Works For Me Wednesday

Remembrance. For Christmas my wife got me a CRS device (as in Can't Remember 'Stuff') or as the world knows it a digital recorder. I am always forgetting little and big things. My mind jumps around so much I forget what she asks me to get at the store if I hear a good song on the radio. So what I do is record little memos to myself all day long and then at night I write down what is 'due' the next day so I do not forget it. Usually it is a quick word, "milk" or phrase, "baseball sign up", and that is all I need to make sure it gets done.

I may look like some newspaper reporter walking through the grocery store but hey, it works for me.

We Call That A Streak...

Made it to the gym again this morning. Good for me. Made a good lunch and ate an excellent dinner last night. Things are progressing well, but hell I am sore!!!

Work was great yesterday. No issues, no assholes and no frustrations. Maybe it is because I counted to 10 several times but I want to be better in all things and work attitude is one of them.

The boy is doing very well, He passed two tests last week. Not just pasted but only one wrong on each one. See what happens when you study!!!

March is going to be very busy for us. I have 2 freelance gigs PLUS I need a weekend to travel to NY for my fantasy draft AND we are taking the first week of April off to go to NYC for a Yankee game. That leave one open weekend in March, St. Patrick's Day. Should be fun!!!

I think we need to get out more often, as in travel a bit. Not so much Paris and LA and Cancun but just overnighters and weekenders. See the area around us. I know I have said this in the past but the wife and I are seriously talking about it. So we shall see this summer...

This post seams more like a quick hits, I think I need bullets. I added a new little feature over on the right. Just the books I am currently reading and a nice library program I found on the web. Check it out.

I promise to bring more opinions and rants to the site. While I have the traffic, I do not have the comments and I think that I have nothing to comment about except nice job or congrats or good one. I got more comments when I put forth my opinion on things. This has become more of a diary then a 'blog' so I am hoping to have some intelligent posts on certain subjects in the near future....

Till Next Time.

Come Sail Away...

Yes, up early and out the door! 40 minutes cardio and 40 minutes weight training. What a way to start the week. I feel good about it and plan on hitting the gym at least 4 times this week. Wednesday will be my rest day and a chance to pay bills and run errands in the AM.

What a weekend of nothing. And everything. It was one of those lazy weekends were we HAD to do certain things, got them done and just wanted to go back home. So that is what we did. We went to my favorite place in the whole wide world, Half Price Books. We sold a bag of books ($6) and picked up $30 worth of stuff. I took the offer as I was not bringing those books back into the house. We ate a nice lunch as a family and had some good laughs and bonding. We hit Joann's for scrap booking supplies. We have tons of pictures and ticket stubs and brochures, etc, and the wife wants us to give it a try. I think we got enough NON-GIRLY stuff that we can do it as a family and not feel weird. It should be a good time for all, we went through some pics this weekend and picked out several we want to use.

We did try to go out to eat at the boy's favorite place, Buffalo Wild Wings. We walked in and sat down and were tossed out. Apparently it is an 18 and only place now because they allow smoking. A nice place for the family (well our family) to go and watch some baseball and eat wings, now gone because they allow smoking. I am not one of those CIGS KILL people and TAX CIGS %100 so no one smokes but man alive people, can you put the butts down long enough to eat a meal without lighting up so others can enjoy their food next to you. I am firing off an email today to the BW3 HQ showing my disappointment. My In-laws own a restaurant and their profit went UP after they banned smoking in NY. They say it was the best thing NY ever did for the small business.

PS Saw Little Miss Sunshine last night. Absolutely FANTASTIC!!!! More movies like that and less of that Al Gore crap or remakes from Hollywood!!!!!!!!

TGIF

Not an original title I know but I do not have an original thought in my head right now. These alternating shifts destroyed my body this week. I do not know if I am coming or going. I have not seen my son in days and have no idea about homework and such. He has a test today but my mother said he had studied all day yesterday. The grades are hovering at 80. I would like to see a few more points on there so that one bad assignment does not put us back into the 70's.

Anyone here a podcaster? Having an Ipod for a year I was working on getting the music I love onto it. Well it took about a year and now I am slowing down a bit and exploring the other options out there of things to put on the ipod. I have found the podcast. Right now I subscribe to several mostly history and baseball. But I am branching out as we speak. There are a few I would love to listen to but they are more like radio shows at about 1 hour and I do not have that kind of time to listen. The ones I like are under 20 minutes, perfect for the car ride back and forth. Plus if it is a shorter one I can listen while eating lunch.

Drop off in the comments your favorite podcasts. Right now mine are History According To Bob, Matt's Today In History and Baseball History Podcast. All available on itunes. Check them out.

Whirlwind

I have several posts so please stand by:

Prisoner:
My father-in-law visited last week with his family. So from Thursday last till Tuesday this I have had house guests, during which we were dealing with snow and lack of places to go. Plus with the FIL and Step MIL there was also my niece/sister-in-law who is 6. She is the daughter of my Step MIL's daughter who has abandoned her and my FIL has decided they will adopt and raise her. So she was here as well. We had a great time but it was one of those every waking moment visits when I was not at work I was with them. So we did not watch OUR TV or go to the movies or just sit and read and hang out. 6 days of entertaining, like I said I had a great time (and I hope they did) but it makes one very tired.

Night Shift:
Since Monday I have had alternating shifts. Either AM or PM but never the same in a row. Yesterday I worked my normal morning shift but today I am working till midnight then have to turn around and work tomorrow morning. One of the directors is on vacation and I am mister fill in. No OT involved just taking one for the team. In the end with no complaints it leave a good impression on the boss.

Age:
I am looking at the new author who I would like to read and he looks VERY familiar. So I check out his website and some reviews and nothing rings a bell. I finally go to the wikipedia and find that this guy Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. HOLY SH*T when did this happen. I remember that King had a son the same age as me but this guy had been around awhile and DOUBLE HOLY SH*Y I am almost 40. I look at myself and I still see that guy out of college (with a few extra pounds, well more than a few). I am damn near doing my job for 20 years, I have all this life experience and I still feel like that 19 year old sitting at the adult table when they are talking politics. I understand what they are saying but I feel like I have nothing to add. When did I get old.

And finally one of those quiz things......

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don't get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

What Color Is Your Brain?

Holy Snow...

As if the past two weeks were not crazy enough with Super Bowl coverage and winter weather we get hit with ANOTHER storm on Tuesday...over a foot of the white stuff covered our city and brought everything to a stand still.

Not only were the roads crazy and the schools closed but I LOCKED MY KEYS IN THE CAR when I got to work and had to wait 2 hours for someone to come help. I then made my way home as the only person on the road for the entire trip. Truly scary!!!! Even the wife had a snow day as they closed all the banks. I have some pics coming.


Yesterday was Valentine's Day and I got the wife nothing. I had been trapped at work for 2 days and all the stores were closed. I did give her a big hug and kiss and told her how much I do truly love her. She was very happy with that.

IF you have snow I hope you have dug yourself out by now. I got up yesterday at 7am to shovel the foot out of my driveway so we could get to work. It took me about 2 hours to get a path wide enough for the cars to fit. Luckily both cars made it into the garage the night before so I did not have to clear those was well. The snow was pretty light until the bottom of the driveway were the plows had created some snow walls that reached above my waist. The poor dog cannot get outside do to the fact that the snow drift against the sliding glass door is about 2 feet tall and I am afraid to open it lest it all come into the house.

The boy did smart with the snow days. Yesterday he was home alone (my mother was trapped in her house and the plow guy didn't come till 1pm, but she was happy for the quiet) and had some friends over for a little while but when I got home he had already cleaned his room, neatened the living room where his friends were and did an extra credit project for school. As of today all of his classes are now up to an 80 or better!!!! He is doing a fantastic job, we are very proud of him and tell him that....

Quick Hits

Hate to do it, but when life hits you hard and fast this is all I have time for:

• Met with the boy's teachers on Friday. It went very well and will expand at later date. His grades are up and he has the support at school and at home.
• Needed Friday like the Cubs need a World Series win!
• Lazy Sunday but busy Saturday. Cleaned garage, went shopping, bought and installed Office 2007, worked on getting boy organized and spent a nice evening watching the Pro Bowl with the family.
• Still sick and hating it. House is clean and I have no desire to go out. Have church and a meeting at 5pm. Father-in-law here this week so we are preparing.
• See the news with all that snow in New York? Ya, went to college in Oswego and the boy was born in Watertown. That was every winter (almost 144 inches average a year), I miss it a little....

Colts Rally

In my heart I know the boy is a good kid and does enjoy life. A once in a lifetime opportunity was granted him on Monday when he got to welcome home the Championship Colts...here are some pics:Him and the nephew holding posters...
One of the floats they rode in on, there is Payton (18) on top.
ALmost 55,000 fans came. They had to open the seats behind the stage there were so many people and even then many were turned away...
While the rally was going on they changed the sign up front. What a glorious sight!!!!!!

Hitting A Brick Wall

The boy has been on a tight leash lately. He has had no video games, friends or after school activities for 2 weeks and he is not allowed to stay home alone. His grades have gone up in most cases. But he still has been having troubles in one class. He worked on a project last week that we offered feedback and helped him improve and then Failed it. We had downloaded the instructions and made him practice his presentation and offered suggestions. I saw the grade and the boy was upset and said this that and the other thing. I emailed the teacher and asked what had happened. I got the response today that he never handed it in and that the teacher is getting frustrated with Nate because he has had to backtrack to find that missing assignments that I have questioned (based on the boy's work) are truly missing. We are having a meeting with him when he is available. I also received a phone call from his Math teacher this weekend. He was taking 4 steps forward and then failed to turn in an assignment. The teacher wanted to let me know ASAP so that this slip did not turn into a fall.

The boy has tons of support at home and at school, what the hell is wrong with him? I am at wits end!!!

Where Is The Weekend...

Man it feels like I have worked about 5 days since the Super Bowl but yet it is only Tuesday. Yesterday we went all out on coverage of the Colts returning and having a parade and ceremony at the RCA Dome.

We went live as the plane was landing at the airport till the end of the rally at the Dome. All told I sat in a seat and switched my butt off from 3:30 till 8pm. It was crazy, incredible, frustrating and above all rewarding. Regardless of how others performed I know I did a great job and gave it my best.

The better part about yesterday was that the boy went down to the Dome with his Grandmother and Grandfather. They picked him up after school and drove downtown and sat in the seats for 4 hours. While they were waiting for the team they showed the ENTIRE GAME on the jumbotron and then switched to OUR coverage of the parade. We could hear the reactions in the control room when we put certain people on the screen and even got a wave started when we did fan shots of the THOUSANDS that were in the Dome. The boy had a great time, he said it was loud and blinding when the trophy entered the Dome and that it was one of the best experiences of his life!!! He is wearing his Super Bowl Champs sweatshirt again today...

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Leave a comment when you drop by, I have not heard for some of you in a while (I'm talking to you Brent).

Colts Win! Colts Win!

As you may have guessed sometime ago, I am a baseball man. I never really 'followed' football, I had a favorite team (Cleveland Browns) but mainly just followed some scores and watched the Super Bowl. When I arrived in Indianapolis there was a team that was worth watching. My father has season tickets, my TV station was the official station of the Colts and nobody seemed to say a bad thing about them. So I started watching every Sunday and attended some games and followed the team during the work week. In the end they grabbed me. They showed me some great football but they also showed me that professional athletes can be good at what they do (sometime Great) and also humble. There were no loud mouths or cash holdouts or trade demands or airing of dirty laundry through the media. Here were a bunch of players who enjoyed what they do, who did it very well and understood they were getting millions to play a game.

Last night I was witness to the culmination of several seasons worth of fantastic football. All season long all the pieces fell into place and last night it all paid off. What a great team deserving of a great honor. Indianapolis Colts are World Champions. Awesome!!!

After the game the boy went with me and my father to the local Dick's Sporting Goods to see if they were open to purchase some World Champion attire. We joined several THOUSAND people in picking up t-shirts and hats. No drunks, no loud mouths, no pushing or shoving, no cutsies or cursing. Quality fans supporting a quality team. As the line grew so did the noise. But it was all high fives and Let's Go Colts chants, hugs abounded and cell phone took photos of the craziness. The only trouble of the night (it took us an hour and a half to get in and get out) was when a person wearing a Bear's Jersey walked in. A slow rumble became a loud roar as people at first booed then started a Colt's chant. The man eventually weakly waved and then walked out. I believe he changes shirts as I heard someone in line behind me ask aloud if the man walking pass the line was the same guy...

Back Up And Running...

Heard from the In-Laws and was able to get updated from yesterday. The tornadoes hit their town and wiped out a lot of the neighborhood. They were fortunate enough to not have a lot of damage. At first we thought the house was gone but we got the info 3rd hand (they called the sister-in-law who then told the other sister-in-law who then called us). We spoke with them last night and they are fine. It will be awhile before all the damage is assessed as there is only one way in and one way out of that development and the path of the storm is right over it. In the end they are safe and sound and that is all that matters.

The boy and wife are sick. She is at work and he is still sleeping. I am letting him get some rest as he has been good all week but really dragging. He needs the rest. His grades are up and he is studying everyday and reading as well. We still are working on the cell phone bill so I am sure there is more drama to come but so far he is taking it like a man and I am very proud of him.

As for work this was the worst 2 weeks of TV I have ever been part of my entire life. While is was a time to shine we fell face first. On our end we were very prepared and ready for anything (all hands on deck as my boss says) but others in the building just did not get it. There were about 3 departments that were ready and able and the news department disappointed us to no end. My co-workers and I were really looking forward to a fantastic week and we were sorely disappointed. Speaking in the control room last night the general feeling was that we had lost the big game (to use a football analogy) and morale was terrible. You can only be kicked down so many times before you just stop trying to get up. Oh well, at least we have a great game to watch tomorrow....

Go Colts!

No Time...

I had a post all ready for today but we are now looking for my in-laws, they live in Florida in The Villages were the tornadoes hit. More later.......

Nothing To Talk About...

Yesterday we had a very IMPORTANT meeting that we all needed to attend. It was a rah rah meeting about the Super Bowl and giving best effort, etc, etc...

The problem I had was that the big boss said we were all doing a great job and to turn it up a notch. I wanted to ask what channel he was watching. We are getting our asses kicked up an down by the competition and WE HAVE THE GAME!!!! My only thought is that our Super Bowl numbers will be so huge that it does not matter what we put on the air. I mean the news department has absolutely NO CLUE about what is going on. We have dropped the ball big time. People from several different departments have come to me with the same issue (using my words not theirs) Too many sergeants and no captain. Everyone wants to do their thing but no one is willing to stand up and TAKE CHARGE. We have different 'orders' coming from the same department and they are totally opposite of each other. There was no planning and when they finally got up and did something it was way too late. It is just very frustrating to be in a position to actually shine and shout to the area we are here, check us out and all we really sound like is a fart in church...