13 years.
13 years since we started dating.
13 years we've been together.
13 years of memories.
13 years of photos.
13 years of happiness, sadness, sorrow, joy, madness, and euphoria.
13 years feels like forever and an eye-blink all at the same time.
13 years and I love you now more than yesterday.
13 years to reflect on.
13 years to have everyone ask, "How in the hell did you stay with him that long?"
13 years of amazement.
13 years with an engagement, a wedding, and a son thrown into the mix.
13 years is simply a drop in the bucket.
I love you Terri.
Between now and then til I see you again, I'll be loving you. Love, me.

Well, I did end up taking the day off of work on Monday. I felt like crap. Even though my parents came up and did a wonderful job of babysitting Gage on Sunday for like 6 hours I was still feeling insanely ill. So, I took the big f'in Q and slept from about 10:00 PM til about 3:00 PM on Monday afternoon. Then I woke up for a couple of hours, took a tax test, took more of the Q and headed back to bed. I feel slightly better today. I had somewhat of an appetite and I actually made it to work.
One thing I did neglect in my last post is to point out the new blog on the right side. De Stijl is a friend of a friend and being a new Pittsburgher hopefully, we'll close that gap in the near future. In the meantime, she and her husband have a beautiful little girl, she's extremely funny and the sarcasm flies thick and heavy. So, if you get a few minutes, check it out. It's well worth it.
I did manage to make it to the Memory Walk and I was impressed with the number of people that came out. Thanks to all who donated. Your support was greatly appreciated.
Now, I don't normally ask for advice, but I'd love to hear any suggestions you have out there at getting a little one to bed on a regular basis. Gage hates sleep like I hate Comcast.

So many topics, so little medicine. Yes, I still feel like crap and I'm going to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to walk an unknown amount to help eradicate Alzheimer's. At least I won't be hung over like I was for one of the MS Walks I did after buggy.
I thought about passing along the horror stories from my Comcast struggles that are now manifesting themselves in someone else's experiences.
I thought about going off on a rant about the crazies on the internet but perhaps that little drama will just fade away.
I thought about relating stories about the first week in my new office but I didn't want to put anyone to sleep, myself included.
I will say I'm extremely pissed off that I turn on a show that I really liked from last season and I find out that one of the reasons that I liked the show is no longer around.
Funny, the first show to go down this season was Head Cases from Fox. I wavered with that one for the tv dead pool, but figured Chris O'Donnell would be able to carry the show a little further.
Not much else is going on and I think I'm just going to pump myself full of drugs and head to bed. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Well Tom found the Friends episode. It was on a French fansite that had full scripts. Scary thing is, the one episode I watched last night was only like 2 away from this one, so I was damn close. And from memory I had a pretty damn good recollection of the episode.
Not much more tonight since I'm feeling like crap.

Just a reminder that Saturday is the Memory Walk. Thanks to those that have donated and if you'd still like to donate, here are the links again.

My link

Terri's link

Ok, this is driving me nuts.
A co-worker mentioned that she spent about two hours today sorting through her pictures and she was buying nice frames for the bigger ones. Well, that got me thinking about a lot of things. We now have two discs of pictures that we may never recover. One we had thankfully printed out, but the other one we hadn't. So, I was thinking about potential fixes for those. Then I was thinking about the discussion that we had while going through my Gramma's stuff. She had boxes and boxes of photos, some from before 1900. With the exception of the ones with family, we had very little idea of who, where, or even when most photos were taken. So, I had made tentative plans to go through all of our pictures and at the very least get names on them and a potential date range. Then I was thinking about the 4 boxes of pictures that we had in the guest room that I wanted to go through and separate and put into albums. Where is all this leading? Well, in my rambling train of thought I wandered to an episode of Friends where one of the minor sub-plots is Monica going through and categorizing the pictures. She has them all laid out on the coffee table and Rachel comes in. She shows Rachel picture #153 which is of her dog Lapoo. She tells her that it is classified under pets, and dogs and dead. Then she asks Rachel to hand her the box with the rest of the pictures. The bottom of the box falls out and scatters onto the coffee table mixing all the pictures. Monica freaks out and Rachel tries to calm her by saying that she can just pull out the ones that she's already marked. Monica says, "I can't picture #153 was a prototype."
So, I thought it would be interesting to watch that episode since I was pretty sure that it occurred in one of the first 9 seasons (since the last season isn't out yet). So, I scanned the episode guide and found out that it wasn't listed. So, then I came home and found out that the listings in the DVD boxes are even more vague. So, I found a Special Collector's Issue of Entertainment Weekly. No dice. I called Tom since he had borrowed and watched the first 7 seasons. No dice. He suggested fan sites. I've been through 3 1/2, no dice.
Anyone have any clue? If not, I guess I'll just have to start watching them from episode 1 all the way to the end, since I'm sure that season 10 will be out before I'm done.
I will find it dammit.

Well we survived the weekend and the office move. Friday afternoon at around 1:30ish, they said if we had nothing pressing we should go to the new office and pitch in. So, I took off figuring it would be easier to get out early from the new building. Boy was that wrong, we were cleaning and moving and arranging.
I got out of the new building around 5:15 when my manager finally realized I was still there and took pity on me.
Just a note on the new office...with the exception of the fact that the office is located at the Waterfront, it's a phenomenal space. I encourage visitors (if for nothing else, just to take a tour of this space). We have a full recording studio now instead of just a sound studio. It has a sound booth, a control room, and a television area. Very cool toys to play with.
Now, my space isn't ideal, but it's very good otherwise. The only new "rule" is that we aren't allowed to eat at our desks. That's rough for me since I don't just sit and eat lunch if I manage to find time to eat at all. I usually snack at several points now throughout the day. So, now I have to hit the kitchen area (complete with ice-maker, dishwasher, garbage disposal, trash compactor, etc.) several times a day for a few minutes here and there.
Anyway, back to the majority of the weekend.
Friday night we made it to the hotel at around 10:15. Fortunately the swimming pool didn't close til 11 and I was able to get in some swim time. Saturday morning we took Gage for a while to the pool and he seemed to enjoy it again so hopefully that trend will continue.
We got ready and headed down to the church. We got there and said hi to Father Ted (the Priest that married Terri and I in Bradford) and then mingled with family. The wedding was really nice. Pam (my new cousin-in-law) was very beautiful and she has a little nephew who's maybe 3 or 4 months older than Gage. He was the ring bearer and he made the wedding highly unpredictable. At one point he was walking off the altar and he stepped on the crush and face planted. He didn't cry and Father Ted looked down, pointed and said, "Now that's the picture that you want to get." Then he continued with the ceremony like nothing happened.
The reception was good. Although (and anyone who knows me knew this was coming anyway) the DJ sucked! He sucked hard. He screwed up everything he read when he announced the couples entering. It got to the point where he was so gun shy and so confused as to who had actually gotten married for the rest of the evening he referred to them as the bride and groom only. Which was kind of funny since there was a big banner across the back wall with their names on it.
Now granted, having DJ'd for a long long time I understand the difficulties, but yet I cut very little slack. For a business who depends on service and word of mouth in order to be remotely successful, you have to be on your game each and every time. I planned more receptions for my clients than I'd care to remember. I guess that's why Terri and I were so controlling with our wedding.
Although I must say, between our friends, family, DJ'ing, and singing, I've probably been to anywhere from 200-250 weddings. And I saw two things for the first time at my cousin's reception. Instead of a money dance or dollar dance or honeymoon dance or whatever your ethnic group calls it, they held a 50-50 raffle with the groomsmen and bridesmaids selling tickets. Very odd, but they made $200 from it and I think the winner might possibly have given the money to them as well.
The second first (some English teacher's head just exploded)...beer pong. Now I've seen beer pong in a lot of places, but never a wedding reception. That being said, I think I ingested more beer on Saturday than I have in the past 5 years, easily. My cousins dusted the floor with opponents for quite a while. My cousin-in-law Greg and I held our own with a couple of wins.
Oh and another couple of complaints about the DJ. He broke several cardinal rules...don't ever ever cut a song off in the middle. And for God's sake, no one likes medley's at a wedding. I don't care who you are, you'd rather hear the six songs from the medley played in their entirety. This guy just sucked beyond words. I almost asked if I could take over.
Anyway, after dipping my elbow quite a bit on Saturday night we headed back to the hotel (Gage had left with my parent's hours before). So we headed back to the hotel room, changed clothes, freshened up and walked over to pick up Gage. We were simply going to leave him with my parents since he was already sleeping, but then he woke up and that was that.
Sunday we got moving, packed, and visited with family for most of the afternoon. Then we headed back home and here we are.

Well the ring people called back and Lorraine said that the gemologist spent about 45 minutes going over the ring and said that it was synthetic. He also said that the amethysts that they use in the rings for Carnegie Mellon are apparently the most difficult to tell the difference between genuine and synthetic so they think that's why the mixup happened. So, they are in the process of fixing the ring and I should have it back soon.
In other news, I read Susie's most recent post and while I was out and about today, I picked up a copy of All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. I'll have to see where I slot it into the hundreds of books that are on my "waiting to read" list.
We're taking off on Friday for my cousin Josh's wedding. Josh is one of the four "J" brothers. My Aunt and Uncle thought it would be fun to keep the same letter so I have James, Joshua, Jeremiah, and John to try and keep straight at the family reunions. They are all younger than I am. The oldest just turned 25 in January, but in my mind they'll probably forever be 8 and running around Gramma's big yard making lots of noise. The hotel is supposed to have high speed wireless access so I'll pack the laptop and see what develops.
Not much else is going on. I read two ap stories today that made me laugh. Apparently out in Colorado somewhere an armored truck carrying a load of Kansas quarters (about 800 grand worth) caught fire. The firefighter that they interviewed said that it was the first time he had driven up to a call to find it guarded with an armed regiment. I guess once the fire was out they had to get a bobcat in to scoop up the quarters. I wonder if that will make the Kansas Denver Mint Quarters harder to get.
The other story was about a robber who apparently held up a fast food place with a samurai sword. He slashed two tables, spewing condiments and then left with approximately $32. Made me wonder if John Belushi's ghost was out prowling.

Again in the "I swear these things only happen to me" department. When Terri and I were in college we saved up and bought college rings. There were a fairly pricey item but a memento we both wanted. Now when I ordered the rings, I thought they only came with one choice of stone, a synthetic amethyst in a dark purple color to match the Scottish Thistle, thus completing the connection to Andrew Carnegie and his wonderful college. Now college class rings, if ordered from the right vendor, are guaranteed for life against most defects, etc. We did order them from the right vendor. The school only has one vendor for that matter. So, when the stone in Terri's ring cracked, I carefully checked out the policy and mailed it from work hoping that it would only take a couple of weeks and I could just not display my right hand as prominently so that she wouldn't notice her ring was missing. So, I sent it priority with insurance and delivery confirmation. That was August 11th. A bunch of things happened in the middle of August and kind of got me sidetracked, but right before I left for Bristol I decided to check the tracking number on the post office reciept to see whether or not the ring had made it to Texas to the facilities that were going to fix it for me. The tracking number simply said that it was accepted in Pittsburgh on August 11th. Duh! I knew that. Then we left for Bristol and I got sidetracked again. When I came back I needed to send a package to my soon to be cousin-in-law (4 days and counting). I also put the insurance and delivery confirmation on it, the whole nine yards. While I was mailing that package, I casually inquired about the process for the other package since at that point I was considering it lost. They told me that after 30 days if I still saw no activity they would begin to manually trace the package. So, this week I grabbed the receipt and checked the web again. It still said that it was only accepted in Pittsburgh on August 11th. So, I prepared to make the trek down to the post-office. In fact, I was headed down there tomorrow.
However, I was deterred by a phone call that Terri received from the ring company informing her of the pricing options that they had in order to fix her ring. The ring she didn't know for sure wasn't at the house. So she called me and gave me the woman's phone number. I was slowly building up my controlled rage and barely contained sarcasm that I reserve for the people on the other end of customer service lines. So, I called Lorraine. I asked her how a ring that was under warranty could have a price for fixing it. She explained that genuine stones weren't covered and that if I wanted the genuine stone that was in the ring currently replaced with another genuine stone it was going to cost me $230 plus tax and shipping. If I wanted a synthetic stone it was going to cost me $45 plus tax and shipping. So, I asked how it could be a genuine stone if their website said that only synthetic stones were available. I was told that Terri had decided on a genuine stone when she purchased the ring.
"That's impossible." I said. The woman asked me how I knew that. I told her it was because I ordered the ring and ordered a synthetic stone. Then I explained to her that if it was indeed a genuine stone, then it was a mistake that was made on their end. I also wanted to know that why, at the end of July, their representative said nothing about genuine versus synthetic stones and there was no mention of a cost at all for stone replacement. So, she took my number and proceeded to figure out the answers to my questions. I was all ready for her to call back with some story about it being a genuine stone and it was either pay the $230 or get back a damaged ring.
Then she called me back and said it was entirely possible that when the ring had been in for repairs once before it had been a computer error that listed the stone as genuine and as soon as the gemologists came in in the morning, she would have them verify that it was synthetic, it would be fixed free of any charge and all I would have to pay was shipping (which I knew going into it).
So, that turned out ok, but then I had this whole head of steam built up to release on the customer service person, but that never materialized.
Anyway, I have a mini link dump to do now.
This is a slight surprise but not entirely unexpected. However, does this mean the spin people are now going to start taking blame for everything? How long before the White House lays claim to the blame for this little incident?
This falls into the too little too late category. It also warrants an "Amen!" and an "I tried to tell you that 5 years ago." Unfortunately it may not stem the new ones from happening and it's certainly not going to get the old ones yanked. No one actually listens to the public.
I'm not sure what, if anything, is going to happen to these parents, but I know exactly where I would stick them for 12 hours every day. I can't possibly even begin to imagine what sort of mental deficiency would even tell you that this might be a good idea.
If you read their blog you find that they spent the better part of a trail hike trying to corral their young son so that he didn't get injured in any way, but still had the full enjoyment of the outdoors. I look at Gage and can't even remotely think of any situation where I would want to do anything other than my level best to protect him and make him the happiest little boy possible. I mean, I have no other words to even begin to describe that article.

I wanted to put this into a separate post. There are two parts, one a reminder and one a musing.
First the reminder. Two Saturdays from now (September 24th) Terri and I will be walking in the Memory Walk to benefit Alzheimer's research. We're walking, not only because it's a good cause, but also because my current project manager's step-father is afflicted with Alzheimers. A few weeks ago he got into his car and basically disappeared for an entire weekend scaring the family half to death. It's certainly a good cause and Terri and I are glad to be able to help. So, if you want to help us out (I know the Katrina effort has sliced into most available funds and I have no problem with that) here is My link.
And, here is Terri's link.
And we're available in all the normal ways if you don't want to donate online. And of course, thanks in advance.

Now the musing. The red cross, not normally heard from on a regular basis, has been running a series of commercials to spread the word about the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina. They are easy to spot and hear actually. There are a series of exaggerations of admiration for singers, actors, and writers that all involve the phone book (which was apparently deemed the most boring material available). They all go like this. X (being the singer, actor, or writer) could sing/read/write the phone book and I'd listen/watch/read it every time. Well, for me, Johnny Cash is one of those singers. Over the course of his career his deep baritone voice went from confident and strong to knowing and full of tremolo and never lost it's powerful effect. Anyway, it's his voice singing on the commercial. I didn't think anything of it the first time until after the commerical was off. Then it was one of those...did I hear what I thought I heard? So, the next time it was on, I paid particular attention and it was what I heard. The commercial is underscored by Johnny Cash singing a cover version of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." I can't decide how I feel about this. I don't know if they are just going for the small clip of lyrics about helping people or if they mean the full effect of the song. In which case, is that the song you want played? I think it's in poor taste some of the time, but awfully fitting at other times. Ah who knows what they were going for.

And, Alan, wherever you are, you are still missed...even four years later.

I swear, certain things only happen to me.
Today I had to get up early (well, early for me) so that I could be at work by 8:00. That way I could leave at 5:00 to pick up Gage since Terri had to work late. So, I manage to stumble out of bed, through the shower, and fight rush hour traffic. It's amazing how quickly one forgets all about rush hour when you don't have to deal with it on a daily basis. So, I get to work, down the required amount of coffee and try to finish out my day. Around noon Terri calls me to let me know what time she's going to work and what time she's going to be home. Then she asks if I had planned on stopping at home before I went to pick up Gage. I told her that I didn't since I was going to be pushing the time to get him anyway. So then she reminds me that I forgot to take the car seat for my car. Since we had gone to Bristol we had pulled the seat out of my car to put into her parent's car for Gage. We haven't taken my car anywhere with the whole family so I haven't put the seat back yet. So, I know that I have no choice but to make it home.
So, at 5:00 I bolt out the door at work. Thankfully I hit a lull in traffic and I was at the door of the house by 20 after. I race down the steps, put the key into the lock, unlock the door, and slam into it. The door didn't give. Now we've had problems with the antique lock on the door before. We've had to break a window to get in, and once Tom was locked inside. So my temper redlined and I just went back to the car. I figured I'd call Terri, swing by her office, grab her carseat and that would be it. Then I couldn't reach her on the phone.
I figured it was still a good plan so I went to her office, grabbed the seat and headed to the daycare. Now with my hours and his schedule in the one year old room, I don't drop him off or pick him up too often. So, I get there and apparently they consolidate the kids into one room after 5:30 since most of them have already been picked up. I punched in the code and headed right to the one year old room. It was empty with the lights off. So, I headed towards the voices and I was stopped by a woman that I didn't know. Which isn't unusual, I only know Gage's teachers. However, since she didn't know me, she escorted me to the room where Gage was. Gage immediately ran over to me, but the other woman (who used to be Gage's teacher) didn't recognize me either. So, I got carded when I went to pick up my son. As if my luck wasn't bad enough already.
I finally got Gage home and I thought that I wasn't going to be able to get into the house. Since I had finally calmed down a little I began to realize that there was an automatic lock on the door that we keep disabled so that we don't lock ourselves out inadvertently. I realized that Terri must have hit the button and so once I got home, I was able to get back into the house with no further trouble.
The little one and I played all night and then I put him to bed.
Of course, since I had left work early I had missed the late, late, late announcement that we were having clients into the office. Thankfully Mark remembered as he was getting stuff ready for the next day and called me at 11 tonight. "Now friends, it's timing like that that sunk the Titanic."

I'm really pissed off at movies that claim "Based on actual events" yet they have endings and sometimes entire storylines that no one could possibly know.
A few years ago we were visiting Terri's aunt out in Ohio. We were flipping through the channels and became interested in the second half of the movie The Perfect Storm, or rather her aunt did. I watched with a vague interest and waited to see which crew member was going to survive to have told the tale to everyone else. No one survived. Not one. Not even the boat.
Now I'm still in the midst of going through the movies that I borrowed from Tom and I finally watched this. 81 minutes long. I'd say there's maybe 20 minutes of extraneous stuff (getting to the island, some nudity, the ending) so it's an hour or so of them bobbing around in the ocean. It's not scary. It's not a psychological thriller. It does not achieve a primal terror. And they both end up fuckin' dead. So how do they even know what happened? This couple that was miscounted and left behind could have gotten the woman's weight belt stuck on the reef and they both died of lack of oxygen trying to free her. The man could have gotten his tank attached to the bottom of the boat and still be there. They have no idea that the two of them surfaced and were stuck out there. In fact, for that matter, the two may have just stashed their stuff on this boat, grabbed two tanks and they are living on some remote corner of the island and they make their money braiding tourists hair for quarters. Maybe the wife was having an affair with the boatman and they killed the husband and the boatman is hiding her out til the heat is off. In fact, who's to say that the boatman is the boatman, maybe the guy killed the boatman and took his place. Maybe the guy was fucking the boatman and they killed the wife. Each and every one of these theories is as plausible as the crap they decided to show. Stupid movies.
In fact, yesterday I was watching this and it turns out it was a better movie. It didn't premiere at Sundance and at best won a razzie or two, but it was by far the better movie between the two.

One thing I forgot to mention about Sunday was the conversation that my Uncle Bob and I had about the rising gas prices. He was recalling the time when he was a kid and they had sugar in abundance for very cheap prices. Then a sugar shortage. Prices skyrocketed, then leveled off, then came down just enough to stop people from bitching. A few years later coffee shortage. Skyrocketing prices, level, then a slight drop. Now gas (which is actually on it's second cycle). This is basically going to have people happy to pay 2.75 for a gallon of gas after what we've been exposed to. Whereas before all this people would have been outraged to pay that much. Seems like another conspiracy doesn't it?
Anyway, Monday Terri wasn't feeling well so she only went into work for a half day. When she got back, we all went to the Kiltie band alumni picnic at Carnegie Mellon. Which may seem slightly odd since Terri's never played in any band and I attended two rehearsals my freshman year for the Christmas concert and then quit. However,
The Warners, Susie, and The Mutchlers were all members of the Kiltie Band. And since the Warners and Susie usually end up running things between them every year, we get invited to hang out. Which is always a good opportunity for Gage and Katie to play together. Last year neither was exactly mobile, at least not for very long. Now they were running all over the grass field getting into trouble and interacting with the big kids. Before you know it, they'll be the ones playing volleyball and wondering what formation they'll be in that Saturday.
Tuesday was back to work work. No, that's not a typo. My project manager decided to extend her long weekend by one day and then she was having minor surgery on Wednesday so I was going to be pulling double duty for two days. It's not too difficult at the moment, we're in a slight lull. I mean we're busy, but we're not crazy. So, I can do my job and most of hers without too much inconvenience. That is until the very first e-mail Tuesday morning asking why data wasn't being captured for a certain program. So, everyone had to go back into the files and back into the records to find out where the mistake was made, if one was even made. So, Tuesday was an interesting day to say the least.
Wednesday was more of the same, just not as explosive. Although they came around in the afternoon to explain exactly how to pack up our desks for the big office move. Yes, in case I hadn't mentioned it, our entire office is picking up stakes and headed to another location. Hopefully it will be a better situation than the location leads me to believe.
Anyway, during the week or so that I hadn't blogged I found several interesting articles which of course I'm going to share whether you like it or not.
This was one of the best. A lot of prominent authors. I wanted to bid towards the beginning of the Stephen King auction just to say that I bid. However, the auction started about 3 hours ago at $9.99 and now it's up to $7,600.00 Somehow I don't think I'll be able to sneak in and win.
My reaction to this... Go. Go now. Go now, don't look back. Go now, don't look back, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
I had felt a great disturbance in the force.
The only other thing that struck me as funny was watching the Dukes of Hazzard on CMT this evening. It was the episode where they're filming a movie in Hazzard and the Dukes save the star in his runaway car. So they decide to put them into the movie and take them to Hollywood for a couple weeks. Boss and Roscoe force themselves along as parole officers for Bo and Luke. They spend all their time in Hollywood trying to sell the JD Hogg life story. They end up telling one producer that Boss should be played by Robert Redford and Roscoe should be played by Burt Reynolds. They were close. Reynolds ends up playing Boss Hogg in the Hazzard movie. Interesting how things work out twenty some years later.

Let's see...where did I leave off?
Ah yes, we're up to last Friday and the start of a nice long weekend. We spent Friday night watching the Pirates do what they do best...lose. Randy, Elizabeth, Katie, and baby and Susie were there since the Warner's invited all of us. It was a fireworks night. Since I work til 6:30 and the game starts at 7:05 it was a little tight making it there on time. However, we got downtown with no problem, parked with no problem and started to head towards the bridge across the river to the stadium. However, there was a large crowd at the end of the bridge. Turns out the Pirates had decided to have a big gun salute for the armed forces. So in their infinite wisdom and excessive planning, they shut down the most highly traveled pedestrian walkway into the stadium from about 15 minutes til gametime til after the game had started. The majority of the crowd just got pissed off and walked down to the next bridge and went across. No wonder the Pirates haven't had a winning season in 13 years. If their event staff can't even coordinate start of game activities, it's no wonder management can't put together a group of guys that can hit and catch the ball. I'm sure the Mac is glad he no longer has to deal with that group of misfits.
Anyway, the game, or rather the company at the game, was good. Of course the Notre Dame fans in the rows in front of us had us all shaking all heads trying to figure out if we were like that when we were younger. Susie said that we were young once, but even though I had to admit that, I had to clarify with the fact that I was never stupid.
The fireworks were really good though.
Saturday we headed to a hospital near our house because I made the mistake of picking up the phone to answer a call from what I thought was the Central Blood Bank. It turns out that I was targeted for a conspiracy to steal my book. We got to the "blood drive" and I went through all the check-in crap, the finger stick, the interview. Then they set me up in the chair and began taking my blood. That went smoothly. Once they saw that I was reading a novel while my blood was being siphoned, that's when the conspiracy began. They finished with the blood and they put that little cotton ball over the area where the needle was and told me to put my finger on it and hold my arm straight up. Well, the little cotton ball had just enough ether on it to do the trick. I got out of the chair and walked over to the table where the nice volunteer asked what I wanted to drink. I looked her straight in the eye, said, "Orange Juice" and then the ether took effect. I spun and fell onto the ground. The next thing I knew there was a crowd around me and one of the "nurses" was placing a damp cloth on my head. They kept asking if I felt fine. I told them that I didn't feel any different than the last time I asked. No nausea, no dizziness. Turns out this was just a diversion to get my book out of the room. While they had me propped in a chair drinking gatorade someone walked off with it. By the time I noticed it was missing, it was too late. Now of course Terri, being calmed by the notion of non-conspiracy america, will simply blame me passing out on lack of sleep and the fact that I didn't eat anything before I gave blood. But I'm telling you, they wanted my college discussion copy of this. I couldn't believe it. I was about 2/3 of the way through when they grabbed it.
We then met up with Tom to do some shopping for his niece and father. So, I swung by Half Price Books and picked up another copy, but it wasn't a discussion copy and it didn't have my bookmark. I've had that bookmark since about 1998. It was sad that a book about a futuristic society that has broken down to the point where females are not permitted to read is the very book that they targeted to steal.
After lunch and shopping with Tom, we headed back to the house to hang out. We ended up watching the first half of the Pitt/Notre Dame game. Boy, even Tom was sorry we did. The new era of Pitt didn't really open with a bang like everyone thought it would. Hopefully Craig's alma mater will fare better than Pitt did. (And let's not get confused, I am not now, nor was I ever an alumnus of Pitt)
Sunday we headed to church and found out that Katrina's devastation touched more lives than we had suspected. At last count, there were several extended family members missing. Hopefully God has a plan that will be easily accepted regardless of the outcome. After church we headed over to my uncles' house for a little Labor day get together with my parents. Gage had fun running around exploring the house again and playing on their grand piano that my uncle bob had fully restored. His current project is a double keyboard harpsichord. I have no doubt he'll be able to produce a finished product that even collectors will have to look at twice just to make sure of it's authenticity.
And, I think I'll end there for tonight. I have more for Monday-Wednesday including some random links and articles, but again it's getting late. I started this post almost 3 hours ago. (You get interrupted a lot in my house) And, I still have a 1/2 hour of exercise left tonight.

Wow, a ton of stuff has happened since I last posted. I'll try to briefly go through most of the highlights.
Ok, so Wednesday we got everything packed and Thursday morning we dropped Gage off at daycare and headed to my parents. We got all of their stuff packed into the car and headed to Virginia. We got checked into the hotel and then headed to Tennessee to the Family Fun Fair. Terri and my mom went nuts over the free stuff. My dad walked around checking out all the cars and trucks they had on display. Then we headed back to the hotel. At around 9:30 Mark called my cell phone to let me know that he and Robyn were still awaiting Norah's arrival. Turns out she didn't show up til 12:15 Friday morning.
Friday my dad decided that he didn't want to go to the Busch race which I was a little disappointed with at first, but it actually turned out to be a good decision. There were two rain delays that kept the race going until almost 1 in the morning. So, instead we headed down to the track just to look around. My parents were surprised at how far away we had to park. At least it sort of prepared them for the walk the next day.
Saturday we headed down to the track early and had lunch at the church where we park. Then we rode down to the track on the shuttle and left my parents to their own devices for souvenir hunting. Once we headed into the track for the race and got to our seats my mother was ready for a nap. Everyone enjoyed the race though. They thought it was interesting listening to the driver chatter on the scanners. My mom was a little upset that her driver (Dale Jarrett) didn't race as well as she wanted him to. I was a little jacked too. I finished 60th out of 63rd for the week. I think at this point, Jarrett is about to be benched in favor of another driver. I was also a little ticked off at the woman next to me who chain smoked 11 cigarettes during the race. Most of the smoke went right up my nostrils. I'm not usually one to complain about that, my dad has smoked the majority of my life and I have been known to indulge in the occasional cigar, but I was wearing very thin on patience. If the race had been 10 laps longer she might have ended up eating the last cigarette.
Sunday Terri decided that she wanted to drive home so that we could see Gage sooner. Robyn would have been proud at how I packed everything into the car. That's usually her job, but I think I performed admirably in her absence. We stopped once for lunch and once for the bathroom and she made it from the door of our hotel in Virginia to my parent's front door in 5 hours and 5 minutes. I don't think my dad will ever ride with her again, at least not in the front seat.
Monday I headed back to work while Terri took an extra day to hang out with Gage who did pretty well with her parents while we were gone. At least they finally got a taste of what it's like for us around bedtime. Apparently it took them over 2 hours to get him to sleep the first night. Sweet justice. Halfway through the day Monday I hear Jacob running towards my desk. Mark, Robyn, Jacob, and Norah came to visit after Norah's doctor's appointment. She's so tiny. She was only 6lbs 15oz. when she was born. So, even though we weren't supposed to head to their house til Tuesday night I got a little preview of Norah. I also got to hear all about Jacob's first day of kindergarten. It's amazing. I can't believe that he's starting school already. That made me feel old more than anything else.
Tuesday night we made our way to Cranberry, picked up some dinner and hung out with Mark, Robyn, Jacob, and Norah. Well, ok, Norah slept the majority of the time, but Gage and Jacob had fun playing together. Jacob also showed me his new game boy that his baby sister bought him with the Star Wars lego game. That was pretty sweet. We also found out that on Jacob's second day of school he ended up riding around on the bus for an extra hour and a half since the bus driver didn't fully understand the new route and breezed right by Jacob's stop. Oh the trials and tribulations of school.
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much routine and I think I'll end the post there and catch up on the next half a week in the next post. There's a lot of stuff for the next post and it's getting late and I still have 1/2 to go on the bike.