Not Emmy!
She started back this week and was actually looking forward to it. How do I know? Because on the first day of school she woke up at 6am, that's how I know! Cari had to actually tell her to go lay back down, but Emmy was already in auto-drive. I wanted to take some pictures of her first day, but unfortunately our camera has gone a-missin'! Driving me crazy where it could be. We've looked everywhere. Hopefully it will turn up. But what is good about this year is that she actually has some friends in her class this year. She has had the worst luck the last few years of getting more of her friends in her class. And, to make it better, most of her friends are at her table! There are like 10 desks all pushed together to form this group and she gets to hang out with them a little more. But not too much more. She still has a job to do yes?
Zach has really started to grow up a little lately. He still likes to come in our room about four or five times and try to sleep with us. I know I'll miss it like crazy one day, but when I'm ready to go to bed, I do not want any interruptions. None. Nada. Zip zilch zap. However, he has started to get himself dressed by himself in the morning which helps me out a ton. He even made oatmeal one morning (with Emmy's help)! Shocked the heck out of me. Even made chocolate milk by himself! I still make sure he knows who's in charge, but it sure is cool to see your kids mature and know deep down they will be really great adults one day.
Our computer has really taken a turn for the worst. Somehow, something has attached itself to it and really screws around with our Internet connection. It will connect for a while, then just forgets how to until you re-boot. What kind of crazy %$#@ is that!? Pardon my language, but now we have no choice but to do a re-install of XP which I'm all for but Cari wants to wait and see if this Norton program we bought will fix it. So far, I haven't noticed anything has changed. Nothing would please me more then to go get a new system with the dual-core quad processors or whatever it's called and catch up with the rest of the world. Or at least the zip code. Maybe one day. Expenses seem to be mounting every day! The last thing you want to do is add more expenses if you don't have to. And I don't. I really don’t. As Al Bundy said when forced to choose between going to the nudie bar or staying home to eat a chocolate cake that Peg made:
"Decisions, decisions…well, I guess that's what comes from being an adult."
You said it Al.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
"The Frustration Mounts..."
But Mike, you're never frustrated...or worried...or remorseful.
Well, true.
But something has changed, and it's got me all kinds of bugged.
My computer...all nine years of it...which was letting me make some great DVDs with the super-bargains I got on a DVD burner internal drive and a 1TB hard drive, now, all of a sudden, has decided that an error message should pop up right in the middle of making a DVD and...Windows Media Player has also decided that I can hear the movies I have, but not see them. Keeps saying a codec is missing. Literally all of a sudden! Now I'm not about to throw myself off a cliff because of all this, mind you. Not by my choice, but because there literally are no cliffs in Arlington. It's all flat! But man, it really irks me that I have everything I need to make some great memories for all of us and I'm like stuck in the road and am powerless. I went to Best Buy today to price DVD recording software because that may be the problem, but of course, everything they had had much higher system requirements then what I have. There's a slim chance it would work, but if it doesn't, I can't return it if it's opened. I'm hoping download.com will have something I can use. At the very least, I can still edit movies together to make what I want and then save the actual file on a DVD. I tried that and that works no problem. But man...the frustration mounts, ya know?
Emmy starts school next Monday. I dare say, she is looking forward to it! I know we are. This is one of those times where I really wish one of us could stay home with her and Zach during the summer. There are all of these great things that the city does like movie camp and summer reading club just to name a few, and she can't do any of them. Not that she was miserable this summer, mind you. We had a great vacation, plus she got to hang out with her cuz and go to a couple of really great YMCA camps, plus, she gets to go to space camp in about a month plus she is having her birthday slumber party next weekend. Man, her birthday this year seemed to be pretty time-consuming! Who does she think she is, me? :)
Wish me luck as I attempt to figure out the happy medium for my computer. I know I can figure out how to do everything I want. Even if I have to re-install XP again. Don't really wanna do that, but...sometimes, the hard choices have to be made, right?
Well, true.
But something has changed, and it's got me all kinds of bugged.
My computer...all nine years of it...which was letting me make some great DVDs with the super-bargains I got on a DVD burner internal drive and a 1TB hard drive, now, all of a sudden, has decided that an error message should pop up right in the middle of making a DVD and...Windows Media Player has also decided that I can hear the movies I have, but not see them. Keeps saying a codec is missing. Literally all of a sudden! Now I'm not about to throw myself off a cliff because of all this, mind you. Not by my choice, but because there literally are no cliffs in Arlington. It's all flat! But man, it really irks me that I have everything I need to make some great memories for all of us and I'm like stuck in the road and am powerless. I went to Best Buy today to price DVD recording software because that may be the problem, but of course, everything they had had much higher system requirements then what I have. There's a slim chance it would work, but if it doesn't, I can't return it if it's opened. I'm hoping download.com will have something I can use. At the very least, I can still edit movies together to make what I want and then save the actual file on a DVD. I tried that and that works no problem. But man...the frustration mounts, ya know?
Emmy starts school next Monday. I dare say, she is looking forward to it! I know we are. This is one of those times where I really wish one of us could stay home with her and Zach during the summer. There are all of these great things that the city does like movie camp and summer reading club just to name a few, and she can't do any of them. Not that she was miserable this summer, mind you. We had a great vacation, plus she got to hang out with her cuz and go to a couple of really great YMCA camps, plus, she gets to go to space camp in about a month plus she is having her birthday slumber party next weekend. Man, her birthday this year seemed to be pretty time-consuming! Who does she think she is, me? :)
Wish me luck as I attempt to figure out the happy medium for my computer. I know I can figure out how to do everything I want. Even if I have to re-install XP again. Don't really wanna do that, but...sometimes, the hard choices have to be made, right?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
"What Were You Doing...?"
Five years ago?
Ten years ago?
I got to thinking about this a while back. Can our lives really change that much over the course of five years? I don't know about the rest of you, but for me it seems like my life has completely revamped itself. Maybe that's a good hting, maybe it's not, who knows for sure. But one thing I do know is that a lot of what we do in life simply does not matter in the long run. What we wear, what we do...it will all be forgotten at some point. Just the way things are. But anyways, let's see how much I can recall about these half-decade points in my life:
Five years ago (8-14-2004):
I had just completed two months at McGraw-Hill and thought this was just the best job in the world. They would pay me to sit in a comfy chair and answer calls from schools who wanted to order books and check on orders. Didn't pay very much but I had just come from the worst job ever which was security at the Parks Mall. It's a real shame when you realize you're a million times smarter then the people who are supposedly "in charge".
Ten years ago (8-14-1999):
I was working at the Pizza Hut store in Grand Prairie. Although I was making pretty good money, I knew I didn't want to do it forever. My plan was to make enough money to pay everyone off and move up to Maryland where some friends of mine were. I never felt like I had many here that I wasn't related to. I almost achieved doing this too but I left that store to go to a worse one, and the rest is history.
Fifteen years ago (8-14-1994):
I had just been fired from a job I really enjoyed. Looking back, it wasn't that great of a job. Putting together movie and music orders for Sam's and Walmart 10 hours a night for $7 an hour. But I enjoyed it. So after all that I discovered: unemployment checks! Who knew anything could be so great? But everything has a price.
Twenty years ago (8-14-1989):
I was starting 9th grade in Toronto, Canada (or "Grade 9" as they call it). I think this was one of the better years of my life. L'Amoreaux School or whatever it was called only had 4 classes a day plus I got to go home for lunch. It was really cool when Grandma and Papaw would visit and bring their Nintendo ha ha. Who knew how much fun Paperboy could be?
Twenty-five years ago (8-14-1984):
Just starting 4th grade. Um...not a whole lot happened that I can recall. I remember taking a history test that, for some reason, I thought it was okay to pull out the book and find the answers. F!
I'd go back farther, but I don't remeber a whole heck of a lot when I was 4 lol.
Ten years ago?
I got to thinking about this a while back. Can our lives really change that much over the course of five years? I don't know about the rest of you, but for me it seems like my life has completely revamped itself. Maybe that's a good hting, maybe it's not, who knows for sure. But one thing I do know is that a lot of what we do in life simply does not matter in the long run. What we wear, what we do...it will all be forgotten at some point. Just the way things are. But anyways, let's see how much I can recall about these half-decade points in my life:
Five years ago (8-14-2004):
I had just completed two months at McGraw-Hill and thought this was just the best job in the world. They would pay me to sit in a comfy chair and answer calls from schools who wanted to order books and check on orders. Didn't pay very much but I had just come from the worst job ever which was security at the Parks Mall. It's a real shame when you realize you're a million times smarter then the people who are supposedly "in charge".
Ten years ago (8-14-1999):
I was working at the Pizza Hut store in Grand Prairie. Although I was making pretty good money, I knew I didn't want to do it forever. My plan was to make enough money to pay everyone off and move up to Maryland where some friends of mine were. I never felt like I had many here that I wasn't related to. I almost achieved doing this too but I left that store to go to a worse one, and the rest is history.
Fifteen years ago (8-14-1994):
I had just been fired from a job I really enjoyed. Looking back, it wasn't that great of a job. Putting together movie and music orders for Sam's and Walmart 10 hours a night for $7 an hour. But I enjoyed it. So after all that I discovered: unemployment checks! Who knew anything could be so great? But everything has a price.
Twenty years ago (8-14-1989):
I was starting 9th grade in Toronto, Canada (or "Grade 9" as they call it). I think this was one of the better years of my life. L'Amoreaux School or whatever it was called only had 4 classes a day plus I got to go home for lunch. It was really cool when Grandma and Papaw would visit and bring their Nintendo ha ha. Who knew how much fun Paperboy could be?
Twenty-five years ago (8-14-1984):
Just starting 4th grade. Um...not a whole lot happened that I can recall. I remember taking a history test that, for some reason, I thought it was okay to pull out the book and find the answers. F!
I'd go back farther, but I don't remeber a whole heck of a lot when I was 4 lol.
Friday, August 07, 2009
"One Cool Week!"
What made this week so great?
Well...
I'm driving to work Monday and I have just enough time to pull into my Employee Of The Month parking space when the North Richland Hills police dept pulls me over! Well, he stopped me because my left tail light was out, which you never know it until someone actually tells you, right? Well, then he sees my expired inpection (which I was going to have done but now I guess I can't until this tail light is fixed. Ah well.) then asks for my insurance (which is active but the card said 'Good thru 5-19-09'). Aye carumba! And, despite all of that, he lets me go with a warning! That SOOO never happens to me. Someone was looking out for me that day.
THEN...Cari's parents announce they want to take Zach and Emmy on a weeklong trip! Now, don't get me wrong, I love my kids as much as any one does, but a week apart is especially sweet because I'm the one who gets them ready each and every morning. From 6:30am to 7:45am it's one big goose chase to get everything together. So it was not too bad to have that kind of time in the morning to relax, make CDs, watch Dark Knight again, etc.
THEN...I'm at Best Buy during my lunch break Thursday and they have a DVD burner for the PC like half price due to a little tear in the box. Now this is really cool because my computer is a little...ancient...and finding a DVD burner compatible has been a month-long strain-and-search. But they had one, and I got it, and it works. I finished my first DVD sometime around 1:17am. I was asleep, but that is the time it says on the disc. I am catching up to, oh, around 2005 I think?
Here's a few pix from New Mexico that were kind of cute:
I have like 300 of them, so...you may see them pop up fom time to time.
We went to Atlanta Bread Company for dinner last night. Was really good. A great way to end a great week. We don't get them too often so when we do, we really need to appreciate them.
Well...
I'm driving to work Monday and I have just enough time to pull into my Employee Of The Month parking space when the North Richland Hills police dept pulls me over! Well, he stopped me because my left tail light was out, which you never know it until someone actually tells you, right? Well, then he sees my expired inpection (which I was going to have done but now I guess I can't until this tail light is fixed. Ah well.) then asks for my insurance (which is active but the card said 'Good thru 5-19-09'). Aye carumba! And, despite all of that, he lets me go with a warning! That SOOO never happens to me. Someone was looking out for me that day.
THEN...Cari's parents announce they want to take Zach and Emmy on a weeklong trip! Now, don't get me wrong, I love my kids as much as any one does, but a week apart is especially sweet because I'm the one who gets them ready each and every morning. From 6:30am to 7:45am it's one big goose chase to get everything together. So it was not too bad to have that kind of time in the morning to relax, make CDs, watch Dark Knight again, etc.
THEN...I'm at Best Buy during my lunch break Thursday and they have a DVD burner for the PC like half price due to a little tear in the box. Now this is really cool because my computer is a little...ancient...and finding a DVD burner compatible has been a month-long strain-and-search. But they had one, and I got it, and it works. I finished my first DVD sometime around 1:17am. I was asleep, but that is the time it says on the disc. I am catching up to, oh, around 2005 I think?
Here's a few pix from New Mexico that were kind of cute:
I have like 300 of them, so...you may see them pop up fom time to time.
We went to Atlanta Bread Company for dinner last night. Was really good. A great way to end a great week. We don't get them too often so when we do, we really need to appreciate them.
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