Monday

On Monday, Miranda and I are going to Wichita. We are going to take my amp up to attempt to get it fixed. Unfortunately they will probably need to send off for parts. While we are up there, we are going to eat out at the local Lebanese restaurant.

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today.

Today is the Ides Of March.

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sick

I think we are all finally over our sickness. Patrick still is dealing with some stuff but overall we are feeling well.

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sick

Patrick is still sick today. Throwing up, etc... Miranda is staying home today. I feel sorry for the poor boy.

I heard a new joke (new to me, apparently Groucho Marx did it first) for Dad...

Why is it easier to get the ivory from the elephant in Alabama? Because there, the Tuscaloosa.

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sick

Patrick is home sick today. Miranda has been sick for about 2 weeks. It hasn't been fun around here lately.

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fun

I cannot wait until someone calls out "I Need Thee Every Hour" at church!!!!

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funny.

For Dad...

The other night when we were coming home from the tax office, we were telling Patrick how he did a good job playing the violin for you guys. Nellie said, "That's my boy!". We laughed and laughed about that one. Of course, that got her going.

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quiet

Things have been quiet around here. Miranda has been sick but struggling to get to work. I've been slowly going crazy. Not sure what is wrong with me.

I think the big part is that it feels like we will never get settled in this house.

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more church

They are really bugging me about bringing my guitar to church. So Miranda may be open to buying another guitar.

The church is more into Contemporary Gospel music. I've warned several of them that I grew up in Oklahoma playing "country/dance hall" style so when I kick into a song, I'm going to have volume, beat, and 3 chords. Syncopated timing isn't in my musical vocabulary and neither is a G#13th chord. If I do end up with a double-neck, I may be able to do some bigger chords but it would take more work than I want to put into it.

I'm off looking for a nice used steel guitar.

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Church

Miranda complained about my singing in church last night. We were singing "Jesus Is Lord Of All". She was singing "King of kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus is Lord of all" and I was singing, "Le Roi de les rois, le Seigneur de Seigneurs, Jésus est Seigneur de tout". Apparently I was messing her up. I had fun though.

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Airplane!

From the movie Airplane!

Roger Murdock: Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Victor Basta: Request vector, over.
Captain Oveur: What?
Tower voice: Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.
Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice: Over.
Captain Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: Roger, over!
Roger Murdock: What?
Captain Oveur: Huh?
Victor Basta: Who?

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blogging

Blogging has majorly fallen off lately. It's been slightly crazy around here. Miranda is the Junior Class Sponsor for IBS and it's been keeping us hopping lately.

We are having a date night tomorrow night. We are going to Joplin to eat at Mythos. Molly is going to babysit for us.

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Nellie

Nellie asked this morning, "So is the donut place closed?" I think she was hinting not-so-subtly. Maybe tomorrow.

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update.

I haven't updated the blog much with real information lately so this is my attempt.

We went to church last Sunday night at Parsons for the last (regular) time or as regular as we were. It was somewhat sad and we will miss everyone there. But of course it isn't a good-bye but more of a "see you less often". I picked up my guitar and I'm hoping that as soon as life settles down I can get it out again and start playing more often.

Life should be getting more regular but it just won't. Not sure why either. Partly the new house and partly the weather I think.

Tonight Miranda has a meeting with the officers of the IBS alumni. So I'm babysitting more or less. Mostly less, because one of our babysitters needs computer help so I'm going over to her house to work on the computer and she'll probably watch them while I beat my brains out trying to remove whatever virii are on the computer.

We need to get our taxes done but we haven't left Independence for 2-3 weeks. Can't with all the snow and it's starting again. Depressing.

Got all the phones working in the house finally. Ice maker is working as well (thanks to Albert Schaper).

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Louvin

Charlie Louvin died late last month. Ira Louvin had one of the greatest tenor voices of all time.

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week

It's been a nutty week. Nellie has been sick most of the week. She seems to feel better today. Everyone has been home all week except for Patrick on Monday.

Today Nellie said, "I'm going to go wake Bill up". Miranda told her that I was at work. I can't believe she called me Bill.

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house

We got moved in on Saturday. It took about 2 1/2 hours and 1 trip. Derek/Tony Smith with their two oldest boys, Matt Brewer with this 2 oldest boys, Joe Davolt all showed up. And most of them had trailers. It was very quick and easy.

Sunday, Nellie decided to get sick. She is still sick and was up most of the night so she will be staying home today as will Miranda.

Last night when she was crying, I was going to get up with her. I found the door and walked through it. Unfortunately it was the closet and I ended up in the clothes.

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House

Internet is working at the new house. It took from 8:30 this morning until 1:30 this afternoon. It was tricky apparently.

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Off.

I'm taking the day off tomorrow. The internet guy is supposed to be there and as of tomorrow I won't have phone service until they get there.

So I'm going to try to get some moving done. We've got quite a bit done but still a lot left to go.

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Nellie's Room

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craft project

For Mom and Miranda... Here's a neat craft idea that you may or may not find helpful.

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closing

We close on Friday at 11:00AM. WOOHOO!!

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forms.

It's not a secret that we are having to fill out forms. Multitudes of them. So I emailed the broker today and said that I was going to start sending her random forms filled out until we have filled out enough of them. I then attached a filled out Notice of Appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals from a Decision of a USCIS Officer.

Bad part is, they'll probably use it.

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Ellen Carson

My sister-in-law, Lindsay, her mom passed away. Here's the obituary.

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house

went in and signed more papers today. It just won't end. Who knows what we are signing too. Probably joining a book of the month club.

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Patrick

Went to Tulsa yesterday and ate at Joe's Crab Shack! (I just had to rub that in on Dad). We were on 71st street with everyone else in Tulsa when Patrick decided to start talking about Stubby. He hadn't even noticed that he was gone. So we mentioned that Stubby was gone and he decided to start asking questions. Where did Stubby go? (Doggy heaven). Where is doggy heaven? (15 minutes South of San Antonio. By the way, we can no longer go to San Antonio because he will be bugging us to visit doggy heaven). Why did he die? (because he was old and hurting), etc...

Anyway, shortly after the conversion, he said..."I need a new dog". I about started a multiple car pile-up right there. I couldn't get the word "NO!!!!" out quick enough.

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calling

This was my calling (circa 1993). Alas, it was not to be. I can't decide if I'm better off or not. Probably neither, just living a different life than I would have.

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House update.

Tomorrow is the final day of our contract on the house. Last night, I get a call, and they need our 2008 tax returns, 2009 tax returns, and the closing statement from our last house. We have all the information, so I emailed it to them.

At this point, I don't care if we get the house or not. I just want it to be over. If it was up to me, as soon as the contract was up, we'd be out. Miranda won't let me unfortunately.

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Stubby

We had Stubby put to sleep the other day. Miranda cried. Patrick and Nellie hasn't even noticed that he is gone.

No more dogs.

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church

We are in the process of switching churches. We go to Parsons currently and are switching to Independence. There are a hosts of reasons but I'll go over the big ones here. Most of the reasons have to do with the drive (around 40 minutes).

1. Patrick and Nellie are starting to complain about going to church because of the drive. We don't want them to hate going to church.
2. We don't attend like we should. Wed. night was always a problem. If we are going to go to church, then we need to go to church!
3. Gas. The car gets about 25 miles to the gallon. It's about 40 miles. That's about 1.5 gallons of gas per trip. Gas is currently $3.00 per gallon. So $4.50 to drive one way and $9.00 round trip. Two trips every Sunday (18 * 4) = $72. Plus 4 Wed. nights (9 * 4) = $36. So an extra $108 per month on the gas bill.
4. We live in Independence and Miranda teaches at the Bible School. We need to be involved in the local church since we are so involved outside of the church in the same town.

And now the kicker... The money, time, etc... only matters when you take into account that there is a Bible Holiness church here in town, less than 5 minutes away. It isn't like we will be attending a Catholic, Presbyterian, or even slightly different denomination.

It's been a tough decision because we really enjoy the Parsons church. The people are awesome and we feel right at home. However all factors must be taken into account and we really can't justify all the downsides.

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WOOHOO!

Guess what I found!!!

I'm going to wait a few days but I'm probably bidding on it.

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uh oh.

Let's start off with this information. I'm addicted to Effects Units.

I woke up this morning with a need to buy more. Miranda said "NO!". She really did say it this time. She said she would put a stop on the credit card for Musicians Friend. But I really need a Line6 M13. For a meager $500. Maybe I could downsize to a Boss DD-7 Delay.

Sigh. Mon coeur fait mal (my heart hurts). Miranda would argue that it's my head that is hurting.

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painting

As we are making preparations to move into our new house, I'm trying to decide on my office. I've got to get a new desk and of course, I'm going to decorate (a little bit at a time) in the Louis XV style. Hopefully I can find an appropriate desk for a smallish price. Anyway... I'm going to save up my allowance money that Miranda lets me take and buy a painting. I found a web site where you can buy hand painted reproductions of famous paintings. So I'm trying to decide what painting to save up for.

Here are my options:

King Louis XV (of course)

King Louis XVI (of course)

Napoleon (of course)

Those seem a bit too obvious. I'm thinking of wandering off the beaten track for a bit. I could go with Davout, Soult, Ney, or some of the other Maréchels of Napoleon. But that is a bit too pedestrian as well. If we go a step further then we come up with some interesting ideas.

Maréchale Lannes (wife and children of Maréchal Lannes)

Jacques Necker (economist during the French Revolution)

Other paintings can be viewed here. These are all in the style of Rococo (Louis XV). I am open to suggestions (different painting or even different style). Still Life's are sorta out because they freak me out. No idea why but they just seem bleak and scary. Topless/bottomless women are out as well.

I'm leaning toward Necker.

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vaccines

A lot of people haven't given their children's vaccines because of a study purporting to say that it could cause autism. The study was faked. Amazing at how many people will "follow the crowd" and do stupid things like not vaccinating your children. Now a lot of the diseases that the vaccines cured are making their way back.

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house

Got a call from the mortgage company today and they wouldn't commit but they thought that the house could be done by the end of week. They wouldn't commit though.

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Two Versions

Now in Gaelic

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new office

Miranda has acquiesced and is letting me decorate my new office. There is a style called Louis XV that looks pretty slick. I wanted to go one better and decorate in Louis XVI. I could have a life-size guillotine with a headless body laying in it. But I don't know if she would let me get by with that. So I'll probably stick with XV.

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Birthdays

Miranda's birthday is going to be easy to remember this year: 1/11/11. Mine is the uncool 1/9/11.

Unfortunately it's really soon and I'm going to be 36. *sigh*

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Merry New Year

Merry New Year to everyone.

The house is back to normal. I haven't heard a closing date yet but hopefully soon.

Today is the Young Christmas party. We are off to Scammon today.

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