What I REALLY Meant To Post

I am not sure why yesterday's post was so short. I had actually meant to include a few other things but instead of saving it, I posted it.

I took 8 vacation hours yesterday and went geocaching near Lake Lavon and picked up 6 there then grabbed 2 new ones in my town, as well as a puzzle cache I had solved a few weeks ago. It was hidden in the same type of location I had been looking at for some time but have not gotten around to using yet. Actually I did the local hides first then the lake.

One of the caches was pretty cool. It was called "20 questions" and required you to call a phone number and answer 20 geocaching related questions in order to get the coords. I did that at work the day before and then went yesterday to nab the cache. Fun stuff.

The hides at the lake were pretty basic but out far enough that they most likely will not get muggled. 4 of the 6 were hidden by 9key and the other two were hidden by a couple of less prolific but still quite talented cachers.

Yesterday's little foray boosted my total to 240 caches found. Not bad since I did 4 with friends and then did not start caching until the end of September and then I was not using a GPSr until a few weeks after that. Until I got the GPSr from a friend who is letting me borrow it indefinitely, I was just using Google Maps. if you want a challenge, cache without a GPSr. I think I got my first 30 or so via Google.

Even thoguh I took 8 vacation hours, I still was required to be on call that night, which did not bother me much. The week had been slow so far and the little geocaching outing on Wednesday helped break up the week. When I go back from caching I checked work and did not see anything pressing, so I cleaned up and took care of things until I had to go on call. When that time came around, one issue was handed over to me that enede up taking all night and as we speak still has not been resolved. I do not have to run it today since it has a daytime owner. I am just responsible for the on call at night.

Mid Week Update

Edwards and Guiliani are out. Now that means little to me since neither were candidates I would support. Every test I have taken to show which candidate I would support puts Thompson (who is out now) Romney (who being outpaced by McCain), and Huckabee (who has no chance at all). With all that in mind, my choices are some liberal democrat I can cannot stand, McCain, or Ron Paul, if he runs as an Independent.

Can I please pick, "None of the above?"

Monday, Monday

The weekend has come and gone and with that, Monday is here...time for me to start my week on call or as prefer to call it, "house arrest". It appears that I get to be on house arrest during most of the month end closing reports, meaning that the likelihood of getting called just went up about 300%. Joy.

Now to be honest, it could be worse. While I am not happy at the fact that starting in March we are no call and do not get paid anything for it, at least I am employed...for now.

I had a mostly good weekend. Friday night I watched a few more episodes "Lost" (season one) and finally finished up the first season on Sunday night. Although I would have preferred to go out, finances will be tight until we can get some debt paid down. The good news is that we have made great progress and are on track to be debt free (sans the house) in a few months. However, to do that I have to make some massively huge payments (that we have budgeted for) during that time. The payments include all of our entertainment budget as well as part of our dining out budget. It is a small sacrifice but it will be worth it.

I did some geocaching (as I usually do on weekends) and had a pretty good time...snagging a total of 12 in two days. I could have had more but when I push myself I tend to make mistakes...sometimes ones that hurt!

Sunday was the usual Sunday school and church and our month church pot luck lunch (which was a soup and sandwich lunch and it was great!). Attendance was down due to several families leaving after last weeks rather heated business meeting. While they will be missed, I do not want to hold them back from doing what they see as they need to do. I wish them well.

I ended my weekend by finishing up season one of "Lost" and later talking to my mom. Not an overly exciting life, but I am not 20 anymore.

Freudian Slip?

On The Today Show Weekend Edition, Lester Holt (who is in SC covering the primary elections) made a comment while talking about Barack Obama. Mister Holt said something to the effect of, "...Barack Obama has been sort of the 800 pound elephant in the room that no one wants to deal with...".

"800 pound ELEPHANT"? Isn't the euphemism, "800 pound GORILLA"?

After hearing this I started thinking, "Is this a Freudian slip or was it done on purpose?" So as I usually do I hit the web and started searching for "800 elephant" and found a couple of hits on message boards and they were followed up by someone who stated that two euphemisms were being merged.

With that in mind, I googled "elephant in the room" and found a great entry on wikipedia that helped me understand. It seems that an "elephant in the room" is "an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed." I had not heard that one in before, but then again, I try not to keep up with many "old sayings".

So where does that leave us? Well it appears that the reporter, Mr Lester Holt has fused to euphemisms...or did he? If he meant to call Barack Obama the "elephant in the room", he is not being a reporter, he is giving us he personal opinion by saying that Obama is "the truth".

Now if Mister Holt was using the euphemism that I am familiar with, the "800 pound gorilla" ("one that is dominating or uncontrollable because of great size or power" - Mirriam-Webster Online), then he could be accused of using a racial slur towards a black candidate...something that he would not want to do.

Of course those who want to make a far stretch could say that he was picking Republicans since the elephant is the symbol of the Republican party and an 800 lb one would be very small. However I doubt that was the reason since the reporter, Mr Holt, was speaking complimentary of Mr. Obama, who is a Democrat.

Bottom line? I think Lester Holt merged two well known (to many) euphemisms and made a mistake. However it is still very obvious he supports Barack Obama. The media should be REPORTING the news, not commenting on it. Leave that to the people.

Work And Weather

It has been a rather cold week for us in North Central Texas. An Arctic blast pushed through a few weeks ago and has not really left. If the forecast is correct we should however see that trend reverse. The next four days are supposed to be in the 60's and 70's during the day.

It is currently raining a cold, miserable rain outside, just above freezing. Almost any place else in the US it would be snowing but not here. It will not be until February before we have a chance at getting our annual snow/ice storm and then it is not a sure thing. Last year we received neither.

Work has been (mostly) slow the past two weeks, which has been good. However it looks like today will be much busier. They have already had 11 high priority cases opened so far worldwide at it is only a little after 8:00 AM.

I was told by one of the long time employees who transferred over to this company the same time I did that he is quitting. He does not have a job yet but he is not really worried. He is quite tired of the way things are going and feels it is time to move on. I cannot say I blame him. I as well am getting a bit tired and frustrated. And with no improvements in sight, I can only pray things will improve.

Potpourri

Yesterday the high in my neck of the woods was 32 degrees. Five hours south in San Antonio it was 70 degrees. Freaky.

This morning one of the account managers asked to have a weekly meeting with the guys on my team. Now I find this odd because we do no report to him and the only time he comes around is when he needs us to help him. That is not an insult...we are mostly reactionary. When we see him come around, he is usually getting his butt chewed out by a customer and he needs us to investigate.

I am not sure what we can fill 45 minutes with. he was pretty vague in the meeting request sent via Microsoft Outhouse, err Outlook. I guess we shall see.

I received an e-mail from the Elder at our church regarding the fracas that took place at church on Sunday. He was asking for input regarding a formal announcement to the congregation explaining the situation. I have not responded yet. I will see him tonight (at care group) and give him my thoughts then.

It seems that 9key, the local geocaching funny man has hidden a few more caches in the area. I guess that as long as the weather holds, I will have more fun this weekend.

I managed to watch a couple more epi's of "Lost" last night. That show is very addicting.

Note On The Break Room Wall

To summarize, the company I work for is trimming down the break room offerings. In the past they have provided tea (reg, decaf, herbal), coffee (reg and decaf), and hot chocolate (regular, sugar free, and mini marshmallow) as well as the cups and stir sticks to go along with them.

To paraphrase the note as best as I can, "we are moving to a more standardized offering for our break rooms. We will still provide regular and decaf coffee and tea, as well as regular hot chocolate. Hot water and napkins/paper towels will be provided as well. Feel free to bring in your own herb or specialty tea to enjoy during the day..."

Now my question is...are cups cups/stir sticks going to be provided? My sarcastic comment back is, "Why, how nice of you to a) allow me to bring in my own beverages and b) provide the hot water. You are so generous!"

I am grateful that they provide hot beverages...I really am. I have worked in places that made everyone pitch in to buy coffee and filters. And at least the break room has a table to sit at. At one time it didn't.

Just one more sign that companies are going to squeeze every dime they can out of us before they kick us to the curb :-)

Remember Me?

Infrequent updates are now becoming the rule instead of the exception. For people who check this blog once a week or month, that is not a big deal. However, there are a few hardcore "El Gee junkies" who check this out daily and when I miss days, I feel that I am letting them down. I am sorry.

Saturday was pretty much a standard day for me with regards to chores and hobbies. I took care of the vacuuming, stripped and made the beds as well as helped out with laundry and dishes. My wife cooked and took care of a lot of the dog duties as well as assisting here and there. Mostly it was a 50-50 split.

After lunch I made my normal geocaching run, hitting grabbing seven or so (some of them were really nice, others just so-so). I made my way back home just as the sun was going down.

Sunday started out very typical with Sunday School and church service. However before teh sermon could be preached, a couple of...outspoken members of the congregation began asking questions about the search for a new senior pastor. The Admin board and the associate pastor agreed to meet after the service to discuss the issues. I was dreading the discussion. Little did I know how bad or which direction the meeting would go.

Maybe I should backtrack a bit to discuss the search process, jsut to give you an idea what has been going on. First a committee was formed of 7 people to provide a candidate for the admin board to consider. This entailed about 100 hours of work going over about 300 resumes. The 300 was reduced to three and the team voted on their choice. It took three votes but they decided on candidate A. That candidate was submitted to the board and the trustees (of which I am one) to meet and later the candidate would discuss salary wit hthe trustees. That meeting went okay and he was informed of the salary we were thinking of. It was at this point, WEEKS after he was first interviewed, that tells us what he wants as a ball park. We inform him that we have researched the issue and told him the median salary, which was "all inclusive", meaning benefits, base pay, and housing. He appeared to understand and agree. The next meeting was with the trustees a couple of weeks later to finalize the package. This is where the first major issue was noticed. The candidate's attitude appeared to be very "materialistic" when it came to money and he did not seem to be flexible with his pay. We were not sure if he had legitimate needs or not...he never let us know (however he did let the search team leader know a few days later). The candidate told the trustees that he would pray about it and call the contact (the associate pastor) the following day. Before he left, we told him about the finances of the church and offered to work with him in a variety of ways to reach his goal., but he was rather from about his requirements. Even the associate pastor was trying to get him to relax a bit. Needless to say the candidate did not call the next morning, but e-mailed the group in the afternoon (when I saw the e-mail, I was very offended. It appeared he was justifying his salary requirements based on his qualifications). The next day the leader of the search team met with the candidate to get feel for what went wrong in the meeting he had with the trustees. The following day (Thursday) all of us met to discuss the outcome of the candidate/search team leader meeting. The meeting lasted 3-4 hours and defined what each member thought about the situation. It was clear that at least 3 of the 13 member group were not happy with the outcome/choice.

Saturday the admin board met and voted on the candidate and then met with the candidate to give him the news. When he was told that he was not chosen he was given the option to ask questions but he declined. That brings you up to speed on the process.

The meeting on Sunday after church began with our elder giving the congregation an overview of the process, much like I described. After he was finished, he turned over the floor to the other members of the board to fill in gaps. The board was very open, but not derogatory at all to the candidate. The outspoken members who had asked for the meeting began asking questions but focused on the financial aspect of the process. The team tried to tell them that financial was just one part of the decision and that the candidates attitudes sent up several red flags that could not be ignored. That is when things got ugly.

The "outspoken" members began making comments about our associate pastor that were completely uncalled for and it really bothered me. It was the wrong forum and process for that, and to make matters worse, the associate pastor's wife and 19 year old son were in the room trying to keep from responding. It was not a scene that I would call "Christian".

After that meeting was over, I went to McD's to grab some lunch and then went home and took care of the dogs. I did not want to be in the house so grabbed my geocaching stuff and headed out for a couple of hours. It was good therapy. I came home and got cleaned up and ate some dinner before watching some TV and going to bed.

I did not have to work on Monday (MLK Day), so I spent a large part of my day watching the first 9 episodes of the series, "Lost". Okay I must admit...I am hooked. It is a great show, at least from what I have seen so far. I cannot wait to see more!

Well, you are now up to date. Hopefully I can be a bit more diligent on my updates in the future.

Cold And Depressing

I still cannot seem to get warm. Two days of colder than normal temps have really put a damper on things. I normally have no problems nuking my lunch in the microwave oven at work and then driving to a nearby park to eat it, but the past two days have not left me with the desire go. In stead, I have been eating lunch in the break room (it has one table and 4 chairs). I hate the break room.

After lunch today I walked down to the now empty NOC (Network Operations Center for you non-IT folk) and looked at it. Depressing. At one time it had 15 people working in it around the clock monitoring network conditions around the world. That function has been outsourced and off shored and the room is empty. I have a picture of it at home and if I remember I will post it.

I stood in the room looking at the large, lifeless displays on the wall, remembering the days when this room was alive. One TV had CNN on and the other had the weather channel while the two projection TV screens had a map of the wold with all the network connections on it. I spent a lot of long hours...nights, weekends and holidays in that room. I really hated the job but it was important. Too bad it was so poorly managed...it may have been fun if it wasn't.

Wandered from desk to desk fondly remembering where everyone sat. The desks are all empty now. All the PC's, phones, and monitors are gone. The war rooms (small conference rooms in the NOC) have been converted into junk storage rooms. The nice tables and chairs removed to some unknown location.

Back when I worked in the NOC, each time someone quit or was let go I moved to get a better spot on the floor. The desired place to be was the back row. The room was designed in a terrace/stadium style with each row a little higher than the one in front of it. I started in the front, on the bottom row but eventually secured a spot on the coveted upper deck.

The only access to our data center was through the NOC...and that was by design. Being set up that way we saw everyone who came to and from the data center. The manager said it was a "line of defense" for the servers. Woo hoo.

I escaped the NOC before it was officially shut down. I went on to do some project management and was moved to an office near the middle of the building, about halfway between the NOC and the front desk. Eventually everyone was either laid off, quit, or found other jobs within IT. The last two to leave were laid off and had been working nights not because we needed them to, but because they were the original night shift guys and did not want to move over to day shift. It really did not matter when they worked...the NOC has not been used as such in over a year. How they were able to stay on as long as they did amazes me.

I looked at the digital world clocks on the wall and realized that it was bout time to go back to my desk and wait for my phone to ring. A quick pit stop at the bathroom as the only thing left to do before I subjected myself to another (un)healthy dose of reality.

As I go back and read this I realize it is one of the more depressing/somber entries I have written in awhile. Blame that on my lack of sleep. I was up until midnight last night, mostly because of an emergency church metting, and had to get up at 5 AM. Needless to say I am a bit tired.

Bits and Bytes

Brrrr...it is cold outside...okay so it is not as cold as it is in Canada, but for where I live the wind chill has not gotten above freezing all day. The actual air tem is only slightly above freezing. Needless to say I did not leave the building at lunch. No way. I have been living in TX long enough that I do not want to be cold.

I went to care group last night even though I did not really want to. It turned out well enough and I learned some interesting things (about our pastorl candidate) that I cannot post in this blog. Needless to say I am very shocked at the news and now I have to go to a meeting this evening to work through this issue. Sigh.

I got a very pleasant surprise this morning when I woke up. My wife walked both dogs (in below freezing temps) and did the dishes...all before 6 AM. Wow. I guess now I am going to have to do something nice for her :-)

Today, work has been busier than all last weeks days combined. I guess it was bound to happen. We had 10 days or so of slow and today we get busy.

I read an article that Time-Warner is considering charging for the amount of bandwidth their customers are using rather than just a flat monthly rate. Supposedly it will work similarly to mobile phone rate plans. That is going to suck. Why not just go after the people who are hogging all the bandwidth? Maybe this will be a good thing for us. We do not download much, unless I miss an episode of a TV that is broadcast on the web and if we pay for what we use per a pricing plan, maybe I can go to a lower usage plan and save money.

Dreary

That is the word that sums up the weather outside. Typical for a Texas winter day, but it still is enough to give you a case of the blahs.

Work has been slow and for that I am grateful. While I prefer it to be steady, I will take slow over busy any day.

We have care groups tonight but I am not sure I am going to go. I am not in the mood to be around other people today and going to care group means...being around other people. besides, I am a little achy...I got over my cold but now I have body aches...flu?

I grabbed a couple of geocaches on the way home last night (they were literally by the road I drive on) and looked for one more but it was hidden well enough that I could not find it in the meager amount of time I gave to find them. No worries. I want it to stay fun.

I have not heard anything back from the gentleman I interviewed with last week. Now, I realize that he told me I would know by Friday but if I am being turned down, I would rather know sooner than later.

Thanx to Fox online, I was able to watch "The Sarah Connors Chronicles" season premier that I missed the night before. Having the episodes online 1-2 days after they are broadcast has been helpful for me. Now if I could only get the Sci-Fi channel to do it ... ;)

More Outside Help

It appears that Citibank is going to need an influx of money from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Singapore. 12+ billion dollars worth of influx. Ouch. I have a Citibank card that I keep for month to month and online purchases. We also have a couple of other credit cards that have small balances on them (with no interest) that will be paid off soon, but not soon enough for me.

The housing market is really causing a lot of grief for banks. Countrywide is being bought out by Bank of America to bail them out of problems...mostly because of people defaulting on mortgages. We should have seen this coming. Low interest rates lured people into buying more home than they could afford and when those ARM's (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) matured and the real interest rates hit, people started defaulting. I am so glad that 1) I got a fixed rate mortgage (and refi'd when the rates dropped again) and 2) bought only the house size we needed. It may be small by most people's standards (1650 sq ft), but it is enough for two adults and 2 dogs.

I wonder how many more banks will need outside help before this is all over? And is it really good to have a financial institution partially owned by foreign investors?

Grilled Cheese Sammiches

SoBo came over on Saturday to have lunch with us. As I previously blogged, he wanted grilled cheese sandwichs since he had not had a good one in 2 years. We gladly obliged him.

I started that day off by doing a little Geocaching, picking up a couple that I had whiffed on in the past and grabbing a new one that had been placed in the area. I tried for a couple more, but I could not find part of the puzzle for one and the other I fell very sure has been muggled.

Since SoBo was coming over at noon, I had to cut my trip short, so I came home and waited for him. My wife got home a few minutes after I did and I helped her unload the groceries from the van. SoBo called after the van had been unloaded and told us he would be over in a few minutes.

SoBo and my wife ate grilled cheese while I ate some fish tacos that needed to be eaten before they went bad. For dessert we had SoBo's (and my wife's) favorite, cheesecake. That only added to his satisfaction. He stayed for a while (1.5 horus) and then left to go take care of things he needed to do before he returns to the east coast.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning house. It is not my favorite past time but it needed done.

Sunday after church, SoBo met us at The Macaroni Grill for lunch. It had been a while since we had been there and we looked forward to eating some fresh Italian food while chattting SoBo. Unfortunately, the service was well below what we are used to and the food was only so-so. I was not even in the mood for Tiramisu!

After chatting with SoBo for a while longer, we went outside. We chatted a few more minutes then he gave me a hug good bye. I would not get a chance to see him again until I travel to WV this summer. Hopefully he will have his own place by then.

After lunch I contemplated going out and doing a couple of hours worth of geocaching, but I decided against it. Instead I stayed home and washed up a small mountain of dishes and read. I lead such an exciting life.

* By the way, SoBo is just short for "Soldier Boy". I do not use real names in my blog, only nicks and aliases.

Why Even Bother Moving?

Again I read the news and become frustrated and confused. The Guardian (A UK newspaper) is reporting on yet another honor killing.

Honor killings, if you are unfamiliar with them is the process of killing females for disgracing the family. This horrible practice is barbaric and yet it is still practiced by SOME "radical" Muslims today. There have been a couple of high profile news articles on it in the past few months, one in Canada and the other in my neck of the woods, Texas. Both stories were similar. The girls were becoming too "westernized" and were beginning to slip away from the ways the family practiced. All three girls that were killed had non-Muslim boyfriends and wore non-traditional western clothing outside the home. This infuriated the fathers who in turn killed the girls. In the Canadian case, the girl was held down why the father strangled her. In the Texas case, the father shot both daughters and then fled.

My simple question to you all: If you do not want to assimilate to western ways, WHY MOVE THERE?

By the way, if you want to keep up to date with many of the atrocities that radical Islam perpetrates, read, "The Religion of Peace", also know as TRoP. If you do, you will see that I am not as crazy as some think I am.

Meeting With A Soldier (updated)

Our son came back from Kuwait around Thanksgiving time but this week was the first we have been able to see him. He moved to Maryland to live with his bio-mom. Some part of me uspset about that but I have to remember that he needs to spread his wings and live his own life.

Soldier Boy had coffee with my wife on Monday and the next day we went out for a gourmet burger (that is what he said he wanted) and chatted for a couple of hours while we enjoyed the food. On the way there, my wife and I decided not to bring up anything about SoBo living with his mom or anything about family or pet health. My wife said that health conversations tended to bring Sobo down. I agreed.

When we got to Scotty P's, we ordered and SoBo tried to pay but I refused his offer. While we waited for our food, we talked and after the meal was over, he began to open up a bit more.

He began to describe life with his mom. While he was not derogatory, the picture he painted was a sad one. It appears that his mother does not work, not that she has too, but if you are going to be home all day you should have more than the TV to keep you occupied.

I got the impressions that she was trying to win SoBo over by doing little things for him. I guess this is natural since he has not been in her life for 16 years, but the way SoBo described it just sounded so sad. "I really hate that mom is home alone while I am down here finalizing things and visiting." I asked him why he felt bad. Was her husband gone? No he was just working his normal hours. I think she is suffering from depression.

My ex-wife, (SoBo's mom) has had five kids (Sobo, his older sister (who has 2 kids of her own and one on the way), the twins, and another boy) by 4 different men and has been married 3 times. She lost custody of SoBo and his sister 17 years ago and lost custody of her other three children some time later (most likely within the past 7-10 years). It really is sad. I honestly feel quite sorry for her.

Since SoBo brought up his mom and had been carrying the conversation so far, I asked rather innocuous questions and soon found out that she still harbored very negative feelings towards me. Now I am not denying her right to be hurt or even mad at my part of our failed marriage, but to be bitter after 16 years is just a bit much.

SoBo had told her about some of the things in my life that are new and good (my faith, good marriage, etc) but she kept bringing up things that were no longer relevant. "Your dad used to Play D&D, he had a Satanic book (The Necronomicon), etc." Her only real complaints were from our first two years of our five year marriage. Needless to say we both did pretty mean and stupid things, but my mean and stupid stopped (as far as I can remember) after the first two years. Hers went on the entire five years.

I will admit, I was a lousy husband and I made a lot of mistakes, but I made sure that I did not continue living a destructive lifestyle. Accepting Jesus Christ changed all that. The problem? My ex-wife (SoBo's mom) cannot accept that. She is still stuck in the past when it comes to me, more specifically the first two years together.

I have tried to open up dialog with her to tell her that I am sorry for my part in our failed marriage. I was told that she had replied to the e-mail that was sent regarding this, but I never got it. Maybe it is a good thing that I did not.

Sobo went out of his way to compliment mis mom's current husband. He told me that her husband is intelligent and very patient...something that she needed. He also runs the house, but not in an authoritative way. Looking back (hindsight is always 20/20) that is exactly what my ex-wife needed. She needed a man to be in charge and take responsibility. That is something that I failed at until about 4 years ago.

Our son seemed a bit hurt that his mom is still stuck in the past, so I changed subject and we continued on discussing his plans for the future. He slipped back into talking about his mom a couple of times so we just kept it light. It is sad that he has to carry this baggage. It is hard to accept that I am 50% of the reason he has the issues he has. I was not a strong man when he was younger and that is what he and his mom both needed.

What is really quite interesting is that I have rarely thought about my ex until God placed it on my heart to ask her for forgiveness for the things that I did to undermine our marriage. And I am sure she would not be in my mind at all if SoBo was not living with her and talking about her when we see him.

I guess if there are any men out are reading this who are not the leaders of their household, then take my advice and be the strong dependable man your wife expects you to be.

The next day our son stopped by to drop off stuff my wife could recycle and chatted a bit more. He told us we would see him before he went back to the East coast. I hope we do. I have not heard from him since Wednesday, but he asked if he could come over and have lunch with us Saturday. We asked him where he wanted to go and he asked my wife if she would cook for him. "Sure!" she exclaimed, "what do you want?"

"Grilled cheese sandwiches." he replied. "I have not had a real good grilled cheese in at least 18 months."

Grilled cheese it is.

House Arrest

I am on my last night of house arrest (that is what my wife and I call on call) and I am glad that at least the weekend has been (mostly) quiet.

On Monday I only had one call and it was in regards to an issue that was already being worked on. Tuesday was a holiday but I still was on call. It was quiet. Wednesday I went in to the office for the first time in almost two weeks. It felt a little weird and I was still trying to get over my cold. I only had one important issue (and report) to deal with but there were a few calls that had to be fielded.

On Thursday there was a few more calls but it was the afternoon that was busy. It quieted down enough that I could go to the city council meeting that night.

Friday I did not feel great so I worked from home. I was busy all day and to make matters worse, I was unable to log on to the customer VPN from home. While I was able to do most of my work (I could still connect to our VPN), I had to rely on others to help with the other part. I hate relying on people to do my work.

The work on Friday never seemed to stop. At one point I had 4 open issues I was dealing with and the phone kept ringing. Finally by Friday night at 10:00, things calmed down.

I got up Saturday and went to our men's breakfast at church to listen to a local soldier returning from Iraq speak. I honestly did not think the message was appropriate but that is just my opinion.

After the breakfast was over I came home and cleaned the house and ate lunch. After lunch I picked around a while then decided to pick up a cache or two that were new (and close). While working on the first one I was called but due to traffic noise (it was close to a busy road) I missed the call. Luckily, the agent who called left a very detailed message. While it was not a case I would handle, I praised the guy for being thorough.

Once I handled that issue, I thought about going back out but decided against it. I ate dinner with my wife and watch a the last few episodes of "Heroes". I cannot wait for chapter 3!

Today was very typical with Sunday School, church, and lunch with my wife. I got home and changed clothes and kicked around the idea of going out after a few caches...mainly the ones I wanted to get the day before. To make a long story short, I went out, had a great time (it was good therapy and I did not get called from work), and got a milestone 200th cache from my favorite cacher, 9key. I took a few pics but I will only share one. It is a novelty cache, but it was pretty well hidden.

I am glad that today is my last night on call. It is really hard on the mind to live at the end of a toll free number 24 x 7 one week a month.

Whine Whine Whine

Is It Really About "Stuff"?

I have noticed that is is quite popular to brag about the Christmas gifts they received from friends and family. I have caught myself doing it a few times in the past and to be honest, it made me feel pretty bad. I know that we get excited when someone takes the time to buy a very nice (and quite possibly expensive) gift for us...it is natural to do so. However I think we need to step back take a good long hard look at what we do at Christmas and not focus how much we get, but what we give.

If I told you how little we spent on Christmas this year, you would no doubt call me a miser. As a matter of fact, we had one of the smallest (in total cost) Christmases we have ever had. Now I will admit one of the motivators to keep this Christmas "simple" was the desire of both me and me wife to get out of debt. As a matter of fact, our biggest present to each other was paying off the van. Now both of our vehicles are paid for, free and clear.

To be honest, I really wish that my wife and I would not exchange presents at Christmas. While the symbolism is important, proof of my love for my wife (or hers for me) should not be how much we spend, but how much we show it. I think we both received one of the best gifts ever this year. I was home for more than a week (some of it was vacation, some holiday, some work from home) and we did not lose our tempers at all...and that did not cost us a dime. We were around each other most of each day and not a cross word was spoken. Housework was divvied up fairly, we both cleaned and washed dishes (I even dusted two rooms in addition to vacuuming part of the house), and dog duties were split so I was not the only one to feed and walk them. Again...it cost us nothing.

My wife and I both come from humble beginnings but enjoy nice things. We have however, realized that the love of nice things can get you in serious trouble. We are not blessed with great wealth (I support our family with my modest income) but we are in a home (10 years old, 3 when we bought it), have two paid off vehicles, and have limited debt (we still owe on two knee surgeries for our Golden). For that we are thankful.

With that being said, I would like to "spoil" my wife a little if I could afford it but both me and my wife know that we need to take care of our debt first. But why does it have to be at Christmas and why does it have to be a competition? My wife said something a few years ago that floored me. She would rather buy things for each other all year long as they go on sale/as we can afford them then buy them near the holidays and get them all at once. Oh sure, I still want to get my wife a laptop and I would love to get a GPSr so I would not have to keep borrowing one, but God will give us the resources when it is time. He has been good to us even when we have not been good stewards in the past and now that we are being good stewards, he will honor that commitment we have made to him.

I do not want you to think I am against having nice things...I am not. However I think we get out of balance when it comes to Christmas. My father was a very generous man who gave his family a lot even though he had very little. He often worked overtime and side jobs to be able to get the little things he wanted his family to have. While I would certainly do the same, I also realize that I cannot overextend myself carelessly.

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year

All is quiet on New Years Day (queue U2 music...)

A couple of days since my last post and not much has changed.

Health: My cold has settled in my chest and I feel so-so. I also ache from a bad tumble I took while Geocaching solo on Sunday afternoon in Richardson. I am a little sore but nothing is broken...not even the borrowed GPS that hit very hard on the rocks.

Work: I am on call this week, starting yesterday. I had one call (last night) but it was for an open global issue. I think I am on call for today but I am not sure so I am just staying home...not that I feel like doing much anyway. God knows I will be busy enough tomorrow and beyond!

Geocaching: I missed my goal of 200 caches by the end of the year. I ended up with 191...9 short of my goal. It is still more than 60 a month (I started late September) or almost 3 a day. Not too shabby. I had planned on caching with 9key on Sunday but his family time needed to come first...something I fully understand. Plus he is a football fan and the Cowboys were playing.

Weather: is about normal for this time of year here in Texas, albeit a bit cooler. That should change by Friday when it moves up around 60 and Saturday when it will be close to 70. No rain forecast for about a week.

Not much more to blog about. I have a lot of things that need to be done but to be honest I am not motivated to do them. I am not sure I ever will.