Wow.. almost 2 months since a post

It doesn't seem that long ago since I last posted but the blogger doesn't lie..

This will be a family type post so if that bores you feel free to move on. You won't hurt my feelings.

Sophia is now almost 6 months old and a complete joy to be around. She is almost crawling. It's more of an army man crawl at this point, but she's starting to get the hang of it. She's eating carrots, rice cereal, and oatmeal now and I love making her smile. Shayna found the perfect gift for me with the Broncos hat shown. It's never to early to start..

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful wife. Shayna is doing a phenomenal job with Sophia. I don't think I could do what she does. She feeds, cleans, and plays with a 6 month old, keeps the house in order, and still manages to find things to do for me (for example the Broncos hat above). I try and keep up, but I'm nowhere near as good as she is.

Thank you Shayna for being the love of my life and the best mom a daughter could ever hope for. I know in 12 years and 6 months she won't appreciate all you do and have done, but I do.

Thank you Sophia for bringing a smile to your old man's face every morning.

This one goes out to the one I love...

A lot has happened in the last year.. a lot has changed. One thing that hasn't though is my beautiful wonderful wife. Today is October first which marks her ----- birthday.

I've written previously about her but I don't think it quite does her justice. This is a woman who selflessly gives up sleep for our daughter...and me.

This is a woman who lovingly puts up with my stupid jokes (of which there are many).

This is a woman who makes me smile every day when she parades our daughter in her outfits.

This is a woman who is a better person than I.

I don't know why you stuck with me this far, but thank you that you have. I love you so much. Happy Birthday.

Amazing Grace

Those of you who follow my wife's blog know that we had Sophia this past weekend. She is so adorable, and I am so thankful that she is healthy.

She was 10 days early so we are completely unprepared. Some ways that God has totally pulled my butt from the fire just from this weekend:

1. I was in Pittsburgh for closing on our new home but with Shayna headed to the OR our friend Julie stepped in for me. Totally above and beyond the call of duty.
2. Our car seat wasn't installed because I was hauling stuff to our new house. I spent Friday night wrestling with it hoping that it would protect Sophie. Saturday morning I had Shayna call the lone guy that services Alexandria to make an appointment and the message played that he was booked for the month of June. I figured I was just going to have to strap it in as tight as possible and hope that I don't get into an accident. I headed downstairs to grab a soda and in the elevator another new father reminded me to get my car seat inspected. I told him how we tried calling today but he wasn't taking any more appointments for June. The man said he had an appointment in 10 minutes and that I can come and sit in...
3. Saturday night Sophia was inconsolable. We tried feeding her but she just wasn't eating and we were at the ends of our rope. I took Sophie back to the nursery while she was crying hoping that they would take her. While dropping her off I met a nurse who was very no nonsense and told me at the next feeding she would be coming down to make sure it got done. 30 minutes later she showed up and Sophia ate heartily for the first time.

Thank you God for all these things and more that you have done in my life.

LOST Theory

Figured it was time to post my thoughts on the Lost finale. If you haven’t see it yet, there will be spoilers so I suggest you leave first.

 

 

The opening scene is with Jacob (white shirt eating the fish & who gets killed in the end) and the man in black (who I will refer to as Esau).  It’s obvious that they are trying to make these 2 people into a God & Devil type figures with Jacob as God and Esau as devil.

My hunch is this: Jacob is actually the Devil figure.  Here is how I get there:

In the opening scene Esau tells Jacob that he really wants to kill him and that he just needs to find a loophole. In classical Christian thinking Christ (God) defeats death (Satan) through a “loophole” (choosing no sin). 

Using this logic it makes sense to Jacob to foster all of the negative things to bring people to the island (let’s Kate get away with stealing, enables Sawyer to write the letter which fuels his rage, extends Locke’s crappy life into an even more crappy life, etc)

Other tidbits: The bomb doesn’t mean anything.  Sawyer was right: “What’s done is done”.  Anything that they did already happened, they just didn’t realize it.  Richard said he watched the people die so I imagine that the LOST people go to the Ben attack.  It would be interesting to see if during the scene in which Locke was in the mass grave, there was a LaFleur body.

I also think Richard is the captain of the Black Rock (Ship that was in the opening scene)

Overall, an awesome episode and season!

Looking to the past and seeing a reflection

This past week I took my mom out to lunch for Mother’s day.  After lunch she gave me my old baby book.  When I was younger I would look at it all the time, but it’s been at least 15 20 years since I’ve seen it.

I spent some time looking at it and it’s weird to see the pictures.  I see pictures of my mom and dad and they look so young. I can see the family resemblance between my dad and brother.  My grandfather looks just like my Uncle Mike. 

Looking at the pictures I wonder what my parents are thinking.. if they were as scared/excited about having me as I am about having Sophia. 

I wonder what the back story was behind some of the pictures.  If pictures speak a thousand words, how many words do they not speak?

Pandora Sidebar

One of the things about Vista that I’ve resisted using was the sidebar.  I use dual monitors practically all of the time, but being mobile means at times I have to go down to one and then it’s just a pain having the real estate taken from me. I then have to turn it off etc.. such a pain.

I decided to give it a try though.  Most of the stuff on there I find pretty useless, however I did find a Pandora app which plays music without actually having to go to their site.  So now I have a sidebar..

A running back? Really??

I don’t know about this McDaniels guy. They signed a bunch of free agent running backs in the off-season so far and they announced that they were going to switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and they take another running back instead of linemen which is what they need for the transition.

The season is already over…

Hello From Branson, MO

Last Friday Shayna and I drove from Warshington (That’s for you Jen), DC to Branson, MO for vacation.  Dave and Jen Roland joined us until Wednesday at a cabin in the Wilderness Club at Big Cedar.  So far, this is the coolest resort in our timeshare.  Every day a cookie lady (official title according to her name tag) brings a different type of cookie.

Friday we will drive to St. Louis to see the Roland’s house and spend an evening with them, then it’s off to Pittsburgh, PA and an Easter Dinner with Shayna’s family followed by the trip home.

Overall a very relaxing and enjoyable vacation.  We have plenty of pictures from Dogwood Canyon which I (or more likely Shayna) will post later.

Hope you all had a great week as well!

Doing the trade dance

I have to give it to Bowlen. When he wants to trade someone, he does a pretty decent job. The last big trade the Broncos had was to send Clinton Portis to the Redskins and the Redskins gave up their shut-down corner Champ Bailey and a second round draft pick.

This time they trade Cutler for 2 first round picks, a third round pick, and Kyle Orton. Granted Orton is an average QB at best, but maybe McDaniels can coach him up like he did Matt Cassell who didn’t even start a college game…

Hopefully they will trade down a little bit and get a lot of good players in this year’s draft.

For once this off season there is a glimmer of hope.

5 years ago today

5 years ago today I made one of the biggest decisions of my life.

5 years ago today I married my wife.

5 years ago today I made vows to God and said “I Do!”

5 years ago today she said “I do too”

5 years ago today we started saying “I love you today”

After 5 years we still say it every day.

I can’t believe it’s been that long.

My love for you is still so strong.

Thank you thank you for being my wife.

5 years ago today I made the second best decision of my life.

Hopefully WB learns from the past

The Hollywood Reporting is reporting that Warner Brothers is a financial backer of a gaming console.  This console won’t rely on discs or cartridges. Instead it will stream games from the cloud.

Is it me or does this sound like the phantom all over again?

The Game of Life

As explained in my wife’s blog, I am in the process of getting life insurance. If I were to go, for whatever reason, I want to make sure they are taken care of.

Anyways I’ve contacted 3 different companies (accuquote.com, geico.com, and erie insurance (who does our auto)).  Apparently they all work with the same life insurance underwriter because they provided me with the same quote.

All 3 of the salesmen were very helpful and nice. So how do I determine which one to buy from and give them a commission?  I think there should be a no holds barred death match.  I would give the business to the person who died first because obviously they believe in the policy the most.  Plus I would feel kind of bad and would want their next of kin to get the commission.

Strange Factoid about me: When I go to the barber shop I never want the person with the best hair cut to cut my hair.  I actually want the person who cut their hair. This is usually the barber with the worst hair cut.  Ironically enough, that person also usually has the shortest wait.

Technology Shift

I love trying out new technology.  Hopefully when I get old it will keep me in the loop with my grandkids. (Back in my day our gaming consoles only had 128 bytes of ram and it wasn’t handheld, and it used sprites.. no not like the soda…)

 

This post is being done on Microsoft Live Writer.  They built a blogging program to go in their live lineup.  It’s actually pretty slick and I think I might use it in the future instead of the normal web interface.

 

When we move to PA, I think we are going to forgo cable and just get internet and an antenna for over the air transmissions. A little old school and new school in that technology front.

 

I’m also intrigued by the Palm Pre as my next cell phone.  It’s always been my contention that cell phones should just be phones, however with having the kid and moving out of state, I think being full time connected is a good idea (I think this now before I am fully connected).  The other option is an iPhone which I don’t really want to do because then all of my mac friends will tell me “welcome to the club” or “I told you so” or something similarly annoying like that guy in the I’m a Mac commercials.  Plus if the opportunity ever came up I wouldn’t be able to go to Bill Gates’ house.

In other news, Jay Cutler is a big baby. So what if your new boss wanted to trade you. It's a business. Show him that you really are a franchise QB and then stick it to him in 3 years when your contract is up.

Other news part deux: Little Sophia can apparently hear now. This means I need to curb my language. For example I need to stop saying "Don't tell ME what to do". I can't have her learning that one before she's 25. I also need to start using some key phrases some more so that she learns them quickly. Things like "Go get me some food woman"

Shayna will be so pleased with my parenting skillz

Time to start saving my allowance

With the sky high cost of movie tickets, Shayna and I don't go very often. We'll go to ones we feel are "Theater Worthy". Unfortunately almost every weekend in May has movies of this caliber.

May 1: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
May 8: Star Trek
May 15: Angels and Demons
May 21: Terminator Salvation

Good thing Sophia won't be oot and aboot by then, otherwise I'd have to factor in childcare along with the ticket cost.

Worst day of the year

I dread this day. Out of all 365 days of the year, this day is by far the worst. Sure, the weather was great. Sure Mason won their quarterfinal game. This is still by far the worst day though.

I am of course referring to Spring Forward day. For the next couple of months I will be sluggish that only an extra hour of sleep at night can cure.

sigh...

What a weekend

Just so much stuff..

• Saw Slumdog Millionaire. It was just ok. Certainly not better than Dark Knight. I'm still kind of bitter that DK didn't get more awards/nominations. It broke almost every record..
• Free Agency - FA kicked off with a bang this year. Albert Haynesworth to the skins for 100m. 41 guaranteed. Another in a long line of disappointing FA acquisitions for the skins
• Broncos get Gaffney who should be a good #2 behind Eddie Royal since Brandon Marshall was arrested..again
• Broncos also nearly get Matt Cassel in exchange for Cutler through a 3rd party team. This one is intriguing. Cutler's arm is strong, but his decisions are sometimes questionable. Cassel certainly looked a lot like Tom Brady by the end of last season. The question is: is it the system or the QB? Could the Pats pump out QBs like the Broncos pump out RBs? Will the Broncos backs gain yards like in years past? Only 184 more days to go..
• New favorite restaurant is an oldie.. I'm really digging on the soup/salad combo offered at Ruby Tuesday. Plus I had the petite steak there on Saturday night. Not Peddler good, but not bad.

Are times worse now than before?

If you ask Obama he would say yes. This is the worst time since the great depression...

I had an interesting conversation with my coworkers this week. Over the past 9 years we have had the dot.com bubble burst, 911, housing bubble burst, banking industry stall + almost every other industry. Is there another time in history where so many things happened to the market in such a small span?

Certainly we've had other things like Vietnam, the gas shortage, recession of the early 80s and early 90s..but that's 30 years.

It was postulated that the reason why it's been so condensed is not because times are worse or because the world is coming to an end, but because we find out about things so much faster. When something happens in the world, the major news sites have it up on their pages within minutes. If you use RSS all of those different media outlets are combined into one space for your consumerment. Using something like an iPhone you don't even have to be at your computer, it's practically sent to your pocket automatically. It doesn't even have to be big breaking news. It could be that someone twittered that they just had a great bowel movement.

The other day it was reported that the stock market was back to 1997 levels. Colbert did a pretty funny bit on it but a part rings true. In 12 years I went from reading yesterdays news on a piece of paper to seeing Jabar Gaffney being signed by the Broncos within an hour of it happening.

I think this is one reason that we look forward to moving to Pittsburgh. It may not be as slow as DC traffic, but its slower than DC news which is fine by me.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

1997 Flashback

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Joke of the Day
Stand-Up Comedy

Quick Hits

Been awhile since I posted so I thought I would post a lot at once.

• Dollhouse: The first episode wasn't very good. Last week's episode was much better. Word on the street is that by episode 6 it will be much better. Hope so. I feel bad for Eliza after the cancelling of Tru Calling.
• Impossible Mission: The title of this game is probably only recognizable by those of you who had a Commodore 64. If you did then things like Epyx and El-Shift-Oh make sense to you. Hello to everyone that just googled "Commodore 64", "Epyx", Impossible" or "Mission". Anyways, they released the game onto DS. I thought that since I'm much wiser and smarter now I should be able to beat a game like this. It still kicks my butt. Although I'm farther than I have ever been (granted it's on easy mode which gives an extra 2 hours of time). Here's hoping that they release Archon or M.U.L.E. (Hello to everyone that just googled "archon" or "MULE" or "Greatest Commodore Games Ever")
• EBAX - My company is releasing a product which lets you modify SharePoint lists inside of Excel. If you use SharePoint a lot (for things like task lists etc) it will really make maintaining things a lot easier.
• LOST - Is this season great or what?
• Looking for a home - Why do some Realtors post pictures that look like they were taken with a camera phone? You can get something that will talk web quality photos for under $100. Just do it.

A great weekend

Shayna and I had a most excellent time while in NYC over Valentine's day weekend. There was much to be done including going to "Top of the Rock" (Excellent!) and walking everywhere (Bogus!). We even caught some old favorite movies on TV (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Real Genius). I'll let you guys guess which was the favorite of Shayna's.

Spending the weekend up there made me realize how much better of a team Shayna and I have become. The first time we went to NYC we ended up mad at each other and walking 20 blocks not speaking. The second time was 12 blocks I think. This time though, there was never an upset moment. No matter what we helped each other and got to where we wanted to be.

I think it has a lot to do with how well we know each other now. We started to hit that point in our relationship where we don't even need to speak. We can just throw a look or just a word and know what the other is trying to say (this will come in very handy with Sophia on the way).

While at FAO Swartz, Shayna took me aside and told me that if there was any big kid thing that I wanted, just let her know and she would make it happen. I love that about her. All I have to do is say I want something and she would do whatever it took to make it happen.

Thank you for the wonderful weekend dear. I love you.

In other news, I saw Sophia hiccup today. It made Shayna's entire stomach move!

Rome

What is wrong, with Jim Rome, he talks like, he is listening to himself on the radio, he repeats himself, he repeats himself, he repeats himself. How can anyone possibly listen to him, I don't understand how he makes any money.

Cool experience

I got to feel Sophia kick a little today. Didn't feel like much, but it was very cool. I can wait until she is bigger and they are more pronounced.

Shayna is probably dreading that.

What a game

Glad to see that the Steelers won, but I'm more glad that it was a good game. I thought for sure when the Cards were down by 13 at the start of the 4th the game was over. Looks like the Steelers thought so too and took a break.

I find it weird that the booth didn't review Warner's fumble at the end. That for sure seemed like it should be worth reviewing. For me it looked like the ball was knocked loose and then his arm started to move forward. I don't know if that counts as a fumble or not (I would think that it does). At any rate, it should have been reviewed.

Goodell should be thankful that it didn't go to overtime, then a team wins the coin toss and scores on the first possession. For the Final game both teams should have at least one possession.

My wife is fond of putting in pictures or videos on her blog. So this time I will do it as well.

Best Commercial of the game:

Yes We Can

I love this country. I love that we don't need to have a war to have our leaders change power. I love hearing the Star Spangled Banner.

I don't much care for politics. I still don't. My thoughts on our new president are thus:

I feel the expectations placed on him are to high. No one could maintain them. I don't agree with some of his ideas (I didn't agree with everything from the other guy either) and I hope he does a good job. Mostly I'm glad that we can have a shift of power go so easily from one person to the next.

In the words of W: Mission Accomplished.

The age in which we live..

The world changes every so often. This week something unprecendented happened. My grandparents saw the world change from Radio to TV. My parents saw a man walk on the moon. This week it has happened for my generation. We live in a changed world.


I am of course referring to the Arizona Cardinals making it to the Super Bowl. Every week I have picked against them for the simple fact that they are the Cardinals. They now have a legit shot of winning the thing. It comes down to their defense vs. the Steelers offense.


We now live in a world in which a man has walked on the moon, an African American is president of the US, and the Arizona Cardinals have made it to the Superbowl. Next thing you know, the Lions will make it to the playoffs.

Nah.. that's crazy talk right? Right???

Stay Tuned

There is so much stuff to post about and so little time. I will be doing multiple posts (rather than 1 huge post that even I wouldn't read.)

Birthday Friends

2 posts in one day?? That's crazy! It must be a national holiday or something.

I am so blessed to have the friends and family that I do. I have been receiving facebook emails all day from people wishing me a happy birthday. My beautiful wonder wife gave me a birthday poem last night which I cherish.

Thank you to everyone who has wished or will wish me a happy birthday. I love you all..except that jerk Carl. I hate that guy.

The Big Three Uh-Oh

Today I turn 30. When I was in high school I made jokes about how I was going to be dead at 30 from a heart attack because I would just be eating steak and eggs all the time. At that time I felt that dying wasn't a big because I'd get to go to heaven. I was ready to sacrifice my life for Him.

That was then.

As this year starts I look forward to so many things. I want to meet my child and show them everything. I want to grow old with my wife. I want to live.

I know I'm not supposed to be of the world and to not love life more than God. I'm supposed to want to give it up at a moments notice for Him. That He should be my focus.

I just hope He waits, I don't want to go yet.

I don't get it

Some things I'm fuzzy on.. if someone has the answers that would be great..

• Economy: The whole housing mess started when people's mortgages increased because they used an ARM.  The ARM is based on the interest rate right?  So when the rates were higher, people's monthly payments ballooned. Combine that with the super high gas prices and people were having to go bankrupt and foreclose on their home.  The federal funds rate is at .25.  That's practically giving money away.  Gas prices are down to $1.50.. I can fill my car again for under $20!  Why are people still foreclosing?  Didn't their payments go down with the rate?  Don't they have a little more breathing room with lower gass prices?
• Share Point: There is an option to have the default value of a list be a calculated value but you can't use a formula that uses other fields?  What kind of formula should I use.. 2+2? (I tried and it didn't work)
• What is in the walls of my office?  Seriously, it's kind of scary.
• How did I get such a beautiful and loving wife?  She's taking me on a date tonight!
• How do we get some global cooling.. specifically in the DC area.  Every time we've had precipitation, it's been rain.  Always 33-35 degrees.  Seriously people we need a solid snow!