Thirsty Thursday...

Yeah, I know. I'm back on the wagon, so why is it a "thirsty Thursday"? Because tomorrow is PAYDAY for both Ann and myself. I actually hate that. It is easier for me to budget when we are on separate schedules for paychecks, and that isn't going to happen for a few more weeks. This means have to be a bit more careful, but that's OK. I am just glad I didn't have to touch the savings account. There isn't a whole lot in there, but it's better than nothing. My goal is to save enough to take my wife on a cruise next year for her birthday.

Shhh! It Happens

Good day all. What a week it's been! Last weekend, Ann and I decided to make Christmas come a little early, and bought Anthony a new television for his room. He's had the same one since we moved in. We bought it for the house the day we moved in because the movers were not going to have ours here for a couple of days, and we needed something. It's a simple 13" TV, and fit well in there. Well, we had been saying for Christmas we'd get him a 21" flat panel. After talking last Sunday, we found we could get it now, so we don't buy everything in December. Yeah, I know, I could have waited a couple of more weeks for the holiday sales. But, think about it, the sales are on the BIG stuff. You are not finding many deals on a smaller TV. So, we went to Sam's and bought it.

Now, you know the saying "an ounce of pleasure for a pound of pain"? Well, it's continuing to be the motto for my life. Tuesday night, my wife went to shut down the home computer and it was beeping. A long, annoying beep, followed by a small bit of quiet, then another long beep. OK, this is bad. Shut it down, waited a few minutes, turned it back on, same thing. Shut it down again. Next morning, turned it on, same stupid beeping. Alrighty then, time for a new one. I could have brought this one in for repair, but it's old and I had a feeling the repair cost would be as much as a new one. So, during lunch on Wednesday, went out and bought a new one. That afternoon it was fairly quiet at work, and I started getting another of my regular daily migraines (one looming on the horizon now as a matter of fact), so I left at 3pm, knowing I would be back online from home at 3:30. At 3:45pm, I lost my internet at home. What the hell happened? So, I decided to disconnect EVERYTHING, hook up the new computer, let the modem and Linksys cool down, and have it all working in about 1/2 hour or so. That plan failed miserably. I got the wireless to work, but no phone (I have Vonage). Then I got the phone to work, but no internet. Then I lost everything again. After about 2 hours I called Vonage. Turned out my modem was fine, but the Linksys IP address reset to 0.0.0.0 and would not allow anything else to communicate. This also reset my Vonage modem. The guy who helped me was fantastic, and VERY knowledgeable. Needless to say, I was out for 3 hours.

Work on the other hand has been VERY busy, which I enjoy. The only BAD thing is, I am never sure what I'm not doing because I'm working on something else. Turns out my fears are for naught, because everything is taken care of. Did have an "interesting" conversation with my supervisor though. He was a little upset because of something I said to HIS boss, and I am now under the impression that my company is no longer "open door" because God forbid you say something that is on your mind, you are a bad person. OH WELL! I was also told that the manager we used to have, who was my ally, is gone and I no longer have any allies at work. Let me clear something up right now. The manager who left was not my ally, at least not in my eyes. He was my mentor, and I considered him a friend. And for those of you who know me, I call VERY FEW people my friend. And I miss having my friend in the office. But, you know what? He is a fantastic person, the smartest business person I believe I have ever met, and the move is fantastic for him and a wonderful way to provide for his family. Good for him, bad for us (ounce to pound right?).

Anyway, everything is still good. I am not worried about my job. I am learning (sometimes the hard way) that I am currently in an office that I have to watch every word I say because it will come flying back at me, and that's fine. I talk to few, now it will be fewer. Most, if not all, will get a "good morning" and that's about it. *SMILE*

Woooo Pig Soo -- oops! :(

The Arkansas Razorbacks played the #1 ranked team in college football, the Florida Gators. Arkansas was a 25-point underdog. 25 points!! This, after we beat Texas Tech in Dallas, and then beat #19 ranked Auburn at home. OK, so we were in Florida. OK, so they have (arguably) the best quarterback in all of college football. We put on a helluva game. Final score 23-20 Florida. We didn't even let them score the 25 points they were favored by!! Our one screw up? Tejada missed yet another field goal. Then we allowed Florida to take it down the field and score one of their own with 9 seconds left. What confuses me is why after we took the kickoff and got decent field position did we not let Mallett throw the hail mary 60 yards (he's capable of throwing it 70 yards in the air) and hope for a miracle catch or a pass interference call. No, we decided to try the "throw the ball backwards forever until someone tackles us" routine. That is so played out! Hell, we threw it backwards two or three times, then got tackled from BEHIND! How stupid did that turn out? Well, I'll say what everyone else will probably say about this loss...it was a great game, our defense played well, and we'll use this game to build on the rest of our season and next season. Been there, heard that. Unfortunately, it's yet to work!

Also, today my son ran the Chile Pepper 5k in Fayetteville. I decided to go, even though I knew my knee (still cracked) would be reminding me later that the walk between the car and the race (back and forth is about the same as what they ran!) would hurt. Well, I walked, and it does. Anyway...I found Anthony near the start line about 1/2 hour before the race. He, however, did not find me until about 10 minutes before the race. LOL! He was doing warm-ups with the rest of the team, and I was not about to interfere. I talked to him a little before the race, helping to boost his confidence. He is SO capable of running under 7 minutes for a mile. And yes, this one is 3.1 miles, rather than the 2 mile runs he is used to. But it's a good course, he's done it before. I told him, you can do this in 21, and I'd like to see it. BUT, if you finish in under 22 minutes, you can pick where we go for dinner tonight. "Really?!" he asked. "Really!" I replied. I also told him, if you pass a marker (1 or 2 miles) and hear a time OVER 7 or 14 minutes, you're running too slow, and pick up the pace. The gun went off, and off they went. I was able to see him run a couple of times, as they pass by so you can applaud, yell encouragement or times, and yelled for him to pick up the pace and such. He got to the straight run towards the end in 20 minutes and high change, and then had a double turn and the stretch to the finish. I hoped like hell he would make the 22 or less, and yelled to him he's got 1 minute to finish. Blue! Red! Blue! (You yell the colors in front of them, and they know it means to pass them). I got to the finish line a moment before he did, and watched as he crossed the line. He wasn't able to see me, and I wasn't able to yell encouragement, but I think one of his coaches were there, so that was good. He crossed in 21 minutes 55 (or 56 -- it's up for debate) seconds! YESSS! He beat his best time in a 5k run by almost 2 full minutes (previous best 23:44)!

Ten days from now, they have their final race of the season. It's in Rogers (next town over) and last year, while he ran 2k in 16 minutes or worse every race, this race he did in 14 minutes and some. Everyone says it's the easiest course there is. Well, Van Buren was easy this year and he did it in 14:37, which sucked! But after this, he's got all the confidence in the world. And I know the coaches will not ease up on them this week because there is still one meet left. I am fully expecting him to finish that race in UNDER 13 minutes (hey! one can dream right?). Will let you know how it turns out.

I'm a touch UPSET!!

Being a parent is not easy, this much I am learning. Yeah, there were issues when Anthony was younger, but not due to anything he did. It was due to unforeseen circumstances which caused me to just not give a damn. Well, that's in the past, and now I consider myself to be a decent father. I try to give my son everything he wants (within reason of course), fair but firm. Hell, I drove 80 miles ONE WAY to watch him run his Cross Country meet this weekend.

Well, tomorrow and Thursday he wanted to attend the tryouts for the bowling team. This means I have to leave work early, pick him up at school, then take him to the bowling alley while he does his thing, and I have to wait there for an hour. Thursday would be his mom's turn. I decided to look at his grades today to see what updates from the weekend there were by the teachers. It not only didn't get better, but one grade got FAR worse. Needless to say, now I'm pissed. I've already told him forget the bowling team. I'm real close to emailing his XC coaches and telling them he will not be running the final 2 meets of the season because of his grades. Right now I'm holding off, because I don't want to take everything away without giving myself a chance to calm down.

I did give him the "what for" about it. Fortunately for him, I did not raise my hands (for those of you who read this that think it's wrong for me to spank a child as discipline when it's WELL deserved, I dare you to say or do something about it, and then God help you!!), but I did yell alot. And LOUD too.

Oh well, I'm done pissing now. Thank you for listening.

In case of...

Yeah, I normally don't post this close together, but the way I felt when I woke up this morning made me think to post, just in case. I had a migraine to beat all hell, a pain in my neck which I don't know if is tight muscles, a pinch nerve, or a bad disc in my neck, plus a sharp shooting pain that felt like it was going THROUGH my brain into my eyes, rather than up the back of my head and into my eyes. The most fun part of this all was when the bridge I was driving on to get to my office(which is under construction by the way) went from 2 lanes to one. It didn't in reality, but in my eyes, YES IT DID! I left work around 11ish, got home alive (somehow) and went straight to my room. That's where I spent the next 2 1/2 hours, under the covers, and I mean UNDER the covers (head to toe) and tried to get rid of the pain. It left, I ate lunch, and now I'm supposed to be starting dinner. Nope! I feel everything coming back, and that means I am not getting up for fear I'll fall down again.

Anthony is running XC this weekend. His grades are improving, and he's working with the teachers to make up as much work as he can. So I am letting him run. However, the run is in Van Buren, which is down by Fort Smith and an 80 mile drive one way from us. I may or may not go. Next weekend is the Chili Pepper Festival 5k run and I'm definitely going to that one, provided I don't have other plans like my own funeral.

Played poker last night. I was thinking about it most of the morning yesterday, then Ann got a call to go into work. So, I decided I wasn't going to go. Then a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he was going, so off I went. We met up, chatted a few minutes, had a quick beer (so much for sobriety LOL!) and went to play. I think he was out early, because I didn't see him around at the break. I wound up finishing in 9th out of a field of 60 which wasn't bad, but they only paid top 6. I hate A-10, suited or not. Overall, it was fun though.

Well, that's about it. Keep an eye on the obits page. If you find my name, let me know ok?

Manic Monday

Last week I was out of the office for 2 1/2 days. No vacation, just a couple of days of training and then a half day working with Habitat for Humanity. Now, it's a new week, and it did not start out as well as I had hoped. Everything today seemed very rushed, and nothing seemed to fall into place. I hope the rest of the week gets better.

I checked Anthony's grades, and they seem to be a little better. I went through every class with him and we found some things that he can still do to make up a couple of grades. I decided that he can run XC this weekend. He also wants to go to Homecoming this Saturday night. There is a girl he wanted to ask, but he apparently asked her out last year and she said she only likes him as a friend.

OK, guys, we've been through this. We like a girl, but they "do not like us in that way" so what do we do? We're men! We move on (after starting rumors about her and the like, right? LMAO!). I'm kidding. We do move on though ... sometimes. I told him he is not going to ask her out again. I mean, what's changed? Did she tell him she likes him? Did he gain 40 pounds of muscle? No and No! I told him to go stag, but be sure a couple of his friends are going stag as well.

Well, that's about it. TTFN!

No X-Country this weekend

Ann has been looking at Anthony's grades online, but I haven't. Today Anthony had homework that he gets off the teacher's website, and for that he has to use my laptop. For some reason, the other computer keeps kicking us off the website. I guess there is a program or something we are missing. Anyway, after he was done, I decided to take a peek at his grades for myself. Well, apparently his mother doesn't tell me anything. It's a great friggin' secret. She said she looked at them last week and "they weren't so bad". I would like to know her definition of "they weren't so bad" because his BEST grade was a middle C. Well, I spoke to Anthony about it, and he knew his grades were bad. Guess what that means? It means he will NOT be running in the Holiday Island meet this weekend. I immediately emailed his coach after talking to him and let her know. I also told him that if I do not see an improvement next week, he will miss the Van Buren meet. He will also be missing the Chili Festival and the Rogers meets if his grades do not improve. If they decide to excuse him from the team, that's fine with me. I told him at the start, if the grades are bad, it's too bad he won't be running.

Well, at least I'll get to sleep this weekend!