Is it the weekend yet?

Another day is done. Riley and I took it even easier today; we didn't go anywhere.

Grace woke up on her own again today. I had to convince her to eat something for breakfast though as she's just not hungry when she just gets up. She got to the bus in plenty of time and when I got back in the house Riley was still sleeping but not for too long. I got her up and she ate and really didn't play for too long and she got tired again. Then she proceeded to take a 3 1/2 hour nap. This was time for me to finish mowing the grass by mowing the back yard and other yard stuff. Then a sealcoating guy came by and so I got the driveway sealed.

By this time Grace was home with her friend and Riley was waking up. So she was really tired by the time Julie got home which was actually a little early today. I never decided what to make for dinner; well that's not entirely true as I had intended to go to the grocery store but since Riley took an early and long nap I didn't have time since I couldn't go once Grace got home. So we just basically had breakfast stuff.

Speaking of Grace...she's so funny. She played with her friend for like 3 hours after school. Then when she went home Grace saw the next-door neighbor outside and told him she would find out if she could play with him after dinner. So she comes in asking if she can play with him after dinner. Since it was 6pm and her bedtime was fast approaching we said no. You would think she hadn't been allowed to play with any friend for a week and she had this great opportunity to play with him and we said no. Oh the drama. "It's not fair," "he's going out of town for the WHOLE ENTIRE weekend." There were more, but you get the idea. Julie was able to squash it by letting her play right then for 10 minutes until we had dinner ready. Crisis averted; Mom's are good at that.

Anyone else following this whole issue regarding the alleged "torturing" of al-qaeda detainees after 9-11? I don't feel waterboarding is torture because no permanent physical harm is done. What the Japanese did to American POW's in WWII was torture. Waterboarding isn't torture. But that's just my opinion which I'm entitled to in our country. This has spawned a criminal investigation into the Bush administration whether any laws were broken and if any punishments should be handed out because of enhanced interrogation techniques following 9-11. My feeling is they should thank their lucky stars that this was done because it could possibly be the reason they are alive today.

I'm SO SICK of hearing that Obama has "inherited" all of these issues from the "previous" administration and that everything bad about our country is because of the previous administration as well. When Obama took office and even to this day he continues to state he only wants to look forward. Yet how many times has this whole issue of what the Bush administration left them been brought up? And now Atty. Gen. Eric Holder had been allowed to pursue this investigation and the rest of the administration is basically saying that it's Holder that's doing this and anything that comes of it is entirely on him. They had nothing to do with it.

There were three...yes, THREE detainees that were waterboarded. Thats all. No more. I hate to be the one to break it to people but war is hell. This is a war whether Obama wants to change the name or not, plain and simple it is a war. Things done in a time of war are quite honestly horrible; war is about killing people after all. Understand that not everything done on a battlefield would be acceptable to the common citizen. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded something like 185 times and after this he gave in and starting teaching his interrogators how to fight a terror war. He didn't just provide information about other plots that were to follow, he gave them a glimpse into how it all works and what they are ultimately trying to accomplish. I don't know about you, but to me that was worth the price of admission, legal or not. Of course I've already stated that I believe it was legal to begin with.

I'm officially off my soap-box now.

Have you also been following the case against David Earls in Oklahoma? He raped a 4-year old girl and received one...yes, ONE year in county jail (not even prison) for this. He is scheduled to be released on September 24th but now they are bringing about new charges for other child crimes he's committed in hopes of keeping him in jail. Thank goodness.

And did you see that the Netherlands have told Laura Dekker that she can't sail around the world yet? I think if the Dekkers had approached this differently by stating that she'd have a support crew following her in case anything bad happens they wouldn't be going through this legal proceeding right now. That's what the kid that just finished sailing around the world did. I think this would help ease a lot of concerns. Just my 2 cents.

I don't miss summer

Everyone here is complaining it's not hot this summer but personally I don't miss the heat at all. I had enough of that when I lived in Oklahoma. Why would I want to sweat all day or stay in the house in the air-conditioning? Why not just have it be nice outside like it has been? Ever been to San Diego?

I do have to admit it really hasn't been warm enough to swim very many days this summer so for that, I can understand someone missing the warmer weather. But otherwise, I don't miss it. I think the high today was 74 and right now it's already down to 58.

Here's a fun article (and short) for you to read about pink flamingos. This just happens to be in the town we'll be going to in a few weeks for our football game. I just ordered the tickets a few minutes ago. Yea!

Well I did a little research on the whole student-to-teacher ratio thing and I've found this study: Project STAR which pretty much clearly states that smaller class sizes equal better students in the long run. So I guess I don't have anything to complain about. I guess we should just go with the flow. Not sure if Julie will agree though.

As far as today was concerned Riley and I took it easy. Grace woke up on her own today and ate breakfast again. She was excited that I had gotten Captain Crunch cereal. So she was off to school and Riley still wasn't up yet. She finally started to wake up around 8:30 today. I had another chiropractor appointment today (I'm going three times a week for another month until things straighten out.) After that we just came home and hung out. She got tired and I put her down for a nap which unfortunately wasn't at the best time. I probably should have kept her up a little longer and fed her lunch and then put her down for a nap. I say this because she slept until Grace and her friend came home from school. So I got her up and fed her and we played for a while again and then only about a half an hour before Julie was going to be home she started to get sleepy again. But I put her down and she fell asleep for about 30-45 minutes so actually it all worked out just fine.

We just had left-overs for dinner so that was easy. Then after I did the dishes I ran outside and mowed the front yard and pulled a few weeds. Now I just need to get outside tomorrow and mow the back yard.

Now for tomorrow I still need to figure out what we'll eat for dinner. I'm still not liking this new "diet" thing. It's really hard to cut dairy and garlic. It sounds silly but pretty much EVERYTHING has either milk or garlic in it. Try and find a salad dressing that doesn't have one or the other. I think I'll just have to start having oil and vinegar for my salad dressing.

Cruising along

Can you hardly believe that Grace finally took her school supplies out of her backpack on Monday?!?!!! I'm so glad that's over with. She even got a few papers back yesterday too and one said "great" and one said "wow." I think school is on track for Grace this year. I made it to my Chiropractor's appointment yesterday morning with little Riley. She was so cute; I had to wait a few minutes and so I took her out of her car seat and was playing with her. Then when it was my turn I put her back in but didn't strap her in. About half-way through the treatment she fell asleep. She was just so cute; she had turned on her side and fallen asleep almost cuddled up. I wish I had my camera so I could show you how cute she was.

After stopping at Target on the way home to buy some food and Riley taking a good nap I made BBQ Chicken and corn on the cob on the grill for dinner. After dinner was bible study at my Dad's house where we finished up studying Joshua (chaps 20-24.)

So yesterday wasn't so eventful but at least Grace finally left her school supplies at school. Today was a pretty good day too. I had to wake Grace up again today (yesterday too) but she had breakfast and was out the door in plenty of time to catch the bus. Then I came back in the house and was expecting Riley to be waiting to get up but she had fallen back asleep; possibly a remnant from not enough sleep the day before. So I read the paper and did some other stuff while I waited. After she finally got up I got her fed and then like clockwork my sister shows up only 2 minutes after the time she says was the approximate time she might be over. She's funny!

She was just dropping off some clothes and stuff that doesn't fit April anymore for us to use for Riley. After that Riley and I played for a while but she was ready for a nap pretty quickly so she went down for a nap around 11am and while she was sleeping I started cooking some sweet potatoes for her and while they were cooking I did some research on the places we are wanting to go. We have decided to take Grace to her first Badger football game (yeah!) So I was researching tickets and I did find some but I need to check with the person that usually watches Riley when we leave to see if they can actually do that on the day we are planning to go. If so then I think we'll be able to get some pretty good seats for a pretty reasonable price. I can't wait!

After that Julie and I want to get away for a night. We haven't had a "date" night in a while, but also our anniversary is coming up. Since we didn't really do anything for our anniversary last year (our 10th) we've decided to do something nice this year. It is a little pricey, but it will be SO worth it! The biggest problem with going away is obviously the person that usually watches Grace and Riley but also hotel availability and our busy schedule. We haven't worked out an actual date yet, but we ARE going. We deserve it.

In Grace's folder today was a note from her principal and no she isn't in trouble (how could you think that?) Apparently there has been a significant increase in the number of kids enrolled in first grade this year which they didn't expect. Personally I thought that's why you enroll so early in the year so that this isn't a problem but maybe people wait until the last minute. What they want to do is add an additional teacher and spread the kids out among the four teachers instead of three. Right now in her class there are 27 kids and there are two other first grade classes. So it sounds like there is approximately 80 kids or so and they want to get the teacher-to-student ratio down. Honestly for both Julie and I when we went to school we usually had this many kids in our class every year. So I don't see what the problem is unless the classroom just isn't build to hold that many students. What the letter that was sent home was asking was if we wanted them to do this. The options were a) no preference b) keep it the way it is c) add an additional class. I guess ultimately the lower your teacher-to-student ratio is the better their education would be, but I don't know if that's necessarily a proven fact; especially with kids this age. We'll see what happens.

The rest of the day was pretty normal today. I made dinner early (egg salad) since Tuesday is my night out. I had dinner ready for Julie so she didn't have to "find" something around the house or make anything. Plus then we'll both have lunch for tomorrow as well. Then I headed to a new place in the area that felt like home. In a town about 14 miles from our house they just opened up a new SONIC! You read that right, a Sonic! Unfortunately if you read my post a few days ago you know that I can't have limes so no limeade for me :-( But the burger was good.

Now I'm at the library which is where I usually end up each Tuesday night. It's quiet and I can read or surf the internet or whatever. Did I mention it was quiet? :-)

Fridays and Hard Drives

Grace has officially made it through her first week (although only a partial week) of first grade. I think she likes it just as much as she liked kindergarten last year except she did say tonight when I was putting her to bed that she hopes she isn't so tired at the end of the school day next week. I told her she'd get used to it pretty quickly. It is a big difference as kindergarten was only about 3 hours and now she's in school for about 7.

Now tomorrow she has gymnastics at 8am so she'll be getting up at the same time as all week for school. But that's for 3 hours, not 7.

Hold on, watching the shuttle launch...

Discovery (STS-128) made it up tonight. Looks cool at night.

Anyway, back to blogging. So you might be wondering what Grace may have brought home with her in her backpack. You would be right if you thought that she still has pretty much everything in her backpack. She took out her 3-ring binder today, but she still has 22 glue sticks, markers, pencils, all kinds of stuff in there. She says she just forgets to take it out and that she doesn't want to take it home with her every day even though she has been doing that. Hopefully Monday we will see better results with this.

She had what they call "Buddies" today. I'm still not really certain what it is but it has to do with 3rd graders and them getting together and it just so happens that the 3rd graders they are teamed up with include our next-door neighbor. So she says she'll get to be teamed up with him. That's pretty cool. She also had art today and I can tell she enjoyed that because she has some marker on her forehead and all over her hands. She's not the neatest kid, but she enjoys what she does. I do really think she enjoys art because when she came home she started on some art project of her own with a bookmark we picked up at the library the other day that you're supposed to color yourself.

Riley keeps waking up each morning as Grace isn't the quietest kid either. I don't want us to have to tip-toe around the baby when she's sleeping so honestly I don't mind her making noise but for some reason she keeps waking up pretty early. And that would be alright too as she doesn't need to sleep until some set time each morning but if she gets up too early then her nap schedule won't really work. Honestly she hasn't really been on a wonderful nap schedule yet as she is usually just taking one long nap. Today since she got up fairly early I put her down for her nap early and she almost slept until Grace got home. So this would be alright too but she can't stay up from 1:30 until bedtime. That's just entirely too long. She was acting sleepy around 4:30 so I put her down again and she got a little nap it before Julie got home, but it wasn't a normal nap. Maybe I'll have to start getting her up from the first nap if she sleeps too long so we can split them up better.

But then we run into problems if we aren't home. It's always give and take like this. If we aren't home she pretty much just doesn't take a nap although she will sleep in the car typically. So if we aren't home then she would generally only get one nap anyway and it would be good for her if that were as long as possible. Oh who knows, we'll get that all figured out as time goes on.

So if you looked at the subject of this post you'll notice more computer related stuff. Can I just say before I start this part that Western Digital drives from my personal experience fail and pretty much always before you would expect.

When I bought my HP desktop last year I had a 400 GB Western Digital hard drive that I just transferred over to use as my main drive and used the larger drive that came with the computer for storage. It started to act funny so I took it out and put in a 500 GB Western Digital hard drive I had to preempt any problems that may have happened. Several months later the 500 GB drive dies so I buy a brand new 640 GB Western Digital hard drive to use for my main drive. In less than a month I think it failed. So now I have 3 drives (all in warranty) that have failed. Thank goodness they are under warranty, but honestly how does a person go through 3 hard drives in one and a half years? I'm starting to think this darned HP is cursed. I'd just like to burn this thing.

So anyway I go on the Western Digital website and find out that the 500 GB hard drive's warranty is expired unless I can prove when I purchased it. They go by manufacture date unless you have your receipt to show when it was actually purchased. Well I do have the receipt so when I put that information in, I only had a few weeks of warrantly left. So I sent that one out on August 17 and they received it on the 21st of August. They mailed the replacement drive on the 25th and I received it today. The only problem is I have to do this two more times but at least I'll get 3 new drives. All I can say is to ensure you backup your system regularly. Luckily I have been except when I lost the 500 GB hard drive I did lose 2 months worth of emails. But it could be much worse.

Does this mean you shouldn't buy Western Digital hard drives? I don't think so. Just keep your data backed up and pray it doesn't die after the warranty period is over.

Just a couple of photos

I wanted to get these pictures online before I forget.

Here is Grace from her first day of school.


Here is Riley from last week where she's only almost 7 months.

1st Grade

So Grace had her first full day of school today. She says she likes it and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Yeah! But...guess what she brought home with her........again!?! Yes, she has all of her supplies in her backpack still. Silly kid. She claims her scissors are no longer in the backpack. We asked again if everyone else emptied their supplies out and she says not everyone and that she forgot. I can't believe this chick. Why would you want to bring a full backpack of supplies back and forth to school everyday? She's pretty silly.

She still needs to bring in a picture of herself to put over her locker. Their lockers are open (no door) and at the top there is a little cubby where instead of putting her name they are supposed to bring in a framed photo of themselves. I got the picture printed tonight, but unfortunately the frame we had got into a little accident this morning (apparently when attempting to turn off the light) and we no longer have a piece of glass in the frame anymore. :-0 Hmmmm, what to do...

Last night at dinner Grace said her day was good. When she got to school she went to the cafeteria and everyone was finding their teacher and then their teacher took them all and showed them their classroom. After that they took a tour of the whole school. She said they went past the map that I helped paint last year and that she told the teacher I helped to paint it. I, of course, wondered what the teacher said in response to which Grace replied............."I don't remember." Should have seen that coming. Honestly as I write this I can hear myself as a kid....hmmm, very fitting I suppose.

So today she says she had a good day too. She got to eat lunch in the cafeteria for the first time. She went to P.E. for the first time this year. She has the same teacher as last year. I think there was some kind of rumor last year that this person wouldn't be back or something this year. I think it's good to have consistency so it's a good thing this teacher is back. (Plus I hear they like the Wisconsin Badgers!) What could be wrong with a person that likes the Badgers?

She did say a few other things about what she did but honestly at this point I don't remember what they were. Who's bad at remembering here? Lets just hope AGAIN that she doesn't bring all of her supplies home for the weekend. I'm guessing she's just getting out what the teacher tells her from her backpack since that's where her supplies are and then puts them away in her desk or wherever, and then never takes the time to put all of her supplies away and then all the sudden it's time to leave.

I had an appointment with my new chiropractor today and took Riley with me. She didn't do as well as the last time I went, but she made it through just fine and of course got more comments about how cute she is, such nice blue eyes, etc. She's still got it. We think she's pretty darned cute. I think she didn't do as well because she's starting to wake up earlier since her sibling is up earlier and isn't exactly quiet it the morning.

Who knew that Grace could turn out to be a morning person? She woke up at 6:30 all by herself again today and comes in the bathroom where I'm showering and says "Good morning Dad." She was even pleasant sounding. She was talkative all morning long. She's never gotten up that early two days in a row as far as I can remember. She's never been an early riser and usually is quite cranky by the end of the day if she does happen to get up early one day. But so far we're doing well with the new school schedule. Let's hope it continues. We have school tomorrow and then Saturday morning is gymnastics. Sunday is church, but we don't go too early; usually around 10:30am. So that's her "sleep in" day. She will have R.E.P. (used to be called C.C.D.) on Monday nights. I'm not sure when that starts yet. I just dropped off her enrollment form with the tuition payment today (finally.)

So that's the school situation so far. It's early I know but so far things are going well. I continued my new diet restrictions today and I have to say that so far this really sucks. I did read the instructions that come with it and it says you may not feel well after you start this and so far I'm not feeling so great. Not flu-like symptoms (which are possible) but I just don't feel good. And yesterday and this morning I've just been REALLY hungry because we just really don't have many foods in the house I can eat so I haven't really eaten much. I used to eat two eggs, some cottage cheese and a yogurt for breakfast. That's been cut down to only two eggs. I don't have anything else to eat with it. I could have a piece of toast but I'm really not thinking I want toast without butter.

I bought some soy milk today so hopefully I can have some cereal or at least some oatmeal tomorrow. That should help. I made the mistake of looking for some snacks to eat at Target today. I was looking down each isle trying to find something I could eat (anything, really) and found not one snack I could have. Nothing in cereal bars, granola bars, chips, snack foods, nothing. I found NOTHING to buy. And by the time I was done looking at all that I was depressed and just left. I had had enough. I'll have to sit down this weekend and work out some type of menu so I have things around the house I can eat but right now it's pretty much slim pickings.

Has anybody seen these news stories about the girl in the Netherlands that wants to sail around the world solo at 13? Actually she will start next week on the 1st which is apparently her 14th birthday. Family services or whatever it's called in the Netherlands is trying to take temporary custody of her so that they can prevent her from doing this as her parents have given her their blessing to do this. Her name is Laura Dekker. I actually think if done right she could do this, but I'm not so sure they're approaching this the right way. A UK teenager just finished doing this (he was 17) and he had support sailing with him the whole way. Many people are saying she doesn't have the experience to tackle such a daunting task. I don't know for sure. From what I've read she has been doing this for many years including sailing solo for the last 4 years or so. But is this enough experience for such a major task? I can't say. But if she does end up embarking on this adventure I certainly will root for her and hope she accomplishes her goal. I do think it's great to have big goals in life and to pursue them with all your heart.

I'm sure you have heard about the finding of Jaycee Lee Dugard after 18 years. Amazing. I'm so glad she's finally been found. What a horrifying experience she has lived through. I'm just glad she finally got out of there and that the people that took her and have held her this long have been taken into custody. They deserve all the justice system has to offer. Simply disgusting. I hope she can return to a fairly normal life soon.

One more little note...it's STILL raining. Even Grace is complaining about it raining so much now. We're up to 2 1/4" so far over the last two days.

First Day of First Grade

Grace had her first day of first grade today. Of course it was only a "half" day which translates to around 3 hours. Since our school district is low on funds (okay lacking funds) they have reduced the school day as much as they can in order to pay the teachers as little as possible and try and save money that way. So a normal full day is around 6 hours with them getting home around 2:20 in the afternoon. That's fine for a family like us that has a parent home when she gets off the bus, but for the average family I would consider that a hardship. You have to find after-school care for 3-4 hours possibly.

I know most families have to pay for some type of after-school care but it just seems to me that this is a long time to have to get child care each day. I know I didn't get out of school too recently but I remember getting out of school around 3:30 I think every day (honestly can't remember that far back either...maybe I am getting old???) By the time you're either home or at after-school care it would be close to 4 and if your parents get off work early maybe you'd only have to get an hours worth of after-school care. She gets out of school at 2 and is home before 2:30. If you get home at 5 that would be 2 and a half hours (I'm not saying you the person reading this can't add, I'm just spelling it all out :-).) I don't think most people are really home by 5 each day. Julie can be some days if she gets out of work on time and doesn't hit a lot of traffic. If it's the winter and we even have snow flurries, forget it; she won't be home until probably two hours after she leaves work. Just think if we had Grace in after-school care and Julie couldn't get there for a couple of hours. It's like watching the checkout people at the grocery store when they're scanning in your food. Just watch the amount of the total bill going up and up and up. (I hate spending money at the grocery store.)

So anyway she had her first day of school and we of course had to buy a bunch of supplies for her to take to school with her. We had them all stuffed into her backpack to take to school today. When she got off the bus her backpack looked just as full. That's because it was. She didn't take her stuff out yet. She brought it all back home. I don't know if she wasn't paying attention at school and didn't hear that she was supposed to do this or maybe just didn't or if she will just be doing it tomorrow. She said that some people took the stuff out of their bags. Maybe they were listening or maybe they were the one's that weren't listening. Who knows. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow as hopefully she won't come home with all that stuff again.

She hasn't said how school was yet as she's been playing all afternoon with her friend. They don't have the same teacher but at least they are on the same bus and can sit by each other every day. There was some worry today because her friend didn't come home on the bus. Grace says she saw her outside when school was over but then she disappeared. Her Dad was waiting for her at the bus stop but she didn't come home so he made some phone calls and turns out she stayed at school for after-school care because she will be using that in the future...just not today. The school wanted to be safe, not sorry. I think that's good, but maybe the paperwork they have should better specify when she needs to go there so they are sure where she needs to be each day. I don't know.

Julie and I will try and get Grace to tell us how her first day was at dinner. She's honestly quite vague about everything school related. Without specific questions it's simply a vague answer like "alright" or "okay," nothing with much emotion that's for sure. But at the same time, tomorrow will be a much better day to try and judge how she likes first grade as it will be her first full day. In my opinion - her first true day of school. Sorry for not having a picture like we did last year. I did take one before she got on the bus though and I can post that later.

If you read my entry yesterday, you know about this ALCAT test I took. You should read the comment I got. It helps explain better what it's all about. Thanks "yenvy"! That helped me understand more what's going on. The results actually use the words you say, intolerance, etc. but it still didn't really hit home until you posted your comment. Thanks again!

Today is a rainy day - we've had an inch and a quarter already and I see more rain on the radar coming this way. This will be good for the grass and our plants. It was so nice going to bed last night...I just love the sound of rain hitting the roof when I'm going to sleep.

You're probably wondering why I'm blogging in the middle of the day. Okay...you probably didn't even notice the time but I point it out because Grace is playing with her friend, Riley is sleeping, dinner is already made and the dishwasher and washing machine are running (towels on Wednesdays.) So I had a few minutes to sit and relax DURING THE DAY! WOW! I know it's surprising, but hey I'm just as surprised.

ALCAT

Anyone heard of an ALCAT test? I got my results today from my test. It is a food allergy test and as it turns out I'm allergic to MANY foods I eat every day.

The worst foods for me are limes and the spice nutmeg. So no Corona's and no pumpkin pie - certainly not together as that sounds disgusting.

My moderate intolerance foods are apples, beets, garlic, green peppers, iceburg lettuce, sage, SHRIMP and watermelon. Who is allergic to iceberg lettuce? I mean seriously. And apples? I have an apple tree in my yard with incredibly good apples each year (which will be ripe in just about two weeks by the way.) Craziness! Garlic is going to be hard I think because it's in a lot of things and shrimp are one of my favorite foods. Not that I eat them all that often, I just really like them.

Mild intolerance foods are almonds, bananas, bass, brewer's yeast, buckwheat, eggplant, mustard, parsley, pears, pineapple, sole, string beans, tilapia and turkey. Guess Thanksgiving won't be as exciting this year. And whenever we get to Hawaii (one of these years...) I can't eat too much fresh pineapple either.

As far as chemicals I don't have any severe reactions to any of them. But for moderate intolerance there is benzoic acid, red dye #3 and sorbic acid. Both of these acids are food preservatives. My mild intolerance chemicals are aspartame and MSG; chemicals that I believe everyone should avoid.

Lastly I show an mild intolerance to casein which is found in milk/dairy products. Now that really hurts.

These analyses are certainly going to change everything for my diet. We'll have to change pretty much everything around here for me. For example I usually have cottage cheese and yogurt for breakfast every day. Good thing I'm not allergic to eggs like my Mom is because that's the other thing I have for breakfast most days.

WiGig - Very Cool

You should read this short article. It sounds pretty cool to me.

Intel, Microsoft and Dell band together for WiGig

Rosco P Coltrane Serres

More sad news from our family as our trusty beagle lost his brief but difficult battle with cancer today. He was only diagnosed, we believe, on March 14.

Rosco P Coltrane Serres
27 March 1996 - 7 April 2009

Serres Family Genealogy

So I've been working on researching our family tree, both Julie's and my side of the family. In doing so I re-discovered (my Dad had told me a long time ago, but I forgot) that my Grandfather is just buried about 7 miles or so from our house. So one week on the way home from gymnastics I stopped to look at the grave and get the information off of it. After doing research on this information I found out that an eagle scout had done a research project painstakingly photographing and cataloging all of the headstones at several local cemeteries.

I guess I read too much into this project as I thought it said he also did some research on each of the families. I went to the local historical society to look at the project and all it was was a photograph of the headstone. This would have been very helpful if I wasn't anywhere close enough to go and look at it myself, but I had just done this. It wasn't a complete waste of time however as the ladies working there were giving me hints about doing genealogy research.

I have to say that doing this is very rewarding. I have currently discovered 257 relatives as far back as 1700 in Luxembourg. I didn't even know our family was from this country. I knew we were German and French, but not Luxembourgian. I've also discovered that two of my Grandfather's brothers are buried at a national cemetery because of serving in the military. My Grandfather's Dad served in the Marine Corps in WWI. So we have at least two Marines in our family (I would be the other.)

We also have a lot of farmers (some listed as dairy farmers) going back to the 1800's as listed on the census forms. I never knew any of my relatives were farmers prior to starting this research. What I do have to share is that this is very addictive! Once you start you will have difficulty not doing it all the time. It's hard to stop researching and go to bed. You think the next page you look at will have some bit of information that you need. And sometimes one little bit of information can open up an entire can of worms to reveal dozens of relatives you didn't know about.

I'm using dynastree.com for our family tree since it's free and it has a lot of nice features. And so far I've only used ancestry.com for my research. I will be expanding to other services when I feel I've gotten pretty much all I can out of ancestry.com (at least for the time being.) The ladies at the historical society suggested a particular library in the area as it has a genealogy section. I may have to spend a little time there... ;-)

I also got in contact with a relative up in Wisconsin that has done a TON of research on our family and purchased the book he published about our families histories. This is a serious tome at about 400 pages! But it's complete with a LOT of information. I even found newspaper articles in there describing life events for many family members. That's just really cool! It's interesting to know what was going on way back in the 1800's.

So anyway, that's about it for now.

Hewlett Packard - Part 2

So after talking to this lady, I agreed to have her send me a replacement hard drive and video card even though they weren't the parts I needed. When I got both parts in the mail, they were both the wrong parts. The video card wasn't for my model of computer and the hard drive was the wrong size. So guess what? I got to call again. This time I got a guy and he was pretty helpful in getting me the correct parts. While I had him on the phone, I read him what the form says (as you can see in the first post) about not removing any added components before mailing. His reply was that this was wrong and wasn't HP policy.

A short time after mailing back the defective products I received an email stating I hadn't returned my defective hard drive so I got to call again (yea!) This was really getting fun now. I'm calling HP more often than I call my wife it seems. I was told it was just a mistake and it would be taken care of. It was as I never heard about the issue again.

After all of this aggravation, I wrote a letter to the President of the company, Mark Hurd (Mark Hurd, President, Hewlett-Packard Company, 3000 Hanover St, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185) explaining everything I've described here in these two posts. I mentioned everything that is still not right with my computer and how I will never purchase an HP computer ever again. I did receive a phone call from some "HP Executive Office" stating that they were escalating my issue to a case manager and to expect a phone call with 24-48 hours. I never heard from them again.

So I don't know what the lesson learned is from this. I guess it's that HP doesn't stand behind their documentation or their repair department. You're on your own if you have a problem. Basically the warranty is pretty much useless in my opinion. Why even offer a warranty if you aren't going to repair your computer products properly? They could have resolved my problems pretty cheaply and avoided losing a customer and the word-of-mouth advertising I was already providing. I will never recommend an HP computer again. I will never buy an HP computer again. I will also suggest to anyone considering purchasing a computer to not buy HP and explain my travails.

I will work on getting that video edited and posted here soon. I guess in the future I will just go back to what I know and build my own PC so I know it will work and that the company that made the product will stand behind it. It's amazing how long some of the parts manufacturers warranty their products. It's much longer than the big PC companies. I've even considered going to the dark side (switching to a Mac--gasp!) :-0

Hewlett Packard - Part 1

This will be the first of several posts about the Hewlett Packard Company. In February of 2008 I purchased a new desktop computer system from them off the recommendation of a friend that currently works in the IT industry who said they made the best desktop at that time. Up until now I had always made my own computer.

I was very happy with this computer initially. I even recommended HP computers to friends who bought one also. But my problems began in November when the sound stopped working. After trying everything I knew to try and fix the problem I contacted HP's "award-winning" Total Care customer support department. As you would expect, I had to go through a barrage of troubleshooting measures to ensure there was truly a problem. While this took time, I realize it's necessary so the repair department doesn't get computers in that don't really need repairing. Anyway, they issued a bench repair order which means they mail you a box with postage inside; all you do is put your computer in and put the postage on the box and mail it to them.

My error was reading the literature/instructions that came with the postage in the box. These instructions lay out in detail what you need to do in order to mail it to them the right way. Here is what it looks like:



Notice what the second and third sentences in item #2 say: Please do not remove components from within the computer before shipping (hard drive, memory, video card, etc.) Any additional hardware added to the PC will also be analyzed and returned.

Some key words from these sentences to take note of: "DO NOT REMOVE components", and "additional hardware ADDED...will...be analyzed and RETURNED."

I received the computer back from HP just before Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to me right? No. One of the added components in my computer was a 5 1/4" to 3 1/2" drive bay rail converter that allows you to mount a 3 1/2" hard drive in a 5 1/4" drive bay. When they repaired the computer, (replaced the motherboard), and mailed it back, they didn't secure this little wonder in the drive bay at all, so it was free to move around inside the computer case during the entire shipping process to my home. Not surprisingly, this damaged the hard drive and also the video card. None of these three products came with my PC. I installed an additional hard drive, the drive bay converter and also a new video card after I purchased the PC.

Since this damage was clearly not my fault, all I wanted was for the hard drive and the video card to be replaced. This is where my true problems began. I again called HP's customer support department and was issued a second bench repair. I mailed it back on 5 December and didn't get it back until 19 December (2 weeks.) I see the box and say "Merry Christmas to me," right? Not even close. Want to hear the diagnosis listed on the paperwork enclosed in the box? "No Trouble Found" -- could not duplicate the error.

Are you freaking kidding me? I was livid. You would have been too if you would have also seen the condition the computer was in when I took it out of the box. This technician simply stopped analyzing it at some point, shoved it in the box and mailed it back; literally. Here is a list of things that weren't right when I examined it closely:

1. 5 1/4" drive bay exterior cover missing (hole to look in and see the processor working????)
2. Hard drive still damaged, mounted in a new location, and not connected to the motherboard
3. CD-Rom drive not connected to the motherboard
4. CPU (processor) fan not plugged into the motherboard
5. CPU (processor) fan not screwed onto the motherboard (this is serious folks)
6. Video card also still damaged (ie: doesn't work at all)

Since I have fairly extensive experience building computers, I fixed no.'s 2-5 as best I could and then I videotaped my 6 year old daughter as I talked her through the process of hooking it up and turning it on so we could see how difficult it might be to duplicate the problem. Keep in mind that most consumers wouldn't know how to do this. The video will be forthcoming, I just haven't had the time to prepare that as of yet.

After all of this and allowing myself enough time to cool off I again called customer support. You'll be surprised to hear what this representative told me. She said (in as many words) that anything I have added to the computer is not their responsibility in any way and that the best she could do was to ship me a replacement of the original hard drive and video card that came with the computer. She even went so far as to say that any additional hardware that is added to the computer was generally disposed of and she was surprised they were even returned to me.

When I asked her about replacement parts for the parts that weren't returned, she looked them up and said she can't order them because they are no longer available. After explaining my distaste for what she was telling me she stated that she has all the authority to make these decisions and doesn't report to anyone; this is HP's policy. She then asks if I've submitted a claim with FedEx. I said no one had ever suggested that before now (realizing in my mind this has absolutely nothing to do with FedEx; they did nothing wrong.)

However, sensing that I wasn't going to get my products replaced I filed a claim with FedEx which is still not resolved (filed 22 Dec 2008). All I wanted from this claim was enough money to pay for the replacement parts that HP damaged and refused to replace properly.

I'll continue soon with Part 2. I need a break.

"Other" drivers

I just wanted to share an observation with everyone about driving these days. Since when is it perfectly acceptable to not stop at any stop sign or any red light? Especially if it means you can pull out before the person coming the other direction actually gets to the intersection?

Am I the only one that considers this annoying and, I don't know let me think, ILLEGAL? I know the police have "real" crimes to prevent, but personally I feel this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. I don't know if the person is going to even slow down sometimes; because sometimes they don't. Why is this not a crime? Why don't police enforce this? Oh, that's right, the police do this too. Have you noticed this as well?

Has our society really become so "hurried" and in such a need to get where they are going (instantly) that stop signs and actually following what a stop light tells you to do are merely suggestions? I'm equally annoyed when the person behind me as I approach an intersection; be it a stop light or stop sign, expects me to just roll through as everyone else does, I come to a complete stop (as I always do) and then add a second or two before pulling away from the intersection.

I also am annoyed when I'm driving the speed limit or 5 miles over and someone is riding my rear bumper like I'm out for a Sunday drive and I'm in their way. If they get close enough I start slowing down. One guy (in a 30 mph zone) didn't really get the hint until I had slowed down to around 5 - 10 mph.

Is driving at a reckless speed and ignoring stop signs and red lights really going to save anyone enough time to make their lives any better? What is the real reason everyone drives this way? Did they just leave late and are trying to make up time in the hopes of still getting to their destination on time? Do they not realize that if they get in an accident that they will be even later? Not to mention they could injure someone, possibly even enough to kill them? Would that even weigh on their conscience? It sure doesn't seem that way.

Another pet peeve of mine is when you're approaching a place where the right lane ends and it becomes one lane (4-lane road to 2-lane road.) You know everyone in the right hand lane knows their lane ends but they make every effort just short of pushing you out of the way to get in front of as many people as they can. Why? We're all still waiting in line anyway. What's the difference if you crawling down the road at 10 mph in front of me or behind me? Does my car smell bad? Is the color of my car offensive? I actually had a lady yesterday in this very situation race up in front of me and cut me off (mind you I wasn't even trying to block her) and then slam on her brakes to let the guy that was just in front of her in the right lane get in front of both of us. I so wanted to get out of my car at the next intersection and ask if she didn't care about the 8-week old I had in the car when she cut me off and then slammed on the brakes.

I will admit this is an area that really annoys me. It's just simply people trying to get in front of you for very little reason. One time when leaving O'Hare airport I was tired of how people had been cutting me off so when a taxi wanted in front of us I blocked them and they proceeded to "push" us out of the way. Note to anyone out there, taxi drivers don't give a s&*(. Their car is a weapon and they aren't afraid to use it.

Why are people like this? When will it stop? Does anyone care about their life or other's lives any more? My thought...no, not really. It would not appear as if they do...

Honestly, just spend a few minutes at the stop sign nearest your house and watch traffic as they come through that sign. Count how many of them actually make complete stops. I guarantee it won't be many - if any. And as I mentioned earlier, don't expect the police to make a complete stop either; they don't in our town, even though I know for a fact they enforce this law some of the time (ask my neighbor.) And keep in mind this is in a residential area (assuming your house is in a residential area as most are.) Just think what it's like out on the road. And don't even start with speeding in a residential area. I tell you; our road sometimes feels like the Indy 500 the way people drive by our house. I have complained to the police, but I've never seen them do anything about it even though to make me feel better they say they will. And being a stay-at-home-dad, I'm home quite a bit and I see when the police are around and it's not a lot (since the chief left the department, but don't get me started on that either.) It's all just ridiculous if you ask me. But then again, no one ever really asked me so I guess I'll just go back to my life now. Thanks for hearing me out.

comfy cozy

snugly little Riley...

Seeing Momma

Finally seeing Momma - 36 minutes old.

Riley Erin Serres

10:04am 8 lb 3 oz 20 1/2 in.

At the hospital

At the hospital all night...won't be long now.

It's Done

Ok, so my computers (both desktop and laptop) currently aren't working. My laptop I will have to take in for an estimate to see how much it will cost for repair. I'm guessing the motherboard is dead, so we'll see if it's worth fixing. Then two days ago my desktop started acting worse than it has been working. The USB ports haven't really worked right since I got it back from HP. And then over the last few days I've been having problems getting pretty much anything to work.

I started Thursday afternoon trying to burn a DVD and it just wasn't working at all. It keeps locking up. I tried Windows Repair and that didn't really help, so I rebooted (ok forced it off because it won't respond) and went back into the repair console and using a command prompt (DOS prompt is what I still call it; for all you computer geeks) ran CHKDSK. This too locks up. So I'm assuming it's the hard drive.

When I originally had a problem with my computer after HP "repaired" it and returned it to me, that was one of the problems; they had damaged the hard drive I use for the system. They sent a new one and I sent the damaged one back to them. Instead of using the new drive (750 Gb) for my system, I used the smallest drive I had (400 Gb) for my system drive and installed the one they sent as a storage drive. So that gave me 2 Tb of storage and a 400 Gb system drive. Apparently this drive is about to die, so I'll have to do something else here. Guess I'll use my 500 Gb hard drive for my system drive now and buy another storage drive. So anyway, with a little work, I can get my desktop working again. The laptop, I still haven't taken that in for an analysis, not sure when I'll have time either...

So on to the subject of this post...the babies room. Yes, as the title of this post implies, IT IS DONE!!!!!! I touched up the ceiling and OF COURSE, the ceiling wasn't white--it was apparently some kind of off white. So I taped off the walls and painted two coats of ceiling white and now the ceiling looks really nice. I bought the correct trim paint and repainted the doors and the window sill in the room again (two more coats - so four coats total) so they are the correct finish - semi-gloss. I don't care about the baseboard trim, it can stay satin finish - I don't think anyone will really notice anyway. So don't come over and complain that the baseboard trim isn't very shiny! ;-)

I had to clean any paint spots that had fallen on the floor and put everything back in the room which I did yesterday. We still need a new shade and a new ceiling fan, but I went to my favorite store, Lowe's, and they didn't have any fans that really got me excited about putting them in the babies room. So we'll have to look around and see what we can find. The shade we'll probably order from where we ordered Grace's shade and that way they'll match. Speaking of Grace's shade, the cord is broken and I need to get that replaced at the same time we order another shade. Better write that down...

I've also gotten the baby's car seat installed in my car and our bags are packed and all the arrangements have been taken care of including the dog so now we're just waiting for when the new baby is ready to join us. It seems like I've been working on this room for so long, it's kind of a relief to be done. I feel like I don't know what to do now, but of course I have a list of things to do a mile long, so it's a little strange that I feel that way.

Who likes the Cubs? I do! Who is a Tom Ricketts fan? I am! Here is an honest opinion of him and what the sale means: Cubs sale: admitting we just don't know. Obviously I agree with what corncobdress (ccd) says, but hopefully we can all breath a sigh of relief and be excited for what this could mean for the organization. Personally I'm excited for what COULD happen. Let's all hope that is what happens--good things and only good things. I have to say that personally I'm extremely happy that it's just not Mark Cuban! He scares me after his movie about the Iraq war...especially as a veteran.

Grace hasn't lost anymore teeth yet. Let's continue to hope that it falls out soon, it's killing me! Alright, that's about all for now. Back to that mile-long list of to-do's. Again, pictures will be coming later--sorry!

Painting, painting and more painting

So I ended up having to paint all the trim in the babies room (two coats of course) because I didn't have any paint that matched the old paint. So now everything except the ceiling is painted and it should only need touch ups (hopefully.) I have to buy that paint because we don't have any.

The crib is up and all ready for the new little one. We just need to get a new ceiling fan and a window shade plus that paint I mentioned. I've been procrastinating going to buy these things because it's been so darned cold around here. Today's high was 19° and that's considerably warmer than it has been over the last week.

Last week when it snowed I didn't snow blow because I thought it was going to snow some more. I usually wait until it's completely done snowing so I don't have to do it more than once. But that snow never showed up so we still have probably around three inches on the driveway and sidewalks that I need to get off. It is supposed to snow tomorrow night. I suppose I'll just wait until Tuesday (wouldn't want to rush into anything...)

Grace lost one of her front teeth last week. The other front tooth is just hanging from one side and I just want to pull it out. I hope it comes out soon!

The reason I've not posted this in a timely fashion is because as I was typing this on my laptop...it........died. It won't even turn on. I have to tell you, I have been having the worst luck with computers lately. Lets hope that will turn around pretty soon!

Whenever I get my computers working, I'll get some pictures posted.

New Year...better days ahead?

After all the death in our lives in December of last year, we're looking forward to a happier and healthier 2009. Now that Christmas and the New Years holiday is over, we're busy getting ready for our new baby (due in 12 days.) The room for the baby is painted except for a few touch-ups of the trim and the ceiling. All the furniture is in the room except I need to put the crib together. We also need to buy a couple of things for the room like a new window shade and to replace the ceiling fan; it didn't matter what the ceiling fan looked like when it was just a spare room, but now that it'll be our baby girl's room, it's just ugly and it has to go.

Besides the baby we're working on getting our house organized and trying to deal with these crazy economic times. Any family with one income like ours has to pay particular attention to how any economic event may affect us. If you have a 401(k) or likewise and you've looked at it's value recently (maybe stupidly as I have) it's scary. We've easily lost 50% of our current retirement stash. I've heard that's pretty much the average so I suppose we aren't doing any worse than most people, but it doesn't make it any better.

We already have about 11 inches of snow on the ground and were supposed to get about 4 additional inches tonight, but we got about an inch in about an hour when it first started snowing and then it changed over to freezing rain even though the temperature was 24°F. Now they're talking a blizzard warning as the wind is going to really pick-up overnight.

FYI about Barnes & Noble

Just an FYI about something I learned today. Personally, I don't plan to shop at Barnes & Noble any more.
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Barnes & Noble Refund Policy Change

Beginning March 3rd, 2009, Barnes & Noble will be changing our return policy to reflect the following:
All returns must be made within 14 days of purchase and accompanied with an original sales receipt. After 14 days or without an original sales receipt, returns will not be permitted (nor permitted to exchange).
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I guess buying a gift for someone is out of the question at this store.