interesting.

I find this very intriguing. How can such a useless machine be interesting?

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New Year

The New Year is almost here. It's time for New Years resolutions. I think mine will be to try to stop biting my fingernails. That drives Miranda nuts. She hates it with a passion.

Today we are meeting Mom and Dad in Bartlesville and eating out with them. Patrick and I have got to get haircuts sometime this week also.

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happiness

Science magazine did an article about the states with the happiest people. You can find it here. Kansas ranked #32. Do you know what state ranked #1? Louisiana! That's right! Miranda? The ball is in your court.

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snow.

Apparently it snowed again. I'm not sure if we will be able to get out of the drive. We barely made it before. Our plans today were to go to Coffeyville and eat BBQ (at the only BBQ place within 30 miles) and go to a furniture store. Tonight it church.

Now I'm not sure if we will do any of it. Our driveway is on a slope and if it's just a little slick, our Expedition will not make it up. Such is life.

Miranda found a weight watchers recipe for Christmas pudding so I'm excited about trying that. We will have to buy a steamer though.

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vacation.

So my vacation is in full swing and we stayed in today. It was a nice day. Miranda watched "Gone with the Wind" and I got in on the last 1/2 or so. Sad and depressing movie. I played my game most of the day. My money from Christmas finally made it into the account.

I wonder if this guy ever got a ride? Talk about an unfortunate tool to be carrying with you when you are hitchhiking.

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Christmas is over!

Finally back home and settled in. I have the week off as well.

I'm already tired of snow and ice. Lafayette is looking mighty nice. Mighty mighty nice.

Before long I will be going to Vinita on Saturdays. Although I probably won't be going when the weather gets bad and it appears that it may be most of the winter.

Patrick is in there watching Dora the Explorer and learning Spanish. So I got onto him (just teasing him). He just grins at me. I really need to get him into Caillou (quite a few of them are broadcast in French), but Nellie is the Dora the Explorer fan so Patrick just watches whatever she is watching. He likes Caillou but not as much as Nellie likes Dora.

I need to do children's programming on TV. Jacques the Adventurer would be the character. He would travel around the globe teaching children to dislike Italian food. He would also teach children to not play Mafia Wars on facebook so that they wouldn't overload their friends with endless status messages about how something "exciting" happened that they didn't take part in.

That is all.

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Finally back home.

What a Christmas. It was sleeting here on Thursday so we poked down to Vinita. Spent the night and got up the next morning and headed for Scammon. Almost ended up in the ditch twice. Ended up having to spend in the night in Scammon and started for home this morning. We were stuck in Paul and Jane's driveway but managed to get out finally.

Overall it was a nice Christmas but the snow/ice stressed me out. I really want to move to Lafayette.

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week.

This week is dragging by. Patrick will not stop bugging us about opening presents.

Tonight we are opening presents. Patrick's DS is charged and ready.

Both children are being very good here at home. I'm really amazed.

After Christmas, I'm spending a bit on myself. Miranda has offered since her present was a bit more costly than mine. So I'm buying this remote controlled sailboat. I figure that will be something that will get me out of the house.

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Christmas party

Here's my Christmas party (for all self-employed and "work at home" people).

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today.

Today we have to get Patrick's Christmas present out and charge it up. We've got him a Nintendo DS. As soon as it's opened, it better be playable (or heads will roll).

Tomorrow night is our Christmas with the children. I have to work Thursday but after work we are headed for Vinita. Christmas with my family on Friday, then Christmas with her family Friday evening.

The next week I have off of work. Unfortunately it's unpaid but I'll take it!

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holiday

Christmas programs are over. Onto the rest of the holiday season. I guess I'm ready for Christmas to be over. I'm tired of the rush-rush of the season and ready to kick back.

Miranda, Patrick, and Nellie are all off school now. So say a prayer for me.

Patrick got sick at church yesterday and started running a fever. However he still wanted to go see Papa and Grandma Young. We were planning on going to the Scammon Christmas program but I didn't want to take him. He was feeling fine but I didn't want to expose others. So we went home early.

I work through Thursday of this week and I have next week off.

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today.

Crazy busy today. We have church Christmas program practice this morning. After that, we are off to Joplin to (hopefully) finish up our Christmas shopping.

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what a day.

I had to go to Monett today. It was a bad day.

I threw my back out. I got a call from Angie Doyle and Nellie hurt her arm (again!). She's such a drama queen. There isn't anything wrong with her arm but she refuses to use it. I had a sore throat all night last night from sinus drainage. I don't even want to see what tomorrow brings.

I wanted to send out Christmas cards this year but we didn't get around to it (Miranda wasn't real hip on the idea). Thanks to everyone who sent us one. To everyone I wish a Joyeaux Noël (of course).

Read a funny story today (in a sick way). A 4 year old boy stole his neighbors Christmas presents. Not funny so far right? He was drunk and wearing a little girls dress. Kudos to those parents! Way to raise a child. Cross-dressing, alcoholic, thieving, 4 year old. Makes me feel better about how I'm raising my child.

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wow!

Here's a video of insurgents firing at U.S. troops. Unfortunately 2 AH-64 Apache helicopters were in the area.

This probably makes me a bad person, but I want that job. It's a combination of video games and huge guns.

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tonight

Tonight is the faculty Christmas party here at IBS. Not sure of all the details.

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funny

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next car.

Looks like our next car is going to be a 2010 Toyota Prius. Apparently it now uses a "Lane Assist System" that detects the lane markers and automatically steers the car toward the center of the lane.

With as much as we drive, the more autopilot we can have, the overall safer we will be.

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today.

So we had church today and then Christmas program practice. Albert and Della invited us to eat with them. It was very nice of them and a very nice meal.

I had to lead the song service this morning, so I picked the one song with a foreign language, "Angels We Have Heard On High" (Gloria in Excelsis Deo). Unfortunately that song really isn't meant for humans to sing. Much too high.

After Christmas program practice, I sat down with a chord sheet and was working on "What Child Is This?" I spent about 5-10 minutes. Sorta got it figured out but then I had to play it as an instrumental. Apparently it was the night for our instrumental, the bass player was missing, and we hadn't picked a song. I thought it was a disaster but Miranda said it was beautiful. She's the one that matters in my life, so it turned out all right for me. I don't mean that to sound bad either. The rest of the people in the church are very nice and great people. But they don't rank up there with Miranda.

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today

Today has been very nice so far. Miranda and I taught Patrick to play "Go Fish!". We've been playing that for quite a bit of the morning. I've got a few Urban Rivals games in (I'm addicted - the first step is admitting).

Getting ready to watch Marseille play Bordeaux. They are going to get it handed it them (Marseille will... Bordeaux are very good).

Tonight we are going over to the in-laws. Happy Birthday Jane. Birthdays haven't been a big thing in the Allen family but they are big in the Young family.

Miranda is making pizza. Unfortunately it the wheat crust diet pizza. Very similar to cardboard except that it tastes worse. But what can you say... it's Italian food.

Patrick and I have been battling it out. Here's our conversation:

• P: Uno, dos, tres (1,2,3 in Spanish)
• M: Quoi!?!? (what?) Parlez-vous le français! Ne parle pas le espagnol (Speak French! Don't speak Spanish!)
• P: Un, deux, trois (1,2,3 in French)
• M: Oui! D'accord! (Yes! Ok!)
• P: Uno, dos, tres

Repeat ad infinitum! He loves to tease me, and of course, I go overboard.

Speaking of French. I emailed the local French teacher and last semester they had 1 student in French and they had to cancel the class. She thought I was trying to fulfill the foreign language requirement for my degree and suggested I take Spanish. I have a few degrees already and I do not need another one right now.

Better go. The game is one.

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weekend.

Weekend finally made it. Tonight is the IBS thingy. Tomorrow night is Jane's birthday party. Sunday is church.

It's almost tax time. This next tax year, I'm going to go to Vinita every (most?) Saturdays during the tax season to work with Mom. She is looking to retire in a few years and a decision is going to have to be made. Although I suspect she won't retire for a long time because she isn't one to just sit around and hang out.

Christmas shopping is almost done. Just a few more gifts to buy.

Better go. Miranda is having a tough morning and I'm going to help out with the small people that live in our house.

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today.

Quiet night planned tonight. We have absolutely nothing going on. Suits me just fine. I think we will eat supper and then watch "A Christmas Story".

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woohoo!

You will be happy to know that I've picked up a new heater. I about froze today.

A friend sent me this video that I have to share. It's hilarious.

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birthday.

This weekend is my MIL's birthday. I think we are doing something but not sure what yet. She turns 29 or so.

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another one down.

Nellie's Christmas program was last night. Just two more things this week. Church tonight and the IBS Christmas program on Friday. Luckily the IBS program will only be about 30 minutes or so and is a short walk across our lawn.

Both Juventus and Marseille are eliminated from the Champions League. Juve crashed out in spectacular fashion by losing 4-1. I didn't watch either game. OU is terrible this year. Luckily my Saints are still rolling along. They're the only good team I have this year.

We should have got Nellie this for Christmas. Unfortunately I think it would be larger than Miranda's kitchen.

My space heater went out in my office. I have a small space heater because it's fairly drafty in here. Looks like I'm going to have to buy another.

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Christmas

So this year at Christmas time, I want to get with my Mom and Dad and try to figure out as much of my family tree as possible. My mom's side appears to be the easiest. My dad's side is apparently quite a bit like a police lineup. I'm talking about earlier generations and not the recent.

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one down.

One program down. Two more to go this week.

For my parents... You are welcome to come up but don't feel obligated. Long drive for watching your grandchild for 5 minutes.

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week.

This week is crazy. Tonight is Patrick's Christmas program at school. Tomorrow night is Nellie's Christmas program. Wednesday night is church. Friday night is the High School Christmas program. Needless to say, we have to make each one of them. Thursday is going to be our night off.

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funny.

What genius came up with this product? I love the product reviews at the bottom of the page.

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yesterday.

Had fun yesterday but it was hectic. Wichita Toys R Us was insane. However we got most of our Christmas shopping done.

Now the bad news... We were at Barnes and Nobel and they have 2 series. Teach Yourself Swedish and Teach Yourself Norwegian. Miranda wouldn't let me buy either of them. Boy you marry a person, never realizing how bad they will treat you in the future!

For the Allen Christmas, we had to buy a Male a present. So I picked up one. They will definitely know it's from me. I won't tell now but it's a corker.

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tonight.

We watched "A Christmas Carol" tonight. What a powerful story.

Tomorrow we are off to Wichita. Finish up Christmas shopping and going to Aaron's birthday party. Going to be a crazy weekend.

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Brrr...

Last night was cold at the parade. It was decent (not too many floats) but pretty cold.

We went to look at a house last night. No go. It's a cute house but it was 1.5 baths (we almost have to have 2) and one of the children's room was tiny. But it was a cute house. Onward the search goes.

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family.

Last night we weren't feeling well. Miranda is sick as well. So we sat at home. I recuperated nicely and am feeling well.

Tonight we are going to the Parsons Christmas Parade. We are taking a student from the dorm (she lives in Parsons).

Also tonight, we are looking at a house. We are meeting the realtor at 4:00. Doubtful that we buy but we want to look at it. If it looks like something that would work, we may put a contract on the house pending the sale of our house. Not sure though.

I've been so wrapped up in Urban Rivals lately that my French studies have fallen off.

This weekend, we are going to Aaron's birthday party in Wichita. I'm not sure of his age. Probably won't stay too late since we won't be spending the night up there.

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last night.

Spent most of the night being sick. My stomach decided to "make like Lincoln and invade the South".

So I'm pumped to be sitting here all day. Yay.

Seems kinda pointless to take a sick day since I'm already at home.

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day.

Long day at work. One of those days.

Nellie is going around telling Stubby... "STOP! SHUT UP!" He's barking at something. So now Nellie is getting in trouble for telling him to shut up. It's a circus.

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work.

I had my yearly review today. It went well. They are apparently very happy with my performance. Not sure why, but I'm not complaining! They either love me for my brains or for my gorgeousness. I think it's my gorgeousness.

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egg nog.

Bought some egg nog. Yum yum! I'm the only one in the house that will drink it.

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weekend.

Yesterday, Patrick kept bugging us to put up a Christmas tree. We went to Wal-Mart and the tree we were wanting was sold out. So we bought a white one instead. Patrick and Nellie decorated but Mom had to adjust the decorations because all of them were on the bottom branches. It was very cute. Nellie would put on one and say "There! That's better!".

I was dog tired last night and ended up going to bed about 7:00 or 7:30. Patrick and Nellie were watching a movie in bed. So Miranda got to have some alone time.

Monday I've got to go to Monett. I'm supposed to go to some Pella site that I can't reach from home. So my boss is going to do my review. I'm guessing I'm not going to get a 100% raise (or any raise at all)!

We went over to Paul and Jane's the other night for Thanksgiving meal. It was nice and nice to see everyone again. I hadn't seen most of them for awhile.

Guess I'd better go. Miranda is having issues with Nellie and her dress. Nellie already has her own "style" and she doesn't want to wear what Miranda wants her to.

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pictures.

I'm a huge fan of the Presbyterian Church here in Independence. Not the religion but the church itself. I have no clue of their beliefs. I think that they may be Calvinist but I don't know.

You can see pictures of it here, here, and here. What incredible architecture.

I really want to see inside of it sometime. Maybe we can attend a service there sometime.

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language.

I've hit the brick wall in the Allen household in regards to foreign languages. Nellie has started refusing to speak at all in French. Miranda still has no interest either.

*sigh*

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Thanksgiving

Had a great Thanksgiving at my parent's house. I didn't eat too much but unfortunately Miranda made a pecan pie. I've found that the best way to get rid of the temptation of pecan pie is just to "enter into temptation".

Tonight is the Young/McCormick Thanksgiving. We are going over to Scammon as soon as I'm off work.

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Off to Vinita

Off to Vinita. Hope to leave by 7:30.

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economics

I rail against Keynesian Economics quite a bit and I found a great video that everyone needs to watch. It's not heavy on economic theory and is very easy to watch.

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Today.

Everyone in the house is on vacation except me. So today will be interesting around here.

I've decided that I need to teach Patrick how to play the steel guitar. I've got a small 6 string lap steel that would be great for him to learn on. It's has a terrible nut on it however and so I've ordered a new one. There's a guy at church that is good with stuff like this and he's agreed to work on it for me. I would like Miranda to teach Patrick and Nellie how to read music. I play by ear and don't read at all. It really has held me back.

For Thanksgiving, we will be going to Mom and Dad's. Rod, Emily, and the children will be there as well. Friday night, we will be going to Paul and Jane's.

On the economic front... I went to the doctor and he said that I was "sound as the dollar". The funeral is next week.

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children.

Patrick is really coming along on his reading. Last night he read "Cat In The Hat" with us. He needs some help and prodding but he's doing really well. He loves to read. This makes Nellie want to read. So she gets a book and pretends to read.

It's exciting watching them grow up and learn new things.

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politics

Absolutely hilarious! Sorta vulgar in a few spots but worth it!

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Monett.

Off to Monett this morning. No blogging. Except for this post, obviously.

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weekend.

Yesterday we went to Vinita to visit Mom and Dad. They needed some 'puters worked on. Got them mostly going. Dad's computer still has a few issues but it's workable. Mom's network is not fun to work on at all! But we got her going.

Sports is going decent for me:
New Orleans Saints won again (they haven't lost a game this year).
Juventus won today.
Marseille won yesterday.
OU lost however. This has been a bad year for them.

I also need to cut back on Urban Rivals. Everyone was asleep so I played that all afternoon. I took part in a tournament and came in 170th out of 4,315 people. I've only been playing a week and don't have very good cards. Miranda is starting to get irritated. Maybe soon I'll have enough "Clintz" to buy some great cards!

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tee shirt

I want this tee shirt.

People would come up to me and ask, "What does that say?" I would reply, "I don't know. It's in French." And that is literally what it says. "Je ne sais pas" = "I don't know". "C'est en français!" = "It's in French!". Very humorous.

Here's another one I want.

And another.

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politics.

Apparently more Democrats are unemployed than Republicans. I wonder if they are rethinking their votes? However, I firmly believe that we wouldn't be in any better shape under McCain.

As the Roman republic got old and tired, their leaders kept getting worse and worse. And the people didn't really care or at least didn't stop it. Thus they got ran over by the "barbarians" (Germanic tribes) because basically the people quit trying and merged with the Goths, Huns, Franks (go Franks!!! That's the French in case you didn't catch that), et al. Did you notice that I very appropriately used the Latin term "et al". However I probably didn't use it correctly.

Anyhoo... I suspect history is just repeating itself. Major world powers have collapsed time and time again. And will continue to.

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life.

Last night we went to Bartlesville to get Miranda an outfit for the IBS fall dinner. I do not see how the mall stays in business. It's never very busy. Of course it was a Thursday night but still.

On the way home we stopped by Hastings and I picked up an Irish dictionary. After looking through it though, I've lost some of my desire. It's yet another language with masculine and feminine nouns. What rubbish! Here are my choices for gender neutral languages. It includes Quenya and Sindarin, which is silly because they are man made languages. They were both invented for Lord of The Rings (the books and not the movies). J.R.R. Tolkien was quite a linguist. I'm leaning toward Basque or Finnish. The Finnish part should be fairly obvious choice for me.

For those of you who were totally lost on that last sentence, I will explain. We had a baby in 2003 that didn't live. Well, he lived, but only for 5 days. We called him Paul Teemu Allen. The Teemu caused quite a stir. Teemu is a Finnish name. Here's where I got it. Yup. An ice hockey player. But... I hear you sigh with great relief... "At least the first name was Paul!" Yes it was. Paul Kariya and Teemu Selänne were the one-two duo for the Anaheim Ducks (my team). The year Teemu was born, the Ducks went to the Stanley Cup Finals but didn't win. Neither did Teemu. I miss the little guy to this day. Luckily we have two other great children.

Tonight is the IBS dinner. They don't have babysitters this year so Angie is bringing over her kids to play with Patrick and Nellie.

On further research, I'm not too sure about Finnish. Apparently there are 2,253 variations of the word for "shop". If you are interested, they are listed here. More research will be required.

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signs

My life is full of "signs". This morning I was singing the Christmas song "O Come O Come Emmanuel" to Nellie and she loved the song. So I went out to youtube to try to find one. I found the first one and it's by Enya.

So what's the sign? The language in the 2nd half of the song is Irish! Then I found this one

Miranda just groaned.

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funny.

Jane (my MIL) would have been embarrassed to be with me last night. Even Miranda commented on my style (or lack thereof). Since I work from home, I basically throw on whatever hits me that day. Yesterday morning I put on my Canada hat (similar to this hat) that I got when we were at Niagara Falls. I also had on some really bad tennis shoes that are just wore out but I don't want to get rid of. So Miranda said that we needed to go to Wal-Mart to get some stuff. Since it was a bit chilly out, I put on my Marseille jacket. But I wasn't going to change clothes just to go to Wal-Mart! I did get some stares though. Luckily there was a teenage boy wearing a tiara (I didn't ask and didn't want to know) so I wasn't the only odd one there.

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interesting.

Interesting article here on Dave Ramsey. He's some kind of "Budget Guru" and his method is elimination of debt and paying for everything by cash. The last idea is interesting but seems to be a bit of a bother. Not sure I'd like that. If something happens and you lost the money, well you'd be up the creek. We have banks for a reason.

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another meeting.

Miranda has meetings every night this week. Tonight is yet another one. Unfortunately these meetings are typically late and put a stop on all other plans. I'm already ready for the weekend.

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incredible

They now have a bombproof wallpaper! Don't believe me? Watch this video. I wonder how much it costs?

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random thoughts

I'm having soccer withdrawals. No games until later this month.

This Friday night is Fall Banquet (I think that is what it is called) at IBS. So that means my suit has to come out of hiding. Miranda is wanting to buy a new dress.

Congrats to Miranda for losing another pound. She's dropping weight like crazy and I'm proud of her.

I did get some French time in last night but no Irish. I was explaining every screen to Patrick. He was working with me so we had to move a bit slower.

I've become hooked on an Internet game called Urban Rivals. I must have an "addictive" personality. I get hooked on stuff easy.

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week

We thought it was going to be a quiet week. We were also wrong. Turns out that it's going to be fairly crazy.

Hopefully tonight I can work on my French some more. Maybe some Irish too. Since I won't be able to get Miranda into language, I've kinda decided to not stress just one. No point in it since I won't be anywhere that I can speak with others that are fluent.

Today was a Monday. Yuck. Plus it appears that the weather is changing. I guess it was bound to but I miss summer. Christmas is a month and some change! Excited to get that here.

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weekend.

Pretty good weekend overall but there were a few down points. Eating out was awful. The food was alright but service was terrible.

I felt sorry for Paul and Jane (or as we called it, the Crip and Stagger show). Just kidding. We didn't call it that. At least not out loud! Jane is still on her crutch and Paul's back is still giving him fits. They seemed to enjoy it and Patrick and Nellie loved spending time with Papa and Grandma.

Miranda bought her Christmas present. It's a Brighton handbag and she loves it! This is the one that she bought.

We bought some other Christmas stuff as well.

We stopped by and saw Rod and Emily on the way home. It was nice visiting them.

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today!

Today is going to be a wonderful day.

• It's Friday
• We are taking our short vacation to Branson with the in-laws
• I bought donuts this morning
• The price of the donuts and pop was $7.77.

The last one was a sign from Fate.

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nostrils.

I know everyone is on pins and needles to hear about my nostrils so here goes. I was talking to a guy at work and he said that he went to an allergist for 10 years or so and it didn't help much. So he went to an ENT (ear/nose/throat) specialist and had surgery. They basically shaved a bit of the bone in his nostril and then removed two glands. They cut on him but he said that another guy I know had the same procedure done with lasers and it was a lot better. He said that he can breathe out of both nostrils 90% of the time.

Anyway... I'm going to try the allergist for a bit but I think I may push for the surgery.

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French

Miranda has been getting a little ticked at me lately. Too much time studying French and not enough time with the family. Guess I'm going to have to cut back some. This weekend will be a good start as there will be no computer time for the nuclearcowboy.

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toys.

I've been pondering these slick new cell phones lately. I really want one bad but my problem is that I'm not sure that I would even use them. I basically only use my current cell phone for it's calendar function (it reminds me when I have stuff to do). I rarely make calls from it but I do receive call occasionally. I don't want to spend the extra $30 or so a month on the internet and it appears that is what they are for. I don't text (in fact I didn't even know I had texting until a few weeks ago). So I don't know. My contract will be up in another 6 months or so, so I have some time to think about it.

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books

I have a couple of new books that I want to get and read (obviously). I have $50 saved up and I'm trying to decide whether to blow it on these books or save up for this computer. The books look really interesting and I'm leaning toward that. They are here and here. Decisions decisions...

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funny

Here's a picture of the first transistor ever made. Quite possibly the greatest invention of all time.

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back home.

It was a typical Monday yesterday but it eventually got better.

Last night when I was driving home, I received a call from Miranda. She told me that she has to learn French. Apparently the children were sitting in the back while she was driving around town, chattering in French. They were saying phrases that I've taught them.

Friday I'm taking 1/2 day off of work to go to Branson with the in-laws. I'm looking forward to having a short vacation.

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work

I'm going in to Monett tomorrow so blogging will be non-existent.

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interesting.

Read this.

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groan.

We were at the in-laws and I missed the OM game. According to reports, it is billed as The Game Of The Century. A 5-5 thriller of a game. Just my luck.

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weekend so far.

Been a pretty good weekend so far. The zoo was a pretty big disappointment. The polar bear has died, the sea lions exhibit is down for restructuring, the lowlands building was down. Patrick and Nellie seemed to enjoy it though. They wanted to see the giraffe. I have no idea what possessed them to be so excited about the giraffes but there you have it.

Today we are going over to Paul and Jane's to eat lunch. Angie is giving us a bed for Nellie. Nellie is still in her toddler bed and Angie is getting rid of a full size bed. So we are going to adjust the children's room to make room for a full size bed. I'll be soooo glad when our house sells so that the children can each have their own room. The house here is 3 bedroom but I have to have an office. So it's really only a two bedroom and the children are in the same room.

Nellie has Patrick's cowboy hat on and is walking around saying "I'm a cowboygirl".

We went to Cheesecake Factory yesterday for lunch. It was too expensive and they pack you in like sardines. Cheesecake was good though. I had a Kobe beef burger but it wasn't that good.

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ha.

I missed it but that last post was post #666. If I'd seen that, I would have blogged about the anti-Christ (Obama? just kidding!).

Tonight we went to Eggberts and had breakfast for supper (all of us except Miranda. She had a salad). It was yummy. Afterwards we went to Blockbuster and rented the children some movies. Miranda also rented a chick flick.

I think I will study tonight.

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weekend.

The weekend is almost upon us. Pretty quiet weekend so far. We were going out to eat with Mom and Dad in Tulsa but they are in revival. So we are taking a rain check on that.

It's supposed to be a beautiful day so we may go to the Tulsa Zoo during the day tomorrow.

Sunday we may be going to the in-laws for lunch.

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interesting

Interesting cartoon about capitalism vs communism. It's not boring!

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funny

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jacket.

I got my jacket today! Fed-ex is a lot better than the U.S. Postal Service. That probably goes without saying though. Just wait until the gov't gets ahold of health care. Sheesh!

Anyway... the jacket is nice but a bit backwards. The zipper is on the left side. I thought that I had accidentally ordered the womens jacket but nope. It's supposed to be on the left side (at least the web site showed it under the mens department anyway).

Christmas has come early for the nuclearcowboy.

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children.

Took the children to Braums last night for ice cream. I had a rocky road cone, Miranda had a mint chocolate chip shake, and the kids had frozen yogurt (easier to eat than Braums tough ice cream). While we were sitting there, Nellie asked me a question. I can't remember what it was but she started out by saying, "Honey, ...". Miranda asked, "Did she just call you Honey?". Pretty funny.

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today.

John Wade stopped by today and chatted. It was nice to see him again.

I have got to learn some Vietnamese. I went to the barber and now there is a girl in there that also speaks Vietnamese (plus the guy also).

Marseille won today. 6-1. It was a thumpin'. They are playing in the Champions League. Juventus also won.

Tonight should be a quiet night around here.

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tonight

Tonight is haircut night. Patrick hates getting his haircut. I'm not a huge fan of it myself but I don't want to take care of long hair.

Yesterday was a bad day at the "office". Hopefully today will be much better.

I ordered my Christmas jacket the other day. It's made it to Newark, NJ and they claim that it will be here in 3-10 working days. I'm guessing that is not the case as they probably aren't counting customs. Been there, done that.

My French electronic dictionary passed on to silicon heaven. I have since brought out the "goldie oldie" book. It's tough to beat the book form. I just don't see electronic books taking off. Too dependent on electricity and not good in long term storage. How many electronic books do you see being around in 50-60 years? I forsee 0.

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Economics

Economists apparently aren't that well known. I got the last two but didn't realize that Adam Smith was a Scot so I didn't answer that one.

I love the look on the ladies face when she gets the Milton Friedman question.

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music

Miranda found Tulsa 106.1 on the radio. It's Christmas all the time. So we've listened to Christmas music every time we are in the car. I'm ready for Christmas!

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for dad.

Would you all be interested in getting together next Saturday and eating out in Tulsa?

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Halloween

Patrick and Nellie had a ball last night going Trick-or-Treating. Miranda took them and they got to see Grandma, Grandpa, Bud, Angie (et. al.). Aaron and Lindsay were down as well.

I enjoyed my evening. Spent a quiet evening here.

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population

According to Wolfram Alpha, Wichita is quite a bit smaller than Tulsa. Both of them blow Lafayette, LA out of the water though.

See the results here.

Total Metro population:

• Wichita - 579,645
• Tulsa - 875,855
• Lafayette - 241,914
  

Didn't realize the disparity.

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setup

This is the setup that I'm shooting for.

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weekend.

Tonight we are going to Bartlesville to go grocery shopping. Miranda found a Food Pyramid store that she likes. We are going to go eat out. I think we are either going to Montana Mikes or Rib Crib.

Tomorrow we are going up to see the parade in town and later that night, Miranda is taking the children to Angie's in McCune and all the children are going Trick-or-Treating. So I will be sitting at home by myself. Very nice!

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hmmm...

BBC.

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toaster

If you remember, the other day I mentioned a problem with the toaster. Well... it wasn't a bug. It was a crash. The toaster is gone. It quit heating up.

So we bought a new toaster.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

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dad update.

Dad went back to the Dr. They are unsure of why the surgery didn't "take". So anyway... he had to spend last night in the hospital as they were testing for sleep apnea. They also upped his prescriptions for his heart medicines. I think he will find out about his new tests in a week or so.

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coat.

We have a Coat Of Arms.

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dog days.

We are kinda in the dog days of fall around here. Each day is pretty much the same. On the bright side, that will be changing soon. Halloween is around the corner. That is the major holiday of Independence apparently. They have a festival called Neewollah (Halloween spelled backwards). Anywho... Tonight we are going to go up there and have some of the eats. I've never been but we will see.

Next up is a weekend in Branson with the in-laws. That's going to happen on the 13th of November.

Then Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Time will start flying.

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fun.

Nice tree house here.

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funny.

Somewhere Patrick has picked up "song timing". He's been doing it for awhile now. That's where you holler out "one, two, one, two, three, four". So anyway, he has a small drum and decided to take it with him to town one night. He says: "un, deux, un, deux, trois, quatre" and started pounding away at the drum.

If he doesn't end up scarred because of having me as a father, it will be a miracle.

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For dad.

Remembered a British comedy called My Hero. Pretty funny. Not sure if they are your type or not.

Here's the youtube link.

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Patrick

We had to run to town and get our Passports and some groceries. On the way home I hear Patrick say "That's disgusting". I turned around to see what was going on and he was smearing a burger on the window! Oh yeah. We have children.

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McDonald's

So I got Park Place in the McDonald's Monopoly game. If you get Park Place and Boardwalk then you win $1,000,000. I'm thinking about trying to send in Park Place by itself and requesting $500,000.

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hmmm...

Bacon Jam. Yummy!

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computer viruses

Read this.

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children

Patrick kept calling Nellie a "nurse" yesterday. I think he meant nerd but I didn't have the heart to correct him.

We went to the zoo yesterday. They wanted to see the monkeys and play on the playground. It was a lot of fun. One of the nice things about living in Independence is having a nice park. Diamond didn't have a park. Joplin didn't have much in that way either. Add in the small zoo and it's pretty nice.

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last night.

Last night Miranda and I watched "A Christmas Tale". It was 2 1/2 hours of inanity. Very dark and depressing. It was supposed to be a black comedy but it was long on black and short on comedy. Overall I didn't mind it that bad but after 2 1/2 hours, I was ready for it to be over. Miranda didn't care for it at all but she hung in there like a trooper.

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last night

Last night we went to Bartlesville to Dink's Pit BBQ. It was very good.

Today is going to be cleaning day around the house. It should be a very quiet day.

Patrick has become quite the expert on navigating YouTube to find Grover videos. He's using the Apple TV which is easier to run. Although the other day, Miranda walked in and he was navigating the computer to run whatever program he needed.

We had his Parent/Teacher conference. He's doing so much better than we ever would have guessed. After his rough start in life, we were assuming the worst. But it will be alright whichever way it goes.

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hmmmm...

Last night I was watching "Amazing Grace" by Andre Rieu

Anyway, when the bagpipes kicked in, I realized that I couldn't learn Gaelic when I saw their hats. It's because it reminded me of the Royal Scots Greys. Who are the Royal Scots Greys? Cavalry Corps under Henry Paget on June 18th, 1815. That's right. They helped default Bonaparte at Waterloo. They even captured an Eagle (45th Ligne). This is unpardonable. There is even a painting of it.

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quote

Day-traders interest me. I find them humorous that they believe that they can "time" the stock market. I found this quote:

“I am a long-term buy-and-hold investor, as I don’t think I am smart enough to time the market,” says the professor of the largest economics course at Harvard and author of “Principles of Economics.”

The person is question is Greg Mankiw.

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bug.

I've found a bug in the toaster software. I always turn the heat way down (basically off) on the children's pop tarts. And it comes out pretty hot anyway. So I turned it up just a few notches and it comes out cold. Either a dumb design decision or a bug.

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last night

So we headed out for church last night and both Miranda and I started getting sick. Nausea, headache, et al. Miranda went to bed. I stayed up and attempted to keep the kids from destroying the house.

I'm only marginally better today. Miranda seemed pretty chipper this morning so she must be back to form.

Tonight is IBS PT conferences so Miranda will have a late night tonight. I will be responsible for supper. Definitely sandwiches of some sort.

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food

Oh to be in Japan right now! In celebration of the Windows 7 release, Burger King is selling a Windows 7 Whopper with 7 meat patties. The king of burgers; supersized! Yum!

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wow

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soccer.

They are currently playing ZZ Top in Zurich in my l'OM game. Very funny.

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busy day.

No time for chit chat. Very busy. Eh... Who am I kidding. There's always time for chit chat.

Yesterday was a very long day. Tonight is church night. Tomorrow night and Friday night are Miranda's PTA meetings. It has been and will continue to be a bad week.

And now I'm king of the Vooderfargs and must paint myself green and burn pencils in homage to Dr. Schneider.

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Happy Birthday!

Since I won't be at home tomorrow... Happy Birthday to Mom! She's going to be 21 (plus a few more) years old!

I don't know what I would do without you. Love you guys a lot.

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tan.

I would love to meet the 3 people on Earth that would buy this. For those not wanting to click the link, it's basically a tanning bed for your feet only. Are there a lot of people worrying about having white feet?

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tomorrow.

Blogging will be non-existent tomorrow. I'm going in to Monett to work.

Blogging may be non-existent (permanently) in the near future. I feel that I have nothing more to add. To the blog and in real life as well. I will keep at it for now but will let you know when I quit.

Miranda gets irritated with me (and sad for me) because I get so detached. She lives with me and sometimes thinks that she has no idea what I'm feeling. She's not correct because I am showing what I'm feeling. I'm not happy. I'm not sad. I just exist. I think I'm going crackers.

On the bright side... Today, I found a song that I love! I was listening to 80's on 8 and found the song "Major Tom". You can find the English version here. I went to youtube and the first ones I found were in German. So of course here it is:

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yesterday.

When we were getting ready to leave the in-laws house, Derek was there. So Angie wanted him to ride with us but he didn't want to. He really didn't want to. He was sobbing. Patrick told him to "be a man". It was hilarious and I'm not sure where he heard that phrase. Derek didn't find it too humorous. I will use that phrase the next time Patrick's world has "fallen apart" because of something dumb. This morning he was whining around because he couldn't get his coat zipped.

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weekend

So Miranda told me that I needed to be more patriotic and pick a USA soccer team to follow. Kansas City has the Wizards so I guess I'll be their fan by default. Not sure how closely I'll watch them but I'll try. Pretty much the only reason I'm following Ligue 1 is to pick up some French. I wonder what Scottish team I need to follow? I'm kidding!!!

After church today, we are going to eat with the in-laws. That will be nice to see them again.

Bad news on the Dad front. Apparently the open heart surgery didn't work very well. Before the surgery he was at 30 (whatever that means) and after the surgery he is now at 35. I'm not sure if the 30/35 is percentage or what it is but whatever it is... it didn't go up much. I'm not sure what the next step is.

My medicine is working very well. I can breathe through my nose 100% of the time. I'm getting sleep at night. Phoenix may not be needed.

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funny.

We went to Bartlesville this afternoon and I spent my $50. I found a French "textbook" that has places where you can do worksheets and stuff. So I bought it. The next purchase caused Miranda to flip her lid. It's a Teach Yourself Gaelic Course. I bought it because you never see Gaelic stuff. Gaelic is the language of Ireland and Scotland.

I think I'm going to have to find my local LA (linguistaholics anonymous) chapter.

I'm sticking with French though.

Here's an example:

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children.

Nellie wanted some cupcakes so her and I went to Marvin's to buy a cake mix. She also decided that she wanted some sprinkles. We gave her a cupcake to eat after they were baked and she took it into the living room. She decided that she wanted some sprinkles on her cupcake and dumped the whole bottle on her cupcake. She really wanted some sprinkles.

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random thoughts

Today is going to be a fairly quiet day. We are staying around the house long enough to watch Olympique Marseille play the Nancy Boys. Ha!

After the game, we are going to Bartlesville to do some grocery/school shopping.

Tomorrow we are going to Scammon to see Paul and Jane. We are going to take them lunch but they don't know it yet.

I really want to see this movie. It's a movie about the book that I just got through reading.

Big news... A teacher at the school (IBS) is (previously unknown to me) fluent in Dutch and wanting to learn French! I have a book on Dutch somewhere but can't find it. Doubtful that I attempt to learn Dutch but if she's fluent and sticks around for awhile... Well I may have to.

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music

Went to Ryan and Alisha Goins house tonight. Had a music of instruments and musicians to play music. My guitar wasn't available so I sat in on bass. A lot of fun was had. Now I have to deal with sore fingers for awhile.

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toy.

This looks pretty nice. I may have to save up for it.

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today.

Well Miranda took off and left me today. Poor me. Poor children too. Nellie's hair was interesting to say the least. Tonight is McDonald's and tomorrow night is Big Cheese Pizza. I'm an awesome cook.

Went to the doctor yesterday about my sinuses. I've had sinus problems basically for as long as I can remember. That's why my voice is so nasally. He hooked me up. Singular, Zyrtec, and Omnaris. Apparently my nasal glands are swollen and I'm majorly allergic to something. So after the samples that he gave me are gone, I'm going to go to an allergist. Apparently I'll have a shot once a week for a year to help build up my immunity to whatever I'm allergic to.

He said I wouldn't have any problems if I lived in Phoenix. Hmmmm....

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children.

Patrick and Nellie just had to get out the fencing equipment last night. Needless to say, two children swinging foils at each other makes me skittish. Nellie really gets into it. Patrick was more concerned about acting like he was sheathing his sword and pulling it out of the sheath and acting like Scooby Doo in their Samurai movie. The sheath was his pants pocket. Nellie was more interested in attacking Patrick. They have nubbins on the end of the foil but accidents happen. So I monitor it closely.

Michelle McCormick brought me her computer to work on. I'm not sure what she did to it but she did a number on it. It's giving me a BSOD.

We listened to Christmas music last night when doing the dishes. We were in the Christmas spirit. We had hot cocoa too.

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tomorrow.

I have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow to look at my sinuses.

This weekend, Miranda is going to KC for her school to some training. So Thursday night and most of Friday night, I will be a bachelor.

Still haven't made it over to see my MIL. Hope she's doing fine. Miranda and her have talked some on the phone but I haven't heard anything.

Read another book. It was called "The Singularity is Near". Pretty interesting but pretty involved. I've been reading too many "heavy" books and would like something simpler. I would like to buy this book but I don't know. I'm trying to save up my money. I'm not sure what I'm saving for though.

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tonight.

Albert and Della Schaper took us out to eat tonight to El Pueblitos. He showed up driving his daughter's/son-in-law's Audi TT turbo. He let me drive it home. Nice car. It's for sale but not for me. I don't think the car-seats could fit in the back seat. I'm not sure anything larger than a molecule could.

Patrick fell asleep watching "The Wizard Of Oz". He loves that movie. Now I think it's time for me to go to bed.

Slightly disjointed post but I'm hopped up on Alka-Seltzer and feeling the effects. G-nite.

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sinus

I'm going to have to go to a Doctor. My sinuses are in terrible shape.

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home.

Made it home. What a drive. Overall the trip was very nice. A few observations...

Cajuns beat a dead horse. They found out that they like spicy food. So, if a spice works for one dish, it works for all dishes. Everything we ate was pretty spicy. Their music is the same way. They have found 2 beats that they like and every song sounds like this but with different lyrics. Cool at first... Not so cool after 7 hours. I did pick up a CD though.

We had some interesting food. I had some Crawfish Etoufee which was awesome! I also had "Gator on a stick". It tasted like tough chicken.

It's nice to be home.

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made it!

Sitting in La Quinta hotel in Lafayette. Lafayette is apparently an older town and nothing like I was imagining. It is fairly small and dirty. No big buildings to speak of. It's approximately the same size as Tulsa, but so far, they don't even compare.

Tomorrow is the start and it's free! It's going to be fun or at least appears that it will be. They have "Gator on a stick", so Dad and I will definitely be trying that. Tonight we will be eating out the Blue Dog Cafe.

Miranda refuses to move to Lafayette.

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blogging.

Blogging has been light lately because I've been depressed.

On the "good news" front, we are headed out to Lafayette, LA tonight! However it's supposed to rain all weekend. Yay.

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Singularity Summit

They are having a Singularity Summit in NYC. It would be so interesting to go to that but will never happen.

Miranda thinks that the Singularity is a lot of "horse-hockey" but I'm not convinced. Computers can do facial recognition pretty well and a lot of other stuff that 30 years ago, would have been considered Science Fiction.

They are thinking that a human brain will be able to be emulated in 20 years. I bet they don't pick mine!

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Three.

Three more working days until we are off to Lafayette!

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tonight

So I took 1/2 sick day for Nellie's shots. The thinking was that she would probably be sick and not wanting to go to day care and I would stay home with her.

It didn't turn out as planned.

My MIL (Jane) fell off a ladder and dislocated quite a few bones in her foot. You know how a foot looks? It didn't look that way anymore. Horrible looking and apparently quite painful. So she had emergency surgery tonight and they fixed her up. She's going to be in the hospital for a couple of days and has to be off her feet for 30 days. Poor Paul!

Paul and us went out to eat at Del Rio's. It was great food.

As an aside... Marseille has lost 3 games in one week. You can definitely tell that I'm a fan now.

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today.

Today is going to be a rough day for poor Nellie. We were notified by daycare that she doesn't have all of her shots. So at 1:00PM, we are off for shots.

Quote for today:

“See, when the Government spends money, it creates jobs; whereas when the money is left in the hands of Taxpayers, God only knows what they do with it. Bake it into pies, probably. Anything to avoid creating jobs.” - Dave Barry

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cows.

Today's bing asks the question:
"Can you tell a Holstein from a Hereford? A Brangus from a Brahman?"

I definitely can on the first question. The second, I wouldn't be so sure. I love the look of the Brahman bulls and I suspect the Brangus would have the red/black coloring due to the Angus mixture.

The picture on bing is also interesting. As far as I can tell, the cow is the Highland cattle variety but it doesn't say so anywhere on the page. That also wouldn't make much sense to me as they apparently come from Scotland and bing says the cattle are from Cornwall. You can see a map on the bing picture and Cornwall is on the opposite end of the island.

It's a mystery!

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romance

Apparently the office is the new place for romance and dating. I know this is definitely true for me.

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cooking.

Miranda went to Wal-Mart for some groceries and other stuff. Whilst being gone, Nellie came up to me and wanted a hamburger. I have no clue how to cook a hamburger. Miranda had made one for her earlier and the pan was still on the stove. So I called Miranda and she told me how. I am not a good cook because I'm too punctual. This comes from years of computer programming. You do not tell the computer to "continue until the meat is brown". You say... "cook for 5 minutes" and the computer does exactly that. A "pinch of salt"? Whatever. A "bit of garlic". What? A recipe should be like a computer program. Very punctual. Anywho... I "cooked until meat was brown" and come up with a decent burger. It wasn't red on the inside so I figured it was decent. It definitely won't kill her because she has taken one bite and the rest will probably go to waste. The joys of fatherhood. I can now cook a hamburger without a recipe. "One small step for man, one giant leap for Billkind" as it were.

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problems.

I'm running into a few problems with time. It's not about having the time to do something. It's more about telling time and involves two separate issues. The first issue is that all the Marseille game times are given in "International" or "Military" time. They have a game tomorrow at 2100 hours. So I have to go through two steps to figure out what time that the game is played. They are given in no particular order:

• Convert to "normal" time of A.M. and P.M.
• Figure out what that time is in my time zone.

2100 hours is fairly easy. First I subtract 7 and come up with 1400 hours (this is the hour difference between Marseille and CST). Subtract 12 and we come up with 2:00 P.M. Easy? Sort of but it's still more complicated than I want it to be. I may end up writing a computer program to solve this issue but it would be easier if my watch would do this. I haven't found a watch to do that yet though.

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Today.

Went to the German Festival in town today. Patrick and Nellie jumped in the "jumping toys". They had a ball. It was fairly dull for us because it was just watching them play. Lunch was pretty good. I had sausage and sauerkraut. Miranda had some kind of sandwich.

I did get to hear a rendition of "Beer Barrel Polka" so it turned out all right. You can hear a version here.

We were going to a Steel Guitar show in Baxter Springs but the children weren't doing so well and we thought that they weren't up for the trip and sitting/listening to steel guitar music all evening.

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How It's Made

Yuck!

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weekend.

Tomorrow is a German festival at the Independence Park. So we are going to try to make that. Paul might be coming over to go as well. I have no idea what it consists of.

The rest of the weekend should be fairly slow.

Last night we decided to go get some ice cream and made the mistake of going to Dairy Queen. They have a drive-thru and we didn't want to go in. That last sentence was for my MIL because she will give us grief for not going to Braums. Anyway... it was a mistake because they were sloooowwww. They always are. I'm pretty sure I could get all the paperwork and agreements down for a merger between IBM and Microsoft in the same period of time that it takes them to make a burger. Anyway... Patrick and Nellie both fell asleep in the line. Unfortunately they fell asleep after the order had been placed.

Stubby decided to take in after a bigger dog last night. The bigger dog didn't kill him (unfortunately) but did do a number on him. I think there is something majorly wrong with him. Not from the fight but from even before. He sits around and just shakes sometimes. I think it "to sleep" time for him soon. I keep hoping he will go naturally but it appears that Death just doesn't want to bother with it.

Nellie just came in to sit on my lap so say "HI!" to Nellie! Je t'aime Nellie! (and Patrick... and Miranda... and...)

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Here's a tip for you.

Don't break into these people's house.

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Congrats!

Congrats to Aaron and Lindsay on 3 years of marriage!

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setup

This is my ultimate computer setup.

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P.S. Marseille is getting destroyed by Real Madrid (3-0). It almost became 4-0 and still may.

wow!

I feel good and bad at the same time. You know what difference I will make in my corner of the world? Zilch, zip, nada, nothing.

Pretty depressing when you think about it. I write programs to assist users to enter data into a computer. Yay. If I flopped over dead right now, they wouldn't be able to enter alternate closers on certain types of doors for a few months longer (unless they reassigned the task to another programmer). My family would miss me. Maybe that's all that really matters. I don't know.

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geeks.

Don't die around geeks or they will put your remains in inventive cases.

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hmmmm....

Putting labels on stuff around the house isn't working so well. Nellie got a hold of some of them and now the couch is blue and the puzzles are a chair.

Networking at the school didn't turn out so well. I bought a router and tried to get it to work as a wireless repeater but it didn't want to grab on to the existing network. Unfortunately my knowledge of networking is pretty limited to "plug it in and hope it works".

This would be a neat book to read.

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blender

Now here's a blender!

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technology.

Computer and TV's are merging and in a few years, I doubt if you will be able to tell them apart. When we get our own house, here's what I'm thinking about doing. I would like to buy a cheap computer to use as a media server. When you have young children around, you quickly learn that DVD's don't last that long. However if you rip the DVD's to the hard drive, you can watch the movie anytime. Plus if it's on a network, you can watch it anywhere in the house at any time.

I've been using my eeePC to connect to the Internet to watch TV shows. They are streamed over the Internet and connected to the TV and you watch it on the TV. You can watch shows from Hulu.com or for sports myp2p.eu.

Essentially the only difference between a TV and a computer anymore, is that a computer is more versatile. You can get 90% of the stuff that you get on TV but TV only has probably 1% of the stuff that you get on a computer.

I really didn't have anything to say, but I wanted to make this observation.

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random thoughts

There is one thing that I dislike about Miranda. She introduced me to Crab Rangoon at the various Chinese restaurants. I love them and can't stop. Last night we ate at the new Chinese place (rebuilt from the old Chinese place) and I had 3 of them! They are very unhealthy.

However it's pretty easy to get healthy. That study turned out to be fake but it's worth a shot anyway.

Tonight I have to work at the school. A router dropped and they can't get to the Internet. I would rather clean the bathrooms in Grand Central Station with my tongue than work on networking issues.

Went to the travel agent last night. We have enough money saved up for the cruise, so now we save up for the expeditions (I really dislike expeditions because we drive one! A Ford Expedition) and spending money.

I found my Christmas present. People always say I'm tough to buy for at Christmas. So I'm going to put a list on here sometime. I'm fairly easy to buy for on the Internet. Not so easy at your average store. Anyway... here's what we are going to buy me for Christmas. After Christmas, there will be one person in Independence wearing an Olympique Marseille jacket. I wonder if there will be more than one? Doubtful.

Miranda wants a purse for Christmas. A Brighton purse. Since I have no fashion sense, she will do the purchasing of the purse.

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week.

We have a quiet week planned. The travel agency was closed on the weekend so we are going to have to go one night.

Tonight we are going to try to take Patrick to the zoo. He won't stop asking. Miranda has to weigh in tonight as well. After weigh-in, we may try the travel agency.

Sunday, we went to Paul and Jane's for lunch. Kinda worried about Paul. He just doesn't seem right and I'm worried that his back is "as good as it gets". It's better but not very good still. It's looking like he may have to go on disability. That's a killer for him because he was so active. It wouldn't be a big deal for me (I would probably have to become more active to get on disability) but for him it's bad.

11 more days until the Festival de Acadiens et Créoles! Mom and Dad came up on Friday and we discussed the trip. It will be a lot of fun.

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pictures

Patrick decided to mess around (as he typically does) when dressing. This is the result.


We are learning spelling and reading around the house. So Miranda wrote nouns on pieces of paper and taped them on various items around the house. I, of course, took it to the next level. Here's a couple of example. I have circled in red the pieces of paper.


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lost

So Miranda decided that I should vacuum the living room carpet. I said that I didn't think that I would. She insisted. I insisted back. After a brief back and forth, I proclaimed that I would vacuum the living room "over my dead body".

Anyway... while I was vacuuming the living room, I pondered my poor Marseille team. They lost today 3-2. Cards have fallen into a slump. It's not my weekend for sports.

We just got back from the park/zoo. Patrick just had to go see the monkeys. It was a nice time and we rode the train. The train must be having engine issues. It was blowing out black smoke (which I understand is a bad thing) and running very roughly.

Patrick is also selling magazines for a school fundraiser and they have an online shop. I went and excitedly saw that they had a foreign language section. Only two magazines and both in Spanish. It's tough living in the Midwest.

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frustrating.

Tonight Patrick and Nellie stayed with Mom and Dad. Apparently they didn't do so well. Nellie cried quite a bit. This will probably have implications since they were supposed to watch the kids when we went our 10th anniversary trip. This was just one evening and our trip was supposed to be 7 days/nights. I'm not sure what we are going to do or even if we will be able to take the trip. I don't know what we are going to do now.

C'est la vie.

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date night

So we went to Tulsa and ate at Joe's Crab Shack. Pretty good for seafood (obviously) but not so good if you don't like seafood. The chicken had crab meat and shrimp, for example. So Miranda had a hamburger.

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funny.

Great advice... wrong problem...

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Patrick

FYI... Patrick is selling candles for a school fundraiser. If you are interested, please let me know. If you aren't interested, please don't let me know.

They are Gold Canyon candles. Apparently very good candles according to "candle people".

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last night/weekend.

We stayed home last night to relax. Miranda hasn't been feeling well lately and we needed a break.

With the break, I finished my Jeeves book and started on Archies. My batteries are dead in my French dictionary (and I didn't want to break out the pocket dictionary) so I just started trying to figure out the meanings without getting bogged down in grammar. I think it will be easier than I thought. This weekend I will have to get batteries for the manual way. It would be soooooo much easier with a new dictionary, Miranda!!! Ha!

Mom and Dad are coming up and they are going to pick up the children and take them to Vinita. Miranda and I are going to Tulsa for a date night and then drop by Vinita on our way home to pick the children up. I'm going to "spy out the land" as it were. We are going to go to Joe's Crab Shack. Dad wants to eat there himself but honestly, in a couple of weeks, we will be going to seafood paradise so it probably will pale in comparison.

The rest of the weekend will be spent here. It will be nice to spend a weekend at home.

I may get to watch l'OM play this weekend! Allez l'OM!!!

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