Roundup

The weekend was windy which kept me from doing any chemical spraying (which I need to do badly...the weeds are getting out of hand) and my allergies and sinuses gave me fits as well. Not as much was accomplished but the weekend was not a total loss...I did manage to spend 3+ hours with KnightMare Duck on Skype (my first experience with that VOIP software, btw).

Friday when I came home from work the first thing I noticed was a paving stone and several bags of topsoil in the garage against the wall when my truck parks. I avoided it without any problems but realized that walking around that and our vehicles (we have a two car garage with a van and a pickup parked in it) was going to eventually cause problems. I had not planned on buying anyting until I was ready to use it, but my wife had a $10 gift card that was going to expire so she spent it. She is a good bargain hunter, but sometimes her bargains are a little inconvenient...no worries I can manage.

I walked in and I had a few things that I needed to do before we left to go serve dinner to the 'Tweenagers at church. We packed up the van and after my wife and I were ready, we headed over. I was beginning to feel run down from all the sinus and allergy issues but I had committed to do this so I went. Besides that, I had promised the pastor of our church that I would help him with his wireless connection when we were done serving.

When we got ready to serve, the leader was worried since no one but her son had shown up, so she made some calls. While the group is small, there are still a few that show up every week. Not this week. The meal was enjoyed only by 3 adults and 1 'Tween. After we ate and started cleaning up, I went over to the parsonage to help the pastor with his wireless connection.

When I got there and started looking at the setup, I could not see any issues and as soon as I turned on the laptop, it found the wireless extender. We tested his other PC and it logged on as well. My job was complete. My wife and I drove home and unloaded the leftover food and packed it in the fridge, just in time to watch Law and Order. That turned out to be a repeat, so we stayed up for a while reading then got some sleep.

I woke up Saturday feeling rather cruddy (darn allergies) but I got up and started my day anyway. By 1 PM or so I was finished with my chores so I had lunch and watched "Star Wars" with the added scenes that I got from my wife's boss. Not much else went on until later that night when I fired up Skype and found Knightmare logged on. We chatted for a very long time (3+ hours) and got caught up on a few things regarding the series I am writing called "Chronicles". I told him I had writers block and he understood that I would not be adding to it for a while. We joked and chatted and filled in some gaps that may make the collaboration project the he and I, (with a BIG help from Rycherox...actually I think it will be Rycherox with input from me and KD...) work a little better. I had planned on writing a chapter called "The BSOB Years", but as soon as I started it, I realized that BSOB means something different for me than it does the other members. With that realization, KD and I thought it best to make a BSOB project out of it and I will just link to that.

After talking with KD for 3+ hours and having my wife come in and tell (not ask) me to come to bed, I ended the call and went to bed. While I only slept for 6 hours or so, it was a good sleep.

I did my normal Sunday morning routine and headed to church to fill in for Jimmy since he was out of town. Jimmy teaches a Sunday School class that he also teaches in our care group. Since we already covered this in Care Group, he asked me to teach it Sunday. I agreed, but no one showed up (this week starts Spring Break here and the church had fewer atendees) so I just went into my normal class on "Revelation".

We left church and then worked on finding some lunch. My wife wanted to go to Ghengis Grill, but it is always so crowded if you get there after 12:30 and it was almost 1 PM now. It is amazing how little things can escalate in to a major disagreement when people are hungry. While I was trying to respect my wife's choice to eat where she wanted, I knew that if we went she would have to wait and she would get even more upset. We eventually decided to get Chili's to go (she had Monterey Chicken and I had a "Big Mouth" Burger) and that seemed to work out. We drove home and ate, then cleaned up. I changed into some comfy clothes and let the dogs out to do their business. When all that was done, I had about 30 minutes until the long awaited Carolina-Duke game. This is was the last game of the regular season and both teams were hungry. Carolina was on a two gaming "losing streak" and Duke wanted to salvage the season with at least one win over Carolina (UNC beat Duke at Cameron earlier this year). The game was pretty good until the final seconds of the game when Gerald Henderson's right elbow came crashing down over Tyler Hansbrough's nose. Henderson was ejected and will miss the next game (the first round of the ACC tourney) and thankfully Tyler's nose was not broken. While my wife agreed with Billy Packer (one of the commentators) that it did not look intentional, I sided with the refs who studied said it was a "combative foul". I thought it looked intentional, but I guess we will never know for sure.

After that bit of excitement we ate dinner (cold shrimp with cocktail sauce), chatted, and watched a little Discovery Channel before I took Little Man for a walk. I called mom while I was out and about 45 minutes into the call my phone beeped. I thought it was another call coming in so I pulled my phone out of the belt clip and dropped it...again. I am so hard on phones...that is why I never want to spend good money on one. I drop them all the time. Well, it was not an incoming call, just my low batter warning, so I ended the call and came back in the house. I watched some of the highlights of UFC 68 (way to go Randy Couture!!!) and then went to bed...I was tired after dealing with allergies and sinus issues all weekend long.

I woke up feeling pretty good with the exception of a stiff back and a slightly queasy stomach. My wife felt the same way so I am not sure if the food from Chili's is the culprit or if we now have a stomach bug. I guess I will know in about 24 hours or so.