Another week at work. Nothing else of major importance during the week. However, it's Saturday and I had such a productive day today. Ruth had to work today. While she was there, I cleaned up the dog shit in the back yard. When I was done with that, I moved into the garage. A very impromptu decision, I decided it was time to clean the garage. Take advantage with Ruth's truck out of it. I spent the next few hours in the garage cleaning it up, putting the Halloween decorations away, rearranged the storage shelves to accommodate the power tools dad gave me in May, put up some additional shelving, putting stuff away and other general cleaning. Once done with that, I fixed the frame of Jarrod's bed. I'm surprised that boy wasn't waking up with back pain from the lack of support. I spent all this time fixing the frame and when I was done, I asked him to sample the result, to which he replied, "I can't really tell the difference."
Shortly after I finished cleaning the garage, Ruth came home. We showered and went to the grocery store. Once done there, we came home and put groceries away and Ruth took Jarrod to Game Stop to spend the $30 gift card my mom and dad sent him for making the honor roll. While they were gone, I snuck in a little nap and watched Anchorman. When the wife got home, I helped her make dinner and we watched some more TV.
That was Saturday.
Tomorrow, we plan on taking Jarrod to Hinkle Family Fun Center as our reward for his making the honor roll, weather permitting. It was super cold today so we might not have the opportunity to go miniature golfing so we're using the movies as our backup.
I'm tired so I'm going to go to bed now.
G'night.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Nothing Ramblings...
Three days before Halloween, it snowed. Not the little flurries that melt before they hit the ground. It stuck. For about an hour. Then the sun came out and it almost immediately melted off. It didn't last long but it snowed before Halloween. The high today will be 70. Ah, Albuquerque weather. Will you never cease to amaze me?
Wednesday was the Honor Roll breakfast that we were surprisingly invited to. Jarrod is repeating the fifth grade this year because of his horrendous grades last year. This year, he makes the honor roll. His turnaround has been astounding and we are extremely proud of him! He was pretty proud, too. See? The "breakfast" portion of this event consisted of half a muffin (choice of banana, blueberry and chocolate), a dish of half-frozen fruit, drinks (choice of milk, chocolate milk, apple juice or orange juice) and coffee. We were able to look past that to what we were there for.
Halloween was great. We decorated the house (see here), Jarrod went trick or treating with the neighbors and when we got home, we went to a Halloween party at Ruth's friend's house. We had a good time.
It took me a minute to get caught up on school stuff. I missed a couple of assignments when I was out of town on business last week but I officially got caught up this morning. I had a five week class that ended last week. That one was my Windows class. The course started like this: "This is a mouse. This is how to use a mouse. This is a keyboard. This is how you use a keyboard." I pretty much did the entire course in one night but at least I don't have to worrry about it any more. Now all that's left is Introduction to Multimedia and Integrating Business and Technology. I am scheduled to register for the Spring semester now. Just have to quit being lazy and do it.
We spent the day yesterday, Saturday, November 7, cleaning the house in preparation for today. KC and Becky are going to come over for dinner tonight and the house was an absolute disaster. I hadn't been very available for maintaining the homestead due to extended work hours and school, not to mention my out of town conference. But the house is clean now, the Halloween decorations are put away and it's right on the middle of my favorite time of the year. It's unfortunate that this time of year can't last a little bit longer. Of course, if it did, it wouldn't be as special as it is...
meh.
Anyway, things are really really good for me right now. I'm extremely happy and so, I'll leave it on this positive note!
Wednesday was the Honor Roll breakfast that we were surprisingly invited to. Jarrod is repeating the fifth grade this year because of his horrendous grades last year. This year, he makes the honor roll. His turnaround has been astounding and we are extremely proud of him! He was pretty proud, too. See? The "breakfast" portion of this event consisted of half a muffin (choice of banana, blueberry and chocolate), a dish of half-frozen fruit, drinks (choice of milk, chocolate milk, apple juice or orange juice) and coffee. We were able to look past that to what we were there for.
Halloween was great. We decorated the house (see here), Jarrod went trick or treating with the neighbors and when we got home, we went to a Halloween party at Ruth's friend's house. We had a good time.
It took me a minute to get caught up on school stuff. I missed a couple of assignments when I was out of town on business last week but I officially got caught up this morning. I had a five week class that ended last week. That one was my Windows class. The course started like this: "This is a mouse. This is how to use a mouse. This is a keyboard. This is how you use a keyboard." I pretty much did the entire course in one night but at least I don't have to worrry about it any more. Now all that's left is Introduction to Multimedia and Integrating Business and Technology. I am scheduled to register for the Spring semester now. Just have to quit being lazy and do it.
We spent the day yesterday, Saturday, November 7, cleaning the house in preparation for today. KC and Becky are going to come over for dinner tonight and the house was an absolute disaster. I hadn't been very available for maintaining the homestead due to extended work hours and school, not to mention my out of town conference. But the house is clean now, the Halloween decorations are put away and it's right on the middle of my favorite time of the year. It's unfortunate that this time of year can't last a little bit longer. Of course, if it did, it wouldn't be as special as it is...
meh.
Anyway, things are really really good for me right now. I'm extremely happy and so, I'll leave it on this positive note!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
A Couple of Things
A couple things came up since I posted:
1) I found out that Jarrod made the honor roll, and
2) It's snowing.
That is all.
1) I found out that Jarrod made the honor roll, and
2) It's snowing.
That is all.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
'Tis the Season!
Friday, October 23, Ruth and I went to the Haunted Trail on the Bosque. For those that don't know, a bosque is the greenery that surrounds a river, particularly in the southwest. The bosque on the Rio Grande is the spot that the City of Rio Rancho held this particular seasonal event. It was a haunted attraction that followed the path on the bosque and, considering it was an event put on by a local Parks and Recs department, it was done quite well.
We drove to the judicial complex in Rio Rancho and the city had shuttles that took us to the actual event from there. We got there and the line was fairly sizeable. After a few shuttles came and went, we were about 12 or 15 people back from the front of the line. At the front of the line where the shuttle was loading, the driver called, "Are there any groups of 2?" Ruth and I raised our hands so we got to jump the rest of the line and move on a little sooner.
We got to the event itself and had to wait in another small line. Soon, we were on our way.
The walk was half a mile through a dark, outdoor path surrounded by large shrubs and trees. Every few hundred feet would be a "scare station" (this is the best way to describe it) where props, lighting and other effects were utilized. There were scare actors in these spots that would jump at you scare you (or try to, in my case.) Now, don't get me wrong, I love these things. Halloween being my favorite time of year, these attractions are right up my alley. For some reason though, I generally over-analyze the events and pick up on the scare before it comes, thus I am generally not scared at the appropriate times. Occasionally, there was a set of actors between these stations that would jump out from the bushes on either side of the trail and those would startle me but this only happened a couple of times.
One of my favorite scares was a spot where there was a 10 foot tall scarecrow with a giant pumpkin head in the middle of the trail. Due to its size and positioning, I figured it to be a device of misdirection and that the scare would come from one side or the other, but I was wrong. It WAS the scare. It had to be a guy on a stepladder or something because, I mean, this thing was HUGE! It leaned down and looked down on me, and it had these long branch arms and everything. It was so cool.
Saturday, October 24, we went on a ghost tour in Old Town Albuquerque.
We were slated to take the 8:00 tour so we showed up at the Plaza DonLuis at 7:45, bought our tickets and waited for the tour to start. We hadn't eaten dinner so we went to the rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and bought ourselves some sweets.
Our tour guide Vince introduced himself as an actual ghost hunter. Not just a ghost tour guide, but he goes to actual haunted locations and investigates for true paranormal activities. The tour started promptly at 8 and took us about 90 minutes through Old Town. We wound up in some back parts of the town that aren't usually open to the general public so that was cool. We heard some interesting stories about some unusual goings-on around town.
Some pretty cool stuff there..
Sunday, the 25th, we just hung out. I packed for my trip to Vegas.
Monday, I went to to work then drove to the airport where my flight took off at 4:30. We landed in Vegas at 5:15, local time, so we had a little time to hang out. I saw Tammy, my ex-girlfriend and I had some Pink Taco. It's a restaurant in the Hard Rock Hotel, perverts!
Got up early on Tuesday and went to the conference that I went to Vegas for: A conference put on by Practice One. We had a "continental breakfast" (fruit and pastries) then got under way. Lunch was served, more conference then a "gala reception" that included "food and drink". The "drink" part was cool, a hosted bar, but the "food" was a cheese bar. Don't get me wrong, I like cheese, but it's certainly not dinner.
Got up Wednesday morning and HAD to have a real breakfast. I knew the "continental breakfast" wasn't gonna cut it so I went to Mr. Lucky's, a diner at the Hard Rock. I had chicken fried steak, eggs, sausage, hash browns, gravy, a biscuit, coffee and orange juice. MUCH better! I went to day 2 of the conference then we left straight to the airport to fly back. Our return flight took off at 6:45 and landed at 9:00. Got home and finally got a decent night's sleep. Luckily, I took today off so I can relax a bit.
I'm gonna meet Ruth for lunch today, take Jarrod to Game Stop (he's been buying a lot of used games from there lately, which is cool) then I'm gonna come home and work on some homework that I'm SUPER behind on.
Halloween is right around the corner, looking forward to that. That reminds me, I have to... um, yeah, you'll hear about that later...
So for now, see ya!
We drove to the judicial complex in Rio Rancho and the city had shuttles that took us to the actual event from there. We got there and the line was fairly sizeable. After a few shuttles came and went, we were about 12 or 15 people back from the front of the line. At the front of the line where the shuttle was loading, the driver called, "Are there any groups of 2?" Ruth and I raised our hands so we got to jump the rest of the line and move on a little sooner.
We got to the event itself and had to wait in another small line. Soon, we were on our way.
The walk was half a mile through a dark, outdoor path surrounded by large shrubs and trees. Every few hundred feet would be a "scare station" (this is the best way to describe it) where props, lighting and other effects were utilized. There were scare actors in these spots that would jump at you scare you (or try to, in my case.) Now, don't get me wrong, I love these things. Halloween being my favorite time of year, these attractions are right up my alley. For some reason though, I generally over-analyze the events and pick up on the scare before it comes, thus I am generally not scared at the appropriate times. Occasionally, there was a set of actors between these stations that would jump out from the bushes on either side of the trail and those would startle me but this only happened a couple of times.
One of my favorite scares was a spot where there was a 10 foot tall scarecrow with a giant pumpkin head in the middle of the trail. Due to its size and positioning, I figured it to be a device of misdirection and that the scare would come from one side or the other, but I was wrong. It WAS the scare. It had to be a guy on a stepladder or something because, I mean, this thing was HUGE! It leaned down and looked down on me, and it had these long branch arms and everything. It was so cool.
Saturday, October 24, we went on a ghost tour in Old Town Albuquerque.
We were slated to take the 8:00 tour so we showed up at the Plaza DonLuis at 7:45, bought our tickets and waited for the tour to start. We hadn't eaten dinner so we went to the rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and bought ourselves some sweets.
Our tour guide Vince introduced himself as an actual ghost hunter. Not just a ghost tour guide, but he goes to actual haunted locations and investigates for true paranormal activities. The tour started promptly at 8 and took us about 90 minutes through Old Town. We wound up in some back parts of the town that aren't usually open to the general public so that was cool. We heard some interesting stories about some unusual goings-on around town.
Some pretty cool stuff there..Sunday, the 25th, we just hung out. I packed for my trip to Vegas.
Monday, I went to to work then drove to the airport where my flight took off at 4:30. We landed in Vegas at 5:15, local time, so we had a little time to hang out. I saw Tammy, my ex-girlfriend and I had some Pink Taco. It's a restaurant in the Hard Rock Hotel, perverts!
Got up early on Tuesday and went to the conference that I went to Vegas for: A conference put on by Practice One. We had a "continental breakfast" (fruit and pastries) then got under way. Lunch was served, more conference then a "gala reception" that included "food and drink". The "drink" part was cool, a hosted bar, but the "food" was a cheese bar. Don't get me wrong, I like cheese, but it's certainly not dinner.
Got up Wednesday morning and HAD to have a real breakfast. I knew the "continental breakfast" wasn't gonna cut it so I went to Mr. Lucky's, a diner at the Hard Rock. I had chicken fried steak, eggs, sausage, hash browns, gravy, a biscuit, coffee and orange juice. MUCH better! I went to day 2 of the conference then we left straight to the airport to fly back. Our return flight took off at 6:45 and landed at 9:00. Got home and finally got a decent night's sleep. Luckily, I took today off so I can relax a bit.
I'm gonna meet Ruth for lunch today, take Jarrod to Game Stop (he's been buying a lot of used games from there lately, which is cool) then I'm gonna come home and work on some homework that I'm SUPER behind on.
Halloween is right around the corner, looking forward to that. That reminds me, I have to... um, yeah, you'll hear about that later...
So for now, see ya!
Monday, October 19, 2009
What a weekend!
Saturday, we woke up bright and early and took Jarrod to his last baseball game(s) of the season. His team was short a few players so we asked if Jarrod's friend Anthony could fill in, which he graciously did. Jarrod's team, the Assassins closed out their season with a 15-5 victory over the Cibola Sun Devils. They wound up the season with a 9-1 record.
Immediately following, Jarrod filled in on Anthony's team who promtly lost, 13-5. They wound up their season with an 0-10 record. =(
We came home, had some lunch and rested before we continued on with our evening. We went to Wagner Farms Corn Maze in the village of Corrales. We did the corn maze 2 years ago and we were going to go last year but it was rained out. This year, we wanted to go so we went to the night maze. We left the house at 7:00 pm, right as it was getting dark. As we drove up to the maze, we realized only then that it was not lit at all. We noticed a lot of people with flashlights but we apparently did not have the foresight to investigate that so we used the flashlight on Ruth's cell phone, which is surprisingly powerful but unfortunately it drains the battery very quickly. We got through half of the maze when the phone started yelping it's low battery cry. We used the light from the screen of my phone for the remainder of the maze. It took us about an hour and a half to get through the maze. Jarrod, Ruth and I all had fun. See?
Sunday, we just cleaned house.
Today was the end-of-the-season party for the Assassins. Rather than doing trophies, coach just handed out
game balls to the kids. We'll get Jarrod a ball-holder trophy for it. We also got a "final team picture" that was taken and collaged by the team mom, Marian.
This weekend should be a fun weekend for us.
Friday night, we'll be going to the Haunted Trail at the Bosque, which, from what I've heard, is pretty scary. Saturday night, we'll be going on a ghost tour in Old Town. I've heard that's pretty cool too.
We'll be picking up our pumpkins some time this week.
The Dodgers have been battling their asses of during this NLCS. As of right now, they're down in the series 2-1 but are in position to take game four to split the series at 2 a piece. (The Phils are bringing Lidge in the 9th down by a run... why? Just to get him some work??)
The Angels took care of the Yanks today for the first time in 3 games. The boys in red need to really step it up if I'm to see my dreams of an LA/"LA" World Series come true.
I've been schooling steadily. Having some issues with an instructor (who I unfortunately have for TWO classes this semester... D'OH!) but I should be able to work through those issues and still get Bs in those classes.
I made a pretty cool sound bite for one of my classes. I can't figure out how to share it on Blogger and I'm too lazy to try to figure it out right now. So meh.
That's about it for now. I'll check back in, hopefully with some pics, after our outings this weekend.
Phil
Immediately following, Jarrod filled in on Anthony's team who promtly lost, 13-5. They wound up their season with an 0-10 record. =(
We came home, had some lunch and rested before we continued on with our evening. We went to Wagner Farms Corn Maze in the village of Corrales. We did the corn maze 2 years ago and we were going to go last year but it was rained out. This year, we wanted to go so we went to the night maze. We left the house at 7:00 pm, right as it was getting dark. As we drove up to the maze, we realized only then that it was not lit at all. We noticed a lot of people with flashlights but we apparently did not have the foresight to investigate that so we used the flashlight on Ruth's cell phone, which is surprisingly powerful but unfortunately it drains the battery very quickly. We got through half of the maze when the phone started yelping it's low battery cry. We used the light from the screen of my phone for the remainder of the maze. It took us about an hour and a half to get through the maze. Jarrod, Ruth and I all had fun. See?
Sunday, we just cleaned house.
Today was the end-of-the-season party for the Assassins. Rather than doing trophies, coach just handed out
game balls to the kids. We'll get Jarrod a ball-holder trophy for it. We also got a "final team picture" that was taken and collaged by the team mom, Marian.This weekend should be a fun weekend for us.
Friday night, we'll be going to the Haunted Trail at the Bosque, which, from what I've heard, is pretty scary. Saturday night, we'll be going on a ghost tour in Old Town. I've heard that's pretty cool too.
We'll be picking up our pumpkins some time this week.
The Dodgers have been battling their asses of during this NLCS. As of right now, they're down in the series 2-1 but are in position to take game four to split the series at 2 a piece. (The Phils are bringing Lidge in the 9th down by a run... why? Just to get him some work??)
The Angels took care of the Yanks today for the first time in 3 games. The boys in red need to really step it up if I'm to see my dreams of an LA/"LA" World Series come true.
I've been schooling steadily. Having some issues with an instructor (who I unfortunately have for TWO classes this semester... D'OH!) but I should be able to work through those issues and still get Bs in those classes.
I made a pretty cool sound bite for one of my classes. I can't figure out how to share it on Blogger and I'm too lazy to try to figure it out right now. So meh.
That's about it for now. I'll check back in, hopefully with some pics, after our outings this weekend.
Phil
Friday, October 9, 2009
Baseball Ramblings... and stuff
Wednesday, the Randy Wolf Dodgers were severe underdogs going up against Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals. Luckily, Carpenter was not himself and the Dodgers were able to pull out a 5-2 win. It was an overall sloppy game; the two teams set a post season single game record by stranding 30 runners on base (the Dodgers left the bases loaded 3 times.) Wolf wasn't his normal self but he was able to control the damage.
Thursday, the Dodgers were again underdogs, many weren't sure how 21 year old Clayton Kershaw would hold up to the pressure of pitching in the post season. He pitched well but he left the game in the 7th losing 2-1. With 2 outs in the 9th inning and nobody on, Matt Holliday joined a long list of names that include Bill Buckner and Fred Merkle. The Dodgers wound up tying the game, then loading the bases, again, with 2 out, when pinch hitter Mark Loretta lined a soft liner into short right-center field. Reminded me a little of the World Series winning blooper that gave the D-Backs their World Championship in '02 against the Yanks.
With a little reluctance, I'm going to discuss the ALDS. I am currently watching the Twins beat the Yanks in the 6th inning of their game 2. Of course, I'm rooting for Minnesota but realistically, I think the Yanks are going to take it. Not without a fight, though.
As for the other ALDS, this is where I'm a little nervous discussing it. I've noticed that when discussing this particular topic with Red Sox fans, they get extremely defensive if you root against them. The fact of the matter is, I don't like the Red Sox. I'm sorry, that's just my opinion. I am rooting for the Angels as much for the fact that I'd love to see an LA/"LA" world series as much as I'd like to see the Red Sox lose.
God (and Red Sox fans,) please forgive me for expressing my opinion!
Got a text from my pops Thursday morning saying that they were flying out to New Yor so Hannah could do an in-studio interview with Good Morning America. If you want to watch thee interview, you can click here.
I'm finished with thhe majority of my homework for the week. I have a free weekend tto do whatever I please. Nyah!
Thursday, the Dodgers were again underdogs, many weren't sure how 21 year old Clayton Kershaw would hold up to the pressure of pitching in the post season. He pitched well but he left the game in the 7th losing 2-1. With 2 outs in the 9th inning and nobody on, Matt Holliday joined a long list of names that include Bill Buckner and Fred Merkle. The Dodgers wound up tying the game, then loading the bases, again, with 2 out, when pinch hitter Mark Loretta lined a soft liner into short right-center field. Reminded me a little of the World Series winning blooper that gave the D-Backs their World Championship in '02 against the Yanks.
With a little reluctance, I'm going to discuss the ALDS. I am currently watching the Twins beat the Yanks in the 6th inning of their game 2. Of course, I'm rooting for Minnesota but realistically, I think the Yanks are going to take it. Not without a fight, though.
As for the other ALDS, this is where I'm a little nervous discussing it. I've noticed that when discussing this particular topic with Red Sox fans, they get extremely defensive if you root against them. The fact of the matter is, I don't like the Red Sox. I'm sorry, that's just my opinion. I am rooting for the Angels as much for the fact that I'd love to see an LA/"LA" world series as much as I'd like to see the Red Sox lose.
God (and Red Sox fans,) please forgive me for expressing my opinion!
Got a text from my pops Thursday morning saying that they were flying out to New Yor so Hannah could do an in-studio interview with Good Morning America. If you want to watch thee interview, you can click here.
I'm finished with thhe majority of my homework for the week. I have a free weekend tto do whatever I please. Nyah!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Drawing
I've been drawing a lot lately. Most of the drawings I've done have been half-assed little doodles when I'm on hold at work and stuff but I've managed to sit and do a few halfway decent ones. See below.
As you see, most of these are inspired by the music I listen to. A lot of people don't agree with the music I like but hey, that's what I like and if you don't like it, you can just not listen to it. Offer up your opinions all you want. And, I can debate you all day long on it, too, and I won't get offended or tell you that you're talking shit or anything.
Anyway, I just wanted to share these with y'all.
And the Milenko one (the wizard) is a good example of what happens when you don't fix your drawings.
As you see, most of these are inspired by the music I listen to. A lot of people don't agree with the music I like but hey, that's what I like and if you don't like it, you can just not listen to it. Offer up your opinions all you want. And, I can debate you all day long on it, too, and I won't get offended or tell you that you're talking shit or anything.
Anyway, I just wanted to share these with y'all.
And the Milenko one (the wizard) is a good example of what happens when you don't fix your drawings.
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