Well you may have noticed that I no longer post about the Confessional Crusaders. Yes I see no point in following their rediculous rhetoric anymore. Its always the same messages and if you follow it you are wasting time that is better spent in the kingdom. Once every so often I might scan the headlines so to have cured my curious fascination with their kind.
Our success at Victory is a testament to God's Word working through the hearts of those that have come to hear his Word whether it was through a community event, a children's event or a worship service. There are so many stories that have brought us from 6 people to 175 worshipping on Xmas eve in just 1 and 3/4ths years. Pastor runs 5-7 small adult bible instruction classes. We have run out of room for growth at the Polonia and already need a new place to worship. The level of individual committment to the church is phenomenal. I can't tell you how gratifying it was to see the amount of involvment from members to make our Xmas eve service so successful. The decorations and the enhancements and 25 people coming to prepare the facility for the service. The music and the video planning and rehearsals and their excellent sound.
All I know if this is the wrong way to be a Lutheran then praise the Lord because our success is only His fault. So no more wading through the murkyness of those who claim to be saving confessionalism. Instead I will focus on showing what confessionalism in action really looks like.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The End of 2008
Well I have been deliquent in posting for the last week and a half. Not for lack of starting a post and then abandoning it though. I have been on vacation for last week and this week as well so I have no excuse. Just have been blue a bit.
The usual hubub has been going on. Actually much more than usual with Zach home. It took approximately 2 days for our house to return to the old days of summer. Zach exploded his crap all over the house, leaves his messes for me to clean up and has a constant stream of friends coming in and out and staying overnight and eating all our food. It's like he never left. He is different though. Definitely more mature. Seems to make better decisions. He takes anything Marine related very seriously. You can tell he wants to succeed in the Marines. Thats a lot more ambition than I have seen him show for most anything in a long time.
He leaves January 19th back to Cali for MCT (Marine Combat Training) for 4 weeks. Then he goes straight to MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) school. It could be in Pensacola, FL or at 29 Palms, near San Diego...he clearly wants FL over Cali. That decision is made in the last week of MCT so we won't know which location for awhile. MOS school starts with a 7 week basic course and then based on your performance in the class you can be sent to a more advanced training at other bases. That advanced training could be from 3 months to 8 months longer.
Zach has optimized every opportunity visiting with friends and having his friends over for parties. Now he has started working at the recruiter's office and assisting him. So he is working 8-5 for right now.
Kt has spent most of her break working. Of course JCP keeps them busy at Xmas time. It's a bit of a bummer for her as working has cramped her social calendar. A quick update on the EZ situation. Due to each of them having a busy schedule (and in my opinion just laziness in coordination and planning of time together) they decided to just be friends. For instance she would work 3-11 on a saturday but of course doing something from 8:00 am to 2:00pm would be impossible...because why? well good luck on figuring out that one. Curently "all boys are stupid and I don't need one until I'm out of High school...well at least for now" So whatever..it does not stop a large array of flirters from calling and trying to gain her interest.
Ike is busy. He is a mall rat I'd say. He spends a great deal of time there. He also spends a great deal of time texting and talking and visiting with Naomi....his new love. She is a girl from church that he gets along great with. More like as a real friend but now with the added elements of hand holding and occasional kisses. It's still cute to see him wallow through his "first love" My existance has become incredibly embarrassing for him. Ahhh the rough life of being 14.
I have to admit I've been in a funk for the Christmas season. It was so hard to be in any kind of Christmas spirit. I didn't put up one decoration or even find the Xmas box. It was all busyness. For some reason the robbery really bothered/bothers me. I think of that jewelry box and I'm just so pissed. I found some earlings similar to the saphire ones that were stolen for Karen for xmas. They were emeralds though but still very similar. Although K would kill me for spending that much on them it was about the only joy of my Christmas. I don't think K even understands how bad I want to replace all that for her. It really bothers me. Now to all the both of the family members that read this don't think I didn't enjoy being together but maybe I can just say I was distracted. I remember when the kids were young and we'd set up the tree and put the kids to bed and I'd listen to xmas music on the stereo and sit in the dark looking at the xmas tree lights for hours. I wish I could recapture that feeling. I guess add in that it was a really tough year financially and quite a bit transitional and it just made for a stressful year end.
Of course today did not make things better. as my BMW was sitting right in front of my house and zach and I napped in the living room 35 feet away someone went in the car, opened the glove box and rifled through it and finding nothing valuable they took the ashtray...the whole ashtray which had maybe 2-3 dollars of change in it. Next time I'll leave a key and a note saying they had better make sure the car is not found for 30 days. Still I want the general public to stay out of my !@#$@%! stuff!!!
I'm sick of being violated like this. It still wouldn't surprise me if it was the same person we suspect robbed the house. We did find a few more things that were stolen. He took some cheap perfumes from Kt's room that were like 4 dollars. My fathers 45 year old electric hair trimmers that he used to give my brothers crew cuts in the mid 60's (and amazingly I still used on Zachary's hair.) some coin jars...
So they took a shower, used our shampoo, took a towel, perfumes and a hair trimmer...a well groomed thief?
We are definitely looking at upgrading all our security.
I also have a couple of friends struggling with issues and I really would like to just get everyone together and say "hey whatever happened in 2008 is behind us and we can all look forward to creating a happy new year in 2009.. (completely despite the impending inaugaration of obama and subsequent ruin of democracy)" My resolution tomorrow is to not be sad and do what i normally do best which is find the good in all situations. I will not look back on 2008 anymore and i will be optimistic about 2009.
...and I might just keep toasting the new year until I feel that way.
The usual hubub has been going on. Actually much more than usual with Zach home. It took approximately 2 days for our house to return to the old days of summer. Zach exploded his crap all over the house, leaves his messes for me to clean up and has a constant stream of friends coming in and out and staying overnight and eating all our food. It's like he never left. He is different though. Definitely more mature. Seems to make better decisions. He takes anything Marine related very seriously. You can tell he wants to succeed in the Marines. Thats a lot more ambition than I have seen him show for most anything in a long time.
He leaves January 19th back to Cali for MCT (Marine Combat Training) for 4 weeks. Then he goes straight to MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) school. It could be in Pensacola, FL or at 29 Palms, near San Diego...he clearly wants FL over Cali. That decision is made in the last week of MCT so we won't know which location for awhile. MOS school starts with a 7 week basic course and then based on your performance in the class you can be sent to a more advanced training at other bases. That advanced training could be from 3 months to 8 months longer.
Zach has optimized every opportunity visiting with friends and having his friends over for parties. Now he has started working at the recruiter's office and assisting him. So he is working 8-5 for right now.
Kt has spent most of her break working. Of course JCP keeps them busy at Xmas time. It's a bit of a bummer for her as working has cramped her social calendar. A quick update on the EZ situation. Due to each of them having a busy schedule (and in my opinion just laziness in coordination and planning of time together) they decided to just be friends. For instance she would work 3-11 on a saturday but of course doing something from 8:00 am to 2:00pm would be impossible...because why? well good luck on figuring out that one. Curently "all boys are stupid and I don't need one until I'm out of High school...well at least for now" So whatever..it does not stop a large array of flirters from calling and trying to gain her interest.
Ike is busy. He is a mall rat I'd say. He spends a great deal of time there. He also spends a great deal of time texting and talking and visiting with Naomi....his new love. She is a girl from church that he gets along great with. More like as a real friend but now with the added elements of hand holding and occasional kisses. It's still cute to see him wallow through his "first love" My existance has become incredibly embarrassing for him. Ahhh the rough life of being 14.
I have to admit I've been in a funk for the Christmas season. It was so hard to be in any kind of Christmas spirit. I didn't put up one decoration or even find the Xmas box. It was all busyness. For some reason the robbery really bothered/bothers me. I think of that jewelry box and I'm just so pissed. I found some earlings similar to the saphire ones that were stolen for Karen for xmas. They were emeralds though but still very similar. Although K would kill me for spending that much on them it was about the only joy of my Christmas. I don't think K even understands how bad I want to replace all that for her. It really bothers me. Now to all the both of the family members that read this don't think I didn't enjoy being together but maybe I can just say I was distracted. I remember when the kids were young and we'd set up the tree and put the kids to bed and I'd listen to xmas music on the stereo and sit in the dark looking at the xmas tree lights for hours. I wish I could recapture that feeling. I guess add in that it was a really tough year financially and quite a bit transitional and it just made for a stressful year end.
Of course today did not make things better. as my BMW was sitting right in front of my house and zach and I napped in the living room 35 feet away someone went in the car, opened the glove box and rifled through it and finding nothing valuable they took the ashtray...the whole ashtray which had maybe 2-3 dollars of change in it. Next time I'll leave a key and a note saying they had better make sure the car is not found for 30 days. Still I want the general public to stay out of my !@#$@%! stuff!!!
I'm sick of being violated like this. It still wouldn't surprise me if it was the same person we suspect robbed the house. We did find a few more things that were stolen. He took some cheap perfumes from Kt's room that were like 4 dollars. My fathers 45 year old electric hair trimmers that he used to give my brothers crew cuts in the mid 60's (and amazingly I still used on Zachary's hair.) some coin jars...
So they took a shower, used our shampoo, took a towel, perfumes and a hair trimmer...a well groomed thief?
We are definitely looking at upgrading all our security.
I also have a couple of friends struggling with issues and I really would like to just get everyone together and say "hey whatever happened in 2008 is behind us and we can all look forward to creating a happy new year in 2009.. (completely despite the impending inaugaration of obama and subsequent ruin of democracy)" My resolution tomorrow is to not be sad and do what i normally do best which is find the good in all situations. I will not look back on 2008 anymore and i will be optimistic about 2009.
...and I might just keep toasting the new year until I feel that way.
Monday, December 15, 2008
The Big Trip
So much time to make up. I have been offline for nearly a week and a half. I left off a week ago Thursday. We have been busy beavers during that time.
Alright. On to San Diego. We had a good trip out there and the contrast of leaving our car at the airport with it being 4 degrees and arriving with it being 70 degrees was extremely gratifying. K's parents arrived a couple of hours after us and we all proceeded up to Escondido to the resort. It really was a great place. I thoroughly enjoyed the stay there. It was up in the deserty hills north of San Diego. After we got there we hunted for a place to eat dinner. We 
went to a "restaurant row" in San Marcos but not before Karen cut off a cop in her crazy mario andretti fashion trying to follow her lane changing father. Of course as you would expect the cop pulled up next to us at the light on the passenger side where I was sitting and proceeded to yell at me for not using my signals and how his verbal warning was better than a ticket. I should have mustered up my best english accent and told him "Spot on chap I thought I 
was on the wrong side of the parkway." Well skippy the wonder cop pulled ahead and we went our separate ways but I couldn't help but note that even when I'm a passenger in a car I get yelled at for what it does wrong. Just as our food arrived at the California Miner's restaurant Zach called. 
I'm guessing he smelled the burgers and knew he should call right then. He bought the call from the DI for $10 for 5 minutes. The DI takes the money and buys new drill belts for the platoon so when they have final drill they look sharper. Its almost like having a bake sale for the Marines.
We spent Monday checking out the resort, doing homework, sitting in the hot tub etc. Tuesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was great. 75 degrees and partly sunny as well as being a very nice zoo. I took 150 pictures on my new camera here alone. We had a lot of fun. Wednesday was beach visit day in Oceanside, CA. It was too cold to swim but we walked on the pier and then around the beach. Kt and Ike found sand dollars. More pictures. 
Finally Thursday was family day. We headed down to MCRD and ate breakfast on base at a "restaurant". I caught a glimpse of zach practicing their marching and formation on the parade deck for graduation. We met up with the McCorkel's and Laupan's and waited for the Moto Run to begin. We got 3 opportunities to see zach during that....yeah I got pictures. After that we got a little intro to the DI staff and what their training was all about. After that Zach was dismissed for 5 hours of base liberty. We ate lunch
at a pretty decent buffet where we observed Zach down voluminous amounts of food. Then he showed us around. The Marine Corps museum was pretty interesting but my family wouldn't let me read all the placards next to each exhibit. After buying some souvenirs and watching Zach eat more food we had to turn him back in. They had to spend their evening packing and preparing for graduation the next day. We had to spend our time crawling through downtown San Diego rush hour traffic but that hot tub was still nice later that evening
Well Zach did complete the crucible with not too much problem. He certainly has an interesting perspective as to whats challenging and what isn't. More on him later.
On Friday the 5th Ike went to the movies with the cute girl from church he met with my assistance. Forthwith we will call her Naomi. They started texting incessantly and still are. They really hit it off and Ike has been unusually chipper although somewhat obsessed about texting her. On Saturday they went to the mall for awhile. Then after we headed to San Diego on Sunday morning they had to go back to texting all week long until we returned this last Saturday from San Diego. Of course it took all of an hour to plan another movie for later Saturday night. Then magically Naomi, the shyest most quiet girl in the world for the last year and a half she has been at our church, was now sitting with ike in church and goofing around with him. So this is where I will go "They're so cute!". This is where the extrovert Ike however can turn into complete 14 year old embarrassment. It is a bit fun to watch his demeanor change when bringing up the subject of a girlfriend. If he wasn't so brown I'm sure his face would turn red.
On that same subject, we are still waiting for EZ to ask Kt out. They hung out the Friday before we left for San Diego and apparently made several attempts to open his mouth and get the words out but fear and trepidation got the worst of him and he chickened out again. We all decided it was very cute. I'm sure it would be so much easier for him to ask her out if he knew how we talk about him being such a cute, shy, teddy bear of a 6'2" 200lb football monster.
Alright. On to San Diego. We had a good trip out there and the contrast of leaving our car at the airport with it being 4 degrees and arriving with it being 70 degrees was extremely gratifying. K's parents arrived a couple of hours after us and we all proceeded up to Escondido to the resort. It really was a great place. I thoroughly enjoyed the stay there. It was up in the deserty hills north of San Diego. After we got there we hunted for a place to eat dinner. We 
went to a "restaurant row" in San Marcos but not before Karen cut off a cop in her crazy mario andretti fashion trying to follow her lane changing father. Of course as you would expect the cop pulled up next to us at the light on the passenger side where I was sitting and proceeded to yell at me for not using my signals and how his verbal warning was better than a ticket. I should have mustered up my best english accent and told him "Spot on chap I thought I 
was on the wrong side of the parkway." Well skippy the wonder cop pulled ahead and we went our separate ways but I couldn't help but note that even when I'm a passenger in a car I get yelled at for what it does wrong. Just as our food arrived at the California Miner's restaurant Zach called. 
I'm guessing he smelled the burgers and knew he should call right then. He bought the call from the DI for $10 for 5 minutes. The DI takes the money and buys new drill belts for the platoon so when they have final drill they look sharper. Its almost like having a bake sale for the Marines.
We spent Monday checking out the resort, doing homework, sitting in the hot tub etc. Tuesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was great. 75 degrees and partly sunny as well as being a very nice zoo. I took 150 pictures on my new camera here alone. We had a lot of fun. Wednesday was beach visit day in Oceanside, CA. It was too cold to swim but we walked on the pier and then around the beach. Kt and Ike found sand dollars. More pictures. 
Finally Thursday was family day. We headed down to MCRD and ate breakfast on base at a "restaurant". I caught a glimpse of zach practicing their marching and formation on the parade deck for graduation. We met up with the McCorkel's and Laupan's and waited for the Moto Run to begin. We got 3 opportunities to see zach during that....yeah I got pictures. After that we got a little intro to the DI staff and what their training was all about. After that Zach was dismissed for 5 hours of base liberty. We ate lunch
at a pretty decent buffet where we observed Zach down voluminous amounts of food. Then he showed us around. The Marine Corps museum was pretty interesting but my family wouldn't let me read all the placards next to each exhibit. After buying some souvenirs and watching Zach eat more food we had to turn him back in. They had to spend their evening packing and preparing for graduation the next day. We had to spend our time crawling through downtown San Diego rush hour traffic but that hot tub was still nice later that eveningFriday we left a little bit earlier for the Morning Colors ceremony. It was cool and particularly because the Secretary of the Navy was there for both that and the graduation ceremony. Thats a pretty cool thing to get such a dignitary for his graduation. The graduation ceremony was very 
cool. Just seeing 455 men marching in time like that was very impressive. It was a great way to see history. At the end Zach was dismissed and he got his bag from where it was stored and just wanted to high tail it out of there. No lingering around or remeniscing. We took him to eat at subway where we found Mr. Crust avoider now eating every scrap. He says yes maam and no maam to the workers and always stands with his hands behind his back like he's at rest. Lots of subtle diffrences. We went back to the hotel after lunch and Zach modelled all his various uniforms.
cool. Just seeing 455 men marching in time like that was very impressive. It was a great way to see history. At the end Zach was dismissed and he got his bag from where it was stored and just wanted to high tail it out of there. No lingering around or remeniscing. We took him to eat at subway where we found Mr. Crust avoider now eating every scrap. He says yes maam and no maam to the workers and always stands with his hands behind his back like he's at rest. Lots of subtle diffrences. We went back to the hotel after lunch and Zach modelled all his various uniforms.When Gma and Gpa S came back we went out for dinner to Red Robin where Zach feasted on a burger and hot wings. He looked happy. Back to the hotel and hot tub time after a very long day. We packed up and got ready to return Saturday morning.
Well we returned alright Saturday morning. After the little snafu of backing into a cement gas pump protector after we filled up the rental car with gas to return the car right next door (It came from nowhere and jumped behind the car) We had to fill out a little form and thankfully the extra insurance rider we purchased for the car was purchased. everything was taken care of and we were only delayed 5 minutes to the airport. Our Flight home was uneventful.
However getting home became eventful. We discovered that our house had been robbed. They took Kt's TV and DVD player, they took $180 of Zach's wish list food he had wanted us to get. It was sitting in gift bags hidden in Kt's closet. They took Ike's 2004 world series ball signed by most of the red sox. They took an xbox and a sub-woofer and all the liquor!!!! They took my beloved ATT Uverse TV/ internet modem (which is worthless without a subscription), They took my laptop and an ancient video camera. Worst of all they took K's jewelry box. This makes me want to cry. Not that it was so valuable and thankfully they missed the two most valuable things that were stored elsewhere but lots of sentimental jewelry from her grandmothers and such. If I could get anything back it would be that. There were a few other small things like coin jars and such.
So that sort of bummed out our return a bit. Ike cheered himself up by going to the movies with Naomi and Zach and Kt went to Wind Lake for the big welcome home party. We were thinking of going but didn't feel very motivated anymore. We sat and found a TV that played VHS tapes and watched the Muppet Christmas carol to cheer us up because our TV and internet was gone with the missing modem box.
Sunday after church I started writing my research paper. Much of my resources and research were on the laptop that was stolen. So I had to recreate a lot of it from memory. I ran down to work to connect to the internet and submit my paper by 12:55 am...5 minutes to spare. I doubt the paper will get a great grade but we'll see. It was pretty good considering the circumstances. Devry has a no excuse policy on deadlines and such. I'll be curious to see what comes of my reconstructed paper.
So its 9 days to Christmas. Well I can tell you I am not ready for that. I'm looking forward to it yet feel grinchy when I'm at home. I don't feel like putting up anything or decorating or any of that. I will try to get the Christmas spirit here right after I don't feel like punching a robbery suspect. I'll probably need another day.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The Crucible ..almost complete
So in about an hour Zach will be finished with the Crucible. Then he is a Marine. Very cool. At a time like this I will quote the famous philosopher, Rhino the Hamster, from the movie Bolt.
Bolt Easy won't be part of the equation...
Rhino: Promise!
Bolt: I gotta warn ya, going into the belly of the beast - danger at every turn.
Rhino: [getting closer] I eat danger for breakfast!
Bolt: You hungry?
Rhino: [cracks neck] Starving!
Rhino:Anything's possible when your Awwweesome!!
Bolt Easy won't be part of the equation...
Rhino: Promise!
Bolt: I gotta warn ya, going into the belly of the beast - danger at every turn.
Rhino: [getting closer] I eat danger for breakfast!
Bolt: You hungry?
Rhino: [cracks neck] Starving!
Rhino:Anything's possible when your Awwweesome!!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Crucible
Well approximately 5 hours ago Zach started "The Crucible". This is a 54 hour final exam so to speak for boot camp. It is an event that has 35 stations that could be a physical fitness station, an obstacle course, a team building course (get this bomb to that side of the river using floating turtles where 4 people must be touching the bomb at all times but never touch anything red or you're dead....that kind of a thing), combat stations (crawl the next 200 yards in the mud under the barbed wire, then go and bayonet the dummy's or small animals if you find one, when you're done with that go bash your friends with a pugil stick or a martial arts choke hold) and other exciting stations. When they complete the stations they will have hiked/jogged/run 30 miles already. They get 4 hours of sleep and 2 rations of food. Then they finish the Crucible with a 10 mile hike up "the Reaper" a largish hill/mountain where when they reach the top they are officially considered Marines. They then go straight to the Warriors breakfast of steak and Eggs. It is definitely one of the most difficult things someone can ever do physically.
I think Zach will do well. His platoon was honor platoon with its strength in the physical conditioning categories. Zach particularly has been relegated to plenty of extra IT ("Incentive Training" its the extra physical conditioning you get to do for whatever infraction a DI can think up)
I was thinking about how being a parent is running the crucible, except it goes on for years. We run obstacle courses through our house every day and particularly around our children. We hike here and there. We engage in combat skills as they grow up. We work on teamwork skills yet if they touch certain things they are dead. We are tired. Get little sleep. Teenagers make your rations scarce. Eventually we all hike up the reaper. We accomplished our goal....We will get our Warrior's breakfast in heaven. I bet you the steak is awesome in heaven.
I think Zach will do well. His platoon was honor platoon with its strength in the physical conditioning categories. Zach particularly has been relegated to plenty of extra IT ("Incentive Training" its the extra physical conditioning you get to do for whatever infraction a DI can think up)
I was thinking about how being a parent is running the crucible, except it goes on for years. We run obstacle courses through our house every day and particularly around our children. We hike here and there. We engage in combat skills as they grow up. We work on teamwork skills yet if they touch certain things they are dead. We are tired. Get little sleep. Teenagers make your rations scarce. Eventually we all hike up the reaper. We accomplished our goal....We will get our Warrior's breakfast in heaven. I bet you the steak is awesome in heaven.
Monday, December 1, 2008
The DMV and other names for Satan
Well It's December 1st and I guess it's winter now. We got a few inches of snow and a lot of drifting and blowing. It's days like this where I appreciate commuting at 6:30am instead of 8-8:30am. At least it's not too busy on the roads.
What a weird busy week. It was weird because it seems like I was gone from work for so long. I took Wednesday off in addition to Thanksgiving and the day after. A nice break but I know I will be even antsier this week and not interested in working. We leave for San Diego 6:00 am Sunday morning and now with winter arriving today it is none to soon to be in San Diego for a week.
Last Wednesday I tackled the DMV. My longtime nemesis. However much to my dismay, my plan for laying siege to the DMV by sitting in the lobby for hours waiting my turn was thwarted at every turn. My mission was to restore Zach's drivers license and clear up the snafu regarding my own license. But my plan started to fail right when I walked in the door. I got my number right away and started to fill out the required forms and was called to the window before I could even finish filling them out. What kind of treachery was this? Certainly some form of missing documentation would send me back to a lobby fox hole. "Okay Zach's licenses is restored. I see yours was restored but they failed to remove the FPF code blah blah blah...let me do that for you. Oh I noticed they have the wrong SSN on your license. I probably should ask to see your card but I'll just trust you and fix that too. That's it everything is good. Thank you very much" Yes evil I tell you...words of satan. Certainly the photo machine or license printer will fail and I will sit waiting for it. Alas I was handed my new license within 3 minutes. The whole experience lasted 18 minutes. Perhaps a driver's ed test student would pile into my car as I left the parking lot...no, I escaped unharmed. I am still waiting....no one gets a DMV experience like that and walks away with their soul.
Next on the list..The quest for customer service at Target. Kt bought a new camera from Target just before Caitlin's wedding and within 6 weeks it stopped functioning. I went back to Target with no receipt or box but just a register, date, and time of day to lookup the sale. By harassing the electronics manager, who fortunately was available instead of skippy the wonder clerk who was trying to be helpful ...but wasn't, I was able to secure an exchange. Based on the new prices though, I was able to upgrade Kt from an 8 megapixel to a 10 megapixel. Because most any teenager needs to have a camera that can take high def pictures at 12x14 inches. I suppose they could then print posters of themselves standing in front of the bathroom mirror giving a peace sign or sticking their tongues out or maybe both.
I somehow managed to walk out with a nice camera for myself and a really cheap video camera as well. Funny how that happens. I also believe I accidentally kept the broken camera of Kt's. I believe that was supposed to stay behind but she didn't ask for it. So when I got home I realized that the issue with Kt's old camera seemed to be power related. I used the charger to try and charge it but it wouldn't take a charge. I put the battery in the new camera and it wouldn't charge in it either. The new camera ceased to work when I switched the old battery into it as well. When I used the new battery in both of them, they worked just fine. So I bought a new battery for Kt's old camera and voila we have a working camera. This is now Karen's camera. I will not even detail my quest for a battery. It's enough to say that if you need a weird battery just start at Batteries Plus. Don't try 3 other places first just hoping you'll avoid the drive out to Batteries Plus.
So I mentioned that I might have just purchased a camera for myself. We really haven't had a camera in many years. We had a cheap digital camera but it didn't take the best pictures and it sucked the batteries down so fast it was hardly worth using simply because there was no room for the pack mule we needed to carry batteries for us. I got a Kodak 10 megapixel camera with a 10x Zoom lens. This is all very strategic as I intend to zoom in on Zach while he is in formation or during his moto run or at graduation. It has a gabillion features...so much so that I did something extraordinary...I read the manual. It does night vision pics and low light and just lots of things. I took pictures of Ike's head and I could zoom inside his nose and nearly see his brain. I was very happy...BUT
Evil Evil Kodak. They don't sell that camera with a rechargeable battery. It comes with a lithium battery that based on all the gear movement, zooming, and autofocus within this larger camera depletes rather quickly....and this after having already dismissed the pack mule as unnecessary. These batteries are $8 a piece. I bet you any money the DMV is behind this. So my quest for the rechargeable battery and charger commenced. So remember what I said about going straight to Batteries Plus to find your weird batteries? Disregard that...when you need an ion lithium battery charger and rechargeable battery. Go back to that 1st place you went to 5 blocks from your house to get that kind of specialty product. Thank God gas prices are down because no one accounts for the gas prices in their battery costs.
I think there is some irony that the very cheap video camera came with a battery recharger and rechargeable battery. A little bit of ingenuity thought up by some worker in china who makes 50 cents an hour no doubt. and the the whole video cam cost 50% of the camera. Actually I'm sure Kodak thought of this using the Printer sales methodology which states, "sell the printers cheap and gouge them on the ink cartridges." but they just are going for a corner on the ion lithium battery market.
So that pretty much covered Wednesday.
Thursday we went to K's parents for Thanksgiving. We picked up my Mom on the way and brought her too. It was an excellent meal and afterwards we played Wii for awhile. If you want high definition pictures of this, I got em. Even my mom took some turns playing M&M Kart. I was almost as surprised as the first time I heard my Mom swear... which did not scar me at all that fine spring day of May 16th, 1981 at 5:33pm in the kitchen of the house in Lake Mills. We left Karen at her parents to help out baking more cookies and HAHAHA they made her do her homework. We picked up Ike's friend Nick on the way home to stay overnight.
Black Friday began before I went to bed on Thursday. I stayed awake Thursday night to make sure Kt got up for work at 3:30am at JCP. I decided that black Friday I would stay home and avoid all travel. I know that Black Friday is a creation of the DMV and I do not want to push my luck. Instead I slept until 11:30 and woke up minutes before Kt got home from work. HAHAHAHA that felt good. She did not share my amusement. I then cleaned the house up a bit because Kt was having over the next boyfriend prospect. I wanted to make sure the interview went smoothly. So EZ, as I call him so creatively as those are his initials, so far seems like a good catch. He is polite, pleases and thank yous, looks you in the eye, and is not afraid to interact. He did call me Mr. Niedfeldt though and that always freaks me out. Mr. Niedfeldt was my father. He actually likes chapel at school. Goes to church. Is on the honor role with a 3.8, is 1st team all conference line backer, can break small children in half with his bare hands, and has a firm hand shake. He actually went out and played Frisbee in the park with Kt, went for a walk, and actually was willing to not just veg on a couch at out house. I'm scared that he's so nice and good and such that someone as wild as Kt might be too much for him. Well apparently word has spread via the football team network from the football banquet this weekend that he is now going out with Kt. This is unusual because normally this type of information travels fastest through the OMG network (This is the network where teenage girls transmit information faster than the speed of sound to large numbers of other teenage girls by starting conversations with "OMG, can you believe what so and so....."). Kt is still awaiting the formal request for long-term wooing privileges, but they do seem imminent. She is going to make sure this relationship starts out on the right foot. Something about not clubbing the boys over the head and dragging them off.
I found EZ's presence very useful in removing the remnants of the Big screen TV. Its sort of nice having the strongest Wisco student in the house to help lift out the heavy base of the old TV. I had bashed apart the TV console with my 40lb drive shaft from my original 1972 Toyota corolla. That bar has been the greatest tool ever. What duct tape can put together this bar can rip apart. Plus even the strongest kid at wisco who could crush me, had a chance to see what a 500lb TV looks like after being bashed by a large iron pole...particularly if you mention that this is what the last boy who didn't take care of Kt looked like after offending me and my 1972 drive shaft.
Did I mention the quest for the fuses? No of course not. Well in starting the cleaning of the basement on Friday night, I noticed that in a hole in the wall was stuffed the CD jacket of my "Best of the GoGo's" album. I pulled it out to discover it was covering a broken outlet. Who would think to use a paper CD jacket to cover a broken electrical fire causing outlet? I think the better way to start a house fire would be to use an album cover of a band I can't stand like Led Zepplin or Sting...but not the GoGo's...jeez. Upon wiggling the outlet to assess its brokenness, it promptly shorted and blew a fuse....or so I thought. I ran to Menard's just before closing and bought a replacement fuse for the apparent affected circuit as it was written in pencil on the fuse box 58 years ago. I got back to discover that my fuse box had inserts for "safety" and I now had the wrong type of fuse....alas it was too late to go back to Menards. I did manage to get the fuse insert out and try my new fuse...still nothing. I guess I go to Menards in the morning and get the proper fuses AND a new insert. Around 2am I notice that the house is getting frosty. So it turns out that the circuit I blew was the very common living room lamp, Kt's bedroom, the stove, 4 outlets in the basement and furnace circuit. I put an extra blanket on Kt and on my bed and laced my blankets with catnip to assure an adequate covering of cats.
Saturday morning I got to Menard's early and I decided to buy every fuse I could need to replace the whole deal. I also got a new insert for the touchy socket I had tried to fix the night before. When I got home I discovered that my electrical system was probably designed by the DMV. Every new electrical requirement added to the house in 60 years got a new electrical box holding exactly one circuit breaker. So inserting the fuses in all of the 7 electrical boxes was much like unlocking the sequence of a full stargate in my basement. It turns out that 3 fuses had blown and their unique combination is what made everything wacky. After nearly electrocuting myself twice getting the new insert into the socket it didn't fit right and didn't make an electrical connection. I ripped it out again and after getting most everything but Kt's room back power wise, I decided to just put in the fuse I had bought the night before. Voila! it worked. I was the fuse master and I have the electrical burns to prove it. I did replace the outlet, but I am still deciding which CD jacket to use as an outlet cover. I'm thinking my "Wham's Greatest Hit" cover. BTW there is a functioning stargate in my basement now. I'm submitting my electrical system to Nicolas cage to be considered in the next series "National Treasure: The Basement of secrets"
So I spent the rest of Saturday cleaning up the basement and building a small 5 foot wall to section off my office from the rest of the basement. I took out Zach's dresser of electronic components and put it in the garage. There is a lot more open space down there now. It's almost pleasant to sit in now. I got my sound system restored and found that I could blast Xmas music to cover an almost two block radius. Very cool to be able to do yet things rattle off the tables and walls in the house so its probably not good to do that often. With great power comes great responsibility.
Saturday night I ate dinner with the McCorkel's, who are Ricky's parents. That is Zach's best friend with whom he is in the same platoon at Boot Camp. We compared child war stories. It was nice that there were no surprises. I was waiting for..."Yeah I remember when Zach blew up our gazebo..." or something like that. Took an hour to get a large pizza at a new restaurant in Muskego..not cool...we wanted free beer to make up for our pain and suffering. There was no free beer.
Sunday was a "fun" day. Church was awesome. for me personally it was one of the best services we have ever had. Mostly because of the sermon but all around just a good service. Ike was too chicken to ask for the phone number of a cute girl at church. She has only been coming to church for a year and half now. So I went up and got it for him. He ended up talking to her all day long. After church, I came home...I was supposed to have not procrastinated and should have started my 10 page paper for class before this. That apparently did not happen and I had indeed procrastinated. Sooo of course the minute I got home I started right in on killing the fruit flys once and for all.
No more Mr. Nice Guy. They were still everywhere and PETA approved humanitarian trapping of fruit flys in the oven and baking them just was not enough. I found just the right type of raid for flying insects. It was a nice fogging mist and I blasted them all. Within 1 minute I had hundreds of fruit fly carcasses all over. There was a rogue here and there but I will get them in their due time. Basically it took care of the problem. Chemical warfare is where its at. Threat eliminated. I have no doubt they were from the DMV.
Now that I could study in the peace of a fruit fly free home, I got right on that paper. well and started laundry, cleaned the floors, and the cleaned the kitchen from the toxic cloud I had created there. Now, back to that paper. well except I needed to go get Karen from Delafield and then make dinner. Okay...the paper...I cranked it out and submitted it at 12:51am...9 minutes to spare oooo yeah. I also did two postings in those 9 minutes to cap off a perfect week of discussions as well. JIT education...that's me..Master of Fuses and Masters of Science.
So now the long week of work before we leave for San Diego. Can't wait for it to be done. at least there are some basketball games to see to help pass the time. Zach starts the crucible in about 15 hours. Then its 54 hours with 4 hours sleep and 2 rations of food. I will guess that the entire time what will get Zach through the entire ordeal is the warrior's breakfast at the end of the Crucible. Zach will be home on the 13th and doesn't return to San Diego until Jan 19th. He will be working as a recruiter's assistant during that time.
okay that's it...just watch out for the DMV.
What a weird busy week. It was weird because it seems like I was gone from work for so long. I took Wednesday off in addition to Thanksgiving and the day after. A nice break but I know I will be even antsier this week and not interested in working. We leave for San Diego 6:00 am Sunday morning and now with winter arriving today it is none to soon to be in San Diego for a week.
Last Wednesday I tackled the DMV. My longtime nemesis. However much to my dismay, my plan for laying siege to the DMV by sitting in the lobby for hours waiting my turn was thwarted at every turn. My mission was to restore Zach's drivers license and clear up the snafu regarding my own license. But my plan started to fail right when I walked in the door. I got my number right away and started to fill out the required forms and was called to the window before I could even finish filling them out. What kind of treachery was this? Certainly some form of missing documentation would send me back to a lobby fox hole. "Okay Zach's licenses is restored. I see yours was restored but they failed to remove the FPF code blah blah blah...let me do that for you. Oh I noticed they have the wrong SSN on your license. I probably should ask to see your card but I'll just trust you and fix that too. That's it everything is good. Thank you very much" Yes evil I tell you...words of satan. Certainly the photo machine or license printer will fail and I will sit waiting for it. Alas I was handed my new license within 3 minutes. The whole experience lasted 18 minutes. Perhaps a driver's ed test student would pile into my car as I left the parking lot...no, I escaped unharmed. I am still waiting....no one gets a DMV experience like that and walks away with their soul.
Next on the list..The quest for customer service at Target. Kt bought a new camera from Target just before Caitlin's wedding and within 6 weeks it stopped functioning. I went back to Target with no receipt or box but just a register, date, and time of day to lookup the sale. By harassing the electronics manager, who fortunately was available instead of skippy the wonder clerk who was trying to be helpful ...but wasn't, I was able to secure an exchange. Based on the new prices though, I was able to upgrade Kt from an 8 megapixel to a 10 megapixel. Because most any teenager needs to have a camera that can take high def pictures at 12x14 inches. I suppose they could then print posters of themselves standing in front of the bathroom mirror giving a peace sign or sticking their tongues out or maybe both.
I somehow managed to walk out with a nice camera for myself and a really cheap video camera as well. Funny how that happens. I also believe I accidentally kept the broken camera of Kt's. I believe that was supposed to stay behind but she didn't ask for it. So when I got home I realized that the issue with Kt's old camera seemed to be power related. I used the charger to try and charge it but it wouldn't take a charge. I put the battery in the new camera and it wouldn't charge in it either. The new camera ceased to work when I switched the old battery into it as well. When I used the new battery in both of them, they worked just fine. So I bought a new battery for Kt's old camera and voila we have a working camera. This is now Karen's camera. I will not even detail my quest for a battery. It's enough to say that if you need a weird battery just start at Batteries Plus. Don't try 3 other places first just hoping you'll avoid the drive out to Batteries Plus.
So I mentioned that I might have just purchased a camera for myself. We really haven't had a camera in many years. We had a cheap digital camera but it didn't take the best pictures and it sucked the batteries down so fast it was hardly worth using simply because there was no room for the pack mule we needed to carry batteries for us. I got a Kodak 10 megapixel camera with a 10x Zoom lens. This is all very strategic as I intend to zoom in on Zach while he is in formation or during his moto run or at graduation. It has a gabillion features...so much so that I did something extraordinary...I read the manual. It does night vision pics and low light and just lots of things. I took pictures of Ike's head and I could zoom inside his nose and nearly see his brain. I was very happy...BUT
Evil Evil Kodak. They don't sell that camera with a rechargeable battery. It comes with a lithium battery that based on all the gear movement, zooming, and autofocus within this larger camera depletes rather quickly....and this after having already dismissed the pack mule as unnecessary. These batteries are $8 a piece. I bet you any money the DMV is behind this. So my quest for the rechargeable battery and charger commenced. So remember what I said about going straight to Batteries Plus to find your weird batteries? Disregard that...when you need an ion lithium battery charger and rechargeable battery. Go back to that 1st place you went to 5 blocks from your house to get that kind of specialty product. Thank God gas prices are down because no one accounts for the gas prices in their battery costs.
I think there is some irony that the very cheap video camera came with a battery recharger and rechargeable battery. A little bit of ingenuity thought up by some worker in china who makes 50 cents an hour no doubt. and the the whole video cam cost 50% of the camera. Actually I'm sure Kodak thought of this using the Printer sales methodology which states, "sell the printers cheap and gouge them on the ink cartridges." but they just are going for a corner on the ion lithium battery market.
So that pretty much covered Wednesday.
Thursday we went to K's parents for Thanksgiving. We picked up my Mom on the way and brought her too. It was an excellent meal and afterwards we played Wii for awhile. If you want high definition pictures of this, I got em. Even my mom took some turns playing M&M Kart. I was almost as surprised as the first time I heard my Mom swear... which did not scar me at all that fine spring day of May 16th, 1981 at 5:33pm in the kitchen of the house in Lake Mills. We left Karen at her parents to help out baking more cookies and HAHAHA they made her do her homework. We picked up Ike's friend Nick on the way home to stay overnight.
Black Friday began before I went to bed on Thursday. I stayed awake Thursday night to make sure Kt got up for work at 3:30am at JCP. I decided that black Friday I would stay home and avoid all travel. I know that Black Friday is a creation of the DMV and I do not want to push my luck. Instead I slept until 11:30 and woke up minutes before Kt got home from work. HAHAHAHA that felt good. She did not share my amusement. I then cleaned the house up a bit because Kt was having over the next boyfriend prospect. I wanted to make sure the interview went smoothly. So EZ, as I call him so creatively as those are his initials, so far seems like a good catch. He is polite, pleases and thank yous, looks you in the eye, and is not afraid to interact. He did call me Mr. Niedfeldt though and that always freaks me out. Mr. Niedfeldt was my father. He actually likes chapel at school. Goes to church. Is on the honor role with a 3.8, is 1st team all conference line backer, can break small children in half with his bare hands, and has a firm hand shake. He actually went out and played Frisbee in the park with Kt, went for a walk, and actually was willing to not just veg on a couch at out house. I'm scared that he's so nice and good and such that someone as wild as Kt might be too much for him. Well apparently word has spread via the football team network from the football banquet this weekend that he is now going out with Kt. This is unusual because normally this type of information travels fastest through the OMG network (This is the network where teenage girls transmit information faster than the speed of sound to large numbers of other teenage girls by starting conversations with "OMG, can you believe what so and so....."). Kt is still awaiting the formal request for long-term wooing privileges, but they do seem imminent. She is going to make sure this relationship starts out on the right foot. Something about not clubbing the boys over the head and dragging them off.
I found EZ's presence very useful in removing the remnants of the Big screen TV. Its sort of nice having the strongest Wisco student in the house to help lift out the heavy base of the old TV. I had bashed apart the TV console with my 40lb drive shaft from my original 1972 Toyota corolla. That bar has been the greatest tool ever. What duct tape can put together this bar can rip apart. Plus even the strongest kid at wisco who could crush me, had a chance to see what a 500lb TV looks like after being bashed by a large iron pole...particularly if you mention that this is what the last boy who didn't take care of Kt looked like after offending me and my 1972 drive shaft.
Did I mention the quest for the fuses? No of course not. Well in starting the cleaning of the basement on Friday night, I noticed that in a hole in the wall was stuffed the CD jacket of my "Best of the GoGo's" album. I pulled it out to discover it was covering a broken outlet. Who would think to use a paper CD jacket to cover a broken electrical fire causing outlet? I think the better way to start a house fire would be to use an album cover of a band I can't stand like Led Zepplin or Sting...but not the GoGo's...jeez. Upon wiggling the outlet to assess its brokenness, it promptly shorted and blew a fuse....or so I thought. I ran to Menard's just before closing and bought a replacement fuse for the apparent affected circuit as it was written in pencil on the fuse box 58 years ago. I got back to discover that my fuse box had inserts for "safety" and I now had the wrong type of fuse....alas it was too late to go back to Menards. I did manage to get the fuse insert out and try my new fuse...still nothing. I guess I go to Menards in the morning and get the proper fuses AND a new insert. Around 2am I notice that the house is getting frosty. So it turns out that the circuit I blew was the very common living room lamp, Kt's bedroom, the stove, 4 outlets in the basement and furnace circuit. I put an extra blanket on Kt and on my bed and laced my blankets with catnip to assure an adequate covering of cats.
Saturday morning I got to Menard's early and I decided to buy every fuse I could need to replace the whole deal. I also got a new insert for the touchy socket I had tried to fix the night before. When I got home I discovered that my electrical system was probably designed by the DMV. Every new electrical requirement added to the house in 60 years got a new electrical box holding exactly one circuit breaker. So inserting the fuses in all of the 7 electrical boxes was much like unlocking the sequence of a full stargate in my basement. It turns out that 3 fuses had blown and their unique combination is what made everything wacky. After nearly electrocuting myself twice getting the new insert into the socket it didn't fit right and didn't make an electrical connection. I ripped it out again and after getting most everything but Kt's room back power wise, I decided to just put in the fuse I had bought the night before. Voila! it worked. I was the fuse master and I have the electrical burns to prove it. I did replace the outlet, but I am still deciding which CD jacket to use as an outlet cover. I'm thinking my "Wham's Greatest Hit" cover. BTW there is a functioning stargate in my basement now. I'm submitting my electrical system to Nicolas cage to be considered in the next series "National Treasure: The Basement of secrets"
So I spent the rest of Saturday cleaning up the basement and building a small 5 foot wall to section off my office from the rest of the basement. I took out Zach's dresser of electronic components and put it in the garage. There is a lot more open space down there now. It's almost pleasant to sit in now. I got my sound system restored and found that I could blast Xmas music to cover an almost two block radius. Very cool to be able to do yet things rattle off the tables and walls in the house so its probably not good to do that often. With great power comes great responsibility.
Saturday night I ate dinner with the McCorkel's, who are Ricky's parents. That is Zach's best friend with whom he is in the same platoon at Boot Camp. We compared child war stories. It was nice that there were no surprises. I was waiting for..."Yeah I remember when Zach blew up our gazebo..." or something like that. Took an hour to get a large pizza at a new restaurant in Muskego..not cool...we wanted free beer to make up for our pain and suffering. There was no free beer.
Sunday was a "fun" day. Church was awesome. for me personally it was one of the best services we have ever had. Mostly because of the sermon but all around just a good service. Ike was too chicken to ask for the phone number of a cute girl at church. She has only been coming to church for a year and half now. So I went up and got it for him. He ended up talking to her all day long. After church, I came home...I was supposed to have not procrastinated and should have started my 10 page paper for class before this. That apparently did not happen and I had indeed procrastinated. Sooo of course the minute I got home I started right in on killing the fruit flys once and for all.
No more Mr. Nice Guy. They were still everywhere and PETA approved humanitarian trapping of fruit flys in the oven and baking them just was not enough. I found just the right type of raid for flying insects. It was a nice fogging mist and I blasted them all. Within 1 minute I had hundreds of fruit fly carcasses all over. There was a rogue here and there but I will get them in their due time. Basically it took care of the problem. Chemical warfare is where its at. Threat eliminated. I have no doubt they were from the DMV.
Now that I could study in the peace of a fruit fly free home, I got right on that paper. well and started laundry, cleaned the floors, and the cleaned the kitchen from the toxic cloud I had created there. Now, back to that paper. well except I needed to go get Karen from Delafield and then make dinner. Okay...the paper...I cranked it out and submitted it at 12:51am...9 minutes to spare oooo yeah. I also did two postings in those 9 minutes to cap off a perfect week of discussions as well. JIT education...that's me..Master of Fuses and Masters of Science.
So now the long week of work before we leave for San Diego. Can't wait for it to be done. at least there are some basketball games to see to help pass the time. Zach starts the crucible in about 15 hours. Then its 54 hours with 4 hours sleep and 2 rations of food. I will guess that the entire time what will get Zach through the entire ordeal is the warrior's breakfast at the end of the Crucible. Zach will be home on the 13th and doesn't return to San Diego until Jan 19th. He will be working as a recruiter's assistant during that time.
okay that's it...just watch out for the DMV.
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