A Whirlwind of Activity

This is the story of Dana's and Joe's wedding and the surrounding events. It will be devoid of any pictures for the time being while they are being developed but will hopefully include many photos in the coming weeks. The next five blog posts, including this one, were originally one post. But, I decided to break them up for easier reading. :) I have peppered them with some humor amongst the narrative. Have fun!

I will begin with my journey back to Lincoln from Kearney.

Last week Wednesday I attempted leaving at 8:30 in the morning. My tires had other plans. I have been taught to check all my vehicles fluids and tires before leaving on long trips. So, after checking the oil, brake fluid, antifreeze, power steering fluid, I got my pressure gauge out. All of my tires were about 6 pounds too low gauging in at 26 pounds. I decided to get some more "go juice" (grandpa's nickname) and fill them up at the nearest free air location. Driving by the gas station, the air hose was missing. A quick call to Michael and he mentioned the other free air site in town.

I pulled up to the gas station, and proceeded to fill my tires. Every time I connected the hose, I heard a loud rushing noise instead of the gentle hum of air entering the tire tube. Not good! By the time I had attempted filling two tires, I had lost four more pounds and now were 10 pounds too low. I sighed, drove back to the T's and grabbed a handful of quarters. Driving to the "corner station", I plugged the outdoor air compressor and again tried filling my tires. This time I struggled with one tire and finally got enough air to enter the tire. I finished just in time to have the air compressor turn off once again. With three more tires to go, three more quarters were reluctantly thrust into the machine. This was my last shot. The last quarter in my pocket was not enough for another round. I managed to fill two tires before the compressor again quit. The last tire was just going to have to wait until I got home.

Finally, at about 10:24, I was on I-80 destined for Lincoln. On the way I contacted Mom and Kayla and found out from them the day's events. I had two errands that I needed before the wedding - pick up my tux, and find a black belt. (Please see thanksgiving post for the reason.) My mom also had two errands to add to my list and requested we all go shopping together. This was agreed upon by all, and I drove straight home. Our Lansing, MI cousins and grandparents were expected that evening and we had a lot to prepare before they arrived. So, after a nice lunch of lasagna, salad, and meat and cheese sandwiches, we headed back to Lincoln to go shopping. YAY!! My mother is not a shopper. Growing up, everything is usually rush rush and we rarely stop and smell the roses. The rest of our family is largely the opposite.

I really enjoy shopping as long as I am with someone that also enjoys it and doesn't zip around too fast. It also helps to have $$$ to spend. hehe... :) Our first stop was Men's Warehouse to fit and pick up my tux. hehe... That was really neat. Joe and Dana chose excellent colors. The coat and pants were black with the pants having a single silver stripe down the legs. The vest was also silver with a white shirt underneath. The tie was black and silver and matched everything perfectly. So I must confess that "I liked the way I looked" and the creepy, old guy "guaranteed it". haha... (Some of you may not get that joke)

After Men's Warehouse, we stopped at the O St, thrift stores to find a belt for me. The first one didn't have any that were even close to being the right length. The second one, however, had a nice leather black belt that was slightly too long and needed a hole punched in it to be usable. YAY! I finally had found a belt. I was pretty excited. It was even the right price! The next stop was Gateway mall to search for some shoes for my mom. *GASP!* I would have you know that the last time I was in the mall was at least a year ago. It's a very good thing dad wasn't along. He had already suffered through several shoe shopping trips and sighed every time mom returned and bought yet another pair of shoes. haha... Poor dad. :(

Mom seemed to find some comfortable yet still appropriate shoes for the wedding while Kayla and I offered suggestions and competed to find the least comfortable shoes in the store and also the ugliest. Mom, for some very odd reason, didn't seem to like our suggestions. hehe... :)Those 6 inch high, velvet red, sandals somehow didn't fit the ticket. Wow, I am continually amazed by what women will wear and the pain they tolerate to appear fashionable and be accepted! And this is just referring to shoes, not other articles of clothing. I won't go there though.

After purchasing the perfect pair of shoes at JC Pennys, we headed to the men's department in several stores to find out how much their black belts would have cost. JC Pennys had some sales, but still didn't have any belts they were giving away. By this time, mom was getting fairly tired of shopping and was anxious to get home but consented to check two more stores - Dillards and Younkers. For those of you that know the mall layout, you would know that both of these stores are adjacent to each other.

To be the most time efficient, mom went to Younkers and Kayla and I went to Dillards. lol Kayla and I spent a long time trying to find the men's department. We looked on the mall level and all we found was ladies clothes, we went up the escalator and were greeted with more ladies stuff. hehe... I was beginning to wonder whether Dillard's had apportioned any room for guy's clothes. Finally, we went into the basement and found that one level was all men's while two floors above was mostly all women's. haha... Dillard's knows where the money is to be found. :D

After looking in both stores and unsuccessfully finding a belt comparable in price and value, we headed for our second to last stop - Koals. Mom had to return her other pair of uncomfortable shoes she bought and I had to get some wedding wrapping and a pretty bow for Joe and Dana's wedding present. By this time, Dad should be home from work and was probably expecting us to be slaving over the house preparing it for our relatives' arrival later that day. :P Little did he know that I had kidnapped them for a shopping excursion around Lincoln. hehe... The last stop was Super Saver. That was fairly quick and uneventful.

Upon arriving back home it was a mad dash getting the house all ready. The tables needed to be set, some food needed to be prepared, slumbering arrangements, and some miscellaneous cleaning. Dad also had made a list especially for me. I feel soo special!! :) On that list was, unplug bathroom sink drain, fix truck, and update antivirus software on the two computers. The truck was first.

Mom and Dad had unsuccessfully attempted putting a new belt on the truck the night before. I can't blame them though, it was bitterly cold outside then. The belt had to go around at least 4 pulleys and was a fairly complicated puzzle. I give all the credit to God here. Somehow, with His help, I managed to get it on correctly in just a few minutes. It was fun!! With one task crossed off, I headed to the drain. That is always a fun job. lol jk

Unplugging the drain involves disassembling the pipes underneath the sink and somehow flushing out all the disgusting gunk. I won't go into any more details, but let's just say it is not my favorite job in the world. Ever since I was a child, I hated getting dirty. I loved playing in the dirt but held a firm disdain for the mud. I would avoid it at all cost. I was, and still am, a rather strange, human, male, specimen. I remember Dana loved the mud and would taunt me with mud throwing if I wouldn't do her bidding. hehe... Ahh... The childhood memories. We were very naughty to each other and bitter enemies most of the time until we were both teenagers.

But back to my story. Dana and Joe also were expected that night for supper. At about 7:30 everyone was finally seated and we ate supper together. It was a great meal. The next two days were a whirlwind of activity and very difficult to remember all the details. Dana had finished school the week before and wedding preparations were in full swing! People were dashing everywhere.

Thursday, the day before the wedding, Grandma, Grandpa, my cousin Joel, and I all went shopping together. It is always fun shopping with Grandma. The goal was to find a new overhead microwave for my parents for Christmas. We went to Lowes, Home Depot, and Menards and found the best deal at Menards. At noon, I had a dentist appointment and was dropped off there while everyone else went to Gateway mall.

After being picked up, we ate lunch at Valentinos. I had a good report about my teeth. No cavities again but a warning to brush around my wisdom teeth better. I have only had two cavities in my life and that was when I was fairly young. It is such a blessing to be able to say every time that "No, I do not take any medications." YAY! Praise God!

I ate too much again at Valentinos. Something that takes a lot of self-control to avoid at such an establishment. We then had one more stop before returning home. That was Super Saver again. Grandma wasn't satisfied with the groceries in the house and insisted we buy much more. Before driving to Super Saver I had an interesting IM conversation with Rance on my blackberry that I would like to paste here. My Gtalk status at the time was something along the lines of "is going shopping with Grandpa and Grandma".

Rance: tell grandma I said "Hi"

12 minutes

1:48 PM me: Okay. I will tell her a really strange old guy is saying hi.

  :D

1:49 PM Rance: One day (if you live) you'll be strange and old. In fact, you're already half way there.

1:52 PM me: Haha... I told her that. She thought it was funny.

  Grandpa though has an additional question.

1:53 PM He wonders whether I am halfway old or halfway strange. :)

1:59 PM Rance: how about halfway as in 1 for 2 strange but not yet old

Hehe... So there you have it. :D

With only one more stop I made the claim that we would be going home within half an hour. Grandpa just laughed at me. He knows better and has much more experience shopping with grandma. As it turns out, we were finished in about 40 minutes. So, not too bad. We rushed home to install the new microwave before Mom and Dad returned. We had a lot of helping hands and just manged to accomplish that goal. My uncle Bryan and Grandpa were the brain behind the project. They did an exceptional job.

Next up... Dana and Joe's wedding rehearsal! :)

Dana is getting married!!

To begin, I will provide some background information about Dana, Joe, and their wedding. Dana and Joe dated for about a year and then were engaged this past spring. They planned their wedding in mid December after the school semester. In July, Dana found a dress and promptly ordered it from New York. As the school semester began, Dana was working three jobs and also going to school. Joe is a marine and is also going to school in Lincoln. On top of all that, Dana obviously had a wedding to plan. Thankfully, she had lots of assistance from family, friends, and extended relatives. When December rolled around, Dana had already gone to four wedding showers, sent out more than 200 invitations, chose the wedding colors, ordered bridesmaid dresses, and other very important wedding details. I don't know how she did it. All I can say is that you are an incredible sister, and I love you Dana!! :)

We were getting a little worried when thanksgiving came and Dana's dress still hadn't arrived. The first week of December passed with no sign of it. Dana had sent the dress designers several emails pleading for them to send it soon, or ELSE!! The "else" happened to be one of Joe's uncles that is fairly muscular and lives near New York City. hehe... The dress designers would be pleading for mercy if he had to come for a visit. I don't know what Dana wrote to them in those emails, but it really sent them scurrying to abide by her demands. On the 9th of December, the dress finally arrived with the wedding planned on the 18th. After trying the dress on, a few alternations were required before it could be useful. After a snip here and a strap there and there, the dress was ready for action! And boy was it ever stunning!! :)


Thursday night we had a wedding rehearsal and dinner planned at Zion PCA Church. It was supposed to start at 6 p.m. We arrived a little before six, but the traffic that night was horrendous. The rehearsal didn't start until closer to 6:30 because we were missing the maid of honor and a couple best men. They had all gotten stuck in traffic. :(

Finally the rehearsal began, and went mostly uneventful. I kept on forgetting where I stand, and Dad made a, what is now, famous mistake that sent us all giggling. I will describe this incident in a minute. I also had a very hard time relaxing and not acting tense while walking down the aisle. hehe... But my uncle saw me and helped me calm down and walk much more naturally.

Now to describe Dad's famous wedding blooper. After all the wedding party was up on stage, Dad came in with Dana and stood before Pastor Kerns. Pastor Kerns asked dad the usual question, "Who gives this women to be married to this man?" My dad confidently responded "My mother and I". haha... That was sooo funny!! Poor dad, I think he was a little embarrassed. The rest of the rehearsal went without a hitch.

Dad was determined to get Dana's wedding on video for posterity and memory sake. However we didn't have a functioning video camera. Dad sent out an email to the Zion email list asking to borrow someone else's camera, but didn't get any responses. He looked on craigslist and the ads to see if someone was giving away a nice one. Sadly, no one was. So that night, Dad and I went video camera shopping. Michael had recommended either a Canon or a Sony.

After finding the one we wanted at Target, we were disappointed that they were out of stock. But, that didn't stop us. hehe... I got on my blackberry and we began calling other Lincoln stores. We found that Best Buy had one left in stock but it was a boring grey color. Then Dad called the South Wal-Mart and was excited that they had one left in the blue color. So, about 10:30 that night, we hurriedly drove to Wal-Mart to claim our prize. It had 60 X optical zoom and a 60 gigabyte internal hard drive plus the extra capacity of memory sticks. YAY!!

That night we charged the battery and got it all ready for use the following day. The included battery only lasted 80 minutes. An additional battery would be purchased the next day at Best Buy. The next day was the wedding day - the 18th of December. A lot of preparations still needed attention. I was assigned helping Joe move into Dana's house, and be at the church at 1 p.m. for pictures.

I awakened fairly early that day to a bustle of activity. I left at around 9:15 to go to Joe's house. Joe's brothers and his best man were there to assist me. It was quite an interesting time. I had brought our truck and Joe had mostly everything strewn about his room. Packing someone else was rather entertaining. I did Joe a big favor and tossed random stuff into boxes. I figured that he had the rest of his life to unpack and we joked that we would put his shirts with his dishes. hehe... :)

If you haven't been to Dana's apartment, you wouldn't know that she is on the top floor and has a fairly narrow staircase leading up to her apartment. The biggest challenge for us was Joe's king sized bed. Joe claimed that there was no way we would be able to get it up the stairs, but Dana had faith that we would find someway to squeeze it up there. hehe... She was right, but not without busting a light bulb on the ceiling, and almost breaking a picture frame on the wall. We also used the mattress as an umbrella against the melting snow from the roof. But shhh.... don't tell them that!

After successfully getting Joe's boxes moved into Dana's apartment, I took a shower and we made a quick stop at Best Buy for another camera battery. Best Buy was very crowded. Finding parking was practically impossible. So I happily parked several stores to the north with our big extended cab truck and rushed in the store. It was about 1:10 and pictures were scheduled at 1:30. Lunch was put on the back burner and we rushed over to the church to get dressed into our tuxedos.

Next up... wedding pictures and ceremony!

Smile Pretty for Tonight we die! :)

I believe the pictures were done the proper way. Joe was not allowed to see his bride in her gorgeous dress until the proper time. Pictures of the groomsmen and the bridesmaids were taken and numerous pictures were taken of Dana alone. Some family photos were taken on both sides, and even a few with just Dana and me. :) In all, I think my uncle said he took approximately 1200 photos!! Some of those I hope will ornament this awfully long blog post.

After pictures were finally done. Dana requested that some pictures were taken of her in the snow. YAY! She looked even more gorgeous with the snowy white background. Then we all prepared for the big event. The little flowers (crisauges??) were permanently attached to us guys and we all lined up for the march down the aisle. After the grandparents and parents were all seated, we calmly walked slowly up to the front.

I learned so much about weddings throughout this experience. I didn't know that the mother of the bride was the one that stood up first as the father leads the bride down the aisle. I also didn't know that the best man is traditionally responsible for cleaning the car the bride and groom will take later. Nor did I know that the best man and maid of honor are witnesses and required to sign the marriage license after the ceremony.

Dad said his lines correctly this time and the rest of the wedding went mostly without any excitement. The only thing out of the ordinary was that the best man accidentally gave the officiator the wrong ring. But, the mistake was too inconspicuous for anyone to notice.

After the wedding, Dana and Joe formed the receiving line and were very patient as 200+ people came and said their congratulations. Next, it was time for the birdseed toss! Guests were given a handful and I positioned myself next to the car to get one of the last tosses. hehe... That was fun tossing birdseed at my own sister! One of those once in a lifetime experiences.

I had been told that Dana didn't need me anymore at the church and began driving my grandparents to the reception. About halfway there, we receive a call that we are desperately needed at the church. So we turned around, had a few more pictures taken and rearranged the worship hall for Sunday services. So far, mostly everything had gone according to plan and was very well organized. Well... that all was about to change. :)

Next up... Vehicle excitement and reception!

God had a different plan...

Upon leaving again we just happened to be following Dan, one of the best men, driving Dana's car with all the presents stashed in the back seat. As we neared 27th and Hwy 2, Dana's car died and the three men got out and pushed it across 27th onto a side street. After we had passed, Dan got the engine running again and just managed to get through the 27th and Hwy 2 intersection when the car again stalled. With some effort, he parked it at Arby's, locked it, and had someone else pick them up to go to the reception.

We continued driving to the reception at Chez Hay downtown. I am going to stop here and say that I don't like driving downtown Lincoln especially with all the one way streets. I usually try to avoid them like the plague. On the way to the reception I successfully drove the wrong way on two one way streets. It was enough to give my grandparents quite a fright. I praise God again here because the second one way street I turned onto had oncoming cars in all four lanes, and God provided a little business parking lot just at the right time to get reoriented. After a sigh of relief, and a quick prayer of thankfulness, we were on the road again.

By this time I was quite fearful and parked a couple blocks away from the reception to avoid those awful one way streets. :P Consequently, we arrived at the reception a little late and found out they had been waiting on my Grandpa to say the prayer before the meal. It was very nice being at the head table and being the first to dig into the delicious delicacies. I had learned my lesson from previous weddings, that you had better load your plate the first time, otherwise you will be waiting a long time for seconds!

After the meal, the best man and maid of honor gave their speeches and then the toasts. The head table was given champagne to drink but I just used water because I am not yet 21. Which was probably a very wise decision considering what happened later that night. hehe... My Uncle then gave Joe a little quiz. He first asked Joe what I like to eat in between meals. Joe's answer was food. Then Uncle Bryan played a very old track of Dad asking me what I like to eat in between meals. My answer, "magazines..." Haha... I was very young, don't worry. ;) Two more tracks and questions were asked about Dana but I will refrain from embarrassing her further.

After everyone had finally shuffled through and gotten their food, the cake was cut and served. Then the dancing began! Yay!! Dana and Joe did their first Dance together as husband and wife and then the dance floor was open to everyone and anyone. I enjoy dancing, but know very little. I first danced a song with Dana, and she taught me some. Later, I danced with the bridesmaid Renae for a couple songs. It was pathetic. I only learned two swing moves that night and the repetition was soo boring for both of us! She deserved a far better dancing companion then clumsy little me. :)

After talking with some friends and various relatives, Dana noticed that Joe had been dancing with just about every other girl there and requested he dance with her again. It was pretty funny... lol After that final dance, Dana was getting wearied and told us that she was tired of people and desperately wanted to leave. So, around 10:15 that night, the two guests of honor left together for their honeymoon. More on their honeymoon in a moment.

Grandma suggested that I go fetch the van to load up the rest of the presents. So I found the van again and began driving back to the reception. After parking in front of the building, I was told it would be more convenient to park around the side of the building. So, I proceeded to drive around the block. About halfway, I see flashing red and blue lights behind me. I pulled over and waited for the cop to approach me. That night cops were everywhere checking for drunk or drugged drivers. I suspect that was what he thought about me. It sure was a good thing I didn't drink any of that champagne!

He walked up to me and asks the usual question. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I honestly said "No, Sir" He says that I didn't have my headlights on. I look at my dash and notice that my dash lights are on but the headlights were not. Story time! I then explain to the cop that this is not my vehicle and that I was just driving back to a wedding reception to retrieve the presents. He must have bought my story because he then asks me for my drivers license, proof of insurance, and vehicle registration.

I calmly handed him my drivers license and rummage through my grandparent's glove compartment. Shuffling through the papers, the cop saw the insurance first and I handed it to him but I couldn't, for the life of me, find the vehicle registration. Since it was registered in Michigan, I had no idea what it should look like. After fumbling around with the papers some more, the cop said that he would go look it up on his computer and then return.

I waited what seemed like an eternity and contacted my Dad and uncle to inform them what had happened. Finally he came back and announced that the vehicle was properly registered and handed me a warning about the headlights and vehicle registration. I was soo thankful for that very generous cop! I think my tuxedo helped give credence to my story. hehe... Although it may have been exciting taking a breathalizer test or a BAC test.

I finally got to the correct location and we loaded the presents into the van. My Aunt told me not to feel bad because she had been pulled over in Grandpa's van for the exact same reason. I really think vehicle manufactures should prevent the dash lights from being on without the headlights. That is the way my car works and is far more user friendly.

Then I made my way back to the dance floor and requested from the maid of honor that she teach me some more swing. I found out I don't even know the basics, so that was where we started. My lesson was short-lived however, because the music stopped and we were being kicked out of the restaurant. Sigh Maybe I can learn how to dance another time. ;)

That night, we drove home and made plans to fix Dana's car. The next day was going to be quite the adventure!!

Next up... More vehicle adventures

Adding some Frosting to the Cake

Saturday, I woke up to find that Dad had already left and breakfast was just about ready. After breakfast, Dad called me from Arby's and announced that Dana's car was piled high with gifts and he didn't have any keys. (What a temptation for a thief!) Dana and Joe had already left and we didn't want to contact them unless it was absolutely essential! He had given the last set to Joe the previous night. I contacted the best man and found out that Dan still had the keys. I tried contacting Dan, but he wouldn't answer his phone! Finally, several hours later Dan contacted me and his friend met us at Arby's with the keys. Dad called Arby's and told the manager about the situation.

The plan was to get Dana's car running long enough to get it too our house in Roca approximately 15 miles southeast. With that goal in mind, Dad got behind the wheel and attempting starting the engine. The engine didn't even turn over. So I pulled the truck in a position to jump start Dana's car. After a successful jump, Dad began slowly driving Dana's car out of the Shopko parking lot. He had almost reached the light in the left turn lane when the engine died again. So I pulled up in front of him with the truck and again we jumped the car. Again, the engine roared to life! Dad got going again and I got myself turned around to follow him. None too soon, because someone had called the cops on us and the patrol drove by soon after Dad had left.

My phone rang again. Dad was calling to tell me he was eastbound on hwy 2 and the engine died a second time. I happened to be in the wrong lane on 27th to turn right, so I had to again get turned around before I could rescue dad again. Finally I got behind dad and Dana's car, but then saw my opportunity to get in front and back up to him. Apparently we hadn't communicated very well because Dad wanted me behind the car. So I again turned around and Dad devised a new plan.

This time I would come behind him with the truck, Dad would put Dana's car in neutral and I would literally push him down hwy 2. (bumper to bumper) haha... That was fun! A little tricky because Dad was the steering wheel in Dana's car and I was the gas in the truck. Just past the light near Union Bank, there was a side road into the neighborhood that we aimed to take. As we neared the road, I let go of the car and dad gracefully coasted it off the highway and onto the side street.

There we checked under the hood to investigate the problem. The first culprit was the battery. O'reillys Auto Parts was just up the street and we took the old battery to be tested. After a couple minutes in the tester the salesmen informed us that the battery didn't even have enough voltage left to be tested. It was most likely a toasted battery. But what had toasted the battery the first time? The second culprit was the alternator. (I later learned that the alternator is the part responsible for charging the battery while the car is running.) We bought a new battery for Dana and used it to test the alternator. The test was negative, but thankfully it would hold enough of a charge for Dad to drive it home and replace it. YAY!

Dad went home, and I ran a few errands. That day I was in the mall for the third time in two weeks!! Pretty impressive I should say. lol ;) Well, that ends the week of fun, and excitement. Hope you enjoyed it!

Some last few notes about Dana and Joe. They planned their honeymoon together several months in advance and had together purchased tickets to Puerto Rico! They had gotten a really good deal on them but it was also non-refundable. Their flight left from Chicago. After their wedding and reception, they went to Chicago expecting to be in Puerto Rico Sunday night. Unfortunately, bad news awaited them. Their flight was canceled to due bad weather and the airline refused to refund their money or book them for the next flight to Puerto Rico. :( They were simply devastated! But I am positive they still had a wonderful time with each other spending their first white Christmas together. :)

So yes, these are the posts that I have been piecing together the past several days. Combined, it was only 5,420 words! hehe... Hope you enjoyed it and give yourself a treat if you managed to read it all!

Maybe not what you were expecting...

This blog post is in response to some very desperate people. With very frequent visits, and even some early morning visits, I am inclined to think someone is expecting an update. lol! *Not pointing the finger at anyone in particular* hehe...

I hope you aren't expecting an hour by hour synopsis of my "bachelor" days. That would most certainly bore you and cause snoring all around. To prevent that racket and have mercy on your poor listeners, I am only going to touch on the high points of my few days, mostly alone, here at the T's. :)

To begin, I am going to start with some Tillotson observations. The first is about the mice. Those are some very spoiled mice! They are served elegant foods that apparently are not fit for human consumption. They were given an exquisite bag of Chex Mix with Hershey's M and M's. What if I want M and M's and chex mix!! hehe... Ahh... the life of the Tillotson mice. It is one that would make all the mice at the store very envious.

The T's kindly left a pitcher of orange juice for us in the fridge. But the question remains, did they leave it as a temptation for us? Was it carefully measured beforehand to determine exactly how much should be consumed in their absence with the usual prescribed dose? hmm... If you haven't been present for a T breakfast, than you should know that juice is militarily rationed each day for each individual. Those who dare allot themselves more are hung at dusk for the first violation and burned at the stake for the second. ;)

The T's left in a great hurry Wednesday morning. This is evidenced by their forgetfulness. About half an hour after they left I get a call from Mrs. T asking if they had left behind a box. I run upstairs and find that the food they very carefully prepared for the trip had been completely forgotten. haha...

In Vanessa's words. "Well, that's just too bad for them".

I responded, "It means more food for us."

They had left granola bars, several boxes of  crackers and a huge bag of peach filled rolls. They were delicious! hehe... Thanks T's!

While I was twiddling the hours away, I found a neat program for my Blackberry that solves an important problem. Before, people would send me text messages but I wouldn't always receive them. It was really weird. Now, I found a program that will record all incoming and outgoing text messages to a secure website that groups them into conversations very similar to the GMAIL conversation concept. I have been very impressed with its performance thus far.

This also helps archive and store unlimited text messages somewhere  besides my phone. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. Now, I just need to find a way to import my old text messages into the system. hmm... That will have to wait until after the school semester ends and the craziness of this week subsides.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the observations. During K's absence, she received two packages from a very curious location. It puts her contentment into serious question and makes me wonder why I am not receiving packages from this place. lol (jk K) This mysterious center is suspiciously called "The Fulfillment Center." hmm... So, if you ever need fulfillment, consult the pros at the fulfillment center. :)

Except for some snow shoveling and a few aches and pains, that is all the excitement from the first three days. hehe...

I went to Lincoln Friday afternoon for about a day. I went to a Christmas party for my Lincoln church (Zion PCA) that night and then watched a movie with my dad until 1 A.M. I was in charge of the movie rental selection, and decided to try Home Alone 2. It was very predictable, and according to my uncle, "It was not worth staying up till 1 to watch". I would readily agree to that statement. It wasn't dreadful and actually humorous at times, but definitely not worth renting.

The next day we Christmasized the house and went to another Christmas party in the morning at Roca's very own Table Rock Bank. haha... For those of you that haven't been to the bustling town of Roca wouldn't understand the humor. Allow me to explain. Roca is a village of about 220 people and five years ago had only the post office and a bar. Since then we have a community center, an auto body shop, a coffee shop and a bank! We are moving up in the world. :) hehe...

The main reason for my trip to Lincoln was fulfilled that afternoon. Since my sister is getting married this Friday, going on a honey moon to Puerto Rico, and spending Christmas with his family in Chicago, we decided to celebrate Christmas with them before the wedding and departure. (Phew!!) Sorry for the long sentence. lol

Some of the gifts I received were a giant magnetic dish, several knives, a sheet metal cutter, an amazing t-shirt, and an ingenious sticky pad for my cell phone in my car. I also received a 6 in 1 combo key with several functions and a really neat picture from Grandpa. haha...

Click on the picture to enlarge. :)

After being warned that bad weather was coming, I left fairly quickly and slowly made my way back to Kearney. Soon after I got on the interstate, my left eye was watering quite a bit. It was very difficult keeping them open and paying attention to the road. So, I cranked up the Christmas music and joyously sang with the songs that I knew. That kept we awake for awhile, then traffic was getting heavier and required more lane switching. By the time I had passed Grand Island, my eyes were fine and my voice couldn't take another verse of "Joy to the World". haha...

I had gained considerably more goodies and snacks from my trip to Lincoln and ate a very healthy meal of cajun chex mix, caramel popcorn, springilies, (spelling??) and various chocolate candies. My mom and Mrs. T would be proud! Vanessa and I made a nice, cozy fire and I prepared for Sunday's discipleship hour (Sunday school) class.

After an eight week introduction on the Sacraments in Sunday school, we are finally delving into each sacrament much more deeply. This morning we began tackling the sacrament of circumcision. While some people may consider this a very controversial subject and even touchy, I believe that these subjects should not be excluded from teaching. If it were, we would be teaching the children to run from controversy instead of facing it head on!

Well, I have only two more days of school before Christmas break begins. YAY!! I am really excited. Three finals, and I will be free from Algebra and free from Accounting. Yippee!! I am planning on getting plenty of sleep tonight and then waking up soon after the transition from P.M to A.M. and studying for them. Gotta love college life! I now have plenty of snacks to keep me occupied for many moons. hehe... :)

I have one final thing to add to this blog post, and that is a curious note that appeared on the front door this afternoon. I thought it was funny and deserved to be included.

People... People... LOL!

Haha... You put me in a very awkward situation. You know I am here at the T's almost alone and are expecting long... funny... bachelor stories again. Well, I hate to break the devastating news to you all, but the T's left us plenty of food, and I don't have to do any watering this time. Hooray!!

I do have a few stories to tell, but I also have considerable homework to complete before I can be all finished for the year! So... you can stop moping now and patiently await my next blog post. hehe... :) In the meantime, I am going to work on studying for my Accounting and Algebra finals. Ta.. Ta.. for now!

An interesting turn of events...

Several months ago I received a jury registration via snail mail. After registering, I was given several dates when I  may be required to make an appearance. After consulting the T's, none of them have actually done jury duty yet. Mr. T has received notices but hasn't ever had to actually come.

The way it works is that I am required to call an automated system that checks my number in their database and notifies me if I am due to appear. My first opportunity was a couple weeks ago. I was working on school one Monday morning and had completely forgotten that I may have to appear that day. By God's grace, I remembered almost an hour late and hastily called the automated system. I was relieved that I hadn't shirked my duty and wasn't required to appear that morning.

They recommend calling in on the Friday prior to the scheduled date. Yesterday, I called again expecting a second rejection. But to my surprise, I am required to appear on Monday morning by 9 A.M. sharp! hehe...

This could be very interesting. I have only been to one court trial in my life. That was many years ago when my mother had jury duty. I remember very little from that experience.

While this is a neat opportunity, it also detracts from school time and I may even miss a class! I hope and pray that I am not detained too long and can still attend my class. I am quite sure I successfully bombed my logarithm test yesterday, so missing another Algebra class could put me even farther behind. Anyway, I ask for your prayers. Thanks!

In preparation for Monday, I am going to attempt to complete one of my classes today for the year. I completed the last assignment last night, I just have a couple chapters to read, and several quizzes to take and one final test. God has given me sufficient rest lately, and I pray that I will use my time wisely and effectively.

Finally! It's a new blog post!

I know my blog has been largely inactive for the last few weeks. So, here is my attempt to liven it up again. Breath some new life into it you know. I hope this long blog post will compensate for the many days...

I have just two more weeks of school for the semester! Yippee!!! I am really excited, can you tell? :) Then it will be party time! Speaking of parties, my elder sister is getting married during my last week of school and it will be a HUGE celebration. I will just dedicate at least a piece of cake towards my celebration. hehe...

Speaking of the wedding, this past week I was measured for a tuxedo. It's one of those special suits that are not a suit yet bear a very close resemblance. (What the exact differences are, I don't know.) That was fun! But, it has it's disadvantages. One important one is that I can't get fat or skinny before that date. Otherwise it will be a tight squeeze or I will be swimming. hmm... Anyone that knows me understands that getting considerably more plump would be quite an accomplishment considering I resemble a stick and yet maintain a good sized appetite. lol

Thanksgiving was a good time for all. I was disappointed my cousins from out west near Cozad were not able to make it, but we still had a wonderful meal with my grandparents and one set of cousins at our house. After the meal, it is our family tradition to play football. Well... not quite directly following the meal. Most people require time for digestion.

I was made differently for some reason. I can vigorously exercise directly after a meal without having any ill effects. Tis very strange. Maybe it's those hollow legs my parents kept saying I had. hehe... :) Well anyway, we playing a rousing game of two-hand-touch football for a couple hours until the 'older' players were fatigued. I was not one of them, I could have played for at least another hour or two. Oh well... all good things must come to an end eventually. I did manage to successfully break my belt while making a sliding tackle that unfortunately didn't save the touchdown. grr... So now I am in the market for another black belt.

Friday started a lot earlier than usual and saw Kayla and I black friday shopping. I made a priority list the night before and decided finding a new computer monitor for mom was the highest. We arrived at Office Max at about 6:15 a.m. There was a line of about 15 people waiting patiently for the clock to chime 7 o-clock.

I was very impressed with Kayla's performance. I didn't give her enough credit and thought that she would complain while waiting outside in the cold for 45 minutes, but no, she did very well and didn't complain once! She actually enjoyed herself. We talked with other people waiting in line and found out Toys R US opened their doors at midnight and Old Navy had a line all the way to Michael's at 2:15 that morning. We weren't that crazy!!

Later that day I watched my first Husker game of the season. Yes, I am a Nebraska reject and rarely even wear the right colors on game days. hehe... I thought we did fairly well against Colorado but shrink thinking about the game against Texas this Saturday. I don't quite think we will be slaughtered, but once our defense is tired, our team is pretty much sunk. If we can't run and pass well against CO, then Texas will be a nightmare.

Saturday I helped Dad with one of his rental properties. The previous owners had trashed the place and left behind mostly junk but some usable assets. The neighbors claimed they were drug addicts and didn't leave the house ever, but used welfare for their livelihood. They must have been raking in our tax dollars because according to my uncle, they managed to scrape up enough money to purchase at least a 50 inch television. It was not a loan, my uncle saw the original receipt. Sounds rather freaky too me.

Anyway, we tore out all the stained carpet in the basement and somehow managed to drag a '96 pontiac out of the garage with two flat tires and one tire that barely held air. After struggling pushing it 3 inches, my dad found a chain to hook onto our truck. The first couple tries securing the chain failed, but after finding a bolt and an old rusty lock, we were able to successfully pull it out. Later, dad would fill out the necessary forms so that the police can haul it away.

After finishing at the house, I delivered some leftover thanksgiving food to my uncle and cousins and began the long trek back to Kearney. I arrived shortly before 5 that day. Michael and the gang had already decorated the treehouse the night before and the office that same day. They did an outstanding job!!

Well, now I would like to provide a brief school update.

The week before thanksgiving I was given the second of two monsters in my Principles of Accounting class. They call it simply principles of accounting, yet it seems to cover a broad range of topics. The monster involved journaling at least 25 transactions, calculating inventory, setting up trial balance sheets, income statements, and balance sheets. After struggling with it for several hours, I enlisted the help of some fellow students and together, 15 hours later, we had just about subdued the formidable foe. I didn't do quite as well with this monster and scored three points less. But I was still happy with a 96.

Around the same time, my College Algebra course was finally covering some new material that I had never seen before. We were studying logarithms and their properties. Fun stuff! hehe... That took a long time. For the next week I found myself dutifully taking notes during class yet not having a clue what we were doing or why were were doing it. Rance helped me out and explained the why and part of the how. He is such a great help, yet his assistance always comes with extra fascinating baggage. This time I learned about two kinds of infinity and the origin of calculus. hehe... funny story.

It turns out that calculus was actually developed by two people in completely different geographic areas. Isaac Newton was actually the first and he discovered calculus on the week he was sick with the flu. hehe... I just thought that was funny. The moral of the story, is that next time you want to discover something incredible wait until you have influenza. haha...

According to Rance, there are actually nine infinities currently known to man and they all are larger than the one before it. If you can wrap your mind around that concept, you are doing well.

Well, sadly, I need to end this blog post and get something more productive done. Just as a warning, the last two weeks of school may contain very sporadic blogging but I will try to keep you all updated with any major happenings. But for now, I will TTYL!! :)

A couple days late...

In our family, instead of participating in anything Halloween related, we celebrate Reformation Day. We usually attend a Reformation Day party celebrating Martin Luther's 95 theses that set the Catholic church on fire, literally and figuratively.

On that theme, my grandma found this neat Reformation day song that is sung by the tune "Supercalifragilistic-expialadocious" :)

Note: If you don't understand the reformation and Martin Luther's life it won't make much sense and much of the humor will be missed. But, if you do, than ENJOY!

                           The Reformation Polka 

                                               by Richard Gebel

When I was just ein junger Mann I studied canon law;
While Erfurt was a challenge, it was just to please my Pa.
Then came the storm, the lightning struck, I called upon Saint Anne,
I shaved my head, I took my vows, an Augustinian! Oh, -

Chorus
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation -
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let’s start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

When Tetzel came near Wittenberg, St. Peter’s profits soared,
I wrote a little notice for the All Saints’ Bull’tin board:
“You cannot purchase merits, for we’re justified by grace!
Here’s 95 more reasons, Brother Tetzel, in your face!” Oh-

Chorus

They loved my tracts, adored my wit, all were exempleror;
The Pope, however, hauled me up before the Emperor.
“Are these your books? Do you recant?” King Charles did demand,
“I will not change my Diet, Sir, God help me here I stand!” Oh-

Chorus

Duke Frederick took the Wise approach, responding to my words,
By knighting “George” as hostage in the Kingdom of the Birds.
Use Brother Martin’s model if the languages you seek,
Stay locked inside a castle with your Hebrew and your Greek! Oh-

Chorus

Let’s raise our steins and Concord Books while gathered in this place,
And spread the word that ‘catholic’ is spelled with lower case;
The Word remains unfettered when the Spirit gets his chance,
So come on, Katy, drop your lute, and join us in our dance! Oh-

Camping adventures: Day 1

This is the account of 7 guys adventures' while camping at Fort Robinson and Toad Stool Park as recorded by Seth. The names of these guys were Michael, Benjamin, DJ, Micah, Josiah, Josh and me.

(Warning to reader: This may be lengthy, so kick back, relax, pour yourself a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or cider and enjoy!)

The night before we left Kearney behind, most of us guys had gotten less then six hours of sleep. I had some school to finish that night, but the other guys were packing, and very anxious to get started. This time, I made certain Benjamin did not pack for me. The last time we tried that, he brought me one set of clothes and nothing else for the entire vacation. Need I say more?

Thursday morning, some of us were itching to leave as early as 3 or 4 A.M! But Michael decided he wouldn't be our chauffeur until after 6:00. We were devastated, but submitted to his wise decision. Benjamin was in charge of the food preparations, Michael was driving, DJ was the substitute photographer, Micah was the electronics operations coordinator, Josiah was the mediator and Josh well... was Josh, and I attempted to maintain some level of organization.

Waking up at 5 A.M., we got everything packed into the van. Or so we thought. Michael and Benjamin would tell you that I was slow packing and was the reason we left at around 6:30 instead of the original six. I would tell you that it is a good thing, or we wouldn't have had more than one flashlight and several other necessities.

For the first few hours of the trip, the road was largely shrouded in fog and darkness but it didn't seem to hinder Michael's driving. Partway there, Josh kindly informed us that the gas gauge didn't work. The check engine light came on during the trip, and the front passenger window didn't always roll up properly. Yes, the van was self-destructing as we went. :) But with dogged tenacity, we ignored the problems (like good boys) and kept pressing onward.

In the name of tradition, we cranked up the tunes all the way there and all the way back. This was not Bach, Mozart, but solid LOTR soundtrack music the whole trip! Michael's dedicated blackberry played the music while still feeding laptop's with internet access. Their was a brief respite in between tracks that some of us relished exceedingly.

A little further on, we finally saw blue sky trying to chase away the fog! Praise the Lord! It was truly glorious to see the sun again. :) Soon after, we stopped the van in the middle of the sandhills to take a "group photo". Other people driving past us, prolly thought we were more than slightly on the nutty side. After people saw the Nebraska plates, they either thought: 1: We were from from back east and had entertained the thought that Nebraska is all flat. (like a pancake) 2: We actually enjoy living in the happiest state in the country!


The sandhills are gorgeous for Nebraska. Don't get me wrong. But it doesn't compare with the ocean, or the Grand Canyon. But this is probably a good thing because, in both cases, it is the dwelling of some pretty scary, unhappy people. :)


DJ had taken shotgun and was happily taking numerous photos of pretty much anything in sight. But especially trains and sandhills. I could hear the camera shutter going off almost constantly. I was in the back seat diligently preparing for the next discipleship hour series: the sacraments! What fun!!

Three passengers had brought laptops: Michael, Benjamin, and Micah. Michael used his to play his favorite game Notepad ++ (web design code editor). Josh, in the back seat first asked Benjamin to use his laptop. He claimed that "He was sooo bored and must have a computer to play games or he would die!" Benjamin flatly denied his pleadings. Then Josh tried his puppy dog begging with Micah. At first, Micah also refused, but after Josh nagging him constantly, Micah consented and used his fingerprint to allow him access. After this episode, Josiah and I were very thankful we had left our laptops behind. :)


During the trip, we watched the video from the previous Fort Robinson and Toad Stool park trip. After watching it a few minutes, Josiah decided to make it more exciting and increase the playback speed. It was hilarious watching us get things done so fast! Cooking was another story... :D One favorite line comes from when I was hiding from the other guys out on the rocks. When they found me, I calmly stated, with hand motions, "beauty plus shade equals comfort." hehe... They won't let me forget that one.

Benjamin informed us that he had, yet again, forgotten the can opener but assured us that we had an axe and a hatchet. He also informed us that his rigid tradition had forced him to purchase the exact same ingredients as last time: cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, and pasta. I was bracing myself for a repeat of the disaster he concocted last time. lol jk Ben.

At least your food was edible, I have made some umm... (food is a too pleasant noun) grub not fit for human consumption! I wouldn't have even fed it to our dog for fear it would die from a heart attack! Okay... slight exaggeration there.

From all appearances, it seemed Michael had not begun his vacation yet. He kept answering business related calls from frantic customers desperately needing their problems repaired. Plus, his secretary (his mom) needing him to be at her beckoning call for a majority of the trip. Now that's dedication! *Claps Michael on the back*

By this time, we were about two hours away from our destination. Beside the road we could see several foot drifts of snow. We were praying all the poison ivy had died and Benjamin would not have to be under extreme caution. (He is extremely sensitive to poison ivy oils) But, that was not to be, and Benjamin still came back with some average sized welts on his right arm.

Michael claimed we were almost there, but looking out the window we could see only cornfields and farmhouses. Those of us that had gone last time remembered that the scenery change was sudden. One moment we see the typical Nebraska countryside, and the next BUTTES! ohh... They were soo pretty! Both sides of the road were lined with the monsters in some places.

We finally arrived at Fort Robinson and parked in the same spot as last year, walked up to the park office the same way, and later stayed at the same campsite. The road to the campsite involves literally driving through two streams that run across the road. After safely making it through the first stream, the second stream appeared to be deeper, but Michael was confident we would be fine. Josh and DJ wanted Michael to race through it, but Michael wisely took his time.

It was a good thing too, because driving over the hidden bumps rapidly could have seriously done damage to the vehicle and it wasn't ours to break.

After making it to our campsite, we carefully and delicately unpacked everything and organized it into one neat pile. umm... maybe not. Maybe in my dream, but here is a more accurate description.

After we arrived, everyone hastily scrambled out and began chucking everything out of the van as fast as possible. We resembled dogs digging for a bone! Except we were digging for a very different reason. We then threw everything into one large pile, called it good, and made some lunch. :) Yes, order had been thrown out the window!


Ignoring the mess, we set out after lunch to hike the massive, magnificent buttes for several hours. Everyone except Josh had taken a water bottle. He quickly regretted that decision. I was very thankful that we at least hiked the opposite direction from the previous time. It was a lot of fun climbing one butte and gazing at the beauty around us. This pattern was oft repeated yet didn't lose its excitement.

Michael and I enjoyed our vacation surfing the web, and communicating with friends and family on our blackberries. Michael, while speaking with his mother, wasn't paying attention at one point and walked straight into a tree branch. I stepped in several holes while using my phone, but somehow avoided walking into anything.

After several hours of this, and losing three of the guys that were frustrated with our slow progress, we reunited and carefully made our way back down to the van. We were exhausted after endlessly climbing and descending numerous buttes.

We decided that our game plan was the following: prepare and eat supper before sunset and briefly return to th buttes to capture the beautiful sunset before it sunk below the horizon. Well... God foiled my plans, and slightly modified everyone else's.

In the process of gathering burning material, we found some excellent firewood just across another small stream that was too wide to jump. While some of us attempted other crossing methods, I wandered downstream and found a suitable crossing point where I could just barely jump across. I then proceeded to toss the usable firewood across the stream to the other boys.

Finding a fallen tree I carried it over to the waiting boys and made a bridge. Both Josh and Benjamin came across with the hatchet and chopped some more wood. Without wanting to travel downstream again, I decided to use the bridge that had already undergone a successful test by two people. I gingerly stepped onto the tree (about 6-8 inches wide) and took my first very wobbly step. About halfway across, I felt me balance quickly becoming less steady and lunged back toward the shore. Kir-Splash!! I had managed to keep the top half of me dry, preserving my phone and wallet, but the rest of me was soaked to the skin. I had sunk at least a foot into the muddy depths of the stream and was quite a sight to behold.

My only pair of shoes were soaked and this was only the first day of the trip! What was on my plate for the rest of the trip I wondered. More blood was spilt from that fall for me than the rest of the trip despite much more "risky business" ahead. I dejectedly made my way the rest of the way across the river and back to camp where the rest of the guys were beginning to cook supper.

I had missed the can opening ceremony with axes and hatchets, but was present for Michael's infamous cooking technique. So after I had hung my shoes and socks to dry from a tree, I walked back to the fire and witnessed Michael force blow the reluctant soup out of the cans. It was highly amusing. After cooking the noodles, and warming the two before mentioned soups, we would mix them all together into one tasty meal!

Because the supper preparations were taking too long, Michael and Josiah went and took photographs before sunset. For some odd reason, we throughout the trip was could never find the right utensil and almost always used the wrong one. In this case, for some odd reason we could only find forks. It was difficult, but is much better than chop sticks! Most of us ate Benjamin's delicious recipe, but Josh refused to eat the food. He claimed he wasn't hungry. This time the soup wasn't as watery as last time and was, dare I say it, almost perfect!

After we had finished supper, Michael and Josiah came back and announced that after getting beds ready we would get some ice cream!

Backtracking slightly, after hanging up my only shoes to dry, and not wanting to ruin a pair of socks in the park, I walked in bare feet while the October temperature dropped quite drastically. While the boys were gone photographing, I was wrapped up in a blanket because my feet were soo cold! Hearing we were getting some ice cream and not wanting to miss the excitement, I dedicated a pair of black socks to wear for the dessert trip. :)


This was the second time, I saw people giving us strange looks. I mean, who gets Ice Cream in the middle of October and on top of that, wears only socks! I was the worst, but all of us had a disheveled appearance after our adventures. We didn't know where to find ice cream, so we first tried the gas station. We had only just entered when the manager takes one look at us gazing longingly at the ice cream sandwiches and recommends we get soft serve ice cream somewhere else. She recommended a convenient place just down the road. Stabbs Drive in, they called it. hehe...


A sign in the window welcomed us with the guarantee that "We guarantee fast service no matter how long it takes." The poor lady that waited on us. She prolly also thought we were nuts ordering Ice Cream and choosing to eat it outside in October. After shivering all through that frozen treat, most of us had been tortured enough for one day and were ready to crash.

Reaching camp again, Michael only, at first, heard a strange noise in the distance that sounded like a baboon, and another noise that started low and they gradually moved up the scale. It was a little freaky. For Josh, it didn't help matters that we were sleeping about 50 feet from a graveyard. hehe...

We finally got to sleep and prepared for the adventures the next day had in store.

To be continued...

My wedding story

This is a video taken by my blackberry, so the quality leaves a lot to be desired. The video begins right as C is informing her brother on the phone to be at the wedding today and bring his tux. :D This is after she has been denied confirmation from her father.

The point in the video when I burst into fits of laughter is when C is pointing at me to be both her groom and best man. :)

Update:  If you haven't yet watched the video, you must comment and let me know. It is no longer viewable because it has been removed from the public youtube channel.

A txt'ing wonder

This is from Neowin.net. It is one of the websites I regularly visit for technology news. :)

"MobileCrunch is reporting that an anonymous AT&T subscriber in the US sent 662,000 txt messages in August and received a 12,000 paged paper bill."

If you have time, you should watch the 5 minute video below that actually shows the bill and the phone he used. Pretty ridiculous...



Reading youtube comments, this person claims to have not used any automated system to receive or send txt messages and also claims that he didn't send any messages to more than one recipient!! Yes, he had unlimited txt messaging. *sigh of relief*

Please...Please... with all your txt messages, don't try to surpass this nut! :P

Teenage conclusion and celebration

Well, the last few days of my teen years have been rather uneventful and most memorable. Let me begin with a few events from Thursday.

Thursday morning beginning about 11:30, I drove my car to Big O tires to have my tires replaced. The original time estimate was about 1 hour. Since I didn't want to wait there unproductively, I contacted Mrs. Tillotson and asked if someone could come and pick me up. She tentatively said yes, and attempted contacting people. Benjamin was called at least 3 times, he didn't answer, K was called several times, she didn't answer.

Benjamin was washing windows just a few miles away from Big O. Finally, Mrs. Tillotson came and picked me up. Just as we were about to leave, Benjamin drives past in the van. Grrr...

We went back to the house, ate lunch and Kristin drove me back to Big O to pick up my tires. I saw my car was still in the bay with the mechanics. I sighed, and sat down in the waiting room. I sat there for quite some time quite content but a little frustrated.

After a few consultations with the mechanics about additional necessary repairs, they finally announced my car was finished around 3:30. So much for one hour. lol The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

Friday morning I was determined to understand my confusing accounting course by having Rance as my tutor. In his words, he was "determined to shoot Seth if he doesn't learn accounting and wastes my time in the process :)"

With this in mind, I wandered to my car, started it, but wasn't going anywhere very fast. To my dismay, my car was obviously leaning to the right. I exited, and found my front, passenger tire was completely flat! I located my jack, and attempted to replace the tire.

It had a terrible time getting the tire replaced. First, my car didn't leave enough clearance to insert the jack, then I couldn't figure out how to use my jack, so I borrowed the neighbors jack and finally got the drivers side jacked up.

With that accomplished, I retrieved several hand weights from the garage and gradually moved the jack to the correct side. If Ben and Michael had been there, I would have had a reason to lift up my car, but they were both gone.

I had a few more minor difficulties, but I finally got my donut mounted. By that time, it was 11:30 and Algebra class was scheduled in a half hour. With all the weight on that puny little tire, it resembled a balloon being squeezed ready to burst at any moment. I didn't trust it, and decided to ride on two wheels instead of four.

With everything that had happened so far, I just laughed when I located my bike and found the back tire totally flat. lol! Thankfully, it held air for long enough to get to school and back. But it felt almost flat when I finally returned.

I decided to bring my car back to Big O and have the problem diagnosed. Considering my donut's appearance, I crawled across town at less than 25 mph, taking mostly side streets. Upon reaching Big O, I described my problem to the mechanics.

Nearby, two young ladies exclaimed that they had the same problem. They had new tires mounted on thursday, and today one of them was flat. Another guy piped up, that he had new ones mounted on Wed. and already had a flat. Obviously something was wrong!

I was assured that it would be a free checkup and replacement if necessary and given a 30 minute estimation. This time I was prepared, I had brought my business textbook to study while I was waiting. Fifteen minutes later, my tire was remounted and I was all ready to leave. So much for being productive!

Inquiring about the problem, I was told that "the tire core was loose" whatever that means. lol I was relieved that it wasn't my fault this time. :)

The next day was my birthday. I woke up Saturday morning with a long list to accomplish. It wasn't my plan to leave the house until much later in the day. But, after breakfast I received a perplexing txt message from Lesley requesting that I take a break and walk out to the driveway.

Not wanting to come out unprepared for an ambush or something, I exited the side door and made my way to the driveway. At first, I didn't see anything unusual. Everything was in its proper place. But, then I saw it.

Gazing across the street I burst into fits of laughter. My car had been mysteriously redecorated with hot pink window paint, glitter, and numerous hearts. Unfortunately the dew had smothered the writing, but the message could still be read. Here are some pictures of the damage.







The Tillotson's also made me some delicious non-tillotsonized (unhealthy) beef stroganoff and lemon cake for lunch. Just in case I forgot my age, I was also given 20 rather curious presents. It was a very broad assortment of items. Among them were: rubberbands, taco seasoning mix, notebooks, jalapenos, calculator, hot chocolate, highlighters, baked beans, giant paper clips, etc. It was fun unwrapping them all.

Well, that is my story! A big thanks to all who participated and made my 20th birthday unforgettable! Thanks! :)

A funny disclaimer

There is something wrong with the world. disclaimers, funny or otherwise, should not be necessary. We all know it. We all see it every day. Death and sickness is all around us. What happened? The answer is that this world (including us) have fallen deep into a chasm and can’t clamber back up on our own strength.

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12

We are enslaved within this chasm with no escape route except one thin thread that extends upward. As we look up, the way seems endless and treacherous. The thread looks very weak and unable to hold our weight.  

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:13-14

You have heard stories that one day a man came from above the chasm, suffered, and even died while hanging that little thread for those who would only believe in Him. The only escape route. Yet, believing in that thread is impossible! Or was it?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Yet, something grips your heart like an unbreakable iron clasp. All your disclaimers aside, you now understand that you are the reason this Man came. Shamefully, you look at yourself and realize that you are indeed broken and can’t do anything good. You plead for someone to stand in your place before the great Judge!

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5

This force compels you to grab hold of the thread and climb up. The people around you mock you and utter profanities against you. Yet, you are incapable of turning back now. An irresistible force is pushing you up the thread, up out of the abyss. You can still hear the mocking but it is becoming more distant now.  Now you see that others have gone up before you and have also had similar experiences. As you converse with them, you find out that this Man, Jesus Christ, died for you and has prepared a bountiful inheritance for you.

But wait? A inheritance, but I never knew this Man!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. Ephesians 1:3-4

Ahh… you are right.

But he knew you! He chose you to and gave you this blessed inheritance!

What inheritance?

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:5-6

So, this man that I have never known as adopted me into his family and rescued me from that abyss?

Yes, that is right! But that is not all.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

Wow! So, part of this inheritance is going to heaven! What did I do to deserve that?

Nothing! Don’t you understand? He was merciful to us and gave this gift to us.

Praise be to the God and Father who has chosen to rescue us and bless us!

haha... This is me again. I thought I would write a brief post describing a disclaimer I was required to sign before I could participate in my Information Security course here at the college. The following are some excerpts from this agreement.

It first mentions the consequences this class can have if the info is abused intentionally or accidentally. The consequences are: "breaches of security, damage to data or other undesirable results."

hehe... funny. It is sad that people must be told the obvious results bad decisions can produce. :)

And then it goes on and lists several rules that me, as a student, must obey.

1. Understands that any coursework, including lab experiments, may be carried out on a public/private network that is used by people in organizations to complete their work.

To put it in English, I must understand that all homework done for this class is being replicated and sent over insecure networks that are also utilized by many different individuals.

2. Examine/use specific assigned course accounts for privacy vulnerabilities.

Essentially, I may only use the class examples as resources for locating and exploiting security holes. Bummer!

3. Report any security vulnerabilities discovered to the course instructor(s) immediately, and not disclose them to anyone else.

This one is self-explanatory. Any security holes I find must be reported immediately to my teacher.

4. Maintain confidentiality of any private information learned through the course.

This one doesn't deserve an explanation, but the last two were my favorites.

5. Hold harmless and does not pursue any legal action against the course instructor(s) and Central Community College for any consequences of this course.

Essentially, the college is not responsible for when I am lugged off to prison for hacking the pentagon's website. hehe...

6. Do not attempt to perform any actions or use skills learned in this course in a malicious manner.

hehe... And I thought I had plans for all this new knowledge I would be gaining. Unfortunately, those plans have been dashed to pieces. :)

Over all, college is going well so far. One week down, 14 to go!

Interesting visitor

Well this week is off to a great start. It is my last week before school begins again and I have already had a very interesting experience. One of those things that doesn't happen every day.

This guy has been coming into our shop regularly. His name is Ron Haubold. We have assisted him with his I-pod, and his two computers a number of times. Anyway, this time he relates to me quite a narrative. Hold on to your hats folks! Here we go...

He starts out by saying that his lawyer is using ancient software and should be convinced to upgrade. He then hands me an external enclosure for a desktop hard drive and launches into his story.

Either Friday or Saturday night, Ron was parked behind our shop in the alley hijacking our wireless internet. He explained that he couldn't connect anymore at the library and had to get his Photoshop working. So while he was sitting there in his car, a neighborhood cop drives up and asks him what he is doing. Ron mentions that he is updating photoshop, and the cop notices that the right seat in Ron's car is missing. Ron explains that he took his seat out to haul boards from Menards to his house and hasn't put it back in yet. The cop goes back to his car and radios to another cop. Once he comes, they end up taking his license away. They leave after promising him that he can do whatever he wants now.

Ron, in a loud voice, announces that he is fed up with Kearney and wants to leave the state as soon as possible. He tells me that he is going to pick up his police report and high tail out of the state without his license and go to Prom-e-tary Lake, KS to fish. (spelling??)

He had already found renters for his apartment in Kearney and would have to vacate in the beginning of September.

I cautioned him to obey the law and legally go through the hoops to obtain his license again. If he was caught without his license he would most certainly go to jail. But I really doubt he will heed my advice.

Apparently he has been in trouble with the law before after leaving the scene of an accident back in MO and having his license terminated. He explained to me all the details of that ordeal too, but that would be another newspaper.

What struck me the most out of this experience is that Ron told me all this knowing that I could easily go to the police station and have him apprehended when he drives without his license. I mean, he told me where he lived, where he was going, what kind of vehicle he was driving, and mentioned he would be hauling his boat which equaled a total of 28,000 pounds.

In addition, he told me that once he gets out of the state he will go from county to county asking for a new drivers license until they give him one. If necessary he will lie and change the last letter of his last name to T if they refuse to give him one with his real name.

Well everyone, this will be the last week of frequent blogging. I will try to keep you all updated with my life with at least one post every other week, but it will be toned down rather drastically. I doubt I will be writing long newspapers for quite awhile. So some of you can heave a great sigh of relief and the rest of you may mourn greatly. ;)

A new commenting method and discoveries

One frustration I have with blogger is the inability to read the original post and comment on certain parts at the same time. I have changed the blog so that the comments now open in a separate window that can be maneuvered or made to split the screen. I am not sure I like it yet, but I am giving it a test run.

haha... I also have made two very interesting discoveries about blogger.

1. I can send blog posts in the past! Look at my previous blog post which was actually posted tonight.

2. I can now edit anything and everything anyone says, comments, or otherwise.
muhhahahaha... Better watch out people!

The end bachelorhood is near...

Monday promised to be a good day. It was cloudy outside with even a slight chance of rain. This means a watering reduction. Hooray!

After waking up at 5:30, I set the large sprinkler on the south flower gardens. The previous day, some neighbors offered to help me with the daunting watering task. We arranged to correspond via email and she and her children would cycle the sprinklers while I was at work.

The larger sprinkler takes 4 hours to attain the equivalent of 1/2 inch rain. Doing the simple math, this means that they would have to turn it off at 9:30 a.m.

With this assurance, I packed up everything and headed for work. The work day was slow at first, but in the afternoon things began to get crazy. By the time 4:00 rolled around we had 5 computers to fix yet and 2 hard drives to mirror. Consequently, I didn't get back to the house until approximately 6:00 p.m.

Upon entering the driveway, I failed to see any progress on the watering. Remembering the sprinkler that I had turned on early that morning, I rushed to the back. A nice swamp greeted me with the sprinkler still happily performing its duties.

After shutting off the water, I surveyed the damage.

I thanked God because it could have been much worse. Before I had left that morning, God had given me the foresight to turn off the little sprinkler on the off chance our neighbors didn't receive my emails. If I hadn't done that, the whole backyard would probably be one large lake!

Coming into the kitchen I found ants simply everywhere. I apparently had left some crumbs on the stove. The ants were rejoicing over my clumsiness. They were crawling all around the counters and sink in very large numbers. I groaned, and made everything spotless again. :)

Tuesday morning I woke up and checked the back gardens. I come to report that the plants have not drowned. In fact, they are as green as ever with considerably more beautiful pink flowers on one, very well watered, shrub.

Later that day, our neighbors finally emailed me back from the previous day and we arranged and coordinated the watering for the day. The rest of Tuesday was pretty uneventful.

Wednesday was the highlight of my week. This was the day when Rance and I finally completed the week long troublesome computer.

This computer originally had a power surge blow out most of the internal parts. After replacing the motherboard, the processor, and the memory, the computer seemed to work better.

Yet, we still had many errors. The computer didn't resolve them even after swapping out hard drives, optical drives, even a brand new motherboard. Every time we reinstalled windows we got the same error. Finally, out of desperation, Rance took the computer uptown to another computer repair place to show them the problem. When he setup the computer, everything worked flawlessly! Setup completed just fine and everything. Being a little embarrassed, Rance took the computer back down to TCS.net to setup the drivers and complete the job.

After rebooting windows, the same old error came up again! We were very puzzled and confused. We went through the possibilities, until Rance discovered that they only difference between the other place and our place was the electricity. Yet, all the other computers, desktops and otherwise worked as usual. To confirm our theory, we replaced the power supply with a brand new one, and wallah, the problem finally disappeared.

The original problem was the power supply, but the reason it worked at the other computer store was because of the higher quality electricity. Our old electricity was not powerful enough to overcome the power supply's faults, but the newer electricity provided enough juice despite the dying power supply.

During this project, two storms went through Kearney, and dropped some heavy torrential rain for a few minutes. It meant I was finished with watering for the week. Hooray!

If you got lost in the above description of our computer trials, than you may tune in again. If you didn't get lost, than give yourself a pat on the back. :)

After we finally completed the computer, I prepared to return it to a very patient customer. We had been working on this computer for slightly more than a week, and set the record for the longest, unsolved, job in history!

Leaving the shop, I noticed a steady stream of cars and decided to make a run for my car. Behind me, I heard someone yelling at me. Looking back, I see a older man poking his head out from the bar next door yelling "Hey, did you steal that?" I yell back, "No!" I then heard him reentering and reassuring his half drunk comrades that I hadn't stolen anything. I didn't hear from him again.

I finished the rest of the Chow Mein, and beans for lunch, and made some cheese dogs for supper. That may sound sophisticated, but it was only hot dogs in a pot, (because the Tillotsons had confiscated the frying iron) with strips of cheese on top. It wasn't anything fancy by any means.

I spent two hours that night picking beans and cucumbers. Later, I caught up with friends that had been left in the dust during the confusion and increased business of the past week and a half.

The next day was Thursday. I ate some more cheese dogs that day and found out the Tillotson's were returning the following day at approximately 4 p.m. This day was incredibly busy down at the shop, and I was constantly running around working on various things.

One particular customer was rather curious. A man, probably in his latter twenties, walked in and requested that we purchase his computers from him. This man may be considered "cute" according to my limited training. He was a brawny cross between a lumber jack and a lawyer. He had the build of a lumber jack, but his well trimmed beard and mustache would have made him highly presentable in a courtroom.

While we were having our discussion, a young woman and a young child walked in and joined him. The young women was a couple inches above 5 foot, and had the characteristics of a 16 or 17 year old.

After we completed our business, the man introduced us to his wife and child and explained that they were moving to Alaska permanently to fish. They were planning on living on an island, and couldn't bring their computers along. Rance and I were shell shocked that this young woman was his wife but tried not to show our surprise.

That night I picked broccoli, and completed migrating all my old email settings, documents, contacts, to my new, more recognizable, GMAIL address.

My previous address was slightly more than 5 years old and was created out of extreme frustration with MSN Hotmail. I kept on writing long emails and then losing them, and the constant spam was disgusting! Thus the mad-me-am. Horrendous grammar! lol

Gmail was a welcome relief from Google. It provided such features as automatic save, and the best non-exclusive spam filter on the internet. I rarely received more than one spam email in my inbox a month! The rest were conveniently forwarded to my spam folder. Believe me, I have tested virtually all of the popular webmails, and GMAIL deserves the best rating in all categories.

I went to bed that night quite a bit later than I should have. Waking up at 5 a.m, I began the considerably long list I had made the previous night. It was Friday! The day the Tillotson's were brave enough to show their faces again and release me from being shackled to Kearney.

The list went something like this. Check the garden, put away sprinklers, restore the T's computer back to its defaults, and sweep the floors. While putting away the sprinkler, I foolishly tossed it over the outdoor air-conditioner fan and broke the plastic hose connection. :( I was devastated, but resolved to purchase a new one the next day. All this was necessary to sufficiently prepare for the Tillotson onslaught scheduled later that day.

That day, business was much slower during the morning but it picked up substantially during the afternoon. At one point, I was taking housecalls, and Rance had to urge me to return because of the extreme busi-ness. I was soo thankful for His constant provision.

The previous afternoon, I attempted contacting Michael, but some unknown identity answered instead and was reluctant to deliver to him a message. After some urging, she agreed. I asked Michael to hurry down to the office as soon as he returned because Rance and I had to reorient him with his own business after being gone for two weeks.

Michael kept his promise and came down to the office right around 4:15. It took us a whole hour and a half to explain everything that had happened the past few weeks. But finally, all the stories had been told, and I headed back for supper back at the T's.

After a delicious late supper and many vacation stories, I began heading towards bed.

The nice thing about a blackberry is that you appear to be online at all times and are easily reached by several means of communication: SMS, MMS, Gtalk, Gmail Facebook, and phone. It also makes it easy to inform my friends of my current status without actually talking with them. If at anytime, I don't want to be contacted, I can easily turn my phone off and all communication ceases.

That night, I was kept rather busy until the wee hours of the morning and enjoyed myself immensely. It was a huge relief not having to wake up early and be responsible for breakfast, watering and more! I was determined to take full advantage of my freedom. :)

That is the end of my bachelorhood stories. I hope you enjoyed them, but I also hope you won't have to tune in next time for a long time!

A few final notes...

I had originally strove to design a complete database of all our inventory at the shop while the Tillotson's were gone, but very little of my plans were accomplished.

Before the T's left, I weighed myself so that I would could contrast it with my weight after my days of fasting. Eight hours after my first meal with the Tillotsons, I weighed myself and found that I had remarkably gained 1.4 pounds! I was up to 150 even. I was astounded. :)

If you were expecting another week like the previous one, thankfully, I learned from many of my lessons, and had a much less exciting week.

This post is wimpy compared with my last one and is only 1,752 words. Sorry for the disappointment. :(