Reality Me

We pushed our couch back against the wardrobe so the girlscouts could all gather on the floor for their sleep over. The dogs are flipped because they can’t walk behind it to go outside. We open the door and they (mainly the 12 year old) pace back and forth trying to figure out how to go behind the couch instead of walking straight out the front door.

The cat has knocked a single piece of food out of her bowl and it went under some mail on my desk. Now she is digging manically to get that one piece of food.

It must be this house!

My wife has a 30 GB Ipod that because of her Windows 98 computer she basically could not use. I feared the battery so dead at this point that it would have to be replaced. I bought a 2 year, no questions asked replacement warrantee but I think I let it expire without using the warantee. (action item for self: go bang head repeatedly into a concrete wall)

I’ve had the Ipod charging directly from a wall socket instead of the firewire port for the past two days and I’ll be darned if the doggone thing didn’t turn on this morning! Going to keep her charging for a bit whilst I find the software and see if it holds a charge. I still fear the need to buy a replacement battery.

Late afternoon yesterday I was with a friend of mine helping a mutual friend of ours convert his computer network at his pizza restaurant from wireless back to wired. One of his computers sits on a shelf near the ceiling. To get to this machine I stepped back from the cabinet (imagine the height about where your kitchen sink would be) and I took two steps then launched myself through the air. On the counter sits the keyboards and an array of papers etc leaving about 10 cm for my foot to land so I choose to land my left foot sideways in that 10 cm space and use my right foot on the side of the cabinet to stablize myself then spin to balance myself on the toes of both my feet.

A couple of sentences later my friend had processed the action and commented “even when I was younger I wouldn’t have done that.”

I guess I’ve been watching too much Jackie Chan.

Just how much fight should go into this. I’m an activist at heart and I know how to bring about change. At the University of Tennessee I brought about a major change during my time there. How many battles can one person fight? I have it within me to bring about change to the school system here but at what sacrifice and what gain?

Molly has been through dog school and has sort of learned to sit, stay, lie down, heal and so forth. We must keep practicing!

She also knows to shake hands.

One of our Christmas decorations is a pair of bells that hang on the inside door knob of the front door. We are in the process of teaching Molly to ring the bells whenever she wants out. She has now rang them deliberately twice. Sometimes she sits by the door, points her nose at the bells, and just stares.

On a very big positive, we haven’t had a pee accident in the house in 36 hours or so! Of course, over the past two days I made an exerted effort to give her lots of unleashed playtime outside. The laser light at night in the yard really drives her nuts and provides great exercise!

A New Day!

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This Morning

I fell asleep at 9pm last night and woke at 9am this morning. I feel much better now!

My wife and I are at odds on how to handle sickness. She feels sickness is not an excuse for slowing down. That life must go on. I feel sickness is the body’s way of saying it needs rest to make repairs. I think exercise should continue or increase when sick to help produce more white blood cells and then there should be much rest. The body can heal itself if given the opportunity.

Today I must commit to computing.

A New Year!

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This Morning

I enter 2005 with a sore throat and sinus woes but I look into 2005 happily. 2005 will see much debt removed from our lives. 2005 will see our final child born. 2005 will see the affects of less yelling in the house on the children. It will take time for Tommy to catch up with the rest of us but with no yelling everybody will be happier. 2005 will be a time of great renovation on the house. 2005 will be exceptional!

The end of 2004 is here. As 2004 was lived in a blaze of fury and the pace doesn’t slow enough for me to even type these two sentences much less a year in review.

duty calls…

Mom: “Can we wash your face?”

Amy (2.5 years): “Of course.”

A New Day!

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This Morning

Still fighting a head cold but feel like I’m on the mend. The house will be packed tonight with 8 pre-teen girls ringing in the New Year. I’m going to need to sleep-in tomorrow!

A New Day!

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This Morning

You know that feeling when you blow your nose and some of your brain comes out. Yeah, that’s the one!

Maybe its the cold but I’m so unfocused and undermotivated today!

A New Day!

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This Morning

Dropped the dog at the vet the had a most productive time in the office yesterday. Decided to reward myself with some wood chopping when I got home.

The puppy has developed a cyst on her elbow. The drained like 22 milliliters of fluid and will operate when she gets spayed to remove the cyst. Yesterday it occurred to me that was the same leg that Tommy took a plastic baseball bat to and tapped repeatedly before I caught him. His words: “I did it lightly!” Are the two related? Could be. It is just as likely that she banged it on the side of the tub during one of our wrestling matches when I was trying to clean her. Or perhaps she took a bad fall on the hardwoods or concrete floor.

I neglected to emphasize to Tommy to keep her outside until she does her business. She won’t defaecate or urinate at the vet. He walked her briefly then brought her inside and a full day’s worth of urine ran under the bathroom sink. I blew up but was mostly mad at myself because I continue to forget to caulk the base of that sink. (putting it on calendar now) I spent the next hour cleaning and the early evening on family matters. Never got to the wood and man was it ever cold in the bedroom last night. That wood stove makes all the difference!

Watched some more of the first season of Northern Exposure. This show is great! I need to see if it aired during the year I didn’t have a television. I must be the only person in the world to have never seen a single episode.

Got up early this morning and got straight to work! What a great feeling!

A New Day!

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This Morning

Spent an hour and a half trying to get Tommy bathed for his 11am appointment. I want to minimize Cathy’s interaction and stress with Tommy so I took him to his appointment. Returned at 12:30 to prepare for a 1pm teleconference where I anticipate and ass chewing over the lack of time I put into the project last week and the current state of the work. I need to burn some extra hours this week badly!

I have a check that needs to be in the bank to help make purchases from last week valid but the conference call will likely last from 1 to 2 or 3 and my folks arrive between 2 and 3 (or maybe later if the roads are bad) and I still need to clock 10 hours of work today as well as clean the kitchen and work on my wife’s computer. Oh, and cook dinner. I’m sure Tommy will have a breakdown in there somewhere. Each breakdown occupies about an hour of adult time.

(had one of those long post computer crashed issues)

Yesterday was a phenomenal day! Tommy held it together, the kids did not fight or scream and we relaxed hard.

Tommy played his Nintendo DS for what must have been 14-18 hours straight then became grumpy on Sunday.

Noah is thrilled with everything and spent his time running between toys.

Sarah must have misunderstood what she was opening when she opened her cell phone cover because when she came to the actual cell phone she floated to the ceiling then talked for 8 hours (exaggeration). I have never seen her so happy!

Amy saw her play kitchen and spent the day cooking and making a mess.

I could not have asked for a better day!