Kids Are Coming Home

This has been a real interesting week. I am still waiting to recieve my computer case, which, accoring to the UPS website, is going to be delayed until the 31. I think that's garbage, considering what I had to pay for shipping. At work, Nate rearranged the office and moved the Server Rack inside, to make the Tech Area a little quieter. The kids have been in and out all week. Andrea was teaching her Vacation Bible School class and Jake was running around with his grampa and dad. Kris and I will be celebrating our 4 year Wedding Anniversary on August 8th and plan to have a nice dinner together. I cooked 4 Quiche s this week, to Kris's delight. Jake and I also had a little Saturday adventure

Computer Case
As I had said, I came away from an eBay sale with a nice case for $50. But the seller decided to ship the case ground. She seems to really be dragging her feet, considering what she sold the case for. And I am going to complain about the shipping time. I could have been inconvenienced locally for less money! I'm already disappointed with a few other issues with dealing with this seller. I will definitely leave negative feedback if there are any other problems than this.

Other Packages
I recieved my KSC USP Compact from Jason (Loki) of Airsoft Ohio. We have done business with each other for several years and will likely continue to do so for several more. He's a nice guy with a good sense of humor. The gun arrive Thursday and is simply amazing. The only drawbacks I see with it are (1) Plastic slide and barrel, (2) Frame size is a little small, but strangley, still comfortable. I do plan to order a few spare magazines and a metal slide/barrel combo as soon as I locate a stateside retailer with one in stock.



Jacob asked about the marking on the magazine and I told him I could show him the same markings on other "double-stack" automatic. There are small holes in the magazine with numerals to let the shooter see how many rounds he has remaining.



Unfortunately, both places we went did not have the USP Compact in stock and both salesman informed me that it was a Special Order item they normally did not stock. Jacob was a little disappointed as was I, until we saw something else they had.



They had a used SOCOM Mark 23 in stock for a whopping $1899.99! The Mark 23 is a civilian version of the MK23 used by Special Forces. It's essentially a match grade .45 Automatic which can be fitted with a Suppressor and Tactical Light/Laser combo (LAM) and is geared toward that stealthy Special Forces Goody-type stuff - Sentry Elimination, silenced shooting, etc.



The gun is very large and expensive, but is one of the very best automatics on the market. Fortunately, the high price tag can keep it out of the hands of most people. Unfortunately, I am one of them! It was alot of fun to get to see one, but its unfortunate that is likely the only time I will ever get to see and hold one.

Andrea: Vacation Bible School Teacher
A week before Andrea left for camp, her church began calling around town to the various Lutheran Youths... Youtherans...heh heh, looking for volunteers to help out with the younger kids at their Vacation Bible School this last week. Out of all the kids they called, they only found two who were willing to do it - Andrea and another boy she went to camp with.

Andrea went to the VBS schgool every day this week and helped out with the KinderGarten-3rd grade students. This meant she had to pack a lunch and get to the church each week around 8:30 am. On Friday, Annie got to go swimming as the last day celebration. It reminded me of the dozens of VBS my brother and sisters went to growing up. I was glad to see Annie helping them out and hope she learned something from it.

4 Quiches in two days!
This week I decided to try my hand at another round of Spinach Quiche. I whipped them up in about 10 minutes and then waited for them to cook about 40 minutes. I am still tweaking the recipe and cooking times, but they turned out pretty good. Kris liked them because they were a change from the regular supper we have been having. And ANdrea gave it a try and actually liked it. Jacob wasn't here to try them, but he probably would have liked it as well.

Unfortunately, I bought too many pie crusts and had two left over. I had misjudged the filling and didn't have enough left over. I probably should have spread the Spinach out a little more and used more eggs, but I didn't have much room to spare n my blender. So the next night, I made an onion-bell pepper quiche that turned out a little less impressive as the first. All four of them were a little watery. After speaking with mom, I've decided to give it another try, but this time, using flour int he mixtrue to help keep it a little more firm.

Still, it wasn't a "Graham Crack Crust Spinach Quiche," so I think it still went pretty well. I am still tweaking the recipe, which was done completely from scratch with no actual recipe. I have always been able to "wing-it" and come out ahead in the end. I enjoyed making them and hope to try again real soon.

4 year Wedding Anniversary
Kris and I will be celebrating our 4th wedding Anniversary on the 8th. We're still not sure where we'll be going, but its probably going to be Red Lobster, Olive Garden, or something similar. Kris and I deserve it after finally crawling out from under our debt. She still hasn't decided where she wants to go, but I told her its her choice and, within reason, we can go anywhere she wants. I'll fill in more details when they come up.

This week has seen record heat and some fierce thunderstorms. I just hope we dont all melt before August gets here.

An End to July 2006 is in Sight

This week was spent busy with work. The kids spent the week with their Grandparents, giving us a nice quiet house. Western WIsconsin finally sees some rain and cool weather. I got my new computer case on eBay for a penny! We picked up the kids' school supplies and we get to buy the kids new glasses next month. Fun.

Work Week
This week, we made some changes to the network, which resulted in temporarily cutting off the different Dial Up locations to test each connection. We also got a Accelerator Program Update dumped on us with very little warning. SO we spent most of the week troubleshooting probelms which arose from both of those issues. I'm sure we will be answering questions about the Accelerator for the next month, but it would have been nice if we had recieved alittle more warning.

Kidless Week
Annie and Jake conned their grandparents into letting them stay with them most of this week. Jacob is still mad at me for sending him to bed early the other night after telling me to shut up. Let him be mad. Annie just wanted to get to do what Jake did, as usual. Both of their grandparents were fed up with the two of them by the day's end, but Jake, again, conned them into staying one more night.

Rain!
Wednesday and Thursday saw some storms around the western part of the state. After several days of record heat and almost no cool air, we got a really nasty storm from the West, which stayed an extra day. Today was nice and cool and promised similar weather the rest of the weekend. It is unfortunate that the airsoft game I had wanted to go to was cancelled, but its understandable the way the weather was earlier in the week.

Computer Case for a Penny!
Well, I finally purchased my new ATX case for the new computer. I placed a low bid on the item and ended up wining it for a penny! Unfortunately, the retailer made up for the low price by gouging me on shipping. The total still ended up being $50, which is what I would have spent on it locally, but I did get to pick the style and color. I recieved word the case shipped today, so I hope to have it quickly. I'm ready to play on the new computer and break in the new 128MB Graphics card.

School Supplies
Its really pathetic that the stores are stocking up for school supplies already. Wal-Mart was already well-picked over for suppllies, at least for color selection, but we managed to get most of the shopping done and will be ready for September 1st. I had wanted to get the supplies with my next paycheck, but Kris insisted we get it out the way ASAP. It will be nice to not have to rush like last year. Unfortunately, we won't be saving much money this next month. Both of the kids are due for eye check-ups and new glasses prescriptions.

Quote of the Week
-- fromone of my WAP post on the thread "MySpace Antics" --
{editted}
I wouldn't exactly peg dolphins as being peaceful fun-loving ocean critters. Some male species of dolphin have been known to harass, abuse, and rape younger, smaller male dolphins of a different species before they mutilate and kill it. Experts believe this is done solely for the joy of killing and has also been well-documented by National Geographic and was on a Discovery Channel Special.

A pod of Gray Dolphins did this to a smaller harbor dolphin in front of a crowd of women and children on a "Doplhin Watching Cruise" off the coast of Australia a few years ago. Initially it was thought by the tourists that the dolphins were simply playing. But it soon became obvious the smaller male dolphin was swimming for its life. After the larger dolphins killed the smaller dolphin, they began to make racist and ethnically offensive comments towards the tour group.

Later that evening, one of the female patrons recieved a sexualy explicit phone call from one of the male porpoisess threatening retrobution, should the lady report the incident to the Harbor Patrol. Shortly thereafter, one of the tour guides found his tires slashed and the words "Legs are for hominids" keyed into his Dodge Neon. Let's just say, Dolphins can be savage.

Busy Week of Heat

This week was very exhausting. I had several projects to coplete at work, one of our telcos jumped the gun on some requested modifications resulting in loss of service for several of our customers, I began going through our inventoried computers at work to salvage additional parts for use in the office. I also had a nice quiet week without kids. It was great.

Computer Woes
The Gateway has again given me trouble this week. I recieved my Graphics card and RAM and began to assemble it, only to find my case was not a true ATX as advertised. It appears it is an odd ATX/Micro ATX case, which may explain why the computer store had it on clearance. The case is one bay too small for a standard ATX board.

Had things gone to plan, I was going to assemble the new machine, load Windows 98 on it and at least have it up and running until I could buy a copy of XP to load. As usual, nothing ever goes to plan, the motherboard was too big for my case, and I was then forced to battel with my Gateway to get it back up and running.

When I upgraded the RAM on the Gateway to 384MB, I noticed the BIOS battery was dead, but didn't have a CR2032 to toss in there. Whenever I unplug the power supply, the dead battery would reset my BIOs. That meant I had to pull the computer out, check all of the cards, and then fight with the crappy Gateway BIOs to get the boot and PCI GFX to work properly.

This time, I fought with the BIOS for nearly three hours to get the system to properly boot into the BIOS to adjust the Boot Priority list. I used to have the Priotiry list set up as follows:

• CDROM
• HD Drive 1
• FDD
• HD Drive 2

Now, to speed this up, I set it to the following:

• CDROM
• HD Drive 1
• HD Drive 2
• Disabled

With this setup, the computer can boot from the CDROM, then detects the first HD to boot. In the absence of Drive 1, it will try to boot from Drive 2, which is currently slated to be my Maxtor 20GB HD, Once I recieve the new 80GB drive for the new machine. I dropped the FDD from the boot list because it really isn't needed.

Eventually, the Gateway won't have CDROM or FDD as it is going to become a file server with 4 HD available for storage. I will buy an external box to stick a CDROM in to use wherever its needed.

I will order a new case on Thursday, when I get paid. The options were buy a new case or buy a new Motherboard. I probably would end up buying a new Motherboard anyway, but right now, I just want to get this damned thing finished so I can spend money on something else.

Summer Camp
Andrea returned Friday from Camp, announcing she was a newly reformed vegetarian. HA. Her supper that night was a big juicy homemade Cheeseburger, which she happily sucked down, then asking for French Fries. She said she had a lot of fun and wants to go back next year. I half-expected this as the closet-case vegetarians always come out at camp. Mostly because they try to make themselves seem better for being forced to eat "cafeteria food."

Annie plans to go back next summer, if she can. It beats the heck out of her summer fun at home. This summer has been dead for the two of them. All of Andrea's friends have left for the summer, so she is stuck with going to her grandparent's house, her aunt's house, or staying home. We'd have more entertainment for her, but we're still trying to get caught up on bills.

Hopefully, next summer will be more fun as she plans to get a summer job. She's already sticking her nose up at working at Burger King or a similar food service job, thinking she'll get a job in the mall. She can have her dreams for now. We'll see how the next year goes for her.

The Weekend After

This week was short and sweet, but had several highs and lows. Andrea is heading off for Lutheran Camp on Sunday. Jacob is wrapping up his Summer Sports Camp. Kris is finally catching up on some sleep. The dogs get to play in the rain. The New computer is almost finished. Grandma and Grandpa Parker get a new Microwave and TV.

Lutheranism's Summer Cramp
Having completed her needed fundraising and recieving a scolarship to go, Andrea is now preparing to head off for Lutheran Camp. Yes, you heard it right - Lutheran Camp. Part of Andrea's Indoctirnation into the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy of Lutheranism is that she must now attend a weeklong summer camp with other would-be Lutherans. This is good because it gets her out of the house for a week and allows her to interact with other Lutheran hopefuls her age.

I'm sure you know my stance on this. If Andrea were actually serious about this, I'd be all for it. But her regular attitude of half-assing everything come through on this one. She only goes through the motions when she feels like it and the rest of the "indoctrination" she basically throws out the window.

Jacob's Summer Sports Camp
Jacob is wrapping up with Sports Camp. He has missed quite a few days because of Baseball and a few days where he'd flat refuse to go. We don't know why Jake refuses to go, he has been doing this the entire time. The Sports Camp does different camps everyday - baseball, tennis, football, basketball, and others. It's obvious he's having fun, but when he gets home he acts like he hates going.

I think some of this has to do with Andrea staying home everyday. Jacob wants to stay home, too, but cannot behave himself. When Kris gets home after a day when Jacob stays home with Annie, he acts horrible. Secondly, Jacob won't stay put and tries to run off to his friends' house, despite the fact he not supposd to go anywhere when we're gone. Jacob has one week of Camp remaining and we have to struggle to get him there. We're not backing down, though.

Kris' Sleep
This week has been a time for Kris to catch up on her sleep. With the kids gone and having a quiet cool house, Kris has desperately tried to catch up on missed sleep. This weekend, we're going to go out for a movie and dinner. This next week will be nice with one kid out and the other busy.

Dogs Playing in the Rain
Jada and Lily got a nice change this week with a light rain. The two of them rolled in the wet grass and then bathed in the sun. The cooler weather allowed Jada to sit out and enjoy the day. Lily, on the other hand, usually won't stay out long. The two of them got to have a nice walk a couple of days this week.

Grandma and Grandpa Parker get some new appliances
The Parkers finally had to buy a new microwave after having there's for nearly 20 years. It was a good microwave, but had began to show its age with longer and longer cook times. I took it out to their Garage the other day, where it will wait until the next appliance round-up.

They also took advantage of an appliance sale and bought a new TV for their kitchen. They bought a Toshiba Flat Screen, which has excellent picture quality. They donated their old TV to us, which will likely go to a Garage Sale or Pawn Shop. We currently have four TVs - one in each bedroom and one ithe living room. We just don't have room for another, so its going to have to go.

New Computer is almost done
This week, I ordered the final components for the new computer. Here are the specs:

• 2.4GHz P4 Processor
• 1GB PC2700 333MHz RAM
• Nvidia 5500GX 129MB GFX Card
• 2x 20GB HD
• 52x Sony CDROM (black)
• Edge 350W Mini Tower (black and silver)
• NEC 1.4 Floppy (black)

Overall cost of the computer was:$180

My immediate plans will be to get the computer together. I will be picking up a copy of Windows XP and a second stick of RAM to bump the total RAM to 2GB. This has been a short project, which probably would have been finished about two months ago, but there have been a few setbacks. I hope to have the computer completely finished by the end of the month, in time to prepare for school. The next computer purchase, apart from software, will most likely be a new laptop. We'll see how this one goes first, though.

July 4th Weekend

June passed away quietly at around 11:59pm, last night. It is survived by its brothers and sisters - July, August, September, October, November, and December. It was proceeded by family members - January, February, March, April and May. There will be a viewing held Sunday, July 2nd at 2pm. Donations can be recieved at your local calendar.

Work
This last week was somewhat of a rush as the tech staff awaited needed parts for the upgade of two of our dial-up locations. We also were waiting on a replacement T1 card we had ordered on eBay. Justin, Theresa, and I spent much of the last week and a half doing an audit of our billing system. We went through all of our active accounts and verified their status. It was a busy week, but we didn't have too many calls.

Kids
Jacob has been going to his summer sports camp and playing baseball. He doesn't much care for his camp, but last week, won tickets to an Eau Claire Express game. I think this may have made him decide that the Sports Camp is not such a bad idea, after all. At least he doesn't gripe about having to go to it so much.

Andrea has been working hard to stay out of trouble and complete the three daily tasks she's given that were the requirement of her staying home by herself. She still struggles with actually doing the chores as she like to put everything off until the last minute. But she generally has them done by 5pm, when I get home from work.

Dogs
Jada and Lily are still getting their daily walks and get to go outside. Jada particularly enjoys rolling around in the grass and usually suns herself. She also enoys greeting the neighbors and neighbor dogs with her friendly "Roo." Lily doesn't much care for the heat and usually stays out long enough to pee. She'll sometimes bark at the neighbor girls, but usually barks at us to let her in. The two of them usually relax in the Blue recliner and wait for Jacob, Kris, or me to come home.

Kris
Kris has been laying low as well. Her foot is still bothering her and she was recently given shots for her shoulder. Her doctor decided her big boot (cast) was not doing her much good as she wouold strain her back and shoulder trying to walk with it on. We recieved her orthotic inserts on Thursday and shes trying to decide which shoes to put them in. She has been trying to keep up with her sleep and was given an early weekend. She goes back to work Monday, but has the 4th off.

Home
I'm still in the process of getting the new computer together. Right now, I'm waiting on the next paycheck to pick up two sticks of RAM (2GB total) off eBay. The guy is selling the sticks at 1GB stick for $43 shipped, so I plan to buy two sticks. I'm still trying to decide if I want to get XP Pro or Home Ed., and will have to wait at least another two weeks before we get the machine up and running.

I have an additional 20GB harddrive that I can stick in there at least until we get the additional 80GB drives. Once I have both of those drives, I will most likely stick the 20GB drive back into the Gateway. I may replace the processor in the Gateway with a 750MHz Celeron off ebay. The processor was only $20 shipped, so even if it doesn't work, its a cheap fix.

I'm going to have to pick up a second case to put the new machine in. I was thinking I will probably just buy an identical case and haul this one off to work until I can get my KVM switch. The gateway could definitely use an second stick of RAM, it currently has 384MB.

I fixed Tuna for the weekend using my standby recipe - Tuna, Kosher baby dills, 1/4 clove of garlic, black pepper, and one onion. Its all chopped up very fine but is actually quite peppery from the garlic. I slap this and some plain yellow mustard on a wheat subroll and its quite delicious. I would like to add some pepperjack and tomatos tot he sandwich, but we don't have any in the fridge. We're really trying to hang in there until payday because we need to resupply some of our groceris.