The life of Me

Hi from the USS Stennis

2011-12-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I have put anything on here. Does anyone even check my blog anymore? I am still on the boat so I decided to send Brenda this info and then have her update the blog for me. Hopefully if any of you comment, she will share the comments with me too.

So, I left for deployment on July 28, 2011. I have now been out here for 140 days! I am well over half way done, but I still have a long time left! I miss my family so much! I have missed out on so much of little Clara’s life. She was born in January and just a few days after her birth, I had to leave to go on a Detachment to the Stennis. That lasted 30 days and then I was able to spend about a month with Clara and my family before leaving for another month to go to Fallon. Another 30 days and then about another month at home. We then left for another detachment to the boat for another 30 days. After that, I was able to spend just over a month with my family and during that time we took some leave to spend time with extended family before I left on Deployment! Then I left! It has been very hard being separated from family, but very nice to have the chance to email everyday! Without that, I would have lost it long ago!

I have had the opportunity to send videos of myself home for the girls to watch. At first I sent them on micro SD card via the USPS, but I recently figured out that I could convert them to a small enough format to actually get them to send over the ship’s slow email. I do have to burn them to CD first because of the Navy’s policy on inserting flash drives into their computers, but at least I can get videos home quickly now! I don’t know how those who served before modern technology dealt with the separation from family. Brenda’s grandfather wasn’t able to be there for his daughter’s birth and the communication was strictly snail mail. I am so thankful for all those who served and sacrificed for us when it was even harder than it is now. I also have a new found appreciation to those serving currently, there are a lot of benefits that didn’t used to be available, but the separation from family members and some of the stupid rules they are required to deal with certainly make the life of those in the military harder than life as a civilian!

I have also had the opportunity to see how many people do kind things for those who are deployed and away from home during the holidays. We received special packages from the Madera girl scout troop 413 as well as packages put out by the USO. Today I got a bracelet from Survivorjoe.com. Apparently they have a program where anyone who purchases a survivor bracelet online has their name placed on a business card and another bracelet is shipped to the troops (sailors in this case). All of these things, even though just small tokens, are very nice and help me to be much more thankful that I am dealing with some things I would rather not be right now.

Even more than all of that, I am beyond thankful for how my family has supported me. I have received items from so many family members and they mean so much to me! It is hard to express how it makes me feel to know that so many people care so deeply for me. I think the statement “absence makes the heart grow fonder” has been proven true on this deployment. I also feel like being separated for so long from those that I love has given me a much deeper appreciation for them. When we are finally reunited and there are no more detachments pending, it will be a wonderful day. I am praying that God will help me to always remember just how much I missed my family and that memory will help me to never take time spent with any of them for granted!

I am really looking forward to something called Tiger Cruise right now. You are allowed to have a person meet you in Hawaii (it can’t be a spouse or girlfriend) and then they are allowed to ride on the carrier with you for the trip from Hawaii back to San Diego. My dad is supposed to meet me in Hawaii and I think we are going to have a great time.

I still have to go on at least a few more detachments before I am finished with my enlistment, but God will continue to provide and we must continue to trust Him! We ask for your continued prayers as this is obviously very hard on Brenda and I. Emily has been very good about trying to understand and has never lost her desire to have me come home. We pray that Clara will be quick to get to know me when I am finally able to be there for her again. We also continue to pray about what our future holds when we are finished with the Navy. I would like to go to school and earn my bachelors in network administration. We are currently thinking about the possibility of moving to Colorado Springs at some point as well. We will continue to trust God with our future and we appreciate all the prayers that you are offering on our behalf.

Well, if you made it to the end, thank you for reading. I miss all of you. Maybe I’ll post again in a year or two.

1. Starbucks in Kuala Lumpur
2. The Sandbox
3. Indoor Ski Park
4. downtown Kuala Lumpur
5. double rainbow seen from the flight deck
6. chili dhurka chips
7. 4 ships seen from the carrier

Over 6 months, I think that is a record!

2010-06-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

I would say this is probably the longest I have gone without updating, and depending on your perspective, you may consider yourself lucky that I am sitting around waiting for a call from my LPO in this hotel. If I wasn't waiting on him, I probably wouldn't be updating this. Anyway, on to something somewhat more interesting.

We have arrived in LeMoore and are currently staying in the Navy Lodge. We are hoping to get the paperwork filed for housing tomorrow and then we should be able to decide if we will need an apartment while we wait on base housing or (if it's a short wait) we may stay here or another motel until we can move into our house. We could still use a lot of prayer regarding all of that.

God never stops teaching me patience. I was hoping to get here today and be able to quickly knock out this meeting with my LPO and then spend the evening sort of relaxing and figuring out what tomorrow might be like, but now, here I am wondering if this guy will call back and hoping to get it done before too late so that I can have at least a little time to relax.

We had an uneventful drive down here today. It took us almost exactly 6 hours from leaving Neil and Alicia's to pulling into the Navy Lodge. Thank you for your prayers for the drive, they worked. The base housing is right across the street from the Navy Lodge and it looks very nice, can't wait to find out more about it. Brenda is still feeling very sick thanks to the pregnancy, we are praying that will ease up a bit. I am feeling a lot of stress right now knowing all that we need to accomplish over the next few weeks and really unaware of how to proceed. God will help us get through it, but I need some help remembering that!

We had a great time visiting with family for the last few weeks. That was really relaxing and helped me to feel "Normal" again after 8 months away from friends and family. Anyway, this is not a very exciting post, but hopefully it's informative. Please continue to pray for us! We will try to keep y'all updated as to what is going on with us.

Home for Christmas!

2009-12-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

Well, this year is one of the first years that I have ever really felt like I was going "Home for Christmas"! It is kind of wierd too, because we don't really even have a home this year. I get to go back to Pahrump to spend Christmas with Brenda, Emily, Mom, Dad, Caleb, Lauri, Nanny and then a day or two with Justin and Katie. I am very excited. I may have previously mentioned that I have only spent 3 days (not even nights, just days) with any family in the last 3 months. This will be a wonderful time for me. I can't wait to get there!

I am currently sitting in the Pensacola airport and while spending many hours in an airport isn't usually very high on my list of things I like to do, today, it is quite pleasant. I actually left on an earlier bus than I needed to in the hope that the airport would have free wi-fi and it paid off! I have been sitting here for 3 hours researching some exciting topics, video chatting with the family, downloading stuff and just enjoying the internet. Now, I decided that since I have a little longer before they start boarding my flight, I would post a pre-Christmas blog real quick!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post at this time. I should have some after Christmas and hopefully I will get the chance to post again shortly after Christmas. We will be living down here then and should have internet at the apartment very soon after moving in. I am sure you will all be waiting on literal pins and needles to see my pictures, but, until then, you will just have to wait!

I survived Boot Camp!

2009-12-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

It is true! After 53 days of misery, I finished boot camp and was allowed to see my beautiful wife and daughter for a few wonderful days. (My parents were there too, but I couldn't figure out how to incorporate them into the "beautiful" statement.) My boot camp was only 53 days, I believe it is usually 60 days, but God blessed me there by getting me into what they call a "PUSH" division. Basically, they only do graduations at specific times and they try to have full graduations each time. (This is all what I gathered from the small amount of information that I heard, it may not be 100% accuarate) We were fortunate enough to be put into an earlier graduation group than some of the other divisions that arrived at the same time and therefore, they "pushed" us harder to prepare us in time. I was thankful for this, because the hardest thing about boot camp for me was being separated from Brenda and Emily for so long. I was allowed a total of only 3 phone calls during this time and one of them was the night before graduation. The first one, Brenda had jury duty so I didn't get to talk to her. That leaves only 1 time in 53 days that I was able to speak to my wife! That was extremely hard on me!

Things are much better now. After arriving in Pensacola, I was told I was allowed to have my cell phone and my computer, so I had Brenda ship both of those items to me. The phone was a life saver, being able to talk to Brenda and other family members everyday keeps me happy! I am living in a barracks with about 600 other guys (3 to a room, 6 per bathroom). This is quite nice! I was in a room with 65 other guys during boot camp!

Here is a shot from out side of our barracks, you can't really tell, but all the barracks are shaped like H's. If you look up "NATTC, Pensacola, FL" on Google earth, you can get a pretty good view of the shape of the barracks and the lay of the land.

It is a pretty small room, but the beds are comfortable and we have a ceiling fan!

It is not fabulous, but far better than boot camp! I have been able to take some runs on the beach and while I don't have any breathtaking pics of the beach, I do have a few to give you an idea of where I am. I also took one of a swampy looking place that I thought was cool.

As you can hopefully gather from the tone of this post, things are looking up for us! I do ask for your continued prayers regarding getting B and E moved down here with me and regarding getting a good final duty station after school. Just to ease your minds, if you haven't already heard, we have rented an apartment here and Lord willing, B and E will be driving down with me after spending Christmas with my parents and then the 3 of us will live together down here. As I said, please keep praying! THANKS!!!

Christmas is Rapidly Approaching!

2009-09-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

OK, so Christmas is not really approaching that rapidly, but I am leaving pretty soon and I really have no idea whether or not I will be home at Christmas. God is still blessing us in so many ways. Last week, our vacation to Tempe was wonderful. We were able to spend almost a full week with Grandmom and Granddad and on top of that we were able to visit with all but two of our relatives down there at least twice. (Sorry Alison, you did not get to see us twice! And Jay, I really feel for you, you did not get to see us at all!) Anyway, we are very grateful for such a relaxing vacation only a few weeks before my departure to boot camp!

We are still praying about the sale of our house, we really don't know what God has in store for us there, but we know that all things work together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. We trust that He will resolve the issues that we currently see in His time! Please continue to pray with us.

Now, back to the title of this post. For those of you who have frequented my blog in the past, you know that every year I have done a digital Christmas list. This year will be no exception, but I have to post it a lot earlier than usual. I did decide to put a list up for each one of us (Brenda, Emily and me) on the same site so it is easy for y'all to find. Mom and Dad, since y'all are the only people that I know for a fact have used these in the past, if you have any questions, feel free to call me. If the rest of you have questions, just lump it! Just kidding. Here is the link!

Thanks again for your continued prayers and moral support!

A Brief Vacation

2009-08-19T08:03:00.001-07:00

Well, with only a month and 2 days remaining before I depart for boot camp, we figured it would be nice to go visit some family we haven't seen in a long time. On Saturday August 22nd we will be leaving for Tempe, AZ. We will be staying for around a week, although our departure date is not yet set in stone. We are very excited because Emily has never visited Grandmom and Granddad at their home. She will love the swimming and the puppy and the playing and probably within a day or two or arriving, she will love Gmom and Gdad too. (It takes her a while to warm up to people) Anyway, we hope to see a bunch of you Arizona folks while we're down there. We are expecting a fairly relaxing time hanging out and are very grateful to be able to do this before I leave. We love y'all and look forward to seeing you soon!

Philippians 4:6&7

2009-08-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6-7 NASB)

Wow! God is truly amazing! This verse has been proven so true to me over the last few weeks. In the midst of struggles that seemed as though they should have weighed me down very heavily, I felt strangely at peace with the situation. That peace truly surpassed my understanding! I am usually quite stressed out by things not half as big. Thank the Lord for His overpowering peace!

Yesterday I went down to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) and endured the longest day I have had in a long time. Throughout the day, many of the prayers that I have asked you all to pray were answered. First of all, I did well on the ASVAB. (this was a huge relief) Secondly, I passed the physical. I had never had a physical prior to yesterday, so I was worried about it. Thirdly, I had been very worried about the lack of available Navy jobs due largely to the current economy. I had heard a rumor that the next available job was to start 9 months from now. Not having a job right now, this would have been very hard on our family. There are many details to this story, but in an effort to keep this post somewhat short, I will leave it at this. After being told by the job counselor that there would be nothing available prior to May of 2010, she made a phone call and God provided a job that I would enjoy starting September 22nd, 2009! I will be leaving for boot camp on this date. God provided everything that we needed and more, He is truly awesome!

There are still some concerns for us, selling the house being the most bothersome, but we know He can do anything and He will be there for us no matter what He chooses to do. Continue to pray for us, but give thanks that God is an awesome God!!!!!

Some Promising News

2009-08-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I heard from the recruiter today. It looks like I will be going down to Sacramento on Sunday evening and spending the night in a hotel before taking the ASVAB, having a physical and hopefully choosing a job on Monday. Apparently all of the new jobs are likely to post on Monday, so hopefully that will be a benefit if the time comes for me to choose a job. I ask for your prayers. If I am accepted after the tests, I will be able to choose a job from the list. Please pray that there will be a job on the list that fits with my desired field, computer networking. If not, pray that I will know which job to pick.

As we know, the Lord's will will be done and we pray on top of these other requests, that we will be accepting of whatever He has for us.

No News Yet

2009-08-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Well, God is teaching me patience! Why does learning patience have to take so LONG???? I have talked to the recruiter two more times since my last post. The first time, we learned nothing at all, the second time I just filled out a bunch of statements regarding my traffic tickets. Now we simply await a call from the recruiter who is waiting on a call from Sacramento. If he calls, I may go down to Sacramento this week, if not, I guess we continue to wait. I talked to Grand-dad today and he reminded me that sometimes God uses us while we wait. What he meant was that God may not give us a definitive decision soon, if he doesn't, we must remain faithful to Him and remember that no matter what, God's will is what we want!!!!

Well, we obviously need your prayers as we WAIT. We will keep you updated with any new developments (or the lack thereof). Thanks again for your support and prayers!

Well, the time has come to update once again!

2009-07-28T14:45:00.001-07:00

Big Changes in "The Life of Me"

Well, when you don't post for a while it is hard to know where to start. To forewarn you, this is likely to be a lengthy post as I have a lot to talk about. While I would consider it worth the read, I will try to highlight the important sections for all you skimmers!

Old News:

We have decided to try to sell our house and join the Navy.

About 4 or 5 months ago, Brenda and I had been talking and praying quite a bit about what we should do with our lives. After all the praying, we came to the conclusion that God was leading us to try to sell our house and join the military. Our reasons were many, including: Getting money for college, getting into a larger house eventually to expand our family, having a job that I would enjoy more than Wal-Mart, and eventually getting out of the military, completing my education and getting a computer networking job that I would make my career.

More, Not as Old News

We are leaving Cloverdale Community Church.

Last October, Brenda and I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to resign as a deacon at our church, we felt stressed out and were no longer excited about church. We thought a little bit about leaving the church at that time, but decided that we should stick it out for a while and see if my being off the deacon board would help our attitudes at all. I resigned from the board and things felt a little easier for me, but we still didn't really feel like this was where God wanted us. About mid-May, Brenda told me that she still felt like we should leave Cloverdale, I had been having the same feelings so we prayed about it a lot more and, once again, felt God's leading. We made the decision to leave the church and then, after much prayer, came up with what we felt was the best way to go about doing that. We chose to talk to all the church leaders prior to planning any announcement from the pulpit (The announcement seemed appropriate to us because I had been leading music for about 3 years). After talking to the church leadership, I made my announcement to the congregation in early June and stated that my last Sunday would be July 5th. The announcement was very well received and our pastor, Dave, stood up after my spill and said some very nice things. Throughout the process we felt God's leading and are so grateful that He made it so easy on us.

More Recent Old News

The sale of our house is looking promising

As you are all aware, this is the worst time to sell a house. We were fully aware of that when we made our decision to let God sell it if it was His will, but we did begin to struggle after nearly 4 months with no offers. Then, out of the blue, our realtor called us and told us some interesting news. Our house was purchased with a Downpayment Assistance loan from the city of Redding. When we bought it, they gave us 75,000 that we would pay back with interest only on the profit from our house when we sold. Our realtor had contacted the city and found out that our loan was non-recourse. We learned that this means if the market drops and we decide to sell, the city may forgive us the debt we owe without any negative repercussions on us. While this sounded pretty good, it sounded far too good to be true, to me. We went down and had a meeting with a lady from the city who explained it to us and it was just as we had heard. Pretty excited, we began to tell people about it. When I talked to one of my friends, he pointed out that we were getting away with not paying our loan and hurting the city. I began to feel incredibly guilty and basically decided that we should not go through with it. I talked to some other people about it, including my dad, who told me that they didn't necessarily feel like it was a wrong thing to do, but that bad feeling was sticking with me. I told everyone in the know to please pray for us that we would know what God wanted us to do. Only two days later, with no new information, God had changed my heart and I suddenly felt like we needed to leave the whole process in His hands. If He wants to allow this huge debt to be forgiven and help us out in this way, then I must be humble and willing enough to accept it. Our prayer now is that if this is not God's will, He will close the door on this opportunity and make it clear to us that we should not continue to pursue it.

Fairly New News

I lost my job at Wal-Mart!

On Thursday, July 16th, I was at work and as is common, I was walking under some catwalks. Something hit me in the hand as it fell from above. I turned and saw that it was some shaving cream that had been squirted from the catwalk. I noticed some broken bottles of conditioner lying on the ground next to me, so I picked one up and ran up the stairs to get the guy back for squirting me. When I got up there, I couldn't bring myself to cover him in conditioner, so I let him go back to work. As I was leaving the area, I thought it would be funny to put some of the conditioner on the rails by the stairs so it would get on this guys hands as he went down the stairs later. I oozed some out onto both rails and walked away soon forgetting about it. When I arrived at work the following day, the manager from the other shift asked me if I had heard what had happened. I didn't know what he was talking about. He then explained to me how someone had been coming down the stairs that morning and had supported themselves using the rails and had slipped in some conditioner and nearly fallen. I quickly thought through my options and realized that if I wanted to keep my job I needed to keep this quiet. I told him that was terrible and I was glad no one was actually hurt. I walked away feeling very badly for lying, but thinking it was really the only option.
Later that day, I was questioned by one of my managers as to whether or not I had heard anything about the incident with the conditioner. I told him I had not heard anything. This same manager later sat down with some of the guys in my area to question them. They either didn't know anything, or were helping me out.
When I left work Friday night, I felt terrible, I had lied and the guilt was horrible. On Saturday when I woke up I felt worse instead of better! I kept trying to put it out of my mind, but I just couldn't shake it. As we sat in church Saturday evening, I couldn't sing or do anything but dwell on this guilt. (We now go to church on Saturday nights with Justin, Katie, Neil and Alicia.) I now knew that I had to tell the truth even if it meant losing my job. I made the decision that evening to tell my managers first thing on Tuesday. Immediately the burden lifted, I knew that I had made the right decision.
I went in Tuesday and told my managers what I had done and they thanked me for my honesty. They let me work my regular shift on Tuesday night and then on Wednesday they let me go.

Almost brand new News

I went in to talk to the Navy recruiter on Friday.

Friday morning I rode over to visit with the Navy recruiter and ended up staying for 3.5 hours. I learned a lot of useful information and then came home to talk it all over with Brenda. Our plan all along has been that if I ever lost my job, I would join the Navy so we felt that God was just opening that door even wider. I went back to the recruiter yesterday, Monday the 27th, and signed all the applicable paperwork. Currently my paperwork is being reviewed in Sacramento and if all goes well, I should be going down to Sac to take a physical and the ASVAB sometime this week. I have been told that if that happens and I pass the physical, I will be asked to choose an available Navy job based on the score of my ASVAB. We beg for your prayers over the next few days as once again we feel God working and desperately want His will for our lives!

The Newest of News to date.

We have accepted an offer on our house.

We received a call from our realtor today that an offer had come in on our house. We went down to her office and decided that the offer was fair, based on market value and other things. Now, the city of Redding has to consider the offer and it is in their hands as to whether or not we will sell the house for the offer price. Again, we are praying that God's will be done in all of this, He ultimately decides if this offer is accepted.

That's all the News, now a blurp from me.

God is awesome

Wow, looking back at all God has done in our lives over the last few months is overwhelming. He is teaching us so much! If we are simply willing to give up and let Him lead, He will do amazing things. Brenda and I both know all of this, but it is so easy to grab hold of life and try to do it by yourself. We are so thankful for all He has done for us and can't begin to express our gratitude to Him. We ask for your continued prayers as we continue to move forward to wherever He leads. Thank you all for supporting us in this way. We love you.

Some additions to the computer family!

2009-04-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

So, I added a computer to my collection about a month ago. Unfortunately, it was damaged during shipment. It still functions correctly, but doesn't look its best. Here are a couple of pictures that show the damage.

I have a claim with UPS right now attempting to get them to purchase me a new case, but I am not holding my breath. Again, for those of you interested, here are the specs.

Mac Pro 2.8GHz, 8 Core

10 GB 800MHz Ram (upgraded from 2GB)

Dual DVD Writers (upgraded from single)

(2) 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Hard Drives in a mirrored RAID for Media

(1) 80GB 10000 RPM SATA II Raptor Hard Drive for the OS

(1) 700GB 7200 RPM SATA II Hard Drive for User Files

OS X Server 10.5 Operating System

Dual External eSATA ports connected to a Dual Bay external hot swappable drive

Dual ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT video cards (connected to 3 monitors)

Bluetooth Module

Dual Gigabit Ethernet Ports

In case you can't tell, I am very excited about my setup. For a little comparison, my Mac Book Pro takes about 2.5 hours to rip a DVD to iPod format using Handbrake. My new Mac Pro completes the same task in about 22 minutes. AWESOME!!

When I purchased the last few components of this system, I decided to get a couple more flash drives too. I love flash drives! Anyway, I took a picture of all of my flash drives side by side to show the different sizes. I am amazed at how small they can make these things now. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my ravings about computer stuff. I will leave you with the pictures!.

A very brief post.

2009-04-14T13:24:00.001-07:00

This is to let all of those who ever read my blog know that I am working on a site at this address.

zachwalker18.dyndns.org

I have just uploaded a new video of Emily, so feel free to check it out!

And the Lord Said "Let there be some Crazy Rain!!"

2009-03-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

So, I know I haven't posted in a while and most of you will be less than pleased with the length of this post. Anyway, it rained here today. It rained insanely hard. I took a picture of it and you can actually see just how hard it was raining. If you click on the picture and then zoom in on it you can see just how hard it came down. It may take a long time to load, it is a large picture.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

2008-12-07T15:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of the year again, time for some timeless Christmas classics! Make sure your speakers are turned up so you don't miss a thing!!!! And finally for your viewing pleasure, here is our daughter putting her own special ornament on the tree!!!

A thorn was removed from my flesh today!!!

2008-10-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

Isn't it nice when you pray about something for what seems like forever and then God finally takes care of it for you.

Ok, it wasn't that kind of thorn, it was just a Jeep I have been trying to sell for a little over two months. I am happy to report that it finally sold this morning. I was able to cancel the insurance on it about 15 minutes ago! This will save me $50 per month and I don't have to worry about it anymore.

On another rather exciting note, we are going to the coast this weekend for a little R&R! I got us a hotel in Arcata for two nights. We plan to just relax and go to the zoo and the beach and stuff! I am very excited and I think Emily is going to love it. I don't have any fresher pictures of Emily that Brenda hasn't already posted, so please, go here to see some cute ones of the Cute One!

By the way, enjoy this post, because I may not get around to it again for another couple of months!!

You thought I was stuck at 100 forever didn't you!

2008-08-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have been somewhat lax in posting, but I am still around, just busy!

I let my turtles go the other day, they made it almost 3 years, but they were absolutely massive now and I decided they would be better off back in the wild. I found one of the original pictures that I took when they were very small still. I even have a comparison picture with a quarter for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

As you can see, the first picture after the collage is the largest turtle, followed by the smallest turtle and the medium one is the fourth picture down. I took the turtles out to Mary Lake to let them go and they seemed very excited to be in such a large body of water.

Well, I would like to say that I will post again soon, but in all likelihood, I probably won't. Hope you all enjoy the pics of the turtles.

Well, this is number 100!!!

2008-03-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

Isn't it funny how girls can just completely demean your cool new technology toys by saying "Oh, that sure is cute!"

I know, you might not believe that I have done 100 posts, but it is true. This is number 100! It has been almost exactly 5 months since my last post. I decided that I needed something memorable to post about if I was only going to post 2-3 times per year! Consequently, I bought a new computer so I could blog about it!
I am now the owner of a MacBook Pro! I bought a refurbished one again because they come with the same warranty as new ones, but cost far less. This time I got very lucky because when Apple came out with the newest MacBooks and MacBook Pros, they dropped the prices on their older model refurbished machines even more. I picked up my new one for 65% of the original price!!!! Anyway, for those interested, here are the specs.

15.4" Widescreen Display
1440 X 900 Resolution
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
160 GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
2 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
256MB NVidea GE Force 8600 Video Card

It also comes with all the other standard Apple notebook features.

For those of you not interested in the specs, here are a few pictures.

For those of you still wanting more information, please visit Apple's website.

Anyway, back to my first comment in this post. I went over to Alicia's today to help her get her internet fixed and I took my new computer. When I showed it to her she said "Oh, that's cute!", man that hurt!!!! Anyway, just so all you ladies are aware, these types of things can be cool, but not CUTE!!!! Oh, as a closing to this post I thought you all might enjoy a little comedy. Mitch Hedberg is hilarious, although not very clean most of the time. Rest assured, this clip is 100% clean, enjoy!

If you wish to see it in a larger format, please go to this LINK.

Our Fabulous trip to Pahrump

2007-10-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we just got back on Monday evening from our exciting trip out to see the family. We had a great time! My sister Katie got to come up from San Antonio, Nanny was there from Dallas, and Grandmom and Granddad came up from Phoenix. We hung out with the whole family early in the week and went out to Red Rock Canyon to do some geocaching. While we were there, we had a brief airsoft war in which I was shot in both ears in a matter of minutes. After that we just sat around for an hour or so shooting at the little truck and hitting certain grandmothers with ricochets.

Grandmom and Granddad also brought a rather large entertainment center (hand built by G-Dad of course) for Dad's big tv he got when they got the house. We spent almost a day getting that all set up and putting his entertainment system back together. We rounded out that day by watching a movie on the system.

Other activities of the week included: a trip to Vegas, a four wheeling trip to Carpenter Canyon, a walk in the park, and a trip to Quiznos! While in Vegas we watched a few fountain shows in front of the Belagio. Emily danced to the music, it was really cute! Quiznos was mentioned because I loved it, I just really enjoyed that meal. On another food note, we had tri-tip and shrimp creole while there as well. Mom and Dad, y'all rock!

Well, since I don't have any pictures from the trip in my computer and Brenda's computer is downstairs and closed right now, I will give you a few pictures we took last night of our crazy little girl sleeping! I tried to get the first two without using the flash, but I gave in on the last one and used it. She actually slept through all of it!

I'm a slacker, what can I say?

2007-09-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a few months since I posted so I figured I better tell you why. It's Justin's fault! You see he moved back to California and I have been hanging out with him instead of blogging! Ok, really, I'm just a slacker. We have had a pretty busy summer. A few weeks back we began going to the park on Sunday evenings with Steve and Trish and Jeremy and Kristi. Justin (He is here inspite of what his blog says!) now goes with us most of the time. We usually go to a park with a frisbee golf course and the guys play frisbee while the girls do whatever it is girls do when they hang out! We really enjoy it! I think Brenda will be updating soon about what we did last night (9.16.07)! That was a lot of fun too!

Emily is quite the exciting child now, she smiles a lot, laughs sometimes, rolls around a lot and just makes me happy all the time! I love her tons!!!! Well, I guess I will try to leave you with a few pictures now!

We are getting Emily started early on the Looney Tunes so that she won't be corrupted by all the crazy stuff that Brenda watches! Well, that's it for now!

Better late than never!

2007-07-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well, a few months ago I built a brick patio next to our deck, I meant to show y'all some pictures right away, but the bike and the baby took precedence. Now, here at last, are the pictures!

I had Brenda ask one of the construction workers how to build the steps, in return, he gave us all the materials we needed and instructions on how to build them. He also loaned me the template for cutting out the step supports and a jigsaw to cut the wood with. We are very thankful for this! Overall I think it turned out very well. I installed an extra can (recessed) light on the far end of the porch and it sheds quite a bit of light on our new patio area. The fan was prewired when the house was built, so I just had to hang it! We really like to be able to sit out on our porch and hang out. I picked up the used swing built by my grandfather at the parsonage and Brenda sanded it and cleaned it up, now it fits in nicely!

Lastly, in case you missed the plug on Brenda's blog's comments, I have created a gallery on my website where I will be uploading pictures of Emily and other things periodically. It should allow you to leave comments about individual pictures, view the pictures in a slide show or one at a time, and even order prints on Shutterfly if you desire. Click on this sentence to see the gallery!

Some new saddlebags

2007-06-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I ordered some new saddlebags off the internet a few weeks ago from Biker's Den. They arrived sometime last week and I put them on. They were the type that supposedly throw over the rear fender and remain secure under the rear seat. They were plenty secure, but they didn't fit very nicely and they were wiggling around and scratching my paint. Anyway, I devised a plan so that I could mount them without the need for the flaps that went under the seat and that I hoped would keep them from flopping around so much. I bought some 12" T brackets at Home Depot and modified them for my purposes. I will spare you the details, although I do plan to do a write up on the project here. The saddlebags are now securely mounted and look much better in my opinion. Here are some pics. I will expect some comment Justin Myers!!!!

Hope everyone's summer is as fun as mine!!!!

A visit from the family!

2007-06-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

We have had a wonderful weekend. My Pahrump family came out to visit (and do a wedding). We did a lot in 4 days. I took the day off on Friday and we hung out at home and then went to the wedding rehearsal Friday night. After that, my parents jeep broke down. We were at Home Depot when it happened, but fortunately we were able to start it with a screwdriver on the starter solenoid. We kinda limped it through the weekend and they will get it repaired properly once they get home.

Saturday was the wedding. I gave Caleb a ride to the church on my bike.

I also gave Lauri a ride on Sunday and Dad rode it right before they left on Tuesday morning, but sadly we didn't get any pictures of those rides.

Most of our fun took place on Monday. We went to "Hat leaf falls". We don't know the real name of the place, but that is what we call it. After you look at the pictures, you should know why. (All of these thumbnails have a description that will appear if you hold your mouse over the picture, they also link to the larger picture.)

Lastly, we got a pretty good video which you can watch here. Enjoy!

My Newer New Bike!

2007-05-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I figured that I had already used the title "My New Bike" in a previous post, so I thought I would change it up a bit just so that no one gets confused. I was finally able to get the bike that I have been wanting. It is a 1999 Honda Shadow Ace 750. It now has 10,500 miles on it and it's very clean. I bought it on Saturday in Turlock (about 260 miles from my house) and rode it home with Brenda following in the car. Anyway, I just wanted to show y'all my bike. I will try to post again soon with some pictures of the patio area that I built here at our house.

Misery

2007-04-15T03:17:00.000-07:00

Well,it's 3:18 AM on Sunday morning and I can't sleep. I apparently have acquired the flu from my wife and now I am finding it easier to have sympathy on her. I don't know how she keeps the baby and feels like this! We went to bed last night at 9:26 PM and I woke up at 12:30 AM with a need for a drink. I went down and got some water and got that shivery feeling you get when you have a fever where you shiver so hard it hurts! I hate being sick. Now I am just really hoping that Emily doesn't get this. I started thinking last night that maybe she already has it and that is the reason for her extra whininess over the last few days. Is whininess even a real word? Anyway, I am going four wheeling tomorrow, well, actually it's later on today so hopefully I will feel well for that! I was hoping that blogging would put me to sleep, but no such luck. I already tried taking some medicine, taking a shower and just waiting it out, nothing is working. I guess I will stop complaining. Hopefully all of you slept better than I have! Have a wonderful week!

A little addition for comparison!

2007-04-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me in the Suns shirt back when it was relatively new!

I thought y'all might enjoy this!

God is Awesome

2007-04-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, today is the day that I must return to work! I am sad that I will not be able to see Emily whenever I want to now, but I knew this was coming and I feel like I need to get back to work.
During my "Parental bonding time", God did more for us than I ever expected! The first, and obviously most exciting thing, was giving us a perfect, healthy baby girl!

I am forever grateful to Him for this gift and am praying that He will give me the strength to trust her fully into His hands forever!
God also allowed my entire immediate family to come out and spend some wonderful time with Emily, Brenda and me. He then worked out my money situation so that I could take a full month off, paid, and use almost no vacation time. As if this wasn't enough, God decided to keep on giving to us. In a mixed blessing/tragedy, God orchestrated the passing of one life to bring my parents back to visit Emily yet again. The service for the young man who passed away due to cancer was absolutely amazing and could not have been any more positive in light of the circumstances! Thank you Lord!

Since about 2 months before the baby came, Brenda and I have been praying off and on for a new vehicle. We were desperately trying to figure out how to fit it into the budget, but God knew how to do it. For my dad's birthday, God gave us a Jeep!

I went golfing with some friends that morning and I had to have one of them pick me up because my truck was not drivable that day. On the way home from the course, my friend told me he needed to drop by his house for a moment. When we got there he told me that he and his wife had decided to give us their Jeep. Wow! What can you say? God is absolutely amazing! Suddenly, we don't have to worry about finding a new vehicle, our finances will be unaffected, and yet we have even more than we needed!

On top of all this, God gave me the time and health to be able to get many needed projects done while I was off. I was able to change out the rear springs on my truck with my cousin Shane's help. I got my shed cleaned out and took a load of stuff to the dump. Our old, broken down Honda sold and the guy who bought it picked it up and got it off of my in-law's property. I was able to get my aquarium cleaned and set up the way I wanted to, and I was still able to spend plenty of time with my family! I am so humbled by God's amazing goodness to us, we don't deserve it, and yet He gives to us freely! Lord, thank you for all that you have done for us!

Lastly, while I was cleaning in the shed, I came across this awesome find. This is primarily for my sisters, they absolutely adore this shirt!

Well, I'm afraid this may come as a let down!

2007-03-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

I did not expect the guesses that I received regarding my switch panel, and now I feel as though I may have raised everyone's hopes to a high level only to let you down! I hope this is not the case, but if so, I am truly sorry!

My truck was broken into about six months ago and the stereo was stolen. The criminals left a gaping hole in my dash and all of the wires were torn up and left to hang! Anyway, I left it just as they had up until the day of my last post, on that day I decided it would be nice to have a stereo of some sort. Having recently purchased a 30Gb iPod Video, I thought it would be cool to be able to just plug that in and listen to my music. Since the criminals were kind enough to only steal my head unit and leave me my amp and speakers, it was quite easy to get the iPod working through my speakers. The two inputs (which, I must admit, do look much like coaxial inputs) are actually Left and Right RCA jacks, I can plug my iPod into them and then flip the last switch in the panel to activate my amp and, "Viola!", beautiful music fills my cab. Now, currently the rest of the small switches do nothing (the wiring was torn up on them as well), they were used to turn on external lights and such! I had three pairs of rock lights and some reverse lights. Now, ONLY the last of the small switches works. The large red switch turns on my AC compressor because the factory switch went out and I needed a quick fix. Anyway, as I'm sure you can tell, this was a cheap and quick way to get some music into my truck and improve the looks slightly, nothing spectacular, but much better for me!

Anyone?

2007-03-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

So, during my time off for the baby's birth I have been doing a lot. The first few weeks were primarily spent spending time with family, but now that they're all gone, what to do? Actually, I have been quite busy, I will give you a run down on that in just a few days. For now, I just want to know if anyone (other than my wife and Neil) knows what this is.

I will post again in just a few days and let you know.

Enjoy!

Our Beautiful Little Girl

2007-03-08T20:25:00.000-08:00

We Have a New Baby Girl!

Emily Elizabeth Walker
8 lbs 14.4 oz.
21" long

She's adorable!

Check out some pictures here.

By the way, once you enlarge one picture, you can mouse over the picture and forward and backward buttons will appear to make it easier to view the pics!

Cinderella???

2007-02-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I am desperately searching for the owner of this glass slipper. Well, I guess it is more of a grungy, old, funky looking, argyle type shoe. I had a wonderful time with the wearer of these shoes and then she disappeared! Actually, she swooped in, made my child's room scarier and then she was gone. I need to get in touch with her so she can remedy the situation. If you have any information, please call (555) 555-5555. Thank you very much.

Ok, actually the room looks very nice despite its very girly nature. All of the help that Brenda received was wonderful and I really appreciated it! Thanks everyone!
In other news, I have been moved to a different job at work. I was previously the supervisor of DA receiving, I basically saw to it that about 32 people unloaded as many trailers as they could during their 10 hour shift and that we had everything looking good at the end of the night. I was pulled into the office on Tuesday (the first day of my work week) and told that I was to become the supervisor of PFC starting the next day. So, I have now been training to be the new PFC Supervisor for two days. I think that I am going to enjoy it. It looks like I will be overseeing a total of about 25 people, but only about 6 will report directly to me. My job now is to oversee most of our conveyor system and make sure that we ship all of our freight in a timely manner. I am still learning exactly what it is that I do, so I am having trouble making a concise statement about it.
I think that I will really enjoy only having 6 or 7 people reporting to me because it will allow me to be more personal with the people. I will have more to say about all this later, but I just thought I would tell everyone that I have changed jobs. I want to leave you with this thought.

I would like these for my next half birthday. (July 4th)

DISNEYLAND

2007-01-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, we went to Disneyland. It is supposed to be "The Happiest place on Earth", but according to Jeremy, Mt. Shast is actually the happiest place on earth. Now, I am not really sure where the happiest place on earth is, but I don't intend to let that question keep me up at night. We had a very good time at Disneyland.

We had to do a little thinking on exactly how we could make it SUPER FUN, these pictures illustrate what we did.

First, we rented lockers for the kids.

We found this to be much more relaxing for us and them.

Secondly, we invited Heather to come with us.

As you can clearly see, Heather always has fun!

The next thing I decided to do I ended up regretting, but it did give the group some laughs.

Ok, I realized that it may have been a bad idea about the time they stopped the coaster to arrest me, I still don't know why they stopped it at the top of that hill! I really didn't think it was wrong, I mean, afterall, I got it from a Disney person.

Ok, that was actually a picture of me trading a Disney pin with one of the cast members, I hate to admit it, but it's true. The roller coaster really did get stuck there and we never found out why. It was pretty crazy, they actually had to send people up there to release all of the harnesses and escort the people down the track. I wish we would have been on that one!
I tried to spend some quality time with Hope this trip, and when she was happy, it worked pretty well!

As for Noah, we really did put him in that locker and Heather really is just as crazy as that picture shows! I am happy to be home, but sorry to be back to work! It's not so bad though, I have half of next week off to go see my parents.

My Sweet Purchase

2007-01-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I was doing my daily check of good deal sites on the web last week and I came across one that sounded pretty decent on thingfling. They were offering a MonsterPower surge protector as the primary item, but it was coming in a "grab-box" mixed with other stuff that they guaranteed would make this worth $150. The price on the item was $35 and although I knew that the surge protector alone would cost that much, I also knew that I could buy an off brand one for half that much. I decided to go ahead and take the risk in hope of good luck. Well, I have to say, I'm not sure if it would really be worth $150, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of stuff that I got.

I ended up getting a total of

4 surge protectors (in varying qualities)
2 extension cords
4 multiple outlet adapters
a pigtail adapter
a coaxial cable
and a timer/surge protector

I am very happy with my purchase and now even more excited to get my new computer and use many of these things to add plugs behind the desk! Oh, I almost forgot, I got that sweet T-shirt too!!!

Well, I only have 1.5 days of work this week and then we are leaving for Disneyland with the Klocke family. There are 11 of us going in total, Neil's family, Kevin's family, Kent's family and my family. We are really looking forward to having a great time together and apparently we are hoping that it rains so Disneyland won't be too crowded. Well, I will post at some point after we get back so y'all can hear how it went. Until then... Watch your topknot!

A VERY Quick Update

2007-01-04T14:08:00.000-08:00

Well, as you can see, I have changed my template. I still have some more work to do! I also added two songs to my song chooser. I plan to update for real fairly soon, but until then, this will have to suffice!

Today is/was my birthday! I got a lot of phone calls from those who care for me! Thanks y'all! (By the way, I still love all of you who were unable to call me too!(You can just tell me you tried to call me after 3:15pm and I must have been at work)) Anyway, thank you aswell for the cool birthday gifts that you bought me. I will post some pictures of my loot as soon as possible. Anyway, I'm off to work!

Carnage!!!

2006-12-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

Well, it isn't my toe this time, it's my fish! Yes, if you recall, I posted about my turtle's growth a while back. At that same time I took a picture of my two sucker fish. I bought them very small to help me keep my tank clean. They have grown a lot in the last year, but now they will no longer grow, because of the carnage!!!

My crazy, scary, large turtle decided to devour these rather large fish! (I think that the fish were almost as long as the turtle but not quite as wide, probably about 1/4 of the overall size of the turtle) Just in case you already forgot what the turtle looks like, here is a picture showing his size relative to a quarter.

I was talking to the Bean on the phone when I noticed something white floating in my tank again, at first I just thought it was the turtles shedding again, but then I noticed a big chunk at the bottom of the tank.

Ok, it didn't quite look like that, but I could make out the back of the fish and I saw some other pieces that the turtle apparently didn't want. Anyway, I believe that the turtle ate both sucker fish because I can't see them in there anywhere! Pretty crazy stuff!!!
On a different note, we have our family progressive dinner tonight! We're doing the appetizers, Kevin and Heather have the main course and Alicia and Neil have dessert. Well, I hope you all enjoyed my somewhat graphic post. Merry Christmas!!

Did you check out my song chooser?

2006-12-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well, in case anyone didn't notice, I removed the last entry from my Christmas list blog. (You know, the one for web hosting for a year.) I removed it because I went ahead and bought it myself. It was actually a good thing that I bought it when I did because the sale ended the day after I bought it! As you can see, I have been using it quite a bit, I have hosted quite a few songs already and you now have your choice of music when viewing my blog. (as long as you like one of my six songs) I have also used my new account to host much of the other content on my blog, this should allow you to load my page faster than you were previously able to. Filelodge, my prior file host, while free and useful, often caused slow loading files or broken links. Hopefully viewing my blog will now be a better experience for many of you. Also, if you are in need of file hosting for your blog, (this will be limited to avid readers of my blog) I may be able to help out.
     With the purchase of my web hosting service comes my own internet location for a website. So, if you are interested, this is my very quickly created home page which I intend to update in the future, but feel free to look at it now.
maczach.com
You can laugh at my clever domain name if you wish, but it was something that I could easily remember and that no one else had taken.
     Well, to get off of the computer talk I will move on to... some more computer talk. Yes, I thought I had something different to tell y'all about and then I remembered that it was related to computers as well. Maybe I'm a little obsessed! I sold a bunch of computer stuff on eBay this week. If you remember, a long time ago I posted about all of the parts that I had bought to build a PC. Well, the computer worked great, but now that the new Macs can run Windows natively, I have no real need for the PC anymore. I intend to buy the new MacPro.

With this computer I will be able to do all that I need to do on Windows as well as all of the fun stuff that I do on OS X. I am very excited about this and with the sale of much of my PC stuff I am getting even closer to having enough money to buy it!
     Well, I guess I have probably rambled on about computer stuff for too long now and maybe no one is even reading this part of the post, but if you are, thanks and if you would like to hear even more, go ahead and call me. I will be able to talk to you about it for a long time! Justin Myers knows this first hand as I often call him and talk to him about it until I realize that he is asleep on the other end!

Something Different

2006-11-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

I decided to try something new, I know, I look pretty stupid, but that's half the fun of it. This is only a 3mb file, so it probably won't take too long to download unless you still use dial-up.

I have also started a new Christmas list for anyone interested, the link is at the top of my link list! As I say so UNCLEARLY at the end of my video, "Y'all have a good afternoon".

Well, I was able to return to work!

2006-11-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

I appreciate all of your prayers, they worked! I only ended up missing 2 days of work and on Thursday I was able to go back and enjoy the wonderful world of Wal-Mart once again! On Friday, we had a somewhat interesting day at Wal-Mart. I got to work at about 3:00pm and the beginning of the day was pretty much standard, but at about 4:00pm something went wrong with the PA system in our building and the alarm which they use in case of emergency began to go off. We assumed that they would have it fixed quite quickly, but after about 15 minutes, people started to get irritated. (myself included) Anyway, to make a rather long day into a short story, I will just tell you that it turned out we have no one capable of fixing this little problem in our building or even our town. We had to put in a call to San Jose and they sent a guy up to fix this issue. When I left the building at 4:15am the alarm was still beeping with only momentary pauses while someone would cut in on the alarm to make an announcement. Thanks to federal regulations, we couldn't just turn off the system because that would be a safety hazard! Just for your listening pleasure, I happened to get a rather bad recording of this sound on my Palm. Please let this play in the background (quite loudly) for about 12 hours just to get an idea of how the 300 or so people in the building felt after a few hours.

So, we had quite an exciting evening last night, but at least it's over now. The weekend has just begun (for me, I sleep pretty late) so have some fun!

Well, I got my toe fixed, sort of?

2006-11-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

So, I had my podiatrist appointment yesterday and I guess it went well. He started me out with four of these!

Ok, maybe they weren't quite that big, but I did have four of them. On a positive note, he did use some sort of cold spray stuff to temporarily freeze the toe while injecting the medication. Actually there was very little pain involved in these shots. After waiting about ten minutes I couldn't feel my toe at all! This is a very strange sensation and it caused me to laugh when they started working on the toe. (All I could feel was my foot being jerked around) Anyway, right after the doctor visit, I had less pain then I had felt in a long time. I did get a rather large bandage,

My bandage was purple, but I didn't get a picture of it!
The doctor told me that the deadening would last about ten hours or so, I found out that it lasted about four, after this, THE PAIN!!!!!! I will spare you the gory details, but I was unable to go in to work today because I can't stand up for longer than about five minutes before my toe feels as though it is going to explode! Anyway, I am praying that I will feel well enough to go back to work tomorrow. I do think that in the long run I will be thankful that I got this taken care of, but for now I just wish it didn't hurt so bad! I was trying to remember what kind of tools the doctor used on my foot and I have provided pictures which, to the best of my recollection, illustrate what was done to my toe!

I have to say, I am glad I went to a specialist, because I can't even imagine what a regular doctor would have used!

Oh, one last thing, apparently having my toe worked on has also caused a little swelling of my head.

I'm loosing my Teeth!

2006-11-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I was over at Kevin and Heather's this weekend watching a movie while eating some delicious caramel popcorn. When I finished I was picking my teeth as you always must after eating popcorn. Unfortunately when I picked one of them, it felt a little wierd and then I realized I had chipped a tooth. Even worse, upon farther examination I realized that I had actually cracked the tooth and then out came these two pieces.

So, now I need an appointment with the dentist to figure out what to do about the hole in one of my molars. I am happy to report that it doesn't hurt at all and I feel as though there is a lot more room in my mouth now!

In other news, I have had a number of comments from people who come to my house about how large my turtles are. As it turns out, I have a comparison picture that Chuck, Caleb and Lauri sent me a long time ago when my largest turtle was very small so I thought I would let everyone see just how much this thing has grown!
Here he is as a small guy sitting next to a US quarter.

Here is the same turtle as of 11.6.06.(I believe the small picture was probably taken about 15 months ago.)

That is a pretty huge difference! I estimate about 600% increase in size. I wasn't quite sure on this, so I did a little photoshop work to make the difference easier to see.

Sure enough, it takes about 18 quarters to cover the big shell and only about 3 to cover the little one. I am very impressed with my turtles growth, I am just scared that in a few years I may need a swimming pool to contain them.

One last thing, please pray for me as I have to get this dental work done and I will also be having an ingrown toenail removed sometime in the next few weeks. Thanks!

Well, we had fun in Pahrump!

2006-10-31T00:12:00.000-08:00

Yes, we just returned from our week in Pahrump. For a brief synopsis of all that we did, please visit Lauri's blog. For the parts that stood out to me, please read on!

Once again, as has become a visit to Pahrump tradition, Mom made us Shrimp Creole!!! Thanks Mom! Caleb and I purchased a number of SoftAir guns.

Caleb was shot in the eye by a SoftAir gun. We (Dad, Grand-dad, Uncle Randy, Caleb, and I) sang at church on Sunday. We sounded just a little better than the guys singing on Uncle Randy's blog. I judged a chili cook-off and Brenda won 3rd place! We went four-wheeling over wheeler pass before spending the night in a cool cabin!

This is a picture (taken by someone else) of where we ate lunch.
Overall, this was a great week of fun. I was sorry to see it end, but there will always be next time!

I am considering re-doing my blogs look again, but I have received some feedback that I should still keep it baby oriented, how do all of you feel about this?

Real Quick Post before we leave for Pahrump!

2006-10-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I upgraded my internet connection to SBC's 3.0 to 6.0 mb connection and I must say, I am quite happy with the result. I took an internet speed test and these are my results.

I am getting around 5Mbs download and 400kbs upload fairly consistently! One last thing, please pray that Brenda and I have a safe, fun trip to visit my parents. Thanks!

I Hope you all got a chance to see (and hear) my last blog post!

2006-10-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

So, I have been very busy over the last few weeks and have chosen to do things other than create new posts on my blog, but I made up my mind to post today so here it is.

Last time I went out to my parents house, I noticed an unusual wear pattern on my left rear tire. It looked a lot like this.

There are many possible causes for this;

- loose wheel bearings
- mismounted tire/ wheel assembly
- out of balance wheel assembly
- tread design/ tire design
- worn bearings, shocks, springs or other suspension components

but I am guessing that this was simply caused by lack of balance.

At that same time, I noticed the front left was also wearing, but this one was wearing evenly along the outside edge.

This also could have been caused by many things, but in my case, a wheel bearing had gone bad.

Last weekend I went to Costco and bought 4 new tires for $280 mounted, balanced, and including a lifetime (of the tires) road hazard warranty. I felt like I got a pretty good deal. This weekend I went to Les Schwab and got my wheel bearing replaced and an alignment for $180. I am very glad to have my car all fixed (except for the motor mount that is going bad), but I always hate spending money on stuff that I don't really want! Anyway, that is what I have been doing for the last two weekends. I also worked at the Cargile's once and went golfing once, played on the computer a lot and did music at the church both Sundays. We lost our music guy not too long ago, so I am filling in until we can find someone else. Well, I could probably give you more of the exciting details that are my life, but I will save those for another post.

Oh, and for any of you wondering about the validity of Justin M's last comment, he is not the normal one, he just brings out the worst in me!

This is for all the whiners!

2006-10-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Please listen to my new sound, this is what I hear pretty much all the time now. Brenda hurls and then....

Oh, and check out my profile pic too, when I hang with my brother in law, things get a little wierd!

Homemade Grilled Stuft Burritos!!!

2006-09-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who have never had a Steak Grilled Stuft Burrito with lime sauce from Taco Bell in Anderson, CA at 3 in the morning, I would suggest you go do that before continuing to read this post.
Ok, so I assume this means that you have now had a grilled stuft burrito in Anderson. Good! It was delicious wasn't it? I certainly enjoy them!
Due to my somewhat unusual love of Steak Grilled Stuft Burritos, Kevin, my brother in law, decided that he and I should attempt to make them at home. It turns out that you can get recipes for some of the ingredients online. We found the recipe for the lime sauce that I always add to my burritos so we made some of that. We then set out to make them taste as much like Taco Bell as possible. I was very impressed, while they were not exactly like Taco Bell, they certainly had a very similar flavor and I felt that they were likely the best homemade burritos that I have ever had! Thanks Kevin!!!! Here are a few pics of us creating the burritos.

Here is me enjoying my burrito!!!!

Yep, those things were pretty tasty!

On Sunday night we went to Trish Taff's birthday party and I saw Jeremy there, he told us about some sweet clearance deals at Target. The next day, Brenda made it to Target and bought two ceiling fans for $7.50 each! We were very excited because we have wanted a ceiling fan for our bedroom for quite a while! While it is not exactly what we wanted, we figured for that cheap we might as well get it and just upgrade later. I put the fan in tonight and I think that we will probably sleep better as a result.

For anyone out there who has heard horror stories about fans that I install plummeting to the ground and nearly killing people, I just want to say that those stories are untrue and Brenda and I are in no danger sleeping under a fan that I installed!! Until next time!!!

Something other than computers!

2006-09-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Today I chose to accomplish a lot! I set out this morning with a list of things to do and I accomplished all but one of them. I pruned my roses, got the new MacBook enrolled in Apple Care, took out the trash, hung up Brenda's towel holder, cleaned up my computer desk and finally, cleaned my aquarium. This last task is actually what I am posting about. Having turtles in my aquarium, I can't fill the aquarium to the very top. (the turtles will escape) My filter is intended to pour water in at the top of the aquarium, when the water has to drop before going back into the aquarium it splashes and I always have water mucking up my view and leaving spots on the glass. I finally got the guts to try cutting the aquarium today so that the filter could rest at water level and the aquarium would not have to be full.

I searched around on the internet for a while and figured out that I could probably cut the glass with a diamond cutoff wheel in my Dremel. I went to Home Depot and bought this little tiny cutoff wheel for $15!

The new one is the one with the cooling holes.

I thought that was a little expensive for a little tiny piece of metal, but I checked 2 other stores and they didn't have them! When I got home I carefully measured and taped around that area I wanted to cut and then I went to work. I used some 3 in 1 oil to cut down on the heat a little bit and after about 30 minutes of work I had it done. No, it wasn't perfect, but I thought it went pretty well for my first attempt!

The edges are a little rough and I did crack the glass up near the top (just a hairline crack), but overall, I am very happy with the results. I am now getting the water movement that I have always wanted, the splashing is no more and the whole system is much more quiet than it ever has been! Well, until next time, have a good day!

Oh, for anyone who is still wondering, the last thing on my list that I didn't get done was putting some fog lights up for sale on eBay!

I'm still around, just a little distracted!

2006-08-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

Well, as many of you already know, we got Brenda's new MacBook last week!

While Brenda is quite happy to have a new computer that is lighter and has a built in camera, I am probably more excited!
Yesterday I removed the stock hard drive (60gb) and installed a 120gb in its place. Today I installed Windows XP Pro on the drive and now I can boot into either OS X or Windows XP pro. I am really happy with how well it all worked out and I think I am really going to enjoy being able to have a Windows and a Mac laptop with me almost anywhere! For those of you unfamiliar with the new MacBooks, please go here to check them out!
I have already ordered a gig of ram to install in the machine so once it arrives I will have the 13.3" MacBook White with a 120gb hard drive, 1.25gb of ram and a 2ghz processor! As you can tell, I am very excited to have this new machine! I plan to sell the iBook on eBay before too long so if anyone is looking for a new computer, check out my auction in a few days!

Havin' a baby means...

2006-08-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided that I need to start my new little fella off right, so I've compiled a few things that he will need right a way!

These things will help him stay on top of the technology available at the current time. Oh, and one last thing he will need just to be cool!

Yes, with these things, a few beatings and some love, we are destined to have a perfect kid!

The news be true!

2006-07-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

Having just recently returned from "Pirate Camp", I thought it was fitting to stick with the vernacular! Yes, we are having a child and he will be called ZJ. (This is for Zach Jr. or the Grand Cherokee for those interested in Jeeps)

Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ

We are both quite excited and a little bit nervous!

I'm a little scared that Brenda might try something like this while I'm at work!

Seriously though, I am very thankful for all of your prayers. I know that we need them and I ask you to continue to pray that Brenda and ZJ will be healthy and that we will be the parents God wants us to be. Brenda felt just a little better yesterday and today, not perfect, but slightly better! I am very thankful for that and I think she is probably even more thankful!

Family/Pirate camp was fun, I didn't get any pictures because Brenda stayed home and as you may know, I don't do pictures. You may have already read about camp on some of the other blogs, but just so that there is no confusion, I did more than eat Jeremy's food and drink Pepsi.

I bought a new tent right before I left for camp. I decided that since Brenda would not be going I would get a little 2 man tent so it would be easy to set up and take down. Well, long story short, it was small. When I laid down in it at an angle my head rubbed one end while my feet rubbed the other. It's ok though, I figure I will save it and give it to ZJ in a few years when his Mom and I decide to kick him out!

Wow, that was a long trip!

2006-07-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I actually got home a long time ago, but I didn't get around to posting until today! I'm sorry. We had a great trip. I was very sorry that it had to end. The thing that I learned on this trip: I need a couple of new Intel based Macs. Say what you will, but the need is real!!!! Really, it is! I think that our church camp is coming up in a few days (10 or so). I am excited about that. Our theme is "Pirates of the Siskiyous". Guess how we came up with such an original idea!!! In honor of the theme I shaved my head (to the skin) today. I like it, but I'm not sure what Brenda thinks of it!

I don't really have any good pictures from our vacation, but I got some inspiration from Jeremy's blog, so here are some pics!

I decided to go the extra mile though, I added the bottom too!!!!

Well, the vacation is nearly over!

2006-06-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's sad but true, our great vacation is shortly drawing to a close. We have had a wonderful time, and we are planning one last event before we leave. Tonight we are going to a baseball game with Katie and Justin. I don't know much about it, but I'm thinking we will probably get to eat some tasty food while we watch, so I'll have a great time!!!!
Katie's new computer came yesterday and I am posting this from it! It is very cool, and I have now decided that I need one for my house! Just look at all of the productive things it would allow me to do.

I can increase my storage capacity!

And, as you can see, I can learn to adapt to new situations!
Yes, I would say there is definitely a need for a new computer in the near future!

Well, maybe that will get the need to post these strange pictures out of my system, or perhaps not. Caleb and Lauri should be posting some good ones soon. I got to take them to the Apple Store with me while they were in Texas! It was really nice getting to hang out with my whole family while I was here! Anyway, I have had a great vacation and other than the fact that I have to go back to work, I am looking forward to coming home!

The new iMac!

2006-06-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, as you probably saw on Katie's blog, we went to the Apple store today! We checked out all of the newest Intel based Macs, but probably had the most fun with the built in iSight cameras. Here are a few pics that I took on the new MacBook Pro.

My new look.

This one is for y'all Uncle Rick and Aunt Denise. Y'all always love retards!

And just so that everyone knows these cameras really do work, a normal one of me and my sister!

Well, tomorrow we're off to Dallas for a week. We have a little harder time with our internet access there, so we may or may not get chances to update. We'll have to wait and see. By the way, don't forget to check out my previous most recent blog. It is still fairly new!

Here in Texas!!!!

2006-06-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well, as you probably all know from Brenda's blog, we are having a great time in Texas! We went to the coast, tubed down the Guadalupe river, went out to eat and hung out! That was all in the first five days! We are going to six flags tomorrow!!! I can't wait!

Yesterday, Justin and I built some shelving in his garage. We made one of the shelves into a combination workbench/shelving unit. We put some plugs and lights in his garage and then cleaned it all up. It went very well! Today we are planning to put in a shower door. All in all, we have accomplished a lot so far and we are having a wonderful time.

This is definitely not what Justin's garage looks like, but this is a very nice setup!

This isn't actually a picture of their shower door either!

Well, I will try to post some real pictures before too long! For now, I'm gonna keep on having fun here!

My first audio blog

2006-05-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

For any of you who usually leave your volume turned down, please turn it up and then start this audio clip. For anyone who is using a computer that doesn't have quicktime installed, please go here to install it.

Enjoy!

Here, to bring some extra interest to my audio blog, is the picture of Brenda and me on my bike that I promised!

I thought you would all enjoy this!

2006-05-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I recieved my new drivers license in the mail this past week. I felt confident when they took my picture that I was smiling and looking as happy as I could, but once again, I end up looking like I am stoned and bored out of my mind. How do they do that????? Anyway, here is a picture of me in my new license. I also decided to show you my old license for a comparison. I look pretty stupid in it too. I got that license picture taken when I was sixteen. I've aged a little, don't you think?

As you can see, I underlined the only real change in the license. I now have a class C and M1 so I can drive any passenger vehicle and any two wheeled cycle (including scooters, mopeds, etc.). Quite exciting don't you think? I was not allowed to drive at night or on the freeway until I got my license, so on Saturday I took my first ride on the freeway. It was a little wierd since my bike tops out at 73 mph and most everyone drives between 75 and 80, but it wasn't too bad because I found a slow driving mini-van to follow. I still want to get a little bigger bike that I might be able to drive to work, but I don't know when I will be able to do that.

Yesterday, I went to Kevin and Heather's for lunch and I took the kids riding around their neighborhood, I also gave Brenda and Heather rides. Anyway, Brenda took some pictures, but she will probably post them soon. Let me know if she doesn't post one of her wearing the cool helmet, and I will get one on my blog!!!

Wow, talk about a long time!

2006-05-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

Man, it has been forever since I posted! I though it had only been a week, but it's been two! Sorry all! Anyway, I have been pretty busy! I bought plane tickets to go to Texas this last week. We are leaving here on June 8th and flying into San Antonio where we will visit Katie and Justin for about a week. We are then going to drive up to Dallas to see as many other family members as we can during that week! We will be flying back out of San Antonio on June 24th and then we have to get back to our regular lives! Too Bad! I am very excited about our trip though! Oh, and for anyone who lives around here, we will be flying out of Sac at about 2 pm on Thursday the 8th and back into Sac at 10:45 in the morning on Saturday the 24th. We are looking for possible rides to and from the airport on those days, if you're interested, give us a call!

In motorcycle news, I got my motorcycle license last week! I haven't actually got the physical license yet, but I passed my driving test and the license is supposed to arrive shortly! Now I can legally drive at night and on the freeway! Unfortunately, I still have not fixed my magneto so my lights do not work well enough to ride at night! I hope to get that fixed fairly soon, but who knows when I will actually get around to it.

My new job is still interesting, and while I am getting better at it, I still have a lot to learn. I am excited, because my new boss shared with me last week that he wants to train me to do his job. This is nice not only for those times that he is gone and I actually have to do his job, but because once I know how to do his job, I will be ready for the next level of management! Pretty cool eh?? Well, I guess that is about all that I can come up with right now, hopefully this time I will get around to posting a little sooner than last time! Y'all have a great week!!!

Lost Plate and Terrible Golf!!!

2006-05-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend was a lot of fun! On Saturday I went golfing with Jeremy at Churn Creek. We both played very badly, but still, it was better than working! I need to go again so that I can redeem myself! Right after that I rode my motorcycle down to Jeremy's and we played Tiger Woods golf for about 4 hours. That eased the pain of a terrible golf game a little bit. The weather was beautiful all weekend! On Sunday I rode my bike to church and then Jeremy and I took the long route home. We then rode down to Jeremy's where we left for the park to play some softball and hang out with some church folks. It was at this time that Jeremy asked me why I didn't have the license plate on my bike yet. I thought he was joking, but nope, sure enough, my license plate was gone!!! The bracket that held it on was gone too! I guess it must have fallen off because one of the bolts that held it on was still there. Now I don't know what I have to do, but I need to get a hold of the DMV and figure it out! I am pretty bummed, because now I can't ride anymore till I fugure this out!

Anyway, Sunday night we (Brenda and I, not Jeremy and I) went to Kevin and Heather's and hung out for a few hours. Monday, we both worked at the Cargile's and Monday night Nick and Rachael came over to hang out with us! All in all, a very fun weekend! I am pretty bummed that I have to go back to work in just 4 hours, but I think that it really won't be that bad! Well, that's all for now! I guess you'll have to wait till next weekend for another post!

A Week of Supervisin'

2006-04-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well, my first week went alright, but I am happy that it's the weekend. I expected this job to be much more similar to the job that I had been doing for quite some time now, but it turns out that this new schedule is much more fast paced than weekend nights! While the requirements of the job are very much alike, there are a few critical differences that make this shift much more complicated to manage than weekend nights. On weekend nights we have two days from the date that a trailer arrives in the yard to get them unloaded, on weeknights, we only have one day! We also get trailers that come in during our schedule that must be unloaded in only two hours from their scheduled arrival time. This may not sound too hard, but it takes a little getting used to! I am enjoying the challenge and I am really hoping that I will improve with practice. So far, although my nights haven't been stellar, we have accomplished all that was required of us!

My new bosses are great, both of them are being very supportive and are willing to help me learn. Next week, another guy who does the same job that I do on another shift is coming to work with me and give me some pointers to help me out. Anyway, I am still very thankful for my new job and I anticipate before too long I will really start to enjoy it!

In bike news, Jeremy passed his motorcycle riding test last Monday, and I am now sure that I am ready to pass mine! I haven't ridden too much this week, but I did go for one ride on Wednesday morning. I am still really enjoying this whole bike riding thing! I can't wait to get a bike that I can actually ride to work! I think that I might try to get one like this.

Or This

I am now sort of thinking more about the cruiser than the street bike. I would love to have a street bike, but I think the cruiser would be more practical for riding to work. Either way, I don't expect that it will happen for a while, but I would sure love to be able to buy one of those! Well, I guess that's about it for now. I hope that all of you have a good week.

Super Visor

2006-04-10T10:21:00.001-07:00

Well, as you can see, these are some super visors, as it turns out, I too am a supervisor! Yep, about six months ago, I asked my manager about becoming a supervisor and he told me that he would let the appropriate people know. He let them know and began giving me a little more responsibility, but after a few months I began to wonder if anything would become of it. At the start of the year, it was announced that they were changing the way they had promoted supervisors in the past, now you would apply for the job more formally by filling out an application and waiting for an interview. Anyway, I filled out the application, received two interviews and then they gave me the job. I was told last night that on Tuesday April 18 I will be starting work as a supervisor over our receiving dock on the weekday nights schedule. I am very thankful for this promotion and am looking forward to starting. Now I will finally have Sundays off again and a more regular weekend. Thanks for your prayers for me in getting this job and please continue to remember to pray that I will do a good job!

More Computer and Bike Stuff!

2006-04-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Well, as I'm sure many of you remember, I have had a dual monitor setup on my computer for the last month or so. I was online (as usual) the other day and I found another ad for the same monitor that I purchased as my second one, the price, still only 129.99 after rebate. I got to thinking about how much nicer it would be if both of my monitors were exactly the same and decided, "Why don't I sell the first monitor that I got on eBay?". If I set my price just high enough so that if it sells I can almost afford the matching monitor, then sale or no sale the worst that can happen is I will lose the $3 it cost me to list the monitor on eBay. Well, I set the opening bid at $99 and the Buy it Now at $165. I am charging $25 shipping +$3 for optional insurance. Amazingly the monitor sold for $197.50!!! This leaves me with a good amount of profit after I buy my new monitor. I am very excited about this!

This is the monitor that I sold.

This is the new monitor that should come in the mail in a few days.

In motorcycle news:

I found out the other day that the seal between the main part of my engine and the magneto (thing that makes electricity to power my battery) is leaking. It isn't a very bad leak, but over the course of the years that it sat in the guys garage that sold it, it allowed a lot of oil to get into the magneto. Long story short, I took it all apart, cleaned out all of the oil, resealed it and now it is working much better! My blinkers and blinking, my headlight is brighter and the bike just seems to run better.

Jason R. and I went dirt riding on Friday and we had a great time, it was pouring down rain the entire 3 hours that we were riding, but what fun!!! I crashed in 3 really deep puddles and went down once coming down a hill, I bruised myself a little, but nothing serious! Anyway, I love my bike! Thanks again Steve!!!!

Finally, again????

2006-03-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, finally again. I thought that I had everything worked out with my motorcycle, but right after my last post I recieved all of my paperwork back from the DMV with a handwritten note. The lady that helped me wrote the note to apologize for having misinformed me as to the status of my bike. She had failed to have me get a CHP verification and had missed one piece of paperwork. Anyway, I spent most of yesterday dealing with these issues. Here are some pictures of my bike up in my truck for the verification yesterday. (I really do plan to get some action pictures soon!)

Ok, I am about to launch into a lot of detail about all the junk I went through for the DMV yesterday so if you are easily bored you may skip down to the bolded starting point now.
I started my day out by loading the bike into my truck, I then drove over to the California Highway Patrol to have them verify my VIN and Engine number. The CHP officer was very friendly, I arrived 10 minutes early and by the time my appointment was supposed to start, I was done. He even had the paperwork done in the computer so it was very neat and easy to read. After this bit of good fortune I decided to go ahead and brave the DMV line so that I could get everything taken care of. I arrived at DMV and waited only 40 minutes before being helped. The woman that was helping me was very nice, but unfortunately she was new so she didn't know exactly what was going on. After about 15 minutes and two trips by this ladies trainer to the back to ask someone else what to do, they decided that I needed to get in touch with the previous owner (before the guy that I got it from) and have him sign a bill of sale to Steve, who sold me the bike. I called Steve, went by and had him sign this paper, and he called Dave (the previous owner). I then went down to see Dave, he signed the paperwork and I proceeded back to DMV. This time the wait was about 45 minutes, but I went home right after I got my number and picked up a magazine to read and something to drink. By the time I got back to DMV I only had to wait about 25 minutes. As I arrived at the counter this time (with high hopes) I was informed that the CHP verification wouldn't work because it had been typed rather than handwritten. WHATEVER!!!!!!!!! The stupid DMV then decides that they can just use the one that they made out the first time. (If you can use that one, why in the heck did you ever send me to CHP????) "Oh, wait," the new girl says, "We can't use this one because the mileage has been modified." Well of course it's been modified, I rode it all around the first time y'all told me it was legal. "Well, we're going to have to do another verification." Luckily for me, I still had the bike in the truck from the CHP, so I told them we could just do it now. I went out and waited in the verification line for about 15 minutes and when I got to the front of that line I had to wait about 15 more for someone to actually help me. Surprise, surprise, for the third time all of the numbers match!!! Could it be, will I actually finish this process??? YES!!!!!!!!! I went back inside (directly to the woman who was helping me before, I wasn't waiting in line again!) and was informed that that was it, she would give me my plates now. I already have plates, I got them last time you said I was done! Easily Bored Reader, Start again here Well, anyway, I should be completely legal this time. Hopefully nothing else unexpected comes up!

Oh, and just for the record, I despise the DMV!!!!!!!!!!

I got it all worked out!!!!!

2006-03-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I just realized that I was having so much fun with all of my new toys that I hadn't updated in a long time. Anyway, I got everything worked out with the motorcycle. I went to the bike shop and got an air filter element along with some chain lube, air filter oil and some grease. I found a battery at a battery place here in town. (This was a bigger task than it sounds like because it is a little tiny 6 volt battery instead of the typical 12 volt.) Anyway, I got the exact battery that I needed at this place, but unfortunately it didn't solve my blinker problem. I still have to have the engine rpm's up just a little bit in order for the blinkers to blink. The next morning I went down to the DMV and they did a VIN and engine number check on the bike and then they gave me a new title and registered it with no problems! They didn't even tell me that I had to have a brake and light check, which means my little problem with the blinkers isn't really a problem. I was very excited. I called an insurance company that Steve told me about and they gave me insurance for the next year on my bike for $100.87. Anyway, my total now for the bike, the helmet, all of the parts, insurance for the year and registration is $650! I am very thankful that Steve found me such a great deal!!!
Last Thursday I went out with Jason and rode around off road for a while, we had a good time and I didn't crash! On Friday Caleb, Lauri, Chuck and I went out to the Klocke's and rode around their yard. Caleb rode the bike all around by himself and while Lauri wasn't quite tall enough to ride it all by herself, she did operate it entirely by herself while I ran along beside her to keep her from tipping over! Chuck rode it too, and despite a few problems with a fence, he rode it quite well. I wish I had some pictures to post, but we (conveniently.) forgot the camera!!! I will try to get a picture of the bike, now that it is running, for my next post.

A bike update

2006-03-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I got all of the problems with the bike figured out. I now know that I just need a new battery to get my blinkers working properly. I also need an air filter element and then I can go for a ride (more than just up and down Steve's street). I am planning to buy these things today, pretty much as soon as the stores open. For those of you wondering what I am doing up before stores are open, I got up at about 3:30 this morning. I have a cold and so I couldn't breathe very well and it was keeping me from sleeping. I got up at 3:30, took some medicine and then played on the computer for a while to wait for the medicine to kick in. I went back to bed at about 4:15 only to lie awake (wide awake) in bed until I decided to get up at about 5:15. Anyway, it is 7:20 am and I have already cleaned up most of the garage and gone to Wal-Mart to buy some tie downs and Vitamin-C.

How many of you know that there is a singer named Vitamin-C? Yeah, I just found out too. I was looking for this picture on Google and kept getting pics of this singer chick.

Ok, enough about vitamins and being sick.
I got my second monitor hooked up yesterday, I think it is pretty cool!

Sorry about the poor quality of that picture, but I am not a good photographer. I also received my new DVD drive in the mail yesterday. It installed very easily, required no additional drivers and as far as I can tell so far (I burned one DVD that doesn't seem to skip or freeze) it has solved the problem that I had with my old burner. All in all, I am very happy with all of my recent purchases and I hope today will come with good fortune as I look for the correct battery and air filter.

The Bike Runs!!!!!

2006-03-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

Well, Steve Taff is the MAN!! He called me on Tuesday and I went over to his place to work on my bike. We put about 2 hours in just checking for compression and what not. On Wednesday we put in a new spark plug, cleaned out the carburetor, tightened some nut and bolts and charged the battery. Next we filled it up with gas and it started up!! It runs really well, but right now we still have a few minor issues to work through. The floats in the carb are sticking which cause fuel to leak out of the overflow and the blinkers aren't working. I should be able to fix the blinkers easily and Steve and I can probably figure out why the floats are sticking!
On another positive note, I went down to DMV this morning and passed my written motorcycle test. Now I can legally drive around (staying off of major highways and not driving at night) to practice before I go back to take the driving test in a few months. I also found out that I can register it fairly easily. Since it hasn't been registered since 1983, it is not on record so that makes it very easy to set up new registration under my name, YIPPEEE! I hate dealing with the DMV so this is a real answer to prayer! Anyway, that is what I have been doing! Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a picture of the helmet that I am thinking about getting!

Spending my Christmas money, finally!

2006-02-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, I finally got around to spending my Christmas money! I have been thinking a lot about the best way to spend it, but was unable to decide. Then I received an email from MacMall, they were offering some great rebates on two products that I was very interested in. I decided that it was now time to put my saved Christmas money to use! Here are the things that I purchased today.

This monitor was only $129+tax and shipping after mail in rebate. Now I can have dual monitors for my Mac. I am excited about this because I like to work on websites with many windows open. This should allow me to do that more easily. (Plus I think dual monitors are cool!!!)

My DVD drive in my Mac has been giving me a little trouble. (It reads and burns DVD's, but when I play them in the DVD player they skip and freeze a lot, so much so that they are basically unusable.) Anyway, I found out that I could buy a new 16x Dual Layer burner that was compatible with my Mac and all of its i-software for only $79! I am anxious to get it installed and give it a try.

I know, many of you are thinking, "Didn't he already post about that router a few months ago?", yes, I did, but I just ordered another one because it was only $20 after mail in rebate! That is crazy cheap!!! I love it!

Lastly, the not so exciting thing.

This little guy is an ADC to VGA adapter and while not that exciting, it will allow me to use my current video card to attach both monitors to my Mac. I was excited about it because it was only $30, this is versus at least $70 that I would have had to spend on a new video card for the computer!
Anyway, as you can see, I had quite an exciting morning! Hopefully, next time I post I will be looking at content on two monitors while hurrying to finish so that I can go ride my motorcycle!!

My new bike!

2006-02-21T17:05:00.000-08:00

Well, my friend Steve is awesome. I told him six days ago that I was looking for an inexpensive older bike and two days later he called to ask me if $300 for a 1978 Kawasaki KL250 was alright. Of course I told him yes!

The bike is not currently running, but Steve is going to fix it for me and I am hoping he will call me and let me come work on it with him. Apparently the carb needs a little work and there may be an issue with the wiring. Other than that it is in good shape. The paint job that the previous owner put on it leaves a little something to be desired, but it still has all of the original parts and the seat isn't even cracked! Anyway, I am very excited to get this thing running so I can start riding. I went down to DMV today to pick up a motorcycle handbook so that I can get a permit and start practicing for my license test! Here is a picture of the bike as it looks right now and the other picture is what it looked like new (from the front of the Kawasaki repair manual that it comes with!)

This is an enduro bike, (it can be ridden on or off road) I am happy about that because it took me a long time to decide if I wanted a dirt bike or a street bike, but now I kind of have both! Anyway, I am very excited about this in case you can't tell. Hope y'all enjoyed reading about it!

In response to Kayla's comment, yes, this is probably what I will look like in six months.

I want one of these!!

2006-02-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

I know that this may be a shock to some of you, but I have really been wanting a motorcycle for a while now. These last few days of warm weather have made me want one even more. Last summer, my good friend Jeremy got an old bike at a great price and I got to ride it around the block once, but other than that I have never ridden a motorcycle by myself before. (My dad used to borrow one and take me riding on it in SD) Anyway, I am going to start looking for an inexpensive, but dependable one that I might be able to buy.
In other news, I played a rather sub-par game of golf today. Unfortunately, by sub-par I don't mean that I shot 9 holes in less than the average amount of strokes, I mean that I played terribly! While I am not going to tell you my score, I will just say that I lost 5 balls today, ( in only 9 holes, that is pretty bad)! I did have fun though, just like I always do! I like golfing and maybe someday I will get good at it!
Brenda and I are also considering buying a new fridge, it's a rather long story, but here is the fridge that I want.

If Brenda agrees then I would be able to watch two tv's at the same time while sitting in my living room on the couch! Well, until next time, "Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty!"

Another new picture!

2006-02-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

Now I know some of you may not agree, but that is a cool sight! I just love the way those computers look on the inside!! They're pretty cool on the outside aswell, but nothing beats that view! (computer wise, of course) I had one of those beauties for a while, but I chose to sell it and go with the Powermac. I liked the iMac, but it lacked the space for upgrades (as you can tell by looking at the picture). I have been very happy with my Powermac and have no regrets about selling the iMac. Anyway, I am still trying to come up with a permanent picture to take the place of the iMac, but until then, "Please, enjoy the view!"

For anyone who doesn't know, this is what the iMac looks like from the front.

New look, same great flavor!

2006-02-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I decided to make this page a little more Mac like, I figured, brushed aluminum background, silver pill buttons, it seems Mac-esque! Anyway, I hope that y'all will enjoy it!
I am anxious for tonight to be over, it is my last night of work for the weekend and then I get to get back on my regular sleeping in and having four days off schedule! I love it! I can't wait! It should be a fun week! I cleaned my aquarium last week, so it is still looking good! I am having a much better day today than I was having last time I posted! I apologize for the negative attitude I had on my previous post! I hope that everyone is having a great day and I will post again later to update everyone with something that is hopefully more exciting!

"Somewhat Depressed"

2006-01-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

So, I am very thankful that we were able to buy a house. God provided it for us and it is very nice. I am really struggling, though, with the lack of any property, yes we can do what we want with the house, but that is about the size of it. 1000Sq ft to play with and no more. This really didn't seem that bad when I first thought about it, but that was when I assumed that we were at least getting two parking spots next to our garage. Now, we are confined to the garage (where they apparently think I can park one car) and one spot beside the garage. Now the whole reason that I wanted a garage was so that I would have somewhere to keep all of my tools and stuff. As most of you know, a one car garage will not hold all of that and a car. So, until today, we have parked one car perpendicular to the garage right between the garage and the alley. The truck has been in our one parking spot and the other car has been parked on the street. This was a fine setup although more room would have been nice. Today, however, Brenda got a call on her cell phone while at work telling her that the lady that just moved in behind us couldn't get her car out of her garage because our car was in the way. Brenda called me (I was at Wal-Mart) to tell me this and they wanted one of us to come home and move the car. Now before you think that I am just whining you need to realize that I very easily could have backed any of our vehicles out of her garage with little worry about hitting a car across the alley. Anyway, long story short, when I got home the new neighbor, who had called to complain, had gotten her car out with some help from another lady. Now, we are being told that we can't park there because we are in the firelane. (We parked here for 2 months and noone said anything to us, but now when someone whines, it is a firelane!!) So, I am having a hard time because although I know a house is better than an apartment, I don't feel like I have any more freedom here than I did when I was under our old landlord! Please pray that I can learn to have a good attitude despite my great irritation!!!!

A quick response to keep all of y'all interested!

2006-01-18T17:51:00.000-08:00

Then I'm going to bed!

4 Jobs

Paperboy in Worthing, SD
Meatcarver/ busboy in Sioux Falls, SD
Intern Youth Minister in Dallas, TX
Yard Worker/ handyman in Anderson, CA

6 Movies I could watch over and over

Zoolander
Office Space
Emperor's New Groove
Doc Hollywood
Undercover Brother
Good Will Hunting

4 Places I've lived

Carrolton, TX- born
Seba Beach, Alberta 6 yrs of childhood
Dallas, TX- 9 months with my Aunt Denise and Uncle Rick and Cousin Ben, while I did my intern job
Redding, CA- all of my married life

4 Shows I love to watch

Seinfeld
Friends
CSI New York
King of Queens

4 places I've been on Vacation

England (best eating I've ever had on a vacation, Bean took me shopping at the commisary and let me get whatever I wanted, including Spam!)

Dallas- to see family

Aspen, CO- Honeymoon

Disneyland- My wife loves me more now!

4 Favorite Foods

Shrimp Creole
Bacon Fried Rice
Pizza Hut pizza
Marinated Tri Tip (Clay Davis Style)

4 Places I'd rather be right now

Skiing (anywhere)
In Bed (anywhere, but preferably the next room over)
Eating Shrimp Creole (in Pahrump with my dad, mom and siblings) I guess B and J can come too.
In Bed (yes, again, tiredness is a really nagging feeling!)

I suppose I shall tag

Grandmom and anyone else on my link list who has yet to be tagged!

Hope you enjoyed this! Goodnight!

Just Realized That I forgot the website Question
4 Websites I visit daily

Google - I do a lot of internet research.
eBay- I love to shop (only online though)
The Blogs- (yeah, I'm counting this as one site, they're all on blogspot)
Froogle- I told you I liked to shop!

"Hey Look, Zachary finally posted!!!"

2006-01-15T08:05:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I worked my different schedule at work this last week. It was very different and really threw off my routine. Anyway, I think it is going pretty well, I have learned a lot and there is still much to learn. The good thing is that I am not bored! The only bad thing about it is that I have to go to bed at about 7:30pm if I don't want to be too tired the next day.
In other news, the church purchased a video system this week and I was able to go out and do some of the required electrical work for them. I still have some more to do, but we will have power to the projector and the screen by mid afternoon today! Next week, when the computer comes, I will have to run some more wires and stuff. It looks like a really nice system and I am anxious to have it working!
As most of you already know from Brenda's blog, our little turtle died. That was very sad, but I was even more sad last week when my largest turtle, Squirt, got sick. We did what we could for him, and, I am happy to report, that he has made a full recovery and is doing very well again! Hooray!! Well, I guess I am off to church!

Added 1.15.06

I love the song that I put on here. For any who don't know it, it is called "There She Stands". It's by Michael W. Smith, it's kinda long, but worth the listen in my opinion!!!

Sorry for the lengthy delay

2006-01-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

I have been doing other things on the computer rather than updating my blog! For instance, yesterday I got a new router (yes, another one). I played with that for quite a while! It is very similar to my old router, but it came with a usb wireless antenna so that I can connect any usb enabled computer to a wireless network! Here is a picture of the new product!

Needless to say, this was a very exciting day. I also got a free game of golf, a much needed new wallet, a divot repair tool, some little Lego cars and some money. Oh, and I almost forgot a nice new Quicksilver shirt and some jeans! For any of you wondering why I got so much stuff on one day, yesterday was my birthday! I am now 25! The kids at AWANA last night were guessing my age was 35 or 38. Apparently I look much older than I was aware! Thanks to all for the great Birthday presents! I will try to post sooner this next time!

Oh, if I don't post, please, don't get mad at me. I am changing schedules at work for the next two to four weeks. Instead of working Saturday through Monday, 3:30pm to 2:00am, I will be working Tuesday through Friday, 5:00am to 3:30pm. I think I may die from having to get up so early! I am going to that shift to learn how to do another job so that I can be of more use on my current shift. Please pray that I will be able to handle this wierd schedule and still function normally!

A Wonderful Christmas, as Always!!

2005-12-26T13:04:00.000-08:00

Christmas is always such a wonderful day! I absolutely love it! We went out to breakfast first thing Christmas morning (8:30am). We went with Jemremy and Kristi and the boys (see Two Boys Blog). It was a lot of fun, we exchanged gifts at Black Bear Diner and had a huge breakfast. After that we went to church and enjoyed a fun Christmas message from Pastor Thomas. Then we went over to the Klocke's and ate again! After lunch we opened presents. That was obviously quite enjoyable. For the rest of the afternoon we just hung out eating and playing games. When we left there at about 8:30pm, we went over to Kevin and Heather's and watched the kids open a few more gifts. We then watched Fantastic Four followed by Hot Shots. Both were good movies in my opinion, but I think I enjoyed Hot Shots more. We finally left there at 12:30 and then we went home. I decided to watch one more movie. Katie Ellyn and Justin got me Super Troopers so I watched it and went to bed about 3:00am this morning. So there you have it, I was able to make my Christmas day last 18.5 hours! It was Great! I hope all of you had wonderful Christmas Days as well! Well, I am off to work! Merry Boxing Day!

Cute Little Turtles

2005-12-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

First order of business.

Well, I finally did it, I ordered some turtles over the net! I bet you didn't even know it could be done! My friend's wife saw my turtles and started to really want some for herself. He contacted me and asked where I got mine, so I told him about getting them from the pet store in Nevada. Unfortunately for him I was not going there again anytime soon, but I told him about this site on the internet where I found out I could order turtles. We decided to go ahead and order them and, long story short, three baby turtles arrived safely via UPS yesterday (two for them, one for us).

As you can see, these are some tiny little turtles. That one picture is one of the little guys next to a quarter and a penny, the other one he's next to a quarter. Hopefully these will help you to get an idea of how small they are. I also put the picture of the container that they shipped in. I found it interesting that they packed them in packing peanuts inside that little container. The last picture is a little blurry, but it shows one new turtle next to my two larger turtles. The large ones seemed very intrigued by these new additions to their tank.

Just so that you don't have to go scrolling down to find my Christmas list link, I have now (temporarily) added it to my links section.

I almost forgot, if you don't know why I put that first picture up there, then go to Justin Myers' Blog and take the quiz yourself!

Another post from little ol' me!

2005-12-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

So, how is everyone, is anyone still reading this? Apparently I haven't posted in a while, because I've been catching a lot of slack for it! Anyway, here I am again.

I have this whole week off and I think I will enjoy it. All side jobs are off until after Christmas and there is still no overtime available at Wal Mart. I plan to use this week to do a little more cleaning in the garage and learn some more about my new computer. I want to see if I can install a second operating system on my other internal hard drive and then choose which system to boot from. I also want to still be able to transfer files between those two systems without a big hassle. Hopefully I will be able to figure that out this week! (Just a side note, I am currently still a Mac fan!)

I am enjoying playing on the computer and I think that when I get into some classes I will have a good time with them.

Now, for all to enjoy, the Christmas Quiz.

Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog?
Hot Chocolate.

Does Santa wrap the presents or just set them under the tree?
Who's Santa? I did see a fat guy stealing some of our cookies one time, maybe I shouldn't have hit him with the pool cue.

Colored or white lights on the tree/house?
Blue Lights, I love them!

When do you decorate?
I worked while Brenda decorated the tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite holiday dish?
It certainly isn't green bean casserole, I guess I'll have to go with Shrimp Creole, but I'm not sure if I've ever had that at Christmas.

Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Reading that incredibly long Christmas story that is now much shorter. I absolutely love spending time with family!!!
Every year when we go to get our tree I think about the Christmas in Canada when we took our minivan to get a tree and then lost our keys in the snow, we hadn't locked the van, but we couldn't start it so Mom, Katie and I waited in the van huddled together under a blanket while Dad went to get the other keys. I don't know why, but I have always remembered that!

Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve?
Christmas eve, one gift, all others Christmas morning.

What kind of cookies do you set out for Santa on Christmas Eve?
I told you, I didn't set them out, he snuck in and was rummaging through the pantry.

Snow! Love it or hate it?
I love the snow!

Can you ice skate?
Yeah, but I haven't been in a while.

What is the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Jesus' birth and spending time with those you love!!

What’s your favorite holiday dessert?
I'm not a real big dessert fan, but after two heaping helpings of Shrimp Creole I like to wash it down with a slightly smaller helping of Creole!

What type of tree?
Either one as long as the other folks in the household like it!

Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
I really enjoy both!

What is your favorite Christmas Carol?
Wow, I don't know, I love too many of them!

Candy Canes, YUCK or YUM?
Yuck on all counts, I don't even like the flavored ones, but somehow I still seem to eat on every year.

What is your favorite New Years tradition?
I love eatin' them tasty oysters!!!

I love you Dad!!!

Disneyland fun and Christmas

2005-12-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but I went to Disneyland. I was quite sick on the first day we were there, but I improved a little each day for the remainder of the trip. I had a good time. Having never been there before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but Brenda assured me that it truly was the "Happiest Place on Earth"! While I am not sure about that, I know that it was pretty cool and I will probably be willing to go back some day (when there are less people there). I will spare you all of the details and just say that it is a well made park and the intense dedication the builders obviously put into creating a "Disney" atmosphere has certainly paid off! Any of you who haven't been there would enjoy it if you went!

Now, for the Christmas part of my post. I have told many of you about my endeavor to create and E-Christmas list and email to all. I realized this morning that it would be much easier to just make one and place a link to it here. I would also be more than happy to email the link to anyone interested*. So, withour furthur ado, here is the link.

(Click on the picture) As I state at the bottom of my E-List, I may add some more items later, but this is what I came up with this morning!

*Please Note: This is not an attempt to get everyone who reads this blog to buy me presents, it is simply an answer to anyone who asked me what I want for Christmas.

Failed Post

2005-12-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Well, since my last post (directed at my MOM and DAD and GRAND-MOM and GRAND-DAD) seems to have failed, I decided to go ahead and post again.

As you can see, I have been pretty busy since my last post. The days of overtime that I was hoping to work became unavailable so I was able to work on my computer. I am writing this post from my new PC! While still a Mac fan, I have finally got most of the kinks worked out of this system. The biggest struggle I am running into right now is with my multiple card reader. For some reason when I insert a card I get an error which says no card has been inserted, this error repeats from two to five times as I push cancel over and over. After that my pictures import like normal. If any of you faithful PC users have a solution for this, please, let me know. Thanks! (PS- I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling my drivers and I have looked on-line for other available drivers, all to no avail!!!)

Can I get a "Here, Here"?

2005-11-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I think that it is about time Keith and Kim got a blog, and Don and Sara aswell for that matter. I have provided a special link (a waterfall) for my father and mother and it will remain there as a link to make your own blog until they decide to create a blog which I can link to. I know that the family pastor and the now Great Grandparents can handle this. The Binghams got one, y'all don't want them to be cooler than you, do you? Oh, for your link Grand-dad, I was going to use a large screen HDTV but it wouldn't fit on my screen so I'm still working on that. Anyway, I think the rest of the family will agree that y'all should both get blogs!! If you're worried you won't update enough, all we ask is that you update slightly more often than Kyle (hint, hint). We love y'all and just want you to be cool like us!!!

By the way, from what I hear, Grand-dad's tv puts this thing to shame.

Size and picture!! Don't forget to make your blogs!!!

Too much work, too little play, makes a man feel like he's melting away!

2005-11-27T13:04:00.000-08:00

I am working two more days of overtime this week and then hopefully one day for Brenda's grandparents. I think that will make our Christmas funds come back to where we want them to be. Next week we are going to Disneyland so I am going to be exhausted with like 52 hours of work followed by a trip. Anyway, I am hoping to take the week after that off (other than my regular scheduled hours) and then I think I will feel more rested and less like I've been beat up everyday for a week! I'm not complaining, just looking forward to a week off!!!

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We ate at Neil and Alicia's house (for those who don't know, that is Brenda's sister and brother in law). It was nice and we had a good time. The next day we went to the muddy snow to get our tree. There was only a few inches of snow so we didn't find anywhere that we could get our trucks stuck, but we had fun anyway! As you can see from Brenda's blog Neil's truck is certainly more built than Jame's and mine, but except for the the tires, I do have all of the parts to build mine. Someday maybe!!! Here is a pic of a truck that is pretty much set up like I plan for mine to be.

I think he's running Detroit Lockers and I plan to run ARB air lockers. I also still need to find a 4 runner so that I can build it and then take people with me. Who knows when I will get around to that though??

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all! I have been busy this week, I worked my regular 3 days and then two 8 hour days of OT for a little Christmas money. I got most of my computer stuff from UPS yesterday, one more shipment comes today and then I am expecting my video card and power supply on Monday. I pray that everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I would like to add to Aunt Denise's blog, please pray for the family of Craig Lawless as Thanksgiving will be very tough for them this year especially, but also for many years to come. We wonder why God allows these things to happen, but His ways are not ours and we cannot understand. All we know is that all things work together for good for those that love Him and I know that Craig's family does indeed love the Lord! Thank you Lord for all that you have given us to be thankful for!

A busy Day!!

2005-11-18T17:38:00.000-08:00

Well, today was a fun day for me. I got a lot done and I bought a lot of stuff. I ordered all of the pieces to build a PC (computer) on Tuesday, well, almost all the pieces. In all of the excitement I forgot to order a case, so I ordered that this morning. Anyway, a lot of the other things that I ordered came today. Here are some pictures of them.

For anyone interested I will give a quick rundown of what I ordered at the end of this post. I also bought a desk which you can see in the picture of the monitor and speakers. I used the iMac that I have here right now to test the speakers and monitor, both work well althought the iMac will not display in full resolution on the external monitor. I also got a chance to work in the garage today. I spent most of the time unpacking boxes of tools and other garage stuff and putting the tools on my pegboard. Here is a picture of everything I have up there right now.

I still have a long way to go, but at least I am making some progress. I sure am glad I went with the full 8' pegboard instead of doing 6' like I considered!

Alright, here is the rundown of what I bought.

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Case

DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU

Radeon X600 Pro Video Card

2x 512mb Kingston PC3200 Ram

Maxtor 300Gb SATA Hard Drive (16mb cache)

Maxtor 80Gb ATA 133 Hard Drive

Ben Q DVD RW burning drive w/lightscribe

Lite On DVD Rom Drive

Sabrent 42 in 1 Card Reader

Logitech LX 300 Cordless Keyboard and Mouse

Logitech X230 Speakers w/subwoofer

Westinghouse 17" LCD Monitor

I am excited to get the rest of the pieces so that I can put this thing together and start learning about PC's. I bought this so that I could go to school and hopefully earn a degree in computer networking and that type of thing. I am excited to start learning!!

Video Trouble

2005-11-15T21:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I had some problems with my video and it was causing my computer to freeze up and stuff. Some other people also mentioned that they were experiencing some wierdness with my blog so I chose to eliminate the video. For all of you who are wondering where my picture was taken, I don't know, I found it on Google Images. If anyone is bummed that the video is gone, don't worry, you can still download it right here. You have to click on these words to start the download.

I bought a new tv with the some of the money we recieved as housewarming gifts. Thanks to all who contributed!!!

I got the one with a built in DVD player so now we can watch movies or tv in bed. I also bought one of those brackets so I could hang it on the wall. It took me some time to get it up, but it looks good now! Thanks again for the money!

Wow, two posts in one day!!

2005-11-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

Can life get any better, I submit that it cannot!!

Well, I decided to post again because I have some more information that may as well be shared. I took some pictures of the things that are most important to me and I will post them here in that order.

That's right folks, my garage is primary, followed closely by my sweet shoes and then the turtles, I mean Jayden and then my laundry!!! Ok, not really, but I am excited about all of these things. The shoes I bought as a joke, they were on sale for 9.99 and they were so ugly I couldn't pass them up. Anyway, they have been a lot of fun. I wore them to youth group last night and the high schoolers all thought they were cool.
Dad, I posted the pics of the garage for you. The one is a picture of my peg board and my workbench and the other one shows the carpet that I put down so our feet would stay clean and warm when working on that end of the garage. There is only carpet in the front 10 feet of the 24' garage. I put the picture of Jayden up here because I thought it was cute. Oh, I nearly forgot, this story is absolutely hilarious. You have to listen to it. To my Beautiful wife, I love you very much and you are most important to me!!!!

Winter inspired Icy Blue Video

2005-11-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I know that many of my readers have seen this video in the past, but I decided since winter is coming quickly we would all do well to see this again. There is a chance it will even inspire us to be slightly more intelligent on the slopes this year. I suppose though, that there is also a chance we will all be inspired to try even harder after watching this and we may all end up injured as usual. I intentionally made this video poor quality so that it would load quickly. For the same video in much better quality please download it here. It is a 5Mb video, so it could take a while to download depending on your connection speed. Good Luck!

By the way Bean and Stain, congratulations on the house!!! I am very excited to come down there and help y'all with whatever!!! We love you!

In other news, I bought another sucker fish and a Tiger Barb for my aquarium the other day. I am still attempting to get the environment to stabilize so that I will not have a bunch of algae growth. I have chosen to name the new Tiger Barb Dori, I wish to stick to the Nemo theme. Plus, she seems to follow my goldfish everywhere he goes. Hence his new name, Marlin. Anyway, I haven't got names for the two sucker fish yet, any suggestions??

Went to Vegas and it was great!

2005-11-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

Well, we got to go into Vegas yesterday and we had a fabulous time! First we went to this big outlet mall and I finally got some new shoes (which were desperately needed). After that we all went to Applebees for dinner. Next my parents knew of a place to park behind The Paris hotel and casino. We were able to walk through the inside of this cool building. They have it set up so you feel like you are walking through the streets of Paris in the evening, that was very cool. Next, the highlight of my evening, we went outside to see the fountain show in front of the Bellagio!!! It was great! The fountains spray in sync with the music that plays over the many speakers that are set up all around the fountain. I absolutely loved it and I can't wait to take Brenda back there with me for some more excitement.

Neither of these pics really do the scene justice, especially considering the lack of accompanying music. As you can see however, it is a very impressive view.
This next picture shows a view from above the pool and allows you to get an idea of how massive this show is.

Anyway, if any of you ever get a chance to visit Vegas, go see the fountain show, it's AWESOME!!

Shrimp, tickets and family

2005-11-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, I made a surprise visit to Pahrump to see my entire (immediate) family. (That is to say Kim, Keith, Katie, Caleb, and Lauri.) I am having a great time so far!
Last night Mom made Dad and me some shrimp creole and we enjoyed it immensely.

See, she even set us all up with the fine china and what not! She's just great!
On the way down here I was pulled over for speeding (as I got close I got excited, I never speed other than that). I was very thankful though because the sheriff did not give me a ticket. In case you're reading this Mr. Nevada Sheriff, thanks again!!
I am so thankful that God made it possible for us to all hang out for the week. I love my family and am having a wonderful time! We're going into Vegas today so I will have more to tell later.

Marine World

2005-10-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday we were able to go to Six Flags Marine World with some of our friends. We had a great time! Jeremy and Kristi had four free passes that they got when they bought their season passes so Steve, Trish, Brenda and I all got in for free. Chuck was able to go to, but he had to pay half price. Anyway, we rode all the roller coasters and then watched a bunch of shows. We even got to see a guy eat fire, lay on a bed of nails with 5 people standing on him and hold a cup of water on the end of a chain attached to fish-hooks which he hooked into his bottom eyelids. Very Exciting!!! Oh yeah, we saw the killer whale show aswell and it was really cool!!

I know it's hard to see, but I found this picture on the net, this is exactly what the guy did with the fish hooks, and I am fairly certain it's the same guy! Check out this website for a little info about this guy. He's pretty cool!

This is the killer whale that we got to watch perform.

His name is Shouka and he was really cool. All in all, I would say our trip was a great success. Thanks for taking us Jeremy and Kristi!

Home is where the router is.

2005-10-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, many say home is where the heart is, but for Brenda and me it definitely starts to seem like home when the internet is up and running.
Just the other day I was able to buy my wireless router. (hence, the title) I bought a D-Link DI-624.

For anyone who doesn't know, this allows me to have a wireless internet connection throughout my house and it also lets me network all of the computers in my house wirelessly or through ethernet cables. Pretty exciting stuff if you're me!!! Much to my surprise, the ethernet hub that I was networking through previously was dramatically slowing down my internet connection speed. I can now happily report that I am getting full use of my 3MB internet connection.

In other news, I got part of my aquarium lid finished, but I still need to do a little finish work prior to posting any pictures. Also, we got our queen mattress for our extra room this morning so now we have some room for guests!! Come see us!

New home for the turtles!

2005-10-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday all of the things I ordered for my aquarium arrived. I bought a filter made for up to a 50 gallon tank even though I only have a 20 gallon. I am hoping that it will keep this tank very clean so that I don't have to clean it very often. I also got a new heater to keep the turtles warm over the winter months. Now I just need to make a new top for the aquarium so that I can mount the lights where they will look nice. If anyone knows where I can get some stuff to make a smooth flowing waterfall that won't take up the entire tank please let me know!! Once I get all of this finished I will post a picture.

My favorite carnivores are eating the fish!

2005-10-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well, last night Charter finally came out and hooked up my internet. Although there are still a few problems that they are coming back to work on, I do have a decent internet connection once again!!!
We had Neil and Alicia over last night and Neil convinced me to go and get some feeder fish and see if the turtles would eat them. So far the only ones they have eaten are the one with a messed up tail that couldn't swim very fast and the one that swam up the filter tube. When I let him out he was pretty slow as well. I also bought a sucker fish and he is doing his best to clean up the aqaurium. Anyway, I am really enjoying my turtles and can't wait until next week when I get their new heater and filter!!

They really like to sit on this rock and breathe.

Can you believe this cute little guy is a cold blooded killer??

I nearly forgot to ask, what do you think of all the changes to my blog?? Make sure and check out the new video!!

Changing my font color, finally.

2005-10-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

So Grandad, is blue easier to read??? I got a special request the other day from one of my loyal readers to change my font color to make it easier to read my blog. Of course I will change it, I don't want anyone to struggle to read this valuable, informative blog!! Anyway, I hope this is better. Please, anyone not using Firefox, I don't know how this looks on your browser, you have to let me know if you can't view it in all its glory!

Anyway, I am sorry for the lack of posting recently, but Charter still hasn't hooked up my high speed connection at the new house so I have been waiting on them. I want to post a new video and change my song again, but I can't do these things in a reasonable amount of time from this dial up connection. Anyway, I am supposed to have internet again on Wednesday, but with the record Charter now has with me, I don't expect that to happen. Hopefully though, the next time I post I will be back on the internet super highway instead of this rough dirt road!!

Well, we are here!!!

2005-09-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

Finally, we made it. We have been moving for three days straight and today I actually got the computer hooked up and running. Sadly, our cable internet has not been activated yet so I have to use a dial up provider for the next few days. Hey, at least I can read all of y'alls blogs this way!!

Anyway, we are so thankful that we have finally got a house and we just love to see how God provides for us!!! I am constantly reminded that with God all things are possible!! I love Him and I just look forward to watching Him work in new ways every day!!!

Uncle Randy Did it, Why can't I??

2005-09-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, I figure if Uncle Randy can get away with playing that risque music as soon as his parents leave town, I can too!! I hope y'all enjoy my song.

Well, we have the keys, what are we waiting for? We haven't really moved anything yet and it's killing me. I really want to move in, but I have to wait till my days off. Anyway, I will start doing the real moving tomorrow. I think I can get a few friends to help me and then I should really be able to get somewhere. We may sleep in our new home tomorrow, but we might have to wait until Wednesday. I am sure that we will let all of you know just as soon as it happens.

1:15 AM

2005-09-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally got it!!! We got the keys today after a VERY long walkthrough describing in detail, every detail about the house. We got the keys and the right of entry at about 2:45pm! Anyway, needless to say, we spent a large part of our afternoon moving some stuff. I also bought a shower door and started putting it in today. I have to wait for the caulk under the bottom plate to dry before I can finish it, but I think I will have it done by tomorrow. Well, I would write more, but as you may have noticed, it's pretty late and I need to get to bed. Thanks for all your prayers!!

Moving in tomorrow, as of today

2005-09-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

     Well, the phone call today around the middle of the day still has us set to move in tomorrow. I guess once again we shall wait and see. They still have to run something by somebody and then we have to do one more walk-through before they can get us the keys. So right now it sounds like we should be moving by about 2:30 or 3 tomorrow. We will just keep praying until then.
     So, I figured out some more stuff regarding html/css buttons today, what do y'all think? I also had a great stroke of luck, I came across one of those deals where if you sign up for a credit card you get something for free. Anyway, I signed up for a card from Amazon.com and got a thirty dollar credit with which I promptly purchased two books. I bought the ones I was looking for that day in Barnes and Noble, but they cost me nothing thanks to this sweet deal.
     I know this doesn't seem like much, but I am very thankful that God provided this for me. I have been worried about spending this money due to us moving and stuff, but I really wanted the books. God provides in even the smallest, most unimportant things!!

Will we ever get our house?

2005-09-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to say, after reading Uncle Randy's post this morning I am encouraged. God has so many plans for us and we just don't know what they are. He is amazing, leading us through so many things to teach us things we don't even realize we need to know. Anyway, I believe that He is working on our patience again. This morning we got a call saying "Maybe Friday for the house". I guess we will just have to continue to wait. Thanks again, Uncle Randy, for reminding me of the fact that it is not our plans that make things work, it is God's ultimate plan. Please continue to pray for us as we learn, slowly, how to fully trust God.

Since we don't get to be in the house right away, I had some time to update my blog. As you can see I took some time to put a rather cheesy video in. I hope that all of you are able to view it. I tried to make it compatible even with a slower internet connection, so if it doesn't work for anyone please let me know.

Oh yeah, if you need to get a hold of us between now and the time we get into our house you will need to call us on our cell phones. The home phone was turned off today (due to my previous request) and switched to our new home. Our internet may turn off aswell, but we are hoping not.

Anyway, we will continue to strive to trust God as we deal with life over the next few days!!!

I know, this picture has nothing to do with my post, but it makes me laugh.

I really got a kick out of this guy holding up a sign to make everybody else look stupid. So often I see people debating something that is just stupid and I would love to hold up a sign like that.

New House Plans

2005-09-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

We have a lot of exciting plans for when we get into our new house. (Now they're saying next Wednesday) Some of these plans include; building shelves in the pantry, putting a shower door on our shower, (there's something you can look forward to being able to purchase again Bean and Stain) putting shelves in the garage, and fixing various broken appliances (one washer, one dryer and our lawnmower). Although all of these things should be quite exciting, they don't hold a candle to my most recent idea. The other day while I was surfing the net I came across this picture. This is definitely the way we will go.

(Please move mouse over image)

This way we get a truck, a car and a swimming pool all in one. Also, whenever we go on vacation one of us can swim while the other drives. I can't wait! I am also very surprised how anxious Brenda was to get this plan rolling. Hopefully by the next time most of you see us you will be able to go swimming with us!!!

No new house, but...

2005-09-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

...I took the camper shell off my truck. This is quite a complicated task when done alone. You would think I would have been able to find some help, but I wanted to do it yesterday and I didn't really feel like asking for help. Anyway, once I got it slid off of the bed and perched rather precariously between the bed and the ground, I was able to skillfully position the shell on my back and safely carry it about ten feet to its resting place. I really like the looks of the truck without the shell, but I will probably put it back on in a few weeks for the winter.
     In other news, our escrow did not close today, so we will not be able to move in tomorrow as we had hoped. We are not exactly sure what happened, but they did explain it to us. I guess we will just have to wait until next week.
     For all of you running OS 10.4 (Tiger), I have created a new widget that I think you will find helpful. Please download it here
    As always, your comments are welcome!!

Not Really Much of a Reader

2005-09-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I was in Barnes and Noble the other day, (looking for a handbook guide to HTML) and this lady walked up to me. She was doing some short interviews to find out what people were reading. Now for those of you who know me, it is quite out of the ordinary for me to be in a bookstore, especially when I was not made to go by my loving wife. Anyway, here is a copy of the article that came out in the Record Searchlight this last Sunday. By the way, I was very reluctant to agree to being photographed as I was not looking my best at the time.

Click on picture for the real article

By the way, only two more days till we are supposed to get our house. I would put a cool counter like the Bean, but it would probably take me both days just to figure out how. Please pray for us as we go through with all of these very exciting plans.

My New Turtles

2005-09-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

So, I finally got the turtles that I have wanted for so long. I set up my 20 gallon aquarium for them temporarily. I used a small filter, my old heater, and some rocks that I acquired. The turtles seem to like it, and for now it should work fine. Once we move, I intend to upgrade my filter and heater and do a little more "water scaping".

I have had this rock for a long time, in fact some of you may recognize it, it sat on my parents front porch for about two years!

The turtles really seem to like it because they can hide under it and sit on top of it to warm themselves.

(In order to listen to this song, you will have to go up and pause the song shown in my blog title. Sorry, I haven't figured out how to stop it automatically yet.)