This is the main watering hole for the various families. I will list links here to pages that have items of interest to family members whenever I can.

•  Monaghan Family Reunion

•  Recent trip to Jersey

     11:00am Okay, yes, I've been very bad.  I haven't kept up with this blog much at all in the past three months.  Well, there's a reason!

     I was busy. Real, real busy!

     In the past few months we have gone camping and sailing at Otsego Lake State Park, begun looking for a bigger house, begun cleaning up this house to make it "sale-ready", gotten the boys back to school, gone sailing at Higgins Lake State Park, observed the first anniversary of my father's death, gone sailing on the Tall Ship Manitou at Traverse City, gone looking for bigger sailboats to go cruising on, gotten a motor mount for Hobie, and tried to get ahead through life without killing ourselves.

     Whew!  It has been an absolute whirlwind.  I will try to keep this blog a bit more up-to-date but I fear it's just gonna get crazier and crazier.  Please bear with me.

     Today, Kell and I are doing various projects to make up for the wasted day yesterday.  We decided to test out the new motor mount for Burt The Cat at Lake Lansing yesterday.  Now normally, when sailing at Lake Lansing, I don't bother taking my own boat out because I can use the catamarans at the club.  But, in order to test out the motor mount, we needed to take ours out.  Soooo...Kell and I took off at the crack of 10:30 am, picked up the boat at my brother's, hauled it out to Lake Lansing, and spent an hour and a half getting it rigged to go in the water!  Needless to say, we had some problems.  But, trooper that she is, Kell stuck it out and we go the boat on the water, sailed around, tested the motor, and packed up and left.  An excusion that should have taken 3 hours tops, took us over 5.  Sheesh!

     So, today we are making up for it by trying to get some projects done.  I'm painting the entry way to the house and we're both re-doing the indoor/outdoor carpeting on the porch.  The dinner for Cindy (who broke her foot) and, hopefully, I'll get to do a little artwork tonight.  We'll see.....

     4:02 pm It's really funny how things work out.  Call it "providence', "good fortune", whatever.  Sometimes things happen exactly the way they're supposed to.

     After wasting an entire afternoon with numbnuts at Midwest Sailing, I decided to contact the owner of a used Hobie 16 that I talked to earlier in the week.  Now, Kelley and I had talked about it before and we decided it might be smarter to buy new and not buy "someone else's problems".  But, I decided to contact this guy again and "just look at the boat". Couldn't hurt to just look, right?

     After a great afternoon of sailing with the boys at MSU on one of the club's Hobies (Ben did great, by the way.  He loves  sailing now!), we contacted Kell and went out for a bite to eat.  On our way home, Larry, the owner of the used Hobie, called me on my cell phone. I dropped Kell and the boys off and went  to find Larry's house on Lake Lansing. After going the wrong way down a private street (Hey! Idiot! You're going the wrong way!)  I met with Larry and checked out the Hobie.

     A couple of negotiations, a test sail,  and a little cash and I was the proud owner of a 1978 Hobie Cat 16 complete with a trailer!  Yeesh!

     It was with a bit of trepidation that Tony and I took her to the club on Father's Day.  I had called before and Ken, the sailing club manager, told it would be no problem to have the guys check her out and help me get her in the water for a test sail. The staff was great and spent a lot of time with me offering all sorts of hints and tips and even helped tune the rigging and replace some parts that looked "goofy".  They told me --much to my relief-- that the sails looked pretty darn good and I should be able to get a couple of years out of them.

     Then Tony and I took off for a nice sail around Lake Lansing.

     After about an hour and a half, we came back and checked her out again.  One of my concerns was that Larry had said he noticed that the hulls would take on water.  Not too good for a sailboat.  However, after we had beached her, we took the drain plugs out and lifted her bow.

     No water. Not a drop.  She seems as water tight as a frog's...well, you get the idea.

     The staff then helped me get her back on the trailer and we figured out a good way to secure her for traveling.

     Needless to say, I am one happy sailor.  I got myself and my family a great sailboat for a fraction of what I was originally going to spend.  Complete with trailer.  Now, we're getting ready to go up north to Otsego Lake and spend a weekend in the sun and sand and surf.

     Life don't get much better than that.

     I'd like to think that maybe, just maybe, my dad had a hand in helping me make the right decision.  I can picture him now, smiling and saying, "Well, hell, there  ya go, Snick."

     2:30 pm I am a sailing nut.  As I've written about before, I got hooked on sailing about 20 years ago when I was playing the Pilot House bar on Mackinac Island and have just recently rekindled my love affair with wind and waves.  I joined the MSU sailing center again this year and have been having a great time sailing Hobie Cats.

     After hemming and hawing, I decided it was time to buy a boat of my own so the family and I could take it to Otsego Lake or where ever and sail whenever we wanted on our boat.  I did a lot of research and decided upon this one, the Hobie Wave.  It looked like it would be tailor made for our purposes.  Kelley and I talked about it and we decided to take the plunge and spend the cash for a new rather than used Wave.

     So, I call this guy at Midwest Sailing in Pinckney and talk to him about what I'm looking for, how we'd be using it, who would be using it, etc., and made it very plain that I was going to visit him on Wednesday and, more than likely, walk away with a sailboat. A very easy sale!

     Well, today, after the boys got out of their last day (ahem, half day) of school for the summer, I picked them up and we drove the hour long drive to this place.  The place was dead, we were the only customers, and the sales manager, "Michael", had nothing else to do but try to sell us a boat that we'd already decided on.  Well, apparently, that wasn't enough incentive for him.

     Up until I became a computer tech 6 or 7 years ago, I was in sales for over 11 years.  I know how to sell something.  I know how to ask the right questions so I know what the customer wants, and thus, I can show him everything he needs to have his questions answered.  I also know that, ESPECIALLY IN SALES, a bird in the hand is far better than two or three or fifty on the phone.

     Well, Michael must not feel that way.  He asked no probing questions, never tried to entice us with any feature of the boat, flat-out refused to let us test sail it on the lake across the street because "he was short-staffed", and generally made it very apparent that he didn't want to have to do anything to try and earn our business.

     Fine.  I don't need a sailboat.  I can sail almost anytime I want out at the club on all sorts of cool sailboats.  I was willing to let my obsession rule and I was going to foolishly spend my hard-earned cash on something that I really could do without.  But, Michael the schlep, showed me the errors of my ways.  I shouldn't spend my money on a new sailboat.  There are oodles of used ones out there!

     So, I was willing to shell out a lot of cash today. Now, I don't have to.  I can save my cash and look for just the right boat.  New or used.  Or maybe I'll buy a Hobie Wave from another dealer.  Like the one in Traverse City.

     Right now, the boys and I are goin' sailing.  At the club!

     1:40 pm Okay!  Who took away the summer?  Here we are in the beginning of June and it has been much cooler than normal and rainy!  Feel like we're stuck in early May.

     Despite that, I have finally-- after 13 years of planning, dreaming, and procrastinating-- built our deck.  Turned out pretty nice too.  It's 8 X 20 and we've been enjoying it a lot.  Only took me a weekend to actually build it but, holy cow, my back was killing me for a few days afterwards.  Gettin' older, I guess!  Next up; the new patio!

     Been doing a little bit of sailing at the club as the weather has permitted.  This year, my sailing buddies and I have been checking out the Hobie Cats.  Man!  Sailing catamarans is a lot more enjoyable than sailing small mono-hulls.  Great stability and excellent speed help to make even the lightest breezes a heckuva lot of fun.  I've been scoping out used cats in the local rags but, so far, I keep getting beat to the punch.  Oh well, just like with the MacGregor, if it's meant to be, I'll get one.  If not, I'll just have fun using the club's boats.

     Found a new tv show to get hooked on.  Keen Eddie is on Fox at 9pm Tuesday nights.  It's a very quirky cop show about a New York detective working in London. Very funny!

     In the meantime, we've been looking forward to nicer weather, getting projects done and, of course, our Disney trip this fall!

     11:30am Today is my father's birthday. I really, really miss you, dad.

     10:45am Well, it's been a little while since my last entry!  We've been very, very busy with life, projects and all the other things that get in the way of keeping up with this journal.  Time, time, where is the time?

     After getting a taste of home theatre when I helped my brother put together his system this past Christmas, I finally broke down and bought one myself.  Not wanting to break the bank, I went cheap and picked up a KLH system from Best Buy for $149.00!  Wow!  What a difference! My test disc was Episode II: Attack of The Clones.  It looks and sounds incredible.  This system includes 5 speakers, subwoofer, dvd player/tuner/amplifier, and remote.  Attack of the clones is a Great DVD to test any system.  The Dolby Surround sound is awesome and it was thrilling to hear the ships descend into the atmosphere of Corusant with their engines "thrum-thrum-thrumming" through the subwoofer.  If you haven't gotten ahold of a home theatre system yet, I'd suggest you do so.  As Tony says, "Who needs the theatre?"

     I was a little disappointed at first because it seemed that the system didn't play DVD-RW disc.  A major flaw for me considering I use these as test prints of my family dvds before I commit to a regular DVD-R.  However, I discovered that they do play so long as you make sure the disc is perfectly clean.  Picky, picky, picky. I spent the other evening running the wires through the walls so the whole set-up looks quite nice.

     Kelley's been working very hard on getting some landscaping done.  She's done a great job and I can't wait to see it completed! So far, she has designed and installed a brick retaining wall next to the drive that will be filled with plants and flowers.  Already it's made a HUGE difference.   Next up are the decks and a new patio.

     Yep, we'll get everything done in time to sell the house!

     8:40am Well, spring break has pretty much come and gone.  The weather started out crappy with highs in the twenties and has bounced back to given us highs in the 60's these last few days.  As Kell and I had a whole poop-load of projects lined up for this week, we were pretty torqued off earlier.  But the Granger dumpster arrived on Wednesday and we managed to get a few things done;  10 yards of trash removed from the backyard and garage, four bikes and various toys and kitchen goods sent to Salvation Army, painted the boys' bedroom and installed new outlets and switches and light fixtures, Kelley re-did the laundry room and also began planting outside.  So, all in all, we broke our backs and managed to get quite a few things done. 

     Not that we just worked all week.  We also hung out with the boys, went to the movies (SpyKids2--what a hoot!  As good as the first one.), played games (the guys are getting very good at Quake 3 Arena, and ate out a lot! Very enjoyable and I think they really enjoyed themselves.

     Today we are celebrating Kelley's birthday with the families.  Since her actual birthday falls on Tuesday, I felt it'd be nicer to do "the party" on Sunday.  Of course, I'm NOT letting her off the hook on the fifteenth.  Did I mention she's turning forty?!

     Lastly, I have been making some good headway with the DVD's.  It seems home dvd-making is still kind of a tricky business.  I have had some projects that just went smooth as silk from start to finish and I've had some that I had to spend mucho-time-o figuring out why it wouldn't burn.  However, I'm getting really good at using Pinnacle's Studio 8 and learning all the little things one needs to do to get the most out of it.  It's been soooooo much fun going down memory lane!

     7:59am It's the weekend and SPRING is finally here! The Weather Channel is telling us that today the high is going to be in the mid-fifties and tomorrow it's gonna touch the sixties!! Hallelujah!  We've been having enough of this incredibly cold crap.  The snow hasn't been too bad but the temps have been even more bitter than usual for us.  3 of the Great Lakes FROZE over! But now we have birds at the feeders, sunshine all around, the snow is melting, and I'm ready for a lovely weekend just hanging out with my family.

     We got our income tax refund back (man, I love electronic filing) and we've been tending to a few things that have been on the back burner. But I'm really looking forward to getting the house redecorated.  We've been planning on doing the living room in an "African" motif. Kell has some great ideas for doing some light "shadow painting" on the walls of reeds and stuff.  She's already been picking up some bric-a-brac that fits in with the theme.  A mother tiger and her cub, and a giraffe grace our living room.  It'll be fun when it's done! 

     I watch these shows on HGTV and I get jealous.  I've always wanted to have a designing knack, the ability to "bring a room together", to be able to convert a blah looking living room into an "eclectic living environment".  But I have no taste and I really suck at home projects. If I try decorating it winds up looking like a three-year old's first experiment when they're allowed to use all the colors in the crayon box.  My home projects look like my general contractor was Blind Pew. Sooo, I watch the shows and dream of being able to "find just the right pillows to pull out the color of those drapes."

     9:26am Saturday morning! CARTOON day!!! Remember when we were kids and Saturday meant that, finally, all the boring adult-oriented programming was done and we actually had television programmed just for us between about 7:00am through 11:00am  on ALL THREE NETWORKS!!  Wow!  Wacky Races, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo (the original--none of this "special guest star" crap or Scrappy Doo), Lancelot Link Secret Chimp, the Monkees!  Man, I always looked forward to Saturdays.  Nowadays kids don't know the joy of waiting all week long for that little window of kids programming.  And, since we had no VCR's or TIVO in those days, you had to plan out your watching schedule.  *sigh*

     We're getting ready to have a slumber/birthday party for Tony.  Gotta get the house in order so the kids can destroy it! Might even take them to Laser Storm, but we'll have to wait and see on that one.  So, as I download some goodies off ye old InterWeb, I'd better get cracking and get some work done.

     6:50am Wow!  We are officially the parents of a teenager! 13 years ago today Tony made his entrance into the world.  Amazing!

     7:22am We got ourselves a snow day!!  Whoo-hoo! Woke up at regular time, logged on and discovered a little e-mail informing me that the boys school was closed.  I did a quick re-check (I'm always verifying things) and, yes, the boys have no school today.  So Kelley and I are staying home too!  I'm just sitting here listening to my super-nice neighbors run their snow blowers.  Gerard just finished our walk.  All we'll have to do is the drive and the walk going up to our front door.

     BTW, I haven't been keeping up with this due to increased demands from other areas. However, my mother, sister, sister's kids and sister's boyfriend all returned from Disneyworld in one piece!

     I love Canadians!  Check-out this new show, Barely Cooking! What a great concept!  Kell says there aren't enough picks of the guys.

     And if you get bored with the InterWeb (I just finished it yesterday at work), try out your favorite websites through the Dialectizer! You can have this uber-deck translator adjust your sites into "Redneck", "Cockney", and more. We love the WallStreet Journal via the Swedish Chef! Bork! Bork! Bork!

     10:40am The French may have the Eiffel Tower but WE have the Dole Pineapple Water Tower!

     Looks like Kell will be going into work after all.  She doesn't want to use up any more flex time than she has to. So it'll be up to the boys and I to get the house in order.  Tee-hee-hee!'

February 19th Chain Reaction

     3:21pm My mom, my sister, my sister's three kids, and her boyfriend have all been enjoying Walt Disney World this week. So, while the eastern seaboard was being snowed under and the mid-west was in the middle of a deep-freeze, they were enjoying Mickey and the gang in temperatures of 80 degrees or so. When it came time for them to return, we were initially concerned because we thought their connecting flight in Pittsburgh was coming from Boston. Not so. It was coming from North Carolina and there was no problem. So Tuesday morning, they packed up their Disney hotel room, got the Mears shuttle to Orlando International airport and discovered that they were stranded!

     No, the plane wasn't snowed in somewhere; no, the weather wasn't canceling the flight; US Airways didn't have enough crew to fly the bloody thing! Of course, they were informed of this after they left the Magic Kingdom and were stuck in the airport lounge. Finally, they secured a flight on Northworst airlines for the following day, Wednesday, and they grabbed a hotel room to spend the night.  Not too bad, but still a big inconvenience.

     So they get to the airport today.  Everything looks fine; the plane's there, the weather's ok, they have a flight crew, but, oops!, they overbooked the plane!  Can't get them on another one until tomorrow!  Geez Louise!  What a bunch of turkeys!!  This is no longer inconvenient, it's a major pain in the arse.  My sister is self-employed and she is now out two days of income! Her daughters are missing two more days of school, as well. And, had they known about this before, they could have stayed at Disney and enjoyed themselves rather than be stuck in Orlando proper! To their credit, Northworst IS paying for their lunch, dinner, hotel room, breakfast and lunch.  However, mom was telling me that the employees were just awful and the skycaps wouldn't get off their lazy butts to get a luggage cart nor a wheel chair for my mom!!  Creeps!  I've flown Northwest several times and I've never been impressed.  This is just more icing on the cake.

     Keep your fingers crossed.  Hopefully, they'll be home tomorrow.

February 17th

     8:45am Happy President's Day! Kelley had to work today, but I had it off and am just hangin' out with the boys.  Taking it easy on a lazy February morning, the last real holiday (i.e. paid timeoff) until Memorial Weekend and another milestone through the long, long, long cold months of winter.  This is where it seems to drag on and on and on. Of course, it could be worse.  My cousin is getting dumped on out east.  Blizzard conditions, ultra-cold temps and snowfall amounts that have effectively stopped the city. I talked to him yesterday.  They'd already had a foot of the white stuff on the ground with more just coming and coming.  Fortunately, none of them had school/work today!

     I have always loved radio.  I have a couple of real old tube radios and various shortwave radios and have been an extra-class ham radio operator for over ten years. I used to work in the radio industry and have always appreciated radio's ability to be a "theatre of the  mind". Old-time radio dramas, comedies, and mysteries are great fun and usually stand the test of time because they use your imagination for the sets, costumes, props, etc. The internet has become sort of the last bastion for radio shows and some people have begun to make news ones!   

     I love watching our "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" DVD to see Ron, Harry and Hermoine age, get young again, age, get young, etc. It's like watching a time-warp yo-yo!     

February 15th

     10:40am I love Saturday mornings.  No longer do I get up at the crack of dawn to watch cartoons, instead, I lay in bed, sip coffee and search the web.  Yes, I'm one of those geeks who has a computer in their bedroom.  But it's a laptop that sits on my nightstand so it looks kinda cool and "Star Trekkie". And it's great to be able to surf whilst lazing about with my coffee and bathrobe finding interesting tidbits on the web about the bizarre stuff people do.  

     For example, this young lady gets nude to stop people wearing fur!  Okay, I'm afraid I don't see the logic in this.  As Kelley says, "Well, at least the men got a free show!"

     Knoppix is sooooo cool!  I just downloaded this "Live CD" version of Linux yesterday and have run it on three different computers with little to no problems! A "Live CD" is an application where the software (and in this case the OS) stays on the CD or in resident memory; NOTHING is written to your harddrive; nothing gets changed; no danger of destroying your current OS and all our data.  Anyway, I've run this on my 'puter at work (no problems except sound is bad), this here laptop (everything works), and my desktop downstairs (again, everything works).

February 14th

     7:08am Happy Valentine's Day!  It's minus 2 degrees here. Grab someone you love and hold on tight!

     8:18 Confused about nuclear attacks and all the terrorist alerts?  Need insight into what it all means?  Then look no further than here! It's all clear now.

     3:45pm If you've been intrigued by the idea of using open-source OS Linux but were afraid of the install or don't have a spare harddrive to put it on, have I got a deal for you!  Knoppix has created a Linux distro that doesn't load on your hard drive! It actually runs off your cd drive and lets you explore the wonderful world of alternative operating systems in safety. Give it a try!

February 10th

     Hey!  I can get a cloak of invisibility now!

     8:41am In this era of the internet, cell phones, and "instant information", a lot of people have thought that the Amateur Radio community was a quaint throw-back to an era when technology wasn't so prevalent in everyone's lives. Many are of the opinion that "ham" radio operators no longer perform a needed service to the community. Not true. Modern technology has big limitations so hams are helping to locate the remains of the space shuttle Columbia. Which reminds me, I need to renew my license!

February 8th

     8:13am It's February, it's minus seven degrees outside, and we're in "orange alert".  Hmmm. If I didn't have so much to do today I'd go back to bed. But I have to get the kids' hair cuts, go to Meijer, and begin the basement remodeling project

     Have your ordered your Harry Potter book yet?  Better hurry. The suggested list price for Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix is going to be quite high.

February 6th

     3:34pm With the new Matrix movies coming up, the producers have been doing all sorts of tie-ins and promos.  This one is pretty interesting. A series of four anime-type internet movies giving insight into the history of The Matrix. Just in case ya can't get enough!

     The local rag called me and asked if they could run my previous letter concerning their theatre reviewer's incorrect background on the Phantom Of The Opera.  It'll be interesting to see if they actually publish it...

     Been playing around with Macromedia Flash MX. Lots of fun stuff. Be sure to check back here in the near future for some truly annoying graphics!

February 1st, 2003

     1:00pm On my God, the space shuttle, Columbia, has been lost on reentry. May God be with the family of the crew.

     11:00am The Phantom of the Opera was great! Parking wasn't a problem, we got right in, our seats were fantastic (thanks, Kell) and the performance was magical.  The lead, Brad Little, did a splendid job as the Phantom, easily making one forget about Michael Crawford.  A truly wonderful evening. 

     Side note:  I read a local review of the show and just had to send a letter to the editor.  The poor sap who wrote the review stated, "The Phantom of The Opera, based on Beauty and the Beast"; WTF? Beauty and the Beast!?! It's no wonder our lovely local paper gets such high marks these days! The moronic writers don't even know basic literature!

     Whoa!  It's February already!  This winter is flying by, which is good because it's been too bloody cold! It finally warmed up yesterday to, like, 30 degrees and we were all outside in shorts and t-shirts, sunglasses and swimsuits, dancing around the graven image of an air conditioner!! 

January 28th

    The Superbowl Party at my brother's was great!  Lotsa of food, drink, and fun!  The game itself was kinda boring but watching my brother get all pumped up when it appeared he was going to "win his square" was a riot!  For those that don't know, that's gambling on a quarter score. The commercials were fun but watching George was priceless!

    Just another sign that the human race can sink to all sorts of lows... Have you heard  the "Cheeky Girls"?  These Romanian rodents have the hottest song in the U.K. -"Touch My Bum" (or "ass" for us non-brits). Seems the girls recorded the song while they were in England visiting their mother who wrote the, uh,er, ah... song! I don't know, it's just kinda creepy...

    BTW, the new Hulk teaser just plain rocks!! I can't wait for the movie.

    The Michigan State Spartans choked against the University of Michigan Wolverines BUT our temperatures are supposed to actually get above the low teens for the first time in about three weeks.  See? There's always balance!

January 26th  SuperBowl Sunday

    I'm not a big football fan.  I mean, I don't have anything against the game; I just don't get into it as much as some of the other members of my family. I root for our local  Michigan State University (who, incidentally, will be fighting it out against their arch-rivals the so called University of Michigan Wolverines at 1:00 today), and, if they'd ever do something, I'd root for the incredibly inept Detroit Lions, but I don't go out of my way to watch football on t.v. and I don't get terribly excited about football games.  Except this one.  The Superbowl.

    My brother, George,  is throwing a "SuperBowl" party and I will be there. I'm doing this for two reasons; 1, as we have so rudely have been shown this past year, you never ever know when someone you love will be taken away from you. Life is short and our time here on this rock is unknown. It is very important to spend time with your loved ones. And 2, the commercials!

    The Superbowl has the BEST commercials ever produced. The cost to air one of these puppies is over $2,000,000.00 per 30-second spot! So, the Madison Avenue types know they had better get their best guns out and be ready to show off the best commercials they can possibly produce.  Failure is NOT an option. 

    So, while the others cheer their teams on and argue about "bad calls" and "stats", I'll drink my Vernors, munch on venison jerky, and eagerly await the true stars of the Superbowl. The talking monkeys, the supermodels, the doltish boyfriends, the never-before-seen movie trailers, the superstar cameos, and the real reason only 4 out of 5 dentists recommend Trident sugarless gum.

    Everything that makes the Superbowl what it is.

January 22nd

    Holy guacamole! It is gonna be freeeeeezing here in Michigan! The temperature is going to go down to -5 or -10 and the windchill is supposed to dip below -25! Talk about a Three Dog Night!! Gets me to reminiscing about warmer activities like sailing!  I love sailing and almost bought a boat this past summer. 

    In case you missed it, George W. Bush has decided that fuel efficient, resource conserving cars are passe. Get a huge freakin' SUV and get a nice tax break!

    Also, nepotism thrives in Michigan.  Former Governor Engler, who tried to and may have succeeded in destroying our state budget, has accepted a job with EDS (Electronic Data Systems).  Interestingly, the former Engler-appointed head of our Department of Technology was from EDS. The same EDS that has been trying for years to convince the state of Michigan  to outsource its technology work to them.  Now, the former Gov is working for them.  Talk about a political 69!!

    What will the war in Iraq be like?  Check this out!

January 20th, 2003

    The Best Laid Plans of Mice, etc.

    Well, our 3 day "do nothing" weekend is quickly winding down, or up if you're looking at it from a beginning-a-new-work-week point of view. We didn't get done nearly the things we wanted to do.  We've both been lamenting that fact and feeling a little down about our lack of ambition, or rather our lack of energy to get these things done.  However, to be honest, we did get almost all of the Christmas stuff packed away including the outdoor lights.  No small feat when you consider the windchill this morning was minus 13 degrees! Plus we got the living room rearranged, Kelley got the bedroom closet cleaned out and I got this website put together and posted.

    Speaking of which, I put the word out to the extended family that this was up and running and discovered that I may have to switch internet servers.  We got shut down a couple of times due to exceeding our "bandwidth allowance". I guess the videos and jpegs were being downloaded a bit too much for ol' Angelfire to handle.  I'll keep an eye on it and may have to bite the bullet and shell out some hard-earned cash for a real web server.  We'll see...

    Oh, yeah, also spent a few hours helping my brother get his laptop up and running.  Seems he came home from his adventures in Tip Up Town (see below) and found his harddrive had crashed.  He was getting the familiar "thunk thunk thunk" and "no boot device found".  Fortunately, I had another Compaq laptop hard drive already formatted and loaded with an OS and software so all we had to do was plug it in, tweak it and then load AO-hell.  Omigod, I had forgotten what a nightmare that can be! I swear it took us almost three hours to get that "software" loaded, configured and running right. Sheesh!  It's a good thing they offered George such a good deal on the monthly cost ($3.00) cause it wouldn't be worth it for any other reason.  I've gotten spoiled with DSL-plug -it-in-and-go service.

    Spent some quality time with the boys.  We succeeded in our goal of watching the entire Complete Goofy dvd and played a few games.  They're sad that the weekend is over already but I also think Ben is getting a little bored not having school to contend with.  Tony is good at keeping himself occupied; he always has been.  Ben needs a little more attention and distraction.  Right now, they're both sound asleep.  Kell is sawing logs beside me and I'm getting ready to call it a night. 

    It's been a good weekend.

January 19th, 2003

    Well, it's a little warmer... 18 degrees with a windchill of 0.  So, really, it's 0 outside!  Yikes!

    Got the Christmas tree put away last night and rearranged the living room furniture this morning before we headed over to Kelley's mom's for a brunch thingy.  Marelu had experimented with a breakfast casserole that, although she didn't like it, I thought it was pretty damn good.

    Afterwards, we came home and began trying to get some things in order.  Our "do nothing" weekend is rapidly slipping away and we really have gotten very little done. I had hoped to get the root cellar cleaned out and possibly even the computer room.  Oh well...there's always tomorrow! Tonight I'm working on this and getting some videos compressed so I can put them up for family to check out.  

    Started snowing again.  Our ground coverage had been about nil until this evening.  Now it looks as though we have about 1/2" dusting on the ground.  Just enough to make it look even colder outside.  Right now I'm pretty much done with winter.  I like to have a good amount of snow up to January 2nd.  Then they can take it all away.  Wishful thinking, I know, but it'd certainly be nice for us "under the bridge".

    Speaking of snow and winter, George just got back from Tip-Up Town.  TUT is an annual event at Houghton Lake, Michigan, that celebrates all the fun stuff you can do in the winter. I guess this year it was a little lame due to the fact that they don't have much snow either.  But at least George is home safe and sound.  

    It's about 10:00 and everyone is sleeping except Tony and I.  Ben went to bed early due to a lingering cold.  Kell bathed him and tucked him in and, hopefully, he'll get the rest he needs.  Tony has been showing me his "Starship Troopers" dvd and also his Independence Day Playstation game.  He'll be hitting the hay soon as well.

    As far as projects go, I got the new door knob on the bedroom closet, Kelley and I rearranged the furniture, I've been working on this website a little bit, and that's about it.  Never did get to the root cellar and I probably won't tomorrow either.  A three day weekend and I really haven't spent much time with the boys.  Tomorrow I plan on playing games with them for most of the day.  I'll get the outside Christmas stuff put away because I promised, but most of the day will be playtime with the boys.

January 18th, 2003

    Very enjoyable evening.  After a great dinner of chicken, 'taters, and broccoli, Tony showed me how to play Star Trek: Invasion on the Playstation.  He gave me a pretty thorough tutorial and then proceeded to kick my butt!  He's very good at what is supposedly a difficult game.  I felt a little apprehensive about giving it to him for Christmas because some reviewers had said it was too difficult but the boy has mastered it in a very short period of time!

    After getting humiliated, I went upstairs to do the dishes, Tony watched "Behind Enemy Lines" (again), Ben watched "Funniest Videos" and Kelley continued work on the Christmas decorations. After chores and movies, it was time to watch some more Goofy DVD.

    I love this disk!  The Complete Goofy gives you all his starring shorts from 1939 to 1961.  The quality is great and the movies are timeless.  It even comes in a special serial numbered tin. The bonus material is neat but I really didn't need Leonard Maltin explaining before Californy or Bust about the non-pc depiction of the native americans.  C'mon, Leonard, it was in the 1940's; we still called 'em injuns! We watched about 5 or 6 shorts and then slogged off to bed.

    Today promises to be, once again, bitterly cold.  At 9:55 the temperature is 10 degrees and the wind chill is -9! Ya know, I think we should forget about the regular temp in the winter time.  When the wind chill says it's minus 9 degrees outside, it's MINUS 9 DEGREES!!!  I mean, c'mon, wind chill tells you what it feels like outside and that's all we're interested in! Kell and I are going to brave the elements for a couple of store trips, then huddle inside and try to keep the chill off.  These are the kinds of days where you never quite warm all the way up; there's always a little bit of chill wisping about your bones. 

Reminding you that you're in the dead of winter.

January 17th, 2003

    My attempt at a weblog or blog. A blog (for those of you who don't know) is an on-line journal of sorts, a digital diary where the owner lays out his thoughts, dreams, goals, or just lists what they had for breakfast. For the record, I had coffee.

    It was bloody freezing here in the Great Lakes State!  Temps were around 7 degrees this morning with wind chills of -12!! Yes, MINUS 12!! The type of cold that actually hurts your face when you go outside.  A short walk from the parking lot to the office was excruciatingly painful. Fortunately, for the short time I was at work, I didn't need to go back out into the cold until it was time to go home.

    And time to go home was 10:30 today!  See, the boys only had a half day of school so Kell and I decided to take the time off and have a relaxing "do nothing" type of holiday weekend.  She even took Monday off (MLK Jr. b-day). I already had it off but she had to use some flex time.  So, the four of us all get to enjoy some extended weekend time.  We've been going full-tilt every weekend since this summer when my dad passed away.  Seems there's always a family event, friend event, kid event, school event, and so forth and we've been dying for some down time.  Now don't get me wrong; I have nothing against family events and doing things with friends, etc. However, the fact remains that you can only do so much before you realize that all the projects that you've been meaning to do have been neglected for many, many moons.  So our downtime is really "not do anything outside of the house" time.

    We picked up the kids at 11:00 from school then headed over to Target so they could use their gift certificates that they got for Christmas. Tony got some more G.I. Joe stuff and Ben picked up a Lord Of The Rings sword and a Spiderman action figure. Then we trucked over to Toys R Us to see if we could get a Jango Fett costume that Ben had heard about.  He loves Jango Fett and the idea of a Jango outfit had him bouncing off the walls.  However, after a lengthy search, we discovered the outfit was a poor quality Halloween costume and not really what he wanted.  So he picked up another set of Yu-Gi-Oh cards (what's that make? 12,000 now?) and, after a quick stop at the grocery store, we headed home.

    And here we've stayed.  Kell has been working on getting Christmas packed up (I know, I know, it just went by so damn fast) and I've been working on this web site. We're looking forward to a nice little dinner, some more Goofy DVD, and take a long winter's nap. Brrrrrrrrr!