OH! The Humanity of it all!

Or maybe it should have been the irony of it all. This is what happens when I try to play the MacWorld keynote address on my PowerBook. As long as I've had a Mac (since December 2002) it's always been the same. Go figure. It's the only thing that has never worked like it was supposed to on my Mac.

Go to the Hip, take a Left

For all of you who avidly follow my blog posts (both of you ;-)) sorry I haven't posted anthing. Goodness knows enough stuff is going on. The problem was that I couldn't sit at my desk to type. Once again, my lower back or more acurately, my left hip went so far left it was almost on the left coast. And I live just outside Boston.

It was seemingly innocent actions - just playing with the kids. I was goofing off and picking up Bayley by her ankles and I just heard this POP. And then... PAIN. I've put out my back before. Lots of times. But this. Holy moley. I was in agony. I couldn't do anything. And I've even been completely layed up too. But with my hip out it was just realy outrageous. I've even had my shoulder separated (I've needed two surgeries to keep it in place) so I know pain, but yikes. Oh, OK. When I had the surgery I had a morphine drip - but that's different (and lovely I might add, it's easy to see how people get hooked on the stuff when they're in pain, I know that it was the only thing that touched the pain the first 3-4 days after the surgery).

So anyway, that's why I haven't been here. Thanks for stopping by though. Don't forget to check out the Metro Moment, got some good stuff coming up!

Peace!

Black Saturday: Pat's Give it Away to Broncos 27-13

On a day when the defense was mighty and valiant, on a day when the offensive line owned the line of scrimmage, on a day when a tight end ran 100 yards from across the field a mile up in the atmosphere to cause a fumble by catching a cornerback from behind - on this day, the reigning champs became next years hopeful contenders.

On a day when the Patriots dominated the Denver offensive line like no one expected - for the first time since 1999 - the Patriots sent themselves home by repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot. In fact, they almost ran out of feet to shoot.

And so, the quest for the three-peat ends, not in glory but in missed opportunity. Not in an epic fight to the last, but a comedy of errors. But for this comedy, no one was left laughing.

Now, we - like so many fans in so many other cities - find solace "Wait until next year!" But still, we have great hope. The king is dead - long live the king!

Oy! Have I got a headache!

And no, my wife didn't ask me if I wanted to have sex. Hell, even if my head was coming off my shoulders I'd say yes to that. In fact, I can only think of once in the 13+ years that I've been married when I did say no to sex. What was I thinking of?

Anyway, I digress, which may or may not be a symptom of this headache. Man, I feel like someone is trying to separate the front of my head with hooks in my sinus. Yes, I've taken everything. Natural first, then pharmaceutical. Nothing is helping. Augghh.

Sorry, don't mean to be a kvetch, but I just had to say it!

Other than that, and my new and desperate desire to have a new 1.83 Ghz $2,499 (plus the upgrade to the hard drive and ram and the Apple Care) MacBook Pro - I'm doing great.

Just one note - and maybe someone out there that as a new 30 gig iPod with video can tell me - does the battery life on this thing suck or is it just me? An no, I'm not talking about with video. I've gotten about 2 1/2 hours (all of Star Wars III - Return of the Sith) played. It's just listening to music and or podcasts. Damn, seems I've always got the thing plugged in to recharge. Or maybe that's just me.

The Phone is Dead... Epilogue: Monkey Call

So. It's the day after I've gotten my second new phone. I'm at the mall with the girls to do a last minute Christmas shopping for the fabulous Shanna and I decide to stop by the Sprint booth to get a couple of questions answered and get a cable they forgot to give me.

While I'm standing there my phone suddenly rings. Thing is, it's a private line and I've got no idea who might be calling me. So, I pick it up and do my best "official business like answer," and in reply I get this...

------------

Voice: "Hello, may I speak with Phil?"

Me: This is Phillip, how may I help you.

Voice: Hello Phil, you've been sent a monkey call by Mark. Are you ready for your monkey call?"

Me: Ummm, sure, I guess.

Voice: Woooo, hooo, hoo, eee, eeee, (me: silly grin) ahh, ahh, ooo ooo (etc.).

Me: Stunned silence.

Voice: That was your monkey call. Did you enjoy it?

Me: (Still a bit dazed). Uh, yah, I guess so. It was a little bit hard to understand what he was saying, but yah.

Voice: Great. Have a good day.

---------

Is that the most absurd thing you've heard today?

Here's the link if you want to send one to somebody: http://www.monkeyphonecall.com/

Peace!

The Phone is Dead... Part III

So, as we rejoin our intrepid hero, he is joyfully using the new Sanyo cell phone with the camera, camcorder and decent web browser...

And so it went. I was taking pictures and movies of everything in sight. Hey, it's fun when you have a camcorder with you. That and I had pictures for all the people in my address book set up and everything. So, I decided that I finally needed to try out my car charger (being the phone was down a bar or so and I was heading into the office...

ZZZZZZttt.

Ummm. Phone? Phone! PHONE! Nothing. Not a sausage. D.E.A.D dead. What the bleep is that about! I'm using the bloody charger that the people at the Sprint store gave me. Oh man. And I'm almost as fried as the phone was - and it was my last day of work and I was killing myself to finish a project. AUUUGHHHHHHH!

So, I got out of work about 9:30 or so, drove home and on my way past the mall that is only a mile from my house (tell me that isn't scary with four girls that can currently shop and one more on the way!), I took a right into the parking lot to go check it out. And for sure, it was fried. The guy at the store (the manager even) had no idea. Hadn't even seen it like that before! Of course. Only for me. :-p

The good news is that they gave me a new phone. No problems, here you go. The bad news was that I had to start populating all the damn phone book and pictures and the like all over again! ARRGGH! What a pain that is. Sigh. But I had a phone again and at least that made me relatively content (though I really want the EV-DO phone that is the next step up - but obviously while I'm unemployed I can't get that for another hundred bucks!)

So, there's the saga. Well, most of the saga, there is an epilogue... :)

After Christmas Pics

Just a quick two for ya. These were from Christmas night after we drove back from my MILs place. Believe me, these two wore themselves out!

There are days...

Like today. So, if you're thinking bright happy post... skip this one!

No, it's not that I'm angry or disgruntled. In fact, I may just be fine but I have a headache and my sinus' are acting up which always gives me that "blech" kind of feeling. Or, it could be that I'm just a bit depressed.

NO. It's not the post holiday thing, if anything, it's the lack of revenue thing. Now, before you all go sending me encouraging recommedations and the like: DON'T. I'm really OK. People are allowed to be a little down on occasion. OK? It's normal - I think ;-)

It's just that this time, for the benefit of all you readers that actually like to see a post when someone isn't all up and chipper, I'm posting. Hey, it's a real emotion. You know? And, I'm having a icky kind of morning. You know, more money going out than coming in, snowing and sleeting outside, not a lot of job postings yet (it's only the 3rd of the month, they won't really start to pick up usually until the middle of the month). I still have to get the oil changed on my wife's van and my car. You know. Life kind of stuff.

Of course, before anyone gets the impulse yet again to send me an encouraging word, I know that I have a lot going on in my favor. I've got a great family, a loving wife, a good skill set and most of all a loving God that's promised to take care of me. That's the abbreviated version, so, it's not that I've lost perspective. It's just that right at the moment I need to breathe this crap out, then get focused on all the good stuff. Then, I need to DO IT.

I'm great at reading stuff, getting all ramped up and ready to go... somewhere around 11:30 at night. Then I go to bed, then get up, feel icky all over again and need to start the process again. Nope. Not this time. Today I'm actually taking the bull by the horns and I'm attacking the stuff now. Not waiting till later. Here, now, back to the focus and onward and upward.

But, just for a moment, this was my breathing the negative out. This was my expressing - damn! this sucks. Hate to do it to my wife, it impacts her a lot. Of course I don't want the kids to know, they're kids and I want to let them be. But for all you folks out there - here you go. Unvarnished MacPhilly. :-)

Now I have to go kick some butt and take some names. My destiny is still out there waiting for me!

Whiter Brighter Teeth - Uncomfortably in Just 7 Days!

Yikes! Check out those blue covered teeth. As I type, that's what my mouth looks like. Man, I'm enjoying the cleaner, brighter teeth - BUT I'm not thrilled with this particular process.

Now, in fairness, this is the generic Target brand whitner not the more popular (and more expensive) Crest type. So, it isn't the nice easy clear lightweight strip, rather it's more of a mouth piece with gel alreay there and you kind of stick them on your teeth. Are they working? Yah, but it's 30 minutes twice a day. And my tounge tingles for a good bit afterwards from the whitening gel.

Still... my teeth do look nicer. My only regret is that I forgot the before pictures! So, now off to the sink to take the whitener off and hit the hay. Man I'm tired!

Driving in a Winter Wonderland

Howdy all,

Happy January 1, 2006! It's the new year and this morning everything got a fresh white coat - of snow. It was pretty driving to church for sure! Now unfortunately the real snowy season starts here where I live. Three months of snow, wait till the big ones come!



For now, it was pretty and easy to deal with. I'm praying that it stays that way!