the toilet. Every 15 min or so I'll remind him about the toilet and he runs and get on it. Then he squirms around and plays with the handle, or talks to himself, or flips the shield up and down... Anything except what he is actually supposed to be doing. Then 3 minutes after he is off the pot and doing something else, he starts crying and comes and tells me he's poopy and has urine running down his leg... He did that 3 times today, and never once in the toilet. We'll try again tomorrow I guess. Hopefully we will be more successful.

I Voted

2010-11-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

Did you? Why didn't you vote? No not you, You! Don't you realize how important it is? And don't tell me that one vote doesn't matter, because it does... I don't care whether we agree on the issues, You need to vote! Take an active interest in what is happening to your country! More than just complaining about things when they don't go your way. If you don't care, why should you expect others to?
Oh.... You DID vote? Well good for you!

BlizzCon 2010

2010-10-29T00:24:00.000-07:00

Don't think I'm a total nerd, ok? Just because I went to BlizzCon this last weekend and spent hours and hours in a "line" to get into a video game expo...
The line in front...
The Line in back.
So it's not like I was the only one there...

Even Waldo managed to show up!

There was a lot of stuff to do at the convention (mostly involving waiting in another line), so we were never bored. Whether it was listening to the hows and whys of the game we went there for (StarCraft2) or watching the pros duke it out for $25k for 1st, $10k for 2nd and $3k for third (yes there are actual pro gamers who make a living playing video games in tournaments for cash prizes) or looking at and playing the beta versions of games not yet released to the public, or just staring at the random costumed person, there
was tons to do.

And by random, I mean not having to do with any game content I could think of. Notice the guy in the bee costume at the bottom left...

It was me, Matt and Aaron and we all stayed in a crappy Motel 6 about a block and a half away from Disneyland and about 4 blocks from the convention center. It's one of those experiences that you are glad you had, but not sure if you want to repeat in the future. I had a lot of fun, stood in a lot of lines, played a lot of games, saw a lot of odd ducks, and got some cool free loot that I am going to sell on eBay to make most of my money back. Cause I sure don't need an in-game pet for WoW...

New Phone Service

2010-08-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I just switched phone service. We were getting tired of how expensive the phone plan was, and how many taxes and fees were being tacked onto the end of our bill. We went from ATT to Boost Mobile. It has been four days now, and aside from a little trouble we both had activating our phones, the service has been great. It is $50/month for unlimited everything. Talk/text/web and all that with no contract. You pay by the month, for a month in advance and if you miss a payment, or decide you don't want the cell phone anymore, you just stop paying. No penalties. Coverage has been uninterrupted so far, and I haven't dropped a call yet. Of course, I haven't really been anywhere yet, so I can't say that it will be perfect but so far so good. I'm hooked. I got the Sanyo Incognito. It has raving mixed reviews if you care to look it up online, but I like it so far. I am still getting used to it, but you have to take into account that my last phone was pretty out-dated, and any kind of upgrade would have required a break-in period.

We looked at getting the Sprint HTC EVO since my brother Aaron got that phone about a month or so ago, and I have to admit, it was pretty tempting. 4G internet is what I use at home with Clear, and so I know how good it is. I am also a big fan of Android (anything that competes with Apple I am a big fan of, but that is a whole other post) and the big touchscreen it has. And for a two year contract you can have the phone for $199.99. Thats a pretty good deal, considering all that it does. But the monthly was like $80/month... Anyway, I did the math and over the two years, the EVO for the both of us would be about $4000, and Boost $2800. We went with Boost.

Oh, and FYI for those of you that care, my phone number hasn't changed.

Progress Report

2010-07-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

Here is the big news: There is a tentative Shoreline Management Plan! There are a few public meetings being held in the next month and then it goes for final approval. I got a letter from the city a while ago with the news. We are pretty excited to find out what we will be dealing with and when we get to start building our house. I think we have come up with a pretty good basic plan (we will need to have an architect/engineer redraw and de-flaw it). Now we just have to see if it fits into the rules, or how we can make the rules fit into our designs. But it's progress.

I am a Rat Catching Machine!

2010-07-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

We are still living at my grandpa's house here on Lake Washington (tough, i know). I enjoy it for the most part, but there are two or three things that really annoy me about living in an old house. Number one, is the aluminum wiring. I pretty much hate it. I have had to rewire four outlets and two switches so far because the wires are corroded and shorting out. The rewiring is not a problem, but the shorting out is. Every junction (light or switch or outlet) is wired in series, so that if one goes out, they all do. The whole circuit. And here that means half the upstairs or three room downstairs or some other large unwieldy area that I have to work with. This involves checking each junction to find out which is the problem one. I'll bet you don't have any idea how long that takes, especially if its the last one that is your problem. Just think, in a typical bedroom, there is a light switch, one or two light fixtures and three or four outlets. That is 7 places to check in just one room. And since the bedrooms are all connected together, plus the bathroom, that makes for a long waste of time. He did the wiring himself, since he wasn't satisfied with the quality of the electrician he hired... I would hate to see what the electrician did... But you know what makes the hunt for the bad junction go a lot quicker? When the outlet in question is sparking. All you have to do is follow the sound of crackling, sparking electricity. That makes it possible to find the problem area pretty fast.And you'd better find it pretty fast, because I'm pretty sure it will catch fire if you don't. It really is a wonder that the house hasn't burned down.
Number two: Rats. This house was populated by at least three families of rats. And a few mice too. We heard the chewing and scratching inside the walls, and saw evidence of their presence in lots of places throughout the house. Papa had just learned to live with them, and not give them excuses to invade. Rachel and I were not willing to share the house with them, so as soon as Papa left for Witchita, I went out and bought rat traps. Whatever anyone else tells you, the best bait is peanut butter. And a $1.88 snap trap from The Home Depot or Lowes is the only way to go. I think I have single-handedly set the worlds rat and mouse population back by at least 15 over these last two months. And I know that I have removed appendages from a few more that hopefully died of said injuries later. And don't buy the "disposable" traps either, the ones that are one use only or whatever. Buy the cheap wood base spring lever snap trap. If you have one rat, you have 15, and you don't want to buy traps for each rat. That gets expensive, and then you might as well hire me to come out and get rid of them for you. And then I will take the money you would have spent on the expensive "disposable" traps and buy three or four snap traps and pocket the rest. Of the money, not the rats.

Building update

2010-05-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

There is no progress. Ok, i can't really say that there hasn't been any progress, since the state did finally respond to Federal Way's Shoreline Management Plan. The State had a few more "ideas" the city to add in to its proposal. So I can't say that it hasn't been progress. Just not the kind of progress I want. It looks like it will be the end of the year before we can even start permitting, unless we want to get into it with the county. They can give us special allowances and considerations if they want to. If they want to... And who know what that timeline might look like. Also, I now have no idea as to what the new revisions will do to our lot. I don't know if it will change the setbacks, or make us put up protective fences around trees and block off the water or what. The head city planner that we have been communicating with said... hold on let me go look it up again... He said "unfortunately this process is taking longer than our worst case scenario." Not very positive if you ask me...

Building our House

2010-04-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Well, we are still waiting for the state to give final approval to the city for its shoreline management plan. Its kind of frustrating, since all they have to do is sign off on it. And it really is only a sign off, since this is the revised version containing changes that the city was required to make for final approval. The state is stalling because it says it can't spare the man-power due to budget problems. I guess I don't understand that, because really how long does it take to verify that the required changes were made from the original document?
I do have a solution though: What if the government were not so involved it the little nit-pickey things in our lives? Then they wouldn't have to spend money on stuff that they don't need to be worried about (like regulating what can and can't go into a vending machine) and put resources to better use like signing off on the shoreline management plan that I need to build my house. Just a thought...

At my grandparents house

2010-04-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

This week for vacation we are using it to visit my grandparents at their house in Goldendale, WA. I haven't been to their house in several years, at least not since before my kids were born. Today, once we finally got here, my first job was to pull the starter out of my Granddads 67 VW Bug. I haven't gotten to work on a VW Bug for a while and it was refreshing to work on something so simple again. Makes me want to revisit my own Bug. But mine is going to cost me a lot more than his, since mine needs a whole new engine and his only needed a new starter. We are going to take them to the doctor tomorrow, Grandma has to go get a shot in her eyeball so she doesn't go blind. She has macular degeneration, so the shots are supposedly helping. Anyway, I was commenting to Granddad earlier that I hadn't had time in the recent past to just sit around and do nothing. We were sitting and talking for a while and then we just lapsed into silence, and there was no pressure and we just sat there for a while and I was really able to relax for the first time. It was a great feeling and I had forgotten just how it felt. Anyway, we are off to the observatory now so I have to go.

Theives

2010-02-23T21:56:00.000-08:00

Last night someone decided to be a jerk and stole some of our stuff out of our car. I hope that whoever just opened the door of our blue Mazda cx-9 and took our GPS, our church and karaoke cd's and other odds and ends of basically worthless stuff (worthless to other people, unless you are the kind of person who likes to listen to stolen church music) is having a good time with it. If you are not, or couldn't find someone to buy it (for some reason) you could give it back, and I wouldn't be upset with you anymore. I'm not too worried about the gps, but we would like to have the cd's back. If you don't have them anymore, and could let me know where you ended up tossing them, I will even go get them myself. Just leave an anonymous comment here on the blog, and I will take care of the rest.
Thank You.

The Internet

2010-02-23T21:37:00.001-08:00

About three years ago, Rachel and I finally broke down and got high-speed internet. We started service with ClearWire. It was basically internet over the cellular network, and you had a modem/antennae that you could plug in to any wall socket and as long as you were within the coverage network, presto, instant internet. It was very handy, until the modem started to break down. I had to take it apart three times and re-soldier components back into place. They locked me into a two year contract when we signed up, and the contract was almost up when they sent out notices that they were going to start offering free upgrades and equipment replacement to all existing customers. I was starting to get pretty frustrated with the hardwarem but liked the idea of mobility, so I decided to stick it out till the new hardware came. I'm glad that I did. The free upgrade trippled my DL speed and we got a shiny new modem. The old one still sits on the windowsill, looking old, pathetic and outdated next to the new one. The new modem feels a little more solid as well. I have been fairly pleased with it overall, even though they did get rid of the option to bill me annually instead of monthly... I liked just having it paid and not having to worrk about another bill every month.
Anyway, the real reason I am writing about this is because today, I went into the Clear store in Seattle and purchased a new USB modem for true mobility. The USB modem is about three inches tall or so, and sits unobtrusively off to the side of my laptop. I did have to download and install some software in order to get it to work, but that was fairly easy if only a little annoying. The installation software that comes in the box is only good for WinXP... Vista has been out now for a while... Come on Clear. As far as the connection goes, I am very impressed. I was able to play League of Legends without problems, and streaming video has not posed any problems so far. I haven't tried to DL any large files yet, but I will write about that later.
As of this moment, I am happy with my "$55 Home+Mobile internet for life" deal.

I'm 30

2010-01-31T21:12:00.000-08:00

I turned 30 this week. I would have written sooner, but we spent the whole week away from the computer, with family. We drove to Utah to spend time with Rachel's family and to see her grandfather who is very sick. It was basically a goodbye visit. I got some good pictures and a shot or two of video with him and the kids so they will have something to look back on and remember. Anyway, no one knew that it was my birthday except for Rachel until about two days later, since we spent a good share of it driving. And as far as birthdays go it was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing. I think I am over the whole birthday thing, now that I am dead, I mean 30.
After we spent three days or so in Utah, we traveled up north to visit my brother in Idaho. He lives in Rexburg and right now there is snow covering everything there. We went out shotgun shooting on someones farm, we went to the sand dunes and went sledding, not on the sand, but on the snow covering the sand. They are really steep, but not super tall so it made for some really great sledding. Ammon didn't really enjoy it, he is a fairly cautious person, and it didn't help that on one run down with him I lost control of the inner tube we were on and rolled it over him. We also played a board game called Blockus. I think that is how it is spelled. If anyone wants to get me that game for my birthday, I won't be upset about it.

The End

2009-12-31T17:32:00.000-08:00

Not of my blog, but the year. I would like to list out all of the major things that happened to our family this year. This might take a while, so if you don't see this post until well after the new year, just know that I started it on Dec. 31, 2009 at about 5:30pm. I don't have a lot of really wise or sage things to say, but I just want everyone to have a great new year. I hope that all your wildest dreams come true. There are a great many good things that I hope will happen for our family this year. I hope that we get our house built this year. I hope that I get back the benefits that were taken away from us at work last year because of the economy. I hope that we have our third kid this year. I hope that it is either a girl or a boy. There are other things too, but I want to be done for now. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

2009-12-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think that the Christmas season in general is over rated. I mean, spending time with your family is great and everything( we spent Christmas eve at my in-laws, Christmas morning at our place, and Christmas day with my family), and the whole presents thing is nice (I got a few games for the Wii, some Oriental style cookware, a magazine subscription to one of my favorite magazines, and Rachel bought me the nook, the e-reader from Barnes and Noble though it will not be here till mid February), and the food is always good (I made Belgian waffles for dinner at the Dunns and then for dinner at my moms, we had rib-eye steak and Dungeness crab). But other than that, I think the whole thing is over rated...

But not really. I'll write more when I have time.

Living at Papa's

2009-11-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I mentioned that we sold our house, and were by definition homeless. Well it is not entirely true. We are not living on the street, or in a shelter or even in a tent on our property. We have been taken in by my grandfather, who lives alone in his home on Lake Washington in Bellevue. Rachel and I both really enjoy it here, as we have had the chance to get to know Papa a little better, ad have our kids get to know him period. It's kind of hard for the generations to come together sometimes, especially when we only see each other on Sunday and the holidays Papa is in town. He often travels between Witchita and here for extended periods of time. In fact, he will be leaving in a few weeks, and then we will have the whole house to ourselves. But while we have been here together, Papa has been very accommodating. Rachel and I have our own bedroom and bathroom, the kids have a room that they share, the formal living room has been turned into the kids play area, ect. Our family has sort of come in and occupied the space in this house that Papa wasn't using. It has been nice.

Homeless

2009-11-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

My family and I are oficially homeless starting today, as of about an hour ago (9am). We finished packing up all of our stuff last night and slept at my mom's house so that way there was nothing that we needed to take care of as far as the house went this morning. The buyers were supposed to come over and take possession of the house at 5064 38th ST NE Tacoma WA 98422 (I'm posting the address now since I don't live there anymore) at 9am this morning and we didn't want to meet the people invading our sanctuary on our way out. It was kind of sad being the last one out, and shutting the door for the last time. After all, we lived there for almost 6 years, we had both of our children in that house, there were several improvements we made to the place to make it more livable for us. There is a lot of our blood sweat and tears in that building and the land underneath it. But it's on to bigger and better things now, since we have a big piece of lakefront property to build our new house on. There will be more blood sweat and tears poured into the new place than there ever was in the old house. I just hope I didn't forget anything...

Packing the House

2009-11-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of packing our house now. I still have trouble understanding how much crap we have to pack up. There is a ton of stuff. We got ourselves a larger storage unit a few months ago whe we were getting ready to put our house on the market. It was twice the size of the old one, and now it too is almost full. I'm going to have to go there are rearrange everything so we can fit more stuff in it. I keep bringing home boxes from work that I find on my routes to put stuff in and there seems like a never ending stream of stuff going into them, but we never seem to make a dent in the house. It is crazy. I spent about three hours packing up my shop today, getting everything into boxes and containers, and I bet I could spend another three just in there. Then I have to do the garage, where all of my Volkswagen stuff is...
This next week is going to be crazy. We have to be out of our house on Friday the 13th if that helps you understand...

Before Halloween

2009-10-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

I am still trying to decide what to be for Halloween. This is the first year that I will be able to make/put on a costume, since the holiday falls on a Saturday. Rachel is really trying to get me to be something that she can match all of us up together, like the Wizard of Oz or a Star Wars theme, but I like to be unique. I don't wear the same color ties as my kids when we go to church, I don't wear matching clothes of any kind. If it happens accidentally I change. That everyone wear matching outfits is most assuredly a woman thing. But I am a non-conformist.

We Are Officially Moving.

2009-10-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well, we sold the house. It went for less (much less) than we wanted it to go for, but at least we are not losing a ton. The bad/good thing about it is that the buyers want to close their loan on Nov.13 and that only gives us like a week and a half to pack everything up. It is going to be crazy around here for a while. That and we don't know exactly where we are going to live for now, since we only have an empty lot right now. We will probably end up at my grandfather's house in Bellevue for part of the time and at my parents house for part of the time. But for now, we are going to be moving all of our stuff into storage and living as nomads. I thought about putting up a tent on our lot, but decided against it for two reasons: 1 It is starting to get cold, and I don't think that my wife or my children would appreciate living in a tent in the middle of winter. 2 The house is not likely to be finished for a year at least, and even I would not like living out of a tent for a year.
So now we can start saving all the money we would have spent on mortgage payments and utility bills for the construction of our next house. The city is still apparently on track to get their shoreline management plan approved sometime in the first quarter of next year, and then the permitting process should start fairly soon after that.

Suggestions please

2009-09-08T20:01:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I are currently trying to figure out what kinds of things/rooms/areas to put in our home. I think that we have decided to go with a custom builder and have them help us design a house for us. We would like to keep it at around 2500 sqft, so no we will not be putting in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. But if you could think about your house, and the things you like about it (or don't like for that matter) some creative input would be much appreciated. We've got some of our own ideas, but there are always better more interesting creative ways to do stuff.
Here are the basics as far as rooms go:
Kitchen, Family room, nook off kitchen (for eating), 3beds+master, 2.5 baths, mudroom, 3 car garage, library/den/study, Laundry/craft room. I don't know if we want formal spaces like a traditional living room of dining room. In both our parents houses the don't seem to get used all that often.
But like I said, anything you like about your house or anything you really think we should leave out post it as a comment. It would really help us out!

Facebook

2009-09-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been playing this stupid game on Facebook. It is called Pirates: Rule the Caribbean or something stupid. I don't know what the draw is, but I can't stop at least checking in on it every day. I am like level 27 now I think and the game is not even really that amazing. I just think I need something else to do. If you want to be in my crew and help me out, you go right ahead. Go to my facebook page and add the app to your page, but don't blame me when youe spouse comes in and gets mad because you are wasting all of your time on a stupid game that really is a complete waste of time...

Whistler BC

2009-07-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have decided that Canada is dumb. Not that Canadians are dumb, but Canada is. They don't have real freeways, when they do road construction the lane modifications don't make sense, stuff is way too expensive, and they are WAY too concerned about the environment.
Now I know that these are bold statements, so let me explain:
My father in law got the police condo this last week in Whistler. It is beautiful country, don't get me wrong. We left our house at about 6pm and got on the I-5 and drove straight up to the border. It was easy, no problems. Then we got to the border and things went downhill from there. After we got through the border we stayed on the road that I-5 turns into, Hwy 99. Little did I know that this poor excuse for a highway goes straight into downtown Vancouver and that following it through the city takes special driving skills. The signs that tell you where to turn don't give you any warning, they just appear at the intersection you are supposed to turn at, so if you are in the wrong lane, you're stuck. They are also positioned high and in the trees and are small, making them hard to read or see even if you ARE in the correct lane. All of this=dumb.
Once we finally navigated our way through Vancouver and again found ourselves on some semblance of a highway, they were doing construction. They are trying to improve the roads for the Olympics next year. That is all fine and dandy, but the way that the lanes are marked for the construction is dumb. There is no warning that you are about to be redirected into a new lane. The cones just all of a sudden veer of into a new direction. Trying to stay in a lane is difficult enough, but trying to stay in the correct lane is harder still. I had at one point a few cars behind me following closely to make sure that they were in the same lane that I was, and when I decided I didn't want a bunch of people behind me on this dangerous road I put my hazards on and pulled off to the side of the road between some cones. The dumb people behind me kept on following me and ran over a bunch of cones before realizing that I wasn't leading them through the cone maze anymore.
The expensive part isn't as much a gripe about being expensive as it is about the differences between currency. The monetary values of our currency are so close that Canadians will take our currency instead of their own, but not calculate the difference between the two. In other words, they charge us more and that gets expensive. Do Americans accept Canadian currency as legal tender here in the US? Nope. But the Canadians will steal from you without a second thought. Dumb.
The last thing isn't so bad. Being concerned about the environment is a good thing. But if you are Canadian, it's like you HAVE to be concerned about the environment. All of the activities that they have for you to do up in Whistler all talk as much about how environmentally friendly they are as much as they do ABOUT THE THING THEY ARE ADVERTISING! I am pretty sure that they think I wouldn't give them a second look unless I knew that the brochure I was reading about them was printed on 100% recycled paper using 100% biodegradable vegetable based inks using printers in buildings only powered by wind power. Oh, and they also purchased a bunch of carbon credits for you, just in case your trip up to their activity made you burn any gasoline. No wonder they have to charge you so much... DUMB!
So if you are Canadian and reading this, sorry, but your country is a little less awesome than mine is.

Updates

2009-07-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

News about the property for those who care:
1: The property is still there.
2: The city of Federal Way says it's not all there.
3: King County says it is all there
4: All the other maps I've looked at say it is there.
5: Even if it isn't all there, there is still enough of it there to build on.
6: The first environmental expert we talked to came with good references.
7: She didn't sound very enthusiastic about helping us small timers.
8: The second firm we talked to had connections with the city.
9: We hired the second firm.
10: They will look at our lot on Tuesday.
11: We might talk to Stanbrooke Homes on Wednesday or Thursday.

WOW!!!

2009-06-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

I am sorry that I haven't been better about blogging this year. I always seem to have other stuff to do and none of it involves being on the computer lately. For instance, right now I have both kids awake; one of them is eating in another room and the other one is crawling around the house. I have all the bathroom doors locked and the kitchen closed off, so he can't get into too much trouble. But I just had to get on and write about this important event in my life. For a while now, Rachel and I have been thinking about moving. We both like the house we live in, but it is getting small for a family of four, at least in our opinion. So we have been looking at different options and trying to decide whether or not to buy a lot and build a house or try to find a house that we would be comfortable with. We have considered moving back to Maple Valley to be closer to Rachel's work, but neither of us really want to do that. We both want our own space if you know what I mean. Both sets of parents currently live there and trying to keep up with both sets and still maintain our own identities can be a little difficult at times. Anyway, we really like living a little ways away from family. Close enough to visit but far enough away to have our own lives (If my mom reads this, no offense). We appreciate all that our families do for us and now more than ever: Rachel and I are the proud new owners of a large buildable lot on a lake here in Federal Way. It puts us about 15 minutes closer to both of our places of employment, it is a great area, close to everything and even better, it has all of the utilities in the street. The lot is big enough that we will never have any neighbors looking in our windows from their windows, the lake is small enough that it doesn't allow gas powered engines, but big enough to swim and fish and have fun on. My dad said it best: It's not a muck pond. Anyway, we are very excited and now the next step is to get our current house on the market, then we have to find a builder that we feel comfortable with, choose a plan to build, get our feasibility study done, find financing for the actual build, get permits, sell our current house, move out of said house, find somewhere to live in the meantime, build a house on our lot, rent a portapotty, and a bunch of other stuff. It's gonna be intense, like cubscouts on a campout. Intense.

Lots To Catch Up On

2009-05-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have a lot of stuff to say today, and not a lot of time to say it in. First I was stung by a bee last Saturday at about 1pm while I was mowing my lawn for the first time this summer. I must have been mowing too near it for my own good, because it came right at me and stung me in my left cheek. I caught it and "took care of " it, but the damage had already been done. Luckily Ammon was over by the blueberries and not anywhere near me at the time. He has not been stung yet, and I am not ready for that to happen yet. Anyway, I went in and looked to take out the stinger, but I couldn't find one, so I assumed that the bee had not left it there. In fact I could not even see the exact location of the sting, so I didn't know exactly where to look. And the pain subsided rather quickly so I forgot about it until it started swelling up at about 10:30pm that night. Kind of a delayed reaction. It didn't stop swelling until Monday morning, so I didn't go to church or work Sunday or Monday, because I sort of looked like the Elephant Man and I think I would have scared the little kids and grossed out my customers. In addition to the swelling, a large water blister the size of a quarter formed right on top of the sting site and that stuck out of my face at least another half inch on top of the swelling. It didn't help appearances any when it got so full that it started oozing clear liquid. No I did not get pictures of it. Tuesday, most of the swelling was gone though, thanks to massive amounts of anti-histamine and the blister had fully popped, so I went back to work. Ok, so thats the first thing.
The second thing is I am now in the second day of my mandatory "vacation" from work. I was suspended for 60 days for allegedly running a red light in Seattle and getting caught by a traffic camera. I will not admit to anything in writing, but I think that being suspended for 60 days without pay is an awful long time and a pretty stupid policy. What am I supposed to do for all that time? Is the policy to give me sufficent time to think about my actions? I don't know, but it seems like a pretty harsh punishment for something that only counts as a parking ticket. On the bright side, I now have most of the summer off and will now be able to do all of those things that I have written down that I never seem to have time to do, like getting the house ready to sell, plant a garden, spend time with my family, or blogging for that matter. I guess every cloud has its silver lining.

The End of My Vacation

2009-05-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of our vacation. We had to be out of our room by noon, so we just figured that we would just get out early and go do something, since there really wouldn't be any point in coming back later. We decided to go to Cannon Beach which is about 10 minutes south of Seaside, and for any of you that have seen the movie Goonies, cannon beach is where the triple stones are located, except in the movie they are backwards for some reason. That was the big draw for us to go there, but it is a really nice little town. USBank is huge there on the west coast of Oregon, for those of us that have accounts there. You can rest assured that you will have a branch close by. But I digress... Great town, awesome sandy beaches, nice place. We didn't spend much time there though because it was on the way to TILLAMOOK! We went to the Tillamook cheese factory. Now, I only buy Tillamook cheese and sour cream, so it was kind of a big deal to go there for us. We got a few pictures ate some ice cream bought some cheese and then started on our way home. It was a good trip overall, and a good first trip for our entire family to take together. I'd probably do it again next year.

Ok, so I'm running a little behind.

2009-04-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today is Wednesday, and I still have about half of my week's vacation left. We have spent the last couple of days here in Seaside, OR and it has been really nice. There hasn't been many exciting things that I need to talk about, mostly it has been nice just relaxing away from home and all of the responsibilities that entails. But we are staying at the Resort at Seaside, which is part of the timeshare that my parents have. It's pretty nice, the suite we have has two bedrooms, a balcony (we are on the 8th floor, which is also the top floor) with a gas BBQ, a TV in each bedroom and one in the living room area. It also has a full kitchen and two full bathrooms, and a gas fireplace. Nice. The Resort is right on the beach, and the beach is great. The water is cold, so we haven't been swimming in the ocean yet, but there is a heated swimming pool that Rachel has taken advantage of. I am pretty happy with everything so far. Except for the fact that at 8am the roofers came and started working on the roof right above our suite. Not cool.
Seaside itself is a nice place. There is a something for almost everyone. Quaint little shops, big chain grocery stores, fancy little restaurants, an outlet mall for the bargain shoppers, the beach with its miles of sandy beaches (no rocks on the beach that I could see anywhere, just sand). Last night as the sun set over the ocean, I saw a flash of green just before the sun went down completely. I thought it was pretty neat, as I had never seen it before. We also went to the local aquarium, it is the oldest one on the entire west coast. It isn't a very big one, the Seattle Aquarium is probably four or five times larger. I paid my $7.50 to get in, and went into the first room. The had a tide pool tank where you could touch starfish and anemones and crabs. They had a few small tanks with sea pens and small fish. Then there were a few bigger tanks with octopi and eels and stuff. So we walked around the first room and saw what there was to see, and then I went looking for the next room, but there wasn't one. Just the one room, and that was it. Then on our way out we saw the sea lions. This aquarium had a sea lion family that did tricks for food. They clap and splash and bark to get your attention, because for a dollar you can get some cut up chum and feed them. Pretty funny. I got some good pics of Ammon over the rail throwing food at them. But I have to go now, Rachel is getting impatient. She wants to go do something so off we go.

I'm Sorry

2009-04-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

I really wish that President Obama would stop apologizing to the rest of the world for me. I am not embarrassed by my country or anything that we have done in the recent past. Except for the part about electing an extreme leftist Democrat to the Presidency...There, I got it out of my system. Thank you.

Today I Came Home From Work

2009-03-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

I went in to work this morning at about 6am, because the managers had me assigned to do an FO route. An FO route delivers our early morning packages. It's about 8 stops and all have to be delivered before 8am. I take out my 8 stops in Downtown Seattle and get done just before 8. Sometimes if I don't know the area I am delivering it can be a pretty harrowing experience, but not today. Easy breezy. When a swing driver such as myselfdoes one of these routes, they are usually assigned to a regular morning route also, so that way when they come back off of road all they have to do is scan their freight and head right back out again. But today I didn't see my name on the assignment board for anything other than the FO route. It didn't bother me, because that usually means that I would be doing overflow or something (helping out another route). So I came back to the station, and asked what I would be doing for the rest of the morning, because I have a pickup route to do later this afternoon. They said that there was no freight for me, and that I was to take a split (long, LONG lunch) and be back in time for my pickup route. So here I am, back at home and hopefully I will get a bunch of stuff done that I normally wouldn't have time to do.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

2009-03-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

I am tired. I have a toothache. I have a headache. I didn't get to take a real lunch at work today. I need to do laundry. I was late to work today. I failed miserably on my route today. I just paid a bunch of bills. I don't want to watch American Idol. I want to read a book, but my eyes are too tired. I had to eat microwave burritos for dinner. I am paying for that now. I have to clean up this room. I am still wearing my FedEx clothes, even though I have been home for almost two hours now. It is raining. It might snow again tonight. I still haven't finished the dresser. But I am holding my baby boy, and he is laughing. Life is good.

ByeBye

2009-02-26T21:15:00.000-08:00

Today we donated our cars to the Northwest Center. We put our keys and the signed title in the front seat and then left. When we came home the cars were gone, and we had a nice receipt from the donation people. No fuss no muss, and poof the driveway is empty. I had forgotten what an empty driveway even looked like. We didn't donate the Hyundai or the Mazda mind you, we donated our Kia Sephia and the Saturn SL2. Those were the cars we owned but just took up space in our driveway. Neither car was drivable, mostly because I didn't want to spend any more money on either of them. And I didn't really have the time to work on them myself. The Saturn needed front end work and the Kia needed new wires to the starter (I think). But I have lots of other more important things I could be doing with my time, like blogging. If you ever drive your car into the ground, I highly recommend donating it to some local charity. They do all the hard work for you and it's just done.
Although... I am sad to see the Saturn go, since I really enjoyed driving it. And I wish that I could of at least been there when it was loaded up, you know to kind of say goodbye and wish it luck in it's new life as a wrecker. It had 190000 miles on it and it had lived a good long life. My uncle bought it new in 1995, my dad bought it from him and I bought it from my dad, so it was a family car. It seems like I should have been there to tell it that it was apreciated and that it did a great job and would be missed. Instead I just said,"You're Fired! Get out of here! I don't want to see you when I get home!" Oh well, it's only a car right?

February 23

2009-02-23T20:48:00.001-08:00

Ok I know that the title to today's post is really lame, but it is all I could think up on short notice. I just got done cooking Ammon some dinner, and he is eating right now contentedly in the dining room, which gives me a chance to write a little something in my blog. I haven't been here in a while but that is probably because there isn't much new to talk about. Ok, that's not entirely true but it is mostly true. There have not been any real exciting changes since my last post but here's what has happened. I took my wife to a little restaurant here in Federal Way called The Lobster Shop for Valentine's Day. They are primarily a seafood place, but they do have some other more typical standbys, like steaks and a pasta dish or two. But seafood is what they do best and they do it very well. We have been there a few times in the past. We sort of stumbled upon it about two years ago, just before we had Ammon. We were down at a local park on Dash Point at about 3pm and just kind of exploring. We had never been to this one. It's not a big place, but it has a long fishing pier and a sandy beach with some covered areas. It's nice. There are houses on both sides of the park. Anyway, there was this one house that we saw many people going in and out of, and upon closer inspection, we discovered that it was a restaurant. since we were hungry and feeling adventurous, we went over for a closer look. At 4pm when it opened, we went in and the hostess asked us if we had a reservation. It is the kind of restaurant where people dress up nice and call to make reservations. Luckily they had an open table for us and we enjoyed their twilight menu, which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys seafood. Look them up, it's called the Lobster Shop. There are actually two restaurants listed on their website, but we like the one at Dash Point.

The Day After...

2009-01-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I am now officially one year closer to death. Not actual DEATH death, but 3-0. My older brother is going to turn 30 on Tuesday and I thought about calling him and leaving a voicemail with a funeral dirge playing in the background. Maybe I will still do that, but if he survives Tuesday, maybe there is hope for life after your twenties after all.
To celebrate my birthday, Rachel and I went out for a night by ourselves. We left the kids (it still feels weird saying kids) at my moms house and went to a hotel in Seattle. We stayed at the Pan Pacific in the south Lake Union area. It's a nice hotel, but not the nicest one I have stayed at in this city. I guess I can say that I am somewhat of a hotel snob now, because I have stayed at quite a few.

Rachel and the kids will be leaving tomorrow to California. I will miss them and they will miss me. She is taking them down to visit her grandfather, who is recovering from his umpteenth heart surgery.

Giving Up the Ghost

2009-01-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

This last week of so has been pretty expensive. My Saturn finally gave up the ghost and it is now sitting as a lawn ornament in my driveway. I spent all day last Wednesday taking it apart and putting it back together. The front drivers side wheel bearing has welded itself to the steering knuckle and I don't really want to spend any more money fixing it. The engine and transmission still work fine, but it is getting up there in years. It is a 1995 Saturn SL2, and it only has 191000 miles on it. Only! Anyway, it lived a good long life and I think it's time for it to throw in the towel. So, we decided to go out and get a new car. After doing some research and deciding that we anted a car that could fit more that four people, I decided on two cars: The Mazda CX-9 or the Hyundai Veracruz. Now, anyone that knows me probably would guess that I was a little more biased toward the Veracruz, since that is where I served my mission, and since we already had a Hyundai Sonata, and I really like it. But you would be wrong. I really wanted the CX-9, since I had read really good things about it. So Rachel went down to Portland to get it, since no one up in Seattle would give us a good deal on one. I couldn't go since I had to work and I wasn't going to call in sick just to go get it (even though I have been really sick for the past week or so). So now we have one.

First New Post of the Year

2009-01-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

So in this, my first new post of the year I want to say that I have no real New Years Resolutions. I have things I want to change about myself, but why do I need a new year to make that stuff happen? Anyway with that said, I would like to tell you all how great it felt to get up this morning at 8:30am. I didn't have to wake up to an alarm, and I got up when my body was no longer tired. It felt so good. I don't think I have done that in two months. I guess this is going to be a really random post, because the other thing I want to talk about is Christmas. I got Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii. It is pretty much awesome. You get to do everything by waving around the Wiimote and the Nunchuck in the air: use the force, swing your lightsaber, move around, look around... all that stuff. That is what is so great about the Wii in my opinion. It's not about the graphics, it's all about the interactivity. With the Wii, you get to DO things, not just push buttons and feel your controller vibrate a little bit in your hands. I have been trying to get my hands on a copy of Wii Fit too. Maybe then I would start excersizing right? And if I also got Shaun White's Snowboarding game to go along with it, even better...
Ok, that's enough for now. Happy New Year everyone.

Snowed In

2008-12-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

Today I was having trouble driving on the main roads out of Federal Way. I decided that my bald tires just weren't up for the challenge of traversing solid ice at 6:00am, so I turned around in the middle of the street and came home. So here I am at home really bored, but enjoying my time with the family. I paid some bills, read a book, played a computer game, watched a movie, made everyone banana-nutmeg pancakes for breakfast and cleaned up a bit for Christmas. And all that before 2pm. Now there isn't much to do, so I thought I'd come update my blog. But nothing interesting has happened, except to say that my niece was discharged from the hospital, and that her recovery is going as well as can be expected.

Six Day Work Weeks Are Not Fun.

2008-12-20T21:12:00.000-08:00

Today is Saturday. On any other normal week, this is my day off. It is the day I get to stay home and play with the kids and do stuff around the house. When I get to go out with my wife to dinner or something. But not the week before Christmas. This week, we throw all DOT rules and regs in the garbage and just get the packages delivered. This week I put in 65 to 70 hours (I lost track after about Thursday), which is well over what the government says is the limit. But someone has to deliver the Christmas presents, because Santa is too busy with his own stuff right now. Today I was delivering on Mercer Island. I took out about 60-ish stops and only got about half of them off of my truck. In case you didn't know, the northwest has been hit with a monster cold snap/snowstorm, at least for the northwest, and we have had sub-freezing temps since Wednesday night. So by now all of the snow has been compacted into one solid sheet of ice and no one here knows what to do when that happens. Anyway like I said, I was on Mercer Island which is probably one of the least traveled hilliest parts of the Seattle driving around trying not to slide off the roads and into other cars, people, houses, ect. I had chains on my tires and even the smallest hills were a challenge. I ended up doing a lot of walking to get my packages off. Unfortunately in the end I was only able to get about half of my deliveries done and freeze my feet at the same time. And I forgot my lunch.

Children's Hospital

2008-12-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

Today I went to visit my niece at Children's Hospital in Seattle. The surgery has been scheduled for tomorrow afternoon (if I remember correctly) and should take a few hours. They were originally going to do it next Monday, because her blood pressure was pretty high, but I think that they finally realized that they were dealing with a 2.5 year old little girl who had never been to a hospital before and had all sorts of strange people poking and prodding, and on top of that, her parents were probably a little scared too. I imagine that all of these things made a minor contribution to elevated blood pressure levels. But now that she has been there for a while and gotten used to everything, surprisingly enough the blood pressure has dropped down to more normal levels so the surgery has been moved forward. It gives them a better shot at being out of the hospital before Christmas. But she seems mostly like her normal self. She seemed kind of grumpy today, I took some pictures of her with my cellphone camera and I only got frowny faces with one half smile. Maybe if I get a usb cord for my phone I will upload them.
Children's Hospital is a nice and friendly environment. If I had a child with problems, I would take him there. But you walk in there, and after a few minutes you want to leave. It is probably due to the fact that it is such a nice place, that you just think about being at home and so you just want to go home. They have murals on the walls, family lounges with small kitchenettes where you can put and prepare food you bring, playrooms and lots of toys for the kids... just about everything you could want. Except that it is not home.

Re: Important

2008-12-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

So far this month there are quite a few things of importance to write about. We will see how far I get before I am interrupted. The first thing I would like to talk about is Wilms Tumor. One of my nieces was diagnosed with this type of cancer last week. It's a rare cancerous tumor that develops from immature kidney cells. It primarily develops in children from birth to about 6 or so. She is not quite three. She is at Children's Hospital now, she had a preliminary exam and they ran a bunch of tests to try and determine how far along the cancer was. The doctors figure that she has had the tumor for about a year, but that it is probably still encapsulated within the kidney tissue. That is good, in case you were wondering. It means that it likely has not spread to the surrounding tissue yet. They have her on a tentative surgery schedule for this next week, and they will remove the diseased kidney. One of my brothers also developed this same cancer when he was 6 months old, and the doctors removed his kidney as well. We are all very positive, all things considered. My father gave her a blessing the other night that had good things to say. They live out of town, and when they went to the hospital on Friday, if it was really bad they were going to schedule the surgery for that same day, or Saturday. But they determined that it was alright to wait for a little bit, so that is encouraging. The unfortunate part of putting off the surgery is that she is required to stay at the hospital until the surgery, and who wants to stay at the hospital for an undetermined amount of time. I know I don't. But she is a happy little girl, and I'm sure that their little family will make the best of it. On the bright side, I work in Seattle, and so I can go visit on my lunch breaks.
On a less serious not so distressing note, today we went and got our Christmas tree. We tried to get it last Saturday, but Rachel got out of work late (on her birthday) and the place was closed by the time we got there. It is a u-cut tree farm out in Hobart called Papa's Tree Farm. Kind of far from us, but it was fun. Racel doesn't like being cold, so cutting a tree down in the snow (it has snowed a little in the last day or two) was not the most fun for her, but I would like to make this a tradition. Anyway, we cut down a 7-foot Frasier Fir. It's a pretty nice looking tree, for a great price. I did make us look a little for it though. Rachel was going to choose the first tree she saw with a for sale sign on it so that she could get it over with and get out of the cold, but I wanted to make sure that we got a tree that we were both happy with. She ended up picking out the tree in the end. It is not a full and conical as the sheared trees that you get at the grocery stores, but that is fine by mee, cause it looks like a real tree that we went and cut down (since that is exactly what we did). I am very happy with it. Ok, I have been interrupted now. We put Noah's crib in here with the computer so that no one wakes him up by talking or whatever. So I have to get out now, since Rachel just out him down to sleep. Expect more tomorrow.

The Day Before the First Day of December

2008-11-30T20:17:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd get a last post in before November was over. I seem to have less and less time to do this nowadays. We just came home from my mom's house for our third Thanksgiving Dinner. This was the Real Thanksgiving, in my opinion. Everything homemade, and all of it good (except for brussels sprouts). Let me check if I wrote about Thanksgiving last year... yep I did. Chinese food at my moms house on the day of, then turkey at the in-laws, and then Thanksgiving on Sunday, because that's the day when the most people can get together. This year I decided to smoke the turkey at the in-laws house. It turned out real nice. I finally found a brand of charcoal that works well consistently. It's a brand that I found at Lowe's: Cowboy Charcoal. It's a lump hardwood charcoal, not a briquette, which is full of crap that is not wood. It's a little more expensive per pound, but I like the quality much better than anything else I have tried so far. So the turkey at my wifes parents house turned out really good. And the Chinese food at my moms was really good again this year too, except that we didn't have hot and sour soup. I have a friend at work whose parents own a Chinese restaurant someplace not close by, and he said that they have the best hot and sour soup ever. He bragged about it so much that I asked him to bring me some, and to give me the recipe. He said that he would, but I still haven't seen (or tasted) anything yet. I'm going to have to find a really good recipe for next year.

What I've Learned About Work

2008-11-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

Weekends are great. Mostly because I didn't have to wake up at 4:30am to get ready to go to work. I also get to see my family. Working all day long all week long is tough. I spend about 12-13 hours just at work, not including the 45 minute drive to get there and back. I get up and it's dark, I go home and it's dark. But the good thing about working is that I can pay the bills. And I think that is a lot more than many people can say these days. I am grateful for a job that gives me a certain security. Fedex has made it a point over the years to never lay anyone off. While we might get less hours when times get tough, we will still have an income, and still have medical and dental benefits. Even though I don't particularly enjoy my job (I find it tedious and stressful) it is a job that pays a living wage, and I find that I can live a fairly comfortable life. I will never get rich as a result of delivering packages, but I don't really think that anyone who works for someone else ever does. And I am pretty sure that I am not very interested in running my own business. I don't think that is for me. I don't want to end up here forever, but I am ok with it for now.

The Last Day

2008-10-31T15:24:00.000-07:00

Today is officially the last day I am a stay at home dad. For those that don't know, I took three weeks off from work to be at home while Rachel got acclimated to her new part time work schedule, and to see that Noah got a little older before we start taking him over to my moms house. Rachel will only be working on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The rest of the week, she will be at home with them. I don't think I will have to work many Saturdays, so hopefully it will only be two days that the kids will be at my moms house.
Being at home with the kids is interesting. There isn't much time to do anything that I want to do. I end up spending a lot of time playing with blocks or reading books or stuff like that. Ammon is starting to talk (for real) and that makes things a little more interesting, in that he can at least answer questions about things he wants to do instead of me having to guess all the time. Noah has gotten to the point where he is sleeping through the night and takes a nap about the same time of the day as Ammon does, so that is the time to get the laundry done, or write in my blog. Today I chose to do the blog. It really has been great being here at home with the kids. Partly because starting on Monday, I will not be seeing them very much. It depends on my new work schedule. I'm not quite sure what it is going to be but I do know that it is all day long. We'll see if I'm cut out for 12 hour days.

TGIF... What does that mean anyway?

2008-10-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

So I have almost completed my first full week as a stay-at-home dad. It has been kind of crazy so far, and I have come to realize just how much discipline it takes to be on top of everything. And I only have two kids. I have to remember to feed them, and change their diapers. I have to bathe them and get them dressed. I have to entertain them and make sure they don't get into trouble. It's amazing how little time I have to get any housework done, or anything other than watch the boys and make sure that they don't die. For instance, Ammon has figured out how to open the dishwasher. There were steak knives in the lower part of the dishwasher where you put the silverware, and of course Ammon doesn't grab a spoon, he pulls out the knives. Luckily he was apprehended by the dad police before he got too far with them, but I have to remember that he is getting bigger now, and can do more stuff. And then Noah who is a helpless baby is the main focus of Ammon's interests right now. We have to be extra careful that Ammon is gentle enough and soft enough. He has tried to use Noah as a stepping stool, or a landing platform. He likes to make sure that Noah is warm, so he is constantly trying to cover(smother) him with blankets. He like to do this thing where he bangs his forehead against yours, and Noah's head is just as good as any other. We just have to be very careful. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

RE: No Subject

2008-10-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

Today in church we blessed Noah. I was worried that we were going to have too many people in our group to all be up on our chapel's little stand at once, but another family went before us and they had like twice as many people, so I wasn't worried anymore. It was me, the bishop, my dad, Rachel's dad, two of my uncles, three of my brothers (it would have been four, but one went to BlizzCon), and a friend. And Noah. Once we were all mashed together up there I started sweating 'cause it was so hot in such cramped quarters, and I was worried that we were going to start a fire. Fortunately we didn't, and the burning smell was just the result of the new boiler being turned on for the first time. But is was a good blessing. Unfortunately we didn't have anyone out in the foyer this time typing it out as the blessing was given. We did with Ammon, my older brother's wife types really fast, but they didn't bring their computer this time I guess. Of course, I didn't even remember to ask her about it until I was on my way up to the stand...

Tuesday Morning

2008-09-30T11:57:00.001-07:00

Well, it's pretty quiet around the house this morning. Rachel had a work event that she had to attend at 11:ooam and wasn't going to get done with it until about 1:30pm. That's about when I have to get going to work, and she wasn't going to get home in time, so she had to take the kids to my mom's house. So I've had all morning to myself. It's been weird, having a quiet house all to myself. You'd think I would be getting a lot of stuff done since we are still trying to get the house ready to sell, but no... I slept. And it was great.

Here At Work

2008-09-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

I am on a break right now at work. They called me in early today to help get the entire reload setup, since the lady who normally does it is gone today, and I'm really the only other person who is not a manager that knows how to do it. And since I came in early, it means I will be working over the hours allowed without taking a break, so here I am, bored out of my mind, taking a break, typing on my blog at work. Did you see how many commas I used in that sentence? And the kicker is, I got it done in the same time that she usually does, so they really didn't have to call me in early. But the pm boss plans for the worst, and hopes for the best. Anyway, I ony have a half an hour break, so it really isn't enough time to go do anything. I've got my music on, and am wishing I had brought my laptop, instead of using these dumb computers they have here at work. They are from the 1980s I am pretty sure.

The Economy and the Stock Market

2008-09-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the news today on my non-hd radio. All I heard was, "Economy, Stock Market, Banking, Oh my!" Here's my take on the whole thing. And this coming from someone who knows at least one thing about all that stuff: it sure doesn't help when politics gets involved in hyping up the problems inherent in the system. I know that most of these politicians know that the stock market , and indeed most of our economy is based on consumer confidence. If people "think" the economy is going to take a dip, it will. If people "think" the economy is doing just fine, then they have no problem spending money and keeping the whole thing rolling along smoothly. But when stupid politicians get involved in scaring the American public with garbage like "Oh no! This is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression!" you just have to stop and think to yourself, "Self, why are the politicians doing this? Are they in the game to really help me? Or are they in it to help themselves?" One can only conclude the latter. I mean give me a break! This is nothing like the Great Depression! Unemployment is at 6.something percent. Most people who know anything about economics will tell you that 6.something percent is great. Even necessary. It means that there are people available to hire, and that the economy, and businesses have some room to grow. If unemployment gets much lower, we will HAVE to let all the illegal immigrants stay, just so that there are more people to hire!
While I know that there are some people who are suffering as a result of the housing market and the recent drops in the stock market, the vast majority of Americans will not be adversely affected to any great degree, as long as consumer confidence remains solid. That is where the politicians can do their best work: reassuring the American public that things are going to be fine, that the economy will resolve it's issues as it has in the past, and that we don't need to be running around like chickens with our heads cut off, screaming,"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" Of course if we were chickens, we wouldn't be screaming anything, especially not in English, and most especially if our heads had been cut off.

Friday Night (AKA Saturday Morning...)

2008-09-13T01:08:00.001-07:00

So the trend continues. Here I am, up at the crack of dawn and I finally find time to post. No new pics yet, mostly because I'm too lazy right now to go get my camera and upload them. Let's see- so today at work I officially applied for the full time swing driver position; or in other words, I have just sold my soul to the devil. Now Fedex really owns me. No longer can I hide behind the excuse,"Sorry, but I am part time, and I don't want to do that." You see at Fedex, part timers can opt to not work anything beyond their schedule. If I don't want to do anything extra, like make any extra deliveries or run late shuttles to the airport, as a part time employee, I can just say no. But no longer. It is a necessary step (read EVIL) that I have to take on my road to management. So hopefully I don't have to do it for too long. Maybe a year or so. And since this is a swing driver position, it means that I could be thrown on any route at any time, without any warning even if I have no idea how the route is structured. I just have to find a way to "Git'er Done!" And the hours are not going to be very pleasant either: 6:30am to 7:00pm, probably with a 2 hour lunch break somewhere in the middle. That's the thing I am not looking forward to, is being gone ALL DAY LONG. I'm sure Rachel is not thrilled about it either. But it won't be forever, and honestly, with the money I'll be making as a full time swing driver, Rachel wouldn't have to work at the bank anymore, but I think she wants to anyway just in case. Also to get out of the house and to have some real adult interaction during the week. She'll be working Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and I'll be home most Saturdays, so we will only have to worry about getting the kids to my parents house two days a week instead of four.

No Sleep

2008-09-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

See what time I am posting? DO YOU SEE WHAT TIME IT IS? This is crazy, I'm not getting any sleep these days. Noah has decided that the hours of midnight to 3am are his "awake and crying" hours. And once Noah starts crying, Ammon wakes up and starts crying too. And before you ask, no they are not sleeping in the same room. In fact they are not doing much sleeping, period. I think last night I got 3 solid hours, and tonight I am on par for about four. And then I have to go to work and drive big trucks in small streets in Seattle. Oh, there's Noah, TTFN.

Noah Has Arrived!!!

2008-08-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

Today we brought Noah home from the hospital. He is SO SMALL! Ammon hasn't gotten home yet from my mom's house, so we are anxious to see how he reacts to having someone else to compete with for our attention...

Sunday night we got home from Maple Valley with my sister in law Tasha at about 11:00pm. Rachel went to bed about as soon a we got home, but Tasha and I sat up talking for a while afterwards. Rachel got us both up at about 1am Monday morning and said that it was time to get ready to go to the hospital, and so we didn't get much sleep. We called the midwives that Rachel has been seeing and they said to wait for a while before going to the hospital until the contractions were more regular and stronger. My mom got to our house at about 3am and when she arrived, I went back to sleep. They all got me up to go to the hospital at about 4am and we got there at 4:30. Real big contractions started at about 6:30 and Noah arrived at 7:54 am Monday morning. He arrived in good health, which is a blessing. He came out with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, but it ended up not being a problem. He also came out face down, which is normal, and also a surprise since he was face up when we got to the hospital. The contractions must have moved him around, I suppose. He came out at 6lbs 5oz and 19.5 inches long. Not a very big baby, by Alldredge standards, but he had ten fingers and ten toes (five to each appendage), and everything else in the right places.
He kind of looks like a little old man.

Anyway, we are very excited to finally have him here in our home after nine months of waiting. Also, just so you know, we decided to name him Noah Benjamin Alldredge.

Time for another post

2008-08-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

I have deemed that it is once again time to grace the internet with another blog post. This time I am feeling political. We have a primary election coming up here in Washington state in a week or so, and I just got my absentee ballot in the mail. We have come up with yet another way to make things interesting in this state when it comes to the election process. In the last election, I had to declare my party preference (Republican) in order to vote, and then I had to only vote for the party I declared. I never thought that that was a fair way of doing things, because what if, on some remote, unlikely, improbable chance there happened to be a guy on the OTHER SIDE that I thought was a better candidate? I wouldn't have been able to vote for that person! It just didn't seem very fair. On the other hand, it did prevent the OTHER SIDE from coming over to our side and racking up a lot of votes for a person who couldn't win. Which I think we tried to do a while ago to the OTHER SIDE, and it back-fired in our faces (i.e. Maria Cant(think)well)... Anyway, this year they have come up with another way to make things interesting. I got my ballot and opened it up and read that I could vote for whomever I wanted! Hooray! But then as I read further, I saw that we have what is called a "top two" primary. This means that the top two vote getters from the primary will advance on into the general election. That means that we could potentially have two candidates from the OTHER SIDE in the general election, and no one from our side to vote for. I think that I will enjoy seeing how this will play out. PS, just so you know, I voted for Dino Rossi. Again. Lets hope that he doesn't have the job stolen from him like last year. All you OTHER SIDErs in King County, just remember that the Primary election is on August 20th and the General election this year is on November 5th. Don't forget to VOTE!!!

You know what?

2008-07-28T00:08:00.000-07:00

This blog entry is not going to be very informative, at least not in the sense that I will be relaying any useful information. Mostly tonight I will be babbling I think. I don't really have a specific subject right now, I just felt the need to get on the computer and write. I think that writing is very therapeutic for me. I enjoy the opportunity to express myself and perhaps even discover something new about myself in the process of blogging. So tonight it's all about me. I guess I'll start with work. I'm starting to get bored. I need a new challenge, but FedEx is making it pretty hard right now to climb the ladder, so to speak. Right now I am a swing driver, which means that I fill in for other people when they call in sick, or are on vacation. This is a pretty good job, in the sense that it pays well and that it keeps you doing a different route every day. But it gets to the point where you know the ins and the outs of each route and the challenge is lost. So a while ago I decided to start looking at applying for a management position. I found out that in order to be a manager at FedEx, I need to attend training classes. These classes are taught by other managers, on their own time, and on our own time too. So you can tell how excited most of them would be to spend a Saturday teaching other people how to compete for the jobs that they might want to apply for themselves. Anyway, out of the list of classes, I have been to one. It's like pulling teeth just to get any information out of these guys. But I will keep pressing on, because I'm stubborn like that.
Then there is life at home. Life at home is great, for the most part. I got into trouble a few nights ago, because I was staying up too late for my own good. The problem is that at night , after Ammon and Rachel have gone to bed, is the only time I have for myself. If you look at the timestamps on most of these postings (this one included) they mostly occur around midnight. It's the only time when there is real peace and quiet in the house. But I understand Rachel's concerns, so we made a deal: I have up to one hour after she goes to bed to do what I want to do on the computer. Then I have to turn it off and come to bed. That's a fair deal I think, and it's not like I'm up every night... I just happen to be a night owl, and don't necessarily get tired at 10pm like Rachel does. For most of my life, I have been in bed late, like around 12-1am. It's just how I grew up. On my mission, it was really hard for me to go to bed and have lights out by 10:30... I never really got used to it, but after working hard every day in the hot hot sun, it felt good to lay down and rest. I didn't necessarily fall asleep, but I did rest.
Then there is the problem of picking out a middle name for Noah. I not a real big fan of the names on Rachel's side, and Rachel isn't a huge fan of the names on my side either. Not that there is much to choose from on my side. John, William, and David, three names between my dad, and my grandfathers. About half as many as one might expect. I think that Alexander and James are our current acceptable choices now, but we are not enthusiastic about either of them, not at all like we were for Ammon. Oh well, the name will come to us eventually.
You know what? I think that's it for now. I've satisfied my blogging bug for now. Bye Bye.

My 10 Year High School Reunion

2008-07-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I attended my first high school reunion, and let me just say, it was "Great!" Ok, it wasn't horrible, but it definitely was not great. Just so you know, I went to Tahoma High School in Maple Valley where I grew up. I graduated in 1998, and we had a pretty big graduating class. I want to say that if any of the people who planned it ever read this I don't begrudge you for my not having a great time. Unfortunately, being a fairly "by the book" Mormon, I don't consume alcohol, don't smoke, and don't have much fun when I'm placed in situations where people do that stuff to excess. I guess I will never understand the draw of getting drunk, losing your inhibitions, being an idiot and then not being able to remember most of it the next day AND having a big headache after the "buzz" wears off. That and none of my close high school friends were there. But that is ok, since I see most of them on a semi-regular basis anyway. I did notice (just like anyone else who has gone to a high school reunion) that there are three groups of people. The first group consist of people who haven't grown up at all since high school. The only difference is that they can now drink legally. Then there are the people who look at that first group and wish they could go back to that life. They may have gotten married/real jobs/mortgage (see RESPONSIBILITY) but don't appreciate what they have. And then there are the adults in the third group. They are the ones who have started families, finished (or are mostly finished) with college, out in the real world having a good time being adults. They don't long for the "glory days" of high school. They are glad to be moving on to new challenges, to bigger and better (and ultimately more rewarding) things.
And to be completely honest, it takes a high school reunion to put things like that into perspective. I can comfortably and happily say that I fit nicely into the third group.

Back Rubs

2008-07-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

As Rachel gets closer and closer (and bigger and bigger) to the due date, she get more and more uncomfortable. It doesn't matter what position she is in either. Standing, sitting, in the bed, in the car, it just doesn't matter. So almost every night I am asked to give back rubs. Tonight it was a back rub and a head massage. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I just feel sorry for her. She has been going to a masseuse at least once a month, and that seems to help for about three or four days. I'm just glad my insurance covers all of that. As I think about the part about being uncomfortable, I remember that we went swimming this last weekend, and she did say that she was comfortable when she was sitting in the inner tube floatee thing. She said that maybe we should buy one and out it in our room so she could sleep on that instead. It was one that had two squirt guns built in to it. It was pretty neat, I'll have to find out the brand and name. But I guess a $20 swim toy is better for her than our Tempur-Pedic mattress... Maybe we should have gotten a waterbed instead. I hate those things... Water beds I mean, not water toys or my mattress.

4th of July Weekend

2008-07-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

This 4th of July was pretty awesome. Last week I went to Lowe's and bought myself a smoker. They had it listed in two spots for two prices, and when I asked about the price difference, they said that the higher price was the real price. Of course. But I got it at the lower price... about 20% lower. So that was cool. I also went to Costco and got a few racks of pork back ribs. I didn't realize that they take the membrane off for you before they package it, so I think I spent about 10 minutes trying to get the non-existent membrane off before the BBQ. But now I know, and knowing is half the battle. I think that I will always get my ribs from Costco now. Plus they were cheap. So on the 4th, I went over to my mom's house with my cousin David. We brought the smoker and my grill box and the 7 racks of ribs and 4 lbs of pork tenderloin that I was going to cook. I prepared the ribs in three different ways, and then put all but one rack on my smoker. I just couldn't fit the last one, so it had to go on the gas grill. No smoke for that rack. But I smoked them for about four hours.... Awesome! Then we went to the Indian Reservation to buy our $300 worth of fireworks. I only buy the artillery shells and big cakes anymore. But David convinced me that we should get some smaller stuff too, and I'm glad we did. Got some party poppers and pop its and sparklers for the little kids, and some bottle rockets and roman candles for the bigger kids. I just can't compete with those neighbors. Not when they own their own fireworks stand. They always 1 up me (or 2 or 3 up). But we had a lot of fun.

A Trip to Idaho

2008-06-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my family and I left to visit my brother in Idaho. We left at about 10:00pm and drove through the night. The total travel time is about 12 hrs, what with all the rest stops and fueling stops and traffic stops... yeah I got pulled over by an Idaho State Patrol officer about 15 minutes away from my brother's house. I was trying to catch up to my dad who had rocketed away from our two car caravan a little while earlier. The cop got me at 85 in a 75, so only 10 over. It could have been worse, since a little earlier I had been up to 90+. Anyway, the guy came out of no where and came flying up the freeway behind me. As soon as
I saw the flashing lights in the distance behind me, I knew that he'd got me, so I started to pull over. I had just caught up to my dad too, (who incidentally sped off and left me to the sharks), which was extra frustrating. Anyway, the cop was nice, I was nice (Rachel wondered why, and I was like, "The guy is just doing his job... give him a break") and I drove away with a $75 speeding ticket. Pretty cheap if you ask me. So here we are at my brother's house, and I'll let you know how that goes.

Where does the Time go?

2008-06-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know? Because I sure don't have a clue. My last post was something like a month ago, and I didn't even realize it....
Right now Ammon and I are eating breakfast. He is eating his very healthy breakfast of OJ, Eggo waffles, pear-flavored applesauce, and string cheese. He just like variety I suppose. The only problem is that whenever I'm not looking, he starts to dump his juice out of the sippy cup all over his tray and it makes such a big mess... I on the other hand am eating Cookie Crisp cereal. It is also a healthy breakfast, because it tastes like chocolate chip cookies... and it is fortified with at least a thousand vitamins, so you know it's good for you.
Now Ammon is throwing his breakfast on the floor (as he usually does when he is done) so I have to get him out before he makes too big a mess!

Christmas in May

2008-05-19T11:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we went out to visit our parents. My sister-in-law Tara was at her parents house, and she had been cleaning her room in her apartment. As she was straightening up, she looked under her bed and to her astonishment, found two boxes that she had either been looking for and couldn't find (because of the mess and all) or had forgotten about till she saw them. They were Christmas presents for Rachel and her sister, Tasha. Since Rachel's family had been in Utah (and/or California) during Christmas this last year, she hadn't gotten around to giving them to us. So Rachel and Tasha both got a pair of rubber boots. Rachel's were pink with white polka dots, and Tasha's were a brown plaid color. Both pairs were very stylish. And now that the rainiest part of the year is over, they will both get to save the boots, all shiny and new, until next year! Oh, and I got store credit from The Home Depot for $34.12 or something like that. She had taken some stuff back to the store and had only gotten in-store credit, so she gave that to me. Maybe I can use that to help pay for the new carpet that we are putting in...

Ammon Likes to Help Out

2008-05-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

So we have been getting the house all cleaned up and organized, trying to get it ready to sell. There is a lot more work than I thought there would be. Also, since we have to get about half of our stuff out of the house before we can start showing it, we need to find a storage unit to put it all in. Getting all of our stuff ready to store has been interesting. I have to find all the boxes we are going to use at work. So none of them are the same size, which will make stacking them in a storage unit interesting. But my skills from stacking cans (not food cans, but the large metal containers at work we put packages in for transport on the airplane) will definitely come in handy. Also, it looks like we are going to get a storage unit that is 10'x15', so that will be yet another challenge, trying to pack up a whole house into such a small space. But I was told that the ceilings are really high... But back to the real reason for my post, Ammon. He has started to help around the house. Like for instance, he wanted to help fold socks:So he climbed right into the sock drawer and proceeded to throw out all of the socks onto the floor, which was such a big help. He has also started to wander around with the dust mop and "dust" things, which means that he just waves the dust mop around and hits things and knocks stuff over. He has also dusted the toilet, another thing that I just hadn't gotten around to doing yet. But Ammon saw a need and went to fulfill it. He also like to help with putting the dishes away, mostly by closing whatever cupboard or drawer that you have opened, even if you are not done putting stuff away. He's a real big fan of doors and drawers. Then he has also found a way to help when we are moping or sweeping the floor: he grabs the handle and pushes and pulls it all over the place, which of course knocks the dirt we had previously swept up all over the place. I love having a son that's so helpful...

Another Trip to Florida...

2008-05-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Rachel and I went on yet another fabulous trip. We seem to be doing a fair bit of traveling these days, this year especially. This last time we went to Orlando Florida. Since Rachel has done so well at USBank the last few years, we have gotten to go to quite a few places, at the bank's expense. It's a tough life I know. Anyway, Florida. So we went and stayed at the J.W. Marriott Resort. It's a pretty nice hotel, but not the nicest one the bank has put us up in. That honor was won by the Westin Hotel in Whistler BC. But I can't complain about the Marriott either. We were on the 17th floor or something like that and had a great view from our balcony.
Here is some video, and in case you don't have speakers to hear the video commentary, the last part of me looking out the window and pointing is me trying to explain how the hotel created a swimming pool with a river that has a current in it that you can swim against, without an elevation change. Which means that you can basically go around in circles in the pool/river without having to climb out or up. It's done with large jets strategically placed along the river and in the pools. It must cost a fortune to run it all. I thought it was great. You can see that the room was pretty nice in the video too. The morning I got there (Rachel had come in the night before) we went to EPCOT Center. If you don't know, EPCOT is Disney's attempt at re-creating cultures from around the world. I think that there are like 12 different countries that they have represented. Each country's pavilion has unique buildings in that country's style, authentic food, and people from the represented countries work in those areas. So for instance, in the Norway Pavilion had Norwegians working there, because we heard some of the tourists come up and start talking to the employees in Norwegian. Same in the China Pavilion. Then you can visit Morocco, France, the U.K., Mexico, Germany, Italy, Japan, colonial USA, and Canada. Ok so that's 11. There are a few rides there, but the lines are SOOOOOOO LOOOOOONNNNGGGG!!! I went on the GM Test Track ride and waited about 30 minutes for a three minute ride that wasn't all that exciting. The Mission: Space ride was pretty good. 45 min for that ride, but you got to pilot a space craft to Mars and it really felt like you were doing it. You get into this little pod and there is a heads up display and a joystick and buttons to push. The pod is attached to a giant centrifuge and it pivots up, down, left right and goes forwards and back. It's a pretty good effect, and even a little disorienting as you go from blasting off, to weightlessness in outerspace to twists and turns piloting through a debris field and then through a winding canyon before coming to a stop. I'd do it again, but I would get a FastPass first (a FastPass holds your place in line without you actually having to be there).
Then that night we went to the Marvel Superhero Island. I didn't take my camera for some reason, so I don't have any photos. But it was crazy awesome. The Bank rented the entire park for our exclusive use. They served a buffet dinner in the streets between rides. And it was gourmet food, too. Pan crusted snapper, beef tenderloin, some weird chicken dish that I didn't want to try, lots of food. But the best part was the rides. They kept the three best rides open for us. That meant no lines, no waiting. You went to the ride, got on the ride, rode the ride, got off the ride, and went right back around and got on again. The Incredible Hulk roller coaster was AWESOME! You get on and start moving up the first big hill, where they've got you chained and you move slowly upwards. But then you notice that at the top of the hill, before you start down the other side, there is a twist. And you wonder how you are going to make the twist going at this slow speed. About that time, you are slammed back into your seat as your car is shot forward and up the rest of the hill. And then you start screaming. That roller coaster was the best coaster I have ever been on. Period. Not the longest, or the highest but definitely the best. The most action, twists and turns and loops and upside down and nonstop action till you are brought to a quick, almost jerky stop where you get off and run around to the other side to do it all over again. I rode more than a few times. Then there is the Spiderman ride. Not quite the same as the Hulk, but just as fun. Rachel was able to ride on this one. This one is like you're inside one of the Spiderman comic books. You play the part of a photographer, and your job is to get Spiderman on film, doing what he does best. But it all goes horribly wrong when you encounter Doc Oc, Venom, the Hobgoblin and other Spiderman villains engaged in a plot to take control of the city, or world or whatever. They all attack you in turn and Spiderman comes to save your butt each time. But what really makes this ride cool is that it's all in 3-D. At the beginning, before you get on the ride, you grab your 3-D glasses. Then as the ride starts, Spiderman comes and explains whats going to happen. He swings out and lands on the front to the car you are in, and it looks like he is really there, two feet in front of you. The Hobgoblin throws his pumpkin bombs at you, and as they explode around you, you feel the heat as the car is equipped with a device that blows really hot air in your face. Some water gets splashed around during a part, and you get a little wet. Then you fall from the top of a building and it really feels like you are falling and Spiderman saves you at the last minute. It was great. I rode that ride more than the Hulk. The third ride was one of those rides that take you up in the air, and then let you drop. Not all that exciting, and it made me a little sick after eating so much. I only went on that one once. But the night as a whole was AWESOME!
The next day was a free day and so Rachel and I went down to the pool and ad a good time floating around the pool and relaxing in the sun. I got a little sunburnt, but not bad. That night was a big awards dinner hosted by the bank, and Rachel received her award for being an awesome banker, and of course I messed up the shot of her getting the award. I've done it every year. This year I even practiced... The next day we came home. In the Orlando airport the is a NASA store that I visited. It was kind of a whirlwind trip, but it was a lot of fun.

Spending Money

2008-05-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

We have been spending way too much money lately. I don't know exactly where it's all going either. Not that we're in trouble or anything, but it's really time to cut back for a while. For instance, we went to Orlando last week and stayed at the Marriott Resort. We went to Disney World and to Epcot Center. That was all free, but what DID cost us a bunch of money was the new laptop computer I bought so we could watch movies on the airplane and use the internet while we were there. I bought a HP Pavilion dv6875se. Look it up, it's pretty awesome. Not the most expensive computer I could have gotten, but for around $1000, it's got everything I think I will need in a laptop for a long time (read: three or four months). Then we are spending all this money to fix up the house to get it ready to sell. New paint, I bought a ladder for $150 so I could paint the house, lawn care products to get rid of weeds and moss, new plants for the front and back (because the ones I have right now are not good enough according to the Realtor), new carpet for the whole house (another $1000 or so)... The list goes on. Then there are the new tires for Rachel's Sonata and the air compressor (with 6 important air tools included) I bought. Not that I'm really unhappy about the things we have purchased, it's just I'm not used to spending all that money in such a short period of time. That's a good thing, right?

Getting Ready To Sell

2008-04-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

This month we are getting ready to sell the house. We would like to put it on the market towards the middle-to-end-of May. I have a lot of little things to do here inside the house, like some painting and cleaning. The real estate agent came over on Wednesday and gave me a big long list of stuff to do. Also, I am supposed to figure out how to wire a light into the ceiling fan, because apparently there is not enough light in our family room for her taste. I don't know if that is going to be possible, and where would I put the switch? I don't know either... I also have to clean out the garage. She asked me what my plans for the bug were and I told her that it is staying right where it was until the day I move out of the house (unless I got it running before then, but that is unlikely). I think she got the idea because she didn't say another word about it. But Rachel has to tone down all of the knick-knacky junk that is all over the house. I think it is time for a yard sale! We don't actually have a lot of extra space in this house, but we are supposed to make it look like we do. We'll see how that works out. Oh, and the first thing the realtor said when she walked in was "We are going to have new carpet put in, right? This carpet is old and matted down, and it's finished." I said yes, but Rachel didn't want to commit to anything, because she didn't want to spend a lot of extra money. At least that was until my mom reminded her that she had second thoughts about the house before we bought it... BECAUSE of the carpet. So now it's not such a bad thing.

Pics of my new son Noah

2008-04-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

Here are the scans of the pictures from the ultrasound. That sentence was a mouthful. Anyway, here they are. The first one is proof (for those that know how to read them) that it is a boy. The second is a picture of his profile, and the last of is a picture of his foot.

We also got some video of it. I see in the menu bar that I can add video, I wonder how long it will take to upload, seeing as how the video is like 30MB... I guess I can always let it run overnight.

We Are Having Another Boy!

2008-04-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the doctor a few minutes ago and I am pretty excited! We found out this morning that we are having another boy! We are going to name him Noah something. Well not Noah Something, but Noah and we don't know what the middle name is gonna be yet. If you have any suggestions you can post them as comments. We got video done at the doctors office of the ultrasound so maybe I'll post post it here or as a link to Youtube so everyone can see. I thought about getting a 3-d picture done, and they even offer a 4-d video (that's a video of the 3-d image, time being the fourth dimension) but that was pretty expensive, and we will have the real thing here soon enough. So, I just wanted to post this little tidbit and get it written down. Just for your FYI.

Cruise to the Bahamas

2008-03-01T00:26:00.000-08:00

Last week Rachel and I took a cruise to the Bahamas. It was our first time ever on a cruise and we didn't know quite what to expect. We were worried about the size of the room, and how much we were going to have to spend on food and blah blah blah. I think that a cruise is has got to be the most self-contained vacation you could possibly have. We had a great time. The food is cooked and prices are included in the cruise ticket price. You could probably gain 10lbs if you aren't careful, cause there is "free" food 24-7. The only extras you pay for are gambling and alcohol, and since Rachel and I don't participate in those activities we didn't end up spending a bunch of extra money. We traveled on the Carnival Fascination. Carnival may not be the nicest, most luxurious cruise line, but is probably the most fun, at least according to some of the cruise aficionados I met on board. There are live shows to see, comedy acts to see, and Rachel's all time favorite: Karaoke Night. We flew to Florida on Thursday night, left Miami Friday, arrived in Nassau, Bahamas on Saturday and got back to Miami on Monday. We went swimming in the warmest clearest bluest ocean water I have ever personally seen, went to a massive resort called Atlantis on Paradise Island, and spent an afternoon walking through the aquariums and pools they have, saw the Michael Jackson Suite (the most expensive hotel suite in the world at $25,000 a night with a four night minimum booking. It's the "bridge" between the two buildings), frolicked in the ocean, listened to some crazy tour guides and just had a great time overall. I would definitely do it again. Not stay at Atlantis (cause I'm not rich) but go on a cruise. Or go to the Bahamas again. There isn't much to do there except go to the beach or to the resorts. I was a little surprised at that. The capital city didn't have a movie theater or fancy restaurants. It was mostly about tourists buying trinkets. There were some pretty aggressive ones too. They would come up to you and put stuff in your hand saying it was free and then ask for a "donation." When my donation wasn't large enough, they took their "free" stuff back, called me cheap and walked away in a huff. It reminded me of the Markets in Mexico where I served my mission.

Last Week in Recap

2008-01-29T23:06:00.000-08:00

Last week was my birthday. I turned 28 on the 24th. According to my older brother, who also had a birthday last week, only two more years till I'm officially "dead." He just turned 29, and now has less than a year left till he hits the "big 3-0." Of course we have been saying stuff like that since we were teenagers. Once we hit 20, we're not teenagers anymore, and now, once we hit 30, we are no longer in our prime, and we are supposed to grow up and get responsible and stuff like that. But for me, I have a wife and a one year old son and another baby on the way, I own my own home and do my own laundry and dishes and pay my own bills and stuff, so I guess I'm already pretty responsible. But enough of that...
Last week like I said, I turned 28. I was also on vacation from work the whole week, and you'll never guess what we did. Go ahead, try. If you guessed anything fun, you'd be wrong. We were all sick last week and didn't do anything. I have bronchitis that has mostly cleared up with antibiotics, Ammon had an ear infection and was also on antibiotics and pain meds, and Rachel had a sinus infection, but she has been really bad about taking her medicine. She is worried about the pregnancy. I guess I understand, because this one has been more difficult for her. This time around, she has been more tired and nauseated. With Ammon, it was more energizing than anything else. Anyway, we watched a lot of movies last week 'cause we didn't really leave the house unless we had to. We have a rather large movie collection, since I would rather buy the movie and watch it whenever I want, than see it in the theater once for the same price. We probably have 100 or so, give or take. For my birthday, one of my younger brothers gave me Gremlins. I remember being scared by that movie when I was young, but it only has a PG rating. Now it's like, "Oh you can see the strings that they used to make the puppets move!" And the acting was pretty unbelievable. Not in a good way either. It was pretty funny to remember watching it so many years ago, excited and scared at the same time, only to laugh and poke fun at the animatronics and bad acting now that I'm older. But I find that life is sort of like that too. Not with the animatronics and bad acting, but as I grow up, it's interesting to see the changes in what I think is important, or exciting and worthwhile. I guess maturity will do that to a person...

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

It's the new year. 2008. The year where we will see which party gains control of the White House. I am very interested in politics, but I try to keep my politics to myself. I tend to be conservative and Republican, in that order. I say that because lately many of the Republicans that are in office have not been acting in accordance with the conservative principles that I hold near and dear. Small government, lower taxes, national security and capitalism. It's kind of like when that new Superman came out and the writers said "Truth, Justice...and all that other stuff," instead of the "and the American Way." Fairly disappointing. I hope that whichever Rep candidate will fight for my beliefs. If Ron Paul wasn't so isolationist and didn't have two first names and no last name I might consider him. But his foreign policy is loony. Rudy Guillani is really much too liberal on social issues for my taste. Mike Huckaby... I don't know. Taxes and criminals make me think twice about him. I wish that Duncan Hunter had more than a snowball's chance in... well you know. I think I'd vote for him in a second. But he's not a "top tier" candidate so I'd probably just waste my vote. No, I'm gonna have to choose Mitt Romney. I don't think I agree with everything he has done in his political career, but he has had great success both as a governor, and in the private sector. He has "executive" experience, something that many of the other front runners, both Democrat and Republican, do not have. I wish that he had not flip-flopped on his abortion stance, but I think that of the candidates most likely to win the nomination, Mitt Romney is the one that I can most identify with, politically. I'll vote Republican no matter who the nominee is, don't get me wrong, cause even the worst candidate in my estimation would be a thousand times better than any current Democratic nut job. Anyway, what a way to start the new year, huh?

Christmas Traditions

2007-12-30T23:09:00.000-08:00

Rachel and I have been married for about 6 years, and every Christmas we have spent Christmas Eve at the house of one set of parents and spent the night and Christmas morning with the other set of parents. Not an ideal situation if you ask me. Why? Because neither house is warm enough for Rachel and neither of us sleeps well on air beds or fold-out couches. While I do enjoy spending time with my family on Christmas, I like getting a good night's sleep even more. And where better to get a good night's sleep than at your own house in your own bed. Especially since my bed is a Tempur-Pedic bed. So this year, Rachel and I decided that we would have Christmas dinner with our parents, go home and sleep in our own bed and then go back to the parents house later in the afternoon on Christmas day. I liked spending Christmas morning at home with just the three of us. It was nice and quiet and I didn't feel like I got lost in the hubub of the holiday rush at my parents house. Not that I don't like to spend the holiday with my family, but sometimes you just need a break. We had our own real tree, and decorated our house and opened presents and everything at our own house. It was also nice to be able to focus on Ammon's first Christmas, and not have to compete for anyone else's attention. It just made for a more pleasant morning (since Ammon isn't big enough to know that he needs to wake up as early as he can to see what Santa has left under the tree for him!), and then at our own pace we went and spent time with the family. No rush, no pressure. So I think that's what we are going to do every year from now on. And starting next year, we are going to cut down our own Christmas tree as well. And get the house decorated earlier. And make sure the majority of the shopping is done before my peak season at work starts (like two weeks before). And have the house clean. And set up proper video equipment. And...
Whatever.

Next Subject

2007-12-30T10:04:00.000-08:00

I decided to split this post up into a few sections so that it looks like I have been better about blogging. In this post I would like to actually talk about Christmas. Our small little family decided to do Christmas at our own house for once. I really liked the idea of sleeping in my Tempur-Pedic bed and having Ammon sleep in his own crib. I hate sleeping at other peoples houses, if only because Ammon doesn't deal with that very well at this age. He is most comfortable and most likely to sleep through the night in his own crib, and that is really better for everyone involved. Anyway, we went over to my parents house for dinner on Christmas Eve. It has been our family tradition for the last few years to have steak and seafood for dinner that night. I don't know why, but I'm not gonna complain. I love steak. I love crab, shrimp and scallops. I love them even more on the same plate. Mmmmm.....
Then since Aaron and Courtney (brother and sister-in-law (who doesn't like seafood, incidentally)) and their daughter, and Micah and Nancy (brother and sister-in-law) were over, we decided to open family gifts. I got some "interesting" things: a Pez Dispenser, a Superman sports bottle, a 2gb micro-SD card for my mp3 player, and some other odds and ends. My parents gave me a new coat and the promise of a good butchers knife, which I have really wanted for a while. Rachel gave me a portable DVD player that also reads SD cards and has a Ipod video dock. Now all I need is an Ipod video... Ammon gave me a can of Spaghetti-O's since we both like them and he thought I might share with him. I got Ammon's present out of the trash, it's a computer keyboard, since he likes to pound on the keys when he sits at the computer with me (like right now). I got Rachel a little keychain digital picture viewerThat was broken out of the package, so that was fairly disappointing. I also got her a Nintendo Wii. The jury is still out on whether she really likes it or just kind of likes it. I'll let you know later, when she's had more of a chance to play with it. I am pretty fond of it though.

Ok....Two Days Left In 2007

2007-12-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

Where did the year go? I was just getting used to writing 2007 at work, and now I'm gonna be confused about the date for at least a month. That happens to me every year though, so it's nothing new I guess. Ok so where should I start? How about with work? The last two weeks before Christmas are known affectionately as Peak at Fedex. That means that our lives and the lives of our families are given up in order to deal with the chaos of the Christmas shipping season. I worked over 60 hours both those weeks and about died. Most drivers just have to deal with increased volume on their own routes, and most can handle it without many problems. Me on the other hand, I get dumped on since I don't have my own route. This year, it was my pleasure to pick up all of our bulk shippers. That meant I got a large Penske rental truck, and it was my job to fill it up. I picked up at places like Amazon.com and Pure Food Fish in Pike Place Market (the only fish mongers I would go to or order from there) and RPI (an online printing company, where I picked up 5,000 packages one day). I filled the truck up twice on really heavy days. Luckily it was NOT my job to unload the truck, because I probably would have collapsed. I got to eat lunch while 3 other people unloaded the freight. The only really good thing to come from all that was my paycheck. Other benefits include a sore back, getting up really early, getting home really late, not seeing my family, and working in the cold wet weather for hours at a time.

Only one post in November? Lame!

2007-12-04T00:40:00.000-08:00

So sue me. So I only got one post in in November. November is a lousy month anyway, right? The only thing worth talking about in November is Thanksgiving. And my grandma's birthday, which I forgot to acknowledge because I am a bad bad boy. We had Chinese food for thanksgiving this year. It had kind of become the new Alldredge family tradition, Chinese on Thanksgiving. Here's the reasoning: Rachel and I have parents that live in the same city. Both sets of parents want to see us on Thanksgiving. Both sets of parents want to have dinner with us. My brothers and sisters aren't able to come for Thanksgiving till the weekend. My mom wants to have traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family, but not twice in one week. That's just not how we do things in my family. The same meal more than once a month is unconscionable, let alone in the same week. So, to solve the conundrum, my mother decided that we would do Chinese for lunch on Thanksgiving. Home made, too. Mmmmmmmmmm..... good! Then, we have turkey on that Saturday, when the whole family can get together. That allows Rachel and I to eat lunch at one house, and dinner at the other and we are spared the horror of trying to eat two turkey dinners the same day. It just works better that way.

Ammon Updates

2007-11-13T22:43:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been updating here as much as I probably could, but I have been kind of occupied lately. Ammon in the last two weeks has learned to crawl and four teeth have come in. He also got the flu shot, which was not a problem when he got it, but three days later when he is sick... Now it's a problem. I guess his dose of mostly dead flu virus wasn't as mostly dead as we would have liked. Also now that he is crawling, we have been running around trying to get the house "baby proofed" so to speak. Anyway, I don't have a lot of time even now this late at night, I just got Ammon down to sleep, and I have a pot of baked beans simmering on the stove that I have to go tend to. He normally doesn't go to sleep until 10:30 pm. It makes both Rachel and I tired to have him up so late. We hardly get any time alone. Ahh... The joys of raising children. By the way, in case you didn't get it the updates were that Ammon learned to crawl about a week and a half ago, and his two front top and bottom teeth have come in in the last two weeks.

HazMat Fingerprints

2007-10-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today I went to have my fingerprints taken for the DOT. As a swing driver at Fedex, I am required to have at least a class "C" Commercial Drivers License, with a Hazardous Materials Endorsement. This is so that I can legally transport a 3-bar radioactive package (also known as medical equipment) or any shipment of hazardous materials over 1000lbs. or something ridiculous like that. What a bunch of garbage. In the five years that I have been working at Fedex, I have only seen one 3-bar radioactive package that I couldn't transport. That's not to say that there haven't been more shipments than that, just one's that I couldn't be directly responsible for. So in order to get a CDL-HAZ license, you have to go to first apply online to get your fingerprints taken by the Dept of Homeland Security, pay $90, spend your money on the gas it takes to get to the nearest Fingerprint Collection Station (in my case, an hour away in Bellevue), wait for the government to do a background check, go spend another $100 to take the CDL test, then spend more money to take the HAZ endorsement test, THEN prove you can drive the vehicle you are going to be using to transport the HAZ in. And don't get paid for your time. They reimburse your expenses to actually take the tests and get fingerprinted, but it's on your own time, when you have time. Then they are going to make me come in on a Saturday (and not get paid) to do the driving portion and waste that day. What a load of junk. Needless to say that I'm not too thrilled about the whole process, and more than the process, the time I have to spend getting something for work and not getting paid for it. When I had to get my TSA Badge to access the airport, they paid for my time and driving costs. What makes this any different....?

My VW

2007-10-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so last time I said I would talk about my VW Bug. I got it about 6 (wow has it already been 6!?!) years ago when I heard it calling out to me from the side of the road. I looked back and there it was, all gold and shiny, calling my name. I pretty much stopped the car I was driving and and turned around to go look at it. I called the number on the car to find out more and set up a test drive for the following day. Now you might think from the way I have described it that the car was in pristine condition. I mean who would be interested in buying a used car that looked all beat up, right? No the Bug had obviously been around the block a few times. The speedometer didn't even work right. There were rust holes in a few spots, and the exhaust wasn't completely hooked up, so it was pretty loud. But I could see that it needed me, so I bought it. It was a good thing too, because the other car I was driving conked out on me a few days later. But I love my 1974 standard Beetle. It needs a lot of work. I blew up the engine driving it on the freeway, or at least that's what it felt like when the valve broke in the combustion chamber and punched a hole in the piston. I am in the process of repairing the rust holes in the body. I have to do body work on the front end because I got into a minor fender-bender because of some slick roads and squishy brakes. I have replaced all five tires, and am going to replace the drum brakes with disc brakes. The original engine was 1600cc, and I am building a 1904cc to replace it. I have to replace all the duct work for the heater and all the carpet. The dash pad and interior plastic parts, ie. vent covers need help too. Then I am going to paint it dark forest green. Oh and it needs a new steering wheel, new windshield washer/wiper, dome light, upholstery, fenders, signal light covers, bumper, side boards, ect...
But don't get me wrong: I am not discouraged. I enjoy working on it. I just can't buy all the stuff I need all at once. It comes in bits and pieces. But when it's done, it'll be a real looker, just you wait.

Stuff And Things:

2007-10-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! Fridays are good, because after a week of lifting heavy boxes at work I'm pretty tired. The only problem is that Saturday I have more to do, so the weekend is not about getting any rest. That's ok though, because the things I do on Saturday are much more fulfilling than the work I am doing during the week. Like building furniture. I really enjoy building things I know are going to be useful. The idea that I can make with my own two hands what most people will purchase from a store, and make it exactly how I want it, not how someone else wants it is a good feeling. My only problem is that I need a bigger workshop. My little shed in the backyard is really not big enough for all my tools AND the stuff I'm building in it... Maybe in my next house. And I can't convert my garage into a shop like most people would because I have yet another project in there: My '74 std VW Bug. It is in pieces right now because I am rebuilding the engine and just about everything else on it. But that is a story for another time. Probably next time.

Facebook

2007-10-04T00:04:00.000-07:00

Well, recently I have been spending a lot of time on Facebook. It's kind of addicting, but I think that is the point of the whole thing. Making people come back because you have all sorts of mindless interesting things to waste your time at. For instance, those that know me well know that I am a pretty big Star Wars fan. I have a rather large collection of action figures in their original packages, I have movie posters, I have a few lightsabers, I have life-size cutouts, ect.
This was my Christmas card from about three years ago. The point is, on Facebook, there is a Star Wars application. It is Jedi vs. Sith. There are ranks, trivia, you can use the "Force" to send someone a message in the form of an attack, and more. I have become addicted to it. I have probably answered a bajillion trivia questions (most of which I get right, by the way). I don't have a lot of friends right now who have added the application, so most of my Force attacks are directed at a few people. But they keep coming out with cool new additions to the application, like an interactive role-playing universe, text based. Most people don't get how to use it, but it's a good idea. They also have a Strength section in development, so I hope to rise through the ranks to become a Jedi Grand Master. I am a Jedi Knight now.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because that would be the ideal for my blog. I would like people to come back and spend time here and see what I have to say. I want people to come back to see if I have added anything interesting since they were here last. I think that this format is a good way for people to get to know one another, or at least to get to know me and the kinds of things I think about. Anyway, thats enough deep thought for now, back to Facebook.

Do The Puyallup!

2007-09-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the Puyallup Fair which is the biggest and best advertised fair here in Washington. I have gone almost every year since I was about 15, and have enjoyed it each year. Since Rachel and I have been married we have gone 5 times I think, and our interests in going have been slowly changing. We first went for the rides. They do have great rides there at the fair, don't get me wrong. Lots of jerk-you-around-twist-and-turn-flip-upside-down kind of rides. Roller coasters, a giant slingshot, ferris wheels and more. They have all the carnival games too, which we used to do when we first went. The good ones like shooting out all the red star, darts, knock over the bottles with a baseball, squirting water into a target to make your horse run across a track and tons of others. But for the last few years, we have gone more for the home and gadget show, and the art stuff and hobby hall than anything else. Now I guess you might say that all of that "artsy" stuff is pretty boring, and I can tell you that for a teenager, it is. But my desire to have my guts wrenched out and lose all my money playing unwinable carnival games has steadily decreased as I have gotten older. Especially since it costs a lot more now than it did when I was doing it. For the last three years, Rachel and I have made pretty big purchases at the fair. Partly because things are generally cheaper at the fair, and also because you don't have to pay sales tax at the fair. Two good reasons to buy new living room furniture, a Tempur-Pedic mattress, and a new dining room set. Thats what we have bought the last three years. We get some pretty odd looks when we tell people, but all it takes is a little explaining, and they are convinced too.

Ammon is Sick

2007-09-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

Today Ammon got sick. Not the really scary kind where you rush off to the emergency room, but the annoying that just gives him a stuffy nose and makes him cough and sneeze all over. So I am not worried about him, but now I have to make sure that he sleeps in sort of an inclined position like in the car seat, so that way his sinuses can drain properly. Other than the frequent nose cleaning with the snot-sucker of doom, when he really gets upset, he is pretty happy. So that is good. Also he is being pretty vocal, since he can't really breathe through his nose. That's kind of cute. I recorded some of it for posterity. He is sitting in his bouncy chair right beside me even as I am writing this post, smiling and chattering away. Also he is staring at the new mp3 player I got today as it charges in the usb port. It is called the Sansa Express, by sandisk. It is a pretty cool little device, and while it is charging it has a picture of a dog (I think it's a dog?) running back and forth across the screen. It's the lights that he is staring at, not the mp3 player though. I don't really think he even cares that it is an mp3 player, or would care if he knew what one was. He just likes the lights...

Last Week's Recap:

2007-09-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

The family reunion was mostly a large success. I say mostly because I didn't get to go fishing since I didn't remember to buy a fishing license. However my brother, who always goes fishing on every single camp out that we go on, did go fishing. His license cost him $17 for the day as he lives out of state. He did not catch a fish though. His wife did, which was pretty funny since she has never really been fishing before. My brother almost always manages to catch the biggest fish on whatever camp out we go on, so to have him come back with a fish that his wife caught gave us all a little ammunition against him that weekend. It was pretty good eating though, I must admit. She didn't even try it, since she doesn't like fish to begin with. His $17 fish.
I also tried skim-boarding on the beach there at Deception Pass. If you don't already know what that is, I will tell you: you take a piece of 3/8in plywood, cut it into an oval shape more or less with a pointed end and a flat end. Bend the pointed end up a little and put a bunch of coats of paint and shellac and you have a skim board. I guess it is pretty popular, since I saw 20 other people doing it. I tried it for about 3 hours and gave up, because it seemed like too much effort for a 15 to 20 foot ride, which was about as far as I got it to go. It seemed like the guys that weighed less than 140lbs had much better success at it that us 200+ lb guys.
Another interesting thing that happened was that Ammon decided to sleep through the entire night while we were camping. I'm not sure why he did that, but we may have to go camping more often, if only to get a little more shut-eye.
Then the rest of the week was pretty typical: Sleep work eat sleep sleep eat work, blah blah blah. Nothing of interest to report. Except that we are still recovering from the unpacking process. Meaning that we still haven't put everything away yet. That is also pretty typical. Oh well...

We're going camping

2007-08-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

This Labor Day weekend, my family and I are going camping. Right now, even as we speak, Rachel is stressing about what to bring, and what to leave behind. What is the weather going to be like, ad can we trust the local forecast? What make it doubly hard is that she is packing for both herself and Ammon. This will be his first camping trip, and she isn't sure what to bring for him. She wants him to have everything he needs so he wont be too hot during the day or too cold at night, but then again there's the problem of trusting the weather reports. We can't bring everything... For women, this seems to be one of the great struggles in life, "What To Pack?" For me, not so hard. We're gonna be gone three days. So A pair of jeans, plenty of clean underwear and socks, three t-shirts, my fleece sweatshirt and a light jacket. And some shorts. And my swim trunks. And...
Yeah, two hours later and we are still packing. Any questions?

Mowing the Lawn

2007-08-29T10:32:00.001-07:00

Today I am supposed to mow the lawn. I'm not a big fan of lawn mowing in general. It's not that I hate it per say, but it's the fact that I have to do it every week or else I'll regret it. That and pruning the photinia hedge that I have. I just don't like the fact that I HAVE to do it. But if I don't, then it ends up being even more difficult and taking even more time and then I like it even less. For instance, I have mowed my front lawn (the one everyone can see) each week. I have not, on theother hand mowed my backyard for about three weeks now and the grass back there is about a foot and a half high. So now I have my work cut out for me. Get it? CUT out for me? No? Whatever. It would help if I got some award or something at the end of mowing the lawn, but nooooo, all I get is the satisfaction of knowing that I'm gonna have to do it all over again next week. And the week after, and the week after that too. And that's not really much of an award is it? In fact, it's more like punishment for having a lawn in the first place. You have to mow it and water it and fertilize it to make it look nice. What a waste. I think my neighbors have it right: rip up the lawn and make the whole space into a flower bed. Put in a few bushes and some flowers and cover the rest with landscaping fabric and beauty bark and forget about it. I'll never do that though because I like grass....

Our 6th Anniversary

2007-08-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Rachel and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. The day was spent with both of us at work. Sounds like fun, huh? Anyway, it was a stressful day for her mostly because her boss couldn't let her off as early as she thought he was going to. Apparently he had a bunch of work to do and Rachel had to stay to man the floor. But he could have been nicer about it... It was fine in the end though, because our dinner reservations were not until 8:30pm. So Rachel came to pick me up for work and we went into Downtown Seattle, sort of on a scavenger hunt to find as many of the fiberglass pigs as we could before dinner. Sounds weird, I know, but it was something to do. We drove aimlessly throughout the city both looking for the big pigs on the sidewalks and in the plazas. We did find quite a few of them, about 20 I think. But while we were looking for the pigs, Rachel turned into Pike Place Market, because we knew there were some there, and everything was closed up cause it was about 7:30pm and the shops close by ten. What was interesting was the crowd of people standing around the big garbage bins though. There was this huge group of people milling around, and it looked like they were digging through the bins for something, so Rachel wanted to know what they were looking for. She stopped the car and got out and saw that the crowd was digging for flowers. In the Market, there are many fresh flower vendors and at the end of the day, they dump their leftovers into the garbage, some of them still in pretty good shape. So Rachel got in and started looking. She got a pretty good bouquet after a while. I took video, I thought it was pretty funny, myself.

Anyway after that, we headed to the restaurant where we were going to eat. Rachel wanted steak, and what better place to get good steak than Ruth's Chris Steakhouse? (Thank you Sean Hannity!) I had specified on the reservation that it was our anniversary, and they didn't disappoint: they gave us our own table away from everyone else, put little sparkles on it that said "Happy Anniversary!" and all that good stuff. Rachel was pretty happy about it. The waitress was very good, and made good suggestions and we had a very enjoyable dinner. We split a lobster bisque, a house salad, garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli au gratin. We each got our own steaks, Rachel had a ribeye and I had a t-bone. Bar none, the best steaks I have ever had. And for those of you who go, splitting all the sides is the way to go, that way you don't get too full for the best part: the steak! I like that place because everything is ordered separately, you can get exactly the meal you want, kind of ala carte. It makes for a very nice experience overall. I was very pleased with the quality of the food and the service. But be prepared to drop $100 per person!

I don't know

2007-08-21T00:34:00.001-07:00

Ever since I have started this blog, I have been getting more and more interested in what I can do to reach out online. For instance, I have installed Hamachi, which lets me create a virtual LAN over the internet. Now I can play games like Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne with my brothers and some of my friends without actually having to be there. Kind of nice if your brothers and friends live in different states and don't get together very often. It also allows us to share files and pictures without e-mail and chat without AIM or any of those other programs that eat up processor time. If I want to I can reach out and put a new picture right into the shared files folder on one of the other computers in my virtual network and they don't have to do anything except click and open the file. And I can print to the other printers in the network too. Kind of cool.
Also I made a MySpace page a while back but never did anything with it, and recently I went back and updated that page, mostly to herd people back here though. But it is another way to connect with people.
Then today, I got an invite from someone to be a friend on their Facebook account, so I made a Facebook page and joined that too. I can apparently upload as many pictures as I want to that site, so that's kind of cool too.
But just so you all know, I will be spending most of my time here blogging. I will visit these other sites occasionally, but this is the one that I am most interested in and the one I will update most frequently. So check back often and if you haven't already done so, join my Frappr Map and give me a shout out. Just click where it says "Please Add Yourself." Upload a picture and say Hi. You don't have to sign up for anything...

Flying the Friendly Skies?

2007-08-15T23:51:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend, Rachel Ammon and I flew down to Salt Lake City, UT to attend Rachel's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary/family reunion. It was going to be a whirlwind trip, with us leaving on Friday night and returning Sunday afternoon. Since I work for Fedex, I get pretty good discounts with most of the major airlines. I like Southwest airlines the best, because they don;t usually give you as much crap about stuff. And I like being able to choose my own seat. And I like that if you are boarding with young children you can board first, and not have to deal with fighting other people for seats and carry-on space. The only bad thing about my deals with the airlines is that I have to travel standby. Sometimes that means I wait for a while for a seat. But if the airplane is not totally sold out, then it's great. Round trip tickets for $70 plus all the govt fees and taxes. But that is a heck of a lot cheaper that driving, even if I do have to wait for a few extra hours in the airport. We didn't have any trouble getting on the flight down to SLC, we even got to sit right in front of the airplane and had a whole row to ourselves, which meant that Ammon could ride in his car seat and not in our laps. However, on the way out of SLC, we encountered a few problems. The lady at the customer service desk when we first got there was very nice and helpful. We didn't get on the first flight out and she was very nice when she explained to us our options. She went out of her way to help us, checking all the other flights for any possibilities. When it came time for the second flight Rachel got a spot on the plane, and so she took Ammon with her, but they only had the one seat available, so I had to stay for the next flight. I asked this nice lady about further options, and she told me that if I didn't make the next plane, that I should try to get to Phoenix or some other city, because there were more direct flights from there. So I waited. The next flight was about 3 hours away' so I decided to get some food and something to read to pass the time. When I got back, the nice lady was gone. There was a guy in her place, so i guess her shift must have been over. So I went up to talk to him about 45 min before the next flight left, and told him who I was and where I was going. He looked at me as if I were from another planet, and about halfway through my intro, he started shaking his head telling me that there was no way I was going anywhere, and that if I was going to get somewhere I was going to have to figure it out all by myself since he didn't have the time to help me. Ok, I thought to myself, this guy... not so nice. He then proceeded to tell me that he couldn't look up any other flights for me, but that I could get creative and start looking up other flights in their 100+ page printed flight schedule, and come back later and talk about whatever options I could find. But he also warned me not to get my hopes up, since he was sure I wasn't going anywhere in the first place. He was a jerk. That's what I get for waiting 8 hours in the airport, I get to deal with an unfriendly, unhelpful jerk. I was pretty upset about it, but we are really at the airlines mercy when it comes to stuff like that, so... it's not like I could go complain to his supervisor. So I went and got a flight schedule and started looking. About 30 min later, the flight that I had been waiting for was almost finished boarding, and I waited for an announcement over the intercom about standby passengers, whether or not they were going to accept any or not, but the call never came. Nothing about how the flight was full, but not to worry, your name was on the list for the next flight or anything. It was like that guy didn't even care that we were there. I was a paying customer, I just didn't pay as much as the other guys. But I was treated like a beggar. There was another flight about 30 min after that, and again no announcement for the standby passengers. So after this jerk walked off, another guy came to take his place, and I quickly went up to him to discuss my options. He was very nice, and told me that the rest of the flights out of SLC were already overbooked and that the only flight I had a chance of getting out on was a 9:30pm to Boise, ID. Then I would have to stay in the airport overnight and try to get the first flight out in the morning. But at least he tried to help me. At least he told me why I wasn't going to get to Seattle that day instead of just saying that I wasn't. So I decided to give up and just drive back with my inlaws the next day. Driving isn't so bad, but flying is better.
Sorry that this was such a long post, but I had to get that out of my system. I wish I could remember that jerks name so I could post it here...
Tomorrow I'll post about the Family Reunion itself.

Weekend Vacation

2007-08-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Rachel and Ammon and I went down to the Portland area to visit my brother Micah. We stayed at his place for a few nights and just basically got away from home. Although I must say that coming home to my TempurPedic mattress was a wonderful thing. I don't care how nice a blowup mattress is, it doesn't compare to mine. It does wonders for my back, and I seem to sleep better. Anyway, while we were down there, we went on a little hike to some waterfall that I can't remember, but this is what it looked like:It was a really neat place for only being about a mile hike in. It's the kind of place that everyone wants in their backyard, and it was only missing a lake to be perfect. Here's another of Rachel and Ammon that I liked:Then on the way back we found a cave. I mean that Micah and Nancy said that where the cave is there is usually a small waterfall, but when we went there wasn't, so the cave was visible. It didn't look like it went back very far at first so I took Ammon spelunking:But when Ammon and I got back there a little ways, we saw that it did indeed go back farther than we could see. So Micah and I decided to explore:
It went back at least a hundred feet, and it was pretty wet the whole way back. I had to get down on my hands and knees, but Micah didn't want to get his knees dirty so he went back on his hands and feet. Kind of like he was doing push-ups the whole way. I was the first one in and the only light that I had was the little LED on micah's cellphone, which didn't do much. After a while I was about ready to turn back, cause I couldn't see the end, and I didn't know how far back it went and the LED only showed about two feet in front of me. There wasn't any other light. The cave kind of curved around, and the rocks didn't reflect any light, so it was pitch black. But then I almost ran into the end of the cave and called Micah in to take my picture. It didn't turn out very well, but I say it was pretty good for a cellphone camera:

Tuesday Night

2007-07-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

So to start off, I bought H.P. #7 on Saturday at about 1:30pm and finished it at 5:30am on Sunday. I enjoyed the series immensely and thanks to this book, a lot of unanswered questions have been answered. I think It came to a very effective close. I would be surprised if there was ever any more written, I think I would just feel like the author was just trying to cash in on the success of the series. I don't really think any more needs to be written, unless you count stuff like an encyclopedia-type book to give backstory and definitions and stuff like that. But nothing that adds to the story. Cause it's over. And just let me say that I now understand book 6 better, and don't hate it so much. Actually, after I read book 6, I was pretty upset but now after reading book 7 I understand why things had to happen the way they did. So If I think of book 6 and book 7 as one episode, it makes me feel better about the story. So thank you J.K. Rowling for the good times and the sad times in a magical world I have enjoyed spending so much time in.

The Night Before...

2007-07-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday! Haha I'll bet you thought I was going to say Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But you were wrong. While I am going to go and purchase it tomorrow, and read it probably in 3 days or less, that isn't what I wanted to talk about tonight.

Wait..... what did I want to talk about? Dang it, now I can't remember. Thanks a lot Harry Potter! You just made me lose my train of thought. Well, since I have started on H.P., I might as well say that I saw the H.P. 5 and enjoyed it very much. This time they did a better job of following the book than in 4, but even then they got the idea across, I suppose. But H.P. 5 was better. I still prefer the books to the movies because I can envision whats happening as I read, and the words almost become pictures that I can watch inside my head. But I find that it happens that way (the pictures in my head thing) with any book I read, not just H.P. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I enjoy movies, but I enjoy reading the books more. Unless it was a book based on a movie. Those.....not so much since they rarely have anything substantial to add to the story being told. I think that the only movies that I enjoyed watching as much as reading the books were Lord of the Rings.

Ok I remember now what I was going to talk about:

Last Week In A Nutshell

2007-07-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

This last week I have not been feeling very motivated. I'm not sure why, cause until today the weather has been very nice. Up in the 80's even. I don't know, it's just been hard to get excited to do anything of consequence. That isn't to say that I haven't been doing anything though. Cause I have. Mostly chores around the house and setting up the new stereo system and little things. But nothing big, like the changing table. Tomorrow I plan on working on it though. I had to buy a new router cause I broke the other one making the last part of the railing for the crib. And I should probably buy a new table saw, cause the one that I have now has a broken switch on it. So the only way to turn it on and off is to plug it in or unplug it. Not very safe if you ask me...

Since I have put the stat counter up, I have gotten a few visits. Mostly from people like family that I know, but I keep getting a few people that visit using the link on my mission page. They are the Anonymous visitors you see on the map, from Austin Texas. I think that they are just the administrators from the page, checking to make sure that I haven't posted anything inappropriate here. But it would be nice if maybe they were people I knew, who I haven't been able to get a hold of from the mission. By the way, in case you didn't know, I'm LDS (or Mormon) and I was a missionary in the Mexico Veracruz Mission. I have a lot of good memories from those two years. Maybe sometime I'll share a few from my journal or put up some pictures or something.

Transformers and other stuff

2007-07-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

We saw Transformers the other day with Ryan and Becky Jo. Ryan has already seen it 3 time cause he likes it so much, and this is still the first week! I can understand the motivation to see it more than once in the theaters though. If someone invited me to see it with them, I'd go. In a heartbeat. But not on my own. I can wait to buy it on DVD to watch it again on my own. But I have to say that not counting Star Wars 4, 5 and 6, LOTR and Superman, it would be in the top ten fav movies section. Even Rachel enjoyed it, and she never really got into Transformers as a kid.

As a side note though, we did have to pay for babysitting. I just couldn't bring myself to drive from Tacoma to Maple Valley to the theater in Federal Way to Maple Valley to Tacoma in one night. I drive for a living, but sorry, I don't like to drive THAT much. Even though babysitting is soooo expensive now. I think we got charged $5/hr for babysitting! Holy schnikes!

Also I have been playing the Hangman game I put up and it's not easy! The last word I got was "cholestasis." Who knows what that word eves is!

The Fourth of July

2007-07-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have to say that spending the fourth at my parents house is the best. Family, friends, food, fireworks. The four F's of the Fourth. That's kind of funny. Anyway, since the Indian reservation is pretty close to where we live, we usually all stop there to get some good fireworks. Not the stupid ones that they sell on the side of the road or in the grocery store parking lots, but real ones that you can't get legally off the reservation unless you are a professional. So I dropped $100 and got artillery shells, the kind that are launched out of a tube, shoot straight up into the sky, explode into a bunch of different colors and shapes. I got a few different kinds, cause anyone knows that you don't put all your eggs into one basket. What happens if you buy one kind but don't like the effects? You can't take them back... Better to buy a few different kinds and see what happens. All in all I had 64 shots I think, or about $1.56 per shot. Not bad when you consider that they originally want like $3-$4 per shot. We had some good times trying to get the best deals too. Usually you go around to all the different stands and say, "So and so down the isle has the same thing but for $5 less. What are you going to do about it?" But this year the Indians weren't having any of that. A few of them even got pretty mad when we tried to haggle them down. One finally told us that if we found such a great deal somewhere else, that we should go back to that guy and get our stuff from him, cause she wasn't going to go that low "so get out of here and stop wasting my time!" We were kind of shocked. Anyway, we ended up buying most of out fireworks from white guys, or maybe they were Indians like I'm an Indian, four generations back on my mothers side, and five on my dads... But the were the ones giving the best deals, so we bought from them.
Ammon was not a huge fan of all the noise, my mother-in-law brought him out and was watching the show for a few minutes, but decided to take the baby back inside, cause he got fussy. I think he likes the lights, but not the explosions. And I made a lot of explosions, up to the point of lighting off 7 shells at once. That makes for a lot of BOOM and a big light show. Anyway, my fireworks lasted for about two and a half hours, more than enough time to put on a good show for everyone else. I was pretty happy with it. We all had a pretty good time, and came home VERY tired. I only wish I had taken some pictures and video of the show I put on. But I was too involved with everything else to remember to do that. Oh well, there's always next year...

Making My Blog More Visitor Friendly

2007-07-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

So now that people might be coming to my blog to read the wisdom of the ages, I thought it would be appropriate to make my blog more interesting. Not that what I have to say isn't interesting, but, well I thought I would make the page itself even more exciting. So I have added a few dodads here and there, a way to easily translate the blog into another language (since I have a few friends that might want to read it who don't speak english) and a hit counter at the bottom to see how many unique people visit my blog. I thought it would be nice to know how many people came to visit and read what I have to say. By the way, do you know how difficult it was to find a free stat counter on the web? EASY! But do you know how hard it is to find a free stat counter that doesn't put a bunch of ads on your page, or link your page to some random online store or something? HARD! I spent about 30 minutes and signed up for a bunch of different free counters before I found the one I went with. Anyway, that's not really newsworthy.
I want to add the copter game to the blog (mostly for me) so if anyone who reads this knows where I can get the code or whatever, I'd be grateful! I think might just be addicted to that stupid little game...

Sleeping Habits

2007-07-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

So I put my son Ammon down to sleep tonight and he likes to sleep kind of on his side. Not quite on his back, and not really on his side, but somewhere in the middle. Anyway, I put him in the crib just now and he sort of rolled himself up into a ball, put his knees up into his chest with his feet suspended in midair. I don't know how he can hold that position for very long, but he does, for hours sometimes. Then what was funny, after I went to put Ammon down, I went to check in on my wife, and she is sleeping with her knees bent in kind of the same way. So both my wife and my son have similar sleeping positions.
Mine, I'm not sure of since I'm asleep when I would be able to check. All I do know is that I tend to snore like a buzz saw when I'm sleeping on my back and quiet when I'm on my side. How do I know this you ask? Well, my wife will wake me up and tell me to turn over after I've woken her up with my snoring. Apparently I have woken Ammon up in the other room with my snoring, so you know it's loud.
And now to completely change the subject, apparently people are going to start reading my blog now. I got one reply from some unknown person, and I have given out the web address to a few friends and family. I guess I probably shouldn't publish anything that I don't want anyone else to read. But I'm not worried, since anything I say here isn't anything I wouldn't say out loud anyway. This is just an easy way to keep track of my thoughts. So I guess I'm alright with other people reading this, just don't do it when I'm looking, cause that's weird.