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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random thoughts

Other economic indicators. Pretty neat and probably fairly accurate.

There are no Holiness hymnals in French. Apparently the Nazarenes are working (were working?) on one in 2006 but I couldn't find it anywhere.

My steel guitar hasn't got out of the box since coming back from camp. Between my Jeeves book that I'm reading, IBS mission services, and life; steel guitar has recently taken a back seat again.

After my Jeeves book, I start on Archies. It's going to take forever just to get through one of them. I have to look up every 3rd or 4th word. By the time I figure out the vocabulary, I've forgotten the point. I think I will end up writing the words down and basically doing an English translation. It will be neat though.

This weekend is going to be spent hanging out around the house. Miranda hasn't been feeling very well lately.

Dad is feeling very well. Doctor has given him the "go ahead" on driving and he doesn't have to see the heart doctor again until something goes wrong again. So it's back to normal there. Good thing too because two weeks from tonight, we are headed to Lafayette, LA.

This weekend we are going to talk to the travel agent about our 10 year anniversary trip. We've got the money saved up and we are ready. Now it's just a matter of where to go. We ditched the Europe idea because with all the uncertainty in the economy, I don't think it's a good idea to dump a bundle into a vacation. So it's going to be a cruise of Maine/New England/Canada.

Is my hard drive on my computer going out? I hope not. Acting oddly today. It may just need a reboot. I never turn off my computer. It stays on 24/7/365 and I have to reboot about once a month or so. It may be time again.

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confusing.

Economics really isn't a science. Well it is but it is a "social" science which means... it isn't a science.

Anyway... the recession's over. I'm not going to argue but this would seem to point otherwise. Again... I have no clue but it could get a lot worse very quickly when some of the 41% of the people that are delinquent on their sub-prime mortgages decide to give the house back. It wouldn't take all of them either.

This would also seem to suggest otherwise as well.

Seems to me that things could get a lot worse before they get better.

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hmmm...

Want to see where your nearest McDonalds is?

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Missions week

Missions week is kicking along here at IBS. They have a couple from Honduras and a one lady from Ukraine (Katrina Randolph).

We have been every night so far but Miranda and I are thinking of getting a babysitter and going on a date night. I think Bartlesville is going to be our target destination.

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funny.

Ok. I can't get speech recognition to work in anything but English. It appears that I may not be missing anything as the French part of it doesn't seem to work too well.

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New toy!

I have found a new toy. Of course, Miranda hit the roof and after hitting the roof, started on me. Anyway... Here's the problem I'm going to run into. While reading Archie's, since my French vocabulary is so limited, I'm going to have to have my Electronic French dictionary at hand and type in each word that I don't understand.

So I found this. I could speak the words on the page and it would translate them instead of me having to type them in. You will notice that the downside is that it's $590. That's a pretty major downside.

Here's the other option. Apparently Vista has speech recognition software built in and it works for French. I would just need a microphone. I would have to read my comics in front of my desktop computer. My eeePC is running Windows XP. But a microphone is a bit cheaper though.

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vacation

Next year, Miranda and I, are heavily weighing a cruise to Maine/Canada for our 10 year anniversary. I talked to a guy at work that was in the military and lived in Canada for awhile. He gave me some tips about Quebec. Apparently the only months that he never saw snow was July and August. The rest of the year, there is a possibility of snow being on the ground or in the air.

He also said to say "je suis l'américain" (I am American) instead of "je ne parle pas de français" (I don't speak French). Apparently if you say "I don't speak French" they think you are an English speaking Canadian and will respond "je ne comprends pas" (I don't understand). They do perfectly but will refuse to speak English. However they won't expect Americans to know French.

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Very neat

Watch the video in this page. They are working to create a human brain in a computer simulation. It's not too techie and very interesting. I think in a few years, various brain disorders will be able to be corrected much like a broken leg or other maladies. Of course when they artificially create a human brain, I want to have one implanted for myself.

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Monett

Off to Monett. No blogging today.

Archies

I received an email just now that my Archie's have been delivered. Way to go post office. Mighty helpful tracking system.

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odd.

One of the oddest things happened at camp meeting. I swear to you that I'm not making this up. I'm going to paraphrase but be as accurate as I can. A lady was talking after her song that she had sung and said something like... "A guy she knew (either a brother or friend or something) raises chickens and let me tell you, there are a lot of perverts out there". That was the exact comment (or a close paraphrase). At this point I became concerned as to where this line of commenting was going. There are multiple paths but none are very appropriate in church. Luckily she stopped. I thought I was going to have to grab some flags and try to whole flag semaphore system. I don't know how to say "Shut up" in flag semaphore code so I would have just had to start waving flags/kleenex/song books/small children/animals (other than chickens)/anything around excitedly and hope she got the message.

I feel slightly bad about putting this on my blog but she said it publicly in church. Just consider me the messenger.

I am accused of "too much information" on this blog every once in awhile but man.... That's out of my league right there!

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they are here!!!

Translation:
It is really amazing to see how Hot Dog always finds all the bones.

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Patrick and Nellie

We got the Wii out last night and Patrick and Nellie played Tennis. Patrick is really good at it. Better than Miranda and I. Nellie just turns circles pretty much and accidentally hits one every now and then. It's so funny to watch him get excited. He'll raise his hands over his head and holler out "15 love!" He has no clue about the scoring system but he loves the game.

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A couple of things

1. I have 3 grey (gray) hairs in my beard. This is the end of the world for me.
2. I'm reading "Life With Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse and he mentions Oswego, Kansas. That's fairly odd for a book but what makes it even more odd is that it's from the 1920's-1930's and he's from Britain! Very strange indeed.

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Arrrrgggghhhh!

I missed the National Talk Like A Pirate Day (Sept. 19th).

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steel guitar.

Very unhappy with my playing lately. I have got to make a decision. Either get in or out. However after a 10 year layoff, it's a bit tough to get going again so maybe I just need to give it some time.

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sports

Big news that I missed over the weekend. Marseille blew out Montpellier by the score of 4-2 and took over 2nd place.

OU beat Tulsa 45-0.

Saints are currently beating Philadelphia 41-20 (4 minutes left).

I think if I'd stop following these games they'd start winning.


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home again.

Back home from camp. Overall it was nice but I am very glad to be home. I wasn't happy with my playing at camp but I think the music overall had some issues. The preaching was very good. This morning (Sunday) Jonathan Wade showed up and we were happy to see him. A piano player with aggressiveness was called for the entire camp to add some structure. Plus he's an awesome piano player! Although I did catch a lot of grief from them for being a 34 year old spoiled brat. It's a fair cop.

John Wade and Rick Waldon were the ministers and they both preformed magnificently. John Wade preached my kind of message on Saturday night. It was about monetary policies!!! WOOHOO!! Sunday morning was great as well.

Patrick and Nellie had great fun with Grandpa and Grandma. And vice versa. Patrick helped Grandma out in the kitchen. He was washing potatoes and making hot rolls. He knows more about cooking than me now.

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30 days!

I called about my Archies and they apparently are stuck in customs. Apparently all international mail has to go through customs and may take up to 30 days! 30 days! Are they going to read them? They arrived on the 12th so that means that they may not get out until October 12th.

Plus what gets me is that they are coming from Canada. They aren't coming from Syria or North Korea for crying out loud. Better be careful of those Canadians eh!

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Hmmm...

I've got to cut back on my French studies. I was on facebook and saw someone named Jamie. I was trying to figure out who or what they were loving and why they forgot the apostrophe. J'aime is "I love".

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Movie conversation

Count De Monet - Oh! But this long trip is exhausting conversation, I'm famished!

Count De Monet - Bearnaise?

Bernaise - Yes?.

Count De Monet - Bearnaise, do we have any of those delicious raisins left?

Bernaise - You ate yours, these are mine.

Count de Monet- Au contraire, they are mine! I paid for them! Hand them over!

Bearnaise- (mimicking) I paid for them! They're mine! (blows a raspberry)

Count De Monet - Don't be saucy with me, Bearnaise.

That last line kills me. I have a stupid sense of humor. For those totally lost, Bearnaise is a French sauce. I'm not going to link to the skit on youtube because it's not appropriate and Miranda would kill me. This is only the first part. It's a skit about the French Revolution and goes downhill quickly.

Here's a shortened version.

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sports

I like fencing as a hobby and as an exercise but it's an awful sport to watch.

You will notice that those were the highlights. I'd hate to see the lowlights.
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Busy weekend.

We are all packed up and ready to go to Wyandotte. It will be nice to get away for a bit.

Funny story about Patrick... Last night in devotions, Miranda was reading Genesis 18:14, "Is any thing too hard for the LORD?" and she said something like "Is selling our house too hard for the Lord?". Patrick looked at her like she fell off the turnip truck and said "That's odd".

Patrick and Nellie did not want to part ways with Papa and Grandma on Wednesday night and they will be excited to see them again. However Patrick cannot think of anything other than today being SHOW AND TELL! He loves show and tell.

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woohoo!

We have dihydrogen monoxide (H20 a.k.a water). Nice to have that again.

Speaking of dihydrogen monoxide, here's a funny page. Here's the background.

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day.

Oh yeah. It's going to be one of those days.

• We don't have water in the house. Some kind of issue over at the school and they had to shut our water off.
• I forgot to turn the alarm on when we drug into bed really late from camp.
• Patrick is complaining that his head is hurting and may be starting to run a fever

It's 7:00AM and I already want this day over with.

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Patrick.

Sad news on the Patrick front. He has stopped saying "snuck" and started saying "skunk". I guess they have to grow up sometime.

Eating out at McDonald's for lunch! Now if I can just make it to lunch without going batty.

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camper

Miranda has been hollering forever about getting an RV. So I finally found one for our budget.

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chandelier.

Nothing says "I am stylish" more than a Skull and Crossbones Chandelier.

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funny

Awesome facebook stuff.

I love the "being single" one at the end.

Adolph Hitler's facebook account.

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bad day.

Between all the traveling today and work, it's going to be a bad day.

Blogging may be light (this may be the only post today).

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French

You learn a lot of interesting French when the French team loses. No more comment.

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huh?

So I'm listening to the l'OM vs Milan game (we're losing!) and they are playing "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Sounds odd to hear that song when everything else is in French. The world over, Queen plays in stadiums.

UPDATE: We lost 2-1.

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sigh!

We are supposed to have our house sold in May 2010. However loans given by banks have fallen 14% according to this article. Add in the fact that the buyers have "less than stellar" credit and I fear that in a year, the house will be back on the market.

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funny.

Here's what funny about the Postal Service. They assign "tracking numbers". Those tracking numbers do not appear to track anything. I think they do this because UPS does it however UPS actually track stuff and it's really accurate. They decide to come up with a long, complicated number to attach to every package but then don't do anything with it. Anyway, my Archie's were shipped out on the 9th and thusly should be here soon.

My head is hurting today.

Cardinals magic number is 10. Today is not going to be a good day for soccer for me. Marseille is playing AC Milan in the Champions League. Juve is playing Bordeaux. Saints did win on Sunday but it was against Detroit so it doesn't count. That's pretty much all sports fans.

I have switched my home page to Bing.com. I really like their photographs and the style.

Today is the start of Wyandotte camp, I think. Going down there tomorrow night and then for the weekend. Be sure and show up if you want to hear a great steel guitar amp. If you want to hear a great steel guitar player, well you're outta luck. All I've got is the amp. I hear you say... "Go clear to Wyandotte for an hour long church service?". Well, after church you could always run by the Indian Casino in town and go some gambling. I wouldn't mention that that is your plans at the camp though. However that would save the preachers a lot of work in coming up with a message for the services.

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swing.

We are getting back into the swing of things now. Patrick is enjoying school and Nellie likes daycare but she really likes her old teacher. She has graduated from her old class but I think she spends a lot of time in there with her teacher.

Miranda is enjoying the school year so far. A few bumps but it's been pretty good overall.

Next week is Missions Week. So church every night. On Wednesday night, we are going to Wyandotte, OK to the camp meeting for my guitar stuff.

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Bing.

Today's image on Bing.com is of Provence, France and is a field of lavender. Very pretty flower. Maybe if we ever get our own house, I can grow some. I'm fairly convinced that you can grow anything in Kansas. Except truffles.

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Christmas present

Boy have I found my Christmas present. It's a book titled "Maxims of Napoleon" and it's a mere $15,000! I'm not sure if I want to pay for the $8 shipping though.

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music

This music drives Miranda up the wall but I really want this CD.

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RIP

Norman Borlaug has died. I would suggest you read that link all the way through. Agriculture science doesn't get the respect that it deserves.

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yesterday.

Yesterday was a nice day but we didn't get home until 9:30PM or so. It was nice to see Paul and Jane again. Jane was talking about her trip. Sounds like she had a great time.

Great news on the language front. Miranda has agreed to take a French class with me if Labette Community College offers one as a night class again. One more step to the Allen household being an "English-free zone". She is thinking that if she can learn a bit about French then she may be able to teach a French class at her school.

Finally got a response from Evans Amps. They charge $60 per hour to work on amps. Yikes! That doesn't count $80 for shipping ($40 each way). Not sure what I'll do with the amp.

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Marseille won!

1-2 over Le Mans. I'm terrifically excited!

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so far sorta good.

I am watching the game but there are a few issues. The quality isn't that good and it went down for a few minutes. They scored a goal in the time that it was down!

They also keep talking about soccer stuff (which isn't that odd because I'm watching a soccer game) but I keep hearing quatre-quatre-deux (4-4-2). Marseille is winning 0-1 so far (they aren't playing at home). I'm picking out a few words here and there but my soccer vocabulary isn't very large.

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maybe?

I was searching around all the local community colleges and Labette Community College has French and it's at night!  That may be a real possibility.  I will have to remember to check again for the Spring 2010 semester.

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Last night.

Last night we went to PFF meeting. It was a carry in dinner so we ate up there. Fairly routine stuff however it did take a particularly nasty turn. I was nominated for PFF President by Mrs. Schaper. I really appreciated the sentiment but turned it down. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have because I think people should get involved but it was on short notice and I make no substantial agreements on short notice. It would have expanded my horizons and my horizons could use some expanding, however to be a president of anything you really have to pour your heart and soul into it. It's still under debate whether I have a heart and soul and assuming that I have one of each, I'm not sure PFF is the thing that I want to pour it into. If it was the Americans Who Think Milton Friedman Is Absolutely Smashing And Want To Do Away With The Federal Reserve And Play A Bit Of Steel Guitar On The Side (a.k.a. AWTMFIASAWTDAWTFRAPABOSGOTS) then I would proudly serve as President. Anywho... Brenda Marquez is the new President.

You will note that this blog post is being written at 2:30AM. It seems that I am unable to sleep. Bizarre dreams about radiation contamination and living in caves (they were apparently unrelated) and Stubby woke me up wanting to go outside. After climbing back into bed, sleep has been evading me. I'm guessing the dreams are a direct result of the PFF meeting being Mexican food night. Good food but pretty hard on the system.

Today is going to be a nice day. I'm going to attempt to watch the Le Mans vs Marseille game here. The game is at 19:00 hours so that would make it about noonish here. Actually it isn't about noonish, it is noonish. Then later on, we are going to Scammon to visit the in-laws. OU plays Idaho State and it should be a walkover, but who knows with Sam Bradford out.

I should have another song on here soon. I got my amp yesterday and wow! Just wow! What a nice sound.

Lets try attempt nombre deux at sleeping now (aller dormir). Bonne nuit! (good night).

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cars

Italian sports cars.
American sports cars.
German sports cars.
French sports cars.

Which one of these pictures do not belong? I love the guy in his racing suit standing next to what looks like a family sedan. Way to go.

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neat.

So I was going through the music channels on my Sirius radio and found something interesting. I'm listening to the Daily Mass at EWTN Chapel on Sirius Radio. In English and Latin. Latin would be on my list of languages to learn but slightly useless. Sounds quite a bit like Italian (although I don't know a lot about Italian).

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Today.

Patrick is all excited because today is show and tell. No dawdling around for him today. He's taking his stick-horse and his cowboy hat to show them.

Nellie has been watching a video called "Let's Build" a lot lately. That's where she got the "excavator" word . On the video they build a dog out of Lego blocks and the other day she comes out with some Legos in the shape of that dog that she had put together and she says "Look Mom! Doggy!". Her uncle Aaron (the engineer) would be proud of her!

My amp has shipped. And it appears by the website that it's out for delivery today!

Tonight is PFF (sorta like PTA) meeting at the school. Children will be supplying Mexican food. At least it isn't Italian food. Miranda is going to make some cookies. I tried to talk her into doing a dessert crepe that looks like enchiladas but it didn't fly. Enchilada sauce is darker red so you could have a cherry topping, lemon sauce for the cheese look, fill the crepe with chocolate to give the "beef" look and voilà. A few problems with that.

1. Don't know if it would look right.
2. Don't know if it would taste good.
3. Too much work.

She offered to let me do it. I may give it a shot some night.

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Nellie.

They are working on the driveway here at the school. On the way home from picking up Patrick and Nellie, she saw the equipment and she says "excavator". I started laughing because she officially knows more about construction equipment than me.

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it's back!

Cherokee Language class is back. I'm going to have to decide if I want to take it again. I'm just not sure that I have the time or the patience. Plus it's on Monday and Wednesday night. So I'm guessing that I won't.

It would be a lot of fun though.

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Christmas

We have decided to break down and buy Patrick a Nintendo DS for Christmas. Also get him some games. I think he would love this game.

He is still pressing for a computer last I heard. He won't let it drop. I think a computer is a bit too old for him.

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amp.

Amp still has not shipped. I placed a help desk ticket with them to check on the status. Seems kinda silly to pay extra for fast shipping when they decide to process the order slowly anyway.

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dad.

My dad is doing very well. I talked to them last night and Dad had the best day that he's had for weeks. So it's all good.

He better get feeling better because we are heading for the Festival de Acadiens et Créoles in 30 days

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weekend.

So this weekend, our family is going to Scammon to visit Paul and Jane. We are going to help him put the cover on their pool. Paul is doing a lot better but the recovery is slow. He has little back pain but his leg is causing him some grief. It will just take time.

Anyway... the problem is that Marseille is playing Le Mans (the same as the race) at noon. Unfortunately I don't believe Setanta is showing the game but they may show some others. So anyway, I'm hoping I can talk him into letting me see some Ligue 1 soccer. They are showing Lyon vs Lorient and Bordeaux vs Grenoble.

I may have found a place to watch a really awful version for free though. It's MyP2P.eu and I can actually watch some MLB baseball. It's pretty decent surprisingly. The sound is terrible though. So if I can't catch any on Setanta, I may be able to get it over the Internet.

My MIL will be thrilled. As will Miranda. Paul gets into all kinds of sports so he won't mind. The other day we watched Liverpool play Bolton and he was excited as me (it was a good game and Liverpool is good).

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watch

I set the tide on my watch to Marseille tides. It's pretty tricky. First I have to know the tide times for Marseille. But then I have to convert to local time. So it will appear that it's high tide at 11:32 today but it's actually 6:32 PM because they are 7 hours ahead. The more I think about it, the more confused I get. So if you are ever in Marseille and need to know where the tide is, just let me know.

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amp.

Mom and Dad graciously offered to buy my amp for me. So thanks to them for that! I placed the order last night but it doesn't appear to have shipped yet. I chose the 3 day shipping. It should get here on time. It better be.

Of course the reason that they did this is so I won't be able to sell my guitar now! I am looking forward to getting it because I haven't been happy with my amp now for quite some time. I think it will sound better.

Tonight is church night and we have been inside all week. We are looking forward to getting out of the house (sad isn't it. At home for 3 days in a row and we can't take it).

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day.

What a day. Fairly quiet but the VPN kept dropping because of electrical storms we were having. Seems to have calmed down now. Miranda took 2 of her school children out to eat at El Pueblitos so I went with them. Too much food. Very good though.

Last night Miranda rented "New in Town". It was one of her romantic comedies. It was long on romance but short on comedy. I suffered willingly through it. She watches so many of my shows that I hate not watching hers. It wasn't too bad.

Tonight is sit at home night. I'm not sure what we will do but I'm hoping relaxing will be the main theme of the night.

Never heard back from the Evans Amps guys. A week from tomorrow I will be needing an amp.

Still thinking about our 10 year anniversary next year. We keep vacillating between our options. Miranda talked to my MIL a bit the other night and her cruise was a "booze cruise" for sure (and she isn't a boozer). We don't want that but then we don't want a floating nursing home either. Who knows what will happen.

nc

back to it.

Today I go back to work. This is terribly unfair as I feel that I should be independently wealthy. This is not the case. Wealthy would not be a good adjective for me and I'm sure there are many others more appropriate.

My paypal transaction for the Archie comics, still hasn't cleared. It's supposed to clear in the range of 9/9 - 9/11. Then they are supposed to ship them after clearing.

Still writing notes down on Träumerei. It's not going to go to well and allowances are going to have to be made for the steel guitar. At one point, he asks for 3 F's and a D. I can pull off 2 F's but I don't think I can 3. Plus the D is the 6th! An F6? Dad will love that. I think I may replace it with a D minor (D, F, A) as you will notice that it's almost the same as F (F,A,C) but with the C->D. This is the first pedal on the steel guitar. This is of great interest to you, I can tell.

Better run to help Miranda get the children ready.

nc

that's life

Now it appears that my amp is going out on me. The Bass pot apparently is going bad. Unfortunately it's a Evans Custom Amp so I can't really take it anywhere to get it fixed. Looks like I may have to ship it back to North Carolina to get it fixed. That ought to cost a lot of money. The amp weighs about 60 pounds so shipping will be expensive also.

I need a Nashville 112 but I hate spending that kind of money. However, if I'm going to have to pay $200-$300 bucks to get this one fixed, I ought to spend a few hundred more and get the best.

Actually shipping estimated it at about $40. Not too bad. I contacted the company and we'll see if they get back with me. Probably won't be today. And I need an amp by next week because Mom and Dad want me to play at Wyandotte Camp.

Life just frustrates me.

nc

it's official.

Marseille is the greatest Ligue 1 team! All other teams pale in comparison. Or something like that.

They are currently in 5th place but will be dropping shortly because I'm now rooting for them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about Setanta though. They don't show all league games so some games they may show Marseille and some they won't. However if you dig through the link that I've given above, it looks like you can watch every Marseille game (on replay). I can subscribe for 60€. (interesting side story... I was trying to look up how to type the € symbol and started typing "how to" and google always shows the top searches that start with what you are typing. anyway, one of the top searches is "how to get pregnant". It's really not that hard to figure out! I speak from experience!).

Anyway... back on track now... 60€ = $86 currently (this changes frequently).

Another side story... I forgot to tell you how to type the "€" symbol. Hold down your ALT key on the keyboard and type the following numbers on the keypad: 0128. It has to be the keypad. It can't be the numbers on top of the letters. That's what I like about Windows. It all just makes sense. Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

I need this also to show my allegiance.

Geaux Marseille! Ha! Get it? Go...Geaux... It's funny!

nc

ugh.

As you have seen from below, my guitar is up. I decided to try Träumerei. Unfortunately my note reading skills are non-existent. So I'm doing the whole "FACE, All Cows Eat Grass, and Every Good Boy Does Fine". Needless to say, I'm not doing so well. I'm going to have to print off the sheet music and write the notes on the sheet music. Then the trick will be to actually play it.

nc

track 1

Here's the first song. In the garden.

nc

We're back.

Fun time but we are tired out.

We made it into West Plains about 8:30 on Friday night. Climbed into bed about 9:30 or so but Nellie was either having a toothache or earache so didn't sleep very well at all. Needless to say, sleep was short for everyone except Patrick. He can sleep through a nuclear war. Up the next morning and off to the wedding. TomTom was way off but luckily we found the church anyway. Not impressed with TomTom at all.

The wedding was very nice (at least as far as weddings go). I got to see quite a few people.

After the wedding and the opening of the presents, we headed for Scammon to spend the night with Paul. We stopped in Springfield to Mardel (Christian/teaching), then to Barnes & Noble where I found a neat French book. We ate at Colton's Steak House.

Finally made it into Scammon about 8:30 where I finished watching OU get beat by BYU (Brigham Young University). Woe is me (sorta). I'm going to catch about 99 different kinds of grief from the guys at work though.

Church this morning and now we are home.

A lot of driving but a lot of fun.

nc

off.

Off to West Plains. See you when we get back.

Av revoir

nc

random thoughts

It's going to be a long and a short weekend for the Allens. More days to the weekend but so much travel and being away from home that it will be short.

I will be kinda glad when Monday arrives. I want to get my guitar stuff out and start playing it. Warning to Miranda... I need new strings.

After I sell my guitar, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all my stompboxes. I have a lot of equipment.

I borrowed a DVD from Dad. It's a Doyle Lawson concert. He's a bluegrass singer. Wow!

It was my turn to ask a question for Sunday School last Sunday. It was: "Where in the bible is a prophesy referred to that isn't there?" The answer is in Jude verse 14 where he quotes Enoch. It has been decided that Enoch shouldn't be a part of the Bible. You really got to feel sorry for Enoch. He writes 108 chapters and doesn't get into the big game. Jude goes and writes 25 lines and everybody goes "ga-ga" over it. At least Enoch can say "Yeah!?! Well at least I didn't die!" He's got a point.

nc

finally.

Finally got the Archie's bought. Paypal is a disaster to work with.

Tomorrow night we are off to West Plains, MO. Saturday we go to the wedding and then head back home. Actually we are taking a detour. We are spending Saturday night with Paul. OU football starts on Saturday night and I'm hoping I can catch the first game. If not, well it's no biggie. Sunday will be church.

I can smell the excitement brewing in the air about my Ligue 1 pool. Two more votes and Marseille is currently leading. 3 more days. I'm pretty excited and I'm not kidding. I'm lame. That brings the total of excited people up to 1.

You will be excited to know, however, that I finally got the date working on my watch. Yes... After two months of ownership, I finally can tell you the date when it's before noon. The instructions leave something to be desired (or I'm just stupid). Now I've got to get the tide going. Maybe I'll set the tide for Marseille? Hmmm...

nc

hmmmm...

I'm not sure if I'm going to be getting those Archie's after all. I won the action but I requested the shipping. They said it would be yesterday. Nothing so far. Maybe my Setanta savings is right on track.

nc

hobby.

I'm guessing this boy won't be the life of any parties.

For those not wanting to click the link...

He collects vacuum cleaners.

nc

funny.

I always knew Ligue 1 didn't get a lot of respect but I didn't know how little it got. I've got two votes on my poll. You know what this means. 2 people (Miranda is one of them and I'm guessing that Dad is the other) have voted. The rest have decided that is just isn't worth the two mouse-clicks to actually vote.

I'm not getting onto you either. I find it genuinely funny. You care less than two mouse-clicks about the French Ligue 1. I guess I don't blame you.

In case of a tie, each of the tied teams will be given a 10 number range and then a random number will be chosen. Whichever team it falls in, that will be my team. For example:

• Bordeaux: 1-10
• Marseille: 11-20

And random.org gives me a 9 so for this example, Bordeaux would be my team.

However I want to give you plenty of time to ignore my poll.

Again... I want to stress... I'm not "getting onto" you. I always find it funny how the things that I find interesting, most (all?) people couldn't care less about. And in this case, I'm not sure it's possible for you to care less. Two mouse-clicks is a pretty low bar on the "I couldn't care less" chart.

nc

family

I have got to start watching what I eat again. Last night, Miranda was zonked and didn't want to cook. My cooking abilities are limited so we ordered a medium "Perfect 10" from Big Cheese Pizza. Nellie ate one piece, Patrick didn't eat his piece (he doesn't like pizza), Miranda ate two pieces, and I ate the rest (4 pieces)! I was ashamed.

Nellie and us are in a power struggle. Needless to say, she is whipping us big time. She brought her "A" game. She refuses to do a nombre deux dans les toilettes. Nombre un is covered but not deux. Negative reinforcement doesn't do squat. Positive reinforcement isn't available because she refuses. We cannot just make her go and she is just going to have to decide to change. and she will. eventually. But, oh the horrors.

Guitar stuff is sitting here, unpacked. I am going to try to get it unpacked next week. I'm a big believer in not getting in a hurry. Tonight is church, tomorrow night is cleaning out the car, and Friday night and all weekend, we are going to be in West Plains, MO. So next week is the earliest and then I will start my preliminary recording. I'm going to try to put 10 songs down on the computer and then sell my guitar. I believe Duncan Prior is going to do the CD for us, so I will email or send him the tracks and call it good.

Tomorrow night I have to clean out the truck and Miranda is packing. I am not a neat person but I had no idea that a vehicle could look as bad as ours does now. Food and drink in the car is one of the worst things but we are on the go so much, we don't have a lot of choices.

nc

ENTP

I've taken tests before to determine my personality type. I'm an ENTP and I mostly agree (except the optimist part).

Here's the listing of jobs for me.

• Project Manager
• Forces (Military)
• Manager
• Clergy/Church worker
• Counselor
  
• Designer

I don't see myself in any of those positions. I'm not saying that I wouldn't enjoy them but I've never thought of those as "nuclearcowboy jobs". Maybe I need to expand my repertoire.

nc

oh dear.

Well one shoe has dropped at work. No... I'm not laid off but things are looking particularly bad. Of course you must keep in mind that I'm a pessimist. Looks like I may have to make some tough decisions.

1. Keep my career and move. Houma, LA comes to mind!
   
2. Choose a new career and take a pay cut.

I'm really leaning towards #2. However Miranda will have to be involved with this as well. This would be a prime opportunity to get my Nuclear Engineering degree. Along a similar yet different track, would be Nuclear Medicine Technologist. The plus of that would be that you get to bombard people with radioactive materials which would be interesting. The downside is that they hate you forever. To which I reply... "Get in line. The end of the line is way back there.".

There are some tricks to this though. Nuclear power just really isn't taking off and doesn't appear that it ever will. Three mile island really damaged the American psyche. They keep saying that it will but I'm not so sure about that. Nuclear Medicine may be tough to get in to and I'm not sure I want all that pain.

The other thing would be to get an education degree and become a Chemistry/Computer/Physics teacher. I really enjoy Chemistry thanks to my High School Chemistry teacher. As soon as I saw Potassium and Water (K + H20 = BOOM!) that piqued my interest. It does get better though.

There are other misc. stuff that interests me but probably aren't worth the time. Computational Linguistics, Linguistics in general, move to Antarctica to study penguins, buy a fishing boat and move to Martinique.

Or I could just become a bum.

nc

comics.

So Miranda subscribed to a website for school that contains various small to largish books for the children. One of the interesting parts though is that they have Spanish and French in quite a few of the books. So I downloaded some to peruse through. Should be interesting. However I noticed that they had some comics but they were only in English.

So I went and searched to see if they had Archie comics books in French and I found that they did exist but couldn't find any for sale. Archie comics are a particular favorite of mine (because I haven't grown up). As a child, my sister and I would go to aunt E.B.'s (Lois Parker) and George's and she had tons of Archies! I would stay up till 2-3 o'clock in the morning and read those books. They were awesome!

Anywho... I went to ebay to see if they had any and I found a lot of 128 French Archie comic books from Quebec! I bought them. So Setanta is going to have to wait for a month or so.

So far the poll is tied between Bordeaux and Marseille. No votes for Nancy!

nc