hoose.

So the house deal is in the process of falling apart. The appraisal didn't come back very well. That makes me a bit nervous. I won't about the quality of the house.

Anyway... we are working between the buyers, realtors, mortgage company, etc... I don't see good news on the horizon though. But I'm a pessimist.

Miranda is irritated at me about the whole deal (and I can't say that I blame her).

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Patrick

Today I offered Patrick the choice between Lucky Charms and Shredded Wheat and he picked Shredded Wheat. *sigh*

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Nellie

Yesterday, I was attempting to watch some football (I didn't have much luck because the internet streams weren't very good). During one of the commercial breaks, a commercial for electric razors came on. Nellie said, "Dad! That's what you need for your chin!" Subtlety isn't a strong point for children.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

Rab

Christmases

Here's our itinerary for the holidays.

Thursday night is our Christmas (Patrick, Nellie, Miranda, and I) and we will have the children open up our presents to them. That will be fun.

Then we get up on Friday and head to Vinita (about 9:00 or 9:30). Spend the day with my parents and have the Allen Christmas on Friday night. Then on Saturday, I think we are going to Paul and Janes. I'm not sure though. The Christmas with them is on New Years and we are having it in Wichita at Aaron and Lindsay's hoose.

Overall it will be an enjoyable holiday but a lot of travel.

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Cigs

Due to high taxes in some states and low taxes in others, cigarette smuggling has become a big business. In New York, taxes are $4.35 per pack and people are making a killing by smuggling cigs in from lower tax states. It's a replay of Prohibition except the leading player is cigs instead of booze.

In Missouri, taxes are $.17 per pack. In Kansas, taxes are $.79 per pack. So each time I drive to work, I have a new possible revenue stream. Except I know no smokers.

Rab

Merry Christmas

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IMPORTANT!

My DNA results came back. Some fairly staggering news. It said:

• Percentages above 2% are considered significant indicators of your family’s origins.
• Percentages above 4% may be interpreted as highly significant indicators of your family’s origins.

Here are the ones that matter:

• England - 2%
• France - 2.1%
• Iceland - 2.1%
• Northern Ireland - 2.7%
• Scotland - 2.5%
• Switzerland - 2.9%
• U.K - 2.1%
• Wales - 2.2%
  

The Switzerland one confuses me.

I do have some close to 2%:

• Denmark - 1.7%
• Germany - 1.6%
• Ireland - 1.8%
• Netherlands - 1.9%
• Norway - 1.6%
• Spain - 1.6%
  

But overall, the northern part of the U.K. (Scotland/Ireland) appears to be the major factor in my ancestry.

I hate the cold too. I think something was lost in my DNA somewhere. Iceland??? Brrr....

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for Dad

Haggis flavored potato chips are coming to America

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Patrick

Patrick still talks about Grandma Jeanne and her being sick. The other day he kept saying that Grandma Jeanne wasn't sick anymore.

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last night

Lots of interesting stuff happened last night.

1. Miranda has some personal health issues (that won't be discussed on the blog).
2. I threw out my back. My leg had been hurting and I couldn't decide what it was. When I was drying myself off, it went out.
3. Our washer broke. We called out a repairman and the problem was a piece of dog food that a mouse had put in the braking mechanism. It was just in the right place where it didn't get ground down.

Miranda has a doctor appointment, I'm going to try to get one today, and the washer cost us $64.50.

What a day.

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for everyone.

I can't hear today. My sinuses are raging again. So speak up or get prepared to hear "What?" a lot.

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house

In the movie, "Gone With The Wind", she says "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again". When we get into our new house, I'm saying the same thing about cold showers. We have a 5 gallon hot water heater. At least it seems like it's 5 gallons. I'm wanting to look into tankless water heaters or a BIG water heater. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 gallons.

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program

Today is our church Christmas program. I REALLY dislike being in church Christmas programs. But such is my life.

We only have a few more steps in getting our house. I sent in the final batch of paperwork and now they have to get it appraised and then to the underwriter. Then we set a closing day. Exciting stuff.

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Monett

Off to Monett today.

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Christmas programs.

Patrick and Nellie's Christmas programs are over. They were both nice but Nellie's was hilarious. It was mostly 2 year olds that didn't want to be up there. The first song was lost in the cacophony.

Next program is on Friday night and it's the high school.

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holidays

This week is going to be a very busy week for us. Christmas program with Patrick on Monday night, program with Nellie on Tuesday night, and High School program on Friday night.

We mostly finished up Christmas shopping yesterday. We are ready for Christmas.

I get off the 24th and the entire next week. So we are having our Christmas with Patrick and Nellie on the night of the 23rd or the morning of the 24th. Then late morning/early afternoon on the 24th we are headed for Vinita. 25th late morning/early afternoon, we will head out to Scammon.

It's going to be a fun holiday. I wish we were in our house!

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Great News!

Olympique Marseille now has official jeans! Unfortunately they are 59.90 euros which comes out to be about $80.

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Away In A Manger

In Scottish Gaelic. More here.

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I'm back!

My DSL modem arrived today and I'm back online! So a big WOOGAH WOOGAH is in order.

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Monett

I'm in monett today. DSL modem should be arriving today.

Monett

I'm in monett today. DSL modem should be arriving today.

House

Offer has been accepted on the house! It has already been inspected too so we may be on the fast track.

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weekend

my DSL modem went out last night so I have no Internet on my computers. It dropped during the middle of the OU/OSU game.

We put up the tree last night. The cat took it down during the night.

We put an offer on the house on Oak Street yesterday but haven't heard back yet.

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Thanksgiving

Had a good Thanksgiving day. We went to Joplin and ate out with Mom, Dad, Rod, Emily, JoNell, Nathan, and Nick.

Afterwards we went to Scammon and visited with the McCormick and a partial Young family.

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Crazy.

Read here about a weaponized computer virus. This is the next step in warfare. It is/was aimed at Irans nuclear facility.

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lessons

Patrick and Nellie started violin lessons last night. They proceeded to come home and play "Pepperoni Pizza" for Miranda and I. Actually, "play" wouldn't be the correct word. "Scratch around" would be more accurate. Now I know what my mom and dad went through when I was learning the steel guitar. Unfortunately the violin sounds like nails on a blackboard when played incorrectly. I shudder just thinking about it.

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tonight

Tonight is an appreciation dinner of some sorts at IBS. Patrick and Nellie are starting violin lessons at school tonight.

Bertier was supposed to go get neutered this morning but he disappeared on us. I haven't seen him all day.

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House.

We are in the market for a house. We have a few that we are looking at:
2nd Street
Locust Street
Oak Street
Wingard Road

The last one probably won't work because they may not have high speed internet available out there.

But all the homes have at least 4 bedrooms (one for my office) or a separate office space. Oak Street is the cheap one so it's the front runner.

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IBS Fall Dinner

The fall dinner was medieval themed. Here's how Miranda and I went.
The pictures don't do justification to my skinny legs. I never thought in my life that I'd say the phrase: "Just a second, I have to pull up my tights".

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pop

I found a new, interesting looking, pop. It's called IRN-BRU. I can buy some here.

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loan.

Still haven't heard back from the loan officer to get started. Apparently the local one is useless so she has to go through someone else. They won't email back or call. No idea what going on. The local one keeps trying to get them to get back with me but nothing.

That's the problem with big banks. I'm not sure what small banks are around here but we may be looking for one.

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bank.

We went to the bank yesterday. We aren't getting pre-approved yet but they are running some numbers and will let us know. So, next week, we may be in the market for a house.

Work is picking up at my job. They aren't for sure why but have some theories. All the economic blogs that I read say that the U.S. economy is picking up steam. Shipping is up, tax receipts are up in basically all the states, passenger traffic is up, food and retails sales, etc...

We want to get a home loan before rates start soaring again.

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weekend

We went to Joplin this weekend. The Fall Dinner at IBS is on this coming Friday and it's Medieval themed. So Miranda and I went to Roy's Costumes in Joplin and picked out our costumes. Miranda is embarrassed at my costume. I'll try to post pictures later if I remember. You'll understand then.

Decisions, decisions... The kids have taken to sitting in the closet by themselves. I think they are needing some alone time. They never have any time to themselves. Nellie was just sitting in there for about 30 minutes by herself. She was sorta pouting but not really. So Miranda and I are really thinking about buying our own house soon so that they can have their own rooms. In theory we are waiting until summer when the economy is looking up but I'm not certain that it's going to be that much better in the summer versus right now. Plus interest rates are so low.

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mind.

I've had a bit of a problem wrapping my mind around this one. There is a game called minecraft. I know nothing about the game but a guy has built a working CPU in the game. You can watch a video of it here.

Really odd but somewhat neat. A computer running inside a web browser running on a computer.

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idea

I've been kicking around an idea for about 12 years. Imagine that you have a keyboard like below.


You will notice that it's only a section of a piano. But it's really a MIDI controller. MIDI is a way of creating electronic music. For instance, if you have a piano with a really neat guitar sound, the guitar has been recorded and you are generating the sound with a piano with MIDI. What all can MIDI do? For me it does two important things. It plays musical notes and it can pitch bend. Now instead of a guitar it's a pedal steel guitar.

Here's the theory. Each key matches up with a string on a steel guitar. You also have a potentiometer that can set where your "bar" is sitting on the guitar. For example, if the potentiometer is sitting at position 3 and you press button 8, then you get a G note.

If you get it all hooked up together then you have a basic lap steel guitar. It becomes a pedal steel with additional buttons that you can attach really anywhere on the body of your new instrument.

The tricky part is the electronics (at least for me). You need to hook up the keypad and the buttons to a controller, the controller would connect to a computer and it would process all the buttons and keys to determine what notes should be played. That's the easy part because I are a computer programmer. Then you run the MIDI into the Wavelore Instruments and bingo... an electronic pedal steel guitar. No more tuning, broken strings, wishing you had that killer knee-lever that Paul Franklin has (it's all electronic, you can change knee-levers and pedals during the middle of a song if you want).

So to recap. I need an Arduino or something similar, a smattering of keys and switches, some electronics knowledge, a computer (laptop if you want to take the new guitar out of the house), and the Wavelore/Kontakt Software (way too expensive for me currently). However if I could get the cheap stuff, then I could play around with it to get individual notes even if they don't sound like a PSG. Then when I got all the kinks ironed out, I buy the expensive software.

Technology has come a long way in the last 10 years and I think I could realize my dream with a little money, time, and knowledge. That last one is the trickiest.

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crazy

Things have been a bit crazy around here. Depression is running rampant.

I've taken up caffeine again. That's right. I decided to go without caffeine to help my health. I dropped that when I found that Coffee (caffeine) can help fight against cirrhosis of the liver. So I'm on coffee for a bit. However it appears that it only helps with alcoholic cirrhosis so now I've got to become an alcoholic. With the way it's been going lately, it's not a real stretch.

After giving up caffeine, I had headaches for two days solid. No more headaches for about a week and a half. However last night I drank a cup of coffee and it was the first caffeine I'd had in about two weeks. I felt like I was about to jump out of bed. Not sure if I'll stick it out on the coffee.

Every day I check my eyes. The day that I notice they are turning yellow is the last day I walk out of my house for anything not absolutely essential (work or death).

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true size

This is interesting. Here's the true size of Africa in comparison to USA and a few other countries.

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Monett

In Monett today. Last night Patrick had water by my computer and I spilled it on my keyboard. Now I get to buy another keyboard. I'm going wireless this time.

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Patrick

We are proud of Patrick. He has 3 A's and 1 B in school

He has come a long way from his rough start as a baby.

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Keynes vs Hayek #2

Background on the Keynes vs Hayek video. I loved the discussion section where they blasted Keynes.

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Christmas

Nellie was watching Charlie Brown Christmas and saw where Charlie and Linus were shopping for Christmas trees. There were trees of all colors. She decided that she wanted a strawberry tree. Looks like I'll be in the market for a can of red spray paint.

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Topeka

Miranda just had to go to Goodwill here in Topeka. It wasn't a total loss for me. I got some Portuguese instructions material and a Portuguese dictionary.

Off to the next big adventure.

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hotel

Just hanging out in a hotel lobby in Topeka. Watching "Still Game" on my eeePC. I think I should have been a hobo and do this everyday.

Btw... The post before this one was number 1000.

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Gaelic

I had my Gaelic lesson today. There are some sounds that just aren't right. There is a word spelled cuideachd. It's pronounced "coodjock" except on the C you have to spit a loogie at the same time as pronouncing the C. It's devious.

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Halloween

Patrick and Nellie just HAD to get Halloween costumes. Patrick is a warrior and Nellie is Jessie from Toy Story

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week.

Tomorrow is my Gaelic lesson!

Thursday and Friday, Miranda is going to a conference with her school. The conference is in Topeka. My company is always looking for people to take unpaid vacation. So we are dropping the children off at Grandpa and Grandma's and I'm going with her. Then we are hoping to do some Christmas shopping while we are up there.

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evening

We had a great evening tonight. Bro. Albert Schaper and Sis. Della came over and ate supper with us. It was nice talking with them.

It's pastor appreciation month and we definitely appreciate our pastor and his wife.

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Dad

Dad went in to the hospital today. Very low on potassium so they had to put in a IV (eye vee, not 4). He's out now.

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Patrick

I'm becoming a bit concerned. Patrick cleaned up his room all by himself and without being asked.

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funny

I was going to give my family some grief this Christmas. I was going to buy a kilt and all the extras and show up at Vinita in full costume. I was also trying to talk Patrick into it as well. I showed him a picture and asked him if he wanted to wear the costume and he said, "NO! I'm not a girl!"

So it was a smashing idea but it appears to be dead.

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Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Mom today.

• Co` latha breith sona dhuibh!
• Joyeux Anniversaire!

Sorry I didn't get to see you last night.

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Nellie

Nellie drew this cat picture on her Etch-A-Sketch all by herself. Words cannot describe my surprise because I can't even draw a decent box. Stairs are all I've accomplished.



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tonight

Nathan Filsinger is having a fund-raiser at the Chick-Fil-A in Joplin. So tonight we are running over and eating there. We are also planning on doing a bit of shopping.

Last night we went to Braums and had some ice cream. It was nice to get out.

Dad hasn't been feeling well lately. I don't think he's decided whether it's his medication or just being sick. He never gets sick so I'd lean towards medication.

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weight.

I'm needing to lose weight. Maybe I'll take up smoking. That's supposed to help you lose weight. Pipe probably.

Cancer or liver failure? How would I prefer to go?

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football

I'm watching football over the internet. The only decent feed I can find is in Spanish. It's funny listening to them try to pronounce Favre.

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wasteful

People are placing bacon at mosques spelling Pig and Chump. Why treat yummy bacon so poorly? They will only get my bacon when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

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soccer

I may have a tough time following the Rangers. I couldn't find a connection to watch the game. Not sure what I will do.

Marseille won today though.

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Morgen Dawn

I'm a step-uncle again. Amber and Aaron Rogers had a "wee 'un". The name is Morgen Dawn or some variation thereof (Morgan, Morgen, Dawn, Don, etc...). I'm going with Morgen Dawn because Morgen is German for Morning and Dawn is English for Morning.

Glückwünsche (congrats) to them.

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weekend

It's the weekend. We aren't really doing anything this weekend.

I finally got my paypal lined up so my Gaelic lesson is going to be soon.

Rangers/Marseille/OU plays tomorrow. I had a chance to go to the OU game but we are going to a party tomorrow night and I also didn't want to drop $100. Times are too tough for stuff like that.

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work.

I get frustrated with bureaucracy. We have to fill out Employee Evaluations on ourselves. So I filled mine out and at the end there's a section for Employee Comments that is mandatory. What are you supposed to comment about? Who knows? Anyway... I filled mine out with the following word..."Pirates".

That will give us something to discuss when I have my evaluation with my boss. The other discussion will be that no raises will be given this year. There will be other items but I will only be paying partial attention.

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shirt

When we were in Bar Harbor, I picked up a nice and warm shirt. It's a rugby shirt that is very thick. I liked the green color so I picked Ireland. I should have picked Scotland! Looks like that I can rectify the situation.

I'm not sure that the link will work.

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today

I had to drive to Monett today. Long day today. Already ready for the weekend.

Still trying to get paypal hooked up to the bank account. Hopefully "End of day" processing will send in the ACH transactions tonight

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Vinita

We went to the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial that is in Vinita. It was really neat and they had a live helicopter there.

Miranda is sick today.

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weekend

Last night was PFF and it was very nicely done. I was really impressed with all the work that went into it and thought it went over very well.

Today Miranda is helping out for a benefit sale. After that we are going down to see Mom and Dad.

My Gaelic lesson is on hold because Paypal decided to not allow money to go into my account. It had been working but now it isn't anymore.

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To dad

I found another comedy. I'm assuming it's a comedy because people are laughing. It's from Glasgow and it's called Rab C Nesbitt. I think he's sorta a Red Skelton character. I'm also assuming it's in English because I only pick up about 1% of the words.

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Rangers

My new team is the Rangers FC. They play on the 16th at 9:00AM. Not sure I will get a chance to watch the game but I'm going to try.

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84.85%

I scored 84.85% on the Civil Literacy Quiz.

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%.

That's sad. How can a person with a PhD be so ignorant? Actually the answer is #31 on the quiz. Schools (especially upper level classes) don't teach general knowledge any longer. It's all about more specialization. I'm not sure it's working anymore.

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Spam.

I am getting Spam mail from Montréal in French. It's not e-mail, it's mail. Paper. Insane.

Apparently I can check a box that says:

"OUI, je désire profiter de cette offre exceptionnelle me m'abonner pour 6 mois à Paris Match."

etc...

Translation. "YES, I would like to receive this special offer and subscribe for 6 months to Paris Match."

For only 87,75$. I'm assuming that $87.75. Pour 6 mois??? C'est incroyable!

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home

Finally home. A good time was had by all.

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Bella Vista

Our cabin is actually a house on the lake. It's very nice.

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Eureka Springs

we are in eureka springs and there is a huge biker fest. bad deal.

apparently this is basically a sturgis.

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Patrick

The other day in chapel, they were going around and asking the children what they were thankful for. A lot of them must have been saying they were thankful for school or something because when it was Patrick's turn he said, "Pray for me because I HATE school!".

What's funny is that he doesn't hate it. I have no idea why he said that but it is hilarious.

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church

Last night we went to Independence church. We have been trying to cut back on gas and so we are going to Parsons on Sunday and Independence on Wednesday.

Nellie did very well with her shots. She kept bragging that she was a big girl.

This weekend we are going with the in-laws to Eureka Springs, AR. What was that about saving gas? Actually we haven't been anywhere for about 2-3 weeks which is a lifetime for us. Aaron and Lindsay are coming down, Paul, Jane, and us 4 are leaving Saturday early.

Marseille got stomped by Chelsea.

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Gaelic

First Gaelic lesson over Skype on the 11th of October. Should be interesting.

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Nellie

Nellie is going in to get some immunization shots soon (in 30 minutes). Going to be a long evening with a drama queen. Should be interesting.

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Two items of note.

I found have an electronic bagpipe and it only costs a wee bit ($255).

Marseille plays Chelsea today and I'm prepared for a stompin'. Chelsea is one of the best English teams and one of the best in the world as well.

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singing

Miranda and I are called upon to sing in church quite often (too often for my pleasure). However the problem may be solved. I have found some Scots church music. Here is "Away In A Manger"

Awa' in a ruch heck, nae bield for a bed,
The bairnie Lord Jesus set doun His sweit head,
The stars in the dark lift sklentit doun whar He lay –
A winkle-wee babbie, asleep i' the strae.

The kye, they are mooin’, the babby’s awauk,
But the wee thing, Lord Jesus, nae greetin' He’ll mak.
Bide near me, Lord Jesus, leuk doun frae the sky
An' stay in about me till mornin’s ‘ootby.

Bide near me, Lord Jesus, I ax ye tae stae
Cooried doun close aside me an lo'e me, I pray.
Bless aa the dear littlins yer hird tenderly,
Mak us wordy o' havin' tae dwell there wi' Thee.

I'm not sure that I feel comfortable referring to our Lord as a "winkle-wee babbie" though. Here are more. Imagine Miranda and I kicking into "He's Aye The Same Jesus". I suspect Miranda wouldn't go along with the plan though.

We sang last night (in my unmistakable warble) and the song was "He Is My Everything".

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Soccer.

Now that Scotland is a major focus in my life. Decisions need to be made. Huge decisions.

1. Marseille. Do I continue following them?

2. Glasgow has 2 soccer teams. The Rangers and the Celtics. The Rangers are typically Protestant and favor the Union between them and England. The Celtics are Catholic and have a particular connection with Irish/Scots. Which to follow? I'm leaning toward the Rangers because the Celtics are Green and White and the Rangers have an all-black 3rd uniform.

3. This is the worst decision. Glasgow is a Lowlands Scotland city rather than Highlands. Highlands Scotland have Gaelic as a language. Lowlands Scotland have (or rather "had") Scots as their language. It's problematic because Scots is very familiar as it's very close to English. For example, "a wee meenit" means a short time (or "a wee minute" would be similar). Imagine me saying, Wait a wee meenit. That is too intelligible to be considered a foreign language.

Another example would be:

Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self (Love God above all and thy neighbour as thyself)

Nope. Not working at all. I did find a guy that gives Gaelic lessons on Skype. And there are comprehensive lessons on Youtube.

However please listen to this... It's too awesome for words.

That right there could push me to Scots.

Alba gu bràth (Scotland Forever).


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Genealogy.

BAD NEWS! TERRIBLE NEWS!!!

Dad ran his DNA testing through a company called dnatribes.com. I'm not linking them because they weren't impressive at all with timeliness and you shouldn't use them if you are interested.

Anyway... Flags were raised when he was in the hospital and someone mentioned that Allen was a Scottish name. So he decided to research further. On his results, the first tribe/city mentioned is Glasgow, Scotland.

To your normal person, Scotland doesn't matter much. But it was the Royal Scots Greys that played a big role in giving our beloved l'Empereur his last defeat at Waterloo.

Southern France did play a big role in his genealogy but it appears that Scotland is the biggest role.

So I am in the market for a kilt and bagpipes. I am not kidding either.

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Patrick

Last night on the way to church, I was blowing kisses to Nellie. She was blowing them back and I was pretending to catch them and put them on my cheek. I blew one to Patrick and he stares at me for about 15 seconds. Then he draws a big X in the air. I laughed so hard.

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Hi.

I'm back. Too much to say these days.

Many updates to follow.

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update

You will have noticed quite an absence. Camp was a major factor in this as was life in general.

I have decided to stop updating this blog. It seems that I just don't have the heart to continue. It was a nice run but, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. I don't know that I would call this blog "good" but that's the saying.

A few factors have gone into this.

1. I really have struggled from day 1 on what I would place limits on myself for putting stuff on here. For example, Mom and Dad have been gone the last week or so on vacation and I thought about putting updates from them. However there are people who scan blogs (and especially facebook) for people who go on vacation and then they rob their homes. So lately I've trended toward not putting a lot of personal information on here. Without personal information, there really isn't a point of having a blog.
2. I've lost interest (partially due to #1 but also due to a host of other issues).
3. There are others but #1 and #2 are the biggies.

So here's my last update...

I'm apparently very hard on steel guitar amps. The amp that I received last October has already messed up. It now produces more buzzing sound than music. So I get to send it off to somewhere. I'm almost done with music as well. I'm almost done with a lot of stuff. I just can't keep up with life and all my "irons in the fire" when the irons keep working against me. So a paring down of the irons is in order.

Mom and Dad made it to Alaska and back on their cruise. They had a lot of fun. Saw some bear, moose, fish, whales, etc...

Marseille is 0-2. They have started the season by losing their top scorer to a Turkish team. Another scorer is gone to a English team. A long ways to go but it isn't looking good so far.

I decided against the iPhone because of signal issues (AT&T and the iPhone antenna problem). However it appears that the Droid 2 which I decided to get also appears to have some signal issues. So I may be back to square one.

Patrick lost 2 teeth last night. One had been loose for a few weeks but it finally came out. He was excited. Unfortunately, we had seen Jon Wade and he jumped the price on the tooth fairy on us! His tooth fairy brings $5 whilst ours brings $1 so we were out $10 to the tooth fairy because it's very important to keep up with the Wades! I really dislike this new tooth fairy.

It was nice to see Jon and Sheila again (excepting the whole tooth fairy ordeal).

It's 1:30AM and I can't sleep. Worried about everything. Miranda always tells me that worrying doesn't help but I've got to try. heh! Life hasn't been working out lately.

Anyway... you have a great "rest of your life" and au revoir mon cher amis.

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weekend.

Camp started last night. We went to the service.

Tomorrow I will be headed to El Dorado to look at a sailboat.

Should be an exciting weekend.

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humor

I needed to find something funny after the funeral announcement. So here's this:

The flags are (in no particular order):

USA, Great Britain, Israel, France (I think), Denmark, Finland.

I can't recognize the others.

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sad news

Miranda is friends with JoNell Filsinger and Gladys Filsinger passed away. I didn't know her real well but I knew Otto (her late husband) pretty well. If you met Otto and talked to him more than 5 minutes, you knew him pretty well. He was hilarious and a go-getter.

Really nothing else to say. Nothing else you can say.

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Patrick

Patrick is watching Scooby Doo and he came to Miranda and said, "Mom! You're in this show!"

Apparently there is a "mummy" in this episode and mummy = mommy.

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updates

Bad news for Miranda... I may be in the process of purchasing a sail boat. If I get it, pictures will be forthcoming.

All my toys are happening here at once. My computer is fixed so I'm driving over to Monett on Thursday (AGAIN!!!!) to pick it up. The Droid 2 smartphone that I've decided on is coming out in a couple of weeks. And now the sailboat.

Although in my defense, I've saved up the money for the Droid 2. Although that's pretty small change in comparison to the boat.

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phone

Here's a cool usage of a smartphone

I know a friend of mine has the Droid Incredible and it has built in voice recognition. It was AMAZING. I've played around with voice recognition a few years ago but this blew everything I've seen away. The translation part would be the trickiest but it's still very impressive.

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Allen

So I've done some more reading on the Allen last name. Dad had heard that the name was Scottish. It appears that this could be true as wikipedia says that it's derived from the word aluinn which means "handsome". This is obviously talking about me.

Anyway... I'm gearing up to switch to Scottish language. I actually have a CD on Gaelic that I bought awhile back and I thought it was Irish but it was Scottish. So I've got a head start!

One of the first phrases that people learn is "I love you" for whatever reason. French is:

• Je t'aime (Zuh tim)
  

Scottish apparently is:

• "Tha gaol agam ort." (Hah GEUL AH-kum orsht)
  

It just trips off the tongue doesn't it.

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Milton Friedman

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pirating

A big thing nowdays is "pirating" music. Now that music is in digital form it's very easy to give away. If I buy a CD, I can theoretically give it away to millions of people by putting it on the internet. It's only become a problem since the internet/digital music has become so big. Apparently there is a way to "copy" vinyl records however. I don't think I would like to go through the pain for that though.

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mom and dad

Mom and Dad came up last night and we went out to eat with John and Connie Wade. We discussed our cruises with their upcoming cruise to Alaska. They can hardly wait.

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back home.

Monday I had to go in to Monett for a meeting. I took the day off today to work on the house at Diamond. We are trying to get it ready for an open house. I had to take some window screens in to get them fixed and Miranda painted. I've basically been in Missouri from last Thursday until now. I'm ready to be home.

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contacts

In the past few weeks I've needed to contact people but I don't know their information. However they all are on facebook. So very reluctantly I've signed up again on facebook. I decided to go under another name so I can avoid the teenage girl endless updates about boyfriends, games, etc... to a minimum. I'm Guillaume Allain (French for William Allen).

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computer

The motherboard went out on my computer. I had to go to Monett yesterday for work and I dropped my computer off. The computer guy said that my motherboard is bad and will need replacing. Not sure how much $$$.

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joke.

Did you know that acoustic was originally a Scottish word? It means "stick for herding cows". Get it? "A cou stick".

That was one of the jokes from a tour guide.

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present

On our cruise, Mom and Dad gave us an anniversary present. It was a nice flower, ballons, and a free picture.

Thanks guys!!!

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music

On the cruise we heard a group called Livewire and they were pretty good. They were Irish and the lady played the fiddle. They did a couple of songs that we'd heard before! "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" which is probably one of the better known fiddle songs around but then they also did "When You Say Nothing At All" by Keith Whitley (hit single in country music in 1988). They did some Rock music and, best of all, some Irish drinking songs (are there any other kinds of Irish music? I'd say no). This first one is really an anti-drinking song but it's my favorite. It's also not of Livewire but they did a great rendition.

The next one has a bit of adult humor but it's not real bad. There are a few quite bad versions apparently but this one is pretty tame and pretty funny:

Both of these are done by The Dubliners

It's a bit hard in spots to understand their accent so here's the lyrics that he sings:

As I went home on Monday night as drunk as drunk could be
I saw a horse outside the door where my old horse should be
Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me
Who owns that horse outside the door where my old horse should be?

Ah, you're drunk,
you're drunk you silly old fool,
still you can not see
That's a lovely sow that me mother sent to me
Well, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more
But a saddle on a sow sure I never saw before

And as I went home on Tuesday night as drunk as drunk could be
I saw a coat behind the door where my old coat should be
Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me
Who owns that coat behind the door where my old coat should be

Ah, you're drunk,
you're drunk you silly old fool,
still you can not see
That's a woolen blanket that me mother sent to me
Well, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more
But buttons in a blanket sure I never saw before

And as I went home on Wednesday night as drunk as drunk could be
I saw a pipe up on the chair where my old pipe should be
Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me
Who owns that pipe up on the chair where my old pipe should be

Ah, you're drunk,
you're drunk you silly old fool,
still you can not see
That's a lovely tin whistle that me mother sent to me
Well, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more
But tobacco in a tin whistle sure I never saw before

And as I went home on Thursday night as drunk as drunk could be
I saw two boots beneath the bed where my old boots should be
Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me
Who owns them boots beneath the bed where my old boots should be

Ah, you're drunk,
you're drunk you silly old fool,
still you can not see
They're two lovely Geranium pots me mother sent to me
Well, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more
But laces in Geranium pots I never saw before

And as I went home on Friday night as drunk as drunk could be
I saw a head upon the bed where my old head should be
Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me
Who owns that head upon the bed where my old head should be

Ah, you're drunk,
you're drunk you silly old fool,
still you can not see
That's a baby boy that me mother sent to me
Well, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more
But a baby boy with his whiskers on sure I never saw before

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vacation.

I've put my thoughts on the vacation on here. However you really need to read backwards because of how blogs works. To read this, you need to find the post titled Cruise and then work backwards from there.

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eating.

We shared a table with another couple. Their names were Hiroki (I think) and Yoko from Japan. Yoko spoke English pretty well (better than I speak Japanese) but pronunciation was, again, hard to understand and her vocabulary was limited. Yoko loved to talk too. So every evening was the most stressful experience of the day as you spent the entire meal trying to figure out what she was saying. She was a supremely nice person but it was very frustrating. In Bar Harbor, I finally found a English/Japanese dictionary to try to help the conversation along. One evening she asked about Obama's popularity and when I said that he was pretty unpopular she asked why. So I started a spiel into economics and ran into a problem when she didn't understand what the word "unemployment" meant. It went downhill from there. Finally she just started nodding and saying "yes".

The only words that I understand in Japanese are (in English spelling), konichiwa (hello), sayanara (goodbye), sumo, and seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment). The first two come up at the beginning and end of a conversation. You can work sumo in if you try hard enough. It's preferable not to try to work the last word in at all.

We gained the most weight in the Chicago O'Hare airport because we found a Chili's. We made up for the entire week in one sitting. It was nice to have normal food again.

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Boston

Frustrating day. We sailed in and had to sit on the boat until the border patrol got ready. We finally made it ashore about 9:30 started on our Historical tour of Boston. The guide went overboard on trying to appear that he was a local. He said 5-6 times that he lived in almost every area in town, and the only historical mentions were of architecture. He went on and on and on and on about architecture. They were only historical in the sense that some of them were built about 20-30 years ago. We did see some historical sites but we only stopped at one and then it was mostly about the newer buildings in the area.

They then dropped us off at Logan airport where we had a bite to eat and wasted time before departing to Chicago.

At Chicago, we wasted about 5 hours. Had one gate change clear across the airport and the flight was 1 hour late.

We boarded the flight and got to Tulsa about 11:00. Got our luggage (it was all there!!! I've never had lost luggage and it's amazing because they have a supremely difficult job). We got home about 1:00AM.

next stop... Yoko.

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Bar Harbor

We had been to Bar Harbor and knew exactly what to expect and we had an awesome time. No excursions were planned for the day and so we shopped. and shopped. and shopped. Then we shopped some more. I had a Crabroll which is crab meat on a hot dog bun and served hot dog style which was to die for. Miranda had fish and chips and despite her not liking fish, loved it.

next stop... Boston

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Halifax

Halifax was a bigger city (about 250K). The shopping was very good here and they had a nice boardwalk where it was located (obviously right next to the harbor). A major Canadian Navy port is here so there were tons of Navy Ships.

We got on the Tall Ship Silva here for our excursion. We cast off and under motor-power we headed out into the harbor. The sails were raised and then we..... continued motoring around the harbor. yay. We were never under wind power and we never left the harbor. We just kept circling around like a deranged dog chasing his tail. Apparently there was a major explosion in Halifax in 1917 (start of WW1) and we had a history lesson about that. It was a big disappointment.

next stop... Bar Harbor.

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Sydney

The town of Sydney wasn't much. Unemployment was high there and you could tell it. Not as bad as Montreal but not as good as Charlottetown.

We had a tour of the Fortress of Louisbourg. The history was amazing but we didn't have enough time to go through it all. It could easily last an entire day to see it all. They have completely reconstructed the town that they had documents for (apparently the French kept a lot of documents, bureaucracy was alive and well at that time too). The fort had been completely demolished before being rebuilt.

next stop... Halifax.

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Charlottetown.

We sailed into Prince Edward Island (or as it's known, PEI). Regis and Kelly were there from the ABC morning show. The place was crawling with people. We avoided that and took the Anne of Green Gables tour. The tour guide was amazing and despite my expectations, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences. The island was beautiful with rolling hills. Apparently the Irish are heavy in the area because it looks like Ireland (so the guide said).

The island revolves around Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables). They do have quite a bit of agricultural stuff but I didn't fly 2000 miles to see cropland. Their corn was only planted in June because if you plant before that it will freeze. That's right. Freezing in May/June. Insane. They grow a lot of potatoes. They also have beautiful fields of canola.

Even the Anne stuff was nice.

I would definitely go there again.

next stop... Sydney

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Quebec City

Quebec City was the coolest/cutest city in the world. I haven't seen many but I don't care. You can't top it.

We took a tour and pictures (I'll try to post some later). We ended up with tea at the Château Frontenac.

We only really hit the tourist trap area. The streets were small, lined with old rock buildings with wooden shutters and each one of them had gorgeous window boxes with flowers. It was very nice.

French everywhere. You never overheard conversations in English.

next stop... Charlottetown.

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Montreal

We landed in Montreal and had to work our way through the airport (the most fiendish layout of an airport that I've ever seen). After hauling our luggage a good mile, we made it out of customs and carried our luggage about 200 yards to the bus. I wasn't impressed at this point. Got on the bus. Then we proceeded to drive through 40 minutes of ghetto to get to the harbor. There was nothing but graffiti and abandoned buildings the entire way. This was all we saw of Montreal.

It was worse than Oklahoma City and that's saying something.

next up... Quebec City

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Cruise

We are back and not-so-rested up. The cruise was nice but we will probably never go on a cruise again. Mostly due to the fact that Miranda gets so seasick (more on that later).

We flew into Montreal and got on the boat there. Pretty much lost/confused so we started exploring. The boat was huge but as we later saw, it was pretty small compared to other cruise ships.

Overall it felt a bit like I imagine a prison feels like. You are stuck in a confined area and everything rotates around what the time is. 8:30? Ok, now we get off to go on an excursion. Go through security. Sit on a bus while someone talks. Go back to the ship. Through security again (complete with X-ray machines). 3:00? Go to a specific function on board. 8:00? Go to dinner. This same routine happens every day.

Now onto specifics... Going down the St. Lawrence was nice. On the day that we were going out to the Atlantic, Miranda started having side affects from her patch for sea-sickness. Blurry vision and headaches. So she took the patch off. Big mistake. A storm hit that night and add in the rough Atlantic, we were rocking and rolling. She spent the rest of the evening throwing up.

The food was haute-cuisine and pretty pretentious. It was good but we gained no weight. Everyone says that you gain 5 lbs at the end of the trip. Not us. Although we did walk A LOT (and I complained the whole time).

At 7:00, they had a nightly-show. They mostly had the Maasdam singers/dancers. It wasn't awful but we didn't really enjoy any of those shows. The background dancers lip-synced to music and it was reminiscent of the Lawrence Welk Show except quite a bit worse. Luckily for the other passengers, they were mostly hammered on the flow of wine/beer. Unluckily for us... we weren't. It's not as bad as it sounds but it wasn't good. They had a couple of other shows that were very good but only performed one full show and a half show together. They were awesome. They had a juggler/comedian and a Celtic/Rock/Country fiddle show. The group was called Livewire. More on this later.

99% of the staff were Filipino or Indonesian. They spoke great English but we weren't used to their accent and so we said, "Pardon me?", "What?", or a simple "Huh?" a lot.

Everyone was very friendly (even in Canada which was a huge relief).

We paid for a view of the ocean and all we got was 2 portholes about 12 inches in diameter BEHIND THE BED. You had to climb on top of the bed to look out.

Next step... Montreal.

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off

Off into the wild blue yonder. No postings until we get back. No computers until we get back. I'll probably go crazy.

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boat.

I found a boat but can't get it. I don't have a pickup truck. Unfortunately it probably still won't be there when I get back. Bleh.

2 days until the cruise!

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holiday

Busy weekend. Went to the lake with the in-laws. It rained most of the weekend. I did make an advancement on my smartphone decision. We had no access to phones while Verizon Wireless did fine and U.S. Cellular didn't do too bad. So I think I may have finally convinced Miranda to move to Verizon.

I think I may have found my next toy (after the smart phone). A Catalina 14.2 sail boat. I did read something interesting about this. Let me quote:

A fleet in Wichita, Kansas was concerned about this [turtling], as they routinely sail in winds of up to 25 knots. (Kids, don't try this at home.)

My first sailing lesson was in Missouri and had winds at 25 knots. The instructor said that on the ocean, they wouldn't have let us go out. It really wasn't that bad but it was a big boat (26'). Unfortunately 25mph winds are common around here.

I can find all kinds of used boats here.

We did get our house cleaned on Monday. We got there about 11:30 and left about 5:30PM. They'd punched a hole in the wall, so I had to fix that. Plus there was a broken recliner, entertainment center, and a dresser still left. We also hauled out four bags of garbage. It was not fun.

4 more days until we leave for vacation. We are REALLY ready.

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odd.

A lock of Napoleon's hair was sold for $13,000. I should have saved up my money!

Reminds me of the movie, Micmacs à tire-larigot. One of the bad guys in the movie collected various body parts of famous people. Not as creepy as it sounds but close.

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smartphone

I'm in the middle of trying to figure out what smart phone to buy. I am leaning toward the iPhone. However there have been some interesting developments. Apparently the antenna is at the bottom left of the device and it's fairly easy to short circuit the antenna and drop calls. The answer from Apple is "You are holding it the wrong way". This is a stupid answer. Now it appears that Apple is hiring 3 new Antenna Engineers. Maybe it's just me, but if you are creating a phone, it would be better to hire an Antenna Engineer before creating the phone rather than after. They are probably hiring replacements for the Engineers they just fired for their design of the current antenna.

This does affect me as I primarily use a cell phone for an actual phone rather than a toy. And I was planning on using it for work. However I am left handed and the way to short out the antenna is to hold it in your right hand. But it still makes me nervous. A guy at work has a Droid Incredible and it's very nice. But it's Verizon Wireless only and Miranda refuses to switch. AT&T does have a Back Flip and the HTC Aria and I may go with one of those. I don't know though.

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party

Last night we went to the IBS dorm where Tony and Brenda Smith had made hamburgers. There were quite a few people there and we really enjoyed ourselves.

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King's Quest

A new company is creating a new King's Quest series. I think it's going to be free too. The first one we played was King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella. I remember Mom jumping/screaming when the snake popped up as Rosella was jumping to the island. Those old games were a lot more fun than the new games.

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sign

Here's a sign in Vienna, Austria. Someone chose the wrong graphic for the word "monitor". I'm guessing English isn't their strong point.

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computer

Since the downfall of my computer, the replacement computer really hasn't been able to do a whole lot. It's not big enough to run games with any complexity and if you run a few applications it bogs down terribly. So I've had gaming withdrawals. Well it turns out that the iPhone can run quite a few games. Some big name games too. So I'll have to try a few of them out.

A guy at work showed me the TN5250 emulator on the iPhone and it works. Doing anything takes forever but it would still be handy to have if you are 30+ minutes away from the computer.

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Patrick

Miranda asked Patrick if he was ready to go to Bartlesville to go shopping. Patrick said, "You go ahead and go by yourself".

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weekend

Tonight we are going to Patrick's VBS.

Tomorrow we are going to Bartlesville. "Last minute" shopping for the trip and what-not.

Mom and Dad came up yesterday afternoon to spend time with Patrick and Nellie. We all had a great time.

15 more days until our vacation.

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update

It's been a hideous week. Very hectic at work. Plus an acquaintance at work died. He was late 20's. Still not sure what happened. Very sad and very terrible. Sorta has a way of putting things in perspective. The trick is that you can't say: "Forget everything, I'm going to die someday anyway" because you still have to eat, live, etc...

16 more days until the cruise and I could use a vacation.

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weekend

Crazy weekend. Traveled to Scammon and Vinita. Finally back home.

Tomorrow I have to go to Monett again!

My eye is clearing up finally.

Miranda is taking the children to the Independence VBS. She is going to drop them off and we can spend the rest of the evening hanging out here.

Dad has told us that he wants to take us someplace nice to eat sometime. I'm guessing Tulsa will be the best. It's been a long time since I've been to the French Hen and that sounds really good but not sure. It's been a long time since I've had a nice steak so that would be Ruth's Chris, Charleston's or Fleming's. Any would work right now as I'm starving.

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yesterday

Yesterday I went in to Monett. We had our General Meeting with the CEO. Good news and bad news. Good news is that we have a new Direct job and we are the only company in our field that hasn't laid off. Bad news is that the market is down 50% and times are still tough.

Here's our new Direct job.

We went to the Brewer's house last night and played games and chatted. It was a great time.

I think I have an eye infection of some kind. My eye is really red. I've had something like this before and had to have eye drops. It looks really bizarre.

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Patrick

A couple of funny stories about Patrick:
1. Last night during our bedtime prayers, he prayed for "Bill" instead of Dad or Daddy.
2. He asked for some tea and Miranda said "What's the magic word?". He said, "Hocus Pocus".

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nuclearcowboy

You know about my liver issue (doesn't everyone now). There's hope for me. Liver transplants coming soon.

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sports

Gabriel Heinze scored for Argentina and is listed as one of the top World Cup scorers. This is fairly funny as he's a defender instead of a forward. Why am I telling you this? Because he's a defender with the GREATEST SOCCER TEAM IN THE WORLD.

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blog

Yet another change to the layout of the blog. There have been several new layouts added and they don't cut off the right side of YouTube videos. They still look slightly odd but they are viewable. Plus the new layout gives the text more of a formatted look.

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update

We have had some interest in our house and it is supposed to be shown today. So both sets of Realtors (ours and the previous buyers) have been trying to contact the current "renter" (and I use the word "rent" very loosely here). Either she is at National Guard or avoiding calls. There have been several calls, emails, text messages, and basically every other attempt to contact her with no results.

There is no telling how the inside of the house looks and we are hoping for the best. We are also hoping that it works for the people looking at the house but completely understand if it isn't what they want as well.

That last part may seem strange to most people, but one of my readers is tangentially involved. Now I know you have a few questions. "Who is it?" and "What in the world does "tangentially" mean?" are probably the two biggies. Well life is full of unanswered questions.

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weekend.

Very quiet weekend. We just stayed around here all weekend except for church. Our pastor, Albert Schaper, preached a good (if somewhat terrifying) message. He is a pilot and was preaching about standing in judgment before God. He said (paraphrasing) that no matter how good your teacher praises you, what matters is how well you handle matters when the "chips are down". He then proceeded to give an example of pilots crashing, burning, dying. You will note that in 26 days we are getting ready to get on a plane and fly to Montreal. I'm not exactly Johnny Frequent-Flyer so I'm a bit nervous about it anyway. I teased him about this after the message.

People always say that you are more likely to get killed in a car accident than die in a plane crash. Like this is supposed to make me feel better about life???

The last time I flew was about 3 years ago when I had some training at San Jose. Nothing major happened except our plane was very late in Dallas/Ft Worth and it was midnight. Needless to say, there is nothing to do in the Dallas/Ft Worth airport at midnight.

Miranda was going to take her laptop on our trip but there have been several incidents of Customs/Border Patrol seizing laptops and keeping them for extended periods of time (year or more).

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economics

Here's a smackdown on Keynes by none other than F.A. Hayek. The last half is a must-see

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funny

Glenn Beck hyped a book called The Road to Serfdom by none other than the Austrian School economist F.A. Hayek. The book is now the #1 best seller on Amazon.com. So here's a repost of the Keynes vs Hayek rap.

"The focus on spending is like pushing a thread."

Here's the comic book version of The Road to Serfdom.

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sports

The World Cup Celebration Concert kicks off tonight and the World Cup officially kicks off tomorrow. I can watch part of it at ESPN3. Oddly enough, they aren't showing England vs USA. I'll have to find that one somewhere else.

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economics

It's been awhile since the last economics update. Yay! (I hear you saying). Shame on you.

Apparently the stimulus package didn't work.

Surprise, surprise.

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vacation

30 more days until our cruise.

Yesterday, Miranda went to the travel agency and since I'm working, Patrick and Nellie tagged along. They came home with a Disney vacation and Patrick keeps asking if we are going on the vacation. He isn't talking in the future tense either. He is asking if we are driving to see Mickey Mouse. Assuming we go next year, it's going to be a long year. He doesn't forget stuff like that.

We would like a take a bigger vacation with the children next year since Miranda and I are taking a big vacation this year.

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wondering

In case you were wondering... Yes there are AS/400 Programming jobs in Quebec City.

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pager.

RE: my last post about pager duty.

One of the nice things about the iPhone (and maybe other smartphones) is that you can run a 5250 terminal emulator on it and I could handle error messages where ever I am (in theory). Since I would be buying/using it for work, I can take the expense off on my taxes as well (I believe). Unfortunately it's a bit of expense.

You have your usual cell-phone plan, plus the data package ($15/month), plus the text messages (200 for $5/month). So I would be adding an extra $20/month to our cell phone bill. Miranda could do her Weight Watchers on it, I could use French dictionaries, and a variety of other stuff. Decisions, decisions....

For those that clicked the link to the 5250 terminal emulator above, that's right... that's the technology that I work with every day. That's why I'm on the cutting edge. That was the first one that I started programming in RPG with. The keyboard was awesome. It had 24 function keys (your computer will have 12). Plus the keyboard was fun to type on. It made a clicky-clacky sound. Here's the actual computer that we work on. It will blow away the computers that you and I are sitting at combined. You can open the computer, remove the hard drive, plug a new hard drive in, and it won't miss a beat. It will even copy the data to the new hard drive for you. Try that with your new fandangled machines (actually don't, as you will be buying a new computer).

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work

After a few years of rest, I'm returning back to pager duty. In the computer biz (especially support), you have to be available to answer error messages and fix problems. At EFCO, it is (was) optional and you were paid extra. I would rather have the extra time than the extra money. However with the downturn in the economy and the need to save money, they are removing the money and it's going to be mandatory for everyone.

You have to be available for a week at a time and be able to sign on and fix issues as they happen. It's not nearly as bad as my previous job (all-nighters weren't uncommon and you would at least be paged from probably 2:00AM - 4:00AM at least 2-3 times). I think they may get 2-3 a week here at EFCO.

Anyway... as we go to church quite a ways away from our house, that will crimp my style for the week that I'm on duty (either go here in town or no church at all). It will also remove any long distance travels for that week/weekend.

I will have about 5-7 weeks out of the year for pager duty (about 1 every 1 1/2 - 2 months).

I really dislike pager duty but it pays the bills. You know how that goes.

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vacation

Here are our flight times:

Leaving:

Tulsa - Detroit: Leave at 6:00AM and arrive at 9:28AM

Detroit - Montreal: Leave at 10:20AM and arrive at 12:10PM

Returning:

Boston - Chicago: Leave at 3:38PM and arrive at 5:19PM

Chicago - Tulsa: Leave at 8:10PM and arrive at 9:59PM

Notes:

1. A 3 hour layover in Chicago. Yuk!
2. I love how they have it to the minute on the times. Like they can be that accurate. If they are within 1-2 hours I'll be impressed.
3. We are getting back pretty late.

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looking up.

Every time I'm outside and standing in clover, I always look for a 4 leaver. I found one today. At least I think it's clover. My knowledge in horticulture is somewhat lacking.

And here I am, Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover (boo! terrible joke).

I never post pictures so here are some latest ones of the children (Patrick's graduation).

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doctor

I went to my allergist follow-up appointment and I mentioned that the doctor had said that if I lived in Phoenix, then I wouldn't be having these problems. He said that was incorrect. He has a friend that is an expert on grass allergies and he moved to Tuscon. Apparently they have imported all kinds of grass and it grows year round. So it would actually be worse. He said I would have to move north... like Quebec City. Miranda just moaned when she heard the news. Lafayette is history, Quebec City is the future.

Downsides... Currently it's 61 degrees. That's correct. 61! They get approximately 4 meters of snow each year (12 feet). Average temperature in January is 10 degrees.

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Nellie

On Saturday night, we spent the night with Paul and Jane. They have a huge King size bed that we sleep in. Nellie slept with us (Patrick fell asleep on the couch so we just left him there). So we are lying in bed and Miranda says something to me and I reply back (can't remember what). About that time Nellie pipes up and says "HUSH!". They aren't allowed to talk at nap-time at school. It was very funny.

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quiz.

Can you pick out the IT guy at this company?

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toys

I'm getting old. I read Engadget and Gizmodo every day but I literally see nothing that I have a use for. Seems like all the toys these days are smartphones/tablets. I have no use for them as they require monthly data packages. I don't understand how anyone can afford toys like that. I guess I could afford it but why would I want to spend $15-$30/month just to access the Internet from my phone?

I also love hearing people talk about how their tablet is a replacement for books. So let's say you're on a flight from Tulsa to Marseille (imagine that). It's about 11 hours from New York to Marseille. The battery on the iPad will last about 10 hours but probably less with active use. After the battery is dead, then what? Sitting there looking at the top of the travelers head that is sitting in front of you while they are sleeping. Yay!

I also didn't realize that it was 11 hours from New York to Marseille. That's about the same distance to Hawaii. Of course, Hawaii doesn't have the greatest soccer team in the world!

Here's some more trivia for you... Kansas is further South than Marseille. The latitude is 43 degrees North (approx) while Wichita is 37 degrees North. Here's an interesting map.

Anyhoo... enough of this rant... It's time to go. More stuff to gripe about when I get back from the family reunion.

nc

weekend.

We are off to Scammon today for the McCormick family reunion.

We are going to spend the night at Paul and Jane's tonight as that will cut down traveling tomorrow to church. However we may negate that by going to Joplin tonight. Not sure yet.

nc

project

I think I found my new project. I want to build one of these. It does nothing but it looks like a lot of fun.

nc

Nellie

We were singing Frère Jacques and Nellie kept saying something about being wet because I was listening to her in English. She was wanting Alouette. Silly me thinking she was speaking English.

nc

house

As everyone is aware, we have our house up for sale again. Of course, now that it's up for sale, housing is going to "double dip".

Reminds me of a joke a guy told me:

Dan: Ask me the secret of my success.

Me: What's the secret of your...

Dan: (interrupting me) My timing.

I have that same timing. In 2008 I decided to play a little bit in the stock market. I put in my money and literally the next day, the stock market crashed. I am not joking either.

nc

summer

I think Miranda is already bored of summer vacation. She feels like she isn't getting anything accomplished. Welcome to my world.

However she is going to paint the bathroom and kitchen this summer so it will start getting a bit busier.

Today Stubby goes in for the operation. Tonight is Patrick's t-ball practice. He's doing a lot better apparently. Miranda takes him to practice and I stay home with Nellie. We tried taking Nellie to the park but that affected Patrick's practice because he wanted to be at the park also.

This weekend is the McCormick family reunion. Police will be on standby. Just kidding.

nc

Stubby

Stubby has a growth on his lip that has been there for a couple of weeks. We took him to the vet. It is a tumor. The vet acted like it wasn't a big deal but a operation is needed to remove the tumor and he goes in tomorrow. The vet said that his lungs and heart sounded great. So it appears that Stubby is going to be around awhile longer (much to my dismay).

nc

economics

The current world economy in a nutshell. Very funny and thought provoking.

nc

gadget

Here's a funny translation:

J'ai le cafard

meaning...

I am depressed.

Literal translation...

I am the cockroach.

Here's a problem I'm running into. I'm reading my Archie comic books (in French) and I'll need to look up several words to make sense out of a sentence. So I'll get my French dictionary and start looking up words. By the time I get through them all, I've forgotten the first one and then the cycle continues. I bought a electronic French dictionary which the kids turned into a very expensive paperweight. Apparently you can't pick up a dictionary for under $100 very easy. I guess the more the look the words up the better I will remember them. Sure is frustrating though.

nc

house update.

It's getting fairly comical lately so here's a quick refresh. After the contract expired and our renter couldn't get the loan, we agreed to keep renting the house out to her but the house would go up for sell. That was May 1st. April's rent was the last rent that we have seen. No May rent and tomorrow June's rent will be due. I've sent her an email to vacate the premises and I'm going on the assumption that she won't leave peacefully and then we will start the eviction procedure all over again. I thought I'd at least give her a chance. I told her if she left, we wouldn't press the issue of the missing $1,400.

We learned some more interesting stuff. Apparently before her and her husband split up there was an incident where he was chasing her around the subdivision with a knife. The neighbor went and got his gun and was going to shoot him. The police showed up and arrested him. The subdivision is fairly nice (for Diamond standards) and mostly with couples in their 40's - 70's. So police showing up and attempted murder isn't appreciated. I'm sure everyone will be happy that both of them are gone.

I don't think we have even had any lookers now that it's up for sale again.

nc