I've become the stupid help desk call..

For a couple weeks the touchpad on my laptop hasn't worked. It mostly has no impact on me since I use a mouse 99.44% of the time. However, it's a new laptop and I felt that everything should work so I wanted to get it serviced before the warranty ran out.

Today I called Toshiba, explained my issue, was given a help ticket number and put into the queue. It didn't take long before I was greeted with the first level tech support person. Spent 5 minutes verifying the information I had given the operator. I do this calmly hoping that we can get through the diagnostic quickly and he can point me to a place to get my laptop serviced. I am after all a tech guy and I know that this thing needs to be fixed.

He then told me to push the "FN" key (as opposed to the f-in key) and then hit "F9". I do so and in big bright letters it says "Touch Pad Enabled"

Apparently I'm now the guy who calls in saying that their cupholder is broken..

When did naming conventions get all screwed up?

It used to be so simple. There was small, medium, large. Then they brought in extra large. That concept seemed simple enough.

It's different now though. Now, if you're lucky you have medium and large. If you're not, you have tall, grande, and venti. Tall is small? If we go with things that rhyme should large be barge? (I'll have a big mac, fries and a barge size coke please..actually that's pretty accurate..)

I'm looking at postage rates today. First class is the cheapest. Then there is express, priority, express priority and double super secret express priority. Since first class takes the longest, shouldn't it be called last class; or class right above post cards but right below junk mail?

Ok, I'll stop whining now.

An interesting evening

Tonight was Shayna and I's date night. We try to go on a date every week..tonight was dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, zoo lights, and a visit to the national Christmas Tree. The restaurant we were going to go to was a place called Red Sea in Adam's Morgan. Shayna had eaten there before and was really looking forward to having some fine Ethiopian cuisine. Doing a Google search yielded the address as well as some reviews (seemed to get 4 out of 5 stars/thumbs/whatever)

So after a couple wrong turns (thanks Google) and about an hour later we make it up to 18th St NW only to find that the restaurant no longer exits.. Shayna was really looking forward to this Ethiopian restaurant. I offer to eat anywhere else on this strip, and point to the McDonald's. :-) We end up finding another Ethiopian restaurant on that street.

While I'm glad I tried Ethiopian, I must say that I don't think I will eat it very much in the future. I'm sure the restaurant is a great restaurant, just the style didn't seem to suit me. Shayna also felt a little let down. So dinner was a bit of a bust, but it didn't matter we had more to do!

Zoo lights (if you have gone to the link above) seems like it would be a really cool idea. We love Christmas light displays, and they have hot cocoa, hot cider, and smores there.

The lights were pretty rudimentary, the cocoa/cider/smores weren't free (which I kind of thought they would be) and the smores were actually made in a microwave (to make sure no fires broke out) So we were a little disappointed by the trip to Zoo lights as well.

No matter, we have the National Tree! The tree actually went well. We saw the tree, trains, and Yule Log. It was nice.

So even though 2 out of 3 parts of the date was a disappointment, I wouldn't have traded it for anything..I got to be with Shayna the whole time.

2 posts in a week? The world must be coming to an end.

I think one of the tougher things about marriage is that it's very easy to take your spouse for granted. You see and talk to them every day. It's easy to start thinking that they will always be there.

Last night, my wife offered to do something which was very difficult for her. It would have been a big sacrifice on her part and I love how she is willing to do anything for me. I'm not going to go into details of what it was, but it really touched me.

I take her for granted and she puts herself on the line for me. It reminds me of other relationships I have. I think every Christian can relate...

Wow, has it been that long?

The last time I posted something was Oct. 30th. I can't believe over a month has passed since then.

I just discovered some of the cool features of the updated nfl.com website. If the game is on NFL network you can stream it. They also have a game called Call the Play where you call what the play is going to be.

This is amazing to me on 2 fronts. The first is that it keeps up with the game amazingly well. I only got to do it for the final 2 minutes of the Skins-bears game but I was surprised how fast it knew the results and tallied the score.

Why can't the gamecaster be that efficient?

In other news, Christmas is coming up. News flash I know. It's my first holiday season without Pop-pop though. One of the things I loved was going home and seeing my grandparents during the holidays. Time to make new traditions I guess..

Lastly, I have to give a shoutout to my wife. Tonight she was cleaning up the kitchen and I stood in the doorway where we have mistletoe. We shared a passionate kiss and embrace that brought us both to tears. I can't tell you why really..just that for some reason it was a passionate moment.

Soooo...where do I turn in my man card?

Blueberry, cornbread muffins

It's kinda cold in the office today. I wish I had some wristies so that my hands could be warm but I still would maintain finger dexterity while typing.


This post is dedicated to my wife. A woman who makes me laugh, a woman who makes me smile, a woman who holds me accountable, a woman who makes me better.

Thank you for being more than I could have dreamed of dear.

I love you

On this day

On October 1st:

• The Model T automobile was introduced by Henry Ford.
• The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened
• Roger Maris hits his 61st home run to beat Babe Ruth's record
• Johnny Carson began hosting the "Tonight" show
• Walt Disney World Opened in Orlando
• Shayna Willis was born.

The most exciting event out of all of them was Shayna being born.

Happy Birthday dear, I love you!

Finishing the fight

I got Halo 3 this morning and have gotten to play 2 chapters..I think. There really aren't chapters like there was in the first one. I've gotten past 2 major load screens..before that meant chapters..

First impressions:

This graphics are good. Not wow factor like the first time I saw Gears of War, but definitely a step above the previous versions. I'm enjoying this one the most. I haven't gotten completely used to the new controls (b is now deploy shield and right button is reload. I can't tell you how many times I've wasted a shield trying to reload..) but overall I think the boys at bungie got this one right.

I'm really looking forward to playing with the level editor..

Halo 3

SOOO I thought I would go and grab my copy of Halo 3 tonight and then start playing in the morning. See as how I have to work most of the time when I'm actually awake at night and I have to be at a client's at 10 am.

Stupidly, I forgot how crazy those midnight releases for video games are. I roll up to the gamestop at about quarter till and there are easily 250 people surrounding the place. You figure it takes approximately 1 min to process each person (showing preorder, verify, pay, sign, etc) and this was looking to be at least 2 hours to get the game (they would most likely have 2 registers running)

So being the responsible person I am, I decided to actually work during those 2 hours, get some sleep, get the game in the morning, and maybe take my 360 to the client's. I'm trying to figure out, if I do that, can I write off the 360 as a business expense, or just the game?

Sometimes even a rock needs to lean against something

This weekend, I needed someone to take care of me.  I'm starting to get sick (which I hate) and cranky (which everyone hates) but my wife was right there offering to get me soup or putting me to bed.

 

It's good to be able to lean on someone when you need them.

 

That is all.

These have to be some proud parents

Babies can do no wrong..

Fantasy Weekend

I'm in 3 leagues this year. By the time you get to 3 leagues fantasy football becomes very blurry. You forget who you have and by the end of the season all you really care about is one team.

So far I'm 2-1 this season. Time to stop paying attention to the pay league..

It's here IT'S Here IT'S HERE, IT'S FINALLY HERE

After so many months with only stuff besides professional football, professional football is back. Oh joy!

This weekend I got my Xbox 360. I had been wanting once since they had come out, and Shayna convinced me that this should be the week we get it. So I traded in my original Xbox along with most of my games. We got about $80 for it, which was a little depressing.

I now have All-Pro football and two wireless controllers so I can play with someone else here. I've also reserved my copy of Halo 3. I don't think I'll be able to afford any other games until Christmas. By far the coolest feature of the 360 is being able to download demo games for free. So far, I think I've downloaded like 5.

In other news this weekend, my close personal friend Odgie had his birthday party on Saturday at Famous Dave's. There was much rejoicing.

Sunday brought good times with people at our new church. Particularly the Rice's (Shout out to Peter and Betsy) who were part of the: The Super Advanced First Team in putt putt.

That evening brought more good times because we played games with new friends Tom & Lore Lynch (shout out to Tom and Lore).

The only downer of the weekend was news that the Roland's will be leaving the DC area to move to St. Louis by the end of September. Something about jobs out there..I don't know, I don't pay much attention. Seriously though, Dave and Jen, you will be missed. Good luck, and hopefully we'll get to do dinner or something before you go.

Last shout out will be to my lovely & beautiful wife who is starting with the kids tomorrow. Last year was brutal. This year will be much better dear, I know it. :-)

Remember kids, keep your head in the stars, your feet on the ground, and a bowl of jello under your pillow, just in case you get hungry at night.

Why do people kiss golf trophies?

I don't know why I find this funny..I just do.

mmmm....lunch

Interesting new little app over on the right. Put in your ZIP code and it tells you good places to eat along with reviews.

Now the only trick is to make sure my allowance lasts the entire month for eating out..

Shayna

One of the things that irritates me is when people do the "ball and chain" jokes. Recently a co-worker told me how excited he was to be going on a mini vacation and that his wife wasn't coming along. He would be away from work and away from his wife.

I can't understand that.


When I first got married I would tell people about my wife, and immediately they would ask how long we had been married. I would tell them the length and they would invariably say "Oh, you're still in the honeymoon stage".

I hope I never leave the honeymoon stage. I hope that I never want to take a vacation without my wife. I hope that I look forward to seeing her face every morning, as much as or more than, I do now.

I love you dear!

I ♥ relaxing weekends

This summer has been ridiculously packed with stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that we've been able to do all the stuff we've been able to do. I think we've spent more weekends out of town than we have in town though. Next weekend is the last of the out of town weekends for awhile. This weekend my wonderful wife let me have a weekend inside. Saturday we hardly left our apartment. I think the only times we left were to go to KFC for dinner and then walk to the dairy queen for desert.

We got to see our teams play (thank you NFL network) and overall just got to be a bums.

Next weekend, Wilkes-barre for Matt's birthday bash!

I've loved listening to Weird Al ever since I was a kid. Thankfully I've been able to get my wife addicted to his music as well. This past Thursday we went to his concert at the Warner Theater. Shayna got awesome seats. We were in the 6th row center. I thought I wouldn't like the show as much because this is the second time we've gone (I went to a blue man group show in a different city and it was exactly the same as the first one in New York) but it seems as if each show is unique.

This was during his song called "Cell Phones". The lyrics are:

"We all have cell phones
so come on let's get real
cell phones
let's get real"

How can you argue with genius like that?

Other highlights include a strip tease during "You're Pitiful", an interviews with Madonna, K-Fed, Keith Richards, as well as singing to the ladies in "Wanna B Ur Lovr"

If you ever have the opportunity to catch a show, I highly recommend it.

Tax Free Weekend

So this past weekend, Best Buy was offering everything without sales tax. The reason for this I'm assuming is that it would spur sales. I find it funny that people would purchase stuff based solely on tax.

If I want/need an item I'm not looking at how much the tax costs. I'm looking at how much the item costs.

Although, I would be impressed if the Feds got in on the act and did it for all tax. Think about how much the economy would be juiced if there were 3 days without income tax. People would put in a 72 hour day.

I hate you Steve Jobs

I'm sitting around waiting for a server to finish installing windows. This task has been difficult because of Steve Jobs (one of the founders of Apple).

The installing of the OS is a simple task. You hardly ever change the default settings. The reason for my annoyance is because the server didn't come with a keyboard or mouse. This is normally not an issue because there are others at the office. However, the server only takes USB and not the older PS2 and this is where Steve Jobs comes in.

Ol' Stevie (as his friends call him) decided with the invention of the iMac that he was no longer going to support floppy drives. He felt they were legacy devices and this was going to be cutting edge.

Soon after, others starting falling suit. Now, most computers don't have a floppy drive.

Hot on the heels of making everyone ditch their floppies, he said no more PS2. That's fine, unless you only have PS2. Then you are have to drive to Best Buy and search for a wired mouse and keyboard. This is actually more difficult than you would think. Why a wired mouse and keyboard? Because there isn't an operating system to install the device drivers!

I realize this post will fall mostly on deaf ears. I can think of about 3 people who read this will understand exactly what I'm talking about. For all you others, here is a video of Puppy vs. Kitten

Life is different at 1 am

One of the interesting facets of my new job is that is has wacky hours. I word some of the time during the day and I work other time early in the morning. The reason for this is that I need to stay in contact with the developers in India. Their day starts at 11:30pm ET.

As a result of this I'm finding time to write blog posts. At the moment I'm waiting for a query to end. It's taking over 2 min to run which means it probably doesn't work and I need to optimize it.

Nothing new to really report on. I'm diggin my new "office". I'm becoming addicted to facebook. I find it fascinating that they keep all of your friends updated on what you've changed in your profile, etc.

Ok, well the query has hit 5 min. I think I linked something incorrectly...

Count your blessings, name them one by one

I was reading Matt 5 recently and saw the beattitudes. After that I had the hymnal "Count your Blessings" stuck in my head. So I guess here it goes:

I'm blessed to have a beautiful, wonderful wife who loves me.
I'm blessed to have a roof over my head and food to eat
I'm blessed that I get to go to church each week and worship God.
I'm blessed that my grandfather passed away, so that I could lean on God.
I'm blessed that no matter if I had moved to PA or stayed in VA, things would be ok.
I'm blessed to have two crazy cats
I'm blessed that I get to share this list.

That's all for now. When is the last time you named/counted yours?

Hey, that's me!

Called out by Jill

I've been putting this off, but I was called out so here it is:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1) I have to enter the shower on the side of the tub away from the shower head.
2)I floss about once a week..if I remember
3)I AM NOT GAY FOR JOHN ELWAY. I just think he is the best football player. eva
4)I can't cook dinner if there are dirty dishes in the sink. They must be put into the dishwasher.
5)I love listening to big storms.
6)I really appreciate it when people make an effort to accommodate my allergy, especially when I don't remind them of it.
7)I like to watch people. Not in a creepy way, but like in a how people do things or carry themselves when they think no one is looking.
8) I normally wear my watch on my left arm. If I need to remember something, I put it on my right arm, place my hand over it, and say what I need to remember 3 times. That's how I remember to do important things.

I'm worth a cool 5 grand

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What a new post? Say it isn't so!

So since I am gainfully unemployed now I figure I should do something constructive with my time. That being I should start writing blog posts again for the 5 people that actually read this.

This weekend has started off without the expected bang. Shayna and I were supposed to go to a water park today, unfortunately, the weather isn't conducive for that. It's about 70 degrees and cloudy. 70 degrees. In late June. What's the world coming to?

The rest of the weekend should be better though (I'm probably the only one in the greater Pittsburgh area complaining about the weather). Tomorrow we are attending a wedding for someone in Shayna's family. These are typically fun events to attend (as people who attended my wedding can attest). Sunday we are going to go to the North Hills Church of Christ. This is notable because it's John Vaught's new church.

We're going to be leaving from church to come home where we make final preparations for our trips to Orlando/Nags Head. It's gonna be great.

Why I shouldn't gamble

Last night Shayna, Matt, John, and I went to the casino in Wilkes-barre. I put a 10 dollar bill into a black jack machine. I hadn't quite realized it, but you had to play 7 hands of black jack all at once and it was a minimum of $1 bet. So at a minimum you were betting $7.

So I put the $10 in, hit deal. All the cards are dealt and the dealer gets blackjack. Just like that, $7 gone. I didn't even get a chance to play.

For some reason I'm really unlucky when it comes to gambling.

Shayna though..well she ended up about $100 ahead.

Pulling a Brett Favre

So this has been a wild and wacky week. It starts with a hitch in Gabe & Kate getting hitched. We then drive to the 'Barre for a job interview that ends up being a dud (although Shayna probably would have gotten the job if she wanted). Throw in a super long..err..disagreement and then you have the point at which Shayna and I are deciding what to do. Should we stay or should we go?

It was a tough call, we had already put in resignations, broken leases, rented trucks. Then to turn the ship around so late was not like me at all. But it seemed like to make things work the way we wanted to, 1 more year was needed in the DC area.

So now, I'm going to be working at my job part time starting next week. I've even got some job prospects already lined up.

The line looks good and I feel confident that this year we'll go deep in the playoffs.

Yeah, I can see why Favre does it..but I think next time it will be fo real

im in ur google taking the internetz

I decided to try and google myself to see what I came up with. Carl Willis comes up with a baseball player. However, my alter ego crazykarl7, came up with 13 pages of google goodness. Not 13 hits. 13 pages.

I had no idea I was on the pulse of the interweb. Thanks to all who made it possible.

Great Wife Post

Yesterday, Shayna spent most of the day with her close personal friend Elise. She had a fantastic time. When she got home she told me all about her day. They went to a Greek food festival, then off to a conservatory to look at some flowers and then finally an excursion to the book store.

That evening, shayna and I had a date. We went to the Greek food festival because she saw some food that I would like to try. We walked around Pitt university because I like the tall buildings. On the way home we stopped at Rita's Italian Ice because she knows I love that italian ice.

Before we ate at the festival, we stopped to pray. She had a smile on her face and said that she missed praying with me today.

Even though she had one of the best days with one of her friends, she was thinking about me. The entire date was for me. It really warms my heart to have someone always thinking about me.

Thank you for the awesome date last night dear. I love you!

The meeting of two great things

I was out in Winchester VA last night for Dave Roland's bachelor party. Let me tell you, Winchester is THE place for partying. I envision a Trump tower will be coming there soon.

On the way home I saw a Shoney's Restaurant and on sign it said Free Wireless Internet. Breakfast Buffet + WIFI. Great googa mooga.

It makes me wonder why Starbucks charges for theirs. Maybe because they know people are addicted to coffee so they will come anyway. There should probably be some gov't law against that.

Ragged Out

This past weekend I was supposed to go on a hiking/camping trip. We cancelled so that I could spend time with my grandfather. Well, since my weekend unexpectedly opened up, the hiking trip was back on. It was a long journey but it was good to reflect on top of the mountain.

Pics below:

Old Rag Mountain

All of the Europe photos

So I'm testing with picasa webalbums. Here are all the pictures from the Europe Trip back in Feb. Just click the picture.

Europe 07

Pop-Pop

In the early 20's a man was born named Earl Russel Smith Jr. He lived through the depression, went into the military to fight in WWII and came out unscathed. He loved his wife, kids, and the Redskins. All told he had jobs as a pilot, boxer, military police officer, and IRS Agent. He lived a strict life style and if you asked, most people would call him one tough S.O.B.

To me though, he was Pop-pop. He is the one who challenged me to eat as many strawberry shortcakes as I could at Country Cooking. He would give me bananas or black jelly beans because they made my hyper. He drove from VA to FL to help restore order to my life when my parents divorced. He gave me helpful advice on things such as football,cars, girls, and marriage.

A couple years ago when my grandmother passed away, it shook my grandfather to the core. He spent the last couple of years just waiting to rejoin her. He would say that grandmother needed him to accomplish some things first before he could see her. I guess he finally finished the list. Last night he passed away.

Losing a loved one is tough. Pop-pop was given 6 months to live due to his kidneys starting to fail. So I had opportunities to see him and tell him I loved him. This weekend Shayna and I were going to go down and visit him. Looks like we still are, just in a different way than we expected.

Off in the distance there is a slight sound. It can barely be heard, but it's the sound of drums. Indian war drums. That's my Pop-pop..pissing off Cowboy fans.

Super Paper Mario

Shayna had the game for about 25 min before she was addicted. It looks really fun..maybe I'll get a chance to play. ;-)

Christ has risen!

Today was a great day. Worship was touching. We got to spend some time with my mom and then we came back to church for a potluck dinner and some more praise.

The building were our congregation meets actually has 5 different churches. Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Traditional, Contemporary, and Spanish. We all got together to break bread. What was fascinating was that you could see every aspect of this in the food brought to the potluck. Traditionalists brought the KFC (holy bird), deviled eggs. Vietnamese brought summer rolls. I don't know what the name of the Ethiopian food was but it was good. And there was some flan to round out Spanish side. It was inspiring to see these people with different backgrounds come together and be one.

After dinner there were some baptisms. I always tear up during baptisms. There were 6 so by the end I was actually crying.

Today has been a great day.

You can't go home again

A couple years ago my dad came up from Florida and I was showing him all the new stuff that had happened in the area. Central Park in Fredericksburg, Todd's gas in south Stafford, etc. It made him a little bit sad to see stuff that he knew so well become so different. Especially with Central Park. These were fields that he grew up playing in and now it's a shopping district.

I got my first taste of that this weekend. On Saturday Shayna and I went with Jeff & Ashley down to Fredericksburg to see historic downtown, battlefields etc. While there we were going to go to Capt. Sids. For those of you who don't know about Capt. Sids it's a sandwich shop that is next to the Carl's Icecream. The sandwiches they served there were to put it mildly, ginormous. It would have to be at least 1 lb of meat on the sandwich. It was run by a friendly old couple.

So we go down there and it's no longer run by a friendly old couple. We saw a guy eating a hamburger there and it was a normal hamburger (as a point of reference, I don't believe the original restaurant even served burgers. I think they just served subs and sandwiches). So we decide to leave. Something from my past has moved on and so should I.

So we head down into downtown Fredericksburg to eat at Spanky's. Spanky's is another sandwich type place that was really popular among college/HS kids. I ate many a meal there. It was actually completely shut down and converted into a Piano/Jazz restaurant.

Two aspects of my formative years completely gone. Life goes on though, for the better. We ended up going to Sonic and drowning my sorrow in a strawberry slush. Capt. Sids & Spanky's didn't have anything close to the strawberry slush..

April 2nd

I haven't blogged in, gosh well over a month. It's not that I don't have anything interesting to say, it's more that I just haven't had time. Time to make time and make a blog post, especially today.

There are few dates that stick out in my mind. You have the normal ones, Christmas, New Years, even 4th of July. I don't bother to remember most people's birthdays. That's for my wife to remember. But April 2nd is different. April 2nd is life altering. April 2nd seems like any other day but it's not. 7 years ago, April 2nd became April 2nd. (If you imagine Don Cheadle reading this paragraph to you it sounds a lot better)

7 years ago today, Shayna and I had our first date.
She was an hour late,
I wore a tie and gave her a rose,
we ate at Friendlys,
I had a hamburger with fries,
she had a chicken wrap,
we talked and laughed,
I paid,
she drove,
and at the end we gave each other a hug and said we should do this again.

3 years ago today Shayna and I had a busy day. Rehearsal, photos, makeup, etc. 3 years ago today we pledged to God and anyone that wanted to drive 4 hours through a snow storm that we would spend the rest of our lives together.

It's been the best 7 years of my life. I love you dear. Happy Anniversary.

Back in the U. S. of A.

So I didn't totally embarrass myself while in Europe. I think the worst I did was ask the hotel person why there were two buttons to flush the toilet (smaller button is for smaller flushes). I would do a slideshow, but that's entirely to much work so the pictures are below.

First stop was Amsterdam.

This location is called The Dam. I don't know why it's called that. Our first night we ate at a place called Wakamama. This is one of the few places that you order by number (McDonalds surprisingly enough is not one of those places). Anyways, the high point of Wakamama (and the reason for even bringing it up) is that I ordered a '69'. Heh-heh






The next stop on the Europe tour was Brussels. Brussels is known for it's chocolate. Here you can see a chocolate fountain. These were fairly common. The lady in the picture had so much chocolate she just couldn't take seeing it any longer.


After watching people do their best Augustus Gloop impressions we headed to the Atomium. You get to take escalators to each of those orbs and look at Barbie dolls. Europeans are weird.





After seeing all the barbie dolls one can take we head back to the hotel. I go to use the toilet but the multiple buttons intimidate me.









Unfortunately it was then time for Shayna to make her return trip home. At the airport we were going to get a coke..but it seems they have a secret ingredient over that that just doesn't seem right. I couldn't make this sort of stuff up if I tried.






After Shayna left it was time for me to take the train to Antwerp. Antwerp is a nice little town. They really do their train stations up right. This is actually the train station in Antwerp.



I actually got to the hotel before I could check in. So I went to the zoo which was located across the street. This is an actual sign from the zoo.







So there you have it. My experience of Europe in a nutshell. Shayna's posts will be more detailed.

another "Why My Wife is Great" posts

So this week I spent 4 days in Antwerp, Belgium and none of those days were with Shayna. It was an especially difficult week for me. I think married people often don't realize how much they lean on their spouse to get them through days. When they stop leaning and start being independent, that's when trouble sets in.

Needless to say as my flight inched closer home I grew more restless. All I really wanted that day was to walk out the gate and see her.

Revoke my man card if you need to, but I teared up a little each time I thought about her on the flight home.

Normally when I do these posts there is something in particular I want to say is great about her. This time there is nothing specific, just a general I need you in my life dear.

First impressions

Gotta make this a quick hits because I'm getting charged 35 euro cents per minute.  It's like monopoly money, I don't know what I'm spending.

 

• Taxi's here are cool.  Mercedes is a nice way to go.
• Radio call letter jingles sound the same all over the world
• Taxi drivers wear way to much cologne.

That is all for now.

 

 

Dangit!

I've just shocked myself for what has to be at least the 27th time today. This last one is by far the worst though, it left a burn mark on my finger.

I'll have the usual

There's a good feeling about being able to walk into a restaurant and telling the server: I'll have the usual. Shayna and I have this at the local pizza hut. We walk in, take a seat, and the server immediately brings over 2 waters and a wild cherry pepsi.

I have the same sort of thing going at quizno's now. Although I'm not as consistent about the sub I order, they still know I want wheat bread and "everything on it".

Don't really have a point to this post..just an observation.

The Super Bowl is in the wrong city

The Super Bowl this year is in Miami, FL. While this is a prime location to host the big game, it unfortunately is the wrong location for these two teams. The better place would be Tampa Bay, FL.

The reason for this is simple. Lovie Smith (who names their son Lovie?) and Tony Dungy both coached the Bucs and there they came up with the "Tampa 2" defense (along with Monte Kiffen).

A lot of story lines are going on about how this is the first time a black coach has made it to the super bowl (it's also the first time 2 black coaches have made it to the super bowl). I don't see why this is a story line. No one has said that black coaches couldn't make it to the super bowl. No one has said that they weren't "smart enough". (at least in the last 20 years) I guess I either never paid attention to who was coaching or just expected it to happen at some point.

I think the bigger story line should be mentor vs. protege. The scheme these guys developed changed a team from constantly being in the dumps to being a super bowl contender through the late 90's and early 00's. Now they get to battle each other. This is like going against your dad in a game. You both know each other's tendencies, you know how they prepare, you probably even know how their playbook is color coded.

That's the story line. That's the way this game should be remembered. Now it only needs to be in the right city..

It's not easy being a runt

Whenever I tell anyone that I'm the runt in my family, the typical response is "Bull-sh*t" (or something along those lines). I guess in most households 6-1 is the high point. In the Willis family though, I truly am the runt of the litter. I submit to you exhibit A:

In this picture we all look normal size. The only thing that might tip you off is the Christmas tree (which I think is 8 ft) This picture was taken about 6 or 7 years ago. Gordon has only gotten taller.

While I didn't get the height gene, I did however get the eagle eye gene. No glasses for me (at least not yet)

Anyways, thought I would share the photo..I found it on an old web hosting service.

Birthday

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday weekend a blast. This includes everyone who came to my party, but especially my wife. She did everything she could to make this weekend enjoyable for me. I'm so blessed to have someone in my life who just thinks of ways to try and make me happy.

While it was great to see my dad and brother this weekend, she is the one who makes every day better. I honestly don't know what I would do without her.

Thank you dear, for everything that you do.

Belgium Bound

So I'm going to be going to Belgium for a work conference in Feb. Everyone seems to have ideas on the best way to go. So far I've heard: United, Continental, and Lufthansa are the best.

Anyone else got any opinions?

Which Super Hero are you?

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 80% The Flash 65% Robin 62% Spider-Man 60% Green Lantern 50% Batman 40% Hulk 40% Catwoman 40% Supergirl 33% Wonder Woman 28% Iron Man 20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

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