Merry (belated) Christmas everybody!This was Lyric the morning after Christmas. The light coming in the window was just enough to give Lyric a light sab...
History of Motorola
Last night, Jodi and I watched Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. I wasn't sure about the prospect of watching it despite having enjoyed the first one. I saw a couple negative reviews of people saying the humor was too silly. I didn't get that impression at all in the movie. It's a family movie, for sure, so there is a little slapstick humor that was intended to make the kids roll on the floor, but for the most part they did a fine job of incorporating humor that was fun for everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw of it.We started the movie about 10:00 PM and after finishing a 57-hour week at work, my fatigue got the best...
SRC to DEI
It was a beautiful and warm sunny day in early September. I had just turned 20 years old in June and I was feeling very much like I was no longer a kid and I had reached full adulthood. I was also feeling very much like a failure in life. I had been unemployed for the first time since starting working. It had only been a month, but I was desperate for a paycheck. I knew nothing about SRC, but was told by my uncle that I should go and apply and that my cousin's husband could get me an interview.I stepped out of the warm sunlight and into the 1960's front office complete with wood paneling. I filled out an application and while I quietly...
Thanksgiving 2009
With Thanksgiving slowly becoming a distant memory, all the focus has rapidly turned towards Christmas. However, I would like to pause for a moment and write a quick blog about our Thanksgiving this year.It all started early this year. Four days early, to be exact. But, any time is a good time to be thankful to God for what we have and who we are. In order to coordinate with all the family members, my mom had Thanksgiving dinner at her house the weekend before Thanksgiving Day. I thought that I might wind up at work Monday with a turkey-hangover, but all was well.It was a good time. I really enjoyed getting to hangout with everybody, particularly...
Have I Gone Too Far? You Be The Judge
I should be really tired, but I'm strangely not. I should be turkey-tired, but I'm going strong. It's currently almost 1:30 AM on Black Friday and will surely be beyond that when I finally get this blog typed up.The thing is: I need your help. Tonight, I was fixing my computer and while it was formatting another hard drive the slow way, I decided to hop online and kill some time by catching up on my blog reading. I read one of my favorite blogs and was astonished to see the term "xmas" used. I'm sure that the author didn't mean it derogatorily, as I know that they are Christians. However, their usage of it, while most certainly innocent,...
A Copy of Our Listing
Scroll down for lots of photos!2-Story1900 + sq. ft.3 Bedroom2 Bathrooms (1 full/1 half) both completely renovated and remodeledBrand New Kitchen (cabinets galore, black appliances, garbage disposal, built-in recycling center, and many more custom features)Formal Dining RoomFoyer with built-in bookcase10 ft ceilings on first floorBeautiful Molding throughoutHuge Brand New Mud/Utility RoomRefinished Hardwood floorsNew ceramic tile in Kitchen, both Baths and UtilityBasement (partial unfinished)Central Forced Heat and AirNew Roof (2008)New Gutters (2008)1 Car Detached Garage (New Roof 2008)Covered Front PorchFenced Backyard w/Garden WallMature Trees...
Block! You're being annoying!
Who isn't on a social networking site these days? I consider myself very computer savvy and an avid surfer of the Internet, however not even I really know what a Twitter is or how many calories one might contain. On the other hand, I do write blogs (obviously) and maintain my blog page, I maintain a website for my photography, I have a profile on Facebook, I had a profile on MySpace up until about a month ago, and I have a couple photo-sharing sites that I seldom do anything with. I ditched the MySpace profile when I just suddenly realized that I never log on anymore. When I would randomly jump on, I would immediately log back out after seeing...
This Little Piggy Went To The Market
With our house pretty much ready to be on the market, Jodi wrote out a list of our house's features so that we could see what kind of listing it would be. It was actually a long list which is great. I kind of felt like it wouldn't be, but I've been guilty of looking at it through a different perspective. We've been in this house for over two and a half years now and even though it has come a long way we still have many projects that we've thought up that we haven't even begun. I'm sure that every home owner probably feels this way when they begin the process of selling their home.We've put every extra dollar we've had into this house and...
Photo Restoration
Almost a year ago, I took on my first job of photo restoration. I haven't done a whole lot of it, but I love working on them. It mixes two of my hobbies, editing photos and restoring things. There's just something about taking something old and making it new again that I can't seem to get enough of. It's no secret that I love taking something unwanted and make it into something desirable, but it's even more rewarding to take someone's prized possessions and restore them back to their original condition. It's even possible to make them better than they were to begin with.Recently, I added a section to my portfolio on my photography website...
Craigslist Trolling Pays Off
Not so long ago, I remember scanning through the PennyPower, our local classified ads weekly periodical, for good deals. It was fun because it was in no particular order, so to find something specific you just had to wade through hundreds of 150-letter ad spaces that were trying to sell anything from dump trucks to garden gnomes. Our local newspaper, the News-Leader, also had a classified ads section, but it was never any good. Everything was in order, but it really lacked participation which I can only assume was because they charged too much for ad space. The News-Leader eventually bought the PennyPower after years of coming in a distant...
Garden Wall
Finally, the wall is actually nearing completion! I'm sure that most of you have no idea what I am talking about. You old-school blog followers may remember a certain wall that I was preparing to build that I wrote about May 30, 2008. No, there's no error here. I did say May of 2008! That day, I managed to remove the fence, gate, small trees, and roots that were in my way and set a concrete footing for my garden wall. It took all day, but I made it.Not long after this, I did start my wall. I reused some cinder blocks that my work had removed from their building. For fancy-pants purposes I will call it 'reclaimed block.' Just trying to...
Afternoon Adventures
Last Thursday, I dropped off Jacob's bike at his school in the morning when I dropped him off. By doing so, Jodi, Lyric, and I were able to ride our bikes when school let out and "pick him up." Of course, Lyric didn't ride his bike but instead caught a ride in the toddler seat on my bike. The trip was 3 1/2 miles one way which isn't too bad at all. The only downside is that we live on the opposite side of downtown from Jacob's school. So, it's no leisurely ride through the countryside. It's an urban landscape no matter which route we take.The flip-side of that coin is that if we want to stop somewhere for fun we have a seemingly infinite...
Over the Hedge and Through the Woods
Jodi and I have decided to get our house ready for sale. We've been working for years now on the renovating and we've come a long way, however most of the work that we've put into the house is in the house as opposed to out. We've somewhat neglected the exterior while beautifying the interior. The result: a house that people judge from the outside and then marvel at the inside because they "had no idea" it was so nice. While we do enjoy the oohs and aahs from guests we receive after they tour the interior we can't help but notice the lack of these noises from people as they walk up or as they leave. We're afraid that when these guests aren't...
Poo Poo Paper
A few weeks ago, I ran across this product in a unique little shop downtown during Art Walk. I was intrigued with the product for obvious reasons. I was fascinated that someone decided to find something useful to do with elephant poop. I can't imagine having such a crappy job. It would stink to work in such conditions. Sorry, but I couldn't resist the puns.I love that they have made a novelty out of it. Although, I can't imagine that they can compete financially with other paper products without the novelty working for them. And what great fun it is. The second photo is one I took with my cell phone from the back of one of the products....
Presidential Address
Usually when the President of the United States makes a statement on live television, a vast majority of Americans want to stop what they are doing and listen. The sit down speeches usually come during prime-time and wind up popping up on virtually every local broadcast channel. People like me, who rarely watch broadcast television, have little trouble avoiding the monologues from the faces of those whom my grandchildren might spot on some new denomination of dollar if we haven't gone to a one-world currency by then. Albeit a rare occasion, I do sometimes catch the highlights on the evening news or an online news report. I like to keep up...
Sushi Night
Last night we made sushi again. It was awesome! It keeps getting better and better every time we make it. And, we're getting faster with it, which is a good thing since sushi can seem to take forever to make. Here's a picture of just some of the rolls we made. We went a little overboard and made a total of 13 rolls. We had California rolls, eel rolls, shrimp rolls, and we even tried Mahi Mahi rolls both cooked and raw. We also made seafood sauce and used store bought wasabi mayonnaise and eel sauce to dip it all in. It was all delicious.We made so much of it, though, that we also had it for breakfast and lunch today, not that we're complaining....
Coffeyville, KS
48 hours ago, I was dropped off at my friend's house. He, another friend, and I were all heading off to Coffeyville, Kansas to do a job. We're done with it now, and we're all home, but while we were there an interesting thing happened. At about 4:00 PM on Wednesday, from our hotel room, I heard the sound of a marching band. I looked out the window to find a parade slowly passing our hotel.It was a neat little parade that was full of the things that you normally see in one. There were antique cars, riders on horseback, wagons, a military Hummer with soldiers on top, fire trucks, police cruisers, a marching band, etc. Candy was being tossed...
