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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