I'm sorry...I'm back!

I've been neglecting my blog page, I know. I promise that it has not been on purpose. I bet you guys must be picturing me laying around the house watching television and stuffing my face with potato chips. I'm not. I've been diligently working on a web page for the cell group that I attend. I've put a lot of work into the page and I am very happy with the results. You should check it out. I managed to utilize some home made graphics to make the site look really good, in my opinion. And, with all the great ideas from James it should be a useful tool for our cell group. I'm excited about it if you can't tell.
So, now that the site is in working order and doesn't really need any more work for now, I will be free to resume my regular blog posting habits. In the meantime, check out the page I'm talking about. There is a link to it on the right side of my blog page "Deep Water Cell Group" found under the fellow bloggers list.
Otherwise, I'm playing my first wedding reception tonight. I'm not really nervous about it like I thought I might be. Probably because I'm only playing two songs. "When God Made You" and "Bring It On Home". Yes, the second one is a country song. But, in its defense, I must say it's an alright country song as country songs go. In other words, it's not about beer, divorce, and infidelity. I know what you're thinking, and I don't know how it officially qualifies as a country song either without those pillars of country music.
I sort of feel like The Wedding Singer, though. I just hope that I don't need to do a toast or anything, because I don't have Adam Sandler's charm in front of a crowd. I do well in small groups of people I know, but pulling off likability amongst total strangers is not a talent that I have in my repertoire. Wish me luck!

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Bored, lonely, and pathetic.

I'm such a baby. I love my wife so much that it borders on obsession. She left yesterday evening to go to West Plains and help out with the preparations of her friend's wedding. I think that she also threw a wedding shower for her. She also was heading down to Moody, Missouri to take some photos of her dad's '49 Ford F-100. When I spoke to her last she said that she also stopped in on one of her family reunions. She's quite the multi-tasking productive woman. She's doing all these things while also producing a human being within. Amazing. That's the only word that describes it and still insufficiently at that.
So here is the part where me being a baby comes into play. I miss her. I'm bored. I've had a lot of fun spending time with Jacob, but I think that he's gone to bed tonight more spoiled than he was when he woke up. I'm afraid that while I can be a bit of a tough Dad, I'm also one of the biggest contributors to Jacob's spoiled lifestyle. So, he's spoiled, but well-behaved.
So, I sit here and type away for what better thing do I have to do? Thankfully, Jodi will be home tonight, but she's doing hair right now and said that she'd call when she is processing. This means that she is doing highlights which means she is still painting on the highlights and foiling. Since she still hasn't called that means that before she can head this way she has to wait 15 minutes or so to process and then wash, dry, apply toner, process, wash out toner, dry, probably cut and style, marvel at the job well done, clean up, say goodbye, gas up the car, and finally begin the almost two hour drive home. She's a super-hero. She'll do it, too. I worry about her safety, though. I just don't want her to get tired and drive home. She can't really drink any coffee because she'll be wired until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. As I type this sentence it is turning 10:00 p.m. Even though I would love for her to be home tonight, I'd rather that she just stay there and head out in the morning. Even super-heroes need their sleep. At least I think they do. There wasn't like a Captain Caffeine or The Invincible Insomniac was there? I was never much into comic books.
I better get back to cleaning up the mess that I made while Jodi was gone, though. I want her to think that us boys are the cleanest boys in the world, but I'm sure that she knows better. Anyway, the attempt at illusion is still a worthy cause, so back to work for me. OH YEAH! I almost forgot. Jodi came up with a cool idea for using my old hubcaps from my '59. If you've been reading my blogs for a while then you might recall months ago I lost a hubcap which prompted me to buy a new set. My newer hubcaps are beautiful and I got the whole set for only $18. But, I didn't know what to do with my old set. Jodi suggested making cool clocks out of them. I thought that that was a great idea and today I bought a clock mechanism for just under $5. It took me about an hour to make but here is the finished product. Cool, huh?

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A day in the life of...

I've never just written about my day, so I thought that maybe I could take you through a tour of a day in the life of me. Here we go...
I woke yesterday morning at about 4:00 am in a terrible state. I had a bad cramp in my left calf muscle and since it woke me up it took me about 30 seconds before I could wake my brain up and discover the source of the intense pain. Once the cause was determined I quickly took the old soccer cramp routine and the pain subsided slowly but surely. I went back to sleep after this and then shut off the alarm the first time it went off at 5:45. Inevitably, I overslept and woke up at 6:40 which was just enough time to jump out of bed, throw on some clothes and go to my Leadership Academy class, but when I "jumped" out of bed I almost hit the floor face down when my left leg just gave out. I don't know what I was doing in my sleep with my leg, but it was paying retribution to me in the morning. I was limping around like I didn't even have a left leg and decided to just go back to sleep. I would've only got in a half day of class anyway since yesterday was the big day we were to find out the sex of the baby. So, I played hookie. I spent some time in the living room stretching before I took Jacob to school and got my leg back to somewhat normal. When I got back home I threw a blend of French Roast and Sumatra coffee beans into the grinder and then had a couple cups of the wonderful outcome of the water that ran through it. Then, Jodi and I made sushi. We're getting pretty good at it, too, I might add. After getting ready, we left to go pick up Jacob and went to the ultrasound appointment and saw a boy on the screen. YAY! We spent the whole time between the ultrasound and the doctor's appointment calling friends and family to tell them the news. Doctor Williams confirmed that everything was perfectly normal with the baby at the appointment. After we got home Dustin showed up and brought the computer that he was giving me and a bonus computer for parts and a really nice Sony shelf home entertainment stereo system. So, after we filled my living room with free electronics and then ate some Frito pie for dinner we went to the park for a couple hours and let the kids play. We got home about 8:45 and got Jacob to bed and then I had a chance to play with my new toys for a while before we laid down to eat sushi and watch V for Vendetta. Finally, off to sleep. What a day! I love my life!

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It's a BOY!

I was definitely not expecting a boy, but I am very excited! Biased by growing up a boy with one brother, no doubt, I always wanted two boys. I did discover years ago that I did want a girl after all, though. I'm still a little in shock about this baby being male, but I'm sure it will take some time to sink in. I hope that Jodi doesn't mind being overrun even more by this masculine addition.
I apologize for the quick and short blog, but we have to go back to the doctor now to get told all the details and the particulars about the size and all the measurements they took of the internal organs and all that good stuff. But, I wanted to let all my readers know as soon as possible. So, now you know!

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City Council Backpedals!

I laughed at first when I saw this article, but City Council still doesn't get it. They spent the last month considering and deliberating and weighing the pros and cons of a supposed answer to a supposed problem, but the real problem is that they've wasted all that time and money talking about something that they dropped as soon as the public got wind of it. I do wonder what they mean by "subject to coucil scrutiny." Even though they did drop their crusade to put a stop to apartment development, they still unanimously approved Mayor Tom Carlson's alternatate proposal that requires these apartment projects to be "planned projects." Apparently, that places these projects under City Council's scrutinizing microscope. While, I do agree that Springfield City Council should be involved in large projects so that all the necessary utilities such as streets and traffic lights can be addressed, I don't think that City Council remembers what they are set up for. I think that this recent issue has really shed some light on the fact that they don't know what is in Springfield's best interests. It also shows that they will attempt to abuse power that they were never given in the first place.
Here is a link to the News-Leader's article that I am commenting on today: http://news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060906/NEWS01/609060358

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Too Much Competition?

I don't get it. I heard several times this morning on news radio an odd thing that sparked my interest. Since I can't find any website that is updated fast enough to carry the story I will say that it went something like this, "Is Springfield over-run with new Apartment complexes? That's what city council will be voting on this week. A recent boom in new apartment complex construction has possibly contributed to an exodus of center-city apartments. City council intends to consider and vote on new proposals that will help to slow down new construction of these apartments. Proposals include the changing of city zoning laws."
I heard this and couldn't believe it. It sounds like people are moving out of center-city apartments and into new apartments built elsewhere in the city and City Council is upset about it. First of all, don't they realize that purposely slowing down construction opportunities is a bad thing. It sounds like the landlords of all these slums in center-city are using their political connections to keep tenants from finding better places to live. That's so wrong! I agree with those that say that if companies (landlords included) want to make money then they have to do what every other company does. They have to make their product or service attractive to the buying public. If these center-city landlords want people to continue to live in their rentals then they need to be pushed to fix up their rentals. It seems to me that they liked it a lot more when there was a shortage of places to live and they could collect rent every month without ever having to put anything into their properties. This is clearly an issue of City Council trying to drive out competition. But what they are driving out is nicer, affordable housing. They are driving out new construction jobs. They are catering to current lazy slumlords who ruin Springfield with their rotting properties.
I say let the current apartment construction continue. The slumlords will be forced to renovate or sell. When old dilapidated places like that sell, the most common buyers are investors who buy to fix up and sell. Sometimes it's families that buy these properties and fix them up because they are proud homeowners. Either way, Springfield wins. It gets fixed up and people take pride in their neighborhoods again. But, one of the biggest reasons for center-city decay in Springfield is that the homes aren't owned by individual families. They're mostly owned by investors that rent out their properties and don't take care of them. As long as there are those who will rent out these properties the investors will continue to let them rot and collect their rent. This news report mentioned a "center-city exodus". City Council is intending to stop the very thing that will only help center-city rejuvenation. Be aware of what is going on in our city.

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